Pii Fight! (Galactic Republic)

[Barr Vexos]

[member="Rashae"] [member="Nicolas Thorne"] @Klesta @John Ash

Now entering the skies of pii 4 after breaking through the atmosphere the republic ship assigned to assist in the support of the villagers and med team safety some of the troops looked outside to see the snow filled planet with different reactions. Some were amazed in seeing a whole planet covered in snow while others were searching to see if they could find any signs of life, specifically the survivors. The captain stood in front of this troops once more ready to give more orders. Some of them were able to see the other republic ships down there on the ground.

"Soldiers!!!" He yelled getting their attention "We have now made it to the planet's surface!!! Unfortunately, landing is impossible at the moment due to the lack of time we have as every second counts!!! We're going to need to repel downwards. Get ready now!!" He ordered

They all heard what the captain said loud and clear and gotten themselves ready. One soldier silently groaned to himself. "Oh goodly, now I got to repel down, what next?"

 

[John Ash]

Pirates:​

​

More targets had arrived to the battle raging on the edge of the asteroid belt. No, battle was the wrong way to look at what was going on. These fools were wasting their shots on floating space boulders and not doing a thing to the ships safe within their embrace. All the pirates had to do was sit back and wait for their enemies to wear themselves down before they made their next move. It was even more important they just bid their time since these nerfherders would have to actually come into the belt if they wanted to fight them, which those bigger ships couldn't even hope to do without being taken out by the asteroids themselves.

A torpedo or missile would launch out of the asteroid belt every so often towards the larger ships firing upon them. The one launching them remained safe behind a shield of space rocks as they did. The asteroids were taking damage but it was only making it even harder to see and hit the pirates as more debris and dust began to fill up the space between them. While they focused on the larger pirate fleet, the ones who had were sneaking through the belt finally emerged on the opposite side of the belt from their enemy. The fighter and freighters made a direct course for the newly arrived prey. There was enough pirates to give the escort for the freighter a fight, although it was still unclear if they could manage to derelict it or be the one to be derelict instead.

==================================================​

John:​

​

Pirates? John had heard about them and seen part of the damage they caused on the way in. He had a feeling that was going to be what he was needed for, and it seems his instincts on it were dead on. He just stared at the man as he said, " Go on."

" I have been having a real problem with these pirates that have started to plague the system. They attack almost every ship that comes in and out of the system. I have been going into the red for months now, and I can no longer wait them out." Mr. Kilmor said with a look of disgust on his face. " I want you to go in and kill their leader, Jer Roh, and destroy all of his datachips. I do not want his captains to use the data he has collected on our routes, communications, just everything, against us. Can you do this job Mr. Ash? The pay will reflect the risk."

John listened to his potential client. Eliminate a pirate captain and destroy sensitive data? That was nothing unusual, but it was unusual that this situation was allowed to go on for months. What was also unusual was how this pirate commander had gotten his hands on that sort of data in the first place. There were some unanswered questions but the job was most straight forward and had a high enough pay to justify taking it. He considered it all for a moment before he said, " I'll take the job, but I will need the location of the pirate Jer Roh. You do know where he is at don't you?"

" Ah yes and thank you! I have his location and a map of the system on this datechip." Mr. Kilmor said with a wide, shady grin. He set a datachip on the desk. As John grabbed the chip and stood up, Mr. Kilmor added, " Do be careful. There have been a few who tried to attack Jer Roh. They returned back...in pieces."

" Right. Will keep that in mind." John said before he headed out of the door towards his ship. As he walked, he put the datachip into his holopad. The information pulled up on the screen so that he could see the entire system. The planets and asteroid belts were marked as was the general location of the pirate's base. They were hiding out in the asteroid belt closest to Pii 3 & 4. There was another mark however for the pirate commander Jer Roh. It was not located in the same area as the other pirates. It was on the opposite end of the belt from them. A second location to act as a hidden base it seemed. He raised a brow at that but knew that made his job easier. He wouldn't have to worry as much about the number of hostiles in his way.

" Thank you for coming! I hope everything goes well Mr. Ash!" The secretary called out to John in her cheerful tone as he walked through the lobby towards the exit. John just waved to her in response with a nod of appreciation. He walked through the doorway as it opened up and headed for his ship. It was time for him to get this job going.

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OOC:​

​

Alright so I am going to be trying to push my story with John some more and will be posting to here more often. That means I might not always be mentioning pirate actions in my posts. If I don't just assume they are still doing what they were before. Feel free to control the pirates as well, but just remember they are playing things cautiously since they have the defensive position. If you want to kill them then you will need to go to them. They won't be coming to you.

