Incoming Press Report, Zero Light-Years Away (Cryesa System Network Relay, Independent Controlled).

“I will not negotiate with terrorists,” declared President Henrietta in a press conference in Lucynthia City after today’s cabinet meeting. The Lucynthia State Navy is now mobilizing further ships for anti-piracy operations, with other Independent states now coordinating for a concerted defense of Lucynthia “to reopen the Lucynthian market immediately”, with the Republic of Saint Cruz already sending a flotilla of twelve ships to the Cryesa System.

- Sector Updates

+++ Jonathan Jones +++

Cryesa System

ISS Jukebox

Tracked by Independent (State of Lucynthia) Light Patrol

Shit.

“Ah, armed mercenaries, eh?” The transmission was almost cold from the Lucynthia State officer on the other side of the line. “Well, we’re gonna require you to show over some confirmation about that. ISS-2275A5, yes, your records are quite clear, but we have no identifications of the two other vessels with you.”

I looked at Juliett, who also had no idea how to deal with this. “Right, this…so, do you have an idea how to go through this?”

“Nope.” She said before she gave me an awkward smile. “I trust that you can fix it!”

“That’s not how it works, trust doesn’t fix everything.”

“Yes, it does.”

“God, you’re a pain.” I had a plan, yes. But that required them to wait for Harold to come over and confirm our identities. I took the microphone. “Alright, look, you already have sensor contact on that incoming vessel right?”

“Yes, three AUs away. Part of the ‘Roll-McHover’ group. What of them?”

“They’re our friends. They have the identification documents about their contracts. Can you wait?”

“Mr. Jones, there are pirates in the Cryesa System, and Lucynthia State Navy is already stretched thin. Please confirm your identities and purpose now, because we need to resume our patrols.”

“Look, just…just wait, alright. They have it, I have no criminal records, you saw it already. We are with them.”

“We also cannot identify the design of those vess—”

“They are a brand new ship class from System Dynamics. And we are keeping it on the down low because, again, we are also dealing with a specific pirate group. And your interference is disrupting our operations.”

“Mr. Jones, you must understand, that you are in the Cryesa System and are thus liable to the State of Lucynthia’s laws and policies. Current policies require—”

“Yes, yes. I understand. But please, we’re in the same damned situation here. You hunt pirates, I’m dealing with pirates, but we’re wasting each other’s time here. These vessels are specialized mercs to deal with our organization’s targeted pirate group that harassed us earlier. Please understand that we are keeping a down low and you are disrupting—”

“We are ordering you to stand down.”

“We already stood down. Our engines are off. Our reactors are now operating only to meet non-navigational and non-weapons related subsystem’s energy requirements.”

“Ah, well, yes…we do see that.”

“We are non-hostile. Again, non-hostile.” God this was such a pain. To be quite clear, they were only really standing down as well because…well, we have a damned cruiser-sized vessel on our side. They were just three Daedalus-Class Patrol Frigates, which meant there wasn’t any point for them to charge in and fight us.

Especially when one of us, specifically me, had proper identification. Quite frankly, this was more of a time delay than anything. The State of Lucynthia was now embroiled in what could be termed as a “temporary blockade” from multiple pirate groups. Probably because of their sanctioned strike against an uncovered pirate base in the Outer Sector that held a few thousand Lucynthian nationals.

So, I would bet that this nonsense was the pirates’ organized retribution against the State of Lucynthia. Not that it would work in long-term, pirates would always take into account the profits and business viability of their actions, and enforcing a blockade would only be profitable in the start while trade convoys were still caught with their pants on, but with the State of Lucynthia’s fleetwide mobilization…

Well, their chances are moot. But they sure were sowing terror and they were leaving a clear message against Lucynthia’s government…and more importantly to our situation, they were stretching the State of Lucynthia’s fleet in the Cryesa System and beyond to defend trade convoys. This means…come on, this patrol should really just piss off instead of bothering us.

“Look, Mr. Jones, we don’t want to waste your time either, but we are operating on strict protocols at the moment.”

“I also understand, but—” A transmission ping appeared on the screen, and I immediately rerouted it straight to these Lucynthian patrols. “There, that’s the confirmation documents. We were hired. Roll-McHover Security Unit. We are operating again in the Cryesa System initially to defend a merchant convoy, but we are now in an operation to target a pirate group that attacked our protected convoy.”

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“Confirmation is complete. Have a good day, Mr. Jones. Go put down those pirate scums. Out.” And with that, their frigates began turning away, burning straight in the other direction. It seemed that they were in as much rush as I predicted. Most likely, that officer just didn’t want to violate the protocols given to him.

I slacked down on my chair. “God that was such a pain. Thank god my relations with the Independents are cordial. Seems like I’ve made it into their list of ‘safe partners’ that they let me get away with this.”

“Well, I’m glad too,” Juliett said. “And see, trust. It worked.”

“That wasn’t trust, that was my hard work, silly.”

“Still the same for me.”

“Whatever.” I looked at the sensor readings. It seemed that Harold’s ship was now turning back. He also sent us another data transmission. “Seems like we should now follow him. Open up the Radiant’s and the Shine’s burn drives. We’re following him.”

“On it.”

