Act II: The Hook

[Cyrus Tregessar]

For several days now the Shadow-class corvette Furtive had been sitting almost idly in deep space, hundreds of light years away from any inhabited star system. Standard procedure for a deep reconnaissance patrol, but for once they had a very specific target in mind, rather than just general intelligence gathering.

Lieutenant Commander Jaffir sat only half awake at the command console. The central compartment of a Shadow-class was cramped when fully manned, and for the past few days every sensor had been running in passive, which meant a full watch team.

It was an arduous process to sort out clutter and false contacts from real ships, and Jaffir felt like he hadn’t left in almost three days. It was why he was now catnapping at the console, in case something important did come up he didn’t need to run from the commanders cabin, though that was only a few meters away.

A technician who seemed to be half asleep as well, that or doing his best impression of ‘bobbing for dick’ suddenly popped awake and grabbed at his headset, ostensibly to make sure he was hearing some report correctly. A moment later his voice came over the internal command channel.

“Hot contact on the tail, vector and bearing look good. Initial assessment ten vessels, making point 9 and following the charted course almost exactly.’

Jaffir himself now found himself almost entirely wide awake and ready, one of things you learned being in the navy. There were still a lot of things about this mission that didn’t make much sense, the most significant being why Sith warships were helping out some minor house from a world previously aligned with the Mandalorians, but when the Iron Duke himself told you to jump, you damn well jumped.

After all it had been Fleet Admiral Tregessar who had signed Jaffir’s own promotion. Don’t bite the hand that feeds you, and all that.

“Send a message to the wolves, let them know that their prey is en route.”

 

[James Justice]

James never asked why. He never asked about motive. He asked how, where, when, and who but never ever why. He sat at the command console of his Shadow-class Cruiser, waiting for the go-ahead. He had been approached by a shady buyer, probably a go-between or something of that nature and asked to work in aiding with a little piracy. The deal was set; hard credits and a slice of the pie. The spacer now was waiting in dead space from where he was told he would be given the go-ahead by a forward scouting party.

The spacer's lips pursed around his cigarette, drawing a puff as he examined some of his other work. The smuggling crew was moving along nicely in they Hydian way. A few of his troops in bound to take a Stygum mine were going on schedule. He gave a satisfied nod, it was good to be the king.

A call on his comm blinked, the spacer tapped it open.

"Wolves, prey is en route," the electronic chirped.

"On me way," James grunted, shutting the line off and stalking to the bridge. He looked to the Navigator, "We are go, mate. Make the jump."

He nodded, "Yes, sir."

A few moments later, space was soon streaking by them, the stars as blue streaks through the viewport. James nodded, satisfied and stalked to ready himself, grabbing a bottle of ale. It was drawing near time for war.

[member="Cyrus Tregessar"]

 

[Cyrus Tregessar]

Wolves, prey is en route.

It wasn't exactly an innocuous message, but it didn't really need to be. By the time the Hyperwave Transceivers onboard the larger escort vessels deciphered the encoded signal it would be too late. Even as the first of the ships owned by the Dusk Magistry intercepted the beamed message, they were being targeted by the gravity well projectors onboard the Privateer-class Frigate Abeyance. Targeting was easy enough, the info was being fed via secure point-to-point link between the Abeyance and the Furtive, a somewhat haphazardly rigged system which neither the Tregessar spacers nor the Imperial naval personnel particularly trusted.

It worked well enough, though. One moment the Abeyance sat motionless in empty space, and the next a convoy of twenty-two ships suddenly appeared out of hyperspace in a chaotic mass, their previously ordered formation ruined by the suddenness of their reversion.

The Abeyance, sorely outnumbered and outgunned, wasted no time in turning around and boosting away at max impulse, though it paid particular care to keeping the gravity projection cone on the closest part of the convoy formation.

The convoy consisted of twelve transports of varying sizes and nine escorts, five corvettes, four frigates, and a single old cruiser. Two dozen escort fighters rounded out the group, and the cruiser and at least two of the frigates were clearly making maneuvers in order to launch more strike craft.

