ITOD Home > RS Tour 3 (XWA Retro Tour) > RS 308a: Pirate Rampage (IBG 108)

With the previous mission being such a gyp, Forerunner was hungry for more. Too bad he didn't know what he was getting himself into.

The briefing explained about an attack on a huge pirate base already underway, so much that the original strike team consisting of one Interdictor and one Dreadnought got more than they bargained for! The initial attack was going to be reinforced by a couple dozen Rebel fighters, one dozen being X-Wings, along with one ISDII Dashan. Everything was explained in terms of what needed to be done and what the best approach would be. So, it was off to the hanger with everyone, including both the seasoned like Forerunner and those he hasn't seen much except recently such as Boom and the newly recruited Lieutenant Mia StormChaser.

Last mission, Jay didn't have his special A-Wing on order...but then again, he didn't need it, either, since then there'd be no more than a full 6-fighter squadron at any one time. This mission was expected to quadruple that figure! Plus, being in the Main Fleet, Jay had access to his A-Wing once again. He launched after getting armed up as usual. Not only that, but word is what he thought was the "Main Fleet" is now THE fleet; and every available pilot will be flying this mission, including current students and rookies!

Knowing what the enemy number were looking like, Jay ordered, "Keep a tight formation, so that we can all cover one another effectively." Jay mainly wanted to minimize the chance of an enemy swarm on him. More targets for the enemy meant they'll be less focused on any one target at a time, particularly him.

The first squadron, "Wildcard", exited hyperspace at the base together, but Jay jeered off towards what may have been the biggest snag in the entire operation: 2 aggressive Correllian Gunships! Each one had rapid rate of fire an several accurate lasers, so each one could easily rip a fighter apart that was dumb enough to take it head-on. Determined as all madness to get rid of this problem as soon as possible, Jay launched all his rockets at one while ordering all his friendlies to attack the other.

He knew this was going to get ugly, but there was no better way, since High Command felt that out of the entire Rebel Squadrons Fleet, they could only spare one ISDII for a "support" role. As seemed natural, he was one of the "field commanders" of this operation; that term "field" being used loosely to refer to a commanding officer that is out in the heat of the action instead of cooped up behind a desk pushing papers with important orders written on them.

Due to the nature of being the "Commander", Jay had to take responsibility for what was about to happen, chiefly the destined losses.

Multiple fighter pilots were crying for help or some spiritual retaliation against the impossible odds. Even from the start, Jay had this gut feeling that not everybody would return intact...or at all. He couldn't do anything about it, lest he join the casualty list. All he could do was sip a sharp breath and whack at the gunship shields at least enough to help dilute their collective firepower against his squadron. This came at its own price, for the gunship started beating Jay's own shields down to 150%, then 50%!

To make matters worse, just as one gunship was ready to disengage itself, the fighters came up. Jay retaliated by ordering with his booming voice, "You worry about that gunship; I'll handle the fighters." When he noticed two of them on his tail with a third trying to attack him in his sights, he began to wonder if it was a mistake to be sent alone to deal with the fighters.

The gunship was too busy shooting to its port side, where Jay's team was lingering, but Jay was on the starboard side. In other words, he had a chance to do some serious damage to it, so he couldn't help to take that chance. He finished its shields from 50% and even nicked at its hull some. That's when his pass ended and he once again got reminded that there were fighters left to mingle with.

At least 3 of Jay's allied Wildcard squadron ejected and were left hanging around in space by the time the second of the agonizing gunships became history. So now it was all concentration on the fighters. Given Jay's A-Wing, he was able to ruthlessly hunt many fighters down, especially since most of them were no longer on his six. Every so often, there would be one or two attacking him, forcing him to sheer off course and twirl around like a broken drill. The fight was intense, and while even Jay at times became overwhelmed by the sheer numbers of the enemy, at least he had some measure of fighter support from his remaining allies, those lucky enough to have survived the awful tangle with the gunships.

As established in the beginning, the tight tactic worked fairly well, since whenever Jay was on the verge of being overwhelmed, his friendlies could immediately back him up. Likewise, Jay saw many enemies attacking certain ships, like Wildcard 5 or 7. Jay took care of them even if they weren't immediately threatening the pilots.

The platforms were of little concern compared to the fighter swarms, especially since the ISDII finally started deploying Y-Wings, and from hyperspace, some B-Wings immediately reinforced the team. This was grand as they were now taking on the supplies, the stations, and any that dared abandon the station, which were prime targets for capture. The Admirals had a particularly fond motive for capturing the Pirate Leader, one that wasn't publicly disclosed. Not even young Jay Forerunner knew. All he knew was to chip off some shields to help with the disabling while being careful not to scuff the transports' hulls.

With all the fighters finally wiped out, Jay took one well-deserved sigh of relief, as tapping on the Frigates and Platforms was downhill compared to what he just saw. He lost half his team, some Y-Wings, and other X-Wings that were part of the initial attack force.

The most important fact of all, however, was that he was still alive! He was shocked to see that his hull was still in the green, all things considered! It took a lot out of him, but now he was mopping up the containers and some of the platform turbolasers while the bombers did their job of disabling their targets. By the time Storm came to, most of everything was destroyed, except that one platform that was already crippled.

With all fire concentrated on this last target, there was no problem with cleaning up the last of this scum that give rebels like us a bad name. The leader's yacht was carried into the belly of our support Star Destroyer, all remaining pirates were vaporized, including disabled escape pods and lingering pilots, and ultimately those that were left of the fighters flew home. A healthy number of Wildcard Squadron made it back home in one piece; about 6 of them, including Lieutenant Commander Jay Forerunner himself.

The mission was complete, and after what left a scarring impression on all the pilots, including Jay, it was certainly time for a break, before reporting for the next mission. Much of his other homework was already complete as of this time, so there were few worries for him.

In the end, things were still good and fair.