Operation Torch

[Gir Quee]

The squadron of gunships had managed to suppress or destroy most of the artillery, but the opposition fell apart so quickly that leaving Gir to wonder if they were facing some variation of the classic Carigan defense. Yet while the sensor scans thus far had been unable to detect any other weapon emplacements, he couldn't rule out the possibility that there were more defenses present either hidden by sensor-shielding technologies or simply being too low tech to easily detect. Captain Hopkins looked over the holo-tank with Gir, looking for areas for possible ambushes.

"The warehouse over here looks like it could be a potential site," suggested the other man.

Gir glanced at it, "If it is, it's probably too far away to see much use Any sort of low-tech weapons that field from there would be pretty easily intercepted by our own guns. I'm going to start releasing the dropships through normal hangars. We'll just have to keep an extra eye out for any potential threats."

"Might I recommend using the Erebus arrays to generate an ECM field around those areas of the ship."

"That's probably a wise idea," agreed Gir, "please do so."

Hopkins offered him a stiff bob of the head as Gir typed in the commands authorizing Major Goins shuttles and dropships to launch. As he did so, he noticed a series of rising voices in a conversation that spanned between the sensor operators, the intelligence section, and the flight controllers. He turned his eys upward just i time to see Tibbs thrust out a shadowy finger to point at a patched up CR70 corvette that hung just outside of orbit with the world. Gir eyed it closely, noticing that while it was a different color than the Blue Sun's alleged flagship, it still had several characteristics that were otherwise unique to that craft, including an extra set of engine pods welded onto the sides and a rather large looking turret set in the middle of the ship. He eyed it closer. That is the Blue Moon...they must have changed the color and the transponder to throw up some pursuers. It's odd though...why are they simply observing? If they know that we're after them, wouldn't they follow their previous behavior and simply jump away at the first sign of trouble? If they think that we're not strong enough to be a threat, why aren't they attacking us? The one possibility that seemed to make any sense to Gir was that they were waiting for something to happen.

***​

Inside Arapos Tower, Taxon City

The droid came to a stop, turning its massive bug-like eyes on the Republic troopers. Unlike many droids, its brain was optimized to help interpret organic behavior. Almost immediately, the droid realized that it would not be allowed to come as close as Gloomis would want. While part of the droid's programming suggested that it should go further to meet its mission goal, this was countered by the diplomatic droid's innate response to obey the commands of any organic being. Caught in a logic trap, the droid simply stood in place, unable to advance towards either of its goals. From his hidden vantage point behind the door, Gloomis watched the datapad. After a long few seconds seeing the blipping dot that represented the droid not moving, he tapped a button on his comlink, which transmitted the detonation code to the protocol droid. 6F3-RA-7 exploded in a shower of fire and sparks that sent shards of its once lustrous plating flying everywhere like a large fragmentation grenade.

 

[Valkren Calderon]

Valkren's eyes went wide behind his blue visor before the blast occured, hearing the pen-drop break in the brief silence as the explosives weaponized, then detonated. "Get clea-" He tried to give his team ample enough warning as he began to turn his back to the droid, but it was too late. As shrapnel and flames licked at the surrounding walls, Valkren and Young were both thrown back rather violently, with the rest of Saber team being pushed back from the blast. Valkren hit the ground, feeling an awkward pop as his shoulder plate rammed into the ground, the force pulling him into a nearby wall where he'd end up, writhing in pain. Usually during old Republic operations they'd be in full suits, which would protect them from most blunt force, but with their rag tag, fast-insertion armor that they threw together, they were much more vulnerable. With the smoke and dust settling, Valkren pulled himself to his knees, groaning through his vocoder at the pain in his right shoulder, he almost couldn't feel parts of it, plus there was not much use of his right arm at all. Seemed like the force of the throw had dislocated his shoulder, that was for sure.

Saber team's comms system was compromised during the blast, making the transmission open to the command deck of the Ocean's tide, and to [member="Gir Quee"]. "Sithspit!" Voices could be heard crackling through as everything settled. "Saber One is down!" Saber team's voices continued to flow through as Valkren came crashing back down to consciousness. "He's good! Get him up!" Craning his neck to the side, he'd be able to make out the outlines of O'Riley helping Young up and ushering him back to the rear of the team. Watson and O'Connor were moving forward to cover the front of the door, while Michaels moved to Valkren.

"Hold on there boss, looks like we gotta' fix ya' up." Michaels said, letting his blaster hang from it's sling and placing his real hand on his shoulder, the mechanical hand on the loose arm.

"Is...Is Young?" The young commando was cut short by coughs, attempting to catch his breath.

"Kid's strong, Visor just got karked up abit. Now hold still." The explosive specialist stated, rolling his shoulders before snapping his leader's shoulder back in place.

"Watson, Gas the-" Once again, he was cut short when his comrade kindly put his shoulder back into place, letting a groan escape once more as he let his head and helmet hit the ground. He clenched his teeth and forced himself up, taking his blaster from Michaels. Watson had caught Valkren's general idea and began to unclip one of the tear gas detonators from his belt.

 

[Gir Quee]

Gir felt his stomach drop as the garbled communications from Saber team flowed through his headset. He quickly flipped through several screens to pull up all of the information about the ground operation on Arapos Tower. Even as he did so, the report that [member="Valkren Calderon"] had survived brought some relief to him, though the man's injury and that of one of his soldier's concerned him. The blonde man briefly considered scrambling a medical evacuation shuttle down to the tower. If he thinks they need a medevac shuttle, he'll call for it. He glanced at a side holo-tank which the ground pounder officers had gathered around. From among their mumbling, he could hear such words as "nasty", "reinforcements" and "ambulance". They've got this under control. I shouldn't get personal about this...the ground pounders do their job, and I do mine.

