Black Holes

[Valar Dohaeris]

Time to pirate the pirates.

The irony of raiding pirate supplies was not lost on Valar - it amused him to no end to know that he and his ally for this mission, Sabrina, were going to be blasting the pirate freighters to pieces before they could call for help or get their supplies to the pirates.

Hell, they were even going to steal the codes from the wreckage and sneak aboard the pirate space station because of this!

It was great fun for Valar.

Flying in a crux fighter, he was having the time of his life and they were still technically en route to the damn attack site. It was enough to make a man giddy!

"Oh Sabrina I have a feeling today is going to be a great day." he told his ally over the com lines, "Such a good day! A red day, you know what I'm saying?"

A red day.

The best kind of day.

As for Talik? Well he wasn't going to speak to her just yet... he got the impression she didn't much like him and he was going to have to try and change that. Mainly because he was, quite noticeably, rather obsessed with sleeping with xenos.

Had to improve his chances.

@Sabrina

 

[Sabrina K]

She was also in crux fighter, she had very little experience of flying, part of her wished her big brother was here instead. As he command a capital ship, and would know more than her. She was familiarizing herself the controls, and working out to slow down, and speed up. How to do a loop, and to do other maneuvers with it. The ship was quite responsive, then she heard him over the com line, It was going to be great day apparently, a red day. Okay she hoped he was right, but she was hoping it would not be a green day, and end up being sick on the controls. She want to avoid that, she replied as nicely as she could to him. Yes it will be, let's get them codes, and get onboard that pirate base. She did like the idea, of raiding pirates, there was a sense of irony about it. Though she just wanted to get through this space combat first.

 

[Talik Kru]

The subtle drumming of finger tips tapping out a beat upon the controls was the only noise within the cockpit of the Crux fighter. Talik flew to the starboard side of Sabrina K. The Twi’lek had taken up the flanking position to put the inexperienced flier between Dohaeris and herself and as she watched the woman getting familiar with her craft she was glad they hadn’t attempted a tighter formation. Even so, she didn’t look like she was going to get anyone killed.

The man’s voice cut into the silence and she had to wonder at the collective trio. She had never been off her leash long enough to actually meet anyone from the Old Empire. Personally politics could take a flying nose dive into a crater at full speed. There were bigger concerns than to whom to bend the knee this week.

Leaving the two to their chit chat, she monitored the various bands on the comm searching for chatter of the Pirate variety. Doubting that the strike would be a blue milk run, she still considered the target to be manageable with just the three of them. And if it broadened her own contacts, those made outside the reach of Allerius? Well then all the better.

@Nefieslab
@Sabrina

 

[Valar Dohaeris]

Valar was in a good mood today and he was ready for said good mood to continue onwards! He grinned inside the privacy of his own ship as three freighters came into the area from hyperspace. One for each of them - wasn't that nice and easy? He grinned a little bit as he highlighted the first freighter in red on their synced HUDs so they would know which one he was targetting for himself.

"Alright my lovely ladies - it appears as though our prey has arrived." he grinned wider, "Once for each of us! I'll take on the lead freighter - good hunting!"

Launching his own fighter forwards, Valar grinned as his fighter managed to weave skillfully between most of the shots sent his way, taking only glancing blows that scruffed up the paintwork.

"Almost too easy..."

He lined himself up and fired his missile - it flew straight and true, impacting the lead freighter in the engines and ruining the ship's propulsion even if the ship was still in fighting strength.

@Sabrina
@Kayenta Moenkopi
DICE - For enemy attack
DICE - For attack on enemy

 

[Sabrina K]

@Valar Dohaeris @Talik Kru

She saw freighters come into view, this was it. They had no escort, well that made life easier, a lot easier. She was not a natural fighter pilot, but she had the basic of the controls worked out. She set a course to get behind her target, she knew if she disabled the engines, it would be the best chance for her. Also they where the biggest target, so it was easier to hit right?

She flew around it, as Valar began his attack run. The freighters cannons opened fire on her, it landed a hit on wing. The whole shipp shuddered as it did, almost instinctively, she let loose a missile, and her cannons at the freighter. The missile hit the side of ship, making the whole thing most of her shots missed, but some did hit top side of hull. She somehow she managed, to regain control of the craft. the swept to it is rear. Then began opening fire, on its engines. She was thankful to be alive, and exhilarated with a possible kill.

DICE

 

[Talik Kru]

Talik powered up her weapons even as the three freighters registered on her sensor screen noting the decided lack of support fighters. She had to wonder at the wisdom of these pirates but would take whatever edge she could get. Even before Valar came over the comm link, her synced HUD illuminated the freighter his weapons were targeting. Depressing the pad at the left of her controls she responded over their combined channel, ”Copy that, I’ll take the left overs”, she announced as the HUD indicated Sabrina had chosen her mark.