Spoiler

[member="Stardust Raxis"] [member="Rashae"] [member="Nicolas Thorne"] [member="Hessai Venscythe"] [member="Commander Firestorm"] [member="Klesta"] [member="Shane Williams"] [member="Barr Vexos"] [member="Perpa Morgowray"]

 

[H3xle]

While Dalton prepared for his upcoming inauguration on Eriadu, ships belonging to his construction company were among the Republic Fleet. They'd lost contact due to the radio discipline, but he trusted his field manager that was with them, Jessika Conejo.

Jessika landed with the other ground construction ships. She didn't look the part for an executive, as she was wearing the same tough, durable clothes as the workers, and she was one of the first off the lander when they got to the search site. She was elbow deep in dust and mud when the search site's native foreman was led to her.

"Thank you, all you and your guys are doing here..." The man trailed off. Jessika stood and turned, brushing the mud from her gloves onto her coveralls.

"It's our pleasure, Mister...?" She said, leaving the question open.

"Tanksalle, Horace Tanksalle. I run a lumber crew here, and when the earthquake hit it was mostly my jacks that were able to start the rescue process."

"You had a good set up going, our arrival didn't change anything so much as give you extra hands."

"It's still better than we assumed would happen, what with the fact that this isn't a populous system."

Jessika nodded and stepped out of the way as yet another person was recovered from the rubble. She looked out over her teams, and saw much of the rubble had been cleared into piles.

"Mr. Tanksalle, I'm a Field Manager for Union Construction. We're travelling with refugees from the Republic..." She started before being cut off.

"Republic?!" He snorted, then blushed and stammered an apology.

"Yeah, under the command of a Jedi, these are the real Republic, none of the killing civies or any of that..." She said, then shook her head with a smile. "What I was meaning to say, is that we have the manpower, and you have the resources. We'd like to help you rebuild."

"You, republic you, or you Union Construction you?" He asked, a note of suspicion in his voice.

"I can only speak for Union Construction, but I am sure the republic would like to help..."

"What's the price?" He said, his suspicion gaining hold of his voice more fully.

"You talk to Nicolas Thorne, we're contracted with Republic units that were on Denon. I'd imagine they'd like to do it for cheap, if you'll let them set up shop here..."

"Now that," The man said with a chuckle, the suspicion gone from his voice, "is something I have no control over. Your Thorne will have to talk to the system governor."

"For the mean time, lets get your people out of there and start rebuilding for you." She said with a smile. As they walked back, she activated a virtual window in her contacts field of view and mentally typed out a message to [member="nicolas thorne"] about her conversation. She'd leave finding out who the system governor was to him, while she got back to the real work.

Spoiler

[member="John Ash"] [member="Stardust Raxis"] [member="Rashae"] [member="Nicolas Thorne"] [member="Hessai Venscythe"] [member="Commander Firestorm"] [member="Klesta"] [member="Shane Williams"] [member="Barr Vexos"] [member="Perpa Morgowray"]

 

[John Ash]

John:​

​

The Blueshift took off of the ground and flew up into the atmosphere after John had gotten back to it. He put the datachip of the system into his ship's holoprojector and began to study it after he got into a passive orbit around the third planet of the Pii system. The asteroid belt that the pirate commander Jer Roh was in was the one closest of the two to the star in the center of the system. It was also the smallest in diameter, but didn't seem any more or less dense than the other. The thing that struck him was how it seemed that there were several sites all along the belt that appeared to be mining facilities. Ancient ones, but still some kind of planned structure. Where the pirates using these old facilities for bases and hangers for their ships all along the belt? Seemed like the likeliest option. The issue with near pin point accuracy of the commander's location with so many other places he could be along the belt was bothering him. How did this Mr. Kilmor know exactly where, or near enough, this pirate commander was hiding out? That sort of information could have been given to the "Republic fleet" that had come into the system in response to the call Mr. Kilmor's workers had put out. Another thing that bothered John. Why didn't Mr. Kilmor do it himself?

A voice came over the unsecured Pii system channel that caught John's attention. He turned the volume on it up as he listened. It was clearly female and seemed to be mentioning relief efforts by the "Republic". So the drifting nomads had finally done something other than talk endlessly. But that wasn't what had distracted him. It was the person the voice belonged to. It sounded a lot like that of Rashae, but that couldn't be. She wasn't a part of that pitiful group of exiles, and had no reason to be. He was clearly just hearing things. He turned the volume back down and went back to looking at his map. He had a job to do here and needed to focus. The last thing he needed was to speculate about some doctor maybe being here or not.

