The Rebel Faction

Awdin watched as the last of the fighters were destroyed by flak fire from the Ambrose’s Guns, the ships splintering and exploding the pilots either dying instantly or dieing in the painful vacuum of space. He couldn’t’ imagine how painful it would be to have your blood boil, not being able to breath, and eventually explode. He momentarily shivered at the thought but quickly regained his composure and returned his focus to the remains of the battle, and what was left of the pirates force. He looked to starboard and saw the Corvette, explosions blossoming along its hulls slowly tearing it apart. He watched as a turbolaser scored a direct hit on a munitions hold and blew half of the ship away connecting the engines to the main hull. The ships engines continued to fire tearing the ship in two with the force of its thrust. The engine half continued only for a minute before the main reactor blew obliterating that part of the ship and sending the other half flying towards the asteroid belt explosions still blossoming along its hull. Awdin continued to watch until it drifted into the belt and away from his view.

Awdin turned his attention towards the main viewer, “Status report for both ships, also get a raptor class transport into the debris, I want any survivors found and brought back to the ship. Have the Ambrose continue to search the asteroid field I want to figure out where those fighters and the corvette came from. Also have the marines ready to attack the base, have them ready and armed and tell Karsky to save a sot for me.

“Sir are you sure you want to be apart of the boarding action, it’s not exactly needed for you to be apart of the action.” The lieutenant was sitting right next to him, and looked confused. Awdin tilted his head in her direction, “I’m not going to sit on the bridge while the marines get to have all the fun.” A slight smile appeared on his face as he turned his head back to the main viewer.

It was just as he looked that a small contact blip appeared on the screen and disappeared almost as quickly as it appeared. Then a little farther across the screen there it was again, quickly he turned to the radar tech in the row next to him, who seemed oblivious to the contact on the screen. “It was another radar tech who finally saw it, “Contact trying to verify what it is.” He ran a few checks before speaking again, “It seems to be just apiece of debris sir… That’s now using maneuvering jets to…” She broke off and looked at the screen on the radar station, “Sir it’s a boarding-” There was a loud thud the sounded from a few compartments away from the bridge, before the tech could say anything else.

The tech keyed the com, “Marines to the bridge, marines to the bridge. Boarders of undetermined strength and number, boarding craft impact on near bridge.” The com cut and everyone looked at the Awdin. He could see the uncertainty in their faces; most of them were on their first assignment. He slowly rose from his chair; he turned and pointed to the two marines next to the door, “Marines Move into the compartment outside the bridge, I’ll be there in a moment. The marines nodded and moved outside the door.

He turned to the techs, “How the hell did we not see them.” The tech looked back at his screen, “They were barely running any systems except for thrusters and life support to our sensors among all the debris it looked like just another piece of scrap, atleast until they got close.”

Awdin sighed once before turning and grabbing a pistol from the bottom of his command chair, “Seal the door behind me and don’t let anyone but me back in.” With that he walked out the door, motioning for the two marines to follow him, quickly they fell in behind him.

Recon Flight 7

“Red two do you see anything out there, because I’m picking up nothing but a lot of rocks, and some ice.” The deathsaber pilot look again outside trying to find something the scanners couldn’t.

“Nope, it’s pretty much the same over here, just a bunch of ice, rocks, and minerals. I tell you with all the mineral deposits I’ve detected in these damn asteroids who ever owns this would be rich, no wonder the pirates decided to hunker down here.” It was true in the last hour or recon they had come across massive deposits of many materials that the confederation would benefit from greatly. He was curious however why no one had bothered to conquer it before, but that wasn’t really any of his concern. “Hey how long we got until we have to return back.”

“As of now we still have about another half an hour until we have to return, and refuel. Yes we were the lucky ones who got to pull an extra shift because someone,” red two stressed to word someone, and red two cold imagine his face, “had to argue with the deck chief about a damn recon schedule, which ironically, ended up getting us even more, and now here we are.”

Red one grinned as he remembered yelling at the deck chief and how red that man’s face had gotten, he also seemed to remember red two also arguing but decided not to press on it, “Well at least we aren’t in the ship doing drills and all the crap the captain has instituted to get us into, ‘Top Fighting Shape’.” He actually managed to get the captains voice right almost.

“Hey Capt. Malcost is better than the prick we had before, the one how was always either yelling at someone or complaining about the function of the ship, at least he has good intentions and actually means it.” Red one did have to agree with that although he still wasn’t happy about the drills.

It was then that he noticed to small blip on his screen and watched as it formed into a rough outline of a rectangle and watched as two barrels slid out of the top, “Red two contect contact break right break right, turret is targeting you.” He watched the turret swivel towards Red two’s death saber unleashes a hail of green flak fire from it’s twin barrels, he slid his fighter around and aimed at the turret listening to red two.

