"Yeah, it's easy enough," Zenith agrees. She half turns to face the rest of the hangar and gestures with a wide sweep of her arm.
"Over there are the p-wings. Those are the heavy bombers which carry the heavy photon missiles used to attack the big capital ships. And over there are the e-wings. Now the e-wings have two purposes. They escort the p-wings in and try to pierce the enemy fighter screens, and they try to intercept enemy bombers that are coming in. So you have to balance the roles. Too many on offense, and you risk enemy bombers getting through. Too many on defense, and you lose your bombers before they can fire."
She looks back at Rosa. "Our fighters are a match for anything the Empire's put out yet. P-wings are big and clumsy, but pretty fast on a straight run and can take a hell of a beating. They also have good defensive weapons, so their escorts don't have to stay TOO close to them when engaging. The Imperial missile bombers are a lot less self-sufficient, which forces them to use more fighters on escort. It also makes their bombers a lot more vulnerable to fast 'spearhead' attacks, where you take a small wedge formation and just plunge right through the escorts to take on the bomber directly, then get the hell out before the fighters can react. Plus, every E-wing has a pretty good-sized load of torpedoes, which are perfect for taking out slow ships like bombers. Pretty much the only big problems we run into is where we're outnumbered by a large margin."
(OOC - Edit to reflect actual complement on the ship we're on. Sorry, for some reason I thought we were on a bigger one. *headconk*)
Last edited by Shayuri; 2nd January 2009 at 08:33 PM..
"And fortunately that doesn't happen anywhere near as often as it used to. Between our three fleets and the Corellians, we've got something over ten thousand fighters and four hundred capital ships in-system right now. Of course, it'll be down to just our twelve fighters and Taelros if we get sent off somewhere on our own." The squadron commander added.
OOC
You're on a frigate; it's hard to consider 3 P-Wings and 9 E-Wings as more than one squadron.
"Of course, we can only hope that if we are out on our own, it's on a mission that won't lead to us being massively outnumbered by fighters," Rosa responds. She walks throughout the hangar, continuing to look at the fighters, as well as the crew.
__________________ "Sometimes things must be broken in order to be rebuilt." --Sith Proverb.
"Not as such," He says. "But this is the second Taelros, you know. They finally decided they weren't going to take the first one out of reserves and sent her to the breakers last year, which freed up the name. And while I never met Nikita Taelros, I can't imagine the Republic naming a ship after my wife's late big sister if she hadn't deserved it."
"Is there much...or really any continuity of crew between this Taelros and the previous one or are we pretty much all newbies." Istara asked, making conversation. She'd accomplished what she wanted and was ready to meet her squadron mates in the mess but they wouldn't have all finished their post flight yet, so it was time for the Corellian to kill some time.
"Of course, we can only hope that if we are out on our own, it's on a mission that won't lead to us being massively outnumbered by fighters," Rosa responds. She walks throughout the hangar, continuing to look at the fighters, as well as the crew.
The other ten pilots, the P-Wing gunners, and the support staff for all twelve fighters seemed to have the same mix of species that the rest of the Republic Navy did; humans, Duros, and Twi'leks predominated, but there were a few others. One of the P-Wing pilots looked to be a Wookiee. Oddly, it seemed that nine of the twelve pilots were female (or at least looked that way at first glance to a human). One of them was in Corellian Navy uniform, not a Republic one.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Shalimar
"Is there much...or really any continuity of crew between this Taelros and the previous one or are we pretty much all newbies." Istara asked, making conversation.
"I think a few of the senior chiefs were spacers on the original. But the first Taelros was mothballed in reserve for five years; most of the officers here now hadn't been commisssioned when it went into reserve, and I'm sure neither the captain nor the squadron commander was on the old one. I don't know about the new exec." He said.
"Of course, we can only hope that if we are out on our own, it's on a mission that won't lead to us being massively outnumbered by fighters," Rosa responds. She walks throughout the hangar, continuing to look at the fighters, as well as the crew.
Zenith shrugs with complacent smile. As she tags along for a moment.
"Well, since we do a fair amount of duty away from the fleet, it's bound to happen sooner or later."
Oddly, this idea does not seem to trouble her.
"We'll just have to find a way to deal with it. Anyway, I'd better get my post flight done, or I'll get another demerit. Nice meeting you!"