After a few minutes of studying the map and making some final preparations, John set his course and began to get himself out of orbit. He began to head towards the section of the asteroid belt where his target was located at. All the little issues he had with the situation and circumstances around the job buzzing around in his head as he did. Too much was wrong with it even if the job was straight forward enough. The pay was not over the top and about right for this kind of job. The information given to him was plausible too, even if a little suspicious. He was beginning to feel as if he was being lead around. He felt that there was something more to this whole thing, but he couldn't exactly pin anything down yet. He might be on a job, but he was no one's hired fool.

[member="Dalton Eldyr"]

 

[Rashae]

They rolled up their sleeves and got to work. Her triage protocols were working rather well. It went by simple color code. Blue was what the medics called 'walkie talkies'. Mild sickness that doesnt have a fever, flesh wounds, minor injuries and conditions. The person is able to hold a lucid conversation. They can walk around and talk. Yellow was moderate to severe injuries, fever, barely ambilatory or ambilatory with assistance. Concussion, mentally distraught or psychologically disoriented for medical or other reasons fall under yellow. Red were critically injured, non ambilatory or non responsive individuals who are under threat of loosing their lives. Rashae trained her staff this triage methodology.

Once the categorization of the triage methods commenced Disease detection was another matter. Those considered walkie talkies were examined and blood drops extracted and moderate level scans performed. The military team amped up the town's communications which announced their location a bit more brightly. Reports were filtering in as Rashae slammed her fist into the durasteel console and then shook her hand as she nursed the bruised hand. “Frack!!”

The forward teams recovered half of the dropped supplies. The rest where 'acquired' by competing towns. “Damn this rivalry.” She growled to no one in particular.

“Doctor, “ Came the hesitant lab technician. “the first set of labs are in. “ As the datapad was handed to the Doctor.

Rashae didn't apologize for her outburst as she took it. She skimmed over the number of diseases, conditions and maladies. Most of it was from exposure to harsh elements of the seasonal climate, malnutrition and sanitary conditions. All of it preventable with a few simple basic modern additions to their town. “None of this is surprising at least. We have enough to treat these?” She asked the technician.

“I think so, but we may need more antibiotics and vaccines. We need Sterile saline in bucket loads. “ The technician added laconically

Rashae nodded as she could appreciate the lab tech's brand of sarcasm. “We have other towns coming through? “

“yes, some might be here to steal for their town. “ He gave an apologetic shrug. “Caught one already. “

Rashae sighed and reached for her Com to notify the military teams. The closest one she would recall back. “I need a detail to guard medical supplies. I don't care general, we have to be careful with what we got. Till more arrives. “ She knew Stardust was nearing the system. “I believe so General, but till then we need to protect what we got. Non lethal force. “ He heard the general give fits as Rashae didn't understand military aspects. “These people are desperate. Do we punish desperate with martial action? “ She countered back. “We are here for humanitarian aid, at least I am. Doctor Lovous, out. “

She looked up as she had the communications officer focus coms on Pii 3 where Master Thorne was at. “Master Thorne, We are set up and starting to work on medical issues here. According to Readings we got a snow coming in. Before I cant have any ships take off, do you need a medical team there?”

She would wait for Thorne to respond. The doctor waited to hear Stardust was clear of that blockade the pirates put up. The beacon was stronger now so she should be able to get that. The medical staff had their orders on disease treatments. All she had to do was maintain and push further. Maybe get these people to actually act, human. That was not that hopeful of a thought.

[member="John Ash"] [member="Dalton Eldyr"] [member="Barr Vexos"] [member="Nicolas Thorne"] @Stardust and whoever else

 

[John Ash]

John:​

​

Not much longer and John would be at part of the asteroid belt that this Jer Roh was suppose to be hiding out at. He could already see the floating space rocks as he approached it. The only thing that bothered him was that there was some larger pieces of debris around the area. Pirates might not have military grade equipment to rely on, but they did have a habit of making some nasty traps that made up for it. He didn't want to set off an alarm or run into some mines out there. Either would likely see him and his ship floating lifelessly in the void like one of those over sized pebbles. It was a prospect that was not very attractive to him. So to hopefully avoid some of these from happening, he slowed his speed down so that his sensors might have time to warn him before he tripped anything unfriendly.

