The first real test for the Vangaurd was ever looming. On the command console was a rough map of the area surrounding the pirate’s sol base with updates sluggishly coming in. Recon probes collecting images and radio signals from seconds in the past before giving LASER signals over to Vanguard for her systems to finally parse and display.
The contacts were hazy and concrete identifications of ship classes were difficult, but it gave a good picture of the are around the place, and where it was.
And was still everything Edward, Eli Webb and Elizabeth needed to make their plans.
“Currently, we have so far tracked two missing freighters that could match these displacements and ship structure, though it’s a little harder to identify the destroyer. But this,” Eli tapped the desk, pointing out one, very large vessel next to the space station, “is a stolen hyperspace ferry.”
Edward’s eyes narrowed, staring at picture attached to the contact marker. The massive, spindly craft was floating next to slowly rotating space station, completely dwarfing it in size. The little craft that were docked to it looking completely out of proportion to the ferry. A ship built to carry things much larger than those little tugs through the aether.
“Now Webb, I mean no disrespect to command and the rest of our branch, but how did we manage to lose two ships of this size? As I do recall hearing on the news that two of these ships have been stolen.”
He coughed, “We rather quickly rushed the Chinese and Russian shipyards and docks into use after the war and to do so we kept a lot of the old staff. It turned out that the quick screening that we then did wasn’t enough, and we had a handful of security breaches… Though, no warships have been lost or stolen. We’ve only had a few freighters, two colony ships, a factory ship and these two ferries taken before we managed to fix security at those stations and dockyards. Though command isn’t too concerned about getting back the freighters, the ferries are on the capture list.”
“Right. Though do we know if it was just these pirates stealing these vessels? Or if anyone else might be involved here?”
Webb shook his head, “Not yet sir, the investigations are still underway, and I don’t have access to all the information on that.”
Edward took a long breath, frowning a little. Right. So, even more things might be happening behind the scenes. What a wonderful thought…
Elizabeth leaned back slightly, her brows now taking their turn to furrow “Commander Webb, do we have any plans on hand for the interior of these ferries? We need to ensure a quick capture of them if we need to board them, or else I’d assume the captain of it would take their chances with an emergency hyperspace jump to who knows where, rather than let us dump even more marines onto their vessel.”
“Already got them loaded up Ma’am for them to look at. There should be a good entry point within fifty meters of their bridge if they’re willing to do some cutting.”
“And I don’t think the Valkyrie we have can get a proper lock onto the side of a ship, like we’d need to be able to cut onto it while it’s moving…” Edward muttered.
“Their sleds are magnetic, so they could latch onto the side of it, with the marine’s suits also having some magnetic locks on their boots. It’s certainly possible for them to attach to the side of it and to start carefully cutting out in the open.” Webb responded curtly.
“And those locks do have limits, and if the vessel accelerates hard… Commander, do you have any specs on how fast these ships can accelerate?”
“It’s half a G sir.”
“Right… I think their locks might be enough… Though that ferry. Correct me if I’m wrong but it looks like they might be loading that thing up for a jump.”
Everyone around the table leaned a little closer, with even Webb breaking his firm posture that he had kept throughout the entirety of the meeting.
In the little pop out telescope feed, cargo containers could been seen being loaded up onto the aft set of cargo locks on the ferry, with the tugs carrying the containers, then moving to dock with the ship once they had placed their cargo.
“Are you suggesting I might need to get a plan up for jumping the fleet into action then sir?” said Elizabeth
He shook his head, “With only one obsolete Russian destroyer and some armed freighters, I doubt they could put up much of a fight. Even if that little hijacked research station had some weapons on it as well, we still far outmatch them in firepower and armour. I think we could just calculate a jump now and go in with just Vanguard. We have the marines for taking back the ship, even if we may be a little limited in transport options.”
Elizabeth slowly nodded, “You’re thinking we could get close enough to hit them with our railguns before they can fire their missiles? It’s a good option given our stealth capabilities. Though I’d suggest keeping the rest of the fleet on standby in case they have something in their back pocket. Those long-ranged destroyers could carry nuclear capable missiles if I remember right.”
“Agreed. Webb, do you have any information on what happened to the Chinese and Russian nuclear arsenal after the war, as it pertains to space based systems?”
Elizabeth and Edward set their gazes on the intelligence officer who straightened their posture, “That still remains a little uncertain, but we have so far collected the majority of them, though we haven’t gotten through all of their stockpiles yet. If you could even call them stockpiles…”
“Noted. Well then, Newman, get calculating a jump to the point, make sure our exit will be on target, if its off by too much we’ll get detected far too early. Got it?”
“Got it sir!” They called back, “Given the distance of a couple of light seconds I can get a precise jump ready in half an hour, sir.”
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Edward’s clap resonated around the bridge, “Right then, let’s get the crew out of their bunks, we’re going into action. Let’s see how stealthy we actually are!”
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Edward felt his churning gut and itching bloody finally start to settle as they exited out of hyperspace, bang on their estimated exit point. The ship’s alarms were blaring as the final call to actions stations were made, though everyone in the flag bridge were already in their positions.
The RADAR screens suspended above the command console only showed passive RADAR contacts, with the Vanguard’s RADAR turned off to stay as silent as possible. Though there was one step further they could go.
“David, send the message to make a short burn towards the station, then send the order to move into ultra-quiet.”
David’s signature smirk spread across his face as he picked up his phone, “Aye sir! Captain, make a burn for x 0-9-5, y 0-9-0, one G, five seconds, then move to ultra-quiet.”
