BACK ICE - Episode 5: The Blitz

[max_vale]

Alliance Base in the caverns of the planet Fangol; Mortex Sector


The Alliance command personnel of the Fangol base had come quickly to the decision to evacuate the base; but the problem was that as a large base in a remote area; it was not going to be a quick process. Still, with the Imperials estimated to not arrive in force for at least 2 or 3 days; it was thought that there would be plenty of time to vamoose out of the Sector before the Impies even arrived.

Everyone thought wrong….

The Imperials had made an unexpectedly quick respone and launched a Blitz assault response; showing up a mere 38 hours after the initial transmission was made from the Black Ice and it had caught the Alliance with thier proverbial pants down…

Alliance Fleet Captain Tiodor Kendrick, commanding Battlegroup 34 was doing his best to fend off the Imperial squadron in space; while Colonel Danigan Moonshot, the commander of the Base, was doing his best to get all of the non-combat personnel and all records evacuated while also organizing a defense with his Company of Infantry and Wing of Starfighters. Meanwhile, Case Offier Lawra Mers of Alliance Intel and her band of Special Operations Agents in Black Team, stood by, ready to assist in whatever way possible. All of the members of Black Team save one, that is. Borsk La'Reth; still recovering from his shattered leg bone, had been on the first evacuated transport out of the system. The rest of the team meanwhile was staying in a corner of the main Ops room on the base and trying to follow the progress of the battle while staying out fo the way of everyone at the same time….

Colonel Danigan Moonshot was turning to take in his chief subordinates, consisting of the Bothan male Infantry officer Captain Sev Ma'Leth who led Nova Company; the human male Logistics and Supply Services officer Captain Io Dargen; the Mon Calamari male Starfighter officer Wing Commander Karnak; the female human Intel officer Case Officer Lawra Mers and on a video screen the transmission of Fleet officer Captain Tiodor Kendrick from the bridge of his Flagship.

"Captain Dargen, how much longer until all the personnel and records on the base are evacuated?'; the Colonel asked. "I need another hour sir"; the haggard and worried looking Dargen replied. "You'll get it"; the Colonel answered firmly. He quickly turned to the vid screen; "What's it looking like up there Kendrick?" he asked the Naval officer. "It's not pretty, but it's not terrible yet either. We're holding our own….but the problem is that we've only managed to detach 5 of the fuel cells off of the -Ice; as you know, one of which has been taken down to the base there to fuel the Starfighter Wing and Evacuation Transports. The other 4 we've managed to hyper-out to Fleet Replenishment depots; but the other 4 cells are still on the container Train and it's going to be hard to try and keep the Imperials away from it."

At this, Danigan looks over at Wing Commander Karnak and asks the Mon Calamari; "Well, what about it?" The Mon Cal speaks in a rumbling, serious tone; "I've got 25 functional fighters, but only 24 functional crews….that last fight when we captured the Black Ice led to a couple of my pilots being seriously injured, though they were able to land thier fighers intact after the battle. We'll do all we can to protect the Container Train until it can reach a safe point to hyper out of the system".

At this point, Kendrick cuts bak into the conversation; "Aww hell. It looks like the Imperials just brought in a Strike class Cruiser on the far side of the system, away from the battle here and its launching a bunch of Dropships, escorted by some TIEs. Better get ready for an assault Colonel".

Moonshot nods grimly and he dismisses the various commanders and then turns to the Bothan Infantry officer; "Captain Ma'Sheth, better get your Company ready." "Yes sir"; the Bothan replied crisply with his fur rippling. Before he and Wing Commander Karnak could leave though; Case Officer Mers suddenly spoke up.

"Colonel, Captain….I believe some of my people here in Black Team could be of help to you in any fighting likely to occur"; she says to the two men, who both turn to look over the members of Black Team, who were caught off guard by Lawra's volunteering of them. "Indeed, Zuul here is practically as devastating as a whole squad of soldiers and Clark and Gavin Storm are fine shots as well"; she continues, completely oblvious to any looks or sounds emanating from the men she's pointing out.

