Red Dawn

Gatac 2006-12-22 20:50:11
So many targets...so little time...

Mandall unclips one of the newly acquired detpacks, then creeps towards the hatch, carefully opens it and attaches the detpack to the wall.

Front Toward Enemy

He continues the process until he runs out of detpacks or is spotted, at which point it's high time to beat it and get out of blast range.
Admiral Duck Sauce 2006-12-27 16:07:32
Mandall sets the first charge - it attaches via maglock to the deck with a faint click. He's got a bag full of spares, though, and one charge probably won't take out the entire room. Mandall slinks down out of the access hatch and flattens up against a console bank. The roaming guard moves out of sight and Mandall clicks a second charge up under an overhang. It all goes bantha-shaped then.

Mandall glances left and sees himself on one of the holo-displays. SECTOR 35.7.90: SECURITY NEXUS. The seated guards, Human and Trandoshan, crane their heads around to lock eyes with the Rebel saboteur. A blast-bolt craters the wall next to Mandall, sent downrange by the roaming Twi'lek guard. Mandall's 6 meters from his escape hatch, with the Twi'lek between him and freedom. The detonator's warm in his left hand, his blaster cold in his right. The two charges should render the security room inoperable, even if they don't completely vaporize the contents like in the armory.
Gatac 2006-12-27 16:28:39
Sithspit!

Mandall spins into action, sending a blaster bolt at the Twi'lek, then runs towards the escape hatch, single-mindedly set on diving back through the hatch. Although he's not the acrobatic type, the cramped quarters don't really leave him with any choice but to get fancy on this one, so he aims for one of the consoles and jumps it, hoping that every zig and zag will make him harder to hit.
Admiral Duck Sauce 2006-12-27 17:11:57
Mandall shoots as he rolls over a console, blast bolts whipping by. The console explodes as he hits the deck behind it but he's already up, past the Twi'lek and diving for the hatch. He thumbs the detonator and a giant invisible hammer slams Mandall a meter more down the hatch. It's only then that he realizes one of the guards tagged him... or maybe shrapnel from the explosion... or a piece of exploding console. It's hard to tell, but it's hardly a graze in either case.

(1 shock, you lucky bastard)
Gatac 2006-12-27 17:29:14
Like a good little tunnel rat, Mandall decides that it's high time to head for the light. He scrambles off towards the hangar, intent on getting to orbit ASAP.
fanchergw 2006-12-30 00:09:10
The elevator entry is tricky, but Calsera was being careful. Still, Mazof manages to get a hand on her blaster! With her free hand, she goes for his eyes with her claws while using her natural agility to stay out of the firing arc of the pistol.

[Damn. Missed this.]
Admiral Duck Sauce 2007-01-05 20:30:30
Mazof and Calsera wrestle back and forth in the cramped turbolift as the rest of their team reconvenes at Mazof's yacht. With Murdoch leading the way, the Hutt's guards either fall like wheat or give the group a wide berth.

BLAM! Mazof manages to score a hit, and Calsera doubles over as she smells her own burning flesh. (6 Shock) Mazof pushes her against Grannick's gurney, ready to fire the kill-shot, but Cat plunges her claws into the turbolift's lighting strip. A shower of sparks, then darkness - darkness that Calsera's natural night vision instantly adjusts to.

A grunt, a scream cut short, and the doors open up on the hangar level. Calsera painfully staggers her way out of the lift, Grannick in tow. Mazof lies dead in the lift, four ragged slashes across his throat.

---

Mazof's yacht bares its secrets to Ty and Aurelia, a task made even easier by Mazof's command wand. Grannick is stowed safely aboard the yacht's fully-stocked medical ward, and Ganet makes ready to blast off. The escort pilots make for their fighters as Ty activates the Dragon's rewired droid circuits.

*No meatbags detected. Weapons are offline. No... no weapon access found. Oh, I'm supposed to fly vessel, designated "Dragon". Very amusing.*

Ty ignores the former gunnery brain's lip and forces the bulk freighter into an unauthorized takeoff. Gantries twist and shatter as the Dragon lifts into the Nar Shaddaa nightscape, its Hapian escort fighters (and one X-Wing) right behind it.

