Shipyard Strike

[Lion El' Jonson]

(Continued From: Assessing an Ace (http://www.swforums.net/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=26748) )

Lion walked alongside Tie as they returned to the Capital Starship simulator and stopped beside it. He addressed the newly promoted Lieutenant and smiled.

"Lieutenant Tie. We're going to continue your assessment with a new operation. The small fleet we took out earlier is presumed to have been destroyed, but it won't take long until the Imperials notice that their Victory II went missing."

He took a short breath.

"Our target is an Imperial Military Shipyard in the Binarii System. There, they've been constructing multiple Star Destroyers. Our last surveilance over a month ago revealed there were four Star Destroyers nearing completion. Those vessels are presumably completed, but whether they've stayed to guard the Yards or have gone out for service is unknown."

Lion paused for a second and then brought out his datapad. He tapped some buttons, and a small but detailed holoprojection appeared in midair.

"This is the status of the vessels participating. The entire fleet from last simulation is being routed to a rally point, and we're being joined by detachments diverted from numerous battlegroups."

The projection flashed and displayed:
__________________________________________________ _________

Allied Fleet Distribution

Flagship: MCC-104gg Avatar

Cruisers: MC-90 Thunderhawk
MC-90 Majesty
MC-80 Flame of Rebellion
MC-80 Kraken
MC-80 Machete

Frigates: 5 Nebulon-B II: Larken, Corusca, Zolden, Anarii, Kirima
4 Assault Frigates: Whirlwind, Killaris, Blaze, Royalty

Gunships: 22 Corellian Gunships: Bloodhawk Group
8 Corellian Corvettes: Hellion Group

Total: 45 Vessels, Multiple Fighter Squadrons

Objectives

1. Defend Capital Starships against fighter attack.
2. Starfighter Assault against possible Capital Starships.
3. Elimination of static defenses guarding Shipyard.

__________________________________________________ _________

Lion smiled.

"Enemy defenses are unknown, but this fleet is quite massive for the task at hand. You'll be in command of Green Group and Grey Group, a squadron of B-Wings and a squadron of Y-Wings, respectively."

Lion stopped for a second to consult his datapad.

"Your squadrons will be escorted by two A-Wing squadrons if you're called to strike at enemy Capital Ships. Your home base is aboard my MCC-104gg, the Avatar. It's an immense vessel, designed to take on a Super Star Destroyer and win...All clear, Lieutenant?"

[TieFighterPilot181st]

Sure thing no problem. Are you sure we really need the A-Wings? I mean its me your talking about here. But if you must you must. Im ready when you are.

[Lion El' Jonson]

Lion laughed lightly.

"I have no doubt that you'll make short work of any target we point you at, but just to be on the safe side...if all 4 of those Destroyers stayed home to protect their base, that means you're fighting through 4 wings of fighters...not exactly much fun."

Lion began walking towards the large Bridge Simulator and sat down in the chair again. Holoprojectors whirred as they warmed up, and suddenly, a computer voice was projected from the left.

"Please enter authorization"

Lion leaned back in the chair.

"Computer, key custom mission L45-19, Shipyard Strike. Initiate Fighter Pod 67, Pilot Lieutenant Tie. Authorization Captain Lion El' Jonson, 1st Outer Rim battlefleet."

The computer paused for one second, then said:

"Authorization confirmed...would you like this score added to your combat tally, sir?"

Lion nodded.

"Yes, and record seperate score for Pod 67."

The computer clicked off, and an image began building around Lion of a bustling bridge.

The bridge on the MC-90 Lion had used last mission was huge, but the bridge of a MCC-104 dwarfed it. Over 300 men were inside the vessel's bridge, representing some of the best naval officers in the New Republic's fleet. Had this been a real bridge and not a simulation, Lion would be issuing orders to some of the most famous New Republic naval personnel in the galaxy.

"Lieutenant Hellard...confirm engine status."

[TieFighterPilot181st]

The simulated MC-104 hangar was huge and contained countless fighters. Tie keyed the comm to the bridge, "Ii was wondering could i get a cup holder installed on this thing. i mean these long mission make me real thirsty. Otherwise im ready to go."

[Lion El' Jonson]

Lion laughed inwardly.

"All systems check out, sir. Gunnery reports minor difficulties with the 12th starboard turbolaser bank, but says it shouldn't impair combat operations." confirmed Lieutenant Tolehal, the gunnery officer.

Lion nodded...on a ship this large, problems were bound to happen. Lion keyed a channel to Tie, who was currently in the hangar aboard his B-Wing.

"Just hang on, friend...we'll be at the battlezone soon enough...and I'll see about getting that cup holder put in...standby..."

Lion nodded to his comms officer.

"All personnel, prepare to jump...sensors, confirm status of battlegroup."

Confirmations began pouring in through the speakers.

"Flame of Rebellion is set to jump"

"...Kraken reports battlegroup ready"

"....Majesty confirms jump order...."

"Thunderhawk is at full readiness, and wishes you good hunting, Captain..."

"Machete is at full battle alert, is is set to jump..."

Lion spun in his chair.

"Very well then. Prepare the countdown for the jump to hyperspace." Lion said, repeating the famous words of Admiral Ackbar. "Prepare to jump on my mark...3...2...1..."

The viewport infront of Lion vanished into long streaks as the stars rushed past them...In a few minutes, they were going to be in the middle of an Imperial Shipyard.

[TieFighterPilot181st]

Tie felt a simulated lurch as the ship went into hyperspace. For the sake of practicality the sim made a normally 3 hour jump just a few minutes. Tie checked his sytems to make sure they were ok and reached into his pocket for the little miniature bottle of Whyren's Reserve that he always kept for emergency and took a sip.

[Lion El' Jonson]

"3...2...1"

With another lurch, the Avatar decelerated from hyperspace. Around him nearly 50 other large ships blossomed into space, spreading out like a deadly flower.

