Peek-a-BOOM

[ADM. Reshmar]

Reshmar listened to Master Raaf's transmission then turned to the communications station and its charge officer. "Commander, Have the INterdictor target the areas directly in line with those escaping ships. Inform the Aurora vessels They are to let nothing get out of the system. We will deal with what ever is hiding out there." Reshmar finihsed and turned to lok out at the distance. The massive amount of fire in the distance had to have made the ship change course to avoid it by now. The fire had been spread so that there were only three possible courses for a ship to take to avoid it. Those were where he now looked.

"Tactical, fire on these three coordinates, seventy degree spread." ordered the Mon Calamari Admiral. The prow of the Scythe lit up as the massive weapons load erupted out at space and the invisible foe in the distance. seconds later Reshmar saw what he was looking for. fire hit a dead spot in space.

"There she is, Tactical, guns free hit her with everything we have!" said Reshmar. The weapons of the battlecruiser slowly paused then reignited all now bearing on the ship in the distance. The volley of energy and torpedoes slammed into the now targeted ship. It's cloaking field blinking then disappearing to reveal an ancient Recusant-class Destroyer. The ship was old but more ship than Reshmar could have ever imagined a pirate organization could muster, yet here it was. The ship now turning to engage the Scythe.

"It looks like they are done hiding." Reshmar said as the massive ship in the distance opened fire on the Scythe.

[member="Taeli Raaf"] [member="Gir Quee"]

 

[ADM. Reshmar]

IN the distance the Sabertooth assault ship had disgorged its assault troops who now fought a running battle through the disabled Dauntlass cruiser. The assault force had caught most of the pirates off guard when the hull of the ship exploded in and the zero G troopers rushed in as the atmosphere of the corridors evacuated through the gaping maw the cutting beams had left. The forces rushed to take engineering and command as fast as possible. Engineering had been fairly easy as most of the ships crew were taken out by the initial decompression of the ship as the Sabertooth opened its corridors to vacuum. The group of assault troops sent to the command section had been slowed as the majority of the crew in that direction had been safe behind sealed bulkheads and now fought to defend the ships bridge.

"this is the last bulkhead, blow it!" said the assault leader. seconds later the pressurized door caught fire along its edges as breaching chargers burnt through the armor then exploded inward sending the door into the command section of the ship. Instantly the heat dissipated around the hole as the cold of space rushed at it. the implosion of the door had struck a group of pirates who now lay dead on the floor of the room. The remaining pirates grabbed at anything they could as the air in the room rushed out of the door down the corridors and out into space. The Assault troopers in their zero G armor remained in place as their grav boots locked them down. fire erupted from the room as a few of the pirates attempted to kill the lead trooper through the door. It was a forlorn point as the pirates in the ship were beginning to cough and struggle as they succumb to vacuum.

The assault on the Dauntless had lasted less than twenty minutes. The forces from the Sabertooth now controlled engineering and command. The few pirates hiding in the ships interior, huddles in sections still sealed and closed to the vacuum which now filled most of the ship were of no threat. They could be dealt with after the ship was secured and operational status was returned to the ships systems.

"Con, this is leader, we have the ship." said the assault commander as he sat down to begin the chore of restoring the ships power.

[member="Taeli Raaf"] [member="Gir Quee"]

 

[Gir Quee]

Stormfire-class Assault Frigate Watchkeeper

A quartet of small craft leapt out of the station's hangar bay, exchanging fire with the incoming Lucerne Lab's gunships before scampering away towards the larger ships of the pirate fleet. Gir tapped several buttons on his console, bringing up a tactical map overlayed with the targeting data of his ship's weapons. As he did so, he could see the port mass driver batteries begin to fire. Dark gray shells surged out of the cannons in the general direction of the craft before they seemed to fall apart to reveal smaller objects. The concussion missiles activated, flaring up into brilliant shades of orange as they activated in the midst of the cluster of pirate small craft. The nearest craft, a classic YT-series light freighter, didn't even have a chance to respond before the missiles began to impact its hull. The craft began to wildly spin as the missiles began to rip it apart. The other criminal craft scattered, but not before a trio of missiles overran and then overwhelmed an elderly Z-95. The atmospheric fighter disappeared in an effervescent ball of fiery gases and metal shards.

