Drac spun his Avenger through a double barrel roll, avoiding a volley of laser fire from the last remaining enemy. The rest of Three Flight had gotten the pirate's wingman already, leaving just this last Headhunter to kill...and as might be expected of the pilot to survive longest against the superior fighters and fliers of Nazgul, this pirate had something of a hot hand with a stick.

Now said hotshot was stuck to Drac's tail like ugly is stuck on a hutt, and seemed to want it to stay that way. Blast! Drac thought to himself as another volley of lasers chipped away at his shields, dropping them to 75%. Gotta get this guy off of me. Pulling up into a steep climb, Drac let the Avenger have its head for a second. Then he pulled up again, rolling and break away at a ninety degree angle from the one he normall would have left his immelman in. His first thought, whether or not he'd shaken his pursuer, was answered by the hiss of lasers against his shields.

Okay, big guy, let's see you follow me again. The Mon Cal pilot's next tactic was to sideslip to port, shut off his engines, and rotate his craft to starboard ninety degrees. As soon as he hit that mark, now flying backwards and left rather than forward, he slammed his throttle up to full and broke to starboard, pulling his craft into a more gentle climb than he'd tried the first time. The first result of this maneuver was to slow and then stop the Avenger, causing the Headhunter to close the distance rapidly. The pirate throttled down hard, firing as he came in. Drac fired too, as soon as his bow swung out to face the enemy craft.

Each pilot got off several volleys of shots before they passed one another, and even before then Drac was pulling his ship back to port and down to complete his maneuver. As he did so, he became aware of an alarm blaring in his cockpit. Automatically, he silenced the sound, than checked the reason. His shield indicator was red, with the readout showing 20%. His opponent, though, had not escaped the exchange unharmed either. Sensor readouts showed much reduced shield power on the Headhunter, and it bore a couple minor scorch marks down the length of its cockpit.

Now chasing his opponent, Drac angled his nose down and spitted the Headhunter in his crosshairs. He fired, frowning as the older ship nimbly rotated ninety degrees and pulled away, dodging the shot. In response, the Petty Officer banked after his opponent, decelerating to stay behind him. The pirate anticipated the move and, barrel rolling, managed to slow himself even further. Drac shot out ahead, cursing his luck. He immediately broke away from  his pursuer, trying to force the other to loop out and come back for a head-to-head pass. The attempt failed to the tone of lasers stitching across the aft of the Imperial pilot's ship. The warning blared again, this time announcing complete shield failure. A schematic popped up, indicating that the bottom rear corner of his left solar panel had been melted, creating a 10% drop in both speed and power. That's not enough to really hurt me, but his next shots will be if I don't do something about it. Mainly they'll effect the state of my health, which I don't want.

Sideslipping right this time, Drac turned his ship as before. This time, though, rather than jamming his throttle forward and completing the maneuver, the Mon Cal simply waited until he'd come to a dead stop, then shut off his engines. The Headhunter, anticipating a repeat of Drac's last maneuver, came in at an angle that was fatal for the Imperial pilot...or would have been if his maneuver had been as advertised. Instead, Drac was safely off to one side. He punched his maneuvering thrusters, turning the ship rapidly to port as the Headhunter screamed by. As he turned, he fired. One of the lasers struck home, and the pirate ace saw the nose of his craft shear off and begin to tumble backward over his canopy. While crippling this wasn't a fatal hit...then another bolt struck the nose, igniting a concussion missile that was still stored within. The enitre magazine touched off at once, obliterating the Headhunter and rocking Drac's Avenger with the force of it.

Swinging back into formation, Drac commed to Hunter, "Nazgul Nine to Nazgul Five. All hostile headhunters have been taught the benefits of being civilized...namely that it doesn't get you killed by us. Do you want us to 'educate' the transports as well?"

Hunter came back, "Leave the teaching at the Academy, Nine. For now, join up with the rest of the squadron and we'll head in toward the mining installation and the outpost."

