Operation Lonestar(attack on Bessimir0 (Open to Alsakan and approved Republic forces)

[Niner]

Major Loyalar turned as a young ensign came running up to him, "Sir, we are seeing a group of ships exiting hyperspace, we guess it to be about seventy to eighty light frieghters. We are unsure if they are friend or foe at the moment."

Zaneak turned to Captain Kange, "Captain, you are aware of our orders regarding an enemy presense, do you suggest we continue our bombardment as long as possible, attack the enemy, or follow the orders?"

 

[Lavi]

"Let me look at the scans," Freyr said, walking up to the officer in charge. He studied it for a moment, then raised his head. "They are probably not Republic - the formation does not match military design. Break three cruisers from the outskirts of bombardment formation and place them in between our fleet and theirs, in the case that these freighters do not hold friendly intent. Once the ships are in position, send them a warning, with 30 seconds to comply."

 

[Markus]

"Looks like we're outta luck, love. They were bombarding the planet. At least one ship is starting to pull up, but we're too far out to see much more than their weapons' fire and the occasional sensor shadow."

"Damnit" was all Miran said. She took a moment to prepare and flipped a switch, turning the encrypted comm to her flotilla on. "Watch out folks, they know we're here. Move in, and take up battle formation Beta Two on your way in. There's a ship moving out, lets take it out first, we can't afford to have them shooting at our backs."

The fleet powered up. Shields flickered on, spiking their sensor presence skyward. The swarm, for that's all it could be called now that they were entering battle formation, sped towards the sensor traces of Alsakan weapons fire at full speed.

 

[Lavi]

((FYI: Shields in this time period don't last very long.))

"Sir, their formation has changed, and they are closing in on our positions, fast," the radar officer reported.

Freyr gritted his teeth at the development. It was quite obvious from that distance that the Alsakans were bombarding the planet. But why do they advance? "Send them a warning volley from one of the cruisers."

The communications officer acknowledged the order, and it took mere seconds for the orders to be sent to one of the cruisers, and it sprayed fire about the approaching fleet.

 

[Markus]

((I understand that. and you'll see what I've got planned :P))

As soon as the volley was detected, the swarm went into action. Three major whirlpools began to take shape, with freighters from each swapping into others all the time. The shear chaos of the swarm made it nearly impossible for enemy gunners to focus on a target, and quite impossible for them to coordinate fire.

"Shock 'em only folks. We can't afford to fry 'em." As if in answer, the entire swarm opened up with ion cannons at the closest cruiser. Miran sighed, having turned off the comm, and hoped her people would follow their orders. If their shields went down, they were supposed to jump and recharge before coming back, but too many of her pilots were overly aggressive. Would they listen? She focused back on the battle as the gun turrets on a cruiser started tracking the swarm.

 

[Lavi]

Freyr watched as the tell-tale streaks of ion energy head towards the victim cruiser. "Order the defending cruiser to activate shields."

Of course, the shields would be temporarily out of commission because of this, but they would need all the guns they can use to fire upon the constantly shifting freighters. "Scramble fighters: the first wave will consist of star fighters and the second will hold a mix of fighters and bombers. Defending cruisers are to keep firing upon the freighters until the squadrons move out."

The rest of the fleet continued their seemingly relentless barrage on the planet, as though nothing was occurring in the sector.

 

[Markus]

"Harpoons folks, and let's get outta here. We'll be back in a few." The seventy-five vessels each loaded a boarding harpoon, guaranteed to bypass the shields, and fired at the various vital compartments of the vulnerable cruiser. As the fleet's shields started to flicker, the entire group microjumped several light seconds away to recharge their shields.

 

[Lavi]

((Crap, I forgot about this...))

Freyr watched as they hyperspaced away. "What do you think of that, major?"

 

[Markus]

((LMFAO, I was wondering why it'd been left there for so long.... if it's not posted in after a while, I usually ignore it, so it slipped to the back of my mind....))

Miran's small flotilla exited hyperspace, barely three light minutes away. It would take The commander of the opposing fleet at least three full minutes before they had the slightest warning what she was up to.

Meanwhile, the afflicted cruiser started loosing hands, fast. Coma Gas tends to work very quickly. within a few minutes, the outer areas of the hull would be completely neutralized, making the vessel very ripe for a boarding party.

"Recharge shields folks, we're headed back in as soon as they're up again." Miran said over the fleet-wide comm. She began considering her options. While, like she expected, the flotilla wasn't very strong, it would still be a challenge. Luckily, having the fleet in bombardment positions had left only a few ships available to defend against her assault. Would they cluster together? Would the entire fleet form up around the stricken cruiser? Even tho she was almost certain they'd hit at or near the bridge with a harpoon, would they have enough resistance to the gas that they could warn the rest of the fleet? These thoughts and more raced thru her head as she waited for the four minute timer to pass.

