When each of you 'died' in the sim you found not only could you now only view an interactive tactical map of the battle but you could also talk to each toher.  This is a place for you to chat about the battle whilst the others keep fighting it.
This message was last updated by the GM at 07:28, Fri 23 Mar 2007.

With the exposions of the next few fighters, Ashlyn gives a sigh. Not looking too good. Hope they can pull it off. he thinks. Upon realizing that he could talk to other "destroyed" pilots, he greets them since he's been in here the longest. Welcome to the void my friends. Make yourself at home, not that you really have a choice it seems. My name is Ashlyn Bendix or Grey 4, whichever you prefer.

Devon took a few moments to collect himself before he spoke.
'Devon Kismet, Grey five.'
Now that the simulation was apparantly over, Devons normal good humour began to reassert itself.
'Apparantly my ideas wernt as good as I thought.' he shrugged in the confines of the simulator, forgetting the others wouldnt be able to see the gesture.  Devon smiled slowly and his voice took on a mock defensive tone  'Then again, I never said they were good ideas, did I?'

So how did they get you 5? I can't believe I was the first to be shot down. I was moving to get a tie off of my wingman's ass and then another got behind me and that was it. He got me before 3 could get him off. Ashlyn sighs deeply. With any luck, they'll rescue me before they all warp out.

Zenna sat quietly as two of her dead squadron mates were chatting it up over the comm. "I wouldn't worry too much about getting rescued, Grey 4."

She allowed a smile to her face. This was only a sim after all. "Grey 6 here. My name's Zenna, Zenna Kern."

"It looks like things are getting better for the Greys. They'll have to make the best of this next attack run before the Bombers get their torps fired." Zenna checked the sensor readings. "Hopefully the Deepstar will be able to suppress some of the torps before they hit the Sarah."

Zenna slowly shook her head as she viewed the tactical display in her simpod. "Looks really bad now."

"What do you guy think? I think in the future we should have split our squadron into two sections. One to deal with the immediate fighter threat to the Sarah. The second to rescue the Y-Wings. Then send each remaining group to deal with the bombers."

She leaned back in her seat. "Grey 8 is a nonfactor in this sim. What do you guys think?"

Devon frowns at his tactical display.  'I'm still trying to figure out what Eight thinks he's going to do when he reaches that frigate... its got more than enough guns and shielding to hold him off - assuming it dont kill him itself - until the TIEs come rescue it.'

Devons frown deepens as he watches Eight continue his mad dash to reach the frigate.

'What am I missing here guys?  Eight seems to have a definite plan in mind, but I cant see what he hopes to do other than splatter himself across that frigates shields like a bug hitting a speeders windshield...'

A new voice comes over the comm.  You recognise it as the woman who gave you the mission briefing initially.

"This is Captain Jax.  I have provided you the opportunity to continue observing your fellow squadron in action so you may learn from their victories and their mistakes.  The Commander will expect you to justify your actions in this simulation at its conclusion so I recommend you consider this."

"One piece of advice, telling him that it was someone else's fault and you weren't involved will go down like bantha poodoo in a punch bowl.  You live as a squadron, you succeed and fail as a squadron.  So don't make excuses, provide insight."

"Yes sir." Zenna replied over the comm.

She fipped a few switches on her console. One showed the active sim, the second allowed her to review the sim log. "Whatever eight is doing. We find out soon enough."

Devon frowned at what this sim screen was showing him.
'About the only thing I can think of that might work is if he arms all his missiles for impact detonation and then does a kamakaze into the frigates hanger...'

Tapping away at his console, Devon tries to pull up specs on the frigate, trying to find some weakpoint that Eight could exploit.

Zyra sighs.

"What are they doing?  Please note the situation with Gamma 4 & 6.  You have two TIE Bombers about to launch torpedos.  One is severely damaged but still flying, the other is undamaged.  Which one do you shoot first?"

