|
Checking In
| |
| Geoff-Cole | Date: Monday, 18 Jul 2011, 11:11 AM | Message # 1 |
 Colonel
Group: Users
Messages: 154
Status: Offline
| ][ Abrion Sector - Molavar System - Molavar ][
In large contrast to many of the worlds of the Abrion Sector, Molavar was a flyspeck; a backwater, low-production desert world filled with a number of small spaceports and moisture farms, as well as being home to the Molavaran race. With only one exceptionally large city, Malcraan, it hardly seemed noteworthy. It was for this reason that the ISD Cloak dropped out of hyperspace near the planet. On board, Commander Jeremy Brogan looked down upon the world with no little distaste. He was a firm believer in Human High Culture; quite speciest and more than willing to purge non-humans for little or no reason. Nonetheless, his dedication to duty, tactical mind and sound ethics had brought him to his current position as one of Moff Cole's primary commanders.
The visit to Molavar was unscheduled and unannounced. While there was a small Imperial presence at Malcraan; largely to deal with the taxes at the planet's biggest spaceport, most of Molavar was unaccounted for and things tended to get lax in such situations. With the dramatic decrease of piracy and lawlessness at Roon, it seemed likely that pirates and unwanted sort were likely to find a new haven, and odds were they wished to stay close to where they had formerly operated. As such, Molavar seemed a good place to start. Brogan would have liked to establish a permanent garrison on the world, but Cole's orders were to do some poking around at various planets and see if anything was amiss. Brogan's first order of business was to the communications officer, ordering an immediate grounding of any outgoing craft for inspections at Malcraan Spaceport.
A squadron of TIE fighters was dispatched to keep overwatch as a trio of Sentinel-class landing craft and a Lambda shuttle winged their way down to the planet's surface.Added (12 Jul 2011, 5:16 Am)
---------------------------------------------
A visit to the planetary governor, who would no doubt prove more than greedy enough to have been bribed and slightly on the inept side (and Brogan was not disappointed in these estimations on meeting said governor) did not seem as if it would be overly helpful. Instead, it would fall to questioning of the civilians, who appeared none too warm towards the Imperials. In the end, it was likely to be a show of force here. To that end, the trio of Sentinel-class landing craft disgorged a number of items and people: one-hundred eight stormtroopers, a dozen compact assault vehicles, two dozen 74-Z speeder bikes and two dozen E-web heavy blasters.
It was a decent-sized force for such a planet as Molavar. Within several hours, the landing craft were unloaded and returned to low orbit. The trio of shuttles could act as gunships should any resistance of any kind be found; Moff Cole had wanted results after all, and a heavy response would get results. The squadron of TIEs were more for a show of force around the primary city. Thirty-six stormtroopers were parceled out for the speeder bikes and assault vehicles, allowing teams to split off and head towards outlying cities. Divided down into two bikes for every assault vehicle, it was deemed that such a group could repel any attacks until support arrived. A second squadron of TIEs was dispatched from the Cloak to cover the night side of the planet, ensuring all flights did indeed remain grounded.
Unfortunately for the Libs, their planet had just come under close Imperial scrutiny. Added (17 Jul 2011, 8:46 PM)
---------------------------------------------
Brogan had another purpose, as he outlined to the planetary governor in the corpulent man's opulent office: Molavar was to become the site of a rather large mining operation, courtesy of the Dorvalla Mining Company of which Moff Cole was the primary shareholder, and by a large margin at that. Molavar, normally a planet of little note, was about to be thrust upon the map of progress as part of Cole's renovation of unproductive planets in the Abrion Sector. To this end, Brogan's mission, and the mission of the lieutenants and underlings he would leave behind, was to ensure that no Separatist or rebellious groups had made their home on the backwater planet and could conceivably compromise the mining operations that were to be underway. Added (18 Jul 2011, 12:11 PM)
---------------------------------------------
Even as Bronson outlined Moff Cole's plan to the governor, stormtroopers were patrolling the streets of Malcraan. It was the first warning to the populace that lawlessness would not be tolerated. Within the first hour, several drunken brawls had been broken up with ruthless efficiency and the perpetrators hauled off to the local jail. The attitude in the city quickly became one of caution; it wouldn't be long before the inevitable investigations began as neighbor would testify that another neighbor had rebellious thoughts. Brogan planned to treat all of these cases quite seriously and ordered the governor and his staff to do the same, much to the complaints of the rather lazy man. Brogan made it quite clear though that a lack of attention to duty would result in the man's post being stripped from him.
Meanwhile, the CAV-speeder bike teams began to fan out across the countryside. This deep in Imperial territory, they were not overly worried about interacting with a massed force. Instead, their show of force would likely cow any locals who might get uppity once the workers and transports began arriving to assemble the mining facility. Unknowingly, their forces were coming closer and closer to the base of operations the Libs had on Molavar.
Geoff Cole
Moff, Abrion Sector
Controlling Shareholder - Dorvalla Universal Corporation
|
| |
| |
| Tremaine_Fowlkes | Date: Tuesday, 26 Jul 2011, 4:10 PM | Message # 2 |
 Colonel general
Group: Users
Messages: 881
Status: Offline
| Indeed, this particular backwater planet is now under intense Imperial scrutiny. The news of the Imperial presence had been passed to the Libs' base of operations once their garrison had reached the capital city. The messages had come from a few civilians that managed to send the messages through before the Imperials had taken hold of them. Yes, Molavarans are more likely to be loyal to the Libs than the Empire itself. This is due to two reasons: First one, the Empire had a Human High Culture. This doesn't bode well for most non-Humans. Secondly, this was a backwater planet. Which means the Empire wasn't going to pay attention to it...much. The natives had to fend for themselves.
