Four days basically in the dark. At least they could have an open flame now.

The old bulk freighter they were using for cover had been holllowed out decades ago to transport planetary shield generator parts. Part of the ship was now a hangar for their fighters and the rest just left as open space.

Since they were "adrift" in degraded orbit around the somewhat populated local moon, they were able to capture some form of atmosphere. Thus the fire.

Thankfully they were on the light side of the planet currently so the fire wasn't really even necessary but someone had really, really wanted a warm meal...and a hot drink.

So, he had a tin of some form of reconstituted stew in his lap and a tin of flip. Decent homemade ale, some of the rum he had donated to the cause, mixed with ground sugar root and heated with a hot iron that had been left in the fire. Damn tasty.

The stew? Passable at best. Rations were rations no matter how much you spent on them.. Even the best of foods died an angry death after being dehydrated, compressed, squeezed, bent, spindled, and mutilated.

He ate it anyway and handed his dishes off to the guy who drew the short straw for cleaning.

Paler was off in a corner, fiddling with more datapads, as usual. He now pretty much had two strapped his arm and leg for ready access to information.

He handed Jinx a mug of flip and set one down by Paler. "Well?"

His favorite slicer looked up. "Okay, they are still following us. I'm still not sure why they didn't board us in deep space, but now that we are on a 'controlled crash' to the surface, they are powering up systems. I suspect they'll try to board us within the hour. We might as well button up and let you guys do what you do best."

Jinx started assembling her gear quietly to take it back to the her freighter.

Dar'Namell cricked his neck and stood up and assembled the rest of the team. "Alright. Play time is over...or about to begin.

"Paler shows that our friends who have been tailing us are finally going to make their move. I figure they didn't have the gear to board a ship in vacuum, or maybe they've got planetary fighters that do better in atmosphere. No way to tell until they attack I suppose.

"Either way, Jinx and our other two freighter captains will lead off the charge and launch whenever our opposition shows their faces. Gunners, you must take out anything targeting them as they go to ground. As soon as they are clear, board your shuttle and get out of here. Our fighters will launch with you and begin countering their remaining fighter craft.

"At that point, Paler will call in our backup and hopefully we can trap their capital vessel and figure out what the heck they are doing in this part of space anyway.

"Let's be careful and have some fun with this. Good luck!"

And with that, the fires were put out and everyone went to their stations.

---

Three months they had been trying to refit an old orbital factory for another Station. This part of space was full of tiny colonies that could not support trade vessels and some good money could possibly be made by doing so. So, ICS had purchased an old facility, hypered it into this part of the galaxy, and promptly saw it constantly have to beat back attacks by a variety of ships that did not seem to advertise their affiliation.  Each one was different. Old Cal-class cruisers, newer Nebulons, some Lancer frigates. Fighters of all makes, from the Clone Wars to advanced uglies. They fought to the death and never, ever, got captured.

In short, fanatics, but of what sort, no one had been able to tell. The reconstituted Anti-Piracy Task Force 1 had been sent in to flush out the threat but that was just too many big ships chasing lone privateers or small contingents.

They needed intel, and a sucker bet was one way to hopefully catch one of the enemy vessels.

Thus, this feint. A "crippled" freighter, running on sublights only, slowly pursued into what appeared to be a certain crash landing on a small colony world of tiny settlements. Easy pickings for the pirates or whoever they were facing.

He strapped into his Morningstar-D fighter. It was good to get out of the office. It was better that he might be able to let go of some frustrations by blowing up some clowns cutting into his bottom line.




Pardon the storyline. Just trying to write in some store backstory for some things I'm adding to the wiki. Plus, I haven't written anything in awhile. ICS staff who would like to join in are certainly welcome to do so.

This was exactly why he had never joined the Imperial Navy. At least in the Corps, there was always something to duck behind...a rock, a tree, the guy you just shot....

He had succeeded in vaping the two Supa fighters with conc missiles, and one of the TIEs. His wingman had taken care of the other TIEs. And then came the cavalry. Just not his.

A trio of Interceptors had come in hot, hellbent on vengeance. With the freighter revealed to be nothing but a well-armed feint, the Kappas had returned to their mother ship, leaving their escorts free to join the fray. His wingman's craft was wounded but not crippled and had turned to limp planetside to join the crew and support teams setting up groundside.

This left him alone against three very quick, and very determined fighters, and heading the wrong way from his forces.

