Counted
 
-----------------------
WAJ/2LT Corran "Arturus" Hargraves/M-SSD Atrus/VE/VEN/(=A=)(=SA=)(=*MA*=)(=JCPA=)(=SCPA=)[MC:1](x2)[SV][BRC][VC:B][LSM][LoC]


"The way of war is a way of deception. When able, feign inability; when deploying troops, appear not to be. When near, appear far; when far, appear near. Lure with bait; strike with chaos. If the enemy is full, be prepared. If strong, avoid him. If he is angry, disconcert him. If he is weak, stir him to pride. If he is relaxed, harry him; if his men are harmonious, split them. Attack where he is unprepared; appear where you are unexpected. This is victory in warfare; it cannot be divulged in advance. Victory belongs to the side that scores most in the temple calculations before battle. Most spells victory; least spells defeat; none, surer defeat. I see it in this way, and the outcome is apparent." -- Sun Tzu

"Ultimate excellence lies not in winning every battle but in defeating the enemy without ever fighting." -- Sun Tzu

Atrick began talking with the technician again after he had returned to the ship.

"What's wrong with it? You should have been done a while ago!" Atrick exclaimed, flustered by the technician's incompetence.

"Sorry sir, it's just that the shield generator has taken a bruisin'. We need to fix 'er up or she ain't flyin' anywhere today." He promptly replied, seeming satisfied with his answer.

"Then fix it!" Atrick screamed and the techie jumped, along with the rest of the crew and several nearby crews.

"S-sir, please stay calm..." The unfortunate man tried to explain but Atrick didn't listen.

"What's so hard about moving your butt once in a while! Get on it! There's a mission to complete you fool!" Atrick kept screaming at the techie. "If the Empire was run by you, nothing would get done! We'd sit around, scratching our ass all day!" Atrick couldn't take it anymore. He had to let it out. The nightmares, the stress of battle. It was too much and Atrick had snapped under the weight of it all.

Atrick flipped the man's clipboard out of his hand and screamed into his face, "WHY WON'T YOU MOVE?!?!?"

The man turned around and hastily began working on the TIE, dropping tools very often he was shaking so bad. His crew wasn't faring much better either. Atrick looked around and saw the other crew's staring and one had actually been taken away for severe stress trauma. Atrick suddenly felt small inside.

He climbed into the cockpit and just sat, absentmindedly running another check of the ship.

What was that about? I was just so angry and frustrated. Atrick felt hot in the face and his vision seemed a tinted red. He didn't realize that was the diagnostic light flashing in his face, telling that not all personal had gotten off the fighter class ship.


Atrick looked out the cockpit and saw the man, still shaking violently, drop his tools again and reach for one that was leaning close to the edge. He grabbed it, but had overextended, putting weight forward and sliding him off the ship and onto the hanger bay floor with a dull thud. Atrick looked at him in horror, as medical droids began racing for the man and upon reaching him, put him on a stretcher to take to the medical wing, where Atrick had been just minutes before.

That was my fault. Atrick thought. No! It couldn't of been! That could've happened to anybody! Or maybe just the violently shaking ones...

He felt wracked with guilt but put it aside. He had his ship to worry about. He ran the second diagnostic with everyone off the fighter and the light showed green. He exited and looked around. To his right were the fighters of flights two and three. On his left was flight one. He counted the ships.

Eleven? That can't be right. Unless something happened...

The sound of hyperspace jump alarms brought Atrick back to his senses. He exited the fighter then was struck with something. Who's gone?

He ran over to Shazam as the countdown began.

"Shazam! What happened to the 12th pilot?" Atrick asked his squad leader.

"Gerisi. She got stuck back before the jump. We couldn't save her..." Shazam said, looking sad as he felt grief for the lost pilot.

"That's too bad. Hope her family takes it well." Atrick couldn't think of anything else to say. The loss of a pilot already was a shocking reminder that the mission was real and not another dream.

"What was with that little outburst before, Atrick?" asked Shazam eyeing him suspiciously.

"Just some stupid technicians. Nothing big." Atrick replied and walked away, feeling Shazam's eyes drill into the back of his neck.


-----------------------
NazgulSquadron

FM/LCRW Atrick25/Nazgul-10/Phoenix Wing/[mSSD Atrus]/1VENF]/VEN/VE (=A=)
~Leading Crewman Atrick25~

Nerds stick together! (Until Football Players storm us, because then we run like the girly men we are!)

Why does Darth Vader want cookies?

Shazam wasn't much on cramming down food or chugging gallons of anything, so the little snack area they'd created out in the hanger bay wasn't his primary rest point.  He did believe in sipping though, so he carried around a small flask full of water or fruit juice so that he wouldn't become totally dehydrated when the battle began...  Shazam had fun with that idea though, often 'swigging' from the bottle to give the appearence of a drunk to the younger pilots or crewman running around the ship.  One theory about the more experience pilots was that if they weren't settling down- they were getting wasted.  Shazam enjoyed exploring that to the greatest extent, often dropping tools or rolling his eyes and falling into a young womans path as if he'd just had an early morning carousel at the local pub.  Those were few and far between on most capitol ships, most intoxicating beverages being saved for the higher-ups, but on the smaller ones and more dismal planets- they were in high abundance.  So, to see a pilot go out and get plasterd wasn't much of a surprise, but to see that same pilot commanding a squadron, it was a bit scary.  Of course, Jen had caught on to this little act and liked to play along.  Shazam smiled like a moron as he saw Jen approaching from the adjacent hallway and strode over, his feet crossing and collapsing on eachother every once in a while before he fell into her arms, head drooping to the side and commenting about hwo pretty the room was.

"Drinking halfway between missions?  How responsible." She said softly then shoved Shazam out of her arms so he was sent sailing across the cramped intersection.  They were a few hallways off from the hanger bay now and heading for the bridge for lack of anywhere else to go.  "Its too bad about Gerisi, by the way.  She was a good pilot."  Jen said this and studied Shazam thoughtfully as he recollected himself and put his hand through his hair as if to check its length.

