The Sunny Islands of Hakawa [Maverick Saga]

Bella looked to Pers quizically as he extended his S-foils prematurely. She couldn't understand why - they were still touching atmosphere at the time, to lock S-foils now would just hinder their ability to maintain formation with the rest of the squadron. But, it was her job to stay with him more than it was to stay with the formation. "Locking S-foils." She sounded out, "I'm trusting you on this Pers but, we're going to get an earful from Mav One for th-" He wouldn't have heard much after, as the comms went out with an audible 'chunk' followed by static.

Bel looked down to her comms, only to reel back a little in shock when she saw more blinking lights than a Life Day celebration on Coruscant. Long-range, Communication, both links to Squadron and Ground had gone blank. "Rusty, what did you touch?" He beeped and whoo'd, his wheezy call confirming that he hadn't touched anything. Then Pers came buzzing through her helmet. At least that wasn't broken. Equal parts blessing and curse. She answered his hail, "Still with you Four. Can confirm, sensors are down." She looked out to try and visually spot the other members of the Squadron, those she could see had fallen out of formation in what she could only describe as a panic. She tried the same trick Pers had used to contact her to try and reach Maverick's One or Two. But she recieved nothing.

"Seems we're not the only ones." She called back to him. "One and Two aren't receiving hails, I can only assume they're as blind as we are." She looked ahead, trying to spot their target. Did the Y-Wings know? The conflict of turning around and hoping this was some sort of technical malfunction warred in her head, until quite clearly she spoke. "It's a test. Damn it Four your bad feeling was right. Prepare for engagement, we're faster than they are but we don't know if their sensors are affected like ours. Keep me in LOS." She paused, getting comfortable in her seat as they finally breached the last dregs of Dac's atmosphere. Nothing but blue beneath and black above. She tried to make out the clear shape of Y-Wings against the backdrop of space, anything really that wasn't the stars polluting her background. Flying blind is a cruel trick.

Then, almost like they'd dropped out of hyperspeed before them, the Y-Wings came lumbering into view. With friends. A handful of B-Wings were taking up defensive positions around the Y-Wings. "What sort of black market Bothan said they'd just be Wishbones! B-Wings, Four!" They were slow and cumbersome, but if she or Pers slipped up and got in range of their blasters they'd be running back to ground quicker than a scared Drell.

"Deal." Well, there went twenty credits down the drain. Or at least so Erin thought. Admittedly, could one blame her? She was betting on the underdogs versus some of the top in the class. Granted, she wasn't expecting hers to go down immediately, but she didn't think that they would go on to the top either. Of course, she noticed how tense Vesil looked, and while she couldn't blame him, she knew that there would be a chance to get their butts in gear if things worked out. It would be rough if things went poorly, granted, but it could be salvaged if they drilled hard enough. Still, that would be stressful on everyone.

She watched the group and took notes on how everyone was setting up nice and quickly, how the Corellians' instincts were kicking in nice and quick. Good stuff. And then she noticed Seven and Eight charging forward towards the B-wings, and she almost immediately winced, looking away at the sight. That was just stupid. She might have no respect of the bombers, but she knew better than to go head-long at them. Then again, she never went head-on with anything if she could afford it, but especially B-wings. Still, there went her bet. Even as she was turning to Orion to ask for her money, he was trying to weasel out of it. She bit her lip in thought, eyes turning back to the screen as she watched the squadrons maneuver. "Yeah, I don't think so Cap--wait..." as she said that she noticed that while the bulk of the squadron was moving to engage, Three and Four were swinging wide and going around the core of the furball. Oooooh, this could get interesting. "Make that most kills, and you've got a deal," she said as her eyes lit up with excitement.

