Upon seeing the Inquisitor jumping down Evon looks through the hole in the crawl space and quickly assesses his chances ,,Cover me with fur and call me Fluffy the Bantha if I'm jumping after him just like that!" He searches his medical case, looking for his new toy. He inserts a cylinder filled with ominous green liquid into the applicator. ,,Let's see how good is this stuff I got from Fitzy!" He gives himself the shot and suddenly a fresh energy courses through his vain. ,,Okay, that's the stuff!"

He reaches for the Lambda shuttle's vertical fin and after a short leap he slides down holding onto the sloping edge. He lands next to the Inquisitor. ,,Right be...." Suddenly he feels a quick jolt and the energy boost disappears as if it were never there. ,,..hind you, Sir!"

He makes a brief mental note of the new serum: ,,Blast it, that wasn't lasting, was it? I still have much work to do."

Venlana hears the altercation above, and the violent fighting below, and decides it would be imprudent to get caught in between. Instead of continuing down to the hangar, she backs up a couple steps toward the lounge. “Is it mutiny to question a captain who flits about, wantonly attacking imperial shipments, provoking the ire of the authorities? No. This is a coup. The removal of an insane woman from a position she is no longer fit for. The only places she can lead you are imprisonment, enslavement, or death. Join me now, if you would prefer to profit, rather than perish.”

The pirates look at one another again, but the Klatooinian holds his tongue this time, answering with his vibro-ax. The abrupt lunge nearly lands, and only Logan’s swift intervention prevents the wicked weapon from cleaving into the Baroness. The blade skitters off, barely penetrating the crimson guard’s armor, but it would surely have been a grievous wound to his lightly-armored charge.

“Kill them,” she orders simply, maintaining her veneer of calm, despite the close call.

*******************************

The Pirate Queen does not wait to see if the Inquisitor’s words will have any effect on the girl; she may be frozen, but she is not nearly helpless. With effort, she draws enough energy from the Force to pick the girl up and set her into the awaiting cockpit, which immediately hisses closed. More chirping from the astromech and the fighter rises back up into the launch tube, preparing to make good on its escape.

With her daughter secure, the Pirate Queen turns her attention back to the Inquisitor and the Interrogator who has just dropped in to join him. There is fire in her eyes and a cruel smile on her lips, as she allows the full measure of her angst to well up and flow forth; except it doesn’t. The Inquisitor’s strength of will does not allow it, and all that built-up ire spills over within, further stressing her own untenable situation. She tries to scream in her rage, but it has no voice...

"Your Powers are weak!" He glares at her his anger at her loading the girl into the ship for an escape fueling his defense of his mind, "The Girl will be mine!"

The last Pirate grimaced, backed away a step before being completely blindsided by the Trooper called Den who plowed into him like a sledgehammer. Val raised his eyebrows and shrugged.

"That'll do it." he said with a smile. "You four with me," he said pointing at the armed Troopers. "The rest of you, arm yourselves and ensure the safety of Agent Ostell." He then turned his attention back to the far end of the Hangar where he saw the Pirate Queen walking with the girl. The tall Zeltron kicked off in that direction. Zzzstttk!!! A flash of red and a rain of sparks fell as the Inquisitor dropped from the hangar ceiling, plummeting to the deck below in a blur of red.

"What the kriff..." Val bumbled, stopping in disbelief. He had heard rumors about their prowess but had never thought he'd see something quite that spectacular. And he generally wasn't so easily surprised. The thought quickly passed as suddenly the Queen was in the air clutching her neck, the Inquisitors arm outstretched. Is there anything they can't do? He mused as he picked up his pace again. As soon as he got close enough he brought the whip up and behind him, giving it a flick with his wrist, letting it hang a moment in the air before sending it to its target with a sizzling CRACK!!! the whip coiled around its mark, a jolt of energy spiking into the woman's body.

"My Queen." Agent Kaan lamented. "I was hoping we'd meet under different circumstances..."

