NEW ROLE PLAY - Mission at Hefi

[captain_brandei]

Setting: New Republic (6 months prior to Heir to the Empire)

 

Scenario: The New Republic has sent a small task force of ships on a diplomatic mission to the unaligned Hefi system. In addition to Hefi's moderatly-productive pure ore output, the system would be an important "keystone" system on the Outer Rim, giving the Republic a remote base for operations against holdout Imperial factions.

 

However, the Empire has already has its eye on the Hefi system; Republic advance scouts send back word of Imperial ship sightings in the area. Therefore, the Republic has detailed a small force of cpaital ships and starfighters to the diplomatic mission, with orders to secure the system, protect the diplomats, and prosecute-to-kill any Imperial resistance.

[captain_brandei]

Cadet Alex Brandei looked over his new station on board the Republic Assault Frigate Revolution and sighed. He'd been assigned to a turbolaser crew. NOBODY noticed you on a turbolaser crew.

 

Brandei had hoped things might be different; he'd heard the the New Republic heirarchy was less concerned than the Empire had been with family history and political connections. Evidently not; here he was, assigned to a station that, if he turned out to be an Imperial spy or sabateur, couldn't possibly harm the ship more than the loss of one of its many turbolaser batteries.

 

For Alex's father was Captain Brandei of the Imperial Navy, presumably still in service somewhere (nobody'd heard from him for years).

 

There had never been any doubt of Alex's furture plans while growing up; his family had a long and distinguished history of military service. He'd grown up hearing his father's stories of fleet service with the Empire, and Alex had never expected anything other than a life spent keeping the peace, enforcing order, and spreading the Empire's civilizing influence to every corner of the galaxy.

 

At least, not until Alderaan.

 

When the Emperor had allowed one of his Grand Moffs to destroy a heavily-populated system (not even making the decision himself!), Alex began to seriously question his future service. Then, the Emperor had solved the dilemma by getting himself killed at Endor. Alex had always planned to serve the galactic government, and the New Republic was the only government around; he was under no illusions as to the eventual defeat of the various Imperial holdout factions still operating.

 

He'd simply hoped that no one would notice his name. Evidently that had been asking too much. He sighed again. There was no career to be had from a gunner's station.

[Krytos]

OOC: I had planned on jumping into this after it had started, though seeing as no-one has gotten into this RPG (which sounds really good by the way ), I'll jump into the fray.

As it's Rebel/New Republic, I'll be using my Character named Karn Macen (details here).

 

IC: The Reckless Wonderer slowed down as it followed the diplomats ship. Karn's vessel hardly ever ran escort these days, infact he hardly ever did anything these days - so when New Republic High Command offered him a high paying job to escort diplomats, with the support of a Republic fleet, he pounced on the offer. It felt good to be behind the reins of his ship again, being in control of his crew and seeing all his old friends again in the same ship he had met them.

His thoughts stopped drifting as a tan female Bothan walked in front of him.

"Major, we're still in escort position of the Republic's Envoy II - though we've halted movement here until fleet makes sure there are no Imperials waiting for the us at the planet."

"Very well Captain Kre'nel," Kanr replied. After a short pause, he continued, though quieter. "Ahh, Biree - make sure we have all units at their post, I've got a bad feeling about this."

"Sir, you've always got a bad feeling when we're on a job."

"And all of our jobs have something that goes wrong when I have my bad feelings."

Biree smiled and began to walk off, "Yes sir, you are very bad luck."

Karn grinned as she left. They had been friends for a long time now, and they were use to insulting each other. Walking over to the front of the bridge, Karn stared out of the view port and waired for what ever came next . . .

[UlicHorn]

OCC: Just wondering if this story is planning on staying pre HTTE or if it would switch later. If not then I might alter the timeline a bit, just character wise, by introducing someone who shouldn't be here yet.

 

Ulic Horn's ship, a YT-2000 known as The Nova Dream, sat docked on board the New Republic frighter the Revolution. It's owner was high atop the ship with a hydrospanner attempting to replace a pannel and and not doing as well as he wished. He'd stopped using the hydrospanner properly and had started hitting the panel lose. On board were by chance his only crew, a LE droid nicknamed Levon, an astromech dubbed "Watts" and by chance a silver protocol droid that Ulic had one via a game a chance...

[captain_brandei]

OOC: I'm actually planning something free-form; let's see where everybody takes it, then go from there.

