The second part of the mega chapter
Lieutenant Garrik Thorne gripped the crash harness inside his skiff as it screamed through the upper atmosphere of Elyria Prime. The hull vibrated with re-entry heat, the blue skin of his Chagrian face prickling under the temperature spikes. Twin horns scraped lightly against the headrest every time the craft bucked, long lekku twitched behind him, tasting the recycled air inside the cabin.
He wore patched armour, stolen Republic surplus mixed with pirate scrap, better quality than most bastards here, his heavy blaster carbine resting across his lap, heavy vibro-ax strapped to his back. The skiff was packed: more than twenty pirates crammed shoulder-to-shoulder, weapons hot, eyes wild with anticipation.
Garrik lived for this, the thrill of battle and blood, screams and death. The comm crackled, a voice from one of the captains a bit wild and gruff. "Thorne. Drop pods just hit Havenridge starport, we can make it our main landing field, we are fighting over it now with some piss scared militia that dont know which side of the blaster to point at us. We are on the ground are pushing hard, Starport almost secured our casualties light, more spoils for us, should have been more."
Garrik's lekku curled in satisfaction. "Good, funnel all forces there, I am assuming command since Vexs cruiser is not responding, I want that spaceport locked down."
"Alright, get here soon before all the fun is over" the voice replied. "We got other skiffs and shuttles rerouting, some carrying vehicles and the shuttles with tanks survived and are on the way now as well."
Garrik grinned, teeth sharp. " Save some fun for the rest of us, my axe is thirsty, we are inbound." He switched to his own crew channel. "Listen up you maggots, starport is ours. drop pods already hit. We are going in hot. Secure the field no survivors in uniform, loot what you can. Slaves if they are worth anything. Burn the rest. Move!"
The skiff dropped lower. Havenridge spread out beneath them, dusty streets, low buildings, spaceport lights flickering like dying stars. A sporadic anti-air fire streaked up, wild, panicked bursts from militia emplacements. One bolt clipped the wing making the skiff shudder, alarms blared.
Garrik laughed in thrill, it was a low, guttural thing that echoed in the cabin."Shields up! Push through!" The skiff levelled out over the outskirts. Garrik spotted them, drop pods around the starport but were near enough it, scattered across the streets and buldings, some smoking others open with pirates crawling out, disoriented, weapons raised." Land here, we can make our way to the starport from here on foot and flank the enemies from the side." Garrik barked.
The skiff flared engines, dropped fast ramp slammed down. Garrik jumped first. Boots hit dirt, dust billowed. Pirates poured out behind him, he waved his carbine. "Secure those pods! Move!" They sprinted across the open ground. Garrik reached the first pod, hatch blown. Three pirates inside, two alive, one dead, neck broken from impact. The survivors stumbled out, coughing dust."Starport's ours," Garrik said. "We are going in, hurry up and grab your fucking gear and move before you join your friend in the dropod."
They then ran, forward with other pirates from the dropods as the skiff took off to collect pods from outside the city, the sound of smoke and explosions all around them with addition of some screaming and the sound of blaster fire more, they finally made it to the starport, it is littered with corpses and wounded, scorch marks everywhere and some fires, we got here just in time to see more skiffs landed nearby, engines howling, ramps dropping.
Shuttles from the troop hauler followed, larger and heavier. Ramps slammed down, pirates poured out and various vehicles rolled off light speeders first, repulsor sleds next, then the two old tanks, cannons swiveled, while engines growled.
Garrik watched it all. His lekku twitched in excitement and thrill. Blaster fire flashed in the dark early morning. Explosions bloomed and screams carried on the wind.
He opened the comm again. "All skiffs and shuttles, Starport is secured, funnel everything there. No stragglers. Collect any drop pods you see outside the city. Bring them in. We hold the field." Affirmatives came back fast.
Garrik turned to his men. "Move! Double time! The governor is in that palace. We take it today!" They charged. The starport was carnage.
Bodies everywhere. Militia dead in the dirt, helmets cracked, armour scorched, limbs torn. Pirates moved among them looting corpses be it friend or foe or civilians, dragging wounded natives away, laughing while they screamed, not caring that they are still in middle of battle.
Blood pooled on the tarmac, smoke hung thick. Fires burned in hangars. A crashed shuttle lay on its side, still smoldering. Garrik stepped over a dead stormtrooper, Helmet split open with a heavy mace, brains leaking. He kicked the body roughly aside.
Garrik Thorne strode out of the starport's main gate and into the streets of Havenridge, they are on the other side than they entered through.
