Post by Jhaelee de'Auvrie on Nov 3, 2011 2:00:44 GMT -5
((an older bit I wrote up, fictionalizing the acquiring of this specific Abaddon, which still flies to this day))
(mid Y-111)
The entire ship reverberated with the sound of the magnetic grapples finding purchase. Everyone on board the Lancet tensed. If that alerted the gunnery crew, the small boarding ship would be destroyed. Despite being attached, the small ship was still within the larger battleship’s turret arc. The next few moments would be risky. They now needed to cut open the armored airlock and get on board the battleship before the enemy crew became aware of their presence.
The tip off form the Caldari mercenary had been uncommonly accurate. This “Komatose” had not only provided a clear report on the location of the disabled battleship, but also including sensor blind spots and details on its internal conditions. The opportunity to reclaim a mighty Abaddon-series battleship from enemy hands was too good to turn away.
In the Lancet assault bay the legionnaire marines quickly went about checking the last of their gear. At the open boarding hatch, the assault commander was already cutting away to the airlock door. Normally the 70 kg thermal lances were operated by a crew of two. The hulking Centurion Lieutenant seemed to not notice the weight as he deftly maneuvered the massive cutting tool.
Even among the physically fit ranks of the Imperial Armed Forces, Centurion Lieutenant Tiberious Gelt stood out. Topping 221 cm and over a 145 kg without his kit, Gelt was an unstoppable for in close quarters fighting. Ten years of combat duty and hard fighting had earned him command of the eighty man 61st Legion, 8th Cohort, 2nd Centuria.
In a storm of sparks and molten armor shards, the airlock door collapsed. Four legionnaires hurried through the opening and dropped down into the airlock chamber, powerful laser rifles leading the way.
“All clear Centurion,” came Legionnaire Volder quiet voice of the comm. “No enemy contact.”
Gelt let out the breath he had been holding before activating his helmet comm, “1st, 2nd, and 4th will secure the engineering decks. 7th Contubernium has the drone hanger. 8th, I want the port gunnery batteries secured. 6th, you will double time it over and secure the starboard batteries. 5th, 9th, and 10th take and hold the main access passage. 3rd Contubernium you are with me.”
With orders given, the individual eight man units separated to go about their assigned objectives. If the data Komatose had provided continued to hold true, the battleship should be at half crew and lacking its capsuleer. That still left the tall order of nearly forty to one odds against the 2nd Centuria. They had to move quickly and gain as much ground before the element of surprise was lost.
* * *
Lance Sergeant Nyv motioned for the seven other members of the 8th Contubernium, those under her command, to hold. At the end of the corridor the door they had been approaching whisked open, presenting a very startled Republic Fleet crewman. The crewman opened his mouth to say something as Legionnaire Salvio’s shot took him in the throat.
While in basic principal the laser weapons used by the Amarr operated perfectly silently, the deep searing sound of highly energized air escaping from the beam path and the explosion of superheated flesh combined to provide sufficient enough noise to alert the rest of the gunnery crew. Cries of alarm and readying of weapons started before the still twitching crewman hit the deck.
* * *
“Hostile contact,” Nyv’s voice sounded in Gelt’s ear piece right as alarm chimes started. A heavily accented Minmatar began shouting over the inter-ship comms about pirates attacking the port guns and demanding every hand not doing something grab a gun and get down there.
Gelt found himself wondering yet again how this disorganized rabble ever managed to pose a threat to the mighty Amarr Empire. Thundering boots reminded him, not for the first time either, of the answer to that. Overwhelming numbers.
The small horde of Minmatar rounded a corner only to be met with patterned precession fire from the 3rd Contubernium. To their credit, a few of them managed to get inaccurate shots off before being cut down. The 3rd’s Lance Sergeant looked to Gelt for orders.
Centurion Lieutenant Gelt motioned for the 3rd to secure the corridor and wait. He then went about getting an assessment of the situation. “Lances, status?”
“1st no contact.”
“2nd no contact.”
“3rd, position secured.”
“4th, no contact.”
“Ciro here, sir, Lance Sergeant Buur took a hit and is down. We and the rest have managed to setup choke points and are holding the Mins from getting down the main hall here.”
