The Angels of Blood

Location: Period Basis Region, Wild Space, PA-VE3 system, Blood Raider Station "Sanguinius"

With a determined look in her eyes a fiery golden haired Caldari woman followed two Blood Raider soldiers down the corridors of the station, quietly, wrapped in a red cloak with golden edges. Her ice-blue eyes looked at one of the soldiers and she spoke quietly "Nice operation you have set up here, how has business been lately?".

The man shrugged "You know all too well how business goes around here, miss Lukkanen. I do not know why the Bishop accepted to speak with you but your words do show some promise. It is not my place to judge the outcome of your meeting with his holyness". With a gesture he indicated a double door which opened before her, leading into a large office space with a viewport covering an entire wall section. The decorations were obviously Amarrian but with more red tones blended with the gold or brass motives all across the wall. A man waited by the large window wrapped in priestly clothing, his hair cut short, with a shaved face that made him appear almost normal. The only thing betraying his twisted mind were bloodshot eyes which rested on Keirra as she entered.

"Miss Lukkanen, welcome to Station Sanguinius, I am Bishop Livinius. I am finally pleased to meet the person coming up with such a tempting offer for our convenant", he spoke approaching the Caldari woman slowly, clasping her shoulder for a moment, "Please, have a seat".

Shaking off disgust the young woman smiled, or doing her best to do so and nodded "I am pleased to meet you in person finally your holyness and I am happy that you accepted to see me", without adding another word she stepped to the indicated high-back chair, sitting in it very lady-like, looking at the man with perhaps a degree of respect mixed with caution.

Taking a small remote the high ranking priest powered up a Holo-Display and spoke "You are asking us for help in your operation and your promise is by most aspects tempting. As we do hold a large dose of Insorum Sulphate and we do require technology to further our Holy cause I am inclined to agree in comitting convenant ships and soldiers", he turned to look at her as the map highlighting Sarum held installations appeared. "However I need assurances that you are not an agent working for the Amarr Empire".

Snapping nearly Keirra grumbled "Bishop, I come here with an escort which does not have the best reputation in Caldari or Amarr space. Perhaps the Guristas ships should be indication enough that neither the Caldari State nor the Amarrians endorse this operation or sanction it. Think of it as a chance of pushing the Amarrians further into a corner, forcing them to spread their forces thin. The fact that I reclaim a couple of thousand slaves should not be of consequence to you.". Pausing a moment she stared the man in the eyes and grinned "Plus you might be getting some converts for your Faith, good sir which is a bonus if you ask me". Now silent she observed the Blood Raider official, go silent, not responding right away. He seemed to be thinking.

Five minutes of silence finally brought his reply "Miss Lukkanen, I will inform our forces to allow your strike wing to jump into our space. You're telling me that a Widow-class Battleship will provide jump bridging into Empire space for all of our forces, thus I accept. I will instruct our technical personnel to prepare Insorum canisters to be deployed into the ventilation systems of the facility we wish to attack". His cold face sketched a grin as he slapped his hands together "Young lady, perhaps this will be the start of a long and productive cooperation between us".

Standing up slowly Keirra bowed as she was taught to the bishop "Your holyness is most wise. I will send a message to the strike wing to begin bridging to the outer marker area of the station control perimeter, a thousand thanks".

A single nod of approval from the Blood Raider was all she needed. The operation had begun.

Location/Time: PA-VE3 system, Blood Raider weapons testing facility, sector 3, two weeks later.

With firm steps Keirra strolled down the corrirors of the "Wings of Blood", an Armageddon-class Battleship "liberated" by the Convenant some time ago. The bridge doors opened slowly and she stepped in, looking around. At their stations Blood Raider crew were waiting accompanied by Caldari personnel that were there to be instructed in operating the battleship's systems. Turning toward the ship's executive officer she chuckled "This is one lovely piece of machinery you have here, I like it".