He flipped through several screens just in time to see the Typhoon squadron attempt to flush out the Scurrg bomber from the gathering of vessels. Gir wasn't sure who fired the first shot, but the space around them lit up with beams of color seemingly pointed and fired at random. A brief flash of fire erupted among the glinting metal hulls, informing Gir that at least one of the shots had made their mark. Well, that's all fubarred now...Hopefully we didn't hit the wrong person in the mix...The ship's flight controller called down to him.

"Phoenix squadron is requesting to withdraw," said the woman, "there's too many of them."

"Call them back to the Tide," said the blonde man, "scramble all available combat craft to form a screen around the ship."

Gir doubted that the interceptors and starbombers remaining on the Tide would be able to hold a fair fight against the many ships in orbit, but under the aegis of the Ocean Tide's batteries, he knew that they could hold their own. Now it's only a matter of how they react to it all. Can they form a cohesive group to attack? Or will they be a chaotic mess?

***​

Inside Arapos Tower, Taxon City

Gloomis felt the explosion reverberate through the floor and heard the shrapnel hurl into the walls around him. The explosion seemed softer than normal to his ears, which made him doubt the attack's success. Perhaps the grenade was faulty or the building didn't quite contain the explosion like the solidly-built bulkheads of a ship did, but he was not sure. The pirate enforcer bhesitated before deciding to follow up with his original plan to slip in and take potshots at the intruders before slipping away. He creaked the door open to immediately be assaulted by the fumes of tear gas. Instinctively he lightly coughed even as tears began to well up in his eyes. I can't fight like this....The man loudly coughed before starting to stumble, kicking away the datapad he had used to direct the attack. Down the emergency stairs he went before barging through a door into the next floor. His eyes vision began to clear up somewhat, though his eyes felt red and watery. But his throat still bothered him, and he found himself spitting out thick, green sputum. Looking around the floor, he couldn't see anything that could be of real value in fighting the intruders. While he could overturn some of the office furniture around to make a barrier, he knew it wouldn't last against the trained soldiers he was facing. The odds aren't in my favor to fight now, nor do I have any resources. A part of him wanted to barge back through the stairway doors to go down lower and lower in order to rendezvous with the other Nanth'ri and Blue Sun pirates as well as Tessk's entourage. But he knew that in doing so, he would likely expose himself to the Republic troopers and their guns. Can't fight them up, can't run from them...what to do? He coughed before stumbling into one of the old executive offices to hide underneath a polished greel wood desk.

 

[Valkren Calderon]

Valkren rolled his right shoulder as he advanced through the remains of the gas behind O'Connor and Watson. His shoulder still didn't feel right, but the battle wouldn't wait for him. He'd just have to have the medics look at it once back upon the Ocean's tide..If there was even an Ocean's tide to return to after this skirmish. "O'Riley, stay with Young until the gas clears, wait for my signal to regroup. The rest of you, on me." He'd move back to the front of his now smaller team, moving down the stairwell. Gloomis would have easily gotten a headstart away from the team of soldiers, but Valkren had not only his adrenaline pumping once more, but was also enraged at the injuring of his team. The sergeant was moving with a purpose.

As his team of four reached the door to the next level that Gloomis had so hastily gone through, Valkren spoke through his comms softly as to not tip off any enemies in the next room. They'd also still be transmitting to Gir Quee, unknowingly. "Watson, gas me," the commando ordered before the team's marksman dropped their second of three detonators into his gloved hand. He engaged the tear gas, nodding to O'Riley as he pressed the door's console. Just as the door began to slide open, he lobbed the tear gas grenade right through the opening, taking a step back to regrip his rifle.

The team would wait moments before all moving through the door to clear the room of the unknowns. "Saber one is in."
Valkren stated as they entered the room and into the smog that was the gas. They'd all engage their HUD's tactical modes so they'd know the difference between OPFOR and BLUFOR due to the highlights around their allies.

[member="Gir Quee"]

 

[Gir Quee]

Gir watched the Typhoons retreat back towards the Ocean Tide. A handful of craft pursued the starfighters, but they quickly fell back to their formation as they neared the Ocean Tide's guns and the swarm of strikecraft gathering around the assault carrier. Gir narrowed his eyes. We're getting close to a stalemate. We could probably overpower them if we moved the Tide upwards to get within weapon's range, but then we wouldn't be able to assist the ground forces as effectively. But at the same time, they do not have the power to beat back our forces or push through them to link up whoever's groundside. I guess it's back to divide and conquer until something develops. Gir turned his attention back to Saber team and the other allied ground teams engaged in taking over the city.

Unlike many warships, the Ocean Tide had three command center like rooms. The current CIC-style bridge they were in was one of these. Like many starship's its size, this center was optimized for running fleets and groups of large starships. The other two command centers were focused more directly on coordinating and controlling the ship's ground and starship's complements respectively. Each had a different set of equipment and operators in order to best enable those missions. With that in mind, Gir decided that he would change his location.

"Captain Hopkins," said Gir, "you have the bridge. I'm going to go down to the command post to get a better grasp of our land forces movements."

Hopkins nodded, "Going to see the live helmet image stream through the holos?"

"Yes, it will get me a better perspective of what's really going on down there," said Gir, "keep an eye on our information broker, would you?"

"You got it."

***​

Inside Arapos Tower, Taxon City

Gloomis hunkered down underneath an office desk in the second to last room of the floor. From his hiding spot, he could hear the indistinct noises that revealed that people had entered the floor. The pirate gripped his rifle as he looked up at a stack of cheap, pre-fabricated shelves set behind the desk. Cornered like a rat...He heard the distinct sound of a gas grenade going off before he felt the tear gas make contact with him. He pulled up his loose tunic to partially cover up his face, forming a semi-permeable barrier that allowed him to breath without coughing too harshly, though it did nothing to protect his eyes. The corellian looked down at the lami-plast flooring beneath him. This is crazy...but I can't just do nothing...He set his rifle aside to pull out a vibro-shiv. He flipped a switch on and began to cut through the flooring. It would be a noisy and laborous process, but if he was lucky enough or Saber team took too long to clear the rooms, he could make an entry way into the floor below him.