"Also Colonel, Wing Commander Karnak; if you have some fighters that need pilots; I know Zinn and Jackson of Black Team are both EXTREMELY capable star fighter pilots, as thier records show in the Shatipole incident where they helped to capture the B-Wing fighter for the Alliance"; she presses forward. "Indeed, that sounds most fortuitous"; Wing Commander Karnak replies as he looks the two men over.

"Well, I've got a 2 seater, BTL-S3 Y-Wing that could use a crew, gentlemen. Right this way, please"; Karnak gestures to Zinn and Crodowksi while Sev Ma'Leth moves towards Zuul, Clark and Gavin Storm. "Well, I could always use a few more fighters….come with me"; the Bothan orders as he spins on his heel, fully expecting the Rebels to follow him….


*Note: All characters are in full health and all have 1 Force Point

[kipper]

Clark steps smartly, following the Infantry Captain. "Well, I hope he at least has something special in mind for us!" he comments to Zuul and Gavin.

[GreyWolfVT]

Gavin "Yeah special. I'd like some special R and R about now."

[Jedi Skyler]

Zinn follows as instructed, not happy to be getting separated from most of the rest of his squad. Unfortunately, orders are orders, and he bites back several choice comments. Instead, he turns back to his teammates. "Keep us updated as possible on our secure team channel; we'll hook up as soon as we can."

Continuing toward the fighter launch area, Zinn says, "Commander? What can you tell us about what's going on outside?"

[Monsieur Rose]

Zuul perks up at the mention of combat: "So long asss we stay on the ground for a bit. He hass had quite enough of being unconsciouss in space."

[max_vale]

Alliance Base in the caverns of the planet Fangol and sector of space near the captured I.S.S. Black Ice; Mortex Sector


Zinn Vallimar and Jackson Crodowski:

Wing Commader Karnak turns to the pilot and says; "Not much more than you already heard....looks like the Imperials have a Squadron of ships, including a Star Destroyer that's tangling with our Battlegroup at one end of the system and then pulled a fast one and had a Cruiser hyper in-close to Fangol on the far side, where the Black Ice is. Looks like the cruiser is one of the modular Strike class cruisers and this one's been loaded out to carry 3 squadrons of Fighters and maybe a dozen Dropships. They're launching Dropships, each carrying a platoon of 40 troops; most heading for the surface, probably a couple heading for the -Ice to try and get the ship and its fuel-cells back or at the least deny them to u s. Obviously we've got to stop 'em....and we've got exactly 25 fighters to do it." At that point, Karnak was cut off by Jackson suddenly grabbing his side and collapsing to the ground with an agonized bellow of pain.

Some medics quickly rushed over and with the aide of some medical scanners, they quickly determined that the Engineer had just suffered from a ruptured appendix. They quickly got him to a med bay on board one of the departing transports; he'd be fine, but he wouldn't be of any help in THIS fight. As Zinn, Karnak and the others got to the hangar bay, Vallimar was directed towards a 2 seat Y-Wing and was surprised when a determined, 20-something year old dark-skinned human woman in the jumpsuit of a tech came over. "Hey; my name's Avarra and I have personally gone over every centimeter of this starfighter and ensured its in better shape now than it was the day it rolled off the assembly line. I can also shoot that Ion turret better than most and have been working sensors, comms and shields on light freighters and starfighters since I was 11. The Imperials killed by brother Trevinius a couple of weeks ago and I'd like to get a little payback. I asked Karnak and he said No, that he needed techs more than fighter crew....but it looks like whoever you were gonna fly with isn't gonna make it; which means you're gonna be dealing with an Ion cannon turret stuck firing in one direction and degraded sensor scopes as you won't be able to manipulate them from the pilot station with the same degree of control as from the rear seat....so whadya say I fly with you?"; she asks in a calm manner, but with a serious blaze in her big, dark eyes which would otherwise be lovely. Not seeing that he had much choice; Zinn agreed. A few scant minutes later; the fighters had flown through the misty, crystalline air of Fangol and emerged into outer space....

