Broadsides Against The Unliving Piratesntitled

I have served the Galactic Fleet for five years since my graduation from Officer Training School. It was my first duty as a Lieutenant under Gunnery, that during a patrol on the fringe on my assigned Destroyer, Edge of Indominar, was ambushed by two Marauder ships before tactical input allowed the cornered ship to deliver a single strike that destroyed both of them.

Since then, I have not seen many attacks by Marauders since the majority of my time on Nexus has been engaging against Exiles and Ikthians, which the latter caused the destruction of my previously mentioned ship.

After a brief engagement in Galeras and frequent assignments to transports, I was finally promoted to senior ranks and a permanent position on board the Cruiser Meridian Spear. One of the ship-of-the-line that came to Nexus; the Meridian Spear is a fully loaded and weaponized star cruiser, hosting the most advanced technology, a full crew of Legionnaires and built for dog fights.

There I met Captain Gigamax, former second-in-command to Captain Lemartes of Edge of Indominar, who spoke about how she was appreciative of my presence once again as one of fifteen crews to survive the crash on Ellevar.

As I looked across the bridge, I found many new faces but rare old ones that served along with me on board that Destroyer. It was four months ago when the new cruiser made regular patrols on Halon Fringe for pirates and smugglers. Few actions were seen since I served on the cruiser, which only saw multiple responses to "resistance of apprehension" as the closest thing to military engagement.

The battle began between the Dominion Cruiser, Meridian Spear, and the Marauder Raider, codenamed First Wight, occurred at an area that would become strong activities for Risen Pirates of Redmoon. When the Meridian Spear saw the Marauder ship, Captain Gigamax ordered the ship to face judgment before the Dominion warship powered up to react upon any transgressions. Like many Marauders, the ship fired its ordinances at the Cruiser that later returned with a salvo of plasma batteries. The brief confrontation should have ended, had it not for the Marauder ship's continuation even after its command deck received damage.

Although the First Wight received damage, which would cripple the ship's cohesion from sudden incapacitation of senior ranks, it continued to press and fire at the Cruiser. The Dominion superiority in armor and shield technology meant that the rounds that hit the Meridian Spear were deflected.

When the Marauder ship closed in to make an attack, Captain Gigamax ordered a concentrated attack on the weapon decks with the available weapons in range to disable the enemy's weapon capability with hull breaches. Both the Meridian Spear and First Wight exchanged fire at each other as the former seemed to weather the attack with minor damages.

Both I and Captain Gigamax noticed that the Marauder Raider was able to deliver its payload without any pause based on damage reports and previous experience in gunnery tactics.

As the exchange ended, one of the Lieutenants zoomed into the Marauder ship's hull breaches to discover a haunting discovery of the new enemy. This was one of the first sightings on the undead Marauder pirates, whose skin were blue from decay and still operating their weapons even if their sections has been exposed to the vacuum of space.

Knowing that delays from a surprise would risk the lives of the crew and the ship, Captain Gigamax ordered the ship to engage the enemy head on. The damages given to the First Wight was enough to wipe out all crew had it not been for the resilience of the corpse-crews in breached decks and burning halls.

While the Meridian Spear would win a skirmish in normal circumstances, the Marauder Raiders here would win the attrition from their ability to weather the damages before its undead crew came to board the Cruiser as its munitions ran low.

Captain Gigamax ordered the Navigation Officer to change directions to make an attack on the First Wight's engine. As the Cruiser made a turn, the ship's turrets, and ordinance bay bringing out its wrath upon the undead-crewed ship before it managed to turn its weapons to bear.

Soon, the battle was over with the First Wight being too crippled to chase the Meridian Spear as it returned to Illium for a report on engagement.

Although the admiralty found it to be ridiculous, the frequency of sightings and engagements with the new undead Marauders had made them realize the need to investigate the remains of the First Wight.

A full squadron of escorts was given to the Meridian Spear as it approached the site of combat. However, the crippled ship no longer fired its weapon as the undead-crews lay silent. Still, it allowed the Dominion military to realize the threat of the Risen Marauders before launching full operations in coming months. Although the raids by the Red Moon Terror and the Risen pirates has been decreasing, the Dominion Fleet's battle for orbital control over Nexus still continues.

This concludes my account on witnessing the Risen Marauders for the first time along with the Meridian Spear's engagement with their ship. The battle with the First Wight also provided with many intel on the capability of the undead pirates and their threats to Dominion orbital assets. It also marked the first few battles over the Halon Ring that is still happening today.

As a sponsor to Dominion Fleet, I encourage citizens to volunteer as space crew or officers to seek glory among the stars.

DNN Editors Note: This article was met with heavy editing in order to censor military details of armaments and tactical intelligence.