10 Hours Later. March 21st, 2267. 03:25 Cygni 4’s Moon
The CNS Waukesha, Orlando, and Boulder tore through the slip space rupture back into real space. Their entry point to reality was dangerously close, within just three thousand kilometers of the enemy pirate base. Their engines flared to life immediately and the trio of warships angrily flew towards the unsuspecting pirate base.
Weapons fire started immediately, for the Confederate ships that is. Anti-ship missiles, point defenses, and laser batters on the base were all knocked out of commission during the initial angry fusillade. The pirates had been caught flat-footed.
Next came the coup de grace, eliminating the docked pirate ships. The majority were sitting stationary on their landing pads. Most of them were no bigger than an old Corvette, but there were three very old frigates and an equally aged cruiser sitting stationary. As Walter was want to say, they were once again in a target-rich environment. And it was akin to taking candy from a baby.
The Waukesha broke formation and dove right at the base, no evasive maneuvers were being made. So confident in their dominance that they made themselves a perfect target for the defenders on the station. This was less an attack and more like a glorified and large-scale bullying of weaker opponents.
No real counterattack materialized, though, in all fairness to the pirates, there was precious little they could have done to turn the tide. The ships that were present were old and held together with duct tape and prayers. That isn’t to say they couldn’t do damage to their Confederate attackers but would require a string of insanely good luck on their part to take out any of John’s task force.
Some of the pirates mobilized and manned several small caliber rail guns. They were able to pop off a few ineffective shots at the Waukesha. Her shields held strong though, and her retaliatory strikes quieted those weapons platforms forever. No further attacks came about, and nothing could be seen happening in the station’s cargo bay.
The Waukesha’s maneuvering engines fired hard. The ship came to a near stop less than a kilometer above the surface of the tiny moon. To say that she looked menacing to the residents of that base would be an understatement. Thanks to numerous missions in the past, virtually all pirates dreaded seeing the site of the Phoenix class cruiser.
Before the totality of defenses had been taken out John ordered Captain Taylor to mobilize the Marines. Their shuttles rocketed out of both hangars and screamed toward the station. Full retrorockets were fired as they neared. Each one spun one hundred eighty degrees and landed firmly. Moments later their ramps slammed down, disgorging their contents of power armored Marines.
They were now storming the base. They were batting a hundred percent in past raids. Today’s outcome would be no different. The standard plan of eliminating any hostiles and detaining the rest, forcibly and at gunpoint, ran perfectly.
While the Waukesha faced the base angrily, the Orlando and Boulder eliminated the remainder of the defenses spread across the atmosphere less moon. And eliminated the two ships that were patrolling in the area. Their portion of the squadron had successfully led a shock and awe campaign.
Five minutes from the time the Waukesha and company returned to real space, Marines were already storming the pirate base. The pirates in the base would be rounded up and returned to the Waukesha. Two hours later the Marines returned to the Waukesha with two hundred and four guests.
That did lead to some rather creative use of space. Normally they house four shuttles in each of the hangars. Now they’d have six in the aft hangar and two in the other. That was because the engineering team was erecting temporary barracks in the starboard hangar. Two of them in fact.
Both were effective prisons, but the women and children would have access to some open space, surrounded by armed guards and fences of course. A canteen of sorts would be set up between the two buildings. Though the two groups of guests would not share mealtime, nor would the women and children be able to see the male pirates during their designated mealtimes.
In fact, the makeshift prison would be run in such a way that the two groups would never see one another or be allowed outside at the same time. Brutal would be one way to describe the conditions, if one were a pirate. Adequately ethical and justifiable moral would be the way John would use to describe them.
Two hours and fifteen minutes later the temporary barracks were assembled. The Marines were ferrying back their haul of pirates and families, two shuttles at a time. Ironically the time it took to ferry back the pirates took nearly the time of the initial assault on the base. Barely four hours had elapsed after their arrival in the system to eliminate another pirate base and had hundreds of prisoners.
The Waukesha detonated a lone torpedo from within the base, then fired four volleys of high explosive rounds at the base. The ship fired its main drive once again and flew off into the void. The base was destroyed, and the mission was accomplished.
Just as quickly as she and her escorts appeared, the Waukesha jumped back into slip space. Dead ships, an annihilated station, and the dead bodies of the defenders were left behind in their wake. None knew of what happened at this base, that is until the Waukesha and her task force allowed for such information to be disseminated.
08:25 Outer Asteroid Belt -- Cygni system
In-system slip space jumps were generally frowned upon by system controllers. They were the kind of thing you didn’t do unless your ship bore the symbol and standard grey paint of a Confederate naval ship. Even pirates were loath to do this due to the attention it draws to people.
That was the sign to the local authorities that something was up. Hails to the warships were ignored. The trio of new ships to arrive on the scene had other pressing matters to attend to.
“Look, I don’t care if the president of the system himself wants to have a face-to-face. We’re busy,” John said to Deb.