"Roger that, Five. Three flight coming about." Relaying the orders to the rest of Three Flight, Drac banked back toward where the rest of the squadron waited, observing the combat around the target positions. They hadn't made it quite halfway there when the Petty Officer's scanners sensed an anomaly behind him. The anomaly quickly resolved itself into two ships that had just jumped in from hyperspace. Snarling, the Mon Cal turned his ship around as quickly as possible, ready to meet this new threat. He relaxed after a moment, though, when he saw that both ships were Avengers, "Nazgul Nine to newcomers. Is that who I think it is?"

"Nine, this is Leader and Thirteen," Driver's voice came back over the comm, "Switch to squadron command channel."

Flicking a switch, Drac spoke up on the secure channel, "Welcome to the party, sir. Unfortunately, you missed out on the first dance of the night."

"Did we, now? Was it worth being here for?"

Drac snorted, "Not really, Lead. Our dates got shy pretty quickly for some reason. Then we tried to put the moves on them and they just went to pieces from there."

Atrasin's voice was dry when he replied, "Remind me to restrict your rights to 'witty' sayings, Nine. What's the real situation?"

Hunter broke in at that point, "Lead, this is Five. No losses on our side. Twelve Headhunters killed, and two transports driven off. However, the outpost and mining installation are under attack. We can't tell a whole lot from this range, but things don't look good."

"What're your estimates on the enemy strength?"

"Can't say for sure, but there're more of them than we expected. A lot more."

"Can't you get any info from the stations themselves?" Slasher spoke up.

Hunter sounded faintly exasperated, "We tried, Thirteen. It looks like they took out the hypercomm facilities first. We haven't gotten a single signal from them so far. Once we're closer in we should be able to pick up short range transmissions, but long distance communication seems to be out of the question."

"Understood..." Driver seemed to be thinking the situation over, "We'll rendezvous with the squadron, then proceed from there. Nine?"

"I'm here, One."

"Since you're damaged, I want you to head back to the Atrus. Make your report to Captain Denethor and try to get back out here. Your hyperdrive is still functional, correct?"

Drac was shocked a bit, and definitely unhappy to be ordered out of the fight. He checked the readout on his hyperdrive before speaking, "Uh, yes, sir. But what about Three Flight? And what about the mission? My bird's not shot up that bad, I can still fight."

"Someone needs to alert the NHC to this, Petty Officer. For that we need a vet pilot, so consider this an order. Three Flight will form up on me until you return."

Pausing a moment in silent protest, Drac replied, his voice calm and neutral, "Understood, sir. What would you like me to tell the Wing Commander?"

"Inform him that the stations are under attack by a superior force, which appear to be pirates. We're going to need a medical frigate with a standard combat zone escort as soon as he can get them here. In the meantime, we'll counter the attack."

Orienting his Avenger on a course that would start a three leg jump back to Vectra, Drac confirmed the orders, "Roger that, Leader." Switching back to the squadron's general frequency, he added, "Three flight, you're released to form up on Nazgul One. Give 'em hell, Nazzies." Ten seconds later, with his course confirmed and set, the Mon Calamari pilot pushed his hyperspace lever forward and was gone with a flicker of pseudomotion.

OOC:

Word Count: 1431

Well, guys, I'm out for three weeks. Make me proud. Also, feel free to wonder what I'm doing, since the final conversation was on a restricted channel.

Scral was a bit miffed at having the lead spot taken from him, from some person he did not know from another flight. He thought since with his FL was off doing odd things, he was in charge of the flight. He might be new, but he had a few days on the other rooks. So why did this flyboy from another flight come and take his one and only chance to show he could lead a flight.

They had the engines screaming to catch up with the XO, they had maybe five minutes of travel time left. Suddenly getting a idea he keyed the private channel that exists between possible wing men.

"Six to Seven." He said into his comlink, his mind had begun going over possible tricks to perform.

"Go for Seven." Hannibal said a few seconds later.

"I'm a bit miffed this other pilot came along and took lead away from me. I know it's probably not very professional, but what do you say we have a little fun with him?" Scral said as he smiled.

"Sounds good to me, Six."

