Star Squadron: Freighter Hunting

[Aurelian Keth]

Qina System, Inner Moddell Systems, Moddell Sector, Outer Rim Territories​

To say Aurelian was nervous would be an understatement. He had only just got to Hoth and got a proper look at his craft, which he’d flown once to Kashyyyk as part of a test, before attending the briefing. Once the briefing was done and their assignments where dealt out they’d been sent on their way.

That was it!

Aurelian, and he dared guess more than a few of the others, had no real Starfighter experience. For the scholar’s part he’d flown a small single-man civilian ship for a few years, then he’d flown the Mynock-Class Freighter ‘The Tempest Hunter’ in combat scenarios, he’d manned the light freighters turrets when gunning down armed enemies. Then he’d flown his new ship, the Grey Ghost, once. So if you mixed all that together you kinda got an amateur Starfighter pilot… right?

‘I’ll uhh just use the Force… yeah, yeah that’s it.’ he thought to himself while shaking his head. Not that he really knew how to do that either. He was about as experienced a Padawan as he was a member of Star Squadron.

Aurelian had been expecting their commander, Star Leader, the huge Wookie Greybok to arrange some sort of training exercise. Simulated dog fights, lectures on technical specifications of their new craft, the basics of spaceflight for those members of the Squadron who might be even less experienced than Aurelian himself. Practical and theoretical lessons. Then, after a few weeks, maybe ease the group into a few easy assignments like patrols and stuff. But nope! They’d been told that there was slavers working for the Czerka Corporation going after a race of small bear-like bipeds for slavery and other malicious reasons in search of profit. Czerka Corp had been around forever and their reputation had never been good, it didn’t surprise Aurelian at all to learn that they were up to activities such as this.

Still he wished they were better prepared.

His wingman, or rather wing-girl for the assignment was the young girl Eisa Swan. The Galactic Alliance had to be desperate to be recruiting children as soldiers. Aurelian hadn’t seen the girl since Hoth when the Holonet news feed had reported the death of her father, or rather it had completely shown his execution. He grimaced at the thought and hoped she was emotionally stable enough for the mission.

Aurelian and Eisa had been sent to take care of a slaving freighter in the vicinity. They had to take the thing out before it was loaded up with slaves and they had to take it down before it escaped and reported Alliance activity in the sector. He just hoped it didn’t have any friends accompanying it.

The scholar had spent a few hours going through maps before plotting the course for their hyperspace jump. Qina was a moon of a gas giant called Hachin. Quite beautiful apparently although he’d only read about it. Aurelian had made the calculations so that they would come out of Hyperspace on the opposite side of the gas giant. The plan was that it should let them enter the system undetected.

A beep on his computer alerted the pilot that navicomputer was sending him an update. It simply read: “Coming out of Hyperspace in 10 seconds.”

The ship jolted slightly as it exited hyperspace. The fact that they weren’t immediately fired on was a good sign. Aurelian checked the scanners and give a sigh of relief, it appeared that the calculations had worked out and they had arrived at the far side of the gas giant from the moon with no ships on this side. They would need to travel to the other side of the system to scan for the freighter.

Activating their ship-to-ship communications Aurelian contacted his partner was her ship entered real space alongside his. “Star Three, this is Star Six. Look like we’ve come out in the right system at least. Got any ideas on how to proceed?”

He really hoped the young girl was some sort of prodigy and could take lead on the mission.

@Plebometer

 

[Eisa Swan]

Sitting within her cockpit, the young teen toggled over some switches, before her emerald hued eyes panned over towards the diagnostics console, her gaze flitting back and forth as she read the displayed read outs. Everything was functioning as it should, which gave the teen a slight sense of satisfaction for the hours she had spent working on her assigned fighter. Even though it was technically the property of the Galactic Alliance, the young teen had sure the craft was every bit her own from the custom painted livery to the extensive attention that was spent examining every nut and bolt of the craft and making sure everything was in full working order before commencing the mission.

