Fwurg

[Jedi Master Monifa]

"The ministry of defence has requested the jedi for help with the capture of Mandalorian ships.

There are a few Mandalorian ships located in sector 9 -4, which the Union wants to capture instead of destroy.

There will be limited time to complete this mission, so during the execution haste is required to let this mission be a success. You will get help from forces from the Union factions. And they are planning to fly out in 128."

((OOC: This will be a strike mission. As there is limited time to complete this mission, and much to do, I plan to execute this mission slightly different from normally. You can make a plan for every post, after which I give the results of the plan. I will try to give information before the actual start of the mission so the participants can think of a plan before they are dropped in the action.

The posting frequency will be 2 times per week.
The mission will be for 2 or 3 jedi.
The reward will be up to 2 XP, depending on the success of the mission.))

[Shebi Ajava]

"I am currently deployed in 9 -4, a small excursion won't be a problem."

((OOC: You forgot to mention reward, posting frequency and expected number of jedi.))

[T'Sal]

T'sal signs up for the mission. She has been training hard the last time and it was now time to put some of that in practice. After seeing the Mandalorians warriors is their special armor during her last mission, she is really curious about Mandalorian technology. It seems the Union is also interested in what they the can do and want to capture a ship.

[Ariana Danacia]

Ariana signed up for the mission. She was eager to fight along side the Praetorian military.

((OOC: If I can not do both missions I prefer: Transport of Masuk' faik-khush from Erau))

[Darones Rei]

This mission spoke to Darones' Imagination and he eagerly signed up. This could very well be the first opportunity to work alongside his new teacher again.

((OOC: As I have signed up for both strike missions, I would prefer this mission over the Hiocan one, for RP reasons.))

[Storyteller (Elmer)]

((OOC: I have added the amount of jedi and the reward and the posting frequency. Also, as Brend said in his strike mission, people can also assign for his mission in the Hiocan Society home world. We will balance the load if necessary :).))

[Jedi Master Monifa]

"Shebi Ajava and padawan Darones Rei, you will be send together with padawan T'sal for this mission. Report to map room 2A to plan your mission. Padawan Ariana Danacia, it will be a waste of valuable resources and your time if you go as well. So you may return to your quarters."

[Storyteller (Elmer)]

In the map room, Ajava, Darones and T'sal saw a holotable where a few asteroids and some ships were projected. A Bothan was already in the room and introduced himself as Rafnukar, an employee of the ministry of defence.

"As you can see," he said, "3 Mandalorian cruisers and 1 mining/communications vessel has made themselves at home at the edge of this asteroid field. We believe they are escorted by 15 fighter wings and 5 bomber wings.

The asteroids hinders the approach of capital ships, but covers the approach of smaller vessels. However, they also make the escape of the Mandalorian vessels harder, which is one of the reasons we hope be able to capture these ships.

The Union members have pledged the following equipment for this mission:" Rafnukar pointed to a list on the holotable noting the following:

Union assets

Praetorian empire: capital ship and its escort
Kingdom of komès: two of our assault cruisers and their fighter escorts
Sundarian Federation: Two of their sensor vessels + surveillance droids
Veolian Commonwealth: 1 carrier and its 8 fighter wings, 2 cruisers, together with a wing of combat repair and salvage vessels.

"The forces are scheduled to assemble in turn 128, so you have a moment to plan your mission."


((OOC:

1. I was actually planning to do this mission with two players, but going with three players turned out more logical for the player distribution. If anyone has objections, please let me know so I can see what I can do.
2. Please post your list of equipment next post.
3. Also, I like to emphasize that I plan this to be a fast 'go in, go out' mission. So I urge you to stick to the minimal 2 posts a week scheme if you want to make this mission to a good end. Otherwise you simply don't have enough time/posts to finish in time.
4. Last but not least: Everybody who have sent assets, give them names. No name, no assets! I want to be able to refer to the different kinds of assets.

))

[Shebi Ajava]

Ajava nodded to the Bothan as she entered the room. After listening to his explanation, she looked over the list of pledged vessels.

