Seeing that the Vandals are blowing the taco stand, Mandall prepares to jump. Still, his wounded pride doesn't let him leave without one more comm broadcast.
"Next time we meet, I won't just be advanced target practice for you. I suggest you take a look around and reevaluate your loyalty to the Empire before I show you what I do to Imps when I'm pissed."
Calsera grins evilly as the AA fire suddenly stops. Bearing down, she rakes the arrogant imperials Intercepter with laser death. "While the claws are dangerous, you also have to watch out for the teeth," she crows, flying though the dust that had so recently been the TIE.
Seeing more TIEs warming around Mandall and Arnae, Calsera changes course to help them out. "Don't worry, boys, the Cat is coming to the rescue." Since the Dagger is the slower of the two, Cat focusses on it's pursuers first.
Suddenly, Cat notices that Mandall's shields are down and changes direction to aid him first. Seeing as she's best able to continue the fight at this point, Calsera plans to be the last one out, doing her best to make leaving easier for everyone else in the meantime.
Jorm and Dutch jump out, followed by the Dagger, then Ganet and Eritram coax their wounded B-Wing into hyperspace. Calsera downs a TIE tailing Mandall; he dusts one of his own as the Imperials scatter, the A-Wing darting through their formation.
Mandall and Calsera watch the carrier begin its unpowered and inexorable journey towards the small moon's surface, then they jump to lightspeed as well.
---
Once again, Anteevy looms in the Vandals' viewscreens. A little more battered, a little later, but Vandal Squadron leaves the void for the cold, turbulent winds of the ice planet, searching for Orimusho's platoon. They fly over a jagged canyon, its bare rock walls slick and gleaming with ice. Suddenly, their homing transponder switches to Rebel frequencies.
*sssshkkk Shady Dewback to Vandal Leader, fzzzzzkk in, over. We have shk squeee our scopes, over.*
The transponder leads the Lambdas to a large cavern, carved out of the rock by what was once a river. The icy shelf gives ample cover from the sky, not that anyone would want to fly for too long in these winds. Anteevy's atmosphere is a frozen blender of ice particles - this rock is not going to be surveyed by the Empire any time soon.
The winds howl but subside as the shuttles hover slowly into the cavern. Orimusho's comm reception improves remarkably. *Just set 'em down there. A little to your right... good.*
Outside, there's the faintest of whirrrs and a humanoid dressed in cold weather gear and camouflage poncho drops right onto Dutch's windscreen. A small rappelling line, presumably attached to the cavern ceiling, suspends the commando in front of the shuttle's bridge. On closer inspection, it's not a man at all, but a Duros, grinning with his toothless mouth. He holds his commlink and shouts over the wind.
"'Bout time you jokers showed up! Whadd'ya do, make these things yourself?"
Jorm doesn't get the Duros Surprise (TM), but he does see what he thought were snowdrifts shift and move, revealing what must be Orimusho's platoon. One of them gives the ice cavern two exuberant middle fingers as the shuttles touch down on hard-packed rock and snow.
Quote: from admiralducksauce on 11:17 pm on Dec. 13, 2005
"'Bout time you jokers showed up! Whadd'ya do, make these things yourself?"
Jorm doesn't get the Duros Surprise (TM), but he does see what he thought were snowdrifts shift and move, revealing what must be Orimusho's platoon. One of them gives the ice cavern two exuberant middle fingers as the shuttles touch down on hard-packed rock and snow.
Dutch grins at Orimusho's dramatic entrance.
"Nah, we just thought they needed a new coat of paint and an oil change. You know the Empire these days, they have to cut corners wherever then can to save credits. That and the fact you can't exactly walk down to the local starport and order up two Lambda Shuttles with Imperial markings. I can tell you, we're glad to get rid of these things."
Cat watches as the carrier begins it's descent toward the harsh, unforgiving surface of the nameless moon. It warms her heart to know that they've blackened the Empire's eye a little bit today.
Approaching Anteevy, Calsera flies high cover as the others move in to land. Only when they are all safely on the ground in the ice cavern will she join them.
The Dagger is the third to land, under a shelf not too far from the cavern's entrance.
Groundside, Dutch and Jorm make way for the Rebels. A general air of relief fills the shuttles. As Dutch and Jorm begin to head towards Arnae and Aurelia's ship, they see why Orimusho's boys were so relieved. It is cold on Anteevy.
Quote: from admiralducksauce on 4:12 pm on Dec. 14, 2005
The Dagger is the third to land, under a shelf not too far from the cavern's entrance.
Groundside, Dutch and Jorm make way for the Rebels. A general air of relief fills the shuttles. As Dutch and Jorm begin to head towards Arnae and Aurelia's ship, they see why Orimusho's boys were so relieved. It is cold on Anteevy.
Dutch zips his flight suit all the way up, holding his arms in close to keep the heat in.
"You know, I think I -am- too old for this Bantha Poodoo."
Quote: from admiralducksauce on 4:12 pm on Dec. 14, 2005
The Dagger is the third to land, under a shelf not too far from the cavern's entrance.
Groundside, Dutch and Jorm make way for the Rebels. A general air of relief fills the shuttles. As Dutch and Jorm begin to head towards Arnae and Aurelia's ship, they see why Orimusho's boys were so relieved. It is cold on Anteevy.
Dutch zips his flight suit all the way up, holding his arms in close to keep the heat in.
"You know, I think I -am- too old for this Bantha Poodoo."
Jorm shivers as he exits the shuttle. Fortunately, he still has his flight suit on and prepped for the cold of space.
"What was that, sir? I couldn't hear you because of the Wampas over there complaining about the cold. No wonder the Imperials haven't taken an interest in the base, all their equipment would freeze. Fortunately, our equipment is prepared for the cold and will quite easily catch on fire to produce warmth."