“6th, light contact but we are still in rout.”
“7th, just rounding up the last of the deck crew. Soon as the call went out we jumped and they paniced. Hanger is secure.”
“8th, we are engaging the main of the port side crew. We can win this but I need them not to send more.”
“9th, heavily engaged, we are maintaining position in the central corridor at junction delta three one.”
“10th, ‘eavy fightin’ here. Don’t worry Nyv, we won’t a’ let any more o’ them to come and get you.”
Gelt hefted his thermal lance and motioned for the 3rd to continue on. Normally boarding tools like the thermal lance would have been left with the transport or in brought along in the hands of specialists. Its lethal range of less than four meters made it impractical for field combat. On multiple occasions Gelt had been reprimanded for carrying it with him instead of his issued rifle.
* * *
Lance Sergeant Sehn deftly led the 3rd through the winding corridors. They avoided the most direct rout, the main corridor. Instead they took a winding path through side passages. While none of them had ever been aboard an Abaddon-series battleship, the general logical layout of Amarr design allowed the 3rd to travel quickly. The otherwise quiet proceedings were accented by sporadic combat with bewildered Republic Fleet crew. Most of these small engagements consisted of one or more Minmatar opening a side door only to be met with a quick shot form one of the Legionnaires.
Occasional reports came in from the spread out Lance Sergeants. The three Contubernium sent to secure the engineering sections and the aft of the ship had met a large number of enemies and were involved in a stalled firefight with them.
The fighting to secure both side gun batteries was coming to a close. With the 5th, 9th, and 10th preventing Minmatar reinforcements form freely moving along the main foot paths in the ship, the department crews were faring poorly against the highly trained Amarr soldiers.
Finally the 3rd Contubernium came to a set of closed heavy blast doors. Beyond would lay the ships bridge, their objective. They would need to breach the doors to secure the ship. That meant no element of surprise, the Minmatar Republic Fleet officers on the other side would have plenty of warning and time to prepare.
Holdovers from old naval engagement doctrine saw that Amarr ships like this Abaddon-series had were prepared for ship boarding. While the ships of the other nations favored ascetics and ergonomics, the bridge the 3rd faced could be quickly turned into a fortress.
Legionnaires spread out to cover the blast doors and the corridor they had just come down. Gelt took up position at the seam point between the heavy doors and thumbed the warm up stud on the thermal lance. Motion to his left caught his eye in time to see Legionnaire Ceas hit the door intercom buzzer. Having been spotted, Ceas sheepishly shrugged and made a knocking motion with his free hand.
Gelt wryly shook his head and turned back to the blast doors, re-hefting the now humming thermal lance. Just as his finger brushed the activation stud a resounding clank came from the doors. A second clank sounded followed by the multi-ton doors sliding open faster then their enormous weight would imply possible.
Rather than a few tense minutes of cutting and doors meant to be impossible to breach followed by intense firefight, Gelt and the eight members of the 3rd Contubernium found themselves staring at a young looking Minmatar in a crisp Republic Fleet uniform.
The shear improbability of the situation brought about a dead pause. The shock of suddenly seeing an entire squad of heavily armored and armed Amarr soldiers struck the young ensign and the rest of the bridge crew dumb-founded. The ridiculousness of Legionnaire Ceas effectively knocking on the door actually working found the members of the 3rd grasping for how to proceed.
The stall broke when the young Minmatar ensign panicked and scrambled to draw his sidearm. Seeing the motion, Gelt let instinct take over and squeezed the activation stud on the thermal lance causing a spear of visible heat waves to blossom from the weapon’s muzzle. A quick pull of up dragged the spike of energy across the middle of the young officer. The weapon designed to melt through meters of dense armor turned the ensign into two piles of burning gore and devastated the control station behind him.
What ever effective resistance the stalwart bridge crew might have mounted died with the young ensign. Seeing one of their own killed in such a brutal fashion staggered them enough for the 3rd to lay down a few devastating volleys of laser fire. Within moments all the Minmatar were down and only one casualty among the Amarr soldiers. Legionnaire Titus slumped against a bulkhead trying to hold a clotting-patch over a heavily bleeding stomach bullet.
