Duel Litanies of the Dark Side: Fire in the Void [Dark Crusade vs Empire of Kopperia]

[Dreadheart]

Hyperspace.

Empty of all but light, bending to the speed of Light. A dimension inbetween Realspace, unseen yet entangled in ways many a mind could not begin to comperhend... And yet, to those blessed with ignorance enough, the sheer unnaturality of it provided a feeling of safety. Relief, even, for what could ever reach out and snatch this which was in motion above the very speed of light itself? The ship traversed the Hyperspace, trailing back a passage carefully calculated between numerous asteroid fields, nebulae, star systems and other celestial interferences, allowing the voyage to continue without nearing the many gravity wells caused by major masses, or matter scattered in the void. Sensors showed no activity, while the hyperdrive burned through the radioactive hypermatter fuel in regular intervals, continuing the jump.

It was after awhile, when the gravity sensors beeped, red letters labeling the unanticipated obstacle to the traversing.

ALERT:
- Gravity Well Detected
----> Hyperspace Trajectory: VITAL
-> Hyperdrive Emergency Shutdown: ACTIVE

The gravity well depicted on the scanner was massive. Too big for an asteroid, even then, such a mass would have been detected and recorded during the previous crossing. Too small for a planet-sized obstacle... This could have never escaped the initial charting of the passage....

As the scanners ran Realspace survaying, while the ship was being forcefully vomited from Hyperspace, a mass was detected in the very center of the Gravity Well. Too small, too well-shaped to be anything celestial...

No....

That was a Ship.



A ship made of archaic metal, adorned by bronze, with numerous spikes protruding from her main hull while her forecastle was shaped as a triangle, crowned by four huge barrels, identified by the energy scanners as Plasma Cannons. Her Citadel was a caricature of superstructures brought together in a twisted design intentionally causing nausea barely by beholding its grotesque appearance. All across the crimson hull, rust stains formed strange patters, while myconids were latched to both hull and stern, where the large thrusters were mounted on. Wiring hung free, to the void's wind, while the main hull's broadsides were covered by enclosed gunports, unwilling to hint to the weaponry concealed onboard.

The strange warship loomed in the Void, while the footprint of the Dark Side beamed from it like a fountain of poisonous water.

Any signal transmissions would yield discord, as the frequencies were subjected to the effects of signal jammers, activated perhaps before the Copper ship exited hyperspace....


@Dimitri Yaroslavov

 

[Dimitri Yaroslavov]

The Senior Lieutenant couldn't believe his eyes as he stared at the affront to nature and good ship design sitting before him. Of course, Dimitri Sergeievich Yaroslavov should have been focused on the fact his ship had been forcibly ripped back into real space. Yet, being a Yaroslavov, he just... Couldn't bare the sight of the abomination before him.

The poor maintenance, shoddy craftsmanship, the highly impractical design, all served to make the oil in his core boil, causing him to chug the rest of his remaining cup to avoid overheating. Regardless, everything about the ship pointed to one thing: Pirates.

The Lieutenant growled. "All crew to battlestations!" He commanded before turning to the Chief Petty Officer. "Lock on, angle us away to the left, and put her to ahead flank. Let's see what they choose to do."

All the while, the gunner, from the safety of his seat just outside the bridge, aimed his remotely operated dual 30mm Autocannon in the direction of the enemy, waiting for them to get close enough to begin engaging.

In the engine monitoring station, the engineers busied themselves with ensuring the KIF Mochalivi remained at peak efficiency, while the mechanics went below to check on the subsystems and guide the automated repair systems.

Lastly, the miners entered the seats of their remote turrets despite knowing the two lasers not only lacked range, but also the force necessary to burn through soild plating.

Back on the bridge, Dimitri gave a final command before the engagement would begin. "Fyoderov. Put "Our Brave Orel Won't Surrender to the enemy" on the internal speaker."

"Yes, Your Excellency!" Vlad replied enthusiastically as he positioned the ship for combat as trumpets blared over the intercom.

