Kaph 9


If there was anything that could be called consistent about the battle over Mortain's ocean it would be that almost nothing was.  Many have died in both squadrons, forcing parts of Echo to fill in slots in Kaph because of dwindling numbers.  It was hard to accept that two of her pilots (including her wingman) were dead.  But she wouldn't fall apart from it like she did last time, partially because she learned where it led.  The other half was that it was a different situation where, grimly, there was an expected, high fatality rate.  What maybe even more stressful was the idea of those that's fates were yet not known, like C-3PX2's.  In the battle wingman were replaced when the original went down.  Because of the chaos, pilots coming back from repairs needing to find new positions.  The Wookie was one of those souls, so was Dredj who was now Kaph 3.  Etan had been given the Kaph 11 position, which was in Skylla's flight. 

"Kaph 11, enemy fighter coming from above!" shouted Skylla through the helmet com system.

Etan took evasive action just in time, for the X-Wing opened fire a fraction of a second later.  Skylla break turned to port into the snub fighter's flight path.  Her hands were tight on the control yoke as she blasted away at the enemy's six.  The X-Wing tried to shake her with a couple of high-G turns, but it was in vain for she got him in the end.  The ship turned into a big fire cracker.

"Thanks Nine," came an etchy, electronic reply.

"No problem, you're one of my FMs now and that means I'll be looking out for your ass."

"Shields are completely gone.  Repeat, Lancer shields are all at zero percent," cried out Kaph's XO.

"Good to hear, as planned, Kaph 1 Flight will attempt to hit the remaining targeting array.  Everybody else target the cut off zone," ordered Will.

"This is Kaph 9 to Kaph 11, form up on me.  We're going in." 

"Understood," replied Etan.

Skylla pulled back on the control yoke to go up into an Immelman.  Bellow, Kaph 2 flight and a faction of Echo were doing dare devil runs on the quad guns.  From above, the Lancer looked like a large, irregular, metal block covered in pins of light.

"I see you are still with me Eleven," said Skylla.  "I guess that means you're going down with me."

"Yes Nine, don't try to stop me," stated the Wookie.

Skylla just nodded to herself and grinned under the black helmet.  They both were ready to die attempting what was going to happen next.  She set all shield power to the forward deflector.  The two Interceptors suddenly tipped and dropped toward the Gunblade.  The capital ship increased in size as their fighters were pushed down faster than gravity could pull them.  When they hit a certain altitude, the air around them turned to flashes of red as the frigate caught onto what they were doing.  Skylla's knuckles were white under her gloves as she pivoted in random directions, guns a blazing.  Damage to her shield came in uncomfortably high percentage chucks.  For a fraction of a second she stabilized and stopped shooting to dummy fire two missiles at the point specified by Than.  The armor was already badly damaged in that spot from the constant fire being put on it by Etan and her plus attacks from other fighters.  They were propelling toward the Lancer very quickly.

"Now is the moment of truth," stated Skylla over the com channel.

She pulled back hard on the yoke; just missing the explosion of here own creation.  She checked her display as she leveled out, Etan was still there.

"The Lancer's engines have cut out; it is only staying in the air now because of its repulsor coils.  Who ever just pulled the dive bomb attack has a lot of balls!" exclaimed Echo Leader.

"There was actually two of us," commented Skylla.  "By the way, I don't have any."


(OCC: What is left is to take out for sure is the power generator.  People can try to hit the remaining targeting system, too, if they want.  I just came to the conclusion that if the power generator was to be knocked out, so would the repulsor coils.  Thus the ship would drop into the ocean.  We'll say that it was a happy mistake in Sion's thought process when he planned out the attack.  After that I'll make the closing post and the story will be finished.)       

 
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EXO/ESN Than Sion/Kaph 5/Wing 1/mSSD Atrus/DEF/VEN/VE(=A=)(=*SA*=)(=MA=)[LoM][VC:S][CBV][MC:1][SWC]{VB}

--Temporary SC of Kaph

Never under estimate the power of stupid people in large numbers, unless you have a lot of cookies to throw in opposite corners to distract them.

