Hostage Rescue

[Spectre (Old)]

​

After negotiations with the director of the Slussi shipyards went just peachy, a Z3D Armed Pinnace comes out of hyperspace above a moon orbiting another gas giant in another part of the Sluis Van sector. This wasn't just any moon, it was a moon that happened to have a pirate base located on it. Seyfar was leading this effort to gain the Sluis Van Shipyards for the Syndicate so they can have assess to their ships for the growing Cartel group, but he disappeared abruptly and while Spectre was preparing his next scheme, put it on hold so that this project can be completed. It yields good potential, so can't let it go to waste. As for the Cartel party, Spectre is flying the Z3D Armed Pinnace, while the Wook is in the gunner seat. They will attend to this.

This this mission has two key objectives. The pirates have kidnapped the Director's family to use as leverage against him. Therefore the Cartel team has to recover them and sort out the pirates to they will cease to be a problem to the Slussi for good. And also, they have to recover the director's family members to secure their support. A wife and two kids was it? It will be done.

Although he has done a lot of work on the ground, he can't really say he's flown a starfighter into battle. The Hutt Council member would be content with letting one of his pilots do the job while he rides passenger until needed on the ground, but the the ship doesn't have the passenger space to spare. So, while getting prepared for this, he taken some time out to be on a flight simulator and given a crash course with piloting with his personal freighter's pilots. That will have to do.

The ship has the moonbase in it's sights, in full view of the ship's transparisteel although it's quite the distance away. Enough to put the ship out of range of the pirate bases' sensors, giving them time to power up shields, power up weapons among other things before the base could scramble up a defense, give the Cartel-manned vessel time to get a good look at what they are up against and prepare a plan of attack. The ship was loaded with proton torpedoes with the maximum amount possible. Spectre is suited up... not in anything dressy, but he has a flight suit on as he is flying the ship. Has a on helmet and everything. "Alright, there it is: The moon base. How do you want to play this one out?" he would ask the Wook, in the seat behind him manning the weapons. Since they are outside the bases' sensors, surely... the people inside the base would have to be physically looking at them, which is doubtful. And the Wook is a professional when it comes to this kind of stuff.

They have the long day ahead of them, not only does this moonbase need to be hit, they also need to hit an Asteroid base and the pirate's flagship after this.

@Clayton

 

[The Wook]

The Wook did not have the luxury of contributing much to the initial chat with the Director of the Sluis Van Shipyards. The language barrier prevented that, so he simply sat (well, stood, none of the chairs were his size) and listened to the problems the serpentine Director faced. Pirates had kidnapped his family, and he wanted them back before entertaining any idea of working for the Cartel. It was a fair enough trade. The Wook had flown in a Pinnace before, and was familiar with the weaponry it carried. Laser cannon, proton torpedoes, all good stuff capable of taking on pirates. The problem was they couldn't blanket-bomb the base. They had to extract people.

That posed a minor problem. They didn't have room in the Pinnance for passengers. He was uncertain how they were supposed to haul anyone back with them without leaving someone behind in a trashed moon base. The Wook preferred to not sit around in a base that sat on an atmosphereless rock after a battle had taken place. That was how people ended up dying of hypoxia from an undetected leak. He busied himself with studying the sensors as they approached the base. "Uggguh wuuh aguhwwgggghhh," he muttered. "Huurh wrrhwrwwhw uughghhhgh aarrragghuuhw aaahnruh. Waaaahnr hnnnhrrhhh raaaaaahhgh. Raaaaaahhgh huurh...aarrragghuuhw huuguughghg huuguughghg aguhwwgggghhh," The communications mast was an obvious first target. It would be bad if the pirates got off a distress signal about the Director's ship attacking the base.

He could, but he still didn't see any defenses on the sensors yet. He frowned, if The Wook had a moon base he would install at least a laser cannon somewhere. A second blip appeared on the screen, and the computer IDed it as a small freighter. "Huuguughghg uughguughhhghghghhhgh raaaaaahhgh huurh uughguughhhghghghhhgh aaaaahnr aaaaahnr uughghhhgh raaaaaahhgh, uughguughhhghghghhhgh raaaaaahhgh huurh aarrragghuuhw uughguughhhghghghhhgh uggguh aaaaahnr wrrhwrwwhw huuguughghg," he commented as he glanced up out the viewport. "Aaaaahnr uugggh uuh wrrhwrwwhw raaaaaahhgh huurh huuguughghg huuguughghg. Raaaaaahhgh uughguughhhghghghhhgh uughguughhhghghghhhgh aarrragghuuhw huurh aaaaahnr aaaaahnr raaaaaahhgh hnnnhrrhhh uughguughhhghghghhhgh," he growled. Getting blasted out of the sky would suck.

