Lt. Gellian, Zenith, Istara, and the rest of Taelros' fighter wing fly out of the frigate's hanger, raising their shields and closing on the enemy. Though slower, the bomber wing trails behind them. Istara is the first to refine the data from her fighter's sensors and recognize the enemy fighters not as the Imperials typical TIE Interceptors, but the TIE Advanced figthers that have become more and more prominent in the Imperial order of battle over the last decade.
Not yet in missile range, Captain Cyn has the frigate follow. Rosa, Storm, and Sarcia prepare for the upcoming engagement, ordering their subordinates to their proper stations.
"This is E2, I mark 12 brights. I repeat the enemy is flying a dozen advanced model ties." Istara relays once Vape had resolved the data.
"Stay loose, out here. Boss...are we goning to hit them with Torpedo's to close up the numbers before we get into blaster range, or are we going for something else?"
[OOC]
Move Action: Move 6 spaces towards the enemy
Standard Action: Total Defense (+10 to Reflex Defense > 29)
Swift: Switch to Torpedoes
[/OOC]
Use blasters, we may need those missiles when we go against the frigate, Rosa thinks as she hears Istara's questions, knowing that--at the moment--it isn't her call to make.
__________________ "Sometimes things must be broken in order to be rebuilt." --Sith Proverb.
"That's what we've got them for, j.g." Lt. Gellian said, as the two squadrons of fighters continued to close on each other, with Taelros' bombers trailing behind its fighters, and the capital ships closing in as well.
Twenty-four seconds later, the TIE Advanced fighters crossed into extreme proton torpedo range.
A torpedo shot out from the squadron commander's E-Wing, damaging the lead TIE.
GM damage tracker; DO NOT LOOK
TA1 - HP 58 SR 15 (destroyed by Istara)
E1 - down 1 torpedo
E2 - down 2 torpedoes
* * * * * *
Notes:
1. The numbers above each spot are the actual position from start, in squares.
2. Once the range gets a bit lower, I'll zoom in to a one cell / one square view
"Ok Vape, help me out with acquiring a lock." Istara told her astromech, lining up the targeting recticle on an enemy fighter, she waited until the droid had refined the data as much as it could before pulling the trigger.
[Vape: Standard Action (Aid Attack roll DC 10 Computer Use, Use computer +13)
Swift 1: Aim
Swift 2: Aim
Standard Action: Attack Run (+2 attack/-2 defense)
Proton Torpedo Attack(fire linked): 1d20+13-10; 10d10 x2 damage]
Rosa watches as one TIE disappears from the sensor board. Good shot, she thinks as she continues to monitor the battle. "How long until we get into effective range?" she asks.
__________________ "Sometimes things must be broken in order to be rebuilt." --Sith Proverb.
Unfortunately, the other 11 Imperial fighters were flying much more defensively than the lead fighter, and Zenith's torpedoes harmlessly shot by the next one in line.
The rest of the squadron elected to fire off only a single torpedo from this range, and all were ineffective.
Tensions grew as the fighters grew ever-closer.
Still probing at the TIE Advanced's defenses, the wing commander fired another shot as the Imperial closed to medium torpedo range. Unfortunately, it went wide.
"So who gets the Kill Leader?" Istara asked the Lt., slewing slightly to port to line up on a second target.
"Vape, work with me, refine the numbers for me." the Corellian instructed the little droid. She kept the brackets on the fighter until her astromech gave a little whistle to indicate the lock. A trigger pull sent another pair of torpedoes lancing out at the tie formation.
[Vape: Standard Action (Aid Attack roll DC 10 Computer Use, Use computer +13)
Swift 1: Aim
Swift 2: Aim
Standard Action: Attack Run (+2 attack/-2 defense)
Proton Torpedo Attack(fire linked): 1d20+13-5; 10d10 x2 damage]
Zenith poked her tongue out between her teeth as she jockeyed the sensitive E-wing a bit to line up the targeting reticules on another TIE.
"Lets try that again," she instructs her astromech, though it still feels weird to her to be talking to a machine as if it was alive. "Take your time with it."
A moment later the targeting data updates, and she squeezes off a pair of torpedoes.
"Come on...come on..." she urges the little glowing warheads as they streak off...
(Astromech: Standard Action (Aid Attack roll DC 10 Computer Use, Use computer +13)
Swift 1: Aim
Swift 2: Aim
Standard Action: Attack Run (+2 attack/-2 defense)
(My thanks to Shalimar for working this out. )
Proton Torpedo Attack(fire linked): 1d20+13-5; 10d10 x2 damage]
OOC: Small bit of nitpickery - after looking over the E-Wing again, it looks like an E-Wing with an R7 astromech (which you all have) always gets a +2 equipment bonus to hit, and I'm ruling that an astromech can't grant this bonus and aid another at the same time.
Unfortunately, none of the torpedoes that missed initially were able to come around and hit with their second approach, and Istara's second shot went wide as well.
