Hades sat at the bench with his DL-44 - the standard sidearm of the Imperial Starfighter Corps. He began to take it apart, first removing the cathode arc-terminator, the grip plating, the battery.. he paused to check the front mounted heat sink fins, shining a small pocket light in-between the vents to check it was all as it should be. He continued disassembling it, examining each part carefully as he did – the firing coil, singular disk, carbine shunt, ejector ring, cell cap, flash cone, the singularity barrel, tumbler pin, sheldonic dial, anode housing, the chamber, the plasma board, the trigger mechanism, backfire post, discharge vent, the calibrator, key cylinder, the lens, scope magnet, the zoom ring, and the eye piece. He sighed gently as he looked at the disassembled blaster before him. It had taken him just over five minutes to strip it bare. He began meticulously polishing and cleaning each part, and slowly putting it back together.  He placed the last piece on – the scope, and readied the blaster, hearing the familiar whine of the battery priming. He smiled and powered it down – he didn't want to drain the battery – spinning it Jango-style before holstering it. He grinned at his own childishness. He felt a subtle shift in the artificial gravity, indicating that they had changed course. That's odd.. Hades thought, my chrono reads ETA 2 hours. Hades' confusion was solved soon thereafter.

“Attention all passengers – please remain calm” the Captain's voice came tightly over the PA system. “We are being boarded by pirates – if we cooperate, they will not harm us.” Hades felt his lip curl in contempt – he was traveling on a passenger liner contracted by the Vast Empire to ferry troops. However, the pilot and crew were still civilians, so of course they'd surrender. Cowards Hades thought to himself. He knew that this particular vessel was carrying a squad of Stormtrooopers – or at least 4 of them. Hades thought quickly – if he could meet up with the stormtroopers, they could initiate a counter boarding repulse. Glancing out the port observation, he saw the pirate ship coming up alongside them – it was a small craft, maybe a 12 man job. Hades jogged down the liner's corridor toward where the troops would normally be seated. A crew member walked up to him.

“Hey you! You can't be out here, go back to your se-” the man was cut off with a gurgle as Hades stabbed three fingers into his throat, removing the oxygen supply from his brain.. temporarily, Hades hoped. If not, he knew he had done what was necessary. He had not time to argue with crewmembers, he had to find those stormtroopers. He entered the back cabin and looked around – the Stormtroopers were easy enough to spot, even out of armour. All four of them were fairly fit looking human males with shaved heads, two of them watching either entrance to the cabin while the other two prepped their blasters. They had obviously been thinking the same thing as Hades, whose flight uniform stood out as opposed to the casual uniform of the stormtroopers. Hades produced his ID

“Senior Crewman Hades, VEN.” He said. “You know the situation?” The stormtroopers all nodded and seemed fairly content with letting him give the orders. They were only Privates, so he was their de-facto superior. He looked up to the front of the cabin, where a map of the ship was plastered to the bulkhead. Hades jogged up to it and downloaded it to his datapad, immediately sharing it with the Stormtroopers.  He frowned as he looked over it, seeing that there was no hangar and only two airlocks.

“Alright – if I judge correctly, the Pirates are coming up on the port side of the ship. I believe they're only packing a small complement – maybe a dozen men, at most. But I estimate that fewer than 10 will come aboard. “ Hades frowned. “Normally in this kind of situation, the pirate would be smarter doing what I just described – leaving 2 or 3 members aboard the ship and sending the rest to take the 'defenseless' prize. But, if they were to do the 'foolish' way, our only chance would be to sneak by them..” Hades trailed off, lost in thought. A thud knocked him back into the present – the sound of the airlock pressurising.

“Alright, we'll scope out their boarding party – no firing until they see us, understood?” Hades knew the stormtroopers would be well qualified in hand to hand combat, even though their E-11s had appeared from nowhere. He could also see the telltale bulges of combat knives underneath their shirts. Hades jogged off in the direction of the airlock, taking a right, a left  and a right again. This brought him up to the corner of the hallway leading into the airlock – he was about 30 meters away from the port side airlock. Hades moved his hand over a panel and the lights went dark. He peered around the corner, to see several figures emerge from the brightly lit ship.

one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine.. Hades counted to himself. Only nine of them were aboard. They seemed to be splitting up. From what Hades could hear drifting down the corridor, one party was going to the bridge while the other went to the passenger compartments.  Five of them went right, heading down a hallway toward the bridge , while the other four began making their way into the darkened corridor that intersected with the one Hades was on. He glanced round, and saw that two of the stormtroopers had crossed the hallway in the dark, and were in an opposite position to him, across the corridor. The other two had shrunk into doorways to remain concealed. Hades pressed himself to the wall, hoping they would move past without entering either darkened corridor.