@Faster Than Light

 

[Spectre (Old)]

"Got it, got it" Spectre would acknowledge and heed all of the Wook's suggestions as the ship's thrusts would take off, going forward now, but going at the nice and slowly towards the moon base. As he would get at a decent enough distance, he would be circling around above the base. The freighter that the Wook was noted, and the circling was probing for their defenses, seeing what they have before they make a move. They would need to know and so they could be dealt with later. Freighter looks like it's cold. And after circling around it, it would be apparent that there are no defenses on the moon base. Not even a laser cannon turret. Not even fighter patrols. After a good two laps, Spectre would wonder if there is anyone inside. "Is anyone even home?" Spectre quipped he would ask curiously would turn do a U-turn, with the Pinnace aimed straight towards the base. If there is nobody home, then it looks like they have a good opportunity to go in, see if the hostages are inside, and then leave before the pirates even know they are here.

It would seem the ghost is clear, until the pirates from inside open up communications with the two. The voice calling them would sound like a rather gruff, hardened Rodian "Who are you guys? You guys better turn your little ship around, or else..." the guy threatened. With no defenses, and the freighter cold, there isn't much the pirates could do at this moment. They are defenseless on the outside. Spectre then angled the ship upwards a bit, with it's torpedo bays and other weapons having the line of sight of a good place to hit the communications tower. "We want to get rid of that tower before they call for back up?" even if they are sitting ducks, back up from elsewhere might be problematic. Spectre knew that as well as his wookie friend. If the Wook didn't want the tower to disappear yet, the slicer could adjust his course easily.

@Clayton
Difficulty Check Thread Link

 

[The Wook]

As they circled the base and saw nothing in the way of turrets or even gun ports, The Wook was puzzled. How could a base have so little in the way of defenses? He shook his head as Spectre angled the ship up so the communications mast presented a perfect shot. "Uggguh, aaaaahnr raaaaaahhgh wrrhwrwwhw uughguughhhghghghhhgh aarrragghuuhw," he growled, and pressed the button that shot a torpedo. A muffled whump echoed through the ship and a single, white flash shot from the nose of the pinnance as the torpedo sped across the relatively short distance to explode against the comms array. With a flare of sparks, shrapnel, and twisting metal the array listed to one side, blackened from carbons scorching and hanging by only a few girders.

He hauled himself out of the co-pilot's seat and reached for his pulse-wave rifle. "Uuh raaaaaahhgh uughguughhhghghghhhgh uughghhhgh huurh uugggh aaaaahnr." The Wook grinned. This was going to be a fun mission, he could feel it. He made his way over to the boarding ramp and grabbed on to a nearby pipe to steady himself while Spectre landed the ship. How quickly could the pirates here scramble a defense?

@Faster Than Light

 

[Spectre (Old)]

Boom! The communications array went down as the torpedo sailed ahead, blowing it up and rendering it inoperable. With that, this pirate base lost the only chance it had at sending a distress signal to the rest of the group elsewhere in the system or elsewhere in the sector. This is too easy though, there were no exterior base defenses to so much as challenge the Cartel's ship whatever ever. No shots that they have to dodge or anything. This base is fairly remote so they probably didn't think they would need any turrets or anything and thought it being hidden would suffice, but it doesn't. "On it" the slicer simply replied to the Wook, now that they are ready to land he would move to land the ship, taking it easy as possible and as prompt as possible at the same time. They should have surprised any pirates in the station and they should be quick to capitalize on that and cover as much ground as possible before they can coordinate a defense.

With the ship landed finished landing, the Hutt Cartel slicer would then grab the Marauder Pulse-wave Rifle that was next to the pilots seat. He picked it up on a job on Ord Mantel and it proved to be an an effective weapon and bound to be pretty useful in this little moonbase which is bound to have some close quarters encounters. With that, Spectre would move towards the boarding ramp, open the door and go through the airlock on the other side, offically entering the pirate base. Spectre would be advancing with his pulse-wave weapon already leveled for any pirates he might find waiting for him. It was a decent sized area with durasteel crates here and there. At the corridor on the other side, there would be a lone pirate coming, having heavy armor and coming well armed with a pulse-wave rifle. There doesn't seem to be any others with him, as the surprise attack left the pirates slow to react with the other pirates stationed spread out in the base.

