Location: Charros IV System
Objective: Still Firing on Graf Star Destroyers with artillery ships, closing the distance, pulling Remnant ships out
Allies: Silver Jedi, Iron Empire, [member="Zeradias Mant"], [member="Relina Zhan"], [member="KeCholo"], [member="Thane Drexel"],
Enemies: Imperial Remnant, First Order, [member="Adron Malvern"], [member="Irina Volkov"], [member="Tanomas Graf"],
Equipment: Phrik Combat Body, Chameleon Cloak, The Black Staff of Power, Armored Vong Biot, Sliver of Light, 2x Heavy Magnetic Revolvers with Neuranium Pellets
The bridge HK was commanding from shook as outside the vessel streaks of turbolaser would fly out across the vastness of space and splash against the Combat Shields the ship was equipped with, triggering brilliant shimmering lights that contrasted the bleak darkness of space with their volatile beauty,
"Enemy Star Destroyers heading towards us, returning fire."
One of the officers relayed the report to the ancient droid,
"
Sound ramming protocol to the Galley commanders to finish their charge, focus artillery fire on their second flagship and direct the Wyvern drones for interference."
The swarms of Galleys the droids brought with them, weren't exactly war ships in the standard sense, like said before they had little offensive armament when it came to bombarding enemy ships, with just a couple of turbolaser turrets which were mostly used to weaken enemy shields, but they were a larger more advanced boarding vessels, their true utility and threat came from the soldiers they carried aboard them and ramming-centered systems. So when the enemy Star Destroyers, sent by Irina begun to close towards them, and the Hapan lines since it was next to them the corvette fleet entered combat, that would have been less intimidation for the various commanders directing these galleys and more just helping them do their job.
Some of the Galley task forces would have already been heading towards them, others would divert themselves as the Star Destroyers heading towards them would become nice juicy targets now closer to them than other vessels the Empire fielded before them. Fire and rage suddenly erupted within the void as the barrages from the Imperial forces clashed against the galley lines, some of the nibble ships crewed by the quick eyes and reflexes of droid pilots managing to maneuver around the incoming bolts in the last minute, some were struck but just like with HK's vessel the lights of their advanced shields lighted up around them, some were not so lucky still and the explosions from turbolasers tore into their hulls. Their plating twisted and melted, allowing the vacuum of space to seep in aboard as miniature shapes of the mechanical crew and garrison were sucked outside, the unfortunate vessels pulled from their course like a wounded falcon, circling in with the pull of planet's gravity well before exploding out in contained brilliant explosion.
The good thing about their large numbers was that even with casualties among their vessels some would probably reach their targets, and focusing down particular ships may have been a pain, the bad thing was, even if a barrage would miss one corvette, either naturally or by its crew managing to pull out of the way, they would probably still hit a different corvette which would be in its path instead.
As the distance between the Star Destroyers and the droid menace grew smaller the Galleys would activate their tractor beams, aiming them for the Imperial ships. This was not to change their course since the smaller and lighter ships probably had little impact on their trajectory, but to anchor the Galleys in their path towards the enemy ships, establish a gravitational tether between the two vessels to help guide them in as engines of the various Galleys flared up in their final charge, suddenly increasing their speed exponentially to finish their approach, engaging their ramming routines to increase forward momentum at the loss of maneuverability.
And then, hopefully if the ships like large missiles found their targets true, and their Shield Disruptor systems allowed them to find a way past enemy outer defenses, various Star Destroyers, whether under Irina's command or not, would find themselves shaking and jolting suddenly from multiple sudden impacts of high-speed corvettes ramming against their hull with their spike-like boarding drill rams, doing what they were designed for next to drill their way through the vessels' hulls into the compartments beneath and open up a way for the mechanical warriors aboard to board the vessels.
Throughout the ramming charges the bombardment from Firemane Hunter-class Cruisers and the Vindicta-class Star Destroyer turned its focus on the Knightsbane as ordered by HK. Barrages of various hyper-velocity cannons along with the Vindicta's Macro-cannon shots would streak out across the space, beefy unnaturally thick bolts of super laser plasma and the destructive armor piercing physical shots. The artillery ships were left unharassed so far, but with their targets growing fewer now that they could not risk damaging the Galleys just yet, they would probably draw a degree of attention to themselves, all depending on how effective their strikes against the Knightsbane were.
