Arry had just taken off her helmet when her CO asked her if she wanted to escort the assault shuttle. "Yes, sir!" She said and put her helmet back on as she made her way to her fighter. She didn't have any kills yet but she was pleased for her fellow pilots who had made some on their first flight.

She climbed into the cockpit and went through a quick pre-flight check, having not had the chance to do one for the combat launch.

"DOM 19 requesting permission to launch," she called to flight control, her fighter screaming out of the bay once permission was granted.

"Shuttle 214 this is DOM 19, on your port side. I'll be your escort for this mission," she called to them as she moved into position.
This message was last edited by the player at 02:22, Fri 10 Mar 2023.

Launched and loaded for the extraction of data from the ruined freighter, the assault shuttle with the TIE escort headed off, the Myrmidon at a safe distance should the reactior on the Action IV burst...

Once magnetically clamped on, the away team of the ISB and tec agents, combined with a handful of Imperial Marines boarded the ship.  Minutes passed as the team worked they way through the ship following the blown doors that the earlier assault team had created to the aft control and engine room, high on Deck 9...

All is still and quiet...

Until suddenly, about 5 km further away from the Action VI, a lone Z-95, drops out of hyperspace, pointed at the Action!  Arry, your sensors are suddenly bright - that Headhunter is locking on to the Action VI - though which half is not certain - and there's no shields on the frieghter anymore...

When it fires, there will be scarcely 60 seconds to impact!

OCC: Roll init, Roll Instruments or tactics or ?, then choose two actions...

"DOM 19 to Myrmidon, contact! One hostile inbound towards the Action. Moving to intercept," Arry called over comms and hit the speed on her fighter, using those fearsome engines to get to the Z-95 before it could fire on the disabled freighter.

01:44, Today: Mitth'Arr'yleoni (Arry) rolled 12 using 1d20+8. Initiative.

01:44, Today: Mitth'Arr'yleoni (Arry) rolled 19 using 1d20+8. Tactics.

Arry started firing as soon as she could, working to attract the fighter pilot's attention away from the freighter and towards her. She'll keep firing as she closes

Primary: All Out Attack: 02:00, Today: Mitth'Arr'yleoni (Arry) rolled 12 using 1d20+10.  Attacking the Fighter.

Secondary: Defensive Flying 02:02, Today: Mitth'Arr'yleoni (Arry) rolled 27 using 1d20+10.  Defensive Flying.
This message was last edited by the player at 11:06, Sat 11 Mar 2023.

"Control to Recovery Team!  Get out of there!!"

"Dom One-Nine!  Bring it down!!"

Arry slams the thrusters to emergency max, simultaneously filling the void with laser fire; extreme long range though it may be, and lances along the intercept vector to the lone Z-95...

"Control to Recovery - they have lock! Go GO!"

And there it is...with a distant muzzle flash, the concussion missile leaps from the Z-95 on a direct course for the stricken freighter...

Arry's charge has forced the Z-95 to fire at extreme range as well, but will it be enough...


OOC - Arry, give me another tactics roll and pick & roll a single action; be free to use a force point

Kenth had nodded and smiled to all those who had congratulated him. He was a bit surprised when the XO showed up and shook his hand. He was even more at a loss when invited, or was that an order, to dinner with the XO.

He returned Zinda's hug "Yeah you say that now. In a few months it will probably be, somebody please get rid of him."

He watched as Arry climbed back in her fighter and headed out with the shuttle. It didn't seem like any time had passed before the ship went to red alert.

Zinda waved to Arry's departing fighter.

She giggled at Kenth's words. "I'll always be happy to fly with you as long as you don't forget the farmgirl from Argai as you rise in the galaxy. Dinner with the XO, huh? Quite an honor."

She looked around. "Well, I don't know if they have drinks on the ship, but there's got to be something we can do to celebrate. I can sing and dance a little."

When the ship goes back to red alert, she paused. "Uh-oh, just when I'd gotten used to having my helmet off. Well, better stay on our toes. Could be serious danger... of hearing more of my knock-knock jokes. I think I used all the good ones, not much left for another flight."

After she was back on the ship and with the Tie shut down, for a few minutes, Osk relaxed in the cockpit, exhausted. Only then, she wearily climbed out of the thing, taking off her helmet once stepping on solid ground. She was just in time for the greeting they got from much of the crew present there, and particularly to shake hands and apparently be invited to dinner. Probably best if she wrote the report before that...

In the meantime however, all she could think of was getting some rest, but there were other obligations to look to at the present. Waving a hand away to Zinda's excited compliment, she got closer to the other two and pointed out while they went to red alert. "A fighter pilot never drinks out of leave, nor the day before returning." Shadea didn't feel the need to elaborate further with how well timed the developments outside had taken a turn.

