A Piracy Problem (OP Vandelhelm Dominion)

[Siobhan Kerrigan]

Siobhan glanced over to lock eyes with @[member="Vok"] and @[member="Cira"], though obviously Siobhan knew not who the mercenary hidden under the helmet and the spidersilk armour truly was. In any case she had never met the big boss, who thus was still an intriguing mystery to her. Then she turned her attention back to Tegaea. She did not know the capabilities of the operatives assigned to assault the camp with her, but they would not be here if they were not professionals. In any case, she was skilled at inflicting bloody mayhem.

Crush a force of pirates, add another world to Omega's list of conquests and reap the benefits. Mentally, she ran over the information that had been imparted onto them, then shrugged, feeling a craving for a good smoke and a surge of pre-battle excitement. "Not from me, will be ready to raise holy hell when you give the word."

 

[Vora Kaar]

Zero nodded his head. He would do the job, even though he didnt like space fighting. It also looked to be just this group of them that would be doing the fighting. Zero wanted to test out his personal weapons not his ship. But that didnt matter. He would fight on the station anyways. "Do we board the station and take it over, or just blow it out of the sky? If we keep it we could use it as a base above the planet."

 

[Lenavina Martin]

She would cover the East Camp with Tegaea and one of the other people, called Sarge Potteiger. The female just nodded, remaining quiet for a little longer while others spoke. She had no questions for the time being.

While she took in the question of the space statition, she waited to hear the answer but that was more to know whether to destroy or not. Curiosity really since her expertize lied in the field and not in space.

 

[Valiens Nantaris]

"Assess the situation @[member="Zero"]. I believe it will be necessary to destroy it and perhaps replace it, but I will need to see it closer before I make any further judgements. I would value your assessment when you arrive there, Zero. If there's nothing else, to your stations! Remember, three hours, people, be there."

As the meeting broke up she approached @[member="Cira"]. "Coming along for the ride?" she asked. She knew who it was, but wasn't going to spill the beans.

 

[Siobhan Kerrigan]

As the meeting broke up Siobhan headed out of the office to stock up on weapons, specifically grenades. As deadly as a lightsabre and the Force were, it would not do to rely on them. The experience of losing the Force, as brief as that had been, had certainly taught her that.

Some time afterwards she was in the hangar bay, where the Omega strike force was already assembling as per Tegaea's command. One of the mercenaries from her group, a grizzled, heavily scarred fellow called Thane, who incidentally had no relation to a certain cantankerous Jedi Master, approached her. "Look who comes from upstairs to grace us with her presence...ma'am!" he quipped, but then Siobhan was sort of irreverent herself. "Will you enlighten us as to our noble venture?"

Siobhan elbowed him slightly. "Pirate fleet on Vandelhelm. Natives are helpless...yadda...yadda. Boss wants them dismembered. Full contingent's gonna hit 'em hard."

Thane made a show of snorting. "Pirates. When I signed up, there was no word about being so bloody noble. I should've read the fine print."

Siobhan chuckled a bit at that. "Be a good boy and blow up lots of scum and maybe the next time we can imperialistically seize a good of good guys."

"I recommend Naboo, easy pickings. Pretty handmaidens in the palace," he said to her with a wink. "If Game of Stars is to be believed. Destroy the Gungans, while we're at it." Game of Stars was a critically acclaimed, though according to certain commentators excessively raunchy and violent, holovid-series that posited to depict the true story of the fall of the old Republic.

"He's just sulky because he never got to hunt krayt dragons," a Zabrak woman, tall and wiry, with a cybernetic right ear and a long-barelled blaster rifle said, approaching them. "Gunn," she introduced herself laconically.

"Love the name. Hear you're a good shooter."

"I never miss."

"Now that's just begging for a contest. In heads," Thane threw in.

"You know it's not just size that matters," Siobhan said sardonically, she indicated the grizzled merc. "You're on heavy weapons duty, blow anything apart that gets in our way. Gunn, show us you don't miss. Bastards are well-entrenched, heavy repeater gun emplacements, turrets. Gotta fight our way through their space forces. Trouble for our corsair friends is that they ain't us, so at the end of the day they'll be a bunch of smoking corpses and the planet will be ours. We take the western camp, crush anything that gets in our way."

At that Thane raised his hand. "Is there a bonus if you deliver a large quote of heads? Dragon season is on, I could use some extra downtime."

Siobhan gave him a look. "Take that grenade launcher and blow up all the scum that gets in the way, then far as I care you can go and hunt as many dragons as you want and risk getting eaten. Just remember Omega insurance doesn't cover unofficial pleasure trips!"