 

For now, let's assume the Rebublic task force is comprised of an MC-80 (somebody come up with the name of one that wasn't blown to shreds at Endor), the Assault frigates Revolution and Ardor, and a handful of Corvettes.

[captain_brandei]

OOC: We'll have the MC-80 be newly commissioned as the Alderaan, unless anybody objects.

 

IC: Cadet Brandei felt the ship deccelerate, and looked over at his gun crew's commander questioningly. The commander answered by saying "son, we learned a long time ago not to just go charging into any old system, especially one this far away from home. Sensors show an Imperial Assault Shuttle in orbit, with gunboat escorts."

 

"Oh. Should we power up, sir?"

 

"Hardly. Alderaan's launching fighters, and we have some, uh, other assets. Firing up these babys for transports would be like hunting womp rats with a Destroyer. We're just holding station until we figure out what's going on".[/i]

[captain_brandei]

OOC: Just from the initial looks of things, we'll need some Repulic commanders, a Republic diplomat, their Hefian opposite number, and some Imps willing to cause trouble to all jump in.

[UlicHorn]

OCC: I can command, I wont be happy about it but I've done enough since the Hoth days to have probably established a command. If you need Ill be in the docking bay, hammering my ship with something blunt.

[vodnik]

Cadet Vodnik followed his flight group out of the Alderaan's hanger and reviewed the mission, his first, in his head. Blue Group, his squadron of X-wings, would move in and engage the gunboats, while Alderaan moved in and attempted to lock tractors onto the transport before it got out of the planet's gravity well. So far, everything looked good; well, to a rookie, anyway. Green Group's A-wings were already looping around wide, ready to take out anybody who tried to hyperjump. If nobody did, the Imps would likely get a tase of the "A-wing slash", something he was REALLY looking forward to seeing. From everything he had read, the XG-1 was a tough little boat, but the A-wing was twice as fast, and that was that. Even better, sensor scans showed the Imps hadn't reacted to the Republic's presence yet.

 

Except, when he got within visual range, there was a definite problem; that was AWFULLY big for what he'd been told of an assault shuttle, and those couldn't be gunboats moving that fast, could it? On a whim, he switched his sensors away from Alderaan's downlink and tried his own, and got absolutely nothing.

 

"Uh, Blue leader, this is 4...somethin..."

 

"I see it, 4. Alderaan, this is Blue Leader. Targets were misidentified; say again, NOT transport craft. Visual indentification shows Imperial Strike Cruiser with TIE escort; interceptors, judging by speed."

 

"Blue Leader, this is Alderaan, we can't confirm; sensors maintain previous readings"

 

"Then have the techs clean the spice off the boards, damnit! I'm STARING at the thing. TIEs have us on visual and are engaging, I need those A-wings in here yesterday, and I strongly recommend we get one of those frigates up here, sir. Aw, hell, it looks like they're launching some bombers, too; I thought those things couldn't carry more than a squadron?".

 

As Vodnik evaded the incoming TIE fire (gods but those bastards're fast!), he heard the call go out over the Republic band for the Revolution to move up to support, and a call for something called "contract escort security" to provide point-defense for the capital ships.

[Phytho]

This was Rasors first command. He was the leader of a single squadron of X-Wings.

 

The call had just gone out for a "escort" to be provided for some of the capital ships so they could get closer to the planet and the imperial transport.

 

Rasor quickly orded all his pilots to there fighters where they launched and started flying in a defensive pattern around the Revolution.

[tchar]

The Epsilon Scout jumped in-system just in time to be met by a turbolaser bolt from the imperial ships in orbit around the planet. The bridge rocked and the controls became a mass of blurred lights as Arten fought to regain control of his damaged ship. Typical, he thought. Trust my luck to exit into the middle of a fully fledged battle. Quickly he pointed the wounded ship toward the planet. With a bit of luck the New Republic ships wouldn't notice him or his cargo with all the other action taking their attention...

[Krytos]

Karn watched as the mixture of escort units for the diplomats peeled away and accelerated towards the Imperial forces orbitting the planet. Scanners shwoed that currently the only ship still escorting the diplomats was his own frigate.

Karn crossed his arms and thought hard. A signle Strike cruiser attempting to hold off the Republic's fleet? Who ever is in charge is eithe crazy or . . . .

The idea entered Karn's mind so fast he almost forgot to react to it.

"Sensors, scan maximum range and keep an eye out for any hyperspace signitures - no matter how far away they are. Comm, I wont to speak to . . ." Karn's order was cut off as the officer at the sensor post yelled over him.

