Boarding:
“Alright men, you’ve trained for weeks so you would be prepared for this very instant,” Sergeant Major Graves stated. He stood in front of a group of troopers. They had all entered the Boarding Actions program with the intent to broaden their skills. Most of them were vying for a position in the Vast Empire Marine Corps. Some of them just wanted to gain more skills. One soldier was here for a specific purpose. He had been told recently that his squad was being considered for a dangerous mission involving boarding a space station. Second Lieutenant Skarr was not sure if he had been misinformed, but he decided there was no harm in picking up the extra skills involved with boarding a ship or even a space station.
The training was certainly not what he expected. A lot of it had been grueling memorization of ship layouts. Only after the troopers had finished with an exam were they taken into the exercises. Skarr had finished his exam only a week ago, and had been hard at work on the exercises. Now he stood with the group of troopers who were about to take their ‘final exam’. The exam involved boarding a ship successfully and then fending off a boarding action successfully. The squad leader was confident that he would be able to face up to the challenge. He had faced worse after all.
The ship that Skarr was in rocked slightly as it pulled in close to the Victory-class Star Destroyer. They were going to come in at an airlock near the ship’s living quarters for combat personnel. The pilot declared that the ship had sealed successfully. The first two troopers ran to the door and began cutting it open. Skarr checked his blaster once more. It was permanently set to stun and it was ready to fire at any moment. The door blasted open and the first few troopers went in. There were loud firing noises from the corridor beyond. It seemed that the other group of troopers had already set up firing lines in the corridor. It was going to be a hellish experience trying to muscle their way out the door.
One of the troopers had gotten a bright idea and pulled out the grenade launcher slung around his back. He ducked around the corner of the opened door and launched a grenade right into the line of men. Smoke billowed out of the grenade, obscuring the ‘enemy’s’ vision. A few troopers grabbed the shields off of the wall and ducked through the door, into the Star Destroyer. The shields were equipped with clamps on the bottom that would fix onto the floor of the bulkhead, giving the entering squads some cover.
Skarr followed one of the troopers, ducking behind the man and his shield. He fired a few salvos from his blaster, catching one of the enemies in his stomach. The man fell to the ground, unconscious. The lieutenant’s partner dropped the shield to the ground, engaging the clamps. More troopers bled through the wound in the side of this ship, equipped with grenade launchers, blasters, and shields. They almost had to step over their own now to move forward. But they were finally pushing back their opponents into the ship and less of their own were falling.
The squad leader smiled grimly. His team was hellbent on taking the engines. That was one of the reasons they had chosen the combat quarters. It would give them more men to fight, but it would be closer to engineering. And if Skarr and his team could take out the engines, then the ship could be pummeled by fire from Skarr’s allies or be taken by the boarding party. There would be no escape and he thought it was a good plan.
He moved his team forward into the living quarters, taking cover behind a bunk. The corridor he found himself in was narrow, there was only enough space for a few people to move. And on each side of the corridor was rows of bunks for the fighting men and chests full of personal belongings. One of his men fell to a stun blast, making Skarr scowl coldly. He popped out of cover and sprayed fire into his enemies. Only a few dropped. More of their opponents were backing out of the corridor, hoping to lure Skarr into what would most certainly be an ambush. Skarr knew that there was a cross corridor up ahead with a blast door that would bar their progress to engineering.
This forced Skarr to take another route. He glanced to his left and found another corridor. If he was not mistaken from his memory of the ship’s layout, this corridor would only lead to another part of the crew quarters. But it would most certainly have a route to engineering. He commanded his squad into the alternative corridor. The team obeyed, lowering their heads and pelting across to the next corridor over. Skarr followed, covering his squad with suppressive fire.
The next corridor was almost empty, but there were men coming in now that there was a threat. Skarr growled and fired into the grouping enemies who were trying to throw themselves into cover. But Skarr and his men had taken them off guard. Their opponents had not had enough time to move from one corridor to the next and gain ample cover. It was one of the lessons he had been taught. Cause confusion whenever possible and the upper hand is yours. The team began moving forward, over their fallen opponents. It made Skarr confident.
Faced with this amount of opposition, their enemies fell back into the larger hall outside. The one that would ultimately lead to engineering. Skarr tentatively urged his squad forward into the hall. They had to fire almost continuously just to get a foot hold in the hall. The defense would not let them in now. It was apparent where the team was going, but it may have been too late for that realization.
Skarr and the team forced them back ever further and their numbers were now starting to decline.The large hall spread out the larger squad they faced, enabling them to pick them off. Soon, there were only four enemy troopers left to Skarr’s five, including himself. They easily finished off the last four troopers, but not without suffering a casualty of their own. Skarr was now only left with three people to command. He hoped it would be enough. He merely had to place the fake charges on the engines and it would be over.
The squad ran down the length of the hall, booking for engineering. It was just ahead. They emerged into an almost cavernous room. Skarr smiled, they were in engineering now. The game was almost won. The man ran down the length of the catwalk, pelting for the engines. He was almost there when a group of the opposing troopers appeared out of nowhere, already shooting. Skarr had just enough time to throw himself behind cover, but the woman behind him was not so lucky. They were in dire straights now, only 3 troopers remained including Skarr. And the group that now opposed them numbered about 14.
The opponents had them pinned down now. The only thing preventing Skarr from being stunned now was the heavy durasteel crate in front of him. He leaned out slightly to fire into the crowd, hitting one of the troopers in the chest. He had to throw himself back into the cover just to avoid the volley of stun bolts. He heard another man on his team fall. It seemed that he had failed his objective and most likely his exam.
There was a commotion from behind the crate and a whole cacophony of stun bolts sounded. Skarr gathered up the courage to take a look. Another team from the boarding party had arrived in engineering. They swept up the opposing team easily. The element of surprise had been on their side. The squad leader rose from his cover position and sprinted for the engines. He found the right console and began affixing the charge to it. Once it was armed and activated, a piercing wail emitted from the charge, deactivating the blasters. It signaled the end of the exercise. Skarr hoped he had done well enough in this exercise, but there was still one more to do.
- OOC:
- WC: 1406
The second part of this is coming soon. But for now, this is the assaulting part of the VSD. I used the Victory I class Star Destroyer as my model and I found this: http://starwars.wikia.com/index.php?title=Victory_I-class_Star_Destroyer&image=Victory_cross_section-jpg This is what I used as my template.