The familiar sight of the Black Ice greeted Zinn; as did the sight of 3 dozen TIE fighters and a dozen Dropships; each armed with a twin laser turret and heavily armored and shielded and surprisingly fast; though not maneuverable in the least. The Imperials soon broke into 3 groups; the first consisted of 2 dozen TIEs and they raced directly towards the Rebel Wing of fighters. Another group consisting of 11 transports and 8 TIEs raced towards the surface of Fangol and the Alliance base awaiting them. The last group consisted of a single transport and a flight of 4 TIEs and they were headed for the Black Ice.

Karnak's gravelly Mon Calamarian voice came over the comms and he called out the Rebel response. He would lead 15 of the fighters on an intercept course towards the rapidly approaching TIEs while he singled out 8 other fighters to do their best to trim down the transports heading for the surface. Zinn & Avarra and an A-Wing pilot named Rollo Bluestar he directed to take out the 4 TIEs and Dropship heading for the Container Train.

Rollo's voice was excited and he called over to Zinn and Avarra; "YEEEEE-HAAAAAA! Let's go take out these Impie suckers! I'll clear the way for you and you guys take out that Dropship as my twin lasers probably aren't gonna do much more than tickle its thick hide!" With that, the inexperienced Rollo accelerated the fastest starfighter in the galaxy and angled directly towards the 4 Imperial TIEs while performing all manner of show-boating maneuvers in an effort to get the attention of all 4 of them. The TIEs did the smart thing and broke into 2 Elements of 2 fighters each; with one element turning to deal with Rollo, while the other two closed on Zinn's Y-wing....

Avarra's voice was tense, but controlled and she called out; "Okay, here they come.....they're at long range now, moving fast on an intercept course. I've got the shields at normal split* and I'll start taking shots at them with the Ion cannon turret when they get to medium range."


Clark, Zuul & Gavin Storm:

The Bothan Infantry Captain Sev Ma'Leth moved quickly, leading the Rebels of Black Team to step lively to keep up. As they moved through the massive tunnels that made up the Alliance base, Sev explained that he commanded a company of 120 soldiers and that according to the reports he received through the comms piece that seemed to be permanently embedded in his furry ear; they might be facing over 400 Imperial troops. He moved quickly and soon was meeting up with Individual Platoon and/or squad and/or Team leaders to direct them on where to set up for the fight. ALWAYS he stressed keeping up a mobile defense, leading the Imperials to various other positions for cross-fire support and to pull them as far away from the escaping Rebels as possible. He seemed to talk at a lightspeed pace; but his troops seemed to have supreme confidence in him and that put the Rebels at ease, somewhat.

Eventually he turned to a team of half-a-dozen Rebel troops, all wearing the Blast Vests and distinctive helmets of Rebel troops and to a grizzled, bearded human male who looked to be at least 50, he said; "Sergeant Hollins; here's a few new recruits from Alliance Intel. Apparently they've been in a few scrapes before and know which end of a blaster to point at the enemy. Utilize 'em as you see best; I'm on my way to Position Kappa." "Roger that Cap"; the man said in a whisky-damaged voice and the Bothan turned to the Rebels and with a ripple of fur, he smiled and said; "SGT Hollins is just about as tough as they come and he's lived through stuff most of us would have a heart-attack from just hearing about. Listen to him and happy hunting". With that, the quick Bothan officer was gone.

Hollins looked the Rebels over and grunted what seemed like approval to the members of Black Team. "Alright....according to reports, it looks like 7 or 8 of the Impie dropships got through the flyboys so we're looking at maybe 300 troops. We got this 4 way Intersection of tunnels and then 2 fall back positions to protect. We've already set up make shift barricades and the plan is simple....we hide until enough of them show themselves to ambush....when they fall back, we fall back. This will make 'em take time and be careful and then they slowly come forward again....we do the same thing and fall back again. At the last position though; until we get the EVAC order; we hold......to the last being. Clear?"