 

[Valkren Calderon]

Gloomis would only be greeted with the stock of a customized assault blaster to the back of the head, it would be a rather violent hit at that too. Watson would be the one that dealt the hopefully incapacitating blow and was now the one standing above Gloomis. The pirate had the right idea, that was probably the only way out without the Sabers having eyes on him straight away. But alas, it would be a waste of time and effort.

If the blow had knocked Gloomis out, or atleast put him down for the count, Watson would place the barrel of his weapon only inches away from the back of his head. "HVT confirmed, Mon Glomis." The rest of the team converged on Watson's position, swamping the pirate in a haze of confusion. It was an age-old kidnapping and terror technique, knock the target around abit, limit his line of sight to where they're going, and keep them in a confused and intimidated state of mind if possible. Valkren, Michaels, and O'Connor took over for Watson, letting him spin around and cover the next door in the haze of tear gas. Valkren pushed the barrel of his weapon to the back of Glomis's head, while Michaels restrained the pirate's hand behind his back. "HVT has been confirmed, Sir," Valkren spoke up, pulling his weapon away from his head, but using his gloved hand to keep the mans face into the ground. He took a moment to assure his team was ready, they'd need to figure out what to do with only one HVT in custody. The three men would lift the pirate, dragging him back towards the door they came from to keep him in a secure location, with Watson covering.

[member="Gir Quee"]

 

[Gir Quee]

It should have been a relatively short, five minute walk from the main bridge to the Command Post, yet upon entering the room, he couldn't help but wonder if more time had escaped. The LCD screens at the far end of the wall showed displayed various live visual feeds from helmet cams, droids, and vehicles on the ground. Gir could easily see easily see the operation through eyes as if he were them, though he knew that they would experience it different. The immediancy of what was going on there was life and death for them while Gir corporeally was detached from the exact circumstances. His eyes fell on the first screen, which showed the footage from a Directorate marine starting to enter into the underground cavern sections through a sewer maintenance hatch.

"You just missed it," announced a soft voice.

Gir turned to face a pair of mismatched armored men. The one who spoke wore the gray-blue armor of a Directorate marine. Gir recognized him as Captain Lefauex, another Hast native who was serving as Major Goins's adjutant. The woman next to him was a Republic marine, who Gir believed was a brigade-level officer. He silently read her the name stenciled onto her armor. Lieutenant Colonel Brakas. Turning his gaze upward again, Gir raised his eyebrows at Lefauex.

"What did I miss, exactly?"

"Our boys just took Gloomis," said the Republic officer, pointing a lower screen, "he looks like a mess."

Gir eyed the flatscreen carefully, taking note of the surroundings, "But there doesn't seem to be anyone around him."

"Gloomis had a reputation as being something of a crazy loner though," piped in Lefauex, "that's part of how he became an enforcer. It's easier to enforce a violent code against people that you don't know or feel attached too."

"It's a hard way to live," muttered Gir, "because times like this get you by yourself. Where are the other's?"

"Don't know," said Lefauex, leading him towards a holo-tank surrounded by Com-scan stations, "Life form indicators show that there no life form readings on the five floors below them, and the concentration of life forms increases the closer you get to the surface."

"They're evacuating the tower," guessed Gir.

Lefauex hesitated, "That movement pattern would make sense, except that we haven't see anyone leaving the building outside."

"What about underground?"

Brakas punched in a few commands into the holo-projector, bringing up a blue, wire-line schematic of the tower. Gir could see the red outlines of where peoples were located, courtesy of the ship's thermal energy sensors and the com-scan's interdisciplinary analysis programming. Brakas quickly altered the image to focus on the bottom floors, which showed a blurred mass of people milling about. You can't even see individual people in there...

"It's hard to analyze what's going on here, exactly. Certain patterns of movement in the lower floors seem to be patterned despite the lack of walls or other objects which would constrain movement."

Gir shrugged, "That doesn't tell us much. It could simply be that they're being directed to move in an orderly fashion."

"Or that they are decoys made to fool our sensors about where some of them are going. If we can't track individuals because the density is so high, it wouldn't be hard for a handful of them to slip through some area into a asensor-shielded passageway or room."

"Given the nature of the business of their enterprise, that seems likely," agreed Gir, "though I think we can rule out such rooms on the above-ground floors of the tower."

"Why's that?"

"They don't provide any means to really escape without us noticing. You can't just shimmy down from a balcony or simply walk out through the front door without someone in the street or one of our fliers noticing."

"So escape tunnels?"

Gir nodded, "That seems likely to me, give the rest of the underground work that we've just unearthed with our sensors..."

[member="Valkren Calderon"]

 

[Valkren Calderon]

As they got clear of the gas, Valkren turned back toward their prisoner and activating their comms. "Ocean's tide, requesting extraction of one Mon Gloomis and plus one." Valkren spoke ofcourse about Young, with his visor and helmet damaged, it'd prove very risky if he entered the tunnels underneath along with Saber team. He couldn't risk it.

O'Riley came trotting down the stairs to take the pirate off of the other's hands. The burly assault specialist lifting him with quite ease up to the roof. Valkren was unsure if they could get an extraction during the chaos in the sky, but he couldn't keep his men separated if they planned to go deeper into the tower and tunnels. They could easily lose Gloomis that way.

