Swimming in the Black II

[Eccles]

"Prepare for boarding!" Turncoat Jon hollared over the Alabaster Escort Freighter's intercom, prompting his crew of vengeful Coreworlders and former brothers of the Sacred Band to grab their respective blasters and vibro-swords and make way to the starboard side hatches. Unlike last time, they had made sure there was no one within intercept range before they manage to attach the much smaller escort freighter to the bulk freighter with Imperial identifyers. A flashing green light showed the captain that they had succesfully attached themselves to their target and a careful look at the radar, which had been set on its maximum settings, still showed no one near enough to set a course to intercept and reach them before the deed was done. A dark grin took hold of Menderling's face, his eyes glittered with joy for what was about to happen as he extended his line of communication to the attached ship. "Have at it," he said laughingly and released the locks on the outer door, giving his men the freedom to extract their revenge on the innocent crew of a mere merchant vessel. The anger in Turncoat Jon's voice equalled the madness that seeped through his very being as he kept the communication line open, expanding the broadcasting range to a good ten miles from their position. No civilian vessel would come near, which meant that in worst case scenario a fast Imperial corvette might be able to cut their boarding action off short. There was no one among Turncoat's turncoats who thought of that eventuality, however, as all of them were consumed with a basic and maddening rage. Their revenge would be epic. This ship's crew would mark the beginning of a bloody campaign all the way to the rebuilt Great Pyramid of Korriban.

"I said it," Turncoat Jon began, "I told you this would happen. Give me your captain and I'll let you live. I give you my word." None among his crew would for a moment trust their captain to spare a life simply based on his word, as he had always been a man to rule more by superior skill and kept the ranks close with induced fear. No, Turncoat Jon, especially in his current state would never honor his word. "Your captain-" Menderling grabbed a wireless headset synced with the communication network and took large strides to the opened hatches, "-has an appointment with the endless black."

As he made his way through the narrow corridors of the bulk freighter he encountered numerous mutilated bodies, most of them unarmed, yet the closer he got to the bridge the more of his own crew littered the floor. When he met Tall Tulo Turner at the barricaded door to the bulk freighter's bridge he saw that the weequay had a gash in his left arm and his hands had locked themselves around his knives. "Report," Turncoat Jon demanded without caring about his quartermaster's state of being or the men they'd lost to get to the bridge in the first place.

"They had a stormtrooper escort-" Tall Tulo began, his eyes clearly displaying the surprise he felt over their presence as he nodded to the single dead stormtrooper at his feet. "-well, what did you think? They'd go unprotected despite my threats!?" the captain spat on the besmudged white of the dead stormtrooper. "Hew Legs!" Turncoat Jon called for the demolition expert that had formerly been with the Sacred Band, but had been unable to find his footing with the Imperial Legion, "-put the plastic on the door and blow it kessing open!"

 

[Chask274]

Vaxus stood before the main viewport of the bridge, looking out into the swirling blue vortex of hyperspace. As ordered, his vessel, the War Leviathan ILS Desolator, had been patrolling the area due to increased pirate activity. Not more than a minute ago, a distress signal had been recieved from an Imperial cargo vessel under attack. Thankfully being only a short jump away, he'd ordered a course set immediately. Judging by the frantic nature of the call, this was another strike from the infamous Turncoat Jon, which didn't bode well for the crew of the bulk freighter.

As soon as the swirling blue vortex unfurled into realspace and revealed the two docked ships, Vaxus turned and began issuing orders. "Gunnery team, take out the engines on both vessels. Use the turbos and ion. Helm, start bringing us in to dock with the bulk freighter."

Blue and green bolts of energy filled the space between the ships as the Desolator's guns started tearing into their rear shields. Triggering his comlink, Vaxus relayed a message to the leader of Desolator's troop contingent. "Nayel, Svero, get your boys ready to roll, we need to move quickly. Svero, you've got permission to breach as soon as you're ready and we've docked. Watch yourself out there, if this is Turncoat Jon, there's no telling what he's gonna do."

