Chp-9: Brutal Finish
Chp-9: Brutal Finish
Burst Hopkins
Minda system, Ugea, Accordia, Accordian Spaceport, Imperial Guild Cargo Container
Burst was tired, cramped, cold, and old. And yet, he hadn't felt this alive in years. He was huddled in a Guild container in the spaceport, shoved together with a small number of StormTroopers. They had their helmets slightly remodeled, and in addition to the updated targeting software, they actually held up to the image of the Empires elite they were supposed to convey.
The part that made Burst uncomfortable was the two Q-Series Droideka's. Equipped with two twin rapid fire light laser cannons and personal shields that made them beasts on the battlefield, these metal creatures unnerved him.
Make no mistake, Burst was fully aware that they were his allies, considering the PDA he had strapped to the underside of his left arm allowed him to control them directly, or give more complicated orders. That didn't mean he wasn't wary. Too many brothers of his had been cut down by the relentless barrage of fire the droidekas could send down range, all without being able to retaliate.
Still, he steeled himself. He had a mission to accomplish. The container he was in was one of 3, filled almost entirely with valuable ores, parts, weapons, and more. Everything a pirate would want to sell, the containers were chock-full of. So full in fact, that no pirate would bother digging through the piles to find the enemies hidden in the back. And, to ensure that the pirates wouldn't just open the crates from the back while they were still on the ground, the containers had been pushed against a wall of the spaceport. Nothing unusual, just a series of coincidences that looked perfectly normal to those outside the loop.
The other two containers held another squad of troopers with a clone commander, while the third held one commander along with 2 more droidekas and a droideka mark 2, the only one found on the crashed seppy ships. They had been relegated to MPDF use, but never had a reason to be taken out of storage until now. Burst had never fought one himself, but he had heard the stories. Bigger, badder, more guns, the MkII didn't move during combat, becoming a stationary turret of death that promised a plasma filled death to all those who came close.
It was imperative to the success of their strategy. Once they were loaded into the cargo bay/hangar of the enemy ship, the MkII would be able to hold the entire area on its own while the rest of the ship was cleared. While Burst would have preferred organic troopers to hold the bay, the fact of the matter remained that there just weren't enough skilled troopers. Sure, there were 200 StormTroopers on the planet, but of those only a select few have enough experience to pull something like this off.
His thoughts jumbled like this while he and his team sat in silence, checking and rechecking their PDA's, weapons, and other gear.
It was then that he received a message. Checking his arm, he saw it was confirmation of an incoming enemy Cumulus Class. The other two were hovering in orbit above the city while this one lowered itself to load the offered cargo.
He smirked under his helmet, previous worries forgotten as the anticipation of a battle surged through his veins.
Nudging the others, he spoke.
"Enemy ship incoming. Remember, stay quiet, don't move, and when we breach, stay behind the droidekas. Their shields can take far more than your armor."
Receiving affirmations, he nodded, just as the sound of the pirates opening the other doors echoed throughout the container.
It was time to get to work.
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Tomar Eirie
Minda System, Minda 0-A, The Bore, CR92a Assassin-Class Corvette Mindan Courage
His gun turret swiveled almost violently as he tracked the YT-1930 that seemed to be made more of rust than actual armor plating.
Honestly, if he wasn't controlling the turret from an interior console, he might've felt sick. Hell, he might feel sick just looking at this camera.
The light freighter slowed to make a turn, aiming to line up its shoddily attached missile pods, when one of the TIE's screamed past it. Its attack run filled the freighter with a barrage of laser bolts, breaking through the YT's shields. Tomar held down the trigger, the quad laser cannon sending a stream of death at the freighter. Its armor held, but the death blow came from some bolts penetrating the missile casings while they were still held in the pods, making the entire thing go up in flames.
That made the second of five light freighters to go down in this battle, along with nearly half a dozen fighters. He once again swiveled the turret, looking for targets as the ship around him shook from the repeated attacks. He almost locked onto another freighter before the turbolaser battery got a lucky shot and turned it into dust in a single barrage.