Talik prepared for her attack run by veering off from the trio and advancing upon the freighter to the far right in the pirate’s formation. Already the ship was firing a heavy concentration of blasts her way from its laser cannons; thankfully it had not fired a missile. The targeting system on the view screen dance its little box all over the place refusing to lock on due to the amount of evasive maneuvers she was forced to employ.

Suddenly her vessel was struck, her thumb depressing the trigger set off her twin laser cannons from the jolt that went through her fighter to sail harmlessly out into space away from all ships concerned. Thankfully she hadn’t wasted one of her three missiles during the accident but she was forced to veer sharply to starboard away from the action outside the range of the freighter’s weapons.

At least she hoped so. Her sensors were down and swiftly she moved to reboot in the hopes that they would come back on line. Meanwhile she cued the comm link to report, ”Sensors have been knocked offline. Am attempting to reboot but till then am flying blind” She sighed waiting out the eternity keeping her distance and hoping for the best.

@Nefieslab @Sabrina

DICE - Begin attack run
DICE - Begin attempts to fix issues

 

[Valar Dohaeris]

Damn it.

Seemed that he had done well enough but Talik was having some technical difficulties with her own fighter. It wasn't the first time these fighters had had issues in the field and he was beginning to think he should have gone with the Reflex fighters for this mission instead.

They had shields too... but they DID lack a hyperdrive which was often a bit of a deal breaker.

"Do you need assistance Talik?" he called out over the coms, "Hang back and one of us can break off to keep you on the straight and narrow. Watch your arse and all that."

Valar cut off his own thoughts before they could get off topic and instead focused on another attack run on the freighter that he had managed to cripple the engines of. His new missile cycled up, he launched it directly at the bridge of the freighter, using his laser cannons to weaken the ship's shields. The missile crashed into the bridge, spacing every member of the crew.

Deciding to be a team player, Valar turned his attention to the freighter that Talik was supposed to be attacking. It's guns were aimed at his twi'lek ally's ship, which meant they were unprepared for Valar to swoop in from the side, blasting the cannons to uselessness, allowing Talik to attack without being attacked in return.

@Sabrina
@Kayenta Moenkopi
DICE - Attack run
DICE - Ally save attempt

 

[Talik Kru]

Watching her butt indeed; the man had a reputation for being a tailhead chaser, as they termed it back in the Republica. She didn’t know which was meant to be more insulting, her species being referred to in that manner or him for being into Xenos. No doubt those who bantered that around didn’t even consider her capable of being insulted or could care less if she were. Such consideration by the superior species of the Inner Rim would have been a new one on her!

She didn’t permit her mild amusement over his predilections interfere with the task at hand, however, and cued the comm to respond, ”Much appreciated, will do.” Much too soon for the system to finish rebooting, and then to see if it actually helped to bring the sensors back online, she was glad to be able to carry on with her planned attack run.

Keeping her distance as Acolyte Dohaeris maneuvered to come to her aid, she let herself open to the force. Her method of late had been less grabbing and tearing at the turbulence of the dark side in order to tame it to her command, than it was to dip down into that mayhem and let it flow through her being to be quelled. It was a hard lesson for her to learn, this bending and surrendering approach to a power more potent than anyone being could divine; but it was bearing large rewards toward her mastery of their craft. More importantly, in her struggle for mastery over herself.

Even as she turned her ship to line up for the strike she reached out with hew newfound control guiding her hand for the precise moment in which to fire. She felt more than witnessed Valar sweep through and take out the cannons and in that moment she pushed forward the thrusters and came in like screaming death from the skies. Strafing the freighter with a burst of her lasers, she then released a missile before pulling away to starboard in a hard sweeping arc. She smiled looking out the windshield on her right as she came out of the turn to see the freighter exploding in a chain reaction all along its length. Thank the techno Gods for the durability of those little black boxes!

@Nefieslab @Sabrina

DICE

 

[Sabrina K]

She turned her ship, and manged to dodge the incoming fire from the freighter. She was angling for a staffing run, on the ships engine systems. She planned to lined up inside the blind spot, where the engines gave her cover from the turrets She turned and weaved, as the laser cannons fired around her. This was not skill, but sheer luck, that they missed her. She was no longer thinking, but acting instinctively. Then she hit sweet spot, and guns fell silent. She opened up her own laser cannons, and blasted the engines.