With that she hurries off to get the report filed.
Over the next few days, you continued with the final preparations before Taelros was completely ready to leave the Anaxes system. Storm drilled his gunnery crews, Saricia and her engineers worked the last kinks of out of the ship and said goodbye to the last of the Republic Engineering Corp personnel on board, and Lt. Gelian ran you through some exercises that Istara and Zenith weren't sure if they were challenging or a little bit crazy. Istara did better than Chief Selkin expected in her first night at the Sabaac table with the enlisted and officers that he'd invited her to, but not as well as she hoped; she pretty much broke even.
Rosa was probably run the most ragged though, as she tried to familiarize herself with the ship and the crew -- and she spent some time in conferences with Commander Cyn -- and once with Admiral Solo via holo -- learning exactly what the Navy expected them to do. In fact, she's dropped a few hints to Lt. Karan and Lt. Gelian -- nothing to compromise operational security, but perhaps enough to push their drills into better preparation for what the Republic expects to run into.
The captain would be briefing the senior officers and the three Jedi tomorrow, but for once Rosa managed to steal a few minutes in the officer's lounge to relax. It happened that Storm, Zenith, Istara, and Saricia were also off-duty.
OOC: Any PCs or officer NPCs can show up if you want to talk.
It seemed that over the few days, Storm and the new XO had always been busy on their duties and through highly unlikely circumstances hadn't had the fortune to meet yet. She propably knew that there was a third Jedi onboard though so it shouldn't come as a surprice for her as the Cathar walked in to the lounge, two lightsabers hanging from his belt. His appearance however might be startling. The creature looked like a predatory beast from some jungleworld with his long thick mane rising above his head and then flowing down his back. Sharp though short fangs were clearly visible as he talked to the officer walking besides him. Contrasting his bestial features was the fact that he was extremely well groomed and seemed to take almost obsessive mind in keeping his uniform examplary.
At the door he departed from his fellow and stepped inside.
OOC
Don't worry about the unnamed officer I wrote here. Just someone to emphasis part of the story, and as mentioned didn't even come in.
Istara wasn't visibly in the officer's lounge when Storm entered, but there was someone in the E-Wing Sim pod in the corner of the room. The external screen affixed to the wall beside the pod showed a thickly populated asteroid field and a wing pair of incoming clutches in the background outside of the debris floated a Marauder cruiser and additional clutches on picket duty.
Staying in the shadows and cover created by the asteroids Istara tried to approach the pair of pirate fighters from above and to the left but the closer of the two pilots must have seen something as he re-angled himself towards her warning his wingmate. Apparently the Computer wasn't going to be going easy on her since the pair of ships reacted with a greater speed than the Jedi, firing off their Ion cannons as they approached into more reliable laser range, but both barrages missed the weaving E-wing thanks to the range.
Holding her laser fire until she could reliably hit, the Corellian woman bracketed the lead pirate with her torpedo system and then immediately pulled the trigger sending a single lance of burning blue towards the clutch, but the pilot proved too resourceful immediately going into a corkscrew that missile passed through the center of.
"Sith Spit!" Istara exclaims, frowning, she'd wanted to even the odds before things got too close. Then again the targeted clutch need to devote his attention to the Torpedo or I'd go through his ship like a needle through a bubble, it might give her enough time to destroy his partner while he tried to evade it.
Then the battle was truly joined, a clutch was a maneuverable craft, and the pilot was no slouch, but it just wasn't on par with a Jedi pilot. While the first clutch broke into evasive maneuvers, the second tried to loop up onto Istara's tail once the two craft had passed each other, but Istara had anticipated and feathered her throttle down and then up again to end up behind where the pirate thought she'd be. She saw a flash off to her right and assumed that her torpedo had struck an asteroid in the densely packed field.
A pair of laser bolts let Istara know her initial target had rejoined the fray, but they flashed through the intervening space between the pair of dog fighting ships harmlessly. For nearly 6 seconds the pair of star fighters jockey for position on each other before Istara comes up with a split second opportunity for a shot at the craft's belly.
The intervening space between the craft lit up in a fusillade of red laser fire, with a single streamer connecting and even piercing the shields, though it simply melted a bit of armor plating instead of doing any real damage.
