No sooner had Arturo woken up from what was quite possibly the longest (and most refreshing) nap of his rather admirable sleeping career, then the comm. In his quarters beeped, and Drac’s voice crackled from the unit.

“Senior Crewman Arturo?”

Why can’t I seem to get any time to myself that isn’t spent sleeping?  Arturo rubbed the sleep from his eyes, and replied, “Yes, sir.  This is Arturo.”

What Drac told him wasn’t exactly the first thing he wanted to hear after waking up.  “This is Drac.  Please meet me in Sim Room 317B in a standard hour.  Come ready to do some sim work.”

He grumbled to himself, but replied, “I’ll be there.”  Drac terminated the link, and Arturo fought the urge to roll over and go back to sleep before his mind finally won out against his protesting body, and he got out of bed.

He had almost an hour to kill, so he logged onto the HoloNet and started studying the specs of a new KDY light freighter model that had just come off of the assembly line a few weeks ago, one that he had been eyeballing for most of those weeks.  With a sigh, he buried himself in technical data, content to do just that for the next 45 minutes.

--------------------

Five minutes before he was due in Sim Room 317B, Arturo strode down the corridors of the Atrus, dressed in a standard TIE pilot’s flight suit, and toting his helmet.  He thought about what could possibly be in store for him as he walked into the turbolift and punched the controls for a lower deck.

Maybe I’m being chewed out by way of merciless sim-combat for something stupid I did and didn’t realize during that damned Sarek mission?  Or perhaps this is Drac just wanting to pound on the new guy in the simulator the first chance he gets?  I haven’t the faintest idea, but it probably isn’t going to go well for me.

It was much to his surprise, then, when upon arriving in the designated room, Drac informed him that he was merely going to get some practice in.  Arturo was still slightly suspicious that something was amiss, but he dismissed the nagging feeling of impending doom he had in the bottom corner of his gut and got into the cockpit.  He listened as Drac described the procedure for the sim run and gave him the mission profile.

Arturo gave the affirmative that he was ready, and the sim program came online.  Great.  We get to shepherd a couple of cans around and will probably get mugged by a swarm of enemies.  I knew something was wrong the moment that Mon Cal got on the comm this morning…  He let his internal monologue trail off, however, as a planet materialized in front of him.  It grew larger in his viewport as himself, Drac, and three Lambda-class shuttles descended through the atmosphere and towards the surface.

As soon as the small group of ships got down to an altitude of a klick, things started to take a mightily large turn for the worse.  Arturo cursed under his breath as blips appeared on his scopes, one in front of their flight, and one on each side.  He bit back a stronger one as a turbolaser tower opened up on them at roughly the same time.  Finally, as the three blips suddenly became 12, Arturo blasphemed aloud, and it was a rather colorful expletive at that.  Drac’s voice crackled in his ear, “Two, I’m your wing.  Engage at will.”

Arturo regained his mental composure, and replied, “Affirmative, One.  I have the lead.  Let’s stick with the shuttles until they hit the deck, then we’ll go after some of these snubs.  We need to cover them for about three more minutes, so let’s stay tight and not let anyone get too close.”  Drac acknowledged, and the fight began.

Arturo’s sensors told him that the fighters they were up against were all the same model, a Corporate Sector IRD-A fighter.  An average ship with its strong points, but nothing special.  Of course, it doesn’t take anything special to kill you, especially with twelve-to-two odds.  This is gonna get tricky…  Arturo had studied these ships, of course.  He knew that they were only a little slower than the Avengers he and Drac were flying, that they were shielded better than Avengers, and that they sported both a blaster cannon and a missile system.

He nosed up slightly, trying to get a little altitude back before the snubs were upon them, which they were quickly.  The group from their port side showed up first, and immediately winged down, in pursuit of the shuttles.  Oh no, you don’t.  Arturo keyed his comm, “One, let’s scare them off for a little.  Go for missile locks and take potshots with your lasers when you can.  When the next group comes in, they’ll probably be gunning for us, so hang back and cover my six.  Good luck.”

