Operation Initiation

[Ghostie]

Three ships dropped out of hyperspace in the black of night. A gunboat flanked by two corvettes banked to the right and veered off in that direction. Not soon after the larger ships started to move, several smaller craft dropped out of hyperspace as well. The fighters and bombers joind the three larger ships to form a flotilla of sorts, and headed towards an asteriod field that was now squarely infront of them.

The asteriod field was devoid of live. Scientist had said that it was remains of a planet trying to form, but just never got a chance to. Whatever the case, nothing had ever lived in this insignifcant part of the galaxy, at least until now. A small Sith supply depot had been set up in the area, out of one of the larger asteriods. It was the first target for the new group calling themselves Spearpoint.

Ethan Moreill still thought this group of pirates, smugglers, and ex-soliders was still a rag-tag bunch that barely got along. But he hadn’t been the one in the jungle training them. If Horst said they were ready for their first strike, then Ethan would take his word for it.

Horst would be the one doing all the repair work anyways.

The door in front of Ethan slid open to reveal the bridge of The Verada Nashta, his ship. Despite being smaller than the two corvettes, Ethan had stuck with making The Verada his command ship. She was fast and quite. Between the stealth systems and the Ion cannon, size didn’t matter too much anymore.

The bridge of The Verada had a tan interior, from the carpets to the consoles. The chairs were the standard black, like most navy ships. Two Duros, brothers Ethan believed, sat at the front helming the ship. A female Arkanian Offshoot was sitting in the communications chair with a headset on. She looked up as the door slid open and then went wide eyed.

Ethan credited the Offshoot’s reaction to his armor. While he would be playing no role in the ground team, Ethan still wore the red and yellow beskar’garm. It was something most sailors did in the Mandalorian Navy, old habits die hard. Plus, it made Ethan feel just a little more safe.

“Stealth systems engaged?”

“Have been since we dropped out of hyperspace, sir.”

The Duros co-pilot answered.

The Verada’s stealth system didn’t make the ship completely invisible. Instead, it just hid the ship’s emissions, ensuring it didn’t show up on senors. The simple plan was for the corvettes to dsitract the station and it’s defenses while The Verada broke away and dropped off the ground team.

“Anything from the station yet?”

Ethan’s next question was targeted towards his communications officer, or at least what stood for one in a rag-tag bunch of pirates. She pressed a couple of buttons and watched her display before answering.

“Just the standard ‘Cease and Desist’. But it’s coming from a frigate close to the station, not the station itself.”

Ethan swung around and sat down in a chair just behind the Duros helmsman. The station was coming into view, and along with it a smaller frigate. A Storm-Class, if he wasn’t mistaken. He had seen a couple while with the Mandalorians. They were smaller than most frigates, built for a government that needed a fleet fast.

“Have the corvettes to keep the frigate between them and the station. Have the bombers target the frigate’s communications or the bridge, whichever it’s easiest for them to go for. The soonest the frigate starts firing, break us off from the main group and make it look like we’re running away. Then wrap around and deploy the shuttle.”

The bridge crew immediately started performing their orders, more or less exactly as Ethan had detailed. Ethan spun around in his chair to view his own console, showing a tactical view of the asteroid field from the top. The frigate and its fighter compliment were shown in red, along with the station. The groups of Spearpoint ships were all blue. Ironic Ethan thought, as The Verada and the two corvettes were painted blue. He sipped from the coffee mug he brought in with him as he watched the blips dance around on the display.

The Captain hit the comm. On his console, keying in Horst’s communicator. The Commander/Engineer was probably getting his strike team ready in the hangar with the shuttle. Ethan still didn’t like that part of the plan. The shuttle could’ve easily gotten vaporized by a laser blast, stray or otherwise. But Horst had thought it was the best way, and Ethan didn’t see an alternative. After all, it wasn’t like the Sith were just going to let The Verada dock.

“Commander, we got a small frigate with its fighter escort out here. The plan’s been altered slightly, but nothing major. Just be quick about getting to those station defenses. And remember to keep in radio contact.”

After Horst’s reply came in, the frigate started firing. Green lasers streaked by The Verada, none coming into contact yet. They were most likely more of a warning shot. The ship shook from the proximity of the lasers, showing just how good the Sith crew was. As ordered, The Duros helmsman split off from the main group to the left, looking like he was heading for the asteroid field.

The main group of the Spearpoint fleet continued on however. It was not long before laser fire was traded, first with the fighters and then with the larger ships. It was lucky Ethan had decided to bring both squadrons of heavy fighters. So far, they had the advantage there. But the station was undoubtly going to launch more fighters soon.

The Verada swung around once it had gained enough distance from the firefight. From this view, Ethan could get a clear idea of what was going on just by looking out of the window. From the looks of things, that Frigate packed quite a punch compared to the corvettes, but they were able to hold their own. It wouldn’t be for long though.

Blue and green and red flashed across the vista, with the station as a backdrop. Explosions here and there from fighters and bombers. It was almost like watching a dramatic holovid of an old war. Except this was real, and people were actually losing their lives.

Ethan leaned back in his chair and sipped his coffee. Almost like a holovid, but not quite. The Verada closed on the other side of the station, coming in behind the firefight.

“Get ready to launch, Stellar.”

[Lemur, The Kool-Aid Guy]

Ervisa Therani was as strapped in as a sentient being could possibly be, with a full harness securing her to a bucket seat, one more to her right, then two more aft. It was the crew arrangement of a Rescorp Comet strategic bomber, which Spearpoint had managed to obtain four of.

It was a design in active service with the Republic, but it honestly didn't surprise her that Rescorp was leaking it to anyone who could pay. They had a pretty nasty reputation for doing that. Still, the work was surprisingly good. Everything fit right, it was sturdy. And it packed enough heat to level a small town in one pass.

For today's purposes, she was Comet Leader, in charge of two, three, and four. How it was she'd gotten the responsibility she genuinely wasn't sure. It was possibly due to being the best pilot in the whole faction, or so she liked to immodestly think with a big grin plastered across her face. Yeah, Ervisa wasn't exactly the picture of a true lady, brimming with humility and modesty.

"Comet flight, drop from hyperspace in 4... 3... 2... 1... Now. Now. Now."

She pulled back on her controls and the starfield before her became still, punctuated by asteroids. With a nice and lazy increase of her throttle, she kept her heading and matched speed with the corvettes, waiting for further orders on the encrypted channel coming from the Verada, their command ship.