"Yea, I think she was going to put in for a transfer if she liked it here with us- too bad she had to get taken out on something like that.  She flew well...  How you holdin up?"  He gave the young woman a mock smile and she swayed dangerously as if she'd had a few drinks herself before collapsing in Shazam's arms.  "Ah yes- well, it'll all be over soon.  I'm guessing- two hours time?"

Jen was back up to her full height and sighed- "Two hours?  Well, that's not soo bad...  I can recall a couple of missions where we were scrambling around for days at a time.  That's kind of fun, but not really my style- too long away from home and undercover will do that."

"Interesting choice of words."  Shazam stopped them at a turbolift as she querried-

"How so?"

"Never mind, just interesting way to say it I thought." Shazam lied.  Home?  The commander had long thought of the VE as his home in a way, but really, he had no official place in the Navy that he could call 'home.'  Instead, he'd been renting out an apartment on an orbital space platform he hadn't seen in almost a year and a half with all of his old equipement.  Really, it might as well have been locked away in storage, secretly he feared he might forget altogether that it existed and never return.  Vacation soon- ask for some leave time...

"Either way- I think I'm just gonna lock my door after this mission for a while.  They've just been incessant lately and I still need to get used to to some things..."  She rubbed her hand quietly, having to go through heavy therapy to revive it after the attack on the pirate frigate they'd thought was thier own.

"Yea- I know what you mean.  Hey- I'll meet you in the hanger in about ten, I gotta go check on somethin quick." Shazam gave her a firm pat on the shoulder and she nodded, making a brisk pace down the hall.

Shazam strode into the bridge to see that it was smaller than most that he'd seen and the commander was sitting right there as well as the rest of the command staff. 

"Commander Shazam I presume?" the Captain looked the young man up and down.

"Yes sir- I had some questions."  Shazam jogged up to the commander who had brought his eyes back to array a tech was indicating.  He and his staff werre gathered around what looked to be a technical layout of a ship, probably the Reighteous, and were scrolling numbers and replacing names and parts to coordinate for the upcoming battle.

"Make sure all batteries remain charged and we have a suppository to supplement them if we have any power outages across the peripheal- I don't need to lose any guns because we blew a fuse." He clapped the young man on the back then re-asessed Shazam.  He gave the young commander a nod then stepped forward.  "Good to meet you at last Nazgul One- we've heard many stories of your squadron."  Shazam, unsure of whether or not these were good or bad said-

"Don't worry- they can't all be true."  The commander was Captain Cerro Lane, an old commander in the original Imperial Navy of the Empire.  Interestingly enough, he quit his service there because he felt the oncoming failure of the empire and joined up with the VE faction almost immedietly after.  Lane was a family man and appreciated hard work, possibly why he'd tossed formality to the side in his introduction.

"Well, what can I help you with?"  The two of them began a short walk toward the main viewport when Shazam answered-

"You spoke of hearing stories about us- I noticed the techs around here act differently than any I've seen."

"That's what you came to ask about?" Lane chuckled softly and said- "How exactly did they act young sir?"

"Heh, polite?" The older man laughed harder now and placed a hand on the railing.

"A lot of the people on this ship are from Cepany, so your work there really motivates a few of them I'm sure.  But more than anything- your recent endeavers have brought some light to some of the darker aspect of our organization." 

"The RS?" Shazam lifted an eyebrow as the commander shook his head-

"Our vulnerability more or less.  The fact that a high priority pilot like Warren Dimmias could be so compromised scared a lot of people.  When the story came out about how you and your crew took on a ship by yourself, you actually engaging Dimmias above Cepany and nearly destroying him..."

"Nearly."  Shazam cut him off.  The commander was still a little embittered at the fact he hadn't been able to take out the pilot when he had the chance.  Now he'd probably never have the chance to right so many wrongs...

"You'll have your chance son." Lane nodded and then said- "Basically- you and anyone else who has fought the RS recently or any insurgent faction is a hero to our crews.  For the longest time, the VEN has just been fighting, now it seems as if we fight for survival rather than simple supremecy.  Consider yourselves teh white knights of the Vast Empire Navy." 

"I suppose that includes Kaph and Aegis as well- they're gaining support fast, not to mention good pilots.  Aegis was just sent off on a pretty massive mission I heard- they could be the elite."  Shazam usually never used the word in comparison to VE Squadrons because they were so few and far between, never having enough good pilots to be a totally 'elite' squadron.  Things were different now though, and who knew what else would be changing.

"Yes well- not if you boys can help it.  If we keep gaining support like this though- we may end up fulfilling our promises of a Defender in every hanger for every pilot.  Wouldn't that be something?"  Shazam felt as if the old man had become his grandfather and was giving him good old fashion encouragement.  It was nice, but he need not hear any more of it. 

"I think I've gotten a taste of the VEN attitude for today, sir- thankyou." 

"So that was all?"  Shazam considered for a moment, on the edge of asking for more specific details on the mission, but then figured the Captain wasn't totally lost in memories and would probably catch a security breach in a heart beat.

"Yes Sir."

"Very well- the force be with you."  Shazam always got a chuckle out of people saying that, but decided that this one was a believer so he'd be quiet...  Spinning around, the commander made haste to the hanger.

(Alright guys- you can launch us if you want- I'll be gone until Sunday night, so I won't be able to do much.  Basically, we're going to launch with the Righteous outside of a planets atmosphere and engage a few fighters outside and inside the atmosphere before attacking the police station.  This thing is basically floating like cloud city up there- we don't want to destroy it.  Just disable its shields and weapons.  So be specific with your generators, if you knock out the repulsorlifts one, it'll drop out of the sky and kill everyone on it- which might make a cool turn of events, but we've gotta be careful basically.  Just take care of the fighters for now and I'll make sure to get us onto the platform.  Lets get to it guys- have fun with this one.)






