Zinda frowned. She didn't like the idea of Kenth attacking alone. "Okay, we've got to bring those engines down. I'll cover you, Arry." Zinda flies wingman and provides covering fire.

11:19, Today: Zinda Seshani rolled 25 using 1d20+11.  Wingman.
11:21, Today: Zinda Seshani rolled 21 using 1d20+11.  Intercept

The bulk carrier's two main turrets continued to spit heavy projectiles at the Myrmidon, the flashes of plasma from the hypercharged railguns so bright you can imagine them crackling in the void of space, but one of the smaller turrets spins to take a bead on Kenth; a few laser beams lance the dark but don't have him; Zinda and Arry are whirling off on a different vector, angling to get dead behind; it'll take some time, and leave Kenth more and more exposed, but Control is clear - that ship has to be intact...

Kenth was focused on keep the crew of the freighters attention as much as possible. Firing off a couple shots at a turret or thruster before slipping in close scanners active as he tried to find a possible soft spot that may disable but not destroy.

OOC: Defensive Flying - PS : +2 Defense, -4 Attack
16:04, Today: Kenth Felaeon rolled 17 using 1d20+10 ((7)).

"Copy that, Zinda. I'm going to poke at their engines heavily. The more power we can get diverted from other areas of the ship the better chance we have of disabling it enough for boarding parties to take it."

She hit the throttle and smiled as her fighter practically leaped beneath her. Too few TIE pilots used the incredible speed they were capable of to avoid being hit, which was not a mistake she was going to make.

"Kenth!" Zinda gasps as the turret locks on to him. In doctrine, it was so easy to write that TIEs were expendable to complete the mission. It was different when it was your friend who was in danger. She couldn't help him now, though, so she gritted her teeth and focused on getting in to position to threaten the engines and on keeping Arry safe. Don't want to make Arry losing a fighter a once a mission thing.

05:16, Today: Zinda Seshani rolled 20 using 1d20+11.  Wingman. – 20
05:16, Today: Zinda Seshani rolled 28 using 1d20+11.  Maneuver For Advantage. – 28
This message was last edited by the player at 12:17, Sat 24 Feb.

This tiny area of space is practically aglow with blaster fire; teh Q ship's two now no longer concealed turrets firing with abandon, one trained on the Myrm, rhythmically hammering the front shields, the forceless impacts of the lasers splashing across them, flickering, flickering; while the other turret tried unsuccessfully to catch Kenth, too wide, too slow, too over;

But from behind...Arry with Zinda on the shoulder draw a
tight bead...sliding dead behind this fat bulk carrier...

Zinda works hard to keep herself in position to support Arry despite the Chiss fully utilizing the TIE's blazing speed. The appearance of the bulk carrier's engines in her sights was a relief, but it meant the work was only beginning. "You've got a clear shot, Arry, let's do this" she says, continuing to cover the other pilot before finally opening up on the carrier with her own cannons.

01:33, Today: Zinda Seshani rolled 24 using 1d20+11.  Intercept. – 24
01:32, Today: Zinda Seshani rolled 30 using 1d20+11.  Wingman. – 30

The fleeing freighter's shields flash weaker and weaker under the assault of Arry & Zinda, hammering away from the rear; Kenth executes a brilliant flat-spun reverse that has him inside the shields for a moment - and while the Tie's laser cannons don't penetrate the armor on the bow of the vessel, it's definitely worse for the wear.

""II Flight this is Control; shuttle launching.  Myrmidon also attempting intercept of target, stay clear of tractor beam.  Continue current actions, do not destroy target.  Repeat, do not destroy target.""

Kenth continued to harass the freighter, primarily targeting turrets, sensors or other obvious points. As long as he could keep a portion of their attention it would give Arry & Zinda more time to disable them.

OOC: Defensive Flying - PS : +2 Defense, -4 Attack
14:36, Today: Kenth Felaeon rolled 18 using 1d20+10.  Pilot. – 18

"Understood, Control. Staying clear of beam. Should we break off our attack or make one last, low intensity pass on their engines and shields?" Arry asked as she closed in on the glowing rear of the freighter. She was prepared to break off or fire one final burst to disable their engines, depending on what Control ordered them to do.

"Control, should we continue our attack or run cover for the shuttle?" Zinda asked frantically. She only had seconds to make the decision, even as fast as TIEs were.

As the assault shuttle and two more TIEs drop out of the Marauder, (though still a long way away) the coms crackle with urgency - "II Flight, press attack, repeat press attack.  Do not destroy, but she must not escape."

Across the bow of the fleeing ship, Kenth's nimble flying is all that saved him from some blaster fire that literally passed on either side of the spherical cockpit - scorching the metal but without (seemingly) damage...

thought the Marauder's bow shield flash with impacts as they speed towards tractor range...and the cargo vessel continues towards what must be their hyperjump point...

"Understood, will continue attack" Zinda responds. "Guess it's up to us, Arry. I'll cover you, you blow those engines away. We'll get a medal for this, so be careful since we don't want it posthumously."

23:07, Today: Zinda Seshani rolled 20 using 1d20+11.  Intercept. – 20
23:07, Today: Zinda Seshani rolled 17 using 1d20+11.  Wingman. – 17

The fleeing ship tries a maneuver to throw folks off; and it works for a moment, with the Myrm's lasers just wide, Kenth's TIE just unable to get a bead, and Arry's TIE just unable to get lock on, but the assault shuttle is closing in, the Myrm is getting closer - almost in Tractor Beam range - and II Flight won't likely be caught by the same move...


Time is running out for this freighter...

OCC: I'm moving the story along by Thursday AM.  Three Full Days, team.

Kenth continued his tactics of delay and diversion.