A few mines were out there as John was nearly to the asteroid belt, but no alarm seemed to be around. He was able to easily maneuver around the traps. Looked like he was going to avoid being one with the chilly black outside his cockpit. He was about to increase his speed again so he could get into the belt to hunt down that base, but then something he should have expected to happen yet didn't happened. A pirate patrol of three fighters past in front of him. A large chunk of stone had blocked their view of each other, but as soon as they spotted each other eyes were locked. John could see the browns of a human pilot that was nearest to him while their twi'lek and rodian companions were alerted. No time was wasted as John opened fire on the human's fighter, removing it from the fighting on the spot. The other two took evasive maneuvers and dipped into random directions away from each other.

John had to curse to himself as he had to take off after one of the fighters. He needed to engage one of them and hopefully lure the other back to him before they revealed his presence to the base. He picked the rodian and sped up after them. The fighter proved to be swifter and more agile than his craft was, which was not unexpected, and the pair took note of this immediately. They began to zip around him while taking pop shots at him. When one of the shots hit, it rocked John around in his ship while his shields managed to take the brunt of the blows. He could handle a beating in his craft, but they would eventually whittle him to death at this rate. It was especially true because they were moving too fast for his shots to hit. He was going to need another strategy here, but what? He looked around him as he began to focus more on evading than on tanking their hits to try to claim a shot. While he was doing this, he saw his solution. He sped up towards a smaller asteroid that was about a third the size of the fighters after him. When he got close to it, he activated his tractor beam and grabbed it. He twisted his controls in a wild fashion and sent his ship into a mad spin. The asteroid was let loose to fly backwards at the fighters chasing him down while John attempted to regain control of his ship. The closest one veered up and dodged the stony projectile, but the further one was not as quick. The rocky bullet tore through the craft like a knife through paper. A mine attached to the asteroid locked onto the remaining fighter and took off after it.

As John finally got his ship back under control, after clipping a few small rocks along the way, he watched the Rodian attempting to dodge the mine still. It gained more ground with every second until it finally caught up to them. The metal wonder lit up like a lifeday rocket as the mine found its mark. Pieces of ship flew in every direction as nothing other than some minor gravity attempted to stop them. John looked around to make sure more ships were not coming his way then resumed his journey into the asteroid belt. That was a close call. His systems were warning him that his molecular shield was close to overload and his hull had taken some damage. It might not be enough to be an issue with him just flying, but he wouldn't be able to handle another dogfight in this condition. He was going to need to be more careful from this point on. So with that in mind, he slipped into the belt to continue his hunt.

[member="Rashae"] [member="Dalton Eldyr"]

 

[John Ash]

John:​

​

This asteroid belt was thick with floating rocks and debris. John had to slow down to a crawl just to safely navigate it while looking for signs of the pirate commander's hide out. The only good that had come from this was that his ship's shield had time to channel the absorbed energy back into his systems and was now in no danger of overload. It still had the hull damage to worry about, but that was not effecting anything right now other than his desire to repair it. So he just kept his eye out as he looked around. Asteroid after asteroid with the occasional scrap of metal, plastic, and ceramic. It was discouraging how little sign of pirates he had found. No traps or early alert sensors to be found and he had checked things thoroughly. Perhaps the intel he had been given was bad. If that was the case, that patrol of pirates was out there searching for prey rather than searching for intruders.

And then it happened. John spotted a pirate fighter like the ones he had taken out earlier past in front of him. He cut his lights in his ship and watched as they slowed themselves down. They came to a stop in front of a particularly large asteroid and just sat there. Why had they stopped while facing it? That was not normal. There must be a reason for it, and there was. The portion of the asteroid that the pirate was facing suddenly disappeared and an energy shield that was commonly used for carrier hangers was in its place. The fighter inched forward into it where other ships were docked. After he got through it, the asteroid surface had seemed to phase back into existence. A hologram on a large scale. Clever pirates.

John turned his systems back on and began to slowly move his way to the asteroid. He avoided the entrance to what was clearly the front door. No one liked having someone show up at their front door unexpectedly, especially when they were not there to borrow a bottle of blue milk. So instead he flew around the rest of the asteroid looking for another way into the thing. There had to be one. Clever folk always left multiple ways in and out so that they couldn't be trapped. He just needed to find one of them, but it was likely going to take some time. He had a feeling they had everything cloaked by a hologram like the hanger entrance was. So he had to scan everything while he covered every inch of the asteroid.

After some time, John had discovered three other structures along the surface hidden by a hologram. It was just as he had thought it was going to be. He needed to figure out which would be the best approach though, so he had landed his ship on one of the near by asteroids will he looked over his scanned data. The three structures were very different from each other. One was a shaft for maintaining what was likely an old mining facility. One was a cooling shaft to allow for the cold of space to make its way closer to the power generator within the facility. And the last looked to be a second entrance on the back for fighter sized ships. It was probably Jer Roh's private hanger for his ship. The cooling shaft would be a bad idea as the further he went down it the hotter it would become, and there might not be a door for him to take inside. The hanger was a no go as well because he would have it guarded by some of his trusted crew members. So that left the shaft for maintaining the facility.

