Stellar_Magic

"Sithspawn, Raptors break and enage those x-wings keep them off the stormtrooper transports." Kirk rolled behind one of the x-wings as it set up for a run on the first transport. He fired scroing a direct hit that punched through the rear deflectors. The crafts upper right s-foil shattered and ripped away from the rest of the craft. The x-wing broke off, its damaged hull trailing sparking wiring and cables. Kirk let it go as the four stormtrooper transports loosed a barrage of ion cannon fire on the fast approaching Gallofree yards medium transport. The craft began to tumble as the ion cannons disabled its primary systems. Still the Strike Cruiser Chronicle was behind them and its squadrons of starfighters were closing fast, Kirk knew that within moments his force would be caught between all four of the squadrons and the main fight. Then the final piece ofthe plan fell in place from a place ten kilometers to stardboard of the Chronicle a pair of Victory Star Deswtroyers were appeared swinging fast around the planet using its gravity to gain speed and were lined up along the rebels exit vector. Immediately their four squadrons of fighters leapt from their bay as the Rebels were caught unawares. The four squadrosn that had been threatening to squash the Raptors broke off their attack and moved to engage the newest threat. Already the Chronicle was manuevering for what James was uncertain of at that point but it wouldn't matter, the convoy would be an easy target. Beside him he saw his wingmate, Lara drop in behind a pair of green trimmed starfighters as the first stormtrooper transport docked with its target. Aboard the meager four man control crew of the transport were extinguished and the stormtroopers leaned in over the controls. After a moment Major Baumer saw the forward hatch of the Medium transport open and the atmosphere from the cargo hold vented killing anyone inside. Kirk could see bodies being ripped from the medium transport as he lined up his shot on the x-wing. He pulled the trigger. OOC: okay 44 try and save the situation, or at least the Chronicle.

Its the Fett's Mandalorian cultural background that explains his behavior. Mandalorians live for the honor of battle, they want, perhaps even need to fight the best in the galaxy to prove themselves. They really didn't care about wining or loosing all that much either, it was the fight that mattered. Why did Boba fight the vong, they were a new untested foe, and an invading force, there was allot of honor to be gained fighting them. The same goes for solo, after being stalemated Fett decided that Han was an honorable person and let him be. Basically Mandalorians are allot like the galaxy's version of the samurai, fight for honor until death in battle or old age. I mean just think, how old Fett is by the NJO

OOC: Its a convoy headed for your new base...I think, could be wrong, or you could make me wrong, but you might want to launch some reinforcements for them. EDIT: OOC: We don't know the bases location, just a tip off that a convoy would be coming through. We want more intel, hence the stormies on the moon...you'll see what I mean.

With a blur of motion a dozens ships arrived in the system. Several of them were easily visible even at this range, the foremost among them was a Quasar Fire Bulk Cruiser without any modifications (Fewer fighters onboard). At the rear of the formation of craft was a clearly visible pair of corellian corvettes. Kirk smiled as he flicked on the holo comm which was off to his side, "Targets sighted, begining countdown." He flicked a switch on the display which began a countdown from five minutes. Ahead the mass of Gallofre Yards Medium Transports began a ponderous turn toward the moon which Kirk's Squadron had settled down upon. Beyond the Transports, an enormous vessel winked into existance, the Imperial Star Destroyer Chimaera. From its bays five squadrons of fighters poured out to engage the rebels. Beside it another capital ship flashed into existance, the Escort Carrier Lomar Hydra. Within seconds, six more squadrons of ties had launched and were begining to form up. Kirk smiled as he glanced up through the canopy at the oncoming convoy which had increased to flank speed. The plan was working perfectly. The rebel starfighter screen was lagging behind the convoy to block the assault they knew was coming. Glancing at the sensor display he saw that in four minutes they would pass the moon on the their most likely exit vector. Kirk keyed the comm, "Begin warm up checklist, you have four minutes. Omicron, report readiness." The calm voice of a stormtrooper answered plainly, "Ready Major." Glancing out his canopy Kirk shook his head at the trio of stormtrooper transports waiting on the moons surface, soon it would be a battle once more.