Drac once again acknowledged, and Arturo pushed his yoke forward, and his Avenger dove.  Up and down is a lot easier than side-to-side in atmosphere, so we’ll have to do as much of that as possible, and avoid ruddering to the side. Every turn will have to be banked almost 90 degrees, whereas the bandits are much better suited to maneuvering here.  We definitely don’t have many advantages here…

As the quartet of IRD’s closed in on the shuttles, which were now only two minutes out from their destination, the two Avengers dove on them from above and forward, lasers set on single-cycle and blasting in their general direction.  Drac’s computer registered a missile lock on the flight’s leader, and that fighter promptly broke off, away from both the TIEs and shuttles.  Arturo took longer to get a lock, but when he did, the last member of the flight followed suit and fled.  For now…

Two fighters still chased the shuttles, and were gaining on them.  Drac and Arturo’s laserfire sliced through their formation, some shots impacting the shields of the enemy snubs, others missing completely.  Despite both the lasers and the missile locks now on both of them, the two pilots apparently had decided to keep after the shuttles, even with the Nazgul pilots coming around behind them, to get on their sixes.  Their mistake…

Arturo calmly lined the leftmost IRD up in his crosshairs, set his lasers to quad-fire with a flick of his thumb, and squeezed the trigger.  Four beams of energy lanced out from Arturo’s TIE, and three of them impacted the snubfighter.  Its shields dropped to a low level, but it appeared to be undamaged.  Both of the IRDs kept on their course, but were now maneuvering to avoid further shots, juking and jinking all over the place.  These guys are good.  Lasers are gonna take too long to hit ‘em with, better use a missile.  He waited for the solid tone of a positive lock once more, and when the fighter he had already shot at appeared in his brackets, he let loose with a concussion missile.  It streaked after the fighter and detonated on the shields, but most of the blast got through, and a small explosion occurred.  Arturo watched as a damaged-but-still-flying IRD fighter emerged from the cloud produced by the explosion.  The pilot broke off from his wingman and headed outbound from the fight, apparently not concerned enough with downing the shuttles to risk getting killed.  His wingman, oblivious to his departure, flew on towards the shuttles, which were now under a minute from their DZ.  Hang on, guys.  Just a little longer…

Drac and Arturo opened up on the remaining fighter with twin-laser blasts, rocking the snubfighter as impact after impact registered on the fighter’s shields.  Shields that rapidly deteriorated under the onslaught, until one lucky shot blew the ship in two, with the cockpit flying on and the pilot ejecting, and the aft section thundering down to the ground and exploding upon impact.

Two threats neutralized, but that leaves ten.  And ten there suddenly were, as the remaining two fighters from the first enemy flight had joined up with the other two arriving flights, and were now diving on the two Avengers, bent on exacting revenge for the death of one comrade and withdrawal of the other from the fight…

OOC:

Word Count: 1394
Technically, there was only one "kill" in this post...

OOC:

Forgive me for any grammatical errors and other things you might find. Its my first post lol.

Ruwe had only been back for a few hours and it seemed like the squadron had been dumped up on its head. The entire command structure was completely different then what it had been. At least he was back in Nazgul and not stuck in that second rate Viper squadron. That would have been a let down. Not quite his old position though. Instead of being the one watching his Flight Leader’s 6, he now had someone watching his 6.

When he had been at the mess hall earlier, he noticed that a lot of his old friends were missing and there were a lot of newbies amongst them. More to watch each others 6 I suppose. Shaking off most of his thoughts he headed to the sim room as he had heard that his old wingman and friend Drac, was practicing some sims with a newer member of the Nazgul squadron. I think I’ll just give him a little surprise and see if he’s heard that I’m back yet.

Ducking into the dark room, he looked at the technician sitting at the sim controls. “Is crewman Drac in one of them sims?” The tech gave him a slight puzzling expression but nodded at the sim on the left that Drac was currently in. “Thanks. Any idea how long they’ll be?”

The tech studied his screens on what the fliers were seeing. “Well they look good so far. So I expect maybe another...Wait. Oh my. Well they just got blasted out of the atmosphere. So I guess they’re done right now.”

“Okay then.” Ruwe stepped up to the ladder of the sim and waited for his friend. The hatch opened and his friend emerged slowly, muttering something unintelligible. Waiting till he was about half way down he got a sudden funny idea. Grabbing the back of Drac’s jumpsuit he easily hoisted him up in the air. Nothing short of expected he started to squirm to try and get at him. Spinning him around quickly he looked face to face at his old friend. Instantly he stopped fighting.