*Attention Dragon. You are NOT authorized to launch! Please touch down in pit six-niner, repeat, touch down in hangar pit six-niner.*

The calls are ignored. Ty loops the Dragon up and around, building up speed for its death-dive into Naga's spire. Mandall spots incoming blips as airspeeders and snubfighters fast-launch from Naga's hangars. Braxis Dane's gravelly voice rasps over the comms:

*I've had enough of your games, Hapan scum. Pirate, Rebel, Imperial, no matter... I'll see you dead!*

Three of Braxis' Y-Wings are forming up for an attack run on the Dragon. As for Braxis himself, a Skipray Blastboat with his mercenary fleet's markings jets upward from a nearby hangar pit. He's escorted by two Cloakshapes.
Gatac 2007-01-05 22:06:44
Well, I am flying our best fighter...

"This is Dragon Wing, I'm going after Braxis."

He twists the X-Wing into an attack run, aiming straight for the Blastboat. Frak the Cloakshapes - he's dealt with them before, and if they're smart they'll bug off once he kills their boss. He switches to an open comm channel.

"Attention Nar Shaddaa. As of this moment, there are roughly 40,000 deadweight tons of starship headed for Naga the Hutt's spire at full throttle. If your live has lost its meaning, by all means enjoy the view. If you endavour to tell your family about the day the thunder came down from the heavens, I advise you to clear the frak out and get as far away from the slug's little empire as you can."
fanchergw 2007-01-09 18:51:52
The tussle over the blaster turns frantic for Calsera as she realizes that Mazof has the edge in mass and strength. If this continues too long, she'll end up on the losing end.

Sure enough, a shot creases her side. A wave of pain sweeps through her body as her knees try to buckle on her. Fortunately, it wasn't a killshot and she's too stubborn to lose this way. Spotting the lightbar, she kills the lights to regain the advantage.

Before Mazof can adjust, Calsera severs his vocal cords and watches him flop to the deck in a spray of blood.

Stumbling out of the turbolift almost blinded by pain and the receeding adrenaline, Calsera grabs the arm of the first teammate she encounters and pulls herself erect. "Here's Grannnick. Mazof didn't make it. Where's the med bay on this tug?"


Some time later, Calsera emerges from the med bay looking almost as good as new - except for the bandages. Hearing the plans the group has made for Naga brings a smile to her face.

"Guess I better mount up, eh? Is the V-wing operable or do I need to take one of the others?" She dons her flight suit, which has the benefit of covering her bandages and heads down to the flight deck.

The launch signal is given and Calsera guns her fighter out of the bay. It's not long before Braxis decides to see them off. Mandall calls dibs on Braxis himself, so that leaves the Y-wings for her.

"Have fun, Mandall. I've got the Y's." First she'll disrupt their attack run; then she'll pick them off one by one.
Admiral Duck Sauce 2007-01-11 19:20:11
Mandall's all over Braxis like stink on a bantha. His X-Wing pulls tight into a parabolic arc, spitting fire at the Skipray. A fusillade of bolts punches through the Blastboat's dorsal deflectors, touching off power coils. A trail of flame spurts from the strike craft, but it maintains course.

*Your bark's worse than your bite. Let's see if you can go 10 rounds.*

Behind them, Calsera proves her kitten's got claws. She puts two blasts into the right engine pod of the lead Y-Wing. It fragments and flies off into a starscraper, raining debris across the skyway. Miraculously, the bomber keeps enough control to avoid a fatal crash, but there's no way it's firing its torpedoes. Its two wingmen, however, are clear to fire and launch the blue-tailed torpedoes from their pods. One misses as he jinks to avoid his wingleader's engine pod, and the errant torpedo detonates a passenger ferry. The other torpedo hits the Dragon amidships, knocking the deflectors offline - permanently - but dealing no serious damage to the big freighter.

Ty's one second behind Cat, firing his Hapan fighter's autoblasters at the Y-Wings. He tries too much too fast, however, and Braxis' ex-Imperial pilots are too skilled to stay in a straight line following an attack run. They break and jockey for position, zipping around a nearby spire.