Turning back to the viewport, Vaxus waited in anticipation for his orders to be carried out. He'd only recently been assigned command of this corvette, an assignment that coincided with a promotion to Legion Commander, and he was eager to prove himself capable to the Warlord and the Emperor.

Spoiler: Tags

@Ecclessey @Tristar @Elijah Brockway @DeltaWolf @christhebarker @Prudence

 

[Tristar]

The ship jumped, it warped into the black void and landed with the jolt of his stomach. Stony faced as ever, he watched from the observation deck as the ship reentered reality. The stars twinkled in the distance, and moments later he felt the muted thunder as the turbocannons started firing their deadly ordinance. He sniffed and turn away from the firework display, pressing a finger to his ear comlink: "Nayel copies." was the curt reply to his commander. The shocktrooper had very little interest in saying anything else- it was pointless. He walked away from the deck and headed towards the armory. It was time to enact some muzzle velocity diplomacy.

The docking hallway was packed, two lines of marines lined up against the walls and breathing in muted silence, except their helmet's respirators did not allow that. Therefore, Nayel was bombarded with the breathing rhythms of forty men of various humanoid species, each anxious of their first live-fire mission. He walked up to the front of the line, feeling the eyes of subordinates training their eyes on his back. He gazed around and saw what was missing. "Svero." he called out for his co-leader via private channel. "The diplomatic ensemble is missing its conductor." he paused his transmission as he felt another wave of rolling thunder pass through the ship. His radio channel flickered with small amounts of static.

He pressed the button once more, but left another curt message: "Hurry up."

Finished with addressing his colleague the onboard Commander* of the marine detachment turned around and stared at the snow-white troopers, many who were expecting some sort of speech. Nayel was not a speech man. Instead, he settled on giving these men the best advice he could do as a veteran member of the Sacred Band of Ziost.

Now defunct, of course.

"Aim well." ​

Spoiler: OOC

* The rank commander refers to the real life equivalent and is not to be confused with the Imperial Legion rank of 'Commander'.

 

[Elijah Brockway]

"Aye-aye," came Svero's curt reply to Vaxus. It was an interesting transition, serving distinctly under rather than alongside the man on this ship, GORGON team having since been disbanded. Still, it wasn't some sort of world-shattering change. As always, the Alderaanian veteran would cope. R-8R rifle on a sling around his shoulders and his helmet in hand he walked down to the docking tubes, the private comms between himself, Vaxus, and Nayel chirping again in his ear. The door slid open and he stepped out behind Nayel as soon as the slightly-younger man finished speaking, looking over the group he was soon to lead.

Although his armour held no visible insignia, the uniform he otherwise would wear did. While in the 121st ranks were unobserved beyond the difference between trooper and commander, the only thing determining who led others being seniority, amongst these non-121st Stormtroopers - all of whom were originally drawn from the Imperial Navy, and were now serving on the Desolator - rank meant something else. Vaxus's naval rank was Captain, Nayel's was Commander, and Svero's was Lieutenant commander...and the leader of those who would put boots on the ground.

Either literally, or metaphorically, in this case.

He slid his helmet down over his head, the bucket automatically interacting with the neck seal of his bodysuit to give him an airtight breathing space. "The lead ambassador has arrived," he remarked dryly, the vocoder of the helmet giving his voice a tinny, artificial quality as the sound filled the air between himself and Nayel. "Stormtroopers! Ready your blasters, safeties disengaged. The likelihood that any of this freighter's original crew still survives is slim to none, and every other being on it is a hostile entity. You are expected to shoot first and ask questions later; if it points a gun at you, you shoot it. If it has a weapon in hand, you shoot it. If it so much as looks at you funny, you shoot it. I don't want to have to write a letter to anybody's mother and say they got themselves killed because they hesitated at shooting some rag-tag pirate. You're the Empire's finest, and it's time for all of you to shape up and start acting like it!"

