[h3]Battle over Arbya[/h3] “They aren’t going for the Blackstar!” Maran said incredulously as he read the trajectory data from his computer, he couldn’t believe his eyes, hardly anybody in Obsidian squad could. The bombers were going for the civilians. “What they hell are they doing?” Jarael yelled out. “Not even Blanche is this crazy!” Liam added, every bit as bewildered as his friends. “Obsidian-1 to Warhead bombers, those are civilians, aren’t they? What are you doing?” Ben shouted into the open comms. A moment had passed, and they hadn’t received anything further. “Unleash me!” Blanche growled into the radio. “New orders. O7, O4, engage and disable the bombers. Everybody else, on me, we’re giving cover.” Ben was starting to sound stressed; his voice was lower, and he had left an unintentional pause at the end of his words. “Understood.” Both Liam and Blanche replied. It might have been imagination, but he could swear he could hear genuine anger in Blanche’s reply. [i]The bombers…he wants to kill them... [/i] Liam tapped a button several times and swung his sights over the bombers, marking them as targets. He took a deep breath in, exhaled slowly, and then settled his hands over his flight stick. TIE-Bombers, while also unshielded, they had much more armor than fighters. He twisted his yoke and dropped in behind one of the bombers, their escort fighters peeled away into an arc towards his rear. Putting trust in his friends, Liam stayed his course, and held down the missile lock button. A blue triangle settled over the bomber and a rapid beeping began, it turned to yellow, and Liam’s eyes darted to his radar. There was a fighter on his tail right now, instinct told him to jerk his hands and move the stick. [i]Get out![/i] His insides screamed, and then the fighter suddenly broke starboard. A stream of green lasers had cut it off, coming too close to the cockpit for the pilot to even think about continuing. “Stay on target, O7.” Ben had said reassuringly, and Liam sighed in relief. The beeping from his targeting computer had become rapid now, the bomber was shifting from side to side, no longer on an attack vector with the civilian frigate, and had focused on trying to lose him. “Sorry, but it’s your bad luck being in a bomber.” Liam flicked his thumb and two missiles launched from underneath his cockpit, and violently slammed into the bomber, causing it to buck. Smoke was coming from the engine area and it was maneuvering even slower, giving Liam an easy shot at the solar wings. A burst of green flashing, then a moment later it was swerving into a violent spin away from the battlefield. [i]That’s one..[/i] Laim set his sights onto another bomber just as it shot past him and the rest of Obsidian. He swiveled on his wing and flew behind it. The pilot had his ship in a spin, making it harder for the computer to lock on, and the civilian ship wasn’t moving for some reason; even if it was there was no doubt even one bomber would cause critical damage. [i]Once he has that lock…all those people..[/i] “I won’t let you!” Liam kicked his TIE into high speed, he was already too far from the bomber for accurate shots, but he could at least grab his attention. As his TIE screeched towards the bomber Liam held down his trigger finger, the lasers danced close and around the bomber, causing it to brake off to port, and dived into a barrel roll. Liam followed through on high throttle, he managed to catch a part of the wing as they leveled out, but the bomber dived under him. Liam shoved his stick forward and followed into the bomber’s dive, but he was still travelling at a higher speed, and had to compensate with a broader turn. Allowing the bomber to set his sights on Liam’s rear, but before he could fire, Liam had shifted his stick to the side and ratcheted his throttle all the way down. His fighter turned only 45 degrees, drifted, and swiftly turned. The bomber was still coming at high speed and zoomed by Liam’s viewport as he painted its sides with laser bolts. The wings surged with ionic energy, but it wasn’t enough, the bomber was still flying. It was now within firing range of the frigate and signaled this by unleashing a stream of green lasers. [i]Lasers, not bombs, it’s still locking on probably…but..[/i] Instead of the soft blue wavy pattern of shields, sparks and light particle explosions blackened the once red hull of the frigate. “Dammit!” Liam shouted as he shifted his sights towards the cockpit and squeezed his fingers. A volley of green lasers left his underside, and pocketed holes into the bomber. Both bods of the fighter warped and twisted as plasma erupted outwards, consuming the ship in a fiery explosion. Liam lined up with Blanche and together they took on the remaining bombers with support from the rest of Obsidian and occasionally Eson. The bombers with increasingly dwindling support had stood no chance against them. “New contact!” One of the Eson fighters had shouted into the team comms. “It’s not a TIE!” The same voice continued, suddenly strained. [color=ed1c24][/color] “That’s an Imperial fighter?” [color=ed1c24][/color] “Eson, O7, what’s going on?” “We got most of the TIEs, but this last one is different.” A voice responded, determined. “We could use some backup! Guaa-“ “O7, engaging new target.” Liam tapped at his computer and brought up the targeting computer on this new threat. The display gave him an image of it. It wasn’t a TIE in any sense, the wings were narrow and triangular, along with the main cockpit area. It was grey and black like other Imperial fighters, but the computer was reading varying engine outputs. Like it was changing every second. “Roger, O7, forming on you.” Blanche had said. Liam brought his sights onto the new fighter and started locking his missiles onto him, the pilot tried to break off but support fire form Blanche and the rest of Eson squad boxed it in. As soon as the triangle turned red on his screen, he squeezed the button and the missiles trailed away, but the fighter broke hard to port, causing his missiles to shoot right past. Liam brought his TIE over and lopped behind it, but as he did that, he somehow lost the fighter and it reappeared in his aft view. Yanking the stick hard to starboard and pulling it back, Liam wrangled his TIE up and to the side, then inverted and rolled hard to the left. His ship jolted slightly as a single bolt managed to burn off the tip of his port wing, sparks jumped from the side of his cockpit as the power momentarily fluctuated. [i]Damn, I really wish we had shields..[/i] Liam jumped into a roll, bringing the TIE onto the ‘side’ of its port wing, then pulled hard on his stick, yanking the TIE up and away from its original course. The fighter managed to stay with him in a tight arc before pulling hard to starboard as a stream of laser fire chased its ion trails. “We don’t have time to get shot down, O7!” Blanched growled into the radio, he was getting in on the action now. Looking at the radar, Liam was sure Blanche’s next barrage would nail him, then the fighter just barely pitched right, and back towards him. Liam held down his trigger, only for the fighter to roll through, then under it and flew right through the gap in his wings. “He’s playing you guys like fiddles, watch a pro!” O6, Maran, had joined the dogfight, swooping in above both Liam and the new ship, and fired his own barrage. The triangular ship narrowly dodged by pitching ‘downwards’. “Where’s that pro?” Blanche teased Maran. “This one’s good, Obsidian, target that Tri-ship.” O1 ordered, apparently having dealt with the rest of the enemies, or at least deeming this one a priority threat. O2 followed his lead and together they shot into the Tri-ship’s tail, unleashing a volley of lasers and a wave of missiles. Liam, Blanche, and Maran surrounded it, boxing it in with their own lasers, but it wasn’t enough. Each time it narrowly dodged the lasers and juked to its sides as the missiles closed in, causing them to miss and fly off. It came around again for Liam, right on his tail, and then a web of laser fire cut it off. The Tri-fighter seemed to have had enough and jetted away from all of them, they were about to give chase before a new voice came onto the radio. “Strike squad to Obsidian and Eson. Prepare to receive new orders.” Liam acknowledged them as one of the reserve squads from the Blackstar. Looking at his radar he tracked them, along with their own bomber squadrons. But the Blackstar herself... “She’s leaving the battlefield?” [hider=Author's notes] Yeah i completely forgot the Droid tri-fighter was a thing, this is different, named after it's shapes. It's not that thing from the cis. [/hider]