Of course, the population had to submit to the newly acquired Imperial presence. They had to. The stormtroopers were armed with the advanced weaponry and are trained in warfare. The Molavarans knew that if they rebelled by themselves, the Empire would have committed to a cowardly orbital bombardment and would become the cause of their extinction. However, they would help the Libs if it had come down to a choice between a definite chance of being wiped out and helping the Libs, giving themselves a chance to at least repel and save some lives.
By the time the Imperial presence had entered Malcraan, the rebellion were already prepping for an evacuation. Almost every single member of the resistance, except soldiers and pilots, would load up as much as they can on each GR-75 medium transport (which is two). Each GR-75 were armed with 4 twin fire-linked laser cannon turrets. The Libs wanted to go down the path of producing a fleet of small, fast warships. This was the beginning of that, providing that either one doesn't get shot down during the evacuation.
Meanwhile, 50 soldiers would split up into each transportation. The Libs had decided to let a squad of SPALs, of which is eight, deal with incoming stormtroopers if they needed to, or at least fend them off until they're ready to take off should the enemy ever reach the base of operations. The base commander had set the base into a self-destruction mode. The base would blow up in ten minutes. Each pilots would get into their pilot seats, and rev the engines up in order to be prepared for take off. There were eight for each squadrons. Each squadron were grouped into different fighter designs. There were BTL-B y-wing starfighters/bombers, R-41 starchasers, and Cloakshapes. In total, there were 24 starfighters escorting the two GR-75s.
There were supposed to be one more squadron, and that was the Alpha Squadron. However, they were in Quellii at the moment, attempting to rescue Baird. As little time had passed, the SPALs had set up a perimeter around the hangar bay. There was no point in setting a perimeter for the whole base of operations if there was going to be an explosion anyway. While everyone was loading stuffs up into each transports, a team of engineers would simply program each Republic shuttle probe droid to self-destruct when they approaches an Imperial patrol. After a couple minutes of installing this program into each droid, they were ready to take off. There were 4 probe droids in total.
Each probe droid would take off, one by one. They were spreading out, each one went in a different direction. They would act as a decoy. Even if that didn't work, they could always blow up and kill some of the Imperials anyway. After everything and everyone was ready for a take off, the SPALs would immediately retreat to one of the GR-75s. The base commander opted to stay behind, to make sure the self-destruction would continue so that it won't fall into wrong hands...whether it's Imperials or other pirate faction.
The Libs had a feeling there were going to be a fight, but they'd rather escape to survive and fight another day. However, if the Imperials refused to allow them to escape, they would fight until every single member dies. Each fighter squadron would take off, one by one. Then the transports followed by. They were heading for the night side of the planet. The resistance wanted to do the safest route as possible, avoiding an Imperial-class star destroyer in orbit. They didn't get that bit of information, but it was standard for the Empire to have a star destroyer hover above a planet before sending in ground forces. All twenty-four fighters would be escorting the two GR-75 medium transports...hoping not to encounter heavy resistance.
Tremaine Fowlkes
Senator of Telos IV
Message edited by Tremaine_Fowlkes - Tuesday, 26 Jul 2011, 4:25 PM |
| |
| |
| Geoff-Cole | Date: Tuesday, 26 Jul 2011, 5:59 PM | Message # 3 |
|
Colonel
Group: Users
Messages: 154
Status: Offline
| The Libs had selected an excellent site for a base of operations. Molavar was remote, held only a small Imperial presence and the planetary governor was more prone to taking bribes than refusing them. Even their actual base, a mere thirty miles (or forty-eight kilometers) from Malcraan was excellently situated. It was close enough to make supply and building easy, it offered them a place where contacts could land and meet and leave without the Imperial eye falling upon them and they could even recruit amongst the local populace if they so wished. All in all, a rather splendid setup. Now, though, the shadow of the Empire had fallen over Molavar and the Libs, and what had worked in their favor for so long would now turn against them.
Part of their problem was actually caused by their actions, though the idea behind it was rather ingenious. To send the shuttle probe droids in four different directions would have been confusing. Unfortunately, there was only one patrol that was close enough to the Libs' base for it to matter. A pair of troopers riding 74-Z speeder bikes, accompanied by their sergeant in the PX-10 compact assault vehicle, were heading dead north, straight towards the Libs' base of operations. They had closed perhaps three-quarters of the distance when the scouts picked up the signature of the probe droid and flew ahead to investigate. Seeing a shuttle droid was rather curious; the Empire knew of them and their use in the Republic and even kept a few around for use, more than likely. One of the troopers even had enough time to begin calling it in. "Uh, sergeant? It seems there's a shuttle droid and-" The comm cut off just as a brilliant flash lit the ground some kilometer and a half away from the sergeant, who immediately brought his PX-10 to a halt and called for higher, reporting an attack. Both troopers had been incinerated, along with their speeder bikes. Unfortunately, they had been flying too close and paid the price.