Blinking once was all that the Mon Cal showed that he was surprised. Giving Ruwe a really nasty eye glare that the Mon Cal’s are quite famous for he said, “I’m sure, somewhere, there are regulations against manhandling superior officers.”

Raising an eyebrow Ruwe replied, “They wouldn’t stop me. Since when have Nazzies ever worried about regulations?” Ruwe cracked a big wookiee grin at his own comment knowing the answer already and what his friend thought.

“That’s a good question, and the answer is likely ‘Never.” The comment brought a full toothy smile from Ruwe. Drac looked over at the other flight member that was in the sim with him. Ruwe glanced as well at the fighter pilot standing with his mouth open in awe. Human, not very tall but decently built. Probably quick on his feet and fits nicely in the cockpit at least.
“Arturo, come here and meet a friend of mine.”

The much shorter pilot came forward and gave Ruwe a full look over. All 7'7" of him. Drac introduced them both. Ruwe reached out and shook Arturo’s hand with his other arm. Ruwe was on the verge of saying hello when Drac tapped his wrist, “Mind letting me down? Hanging around like this doesn’t do a lot for the whole Squadron Executive Officer mystique.”


“XO? When did that happen?” Ruwe asked. Only just remembering he set Drac back on his feet.

Drac wiped his hand over his head and sighed. “Not very long ago, actually. It’s kinda complicated- I’ll lay it all out for you later, though. Art and I were just doing some sim work. Care to join us?”

Ruwe shrugged. “Yeah sure. It seems like you guys need the help since you look like you’ve lost your touch a bit there Drac.” Laughing and giving Drac a slight playful nudge which of course caused him to almost be knocked completely off his feet. Laughing they all got into simulators and closed up. Getting into his own sim, Ruwe made quick adjustments to his seat so that he could fit his humongous frame in the cockpit. Strapping in he waited for the sim to kick in. The view ports whited out and then refocused into atmosphere of a planet.

Ruwe looked at his scanner. Drac was on his starboard side and Arturo was on his port. Just below him and slightly aft was the Lambda shuttle craft. Together they made a slight delta wing formation. Keying in a few minor tweaks to make his shields and lasers the way he liked them he made sure everything was set. He just finished when blips appeared on the scanners. Drac piped up over the com, “Let’s go, guys. You two pair up and I’ll cover the Lambdas.”

“Roger, Black leader. Black 2 you move forward and I’ll cover your 6.” Slowing down a fraction he yawed port until he was aft and starboard of Arturo. Looking at his sensors again the blips multiplied into 7 and then watched them multiply into 12. Damn this is going to be fun afterall. “On my mark break port, barrel roll, and come in behind bogies 3 and 4.”

“Roger 3.” Arturo quickly commed in.

“3...2...1...Mark!” Breaking port he barrel rolled and leveled himself at 90 degrees port lean. Pulling back on the yoke bogies 3 and 4 shifted into his sights. “Use missile lock till they start juking. Then pot shot them with your lasers till they break off from their attack run on the shuttles.” Following his own orders he brought a missile lock up on bogie 3. As soon as it confirmed target lock the bogies started dancing. Must have his targeted as well. Firing his lasers he wasn’t the best shot at. That’s why he converted most of their power to a boost in his shields. “As soon as they have their attention on me break off and come in behind to finish them.”

“Roger that.”

Firing a few more shots at both of them they broke off their assault on the shuttles and started a wide turn to come in behind. “Break high and starboard now. They have their attention on me. Shifting all laser power to aft shields. Locking onto bogies 1 and 2 to take their focus off of the shuttles.” Ruwe checked his rear sensors to find 3 and 4 exactly where he wanted them. Juking some to keep missile lock off he gained a lock as well on 2 directly ahead of him and fired a missile. Barrel rolling to port he fell in directly behind 1. With a resounding explosion to his starboard, bogie 2 fell from the sky in pieces. A second explosion from behind and bogie 4 disappeared from the sensor as well. Two down, ten to go.