"Enemies are attempting retreat! Put everything you have down range!" The voice of the fire command officer screamed over the intercom as the Courage turned to face the fleeing pirates. Every gun on the ship was capable of aiming directly ahead, giving the Assassin Class formidable firepower for its relative size.
Tomar witnessed this first hand as every gun on the ship opened fire at once, himself included. He wasn't sure if he even hit an enemy, but the sheer volume of fire destroyed two more fighters and blew out the engines of a freighter. Seems the boarding crews will get their fair share of blood after all.
He turned the laser cannon towards the Bore, checking if any of the freighters that had landed were attempting an escape. Looking at the hangar bay, he could only see smoke from a destroyed freighter. Looks like the security crew was earning their pay.
"Enemy has entered hyperspace. No incoming ships."
That sent a cheer through the crew, and Tomar couldn't help but cheer with them. The first real naval battle that didn't involve claim jumpers and smugglers. It was a good day.
Before the celebration could really start, the captain got back on comms.
"Don't go screaming just yet. We're to rendezvous with Captain Veers. The capitol is under siege. This fight isn't over yet."
All around him, the crew seemed to calm down and steel themselves. They had won this battle, but there was more to come.
Tomar followed his comrades' example. His home was under siege, and he could do something about it. And so, he swore to himself that no matter what, he would spill pirate blood this day
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Commander Kaela Grant
Minda System, Ugea, Accordia, Cumulus-Class Corsair Dreadbow, Imperial Guild Cargo Container
Kaela was excited. Super excited. The most excited she had been in months. It had been difficult to convince the governor to let her come on this mission, but since she was one of the most highly skilled people available and there was little space in the containers, there was little choice.
She was packed in with half of the governor's personal guard, who she had trained herself. They, like herself, were armed with E-11 Carbines, which, while weaker than the standard E-11, had a noticeably higher rate of fire which was invaluable in the closer quarters of a starship. And it wasn't like pirates would be particularly heavily armed. Kaela would've preferred a slug-thrower, so she could witness the enemies of the Empire being turned into jagged chunks of meat, but good slugthrowers were expensive.
Her smile widened under her helmet as she saw the message flash across the screen of her PDA. Captain Veers had arrived with the Gauntlet and the rest of the system defense fleet, and was engaging the other two pirate corsairs.
With the containers already loaded up, the corsair jerked as its engines roared, boosting it into the sky to assist its allies in orbit. As this occurred, Kaela flicked a switch on her PDA, activating the heat scanning function. It was still in its early stages, so her PDA was bulkier than she would've liked, but it allowed her to scan for nearby heat signatures. Aside from the ones bundled together, which were clearly the other troopers, she saw scattered signatures around the hangar. Most seemed pilots rushing towards their fighters, preparing for the engagement
It was the perfect time to strike.
Sending the signal, all three containers door's burst open, and the troops flooded out. A total of 30 troopers, they all took cover behind the containers and opened fire on the surprised hangar crew.
The MkII droideka and its smaller siblings rolled out, activating their shields and raining death amongst the enemy. The big droid sat itself down, locking its feet magnetically to the floor of the hangar. Its shields hummer to life, and it turned its twin ion cannons on the fighters, stopping them from lifting off.
In a mere thirty seconds, the entire hangar bay had been cleared, and they started moving forward, droidekas rolling ahead of them.
As they turned the first corridor of the hangar into the main corridor, they were immediately met with enemies.
Basterbolts flew left and right, pirates dropping like flies. She reveled in the way their unprotected flesh burned as her bolts landed, how they fell limp, the light leaving their eyes.
This continued for minutes on end as they slaughtered their way to the bridge, burnt bodies littering the floor, some crushed by the weight of the droidekas rolling over the corpses.