What came through was, while not exactly a cakewalk, perfectly doable. As doable as a hunky Corellian piece of beefcake... Of course now was not the time to be distracted by men. Or imaginary men. It was serious business.

Ervisa saw this as a chance to show off her stuff. Not only was she going to take out the bridge, she was going to take out the comm systems, and maybe pound the weapons too.

She ran through the list of heat they were packing. Everyone had four proton torpedo launchers with two shots each, that was 32 torpedos. And then there was 50,000 pounds of bombs in each bomb bay. 200,000 pounds of bombs.

A gloved hand flipped open the encrypted channel between the bombers, and the Mirialan woman spoke, her headset picking up her every word and relaying it.

"Diamond formation on me, we're going in at flank, everyone lets loose two salvoes of torpedos, one at the bridge and one at their comm systems, it'll overload their shields. We come back around and regroup into two flights. Two you're on me, four you pair with three. We take the comm systems with our bombs, you take the bridge. Got it?"

The confirmations came in and Ervisa gave the word. She hit the throttle and the aptly-named comet streaked forward at breakneck speed.

This was going to be interesting as hell.

[Fromikeable]

Horst felt the Verada lurch under his feet ever so little as its speed dropped like a stone, coming into standard space-time. He smiled; it had been a long time since he had felt that while in full battle-armor, holding his repeater in one hand, his helmet in his other, and a power pack for his gun carried behind him.

He smiled. It felt right.

The Commander jingled his dogtags before sliding his helmet onto his head, his fresh-trimmed hair not disrupting it in the least. The armor wasn't extremely heavy, but it was heavy enough; the same type of gear he'd worn back in Spec Ops. It was heavy enough to keep him alive, light enough to allow him to move, and beyond both of those? It looked pretty damn cool.

Firing up his HUD and long-range comms, Horst checked his repeater before entering the Verada's hangar. Inside was one of the trustiest little ships he'd ever had the pleasure of knowing about; a T-1 All-Purpose Utilitarian Transport, slightly over-flowing with a collection of 49 of the hardiest, most ballsy recruits Horst had trained over the last few weeks. Most of the troops were on the Corvettes, manning the guns or actually directing the used ships. Horst had actually specifically assigned the engineering corps on each ship, putting the LeFro'a triplets on one of the corvettes. He held confidence in his engineers; they wouldn't be building ships from scratch any time soon, but they could at least handle enough to be battle-ready.

Speaking of battle-ready, Ethan radioed in as Horst directed the last of his recruits (if they lived past today, he'd call them soldiers) toward the shuttle, which was rather cramped in the Verada's hangar. Ethan claimed that they had to change course, and that he and the strike team would have to be quick. To accentuate the urgency, the Verada trembled slightly as a giant green bolt of energy streaked by; the ultimate exclamation mark.

Horst merely smiled wider before pressing a finger to his helmet and responding, "Aye aye Cap'n. Jus' get us in nice n' close. We'll take care a' the rest." With that, Horst shoved the recruits into the shuttle to make some room for himself, coming to stand at the edge of the shuttle's door. At full capacity, the shuttle was absolutely packed, every man and woman shoulder to shoulder. The fact that they were all holding weapons and wearing armors of various types and sizes didn't really help, and Horst could only imagine what they producers of the ship would say if they saw it being used like this.

He smiled even wider before. Difficult though it was, he turned around as the sound of the hangar's bulkhead doors opening was audible. "Hey!" he shouted to the recruits, who were chatting and hollering and laughing and worrying. "Omega Squad, shut it n' listen up!"

The squad, and therefore the interior of the shuttle, became dead quiet. Horst finally chuckled softly. It felt good to be back where he belonged.

"I'm goin' over this one more time. The outpost's gotta' frigate out there, so the fleet'll move in an' distract it. Our job is real simple; get ta' the station hangar 'thought dyin', get the defenses reprogrammed 'thought dyin', and get the supplies loaded 'thought dyin'. Got all that?" He got a set of Yessir's, Aye-aye's, and Affirmitive's in return. He smiled, and then pointed over toward the pilot's seat. He'd assigned PO3 Zett Rem to fly this crazy thing since he was one of the only guys Horst could find that was good at shooting AND flying and hadn't already been snatched away for fighter duty. He yelled over to the pilot, "Rem! Get ready to punch it at my go!" He listened to make sure Zett had heard him; he would get them in.

Ethan radioed in again telling Horst to get ready as the sound of exchanging naval-fire became audible. The battle, it seemed, was about to begin. Horst pressed up against his comm again and changed channels to the entire flotilla. He didn't have to worry about noise; the entire squad had become dead quiet in a sort of pre-battle meditation, thinking any last thoughts they might want to consider before jumping into action. Horst spoke somewhat softly.

"Attention all ships. The package is headin' out, repeat, the package is headin' out. Keep us covered n' watch yer' fire." With that, Horst could hear the shuttle's engines fire up.

"Alright Zett! Let's go!"

[Adobi-Wan Kenobi]

((OOC--- Sense Horst is useing "Brown Text" Zett Will use "Black Text".))

Zett had Brought this ship The Star Hunter along and left it in the hanger, Horst; the mission commander, had hand picked Zett for the mission as both a shuttle pilot and a ground unit. Zett knew this was mainly because Ethan the over all leader of the mission and faction had chosen the other pilots for another part. Zett still thought it was funny that next to everyone he knew was now part of the same faction, Je'baru the first bounty hunter to meet Zett, yet one of the last Zett was to meet, Horst whom he had Met on the space station not that far back, and Ervisa the former Jedi Pilot and former Drug addict.

A questioning beep came from his droid T6 bringing Zett back out of his day dream, Zett looked down at the droid and smiled at the ramp of the shuttle he was to fly, helmet in his right and his data pad that he had been secretly been writing a virus on for sense before he had joined Spear-point and handed off to the little astro droid, No T6, There wont be enough room on the shuttle for you, and on top of that i can handle myself and the re-programing well, You'll be safer back at my ship. Zett Said patting the droid only to get an annoyed worried beep from T6, Zett Rolled his eyes before smiling at the little concerned droid Now come on I've had worse missions, and besides.... He stopped to look at the first of the strike team enter the hanger, It's me... He said smiling and nodding to the crew, I gotta go, other wise i won't be able to get to the cockpit! He said as a remark to the small size of the shuttle and the large crew, only to get another worried beep came from the droid.