Looking out of the cockpit, the young teen regarded the swirling blue vortex of hyperspace. A light sigh escaped her lips as her thoughts trailed back to the countless times she had stared out into the swirling maelstrom of augmented space, her thoughts and gaze falling down unto a small picture that was wedged among the rims of the various switches. The image depicted the young teen perhaps two years ago, given that her hair was a bright yellow hue locked in a tight and happy embrace with her late father, the pair standing in the flight deck of the Grey Swan. A wave of gilt crossed her, knowing that she wouldn't have that opportunity to see him again, yet alone be able to rescue both her father and the crew.

With a sudden lurch, the fighter dripped out of hyperspace. Breaking the teen's musing on the recent events that had sent her into an emotional state. No sooner had the fighters dropped out of hyperspace, the teen received an incoming comms transmission from her flight companion. Advising that they had arrived at the correct system before asking for suggestions as to how to proceed, shaking her head the teen sighed at first,it seemed that the pair of them were both rookies in this. Pressing down on the comms control stud on her control yoke, the teen simply responded with a "Acknowledged Star Six" before the channel went quiet.

Her gaze soon recentered onto the picture of her and her father, her lips pursing in thought for a moment before her hands tightened their grip around the control yoke. Her eyes narrowing as she dwelled over the train of thoughts, she had lost her loved ones to the Empire and all that it stood for, even those that profiteered from the Imperial rule. The teen's features hardened as she could feel her mind become awash with a new found resolve. Even though she had lost and felt a terrible pain because of it, Eisa wouldn't allow that to happen to another if she could help it, even if it was to curb the abhorrent slave trade.

A series of clicking sounds resonated within the cockpit, as the fiery haired teen powered up the offensive systems of the ship. Before eventually opening up the comms channel once again. "We attack from the flank, Freighters are not covered from the rear" She spoke out over the comms channel breaking the silence that fell over the two craft. "We go in hot, hit them hard and fast before they have a chance to react and call for aid" Eisa added, before returning her attention back towards the various display consoles to ensure that all her weapons systems had powered up and were ready.

Having grown up living on a freighter the young teen had grew to understand the warnings that often came when traveling through the lawless regions of space. Pirates would often employ the Hit and run tactics like this to strike at the unsuspecting freighters catching them off guard and leaving little time to react or prepare a counter offensive. And it seemed that there was the potential chance that if the Czerka Corporation had been exploiting the system, then there was the chance they would become complacent. Which would allow the rebels to deal a critial hit to their target's systems before there was even an opportunity to react.

"Prime your weapons and follow my lead" Eisa spoke out, advising Aurelian to ready himself for the opening assult. Moments before the teen fully opened her ship's throttle and lurched forwards and breaking formation. Her craft accelerating out of their cover and sped in pursuit of their target. Within a matter of minutes the Cygnet had closed in on the flank of the freighter, Eisa's eyes narrowing as she regarded the targeting computer, gently adjusting the position of the control yoke to ensure that the ships laser cannons were aligned with its target her finger lightly pressing against the trigger in readiness to open fire.

As soon as she was in range and the target lock tone started to ring out, the teen squeezed the firing trigger, unleashing a torrent of crimson hued laser blasts being directed towards the rear of the ship. The repeating bursts of the laser fire impacting in brilliant white flashes against the shields, that weathered the initial torrent at first before the shields covering the rear half of the ship started to fluctuate, as the emitters started to strain and take damage from the opening attack. As the ship sped towards the rear of the ship, Eisa adjusted the trajectory of her ship as her thumb toggled the weapon select switch on the yoke, switching the weapons over to her concussion missiles.

