A Piracy Problem (OP Vandelhelm Dominion)

[Cira]

@[member="Siobhan Kerrigan"]

One can't quite hide their force signature and then still USE the Force. So while Siobhan was having her up and personal jaunt with the wurm, Cira followed up behind with what she could do sans Force, sending a volley of green bolts towards the wurm just as the large piece of the gunship slammed into it.

Distraction was the key, and the Major certainly provided it in spades! A hidden smirk drew across the Prex's lips at Siobhan's gusto. Well done, she thought to herself. She'd have words with the Major later, but for now... Her visored helmet jerked towards the worm. There were other pressing matters. Swinging the blaster rifle to her back, she pulled out two vibroshivs. This... was going to be fun.

Without further ado, as the wurm gave a terrifying screech at Siobhan, it's jaws and mantecles quivering as it attempted to clamp it's jaw over her again, Cira sprung forward, her body flying in the air onto the wurm's back. She landed hard, twin shivs digging deep into the wurm's back, providing her a method of climbing up behind it, almost riding it, as it howled.

It jerked, it's body recoiling in protest, but Cira pressed on, enjoying the wild ride. Legs swung, and her arms tensed as she held on, but she would not be bucked. She had a couple of grenades she'd been itching to use...

 

[Siobhan Kerrigan]

@[member="Tegaea Alcori"], @[member="Cira"]

The maw had been towering over Siobhan and in the process of trying to seize her in its gaping maw when Cira suddenly jumped through the air and landed on the sandworm's back, climbing up to ride the beast. Nice. Apparently Siobhan and Tegaea weren't the only ones who liked to have one hell of a ride and induldge in slightly crazy heroics! The worm's fangs had cut deep into Siobhan's flesh hand and she grit her teeth at the pain before she scored a deep cut across its mouth.

Now with Cira on top it recoiled and its massive body jerked, temporarily providing Siobhan with some breathing space as moved away, before attacking again. Cira was giving the beast a good ride, digging in with her shivs, so with that Siobhan went on the offensive again to help her from down under.

Running she held her sabre high and brought it down to chop off one of the beast's tendrils, then whirled to clove her sabre into its slithering form before cutting off another tentacle. The worm shook violently itself, trying to throw Cira off and at the same time spraying acid towards Siobhan. Some of it struck the wreckage of the broken gunship and burnt through it. Siobhan dashed to the side, trying to evade its blasts, jumping.

With a tug from the Force she brought up a discarded heavy repeater that lay close to the wreckage of the gunship and squeezed the trigger, sending a hailstrom of highly-powered bolts into the worm's head and tearing in wounds before it blasted another salvoe of acid at her that burnt the repeater as if it were paper. Siobhan dove and landed on the ground hard, she jerked painfully at feeling a burning sensation. By now her tattered uniform was ripped in places, her right shoulder exposed and her face splattered with blood. She rose painfully with a groan, then advanced upon the creature with an angry yell, swirling about the behemoth like an ant and raining a vicious flurry of cuts on it and slashing at it.

 

[Valiens Nantaris]

Tegaea did not have the suicidal wizardry of @[member="Siobhan Kerrigan"] and @[member="Cira"], but she did have some very practical solutions. Siobhan attacked and Cira climbed on the creature, but Tegaea had a better solution.

She returned to the fallen gunship and gathered up her commlink. "@[member="Allaina Mare"], we have a giant monster here to needs killing. Report your position. Siobhan, (Cira), we have heavy ordinance incoming. Get yourselves clear!"

 

[Qae Shena]

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

"I am currently en route to your position, ma'am. Triangulated and inbound. ETA five minutes. Everyone get clear and I'll pick you up." Fortunately, allied comms could do that. When a crashed gunship... well, crashed, it set off an emergency locator beacon. These beacons were standard safety features for recovery so that help knew where it was going to head to. So when Allaina needed to find them, she could find them.

Five minutes was being generous, though. She could really push and make it faster if she had to. Besides, she had to consider the words thrown at her - giant monster killing was not her field of expertise, but if it needed killing... she had the goods.

 

[Siobhan Kerrigan]

@[member="Tegaea Alcori"], @[member="Cira"], @[member="Allaina Mare"]

Siobhan had been slashing at the towering behemoth like possessed when heard Tegs' command, trying to duck and spin when the beast struck at her with its fangs and tentacles.