To the observers it's clear that the pilot of the E-wing is just that good, outnumbered two to one, against craft more agile than hers with shields just as strong as hers, the pilot is more than holding her own as the duo of pirate craft aren't able to line up any shots on the E-wing as the Corellian pounds into the shields of the second clutch yet again with another barrage of blaster bolts.
All of a sudden like the pilot received a message the E-wing switched targets and sent a single triple blast at the pilot who had been pursuing her instead of the one she'd been pursuing. The full powered blast ripped through the ship's shields and cleanly bisected the craft before the fuel cells ignited, swallowing the target completely.
Perhaps spurred by the death of his comrade the second pilot redoubled his efforts keeping out of the corellian's sights for almost half a minute before another barrage of laser's chewed into the injured Clutch completely collapsing its shields and burning away at the fuselage. The Ugly doggedly attempted to keep on Istara's tail knowing it'd be destroyed easily as it fled, likely before it made it to the safety of its mother ship.
In a last ditch effort to survive the pilot pulled off a stunning array of maneuvers to end up on the E-wings tail, and let loose with its lasers in dual fire mode for the increased kill power. It sent the twin beams right up Istara's six, but for a last second side slip the E-wing could have been heavily damaged. It was the last shot the pilot would ever make as an end for end swap turn spun Istara 360 degrees while a single laser burst leapt out piercing the Clutch's cockpit and turned the craft into a cloud of flame.
Ultimately though, the simulator run hadn't been much of a challenge for the Jedi pilot. Yes the enemy had outnumbered her, and had pretty darn good ships for pirates, but with the force it just wasn't enough for them. Her eyes settle on the Marauder Corvette that had carried the clutches, and Istara grinned. Even if she lost which by the odds was incredibly likely, it was still going to be more of a challenge than the 2 clutches were.
"Hey, Vape, plot a hyper vector for me, would you? Start it over by the Marauder, I want to take a shot at it on my way out." The pilot says cheerfully, ignoring the mournful wail of her assigned R7 astromech. "Ok, time for some fun." she says, maxing out her ship's considerable speed, it was time to see what she could really do in this thing.
She started by setting her Proton Torpedoes to fire-linked knowing the considerable shields were going to be up at this point and she'd need the power of a dual shot to have a prayer of punching through. Next she painted the ship with her fire controls, waiting for a lock, but even further, waiting for the force to tell her it was the right time. Almost unconsciously she stroked the firing stud, and two missiles were away fired when she was just over two kilometers away from the capital ship.
The two blue streaks flashed towards the ship and impacted against the shields, but even the capital ship's shields couldn't absorb all of the damage and the force blistered and boiled armor plates on the ship's belly. At the extreme range the only response the corvette could make was with its turbo lasers, a good thing considering its tractor beams could draw her into its hangars...then again, the crew probably wouldn't expect to face a Jedi knight.
The Corvette's response of a pair of Turbo Laser batteries was close enough to make the otherwise brash pilot want to reconsider her plan, if it hadn't been for a last second juke her ship would have been hit dead on by the second blast and completely ceased to exist. Still, they had to have used up all their luck with that last shot, so Istara pressed her attack sending another pair of torpedoes at the ship, keeping out to 2 kilometers. Even as the second pair of Torpedoes struck the ship and again burst through the shields Istara realized it wasn't enough, she had 5 more salvos of torpedoes, and then a lone torpedo. She just wasn't doing enough damage, her lasers would never penetrate both the shields and armor, and at that point she wouldn't be able to hurt the thing at all. Sighing in frustration she closed on the hyper space route and jumped out of the system.
The external screen goes black in the lounge, and Istara climbs out of the simulator frowning. She heads over to the bar and orders some water and a shot of Corellian brandy. The brown haired Jedi throws back the brandy in one gulp and then starts to nurse the water.
Inside the lounge, Rosa stares vacantly at a datapad, the large amounts of caf that she had ingested hours ago now ending their effect. Despite her initial entrance into the lounge to relax, it seems that she has completely failed in that mention. She watches the others that are more able to set their minds at ease and envies them for a moment.
She orders another cup of caf and finally sets down her datapad, choosing to watch the latest HoloNews.
