RPlog:New Republic Counter-Attack

 Rear Admiral Mora Rodriga perches precariously on the edge of his seat on NRSD Reprisal's bridge. The refitted VSD has a significantly smaller command bridge than Mora's previous command- by over a mile in length- and the Admiral is having a bit of difficulty adjusting. As claustrophobic as the confines are, however, Reprisal is still in many ways a Griffon ship, and there is probably no vessel in the galaxy more appropriate for Cochran's defense than the former GSS Harbinger. As the Victory and her ragtag band of support ships near their hyperspace drop, Rodriga slides back and grips an armrest. "Put me on the intraship."

"This is Admiral Rodriga," he states calmly. "We may be walking into a very ugly situation. I want you all to know that what we do tonight, we do for all those who have come before us, and all who will follow. Keep that in mind. I'll spare you my usual tangent. Prepare to exit hyperspace."

The ships enter the system with a jolt, two MCSCs in a blue Republic livery, and the Reprisal, the hulking flagship of the recreated fleet, painted in a dull silver-gray, with the red phoenix of the former Rebel Alliance shining clearly on her hull. The capships dispatch fighters innumerable, an unlikely phalanx of warriors of truth and harbingers of freedom. Just how heavily outnumbered the Republic fleet is has not yet fully occurred to them, and forward they charge, oblivious to the state of the line they've come to hold.

"Ignore the titan, for now, and focus on the smaller destroyers. Is Ghost Squadron out there?" Rodriga pauses. "Excellent. Form up on them."

The capital ships' shields flicker to life, faint blue spheres surrounding the warrior craft as they break for their Imperial counterparts. "Do you see that, ladies and gents?" poses the Admiral, motioning toward the sea of Imperial warships. A number of officers nod apprehensively. "Good," smiles Mora. "Fire."



"Y'heard the Admiral. Lets take some names, and kick some ass." Taking off from the flight deck of the Victory-class Star Destroyer, along with twelve other X-Wings of his squadron, is Ghost Leader, Captain Johmac Mabru.. "All wings report in," he orders over the communications channel reserved specifically for his squadron, and he listens to the twelve other voices sound and chatter. Once all of the Ghosts are accounted for and are away, Johmac nods to himself. "Arthur, bring up targetting solution Beta One Five Zero. Ghost Squadron, GO HOT! Lock S-Foils in attack position, stand by for orders. Smoke 'em if y'got 'em." He switches the channels, and clears his throat.. He's on the fleet command comms channel.

"Ghost Leader Standing by. Ghost Squadron on Station, Ready For Target Designation. Call 'em like y'see 'em, sir." Ghost Squadron streaks along through the void as this is spoken, the pilot inside as cool as he can be right now. The wings slide open, forming the tell-tale X-form so common to the fighter's name..

 Grand Admiral Kreldin, still tied to his medical bed due to his broken back, is glued to watching his tactical display screen. The Imperial fleet, broken into three disctint groups, with the mighty dreadnought Malevolence aiming for the center of the Griffon fleet, had encircled the Griffon fleet and were closing in, thousands of turbolaser bolts exchanging back and forth between the two fleets. It was a battle for total survival; the Imperials were here to do one thing: wipe the Griffons out. There was no turning back for them, and Kreldin knew that. They would fight harder than ever before. To save themselves from total annihilation. The Imperial fleet, for the most part, had ignored the civilian ships fleeing from the planet. The Grand Admiral was only interested in destroying the fleet, not the civilians. If they wanted to run, let 'em. Save energy for the Imperial batteries. But one ship in particular did catch the attention of the sensor crew, and delivered their report to Kreldin at his bed. It was a particular ship of interest to the Empire; one of importance. The Republic's senator of the Cochran sector was on board, the Empire was sure of it. His capture, or death, was on the Empire's list of things to do. Kreldin was confident they could spare a few ships from the main fleet to go after the shuttle. And thus he gave the order.

