Tear Down the Wall (ORC Dominion of Elrood)

[Maokai Bantam]

Elrood​

Station AR-3 - Hanger - Getting the Bird?​

Objective - Gone in 12 Parsecs​

​

("Special Agent Gross with the CIS Ministry of Secrets, no body move, your under arrest")

"You got balls "Agent Gross" I''ll give you that. Shame the CIS has no jurisdiction in these parts, plus pretty sure that is a made up thing, but lets not let the truth get in the way of a good con here right?"

Maokai was down right impressed they had been able to fit so many people into that crate. Hey maybe most of them were Jawa but still, that had to be uncomfortable. The young judge kept his weapon trained on the bird who seemed to be the leader of the group and addressed him again.

"Listen, lets try this again. I'm deputy Bantam, here is my really real badge." MaoKai said pointing to the badge pinned to his jacket.

"Now if I'm gonna be convinced to not arrest the lot of ya and take you in for questioning I'm gonna need a damn sight better of a explanation, and remember you earn bonus points for honesty!"


[member="Kingsley"] | [member="Yula Perl"]

 

[Jic Drow]

With the orders coming out, Cias nodded. It was going to be interesting to take the squad. He was working with Twilight for a bit now, not totally green, but still the type to look for direction. But this was Elrood, it was time to get moving and make the Alliance proud. Moving forward, Kunn was checking his weapon and keeping his eyes peeled. If it got dark, he’d be having to take point, something he didn’t mind. Especially not with the shielding armor he was wearing. Something a bit aftermarket but, hey, they were the Alliance.

“Roger that, Captain.” He nodded. Getting the lifts, that was the easy part. And going down?

He was a Sullustan, he was used to being underground. But first, it was the door. Looking to the Jensaarai attache, before looking at the controls. Moving the visor from his vision, Cias began to punch a code.

Push any key…

Which one was the any key?

Shaking his head, the Sergeant pointed down the hall. “Cover me.” He got down to a knee and started ripping the panel open and splicing some of the lines. “Right… red?” He started tapping the line against the power source.

Once, twice…

The door was opening. “Lift’s here!”

[member="Sol Stazi"]
[member="Veino Garn"]
@Sahera Kyre

 

[Peyton Steele]

She knew the longer they stayed here the quicker the luck would run out, but it still didn’t help that Imperial interests were going to be keeping them slowed down and messing with their groove. She ran her hand over the frame of the computer system and started to tap a few commands into the system, to get a surefire crack into he underworking. It wasn’t going to override the passwords for the land locks but it was going to get her mostly into the admin levels of the code and program.

“Now what ship are you, darling?” She muttered as she scrolled up, getting to the current floor and docking bay. “Alright…” She whispered, more to herself than anyone else. Some of her ship’s crew were already trying to break the locks on some of the other vessels, but a quick swipe of the finger and all the ships on this level were released from the land lock. Tapping the datapad on her wrist, a small astromech/hacker droid. It flew over to the ship and began to work the command controls out.

Checking her surroundings and making sure her pistol was in her hand, she pressed her back towards the landing gear of the ship, she could sense in the Force the wave of soldiers coming.

“C’mon, little guy…” She whispered as she readied her pistol to the door.

She saw the blast doors open.

 

[Griet van Vliet]

Objective: Gone in 12 parsecs
Allies: ORC
Enemies: Pirates, stormtroopers

And now came the moment of truth: with the pirates in two groups, one to stand guard over the docking port, and the other in the cockpit preparing the ship for hyperspace flight. She could also sense that they believed plundering the freighter could wait until they could be safe from any First Order attempt at recapturing it: they could always steal what's of value onboard, if anything, while in hyperspace, or at their technical stop. She made no assumptions regarding the FO's impounding process, but then came the magic: she cast a Neural Storm spell with a blast radius large enough to cover the entire squad of pirates posted at the entrance in its entirety, and make them suffer from seizures upon impact. The picture wasn't pretty when the neural storm did, in fact, impact: the whole squad of pirates was not simply disoriented: they lost consciousness as if hit by seizures. Yet, she knew in her heart of hearts that seizures were preferrable to outright killing those pirates if it was even feasible. But she was racing against the clock to put those pirates under lockdown.

