3 Days Later. March 3rd, 2267. 0:22 Paximus System – Inner Asteroid Belt
The CNS Waukesha and Ugley blasted through the dimensional portal back into real space. The portal behind them grew distant to them by the second before it faded to nonexistence. They were moving at a speed only military craft can achieve during the transition. There was a certain urgency found in both ships.
“Barbara, point us down ten degrees, all ahead flank,” John said, “Emily, make sure the Ugley stays in close to us.”
“On it,” both women said in unison.
“You are really banking on the pirate’s systems being that shit, sir?” Brian, the rather outspoke petty officer, said from his station.
“Not going to matter one way or another if they are better than assumed. That station will cease to be,” John answered in his monotone matter-of-fact tone.
“I’m getting a communique from Paximus Ultra, the governor is asking us to cease hostilities…”
“Advise the governor that should he enjoy his position in this system he had best adhere to Confederate doctrines and policies. Replacements for him and others of his ilk can easily be found.”
“Telling the governor to go fuck himself,” Emily grinned as she then whispered over to Barbara, “Never a dull moment.”
“Contacts, bearing three-three-two, effectively dead ahead of us,” Willy said, “Eight confirmed pirate vessels.”
John pushed a button on his armrest, “Captain Taylor, I suspect your marines are ready to go?”
“That they are. Three shuttles are prepped and ready. We’re sending a fourth over to bring back prisoners.”
“Once we deal with the initial attackers, we’ll get y’all dropped off nice and cozy like to their base. Standard rules of engagement are to be followed,” John said, “Remember, no massacres. That will draw them out of hiding but we don’t need that bullshit to follow us.”
“Understood. We’ll give them the kid glove treatment.”
John grinned. The bridge crew was focused and executing. The moments of brief levity, though few and far between, helped cut the tension a bit. There was a time and place for them, now being one of them. John looked at the tactical map and the distance between ships was closing at a horrifying pace.
“Out weapons range in ten seconds,” Brian said.
“Weapons hot, all power to forward shields,” John said before looking back at Emily, “Tell the Ugley to break off and attack in ten seconds on my mark. Mark.”
Exactly ten seconds later the Ugley engaged its maneuvering thrusters and accelerated away from the Icarus. Where the pirates thought there was one ship, there were now two. The Confederate ships only needed the pirates to lose concentration for a moment.
That moment was the brief hesitation in seeing the tactical contacts increase to two and not decisively acting at that precise moment. John thought that was a bit of a stretch since the moment they got into guns range they were effectively dead men, but there was no now hope for escape.
Rail turrets and lance batteries began firing off into the void. The Ugley coordinated its movements in a way that kept it out of the Waukesha’s line of fire. Getting tapped by a friendly rail round would not end well. Their attack ran started above the plane the Waukesha and pirates were on.
The Ugley only had the spinal-mounted railgun. It fired a solitary round, though it was of a much higher caliber and was far more deadly than the rail turrets the Waukesha had. Her accuracy needed to be of much higher accuracy to be effective. Its attitude changed abruptly with the firing of maneuvering thrusters and killing the primary thrusters.
Her bow was now pointed in the direction of the pirate ships. The telltale sign of electromagnetic whining followed by a thump internally told everyone onboard the Ugley that the main railgun was firing. The lances were firing off bursts of fire constantly as well, though the ship’s systems did a much better job of hiding the noise pollution inside the vessel from that weapon system.
To an outside observer, it would appear like the Waukesha was just blasting at the enemy. But each turret was tracking a different target and was volley-firing the turrets at each turret. Like the Ugly the Waukesha had cut its main engines and used her maneuvering thrusters to force the stern towards the enemy ships. This way seven of her turrets could be fired.
Forty-nine seconds was all it took between the time they reached the outer engagement range and the last time they fired a shot in anger to clear out the enemy pirate ships. The lance batteries pierced the enemy ships’ hulls but didn’t cause a massive explosion. The life of the ship just ceased to be. Unlike the five that were put down by railgun fire, each of them blew up in a bright explosion of plasma.
