Koren stood up, and signalled for Sirka to follow him. Leading them down into what would have used to been quarters aboard the ship, in the ‘wing’ like portions of the vessel. In it there were steps up to a hatch, and through the hatch Sirka would be able to see a cluster of droids. “It’s not going to be incredibly comfortable. That’s a boarding craft, I have several. We’re going to go down, take control of that station-” The ship shook slightly, as weapons fire was sent out. Koren had to lean slightly as the vessel suddenly accelerated, before the inertia dampeners kicked in and he corrected himself.“-and end this conflict before it escalates any further. The last thing I want is to piss off the pirates, then they’ll want the station for themselves and that isn’t happening.” He sighed. No matter, everything didn’t always work flawlessly to plan. “You take that craft, I’ll take this one-” He pointed at a different one. “-We’ll rendezvous after boarding. Any questions?”

“I’m guessing your droids pilot these things.” Sirka commented as she looked up the steps, though their time seemed to be limited, so she followed up quickly with a more important question. “Well, I can’t protect you if I’m not with you. Where are we meeting up, exactly, and how quickly?” She asked.

“They pretty much fly themselves, point and shoot style methodology. In terms of breaching, we should land metres apart. We’ll be flying right along side when we launch to prevent any chance of being intercepted-” the ship shook as fire was exchanged. If this ship was damaged, the captain better hope that he did not survive the space battle. “-in terms of separate pods. It’s mainly a space issue, you’re going to take up a lot of room and these things aren’t really made for that. They’re used to small droids that don’t mind tight spaces, as such I’ll take my own ride down.” He moved up the stairs as his two droids floated into the craft. “You ready?”

Sirka gave a nod. “Yeah, I’m ready. Let’s end this quick.” She replied, lifting herself up into the cramped space within. It was an even tighter fit than usual for her, but she could see that Koren had obviously prepared for this possibility. Most of the droids had been taken out of this craft, leaving her [i]just[/i] enough space for herself and her weapons. There were a few of those dark-painted commando droids folded up in one corner, but this craft was meant mostly just for her. She found the controls and readied herself to input the exact destination that Koren gave her. As he said, they were going to be doing a flyby, so they would not be in space for long. 

“Get the [i]Revenant’s[/i] weapons ready. Take down any of the larger vessels that are trying to take the [i]Revenant[/i] out. Show them our full firepower.” Lalni ordered as she fired upon another TIE, then curved hard right in pursuit of the enemy craft. “Those of you that are able to, divert to attacking the ships targeting the [i]Revenant[/i]. If she takes a single ounce of damage then I’ll have all your heads.”  
Then a group of Marauder starfighters broke away from the large dogfight taking place around the station. Speeding off to defend the [i]Revenant[/i]. That was her prize and Maker knew she would not let those Imperial deserters even touch her Star Destroyer.

“Scramble more fighters and bombers to assist in defending the [i]Revenant[/i]. Burn every last one of those scum out space. Get in radio contact with our nearest corvettes and frigates, we may need them.” She exclaimed into her comm link. 

As the Star Destroyer’s weapons were initiated, then aimed towards the approaching Defenders. Turbolaser cannons spread across the [i]Revenant[/i] unleashed laser hellfire upon the enemy ships that dared to challenge its strength. More pirate ships leaked out of the Star Destroyer’s hangar.

Koren got in his own boarding craft, similar to Sirka however with more droids. Once he had belted himself in he slapped a button on the side of the craft, tapping his commlink to let Zhast know that they were ready to go. The light in the pods turned red, for both Sirka and Koren letting them know that it was about to drop. Within a second the [i]Nightfury[/i] got close enough to the station that the pods shot off towards the station, the dampeners took a second to kick in pulling around in his harness. A few seconds later he slammed in it again as the ship made contact with the station, the arms of the craft tearing the metal open. 

The droids activated and dropped down, blasters raised and firing. Koren dropped after them, falling to his knees for a second due to the shock. He wasn’t as young as he used to be and as of late he had been taxing himself a lot. He winced as he stood up turning to Sirka and pointing down a hallway as droids fanned out all around them. “The command and the control centre is that way. Lead on.”

Unlike Koren’s pod, Sirka was the first to drop out of hers, mostly so she could confirm as quickly as possible where exactly Koren was. This might have been an infiltration, but she was still being paid to be a bodyguard. Fortunately, the part of the station they had punched into did not have enough stormtroopers immediately in front of them to truly challenge them. Though, that would no doubt change quickly enough. Koren’s droids were already shooting by the time Sirka’s feet hit the ground, so she hefted up her E-Web and let loose indiscriminately onto the retreating stormtroopers. 

As soon as Koren gave his orders, Sirka replied quickly, not taking her eyes off the direction of the enemy. “Got it. Just make sure to keep some droids on all sides of you.” She recommended. After taking a brief moment to confirm that she was on Koren’s comm channel, she pressed forward, keeping her weapon leveled at the hallway in front of them. The tight hallways would be perfect for it, and it would be particularly useful if they ran into any fortifications. She flicked out her nose-tongues frequently, searching for evidence of any nearby hostiles.