"Sir, the Gabriel is at critical; we have them." Kreldin smiles as he hears the report; all was going well. But, all was to change. Klaxons begin to go off, and soon his tactical display screen shows new arrivals just from hyperspace. The Republic had decided to finally show their face. "Looks like they're here. Keep up the pressure on the Griffon fleet and deploy the assault force. Get a screening for our capital ships and turn us fifty degrees.. I don't want them getting us with our pants done. Send a tight beam transmission to the Predator and tell them to go to orange alert." And thus the real battle begins.

 Following Ghost squadron, Shadow Eagles squadron booms out from the Star Destroyer that used to be its home, years ago, before it was decomissioned from Flagship state and then assigned to become a Flagship again, but of the NR Second Fleet. "Squad, check radio transmission" is immediately broadcast on the squad's channel to make sure communication is operational aboard all ships, and they all were. Fully functional, and ready to add to the dance of the other -Ray squads already holding their own against the enemy; the arrival of their former lead squadron was sure to give them a morale boost.

The squadron flew in a straight line forward towards the enemy fleet of capitals and starfighter vessels; friends and foes showing up progressively on each ray sensors. As well as their status. Which made the squad leader, Captail Bel, make a rather long face. And also discover those responsible for that. It also revealed clearly the imperial strength - a load of bombers and too few fighters to protect them - and led Bel to take the following decision. "One to Flight 2 and 3. Flight 1 and 3 stick with me and head down against those bombers." He designates the targets, scim bombers, still close to the Gabriel and heavily pounding on it, so that ships comprising Flight 13 had them; "Flight 2, go against the nearby fighters." On that, the squadron broke into two groups, 8 going up against the bombers and 4 going after the fighters.

 SF-4239 poses: Eagle 1 raises shields and pushes hard towards the scimitar bombers near the Gabriel, that was already engaged by another mantaray squad (OOC: yesterday). Those were gonna suffer... As they had no more fighter support ! Gyzen grins and does a little maneuver to no longer have the Gabriel on its line of fire and avoid the risk of hitting it with loose laser volleys. He is very far yet, and once he sees a scimitar flying into a direction where Gyz wouldn't risk too much to provoke friendly fire, anticipating the distance and time for the laser to travel, he takes some potshots at one of them, SF-8408. Not very threatening, but mentally, that perpared the pilot to take some more.))

 SF-10346 poses: Flying his bomber with Blitz, Krieg says to the other man in the bomber, "Make sure we get locked early, and be ready to fire. I'm going to need your help possibly flying the ship due to the condition I am in." He flips a few controls and then adds to Blitz, "Fire control is all yours." Blitz nods back to Krieg and focuses in on his displays, adjusting and tuning the different controls, giving Krieg's heads up display the information Krieg needs to fly and align the craft to destroy the enemy target. The new orders were to fire upon the Reprisal, and since it's shields were still raised he quickly brings his craft to bear. With a radio call to the rest of the bombers he says, "Zeta 3, missiles free." With that their first salvo of red death streaks out from their craft to engage enemy shields.))

 SF-1608 poses: A sudden, but expected, call comes over the intraship com, relaying Rodriga's orders to load up and save the day. Ridge's neck cranes back and around, allowing him to look steadily at the intercom above and behind him. He gives a small nod and stands up straight, winking at a nearby mechanic. "Time to boogey, eh Mitch?" A slight grin spreads over his face and he begins his migration to Falcon One. A ladder is already there, waiting for him, and Ridge clambers up, setting himself down in the cockpit and igniting the engines. As the cockpit window closes down around him, he puts his flight helmet on, connecting the straps under his chin. A quick thumbs up to the deck officer, and the A-wing lifts off and speeds quickly from the fighter hangar of the Reprisal.

