Ask Plundering Picaroons

[Kellan Solari]

Kellan’s ship darted and rolled around the frigate like some blood-maddened insect, peppering the vessel’s turbolaser batteries with his remaining store of missiles. A short distance away, The Powerslave was peeling apart at its seams. Even as he watched, a flurry of projectiles streaked towards the stricken Trandoshan ship, puncturing its center mass and sending it twisting slowly away.

A sickening realization dawned on him that such efforts were largely in vain. The Powerslave was in all likelihood lost. Kellan felt his temper flash hot enough to flush his cheeks. As he banked out of his run alongside The Vengeance’s flank, a series of escape pods jettisoned free of the dying craft like so many spores.

“Cowardly scum!” he roared and pulled hard on the controls. The fighter responded deftly and in the span of a breath, Solari was bearing down on a number of the helpless capsules. The targeting system chimed happily and the Imperial opened fire.

He had not joined the fight for fortune or glory. There was no glory in war after all. Only those willing to act as the vanguards against the natural disarray of the universe. Rogues such as these pirates had long ago brushed aside peace and civility, betraying the very tenets of civilization for such base desires as credits. If they deserved any quarter whatsoever, it wouldn’t be Kellan Solari who’d give it to them.

@The Good Doctor @AutoFox @Olwin @Darasuum

 

[Yossk]

With that last punch Power Slave bent and spun, it's hull cracked and punctured by the driver. Her systems were dying at various rates. The warship was not even on its last leg, if death was a clock the time for Power Slave would read 11:59:58. Yet she still held firm. She was battered and bruised and on the verge of death, any other ship in her state would be unusable. Her guns would ring little in this state, her drive wouldn't hold for an extended fight, and even maneuvering her at this point would take a while, be a miracle, or just break her in half. Yet she still held firm. Her crew had almost all evacuated and yet there were still many casualties floating around the void. Yet she still held firm.

Most of the escape pods had dropped off the frigate, with most of them moving towards the station for safe harbor. They were filled with the crew who were given the liberty of running from the devastating blow from the Vengeance's massive battery. Most of them would most likely have been in the vacuume themselves if the evacuation order was not given. That was not quite all of them, however, as it seemed a few actually went to the hulks of the other ships. These were not holding regular soldiers, but marines armed and armored with vac suits, jet packs, and mag boots ready to secure whats left of the hulks for salvage. They weren't armed with anything that could even come close to using a stun setting. They had repeaters and scatter guns and heavy rifles and brutal melee weapon all ready to kill any survivor they found if they were not sent out to the void.

Yossk woke up on the floor of the heavily damaged bridge in sharp pain. Crew members both living and dead were flung around, structural and deck panels were tossed about like a box of spilled screws, and almost all of the lights and computers were down. Yossk slowly tried to open his eyes as he regained consciousness but along the left side of his face his flesh seared with agony and all his eye could see was deep black and crimson. His arm would be in a much worse position, as it was pinned under and penetrated by a broken pannel from the ceiling. The young Trandoshan captain tried to slowly stand, not knowing his arm was long gone, but as the blade cut into his flesh more he screamed with agony and realized his predicament.

His arm reached down to his light saber and gently squeezed it in his right arm. With a snap of the activation rune, the blade left forward with a soft hiss as it glowed a bright orange. He hovered the blade over his ruined arm before taking one final breath. It only took a second, but to him the pain afterwards felt like it took forever. He cut his arm off about two inches under his shoulder. His thumb moved off the rune and the blade retracted, his nearly cauterized limb splitting free from the damaged chunk. He knew that his arm would regenerate, slowly yes but it still would come back. He stumbled around to find a medical box with something inside and began to patch himself up. Some disinfectant was poured over the possibly damaged eye as he wrapped gauze around the damage that was left on his face. Before he was to leave the command bridge, he returned to its command chair for one final time before opening an all frequencies message.

The radio channels had long been quiet from the screams and cries of the dead, but suddenly they crackled to life. The signal wasn't stable, as various levels of static cut in and out as the voice on the other end spoke. "The salvage of this battle has now been claimed by the Trandoshan Captain Yossk of clan Wassak. We shall require them to repair and rebuild the Power Slave, and if anyone in range has any questions about it we still have enough power and crew to make sure we get more salvage." Her frame trembled softly as the Power Slave turned towards the station. And with that she began to docking procedure with the station. He set the message for a repeat roughly every five minutes until the system failed, and with that he began to leave the deck with whatever survivors were left. His footfalls were light as he moved, his gate returned to its brutal elegance. It seemed even a situation like this would not stop his schemes or plans. He would already be thinking about where to go from here. And oh boy did he have plans...