Valkren shifted his grip on his rifle for a moment, his eyes gazing side to side on the other side of his Visor, assuring all of his men's vitals were set. Young's was the only that wasn't reading correctly, showing his vitals as flatlining. That view had worried Valkren when the protocol droid previously detonated, but when he was informed that his helmet had been damaged in somewhat, he was put at ease.

The sergeant lifted his right hand up and circled his fingers in the air as a regrouping sign, turning to face toward the door as they waited for confirmation from the officers aboard the Ocean's tide.

[member="Gir Quee"]

 

[Gir Quee]

The trio of officers walked around the holo-projector, looking at the lower three floors of the building and the subterranean labyrinth beneath to see if there were any hidden passageways or recent excavations by comparing the sensor data with the plans they had obtained of the tower. The files provided by Tibbs seemed to be somewhat accurate, but also dated. Gir guessed that the files were dated plans sliced out of an archival mainframe by a somewhat less than scrupulous associate of the defel. Brakas pointed an irregularly shaped cylindrical passageway that apparently rose up from the ground and into a group of structural supports.

"What is that?" questioned the woman.

Gir examined the discrepancy closely, "That's small. A micro turbolift perhaps? But to what end?"

"For a droid," said Lefauex, enlarging a portion of the tower, "it's directly below a service tube used by the housekeeping droids."

"Pretty easily converted into a small turbolift then."

"No you could squeeze three people in there if you really wanted to," said Gir, "tight, but if it's not a normal turbolift. If that goes straight up, it's almost exactly right outside the conference room where Tissk is thought to court people."

"But there is no way there is access to it on the ground floor except by the droid maintenance port way," observed the woman, "even if they were to revamp that area for their own use, would they really go through the trouble of having to remove all those structural supports around it to make a doorway large enough to enter?"

"Maybe they don't enter on the ground floor," suggested Gir, "If the service tube goes up to all of the other office floors, they just get on it from the meeting floor, and ride their way down."

"It'd take them several trips then," muttered Lefauex, "but it's not something we'd immediately expect with all the action on the ground floors."

"They're red herrings then," guessed Brakas, "and they have bought them time with it too..."

"Sirs," announced a younger marine, walking up to them, "Colonel Brakas told me to inform you all about Saber Team's progress. Saber team has requested medevac for one of their wounded members and prisoner transfer of Gloomis."

"And flight control sent someone?" asked Brakas.

The marine nodded, "There's a shuttle inbound to their location now."

"We need to forward this information to Val-...er...Sergeant Calderon," said Gir.

"I'll do it," said Lefauex, walking over to a console, "and I'll transmit him a map of the findings."

***​

Below Arapos Tower...

"No word from Gloomis?" asked Sal-Horn.

The entourage of pirates and underworld figures trudged through the green-brown muck that seeped in from the sides of the tunnels. Sal-Horn couldn't remember the last time she had felt such moisture against her face from simply walking around. But thankfully, the whole complex didn't seem to smell which she guessed was one of the results from Tissk's remodelling of the area. She couldn't remember feeling as calm under the threat of an enemy attack as she did now, which attributed to boththe solid nature of the constrution and the clandestine nature of the facility. But errant thoughts and worries continued to occasionally cross her mind even in spite of her best efforts to control them.

"The droids that were with him are done," revealed Tissk, "he's probably gone with them, one way or the other. Should have come with us."

"What about elsewhere?"

"Almost going according to plan," mumbled the trandoshan, "perhaps I should have hired some stronger-willed mercs to attack their warship, but some friends of mine will be here soon to take care of that."

"You can't tell me you intend to renege on this gamble, do you?"

"No, it remains. I just needed to make some adjustments as to how we will accomplish that."

The group came to halt in front of a pair of rusty-looking blast doors labelled "Waste Management". Tissk punched in a code to the keypad, causing the doors to slowly grind open to reveal a surprising lavish living quarters complete with couches, cots, tables, chairs, holo-projectors, autochefs, and what appeared to be doors to a refresher station. The trandoshan spun about on the ball of his foot.

"This is one of my safehouses," explained Tissk, "we will wait in here until the time is ripe..."

 

[Valkren Calderon]

O'Riley opened the door to the roof access and allowed the stairway to flood with light momentarily. He moved Goomis across the rooftop and over to where he had sat a recovering Intelligence specialist Young next to the landing pad. From there he picked up his rifle, turning his back to the landing pad to get into a comfortable position during the wait for their extraction.

A few floors down, Sergeant Calderon was receiving the data that the Ocean's Tide had sent directly into his HUD. "Look's like there's a whole fetthin' maze below us. We'll have to find a faster way."

Watson brought the stock of his weapon crashing down once more, this time on the latch for a nearby mechanic's hatch. "Might have just found our way down."

Michaels moved over, placing his mechanical hand on the doorway and pulled himself in, looking down the seemingly endless box set of stairs. "Have I ever told you how much I hate stairs? Really, I mean this is why criminal masterminds live in tall, luxurious towers with turbolifts. So they don't have to use the stairs." Saber two stated as he turned back to Watson, O'Connor, and Valkren as they followed suit into the hatch.

"They'll be expecting the turbo lift, that's why we have these old dogs." He stated, moving behind Watson to access the kit he had strapped across his back. He retrieved two sets of ropes and clips to let them fast rope straight to the bottom level and access the tunnels hopefully.

Michaels took one of the ropes from the sergeant and went to work on one side of the railing while Valkren did the other, both throwing their ropes off into the center of the box stairs, letting it snake down the shaft until it coiled on the ground. As the two hooked up and swung their legs over the railing, the other two members of the now smaller squad waited in line behind them. They'd go down in pairs as to secure the bottom once the first touches down.

Valkren gave a quick salute to the two standing infront of the pair, then pushed out and descended to the bottom.