Lion rotated in his chair. Directly infront of him lay the simulated Imperial Shipyards. Nearly 10 kilometers long, the immense facility sprawled across Binarii's nearest moon, eclipsing it from Lion's sight...according to Intel, there were nearly 30 heavy gun emplacements to defend the yards against possible Rebel Incursion...but that wasn't what worried him at the moment.

"Sir, two Impstar Mark Deuces are directly infront of us...we're being flanked by and Impstar Mark One to the left, and 4 Dreadnoughts to our right...we came out of the jump too early..."

Lion swore softly, then keyed for a longrange scan on the immense asteroid belts that provided Binarii with metals to make starships...there they were...

"Helm!" Lion barked. "Two Interdictor cruisers directly infront of us...they're shielding themselves with the asteroids."

The bridge became a scene of marginally controlled chaos as senior officers hustled around, barking orders to subordinates.

"Bring us to red alert, command. Charge all weapons banks, reinforce shields to 200%....I don't care if you have to take energy from the engines."

Lion opened a comm with his ship.

"All squadron leaders, get your boys into the black, pronto! Good hunting..." Lion thought for a second, then keyed a seperate comm for Tie.

"Lieutenant, I'm designating you and your B-Wings, as well as those A-wings and Y-Wings to take out those Interdictors...Navigation thinks they can attempt a pinpoint jump if those things are out of the way...that'd give us some time to hammer on the yards."

He then opened a general comm, but made sure it was totally encrypted.

"Flame, Kraken, Majesty, go after that Impstar Deuce. Thunderhawk, Machete take your respective battlegroups and head affter that normal Impstar. All frigates, break off from your battlegroups and go after those Dreadnoughts...disengage if you suffer 70% hull damage."

Lion closed the comm channel, then turned to his own bridge crew.

"Gentlemen, we're going after that other Impstar Deuce...can I have a name please?"

It took a few seconds, but his senior sensor officer barked:

"Sir, it's called the Dark Reign...it's showing full power across the board, but the captain has not yet reinforced his shields...he's heading at flank speed for the Flame Of Rebellion."

Lion nodded.

"Thank you, Lieutenant...Instruct all remaining fighters in the bays to launch and escort Avatar as it moves to strike Dark Reign...once we reach within 5 kilometers, Instruct the X-Wings to stay at home, and send the A-Wings after the fighters...I want the B-Wings, Y-Wings, and E-Wings to hit that Impstar Deuce...try to wear down its shields before we get too close..."

Lion turned to his bridge crew.

"Am I clear, men?"

The crew nodded, and as one, said:

"Yes sir, Captain El'Jonson, sir!"

Grinning, Lion sat back down and turned his head to survey the chaos that was occuring in space.

[TieFighterPilot181st]

"Lieutenant, I'm designating you and your B-Wings, as well as those A-wings and Y-Wings to take out those Interdictors...Navigation thinks they can attempt a pinpoint jump if those things are out of the way...that'd give us some time to hammer on the yards."
"Damn just as i was about t take a nap."

"Alright lets move in boys!" Tie sid to the simulated pilots and they streaked twards the Imperial ships Well th plot htught to himself this houldnt be too hard wear down that Impstar Duece vape and Interdictor and take out a horde of TIEs on the way. Te reinforced power to his forward sield and preparedfor the onslaught of ships.

"Green Squadron execute a Rellis Flanking manuever on that flight of two patrol ships in front of us i wan hem out of our way." Tie ordered a simulated A-Wing squadron. The A-Wings moed off preforming nearly to perfectin. And then the TIEs wre among the New Republic fighters. Tie blasted straight into the mess of fighters all guns blazing.

[Lion El' Jonson]

oops, double post...

[Lion El' Jonson]

(ooc: Grammer! Speel Check! Argh!)

Lion returned his attention to the battle. That ISD was bearing the full brunt of Thunderhawk and Machete. Lion could already see that the Immense Star Destroyer had lost power to its bow shields, and all other shields were under 90% power. Two frigates flanked the Star Destroyer and began firing red turbolaser lances into the engines.

Elsewhere in the battle, things were also looking good for the New Republic fleet. The combined firepower of three cruisers was chewing into the ISDII's shields. One cruiser, the Flame, was showing a shield collapse to aft starboard, but the captain of that vessel rotated it and brought the strong bow shields towards the Impstar Deuce.

A jolt rocked the Avatar as the Dark Reign fired a ranging turbolaser shot into the forward shields. Lion almost laughed...that Star Destroyer was no match for his flagship. Lion picked up his headset and spoke into the microphone pickup.

"Forward weapons banks A-J, fire one volley into that Impstar Deuce."

Acknowledgements came in, and, almost at once, a volley of turbolasers, ion cannons, and several missiles leapt towards the Star Destroyer. The faster turbolaser bolts and ion cannons impacted first, red bolts pounding the protective field and blue bolts skittering across the surface of the shield.

The torpedoes impacted only seconds later, dumping their powerful charges through the weakened forward shields of the Dark Reign. A second later the explosion cleared, and the front 12th of the Destroyer was a blackened lump of metal.

[TieFighterPilot181st]

Tie hauled up onthe stick and climbed rapidly. Just hten a TIE starfighter cae streaking onto histail. Tie jinked up and down. He pulled up he proton torpedo launchprogram and huredly began to reprgram onetorpedo. Suddenly Tie leveled the B-wing out nd launched the torpedo. The TIE stopped firin because its pilot was wuite surprised but suddenly the torpedo pulled a tight loop and smashed into the bal cockpit. TIE heeled his fghter to the right and dive on an unsuspecting Interceptor. The Interceptor rolled to the right bu Tie was able to cut the inside arc and clip him with a shot to the port solar panel. The Interceptor suddenlycut power to make Tie overshot but Tie was able to pass the interceptor by meters hit the etheric rudder and stab 2 red lances of laser fire into the squint Thenhe began his run on the first Interdictor. His squadron's torpedoes detonated on thestarborad sheids while roilng columns of plasma curvd with the sheild and then sveral torpedoes arrived late piereced the sheild and hit the actual hull of the ship.

[Lion El' Jonson]

"Sir! Multiple torpedo impacts on an enemy interdictor!"