"Great. Politics.", she said out loud as she looked at the list. "So... There is no specification of what the Praetorians and Komès is sending? We'll make a plan when we have a complete list."

((OOC: Equipment:

• Her lightsabers, Talavāra and Katāra
• Her composite recurve bow, with 35 durasteel-tipped arrows
• A wireless communicator headset, worn
• A space-proof Onyx Series 5 environment suit, complete with helmet. Customized with pressured air boosters, grappling hook, Carbon nano-fiber plating, Visor with dynamic range adjustment, Infra-red vision and resealable fresh-air seals.

Names:

• Carrier: "Ready in Eight Directions"
• 8 Fighter Wings: "Left Wing", "Right Wing", "Up Wing", "Down Wing", "Fore Wing", "Back Wing", "Ana Wing", "Kata Wing"
• 2 Cruisers: the "Persistent Hornet" and the "Thoughtful Gift"
• Wing of combat repair and salvage vessels (i.e. fighter sized repair vessels): "Craftsman Needs no Tools", shortened to "Craftsman"

))

[Darones Rei]

Darones kept his mouth shut for the moment, waiting for all the intel to come in.

((OOC: Equipment:

• Two curved handled short blades
  
• Small blaster pistol
  
• Comm headset (worn)
  
• Zero-G Envirosuit
  
• Engineering kit

Shipnames:

• Sensor vessels "Aurora" and "Pulsar"
  
• assault cruisers "Aroyo Nuntis" and "Aroyo Endar" with
  
• 4 squadrons of multi-purpose fighters each, callsings "Tango", "Charlie", "X-ray", "Turbo", "Madmen", "Gold", "Genius", "DJ"

))

[T'Sal]

T'sal takes a look around. She is not used to the military and feels a little bit out of place. But she is sure her knowledge and skills would be usefull. She is in top condition and ready to go.

((OOC: Equipment worn:

• Lightsaber
  
• Comm headset
  
• Blaster pistol

In bag

• Datapad + translation matrix
  
• Slicing kit
  
• Engineering kits
  
• Smoke bombs, Flash bangs
  
• Mirror (to look around corners)

In cargo

• Zero-G Envirosuit (with grappling hook + Infrared/ultraviolet vision + distance/speed space sensor)

))

[Ariana Danacia]

Ariana Danacia contacts the group that is assigned for this strike mission from the bridge of the Sword of the Stars (The flagship of the Praetorian Primary Fleet)

"Unfortunately I can not join you on the strike mission due to the fact that I have been given command of the Praetorian Primary Fleet that is currently under direct assault by two Mandalorian Fleets. I can not leave the fleet at this moment.

However I can tell you more about the Destroyer and escort that were promised by our faction. We have dispatched the Destroyer Titan Centurion Diamond to the designated location. It is supported by: two cruisers, called the Fury Sagittari Platinum and Bright Sagittari Emerald. A minesweeper frigate called the Auxilia Deceiver of Diamond. Two bomberwings, two fighterwings and two boarding squadrons that consist of mechanized infantry and deployment transports. Any questions?"

((OOC:

• (Destroyer) => Titan Centurion Diamond
• (Cruiser) => Fury Sagittari Platinum
• (Cruiser) => Bright Sagittari Emerald
• (Minesweeper frigate) => Auxilia Deceiver of Diamond
• (Boarding squadron) => Auxilia Harbinger of Diamonds
• (Boarding squadron) => Auxilia Harbinger of Platinum
• (Bomberwing) => Equites Scorn of Diamonds
• (Bomberwing) => Equites Scorn of Emeralds
• (Figher squadron) => Tesserarius Blood Diamonds
• (Figher squadron) => Tesserarius Blood Emeralds

))

[Quartermaster Nishra (mask of Storyteller (Elmer))]

Quartermaster Nishra looked at T'sal when she requested the bombs and bangs. "What do you need those for?" she asked without wanting a reply. "You can get the smoke bombs but flash bangs aren't just tools. When used wrongly they do more damage to your soldiers than the Mandalorians. And I'm not going to let our soldier suffer from a misplaced flash bang. Just use your lightsaber, that weapon is powerfull enough on its own."

