ECHOES FROM HOTH: Episode Four: Fleet, Fuel, Firestorm

[max_vale]

Rebel Alliance Rendezvous Point; Deep Space


After their adventures on Thakis, each of the 6 Rebel Agents took the time to relax during the hyperspace journey back to the middle of nowhere where the Rebel squadron of ships awaited the precious fuel they were carrying onboard. Each got some much needed sleep and wondered about if and how they would use the Fire Crystals they had been given as each Agent had approximately 10,000 credits worth of the precious jewels.....

As they came out of hyperspace, visions of what to spend the credits on were dashed from their minds as they instantly found their Rebel Fleet ships under Imperial attack! An Imperial Star Destroyer occasionally fired some Turbolaser blasts at the 3 Rebel Capital Ships; a Bulk Cruiser, a Frigate and a small but fast and scrappy Corvette; while an Imperial Interdictor Cruiser was on the the opposite side of the Rebel ships; its four massive gravity-well projectors ensuring that even if the Rebel ships had Coaxium hyper-fuel, they wouldn't be able to jump to escape anyway....

Surrounding the Rebel ships like a cloud of hornets; 7 squadrons of TIE fighters buzzed about, strafing the Capital ships and battling the outnumbered five squadrons of Rebel starfighters while they were at it....content to wear down the Rebels as the Capital ships moved in from either direction, slowly but surely picking apart the Alliance force....

Cal rapidly blinked his eyes and shook his head to clear it from any cobwebs as he yelled to his fellow Alliance Agents to strap in as the ride was about to get real bumpy and he quickly threw the ship into a series of hard turns to avoid a TIE fighter that took an interest in them and cut over to fire a couple of laser blasts their way......missing due to the talented pilot's maneuvers.....

Jackson wasted no time upon seeing the state of things and he rapidly raced to the lower level and got into the small gun well to man the Outrunner's twin laser cannon....

Professor Clark slid into the now vacant co-pilot's chair and flipped on the Comms to the coded Alliance channel...."This is the Outrunner, we've got the Coaxium. Repeat, we've got the Coaxium. How do you want us to proceed, over?" The reply was not long in coming....though it was static filled, cutting through the sounds of battle and jamming....."This.....Mers on the Resolve...ng the Coaxium to us then......sport it to the Liberty's Flame.....hurry!"

Vale Starcloud was strapped into a seat in the small 'lounge' behind the cockpit, looking quite small as he sat between Zuul and Kit the Wookie. "If I remember correctly, the Resolve is the Bulk Cruiser while the Frigate was the Liberty's Flame and the Corvette was Nova Blast." Kit roared out her affirmation of the Young Jedi's memory while Zuul just shrugged as he didn't remember what the ships' names were.

Aiming for the hangar bay of the Bulk Cruiser Resolve, Cal gunned the engines and gritted his teeth as Clark yelled out that the TIE fighter was sticking with them. Down in the gunnery well, Crodowski tracked the fighter tailing them and started to line it up in his sights as Clark did his best to watch the sensor scope and angle the deflector shields.....

[kipper]

Clark is somewhat bewildered by the technical displays in front of him, he has a hard enough time of things like this even when there isn't a battle raging around him! He grits his teeth and resolves to concentrate on the matter at hand.

[Solo4114]

Cal

Does what he can to continue to evade incoming fire while also presenting the gunwells with clear targets.

[Rex]

Kit

Kit will prepare for a fast off load of the Coaxium Crystals.

[ybn1197]

Jackson will keep the twin laser cannons firing till there is absolutely no targets left in sight.

[Monsieur Rose]

Zuul

Zuul is about to get the chess set ready as he sees Kit checking the cargo and prepping for transfer. "That may be a better use of time. Lesss fun, though." Zuul saunters back to the cargo, making sure everything is ready.

[Starbeard]

Vale runs to the cargo hold and assists the others as best he can to offload the coaxium quickly.

[max_vale]

Rebel Alliance Rendezvous Point; Deep Space


Cal threw the controls of the freighter Outrunner this way and that, forcing everyone hard against their belts and harness' several times over as he avoided several blasts from the pursuing TIE fighter, though the little ship shook hard from a blast that slammed into their rear shields, but luckily, the shields held and no damage besides the shields themselves getting drained occurred. Call yelled down to his companion in the gun-well, "You gonna do something about that guy Jackson?!"

