Assault on Lyran Station

Quiberon Sector

On the edge of the Lyran system, all had been quiet, beyond a few shuttles moving out of the gravity well. That was until more than a hundred and fifty vessels dropped out of hyperspace. Stars were blocked out by the sheer flood of these vessels as they immediately turned on their engines. Immediately the ships turned and moved off towards the system’s vanguard station, uncreatively known as “Lyran Station”.

Any ship that caught sight of these vessels immediately turned and fled. Some immediately leapt into hyperspace, whilst others attempted to get away at sub-light speed. When they saw the symbol of the Black Sun pirates, they knew something was about to go downs. No one in their right mind wanted to be a part of that and thus got away as fast as their ships would carry them. Luckily for the smaller, slower vessels the pirates ignored them and carried on towards the station. Any who would’ve gotten a closer look at the fleet would’ve seen hundreds of fighters. StarViper-Class attack platforms, Rihxyrk attack ships, V-wings, R-41s and Vaksai fighters were all present. The StarVipers made the bulk of the fighters, as they were organised into five squadrons all moving in formation. In addition to the fighters, two Gozanti Cruisers, six AEG-77 Vigos and three interceptor Class Frigates accompanied the flag ship, a Techno Union destroyer now in the hands of the Black Suns. With the fighters leading the ‘charge’ the bigger ships held back, though not too far they would be out of range, should the station defence fleet move to attack. It was clear by the size of the fleet that this was a full on assault force and that they weren’t messing around. Something was going on, something that made everyone feel nervous to the bottom of their very souls. It was unusual for the Black Suns to make such an attack, let alone one with so much at stake. Losing a fleet this size would’ve dealt a heavy blow to the Black Suns. So just what were they planning?

It seemed station security wasn’t waiting to find out. As soon as they were in range, the station started firing its multi-laser cannons into the swarm of fighters. Quickly fighters spewed out of the station. Unfortunately for the station, it had only been left with a meagre bunch of fighters. Those that could see from the station’s windows could see thirty or so uglies flying out in the defence. Z-interceptors, X-Ties and B-Wing Uglies, about ten of each joined up with two Hutt Corvettes and three IPV-1 system patrol crafts. As they waited in a defending line, the ships were then joined by twelve Skipray Blastboats, though that didn’t make the fleet look any bigger. In all, the fleet looked tiny, not even amounting to half the attacking force. Those that knew about ships knew that even with the new Hutt Corvettes, the odds of them holding off the assault for very long were slim at best. People would’ve betted on this sort of thing, but now even the bookies knew there was no chance.

All the bystanders could do was watch as the two forces collided and lit up space with laser fire and explosions.

The uglies went down first, though quite stubbornly, taking numerous StarVipers down with them as they went. Soon enough, the IPV-1s went down, closely followed by the Skiprays and the Hutt Corvettes. Whilst the defence fleet had caused moderate damage to the attacking fleet’s Gozanti cruisers, the frigates and the destroyer remained completely intact. Even the StarVipers had only lost about forty of their numbers.

As the defence fleet fell, the pirates looked to be turning towards the station, when suddenly they stopped. They’d been just out of effective firing range of the station when they ceased moving, and just seemed to wait on the edge…


“Why aren’t they moving against us? Why have they stopped?” Asked one of the officers inside the control room as everyone else continued working in a panicked state. Alarms rang throughout the room, as well as the many of the other parts of the station, though it was loudest there in command.

“I don’t care why they’ve stopped, fire on the lead vessel already! I want them taken out immediately!” shouted the Garan, the station commander. “We cannot allow them to board the station, and if they want to destroy us, then we will go down fighting!” The Duros commander looked angrily from the viewing port. He watched as the stations guns concentrated it’s fire on the destroyer, until suddenly every gun stopped working. Garan put his hand against his head in frustration. “What could possibly have gone wrong now? We repaired those power conduits just last month.”

“Si-sir the station’s power generators have gone offline. Nothing is responding. I don’t even have sensors!” the con officer called from the other side of the room.

Things were just getting worse. “Switch to the backups, if we have any. We won’t have enough power to get the guns back online so we’re going to have to inform our master of this attack, it’s our only option.” The Duros eyes widened as he saw the pirate fleet mobilise towards the station. “Looks like we’ve got company, Tilles, mobilise the droids, I trust the defence of the upper levels to you.”