Lt. Colonel Ridge Archilles gives a quick glance over his scanners and out his cockpit, assessing the situation the best he can. "Alrigh', m'boys. Ghost Squadron, target those capital ships and take down as many TIEs on the way as you can. Falcon Squadron Flight Three, stay close to Ghost an' keep 'em safe. Falcon Flights One and Two, we're playing defense. Keep those bombers from hitting their targets. Ready? Gooooo StarOps!" He gives a smile at his own burlesque comment, and targets the nearest threat he can find and tightens his fingers around the trigger to release a barrage of red laserfire that has no other meaning but the potential for death.))

 SF-8408 poses:

Behind him, Tellain's co-pilot in Darksword 2 rubs his back. "Geez, did she have to make it that hard?" Tellain sighs. "I told you not to squirm." There's a reason he feared med bay activities, and this would be it. Tellain flies along and swings towards another ship, this time the Reprisal. He gets it in sight just as he notices someone firing at him. Despite his valiant efforts to roll away, Tellain gets a blast to the side of the craft..

His co-pilot offers another nugget of wisdom. "You're being shot at." Tellain immediatly hooks an arm around the back of the seat, and looks at his second, randomly tugging at the stick to look. "Okay, we need to sit down and talk about the echo in the ship." He moves back to the front. "Ready?"

The second replies. "Let's do it." The bomber begins to lumber towards the fighter that shot him, unable to get a lock this moment.))

 SF-8106 poses: Ghost 5 got a bit of a shock, just before he boarded his X-Wing, he grins and climbs into the cockpit, putting on his helmet. Well there went that hint of nervousness he had. Once he's secured he's ready for takeoff. The borrowed astromech whistleing and beeping. He tries to ignore it. Taking off with the others out of the fighter hangar off the Repraisal. Calling over the com, to check in. At the word, his S-Foils are locked into attack position, and his weapons are green and ready to fire. Hand on the throttle, getting his ship up to attack speed. Not quite close enough yet to anyone to attack yet.))

 SF-2209 poses:

"You heard the Colonel. Take your targets and go, Ghosts - Watch those fighters creepin' up!" Ghost One rockets along through the void, following his fellow Ghosts along in the charge. "Tally ho! Bogies, point five. Here we gooo, a little more... Accelerate to attack speed! Ghoul Flight, form up for your run on the closest capital ship.. Try to take on one of those cruisers. Spectre Flight will cover you. Banshee flight, scramble, and lets take on these fighters!" The twelve Ghosts break off to perform their tasks as assigned, and Johmac taps on his targetting computer display.. He's gonna line up for an attack on one of the capships himself, until suddenly..

This Scimitar bomber barrel rolls right down in front of him. If he weren't quick on the G-Breaks, he would've ended up fox-fouring right into the rear of Zeta Three. "I've got target, going for lock." The targetting reciporical pops to life.. and he lines it up. Clean shot. It's gotta be. "Ghost Leader, Fox three!"))

 On board the Reprisal, Commander J. Hook stands just in front of and to the side of Rear Admiral Moralis Rodriga. As he looks at the tactical display in front of, as well as the frequent glance outside of the bridge window, his attention can't help but be distracted by the sight of hundreds of AEC MicroCruisers flying between the Cochran starport and the REPCC Appareo Diem. He admires their spirit; their inability to just give up. Cold eyes take in all that is happening so far above Cochran's surface, leaving no ship unchecked. The many Imperial bombers are next to attract the Commander's attention, and his icey blue eyes narrow. "Port gun groupings Alpha, Beta, Delta: target those bombers. We ain't losin' another flagship to unpreparedness." He looks over to the GSS Gabriel, screening the many Cochran ships while taking a large brunt of the Imperial blows, and a small bubble of pity and sympathy begins to well up inside of him, but it is soon shrugged off. Brave defenders of peace and humanity such as this deserved no other deaths than fighting for what the believe in. A hand balls into a fist as he continues to watch, but says nothing. How he loathes sitting and watching the battle, doing nothing. He sighs.

