Rbz23: The Raid

General Summary

Left without Reinhard and without much of a choice, the crew reluctantly welcomed his piratic replacement. They briefly hoped that they would get a veteran combatant who was an expert gunner or cunning tactician... but instead, they got Nash, who boastfully claimed all these credentials and many more, and would absolutely not stop talking about it. Even hours later, when the Rubizahl joined the Oathkeeper fleet on the assault on the Oath Breaker Rampart asteroid hideout, Nash was still bragging about his various conquests -- in battle or otherwise -- to Benesh, the only person left on the bridge in the pilot's seat. Saskia and Quinn had both retreated to crew the turrets, even though they were still powered down.
When the ship reentered real space, the battle had already been joined. Lasers flickered in the distant blackness and the occasional explosion flared like an emphemeral star. Just as planned, they were flanked by several of the Oathkeeper light raiders, all running silent as they slipped into the asteroid field, using only their thrusters to navigate the gauntlet of asteroid toward their goal.
Their plan worked for all of three minutes. An alarm suddenly screeched on Benesh's console, thankfully interrupting Nash's upteenth tall tale. "Target lock. Target lock," it announced. Benesh's eyes went wide and he threw the switch to relight the engines. The entire ship lurched into a vertigo-inducing spin as she dove into evasive action just as railgun rounds obliterated several of the pirate raiders. Benesh dove for the cover of an asteroid as Saskia and Quinn swiveled their turrets to return fire. But just as their lasers hummed to life, all the lights in the ship suddenly went out and the whirl of the engines deadened to quiet ticks. Something had shorted out power in the ship!
There was sudden a chaos of yelling in the ship, mostly coming from Nash who had also soiled his pants on the bridge. The crew, however, quickly began to sort themselves out. The asteroid shielded them for the moment, but their momentum would carry them past its cover in mere minutes. Benesh yelled instructions down to Quinn as he worked to restart the engines. Meanwhile Saskia, inspired by an old film, raced to the garbage compactor and blew its contents out into space, creating a cloud of debris and chaff as a sort of smokescreen for the ship. At this moment, the Rubezahl emerged from behind the asteroid. The asteroid hideout fired a railgun round at them but it narrowly missed, slamming into the side of the asteroid and spraying the ship with regolith. But luck finally smiled on the Rubezahl. The combination of near-miss and the debris made it look like the railgun had scored a direct hit, and the hideout's guns turned their attention to the main pirate fleet.
As Benesh and Quinn climbed out of the engine room, Quinn realized that this course of events was beginning to line up with his meditative visions. He knew what they must do now -- They needed to charge forward! Benesh looked askance at the idea, but also saw that the pirates were distracted, and their docking bay was still open. This would be their opportunity to get onto the base. Benesh strapped back into the pilot's chair and throttled up the engine, charging down toward the docking bay. He could see the pirate mechanics moving about inside as he levelled the ship, ready to bring it to a stop when sudden everything lit up around the ship -- a salvo from the Oathkeeper fleet had just blown up the hideout!

Report Date

07 May 2022

Primary Location

Rampart

Secondary Location

Orange-Green Nebula

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