Raise Hell

[Valar Dohaeris]

Oh ho ho!

This was what Valar was talking about! The damned pirate captain had finally decided to show himself and here he was approaching with his galleon.

A galleon that they had to take.

Valar and his allies were all aboard the same ship for this one because they weren't fighting the ship in space - they were boarding the damn thing. With that in mind, they were all in the back of a shuttle that was being piloted by some local Imperials.

Valar had a full environment suit, complete with magboots and a grapple gun. He was going to be taking every step to make sure that their jump from the back of the shuttle to the damn galleon was going to be a success.

He would have loved to have some form of jetpack or rocket boots to further control his landing but none had been on hand for him.

Which sucked.

"Alright - you ready for this?" he asked his allies with a wide, brilliantly open, smile, "Oh the excitement is karking palpable guys! This right here?"

He gestured with a thumb at the back of the ship.

"This kark right here is holovids level of stunt, you guys know that right? This is gonna be amazing!"

Valar always did have a strange danger sense.

@Korvo @Srota

 

[Uhtred Wardruna]

There was a battle brewing. Uhtred could practically taste it. This was how it had been for his people in the olden days. Tension weighing down the armor and electricity in the air. Every breath was heavy and resounded with their own heartbeats. In his mind, Uhtred could hear the warsongs of the battle-skalds.

Had he been planetside, he was not convinced he wouldn't have even seen the Wild-Hunt, a vision in the skies of the great battle between the Vladir, following Sáldœm the Doom-Bringer, as they hunted Jörðineyðir, forcing him into the final battle for the fate of Sannaríkis.

Uhtred wore his typical armor, although replaced his cryocaster, concealed blade and environmental suit with a rebreather and life-support box and vac-suit. It was a shame the Imperial Republica didn't look to buying the designs of the boarding pods from the Deucalians, Uhtred would have liked a more... direct path. But still, this would suffice.

"Are you joking? I was literally born for this!", Uhtred replied, laughing in his excitement. It was times like this that Uhtred prized, not just being alive, but living. Really living, as his people of old used to.

@Nefieslab @Srota

 

[Cail Keona]

Cail Keona stood with the others, in his Environment Suit. He had swiped the thing on his way off Korriban, won it in a fight, in fact, but that had been a few days ago, now he was here, off going to put down some pirates with some from the False Sith. He had made sure the suit fit, and had the appropriate gear for time in the void, including magboots. He had been wary stepping aboard at first, but things had slowly settled into dull routine aboard the shuttle and Cail had pulled out a flask and let the sweet sweet release of the alcohol take him. It hadn't been long before the shuttle approached their target. Slowly, steadily, the tall, lanky, Sith had risen and ambled his way over to the others, rolling his shoulders as he did so. Reaching down to his belt, he let his hand rest on the lightsaber, carefully brushing it with his thumb, giving it gentle, loving, caress, like one might do to a lover.

"Well, I guess we better check our gear then get ready, no?" He said calmly, coolly. The brash arrogance he would so often affect was gone, he was collected, ready for anything, as he confirmed with a spin of his blaster about his left index finger, before returning it to his holster. He began to move then, sudden swiftness, his body taking a fighting pose as he threw out a few swift jabs almost like a boxer would.

"Would be nice if we didn't need these damned suits... Slowing me down a bit." He said to himself.

@Nefieslab @Korvo

 

[Valar Dohaeris]

Valar grinned behind the helmet he was forced to wear to survive the void. He was with Cail - he would much prefer to be without it. But considering they were attacking from the outside? In the void?

Well, discomfort could be ignored for glory.

The Sith laughed along with the Deucalian, grabbing the other man by the back of his head and pressing his helmet against the other man's face. Without the helmet they would have been forehead to forehead.

"A man after my own heart!" he declared loudly, grinning wide and proud, "Today we will either die or secure personal glory and spoils... and Death will not reach us today! Today we will have out glory and the rush of taking what we want!"

Releasing the Deucalian, he grinned wide at Cail as well.

"Come brother Sith... let's go and show those weakling pirates what true strength is!" he declared as the ship alarms sounded, "Any minute now!"

Unfortunately, the ship they were on currently seemed to be piloted by people who were either half-blind of cowards, because they were quite a distance away from the other damn ship when the doors opened.

Didn't matter.

"To glory or death!"