 Grand Admiral Kreldin sighs as he watches the rebel main fleet move in and deploy their fighters. Nasty X-wings, annoying A-wings, powerful B-wings. A lovely assortment of terrorists, here to throw their lives away in a useless cause. Kreldin pities them. "Alright, I think we've hurt the Griffon fleet enough.. or what's left of it. Turn us another ten degrees to starboard to concentrate further on the Republic fleet.. but maintain fire on the Griffon fleet with turbolaser decks fifty to one hundrend," Kreldin says to the crewmen of the Malevolence, the mighty dreadnought. The Griffon fleet was still trapped in the Imperial vise, but the Republic fleet was now charging at one portion of the Imperial lines. That line would hold, despite being crunched between two opponents, but when it seemed it was about to fall, Kreldin would surely send additional reinforcements, and the Malevolence herself, to directly supplement the line.

"What's the status on the good senator's vessel?" Kreldin says, to anyone in particular.

"Achieved a firing lock just now, Grand Admiral. Firing.. now." Turbolasers spewed from several of the gun decks on the Malevolence, aimed at the vessel carrying the good senator of Cochran and other staff of the government. "If it blows up, fine by me. But try your best to disable it. Don't want to make a martyr out of him.."

Imperial bombers were not as defenseless as the rebel pilots would like to think. They were multi-role fighters, but even then, Imperial Interceptor screens were still in place, but there would always be those who break through the screens, or manage to avoid them completely. But Kreldin knew there were enough bombers to sacrifice a few to enemy fighter fire. The pilots knew their job and were willing to go to the grave to accomplish it. Kreldin knew so.

"Is the Gabriel destroyed -yet-?"

 SF-4239 poses: Eagle One continued at full speed towards his now-determined target, SF-8408, along with the rest of his Flight, who were each attacjing a bomber. The Mantarays were quite a source of laser fights, as the gunners of each of them either targeted scimitars too, or tried to destroy the warheads being launched against the Gabriel, which was quite effective for now, since their trajectories were very straight for now. Gyzen's own gunner was assigned to that purpose.

But the Scimitar had dived and now pointed its nose towards Gyzen's ship. Who immediately thought about the idea that the scim pilot decided to stop going after his primary objective and defend himself. "Gunner, soon incoming, front!" he shouted to his companion. Fights were really fast and better order your co-pilot to turn his attention towards that ahead of time, rather than when the warhead was just launched. The gunner effectively abandons his current duty of killing off warheads and begins the lock towards the enemy scimitar. Ready to launch a volley of lasers towards the warhead that'd probably arrive, given the time the scimitar took to get an effective lock. In the meanwhile, Gyzen's already re-locked his HUD against the scim and the front cannons let another volley of linked fire that time, rushing towards the ship that was now facing Eagle One nose-to-nose. ))

 SF-10346 poses: With his missiles away, Krieg moves his fighter into the fray, rapidly away from the incoming fire from one of the rebel fighters. A new line of rebel fighters comes in as well, and as well as pressure on the capital ships, the bomber flies like a fighter in tight snap rolls and turns, something that causes Krieg to groan. Blitz says to him, "Hey man, you going to hang tough?" Nodding back to him while concentrating and perhaps gripping the control stick too hard Krieg replies, "Yeah, let's rock their world. Switch targets to fighters. Ready the missiles." Blitz grins at that and locks a new target set, finding quickly one of the Ghosts straying into their targetting area. Sending the data to Krieg, the pilot moves the bomber into a tracking turn that follows Ghost 5, allowing them to lock up the other craft. The famous warbling tone comes on with good lock and Krieg yells out in the cockpit, "Target lock!" Triggering the missiles Blitz replies, "Fox 3!" The missiles streak out, this time their warheads of death are targetting for shields far weaker than the capital ships.))

 SF-8408 poses:

Tellain smiles as he starts getting closer to the ship. Yeah, it was firing on him, and yeah, Tellain was attempting to roll away from the shots. He grumbles and wishes he was back in his Interceptor, but that's not helping him right now. Tellain smiles as he thumbs up to his co-pilot. The co-pilot himself smiles, and the Bomber attempts to launch a missile at the fighter trying to hit him. At this point, Tellain pulls the fighter away, hoping the missile distracts the enemy long enough to stop the lasers.))