-----------------------
*Flash Was Here...*

CMDR/LtC Shazam/Nazgul 1-1/Phoenix Wing/mSSD Atrus/1VENF/VEN (=A=) (=*SA*=) (=*MA*=) (=*FOCE*=) [LoM] [LSM] [VC:S] [DSM]

NazgulSquadron

Commander of Nazgul Squadron, Phoenix Wing and Training

Trevor had returned to his fighter and found the tech had finished up, and that his cabin light was working properly. He climbed into the TIE to wait out the last few minutes before launch, and began his pre-flight check. After he found everything to be in working order, he announced it in standard protocol over the comm.

"This is Nazgul 9, pre-flight is done and I`m all green." He said, and was replied to with -

"Good to know, we`re almost ready up here." Shazam told him, presumably just finishing his check as well.

After a minute or so, everyone started to call in their numbers before launch.


"This is Nazgul One, check in quick Nazgul." Shazam said over the intercom to the entire squadron.

"Nazgul Two, present." Toki chimed in.

"Nazgul Three, ready to fly." Art said.

Then silence filled the com for a few seconds. Then suddenly Jen spoke up.

"Oops! Nazgul Five, here." Jen seemed to have forgotten they had lost a pilot.

"Nazgul Seven, let's fly." Darius called to Shazam.

"Nazgul Eight, still here." One of the new additions chimed in, sounding ready.

"Nazgul Nine, I'm good to go." Trevor said when his turn arrived, flicking the cabin lights onand off absent mindedly while waiting for the rest of the roll call to finish. Shazam was docked across from Trevor and hadn`t put his helmet on, and Trevor laughed when he noticed Shazam shrug and give him a weird look as if to say [i]Having fun?[/i]

The rest of the flight called out their numbers while Shazam got his helmet on, and then they were given clearance to launch.The exited the hanger in single file formation, before splitting up into the three flights, Flight One looking slightly less powerful due to only having three fighters, but Trevor knew that any pilot to underestimate them simply by numbers probably wasn`t very bright.

"Flights One and Two, come with me and take the rightmost flight. Flight Three, you take the left. Ready? Let's go." Shazam did not waste time issuing orders to the squadron, showing his prowess as a commanding officer.

"Here we go." Trevor said and they flew head on towards the left flight. It was a dangerous game of chicken and no one was letting up. Suddenly, Trevor started firing at the Interceptors and the rest of the flight joined in.The first three Interceptors lit up as they were struck by cannon fire and the fourth had managed to lose his shields completely before being blasted by the turbolaser from the Righteous.

"Good job flight 3, lets keep up that good work." Trevor told his flight as he locked onto the damaged TIE and got behind it, toying with it momentairly by blasting shots past it. He was having fun when he was reminded what he was doing by a sharp blast from behind, another TIE had locked onto him. Letting out a large sigh, he launched a linked burst into the back of the TIE he was following, sending debries everwhere and a firery explosion that was nsuffed out as quickly as it had started. Trevor then looped around, attempting to get behind the interceptor, but finding himself being tailed very well.

"Oh my, this should be interesting." Trevor said alloud as he rolled his eyes and crackthe knuckles in his left hand loudly before grabbing hold of the control yoke and giving it a good hard shove to the left and then back to the right, trying to throw off the tailing fighter, with no luck. His fighter rocked slightly as a bolt made contact with the shields, bringing them down to 85%.

He shrugged when he saw the number and reverted some power from his blasters into the the shields, bringing the number back up to 100. He pushed the throttle all the way forward and pushed the fighter onto its side, pulling back on the throttle, bringing the fighter into a tight loop around the tailing fighter, and with careful pedal control, he managed to bring himself around behind the fighter, slightly surprising himself.

He began fiddling with the knobs on the control box, attempting to get a lock on the fighter, and when he got confermtion, he let the missile fly. The enemy fighter began to evade, but was met with a wall of turbolaser fire, and having nowhere else to go, pulled up and slowed down, allowing the missile enough time to catch up and detonate on the shields, dropping them completely, and doing a slight bit of hull damage. Trevor followed on him, close on his ass, and pulled the triggar twice, sending green bolts into the fighter.

The fighter shook as the pilot tried to gain control, but he lost it and the fighter plummited towards the planet. Trevor tossed a few random bolts after it but didn`t make chase, knowing the fighter wasn`t going to re-surface anywhere in the battle.

"This is Flight Three leader to Nazgul Leader, we`ve got everything under control here and my flight is just moppingup the last few fighters from this group, do you guys need help, or should we start heading planetside?" He asked, pulling his fighetr around to check for the rest of his flight. He could see one of them was after the final TIE intercepter from this group, and he felt somewhat out-done, seeing as he had only gotten three fighters.

Oh well, I`ll get more later. Just because I`m flight leader doesn`t mean I need to be the best. It just means that I show responsibility, and was therefore given more of it. He reminded himself as he continued on towards his flight when Shazam came over them comm.

"Nah 9, we got stuff covered here. You can start heading planet side, but there are multipul fighters on radar once you get closer, so be careful, and if you need to run for it, do it." Shazam informed him, reminding him that he had no reason to put his flight in danger, and that he could always come back and wait for help.

"Gotcha Nazgul leader, Flight three, headed planet side." Trevor replied, pointing his fighter towards the planet. Switching over to his flights frequency, he continued, "Alright boys, lets get moving. We`re headed planetside, and we`re gunna try to clear a path for the other flights before they get there. Get it? Got it? Good, lets ride."
 