Valar flung himself out into the void, aiming in the general direction of the enemy ship, but at the last second the ship he was on rocked as he was pushing off, meaning his push off lost a lot of it's power. Valar was still heading towards the enemy ship but he was doing so much slower than was ideal - the damn think might even take pot shots at him if he was really unlucky.

@Korvo @Srota
DICE
DICE

 

[Uhtred Wardruna]

In all the time Uhtred had spent in the Imperial Republica, most of those that called themselves Sith were stuffy, uptight, and overly formal. Of course, that wasn't to say they were necessarily arrogant, although some obviously were, but they were sterile. It was as if none embraced life and its dangers and laid it bare for others to see.

The more Uhtred saw of Valar and his boisterous nature, the more he came to see the man was clearly an exception to his peers. Had it not been for his obvious use of the Force and lightsabers, Uhtred might have mistaken him for one of his own kind. As Valar rallied both Uhtred and Cail, Uhtred could not help but laugh alongside the Sith.

Þá er það sigur eða Úlfarhöll!"

It was scarcely a moment later that Uhtred realized the bit of irony now. Úlfarhöll... if his ancestors were indeed watching him from the Hall of Wolves, they'd probably be cursing him for sharing a battle cry with, not one., but two-Force users. Ah well, just a sign of the changing times, he'd supposed.

Uhtred's dismissive attitude took a sudden turn as the trio noticed their destination was quite a bit farther off than was anticipated. In fact, Uhtred hadn't even realized that this was as far as they would be going, before needing to take a leap.

Ég hef míga í augum þínum, ekki ég?, Uhtred mused to himself, dropping his head. If this was his ancestors from the world-beyond pissing in his eye right back at him, then he had to give them credit; it was well played.

As Uhtred made his jump, a jump far too distant for even his permissive tastes, he steadied his body and focused only on the sound of his breathing. At first, it almost seemed like Uhtred had lined his leap up perfectly... at first. As Uhtred's drifting jump proceeded, one thing became clearer and clearer; Uhtred had overshot. It was-too far a leap after all and he was going to be just-out of reach of the hull. All wasn't lost, Uhtred wouldn't let it be, but his mind raced as he quickly thought of what he had to do to rectify the situation as he approached the ship. He had no intention of sitting out in dead space for the remainder of his life.

@Nefieslab @Srota

 

[Cail Keona]

Cail rolled his shoulders and began to stretch some more while the others went through some traditions or something. Didn't matter to him. He just needed to limber up before the fight to come, get ready to deal some damage to his enemies. So, he began to jump, rolling his shoulders, wriggling his arms. He must have looked quite the sight, but he was warming up those muscles he would need. Shaking the cobwebs off, if one pleased. He watched as the other Sith made his way to where the doors opened. 'Brother Sith... BAH!' Cail thought to himself, 'There is no such thing as brotherhood in our world.' Well, there was no correcting the other Sith now, for he had jumped, and was likely hurtling towards the enemy ship by now.

Then the Deucalian jumped as well. Cail was left alone aboard the ship, wondering if he should back out now. But in reality it was too late, the Imperial Republica was surely enemy territory as much as this place was. He supposed there was nothing to it but to do it. So he made his way towards the doors, approaching them before turning and with a shrug aimed at nobody in particular, he turned around then jumped.

They were too karking far. This was just his luck, as he was the last one out too! Well, it was too late now. He would have to think of something on his way there!

 

[Valar Dohaeris]

Floating in the void was not something Valar would choose as a daily activity but that was fine... somewhat? He had done his best to prepare for such an eventuality after all. He drew his grapple gun with as little movement as possible, not wanting to spin too far out of control.

Even still, he floated in the void, spinning slowly, for a moment before he aimed and pulled the trigger.

The was a vibration in the grapple gun that alerted Valar that he had actually made the shot. He almost sighed before deciding against it - there wasn't a massive amount of oxygen in these suits after all. He pressed the draw button and he began to sail through the void towards the enemy ship. Unfortunately for him, there was no resistance in the void and so he had to use the Force to try and cushion his landing... and it had mixed results. While he managed to get himself to the enemy ship, it was not a gentle landing and he swear on reflex as he slammed his shoulder into the metal of the hull.

Getting his feet on the hull, he was glad to find that the mag boots worked, locking him in place standing upright. He wouldn't attempt to breach at this point - at this point he was keeping an eye out for his allies and preparing to assist them with the Force if needs be.