“As you wish,” bowed the security chief. Fully armoured as she always was, the security chief pressed a few buttons on the pad that sat on her inner arms. “Activate all security droids. Defence programme Alpha-two-Zeta.” Ever the professional, she turned and walked out. As she did, two droidekas wheeled themselves into the room and unpacked defensively in two of the corners of the room.

Garan eyed the droids for a moment. He was inherently suspicious of droids, he almost longed for the days when they used to use Mercs. At least mercs could be bribed not to shoot you in the back. Droids… at least these droids were programmed to only answer to their operators. Tilles had been assigned to the station by Quaffir the Hutt himself, and whilst a good woman on the whole, Garan still didn’t trust her. She appeared loyal to Quaffir… but there was something off about her. He didn’t really have time to worry about that now. Instead he just turned and watched as the Black Suns took up position around them. It was then he realised they weren’t shooting at them. The station was utterly defenceless at they weren’t being attacked. Garan grimaced. It looks like they were to be boarded after all.

“Sir, the backup generators are online and I have a connection to Quaffir. Shall I bring it up?” the communications officer asked.

Garan nodded, walking over to the holographic projector as a large purple Hutt appeared.

Speaking in Huttese, the Hutt turned it’s giant orbs on Garan. “Why have you interrupted my schedule Garan. I told you never to call unless it’s absolutely necessary!”

Garan, whilst authoritarian to most, he instantaneously became subservient in the ‘presence’ of his Hutt master. “Forgive me, Quaffir, we had no choice. The station… it’s under attack-the defence fleet, it’s gone.”

“From who?!” Quaffir boomed loudly, moving slightly closer to the holo projector from his end.

“It appears to be the Black Sun pirates… they have somehow taken down our generators and we’re defenceless. We will be boarded within a few minutes.”

Quaffir immediately recoiled. “Did…You say BOARDED?!” The Hutt had a look of fear on his face. It told Garan everything he needed to know. If they had been destroyed, Quaffir would have brushed it off, but boarded meant the Black Suns were after something. Whatever it was, it put a fear in Quaffir that only Sith could create… at least that’s what Garan thought. It took a few seconds before Quaffir to compose himself before returning to the apathetic expression Hutts usually had. “Hold off the assault for as long as possible… I will send reinforcements immediately.”

With that said, Quaffir cut the connection, making the various people in the command centre raise their eyebrows at Garan. Garan shot them a stern look. “What makes you think I have any idea what caused that? Get back to work. I want those backup generators powering the internal turrets. AND FIND OUT WHAT HAPPENED TO THE PRIMARIES.” Garan shouted, before going over to his command chair and throwing himself into it.

What had gotten the Hutt so worried, what were the pirates after? These questions would plague his mind. All he could do for now was to wait as his station was boarded and hope Quaffir would send reinforcements.

On the other side of Hutt Space, or there about, two members of the ruling council slid their way to the half-moon council bench that looked over the ‘floor’. With the darkened room and dim lights over the five seats of the council, it made each Hutt look all the more intimidating.

The first to arrive was the great hulking form of Nasrii the Hutt, leader of the council as well as the Hutt Cartel. His eyes scanned the empty room, and then he breathed a heavy frustrated sigh. It was clear on his face that he was furious. Having gotten the news from the station above Lyran IV, Nasrii had smashed up a protocol droid and threw everyone out of his throne room. Then he stormed his way down into the chambers and called the rest of the council to a meeting. All but one other council member was off world attending to other matters but would join via holocom. The last of them was already making her way through the palace. When she made her appearance, she immediately felt Nasrii’s eyes upon her. She gave him a passing look before taking up her ‘seat’ and settling down. She wasn’t entirely sure why Nasrii had called her there, but she knew better to ask.

One by one the other Hutts appeared via holocom, looking angrily over at Nasrii, a look the Supreme Mogul had gotten used to over the years.

“Is there a reason why you’ve called us all here?” Came a weasel-y voice from Prelba the Hutt, one of the Hutts joining them from across the Galaxy.

Nasrii turned immediately to the holographic image of Prelba, a much smaller Hutt in comparison. “The Black Sun scum have attacked a station belonging to Quaffir Maca Puulla, I wanted you all here to inform you of how to proceed.” With that said, Nasrii turned to look at the floor below them. “Bring in that E chu ta!”