Lieutenant Wilkinson looked forward but bore an annoyed look on her face, “They insist on a conversation.”
“And I insist you ignore that,” John’s tone dripped with annoyance.
Walter whispered to Willy, “I can appreciate that level of pettiness.”
“It’s rather impressive actually,” Willy nodded as he whispered back.
“I can hear the two of you,” John sighed as he looked forward.
“I presume their mission was successful?” John asked a rather obvious question.
“Speak of the devil,” Deb said, “Patching Lieutenant Vernon through.”
Patrice Vernon’s image appeared on the right half of the main screen. He was sitting in his captain’s chair the way an evil villain would, at least that is from John’s perspective. The bridge crew looked nonplussed, and the tactical display of their surroundings appeared they had an easy go at things as well.
“Mission successful. We lost a few drones, but we caught them unexpectedly. We’re going to transfer the prisoners over to you.”
John motioned to Rex to adjust course, “What’s the number?”
“Sixty-two pirates along with forty-eight women and children,” Patrice said.
Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more.
John noticed the trio of shuttles had already departed the Lexington. He ordered his ship’s shuttle pilots to fly the two shuttles parked in the starboard hangar to temporarily depart the ship while a prisoner exchange is made. While he did that, he ran the numbers in his head.
“We’ve got space for them. And we’ve got food for them for now too. But the Waukesha is now heavy with three hundred-plus souls,” John said.
“The Basilone reports the pirates seem to be unaware of the attacks.”
John nodded, “I don’t think that’s going to last for long. The pirates have to have people on the inside. A sympathetic ear is going to get word to them sooner than later,” John stood up and paused, “I want everyone ready to do another in-system slip jump. If we’re lucky we can catch them in our trap too.”
“Understood,” Patrice said.”
The Lexington began closing the distance between the two cruisers. The quicker this transfer happened the higher the likelihood of them trapping the Icarus in the system. Luck had been on their side thus far. But how much longer would that hold out for?
The next thirty-five minutes were dreadfully slow to pass. The starboard hangar was absolute chaos. The Marines did their best to usher, and in many cases force, their prisoners into position. The Waukesha’s returning shuttles didn’t make matters any easier. Space in that portion of the hangar was at a premium.
The external doors to the shuttle bay began to retract. Those in the hangar could feel the ship’s momentum shift. A loud surge from the primary drive core could be heard throughout the ship. They were transiting back into the surreal dimension that was known as slip space. The mood in that hangar hadn’t changed any.
Lives were forever impacted. Families were uprooted, in some cases outright destroyed. All part of the plan towards reeducation from the Confederate perspective. A hope of theirs to ensure all their citizens become productive members of their society. From the pirate’s perspective though, the Confederates were butchers and monstrously evil. In fairness, both sides were likely both right and wrong in their respective perspectives, but the strong ruled, and at that moment that was the Confederacy.
10:37 Pirate Shipyard (formerly Vectron System’s Industrial Shipyard) -- Cygni system
Four slip space ruptures appeared several hundred kilometers from the shipyard. No scheduled ships were expected. Worse yet, no pirate or commercial vessels would dare risk a transit this close and deep in a planet’s gravity well. Confederate warships though, not only could do this, but were well known to have those capabilities.
“The Icarus is moving away from the shipyards,” Willy said from the rear of the bridge, “Most of their fleet is making a run for the nearest safe slip point.”
“Rex, all ahead…” John was interrupted by Willy once again.
“Captain, a portion of their fleet is heading towards us.”
“Fucking hell, speed bumps,” John cursed as he balled up his right fist, “Rex, evasive actions. Tess contact the Basilone and order them to keep with the pirates. Walter, you may fire largely at will. Let’s avoid using missiles if possible.”
“Aye aye captain,” Walter said as he readied the warship’s systems.
The Lexington and Waukesha roared forward, they were flanked by the Orlando and Boulder. The remaining ships split off the force, forcing the pirates to act. Either they had to break formation and go after the two new packs or risk being attacked in their flanks.
Just as they had expected, the pirates split off their forces. But they did so far too late. In doing so the ships that broke off exposed their weaker aft to the two large cruisers. That exposure would prove deadly.
The Lexington adjusted its attitude and fired off a single round at a frigate that broke off. The round struck the primary drive cone and pierced into the hull millimeters away from critical power and plasma conduits. The round penetrated deep into the ship. The power within the ship was severed moments after the round pierced the hull.
Worse yet, the backup and emergency systems didn’t work as intended. The insides of the ship were exposed to the void. Water sublimated into a gas, then the gas itself forced all breathable atmosphere out of the ship. The crew suffocated to death in the cold void. The first ship kill went to the Lexington.
Meanwhile, the Waukesha was not resting on its laurels. Neither was the Boulder and Orlando for that matter. All three ships also racked up ship kills. The Waukesha fired at two frigates and a destroyer that broke off to attack the Ugley and her escort. The pair of frigates exploded in bright blue balls of plasma.