“And NAV, reopen our burn drives as well. We’re resuming on course.”

+++

+++ Jonathan Jones +++

Cryesa System

ISS Jukebox

En Route to Target Coordinates

Tracked by Pirate Fast Wolfpack

Neither Harold nor his crew required much explanation regarding the two ships I came with. They didn’t really care, “as long as she’s with us”, as their comms officer said. And so, within the last few hours of our burn, we immediately found ourselves tracked and shadowed by their lighter frigates and destroyers, all while we maintained our guard and close contact.

They didn’t seem interested in an immediate engagement with us.

“Alright, so what’s our plan here? Have we established contact?”

“No, we have not.” Came Harold’s cold reply on the comms. “I’m still trying to send our transmissions to them, but they haven’t picked up. I reckon it’s just them sending some twisted message at us.”

“Pointless intimidation,” Juliett muttered. “That’s what they’re trying to do, right? I swear, they’re making me want to slice their ships in half. Immediately.”

“Juliett, I understand this entire situation is making your blood boil, but I need you to keep your guns together. Harold, should we really avoid reporting this to Lucynthian authorities?”

“Not while they’re holding Captain Roll and Captain McHover over there. Screw that. That would just be me handing them over for a quick execution.”

“Harold, we do not know that.” I reasoned. “Right, I see that the chances are grim, but what if they’re bluffing?”

“It doesn’t matter, Jonathan! If they’re bluffing and we called it by sending the entire Lucynthian fleet in this area, they’re going to execute Captain Roll and Captain McHover.”

“Well, I guess that’s that. I also wouldn’t want to play with the judgment of unstable folks.” I looked back at our sensor readings. There were now multiple destroyer-sized vessels and at least two light cruisers that were shadowing us, all divided into three flotillas. “I think we should maneuver away from this a bit. You think they’re trying to encircle us?”

“They know they can’t. We’ll just burn away and retreat if they do. They’re just keeping in contact. You…Ms. Juliett. Your ship. They’re scared of it.”

“As they should!” Juliett said. “Of course they would be. It’s almost invisible on their sensors, is it not?”

“Which means they’re thinking that we have a ship from System Dynamics. High-tech, top-of-the-line equipment,” I looked back at Juliett. Yeah…well, she was an AI, and an extremely advanced one at that. Including her ship and escorts. “Well, correction. We are employing top-of-the-line equipment. So it makes sense.”

“We have the range advantage as well because of her.” He almost seemed elated. Well, he was extremely elated the moment he laid his eyes on the VSS Radiant and the VSS Shine, and practically all of them ignored my…well, subpar Corvette in favor of Juliett’s shinier toys. Again…my ego. “Right?”

“Yes,” Juliett said, in the most straightforward manner possible. “I assure you, the VSS Radiant can engage them at least twenty-thousand kilometers away effectively.”

“You reckon that you can take potshots at them?”

Now she seemed awkwardly embarrassed at that question. “Ah, well…maybe. But I’d rather not. We can do harassment tactics from here, but most likely, they’d just dodge it before it hits them. And my energy lances lose effectiveness at twenty-thousand kilometers.”

“Ah, your weaponry definitely punches above its weight, yes. Still, wouldn’t be enough for some long-range beam slugging though. But, doesn’t matter. We’ll talk with them first, and try to make out what they want. If shit falls apart, we’re charging in. If not…we’ll see. So I want all of you to hold your horses, that clear?”

“Clear,” I said, and Juliett followed, though, she seemed more aggravated than me.

“Clear.”

We moved in a bit closer in an attempt to better communicate with them, but they were having none of it, moving away and away in an attempt to keep a reasonable distance from our group. In a few moments, they were suddenly more than a million kilometers from us, trailing away to keep a good distance, while still keeping us within their sensor range. They were eyeing us, and that was a shared act with us also keeping tabs on them.

But this seemed more and more of a push-and-pull situation. I suppose our neutral reaction to their intimidation tactics was cracking them. Were they expecting that we would react meekly and submissively to their nonsense? If so, then they really didn’t expect us to pull a high-tech heavy cruiser out of nowhere.

I admit, whoever you are leading these pirates, you have a brain. NAV continued following the ISS Rearguard’s moves, as we attempted to close the distance a fair bit again before they pulled away again. It seemed that they were really playing the cautious game.

“So? What now? Have they responded to our hails? This is getting tiring.” I asked over the comms, awaiting a reply from the ISS Rearguard. I looked at my side, and it seemed that Juliett’s Avatar Model was also getting twitchy as well. Her eyes were hyper-focused on the screens that tracked the pirate ships’ positions. I could tell that the idea of hostage civilians was pushing her on edge.

Damn. And this was why we never used these tactics back in Loran. It was simply bad for business, usually. And unnecessarily evil. Even in our most desperate days, the last days when that…man was crushing us one by one, hostages and terror never crossed our minds. And it only got you in trouble with more noble elements. I guess this is what heroines are.

Perhaps.

“They’ve responded to our hails!” I heard at last. “Alright, you two. Don’t intervene immediately, just listen. Is that clear?”

“Again, yes. Go on, accept their transmission. Finally, the first phase of their stupid games is over.”