Halo New galaxy Ch3 Pirate Warlord
24th June 2157 CE
Krogan DMZ, inside an asteroid belt
SDV Heavy Corvette, formerly Lingering Serpent, now Krogan Wisdom
Vezk had picked the new ship name because it sounded cool and also because it was ironic. There was little Krogan wisdom in the galaxy. The Krogan was warriors, not wise males of science. He had spent two days getting familiar with the ship and picking up extra warriors from Tuchanka. Unfortunately he couldn't fit his entire Warband on board. He needed more of these new, Covenant, warships for that. With enough new ships, troops and plasma weaponry he could conquer all of Tuchanka.
But for now he had to settle with two Corvettes. SDV class Heavy Corvettes, as he'd been told. SDV was a terrible name for a ship class. It didn't scare anybody. The Covenant clearly wasn't so bright. But he already knew that since they seemed to have a lot in common with the Citadel Council in his eyes. Both adored genocide. The Covenant almost took humanity, and the Citadel tried wiping the Krogan out. And still was.
"They are ready to receive our Phantoms," Kegg, his trusted second in command told him.
"Tell them that Captain…errh Red the Lick is about to send the Phantoms," Vezk ordered.
"Reb the Slick," Sax corrected the insult to the dead captain and his friend. "Reb the Slick!"
Vezk just waved him off. "Whatever."
He walked off the bridge and made his way to the hangar. The two pirate Corvettes waited for a Phantom each with important cargo from Reb the Slick. Those Phantoms would be filled with Krogan that would take over the hangars and make sure no alarm rang out. Then more Phantoms would come over with Krogan warriors and they would take the ships. If necessary Kegg had orders to disable the ships engines, but he hoped he wouldn't need to. It would delay his own operations.
When this was finished he planned to force the Salarian scientist they kidnapped last month to install the necessary engine parts and make these ships able to travel through Mass Relays too. There was nothing to stop him. Although it would take time, he'd capture more and more ships, building up his space fleet. As long as he didn't enter Citadel space and made himself a threat immediately. They'd just send their combined fleets to crush him before he could create an Armada. Lastly he needed to upgrade all of his men's barriers so plasma didn't go right through.
He armed himself with his Claymore shotgun and a Plasma rifle. He didn't like how they overloaded after a while, but Claymore wasn't exactly a quick shooter either.
Down in the hangar he jumped into one of the Phantoms. The Kig-yar pilot took off with the ship full of Krogan and a few Kig-yar's with shields to cover their new Krogan shipmates.
Vezk was eager and excited. As was his second, Kegg. But he had to stay behind and make sure the pirates didn't do something stupid as try betraying them by warning the others or shooting their Phantoms down.
"We're inside their hangar, sir," the pilot said over the internal speakers of the Phantom.
Vezk looked at his warriors. They were ready. Definitely. The silver armored warriors were ready to kill and conquer. He was intrigued over that the Kig-yar didn't mind killing their former comrades. They were relatively okay with it actually. Maybe it was a pirate thing.
"Touching down," the pilot said. "Game time, Sir big Warlord boss."
Vezk cocked his shotgun. "He he he."
The side doors retracted and opened both sides of the Phantom. Vezk quickly counted two Kig-yar and a little guy with a mask and tank on his back. They freaked when the Krogan charged out. He blasted the masked tank breather down on the spot but the other two were gunned down by his warriors. On the other side two Kig-yar went down.
The rest of the hangars personal started going for weapons and make a beeline for the only exit out of the hangar. One of them ran for a console. A Krogan with a Needler shot him down. When the Kig-yar got hit in the neck and his upper body exploded it caused a round of laughs from several Krogan.
A Krogan with a Revenant was mowing down a handful of pirates. He shifted his aim and fired at two hiding behinds crates. They peeked out to shoot ones and it was enough to shred their bird heads like cheese.
Within seconds they had cleared the hangar.
Vezk saw a console beeping and chimed. He waved one of his Kig-yar over.
The Kig-yar activated the console.
"Hey, how's it going down there?" A raspy voice asked.
"Hey boss," the Kig-yar said. "Slick got the damned thing loaded up with some alcoholic goodness."
"Ha ha ha ha!" The Kig-yar laughed. "I knew he'd do somethin' like that!"
"Could use some muscle to pack it all out though."
"You got it, more boys on the way, Captain Jypk out."
The Kig-yar didn't look happy over lying to his comrades but forced a smile over his beak. "Got some boys coming down, sir."
Vezk nodded. "Let's set up an ambush." He started organizing the Kig-yar and Krogan on both sides of the doorway, hiding from view. A few Kig-yar remained in the open to not worry the newcomers.
Soon fifteen Kig-yar came into the hangar and found themselves surrounded by Krogan and fellow Kig-yar. Kig-yar they were sure didn't work in the hangar. They saw bodies of their dead shipmates around the open deck.
"Anyone who wants to get rich and survive, go over there," Vezk ordered. No matter how much he wanted to kill these guys for sport, he needed surviving crew. Someone had to keep him informed about everything in the newly discovered region of the galaxy. The Kig-yar seemed like simple foot soldiers, frail, yes, but they claimed to be good snipers and those energy shields the ones with him carried was very useful. Especially in smaller spaces like corridors. They were like Vorcha, but far more useful. When he was part of the Blood Pack he led Platoons of Vorcha into suicidal battles before sending in the Krogan to finish up the enemy.
Thirteen of the fifteen marched over to a section where three Krogan would guard them. The other two refused. Their loyalty for their captain too great.
"Loyalty, huh," Vezk noted. "Admirable." He raised his Plasma rifle and shot two bolts, head shooting them both. He pointed to the Krogan guarding his future crewmembers. "Watch them. They move, kill them. Rest of you with me. To the bridge."