It was a bit difficult to her boss over the noise caused by the worm's screeching. Judging by how loud it was the worm seemed intent on blowing up her ears. Really, she was not being suicidal in the slightest, she thought when she swung her blade to shear off another tentacle and then jumped upward to stab it into one of the creature's beady eyes. A great wind caught her and the worm spat acid, luckily she was able to call on her telekinesis to land more or less safely, then dodged when a tentacle came crashing down on her.

"Really, boss, I'll have it killed soon! It ain't much bigger than the terentatek!" she called back to Tegs. "Alright, pulling back," she amended when more acid got sprayed towards her.

"Got an air strike incoming, let's go!" she called to Cira. Unleashing a flurry of cuts at the worm to keep it at bay she started to pull back towards Tegs, who just had to offer a mundane and practical solution!

 

[Valiens Nantaris]

Tegaea continued to fire from behind a rock, aiming for the eyes and head of the creature while Siobhan got clear. Now all that was needed was for @[member="Cira"] to get clear and they could turn this worm into compost.
"Make sure you get well clear, @[member="Siobhan Kerrigan"]!" she advised. It wasn't really necessary, but it might help.

 

[Siobhan Kerrigan]

"Aw, your concern for me warms my heart...ma'am! I'll just tell the little beastie I don't have permission to be devoured," Siobhan exclaimed, moving as fast as her legs could carry her. Her legs hurt from being struck and her being thrown around a lot, she stumbled over some wreckage and then the worm sprayed acid at her. She dove downward to the right and then ran.

Pulling a blaster rifle up with telekinesis she got off a few laser shots at the worm's large, beady eyes before tossing the gun down as it advanced relentlessly upon her. Sprinting as fast as she could she linked up with @[member="Tegaea Alcori"] by the rocks.

 

[Valiens Nantaris]

"Nothing in the intel mentioned giant worms that spit acid!" Tegaea complained. "Where is that airstrike?" she cried aloud.

The worm was getting pretty damn close....

 

[Cira]

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

She didn't need further prompting. Drawing her shivs from the wurm as he bucked, she flung herself back, falling in a roll onto the ground. "Go go go!" she screamed out, knowing that as soon as she cleared they would be able to do the air strike.

Ducking behind cover and breathing hard, she waited, but not before a chuck of acid went spilling out towards it. It stuck to her, fizzing and already eating away at the spidersilk armor.

Nek take it!

 

[Siobhan Kerrigan]

@[member="Cira"], @[member="Tegaea Alcori"], @[member="Allaina Mare"]

"Would've ruined the surprise. Besides, this is us, you think things can be simple? The universe has to top us killing all the beasties of the Shadowlands somehow." Siobhan responded to Tegs' complaint as she jumped into cover.

In a somewhat bizarre sort of way...that made sense. At least if one followed the rules of drama. Or thought that maybe there were spirits in the void who viewed their exploits as entertainment and occasionally intervened to spice things up a bit!

The worm came closer, spraying salvoes of acid at them...

 

[Qae Shena]

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

The passing of a huge shadow and the sudden loud roar of engines overhead heralded the arrival of the Inimica gunship, its pilot intent on pushing its engines to their absolute maximum. The worm in question was a particularly large and nasty creature, one that needed some severe killing this time. While the others were clear of it and the chance was there to use some of the heavier ordnance, it was a soft and squishy target. Using something designed to kill metal space behemoths was a little overkill.

That still meant she could have fun with it.

"Arm concussion missile turrets."

"Ready to fire."

The crew all knew what this meant: unload some missile pain on the gigantic sand worm that was going to eat a small part of the Omega Pyre command.

"Fire!"

With that, two missiles shot forth from the top-mounted turrets, seeking their prey with unerring machine accuracy. The second they impacted, they detonated in a fiery blossom, obliterating the upper half of the worm's body and a good chunk of what remained underground, spraying blood and worm bits everywhere. One of the eyeballs ended up on Allaina's cockpit window.

Ew.

 

[Siobhan Kerrigan]

The great beast was incinerated in a large explosion, its loud shrieks resounded throughout the desert. Blood and bits of it were sprayed across the landscape, debris from the wrecked gunship was thrown up.

Siobhan gave the bomber crew a cheesy thumbs-up as she emerged from cover to behold the carnage they had caused. "I love the smell of napalm in the morning. It smells like victory," she said happily, partly because this one likes making obscure references.