"Looks like two got away," said Welche, stepping towards Gir's station.

"For the moment," muttered Gir, zooming in on the tactical map to enlarge the surviving fighters, "but those look like IRD-As. They shouldn't be able to escape to hyperspace on their own...unless they're modified..."

"Small fry on their own. Two fighters like that can't cause too much damage on their own. Even if they escape, it won't be enough to help rebuild the group."

"Tactically, I'd agree with you...it's more of an issue that we don't know who's onboard them. If it's the leader or an important person in one of those ships...it's more of an issue than the material nature of the craft themselves..."

"They're getting out of weapon's range," observed Welche.

"Conventional weapon's range," corrected Gir, watching the vessels flee, "let's give them a salvo of Carwennans."

"A little on the small side to hit with those missiles..."

"Who said we were going to their ships with the missiles?"

 

[Taeli Raaf]

[member="Reshmar"] [member="Gir Quee"]

Clicking off her comlink from the overarching channel, Taeli turned back to leading her forces into the breach as it were. The pirates seemed to be desperate now, but nothing they could think of seemed to stop the Herald and Harbinger droids from advancing while Aurora security mopped up behind them.

"Ma'am, we've located and secured two stygium crystal storage areas," one of her lieutenants reported over the Aurora comm line. "However, we've been finding all computers scrubbed of data. The pirates seem to be wiping all records to deprive us of any information on who they're working for."

"Lovely," Taeli sighed, leading the way forward now. Several pirates leveled blaster rifles at her, but she merely activated the spinning feature f her lightsaber and rushed at them, deflecting bolts left and right. Limbs and bodies flew through the air as Taeli attacked, her men following behind her. They had to reach that hanger bay and stop their retreat at all cost.

 

[Taeli Raaf]

[member="Gir Quee"] [member="Reshmar"]

Finally, she broke into the hanger in a whirl of a purple lightsaber blades. The pirates inside, many of them loading crates of crystals onto transports froze in place. Just beyond, she could see the space battle raging and she could see empty berths in the hanger. Some of the pirates had already left for the rest of their fleet.

Before the pirates could react, the Aurora forces boiled inside from the hanger bay entrance and Taeli decided to activate her second lightsaber. Gripping both in the Force, she was surrounded by two spinning amethyst circles of energy as she advanced. Blasters rang out, but they couldn't get past her blades. Using the Force, she would lash out and cripple the landing equipment of the ships in the hanger so they couldn't launch easily.

Her men were fighting it out with the pirates in the hanger bay security station, but they wouldn't be denied in the end. More and more of the station had been cleared after all. This was the final stronghold position for the pirates.

 

[ADM. Reshmar]

The Large Recusant-class Destroyer struck out at the Mon Cal ship with its weapons. It was the last ditch efforts of the pirates to try to get let some escape. The Interdictor would see no one did but the ship in the distance still tried to distract Reshmar and the Scythe. IN the grand scheme of things the Recuscant was no match one on one with the smaller Scythe. Its triple redundancy defenses, and massive prow weapons were more than a match. However currently the bulk of the weapons of the Scythe were not in arc to engage the Recusant, and it was firing on the weaker flank armor of the Mon Calamari vessel.

"Helm turn us into that fire!" Reshmar orders as blast after blast slammed into the shielding of the Scythe. The ships built solely to fight in the forward arc, over two thirds of its weapons were mounted on the ships massive forward fin. The flanking weapons were far less powerful and the armor on the flanks was far thinner than the massively armored prow. The only saving grace for the ship was its shields. They were more than up to the job but even as powerful as they were they would not last long under the heavy fire from the destroyer.

