Inquisitorious Intel Report
A deep cover agent, codename Sleeping Jawa, has secured the defection of a Child of Mortis (CoM) weapons scientist. Subject was understandably paranoid and insisted on contracting with a smuggling syndicate to get them off-world from their assigned CoM facility and to a designated meeting location in a neutral location.
Subject relayed instructions that the smugglers were paid to protect him and would leave the meeting location if they detected any large military presence. Agents are to rendezvous with a smuggler vessel at the designated coordinates and meet with the subject. Agents must use personal craft of a starfighter or shuttle class for this mission.
Dossiers on the subject and leader of the smuggling syndicate are attached.
Mission
Meet with the smugglers, retrieve the subject, return them to Brotherhood space for debriefing.
Subject Dossier
Name: Jado Dangon Species: Quarren Age: Unknown Force Sensitive: No Specialty: Kyber-Crystal Technologies
Smuggler Leader Dossier
Name: Gido Raji Species: Togorian Age: Mid-Thirties Force Sensitive: Unknown Affiliation: Paw Patrol, a smuggling and mercenary outfit that operates in the outer rim. No known affiliation or contact with CoM or Brotherhood. Seemingly motivated by credits, be wary of betrayal if they get a better offer.
COORDINATES ENCODED IN MESSAGE
“Clear the docking bays, prep the hyperspace engines. We’re about to have company,” Gido Raji shouted to his crew. The Baleen freighter Adventure Bay served as the mobile headquarters for the Paw Patrol smuggling outfit. The Captain had transmitted meeting coordinates for a nebula in an off-the-beaten-path system he liked to use for such exchanges.
A nervous-looking Quarren in a white lab coat followed the Togorian Captain around, “Thank the maker, soon I’ll be free from those cultists. He clutched a dataspike on a necklace tightly.
Gido’s communicator crackled to life, “Cappin’ incoming hyperspace signatures, five fighter sized from the looks of em’”
“Five? Seems a bit much but still alright I guess. Guide them in.”
The iconic roar of twin ion engines filled the docking bay as a TIE Interceptor pulled into the docking bay; the pilot controlled the TIE like it was an extension of their body as they effortlessly guided it up into the docking clamps to be moored. A few moments later the cockpit popped open and the pilot emerged clad in the traditional TIE flight suit but where there were normally Imperial markings in their place were the sigil of her mercenary outfit, a red wolf biting a chain.
“Well, ain’t this place just cozy. ” A feminine voice giggled beneath the helmet before it was unsealed and pulled off to reveal a tuft of fiery red hair and tanned skin as curious hazel eyes peered around the ship. “Better enjoy it the fresh air while I can!” Kay grinned as she wandered off to explore the Adventure Bay before they potentially bumped into any trouble.
Drax sighed softly, pulling his borrowed x-wing into the bay, “Damn, it’s empty in here,” he rolled his eyes, removing his helmet as his long blue lekku fell into his face
Gido gazed out the view port of the Adventure Bay as he mentally clicked off. “You said there were five signatures coming out of hyperspace? I only count four.”
The communicator crackled again, “Cappin’ sensors definitely pinged five hyperspace wakes.”
“Argh, yee’s as blind as a a Miraluka on Dathomir. There’s not five ships coming into me ship,” Gido roared back into the comlink.
Screams echoed up from the hangar bay as a space black painted TIE/WI Interceptor roared through the magnetic seal. The twin engines flared as the pilot spun it effortless over a docking circle, killed the momentum and landed with a hushing whoosh. The whole landing had taken a matter of seconds compared to the older TIE Interceptor docking.
The seal smoked as the interior gasses escaped and the lone pilot emerged. Kamjin removed the modern styled TIE helmet and tussled his hair back into it’s usual style.
“Ah, I’m not the last one to arrive,” he said, taking in the sight of the Malforst’s ship. “Means there should be time for a drink.” He hopped down effortlessly, ignored the stunned looks of the hangar crew and went off in search of a pilot’s lounge for a drink.
