Battling Corruption in the Empire

[Telan Desaria]

Imperial Corridor Sector
- Firooril, 4th Moon of Ison –


“ What do you think?”


An aggressive, barbarian-sounding grunt was the only reply to the asked question. Stale air hung in the wide warehouse as a dozen sealed crates sat scattered about and open. Lining the plate-metal walls were piles of Imperial property, each stamped with the Crest of the Empire, itself replete with the underscoring: Department of Customs.


“ You’ve got quite a collection, I’ll give you that much. A good portion of this was taken at my expense.”


An olive-uniformed officer wearing the insignia of a naval Captain stood arrogantly next to the well-educated smuggling lord, two guards flanking him. Red cuff-stripes at the end of his tunic sleeves identified as belonging to the Fleet division which had confiscated the holdings that surrounded them. Some of the containers were wooden, some metal, most a blue-like plastic produced aboard Customs vessels themselves to eliminate size problems when packaging liberated merchandise.


“ You should have been more careful when trying to bypass Imperial security.”


The smuggler gave a hearty laugh and turned towards his Imperial counterpart. In his hand he held a black datapad which he promptly shoved towards the Captain. “ Everything is in order. If it is all right with you, I would like to begin loading my supplies and be on my way. The more time I spend here, your hospitality notwithstanding, the safer I am.”


“ I could not agree more.” The Captain pulled a comlink from his belt and spoke into it, diverting his gaze away from the dashing criminal entirely. “ Lieutenant Esiit, have the credits been transferred?”


After a crackle of static, the affirmative reply of a young junior officer was audible. Captain Renion smiled, and returned the communications device to its snug position behind his holster. “ Begin when you’re ready.”


Without so much as an courtesy, Gravvet Mel, one of the Empire’s most hated criminal figures, motioned to one of his lackeys near a frigate-sized hangar door. Great strain could be heard as decade old gears and sprockets ground together once more. The doors slid apart to reveal the rest of an Imperial Supply Depot at rest under a breathtaking panorama of stars and gas. Ison itself would be visible hours later when the moon came the middle of its rotation.


Clouds of dust were kicked up as shuttles and transport sleds outside powered up their thrusters and began moving into the massive warehouse. People in the employ of RavenCorps, Mel’s most famous front company, came forward with the movers to begin loading the building’s contents onto vehicles that would end up aboard one of a dozen freighters in orbit above.


Mel stood with his Imperial liaison and watched his men work; their speed was remarkable and would have given the Corps of Engineers quite a contest in their efficiency. No more than three hours passed and nearly every object in the hangar had vanished.


“ I hope this is worth fifty million credits, Captain. If it is, I look forward to doing business with you again.”


Renion nodded genially before retiring, his guards in tow. As the last transport lifted off to dock with the ships above, a Lambda-class shuttle departed the moon’s surface. Four Lion-class Customs frigates, each just larger than the famed Corellian Corvette but all much better armed, lumbered above in a perfect diamond formation around the freighters.


An all-clear signal was relayed through the smuggler’s vessels and the corrupt Imperial ships; they moved en masse towards their hyperspace vector. Querries from planetary traffic control were warded off by Renion, who was all too quick to sigh when the jump master signaled the beginning of the countdown.


His joy was short, lived, however. Danger boded when every tiny craft began to violently shake as something emerged from hyperspace before them.


Pointed directly at them like a dagger towards their heart was an Imperial Victory IV-class Star Destroyer flanked by two Strike Cruisers. The chance of their commander being bribed was rather unlikely – they had already raised shields.

