Lt. Dan'l (Grumpy) Voxic woke from his seat in the cargo hold looking around he noticed the same thing he noticed every time he entered the hold.  Drop down seats lined both sided of the hold with a small open area lined with pallets of material.  In this particular case the pallets were loaded with war materials.  Crates of rifles and ammo cans were right alongside food rations.  The old adages were correct after all.  An army fights on its stomache.  All an army needs is beans and bullets. Well not all it needed but close to it sometimes.

He looked at the figures sleeping next to him wondering what their stories were.  If they were as good in a fight as they all had to have claimed to be to have been invited abord this ship.  The motion of the ship decelerating caught him off guard and he found himself slipping into another one of the men.  With a gruff nod at the man he'd woken up he quickly trotted forward to see why the ship was stopping.

A small armada of ships lay ahead each with a full complement of weapons looked on Grumpy.  While Grumpy was quite fast and even more manuverable there was no way it was going to avoid the battle ahead if it came down to it.  Staring at the ships ahead Dan'l tried to run them through his mind.  Sometimes the skill worked quickly other times it could take days to remember seeing a particular ship.  Eidetic memory was a blessing and a curse that way.  The flagship of this particular fleet stood out in his memory though.  It was one that he'd actually traveled on in the past.  He didn't know if it was going to make things easier or harder for all of the men abord Grumpy that he had a history with the crew of the Sun Storm.

Abord the Sun Storm:

"What have we got here? It could be a shuttle of some kind its small enough.  Not any kind of protection though.  Small and fast I'm guessing it's a blockade runner of some kind.  You know what that means boys.  It means there's cargo abord worth taking.  Let's just see if they want to have a talk or if we're going to have to take it by force."

Abord Grumpy:

"Incoming transmision Lt. do you want to put it on screen?"

Dan'l frowned at the man who dared ask him such a stupid question.  Of course he wanted it on screen.  What was he doing if not waiting for a communication from the other ships?  He bit his tongue to keep from lashing out at the man while the communication was in progress.  That would wait 'til later providing they were both alive later that was.

The man tapped a few buttons in front of him and a screen lit up showing the orcish figures of one Captain Grag'nark.  This was going to be bad.

"Grumpy! I didn't think we'd have the displeasure of seeing you alive after our last encounter.  Didn't we leave you stranded unarmed and alone on a deserted planet?"

The captain was correct they had done so.  The crew had been irate with him over his code of ethics and unwillingness to butcher unarmed peoples.  What had started off as a simple mission had gone downhill really quick ending with said unarmed peoples dead and Dan'l marooned.  That wasn't exactly a high point in his life.

"Yes you did Captain.  That's behind us now though.  What is it that you want?"

"Whatever you are carrying and because I know you can afford it we're going to need a transfer of funds to an account of my choice.  I'm going to need two million credits and your cargo or we're coming to take it by force.  You know of course that means we'll be exterminating everyone on board."

The thought had passed through Dan'l's mind, was in fact still circulating there.  If anyone was to live through this they were going to have to fight to do so.  Not just fight, but fight and win against a ruthless adversary who outnumbered them by at least ten to one.  Not the ideal position to be in but it wasn't like he had a choice.  He'd have to talk to the men on ship and tell them what the situation was.  If they were warriors like they claimed he hoped they would be up to the challenge.  If not he didn't know what he would do.

Twenty minutes later the discussion wrapped up the men had agreed fighting was the only viable option.  With such a small ship a boarding party would have to be small and should be easily dealt with.  Multiple boarding parties one after the other is what they were expecting though.  Each man went through their battle gear strapping on weapons after making sure they were fully loaded and ready to go.  Dan'l looked over his gear and grinned a wickedly.  While Captain Grag'nark had met him and even talked stategy on a few occasions there were a few tricks he didn't know.  He would find out at least a few of them today.

Abord the Sun Storm Grag'nark shook his head time was up and there had been no other communication with the grumpy old dwarf.  He gave a two fingered go ahead signal to one of his crew members and the ship began moving forward.  As it moved giant doors under the ship opened up in what could only be called a large cargo bay.  Positioning itself directly atop of the smaller ship Sun Storm engaged thrusters and began lowering herself down.