She saw what they were doing, and it was something that made her smile. Even as she said that, Trelp began explaining his thoughts to his wing leader, his logic pretty fair. However, as he said that, Erin privately whispered to herself (and partially to Orion if he was listening), "True, but it'll cut you off from reinforcements." It wasn't a bad plan, X-wings had the speed to manage that, but as much crap as she gave them, wishbones and blades weren't that slow. Meanwhile, the other pilots were tangling with the B-wings and a few wishbones, and that just made her sad. You don't engage that many ships head-on. Even as she was watching it, they might notice her making gestures with her finger towards the screen, painting attack patterns in her head and figuring out how she would get out of it. The core of the pilots should have begun hit-and-run tactics. It was the only thing you could do against this many planes. "Someone needs to teach these pilots about 'zoom and boom'," she said to herself. Go for Tail-End Charlie, and just start chipping away at them. They were too reliant on skill.

Orion got a sudden grin of triumph as Erin amended the bet, and nodded. "It's a deal. I think you just lost your money." But of course, he hadn't heard what Three and Four were actually up to. He just went off what he saw on the sensors. Vesil however, had a small smile of pride growing onto his face as he watched the sensor blips. His pilots had wisened up, and were beginning to do evasive maneuvers. Two of the B-Wings suddenly disappeared from the sensory chart, as did one of the Y-Wings. Maverick Five went down soon after however.

It was going to be a close one.

"It's going to be a close one.." Perseval muttered to himself, a smile blossoming onto his face when he heard Bel agree with his plan of action. The smile turned into a smirk as he heard her quip about Corellians, and without missing a beat he shot back. "You're only calling them 'antics', Three, because you Twin-Worlders can't keep up with a good Corellian pilot!" He didn't laugh though, there wasn't enough time for laughter in these circumstances as he pushed his nose down, following her bank. He then came up with her as they went to do their attack below the Y-Wings. "Don't worry, if you'd like I could save you some drinks when I outrun you all the way to the Cantina Three." He then fell silent for a few moments as he put all his focus on his surroundings, and the Y-Wings that were now above them.

His grin returned however as she added in her own bits to the plan, and he flipped a switch to ease back on his thrusters. "Understood Three, slowing my approach. Don't get shot, please? I really don't want to be alone up here." There was a seriousness to his teasing tone however, he really did not want either of them to get shot down so early in the engagement. His eyes went wide when her lasers sliced into one of the Y-Wings, and the cumbersome craft failed to do evasive maneuvers quickly. It then veered off, disappearing from their targeting information and was no longer tagged as an enemy. Her lasers also splashed against another Y-Wings shields, this one doing a barrel roll to escape the volley even as Bel roared past them.

The turrets on the top of the Y-Wings whirred to life, attempting to track her. Red laser fire arced after her, though many of the shots were sloppy, the sheer volume of fire slowly coming to life was a bit intimidating.

"That's a kill Three, good shooting! We can do this, it can't be any worse than a kriffing Interdictor after all." He was focused on one of the Y-Wings firing on her now as he made his slow approach, his targeting sensors suddenly flashed.

Perseval opened fire with the port guns first, immediately followed by the starboard guns. Hammering it like that prevented the Y-Wings shields from rising too soon, and as the other starships shields dropped completely, Perseval switched his firing mode to all four. The red bolts flashed, and the Y-Wing spun away from the fight, disabled. Perseval let out an exclamation of victory, and then switched targets to the next Y-wing. This one too was tracking Bel. He ignored return fire from one of the other Y-Wings directed at himself- he could handle it later, but Bel couldn't shoot back while she did her distraction. He opened up on the Y-Wing, and the wishbones pilot dove down to get away from him. His shots missed, flashing into space before dissipating. "I got him off you Three, mind returning the favor?"

That's a kill. She grinned, stopping herself short of whooping loudly down the comms. The screen of ion cannon fire from the Y-Wings dorsal turrets hit her though, distracting her celebration as the cockpit rumbled under the stress of incoming fire. Luckily, the shield was holding up. She sped ahead, out of the firing range of the majority of the Y-Wings. Except that one who'd split off behind her. "Blast!" Rusty woo'd his dismay, the Y-Wing had chased her - bringing its laser cannons into play. Both pilot and gunner were trying their hardest to bring her out of the play. Luckily, she was faster than them. Basic evasive maneuvers were enough to disrupt the firing patterns of the Y-Wing, mainly because the X was a faster more agile ship. And quite a small target, from the rear.

