14 Days Later. July 15th, 2265. 08:00 CNS Waukesha – Bridge

John was reading a report and attempting, but ultimately failing, to wrap up some paperwork. The bridge can rarely be called a calm and tranquil place, but it was close to that. Everything was operating so smoothly.

The Void Runner was steaming ahead toward the asteroid belt. John was hoping that he could help prevent the freighter from getting destroyed. While he didn’t have strong feelings about committing insurance fraud himself, he did for assisting others in doing just that. He didn’t like using some dumb bastard’s ship to lure some pirates into an ambush, but he was doing just that, so he wasn’t exactly above it.

And true to form it happened. Of course, the most likely thing would happen. It always does when John is involved. The Void Runner exploded suddenly. It wasn’t until after the explosion that the sensors picked up anything.

“RED ALERT!” John shouted as he saw the sensor readings, “Come about, three-three-five down eighteen degrees. Launch all drones. Recall the corvettes.”

Eight former prototype Alliance vessels appeared from behind a pair of orbiting asteroids. Their kinetic and electromagnetic shields were already activated. They were outnumbered, and more worryingly they were outclassed too. There looked to be at least three cruisers in the hostiles, and this wasn’t all of the ships this pirate organization had access to. John’s fleet had flown into an ambush.

“Drones launched,” Willy said, “Set to defend. Manned fighters and bombers are awaiting orders.”

“Brian, get those turrets aimed at the hostiles, full spread. Target their destroyers and frigates first,” John said.

“Sir, they have heavier ships,” Brian was noticeably confused with his captain’s orders.

“Let’s see what they are made of,” John said, “Call in Vanessa’s wing after we fire the first volley. Estimated time until they are within weapons range.”

“Twenty-five seconds,” Brian said.

Emily then spoke up, “I’m hearing nothing over coms.”

“Confirm that those ships are wanted,” John ordered.

Seconds later Emily spoke up, “All eight were found leaving a freighter in the Alpha Centauri system last month.”

“We are in weapons range, they are holding fire, sir,” Brian said.

“Emily, tell our trio of missile frigates to focus on the cruisers,” John said as he buckled himself in, “Fire at will.”

The Waukesha turned to face the group of enemy ships with two cruisers. She was exposing an unhealthy amount of flat armor to the second group, but that was preferred to giving broadside to both groups of enemy ships.

Unlike her enemies, the Waukesha’s diminutive railguns could fire at nearly all angles. Only a single of her triple-barreled turrets was incapable of firing at the enemy. All four of the turrets found on the front edge of the ship opened fire at the group of ships dead ahead. She was also able to get two of her three rear turrets and the pair of turrets on the backbone to fire at the other group.

Mere moments later the missile frigates let loose dozens of missiles and torpedoes at each of the cruisers. Several of the missiles would launch hundreds of micro-missiles at the target in an effort to confuse their target’s close-in defenses and to spread out the stress and damage dealt to as many shielding arrays as possible.

Violence, particularly the kind the Confederate Navy was capable of delivering, was not at all what the Red Moon’s Edge group was expecting. They were slow to react to the sudden aggression shown by the Confederate ships. A destroyer and frigate, one from each group, succumbed to the Waukesha’s sudden fire. One exploded in a bright blue flash of plasma while the other’s power and engines cut out and it began to lazily drift into the void.

The remaining ships quickly began evasive maneuvers. To no one’s surprise, the second and third volleys from the Waukesha’s turrets missed entirely. A couple of volleys were directed at the enemy cruiser after the micro missile had found its target. The remaining frigates and destroyers began to open fire at the Confederate ships.

The enemy ships peppered the Waukesha with fire. The main guns missed entirely but the smaller caliber weapons and lances did find their target. Unfortunately for them, the kinetic and EM shields of the Waukesha held strong and no damage was dealt in return.

“Reading irregularities in kinetic and EM shield strength from the cruisers dead ahead,” Petty Officer Monique Lee said.

“Continue split firing. Advise the missile frigates to continue doing their thing,” John said, “ETA on Vanessa’s wing joining the fight?”

Just then the Waukesha shuddered. Metallic ringing could be heard throughout the ship. They were struck by an enemy rail round.

“That was a glancing blow. Lost a couple of ablative panels,” Third Lieutenant Linus Jackson radioed up to the bridge, “Checking for hull breaches but so far so good.

“Emily, direct Vanessa’s wing to engage that other group,” John shouted.

“On it, sir.”