__________________ "Sometimes things must be broken in order to be rebuilt." --Sith Proverb.
Storm looks around the room and notices the woman he hadn't seen before. Her rank insignia however made it quite clear who she was, and so the cathar decided to go over and introduce himself to Rosa. "Ma'am. You must be our new XO. It seems we haven't had the opportunity to meet yet. I am Lt. Storm, a Jedi and the Gunnery Officer of Taelros."
Last edited by Blackrat; 10th January 2009 at 09:19 PM..
Istara is joined a moment later by Zenith, who seems to be as cheery as ever. She sips from her glass of wildly colorful liquid and asks, "Saw you in the sim over there. Seemed like you did pretty well! What did you think of it?"
"It wasn't really a challenge. Clutches are good fighters for uglies but they aren't really equal to E-wings, not as durable, and certainly not as good as Corellian fighters."
"It just got futile once the fighters were gone, I couldn't do enough damage to the Corvette. Left them with millions of credits in repairs, but I didn't have enough punch to take them down with just one fighter I'd have run out of torpedoes before they ran out of shields. If it had been real I might have been able to use the force to send the asteroids at them or something, as it was though, it was just kinda frustrating."
"Well," Zenith said consideringly. "I suppose if the mission objective was that the corvette HAD to be destroyed, and you were the only one left...what you'd have to do is punch a hole in its forward shields, then fly in full throttle with your remaining torpedoes armed and try to ram it someplace vital."
She shrugs.
"I was never all that good at simulators. My sensitivity doesn't pick up unless I'm actually in danger. I finally got to the point where I could get it to trigger in nonlethal exercises, but simulators are still just...too unreal."
"That wouldn't actually work I don't think, their shields would handle the impact most likely. Besides, at that point the last remaining officer should probably scrub the mission and escape with as much personnel and equipment as can be salvaged. Our respective governments have put hundreds of thousands of credits into training us as pilots, and we are flying craft worth at least 200,000 credits, and you can't begin to calculate what value a person's experience has, not to mention our Jedi training and abilities. Its better to retreat and save the resources than to die for no benefit."
"Besides, if I had really wanted to destroy it, I would have let myself be captured in its tractor beams and pulled into the ship's hangar. Not something one can do in a simulation. Once your close to being in the hangar you can shoot the place up, or if your a jedi who happens to have a bomb in your storage bay you can use the force to send the bomb out and it wont have to get through the shields and armor, its already inside. Again, not something you can do in a sim." Istara answered, grinning ferally.
"Uhh...this is actually my first posting. I was assigned here right out of my accelerated pilot school since it wouldn't be fair to put me under my mother's command."
Commander Cyn, Lt. Karan, Lt. Gellian, and some of the other senior officers joined you in the ship's main briefing room. This was where they would learn what the Republic wanted the newest additon to the 187th Frigate Squadron to do.
"Good morning everyone. Although it seems to be somewhat traditional in this squadron for the captain not to pass on his orders to the general crew until his ship is in hyperspace, I've decided to give you a few more minutes than that." He said. He clicked a switch, and a holo appeared.
It looked like a display of the Empress making a formal speach on Coruscant, a few strands of red hair entwined with the subletest hint of white peeking out from under the black robes she affected in every video of her that had ever made it out of the Empire. But that was not who the camera had been focused on.
The center of the holo was a member of Empress' entourage, a startlingly handsome young apparently human man who -- despite his silver hair -- could not have been much more than twenty years old, and looked closer to seventeen. And off to the side the looked to be another who could be his identical twin, and the clipped form of a third.
"We don't know who these fellows are, or even how many of them there are; there are at least three, but there could. As far as Naval Intellegince knows, they appeared out of nowhere shortly after Darth Giada claimed the Imperial throne. However, an operative on Coruscant has confirmed that some of them are Force sensitive." The three Jedi wondered who Padme had asked to perform that task; there wasn't a place more dangerous for Jedi than the Imperial capital.
"And we've recieved information that one of them was about to board an Imperial Nebulon-C frigate and depart for Ruusan. Our mission is to find out what he was after, and stop them."
I can see now why the Command has decided to assign so many Jedi on a single ship. Storm muses quietly before speaking up. This enemy is not to be taken lightly, but might prove to be useful prisoner. I assume we are to capture him alive if at all possible?
Linear Mode
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