Chapter Two Part Two
With the fateful words of his commander still echoing in his helmet's headset, Kinrath Two broke to port away from the rest of the squad still heading straight ahead, and immediately paired up with Kinrath Four who was designated as his wing mate. The wing pair increased speed until they had pulled slightly ahead of Canderous Ordo's Basilisk designated "Kinrath Leader" or "Viper Kinrath" and before too long "slightly ahead" became significantly ahead. Kinrath Two's pilot was named Jagi and he had served under Canderous Ordo on onlyone other campaign. So far he already liked his wing commander. He appreciated Commander Ordo's zeal for the battle. He himself found it hard to concentrate as completely on such things. He believed, as all Mandalorians did, that conflict determined who one was and who one would become, but he did not seek it openly like many other Mandalorians. He welcomed it when it came, but never did much to try and hunt it down in the way that Commander Ordo seemed to.
Jagi looked over at his gunner and Basilisk companion Reeza. Reeza seemed to be completely engrossed in monitoring the weapons displays, preparing for the time when he would get to unleash the might of their Basilisk War Droid on the unsuspecting populace of Iziz. Jagi was not too impressed with the gunner yet. He seemed to have the same zeal for battle that Commander Ordo had, but none of the intellect for strategy. In Jagi's opinion men like Reeza were nothing much more than blaster cannon fodder. The only thing that saved Reeza in Jagi's opinion was the fact that, if nothing else, he was still Mandalorian.
The only other Basilisk drop Jagi had been on had been nothing like this. There were two main differences between this drop and what would be called a normal drop. The first was the fact that they had flown their Basilisks from launch point to destination. Normally the Basilisks would have been loaded onto a carrier ship or cruiser, taken to the far edge of the planet's atmosphere and dropped to the planet below. The Mandalorian or Mandalorians would only be exposed to space for a moment and then would fall to the planet until they passed into the lower atmosphere where they would then be able to turn away from their fall and begin their assault. The pilot too would be forced to wear highly pressurized armor for the few moments when they were exposed to the lack of atmosphere since Basilisks were completely open to the surrounding space and the pilot was essentially "riding" on its back. This made it a little harder for anyone trying to shoot a Basilisk out of the sky since they were smaller and more maneuverable then most snubfighters, but it also made it a little harder on the pilot if they were then to land and become ground troops, as pressure suits tended to make close combat even more difficult.
Because of the unique nature of the atmosphere chain that was shared by both Onderon and Dxun and which effectively bound them together, Mandalore had decided that the Basilisks would take off from Dxun and make the entire flight to Onderon without the aid of another ship to act as a carrier for them. This would allow the larger ships to hang further back during the initial advancements so that the Onderonians might be less likely to see them coming, and because of the atmosphere chain, the pilots didn't need any additional armor or pressure suits, they merely wore their regular armor.
It was an odd sensation for Jagi. He had been able to breath as if he was flying just above the surface of a planet instead of towards one through space. The only noticeable effect of the entire trip had been the subtle yet quick change in the perceivable pull of gravity. Initially it had been at his rear as he pulled away from Dxun, but suddenly had started coming from his front towards Onderon. There had been a very brief moment when he had actually felt the gravitational pull from both sides and for a second it felt like there was no longer any up or down.
As they closed on the planetJagi was faced with another difference between this drop and any other. Normally in a drop the Basilisk was coated in a heavy ablative armor shell that slowly burned away from the droid as it entered the atmosphere. This not only allowed droid and rider to keep from disintegrating from friction as they hit atmo, but also allowed for the heavy armor to burn away over time, so that by the time they reached the point where they could maneuver again, the Basilisk would be much lighter and able to maneuver like a flitfly in Summer. In this case, since there was no real entry into an atmosphere since they technically had never left an atmosphere to begin with, the droid outfitters had done away with the ablative armor and used the extra space to add another blaster cannon to the rear end of the Basilisk, making the Basilisks lighter from the start but more heavily armed and capable of shooting behindat any possible pursuers.
Instead of seeing ignited air burning past him as he hurtled toward the planet, as he had seen the first time he had done a drop, all he could see was the planet of Onderon getting larger and larger and all he could feel was the gravitational pull getting stronger and stronger in that direction. It was quite a different experience, but far less violent then a regular drop, for which Jagi was secretly grateful, though he knew most, if not all of the squadron would not agree.