Two wide doors opened and the light let in revealed a nervous looking Quaffir. Slowly and hesitantly he slid in, down into the pit that was the floor. Surrounded by the five members of the Hutt Ruling Council, Quaffir raised his head to look above. Quaffir quickly winced as a spotlight was cast on them.

“SPEAK” boomed Nasrii, making Quaffir almost shed his skin.

“The Black Suns… they’ve attacked the station in the Lyran System… they’re going to board the station and-”

Nasrii cut the Hutt off, leaning forward and slamming a heavy fist on the council table. “YOU ALLOWED THEM TO BOARD THE STATION?! HAVE YOU ANY IDEA-” Nasrii breathed another frustrated breath as he noticed a dent in the table.

“What’s the big deal anyway~?” Tira the Hutt, the only female in the room turned to Nasrii widening one eye at him. “It’s only one station… from what I remember Lyran is used to pirate attacks is it not?”

Nasrii shot her a look. “That station was… more important than any of you realise. More than what this…” Nasrii turned his head back to Quaffir. “You have failed me for the first and last time… Do you have anything to say for yourself?”

Quaffir’s eyes widened moving forward a bit and extending his arms out. “Please, I didn’t think they’d attack in such numbers! I thought adding more ships there would attract suspicion! I don’t know how they found out, but I assure you I’ll find out!”

“No.” Nasrii smirked almost doubling the size of his oversized chasm of a mouth. “You won’t.” No one had noticed, but Nasrii had pulled out a heavy rifle from under the council table. As he finished talking, he emptied the full clip into Quaffir’s head and chest without missing a single shot. In all of a few seconds, Nasrii put an end to Quaffir.

With a heavy thud, Nasrii placed the rifle down on show for all to see. Wide-eyed the other Hutts looked between Nasrii and Quaffir’s corpse.

“Why did you just… He could’ve gotten away with a fine!” Prelba shouted.

Nasrii shook his head waving his fat hand dismissively. “No… he couldn’t.”

“Then why might I ask is he dead?” came Ardum the Hutt’s voice from the end of the table.

Nasrii smirked deviously, looking around. “That… is why I’ve called you here.” He breathed out, and then peered down at the smoking corpse. “There is something on the station that is paramount to my future plans. The first one of you to liberate the station will have a hand in that; you may also have everything Quaffir owned prior to his death.” Giving a sly look to the other council members, he laughed as one by one the holocoms were turned off and Tira slid out of the room. His laugh only got louder as he was left alone. How easy they were to manipulate to his bidding.

Docking section A

Lyran Station

With makeshift barricades set up along the promenade leading directly off the docking bay, the droids lined up aiming their gun arms towards the doors. Several members of Station security had joined the Levy droids bolstering the numbers. It had been eerily quiet as the defences got set up as the promenade usually had hundreds of people passing through this section alone. They knew the pirates had landed in this dock their limited sensors had told them as much. So they had put their defences here.

There were now countless checkpoints throughout the city-sized station each manned by droids limiting movement. The lower down on the station you went, the less security it had, the further up you more security. Some high up levels even had War Levy’s patrolling the corridors between the homes of the station’s ‘well off’ citizens. Meanwhile down below, the slaves, freemen and those with little credits were left to fend for themselves.

Security chief Jaina grimaced as she thought to herself what the pirates would do to those below her once they got their hands on them. For a second or two, she even thought about sending a detachment of droids down there. She knew however the droids were needed higher up. A single detachment couldn’t hold off the pirates, so they’d be of more use higher up. So now she stood on the docking ring, in section A surrounded by droids and the station’s me. The apprehension built within her chest as she glared at the door. What was keeping them?!

Suddenly, the dock doors blew open. Jaina ducked as blaster fire zoomed overhead. When she looked up, she could see several of the droids down already along with at least two of the men. The two lines were firing at each other exploding the promenade into absolute chaos. Jaina was firing back now, aiming as the pirates shoved their barricades forward. Some were even using metal shields, the kind that some planet security used in riots. They were numerous in number but not as numerous as the Levy droids. They’d easily got them out numbered. Maybe this wouldn’t be so bad after all… Then again there were quite a number of ships surrounding the station. Who knows how many more scumbags they had out there?

