Harbingers [Omega]

[Qae Shena]

Jaeger-class Star Destroyer Aurek Glaive, En Route to Cyphar

Sleep. Sleep was great. Allaina loved every chance to take a nap that she could and she'd been the duty officer for the past ten hours. Her shift was over and now she had to get her usual four hours' rest before she got back into it. The Glaive was taking its first test run out as a shakedwn cruise before it got an official designation and was sent off to serve as a defence ship for the ODF. Aboard were any number of VIPs - this trip was also a diplomatic mission to a planet out in the Outer Rim, to see if more progress could be made in shoring up some trade routes for later.

Allaina had only just gotten back to her quarters, having handed the ship off to her XO not two minutes ago. Her quarters were mercifully near the bridge, really, so she could just crash out. On the edge of her bed, she removed her boots and her socks, flinging them across her room. It felt good to get out of them.

Then the ship lurched, hard. That wasn't natural. The hard deceleration wasn't felt thanks to the inertial dampeners, but Allaina knew that they'd just been pulled out of hyperspace.

She was back up to the bridge before the alarms went off, boots all but forgotten.

The turbolift dragged her up right as the first announcements went out.

"All hands to battle stations! All hands to battle stations!"

The door opened.

"Captain's on the bridge!" came the yeoman's cry. She waved it away.

"Skip that. XO, I will direct this personally. Close up to General Quarters, gunners and pilots to stations. Scramble all of our squadrons now!"

"Aye, ma'am!"

Allaina got comfortable in her chair. Before her were three ships - a command ship and two light escorts. They were all marked with the same massive ungodly emblem upon their sides and Allaina knew what was happening here. The damn Bando Gora. The reavers of space were going to claim their 'prize' in the form of Omega technology. They had it out for each other and this wasn't the fun part - but it was necessary. It was time - their death was assured. Hope was irrelevant.

"All hands, we're under attack by the Bando Gora. I want boarding teams ready to go, now! Fight's on!"

Time for the Bando Gora to realise that Omega was going to crush them under their heels. Fighters roared from hangars and the first lances of laser light filled the space between the Glaive and the Bando Gora flotilla. The incongruity of the Captain without her shoes was left forgotten as she took her rightful seat in the captain's chair.

 

[Siobhan Kerrigan]

Aboard the Jaeger Class Star Destroyer Aurek Glaive

As it happened Colonel Siobhan Kerrigan was aboard the Aurek Glaive as well as the Star Destroyer went on its shakedown mission. The VIPs needed protection after all and there might be pretty ladies among them. The First Battalion, a crack unit of Omega Pyre troops, had been dispatched along with her. Admittedly an actual assault was not expected, but, as the saying went, one should hope for the best and plan for the worst. Moreover, while the mission to Cyphar was a diplomatic endeavour and was intended to shore up trade relations, having a few battle hardened mercenaries to show off would not go amiss.

While Allaina had returned to her quarters, Siobhan was working out in the gym. Familiar enough with long voyages, Siobhan was happy to know that Omega vessels were not without adequate exercise and drilling space and equipment for training. Various sets of weights, benches and tension machines shared the chamber with a room with a wrestling mat and a small combat stimulator.

After having spent a significant amount of time lying down on a bench and pulling weights and going through lightsabre practice, Siobhan was pulling herself up on a rail, when suddenly the Star Destroyer lurched and shook violently, just a split-second after she perceived a warning through the Force, too late for her to react. The gym room was shaken by tremors just as she was thrusting herself over the rail. Taken by surprise she was caught in a whirlwind and spun through the air towards the wall as the battleship lurched violently. Drawing on the Force used telekinesis to draw herself from the wall she was being pushed against and slow down her fall, landing in slow motion.

Alarm sirens howled throughout the Star Destroyer as she rushed out of the gym, sweaty and dressed only in shorts and a tank top along with a sports bra and not bothering to towel herself off. A variety of troopers and crew members gave her glances, to which she paid no mind.

"Ma'am," an Omega private began as he saw, confusion reigned throughout the ship. Gunners and pilots were scrambling to their gunnery statons and fighters respectively.

"Don't just stand there, get to the armoury. Never seen a girl in a sports bra before?" Siobhan grunted impatiently. It was at this moment that Allaina's order came through over the loudspeakers.

So it was Bando Gora attacking them. The cultists who had caused them so much trouble in the past, trying to stir up conflict on Naboo, using pirate proxies to attack their merchant ships and supply lines. Siobhan had longed for a chance to get up close and personal with them, so that they could be crushed like cockroaches. While the timing was awkward, in a way it was a blessing. Finally they would get the chance to show that one did not mess with Omega.

"Auresh Force, saddle up and assemble in the hangar now. We're gonna wipe the scum out!" she bellowed through her comm, alerting the Omega Pyre squads on the ship as she quickly moved to the armoury, which conveniently enough was close by. Several Omega soldiers were already there, equipping themselves with grenades, bolters and blasters. Siobhan quickly grabbed a suit of light armour along with a bolter, stocking up on buckshot and bolts.

The hangar bay was being filled with soldiers, all awaiting the order to board the Inimica gunships and dropships. There were look of surprise at the sudden assault, but no uncertainty, for they were professionals. In any case, Siobhan would not have tolerated any shirkers in the force as she marched in. While physically less intimidating than Tegaea, the fact that she could lift a starfighter to crush someone under it made up for the fact, and she never shirked from getting her hands dirty, her scars testified to that.
Upon seeing her mercenaries instantly cut their joking or speculative chattering. Fighters shot out from the hangars with a roar as she strode in, the space between the Glaive and the Bando Gora was set alight with the first salvoes of laser fire. In a way, there was a bizarre beauty to the laser streaks that shot through space.

