(CNS Luvon Gilrie, Madrigal System)
Captain Zylna nodded to herself as she went over the latest reports on the Gilrie’s readiness for combat. She was Confederate Navy, through and through, but she had to admit that the concepts the Black Stars had come up with for their ships were extremely innovative. Using tactics that were more like submarine warfare than starships was something that would not occur to most people. But it allowed them to act as a force multiplier. And with the training the Admiral and his people had been putting her through, she couldn’t wait to see what the results would be in the first wargames she participated in after this detachment ended.
Alarms brought her out of her thoughts of victory against her fellow captains for bragging rights, and back to the reality of her current assignment. She turned to look at the sensor console. “Report!”
“Captain, we have incoming ships just leaving warp. Five ships, all heading for the pass through the minefield.”
Focusing on the sensor readouts on the screen, she said, “Do we have identification yet? What types are they?”
“One heavy cruiser, two frigates, and two freighters, captain. The frigates look to have the freighters under tow, so they are probably captured vessels. Freighters register as the Innuendo out of Kul’tiras, and the Bryynore out of Tecrone, both registered as legitimate merchants.”
Captain Zylna nodded. Definitely pirates, then, preying on traffic crossing the border. “I see. And the warships?”
“The frigates are the Curse of the Curse and the Blind Ranger. The Cruiser has two identity codes that we’re receiving. One says it is the Vile Lust, but the other registers it as the CNS Kythaela Daven!”
“What? The Daven was reported missing, feared lost during the last war! She’s been a pirate ship all this time? Who is supposed to be her captain?”
The intel analyst interjected here, saving the poor sensor tech. “This is the first time a Navy ship has gotten close enough to get transponder codes, I believe, ma’am. However, the Vile Lust is the flagship of ‘Fierce’ Deverell Lark. He’s the number one pirate in the area, according to what the fleet’s heard.”
“Comms! Get the Shinokage on line. Tell them that we have a pirate convoy making for the pass, including a VIP. Send our intel and request backup! Then get Lieutenant Daelen and let him know that he and his Marines are to armor up and get ready for boarding action.”
Lieutenant Leoven, the XO, looked over at her, and said, just loud enough that only she could hear, “Boarding, Captain?”
Captain Zylna smiled fiercely at her XO. “One way or another, the Kythaela Daven is not spending one more day in the service of pirates, XO. Either we take her, or she will be sent to the rest she has long deserved. But I would rather take her, so we might be able to figure out what happened to her all those years ago.”
(Pirate Vessel Vile Lust, Madrigal System)
Captain ‘Fierce’ Lark had earned his name over the years as a pirate who took no guff from anyone, and was always willing to give tenfold for anything he got. Well, there were plenty of pirate captains like that, but a lot of his success he owed to his first mate and prime fuckmeat, ‘Cutthroat’ Genny Grissom. The wench was sharp as a tack, and knew she was better off being the right hand and cocksleeve of the best pirate in the sector than trying to run things on her own. But she had a wicked mind when it came to managing the ‘fleet’ which left him more time for planning raids and enjoying the spoils of victory.
Some of those spoils were waiting on him back in his cabin, when they docked at the Maddy. He and Genny were going to enjoy the fresh meat until they broke the girl, same as they always did. The rest of the slaves were ready to be sold and spread around the station, seeing who needed new fuckmeat, new labor, or perhaps some new crew. There were some captains that liked having slaves instead of free crew, as a Stepford crew was utterly loyal. Lark didn’t hold to that himself. Not a moral thing, mind you. Just that Stepfords were never ‘all there’ while the controls were on, making them dumber than the average pirate, and not able to react to things.
“Captain! Sensors picking up an EM pulse. Location just outside the minefield.”
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“Well, what is it, Mickey? Bring the ship on screen.” This wasn’t proper procedure for going to the Maddy, which made Lark all kinds of nervous. Fortunately, the pirate had made it a rule that his ships always came out of warp with the shields fully charged. Especially after those Black Star ships started showing up, being all sneaky like. Not much the shields would do against those things, but having them up might be the difference between instant death and being able to get away, or at least fight the bastards in a boarding action. Maybe even get a shot in return, if they were close enough.
“No ship on screen, Cap’n. Don’t know what it was. Doesn’t match a trace for comms that we’ve seen before.”
Lark’s eyes went wide, and he shouted, “SHIELDS TO CONFIGURATION TWO! EVASIVE MANEUVERS! ALL SHIPS TO BATTLE STATIONS!”
The crew reacted fast, as he’d beat into them. ‘Configuration Two’ was a secret he’d gotten from some Impies that they’d ‘acquired’ at the end of the civil war. The only way for a ship to not get wrecked by a Black Star ship was to be elsewhere. But the angled screens might help deflect the shot instead of letting it hit straight…
WHAM!!
The impact physically rocked the ship enough that the inertial dampeners couldn’t compensate, throwing crewmembers who weren’t securely fastened to their seats about the bridge. Even Lark just barely managed to stay in his chair. As the lights flickered and then went to the dull red of emergency power, the captain was once more glad that his crew weren’t Stepfords. They might actually have a chance in hell of getting out of this.
