[member="Irina Volkov"]
The Hapan soldiers, indeed, would be quite remiss to simply let the witch have her way. Again, in their experience, no Force user was that powerful. They didn't need their entire Ship's compliment of pretty close to a battalion of soldiers, most of which were about to make quite a mess of plastic-clad Imperial soldiers. For Stormtroopers, historically, living through a single tour of duty during the ancient Rebellion era at its height was a kindness.They had that reputation among some circles even still, although one in a while one hears of a Stormtrooper with a name. The Weakness of the Empire, however, was its emphasis on quantity and size, posturing rather than sufficient calculation.... brutal intimidation rather than finesse and savage grace. Not boarded yet, and with the trouble happening now in the docking bay, there would yet be a delay.
Now, the Soldiers were about ready to call the witch out on yet another parlour trick illusion until debris moved when it touched it. This one appeared solid and it took a different form for each soldier. They KNEW it was a conjuring and did not take the imagery seriously, knowing it for what it was, but they did take seriously the fact that it appeared solid and immune to their weapons. The Cyborg Captain simply shook his head. "I see the game you're playing, lady... and I don't accept it. You will not leave this docking bay alive unless you surrender. You will be treated fairly, but you will not be allowed access to your sorcery for the time of your detention. It is you who should give up. You need not die. Your posturing speaks louder than your few words and invasive thoughts. You think you can either take this ship or waltz through it to get to the bigger guy on the other end. You are mistaken. Your chances are exactly 18% and falling rapidly the longer you sit here."
The Captain would make a cease-fire gesture, but followed that gesture with moving to flank. Another lance of soldiers appeared to reinforce and a command was issued in Hapan to start placing choke points around the ship. The place was on lockdown. security autoweapons online, And Groups of solders in various places on the ship where her smoke demon couldn't save her if she progressed beyond the docking bay. Meanwhile, the Captain of the Ship, herself, was wondering whether she should lure the witch into such a trap. Without a Jedi on board, that might be the only way they would claim her as an additional prize to the Super Star Destroyer they still stood a chance of seizing... or destroying in the worst case scenario. Asset denial was a perfectly acceptable alternative to asset recovery in a Pyrrhic victory situation. The Space battle was won, pretty much. But the key players were not yet in custody to stand trial.... that's what this was about, ultimately.
"What's it going to be, witch? Will you continue this pointless posturing and continue to rack up charges that could see you locked up for a very, very long time or will you give up and possibly receive leniency? I assume you are trying to offer us the same, with that telepathy thing you did and waving this solid illusion at us, but you are in no position to make demands. You have no authority here. You are also in league with war criminals. You are outnumbered, outgunned, and that thing you just pulled out of your ass is not going to save you. I will offer life to you again: Give up now, hands where I can see them, and don't do anything stupid."
By now, having given her a temporary ceasefire when she asked for it, the soldiers had her, now literally, cornered and surrounded. None of the soldiers were directly between her and the ruined pod, seemingly giving her solid illusion a wider berth, but in actuality, more seeking to flank her and get out of the way of the potential for the pod to be better used as a projectile with be best efficiency. One of the Marines grit her teeth as she fought to ignore the terrifying image before her. it took everything in her to maintain discipline. She thought of her family, her patriotism, and her military career on the line, which helped give her strength. In her hand was a primed stun grenade, a few others adjacent to her thinking the same thing. If this is how Irina wished to play, then fine, the Hapans could play unfair as well and perhaps implant the fleeting thought that she might lose, would find herself shackled hand and foot, and locked in a cell with no access to the outside world, even through the Force... with the entire arrest being quite legal, official, and with real consequences. The female marine that started the minor grenade trend had shifted her thoughts to exactly that with a brief fantasy of it being her gun pointed at the witch while her commander did the restraining.