The Rebels all understand and after being assigned a grenade each**, they soon take up positions laying or kneeling down behind good cover while the wait begins. It seems to go on and on and on and then the echoes of blaster-fire and grenade blasts and screams and shouts begin to ring through the tunnels. Everybody tenses up and then everyone can see them a hundred meters down the tunnel....a squad of 8 Stormtrooopers in gleaming white armor; moving down the wide tunnel in 2 groups 4 soldiers wide each. A long minute later, the squad had reached a position 50 meters away when a second squad of 8 soldiers began to follow the first. They kept their itchy fingers on their weapons' triggers, sweat trickling down their brows as the Imperials move steadily closer and closer....at 25 meters, SGT Hollins bellows out; "FIRE!"


*Shields can be set to normal (i.e. split); or concentrated Double-front or Double-back....if either of these options are taken; extra protection is given to either the front half or rear half of the fighter.....but at the expense of no protection for the other half

**Clark and Gavin each have a Blaster Carbine (or any of the weapons listed on your character sheet....let me know; and 1 Grenade. Zuul has his arsenal (on the character sheet) and 1 Grenade.

[Jedi Skyler]

Zinn's face breaks out in a hard, but genuine smile. "Zinn Valimar. Nice to meet you, Avarra." He holds out his hand to shake hers. "Whaddya say we hop in this tub here and go kick some Imperial arse?"

Looking up at the cockpit of the Y-wing, Zinn sighs audibly and says, "Damn, it'd be nice to have Banshee here right about now." Then he climbs the ladder, gets situated in the pilot's couch, and runs through his preflight checks.


Out in space, Zinn gets his orders over the comm, and the rundown from Avarra on distance to their target, as well as shield status. "How about you flip the shields double-front for now; if either of them survive the first pass unscathed, even the shields out as the fighters go past. By the time they circle around for another try, the shields will have our backside covered. Take out both those fighters on the first pass," he adds, looking at Avarra with a twinkle in his eyes, "and the first round of Corellian Brandy is on me."

[GreyWolfVT]

Gavin waits for the Fire command and once heard he with extreme pleasure does exactly so aiming more for the middle men in the marching imperials coming forward.

[Monsieur Rose]

Zuul, literally shivering with anticipation, dutifully waits until the command is given to fire. At the command, he shouts "Suck on thiss, bucket headss!"

Zuul launches one flechette round at the middle of the front line.

[max_vale]

Alliance Base in the caverns of the planet Fangol and sector of space near the captured I.S.S. Black Ice; Mortex Sector



Zinn, Clark, Gavin:

The Rebels surprise the Imperials with a barrage of fire, starting with Zuul launching a flechette shell a bit early and hissing in disappointment when the shell explodes to spray its razor-sharp cargo half-a-meter above the surprised Stormtroopers heads to lodge in the ceiling and high portions of the walls of the tunnel. The Barabel's curses are lost in the echo of all of the nearby Rebel blasters firing nearby....

Professor Clark takes aim with his Blaster carbine and he puts a bolt in the chest of one of the Stormtroopers, watching his target stagger and collapse to the ground from the shot. A split second later, Gavin Storm puts a bolt from his Blaster into the side of one of the last of the first squad of Stormtroopers, wounding the Imperial, but please to see the same target is shot down by one of the nearby Rebel soldiers who apparently had been aiming at the same target...

SGT Hollins and 3 of his men pick targets out with their Blaster Carbines and combine to drop a trio of Stormtroopers; including the one that Gavin had shot as well. One of Hollins men had a long barrelled Blaster Rifle with a scope and he fired at the lead Stormtrooper in the second squad, perhaps 75 meters away. He hit his target right in the face of its helmet and the Stormtrooper fell with a clatter, un-moving to the tunnel floor. The last Rebel was prone on the ground with a Light Repeating Blaster resting on a bi-pod and he opened up with a spray of blaster bolts that mowed down 3 of the surviving 4 Stormtroopers from the first squad; leaving a single surviving Stormtrooper in the initial squad; along with 7 more Stormtroopers in the second squad in the distance....