She was about to pull up sharply when the firing abruptly stopped, and the Y-Wing backed off. Pers called out over the comms, and Bell made a note of thanking him for it. "Favour is about to be returned Four. Speed up a bit, I've got this guy." She punched her own speed, but angled her nose up and over. Through the top of her cockpit, she could make out Pers and the Y-Wing fly 'under' her. Her wide arch banked left slightly, leveling her out before she'd so much as finished her maneuver. She lined up, her targetting computer flashing up. She hammered her lasers home, the Y-Wing faltered slightly, an attempt at an evasive maneuver was about to be made before the Y-Wing disapeared from her short-range sensors.

"You're all clear, Four. That was some good shooting, for a blind guy." She called out to him, letting out a short laugh over the comms as she fell into line just behind him. "I recommend we take another hit at the group. They'll be expecting us though. With no reinforcements, we're going to need to keep hitting them fast and wide. Ever seen a pair of Slice Hounds try to take down Bagerasets? We've already tested them, taken twice our numbers of them. They'll be panicked, oh and guess who's turn it is to be defender?" She grinned again, turning her X-Wing into a tight horizontal spin to face back at the Y-Wings. They'd gathered together - and they were facing the two of them. It'd be a hard hit, but there were a few Y-Wings a bit distracted by the commotion. It was a shame those B-Wings were present, or the rest of Maverick could've easilly swept in behind them by now.

As the squadrons continued to tangle, Erin felt a smile creep onto her face as the wingmen began to cooperate properly, actually using duo tactics to get their work done. They might not have been the best pilots ever, but she couldn't help but be with Vesil as he enjoyed the sight of his pilots' work. It really was wonderful to see the rookies figure out how to fight properly, and she couldn't help but feel some sliver of a hope that at least some of these kids would manage to make it in combat. They were dancing beautifully, coordinating wonderfully, and while it didn't look like they were going to succeed in their mission, they damn sure were giving these Y-wings a good thrashing. As of the Rodian's fall, they had taken out two wings, with a third well on its way. Even if all of them went down right now, it would be a one-to-one ratio, and considering these were experienced pilots then it was a good sign. However, that didn't seem to be the case, as she got to hear not only that the pilots were getting all sorts of work done, but a few of them had some interesting plans. It made her smile, and she wasn't even the one who had trained them. Vesil had every right to be proud.

Apparently, dear old Three and Four had figured out where the flight leader was and wanted to knock him out. Now, Erin personally wouldn't have done what they did next, but she had done it in the past all the same, and to be fair they seemed to be doing it well, though it was a risky maneuver to manage. If this didn't work out, she could kiss those fifty credits goodbye, but hopefully they managed it. Because this was something that they would possibly need to do at some point, and they needed to be able to replicate a success. She actually found herself holding her breath during some of the maneuvers, but when she saw Trelp pull that psychotic dive straight through the heart of the Y-wing formation, she actually found her eyes widen with shock at the sight.

Vesil's eyes went wide as he saw what Three and Four were doing, and when he saw Four pull that crazy- yet effective maneuver, he couldn't help but laugh. "Who taught Four -that- trick? I need to give them a medal. That was brilliant. Risky, but in this case, brilliant." The laughing died down as he continued to watch the rest of the fight.

Perseval had pulled a lot of fire from Bell, but it wasn't enough. Even as the wishbones chased after him, she came under fire. But he couldn't worry about that right now. He had a few issues of his own with the the majority of the Y-Wings focusing fire on him. "Come on..come on..." He hissed a bit, shaking his head as he banked and weaved through the laser fire of the Wishbones. Many of them struck his shields, but many others also missed. It was then that he noticed the pounding that Bel was getting. He grit his teeth together, not being able to do anything just yet...unless..