Lion nodded. Tie's squadron was doing its job.

"How are our cruisers holding up?"

His tactical officers typed rapid commands into their keyboards, and glanced up after a few seconds.

"Sir, Flame, Kraken, and Majesty report that their designated Star Destroyer has lost bow shields...Flame Of Rebellion is down to 85% hull integrity, rear shields were lost but have been rebalanced to compensate...she's showing 60% shield strength all around. Kraken has suffered no hull damage, only minor glancing hits, Majesty took a lucky shot that temporarily knocked out her 4th turbolaser bank..."

Lion nodded. The news could have been much worse, but he issued an order for the other two cruisers to cover Flame. The tactical officer continued.

"Thunderhawk and Machete are having little trouble with their target. The frigates Tremor and Munabi have disabled the Destroyer's secondary engines, and are working on the primaries as we speak. Thunderhawk has suffered numerous hits on their shields, nothing more. Machete has lost power to an auxilary engine, but it's not affecting performance significantly.

Lion smiled.

"Thank you, Lieutenant. What is the status of the interdictors?"

The officer glanced down, then spoke:

"One Interdictor guarding the Northern Hemisphere has been attacked by Green Group's B-Wings and multiple Y-Wings. Shields are down in all Starboard quadrants, and 3 of the 4 gravwells have either been shut down or disabled."

Lion nodded, then glanced ahead of them. Avatar shook slightly under the bombardment of Dark Reign. He pulled up shield displays on his console, and noted with relief that shields had only been reduced to 90%. The enemy ISDII had re-established its bow shields, but had had to draw energy from other quadrants...a quick energy scan showed that the section guarding the dorsal starboard turbolasers was flagging under Avatar's bombardment. Lion grabbed his headset.

"Guns, focus your fire on this section." Lion tapped the shield quadrant, and acknowledgements were heard through the headset speakers. Second later, a heavy broadside of turbolaser fire lanced out from Lion's flagship, impacting with the shields and blasting them apart. A volley of torpedoes followed, slipping through the weakened shields and blasting apart armored plate like tissue paper.

"Now, guns, all Ion Cannons to indicated quadrant!"

A sheet of blue energy erupted from Avatar. The blue bolts slipped through the damaged section of the Destroyer and skittered across the hull, electricity playing havok with the electronics. A second later an explosion leapt from the side of Dark Reign as the turbolaser banks overloaded. Oxygen and debris spewed out from the gashes appearing all over the ship, and the immense Star Destroyer began rotating ponderously away.

"Tactical, I need an assessment of the damage we inflicted."

"Sir, Dark Reign is out of control for the moment. The atmosphere that's venting is pushing the vessel off course. All weapons fire on the starboard side has pretty much cut off, but port firepower has intensified...It's probable that our volley took out the starboard turbolasers and ion cannons...you got her good, sir."

Lion nodded again, then opened a comm to Tie.

"Tie, commence an attack run on the other Interdictor...just doing enough damage to shut down the gravwells is enough...once that happens, jump on these coordinates we're supplying you with...and good luck. May the force be with you."

[TieFighterPilot181st]

"Yes sir." Tie brought his B-Wing into sharp turn and hit his afterburners on the way to the second Interdictor. Two Interceptors seing what he was doing peeled off from the main battle to chase him. Tie dived and accelerated while on Interceptor pulsed laser blasts out to his aft. Then ascending into a vertical rolling scissors movement he forced the Interceptor to overshoot and bringing him into his gun sights and Tie opened fire shearing the ball cockpit with 4 laser blasts. Tie's wingman destroyed the other after a short fight. " Y-Wings 2 and 4 blow me a hole in their sheild right here with your torps. Alright then I want everyone to commence a strafing run on the Interdictor no torps just get their attention. I have an idea."
"Affirmative sir." reported a different simlulated officer
The Y-Wings fired two torpedoes each which collapsed the sheild in the sector that Tie had indicated. Tie flew his B-Wing throught the momentary gap in the sheild which was right under the main hangar bay. He flew ino the hangar bay which was crowded with personnel ad racked TIEs. With a feral grin he switched his lasers over to stutterfire and mowed down the personnel. Then he melted a hole in the far wall and flew through into the compartment where the main powercells were for the ship and began melting them one by one.

[Lion El' Jonson]

Lion stood up.

"Fighter command, what the hell is Green leader doing?"

The lieutenant commanding that section of the bridge gestured to one of his subordinates. A second later, he replied:

"It appears that he flew inside that Interdictor...damned if I know how, sir..."

Lion nodded...that sounded like Tie.

"Sir!" shouted his tactical officer. "The other interdictor is shutting down its gravwells...our deep scans show that it lost power...like the batteries just...died..."

Lion smiled, a feral grin...now he knew what Tie was doing. He turned to his tactical officer.

"Lieutenant, I want a concentrated barrage of fire on Dark Reign. Target her forward hull, use all available banks. Divert power from engines, and get the BAC-VII computers set-up calculating that microjump."

"Yes, sir!" replied the tactical officer. He spoke into his headset, and Avatar began firing, unleashing its TRUE firepower. The cruiser's weapons were frightening to behold. Blast after blast seared from the MCC-104, so it looked like waves of red and blue energy were being thrown into space. The saturated fire impacted on the weakened Dark Reign, melting away the heavy armor. Huge explosions erupted out of the Destroyer's hull, geysers of fire spewing from the wounded ISDII...it continued to rotate away, its crews unable to get control.

"Sir, BAC-VII has a clean jump...it has a 99.9% confirmation on this route..."

Lion nodded. The BAC-VII was an impossibly powerful supercomputer, capable of billions of trillions of calculations per second...it was this machine that made such precise jumps possible. The cost, however, meant that only command cruisers were issued with the computer.

"Excellent. Instruct the BAC to calculate jumps for the rest of our fleet. Signal a full fighter withdrawal to the cruisers...it will take to long to calculate solutions for the fighters, and I don't want them jumping into the midst of those gun platforms. As soon as the fighters are aboard and the interdictor's gravwells are disabled, prepare for the jump."