OOC: I don't think the squint (Interceptors) or dupes (Bombers have been invented yet either. My squadron is flying basically vader's tie, but its not quite as fast or as heavily shielded as Vaders. Its still better then an Eyeball (TIE/In).

Maybe they weren't slaves but the masters...That would explain why they're the ones spread all over, and the slaves were only used on their home worlds.

OOC: Oops missed a line... in a post, oh well just how many CC-7700s would be floating around for the rebels to buy, dozens, hundreds... IC:Another X-wing desintegrated under his guns as a whoop from Raptor two revealed she'd scored a kill at the same moment. All around them the rebel starfighter force swarmed, trying vainly to engage the faster and more manueverable TIEs they were facing. With a sudden flash of motion the rebel fighters abandoned their assault and turned toward the planet. Kirk smiled, "They're running, squadron form up on the CC's Mark two vector." The modified Tie's formed up behind him as he dropped in just behind the CC's engines. He switched his targeting computer over to concussion missiles, "Fire all remaining ordanance, keep hitting the mark two vector." With that Kirk launched his two concussion missiles into the rear shields of the CC-7700. They detonated against the shield and the continual pounding forced the captain to devert power to the rear shields to keep them from being slowly worn away. Suddenly just ahead teh Imperial Star Destroyer Dominator shot out of hyperspace. It was in perfect attack position, with all its 120 turbolasers and 60 ion cannons locked onto the CC-7700 frigate, and with the forward shield under powered from rederecting the power it didn't stand a chance when the Imperial Star Destroyer was less then a kilometer from it. With a brilliant green flash the weapons fired vaporizing the ship's hull and moments later it detonated in a expanding gas cloud. Kirk smiled as he sped away, "Scratch one frigate!"

OOC: Thats not all thats left IC: "Raptor Lead, to all flights, report status," Kirk Baumer breathed. His squadron had finally gotten the recognition it deserved, they finally had a name, a real name not some callsign they happened to use three fourths of the time, but a name. "First Flight standing by," Lara's voice replied swiftly through the comm. "Second Flight, ready and waiting," Lieutenant Logan Adlar replied slowly. Followed by the leader for third flight. Kirk smiled as he glanced at the newly installed lever of to the side of the cockpit, he'd gotten his wish, the entire squadron was now equipped with hyperdrives and shields, giving them a much better chance of survival. Not only that but now each craft carried a pair of concussion missiles, only two though which forced Kirk to remind his pilots to conserve their weapons. Slowly he gripped the lever and pushed it forward, "Hyperjump, now!" The stars flashed into lines and the blue tunnel of hyperspace surrounded him. If everything was going according to plan their target would be entering the system within a few minutes. The rebels had the advantage of a CC-7700 for to long, and the plan he'd been given was to remove the threat. Even now the Dominator under the personal command of Darth Vader was moving into position along with a large number of smaller ships. With a flash the starlines faded and the Raptors appeared in the target system, ahead, near a repair yard in this nameless world was the craft. Kirk keyed his comm, "Dominator, in system." "Roger Raptor lead, you're clear to engage. Our ETA is five minutes" Ahead the Interdictor began a ponderous turn and brought its gravity well generators to life, A single squadron of X-wings rose from the planet below followed by two squadrons of Z-95s and Cloakshape fighters. None of them knew that the entire battle had been coreoghraphed by a master that was calmly speaking to the Emperor at that moment, a master with blue skin and red eyes.