 

[Hyara Hemstagon]

Chains clattered, as the gears of the manual cranes chewed to the metal links of the Huttese chain. A Weequay and a Gamorran kept pulling, lifting the ammunition crate ever so slightly from the lower decks, through the narrow hole made by removing parts of the catwalk, to get the damned thing to the gun deck.

Tok, Tok, Tok

The Durasteel rod clanked on the catwalk, as the Nautolan limped across. His skin was ice-blue, while red tattoos on his face hinted to his rank as the First Mate of the Imvonvol. He snarled, his one hand firmly gripping on the top of the rod used as a walking stick, while his other hand holding an ivory pipe.

"Get those barrels fed, you Nexu fodder!!" the one-eyed Weequay roared. Like most of the crew, he wore no upper armour, or clothing entirely, choosing to put on the belts carrying the energy cells and vibrowknives directly on his brown skin, heavily darkened by a myriad of tattoos depicting strange art from various civilizations.

The crew rushed, under the weight of the quartermaster's barking and the sheer knowledge of what would happen should they failed their posts...

"Get the starboard cannons ready, Quartermaster!" the Nautolan shouted to the Weequay, pointing to the lined up large cannons behind the enclosed gunports. Oxygen showered over them, as the barely functioning life support released yet another installment of almost breathable artificial air.

The ship's deck shook. The Nautolan halted his pace, looking down to his one leg, before turning over his shoulder. His eyes glared in recognition, as he looked sternwards.

"Those would be the Engines, boys... Better get ready for some action!!"

---

Across the ship, in the intestines of the citadel, the bridge blazed alight, as lightning tendrils sparked and latched to the consoles arrayed around the main platform. There, in the middle of it all, stood the very source of the Dark Side whirl that engulfed the ship. Her fingers driven into the consoles melting by the heat of lightning, while her long braided pale hair hanging like heavy chains, lashing every time she motioned spasmically her head to patternless directions. Her skin pale, deprived of any shade as if it was but canvas to the numerous glyphic marks scarified onto her skin over the swelling black veins in which her hollow heart pumped the thick blood of the damned breed she belonged to.

The laughter followed, as her one eye rolled back, her body enduring the burning of the Dark Side as her mind gave in to the ecstasy experienced by the state of hallucinogenic insanity twisted by malicious intent....

To her, this was no mere piracy...

To her, she did not barely obeyed orders....

This was a veneration of idols far too imprinted to her deranged mind. It was a taste of freedom in which there could be no price high enough to not make it tempting...



"River's tide and Darkest Hall!!"

She cried out, her voice a cacophony of excess and mindless rage, long since denied of face or form, twisted into a quest of thrill and craving madness.

"Flayed Beast and Flying Host!"

Her words a chorus of diablery, summoning witchcraft that cast shockwaves in the Force, as if the Darkness emitting from within her taunted the very Realspace in slanderous mockery.

"Trail a path of BLOOD AND FALL"


"BE THY WRATH MINE, IN DARKNESS LOST"

---

Th Imvonvol suddenly sprung to life. Its engines blazing as fuel combusted into radioactive flame, giving speed to the blasphemous hull. She spinned, like a screw driven in place, it carved a path ever speeding, circling the Copper vessel like a predator, readying to strike....

And so, the One-Eyed Vulture attacked.

The Imvonvol spinned around its horizontal axis. Suddenly, her gunports openned, revealing a line of Small caliber Particle Cannons, firing towards the general direction of the Copper ship, while the Imvonvol continued to circle around the ship, refusing to yet engage in full force...

 

[Dimitri Yaroslavov]

As the guns appeared on the enemy's broadside, and the ship sped into a corkscrew, Dimitri's eyes widened as he turned to Vlad, all the while belting the chorus in perfect pitch:

"All hands on deck! Take your places, comrades!
Our proud Orel doesn't give in to its enemies
No one begs for mercy!"

He sang boldly, the crew echoing him as he used his tail to direct the ship's movement into a steady course, keeping the nose pointing at the pirate ship while attempting to limit their target profile.

