Fresh Off The Production Line [Omega Pyre]

[Siobhan Kerrigan]

On paper at least System 1180 was not impressive as the small combat group saw when they existed hyperspace. Ahead of them lay a few irrelevant planets, ship scanners recorded that what life was on them was primitive.

Piles of debris lay in space, but not enough for the frigate to have great difficulty to manoeuvre. Ahead of them lay the seemingly abandoned space station close to the few asteroids ranged around the dying star, at least in that regard their intel had checked out.

"Target dead ahead, sensors can't pick any life readings. We're clear to go," the XO reported in a crisp voice. "Alpha Bomber Group is preparing for takeoff."

Outwardly Siobhan looked calm, having taken Allaina's advice to heart, staring out at the vastness of space from the bridge. "Comm surveillance pick up anything?" Of course, such signals would be jammed.

"No, ma'am. We're getting some minor interference from the asteroids, but it's probably just technical issues." The frigate was supposed to get a slightly updated system, but those had not been installed before this mission.

"Then initiate operation. Keep weapons systems ready, we're not getting caught off-guard." She Shectivated her comm link, contacting Allaina. "Lieutenant, what's your status?"

The situation would have to hit the fan in just a few moments.

 

[Qae Shena]

"Alpha Leader. Everyone ready to go?"

A flurry of comm-checks followed and Allaina settled into her seat, her preflight checks complete and her crash webbing properly buckled. Her fighter escort was ready, her backup bomber prepped and loaded with proton torpedoes just in case things went south. It was a tense moment. She didn't want to have to use the backup ship, either. She wanted to be first, the best and the only. She had to prove to Omega Pyre that she was the best damn bomber jockey in the entire Galaxy.

Her gloved hands tightened around the control sticks expectantly and Allaina knew in her heart that she was made for this very moment. As Siobhan's voice rang over her com, she gave a wry smile.

"We're ready to go, bridge. By your leave we'll proceed to target."

 

[Valiens Nantaris]

As the attack group entered the vicinity of the station they did not go unnoticed. From secret positions an enemy waited.

All seemed quiet, and the target station looked dead...for now.

 

[Siobhan Kerrigan]

At this juncture the Avenger's sensors were not picking anything up, though the frigate moved closer towards the sparsely populated planets. Ahead of them lay debris and the station that was their target.

Confirmation from Allaina came in over the com. Siobhan felt a strong craving for a smoke. She expected that Allaina would want to be the first and the one to make the hit, which Siobhan could understand considering that she always wanted to be in the thick of things as well, deep in the action.

"Permission granted, Alpha Leader. Don't get careless. Go and blow that station out of space." Considering that this was Siobhan, the reminder not go get cocky might be just a bit hypocritical, but then things were never as easy as the plan said.

 

[Qae Shena]

"Copy, bridge. Taking departure now. Alpha flight, on my tail by the numbers."

The heavy bomber lifted up off the durasteel pad and out through the magcon shield, engines roaring and driving the gunship into the depths of space. Fighters and bombers followed eventually, forming an attack group making a beeline for the station in front of them. The four fighters flanked the Inimica, the second bomber slightly behind the formation. It wasn't much, but when you had a bomber of the Inimica's capability, you didn't need much more. It was absolutely perfect. The amount of iron a heavy bomber could drop was insane... which this station was about to find out.

Something was bugging Allaina about this, though. Instinct told her something was critically wrong about being here. "This staging station is dead quiet for a pirate outpost, bridge. Hit it with a full-spectrum scan. I don't like it."

 

[Siobhan Kerrigan]

Siobhan frowned when the message came in, but her gut told her to trust Allaina's instincts. Especially since she thought the mission was going too easily anyway. The initial scan might not have found anything, but something was out there.

"Acknowledged. Hit the station with a full-spectrum scan, the whole nine yards," she ordered one of the technicians.

"We scanned it already. Our intel says..."

The officer did not get to say anything more because Siobhan cut him off brusquely "Do it. That asteroid behind it as well." Her voice brookered no dissent and left no room for argument.

Thus reminded of his place in things, the technicians obeyed and initiated a complete scan. On the surface everyhing seemed quiet, far too quiet for the situation to be as tranquil as it appeared. Rule of thumb said that if something was too good to be true then it wasn't.

A red light glowed on a monitor before which a technician was seated, Siobhan immediately stepped towards. "Contact. We're getting a signal, it's fairly weak, there's lots of jamming. Wait...sleeper mines!"

More precisely sleeper mines that would detonate at a predetermined range unless the spacecraft transmitted the correct IFF that was in sync with that of the mines. Perhaps to her credit Siobhan's first words were not 'It's a trap!'.

Rather she immediately activated the comm and hailed Allaina, her droid hand unconsciously clenched. "Alpha, pull back. It's a mine field," she looked at the XO. "Power up weapons systems."

"We're getting multiple contacts..."

 

[Valiens Nantaris]

Suddenly they were there. Coming in from behind were a full squadron of fighters. Swooping in, they aimed to drive the Omega force onto the mines and wipe them out in details. As they got close they opened a hail of missiles and torpedos at the frigate...hoping to do some damage, then swept in to attack @[member="Allaina Mare"]'s attack craft....