"Sir inbound ships! Multiple targets, at least 5, including a large vessel."

Karn sprinited across the small bridge to the senor station as the hyperspace signal grew. Within a few seconds live contacts were dotting the sensor screen with Imperial contacts.

Karn's heart missed a beat, and his stomach rose to his throat. Bearing down on the diplomat's vessel was an Imperial fleet headed by an ISD. Right now they were the only thing standing in the Imperial's way, and they wouldn't last long against that kind of firepower.

"Send out a distress signal to the fleet now! We need assistance ASAP."

 

The diplomat's vessel was already breaking off towards the Republic fleet, though the Imperials were launching fighters to slow it down. Fighteres, now my frigate can take on fighters with ease.

"Captain, get us infront of the Republic's Envoy and have weapons only target fighters. With any luck we can punch a hole through them and get away from the Imperial fleet before it gets within firing range."

With a lurch, the CC-5500's engines propelled it towards the Republic's Envoy II . Keeping an eye on the ship's sensors, Karn could see the Republic fleet breaking into two armada's to battle the two Imperial forces.

[Phytho]

A signal suddenly was broudcasted to all the pilots in Rasors Squadron. "Multiple contacs coming in from sector 12.34.56 squadron blue and red fly to intercept enemy fighters." Rasor quickly got his squadron together and headed for the quardinates. The closer Rasor got the battle the more worried he became. He called all his pilots to spreadout and work in pairs.

 

The first casualties came before eather side had fired a shot. A Tie pilot flew in a collision course with one of Rasors pilots and they both dodged and the Tie slammed into another X-Wing that was flying past.

 

After that the battle got very intence. Rasor knew that they could beat the fighters because they were backed by a frigate but the question was would he be one of the pilots to survive.

 

The X-Wings started fighting the Ties and the advantage of having the frigate was quickly apparant when a tie flew too close to the frigate it would seem to instantly explode. so far the battle was going well. Then Rasor noticed the ISD just coming into firing range of the fighters skirmish.

[Krytos]

Tne Reckless Wonderer shuddered as a TIE Interceptor crashed into its shields. Karn ignored the impact and focused on his sensor screen. It would still be a while before any Republic capitals could assist them, and now an ISD had entered the fray. The rest of the Imperial fleet began positioning themselves for impending fight against other capitals.

To make matters worse, more TIEs were heading towards the battle, and the ISD began to position itself.

"Interesting, the Star Destroyer isn't chasing or firing on us. It looks like we were able to manouvre out of their way just in time," Captain Kre'nel said in her usual flat tone.

"Yeah, though we've got half a wing of incoming bombers - and there's only a squadron headed for us. We need more cover or the only way the diplomats are going to see the planet is if they burn up in its atmosphere."

Karn continued to watch the battle unfold. "Move the frigate into the middle of the battle and get the attention of those Imperial fighters. Order the Republic fightes to intercept those bombers."

Soon, all of the 200 metre long frigate's weapons were blazing away at the swarm of TIEs. Only a single squadron of X-Wings were able to break off their current engagment and head off to engage the bombers.

"Blast, we need re-enforcements!"

[UlicHorn]

A Corellian YT-2000 shot from the docking bay of the Republic's Envoy and flew straight into the fray. "Mind if I join the party?" said the pilot Ulic Horn. Severel bolts peppered space from the quad cannons as the pilot took shots at the fighters.

[captain_brandei]

Alex had a problem. As the Revolution accelerated to engage the Strike cruiser in close orbit, he peered at his sensors, still trying to get his gun commander accurate readings. His sensors still showed the cruiser as an assault shuttle, and Revolution's turbolasers, like so many in the Republic fleet, were still civil war vintage; they couldn't accurately taget something as small as a shuttle with any sort of accuracy until it was close, and no way was the ship getting that close to another capital ship.

 

As soon as he heard the report of the ISD dropping out of hyperspace, he, on a hunch, focused his scan on it. It showed as an ISD for about 5 seconds, before his screen blanked momentarily, then reappeared on his sensors as another assault shuttle.

 

What was it his father had said that one time...?

 

He turned to his gun commander and said "Sir, switch to manual targeting; they're messing with our sensors". Not waiting to get an acknowledgement from his superior, he toggled his communicator to the Gunnery commander's channel.