The ship jolted, the familiar feelings of a ship turning and then burning rocking his body and creaking across the frame of the Vanguard; Before it all finally stopped.
Not much happened for a moment, before a new alarm echoed through the vessel. The shrill recording of a boson’s whistle making Edward cringe, before being replaced by a voice with a thick American accent calling through the intercom, “All crewmembers, rig ship for ultra-quiet, turn off all non-essential electrical systems. All crewmembers, rig ship for ultra-quiet.”
Then there was nothing, the only noticeable change being an indicator on the main screens, and all the screens and monitors in the bridge dimming. Presumably to consume less power, and henceforth, create less waste heat and to allow for the reactor to be turned down.
“Newman, our ETA?”
“We have half an hour before we’re within two hundred kilometres of the targets sir.”
“Half a bloody hour…” David mumbled.
“It’s how long it takes to get there, we’re covering one hundred kilometres at the speed of a prop plane. Though, if they have any sort of decent thermal imaging system that was pointed towards us at during our burn, we might have blown our cover already…”
“Ah, don’t worry about it sir! Your 2IC is here to fetch a cup of tea for you if you need it.”
Edward simply brought up his flask onto the desk, “Already covered. I don’t need you running off when we could get smacked in the face with a missile at any moment.”
“I take it that you then want us all to stay here then sir?” He asked.
“Correct.”
“Well then, let’s wait and I’ll just take that flask for the moment then.”
Edward couldn’t think of anything more to say, his mind preoccupied with the distance slowly counting down, and the thermal readings from the fleet in front of him. Time slowing while still trickling away like a stream at the same time. It was a strange feeling, but one that was familiar to him whenever he felt stress start to creep in and his attention narrow.
He didn’t really respond when the tea flask was given back to him, with his mind not interfering with his arms as they poured himself a cup.
Minutes passed and still no reaction came from the pirate fleet, with nothing coming from them to signal them making any sort of response. No counterattack, no evacuation. Nothing. They were blissfully unaware of the hulking battlecruiser drawing closer and closer to them.
Surely, they could tell we’re blocking the light from the stars behind us? Any paranoid sensors operator looking at the sky around us would be able to notice a black block moving closer and closer to them.
But still, the ETA lowered and lowered, getting closer and closer to zero. And yet there was still nothing. But. Ah buggery.
“Sir!” Called Alex, “The hyperspace ferry is igniting its engines and starting to make moves away from the station, it looks like it may be heading for a jump!”
David’s eyes flashed to the screens and then back to him, “Orders Edward?”
“Maintain the present course… We can let it go.”
“Sir!?”
“Webb, is it right that they only have one other hyperspace capable ship other than this ferry? Since we captured their other one?”
“Yes, sir.”
“So henceforth, any further attacks will probably make use of that ferry, and we can track their movements via it.”
“And that may lead us towards where their other base may be?” Asked David.
“It’s certainly a possibility. So this won’t be a waste and we can continue onwards with our current attack plan. Hopefully we’ll even find their route on their station.”
“If they don’t delete it, that is…”
Edward tried to ignore that possibility, simply watching the ETA go under ten minutes and the estimated position of the ferry start to accelerate away from the station. Slowly hobbling away from their grasp.
And sure enough, a minute away from them closing into medium range, it vanished. One of their objectives escaping to the other realm.
He sighed, giving himself a moment of regret, before straightening himself. “Andrews, give the order to get firing solutions for railgun turrets on the destroyer and missile locks for the two freighters. Also tell them to use the two tube launched missiles for this, one for each of them.”
“Aye, aye!”
“Prepare to go out of ultra-quiet on my mark and make ready to deploy the railguns and fire the weapons.”
“Ready!”
“Mark!”
“Release ultra-quiet and fire!”
The RADAR screens flickered as the sets were finally turned on, all the screening brightening as well with messages flashing on the main screen, indicating the railguns sliding out of their protective hatches in the turret and charging.
Nobody really needed to notify him of the sudden high intensity RADAR bursts that soon followed from the enemy, their sensor officers trying to get a proper lock onto the contact that turned from that of a insignificant meteorite, to that of a warship.
“Firing!”
The contacts of railgun rounds punctuated the void, the blips reaching their intended target in seconds, with two of them hitting their mark. Shattering the small, last generation destroyer into debris. What overkill.
The missiles however were taking far longer to reach their targets. Their captains finally woke from their stupor seemingly and commanded their vessels to pull off the hardest evasive manoeuvres they could. Being freighters that had missile pods and coil guns strapped onto them, it wasn’t much.
The lumbering hulks were dashed to pieces like the destroyer before them, too preoccupied with avoiding their doom to fire back. Leaving their space station completely undefended.
“Sir, we’re being hailed by the space station!” Alex called, “Want me to put it through to you?”
“Of course.” He chuckled, a smile spreading across his face as his body relaxed, bringing the phone to his ear.
A haggard woman’s voice crackled through, laced with a thick Chinese accent with it’s owner’s stress clear through it, “Cease fire! We surrender! Don’t fire!”
“Your surrender is accepted, turn off all of your RADAR and any potential weapons systems and prepare to be boarded. Do not resist or else this will be considered a violation of the terms of surrender, and we will respond. You are all now under arrest by the IFC Space Fleet.”
“Y-Yes…” she murmured, the line falling silent.
“Alonzo, call in the rest of the fleet and Andrews, tell the lieutenant to prepare himself and the marines for another boarding action.”