John then pressed a button on his chair handle, “Commander Buckley, launch fighter and bomber wings. Take two-thirds of the drones as cover at the enemy behind us!” the moment John heard confirmation on the other end he quickly refocused on his helm, “Rex, evasive maneuvers pattern Delta-Charlie-Alpha.”

The rear-facing fighter bay doors opened. Twenty-five fighters and twenty bombers roared out of the ship. The drones swarmed to surround the fighters as they pulled aware from the Waukesha and formed a protective barrier around them.

The Waukesha’s engines roared in anger. She lurched forward, but as she did so maneuvering thrusters at the front of the ship fired at full blast shover the nose down. She was now moving significantly more quickly and rolling, making it significantly more difficult to score a rail hit. On the flip side, it made the weapons officer’s job significantly more difficult.

The VIs that the tactical division was in charge of was phenomenal, but they had limits on what they could do. John’s evasive maneuvers had effectively rendered his weapon VIs useless. Brian continued to fire the turrets, but they were noticeably more inaccurate than before.

“Sir, we’re not a shotgun, we need to slow this roll down,” Brian said from the ledge behind John.

“Emily, ETA on the second wing and fighters making contact?”

“Twenty seconds,” Emily said as she white-knuckled her console.

“Make do. Rex, prepare to arrest the roll and come about to two-two-five on my mark,” John said.

The lone enemy cruiser fired its main gun once more at the Waukesha. The round sailed by the Waukesha harmlessly. True to John’s orders her spin was arrested, and the ship moved to close the distance to the nearby enemy wing.

In the distance, the fighters and bombers could be seen engaging the other enemy wing. Vanessa’s wing also made their presence known. Two more explosions could be seen. Only a heavy frigate remained from that wing.

“SIR, ENEMY CONTACTS AHEAD!” Monique shouted.

Eight more ships appeared.

“Emily, contact Brady, it’s time to close the trap,” John said calmly, “Brian, target all weapons on that closest cruiser.”

“Helm, adjust course to two-three-five, twenty degrees up,” Brian said as he plotted a firing pattern.

The Waukesha fired its maneuvering thrusters and rolled over slightly. Seven of her nine turrets swung around and were locked in at the nearest cruiser. Moments later the first of three volleys were fired at her enemy.

The missile frigates peeled off and accelerated above the Waukesha’s plane. Their primary engines were then killed, and the keel thrusters were engaged. The front of the frigates was quickly pointed at the other cruiser. Dozens of missiles were fired. Six torpedoes were also fired.

All while this was happening, the Waukesha’s drones had crippled the diminutive destroyer. Rail rounds zipped right by and impacted against the enemy cruiser’s shields. Its kinetic shields surveyed the first two volleys. Thirty-six of the forty-two slugs were fired true though, the missing rounds would in the future potentially ruin the day of a passing ship.

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The cruiser’s kinetic shielding arrays were largely blown out, but a few still held out. Though the protection they would give their ship was notably muted. Compounding the problem, the pirate ship was helpless to adjust course or get their ship into a more defensive position against the Waukesha. Most of the pirate crew didn’t know this, but their lives were running out of time.

Another near-full broadside from the Waukesha ripped across the enemy ship. Armor panels buckled, the remaining kinetic shielding arrays gave up the ghost, secondary explosions tore through the insides of the ship, and several rounds still had enough kinetic energy to exit the vessel by piercing the armor panels on the other side of the ship. Their engines flamed out and died. The life-giving atmosphere was venting in dozens of places. Its forward momentum kept it going, but it was now lazily rotating end over end. The Waukesha claimed another ship kill. There wasn’t time to celebrate though.

“Helm, come about to zero-niner-zero, maximum thrust. Advise Vanessa to do the same, I see the other group is eliminated,” John ordered.

“Three ships left. Captain Cohen’s wing has been using the asteroids as cover and effectively removing those remaining two cruisers from combat,” Brian said.

“How long till you have a firing pattern?” John asked.

“Too long, sir. Five minutes at current speed.”

Just then a voice came over the intercom, “Fighters and bombers need to return to the ship for rearmament. They won’t be much use in the last fight, sir.”

“Thank you, Commander,” John said, “Willy, what is the status of our fleet?”

“Missile frigates are low on ammo. Several of our fighters and bombers are going to need maintenance, but we didn’t lose anyone thankfully. Thirty percent of our drones were destroyed. All ships are low on defensive fire ammunition. Everyone has suffered some minor damage, the worst being the Frederickson. They suffered a through and through.”