They had won; the ship would soon be completely under their control. Centurion Lieutenant Tiberious Gelt wearily pulled off his combat helmet and looked up at the name plaque mounted above the front bank of windows on the Bridge. The original name plaque of the ship was long gone and in its place the Minmatar had hung a garish bronze plate with one word on it, Jötunheimr.
* * *
Gelt watched as Legatus-Legionis Commander Alexius Julii escorted a young girl-waif and a thick jawed Caldari down the battleship’s main corridor. The smug looking Caldari Gelt recognized as the mercenary Komatose. The girl was a mystery. She seemed to startle at almost every shadow and nearly panicked every time one of the 61st Legion’s many soldiers on board loudly greeted her. Seeing the commander of the Legion inspecting the results of the boarding operation was fitting, but the girl seemed entirely out of place.
Quick scrutiny of the heavy dress and robes the waif was practically drowned in gave Gelt another piece to this puzzle. Along the hem of her outfit was the distinct coloration one of the “old home guard” political factions within the Empire.
As they made their way one of the corpses that had been shoved off to the edge of the corridor revealed its not yet dead status. The Minmatar managed to roll over and feebly raise his remaining arm, reaching out for mercy.
Gelt could just make out Legionnaire Volder saying “Apologies for not having this taken care of already,” before one handedly pointing his rifle at the head of the Minmatar and shooting.
Legatus Legionis Commander Julii gave Volder a disapproving look, the waif paled visibly and swooned a bit, and the Caldari just chuckled at the misfortune of the dead.
As they then moved past where Gelt was standing, he fell in behind. They proceeded to on to the bridge. After a few moments of silent walking, Legatus Legionis Commander Julii asked over his holder, “Centurion Lieutenant, were your losses within the pre-mission estimate?”
Gelt nodded and quickly replied, “Yes Legate, the 2nd Centuria managed to complete the operation with only suffering twenty one non-fatal casualties and thirteen fatalities. Under the briefing estimate of a sixty percent total casualty count.”
Turning his head to the waif, Julii spoke with a barely suppressed patronizing tone. “See my dear, there were no unexpected losses. Your concern about the expenditure of lives was unnecessary. A fair exchange of Imperial resources to reclaim this ship.”
Gelt could feel himself bristle at the cold, calculated fashion the lives of his men were being dismissed.
* * *
Jhaelee de’Auvrie consciously stopped her hand, again, from creeping up and shielding her nose from the oppressive smell of death and burned flesh that permeated the ship. The sight of the steaming pile of gore that had once been a person that greeted her at the entrance to the bridge had nearly been her undoing. She would keep her dignity though. If she could survive the flight in close quarters with that crass Caldari mercenary, she could suffer through this a bit longer.
At the very least, she would not have to continue to endure Komatose’s vulgar innuendoes at her expense. No, that had been replaced by the glares from the giant of a man the legion commander had identified as a Centurion Lieutenant. While Jhaelee was not completely familiar with infantry rank, it seemed that he had led the conquering of the ship. So far her fear of him had denied her the opportunity to commend his valor.
The infantry men and women that she had encountered during the planning and completion of this operation still made her uneasy. They had a much more direct nature about them then she was used to, much more intense.
Motioning towards the front of the bridge, the legion commander called out to her from across the bridge. “Utter gibberish. One can not even begin to fathom how such primitive words are pronounced. Do not fret, we will have it taken down and the ship re-christened before it is placed in your care.”
Jhaelee turned to carefully study the heavy golden brown plaque he indicated. “This one believes that it says Jötunheimr.”
The legion commander faltered a little bit, “Well what ever it is, it is utter nonsense, a term without meaning.”
Sensing the eyes of everyone on the bridge watching this exchange, Jhaelee straightened her posture a bit. “This one believes that it is taken from old Minmatar culture. A mountain safe haven for a race of mythical giants that attacked and tormented their gods. While heathen in origion, an oddly fitting name for a war vessel that will be turned against the Minmatar and their beliefs.” Jhaelee paused and smiled, momentarily catching the eye of the giant Centurion Lieutenant, “This one believes that she likes it and wishes for it to remain. It shall make a fitting tribute to the brave soldiers that fought to turn this ship towards its rightful purpose.”