He stepped up the ramp quickly and walked to the bridge, and saw the cramped cockpit, and rolled his eyes removing the jet-pack from his back and sat it on the co-pilot seat, and his helmet on the console, then flicking the view screen that he took a few moments to tie into the main view screen of the ship the shuttle was landed. He had tied in just in time to watch the star lines fade, and the station come into view.

He patched on the comms and waited, only a few moments before the commander; Horst spoke Zett's orders, Orders that didn't really be needed to be spoken, Zett knew his part well,
"Rem! Get ready to punch it at my go!"--- "Attention all ships. The package is headin' out, repeat, the package is headin' out. Keep us covered n' watch yer' fire." ---"Alright Zett! Let's go!"

Zett smiled as he saw the hanger doors and shields open and lower and he powered the repusers and raised the landing feet, Roger, Roger... He said half minded as the ship soared out of the hanger, and avoided what little laser fire came his way, they where so far from the battle he had little to worry about, and headed for the hanger of the asteroid station only to blast the weak point to force the shields offline and allow him to land safely.

He grabbed his orange helmet and sat it on his head as he saw the response units already running into the hanger so far only a small group but still to many not to worry about, he quickly flicked on his comm back o Horst directly, Landed and locked boss, but we got company! He said pulling his jet-pack on and moving out of the cramped cockpit ready for the pending battle. Time to go to work...

[Ghostie]

Ethan watched the little shuttle blast out of the small hangar that The Verada was equipped with. How a fifty person strike team fit into that little ship was beyond him, but knowing Horst he pulled it off somehow. He always did.

Ethan watched the ship travel across the small span of space for what seemed to be several long minutes. It was all he cared to watch for the time being. One stray laser bolt, and the whole mission was done. Two Sith fighters swooped in to try and intercept the shuttle, firing but missing. Whoever was helming the shuttle seemed to be doing a good job of making sure they stayed alive.

Before the shuttle reached the hangar, two of the Gunzarm Heavy Fighter swooped in with their gatling laser cannons in full force, blowing the Sith Interceptors to pieces. They split off as the shuttle sped into the station’s hangar, the laser defenses scaring them off. The rest was up to Horst and his team now.

Ethan shifted his focus back to the matter at the hand, namely the frigate. The corvettes were holding their own, but had some minor damage here and there. Most notably, one of them had taken a couple of blast to their port engine.

“Bring us back to the main group. Spray the frigate with the ion cannon has we pass by. The soonest we reach our corvettes, turn around and shut off the stealth systems. Have the Lion’s Main fall back, by stay within firing range.”

The Verada started moving, and passed the Sith Frigate on the starboard side on its path back to the corvettes. As The Verada Nashta passed the ship by, it’s ion cannons rotated and targeted the larger ship. The ion cannon’s unique sound, something of a “ker-clunk”, echoed throughout the gunboat each time the turret fired.

But the attack also made The Verada Nashta the frigate’s new target. It’s main guns targeted the gunboat, and The Verada received a couple blows to the rear. The ship rattled and shook, knocking those who weren’t sitting just right around. The Offshoot manning the communications station almost fell out of her seat. Ethan made sure to hold to his cup of coffee extra tight, it splashed around in the mug has they were fired on.

“Shields down to fifty-two percent, Captain.”

“They’ll hold long enough for us to get out of the way.”

The Verada caught the Sith Frigate unawares, the ion cannon tearing it’s shields to pieces, or so the tactical readout said. It would now be open to any attacks made by the pirate group.

As The Verada finished it’s run on the frigate, Ethan watched the four ResCorp Bombers fly in front of him heading the opposite direction, towards the larger ship. The bombers would have a clear run with the fighters engaging the Sith Inceptors, and The Verada having just torn the frigate's shields to shreds.

So far, things were going somewhat smoothly. If they could actually pull this off, maybe it wasn't as suicidal as he once thought. Ethan leaned back in his chair and sipped his coffee once again.

[Lemur, The Kool-Aid Guy]

Ervisa blinked in surprise as one of her flight crew announced the Frigate's shields were buckling, without so much as a shot fired from her quartet of craft.

That kind of changed the plan. It had to, as they could now do a hell of a lot more than they could before. In fact, it would be pretty stupid to do less. They were only going to have one good pass, anything else would be pushing their luck.

It was Ervisa Therani's first space battle, and the Mirialan woman wanted everything to go according to plan. Except the plan was rapidly evolving, and she had to evolve with it.

"Two, you hit the bridge, I'll hit the comms, three and four, hit weapons emplacements. Go evasive if you have to, break formation."

The acknowledgments came in as the Sith frigate grew rapidly. Her own displays showing the numbers separating them closing at breakneck speed. They were right on top and hit the trigger on her stick.

Four proton torpedos shot out from the launchers and slammed into the area around the communications array, the explosions damaging it. One more squeeze of the trigger and the array was in shambles.

But it wasn't all sunshine and roses.

The emerald-skinned woman was constantly engaged in rolls along her attack run to shake the deluge of laser fire headed her way. Even with the evasive maneuvers, some of it was hitting the forward shields, and they were weakening.

In a few seconds they had shot by and the laser cannons that turned to track them were too slow. Ervisa's bomber had streaked out of range in that time. That meant she was now going to figure out what the results of the run had been.

"Report guys, and talk fast."

"This is two, got a little cooked, took damage. Target destroyed."

"Three, used up my whole payload, suffered engine damage."

"Four, out of torpedos. Good for another run with bombs."

Ervisa's number of usable craft was down to two. But, the bridge and comms were down, and that had been the goal of her run. Hell, some of their weapons emplacements were gone now too. And they were about to take more down.

"Two, three, break off and disengage. Four, follow me on another attack run, hit targets of opportunity. Prepare to come about."

Ervisa cut her velocity, braking as she brought the bomber into a turn to get it facing the right way, the others overshooting her and beginning wider and faster turns in the opposite direction.

All right Ervi, one more time for good luck...

[Fromikeable]

The shuttle, through what Horst was chocking up to a miracle, settled in the Sith hangar with a thud as Zett put it down quickly. Omega Squad was dead silent; a few coughs or shuffles of armor were all that was audible. Zett anounced that they were already being greeted by the welcome wagon, and indeed outside of the small ship was the distinct clomping of boots and clacking of guns.