"Enemy smallcraft closing in!"
Another report was relayed to HK,
"
Open fire from the point defense systems."
As boarding shuttles from Graf's Pallaeon and the TIE fighters sent by Irina closed in towards Hapes and Abregado lines they would find they had to run a gauntlet of getting close to the War Galleys. As little bombardment capabilities the ships had in facing off against capital class ships, they were extremely good at taking down small targets like fighters, bombers, and boarding pods, so when Pallaeon launched its pods the Galleys would open fire of laser bolts from their rapid firing quad-laser cannons, tracking their targets to deal as much as they could especially now that they were closing the distance between them and the Pallaeon. Same went for the TIE fighters sent against Hapes who were close to some of the Galley task forces, although those controlled directly by Irina's mind would probably have their senses heightened to deal with the threat better.
The Wyvern Drones already ordered to interfere with other smaller ships would race out as well, slithering through the skies in their mechanical serpentine forms the drone-starfighters would search the space to find and hunt down enemy smaller enemy ships that could post a thread to their forces. Like the galleys they didn't had much capability of bombarding larger vessels, but they were light and swift, capable of dealing with enemy fighters and bombers rather well, especially in their large numbers.
"The Pallaeon is sinking into the gravity well!"
The report about Graf's ship and HK's current personal target was finally relayed to him,
"
Have other task forces divert their course and change to other targets in our proximity, the ships under my command stay on the path. We are not stopping until their commander is dead or that ship is broken in twain upon the planet beneath. Send out a transmission to our allies to cease their bombardment."
A message was sent to @Relina Zhae, [member="Thane Drexel"], and any other commanders SJO had in that area to cease their attack on Pallaeon as the Galleys were heading on path to boarding it and bringing it down without pulling it down into the planet, hopefully, any further attacks would endanger their allies Galleys and risk the Palleaon breaking apart and slamming into the planet beneath.
The droid ordered, outside in Charros' orbit some of the galleys would suddenly yank aside, sweeping away from the Pallaeon to find another vessel that was not currently being dragged by the planet's gravity and charge against them instead. Not HK however, the machine was not scared about the prospect of his own ship being sunk that day, or him being destroyed alongside the Pallaeon, death was only a temporary set back for the droid and many like them, after all even if his current body was destroyed over Charros, a day or two later backup of his mind would be copied into another body and he would be back. Many of his crew had similar safeguards over their fates, as such it was much easier for them to be daring or just simply ballsy. So, as the Pallaeon dive down beneath the Jedi vessels, so did the Galleys under HK's command, following in its trajectory like a group of mobile sentient arrows, going after the large flagship even if it would drag them into the depths of tartarus itself.
"
Engage tractor grappling."
HK ordered and his vessels, those that were accompanying him as well, projected their tractor beams towards the Pallaeon, much like other Galleys in the area were doing at the time towards other Star Destroyers,
"Tractors engaged, Pallaeon's bridge has been destroyed."
The officer confirmed to the droid and reported,
"
If their commander is still alive, I wish to speak with him. Try to locate their emergency bridge and aim for it."
"Yessir."
Perhaps the machines would know the Pallaeon's designs well enough just from scanning it throughout the battle to try and locate what would look like an emergency bridge, perhaps it would just have to be educated guess, either way HK called out an order,
"
Ramming speed!"
As their pilot pressed a big red ominous button, slamming his fist down onto it as the engines of HK's ship flared up in brilliant light, much like those of the galleys that accompanied him, causing their bridge to shake and the crew to be yanked back slightly at the large spike in their forward momentum, almost as if they were about to jump to hyperspace, to finally close in the distance between the Pallaeon and them,
"
Brace for impact!"
HK ordered in a shout that this writer wanted to describe for a long time. Perhaps the Galleys would miss the Pallaeon, that was still a possibility, or perhaps Graf and his crew would find their ship suddenly jolting at multiple hard impacts of a Galley task force ramming up against them to get through what remained of their deflector shield if they still had any with their shield disruptors and pierce their hull with the boarding drill spikes. The drills would carve their way through the Pallaeon's hull then until they would find a compartment, and possibly, until one tore an opening right into their Emergency Bridge, opening now a pathway for the droid warriors led by HK right above Graf's head.