Then as she reached the other side of engines, they began to look cold. The turrets where no longer firing at her, as they had lost power too. The freighter was just a hunk of metal, which was now floating in space, under its own enerrta. She smirked, as she manged to take it down. This was indeed a red day, she had to stop herself from destroying it, she was a little giddy. She waited for leader of the expedition, to give his next order.

 

[Valar Dohaeris]

Well it seemed that Talik was able to get her arse in gear and actually fire a missile straight - which was good. It meant that two out of the three freighters were down and out so far. The black boxes of both were still alive and well however, giving out some reasonably strong signals that he would be happy to intercept shortly. But for now the important thing was fighting off the damned final freighter.

And then it turned out that Sabrina had already taken the freighter out.

"Outstanding work ladies." he congratulated them happily, "Alright - all we have to do now is get close enough to the black boxes to download the data. Get to work and we can get them both! Sabrina - maybe open a com line to your freighter? Have them surrender their data via transfer. If not?"

He shrugged.

"If not we'll blow them to pieces."

Doing a flyby of his own enemy, he began to scan for the black box and began to pick up the signal. He began to download some of the data but the process stopped at roughly 65% completion. It seemed that the box had taken enough damage that it wasn't able to give him everything.

"I've got maybe 65% of the data - get some of your own girls, otherwise we're going to have to attack more freighters."

@Sabrina
@Kayenta Moenkopi
DICE

 

[Talik Kru]

Talik called over the comm link after Sabrina took out her target, ”Good shooting!” Assuming they got what they needed they could hurry up and get out of here before anyone else arrived. It was unlikely the pirates had been able to get a call out for backup, but if they had it was much too late to do any good.

Just then the panel for the sensors lit up and she kept her fingers crossed hoping the reboot fixed the problem only to smile once she got a clear readout of the area. She hadn’t relished trying to sift through the rubble with the force in order to locate the box despite her increasing effectiveness with the technique. Relinquishing her hold upon the dark energy, Talik moved through the debris taking readings until the sensors picked up the signal.

Hopefully this one could be extracted intact. Initiating the download she signaled Valar on the comm, ”The reboot seems to have worked. I located the black box and am downloading…”, her words were interrupted by the readout that indicated the transference was complete before continuing, ”Correction, download complete.”. She opened the files and began running a scan to make sure none of the data was corrupted and as numerous entries passed before her eyes things seemed to be checking out nicely until at the end she had to laugh. It seemed this one also contained logs of every port the vessel had docked within for the last three months and by the looks of things they had been one busy little pirate crew.

@Nefieslab @Sabrina
DICE

 

[Sabrina K]

Sabrina then contacted the freighter she had downed, Give me all you now, or else I blow you out of space. Then she heard the others have already hacked there hard drives, and got everything. She then got a reply, You already got everything, what else can we add, just let us go please. She debated it in her head, let them free would be merciful. Though it would give them a weakness later, she then closed her eyes, and carried on firing.

They just managed, to turn the engines back on. As her strafing run across the hull began, she was not taking evasive maneuvers, as she was powerless. Then the shot rang out at her, skimming her ship, as they could not target very well. Then she hit the view ports, and then shooting stopped, they where all dead inside. She knew it was better to kill an enemy, once you got all you need from them, as otherwise they may get you back later. They done there job, it was now just time to get rid of any witnesses. She had cold hart, as she was willing to kill a helpless individuals.

She then contacted her fellow pilots, Well it is done, let's go and get a drink to celebrate. She smiled it was her first time in a fighter ship, and she done quite well.

@Kayenta Moenkopi @Nefieslab

 

[Valar Dohaeris]

Valar took a moment to just relax in the cockpit of his fighter for a moment as the reality of the situation washed over him - they had won.

Not only had they succeeded in taking out the enemy ships but they had gotten the codes that they had actually come for in the first place. Taking a deep breath, he let it out slowly. Usually the pain of his previous injuries would make it hard to just relax like this but the taste of victory today was sweet enough to keep him from succumbing to focusing on the pain. Instead, he focused on the victory but he knew that he wasn't going to be done for a long time yet.

This was a step in a plan and although the step was completed? There was no true victory until his plan itself was declared completed, declared a success.

"Good work ladies." he told his allies over the coms, "I've got the full download now from your efforts Talik. Well done for not showing them any mercy Sabrina."

He began to tap in some co-ordinates and made sure to share them with his allies.

"There's a bar at these co-ordinates and I owe you two a drink now don't I?" he grinned a little bit, "Neutral space so no need to worry Sabrina. It'll just be a man drinking to a job well done with his two beautiful companions! Nothing odd about that."

His ship would shoot off into hyperspace towards the bar before either of them could probably chastise him.

/Exit Thread
@Sabrina
@Kayenta Moenkopi