One of the recruits leaned over to Horst. "Sounds like we're surrounded sir."

That got a nice smile from his Commander. "I don't know a' any other way ta' fight, rookie. Just worry about bein' ready." He whispered the shuttle as loudly as he could, "Undockin' maneuver delta. Mark is 'paint'." That prompted a few odd looks, of course, but Horst merely smiled wider before shifting where he stood, coming to the door controls he was pressed up against. Tapping a few buttons, the door slid open, and Horst stepped onto the hangar bay floor.

Indeed, they were surrounded. Sith sailors in grey uniforms, each with a rifle trained on the ship, stood in a crude circle around the small craft, some quite obviously alarmed, others quite obviously unimpressed. A commander, judging by the colored bars he had pinned to his shirt, walked toward the raiders' shuttle, gun holstered. He spoke very obviously confident.

"By command of the Empire, surrender your weapons or face-"

"S'cuse me. Jus' one thing."

The commander huffed a bit, unhappy he'd been interrupted. "I'm not telling you anything. In fact, I demand to know who you are."

Horst puffed out his chest, his repeater dangling from one hand casually. He grinned, scratching his chin, full to the brim with stubbles, with his free hand. "My name's Commander Stellar, n' if ya' don't mind, I'd like yer' station."

The Sith commander stood agape, obviously incredulous. "You? Want my station, is that correct?" He smiled in the first stages of what Horst would call denial.

The Engineer spit toward the floor. "S'right. I'd say it could use a nice new coat a'... paint." Instantly the back doors of the shuttle dropped open, revealing to the Sith a barrage of gunfire, slugs and blasters both, as Omega Squadron instantly popped off as many soldiers as they could. The Sith, taken by surprise, barely managed to recover as the recruits barged around the sides of the ship, eliminating the circle quickly as the few sailors that escaped bolted, both for fear of their deaths and for cover.

The Sith commander was still in shock by the time Horst had grabbed his repeater, and the whine of the gun was audible as he shouted a retreat order.

Between the new status of all of his men and the bolts of plasma through his gut, Horst doubted any of them had really heard him.

Omega Squadron filed out of the shuttle, checking themselves and each other. Two or three recruits had been hit in the blitz, but luckily their armor had done an adequate job of catching the shots. Horst nodded to Zett as he inspected the hangar. It seemed to have been evacuated prior to their arrival, as the smell of power tools and in-progress repairs to ships was pungent. Luckily, that also meant that the hangar was now deserted, save for the fresh corpses.

"Aright Omega Squad, let's move. Jenkins, Leroy, anyone else who got hit, stay 'ere an' guard the shuttle, just in case." The recruits with smoking armor saluted; a giant change from the lip service they would have given if this raid had been a good month earlier.

Directing his troops toward the nearest door, Horst signaled them to breach. With a quick set-up and charge, the corridor on the other side was breached quickly. The room was cleared, and the next was soon to follow. As soon as they located the position of the defenses, Horst paused them in a room with three exits, one of which being the way they came.

"Okay, here's where it gets important folks. Zett," He pointed over at the PO3, smiling widely. "Take 10 men, clear tha' room, an' get those cannons shootin' at the frigate. Barricades ya'selves in if ya' gotta', understand? Tha' rest of ya'," He waved his arm toward the other exit.

"Ya're all with me. I want that frigate smokin' like a bandit Zettsy, so be quick about it." Waiting only long enough for the remaining men in his command, about 30 or 35 recruits, to set-up for the next breach, Horst heard Zett's response before shouting, "'Kay people, let's move!"

The door came down, and a new hail of gunfire was all the Engineer could hear as he warmed up his own gun.

[Adobi-Wan Kenobi]

"Undockin' maneuver delta. Mark is 'paint'." Zett gave a nod as he made his way to the ramp after Horst left, Zett could still hear every thing that was going on outside though.

"By command of the Empire, surrender your weapons or face-" Blah...Blah...Blah he mumbled as he slid the helmet on and heard a hissing lock and pulled his pistols out of their holsters and crouched at the ramp waiting for the command word and the ramp to drop, "S'cuse me. Jus' one thing." Zett giggled at how quickly the commander got irratated. "I'm not telling you anything. In fact, I demand to know who you are." Horst spoke again "My name's Commander Stellar, n' if ya' don't mind, I'd like yer' station." "You? Want my station, is that correct?" a hint of sarcasim as if wondering how Horst planned on taking the intire station, "S'right. I'd say it could use a nice new coat a'... paint." That was the signal and Zett began to power his jet-pack up and with a push of his legs was out off the ramp and was now 15 feet in the air, and while he was in the air he took out two of the imps while he was in the air, then he landed off to the right of the ramp and turned around and blasted a few more before it was all over.

"Aright Omega Squad, let's move. Jenkins, Leroy, anyone else who got hit, stay 'ere an' guard the shuttle, just in case." Zett nodded and followed Horst thorugh the halls until they made it to the gun deck and was giving orders by Horst. "Okay, here's where it gets important folks. Zett," Zett nodded, "Take 10 men, clear tha' room, an' get those cannons shootin' at the frigate. Barricades ya'selves in if ya' gotta', understand? Tha' rest of ya'," Zett nodded, gave a mock alute and picked his group of 10 before he crouched down and started trying to wire the door to get it open, but before he could he heard Horst yell, "'Kay people, let's move!" Zett almost jumped and looked over to Horst as he began moving out with his men Zett muddered to himself Between his yelling and blasting... he was cut off by a Guard opening the door he was trying to get into, Zett didn't waste any time to grab the guards arm and in a quick movment heard a Snap! come form the arm and instant yelling from the man. Zett took the gun and blasted the second guard at the door and the 10 men took care of the people at the gun controlls, a small shoot out took place, and just as it looked safe another door opened from the observation room opened and the guard came form there and got a shot off hitting Zett's shoulder and Zett used his left hand that didn't get hit to take him down and the guard tumbled. Zett turned around to see his shoulder armor peice still smoking on the ground, he picked it up with a gloved hand and sat it into his bad, Don't you know smoking is bad ofr your health! He said to the hot peice before turning to the group, Any one but me get hit? One of the younger members raised his hand and Zett noticing him limping, he pointed to two of his men, You two help him out! Every one else watch the door, Won't take me too long to get these guns working and in out favor. He was right, the gunners didn't have time to setup the fire walls on the guns so he didn't have to break through the codes, but he still did have to do some re-aiming and re-programing. After about 3 minutes he had the first gun aiming and auto firing at the enemy frigate.