Braxis' Cloakshapes have seen footage of what happens when outdated fighters go up against modern Alliance snubfighters, but they stay true to their flight leader and fire up at Mandall as he sails over the Blastboat. No hits.

Murdoch keeps the chromed Nubian beauty well out of the fight, admiring the firey detonations caused by the exploding ordnance.

Ganet's free from interference, and lined up the Hapan bomber for a long-range shot on the spire AA guns. He gets good tone, holds his breath, and squeezes the trigger. His missiles dart out from the bomber, then streak towards the spire. The point-defense guns flicker to life, spitting ruby bolts at the missiles, but Ganet's aim was true! One of the three AA guns pirouettes off the spire in a shower of shattered steel!

Braxis must have control over the Skipray's turret guns, because that cannon fire was close. Mandall twists his X-Wing into a roll and the blasts follow the fighter, lighting up a trail of explosions across a building's facade. Braxis' gunner looses a torpedo at the Dragon - it's an easy target, and the warhead shears 10 meters of hull plating off the bow. Secondary explosions ripple through the bulk freighter, spraying burning debris like parade confetti across the bystanders hundreds of meters below.

The spire turbolasers don't even snap off shots; they've got bigger problems.
fanchergw 2007-01-12 04:02:50
"Whoo-hoo!" Cat exults as she shears the engine off the lead Y-wing. Unfortunately, Ty misses the others and they get shots off at the freighter. One takes down the shields, which leaves it open to a torpedo from Braxis that chews a chunk out of their giant missile.

With two Y-wings still active and Ty not having much luck, Calsera stays after them. At the very least, she intends to make it very hard for them to get off a decent shot again. The Dragon must get through.
e of pi 2007-01-12 04:53:32
Ty does his best, but between watching Calsera's back and driving the Dragon's course, he misses every shot. "Damn," he mutters, then pulls around as the Y-wings veer behind a tower for cover. Switching to the Dragon's controls, he pulls the other doid brain into activity, and sets it up with the Dragon's guns. Instructing the turret to shoot at the Y-wings as they come back around, he pulls his fighter back, into the Dragon's wake, protected from some of the battle.
Admiral Duck Sauce 2007-01-18 17:02:31
*All wings, concentrate your fire on that freighter's engines!*

Braxis follows up his orders with another torpedo. His gunner locks on, looses the warhead, and stares wide-eyed as the bulk freighter veers from its programmed course, rolling right to avoid the torpedo! Ty smirks, his face greenlit by every console in his fighter as he runs five protocols at once.

Braxis' turret guns continue to chase Mandall around the dogfight, but this is what Mandall lives for. He's the matador taunting the bull. The hotshot tries for one of the Y-Wings, but the merc wingleader keeps Mandall's shots from hitting home.

Simultaneously, Calsera uses Mandall's missed shots to bracket the same bomber. He jinks right into her stream of laser bolts and ignites, sailing clear over the Dragon before finally exploding.

MDK-911 makes good time away from the battle. It's child's play to blend in with the chaos of all the other fleeing ships.

One of the Cloakshapes sees Ganet take out one of the spire guns and swoops in behind the Hapan bomber. The aged fighter's autoblasters rake Ganet's craft. His deflectors buckle but hold.
(half shields)

The other Cloak tries for Cat, slayer of bombers. Calsera jinks behind a starscraper in the nick of time! The rockcrete and glass take the blast-bolts instead of her tiny fighter's engines. (both tied with 8s, defender wins)

As the Cloakshapes make their strafing runs, Ty fires up the Dragon's turrets, spitting ruby death at the 2 remaining Y-Wings. The first bomber makes it out of the fusillade unscathed, but his wingman is too slow. The Y's deflectors fold under the impacts and the ship loses power for a split-second before regaining its course.

Ganet snap-fires a torpedo at the spire's AA guns once more - this time the warhead sails wide. He makes up for his haste by putting down the Y-Wing Ty wounded - the flaming bomber pirouettes into a building and explodes, but not before it and its wingleader fire their own torpedo salvo!

The warheads streak towards the Dragon as Ty fights with the controls. The freighter's a skyborne pig, but he deftly maneuvers above the first warhead. The second torpedo actually skips off the port flank without detonating. That was close, Ty thinks.