 

[Sarge Potteiger]

Still fiddling with his bandanna, Sarge shifts his gaze around the room a bit - he had no idea who the Martin woman was, but perhaps it was ScarJo in the corner. Maybe? Or possibly it was Tex over there. I haven't the faintest clue who is who.

Walking from the room, he waits just outside of the door and waits for Tegaea; at least he knew who she was.

 

[Cira]

@[member="Tegaea Alcori"] @[member="Siobhan Kerrigan"]

A quirk of a smile drew over Cira's lips under the visor, her voice coming out distorted with a metallic tang. Unfamiliar, but definitely feminine. "You better believe it," there was amusement in her voice. "Who would miss out on pirates?" came the quip, the attention drawing down to her right hand as she curled her gloved fingers into fist.

"This will get interesting," she said, walking out with Tegaea. She didn't miss Sarge's presence, "Colonel," she gave Tegaea a short curt nod, leaving her to Sarge; she even gave on to the annoying sack of hutt slime who had a tendency of trying to pick her office's locks.

Minutes later...

With the assembly going underway, Cira soon came to Siobhan's side. "Major Kerrigan, what do you need me to do?"

 

[Valiens Nantaris]

"Well, go get yourself ready, we'll be leaving soon," Tegs ordered. It was weird giving orders to her boss, but Cira had this anonymous thing going, so she let it happen.

Outside, Sarge was waiting for her. She noticed that Cira split very quickly. "Sarge, everything alright? You know what you're supposed to do?" she asked the rather taciturn former-Syndicate member. She knew he would, so she just was trying to get out of him why he was waiting for her.

 

[Sarge Potteiger]

The man's shaded gaze lifted upwards to the woman, who appeared to still be a little confused from her talk with the armored woman. Raising a brow, the man simply shakes his head from side to side and walks off towards the hangar where their transportation would be waiting for them.

Strange one, he was.

 

[Valiens Nantaris]

Tegaea peered at Sarge, frowned. Why was he waiting for me if he didn't want to talk? she asked herself. People could be very odd.

Regardless, she had other things to do, and much to prepare before the operation.

 

[Siobhan Kerrigan]

@[member="Cira"]

Siobhan was, as seemed usual by now, smoking outside in the hangar bay. Apparently no one had run her through the dozens of health regulations that no doubt existed, but then going out to do battle with heavily armed scum was not exactly a healthy vocation either! The hangar was already packed with mercenaries that had been called to muster for this mission when Cira stepped in. Or rather the alias she was operating under, whose features were sadly shrouded from Siobhan's gaze due to the helmet she was wearing.

Being referred to by an official rank still sounded a bit odd to Siobhan...after all, normally she just hit things really hard. It sounded almost like that vile abomination called responsibility!

You could take the helmet off. It's distracting, Siobhan thought. Maybe Siobhan preferred more form-fitting armour along the lines of certain video games or holo-vid series, whose wearers miraculously never got hit despite significant portions of their body being exposed. "You got a knack for explosives, right? Our pirate friends have a heavily fortified bunker in the camp, shielded by autoturrets. Help take the guys with heavy weapons take out the turrets with grenades, blow open the door. Other than that, shoot any scum getting in our way or tries to sneak up on us," she said with a smile, seeming nonchalant.

 

[Sarge Potteiger]

Sarge made his way towards the hangar, stopping only long enough to pick up a rifle and a shotgun, along with a handful of grenades. A few minutes more and his completely covered appearance was in the bay and looking around at several idling gunships - spotting the one he was supposed to take, he simply marched up and into it and plopped himself into a dropship.

Setting his rifle butt down on the deck, he held it between his legs as he waited for the others. Leaning his head back, he closes his eyes.

May as well catch a snooze while he waited.

 

[Lenavina Martin]

Three hours to go. "Great. Just gotta pop over to the armory and get me some weapons." There were things she liked, things she used on a regular basis but somehow, after a hundred and fifty years (which is how long Lena believed she had slept) so much rust had gathered over her blasters that there was no way of cleaning it up anymore. Same it happened to most of the things but so far, she only had to update her arms to be ready for this.

Stacking up on a couple of smaller weapons to stack her belt, filling the empty spaces that once held her sidearms. A riffle around her shoulder, ammo for all of the weapons and some grenades, some for the explosion and other for the toxic gas. It sort of felt like old times at that point, as the female remembered her first day at the Black Sun, gathering weapons for her audition. Fun times.

With everything she needed checked and placed, Lenavina moved her hands over the belt to make sure everything was where it should be. By doing so, her hand brushed over the small blade she already had with her. Not much of weapon compared to the blasters but it would certainly find its use.