With a chorus of "Sir! Yes sir!"-s echoing out he looked over the group again, before partitioning them further. "Squads two and three, you're on boarding detail with me. Petty Officers Morhen and Tarrak, sync your comms to channel three. Squads one and four, remain here. Your job is to guard the entrance to the ship proper. Eliminate any armed subjects with extreme prejudice, unless they immediately drop arms, identify themselves, and surrender themselves to your custody. Otherwise, you're under Commander Kohner's thumb right now." With a nod to his immediate superior, he opened up his private comm with Vaxus up on the bridge again.

"Captain, the boarding detail is prepped and ready as soon as we receive confirmation that the docking is complete and we're safe to board." Safe being a relative term.

 

[DeltaWolf]

It had only been a short time since Quentin had joined up with the Imperial Legion, but with his skills he was almost immediately assigned to helm the ILS Desolator. He preferred to pilot freighters or starfighters, but he was more than capable of flying the corvette. He had done some flying for smugglers a few years back and after a brief refresher of learning how to fly a larger ship, he was good to go. After all, Quentin didn't label himself one of the best pilots for nothing. If he was going to brag, it was going to be truthful bragging.

The ship was flying through hyperspace and Quentin looked to the side, realizing they were approaching the location of the distress signal. He waited a few more moments, getting a little closer before calling out, "We're almost there Captain. Dropping out of hyperspace in ten seconds." Quentin began counting down in his head until he reached five, saying the numbers allowed before dropping out of hyperspace. When they came out, two docked ships were in view and before he was even given the command, Quentin had a feeling of what they were about to do. He waited until he was told to dock with the bulk freighter, nodding and replied, "Yes Captain. Bringing her in now." before bringing the War Leviathan close to the larger ship.

Quentin brought the Desolator in gently, pulling up next to bulk freighter, preparing to dock it. He looked out to the side, nodding before bringing it closer. Quentin called out, "Docking will be complete soon barring any complications. Get ready." With that, he looked to the side, ready for impact with the much smaller freighter. He would've gone in rough normally, but he didn't want to damage the ship in case they got into an engagement. Plus, he didn't want to harm any of the members of the boarding party. Because if this really was Turncoat Jon, Quentin wanted to see him fall.

 

[Kann Beroya]

The ship jumped as it exited hyperspace. kann was in his quarter preparing his gear for combat when the turbolasers began to fire. he always preferred boarding ships to any other form combat fought on the battlefield the close quarter nature of it played well to his skills making it his playground to deal death. he also had recently 'promoted' to a medic which he wasn't too happy about that because most of his time spent make wounds not fixing them but alas this was his role but doesn't mean he had to like it.

as he jogged to the docking tube and the arousing speech and the orders of attack waiting in the doorway for him to finish before he spoke "I'm all most offended that you forget about me. I mean how could you as i am the most colourful character in the group, both figuratively and literally" he says sarcastically in his black, green and red Mandalorian armour leant against the doorframe arms folded "but on a more serious note, where do you want me".

 

[Prudence]

[NSFW Theme]
​

The speakers in the XO's room were turned all the way up to the maximum volume. During the hyperspace journey he'd gathered some of the younger ensigns aboard the ILS Desolator to educate them about proper Raxus Rap. There was a young male Zabrak that was awkwardly sitting at the edge of his chair, his head subtly beating to the sick beat of the rap. Meanwhile a female Twi'lek bristled a little bit, turning to Kalen and arching an eyebrow, "So... Sir.... He's got bi-"

With a bit of a grin on his face Kalen nodded, speaking with his thick and stiff Mandalorian accent, "Yes! You get it! This is east coast rap, and it definitely trumps the trash on the west coast of Raxus. You don't understand, but just know this is the lifeblood of the Empire."