“Shit its got a lock, and it’s fast moving. This thing must be computer automated its got faster reflexes than any human… Oh shit it’s got concussion missiles.” He watched as red two spun to the right trying to shake the lock, but at the same time looked to see two trails of smoke launch from the turret and accelerate towards red two.

“Red two get out of there move. Shit no.” He watched as the first missile missed but the second struck home blowing away the right wing and the engines. He watched as his best friend spun off into the void flak fire destroying what was left of the fighter. He forced himself to take his eyes away, and begun a scan of the rock from a safe distance away from the turret,

Red one watched as the scan revealed a docking bay and inner corridors, they had finally found the base and could kill those bastards once and for all. With that thought in mind he rolled his Death saber into a turn and headed back towards the Warrior.

------------------------------------------

“Sir Recon flights 7 and 8 reporting in.” The lieutenant that spoke quickly shifted to another station next to hers, “Recon flight 7 reports contact in the theta quadrant of the asteroid fields, Red two was lost, auto turret got him. Before red one left sir he scanned the asteroid sporting the turret and found power signatures within the base, and a small hangar. Sir should we

Awdin sighed in relief and looked out towards the belt in the general direction of the theta quadrant, they had been damned lucky to have found them, but unlucky to have lost a pilot in the recon. He couldn’t take any time for the lost pilot how ever as he now had to move quickly before the pirates realized that they had been possibly found. “Launch all deathsabers have them scout the area around that ship and designate any defenses and destroy any fighters they meet en route. Move the Warrior and Ambrose as close as possible without entering the asteroid field and arm guns make sure nothing gets out of there. Finally prepare all raptor transports and load boarding parties, and ready the extra assault transport.” He watched as techs hurried off to the appointed tasks and watched as the view began to shift as the Warrior was turned towards its new course.

Awdin looked to a young officer directly next to him, “Arlxn you’re in command until I get back.” The officer stood up saluting.

“Yes sir, good luck with the boarding action.” He lowered the salute when he ended.

“Thanks you.” With that Awdin walked off the bridge and entered the turbolift down that hall and began the decent to the hangar a few decks below.

---------------------------------------------------

Malkar looked around the busy hangar bay, watching the technicians finish prepping the raptor transports and refueling them, readying them for the boarding action the captain had ordered. A sucking noise make him look behind him, what he saw was 160 kasahn shock troopers come rolling out of a bulk elevator. Sergeants screamed orders to the troops as they were first gathered in staging areas and then loaded into their respective transports.

Unlike the other shock troopers Malkar and the 19 troopers under his command were a special unit assigned to the Capt. for the boarding party. He highly doubted though that the amount of firepower and man power they were transporting there would actually be needed for the assault, but I guess caution never hurt.

Malkar grouped his men together in teams of 3 for the assault making sure that everyone was grouped he went out side to await the Capt. arrival which he hoped would be soon if they were to get there at all, he had no intention of sitting behind and watching everyone else do the fighting. As he cleared the ramp he looked around again and saw the turbo lift opening not 20 meters from the gunship. Out stepped a shock trooper except for extra equipment and red strips on his armor, long with a custom blaster. It took a moment to recognize the captain in the armor plate. Quickly he saluted still a little confused as to why the captain was wearing combat armor, most of the officers Malkar had served with had always gone into battle in dress uniform with a pistol, but here was Captain Malcost in full battle plate sporting a particularly powerful blaster. He grinned to himself thinking he was going to like this guy.

----------------------------------------------

Awdin couldn’t remember the last time he had worn full armor, except in the academy and during his freelance days when he wore heavy armor most of the time. The first time he had gotten it he had customized it especially for him even giving it red battle stripes as markings. He flexed his limbs and felt the body glove that covered his entire body, and then he realized that it actually felt good to be back in armor and going into battle blaster to blaster with the enemy.

Awdin felt the turbo lift decelerate and stop as it reached the hangar, where the doors receded upward and disappeared giving him a full view of the entire hangar. Most of the troopers were already loaded, but those that weren’t actually froze for a moment when they saw their captain in his armor. Awdin couldn’t help to grin when he saw that even the veteran Malkar looked confused and surprised at the captain’s apparel, he knew everyone expected him to be dressed in uniform or something.

Awdin seeing the turbolift was being called back quickly stepped out of the doorway hearing hiss closed behind him, he then began the 20 meter walk to the assault transport which would take him to the pirate base, and he hoped it would do the job.

As he reached Malkar he could still see a small bit of confusion in the man’s eyes and stopped intercommons the man through suit-suit comm, “Are we ready to go, I would hate to be left behind when the fight begins.”