“Emily, contact Brady. Advise him to continue orbiting that asteroid and maximize his burn. He needs to adjust the course to three-zero-one when he rounds that rock again. We’ll intercept the hostiles.”

Emily nodded as she sent the message.

“Advise the missile frigates to launch all remaining ordinance, slave them to our fire control, and fall back. Brian, you’ll control the targeting of them.”

“Understood.”

The missile frigates did as they commanded. One hundred sixteen cruise missiles, eighty torpedoes, and about one hundred missiles that stored dozens of micro-missiles within them were launched. The missiles were quickly slaved to the Waukesha after launching. Brian had already assigned to the missiles who the targets were. The missiles held their position with the Waukesha before speeding off down range toward their targets.

Just as he looked up, he saw Lieutenant Cohen’s wing fly around the asteroid. While their engine cones were hidden from view at this angle, the exhaust could easily be seen on screen. Brady had ordered their ships to fly like mad.

The Waukesha steamed forward, with her corvette escorts flying in perfect harmony around the engineering section. Brady’s ships flipped around gracefully and brought their weapons to bare. Just in time for the enemies to round the asteroid.

Two cruisers and a pair of banged-up destroyers could be seen on the screen.

“Fire at will,” John said calmly.

The missiles were already well underway to their targets. The forward rail turrets began rapidly firing salvo after salvo. The lances were also firing off at the enemies. The Waukesha continued closing the ground at a hellishly fast pace.

“Sir, I suggest we change course to…” Rex was interrupted before he could finish.

“We’re going too fast. Split the cruisers down the middle,” John said as he leaned back in his chair, “I’d prefer the cruisers die before we fly by them.”

“I aim to please, sir,” Brian grinned as he began firing the forward four railgun turrets.

The forward lances fired too, but they were targeting the smaller and damaged destroyers. The first lance shot struck the forward destroyer and shattered the forward armor plate. The second shot pierced the hull and sheared off large chunks of armor from its bow. Two missiles diverted quickly and converged on the stricken ship.

The micro-missile carriers got into range and launched thousands of micro-missiles. They homed in their targets and overwhelmed their close-in-defensive systems. It was death by a thousand cuts. That is until a cruise missile or torpedo strikes an unshielded ship in a tender place. The destroyer’s sister ship then blew up in a bright blue explosion of plasma.

“SHIP KILL!” Brady shouted over the coms, “What a fucking snipe!”

John grinned, “Brian, those cruisers are still…”

Brian just grinned as his captain ended the sentence unfinished. The diverted missiles fired off their payload of micro-missiles and rockets at the surviving destroyer. There were numerous explosions and secondary explosions before the ship began to list and then explode, breaking apart near the central point.

More impressive though was what happened to the cruisers. Brian had been firing the forward railgun turrets as quickly as he could. Before the missiles and torpedoes even had a chance to do their thing, they had already managed to soften up the forward defenses. A stray rail round had already impacted, harmlessly, unfortunately, into both ships.

The Waukesha’s sensors were finally recovering after being flooded by thousands of micro-missile rockets being discharged from the mother missile. Whatever defenses the cruisers had left were quickly overwhelmed and annihilated. While they survived that salvo, their death warrant was signed when the torpedoes reached their targets.

Both remaining cruisers were annihilated by multiple torpedo impacts. The remaining hostile ships were no more. What ship wasn’t atomized by a fusion explosion were now lifeless hulks. The mission was successful. And better yet, a surprise battle cruiser didn’t appear.

“Stand down to yellow alert,” John said, “Emily I want all ships to take stock of ammunition stores and damage. We’ll take the lead on inspecting wreckage.”

Monique smiled at Rex, “Holy cow, I didn’t think combat would be this easy.”

“We’re good,” Rex unbuckled his seat belt as he smiled, “We’re damn good.”

“Getting cocky will get you killed,” John corrected the crewmen, “But it would be remiss of me to not congratulate all on an excellent attack. Emily, get me on the horn to the whole ship.”

“It’s all yours, sir.”

“This is your Captain speaking. We have successfully engaged and defeated the pirate forces. The only loss was a merchant vessel that, to be brutally frank, was doomed to die. If the initial estimates are correct, then there was no friendly loss of life. We did expend most of our weapon stores though. I want to congratulate you all on a battle well fought and won. We will be returning to standard shifts at this time.”

The bridge crew could collectively feel their adrenaline levels return to normal levels. A sense of weariness wafted over them. John simply shook his head as he stood up and turned to face Brian.