Withing 20 minutes he had roughly 11 gun firing at the still hard moving frigate, with that part done he hit a button on his Helmet calling Horst, Flag has been captured big daddy! Zett said making fun of the names Horst came up with for the mission locations, but he didn't have a tone of humor in this case, What's my next target?

[Ghostie]

So far, things were going good. Better than expected really, or at least better than Ethan had expected. The Sith fighters were getting mopped up. With the Gunzarm H2's, the regular Sith Interceptor couldn't go toe to toe with a heavier fighter. The Storm-Class Frigate was almost dead between the Verada and the bombers going to town on it. While Ethan would've liked to keep the ship, they didn't have the man power for it. It would become debris.

And the shuttle made it into the hangar okay, by some miracle or prayer. Horst seemed to have things under control, as Ethan could hear over the comm in the Commander’s helmet. Ethan felt bad about not leading the ground team himself, but someone had to take care of the space part. And he had to most experience.

Not to mention, this way he got to put his feet up and drink some coffee.

He watched the bombers pull out off their attack run, demolishing the bridge and the communications array, and even a couple of the weapons emplacements. The Verada continued to pound it with it's main guns, laser and ion cannons mixing toegether.

“Corvettes, push on the frigate now. It's shields are down and it's missing a couple weapons.”

Within minutes, the frigate would be dust. It was quite a thing, being able to take out a larger ship with nothing to match it. Those bombers were something. As if on cue, two of the bombers broke from the flight and headed back towards the frigate.

As they swung around, the station's guns went offline. They came back in a minute or so, now firing on the frigate and the remaining fighters. It was a great sight, only because it seemed to boost morale. That was the act that completely changed Ethan's mind.

Spearpoint's overall goal was no longer suicidal. If they could attack a station this size and pull it off with minimal casualties, maybe they could do this. They could prove the others wrong, they could stick it to the Sith, and they could make a shiny credit all at the same time.

Though, it seemed to good to be true. The Captain was always a pessimist.

“Stellar, good job getting those station guns working for us. Now turn them off. We got a couple of bombers ready to finish off the frigate. Friendly fire ain’t a good thing.”

He issues similar commands to the Corvettes, and then Ethan turned to the pilot. The Frigate was done for, so now it was time for The Verada to get into the Station and load up. They had to move quick, before reinforcements got here.

“Find us a hangar big enough to land. Or a place to dock. We need to get the cargo loaded.”

The Verada moved away from the ending firefight, banking away towards the station. Ethan didn't get to see the resulting explosion, but the shockwave that rocked The Verada made it seem like a spectacular one.

[Lemur, The Kool-Aid Guy]

Ervisa had throttled all the way up when she noticed the guns turn onto the frigate, chewing up the side of the massive spacecraft. She was more than a little concerned that she was heading straight into that deluge of firepower, but if she slowed or pulled out now the Sith gunners on the frigate would get both a wider cross-section to aim at and a target that was going a lot slower.

No, she had to just hope that the turbolasers would stop firing.

One hit from those suckers and she'd get the cremation she'd wanted post-mortem. Not quite a Jedi Funeral, but close enough.

"Punch it lead-ass!" Ervisa yelled into the comm. "I'm gonna die the way I lived!"

The bomber rocketed forward at breakneck speed, with Ervisa engaging in a series of dizzying rolls and spins to present an erratic flight path. The frigate loomed closer, laser cannons firing on her, some rounds missing and others impacting on the forward shields.

The fire from the depot stopped, which was a small blessing.

"Hit it!" The Mirialan woman yelled as they reached the capital ship, and the bombardier set loose the remaining pay load, cracking open the frigates hull.

There was only a split second there before the craft shot out of sight, but Ervisa could see massive damage to the ship. And then it was gone, and she flipped all the forward screens aft, cueing up a camera to get a view of the rapidly-receding ship.

Escape pods were ejecting.

They'd made it.

"Yeeeeeehaw!" Ervisa said loudly, grinning broadly at prevailing from her first spacebattle. She looked around the flight deck and saw the other aircrew with equally big grins.

The Mirialan pilot radioed the rest of her group, finding that her wingman had taken some heavy damage, but the crews were all right, and they'd get it repaired.

She radioed the Verada and reported in.

"Comet leader here, guns are dry. We're falling back to the waypoint. Good hunting, out."

Ervisa grinned again, feeling like a damn fool. She felt great, like she was high on spice again. Oh yeah, and she knew exactly what she was going to do when she got back. Get drunk, bang Horst all night long, then fall asleep snoring, and probably repeat that the same day.

Gloved hands fished out a cigarette from its pack and a lighter, and she puffed up with a pleased look, breathing deep of the tabac as she kept one hand on the stick.

"Hey, isn't that against the rules?"

"Suck it panty-waist, you're not my mom," Ervisa rebuked the man. He fell silent and she puffed away in peace, savoring her well-earned nicotine after a good job.

[Fromikeable]

Horst couldn't remember a time when he'd felt so at peace with the world. Of course that was a bit ironic considering him and about 30 other individuals were barging through rooms and corridors wiping out squad upon squad of Sith soldiers and sailors. In a way, it didn't make sense...

... but to Horst, it was perfectly simple. Horst was no knight in shining armor, but his place other than under a speeder was in the middle of a hail of gunfire.

Ethan radioed in just as the bulk of Omega Squad came to find themselves outside of a docking bay, reloading, checking themselves for injury, and generally preparing quickly for the next breach. Horst merely affirmed his orders with "Roger that," before switching comm channels to Zett.

"Hey smart mouth, this is big daddy. The ships say to cut the guns, so take 'em offline. After that check on the shuttle, n' then head down to..." Horst looked around, noticing that they'd yet to identify just where in the seven Corellian hells they'd ended up. "Hey guys! Where the hell are we?"

That got a few chuckles from the recruits. "Docking Bay R-7 sir!"

Horst grinned before pressing his helmet again, reactivating the comm. "Docking Bay R-7 apparently. Get down here if ya' can; by the sound of it we got ourselves a nice lil' barricade here." With that, Horst turned his attention to the door. It was very obviously welded shut, with a crude, rushed weld joining the two halves. Horst could only chalk it up to one thing:

Somebody was holding out in there.