"You shoot the damaged one of course.  Look at the stats on your screens.  If the laserfire Flight Officers Lars and Webb directed at Gamma 6 had instead been fired fired at Gamma 4, the craft would have been destroyed.  Then only one torpedo would have been launched instead of two.  Now not only do you have twice the firepower aimed at the Deepstar, but its highly likely they will get off another two before they can be stopped."

"Flight Officers Webb and Grimm may be leading their flights but they're not flying smart.  Remember a wounded fighter can still shoot and fire missiles.  But they're usually much easier to pick off."

"What are your thoughts Flight Officers?  You're out of the fight but you're analysis could keep people alive in real missions."
This message was last edited by the player at 10:38, Wed 18 Jan 2006.

"Yes, that's obvious. You should finish the Tie before moving to a different one. You'd never know if the one you left will come back to haunt you. And in this case it did."

"Another thing that comes to mind is that we should form tight wings whenever possible. The combined firepower of a wing of two fighters will always be higher than a single fighter. One thing that I'm not sure about, if you have two fighters in a wing and each fighter fires a different weapon type would it negate the effectiveness of the wing? I think so, whenever we fight in a wing, we should use the same weapon type."

Zenna mused in her seat, "And I'm assuming that based on our scores in this sim, we'll be reorganized based on our relative skills. That would be the best thing to do in order to maximize the effectiveness of the wing."

She flipped a few more switches on her console. "A three fighter wing is good, but Grey 7 would gain alot if one of the fighters joined up with Grey 7 and form another wing. Not sure if sending Grey 7 after Alpha-4 is the best idead either. If Grey 7 was a wing with another Z-95, then they could focus on another bomber."

"Not that I'm saying that defending the Green wing is wrong. But the Green Wing should break up right now. The tie would have to pick one of the Y-Wings. Then the other two Y-Wings can go after that Tie."
This message was last edited by the player at 01:36, Fri 20 Jan 2006.

When Cyril scans the Blood Angel you all receive the info.

Blood Angel
Nebulon-B Frigate
IFF - Hostile

Armamaent - 12 turbolasers (6 front, 3 left, 3 right)
          - 12 laser canons (6 front, 2 left, 2 right, 2 rear)
          - 2 forward tractor beam projector

Current Speed - 370km/hr (maximum)
Shields - 100%
Hull - 100%
Fighter Capacity - 30 fighters
Troop Capacity - 100 troops
This message was last edited by the GM at 01:26, Sun 29 Jan 2006.

Zenna scanned the readout on her display. "I still don't know what Grey 8 is up to. He might be able to evage the turbolasers, but if those tractor beams gets a whole of him he's toast. Not that I'm downplaying those lasers cannons. The area with the least number of weapons is the rear arc, but if he gets too close. He'll get caught up in their engine wash and hinder his sensors."


She turned her attention to the chatter over the comm. "Grey 7's got a good plan going. I'd follow her orders."
This message was last edited by the player at 07:25, Tue 07 Feb 2006.

"Wooah Hoo!" Zenna shouted when the last bomber was destroyed. She couldn't believe it, but the Greys did manage the impossible. "With a concentration of missiles and torpedos, the Imperials will have to withdrawal."

"And the Sarah better abandon the ship now. If things turn badly, the Deepstar will have to jump out of there. The sooner they start ferrying the civilians, the better." Zenna mused over her previous communications. "Don't know what Grey 8 is planning, but he is obvious knows something that I don't."

Devon grinned as the last of the bombers was destroyed - things were looking up, maybe the Greys would get through this after all.

'If they get a good warhead barrage off, then they might be able to give that Frigate a fright... maybe make her captain hesitate - buy more time for the Sarah.'

Devon fell silent as he listened to Grey 2s plan.
'I like that - attacking two shield quarters at the same time, they're spreading their firepower a little; but the Blood Angel is going to have a harder time defending itself if a shield does collapses... I'm going to file this one for future reference.'