John got his ship lifted off of the asteroid and landed it by the shaft he was going to use. He made sure the ship was secured to the asteroid's surface before he got his armor and helmet into space walking mode. He got out of his ship and launched a cable at the area the shaft was in. As it hit, he was pulled toward it by his gun. Once he got to it, he activated his magnetic boots and secured himself to the metal platform around it. He felt for the button that worked the entrance through the hologram. As he felt it, he pressed the button and heard the metal move. He got himself through it and the hologram into a room just big enough for him to stand up in. He looked for the button and pressed it to lock the door. After it closed, he heard the room fill up with air and then watched as the door into the shaft opened. He headed through it and into the pirate hide out.

[member="Rashae"] [member="Dalton Eldyr"]

 

[Rashae]

The doctor was in surgical for a couple of hours, than in disease control and vaccinations over seeing those functions, then Rashae moved to the general clinic where basic medical care was provided. This took several hours to reach a point of consistency and marginal stabilization. There was a chill in the air as it seemed it spelled snow.

“Great. “ She said as the tired cranky doctor plopped in a chair in her tent. “Snow. “

“Yes ma'am and a bunch of it is on the way. “ The overly cheerful captain that had landed them in the first place was in there.

Rashae's tired eyes glared at that insufferable way too much personality for a person pilot. “Well before it gets too bad see if you can fly a small medical team over to Pii 3. Things are starting to stabilize and I am sure Chancellor Thorne will need the help with medical. Did those soldiers find the missing supplies?” She ordered and inquired in a bit of a snippy way. She was too tired to fluff it up.

“Not that I know of Doc. “ He shrugged as they hadn't had a lot of contact from the other military teams. He also saw how tired she was and that he probably shouldn't push it too much.

Rashae nodded as she sent requests for what teams she knows to come in closer and dig in. The other orders were for heat and getting people prepared for this snow storm. She made a transmission before it was possible that communications might be problematic.

“Chancellor Thorne. Doctor Rashae. We have stabilized here and continueing to provide care as people pour in from other villages. We got a storm coming my way. I am sending a small team towards your way before this storm gets bigger. Hopefull we wont loose communications, but in case we do, we amped up the frequency of the beacon at my location. Be safe and see you soon hopefully. Doctor Lovous, out.”

Rashae leaned back as a cup of hot tea was brought to her as well as a coat. The woman nodded her thanks to what was brought to her. “Lets dig in and get ready to shore up for this storm. What do the locals tell us?”

“The old timers said this noreaster is a bad one. We may get a couple of meters of snow before morning.” The woman grimaced.

“Great. See what the military needs to dig in and hole up till this passes. “ The other woman nodded. “Do we have a soup kitchen going? ”

“Yes, ma'am. Got it started. Soup and bread rations will spread out what we got. We can make these provisions last a while if need be. “ The crisp and efficient woman said as she waited for any remaining orders.

Rashae nodded to the woman as the first of the northern winds started gusting. Great!! her little but was going to freaken freeze. “That will be all. Lets just make it through this night. “ The woman nodded at the Doctor, turned and walked out of the Doctor's tent. Rashae leaned back in the chair she had as she was not going to enjoy this night at all. There was this hot tea, though. She started sipping it slowly.

[member="John Ash"] [member="Nicolas Thorne"] [member="Dalton Eldyr"]

 

[Barr Vexos]

@Rashae @John Ash

Preparing himself to repel downwards Barr hoped that the snow doesn't affect the mission too much. Granted the training he gotten from his father will help him deal with the snow but it was still a pain to him. Now fully prepared to repel down he waits for the signal he hears something else.

“All right troops there been a change of plans!!!” The captain yelled getting the attention of the soldiers in front of him We're we just contacted a few seconds ago and told that boxes that we're filled with medical supplies were dropped from above and onto the surface!!” He explained “ And we been given the order to gather all of them!!” He continued, “We're still going to repel downwards but you all will dropped in different locations. Each of you stick to your assigned group and do your duty for the republic!!!”

“SIR!!” Was the word said in response to the captain orders The captain soon press a button that opened a hatch. The coldness of the snow came into the republic ship to different responses. Barr felt the cold hit him like sharp spikes “And there goes my warmth.” He said as the cold hit him. He watches some of the solders repel down to the surface, wondering how much were they willing to sacrifice for the republic until he heard his name.

