[h2] Commander Stader Volger[/h2]
[b]CO 89th LSC (Onyx-9)[/b]

There was a common misconception about ships. Most entertainment Volger had watched in the last decade tended to portray the inaccuracy. It was that Engineering was one giant room deep in the bowels of the ship. With everything vital to it’s functioning crammed into its own corner. 

If such was the case Volger would have been done twenty four minutes ago and with significantly less effort. 

The reality was that Engineering was a warren of armored compartments, tight spaces and fatal funnels that was often packed with delicate components or hazardous materials. The upside was that the pirates didn’t want to trigger a rogue jump or light off a tenth of a starship’s fuel supply with [i]themselves[/i] still on the ship. The downside was that such considerations took off a fair chunk of the more lethal and effective toys Onyx-9 had brought aboard. 

Volger took a knee as he orchestrated the chaos. Piggybacking helmet feeds and squad TacLinks to keep his assay up to date. Down the corridor, a team tossed a stun grenade though a half melted door; piling though in the aftermath of its detonation. The whine of lasers and chattering rifles following their entrance.

Volger ignored it and took shifted through links.

A stomper, cannon stowed, dug armored gauntlets into a door’s seam. Crumpling the metal like paper. A pirate, clad in the surplus garb of the debris shooter’s stood shaking. Hands raised to the air. A stubby sub gun smoking and forgotten on the floor. In the corner lay another pirate, a professional, riddled from head to toe. Troopers flooded into the room; shoving the pirate into a corner and slipping cuffs on. 

Another link.

A squad of Onyx troopers battled over Heat Exchange Manifold #2. A trio of the professionals held the high ground in the form of a catwalk. A crew served railgun highlighted in angry red. Five of the surplus clad pirates ducked among the machinery. The link was a confusing array of symbols, noise and tracer fire. The camera owner leveled their IM-31 at the catwalk and triggered the underbarrel; the resulting explosion was bright and long lasting. The screams picked up in perfect audio quality as the thermite grenade burned through high grade armor. The catwalk buckling slightly under the now compromised structural integrity. The pirates below tried to fall back against the now surging teams of troopers.

Another link. 

Two pirates were in the frame. A surplus and a professional. The former had discarded his weapon in the remains of a maintenance area. Hands raised amidst the dead bodies of three former comrades. Or at least they were raised before the professional had drawn their sidearm and shot the surrendering pirate though the back of his dome shaped helmet. The professional had tried to turn but the camera owner and her partner let loose disciplined bursts of 8mm. The pirate joining his “colleagues”. 

Another link.

Five pirates lined against a wall. Dead. Blood spattered at head height. All clad in the surplus of the debris ambushers. Single gunshot wounds to the head. No weapons in their hands. Behind them a trio of professionals; twisted in death with shattered visors and broken chest plates. Two had rifles in dead grips; one still clutched a sidearm. Five pistol casings on the deck. The troopers responsible for the trio’s demise stepped up for a cautious coup de grâce.

[i]’Someone doesn’t want prisoners.’[/i]

Volger checked the ship’s layout with the location trackers of his two platoons in engineering. Good progress and dwindling resistance pointed to Onyx’s part winding down. At least for the immediate future. 

Not that the job was done. 

Movement in the corner office eye had him turn a split millisecond before his HUD screamed at him. A maintenance hatch in the floor revealed an unshaven face, surplus armor and an old bullpup carbine. The man had been trying to hastily clamber out when Volger’s PDW had turned on him. 

Two meters separated them. The pirate’s eyes were wide and his mouth beginning to form words.

All Volger noticed were the barrel wavering in his direction and an unfriendly uniform. 

A sustained burst gave the pirate a good impression of being electrocuted. The body collapsing out of sight back into the hatch. A very feminine scream of shock accompanied the falling body. 

Volger rose and crossed the short distance; PDW raised. A trooper mimicked him from the other side. The hatch yielded a very dead pirate and a very alive pirate stuck under the dead weight of the first. The second pirate was also clad in the off brown surplus armor but she had no visible weapon. Her efforts at the moment attempting to shove off a dead body that looked like it outweighed her by forty kilos in kit. 

She paused her struggle however as the pair of Onyx-9 troopers loomed over her. Visible lasers of green centering on a forehead sheened in sweat above wide brown eyes. 

Volger debated the trigger pull but thought better of it. Instead, he motioned at the hatch and the trooper that accompanied him. 

“Pull her out and get them to the holding area. No accidents. And get some buzz bots into the rat spaces.” The trooper gave a nod and motioned to his team. A pair of additional troopers shrugging past Volger to pull the pirate out from under the corpse. The first trooper holding an unwavering muzzle on the pirate. 

Volger, satisfied, left his troopers to it. He stepped back and spun on a heel. Queuing up his comms to the ship as he backtracked from the Engineering deck. Passing the debris and signs of the firefight. Pockmarked walls, shattered makeshift barricades and gore. Occasionally rows of bodies neatly arranged as Onyx-9 troopers shifted through secured sectors. Collecting the dead and wounded into some semblance of order.

[color=82ca9d]”Onyx-9 Actual to Indomitus. Main areas of engineering under control. Securing secondary areas now. Appears two factions among-“[/color]

A loud detonation resonated through the deck. Volger stumbled and caught himself on the bulkhead. An alarm blared through the ship’s PA system. 

Lt. Diaz helpfully clued him in on the general channel. 

[color=82ca9d]”Onyx-9 Delta here. Pirates in aft shuttle bay just blew up their shuttle. Look like they had a few scuttling charges on board. Don’t know extent of damage but I’m sealing off the bay.”[/color]

Volger gave a sigh and righted himself. Toggling the channel back to the [i]Indomitus[/i].

[color=82ca9d]Onyx-9 Actual, will add ordinance sweeps to follow on actions. Request brig prepped for prisoner’s with transport to follow.[/color]