The pirate destroyer survived the first shot, but as the frigate the Lexington had targeted, the drive cone was shattered. The second volley fired at her resulted in six rail gun rounds shredding the back half of the ship. Secondary explosions tore through the interior and its now lifeless hull began to spin slowly in the void.
The will of the pirates that attacked the Confederate forces was shattered. Ships began to scatter every which way. It was unlikely that any evasive maneuvers or tactics would save them from the coming destruction. The fighting continued, no, the killing continued.
Forty-six pirate ships were sent behind to guard the Icarus and its core fleet as they withdrew from the system. Forty-six kills would be claimed by John’s squadrons. The ships then began to close on the station.
“How many life signs are on that base?” John asked as he stood up from his chair.
“Thirteen.”
“Tess, hail them,” John said, “Advise them that failure to respond will result in us opening fire.”
“Understood, captain,” Tess typed a short message into her console and transmitted it to the station.
Moments later a frighted man and woman appeared on screen, “We had…”
“My name is Lieutenant John Lief. You’ve rendered aid to known pirates. You are hereby ordered to surrender yourself to my forces. All thirteen members of your crew are to board a shuttle and head toward my ship. My helmsmen will send you the precise coordinates to go to.”
The man shook his head, “We had no choice. We are an independent…”
“I wasn’t asking for an explanation,” John said icily as he stared the man down, “You have ten minutes before we are going to annihilate this station.”
“I… you can’t…” the man was almost in tears as his wife clung to his arm, “We saved so hard to buy this facility.”
“And you took blood money by working on pirate ships. Spare me this act. The clock is ticking. Whether you save your family or not matters little to me. Denying this pirate fleet access to this shipyard does however matter to me,” John turned and sat back down in his chair, “You do not want to play chicken with me.”
“We need more time. We have our personal…”
“You will only be boarding that shuttle with the clothes on your back. Nothing else will be permitted to be brought onboard,” John said coolly, “If you try to smuggle an explosive device onboard, we will be able to detect that. And I am not above destroying a ship of groveling pirate sympathizers. Eight minutes to go.”
John gestured to Tess to kill the transmission. The screen shut off moments later. Walter proactively activated the ships targeting arrays. He also transferred the firing controls to the captain’s chair. Silence reigned supreme on the bridge. It was far more tense now than during the pirate attack.
With barely a minute left on John’s self-imposed timer, a shuttle was undocked from the shipyard's command and control facility. Scanners were focused on it. Thirteen individuals were found within. No contraband could be detected, at least the kind they worried about.
One of their shuttles was remotely controlled by a pilot in the hangar bay. The shuttle was flanked by a pair of drone fighters. A small umbilical was extended which connected the two ships. When the doors to the Confederate shuttle a transmission was routed into the shipyard’s shuttle.
‘Walk single file, six feet apart from one another. One person is allowed in the scanning chamber at a time. When the inner doors open find a seat in the cargo hold.’
It had to be terrifying for these people. Two drones were trained on the shuttle at all times. One false move meant the shuttle would be disabled and that they’d be exposed to a hard vacuum. The man in charge of the station was not a calming factor. He was near inconsolable.
One by one the members of the station’s crew were scanned and allowed entry into the Confederate shuttle. When all members were loaded onboard, the umbilical was unlocked and retracted back into the shuttle. Then it sped away from the station’s shuttle and headed for the starboard hangar.
Thirteen more people would be processed. Six children and five adults. The three men were separated and given their own room with the other hardened pirates the task force had captured. All would ask numerous times what they had done to deserve such harsh treatment.
Members of the local media would initially call the Confederate’s actions merciless and without proper justification. Naval Intelligence operatives would leak damaging personal information to those that wrote and approved such an article. They quickly lost their jobs in the ensuing firestorm of public backlash. Though they weren’t wrong in calling John’s actions merciless, they absolutely were justified.
The old shipyard was then destroyed by eight well-placed volleys of high-explosive rail rounds. The task force was three for three this day. More pirate strongholds were not just denied, but outright destroyed. The task force then proceeded into the void almost as quickly as they had come.
Orders from Fleet Command still hadn’t come in. As a result, John and the company were going to continue with their tracking of the Icarus. When they were clear of the planet’s gravity well the ships slipped back into slip space. Their destination was not yet determined, but their mission was unchanged.
They would hound the Icarus and eliminate any pirates they come across. An outside observer would likely intonate that the actions taken by the Confederates must have been personal. John couldn’t fault anyone for coming to that conclusion. Things were not personal, not from his perspective. The pirates, despite the Confederate’s actions, weren’t just a menace to security. They were a literal threat to it.
He was doing what any good soldier does to a threat. Eliminate it. This was the most direct, and just, course to it. The Icarus had to be killed one way or the other. While the rest of the Confederacy was fighting a defensive war, John was fighting their lone offensive front. He was not only willing but able, to be the face of what the pirates hated most.