The single close-by Stormtrooper fell prone and put a shot right into the chest of one of the Rebel soldiers, who fell with a groan and hisses of pain while clutching his wound to land right next to Zuul. The 7 further away Stormtroopers reacted by charging forward and opening up a hail of fire; most of which passed over the Rebels' heads or into the cover they had hidden behind; leaving only a single shot to miraculously slam into the Light Repeat Blaster that Rebel trooper Mayward had been using and to smash it in half. Mayward let out a massive curse as the 7 Stormtroopers moved to within 60 meters or so of the Rebel position...

Zinn:

From the rear seat of the Y-Wing, Avarra acknowledged Vallimar's decision to put the shields double-front while staying completely focused on the task at hand and opening fire at the 2 TIE fighters that approached them when they got to within Medium range. She managed to clip one of the TIE, which quickly broke away into evasive action as Avarra gloated out; "Sensors show my Ion blast knocked out his lasers!" A moment later, she calmed down and added; "Well....for a minute anyway....that other TIE is closing in!"

Zinn meanwhile was forced to acknowledge that whoever these TIE pilots were, they seemed to be a bit better than usual as their shots came perilously close to hitting his fighter and he could see the pair engaged with Rollo seemed to REALLY know what they were doing. One of those TIE easily avoided the young pilot's opening shots and maneuvered to get on his tail while the other managed to put a blast into the A-Wing before Rollo's shots turned it into a short-lived fireball. Rollo's voice came out over the comms in a more scared tone this time; "My shields are gone and I've got one on my tail! HELP!"*


*Rollo is at LONG Range along with the single TIE on his tail; the 2 TIEs engaged with Vallimar and Avarra have 1 staying at Medium range (the one with the weapons knocked out) and 1 closing into Short range (the untouched one)

[GreyWolfVT]

Gavin lobs his grenade at the 7 stormtrooper's aiming for the middle of the group.

[kipper]

Clark takes careful aim at the nearest trooper and shoots again.

[Jedi Skyler]

"Avarra, concentrate your fire on the closest eyeball; if we can get him knocked out, maybe we can help Rollo. If that TIE passes us, even out the shields. His friend is keeping his distance because he's no suicide jockey, but his weapons could come back online, and then he'll be on us again. We gotta knock em both OUT of this fight, and quickly!"

[Monsieur Rose]

Zuul hisses a curse and switches to his carbine. He will take a shot at the group of seven.

"Closer....come closer..."

[max_vale]

Alliance Base in the caverns of the planet Fangol and sector of space near the captured I.S.S. Black Ice; Mortex Sector



Zuul, Clark, Gavin:

Zuul sets down his double-barrel Flechette launcher and pulls out his carbine and takes a medium range shot at one of the Stormtroopers in the squad further down the corridor. He wings one, grunting in a combination of annoyance and pleasure as his target briefly stumbles and gets up limping from a shot to the hip…

Clark takes a shot with his Blaster Carbine at the prone Stormtrooper who was the last survivor of the initial; closer squad. His bolt lances into the Stormtrooper's upper chest and the Imperial drops unmoving to the corridor floor….

SGT Hollins and his 2 remaining carbine-equipped soldiers (the third; hit a moment ago had ceased thrashing and cursing and had either passed out or moved on to another plane of existence) take shots at the squad of troops down the hall as well and two of them score hits; causing the Stormtrooper Zuul had hit a second ago and another one to fall to the ground in a clatter of armor…

Gavin Storm takes out his grenade, arms it and gives it a mighty heave; to which the Rebel soldiers immediately guffaw and say; "They're over 50 meters away, WHAT ARE YOU DOING?" The grenade clatters maybe 25 or so meters away and goes off with a devastatingly loud BOOM and fragments tear apart the downed Stormtrooper that Clark had hit; but the shrapnel and blast was too far away from the further away Stormtrooper squad to inflict any harm on them…

Corporal Akin; the Rebel sharpshooter, sighted down his scoped, long-barrelled Blaster Rifle and took a shot; dropping yet a third Imperial from the further away squad leaving only a quartet of Stormtroopers standing some 60 or so meters away from the Rebel position. Then Akin noticed something one of the four Stormtroopers was carrying and he suddenly cursed and yelled out; "One of them has a grenade-launcher; TAKE COVER!"