(mid Y-111)
The entire ship reverberated with the sound of the magnetic grapples finding purchase. Everyone on board the Lancet tensed. If that alerted the gunnery crew, the small boarding ship would be destroyed. Despite being attached, the small ship was still within the larger battleship’s turret arc. The next few moments would be risky. They now needed to cut open the armored airlock and get on board the battleship before the enemy crew became aware of their presence.
The tip off form the Caldari mercenary had been uncommonly accurate. This “Komatose” had not only provided a clear report on the location of the disabled battleship, but also including sensor blind spots and details on its internal conditions. The opportunity to reclaim a mighty Abaddon-series battleship from enemy hands was too good to turn away.
In the Lancet assault bay the legionnaire marines quickly went about checking the last of their gear. At the open boarding hatch, the assault commander was already cutting away to the airlock door. Normally the 70 kg thermal lances were operated by a crew of two. The hulking Centurion Lieutenant seemed to not notice the weight as he deftly maneuvered the massive cutting tool.
Even among the physically fit ranks of the Imperial Armed Forces, Centurion Lieutenant Tiberious Gelt stood out. Topping 221 cm and over a 145 kg without his kit, Gelt was an unstoppable for in close quarters fighting. Ten years of combat duty and hard fighting had earned him command of the eighty man 61st Legion, 8th Cohort, 2nd Centuria.
In a storm of sparks and molten armor shards, the airlock door collapsed. Four legionnaires hurried through the opening and dropped down into the airlock chamber, powerful laser rifles leading the way.
“All clear Centurion,” came Legionnaire Volder quiet voice of the comm. “No enemy contact.”
Gelt let out the breath he had been holding before activating his helmet comm, “1st, 2nd, and 4th will secure the engineering decks. 7th Contubernium has the drone hanger. 8th, I want the port gunnery batteries secured. 6th, you will double time it over and secure the starboard batteries. 5th, 9th, and 10th take and hold the main access passage. 3rd Contubernium you are with me.”
With orders given, the individual eight man units separated to go about their assigned objectives. If the data Komatose had provided continued to hold true, the battleship should be at half crew and lacking its capsuleer. That still left the tall order of nearly forty to one odds against the 2nd Centuria. They had to move quickly and gain as much ground before the element of surprise was lost.
* * *
Lance Sergeant Nyv motioned for the seven other members of the 8th Contubernium, those under her command, to hold. At the end of the corridor the door they had been approaching whisked open, presenting a very startled Republic Fleet crewman. The crewman opened his mouth to say something as Legionnaire Salvio’s shot took him in the throat.
While in basic principal the laser weapons used by the Amarr operated perfectly silently, the deep searing sound of highly energized air escaping from the beam path and the explosion of superheated flesh combined to provide sufficient enough noise to alert the rest of the gunnery crew. Cries of alarm and readying of weapons started before the still twitching crewman hit the deck.
* * *
“Hostile contact,” Nyv’s voice sounded in Gelt’s ear piece right as alarm chimes started. A heavily accented Minmatar began shouting over the inter-ship comms about pirates attacking the port guns and demanding every hand not doing something grab a gun and get down there.
Gelt found himself wondering yet again how this disorganized rabble ever managed to pose a threat to the mighty Amarr Empire. Thundering boots reminded him, not for the first time either, of the answer to that. Overwhelming numbers.
The small horde of Minmatar rounded a corner only to be met with patterned precession fire from the 3rd Contubernium. To their credit, a few of them managed to get inaccurate shots off before being cut down. The 3rd’s Lance Sergeant looked to Gelt for orders.
Centurion Lieutenant Gelt motioned for the 3rd to secure the corridor and wait. He then went about getting an assessment of the situation. “Lances, status?”
“1st no contact.”
“2nd no contact.”
“3rd, position secured.”
“4th, no contact.”
“Ciro here, sir, Lance Sergeant Buur took a hit and is down. We and the rest have managed to setup choke points and are holding the Mins from getting down the main hall here.”
“6th, light contact but we are still in rout.”