The pair of missiles Zenith fired, though, were right on target, and a second TIE Advanced went up in smoke.
Four of the other E-Wings also missed, but the last two combined to take out a third TIE (nine remain).
OOC: The P-Wings are now in extreme proton missile range. Rosa/Storm - if you want, you can combine the 3 P-Wings into a fighter wing, and call out their shot.
"Esk force," Rosa says as she watches the P-wings enter range. "This is the XO, lock onto the enemy frigate and fire at my command."
She watches the holographic battle in front of her, and sees three TIEs disappear as they are destroyed by the other fighters. She waits a second longer, allowing for all of the P-wing fighters to get an appropriate missile lock.
"Fire."
__________________ "Sometimes things must be broken in order to be rebuilt." --Sith Proverb.
The remaining 9 Imperials cautiously press ahead, reaching the edge of their blaster cannon range, but flying defensively at extreme range, none can score a hit.
Lt. Gellian fires off a pair of torpedoes, destroying a fourth TIE, then backs off, electing to keep the Imperials at long range.
Unlike her wing leader who was pulling back to presumably run interference for the bombers on whatever came through, Istara's ship darted forward. "Hit them while their still distracted and trying to dodge the torpedoes."
[OOC] fighting defensively is a Standard Action, so unless a ship has a gunner, or the pilot has some other way to gain extra actions they cannot make attacks.
Move Action: move forward 6 squares [42]
Standard Action: Attack +9 (4+3+2+2-2(short)) Heavy Triple Blasters(6d10x2) against A6
[OOC]
Zenith, taken aback by Istara's aggressiveness, radios, "I'm not going to let her go in alone. Give them more torps to worry about and I'll try to keep those TIEs off her back!"
She throttles up and lets out a whoop as her ship surges forward, replacing torpedo fire with green bolts of energy!
Move Action: move forward 6 squares [42]
Standard Action: Attack +9 (4+3+2+2-2(short)) Heavy Triple Blasters(6d10x2) against A5
A5 - 64 HP, SR 15
A6 - 52 HP, SR 15
A7 - 66 HP, SR 15
Nebulon-C - 737 HP, SR 95
Istara and Zenith closed to blaster range with the Imperial fighters, as the exec's orders came across the comm. The two Jedi hit their targets, weaking their shields and doing visible damage. The rest of the Republic's E-Wing wing closed with them, leaving the wing commander as a trailer, but their gunnery did not fare quite as well; only one scored on its counterpart.
On Rosa's mark, the three P-Wing bombers launched their proton missiles, and the three fired as one at the Imperial's new frigate. It was only with concentrated fire that the light proton missiles that could be mounted on a starfighter could break through a capital ship's shields at all, but they did some minor damage, slightly weakening the frigate's shields and showing some minor scoring on the ship's hull.
Math: BAB +2 +5 (P-Wing Int) +1 (Born Leader) +4 (+2 for 2nd, 3rd bomber) -10 long range = +2 to hit; did one extra die of damage for beating target ref by 3-5 (since a fighter group acts like a weapon battery)
And the two frigates moved still-closer to each other. Very soon they would be able to fire capital-ship range proton missiles at each other.
Storm listened to the repots coming in from his crew and relayed the information Rosa and Cmdr Cyn. "Missile stations ready to fire at your command sir. Cannons at hold." He turns back to the gunnery frequency to give last orders. "Everyone, wait for lock on confirm before firing. Don't go wasting those shots."
All the time, there is no emotion in his words. Only the cool professionalism.
OOC
I felt the need to post something eventhough there's nothing to do for Storm just yet.
The orders meant basically that the crew should take the two aim actions before firing.
How were the missile batteries formed again?
The Imperials try to concentrate their fire, pairing off against E2, E4, E6, and E8. One attack just barely misses, and then Zenith's Force-guided reflexes allow her to spin her E-Wing out of the way of an attack that would have hit a lesser pilot (OOC: I used your Vehicular Combat feat to negate the attack). The pilots of the next pair of Imperial fighters didn't come as close to hitting E4, nor did the pair attacking E6, but one of the fighters attacking E8 did get a shot in.
Then the Imperials tried to blow past the E-Wings to get to the bombers. (OOC: Zenith, Istara -- you can take an AoO to iniate a dogfight with A5 and A6; the other E-Wings are declining to dogfight in order to make the math easier, just taking standard AoOs). All of them save one were hit on the flyby; E9 had a nearly perfect shot, and the TIE Advanced trying to fly past him went up in a fireball (critical hits on TIEs are kind of nasty).
damage tracker
A5 - 64 HP, SR 15
A6 - 52 HP, SR 15
A7 - 47 HP, SR 10
A8 - 58 HP, SR 15
A9 - 64 HP, SR 15
A10 - 42 HP, SR 15
A11 - undamaged
A12 - destroyed
)
Linear Mode
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