Unless..

Perseval suddenly cut all power from his Ion Thrusters, literally going still in space as the pursuing Y-wings shot past him. He yanked the stick to the left, rolling the nose of his X-Wing left to the wishbones pursuing Bel. His targeting systems flashed, and he squeezed.

The quad blasts of the laser cannons struck out, slamming into the cockpit of the wishbone. Had they been in live fire, the thing would be dead, and it veered off to the side. He then fired again on the second one, not skipping a beat, ignoring the ones that were pulling around to go after him. He fired again, and these shots hit it in the engine, collapsing its shields and forcing it to veer off as well. At her order to break off, he shook his head and spoke over the comms.

"Negative Three, this is Four. Your tails clear. Good hunting." He glanced to the right, easing power to his Ion thrusters again.. but it was too late of course. He knew it was going to be too late the minute he noticed the flashing of the B-Wings lasers. The last of them had pulled off when the Mavericks had been defeated, and now, it had just killed him. Even as he attempted to maneuver away, the B-wing just continued to hammer him. Archie began to howl as the shields dropped, and Perseval shouted something over the comms as he pulled back the stick to execute a Koiogran turn. His nose went up into the sky, still below the retreating Y-Wings. He fired off blind shots at their formation as he went up, forcing them to scatter and pull away.

Then, the B-wing got him, and he was pulling away from the fight, his sensor blinking off.

And the B-wing switched course for Bel, coming at her head on.

Bell physically assaulted her X-Wing. A fist crashed against the transparisteel window of the cockpit. "Damn it, Four! I told you to break away!" They'd stopped firing at her, for now - it gave her shields long enough to recharge at least. A breather, really. Her hull was still 'damaged', but she could make do with that. An ominous blip was closing in on her position though. "So you're the Nerf Herder that took down Pers.." She said, as the B-Wing closed some of that distance behind her. She looked down at her long range scanners, which had come back online. She could see two more Mavericks supporting each other against what was left of the offensive Y-Wings. This was the last B-Wing, then.

Time to bag a kill.

"Alright Rusty, lets show this guy why a B-Wing never made a real contribution in the glory days of the Civil War." For once, Rusty sounded confident with his beeping. "I need you to focus here, Rusty. We're going to be taking a lot of fire from that thing. I'm not sure we can survive more than one direct hit from its laser cannon. You can handle the Ions, right shield control?" Woooooo-beep. Roughly translated, that was Rusty's way of saying 'no, but I'll try'. "If we die before we take down this B-Wing, I'm getting an upgraded astromech."

She punched the power to her engines, if there was one thing less maneuverable than a Y-Wing it was a B-Wing. She quickly outpaced the larger fighter. Without a wingman, this was going to be a lot harder. She pulled a wide turn, essentially putting herself into a defender roll. Half of her favourite maneuvers would be useless against this thing. To even let it get into firing range could end disasterously for her damaged fighter. The B-Wing followed, but its size and lack of speed made it cumbersome on the turn. Bell changed her direction, banking in completely the opposite way. The S-shaped maneuver was long and tiresome, but every turn she made got her closer to the B-Wing without giving it an easy line of fire. Finally, when the B-Wing hazarded a shot at her, she decided to put her plan into action. On the next turn, as the B-Wing was coming up right behind her, she dropped her nose and dove. The B-Wing followed, but by the time its limited LoS came into view of her she had already tucked into a tight spin and come up just beneath it. She dropped her speed, and let the B-Wing get slightly ahead. "This is for the Sector!" she called out, and held the triggers on her cannons down untill the B-Wing swerved away. Ultimately defeated.