Reaching the bottom of the stairwell Briar sees how the hanged has descended into chaos there are several dead pirates around bottom of the stairwell, the inquisitor and the Zeltron that had taken Luks to the other stormtroopers, fighting the pirate queen, and she saw the girl force lifted into a starfighter as it prepared to make its escape.

Can't let her escape. Briar thought looking around spotting the nearby control console she raced over to it. Got to close them all at once, or the fighter will get away. as she started working on the computer; emergency lockdown. ISB override... almost got it. DONE! as the alarm begins to echo around the hanger and the doors start to close.

Seeing the troopers awaiting her orders Briar says "Get those weapons," pointing to the weapons dropped by the fallen pirates "and take down the pirate queen." she says pointing to make certain the target is clear.

The Pirate Queen parries the whip as best she can in her predicament, but cannot avoid becoming entangled. The girl looks down from her vantage in the cockpit, but she can’t spy the assailant. No matter, she reaches out with the Force and yoinks the whip away from its wielder, whomever it might be. Ripped from Val’s hand, it lands on the deck a short distance away, not far from the still reeling crimson guard.

In the lounge above on the main deck, Venlana’s other guardian forgoes his disruptor in such close quarters with the Baroness, and draws his sidearm. Firing, he sends one of the Pirate Queen’s loyalists to the deck. “Drop your weapons now!”

Rushing into the hanger, Den does not slow down as he sprints towards the nearest pirate. It was at times like this he missed his rifles, but then this was better exercise. Letting out a prolonged battle cry, Den hits the pirate square in the gut with his shoulder as he body tackles him. Pushing on, Den lifts the pirate into the air before slamming him down on the ground with a loud bang. Straightening up, Den cracks his back before looking down at the pirate, his knife sticking out of his check. Reaching down he plucks the knife from the pirates chest before looking around the hanger. "Well, that's as good a start as I can hope".

Hale laughs and runs forward, his Z-6 finally getting some exercise. He fires a short spray as he runs, but the Pirate Queen is too far away, and while his Z-6 has a great rate of fire, it has a painfully large spread.

Drogos lets go of the Queen from his force grip as his quarry was getting away from him, he needed to stop the ship where the Girl was in from making an escape, rushing forward he would spot the Astromech Droid and tried to grab it and freeze it's actions with the force. Seemingly worn from fighting off the Queen's mind, the simple Astromech is able to repel the Inquisitor's mental attacks better than the Queen Could.

“WrrrDllBrrrrp!!” The small droid chirps furiously as it extends several digits outward to tap directly into the Destroyer’s systems. The Pirate Queen’s R2 unit is quite skilled at this sort of thing, but... its efforts are being actively thwarted by someone at the hangar console!

”QrrrrTrrWrrrllllll!!” The droid starts to crack the ISB crypto-protocol, but quickly realizes that it is going to take far too long. Processors whirring, it hardly notices the very angry organic below, appendages extended in its direction.

Another solution then... The astromech devotes a subroutine to worry away at the encryption, while it returns its attention to its primary directive: escaping with its young charge. The small fighter gradually accelerates down the tube, away from the launch chamber below, closer and closer to the blast door obstructing its only way out.

*******************************

In the lounge on the main deck, the violent dispute rages on, the Baroness and her henchmen trading words and blows with the Pirate Queen’s loyalists.

Evon realizes he can't do anything to retrieve the girl, so he turned his attention to the Pirate Queen. He closes the distance and grabs his sidearm. He wastes no time, switches to stun while aiming and lets lose a volley of blue energy circles toward the Queen. The bolts dissipate on impact meanwhile blue electric current flows through the Queen's helmet. Soon, it erupts in a small explosion as the helmet's circuits can't handle the overload.

Seeing that the Inquisitor has the Pirate Queen situation covered, Den Luks dashes up the stairwell to the main deck, vibroknife in hand. The Baroness herself, Venlana Sipal, is in the process of withdrawing down the stairs, with her crimson guard.