"Yeah, yeah....keep your shirt on!", the plucky Engineer replied as he carefully lined up a shot and then with a deep breath, he let it go and mashed his fingers on the firing buttons for the Twin Laser Cannon turret and the green bolts zipped thru the black space to terminate against the attacking Imperial TIE fighter and turn it into a short lived explosion....

A few moments later, they passed thru the magnetic shielding of the hangar bay of the Bulk Cruiser Resolve, lowered the landing gear and set down gently inside the nearly deserted hangar. Jackson flipped the switch to lower the ramp, and the rest o the Rebel Agents were already on their way to start lugging most of the precious Coaxium to the waiting group of Rebel Fleet crewmen. The massive Wookie Kitka'tarra and equally massive Barabel Zuul were both able to easily carry a significant portion of the heavy crystals while the plucky, but much smaller human Jedi Vale was only able to carry a relatively small amount....

The three came down the ramp and quickly put what they carried onto a waiting hover-cart as several Rebel crewmen rushed into the bay to gather more and a Fleet Lieutenant rushed over to introduce herself as Deck Officer Neyreese and Professor Clark, Cal and Jackson made their way from the cockpit and gun-well to the cargo bay ramp in time to hear the young officer call out; "Hey there! Case Officer Mers wants you guys to leave a crate of crystals on board to quickly transfer over to the Frigate Liberty's Flame so that they can hyper out of here as well." With that she nodded her head as they acknowledged and the Coaxium transfer process quickly got into a smooth rhythm....

Clark, Cal and Jackson both noticed a single Y-wing fighter prepped and ready to fly, but no one around it in the Hangar Bay and Clark asked what the situation was to which Neyreese replied; "Pilot got killed by a Turbolaser blast directly to her cabin as the Shields failed and the Gunner came down with Appendicitis last night....what're the odds, right?" Before anyone could make a reply the hangar bay suddenly was filled with jarring sound as an Imperial Shuttle, badly shot-up, slammed its way thru the magnetic shielding and screeched across the bay in a crash-landing with several fires breaking out all along its hull. After it came to a halt about 20 meters away from the Outrunner, one of the side hatches blew open and several Stormtroopers began rapidly boiling out of the hatch and jumping down to the hangar deck, clearly intent on boarding the Rebel vessel....

"We've got enough Coaxium to make a jump out of here, get the rest to the -Flame, go!", yelled Neyreese as blaster bolts started to fly their way. Zuul could feel himself grin as a fight the he could ACTUALLY participate in began to develop nearby and he snatched up his Flechette launcher as nearby Vale Starcloud engaged his blue-white lightsaber with a distinctive hissing sound....

Kit growled in annoyance and anger at the sight of the hated enemy Stormtroopers, but she pulled up her blaster as she resolved to give the Rebel crewmen time to take the precious Coaxium crystals down to the Engine room as she and her companions held off the Imperials...

Clark saw about ten white-armored Stormtroopers emerge from the crashed Imperial Shuttle and his academic's brain quickly did the percentages. He was pretty sure Zuul, Vale and Kit could handle the Imperials and they REALLY needed to get the Coaxium to the other Rebel Capital ship while flying thru TIE fighter infested space to do so. Cal could fly great, but was only a so-so gunner and Jackson was pretty good at both, while he was an okay shot and lousy pilot. He quickly had a thought, "Cal, Jackson....what do you say Jackson and I get in that Y-wing with me as the Gunner and escort Cal flying the Outrunner over to the Frigate?", he yelled as he also drew a blaster and fired a shot at the Imperials to keep their heads down.....

[ybn1197]

Jackson lets a sly smile cross his face. "You read my mind Professor!" Before waiting to hear from anyone else, he jumps off the ramp is running toward the starfighter before his feet hit the decking.

[Rex]

Kit

Kit rains fire from her blaster carbine at the Storm Troopers.

"huuguughghg uughghhhgh raaaaaahhgh uughguughhhghghghhhgh"

For those that understand Wookie

Die storm troopers

[Solo4114]

Cal

Runs towards the Outrunner, and shouts over his shoulder,

"If you two can keep 'em off my back, I'll get the Coaxium there in one piece!" then mutters to himself "Hope this ship can live up to its name..."

[Monsieur Rose]

Zuul

"That'ss more like it." Zuul feels his heartrate slow as he enters the battle. A sense of peace always occurs at the start, quickly followed by sometimes blinding rage. It's good to be alive, he thinks.

He looks around for some cover and fires a canister into the gathering stormies.