“Barbara, come about to one-three-four. Brian, begin targeting any defensive batteries on the enemy station,” John said calmly, “We’ll stay on red alert until we’re done with the combat portion of this operation.”
“My scans aren’t showing any defensive weaponry,” Brian sounded confused but looked even more given the scans he was reviewing, “We are on the wrong side of the asteroid though.”
“I am confirming the same thing. If they have any, they aren’t on the surface of the asteroid that we can see,” Willy added.
“Captain Taylor,” John said after pushing the button on his chair, “We’re going to delay green lighting your step of this operation until we can see the other side of this asteroid. I’m not going to send your Marines into that base without us being able to cover them.”
“Understood.”
“Emily, tell the Ugley to scan the remaining wrecks for any life signs. Then have her go to a high orbit scanning for any hostiles. Also, contact the Basilone, I want to know if our sneaky boy has identified any recent pirate activity.”
“On it, sir,” Emily said.
“Twenty seconds until we can see the pirate base,” Barbara said from the helm.
“Willy, full power to bow shielding. Brian, prep the lances and laser batteries. No railguns, I don’t want to crack the rock,” John said as he looked at the tactical readout.
The base defenses were unlikely to offer much deterrence to the attacker in this case. But John didn’t want a random rail round smacking the Waukesha in a tender place. Explaining how they were pulling out of the operation because of damage sustained in a barely justifiable attack on a pirate stronghold would be difficult.
Nevertheless, John was committed to this course of action. If they didn’t do something the Icarus could just lay low in places unknown. It was up to the Confederate Navy to lure them out. John was surprised that the admiralty hadn’t properly considered the best way to lure them out of hiding.
“Firing port laser batteries,” Brian said, “Tracking multiple missile batteries.”
Red beams of light shot out from the laser batteries one after another. Multiple anti-ship missile systems were struck before they could lock on and fire at the Waukesha. John was quietly happy that their tracking systems were as shit as he had hoped they were. It appeared that the pirate base required a line of sight for proper target tracking.
The lances activated and targeted the few rail batteries that the pirates had set up. Unlike the missile batteries, their operations seemed to not have any proper tracking but were manually operated. John shook his head when saw how their defenses were set up.
Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.
“The rail cannons were set up like anti-aircraft batteries on old U.S. naval ships from the second world war,” John said.
“Like shooting fish in a barrel,” Brian said, “Defenses are now eliminated.”
John stood up and walked forward to stand between his helmsmen and communications officer. He let out a deep breath and then looked down at Emily. He made a quick gesture which she picked up on immediately.
“Captain Taylor, you have a go,” John stared at the screen, “Remember, kids' glove treatment.”
“Oorah,” Bart’s response was as simple as it was telling.
“Emily, I don’t suppose the prison ship has gotten back to us?”
“They have, actually. They will transition into this system in three hours. Which means they should be here in five hours.”
“Perfect timing. We should be able to begin sending over those we captured by the time they arrive,” John turned to look back at the rear of the bridge, “Willy, how long were the estimates to clear that base?”
“Eight hours on a good day. Twelve on a bad one.”
“The Ugley reports back that there were no survivors from the pirate attack force,” Emily said, “The Basilone isn’t reporting any additional pirate traffic, but the amount of coded chatter has increased substantially.”
“Another base?” John asked.
“Seems to be the case,” Emily said firmly.
“I want the location of that base ASAP,” John said as he walked back to his chair, “Please let both ships know about their great work thus far. Stay on edge though, I don’t think we’re done with pirates.”
Four hours later a shift change took place on time. While the ship remained at alert stations no new pirate activity was found. The prison ship would arrive on schedule, a first in John’s recollections. The Marines would begin ferrying over those that they captured on the base.