"Hey Commander! Should we get the detonators?"

"Detonators, the kid says..." Horst shook his head. "Quit screwin' around rookie! Where's tha' explosives we brought?" As if on cue, one of the recruits immediately brought Horst a duffle bag. Opening it up to check on the contents, Horst grinned a little more at the sight of a good 5 pounds of pure explosives. Ethan had thought he was a little crazy when he'd asked for them, but hey, when you were Horst Stellar, you never knew when you'd find something just asking to get blown to kingdom-come.

In this case, that something was the door.

Literally tossing the bag toward the door, Horst primed the detonator as Omega Squad backed way up. Horst and the same recruit who'd handed him the bag hid themselves behind a support pillar on the side of the corridor.

"Uh, sir?" the recruit asked, obviously a little alarmed. "Don't you think we ought to place the explosives a little less... casually?"

"Probably, but we've got 5 pounds there rookie..." Horst looked at him again, confident. It was times like these that he just loved doing what he did.

"Rule number one a' the battlefield: overkill ain't always a bad idea." Horst squeezed the trigger.

BOOM! The entire station, it felt like, shook as a good section of the door (and the wall it resided in) was instantly replaced by debris and smoke...

... and a new stream of gunfire. The smoke and dust glowed red as blaster bolts and slugs soared through the air, zipping overhead, underarm and next to arms as Omega Squad charged into the docking bay. It was a huge room the likes of which was designed to move cargo quickly to large ships. Huge crates and containers formed passages in a giant grid. In each of the formed paths stood Sith troopers desperately sticking to the sides for cover.

If only they're efforts had paid off. It was slower going than before, but Omega Squad began to push them in, picking them off bit by bit. It was basic Spec. Ops strategy that Horst had trained the squad with; pick a target, don't get killed, kill the target, repeat. It was a simple strategy that left a lot of the fine print up for grabs, but it worked.

But as Omega Squad began pushing even further into the bay, towards the docking controls, the Sith troopers began to retreat, as if in preparation of something. Horst observed it with knit eyebrows as his repeater growled, thinking in a quick, instinctive battle mindset.

That ain't a good sign. "Hey Omega Squad! Ease u-"

"Look out!" The whirl of another repeater became audible, and instantly two recruits fell the to ground in pain. Horst whipped his head around to see a Sith stiff in heavy armor sporting some kind of big, rotating gun. It was a repeater, bigger than his own, louder than his own, and more importantly stronger than his own. The guy shooting it hollered over the noise, "My name is Lieutenant Viko, and this is MY station!"

"Like hell!" Horst dived for new cover, hoping to hell that the recruits were smart enough to do the same. Blaster bolts whizzed past in a sea of death, and Horst ducked in, trying to keep himself out of it. When it finally ended, he popped out, emptying his own clip out before actually looking at his target.

Or rather targets. His own shots landed in a group of Sith troopers; the same ones who had retreated before. A good number of them fell, but Omega Squad began backing up as another recruit bit the dust. Horst flashed his teeth in irritation; surely there was SOMETHING that could be done. Looking around for opportunities, Horst kept shooting as searched.

What he found was a large crane overhead used for moving bigger crates. Ducking back into cover, he imagined its trajectory; right on top of those bastards. Waiting for another break in the gunfire, he popped out, shooting at the crane with a stream of blaster-fire all his own.

That was until he noticed that he was out of ammo. Cursing vividly, Horst tossed his gun at the Sith troopers, it falling far short of reaching them. He drew his revolver then, and breathed for a moment.

A play outta' the Coruscant playbook, huh? Whatever worked would work for him.

Horst then proceeded to do the second stupidest thing he'd ever done.

"Omega Squad! GET DOWN!" Popping out from behind his cover, Horst aimed at the hinge of the crane and squeezed the trigger, his arms snapping back over his head as the hand-cannon's smashing sound echoed throughout the bay.

What came next could only be described as a hail of metal, smoke, screaming, and general physical chaos that lasted for minutes.

Horst sat crouched with his hands over his head, gasping once just to check that he could breathe. The battlefield had gotten dead quiet, which meant either his plan had worked, or people breathed in the afterlife too.

He looked around his cover.

"Holy hell, I'm alive." Before him was spread a huge pile of debris, bodies, and general mangled material. The pile stretched up above the walls of containers and crates, acting as a sort of small artificial mountain.

Horst allowed himself a small grin before punching at his helmet, activating the comm. "Hey Omega Squad! Who's alive?"

...

"Omegas 1, 2, 6, and 7 reporting in."

"Omega 4 and 5 here."

"Yo pops! Omega 37! That was crazy!" One by one the squad radioed in, and to Horst's relief, they were mostly still alive. They regrouped at the base of the debris mountain, locating both their fallen comrades (6 in total. 3 dead, 3 wounded) as well as the Sith Lieutenant, who had done them all the great favor of dying at the hands of a large metal beam.

Horst didn't argue. He did inspect the man's gun, however, unable to find his own. Whatever it was, it was very well made, pretty damn sturdy to have survived something like that, and seemed pretty effective. He held it, testing out the feeling of it in his hands.

"I like it." He grinned, walking up the pile.

"Hey Commnder! Any orders?"

Horst sat at the top of the peak, using a Sith trooper devoid of armor as his cushion. He looked out over the bay, which was now a bit smokey thanks to the dust plus a few fires and explosion sites. To anyone else, it would have been a horrible picture of war, but to Horst it was a masterpiece of combat.

"Start findin' the good stuff in these crates. I don't wanna' still be pickin' when the ships dock." Speaking of which, Horst changed comm channels.

"Dockin' Bay R-7 Cap'n. Ya' sure ya' only want one? I've still got a little fight in me." Horst grinned, turning off his HUD and removing his gloves.

MAN, I love my job...