[Park Kraken]

::As his ships sliced in from hyperspace, Kraken took in the view in front of him. Arrayed before him, apparently about to leave the system, were at least a dozen freighters, plus a number of corvettes. Wasting no time, Kraken ordered his fighters to deploy::
"Order squadrons Arado, and Bravo to deploy. One and Two flights of Arado is to screen the fleet from any missiles. Three flight, plus all of Bravo are to attack any freighters that break off from the main group. Order them to go for disabling shots only if possible."
::As the fighters deploy, and moved to their assigned vectors, Kraken turned to his communications officer::
"Leutinant Syll, send a message to my Strike Cruisers. Order them to accelerate to all ahead flank. They are to concentrate all weapons on the Customs Corvettes, except for the Ion Cannons. They are to use those on the freighters one at a time, until they are all disabled."
::Kraken then gestures to his weapons and navigator officers::
"Guns, prepare your weapons to fire on any ships that either slip past the strike cruisers, or that are giving them a hard time. Navigator, take us forward at half speed."
"Syll, open a channel to all of the enemy vessels."
::As the yes sir's, and other acknowledgements come to an end, Kraken pulls himself out of his chair. How Dare they try to bribe me!?! I suppose I should be flattered, but I am too consumed with rage. How dare these, things, assume that a loyal officer of the Empire can be bribed, and would help such villian and scum? They will have to learn the hard way that no one will betray the Empire and live to get away with it.::
"This is Captian Kraken of the Imperial Soveriegnty. All ships are hereby ordered to surrender and power down. Any refusals shall result in immediate and swift termination."

[Telan Desaria]

OOC- Kracken!!! Separate your paragraphs!!!

The Imperial warships wasted no time from their reversion to realspace in acting. Shots were already pulsing forth from their grey prows as a message was sent for all to hear. Those below on Ison certainly enjoyed the show.


Below the formation of Imperial ships, the freightors were at a loss for any orders. Their smuggler-lord was not a soldier - thought brilliant in matters of finance and the criminal underworld, any talents he did have for combat in space were far from enough to make any difference.


Captain Dernion, however, was a trained Imperial Officer. He had not wished anything to come to an altercation, but that it was unavoidable did not concern him. What did weigh heavily on his mind were the fifty million credits waiting to be picked up on Raltiir's central bank. The thoughts of the many things he could do with such a lavish sum of money propelled him to make a fight of it.


Under the Captain's command, equally corrupt and entitled to a small portion of the overall bribe, were three other Customs Corvettes. Each was smaller than the Rapier-class Frigates Customs used as its mainstay patrol vessel, but were very well armed and thickly armored for vessels barely one hundred fifty meters in length.


" Roll to port!" Dernion screamed as he held onto his chair for dear life. Displays indicated that his ship's paltry shields had been disabled in the first few seconds of the Destroyer's wrath, leaving him with no choice but to present them with an unaffected flank.


" Captain! Shields are down to fifty already! Sithspawn! What are they hitting us with?" cried the ship's executive officer.


Dernion rolled his eyes, mumbling the guns that a Destroyer normally mounts on her bow. " We were not designed to take on battleships, you fool! I am suprised we are alive at all!"


He thence ignored his petty excuse for a Lieutenant and concentrated on the battle. He relayed his commands qickly, and did his best to save what command he had left. What was money worth with no life to spend it?


The corvette engaged its main drives and split under the ventral surface of the Victory-class Star Destroyer. A flight of four TIE Defenders quickly gave chase, but the Strike Cruisers which had also come to seal their fate could not turn in time. They fast in their own right, but could not turn on a credit.


Ahead of the Destroyer, where four of the small transports sat was now only flame and debris. Many more were alive with explosions, rocked with the relentless impact of plasmatic energy. One of the corvettes, one named Persephone, lay broken under a hail of fire: the ion cannon had overloaded her circuits and brought death to her reactor.


Only the corvettes and two transports were luckily unscathed, so only through the dedicated actions of skilled pilots. Their ships were not too large to maneuver wildly, an advantage they exploited fully. The Destroyer could not catch Dernion, for it would come about as his corvette jumped to light speed. The others, though, did not seem intent o escaping.


Corvettes Jona and Malvirii released a small cannonade of light laser fire as they broke over the right-most cruiser's nose. Her shields dippedin intensity, a few shots scoring her hull with no apparent damage. The mesage though, had been sent. They would not bow.

[Park Kraken]

::As Kraken watched the fleeing corvette, he knew that he could not catch the enemy corvette in time. He issued some last minute frantic orders to try to catch the enemy ship::

"Tractor Beams, try for a lock on that enemy corvette. Let's see if we can catch her before she enters hyperspace. All weapons systems, target the two remaining corvette's engines. Navigator, track the corvette as it enters hyperspace. Maybe we can surpise it at it's destination point. Sensors, update on the battle."