As soon as the target lock tone rang out, the teen squeezed the trigger and unleashed the first of her craft's three missiles. The concussion missile ripped off out of its launcher tube and rocketed towards the rear engines of the ship. A solitary chime rang out from the ship computer confirming that the missile had hit it's target, as a large fire ball erupted from the rear of the frieghter that started to list to the side, as the damage from the ship's engine systems caused secondary explosions within the hull of the ship. Resulting from the explosive impact of the missile, the fragile internal components that bound the freighter's reactor core and the engine systems took damage, inflicting power outages throughout the ships systems.

Pulling off to her port side, the teen broke off her attack. maneuvering her fighter craft back to circle around for another attack to the freighter's rear, should Aurelian's attacks need a follow up. But hopefully their hit and run tactic could cripple the ship before it had a chance to react and call out for aid.

 

[Aurelian Keth]

Sighing with relief when he received Eisa’s response Aurelian suddenly realised just how freaked out he had been flying around on his own without hearing another’s voice. Maybe he had gotten too used to flying the Freighter with Nera. He let his ship glide closer to Eisa’s so that he could easily see the Cygnet from his cockpit. The man frowned and glanced back at the woman’s ship, he could of swore he had sensed something, strong emotion of some kind. Did the Force even work across space like that? Even if it had been imagined that didn’t mean he wasn’t worried about the girl’s state of mind. Maybe a bit of action would help her clear her mind for a little while.

His ponderings where cut off as the communication line came alive with Eisa’s voice once more. She give her suggestion and before he could respond she was off. Aurelian sighed and nodded to himself, the girl’s voice had a hard quality to it that he was certain didn’t exist before her father’s passing. Flicking the switches on the weapon systems panel he watched the small screen as it began to light up, first warning him that the capacitors of the Grey Ghost’s two laser cannons registered as fully charged. The second was a simple light that indicated the missile launcher was active.

‘Now if only there was a display telling me I had shields.’ he thought with annoyance. If he ever tracked down whatever idiot thought making military crafts without such minimal defenses then they would be having words. Hopefully whatever Freighter they were going after was neither well armed nor well protected. Or particularly fast… or particularly clever. Really he would appreciate it if it was dead in space and the crew where all fast asleep. That wasn’t too much to ask, right?

With everything ready he reopened comms. “Affirmative Star Three. Weapons primed. Followed your lead.” he confirmed.

Pushing on the throttle Aurelian kept his hand on the control stick as his ship fell in behind Eisa’s own. He glanced to his left to read the accelerometer to check his crafts speed. He needed to keep an eye on it, accelerating too quickly could engage the sublight booster which he’d been told using could cause unforeseen damage to his ship’s systems. Another thing to worry about. Looking to his right he cast a glance at the fuel gauge and shook his head, it was obviously still full and he didn't know why he’d bothered. Nerves most likely.

Looking up he he took a deep breath and steadied his nerves. It was crunch time.

Resting his finger on the laser cannons firing trigger he prepared for their assault. The primary display monitor began beeping as it registered the ship they were looking for. He pushed on the throttle further as the two ships sped up even more as they began to close the distance as swiftly as possible. Aurelian’s eyes darted from staring out of the cockpit ahead of them to the display monitor which was counting down the distance. When they where nearly in range he reached up and activated the targeting computer.

Aurelian watched Eisa’s ship, the lead ship, fire at the Freighter and with a mixture of primary and secondary weapons she inflicted large scale damage to the vessel. Before it could recover the Padawan brought his own snubfighter into range. Letting his trigger finger squeeze the firing button for the lasers the weapons went off, making impact against the ship’s hull however after a moment his right light laser cannon misfired and deactivated. He’d deal with that after. He’d learnt one thing from the few impacts his weapons had made, there had been no distinctive flair of the deflector shields being struck so Eisa must have took them out already.

Preparing his main attack Aurelian lined up his targeting computer so that he was locked onto nearly the dead center of the Freighter. His thumb pressed against the joystick and after the slightest delay the concussion missile flew out of the launcher and tore through space. The computer beeped to indicate the firing sequence was complete. Aurelian was already turning away from his target, breaking off to the starboard side, when his computer beeped again. The missile had struck true.