"Engines roar and feet clank,
Thrusters are ready,
Cannons wait for the fighting
Shining ominously in the sun."

Once within 80 km from the target, the gunner opened fire with the dual 30mm. It's APFDS rounds rapidly flying toward the Imvonvol's hull before hitting home. The gunner instinctively aiming for the exposed weapon systems on the front, and also putting rounds into the conning tower. If they were going to their deaths, then they would make the enemy pay dearly.

 

[Hyara Hemstagon]

The Imvonvol spinned as if driven by will to pierce through the Realspace itself, course hogging and sagging nearly uncontrollable, sparing no effort in its momentum. As the rounds lit the void, multiple explosions tainted by blueish energy cover the ship, though barely farther than the hull herself, as the Imvonvol's deflector shield generator invites the incoming shots with a particle formed energy barrier.

A sudden sequence of "ding" noises momentarily trumped the cacophony of shouting crew members, armament clanking and chain rattling onboard the Imvonvol. The Nautolan First Mate halted his rod assisted pacing along the gun deck. His eyes turning over his shoulder.

"Quartermaster!" He roared.

The tattoo covered Weequay stood up, from behind one of the cannons.

"You planning on firing on these Thranta hooves!?"

"'eard the man, maggots! PUSH THE CANNONS!"

One after the other, the Imvonvol's gunports were openned, and from each of them, a twin barrel of flak cannons was pushed forth, through the Rayshield barrier that separated the interior from the void.

In a seemingly synchronized act of unspoken choreography, the Imvonvol suddenly halts her spinning, presenting her starboard broadsides to the Copper vessel.

"FIRE!"

BZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ


DNRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR


KZZZZ

A barrage of multi-coloured particle bolts was unleashed upon the enemy. Though the actual weapons caliber was not as big as one would expect from a vessel of the Imvonvol's size, their numbers and apparent non-unified composition made them a rather effective weapon against contemporary shield generators. Meanwhile, energy sightings hinted to significant and perhaps disproportionate energy build-up at the ship's forecastle.

 

[Dimitri Yaroslavov]

The Senior Lieutenant was rattled slightly as the first shots struck the front of the KIF Mochalivi. But, at least for the moment, the armour seemingly held. However, Dimitri's eyes widened in concern as the enemy's front lit up with a ominous green cloud of energy.

Yet, his voice did not falter as he directed the ship to change angle. Vlad keeping its nose facing the enemy as the 30mm continued peppering the enemy vessel, despite doing little to no damage that they could tell.

With a slight boost, the ship's Thrusters angled it away, with the momentum carrying the Mochalivi on its previous course despite the slight damage to the front of the ship.

Yet, in Dimitri's mind, his thoughts raced, wondering what next this strange foe would throw at him.

 

[Hyara Hemstagon]

The gun deck of the Imvonvol filled with thick white smoke coming from the burning hot energy shells vomited by the back of the Flak cannons. The crew, drenched in sweat, had at that point assumed positions, with half a dozen of them behind each of the twin cannons. As soon as recoil restored the barrels in their normal position, one of the cutthroats turned the crank beneath the hatch, recalibrating the gun to what seemed to be the initial positioning, prior to firing mispositioning on the rails.

Meanwhile, another pressed on the hatch with a metal bar, causing it to open up and throw out the now emptied energy shell in a cloud of smoke. Two more of the crew had by then stabilized the next energy cell, armed and ready, lifted through the use of a chain crane right next to the openned hatch. The last, much more musclar crew member, pushed the shell into the gun, feeding what would soon be the next barrage.

"Tpuqu'k!!" the Rattataki shouted as soon as the gun was ready to fire.

"FIRE!" the Weequay Quartermaster roared, after at least half the batteries reported in.

The Imvonvol traced a circular course around the Mochalivi, her engines accelerating in an attempt to use her superior speed to outturn the Mochalivi.