-----------------------
FL/CPO/Trevor Evenson/Nazgul 9(3-1)/Wing 1/mSSD Atrus/DEF/VEN/VE/(=*A*=)

Shazam commanded flight two with flight one for a couple of reasons.  For one, they were obviously missing a pilot now and would be able to wrap things up very quickly with the extra fire support, although the three of them could surelly have taken on the four Interceptors.  Then again, Shazam tended to be pretty cocky when numbers came into the equation, so best to not tempt himself...  More than anything though- he wanted to test Trevor again.  Sure, he'd put him in mortal danger to do so, but they could have jumped over there at any moment to help out and Trevor was more than proficient in avoiding minor cannon fire and missile locks.  From what he'd caught out the side of his viewport and through the com, he'd led his flight through with minimal irritation and was all ready to go planetside.  Not bad, Shazam thought and issued the Flight Lead some orders.  We'll see how this progresses then...  Shazam thought, not entirelly sure what he was aiming at rewarding the young pilot should he surpass his guestimations.

"Stay out of my way, two..." Jran had been saying a moment before after the initial split of the incoming flight.  Toki snuck in a little closer to Shazam while Art banked to the left to avoid similar repurcussions.  The commander sensed no aggression in Jren's voice, but some kind of annoyence- perhaps he thought he was superior.  After all, he could challenge even Art in veteran years in the VEN, yet his combat record was in far fewer digits with less impressive figures.  Technically, Toki was an ace and this man had yet to ascertain such a position.  Not surprisingly, only moments later Toki was taking his target away from him and clearing it away in a swift strike that landed two well placed strikes against the right wing aray and sent it away in a spiralling fury.  More and more, Shazam couldn't help but be impressed by his squadron- they were becoming outstanding pilots.  Of course- that could all end mighty quick...  Did I just get jealous about that?  Shut up...  This is stupid.  Shazam shook his head as the final fighter of the flight was cleared by Darius and Aldur, Jen preferring to take one of the fighters herself while Art and Shazam deferred to a straggler, taking it out in a catastrophic, and harsh reign of cannon fire. 

"Nine- how are things down there?" Shazam said as he snap rolled to starboard and pitched up to bring his nose to bare on an ivory planet.  The tan/yellow color was brought about by the heavilly gaseous atmosphere, presumably mined for trade like other gas planets such as Bespin.  There they'd built an actual city above the clouds, here and most other places however, contained a few ground arrangements and a few floating fortresses.  Really no more powerful than a police outpost, these stations normally used repulsor lift technology to suspend them in above oceans of raw materials or unsavory foundations.  In this case, the platform they would be locating and disrupting would be somewhere in the second layer of the planet, some twenty thousand feet about ground level and hidden by cloudcover.  What the gas or planet was Shazam did not know, nor did he entirelly understand what effects these components would have on the mission at hand.  Hopefully, although this was no promise, the lower atmosphere was not heavilly acidic.  Shazam had seen a fighter go down above Jadone when it had traveled unknowingly into a pit of corrosive gasses, eating the metals and materials of his fighter until it was nothing more than smoldering scrap metal and burnt flesh...  How did I get thinking about this?  Shazam chuckled at himself as he realized he'd been taken aback so easilly.

"I count fifteen radar contacts- I presume they're interceptor class but I can't be entirelly sure.  Some of these results are consistent with the Avengers...  Perhaps both?"  Trevor sounded as if he still had plenty of time to reach the atmosphere.  Mixed parties though, eh?

"Location and time of interceptor, Nine?  Form up on your leads, Flights one and two."  Shazam spun his fighter quietly and watched the yellow marble rotate softly in the cold space of whatever system they were in.  The Righteous was looming behind them but not being bashful; the assault craft itself appeared ready to battle, every gun on a swivel and each motion calculated to the furthest degree.  Lane wanted to make a good impression apparently...

"Just entering the exosphere here- doesn't look to thick or hot here: any idea of the total elevation of this place?"

"Almost two-hundred thousand feet, Nine." Jen answered, having memorized all information given to her before the brief so it could be snapped into a conversation at random.  Earlier she'd seemed a little groggy to Shzam, but she seemed to have perked up significantly since seeing the planet.  The crust around the core of the planet must not have been too thick...  Corrosive gasses alright...  Must be eating away at the planet.  You'd think they'd atleast have the decency to mention that...

"Interceptors, coming in fast..." Shazam thought he heard Trevor said.  It only sounded a little over a flight, so the command figured they'd be okay for now.

"Watch your targetting information that they gave you from the breifing.  They always say stick to your course, but I think they meant it this time- I'm thinkin we've got some dangerous chemical pits around here or something.  We'll know for sure if its all flat then it drops awa like a mountain- you got me, Nazgul?"  Shazam just kind of ran his mouth sometimes so he found it best to ask this question both out of protocol and necessity.  A few comfirmations came back and Shazam added- "Good enough for me..."  Through this Shazam had heard bits and pieces of a scuffle going on between Flight Three and a small group of interceptors without realizing it.

"Ahhh crap..." Jack whistled softly and Atrick seemed to continue on the thought-

"I hit that thing!"

"Yep..." Jack chuckled, the rest of Nazgul unable to see what Flight Three was up to as of yet.

"One- they've got shields.  We may have a problem!"  Trevor announced, spinning around in the second layer to revert out of the atmosphere.  "We're comin back to you!"  Apparently the first group that Trevor's flight had engaged had been pretty well taken care of when the rest of the group decided to show up.

"Alright- draw 'em to the Righteous if you can." Shazam said in his 'giddy-up' voice.

"Cut the group up or do you have anything else in mind?" Darius querried before actually being able to see anything.  Flights one and two were still formed up, the leader in the front with two flanks and another in the trail position while Shazam thought carefully.

"We don't wanna engage too far away from our gunship back there- it'll kind of defeat the purpose of that last order, six.  Best wait and see what they decide to do first here.  If you have to- just do whatever feels right though..."  Shazam about socked himself after hearing the words come out.  Who did I just say that too?  Perhaps Darius got some kind of antagonizing glee from watching Shazam give orders to the wrong members of his squadron... 

"Will do, One."  Innocently enough... Shazam thought as the answer came back from Dar.