Luckily, the Morningstar had been upgraded with heavy shields to make up for his rusty dogfighting skills and a very maneuverable powerplant to juke out of most of the incoming shots. Well, some.  It also allowed him to quickly do a 180 and start fighting back to the battle line.

Flipping the fighter did nothing more than upset his stomach. Quickly launching a spread of concussion missiles blew away one of his opponents and injured another.

Now he only had to make it back to his comrades without that last fighter killing him. Taking a quick glance at his HUD, he readjusted shields to his rear half and kicked the sublight engines for everything they could give him.

Yillis loved being in this cockpit. He could almost forget the danger he was in, just being here. He could see the black lines of the nose, sleek, beautiful. His laser cannons almost disappear against the black sky.

He lined up behind a YT, checking his HUD to see where some of the action was.

A Morningstar-D headed this way, one staying where it was, but there was three bogey's headed that way. The ship that was stay out was Fury's. Yillis knew he couldn't leave Fury there against three fighters, the  ICS would certainly be crippled if he were lost.

Yillis checked his HUD again. Looked like Tanus was nearby, he could handle defending the YT, Yillis hit his yoke. Spinning the ship around, Yillis punched the thrusters. He could see explosions in the distance, Fury's signal still coming in though, and straight at him. Must have turned and ran. One fighter was still on his tail.

He switched to Fury's channel, “Boss, I'm on my way, keep dodging!”

“What are you doing! You're supposed to be protecting the crew!”

“You're the head boss.”

Yillis switched his shields to full front, lined up his shiped directly at the morningstar.

“Hit it!”

Fury's ship went vertical, at the same instance Yillis started unloading his cannons. Green laser's were flying by his fighter, some hits, shields were holding up. Yillis knew his ship couldn't handle a direct collison with the tie, he needed one of his laser to hit.

The sky erupted in yellow fire in front Yillis, he had tol fly right through it. His fighting hit something, and got shuffled to the left, warning lights eruptioned on his HUD. Upper right laser cannon was...missing, no damage to S-foil, no damage to engine. Yillis let out a sigh, he couldn't believe his luck sometimes. If it had been two seconds later, he would've ripped through the tie, losing alot more than his laser cannon.

The transports seemed to be okay, and for the most part the fighters were leaving them alone. Tanus was relieved, except that he was being tailed by another pair of Interceptors, and even if they were mediocre at best, they were still annoying him. Bloody hell, where is my wingman? His answer came seconds later.

“Sorry I took so long sir. I was dealing with a few more bogies on my way back. I can see that you’ve attracted some attention. Let me take care of that; Commander Fury wants us to make a run at a capital ship. Hopefully you have a few torpedoes left.”

Tanus just sighed. The cavalry comes, and of course brings me bad news. Oh well. I suppose my day couldn’t get any worse. Laser blasts lanced past his cockpit and out towards the ground beneath him. He swore under his breath as he juked left to make the Interceptors swing wide into the path of his wingman’s A-9. Laser fire reached out towards the Interceptors. Tanus thanked The Maker that his wingman was an excellent shot. One of the fighters was destroyed completely, and would only be a noticeable fighter if you looked at the manufacture’s plate – provided one could find it. The other was wounded badly, and broke off its attack, limping away and trailing smoke. Tanus breathed a sigh of relief as his wingman settled in next to him.

“Thanks very much pilot. You’ve saved my life twice today. Remind me to repay my debt.”

Tanus got a click from the pilot’s comm. as a sign of agreement and approval. Tanus smiled as he turned his fighter back up to the upper reaches of the atmosphere. When they broke atmosphere, the chaos had started to subside, but there was still fighting to be done. All in a day’s work it seems. Tanus opened up his comm. to his wingman.

“Pilot, break off and head for the fighters giving the transports trouble. When you’ve done that, break atmosphere and keep with the transports making for the ground.”

Tanus saw the A-9 tip back and forth in salute and veered off to the right towards the transports, already lighting up some enemy fighters. Tanus put on full afterburner and met up with both Fury and Yillis, leading a wave of fighters towards an aged Victory-class. As Tanus settled in next to Yillis, his comm. opened up to the gruff voice of Fury.

“It was a pleasure of you to join us Tanus. I thought you had a run in with death for a second.”

Tanus just chuckled. “No sir. I outran him yet again.”

This time Yillis responded. “Well, let’s hope your luck rubs off on us then. How many torps do you have left?”

Tanus looked down at his HUD and nodded in approval. “I still have six left sir.”

