"Can you pick up, what they are talking about, miss Numen?" Idaya did not wish to chastise people without having a good reason, but she'd shut the discussion down, if need be.

"Determining that for you now, Commander." Cor takes the necessary time to isolate the channel and then links it directly into Idaya's bridge so she (and everyone else) can hear it.

After another minute of work, a pair of voices came over the speaker.

". . .to grid five-nine, level 6."

"Sneaky.  So what do you think of our escort?"

"Bah laddie.  We've done this wee cruise a dozen times.  Most they'll do is polish their turbolasers."

"Heh.  I'd sure love to show the captain my turbolasers firepower."

"Ah bet ya would laddie.  She's a looker.  Seems a wee bit uptight"

"I'm sure I could loosen her up.    Walker to grid four-six, level 3."

"That's not how your wee ex-wife tells it.  Cruiser fires on walker."

"Son of a bitch.  My wife didn't have a rear end like this one."


The conversation continues in a similar format.

"Both terminology and phonology are a little... provincial, but I believe the underlying meaning of the conversation is to assess and comment upon your relative sexual attractiveness, Commander.  Objectifying or flattering depending on your cultural viewpoint, I suspect, but not precisely a matter of security."  Cor's voice sounds entirely calm as she reports her findings.  If she has an opinion on the conversation's appropriateness (or lack thereof) she doesn't reveal it.

"Patch me in to their communication, Miss Numen., she replied sounding rather cool. It was hard to say whether she was just being professional or perhaps annoyed. As the comm channel opened, her face remained a mask. "Freighter captains, this is Commander Idaya of the Protector. As much as your discussion about my physical features flatters me, you are ordered to stop transmitting, unless there is an emergency or you sight something relevant to our mission. Every transmission you make raises the possibility of the convoy being detected. Do I make myself clear?"

The conversation dies away for a few moments then one of the voices speaks.

"Ah shite.  The boys donna mean nothing by it lassie.  Just a wee bit o' fun while we wait.  Boys like a bit o' chess on the long hauls.  Keeps 'em out of da whisky if ya get me meanin' lass.  The comms are ship to ship.  No ways no Imp haggises can hears 'em."

Cor doesn't interject between the dispute regarding proprietary speech.  Some modern women would be entirely unfussed by being objectified to the point where their only noteworthy features in a conversation come down to their shagability (a word that Cor finds quite entertaining), as if they were a piece of meat or a mobile set of sex organs only coincidentally attached to an actual person.  She herself would not particularly care but can certainly see how other women might.  That matter, as well as the matter of whether the captains should be using comms at all, is between them and something for the Commander to resolve.

Ah, but the comms.  That's her area.  She does interject there.

"It is true," she confirms on the bridge comms so the freighter captains can't hear, "that the freighter comms are limited enough in range that anyone able to pick them up would probably have spotted the electromagnetic signatures from our corvette engines and come within visual range already.  Having hostile forces hear the freighter comms is likely amongst the least of our concerns.  If it is mainly a matter of principle, of course, that is a separate matter."

"I would still prefer them concentrating on the task at hand rather my posterior, however desireable they may find it. We need all our eyes open", Idaya replied in a calm tone.

"Of course, yes.  Do continue."

The freighter captain with the distinct (i.e. Scottish) accent grumbled for another few moments, telling Idaya she was too uptight before reluctantly going silent.  While this was happening, Cor showed no further interest in the conversation as she studied her various screens, flicking back and forth between the various sensors across the three vessels.  She seemed quite intent, moreso than normal.
This message was last edited by the GM at 04:08, Sun 14 Sept 2014.

Idaya cared little for the grumbling and looked rather frosty regardless of reasonably unflattering comments on her personality that had replaced the quite flattering comments on her physique. She had a convoy to run and people to show, what she really was capable of when placed in command of a larger ship. She directed the people under her command gently but firmly, aiding them when necessary, but not interfering too much in their work.

Cor falls silent as the others work out who is the freighter captain and who is the Commander.  For her part she has more important things to do.  Her hologram shows her tapping keys quickly, looking from screen to screen, eyes alert and focused.  Finally she shakes her head and runs a hand thoughtfully over her scalp before speaking up.

"Commander, I have at least one enemy signal.  Extremely close.  It is extremely unlikely they know that they have been spotted.  The signal is most likely a starfighter, possibly more than one - I can run an active scan but that will reveal that I have picked up on their presence."  She pauses briefly and then continues.  "The location is... problematic.  The signal is coming from between the lines of freighters.  Somehow they have infiltrated the convoy and are travelling back along the freighter lines, in between the pairs.  That makes them difficult for most to spot and also sheltered from weapons fire unless we want to risk blowing the freighters up.  I suspect they were hidden in the asteroid field and detached themselves when we passed over them."