 

[Jerec Asyr]

ORBIT
IMPOUND HANGAR 36
'GONE IN 12 PARSECS'

Comms eavesdropping indicated that plenty of other ORC affiliates had the same idea - and the good stuff was probably gone by now. On the plus side, the others had probably put a decent hole in the guard force, whatever that entailed.

Jerec's big Tannhauser-class freighter shuffled up to the outer field of Impound Hangar 36. That field would stop a lot; what it wouldn't stop was a Kathol junker cannon, a shield-bypassing ion weapon from the middle of the Outback. Jerec had paid ten thousand truguts for it. The gun was worth every wupiupi.

Suited, braced in an open airlock, he aimed and fired. The huge gun blatted blue light into the forcefield generators. The hangar decompressed without incident, though a few little tools and small objects drifted out to rattle against the Tannhauser's hull.

In theory, tractor beams would work fine at this point, but the hangar was sort of a target-rich environment, enough to baffle the Tannhauser's civilian targeting gear. That meant someone needed to apply beacons, manually. Jerec shouldered the junker cannon and kicked out into the voided hangar. Half a dozen light freighters were looking for homes, either old or new. For those ships belonging to less pleasant people, Gallofree's reverse-engineering facilities gaped hungrily.

 

[Kingsley]

LOADING BAY​

CIVILIAN SHIPYARDS​

GONE IN 12 PARSECS​

---

​

---

​

"Of course you've never heard of it, rrrawwk! Then it wouldn't be Secret!"

Captain Kingsley's eyes glanced nervously around the cargo hangar. He was losing control of the situation, and weighing the odds of successfully passing his jawa partners off as deputy agents wasn't particularly appealing. Extricating himself from the living heap on the deck, he rose up to his full towering height of two meters. When [member="Maokai Bantam"] flashed an actual badge, the hiitian's beak twitched ever so slightly. It curled upwards into a carnivorous looking smile, and he made a big show of raising his feathered arms, both trunks capable of felling a grown wookiee.

"Alright officer," he sagged his head so he was almost at eye level with the humanoid, "You got me. The honest truth is, I'm a magician. And these are my assistants!"

He nudged the closest jawa, nearly bowling him over, before the little critters got the message and hastily attempted to assemble a living pyramid, but quickly collapsed in a new heap of tangled limbs. They started cursing at one another in jawaese.

"Behold! My signature move," Kingsley waved his talons in front of his face, snatching their attention from the pathetic display, and suddenly produced a cylindrical object through sleight of hand. The activation switch was flipped and it was beeping excitedly.

The smuggler called out to his crewmates, "Scatter!"

He tossed the thermal detonator at Maokai and [member="Yula Perl"].

Drawing his blunderbuss while he ran, Kingsley dove behind the nearest crate for cover.

 

[Jairus Starvald]

ELROOD HOSPITAL​

[member="Rian Taske"]​

​

Throughout the years Cerbera had set-up numerous things.

None of them more benevolent than the hospital on Elrood. As the years passed, the place grew, adding more wings and accepting more patients in its midst. This was not a place of secrets. One wouldn't find some horrific underground laboratory below the floor. It wasn't a front for Cerbera's disturbing (highly scientific and interesting!) experiments. She had never really understood that. Mixing business with pleasure. One didn't chit, where one lived, so to speak.

Instead this hospital was exactly what it professed to be.

A place where Sithspawn (humanoid or otherwise) could come and be healed- or at the very least helped as much as was possible. It was an interesting experiment in its own right. What was more difficult that shaping a being into your own goals? Reversing the shape of others. Fix and unmake what had been done to them.

This was one of Cerbera's 'off'-days.

Much of her keen intelligence drained for storage. It made her... more pleasant to interact with. It was why she picked those days to visit the hospital. To appear on her.... on... days? Would have probably disturbed people more than was necessary. She milled about. Strolling slowly from one corridor to the next. Watching curiously as various patients (they had agreed to accept non-Sithspawn refugees) be helped in the rooms. Some screamed, some were silent.

All were suffering.

It was strange to feel bad about that. The slow return of empathy was always dizzying. Suddenly starting to care. Very uncomfortable. It was why she always returned back to her normal state. Short bursts were okay, but anything more?

She suppressed a shudder.


Settling down next to another room she peered in. Another screamer. Brows furrowed.

"What is wrong with this one?" Asking quietly to the woman next to her. Face half burned. Normal Cerbera would have asked her if she wanted that fixed. Current one? Waited patiently.