@Korvo @Srota

 

[Uhtred Wardruna]

Death was a natural expectation, for any Deucalian. Die in battle, die from time, die from the ravages of illness, at the end of one's time, death was the constant. But how one died... that was how they were defined.

And Uhtred refused to let "drifted out into space because he overshot" to be his epitaph. He would not have it. To die in such a way? Never. He wouldn't be able to look Sáldœm in the eye, nor did he believe Sáldœm would look to him either. This could not be the end. He wouldn't let it.

Without haste, Uhtred pulled out his elduröx-and powered it up, gripping as tightly as he could as his body neared the hull of the enemy ship. It was foolhardy plan, one clearly made in desperation, but Uhtred would go through with it anyway. As his body passed just beyond the enemy ship's hull, out of reach for his hands, Uhtred thrusted out with his axe and hacked it just barely into the hull. The tip of the axe blade which dug into the ship's hull just barely made it in, although the impact of Uhtred stopping all of his momentum at once put an instant strain on his arm, causing him to vocally hiss in pain.

Grunting with effort, Uhtred then pulled himself close enough to the enemy ship's hull so that his feet could reach, and with the magnetized boots activated, the Deucalian reaver locked himself in place, firmly planted on the metallic hull.

Pulling out his elduröx-and mounting it near to his waist once again, Uhtred grabbed his right shoulder with his left arm, breathing harshly from the sharp pain that was induced.

"Would you believe me if I said 'just as planned'?", Uhtred said with a strained grin beneath his metal mask.

@Nefieslab @Srota

 

[Cail Keona]

The jump was too far, he could see it now, with his momentum and angle of approach, he was just going to miss the karking ship. Thankfully, this would not be an issue for a Sith. He allowed his breathing to slow, his anger at this stupendous failure to grow and fuel itself more and more. He reached out with the force and used it to pull, to create a connective force between himself and the ship, nothing too significant, but enough to change his momentum, to begin moving him in a direction that would see him colliding with the ship. As he did, he brought his legs up to his chest so that he would land on the metal hull, feet first. And so he landed, and landed harder than expected, and across the ship from the others. He reached down, pressing a button on his environmental suit and engaged the magboots. His every step was heavy as he moved, slowly, carefully, nursing the injury to his right leg, sustained with the bone-jarring collision between him and the ship.

Slowly, heavily, he plodded his way across the ship to the others, hoping the noise of the engines inside would hide his footsteps. It took him a few minutes, but in time he arrived, joining the others. "I, for one, hope this plan involves less cack-ups, myself." He said as he rejoined the others.

 

[Valar Dohaeris]

With the whole team now securely on the enemy ship, Valar was happy enough to proceed - it was time to get rid of the last of these pirates already. He was sick to death of having to fight these buggers and he wanted them gone from his life. This entire venture had been something of a ball ache from start to finish - and the worst part was that it wasn't even actually over yet. Tutting, he igniting his lightsaber.

Stabbing and slashing at the hull of the ship, he quickly realized that none of the important functions were actually accessible from the outside and that his attacks were doing nothing. Growling in annoyance, he stabbed straight down with his lightsaber and began to cut an entrance.

"Get ready." he told his allies as he was halfway through making the entrance for them, "They will have had enough time to secure their enviroment suits so they might very well be waiting for us."

Finishing the cut, Valar tore the chunk of the ship's hull out with the Force before throwing himself into the ship, using his magboots to stick to the ceiling as the artificial gravity had been deactivated by their entrance.

"I want them all dead. No survivors."

He was in a bad mood and there were people he could take it out on so he was going to gods damn it!

@Korvo @Srota

 

[Uhtred Wardruna]

Uhtred smiled beneath his armor. Forget working for an Imperial Sith, this felt like one of the old raids. Strike hard, move fast, never leave a survivor. As Valar cut away a section of the hull, blazing open an entrance for the trio, Uhtred stepped inside after him.

There was a lack of inertial dampeners kicking in, at least in the section of the ship Uhtred and the others were in. Probably had something to do with part of the hull being bored out, but it kept any induced sense of vertigo or disorientation from kicking in as Uhtred walked in from the ship's ceiling. This was a clear and obvious breach, and if protocol were to be followed, a patrol would come by to investigate. Grabbing his elduröx-and beskad-to his hands, Uhtred simply waited, and sure enough, several pirates came. Seven, in fact. Using a hallway as a make shift airlock, the pirates depressurized the hallway before entering into the area that Valar had cut into. All of them were in environmental suits.