 

"Sir, the Imperials are using a new type of jammer on us, and they're doing it from a pretty good distance. Please get the word out to the fleet that they're going to have to target manually, or we won't be able to hit anything until we get too close for safety"

 

"What jamming? We're not showing ANY sort of emissions from any of the Imperial ships."

 

"That's because it's precise enough to target INDIVIDUAL sensors; check with the bridge, and I bet they'll tell you half their sensors read correctly, the other half are wrong. I'm betting they're concentrating on the gunners to try to get us in close."

 

"You have any data on that, Cadet?" Alex didn't miss the extra emphasis placed on his rank.

 

"No sir, I don't, but unless you move smartly, we're not going to last long enough to collect any, are we?" Dad was the fleet politician; Alex was a lot more concerned about surviving this mission.

[Krytos]

IC: Karn almost lost his footing as the CC-5500 banked as hard as it could to avoid an incoming topredo run. One of the three bomber squadrons that had laucnhed was attacking his ship, whilst the rest attempted to engage the Republic's Envoy. Fortunately they were being held at bay by a squadron of X-Wings and a lone YT-2000.

The Reckless Wonderer's port side batteries unleashed a mass wave of fire across the Bombers path cutting a pair of TIEs in half. The frigate then continued its role from earlier to bring it's undamaged side to bear the next wave of Bombers.

"We're not gonig to last much longer of this. Our shields are at 23% and dropping."

"I noticed, Captain. But we can't run without leaving the Republic's Envoy to fend for themselves. We need a plan - something that'll catch the Imps of gaurd and give us the upper hand."

Karn began thinking hard - what could they do. They were being overwhelmed by fighters, his frigate couldn't take much more hits before the shields were gone and the Imperial fleet was just waiting for them.

The Republic forces were now only a minute out from firing range - but would they last that long?

But why did the ISD hold back - it could have attempted a chase and some long range shots - all it would need is a few good shots to help turn the tide. Unless . . . unless the diplomats weren't the real target? The Imperial force here is to small to be a real threat to the Republic, and now the Republic's fleet has split, with several ships dealing with the Strike cruiser and gaurding the planet while the rest come to attack these Imperials. To make matters worse, the Imperials were screwing with their sensors so the Republic gunners couldn't choose their targets easily . . .

"Ok, lets add this up," Karn said turning to Captain Kre'nel. "The Imperials have weakened our fleet by splitting it, they've created a two front battle and they're screwing with our targeting computers. If they wanted they could send twice as many fighters and destroy us in a few minutes - we're not the target, the fleet is. There must be a second Imperial fleet waiting somewhere ready to pounce."

Kre'nel paused and took several long seconds to ponder Karn'ssuggestion. Raising her head, she replied in her usual flat tone. "That would explain also why the ISD didn't even attempt attacking us. So, now what."

"Well, we cover the diplomat still and get as far away as we can from what's about to happen. Oh, and we should also tell the Republic General incharge what's really going on."

 

***

 

"Are you certain?"

"I'd say so General - it all points to why the Imperials are still holding position and not throwing everything they have at the diplomat's ship."

"Hmm, we'll need ot holt the fleet and regroup - will you and the diplomats be alright?"

"Yeah, now that we aren't fighting to get to you we can pull off some better manouvres and feel less presured by the Imperial fleet. I'd also suggest recalling the fighters in the area once those TIE Bombers are all gone."

"Very well. Good luck Major Karn, and may the force be with you."

The hologram cut off and Karn turned to Kre'nel, who nodded and began ordering the ship's crew to begin new manouvres.

 

OOC: What's the name of the New Republic's General incharge of the fleet?

[captain_brandei]

OOC:Depends on what you're asking. Commander of the current fleet (The task force assigned to Hefi), the fighter commander? "General", at least as I'm familiar with its usage in Lucasworld, denoteds the leader of either a ground force or a special task-force of fighters.

 

Then again, SWR is giving us Army ranks for playing naval (mostly) characters...

 

Let's put it this way. I'd say there's probably a few different chiefs in this tribe...you'd have the task group commander (in charge of the ships and men), as well as the head diplomat, and it'd probably be a toss-up as to which was ACTUALLY in charge of saying "yes, we'll do this or that". Think Dark Force Rising, where you had both Borsk Fey'lya and the ship commander (can't remember the character's name, was it Virgilio?) "in charge" at various points.