“Vexos!!” He turned to see his squad leader “You know the drill, don't do anything without my say so you got it?” He said in an threating tone.

“Yeah...I got it.” He responded “Sir.” He added putting a subtle emphasis on sir.Barr saw his squad leader moved in position then moved next to him along with his other squad member setting himself up by attaching to the rope before taking a deep breath. “And so it begins.....” He whispered before being told to repel down with his other squad members.

Feeling the cold affect his body combined with the wind in his face made thankful that he had warm clothes on. Looking around him he couldn't see much other than another republic ship that has landed. Afterwards, he looked down to the ground and paced himself with the landing before finally releasing the hook.

“OK!!” The squad leader said “Let search the area for the boxes. No one goes to far from here got that !!?”

“Roger!!” They answered.

 

[John Ash]

John:​

​

The shaft lead John further inside of the old mining facility through dim lighting. The air seemed to grow thicker as he moved forward and he was becoming less and less reliant on his rebreather as he went. Eventually he was met with a dead end. There was no sign of a door or a hatch of any kind around him, and yet there was no reason for the shaft to isolated. As he looked around, he found what looked like a small rectangular panel. He pressed down on it slightly with his finger and watched it slide open. A small button was revealed which he pressed. After he did, one of the square panels slide out of the way with a hatch below. He walked over it and turned the wheel before lifting it up.

John dropped down into a room after he entered the hatch. He looked around and quickly studied his surroundings. Crates and boxes marked with everything ranging from food stuffs to medicines to booze. Weapons of all kinds and explosives lined walls and were laid all over tables. He had found himself in a store room of some kind. An empty room that lacked any kind of guards or even a quartermaster. Good luck on that end it seemed. He walked over to one of the tables. A box full of detonators and a remote for them was on top of a table. He began to fill up his pouches with explosives until he had most of the box emptied and then took the remote. He turned to the door and headed towards it.

As the door opened up, John looked out into the hallway. Neither side had any sign of life. He moved out of it storage room and to the left. He was beginning to wonder if this place was actually that threatening when he came up to a blast door. He slowed down as he saw it and placed a hand on one of his pistol's grip. As he got up to it, he pressed a button on a panel to open it slightly then looked through it. On the other side he saw a hangar full of fighters, freighters, and a couple corvettes. He had found the front door and it only had a three pirates moving around as they refueled ship after ship and marking what he guessed was repairs on a datapad. He pressed the button again and made the door open up enough for him to slip through it. He had an idea for his toys he had just picked up and that few of hostiles to worry about.

After getting into the hangar, John walked over to the first fighter stealthfully. He pulled out a few detonators and activated them. He stuck them to hidden places then moved to the next ship while keeping an eye on the trio that occupied the hangar with him. He moved from ship to ship as he repeated this process until he had most of the ships rigged up with hidden detonators. As he finished the last one he was on, he watched as the trio finished fueling up the ship they were on. They spoke inaudibly amongst themselves as they got the tanks floating along with them unhooked from the ship. They pushed the tanks out of the way and then headed towards one of the several blast doors that opened up into the hangar. John moved behind them to rig up the ships he couldn't get earlier. He moved towards the nearest blast door after. He looked back at his handy work unable to find any sign of what he had done. He smiled to himself slightly then headed through the door.

[member="Barr Vexos"] [member="Rashae"] [member="Dalton Eldyr"]

 

[John Ash]

John:​

​

John moved down the corridor low with a hand on the handle of his gun. He needed some sort of sign to know where his target was located, but so far everything looked the same. It was the same type of sliding door located at a measured distance from every other one. This must be the old living quarters from when this facility use to be used as a mining outpost in the belt. This uniformity didn't suit pirates and it didn't help the situation. It was giving him nothing to go off of and it was a little odd how no form of symbols or writings had been placed on the walls. You would expect a phallic symbol or a pair of breasts or at least the name of the pirate group to be plastered somewhere, but it wasn't. The place almost seemed para-military in it's cleanliness, but that thought was soon shattered after it had entered John's mind. A pair of footsteps sounded from the hallways to the right of John. He pressed himself into a shallow nook and watched to see what happened next with his hand still placed on his pistol's grip.

