403. Sith Hunt: Part 1 - Mirk, Raezyr

It wasn't too long before the pair arrived back at the docking bay.

Jumping into his fighter and putting on his helmet Caecilius gave a nod to Nal as he started up the engine and left atmo with Nal close behind him.

Once in space Caecilius began figuring out astrogation calculations. "Alright coordinates for Carida... wait something is up"

"I sense it too" Nal replied

"Shields up" they said in unison as they activated their shields, just in time to not get blown to bits as 12 fighters that had been mixed with other traffic and a light cruiser opened fire on them.
"Foolish Jedi, you should have kept your noses out of exchange business" they heard over their coms as the lasers flew past their ships, some hitting the shields.

Gunning their respective throttles both Caecilius and Nal started taking evasive action.

It wasn't long before Caecilius was on the tail of one of the fighters. Leading his target slightly he let loose a barrage from his dual blaster cannons, the first few shots streaked in front of the enemy ship, but the rest hit directly on their mark. The other pilot was too slow on his reaction and his entire ship was hit as he flew right through the hail of lasers. The ship kept going for a moment before it exploded.

"One down" Caecilius said over the com, rolling to the right just in time to dodge a fate similar to the one he had just inflicted.

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Raezyr

Nal barrel-rolled the nimble Aurek starfighter trying to shake the four fighters on her tail as her foils swept open into attack position. Luckily, they weren't production fighters, but rather each fighter was made out of wreckage of several other fighters and cobbled together. Fighters of that type were generally referred to as 'uglies' and one on one, they would have been no match for her, but numbers were on their side.

Given time, the two Jedi could have out maneuvered the uglies, but with the support of the light cruiser, they didn't have that time as the large ship was closing in fast.

Nal brought her fighter around and watched as Caecilius 'vaped' and ugly, then quickly rolled out of the way of some incoming fire from one of the uglies on his tail.

"One down," came her companion's voice over the comm.

She lined up her sights on one of the uglies on Caecilius' tail, then depressed the trigger switch. Green beams of energy shot out from her twin laser cannons and punched through one of the engine nacels on the fighter. The engine exploded and the ship went into a flat spin and out of control.

"Make, dat two down, Cae," Nal said.

The moment it took her to level out and fire had given the fighters on her tail too much time and light flashed over her cockpit as the red lasers splashed across her sheilds.

She flipped up onto her port wing and banked hard. "Come at me head on," she said into her comm. "At da last second, we'll make a close pass and dat will give us each a head on shot at da fighters on each oders six."

"Copy," replied the other Jedi, and he banked around lining up for a head on run straight at Nal.

Coming around she increased her throttle. Collision warnings blared in the cockpit as the Jedi's ships passed within meters of each other. Instantly, she depressed the trigger switch and fired into the mass of fighters following Caecilius.

She didn't hit anything, but it didn't matter. The uglies began taking evasive action in every direction and in the confusion, two of them collided, creating a single brilliant ball of fire.

Caecilius did the same, firing both of the laser cannons on the Skiv, but to greater effect. The enemy fighter directly behind Nal exploded instantly as the green darts shot out and ripped through it's fuselage.

Caecilius banked hard to starboard, barely missing the debris, but one of the uglies wasn't as lucky, as shrapnel ripped open the belly, creating another dazzling display of fireworks.

Nal was about to come around for another run as the enemy fighters were still scattered in disarray, when suddenly the light cruiser's turbo laser fire erupted all around her.

"Time to go, I tink," she said into her comm.

"That cruiser's right in our exit vector. Come around to my wing and we'll lauch torps. It won't hurt it, but it might bring their shields down and cause them to take some evasive action," Caecilius replied and brought his ship around to make a run on the cruiser.

Nal reversed thrust, and banked in a tight spin, coming around on the other Jedi's wing, then throttled up and switched her deflector screens to full front for their run.

She thumbed the weapon control on Firaxa 1 over to the concussion missile launchers and watched as the targeting reticle went from green to red.

"On my mark," came Caecilius' voice across her speakers. "3... 2... 1... MARK!"

She fired and watched as four missiles launched, two from each fighter, and streaked across the blackness. They exploded just back from the cruiser's hull, and blue waves rippled outward, then began to dissipate, indicating the shields were coming down on the starboard half of the ship.

For a moment she thought about attempting to fire again, but her scopes indicated the uglies had regrouped and were once again on the trail of the Jedis.

The cruiser began to take evasive action, rolling so the port side shields would be facing the incoming fighters, but the break in firing was all the gap the two Jedi needed for their escape.

They had already programmed the astronav coordinates into their computers, so all they needed was to align themselves with their exit vector. Once that was accomplished, they flipped the hyperdrive levers and shot away, leaving their attackers in their ion trail.