[member="Gir Quee"]

 

[Gir Quee]

Gir's eyes lingered on the holo of the Sprint-class Rescue Craft descending to land on Arapos Tower. He felt a bit nervous. From what he had caught of the comm traffic, the casualty's injuries were not significant enough that the Ocean Tide's med bays wouldn't be able to effectively treat them, yet there always remained that off-chance that the soldier had suffered an injury that hadn't been detected. Such blast injuries seemed to run the gamut from barely perceptible to blatantly obvious. Gir made a note that he would have to visit the soldier once the med team cleared him to receive visitors. His headset comlink offered a subdued chirp, causing Gir to flip a switch to receive the call.

"Yes?"

Captain Hopkin's voice began to flow through the speaker. "I think Lieutenant Tanqew has nearly had it with Tibbs. There's a new threat coming in that we should have known before we entered the atmosphere."

"What's going on?"

"Detailed orbital scans have shown there there's a cloud of DOKAWs that are about to come above us."

Gir frowned, "How many?"

"Several hundred. They're small enough that our sensors having trouble differentiating them when they're clustered up like this."

So that's what they are waiting for. While most DOKAWs were predominantly used against ground forces especially static positions, the weapons would have little difficulty in pelting the Ocean Tide because of the ship's size. Gir felt some apprehension seize him. While the Tide was a heavily built and reinforced ship, it appeared that they didn't have an exact idea of the weapons strength. The simple solution would be to simply start moving the Tide, but in doing so, they would probably put a large amount of distance between them and the ground forces, which Gir viewed as unacceptable to the combined arms strategy that the operation depended on.

"I'll be up there shortly," said Gir, "order all gunnery crews to start targeting and destroying as many of them as they can. Might as well change the Erebus arrays onto the cloud as well. Maybe we can send a few of them elsewhere."

"Got it."

Gir turned to Captain Lafeaux and Colonel Brakas.

"I have to get back to the bridge," said the blonde man, "keep me informed of any significant developments."

***​

Tissk's Safe House, below Arapos Tower

"What are you thinking?" asked Sal-Horn.

The motley group of characters gathered around a holo-projector, watching a holo-graphic visage of the Ocean Tide float over Taxon City as seen from the pirate ship Red Terror. But their image of the assault carrier began to be obscured by hundreds of gleaming metal cylinders that only seemed to increase in numbers as time elapsed. Flashes of emerald light erupted from the Tide to lance out at the lowest flying DOKAWs. Sal-Horn shook her head as she turned her gaze towards the trandoshan.

"What's the use in damaging a ship so heavily that we'll have to spend millions on her repair?"

The trandoshan shook his head, "It won't be that badly damaged. They have already noticed and started to destroy the weapons, even as they begin to fall towards them. Most of our weapons will not make contact with the Tide."

"So it won't be damaged?" asked a loose-lipped member of the Nanth'ri pirates.

"It's a distraction," revealed the crime boss, "from our real attack."

[member="Valkren Calderon"]

 

[Valkren Calderon]

Valkren and Michaels' touched down side by side, lifting their blasters to check the immediate area before unclipping themselves. They took several steps away from the coiled rope, scanning the room they landed in and giving the other two space to land. "Radio Silence from here on out, helmet feeds are live." He stated as O'Connor and Watson landing soon after, unhooking themselves and following Valkren as he trotted into the mouth of the tunnel just ahead.

Valkren's gaze switched between the seemingly endless tunnel ahead of them and the labrynth of a map that the specialists aboard the Ocean's Tide sent to him, there seemed to be a central area in which the tunnels led to all together at one point. That's where he was leading his team of four deathly-silent 'pipehitters.' He'd hope the smart targets would have regrouped and held up somewhere at the realization that they couldn't take on his team of commandos alone, that is where he hoped to bag them all and finish off Pirate season off and 'max out his limit' on pirates to hunt.

Several stories up, O'Riley had just ignited a green smoke detonator when the dropship came in close enough range. He wove it in the air to signal where they were, then tossed it off of the tower once the pilot saw the LZ. He didn't want to be picked out of the sky if a fighter had seen their extraction smoke. As the dropship pilot pulled up to slow to a stop directly above the landing pad, Valkren pushed a now concious specialist Young up toward the dropship, his helmet in his hands and bandages wrapped clear around the side of his head and an eye. As the directorate crew chief helped the shocked and wounded commando to the front of the shuttle, O'Riley tossed Gloomis across the pad, shoving him up the pad and strapping him in to one of the near seats. The healthy commando, now winded, took his seat by the open ramp of the ship, shifting his grip on his rifle so it faced out the back of the ramp incase they had any unannounced visitors, he lifted his left hand up to his helmet, contacting the Ocean's Tide, with his right hand still close to the trigger as they pulled away from the tower.

"This is Saber five, on route to Ocean's Tide with Mon Gloomis, plus one Saber Six. Medical staff on standby for both passengers, over."

[member="Gir Quee"]

 

[Gir Quee]

Lafeaux's voice flowed through Gir's headset as the man walked back to the Tide's bridge informing him of Dust Off One's retrieval of Gloomis and Young. Under more normal circumstances, he would have liked to hear a more detailed report about their conditions or if Gloomis had revealed any intelligence. But judging by the captain's unexcited tone, Gir guessed that there was nothing pressing or game-changing about the extraction: at least not yet. He passed through the double-door foyer and into the bridge itself, almost for his ears to immediately be assaulted by the incessant din of the bridge crew reacting to the incoming DOKAWs. A glance at one of the larger holo-images of the warship showed the Tide's weapons firing constantly against the barrage of metal rods. Emerald bolts collided with the glinting beams, causing brief flashes of blinding light, showers of gray splinters, and puffs of acrid smoke. Yet for every DOKAW intercepted, another slipped past its active defenses to smash against the ship's shields and hull. Gir squinted. That has to be hell for our shield operators to try and predict. Hopkins stiffly walked over to him.