OOC:

1159 words. Not bad for a first post back. Also its 1 so i ran outta juice lol

Bogies one and three were still in his innermost sensors but bogies five through twelve still appeared on his sensors but still heading towards the shuttles. Katarn shit! If I don’t get their attention off of those shuttles and Drac, and onto me, we won’t even have a chance at half-assing this sim. “Black leader, this is black three. You have eight, I repeat eight bogies closing in on you. Readying multiple missile tubes and targeting bogies five, six, nine, ten, and twelve. The other three you’ll have to handle on your own for a minute. Black two, finish off bogies one and three here and then join me when I have most of the attention.”

Both pilots clicked their comms in confirmation.

Quickly adjusting his shields, he took what was left of his forward shields and powered them to the engines. I’ll leave the aft shields on in case that newbie pilot can’t hold out and take out these two. Speeding up to the other bogies closing in on Drac and the shuttles, he set his multiple reticles up on the bogies he had listed a few seconds earlier. As soon as a confirmation sounded on the closest two, bogies five and nine, he shot missiles off instantly. The first streaked by bogie five but grazing the shields enough to shimmer, and passed close enough to bogie twelve to detonate and send the fighter off with no shields and some minor hull damage. The second hit dead on its target and bogie nine disappeared from the sensors. Take that you piece of rebel scum.

No sooner had the two bogies disappeared from his sensors, bogie three disappeared as well. Not bad newbie. We’ll make a pilot out of you yet. Reticles honed in on his other targets as well now. All three of them started juking and broke off in different directions. Laser fire streaked from the shuttles at the remaining three that continued its run at the shuttles. You’ve had worse odds than this before Drac and have come out on top. Don’t let me down old buddy. “Black two, stop playing around back there and finish that poor soul off and get up here and cover my ass. I may have more experience but it doesn’t mean I’m invincible.”

“Roger that black three. I’ll be there in ETA of two minutes.”

Looking at his sensors it seemed bogies five, six and ten were going to come in at him from above, port and starboard. Makes things interesting that’s for sure. Waiting till they were in laser range, he dived sharply toward the planet, away from all three which also kept his aft shields towards them all. Leveling out ten meters above the tree tops and the like was dangerous, as it was hard to maneuver, but it also made the bogies chasing him have a hard time at shooting him. Smiling, he noticed that all three of them scrambled to miss each other at their pincer attack and not expecting his sudden dive towards the tree tops. Two of them barely missed crashing into each other but managed to sort themselves out and all of them leveled out behind him.

Checking his sensors he found that bogie seven was missing from the battle as well now. Nice work there Drac. Guess you still don’t disappoint. But where the hell has the newbie gotten to? As if in response to his thoughts, bogie five disappeared in an explosion. Guess I have my answer. He thought wryly. An explosion suddenly rocked his cockpit and almost caused him to drop into the treetops so close below. Shield alarms blared at being critically low from the impact of the missile. I’m rustier than what I thought! I let my mind wander in the heat of battle, and for a newbie of all things! Drac won’t let me live that one down if he finds out.  At least the shields held, even if only just. Yanking back on the yoke he climbed and rolled to keep any more locks on him away.

Leveling out about two thousand feet up, he corkscrewed to the left and then rolled to the right and G-turned to bring bogies six and ten into view again. I’ll get both of you bantha fodder for taking out my shields. “Black two I can handle these little bastards on my own. Go help defend the shuttles from the two bogies Drac is taking on by himself.”

“Roger that black three. Happy hunting.”

By now the two bogies were streaking off to starboard back towards their base and the turbo laser battery stationed there. I don’t frakking well think so. Ruwe quickly switched his shields over to laser and engine power. No need for those at the moment. Speeding up quickly to his targets he targeted bogie six as soon as he was in range. Tone sounded and he fired a missile that shot true. Brilliant blue and orange flames followed the wreck of bogie six into the trees below. Immediately bogie ten climbed at the sight of his fallen comrade. Following closely he boosted his lasers a little bit more and sprayed the aft shields of bogie ten.

With the increased power to the lasers, the bogies shields shimmered and then completely dissipated. Using a desperate attempt he cut all power from his shields and engines, and converted it to lasers. Firing a quick blast, that scored a direct hit, the bogie erupted into flames and nose dived to the trees below. Now THAT was a lucky one on my part. Quickly returning power to his engines and shields so that he wouldn’t follow with the same fate, he quickly turned himself around and back towards the shuttles.