"Coming to corse two three three" said the navigation's officer. The ship started to turn into the oncoming barrage and slowly brought its prow guns to bare. the pirate crewed ship in the distance must now have know much about the Scythe-class. They had pressed their advantage noticing the Scythe was not returning heavy fire. The old ship remained on its coarse toward the Mon Cal vessel, not paying attention to it turning towards them. The full prow of the ship moved into position and now faced the old CIS ship. The shields of the ship still held, but were down to seventy percent now. Reshmar sat quietly waiting for the right moment. He held fire even as his ships captain and the tactical officer impressed the need to fire. He waited as the ship slowly closed. Reshmar sit back then pressed in a command. The tactical officer nodded and smiled. The Scythe dropped its shielding allowing the bolts of the Recusants guns to slam against the thick forward prow then let loose everything it had, shunting power that was meant for the shielding into the guns. Bolt after bolt exploded from the weapons ports as overpowered weapons cycled rapidly under the new power they had been given. Torpedoes belched out of their tubes and sped off at the ship.

The older CIS ship was no match for the power thrown at it. Unlike the Dauntlass which had been far better equipped and a much larger and heavier defended vessel the Shielding, and particularly the hull of the Recusant were not a match for the volley of weapons now finding its target. The shielding blinked and flashed out as bolt after bolt weakened it then brought it down. Ion fire washed over the hull like a wave of white over a sea shores rocks. Turbolasers slammed into the hull singing it then finding its way into the ship opening its hull to vacuum. Then the weapons of the Scythe were silenced and the shields raised as Reshmar watched the three waves of torpedoes slam into the destroyer tearing it apart like savage carnivores over a kill. The ship finally exploded as torpedoes slammed into the engineering section and caused the contained anti-matter to breach containment and react with the matter of the universe. The flash caused the view port to darken and then as it dissipated all that was left of the pirate ship was dust.

Reshmar turned away from the scene and to the ships captain. "Lets finish this, target the frigates and launch all fighters to pursue any craft trying to escape. Gun Free."

[member="Taeli Raaf"] [member="Gir Quee"]

 

[Gir Quee]

Stormfire-class Assault Frigate Watchkeeper

"Missiles away,"said Welche.

Gir glanced at the holo-tank to see a quartet of Carwennan missiles jump out of the Watchkeeper's bow to speed towards the enemy IRDAs. Almost immediately, the missiles' paths diverged to form an erratic spread that could encompass several of the fighters' possible escape paths. The missiles disappeared from visual scanners as their second stage motors fell off. For several tense seconds, the warheads disappeared from view before suddenly reappearing as bright incandescent blobs scattered around the enemy formation. The warheads quickly surged forward to gather in between the two starfighters before detonating. The sympathetic chain of explosions engulfed the fighters in brief brilliant light before fading away to reveal a new nothingness where the IRDAs once soared. Gir turned his attention from that spectacle to size up the rest of the battle on the tactical map. Admiral [member="Reshmar"]'s forces seemed to have cleared space dominance, and Gir had little doubt that [member="Taeli Raaf"] and her men had taken over the majority of station. The height of the battle was over, but perhaps the most important part of the mission had not yet been achieved.

"Helm," decided Gir, "take us towards the disabled ramship."

Welche let a frown creep across his face, "Hardly a prize worth keeping."

"We'll scuttle it once we've had a chance to go over its computers," replied Gir, "and once we figure out where those life form signs are coming from. Could be actual pirate crew, could be innocent people just left onboard...or it could be something else."

"Mynocks," offered Welche.

Gir let a smile sweep across his face, "I really hope not...Tainer will kill us if we get a mynock infestation started on his ship..."

 

[Taeli Raaf]

[member="Gir Quee"] [member="Reshmar"]

After several more minutes of fighting in the hanger, the pirates were all defeated. Some were on their knees, hands behind their heads as Aurora security men held them prisoner. They would be carted off to be interrogated about their employer, as little as these grunts might know. Taeli did know that no one present was an actual leader sadly. Most of those pirates had fled before they could reach the hanger.

"Ma'am, we've begun loading up the stygium for transport back to our facilities," her lieutenant said. "A few pirates are still barricaded in their barracks, but other than that, we have the station. What are your orders?"

"Move all the crystals in this station to the hangers we have our dropships in and load them up," Taeli said. "Have them sent to our shipyards at Scillal for Project Hollow. Otherwise, secure the rest of the station. I think it might be good to establish this place as a watch post and mining station."

"Yes ma'am."

In the first secured hanger, crates of stygium crystals were being hovered into the bays of the dropships. They would fly from there back to the Aurora ships in the allied flotilla while the droids and security men wiped out the last resistance within the base. Pity the computers had been wiped, because Taeli was curious who had hired these men.