Her forecastle traced tremendous energy buildup, while it soon became even visually noticeable, as the four spikes ahead of the forecastle sparked with plasma energy leaks....

The Imvonvol shifted outward, increasing the radious of her orbiting around the Mochalivi, before turning sharply, this time vertically, to face the enemy ship from above in a dive.

As soon as her bow lined up with the Copper ship....

BOOM.


The power of all four plasma concentrators engaged, producing a single thick and blinding beam of Plasma aimed straight against the Mochalivi.

In contrast to the rest of the Imvonvol's armaments, this weapon was not probing or anti starfighter equipment. Such firepower could pierce through capital ship armour, or fry heavy shield generators in a well-aimed hit.

This, was the Imvonvol's real weapon.

 

[Dimitri Yaroslavov]

Suddenly, a massive explosion tore through the Kopperian vessel, the lights flickering out as alarms and warnings filled the bridge. All at once, the power died as the central generatior blew up in an incredible display, splitting the ship in twain as the armour cracked open.

In the crew quarters, the lights blew, the music growing distorted as the crew not strapped down tumbled as the rear of the ship began drifting. But, aside from this, the crew were completely unharmed. The few meters worth of machine spaces taking the brunt of the damage caused by the generator explosion. Yet, automatic bulkheads sealed seconds later, keeping the remainder of the ship pressurized and any damage contained.

Back on the bridge, Dimitri wore a deep frown as the emergency lights kicked in. "Well... That was certainly not appreciated." He stated with a snort as he turned to address Vlad. "Fyoderov. Order the crew to arm themselves and prepare to be boarded. If these are like any other pirates we've heard of, I doubt they will wish to leave empty handed."

"At once, Your Excellency!"
Vlad replied before clearing his throat.
"All hands, arm yourselves and prepare to recieve the enemy!"

The crew swiftly removed themselves from their stations. (The mechanics already having done so once the fuses began to short circuit) Picking up their trusted VK-30M rifles and equipping flak vests and helmets before rushing to their posts. Faces filled with fright.

For all of them, this was their first taste of combat. Yet, despite their worry, they willing departed for the airlock located before the bridge.

Yet, when they got there, they were met with the Lieutenant. Unlike them, he appeared calm, composed, a mild look of annoyance on his face as he stared them down.

"Crew. When the enemy arrives, I expect you to show no fear, and give no quarter."
He stated coolly, arms behind his back as the Razborka drone stared them down.

"All of you. Form up!" Dimitri shouted. The drones instinctively doing as commanded, slinging their rifles and standing at attention in several ranks due to the confines of the ship. The empty crew spaces and small corridors surrounding them. "I will not lie to you. We are likely outnumbered. Let the enemy think this. For we are Kopperians, sons of a great civilization! We do not cower in the face of death!"
The crew listened intently, their fists beginning to harden. Yet others remained uncertain as Dimitri continued. "When faced with extermination. Did our ancestors cower? Did they wait for death behind closed doors!?"

"No, your Excellency." They shouted in reply.

"When faced with the horror of the black demon. Did our glorious leader Doll abandon her post!?" The Senior Lieutenant bellowed, his voice rising in strength, his soul stirred as much by his own words as the crew.

"No, Your Excellency!" They responded instinctively.

Then, with a swift action, Dimitri unsheathed his sword, red energy arching across it as he raised it. "Then today! If we should die! Let it be in the name of our God! In the name of our loved ones! In the name of Kopperia! URA!"

"URA!" The drones cheered in unison, their cries filling the hall.

The Razborka drone smiled as he returned his saber to its scabbard. "Now then, ket us prepare a proper welcome."

With practiced ease, the crew split up, surrounding the only entrance from all sides, concealing themselves in the darkness. They hid their eyes as the lights turned off. They would not begin firing until every enemy who intended to enter did so. At the same time, one of the engineers placed small explosives around the area to be activated remotely, hidden in panels and vents.

All the while, Vlad monitored from the bridge, keeping watch as the enemy ship pulled in closer. "May God be with us." He whispered, crossing himself.