She stood ready to go back into the thick of it, or as ready as she could feel given the circumstances. No orders for it yet, but she had no doubt in her mind they could be coming any second, so she entertained herself inspecting her own craft for any nick or other form of damage that she may have acquired in her recent outing.

"Action team, missile inbound, trying to intercept," Arry called out, suddenly very calm as she poured every bit of speed she had into her ship. Shooting a missile down was an impossible shot but she might be able to do something else to keep the team alive long enough to escape.

10:51, Today: Mitth'Arr'yleoni (Arry) rolled 10 using 1d20+8. Tactics. (Pathetic!)

10:54, Today: Mitth'Arr'yleoni (Arry) rolled 24 using 1d20+9. Piloting.

10:56, Today: Mitth'Arr'yleoni (Arry) rolled 4 using 1d6. Force Point.


She wasn't going to make it. She could see the missile impact the Action and kill her people. She knew what she had to do.

She turned her fighter into the path of the missile. "For the Empire."

She hit the eject.

Once on board the Action VI, LCDR Xiaomei allowed the LTJG Bulthner and her pair of Marines to lead her and Tolen into the aft section, and then through the wreckage and twisted metal to Deck 9 that had the backup computer bank.  It was her guess that the main computer would have been slagged by the crew, but she was banking on the backup being in place.  While it wasn't too difficult to traverse because the marines had cleared it previously, it still too a while to get there, owing to Tolen's unfamiliarity with 0-g suits (and her) and the equipment that Tolen was porting as well.  It wasn't helped by the fact that they had to enter through cavernous hold to reach the aft access tubes, and then to the control room.  They'd jacked in a portable power unit and fired up the computer, only just starting the download when they heard the distress call from the Myrmidon.  Bulthner cursed under her breath; the two marines looked at each other. "Can we send to the Myrmidon?" Iris asked "I'd have to re-start the process, Lieutenant!" cried the tech.  "We won't make it" said one Marine. "Fml" said another.

Iris swore, and ripped out the data card.  "Gooo!  GO GO GO!"  They pushed off towards the access tube...they knew they'd already waited too long...




An older man in battered pilot's helmet with the word 'Tick' painted o the side waited for a moment while his old Z prepared to drop out of hyperspace.  He'd had to readjust the Oglic Actuator on the port side, and that took about twenty minutes longer than needed, and he had guess at how far along they'd be so he could meet them & share the info...

...And a very different sight awaited him as he popped out of hyper.  There was the ship, torn in half; and some kind of cutter or light cruiser as well.  One TIE, but a ways off.  No sign of his Action or it's escorts, but a lot of debris.

He didn't have time for swearing.  That Action needed to be atomized.  He fingers flew over the controls, swiftly calculating a firing solution.  He knew the TIE would try to intercept him; let it.  It was the missile that mattered.  Once it was away, he could jump into hyper again...

The firing solution lock counted down swiftly; as it reached zero he pressed the launch button on his joystick, and Z rocked back as the missile went streaking for the target.  Shooting it down would be an impossible shot, and he didn't want to wait around for the cutter to get a bead on him.  Someone was going to have to report about this cutter, and what happend to their freighter.  He thought for a moment, hit a preset, and waited for the nav computer to crunch a course.  The incoming TIE had lobbed a few extreme range shots, but he ignored them.  The blue Nav lamp lit; he nudged the thrusters forward and hit the button.  The stars turned into streaks....



And in the intervening few seconds, Arry recalibrated her TIE from intercepting the Z-95, to a course that would put it in the path of the missile.  She had to time her eject just right and guess at the course deviation that the ejection would give...an extra .002 on the AoI? And hope that whatever hand was out there in the universe, she might get a hand today.

Arry hit the eject - and wildly tumbling through space, she could see in snippets the TIE and the Myrmidon, the TIE and the Myrmidon, Myrmidon closer, and the TIE further, holding her breath, hoping, hoping....

And rewarded as the TIE explodes into trillion pieces!

A cheer goes up from the control room! "We thought you were crazy, Dom One-Nine.  We're maneuvering to pick you up with the tractor.  Good thing that you were headed towards us and not away like the Umbaran..."



While the call for re-launch all fighters again went out ("Not having that happen again!" declared the Capitan) there were no additional contacts, Arry was collected via tractor beam, dioriented from the tumbling, but well, and soon all aboard was the call, as ship lights came off alert.

OCC: Arry, you're in MedBay for observation for a bit, and as the Myrmidon is now headed for  the Merisee Prime Starport, pilot watches are suspended.

Arry, while you're in MedBay, just as you're cleared for release, ISB officer Xiaomei sticks her head in.  "Glad you're well.  I was pretty upset at first that you weren't in the right spot, and that you'd risk all of us with a miss, but you hit, and I do believe that the ends justify the means." she says with a tight smile.  "But let's not cut it close again, Lieutenant." she adds, before continuing on her way.


It's not long until you can feel the gravity equalize, feel the descent, and then the landing.

