[right][b]The Runaway Prince[/b][/right]

Koren smirked, and chuckled slightly. “I always have a plan-” Koren checked the chronometer he had on his wrist. “-That plan will be here anytime now.” He tapped his commlink. “Okay Zhast, lift us out. Nice and easy, not too fast. We don’t want to leave the system before our guests arrive.” Koren turned back to Sirka as the vessel eased out of the hangar.

“The thing is Sirka, you need to cover your bases and if you’re playing a trick on someone-” He shrugged. “-You need to make sure that they don’t realise they’re being tricked. That left me with little options, but I found a suitable candidate for the job.”

Sirka chuckled. “Luckily for me, I can keep getting constant updates on the exact emotional reactions for everything I say or do. For the vast majority of species out there, even the best liars can’t control the chemicals their glands involuntarily put out. It’s not 100% reliable, I’ll say, but it’s still damned helpful. I’ve become practiced at reading people, and those officers were making it easy.”

Koren had ordered the pilot take them off of the station, but it was clear to Sirka that they were not done yet. Honestly, she could not say that she liked the fact that she had not known the plan he intended. It made it hard for her to judge the best course of action when she did not know the endgame, but it seemed like things were going well so far. “Hmm, so what’s our role in this plan? Any way I need to be preparing?”

A short distance from the station a Star Destroyer emerged from hyperspace. Any that happened to glance out a window of the formerly Imperial station would clearly spot the impressive feat of spaceship engineering. Lalni was in the hangar, making final preparations for the mission. As the pirate queen was handed a datapad containing the names of all the Marauders flying out on the mission, she wondered how the ex-Imperials within the station would react upon seeing the [i]Revenant[/i] appear.

“Let’s roll out you dogs! Give these Imperials a show. Whoever takes out the most gets a prize.” Lalni exclaimed loudly, the loyal pirates around her hollering in excitement as they pumped themselves up. Then each of the chosen Marauders piled into their personal starfighters, engines all across the hangar turned on. 

Lalni climbed into her personal TIE interceptor, one she had flown as her personal flagship ever since they had captured the [i]Revenant[/i]. Painted on the top of both wings was the distinctive insignia of her pirate band. She had one of the most skilled engineers within the Marauder ranks fit the interceptor with shields and a small hyperdrive, enabling her to use the full potential of the ultra fast ship. 

She strapped herself into the cockpit, then flipped the engine on. Her interceptor slowly rose off the hangar floor, then rocketed out into space. Behind her a swarm of Marauders gathered, emerging from the Star Destroyer. It was a mixture of all kinds of starfighters, entirely united under one flag. They rocketed towards the station, as the [i]Revenant[/i] ominously drifted in the backdrop. 

The intercom of the ship buzzed on before Koren could reply. “Sir, we’ve picked up a Star Destroyer in system. Flying under the transponder [i]Revanant[/i], she’s launching fighters-” There was a brief pause, Koren raised a finger and mouthed the words to show he was expecting them “-The stations launching fighters to intercept, though they’re easily outgunned by the Star Destroyer.”  Koren tapped the button to speak back.

“Thankyou, keep us updated on the battle and let us know as soon as the station opens a line of communication with us.” He tapped the button cutting off the microphone. “From you, I just need you to be ready. There’s no doubt going to be… unhappy Imperials when we return to the station. The thing with cowards such as those, that when they realise they’ve lost they’re like cornered rats. No doubt they’ll try and take me hostage to try and talk the pirates out of their attack. Thankfully I do have control over whether or not they stop, I am a powerful individual after all, however I do not intend to be a captive.” Koren leaned back in his chair. “Until then, sit back and enjoy the show.”

Sirka reflexively raised up her head at the voice over the intercom, then turned back to Koren as he continued. She hummed briefly. “Pirates, with a star destroyer. Interesting. I think these defectors might be realizing that they’re out of their league right about now. They were already frightened enough back in that meeting. But yeah, a cornered rat is dangerous.”

“Gives me the most deniability, the ship would have been removed from the Imperial Network after it was captured, thus the data on this facility wasn’t wiped from it. They saw the chance at increasing their power, and took it.” Koren shook his head. “Tragedy.”

There was a pause as Sirka paced for a few moments in thought. “Say, does it matter to you if any of these defectors escape? Or, if it turns to violence, do they all have to die?”