[Adobi-Wan Kenobi]

"Hey smart mouth, this is big daddy. The ships say to cut the guns, so take 'em offline. After that check on the shuttle, n' then head down to...'' Zett chuckled and waited for him to return ti speaking, he was likely fighting or tryign to figure out where he was, Zett was going for the second as he didn't hear any blaster fire in the first bit of words, ''Docking Bay R-7 apparently. Get down here if ya' can; by the sound of it we got ourselves a nice lil' barricade here." Zett sighed as he looked back out the viewing windows the frigate was almost dead from the looks of it and could do from a little bombing, as he was shutting some of hte guns down he happened to look up and barely see the lead bomber, from what he remembered from the breifing Ervisa was in that bomber. And she was heading straight into his line of fire. Zett was tempted to leave them online, but he knew that wouldn't set well with anyone encluding Ervisa if she survived.

But he couldn't power them down fast enough, the hotshot Ervisa hadn't thought it a good idea to wait for the big guns to go offline. Zett Had a few of them offline before she made it to them but she still wasn't pulling off so he improvised pulling his pistol out and repetivly blasting the power systems for the gunnary deck. Mumbleing to himself, Impatiant little green skinned!... He cut himself off realizing that he wasn't much different from her when flying so he supposed they were even.

He shut the door to the gun deck and locked it only seconds before the systems completly over loaded and the guns exploded from the inside leaving a pretty big crator on the outside of the station, he looked at the door that was now warped inward from the explostion. He brushed a bit of dust from his still good shoulder peice as one of the cadets approached him.

"Where to next sir?"

Zett remembered where Horst was but first that he had to go to the hanger he had landed the shuttle in.

We gotta check on the shuttle real quick and we'll leave the wounded with the Shuttle, then we gotta catch up with Horst in loading bay R-7. I'll Find it on the centeral computer then catch up. He got a nod from the younger man and then stepped over to the first computer he found. It was a simple information computer, but like all other computers on a ship or space station it was linked to the mainframe and main computer, all he had to do was get past the fire walls and he had most of hte stations information. It took him a few minutes before he had the information up and a few more before he had captains clearance to the computers. He linked his HUD to the computer and let it look for loading bay R-7 while he made his way to the hanger running into little resistance on the way. A progress bar in the upper right corner the whole time.

Once he had made it to the hanger the others had already loaded the wounded onto the shuttle and where ready to move out, Any trouble boys? He got a few head shakes from the remaining 9 men of his and spoke again, Good, there's someone in there to watch afer the wounded right? Another nod from the boys, Alright, let go catch up with big daddy! He got a chuckle from the men as they moved in behind him, by this time the progress bar was finished and he knew exactly where the loading bay was.

Just before he and his men turned one of the last corners he heard a massive crash and began jogging down the last halls, and stopping to see Horst at the top of a pile with a new big gun, Oh!... Zett said as he stopped jogging and began walking and stepped over a dead sith troop. Having fun yet Big daddy? he said smiling under his helmet and got chuckles from the rest of the men who where trying not to fully laugh at Zett's joke and end up cleaning the bathrooms when they got back to Oatara.

He entered the loading bay and looked around a bit, stepping over piles of ruble and junk and occationally stomping out a fire.

Any idea when the other ships are docking and what we're taking outa here? Zett said looking through some of the crates when several files popped up on his headset, mostly junk, personel files, and what type of cargo was being pulled into the station. Well that download was usless! He mumbled reading some of the information before fileing it as useless information.

[Ghostie]

“You heard him. Docking Bay R-7.”

Ethan directed the Duros pilots to land in the right bay, that way they could get Horst's team and the cargo all in one go. Ethan watched a couple of the escape pods blitz away from the frigate, or what was left of it according to the sensors.

“Tell the fighters...”

Ethan hesitated. His first thought was to just blow the escape pods clean out of the sky. It was no more than the Sith deserved for this God-awful war. Every one of them was guilty according to him. However, if there weren't any survivors, who would tell the stories?

The Sith would probably assume that some Republic Black Operations team came in and blew the whole place apart, if those escape pods where destroyed. Not some rag-tag band of pirates. And Ethan wanted the Sith to know who had attacked.

“Tell the fighters to let the escape pods go. Can't let the Sith assume some Republic Spec Ops team came in. Have them fan out and search the rest of the field for Sith Forces instead. Maybe a fighter got away or something.”

The Offshoot Comm. officer relayed the order to the rest of the flotilla as The Verada entered the Docking Bay. It was large enough for the gunboat, however, the large mess in the bay didn't help. It looked like Horts and his team dropped a crane on top of the Sith.

Ethan had a good feeling Horst was directly responsible for that. He liked using gravity to his advantage.

The Verada landed on the far side of the hangar, to the right of the large mess. Luckily, the bay was large, used for cargo ships and whatnot. Ethan grabbed his helmet off the of the tactical display and headed out of the bridge.

The ramp and cargo lift on the Cohen-Class gunboat lowered and out walked a fully armored Mandalorian, red armor contrast against the greys of the bay, alone with only his weapons for company. Seeing as how Horst was sitting on the mess, literally on a dead trooper, Ethan doubted he'd use his rifle.

The Captain walked up to the wreckage, and looked at the crane. Without saying a word, he looked at the ceiling, where the crane used to hang. He was silent for awhile, Ethan could feel Omega Squad's eyes all over him. Looking at Horst, he finally spoke.

“Coruscant, Stellar?”

Ethan was asking if the Commander had taken that from their encounter on Coruscant, with the Bounty Hunter and the chandelier. No one could see it, but Ethan was smiling under his helmet. The move was starting to become a classic. Something you saw in action vids or shows.

“Alright, gents!”

Omega Squad snapped to attention. Ethan liked out they did it, apparently all it took to turn a smuggler or bounty hunter into a soldier was a couple of days in the jungle and a little blaster fire. Horst had trained his men well.

“Whadda we got in these crates?”

[Fromikeable]

Horst watched the Verada glide into the docking bay and turn off to the right of the small mountain of death, debris, and dust he was seated on. Once it landed the bay opened up, and out of it came a red set of Mandalorian armor that did a good job of being the most noticeable thing in the room. The armor walked past Omega Squad, who all watched him intently. That was him after all; head-honcho Ethan himself.

Cap'n Red-boots. Horst could see a few of his guys biting back a smile as they remembered their commander's long-running joke, and it made him grin ever so slightly as well.

The armor walked up the mound and took in its surroundings, being quiet the entire time. Horst didn't say anything, looking at Ethan every once in a while to break up his observations of the masterpiece of chaos he'd made.

When Ethan did speak, Horst couldn't help but smile grandly. He stood up, clapped the walking armor's shoulder with his free hand, and laughed loudly.

"It's becomin' a favorite a' mine."