The planetary governor’s protestations at the military action fell on deaf ears. That wasn’t entirely untrue, they did fall on uncaring ears. The Waukesha would forward the communique and requests sent by the planet to Naval Intelligence. The boogeymen could clean house on the planet if they saw fit, John’s focus was elsewhere.
The next phase of this process involved tracking down and attacking the other pirate stronghold. John found it somewhat curious that Naval Intelligence hadn’t heard about a second one in this station. Either Naval Intelligence was slipping, or the pirates had done an excellent job in keeping this one a secret. Though in the end, it didn’t matter, it would follow the same fate as the base they were orbiting now.
The operation took a few minutes, over ten hours to finish. Once the Marines left the pirate base the Waukesha unloaded several volleys from her railguns. The base, and the asteroid, were shattered. Never again would they be whole or rebuilt here.
March 4th, 2267. 16:15 Paximus System – En Route to the Outer Asteroid Belt
The inner asteroid belt was a fantastic source of silicon and carbon. The rocks there lacked the mineral wealth that most miners desired. That wealth was found in the outer belt. Virtually every rock prospected there held trace elements of platinum group metals or gold. In many cases, they also contained high amounts of other in-demand minerals.
As a result, there was far more traffic in the outer reaches of the solar system than in the inner belt or near where the system’s colony was located. Not surprisingly there was a much higher probability of interacting with pirates here than anywhere else in the system.
Either the pirates had been smart and avoided people, or they were simply laying low for a time. The CNS Basilone had identified and tracked down the hidden pirate base. The sneaky bastards had used the other base as a front for their real actions.
“Oscar, fucking brilliant work,” John said cheerfully, “But now you’ve opened up Pandora’s fucking box for us. God damn locals have been using pirates as their local militia.”
“Thanks to the other attack there’s plenty of traffic going through this station,” Oscar said, “How do you want to play this?”
“Easy, Tessa and I are going to assault them. I want you covering our rear. Stay hidden but if any ships try to flank us or escape, pop them.”
“There are a lot of defenses on this base. And it’s about five times the size as the other one,” Tessa said, “Wait, Oscar, am I seeing this right?”
The image on the screen zoomed in. All three captains could see what Tessa was looking at. There were hundreds of rail cannons scattered across the surface of the asteroid.
“Small caliber. They outrange our laser batteries, but our lances outrange them in turn,” Oscar said, “The problem is there are hundreds of these things.”
“How sure are we that their targeting systems work?” John asked.
“It tracks things, but does so poorly,” Oscar shrugged, “That’s at least from what we’ve been able to determine.”
John stared at the image. It wasn’t an impossible ask, but if they did attack the base, they’d have to go all in to achieve success in the assault. The truth of the matter is the defenses and pirate ships were gnats or mosquitos compared to their military vessels. Even still, it wasn’t a guarantee that they’d get off without taking damage.
“Fuck it, let’s just charge in at them,” Tessa said.
“Ahh, the good ol’ fuck it strategy. That always works,” Oscar tried to sound respectful but utterly failed in doing so.”
“Tally ho,” John was grinning.
“You cannot be serious,” Oscar looked at John, “The risk-reward here…”
“Oscar, you plot a wide course around us. Try to avoid the firing arcs aimed at us,” John said, “They shouldn’t detect us for another ten minutes. By then it’s going to be too late to do much of anything. Tessa, I want the Marines onboard the Ugley to coordinate with Captain Taylor. We’re going to need everyone to clean that shithole out.”
“I’ll get on the coms to get another prison transport. Might be a while before we can get another one to be here in the system. That was a stroke of luck that we had earlier.”
“Good hunting to us all,” John said as he stood up from his chair.
He strode onto the bridge and walked over to the captain’s chair. Ingrid had moved over to the reserve officer’s seat to the right of the captain’s seat. She looked up at John.
“What’s the plan, Captain?”
“Opted for the ‘fuck it’ strategy,” John said calmly.
