RP: Space Pirates [Valaad] The Inferno Wind

Kirio was starting to get excited; he had never been in a large battle before. Sure, he had been in a couple tight escapes from small mishhu scout ships during his small time transporting days, but the current situation was definately going to be new. Kirio ran aboard the Osiris and checked the systems; they were going to need to be at their best in the upcoming battle

Luicen's eyes widened and he looked about himself and Marcus.
"Did I just hear 'em right?" Luicen said to himself as he looked up at the roof of the warehouse and the dusky skies, "Ach, them Mishhu are comin', and we're here holed in a warehouse movin' stock along?"
Luicen flung his jacket open, thrust his hands into it and pulled out a pair of Nepleslian Liberators, with hand carved wooden handles.

"I say we go out an get some action, I've had an itch tae use these things and the ship's big guns again!"

Kirio grabbed his shotgun from the strap on his back, chambered a slug with two loud clicks, turned to Luicen and said, "I hear you there, friend!"

ANUBIS indicated that all sections were ready on board the Osiris, and that the special cargo had been loaded and secured. Terry sat in the captain's chair and sounded General Quarters, summoning the crew to their duty stations.

Marcus took one look at the shotgun and said quite plainly that he hoped it wasn't needed. After all, if you end up needing a shotgun on a starship like the Osiris, then the enemy has more or less already won and in lieu of trying to capture the ship might as likely blow it out of space when resistance was offered.

Repulsor plates hummed and the ship began to take flight, as Terry finally allowed the autopilot to take them into orbit. "Kirio, stand ready. Lucien, warm up the guns. Marcus, the gravity beams are under your control. We're going to be frontlines for the first wave, then fall back and cover the retreat."

By now, the Mishhuvurthyar had, without any trouble, destroyed every ship that Valaad had sent to face them, and were practically on top of the planet on the chart. Major military targets on the surface were already being nuked; the bright flashes in the distance could be seen as the Osiris rose into the sky.

Luicen ran into the bridge, leapt over his console, performing a front flip and landing in his Weapons console with a thump.
He quickly got the cannons and guns warmed up, ready to fire should the need arise.
"Right then, let's show these tentacled bastards what we're made of!" Luicen shouted to the crew in his particular brand of Scottish accent, "Kirio and I saved this ship once and we kin do it again!"

The scope showed just two or three ships still surviving after the decision to have all the ships group together into an impromptu battlefleet had proved disastrous; Terry quickly ordered the autopilot disengaged, and assumed direct command over the survivors. They would not try to fight, except for token shots taken while retreating; their goal now was to cover the last of the refugee ships.

If any had made it offworld. The flash of nuclear fire directly beneath where Gate City had been brought a pang to the privateer's heart; if all had gone well his family and friends had moved to the auxiliary headquarters (Location Undisclosed) to wait out the war; otherwise he'd be down not only his best researchers but his only remaining parent and be truly alone in the galaxy.

"ANUBIS. Ready the self-destruct. Do not activate it, but keep it primed. Marcus, use the gravity capture beams. Throw anything you can at those damned squids. Lucien--target that chunky looking piece of space slime. Full barrage at maximum intensity. I don't care if we don't hurt it, I want those bastards to know that they are not going to destroy this ship without losing something of their own. Kirio, I'll need your best flying today. Emily! Coax all the power you can from the engines. Everyone else...well, good luck."

Escort R Us

The battle had ended almost as quickly as it began it seemed. Randy never really planned to stick around; he just wanted to wait until the enemy was in range so that he could leave without being shot at by the militia. He did however want to stick around the transporter vessels, which left him dangerously close to the area still. There was no interest in making sure the transporters got away safely, just a chance to be paid as escort.

"To any surviving ships out there, I can run escort for you but we must leave now! This is a limited time offer; act now while you're still alive!"

<i>Sure wish I had a beer right about now...</i>

"Aye sir!" Luicen began to target that green ball of sludge on the monitor with his RAI Cannons, "Terry, I'm not sure if that's a missile or something that's gonna eat our ship. But say the word and I'll blast it."

((OOC: Stop misspelling my name. It's L-U-I-C-E-N)

"It's moving too slowly to be a missile but it's not in any of the recognized ship forms so that means it is either new or important. Therefore we are going to shoot at it."

"Aye sir, very good idea." Luicen told Terry as he aimed the cannons at the oncoming sludgeball and fired.

The Mishhuvurthyar ships nearby fired in response, sending bright blue blasts screaming toward Osiris' hull. The ship rocked violently, sending faces slamming into control panels and knocking down anyone who was standing. Damage alerts came in, as large portions of the ship reported damage, including hull breaches and fires, mostly in the rear and central sections of the ship. Deck three was trashed and burning and deck four was slagged and exposed to space. Practically every alarm on the ship went off at once.