The shuttle handoff is free of undue complications and Dutch and Jorm hastily track their way into the Dagger's warm passageways. The B-Wing's repulsors are showing critical, so Ganet boosts higher, kicking in the ion engines. The bomber leaves a smoke trail behind it which quickly peters out as it heads spaceward.
The two Lambdas follow soon after, shedding frozen particulate as they break atmo.
*Shady Dewback to Vandals, thanks for the sweet rides. We'll bomb some AA guns for you when we get to Anoat. Keep those skies friendly.*
The smoke from the B-wings engines on takeoff causes a frown to crawl across Calsera's face. Fortunately, they are headed home and the mechanics are first-rate, particularly their own Aurelia.
"Good luck with your mission, Shady Dewback," Cat calls back to the commandos. "Give 'em hell." She wags her wings in an airman salute before punching the buttons for home.
Back on the Dagger Jorm takes a quick look over the ship's systems to make sure nothing needs his attention and checks the duty log to see if the Vandals have been officially assigned any missions yet.
Whatever I find, thinks Jorm as he goes through his checklist, I'm going spend the trip back to base catching up on shut eye and maybe talk to Aurelia about our special project.
(Aside from the understandable distress signal, you guys fly without any unnecessary transmissions. The duty log is confined to the Sword of Alderaan's systems only. No need for Imperials to intercept who's doing which mission and when)
The Dagger took a glancing hit during the firebase battle, but nothing got past its deflectors. It's a lot less tempermental than the fighters as well; it was built to go a lot of places without complaining, and having its creators on hand kept any problems that could arise from Anteevy's harsh conditions from occuring.
Jorm's settled down in the cramped but homey common area of the custom freighter.
(Cue "special project" talk if Ivan's around and about)
Jorm and Aurelia's lively but esoteric conversation filters through the freighter's corridors. The Alliance usually needs whatever scrap they can get to keep their ships flying; anything usable will likely have already been earmarked for something else, not that it would stop you from fast-talking your way to the parts. Another option would be to head out and scrounge for yourselves. The components would be cheap as free, but you don't know if Kolit's sending you right back out AGAIN or not. A third option... hit the private sector. Several of the Vandals weren't always Rebels (Aurelia included). The chances of the merchandise being up to snuff are better, but there's the drawback that less savory contacts might rear their heads over the transactions.
Elsewhere, Eritram is watching various subsystems aboard the B-Wing intermittently go dead and come back again. Mandall's running low on power as well - the hyperdrive sucks a lot of juice out of the diminutive TIE. It barely works at optimal levels, and now it's missing part of its solar array.
It's a tense ride back for some, for others it's the relief of knowing whatever the outcome, their job is finished... for now.
---
Sword of Alderaan
11th Wing returns to the inviting bay of the Quasar-Fire carrier. The Sith Eater is there, as well as Mixon's X-Wing, which is being towed to the repair bays by droids, Rebel techs looking at it in stupified awe at how he managed to bring it back at all. They do a double-take when Ganet babies the B-Wing into the hangar; with fresh oxygen to feed it, the engines begin to smoke and flame again until they're doused by the deck crew. The damage they're most incensed about, however, is Mandall's craft.
"Where are we going to get replacement parts for THIS?!" shouts the crew chief, his calm demeanor rapidly disintegrating. "What the hell did you people run into out there?!"
"Before you go giving me crap about this, I'd like to tell you that a) flying in a TIE gave me the window to make sure the Imps couldn't compromise the mission by warning their friends and b) I had half their guys following me while we did a fighting retreat. Fuck, there was a freaking carrier out there, and we crippled it."
That said, he attempts a smile.
"'sides, when was the last time I got hit? I'm so far in the plus on repair effort for my craft that I'm coming around on the other side."
Jorm's first thought as he disembarks from the Dagger is to check on the Sith Eater and make sure Dak hasn't ruined her.
**Let's see. Carbon scoring fore and aft. Probably laser blasts. Looks like some mirco- and macro-meteor damage to the outer hull. And of course the ever present smell of ozone from some shorted systems.Not too shabby, though.**
Jorm pauses in his inspection of the Sith Eater to listen to the chief's rant. "Mandall's correct, Chief. He and his TIE made a huge difference out there. Aurelia and I are probably going on a parts run shortly. We'll see what we can dig up."
Jorm leaves the flight deck to check the duty log and see how much time he and Aurelia will have to dig up parts.
"Hey, I know you're golden boy around here, but it's... you sure picked a bad time to take one for the team, sir. I look at that B-Wing and I see a night with no sleep, but I see it flying at the end. I look at that TIE and I see it sitting here for months. Months, because not only is that an Imperial fighter, it's a rare Imperial fighter... I see the A-Wing's fine, at least that's something..." The chief complains some more, but Mandall's already disengaged his attention from the conversation. Dutch is waving his pilots over. There's still a debriefing to attend before anyone sees a second of their own time. Unfortunately duty logs will have to wait.
---
It's hard to tell what Captain Kolit is thinking; Mon Calamari aren't the easiest species to read. Kolit takes in the Vandals' reports with stoic silence. The sterile talk of confirmed kills and mission time is a sharp contrast to the chaos those reports actually represent. Near the end, Kolit receives a private comm. He nods, finishing with "I'll tell them."
"We just received preliminary transmissions from Anoat. Orimusho and his team are on-site and beginning their operation. Job well done. Unfortunately, it comes at a heavy cost. 12th Wing will be going off active duty until reinforcements arrive. 11th and 8th Wings will have to pick up the slack, but that can wait. Vandals, you have 3 days' leave. The Sword of Alderaan will be jumping outsystem at 20:00 hours to avoid Imperial patrols following the engagement at the Danovir V firebase. Otherwise, your time is yours. Dismissed."
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