Malkar nodded at this, “Yes sir we are ready, we were just waiting for you.” He and Awdin quickly boarded the ship the ramp slamming shut behind them. Inside he could see the other 18 troopers that made up Malkar’s command, all of them were either inspecting weapons or doing other pre battle prep. Awdin and Malkar didn’t disturb any of them and settled down, when they were both strapped in Malkar keyed a comm. to the pilot, “We’re ready to go back here, launch when ready.” Malkar turned his head towards the Captain, “You ready?” The ship accelerated at that moment out of the bay along with the four other transports, all of the headed towards the pirate base.

Awdin felt another jolt as the ship left the gravity of the Warrior. He looked out a viewing port and saw the other four Raptor Transports gather into formation around his transport. He watched as they began to dodge the asteroid and smaller rocks that made up the belt, feeling a moment later his transport begin to rock and shake a little as they also began dodging as they began the same maneuvers.

He drew his attention away from the other transports and looked over the troopers that the transport also carried. He listened to some of them chatting, mostly about what they would find. Others he watched check their gear and perform checks on all their equipment, while still others simply sat eyes closed preparing them selves mentally for the battle to come, although he knew they had been in tougher situations than this.

He looked around again and spotted Malkar, who was in the process of checking over his gun. At the moment he had the barrel and stock clasped in his hands and checked them over with careful precision. Apparently finding everything in order he began reassembling the other pieces checking them with the same care he had exhibited with the barrel and stock. Malkar having finished the inspection inserted the tibanna gas container and then the clip, flipping the safety on before stowing it overhead.

The captain watched as Malkar unhooked himself and walked along the isle toward the cockpit. He stopped in front of Awdin and saluted, before continuing into the cockpit closing the door behind him.

Awdin looked at the closed door only for a moment before turning his attention once more to the asteroid field outside and the transports that flew beside him. He Brought up his hand and looked at the timer on his wrist, seeing they still had a little over 5 minutes before they would reach the Pirate Base. He sighed quietly and shut his eyes preferring to spend the next few minutes preparing for his first major action.

-----------------------------------------

Calvin Varl looked out onto the docking bay from the observation platform that covered the western wall of the bay. He watched as the docking hands loaded crate after crate of goods and material into the holds of the transports they had on hand. Both of the transports were nearing their carrying limit but still they had quite a lot of cargo to load before the base would be empty.

Swearing he slammed his hand onto the consol in front of him. Damn those Kashan Bastards for arriving right after we had gotten a major shipment and when most of our crew is on leave or raids. The minute they arrived they had proceeded to destroy almost every fighter they had here and at the base and to top that they had destroyed his personal corvette which had just arrived from a raid herself.

He had almost killed the idiot who had informed him out of simple rage at their losses. Sure they had always known they would face an attack by Contegorian forces but never something this big. It had to have been the raid on the mining post that had pushed them over the edge it had to have been.
His thoughts were interrupted as someone below dropped a case of weapons, its contents spilling over the floor causing a few others to fall over the pile of weapons. Damn it the rushing was making them clumsy and that kind of thing would lead to delays which would get them all killed.

The deck master similarly enraged proceeded to walk over and shoot the man for fear of any other accidents. The weapons meanwhile was slowly being picked up and pilled into a new case for transport. Things returned to normal as the crates began moving again and the weapons disappeared, Calvin was glad to see this as it meant his crew had not given up yet and still had the genuine hope that they could escape the approaching Contegorian forces.

Calvin was once again drawn from his thoughts as a council came to life displaying sensor read outs and alerts. It took only a moment to realize what was happening before the volley of missiles took down the shield depressurizing the bay and sending most of his crew flying into the void. It took only another second for the glass to break and for him to be sucked out along with his crew into the depths of the asteroid field which had kept his case hidden for so long.

It was fairly ironic that they had deactivated the emergency bay doors only a few hours earlier for maintenance. The last thing Calvin saw were 5 Contegorian transports entering the now depressurized bay.

-------------------------------

Awdin looked around the desecrated bay which was once again pressurized as the techs had managed to get them back on line not long after the base had fallen to his shock troopers. Still there were the remains of some people who had managed to grab hold of something at least until they had died from the depressurization inside the bay. Along with bodies massive amounts of contraband weapons and other items had been found inside and outside of the bay.

After the bay had decompressed and the shock troopers had entered it hadn't taken long for the base to be cleared of most priate forces. Although one or two pockets stilll reamained but those were being searched for by kill treams.

Awdin looked towards the door to the main control room where Malkar was directing the clean up operations to try and salvage the base. Already it had been discovered that the asteroid field was rich in many materials that would benefit the Contegorian planets near by greatly.

Awdin had already received orders which contained orders to wait for a force of miners and a permanent garrison which would arrive in the next few days. He would then stay there for a few days to make sure everything went smoothly and to make sure that no other pirate forces returning would threaten the base. After that who knew what would happen.

Awdin turned around and walked through the door congratulating himself on a job well done, at least in his own mind.