It wasn’t until he spun his ship back around for a second run that Aurelian saw just how much damage his missile had done. He must have accidentally struck a key system because the slaver ship had been torn in two by the impact. Pulling back on the throttle he came in slow to inspect the wreckage but it did appear as if the ship had been thoroughly destroyed. “Looks like we had more success than expected..” he said over the comm-link.

Suddenly Aurelian’s computer beeped, there was a data package being transmitted by the barely alive computers of the Freighter. He let his ship download it and the primary monitor soon displayed coordinates. It appeared to be a nearby criminal base of some sort that Czerka did business with in the area. ‘I’ll have to look into that later.’

Before he could say anything more to Eisa the monitor brought up new readings. Incoming fighters! However they were travelling at an almost sedate pace. If Aurelian had to guess they were coming to rendezvous with the Freighter and had no idea what had happened but it wouldn’t take long for them to work it out.

“Star Three. There are two fighters inbound, Czerka escorts I believe, they do not seem to have realised what happened. We should move quick. Take the lead again, I need to reboot my weapons.”

With that Aurelian turned his ship onto an approach vector towards the incoming fighters while switching off his lasers then switching them back on to let the capacitors recharge.

Spoiler

OOC: As recommended due to us absolutely crushing it so early I've added another wave of enemies. I rolled for 2 new enemies and I would say Czerka is probably using something like these: RX/5 Starfighter

 

[Eisa Swan]

Narrowing her eyes as the teen circled round her star fighter, her gaze focused on the movement of her flight partner. A light sigh escaped the teens lips as she watched the second missile strike true against the hull of the freighter. The resulting explosion had finished it off, shattering the ship clean in two as it's hull fractured from the explosive force of the concussion missile tearing into its weakened hull. Inwardly the teen was glad that her shout had paid off, it seemed that in the routine nature of Czerka's operations they had grown lax and complacent. Offering them little time to form any resistance or counter to the sudden use of hit and run tactics, something that Eisa was thankful for, given the rather limited capabilities of her fighter, something that once she gets the time to clear her mind and pass mourning her father then she will focus her attention on to overhauling the Cygnet.

Throwing her eyes over towards the proximity scanners as the heads up came through over the ships comm's, the fiery haired teen confirmed the relayed information with what was being displayed upon her screen. "Acknowledged Star Six" Eisa responded initially as she pursed her lips in thought, her gaze looking out of the windshields to track the position of the grey ghost relative to her and the approaching ships. "You take the second fighter, I'll take the lead he's closer to me" Eisa added over the comms before the channel fell silent once again.

Within her mindset with the spacing between them and the incoming patrol, if Aurelian was to maneuver to take on the lead patrol fighter, then it would leave more time for his target to evade. Eisa's understanding of dog fights was to move hard and fast, to catch the enemy off guard and leave little time for maneuvering. It was with that in mind that the cygnet's engines flared back up to full output, before breaking off to attack her self assigned target. As the fighter accelerated forward, the teen's eyes watched as the lead broke off from the flying formation, eyes narrowing as she gritted her teeth. The two ships that formed Star Squadrons attack on the freighter, had been picked up by the now engaging patrol, and they were ready.

The lead Czerka fighter had maneuvered it's trajectory to intercept the Cygnet, before Eisa had the opportunity to align her attack run, a series of neon green flashes ripping past the fighter of Star three and it rolled along it's axis, spiraling out of the path of the initial round of opening fire. Though whilst the teen had evaded the opening salvo, she had allowed the patrol ship to get on her flank. Thinking and acting purely on instinct, the fiery haired teen snapped her hand to the inertial damper control before forcefully throwing her control yoke to the side spinning the ship around in a sharp yawing motion. The unorthodox maneuver was enough to evade the brunt of the attack on the Cygnet's flank, but it was not fully effective as several laser blasts had struck against the hull of her ship.