The officer at Ops nodded.

"Sir, BAC-VII says it will take another four minutes to calculate the jump for the rest of our fleet...there's too much maneuvering going on right now."

"That's okay." Lion replied. "Instruct the fleet to shift their fire to the enemies hyperdrive systems first, then to target sublight engines."

There was confirmation, and Avatar's barrage turned to the back of the gravely-wounded Dark Reign. The primary sublight engines practically melted off the hull under the withering fire, and an immense explosion indicated that the destroyer's hyperdrive systems had been overloaded and destroyed...without a hyperdrive and primary sublight engines, Dark Reign and its fleetmates would have to resort to slowly plowing their way through the asteroids.

"Green leader, order the extraction of your squadrons..."

Tactical's entire section erupted in a cheer, and Lion swiveled his chair around.

"Sir, the Gravwells are down! I repeat, the Gravwells are down!"

"Excellent!" Lion replied. "Begin charging the hyperdrive motivators, and inform me when our fighters have docked and the other ships have been sent coordinates by BAC-VII."

[TieFighterPilot181st]

"This is Green Leader. All squadron pull out." Tie pulled his B-Wing out of the Interdictor's hangar bay impossibly fast and hightailed it backto the NR fleet with a horde f fighters following him.

[Lion El' Jonson]

Lion's eyes went slightly wide...Tie squadrons were withdrawing, the faster A-Wings and B-Wings clearing a way for the Y-Wings...and behind all of that New Republic firepower was a wing of Tie Interceptors...looks like somebody isn't happy.

As Lion watched, a swarm of green laser bolts blew apart two of the Y-Wings in yellow group. A squadron of A-Wings dropped their speed and then pivoted their guns around 180 degress to fire backwards. A flurry of red laser bolts and several concussion missiles erupted from the A-Wings. Four interceptors detonated, but then the cloud of Ties surged ahead, going in for the kill...

...and two squadrons of Ties abruptly vanished into clouds of vapor as 8 gunships and 4 corvettes angled in from behind...the wing of Ties scattered, confused and blinded, and the fighters shot into their respective hangar bays. A second later a green light lit on Lion's console, indicating that all fighters were secured, and all coordinates had been transmitted to the fleet.

"All ships, prepare to jump on my mark...5...4...3...2..1...jump!"

Avatar vanished into hyperspace, as did the rest of the fleet, leaving the embattled Imperial ships flatfooted in their wake. A second later the ships reappeared, nearly 60 kilometers away...in the midst of an imperial shipyard. The captain of Dark Reign swore and ordered his fleet into the asteroid field to chase the New Republic.

Lion was pleased with the jump, but it hadn't gone totally smoothly. The Nebulon-B II Zolden had misjumped and come out of hyperspace too early, on the edge of the Asteroid belt, a good 6 kilometers away from the rest of the fleet. Powerless from her jump, and unable to power up her engines or shields in time, Lion could only watch with resignation as an immense asteroid crushed the stern of the vulnerable frigate...escape pods shot out of the ship, but Lion knew that 100 men would be dead if this hadn't been a simulation. The front half of Zolden drifted forward, its gunners still firing at the stationary guns...two of them exploded, before the mortally wounded frigate's energy banks ran dry.

"Tactical, designate Blaze and Kilaris to assist Zolden. Recover all escape pods, and try to pull the intact half of the frigate into a stationary orbit...I'm assigning two squadrons of X-Wings to cover you. All other fighters, prepare to launch...blow through the stationary guns and head straight for the yard, we'll take care of those gun platforms. Your orders are to engage any starfighter defenses the Shipyard has and to destroy the yard's bridge. That should prevent or at least delay any other capital ships from launching."

[TieFighterPilot181st]

All Y-Wings engaeg the guns and the rest of you follow me. THe Y-Wings disabled the guns one by one while the rest of the fighters followed Tie into the shipyard.
"The Dark Reign has just jumped insystem and we're detecting otehr multiple signals. Sithspawn! Three Vic IIs have jumped insystem followed by a The Interdictor cruiser Emperor's Net.!"

[Lion El' Jonson]

Lion whipped around...what the hell?

"Negative, Green leader...Dark Reign has dropped out of jump in the asteroid field, eta is 15 minutes. The Interdictor and its escorts are running...looks like they were just stopping by..."

Lion turned back to the battle.

"Forward guns, target the active gun batteries. I want two salvos by turbolasers directed at each one, then I want an Ion cannon salvo fired. I want these things disabled, not destroyed. Remember, as soon as we take control of this thing, it is actually OUR shipyard, and those guns will be a good defense."

Lion turned to tactical.

"Lieutenant, arm all warhead launchers with Ion pulse torpedoes, get me a firing solution that will hit Dark Reign...make sure you factor in magnetic interference from the Ore asteroids. Any unoccupied guns, fire on the command section of the shipyards as soon as you're in range."

A second later, there was an odd "whoosh" sound as the multiple missile batteries released their Ion pulse payloads. The blue warheads flew straight ahead for a few seconds and then arced backwards towards Dark Reign until they were out of Lion's view. He keyed up the aft cameras and watched the warheads continue their deadly flight. The first few splashed harmlessy against the immense Star Destroyer's recharging shields. 16 of them were shot down. But the other 20 or so slammed into the hull with devastating results. Electrical energy played across the Dark Reign's hull. Aboard the ship, men were thrown out of their seats as fuses overloaded. The lights aboard the warship went out, and the scattered turbolaser fire ceased. A second later, engines and shields went out.

The blue light on the Reign's remaining engines flickered as engineers attempted to re-establish power, then shut down completely. Out of control, the ship was helpless. A 300-meter asteroid slammed into the Star Destroyer square on its right side. Immense explosions wracked the ship as the rock continued on its path, slamming through bulkheads and thick armor as if they were tissue paper.