The air hit him first, thick with smoke, dust, and the coppery stink of blood and smell of burning flesh, the night sky above was lit orange by fires that had already taken hold in the outer districts. Blaster bolts cracked overhead like whips, screams rose and fell in waves.
Somewhere close, a building collapsed with a low, grinding roar. He paused for a second on the edge of the main thoroughfare, looked left and looked right.
Chaos.
Pirates were already everywhere, some still disciplined pushing forward in loose squads, rifles up, advancing street by street, veterans knowing that battle is still not over, especially with all the loses they suffered in space.
Others had broken off, loot fever had set in fast a group of five had kicked in the door of a small shop glass shattering, shelves toppling. They dragged out crates of supplies, laughing, one of them a scarred Rodian had a native woman by the hair. She screamed, he laughed louder, another pirate joined him, they shoved her to the ground. Started tearing at her clothes and rifling through her pockets for more valuables as the then also started kicking her. Garrik did not stop them, he just walked on by after a second a blaster bolt was heard.
Fear was a weapon and fear worked faster when it was personal, further down the street a human pirate had a man pinned against a wall, knife out the man begged and pleaded. The pirate grinned. Slashed. Blood sprayed. The man slid down the wall, clutching at his now scarred face.
A child ran past, maybe eight years old sobbing still in its night clothes as some blood is splattered on him, a small cut on his forehead as he clutches a native animal plushie. A trandoshan pirate snatched him up by the collar, the child kicked and screamed.
The pirate backhanded him and the child instantly went limp, the toy falling onto the dirty street, the trandoshan pirate slung him over his shoulder like a sack of grain as he makes some weird noise while moving towards a huddled group of civilians guarded by a small group of trandoshans, they will either eat them or take them to a hunting world for sport.
Garrik kept walking, he did not care about the looting. He did not care about the crimes, he did not care about the executions.
He cared about the palace and all its valuables inside, "Keep pushing!" he roared over the noise. "Starport is ours! Funnel towards the palace! The governor is in there! Take him alive so that we can negotiate and call for backup from the rest of the confederation!"
His voice carried, pirates closer to him snapped back into formation, the undisciplined ones took longer, some kept looting some kept killing and doing other unspeakable crimes. But enough heard him, enough turned toward the distant spires of the palace.
Blaster fire intensified ahead.
Militia response. A squad of natives, maybe thirty strong had set up a hasty barricade across the main street, sandbags overturned speeders. A few E-Webs, they opened fire the moment the first pirates rounded the corner. Bolts lanced out, three pirates dropped instantly, chest, head, throat. Another screamed as a round took his leg clean off at the knee.
He collapsed, clutching the cauterised stump, shrieking. Garrik snarled. Push!" They advanced behind cover in a ragged wave, blasters barking and grenades arcing. The E-Webs roared, one pirate took cover behind a shoddy cover, bolts punched through, he spun, chest exploding in red mist.
Garrik fired from cover while aiming down his scope, dropped a militia gunner. The E-Web went silent then a squad of stormtroopers appeared, white armour gleaming under the firelight. Ten of them, more deadly than militia, moving in tight formation blasters up they opened fire.
Pirates staggered, two fell one screamed as a bolt took a good chunk of his arm off at the elbow. Garrik roared. "Tanks forward!" The two old tanks rumbled up the street, cannons swivelled. Fired.
The first shell slammed into the barricade, sandbags exploded and speeders flipped. Militia scattered the second shell hit the stormtroopers two vaporized, three more thrown back, armour cracked, limbs missing. The line broke, stormtroopers fell back in organised fashion while militia routed in a disorganised mess.
Pirates pursued, laughing, shooting them in the back.
Garrik advanced.
Bodies littered the street, native civilians who had not escaped fast enough. Some shot. Some stabbed. Some worse, a woman lay in a doorway, clothes torn throat cut eyes wide and glassy. A man hung from a lamppost, rope around his neck, feet dangling, face purple.
A child, maybe six, lay face-down in the dust, back riddled with blaster burns as he was clutching a blaster pistol while a male with a police uniform lays few steps behind him.
The palace was closer now. He could see the walls from the distance the guards on top, the militia forming a last line. "Push!" he roared again. "The governor is in there! Take him alive!"
The pirates surged forward.
Screams echoed through the streets.
Smoke rose.
Havenridge burned.
***
Captain Karlchlan Vex crouched low behind the shattered remains of a speeder wreck, blaster rifle pressed to his shoulder, visor fogging from the heat of continuous fire. The palace outer wall loomed behind him high, thick, scarred now by blaster burns and grenade craters.
The night sky above Havenridge was stained orange and black, smoke rising in thick columns from burning buildings, the air heavy with the reek of scorched plastoid, spilled blood, and charred flesh.