The Twi'lek looked even more confused, and then awkwardly looked about the room. A few of the others had begun to bob up and down to the beat. This was Kalen's annual social for new ensigns aboard the Desolator, where he would try to meet and get to know the rising stars amongst the crew. He glanced around a bit, his eyes gravitating towards a small pouch of bluish powder on his desk, "The real education comes in the difference between a proper glytterstim, and your bland everyday spi-"

The ship shuddered, and he could feel it rapidly deaccelerating. Simultaneously the Shock Trooper could hear alarms beginning throughout the ship. He'd been off duty, but it would seem that they'd run into some kind of trouble. Swearing under his breath he stood up, staggering towards the door and snagging his helmet from off of his bed. "Don't just look at me, get to your stations!"

The XO pulled his helmet on and swiftly moved into the halls, joining in a stream of crew members headed for the bridge. He popped a quick salute as he entered, before moving to stand alongside Vaxus, "What've we run into, captain?"

 

[Eccles]

The door into the bridge flew opon and the last stand of the bulk freighter began. "Kill all but the captain," Turncoat Jon ordered the maddened savages whose numbers quickly dwindled as they ran into the stormtrooper's blockade. Still, with the absence of fear at their side the pirates simply used the bodies of their fallen comrades as shields and breached the blockade in mere seconds. Hew Legs was in his element here as he stabbed the stormtrooper captain in the neck with his Gratia blaster and even Tall Tulo's Kowakian Monkey Lizard unleashed some fury of its own as its clawed the eyes from a technician's skull. Turncoat Jon arrived on the scene when the smoke of the targeted explosion finally lifted and never even bothered to look at his fallen men in a sign of sympathy or comradery towards those that survived. "Hew, Tulo-" he said as he noticed the Imperial Freighter Captain's anxious face and soiled breeches, "-take him and follow me to the airlock."

Suddenly, in the corner of his eye, Turncoat Jon noticed the War Leviathan's blip on the radar screen and immediately pressed a button on his headset. "Disengage the ship!" he ordered the pilot back on his own ship, "put it in the Leviathan's blindspot behind the freighter!"

Just then the first blasts from the Leviathan hit the bulk freighter's engines and forced Turncoat Jon to grab a chair for balance. Another pirate would've immediately ordered a retreat, but it had been a long time since Turncoat Jon actually resembled a pirate. "Hew, Tulo!" he barked at his two dumbstruck underlings, "-to the airlock!" another hit from the Leviathan almost threw Turncoat Jon across the bridge, his metal leg doing nothing for balance. "Now!"

"Captain?" a Twi'lek crewmember asked, unsure what to do now that an Imperial ship had arrived with far superior technology and crew. Others from the crew, hardened war veterans and lucky Coreworlders alike, seemed to share the lessened conviction now that they weren't facing just civilians in Imperial employ, but actual soldiers. Turncoat Jon was unapologetic and knowing that in the upcoming fight only a rare few would survive he decided not to beat around the bush, "it's not like they'll leave you alive if you surrender, so do justice to your dead loved ones and take as many with you as you can"

 

[Chask274]

Standing at the viewport, Vaxus watched as the bulk freighter's engines were torn to pieces. As a civilian ship, the large cargo vessel's shields were no match for the military grade turbolasers and ion cannon barrage they'd been subjected to, and were quick to fail. The escort freighter, however, was a bit more robust. While Vaxus had seen the characteristic flash and crackle of energy that indicated a shield collapse flicker across the stern of the Alabaster-class vessel, it had maneuvered out of the line of fire before he could confirm that it's engines had taken any damage. As the corvette began to dock, Vaxus barked an order to his flight ops coordinator. "Scramble Bravo Flight and have them keep an eye on that escort freighter. Tell them only to engage if it looks like it's trying to dock again." A moment later, and a pair of X-57 Starfighters would launch from the hangar to begin circling the three ships.