"Sir, Dark Reign has lost all power, and that asteroid has disabled all starboard weapons. The ships backup shield systems were fried, and the link between the bridge, engineering, and the engines has been blown. She's not going anywhere for a while. All other enemy ships are en-route, eta 20 minutes. The three dreadnoughts our support ships had been dueling are due to arrive in 10 minutes, because they managed to intercept our jump coordinates, but they're heavily damaged."

Lion nodded, resisting the urge to smile. The shipyard was theirs.

"All fleets, cease fire on the Dark Reign...we might be able to add her to the fleet. If any other Star Destroyers enter, aim for disabling shots, not killing shots. Make sure that you don't knock out the hyperdrive...I'd rather a Star Destroyer gets away heavily damaged than forcing it to remain here...the captain could get desperate."

Boy, was that understating the situation. At the Battle of Selanoris, an outnumbered Star Destroyer that had been trapped by New Republic interdictors accelerated and rammed Allerion, Admiral Brasck's command cruiser. The resulting explosion killed almost 3/4ths of the crew. Luckily command was unhurt, but it was a tradgedy Lion didn't want to see happen.

"Green leader, continue towards the shipyard...we'll advise you if those Vic II's decide to fight afterall."

[TieFighterPilot181st]

(OOC. Can youget me a good avatar somewhere?)

"Green leader, continue towards the shipyard...we'll advise you if those Vic II's decide to fight afterall."
Relief floode through Tie ashe readusted his course for the shipyards. A lone flight of TIEs came up but were easily dispatched at long range with torpedoes from Tie and his wingman.
"Split up by squdron and each squadron take a sector of the shipyard. Im transmtting the assignments now."
"Green Squad follow me." greenkicked his thrusters to full and made a run for a space dock that was currently being used to contruct a new Star Destroyer. The Destroyer was close to completion with only the deflector sheild domes missing. "All fighters arm an fire3 torpedoes each into the space dock sheild. Blue comets streaked toward the hapless dock ad te sheild was takng an imense beating from the roiling eergy of teh torpedoes. The several torpedoes arrived late and pierced the sheilds and hit the Destroyer below. Then Tie brought his targeting program up once more and fire two more torpedoes at te bridge. "All right Green grop lts make sure this thing'll never fly."

[Lion El' Jonson]

Lion yawned and watched the battle unfold...this was getting too easy.

"Green leader, try not to destroy that Destroyer...I know this is a simulation, but capturing the thing gets a lot of points."

Lion looked over towards the Dreadnoughts slowly emerging from the asteroid field. Sparks shot from one, and shields flickered on and off...this was going to be a massacre. The salvage operation for Zolden was just beginning, as the two immense assault frigates maneuvered close enough to attach tow cables to the bisected frigate...Lion noted with satisfaction that all of the escape pods had been retrieved.

A voley of turbolaser fire lanced out from the frigates, angry red beams of light impacting on the Imperial Dreadnoughts' shields. The forward shields on the heavily damaged lead dreadnought went out, and Lion smiled.

[TieFighterPilot181st]

"Green group we have new orders. Use Ion Cannons only on the destroyer, go after the most vital systems first. Priority is to disable the destroyer and then protect it so we can capture it." With that Tie switched over to his ion cannons and rolled back into range of the Destroyer. He targeted the main range finder used to target the main turbolasers and as the lue bolts strucked electricity crackled over the rang finder. "This is Green Leader to Avatar I have three Imperial patrol ships heading my way permission to engage?"

[Lion El' Jonson]

Lion nodded

"Permission granted, Green leader. Give 'em hell, Lieutenant. Avatar out."

Lion returned his attention to the battering his fleet was giving to the dreadnoughts.

[TieFighterPilot181st]

The patrol ships began moving towards The B-Wings in a arrowhead formation. "Heres the plan. We're gonna split up into tw groups. Then i want one group directly behind the other so they are hidden from the Imp cause of the engine emmisions when i say markthe first group pulls up and the patrol ships follow and the second group gives em hell." The B-Wings hurriedly fored up i their new formation. The Patrol Ships were totally unaware of what was going to hit them.

[Lion El' Jonson]

Lion laughed as he listened to Tie's strategy over the comms...those poor Patrol Ship bastards were toast.

A sharp crack brought his attention back to the Dreadnoughts, and he laughed as he saw more turbolaser bolts lance out from Avatar and the rest of the fleet. Even as he watched, the lead dreadnought's shields went down completely. Multiple cannon shots crashed into her hull. Ion cannon bolts skittered across the Dreadnought's hull, frying shields, destroying control boards, and shutting down weapon systems. Turbolasers crushed through the hull, exposing it to space.

Huge gashes appeared in the dreadnought's hull, and with a blinding flash, her reactor went critical and split the old vessel in two. The Avatar's viewscreens automatically polarized to disperse the glare, and even as Lion watched, the fleet's guns retargeted on the second Dreadnought.

"Did you see that, Green leader? Nice fireworks, eh?"

[TieFighterPilot181st]

"Most beautiful thing ve seen yet." The B-Wings headed towards the patrolships which in vain tried to fire their turbolasers but were to slw and akwrd to track he nimble fighters. Jst on cue teh irst group of fighters pulled upsuddenly and the patrol ships turned to follow. Too late did teh see proton torpedoes heading towards them. Roiling plasma engulfed them. jst then he noticed that the Interidictor was doing some fine tune manuevering. Suddenly 2 more dreadnaughts appeared right over one of the NR frigates firing massive broadsides as they veered off.

[Lion El' Jonson]

"Damnit, what the hell just happened?" Lion yelled, watching as the two Dreadnoughts crushed the Nebulon-B frigate.

"Sir, it's one of Thrawn's old tricks. He used an Interdictor to define a hyperspace edge and then pulled his ships in near the target." responded Lieutenant Riemann.

"All ships, divert fire towards those two newcomers!" Lion yelled.

The fleet retargeted their firepower on the lead dreadnought. Turbolaser fire glanced off the shields, but it was too late. With one more huge salvo, the Dreadnoughts penetrated the Nebulon-B2 Anarii's shields and snapped the fragile spine in two with concentrated fire. The ship's aft section continued to thrust forward, and rammed the front inverted-"v" section. With a blaze of light, the reactor exploded. The burst of energy tore one of the "wings" off and set it ricocheting across the battlefield. Most of the ship's escape pods had been launched in time, but the reactor's violent death incinerated 4 of them, killing nearly 50 men.