Molavar was considered a pacified planet. Aside from the squabbles amongst locals that were common on every planet, no member of Imperial enforcement had been assaulted to date. As such, the sergeant's call shot up the chain like wildfire. It was less than three minutes before word reached Brogan from his impromptu command center in the governor's lavish home. Immediately, he ordered the squadron of TIEs above Malcraan out to investigate. It was extensive firepower for a possible ground threat, but Brogan took no chances. It was less than two minutes later when the electronic warfare officer on board the Cloak called down and reported a mass of energy signatures to the north of Malcraan, almost a straight line distance from where the attack had occurred.
The officer reported that while the signatures were rather close together and hard to discern, he estimated a squadron to a squadron and a half of small craft as well as two larger signatures. Once again, Brogan took no chances and ordered the trio of Sentinel landing craft to move from low orbit to support the squadron of fighters. It was then that another call came down: identification of two separate squadrons having launched. It would seem the battle was to be joined.
Snapping orders, Brogan ordered another TIE squadron dispatched from the Cloak and recalled the squadron on patrol on the night side of Molavar. Their path would take them head on against whatever group was attempting to defy his orders and had struck at his soldiers. On the Star Destroyer, the comm officer hailed the unknown vessels, which were rapidly being identified as Y-wing, R-41 and Cloakshape snubfighters, followed by a pair of Gr-75 transports. "Unidentified vessels, stand down immediately and land. If you continue, you will be in defiance of Imperial order and subject to justice."
It would be a bit late for that statement though, for by the time the first squadron had emerged, it would find itself under massed fire from a full squadron of TIE fighters. Having the advantage of the 'higher ground' versus the newly emerging craft, it was quite possible that they could wreak some havoc before the initial squadron was able to gain a good height to attack from or before the second squadron could emerge.
Geoff Cole
Moff, Abrion Sector
Controlling Shareholder - Dorvalla Universal Corporation
|
| |
| |
| Tremaine_Fowlkes | Date: Thursday, 28 Jul 2011, 7:35 PM | Message # 4 |
|
Colonel general
Group: Users
Messages: 881
Status: Offline
| By the time the y-wing squadron had emerged, it was under fire from a squadron of TIE fighters. The y-wings were slower, but they made up for it due to their shielding. That's the only thing that had going for them when they were taken aback by the surprise attack. In moments' time, some of the y-wings' shielding indeed did get hammered. However, they wouldn't run out of shields just yet. By then a second squadron would emerge, a squadron of R-41s. They would proceed to lock their targets in pursuit for the TIE fighters.
The third squadron, Cloakshapes, would bear the burden of attempting to escort the GR-75s to safety. It was too late to respond to the star destroyer's call anyway, because by then, the TIEs were already all over them. The advantage the Libs' fighters have over the Imperials at the moment is their shielding. They knew they couldn't outrun the TIEs, so they decided to try and outfly them...which is probably a better option considering the superiority of the Imperial fighter designs.
Meanwhile, the GR-75s continued to try and make their way toward the night side of the planet so they would be able to enter the hyperspace from there on.
Tremaine Fowlkes
Senator of Telos IV
|
| |
| |
| Geoff-Cole | Date: Friday, 29 Jul 2011, 7:32 AM | Message # 5 |
|
Colonel
Group: Users
Messages: 154
Status: Offline
| Y-wings dog-fighting with TIE fighters; that was a rather bad idea for the Y-wings. Yes, they might have superior armament and shields, but they lacked the sheer speed and maneuverability to successfully combat the lighter, swifter fighters. Indeed, such was the folly of fielding a bomber platform against a fighter platform. The squadron of R-41 Starchasers would change that favor to the Libs though. Faster than the Y-wing, shielded and well armed, they would be a match for the TIE fighters, or at least better matched than the Y-wings, as shown by the near-immediate vaporization of a pair of TIEs. This placed the numerical superiority in the hands of the Libs. Then the second TIE squadron arrived to tear into them with a ferocious mass charge before splitting apart. The odds would be rather evened out at this point.
From the night side of the planet and still running atmospheric, a full squadron of TIE fighters screamed towards their meeting with the Cloakshape squadron and the pair of GR-75 transports. Fortunately, that particular battle was still a ways off, seeing as how the Libs were also running atmospheric; a benefit in some ways but a detriment in others, as, from low orbit, the Cloak gave pursuit. The tractor beams were warmed up and every available ion cannon that could be brought to bear opened fire. With a total of sixty to play around with, there was little doubt that a minimum of fifteen would able to clearly fire at the pair of transports and their escorts. The aim of their fire was directly on the vessels and leading a tad, so that their flight path would only take them into a rain of oncoming fire.
Here was where the major trouble began for the Libs. Flying atmospheric, the GR-75 transport had a maximum speed of six-hundred fifty kilometers per hour. What dove down behind them from low orbit though, having a speed advantage of one thousand kilometers per hour, were the trio of Sentinel-class landing craft. Aiming to drop in neatly behind the fleeing craft at a distance of a kilometer and a half to their rear and flying abreast, the craft on either side of the center-most Sentinel unleashed their full concussion missile load, a total of eight apiece, at the stern and engines of one of the GR-75 transports. The middle landing craft would lock one concussion missile onto each of the Cloakshape fighters and let fire. From there, each Sentinel's single ion cannon turret would spew blue fire at the pair of transports, attempting to disable them, while their forward-firing eight laser cannons and pair of chin-mounted blaster cannons sprayed death at the Cloakshape squadron, putting the Libs in a tight vise.