Major Baumer turned away from Lieutenant Fel, a fellow pilot he'd been speaking with as a hand touched his shoulder. Kirk turned around as a girl with brilliant white hair looked up at him, "Hello." "Hello, my name is Winter and Major, I couldn't help overhearing that you said something about the rebels," The girl smiled slightly. Kirk smiled at her, "Well I was telling Lieutenat Baron Scontir Fel how effective the rebels are despite, their lack of material. You see he's a pilot just like me, but he has just joined a squadron and really doesn't have any experience, I'm just trying to keep him alive a little longer, at whatever squadron he's at." "Oh," The girl seemed disappointed somewhat, "I thought you'd know a little more." Kirk smiled vanely at the girl, "I'm sorry but I really can't share much information with you." His commlink suddenly chirped and Kirk pulled it off of his belt, "Major Baumer here." "This is Alderann Control, we have a priority one message coming in for you Major, its from the Inexorable," The commlink answered. Kirk hissed to himself, what was this about?

I know Raozr's Kiss wasn't crewed, but the point is SSDs aren't worth the expense of building, you can get more combat power for less by building Star Destroyers and Mon Calamari Crusiers, instead of Superheavies like the SSD and Sovereign.

Well the SSD Guardian is a New Republic ship that kind of serves as a mobile command center. Actually I've never thought there was much sense to using SSDs in combat, they're to easy to defeat with manuever tactics in the books, look how simple it was for Solo to take on the Razor's Kiss and the Iron Fist with his Task Force. Pelleaon also has an SSD, I don't think they've given it a name though.

OOC: Oh no, a social event... IC:Major Baumer pulled at the collar of his dress uniform, he hated them, hated their use, hated their pompous appearance, he would have given anything to be back behind the seat of a fighter in a simple black flight suite instead of the ornate uniform he found himself in. With a sigh he leaned back in the seat, Lieutenant Pelleaon glanced at him as he sat, "Don't like dress uniforms?" "No," Baumer answered simply, "They're stiff, elegant, and refined, I'm none of those things." "Except perhaps inside a fighter craft?" Gilad Pelleaon replied as a slight grin swept across his mouth. He smiled slightly, "Well it is your arena." "Yeah, and I still have the same duties as every other officer, sending out promotions and the so forth, I just promoted a Flight Officer, Logan Adlar to Flight Leader, he'd freed up Lara to take Executive officer. I'd heard he has some experience with modifing craft, soon all the Gammas will be upgraded under his and Lara's watchful eye, they may even be done when I get back. I asked him to find a way to add some warhead launchers, we'll see what he comes up with." A pilot's vocie keyed throughout the craft, "Ten minutes to Alderann." "Thank you Lieutenant," Major Baumer answered keying the comm then settled back to wait.

Major Baumer pounded a fist on the table, they'd been pushed back, and suffered heavy casualties from a meager attack force of rebel ships, at least his squadron had managed to escape largely unscaved. He glanced along the racks for tie fighters and saw that they were nearly empty. Lieutenant Gilad Pelleaon stepped into the room, his expression showing exhaustion and a grim determination he'd never demonstrated before, "Lieutenant, please sit down." Pellaeon sat uncomfortably next to him, his gaze flicked to the other pilots that were crowded along the tables, Fleet Command and Starfighter Command hardly mixed. He sighed, "We've been beaten again, I thought the Admiral would have been able to pull a victory out of that engagement." "Even the best can be bested," Kirk replied and shrugged, "The rebels can't possibly hope to get a victory of that scale again, their losses were still heavy, they can't afford many more victories like that." "We're heading for the local area staging point, there is a full strength sector fleet there awaiting our arrival, five Imperial star destroyers, four Victory Star Destroyers, six Dreadnaughts, eight Carracks, two Escort Carriers, sixteen corvettes, two strike cruisers, three Nebulon B Frigates, and a pair of Heavy Battle Cruisers. (OOC: Battle Cruisers are IM-410 interdictors with more weaponary and without gravity well generators) Not to mention a group of transport craft." Kirk snorted, "Thats enough to give the rebels a real headache."