Seemingly out of nowhere, loud music blasted through the communications terminal as a ship bearing the IFF signature, Gilded Lady, streaked into view.
“Is that music, what is that horrific singing?” one of the Paw Patrol crew said with surprise.
“Free-bird, requesting permission ta dock.”
A series of whistles and chirps from the Rebellion era R2 unit nestled into the socket of the paint splattered X-Wing chattered to the pilot giving an all clear.
“Hold on, Bucket, this might get a little bumpy.”
The X-Wing shuttered and rattled as it swooped in, an unnecessary barrel roll delivered the surge of adrenaline that Booster Ardellian, yes Booster, oh so craved.
Aligning with the docking bay, the ship was righted with a smooth sweep of the stick and the Corellian Ace trimmed the controls for reduced speed as his landing gear dropped from the Lady’s belly and the s-foils clamped shut.
As quickly as Booster had arrived, his ship landed. The cockpit popped open and out sprang a skinny lad with wavy blonde hair.
“Man, Bucket, this place is a dump. I like it.”
The display caused Gido to roll his eyes.
“Watch that'un.” His gravelly voice grumbled.
A noticeably nervous Quarren appeared behind Gido as Booster finished his landing display, “Um, so which one of you am I riding with to Brotherhood space?”
Kamjin, reappearing with a drink in his hand, sized up the Quarren with a disapproving scowl. “Obviously you’re not going with us. Unless you’re planning to cram yourself into a cockpit of a fighter.”
The Quarren’s head swiveled to them each in turn while Kamjin drained the can of whatever intoxicating beverage he had found. “You’re going to need to wait for our companion to land or, if you’re that impatient, I’m sure I could help make you fit one of our ships,” Kamjin said, the light glinting off his metal lightsabers in a new menacing way.
Hector Von Ricmore smirked at the antics of his comrades. The Brotherhood were always a rowdy bunch but they were family. He wouldn’t trade, well most of them at least, for anything. They had no doubt given the smugglers enough trouble so it was up to him to do things by the books. “This is the Augur speaking, requesting permission to land aboard your vessel?” The Kiffar inquired over commlink as he transmitted the identification of his ship. “Permission granted. Proceed to the docking bay.” A member of the Paw Patrol crew replied. Hector brought the ship in slowly and carefully. There was no need for fancy tricks or unnecessary risks with the numerous ships present within the hangar. The ship landed; its occupant exited the shuttle. “I take it you are the sentient we are meant to be escorting?” The Kiffar inquired about the Quarren. “You may ride aboard my ship. Its quarters should be comfortable enough for your tastes. I have a keycard from the Collegium of Science for you, it will give you access to a portion of the digital library aboard the ship.” The Jedi walked over to the Quarren holding out a low security clearance Collegium keycard in his hand.
Kamjin suppressed a laugh at the usual rigidity of function that comes with engaging with a Jedi.
“Only a Jedi would bring a library to an extraction mission,” Kamjin said, sending the empty can skittering across the hangar floor. He leapt effortlessly back up to his TIE’s cockpit. Sliding into the familiar crash chair, he brought the TIE back to life and began hovering over the hangar deck waiting for Ricmore to launch.
Kamjin looks down at the hangar deck as the Quarren and Kiffar were left slightly dumbfounded and revved the Twin Ion Engines of his fighter.
Kay looked around at the assembled squad; they were certainly a rowdy bunch assembled from all walks of life of the Brotherhood. She didn’t doubt any of their skills but she hoped they would be able to function well as a fighting unit together.
“Well, that’s enough of a break. Best I bet set and ready to go.” Kay spoke to herself, slapping her cheeks a few times before downing a bottle of water and heading off towards her interceptor. She dawned her helmet once more, making sure everything was sealed properly before hopping into her cockpit and running some system checks to make sure everything was in working order incase they needed to respond to an attack.