“Escape is not an option, dealing in death is generally distasteful and it’s not what I really do. Detain if possible, though don’t let them escape. I mean there’s nowhere for them to really go unless they slip into hyperspace, my messenger aboard the Pirate ship will have let them know that I expect no ships to get away-” A holo projection appeared of the station. “-A detachment of droids will make their way to the escape pods, to prevent anyone from jumping ship. I don’t want the risk of them being picked up in a pod by the pirates as a bargaining chip. The main hangar we’ll be landing it will be secured, teams will also secure the primary and tertiary hangar. We’ll make our way to the command deck to take control of the station. It’s a textbook infiltration of an enemy space station.” He sighed. “Just like the War all over again, though I imagine you don’t remember much of that.”

“Hmm, unfortunate. A cornered animal fights to the death, but give them a way out and they’ll take it.” Sirka commented. Reaching down beside her, she hefted up her E-Web and flipped a few switches to feed power into it from the generator on her back. She checked the power levels to make sure the calibrations she had made before were still being effective. Having never actually used it in combat before, she wanted to be particularly cautious about it. “I guess it will have to be a fight, then. Nothing I can’t handle, though. I imagine they’ll expect me to be tough, but most people don’t expect it to take more than a few blaster shots to take me down. I can draw attention away from you, or anything else, really. I’m not invincible, but I can serve my role best as the center of attention, in the middle of the fight. When it comes to the actual firefights, I’m sure I can open up some opportunities for you and your droids.”

“They’re scrambling fighters in defense, captain.” One of the pirates on the bridge in the [i]Revenant[/i] radioed to Lalni as she rocketed towards the station. The encroaching swarm of Marauders followed around and behind her. 

“Good. Let none of them escape, keep the Revenant ready strike down any that try to flee.” The pirate queen replied as the group of pirate fighters split and divided, shifting in multiple directions in any attempt to take down every single Imperial deserter.

The space outside of the station was ablaze with color as the battle began. Starfighters went down left and right, explosions littering the stars. The highly capable Marauders took an early advantage in the battle, picking off enemy TIE fighters one by one. Lalni did not doubt the intimidation factor of her Star Destroyer lurking in the backdrop psychologically affected the ex-Imperials. She flew down, before suddenly bursting upwards in an arc. Suppressing the button which controlled the ship’s blasters, she unleashed a fury of shots towards an unlucky opponent. As the enemy TIE exploded into pieces, two more suddenly attempted to get a drop on her, firing at her from behind.

“Got two of those bastards on my tail.” Lalni stated as she attempted to outmaneuver both of her chasers. 

She flew aggressively, spiraling in an attempt the shake them. One landed several shots on her ship, impacting her shields but not breaking through them. They would if they kept it up. As she attempted to fly up and shift behind them, one of the approaching TIEs went up in flames. Then the other one, spiraling out before exploding in fire.

“Damn fine work,  Rikil. You saved my tail. Keep up the pressure!” Lalni exclaimed with a smile into her commlink, before she locked onto another TIE.

Koren nodded. “I don’t expect you too jump in front of a blaster bolt for me, after all self preservation is important. All I need you to know is that should I be injured your pay will be cut, and killed well-” Koren shrugged. “-What pay?” He chuckled slightly in remarkably good spirits. He knew that everything was going as planned so far. People barely understood how the pieces were moving on the board all connected, or that was as far as Koren believed. 

There was a second intercom buzz. “Sir, they’re launching a second wave of fighters. Including a squadron of bombers and blastboats and five Defenders.” Korens smug attitude faded slightly, however didn’t turn sour. It was possible that the station was packing something heavier, it did construct fighters after all. Tactical guile from the leader of the Marauders would keep the Star Destroyer from taking too much, if any damage.

The Defenders could be overwhelmed by numbers. Even in the hands of a rookie pilot they were devastating craft however numbers were not in their favour. Watching the battle play out two of the ships veered off towards the [i]Nightfury[/i] on a direct course. Koren tapped his communicator. “Open a channel to them, now.” His voice growled slightly. There was a ping to indicate the signal was going through. “This is Koren Graeff of the Golden Exchange, I’m neutral in this conflict, what in the hell do you think you’re doing?”

The voice of the Captain from before broke through the speakers. “We know you’re behind this Graeff. Call off the attack now, or get blown out of the sky.”

“I don’t know what you’re speaking about, they’re in Imperial ship they probably have records that weren’t purged as they won’t be connected to the Imperial Network.”

“Cut the poodoo Graeff. Call off the attack, no more warnings.” Koren sighed and clasped his hands together, looking up at Sirka.

“This Sirka, is why you always have a backup plan.”