OOC: Oh great...here come the rebels. Gamma is a callsign for imperial units, it changes almost every mission... IC: "Rebel ships entering the system, all starfighter squadrons abort, I repeat abort, pull back to the Chimaera," The fighter control's excoted voice filled Major Baumer's headset. "Alphas break by wing pairs, Beta get moving," Kirk snarled into the comm as he watched the lumbering TIE/gts moved into their turns. From hyperspace several squadrons of fighters leapt into the engagement along with a large rebel strike force. Kirk watched as a dozen of the Rebel X-wings broke toward him. He lined up his lasers and pulled on the firing stud as the rest fo the squadron behind him opened up. His target detonated as its front shield's failed from the onslaught. Lasers of varying colors filled the void as space became confused and deadly.

OOC: Back to Kashyyk IC:The Chimaera's main briefing room was crowded as Kirk Baumer stepped inside. He glanced to where his pilots were seated and smiled slightly before turning to see Lieutenant Pellaeon step to the holoprojector at the end of the room, "Good afternoon pilots, you will be participating in the first strike upon Kashyyk itself by our forces." He flicked on a switch and the light dimmed as the Holoprojector showed a lush green world, a grid and dozens of red dots appeared upon it, showing planetary defenses, "As you can see Kashyyk is well defended for a world of its size, and because of the unique flora and fauna on the world, orbital bombardment is not practical for our purposes, we want the population intact, so we will be forced to use precise strikes on individual targets by teams of starfighters." The holoprojector zoomed toward a single red blip, "This is your target, a LNR defense complex suspended in the trees of Kashyyk, the 195th Bomber Squadron Callsign, Beta flight, will be the Bomber element with Major Baumer's Squadron, Callsign Alpha for this mission, will fly cover. Major are all of your pilots ready for this mission?" "Yes, do you have a replacement for the modified tie yet, or will she be flying a normal TIE/in?" "The engineers have managed to modify one of the TIE's to the Admiral's specifications, so yes we have a replacement," The Lieutenant turned tothe other pilots, "The mission launches in thirty minutes, to your ships pilots." As Kirk left the room he thought of the list of Wookie fighter's intelligence had presented to him, he'd almost certainly encounter them this mission, and he hoped they wouldn't be as deadly as intelligence had claimed.

OOC: Did I see the words interdictor ship in that? Interdictors weren't developed till just before Hoth... I think it was just Tarkin in his shuttle, should be relatively straight forward for you guys...

Technicians swarmed across the lone starfighter in the hanger. Poking sensors and other equipment into the craft. A squad of stormtroopers surrounded the lone x-wing as Major Baumer stepped into the bay. He glanced at the craft and smiled lightly as Lieutenant Pellaeon stepped next to him, "Good job, we've been wanting to capture one." Kirk Baumer just shook his head, "It was luck Lieutenant, alright, what have you found?" "Initial interrogation of the pilot hasn't gotten us anything, but we've managed to download quite a bit out of the fighter's computer, not the IFF codes though, the pilot scrambled them, and scrubbed the memory of its orders but I will say I'm impressed by this thing, its got an impressive array of features. The serial number indicates that this is a new model to, impressive catch," Pellaeon finished and glanced at the starfighter, "The admiral isn't exactly pleased with your casualties though." Kirk shook his head, "Three fourths of my squadron are replacements, I need real pilots, not these academy fresh personnel." "I know Major," Pellaeon shrugged, "Maybe the admiral will issue orders so you'll get your choice of pilots, its a good thing you didn't loose that pilot Captain..." Kirk nodded and Pellaeon smiled, "We'll be arriving at Kashyyk in a few hours, the rest of the fleet had already arrived and taken up blockade positions. Get some rest Major." "I'll try Lieutenant," Kirk answered as he turned away from the starfighter. OOC: You know we could do Ackbar's rescue from Tarkin pretty soon.