The pilot took off to retrieve more men. There would be over a hundred Kig-yar on board. They needed more than a dozen Krogan and some Kig-yar to take it.
One of the Kig-yar remained to hack the system and make sure they didn't realized what was happening until it was too late. He deactivated the communications system and engines without them noticing. He also tricked their sensors so they would see the mass of Phantoms coming over.
Vezk led the march through the corridors of the purple ship and whenever a lone crewman appeared, he killed him. He wasn't sure when the pirates would realize their systems was being hacked but if it worked long enough for his Krogan to storm on board, it'd be enough.
"Woah what the frag!" A Kig-yar in their path exclaimed. The other started scrambling back.
Vezk blasted both down with plasma bolts.
"Warlord," a Krogan voice said through the comm.
"What?" Vezk asked.
"Four Phantoms just offloaded ninety Krogan and Kig-yar troops in the hangar."
"Good, storm in and take control of the ship. We're closing in on the bridge."
"Yes Warlord!"
"Hehehehe," Vezk chuckled grimly.
They walked through some staircases that led further up the ship towards the bridge. The twenty-seven armed warriors and pirates was ready to fight.
Hearing footsteps approaching from the door leading onto the bridge deck level Vezk leveled his Plasma rifle. When a Kig-yar strolled through casually, he shot him down. He jogged up to the doorway and looked in both directions.
"Intruders!" A Kig-yar yelled. He ducked for the cover of an open door.
His warriors charged on and fired at the pirates in their path. Three dropped dead within a two second count.
Vezk had brought a Krogan Company of one-hundred and fifty men on board the first Corvette. Now they were dividing here and to the other Corvette. These pirates had never seen a Krogan before, which deceased their survival chances significantly.
The Kig-yar with energy shields led the quick advance with Krogan shooting over their heads. Many of them on board Reb's ship had served in the Covenant army as mercenaries or privateers. They had military training and experience. Almost all of them was veterans from the Human-Covenant War so fighting in this formation was nothing new. It was the reason Reb had been the Captain in charge between these three. He had the experience the others didn't have. Their crews hadn't the same experience either. These pirates had been freelancing on their own since they started. Avoiding Covenant service. Now there skill was put to use against their fellow pirates.
A pirate with a Needler pistol fired half his clip at the advancing enemy without much success. He ducked behind a corner and took a deep breath. He didn't understand how they got so deep into the ship, or who they were. He peeked out and emptied the Needler pistol. Three needles hit one of the Krogan warrior's faces. He first got angry that he'd been hit in the face, but when they exploded, it took half his large head off. The large body fell to the floor with a loud thud.
Vezk heard the ship wide alarm going off. Now they definitely knew they were here. But he had little over a hundred men on board so he was certain of victory. How bloody, he didn't know though.
His men had to stop when a turret started blasting at them. It was positioned in the middle of a long corridor, along with two metal barricades on each side. The gunner kept blasting while three men fired from behind cover. They sued Needlers, snipers and Plasma rifles.
They halted and took cover behind the walls of the junction. Two of their Kig-yar was mowed down in the opening barrage.
"Sir!" Vezk turned to one of his Krogan.
The silver armored warrior had his armored badly burnt by plasma and he was bleeding from a little all over. His left arm wasn't working after his shoulder had been almost clipped off. He stumbled forward.
Vezk turned all his attention to the wounded man.
"Permission to…" he coughed up some blood. "…go in first."
Vezk smiled and nodded. "Take as many of them with you as you can."
The warrior nodded and cocked his Graal Spike Thrower. He stepped out into the corridor and fired the shotgun. The oversized flechettes peace pierced a pirate's beak and continued into his skull. It split his head in two and purple blood splattered on the pirates by his sides.
But the gunner brought his bolts to strike the lone Krogan. Plasma bolts slammed into him and burnt through his armor. The Krogan threw his shotgun away and drew his Plasma pistol. He continued firing when he fell to his knees, while his body gave in to his wounds. With his last effort he put a bolt through the gunner's eye. Then he collapsed himself.
The turret overloaded and had to cool down for a moment before it could fire again. A weakness Vezk was fully aware about.
"Shields up front, forward!" He barked orders.
The Kig-yar with shields quickly lined up and jogged forward under fire. The Krogan was right behind them, firing their weapons. A mix of their own and former captured pirate weapons. Vezk was right there with them, firing his Claymore now instead of the Plasma rifle.
When they were halfway down the turrets new gunner readied to open fire again.
"Break shields, Krogan charge!" Vezk decided.
The Kig-yar shifted their shields and allowed the Krogan to storm the barricade. Only ten meters divided the Krogan and defending pirates. It was obvious they were panicking as they started to shoot more erratically. But none the less two Krogan went down. When the turret began firing it fired right into a Krogan, bringing him down in a few seconds flat by unloading shot after shot into his head.
When the first Krogan jumped over the barricades the line was definitely broken. They killed the pirates with their bare hands and by squashing them under foot.
When the managed to storm onto the bridge there was a mass surrender from the pirates present.
"Don't shoot!" One of them cried out.
"Me and my crew surrenders," the Captain said calmly.
Vezk walked up and stared him down. "You're the ship Captain?"
He nodded. Before he could blink Vezk raised his shotgun and blew his skull to little pieces.
"Not. Anymore."
The Kig-yar was horrified when their captain was killed in such a bloody manner.
"Warlord Vezk," came a gruff voice through his Omni-tool comm.
"Speak."
"We have almost taken the ship. Only the stubborn bridge crew left."
Vezk grinned. Both ships was soon under his total control.