"Convoy, this is the commander. On my mark, the freighters will split to their respective free sides and continue towards Corvette Three at best possible speed while the corvettes will move in to the middle. Corvette three, when this happens, fall back at best possible speed but do not engage unless ordered to do so. Corvette Two, prepare to go weapons hot. Weapons stations, charge up. Helm, when the freighters split, take us over them and roll so we get the maximum battery coverage.

Convoy, mark!"

The Chiss was as cool as her homeworld. This was what she did and what she was good at. Her fingers switched the tactical readout on her main screen, transferring the other data over to the secondaries. They needed to keep this a short one to keep the Imperials from catching the energy emissions.
This message was last edited by the player at 19:32, Sun 14 Sept 2014.

The convoys did not move with the precision of the corvettes but they did begin to move after several seconds amongst grumbling from the lead freighter captain.  As the group split, Cor frowned as she momentarily lost the enemy signal in the sensor baffle of freighters moving haphazardly.  Suddenly Cor had them again.  There was now two signals instead of one.  As she scanned the sensor information a warning klaxon went off from Cor's station.  Idaya didn't need to look at her screens to recognise the sound.  It was a missile lock warning.  Someone, presumedly the unidentified enemy had obtained a missile lock on Red 1.


OOC:  The freighters have started to move towards the corvettes but it's slow and the freighters are not keeping formation as they do so.  Will take some time for them to get out of the corvette's way.

At this point I'm moving to combat posting rules so maximum two day turnaround on all posting.  Good luck!
This message was last edited by the GM at 02:43, Mon 15 Sept 2014.

"Sensors, do you think you can give us an idea about what we're facing without active pinging? If yes, I need target recognition. If not, one ping only." Of course the freighters were in the way, but they needed to aee the big picture and find the enemies before they took them by surprise.

"Four marks internal, at least three are Z-95s.  Stock weaponry is unlikely to injure us overly so I would expect upgrades.  They are using the freighters as cover."  As Cor talks she hurriedly gets whatever information she can and feeds it to both the turbolasers and Idaya's and Mika's tactical displays.  "Additional marks approximately ten kilometres on Red 1's flank, on approach vector.  Small group, likely four starfighters."

Cor sends out a single active ping, as per Idaya's order, and collates the resultant information with the data she already has to provide as clear a picture of the battlefield as she can.

(( OOC: I'll let Master Servious outline the layout more clearly because I'm dead tired and plan to sleep 10+ hours.  Night! ))

Cor transmits the data to Idaya's station complete with markers to demonstrate sensor echos she believes are fighters.

The outlay was a jumble.  Freighters were still haphazardly moving in all directions trying to flee the centre.  The corvettes had turned but were being forced to give the freighters a wide berth due to the unpredictable moves of thier panicked pilots.

The enemy between them had now been labelled by Cor as four individual starfighters.  She'd identified three as Z-95 Headhunters and the fourth she'd believed was a R-41 Starchaser.  Two were hugging close to a freighter fleeing towards Red 2, the other two were staying close to a freighter heading for Red 1.  Clearly these fighters were the source of the target locks.  Nearly 10km away on Red 1's starboard flank were another group of four starfighters, makeup unknown.

Then several things happened at once.  As Cor engaged a single active sensor pulse, the missile launch warning went off at one of Cor's stations.  Given Idaya's station and the tactical station didn't receive the warning suggested the projectiles hadn't been fired at Red 1.


On Idaya and Cor's screens the ships hugging the freighters are definitely there.  Three Z-95's and 1 R-41 as Cor had believed.  The second group was another four fighters also comprising one R-41 and three Z-95's which were 10km of Red 1's starboard flank.  The sensors also detected a third group of four fighters.  These were further out, over 30kms dead astern of Red 2.  Without a focused scan Cor could derive little more than the fact this group was larger than the other two groups.





OOC:  Okay how to make sense out of this.  I'm compiling a map but at present:

The corvettes are about 10km away from each other (and closing) in a triangular formation facing inwards (they'll need to stop or turn lest they fly right pass each other)

The freighters are still within the circle of corvettes which is blocking shots.

There are three groups of enemies you know of:

Group 1 - 2 starfighter wingpairs, both are flying close to freighters as protection.  One pair is 2km from Red 1, the other pair is 2.5km from Red 2

Group 2 - 4 starfighters approximately 10km off Red 1's starboard flank.  The starboard gunner could shoot at extreme range (20 squares/10km is max range) but fire is partially obstructed by one of the freighters (should clear in 2 rounds tops).

