Vanguard Slowly pulled itself out of the mire of hyperspace once again. It and the rest of the fleet filing out into orbit of a small dwarf planet. Bringing with it the largest formation of ships that celestial body had probably ever seen.
On it was a small complex spindling out across a crater. A smaller crater next to that now home to a gaping pit mine that spewed dust outwards. Only a few little specs were littered outside of the main base, marking isolated prospecting sites. The main complex itself seemed a little ramshackle, even with only the small amount of detail that could be discerned from high orbit. Old, far out of date modules salvaged from other places and slapped with newer ones to make the mining base as cheap to build as possible. The same could also be said about the station orbiting the planetoid. The clear bulbous module and radiator array signature of a fission reactor onboard along with solar panels and the latest docking modules.
Elizabeth could tell it was enrapturing for her commander as he studied all of the images being captured by the ship’s sensor suite. She, however, was focusing on her work.
Edward’s plan was sound, if requiring a precise and efficient execution. Any other way and it would end with the pirate ship getting away. With any smart commander becoming far too skittish for it to work again, until they become desperate. Then they might have another shot… But that may be months.
So, it was her job to try and arrange the bait, and the admiral’s job to arrange the sting.
For that she’d need the perfect target. Something with all the supplies the pirates would need and enough valuables to make it worth the time. A convoy that one would expect to be under an armed escort.
First, she’d need a list.
She quickly glanced at her console, noting that coms had finally come online. So, it was time to make some calls. Possibly the most tiring thing in her job.
The line rang for a fair while until someone picked up on the other end.
“The is chief logistics clerk Hine Keretene, who is this?” A female voice asked from the other end of the line.
“This is Captain Elizabeth Jennings of the ICSF. I’m calling to request you to relinquish your documents pertaining to convoys arriving into the system for the next month. This is for the protection of them so please be thorough and quick.”
Silence.
The line crackled for a while, as Elizabeth started to drum her fingers on the console. The typical response… And up next is-
“I’m sorry Ma’am but that’s sensitive information! How can I confirm you are who you say you are? And don’t you need clearance?”
Yup.
“Clerk, we are on an encrypted government channel as you will easily be able to tell from whatever device you are receiving this call on. Secondly, I do have the clearance for this. You do not need the specific details; all you need to know is that I can ask for them. If this isn’t your department, you can just say that. Just do not delay if it is.”
Another crackling period of no response.
In her experience, this is always what happened when some paranoid bureaucrat or captain was confronted with any sort of request. A back and forth on if she was somehow trying to deceive them and was actually one of the enemy. In some ways it was justified. However, Elizabeth only had so much time in her life and had a job to do.
“Ma’am, this is highly sensitive-“
“I know, now do you see on your screen that this message is coming from a IFC warship?”
“Yes...?”
“And on the aforementioned secured channel?”
“Yes…”
“So, send over the timetables and documents. Either that or tell me who can.”
“I- I’ll send them over to you. Give me ten minutes.”
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There were three convoys in a week. One shipment for spare parts, new machinery, and habitat modules. One shipment for new workers, medical supplies, extra food, and mail. Then finally, a bulk food shipment along with any supplies specifically requested that week which did not fit into the other shipments.
So, there was a problem… If they had managed to figure out which convoy carried what, which one they’d hit would depend on what they would be most short of.
If they didn’t know however, picking one of them would be like rolling a dice. With only pure chance really effecting the outcome from her perspective.
A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.
Taking that, it would be best to take the approach of assuming they knew. From there it would be safe to assume it would most likely be the food shipment, unless the pirates had some sort of supply problem for medicine or industrial equipment. Though the equipment could fetch a good price. If they could sell it that is.
But either way the best bet would be running a frigate escort for a few weeks, and hoping the bait was taken. Though…
She leaned back in her seat, thinking a little.
They’d might expect for the higher value shipments to be guarded as well. It wouldn’t hurt to hedge their bets with a second guarded convoy as well. So, if she could persuade the admiral to give another frigate up to convoy escort rather than scouting, it would be good to put one on the personnel and medicine run. That way they’d look less suspicious, and the medicine run should be before the food run. So with that, they might have had their caution lowered just enough for them to try…
It would be worth it for sure. Though she couldn’t help but think that the admiral may not like the long wait time for this to work…
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Edward drummed his fingers against the command console.
He’d had nothing to look at all other than his mug of coffee and the sensor array data feed for the last few hours. The computers and officers slowly trawling through everything as they orbited the amber gas giant.