The AA turbolasers hit. The Dragon's cargo bay blossoms open, flame and smoke pouring from the interior. Ty glances at the freighter's schematics and sees heavy superstructural damage. Naga's spire still seems so far away...
Admiral Duck Sauce 2007-01-19 19:34:38
Braxis lines up, keeping Mandall at bay with the constant turret fire. He's got the Dragon in his sights...

BOOM! Murdoch's chrome yacht comes in high and tight, raking the Skipray with its laser cannons! Braxis' ride shudders under the impacts, fire and smoke trailing behind its engines. Braxis rides out the damage and spits green fire back at Murdoch's vessel. The beautiful Nubian fuselage chars and buckles. Braxis' lasers punch straight through the port side, leaving ugly wounds in the swanlike yacht. The yacht's paltry shields hardly stop the blasts at all.

To top it off Braxis' torpedo gunner still manages to fire a torpedo at the Dragon - but he was harried by MDK's fire! The torp comes close once again, but impacts a building just shy of the freighter's tail.

Mandall uses MDK's distraction to come in behind the Skipray. They play cat and mouse for a second, zipping under an overpass, then Mandall fires - it's only grazing hits as Naga's wingleader pulls up to avoid the brunt of Mandall's attack.

Meanwhile, Calsera and the Cloakshapes are engages in their own private war. Cat deftly spirals out of one fighter's path, but the second one clips her V-Wing astern. Her deflectors save her craft even as they flicker and die. Her return fire is ineffective, and the felinoid curses as she rolls around for another strafing run.

Ganet's free from incoming fire for a moment, and he uses his opportunity to hit the spire guns. Another turbolaser flares and disappears, its crew tossed about like Jawas before a Rancor. Only one turbolaser remains.

Ty's sweating now. He's dodged every warhead with the massive freighter, and turns the Dragon's turrets on the last Y-Wing. The bomber's pilot sees it coming, however, and drops low under the guns' arc. He's not going for the freighter, Ty realizes. He yanks the yoke back, trying to jink his Hapan fighter out of way, but it's too late. The Y-Wing's cannons rip the starboard wing clear off the little pirate fighter. Ty loses control for a second as the maimed snubfighter falls into low-flying speeder traffic. It's just like his smuggling runs through Naboo's core, and his years of experience dodging close traffic keep him alive. His fighter's shields are still powered, though failing - the Y-Wing must have overloaded them but didn't kill the generator.

The problem is that now nobody's concentrating on flying the Dragon. The remaining AA gun strafes the freighter once again, this time shearing off the vessel's dorsal supports. One of the droid brains screams and goes dead - the Dragon's guns are offline.
Admiral Duck Sauce 2007-01-22 16:55:57
Mandall opens his throttle wide as he hears the comm traffic from Ty, MDK, and Calsera. His engines cast a pink glow off nearby buildings as he takes his X-Wing vertical. Braxis' assault craft can't match Mandall's delta-v, and soon enough Mandall loops over and comes down out of the sky, raking Braxis with his quad lasers.

There is no escape. (Jumping is useless)

Explosions blossom off the Skipray, shaking stabilizers and superstructure off like a wet nexu shakes off water. The Blastboat is still flying, but not for much longer.

Murdoch figures he's done enough for today, and takes the stricken yacht higher, out of the fight. Everyone has far too much to handle to even consider chasing him.

Ganet buzzes the tower, point-blanking it with a torpedo. The last turbolaser - and 10 meters of the spire - disintegrate in his wake. Inside, courtesans, gangsters, thugs, pimps, and their vice-ridden customers are thrown to the ground by the impacts. Naga himself, incensed by the constant interruption, slides his bulk from the conference table. Over fifteen dons, capos, and Hutts watch as the furious gangster sleds to the large shuttered windows and keys them open. The shields flicker transparent to reveal a flaming Action IV freighter barrelling right for the conference room.

The chaos in Naga's summit finally matches that outside.

The Y-Wing pilot figured that Hapan fighter was done for. Nobody survives an unpowered trip into Nar Shaddaa traffic. The bomber makes a lazy arc and comes in behind the Dragon. He's taking his time - if he misses, the party's over. He gets good tone... oh wait, that's not my tone, the pilot thinks. Somebody's got me locked!