Finished with the armory, Lenavina moved on, joining others in the hanger bay. "Ready to get this show on the road?" She asked once she joined @[member="Siobhan Kerrigan"] and the marked person, @[member="Cira"].

 

[Siobhan Kerrigan]

@[member="Lenavina Martin"], @[member="Cira"]

"Sure. We go in, attack 'em hard, beat them, then get out the whiskey" Siobhan said confidently when Lena entered. "As fun as it was, after a four days of fun on Hapes it feels good to let off a little steam by hitting things again," she said with a chuckle. "They almost got me to act civilised!" A truly terrible thought should it have ever had a chance of success, but this one has reasons to be inclined to scepticism!

For her part Siobhan had equipped herself with a sidearm, a dagger and several grenades in addition to her lightsabre. She felt the usual surge of pre-battle excitement as she stood there in the hangar bay, her common feeling before going into a hot zone to utilise her talents at causing mayhem. It had already been like this back when she was a Jedi and see and Adril attract trouble like magnets. Only now she didn't have to deal with platitude-spouting Masters who prattled on about peace and harmony, shutting themselves off in ivory towers.

That said, hopefully Heli would tale Game of Stars for her, as Siobhan had taken a liking to the show. After all, it was violent and raunchy, though certain experts whined about how it was historically inaccurate, not that she cared. Really, you don't name wars after your own troops. Clone Wars means they were the enemy. And you can't tell me Padme's handmaidens just protected or doubled for her.

 

[Valiens Nantaris]

While this was going on Tegaea prepared her own teams, as well as making sure the requisite supplies and ships were ready.

The Omega Fleet, possibly the best name ever, consisted of a Venator sized Star Destroyer, a half dozen frigates, and over fifty attack craft. It was a formidable array to take on anything less than a full Sith or Republic battle-fleet.

When they launched, it would be several hours before they arrived at Vandelhelm....

 

[Siobhan Kerrigan]

One wondered whether there was an Alpha Fleet as well!

For her part Siobhan joined the crew of the Venator sized Star Destroyer, watching on the bridge as the grand vessel passed through the blue shimmer of hyperspace. It was nice to finally see a war vessel such as this one from the inside, even if all corridors had the same time and tested utilitarian look about them. Omega was not just a small company or a rag-tag band of mercenaries, it was a private army with planets.

After going through a series of work-outs in the gym, her usual ritual before entering battle, Siobhan headed down to the gun batteries, assuming position among the gunners. That was where she would be during the space battle, before joining the ground forces in the planetary assault. While certainly not as precise as a droid, which could process thousands of scenarios and issue perfectly calculated instruction to each gun battery individually, having the Force as an aid was useful when it came to enhancing her precision. Moreover, she would never pass up on a big bang.

 

[Cira]

@[member="Siobhan Kerrigan"]
There came the curt nod, “Aye aye, Major.” Said the distorted voice. From under the visor, Cira’s lips gave another upward quirk. This was what she enjoyed about her position; the freedom to move without the title of the Prex. With duties separated between her and Tegaea, and as many redheads as there were in the ever growing company, few truly could not quite put a finger to how the real Prex of Omega Pyre looked like.
She would constantly keep her Force signature hidden; it gave her the freedom to do small mundane missions or blend into the mercenary crowd. She wasn’t just a pretty face that handled contracts; no she was more than capable of holding her own in a mission.
Her exact whereabouts could never be exactly pinpointed, which was largely in part to the Force powers that she excelled in; Phase and cloak of shadows. Few knew she was capable of using them. Then again… no one knew of her Disciple of Twilight origins. No one who were still alive…

 

[Valiens Nantaris]

And so, from hyperspace the Jaeger Class Star Destroyer emerged. Moving in to either side were the Omega Pyre A1 cruisers, and from the hangers launched many interceptors. Their target were the pirate ships in orbit over Vandelhelm.

Needless to say, those ships were utterly surprised by the eruption of such a force on their door step. Most of them were not even ready to launch from the station, but some indeed were ready, and almost all of them turned and fled before first contact.

"All ships, begin the attack. Concentrate on their bigger ships first and prevent any of them escaping the surface. Station boarding team, you are cleared to go," Tegaea ordered.

Salvos of red energy started to spit from the Omega ships, and the first pirates started to fall....

 

[Siobhan Kerrigan]

So it had begun.

The serenity of seemingly infinite space was abruptly broken when the Omega Fleet emerged out of hyperspace and unleashed a hailstorm of laser fire and missiles upon the enemy. Several pirate ships took flight, seeking to rally and regroup in the face of the unexpected onslaught. The Jaeger Class Star Destroyer tore through space like a ravenous beast relentlessly chasing after its prey, flanked by the cruisers. Interceptors were launched into space, mirroring the larger ships in their hunt for the enemy.