"I haven't heard a missile tone yet- that must be good!" Toki tried to be positive.

"Or maybe we're just that good..." Nel admonished, probably showing off his grin from ear to ear. 

"Here they come- pick your weapon and shoot!"  Shazam could make out the fine figures of the TIE Advanced fighters, maneuvering through a series of TIE Interceptor volley, two flights closed in tightly around them while another, larger flight waited behind to take on the rest of the Nazguls, obviously expecting a fight.  Trevor pitched his fighter up while his flankers banked in opposite directions to create an 'open the envelope' look while Nel simply flew into the center of the Nazgul formation, cutting between Shazam and Toki, then Dar and Aldur. 

"Watch it flyboy." Toki added as she opened up turbolaser.  First?  Shazam didn't catch just who'd opened fire first, but he didn't let it bother him.  it doesn't matter...  Shazam's linked fire met the dorsal shield of the lead fighter, sending him up after Trevor, bypassing the ground and forcing him on a path toward the Righteous,  which was looking closer every moment.  Closer than I thought... Shazam licked his lips and kicked the throttle up, twisting carefully, but quickly around Toki with Art close on his tail to bring them into a corkscrew maneuver so that he could guide his group through the incoming enemy formations unscathed. 

"I thought we were the only ones clever enough to come up with the auto-shields bit..." Aldur said quietly.  Shazam didn't really catch if it was a 'ha-ha' voice to indicate a joke or a shrewd comment.  Either way, the uproar of laughter could not be heard.  Ouch he thought and wondered if the crowd was inentially dead tonight.

"Maybe we're not so special after all..." Shazam said, his voice a little lighter, a little relieved to see that his deflectors were  back up and working proficiently against the pitter-patter of random cannon fire.  "I figured we'd run up against something like this- I don't wanna take them on our own though- Righteous, where are you?"

"Watching from a distance of course, One."  Shazam could feel Lane's smile as the strike craft knifed through the formation from behind and began an unmercilless supply of fire into the battlefield.  The rest of Nazgul bugged out of the hornets nest before becoming totally incapacitated by the Righteous's weapons.  Flying next to a heavilly armed ship is one thing- being in the direct path of it's weapons was another...  Shazam preffered the former.

"We could make you an Ace yet, Command..." Shazam chuckled and looped around the vessel for his first strike.

-----------------------
*Flash Was Here...*

CMDR/LtC Shazam/Nazgul 1-1/Phoenix Wing/mSSD Atrus/1VENF/VEN (=A=) (=*SA*=) (=*MA*=) (=*FOCE*=) [LoM] [LSM] [VC:S] [DSM]

NazgulSquadron

Commander of Nazgul Squadron, Phoenix Wing and Training

Darius double checked his shields before his fighter broke the atmosphere.  They were still at 100%, which was more than enought to protect him from any metal corrosive gasses while breaking through the atmosphere.  His fighter slightly bounced as he hit many bumps in air currents and a couple jet streams. 

Jen Knight was slightly ahead of him, cutting through the atmosphere as skillfully as he did.  She and Darius had joined almost a month apart, Darius being the her senior, but because Darius kept to himself and could be very independent at some times, Jen was able to claim the Nazgul's XO position, instead of him, and he didn't care one bit.  He was not a people person, and would rather test their skills in any form of combat than speak to them.

Finally, they broke through the thick, gaseous atmosphere after three minutes.  Nazgul leveled out and turned northeast to their target.  They could not see it visually because of the dense clouds, so Shazam tried to hail the Righteous.

"Nazgul One to the Righteous, do you copy," he queried.  A static burst was the reply to his question.

"The ionsphere is playing havoc on any surface to orbit transmissions One," Aldur announced, trying to find a frequency that could penetrate the highly active layer of the atmosphere. 

"No luck one," Darius announced before Aldur could finish.  "We're truly in the dark here. 

Aldur finished his scan of frequencies.  "That's confirmed One, I've got nothing that can break that."

"Acknowledged Nazguls, nice try," Shazam said.  This plays both with and against us.  "Let's just hope the Righteous is on her toes and is able to knock out any com beacons launched from the city.  Are our fighters still operating at nominal capacity?"

With in the next few moments, every one reported in.  "Alright, next person to get any reading on the police gets a free drink from me when we get back to base," Shazam announced.  Darius shot ahead of the group, blasting away through the clouds.  I should have never told him to do what he thought was right.  Other Nazguls started to pull away, but Shazam intervened, "Come back into formation, Darius doesn't drink alcohol anyway."  I think.

Darius decelerated and emerged through the last cloud before coming into a clearing where cargo ships often released gases that countered any condensation with a 25 klick radius of the cloud city.  Darius almost expected a replica of the famous Bespin cloud city, but found it to be am the opposite.

It almost resembled Cloud City, except it didn't have the needle-like structure protruding out of the bottom.  Instead, it was shaped like a flattened hour glass, only the base was wider the top.  Traffic was extremely heavy around the base.  Mining ships and cargo skiffs of all sorts buzzed in and out of the hundreds of hanger doors found at the base of the city.  "Doubles as a mining plant also," he muttered to himself.  The bottom half of the city was a processing center for all the ore and raw materials that came through.  The top half of the city was a the main policing platform, with other small landing platforms spread throughout the planet to offer any protection against pirates our other enemies this Imperial remnant might attract.  They were attacking the coordinating center of the entire planet. 

Darius threw power into his scanners checked for any fighters being scrambled.  He reversed his thrusters and backed into the clouds and turned around.  A bright light flashed on his control yoke.  The platform was hailing him.  His flicked a switch and put the flight control officer on.  "Unidentified fighter, what is your business?" said a smug voice over the com.

The young Imperial stepped out of his regular self, and mimicked an amateur pilot not knowing his left from his right.  "I got my mining convoy lost sir.  Could you give me approach coordinates please."

"Hold on pilot, let me clear this through command," said the officer, bored with dealing with so many miners that couldn't navigate the dangerous planet.