Walter snickered at the weapons console behind him, “Spooling up the VIs. How difficult are you going to make it for us?”
“Hard. We’re going to be going balls-to-the-walls fast. We need to strike as many targets as possible to soften their defenses,” John said, “Tess, let the CAG know we’re going to need all the drones we have available for this. I’m hoping we only need to orbit that hunk of rock once to wipe out their defenses.”
“Letting them know now,” Tess said as she was typing away at her console.
“Helm, all ahead full.”
Rex nodded, “Aye aye. All ahead full.”
The Waukesha’s primary drive core received the command for more power. It delivered that power a split second later. Even with the artificial gravity and inertial dampeners, spikes of acceleration could still be felt inside the ship, though they were greatly weakened to ensure they wouldn’t pulp the crew.
Just a moment later the force placed on the crew disappeared. They were still accelerating forward. The Ugley followed close by the Waukesha and matched the maneuvers gracefully. Both ships looked angry. And in minutes that anger was going to be unleashed on their enemy. The pirates were hopelessly outmatched.
But their enemy being outmatched made them dangerous. An enemy with no hope could do any number of things. So, despite their foes being outmatched, John and company needed to be smart. An enemy that was willing to lash out in rage was one to be wary of.
The Waukesha and Ugley sped through the asteroid belt. The Basilone was well ahead of the angry warships but was running quietly. None would know if that warship was present unless they were directly behind them.
Five minutes later the lead warships could finally see the enemy asteroid. Long-range scans showed several pirate vessels orbiting the station. Engine plumes could be seen from ships that were docked along its outer docking ring. The pirates knew the Confederates would come, but they had caught them flat-footed.
“Time to outer rail gun range?” John asked.
Walter grinned, “That is a target-rich environment. Sixty seconds until outer range.”
“What’s the estimate on those docked ships moving?” John asked, “And can you shoot them without causing catastrophic damage to the station.”
“Well,” Walter stopped and began thinking about the question more deeply, “They might lose the outer docking rim.”
“Acceptable risk, red alert. Weapons hot,” John said as he looked at the tactical display, “Fire when ready.”
“CNS Ugley requests permission to engage the ships in orbit,” Tess said.
“Permission granted, happy hunting,” John said.
The Ugley fired its maneuvering thrusters, and it shot up away from the plane the two were on. It was time to hunt pirates. Despite the actions from a few days ago, this ship was itching to score more pirate kills.
Moments later the four forward-facing rail turrets began opening fire on the Waukesha. Each turret fired a volley at a docked ship. At these ranges, there were some concerns about stray rounds striking the asteroid the station was built into. One or two rounds wouldn’t likely crack the asteroid, but they risked causing a rapid decompression in parts of the pirate base.
That risk would be worth taking if it eliminated potential hostile ships. The biggest issue is if family members or children were killed. While the pirates hated the Confederate policy of sending the wives and children they weren’t simply killed off.
There was hope, however small and faint, that they could be reunited or see one another later. Obviously, that hope is gone forever the moment they die. Pirates may not like the Navy, but the prisoners were generally treated well enough. But if those family members end up dead that treatment could change.
John wasn’t worried about politics. There was one more base to eliminate. That was all that mattered. Just as he thought about the potential issues the first rail rounds found their targets. Several ships suffered catastrophic damage. One’s fusion core was struck, vaporizing everything in a three-hundred-meter circle.
“Nice shootin’ Tex,” John smiled.
“Like shooting fish in a barrel.”
“Keep it up, we have more pirates to put down and a base to kill. Let’s get properly stuck in.”
The Waukesha’s primary engines continued to flare at full power. It was closing the distance rapidly. The lances and laser batters opened up. They were now getting properly stuck in. The Ugley, well they were a step ahead of the Waukesha, she was already engaged with multiple pirate vessels. John couldn’t help but grin at the combat, a feeling shared not only by his crew but his squadron mates as well.