Before she knew it Jaina had taken out four of the pirates, injured several more. Stubbornly she fought, though she never made any ground. She never lost any, so she had that going for her. It wasn’t until the pirates started throwing grenades that she had a cause for concern. One landed near her and she was just quick enough to toss it away before it exploded, forcing her to realise falling back to a deeper more defendable area would be for the best. That idea was fully affirmed as one of the nearby freight elevators leading down to the floors below suddenly arrived, carrying multiple pirates. With wide eyes, Jaina called the retreat, leaving ten or so Levy’s to cover them as they each pulled back into the various corridors and elevators taking them up to the higher levels.

Soon enough, the pirates had conquered the docking area and they moved out of the hangars to occupy the docking ring.

Not too long after Jaina had left, the enforcer overlooking the boarding assault emerged from cover. A tall male Twi’lek smirked a bit, rubbing at a new scratch on his cheek. “She almost got me boys, ‘ow about that!” He laughed looking over the dead. “Clear up these guys we’ve got work to do. Set me up a command point somewhere, we’ve got more lads coming and Kras wants us to link up with Jakorr down at the generators." 

“Ey, boss got a call from you from uh, the other boss. Big boss.” said one of the men. The Twi’lek stomped over to his man grabbing up the communications device, and looking down at the Houk now illuminated in his hand.


“Am’seca, I trust the assault was successful?” Overseer Kras spoke curiously. His big meaty Houk arms folded behind his back as he awaited a response.

“We’ve successfully got a beachhead, the lady in charge retreated up to the higher levels. Should we follow her or join up with Jakorr at the generators. He’s lightly manned after sending up a group to help us defeat the station forces. If they figure out how alone he is down there we’ll have lost our edge." The Twi’lek explained.

Kras nodded. “Very well. Send some of your men to the generators… I trust that the second stage is ready to go?”

“So long as Jakorr told the other gangs in the lower levels it was happening today. All I have to do is send down the goods and chaos will erupt down there… Have you had any contact with him?”

“None… but that was to be expected. The generators are heavily shielded; the only way to get communications down there is from the command hub. Good work Am’seca. You’ll make overseer yet. Kras out.”

The Houk then closed the holocom and looked over at one of his men. “Get the bribes loaded. I want those idiots in the lower levels to party like it’s their last night alive.”
It had only been three hours since the initial assault on the station, but the lower levels were already feeling the effects of the battle above. Gangs ran riot out in the streets, smashing up anything they could get their hands on. Security Levies were destroyed. Some gangs were thoroughly more organised and were now bringing their protection taxes down on smaller businesses. It was hell in the under levels, it was clear that all the locals had gone crazy for some reason or another. The Black Suns even put flags up in their corner of the station making everyone aware that they were to blame. Whatever they had done or given to the other gangs, it surely worked. They wanted the gangs to cause chaos and that’s what they were doing. Perhaps they wanted to drag station security down to the lower levels and spread their forces thin. They knew station command could see what was going on. There seemed to be one rule. Do not destroy station surveillance. Not a single holocamera was touched in the riots. Those that could bring their shutters down, did and barricaded themselves in their homes and hoped the gangs would pass them by. Others weren’t so lucky and were dragged into the streets. Some decided to defend themselves and their neighbourhoods in a vain hope that security would see their plight and rescue them.

One such area on the lower levels was the Bloody Gutta, a cantina run by a grumpy old Nikto with his own security. Many of the people who lived in the area had taken up arms to protect their homes. They were completely under equipped to deal with the gangs, but they had decided to leave them alone for the time being. Since the Bloody Gutta was the only safe cantina in the lower levels it was currently packed. Many of the people taking shelter there, hoping to avoid any unnecessary violence. Some were just stopping in to grab some food before going out to defend the neighbourhood.

Loran and Siero, the Bloody Gutta’s guards stood on watch outside of the Cantina. Quietly they watched the streets with their beat-up blasters out on show, making sure everyone knew not to mess with them. They talked quietly together as their boss Jos Kor came and stood in between them, hand on his blaster. “It’s all good out here?” The Nikto muttered in a quiet, dry tone. The two guards nodded and Jos turned to look down the street. “Good… keep at it.”

Jos quietly walked back inside and nodded to the Twi’lek bartender Na’vida. “Everything’s good?” she asked as he stepped around the bar and found his stool. He nodded before going back to his usual position, gazing over at his crowd. He’d have been happy for a crowd this big usually… but not when it involved a large scale battle above for seemingly nothing. There were some strangers in the room… He felt sorry for them. Getting caught up in a battle they had no business being in. He felt sorry for them all in truth.