Darius quickly switched channels, and returned into his normal character.  "Nazgul, come onto my wing, I think I've gotten us clearance into the station.  They're either unaware of the activity in orbit, or is setting an ambush.  Be ready for both.  I think it's the first though, just from the tone of voice from the officer I talked to."

"Acknowledged six, coming to you now," said Shazam, mildly pleased.

The light lit up on Darius control yoke again, and returned back to his acting charade, "Sorry Control, I had to reassure the convoy I had found the way."

"That's alright pilot.  You're clear to enter orbit, once you've given us your manifest.  Here are your coordinates.  Once manifest has been cleared, I will send to straight to hanger two-two-five.  I'm sure everything will check out."

Darius didn't panic.  He quickly assemble a manifest chart and faked information about some cargo ships he was familiar.  He hit the send button and waited.

"Pilot, scratch the orbital coordinates and head straight into the hanger.  Welcome back."  The officer cut the transmission.

"We're in," Darius said into the Nazgul channel.
 
-----------------------
All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men to do nothing. --Edmund Burke
-----------------------
FM/MCPO Darius Pursius/Nazgul 2-2/mSSD Atrus/Defensive Fleet/VEN/VE (=A=) [VC:B] [CB*] [CBV]

OOC: Thats ok, we wern`t supposed to land. I had to change my original post a little, but here goes...

"Ha, I`m glad we`re out of that. Now we`ve just got turrets to take out here." Trevor informed the rest of flight three as Darius attempted to lie their way into the base. So far things had been going fairly well. They had been met in orbit by a pair of very badly skilled squadrons, making Trevor think they had been met by rookies, possibly pilots fresh out of or sitll in a training acadamy.

"Alright, we`re in." Darius said over the comm, and someone congratulated him on his good work, while other people just remained silent. The base wouldn`t be excpecting an atteck from them now, but they still had fighters unlaunched, meaning that once the attack started, Nazgul would still have to deal with fighters, as well as turrets.

"Alright Nazgul, they want us all to switch to the open channel so they can give us our landing codes." Shazam said over the private channel.

"Why can`t the just send them through our computers?" Jran asked for most of the squadron, to which Shazam replied -

"They claim they don`t have the equipment to do so. I don`t believe them, but we might as well do what they ask." As everyone switched to open channels, keeping up a idle conversation of their favorite land speeders to help seem less conspicuous.

"Yeah, I like those Favarian Converts. Ya know, the green ones wi-" Trevor had started, before getting cut off by the landing personal to give him his co-ords.

"We`re sending them through to your fighter`s systems now." The man told him, and Trevor had to stop and think for a moment. Didn`t they tell Shazam they didn`t have the equipment to do that? He thought.

"I was informed that you didn`t have the instruments to do that, which is why we needed to switch to the open comms." Trevor told the man as co-ords were being uploaded to his fighters computer.

"Ah, we are using outdated technology. We need to be on the same frequency, and apperently your channel is 'private' so we couldn`t get on it to send you the co-ords." The man explained, and Trevor deemed his explanation reasonable, issued a thank you, and changed back to Nazgul frequency. At least he though he did.

"Okay, Nazguls, let's do this," Shazam said over the comm.

There was a pause before Trevor said a bit nervously, "What happens if they shoot us down right as we're entering the hangar? We'd be defenseless, and they'd get all of us probably. Shouldn't we have a back up plan?"

"We should, but if some of us happen to break off, they'll suspect something," Jack said. "Then we'd all get shot down anyway."

"Jack's right, Trevor," Darius said. "We have to go in as a team."

"Or else they'll break up this team by killing some of us," Atrick added.

"Good points," Trevor replied. "Oh well, I guess we'll find out soon enough."

"True," Jack said, then adding "Unfortunately."

"Let's hope for the best, Eleven," Shazam then said.

"Heh, the VEN better give us a vacation after this mission. Things are getting to weird around here. To easy." He broadcasted over the open channel, thinking he was on the secure Nazgul channel.

"VEN? As in Vast Empire?" A voice came over the comm, and a look of horror came across Trevor`s face. It just had to be me who blew it...Crap...Well, they were going to find out who we are anyways... He thought to himself as he could hear groans come across the comm.

"This is a message to all VEN fighters. You are unwelcome in this airspace, we demand that you leavebefore we are forced to open fire on you." The man who was operting the comm from the platform commanded, the sounds of people rushing about in the background could be heard.

"And if we don`t want to leave?" Shazam asked, Flight One forming up tightly, prepairing to begin an attack, now that it couldn`t be avoided. Flights Two and Three followed suit.

"Then we`ll shoot you down." The man said, flipping his comm off as the turrets around the station came online. They could be seen swiveling on their bearings, trying to aquire the Nazgulians as targets without hitting any of their own freighters.

"Alright Flight Three, you guys dive in and fire whatever you can into that hanger, while Flight Two will come with us. We`re going to work on taking out the generators for those turrets." Shazam commanded, and Trevor acknowledged with a simple 'OK' as he pushed his throttle forward. Switching over to missiles, he worked on aiming the missile into the hanger bay, just as everyone else in Flight Three was doing.

"Alright, on my mark, launch your missiles into that bay. If we are lucky, we might hit a fuel tank. Remember though, we just want to disable the base. Keep your fire t the hanger bay and any fighters for now." Trevor commanded as everyone else in flight three ackowledged. Trevor was almost ready to fire his missile when a black ball about 4 feet across was blasted out from the station in his general direction. Checkign his viewports, he could see that they had been balsted out about thestation in all directions, And Trevor had a bad feeling that getting to close to one of those balls could be bad.

"Now!" He calle dinto the comm and fired his missile, which was followed by three others from flight three. He then pulled back hard on the yoke to avoid one of the floating black balls, which he now figured to be mines.