“7th, just rounding up the last of the deck crew. Soon as the call went out we jumped and they paniced. Hanger is secure.”
“8th, we are engaging the main of the port side crew. We can win this but I need them not to send more.”
“9th, heavily engaged, we are maintaining position in the central corridor at junction delta three one.”
“10th, ‘eavy fightin’ here. Don’t worry Nyv, we won’t a’ let any more o’ them to come and get you.”
Gelt hefted his thermal lance and motioned for the 3rd to continue on. Normally boarding tools like the thermal lance would have been left with the transport or in brought along in the hands of specialists. Its lethal range of less than four meters made it impractical for field combat. On multiple occasions Gelt had been reprimanded for carrying it with him instead of his issued rifle.
* * *
Lance Sergeant Sehn deftly led the 3rd through the winding corridors. They avoided the most direct rout, the main corridor. Instead they took a winding path through side passages. While none of them had ever been aboard an Abaddon-series battleship, the general logical layout of Amarr design allowed the 3rd to travel quickly. The otherwise quiet proceedings were accented by sporadic combat with bewildered Republic Fleet crew. Most of these small engagements consisted of one or more Minmatar opening a side door only to be met with a quick shot form one of the Legionnaires.
Occasional reports came in from the spread out Lance Sergeants. The three Contubernium sent to secure the engineering sections and the aft of the ship had met a large number of enemies and were involved in a stalled firefight with them.
The fighting to secure both side gun batteries was coming to a close. With the 5th, 9th, and 10th preventing Minmatar reinforcements form freely moving along the main foot paths in the ship, the department crews were faring poorly against the highly trained Amarr soldiers.
Finally the 3rd Contubernium came to a set of closed heavy blast doors. Beyond would lay the ships bridge, their objective. They would need to breach the doors to secure the ship. That meant no element of surprise, the Minmatar Republic Fleet officers on the other side would have plenty of warning and time to prepare.
Holdovers from old naval engagement doctrine saw that Amarr ships like this Abaddon-series had were prepared for ship boarding. While the ships of the other nations favored ascetics and ergonomics, the bridge the 3rd faced could be quickly turned into a fortress.
Legionnaires spread out to cover the blast doors and the corridor they had just come down. Gelt took up position at the seam point between the heavy doors and thumbed the warm up stud on the thermal lance. Motion to his left caught his eye in time to see Legionnaire Ceas hit the door intercom buzzer. Having been spotted, Ceas sheepishly shrugged and made a knocking motion with his free hand.
Gelt wryly shook his head and turned back to the blast doors, re-hefting the now humming thermal lance. Just as his finger brushed the activation stud a resounding clank came from the doors. A second clank sounded followed by the multi-ton doors sliding open faster then their enormous weight would imply possible.
Rather than a few tense minutes of cutting and doors meant to be impossible to breach followed by intense firefight, Gelt and the eight members of the 3rd Contubernium found themselves staring at a young looking Minmatar in a crisp Republic Fleet uniform.
The shear improbability of the situation brought about a dead pause. The shock of suddenly seeing an entire squad of heavily armored and armed Amarr soldiers struck the young ensign and the rest of the bridge crew dumb-founded. The ridiculousness of Legionnaire Ceas effectively knocking on the door actually working found the members of the 3rd grasping for how to proceed.
The stall broke when the young Minmatar ensign panicked and scrambled to draw his sidearm. Seeing the motion, Gelt let instinct take over and squeezed the activation stud on the thermal lance causing a spear of visible heat waves to blossom from the weapon’s muzzle. A quick pull of up dragged the spike of energy across the middle of the young officer. The weapon designed to melt through meters of dense armor turned the ensign into two piles of burning gore and devastated the control station behind him.
What ever effective resistance the stalwart bridge crew might have mounted died with the young ensign. Seeing one of their own killed in such a brutal fashion staggered them enough for the 3rd to lay down a few devastating volleys of laser fire. Within moments all the Minmatar were down and only one casualty among the Amarr soldiers. Legionnaire Titus slumped against a bulkhead trying to hold a clotting-patch over a heavily bleeding stomach bullet.