From the command center at Malcraan, Brogan had an overview of the entire battle as it was unfolding, and he watched with no small amount of glee as those who would dare strike against good and loyal Imperial military personnel were slowly herded into a box. He had no intention of giving any quarter unless they powered down and submitted to Imperial authority.
Geoff Cole
Moff, Abrion Sector
Controlling Shareholder - Dorvalla Universal Corporation
|
| |
| |
| Tremaine_Fowlkes | Date: Wednesday, 03 Aug 2011, 5:35 AM | Message # 6 |
|
Colonel general
Group: Users
Messages: 881
Status: Offline
| Indeed, it was a bad idea for the y-wings to pursue the TIEs. However, they didn't really have much time to properly send the specific fighters to deal with the TIEs. So they were going to pull off a risky move. One, that hopefully, would give them a slim chance of escaping. The situation was getting more dire by the minute. The Cloakshapes were sent to engage the Imperial fighters coming out of the night side of the planet. This particular fighter design may be outdated, but the Libs have seen the pirates use it well against the Imperials. For this reason alone, they decided to give the Cloakshapes a try. Because the Cloakshapes were engaged with a squadron of TIE fighters, R-41s would press on engaging the ones that came in behind the GR-75s.
Then this is where the situation almost drastically turned into an undesirable one. The Sentinels did their part in causing damage to the transports. The sparks would set off inside both of the transports, impacting the shielding. It especially didn't help when the star destroyer went in pursuit and began hammering the Gr-75s with their own cannons. The Y-wings had no choice but to move in and gun for the Sentinels. Since they were more of a bomber platform than a fighter platform, they would spay proton torpedoes toward each Sentinel landing craft. 2 proton torpedoes would come out of each MG7 proton torpedo launcher. Meanwhile, each GR-75 would split their twin fire-linked laser cannons by two. Two of them (total of four) would target the landing crafts, while the other two would fire back at the star destroyer in pursuit. Especially after they went right into the rain of incoming fire.
The Libs would continue to press forward, attempting to use the planetary gravity to help slingshot themselves to the other side of the planet. Then the next thing they did would be to attempt and pull up to right between the thin layer of atmosphere that would protect the planet from space. The pilots knew fully well that the TIE fighters doesn't have shielding to protect them from burning up, that is if the Libs would continue to fly at that height. The star destroyer would have the shielding it needed, but would be difficult to pull off an maneuver with that size of a ship. The GR-75s knew the risks as well, and were very willing to attempt them. That would leave the real threat to the Sentinels, they should have sufficient shielding to protect themselves.
However, they didn't come off completely unscratched. The Libs had lost two y-wings, a R-41, and two cloakshapes. The GR-75s would take quite a beating as well. The only good thing going for them right now is that they aren't disabled just yet, but they were moving a little bit slower...having blown out an engine for one of the transports. Unknown to the Empire, this group of rebels would rather die than to fall in the hands of the Empire. Once they're captured, they're as well as dead anyway...with their interrogation techniques and all. As they continued to make their beeline in the atmosphere in attempt to burn up the Imperial pilots and to escape, the crew were too busy to try anything else. It would fall to the SPALs and the soldiers inside each transports to set in a program that would have self-destruct ready to go, if needed.
The Imperial in charge of this whole thing would see that despite having superior technology and being outgunned, this group of ragtag rebels would give a considerable amount of resistance. They would show that no matter how dire of a circumstance that could get, they would continue to fight. Even if it would go down to the last man.
Tremaine Fowlkes
Senator of Telos IV
|
| |
| |
| Geoff-Cole | Date: Wednesday, 03 Aug 2011, 9:11 AM | Message # 7 |
|
Colonel
Group: Users
Messages: 154
Status: Offline
| The Libs seemed to have an odd use of squadrons. Instead of the traditional twelve-fighter squadron, their fielded theirs in squadrons of eight, which automatically placed them at a four-ship disadvantage. The initial squadron to engage was down by two, compounded by the loss of another three from the relentless R-41 Starchasers' assault, dropping them further to seven. Even as the Y-wings broke off, these seven regrouped to attack the R-41 squadron as a massed group, the entire flight focusing fire on one R-41 at a time as they swept towards them. Even with shields, the Starchasers were bound to take losses; they were more heavily armed, true, but Imperial mass tactics would win the day. It was often said that a forces that had more discipline could defeat a force that was numerically superior but undisciplined. Unfortunately for the Libs, the Imperials had numbers and discipline.
The Cloakshape fighters and the second TIE squadron would begin their intricate dance at this point, with a pair of TIEs being vaporized rather early on into the fight. With less numbers, the Cloakshape fighters were down to six, but the TIE squadron still at ten, then nine as another shot by a Cloakshape turned a TIE into a ball of wreckage that fell towards the earth below. Nonetheless, in the face of such superior numbers, the TIE squadron seemed to hold the upper hand, seeing as how they outdid the Cloakshape in atmospheric speed, acceleration and agility. It seemed true as well, that unless these Cloakshape fighters had been modified to have a hyperdrive, they were going nowhere fast without a ring system or a hypersled.
