Xaramis feels elated when the other Jedi pilots form up on his wing, and opens up a channel to them. "Nexu Flight 3, good to see you. Form up in arrowhead and match my speed, then prepare for combat," as they latch onto his wing he opens the throttle, pushing his fighter's engines further. It is something of a surprise to him that a Jedi would behave as such, but he's not arguing, and he eagerly switches to a private channel. "Hello beautiful, you're welcome on my wing any time."

As the fighters close in, and Xaramis observes their markings, he switches back to the squadron channel. "All Nexu pilots, I've flown enough to know that anything evil and painted red is probably important. Has anyone seen anything like this before?"

Rin continues to circle the Jedi Cruiser "Ren-Do buddy, always try to choose your battles, or at least the time and place... Let's wait for those Sith to get a little closer before we swoop on them and attack."

Ren-Do has his hands full maneuvering the ship, making sure the squadron is following, and trying to find out how the targeting computer works. Did I even use this thing, back in the day? It seems so alien, somehow. He is glad when Rin contacts him, feeling like he should be going out there on the offensive, but not feeling like it would be good to take the lead.

++"Right you are, Rin. We need to focus on the objective, to keep the cruiser safe. Let the promise of an attack run on the cruiser lure the enemy fighters in, and then pounce on them sounds like a wonderfully simple plan. And I need simple plans today."++

The Cerean carefully accelerates, keeping up with the much better pilot.

The Sith cruiser that sent the starfighters uses its electronics suite to actively scan the sector in front of its fighters, pinging off Nexu Squadron and the Jedi cruiser. Like a stubborn bantha, the Sith cruiser painstakingly turns to point its bow at the Jedi and accelerates.

"Hey, new guy," the Togruta female says, "You realize these things don't have private comms channels, right? Just squadron and wing comms. Four other Jedi pilots just heard you flirting with me, and, while I appreciate your charm, save it for when we escape the system safely."

She laughs bemusedly and continues. "In any case, I do not know what you mean by painted red. Those Sith starfighters are no more colorful than the grey durasteel plating of our own DeltaX-1s."

She makes an exaggerated gesture to indicate their craft, which are glowing, translucent golden yellow to the eyes of the visitors to this memory.

"They're welcome to listen in," Xaramis grins. "I also offer masterclasses if they want tips. Or you do."

"Please stop talking," a particularly fecund Whiphid pulls up on Xaramis' port wing. "I don't think I can stand another moment of this."

"Suit yourself, offer's always there," Xaramis considers the Togruta's further words. "The Force works in mysterious ways I suppose, but I'm definitely seeing a different set of fighters to you. Still, I know where to shoot - do I need any more information?"

No sooner had Garon dropped one trooper, a series of blaster bots raced past him. He sensed - rather than saw - the life-force of the pair fade from this existence. Before their bodies had hit the deck, he was on the final trooper. This one must have had advanced hand-to-hand training; he did well to block and dodge Garon's many blows.

He could sense Tok's presence retreating into the ship. **** he growled. Guess I gotta cut this short. Garon put all 4 arms into a final shove. He had intended to knock the trooper down and make for the bowels of the ship, but he overestimated the Imperial's footing. The trooper staggered back and hit the back of his head on a pipe. A burst of coolant spewed from the resulting crack, but the damage was minimal compared to the back of his opponent's skull.

You'll live, you filthy Sith. But you ain't gonna be too happy when you come around.

With one last check to make sure the imperial technicians weren't going to follow him, Garon made is way towards the direction he knew Tok to be.

"Those bloody Sith are getting close Mate, let's see if we can't boost our shields to the front... What? Yes I know it could overheat the emitter cooler... And drain the reactor... I don't care, unlike you I can't breath with a hole through the hull!" Rin turns his head to check the wingmen, they are all keeping a tight formation...

------

"When you're flying in formation Rin you need to pay attention all the time. Hold tight to the lead pilots wing, if you slip it can be chaos. Now let's try that again"

[bloody formation flying, what's the point? I hate this training...]

------

[Ha, so there's good reason for me to know how to fly formation, probably never got a chance to use it though.] He flicks a few switches and unlocks a manual override to the power coupling regulator.. "I know mate, it's rudimentary, but it should work." The dash dims a little as the extra power goes into the shields.

