It takes us only a few hours to reach the ship graveyard. But then again, we did have Night Furies. After circling the Reaper a few times, we land.
"This is it. The Reaper." I say to Hiccup.
"Let's go get the Dragon Eye." Hiccup replies energetically, moving towards the door.
"No, Hiccup wait!" I call out, but he already is caught by the trap. Thankfully, Toothless blasted the contraption before Hiccup could be dragged over board.
"Thanks bud, that was close." He thanks his dragon.
"That is why you need patience. I will take point, Valkyrie, keep watch for those giant eels please." I say, opening the door.
"Wait, did you say giant eels?" Hiccup asks incredulously.
"Yeah, but they can wait, lets go." I usher him down, before using the force to blast the hidden bear trap. I stop when I notice Hiccup's footsteps moving away from me. I turn and grimace at the Nadder skeleton that they found. But we soon move on. Once we reached the captains quarters, Toothless blasted the door before anyone could say anything.
"Well, that works." Hiccup said, while Toothless chortled. After entering, I move to the shield of an abstract Changewing, before taking a knife and removing the lens. Hiccup then grabs the Dragon Eye, activated the rest of the traps, forcing us to flee.
"Well, at least I reduced the amount of times you would be visiting that death trap of a ship." I say, holding out a lens. "You will need Changewing acid to view this lens, but Toothless' flame can view the current one. You just need a Snow Wraith tooth, which you will need to see Gothi about." We are then interrupted by the sound of my comlink. I activate it, showing the image of Fives. "What is it?" I ask.
"Vex, our scanners have picked up an enemy ship approaching the orbit. We believe it to be the empire." He informs us.
"OK, get Tombstone ready and deploy fighters. I will be there shortly." I say, cutting the transmission. "Hiccup, take Valkyrie and return to Berk, have the Dragon riders prepared for enemy ships. I'm gonna go hijack the enemy ship, and have it ready for our use." I say, opening a portal to the USS Valkyrie, walking through and meeting with Tombstone, including Fives and Echo.
"Vex, what is our mission?" Echo asks bluntly.
"We are going to board the enemy ship, and take it for ourselves. Fives, do we know what we are up against?" I ask.
"One Venator Star Destroyer and two Acclamator class II cruisers." He informs.
"Alright, the Venator is our primary target. Inform the fighter squadrons to focus on the Acclamator ships." I say to Echo, who swiftly relays the orders. "Is the carrier ready for space deployment?" I ask Recker.
"It should be, but we need to be wary, as it is the only one available." Recker informs.
"Good, gear up with plasma rifles and the Prototype armour, make sure to bring stun guns for prisoners. We move in 15." I say, receiving 'OOHRAH's' and 'Yessirs' as we prepare for boarding.
Exactly 15 minutes later, we are all in the carrier, beginning our take off. Hawkins, who was our pilot, requested to join us in the mission, after she had undergone training with the ARC Troopers, and was permitted for combat. As I was checking my weapons in the cargo bay, Fives walks up to me.
"Sir, are you sure our people on Berk are ready for this?" He asks worried. I sigh.
"No one is ever truly ready, Fives. All we can do is prepare them. I don't expect us to achieve victory without casualties, and it will be inevitable with our current lack equipment. That is the reason we are going to take control of this Venator. Even one ship can change the tide of a war." I explain.
"Then we can't fail." The ARC Trooper salutes, and returns to his seat, and I soon follow. As we leave Orbit, the ship rattles from explosions, forcing us to hold on.
"The Flak is heavy; I'm worried about our pilots up here." Hawkins calls from the cockpit.
"Focus on our objective for now, Hawkins, besides, we will honour the soldiers we lose in this battle when it is over." I reason with her. As we got closer to the Venator, we watch as the last of the Starfighters launch, leaving us an opening to land. Just as we touch down, the blast doors close, locking us in the ship.
"Well, who wants to take point with a minigun?" Fives asks nonchalantly.
"Always wanted to use one." Irish volunteers cheerfully.
