Chapter 2: Forges of Ithyari

[Princess 35]

Nima started the pre-flight on her fighter. E4 was right behind her, doing diagnostics. "Well, looks like we're trying to blow up some starfighter factory. It should make some pretty explosions."

[Rogue 4]

"Well you know, back when I was flying with the Redeemers, you know, a professional squadron," Layla's grin was audible even over the comm. "We used to fly in formation all the time."

[Drake 53]

"Well okay then, Officer Riamor...I mean, Nasrin." He chuckled over the comm. "You can fly in formation, if you want."

[Bad furday 57]

Arlan waggled his wings, and snickered over the comm.

[Rogue 4]

"Laugh it up, Two." Layla laughed. "I'll remember that the next time you come running to my quarters asking me 'What did Jya say about me?!' or 'What should I get Jya for her birthday?!', or..."

[Vergere 1]

Brier looked around her as she left the hangar, making sure to take in each detail she could to call on later, for the most part ignoring the very nervous lieutenant.

[Drake 53]

"Now, now you two. Don't make me turn this flight around," said Tak. He could hear Atuarre sissing with laughter over the comm. He smiled. You could be the best fighter squadron in the galaxy but you would be nothing without a little humour in your work.

Up ahead, Tak could see a slight bloom of light pollution on the horizon, indicating a city. He adjusted their course to avoid it.

"Seven minutes until we reach the ocean. Then we can go to full burn until the western continent."

[Rogue 4]

"Exciting stuff." Layla said, grinning as she reached for her music player. "This calls for some music."

Putting the speaker by her comm she sent the latest in Coruscant's popular music playing over everyone's speakers. "This is DJ Lay, coming to you on the late night fly-by request hour. The next song up is 'Just marry the Rodian!' by The Lost Wookie. Stay tuned!"

She let the music play, sitting self-satisfied in her cockpit.

Edited November 11, 2007 by Rogue

[Drake 53]

Takeshi grimaced then practically yelled over the music. "Space Pop is not flying music! Do not want!"

He turned down the comm then said, "Sixxa, give me a text readout of what they say, if anything and tell me when Legs turns that blasted music off."

[Ayingel 24]

Once she was satisfied with her final checks, and seeing that Comet was already in place, Szen climbed into her X-Wing. She ran the last checks she needed before they took off and put on her helmet. While Szen was checking her crash webbing, she checked on Comet. "You ready back there?" He whistled and beeped, which caused her to laugh and forget about the stress. "At least you know how to break the stress."

[Drake 53]

"Flight Two," Aeric announced over the comm. "Departure in ten minutes. That's one-oh minutes. Flight One in thirteen."

[Mara 29]

After having Artie tweak his flight comm to include Lt. Riamor and Aston instead of Tak and Szen, he switched over to that frequency. "What's the plan, Lieutenant?"

[Rogue 4]

"Departing in five minutes." Nat responded briskly over the comm. "Status everyone?"

[Drake 53]

"Open up those engines," said Tak. "We're going in full throttle."

He pushed the acceleration lever to full burn, and grinned as the G's pushed him back into his seat.

[Andy 60]

"Good to go, Lieutenant" Aston replied to Nat's query.

[Mara 29]

"Everything lit and ready to go." Kaden cleared his throat. "Lieutenant, what's the plan after we take off?"

[Princess 35]

"This is the Dancer, 4 lit and in the green. Ready for some fun." Nima reported in as she finished her pre flight.

[Rogue 4]

"Judging by the defenses we've analyzed, the weapons factory is entirely defenseless from the air." Riamor responded to Kaden's question. "Ven is sending you the facility schematics now. Use lasers against the defenses and preserve your proton torpedoes. Unfortunatly we're not flying Y-wings, or bombardment would be much easier. Instead save your proton torpedoes, and have your astromech droids pass on any information that would be useful. We have eight torpedoes between us and we'll need them to bring down the infra-structure."

[Mara 29]

"Copy that."

Kaden flicked on his comm to talk to Artie, keeping his flight comm open as well. "Artie, analyze those schematics. Report on any weak areas."

The droid beeped sharply and went to work, all business-like now.

Thank the Force we're not in Y-wings...

