New Republic Archives

Roleplay Logs

22 May 2002

Assault on Courscant Pt one: Shadow Hunters


IP: 64.254.131.154
Posted on 05/22/02 at 23:28:24 by Admiral Ric Hawkins

Most people on Mon Cal Cruisers don’t like the humidity, but I never minded. I once spent 4 years, marooned on a jungle planet during a hyperdrive mishap. I guess you get used to something’s.. and then there are things you never get used to. This was one of them.

I looked out at the main view port as the rest of the Home fleet formed up on the ARCHON. Starfighters of various types weaved through between the capital ships. The scene reminded me of when I flew an A-wing Endor.

From behind me the mon cal operations officer spoke. “Sir, all ships and wings reported in. Strike force is in formation and awaits the go signal.”

“Time on wraith strike?”

“They should be on station. We should know within 30 min, sir.”

“Very well, inform all ships to stand by for micro jump.”

______________


Over Courscant, the sleek profiles of thirty-six wraith-class starfighters came out of hyperspace. Keeping comm. silence, they seemed to glide through space, intent on their targets.

Inside his cockpit, the pilot known as Shadow Six glided his past the first line of defense satellites heading towards his target, a Golem III defense platform. He kept his speed low as he executed the last turn around a cluster of defense satellites. Out of the corner of his eyes, he though he saw one of the gun turrets move in his direction,

He almost panicked as he saw the turret move. His reflexes wanted him to increase throttle and bank hard to get out of the guns firing arc. But his training took over and he kept on course. It had been drilled into him from day one that a stealth pilot MUST keep his cool and not make any sudden moves with his craft. To do so would blow not only his cover, but also the cover of his entire unit.

Shadow Six watched as the gun turned continued on hits arc. The sound of his pounding heart was so great; he briefly wondered if that’s what gave him away. He wanted to run, he wanted to evade, but he couldn’t. Even if he was destroyed, he couldn’t blow their
cover.

He kept on course, slow and silent. A few seconds later, the weapons moved back into its original position. Shadow Six let out a breath he didn’t realize he had been holding. It had to have been a maintenance cycle he thought. The automated was system testing the weapon’s gyros.

His training had paid off.

Shadow Six went back to the task at hand. His mission was to lay a TTAG beacon on the Golan III, designated Gamma 4. Once that was done he would move to the designated insertion point over Courscant to attack Target: Alpha.

Ahead the Golan loomed in his front canopy, the ominous weapons platform growing ever so larger in his HUD. He activated the warhead launcher, but did not designate a target for lock on. The instant he did so, the crew of the platform would detect the weapons lock, and the whole mission would be blown. No, he had to do this without the targeting computer.

The garget was now 5.k km out. He kept on course , coming on the platforms starboard side, even with it. When he reached 3 km he brought the nose up slightly. He watched the distance tick off on his HUD and after thirty seconds of climb, he rolled gently on his starboard wing and began a shallow dive on the target.

He looked for the landmark that he would use to line his shot up on. It was a communications array near the middle of the platform. Using the starfighter’s nose as a sight, he would line up on it and launch the beacon.

As he continued on the dive, he turned the draft until it was ‘up’ to him. That way, all he had to do was gently nudge his nose ‘down’ and he had an escape vector that would give him minimal contact with the target.

The rangefinder began falling as a frantic pace as the platform began filling his canopy vision. A few minor course corrections and Shadow Six was on target. Wait, wait, he thought to himself as the range finder counted down.

At 0.30 km, he depressed the firing stud on the control stick and with a quick blur of motion the TTAG beacon was on its way to target. He watched and saw a light flash on the platform through the infrared filter attached to his helmet. Whit that flash of infrared light, the beacon had signaled it was attached. Shadow Six flipped the monocle up and began is ‘decent’.

Through the view ports he saw the rest of the wraith –class fighters in his squadron head to the rendezvous point. He smiled and let out another breath. So far the mission was going off without a hitch.

One by one, each of the 36 fighters got into position. He adjusted his shields and made ready for atmospheric decent. Then, as planned, all of the beacons activated. Shadow Six and the rest of the wraiths watched the crono on the HUD began to count down. At 3min, they would dive….

_____________

“SIR! Receiving transmission, the locator beacons just went active! “an excited Mon Cal communications officer called out. “

I turned and spoke into the fleet-wide comm.. “ All ships this is Hawkins, we are go, repeat we are GO! Lock on to designated beacons and jump when ready!!”

I looked over that the Capitan of the Archon, and he simply nodded.

I felt the hum in the deck as the organic looking ship entered hyperspace. I didn’t have to look, because in my mind, I saw the star lines become the swirl of hyperspace.

I let calm and focus take over my mind. As the force flowed through me, I could since every ship, every capital ship and every fighter, as if my mind became a massive tactical computer. I could sense the emotions of the crews, but I blocked them out. Right now I needed to be like a tactical computer, cold, calculating, and precise. I trusted the force to give me that ability.

And then, thirty seconds later, all hell broke loose.