Zenith pulls out of the sudden evasive roll she tucked into to avoid an oncoming TIE's attack, and swoops down at A5 as it tries to get past her. "Uh uh, not so fast," she reprimands its icon on her display. "Don't be bad now..."
She settled in behind it, trying to get it into a dogfight.
(Dogfight as AoO. Base pilot skill is +15. If that fails, just a regular attack then, +12 to hit for the usual triple blaster damage.)
Istara tried to force the Imperial pilot opposite her into a dogfight, but she guessed wrong about how he would try to evade her, and flew right by. Zenith, though, managed to force the issue, E-Wing facing off against TIE Advanced.
Changing direction again, the wing commander closed range with the Imperial fighters, and took a shot at A7. The triple blaster cannons cut through the TIE Advanced's already-weakened shields, and the fighter went up in a fireball.
Istara closed on the Imperial that had evaded her, and there was no evading her fire at this range. A6 was destroyed as well.
Wrapped up in a dogfight, Zenith outmanuevered the Imperial and found her opening, and fired. She didn't get quite as clean of a shot as Istara or the wing commander, so the TIE was still flying. It was badly damaged, though.
E4 and E5 both hit A8, closing in behind the fighter, but by some miracle it was still in functional. Its shields were barely there, panels blown off, and gas was leaking out of the fighter, but it pressed on.
E6 closed behind A9, and left the Imperial in little better shape than the fighter E4 and E5 had ganged up on.
A10 managed to avoid E7's fire, quickly spinning his fighter our of the way (used Vehicular combat to negate a hit that barely hit).
A11 avoided E8's shot much like A10 did, but unlike A10, the Imperial had to face E9's fire as well. She didn't miss.
P2 and P3's blaster gunners took shots at the Imperials at extreme range, but they were too far away to have much accuracy, and they didn't.
Next up: (stations are only suggestions)
Rosa/P-Wing proton missiles as a fighter group
Storm/Taelros' proton missiles (will need to delay for the frigate to be in long range)
Wes/Taelros' turbolasers (A8 is in medium turbolaser range, A9-A11 are in long turbolaser range)
damage tracker
A5 destroyed
A6 28 HP, SR 10
A7 destroyed
A8 3 HP, SR 5, -1 on the condition track
A9 19 HP, SR 10, -1 on the condition track
A10 42 HP, SR 15, -1 on the condition track
A11 48 HP, SR 15, -1 on the condition track
Sgt. Colton, you have the turrets. Storm relegates the command of the cannons to his best shooter. He waits for the frigate to move into range and issues last orders for his crew. Station two, synchronize your targeting computer to mine. Stations three and four, fire at will. Then he waits patiently untill he has lock on, and fires...
OOC
I'm going to divide them up to the way we discussed in the OOC. Storm will fire with one aid, and two of the stations will fire separetely. And all have standing orders to use the two aim actions.
"Yes sir, Ell Tee," says Colton once Lt. Storm turns the turbolaser batteries over to him. "You heard the boss, follow my lead gents."
"Three, Four, and Five, drop suppressive fire on the leeward edge of the fighter wings," orders Colton. "Two, tie into my system, we're firing on the nearest wing." After a slight pause, Colton adds, "Remember, slow is accurate, accurate is effective, and effective is fast. Take your time."
OOC
Wes is aiding another, by tying in with the second battery and firing on A8, while the third, fourth, and fifth are firing, respectively, on A9, A10, and A11 with suppressive fire, pg. 151
The three extreme-range proton missiles from the P-Wings were less accurate this time, failing in their first pass at the Imperial frigate.
The Imperial frigate fired as soon as it reached extreme missile range, but the two-missile battery didn't have much accuracy at that range.
Three of the four missiles fired in response were just as inaccurate. The fourth, though, slipped by the frigates missile defesne and struck just about perfectly (critical hit, though the damage roll was low).