 

Either way, nobody's played either character yet, and nobody's named them, so far as I know. Unless somebody else wants to step up, put whatever name you want in charge of the fleet...let's have one of Fey'lya's Bothans be the diplomat, just for the sake of some fun.

[captain_brandei]

OOC: Aslo, if you can figure a way to do it, Krytos, I'd like to see your character transfered over to the Alderaan (the MC 80 leading the task force) as soon as the immediate shooting stops.

[Krytos]

OOC: Well, I used the rank of General mainly due to the NJO novels where a General would be incharge of a small fleet/taskforce group - such as General Anitllies and Bel Iblis - where as an Admiral would be incharge of an entire Fleet group - such as Admiral Kre'fey. I was trying to keep the character open by not giving him a name incase someone would like to play him/her. But as you said, nobody has played the character - so I'll try to keep it open.

 

OOC: Aslo, if you can figure a way to do it, Krytos, I'd like to see your character transfered over to the Alderaan (the MC 80 leading the task force) as soon as the immediate shooting stops.

 

By transferred, do you mean go to the Alderaan and meet up with some people or transferred to some post onboard the ship? Either way, I can work something out

[captain_brandei]

OOC: Transfered, as in...ahem...encouraged...to report to the Alderaan for a specific, limited-duration assignment. You'll see me drop a cue in a bit here

[Krytos]

OOC: Sounds good to me - I'm up for it, just say the word and I'll work it into what I'm doing

 

IC: Karn had left the sensor station and returned to the command couch on the bridge. His gambit had paid off, breaking away from their current heading confused the Imperial fighters, allowing both vessels to get further away, now they were giving chase and being followed by the Republic's fighters. Even better was the fact that the Republic fleet had re-organised itself and now was mopping up what was left of the Strike cruiser and preparing for the Imperial fleet. The Imperial forces had also caught onto this and were calling back most of their fighters and bombers and getting into a support formation - just waiting for there re-enforcements to arrive.

Now the real battle was about to begin. He would finish off the few fighters remaining with the help of the Republic fighters and then escort the diplomats to the planet. From there, if there's still a battle ragging between the New Republic and Empire, Karn would do whatever he could to help.

[tchar]

Arten lowered the cargo ramp, allowing the thugs below to unload the vessel's contents at astonishing speed. Within minutes there was no indication of the hold's previous contents. Two minutes and ten thousand credits later he was heading for orbit again, after spending only six minutes on the planet's surface.

 

That went very well, he thought. If only every run was like that...

 

He aimed for a relatively calm patch of sky, part way between the two opposing fleets and prepared to jump outsystem.

 

OOC - if someone could "apprehend" me, that'd be great...

[captain_brandei]

OOC: Well, nobody's playing Imps yet, so I'll grab you in my next couple of posts. It's time to chase the Imps off for a bit, anyway.

[captain_brandei]

Alex's "request" for manual targeting had paid off. From the not-quite-trustworthy sensor station, he caught glimpses of the larger overall battle...a Corellian ship and some smaller escorts (look like civilians...what're they doing here in the first place?) were confusing TIE support from the ISD.

 

Suddenly, his sensors cleared: he was able to get a good look at what was left of the Strike cruisers had been pounding on, and caught several tiny signals dropping away from it toward the planet's surface.

 

Opting to bypass the gunnery officer, he dialed in the bridge directly "Sir, pull everybody out; the cruiser's about to blow!"

 

Whether because their sensors were also clearing, or because they'd finally decided the gunner crewman might maybe know what he was talking about, the Revolution resonded immediately, pulling away from the doomed cruiser and repositioning to face the other Imperial group that wasn't advancing; he noticed the Alderaan also got clear just as the cruiser blew apart from the inside; from the sensor picture, Alex noted that it was likely self-destructed.

 

Alex noticed the gunnery officer moving over to his station, and casually leaned back and said "I expect the Destroyer group will probably back out now, sir...that cruiser seems to have been their sensor coverage" No sooner had he said that then he noticed the ISD (which now LOOKED like an ISD to his poor sensors) was rearranging its support ships and backing out of the system.

 

"You know, Cadet, you're just a font of useful information today. Power down your station...your gunner's on manual anyway. The Captain'd like to have a word with you. I'm to escort you to the bridge personally."

 

Wonderful...I wonder if this is about jumping chain, or talking back to my officers, or maybe just where I 'd heard about experimental Imperial sensor tactics...

 

The last thing Alex noticed before powering down his station was a small freighter caught in the Revolution's tractors.