Voices began to echo in a muffled fashion along with the steps. The pair was holding a conversation of some kind, but the details were beyond John as he tried to listen. They kept their voices low and whispered. John knew that whatever was being said held important information for his job. They must have been speaking about their captain, and it was something that couldn't be said out loud. Perhaps he had a spice habit that had gotten out of hand. Perhaps he was losing it and had gotten paranoid. Perhaps he had a bad arm after some kind of accident. It could be anything that he could use when he dealt with the man. It was bugging him that he couldn't make any of it out right now...and then they came up to the intersection with the hallway he was hiding off of. It was a human and a twi'lek, both male, that stopped on either side of the door at the end of John's hallway. They took up what seemed to be sloppy posts as if they were guarding something, but neither was very alert. Typical of pirates in a secure hide out. This was the kind of situation that John expected from a pirate base. And with their new positions John was finally able to make out their whispers.

It was all small talk. Everything the pair had to say to each other in a whisper was pointless small talk. They were just complaining about the recent cleanliness policy put in place due to "health concerns." They also talked about the loud noises rule that was a punishment for someone breaking into the com system in the base. They also complained about the constant patrolling of every corridor other than the hangar and storage area, which were suppose to be patrolled by droids. John paused at that. He just came from that area and didn't see any droids. Had he been seen when he was sneaking around earlier? No, no he couldn't have been or he would have been under fire already. But it was still not good news. What they said meant that it would be nearly impossible to sneak around long enough to figure out which room was the captain's and not be caught. Even if there was a slim chance of him pulling it off, he didn't like relying that much on chance. Lady Luck never liked to be taken for granted after all, and she could be one vindictive karker. No he would need another option to be able to move on with his mission.

The hangar. That was John's key to dealing with these patrols. If he detonated their ships then they would have to respond to the destruction and the fire. They were on a limited oxygen supply here after all so it would need to be all hands on deck or everyone would suffer. But would it work or would these pirates just assume someone else would deal with it? From the way those two complained just now about fairly standard policies it was possible. Considering it all, he still had to take the chance that it would work out. The odds were more in his favor even if he didn't completely feel they were. So he pulled out the detonator from the pouch he had stored it in and pressed the button. A loud series of explosions boomed from down the hallway as the entire asteroid shook violently. It was as if the place had been hit by turbolasers. John managed to hold his balance, barely, while the pair of pirates fell to the floor. Their lips moved silently as John's ears rang from how loud the distraction was. A message came from the com systems and was able to be heard over the ringing. It was a call for all hands to the hangar to put out fires and try to salvage ships. The pair got back onto their feet and then rushed down the hallway towards the hangar, not once noticing John hidden in his nook. The sound of other footsteps and pirates calling out to each other rang all around him as they moved down their hallways. It was now his chance to find the captain's quarters while everyone was distracted. John began to move away from the hangar and further into the living quarters.

 

[John Ash]

John:​

​

It had taken him a bit but John had finally found the door that led into the captain's room. It was time for John to met this Jer Roh face to face. He drew his pistol from its holster and got himself into a ready stance. He moved toward the subtly marked door raising his weapon up in front of him. Each step lacking sound but feeling as if they echoed out to John. Sneaking around was a skill he had to learn back on Nar Shaddaa to survive the streets, and he had learned one important thing: if you don't think you can be heard then you are dead. The habit of always feeling like he was making more sound than he was still stuck with him as he approached the door. It slide open before he tapped the door panel and caused the hairs on the back of his neck to rise up. A voice calmly called out from within the depths of now open room, " I know you are there. Hidden cameras. We should chat so put away your gun."

John frowned slightly from behind his helmet as he listened to the words. He had been seen but they just wanted to talk. They never just wanted to talk. His bad feeling about the job from before had grown even stronger as he holstered his gun. If this Jer Roh did want him dead then they wouldn't reveal their hand of knowing he was coming like this. So John said as he walked into the room, " Fine. What do you want?"

As John entered he was immediately greeted by a room filled with more luxurious furniture than he ever expected to see in a pirate's hide out. It all looked like the kind of stuff royalty or the extremely wealthy would buy. It was all also made out of greel wood. This Jer Roh was doing far better than he had imagined, and the twi'lek himself was seated in a throne like chair behind a desk. The green male had scars and tattoos all over his skin that wasn't hidden by his leather armor. A heavy blaster pistol rested in easy reach on top of the desk in front of him and a smug grin was plastered on his face. He said as John studied everything over as quickly as possible, " That nerf herder Kilmor sent you to kill me didn't he? Likely offered you good pay for it too right? I bet he even fed you some kind of sob story about how we are starving out the system."

John raised a brow slightly at what this pirate had to say. He was nearly dead on for how things went and it didn't make his nearly consuming bad feeling ease any. His interest was very much peaked however so he said as his hands pushed back his duster and rested on the handles of his guns, " Yeah about right."