The problem the Libs would find with their plan to slingshot utilizing the planetary gravity was that it did not tend to work when the object wishing to be slung was already within the planet's gravity well. It required the dive and speed down into the upper atmosphere where gravity began to pull, a fight between the gravity and freedom of space, and the Libs simply had not risen to do such. It was as the Y-wings moved to engage the landing craft that the next prong of the attack struck. The third and most recently dispatched squadron of TIE fighters had remained out of the gravity, using their superior sublight speed to move past the battle occurring at atmospheric speeds to achieve an edge and get 'ahead' of the battle before diving down into the atmosphere. With the guns of the GR-75 transports busy, the mass of twelve TIEs struck hard at the rightmost transport, pounding with their laser cannons at maximum range upon shields already weakened by the Sentinel landing craft.
The Libs had thrown six Y-wings at the landing craft, giving them two-to-one odds. It didn't help that the landing craft had exhausted their missile supply on the GR-75 transports and at the Cloakshape fighters. Nonetheless, they were heavily armed with a variety of forward-firing and turreted weapons, and agile enough as well. Twenty-four proton torpedoes had been fired at the landing craft, a rather ugly amount of incoming to deal with. Breaking their line apart, one craft rolled left, one right and one pulled straight up. It was only a halfway effective job, unfortunately. The landing craft that pulled upwards presented the largest profile and drew eight missiles onto it. The Sentinel exploded in a spectacular flash. Now, sad as it was to say, but the Y-wing, durable as it might be considered, was equaled by the landing craft in atmospheric flight. The Sentinels, however, had far more precise targeting computers and more importantly, chaff. Both surviving shuttles opened fire on their pursuing missiles with their ion cannon turret and pair of blaster turrets, as well as popping chaff, spinning to evade. One landing craft was struck a glancing blow and forced to pull out of the fight for the time. The final had been the luckiest. It's rapid-fire gunnery and expert crew had succeeded in downing four of the torpedoes while the chaff stream had confused the rest. The odds were still decidedly in the favor of the Y-wings though.
The Cloak came on without stopping; the fire of four laser cannons hardly put a dent in its shields, much less deterred it's captain. After passing through a continuous hail of ion cannon fire, which continued to adjust and track the fleeing transports, it was decided that another course would be taken as well. The landing craft had called for help and the Cloak would answer. Fire from fifteen turbolaser cannons lanced out to strike at the Y-wing formation; as the snubfighters had not closed fully with the landing craft, there was room to strike at them without fear of hitting Imperial forces. It was the transport with the damaged engine, though, that drew the Cloak's attention. All ion cannon fire focused solely on that vessel as a tractor beam was locked on. The ship had made no real moves to jink and evade, after all, and so therefore, a lock would be likely easy, especially with so much ion fire concentrated on such a small vessel. Being disabled seemed quite likely for that particular ship, even as its companion was coming under contact from the third TIE squadron.
Geoff Cole
Moff, Abrion Sector
Controlling Shareholder - Dorvalla Universal Corporation
|
| |
| |
| Tremaine_Fowlkes | Date: Thursday, 04 Aug 2011, 7:43 AM | Message # 8 |
|
Colonel general
Group: Users
Messages: 881
Status: Offline
| The Libs had continued to take a beating from the Imperial forces. The circumstances might have been different if it was a battle the forces of Libs and Imperials would meet up. Instead, the Libs chose the evacuation and the Imperials quickly came upon them. That was the results they had to live with, and they would have chosen an evacuation no matter what. The battle is in favor of His True Traitor, at this point the remainder of the forces wanted to get out of there so the rebellion would still have soldiers to fight against the Empire.
The losses continue to mount. The Imperials may have been better trained, but the Libs have something they don't. The sheer will to fight for freedom, and that would help them out a little bit. It was often said that those that fight hard and smart would be able to take down as many enemies as possible. The R-41s would lose two more of its squadron, reducing the squadron to five. Leaving the five to deal with the seven TIEs that were chasing them, they'd continue to try and shake them off while launching the concussion missiles toward the newest Imperial squadron that had just entered the battle. Each R-41 would launch two concussion missiles, one to each TIE. That would bring to a total of ten missiles, targeting ten Imperial starfighters. If every single missile were successful, the third squadron would soon be reduced to two.
The squadron of the Cloakshapes had taken one more loss, bringing a total to five as well. While the Sentinels are more heavily armed than the cloakshapes, true, but they're far more maneuverable. That makes it harder for the Sentinels to target them, leaving the cloakshapes to attempt and fend off the second TIE squadron and doing their best to protect the crippled GR-75. At least one Sentinel were destroyed and another one were crippled enough to leave the battle for the time being. This would prompt the same GR-75 to recall the remaining shuttle probe droids, of which is three. The shuttles had already been programmed with self-destruct, all they had to do is to simply fly over and attempt to ram themselves into the last Sentinel. In case the droids could ram, they'd use each of their lone laser cannon to fire upon the lone landing craft.
Two more y-wings would be lost with the firing by the star destroyer in the pursuit, the remaining four y-wings would evade the laserfire. The crippled GR-75 had finally come to a stop. The cloakshape decided to go ahead and go an all-out attack on the second squadron, spaying two concussion missiles each. In the process, the soldiers inside both GR-75s thought it would also be best to place a bomb that had a combination of timed and dead man's switch. The bombs were placed inside the armory where there were several explosives to accelerate the damage of the self-destruct. Finally, the disabled GR-75 would order the cloakshapes to go protect the lone, and still operating, transport.