The Abeyance wasn't alone for long. No sooner had it turned than half a dozen ships dropped out of hyperspace near it, at a pre-arranged point. A single Katarr-class Frigate led the pack, and was followed by two Jabiim-class Corvettes, two Dorin-class, and most interestingly a pair of Sith Corsair-class gunships.

Slowly, almost like a lumbering beast, the ships belonging to the Dusk Magistry began to shake off their confusion and form up into a fighting formation. Across the gulf of space, the ships belonging o House Tregessar simply waited like wolves choosing when the best opportunity was to strike.

[member="James Justice"]
[member="Konrad von Grimmelshausen"]
[member="Krayzen Dratos"]

 

[cheshire_kitty]

Konrad was a man of the army not the navy so it was not strange that he was unfamiliar with the command of a starship. He never had much use for starships except for transportation and had never taken part in any of the One Sith's naval campaigns. People, they were easy to command but ships were more complex and took a much deeper understanding to command effectively on the battlefield. Despite his theory based knowledge of the navy and its starships, the High General sat in the captain's chair of the control bridge of the Boneshatter-class Assault Frigate where he oversaw the crew at work. What better way to learn than through first-hand experience? Besides, from what he had heard, their opposition would be pirates - small fry.

"High General, we have just received a transmission – ‘Wolves the prey is en route’ it said.” The naval officer wasted no time to relay the message to the High General who looked a little out of place on the frigate in his army uniform.

“Prepare to attack when we receive the command.” Konrad ordered, a bit excited that he was about to have his first taste of a naval battle as he waited for the next transmission which he assumed would initiate the assault. The ship had recently undergone maintenance and was in top condition ready to engage in battle with its squadron of fighters waiting in the hanger ready to depart immediately once the order was given by the High General.

| [member="Cyrus Tregessar"] | [member="James Justice"] | [member="Krayzen Dratos"] |

 

[Audren Sykes]

"Wolves, prey is en route."

Audren had heard about this particular raid by chance, his ear catching mention of an ambush on a pirate convoy. The person being spoken to had turned down the job, but the Sephi had been interested and approached the person offering. It had taken some calming and some convincing, but he'd managed to secure a position on the team stopping the pirates. It wasn't idea, as they were stopping a convoy rather than a raid in progress, but it was close enough.

The Knight sat in the pilot's couch of a Rekali-class starfighter, waiting for the signal to to go. He was alone in the ship, which was effectively designed for one and a half personages. That made things a bit difficult at times, especially given that he was only a moderate pilot on his best days, but he would manage. The weaponry at his fingertips and the durability of his starship made this particular asset a valuable one, even with the drawbacks. And though the vessel was owned and largely maintained by the Silver Sanctum Coalition, it wasn't flying under their colors - painted or transponder - at the moment.

The call for the 'wolves' was the go signal.

Rather than jump in with the rest, the Sephi waited for a moment more. He'd painstakingly plotted out another manner of arrival per his assigned roll, something he'd only read about. But the theory was clear, the mathematics solid. When the heavy starfighter dropped out of hyperspace, it was because the vessel had intercepted the edge of a gravity cone. The sudden proximity to other ships might have been panic-inducing had he not planned specifically for it. There had been a bit of uncertainty as to where the Abeyance - and thus the gravity cone - would be situated, but the arrival point fell within standard distances, apparently things were going well so far. His fighter was facing the rear of the escorts and away from the transports, but was situated about halfway between the two groups, adequate to attack both.

Surprise was the ally in this particular situation. He wasn't in charge though, and even if he had been he still would have needed to offer a chance to surrender. It was unlikely they'd take it, but he still had to wait; hopefully it would be quick.

[member="Cyrus Tregessar"] | [member="James Justice"] | [member="Konrad von Grimmelshausen"]

 

[Cyrus Tregessar]

Captain Tal Everyun hadn't fought a proper battle in almost four years, but he hadn't forgotten all the tricks of the trade. There was still an element of surprise, of course, the 'secret' convoy that the Duskers sent twice a year normally avoided all harassment just by virtue of its large escort. A heavily refitted Dreadnought Heavy Cruiser helped dissuade potential pirates, so all it took was a show of force and the would be vultures were sent running.