From the theory he'd been taught, Devon knew that a concentrated warhead volley could easily collapse a starships shield, it was practically standard operational procedure for fighters attacking a capital ship to fire mass volleys of warheads.  But if their port or starboard shield collapsed, smart commanders simply rolled their ship - presenting the undamaged shield to their attackers and hiding the injured flank.  By attacking simultaineously from two directions, it'd be far harder for Blood Angel to protect itself if a shield collapsed.

'And no, I've got no idea what 8 is upto either - the scanner info he provided is useful, but I can't see why he's continuing his approach.  I doubt he can stall her - she's too big for one Z-95 to worry her much... maybe he thinks he's found a weakpoint?  can anyone see anything I missed in that scanner information?'

Zenna smiled as she looked at her console. "Damn, Devon I wish I was out there."

She looked around the plastisteel cover of her simpod. "It doesn't look like we're going to score really high on this sim. Do you think they'll wash us out?"

After his explosion, Cyril finds that rather than his canopy opening his screen has changed to an interactical tactical map.  He also noticed his comm frequency had changed.  He could no longer speak to his colleagues though he could hear them.  However he could talk to his fellow 'dead' comrades.


OOC:  Welcome to the dead chat Cyril!

As soon as Cyril's ship was blown apart by the turbolasers, his comm frequency changed. "I can't believe it! He actually got off four missiles. But I still don't understand what he hoped to do by himself."

Zenna shook her head in the simpod. "Well now we're going to see how the three flights handle this. It's a good idea and might work. But they're going to need a lot of luck on their side."

"Not luck Flight Officer, but good tactics.  One thing about the Commander is that he respects new and intricate tactics.  I'm sure he's paid close attention to Flight Officer Hyquin's tactic.  I'm sure he will question your colleague about it before long.  Note he did indeed get four missiles off before he was hit.  OImagine the firepower if a wing had flown that strike.  Over a dozen missiles all into one shield arc."

"Let's see how the rest of your squad fare."

As soon as the simulator dropped him into spectator mode, Cyril heard a familiar female voice commenting on the side. He heaved a sigh of relief from knowing it was only a sim and that the other three pilots were still very much alive.

"The impossible, Grey 6. I'd hoped to do the impossible. I know what you're thinking: I didn't have to do it, and probably shouldn't have."

Cyril paused momentarily, mulling over his own words.

"But I did. I have to admit part of the reason I did it is because I knew it was a sim, but still, I don't regret doing it. At least I learned enough to know that I shouldn't be trying that again anytime soon."

Cyril's trailed off his transmission with a hearty laugh.

"But hey, my taking out 30% of the frigate's shield ought to help the others a lot! I only wish they hadn't all been so missle-crazy."

"Well I hope you come up with a better reasoning for the Commander than that Flight Officer Hyquin.  That kind of attitude wont sit well with him.  This was your chance to show him what you are capable of.  If you tell him you can't even treat a sim seriously and are given to trying suicidal tactics then you wont earn his trust."

"My advice is to look at your strategy and make suggestions on how it could be refined and used successfully.  As you point out you got 30% of the shields.  How could we make it get 100% of the hull with minimal losses?  That is something to bring to the squadron.  We need innovators, not martyrs."

Cyril chuckles in his simulated cockpit before replying to the Captain.

"If that's what the Commander's looking for, Captain, then an innovator is what I'll be! You can count on that! Not to worry, I already know what I'm going to tell the Commander.

For now, though, the real question is: were the others aware enough to notice how I did that run, or can they actually do something better than that?"
This message was last edited by the player at 12:32, Sun 12 Feb 2006.

"Hey. The idea wasn't bad, not in the least. My only concern was to take care of all the fighters and bombers before you headed out to the frigate. I thought that if you stayed with the rest of the squadron, we would have taken care of the Ties a lot faster. And maybe reduce our losses."

Zenna bit her lip. "You're plan with the frigate was good. I liked it, but with the combine power of the squadron."

"Grey 8. Let me ask you a question. Did you even think of flying cover for any of us in the squadron? I'm only asking because after the inital pass between the Ties and the Greys, it looks like you went directly for the frigate without glancing back at us."