Jagi watched as his Basilisk ticked off its relative location to the planet, watched as it counted down to 3040 meters. Then suddenly they were there and their Basilisk made a course change to a twenty-five degree angle down from perpendicular relative to the planet. The descent was slowly angling off towards ninety degrees or a parallel route to the planets surface. This part of the drop was completely done by the Basilisk. It wasn't his job as pilot to worry about such broad course adjustments. He was to handle the sharper juking and jinking, and fine evasive maneuvering of a battle that has been met. For right now at least, he and Reeza were just along for the ride. By the time the Basilisk reached 287 meters it shifted course drastically to follow a path almost completely parallel to the planets surface though still descending and thenthere it was right in front of him, the closest Onderonian Air Defense Tower.
Jagi knew without looking at his sensors that his wing mate, Kinrath Four was still with him and that Kinraths Six and Eight had taken up a position slightly to starboard and were coming up on their own ADT. Jagi could also see, even from this distance that the ADT in the targeting reticle had its large twin guns aimed in the opposite direction, away from his and Kinrath Four's position. The Onderonians had absolutely no idea what was happening yet. It was just as Mandalore had predicted.
As they rocketed toward the ADT, Jagi could see that it was finally starting to turn towards them. He imagined that right about now the Royal military was in a panicas they finally saw fifteen fast moving blips on their radar screens. He was still sure they didn't know exactly what was going on because he could see no signs of any starfighter activity. They were relying on their ADTs to do the job of taking down the flight of Basilisks. That would be a big mistake that they would finally realize in just about one minute.
Jagi could see Reeza tense slightly out of the corner of his eye. He knew the gunner was getting ready to start firing, which meant that he needed to start getting ready to start flying.
Then they were there and Reeza unleashed an unholy barrage of blaster fire from the forward blaster cannons. They were still twenty meters above the ADT and closing in on its position. Jagi halted their decent and rolled the Basilisk slightly to starboard so that he would be able to keep it on the other side of the tower's turret cannons which were turning anti-clockwise on the port side. The blaster turret still hadn't come more then halfway around before Reeza's onslaught, but Jagi didn't want to give them a chance to close the gap. Kinrath Four matched their movements and then flipped over and placed themselves below Jagi's Basilisk. Their gunner started firing their own blasters, placing them just behind Reeza's shots.
Reeza's shots impacted on the tower just below the rotating turret base at the joint that separated the turret from the tower. The ferrocrete started to crumble away under the blaster bolts and the machinery underneath began to show through. Reeza followed his blaster fire with a double shot from the Basilisk's shatter-missile launchers which finished the job he and Kinrath Four's gunner had started, and transformed the small holes they had created with their blaster cannons into large pits. The turret emitted a loud groaning noise as parts of the remaining ferrocrete started grinding against parts of the exposed machinery. The turret was having obvious difficulty continuing its turn, and Jagi had managed to keep its rear side between them and the turret's deadly blaster cannons.
By this time their Basilisks had started passing by and over the ADT, but Reeza still had more shooting to do. From the rear cannon he let loose one more well placed volley, putting it right in the massive hole they had just created. Then Kinrath Four's gunner followed it with a volley from their own rear cannon.
The effect was spectacular. The twin volleys had obviously hit something critical because the turret was suddenly engulfed in a massive fireball that emanated from the Mandalorian made hole at its base. Before Jagi even had a chance to turn their Basilisk around, the turret exploded, taking out most of the top of the tower with it.
One tower down. Jagi started looking for their next target and found it 500 meters to starboard. He also saw that Kinraths Six and Eight had managed to take out their own tower, though Jagi noticed they hadn't done it in as violent and explosive manner as Reeza and the gunner from Kinrath Four. Jagi designated the tower in front of him as target, and noticed Kinrath Six's pilot designate another tower further starboard as his own target. Slowly but surely they had gone from a far port flanking position relative to Commander Canderous's own flight, further and further inward in a pincer action. Relative to the Commander's flight they were now almost a kilometer ahead and moving to a position almost directly in front of. If everything worked out as planned they would be meeting up with Kinraths Three, Five, Seven, and Nine somewhere in the middle. Essentially they were taking out any towers that could fire on the core flight's sides and were moving to take out any that would threaten it from the front so that their pilots could focus on the city walls and on landing.
KinrathTwo finished off the second tower and was moving onto the next one further starboard and ahead when the air suddenly became a lot more crowded as a squadron of ten Onderonian starfighters finally managed to launch from their bays. It wouldn't be nearly enough, Jagi thought, but it would definitely slow things down a little.
Three of the enemyfighters peeled off from the main squadron and headed towards the position held by Jagi and the rest of the left flank while three more took off towards the right flanking flight. The last four headed straight up the middle towards Canderous Ordo and his core flight. Jagi started to alter course to intercept the fighters but remembered their third and final tower. Looking up at it he noticed that this one had managed to lock it's cannons on him and Kinrath Four.