“Damage report!”
(CNS Luvon Gilrie, Madrigal System)
“Good hit on the Vile Lust, Captain! Shields are offline. Sensors indicate they are on emergency power. Reactor must have scrammed automatically in the impact. They’re dead in space, Ma’am.”
Captain Zylna nodded. “Status on the other two targets?”
“Shadowdancer and Simo Hayha have engaged the frigates, aiming to disable. Ghost Squadron is assisting with them and the freighters.”
“Very well. Target the cruiser. Ion cannons fire at will. Keep their systems down. Marines may launch when ready.”
“Marines away, Captain.”
“Give me regular reports on their status. Tell the Lieutenant that I want the Kythaela Daven out of enemy hands, but I’m not sacrificing his team to do it. If he feels taking the ship is impossible, then he is to retreat to the shuttle, and we will destroy the ship.”
“Aye, Captain.”
Zylna looked over to Lieutenant Leoven. The man was studying his console rather intently. Switching to a private comm line, she subvocalized, “Something the matter, XO?”
The Lieutenant glanced over her, and responded on the channel. “Not sure, Captain. Look at our sensor readings just before impact. Three seconds before our shots landed, the cruiser changed their shield configuration and began evasive maneuvers. Two seconds later, the frigates did the same.”
Looking at the data the XO sent her, Captain Zylna looked over to her console, she saw that he was right. “Something spooked the captain of the cruiser, and he reacted like he was expecting Black Star. That shield configuration is similar to the one the Navy techies were testing to use against Black Star weapons. They are able to ‘bounce’ the shots better than the standard configuration, but are worse against conventional weapons.”
Leoven nodded slightly. “Yes, but what alerted them? A ship that old won’t have the latest scanners, even if they’ve been updated somewhat. So what did they see?”
Zylna frowned at the readout. Something about the timing of the ship’s maneuvers… “Light speed! EM radiation goes at the same speed as light. The ‘light’ of our launch would have reached the target before our shot did. We launched at three light-seconds out, while at a relative closing velocity of twenty percent light speed from our combined velocities. The ‘light’ would have reached the ship in three seconds, but impact wasn’t for almost twelve seconds after that.”
The XO was nodding now. “Yes, that makes sense. They had a reaction time of six seconds between registering whatever EM we leaked from firing a rail gun directly at them. Seems slightly slow, but confirming the leak was not coming from a visible ship, and relaying information verbally on the bridge would account for that. Pirates aren’t likely to have expensive neural link technology.”
Captain Zylna nodded. “Write it up, XO, and attach it to our reports to Black Star and the Navy for this encounter. The fact that the ‘Vile Lust’ is only disabled instead of missing a significant part of her hull at the least is testament to that quick reaction when expecting Black Star ships in the area. We may be able to increase response time if we train crew members to respond to it like they do fighter pilots with missile launches.”
Her XO grinned. “Not much of an advantage, but ‘not dead yet’ does beat the alternative, I guess. It probably only helps if you’re directly on the line. Everything we’ve seen says that the leak of EM is very directional due to the construction of the ship and the nature of the weapon.”
“Sure, at the range we launched, it may be the difference between death and disabled, but we were practically in knife range already when we launched. You get an Assassin, or someone using the same railgun technology, since it isn’t that complicated, and shooting from far enough out that the attack takes MINUTES or even HOURS to reach the target? That’s one hell of a warning for static targets, like space stations.”
“Yeah, but what could a Station do to defend against that?”
“Put a ship in the path, XO. What do you think the Admiralty would rather lose, a frigate, or a fleet base with spacedocks? It is the same reason we have fighters that get swatted out of the sky by other fighters or point defense. They exist to take some of the burden off the bigger ships. Everything else they do is just a bonus.”
“Captain! The target managed to restore communications momentarily before they were disabled completely by our ion cannons. Detecting a comm relay satellite that hadn’t appeared on our scans before, probably due to being next to debris in the minefield.”
“Comms! Priority message to the Death’s Shadow, for retransmit to the Admiral! Let him know that he might be made!”
“Aye, Captain!”
(Main Control Room, Madrigal Base)
‘Captain Shaxidor’ looked at the message coming to him over his commlink. It had been a priority retransmit from the Death’s Shadow. Looking through the data, it was clear that the Luvon Gilrie had done well catching a big fish, but this fish had been expecting Black Star to come calling, and had been prepared. But then, rumors of our getting called in had spread, even before we got to Tietera. If Gilwarin had heard the rumors on Zanchul Station, then others may have heard it, too.
Oh well, this ruse was always going to break down quickly. It just happened a few hours earlier than he had hoped. Quickly, he got on the group comms.
M.Mollen: Raven, status on system intrusions?
Raven: 100% on station systems, including offensive drones and weapons. 70% on ships, but I can get to 100% in minutes if you don’t care about being quiet.
MajorTom: Something up, Boss?
M.Mollen: Word from the fleet. Changing to Status: Cassandra. Repeat, Trojan Horse is now Status: Cassandra. Weapons free.