Jer Roh's grin deeped as he leaned forward on the desk with his elbows coming to rest on it as his hands cupped together against his chin. The pirate captain nearly cooed, " What he didn't mention was that he ain't going to pay you. You see me and him had a deal worked out before. I raid every ship that doesn't belong to his company or he doesn't expressly say not to touch, and in return we get to keep all of the loot and he would send credits our way. It was a good deal, a profitable deal. Then the karker stopped sending us our due pay. He had gotten fat off of the monopoly he had formed off of this greel wood you see." He tapped the scarlet desk with one of his hands as he paused. " He got that way because of us you see, and then once he had full control over the whole business he decided to cut us out of the equation. He even hired a whole lot of mercenaries, such as yourself, to get rid of us. Didn't happen though, so we decided to just do as we please. As a result, the gorram lover can't get anything in or out of the system. Sadly the people are starving because of this, but that is just a side effect of Kilmor's poor choices."

Everything was falling into place now. The things that didn't line up before for John were now making sense. Kilmor had hired him on to clean up a mess, and likely the data he was suppose to destroy was the proof of it. This Jer Roh was smarter than Kilmor in how he was handling the deal going south, but Kilmor could call for outside assistance. They were stallmated in this little game of theirs, but John needed to see to it they both came out as losers. He just needed to try to bait out some more information from this chatty karker. So to do that he said, " And so you are going to offer me double to turn on him?"

Jer Roh quickly got to his feet with a maniacs cackle after he heard John's words. He said as he held his arms out on either side of him, " Exactly! I want you to help me out, and I will offer you more then just double. I can also offer you land and as much greel wool as you want. All I need you to do is to get the deed to the system from Kilmor's office."

John was caught off guard by what he had just heard. "Deed to the system." Not a deed to a section of an asteroid belt. Not a deed to a single moon. Not even a deed to a planet. No that shady karker Kilmor had a deed for the entire system. The thing granted Kilmor every right imaginable under the law to do as he pleased with the system and now this Jer Roh was aiming for it. The people were already starving from the blockade by the pirates and the sudden natural disasters, but now they were looking to go from one psychopath to another controlling their lives. It wasn't right. John wasn't the sappy type. He had seen plenty of injustices and killed people for a living. But this, this was just wrong. He needed to do something for these people and the first place he could do that at was here. It was time for him to finish his job and kill this nerf lover Jer Roh.

 

[John Ash]

John:​

​

The pair just looked at each other in silence as Jer Roh waited for John to respond to his offer. It was the kind of deal that most would likely take, and it would be their own fault when they got backstabbed by this karker in front of him. John knew all too well how much you could trust a pirate, he did spend half of his life on Nar Shaddaa learning things the hard way, and it was even less for a pirate captain with as large of a fleet and crew as this one had. John would be sent in to do the dirty work and then the first chance Jer Roh got there would be a vibroknife in John's back or a blaster bolt in his gut. He wasn't about to fall for it, but he was sure not to show this with his movements. As far as any outsider could tell, he was just taking a bit of time to think over the deal.

After enough time had past, John said, " Double, land, and greel wood. Tempting." His fingers slowly tapped over the handles of his pistols. He was ready to take his shot, but it wasn't a good time just yet. Jer Roh just watched John as he continued to smile. His hands lowering to his sides and then leaning back to rest on the desk. The captain said as he eyed John more closely, " So do we have a deal Mr. Ash?"

Mr Ash? Hearing his last name spoken, John drew his right pistol and fired at Jer Roh. As the slug hit the twi'lek in the heart, the tip of his blaster came up after being pulled from behind him and fired off. The bolt hit John in the shoulder and pierced through into his flesh. John sneered under his helmet at the pain the heavy blaster bolt caused as the captain dropped to the floor dead. He holstered his gun and placed a hand on his right shoulder. He could still move it but it hurt him to do so. It hurt him when he kept it still as well. The only good news was that he wouldn't be bleeding at least, unlike the twi'lek on the floor. He walked over to the captain and kicked him. No movement. The recording was proof enough of the job's completion. He turned off his recorder on his helmet and began to look around the room. If he was going to confront Kilmor about what Jer Roh had said, he would need more than the recorded conversation. He needed some actual proof. With the way the now dead captain had been acting that proof should still be in this room. All he had to do now was look for it.

 

[Commander Firestorm]

The Unbroken moved above the ring of asteroids to avoid the majority of traps and debris, it started a barrage of heavy turbolaser fires into the asteroid belt. Firestorm watched from the control bridge, he had the shields directed toward the side of the ship facing the asteroid belt.