"All remaining Nebulon-B2's, rescue ops, now. Fleet, keep up your fire."

[TieFighterPilot181st]

"Sithspawn. New contacts coming from the spacedock near the shipyards. Numerous TIE contacts. Looks like eyeballs and dupes headed this way. Avatar watch out three Skiprays coming up towards your stern. Just then 3 proton torpedoes lanced towards the cruiser and exploded on the rear sheilds which flickered wildly befpre settomg down.

[Lion El' Jonson]

There was a slight rocking aboard the Avatar, and Lion braced himself.

"Three direct hits with proton torpedoes, sir. No damage." called out Lieutenant Riemann. Responding to the attack, the rear batteries aboard Avatar spoke with one voice, and two of the Skiprays imploded. The third had its ventral wing torn off by the volley of turbolaser fire, and crashed into one of the Assault Frigates.

"Green leader, continue your attack run on the Dark Reign. We've got Delta Squadron and Omega Squadron's Attack Transports on standby for the capture op...just go in and disable that Destroyer. We're diverting A-Wing Squadrons Gold and Blue to take care of those TIEs."

[TieFighterPilot181st]

"Got it. " Green squadron which by now was down to 9 fighters was split into three flights of three. The Dark Reign's dorsal sheilds were down so the nine B-Wings screamed down Ion Cannons blazing scrambling the Destroyers extensive weapons and tracking systems. Tie headed for the targeting package which if destroyed would force the Destroyer to fire its weapons without guidance and blindly. With a small explosion the targeting system went up in flames reducing the combat effiency of the Destroyer by 40 percent.

[Lion El' Jonson]

A small cheer went up in the bridge as the targeting array went up, but that cheer quickly died as three of the B-Wings that had gone in to attack were vaped by a turbolaser salvo. Tie somehow managed to dodge the attack, but a near hit from an Ion cannon fried his rear shields.

"Damnit, Green leader...they must have the new prototype targeting computers that they run from the bridge..."

Lion thought for a second.

"Make a run on the right side of that destroyer. Hit any weapon systems that have a firing arc on that side. We're sending in our Attack Transports with rockets to assist. Keep them safe, Green group. Those A-Wings that were taking care of the TIEs are inbound, eta 3 minutes."

[TieFighterPilot181st]

In a flash three more B-Wings went up in flames.
"Make a run on the right side of that destroyer. Hit any weapon systems that have a firing arc on that side. We're sending in our Attack Transports with rockets to assist. Keep them safe, Green group. Those A-Wings that were taking care of the TIEs are inbound, eta 3 minutes." Tie split his remaining fighters into 3 pairs which began their unrs on the starboard sideof teh Destroyer. "Two and Three flights go and escort the Attack Transports in."
"This is Green Leader to Avatar my squadron is down to six fighters we need reinforcements. I have three flights of two left of which two flights are escorting the Transports in"

[Lion El' Jonson]

Lion shook his head.

"Negative, Green leader...those A-Wings are the only things that aren't engaged at the moment...the other B-Wings are busy delivering deathblows to those Dreads. ETA on the A-Wings is now...20 seconds..."

Tie's group broke formation as yet another volley of turbolaser fire broke from the Dark Reign. An assault transport was hit and its forward shields blew out. 4 TIE Interceptors that had broken from the battle and rushed to assist their Destroyer were coming up below and behind Omega group, in the blind spot on their sensors...

"Omega, you have squints below you, six o'clock!"

The transports panicked and broke formation, but too slowly. The Interceptors were about to squeeze off a volley of fire when they all imploded. 24 small, wedge shaped fighters shot through the explosions in tight formation, curving around and settling around the remnants of Tie's squadron.

"Whoo! Nice slash, Blue leader, Gold leader! Commence run, Omega and Delta! Follow them in, Green leader! Blue, Gold, let's take out those guns!"

[TieFighterPilot181st]

"Let's get 'em, Green group! Omega, Delta, take down the primary turbolaser batteries! We'll run in with you, and then let loose a torpedo barrage on anything you leave behind. Blue group, take down any weapons forward of the reactor. Gold group, take down any ventral turbolasers."

Tie shoved the throttle to full and spun his craft in a tight roll. Turbolaser bolts flew around the craft, detonating and buffeting the B-Wing. 12 rockets flew by Tie's craft. Two were picked off by lucky turbolaser shots, but the vast majority crashed into the hull and exploded in massive balls of flame. When the explosions cleared, only one of the immense turbolasers remained...

"I'll have to remedy that..." Tie thought.

Flipping on his target transponder, he designated the last remaining heavy turbolaser as a target, and then let fly with two torpedoes. Around Tie, 10 other torpedoes appeared as his squadron launched on the same target. With an immense ball of blue flame, the final heavy turbolaser imploded, crumpled, and burst into a ball of slag.

"Nice shot, Green squadron! How we doing, Avatar?"

[Lion El' Jonson]

"Doing well, Green leader. Omega and Delta are ready to begin boarding ops as soon as Blue group takes out the last primary Ion cannon. The Golds took out everything on the bottom of Dark Reign."

Lion directed his attention back to the Dreadnoughts. Even as he watched 12 Black B-Wings launched a huge salvo of proton torpedoes at their target. The shields, already weakened by bombardment from Lion's cruisers, collapsed and allowed almost all of the torpedoes through. They slammed into the hull of the Dreadnought and tore an immense hole in the hull wide enough to fly a corvette through. Multiple inner explosions followed the torpedoes' impact, and the Dreadnought split in half along the hole.

"Whoo! Nice shot, Black Knights!" Lion said.

"Just doing our job...sir." came the reply, and Lion smiled.