The Convenant Officer nodded "It's a fairly new ship, a couple of years old. We got it in one of our raids deep in Empire Space. It's been in dock for refitting for a while now. We're two minutes from weapons testing window time and for the past week your men have progressed quite a bit in learning it's systems".Turning his attention toward the tactical console he spoke to the Caldari male stationed there "Ensign, power up Pulse Lasers, drones have been released, firing range clear, start working on a firing solution"

The young man was quick to work the Amarrian console and nodded "Hostiles located, bearing 056 by 010, batteries tracking, crystals aligned and focusing matrixes are ready to fire. Engaging the lead ship, sweeping down the left echelon".

The double barreled energy cannons began moving, tracking the target and streams of dark energy connected. The hull creaked and twisted under the titanic energy quantities released by the Armageddon-class battleship. An explosion marked it's destruction and the guns moved again to the next ship in formation. A squadron of Praetor Mark IIs moved ahead, ready to engage the smaller craft like hungry wolves.

Minutes later the Caldari tactical officer smiled "Targets destroyed, efficiency 97.8%, fighter drones returning to the hangar, sir. And i thought our ships were good, this Armageddon is nothing to complain about".

Crossing her arms across her chest Keirra smiled "I must say the Bishop was most generous to offer us this vessel, I am truly greatful". Her tritanium cast hand patted the Blood Raider's shoulder and the man genuinely smiled to her, content to see his ally satisfied with the Armageddon.

Location: Domain Region, Ekid system, Ekid X orbit, 0200 hours local planetary time.

Marcus Karri yawned sleepily at his console as he looked at the holo-screens bored. He was alone on traffic control duty for a flight sector and as usual not many ships transifted the area that time of night. A couple of yellow triangles indicated local freighters and haulers moving goods from the planet in system but not much else. Moments later however a new signature approached. Transmitting Amarr security codes the Armageddon-class battleship seemed to fly on a normal approach vector, nothing too unusual about it.

Starting up the comms the controller hailed the vessel "Divine Wings, this is controller Karri from Sarum Logistics Support station, proceed on vector to the inner marker and hold for a passing civilian convoy".

A female voice could be heard on the other end of the line "Sarum Station, acknowledged, holding in pattern for convoy.". Satisfied with the silence the controller moved his eyes to a new convoy of haulers approaching, escorted by small frigates and drones that darted around the heavyweight transport ships. He gruned again as his peace and quiet seemed to be disturbed.

"Convoy lead, this is Sarum Logistics Support Station control, state your destination and submit a flight plan". However no reply came, soon the Amarrian would see the reason why.

Location: Ekid X orbit, 0215 local time

The black hull of a Widow class battleship could be seen decloaking above the newly arrived convoy and the lightshow of a Jump Portal made the controller fly into a fit of panic. New ships were appearing and they sure weren't friendlies. Led by a Vulture Command Ship several Caldari and Minmatar ships jumped in, flanked by Ashimmu cruisers and fast interceptors darting past their hulls like a swarm of bees. Marcus could see on the station control cameras the Armageddon simply holding it's position, not moving to stop the new arrivals.

With a broadside turned the station the "Wings of Blood" launched several reinforced boarding pods filled not with Marines but canisters of Insorum. The pods took mere seconds to impact the station's walls, taking advantage of the lowered shields. Their access ramps opened and much to the surprise of the soldiers aboard a white haze was released from the inside. At first they didn't understand but moments later the concentrated dose of gas reached the nearby Minmatar workers.

 Dropping their tools the men and women looked at each other puzzled and soon the small Amarrian squad was overwhelmed by Matar armed with shovels, power tools and even chairs and beaten down. All across the station squads of security officers suffered the same fate as thousands of slaves broke free of their shackles. While many were shot down by the Amarr teams their superior numbers quickly overwhelmed the soldiers. Riots had broken out in all sections of the facility and even now, abandoning their posts the former prisoners rushed toward the docking bays, to flee.

As a group of men and women made their way to docking bay two the scene awaiting them was a nightmare for those who had defended it. Fallen on the floor were Amarr Marines, overpowered by a group of Caldari, Amarr and Minmatar. The leader of the group, a burly Guristas officer barked out "Move it you schlobs, to the transports, you're free, stop wasting time and haul ass!"