((OOC: I just realised that posting your equipment while in the map room is a little strange in respect to the chronological order of events. Ah well, it is not important :).

T'sal, your flash bangs are denied. Also, can you elaborate what you mean with a 'slicing kit'? Nice touch with the mirror by the way ^_^.))

Quartermaster Nishra

[Storyteller (Elmer)]

"It looks like the ships have checked in," Rafnukar said when a red light on the controls of the holo table started bleeping, "you have some time left before you are expected on the 'Ready in Eight Directions." He pressed a button and the list on the table updated to the checked in ships:

Union Assets

Veolian Commonwealth:
Carrier: "Ready in Eight Directions"
8 Fighter Wings: "Left Wing", "Right Wing", "Up Wing", "Down Wing", "Fore Wing", "Back Wing", "Ana Wing", "Kata Wing"
2 Cruisers: the "Persistent Hornet" and the "Thoughtful Gift"
1 Wing of combat repair and salvage vessels (i.e. fighter sized repair vessels): "Craftsman Needs no Tools", shortened to "Craftsman"

Kingdom of Komès:
2 Cruisers "Aroyo Nuntis" and "Aroyo Endar"
4 all round fighter wings: "Tango", "Charlie", "X-ray", "Turbo", "Madmen", "Gold", "Genius", "DJ"

Sundarian Federation:
Sensor vessels "Aurora", "Pulsar"

Praetorian Empire:
Destroyer: "Titan Centurion Diamond"
2 Cruisers: "Fury Sagittari Platinum", "Bright Sagittari Emerald"
Minesweeper frigate: "Auxilia Deceiver of Diamond"
2 Boarding squadrons: "Auxilia Harbinger of Diamonds", "Auxilia Harbinger of Platinum"
2 Bomberwings: "Equites Scorn of Diamonds", "Equites Scorn of Emeralds"
2 Figher squadrons: "Tesserarius Blood Diamonds", "Tesserarius Blood Emeralds"

[T'Sal]

((OOC: With slicing kit I mean slicing tools (tools to get to the control panel and universal connectors etc.)))

"So what is the plan?

I would like to get onto a boarding party and disable the ship from within."

[Darones Rei]

"Boarding a ship is probably our best bet indeed," Darones said after he had considered their options. "We should however also prevent any attempts to call in reinforcements, or their escape and we should also limit the damage to their ships as much as possible.

I propose that we lay a blockade around the asteroid, and attempt to set up a network of sattelites from the 'Pulsar' and the 'Aurora', they might be modified to not only scan the asteroid and the ships for us, but also serve as an EMP field to prevent them from communicating with the rest of the Mandalorian Fleet, or to prevent them from escaping by limiting their hyperdrive capabilities. We could also use them to learn more about the Mandalorian ships by monitoring energy signatures.

Once we have established a perimeter, we should be able to land a boarding party on the asteroid and take control of the ships there. I would suggest that we try to secure their communication ship first and try to secure at least one corvette as well."

[Shebi Ajava]

Ajava took her time to look at the information, and quickly tallied the available units. '14 fighter wings, 2 bomber wings. 2 capital ships, 6 cruisers. A minesweeper, 2 sensor vessels, a repair unit and 2 boarding squadrons.', she counted mentally. 'Against 4 cruisers, 15 fighter wings and 5 bomber wings'

She looked at the two teenage padawan. She knew both of them well, having participated in missions with them.

"You're thinking in the right direction, Darones. Except that we don't know yet whether they will be landed on an asteroid. T'Sal, you are on the right track as well, but we have two boarding squadrons at our disposal, and four vessels to capture. That won't be enough."

"We'll do this in a two-phase assault. Cutting off their communications and escape will be our first priorities. We start off with a ship-to-ship assault, crippling their hyperspace drives and pitting our fighters against theirs. We will divide the tasks of jamming and surveillance to the Pulsar and the Aurora. Both sensor vessels can be protected by the Ready in Eight Directions point defences.