“Perfect,” Fury said. “You’ll be making a big run then. And I want nothing flashy damn it; we’ve lost enough good men today. We’ll hit it first, then you go in with the remainder of the fighters and hit it hard then hit full afterburner. We’ll cover you if the fighters decide to get involved.”

The formation was starting to be set; Fury pulled back slightly along with a few groups of A-9s, Howlrunners, and various other fighters, lining up their shots with the exposed engine array. As they neared the target, Tanus’ hand gripped the control yoke in exasperation. Right now it was a do or die situation, and Tanus just hoped the latter wouldn’t play against him.

Yillis already started his systems diagnostics. He hadn't fired a missle yet, but only two were showing up as ready. He swore under his breath, according to his disgnostics, the whole weapons system was experiencing problems. Obviously more than his laser cannon was damaged in his minor collision.

Yillis and Fury were out front, targets starting to appear on their HUD's. Yillis could see two TIE fighters flying towards them, he started feeling the urge to pull away and get into a proper attack position. His HUD changed, a single red target appeared. He jammed his thumb down on his missle trigger, releasing the two photon missles. Blue streaks flew out from under his X-wing, at the engine array. He could see similiar streaks from Fury's fighter, then watched him pull up and to his right. Yillis grabbed his out yoke, and pulled it back at to the left. He started a barrel roll, and laser bolts started whizzing past his cockpit from the VSD. The fighters he had seen had also started firing, Yillis threw back a couple bolts in their direction, with no proper aim.

Fury attacked from his higher position, wounding one of the fighter's wing array. That fighter took off in a downward, smokey, spiral towards the VSD. Yillis stopped his barrel roll, locked on his enemy, and fired three bolts directly into the cockpit of the TIE. Yillis and Fury both flipped their fighters around to get back to Tanus, Arturus and the rest of the ICS bombing run. Just as they came into view, the lead Morningstar had his own blue streaks coming from his ship.

Yillis opened his comm to Fury, "Good work back there boss, let's hope we hit something good with these."

"I hear ya, bogey's coming in at our 7 o'clock."

"Must have been a second wave of those TIE's, hope we didn't just kill their friends." Yillis ended his sentence with a little chuckle.

Luckily the the first and second Morningstar were up and heading in those TIE's directions. Yillis hoped they could handle those two TIE's.

Failure through success was apparently the order of the day.

They were too good at repulsing the initial attack and the enemy boarding teams had turned back.

They were too good at keeping the fighters at bay that they never were able to pin the enemy vessel against an assault and the well-laid mine field.

Now? Now they had been too successful in breaching the VSD's shields and knocking out their primary sublights.

Oh, the ship was doing it's damnedest with the secondaries, but the gravitational pull of the nearby planet was winning. So, instead of a crippled ship lying dead in space, they had a real live threat to their ground encampment.

He switched to the ground team's channel. "Don't ask. Call in our backup ships right now and prepare for ground assault. My lasers aren't going to be able to steer this thing away from you and you're about to have visitors."

Paler responded quickly. "Backup is enroute. Um, why are you sending a capital starship on top of my tent?"

"No time Paler. Just help get everyone's shit together. We'll be there soon."

Switching back to the combat channel. "Everyone keep picking at that fighter escort. And take out anything that looks like a shuttle, though leave the escape capsules alone. We're not committing any war crimes if we can help it.

"Anyone with a missile or torp left, try to work on the underside of the ship. Maybe if we're lucky it'll break apart when it lands. Or during re-entry.

"Hell, just shoot that damn thing!"

The ship exited the ever interesting blue swirls of hyperspace into a system filled with laser fire. Snipes sighed from the depths of his throat. It was clear the falling Victory Class Stardestroyer was the enemy. So much energy was being wasted on it that it was clear that the rag-tag opposition were the Imperial Center Store (ICS) operatives. Snipes was in a mood to indulge them.

“Visha! All hands to the guns, those that know not, to their respective stations, ready battle systems for direct conflict.”

Snipes wasn’t really excited, his head rested against his left fist, propped up against the arm of his throne by his elbow and forearm. A glass clasp in his right hand, half filled with whiskey.

“Aiight my men, bring us round and upside down ‘ta they ass and pummel zem wif ze guns, make ‘em but a fiery mess!”

“Was’ zat cap’n?” The pilot said, turning to Snipes, regally and bored in his throne.

“Rotate our axis so that our dorsal cannons have the firing arc on their engines, keep us out of the arcs of their turbolasers, pilot.” Visha yelled.