Couldn't get paid if you died trying to catch a prize. That had always been Tal's creed when he was the one doing the pirating, at any rate. Which meant that whoever the organization was trying to nab the convoy this time wasn't just a standard bunch of pirates, no matter how much they tried to act like it.

There were a lot of questions on his mind as he shouted orders across the borderline panicking command deck of his ship. First was how they had been detected flying a supposedly secure route. There were plenty of easy answers to that, but they all hinted of a larger conspiracy. Some rival syndicate, trying to corner the underground phrik market (oh sure, the Magisters thought they kept their secret well hidden but you didn't survive thirty years as a pirate and not learn a bit of the infochant trade). Or perhaps one of the larger corporations out there cracking down, even though they'd tolerated this comparatively small pipeline before. Finally there was the possibility that one of the governments of the galaxy had decided to make a play at Seltos. The presence of Sith ships seemed to indicate that, but the Sith didn't tend towards subtlety, and if they were going to nab some phrik why not just take all the mines in Seltos by force?

These were the questions that burned in the back of his mind but that simply didn't matter at the moment. At the moment, the only thing that mattered was getting his small fleet in formation to keep the attackers off the convoy's back long enough for them to get out of range of the damned Privateer-class frigate and escape to hyperspace.

The orders were given, and received slowly. At least half the fleet had seen real action even less recently than Tal himself, and even then most of the lot weren't really professionals. But maybe the disorder would throw off the enemy commander, better to seem confused and bait the enemy in when they were weak.

The line of Magistry ships adjusted into a defensive formation centered around the Dreadnought. Slowly and haphazardly, acting on orders, they milled about like a confused mass, looking every bit like a predator making a play at being prey.

***

Onboard one of the Corsair-class corvettes, Cyrus Tregessar studied the display with an intense gaze. It had been a long time since he'd commanded a corvette, and compared to the large and advanced CIC on the Contempt the control room here was practically a broom closet.

Right now they were hopelessly outnumbered, most significantly by the heavy cruiser that loomed in the center of the formation. But the enemy ships milled about in apparent confusion, A rather obvious ploy, but at least it meant that the enemy commander had some knowledge of tactics, it would make the fight more interesting. it also meant that attacking before the reinforcements arrived was probably a bad idea. Against an inexperienced foe it would have been a simple matter to divide his forces and sweep the enemy formation with a pincer movement. As it was, he needed more firepower.

"Launch fighters from all ships and have them form a screen in front of the formation. Have all units come to full power on weapons and shields but idle engines, if the enemy wants to give us time to organize I'm happy to take it."

He turned to the comms officer, on this ship a mid-level enlisted person. "As soon as Mr Justice arrives instruct him to engage the enemy cruiser immediately at long range and gradually close. We'll provide fighter support."

The clock was started, the Abeyance could only maintain it's artificial mass shadow for so long, the escorts would have to be drawn off and eliminated as quickly as possible to make the mission succeed.

[member="Audren Sykes"]
[member="Konrad von Grimmelshausen"]
[member="James Justice"]

 

[Flora Burn]

[member="Cyrus Tregessar"] [member="Audren Sykes"] [member="Konrad von Grimmelshausen"] [member="James Justice"]

Flora had heard the sith wanted some thing, and that was all the motivation she needed. After all she wanted things too, she was going to get involved with so called Iron duke, after all Iron rusted way to easy. She was in her ship The Black Pearl. She was readying her crew for the jump to hyperspace directly , into the fray and when she did her fighters would also launch and attack. She had no love for the Sith, or the Jedi to come to that. They where both power hungry religious fanatics, and to take one of them down a peg or two so be it.

Soon her frigate dropped out of hyperspace, directly behind a Corsair Class Corvette, she turned to her XO and gave the order Open Fire, all fighters launch. What ever the sith where after would be hers by the end of the day.

 

[James Justice]

When the Dread Angel came out of hyperspace he saw the enemy beginning to form up their defensive line. He took a pull form his corellian ale as he saw the mad scramble and his crew begin the post-hyperspace preparations. It was not their first combat tour, not by far. Roche had been their first, if that fiasco could be called a combat engagement. He heard the orders from the man in charge, the head hancho [member="Cyrus Tregessar"].