”Sergeant. The Twi’leks and Wookiee above are helping to retake the ship. Assist them. Logan, sidearm.” Den is ready to knife the guy, but the man in the red laminate simply flips the heavy blaster pistol around in his hand, and proffers it handle first. “Good Luks, Sergeant,” Logan says, making Den want to knife him even more, but he accepts the pistol.

When Luks arrives at the main deck landing, the lounge is in chaos. “I di’nt even know dey made buckets that big!” It is the same Klatooinian that had been harassing Hale earlier, of course. “Let’s see if it cracks op’n like a meiloorun!” Indeed the pirate launches himself at the stormtrooper, dealing a terrific blow with his vibro-ax, which glances along his pauldron but slips through his neck seal and nearly rips his helmet off. Luckily, the blade misses hitting any major blood vessels, and the Duros actually grins when the ax becomes momentarily stuck.

The ambitious Pantoran woman continues down to the lower deck, but while her close protection officer scans for immediate threats, Venlana has eyes only for the Pirate Queen at the far end of the hangar bay.

The Pirate Queen is smoldering, quite literally, with sparks and smoke emitting from a small electrical fire on the back of her bronzium helm. The attempt to contact her ship had failed, the circuitry in her subvocoder fried. The loudhailer is working just fine, however- stuck, in fact, at an ear-splitting shriek, and her speech is even further distorted by the damaged modulator.

“SO YOU WANT TO TANGO?! HEY HO, LET’S GO!!” She is having trouble seeing out of her one eye, but in the moment cannot tell how much damage is hers, and how much the helm’s. She knows she sees a traitor, though, in Venlana’s new Zeltron lieutenant.

The crack of Venlana’s x-30 Lancer reverberates in the hangar. It is a good shot, but the Pirate Queen lazily flicks it away... except some of it gets past her! Eye’s worse than I thought... “Hsssss!!!”

”You can tango with ALL of me!!!” There is a palpable tension, an expectant air about the Pirate Queen, as tendrils of smoke waft off theatrically in unnatural directions; but the Inquisitor again thwarts whatever she had in store for them. The Pirate Queen strides defiantly toward Venlana’s yacht, screeching unintelligibly, and dark shadows begin to take form around her. They dissipate almost immediately, however, and it seems her powers are indeed no match for the empire’s Inquisitor.

Reaching the yacht, she kicks the still-dazed crimson guard just as he regains his feet, and enters. The ramp closes behind her.

“****,” Venlana mutters. “The rest of the hostages are on my yacht. That was my insurance policy.” Doing the math, the imperials quickly realize that though half the hostages had been escorted away on the shuttle, and the small unit of stormtroopers had been freed... the balance of crew and officers are as yet unaccounted for...

The two Cutlass-9s stand off as instructed, a short distance away; but contrary to the implied purpose of backing off, they arm their concussion missile launchers and target-lock the Intrepid.

Well then... Briar thought to herself as the fighter headed down the launch tube towards the closed blast door Hopefully that will hold, but just in case. "Captain Hagstrum, a fighter is trying to escape through the forward launch tube, stop it by any means short of destroying it." she said, turning in time to see the boarding ramp to Venlana's yacht close and hearing her response to it, Briar starts sprinting towards the yacht "Troopers follow me, get ready." she says as she passes the stormtroopers on her way to the yacht.

Reaching the yacht Briar approaches the key pad and quickly starts working on it, the Zeltron that had been fighting the Pirate Queen offers what they know of the pass code, and to Briar's slight surprise it is mostly correct, she quickly finishes the rest of the code "Get ready, the ramp's coming down!" as the ramp starts to lower Briar leans in slightly to see the Pirate Queen has made her way into the middle of the hostages either on her way to the bridge or using them as cover. This complicates things.

Venlana punches the code into her yacht’s key fob as she walks, but to her surprise, the ISB analyst already has the ramp lowering. Need to upgrade my security game... (she muses, as she deactivates the anti-theft measures); Those are disabled, too..? Impressive. I should hire her...