((EDIT: clarification of the thoughts presented within the post))

 

[Lavi]

"I want status reports of all cruisers, including the ones in bombarding positions," Freyr said, no longer waiting for the major to reply. Though their intentions are widely unknown to the captain, he still has a fleet to command. Keeping all of them in one piece would be much preferred.

"Sir, the Hopeful Light is not responding to our calls," the communications officer reports.

The Alsakan captain frowned. That was the ship that was attacked by those 3rd party ships just minutes before. "Deploy all fighter squadrons from this ship. Gold Squadron is to perform fly-bies of the Hopeful Light and Gold Squadron Leader is to personally report to me the visual scouting of the cruiser. The rest are to be in defensive positions about the fleet. Ready bomber squadrons in the case that those freighters return."

Freyr paced the bridge with a hint of nervousness, watching as Gold Squadron flew towards the crippled cruiser, chattering amongst themselves as they did an exterior inspection of the cruiser.

"This is Gold Leader. Visuals indicate that there are no officers in the brig of Hopeful Light on their feet. One of our pilots saw the communications officer laying on top of his dashboard. There must have been some sort of gas that was released in there. No sign of damage to the air supplies."

Freyr gave a sigh. "Order the fleet to cease bombardment. Align the fleet about the crippled cruiser, and prepare a boarding party to investigate the Hopeful Light."

 

[Markus]

"Harpoons and regular fire on the second target. Jumping in 5. 4. 3. 2. 1." In a flash they disappeared.

Miran's fleet exited hyperspace several seconds later, at almost the perfect time. The attacking flotilla was just starting to pull out of the planet's gravity well when they jumped right on top of the two remaining cruisers. Taking scans and navicomputer data while in the middle of a fight had helped them a great deal for precision jumps.

"Fighters, hon." Darren said, as soon as the sensors updated after they exited. "Looks like we've got three or four squadrons."

Just to be on the safe side, a swam of laser fire and projectiles left the flotilla, assaulting one of the two remaining cruisers in close-proximity of the disabled ship. Whether it would hit or not, or even how much damage it caused, wouldn't matter, the fire itself screened another round of harpoons.

"Focus fire on the last cruiser, we can't take fire from them, the approaching fighters, and the rest of the flotilla. Shields only when attacked by fighters, and only long enough to deflect the worse of it." More laser fire and projectiles began firing on the third cruiser. There were no provisions for disabling this one, they went for straight up damage this time.

 

[Lavi]

The third cruiser to come under attack was Kange's own battleship. "All guns, return fire. Launch this ship's bomber squadrons, to be escorted by all fighter squadrons to the freighters."

Alsakan guns swiveled on their bases, and fired a volley at the now-returned freighters. It took half a minute to get all of the bombers into space: two squadrons of them at ready. With the four starfighter squadrons to escort them, they made their way towards the freighters' left (Darren's perspective) flank.

 

[Niner]

Zaneak turned to Captain Kange, "Our orders were to pull out should we encounter Repbulic resistence. These aren't registered ships of the Republic military though, so tell me captain, do you think we can beat them without any major losses?"

 

[Lavi]

"The Hopeful Light is currently disabled, though it is in easily repairable condition. These ships are resourceful, though they do not appear to be manufactured primarily for combat. That being said, the squadrons should be able to push those freighters back and force them to retreat. When they do so, we will spare the Hopeful Light with the minimum required crew for operation and head back."

 

[Niner]

Zaneak turned back to the viewscreen, "Then by all means Captain, push them back. Teach these Republic sympathizers not too mess with the Alsakan fleet."

 

[Markus]

((bloody hell, I can't even use "sithspit", or "siths' blood" in this era >.> Not to mention, I'm really loving the limited shielding. In any other era, I couldn't pull this setup off, cause the capital ships would take little or no damage. With this rig, even gnats can take down an elephant ^.^

FYI, these are light freighters, the average length being less than fifty meters. They're rather similar to the millennium falcon in that they're pretty good against fighters. In this kind of swarm, six squadrons aren't going to last long, even if they will hurt.))

"Damn! More fighters. Looks like bombers this time. I can't make out how many in this ruckus, but it's at least one squadron." Darren said, still quite calm despite the emotions in his voice. "Can we take that many fighters?"

Miran pondered for a moment. "Engage the fighters, bombers have priority. I don't think they realize quite how effective our vessels are at taking them out." She spoke over the comm. One of the greatest advantages to the smaller ships, is their weapons seemed to be equally effective, if not more so, against fighters. Within the entire swarm of freighters, there were only a few guns with a refire rate slow enough to be ineffective against fighters. The fleet would burn ammo fast, but they'd pull thru.