"Deploy the Slicer-5's in escort formation, close defensive preparations against fighters," he ordered, "Hold the Hammerheads for my order."

"Yes sir."

The Dread Angel began to lurch forward, shields and weapons online. 18 Slicer 5 interceptors began to buzz around its hull, pairing off into their wing man formations and warming up for the coming battle.

"18% chance of successful shot, sir," One of the weapons analysts shouted from not far from James.

"Engage long range Turbolasers," James ordered, "cover our approach. Let's see if we can draw their attention."

Green flashes of light filled the viewport as the massive forward weapons began to open fire. Most of their shots were misses, but as the ship drew nearer its targets, they became more accurate. There were still several hundred meters between them. As the distance closed, the percentage of accuracy began to rise into the twenties.

[member="Flora Burn"] [member="Cyrus Tregessar"] [member="Audren Sykes"] [member="Konrad von Grimmelshausen"]

 

[Cyrus Tregessar]

'Shields up, maximum front!" Tal shouted his orders above the chaos on the bridge that had been caused by the sudden arrival of an old Sith cruiser. It was overkill for a normal mission like this, clearly a contingency plan in case there was something unexpected. Like a Dreadnought Cruiser being part of the escort fleet.

The attackers were professionals, that was clear. So a standard smash and grab likely wasn't their intention. A classic ruse was to feign a headlong rush for the transports, forcing the escorts to engage at close range. Once committed the pirate would lure the escorts away and have a secondary force swoop in and grab a few transports for free, with everyone making their escape at the same time. It minimized risk and the likelihood of lost ships.

It also was all but guaranteed that you'd only take a fraction of the targets, so given all the other signs it was all but certain the enemy wasn't trying that trick today, but Tal couldn't help but feel that they might pretend to do so.

"All ships, attack. Dreadnought leading from the front, we'll draw their attention. Strike craft on the flanks, and frigates line up to finish off injured vessels. They mean to take the whole convoy, but we have them outnumbered for now. This is what you get paid for scum, time to earn it!"

The Dreadnought cruiser opened up with its main guns, returning fire on [member="James Justice"]'s Sadow-class Cruiser. It wasn't an even match, the Sadow had superior firepower but the Dreadnought was tougher. The powerful long-range guns on the Sadow struck the prow shields of the Dreadnought with enough force to shake the ship, but they didn't quite penetrate, and now they would have more targets to worry about.

"Bomber Squadrons Delta, Gamma, Theta, set up for an attack run on the enemy cruiser. Claw formation, three strike pincer, on my mark... Mark!"

Escorted by a squadron of fighters, three sets of old but heavy pirate bombers split into groups and streaked in towards the Dread Angel. Their assault was timed to hit just after a heavy volley of fire from the Dreadnought and several frigates, and if untouched the impact of several dozen concussion missiles could be lethal to any ship.

Secondary batteries lashed out on the assembled Tregessar ships, which promptly broke formation and scattered evasively. All at once, the space between the two small fleets was alight with weapons fire. The flash of turbolaser shots highlighting the streaking courses of missiles, and fighters and interceptors engaged in their lethal dances all between.

***

"All units focus fire on corvettes and strike craft. We'll sweep the skies clear and establish superiority, then use it to cripple the heavier ships."

The orders were rather basic, and open to some interpretation. The enemy commander had taken the bait, sure enough, but he maintained an advantage in numbers of frigates, which would likely tell in a head on fight.

Of course Cyrus had no intention of making things a head on fight. The Corsair's, (Raider and Pillager) with their impressive ability to punch above their weight, were his ace in the hole. "Corsair's together, target enemy fighters and engage, but hold together and clear formation to starboard."

The two ships accelerated to max sublight and were about to get clear of the battle in general when a frigate reverted behind them. Unknown transponder codes, and so far unresponsive. A trick by the Magistry was unlikely, so a third party who by luck or treachery had stumbled on the game was more likely. As suddenly as it had arrived, the frigate started shooting, targeting the rearmost corvette.

Pillager did its best to not present a static target, but it still took several hard hits to its engines. A flare up on one of them temporarily whited-out the display Cyrus was watching, and several seconds after the Lieutenant in charge reported an engine offline and damage control teams working to restore thrust.

