(Ceres Naval Shipyards, Asteroid Belt, Sol System)
Fire lit the endless dark near Ceres. Several ships had emerged from hyperspace almost on top of the base. Their names were Starlight Raven, Shadowdancer, and Wisteria. Striking together and with precision, using weapons that belied their size with their power, they quickly stripped the naval base of its exterior defenses. Well, not that there had been that many to begin with.
Ceres Base wasn’t home to top secret labs, or anything that would make it a target, usually. Instead, it was a logistics hub and home to one of the training areas used by Imperial Navy engineers. Its primary function was to house the workers who ran the Ceres Shipyards nearby. To say that it relied almost entirely on the massive Imperial Navy presence in the system as its main protection would not be out of line.
Unfortunately, that navy was either tied up in battles closer to Earth, or they were trapped out in the outer planets by the pre-set tarpit traps. And when the base tried to open the fighter bay doors to launch the single squadron of fighters they had, a series of torpedoes blasted the bay to slag, and the fighters with them.
With the base neutralized, but not destroyed, the three ships turned their attention to the shipyards. Shuttles launched from the ships, heading for the yards. Officers on Ceres Base barely had time to issue the perfunctory warning to the yards before fire consumed their transmitters, leaving them impotent even to tell others what they saw.
The ships of the Black Star Fleet were not there to destroy the base. Indeed, if they’d wanted to destroy Ceres Base, they could have done so easily with the corvettes’ main weapons. But the Empress wanted to capture as much of the infrastructure as she could, so that they wouldn’t have to rebuild as much when the war was over. They already had to rebuild much of the Empire’s shipping infrastructure and merchant fleets, thanks to a certain ‘ghost fleet’.
The shipyard itself did not have weapon emplacements (that would just paint a target on it), and while there were ships in the bays in various stages of construction, they were all on minimal power, if that, and none had their weapons armed yet. Most didn’t even have skeleton crews. So there was no one to prevent the three assault shuttles from docking at access points.
Security on the station was the responsibility of a hundred men and women, who mainly looked out for gambling rings, potential sabotage, and fights that needed breaking up, to keep the yards (and the 1500 ‘yardies’) moving. They had basic body armor and ‘security weapons’. In other words, stunners and cudgels. Great for breaking up a bar fight, lousy for taking on commandos in spec ops armor with automatic weapons. Even if the commandos were using stun rounds.
Stepping into the security office for the yards, the leader of the three teams who had invaded the shipyard said, “Lock down the yards. Sound decompression warnings, and seal all compartments on a security override. That should keep the natives from getting too restless, and prevent them from starting trouble.”
The AI known as Raven, in her drone body, looked identical to the rest of the group at the moment, since they were all wearing the same armor. None of them were stupid enough to take off their helmets in the middle of a mission, however, so the look on her face could only be guessed. “Right away, boss.”
“This is Valkyrie Lead. We’ve secured the administrative offices, and prevented purges of the databases. Downloading all records now.”
Mirikon smiled beneath his helmet. Like most of his purchases, Jackie had come a long way. The promise of interesting work and not being thrown to her death in the arena or used as a sex slave was as good a life as she could have known once she was enslaved, and she knew it. He knew he wasn’t exactly an angel for using slaves, but he did his best to make them feel like they were part of the team, not disposable items, and they responded beautifully. Especially the ones from Jagloth, who had resigned themselves to their fate when a whole world burned.
“This is Catspaw Lead. We’re taking heavy fire down at the docking bays! Two of the ships had skeleton crews aboard the yards, ready to take them out.” The sound of weapons fire came across the link, both the team’s, and the sound of blasters hitting bulkheads nearby. “Counting at least four cultists in the mix. Two blues, and two greens. Please advise.”
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“Find a defensible position and stand firm, Catspaw. Once lockdown is complete, Ravensclaw and Valkyrie will come assist.”
“Understood. We’ll hold the door, sir.”
“Good man.” I signed off and switched channels. “Shadowdancer, this is Ravensclaw Lead. We’ve got two possible ships that may be trying to make a break for it. Anyone tries powering up a ship without clearing it through me, I want you and Wisteria to turn it into debris. Understood?”
“Copy that, Ravensclaw Lead. Be advised, we have a heavy cruiser that just entered extreme sensor range. Crashed out of hyperspace, so they are probably trying to map the tarpits to find a way for the rest of the fleet to get to the inner planets.”
“Understood, Shadowdancer. What is their current course and speed?”
“Target just changed course, heading for Ceres Base. They must have gotten the partial distress signal.”
“Very well, Shadowdancer and Wisteria are to enter stealth and take out that cruiser. Starlight Raven will cover the docking bays. Send to the other ships, and then move out.”
“Understood.”
Raven spoke up. “Lockdown complete. All compartments sealed with both hull breach and riot suppression protocols active. I’ve passed digital keys to all raid members so they can bypass the lockdown.”