Despite taking damage, it was fortunately not inflicted upon the critical ships systems. But from the flashing read outs on her diagnostics screen, a few of the auxiliary power relays had been fried. Though the concern over the systems was cut short by the target locking tone ringing out, instinctively the teen squeezed the trigger to fire her laser cannons. Although several burst of crimson laser fire flashed off, the sustained damage had cut the power feed to her cannons, all that fired was the remaining stored charge within the capacitors.

Wasting little time and being left with little offensive capability, Eisa switched over to her secondary weapon. Her finger pulling against the trigger as the target lock tone had already started to fade, firing off the second stored missile within the ship. The teen watched as it adjusted it's trajectory to trail the patrol fighter and impact hard against the hull of the target, engulfing the ship in a large fireball, sending shrapnel in every direction. Some of which rained down upon the fuselage of the Cygnet, potmarking and denting the outer hull of the teen's Fighter.

Re-engaging her inertia dampeners, the teen re centered her ships trajectory coming around in a broad circle towards the grey ghost and it's enemy combatant, taking advantage of the time she would afford herself to adjust and re-calibrate the ship's power relays to reroute the feed to her laser cannon's capacitors, in an attempt to restore her full offensive capability.

 

[Aurelian Keth]

“Second fighter. Confirmed.” he replied over the Comms. Pushing on the throttle the Grey Fox accelerated into attack speed towards the two fighters. He watched Eisa’s ship spin off to engage the lead vessel. However Aurelian didn’t have time to focus on the Cygnet. He had his own safety to take care off not to mention the second fighter.

He made a beeline straight for the other fighter, he glanced at his accelerometer and confirmed he was moving at 89 MGLT. He gritted his teeth waiting for his opportunity. Lasers fire ripped towards him and her jerked at the control stick to send his ship into a spin to avoid the attack although some of the energy bolts still clipped his vessel. When he got close enough Aurelian pushed the throttle forward completely and felt the sublight booster kick in. The accelerometer registered the increase and soon read 105 MGLT. The unexpected acceleration carried him straight past the Czerka fighter. ♦

Pulling back on the throttle he pulled on the control stick and flipped his ship around to that he now faced the back of the enemy fighter, albeit with his view now upside down, Aurelian tried to get into a superior fighting position but the two vessels darted around one another with neither able to fully get on top of their target. The Padawan bit back a curse as the Czerka fighter unleashed its laser cannons towards him once again however, luckily, they only clipped the wings of the Grey Ghost. ♦

Knowing he had no time Aurelian pushed his ship back to full speed, quickly proving to be more agile than his opponent, and re-activated his targeting computer. He waited for the first chance for the computer to register a lock, even for the briefest moment. As soon as the ship bleeped it’s targeting lock Aurelian pulled the trigger on reflex. The Ghost’s lasers ripped across the cockpit of the enemy craft sending it spiralling out of control, although it still had some life in it yet. ♦

With his enemy half-crippled he got a more secure target lock before pressing his thumb on the trigger. The primary monitor confirmed the missile launch had been a success and soon the space in front of his vessel was alight with the explosions of the successfully impacting concussion missile and the Czerka fighter blowing up from the damage it had received. ♦

Checking the Grey Ghost’s main computer his ship registered no more enemies in the vicinity. Sighing with relief the man leaned back in his cockpit realising just show tense he had been during all the action. This Starfighter business was going to take some getting used to and Aurelian was going to talk with Star Leader about their defenceless ships, they had to find some solution. No shields was far too dangerous and the rebels couldn’t risk losing successful pilots.

Running some diagnostics the computer only registered minor, superficial, damage to one wing of the craft which should have absolutely no effect on the Grey Ghost’s performance. It did mean he would have to repaint the damned thing though. Well the Durasteel plating would probably need replaced too but that was the problem of Star Base’s mechanics. As he brought his ship around to meet up with the Cygnet he activated the communications line again. “How is everything on your end?” he asked. “The Ghost seems fine, just a few scratches luckily enough.”