 

[Rian Taske]

ELROOD HOSPITAL​

[member="Cerbera"]​

"They have a serious case of 'Management Refuses to Evac So I'm Stuck Here Screaming.'" The response was immediate and mild.

The Hospital was right on the edge of some serious messiness. Rian had come here with a small number of others to arrange for an evacuation to a safer place. She had.... not expected what they had found here, if she were being honest.

Rian wasn't really sure how she felt about it either.

Most of the time, honestly? Rian didn't much care about lightsiders or darksiders or whatever. Space magic wasn't something she gave any more thought to than she strictly needed to, and most of her life she didn't really need to. She'd seen enough weird chit without needing to go hunting for it, and the idea of people being able to create or destroy on the levels they could with the Force? Yeah no thanks. Keep that.... over the kark there please.

So staring it in the face?

Yeah, she'd rather be anywhere but here right now.

But instead management was having a closed door discussion about whether they would evacuate or not.

Then a beat.

"Honestly I have no idea. I'm not particularly up the date on my 'force afflictions' part of the medical code. But from their heart rate and the adrenaline spikes that keep showing, I would suspect they are hallucinating something particularly nasty."

She glanced over then, slightly up because honestly Rian looked up at most people.

"Are you here with a family member?"

Hell if the high muckity mucks would do what they needed to, Rian would go room by room if she had to. Might as well start here.

 

[Yula Perl]

Yula looked on, thoroughly entertained by her cousin playing deputy. Hey, to her he was still lil’ Mako, one of her probably hundreds of cousins by now. At least he was pink, she had to give him that.

Before she had the chance to play good cop and try to sweet talk…something out of Big Bird, Yula and Mako were subject to an impromptu magic show. The ‘agent’ had to cover her mouth to keep from belly laughing as the jawas tumbled from their hastily assembled pyramid.

Then all of a sudden…

“Oh, feth.”

Yula took a leap and tackled [member="Maokai Bantam"] hard to the ground. The pair skittered across the floor behind another shipping container as the grenade detonated, sending shrapnel flying and a buzz ringing in their ears.

“Fethin bird, I’m gonna pull out all of them feathers one by one…” Maybe Yula was talking louder than she had intended due to the fact that she couldn’t hear so great at the moment.

Either way, trade a grenade for a grenade. Yula quickly sent two stun pearls sailing in the direction of [member="Kingsley"] and the Jawa troupe. They didn’t have the best range, but hopefully they’d be unexpected enough to at least slow them down. Also, one of them was actually filled with glitter.

 

[Griet van Vliet]

Objective: Gone in 12 parsecs
Allies: ORC
Enemies: Pirates, stormtroopers

"Poodoo: this ship has no fuel onboard!" the pirate leader shouted from the cockpit.

The pirates complained that there was no fuel? May as well be using Neural Storm to fry their brains and catch them before they can attempt getting some, she thought, while realizing that it would only solve part of the issue. But she needed to secure the epileptic pirates in a cabin under lock and key before she could even think of getting fuel for the ship, and she made sure the Neural Storm being fired covered the entire cockpit so that everyone in it becomes epileptic. And hence much easier to capture and ferry to the secret cargo hold where the others were held. Once that was done, there were ten pirates in the secret cargo hold, held under lock and key and she made sure that the door was securely fastened and that there were no implements that the pirates could use to attempt getting out. Then and only then she could even think of opening the docking port so that she could get the fuel for the ship to get out of this hangar. Now, she'd better make sure she can pay for the fuel cash on delivery, because that's often what light freighter captains were asked to pay for their refueling.

 

[Maokai Bantam]

Elrood​

Station AR-3 - Hanger - Bird Gone Crazy​

Objective - Gone in 12 Parsecs​

​

​

The moments leading up to the thermal detonator exploding were kinda a blur. He remembered a jawa pyramid falling down like a heap of bricks. The bird going all jazz hands, then the beeping silver sphere of death. Lucky for Mako, his cuz had been on it and had thrown them to safety. Unlucky for the bird and his large robed trash rats, Maokai was now totally pissed and ready to dispense some shotgun justice.

(“Fethin bird, I’m gonna pull out all of them feathers one by one…”)

"Sounds good to be cuz, I'm on the the sand rats then." Mako said as [member="Yula Perl"] 's stunners went off. Through the haze of glitter Mako fired off shots as quickly as the lever action shot gun would allow. Targeting the shocked and sparkly Jawa's Mako targeted the creatures feet and hands with glop rounds. He was hoping to slow [member="Kingsley"] men or pin them down so they could be captured and interrogated. He came here to get a ship, the way things were going he was gonna have himself his first arrests. Though if push come to shove he would have preferred a much more simple exercise.