The space near [i]Revenant[i/] was a chaotic scene. As the Star Destroyer unleashed the full power of its armanant, the larger ships aiming to attack the massive vessel were hammered with turbolaser fire and ion blasts. Marauder starfighters zigged and swerved among the stars as they kept up the offensive, concentrating on any bombers. As the ex-Imperials attempted to assault the [i]Revenant[/i], its high powered shields took the brunt of any shots that landed on it. 

The Marauders were in great shape, as long as they kept up the offensive. They were losing starfighters, but not nearly as many as their opponents. Lalni made sure that they were keeping track of every vessel they lost. She smirked widely at the [i]Revenant[i/] as it showed off its power. Over towards the TIE manufacturing station the space battle raged on, the pirate queen darted through the bedlam of combat, two of her underlings followed her trail in X-wings. Ensuring their supreme leader was protected, though she was holding her own.

“Those of you that can do so, fire upon the station with your fighters. Don’t do too much damage to it, but enough to force them to try to divert ships away from the [i]Revenant[/i] in defense,” Lalni stated, then squeezed the triggers on her ship’s controls, unleashing a volley of laser fire at the station. It wouldn’t do any damage to it, but that wasn’t the goal. 

Koren pushed on following the group. This wasn’t exactly what he had initially planned for this operation, however he was going to make the most out of it that he could. Sirka certainly seemed to be thriving in this environment, it was just a shame there was as much life being lost as there was. Koren tapped a button on his wrist communicator. “Have the [i]Victorius[/i] drop out of hyperspace and enter escort formation with the [i]Revenant[/i]. Let them know we mean business.”

Out in space an Imperial Light Cruiser would appear, it’s smaller and faster tracking guns taking aim on the fighters swarming around it’s big cousin. It’s intent alone let the crew of the Revenant know it’s allegiances before there was any form of communication. Koren tapped Sirka on the back as they neared a corner. “There’s likely to be some form of defenses around this corner, as after this there is the door to the command centre.” He held out a concussion grenade. “My throwing arm isn’t what it used to be, though I imagine you can make good use of this.”

Stopping just before the corner, Sirka took the grenade in her hand. Lifting up her head, she took another few sniffs of the air, but just ended up looking annoyed. “Hmm, hard to tell. Stormtrooper armor is airtight. But...the scents are stronger in that direction. Best to take the careful approach.” 
Sirka shifted her gaze to the commando droids that had stopped immediately with herself and Koren. “Will they listen to me too? I want them to push in right on the detonation. I’ll hold the corner and lay down heavy fire. Just keep clear of my line of fire, machines.”

Sirka shifted her blaster cannon to her left side and moved up slowly to the corner, at least attempting to keep quiet. She let the back of the weapon rest on the ground as she took the grenade in her left hand, hovering her thumb over the button to arm it. Once the droids were in position, she armed the device and gave it a quick toss down the corridor. There were only a few seconds before the near-deafening sound that prompted Sirka to lean around the corner. Although she could handle some blaster fire, Koren had instructed her not to go around jumping in front of it, so she crouched down and exposed herself around the corner only minimally while the droids took the lead. She looked quickly for the toughest target on which to focus her heavy firepower.  
“Captain, a vessel just emerged alongside us, helping to defend the [i]Revenant[/i].” One of the bridge crewmen aboard the colossal pirate ship said, the surprise evident in his voice. Lalni blinked as she noticed the [i]Victorious’[/i] appearance. Well, any help was good help. 

“Excellent. Keep the defense of the [i]Revenant[/i] as our priority. I want us to show our appreciation to our allies though, send a detachment of fighters to help defend the [i]Nightfury[/i]. Keep up the assault on the station, utterly crush any of these deserter scum that dare to attack the [i]Revenant[/i].” The pirate queen stated with a wide smile. The space battle was clearly in their favor now. It was before, but the arrival of aid only increased that tilt.

She watched as concentrated laser cannon fire essentially sliced one of the larger enemy ships in half. She’d predict soon that some of the more cowardly deserters would attempt to flee. The Marauders would ensure no such thing occurred. She turned her attention back towards the TIE manufacturing station, as several smaller pirate ships hammered it with shots. Not enough to do any serious damage but an amount that would certainly worry the ones in command of it.

Koren nodded at the droids as they looked to him for confirmation, as the explosion rocked the hall Sirka leaned around. Blaster fire erupted heading out towards them, two of the droids got knocked down and Koren shook his head slightly. The more proactive he became, the more droids he lost. The more he needed facilities such as this to replace the ones he lost. IT wasn’t a cheap process. He peered around the corner, looking at the hastily built fortifications. Ten Stormtroopers crouched behind crates piled outside the door, one of them even held a heavy repeater.