She cheered down the open comms, letting what was left of Maverick know her success. "Alright Maverick! This is Three speaking loud and clear through squadron communications. We are back on line, lets turn this thing around before we miss the beach party!". She let out a 'woop' down the comms, and turned her X-Wing around to meet her fellows. They'd dispatched two in the time it took her to grab that B-Wing. Thirteen, she counted on her screen. Thirteen more wishbones to break and she could go back triumphant. She sped ahead to join the rest of the squadron. They were battling a small number of Ys, the last of the 'offensive' group. Of the 'defensive' group, she noticed they were still quite a distance away - and closing, the loss of their squadron lead and the B-Wings had broken their wall. It was a do-or-die situation now.

She wasn't about to let Maverick die. Mavericks Five and Six were the last remaining, they had supported each other well throughout the assault. "Any room for another Wing?" Bella called out to the two.

Five gave a grunt, his voice sounded almost as gruff as a Gamorrean with half a throat. "I'll settle for a Corellian over nothing as long as you get this Y off my back."

Bella almost didn't bother. Instead, as she twisted into a flight path behind the Y-Wing pursuing Five, she shouted back at him, "I. Am. Not. Corellian!" She hammered home a few bolts, causing the Y-Wing to break off its pursuit. While the second volley flew wide, Bella was hot on the Ys exhausts. A third round of bolts took their numbers down to twelve. Five broke off and delivered a 'killing blow' to the Y-Wing on his wingmate's rear.

Eleven. At this rate, they'd be home before the party. "Alright Maverick. Let's show these glorified lumps of desh what it's like to go up against some X-Wings! On me, Maverick!" Bella took lead, the two surviving Mavericks flanking either side of her as they approached the 'defensive' minded Y-Wings. They broke off their assault at the screen of blaster fire coming their way, Five banked left while Bella and Six cut upwards. The group of Y-Wings split up into two more-managable groups. Five continued evading incoming fire, leading six of the Y-Wings on a long chase.

"Six, split on my go... Go!" she shouted down the comms, the two X-Wings splitting off from each other at an almost perfect right angle from each other. It broke the Wishbones up further, and left them open to attack. It was a classic maneuver, Bella slowed down her acceleration a little and Six started taking wider turns. They crossed each other in a continuous S-position. Eventually, Bella came into view of Six's persuers, and lit up one of them in a smooth pass. Likewise, but a few moments later - Six had done the same. By the time the Ys wised up to the move, they had lost three of their numbers - the third going to Bella.

The Ys broke off, but the call of distress coming from Five signalled another Maverick lost. They'd taken too long dealing with this group of Y-Wings, and without help they'd finally caught up to Five. Six sped ahead, chasing after the two remaining Y-Wings that he and Bella had been fighting. Even though Bella put her all into acceleration, trying to catch up to the X-Wing - the Wishbones used their own tactic against him. Six dissapeared from her radar. In a matter of seconds their chances of winning were gone. Throwing safety to the wind, Bella launched after the two Y-Wings. She wasn't going to let them get behind her, though. As the same Y-Wing that pulled the move on Six attempted the move on her, she angled her nose completely upwards and performed a tight turn-and-twist until she was above the Y-Wing.

Seven.

She chased after its partner, who was limping back to the mass of Y-Wings that were heading her way. They were confident they'd win, and frankly they would. That didn't mean she wouldn't show them all up, first. She was faster than the Y-Wing, so she caught up to it quickly enough. It banked, and she followed. It dove and she dove. It climbed and she climbed right back with it, until her targetting reticule lit up and she burned a hole in its shields big enough for a Sarlacc. Six. Easy. She might even be able to take six. She lowered her nose back to get a good view on the approaching Y-Wings - and found herself facing them sooner than she'd thought. They were upon her like a pack of Ferrazid Hounds. She banked and twisted, rolled and dove. But she could barely get a glancing blow on the Y-Wings, and only recieved damage to her shields in return. Eventually they depleted, and quicker than she'd like her hull damage ticked up - and over.

The computer might as well have ejected her into the coldness of space. Maverick had failed, and she couldn't help but think that if she had done something different then maybe they'd have won.

All of the starfighters begun their descent.