Omega Squad snapped to attention when Ethan called them, with each and every Duro, Trandoshan, Joe-Shmoe, and pixie standing up perfectly straight, guns at their side, hands on their foreheads.

It was enough to make Horst laugh again. A month ago they would have cursed, moaned, joked, or become ignorant instead. Now? Now they were...

"Soldiers!" Horst walked down the side of the mound, relishing the taste of that word again. Whatever Spearpoint was before, it was a whole 'nother thing now. They weren't just a bunch of fringe brought together by the appeal of credits (though money was always nice). Fringers didn't risk their lives like this, taking place in operations with marginal chances of success.

No, these were soldiers. And as such, that would make Spearpoint an...

"Somebody show tha' man what we found!" On cue one of the soldiers ran forward with a few data pads, saluting to his Commander and Captain again before handing over the information. "It looks like the usual supplies sirs. Weapons and medical supplies for the front lines, preservable foods, that sort of thing. This though," he tapped one of the datapads, "might interest you more. Fresh shipments of Sith firepower. We're lucky we did this when we did; a ship is due in about 3 hours to come pick them up."

Horst glanced at the datapads, letting Ethan take them. All he was after was the container numbers. "You guys find this stuff yet Tyre?"

The soldier nodded. "Yessir. It's over the way here." He motioned for them to follow, and Horst started after him, not waiting for Ethan. When they arrived, a few soldiers from Omega company along with Ike LeFro'a from the Verada and his engineering crew were already prying open the crates. When Horst and Ethan appeared, they were subject to salutes again before the soldiers gave a final heave, producing a nice crack as the container opened.

Inside was a huge mess of packaging. Clearing it out, they didn't find any rifles, but rather two more pristine T-8 repeaters, almost mint. Horst smiled widely at the sight.

A good couple of guns was a beautiful thing.

"Mind if I keep one Cap'n? Lost my old gun."

[Adobi-Wan Kenobi]

Zett was helping the men in the sorting of junk finding what they where looking for. The crates and the like that had the goods they came for where all loaded up against a wall, from the schedule Zett hacked and what he over heard one of the men telling Horst and Ethan, that was because the goods where about to be sent off in roughly 3 hours.

Zett came out with little from the whole mission and that was more or less fine, he had a chance to hit the Sith where it hurt. Granted they would recover from this rather quick, but the Sith took more damage then Spearpoint, and another bonus, the Sith likely wouldn't find out who had hit them. Yet any way. With more attacks and success would come their name eventually coming through in some way or another.

The 8 men that came with Zett where scattered and mixed in with the others, so he would have to wait tell later to commend them. He climbed the mound and came up to Horst and Ethan, Commander big daddy, boss man. He said addressing each of them before he continued with the reason he was there. Cargo is being loaded now, what am i to do with the shuttle in the port? I can take it back to the ship or see if i can squeeze it into the docking clamp and have it loaded too. Zett said as he waited for his superiors to give him his orders. That was new, "Superiors" was a term Zett never used in his life, but he didn't think he would start either....

[Ghostie]

Ethan took the datapads he was handed and followed Horst around. He didn't really pay attention to where exactly they were going, just enough to tell that he was sticking with Horst. One datapad read off personnel records. Deeming that it was useless, Ethan dropped it to the ground. This same routine happened with the next two datapads as Ethan walked on.

Finally, on the last one was a cargo manifest. A couple hundred crates of weapons, a couple hundred of medical supplies, and a couple hundred of other assorted stuff for the front lines. It was just as the soldier that handed Ethan the lists said.

Horst stopped, and Ethan mimicked the maneuver, looking up. He saw the two soldiers pry open the case and tear the packaging out. Sitting inside were two blaster repeaters. And these weren't just repeaters, oh no. These were the big, take-a-tripod-with-you, repeaters. Apparently there was three of them, as Horst was hefting one now. Well, some people had to take a tripod with them.

“Yeah, sure Stellar. Finders keepers, no?”

That saying, 'Finder keepers' was sorta what Spearpoint was based around. They found out what the Sith had, and Spearpoint took it. Turned out, it was paying pretty well now.

“Men, I do believe you're looking at your next paycheck for a couple o' weeks.”

Ethan got a few chuckles out of this, and one very distinct 'Aw, I cant keep it?'. This made the men laugh all the more. It was good that they were bonding. Ethan looked at the datapad again and then started to bark some orders out.

“Get the weapons loaded first, they take priority. 'Specially these repeaters. Then the medical supplies. We can leave everything else, I don't think you guys want some dried out fruit.”

Everyone stood around for a minute, not sure what to do. They looked at each other, as if waiting for someone to move first. Ethan waited for a moment, and then started to yell.

“Well, what're ya waitin' for?! GET IT LOADED!”

Ethan turned to Horst, his Commander. The engineer hjad done a great job, better than Ethan could've hoped, when taking the base. Fast, effective, efficient. In fact, all of Spearpoint had done a great job.

“Use The Verada first, we'll bring in the Corvettes if we need to.”

Then a soldier came up to him, Zett, if he remembered names correctly. They gave him a PO3 rank for his skills, but Ethan had yet to see if he lived up to the test. Horst would know though. Ethan trusted his opinion.

“Use the shuttle to start taking the soldiers back to the ships. Then use it to load cargo. But don't take forever, we don't have all day.”

Later

The ships were loaded down with the loot and personnel. The Verada was taking the lead, flanked by the two Telos-Class Corvettes. It quite something to say that everyone in Spearpoint was happy now, except, of course, for the wounded. But the cargo bays were full, and they were promised a couple months more pay and new equipment if they needed it.

Not only that, but they had bonded. To see a bounty hunter and a smuggler come together in a common goal was rare. Let alone different species. It was amazing what a little blaster fire could do. Ethan opened up the comm to all the ships, so everyone could hear.

“First round's on me gents. When we hit Oatara, give yourselves a couple of days of leave.”

There was a bit of cheering from the news of free drinks and some vacation. If they kept this kind of performance up, they deserved it. And going up against the Sith, they were going to need it.

The flotilla hoped into hyperspace in sync, leaving a wrecked frigate and a looted station behind. As well as their differences and rivalries.

((OOC: Great job everyone on Spearpoint's first successful mission. If this is what we started off with, I'm confident that things'll get better and greater as we go. Keep it up, I'm proud!))