Dan'l wanted no part of being ingested and then having to fight through the bowels of the larger ship.  With a burst of power Grumpy shot out from underneath the larger vessel drawing close to the other ships.  Knowing the other ships would hesitate to open fire and lose the cargo aboard he got as close as he could to the smallest ship looking back at two of the men and nodding.

This was as good a time as any for the men to try the improved armor he had designed.  It was lightweight and would allow each of the men to wear a space suit over the top they were going to need both, and a lot of luck.  Then again these were seasoned killers the enemy were nothing more than sky pirates.  Even at ten to one odds he would put his money on those who were trained to kill.

The two men were sent via an air lock into the space between the two ships.  Lazer cutting torches helped the men to open up a cargo door just enough for them to squeeze through.  Once in they doffed space suits and pulled out their prefered small arms.  If they were going to do this right they would be able to upgrade weapons as they went through the ship.

The monitor blinked twice and Lineak grinned phase one of the plan was a go.  Phase two would be far from as easy.  He couldn't waste too much thought about what was going on though he would need all of his wits for manuvering Grumpy around trying not to get her blown up in the process.

"That bastard thinks he's clever does he? I want two drop ships loaded from each of the ships we'll show him who's clever."

On Grumpy Dan'l watched the second hand timer on a clock about two more minutes before they begin arriving he thought to himself.  The remaining four men looked at him expectantly as he began outlining what the defense of the ship should look like and how he expected the attack to come.  The men nodded their agreement before moving to deal with the upcoming threat.

Dan'l watched through the open view port as drop ships were launched from four of the five ships, the ship above them would send men down in space suits.  He already knew the key areas they would attempt to breach and had set things in motion.  It was time for he and the other men on board to "handle their business".  He raised a hand up so that the other man could see it and began lowering raised fingers.  5...4...3...2...1 He lowered the cargo door knowing as he did that a volley of gunfire would follow behind a combination of stun grenades and flash bangs.

The anticipated grenades did indeeed come however they didn't disrupt any of the men.  Each man had equipped double hearing protection to insulate themselves from the massive noise and the cargo bay had been lit up with hundreds of lights making the flash bangs moot.  Concussion grenades were dealt with by the use of riot shields held by each of the men. 

A wave of men came in as soon as the cargo bay lowered enough and were met by a deadly fusillade of bullets.  Not a single man was saved from the hail of bullets each proppelled back out of the bay.  A second assault force attempted to enter the cargo bay this one armed with large energy shields to protect against the barrage of projectiles.  They were met by lightning flowing from one body to the next frying the men fom the inside out.  Even before their body's hit the ship's floor Dan'l began closing the bay door.

"Congratulations men that was well done.  I hope our comrades above us are having the same measure of luck."

The two figures moved with ease through the ship, yes it was foreign to them but all ships were alike in some ways.  From where they had entered they had a very good idea of where the bridge would be and they headed there immedietly.  The occasional person poking their heads out into the passage were dealth with with immedietly lethality first with knives and then as the body counted slowly mounted with guns picked off of the corpses of their victims.

The layout of the bridge was about what the men had expected it to be.  As they entered the four men barely spared them a glance until the first one began choking on his own blood.  Before the other three could fully grasp the severity of the sitution bullets were sent hurtling into vital organs.  With the bridge taken it was time to secure it.  Closing and sealing the door took no time at all.  Clicking their coms three times they gave the signal that the ship was now in their possession.  It was time for things to get interesting, very interesting.  Both men strapped themselves in awaiting a signal from Dan'l to begin the next phase of their battle strategy.

The years spent in the military academy hadn't been wasted Dan'l repeated the mantra in his mind going over the battle plan yet another time.  He could choose right now to make his get away and wouldn't lose a single man in the process.  He'd already given the Captain a bit of a bloody nose by killing off a number of his crewmen.  It would be perfectly logical to leave things as they were abandoning the fight as they had already won a small victory this day.  The thought of a peacefull resolution warred within Dan'l along with the desire for vengeance for what Grag'nark and his men had perpetrated on a helpless population as well as for what they had done to him.