OOC: Defensive Flying - PS : +2 Defense, -4 Attack
20:55, Today: Kenth Felaeon rolled 20 using 1d20+10.  Pilot.

The fleeing ship takes a few hits from the Myrmidon...

And some from II Flight...

Fires in return, but with no result;

And keeps on trucking.  No more than 30 seconds (3 rounds) till the Assault Shuttle can reasonably join the fray, and the Myrmidon's tractor beams can come into play...

"Come on, come on!" Zinda says. "Not much longer now..." The most important thing for Zinda is not to lose any of her squadron members. At the moment, her own life barely registers. She splits off from Arry and makes an attack run, although it's a tricky job to damage the engines without trying to destroy the ship
10:55, Today: Zinda Seshani rolled 28 using 1d20+11.  Intercept. – 28
10:55, Today: Zinda Seshani rolled 12 using 1d20+11.  Maneuver for advantage. – 12

Kenth was beginning to worry that the freighter may actually manage to escape. So he switched tactics from being a annoying distraction to an actual, well hopefully, threat as he swung about and began his attack run.

OOC:
Maneuver For Advantage:  - PS : Primary action, +2 to your secondary action. (Maybe)
14:08, Today: Kenth Felaeon rolled 12 using 1d20+10.  Pilot Maneuver for Advantage.

Strafing Run - PS : Attack on a capital ship to disable.
14:09, Today: Kenth Felaeon rolled 27 using 1d20+10.  Straffing Run.

The TIEs, break off into individual attack runs, each scoring hits, shivering the shields, and Arry, building on Zinda's attack, breaks the aft shields, and rips into at least one of the stern thrusters...

The Myrmidon is still closing, though her fore and port battery of turbolasers is frightfully wide...

The comms crackle with Lt. Rourke from the assault shuttle "She looks like she's gonna jump, but one more hit aft might stop that..."

"Take her Alive!" repeats the command from the Bridge...

The freighter starts to list, verrrry slightly, one thruster dead and sparking...

And then, the freighter leaps into hyper, instantly gone!

Rourke on comms "oh boy."


There's a longer-than-normal pause, and the voice of your XO, Commander Harik, comes over

"Command to II Flight, return to Myrmidon.  I Flight take patrol.  Shuttle Standby."

The tension as they hammer away and the ship seems on the verge of capture is almost unbearable. Unfortunately, the end of the tension with the ship's escape doesn't make things better. Zinda has to hold herself back from slamming the controls in frustration. "Aww, we had 'em! One more good hit and they were finished." She's still jumpy with adrenaline from the battle, and it takes her a moment to get her TIE under control and get it moving back towards their mothership. She comms Arry "Hey, Arry, am I showing any damage from outside? Diagnostics aren't showing anything, but you know how fragile these TIEs can be."

The dark hull of the Myrmidon has come to rest near where the freighter jumped to hyperspace, and as you head back, empty-handed, I Flight's TIEs tumble out of the launchbay to patrol before you dock. *They're going to be grumpy too, having been yanked out of their downtime to patrol what's certain to be empty space, without your chance to disable a run-away.

For your part, there's not going to be tons of fun either, with the inevitable debrief of what went wrong, and then a written report of same.

It's not better when on exiting your craft, ISB LT Iris Xiaomei, is also in the Hangar with your LCDR...

"Form up, JG's!"  is the precursor to a lot of heated yap about imperfect tactics, bad shooting, and sloppy execution.  'Commissar' Xiaomei just glowers, but both of them stiffen up, when the XO, Commander Harik, comes down in the lift.  "I think that's enough, Brent.  Iris, I have the sensor team working on something that you should see.  And II Flight, that was not great.  But sometimes the jump gets you.  Next time.  Let's get official statements, then you're dismissed.  We might be changing our stay in this system, so stay off the hooch."

He nods to Sallin, invites the ISB officer to leave with an "After you, Lt." and then back to the lift.  LCDR Sallin exhales.  "Yeah, sorry about that.  ISB makes everyone jumpy.  Ok, so one at a time, over in the corner, you can tell me what happened out there, then type it up, you know how it goes."

Kenth came close to cursing as the freighter jumped out of system. For the class freighter it had been it had far heavier shields and more heavily armed than was reasonable for any normal smuggler, which left very few options. Possibly pirates but he had suspicions otherwise. Of course none of that mattered now it was back to the Myrmidon and a dreaded debriefing with ISB.

Once back onboard he kept a neutral face as they gathered in formation for the inevitable berating interrogation / debriefing by ISB. Thankfully Commander Harik showed up and for some reason at least postponed the inevitable. At least he could handle telling Sallin his account of the flight, which was as concise and as accurate as his typed file.

Zinda is not her usual cheery self as she docks. She keeps running the battle back in her mind, trying to figure out what she could have done differently. Brent's lecture isn't welcome either. She'd shot just fine, in her opinion, but TIEs were interceptors and not built to disable large ships. That's what the bombers were for. Zinda takes off her helmet but isn't eager to be the first one in for the debriefing, although she'll go if no one else volunteers.

Arry cursed softly in Chiss when the ship managed to get away and turned her fighter back to the Myrmidon. "Copy, Myrmidon Control, heading back in."

When Zinda asked her to check her fighter for any damage she made a course change so she could look at the wings. "Negative. I don't see any damage to your ship at all." She fell into formation and waited for her chance to land where she perfectly expected to receive the vornskr's share of the blame. She was, after all, an alien. That the bantha poodoo was equally distributed came as a pleasant surprise but did nothing to improve her mood and she was more than willing to be the first to talk to their immediate CO.

Before Arry goes to speak to the CO, Zinda whispers "You did good, Arry, you flew well. Don't let him tell you otherwise. It's not our fault we couldn't disable that whole big ship with our little fighters."