 

[Siobhan Kerrigan]

In the span of a few minutes all hell had broken loose. The sensors had picked up on the contacts coming from behind, but by the time they pinpointed them it was too late to evade.

A squadron of fighters swarmed the frigate, coming at it like a locust of insects and unleashing a hailstorm of missiles and torpedoes. The frigate had good shields, but it wasn't a Star Destroyer, and the ship shook upon being struck, with the shield flickering.

"Deflector shield struck, rerouting power to strengthen it," an officer called on the bridge called out. Some crew members were knocked over by the impact, though none were hurt.

The frigate's gunners returned fire, unleashing a hail of laser bolts with their turbolasers against the attacking fighters as the frigate moved onward, trying to maneouvre away from the minefield before it got pushed in.

"Return fire, all batteries. Alpha Group, get outta the field and rally with us." A turbolaser battery was directed to open fire at the fighters that were trying to get past them and engage the squadron. But the ship rocked under the explosions, though a number of enemy missiles were shot down before they impacted upon the frigate.

 

[Valiens Nantaris]

Several of the pirate ships were caught and destroyed, but their first volley had an impact. The frigate's shields were badly weakened, and some serious hits had been scored.

The pirates pressed on, right at @[member="Allaina Mare"]'s fighters and bombers....

 

[Qae Shena]

First mines, now fighters. What a karking mess. The flight group pulled a hard koiogran turn to face back and away from the minefield, then to come at the incoming squadron of fighters.

"Bridge, stay calm. Don't panic. It's a squadron of fighters and frigates are armed primarily for anti-starfighter combat. Make use of your point-defence lasers - turbolasers are too slow. We'll mop up. Alpha Two, stay on my tail. The rest of you, wolfpack 'em."

The Inimica's turrets began tracking, their upper missile turrets going to be the decisive factor in this engagement. They coud serve as a mobile fire platform of death here.

"Missiles tracking on nearest two fighters."

"Independent targeting, turrets. Fire at will."

The beauty of the Inimica-class was that it could have done this while still on the bombing run. Fortunately, it didn't need to. Concussion missiles, designed for anti-starfighter work, streaked from the turrets, blazing through space at their intended targets. Laser bursts followed soon after. And the four Omega Pyre fighters were not too far behind their flight leader, chasing down their targets.

This gunship had some serious fangs.

 

[Siobhan Kerrigan]

The volleys of missiles and torpedoes had taken their toll on the frigate. Shields were significantly weakened, apparently one of the engines had been struck as well, though movement was still possible.

The bridge rocked under another missile. One of the pirate fighters had been struck with laser fire and rammed into the ship, either because its pilot had gone kamikaze or lost control over his vessel.

Siobhan gripped one of the consoles, trying to steady herself under the impact. "Damage report?" she demanded gruffly, pulling herself up.

"Shields at 64%," an officer reported. "Battery 1 and 2 was taken out, engines are weakened."

This was a bloody mess, but it was salvagaeble. Siobhan Kerrigan did not lose, especially not to a bunch of low-life brigands that she would easily hack into little pieces if this were ground combat.

"Rerouting power to the shields."

"Get the point-defence lasers on them and blast 'em out of space. Move in and engage." Siobhan responded, getting her calm back. The scum would be crushed. The frigate took a hard turn, moving away from the mines. Laser bursts coursed through space, providing a glorious light show.

With many of the pirate fighters concentrated on Alpha Group, which had managed to get away from the mines, the frigate moved to engage them, letting loose a hailstorm of laser fire.

 

[Valiens Nantaris]

Caught by this elite enemy who could fight back, the pirates soon were cut to shreds. Two of them fled into the minefield, presumably transmitting the right IFF signals.

The battle was over, but it had been something of a surprise...and who knew if more of them would be waiting beyond the minefield?

 

[Qae Shena]

The pilot let out a sigh of relief. "Nice work, crew. We're going back on our flight plan and hold at the edge of the minefield."

The Inimica resumed its flight, heeling around slowly and coming back onto bearing towards the station. She was happy with the way that went; the frigate had taken some very serious damage, but was still functional. Things were going well enough for Allaina that she could get back on her mission track and drop some iron on some bitches.

"Nice work, Avenger," Allaina said with a smile, trying to be reassuring for Siobhan's sake. "How's the damage? Do we have a plan for this minefield yet?"

 

[Siobhan Kerrigan]

The frigate had indeed taken some significant hits. The shields were at about half their strength, a fire had broken out on one of the lower levels, though the crew was working on putting it out.

But it was still functional, it could still fire and the crew was eager to kill the rest of the pirates. Well, Siobhan was awfully eager to blast them out of the sky and they would do their jobs.

"We're ready for action. Let's get back to what we came here for, wiping that station out of space," Siobhan responded over the comm as an aide passed her a datapad with a report on structural damage and casualties.