“Aye, aye, Visha!” the crewmen yelled in unison. 

Snipes continued to rest, swallowing down the last of his glass and holding it out to be refilled. It was, quickly, the ignorant cabin wench at his side quickly filled the glass. Snipes removed it quickly and brought it to his lips as his ship accelerated at full power towards the rear of the VSD.

The Imperial Center had asked for him to appear, and so he had. Not lacking in boredom anyway, this proved to be something of a relief. After all, he was captain of the proud Corellian Hound. His ship was rotating as per his command, coming to fire against the Victory Class Star-Destroyer with it’s single dorsal ion tubo-laser and four quad blaster cannons. He hoped to break it apart, not caring where he was supposed to be.

A Bothan Assault Frigate was right behind him, likely another ICS ploy to keep their soggy asses safe. Snipes grumbled to himself at it’s intrusion, his ship was perfectly fine. His systems staff was well disciplined and well trained and his boarding parties, or marines, were deeply experienced in the finer arts of taking lives.

"Make fast the cargo, prepare for impact. Pilot, take us within burning range of their engines, I don't want to see a single bolt hit us."

If he could save the bridge crew, he was probably going to try to hire that pilot, he thought.

Currently the VSD was slowly descending into the atmosphere. Finally giving up on escaping the degrading orbit, the ship was just trying to hold itself together.

This apparently wasn't going well. Having succeeded in ripping the prow off of the vessel, the entire nose of the vessel was in flames. Interested in how they were going to handle that, he was quickly given an answer as a series of controlled bursts sheared off another hundred meters or so of the forward end of the ship.

That was fast. Apparently they had emptied out unstable cabins and workspace, shored up bulkheads and blew off the parts they couldn't save.

Now if the same crews could work the same magic on the damage beneath the ship, there was going to be a one-sided fight that the ICS team could not win.

"Anyone have any munitions left"" he asked on the IC-wide channel.

A series of "negatives" followed and then silence.

"Frigate Acquisition, can you assist?"

More silence.

"Affirmative. This is flight leader, we are stocked with bombs and torps and inboard. If you could call back some fighters to provide support for our vessel, it would be appreciated."

Apparently the captain had been overruled. Maybe he could trade him for the enemy pilot?

"Glad to have you. Tanus, you and the rest of the agents escort these guys inbound. I'll hang back and provide a screen for the frigate. I'll need three volunteers." Three quick clicks and three additional Morningstars peeled off and followed him back towards the BAC.

Tanus swore as a gout of flame shot off the side of the ailing Star Destroyer. This entire bloody mission was becoming a chore. While Tanus did not mind flying, he did mind being shot at and having his patience tested in a place where he couldn’t see the whites of his enemy’s eyes. He spun his fighter off to the right in a barrel roll and split off to chase down a Supa fighter, blasting its shields away with laser bursts; its hull did not last much longer, erupting in a fireball of fuel, durasteel and death. Tanus flew straight through the fireball and picked up another target, about to pull the trigger on his cannons when he got the comm message from Fury. He swore, kicked the break jets on, and spun around back up to the upper reaches of the atmosphere. As he exited, the Bothan Assault Frigate was spewing forth its small contingent of TIE Interceptors and rounded towards a small group of fighters that broke through Fury’s screen. A comm hailed him; it was coming from the ship.

“Agent Solvona, this is Commander Volos of the ICS Acquisition. It seems you have your work cut out for you. The fighters we launched will serve both Administrator Fury and yourselves; half will assist, while you will have the remaining six. We just need to get within turbolaser and torpedo range of the VSD. As of now, the corvette is taking some fire for us and is distracting the ship from locking on us. When we’re in range, you may want to stand clear.”

Tanus gave a curt nod. “Understood Commander. You have my full cooperation. Just give the fighters to shoot about.”

“With pleasure. Firing solution in two seconds!”

Tanus rolled out of the way as four blaster cannons spun around and targeted the incoming fighters, splintering them in metal and fire fragments. Tanus hailed both Yillis and Arturus, relaying them all similar information. He received clicks from both and within seconds the two of them had formed up on him; Arturus was directly above the ship while Yillis was flying in a figure eight pattern near the engines. As he looked off to port side and saw a Supa fighter veering straight in at him. Tanus just smiled to himself. Fine, I’m game for tag. He hit full afterburner and sped off, leaving the Supa in his wake. An Interceptor broke off from the tight cover and gave chase, sending a shower of lasers on its shields. It broke off the attack, only to be picked off by a volley of laser courtesy of Arturus. As he spun back, he gave a wing tip salute and sped back to the prow. As he reached it and did a flyby of the bridge, Fury hailed him.