"Well, ain't napalm, but still. Nothing like a big bang to light up the mood."

 

[Valiens Nantaris]

Tegaea saw the bomber incoming and ducked down just as the detonations ripped the monster to shreds. A piece of the creature landed just behind her and steamed gently, unleashing a distressing smell.
She stood and cheered, giving Siobhan a hug. "Nice shot @[member="Allaina Mare"], that was one in a million!" she called into her comm, because she could make references too!

If all the world was a stage, then it seemed like the entire galaxy had been watching this cataclysmic battle. Now the last few spots of resistance began to give up. The pirates had bet on their worm, and it had been smoked.

 

[Cira]

Stars did the thing smell like a month year old bantha left to rot. Even her helmet didn't hide the odor, it reeked.

Crawling up to her feet, Cira gave a once over at the remnants of the wurm, the bomber crew, and the rest of the ground troopers. A wide grin grew over her lips, joining Siobhan and the others. Coming to a stop next to her, she gave a bloody acid bubbling chuck of wurm a kick. It went bouncing with a bit of a jiggle a couple of feet.

"Not to shabby," she said with praise, "Not too shabby at all. "

 

[Siobhan Kerrigan]

Siobhan returned Tegaea's hug, grinning, then surveyed the carnage they had caused. The mercenaries she had left behind in the tunnel were linking up them, alongside the freed miners and captured pirates.

Bit by bit the surviving pirates came out of their holes and threw away their guns and blades. With the worm gone, their Captain beaten and their ships blown out of the sky, they had no ace left to play and were at the mercy of the Omega forces.

They were free to assume direct control.

The foul smell of the worm invaded her nostrils. The creature reeked. Maybe the pirates could make themselves by moving the cadaver out of the way. She grinned at Cira. "Not at all. Totally think we could've taken it though."

 

[Valiens Nantaris]

Tegaea shrugged. "Maybe. Didn't want you girls to have all the fun though. I didn't come equipped for monster hunting though, so I bombed the shit out of it. Works well enough most of the time!"

She looked at the crashed gunship and her mood turned reflective. "Poor pilot. We'll make sure any of our people who have families gets an extra bonus," she said aloud. Not a question, a statement.

 

[Cira]

The voice came a bit distorted, but the amusement was there, "That we could have, " her head swiveled from Siobhan to Tegaea, "Colonel, good to see you still kicking." there was a slight tease to the comment, but still respectful.

Still had to keep appearances.

At the comment about bonuses, she gave a silent nod. It was how they worked after all. They took care of their own. And that included their families.

 

[Valiens Nantaris]

Tegaea turned to her. Having been about to avoid creating an actual alias for Cira so far until the 98th post, this writer will create one now. Note, Allota Asse was rejected for some reason by @[member="Cira"]'s writer.

"Thank you, Tara. Good to see you didn't end up eaten by a giant worm. That would have been...unfortunate." She grinned and gave her boss a hug. The fact that Cira was resolutely straight had always been a source of sorrow for Tegaea, but she had @[member="Siobhan Kerrigan"] which more than compensated!

 

[Cira]

"Thank you Admiral," came the slightly distorted and metallic reply from the undercover Prex, her own arms coming round to return the hug. It wasn't unusually, for Omega Pyre employee's to show personal displays of affection, especially after a victory. Sometimes, one had to enjoy the brief lulls that offered a time to relax and show a level of camaraderie over the events that had transpired.

Out in the distance, the hum of engines gave the forewarning of incoming ships. Out in the horizon, the silhouette of Omega Pyre's shuttles came to view. All in all, it was a good day.

And yes, she totally had Allotta Asse.

 

[Siobhan Kerrigan]

Siobhan nodded at Tegs' words about bonuses. Omega Pyre shuttles came swooping down upon the planet. Now that the pirates had been beaten all that was left to handle were bureaucratic details to organise the speedy takeover of the mining business by Omega.

No doubt this was important but not the sort of work Siobhan dealt with usually. "So...victory party, ma'am?" she asked innocently, placing just enough emphasis on the last word to make it sound anything but. "Since we were all so heroic and kicked lots of arse! I look forward to the...debriefing."

Yes, debriefing. They had to go over certain tactical positions. Maybe Tara could join them. Besides, Tegs stll needed to enforce discipline on Siobhan for having an unauthorised leave of absence on Hapes.