Rin focuses forward again and spots a squadron of the enemy getting closer on his sensors, "Squadron we will be making an attack run on the enemy shortly, follow my lead, we will stick to the left then sweep over them guns blazing."

Moments later Rin pushed hard left and forward on the stick, squeezing the trigger to light up the Sith squadron, tearing two of them to pieces before they could fire back.

As Rin maneuvers, Ren-Do struggles to keep up. His targeting computer is tracking a lot of incoming fighters, closing in fast. "Wow T2, they really are coming for us, aren't they? What's that? Yes, I know. I was expecting that too. Sarcasm doesn't really translate well into binary, you know. Say. Let's try to boost the power to the shields a little bit. That's a pretty good idea, right? Well, I'm sure you can fix that if that should happen. Don't worry, I think I know what I'm doing."

The Cerean manages to squeeze a little extra power to the front shields, hoping to be able to punch through the enemy unscathed and then follow them in and hit them from behind as they attacked the cruiser.

Micc'm calls out over his comms to the Jedi cruiser when the Sith scan pings off his ship. "Alert! Jedi cruiser Penitence, the Sith cruiser's scans have detected our signals and presumably the signal of the cruiser. They have accelerated and are approaching us on an attack vector."

"Copy Nexu Commander," Captain Millster responds. "Lieutenant, angle deflector shields to starboard and bring us into a broadside position for the oncoming targets." In response to the warning, The Jedi cruiser uses maneuvering thrusters to position itself as directed by the captain.

Two of the Sith attack squadrons move just outside effective range of the Jedi starfighters and split apart to fly over and under the Jedi ships. Micc'm hastily taps out commands on his targeting computer and accelerates. "Nexu Squadron! These Sith are trying to get around us to attack the cruiser. Stay on target! A1-C7 divert power from the inertial dampeners to boost the targeting computer."

The sickening thud of a skull colliding with metal is quickly followed by Garon's heavy footfalls as he rushes to join Tok and the two saboteurs at the aft blast door. The Gotal tries to get a sense of any being on the other side of the door, but all of the force energy permeating through the scenario makes it impossible for him to tell anything other than there are definitely beings on the other side.

Tok squints at the door controls and keys in what he hopes is the correct sequence to open them. He's relieved when he hears the telltale combination of hydraulics and chain drives groaning to life and slips to the side of the door to peek into the room. Standing in the center room he sees two figures clothed entirely in black, and just beyond them he can see his group's goal. It might be because of his desire to finish this stupid game the damnable dead Jedi was playing, delaying him from seeing his family, or it might be an overwhelming hatred for the two beings based on their similarity to the man that was at this very moment threatening the lives of Janna, Morra and their new child he didn't even know was on the way. Either way he's driven to uncharacteristic recklessness when he points at the frag grenade one of the saboteurs' belts and indicates he wants it. Out of the corner of his eye Tok sees a grin spreading across Garon's face and he takes that as tacit approval of his plan.

He tucks Janna's barrel under his left arm and feel the satisfying heft of concussive explosives in his right hand. Moving carefully he closes with the two targets, flips the switch to arm the grenade and rolls it toward the taller one's feet, retrieving Janna from under his arm as soon as the grenade is on its way. Both Sith look down as they hear the tink of metal on metal skittering their way. Their eyes widen in recognition, but it's too late. The grenade's explosion is perfectly timed and both are caught in a cloud of high explosives and rapidly accelerating metal shards.

It's Tok's turn for wide eyed recognition when the smoke clears and both are still standing - battered and bloody, but still standing nonetheless. There's nothing he can do as electricity flies from the taller one's finger tips and jolts Tok's system. More worrisome is the horrible snap-hiss of the red weapon in her hand coming to life as the female Sith strides toward him.

Kellen's starfighter spins and dives forward near the incoming Sith fighters, his blaster cannons blazing.

The Sith fighters scatter out of the way avoiding all of the shots but leaving them disorganized and vulnerable to attack from Kellen's wing...

On the Sith Cruiser, Tok retreats back a few steps, then opens up on the sickly apprentice, who folds under the barrage of fire. Meanwhile, the female apprentice with the lightsaber wilts from the blasts of the saboteurs' carbines. The maintenance crews in this room flee in all directions to get away from the battle. After the fight, the two saboteurs rush over to the blast door console behind the small boarding party and manage to get the doors to shut and seal themselves.