As she turned a corner, Kaela grabbed the pirate attempting to stab her by the neck and arm, disarmed him, opened the weapons locker next to her and tossed him in the head first. She then slammed the door on his head until all that was left was a bloody paste.
It was only when she was done, bits of brain and bone covering her chest plate that she realized her little playtime had stopped their advance. The troopers' helmets hid their faces, but not the sound of some of them dry retching. Thankfully, she was the Commander, so they couldn't reprimand her for "unnecessary cruelty". Instead of commenting on it, she unslung her carbine, and continued the march.
Her job is awesome!
—-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
TK-582, Okto Perker
Minda System, Ugean Orbit, Cumulus-Class Corsari Dreadbow
Okto was glad he hadn't eaten anything before the mission, because if he had his helmet would be absolutely filled with vomit.
He'd known that this would be a brutal mission. Already the corridor behind them was filled to the brim with bodies, and even now the droideka's covering their flanks were still firing, gunning down pirates who thought they could catch them by surprise.
But what he just witnessed? Commander Grant had always been…odd, to say the least. She seemed to want to fight, and now that he had seen her beat a man's skull into paste with a door, with the helmet still on.
Terrifying. He hoped that she never decided to go rebel, for that would surely be the end of them all.
Regardless, he shouldered his weapon and moved on, clearing corners, gunning down pirates, and breaching doors. He fell into a sort of trance, covering, firing, breaching, checking, and so on. A sense of synchronicity was felt amongst the troopers there, as if they were all part of the same assembly line, each of them fully aware of the part they have to play, with minimal communication required.
It was during this time that he thought back on his arrival to the Minda system. His company had been shamed during the pacification campaign on Mimban, all because his company's captain had bad blood with a different company's major. Their equipment had been sabotaged from within, leading to their failure in a critical mission. While it wasn't enough to have them executed, with the captain's political ties protecting them, it was enough to get them reassigned to the outer rim.
The company had been tossed about backwaters, from boonie to boonie, never quite fitting in. They would be sent to clean up rabble, hunt small-time rebels, and were even relegated to acting as a police force at times. Eventually, after years of this monotony, they were assigned to act as the personal force of a new governor.
At first, Okto thought it would be another boring, if stable posting. Hell, there might even be some excitement considering how young and arrogant the governor was at the time.
But then the protests happened. And instead of being told to open fire, like they had many times before, the governor spoke. TO the people, instead of AT them. Improvements were made, rapid scaling of infrastructure, housing, operations.
The garrison they were a part of was being trained by CLONES of all people. Okto had only ever seen one clone, and that had been an instructor he had passed when guarding an academy.
Everyday, he escorted the governor around, watching as he relentlessly filed paperwork, made deals with local organizations, and hell, even got to watch as the Garrison Commander taught him self-defense, blaster skills and more. Though he wasn't very good at the moment, the dedication was real.
More and more was done, and Okto came to realize that this backwater could be something more. Something better. It was a rim world that didn't see people cowering from the mere sight of his helmet. It was a place where the people truly loved the Empire so much, that there had been zero rebel presences detected, despite Commander Grants inspections.
His inner musings were cut short as they approached the doors to the bridge. He moved to the side, covering a right angle as another trooper started slicing the door using a port built into their PDAs. Wonderful technology, with so many applications that made things easier for him. Though he would never admit out loud how much he had gambled in some of those games. The characters are just so pretty!
Then the door opened, and there was chaos. The droidekas stomped forwards, shields absorbing the intense amount of blasterfire, their shields flickering and wavering under the assault. The crazy bastards had set up a shielded blaster turret and were forcing them to stay in the corridor.
They were at a disadvantage. Right up until Okto threw a stun grenade, yelling through the comms "Stunner out".
He turned his head, and for a brief second the world went wild, before his helmet's noise suppression kicked in.
Then, he and his fellows turned back, raised their weapons, and opened fire.