[TieFighterPilot181st]

Tie grinned as he made another strafing run over the massive Destroyer flames and destruction trailing in his wake. He now only had 5 B-Wings left under his command including himself. Then his sensors set off an alarm one more.
"Green Leader to Avatar i have multiple TIE signatures coming from the low orbitspacedock facilities. One wing at least probably more. Eyeballs and bombers coming this way ill order mygroup to engage but we'll need help. " Alright all remaining Green Group Porkins Formation. The five B-Wings roared in guns blazing all while juking to avoid the sea of green enemy return fire.

[Lion El' Jonson]

Lion slapped his hand on his forehead.

"Damnit...I knew this was going to well to last..."

He keyed up some orders on his command screen.

"Green group, it's confirmed as one wing of old TIE Fighters...withdraw to rally point Gamma...we're diverting Blue group and Gold Group to follow you there...hold at Gamma for a minute, I'm sending 5 gunships to support you."

Lion needed more starfighters in that battle, though...who was unengaged...ah...I see.......

"Also, you'll be meeting up with the Black Knights, my elite heavy starfighter squadron.....they're the ones that just lit up that dreadnought over there..."

Lion clicked on his headset.

"Colonel Flense, hustle your boys to rally point Gamma...there's a wing of eyeballs that require your attention."

"Acknowledged, Admiral...Alright, boys....let's go clean house." came the reply.

[TieFighterPilot181st]

"Also, you'll be meeting up with the Black Knights, my elite heavy starfighter squadron.....they're the ones that just lit up that dreadnought over there..."
"negative Admiral we cant wait. Me andthe rest of Green Squadron will hld em off so the ter fightes can get organized to counterattack. But they better get here fast if they want some kills cause we wont leave too many left" Tie replied to Johnson. Tie then switched over to his squadron frequency, "All Gree Fighters report in."
Green 3: "Ready to light em up"
Green 4: "what we waitin for"
Green 7: "All set"
Green 9: "Are you sure this is the best situation sir the odds are about 12 to 1 in their favor"
"Hey let me make it clear that I dont care one bit about the odds, because odds mean nothing to Correlians and besides you never know if they'll change. Alright engage with torpedoes at maximum range and lasers right after that. Help out anyone you see in trouble." The five B-Wings roared out to meet the TIEs. Tie let out a Correlian war whoop and launchedhis torpedoes and soon ten torpedoes blossomed from the B-Wings towards the rapidly approaching TIEs.

[Lion El' Jonson]

"...Green leader, what the hell are you doing?"

Lion shook his head as Tie headed into assured virtual suicide. A wall of green energy blossomed from the TIEs, even though they were 2 klicks out of range. It looked like sheets of laser fire.

"Hurry up, Knights....Green leader may be a hot hand on a stick, but a wing of TIEs would be a match for Luke..."

[TieFighterPilot181st]

"Im running interference. Dont worry we got em tied up. This way they'll be distracted when the reinforcements come in." Tie cut of the trasmissions and dived into another quortet of TIEs. Sheets of laser fire poured out at him but due to his reflexes and almost bring able to read teh minds of enemy pilots he was ale to escape with only a couple minor grazes. Then evening out his sheilds fore nd afthe brought anther TIE under hisguns and sheared of teh port solar array with another laser blast.
"Leader 3 just lost his number one engine. "
"Sithspawn. Alright escort him back to the Avatar. Then all remaining Green fighters pull up to point 482"
"Why would we want to do that that would put em right on our tails."'
"Trust me" The four remaining B-Wings pulled up in a standard finger four formation. The TIEs pulled up to pursue when an assault formation of A-Wings blasted through before the fighters could get back into barricade formation.

[Lion El' Jonson]

"Took you long enough, Blues...." Lion heard someone say.

"Alright, Greens, sweep their tails."

Lion consulted his chronoslate...right...about...now...

9 of the TIEs disappeared in balls of flame, and a squad of pure black B-Wings slashed in, guns blazing. The swarm of fighters changed direction to follow the B-Wings, and a whole squadron of them disintegrated as 5 Corellian gunships rushed in, their heavy lasers tracking the enemy.

"And you thought only A-Wings could perform a slash!" Lion whooped, as fighter command erupted in cheers.

[TieFighterPilot181st]

"Did you see that?" Green 9 whooped referring to the Black B-Wings and the A-Wings.
"Alright lets clear their tails Green boys." The remainig TIEs which were by now outgunned and were boxed in by the fighters and the Gunships tried to engage the A-Wings to cause as myn casualties as possible. Tie maxedout his throttle dropping in on the tail of a TIE fighter. The TIE juked left and right ad dived to avoid Tie's tracking laserbolts but in vain as 2 bolts sheared through the cockpit. A few minutes later the remaining TIEs surrendered.
"Green Lead to Avatar all remaning TIEs no longer hostile requeting instructions."

[Lion El' Jonson]

"...We're diverting an Assault Frigate to lash them to its hull...we'll worry about them afterwards."

Lion watched as the converted dreadnought disengaged from combat and cruised towards the now motionless TIEs.

"Bring your squadron back to the Avatar...the Knights will be following you in. Gold group's A-Wings are escorting our ATRs to the Dark Reign. Excellent job, squadron leaders."

[TieFighterPilot181st]

"You got it Avatar. thanks. " Tie had his remaining fighters form up on him and in a few minutes he was back in the docking bay.

[Lion El' Jonson]

Lion watched as the rest of the battle unfolded. With their fighter support decimated and their dreadnoughts damaged or disabled, the remaining Imperials were helpless. They disengaged their Star Destroyers and Dreadnoughts, taking the quickest jump out of the system. Squads of Republic Special Forces landed on the Dark Reign from nearly 18 locations, cutting through the hull and sieging the disabled Destroyer. Even with nearly 1000 heavily armed commandos, the 46,000 man crew resisted for nearly 4 hours. Casualties were nearly 65%, and in one case a company of stormtroopers held out in the secondary reactor chamber for almost a day.