They had won; the ship would soon be completely under their control. Centurion Lieutenant Tiberious Gelt wearily pulled off his combat helmet and looked up at the name plaque mounted above the front bank of windows on the Bridge. The original name plaque of the ship was long gone and in its place the Minmatar had hung a garish bronze plate with one word on it, Jötunheimr.
* * *
Gelt watched as Legatus-Legionis Commander Alexius Julii escorted a young girl-waif and a thick jawed Caldari down the battleship’s main corridor. The smug looking Caldari Gelt recognized as the mercenary Komatose. The girl was a mystery. She seemed to startle at almost every shadow and nearly panicked every time one of the 61st Legion’s many soldiers on board loudly greeted her. Seeing the commander of the Legion inspecting the results of the boarding operation was fitting, but the girl seemed entirely out of place.
Quick scrutiny of the heavy dress and robes the waif was practically drowned in gave Gelt another piece to this puzzle. Along the hem of her outfit was the distinct coloration one of the “old home guard” political factions within the Empire.
As they made their way one of the corpses that had been shoved off to the edge of the corridor revealed its not yet dead status. The Minmatar managed to roll over and feebly raise his remaining arm, reaching out for mercy.
Gelt could just make out Legionnaire Volder saying “Apologies for not having this taken care of already,” before one handedly pointing his rifle at the head of the Minmatar and shooting.
Legatus Legionis Commander Julii gave Volder a disapproving look, the waif paled visibly and swooned a bit, and the Caldari just chuckled at the misfortune of the dead.
As they then moved past where Gelt was standing, he fell in behind. They proceeded to on to the bridge. After a few moments of silent walking, Legatus Legionis Commander Julii asked over his holder, “Centurion Lieutenant, were your losses within the pre-mission estimate?”
Gelt nodded and quickly replied, “Yes Legate, the 2nd Centuria managed to complete the operation with only suffering twenty one non-fatal casualties and thirteen fatalities. Under the briefing estimate of a sixty percent total casualty count.”
Turning his head to the waif, Julii spoke with a barely suppressed patronizing tone. “See my dear, there were no unexpected losses. Your concern about the expenditure of lives was unnecessary. A fair exchange of Imperial resources to reclaim this ship.”
Gelt could feel himself bristle at the cold, calculated fashion the lives of his men were being dismissed.
* * *
Jhaelee de’Auvrie consciously stopped her hand, again, from creeping up and shielding her nose from the oppressive smell of death and burned flesh that permeated the ship. The sight of the steaming pile of gore that had once been a person that greeted her at the entrance to the bridge had nearly been her undoing. She would keep her dignity though. If she could survive the flight in close quarters with that crass Caldari mercenary, she could suffer through this a bit longer.
At the very least, she would not have to continue to endure Komatose’s vulgar innuendoes at her expense. No, that had been replaced by the glares from the giant of a man the legion commander had identified as a Centurion Lieutenant. While Jhaelee was not completely familiar with infantry rank, it seemed that he had led the conquering of the ship. So far her fear of him had denied her the opportunity to commend his valor.
The infantry men and women that she had encountered during the planning and completion of this operation still made her uneasy. They had a much more direct nature about them then she was used to, much more intense.
Motioning towards the front of the bridge, the legion commander called out to her from across the bridge. “Utter gibberish. One can not even begin to fathom how such primitive words are pronounced. Do not fret, we will have it taken down and the ship re-christened before it is placed in your care.”
Jhaelee turned to carefully study the heavy golden brown plaque he indicated. “This one believes that it says Jötunheimr.”
The legion commander faltered a little bit, “Well what ever it is, it is utter nonsense, a term without meaning.”
Sensing the eyes of everyone on the bridge watching this exchange, Jhaelee straightened her posture a bit. “This one believes that it is taken from old Minmatar culture. A mountain safe haven for a race of mythical giants that attacked and tormented their gods. While heathen in origion, an oddly fitting name for a war vessel that will be turned against the Minmatar and their beliefs.” Jhaelee paused and smiled, momentarily catching the eye of the giant Centurion Lieutenant, “This one believes that she likes it and wishes for it to remain. It shall make a fitting tribute to the brave soldiers that fought to turn this ship towards its rightful purpose.”