“Brian, coordinate with the other ships. I want to know how much ammo we used. Once we know, contact Caldera Station for a fleet tender.”

“Understood. Sir, Commander Buckley is saying we’re going to need, and I am directly quoting her, ‘a metric asston’ worth of parts to repair the fighters and bombers. They took a pounding.”

John nodded, “If I’m reading between the lines then we can thank the pretty stars that we didn’t lose anyone.”

1 Day Later. July 16th, 2265. 10:00 CNS Waukesha – Captain’s Ready Room

John was taking a break from writing his official report and re-reading the notable items they recovered from one of the enemy vessels. Sixteen vessels were destroyed, with only one being recoverable. A military tug had already shown up in the system to tow the Alliance vessel back to a black site to go through the recent ship with a fine-tooth comb. It was no surprise to him that a tug was hours behind their fleet.

The survivors, of which there were precious few of them, were transferred to the station to await trials. They didn’t have firm crew numbers yet, but each ship was manned by under a hundred people. The cruisers had roughly fifty to sixty more crew. Those numbers shocked John, Confederate ships still had nearly three times as many crew on their ships.

“Automation, automation, automation,” John said as he leaned back in his chair.

“Sir, Admiral Dufresne would like a status update,” Emily said over the comms.

“Go ahead and transfer him please,” John said responding to the communications request.

Admiral Dufresne appeared on the screen to the left of John’s desk. He spun his chair to face the screen and gave a quick salute.

“Admiral, that’s one less pirate organization we have to deal with.”

“That is good to hear. That group has been near impossible to find in that system.”

John nodded, “They used the belts effectively. Hit a target then creep and crawl around here until the heat died down. They didn’t seem to have an official base but were looking to establish one in a hollowed-out asteroid.”

“What stopped them from pursuing that?”

“Time, money, and connections. These former Alliance assholes didn’t do themselves any favors. No pirate faction was willing to assist them in any attacks. Trade was incredibly difficult for them. Hindsight being what it is, their targets were always food or weapons shipments.”

“What about the other local pirates?”

“Brady’s wing took out a base this morning. Small timers, they didn’t have anything bigger than a shuttle. He’s heading back to Caldera station with those that were smart enough to surrender,” John rubbed his eyes, “The fleet tender arrived six hours ago. Vanessa’s ships will be repaired in two hours. Mine will be done in thirty-six hours. Brady’s ships are going to get resupplied and repaired at the station. I think he said most of his ships just need one or two ablative armor plates replaced.”

“Good work. How goes the inspection of the enemy vessels?”

“We’ve got some good leads. Going to send Vanessa off hunting while my wing continues examining the wreckage. We know of at least two more active pirate cells in the system. I’d like to eliminate them before shoving off.”

“Where are you heading next?”

John shrugged, “Too early to tell. Rubrum Meridiem appears to be the most likely option. We know these cats were there doing something recently.”

“That system didn’t report much pirate activity,” Admiral Dufresne frowned, “But if that’s where it takes you…”

“It’s still too soon to tell, sir. It isn’t far from Aquilae Minoris which we know is infested with these fucksticks.”

“Keep me in the loop, I’ll be interested in seeing your final report. Also, R&D wishes to extend a hearty thank you for the near-mint, Alliance vessel.”

“Near mint, sir?” John chuckled, “We kinda put a couple of rail rounds through her.”

“Nevertheless, they have a new enemy ship to research. They are ecstatic. Anytime our eggheads can get their hands on modern Alliance tech is a good day for us.”

John smiled, “Well it’s to keep those eggheads occupied. Never know what will happen when all those big brains get bored.”

“Keep up the good work Lieutenant,” Admiral Dufresne said with a smile before closing the channel.

John spun his chair around and looked out the porthole. He could see the tender reloading one ship while it was replacing an armor plate of another. His fleet had acquitted itself well. They were lucky though; the Alliance vessels weren’t proper war vessels.

Those hulls were stolen prior to all weapon systems being fitted. That wasn’t to say they weren’t a threat; they were a deadly threat to merchant traffic. But they had to know they were no match for Confederate warships. Was salvage on their mind? Or something else.

John pondered these things as he continued writing his report. The more he wrote, the more he wanted to know about the machinations and motivations of this pirate organization. It was a great thing that they had been fully eliminated, but the system had more pirates to eliminate or harry away. For now, his curiosity would have to be set aside to fulfill his duty.