"Now the fun begins," Siobhan muttered to herself, a small grin on her face. The black space between the two opposing fleets was set alight with explosions and fireballs of laserfire. Such was the surprise that somel pirate ships leaving the station were struck as barrages of missiles and laser blasts were launched, tearing into the ships and causing explosions, but enough of the enemy flottila escaped from the initial onslaught and they hastily launched interceptor craft of their own to counter the attack and buy themselves time.

Siobhan was down in the gunnery, firing one of the heavy turbolasers. Personally she had never taken to space combat, preferring the grit and up-close-and personal nature of cutting the enemy down with her sabre, but she relentlessly fired the large gun, using the Force to enhance her precision. Powerful bolts of laserfire tore into the hull of a pirate frigate that had been late to launch and was now caught in the crossfire. Thick, red streaks of energy and missiles struck it. Turbolaser fire struck the underside of the ship and ripped all the way through it. Explosions rocked the enemy vessel when the shield dissipated and the engines were hit, then it was torn in half before exploding in a brilliant flash of light.

The shockwave and racing debris caused damage to other ships close by, though the Omega interceptor craft had to engage in evasive manoeuvres to avoid getting struck by debris thrown into space. Pirate fighter craft rallied and sought to opened fire along with some elements of the pirates' larger ships, perhaps to attempt a breakthrough by making a fighting retreat. Missiles streaked towards the Star Destroyer and the turbolasr batteries changed target to launch a barrage of red laser fire against the onslaught of missiles. Explosions far superior to those of an action holo-movie erupted as the missiles were shot down.

Guided by the Force, Siobhan, along with the other gunners, unleashed volley after volley as they were constantly fed new targets, though care had to be taken to prevent overheating. Some missiles passed through the crossfire and met their targets, but the Star Destroyer had strong shields. Retreating interceptors were caught in the hailstrom and went down.

 

[Vora Kaar]

Zero had his modified X-wing called "Blade" already on and waiting for the signal to attack. He was to get onto the station and take it over. While killing Bandits and what not. the engines wine as he heard over his com system "All ships, begin the attack. Concentrate on their bigger ships first and prevent any of them escaping the surface. Station boarding team, you are cleared to go," Zero pulled up on the joystick to raise the X-wing off of the Bay floor and into the battle of the stars.

Zero told his crew in short that they would take the station over by getting to the control room and shutting all of the firing systems down and taking out the bandits. He would let them do their work to get him. They were to secure the area while he hacked they system. Zero was glad that he had alot of the new weaponry but still kept his signature Songsteel blue sword and Daggers.

Zero flashed though the space between the Destroyer class ship and the space station. The ships that they were fighting were cargo hullers and transports that were modified for battle. there were a few who had fighters and interceptors most likely stolen from different companies. Zero took a few out chasing them for a few seconds and blasting them into pieces with his laser cannons. Zero counted 5 ships in all so far. Because he had to get his job done he turned the ship to the space station and zoomed for the hangar bay.

Zero slowly landed in the hangar with troops surrounding his ship. Zero had added some cloth that went around his neck and body to look like he was a smuggler of sorts. he also wore smuggler like pants over his black and blue armor. The only thing that would look different would be his helm. Zero took the simple route of playing dumb and would attack them when they wouldnt expect it. He got out of his ship and gingerly stepped down to face them all. he raised his hands and said "Why would you point a gun at one of your own man?" he tried to sound like a normal human rather than sound like he was writing a poem. He always sounded like he talked in riddles.

The men looked at him. One of them finally piped up and said "What do you want?" Zero looked at him and say what looked to be a boy about 20. The gun in his hands shakes like it was an 8.7 earthquake. Zero said to all of them as a bluff "I have their battle plans I think we can destroy their ship a certain way. I need to get to the command room." As if on cue his troop burst in with their ships and gunned them down. All of them were shot or sliced by Zeros team or himself. he had used his sword to cut the boys arm off and then stabbed him. He knew that he was betrayed and had hate in his eyes when he died.

Zero just took off towards the command center alone. he had grabbed some ammo from his team and left. He carried a few grenades with him as well. he didnt like bandits and smugglers even though he was kind of in a group with them. he worked for the Omega Pyre. he trained from the Mandos. and fought Jedi who are now laying in the dirt or are ashes from being cremated. Zero wasn't going to let some bandit who thought he is the hero stand in his way. He'd cut them down before they could even blink.