Ty activates his own comm, "Nah, it isn't worth the tactical value of keeping them blind. I've got a different idea. Set up the drones between those rocks over there, then lead the Cloakshapes through. It'd take a little time to get into position, but I think I could do it so you could get through and they couldn't."
Mandall and his dance partner scream around the asteroids, feinting and jinking. The Cloakshape gets off a quick stream of shots that pulverize a rock, not 3 meters from Mandall's TIE. It gives him an idea. Mandall slams the reverse thrusters, loosing a fusillade around the Cloakshape. As expected, the ship rolls out of the way. Mandall turns tighter, sweeping his lasers across a dense cluster of rocks, which explode into a firestorm of piercing debris.
The Cloakshape flies right into it. The blinded, smoking fighter is an easy mark for Mandall's guns.
The second Cloakshape comes around for another attack, this time on Echo. The pilot seems to have figured out that yes, they're being jammed, and the culprit is probably the only ship big enough to carry that kind of equipment. Its laser blasts flicker and snap as they're absorbed by the deflectors.
Meanwhile, Cat's once again pulled in behind the last N-1. The yellow, pockmarked craft loops in tight to the Gallofree, hoping that the big ship can take care of its pursuer, an ironic reversal of the escort's intended role. Calsera's laser fire punctures the meager deflectors and sends the Nubian fighter right into the lead Gallofree's bridge. The explosion is tremendous. Stricken and out of control, the Gallofree starts drifting out of the Pelagus-approved freight lane towards the larger asteroids. It's got maybe ten or fifteen seconds before it's hulled by rocks.
The Z-95s continue their blistering assault on Echo, leaving the Sith Eater free to pound away at the second Gallofree. Once again, the Headhunters' shots fly wide of the Decimator and once again, MDK rakes the fighter with turret fire, this time taking it apart in a rapidly-expanding fireball. The second Z-95 banks sharply as Aurelia puts some turret fire downrange but misses.
Unsure whether to coup-de-gras the leading transport, Ty holds his fire. They might need the engines working if they're going to save the cargo, and from the looks of things that tub isn't going anywhere but straight to hell.
The second one, however, is another matter. Although his first shots were embarrassing misses, Eritram recovers and detonates two torpedos right on the engine banks. A huge flash of energy, a geyser of debris, and the second Gallofree lists, out of control except for manuevering thrusters - and those won't get them out of the field and into hyperspace range.
Ty brings the Echo about, firing its brakes and aligning it with the wandering transport. The whump of clamps annouce that the Decimator's locked onto the Gallofree's hull. Ty throws the newborn ship into full thrust, minutely slowing and then reversing the big bastard's drift towards certain destruction.
The drain on the power core is spiking on Jorm's readouts. The reactor, oversized though it is, can't keep up with the engines and the constant ECM.
MDK-911 doesn't seem to care about power reserves. He lays down a steady stream of laser fire towards the jinking Cloakshape, blowing off a stablizer and stamping the deflectors out in a shower of energy impacts. Mandall finishes the job with a deadeye burst, adding the venerable fighter and its pilot to the debris orbiting Pelagus.
Calsera streaks after the last escort fighter as it rolls through a herd of rocks, dodging Aurelia's turret fire. Cat banks above the 'roids, coming down perpendicular to the Z-95's madcap flight. She gets good tone and fires a 4-shot spread, igniting the Headhunter. On fire and out of control, the fighter's dusted by asteroids.
The second Gallofree's meager point-defense fire has stopped, and it's keeping to the "shipping lane" between the rocks. The gunners might be down in Engineering, trying to get the propulsion back to working order. They might have surrendered, although their message wouldn't be getting out. Or they might be trying for both.
Ganet locks the Sith Eater down on the transport Ty's got wrangled and together, they move it out of immediate danger. The Blastboat's assistance relieves some of the pressure on the ECM, and Jorm breathes a sigh of relief.
The Z-95 pilot thinks he's a hotshot, but Vandal Cat's all over him like maggots on a corpse. One good shot and he might as well have not bothered getting up today.
A quick smile, then Calsera looks around. Echo and Sith Eater appear to have the stricken Gallofree out of hot water, so she heads over to keep an eye on the other freighter. Any asteroids getting dangerously close to either will be removed.
Sparing a molment from the tricky task of balancing two thrust sources and rates against an off-balance load, Ty turns to Jorm. "Sir, any objection to taking out the comms trancievers on those ships so we can shut down the ECM?"
Jorm's fingers dance over the sensor console, opening a tunnel of light in the sensor blackout, just enough for the Gallofree to speak to them - they hope.
