[h2]Baron Wilhelm[/h2]

"Excellent my children! Your make your empire proud!" The baron declared after helping the Armatus deal with some of the point defense guns to clear the way for Onyx-9. It seemed like the battle was about to finish up with the enemy cores on the run and the Shriek being boarded. Old Ironside used the opportunity to sneak behind the frigate, a pod on his left shoulder opening to let loose his big dumb uppercut missile. Needless to say, a frigate was not able to dodge it, especially at this range. A large explosion shook the rear of the ship as its main thruster cut off (he had been careful not to hit the core to give another job to Hartwig.

"She's dead in the water, tally-ho!"

With this the man allowed his machine to drift a little as he closed his eyes, taking deep breath to steady his heart and calm down a little. "A-ah, hahaha, t-too old they call me, bollocks to that, haha-ahhhh..." 

[h2]Captain Mika Ganishka[/h2]

Mika had a sigh of relief when she heard the news that the strike crafts were turning around. She'd be confident the Indomitus would win, but the ex-pirate knew every time you took a gamble you had a chance to lose, no matter how stacked in your favor the game was.

There was something odd about this. The miscommunication, the factions, how well equipped and timed this ambush was... She had her suspicions of course, the sector had a strong republican leaning so some might take the arrival of an imperial prince as encroachment (which was exactly what it was to be fair).

The captain was pulled out of her musing by Prince Cassian reminding her of their priorities. She sighed in agreement. "Yeah yeah. We'll at least get two of them though, that converted cargo ship is too slow to escape my marauders." She said with a smirk. At the start of the battle she had sent her auxiliaries take the long way around the battlefield just for the chance of picking up stragglers. Now, the cruiser was too much for them to handle, but a converted carrier?

She'd take care of that in a moment, before that there was the matter of the Shriek.

"Onyx-9, don't pull out. I repeat, do not pull. No reason to blow up a perfect prize ship! You're running low on ammo so wait on reinforcement before finishing clearing up the bridge. XO, add Reaver-1 to battlefield coms."

Another screen came up on the large display, showing a savage looking individual with a blond mohawk combed to the left and his lower jaw missing, it and his bottom teeth replaced by cybernetics. His glazed over eyes and the heavy bags under them made his drug use obvious to say the least. He sniffed and cleared his nose before speaking.

"Do I finally get to kill something?"

"Seems like you just might. But listen up good Tarsis, I'm running a military op now and you'd better remember it. No friendly fire 'accidents' and if they surrender you don't kill them, even if they shot at you first. You will show our new boss there is some value in keeping you around and there will be no fuck up, understood?"

"Yeah yeah, I'll be a good boy moooom, now please excuse me while I show these Imperial Marine babies how you do boarding action." He said while putting on his helmet on, the skull design obviously meant for intimidation.

There was an obvious unease on the bridge. The 'auxiliaries' usually kept their distance, but the Reavers were kept as a backup (or maybe the term was expendable) ground team on the Indomitus. Mika ignored the silent judgement of her new subordinates, if they disapproved of this they wouldn't like what was next.

"Open a broadband com channel, no encryption."

She wanted to talk to the enemy? Again this hesitation and glances to the prince, but the communication officers finally executed the order.

"Norton. I know it's you out there you stupendous fuck. You remember me? It's Mika! C'mon, I know you're being paid for this and the imps have credz coming out their asses, so how about we work something out? I'll even let you keep your toy, the Shriek's new, isn't it?"

There was a moment of silence and Mika wondered if he didn't take the bait. Finally there was an answer and a display opened on the big screen showing a man who's thin and elongated features made him look like a shaved rat with a cybernetic eye.

"Ganishka you fucking double crossing piece of shit, you'll spread your whore legs for literally anyone!"

Mika smirked as she crossed her legs and and arms.

"I'm not hearing a no~ Come on, I've fucked you Norton, you should be able to see my raiders burning toward you. You could make it out, buuut I'm going to blow up your carrier. You can leave with your ships and credits in your pocket or run away with your life and your dick in your hand. Oh and I guess you could fight me but, I know you're a coward, so..."

The pirate slammed his armrest and got up from his seat to scream.

"And I know your word is worth exactly jack and shit! Mark my word Ganishbitch, you shouldn't have come back here! And to any imperial units listening, your captain has betrayed literally everyone she's ever worked for in her entire life, if you think-"

The man started yelling insults but Mika pressed a button to mute him, he did keep the video feed on.

"Meet my old friend Norton, kind of a dick to be honest, but he's generous enough to give us a nice view of his bridge. Send the images to intelligence and see if anything can be learned." Indeed as Norton paced around, the camera generously followed his face and peeked at what was going on around him. Mika did spot some suspiciously well dressed people.

[h2]Aboard the enemy Shriek[/h2]

"Reaver-1 Actual to Onyx-9, coming up on the next corridor, watch for crossfire." Gunfire echoed down the hall for a few seconds before it was silenced.

"Reaver! Reaver!" The incoming backup carefully advertised their presence as they came out of the smoke, that call out being more than justified as these guys looked like most of the pirate scum Volger had killed today, except these guys had a distinct 'red and skull' theme going on. A guy ran up the line and up to Volger, offering what was probably supposed to be a salute. This kid couldn't be older than 16. "Whatsup sir! We're your reinforcement! Here, spare ammo for you guys!" He was practically screaming in his face, obvious sign this kid had a grenade or two go off too close to his ear one to many time. Still he lowered his enormous backpack and opened it. "I got 10mm, 40mm, poppers, flash-" He began to list his supplies like a street peddler using thick pirate jargon, but he was efficient, handing over what he had to who needed it as he obviously recognized Onyx-9s gear just by looking at them.

"This is Reaver-1, progressing toward the bridge."

Their pirate allies were... something. On one hand, it was obvious they had experience: they cleared room after room with impressive speed and skill, but this was pretty much all they had going for them, that and fearless aggression that could only come from heavy use of combat drugs. The way up the corridors they had cleared was gruesome, these guys obviously had a love for auto-shotguns that were ideals for close quarter boarding like these but that also left a mess of the people on the receiving end. Another notable thing was that some of the dead enemies had their ring fingers or ears chopped off as the Reavers looted any obvious jewelry they could find as quickly as possible.

"Hey, look who decided to join us. Wazzup?" It was Reaver-1 Actual, 'Sergeant' Tarsis who casually filled his combat stims injector with another cartouche while behind him some other reavers were cutting open a reinforced blast door.

"Rats are doing a last stand on the bridge. That'd be the part where I bring up any survivor and slowly kill them in front of the camera to convince them resisting is a bad idea but the boss told me we don't do that anymore. So. How do you guys want to do this?" He casually asked.