"Ok people, lets avoid those. I don`t want anyone brushing in to close to them, whether by accident or to find out what they are. I`m pretty sure they are mines." Trevor informed his flight.

"We decimated about everything in that bay, sir. Someone`s missile hit a mounted fuel tank on the wall and the explosion was huge!" Atrick filled him in, while skillfully manuevering his fighter away from a pair of mines that had managed to come to a stop in a very precious position for him.

"Good work guys, but now we`ve got ourselves some more issues. They launched about 13 fighters from the other side of the platform, and they`re headed our way. Somehting makes me feel we`re outnumbered on this one." Trevor sighed, re-counting the enemy fighters on his radar. Yup, we`re outnumbered 3 to one. 12 fighters...Better bring themdown to flights one and two, see if they can help us. Trevor thought to himself as he turned his fighter and pointed it towardshte bottom of the platform.

The turret generators were mounted down there, as well as the shield generators. The generators for the repulsor lifts were inside the shielded area of the platform, which made them not something to worry about accidentaly destroying, which would cause the platform to drop 20,000 feet.

"One, we`ve got trouble. Not only do we have mines, but the platform launched itself 12 fighters, which read out to be a mix of A-9s and Aggressors. Guys got time to give us a hand?" Trevor asked Shazam as they reached the bottom of the platform, himself throwing a good number of bolts into one of the generators, leaving black burn marks up the side but not doing any real damage.

"Yeah, we`ve got time. We`ve also got mines everywhere, which present a problem. We`ve discovered that some are proximity, and blow up when ya get to close," Shazam explained, droping a missile into the generator Trevor had burnt up, blowing a good chunk of it off, which fell into the ocean of clouds below. I sure hope no one was under that... Trevor thought to himself as Shazam finished his reply.

"While others move around. They do`nt exactly 'lock on' to you, but they will launch themselves out in front of your fighter. Most of the time they are pretty badly aimed though, but on of them gave Toki a good surprise. Launched itself right infront of her cockpit, and out overtop of her." Shazam said, turning his fighter away from the bottom of the station to begin another attack run. As he pulled around, he fired a few badly aimed shots into the group of fighters which were coming to rain on their party, before firering a linked blast into the bottom of another generator.

"Yeah, It almost got me. Hopefully it does that for them as well." Tokijin said angerly as she pulled away from the bottom of the platform, ready to begin another run. She had been firering on one of the generators, but to no avail. All that she had been leaving was scorch marks. This time, she switched to missiles and dropped two of them in succession, the first detonating and blowing off the armour plating, the second tearing into the innards of the generator. "Got you!" She said happily, selecting a new target.

"Alright, here we go." Trevor said. "Those fighters are going to be all over us in about 30 seconds. Any plans?" He asked, heading away from the station and the incoming fighters, then looping around and slowing down so he could think about what he was going to do.

"Yeah, I`ve got a plan." Jen said saracasticaly. "Don`t die. Rumor has it that command has a vaction planned for us shortly after this, wouldn`t wanna miss out on that." She said with a laugh, which brought a large amount of laughter from the group. Whether it was because it was actually funny, or because at they all wanted a vaction alot Trevor couldn`t tell, but it felt good to laugh in the middle of a mission.

"Here they come..."

-----------------------
FL/CPO/Trevor Evenson/Nazgul 9(3-1)/Wing 1/mSSD Atrus/DEF/VEN/VE/(=*A*=)

Lovely...more A9's Art thought to himself.  With the fighters just seconds out of range, Art took a deep breath and adjusted his position in the seat.  Recently he had begun doing more flight training and hitting the simulators again for the first time in a long time.  Prior to that, most of his recreational time had been spent on target practice, physical training, and meditation.  He had a passion for ancient religions and philosophies and found the art of meditation and simply thinking about nothing relaxing.  After a calming session, he would be able to sit, legs crossed at an almost painful level parallel with the floor, his eyes closed, picturing and playing out intense war games in his mind.  The positions seemed rather odd although millenia ago they were widely used amongst some people.  Wars, human ignorance and incompetence, and the advance of technology have destroyed history, spirituality, and philosophy Art would think to himself in sadness and frustration.

But that was then, now he was in the cockpit and staring down at his targeting computer as the distance closed.  Ahead of him were three of the six pilots operating together in the expanded flight Shazam had concocted.  They were in a staggered formation which would allow for considerable overlap in fire power provided it was coordinated.

"Prepare to target the lead fighter, after a coordinated assault break off and engage the others as they pass."  Shazam ordered.  Art adjusted his flight path slightly and lined up the lead A9.  The TIE Advanced was a much more sensitive fighter than he was used to and the first battle had taken a little getting used to.  Considering that he had been using a modified flight control system due to the injuries sustained to his arm under pain of interrogation a couple of months ago, it was even more difficult to adapt to the rather crude and certainly awkward control and targeting system that Imperial fighters used.  For a faction that claimed itself superior, its flight control technology was bordering on the pathetic.

The three seconds between Shazam's order and firing range seemed to take minutes and a truly calming sensation came across Art as he sat back and became focused on his target, his fighter becoming part of his body with some form of fusion between man and machine.  The calm and control was ruptured seconds later when laser fire burst all around him.  Art lined up his target and let off a pair of quad bursts before braking hard to the left and rolling in front of a second fighter catching it off guard with another quad burst.  On his right, Tokijin was trailing, the move had caught her rather offguard as well.  Such moves seemed suicidical on Art's part but when the enemy did not expect it, such a move could never fail.  However, the audacity of such manouvers had to be controlled as the overuse of such tactics would make it easy for the enemy to adjust and predict what would come next.  A predictable pilot was very quickly a dead pilot.  The lead fighter the flight had targeted vanished from Art's targeting computer and with it one other as the Nazguls had used their firepower overlap to their advantage, catching the enemy slightly off guard.

"Scatter and regroup in pairs, let's get these guys out of formation and guessing."  Shazam ordered.  Smart words from the commander and the combined flight quickly responded.
 