Nearing the shuttles, he expected nothing less from Drac and the newbie. Both bogies had been blown apart by them and both were near enough to unscathed as the shuttles. “Black leader, this is black three. Returning to formation. All aerial bogies eliminated. I hope those few I left you weren’t too much of a hassle.”

“Not at all black three. For a bit there I thought you weren’t going to let me have any fun at all.” Ruwe smiled at his playful banter with his old friend.

“I was considering it but thought you should have at least some glory in this battle. Even if we are just training the newbie and removing the rust on my wingtips. By the way black two you handled yourself quite well. I’ll buy the green stuff when this is done. Speaking of which. I think you should lead us on to the LZ.”

OOC:

I left the details on both of your guy's kills to you since they are yur kills...so that makes...
Drac: 1-3 kills (depending on how many you wanted to take out at the shuttles)
Arturo: 4-6 kills (also depending on how many you took out a the shuttles)
Me: 4 kills and one damaged

1124 words...i could have spiced up a tad tidbit more but its 230 in the morning...so i hope thisll do

Drac smiled to himself as he watched the other pilots savaging the IRDs. He hadn’t expected anything less from Ruwe- the wookiee was nothing if not single minded when given an objective. He knew less about Arturo, but the Commodore had assured him that the new pilot had done very well during the debacle that was the Sarek mission.

None of the enemy craft had yet broken through when the Mon Calamari’s comm pinged the tone that indicated Control wanted to talk. Flipping to the appropriate frequency, he said, “Control, this is Black Flight Leader. What’s going on?”

The Technician’s voice came back through the speakers, “Sir, there’s another pilot here. He’s just arrived and wishes to join the simulation.”

Drac frowned. There weren’t any other Nazzies up for some sim practice as far as he knew, “Who is he, Control?”

“Wait one, Black Leader.” There was a pause, then Control came back on the line, “He is Senior Crewman Cipher. Apparently he has just arrived from the Academy and is newly assigned to Nazgul Squadron.”

Oh, fresh blood. That explains it.  Well, no reason not to let him join. Hopefully we’ll get an idea of what he can do before it becomes essential that he does it. Funny that I don’t remember him. Well, I was likely wasting away in a shack on Sarek when he was going through the final stages of Flight School. “Roger, Control. Tell him to wait and we’ll be done here shortly. Also, have the last enemy fighter take a dirt nap, would you?”

“Wilco, Black Flight Leader,” came the reply. Switching back to the Black Flight frequency, Drac turned his attention back to the fight. By now several enemies were coming at him. Smiling, he threw the stick forward and engaged.

A few minutes later it was all over. The enemy ships were smoke and debris, and Arturo had nearly chased the final one into the ground. The skies were clear of fighters, but by no means were they clear as Drac guided the Lambdas to their LZ. Ground emplacements continued to fire on the group, forcing the fighters to dodge and twist. Zeroing in on one such emplacement, Drac swept his targeting reticule up over it and pulled the trigger four times. His lasers, on single shot mode, stippled the turret with black burn scars and caused gouts of flame and acidic looking smoke to pour out. Another turret died in quick succession, victim of a missile. Arturo and Ruwe performed similar strafing runs, eliminating the major ground opposition. Three minutes later the Lambdas touched down and the simulators went to black.

Climbing out of the simulator, Drac looked around to find the new pilot. A young human male stood from where he’d been sitting at an observation bench. He wore a pilot’s uniform and held a helmet under one arm. His untidy brown hair and wry smile seemed to give off the aura of a scofflaw, but Drac noted the Star of the Academy ribbon that adorned the flight suit’s left breast. Lt. StOrMz didn’t give those out for nothing- there must be more to this fellow than there appeared. Striding over to the man, Drac waited for his salute. The pilot snapped it off smartly enough, saying, “Senior Crewman Cipher reporting for duty, sir. I was told to meet with the squadron’s executive officer for some training.”

Drac returned the salute and nodded, “That would be me. Welcome to Nazgul, Cipher. I am Senior Chief Petty Officer Dracule Mihawk, or Drac as everyone calls me. Which slot are you filling?”