Within moments the entire flotilla swapped mentalities. Instead of pulling lots of fancy flying, swarming over the capital ships, they spaced out to provide plenty of room for the fighters to pass between them, right into the blistering fire their great many guns could produce. There would be losses, likely a dozen ships or so by the time the fighters were dealt with, but in return, the fighters would be utterly annihilated.

At a distance, the maneuvering within the now spread apart fleet would be hard to notice. Up close, the fleet never seemed to stop moving. Even spaced out as they were, they still managed to swarm. A combination of flying close to the injured vessels, skimming along their hulls, and weaving well-practiced patterns among themselves, ensured that at least most of them would make it home, even among these odds. They began the hard part.

 

[Lavi]

((Crap, forgot they were light freighters. I was thinking typical cargo freighters for that last post. It's been too long since this was actually posted in.))

Freyr watched as the fighters engaged the incoming freighters. "Recall all squadrons."

Most of the squadrons would be destroyed by the time the rest returned, but the Alsakan captain was ready to avenge his losses. However, he was not ready to abandon the Hopeful Light to annihilate the enemy. "All guns are to fire at will."

 

[Markus]

((Ack!, I thought I'd posted here last night >.< And that's why I posted that, I figured you had forgotten :P))

As the fighters entered the freighter formation, the freighters with angles opened up. With nearly thirty freighters firing, almost always with multiple weapons, it seemed a wonder that any fighters could survive. Despite the fire, a number still broke thru and started harassing the freighters within. In very little time, the formation's steady firing toward the approaching squadrons had dissolved into a number of smaller fights.

"Draque, Janson, and Kara are engaged and maneuvering..... they've popped shields." Darren spoke with his ritual calm. Whenever he was in combat, he always seemed to relax. "Looks like the bombers are entering the formation now. Bombers are taking damage. They seem to be targeting Draque's freighter."

Under her breath Miran swore. Draque was one of her best pilots, she'd be damned if she just let him get slaughtered. Under her command, her freighter left formation and accelerated, fast approaching Draque's position. Just as she began to think they might not make it in time, the bombers withdrew, along with the rest of the fighters. As they pulled along side, they saw the damage done to the freighter, it was amazing that it hadn't fallen apart. "Draque, don't try to fight in that thing, can you make it out of here?" The reply came back to miran, pain obviously leaking into his voice, "I don't think so, can you provide a pickup? Several of our power conduits blew, and I don't think we'll have life support much longer."

"Copy that, docking now" Swearing again, Miran maneuvered her ship to dock, elsewhere, similar operations were helping the other stricken freighters. The cruiser had almost been forgotten, and with six ships down, two having been utterly destroyed, there were other priorities. At least until the cruiser opened up again. Miran hadn't even made it back to the cockpit when the entire ship shuddered and the sound of rending metal filled the vessel. "God thing we gave draque a pickup, his ship got hit. Get up here tho, the cruiser opened up again and they'll have reinforcements soon."

Slightly out of breath, having run back to the cockpit, Miran sat down at the pilot seat and began directing her forces again. "Eta on the reinforcements?" Miran inquired softly, still a little shaken. "Looks like three minutes at the outside, they'll be coming in a little staggered after that tho, they're burning hard to get here from whatever bombardment positions they were in." Miran sighed. "Maybe we won't get the whole fleet this time, but we'll sure as hell take what we've got." She flipped the switch to activate the fleet-wide comm, "Harpoon that last cruiser, and pull out the grapples, we'll be jumping back to Metellos once all three cruisers are neutralized."

Knowing they weren't going to be spending much time there, the fleet let loose with their remaining harpoons. The last active cruiser received their full attention, which meant nearly double the number of harpoons spared for the other two cruisers. The freighters, for the sake of expediency, began destroying the vessel's guns, launching their grapples as they went.

Their crews having been rescued or dead, Miran punched in the destruct codes for the crippled and destroyed craft, which in turn would trigger small nuclear warheads, just big enough to vaporize themselves and about 20 clicks around them. The five minute countdown locked in, the freighter group continued latching themselves to the disabled cruisers. They wouldn't get far like this, maybe three light years, but it was easily far enough to begin boarding actions.

((Having fun yet?))

 

[Lavi]

"We're being grappled!" a deck officer reports. "Hull breaches lining the entire cruiser! Weapon systems are at 20%!"

"Prepare to repel possible boarders," answered Freyr. "Order all remaining ships to surround this vessel, but not open fire unless the freighters detached themselves from this ship."

He turned his attention towards the major close by. "It would be best if you led the marines, Major."

 

[Niner]

Zaneak smiled as he put on his helmet, "Indeed, I have been waiting for this Captain." Zaneak pulled out a blaster pistol and held it in his left hand with his katana in his right.

"Marines, form up on me."