The turret began to let loose with its volley of high powered blaster bolts. Jagi took quick evasive action and noticed Kinrath Four doing the same. The bolts sizzled past Jagi's Basilisk a little too closely for his comfort. Jagi looked down at his sensors and noticed that in the interim two of the three enemy fighters had engaged Kinraths Six and Eight while the third was heading to engage Jagi's own Basilisk and Kinrath Four. Unfortunately for Kinraths Six and Eight, they also had to contend with their own ADT as well as the two fighters.
Quickly a plan formulated in Jagi's head and he transmitted his intentions to Kinrath Four and over to Reeza's panels. At first Reeza looked over at him and Jagi could imagine the quizzical look on his face followed by what must have been a grin. All he actually saw was Reeza's helmet move in a nod and turn back to his instruments. From Kinrath Four's pilot he got a comm. click denoting his acceptance of the plan.
Jagi angled his Basilisk towards the snubfighter and Kinrath Four fell back and in line with them. He poured on the speed in order to close the gap faster and fighter began to grow larger in his sites. It started firing and Jagi kept flying straight towards it letting the bolts ping against the Basilisk's hull. He needed to close the gap before too much damage was done.
Finally the two ships met and Jagi rolled sharply to starboard while the Onderonian snub pulled drastically up. The two ships missed each other by a mere meter and a half, close enough for both hulls to rattle with the vibrations of their passing.
Rather than turning around to engage the snub again, Jagi instead throttled up even more and continued straight on this new course which happened to be, not at all coincidentally, directly towards the tower that was harassing Kinraths Six and Eight who were still trying to engage the two snubfighters they had picked up and avoid the heavy fire from the ADT near them at the same time. Kinrath Four, rather than continuing to follow Jagi stayed on the original course which took it hurtling towards their own tower which was spitting blaster fire towards them at an increasing rate. By the time Kinrath Four arrived at their target tower, Jagi's Basilisk was reaching the one meant for Kinraths Six and Eight who were still trading shots with the two fighters. The tower now in front of him was still trying to pin Kinraths Six and Eight down and hadn't yet noticed that Jagi was even there.
Jagi watched as Reeza lined up his shot and let it loose. In an amazing display of marksmanship the shot managed to shoot right up into the barrel of the turret's port blaster cannon in the brief pause between its own shots. The explosion that followed moved up the barrel until it reached the turret walls and then kept going. In a matter of seconds the turret was vaporized and Jagi was flying through a cloud of smoke where it used to be.
Now that they no longer had to worry about evading the turret as well, Kinraths Six and Eight made quick work of the two snubfighters. Jagi looped his Basilisk up and over turning it back the way he had just come. Ahead he saw that Kinrath Four had managed to take out the other tower as well. He also noticed that the other fighter that he had narrowly avoided had managed to get itself turned around and was heading straight for Kinrath Four which hadn't yet turned around from its run on the turret tower. Jagi set a course to intercept the fighter and Reeza caught it by surprise as it focused on Kinrath Four. The fighter went up in a brief ball of fire as Kinrath Four turned to head towards the fighters moving at Commander Ordo's flight. Their gunner managed to take out two of the four fighters that had begun engaging the core flight's Basilisks. The other two were dispatched by Commander Ordo and one of the Basilisks in his flight. By the time all this was done the starboard flanking flight had managed to take care of two of their three snubfighters when a call came out over the squadron comm. from Kinrath Seven.
"Turret took out my thrusters, I'm going to…."
The rest of the message never came and Jagi saw a small explosion as the Basilisk with it's two Mandalorian riders went up in flames. The first casualty for the Mandalorians. Jagi put on the boosters and came up on the ADT that had just fried Kinrath Seven. It was already suffering a lot of damage that the starboard flanking flight had dealt to it before the enemy fighters had engaged it. Reeza made quick work of it while the remaining three Basilisks from the flight pinned the last fighter down and blasted it to so much durasteel dust.
Out of the corner of his eye Jagi saw an explosion. Turning his head that way he saw that Commander Ordo's flight had just smashed through a large portion of the great Wall of Iziz and were now firing at every building in the area. From his position, Jagi could see tiny Onderonians fleeing back and forth in a panic.
Turning his Basilisk around Jagi headed for the carnage. It was still his job to act as air support once Commander Ordo and his men touched down. In the back of his mind Jagi had a touch of disappointment. While it was true they he didn't relish conflict as much as other Mandalorians, the Onderonians hadn't offered up anything even close to a challenge. The Basilisks alone had cut through Iziz's defenses like a vibroblade through cloth. If the Republic didn't offer up more resistance than the Onderonians, this would be a very short war, and even Jagi found no comfort in that thought.