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WAJ/2LT Corran "Arturus" Hargraves/M-SSD Atrus/VE/VEN/(=A=)(=SA=)(=*MA*=)(=JCPA=)(=SCPA=)[MC:1](x2)[SV][BRC][VC:B][LSM][LoC]


"The way of war is a way of deception. When able, feign inability; when deploying troops, appear not to be. When near, appear far; when far, appear near. Lure with bait; strike with chaos. If the enemy is full, be prepared. If strong, avoid him. If he is angry, disconcert him. If he is weak, stir him to pride. If he is relaxed, harry him; if his men are harmonious, split them. Attack where he is unprepared; appear where you are unexpected. This is victory in warfare; it cannot be divulged in advance. Victory belongs to the side that scores most in the temple calculations before battle. Most spells victory; least spells defeat; none, surer defeat. I see it in this way, and the outcome is apparent." -- Sun Tzu

"Ultimate excellence lies not in winning every battle but in defeating the enemy without ever fighting." -- Sun Tzu

Shazam about slapped himself when he heard they'd been revealed by bad channel discussion- C'mon, Trevor!  But that had only really provoked the inevitable, in fact- they were bound to fight by the very nature of thier mission.  High above the battle, beyond the cloud layers and most radar contacts was the Sentinal Landing Craft Crash.  The Righteous had launched the troop carrier so that it would be able to do the dirty work in commondeering the base and occupying the interest of the enemy while Nazgul defeated the Police Station and aerial support from outside.  The idea of getting in so close to the floating head-quarters had been to sweet though, even if it had been fantasy, so Shazam told the troop carrier to remain high while they got close and went in for an easy kill.  Even though they'd been discovered, Trevor's group had managed to destroy a hanger bay and take out a lot of enemy fighters in it.  Of course, there were other hanger bays, like the relentless one on the other side where the Crash would have to land, but Shazam wasn't too worried.  The rest of the airspace was filled with a medium flow of traffic, mostly cargo loaders making their way to and from the ground bases.  The base was still, after all, a police station; thus, those who did not check out on thier way in had to dock and receive a thorough examination, usually for contraband, but occasionally for suspicion of enemy force. 

"Good job two, time to find a new target."  Shazam heard Art say, and he thought perhaps the old man was beginning to find an acceptable wingmate- then again... 

"Seven, stick close." Aldur had been wandering in flight two rather uncomfortably for a while now, so Shazam thought it was in his best interest to become part of an element rather than a trio.  Jran kept with Darius and Jen while Aldur and Shazam broke off to take on a seperate threat. 

Even though there was some traffic, mostly evading and escaping vehicles, the headquarters had decided to launch mine devices to overthrow the enemy in a decisive manner.  Perhaps they'd take some damage themselves, but if they could spare their pilots- they would.  Shazam had taken no time taking out two fighters of the A-9 class by locking missiles and launching on the initial pass, but the mine thrower was something else.  Not only were the mines ferocious and surprising, but they were still coming in, the numbers gathering. 

"Where are you Seven?" Shazam querried, glancing at his rear sensor display and not finding his wingmate.  Aldur thought differently than Shazam, which he liked in a wingmate, but he wanted them on the same page and he wasn't getting it yet.

"Just trying to avoid these mines- they're jumpin on me..."  Aldur sounded more irritated then frustrated which Shazam took as a good sign.  The mines themselves did seem to jump, not follow, but jump so that they were in the center of your viewport.  If we can just get rid of that launcher...

"Landing Craft Crash, do you read me?  This is Nazgul One and we are asking for assistance in the vicinity of the target.  Do you copy?"  How close are we?  Shazam figured about a kilometer or off, the mines staying low while the escaping ships attempted to go high.  The mine launchers was right on the horizon of the city-like police station, each about ten meters apart. 

"We copy- what are your orders sir?  Have we a place to land?" A gruff voice came over the com.  Shazam rolled his neck and said-

"Not quite but we were wondering if you'd like to come out of your hiding place for a couple of minutes to take out some mines for us..."

"Got three Aggressors on us, One- you're orders?"

"That sounds just dandy- we'll be down in a few..." The voice from the Crash replied.

"I would say evade but I don't know if we'll be able to split them up very easilly out here, pretty conjested..."  Shazam said it quietly as if speaking to himself more than Aldur.  Shazam couldn't see the Aggressors yet, but he knew they'd be reigning heat down on them soon enough.  At the moment, a purple afternoon sky was plooming in the backdrop, sillohetting the base and...

"We're going for a cruise in the asteroid feild- think you can handle it?"  Shazam kicked the right pedal and deflected his controls to starboard as well, sending him in a topsy turvy barrel roll toward the police station.

"I'm sorry?" Aldur followed anyways, sticking very close despite the odd barrel roll.  "Where are we going?"

As if on cue, a freighter met one of the mines, detonating it and several others around it.  The shields blinked out and the hull lit up like dynamite, igniting from every orafice to explode in a fiery surprise.  "There..."  Shazam may have heard Aldur gulp in fear, but that could very well have been the chuckle of a challenge.

Shazam brought the Advanced into another strange barrel roll- "Immitate this as best you can, seven..."  He heard Aldur acknowledge and spin into a similar maneuver.  Shazam remembered using the maneuver on an occasion where all there was to see were mines and some fool at thought it possible to follow ace pilots into it...  The roll was simple and sort of silly looking, but served and obvious purpose once things started...

"How are our Aggressor friends?" Shazam didn't have to wait long to receive a single, lightly powered bolt to the rear-end of his shields to know they were right on them and would probably blast them out of the sky before too long.  "Okay- jump in..."  Shazam said it optimistically as he changed his vector to head straight for the base and the mine launchers.  Droppinginto the mine field, Shazam instantly got a wiff of how dense it was; two mines rushed him instantly from the front and nearly collided which would have givin Shazam troubles anyways.