Cipher consulted a datapad for a moment before replying, “I’m Nazgul Twelve, sir.”

“Excellent. As you’ve probably guessed, I’m Nazgul’s XO. I’ll also be your Flight Leader.” Waving a hand at the simulators, he continued, “Are you ready to go?’

“Aye, sir.”

“Then mount up. I’ll join you shortly.” Cipher turned and walked to one of the empty simulators at a good clip, mounting its ladder as the Mon Calamari addressed the Technician, “Let’s do a new one. Run Aleph-Seven ought to work well.” The man nodded and began navigating through a series of menus that would change the parameters of the simulated mission.

A minute later Drac settled into his cockpit once again, stretching briefly to loosen stiff muscles. This is shaping up to be quite the long day of sim work. A brief moment later the viewport flickered to life, showing the interior of an Imperial Star Destroyer Mark II’s main hangar. Drac automatically checked his engines, shields, lasers, and sensors, then activated his comm, “Black Flight, this is Leader. Here’s our new formation: Ruwe and I are wingmen, and he is now Black Two. Arturo and Cipher will pair up as Black Three and Black Four respectively.

“This mission is going to be a bit different than the last two. We won’t be in atmosphere, and we won’t be going exclusively against starfighters. We’ll be flying a patrol loop out from this Star Destroyer, searching for a pirate group that’s been terrorizing the system. Intel suggests that the enemy force is a Twi’lek group made up of eight Chir’daki starfighters and a CR-90 Corvette. Our objective is to kill the corvette with as few casualties as possible. Engage the starfighters as necessary, but aim to be in position for concerted concussion missile barrages on the corvette…I have two lit and green. Report status.”

All three pilots confirmed his orders and reported their readiness. Reaching up, Drac grasped the docking clamp lever and gave it a tug. His Avenger lurched as it settled onto repulsor lifts, and then he was diving out of the hangar and into space. Barrel rolling, he aimed his port solar panel at the Star Destroyer and began to cruise around its hull toward the spine of the ship. Once there he pulled out and aimed his bow on a course parallel to the massive destroyer’s. In moments he was joined by the others, with Ruwe lining up on his left rear and the other pair behind and to the right.

Pushing his acceleration up, the Mon Calamari headed out on the patrol. Five minutes of flying brought the flight out to the furthest point of their loop, getting ready to return, when his sensors beeped a warning at him. Glancing at them, he saw the expected enemy force interposing itself between the flight and their home ship, aiming to drive them further away to keep the Star Destroyer’s guns out of this fight. Drac spoke into his com as the Chir’daki began to swarm forward toward the Imperial pilots, “Break by wing pairs. Punch through their fighter screen and try to kill one as you do. Keep it as straight as you can so we can set up the first missile barrage. Two, I’m your wing.”

OOC:

Word Count: 1143

Cipher is joining us...perhaps Liquid will too. That's yet to be seen.

Tycho Shorn was new to Nazgul. He was interested at seeing how exactly he would work with them. Tycho considered himself to be a relatively laid back guy. Hopefully, he would fit in well with the squadron. His training squadron had been very interesting. Raptor squadron had been one of the most enjoyable times in his life. He had gotten to do what he loved most, flying. Racing through atmosphere and space at sublights and more sent a thrill of adrenaline through him. Much like he felt when he was on the verge of finding the solution to a problem. The Raptors had all been interesting people. There had been IG, Santa, Searchboy, and the others. There were also the presences of his instructors, Stormz and Hunter. Tycho wondered if he would see any of his fellow trainees again. He would probably run into some of them. Santa had been inducted into Viper, from what Tycho had heard. He knew he would see Hunter again, most likely. Shorn looked back on those days with a sense of happy nostalgia. The test scores he had gotten back were most satisfactory to him. Getting a perfect score on any test always made him feel a sense of accomplishment, but this had been so much more. 