The Titan Centurion Diamond will provide cover fire for the fighters, and hopefully their capital ship fire will be precise enough to execute several long-range strikes on the shielding of their cruisers. We will deploy 2 of our cruisers to assist the fighters. Hopefully this will create an opening for the other 4 to punch through and execute a strike on their engines. They will be assisted by the bomber wings.

Once their engines are disabled, the 4 cruisers can circle back and flank their fighters. Or whatever is left of their mobile defences. From there, we will start the second phase: boarding. Between us three and the praetorian boarding squadrons we should be able to capture at least 3 of the 4 vessels. We should wait till we know the local situation with thinking out the second phase."

Ajava looked over the list again.

"Darones, you can pilot. You'll be leading a wing of fighters during the first phase. T'Sal, I have heard that you are a well-versed physicist in ballistics and hyperspace theory. Do you think you'll be able to familiarize yourself with the long-range weapons systems of the Titan Centurion Diamond?

I would like for you to determine whether a long-range precision salvo would be feasible. If so, you'll be assigned to assist targeting of the first phase strike on the Mandalorian's engines.

We'll determine the second phase deployment once we know how the plan unfolds."

Ajava looked at the listing of enemy vessels again.

"Ok, let's move out."

During the trip, Ajava wants to get to know the capabilities of the vessels she has available. She is especially interested in the scope and quality of the boarding squadrons. She'll also make sure to have a short personal chat with the captains and wing leaders of all vessels and fighter wings.

She also wants to posit her plan to the assembled captains of the capital ships and cruisers.

((OOC: I hope I'm not going to fast there -- I tried to give a general idea of what Ajava is doing during the flight so we don't have to spend precious posts on it.))

[Storyteller (Elmer)]

((OOC: No you're not going to fast, in fact, the plan sounds excellent and I wanted to move on anyway.))

From the holotable, it was visible that the three cruisers were floating in space, while the fourth ship was landed on the asteroid.

"Time to move out," the bothan said, "there is a shuttle waiting for you to bring you to the rendezvous point."

Soon the three jedi found themselves on board of the Veolian carrier 'Ready in Eight Directions'.

Talking with the captains and other higher ranking officers prove to be valuable: While Ajava spoke with the squad leaders of the boarding squadrons, they where able to give some interesting information: "My boarding squads are one of the finest you can find. However, they still are not capable of neutralizing the entire crew of a Mandalorians vessel. However this is not necessary if you want to capture their ships. I have studied their ships and it looks like we can use a basic yet effective tactic to take control of the ship: All we have to do is take control of the bridge and the engine room. When we have those two, the ship is ours and we should be able to fly the cruisers to any location you like. The trick is to keep those two objectives in our hands till reinforcements arrive to clean out the ship.

This means that with our two boarding squadrons, we can capture two ships. You can leave that to us so you can focus your assistance to the other two ships."

The captain of the Titan Centurion Diamond had some interesting information as well: "At Nest, the Mandalorian corvettes rammed our ships to board us. I believe their cruisers are suited for boarding actions as well. It should be able to their boarding hatches against them. Maybe we can dock with their ships, or send a party through the hatches some other way. I've heard of an action once where ships used walkers to board an enemy vessel. Some crazy shit happened there."

"This is the captain of the Ready in Eight Directions, we are one jump away from our destination. If you want to do something, this is your last chance." sounded over the intercom.

((OOC: I will drop you in the action at Friday. So make sure you posted whatever you want to do before then. You get this little extra time as I realised that this extra information might shine some new light on the situation. Also I didn't feel like forcing you into roles like: 'Darones you are now a fighter pilot, whether you like it or not.'

I deny the use of scanning equipment as EMP tools or as scrambling devices, I don't see how a scanner can do that. However, they can scan the frequencies which need to be jammed, so the capital ships can jam the right frequencies.))

[T'Sal]

T'sal is glad that miss Shebi is with them. Her experience is of great value. She is taking the lead like the military commander she is.