"Will you little boys and girls lighten up a bit? This ain't a funeral!" Siobhan joked, no doubt a great many mercenaries did not share what she considered humour.

"The gods of war love us. Our Bando Gora friends have obliged us by finally coming out of the open and attacking us instead of skulking around like cowards," she announced dramatically, walking up and down the line as she affixed her eyes on the assembling troopers.
"We're gonna board their command vessel, seize the hangar bay and fight to the bridge. If possible capture their leader so we can have a chat, but take no chances. Be ready to blast hostile force-users with bolters and give 'em a lesson they won't forget. Force-users, you're our heavy hitters. keep blaster bolts away and combine powers where possible. Massed telekinetic blasts. As cliched as it sounds expect the unexpected. This ain't just the pathetic pushovers on Naboo, don't hesitate or flinch for a moment. You see the enemy, kill them. Once we land, they'll show us no mercy nor will we show them any."

Siobhan was not one for pep talks, but she had the feeling that this time the Bando Gora would not simply be throwing expendable, brainwashed cultists like in Naboo against them. This dance seemed like the real deal.

Without further warning she turned to Gunn, a brown-skinned female Zabrak armed with a long-barelled sniper rifle. "Corporal, how many people are you going to kill today?"

The Zabrak stammered, not expecting the question. "Colonel?"

"You're a soldier, it's your job!" Siobhan demanded sharply. "We're talking Reavers. If they take the ship, they'll rape us to death, eat our flesh and sew our skins into their clothing. And if we're very, very lucky, they'll do it in that order. How many?"

A hot glare came across Gunn's features. "I'll shoot enough of them, Colonel."

"Nice to hear it," Siobhan growled. "Thane, how many people are you going to kill?"

The grizzled, scarred mercenary whose left cheek was so badly burned it was covered by a metal plate, looked eager, wielding a bolter. "Any I encounter, and I'll deliver their heads in fruit baskets with blood oranges."

"Make sure they're ripe! Xareke," she turned her eyes, in which nothing but fiery resolve was shown, to a neophyte Cathar force-user, who had a short lightsabre dangling on her belt. "How many?"

"All we need for victory. The damn Reavers deserve it."

Similar words came from the rest of the battalion before Siobhan broke it off. "I'm glad to hear that," Siobhan said tersely. "Now get going. We have heads to bust."

 

[HK-36]

Jaeger Class Star Destroyer Aurek Glaive

The droid was aboard the destroyer, tagging along for a ride to another planet, trying to stay out of everyone's way, probably spending his time in an empty storage room or a quarter where nobody would bother him. When the ship suddenly stopped and thrashed around, the lights in the room HK was staying in went out. The droid was taken by surprise, just maintaining his body, making sure it was working as best as it could in its current state. When the lights went out, a clattering and thudding noise was heard in the room, when they went back on, HK was suspended from the ground, keep himself above the floor by pushing on the either wall in the room with his hands and feet, the room was small enough for him to be able to keep himself stabilized like that. Then the sirens sounded, alarm filled the ship. HK scrambled to retrieve his lightsaber, his pistol, and his rifle from the miscallenous clutter in the room that resulted from the sudden halt of the ship. The droid ran out, he heard the communicat bellowing through the ship by Allaina, the Bando Gora, force users. His protocols kicked in, he knew what he needed. Rushing to the armory he looked for a slughthrower repeater, he grabbed a bolter then, deeming it suited well for the mission and an ammo belt for it to which he added three sonic grenades, just in case, he closed the belt around his waist and ran back out, his sniper rifle on his back, lightsaber and pistol hosltered on his hips, bolter in hand.
The droid made his way to the hangar, arriving just when @[member="Siobhan Kerrigan"] was finishing her pep talk. In the chaos of it all, when the soldiers scrambled to drop ships, he tried to slink by unseen into one of the boarding ships, he did not wanted to be stopped and held back from joining this fight, it was finally his time to show the Omega that there was plenty of fight still left in that old droid. And although the troops might have looked at the tall assassin droid with bemusement, he tried to ignore it and get a spot in one of the dropships, they were both on the same side here, although he did made a note to get some Omega colors on his armor when he'll get the next paintjob. And should anybody question his presence there or made a comment of it, he would only respond with a simple, stoic as always.
"I am on your side."
And he was not wearing his usual Jedi robes, this time, he was not hiding, he did not need his disguise.

 

[Jsc]

An Avg-Gunship dropped out from Hyperspace at the edge of the Interdiction Zone. Karen was driving,

"...Well. Now we know why they missed the Nav-point. Everybody strap in. This delivery just got a lot harder."

Maddie leaned forward against the glass in terrible awe,

"Oh god Karen. It's them. It's an ambush."

"I know Mads. Just sit tight. This, could get a little bumpy."

Karen brought the gunship about and into the Jaeger's ion-trail. Approaching from the edge of the battle, she pulled the ship into line and dropped them down into the Landing Bay of the Aurek Glaive. Clutch & Pro.

"Okay Maddie. Unbuckle and get that new medical droid to where she belongs. I'm going to keep the engines warmed up for ya."

"Okay. Okay."

The bewildered blond unstrapped herself from the co-pilot's seat and headed into the back to finish their delivery run. Karen remained at the helm. Watching the bay flock to combat. She nodded her head and mumbled behind her opaque visor,

"...It's never just a delivery run, it is?"