The two stormtroopers armed with the recovered “Subduer-9s” step forward and fire into the yacht, but the powerful stun blasts lose cohesion and dissipate as they reach their intended target, to little effect.

It has not been a good day for Commander Felix Hagstrum. His first Command. And likely his last. He has just begun assessing the current situation, when Agent Ostell’s communication comes through on his newly reacquired bridge. Action! Flicking on the 1MC, the Intrepid’s weary Captain addresses all hands, broadcasting into all ship spaces.

”Imperial personnel. Qualified gunners lay to the flank ion cannons and target anything that launches forward.”

”To those fighting below. Resist! Take. Back. Our. Ship. We are a Destroyer. Fight like it.” Belatedly perhaps, he sounds general quarters. Blaring klaxons and flashing emergency lights punctuate the already chaotic shipboard fighting.

Den is about to rush at the pirate queen before he hears the noise from the stairwell. Glancing between the current target and the stairwell a couple of times, Den lets out a rough sigh. "I'm going to check on that, don't worry, I have faith in you guys!" he shouts over his shoulder to the others. "I'm not running away or anything, just dealing with another problem! Don't put me up for court-martial or anything!"

Sprinting up the stairs two at a time he almost trips as he sees the Baroness coming the other way. As he goes for his knife he is stopped as he is passed the blaster pitol. Confusion is written on his face as he watches them pass. "Wait, hey! Aren't we meant to be fighting eachother?" he calls after them a moment later. "Agh, pirates all look the same. I'll probably get them later" he mutters to himself.

Reaching the top of the stairs he is almost immediately attacked by the enemy, and just about manages to stifle a cry of pain as his blood flows over his shoulder and arm. Looking back up at the pirate he shouts "What's wrong with you, you dog looking lunatic? Are you just trying to get yourself killed?"

With one hand and a shout of pain, Den tears the axe free of his shoulder with a horrible spurt of blood splashing onto the floor. With the other he goes to unhook his thermal detonator from his belt. Seeing the other pirates, he does not fancy his odds regardless of his bombastic words, and begins to limp back towards the stairwell. Just as he rounds the corner of the door, Den tosses the detonator underarm in the pirates direction. "Hey, how good are you at catch?" he shouts before ducking behind the doorframe to avoid the blast.

As the blast dissipates, wincing in pain Den reaches for his com. Contacting the rest of the squad, he say "hey, I may not be in as good a way as I thought. I may need to lay low for a moment".

As the whip was torn from his grasp and flung across the hangar floor behind him, coming to a spinning stop a dozen or so meters away, Val frowned, then laughed.

"Well, I guess theres a first time for everything, eh?" He said, looking at the inquisitor and shrugging with slight embarrassment. The Pirate Queen wasted no time and was already making her way to the Baroness' Yacht. The Zeltron spun deftly on his heel and gave chase. He nodded to the four troopers that had followed him.

"Take her down boys!"

As he passed over the Whip, he gave it a flick with his boot and it sailed up a few meters before landing into his palm. He gave it a CRACK! Just for good measure. He was coming. He reached the Yacht but the ramp had already closed. Agent Ostell had also arrived and immediately began work trying to open it up, he assumed.

"Ah.. A, 5, Zeta... Tango." He said trailing off, remembering part of the code he had managed to acquire over his short time with Lady Venlana. Without skipping a beat the ramp opened up. "Hah, beautiful and talented, eh Mon Chéri?" He said with a wink, before beginning up the ramp. He saw the Queeny, making her way through the other imperial hostages. He thought for a second. This might not work, considering.. but here goes.

"Stop her! Men and women of the Empire! Get that Pirate scum!"

The men and women of the Empire do try. But being on their feet for hours, in binders, well... the crew is in sorry shape to mount an attack. Indeed most of them, naval watch officers and enlisted crew, have only been minimally trained for combat.