[Drake 53]

It was a fast trip across the ocean and soon the western continent was visible on the horizon.

Tak turned up his comm. Layla's music was still playing. He shook his head then yelled into the mic, "Turn that off! Throttle back and reduce speed!" He pulled back on the accelerator, dropping his X-Wing's speed to a more maneuverable velocity. "Five minutes until target."

[Rogue 4]

Layla turned the music off, following on his wing. "You got it Lieutenant. In my defense though I did change it to rock."

Now it was time to focus. She turned her comm back to the frequency she shared with her astromech. "Hey Sexy, I've got some fancy flying to do so I need a favor. Keep an eye on Lieutenant Beskar's X-wing, and let me know if he does anything suspicious, like put us in his crosshairs."

[Mara 29]

Kaden scrolled through the schematics of the weapons facility after Artie was done with them. He had marked one corner of the building as weak.

Closing off his flight frequency momentarily, he conferred with Artie. "What is weak about it? The infrastructure? Lightly guarded? Less foliage, less cover?"

The droid trilled at him, explaining all he found after using his sensors to expand out and search the area around the building in addition to the data sent to him.

"Interesting..." Kaden opened up his comm to the flight frequency he had set up. "Lieutenant, Artie has found some interesting things about the weapons factory. Sending data now..." Artie transferred his revised schematics to the lieutenant's astromech.

Without waiting, he dove right in, trying to remember all that his droid revealed. "Even though there are anti-aircraft cannons protecting it, it seems there are less weapons placements on the northwest side of the building, due to the densely packed jungle on that side. Apparently these cannons need room to operate.

The rest of the building has a perimeter of cleared area with a small landing pad and a hangar for starfighters. Artie feels because of its size, it couldn't realistically hold more than 24 fighters, or 2 squadrons. For our sake, I hope it's not full."

He couldn't get a read on any outside guards. Plus the building is structurally sound without any weak points to exploit.

I'd say our best bet is to come at it from the northwest, though the heavy jungle may be an issue."

Kaden took a deep breath and fell silent, hoping he wasn't overstepping any boundaries.

Edited November 15, 2007 by Rogue
Too many starfighters for a weapons factory on an industrial world deep within the Empire's boundaries.

[Ayingel 24]

Szen finished her last checks. "Revenant 10, ready to go."

[Rogue 4]

"Good job, Officer Staal." Nat nodded to himself within his cockpit. "The Captains and I had already analyzed that data in our earlier strategy session and had decided on a course of action along the same lines." He pressed a few buttons on his console as he said, "I'm sending you our trajectory now. We're going to fly low to stay out of the sensor range, and come in just over the treetops at the northwest side as Officer Staal mentioned. From there, Officer Kendall and I will work on the Anti-Air turrets."

His lekku curled in thought. "Going by the information Captain Fae was able to gather the Imperials originally put in a hanger meant for one squadron of eyeballs, then had to retrofit it to fit in a second when the regional governor threw a fit. The hanger bay is now set up much like one you'd find on an Imperial Star Destroyer, with a rig holding TIEs suspended aboveground by wing pylons, with one rack of twelve hanging from the ceiling and another twelve lower to the ground. This means that in order for safe launch only two of the four TIEs can launch at a time. Staal, Adarra, you're job is going to be to each fire a well-placed proton torpedo into the suspension rigs. If that doesn't blow up the hanger, then the crashing eyeballs will do the job. After that's done we'll move on to new mission parameters.

"We're clear to launch. Six, you're my wing." He lifted his X-wing up off the ground, turning it and leading them off on their heading.

[Mara 29]

He nodded and engaged his repulsors, lifting off to follow after locking in their trajectory. After getting Artie to remark the schematics map with the location of the hangar instead of the northwest corner of the building, Kaden left his comm open to both the flight and astromech frequency. He would need them both in just a little while.

Kaden flew several meters behind the lead two X-wings with Jaim to the back of him as his wing, keeping low enough to skim across the tropical trees when they came up on them. He was a little concerned with having to use one of his torps so early in the mission, but hopefully Lt. Riamor and Aston could knock out a few anti-air weapons at the same time, and they could get out of there as soon as possible.

At least there are less enemy fighters than last time...