@Clayton

 

[The Wook]

These poor pirates needed a serious rethink on their combat readiness. Only one guy? The Wook snapped his rifle up, sighted on the man running at them, and fired three quick shots. Two struck the guy's armor, sending him spinning, which caused the third shot to miss and sail down the hall to splash against the far wall. He started to chuckle when five pirates came storming around the corner, guns up and firing. "Huuguughghg uughghhhgh!"[abbr] The Wook exclaimed as he dove for cover behind a counter. He still had a trick up his sleeve though. Most of the blaster fire was concentrated at him and his cover, which meant getting up and out to do anything was going to be very painful.

Instead, he rummaged in his pouch and pulled out a concussion grenade. The Wook tossed it to Spectre and nodded. "Raaaaaahhgh awwgggghhh!" he growled. All he could do right now was hunker under cover and hope the pirates took the full brunt of the grenade. A cafe pot exploded somewhere over his head as a blaster bolt slammed into it, sending glowing shrapnel to pepper the wall on the other side of him. Rivers of stale cafe poured down the side of the counter. This was not as easy as he'd been expecting. Smoke was wafting up from the other side of the counter it had been hit so many times. He hoped there wouldn't be a fire in here. Fires in space were quite dangerous.

@Faster Than Light

 

[Spectre (Old)]

Spectre, in tandem with the Wook, shot the first pirate twice. They would hit home and kill the guy combined with the shots that the Wook also landed on him. Spectre knew what the Wook was saying, he had almost the same reaction when five more pirates were coming into view at lightning speed the next second. Spectre rushed into a different cover, but still in view of the Wook. How bizarre, the base had less-than-lackluster defenses, had just one guard at the hangar, but as soon as the first shots rang out they were in a heart beat. Are there more of these guys? They seem pretty well-equipped. Still, the objective has not changed as soon as these pirates are removed they can search for the hostages. Now to the immediate firefight, it seems that the Wook was for the most part singled out for the pirates, perhaps going after the bigger target first, while there was one person concentrating on slicer so he doesn't go completely unnoticed and free to do as he please. As soon as the Wook called for him after he got a concussion grenade tossed to him, he would adjust his position behind cover while activating the grenade as he does so. With the grenade cooked, he would throw it towards the pirates.

The pirates would stop what they were doing and spread out upon seeing it thrown at them, lest they get caught by the explosion. Unfortunately because the grenade was cooked before being thrown, it was explode pretty much the same time it would hit the ground, only one pirate was fortunate enough to get out of the blast radius, having slid behind a metal crate in front of the metal while doing so. The rest were blinded and/or disoriented from the concussion grenade, leaving them more or less sitting ducks. Spectre would pop out with his rifle and then fire to more shots from his pulse-wave weapon at one more pirate for now. The pulse-wave shots would inflict heavy damage to them in it's effective range, first one hits punches through the armor of the one's chest plate, and the last one would tear through the man, causing the pirate on the recivcing end to slump to the metal floors.

@Clayton

 

[The Wook]

”Gah, gorrammit!” cried the pirate that had escaped the concussion grenade’s blast unscathed and very frustrated. One of his buddies, caught out in the open, took a couple hits from Spectre.

The Wook was quite relieved to have the firing stop, as the material the counter he’d been hiding behind had started to grow quite hot from the pulse-wave blasts that had been sunk into it. It was only a matter of time before the sustained fire broke through completely. The relative silence after the previous hail of blaster fire and the grenade going off was almost deafening, save for Spectre’s weapon. The Wook grinned and poked his head out of cover. Nobody took a shot at him, which was promising.

With a roar, he bolted out of cover and headed for a spot where he noticed movement that wasn’t suggestive of dazed pain. He passed a stunned pirate and slammed his hip violently into the guy’s side. The hip check sent the man flying hard into a table in an almost comical fashion. Plates and left-over portions tumbled to the ground with a crash. As he reached the pirate that wasn’t concussed, the dude popped out of cover, bringing his rifle around to bear.