Even though the Lancer Frigate couldn't move, it still had 14 of its quad guns, making it still very deadly to any fighter with an Imperial ID transmission.

"This is Kaph 5 to Kaph 6, we're going for the generator blowback.  It's not going to show up on the tactical display, so the shot needs to be dummy fired.  It is only a small openings, it will be hard to hit, but if the shot is taken at the right angle there isn't anything much stronger than chicken wire to stop it.  I'm down to one missile, so if I miss...its up to you."

"I understand, Kaph 5," replied Six.

Into the furry of the lancer they went, surrounded by a blizzard of anti-aircraft bolts.  But the two fighters kept on target.  The waves upon the ocean flashed by rapidly bellow them.  The sun was now setting, but its red color did not bring back memories of romance but of the crimson blood of the fallen.  Sion's forward deflector shield was getting low, he still had the chance to pull out, but he didn't take it.  There were just some things that a man just doesn't do regardless of how attractive the choice seems.

The light of the falling sun was eclipsed by the cold engine block of the Lancer.  Everything seemed to be in slow motion now.  The tracer streaks went by sluggishly.  He armed his final missile and put his thumb over the secondary trigger.  He was in a second long envelope where he overshot the turning rate of the cannons.  He lined up the shot and pressed down the trigger.  The missile shot out to leave his payload racks completely abandoned.  Then everything reverted back to normal speed as the missile exploded 10 cm left of the target.  Kaph's XO had to pull port hard to avoid the blast as his heart sank.  He was so close, so sure that he had lined up the shot perfectly.  He could have ended it right there and then, no more messages would have to be sent home.  No one else would have had to die. 

Over the communications system Sion heard something that resembled a roar.  At first he thought it was the Lancer's jamming system messing up the radio waves again.  But it took him only a fraction of a second more to recognize the sound.  It was cheering. 

"Kaph 5 to Kaph 6, did you do what I think you did?"

But before he could get an answer he heard a loud, whooshing sound quickly followed by something hitting his 5 o'clock hard.  He watched droplets run down his view port.  It was water.

"Holy shit, six, you really did get it!  You actually got the shot off!  But why did&"

It came to him, in the high stress environment he missed the fact that a ship in a planet's atmosphere would not just float there when its power was cut out.  The coils went dead and the Lancer dropped into the ocean.  The mistake wasn't made apparent to anyone in the chaos, though it was a pleasant oversight.


After the destruction of the Lancer, things all went down hill for the NR forces.  The last of the fighters were mopped up quickly.  As for the NR strike teams, they surrendered after a long and costly fire fight.  NR and VEN pilots alike were rescued from the sea by a search team set out from the Mortain Base.  Some of the crew was able to jettison from the dieing Lancer.  They were also picked up by Imperial forces.  Captain Manson was among them.  He was dragged to the brig cursing the whole way about how they would pay for sinking his prized Gunblade.  For the survivors of the Elite Kaph Squadron, they were shipped off a week later for an urgent mission in an another part of the galaxy.  Details would not be given until they met up with the Atrus again.


(OCC:  OK, its finished.  Not the best ending ever, but it tied off all the loose ends.  I know we kind of threw quality out the window near the end in the name of getting it done, but I think it was good practice for whatever is next.)

 
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EXO/ESN Than Sion/Kaph 5/Wing 1/mSSD Atrus/DEF/VEN/VE(=A=)(=*SA*=)(=MA=)[LoM][VC:S][CBV][MC:1][SWC]{VB}

--Temporary SC of Kaph

Never under estimate the power of stupid people in large numbers, unless you have a lot of cookies to throw in opposite corners to distract them.

Tally.
 
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SCAP, WADJ/1LT Corran "Arturus" Hargraves/STCR Doashim/VE/VEN/(=A=)(=SA=)(=*MA*=)(=JCPA=)(=SCPA=)[MC:1](x2)[SV][BRC][VC:B][CBV][LSM][LoC][BWC][SWC][GWC]