OCC2: You can continue to post here for anything pre-landing.  I'll have a landing post up later.  Well done all.

"Copy that," Arry said faintly as she continued her tumble through space and fought to keep her lunch down. Maybe closing her eyes would help. Nope...she wanted to see where...nope, she didn't. Closed eyes were fine. She kept them closed until she felt her tumble and flight come to an end courtesy of the tractor beam.

It was very unpleasant but worth it in the end. She had managed to save the recovery crew and not die in the process, so she considered it a win-win.

"Thank you, ma'am," she responded, coming to attention. "It won't happen again, ma'am."

She wasn't going to mention the impossibility of knowing there was another fighter and exactly where they would come out of hyperspace as that would seem churlish.

She gave the medical staff a nod and headed to her quarters to change out of her flight suit and back into her uniform.

"All right, all right, no drinking" Zinda replied to Shadea. Once the order to re-launch all fighters went out, she put her helmet back on and climbed back into her fighter, although not without a few deep breaths to steady herself and get ready to go back into potential battle so soon. Now she felt jittery and stressed. "Okay, Arry, we're coming to get you."

When the call re-launch went up Kenth jumped, it was not what he was expecting. Nevertheless he quickly climbed back into his fighter and launched right behind Zinda. Forming up on here wing he tried to relax as they flew cover.

He didn't say anything during the flight as he went over everything that had happened. Mentally preparing his report for later.

Once they were back on board he wearily climbed back out of the TIE and dropped to the deck again. "We'll I think I am more than ready for rest."

"Me too, but I think we should see Arry in medbay first" Zinda said as she got out of her TIE. "All teammates, right? Got to stick together."

"Yeah. Hope she is okay. Lead the way." Kenth was ready to follow along, then he remember he was still in his flight suit and stopped. "Though I guess we should change first."

Shadea Looked at the two, then herself. "Probably best if we do, should give Arry more time to find her bearings in medbay." And to catch her own breath, Osk would not openly admit it, but she was quite spent after the whole ordeal. "Meet by the medbay in twenty minutes?"

"Is that your way of saying I don't look good in the flight suit?" Zinda joked when Kenth said they should change. "Twenty minutes, see you there!"

After changing, Zinda ran into Arry (metaphorically speaking) on the way out the medbay. "Hail the conquering heroine!" she said warmly but followed up with a more serious "How are you feeling, Arry? That was a real scare."

Arry greeted her fellow pilots with a small half-smile and a nod. "Still sore and slightly dizzy but better than expected and yes, it was rather frightening," she said, demonstrating a knack for extreme understatement.

"Thank you for coming to get me. Knowing I wasn't alone made tumbling through space at high speeds tolerable. I won't forget it."

That was the most any of them had heard her say since their first meeting. Apparently a brush with death was all it took to loosen her tongue.

"Glad to hear that" Zinda said. "

"Anytime! I'm sure you'd do the same for me" she replied. "Although I hope you don't have to" she added after a moment's reflection.

"There's a whole boarding party that owes you a few drinks at some point, I think" she said. "And I was in serious danger of singing or dancing to celebrate our victory"

Kenth had let Zinda do all the talking when they went to see Arry, not like he had a choice anyway. When he caught a break in the conversation, "Glad your okay Arry. Heard anything on Zam?" They hadn't heard anything on him since he was recovered.

Looking remarkably less tired, Osk butted in the conversation herself. "While commendable, let's hope it doesn't come to that again. Unless you have a death wish, I hope you are aware that your survival was in no small part to do with luck." She wasn't exactly scolding, but rather emphasizing the point, least it was forgotten under the joy of a good ending.

Arry gave Zinda a small smile. Her human exuberance was still something of a mystery to her, but she could appreciate the enthusiasm that came from surviving their first combat.

"I'm Chiss, Lt. Osk: we do not believe in luck, nor do we ascribe success to it. My survival was a product of rapid calculations which took in everything from my speed to the minute change the ejection would cause to my AOI. That said, I have no desire for something of that nature to ever happen again."

Zinda returned Arry's smile. "Well, I guess it's good they don't let us customize our TIEs, so you don't have to repaint anything."

"We won't have to worry about that happening again. We're veterans now! We've been through it and we know we can handle it" she said confidently. Although, now that she thought about it, she didn't feel any more skilled.

Osk held a hand away dismissively. "Save it, I don't involve myself in matters of religion. As long as you are not keen on any repeats, that works for me. We can't have spinning into the void becoming our unit's tradition."

"I discuss maths and physics and you say religion. I'm not sure I'll ever understand humans," she said. "And I have no desire for a repeat-not just for myself but for any of us. Such a thing is not the reason I wish our squadron to be known."

"Hey, this is a time of celebration" Zinda said, trying to calm what looked like it might become an argument. "So, what should we do to celebrate?"