"The brunt of the barrage is about to hit us," reported the dour man, "flight control has moved our strikecraft to the upper atmosphere to try and intercept some of them."

"And the hostiles haven't tried to intercept them yet?"

"A couple of them are poking and prodding our formation, but most of them appear to be in a holding pattern. I think-"

Hopkin's cut his words short as he stared into a holo-tank. Gir stood next to him to peer into it as well. Flocks of starfighters and other small craft whirled around in chaotic dogfights even as DOKAWs fell down among them. They're attacking now...in full force. It was clear to Gir that the Republic and Directorate craft will outnumbered, and equally clear that the enemy knew that as well. Yet they didn't concentrate their forces on destroying the allied starfighters, but rather divided their forces into parts. One of which engaged the allied strikecraft, keeping them occupied, while the others plummeted down in the wake of the DOKAWs. For the first time in the engagement, Gir felt fear gnaw on him. It was possible that the DOKAWs and strikecraft were working in a one-two punch attack. The DOKAWs would weaken the shields, with the strikecraft behind them launching their ordinance to burst through the weakened shields and onto the hull itself. Gouts of fire erupted across the Tide's holo-graphic hull as Gir's fears were realized. It seemed odd to him that a hundred meters above him was covered in scorching flames, but that he could barely feel or hear the impacts. He knew that part of that phenomenon was because of the ship's heavy structure and shields dispersed the impacts and flames across much of the hull, but at the same time, he found the disconnect between the visual images and his other senses disconcerting. What else will they throw at us?

[member="Valkren Calderon"]

 

[Valkren Calderon]

O'Riley looked out the viewport of the dropship, seeing the intense mayhem that was the dogfight above, he returned back to the insides of the rescue dropship to check on his comrade and assure that their HVT was secure. Speaking into his communications system as he tightened the straps on his prisoner on purpose to increase his levels of uncomfort. "Everything all good up there, boys?" the commando spoke informally to the officers of the the Ocean's Tide as he continued his way down the open dropship, now making his way to Young to check up on him.

Back below sea level; O'Connor, Watson, Michaels, and Valkren all made their ways silently through the tunnels, Valkren still eying the map at times in the top corner of his HUD, leading the way toward the center of the labyrinth. Valkren raised his left hand up, urging O'Connor forward with the rotary cannon. Both Valkren and O'Connor lined the closet set of doors with two thermal detonators, attempting to do so quietly as Michaels and Watson secured their surroundings. The sergeant was pouring sweat behind his visor, preparing for the breaching of the next room. This was getting out of hand, with no contact with the fight above they had no details on how their side was doing in the battle. Thus, they'd have to wait to find out until he secured the rest of their HVT's. The sergeant stood up, preparing his blaster as he nodded his head toward the door at O'Connor, noting he'd be second in behind Valkren.

Then he waited..

Three...Two..One.

The detonators went off, blowing the door clean off and clearing a path for the squad of four to go in.

Sergeant Calderon took a breath, turning the corner and yelling in a commanding tone; "Republic special forces!"

[member="Gir Quee"]

 

[Gir Quee]

Gir watched through the holo-tank as the Tide's defense guns battered back the pirate armada's assault among the rain of DOKAWs. Brief flashes of light erupted in the sky as flak cannons, missiles, and other point defense weapons intercepted ships and DOKAWs. But for all their effort, sections of the Tide's shields buckled and collapsed under the assault until the ordinance began impacting the hull. As sturdy as the ship was, its plating wasn't invulnerable to the concentrated attack runs by the enemy strikecraft. Scattered sections of armor plating endured assaults before finally giving away to make gaping holes that revealed the insides of the ship. Concern clawed at Gir that things were about to go really bad, yet the pirates and other criminals didn't appear to be capable of pushing their assault forward to take advantage of that damage. There were increasingly fewer DOKAWs falling down from the skies, and a large chunk of the enemy small craft withdrawing to the upper reaches of the atmosphere. He felt a measure of cautious optimism as O'Riley's voice filtered through the communication's system. The female communication officer toggled her headset comlink.

"We'll holding," said the brunette, "but not too worry, you'll be safe once you're onboard..."

Gir glanced at Dust Off One as it slid into one of the ship's lower hangars. Even as the ship did so, more of the enemy's starships retreated, with ship's starfighter squadrons hot on their heels. Perhaps we can go back to focusing on the ground operation soon. His eyes fell upon the last wave of DOKAWs haphazardly falling towards the starships. As they had done before, the small defense guns of the Tide lit up to intercept the objects. Several exploded, but Gir noticed an unusual pecularity. Not only were some of them not exploding even though they were hit, but they were actively dodging the blasts. But why use some sort of advanced version of a DOKAW near the end of the attack? He zoomed in one of the falling objects before it hit him. Those aren't DOKAWs...Even as the thought crossed his mind, the first of the magnetic bombards exploded against the ship's hull, causing widespread chaos and collapse of some of the ship's systems. Gir cursed as the bridge crew turned into a riot with various department chiefs and technicians trying to figure not only what was going on in their sections, but also trying to figure out how to fix it. Yet some of the ship's more basic functions continued forward unabated either by safety shielding or through the ship's organoform circuitry, including the ship's basic external cameras on the ship's belly. It suddenly showed rocketpack equipped soldiers and droids flying out of the various buildings and underground silos towards the ship.

Hopkins glanced at the footage and frowned, "They are going to board us."

"So that's why they didn't press their attack forward. They did enough damage that they have portals of entry into the ship while keeping it relatively undamaged for their own use."

"And most of our troops are on the ground now."

"Just fantastic," said Gir, double-checking the holstered blaster pistol, "better send our people into the armories to gear up with whatever we got left."