In space between the Jedi cruiser and the approaching Sith cruiser, the two groups of starfighters have now engaged in combat. Rin flies in with his wing and shoots two of the Sith out of the sky. However, two more Sith squadrons swing in and open fire on Rin, to devastating effect...

The fifth Sith squadron swoops forward and attacks Kellen's wing, their blasters strike heavily on one of the poor Jedi ships enough to make it explode, chunks and parts flying around and hitting the other ships in his wing.

"Rin, what are you doing, no, don't go right at them we need to outflank... Oh, what the heck, let's just do this," Ren-Do mutters to himself as Rin leads his squadron into a head-on attack against the enemy fighters. Even though he has spent the last few minutes studying his targeting computer, Ren-Do utterly fails to lock on any of the incoming targets, and even though he fires several long bursts, the sith fighters easily avoid his fire. The other pilots in his squadron fare better and hit a sith fighter that seemed to be having a problem maneuvering after an earlier hit, destroying it utterly.

As the squadron is just about to pass through the enemy Ren-Do almost shouts at his squadron. ++"Break left on my mark. Mark. Punch though, evasive maneuvers."++

"Flight Three, are we fangs out?" Xaramis checks in with his wing.

"Standing by," the Whiphid grunts.

"Ready to go," a Toydarian, flying the fighter on the left tail of the arrowhead, acknowledges Xaramis.

"Fangs out, aye," his counterpart, an Iktotchi woman, checks in from the far left of the formation.

"You know it," the Togruta smirks.

"Flight Three, watch my six, I'm dropping into the furball now," Xaramis flips his craft onto its roof, using the acceleration he has gained to drop into the already-raging dogfight. The swirling mess of fighter craft is a dazzling experience. He watches two Sith fighters zip past the front of his cockpit, a Jedi fighter streaming bright bolts past its canopy. He sees a Jedi craft arc over the top of his canopy, makes eye contact with the Xexto pilot, then stares with livid fascination as it simply evaporates into a cloud of debris that fades almost instantly to grey, and then vanishes from the holocron's mental landscape. A grim fate, one which he is dimly aware, in the back of his mind, started four thousand years before - yet the holocron's hold over his inexperienced, untrained mind is so absolute that he genuinely believes all this to be occurring around him for the first time.

Spotting a flight of Sith fighters entering the cloud of swirling craft ahead and below him, he cuts in towards them. He activates multiple different systems, accessing the targeting data forwarded by his flight and calling on his astromech to further support him. The fighters shift suddenly over on their port axis, directed by fire arcing in from above, and Xaramis is aware of Kellen's flight sweeping overhead - evidently their loose shots directed the craft towards him. He lines up his shot on the lead craft, and depresses the firing stud.

Shots arc out, but none connect. These too simply dart into space, wasted energy and wasted shots that he simply cannot afford.

"Kriff it!" his own flight can hear his anger. "Are you sure these slippery osiks aren't elite pilots?" the passage of his craft takes him through the dogfight and out into the open space beyond it. He lifts his craft up in a steep climb to loop back in, taking advantage of its maneuverability and his own instincts to guide it up. For a moment the dogfight is above his head - in reality it is behind him, level with the cruiser, yet the disorientating nature of space disguises this fact - and he takes a look at it. Analysing what he sees, he keys the squadron channel.

"Five to Wing, we've halted the attack at a distance from the cruiser. They're safe, and now we need to press the advantage. Be careful though, they're slippery nerf-herders," he switches channel. "Nexu Five to Penitence. We've halted the attack at range from your hazard zone. Watch your fire; it's a tight furball we're in, and the last thing we need is friendly fire."

Closing his comms, Xaramis flips his craft fully over and sweeps back down behind the untouched wing, locking himself firmly onto them. This time, he thinks.

"Bleepity Bleep, started the battle without us they have!"

Sonya switches on her coms, "Nexu Command wing, we need to keep those Sith from hurting the refugees on the cruiser. We will aim for the ones that are not flitting about yet. Those are the ones that seem more likely to hit someone."