 

[Gir Quee]

Stormfire-class Frigate Watchkeeper

The Directorate frigate pulled up alongside the crippled corvette and hauled it in close with its tractor beam projectors. Gir fiddled with the sensor readout on his console's holo-projector. According to the lifeform scanners, there are eight beings on the ramship. It's too bad we can't scan for intelligent life...The lifeform count on the CR-90 quickly shot upwards of two dozen people, causing Gir to turn his gaze towards Welche.

"Did Sergeant Weatherbee's men just board the Mind Spider?"

"They did, they're entering through the port airlock now," said Welche, typing in commands to the CIC's main holo-projector.

The projector began to hum as it coalesced to form real-time footage from one of the boarder's helmet-cams. While the footage was a little shaky, Gir could see from the interior of the Mind Spider seemed almost stock, though poorly maintained. But then again, if you're going to destroy the ship...why bother on the little niceties of spotless floors...Several minutes passed as the squad searched the vessel, but it seemed empty of both natural life and droids, almost like a ghost ship to Gir's eyes. The squad finally entered the normal bridge of the corvette. The chairs and stations were occupied by mannequins dressed in typical spacer garb, but a closer look at their dust-covered computer screens suggested that it had been ages since the bridge had actually been used. The troops passed through an adjacent door and corridor that lead to stock corvette's briefing room.

At first, Gir thought that he was seeing more mannequins seated around the room's table, but the troops were clearly acting as if they were live people, even if they weren't moving. Gir switched his headset comlink to a private channel he had already set up with Weatherbee.

"What have you found?"

"I don't know who they are sir, but they're all unconscious."

Gir frowned, "How?"

"Couldn't say for certain...sedated maybe? I'm not seeing any blunt trauma or other injuries here...but they're not bound here, and they have pulses...at least the ones we've checked so far."

Another mystery on our hands...but maybe they'll be able to shed some light on our pirates, their benefactors, and the stygium that they've gathered here...

 

[ADM. Reshmar]

Reshmar watched as the last of the frigates broke up under the guns of the combined Mon Calamari, Aurora fleet. Out in the distance fighters chased down the last of the pirates trying to make a run out of the interdiction field. On the captured Dauntlass, power had been restored temporarily and work have begun patching ans sealing the hull as well as gathering the last of the pirates on board. Reshmar now sat back in his chair looking over a report of the battle and of the condition of the captures ship.

On the station Master Raaf was wrapping up her operations. The base was more or less secure and from reports she had found the stygium the pirates had been mining. The day was won and the pirate organization had been dealt a shattering defeat. Reshmar knew the others were busy so he recorded a message to be sent to Master Raaf and Admiral Quee.

"Master Raaf, I am transferring your fleet back you your command. I have pressing business on Mon Cala, It was a honor to have worked with you." Said
Reshmar. He nodded to someone off screen then set his attention back to the Taeli. "My Sabertooth will be staying behind to secure the Dauntlass, Once it is capable both will jump to Mon Cala. I did not think you would mind me taking a prize. I think we could both benefit from a meeting. I think I have something that may interest you. I will be in touch." Reshmar finished and stopped the recording. Then he recorded a message for the Lucerne Admiral.

"Admiral Quee, It was fun fighting beside you once again old friend. I have requested a meeting with Master Raaf concerning our project. I feel her and Aurora Industries will make a very good addition to our organization. I have urgent business which I am afraid cannot wait back on Mon Cala. I have been gone too long as it is. Please forgive my departure and the hastily recorded goodbye. I will see you at our meeting next month. Take care my friend." Reshmar said as he finished his message and stopped the recording.

The field was clear and the last of his fighters had landed. The Scythe and ShaShore turned slowly then jumped to hyperspace leaving the system and the battle behind. Other issues had come up while he was in transit, and the communications had been received during the battle. His presence was needed back at home. He feared the worst and even suspected the news he had received may even have something to do with the battle he had just fought. Something big was going on in the darkness and Reshmar meant to figure out just what it was.

[member="Gir Quee"] [member="Taeli Raaf"]