It is the Intrepid’s Tactical Officer, Lieutenant Leslie Govern, who acts first. The same man who had so casually ordered the removal of the Tusken encampment, now finds himself forced to take action for himself. Taking courage from the arrival of Imperial reinforcements, whatever their apparent allies, he takes a step toward the still-smoldering Pirate Queen and raises a boot to slam into her knee. His face makes a satisfying crunch as the queen’s elbow slams into his nose, without her turning around or otherwise acknowledging his presence.

Venlana’s crimson guards close ranks around her, as she makes her way toward the yacht. The baroness does not look pleased at the scene before her, inside her pleasure craft.

“Dog-looking?! Wait, catch wha...?!” The explosion in the main deck lounge dispenses the emperor’s justice evenly to all the pirates, regardless of their fickle allegiances. As it should be.

“BzzptQrrtzWyrrrWyrrr!!!!” The girl in the stealth fighter continues inexorably down the launch tube, uncertain what the insistent R2-unit behind her is prompting her to do. When the red light on the trigger begins flashing, it becomes clear, and she grabs the stick. She is scared, but the closed bay door they are rapidly approaching makes her brave. She closes her eyes and pulls the trigger.

The proton torpedo launches, a bit off at first, but the guidance system kicks in and it speeds off toward their blocked exit. The astromech angles deflector shields forward to help protect against the impending blast, temporarily rerouting power from all nonessential systems.

,,An explosion?! Blast it! They are blowing up the ship!" Evon activates his comm and switches to the Task Force's channel. ,,Task Force, this is Agent Taltron. Check in! What's happening up there?! Anybody need medical attention?"

Hale hears the explosion, and half turns, but then runs towards the ship, carrying his Z-6 in his left hand as he fumbles for the stun grenade on his belt with his right. "Hey pinky! Duck!" He tries to underhand it on an awkward arc up through the hatch, but it bounces off the lip of the darn thing and skitters along the floor past the Zeltron before going off, too far from anything to actually do anything.

Drogos unable to stop the droid turns his attention back to the fleeing Pirate Queen, who once again tries to assualt his mind. “A feeble attempt from a feeble mind.” He said as he walked toward the ship.

He saw the door was closed behind the pirate queen and then subsequently opened by Briar and The Zeltron as he walked. Making his way up the newly opened gangplank he once again choked the Queen with his mind again passing her mental defense and lifting her into the air. “Not so fast, you can’t just leave without saying goodbye.” There was venom in his words he was clearly mad about the Girl escaping.

The Phantom's sensors pick up the signature of the fighter's concussion missiles arming. "Time to add to the mayhem", Sormar grins, thinking back to an old commercial he saw on the Holonet. He targets the blood-red cruiser hanging nearby and unleashes a volley of laser fire. The blast is enough to take out a good sized chunk of the ships shield generator.

Somar flips the comm. "Allright boyos, cruiser's aft shields are down. See if you can work with that!" He then slams the yoke of the ship forward and down, cutting across the front of the fighters and attempting to get them to give chase. "Come on, ya nerf herders, catch me if you can!"

Hearing the call for gunners, Den comes back from around the corner of the stairwell. Examining the carnage he had caused, he nods to himself approvingly. "Well, that was effective. I wonder how many pirates I was meant to kill". Limping out into the corridor leading to the gunnery platform, he winces as he has to take a moment to rest. Thinking about it, he had been shot a whole bunch of times today since they landed a the base. Certainly more than usual anyway, he should really see a medic after this. Taking a deep breath he continues towards the guns, leaving a slick of blood against the wall from where he rested.

Finally reaching the gun turret, he slumps into the seat and removes his helmet (against regulations), he needed a chance to breath. Maybe it was the blood loss, but he was feeling pretty tired at this point. Still, if those ships came in range, he could still play his part in the battle. Reaching for his com he speaks again. "Hey, for the record, I think I've got the highest body count right now. I'm not boasting, just, you know, letting you all know".

The Pirate Queen is trapped, or at least more so than she cares to be, with the comms in her helm fried, she has not issued any orders to her flagship. She is unused to not being in control of the situation, and the Inquisitor’s grasp of the Force is stronger than her scant intelligence reports had led her to believe.