Various confirmations come from the four members of her squadron, Sonya assumes they are confirmations anyway.

"Doo-weep weep weep?"

"Yes, I know we are exceeding the recommended specifications of Delta X1, but our friends are exploding out there. They have little guys like you, too."

"Bawheeeep!"

"No, I was not implying, anyway if we have a moment later we can do some repairs to take care of that, but we can't repair our exploded friends is all that I meant."

Following her raptor-like instincts, the Devaronian dives away from the Cruiser, making a line towards one of the closer Sith fighters only deviating slightly to avoid some larger pieces of an old wreck. As the "in range" signal chirps, she fires a lance of energy into the invader.

The Jedi Cruiser is oddly silent, waiting like some sort of cornered predator while her Dark Side counterpart slowly approaches. With the first of the Sith starfighter squadrons destroyed, the second takes a hit from the defending Jedi pilots, then comes in for an attack of its own, to devastating effect on Kellen's wing of fighters.

Meanwhile, Micc'm wings in with his upgraded starfighter to chip away at the wounded squadron. "I thought I told you all to stick close to the cruiser!" he yells over the comms. "If these starfighters make it past us, we have failed in our duty. Now clear the skies before we get caught in the crossfire of those two cruisers. That is an order!"

Seeing the more dangerous target in Micc'm, the third Sith Squadron fires at him, missing cleanly, but filling the battlefield with blaster bolts enough to ruin the maneuvers of anyone in the next few seconds.

Rin's sweeps through the massive dogfight, Ren-Do taking down that last fighter had left him without a target, but there where plenty more. Looking around he spots a squadron lining up for another attack run, time to pounce before they strike.

"Nexu Squadron One, let's light up that formation out there on the flanks, they need to be stopped before they get a chance to fire again"

Rin turns in a tight arc, tracking them in his targeting computer, "hold it, hold it, hold it... FIRE!!"

Bolts of light streak out through the targets, clipping a couple of wings and sending a few sparks flying, their dodging and weaving made landing a solid hit hard, but finally an engine takes the full hit of a cannon, it explodes into a giant fireball which Rin flies straight through

"YeaHaaa! Bloody Sith."

Kellen tried not to think too much of the two fighters in his wing the Sith had already destroyed. There would be time to remember them later. And assess his own weaknesses as a leader.

"Yeah, I see that B2, they've taken a defensive posture."

B2 beeped again.

"Yes I know ships can't take a posture. I'm a swordsman at heart. And thanks B2, you've inspired me."

Kellen spoke to his squadron: "Ok squadron we're going to press the attack. Form up on me, we're pursuing the Sith that just hit us and focus fire taking down as many of them as you can..."

This is the tactic Kellen would use if fighting a Sith with a lightsaber. Kellen trusted in the Force and his training that it would be good enough.

Kellen's squadron rained blaster bolts through the Sith squadron and most of them were unscathed but Kellen stayed on a Sith fighter that had broken formation and shadowed it's jukes and rolls - Kellen feeling the strain of keeping up - and some of his bolts hit, and smoke was now pouring out of the Sith fighter.

Kellen hoped he hasn't overexposed his squadron.

"We might make it after all, B2!" Ren-Do says in a slightly more upbeat tone. "What? Yes, I know, I know. Well, I'm coming about now so try to lock on to one of them for a change? What? How was I supposed to know that was the pilot's job? What, exactly, are you there for then?"

He keeps an eye on his squadron and tries to find an easy target. Most of the enemy fighters are embroiled in a dogfight, fighter against fighter, playing the most dangerous game possible in the light, poorly armored starfighters. He spots a group of fighters that seem to be trying to slip past the Jedi fighters and comes about, coming from below and targeting the squadron leader. ++"Follow me, we blast our way through,"++ he says to his squadron as he keeps the fighter steady. When he finally manages to lock on to an enemy fighter he hits the firing controls immediately, shredding the flimsy machine with several laser bolts.

"Commander!" one of the Sith bridge officers calls out. "We have reached minimal distance to begin firing upon the enemy cruiser. Shall I give the order?"

Commander Froedson, a haughty, angular man, greying at the fringes, watches the dogfighting and the cruiser beyond. A short, petite, fully cloaked figure stands beside him. "Look at them, Milord. Oblivious to their swift approaching demise. Like the enormous carcass of some long dead creature, decaying before our very eyes."

