Kaph out numbering 500s plus delta equals advantage, thought Sion as Demonic an he gained up on another HLAF.  The pilot seemed new to the squadron, not having the same edge as the rest of the pilots.  He didn't do very well against the two Imperial fighters.  He wasn't getting much help from the more seasoned members either since they also had their hands full.  Sion nipped at the enemy fighter's shields, causing to veer to the left, right into Demonic's line of fire!!!  The fighter had been worn down to the point where the burst was able to take out the shields and blast through the canopy, instant death for the enemy pilot.

The 500 pilots were just too overwhelmed now, taking damage from multiple TIEs until they finally popped into deadly fireworks.  The enemy squadron was now down to its last flight. 

"Let's give them a chance to surrender and see what happens," said Will.  Willtconq must have changed frequency for he was now talking to the enemy fighters.  "HLAF-500 Squadron, we are giving you the chance to surrender.  If you take this opportunity to live, eject from your fighters and prepare for pick up."

He got his reply, "And kiss your black, shiny boots.  I don't think so.  We will never surrender, we will fight to the death!!!"

"So be it, Rebels," said Will.

The TIE fighters converged on the final four, they put up a good fight taking down four Deltas with them.  But they eventually fell to being grossly out numbered. 

"Let's get rid of that platform now," said Will in a calm voice.

The other squadrons had taken out the defensive tower structures.  Many of the other weaponry had also been destroyed.

"It is close to death now and suffering," said Will, "let's put it out of its misery!!!"

The TIEs took a few runs on the station and to more of its defenses were taken out.  Finally, the Imperials did a final assault on the station, blasting through its armored shell into its power core.

"Imperials," said Will, "we have punched a hole into their defenses.  Let's go for the final objectives!"

They flew through the defensive gap, heading for the next targets in the distance.  The planet came into better view, a desert waste land.  But it served its purpose of being a place to orbit around.  The hanger came into view first.  It pretty much looked like a normal space station except for the fact that it had multiple hanger doors that opened and closed to let out fighters.

A little closer showed the shipyard in the back ground, making small military ships of many models.

"Ok men, we need to thin out some of those fighters and other defenses before we can bring in the capital ships," said Will.  "Try to save the rest of your payload for causing damage to the large structures.  This is why we fought through all those defenses, to take out this mini space harbor and cause a blow to the Rebellion!!!"

A roar of cheers came over the radio waves.  They were proud of being Imperial, they wouldn't have it any other way. 

 
-----------------------
FM/CPO Than Sion/Kaph 6/Wing 1/mSSD Atrus/DEF/VEN/VE(=A=)(=*SA*=)[MC:1]
I must have the power of the force, Trix lost three games due to early eight balls in pool.  

Kal let out a sigh of relief as he saw the enemy hanger. We're finally getting near the end of this mission. He thought to himself. Kal enjoyed flying  in fact, he'd rather be in a fighter then on ground any time. But this mission had been particularly draining. Multiple near-death moments, combined with swarms of enemy targets and surprises at every turn made it difficult. He couldn't wait until they had destroyed the targets and they could go back to the ship and get some rest.

His enemy lock alarms flared out, cutting his train of thought. He cursed himself for losing focus in the situation. A torpedo launched from the enemy fighter which had locked on to his tail and sped after him. They really have to start installing countermeasures in these things. He thought, looking desperately for some defensive option. Then he got an idea. Rapidly pressing a few buttons, he jettisoned the cargo of the fighter, which were a series of repair parts in case of a crash landing. He hoped he wouldn't regret getting rid of them as the torpedo slammed into the parts, exploding into burning wash of flames and turning them to ash.

"Thank the empire it wasn't proximity armed&" He muttered to himself aloud, looking to his sensors to check the position of the enemy fighter. Still behind him

"Six, I need immediate tail support, I cant do that again." He said with a slight tone of urgency in his voice.

"Roger that Kaph leader, I'm locking on&" Than Sion said, breaking off of his position and locking on to the pursuing fighter. He launched a few short flurries of laser fire, cutting it's shields down and reducing it to atomic dust.

"Thanks kaph six, I owe you one." Kal said, looking around for a target. One fighter broke out of the enemy's formation and sped towards him. That must have been his buddy. Kal thought, cutting the enemy fighter's flight short with a direct hit to the center of the enemy's hull. Foolish move on his part.

The fighters were mostly mopped up, and  it seemed like they were beginning to fall back towards their targets. Willtconq laughed and spoke over the kaph channel. "The idiots are leading us towards our destination, great."