Suddenly the lights in the hanger turned red and klaxons began blaring. “Cappin’ large hyperspace signature detected, it’s not one of dem’ Brotherhood folks is it?”
Gido growled to himself for a moment, “I told them to come alone….JUMP US OUT OF HERE!”
“Aye,” the helmsmen on the Captain’s comlink replied.
The ship began to hum with the unmistakable sound of a large scale hyperdrive spinning up. Then it stopped abruptly.
“Problem Cappin’, enemy ship has jumped in and they’re dumping fighters like an angry hornets nest.”
“That’s nice….we should be gone before they reach us.”
“We can’t. The enemy ship has some kind of gravity well whatsit. We can’t jump.”
Gido turned to the assembled Brotherhood members, “I don’t suppose any of you can call for backup?”
“I am the back up,” Kamjin said, opening up the throttle and rocketing out of the hangar.
Kamjin felt his body slam into the crash seat as the TIE breached the magnetic barrier. Flicking through his console display he quickly assessed the formation of ships ahead of him.
“Looks like they’re protecting that cruiser,” Kamjin thought to him as his cycled through the TIEs to bring up the cruiser. He was giddy with excitement, he hadn’t flown in combat in ages and it was time to remind people he was an elite pilot in his prime.
He flipped over to charge the Ion turret and threw the engine from his lasers into his engines as he rushed towards the enemy line. The opposing pilots, no doubt bewildered by the bold move, scattered. Two of the ships recovered in time and began snapping off shots in his direct.
Kamjin spun and banked his TIE narrowly avoiding several of the laser blasts. He focused on controlling his breathing as the g-forces bounced him against the straining restraints. His vision was split before the looming cruiser and his tactical display.
At the earliest distance he snapped over several rounds from his Ion turret. The fuzzy red energy danced across the cruiser shields as he banked himself away to rejoin the forming line of DJB fighters.
“Ah, looks like we have someone who is eager to get a big bonus.” Kay laughed as she flipped the needed switches in her Interceptor before making sure her comms were tuned into the right frequency. “Right. Lets go make sure that Kamjin there doesn’t get himself blown up. This is Crimson 1, I’m launching” Kay confirmed her callsign and cleared her launch with the docking bay before rocketing out and heading straight for the action.
Her tactical display was quick to give her a rundown of the situation, including the fact that Kamjin had just bolted past four TIEs to attack some kind of frigate, perhaps the vassal that was jamming their long range comms? In any event, Kay’s Interceptor was built for dogfighting and not making attack runs on larger targets so she was off to do what she did best.
“I spy with my little eye…one defenseless little TIE.” She sang to herself over the comms channel with a laugh as her twin ion engines went full throttle as she pounced on one of the TIES that Kamjin had blown past. She was a bit over eager, coming in fast but she managed to line up the target well enough to unleash a blast of laser cannons to knock out its shields. “Don’t think you can escape~” She chimed as she stuck to its tail and chased after it.
“Sit down and strap in!” Hector ordered his passenger. Sliding into the pilot seat, he buckled himself to the chair. He flicked a few switches on the central console causing two panels on the front of the ship to lift up, exposing the two hidden warhead launchers. He took a deep breath to steady himself and entered a meditative state. He felt the Cosmic Force flow through him, channeling it to impose his will upon the Living Force. His allies senses would be sharper and they would work in synergy as if they had flow together for years. Truly, Battle Meditation was a terrifying ability. “Droid, you have the turret. Engage the target that I lock onto.” “Affirmative.” The droid responded. The Shuttle lifted off and exited the hangar, warheads and turret primed for combat. The targeting computer began to lock onto one of the nearby Tie. “Boop, boop, boop, boop, beep!” The machine chirped as it locked. “Missiles away.” The Kiffar proclaimed as the shuttle launched 2 projectiles towards the Tie. The ship broke off from its pursuit of Kamjin and began to fly erratically in the hopes of evading the missiles. The turret atop the shuttle began to fire, orange blaster fire arcing towards the Tie. The ship evaded the first missile but the second slammed into the ship and obliterated the shields. Unable to see the barrage of turret fire through the smoke, the Tie was unable to evade and exploded into light and shrapnel when a blast finally made contact.