"Good, do what I do. Let's show him what a pair of rooks are capable of."

Flipping a few switches Joamer increased throttle and brought his ship a in front and to the side of Albinos TIE. Hannibal was half a second behind him in taking up position on the opposite side.

"Rock the ship, quarter barrel roll stop. Continue till come full circle." Scral said into the private channel.

Within a split second of each other both Avengers did a quarter barrel roll and stopped. Scral was sitting on his port wing, Hannibal was sitting on his starboard wing. They turned again half a second later and were both inverted. Spinning and stopping twice more they regained their original positions.

"A bit sloppy rooks." Albino said on the flights channel. Scral heard him but ignored the jab.

"Bunny and Gopher. Toss in a barrel roll." Scral said to the private channel. He heard Hannibals mumble in agreement.

They brought both of their ships back in line with Albino's. After a moment Scral initiated the move he suddenly took his ship up and over Albino's TIE, he tossed in a lazy barrel roll half way through the maneuver, before coming to a stop on the opposite side. He knew Hannibal had done the same only from beneath the other Avenger.

"A bit better, not good enough." Albino said, he sounded bored.

"Back to front." Scral said angrily.

The move was simple, but he decided to throw in a twist. The object was to create a line of ships, simple enough. Waiting five seconds Hannibal chopped the throttle and brought his ship in line behind Albino's. Scral punched the throttle and took up position in front of the middle ship, he did not stop there though. Hitting the throttle again he initiated a flat spin and punched it into reverse.

He waved to Albino as he starred inside his cockpit, flipping his ship upside down he keyed on the flights normal channel.

"Crazy Rook. Pure insanity." Albino said after a few minutes. "Still doesn't get you lead status though!"

Scral tried to flip his ship over in time but Albino punched up and over him. Flipping ship back right side up, he spun her around and got back into formation to the right side of Albino's TIE he waited for Hannibal to take up position to complete the flying point.

Sighing he keyed in course lock and sat back. He heard chuckling from his comlink, he did not bother to wonder who it was.

After a long minute Albino did a simple wing waggle.

Scral considered revenge as he watched Hunter take up position as the tip of the diamond two flight were flying in. Seeing Albino having to drop back to the rear spot settled whatever bad thoughts he was having about his flight leader. He did a small wing waggle to thumb his nose at Albino just a small bit, he laughed as he heard a low growl over the comlink.

"Alright, enough playing around." Hunter said. " Fourteen on my wing, six you take seven and split off they are too many of them to stay in a single flight. Try not getting yourselves blown up, you've proven to be worthy of wearing the Nazgul insignia. Happy hunting!"

"Seven on me." Scral said as he flipped his Avenger hard to starboard and punched the throttle. He watched seven flip over the top of the other two and come up on his right side.

"Copy six."

Keying on the lasers and setting them to single fire he waited till he was in range. The battle in front of them was immense, you could see lasers bursts and pieces of ships everywhere. He was glad he did not have the open frequency on, the bedlam must be deafening.

Luckily they had come in a bit higher up then the main battle, so when a small flight of three Z-95s came into view Scral and Hannibal simply dropped their crafts behind them and opened fire. Both Imperials each took one of the headhunters at nearly the same second. The lone ship had a full two seconds to go evasive, he tried a hard port climb only to be shredded by the combined firepower of the two Avengers.

"Six and seven to flight. Scratch three." Scral said.

"No way, we just started, no way!" He heard someone shout over the comlink, he thought it sounded like Albino, but he was not sure.

"Show offs." Someone said, he knew that one was Hunter.

A sudden shaking of his ship caused Scral to look behind him, a Z-95 had dropped in behind them with warning, lasers blasts had begin ticking away his shield percentage. He gave the rear shields more power and turned hard to port. Tapping the etheric rudder he pulled the yoke towards him, he watched as the Z-95 began to come in line again. He waited a long second then reversed his turn, this time the headhunter did not have time to correct as he suddenly exploded.

Scral watched as Hannibal flipped his Avenger up and over the spreading debris field and take up position on his right side. He refrained from thanking him, he knew they would both lose track of how many times they saved each others asses in this battle.