The planet was beautiful at least and had some interesting moons. But nothing much other than that had caught his attention. He’d seen nearly every planet in the solar system over the last week.
The only ray of hope was that they were also on call for to be ready to intercept any attack on the food convoy. Right now, according to Edward’s memory, it should be at the layover stop on its jump into the inner part of the solar system. Just sitting there like a twig bobbing along on the sea, waiting for someone to pick it up…
He turned his head back down to his screen on the console, casually flicking through the various pre-set displays he had created. Then he flicked through all of the reports, his eyes running over them to try and pick something worth reading. Alas there did not seem to be much there. Just little snippets of data that were barely readable in their current form.
A light.
The screen suddenly shifted; the communications screen preset quickly loading to display the message he had been waiting for flashing out of hyperspace.
“Sir! We’ve got the signal from Cuirassier! She’s detected another ship incoming to its location!” Alex called out, bolting to attention at her console.
A small smile crept across his face, “Newman! Get us and the fleet to jump to our pre calculated coordinates! Alex, tell the fleet we’re going into battle!”
Like clockwork, once again the alarms bared throughout the ship, the anticipated action finally coming. He’d have to give Elizabeth a commendation for this, especially if his half of the plan worked like hers had.
He’d ran through all the options he had. Everything from the near suicidal for the boarding team, to the plans that were so safe they could fail with the slightest mistake. Soon he’d be finding out if he had made the right call.
He heard the calls for the hyperspace jump just as David rushed into the room, quickly taking his position as he tried to mask his panting.
“Ran?”
“Of course.”
“Well, I’d advise you to sit down now.”
David grunted, slumping into his chair as Vanguard slipped into hyperspace. The familiar gut churning and mind fraying feelings entering into his body soon after as his hands clenched against the console.
All until a few seconds later when it all subsided.
His mind quickly cleared. His acclimation to the sensation over the last few months of using the drive allowing him to quickly refocus his eyes on the RADAR screen.
Sure enough, there were two ships with beacons that marked the stolen vessels. They’d probably turned them on in the hope that the convoy hadn’t gotten the up to date lists, allowing them to slip into the formation. However, the second expeditionary fleet did have those updated lists.
On each side of the enemy formation was one half of his own fleet, leaving them with only three paths to go. Up, down, or away from the convoy. However it would be hard to escape via any of those paths given the fleets arcs of fire.
A simple trap. One that you could not escape without a charged hyperdrive with a jump coordinated in, or an extraordinarily high-risk tolerance.
Now which one are you? An idiot who’d risk the life of their crew? A confident sod who thinks they can delay for half an hour? Or an intelligent fellow who can realise they are screwed…
For a moment nothing happened, the two formations standing off against each other a hundred and fifty kilometres away from a civilian fleet.
One of the ships seemed to be some sort of civilian tender or small salvage vessel. Something that wouldn’t pose a threat. But the other one…
It seemed to be some sort of Chinese Cruiser… Not a large one, but something that would fit the displacement for a 2.5 gen one. Again, not much of a threat unless…
A sudden flash on the thermals lit it up as the ship made a snap turn, pushing it’s nose up a little before igniting its main engine. The vessel pushing itself to its limits as it went at full burn.
An Idiot then.
“Alex! Send the message to the Sheffield to give chase! Tell it to try and disable it’s engines!”
“Got it”
To the side of Vanguard Edward’s old flagship made its own turn before igniting its main engine.
The much newer cruiser began to start catching up to the other vessel despite the head start. The situation made worse for the Chinese vessel by the frigate escorting the convoy making it’s own manoeuvres to intercept the ship.
It was clear to everyone that it was going nowhere. Even the other pirate vessel gave the message of surrender as the chase continued.
Once the two cruisers had closed within 100 kilometres, the Sheffield fired. It’s secondary railgun firing one shot like it had against the cargo vessel months before.
It was a bad angle. A really bad angle.
The shot did land, hitting square into the engine cluster, as it then penetrated right through the rest of the vessel. The 15-centimetre tungsten rod cleaving straight through the ship’s spine.
The ship was already gone, but another complication entered.
The fuel tanks had clearly been split open by that impact. He could tell by the explosion that ripped whatever was left of the aft and mid of the ship into ashes. A presumable consequence of the fuel mixing with the oxygen in the ship’s air supply system.
Leaving almost all of the vessel in a completely unrecoverable state, with most of the crew presumably dead or dying. Any hope of recovering or interrogating any of the officers or prying through the data drives gone in a few seconds. All from one overly effective railgun round.
“Alex! David! Get the Valkyries and shuttles to try and recover vessels now!”
Fuck…