"What the hell kinda hole is that?"

"Cut the chatter, Havoll. Nielas, get the ray shields active over that hole. Jucen, get the anti-grav back up. The lights in the room aren't functional for the time being, so the rest of you, get those torches on and start searching the place. Either something got in or something got out."

The hole in the ceiling was soon covered by a forcefield, and Uhtred felt the anti-gravity kick in again, although he was still attached to the ceiling. Now, there was just the wait...

"This is Havoll, sir. You know this would be a lot easier if we had some idea as to what we're looking fo-"

Like a predator, Uhtred dropped from the ceiling once the mercenary came beneath him and stabbed down with his beskad., piercing him from the back of his neck all the way down through his body, as he simultaneously crushed him in his armored drop from the ceiling.

"KAAAAAAAAARRKKK!!!", screamed another nearby pirate, firing uncontrollably as he witnessed a figure drop from about and kill one of his peers in an instant.

Most of the shots missed Uhtred, flying past him, although one struck his foot, singling the flesh beneath. Wasn't a mortal wound, but by the Andar, it stung like a schutta. Without letting out a word, Uhtred threw his elduröx-in a horizontal fashion, cleaving the blade deep into the pirate's neck and killing him in wake of a fast, gurgling death throe.

Dangerous as it was, there was just something special about attacks in the dark...

5 out of 7 pirates left in the room
@Nefieslab @Srota

 

[Valar Dohaeris]

They were in and their enemies were trying to stop them - Valar was not about to let that happen however. They had managed to get into the ship after all the odds went against them and he would be damned if he was going to let everything they had been through to get here be for nothing.

"ONWARD!"

Honestly, he wasn't sure who he was even shouting at to come with him but for a second he slipped into the most natural state for him - the state of a leader trying to bring back some of his men's morale in the push forwards.

Unfortunately for him, it seemed that their enemies were still not ready to die, or even be forced back. Valar's push towards the bridge stalled as the defenders poured their fire onto him, blasting his saber from his hand and forcing him to duck behind some cover, halting the advance entirely.

His lightsaber was gone but, well, Valar brought spares for just that reason, even if his hand did feel like it had taken a few burns from the blaster bolt hitting the emitter of his lightsaber. Hopefully his allies had more luck than him.

@Korvo @Srota

 

[Uhtred Wardruna]

It didn't take long before all hell broke loose. Of course, that had been something the group had been going for, but this time around it turned the entire room into a blaze of randomly-firing blaster bolts spewing every-which-way with reckless abandon.

Uhtred had previously taken down two thugs in the panic that followed, but now things had become so chaotic, the Deucalian reaver was practically trapped in place, unable to race toward cover until another stray blaster bolt struck him on the bicep.

The blast hit Uhtred so strongly, the Deucalian was knocked backwards, with his grip on both of his weapons failing as he fell onto the cold, hard floor. The pain seared as his skin beneath his armor burned, but Uhtred was still cognitive enough to see the wall of durasteel crates nearby, much closer than before. It was about the only positive thing he had to look forward to, given the circumstances. Although Uhtred still had his dagger, melee combat was out now.

Pulling his lockbow from his back, the Deucalian reaver prepped his weapon for battle, now delegating the skirmish from a brawl to a full-blown shootout.

@Nefieslab @Srota

 

[Cail Keona]

He had let them go ahead, after all, there was no sense in being the first one into the breach when you had an injured leg. But at some point, you had to act, and it seemed like now was the time. With a wince of pain, he slipped through the hole as best as the rather bulky environmental suit would allow. He was going to try and have a little fun. As he landed on the floor, he rolled, drawing his lightsaber. Slowly he drew on the pain, the anger, the pent up rage at these puny pirates daring to stand before him, and he rushed, ducking low, letting the pain of his injured leg feed into his own rage, as he neared the others, he slid, letting his momentum carry him beneath the blaster bolts, before swinging his blade out with a flash once on either side, hoping to hamstring his foes, so they fell and dropped their weapons.

The first slice went wide and Cail slammed into the bulkhead behind the pirates, slamming into the wall at full force-enhanced speed. It was painful, just as much as it had been when he slammed into the outer hull. Probably because it was a similar material. He found himself stunned, there just a moment as he felt the blaster bolt slam into his shoulder. He gritted his teeth, wanting to stop himself from crying out in pain. It was all he could do to lash out with the blade another time, before a second shot hit him in the arm, and the blade went spinning out of his hand at the end of his slice, that left another pirate down on the ground, blaster sent flying across the hall.

