And At Last It Is Here

Details
Systems(s) Involved:	Unidentified
Squadron(s) Involved:	Kaph Squadron
Timeline (Actual):	02/18/04 to 04/13/04
Timeline (In Story):	TBD
Mission Type:	Intercept
Outcome:	Possible Victory
Link to Story:	Click Here

History

Ensign Arturus returned from reserves to serve as a pilot again in the Vast Empire Navy. He was immediately assigned to the squadron he commanded prior to his resignation and named commander of Kaph Squadron with the promotion of Liquid, the present commander, to Training Officer. Almost immediately after being assigned the command, Kaph Squadron was ordered on a mission to intercept a rebel invasion force estimated to be comprised primarily of fighters and troop transports. The planet in question was an unidentified system of little importance aside from the fact that it sat behind Imperial lines and thus allowing the rebels to take control of it and make it a base of operations for attacks on vulnerable Imperial targets was something that had to be prevented. Kaph Squadron was to transfer from the Atrus to a Corellian Corvette in order to be subtly inserted into the system and prevent anyone alerting the rebels to their presence until it was too late.

Mission Objectives

• Destroy all enemy transports
• Destroy enough transports to weaken the force so planetary defences could fight back
• Eliminate troops that manage to land through ground strikes
• Destroy all other enemy ships and fighters

Personnel Involved

Corellian Corvette (Unidentified)

Kaph Squadron: 12 Shielded TIE Interceptors
Squadron Commander: Arturus
Executive Officer: Unknown
Flight Members: blah909, chipmunk man, Daishi, LoneWolf, Shazam

Opposing Forces

2 Dreadnaughts Unidentified, Unidentified
1 Bulk Cruiser Unidentified
3 Nebulon-B Frigates Unidentified, Unidentified, Unidentified
1 Modified Corellian Corvette Unidentified
24 X-Wings
24 A-Wings
12 B-Wings
12 Y-Wings
Numerous Assault Transports
Numerous other troop transports
Numerous unspecified fighter carriers

Outcome

Possible Victory.

The rebel assault force that arrived was much stronger than anticipated. Immediately upon arrival, Chipmunkman and Shazam began an attack run on the Dreadnaught in an effort to split the rebel formation. They managed to destroy the weapons turrets and disable the engines thus leaving it dead in space and drifting away from the rest of the formation. The two pilots then entered into a dogfight with two X-Wings while trying to navigate through the bulk of the smaller rebel ships. Chipmunkman notched the first fighter kill of the day by destroying one X-Wing in the ensuing battle. Chipmunkman and Shazam managed to severely damage a second X-Wing before breaking off to engage five on-coming A-Wings. Their strategy for engagement was to make an attack run on a second Dreadnaught, staying far enough ahead to prevent being caught by the A-Wings and hoping that the Dreadnaught's fire might accidentally hit its own fighters. In the dogfight, Chipmunkman managed to severely damage one A-Wing which in turn crashed into the Dreadnaught's warhead launcher. The impact and fire that ensued caused a massive explosive onboard the ship, venting most of the oxygen and rendering it effectively destroyed.

The flight then turned to engage an oncoming group of B-Wings and X-Wings, destroying one of the former and two of the latter before making a run on the troop transports, escorted by fighters, nearing the planet. They closed quickly on the lead Assault Transports an opened fire. As they made the attack run, they took heavy fire from the transports and, to the surprise of the pilots, took hull damage despite the shield indicators stating that their shields were at full strength. Chipmunkman and Shazam radioed back to the Corvette only to discover similar reports from other pilots thus leading to the conclusion that the brand new shielding systems had been sabotaged and that the fighters really didn't have shields at all. The pilots went back to the Corvette to have the fighters investigated only to find out that they had indeed been sabotaged and that it would take fourteen to sixteen hours to fix. The pilots requested to take a small escape ship to the planet to find fighters or ground craft to engage the landing rebels and the permission was granted. Meanwhile, during all of the commotion, Blah909 who was suffering communications problems on board his fighter, hadn't realized this and concluded that his squadron was destroyed thus leading him to engage in suicide attacks on rebel ships.

Chipmunkman jumped into a personal fighter and dove into the atmosphere to engage the Nebulon-B frigates that were escorting the transports. With three space bombs he managed to completely destroy one frigate. Meanwhile, Shazam was on fighter patrol and ran into a squadron of X-Wings. Unable to engage twelve on one, he immediately turned to escape and found shelter by landing his fighter in a cave on the planet. Meanwhile, Blah909, having survived his suicide runs, began perpetual loops in atmosphere while strafing the incoming transports. Shazam exited the cave to find his way to a base only to end up downstream in another cave with a broken commlink. It was broken after he had dove in the water to get rid of a number of small bugs with pincers that had grabbed onto him.

In the atmosphere, Chipmunkman destroyed a modified Corellian Corvette designed to provide ground support with some of his remaining space bombs before being forced to evade oncoming A-Wings. Daishi, who was on board the Corvette, decided to put his technical skills to work by leaving for the planet to use the computers to engage in psychological warfare against the landing rebels. On the ground, Shazam was forced to solve a puzzle to open a passage in the caves and then had to hotwire a security door. The door was unguarded because its existence was supposed to be a secret. When Shazam made his way in, he found a secret rebel control centre complete with detention cells for Imperial prisoners. He shot his way into the main lobby and went off to rescue the Imperials and destroy the control centre. Inside, he realized that he was badly outnumbered so he managed to shoot his way through to an exit in the forest with the goal of warning the Imperials about the existence of the secret rebel base. The first complex he reached was also hidden rather well in the forest. It had Imperial markings but as he made his way in he quickly discovered it was a rebel fighter factory. This led him to conclude that this was an ambush of the Imperials; they had been trapped. Daishi realized the same thing and concluded that the rebels were trying to destroy the last skilled, full squadron in VEN and thus strike a final, deadly blow to VEN's starfighter command. Daishi landed his fighter with the goal of breaking into and destroying the rebel facility with explosives that he had brought.

Shazam used a fuel truck as the target of his grenades in order to destroy the fighter hanger in the facility. Meanwhile, Daishi shot his way inside and prepared to destroy the factory. The two met with Daishi nearly killing Shazam after Shazam had taken a rebel uniform to disguise himself. The two fought their way into the kitchen that was there for the troops and gathered basic kitchen materials in order to build a crude bomb. They placed the bomb and blew up the factory just as Chipmunkman landed in his HLAF to pick them up. What transpired after is unknown it it is believed that the rebel assault was ultimately a fairly.

After Effects

The Rebel ambush of Kaph Squadron was a failure, allowing the unit to survive and help rebuild VEN's starfighter corps.