He keyed his com twice more before keying it two more times.  The signal would set things into motion that would be unable to be stopped.  He hoped it would work out like he had planned but rarely did the best laid plans survive first contact with the enemy.  

A hole began appearing in the middle of the loading bay door sparks shooting all around it and he laughed.  These guys were nothing if not predictable.  With an imperceptible nod to the men he sent them towards the airlock knowing the real threat was going to be coming from that direction.  This, this was more of a distraction than anything else.  One that he was going to deal with right away.  

He began lowering the cargo door once again putting an end to the cutting.  A small group of men sailed in through the open door and were met with...nothing.  The cargo bay appeared to be completely empty of everything.  There was no sight of men, machinery, or equipment.  The first man fell with a .308 round between the eyes a split second before the second man also fell hit in the throat.  The third man was just barely able to detect a hint of motion perhaps a barel moving before he joined his comrades in death.  Dan'l worked his way out of the tent set up on the floor of the cargo hold and laughed.  He'd be damned if it didn't work indoors as well as outdoors.

https://convergencerp.rpg-board.net/t1005-ldv-field-tent

The two men worked in tandem as they manually aimed the small ships weapon systems.  By doing it manually they hoped to avoid alerting the other ships to the fact that they were being targeted.  The next step of the plan was going to take even more work but if they pulled it off it would be well worth it.  The ships engines were engaged sending the craft directly towards Captain Grag'nark's flagship.  As the ship began to move the men uleashed a salvo of rounds into the other three ships.

As the ship overhead began to move five men breached the airlock on Grumpy.  As they boarded they were each met with the same fate.  Cold steel met the first four as they entered the ship their bodies pulled aside so that the next man through wouldn't see them.  The last man through was met with a knife to the throat and a question.  "Do you want to live."  It was such a simple question really the man had only one answer.

Doing as he was told the man began talking to Sun Storm.

"The ship is taken.  The amount of war material on board is staggering.  Weapons, armor, ammunition there's enough here to keep a small army supplied or at least a month."

"Roger.  Sending other drop ships down to help with the retrieval process."

With the fireworks going on above a drop ship wasn't going to be used for anything at the moment.  Other than the retrieval of the two men.  That was if the plan held together for just a minute or so more.

The space above, and around, Grumpy very quickly turned into a hellish scene.  Lasers, cannons, missles, and every other immaginable weapon were fired, or were in the process of being fired.  On Sun Storm the Captain stared in disbelief as one of his own ships began raking three of his other vessels as it proppelled itself forward on a crash course towards him.

"All ships fire on Volstak  now!"

Weapon systems trained on Grumpy had to be redirected taking precious seconds.  The realization that something horrible was really taking place finally sunk in as Grag'nark watched the ship grow closer.  Weapons began impacting with it causing huge pieces to fly away impacting with Sun Storm.

Barely noticable from the damage that was being done a drop ship flew back towards Grumpy.  The two linked up, two men boarding the larger ship.  Then without a backwards glance at the now devastated Sun Storm Dan'l and the rest of his men turned away from the carnage and pushed their engines to full.  There was no way they were going to be aound to deal with the aftermath of this encounter.

Captain Grag'nark closed his eyes and waited for the inevitable to happen.  The ship was traveling too fast and was too heavy to be utterly destroyed before impacting Sun Storm.  That bastard dwarf was getting his revenge today and there wasn't anything he could do to alter the fact.  He wanted to scream and shout to curse Grumpy for the remaining seconds of his life instead he breathed in what would prove to be his last breath of air and waited for the explosions to come take him.

Huge chunks of titanium were torn loose as explosion after explosion tore through the pilotless craft hurtling towards Sun Storm.  Each of the remaining captains knew what was coming each wondering jjust what would come after the ships collided.  On board two of the vessels plans were quickly put iinto place and as Sun Storm turned into space dust and debris weapons were turned onto their comrades obliterating them from existance.  It was far easier to take over Grag'nark's empire when you didn't have to worry about the competition. 

From Grumpy Dan'l sent both remaining ships a message.

"You two will always try to kill one another for complete control.  Better to end it all right here and let the winner take all."

Not waiting to see what would happen he kicked the engines to full and fled.

QUEST COMPLETED