The lone GR-75 transport would finally make its way out of the planetary atmosphere, taking themselves to the space. Immediately, they would begin dialing in the coordinates for one of the Libs' outposts. The five R-41s, five cloakshapes, and four y-wings would continue to fend off the TIEs while escorting the lone GR-75. The Libs' fighter squadrons would turn into one single hybrid and large squadron. While they're fighting hard to fend off the TIEs, they were more of protecting the transport than to chase the Imperials down. They weren't in position to do so, anyway.
The disabled transport would wait for the star destroyer to drag it using the tractor beam. Hopefully, the standard Imperial view of there not being a much of a difference between a pirate and a rebel would serve the disabled transport well. Since it was apparent that the Libs had abandoned this particular transport to its fate.
Tremaine Fowlkes
Senator of Telos IV
|
| |
| |
| Geoff-Cole | Date: Thursday, 04 Aug 2011, 11:06 AM | Message # 9 |
|
Colonel
Group: Users
Messages: 154
Status: Offline
| To Brogan, at the command post in Malcraan, there was no other way the battle could possibly go other than in Imperial favor. Pirates were expected on certain planets in the Abrion Sector; planets such as this one that had not yet been cleansed of the filth. The group his forces pursued utilized such pirate vessels as there were. The Cloakshape and the R-41 were oft used as such craft; the Y-wing not so often, but common enough to serve a raider's purpose. Even the Gr-75 transports, armed as they were, spoke volumes of raiders. The way they fought though, in an organized manner, threw such conclusions into doubt. Pirates would have broken and run. These sentients stood their ground, obviously trying to buy time for their transports to escape. With such a curiosity, Brogan could hardly scatter them to the winds; prisoners had to be taken and the rest, destroyed.
The R-41 flight, down to five craft against the seven TIEs, was hopelessly outclassed and outmatched, especially as they turned their attention to the newest squadron which was focusing fire on the GR-75 without damaged engines. The TIE fighter may have lacked shields; may have lacked the ion cannons and concussion missile launchers of the R-41, but it held an edge of one-hundred fifty kilometers per hour speed in atmospheric flight, and the Starchasers lacked heavy armor or even internal hull bracing, making it a vulnerable craft against well-placed enemy hits. As they had turned to engage the third and newest TIE squadron, they left their rear unguarded, and the seven TIE fighters would mass and fire with a vengeance. It was very unlikely that the Starchasers would remain unscathed, seeing as how their shields were weakened from dog fighting and now their vulnerable posteriors were open season. The move was not without merit though; the third TIE squadron was focused on the transport, and as such, only five took note of the concussion missiles and popped chaff, spiraling away and loosing the GR-75 as their target. Six of the Imperial fighters were vaporized outright by the massed concussion missile barrage, The seventh, through luck, had rolled at the proper moment to bring himself more in line with the GR-75 and as such, evaded the majority of the missile's detonation. Nonetheless, one wing was fractured by the concussion and the out-of-control TIE was quite likely to crash into the GR-75, such was its erratic path.
Simply because the Sentinel was far less maneuverable did not mean its weapon systems, those turreted, that is, could not track and fire at far more nimble targets. The shuttle probe droids were noted from quite some distance away, and did indeed serve as a distraction to the remaining landing craft, drawing its attention away from the Cloakshape fighters. Even with a solitary laser cannon apiece, the probe droids could not hope to down the much more heavily shielded and armored vessel, leading well to the belief that they were either distraction or, more likely, a suicide ship. The landing craft's pair of blaster turrets and ion cannon turret swiveled to blast at the trio of shuttle probe droids, evading as it fired to keep the distance between itself and the shuttle droids. It was quite likely to take down its trio of small opponents without any real damage to itself. The upside was that it bought the Cloakshape squadron time to attack the TIE fighters.
The second TIE squadron was still at eight, harrying the Cloakshape craft as they continued their dance, neither seeming to truly get the upper hand as glancing blows were traded back and forth, but the TIE fighters still held numerical superiority and maneuverability, negating the advantage of shields that the Cloakshape craft held and the close quarters made locking a missile rather difficult. Still, one TIE was downed by the wild concussion missile spray. As the remaining enemy craft condensed, the TIE fighters seemed to pull back, despite the advantage they held in numbers and especially in space, where their maneuverability was unhindered by gravity. It might well seem an odd move, but even as the Libs would begin dialing in for hyperspace and warming their hyperdrive, an item they should have begun well before the point they were at, the reason would become quite evident.
With one transport completely disabled and held fast in the grip of the tractor beam, the Cloak cut loose on the second. There were no kind blue beams of ion cannons promising capture and perhaps a fate besides death. No, the green lances of turbolasers came upon the Libs as the Cloak's main battery of six dual heavy turbolaser turrets opened fire; the ship's bow lowered so as to bring more guns to bear. The pair of quad heavy turbolasers and trio of triple medium turbolasers were the next to sing out as well. In some ways, it might seem a mockery of the Libs that the Cloak had not even engaged with all its weapons; indeed, all the aforementioned weapon systems were trained solely on the GR-75. While such heavy weapons might not be swift enough to track a starfighter, they were more than capable of searing through one and continuing on towards the transport beyond.
Meanwhile, with the fully disabled GR-75 still held in the stasis of a tractor beam, the Cloak deployed one of its Gamma-class assault shuttles, which headed towards the stricken vessel with the intent of spearing it with its power harpoon and reeling it in close before deploying any spacetroopers to board.