 SF-8106 poses: ;'s pilot Gene Malantean flies about, trying to get someone into range, when he is attacked, not once, but twice. Banking toward the first, and is hit. "Blast!" as his shields are damaged. He pulls out of the first one, just in time to bank away from the second. This accomplished, he ends up with a fighter in his sights. It's a bit out of range, but maybe he might get lucky. He takes a deep breath, and after shutting his eyes, waiting for the com to tell him he is set to fire and squeezes the trigger.))

<COMBAT> SF-2209 poses: "Got a hit." Rolling with the ship and attempting to keep up, Ghost One's pilot looses sight of Zeta Three, and he furrows his eyebrows, bringing the ship around to find the target once again. It's a distance off, but nontheless, he aims up the recticles, and chews on his bottom lip, growling slightly. He's likely gonna miss, but he's gotta take the shot. "Ghost Leader, Fox three," he proclaims, and he lays down on the laser cannons, firing the cannons off at the enemy Scimitar..))

<COMBAT> CS-4073 poses: Commander Hook keeps his eyes focused on the scene in front of him, wary of the presence of his admiral behind him, as he starts to tap his foot in time to the blast of the guns. He fixes the back of the sensor officer's head with a cold stare. Lieutenant Yanar, how many of the bombers are left? The officer turns slightly in her chair to face the two senior officers before speaking in a clear crisp voice. Approximately ten bombers destroyed and several others damaged, sir. The commander nods, trying to disguise a pleased smile, as he turns to watch again, as he barks out an order to the helsman and then the weapons officer. Make sure we stay in firing range of the starport, Ensign, if you want to hold onto that rank. As for you, Lieutenant, make sure you keep up covering fire for the station and the senator's vessel..I'm not going to tolerate any mistakes.))

<SPACE> "Grand Admiral, reports are coming in from the ground. Initial landings at Lingons starport have commenced. Only light fighting thus far," says one of the junior officers somewhere Kreldin couldn't see. The old grand admiral closes his eyes and would have nodded his head if he could.

"What's our current battle strength?"

"94%, sir. Bombers have suffered more casaulties than we initially predicted, but we're still in the green. Rebel interception is proving rather effective."

"How is the Malignant? Tell Captain to break off from the Admiral Rishar and provide support to our fighters and bombers," Kreldin says, opening his eyes to observe his tactical display once more. The Griffon fleet was still trapped, as he had predicted, and still suffering from the Imperial onslaught. Nevertheless, the rebel attack had pushed the Imperial line in sector fifteen back, and Kreldin considers giving Task Force 2 the green light to commence their operations. But no.. he would keep them in tactical reserve for now. The Imperials still had the advantage here, he just had to press home with it.

<COMBAT> SF-4239 poses:

Exactly what Gyzen thought. The scimitar launched off a warhead against Eagle 1, but the gunner was ready and shortly after Gyzen had shot his volley against the scimitar - that hit their target - he shot lasers to destroy the incoming warhead. The combined speed of both starfighters made them really close together and One engages in a savage rolling maneuver towards SF-8408 to avoid physical impacts with the warhead's particules resulting from the explosion, but also the very scimitar that rushed dangerously towards him and both ships cross paths at mad speed, nearly colliding one with the other. Gyzen was now close, very close to the other vessel, and in a fraction of second he kills off the engines thrust, pulling hard on the stick, taking full benefit from the Ray maneuverability and design unique in the slice to put a 180 degree in time few dogfight-specialized starfighters could achieve, and certainly not bombers; Gyzen puts thrust to 50 percent and anticipates the Scimitar would be offering its head and intuitively tries rapid shots aimed at the cockpit to kill off the unshielded crew, before diving, setting engines back at full speed as the sound of a warhead incoming was emitted in his helmet. In a reflex, he rolls again away from the emission and the warhead safely flies away, allowing him to destroy it again using lasers. 'damn...' that was making him most away from the ship.. Scimitars were perhaps extremely resilient. Pilots were not, once the bubble making their cockpit was destroyed and they were exposed to space, and that was what he had on his mind. Destroy imperial lives fighting for an ill cause !