"The laws of physics apply on everything and those long range weapons won't be a problem. I will try and get some more efficiency and accuracy out of them."

T'sal gets on board of the Titan Centurion Diamond and familiarizes herself with the long-range weapons systems and also all the supporting systems. She asks the head (weapon) engineer if she is allowed to make adjustments. While they are traveling T'sal optimized and improves the entire system.

((Check: 16 = 7 Force Level + 5 Reason + 3 Physicist + 1 Mechanical Engineer -- Improving the long range weapon of the Titan Centurion Diamond))

[Darones Rei]

"Sure, I'll suit up right away."

Darones said as he made his way towards one of the hangar bays. Before he jumped in, he made sure he was briefed on the fighter he was about to fly and reviewed the systems once more in order familiarize himself with its limits. He also ran his own pre-flight check in order to get accustomed with its perks and particular sounds.

[Storyteller (Elmer)]

While T'sal was checking the long range weapon systems, some praetorians walked towards her: "What is this doing here? A human child who thinks it can fly?" An ugly praetorian with a scar over his eye said. Another continued while licking his teeth: "I heard humans are delicious, maybe we can eat it?"

However, before anything actually happened, a loud "At Ease!" sounded from behind. An important looking Praetorian walked towards them, with a relaxed posture but ready for action immediately: "This Hiocan is padawan T'sal, she will assist us during this mission and is to be respected, so act like it!"

"With all due respect...sir" the scarred praetorian said, "Respect in the field is gain through experience, so forgive me if i'm hesitant to get orders from a little girl, jedi or not."

For as far it was possible the important looking praetorian, who was apparently in charge here straightened his back a little more and a tiny difference in the way he was holding his wings made him look a little more intimidating: "You won't get orders from her, you get orders from me, and my orders are to follow the instructions from the jedi." This effectively ended the discussion whether to eat her or not.

When T'sal was improving the long range weapons, she noticed that the weapons were already very efficient, which could be expected from a military ship. However, with the guidance of the force she was able to spot some inconsistencies in the weapon synchronisation systems and support systems, she was also able to remove those. As a result, the whole system improvement was enough to make a difference.


When Darones tried to enter the hanger bay, a veolian guard first wouldn't let him enter: "hold it right there young man, no children allowed on the flight deck." However, without to many effort Darones convinced the man that he was a jedi and that there was a fighter for him waiting in the hanger. Finally he was allowed to enter and Darones went to his fighter, a design from Komès which was for this single case allowed on the Veolian ship for Darones.

While he was checking his flight systems, a veolian walked towards him: "Hé you, state your name and business." When he saw it was an 13 year old boy his tone changed to a more concerned one: "What are you doing here? This is no place for children. Actually, how did a child get on board anyway?" He immediately grabbed is communicator: "Sir, this is Sabda, I've got a situation. Apparently a child slipped on board and managed to get into the Komès fighter."

"...What kind of child?" sounded trough the communicator.

"Human, no I believe Sundarian, roughly 12 year sir."

"...Ask his name."

The Veolian looked up and asked again the name of Darones, this time he waited till he answered. After the padawangave his name, the soldier continued over the communicator: "He said his name is Darones Rei and that he is a jedi."

"...It checks out, let him continue his business on the Komès fighter, but keep an eye on him. We don't want an accident with jedi younglings."

"Affirmative."

The fighter Darones was checking was a pretty standard all-round fighter, for as far there is a standard for fighters. It had lasers, room for six proton torpedo's, an astromech droid. In normal hands this fighter would be less effective in dogfights than a designated space superiority fighter, however it had more shields and fire power to compensate and the hands of a skilled person could get some nice tricks out of the ship.


Later, the little fleet dropped out of hyperspace a safe distance from the asteroids. "This is the captain of the Ready in Eight Directions, we've completed our final jump and are approaching the asteroids. We have Mandalorians on radar."

"This is the Titan Centurion Diamond, our ships are starting to scramble their communications."