His shotgun emptied he began loading more lethal rounds. Play time is over, Mr feathers up the ante, time to fight fire with fire power.

 

[Khar Garak]

Elrood - System Outskirts​

O.R.C.S Aquila Transcendence​

Escort the Wolf's head​

​

Fighters were already launching from battered super carrier, slowly making her way from the western reaches her remaining fighters has been called in to help escort the "new" dreadnought complete its' first mission. The once proud Colony-class super carrier had taken an extreme beating at the hands of the enemy but had fought admirably and was now on route for refit in Corellia.

"Five more squadrons away sir, shall we launch the remaining flights?" The hanger chief asked.

"No, leave them on standby. Slow moving bombers are not going to help at this point, they will be more of a liability chief." Admiral Garak said.

The admiral's plan was a simple one, he ship was in now shape to fight toe to toe, so while the Wolf's head soaked up the damage, they would hang back and support the ships slow advance with their fighters.

 

[Janick Beauchamp]

Objective: Break the blockade
Location: Wolf's Head hangar
Allies: ORC [member="Khar Garak"]
Enemies: FO

"Target: the interdiction station; since it has its own gravity well, maintain safe distance for dropping the bombs and they will be dragged to it by gravity"

"Wololo, wololo, aieololo, wololo, wololo, aieololo!" Wololo chanted, as if he was performing religious services.

The battle was already underway in orbit, with Ssu-ruuvi elements having followed the FO from Asmeru and opened fire at the first occasion. That was another enemy the Wolf's Head had to be mindful of as it crept into battle; while the Wolf's Head and its escorts were busy engaging both the First Order and the Ssu-ruuvi, Janick, with her craft outfitted with two heavy proton bombs apiece, took off with the rest of the Wolf's Head's fighters forming a screen around it and its escorts. She knew that, once dropped, bombs would continue their flight along the same trajectory as they were on at drop, and, at A-Wing speeds (that Lyulkas can reach at the cost of not firing guns), which is only going to get faster since they were flying towards the station, rather than away from it, there will be a kinetic impact strong enough to cause the bomb to detonate upon contact with the station's hull. Janick began flying at speed for an attack run directed at the Keeper station. Even given the size of the station, even with dumb bombs not appearing on a point-defense sensor, staying out of point-defense range was key, and they all knew it.

"Stay on target..." Leastre commented, while getting into position to drop the bomb head-on.

"Bombs away!"

 

[Jairus Starvald]

[member="Rian Taske"]

A soft smile there.

"The exact nature of this place makes evacuation a challenge, sadly." Cerita said carefully, before stepping a bit closer to the glass. Watching them restraining the patient as carefully as possible. "The only thing preventing these poor souls from going bad are the trees." The Ankarres Trees spread through the courtyards. Even if Rian wasn't a Forcer, she would have noticed their effects, especially considering she had to walk past one to enter the hospital.

It spread peace and quiet.

Muffling aggression.

Any wounds felt less bad in their presence. Healing came quicker- even scars faded just a little bit more. "I sympathize though. It must be frustrating wanting to help, but not being able to."

By now Rian might already have an idea who this was.

If the green skin and the amber eyes didn't show it? The familiar way she was talking about the facility might. "No, not quite. Though in a way I consider all of them my family. Few care about their fate. Most think them monsters who need to be put down." A shrug there. "I am Cerita Sarova. I build this hospital... so I suppose I am part of that frustrating management you speak of."

Bemused glance to her.

"We can release the lesser afflicted ones, but I do not think it is wise to release some of the others out of their containment, miss....."

 

[Rian Taske]

It wasn't that Rian hadn't noticed the trees. But it wasn't that she had either. Not something she had a lot of experience in, and her focus had been on a very specific task. When it was brought to her attention, she could look back and notice that she had become calmer in it, despite the situation being hideously frustrating. She was only mildly frustrated which, to be fair, was a minor miracle, considering. If it was because of the trees? Wonderful, lovely. Rian wasn't a botanist. She couldn't keep a house plant alive if she had tried. She honestly didn't really care.