In the meanwhile, the Gabriel was holding its own still, its hull integrity loss rate being reduced thankfully because of the bombers being destroyed. It was shielding the REPCC below, that was now host to thousands of people, the cargo holds being emptied in favour of lives; it was now clearly moving to the maximum of the old vessel's ship capacities towards the NR fleet, seeking shelter there, and a good point for an hyperjump towards some NR planet for asylum. A ship of bigger importance took off Cochran north of the city, from the Lion's Den, the military bunker of the Griffon, hosting the shield generators power station and many military assets. A DSV that seemed quite modified, twice the speed of your regular destroyer, was rushing towards space, shielded by the Gabriel and any tractor beam the I2SD might want to throw at it. The shields and speed would have been quite an asset to put into the fight; but obviously, the Griffons decided to store their most precious assets; it could only but be guessed what they stashed there : Scientists, AEC researchers and engineers, highest ranking officials, the thinking elite, copies of research databases and knowledge had all been planned to be saved on that ship long ago, in anticipation for the Imperial retaliation and since they attacked Cochran months ago. They all were there; and rushed towards space, probably for hypering out; and the way they were headed, no match could be done for any known route. The GSS Gabriel was perhaps at a third hull integrity and loads of pods were being launched off it towards Cochran for survival, those whose post wasn't essential, or whose station had been destroyed. If the Gabriel had to die, at least it allowed for a tons of civilians to escape, and for the best of Griffons Manpower to be saved !))

<COMBAT> SF-10346 poses: It looks as if his wounds have not healed entirely yet. Krieg's manuever to fire missiles at an enemy fighter has left their bomber spinning hard and almost out of control on the last roll out. That, and the combination of fire from one of the other craft has them flailing for control. Blitz, however, was trying to lock a new target and sending data says, "Krieg, my man... hold it man, hold it!" His voice is loud and quick and continues, "Targets have us locked, break left, come about three three four point nine!" Sweat forming in his spacesuit and helmet even though the cooling systems are working normally, and pumping out some really cold air. This combination doesn't help any and his hands are begining to shake. The pain is getting a hold of him in his chest, but after a few moments comes around. "I've got it Blitz, I'm on him!" The adrenaline is pumping now, as he's coming to the realization that if he doesn't move fast they were liable not to ever make it back to the Dauntless. It dulls the pain, which allows him to really pump out some amazing flight. Finding that the craft they had locked them earlier is firing he tries to move out of the way, but being not like a fighter he sucks up the hits with the shields. Ignoring him as the shields are fine he finds another attacker, and this time does not attempt significant manuevers, but rather a direct charge upon the craft. Blitz has it locked, as that is where Krieg was flying, and the tone comes across their headsets. Blitz shouts, "Weapons free!" Hopefully, Krieg thinks, their weapons fire will actually hit instead of missing.))

<COMBAT> SF-1608 poses: Moving the first two flights of Falcon Squadron from fray to fray, taking out as many Imperial bombers as possible, Ridge Archilles feels relatively free. He had managed to make a miniscule target out of himself and the seven fighters behind him, quite effectively sneaking from dogfight to dogfight. Despite this, he still seems to have caught someone's attention. Klaxons ring their grating warning of impending doom, and with only a flick of his wrist, Ridge rolls through the incoming laserfire as gracefully as... a Falcon. The Wing Commander checks his sensors for the best target and fires.))

<COMBAT> SF-8408 poses:

Tellain continues to grunt as he takes fire from the other craft, and what is apparently a new challenger. Youth and invicibility don't mix. Rolling doesn't seem to help against what seem to be the better of two pilots. This guy must be pretty good. Tellain's co leans over the seat. "Hey, your hull indicator is yellow." Tellain doesn't reply back and instead grimaces until the cockpit glass takes a shot. Jolting, Tellain tries to turn the ship while keeping him in view. Hopefully it doesn't do weird manuvers as Tellain strokes the firing trigger again, sending out more lasers at the pesky fighter.))