***​

Tessk's Safe House, underneath Taxon City

Calderon's words were briefly met with silence before a few ragged words echoed out through the smoke and dust. As that cleared, Tessk and a trio of his bodyguards scrambled to take up impromptu firing positions behind the room's minibar, spraying a motley collection of low-velocity slugs and bright yellow blaster bolts at the Republic soldier. A red-plated Aro-GX droid darted out from behind a facade to add to the criminal's firepower. A quick glance of the room would show that the pirates were not in the safe house any more.

 

[Valkren Calderon]

The sergeant was the first in the door, throwing his armored body through the smoke and rubble that was left behind from the thermal detonators, raising his assault blaster as his visor adjusted to the sudden flooding of light from the saferoom. Time seemed to slow as he watched as the confirmed HVT and his team of three..Make it four, moved into cover and took up positions against his own team. Just as the bolts began to fly, Valkren unleashed his own burst of blue bolts toward his enemy. Unfortunately he was on the move, which caused his shots to be severely inaccurate as he moved for cover behind one of the seats. In reality, his missed shots weren't for nothing, he used this as a way to agro the enemy, and draw fire away from the door where his other three men were entering from, especially O'Connor. In a firefight as close as this, O'Connor's rotary cannon could do a number for damage and suppression..Possibly sealing the outcome of the engagement already.

As Sergeant Calderon led the way, their radio silence would be broken, a mix of communication would now flood the tactical room of the Ocean's tide: "Contact front, contact front!"

"Engaging!" Calderon yelled out before firing the first burst and sliding into cover.

"I count four!" O'Connor stated, going in second and attempting to slide into cover on the opposite side of the room from Valkren, an enemy bolt catching his shoulder plate and searing the skin underneath his lightweight armor. "I'm hit!"

Valkren felt his stomach drop as he heard these words, but the vitals for O'Connor on his own HUD was still holding steady, so for now he'd have to focus on the task at hand. He moved out of cover for a moment to focus his fire on the droid, while across from him O'Connor spun up his rotary cannon, gritting his teeth in pain as he felt the outermost layers of his skin on his shoulder burning away.

Before long, O'Connor spat out in almost pure rage as he stood up, swinging his customized Z-6 Rotary cannon around to face the mini bar, "Suppressing!" If he'd be able to standup without any bolts slamming into his open chest, he'd let leash a hellstorm of blue bolts at the minibar, letting Michaels and Watson slip into the saferoom and focus their fire.

"HVT confirmed, it's Tessk!" Watson's gruff voice came through, masked by the sound of a room full of blaster fire.

"This one's mine boys ladies and gents!" Michaels said, moving the most distance out of the entire team, looking for cover on the far side of the room to attempt to flank the entrenched group. Although, for being such an odd sized room, it was rather difficult to flank anyone.

******​

Now onboard the Ocean's tide, O'Riley was met with a whole mess of Republic and Directorate forces running back and forth, seeming to all be in a panic. The assault specialist cocked a brow behind his visor as he forcefully shoved a bound Gloomis off the end of the loading ramp for their dropship. He called for a pair of medics to take Young and move him to the bridge. Yes, the bridge..O'Riley knew something was up, and he wasn't about to leave his wounded comrade in the med-bay where a possible boarding party could reach him easily.

He hopped off of the ramp, yanking Gloomis up and passing him off to a pair of guards. "The Republic's gift to you boys." After stating this, he'd scan his surroundings in the hanger momentarily before unslinging his blaster once more, gripping it tightly and jogging after Young to meet with [member="Gir Quee"] on the bridge..Hopefully to learn what exactly was going on.

[member="Gir Quee"]

 

[Gir Quee]

Gir gripped the edges of the holo-tank tightly, watching as airborne troops and droids rose up from the ground to board it even as their starship-bound comrades swooped in to make attack runs and drop in more boarders on top of the ship's hull. The handful of the Tide's remaining operational guns continued to fire into their throng of enemies, cutting down numbers far in excess of their own, but it was not enough. Reports began to filter from various crewmembers of encountering enemy boarders. The Tide had security features built into it, including code cylinder based locks, automated laser traps, and even strategically placed gravity-traps and ray shields, but alone they would not be able to arrest and throw back the invaders. Gir listened to one frantic call of an engine crew requesting back-up. Hopkins ruefully shook his head.

"We can't send reinforcements there," muttered the man, pulling up a display of the ship's internals, "boarders already hold the main passage way leading to the intersection that leads to the port engine compartment on Deck 9."

Gir shook his head, "And what do we tell them? Just hold out a little longer until we have our own soldiers back onboard?"

"Do we have any other options, sir?"

Gir looked at the map, noting the colored areas where the pirate boarders and combined Republic/Directorate personnel fought for control. While the allied forces lacked the sheer number of men and firepower opposing them, they had been able to hold the main passage ways through the use of the ship's automated defenses. But such defenses were not everywhere on the ship, nor were many of them fully operational after the EMP attack. Gir could see trickles of red flowing around the main passages where the boarders had opted to simply bypass such heavily defended areas: the small sub-corridors had only unfamiliarity, cramped conditions, and the valiant if under-equipped crewmembers working in those areas to hold back the pirates.

"Let's deploy the reserve security droids to decks 9, 10, and 11," decided Gir, "the droids may not be entirely reliable, they may even be dated, but they'll at least throw a wrench into the enemy offensive."

"I'll get on activating them," said Hopkins, walking away to his console.

As he did so, Gir saw a pair of men stumble through the bridge's doors under the careful watch of one of the ship's few remaining marines. Their uniforms seemed strange and out of place among the sailors of the crew, causing Gir to wonder briefly if they were lost. But as they neared him, Gir recognized their faces from the earlier briefing as members of Saber team. The blonde man offered a hand to O'Riley first.

"Glad to see that you managed to make it onboard before the main attack," said Gir.