And in truth? The details of the hospital, let alone the founder of it, had fallen under the same umbrella of 'not actually relevant, thanks' for her here today. In general as well, but specifically her goal was to get these people somewhere not here. Who had founded this place a decade ago or whatever hadn't even crossed her mind as a piece of information she needed for this task.

"Taske, Rian Taske," she supplied, slowly absorbing all of that.

"And what part of 'evacuate' equals 'release' to you? I'm not talking about setting anyone free...." she trailed off, and the look on her face showed her clear distaste with the entire concept.

This wasn't a hospital, this was a gorram zoo.

Oh, this Cerita seemed nice enough. Honestly she seemed a little.... well like she was one some kind of sedative herself. Words and attention too soft around the edges, too mild for the situation at hand. Maybe she spent too much time around these trees. Talk about a way to lose your edge- this seemed less than ideal to her for people without serious emotional turmoil.

Sure their patients.... prisoners? APPARENTLY????.... probably benefited from it, but how did the STAFF stay sharp? Was that why it was taking them so long to make a call one way or another?

"Look if you'all don't want to move who you can, just tell me." She finally sighed. "I'm here to help if you do want to evacuate, but I can't just sit here and wait while there's other work that needs to be done if you're NOT, you feel me?"

It was gentler than she might have otherwise. The trees? Or just the soft feel of the woman beside her? Hard to say. Possibly a bit of both.

[member="Cerbera"]

 

[Peyton Steele]

Peyton Steele was an agent, she wasn’t the type who jumped into all out assaults. Sure, for a few weeks there, with the Omega Protectorate, she trained for combat, but when she joined the Galactic Alliance? Her aptitude tests and skillsets threw her into Intelligence. She was fine with that. Hell, she actually enjoyed it. She always had the ability to get people to tell her their secrets, and she could do that, mostly, while leaving her clothes on. Computers, well that was a skill she had to develop to survive, once upon a time, and now she used it to get paid and help support the galaxy.

But combat? Yeah, combat was something different for the Gurlainn-Hybrid. She preferred to avoid it, or if she couldn’t get up close and physical with people. But she could take a few ranged shots. Her pistol was trained at the door and as it opened, she squeezed off a burst of shots at the door before ducking for cover. She looked up at her astro-droid and nodded. Right, distraction.

Grabbing one of the cylinders from her belt, she activated it as the small cylinder pulsed light purple. Grinning she threw it at the door, it hit the floor and a small burst of magnetic energy, pulling the blasters away from the soldiers. And that was when the follow up from her team came.

Troopers dropped as her droid gave the affirmative. “Got one open!”

 

[Sol Stazi]

SHIELD GENERATOR FACILITY​

FIRST ORDER GARRISON​

DISABLE PLANETARY SHIELD​

[member="Cias Kunn"] | [member="Veino Garn"] | [member="Sahaera Kyre"]​

---

Allowing his body to dangle from the scout armor's climbing harness, Captain Stazi tugged a seeker probe from one of his utility belt's pouches. Activating the handball sized probe droid, he tossed it gently to sail up the remainder of the turbolift shaft. Now pulling himself up the last few meters until he was hanging just below the level for command and control. After sending a wordless command to the probe via comlink, it overrode the lift access and sailed through an opening portal.

A flurry of blaster fire filled the shaft just above him, and when they stopped the obliterated droid bounced back down the shaft, pinging off walls along the way.

Sol wasted no time in his response, drawing a SSK-7 heavy blaster from its holster and spraying blindly over the lip of the lift's ledge. The shots taken at his probe gave him a good idea of where each Imperial defender was positioned, and he heard the gratifying sound of several heavy thuds after a quick sweep. Now grabbing a flash grenade from his bandolier, the Twilight commando tossed it up and over. Renewed blaster fire greeted it, but quickly died off when he activated the device's remote detonator.

Arms rippling with muscle strain, the duros now hoisted himself up and leaned out into the corridor. With his rifle on full auto, he swept both sets of Imperial defenders. In a matter of seconds one of his troopers was up and over at his side, and between the two of them back to back they filled the entire hallway with a deadly enfilade of blaster fire.

"Clear!" Stazi called out when the last army regular hit the deck.