He knew it was near suicide to do this, but Scral punched his Avenger into the very center of the anthill. He dodged debris and laser fire as he shot towards the middle. Truth was being on the outside edge was the real risk, the lone surviving Action V was cruising the outside edge, laying waste to anything that got within its firing arc.

Scral dropped his ship in behind a small group of interceptors that had two headhunters trailing them, and keyed for an open frequency.

"Nazgul six to unidentified TIE Interceptors at mark 426.32 12.7, would you like assistance?"

He flipped his weapons to quad and opened fire before receiving a response. One of the headhunters shuddered as bolts of green encased the fighter, it exploded a second later. His wing mans ship lasted another three seconds as Hannibal blew off his port wing. The ship began a slow death spiral that only lasted a few moments, he collided with a piece of debris and exploded.

"Nazgul six, thanks for the assist." One of the unidentified TIEs said.

Scral refrained from replying, he only flipped his ship to starboard and went off to find more things that exploded. Hannibal stayed on his wing the whole time.

Reflecting on past things Scral knew they were slowly becoming one entity. He wondered how long they would survive.

Once the squadron joined up with the XO they entered the main space battle. One look at the hairball up ahead and Goth knew it was going to be a long day.
Goth and his wingman flew in at full thrust, and Goth reached up and put his missiles on dumb fire.  As they pasted near the remaining transport Goth let one go and his wingman did the same. Passing just outside of the ships laser range, they had the pleasure of seeing both hit, they only caused minor damage, but secondary explosions could be seen. The two proton torpedoes were not enough to cripple the ship, but it had to help. On the way into the fighter battle they passed a wing of bombers starting a run with Avenger cover.
Then Goth spotted a pair of Ties with four bandits on their tail. As Goth and his wingman came in hot from above, the lead Tie was taking a beating from laser fire, but some how its shields were still up. Diving down on the enemy ships, Goth reached over and switched his missiles off of dumb fire and immediately got a lock on the leader. Firing Goth watched as the missile took out three of the antiques and his wingman got the last with his lasers.
'Got to love those nukes', Goth thought to himself.
Goth pulled up to avoid the destruction they had just wrought then peeled into a port side break turn. Goth could feel the G-forces as his Avenger banked left, his wingman right with him.
After a quick look at his scanners, Goth went into a Barrel Roll and got on another enemy fighter's six.
As the two Nazgul pilots started regaining the speed they had lost, they were swiftly gaining on their new target. The enemy pilot went into a Break Turn to try and get an overshoot, but they dropped into Lag Pursuit keeping the ship in front.
Just as he opened fire with his linked lasers, the Z-95 started to scissor. Goth's lasers missed three times then hit the fighter dropping its shields. Nazgul 4 finished him off with two direct hits from his dual linked lasers.
Both pilots as one went into a low speed Yo-Yo to avoid the blast, then had to Barrel Roll to dodge a debris field.
Checking his scanners once again Goth found he had two enemy fighters coming in at eight o'clock on a pursuit angle that was letting them close, even though his ship was faster. He also noticed that his wingman was no longer in position
Keying his com;

'4 you still with me?'

'Of course',came back.

When combat flying a pilot and his wingman grew to know what each other were thinking, almost as if they could read each others mind, so Goth knew what was about to happen.
Just as the enemy fighters were almost within weapons range one of them went up in a ball of flame, as Nazgul 4 came in on their six from the Offensive Split.
Before his wingman could get the other, it opened fire with laser blasts. The blasts flew by just behind Goth's ship as he went into a Split-S.
Then Goth started Scissoring to by some time for his wingman to pick off the remaining Z.
Goth's rear deflector took two hits, but Goth was a shield jocky from way back, so the hits only drained 5%.

'Break now!'

Goth broke to port, and his wingman shredded the bandit with his lasers.

'Sithspit, he ejected!'

'No time to worry about that now, and thanks 4.'

'That's what I'm here for.'

After Goth's wingman formed up off his starboard wing, they moved on for the next firefight.