<COMBAT> SF-8106 poses: Gene checks over his scanners when his droid tells him he has been locked on, he banks toward the enemy ship. Which always seems to be his problem. The peppering lasers are all around him. He's hit though, despite his best efforts, and his shields are gone. He cusses into his cockpit, and just as he banks out of the way, he positions himself, so that he is able to fire upon one of the larger ships. He wants to cripple it. Just one, once. So it's already damaged, but he has a personal vendetta, and wants to hurt them Impys that hurt him. Might not be wise to be fighting so soon after, but he won't give up. "That stabelizer has broken loose" he calls to his droid, as the ship shakes, so does his voice a bit. "Fix it, please." He soon has the ship in his sights, and he hopes close enough. His hand squeezes the trigger and fires at the ship.)) Gene pages: No, just lasers. Small stuff

Not being threatened by any imperial capital ships or fighters, the DSV makes its way under the protective umbrella of the GSS Gabriel, that sacrifices its hull in order for the civilians - AND the knowledge, griffons funds, officials, best techies and engineers, to fly their way towards ... survival. The GSS Appareo Diem has enough time to fly past the NRSD Reprisal, plotting its way for hyperspace, probably Coruscant or Calamari, not yet able to hyper out, but it was now safe, along with all the lives that witnessed the atrocities and raw wilderness the Empire just enacted today; The DSV, Deus, was fast enough to already tear itself from the gravity well of the other ships and plotted a course towards unknown space; leaving the doomed space surrounding the now ill-fated Planet that was Cochran.

The Gabriel had yet nothing left to protect, the smaller ships would hopefully be able to leave the area without being threatened by the imperial forces, if there were any still taking off the planet, aside from the military crafts. "Hull down to... 15 percent, Captain." the helm spoke with a rather tense and sad voice. "Lower dish breaking off..." Only the sounds of hull breaking and turbolasers firing their last salvoes could now interfere with the silence filling the bridge. The young blond female captain had a final thought for the man she was to marry the day after.. who perhaps could live on the Diem, that she helped protect. "Good bye".

Just following those last words, the lower dish of the ship broke off the main dish, and the ship was no longer able to sustain its position in space. Both started to spin slowly and the bridge eventually looked up to what used to be its brother, the GSS Harbinger, as though speaking a 'farewell, elder bro' before the lower dish eventually hit the upper one in its middle, pushing just enough energy for causing both to separate in several chunks of metal, the torpedoes left onboard doing the rest. Skeleton crew was all that remained and they were nonetheless about a thousand people, to die in the last breath of the GSS Gabriel, that helped for the remains and most valuable of Griffons assets to remain and live, in the face of adversity and against all odds, past that doomed day in the Griffon alliance.

The GSS Gabriel was no more.

<COMBAT> SF-8352 poses: Ghost 6, slightly smoldering from the massive fray was cut off from the main foray previoud, but made his way back into the conflict. Checking his radar he notes the severe losses to the New Republic. "R2 I need to find all Ghost Squadron, stat." he says. Sweat beads the young man's brow and Kensle furrows his brow from behind the shades resting on his face. Ghost 6 careens through space as Kensle's scope lights up the green contacts marking the remaining Ghost squadron thanks to the R2 unit. "Well done.." opening up a com to Gene, the X-Wing diving in after the wounded Star Destroyer, Kensle says, "This is Gradvitz forming up on your wing, Ghost 6 Standing by.. I got separated by my wits are about me.. arming proton torpedos and joining you on your run - over-" Moving full throttle, Ghost 6's shields still in place dispite a few close calls. Weapons locked, Kensle lets fly a torpedo after the star destoyer, not noticing the downfall of the great Griffon ship.))