The faint crackle of line noise confirms the transport's comms are still up.
*- can hear us. Our sensors are down and our comms are being jammed. We surrender! Do not fire, I say again, do not fire!*
Ty debates his response. On the one hand, these are the scum of the galaxy, working with the people responsible for the deaths of his family. On the other, they're frightened, helpless, and defensless. Checking his comm to make sure it's on the group's channel, he says "I have to agree. Let's get the most egotistic, self-serving person we have on the channel to accept their surrender."
Switching the comms to their frequency, he fiddles a bit with the set to give his voice that extra oomph.
"Your unconditional surrender has been accepted. You will keep this frequeny open and follow all of my instructions without delay. Failure to comply with any of my orders will result in your total destruction. Do you understand?"
As Mandall does his best impression of an Imperial officer, 8th Wing jumps in outside the debris field. Two Sentinel landing craft, bloated versions of the Imperial shuttle, bank hard and arc towards the Gallofrees. The scramblers decode the incoming transmission: *Lucky to Vandal leader, we're here to babysit your problem children. Anything we should know?*
Ty cuts in, "Not much, unless you were planning to fly these big things out of here on their own power. In that case, you may be slightly disappointed."
Releasing the comm control, he turns to Jorm and pulls a pack of sabbac cards out of a flightsuit pocket. "Fancy a game or two while we wait for them to finish up? We need to stick around a while for them to leave before we can grab the TIEcoys and head back to base."
Lucky's Sentinel tractors itself to the crippled Gallofree, while the other one docks with the second. When the CAG boarding party announces they have the bridge, Jorm turns his attentions to monitoring local traffic. Luck is with the Vandals this time; evidently Pelagus has a good enough deal going with the local Moff that they're not risking reprisals for calling for help.
The Gallofree GR-75's an old design. It carries its cargo inside individual pods arranged inside the vast hull-shell. The screens keeping the atmosphere in are still active on both ships, which turns out to be another stroke of luck when Glorsh's harsh Trandoshan barks over the comms from inside the bridgeless transport:
*We've got people down here! The cargo pods are full of people!*
Not so with the second Gallofree - it appears to be carrying unregistered but Rebel-model weaponry and equipment. There are Naval uniforms, camo ponchos, blast vests, meal sticks - looks like enough pristine gear to outfit a platoon or more. Contrasting with the military gear are a handful of pods containing beautiful wroshyr wood furniture, cut from the monolithic trees of Kashyyk. Rachackaka's on the other transport with Glorsh, but you can imagine the fit the Wookiee's throwing.
The landing craft don't have the cargo space for all the equipment. The prisoners are secured first, followed by the sentient cargo, then the furniture (this was presumably to prevent death-by-Wookiee). A few crates of weapons, and 8th Wing's full.
*We're RTB, Vandals. Fire the wrecks and we'll see you for drinks.*
Listening in on the radio traffic, Calsera is surprised by the contents of the cargo. People? Refugees, perhaps? she wonders. The Rebel supplies are also a bit odd, though less surprising than the sentient cargo.
The 8th loads up with all they can carry, then prepare to depart.
"Jorm? It might be a good idea to load up the Sith Eater and Echo with as much of that Rebel gear as we can carry. Kolit would probably like to have that. Call it a birthday present or something..."
The decoys are recovered and the remaining ships are stacked with armor, weapons, and equipment. There's still several tons of cargo left in the transports when Eritram's torpedoes detonate the Gallofrees, their hulls blossoming into golden showers of debris.
Back on the Sword, the would-be slaves, rescued from the Hutts and denied to the Empire, are shuffled to emergency quarters and the medical wards. Droids stack the crates of weapons and gear on the flight deck for later inspection, and if possible, identification. Finally, there's a silver-eyed, blue-skinned Twi'lek male looking at you. The deck chief next to him harumphs with his shoulders and points the young sentient towards the Vandals. The name on his gear bag reads "Shasna'hoj".
The story's pretty simple. "Shas" was assigned to 12th Wing, but considering the Vandals' talents vs. those of 12th Wing, Captain Kolit made a quick reassignment and then...
Then the gear crates, dutifully stacked by loading droids on the hangar deck and rigged with detonators while the Gallofree's captain was silently screaming his surrender, explode. The hangar shields flicker out as a jagged tear rips out of the Sword of Alderaan, spitting debris and crew into the void. The noise is deafening but it's quickly - all too quickly - getting quieter and quieter as more atmosphere dies in the black. There's a horrid scraping of landing skids on deckplates as Calsera's X-Wing starts sliding out the hangar - with the Vandals in its way!
e of pi