The Rebels all proceed to do so as a dull WHOOMP is heard from down the corridor as the weapon in question is fired. A dark, spherical object arcs down the long corridor and with a couple of bounces; the grenade eventually rolls right between Mayward and Hollins and his men before it goes off with a deafening explosion and a searingly bright flash that leaves all of the surviving Rebels with ringing ears and strobe lights dancing in thier vision…

Looking over; the 2 Rebel troopers who had been standing hear Hollins had been torn to pieces; as had the unlucky Mayward and SGT Hollins was laying flat on his back with lots of blood pouring from numerous shrapnel wounds and telling the survivors in a wheezy voice; "Take them down….and then fall back to position two…."

Zuul, Gavin, Clark and Corporal Akin were all okay; thier cover having protected them pretty well from the blast and glancing at the Stormtroopers, the remaining 4 were rushing full-tilt towards them; perhaps only 45 or so meters away at this point….


Zinn (and Avarra):

Although they were sitting back to back; Zinn Vallimar could still somehow 'see' the rolling of his gunner/sensor operator's eyes when she responded to his last words with; "Did you SERSIOUSLY just call a TIE fighter an 'eyeball'? You have been reading WAAAAYYYY to much trashy rebel action-stories on the holo-net".

Returning to the more serious nature of the situation at hand; Avarra evened out the shields as the untouched TIE rolled onto a flank position and she called out; "Roll us over so I can get a shot at him; I think he's gonna get a chance to shoot before we do!" in an excited tone. Zinn dutifully rolled the Y-Wing over to give Avarra Light Ion Cannon turret an angle and they both felt the fighter shake and shudder as blasts from the Imperial's twin laser cannon slammed into them. Luckily, thier shields held…

Avarra lined up a shot and 'walked' a pair of twin Ion cannon blasts into the TIE fighter that caused it to briefly have a blue-white play of energy engulf its spheriod body and then the TIE moved stiffly forward; locked onto a straight-line vector at high speed. Avarra's voice was jubilant as she cried out; "GOT HIM! His engines and manuvering thrusters are off-line; he'll be in your arc of fire in a couple of seconds!" Then, a bit more calm, she called out; "The TIE with the knocked out weapons is following us, but slowly and staying at Long Range. Shields are down by 2 thirds though; we've only got enough left to MAYBE protect us from one more blast." Her voice suddenly took a very different tone; "Uh oh….Rollo's in serious trouble"….

Zinn manuevered his Y-Wings so that he was on a bee-line towards both Rollo's engagment with the surviving TIE AND so that the engine-damaged TIE that Avarra had just hit would wander into his sights. Up ahead, as he moved into medium range from the A-Wing's battle with the Imperial, he watched as the obviously experienced TIE herded the inexperienced Alliance pilot into dodging right into his path of and with a pair of double laser cannon blasts; Rollo's A-wing became a short-lived fiery ball of millions of pieces of metal….

Vallimar felt anger and loss slam into him as the drifting TIE filled his aiming reticle at short range and the other 2 TIEs remained at Medium range for the moment; 1 in front and 1 behind….

[kipper]

Clark fires at the oncoming 'troopers.

[Monsieur Rose]

Zuul calmly picks up his launcher, waits until the troops are within range, and fires at the middle of the group.

"Thankss for coming closer...."