<COMBAT> SF-4239 poses: It takes a little time for Gyzen to recover from the evasive action he just took against the concussion missile launched off the imperial VSD. Enough so it might let the scimitar pilot take a few shots at him and hit, and that was *almost* happened. Apparently, he hit the vessel, but not the cockpit as he had planned... because of that damn VSD now shooting a barrier of missiles against the fighter. Pff, like they stood a chance of hitting dogfight starfighters ! Gyzen has merely the time to roll rapidly to let the scimitar-shot lasers fly quite closely past him. He knew the scimitar had clumsy lasers, but apparently another NR pilot wanted to score some hits on that already damaged bomber too. 'what?' Gyzen frowns... A guy wanting to steal his kill?

Nevertheless, At the end of the maneuver he was close. Very close. At a range you cannot miss. A 6-space unit range. A chance for a winning and devastating shot. He quickly sets his laser linking to full, in order to let the combined four front lasers hit the bomber with full destruction power.

Right after launching his volley of fire though, a huge wave hits his fighter. Only with horror does he sees on his sensors the Gabriel was separating into several chunks of metal... And he a little time befpore he issued on the com, "FLIGHT 1 AND 3, BREAK OFF! FULL SPEED FAR FROM GABRIELS POSITION!" Yeah, he didn't want his guys to be hit by those chunks ! With some difficulties he manages to get the fighter back on track against the wave, and to get outside the blast radius. Taking a look behind him. That ship was the result of years' of his work to get Cochran financially viable and to develop its economy... All that was just being destroyed today, and that was the first occurence of it to his mind, focused as he was on his job against the bombers. The ray was flying straight for a few seconds as the man was realising that... not without shedding.. a tear. ))

<SPACE> Danik WISHES he could see it himself, with his very own eyes. But instead he was stuck staring at the display screen. The Gabriel's transponder vanished under a fury of Imperial turbolaser fire, and a wild cheer arose on the bridge of the Malevolence as the crewmen celebrated its demise. Kreldin himself smiles. "Well done, well done! Drinks for all when we get back to Selene. For now, keep your focus: we still got rebels to deal with!" Kreldin shouts as best as he could, although the poor grand admiral was really in no condition. It was a miracle he was even able to muster the strength to lead the battle in the first place.

As the battle rages on, with the Imperials now focusing their full efforts on the Republic Navy with the death of the Gabriel. Scimitars continue to explode or shoot off their missiles, TIE Interceptors continue to provide cover, and the Star Destroyers and their picket ships continue to do their job of making scrap out of the rebel fleet. The Malignant, her shields down, comes under heavy fire by rebel X-wings, but as explosions rip through her hull, she continues onward, undeterred as a fighter screen of Interceptors sweep in to clear out the X-wings, or try to, as the Malignant unleashes a concussion missile barrage on its enemy capital ships.

<COMBAT> SF-8352 poses: Kensle howls as a barage of Tie Intercepts swarm nearby and laser fire erupts outward toward him from the star destroyer. Pulling hard on the flight stick, Ghost 6 goes into a roll toward the looming Capital ship, narrowly missing hot death as it goes. The Proton torpedo had hit its mark adn the firey display only bolstered the young pilot's confidence.. but the fear of the moment - the mounting losses of the Ner Republic, and the onslaught of the Empire drive that confidence down into his throat. A new torpedo lock is place, and a new torpedo lets fly from the x-wing, barreling through space toward the massive target that is the IVSD Malign. Kensle holds his breath as it goes, and takes a look at his scopes at the oncoming Interceptors.. this was going to hurt...))

<COMBAT> SF-8408 poses:

Tellain grunts. Lasers make a man hot and bothered. Granted, that's not the good bothering. More lasers start peppering the hull. It's like he's in a box. Everywhere he goes, the lasers follow. Co-Pilot has quieted down by now, but he's starting to get worried about his partner's crazy fightings. Tellain, now that there's some distance and a lack of ramming, strokes the trigger when the lock light comes on. Maybe this time he'll actually hit.))