Wes directed Taelros' turbolasers at the Imperial fighters, but he knew quite well that he was just trying to distract them; firing at a starfighter at long range was an almost impossible task, and he did not accomplish it.
damage tracker
A1-A5, A7, A12 destroyed
A6 28 HP, SR 10
A8 3 HP, SR 5, -1 on the condition track
A9 19 HP, SR 10, -1 on the condition track
A10 42 HP, SR 15, -1 on the condition track
A11 48 HP, SR 15, -1 on the condition track
Zenith grins as her target jinks around, trying to shake her off its tail. Once she was done with this, she could jet after the others and help polish off whatever had gotten by before the bombers could take damage.
If he'd just hold still for a second so she could get him in her sights...
(The map shows E3 dogfighting A6, but you also posted that A6 was destroyed, and that it was Zenith engaged in the dogfight (Istara E3). If Istara isn't in a dog fight, she'll move to 9S and attack Tie A8.
Standard Action: +12(PBS), (6d6+3)x2 damage
Otherwise she'll take the dogfight action and attack the opponent if she is already engaged in a dog fight.)
OOC: At some point I mixed up Istara and Zenith. But Zenith is a dogfight, and Istara isn't.
No updates tonight. Between my tabletop D&D game, and coming home to find my Orange were in a six-overtime game with UConn that was still going on when I got back....
Imperial Fighters - 23
Lt. Gellian (E1) - 21
Zenith (E3) - 19
Istara (E2) - 17
Other fighters (E4-E9) - 16
*Bombers (P1-P3) - 10
Imperial Frigate - 6
Taelros (including Rosa, Storm, Wes, and Sarcia) - (delayed to go after Imperials)
A6's piloting would have been good enough to break out of the dogfight against many pilots. Zenith's Force-aided reflexes, though, were enough to keep the Imperial fighter from joining its fellows.
The remaining four Imperial fighters concentrated their fire on P3, one missing wildly and one missing due to range more than anything, but two barrages of laser fire hit the toughest fighter craft in the Republic's fleet. P3's shields were seriously weakened, but it looked like the bomber only took minor damage.
The wing commander slipped his E-Wing behind A9, and then his blaster turned the TIE Advanced into a useless ball of wreckage.
Zenith found the tiniest of openings as she continued the dogfight, and let her blasters fire. And then A6 was no more.
OOC: Shalimar - Although A8 moved, you could still get in PBS range, so I'm having Istara do that anyway unless you object.
Istara followed in pursuit of a severely damaged Imperial fighter. At point blank range, it wasn't surprising that she hit it. Or that it was a pretty severe case of overkill.
The rest of Taelros' fighter wing converged on the remaining pair of TIEs, three targeting each. E4, perhaps becoming overconfident, missed. E5 and E6 did not, and A10 joined its fellows. E7, E8, and E9 made no such mistakes with the last Imperial fighter; all three hit, and the Imperial fighter wing was finished.
"Something doesn't feel right about this." Captain Cyn said. "It's been a long time since we could count on Imperials being stupid or overconfident enough to screw up badly by the numbers. And it looks like whoever's in charge over there just sacrificed his entire fighter wing to lightly damage one E-Wing and one P-Wing."
Still flush from her one-on-one dogfight with a skilled pilot, Zenith kicks her E-wing forward to join the rest of the fighter wing. Without really thinking about what she's saying, she says the first thing to come to mind.
"Its possible...the imps aren't known for excessive intelligence." Istara agreed, but not as if she actually believed what she was saying. Holding position so that her fighter didn't stray into range of the Nebulon's main guns, the Pilot reached out with the force, trying to get a sense of why she was so uneasy about this.
OOC: Just as a note, Istara won't search her feelings until the next round; the critical decision right now is whether you want to press the attack against the now-unescorted frigate or not.
The second run of the missiles the bombers fired seconds ago just missed the Imperial frigate, and detonated harmlessly. The bombers continued to close (move to column P on the map), and fired another volley of missiles, unfortunately not equaling their first shot (rolled a 5).
The second pass of the Imperial's missiles fared no better, and the next pair of missiles it launched didn't really come close to Taelros. Its turbolasers took a shot at Zenith's fighter, but between the range and the difficulty of hitting starfighters with the main batteries of capital ship weapons, none of the shots really came close.
Linear Mode
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