Ty powers up out of the traffic and splits the Y-Wing in half with his guns.

Cat zigs and zags, the Cloakshapes' laser bursts trailing her across starscraper facades. She flies low under a airtram, then rolls right and flies between two landing bulk freighters. The Cloaks take the long way around, and then Calsera's got them. Her lasers wink red, spitting bolts into one of the Cloakshapes. It shudders, then shatters, debris raining down across the hangar pits. Cat's shots barely miss the second fighter, which heads skyward, bugging out.

Braxis shoves his dead gunner into the flames pouring from the copilot console. The corpse smothers the fire temporarily. How could this have happened?! Every one of his men was trained by the Empire! Some unwashed Bantha-smelling nerfherding pirates routed his pilots! He can't run; the Skipray wasn't built for that, and on one engine he wouldn't get far anyhow. He can't kill the freighter; the torps were gone, and Braxis wasn't the kind of man who would kamikaze.

Oh well, there's always the 'go down in a hail of laser fire' option, he thinks. Braxis opens fire on Mandall. The green bolts miss, miss, miss miss - hit! Mandall doesn't need to glance at his readouts to know it's not bad.
Gatac 2007-01-22 20:00:55
Mandall brings his X-Wing around for another, final pass and keys the comms.

"My turn."
fanchergw 2007-01-22 20:47:44
Calsera turns away from the flaming bits of the Cloakshape she just carved up. Seeing Braxis still flying, she peels off in that direction.

Mandall comes over the airwaves, claiming the kill. Cat decides to give him his shot, but if he doesn't put Dane like the mad dog he is, she'll finish the job.
Admiral Duck Sauce 2007-01-24 17:28:35
Braxis' suppressive fire flashes past Mandall's X-Wing as he trades blasts with the Skipray. Calsera trades partners with Ty and heads off after Dane's Blastboat, while Ty boosts upwards after the fleeing Cloakshape. Ty's shots keep the Hutt fighter on the run but don't bring it down.

Braxis sees Calsera dive in and spins underneath the flaming Dragon, arcing left around Naga's doomed fortress-spire. Calsera Immelmans and comes round to face Dane head-on! Green laser fire slams into Cat's V-Wing as the two combatants dart past each other. The tiny fighter's still kicking, but it's designed to avoid shots, not soak them up.

Ganet puts another torpedo into the spire for good measure, this time targeting the top level airspeeder hangars. A particularly nice Sorosuub limo (among others) falls flaming into the Vertical City's depths.

It's two on one now, and Braxis' ship can't get away. Mandall gets a shot and he takes it. The X-Wing's cannons blaze away, punishing the Skipray. He comes in behind Braxis' smoke trail and puts a quad-burst into his engines.

*See you in hell, you pirate motherf-*

The Blastboat's bulbous aft novas, sending supersonic shrapnel across a city block. There was no ejection.

Almost as an afterthought, Ty centers his shots and sends the last Cloakshape down to the streets in a long parabolic arc.

---

It's ironic that Naga and his criminal allies and underlings actually try to run from the massive freighter. The best among them, Naga's Abyssin bodyguard, clears 5 meters in a single leap. The feral killer's actually in mid-air when the Dragon impacts the fortress-spire. The building gives just a hair, shedding armor-plated shutters, aerials, and glass like leaves. The spire bends too far, then, amidst a cacophony of screaming metal and grinding superstructure, it breaks. The massive building inexorably starts to topple. The Dragon's half-buried itself in the structure before its reactor goes. When it does, it cuts the spire in half with nuclear flame. High above, MDK sees the explosion from orbit and sees a ring of what looks like gray fog spray out from the center of the blast - shattered glass, fragments from the explosion, and smaller airspeeders and bystanders who were caught in the shockwave.

Naga's surviving rats flee their sunk ship along with every space-capable vessel within 2 kilometers. There are mid-air collisions, spontaneous dogfights, and mass hysteria. The Vandals arc up out of Nar Shaddaa's orbit and set course for the Sword of Alderaan. Tol Grannick's safely aboard the Nubian yacht, the squadron's bloodied but unharmed, and Naga's criminal empire lies in burning ruins.