Going Full Booster(Underground, Rebellion, Ask)

[Arage Bao]

[member="Kitt Solo"] | [member="Flint Michigan"] | [member="Jorus Merrill"] | [member="Tiam Bai"]

As Khal stepped outta the bay of his little ship he blinked. Thing is, he had never been very much in tune with shet like the Force, so bullcrap like ‘It felt as if a billion voices yadadada’, that stuff? It didn’t happen to him, but one step after another and Khaleel found himself looking at a distinct direction. If his gaze had been able to penetrate the hull of the Grave Wind, go right through time and space he might have just seen the planet of Corellia - shattered in two.

But he couldn’t, it wasn’t the scoundrel’s forte. So the only thing he was left with was a very uncomfortable feeling of wrongness, but Khal shook it off, probably still the effects of the empath or something else. Not his problem at present, gasmask on the guy trundled outta the bay proper now and took a wide look.

Most of the crew, the Fringe crew, were pretty much knocked out right now. Not sure how long that would stay though, so he called out to Flint.

‘Nexu, we better get goin’, man. You with me?’

 

[Jorus Merrill]

[member="Kitt Solo"] [member="Tiam Bai"] [member="Flint Michigan"] [member="Khaleel Malvern"]

The Gypsymoth touched down and decloaked. From it emerged a pair of high-capacity Underground commando squads, each sheltering engineering packets. Their job was to blitz to main engineering by two good routes. Another half-squad took up defensive positions.

And then came the droids. Coma gas wasn't enough; this ship had a crew of thousands. The goal here was for the labor droids to drag the unconscious crewers to escape pods, pack them in, and send them on their way. The Underground could replace the escape pods later.

 

[Valik]

[member="Kitt Solo"] [member="Tiam Bai"] [member="Khaleel Malvern"] [member="Jorus Merrill"]

Valik held the woman up, and he could feel how limp she was. How weak she was in this moment. With Flint's mental handicaps and experiences he'd have likely crushed her in this moment, but instead the Sith Alchemist was hear to comfort the mechanic. She said her family was gone, and Valik knew why. If things were different he could said any number of things to her, but now he needed maintain his disguise. So while bodies dropped and tears flowed Valik used the smugglers body to pull Kitt closer, squeezing her tight.

"I'm here for you." He said. One did not possess the child of Anders Sivas or the smuggler Flint Michigan without learning a bit about how to emulate emotion. Thankfully, for both their sakes, she began to pull away, his grip loosening as she physically tried to get away, saying she'd find him on the comms. Valik looked at her with concerned eyes for a moment, pausing his activity.

"You take all the time you need Kitt. I'll be back as soon as I can." He said, then walked out off the freighter slowly, taking a moment here and there too look backwards at the mechanic, should she still be there. He'd then look around and spot Khaleel and wave him over, though the scoundrel wouldn't detect him in the Force due to Art of the Small.

"Watch the astromech droids. Thick plating, energy resistance, EMP resistance, and a stun blaster that goes through armor." Valik/Flint said to the smuggler as he loaded up buckshot and cryoshells into his bloodstripe. Being a Fringe Scientist he knew a bit about GT-F0's, and that Ashin would have put a few here if this ship was half as valuable as he thought. He'd continue on into the corridors of the ship, setting the pace and keeping his weapon raised. He'd blast a couple of GT-F0's, shameful waste, and make the occasional turn out of nowhere. Valik wasn't privy to the construction of the Grave Wind, but he knew the schematics of the XoXaan it was based on, and he knew from Jorus's intel that the bridge was probably hidden in a more armored center.

Wise move Varanin. He thought to himself.

 

[Arage Bao]

[member="Kitt Solo"] | [member="Tiam Bai"] | [member="Valik"] | [member="Jorus Merrill"]

Loaded the bloodstripe with the gear, he had heard of the GT-F0s of course. Courtesy of his time with Merrill and his general time with the Fringe, good times… some of the times at least. Gave him some valuable insight in how they operated, what their motives were and how they went around to accomplish ‘em. Really, honestly? They weren’t all that bad, not really. They were trying their darnest, just… weren’t all that good in doing it in a right and proper manner for the rest of the folk.

Sure, it was all about perspective, Khaleel mused to himself as he loaded round after round, shooting the dang things. But when ya are a nation that harbors Sith Lords of the worst kind? Zambrano being a respected and powerful Lord in his own right within their nation? You are really doing something wrong, or perhaps he was missing some valuable clue. ‘Cause he would admit readily that he had no idea how nation-building went around, the lad had better things to do then trying to figure it out.

‘Don’t think the captain is home, Nexu.’ Khaleel finally said, after they came deeper into the folds. It was an estimate, perhaps Varanin was here, but knowing her? (which is knowledge didn’t really go that intimately) but knowing what he did, she wouldn’t have been sitting in a locked bridge, twiddling her thumbs while her ship was being boarded.

Nah, she would be busy kicking ass.

 

[Kitt Solo]

[member="Khaleel Malvern"] [member="Valik"] [member="Khaleel Malvern"]

She watched Flint leave through the slightly blurry gas-mask. The feeling of Corellia's destruction throbbed like an open wound against her senses. The force was doing wonky things since all those people disappeared but unfortunately, this wasn't one of those times. She could really go for feelings of non-pain right now.

She didn't know how long she leaned against the inner wall of the freighter: seconds, minutes, an hour or two. Taking a breath through the slightly foggy-mask, she finally pushed away from the wall. She hit the switch to the inner-comm.