[kipper]

Clark hurries after Jackson to the Y-wing (taking potshots at the storm troopers along the way) and enters the gunner's seat.

[Starbeard]

Not wanting to get caught in the blast of Zuul's explosives, Vale stands his ground in the open and focuses on deflecting blaster fire with his lightsaber.

[max_vale]

Rebel Alliance Rendezvous Point; Deep Space and Hangar Bay of Bulk Cruiser Resolve


The battle between the band of Rebel Agents and a squad or more of Imperial Stormtroopers began in the hangar bay of the Alliance Bulk Cruiser Resolve....

First, the fierce female albino Wookie Kitkatarra roared out her hatred of the white-armored Imperials as she opened up with a barrage of blaster bolts from her carbine designed to keep the Stormtroopers' heads down. A pair of them did indeed dive for the deck while a third was caught in the chest by a bolt and dropped hard to the deck, never to move again....

Next to Kit, Zuul the Barabel felt a smile break across his reptilian visage as he launched a Flechette canister from his double-barreled launcher at the group of 10 or so Stormtroopers. The canister exited the launch tube, immediately exploded into a tight cluster of needle-sharp spikes and spread into a pair of the white-armored Imperials with enough force to knock them off their feet and onto the deck in shredded piles of armor and flesh....

Jackson Crodowski meanwhile saw the unoccupied Y-Wing fighter, heard the plan for him to pilot it while Clark would man the rear Gunner/Sensor Operator seat and he broke as fast as he could for the craft. He reached it without incident and with an athletic leap he jumped up to the built-in "step" on the side of the cockpit and scrambled up and into the Starfighter....

Professor Clark saw the shorter/slighter Pilot/Engineer Jackson race for the Fighter and he fired a couple of blasts from his Carbine over his shoulder to cause a Stormtrooper to duck and then he lumbered after his fellow Rebel Agent. A stray blaster bolt grazed his shoulder, leaving a burn trail that caused the Academic-turned-Freedom fighter to hiss in annoyance, but it did no lasting harm*; and soon enough he was hauling himself into the rear-facing back seat of the Y-wing, staring at a Sensor scope and controls and a gunner's stick for the 360 degree arc Twin Light Ion Cannon mounted on the top of the Two-Man Cockpit of the Y-Wing fighter....

Cal raced for the Outrunner, hitting the button to close the ramp to the Cargo-Bay as soon as the last of the Rebel Fleet crewman took the Coaxium needed for the Resolve and leaving a couple of crates for the Frigate: Liberty's Flame. He then quickly raced up the stair to the Cockpit, strapping himself in and firing up the engines. It was only then that he remembered there was a THIRD Alliance Capital ship, the Corvette Nova Blast. What was the plan for her the young Smuggler-turned-Rebel thought....

Vale Starcloud ignited his blue-white lightsaber, feeling comforted by the hum of the Jedi weapon, even amidst the chaos of battle. Trusting to the Force, he closed his eyes for a moment, felt his very essence tingle with the SENSE of the Force and in one motion he moved quickly and swatted a blaster bolt to the side that would have hit Kit right in the chest, while yet another blaster bolt flashed by overhead, perhaps half a meter from him and about the same distance from Zuul. The Young Jedi gave a slight grin at the astonished look on both Kit and Zuul's face, but his smile fell as yet another blaster bolt slammed right between the shoulder blades of LT Neyreese's back, dropping the young Rebel officer to the deck even as her Fleet Crewmen left the hangar bay with the precious Coaxium on their way to taking it to the engine room. Looking back at the Stormtroopers, the young Jedi could see about 7 or 8 of the Stormtroopers were still in the fight....


*Clark was hit but just GRAZED, he's fine

[Rex]

Kit

Kit continues to rain fire from her blaster carbine at the Storm Troopers.

[kipper]

Clark waits for Jackson to get the Y-wing underway.

"Let me know if you need me to do anything!" He says as he eyes the Sensor display with distrust. "I'll try, but I can't makes promises."

[Monsieur Rose]

Zuul

Zuul reloads and fires another round into the group of troopers.

[ybn1197]

If there is a clump of troopers in an area where there are no other rebels, Jackson will use position thrusters to maneuver the Y-Wing towards them where Clark can fire the lasers at them. Otherwise, Jackson will pilot the Y-Wing out the bay and on the way to the frigate.

[kipper]

((OOC: I think Clark only has control of the ion cannons, not the front laser cannons))