It looked like the intelligence checked out, the scanners from the Aurora and the Pulsar detected three Mandalorian cruisers of 600 meters long hiding in the asteroids. And there was indeed a fourth vessel of 900 meter which did not end up in the classification systems the Union had of the Mandalorians, but what was given the mining/communications vessel designation. It was hard to see now how many dots actually were fighters and how many actually were asteroids. It also was clear that without the excellent scanning equipment of the Sundarians these Mandalorian ships probably would never have been found as they easily would disappear between the asteroids on any less advanced radar.

The Union ships moved themselves in position ready for the first assault of long range batteries, the fighter wings were ready for launch and the cruisers prepared themselves to punch trough according to the first phase of the plan.


The Mandalorian ships started to move power to their shields, two cruisers moved to an interception course while the third one moved away from the rest. It looked like that the two cruisers were going to cover the third one. All three Mandalorian cruisers were starting to warm up their hyperdrive, but their defensive position between the asteroids made that they first had to move out before they safely could enter hyperspace.

14 fighter wings and 3 bomber wings appeared on the radar, on the edge of the asteroids aside the other mandalorian ships. All Mandalorian ships took up defensive positions as none of them felt like engaging an overwhelming force like this.

Visuals confirmed that the miner/communications was indeed landed on one of the asteroids but so far, the ship didn't appear to do anything though.

((OOC: I checked with Brend and Chriz about the reaction of their soldiers on their ships. Do not hesitate to make larger strategic actions instead of only small tactical ones. (I mean actions like: 'I fly into combat' are obvious to me, so I'm more interested in what your targets, priorities and your strategics are ;).

I plan to continue on Wednesday.))

[T'Sal]

T'sal looks around when she sees the preatorians coming and asking questions. She frowns when they call her human and a snack. She wants to say something but from behind someone raises his voice. T'sal watches carefully at the scene going on. Afterwards:

"Do not judge by appearances. You should know that you can not see on the outside how things work on the inside. Let me do my thing and you will experience what I can do."

After T'sal is finished she goes to the bridge and reports. She then goes to the hangar and meets up with the boarding squadrons.

((OOC: I got not really know what to do except wait and get ready for boarding.))

[Darones Rei]

With T'Sal making sure the fleets fire was as accurate as possible and Ajava commanding most of the assets of the larger ships in the fleet, Darones took his fighter to space and joined in the battle to fight off the approaching Mandalorian fighters.

As he already suspected while he went of the systems, the fighter designed by the Kingdom of Komés wasn't your regular superiority fighter. The added shielding and extra firepower gave it more of a flying tank feel, one Darones was very grateful to have it as he decided on a daring approach to their current predicament.

At first, Darones went out with the fighters and got himself involved in a prolonged exchange in defence of the fleets larger ships. After a while however he would leave the larger share to the other fighters in their fleet and instead look for any opportunity to slip through the Mandalorian fighter lines and get in close with the cruisers taking shots at their engines, hoping to damage them.

As his fighter, though a that slower then other fighters, was much more mobile then the larger cruisers, he used the asteroids as much as possible to cover his approach, hit hard and disappear ever so quickly again only to repeat the tactic from a different angle once again.

((Check: 11 = 5 Force Level + 4 Fitness + 2 Pilot -- joining the fight and staying alive))

[Shebi Ajava]

Ajava took command of their force, and executed the plan she previously explained.

When she saw Darones go off-plan, the only thing she did was say the wollofing to him: "Padawan Darones, you are going off-plan, you're on your own."

She couldn't spare much concentration for anything else, as mentally keeping track of the assorted forces was difficult enough. She was used to having an organized fleet at her command, with the same training and military traditions. This was something else.