“Tanus, fighters have broken through the screen; we’ve lost two Interceptors. There have to be at least fifteen. We’ll take out what we can, but you have to take care of the rest. I know one or two of them are wounded. Just make sure that the Supas don’t get to the frigate; there are six of them. Now go and screw this up.”

Tanus clicked in confirmation and turned his Kimogila around and towards the oncoming wall of fighters. Fury was right; one or two was wounded, and as fate would have it, neither were Supas. They were escorted by a group of Interceptors, one of which was sparking at the right wing and the other one trailing smoke from its engine. Tanus brought down his targeting computer and waited till he was in range. C’mon, you bastard. Get over here… Then he had the shot. He pulled the trigger, and a torpedo shot out of its tube, finding its target and blasting a Supa into pieces. Now Tanus just hoped Yillis and Arturus got the message.

Snipes cracked his neck back and forth, tapping his foot on the dirt as the last member of his group disembarked from the black and red corvette. It continued to hover for a moment as the crew tossed down a couple bags and a crate. The last crewman to kick off a piece of cargo gave a wry smiled and a purposely sloppy salute before ducking back inside. As soon as the hatch was closed the dark mass left slowly began to tilt upward and throttle forward. Snipes really liked that ship. He gave it a jaunty wave and a smile wrapped around a cigarette as it departed. Then he turned his attentions to the ground.

The ICS personnel had done a decent job of clearing out a large area near the base of a mountain to serve as a rally point. A temporary mess hall had even been set up, Snipes eyed it with a smile. Seemed like the rest of the equipment was loaded in a variety of speeders and armored vehicles. It almost resembled a proper military. Snipes could see here and there people like him though, the kind of people that liked a good fight, and people like his friends, who liked a good bundle of cash.

Snipes cocked his head backwards, assembling, fighting, bickering. Mercenaries through and through. Perhaps that was why he liked them. Snipes returned his attention to the improvised mess hall and spit out the stub of his cigarette. He pulled too more from his vest pocket and lit them, handing one behind him.

Gregory Kelevra, leader of Laughing Bastards, picked it out Snipes hand and put it in his mouth, "So, we gonna be rockin' ta house a bit tonigh'?" Most people didn't understand Kelevra most of the time, in fact, Snipes didn't really either.

"Somethin' like that. We'll have Spine Team there go do their thing, you and the Queens just stay ready," Snipes inhaled deeply, "Think I'm going to get myself some food, you might think about doin' the same."

"Eh, we notta haf them little cardy things like y'all got hangin' 'round"

Snipes turned half around, "Fifty credits says you can't find another way."

He barked a quick laugh in his indecipherable accent, "Oi, you a' betta' be keeping them credits close boss man."

Snipes just waved and strode to the mess. He liked to give them challenges, helped in their training, if they pulled it off they'd learn something, if they failed they'd learn something. The part that amused him the most was that the food was probably there for the taking.


He kicked bits of this and that out of his way, he wasn't really worried, quite the contrary he was just starting to get excited. Alas for him it seemed all he'd had to do so far was wait. He wanted to dive into the thick of the battle, he could barely contain the urge. There was a plan though, there was always a plan interrupting the natural order of him finding enemies that were fun and ripping them to shreds in the most expedient way possible. For now he was going to have to wait for Spine Team of The Skeletons to report back and wait for the images of the VSD's crash site from Corellian Hound. Then maybe he'd get to charge in and begin the slaughter. He'd picked the two boarding parties of Corellian Hound's complement he most enjoyed working with: The ever lovely Queens of Madness and the ever unintelligible Laughing Bastards.

Snipes stared at the plate in front of him. Slowly he brought a spoonful of the gruel to his mouth and swished it around a bit before swallowing it. It confirmed his suspicions. It was Unidentifiable Army Ration #66. It was the black specks on what was probably supposed to be mashed potatoes that gave it away, Unidentifiable Army Ration #27 didn’t have them and Unidentifiable Army Ration #66 had a slight aftertaste of burnt tears and suffering. Snipes had long ago accustomed himself to military food and, after his initial taste test, devoured the plate of unknown consumables in matter of minutes, if not seconds. Then he proceeded to guzzle the cup of coffee he’d taken the liberty of ‘improving’ and stood up.