Glancing over as he was addressed by his XO, he acknowledged the Mando with a nod. "Picked up a Mayday from one of our bulk freighters, they'd been hit by pirates. We're boarding them now to deal with the problem, although things don't feel right. The pirate ship disengaged but stayed nearby, which means they've still got people on the freighter, but why wouldn't they just cut and run?"

As he pointed that, he was given a thumbs up by a technician indicating that the dock was good. "Svero, you've got good seal, move in. Priority is the pirates."

@Ecclessey @Tristar @Elijah Brockway @christhebarker @DeltaWolf @Prudence

 

[Prudence]

Kalen remembered what he'd heard about recent pirate attacks, and the declaration of Turncoat Jon. An uneasy feeling ran through his body as he analyzed the readouts, looking over them carefully. Finally he shook his head, turning to look at Vaxus, "Somethin' don't sit right with me mate. This isn't ordinary pirates..." From his helmet he was able to access the ops comms, hearing the chatter from the soldiers, and pilots, that they'd dispatched to deal with the situation. He spoke into the mic built within his helmet, "Svero, something about this isn't sitting right. Proceed with caution. "

He turned his attention back to Vaxus, and pulled his helmet off, clipping it to his belt. "What was the bulk freighter carrying? Anything particularly valuable?"

 

[Elijah Brockway]

Svero turned to stare at Kann; given that he'd already pulled his helmet on, the Alderaanian warrior's facial expression thankfully couldn't be seen. "You're a medic," he said plainly. "If you come with us, you stay out of the line of fire. I would rather you stay back here until you hear us having obvious trouble - such as if we call for backup or call for a medic specifically. Then you can run out to where we are." He turned again, directing squad two to stand right at the door.

At the buzzing in his ear, he spoke to the bridge again: "Understood, Genet. Commencing boarding maneuver." At a short hand signal, squad two opened the first door of the airlock and rushed in, finding the second one locked against them. Thankfully - unlike the exceedingly thick outer airlock, the inner airlock was a big closer to a normal door. "Lay a breaching charge, and be snappy. They're probably waiting for us behind that door." Squad two's leading members moved to comply, putting the small explosive charge on the door and stepping back from it quickly. A few seconds later the countdown hit zero, and the door started glowing red-hot, as the thermal detonator tape sparked and burned, before the actual explosive was reached and the door blew inwards, fulling the corridor it led into with smoke.

Crouching low, the first two members of squad two moved through the doorway, and quickly moved to hug the walls, weapons at the ready to return any fire that came their way. Svero started moving up behind him with squad one at his back, alert for the sounds of combat in the entrance corridor.

 

[Tristar]

He watched quietly from the sidelines as the seniors moved into positions, Svero curtly ordering their only medic to stay back; that meant Nayel had full responsibility keeping the mandalorian check. What great fun. He didn't complain and only shifted his feet uncomfortably at this arrangement. The marine simply checked his rifle once, giving it a proper look over while the two ensigns started to prep the thermal breaching charge. He looked around and frowned internally at his surroundings: this was one hell of a bottle neck, not much room to maneuver. A small force could easily impede their way indefinitely until they ran out of ammunition to continue the fight.

The thought of it made his insides squirm. Inefficiency, it screamed. He wanted it done quick, cleanless. But if the defenders weren't going to comply to his personal standards then he had no choice.

He tapped the shoulder of the closest ensign to him, making the motions to prepare his concussion grenade; normally concussion grenades simply stunned its targets, leaving them easy prey. In extremely close quarters however, the effect of its detonation could be lethal, especially to species with low tolerance to high pitched noises or bright lights. Nayel held up three fingers, eyes fixed on the breaching charge.