((Check: 15 = 8 Force Level + 5 Intuition + 1 Military Command + 1 Battle Meditation -- ))

[Storyteller (Elmer)]

Thanks to T'sal, the Titan Centurion Diamond was able to start opening fire from a long distance without sacrificing accuracy. It was like the first shot of the Praetorian destroyer was the start signal of the fight: Aiming between the asteroids, the first two Mandalorian cruisers, Shaksii 1 and Shaksii 2, started firing back, without much result over the long distance. Four of the Union cruisers, the Persistent Hornet, the Thoughtful Gift, the Fury Sagittari Platinum and the Bright Sagittari Emerald started moving forwards, closely followed by the cruisers Aroyo Nuntis and Aroyo Endar. The six cruisers carefully made sure not to fly in the line of fire of the Titan Centurion Diamond who was also closing in on the battle.

The 14 fighter wings of the Union flew into the 14 fighter wings of the Mandalorians, starting a large dogfight at the edge of the asteroid field close and somewhat around the two Mandalorian cruisers, while the bomber teams of both sides were waiting along the sidelines for their time to strike.

As the 4 cruisers were making their way to the Mandalorian cruisers, the plan seemed to unfold smoothly.

Until Ajava noticed something about the strategy of the Mandalorians: their first cruiser, Shaksii 1 was shielding their third cruiser, Shaksii 3 from the long range canons from the Praetorian Destroyer. At the same time Shaksii 2 moved its nose to the closing cruiser of the Union, preventing them from targeting the engines of the cruisers. Although the shields of Shaksii 1 suffered greatly under the heavy fire of the Praetorian destroyer, The Shaksii 3 was making a run for it, trying to exit the asteroid field alongside the edge a few dozens kilometers away from the battle with cover from its allies. It wasn´t as far yet though, but if nothing was done, the Shaksii 3 he would probably escape. The Shaksii 3 had to manoeuvre through the asteroid field though, what was slowing him down heavily.

The cruisers from Komès had some troubles providing cover fire for the Union fighters, as the risk for friendly fire was on most places too high in the dogfight of 28 fighter wings, and the same goes for the Praetorian Destroyer. However they were able to provide enough pressure to free Union fighters from chasers. Slowly, the dogfight was turning into the favour of the Union side.

The cruisers Persistent Hornet, the Thoughtful Gift, the Fury Sagittari Platinum and the Bright Sagittari Emeraldcontinued pushing into the asteroid field and were close by enough to start taking fire from the two Mandalorian cruisers, but it seemed they would hold on for a while. They opened fire as well and Shaksii 1 shields started to fail. Shaksii 2 was getting serious fire as well but was holding on.

As the fight was now broken loose in full force, Darones saw a change to move to one of the astroids, with a few well places shots he scared some fighters enough to have an opportunity to quickly turn behind an asteroid. He flew around it and ended up behind the first two Mandalorian Cruisers. He landed a few shots with power channelled to his weapons while dodging some laser shots from the cruiser, switched back to shields and flew away. He repeated this two times till he realised that what he was doing wasn't effective enough. His fighter didn't had enough fire power to quickly take out the engines. Eventually he would succeed but it would take too much time. He also had another problem, the 3 bomber wings and a fighter wing from the dogfight noticed Darones and moved to intercept him. The bomber wings launched missiles on the fighter of the jedi, he was in some serious troubles now!


The situation of the combat now is: All three Mandalorian cruisers are charging up their hyperdrives, the two of the Mandalorian cruisers, Shaksii 1 and 2 are holding up nearly 8 kilometers away from the edge of the asteroid field while shielding the third one, Shaksii 3 which is trying to escape but had nearly 30 kilometers to go. The Mining/Communication vessel is still landed roughly 20 kilometers in the asteroid field doing nothing as far you can tell.

The Praetorian and the Veolian cruisers are closing in on the Shaksii 1 and 2, at a distance of 5 kilometers, just inside the asteroid field. They cannot target the engines yet. The cruisers from Komès are moving into the heart of the dogfight at the edge of the asteroid field, but have troubles not making friendly fire. The Praetorian destroyer is at the edge of the dogfight trying to provide cover from allied fighters and destroying the shields from the Shaksii 1. The Veolian carrier is on a safe distance together with the Sundarian scanning ships.

And there is Darones, stuck between 2 cruisers, 3 bomber wings, a fighter wing and missiles on his tail.