The Cyborg Captain's stance shifted in anticipation of being stuck by the image of his overbearing mother. Yes. That was his single worst fear... Having to hear her talk down to him. He joined the Royal Space Marines to get away from her and had since been certified for augmentation once he had been stationed on Charubah, where the Cyborgs were trained. His finger tightened over the trigger of his weapon, aiming not at the image he knew to be false, but at the last known position of the witch that conjured it. For showing him this, he might just kill her anyway.
Outside, The Space battle raged on, although the Invaders weren't in a very good position, as implied before. Victory seemed imminent. However, The Hapan detachment was taking its share of damage by this point. The Heritage had lost its forward Starboard shields, the ship turning itself to face the enemy detachment on its' port side, angling down a bit to allow maximum weapon fire. For a brief moment, all weapons from the Heritage were Concentrated on the Visage, seeing he was weak. This final weapon convergence was going for the kill. If the Heritage was going down, he was taking the biggest threat in thier detatchment with him. Escape pods were being jettisoned en-route to Ouroboros.
"They're concentrating their fire on us! The ship isn't turning fast enough. BRACE FOR IMPACT!"
"STARBOARD SIDE HULL BREACH!, LOWER DISC! Damage control!"
"We've lost the stabiliser systems. The Ship's listing!"
"All non-essential crew, Abandon ship. Repeat Abandon ship!" The mighty Wyvern's captain ordered.
"It'll be hard getting our pods to safety, Captain. The Ship is listing heavily to starboard. We're sinking toward the Planet fast... and we could collide with the Palleaon at our current trajectory."
"Just concentrate on launching them. All weapons, Concentrate ALL fire on the Fate's Visage and maintain current heading. All crew not conducting weapons and escape pods launch, Abandon ship IMMEDIATELY!"
The Pods were heading out toward the Ouroboros, two squadrons, or what was left of them, as Meteor and Garuda Squadrons had lost two and three of their number respectively, turned to guard them from opportunistic Imperial fighters. The rest of the remaining Hapan fighters, a handful of their numbers also lost, some of which bailed out, the rest dead, continued to engage.
The Amdromeda had closed a pincer on The Fist of Bastion, with Ouroboros and Andromeda now firing at the next of the larger ships. Ouroboros maintained its heading and his shields were holding, still firing out its streams of heavy firepower out with a savage precision. The proton and ion torpedoes were now being aimed at the Knightsbane while a dual stream of heavy, rapid-fire turbolasers and ion cannons were aimed behind them.
Firedrake, while hard docked, still had its weapon arrays on its starboard broadside available as well as his point-defense lasers for defense. Of course, the moment his torpedoes could get a lock, they would fire a volley of Proton and Ion Torpedoes on the fast frigate trying to pry them loose.
And then there was the Angel Squadron. Relina herself banked herself around, taking an point defense beam across her upper port intake. Her shields held, despite her astromech's protests. This sharp banking manoeuvre, however, was such that she would soon have a direct lock on the Knightsbane's bridge. The sweet, sweet tone of a missile lock came quickly.
"Good night, sleep tight, Knightsbane." she said as she switched to her final shockhammer, and released it. "Angel one, Magnum"
It was the Battle of Stalsenek all over again. This was the same manoeuvre she pulled against the Battle Dragon Ballerophon. The missile streaked toward the bridge with speed boosted by Relina's own velocity, with a view to kill everyone inside of it and disrupt the ship's operations. Unlike what the Empire did, this wasn't legally murder, despite the men aboard having little defense and slim survival chances. This was warfare. Killing civilians or neutralised enemies... that was stuff Sith and the Empire did as their standard M.O. Yes, Relina was right not to fire upon Irina's escape pod, despite a very compelling desire to do so. In lieu of killing what was obviously a trojan horse of some sort, by her reckoning, this would have to do.
Sorceress Five was hit by point defense turret and bailed out, followed soon after by Sorceress Eight The Angels were still in action, attacking the Knightsbane to thin out his retaliatory capabilities.