Geoff Cole
Moff, Abrion Sector
Controlling Shareholder - Dorvalla Universal Corporation
|
| |
| |
| Tremaine_Fowlkes | Date: Friday, 05 Aug 2011, 3:52 PM | Message # 10 |
|
Colonel general
Group: Users
Messages: 881
Status: Offline
| Indeed, the Starchasers wouldn't be able to do much against the superior fighters on the Imperial side. It was only luck that had them gunning down seven of the third TIE squadron. Six went up in flames, with the seventh one spiraling out of control after having their hull barely grazed by a R-41's concussion missile. While this move would be considered admirable, this had cost every Starchaser pilot's lives. The R-41s would soon dwindle down to zero. That left the Libs with nine fighters to work with.
While the healthy GR-75 had taken some hits from the third squadron, they were glad to have the TIEs off their back for moments. Those from the third squadron, anyway. The Sentinel also backed off for the time being, due to the approach of the shuttle probe droids. However, the Imperial shuttle would handle itself very well against the droids. They had gunned down all three. One of the Cloakshapes would pull off a spin and pulled a hard right to do its best to gun down the spiraling TIE heading for the second GR-75. It had managed to gun down and set it into explosion. The downside to the explosion is that it would have impacted the shield quite a little bit.
The rest of the cloakshapes and the y-wings wouldn't engage the TIE fighters at this moment. Opting to escort the transport instead, taking advantage of the momentary ease from the Imperial fighters. The star destroyer were the only one that didn't back off, though. When it rained down seventeen different laserfire more than once, it would drastically impact the shielding as well. The remaining fighters did their best to push the speed to maximum and to avoid the laser rain. The GR-75 would continue its best to use all four laser cannons, raining back in much less numbers toward the flagship.
Meanwhile, the crew within the stuck transport would notice the Imperials sending the infamous Gamma-class assault shuttle toward it. The Gamma was well known among the enemies of the Empire for being a nasty boarding party. It won't be long before they launch the spacetroopers out. The crew had decided it was the best time to give the ultimate price for the freedom: their life. As the Gamma was approaching in the process of harpooning the transport, one of the soldiers holding a remote would press a button. The next moment an explosion would occur, and by then, the middle of the GR-75 were the first part of the ship experiencing the effects of the explosion. A chain reaction would ensue, of which had been started inside the armory which had more explosives and several radiation that would accelerate the explosive process. Of course, this would rip the transport to shreds. Not to mention that once once the GR-75 was exposed to the vacuum of the space, this process would also accelerate the damage further.
If all goes to the plan, the Gamma, along with the troopers and crew inside, would be consumed by the yellow and bright lights of explosion. While this shouldn't really impact the star destroyer, it would probably get the remainder of the Imperial pilots to back off even more. Probably not, only the next few moments would tell. The Cloakshapes, minus the one that chased down the previous grazed TIE, would go ahead and enter into hyperspace. Whether the lone transport would be able to escape into hyperspace, remains fully up to star destroyer within next few moments. The similar fate awaits the rest of the y-wings plus a cloakshape.
By the action of the disabled transport, it would disregard Brogan's theory of them being a band of pirates. No, he should come to realization that it was a resistance group.
Tremaine Fowlkes
Senator of Telos IV
Message edited by Tremaine_Fowlkes - Sunday, 07 Aug 2011, 10:54 AM |
| |
| |
| Geoff-Cole | Date: Sunday, 07 Aug 2011, 6:41 AM | Message # 11 |
|
Colonel
Group: Users
Messages: 154
Status: Offline
| A small query, Tremaine, if you will. You state that the captain hit a self-destruct button, but anything tied in to the vessel's power or reactor or such would likely be fried, as well as the 'program that would have the self-destruct ready to go' mentioned in an earlier post. If you'd like to rectify the post, I have no problems with you doing so. Just giving a head's up before I post. ))
Geoff Cole
Moff, Abrion Sector
Controlling Shareholder - Dorvalla Universal Corporation
|
| |
| |
| Tremaine_Fowlkes | Date: Sunday, 07 Aug 2011, 10:53 AM | Message # 12 |
|
Colonel general
Group: Users
Messages: 881
Status: Offline
| Sorry, I forget that self-destruct program would be linked with the power and that it would disappear once the power's out. Lemme make a tiny change on that part of my post.)) Added (07 Aug 2011, 11:53 Am)
---------------------------------------------
Done, I edited the part about the self-destruct program and had one of the soldiers press a button that would set off the bomb inside the armory.))
Tremaine Fowlkes
Senator of Telos IV
|
| |
| |
| Geoff-Cole | Date: Sunday, 07 Aug 2011, 1:16 PM | Message # 13 |
|
Colonel
Group: Users
Messages: 154
Status: Offline
| The Gamma-class assault shuttle was a brute; a true beast of an Imperial workhorse. It was designed for extreme boarding actions, up close and personal and designed to be fired upon from point-blank range. While many combat vessels, indeed, perhaps the majority, devoted twenty-five percent of their power to shields, the Gamma placed sixty-two percent towards its shields, over half of which was devoted towards its frontal arc. This, coupled with the fact that it had just speared the transport and not yet reeled it in close, was perhaps all that saved the shuttle and the elite spacetroopers.