He heard footsteps coming closer, closer.. closer still, until they were level with his corridor – and then past, still heading down the corridor, oblivious to the Imperials they had just passed. Hades gestured to the two  in the front  and then to the two stormtroopers behind him – they would take those two out. Hades gestured  one finger at the two at the other side of the corridor, then to the pirate on the back right – he would take him, and the final stormtrooper would remain as backup while Hades took out the guy in the rear left. Hades moved stealthily down the darkened corridor, hands spread. The stormtroopers kept up and they were soon just meters behind the pirates. Hades made a cutting gesture with his hand and pounced. He placed his hand over the mouth of the man on the back left, pulling him backward and placing his other hand on the man's forehead. With one single twist, he broke the man's neck, a sickening crunch sounding as the man dropped to the floor, dead.

The man on the rear right had his throat slit by the stormtrooper, while the other two had turned in surprise – all too late as the other two stormtroopers were on them, knocking their blasters to the sides and taking them down – subduing them, not killing them. After all, they were sure the Vast Empire would reward prisoners – but the real prize would be the pirate ship and it's captain. Judging from what he'd heard, the Captain was still aboard his own ship with 3 of his cronies. Hades made the decision to take the bridge party before entering the pirate ship. In fact – an idea occurred to Hades. He could use the bridge team to lure out the Captain. Hades grinned as he loped up the corridor, steering clear of the airlock.

He checked his datapad quickly, tracing the quickest route to the bridge. The stormtroopers had drawn their rifles, obviously expecting trouble. Hades drew his own sidearm, holding it two handed in front of him as he ran. The lighting soon grew brighter and a large bulkhead marked 'BRIDGE' in basic indicated that they'd arrived. There was fresh carbon scoring on the bulkhead, and Hades took this as a bad sign. He pressed the release on the bulkhead and – was greeted by a hail of blasterfire from within the bridge. One of the stormtroopers, not diving quick enough, had been hit in the leg. A minor wound, but it would seriously hamper his mobility. Hades had pressed himself against the door release, leaning around to glance into the room. A blaster shot rang out, but Hades kept looking – two of them were standing atop the bridge's command structure, while the other three were hidden among the trenches, of sorts,  that ran below the command structure.

Hades leaned out further and squeezed off two shots with his pistol. He scored a hit, a leg shot to one of the men atop the command structure. The man collapsed, writhing and holding his leg. A flurry of suppressive fire forced Hades to duck back into cover when he realised that it was not coming from the bridge. He saw now that the stormtroopers had found excellent firing positions and were concentrating suppressive fire on the bridge. The single man atop the bridge took cover behind the helmsman's console, and Hades leaned out again, this time falling to one knee and sighting where he had last seen the man disappear. He concentrated his breathing, as Jarv had taught him. Three breaths in, and exhale when you fired. Hades took one, two, then three breaths, seeing the pirate's head appear above the console as if in slow motion. Hades tightened his finger on the trigger and exhaled, the blaster barely kicking against his firm grip. The red bolt struck home, burning a sizzling hole through the man's right eye.

Hades sent a silent thank you to Jarv for his training and remained crouched, knowing there were three more in there somewhere. He heard a quiet hiss from behind him, whirled, and saw one of the pirates emerge from a concealed exit right beside him. The pirate aimed a hit at Hades' crouching form with the butt of what Hades recognised as an outdated DC-15 clone blaster. The long rifle came crashing down- but Hades was gone. He rolled to the right, bringing him underneath the blaster's underside, instead of the butt. He aimed a kick upward, finding purchase in the man's stomach as he stood, sending the man sprawling backward and dropping his blaster. The man slid along the polished floors and Hades scooped up his blaster, firing a single well-aimed shot that grazed the man's shoulder.

Kriff! Hades cursed himself – he'd been too long without practice. He rushed the fallen man, cutting off his oxygen supply with his knee until the man blacked out from loss of oxygen. He gestured to the troopers, one of whom handed him a pair of flexi-cuffs. Hades cuffed the man and made his way back to the entrance from which the pirate had come. Hades brought the blaster rifle to his shoulder and pulled the trigger, meaning to put out a burst of suppressive fire – instead the charge clicked empty after one shot. Hades growled and pulled out his DL-44, falling back behind cover. The stormtroopers began a flanking maneuver without Hades saying anything, two of them entering the bridge through the main entrance and advancing from console to console, occasionally popping up to fire a burst at the enemy. Hades took the chance and whirled around the concealed door, rushing in with his blaster raised. The first pirate didn't have a chance. He had just started firing at the stormtroopers, and by the time he tracked his fire toward Hades, Hades was already within 10 meters and shot him at point blank range in the head. Hades again reprimanded himself as he took the man's former cover – the man had nearly killed him. If Hades had been just half a second slower, the man would have poured a clip of blaster ammo into his unarmoured body.

Another burst of blasterfire caught his attention – the last man was holed up behind what looked like a communications console. He seemed unwilling to come out, and was firing blindly over the makeshift barrier. Hades waited until the stormtroopers fired back, and then ran to the next piece of cover, bringing him around the side of the communications console, but shielded by another desk of sorts. Hades sat there for a moment, listening. The man was still blindfiring – good. Hades stood up and squeezed the trigger 3 times. None of his shots hit home, but the man stopped blindfiring. Hades crouched again, then popped up to fire four more shots. Still none of them hit home, and Hades growled. The man stood up as Hades checked his charge – almost half empty – and began to walk towards him. Hades cursed again, if the man came around the corner, it would be Dl-44 against repeating blaster rifle. Not exactly fair. But the man had forgotten about one thing.