“We’re stuck here until that interdictor goes down and we need backup before we can try that,” The leader of the Paw Patrol outfit bellowed into the makeshift com frequency this eclectic group had used for this engagement. Gido stared at a holo-projection of the battle unfolding, “half that TIE squadron is staying close to the main ship, they really want to keep this trap going!”
Meanwhile the Children of Mortis TIEs did not sit idle as the Brotherhood ships began to go after their wingmates. The pilot who had just been hit by Kay tried in vain to get his shields back up but only succeeded in blowing another fuse while barely dodging a volley of blaster fire. One of the TIEs chasing Kamjin broke off its pursuit to avenge their teammate in an attempted attack run on Von Ricmore’s upgraded Fondor Haulcraft, hitting only empty space. Meanwhile the Scholae Consul’s skillful evasion of counterattack found its limit as the remaining TIE covering the surveillance ship landed a series of blaster bolts that took down the shields of Kamjin’s TIE Whisper.
Kamjin’s body slammed forward. If not for the crash restraints he’d have slammed his head into the center tactical display. “Frak,” he screamed. Whether a result of his over eager attack run or the affects of aging, his response time was down and one of the enemy TIEs had scored a hit against his central hull.
Alarm klaxon’s blared within his helmet as he threw his ship into a spin before banking hard up and letting the TIE zoom past him. At least the enemy pilot was inexperienced enough not to have accounted for such a maneuver.
Moving on muscle memory, he began flicking switches and pulling levers throughout the cockpit. Within moments the alarm had silenced. The miniature TIE display representing his craft blinked form red to green as the display showed the shield layers returning to full strength.
“You’re a dead man,” Kamjin said as he prepared to return to the fight.
Kamjin picked up the low-frequency communication coming from the Paw Patrol unit and keyed his comm to respond. “I’m marking a TIE, he’s mine,” Kamjin said, his voice the natural calmness all pilots use while in command.
He cycled through his tactical display to the ship that had bared down on him and flagged his target marker on it.
Kay chased the TIE she had a bead on through the void of space with the pure glee of a child; she seemed to be having quite a bit of fun in this life or death situation as her prey did everything in its powers to try and lose her but to no avail. “Sorry! But you just aren’t very good at this!” Kay giggled as she lined up her shot and pulled the trigger, the green flashes of her laser cannons streaking towards the TIE and slamming into its unshielded hull.
The TIE was replaced by an inferno, a ball of fire as the cockpit exploded and the rest of the machine shattered into bits from the force of the explosion as Kay’s Interceptor sailed through the debris. “Crimson 1 here, one bandit down. I spot one nearby…will give chase! Tally Ho!” Kay called out over comms; things seemed to be going well for them so far…they had nearly cleared out this first wave of TIEs without too much trouble!
Whilst in combat one should always assume competence in their opponent, Hector thought to himself. The group had handled the enemy Tie fighters well enough but it would be easy for the enemy to deploy more ships to overwhelm the group. They needed the ability to call in reinforcements; the enemy jamming had to be destroyed. “Droid, prepare to activate laser beam projectors. We’re going to clear a path to the capital ship.” A compartment on each side of the Augur opened as the ship accelerated forwards. A massive red beam extended from each side of the vessel as the Haulcraft barreled towards the capital ship. Choosing self preservation over heroics the enemy Tie fighters broke formation to evade the beams. The red beams slammed into the capital ship, scraping the hull of the vessel and deactivating the shield due to its steady bombardment. Unprepared for such a brazen assault, the capital ship began to fire its point defense weapons far too late, the shuttle having cleared the vessel’s firing arc. “Excellent work droid. Now redirect all hyperdrive power to the shields. The enemy will want to get back at us after that.”