Unsure how to react they rushed toward several Badger and Mammoth class Industrials, quickly filling up their cargo bays and under an intense hail of shots from a newly arrived Amarr platoon. Once loaded, the ships proceeded toward the disabled access doors. A group of blaster minigun armed MTACs opened fire on the Imperial Marines pinning them down and soon one by one the Empress' finest fell to the vicious fire of the Guristas, Minmatar and Blood Raiders.

Under the intense fire another group of Blood Raiders darted from a boarding pod toward several docked Amarr ships. Boarding their pods and finally plugging in to the vessels they were quick to follow the transports. A final struggle saw the Guristas direct the retreat in an orderly fashion back to their craft much to the dismay of the Imperial reinforcements.

Location: Ekid X orbit, station perimeter area, 0330 local time.

As hawks frigates and drones swarmed past the hulls of the transports and much larger combat vessels, now closing in on their prey. A couple of Amarrian Navy vessels had arrived only to find themselves under a barrage of fire of artillery, energy turrets and missiles. Blood Raider interceptors swarmed the defender frigates, Harpies and Worms crushed Cruisers while Wolfs and a small wing of Blackbirds began locking down any ships that would compromise the retreat.

Among the defense fleet ships the Fury of Heaven advanced it's lasers ripping into any larger ship that got close. Zealous beyond measure the Commodore had broken ranks and now, ignoring any safety for his ship and crew advanced toward the final group of transport ships that moved away from the station. Disregarding notices from his officers he was oblivious when a Raven approached at near point blank range it's torpedoes crushing the shields and half of the armour in a single volley. The battleship began creaking as internal explosions caused the structure to buckle under the stress but the Guristas ship did not even bother to stop firing.

Wave after wave of explosive torpedoes stripped off armour, ripped off structure reinforcement, killed hundreds of  Amarr crew. Finally the old vessel collapsed, it's escape pods indicating some of the crew had survived.

Five minutes later Keirra's voice could be heard on all comm channels "Blood Rabbit fleet, back to the den! I repeat back to the den!". One by one the transports jumped out through the portal followed by the combat vessels and support craft, leaving a devastated Sarum station, baffled Imperial Navy officers and thousands of Minmatar freed from their bonds to the Empire. Despite their caution cheers erupted aboard all vessels from tens of thousands of men, women and children, praising the Blood Raiders, Guristas and the small Minmatar force that had taken part in the operation.

Epilogue: Malkalen III, Ishukone Watch Station docking bays.

No less than fifteen transports now filled the docking areas of the Caldari Station, thousands of Minmatar and not only some dirty, some ill but with the same outlook on their faces could be seenm they were happy. Their benefactor, unknown had secured freedom for them. Nearby a large passenger ship awaited bearing the colours of the Gallente Federation, ready to take them home.

Passing among them a small Civire woman passed mostly approaching other Caldari, gathering them. Overlooking the scene she smiled and spoke quietly to a man besides her "You see that Tyler, that is the taste of freedom. We gave them the chance of a new life. You may think I'm crazy ... but I feel i've come to peace with myself. House Sarum has suffered a blow that should show them they are not all powerful. They took my arms away, but I took the working arms of an entire station from them.". After a soft sigh she continued "I expect retaliation should they find out I was behind this but it will make them think twice. The Blood Raiders... we could not have done it without them. Not in a thousand years....."

A simple nod came from the male as he responded "I do think you've lost your mind but I do see success in your operation. I think it's best you lay low and start thinking how will you compensate the Guristas. They don't like it when they do not get their due".

"Tis' true my friend but let us remember that they are like us, Caldari. I will honour my end of the bargain as I always do". Brushing her powered prosthetic hand across his arm she pulled away, dissapearing into the shadows of the station, back to her little Diner where she could be herself, Keirra Lukkanen, the nice and friendly Caldari Diner owner who everyone liked.