The door blew inwards and the troopers moved in silence, rifle barrels swiveling at every corner of the room, ready to execute their harsh orders. Nayel followed after Svero, leading his grenadier with him. The rubber soles on their boots made little difference in the operation- by now, the enemy would have realized something was happening, if not panicking at the thought of a marine boarding party. The entrance corridor spanned for several meters in before cutting off into a left bend. What surprised Nayel was how little resistance they had been met with- by now he was expecting a welcoming committee to politely but firmly tell them to leave. He shrugged internally and pointed at the bend, prompting his follower to chuck his hot potato. The concussive present bounced and disappeared into the bend.

Seconds later, it exploded.

 

[Kann Beroya]

Kann rolled his eyes beneath his helmet as Svero mention that he should stay behind them and/or stay here until he is needed. he could list two reasons why he shouldn't number one, he's a combat medic, not a doctor. he's meant to be at the frontlines to patch them up or stabilise them while he gets them to an actual doctor he can't do that if he's waiting here. number two, he is the most competent if not the best close quarters in this group marines but he obviously didn't recognise that.

kann stay behind while the rest of the marines moved ahead down the corridor just for them to clear the hallway. it wasn't how he would have done it because going through the docking port was asking for a shootout over that corridor and this was the obvious manoeuvre to do but no one had died yet so he can't currently complain about it. But it didn't feel right, why weren't they defending the best defensive position on the ship, this shouts trap in his mind so was going to wait until the trap was sprung before entering the ship.

 

[Eccles]

The Imperial boarding squad would find the corridors empty and opposition non-existent. Much unlike ordinary crews, pirate or otherwise, turncoat's turncoats didn't rush aimlessly to their deaths to fight a fighting force that was their superior in terms of equipment, training and numbers. Instead they were scattered across the bulk freighter, hidden in crawling spaces and among the cargo just waiting to catch an isolated stormtrooper off guard whose armor would fit the ragged pirate. Their strongest weapon in this fight would be the fear of not knowing where they'd be and that they could strike at any moment.

Meanwhile Turncoat Jon himself had arrived at the maintenance room. "Get those suits off the rack," the captain barked to Tall Tulo, pointing at the environmental suits that would allow them to go outside the ship and survive for a good ten minutes. Hew kept an eye on the hallway with his blasters ready, just in case the Imperial boarders would move through the ship without formation or tactic in favor of speed.

"Please," the freighter captain begged, "-let me live and I'll do a good word for you."

"Let you live!?" Turncoat Jon laughed as he opened the door to the airlock and pushed him inside. "I am here with the sole purpose of seeing your life extinguished as you drift out into the blackness of space." He closed the door separating the airlock with the maintenance room and punched in some buttons on the control panel, "Have a nice swim."

Mere moments later the outer door opened and the captain was sucked into space without an environment suit to protect him. With gravity out of the way his blood circulation came in distress and deprived of oxygen the poor man was about to spend a minute of consciousness as his brain and body slowly died. It was a horrible death and a most effective message to all Imperial freighter captains in Imperial space.

 

[Eccles]

"Pick us up at the rear and prepare for hyperspeed," Turncoat Jon said over his comm unit to the pilot of the pirate vessel just as he zipped himself up in the environmental suit. Captain Smollet, Tall Tulo's Kowakian Monkey-Lizard, was tucked into the same suit as his master and cursing beneath his breath at Hew Legs and Turncoat Jon whom he held responsible for the dangerous plan of 'swimming' back to their own ship to escape the wrath of the Imperial boarding party.

"Well," Turncoat Jon shrugged and grinned mischievously, "Let's follow the good captain into the black." His smile was not returned by either members of his crew, but Mr Smollet let out a crude thunderous laugh and in doing so betrayed his master's true feelings.

The two hatches were quickly opened and with a large jump the three pirates exited the bulk freighter. For a good ten seconds they appeared to be flying hopelessly through the black until the alabaster freighter positioned itself favorably and opened a hatch to retrieve them. All three went in without a hitch and seconds later the freighter, which had been blocked from the War Leviathan's view, disappeared from the scene altogether.

//endthread