The Wook reacted quickly and slapped the barrel away from him with his own rifle, the two weapons connecting with a crack, a reflexive shot from the pirate missed him by less than a foot. The pirate responded just as quickly by stepping forward and lashing out with the butt of his rifle, sending the synthetic stock into The Wook’s side. He grunted in pain and jabbed the butt of his own rifle at the pirate’s head. The pirate ducked, but not quick enough and the corner of the stock opened up a gash in the scalp. The guy staggered back half a step and tried to bring his rifle to aim at The Wook. However, The Wook was going to have none of that. He took his left hand off his own rifle and grabbed the pirate’s weapon. He shoved it away from his own torso while pulling the pirate in close. The Wook launched a brutal knee strike to the pirate’s torso, which drove the breath right out of the guy’s lungs. With his free hand, he pressed the barrel of his own rifle into the pirate’s neck and squeezed the trigger.

By now the other pirates were starting to snap out of their concussed state, so The Wook slid into the cover that the now nearly-decapitated pirate had been using.

@Faster Than Light

 

[Spectre (Old)]

The Hutt Cartel Slicer-Kajdii went back into cover after delivering those pulse-wave blaster shots, rather than continuing firing and keeping himself exposed for now. He would would see the Wook come out of cover and went out to go do some damage. He went though one and is in the process of taking out the one that wasn't stunned. The Wook has this, he is the Wook after all. Spectre would pop back out of cover and start aiming his rifle at the other pirates on the ground. As interesting as it is to see the Wook in melee action, the slicer probably should get to blasting those heavily armed men with rifles before they fully recover from that concussion grenade, instead of being idle. No time for that. Strike while the iron is hot as they say (plus the sooner they get off this base the better) That that end, Spectre would aim his rifle at another one of the dazed pirates and then squeeze the trigger, and then squeezing again. He had his weapon pointed at the center of mass area, and the shots would connect. First shot burning through the armor and searing flesh. The next one is the killing blow. The pirates would be beginning to fully come back to reality, but before that can happen, there was still a groggy target that he saw in his field of vision. Quickly, he would shift targets and then aimed at the downed target that the Wook hit with his hip just a bit of go. While he is still down trying to recover, Spectre would fire off two more shots, they would hit, making sure he is down and out f the fight

Now there is just one more of them.

@Clayton

 

[The Wook]

Things were going their way now, despite the earlier setback of being pinned down by the fastest-organizing group of pirates ever. These guys were as good as some military outfits, but The Wook and Spectre were better. Or just lucky. It was probably luck, if The Wook hadn't brought that concussion grenade things would be a lot dicier. Spectre had taken out the pirate The Wook hip checked into oblivion, which left one lone dude left. Which, the dude was actually a chick. Not that it really mattered to The Wook, he called everyone dude. It was pretty much a gender neutral expression nowadays.

The pirate hesitated for a brief moment as she tried to decide whether to shoot at The Wook or Spectre. A fatal mistake, as it turned out. The Wook reached out with the force and sent the pirate slamming into a wall. He followed up with a couple well-placed shots to seal the deal. "Aaaaahnr huurh huuguughghg huurh, aaaaahnr uuh uughguughhhghghghhhgh awwgggghhh uughghhhgh uughguughhhghghghhhgh huuguughghg wrrhw huuguughghg," he growled to Spectre.

@Faster Than Light

 

[Spectre (Old)]

Well, that was that. This is a small base and that looks like all the defenders that they had available to them are diminished. If there were more to defend they would surely be here, but just in case they should remain alert as they proceed, the Cartel slicer definitely is. "Alright" Spectre nodded his head in agreement with the Wook's words. The sooner they can get the hostages, the sooner they can get off of here, and the sooner that the shipyards they are seeking come under Cartel influence. This would be a big step in making that come to pass, although there is still much to be done, as there are other pirates in the sector that need to be dealt with. Spectre can send other Cartel members to do that however.


With that, the two would eventually find the hostages in the asteroid base, the Slussi director's wife and two children locked in cells, easy to bypass. With that, the hostages would board the Director's ship they have came here from. The pinnace has barely just enough room to fit all of them in. Then they would take off from the base. Not wasting any time moving at full speed once off the landing platform. Even if the distress signal from earlier wasn't sent, more pirates could arrive at any moment from their raids, which they are wanting to avoid. With nothing else in the way, the two would exit the system and head back to the Director with the hostages. Other Cartel members will be responsible for making sure the rest of those pirates aren't a threat. They still have a corvette and an asteroid base out there.

/thread.