He back as he tapped on his wrist device to get information on the [i]Nightfury[/i] on how the operation was going on out in space, as the entire station shook from weapons fire. Things were going better on the outside than they were on the inside, that was for sure. It would all be over soon however.

After opening fire, Sirka did not relent. She saw the stormtrooper with the heavy repeater, which was a weapon that could do some serious damage, even to her. Resistant as she may be, Sirka was not immune to blasters, especially after repeated hits. Naturally, she placed all of her focus on him before he could focus on her. He was in a good position behind cover, near the rear of the defenders’ position, so he was difficult to hit. However, Sirka was not too concerned with accuracy. A continuous volley of cannon fire from her E-Web struck against the crates that formed the makeshift cover in front of him. Simple containers were not up to the level of fortification as the armor that an E-Web was capable of dealing with, so her shots scorched and burned holes through the metal. It rapidly chipped away his cover and left him more and more exposed. He was, of course, returning fire on Sirka, but his blaster was not quite as capable of tearing through the very walls of the station. 

The droids were doing a good job of keeping the other stormtroopers’ attention, and indeed, were admirably effective in actually fighting as well. They were not like the cannon fodder of average B1 droids. They moved quickly to avoid fire, aimed accurately, and were altogether more survivable than the more mass produced battle droids. However, they were not invincible, and they did not have any cover to speak of to advance on the enemy position. If they wanted to get by without too many losses, they would have to push quickly and aggressively.
Sirka could see the barrel of her weapon start to heat up, but she kept up the fire on her target, until eventually she got what she needed. Out of the entire volley of bolts, she just needed that one good hit, center mass. It hit him in his stomach, and with his stormtrooper armor not being designed to deal with something so heavy, it penetrated with ease. Perhaps it was lethal, perhaps it wasn’t, but all that mattered to Sirka was that it kept him from shooting back. She finally let up on her suppressing fire to duck back behind the corner quickly and grab a flash grenade from her belt. She used the holographic slider to adjust its fuse just slightly, keeping it short. 

“Flash out.” Sirka said through her comms, hoping the droids would know what to do with that information. Immediately afterwards, she activated the grenade and tossed it down the hall, though instead of backing up to hide her eyes from the flash, Sirka started to charge towards it. Compared to the first concussion grenade, it had a shorter fuse and detonated mid-air. Sirka’s triple-eyelids protected her from sudden bursts of illumination, but the same could not be said for Humans. Some of the stormtroopers were blinded, some turned away, but before any could reorient themselves, Sirka was already halfway to the closest stack of crates. The droids were running up along with her, and all of them were firing to keep the stormtroopers suppressed. It was a role that Sirka continued upon reaching the first stack of crates. She was able to at least partially obscure herself behind them, and heft her weapon up onto one of the lower crates to stabilize it as she spread out another torrent of automatic blaster fire in an arc onto essentially the entire defensive position. If she could keep up suppressive fire, the droids could move up for more precision shooting.

The Marauders continued to ward enemy fighters off the [i]Nighfury[/i] all while pushing the assault on the TIE fighter factory. The space battle was clearly in the pirates favor now, the weakened Imperial deserter forces still trying to fight off the attackers. The [i]Revenant’s[/i] turbolaser cannons ripped into the ships that attempted to damage it. The pirate queen kept her eyes focused on an enemy TIE fighter, as she and another Marauder chased the spacecraft before it went down in flames.

“Keep it up! I want any of those deserters that try to escape to be shot down.” Lalni stated as she continued her flight through the stars through the battlefield. She did not feel it would go on much longer, the forces defending the station were scattered and weakened.

She briefly wondered if it was possible for the Marauders to get their pirates inside the station. Then they could really pressure the ones in control of the manufacturing plant. Considering her deal with Koren, she figured it would be better to focus their attention on domination of the space outside the plant. They were in control.

The droids didn’t need orders to know to move up, moving quickly they jumped onto the walls with their magnetic feet and pushed on to the unsuspecting Stormtroopers. These troopers had trained to fight against insurgents, rebels. Not droids designed specifically for war, which is why as soon as Sirka had given them an opening they pushed up rapidly on the defensive position and wiped out the stormtroopers. Waiting at the door for Koren to push up he joined them at the door. “Route me through to the station comms via the [i]Nightfury[/i]” He spoke into his commlink without so much as declaring himself, he didn’t need to. He was the boss after all.

“Listen, it’s over. I have control of the space, and I’m right outside the door into the control room. I don’t want bloodshed, if you are willing to work for me that’d be a much better arrangement than me having to find out what individual members of your crew are willing to work for me and are trustworthy, and which ones I need to send off to a private reserve-” He cut the comm for a second and turned to Sirka. “-I actually do have a private reserve. This isn’t slang for a prison or killing them, it’s quite nice actually. If you ever have anyone you want to relocate somewhere nice let me know-” He activated the mic again “-We don’t need anymore bloodshed. So what say you, is it over?”