Lylith von Black, #ff4d4d
A voice echoed in the room, rousing Lylith from her meditation. She had ignored the intrusion of her first mate, Arden, until now. He knew not to disturb her unless it was very important... "Captain, the forces have been engaged in combat for the past hour, and are starting to drift our way... I think it would be advisable to relocate ourselves in orbit..." he said. Arden had been watching the battle closely... He had always been fascinated with naval combat, and had intended to join the Royal Hapan Navy. He was declined and instead, became a small time smuggler, with big time dreams which never came to pass.
"I think you're right... Lets move ourselves a bit, and pick a new place to watch from. I'm sure our passengers are getting just as nervous as you are... " she said casually, adding a little sarcasm at the end, just to tease him. She stood slowly, stretching, and strode across the room to her R1 unit, rigged to the main bridge controls... She petted the droid that had been installed, permanently, into the main flight controls. She had grown fond of the little droid, as he had simplified many factors in flying the massive 325m long ship, turning a 12 man job, into a one droid operation.
"Take us into a higher orbit, somewhere near the northern pole of the planet. I want our tracking speed to match the battle, so we don't have to worry about collision again. Keep the upper decks facing the fight too... Give our passengers a show, will you?" She grinned as she finished, and the little droid beeped an agreeable reply. she felt the ship shift immediately, and watched as the view out the massive transperisteel windows shifted... She grinned, and walked back to her seat, satisfied. She watched as the red, green, and blue lights swept across the black canvas of space, spearing into nothing as they flew at targets she couldn't yet see... She imagined the fear, and fascination of her passengers who hadn't seen anything like this before... Of course they were perfectly safe at this distance, but if they accidentally did cross flight paths with the orbital skirmish... By the time they exited the other side of the battlefield, there would be little left of her ship.
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Lylith woke suddenly from a sleep she didn't know she'd fallen into... " ... those bastards. Just tell them to wait while I get the Captai... Captain! There's a ship hailing us... Filthy scrap pirates think they can take whatever they want in the aftermath, including us." he finished, sweat beading on his upper lip. He nodded to a screen as it popped on, showing an ugly, older, Corellian. He had a sick grin on his face, as if he knew some dirty secret, or could see through clothes, and you didn't know it... He immediately cleared his throat and bowed, a little roughly. Lylith stood, and said nothing, but kept her steely eyes on him.
"Greetings... I am... Well, nobody... Captain of this here ship" he said, slapping the arm of a chair he stood by... "And I'm here to, well... Clean up the junk floating around... " he laughed, a throaty laugh that made it seem like he may be trying to loosen up some flem, rather than displaying an emotion... "Cause, if I don't do it, ain't NOBODY gon' do it! Ain't that right?" he waited for a reply, and upon receiving none, he continued, letting his fake, cheerful, demeanor fall away, replaced by his more natural scowl... "Well, seems to me, the trash floated a bit farther from the fight than I'd realized, and so I'm here to clean out the belly of your ships cargo holds. I do sincerely hope you'll... Well... Acquiesce... To my request, and don't resist... Cause I do see here you have a bunch of non combatant passengers who I KNOW won't help you when we board... So just don't try it, little missy... Okay?"
The man on the screen grinned again, showing his lack of teeth, and closed the connection. Lylith simply strolled over to the R1 unit again, and glanced over the scan of the, now enemy, ship... A Corona Class, with a few more guns than it was supposed to have, smaller engines, and more cargo room than life support. Lylith almost smiled, but refrained... She turned to her First Mate, and shook her head. "Go on and handle the passenger announcements. I'll handle this... " she stated, beginning the process of diverting power from portions of the ship that were unnecessary, such as propulsion and lighting, to be used in shields and weapons systems instead... She turned to the viewport as an alarm went off, advising "all non-critical personnel, make your way to Deck 2 of the ship, between Section J and N, for YOUR SAFETY..." Good... Arden was doing his job perfectly, and the guards on the ship will be directing all the passengers to the safety of the center of the ship.
"All passengers are past preliminary airlocks and blast doors. You can shut them now... " she heard across her comm unit. Lylith danced her fingers across a screen, closing all airlocks, and removing air content from the first few layers of the ship. The problem with space combat is that the very thing that keeps you alive, also kills you... Compressed air inside the ship explodes outward when a hole is melted in the hull, and results in a massive hole in the ship, rather than a relatively small penetration. The only reason more ships did not employ this tactic, is because most ships weapon systems have to be manually fired from the weapon itself... The Acquiesce had been modified to allow Lylith to control the weapons from the bridge, or to allow her R1 unit to fire them in her stead. The only problem with this, is if the communications systems within the ship were disabled, the weapons would be disabled too. And that is why this method wasn't widely used...
Lylith watched as the Corona Class Frigate approached slowly... The engines were weak, and were now burning at full power to propel the large-ish ship towards it's "prey"... Lylith glanced at the enemy ships overview and saw its shields were up as well. She reviewed the situation in her head, using the tactics her mentor had taught her such a long time ago... "Most of its power has to be consumed simply by the engines and those shields. They should have very little offensive power to use at this point..." Lylith looked down at her own ships status and pressed a few buttons, arming her weapons systems.
"Aim all starboard weapons at the bridge of their ship. Maximum firepower, for maximum effect. Cease fire when shields are down, and fire the Ion canon into their bridge." she drew a digital cross hair to the image of her opponents ship, confirming where she wanted the volleys of luminous death to be directed... and released her finger from the glass, allowing the cross hairs to go red.
Lylith grinned as her enemies engines nearly immediately cut, diverting power to their already doomed shields. The streaks of green from her 4 starboard Turbo Lasers, and red from eight Heavy Lasers, slammed into the pulsing blue-green of her enemy... She watched as the shield pulsed with a burst of energy, from the Corona, and steadily began to fade once more... Weak volleys from the opposing ship lanced out and were simply absorbed by her shield, which she had left up at half power.
Lylith waited a few more moments until the Coronas shield flickered out... She saw a few stray battery rounds lance into the ship, just as the shields collapsed, but that couldn't be helped... She saw the blue glow of the Ion round fly free of her ship, and SLAM into the bridge of the enemy ship, effectively disabling the bridge, and possibly killing everyone within... Though that was rare. But still a possibility... One Lylith hoped for... She didn't want to have to see that ugly pirate in person when she boarded HIS ship...
"Well... That was fun. What do you think R1... Blow it up, or take the goodies?" she looked to the droid for an answer, as if she would really take his advice, and laughed as red cross hairs appeared over the bridge of the disabled ship once more... "Ohh, you... Is it THAT BORING around here now?" she asked, laying a hand on his dome... He beeped a few times...
"You're right... We should do this more often..."