 

[Hauron Solus]

The capital ships of Rancor Squadron circled and avoided much of the remaining damage spouting from the dying Vengeance class frigate. But it was the Powerslave that would end up taking the brunt of the pirate vessel's remaining fury. <"Widden formation and collect survivors willing to stand down and surrender."> There were quite a number of brig modifications made into numerous vessels onboard the Mandalorian fleet. But Hauron doubted that all the pirates would turn themselves over even in their situation.

Some of the corsairs were made examples of without a word from the Solus Rally Master. It was not long before escape pods ignited their beacons and began signaling surrender. The few that still tried to make it away seemed to be quickly eliminated and turned into scraps amid the wake of the battle. It would soon be clear only those that turned themselves over to the Mandalorians had a chance of living through this.

The Mikkian was not entirely sure he approved of how quickly his cohorts had fired upon the escape pods. Then again he also did not want to assume in knowing their history. The badger could think of a few groups he hated and would eliminate gladly without a second thought. The formation of Rancor Squadron would disperse to collect the escape pods and detain the brigand bounties. Cashing in on most of if not the only living pirates would look well in terms of the Squadron's reputation. One escape pod still tried to get beyond the debris field but a Mandalorian interceptor turned it into a briefly bright cloud of fire in the vacuum of space, adding it to the detritus of the void.

A small quirk of a smile made its way behind Hauron's helmet as he heard Yossk's bold voice come over the public wideband. He had nothing to refute since he was already getting everything his warband would need by the end of this. Mandalorian starships convened and docked with the Dralaalar for fast repairs just in case there were reinforcements in the near future. A number of Mandalorian shocktroopers were on stand by for boarding and recue operations. <"Time to mop it up.">

@AutoFox @Tic @The Good Doctor @Olwin

 

[Helen Holcomb]

The Vengeance, as it turned out, did not have much left in her, especially as her crew began to desert. Gradually, the ship's weapon emplacements began to fall silent, and its engines sputtered and died. Eventually, even the remaining running lights began to fade out, indicative of serious damage to the pirate ship's power systems.

The battle was essentially over, all but the mopping up, although Helen was somewhat distracted from this by the actions of one of her pilots.

"Pilot you will stand down!!"

As Kellan began to fire on the tumbling escape pods, Helen's Antipode interceptor swept in behind the Super Cobra, the output of the active targeting sensors turned up as high as it would go. Inside Kellan's cockpit, target lock warnings would be blaring; the Imperial had already seen how hard Helen was to shake in a situation like this.

"The escape pods can't fight back! You will refrain from firing on them, or I will personally give you similar treatment! Do I make myself clear!"

Helen's pursuit was rock steady.

"They're worth just as much alive as dead, and I don't allow murder in my presence, even if these scum have it coming. We'll corral these pods and leave them for the OA cops to pick up. Is that understood?"

She glanced off toward the curve of the station.

"We'll make this quick. I want to get a look at our new digs."

 

[Aden Archer]

When the Vengeance was destroyed, Aden took his rebreather off and flipped the visor on his helmet, he can now take it easy. If there were any stragglers about, they would be mopped up with impunity.

As for the escape pods, he turned his fighter around and saw very quickly that it may not be a good idea. As he saw Helen's ship intercepting Kellan and being very threatening. Aden grimaced and he veered off elsewhere, his full speed thrust slowed down to casual speeds. Having known Ears, she's good enough to follow through on her threats and being on her bad side is not somewhere Aden wants to be.

"Right" he said as space station is now ripe for the taking. "Well, great job everyone." he said, he wouldn't mind working with the others again, should their paths cross. "Nice working with you again Ears" as always. It was fun too.

With that, it's only a matter of time until Aden collects his credits. And in time, having first pick at Holcomb Garage's products with the others.

@Darasuum @Olwin @AutoFox @Tic

 

[Kellan Solari]

Kellan loosed an exasperated sigh and let his thumb slip from the firing button. The targeted escape pod slid by and he watched it go with a distinct sensation of a missed opportunity. In his rear viewpanel, the Lepi’s ship had him dead to rights.

“You’re the boss, Whitetail.” he responded, flipping off his weapons systems. He closed the channel before adding, “Not that they’d do the same for you.”

As he brought the Kobra round towards the remaining cluster of capital ships, he wondered how long it would be before the pirates returned in some form or fashion. It wasn’t hard to envision a newly cobbled fleet showing up at her doorstep one day. In Solari’s experience, thugs rarely expected nor rewarded kindness. Better to scatter their atoms and ensure they stayed gone. But hired guns didn’t call the shots.

Still, the Lepi didn’t seem a bad sort even if she was a bit of a soft touch. As Kellan set about doing his part of the cleanup duty, he hoped she wouldn’t live to regret some mercies somewhere down the line.