"Kill it," she said bluntly when Allaina asked about a plan for the minefield. Not the most original, but it would do. A complete area scan could locate the bulk of mines and a few targeted shots from the big guns.

"We picked up the general location of many of them on the first scan," a technician reported. "Initiating secondary full-spectrum scan. A chain reaction will probably at least severly damage the station."

"Make it happen. Alpha Group, good work. Make sure you're out of proximity. We're scanning and then blowing the mines apart."

 

[Qae Shena]

"Aye aye. Alpha flight departing blast radius."

And that was that. Allaina literally could not argue with the plan; the idea of chain-detontating a minefield didn't always work, but when it did, it was a spectacular lightshow. These mines could probably stand to be exploded, really. She wasn't about to say 'no, don't try and blow them all up in one or two shots'. It'd take three or four mines, probably, to find the sweet spot, but that was not a problem.

The Inimica and its escorts heeled around, banking up and away. Their flight path took them closer to the ship, where Allaina could do a fly-by to inspect the damage to the frigate.

"Sheesh, Siobhan, I hope this repair bill doesn't come out of our pay..." she muttered over comm, knowing full well her new friend would hear her. "You've got some serious external damage. Might want to power down some redundant systems just in case something starts to short."

 

[Siobhan Kerrigan]

"I hear we have a good insurance company," Siobhan responded dryly to Allaina's teasing, but nonetheless ordered the technicians to act on the suggestion and get redundant systems shut down. Apparently the fire on the lower levels was under control and the ship could still fly through space.

"Scan complete. Projected blast radius on the screen," a technical officer reported as Alpha Group departed the assumed blast radius.

"Targets locked in the computer. Passing on info to the gunnery. Ready to fire at your command," the gunnery officer spoke up. While this method did not always work, taking a few mines should solve the issue and get the lightshow started.

Siobhan wondered whether she should say something dramatic like in the holomovies, but decided to go with straightforward. "Open fire."

The frigate turned its guns towards the minefield, the location of the mines that had been picked out as targets had been fed to the gunnery crew. Missiles and laser fire was unleashed upon the field, some turned out to be shots in the dark and did strike anything except debris and the wreckage of pirate fighters floating in space.

Then the first mine exploded, then a second, a third...there was a brilliant flash of light when a chain reaction set it and the explosions spread to engulf the field and rock the station, looking a bit like a sun going supernova on a smaller scale.

 

[Qae Shena]

It was wonderful to watch explosions. Like glorious fireworks lighting up the night sky, rocks and detritus detonated all around the smugglers' base. This meant very much that Allaina was happy. From the safe vantage point of her cockpit, Allaina could bear witness to the beautiful vista.

"Have I ever told you that watching things go boom is my favourite part?" Allaina commented to Siobhan. "Sensors to max, crew. Tell me what's out there."

 

[Siobhan Kerrigan]

"Excellent priorities," Siobhan could not resist commenting before straightening. There's this other fun thing. Since apparently being in charge of a frigate meant that she had to occasionally look and act professionally.

"Scan the area. We're not letting anyone escape," she ordered.

The sensor technicians worked for a short while, then contacts appeared on their screen, showing a few pirate fighters, trying to manoeuvre their way out of the debris, using it as a cover to no doubt jump into hyperspace. "Got hostiles on the radar, looks like they're trying to get out of dodge, ma'am."

"Alpha Group, they're all yours. Wipe them out. All of them," Siobhan said dramatically. She had a flair for dramatics, besides according to the holo-movies officers were expected to say needlessly dramatic lines.

 

[Qae Shena]

"Oh, you know, the usual," Allaina added off-hand to Siobhan before it was once again game on. All of Alpha Flight accelerated towards their tarets, following orders well. The fighters were obviously faster and sprang ahead into the now-clear minefield, racing after their prey. Allaina was more concerned with catching them straight away, aiming the bomber's nose towards them. She knew that the turret gunner was already hard at work.

"Turrets, got lock?"

"Almost... almost... now!"

Four concussion missiles sped from the turrets, two each, aimed at two of the escaping fighters. Twisting and turning on their way in towards the target, the concussion missiles racing out and collapsing the enemy in fiery doom as the concussion missiles consumed their prey.

"Scratch two," Allaina said.

"Alpha Four has a kill," came another call, signaling the last of the fighters already dead. Excellent. The bomber heeled around and headed towards their main prey, ready to break it into tiny pieces.

The pilot keyed her comm to Siobhan. "Are we clear to engage the station?"

 

[Siobhan Kerrigan]

"Fire at will and blow out of space," Siobhan responded, having watched the little dogfight, or rather the one-sided explosion fest as it transpired from the bridge.

She smirked at the impressive lightshow as one pirate fighter after another exploded in a beautiful flash of light. As it happened, Siobhan liked explosions as well. Moreover, given the fact that throughout the battle she had been forced to stand on a bridge and not get physical herself, she had an excess of pent-up energy that would soon need to be unleashed in some manner.

Now that the pirates had been wiped out the path to the space station was clear. It had already taken some damage from the chain reaction in the minefield, though it still stood.