His platoon forty stormtroopers at the start of the fight was down to nineteen fight able men. The attached militia another sixty had been cut to twenty-two. Many of the dead lay where they fell: helmets cracked open, armor split, limbs missing, blood pooling dark under the flickering streetlights, the wounded are left to lie where they are since we cant get to them, some managed to crawl or limp towards us and are now behind the walls and those better off are on top of them firing from the top.
The survivors were exhausted, breathing ragged through helmets, hands shaking on weapons eyes wide behind visors, especially the militia, they have never been in a battle such as this, the pirates were relentless hundreds of them, definitely more than intel suggested they also had vehicles: light speeders weaving through streets, repulsor sleds hovering over barricades, two old tanks rumbling forward like angry beasts, cannons swiveling, thankfully we had some anti vehicle weaponry we got from the black suns, as much as it grinds my gear for us to resort to buying from dirty criminals its saving us right now we already took down two speeders and a sled.
They had momentum, they had savagery and brutality Karlchlan watched them through his thermal overlay. They were pushing up the main boulevard toward the palace, screaming and laughing. Undisciplined.
Some stopped mid-fight to loot kicking in doors, dragging civilians out, committing atrocities in plain sight. Karlchlan saw it all: a woman pulled into an alley by three pirates, her screams cut short by blaster fire as they walked out with her jewlery on themselves.
A man executed in the street kneeling, hands tied, head blown off in a red mist by a spare detonator they got from a nearby dead militia, and there was not a single thing I could do.
Karlchlan's stomach twisted not in fear but rage. Pure, cold rage, now that I look closer the militia are not shaking in fear but in apoplectic rage.
"Troopers with me! forward!" he barked over the squad channel, voice hoarse from shouting. "Heavy gear up! Repeaters and rocket launchers target the vehicles! Militia, hold the line! Do not break!"
The heavy weapons teams moved fast despite the exhaustion, E-Web repeaters deployed on tripods barrels glowing red-hot, rocket launchers shouldered. Karlchlan waved them forward.
"Target the tanks! Dogpile the speeders! Push them back!" The first rocket streaked out. Slammed into the lead tank's turret into the exact same spot that it was hit on not thirty minutes ago, explosion revebrated throughout the street, metal tore.
The tank slewed sideways, burning. Crew bailed shot down by repeater fire before they could run ten steps, two tried to surrender but we are all out of mercy.
The second tank fired. Shell slammed into the wall fifteen meters from me. stone shattered, two militia were blown away due to the shockwave from the blast, still alive but probably injured badly.
Karlchlan rolled behind cover. "Return fire! Suppress!" Repeaters roared, heavy bolts hammered the tank, its low powered shields flickered, then another rocket shot towards the einge, the tank ground to a halt, smoking.
Pirates pushed in behind the wreckage, screaming and firing wildly. Karlchlan's platoon returned fire, precise and disciplined skills honed in by years of training and previous action along with rigorous training from the mandalorian.
Pirates dropped, headshots, chest shots, leg shots, bodies piled but the pirates were too many.
they flanked, speeders raced down side streets repulsor sleds hovered over barricades, pirates poured through gaps in the line.
Karlchlan's men were pushed back, step by step, street by street.
"Militia falling back!" a sergeant yelled, voice cracking. "They are overwheling us!" Karlchlan cursed under his breath. "Hold the line! Stormtroopers, cover the retreat! Fall back to secondary positions!"
They performed a fighting retreat, fighting every meter.
Pirates pressed, a pirate squad broke off and dragged a family from a house. The father fought, before he was shot the E-Web gunner rounded on them and shot the squad dead. The father and the two old boys picked up the blasters and started retreating towards us.
Karlchlan's squad covered the militia retreat while providing cover fire for the family, repeaters raked the street, pirates dropped, they reached the palace outer wall palace guards the elite stormtroopers and elite native militia held the gates, blaster fire intensified, the line stabilized as soon as we turned the anti air gun towards the street heavily suppressing the advance.
Karlchlan crouched behind a fallen speeder, rifle hot. breathing hard, the pirates were close too close. Some pirate units had managed to flank and reached the palace walls, fighting the guards in close quarter combat, blades flashing, blasters roaring and bodies falling from the ramparts.
Karlchlan opened the comm to the Gozanti. "Captain Reza, ground situation deteriorating, pirates pushing hard toward the palace. Militia mostly unreliable in prolonged contact, we have suffered heavy casualties, my personal squad is down to ninteen fighting able men rest are dead or injured, we are falling back to the outer walls. Palace guards engaged on top of the wall, there is possibility we might be pushed into the palace proper. Request immediate reinforcements. We are holding, but barely."