Group 3 - A larger group of ?fighters, possibly a large transport approximately 15km behind Red 2

You know missiles have been fired but not at Red 1.  Cor, being sensor officer, has more info

Mika's hands move slowly across her board.  With the freighters moving like water-logged bantha and the fighters hugging close to them, there wasn't much need for quick maneuvers or fancy flying.

Dohr spotted the enemy fighters on his screen. First there was one blip, then another. Then he heard Cor’s voice saying there were a lot more on the way. As a small surprise to himself, Dohr found himself a little excited and nervous. It was just another game and no one would really die if everything went wrong. But even if he wasn’t exactly skilled with the turbolasers, he would do his best to keep the freighter’s “alive”.

“Commander, the bogeys are too close to the freighters. I do not have a clear shot. Switching to forward guns for a better angle.”

---

OOC: Doing exactly that. Moving to forward guns.

"Bogey groups 2 and 3 have fired missiles," Cor announced, "unknown number.  Only Red 2 is showing alarms - they have fired only at Red 2 or have also fired at the freighters.  If only we had our own starfighters."  She concentrates on getting as good information as she can, feeding it to the tactical and targeting computers, taking note of the approaching enemies but not yet throwing out further active sensor sweeps.

Unless Red team thinks of something creative soon Cor isn't sure they're going to get through without losing some freighters.

CC9 needs to provide little in the way of explanation.  Dohr's already laid the issue out.  "Switching to forward guns," he grates, setting out to do precisely that.  Moving back to another battery is not going to be an issue but right now they need as much firepower in the right place that they can get - and with three pairs of forward guns there's plenty of room for himself and Dohr.

"Sensors, provide a proper solution for the forward batteries. Gunners, do you think can you engage with forward batteries without hitting the freighters? If so, open fire with extreme caution. I will call fire if you need assistance."

The six freighters continue to flee towards the corvettes.  Two of the freighters still have unwanted guests as the two fighter pairs hug close to the freighters.  While it is possible to shoot at the fighters a miss is most likely going to hit the fleeing freighters.  Given the Action IV's lack of shields and poor hull integrity, a stray turbolaser hit could cause significant damage.

On sensors, Cor noted that the corvettes were no longer being target locked by the freighters, however given the fact missiles had already been fired, they didn't need to be anymore.  Sensors now had a better lock on the first barrage of projectiles, fired by Bogey group 2.  There were somewhere between 4-8 projectiles.  Given incoming trajectories they were targetting Red 2.  Time to impact was 10 seconds.  The second set of projectiles, fired by Bogey Group 3 were about 20 seconds away from hitting Red 2's aft section.


OOC:  So you know there are three enemy 'groups':

Bogey 1 - 2 wingpairs - R-41 and Z-95 (hiding near freighter approaching Red 1) and 2 x Z-95's hiding near freighter heading towards Red 2,

Red 1 and Red 2's forward gunners can shoot at the fighters using the freighters as cover but you run a high risk of hitting a freighter (and their squishy).  Red 3 could shoot at either pair of ships (but same risk). Clearly since the freighters are running past the corvettes, the fighters plan to use them as shields as long as possible.

First projectile barrage contains between 4-8 projectiles and is clearly targeted at Red 2.  They will hit it's port side in 1 round.  The second barrage is coming in from Red 2's rear and are either targetted at the corvette or freighters near it.  Time to impact is 2 rounds.

The first missile barrage is in turbolaser range of Red 2's port gunner though the view is partially obstructed by a freighter.  There is a risk of hitting the freighter.  Up to Idaya if Red 2 fires or not.  Next round Red 1's starboard gunner could take an extreme range shot at the missiles too (though a freighter may partially obstruct).

The second missile barrage is in range of Red 2's aft gunner and there is no freighters in the way.

I appreciate this is a little confusing, please ask for advice.

A reminder that Cor can give one turbolaser station a +2 bonus each round.  Idaya can also use her commander/inspire abilities.

Cor directs her efforts to assisting Dohr's chosen turrets.  She works with some diligence.  "CC9, prioritise the missiles.  Commander," she says with growing urgency, "the freighters will be exposed to the approaching enemy squad if they leave the protection of the corvettes.  Perhaps arranging them into a ring and having them continually circle around would foil the starfighters' cover."

"By your command," CC9 acknowledges, and begins opening fire on the missiles from his weapons battery.