The pirate ship
Peregrine
slowed its descent into the atmosphere of Prodosia. It was coming in planetside, staying well away from the Confed base and Tanith's Gully. While their orders stated they needed to get on the planet, they also needed to be discreet. Dropping in hard and fast was no way to get that done, so they came in quiet, using what stealth tech they had to stay off the scanners.
"I don't get why we aren't heading straight to town, pillaging it like we should be!" one of the men on the bridge moaned.
"You heard the orders from Briggs and Zarkazh. We are to play the long game here. Find a way to infiltrate the town, so we can put ourselves in a good position to get close to this ship that thwarted our attack on Veldhern," the captain told the man.
"Playing spy ain't my pace, Cap. I'm more of a straight up fighter. Give me a good fight and I'll do well," the man grumbled.
"Then you and those of a similar mind will stay and guard the ship. Anyone comes near who isn't supposed to, you are more than welcome to tear their guts out," the captain told his subordinate.
"Now that, I can do!" the man grinned as the ship touched down on the surface of the planet.
The men aboard all knew their duties, and they scrambled to be ready to complete them. Once the engines were powering down, a squad of men was in the cargo bay, readying the land rover they had brought with them. The outer bay doors opened and extended a ramp, so the rover could be rolled out.
They would need the vehicle to get close to the town and possibly the base, but that was a secondary objective. Their primary objective was to get as close to the
Darkstrider
as possible and learn all they could about it. If they could manage to steal the ship, even better! But for now, they had to find a way into Tanith's Gully that would not arouse suspicion.
Unknown to the rest of the crew, there were several men that were placed aboard this ship deliberately. These men were agents of the Lady Zarkazh, sleepers, who were to stay hidden until a certain task or situation came up. Should certain conditions be met, they were then given a set of orders to carry out immediately. Sometimes the orders were to overtake a ship, assassinate an officer, and a myriad of things that could come up.
No one truly knew what Lady Zarkazh's aim was, and there were few who truly did know. None who were out in the field were privy to such knowledge, and that was the way the pirate lady kept it. Even then, those who had such information only knew fragments of the whole. She always played things close to the vest, never letting anyone know the entirety of what she was up to.
The Pirate Lady didn't become one of the fabled pirate lords by being careless. The last time she had been careless, those who crossed her lost their lives. It was not a mistake she would repeat, and it was the building block of her reputation as the 'Blood Dame'. Many had thought to cross the woman when they sensed a moment of weakness, but that was a serious mistake on their part.
She not only took her pound of flesh when crossed, she also took a good deal of their blood as recompense, if she allowed them to live. No one knew what she did with the blood, and no one cared to know. Many rumors swirled around about what she did with it. Some said she would drink it, others said she bathed in it, among many others.
Zarkazh, for her part, did little to stop the rumors, as they only added to her already fearsome reputation. With her legacy as a fearsome and deadly woman established across the galaxy's underworld, few would ever dare to be her adversary. If you were, you often didn't live long enough to regret it, and if you did, often death was preferable.
One particular man, the XO kept this in mind as he set up the encrypted communique for the Pirate Lady. He was aware of a ship of her loyalists that was inbound to the planet and knew that his message would be sent to her from them. In the communique was everything new that had happened until that point, which Zarkazh demanded. She liked to know everything that was going on, as no detail was too small for her.
It took all of two minutes to ready the message and the transceiver he had cobbled together from bits and pieces. The moment it was sent, the XO then rushed through, dismantling it and hiding the pieces in his cabin. Once it was done, he then stepped out of quarters, cool as ice, with none the wiser.
While the man had sent the update his lady had required, he was unsure of how things would play out here. Sure, he had his compatriots here to back him up, but if things went sideways, he wasn't sure if they'd come out alive. Many of the men aboard this ship were brutes and not logic thinking beings. If they caught him sending messages like this, he wasn't certain if he or his friends would be able to talk their way out of this.
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The crew that Jolena Sortani had put together under Lady Zarkazh's orders was already underway to Prodosia. Jolena had tasked her most trusted lieutenant, Daphres Mahtarn, with this job. Daphres was not only a skilled pirate and captain, but she also commanded the respect of those around her, new crew members and old.
She had shown that she was not only a competent commander, but one that her crew looked up to. The Naucturi woman could be one hell of a hard ass when pushed, but she often did it in a way that didn't invoke the crew's ire. She had demonstrated that she cared for the wellbeing of her crew, and did everything she could to see them survive.
To her, they all mattered for the skills and talents they brought to the crew, but not just that. She valued the loyalty and camaraderie they had together and with such a bond, there was no length they wouldn't go to, to succeed. As singular beings, they were fallible, weak, breakable, but as a crew, they were unstoppable.
Daphres had just received the communique from Prodosia, copied it, then sent the original message along to Lady Zarkazh. She took a few minutes and read the report, going over everything that was in it. So far, the conflict appeared to be escalating quickly. The natives were putting up a good fight and had even mounted a half decent defense against any incoming attackers.