[i][b] [right]Deep Space[/right]
[/b][/i]
	“Damnable pirate scum!” A middle-aged woman shouted to herself inside the cramped cockpit of a modified Z-95 headhunter. She wore a weathered leather coat over a crinkled undershirt. The woman suddenly pulled the flight yoke to her chest and swung it around. Attempting to keep herself from being too easy a target, just an instant later red-orange laser bolts pierced the empty space her fighter was before she kicked it ‘upwards’.

“If they’re going to kill me, they should just do it!” She shouted again in frustration; of course, she didn’t really want to die, she remembered, and lightly clutched at her breast pocket of her coat. Even the best pilot would be hard pressed to evade ten fighters, and she wasn’t even supposed to be flying. All things considered, she was lucky, but it didn’t seem like it would hold. 

A barrage of laser fire collided over her cockpit, causing a translucent blue aura to flash right in front of her eyes, a moment later missile alarms and shield power warnings started flaring on her computer screen. Her evasive skills wouldn’t hold out much longer she thought to herself. A second later her shields had given out, eliciting another alarm, she ignored it to focus on flying, but it wouldn’t be enough.

One of the missiles they had launched exploded into her port wing, blowing off a large part of it, and sent her spiraling away uncontrollably. The woman screamed for a moment as her body, and ship, where jerked violently. Stars and even the pirate fighters spun around her in dizzying blurs, sparks shot out of various corners of her cockpit, and the computer screen started flickering.

A crackly voice came through her comms, it seems her computer was probably still fully functional.

“That’s what you get for stealing from us little girl!”

The woman scoffed; it was stolen from [i]her[/i] people in the first place.

“If you’re careful we might let you go!” The voice taunted her as laser blasts rained down around her, and not at her. Trying to be intimidating, no doubt. Through the flickering she was able to tell that she was at least flying half a ship, the port engines and weapons were gone, disabled and destroyed respectively. But she still had the other side, and she wouldn’t go without a fight. The headhunter was slow to turn, and she would surely be destroyed the second her gun faces them.

“Wait a minute, everyone, Imps!” The man shouted through the open comms, he sounded panicked and clearly didn’t have time to switch where he was talking to.

“Turn around, turn around!” The ragtag group of custom ships tried to run as an Imperial Star Destroyer approached, tiny figures could be seen escaping the ventral side. She didn’t need her computer to tell her what those were, and she felt relieved.

They closed in fast, she was just barely able to stabilize her ship and start turning as a TIE fighter zoomed by. Green flashes of energy shot from its underside and penetrated one of the pirate fighters, the shields only activated for an instant before the lasers melted through the hull, igniting it in a fiery explosion a second later.

The other pirates had lasted about as long, a staticky shout and a silenced radio indicated her tormentor had met his end. Some of them had been flying a headhunter like her, some of them had been flying Scyk class starfighters, stuff you’d find easily on the black-market or for sale from the Hutts. Nothing compared to a top of the line fighter from Sienar, and their pilots were just thugs in the end. The woman took a moment to wave away some smoke from her face and powered down some of her systems, giving herself some relief from the sparks, and helping her come down from the battle.

One of the TIE fighters came back around to her front, window to window, to check on her perhaps?

“Obsidian-7 to intelligence agent, still alive?” The pilot asked, just as crackly as the pirate from before.

Intelligence agent? He likely wasn’t fully briefed, and it’s likely he never will be.

“Yes, my thanks.” The woman said relieved, and let her hands go limp.

“It was our pleasure.” He replied, likely with a cocky smirk, but she wouldn’t hate him for that.


[h3][i][b]ISD-Blackstar (Hangar)
[/b][/i][/h3]
The Star Destroyer's hangar ceiling was lined with docked TIE fighters, bombers, and interceptors. All of them an essential part of the ship’s arsenal. Maintenance personnel moved about, giving attention to fighters and other equipment that lay about. Liam was sitting in front of his fighter, staring, after having just written his after-mission report. With the action gone he was now left with just his thoughts.

“Hey, Liam, why the sour face?” Obsidian-6, Maran Ortonam, had called out to him while jogging over. It would be accurate to call Maran beautiful, he had a weirdly feminine face, and lose blonde hair that went down just past his ears. His well-coiffed hair, slender nose and body had lent him an appealing androgynous body. But Liam was confident he knew Maran was a twenty-year-old man.

“We never even got her name. I only found out ‘he’ was a she when I commed her.”

“What? That’s it?” Maran said incredulously, then donned a devious looking smile.

“That’s fine isn’t it? Not even I can get a woman’s name on the first try [i]all[/i] the time you know.”

Liam’s face scrunched up, and then relaxed into a smile.

“You nerfherder, you’re younger than me you know! I’ve seen some action!” Liam got up and jokingly poked his finger into Maran’s chest, as if he was accusing him.

“What’s this about action?” Obsidian-2, Jarael Teldan, holding her helmet to the side had waved them over. She was about thirty-four years, with short black hair the same length as Maran, a striking woman with a lively glint in her eyes. She’d have to be to keep up with the rest of the squad.

“Sir!” Maran and Liam both stood at attention, their bodies as straight as a rod.

“At ease, I just came to get you two out of here.” Jarael pointed behind with her thumb to the side, revealing a few mechanics leaning to the side chatting, they glanced for a moment and stopped, obviously waiting.

“Sorry guys.” Liam said with a light shrug and turned to leave with his comrades.