The cloaked Sith Master scoffs, her voice carrying the weight of a fencing foil but the cut of a greatsword. "Decaying yes, but do not underestimate the Je'daii, commander. That Krayt still has plenty of fight left in it."

Froedson rolls his eyes and signals the bridge officer who addressed him. "Forward turbolaser cannons. You may fire when ready, lieutenant."

The forward three turbolaser cannons rotate to target the distant Jedi cruiser. The interior of their barrels glow white hot as they charge, then fire a concussive blast. The scorching bolts streak straight through the cloud of starfighters, temporarily blinding some of the pilots on their path. With a ripple of impact, they push through the Jedi cruiser's shields and heavily impact her armor.

Still in an aggressive formation Kellen directed his squadron to attack another ball of Sith fighters - their cannons blazed but they could not hit their targets.

The Jedi cruiser is rocked by the impact of the turbolaser bolts. Alarms sound all through the ship, but no extreme damage has been suffered as yet. "Firing solution, ensign! Give them a taste of our broadsides," Captain Millster hollers at the bridge tactical officer, regaining his footing. There is a small cut above his left eye, spilling blood down his face, and his hair has come undone. "Fire!"

The turbolaser cannons on the starboard side of the warm up quickly and fire a volley across the battlefield. Unfortunately, the volley significantly misses the Sith cruiser, but one of the shots hits a Sith starfighter in the dogfight area.

Micc'm dodges the turbolaser fires and weaves through the growing starfighter debris field and fires at one of the Sith starfighter squadrons, also missing completely. Two of the Sith squadrons flee the battlefield to the safety of the Sith cruiser hangar.

The Nexu Command squadron flies through the third Sith fighter group, laser cannons blasting. The Sith narrowly avoid them, flying into the sights of the other Jedi.

"Accelerate to maximum speed," their leader orders.

"Alright Flight 3, it seems the Force is with us, but don't break from my wing yet. Keep it together, and we'll make it through and get clear," Xaramis waggles his wings, and the others tighten in on him, holding their formation close together in the midst of the swirling maelstrom. He can't believe that he hasn't lost any of his pilots yet, but he puts that to the back of his mind - the most important issue remains ensuring that they make it through the fight, along with the Jedi cruiser and any other craft in the area that they can save. He switches the internal channel back on. "Sound off Flight 3, are we good for another pass?"

"3-3, all systems nominal," the Toydarian checks in.

"3-4, my port stabiliser is damaged but I'm holding it together. Count me in," the Iktotchi sounds as if she's straining to keep her craft together, and Xaramis is tempted to order her to withdraw, but it sounds as if she wouldn't agree to go anyway.

"3-2, I'll hold together. Lead us in," there is a certain grudging respect in the Whiphid's voice at the way Xaramis has led them into combat thus far.

"3-1, ready for another sweep. Let's bag'em lead," she rolls her fighter, and then surges after Xaramis. He's already focused on a new target, a Sith squadron that seems far more sluggish than the others. He spots other fighters retreating, and is tempted to go after them, but he cannot see the point of doing so - after all, a real and pertinent threat still remains in these last two flights. He guns his retrothrusters to cut around in a tight arc, to place his nose over the path of the oncoming fighters, and then he slams open the throttle. The fighter leaps forward, screaming in towards the flight on an almost entirely straight axis - a great risk, given that if anything swoops in to attack him, he'll have almost no room to maneuver.

Xaramis roars into the fight. He has his guns toggled on to fire, but he holds off, wanting to be sure of a kill. He comes in as close as possible to the other flight, even as it comes across his front towards the Jedi cruiser, and then depresses the firing stud on his weapons. The bolts of blue energy lance out in the darkness of space, and to his delight they connect with two of the fighters. The lead craft crumples, flares as its fuel ignites, and then explodes in a spray of debris. The second sees its wing lacerated, but carries on flying. He whoops as he carves past their formation, his flight equally spitting fire into the dark.

"Splash one, splash one!" he calls in excitement. "Now break, get clear, but keep close - we'll re-form on the other side of the furball," the other pilots acknowledge his orders as he throws his craft into an evasive roll.