Kal thought about it for a moment. "Their probably expecting reinforcements from the hanger, we should be careful." He said, angling his shields a bit more towards the forward section of the fighter as the enemy were now all in front of him.

"Roger that five. Let's try and mop these guys up before they get close enough to escape under the reinforcement wave." Willtconq ordered, burning down one of the fleeing enemies. It was an easy task to destroy the enemy ships, as they had turned so that they had their back towards the imperials. A foolish move that would cost them

"I'm picking up a weak signal coming into sensor range." Cyleaf said, "We have enemy fighters, coming in from the hanger!"

 
-----------------------
|FL/CPO_Demonic/Kaph 5/PheonixWing/mSSD Atrus/DEF/VEN/VE| (=*A*=)(=*SA*=)(VC:B)
100% on both Exams, looking good.
Demonic = Darr-Rann
Kaph 2nd flight leader

The new Hlaf 500 fighters came in large numbers and were a lot fresher than the Impeial forces who had been stuck in the heat of battle for sometime now. Exhaustion marked the Zabrak's face as he maneuvered into an intercept position.

Before Cy could engage Krius became under fire from two trailing enemies. I got ya kid he said to himself increasing throttle and zeroing in on a tailgater. Cyleaf turned the knobs on his sight reticule getting the fighter in his crosshairs and squeezed the trigger, it's shielding gave out and the fighter exploded.

The second rebel fighter broke off its attack to rejoin his wing realizing that a lone target didn't stand a chance. Krius spun around and abruptly finished off the fighter.

"Alright Cy, the score is now 1-1, that means we both have to buy each other drinks. But you still owe us all one because of the tower, so that's two for me," said Krius excitedly, Cy shrugged and replied "Yea I know I know, but I'm gonna even things out sooner or later, just you watch," he sounded somewhat cocky which was unusual for him.

The full Imperial wing of Kaph, Alpha, Beta, Gamma and Delta were systematically destroying the 500 series fighters. The Zabrak took fire as his shields absorbed the impact, break turning he sent the other pilot directly into his sights, it didn't last too long before floating off damaged and out of the fight.

During all of the fighting it seemed as if Krius finally cracked, he admitted to being an emotional person, but what girl did he have back on the ship "At least I got one Krius," replied the hysterical Cyleaf. Krius almost died from laughter when he heard the Zabraks come back, but it was cut short from Alpha squadron's leader.

They had incoming fighters from the hanger, more x-wings. These things just come out of the wood work he thought increasing throttle and meeting the nearest head on cannons firing. The Zabrak pulled up by had left a surprise streaking towards the fighter, hopefully he'll watch me, the thought was rewarded as the fighter exploded.

When the Empire was at its prime it would sweep away anything with sheer amount of force and numbers, that's what they had here as well. Each squadron did there part in fighter control though there were losses here and there.

Cyleaf's radar came alive with new pings, "I'm picking up a weak signal coming into sensor range." Cyleaf said, "We have enemy fighters, coming in from the hanger!" he finished swearing to himself.

Krius and Than came into a discussion with Kal clarifying things until Will interrupted "No time for jabber," said Will in an all business voice, "those fighters are regrouping and staging another attack."

"They have divided into three groups, one coming from the front and the others coming from either flank," reported Cyleaf as the contacts spread. Will quickly ordered the fighters to divide and it worked. The rebels thought the Imperials would stay together and in that maneuver were thrown into confusion.

Than was working on chasing a fighter but changed his target sending an A-wing towards Cy. Gripping the control he targeted in the weaker, faster fighter and let at it. After a few well placed shots it ceases to exist.

"How is everybody doing?" asked Will to all the Imperials in general.  "We have taken out two flights."

"Alpha and Beta have taken out almost a whole squadron," replied Alpha leader.
"Gamma and Delta have taken about half a squadron," replied Gamma leader.

Take us in and take us home Will, lead us to victory he added in his mind.

 
-----------------------
FM/PO2/Cyleaf Aehait/Kaph 1-3/Phoenix Wing/mSSD Atrus/DEF/VEN/VE/(=*A*=)

The Imperials once again got back air superiority.  They could now concentrate on destroying the hanger platform.  It had shields of course, but nothing better than the other platform that they had just destroyed.

"This is Kaph Leader," Alpha and Beta, keep the remaining fighters off of our backs.  Everybody else we are taking out that hanger!!!"