"Nine report!" "Shields held, alright, Lead two on your tail!" Kirk swore and sent the TIE into a corkscrew as red laser blasts flashed past his canopy. Glancing at his rear display he saw that the X-wing had glued itself to his tail, matching every one of his manuevers. Ahead he saw nine had gotten a tail of her own. Kirk swerved after the craft and let loose a stream of laser fire which flashed passed the canopy, the pilot didn't flinch from the weapons fire showing his experience in the craft. As the craft grew in his sights Kirk saw a pair of golden bars painted across the green squadron insignia, it was the squadron leader. A quad burst spat from the lasers and impacted on Nine's rear shields, followed by another which blazed through. One of the engines was scored from the shot and then TIE began to spin like a top. "Nine eject!" Kirk bellowed as he intensified his attack. "Roger" wih a burst fo transparisteel the pilot couch shot out from her starfighter, carrying her clear of the broken tie. "Contorl, mark Nine as EV at position..." After reading the coordinates Kirk dropped behind the x-wing which suddenly banked away, its s-foils closing. With a flash it leapt into hyperspace. One of the X-wings banked to make a jump but a lucky hit disabled its hyperdrive motivator causing a feedback into power generator shutting it down and disabling it completly for the immediate future. The rest of the newer model x-wings managed a clean escape. Kirk sighed as he keyed his comm unit, "Gamam lead, four starfighters lost, three pilots as well, we've got an x-wing disabled here if you'd like to recover it." "Good job Gamma Lead, we've already picked up Nine, she's fine. Intelligence is anxious to get its hands on that ship." Kirk let out a breath of relief, "Thank you control." OOC: DJ44 you shot down Nine, say thanks, but she'll be back...

OOC: We were at a rendevous point in deep space which could have been right beside Kuat or Kashyyk, in all likelyhood it would be close to Kuat because the task force would want to take on reinforcements before proceeding to its target. DJ44, even in the best squadrons around there are only a few pilots that actually have kills, thats why aces are rare. Around 3/4ths of WWII pilots never actually fired their guns against another fighter. You can't tell me that every one fo your pilots is going to be extremely good. In my squadron only two pilots have kills thats accurate to reallity...

The vong are gone...read unifying force.

OOC: It's just a game... Actually shield penetration like that is really common, remember just that if this is canon x-wing shields aren't that useful, remember how easy it was for those ties to kill the x-wings on their trench run, let alone the y-wings which have heavier shielding.

OOC: Um...The shields were already down on the Super Star Destroyer, or it would have been useless. IC:Major Baumer rocketed out of the hanger in his new Tie craft followed swiftly by the rest of his squadron. Ahead the flashes of light which showed a battle in progress filled the dark space around the barren world of Kuat. He smiled as a squadron of T-65A X-wings formed up to make an attack, "Gammas break and engage, nine, you're my wing." The x-wings roared toward them their bubble canopies (OOC: The T-65A1 has the same cockpit design as a headhunter) glinting in the sunlight. Kirk broke hard and settled the bent winged craft in behind the X-wing and triggered a burst of dual laser fire. The blasts smashed through the crafts shields and into the power core. The fighter detonated in a shower of sparks. Another starfighter detonated in a flash of fighter as Lara delivered a kill shot. Suddenly a pair of x-wings flashed past, their fuselage sleaker and cockpits different, in the sunlight the green color of their markings gleemed as they turned to engage them. Kirk swore as a quad burst glanced against his crafts shields, "Control, we've got some new models..." "Roger Gamma lead, engage them." Kirk had already broken into a loop and settled in behind the green trimmed x-wing, his targeting computer showing a definite lock. He fired sending his blasts into the ship's rear shield's which held, "Lara scissors!" The two advanced fighters broke toward each other in a looping manuever used by fighter pilots for ages, none as scissors. The rebel x-wing shot between them its lasers blazing. Lara's fighter caught a bolt which sizzled against the shields. Through the upper viewport Kirk saw the other rebel fighter break toward him. Gritting his teeth Kirk broke toward the starfighter and poured laser fire into its shields. Suddenly they failed an a bolt flashed into the cockpit, vaporizing the pilot instantly. The green trimmed x-wing broke off and Kirk saw two more flights of the starfighters break to form up on them. OOC: Now 44's Squadron is using T-65Bs what the rebels used at Yavin IV...