The explosive hits sent the Osiris into a spin.

GTFO!

The prospect of making some money got dimmer and dimmer as each shot rang out from the enemy.

<i>You know what I hate that planet! I'm getting out of here and hope they blow that rock to hell!</i>

With Randy's hope of making some money off this trip shattered he ran off towards Darso. On the bright side atleast he didn't have to pay his tab anymore.

Terry swiped blood out of his eyes and gripped his console against the lateral g-forces induced by the spin. ANUBIS said something about sealing off all movement to deck four--the machine shop was completely obliterated. The shields. He'd forgotten the shields but he was proud that his ship had survived the barrage.

Ordering Kirio to arrest the spin and straighten the corvette out before the stresses tore her apart, he began the calculations for an FTL jump and wished not for the first time that the Osiris carried missiles or something useful like that.

As with the missile ambush in Nepleslian orbit he didn't stop to look if the attack had done any damage. Terry's only concern now was getting the hell gone. Valaad was his home, but if the enemy wanted it, they could have it. He'd find some other way to oust them from the galaxy.

"Navigational calculations for Albini set. Luicen, one more salvo, and then we're out of here. Kirio, exit vector if you please." The ISIS-3 was doing its job well enough; if they survived the transition to lightspeed he'd take stock of survivors, and move through the ship putting out fires and patching breaches. There was no response from the engine room and Terry hoped he didn't have to replace his mechanical experts.

Hopefully their cargo was still intact; once they were through with their duties at the water planet they'd make best speed for Deep Core. Its coordinates were secret, as it was home to the shipyard that had built the Osiris.

As the battered Osiris wentinto FTL, it narrowly avoided getting hit again. Luckily, the SMX warships didn't pursue, leaving the Osiris free to limp back to Albini system the what remaining power it had.

Marcus had some bad news for him however. As he had called ahead to secure their berth aboard Pisces station, he'd been informed that the station was under quarantine for reasons not specified.

Kirio was battered and bruised, but still alive and grateful to be so. He sighed and relaxed slightly; they seemed to be safe. Kirio was somewhat shellshocked, but still in top form when it came to piloting. Straightening out the Osiris before it did the FTL jump was no easy task and he had only just stabilized the craft before they had made the jump.

Quarantine...since when had he ever listened to quarantines when there were things to do? The people would likely need these supplies now more than ever. Not to mention the goods in his smuggling compartment were destined for the station as well.

Five kilos of highly-concentrated neurosuppressant which, in dilute form was perfectly legal and used as a mild relaxant, but in pure form highly dangerous and illegal...Five kilos packed into an array of 20 milligram syringes.


The intership comm finally crackled to life, and on his display the hyperlane stability began to dissolve. Emily told him that when they took the hit to their aft quarters, the reactor powering the gravity drive had taken severe damage.

The footage of the new configuration of SMX ship was being beamed throughout the military network courtesy of ANUBIS. With any luck the strange vessel could be identified. Terry was well aware of it being customary to return fire, but SMX attacks were normally more coordinated. They had...fired wildly. Due in part to Kirio's piloting they'd managed to avoid complete annihilation, but Terry was sure that they were also panicked, somehow. If it were even possible.

Plenty of time had existed for the enemy ships to plot a firing solution, and Terry had made a grievous error in forgetting the shields. The retaliatory attack should have been crippling if not outright lethal.

"Well..." Luicen groaned as he wiped a bit of blood from his sunglasses, "Looks like we shot at something that shot back several times as harder."
Luicen got out of his seat, with some minor injuries, but nothing that got in his way.
"Terry, I suggest we dock somewhere and get the ship fixed." Luicen told the commander as he looked at the damage and destruction around him, "Till then, let's figure out a way to shield ourselves."

"The shields are--" Terry stopped talking as the interior lighting dimmed, then flickered out, replaced by the dim glow of emergency lamps. The chaos of slipspace shifted to the slow sweep of sublight transit, and the bridge door opened. Emily stood in the portal, face lit by the lamps and her left arm in a hastily-constructed sling and splint.

"No good, boss. Reactor's leaking too badly. If I'd kept us in the slipfield, we'd all be irradiated well past tolerable levels. The good news is that I can keep up shield power, but we won't be shooting any time soon either." The technician frowned quite angrily. "We lost two people when the machine shop got ventilated. And the hits fused the gravity well generator, so we can't go back into FTL." As if that wasn't bad enough, the particle extractors were shorting out and feeding ammunition back into the collectors.

"We'd better put out the fires first though, before we run out of air."

"Aye sir, good plan," Luicen told Terry as he began to search for a fire extinguisher, but couldn't find one handy, "Where do ye keep the extinguishers? We've got fire to fight!"