There were no survivors
—-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Captain Ife Veers
Minda System, Ugean Orbit, Arquitens-Class Light Cruiser Gauntlet
Ife was quite happy, even as her ships engaged the pirate fleet. Despite the technological superiority of her flotilla, the two corsairs were heavily armed, and their veritable swarm of light freighters and junk fighters meant that she was very heavily outnumbered. However, victory here would add to her record. If she could prove her worth, she could get reassigned to a bigger, better ship, with more opportunities for action.
"Open fire! And inform all allied ships, do not get on the broadside or below the enemy corsairs. That's where the majority of their firepower is concentrated."
"Yes, Captain!" the comms officer responded, already sending the messages out to the fleet.
Ife looked out over the battlefield. TIE's, ARC-170's and V-Wings all screamed this way and that, filling the battlefield with a plethora of blaster bolts and concussion missiles. The two enemy corsairs advanced upwards, their twin quad laser cannons opening fire on the Gauntlet and its allies. The hope was to keep them down there through the use of superior firepower.
While the cumulus class lacked any turbo lasers, it did come outfitted with 14 gunwales, each sporting twin laser cannons. Such concentrated firepower would be equivalent to a smattering of turbolasers and could prove to be an actual threat.
The battle raged, and the fighter count started to go down one by one. About five minutes in, and the first ARC-170 went down, the pilots going up in flames. In retaliation, the closest CR92a turned two heavily modified light freighters into scrap.
This back and forth continued for some time, fighters and freighters and what amounted to engines with guns and a cockpit were disabled, damaged or destroyed outright, before one of the corsairs started to open its hangar bay. Instead of fighters or bombers, a large, poorly built set of missile tubes were raised on an improvised turret. Despite the rust and clearly poor engineering, Ife immediately recognized the danger.
"All ships, evasive maneuvers immediately! Get out of the way of those missile pods!" she yelled out, the comms officers rushing to get the message out.
But it was too late. Even as the Gauntlet and her escorts burned their engines and gunned it out of formation, the ad hoc weapons platform fired a fusillade of ion torpedoes, screaming towards the ships.
Ife cursed. She had packed the fleet too close together, and now she was paying for it.
The torpedoes slammed into the hull, ion energy moving in waves throughout the ship. Subsystem after subsystem shut down, until only lights, gravity and life support still functioned.
"Status report!"
"Most systems offline Ma'am! Backup generator is doing what it can, but it'll be a few minutes before the reactor can be reactivated!"
"FRAKK!" she cursed, letting out her frustration. "Are comms functioning?" Upon receiving a negative, she sighed. Deeply. This was not how she wanted her career to go. She had wanted to prove her family wrong, prove that she could make it in the Navy, yet here she was, about to retreat on her first real sortie.
"Ma'am, sensors are back online! We're reading a hyperspace signature closing in!"
Before she could ask for more details, a ship appeared out of hyperspace right outside the battlefield. As it cut through the void, she saw it's distinctive hull shape and couldn't help but feel a sense of relief.
As the comms came back online, a voice crackled through the intercom.
"This is the Arquitens-Class Command Cruiser Rationale, engaging hostiles. Glad to have a welcoming party. More interesting than this rubber ball I have-ouch!".
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Hi there folks. This one took a smidge longer than usual on account of all the POV switching. I decided to keep this chapter a purely alt-pov chapter, since Las's pov wouldn't be all that interesting. Just him quietly trying not to shit himself in fear.
It's also the first real combat I've ever really written. The only other time I've ever written combat was a quick scene in my original universe work Divided Horizons, and that was more of a gang shootout that ended very quickly. This was a full blown fleet battle and boarding action? Not sure if sneaking onto an enemy ship in a crate is a boarding action but I suppose it doesn't matter.
As always, feedback and commentary is encouraged. My friends are all too busy also going through college, and none of them are as into this weird sci-fi fringe worldbuilding shit as you random internet weirdo's are, so I basically get all of my social interaction by reading y'all comments. So please comment. I am very lonely.
Thank you for reading!