Two enemy dreadnoughts were captured, and Lion listed them to be converted to Assault Frigates. Lifeboats were recovered, losses were listed, and fighters returned to their homes. Damage was tallied. All in all, the New Republic had lost barely 8% of their firepower. Starfighter casualties were only 12%. The only capital starship lost was the frigate Zolden. The top fighter squadron in the engagement were the Black Knights, followed by Green Squadron. The Imperials lost an estimated 60% of their firepower, including three dreadnoughts, and the Dark Reign.

Any other Imperial starships that had survived would require months of repair, assuming the ships could even manage to get back to a shipyard. Lion paced around the bridge, grabbing the comlink.

"Green leader, excellent job. Give me a few more minutes to tally the scores and then we'll exit the sim."

[TieFighterPilot181st]

"Alright"

[Lion El' Jonson]

Warning Klaxons sounded as the capital ship simulator exited, a doorway opening and spilling light in. The female voice of the machine said "Simulation over...simulation over....victory."

Lion smiled and walked out to meet Tai as he exited his simulator pod.

"Excellent job, Lieutenant Yamagi. You scored higher than almost any other squadron, besides the Black Knights...and they were very impressed..."

He waved towards 11 approaching men and women. All of them were dressed in a pure black uniform. Though they weren't wearing their medals, a Black Krayt Dragon adorned their helmets...the infamous Black Knights.

"I'm captain Melina." said one of the women. "Current CO of the Black Knights."

She held out her hand.

[TieFighterPilot181st]

"Hi. I'm Lieutenant Yamagi." taking the extened hand and shaking it.
"I must say that your squadron is excellent ma'm."

[Lion El' Jonson]

The woman nodded.

"Thank you, Lieutenant. You showed exceptional skill during that simulation." She paused. "Our CO, Colonel Flense, was critically injured during a Black Ops skirmish off of Sluis Van. He's undergoing rehabilitation, but he won't be flying B-Wings for at least a year."

Lion nodded.

"That is why, Taichi Yamagi, you are being promoted to Wing Commander, and leader of the Elite Black Knights fighter squadron. You answer only to me. Colonel Flense is your Intel officer....just because he can't fly doesn't mean he can't plan missions."

Lion stepped forward and pinned a gold star to the collar of Tai's uniform.

"Congratulations, Commander Yamagi...I expect good things from you and your unit."

[TieFighterPilot181st]

Tie was a little surprised at being promoted so fast. he knew that he would be commanding an elite group of pilots and only the best woul be expected out of him and his pilots.
"Thank you Admiral. i wont fail you."

[Lion El' Jonson]

"I trust you won't Commander. Meet me on the Bridge in ten minutes, I've already got a first mission lined up for you."

Lion spun on his heels and marched out of the simulator room, taking one last glance at the new Wing Commander.

[TieFighterPilot181st]

"Sure thing."
"Hey Sneaky can you bring me a Whyrens Reserve please." Tie said through his comlink to his astromech droid. A couple minutes later the droid wheeled into the sim room with the requested beverage coming up behind the unexecting pilot silently thus making Tie jump a full 4 inches off the ground. "Do oyou always have to do that Sneaky?" The droid gave Tie the bevrage and gave a nervous tootle "No I'm sure the NR technicians wont cannibalize you once they find out you're a former Imperial droid." The droid responded with a string of bleeps dipping with sarcasm. "Go work on the ship then, you'll blend in and no one will ask about you alright." The droid tooted his consent and wheeled back out of the room. Tie took a nce long gulp an headed toward the bridge eventually reaching it in just a few minutes.

[Lion El' Jonson]

Lion saluted the newly minted Commander as he stepped onto the bridge of Home One.

"Commander Yamagi, once again I want to congratulate you for your performance in the sims...nice to see your time away hasn't dulled your performance at all."

Lion turned to the bridge holoprojector and clicked it on.

"We've located a black market bazaar in the slums of Coruscant. It's under the command of a former Black Sun lieutenant. I need your squadron to go in with another squadron of B-Wings to clear out any airborne combat craft, ground weapons emplacements...anything that could endanger a New Republic advance. General Kits is massing an army near the outskirts of the former Palace District. As soon as you give the okay, those troops are marching into the bazaar to take that former Black Sun Lieutenant hostage. A-Wings will relieve you when the troops arrive."

Lion turned to his left and grabbed something off of a table. He turned it over...it was a Mark. VII Distruptor Rifle.

"New model Distruptor Rifle. It has a much better ammo capacity and a faster rate of fire than any previous models. Our Intel squad in that Bazaar picked this thing up off the street for a little over 12,000 credits...less than a quarter of the going price for this weapon in the military. These..." he motioned toward four blue balls. "These are custom-built thermal detonators, with an explosive range of 150 meters...roughly comparable to a Proton Bomb. These cost only 1,000 credits each..."

Lion threw his hands into the air.

"As you can see, we've gotta remove this thing. You want the job, Commander?"

[TieFighterPilot181st]

"Of course I'll take the job. By the way you think i could get one of those disruptor rifles?"

[Lion El' Jonson]

Lion nodded.

"Watch it, bub...those things are a capital offence on 95% of worlds in the New Republic."

He laughed lightly.

"So, Commander...You're liasing with Commander N'Drell of the Shadowhammers fighter squadron. They're a nice B-Wing outfit, and they've got experience in flying in congested areas...in fact, they flew cover when we took Coruscant, so they know they area. General Kits is in overall control of the mission, but you'll be calling the shots in the air...at least for the Knights."

Lion pulled a coding cylinder out of his pocket, and tossed it towards Tai.

"This has maps of the area, as well as suspected enemy bases...airbases, and all that. It's also got the probable route General Kits is taking to get to get into the enemy camp. Try not to lose it, Commander..."

He took a step back.

"Any questions?"

[TieFighterPilot181st]

"95% only thats not too bad. Well i dont have any quetions. So Ill brief my squad on this one. You have any idea when we're gonna start this lttle op."

[Lion El' Jonson]

Lion shook his head.

"We're waiting on General Kits. In the meantime, start training for this mission in the simulators. I've got a team of programmers making a sim of your actual mission."

[TieFighterPilot181st]

"Alright, that shouldnt be too hard. We'll start on that sim as soon as we can."