Still she must probe for weakness, try to penetrate the Zabrak’s mental fortress, get through to the less disciplined minds of the others arrayed against her. She reaches out again, channeling her own controlled fury into some biting words of her own. “You are angry. Good! But if you truly understood how to tap into that, I wouldn’t still be here running my mouth!”

A moment’s weakness is all it takes, and she knows she has gotten through, but even the Stormtrooper’s will proves surprisingly strong. It takes all of her strength to push her will upon the Master Sergeant’s senses, force him to see what she would have him see... “See me now!”

Hale feels a violation within, an almost nauseating sensation, of his senses betraying him. To his eyes, another Pirate Queen has stepped right out of the one before him, so he now faces two! The absurdity registers only as horror, as he wonders what abomination he is fighting against?

Sheltered somewhat behind the close cover of her crimson guards, Venlana activates her comlink and contacts the Renegades’ Blood directly. “This is Baroness Venlana Sipal. The queen is cornered and cannot escape, but I can strike a deal with the Empire. With a letter of marque, we can reave on as privateers, be on our merry way! Heave-to and release this destroyer from your tractors, and standby to receive a shuttle.”

Following only the briefest of pauses, she is answered by a resounding clangk!! from the direction of the aft bay. “Prepare for boarders you venomous snake,” is the only reply she receives.

In response to the Phantom’s robust opening salvo, the Sorority’s two Cutlass-9 patrol fighters swoop into action and engage the TIE prototype. Saving the torpedoes for the destroyer, they close and open up with their laser cannons. Their zeal is obvious, but they are obviously outclassed by the imperial hotshot, as he deftly maneuvers out of the way.

"Ah my Queen, it is time for us to dance once again, yes?" the Zeltron says as he steels himself and saunters in, whirling the whip in small circles. He takes a side on stance, his golden vibro-cutlass pointing towards her, he spun quickly, bringing the whip up and over to avoid hitting the imperial hostages, but ultimately knowing they would be acceptable collateral damage. The whip hissed through the air, right for her face. Miss. Miss? He wasn't sure if he had indeed been off, or if she had made a subtle movement of her head. he had missed by an inch at most.

He continued his attack maneuver, weaving through the Naval Officers to face the Queen, and although seemingly held in place like before, she still parried his blade, blow for blow. The blades clanged and sparked off of each other, but he pressed further and danced around her. Finding a momentary opening, Agent Kaan lunged with the blade, but found it slowed to a halting stop, held in place in the air. He pushed harder against it trying to force it past whatever invisible force held it at bay, but it would not budge.

"You make this hard, you know? If you don't do that I would appreciate it." He said with a smile, releasing and taking a step back.

“MrrpBrrWrrll” The Pirate Queen’s astromech chirps reassuringly at the girl in the cockpit, as the guided proton torpedo corrects its trajectory and speeds ahead toward the end of the launch tube. With the Destroyer in lockdown, it is their only hope of escape. Just as it seems they are getting uncomfortably close, the missile strikes true, blasting their exit clear. ”We did it, Arty!!” the girl cries elatedly, as the small fighter nears the the freedom of open space.

The hatch in the Intrepid’s aft bay opens again, this time blown completely off with a deafening explosion. The sorority saboteurs climb through onto the imperial ship, for there is no way back. The boarding party is close on their heels, lined up in the boarding tube, prepared to follow suit. The six Weequay demolitionists move to take cover behind the transport berthed in the center of the bay, a couple of them already smiling as they reach for more charges.

“Oi, we shud probly blow dis too, boss?”

“Jes wait a parsec, wouldja?”

The Queen's praetorians board and fan out into the aft bay, proceeding directly to the doorway, three flanking either side. They are dressed in gray laminate armor, their helms designed after their queen’s in appearance. The blood red capes, and signature sword and pistol combo, leave little doubt who these men and women are. And who they are here for.