Unfortunately the Corsair's were designed for a head-on fight, and had little armament to their rear. The antimissile octets were still out of range, and practically useless against a shielded vessel anyway. Instead the HARM launcher in back fired off a volley of four missiles to keep the frigate busy.

It was a complication where one was rather inconvenient. Hopefully Mr. Justice and the other hires could hold the line until things were sorted out.

"Take the ship about, we need to deal with the newcomer first."

[member="James Justice"]
[member="Flora Burn"]
[member="Audren Sykes"]
[member="Konrad von Grimmelshausen"]

 

[Flora Burn]

[member="Cyrus Tregessar"] [member="James Justice"] [member="Audren Sykes"] [member="Konrad von Grimmelshausen"]

She saw the corvettes engines flare, as her shots hit home. She smiled and began to give orders to her crew men, Flight Commander order the fighters to finish that corvette off, and we move on to next target. Get me the commander of them other fighter on the coms know, I need to coordinate fire power, otherwise we lose the day. Set intercept course for the second corsair, and fire one last salvo at that one before fighters engage it. She had manged to take a superior force by surprise, know she had keep them on their toes, otherwise it would be for not. She had quick check of radar scans, and then listed a few corvettes a few frigates and a lot more to boot. This was a fight she could not win, but it was one she could make money out of. All she need to do is get close enough to prize, wait where was the damn prize ship. She need her target, for boarding parties, to get in and hold other wise this would be for nothing.

 

[Audren Sykes]

For a moment, everyone paused. The pirate escorts milled around in an appearance of being confused and the attackers simply waited. Their fighters were launched in a screen, but they didn't drive at the escorts like he would have expected. On the plus side, nobody had spotted Audren's thirty-meter fighter and taken a swat at him.

Without warning, a new vessel decanted from hyperspace, a large and very sleek-looking frigate. It dropped right behind one of the Corsair-class vessels and opened fire immediately...not friendly. Not that the Sephi minded having a Sith vessel disabled or destroyed, but his part - his reward, as it was - in this little debacle depended on the Sith vessels doing their part. The targeted Corsair had an engine flare out, but it could have been much worse. Around the same time, the heavy ship on their own side lurched forward, opening fire on the pirate fleet.

"All units focus fire on corvettes and strike craft. We'll sweep the skies clear and establish superiority, then use it to cripple the heavier ships."

Logical. And finally, action. On the order, Audren brought his thrust up to two-thirds maximum and vectored for the mentioned targets. Corvettes and strike craft he could hit, the bigger ships simply wouldn't take much in terms of damage from a lone fighter. Fortunately he was headed in from behind the strike craft; not a perfect solution, but useful. Mass drivers and laser cannons were the order of the day, missiles would be saved for the heavier ships. Obviously his targets were able to detect him coming up behind them and had rear deflectors active, but his ship had been designed as a hard-hitter. Much to their dismay, sensed through the Force, two of the escort fighters were quickly taken out.

The Sephi wasn't trying to kill, though sometimes that was inevitable in space battles. Repeating mass drivers and cannons chewed through shields and hull, the mass drivers actually penetrating beyond the hull and doing damage there. For his part, the Knight stopped firing and switched targets when he received indications that the target was disabled: engines going dark, lightning coruscating around places of the ship, and even in one case the vessel entering uncontrolled flight. Four other fighters altered course to deal with the interloping Rekali, forcing him to shift off himself and deal with them. It wouldn't be a fair fight, as he had the Force to help, but he also didn't have a gunner to assist like he should have. It wouldn't be a cakewalk dealing with his assailants.


[member="Cyrus Tregessar"] | [member="James Justice"] | [member="Konrad von Grimmelshausen"] | [member="Flora Burn"]

 

[Cyrus Tregessar]

The Magistry ships were mostly well-maintained, that Tal had always made sure of, even going so far as to argue with his employers that one simply did not shirk on even basic maintenance of a warship. Oh sure, they'd work just fine in port or during routine patrols, the gremlins never showed up until things were desperate, that was a law as far as every good spacer knew. That was a point in his favor, but right now the relative difference in the skill of the crew was playing against him.