Patting his trooper on the soldier, the captain set up on the far side of the turbolift and covered the other man who began helping the remainder of his team up from their magnetic grapples. Taking this brief moment of respite to examine the bodies of the fallen, Sol realized to his amazement that some of these men weren't even Imperial troopers. Some of the bodies wore uniforms that had obviously been self-assembled. A living trooper rounded the corner, and on instinct the captain dropped him with a flurry of bolts.

"Let's go! Let's go!" he hissed, urging the last trooper to climb faster, "If Garn's right, central operations should be this way."

His boys worldlessly formed into a staggered diamond formation, leaving the freelancers and Underground agents among them to find their own place.

 

[Jairus Starvald]

[member="Rian Taske"]

"Oh, I know you are not, miss Taske. I know." There was no sense of suspicion there- or concern really. Not in that sense anyway.

"But some of the more critical cases.... they will release themselves, if the containment isn't adequate. And believe me." Glancing back at her. Something solidifying in that gaze. Perhaps even showing that behind that muffled softness? There was more as well. "If they escape, then the last thing Elrood will have to worry about is the Ssi-ruuk." If Cerbera hadn't drained herself of her intellect today? She might have considered it. A very strong consideration, in fact.

Breach the containment herself.

Pose it as an accident or Ssi-ruuk interference.

Watch as the Sithspawn under their care were let loose on Elrood.

It would have been a fascinating experiment. To see which side would emerge victorious. So, perhaps it was a good thing that it was Cerita here now. The damage caused to Elrood would have been astonishing. "No, no, I completely understand, miss." A gesture, soft and graceful. "Follow, please? I will give you a list with rooms that are relatively safe to evacuate now." Sometimes it was necessary to cut through the red tape. Some of her managers would presumably be unhappy about the break in procedure.

But Cerita wanted to help Rian feel better.

"I believe we have about twenty percent of the population in a state that won't pose a danger to themselves or others. I will have some of my aides assist you with-"

She paused, brows furrowed, glancing about. The pause very sudden. "Oh, no... that is not-" The alarms went off a moment later. The lights of the hospital dying out, before red lights started to flood the corridors instead. It was the emergency generators kicking in.

The cries in the distance were already beginning.

 

[Kingsley]

LOADING BAY​

CIVILIAN SHIPYARDS​

GONE IN 12 PARSECS​

[member="Maokai Bantam"] | [member="Yula Perl"]​

---

​

---

​

"You'll never take me alive, coppers!"

Kingsley fired his blunderbuss blindly around the corner. The supercharged laser blast cored a hole straight through a heavy storage crate behind Maokai after passing by a meter away from his head. A sudden burst of dazzling light drew renewed shrieks from his jawa companions. His beak opened to yell at them when the second stun pearl went off in his face. Glitter erupted all over his feathers and he slumped over on the deck, knocked out cold.

"Ny shootogawa!" one of the jawas wailed, dancing pitifully back and forth to avoid glops of adhesive gel, "Utinni!"

They were small and surprisingly quick, which presented a challenge for even the Force enhanced reflexes of a Judge. One of the jawas had been knocked unconscious by the first stun pearl and another was now trapped in a mass of sticky goo, crying out in desperation to the others. The others turned and offered a solemn salute to their doomed comrade, before disappearing around the corner and behind cover. The shipyard hangar was a labyrinth of stacked cargo pellets and heavy machinery, but the jawa's incessant chittering back and forth gave their position away.

"Ashuna! Ashuna!"

Off in the distance, the sound of a heavy cargo loader rumbling to life was unmistakable. Then a heavy crash, as if a row of storage crates were being swept aside. The sound of a revving engine grew closer to the zeltron pair, and excited chittering could just barely be heard over its clamor.

 

[Jerec Asyr]

ORBIT
IMPOUND HANGAR 36
'GONE IN 12 PARSECS'

Walking as normal in hard vacuum was a strange experience. The hangar still had gravity. Jerec kept getting a mild heart attack every time he realized his spacesuit's mag boots were offline.

Uncertainty made the anxiety worse. At any time, sometime could cut the gravity and he'd NEED those boots. He relaxed a bit when he got the first beacon magclamped to an impounded ship's hull. When he moved on to the next, the first shuddered under a targeted tractor beam.

Some of these would go back to rightful owners, of course. Others almost certainly would not. Hull logos on the first ship indicated a Karazak slaving guild connection, just for one. Hopefully there wouldn't be any leftover slaves trapped inside these misbegotten yet valuable boats.

The ethics of repurposing slave ships gave Jerec pause, but the job was the job.