The days previous to those of the Academy had been one of conflict and turmoil as his father and brother scorned him with hate. Tycho wondered if it would ever actually come to a confrontation between himself and Silas. Silas Shorn had always been somewhat of a patriotic firebrand, extremely stubborn. Tycho had tried to make him see sense, had tried to show Silas how corrupt the politicians and senators were, but he just wouldn't listen. Shorn remembered that confrontation with something akin to a deep aching sadness and frustrated anger. His father yelling at him, red faced and confused. His brother, malice and a strange gleam of wicked anger in his eyes. Tycho, frustrated and sad. Those days were something that he did not want to remember.

The merchant man's son thought about the new squadron instead. Nazgul flew TIE Avengers, a very deadly ship. It had four lasers and two warhead launchers. It could carry a payload of up to four concussion missiles. It was an improvement upon the original TIE Interceptor, faster and more agile. Tycho's training had covered the Interceptor; so the Avenger shouldn't be too difficult.

All these thoughts rolled through Tycho's head as he suited up and stepped into the simulator cockpit. Shorn felt beads of apprehensive sweat trickle down his forehead. He nervously swept a hand through his untidy brown hair, then shoved the black helmet on and got set in the controls. The fighter's displays came alive with lights and sounds. The screen in front of Tycho flashed into the picture of a hangar. He was surrounded by other Avengers. Shorn made sure that all the systems were online an functional. After a brief status report to Control, everything seemed to be in order. The com crackled as his Flight Leader, Drac, or Black Leader, spoke,

"“This mission is going to be a bit different than the last two. We won’t be in atmosphere, and we won’t be going exclusively against starfighters. We’ll be flying a patrol loop out from this Star Destroyer, searching for a pirate group that’s been terrorizing the system. Intel suggests that the enemy force is a Twi’lek group made up of eight Chir’daki starfighters and a CR-90 Corvette. Our objective is to kill the corvette with as few casualties as possible. Engage the starfighters as necessary, but aim to be in position for concerted concussion missile barrages on the corvette…I have two lit and green. Report status.”

Tycho checked in,
"Black Four on standbye." The rest of the pilots confirmed the same. He released his docking clamps and then, he was rushing into the black void of space. They went on a quick loop and were coming around fast, when Tycho spotted them on his radar. Eight blips appeared in the red of enemy fighters. Black Flight appeared as blue, friendlies. A larger blip came onto the radar. It was the enemy CR-90 Corvette. More commonly known as the Corellian Corvette, or blockade runner. Tycho recalled the armaments of it. It had two Taim & Bak H9 dual turbolasers, one dorsal, and one ventral, no match for a Star Destroyer, like the one they had on their side. However, the fighters might end up being a considerable problem. Shorn wondered what he would do if he were in the position of the enemy captain. Pondering it, Tycho supposed that he would probably shoot off the escape pods. The escape pods had more turbolasers on them and that would make the fight that much harder for Black Flight.

The fighters came into view as Tycho and Arturo headed straight for them. The enemy pilots broke off into two groups of four. Tycho grimaced as he saw their forms grow closer. They were 'uglies', a combination of a TIE cockpit and the S-foils of an X-wing. The combination wasn't very pretty, hence the name 'uglies'. Then again, you didn't have to fly a pretty fighter to kill something. But intimidation still counted for something. These fighters were more likely to make the enemy laugh than to make them cower in fear.

"Look at the uglies, Black Three. Lets bag a couple. I have the two on the port side."

Arturo spoke, his voice a bit staticy over the com, "Roger, I have the starboard ones."

The attackers came on a wave of two behind two. Shorn suspected that they were going for a feint and backstab. The first wave would break off before they got in range. The opposing fighters would be momentarily distracted, while the second two snuck around and hit them on the flank. Tycho decided to play this one by the book. He didn't know what type of pilot Arturo was, but he would soon find out. Just as Tycho suspected the first two fighters broke off and began to head back towards the corvette. Tycho and Arturo didn't fall for it. They headed straight at the other two uglies coming at them from the side.

"Usk Senth?" Asked Tycho.

"Yeah."