I nodded to her, and then opened up the comm line again. For a bit of theater, I opened up the station intercom as well. “This is Ravensclaw Lead to all units. Lockdown complete. Secure primary objectives and then rendezvous with Catspaw to take out cultist forces. Lethal force authorized. Be advised, all ships leaving the yards without Ravensclaw Lead’s permission will be destroyed by the Black Star Fleet. Station lockdown has been activated, so there is nowhere to run, and nowhere to hide. Surrender or die. Ravensclaw Lead, out.”
Cutting the line, I looked at the rest of my team. “Let’s get moving. We need to go rescue the boys and girls in Catspaw before they’re overrun.”
When he’d first ‘signed on’ to the Black Star Company (an event that was more like being drafted by the Planetary Militia than he cared to admit), Xexzir’s only thought was to get his wife and family off of Jagloth before the damn Legion Plague overran the entire planet. He’d never been especially wealthy, and with the fear in the air, getting an emergency passage off Jagloth to one of the stations, including the health screenings to make sure no infected people got on board, took up all their savings. Selling himself so that his family could leave the system was the only choice.
The Black Star Company reaped the profits of Jagloth’s disaster, of course. Well, from the company scuttlebutt, it wasn’t like the Master knew what was happening any earlier than the rest of the people. He was just in the right place at the right time to capitalize on it. Oh, and he won tons of money to work with thanks to the Arena. So lucky and skilled. That wasn’t a bad combination for a soldier to follow.
The fact that he got to see his wife regularly, and she even owned a bar and was doing well for herself, only added to his happiness. So he had a vested interest in making sure the Black Star Company thrived. His part in making it thrive was to go where the Master ordered and eliminate the opposition. Right now, he was on an Imperial Navy shipyard, holding a choke point between the limited crew quarters (really only designed for layovers since Ceres base was next door) and the yard bays, where two ships, the Thistle and the Mockingjay, were both completed, and had been slated to start trials later today. Their crews, led by the mad emperor’s cultists, were not keen on sitting out the battle for Sol system.
That was not going to happen, not while he and his team had anything to say about it. Catspaw Lead (the joke of calling a Felisan’s squad ‘Catspaw’ still made his tail twitch in amusement) looked at the rest of his team as they were hunkered down behind an opening where the blast doors had been jammed open by a lucky shot. Well, it could have been skill, but seeing as how they weren’t all dead or incapacitated, Xexzir was going with luck.
“This is Ravensclaw Lead to all units. Lockdown complete. Secure primary objectives and then rendezvous with Catspaw to take out cultist forces. Lethal force authorized. Be advised, all ships leaving the yards without Ravensclaw Lead’s permission will be destroyed by the Black Star Fleet. Station lockdown has been activated, so there is nowhere to run, and nowhere to hide. Surrender or die. Ravensclaw Lead, out.”
Xexzir stifled a laugh as he heard the announcement over both his suit comm, and from the external mic picking up the station’s PA system. His Master certainly had style, that was a fact. Letting the crews know they were cut off and that reinforcements were coming was going to make them make mistakes. Especially since he didn’t say how many ‘units’ were coming. If the two crews they were facing didn’t know that they were seventy men taking on fifteen, then they might get antsy.
“Catspaw Lead to all Catspaws. You heard the Master. They’ve locked down the other routes around, so we don’t have to worry about surprises from the rear now. Hunker down and hold this door. Conserve ammo, and let them sweat. We are going to trap them with Valkyrie and Ravensclaw when they get here.”
Catspaw Two, real name Ivar Norstoga, chuckled. “Well, Lead, I don’t see any reason why we need to leave quite so many enemies for the other teams to help out with. Wouldn’t want them to think we’ve been slacking, would we?”
Beneath his helmet, Xexzir’s face got a feral grin on it, which he transmitted to the rest of Catspaw. “Ooh, sounds like tall, blonde, and dangerous has a plan. Well, lay it on us, and if it is good enough, we might see about getting the Master to shell out for some rewards, like he’s doing for the Marines who found Project 11-03-1811.”
“Well, we happen to have a bunch of grenades, right? Haven’t used them until now because we didn’t want to go killing everyone in sight, and we kindof wanted a station to be here when we left. But that processing room is big and full of all kinds of cover against stun shots. Doubt it would be as fun to be in if we sent some party favors their way.”
The Catspaws laughed, and Xexzir nodded. “Well, Two, your plan is a solid 7 out of 10. Let’s see if we can’t raise it up a bit with some variety. We have frags, high explosives, incendiaries, and flash-bangs. Mix and match, and sow chaos in their ranks!”
He couldn’t see their faces, but he knew his team all had the same predatory looks as he did as they palmed their grenades. “On three. One. Two. THREE!”
It was always better to be the hunter than the prey.