Ship: Modified
Rectifier Heavy Cruiser named
Verdict
- Composite lasers replaced with NNJ-40 ION canons, optimized for stunning.
- Big Cat lasers replaced with heavy duty Harpoon and Towcable turrets.
- Hangar: one squadron of outdated surplus B-wings (two seated).
- Aft cockpit turret is substituted with a Harpoon and Towcable for towing purposes.
"Well, it's a good thing we didn't spend a lot of money to get here." Grumbled Carvahan, one of Way'lurr's senior managers on board the Verdict. Way'lurr grunted his agreement in response.
The entire space-scape before them was a floating scrap-heap of twisted and torn metal hulls. Most of the ship designs were unknown to The
Verdict's databases, but even if they were, most of them were too torn up to determine their exact make or model without a proper forensics investigation. Whatever battle had taken place here, it had been utterly brutal.
"At least we can get the scrap metal salvage" chimed in Breve, optimistic as ever. As a fellow senior officer, Breve's endless optimism was an appropriate offset to Carvahan's pessimism.
"We're not spice-heads, Breve! Stripping out piping and rare semiconductors takes time and the cost wouldn't be worth it. Man-hours are expensive and we're not properly outfitted to disseminate these derelicts efficiently." Countered Carvahan with an irritated tone. Ultimately, Carvahan was probably right. Whoever had fought here, both sides had been vicious and thorough with their kills.
"There are better things we can be doing with our time."
Antio sighed and walked away from his two senior managers. Pensively, he strode over to the massive bridge viewport that made up the entire forward wall and rested his hands on the railing. He mulled over the words of his managers while passively scanning the scene with his keen pinniped eyes. He hoped that maybe his Dornean vision would give him some kind of sign that this trip would be worth it that his ship's sensors might've missed. It happened sometimes.
"What about that distress signal?" Antio asked over his shoulder,
"some agencies pay out well for rescue efforts"
"Only if there's some kind of posted reward." Carvahan explained. His tone contained his annoyance at having explained this before,
"There was a reason that this particular tip-off made it all the way to Abridon before we finally bought it. Tip-offs with posted rewards tend to not get very far before they're gobbled up by contractors."
"Yes, yes. I've never done this job before." Antio retorted sarcastically. He had over a century of experience doing this sort of thing,
"but since we are passing through on our way to Vengler, it can't hurt to take a look. And we're ahead of schedule for our delivery anyways. I think we should do an exploration of that wrecked star destroyer over there." With a thick Dornean finger, he pointed at the largest hulk of metal in the debris field.
"Why that one?" Breve asked.
Antio grinned, happy to show off to his crew again,
"because there's a First Order code written on the side of the hull."
"First Order!?" Both men came up beside Antio on either side to look where he was pointing.
"Wow, you have good eyes, Captain." Breve commented,
"is that the one that was mentioned in the distress call?"
"It must be," Antio answered,
"there's no other ship that could fit the description"
"Kark," muttered Carvahan.
Antio Way'lurr knew exactly what he was thinking,
"now that we've identified the ship we're legally obliged to search it for survivors" he explained with a warning in his tone.
"That signal had a 12 year old time-stamp." Carvahan moaned,
"surely the statutes of limitations has expired on that transmission"
Antio shook his head firmly,
"some worlds recognize the statutes, but not all. And if we violate conventionally recognized rescue protocols, we could lose potential job contracts in the future. We need to be going out of our way for this to increase our viability for high-end contracts. So… we are searching that ship."
Carvahan shook his head stubbornly but didn't protest. He knew Antio was right, but he hated having to do a job where credit returns were not the end results.
Finally, Carvahan sighed and wheeled on his heels,
"alright, sir. I'll go put a boarding party together. I'd like to get this done as quickly as possible"
And with that, he marched out of the bridge.
LATER…
The Devaronian Chief of staff, Lune, and his entourage of 40 suited-up employees stood just inside of the forward egress bay on board the Verdict. They all stood there, waiting for the red light to turn green and the massive door to open so they could space-walk into the
Der Flugel. They didn't have any shuttles, so an EVA incursion between the star destroyer and the
Verdict was the only effective option for getting boots inside the wrecked ship. Luckily,
Verdict had been designed for such boarding actions back when it had been originally built as a warship for the Elysium Empire. It was designed to hold itself in place with tractor beams while the forward egress bays puked out soldiers into whatever ship it was fighting at the time. Since being converted into a hunting vessel, those bays had been, more often than not, used to hold large kills and cargo for profiteering purposes.
It was nice to use those bays for their intended purpose once again. Especially with the potential for armed security droids on board the other ship.
The light turned green and Lune checked his blaster. Then, the doors opened up. Magnetic pads in the floor kept him and his men from getting swept away by the torrent of venting atmosphere into the void. Once the doors were all the way open and the air was vented, the magnetic locks and artificial gravity released, and the group of men shoved off with their feet expertly to start them drifting towards the star destroyer.
He kept his jetpack bursts to a minimum to conserve fuel as his team followed him in. He carefully navigated the floating chunks of scrap metal, and angled for the exposed decks that had been made accessible by the removal of the star destroyer's forward hull.
Finally, as they drew close enough to see things clearly, Lune angled his flight path towards what looked like the remains of a large, empty mess-hall. As he drifted in, he re-oriented his body so that his feet would land on the floor where the tables used to be. One-by-one, each person touched down and then turned to help their comrades land safely. As their boots touched the deck, they activated magnetic locks to keep themselves grounded.
Once everyone was secured to the floor, he turned to his men and activated his Commlink,
"Alright, let's get started. This looks like a pressurized door, and it looks locked, which means it could be holding air on the other side. If we can open it and close it behind us, I'm willing to bet that we'll be able to search the rest of the ship in some kind of pressurized atmosphere. I still don't want to breath the air in case it's poisonous, but being able to hear is a nice bonus. So don't wreck the door to open it! Once we're inside, watch the corners and doors in case those droids are still active and have itchy trigger fingers. Let's get this done quickly, but also safely. Use your hand signals whenever you can just in case our encryptions are broken by security measures. The less we give anyone to listen to, less likely our encryptions are to be broken. Any questions?"
No one spoke up. This was their second briefing for this mission, so it was just a redundancy.
"Alright, let's get this door open! Narkeem, you're up!"
Baron Von Nuked
Captain Antio Way’lurr