Kamjin glanced at the reflection of the exploding TIE in his rear view as he toggled the engine power to overcharge his weapons. “I have you now,” he muttered as the image of the TIE settled into his crosshairs. He jammed the triggers as toxic green lasers pierced the blackened starscape,
Rippling energy cascaded across the TIE’s shields as they collapsed. Sparks spewed from the emitters as there circuits overloaded. The TIE banked to port.
As Kamjin banked with his prey, he punched in the auto-fire on the Ion Turret. The dual barrel turret popped down from beneath his hull, swiveled and sent another volley of fuzzy red energy cascading across the cruiser.
Electricity danced across it’s hull as it began to list in space. As Kamjin’s TIE shot past it’s bow the comm lit up with chatter. Kamjin tilted his head for a moment putting it together. “Paw Patrol, the jamming is down. Repeat, jamming is down.”
A few tense moments passed before Gido came back over the makeshift com frequency, “Alright, help is on the way. Just hang in there!”
The surveillance ship began desperately trying to get back to the cruiser for makeshift repairs. As the Brotherhood pilots noticed the fighters that had been previously holding a defensive pattern around the cruiser started heading toward the surveillance ship to cover its escape.
“PAW PATROL IS ON A ROLL!” A new voice roared over the coms. As a pair of StarViper fighters launched from the Baleen freighter.
“Chase, what took you and Marshall so long to launch?” Gido chided his subordinate.
“Can’t hear ya boss, you’re breaking up.”
Decades of piloting experience allowed Kamjin to split his focus from the obviously immature pups launching from the hangar. He pulled up on his controls and pulled the TIE that had landed a hit on him earlier into his vision.
They danced through the blackness of space like two birds flying through the vines of a jungle. The mechanical clicks let Kamjin know he was getting close. As the clicks turned to a solid tone he let loose a barrage of death.
The TIE’s hull blistered as the internal atmosphere split the central ball like an overripe fruit. Kamjin gave a slight nod of acknowledgement to the pilot who had grazed him earlier.
As he pulled up from the blossoming fireball his ion turret snapped off a burst towards the TIE behind him. The shots went wide but had the desired effect of causing the TIE to veer off from closing into an attack approach.
Kamjin pulled back on his controls, flipping his TIE over and spinning it to the invisible horizon all ships operated with. The TIE continued it’s evasive action.
“Lazy,” Kamjin muttered looking at the TIE’s drift to port. Kamjin lined up his reticle and unleashed the full power of his ship. Green and red energy pierced through the shields in one pass. Kamjin could see sparks fly within the cockpit of the TIE as he zoomed pass and prepared himself for another attack run.
Hector activated his targeting computer which began to lock onto the tie nearest Kamjin. As the device searched for a lock the Jedi gave an order. “Droid, open fire on the nearby Tie. Limit your fire rate to ensure you do not hit Kamjin’s Tie by mistake.” The droid chirped affirmatively. The turret launched a staccato of orange energy. The targeted Tie boosted forwards and began to evade the turret fire. The targeting computer finished locking on. The press of a button sent 2 warheads flying towards the evading Tie. The ship dove before pulling up in a steep vertical climb, causing the 2 warheads to slam into one another and explode prematurely. Focused on dodging the warheads, the Tie was unable to avoid several turret blasts, the orange energy chipping away half the shields of the fighter.
Kamjin noted the shields flicking out on the TIE behind him. “Good shooting Hector,” he said into his comm as he pulled back on the stick. The TIE/wi arced through space coming down directly on top of the pursuing TIE. Kamjin let loose a volly of fire.
As the TIE exploded, Kamjin’s ship cut through the expanding gas ball. “Paw Patrol, where’s that back-up you promised?”