 

[Hyara Hemstagon]

The Imvonvol turned and spinned, completing a full rotation around the ship as if to test whether she would still fire back. A carnivore testing its prey. The Imvonvol made another pass over the Mochalivi, her flak cannons unleashing one, final, barrage, indescriminately aimed over the cracked ship. It was now when the corsairs would make their move. It was now, when they claimed the spoils of their hunt. As the Imvonvol passed once again, she fired again, yet this time it would be boarding torpedoes, latching against the hull of the ship. Their drilling gaping the hull, for the boarding parties to flood in.

The Rattataki was the first to jump out of the boarding torpedo. His chest bare, with several belts bound against his torso, weighted by frak grenades, vibrowknives and other equipment. He held his blaster pistol high, while his other hand wielded a vibrowblade. The vibrow's curved shape hinted to its Rishi origins.

Behind the Rattataki walked an Ithorian, dressed in a similar fashion, save for scattered parts of armour worn irrespective of their completely different colour scheme, hinting to them being looted by multiple past victims. The Ithorian held a large Gamorran axe, while his nostrils were attached to a rebreather.

More and more cutthroats jumped out, until their number reached over a dozen, per torpedo. The scattering of them across the ship made it difficult to coordinate, though in this case, they all had pretty much the same mission at hand...

They stepped slowly, their flashlights illuminating the path ahead, while more and more poured out of the torpedos. Their numbers never enough to overwhelm, yet the scattered boarding had many a group infiltrating different layers of the ship.

The corsairs spoke back and forth with each other in over a dozen languages, as if they had not a single tongue to provide unity, or in this case, cohesion.

Some squads ventured too deep, too isolated. Others failed to contact in te commlink. Others, brave enough, sought to push into the engine room, to deactivate the engines and investigate the cargo contents, if any.

 

[Dimitri Yaroslavov]

The Kopperians began to move once it was clear the enemy hadn't boarded from where they expected. Using the feed from the cameras inside the bridge as guidance, they moved silently through hidden maintenance areas or through the darkness, their HUDs on thermal mode, weapons ready as suddenly, distorted music began blaring over the loudspeaker:

The pirates, confused by the sound and the layout of the ship, walked cautiously along the corridors. There was no signs of life, nothing out of place. The ship looked abandoned, empty, yet, someone somewhere was playing that horrible, tasteless music. Or at least, tasteless by Pirate standards.

Then, suddenly, without warning, as the first words echoed through the speakers, shots erupted as weapons flashed from unseen locations, cutting down an entire squad in seconds.

Elsewhere several pirates fired wildly, fearing ambush, while others spread out, only to meet the same fate as the worker drones lined them up from hidden maintenance tunnels within the walls, built for exactly this purpose. The ship wasn't abandoned, just playing dead. And they hadn't even encountered the worst of it.

The Rattataki and the Ithorion, along with their squad, pressed towards the suspected location of the engine room, only to come face to face with...
BANG BANG BANG BANG
Rattled the Lieutenant's rifle as he leapt around the corner, killing several pirates and forcing them to scatter.

"What in the Sith is that thing!?" A pirate shouted in confusion as the Rattataki fired back. A shot hit Dimitri, destroying the weapon.

"Ha, you gotta do better than tha-" he began, still aiming at the drone. Or rather, where he was.

The Lieutenant didn't utter a word as his wing cut through the creature (for he dared not call it human) slicing its head off before using his tail to stab one of the others, while his right hand regrew. The pirate screaming in agony as he was consumed by nanites.

Dimitri then used his left hand grabbing a third and breaking them against the wall before avoiding a strike from one wielding an axe. Smirking as he drew his sword, cutting the disgusting creature and it's weapon in half with a single clean strike before stabbing it with his tail to make it disappear. "Waste of creation." Dimitri muttered before moving on, leaving half a dozen dead, frozen in terror or melted into pools of blood and gore. All the while the small crew of 10 drones continued to slaughter the unprepared attackers.