They approached the space hanger, when they came into range it opened up with its turret defenses.  Sion dodged to the right to avoid turbo laser fire.  What was left of Gamma did a joint attack on the shield where the projector was sitting under.  Up close it was obvious that the hanger wouldn't be easy to take out.  It had a strongly armored outer shell and many defenses studded on its surface.  The fuzzy thing about it was that they were not receiving much fighter resistance.

"This is Kaph 6; I believe this is some kind of set up."

"I too have came to that conclusion Six," replied Will.  "We are going to have to be wary."

"The attack on the shields went on, but it wasn't a one way event.  Sion saw a Delta fighter be hit hard by a quad gun.  The Delta pilot couldn't get out of the line of fire and was turned into a ball of fire.  No wait, the pilot was able to eject in time.  Sion slammed a couple of missiles into the shields.  The constant barrage of Imp fire took a great toll on the shield.  It was now down to less than half.

All of a sudden the shields just dropped.  Gamma and Delta went in to take "advantage" of the situation.

"Gamma and Delta don't go in close, it is a...." said will, but it was too late.

The shields came back up over the allied fighters.

"Shit," began Willtconq, "if only they had been on that last mission with the RS.  They may have not fallen for that little trick.  Wait, that wasn't all they did.  They didn't have their shield extended out all of the way and the power wasn't max either!!!"

"Sir," replied Sion, "I am on the other side of the shield because of the expansion during the reset."

"They got us good," said Will.  Don't worry; we will bring down the shields.  Just hang in there you hear me."

The full powered shields were up to 100%.  The change was a two edged sword.  For if the Imperial fighters couldn't get out, then neither could the Rebels.  Sion watched a squadron launch out of the hanger to kill off those inside of the shields.  At first this sank Sion's heart, but then he got an Idea.  They were A-Wing fighters meaning that they had low shielding.  So Sion went head on with them, guns a blazing.  What was left of Gamma caught on and flew with him.  They took out a few, but that wasn't the idea.  They were flying right into the hanger as the enemy fighters launched out!!!.

"Ok everybody," said Than Sion, "Have your blasters and any other weapons ready for when we land.  We are going to have to be quick.  This isn't going to be pretty."

Sion took his two E-11s out from under the seat.  He sheathed his Vibro blade onto his belt.
As their fighters hit the deck, the situation didn't seem as bad as it could be.  The different hanger sections were walled off just in case something like this may happen or worse.  With the leave of the A-Wings, it was now empty of fighters. 

The 9 pilots popped the top hatches and dropped  to the floor as Rebel soldiers came through a door on the wall parallel to the hanger doors.  Blast screens went over a control center on the same wall.  Sion crossed his arms to support the two blasters and dropped a couple of soldiers.  The others took their own targets and quickly finished off the group of soldiers.  They all knew that it was only the first wave.  They moved through the door quickly.

"We need to get to the main control center and fast," said Sion as they ran.

They met a little more resistance in the hallway but quickly took them out too.  When they came to a repulser lift was when thing went sour.  The door opened with a squad of better armed Rebels than they had met before.  It was a no cover shoot out.  He heard a Gamma pilot scream as he was hit and then the thud of him falling to the ground.  But oddly enough the Imperials won but not without loss.  Three pilots had died in total, leaving only six now.  But this was no time to morn the dead.

Sion now noticed why they had won with inferior firepower as they removed the dead bodies from the elevator.  The rebels were not soldiers at all but civilians who must have gotten to an armory when they heard action.  That would mean it would probably be on the next floor near the elevator.  The other Imps had holstered their pistols and had taken up the better guns that the enemy had owned.

"We may need better fire power against the defenses on the command level," said Sion.  "I believe that there is an armory on the next near this repulser lift.  We are going to grab what we need and then get back in this thing. Got it?"

They all nodded.  When the door opened, there were only a few enemy soldiers waiting for them.  It made sense considering that the rebels would assume that they were heading for the command level.  The Imperials dropped them quickly.  They shot a few more NR scum when they came to the armory.  It was a quick event of picking weapons.  One grabbed sonic grenade launcher, another picked up hand held ion gun, and a third grabbed a heavy repeater blaster.  Everybody took extra power packs and they were off. 

They got to the elevator quickly without incident.  Sion punched the button for the command level and they were off.

(OCC:  I felt like going commando.  I figured that if we could take they station from the inside, shut down its defenses, and get out it would make it more interesting.)             

 
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EFM/MPO Than Sion/Kaph 6/Wing 1/mSSD Atrus/DEF/VEN/VE(=A=)(=*SA*=)[LoM][VC:B][MC:1][SWC]
1st in Creativity
2nd best Pilot
Best of all, Elite.