He pulled the worn and rusted cutlass off the table and shoved it between his  sash and gunbelt, the wolfish grin wide on his face. He turned and walked toward the door. It wasn’t a problem finding his men, they were the ones hassling the ICS personnel.  Easy. Snipes made his way over to them.

“Ey, so, what’s up mates?”

“ ‘cordin’ to the creeps we’ve gotta assault some blasted prow that be rooted among som’ light douba’ eh and infantria’ but don’ ye fret me sir, Spines be out der asslin’ dem wif der riffles.”

“Aiight, Klevra, how far is it?”

“Too far fo’ foot, mate, but it’s all savvy, grabbed us a pair of trans’ offa one-a dem center folks, give us a pair o’ minutes to finish are grub and we be readai’.”

“Good enough.”

Kelevra was as good as his word and it was only a few token moments before Snipes, Laughing Bastards and Queens of Madness had tucked themselves into some hover transports and were heading towards the downed VSD. Snipes liked this, he carried his modified LAR, it was unique in that he had realized the true value of the modular design and pulled the top part of the SLAR and stuck it on his LAR, giving him a more accurate LAR, the only thing he’d had to really sacrifice was the rate of fire, it was slightly slowed now while in full auto and when in semi-automatic it wasn’t quite as accurate as the SLAR. But no matter, it was an even better compromise.

Snipes spent the entire ride with the other men, lightly armored, unarmored, heavily armored, it varied from person to person, privateers were lucky that way. They all bought their own equipment and as such they could use what fit them best. Snipes liked it that way. The only uniformity was seen between the Queens of Madness, they all wore painted ballistic masks, and they creeped the hell out of Snipes. He endured the ride staring at a yellow smiley faced mask, and was thankful when they finally reached their destination, pouring out of the transports.

“Let’s go ye scallywags! We’ll pour in and devour them from head to toe! GYAHAHAHAHA!” Snipes yelled and laughed at the top of his lungs. This was going to be fun.

The behemoth in front of him should have been intimidating, but thanks to Spine Team the area he was assaulting was left with only the cowards still alive; cowering behind whatever they could, hiding from the well trained sniper team. Now it was Snipes time to charge in, slaughter them, then make his way through the broken bow of the vessel. Yes, this would be fun.

Snipes tapped his chin with an extended forefinger as the smoke from his cigarette curled up past his nostril and towards the sky. Sure, a lot of the blokes had been forced to find cover behind various AA emplacements, boxes and anything else that would hide them from the snipers. Spine Team was doing a good job in that respect. However they couldn't just charge in, guns blazing, there were still a few too many of them for that, as well as the turbolasers, the turbolasers were nothing to scoff at.

"Well, this be a pretty pickle."

"Eh, we ne'd a d'stracshin."

"Yes, yes we do." Snipes said, turning to look back at Kelevra.

Then he got an idea. It wasn't Kelevra that inspired it, no, it was the ICS vehicles behind him. A wolfish grin spread across his face. A "d'stracshin" was exactly what they needed.

"My last mission in Jester squad, we were defending a house from about a platoon of enemies. Then one of them got the bright idea to try and ram the house with one of their APCs"

"That's stupid." Corlie said, suddenly beside him, "Those turbolasers will tear those crap heap vehicles apart."

"Oh, I know, pretty, I know."

Snipes turned around and strode towards one anyway, leaving the boarding team captains to scratch their heads as he pulled open the door to one. It was perfect. He stepped back and let loose a short burst on each of the doors hinges, letting it fall to the ground unwanted.

"K'levra, Corlie, please tell me one of the psychopaths you employ brought explosives."

"Oi, ya der!" Kelevra yelled, stomping quickly towards one of his men, "Hand 'em up." The man sighed, apparently wise enough not to fight the order, and handed Gregory Kelevra his back pack.

Kelevra handed it off to Snipes who opened it up and smiled, "Yes, this will do nicely." He removed half the explosives from it before handing the bag back to Kelevra, "Do the same thing to the other."

He gave Snipes a short nod, understanding what he was getting at. Snipes took a moment, duct taped the blocks of explosives to accelerator, made sure the detonators were all set up right and took a step back to survey his handy-work. Not bad, not bad at all.

* * *

"We ready to go?"

"Absolutely, boss." Corlie said.

"Groovy, lets do it."