4 of 7 pirates remaining

@Nefieslab @Korvo

 

[Valar Dohaeris]

This was continuing to not go well.

Cail had managed to do some damage and for that Valar was grateful, but Valar himself was still not managing to get anything done. He attempted to move from his cover, readying himself to move up, but concentrated fire from the remaining pirates forced him to stay behind cover.

The only upside that he could see right now was that the pirates were focusing almost exclusively on him. Hopefully either Cail or Uhtred would be able to do some more damage to take advantage of the fact that they were now pouring on the fire on his cover.

Now aware that their attack might end in failure, Valar tapped away at a datapad, getting their shuttle to come back around to prepare for an ex-filtration should the worst come to pass and they needed to back the hell out.

@Korvo @Srota

 

[Uhtred Wardruna]

In some ways, it was almost remarkable how things started with the makings of an effective ambush, to now simply being the scene of just pure havoc and mayhem. Blaster bolts were flying from all over the place, hitting every surface. Much less firing back, Uhtred didn't even have an opening or opportunity to break cover.

The best the Deucalian reaver had thought to expect was to hold out until the panic died out, which carried the additional penalty of losing the advantage of keeping them on-edge, or hoping for a break for reloading. However, it had seemed that at least some elements of Uhtred's projections were premature. Over time, some semblance of coordination seemed to have resurfaced from among them. In a way, that was-a bad thing, but it had the benefit of making their actions coherent, even predictable. Regrettably, much of that coordination was being directed toward Valar himself, which Uhtred was able to see as he peeked out from cover himself.

With his lockbow in hand, Uhtred fired a volley of blaster bolts, streaking the room with a dazzling glow of bluish-indigo as Uhtred forced the remaining group of pirates into cover. However, the suddenness of Uhtred's retaliation bore results, as not one, but two-additional pirates were struck in the firefight, one hit in the back of the neck, and another in the side of the head. Both fell dead to the ground, a triumph in the difficult skirmish thus far, but they were still unfinished, as two more pirates had successfully fallen behind cover, no doubt preparing to launch a counter attack.

2 of 7 pirates remaining
@Nefieslab @Srota

 

[Cail Keona]

He wasn’t about to be shown up, even hobbling about as he was by now. Watching the others fall into places and lashing out in various ways, from the data pad to the blaster bolts of authored. It was time for him to end this. He wasn’t moving much now, not with the injuries he had sustained, so he reached to his belt with his off hand and drew the blaster pistol from within. TAking aim at one of the last two remaining guards, he fired the weapon, but his aim was wide, for he was never a good shot, and the action served only to draw the attention of the two guards who opened fire.

Getting shot wasn’t pleasant, the heat of the blaster schorching it’s way through the suit and into his flesh. This wasn’t good, now his environment suit was compromised. There wasn’t much chance of him getting out of here and he knew it.

Cail let out a roar of anger and rage as he reached out with the force and pulled one of the guards hard, dragging him through the air and into the bulkhead as best he could. The guard fell, knocked out or dead. It didn’t matter. Cail couldn’t stand, and he fell to the floor exhausted, barely able to even move his head to see what would happen next.

@Korvo @Nefieslab

 

[Valar Dohaeris]

Finally things seemed to be going fairly well for them.

There was only one man left and Valar knew that it was time to end it. Reaching out with the Force, he stepped out from behind his cover and grabbed the man by the throat. The man managed to let off a shot, which slammed into Valar's gut only after the Sith had snapped the man's neck with the Force.

Forced down onto one knee from the pain of the blow, Valar held his hand to the burning wound and used the Force to fill the space, stopping his environment suit from venting too much atmosphere and causing him to choke in the void. Instead he was nursing a burn the size of his fist that didn't look like it was going to be healing on it's own anytime soon but that hardly mattered now because the ship was finally theirs.

Still though.

"Get over here with some medical supplies!" he called out to the crew of their shuttle with a groan of pain, "We've taken the ship... though we appear to be in various states of blasted for our trouble."

Still... it had been a scrap. There were moments when Valar honestly thought about calling the whole thing off but they had endured, weathered, the pain and the failings to stand tall. Now if only it didn't feel like his guts were on fire.

/End Thread
@Korvo @Srota