The reply came fast from Reza himself. "Reinforcements inbound. Hold the line." Karlchlan reloaded, and slumped down, his sergeant relaying the same information to the palace "Hold," he told his men. "We hold." The battle raged.
***
Captain Reza stood motionless on the Gozanti's bridge, the deck plates still thrumming faintly from the dying echoes of turbolaser fire. The main tactical holotable glowed with after-action data: green friendlies holding position, red pirate contacts dimming one by one as they were disabled, boarded, or scattered into drifting hulks, the bridge itself had fallen quiet only the soft beeps of consoles resetting, the low murmur of officers confirming statuses, the occasional hiss of damage-control teams sealing micro-breaches in the outer hull.
Shields were down to 34%, hull integrity at 79%, but the cruiser was still flying, still fighting, still his. The naval battle was over, most of the pirate ships had been captured with relatively little permanent structural damage, the three cruisers were disabled engines slagged, weapon batteries offline, bridges secured by boarding teams, two were already under tow by captured skiffs; the third drifted but stable, life support holding, surviving crew in custody.
For the troop transport the Mandalorians had jetpacked to the bridge and vacuumed it after the initial hangar repulse, blown the viewports, vented the bridge crew, before they could cut off the life support most have gotten into lifepods and shuttles and made landfall on planet.
The third boarding action had gone easier than the others. Both squads of Mandalorians and the elite stormtrooper/militia teams had hit it fast and hard, coordinated, overwhelming. The admiral chose death over capture courtesy of a bomb self-detonated by the admiral rather than be taken alive the reactor had also been sabotaged in the same final act, leaving the ship adrift, power flickering, atmosphere venting in thin plumes from ruptured lines, no one died on their side during that breach, thankfully.
The ship was theirs now, damaged, but salvageable.
Reza scanned the updated loss ticker scrolling on the secondary display. Naval losses (as of last update):Converted cargo hauler: drifting, heavy damage to port side and engines from concentrated cruiser fire during launch support. Still operational but limping. Crew injuries moderate only two deaths.
Bombers: 3 destroyed (2 from fighter missile locks, 1 from point-defense turret during final strafing run on the troop hauler).
TIEs: 9 lost (6 in the initial fighter swarm and dogpile, 3 during cleanup mop-up against stragglers).
Boarding casualties: 36 stormtroopers KIA, 41 wounded; 27 militia KIA, 45 wounded; Mandalorians 3 critically injured (two from breaching charges and shrapnel, one from close-quarters fighting on the second cruiser), 8 lightly wounded.
Ground intel was still patchy, but its not looking good, Reza had no clear picture of what was happening planetside only fragmented reports of heavy fighting near the palace, pirate numbers higher than expected and militia lines buckling under the push.
The comm panel lit up.
Incoming from Captain Karlchlan Vex ground command.
Reza frowned, Karlchlan position shows at the Palace perimeter, but his initial command post was five hundred meters down the boulevard.
Reza accepted.
Karlchlan's voice came through tight, controlled, but edged with strain and exhaustion. "Captain Reza, ground situation deteriorating, pirates pushing hard toward the palace. Militia mostly unreliable in prolonged contact, we have suffered heavy casualties, my personal squad is down to ninteen fighting able men rest are dead or injured, we are falling back to the outer walls. Palace guards engaged on top of the wall, there is possibility we might be pushed into the palace proper. Request immediate reinforcements. We are holding, but barely."
Reza's jaw tightened. "Understood, reinforcements inbound. Hold the line."
He cut the channel.
Turned to his bridge crew." Ground teams need support, prepare additional boarding shuttles for rapid redeployment planetside, prioritize stormtrooper squads and militia reserves, launch when ready. Get in contact with mandalorians to get planetside as well and to land near the palace and fan out from there. Get me the remaining TIEs for close air support."
Affirmatives snapped back.
Reza looked back at the holotable. The space battle was as good as won. Ships captured, wreckage drifting for later collection. But the fight wasn't over, pirates were approaching the governor's palace, reza opened a channel to the palace. "Governor, naval battle concluded. Most ships secured. Losses as follows: hauler drifting but operational, 3 bombers and 9 TIEs destroyed, boarding casualties heavy (36 stormtroopers KIA, 41 wounded; 27 militia KIA, 45 wounded; Mandalorians 3 critical), ground situation critical. Pirates pushing toward palace. Reinforcements launching now." He cut the channel as he didint get an immediate response.
The bridge crew waited. Reza stared at the holotable, he has a bad feeling. Cleanup would wait. The palace needed them now.