A blaster shot rang out and a thud was heard – the man collapsed, and Hades glanced around. One of the stormtroopers was laying on his belly, cradling his E-11 in a marksman position. Hades grinned at him and gave him the thumbs up. He checked the dead body for comm devices – there was a wrist comm that was beeping furiously. Hades pressed a button on it.
Nikal? Are you there? Answer me damn it!-- came the voice of who must be the captain. Hades keyed the respond button, responding in a quiet voice, simulating static.

“Have...cssh taken bridge...cssh come aboard.” Hades winced at how unconvincing his ruse was. There was silence, and for a moment Hades feared the captain would pull out and blow the ship to bits. But then the response came back.

?alright. We're coming aboard now.--- Hades cut the transmission and smiled. He jogged out the concealed bridge exit and looked to the stormtroopers. The one that had been hit already had a field bandage on it, and looked slightly pained but otherwise good to go. Hades nodded at him and he gave a nod in return. Hades led them in a sprint down the corridor, again steering clear of the airlock. They came to where they had ambushed the first party, and settled back down at their corner. Three men appeared in the doorway, laughing and joking as they slowly sauntered down the corridor toward the bridge. Boy, were they in for a surprise. Hades grinned. He waited until their voices faded, then rushed through the airlock barely making it in time to stop it from closing, Dl-44 raised, stormtroopers close behind with their rifles up. The stormtroopers fanned left and right – it was a fairly small ship, and after they had cleared it, they settled down watching the airlock. There was a slight recess beside the airlock – big enough for Hades to fit in. He pressed himself in there, while the stormtroopers took cover behind the weapons console, a lounge, and  two behind a bench. Soon enough they heard the sound of running feet.

“But what about Nik-” one of the pirates was saying
“Kriff Nikal!” the captain cut him off. “Somebody's hunting us!” their voices grew steadily louder until two pirates entered side by side, followed closely by a man that looked like he was in charge. Hades sprang from his recess, knocking the blaster out of the pirate Captain's hand, and slamming him against the opposite wall. The captain responded almost immediately with a headbutt that sent Hades reeling backward into the recess. The pirate tried a powerful right jab, but Hades ducked under it and delivered a jab to the man's stomach instead. He lashed out with his right leg, connecting with the captain's right thigh. The captain stumbled back, high guard still in place. Hades feinted a left blow, the went for an uppercut to the unprotected stomach. The captain had seen through this feint and lowered his guard to counter – which is when Hades revealed it to be a second feint, as his right hook connected painfully with the man's temple. He went down like a sack of potatoes – almost literally. In the mean time, the Stormtroopers had cut down the other two crewmen with a hail of blaster fire as they'd turned to aim at Hades.

Come to think of it, Hades was lucky the stormtroopers didn't hit him. He exhaled and leant on his knees, taking several deep breaths. He panted loudly, but let out a breathless chuckle.

“I could get used to this” Hades said to the stormies, who all grinned at him. “Now,” Hades continued, breathless. “Three of you go and get the two prisoners, while you” Hades gestured the wounded trooper. “Stay here and guard this pile of crap.” he indicated the unconscious pirate captain at the word 'crap'.

The Stormies hurried off, and Hades climbed into the cockpit of the pirate ship. He activated the holonet transmitter – a surprising addition for a vessel this small, and sent a recorded message to the fleet at Belgaroth.

“This is Senior Crewman Hades, flight A-2 of the Nightshrike Squadron. If you can hear me, we are currently stopped at coordinates--” Hades relayed their coordinates. “--We have been boarded by pirates whilst aboard a civilian vessel en-route to Belgaroth. Myself and four stormtroopers have subdued the pirates and recaptured the vessel, however, all of the bridge crew are dead or MIA. Requesting a response from the nearest vessel, over..” Hades finished recording the message, sent it and sat back in the seat. He frowned – now all he could do was wait for a response from Fleet Command. He was fairly tired, however, from this exertion. He took this free time to lounge in the seat, lazily closing his eyes for a few minutes. He nearly drifted off to sleep, but snapped himself back awake. He realised then his joints were aching and his head was thumping like a rancor was dancing inside. Damn that Captain had hit him hard in the head.

Hades shook it off, and stood unsteadily, almost toppling over a seat before he regained his balance. He heard the two troopers returning with the prisoners. Well, he thought resignedly someone had better reassure the Empire's passengers that everything's okay. With a sigh, Hades tramped toward the cabin...

OOC:

Word count: 3,124. I enjoyed this, although I do think I should have included more detail to make it more plausible than it is. Constructive criticism, as always, is not only appreciated but welcomed. Please tell me what you think!