"Enough, we need to take this fast, or more of our forces are going to die, so lets move!" Recker sets them in motion, I nod my head in thanks, receiving a smile in return.
Irish cleared out the hostiles blocking our way to the bridge in no time. No one else had to even use their weapons. At least until we reached the bridge itself, anyway. Irish had used all the ammo in his minigun and so he tossed it aside for his LMG he carried on his back, continuing to mow down anyone in our way, but Recker and Dunn (With his new star wars style leg) began to cover his sides. Soon, Pac and Hannah filled in the gaps, and Tombstone was working in overdrive.
"Did you know they could do that, Sir?" Echo asks, while Fives just stood gobsmacked.
"I was in control of Recker's body when I met them. This is the first time Hannah was part of it, but usually we were on Spec Ops missions requiring stealth, so I only saw this at play while defending the USS Valkyrie." I say.
"Well, you think they would mind a few more in their ranks?" Fives asks after a long silence.
"You already are. We had been planning to recreate Tombstone, and this is our first mission as a whole. Go for it, Fives, Echo and I can cover our Flank." I give him the go ahead, while Echo and I begin to cover them. The bridge was cleared in less than a minute, allowing us to disable all weapon functions and jettison all escape pods, trapping the ship personnel on board. I move to the inbuilt speaker system and my voice rings throughout the ship. "Attention all hands, this ship is now under control of the Berk Defence Fleet. Surrender yourselves willingly and we may introduce you to our life, in hopes that you may join us. The transmitter and travel data has been disabled and we are going to remove it. The Empire will never know the location of Berk, and you will be safe in our care. If any harm comes to you, ask for Vex and I will listen to what happened and resolve the issue. Have a good day." I deactivate the speakers, turning to my squad.
"Impressive. But what if they don't cooperate?" Hannah asks.
"Think up some creative punishments. Just no killing or torturing." I reply. "For now, lets get this thing in the atmosphere to transport personnel to pilot this beast." I say, looking to Fives and Echo. "You two think you can pilot this thing? Cause I have no clue how." I say.
"We know how, and Echo can use multiple points with his cybernetics, so we should be fine." Fives says, as he and Echo take the helm. While they do that, I activate my comlink to the Squad leaders in the air.
"The Venator is under our control, finish off those Acclamators and return to base." I then wait for our descent.
It takes us an hour to put the ship in a position above the ocean, but it takes no time at all for the carriers to dock and deploy our crew.
"What data have we been able to decode so far, Echo?" I ask the ARC Trooper.
"Data of old tales of a Jedi who lived in the Unknown Regions and would often help during the War, or in more simple terms, stories about you." Echo begins.
"That is interesting, but irrelevant. Continue." I say.
"The scanners report another Planet nearby, but it isn't part of the Solar System you described we should be in." Echo says intrigued.
"Send the coordinates to my Starfighter, I will go and check that out tomorrow. Continue." I say.
"This ship was never meant to return, it was meant to colonise the planet and set up an observatory, which would begin to map the Unknown Regions. The equipment is all here." Echo says.
"Set it all up, but change the frequency to zero-three-delta-six. It should cover the planet within a week, then it will spread outwards. Good work Echo. Continue decrypting after some rest. We have earned it." I dismiss the tired Trooper, and then make my way to the hanger, towards my Starfighter, where I meet Hiccup.
"We lost two pilots." He says sadly.
"Their sacrifice was not in vain. Are the funeral pyres set?" I ask.
"Yeah, we are just waiting for the go ahead from the families. What did we find out?" Hiccup asks.
"There is a planet nearby that shouldn't exist. I am going to go and investigate tomorrow. Other than that, not much. Make sure the dragons are all ok, I will talk with you after I return from my investigations. Stay safe, Hiccup." I dismiss the dragon rider.
"You too, Vex." He says, hopping on Toothless' back and flying back to Berk. I head off to my quarters and plan my next move, before sleep finally takes a hold.
A/N – Next chapter will have a new character joining the crew. Anyway, hope you enjoyed and I will see you all next time. Nut Out.