It wasn't a surprise, even in his pirating days he knew that any time you faced professionals you had to double down to cover your own deficiencies. Piracy by nature (with the very occasional rare exception) did not attract the best and the brightest. The very wanted room for advancement to satisfy their ambition, something which very rarely came up when your job was based on raiding hapless travelers. The very clever acknowledged the uncertainty in life and mostly wanted job security and a steady paycheck.

it should go without saying that neither of those was ever present for a pirate. So you didn't get the best, you got the rest, and made do.

Only this time it wasn't working. He hadn't lost a ship yet, but the strike craft were getting mauled, the enemy fighters had better crews and better craft, and the number of active units on Tal's screen continued to drop far more rapidly than he had anticipated. One enemy fighter in particular was acting damn near prescient, like there was a force-user piloting it. Was it a Sith? Was this all a Sith ploy after all? it still didn't add up. The only saving grace was a unknown frigate that had dropped in out of nowhere and was clearly throwing the attacker's plans in disarray. Good thing too, because the flanking manuver the two Sith corvettes were trying to pull might have collapsed the whole formation.

Well at least he could adjust in anticipation. He gave orders to the lead frigate, which was flashing red on the command display because of the withering hail of fire it was receiving, to withdraw towards the back and take up post on the flank. A fair of corvettes moved up to take its place. It wasn't clever, withdrawing ships to let their shields regenerate, but it worked, and for the moment he needed time more than anything.

***

The Corsair-class Corvette had been designed very carefully to be able to deliver a knock out punch to other corvettes, and potentially tackle larger ships in groups or from an advantageous position. In this particular situation it meant that besides the ion cannons (which were now playing havoc on the Pillager's weapon systems) the Corsair's packed almost the same punch as the Black Pearl. If the enemy captain hadn't realized that yet, he or she would soon, as the Raider came about and closed rapidly to close range, it's advanced turbolaser turrets firing as quickly as they could.

The Pillager for its part was struggling to stay afloat. Weapons were almost entirely offline as power was rerouted to keep shields and engines functional. It dodged and weaved like a angry gnat, making the most of whatever mobility it had to present a hard target to the frigate still on its tail.

The rest of the fleet mostly engaged from range, letting their superior strike craft take their toll on the enemy fighters. They were in roughly a wedge formation, with the Katarr in the center absorbing fire and the corvettes on the flanks. Despite initial success, the force remained roughly in the same position, seemingly unwilling to press forward and in fact slowly withdrawing while still keeping themselves between the enemy force and the Abeyance and it's vital gravity well generator. If the enemy had any idea of the intentions of the Tregessar fleet, he didn't react accordingly.

One setback wouldn't put the plan on hold.

[member="Audren Sykes"] | [member="Flora Burn"] | [member="James Justice"] | [member="Konrad von Grimmelshausen"]

 

[Flora Burn]

[member="Cyrus Tregessar"]

As her ship passed over the corvette hoping to finish it, she soon realised her mistake. It began to pound on her hull, it did not half have some fire power. Her shields were holding, but she had made a mistake, she had over shot it, and know it had her rear. She had to think and think fast. She saw escorts surrounding some transports, that was where she would have to go.
She then shouted to helms men Set course three two four, mark severn eight. The helms looked at her said That going to take to heart of the escort, they have more fire power their. She then shot drew out her disruptor carbine, and fired at him. He perished into nothing but dust, she had not got the time to have her orders questioned, this was do or die. You take the helm, and set that course NOW! She spoke to junior helms men, her voice was agitated she just shot a friend but needs must. She then got on the ship intercom, and gave orders All boarding parties report to your shuttles, we going to take a freighter. All fighters get ready to protect us as we go in. She then turned to her XO a man named luke, Protect us till we get boarded then order everyone to leave, as soon as we take control of freighter we will meet up and divided the loot. He smiled and said I will have the rum waiting for you, neat as you like it. As she began to run to boarding parties, several large thuds could be felt on the hull of the ship. She said ​Come on baby hold together, She then picked up her pace, and met her fellow pirates getting ready for boarding action.

All they had to do was close enough, to make a short trip.......