Shorn grinned. Usk Senth was the military code for the upper splits maneuver. The lead fighter would break off and head to port or starboard, while his wingmate would sneak behind and take out the fighter(s) who fell for it. Arturo pushed ahead a bit. The twin incoming fighters aimed straight for him. At the last moment before they were in range, Arturo vectored to port! The uglies took right after him, intent on killing their prey. Shorn's smile had now turned into a frown as he concentrated. He swung his starfighter in after the other two. With a quick maneuver he settled in behind them. His hands shook slightly on the yoke as the targeting reticle circled around one of the uglies for a second before locking on. Tycho's face shone with intensity beneath his black helmet. The laser cannon's safeties flicked off as Tycho hit them, then he depressed the triggers, twice. Two bursts of four bolts of green fire screamed toward the ugly. It rocked beneath the impact, but the shields on it seemed to hold. He cursed as it veered away from following Arturo.

For a moment, Tycho hung between indecision. The ugly he had hit was flying away. Could he let it get off free? He knew that he could take it down if he went after it. It would be a sure kill. But Cipher turned back to look at his wingmate, who was still being tailed by the second ugly. Could he just leave Arturo hanging? The man would probably be able to handle himself fine. Arturo's voice sounded through the com,

"Hey, Black Four, a little help here?"

That made up Tycho's mind. He hit the thrusters and raced towards the Chir'daki still tailing Black Three. The red targeting reticle seemed to hang around the ugly before it locked on. The buzzing noise of the lock on urged Tycho to fire immediately, but he took his time. He waited for the right moment, then fired. Once more, bursts of green plasma flew towards an ugly. It was a more direct hit this time and the ship seemed to wobble in space. Tycho tapped the trigger again and again. Bursts of plasma impacted the Chir'daki fighter, until its shields gave out and a green bolt punched its way through the engines and consumed the fighter in a ball of fire.

"Splash one, splash one."

"Nice work there, Black Four. Now lets go blow up that Corvette." Said Arturo

"Copy that, Black Three."

As the ship loomed larger in Tycho's viewport he remembered something in the databanks about the CR90 Corvette.

"Oh stang." He said, or gasped, as the corvette appeared with a full armament of ion cannons and turbolasers.

He remembered that CR90 corvettes could carry as many as eight turbolasers, six laser cannons, and four ion cannons. This one did have all those features. Tycho remembered something that else in the databanks. Under the standard configuration, the turrets were unable to hit anything directly behind the corvette's engines, so CR90 corvettes featured a well-known axial blind spot. Tycho frowned again in concentration.

"Black Three, this is Black Four. If we fall in directly behind the corvette's engines it shouldn't be able to fire at us."

"The axial blindspot....yeah, that should do it."

The two Avengers came in fast and high. Turbo laser fire began to dart around him. Tycho stayed right on course. The targeting computers would be programmed to fire everywhere that the fighter could break, or jink. So Tycho stayed right on course. When he swung in behind the engines and he wasn't a fried eyeball he grinned.

"Black four, locking on to the target's port side engines. Locked on, Fox two, Fox two!"

Two concussion missiles sped towards their targets. The first one exploded on the shields, but the second one punched through the hole it had made and slammed into the lower port side engine. There was a fireball as the engine erupted into flames. Tycho looked over and saw that Arturo had done the same. The ship's engines were now damaged considerably, but it might still be able to make the jump to hyper space. Tycho ran through a quick calculation. "It wouldn't be able to make the jump if its sensor and communications array were disabled."

"Black Three, the sensor arrays-"

"I was thinking the same thing."

"We will be out of the axial blind spot though."

There was a pause and then, "We can make it."

"Roger that, Black Three."

Tycho edged his starfighter over the engines and aimed at the top side sensor array, while Arturo took the bottom. It only took a moment for him to lock on, but it only took a moment for the turbolasers to do the same. He fired a single concussion missile and then killed the engines. His fighter hung back in space as the covette drifted past. The topside sensor array burst into flame. Tycho raised his fist in the confined space of the cockpit, succeeding in slamming it into something hard. "OW!" He stifled a loud cry of pain and yelled into the com.

"Yeah! shack on the target."

"Sensor and communication arrays are down. The enemy is blind now. Black Leader and Black Two should be able to roll in and take out the bridge now. We need to take care of those fighters." Said Arturo

"Roger that Black Three. Where are-STANG!" Tycho cursed as lock on alarms when screaming. He jinked to starboard and then rolled left. A fighter, or more likely fighters, were still on his tail. "Only one concussion missile left." He needed help on this one.

OOC:

Word Count: 2,000