Snipes stepped out of the cover he'd been enjoying in the wooded area, he released a smoke grenade, throwing it high and into the middle of the open area, several of his crew members did the same. They waited a few seconds, for the smoke to get good and thick before releasing the transports. They burst through the vegetation and into the smoke, as soon as Snipes saw that he yelled.

"Let's go! Get a move on!"

Then he let himself go at a run, relying entirely on dead reckoning to guide him through the smoke to the broken prow of the vessel. After getting about half way there he heard the turbolasers fire up, and could see their green lines of death cutting apart the ground and smoke alike.

"NOW!" He yelled into a comm set.

Two explosions sounded, one after another and he pushed himself to run faster, harder. Barely taking a moment to pump a round or two into any personnel he encountered, the heavy breathing, coughing and boot steps behind him let him know that Laughing Bastards were keeping him company, but he didn't have time to look back, only run, all out.

And then he burst through the smoke and looming in front of him was the giant durasteel hulk of the broken vessel. There was no time for wonderment, he climbed up as quickly as he could, having to climb two decks before finding one with a door that might still work. Laughing Bastards were behind him, Queens of Madness behind them.

The smoke was clearing though, it wouldn't be long before the enemy began to realize what was happening, and that would not be good for them. Snipes didn't wait for the rest of his teams to get up, instead he pulled open the panel above the door controls, the manual door release, and began pumping furiously. The door opened far too slowly for his liking, but it only needed to open half way, and when it did he turned and began ushering Laughing Bastards through.

Then, of course, all hell broke loose. Apparently what enemy personnel still left had seen them scaling the broken prow of the vessel, it's chassis beams and supports giving them a wonderful climbing surface. The enemy had realized it and began to fire on the Queens of Madness, the ones that hadn't made it up yet.

"Oh hell."

Snipes hit the deck and tried to give them covering fire, but even so there were some casualties, three of the women lost their lives. Which was three more than he would otherwise like. He tossed a thermal detonator down in indignation, the last grenade he'd been carrying. Then he turned and followed the last of his people through the door and into the belly of the beast.

OOC:

Soooo tired. I really hope this isn't an nonsensical as I have a bad feeling it is.

"Shit! Shit! Shit!" Snipes yelled, hacking away through the partially open door, "Somebody shut this thing!"

"Working on it sir." Corlie said coolly.

"Dammit!" Snipes exclaimed, the rusty worn out cutlass getting stuck in someones shoulder.

He released it as fast as he could and pulled out the shotgun on his him, firing three shots in rapid succession through the door. The hall way beyond was litterally brimming with enemy personnel, who apparently hadn't gotten the memo concerning his short temper and bloodthirsty tendancies. They were litterally pushing themselves into his way and he was wasting far more ammo than should be necessary, the problem was that the ones at the back were pushing forward while the ones he was hacking away at were trying in vain to run away. He was on his last shell in the shotgun when the door finally started shutting, he quickly reached through and grabbed onto the handle of his wayward cutlass, pulling it and part of the body it was stuck in through the door before it crushed the poor fools remains, freeing the cutlass.

Snipes considered the weapon for a moment, he wasn't really much of a melee type of person and had always carried it more as a decoration than anything else, but now he thought he might be able to accept it. Even if it was only good in very rare circumstances. At least he'd have a weapon for every contingency.

He turned, only Corlie and three of the Queens were with him now, he'd dispatched the others to 'cause unrivaled mayhem on the largest scale possible'. Laughing Bastards were kings in that department. The Queens could cause unrivaled havoc just by showing up. Snipes had to turn away from them, the ballistic masks bothering the hell out of him.

"Alright, so, next order of business. Lets find an armory." Snipes had a plan brewing in his head, a plan that had been brewing for roughly ten minutes; it required high explosives.

"If we're anywhere near where I think we are than there should be one another level down; assuming this ship is even vuagely put together like a standard one."

Lovely Corlie, she had such a head for maps. Snipes usually ended up tearing them up and stomping off in whatever direction he wanted to. It was usually the wrong one, but he got by. Snipes nodded and opened a door on their left, striding confidently into the somewhat less crowded area in that corridor. Most of the crewmen weren't armed and weren't expecting to be attacked, Snipes had to reload his shotgun three times before they made it to a turbolift.

Inside he was treated to quite possibly the most annoying Bith band ever. He took the spare moment to check and reload his weapons. The SLAR/LAR hybrid had run out trying to keep the swarm of morons from overrunning them when they ran into the damaged door, finally he got a chance to reload the API rounds and his shotgun. The cutlass was dripping bloody everywhere, but it gradually slowed and stopped, staining his nice white shirt, brown vest, brown pants and red sash. All horribly stained with blood. Luckily a lifetime of dealing with the problem had taught him that a common anti-septic could get it out. His leather boots were another matter, but they'd been so encrusted with blood for years that he didn't even bother anymore.