OOC: I think its a waste of a bunch of Corellian Corvettes. An ISD's shields should be sufficient to keep the ISD from suffering mortal damage in the attack, and are Nebulon Bs really worth that much in material losses? IC: Major Baumer relaxed as he leaned against the metal sides of the Stormtrooper Transport's cabin as this pilots sat lounging in their seats. Above their heads a storage rack held their meager belongings. Slowly Major Baumer glanced down at his datapad which included an intelligence summary on the Kashyyk star system. The world had large numbers of planetary defense equipment, but even so, a Star Destroyer with perhaps one or two supports ships could easily overcome the wookie's defenses. The wookies had several squadrons of fighters for planetary defense, most of them were homegrown designs, and Kirk had no idea how well they would perform. Lara dropped into her seat next to him and Kirk glanced up, "Well my recommendations and promotions finally came through." Kirk smiled slightly as he pulled a case from the rack above him and opened it, "Congratulations Captain." Lara pulled the rank insignia from the case and smiled slightly, "Still a flight leader though?" "Don't worry I'll come up with something useful for you to do in addition to that," Kirk replied steadily then smiled slightly at her as the transport thumped to the deck of the Chimaera, "Welcome to the Chimaera." Major Baumer had only just stepped out of the transport when a Lieutenant ran to him, "Major Baumer, orders." He handed Kirk a datapad as a ship wide alert resounded through the bay, "Sir, the Admiral requests that you and one other of your pilots take an experimental craft into the engagement." Kirk rolled his eyes, "This had better be worth me flying something unfamiliar." With a sigh Kirk glanced up at the racks of fighters, "Pilots, get to some fighters, just drop your gear and go. Captain, follow me, Lieutenant where are these experimentals?" A few minutes later with the complete set of tie pilot gear on Kirk was lead intothe TIE craft ahnger where a pair of ties waited, their wing panels were bent inward and their hull elongated, Kirk stopped to stare at the craft its hull still showing recent weld marks. "We've added shields and upgraded the ion engines, it'll give you a maximum speed of 105 MGLTs and a little more manueverability. The admiral asked that we copy some of the features opf Darth Vader's personal starfighter," A Lieutenat said as he saw Kirk staring and offered him a hand, "My name is Gilad Pellaeon." He glanced up as a siren sounded, "We're exiting hyperspace, good luck Major." Kirk glanced at Lara and smiled, "Lets see how well these thigns fly." OOC: Well Vader's tie came out before the squint and was used as a design start point for the interceptor and tie bomber, it made sense to me...

OOC: Lame might be an understatement, I gave you the chance to make me EV... Oh well, opportunity missed. IC: The missile warning light had blinked off as the group of starfighter suddenly made their run for hyperspace and Kirk let out a slow shallow breath, "Gammas reform on me, we've lost this fight, they got a frigate." He glanced at the two battered nebulas that had fought the defecting ship and saw that fires raged internally across them, "Control, we're returning to the hanger." "Roger Gamma lead, we've just got a set of orders from high command security clearance alpha seven, and recieved word that you're scheduled for a meeting ont he Chimeara in a few hours." Kirk flicked the comm back to the squadron channel, "Burecrats." With a thud the tie was locked in a tractor beam and pulled up into the Serpent's Bite hanger bay. A few minutes later Major Kirk Baumer dropped into his cabin and pulled up his knew orders on the display. Reading them he felt his stormach begin to knot.

I know the feeling...except its allot worse when your computer suddenly decides to reformat your hard drive and destroy a 670 page story... The door to the brig hissed open and Doriana looked up to see Thrawn slip into the room. Slowly Doriana sighed as he saw Thrawn enter the visible light highlighting his blue features, “I felt an explosion.â€