***​

Tessk's safe house, under Taxon City

The hail of bolts from O'Connor's rotary cannon caused the thugs and Tessk to drop to the ground behind the mini-bar. The droid was not as lucky. Already battered by some of the team's blasters, the remaining plating of the droid melted under the scorching heat, allowing blue bolts to smash into and incinerate its circuitry. The droid's arms and legs jerked around before its remains collapsed onto the ground among a shower of sparks. A loud voice rose out from behind the counter.

"Let's make a deal. How rich would you gentlemen like to become today?"

[member="Valkren Calderon"]

 

[Valkren Calderon]

O'Riley's hand met Gir's with a firm grip, holding on to his blaster with the other hand as Young found a piece of solid ground to sit down on, touching at the bandages that covered part of his noggin gingerly. O'Riley had yet to remove his helmet, feeling the ship rock slightly as boarders and enemy rounds alike crashed into the Ocean's tide's hull.

"I'm starting to think that the ground might have been safer than up here, Sir." He took his hand away, gripping the 'Valor' assault blaster in his gloved hands once more. "What can I do to help?"

*****​

Valkren balled his right hand up into a fist, placing it in the air as a sign to cease fire, his three men keeping their weapons trained on the minibar from behind their own pieces of cover. His three other members would be dumbfounded, and what their helmet cams transmitted live seemed to be confused at the sudden stop in the firefight. Once again though, the sergeant had a plan for this scenario.

"How rich can you make us?" He yelled out in an curious and commanding tone, moving his hand in a direction toward Michaels, informing him to move up toward the minibar, but cautiously. When the explosives specialist had lost his arm in a previous firefight, he had not only lost a limb, but he had gained a weapon. The arm couldn't do anything extremely fancy besides rotate completely around whenever Michaels was bored, but it was reinforced with some hefty metallic alloys. This reinforcement meant he now had a deadly weapon when it came to CQB or restraining someone.

Valkrens plan was for Michaels to yank Tessk out of from hiding in a flash if he got close enough, hopefully causing his remaining men to panic and reveal themselves to return fire and rescue their leader, this leaving them open to Watson and Valkren's blasters. O'Connor unfortunately would not be able to join in on this plan, besides providing support due to the slow spin-up time of his cannon.

Michaels followed his order, moving himself from his previously found cover and slowly advancing toward the minibar.

[member="Gir Quee"]

 

[Gir Quee]

"It looks that way," admitted Gir, "we're improvising as it is right now, but we just need to buy time. We're about to activate a couple hundred guard droids that we seized from a slaver in previous mission. They haven't been fully reprogrammed from capturing slaves, but their identify friend and foe programming is up to date. Hopefully their release will throw a wrench into the boarder's plan and give us an opening to make a play to fully retake the ship. If you would like, and you are certain that you don't need to go to the infirmary, the sergeant of the guard over there is forming up an advance party that will follow behind the droids."

With that last sentence, Gir gestured at a group of Directorate marines and armed sailors gathering a holo-projector that displayed the ship's internals and the sections where control of the ship was being contested. Part of him wanted to simply throw everything he could at the attackers to halt the momentum of their assault. But he knew with such limited numbers of personnel and equipment that they would have to deploy their people carefully. And that meant waiting for the right time. Deep within one of the Tide's cargo bays, several hundred G-2RD guard droids began to rise from their crates before exiting to flood the adjacent corridors in a massive swarm. While they weren't heavily armed, their ability to swarm would likely halt any nearby offenses by the boarders, and if they were lucky, might even drive some of them off the ship. But Gir hesitated to rely on that gamble alone. Some of the troops that had already deployed to surround Taxon City were back on their way via shuttles to help retake the warship.

***​

Behind the counter, Tessk blinked in surprise at [member="Valkren Calderon"]'s words. He hadn't actually expected them to seriously consider the offer so uniformly. He would have found even the hesistancy of one of them invaluable. The trandoshan had not considered the possibility of the whole squad stopping to fire on him. That development delighted him.

"Three thousand credits for each of you right now," offered the trandoshan, "and a half million each after your people leave my city."

 

[Valkren Calderon]

"Young should stay here..I don't want any of these pirates gettin' to him, Sir."

"Oh come on..You know I'm f-"

"Stuff it, kid." O'Riley brought his gaze back to Gir Quee from behind his illuminated visor, "I'll go with the advance party, whatever it takes to buy our boys on the ground more time." The commando finished his statement while brandishing his assault blaster. He looked to be battered and bruised, not as bad as Corporal Young was, but the rag-tag armor that barely protected the soldier's human body looked like it had seen better days for sure. Scorch marks from blaster bolts narrowly missing the larger target decorated his thinned down shoulder plates. His visor also seemed to have trouble remaining illuminated, flashing several times before restarting it's HUD and then repeating the same process. This must have been due to some sort of trauma to his helmet, but none-the-less, this is what the soldiers were bred for.

*****​

Valkren and Watson both stood tall, but remained behind their individual pieces of cover as to reduce the size of the targets that remained on their bodies, both specialists having their blasters trained on the minibar, prepared to eliminate every hostile after their plan was put into play. Across the room, O'Connor was tapping the back of his helmeted head against his own cover, getting over the searing pain that was a blaster bolt directly to his shoulder, but 'Irish' was a big guy, he could handle the pain like the most of them. Now closing in to the mini bar, Michaels let his assault blaster hang from his chest sling, his metallic right arm rotating a full cycle around before locking into place as he prepared himself. After getting close enough, Valkren spoke up just before the explosives specialist leaned over the minibar, attempting to grab Tessk and use the pure strength of the reanimated arm to yank him out of cover and onto the ground.

"Sorry, we aren't in it for the pay, boss!" The sergeant would have stated, preparing his weapon for a hopefully quick firefight.

[member="Gir Quee"]