The boarding craft rocked violently, shields dropping to nearly an eighth of their normal percentage as warning lights came on and the crew were badly shaken around. Were it not for the crash webbing, they would likely have been thrown from their seats. As it was, power was fluctuating; nobody had expected the transport to detonate in such a spectacular fashion. Luckily, the shuttle was out of close range of the snubfighters, for it was vulnerable, and even as the explosion dissipated, twelve TIEs, formed from the remainder of two of the squadrons, moved alongside to escort the limping vessel back to the Cloak.
It was amazing how the GR-75 had survived such a salvo from the Cloak's main batteries; such devastating destructive force was not often withstood, even by larger craft than the GR-75, but perhaps it held upgraded shields, or perhaps the blows had been glancing. Either way, damage was likely to be heavy on the transport, perhaps venting into space some of its compartments or suffering major damage to electrical and navigational systems. The hyperdrive though, was not likely to be too affected; perhaps a limited jump would be possible, or several limited jumps. For now though, the transport was likely able to make its jump and escape the tractor beam and further barrages if it were lucky enough.
The Cloakshape that had broken off and destroyed the wounded TIE would become the target of at least ten ion cannons; all it would really take was one or two shots from such power to disable the ship, whereupon a tractor beam would be locked onto it. The remaining Y-wings would fall under massed fire of at least twenty guns, both turbolaser and ion variety. The Empire intended to drive this presence off with such ferocity that no pirates, rebels or raiders would ever dare come and settle upon Molavar again.
Geoff Cole
Moff, Abrion Sector
Controlling Shareholder - Dorvalla Universal Corporation
|
| |
| |
| Tremaine_Fowlkes | Date: Sunday, 07 Aug 2011, 2:20 PM | Message # 14 |
|
Colonel general
Group: Users
Messages: 881
Status: Offline
| Indeed, the GR-75 have had an upgraded shielding. Shields are considered important among the resistance groups fighting the Empire. Since the Libs and other groups figured they'll almost always be outnumbered and outgunned, they got to have assets that would help them out a little bit. Shields was one of the assets. The transport was lucky enough to make it through into the hyperspace. It was not without its drawbacks, though. While the coordinates were to one of the Libs' outposts, the GR-75 would have to drop out of hyperspace way early to do some calculations on how many jumps they could make and how long each jump could be. In addition to that, they'd want to calculate which system to jump into carefully.
Meanwhile, the y-wings would mercilessly be fired upon by the star destroyer. Three of the y-wings had been destroyed right away by the enemy laserfire. The fourth one would keep on spinning and rolling until it had entered into hyperspace. Because there were no way for the y-wing to communicate with the GR-75, given its damaged status, it couldn't calculate where the transport would drop out of hyperspace. The pilot of the y-wing decided that the best way to help the crew is to head straight for one of the outposts to inform them of what had happened. The same would go for the four cloakshapes that had entered into hyperspace moments earlier.
The lone cloakshape had better maneuverability than a y-wing would have, but it usually has less shielding. It was doing its best to continue and outmaneuver the ion cannons. The pilot was continuing to push the speed to maximum. Which usually seemed like a good idea. This time, it didn't serve the pilot well. Once the tractor beam had locked in, the engines had come to a complete halt. At the same time, a couple of ion cannons would hit the back of the cloakshape. The pilot was inadvertently pushed forward, bashing his own head against the glass of the cockpit window violently. The lungs would feel an incredible amount of pressure. The flight belt would also be pressed hard against his body, leaving bruises all over the chest. Which one was the fatal one?
Obviously, it was his head bashing against the window violently. It got him knocked out cold. However, the results were a hemorrhage (bleeding) inside the brain. This would led to his ultimate death within minutes. This wouldn't be a total loss of information to the Empire, though. If they still intend to bring the cloakshape in, the flight suit would reveal his allegiance. That the Imperials were fighting a resistance group known as the Libs.
It was indeed a day of tragedy for the rebellion. They had lost a majority of their forces, over half in total, in this evacuation. This day goes to the Empire.
Tremaine Fowlkes
Senator of Telos IV
Message edited by Tremaine_Fowlkes - Sunday, 07 Aug 2011, 2:23 PM |
| |
| |
| Geoff-Cole | Date: Monday, 08 Aug 2011, 7:38 AM | Message # 15 |
|
Colonel
Group: Users
Messages: 154
Status: Offline
| The lone Cloakshape was indeed reeled inside the Star Destroyer's hanger bay, settled down and surrounded by stormtroopers. The dead pilot inside though, was of little value once the cockpit was cracked. A live pilot would have been much more valuable. Still, data from the flight suit would aid the Empire when it was passed up to higher authorities, as would any computer components such as the navigational computer when salvaged from the vessel and searched. Perhaps they could put a trace on where this group was heading to, or where it had been.
Imperial losses had been rather trivial; fifteen TIE fighters, a pair of scouts with their speeder bikes and a single Sentinel-class landing craft. Aside from that, the gain of freeing Molavar from a rebellious group and seeding it for mining was well worth the losses. As well, there was still a rebel base where they had originated from to explore, but that would come once the Cloak was recalled to above Malcraan. the Empire had indeed won the day, as it always would.
Geoff Cole
Moff, Abrion Sector
Controlling Shareholder - Dorvalla Universal Corporation
|
| |
| |
|