Then the door opened, Snipes smiled. Then he frowned. Then the four Queens of Madness opened fire, taking part of what seemed to be marines of a sort by surprise, giving Snipes and Corlie a chance to dash out of the turbolift, to be stuck in it was to die quickly. As Snipes back landed against a wall he groaned. He remembered the feel of his own armor all too well and the reversal of roles gave him a slight nagging feeling. His pride as a former soldier told him that a band of brigands could never beat them, his pride as a warrior tried to convince him that he could take them all alone and blindfolded. He settled to let the two halves of his pride fight it out while he concentrated on the battle outside of his somewhat irrational mind.

[Psst. No stormtroopers. This just happens to be a territorial navy with a VSD. No major affiliation. I wanted a neutral party we could tangle with from time to time. Will fill in their history later.

- Snipes Edit: My mistake, VSD tends to conjure images of stormtroopers, edited to fit better without having to completely rewrite. Still a shoddy post.]

Water was beading on his armor; despite the cold and damp on the planet, he was still sweating. I can’t bloody imagine why. The armor isn’t all that heavy, or the hammer. Am I nervous? Is that what being nervous feels like? Can’t imagine why; I’ve killed men before without a second thought. Maybe it’s being so… exposed. Tanus peered over the trench wall to see the majority of Snipes team busting into the ship’s already demolished armor shell. Hmph, that should have been me with them. But Fury needed me down here with the men. His hammer was slung across his back and his Samurai Edge in his hands and a Silent Death over his left shoulder, while spare clips were slung across his chest in a bandolier. It was getting close. He spotted Fury down the line in his Defiler armor and an A280 cradled in his hands. Now it was just a matter of waiting.

The tension in the air was almost palpable. The ICS forces were a combination of green boys from the army and what seemed to be a private militia, Snipes pirates (or the ones that he had left behind) and Fury’s men and whoever else had come along. It had become apparent that this would become a bloodbath on both sides, and Tanus did not much like being in the middle of it. As he checked his Samurai Edge and Silent Death for jams and rounds, Fury came up behind them.

“All right, I want this done right and I want it done fast. Tanus, you lead the center column with Yillis up to the ship; I’ll take the right flank while Kuin takes the left. When we get there, Tanus and Yillis will follow in Snipes team while Kuin and I will open up a pair of passages to cut off their escape and troop movement. On my signal, we charge. Keep a tight formation and try not to get yourselves killed.”

He gave Tanus and Yillis a slap on the shoulder plate as he passed to talk to Kuin about their plans; Tanus could only imagine that he had something else for his right hand. He jogged back to his position when he was done and looked down the line to the other leaders, who all nodded back. Tanus holstered his pistol and grabbed his hammer in both hands. This is either going to work incredibly well, or fail with a staggering quickness. I just hope I’m not the one getting shot. The time it took for Fury to call the assault was painful; it felt like seconds were passing as hours. Then he heard it.

“Let’s go boys! Move it out!”

Tanus leapt up, which was fairly difficult to do in full armor, and sprinted down the scar the dying VSD had left behind. Some laser fire pelting the ground in front of him and sent up clouds of dust and rock; others were hit full on and some of the forces dropped down or got trampled. For the moment, Tanus could not grieve. His job was to get there alive and help out where he could. The 150 meter dash was maddening; men fell on both sides as blaster fire ripped into the ailing ship’s hide. Fury and the Kuin both were having issues of their own while Yillis started to peel off a little to the left. Tanus took his troops up the center in a general ragtag formation. This won’t stand. I’ll end up losing more men then I need to, and same goes for Fury and the others if they ever bloody find out what we’re doing. Tanus stopped and pulled out his pistol, firing two rounds at sniper at the top of one of the cannon embankments. He fell with a scream as a wave of soldiers went over the scar to the door.

“Everyone, form a column behind Yillis and I! The first five rows peel off to the right with Yillis while the other five come with me! Take out everyone that isn’t ICS or Pirate. Maintain silence until Fury calls more orders. Move!”

The Osk Company story looks more fun. Y'all stick with that one.

Suffice it to say that many got shot, but we slotted most of the crew and took the VSD - or what's left of it.

Yay team!

End of story.