[Jedi Skyler]

Brushing aside his emotions, knowing they could cloud his judgement, Zinn takes the shot at the TIE that wandered into his sights. He aims to simply disable the engines; the craft is currently out of the fight, so there's no sense in killing the pilot if he can't be an active combatant.

Smirking at Avarra's wisecrack, he says, "Two things, my dear: first, we Alliance pilots actually DO call them names like 'eyeball;' that's not simply the stuff of literature. Second...just how would YOU know what's contained in that trashy stuff, hmm?" The smile is evident in his tone.

[GreyWolfVT]

sorry if i realized my grenade range was that short i would have waited a round or two.

Gavin just shoots at the remainder of the stormtroopers aiming primarily for the lead troopers.

[max_vale]

Alliance Base in the caverns of the planet Fangol and sector of space near the captured I.S.S. Black Ice; Mortex Sector


-Clark, Gavin, Zuul

The remaining Stormtroopers rushed the Rebel position after the grenade had gone off and through the smoke and haze, the 4 able-bodied survivors returned fire….

Zuul Ksska picked up his double barrelled Flechette Launcher again and fired off another long-range shot with the remaining loaded canister, once again missing as the flechettes slammed into the side wall a few meters ahead of the onrushing Stormtroopers some 40+ meters away; leaving the Barabel to curse the fates...

Professor Clark picked a Stormtrooper and fired a bolt from his Blater Carbine, hitting his target in the upper chest at medium range and dropping the Imperial to the ground in a clatter of armor….

Gavin Storm aims at another of the Stormtroopers and puts a bolt right into the Imperial's face-plate, dropping him to the ground in a heap….

Corporal Akin takes a deep breath, holds it and squeezes the trigger of his Blaster Rifle twice, dropping the Grenade-launcher wielding Stormtrooper first and then a second later, he finishes off the last of the Imperials with a second blast. He exhales and then moves over to the falled SGT Hollins, only to curse when he sees that the veteran SGT is gone. Taking a ragged breath, he looks over at the 3 Rebels and says; "Okay….let's move to the fall-back position"; and he shakily begins to do so….the Rebel Agents following in his wake.

The move through a large, wide-open room that obviously once been used for various fuels and liquid storage, with only a few empty barrels and one knoced over barrel of some kind of cleaning solvent still leaking out blue liquid and then through a 30 or so meter long tunnel until they emerged in thier fall-back position, a wide-open room with a turbolift leading to the barracks off to the Rebel's right as they enter the room (and to thier left when they take up position to guard the tunnel). A control station for the turbolift was near the rear of the room and a makeshift barricade had been created by knocking out a section of the roof to give a meter and a half tall and 3 or 4 meters or so wide right behind the tunnel entrance to the room (the only entrance to the room, save for the turbolift) that the Rebels took position behind. The roof ruins included a still sparking section of large wiring piping that added occasinal snaps and hisses to the room as the Rebels got thier breath and Zuul reloaded his Flechette Launcher. They did not have long to prepare though as another 8 man Stormtrooper squad was soon in the storage room at the other end of the tunnel about 30 meters away and the Rebels took cover behind the barricade and readied thier weapons; Zuul and Akin in the front and Gavin and Clark behind them….

-Zinn (and Avarra):

Zinn takes aim at the TIE that drifts in front of him and attempts to only take out the engines, but this is extremely Difficult as the TIE's engines are in the same small spherical center of the fighter that the pilot sits in. He fires the Y-Wing's forward twin laser cannon and the the bolts fly true and connect with the Imperial, blowing off a hexagonal wing panel and causing the fighter to spin out into space, sparks and electrical bolts flashing here and there from the crippled fighter. Vallimar hopes the pilot has a chance to eject, but his thoughts are quickly snapped back to the present as the veteran TIE that destroyed Rollo's fighter had moved to face him and was accelerating into short range, juking and jinking, but still clearly intent on firing upon him to destroy his fighter as well. Avarra calls out that the rear TIE whose weapons she earlier disabled with an Ion blast is maintaining long range pursuit distance….