"Yes Capitan. Most of the enemy freighters have been destroyed, along with one of the enemy corvettes. The other two have engaged the Tyranny. There are only two freighters left."

"Okay, let's get Three flight from Arado squadron, and Bravo to execute a Marg Sabl manuever on those corvettes. And have the Strike Cruisers finish off those last two freighters. Finally, Launch our Assault Shuttles, and Scout Walkers. I want that Supply Depot in loyal Imperial hands."

[Telan Desaria]

The Imperial corvettes ran the 450-meter length of the Calamari-looking Strike-class Cruisers, pulsing laser and heavy blaster fire in their wake. Given the ferocity of their small but numerous impacts, pieces of shield griding gave way to the defilade and explosions poured forth. Neon turbolaser shots shot from the cruiser, but its gunners were not trained – nor expecting – to combat such agile craft. The gunners of the Imperial Fleet were the best in the galaxy, but so were the men at the corvettes’ helms. One skill cancelled another out.


The transports and corvettes emerged off the Tyranny’s aft engine housing and watched as she began to maneuver and follow. Several gaps had been torn in her dorsal deflector to which her captain deftly began a roll swapping top for bottom. Fire did scitter over the hull, a turbolaser turret itself wrapped in flame, only the charred remains of her jutting barrels sticking out from amidst the flame. Casings in which the energy was kept to eliminate the independent battery reactors had obviously been hit, a stray shot piercing the storage shell. Men would scream as friends became trapped behind sealed bulkhead doors and sentenced behind immoveable integrity fields. Acts of personal bravery would be committed a hundred times over to save loved ones from death, only to add the hero’s name to the roster of victims – such was the horror of battle.


The glory of battle so went, as quoted by the Grand Admiral himself.


Two flights of fighters were quick to give chase and struggled to keep pace. Their smaller bolts ran wide and on target, every pilot using a trained and steady hand. Strength dropped on every vessel of the fleeing quartet and to a ship they rocked violently with every impact. One flight dropped from pursuit only to reappear ahead of the escapees to block their path into hyperspace. A salvo of small concussion missiles from the TIE Defenders warded the ships from their exit vector and drove them back towards the loyal Imperial task force which turned to meet them.


Unfortunately for the corrupt, they were now facing the broadside of a Victory III-class Star Destroyer.


To the flank…


“ Damn!!!!”


Dernion looked around to see his navigations officer lying prostrate on the floor, blood gushing from a wide laceration. The jolt of the corvette as she was placed not-so-gently in the clutches of the VSD had sent him careening into his duty terminal.


Hyperspace re-entry was now impossible from the bridge: his station had been shorted.


Control was routed through engineering, but such a connection could not be as accurate as the navicomputer which now smoldered. The risk of jumping into the heart of a planetoid dectupled.


“ Can we break free?” Dernion asked superfluously. His first officer did not even acknowledge the question as it was pointless to reply.


“ Prepare all hands for boarding. Set detonators and take volunteers. To the escape pods!”

[Park Kraken]

:: Kraken watched as the corvettes, and freighters were cut off from their escape route by the barrage of missiles from his defenders::

"Let's step up the pressure. Gunners, I want a full broadside into that group of enemy ships. Target the freighters, while corvettes may be more tempting, the freighters are the ones carrying the goods. Pull the corvette snagged in our tractor beams in closer, but not into the docking bays. Have the Tyranny disable it with her Ion Cannons. Have the other Strike cruiser manuever to keep the enemy ships from escaping into hyperspace. Order it to target one ship at a time. Is that clear?"

::With a chorus of Yes Sirs, Kraken moved to stare back out the viewport. The Tyranny had finished her rotation, and was now pouring Ion Cannon fire into it's assigned corvette. Kraken watched also as his other Strike cruiser moved to cut off the enemy's escape route. His Star Destroyer's first broadside lanced into the enemy formation. The turbolaser shots had easily punched through the freighter's shields, utterly destroying one of them, and leaving the other crippled, with it's engines on fire::