As the Grey Ghost fell in beside the Cygnet he spoke again. “Should we do another quick sweep of the area? Just to make sure Czerka Corp didn’t deploy anymore assets to intercept their freighter.” he suggested. In truth everything had ended far quicker than he’d expected, even with the unexpected Starfighters.

 

[Eisa Swan]

Throttling back on the ships acceleration, as a second explosion flashed over in her peripheray view out of the cockpit. The teen looked over towards her scanner readout, to see that the remaining blip signifying the Enemy ship's position had disappeared. Leaning her helmeted head back against the upper rest of her seat, the teen let out a relieved sigh before aborting her approach to her flight partner's position. Pursing her lips in thought the teen had started to run through the various systems she would have to inspect and repair before launching for her next sortie. Her toughts being cut short as Aurelian's voice rang out over the comms channel. "Still breathing" Eisa responded initially before reaching over to adjust a few swtiches. "Did take some damage on my aux power distributor relays though" she continued before turning her attention over to the latest read outs of her ships systems.

"But its nothing a me and Ditto can't fix in a few hours whilst we regroup back at base" Eisa added, before reaching over and powering down her laser cannons to force a weapon systems reboot to see if the re-routing worked. Her gaze focused on the Grey Ghost, as she visibly tracked the ship and maneuvered the Cygnet into position, forming up on Aurelian's wing.

Looking out of her cockpit window, the teen glanced over towards her flight partner, as his voice rang out through her headset, querying whether they should do a final sweep of the area before returning back to base. "Aye make sure the area is secure before we jump back to base" the teen responded, as she directed her gaze towards her scanner display. Adjusting her throttle to keep a swift but cautious pace, the teen banked off to the side as she started to maneuver her ship into a patrol flight path. Her eyes flicking between the display screen and out through the glass panels of her cockpit, being sure not to be solely reliant on the ships sensors.

As the flight circled around the sector, the teen kept her gaze and awareness to her surroundings looking out for anything that was unusual beyond the drifting wreckage of the downed Czerka ships. Closing up towards the end of their circuit the teen pursed her lips as she scanned through the read outs, it seemed that the Czerka corporation had deemed this region of space as low risk, as there was nothing appearing on her sensors. "looks like we're clear Star Six" Eisa advised as she started to toggle a few switches before inputting several commands into the console. "Lets return back to base and regroup with the others" she added, whilst she finished punching in the co-ordinates that would take them back to their base of operations. Throttling up the cygnet lunged forward before a sudden blue flash engulfed the ship as it made it's jump into hyperspace.

 

[Aurelian Keth]

“I’m glad to hear it.” he said with genuine relief, he’d probably been more worried about Eisa’s survival than his own. Listening to her the man give a nod. “That’s fortunate. The diagnostics are saying that there is nothing but minor surface damage one of my wings but I won’t know for sure until I land and get Fives to have a look.” he told her, but he was unconcerned. Everything had seemingly gone much smoother than expected. Aurelian had the Grey Ghost match the Cygnet’s speed as she fell into position.

Accelerating to around 60 MGLT he continued to scan the area alongside the young woman while also visible looking around from his cockpit. The man was relieved when his instruments returned a negative result, the only other ship being picked up by the Ghost was Star Three’s fighter. After a thorough search of the area he heard Eisa’s response over the ship’s systems. Aurelian nodded slightly. “I concur Star Three.”

Pulling up the pre-programmed base co-ordinates from the Navicomputer Aurelian began the calculations and lined his ship up for the hyperspace route as the monitor on his cockpit indicated the path he needed to take. Once the ship was ready he throttled the Grey Ghost forward. “Jumping to hyperspace in 3, 2, 1…” at that the Ship broke out of real space as it entered hyperspace with a flash.

//Thread End