"Flint," voice was stronger than before but held an edge, "I'm gonna help clear out the unconscious bodies to the escape pods." Some of these people she used to work with in the Fringe. "I'll keep this channel open. If you need me, I'll be working in the lower levels."

She was prepared to blast some enemy droids with some raw force power, too.

 

[Tiam Bai]

[member="Flint Michigan"] | [member="Kitt Solo"] | [member="Khaleel Malvern"] | [member="Jorus Merrill"]




For the sake of everyone getting on with their posts, Tiam went off in a totally opposite direction from Kitt in the lower levels. She planned to work alone for this leg of the trip. Should anyone need her well....tough luck, as Tiam was fairly certain the ship was large and she couldn't just teleport around on a whim.


The blue-skinned woman hopped into a turbolift and disappeared for now.

 

[Valik]

[member="Khaleel Malvern"] [member="Kitt Solo"] [member="Jorus Merrill"]

"Flint" nodded. If Ashin were here she'd have probably gotten on the comms and told them to get off or die by now. Unless she intentionally wanted to trap them and take them down at the bridge, but Valik didn't see such a plot in the middle of this chaos. Valik kept on guard though. One could never be quite certain with a woman like her.

"If she is fall back and I'll try to cover you." Valik responded as he pressed forward, still setting the pace and heading forward, taking a moment as he walked to reload his bloodstripe's buckshot. Didn't want to use the cryoshells just yet if he could avoid it. A ping would go off in his ear.

"Copy that Kitt. Tell me when if you need anything. I'll be done soon." Valik said to Kitt on the commlink as he stopped. They had reached the bridge, or the door too it. 'Flint' would take a deep breath, and then shake a little.

"Alright. Let's do this." Valik said and pressed the door open, bloodstripe up and ready to blast whatever might be waiting inside.

 

[Jorus Merrill]

[member="Valik"] [member="Tiam Bai"] [member="Kitt Solo"] [member="Khaleel Malvern"]

Jorus and his two commando teams, each cutting their way to Main Engineering by a separate route, weren't using Bloodstripes, at least not primarily. Oh, a CryoBan shell popped GT-F0 hydraulics in pleasant ways, but QQ-4RD-1K Thunderclap Electroray Carbines worked just fine too. The Fringe anti-boarding droids could shrug off good-sized EMPs and ion weaponry and electrocution, but flamethrower-range electrorays had been designed for this, and had the blessed side-effect of leaving their targets intact. The rush and whine and actinic glare of Thunderclap weaponry presaged the Underground commandos' entrance to main engineering by three separate doors. That glare got more pronounced as the heavy ion wave projectors made short work of anti-boarding droids, Fringe hand weaponry, and various elements of exposed electronics.

At which point systems all across the ship began to flicker and die. Main Engineering was a really good place to use electrorays.

 

[Ashin Varanin]

[member="Khaleel Malvern"] [member="Valik"]

Valik's supposition was correct: Ashin was not aboard the Grave Wind. Grand theft starship, it seemed, was an occupational hazard of splitting her flag between two worthy ships. She was on the Chimaera leading Obsidian Fleet against reavers off Eriadu, at this point. And Valik was entirely correct about her proclivities. By now she'd have popped up in the hangar bay, lightsabre chewing into the Underground's boarding freighters, using herself as bait to split their attention while her forces pushed them out. And afterwards, she'd have had some pointed words for Rakata Beta system defense forces. But none of the above could happen, because she was around eight thousand parsecs away, as the Oswaft flies.

 

[Arage Bao]

[member="Ashin Varanin"] [member="Valik"]

Khaleel did not mention how thinly the space-time continuum was currently being stretched by Varanin’s assertion, considering he himself had been or would be or currently was on Eriadu. Perhaps he had left the sector shortly after making contact with his smuggling bands and hyperaccelerated his ship fast enough to touch base with Flint and Merrill, maybe.

In the grand scheme of things it mattered little though, the show must go on and all that crap. They finally entered the bridge and Khal’s bloodstripe roared. It would be a bloody or at least, slightly bloody day today. There weren’t all that many people left on board, rapture had ensured that the ship was run by a skeleton crew.

Boom.

Another one bites the dust, at this rate they might even surrender.

 

[Kitt Solo]

[member="Khaleel Malvern"] [member="Jorus Merrill"] [member="Valik"]

Yet another escape-pod launched. The lights flickered. She pressed the internal comms. "Flint. Looks like we got some system malfunctions down here. You gettin' the same?"

A kill bolt sailed from behind and cut across the outside of her shoulder. She rolled to the right as two of the destroyer's remaining battle droids whirred in. "Feth me." Warm breath fogged into her mask.

 

[Valik]

[member="Khaleel Malvern"] [member="Jorus Merrill"] [member="Kitt Solo"]

Khaleel shot down one of the remaining conscious members of the bridge. More brutal than he expected, but an effective intimidation tactic. One he'd have to clean up later. Or you know what? He'd just get Flint to do it.

"Yeah, we're getting some flickering. I'm gonna try to isolate the problem and reroute power." Vaflint replied as he began messing with the consoles. Cybernetic countermeasures were present, pilots having identification codes, but Valik didn't have too much issue slicing through them. Fringe military cybersecurity was a subject he was rather familiar with. With time he had control of most all of the systems of the ship, making sure to reroute power around Main Engineering. Put a lot of strain on the Main Reactor, but he didn't need the ship to much at the moment. Just make a hyperspace jump and get out of here.

"Attention to all scoundrels, smugglers, and rapp-scallions. As of right now this ship is ours. Let's get the rest of the Fringe personnel out and let's get home."