The *Void Wolf* dropped out of FTL outside of their target system. They would have to approach without FTL if they were to have a chance at stealth, and they desperately needed the edge that stealth would grant them. If they were discovered their only option would be to run. As good as they were, 6 against 1 when it came to void battle was suicidal odds at best. They needed to get boots on the ground and secure a ground base they could retreat to.
Bjørn had been a wreck during the approach, as he thought he would have to take full control of the ship, but Eirik told him to stand back and observe. Learn as much as possible. Using the plan Bjørn group had come up with, they approached the target planet from the nightside while mapping a route to the nearby asteroid cluster and logging it in the autopilot's data storage.
The 6 pirate ships were hanging in a cluster over the far side of the planet. While it was a defensively sound strategy, it was also an increase in response time, should they be discovered before the planned ambush.
As Eirik gave the order to swoop into the planetary atmosphere and set a course for 200 meters above ground, Bjørn looked at him with wide eyes.
"We want as great a chance of not being discovered as possible. The lower we go, the lower the chance." Eirik explained without taking his eyes off of the screens in front of him. "Get to the hangar bay, Bjørn. ETA 3 minutes."
Bjørn hurried out of the bridge and Eirik used the intercom to summon Trasti and Las'Tai. They arrived in a few moments and Eirik quickly got them up to speed.
"What I need from you," He said, "Is that you, Las'Tai keep an eye on the mission progress when I am asleep. If the situation changes, you send someone to wake me up at once. and you, Trasti, will find someone to coordinate the communications room with so it is covered every single moment of the mission. This is a defining moment, my friends. THE defining moment in my plans for the future. and I am happy I get to share it with you."
"What plans, Captain?" Las'Tai asked.
"To find out, you will have to keep hanging around," Eirik said and winked at her.
"What will we report on from the comm room, Captain?" Trasti asked.
"Any updates are to be brought to me immediately. If I am asleep, only combat engagements or threats of the same magnitude should be reported immediately. The rest should simply be logged for when I return to the bridge." Eirik answered in a chipper tone before he headed out of the bridge to oversee the disembarking and give last-minute orders.
They touched down soon after, David had taken the ship down a short way outside of the colony and the 100 men and women of the *Night Stalkers* Commando group began hauling weapons and supplies, already packed and stored near the exit, with a frightening speed. Eirik noticed that the 5 squad leaders had divided the responsibility of logistics. Bjørn's squad was in charge of weapons and munitions and the other 4 had food and water, medical supplies, siege equipment, and miscellaneous gear, respectively.
"Good," Eirik thought to himself, "That will make logistics easier to document and control. I should implement that as standard procedure."
nearly an hour later all the designated supplies had been moved out of the ship and the commando group had gathered in a defensive formation around the pile. Eirik called the squad leaders to him for final orders.
"Bjørn will have overall command of this assignment, though I strongly urge him to include the rest of you and use your skills and experience in the areas where he, himself, is lacking. When you leave, initiate contact with the colonists. I suggest approaching unarmed. Use the 4 days you have to get ready. Dig in, optimize firing arcs, create kill zones with more than 3 good lines of fire on the targets, and make good use of your sharpshooters.
If you can take out the leaders when they attack, there is a chance they might surrender on the spot, in a lack of established leadership. Make me proud men. Earn your pay. When you are done down here, call us and you can get to work on the bonus."
"What bonus?" the other 4 squad leaders said simultaneously. and Bjørn explained quickly. Before they could get excited, Eirik interrupted. "I suggest you wait with your excitement until after you have taken the ground base. It's just what the men might need afterward to regain fighting spirit for the ship assaults."
Bjørn and the 4 squad leaders looked at each other and nodded. It was a good idea. Let the men complete the objective on the ground and then entice them with increased pay for increased work. Sure, 5% didn't sound like much, but when you could do it 6 times for a total of 30% extra pay, then it suddenly became A LOT of credits.
The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
"And under no circumstance do I want any, and I do mean ANY, trouble with the locals!" With that, Eirik shook the hands of the 5 men and they left the ship as the last thing out. The hangar bay closed and the ship took off shortly after, the autopilot guiding them quickly and safely to the edge of the asteroid belt where David took manual control of the ship and slowly guided them to an asteroid large enough for them to land on, and they settled down for a long wait.
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The initial contact went as fine as you can expect when you wake people up in the middle of the night and have a small, black-clad army behind you. After the initial shock and fear had worn off and the colonists they had awoken understood what was going on, the eagerness with which they started waking up their neighbors and spreading the word despite it being the middle of the night, spoke volumes about the terror those pirates must have had them living under.
As the last of the colonists gathered in the small square in the middle of the small town, an old man emerged from the crowd and presented himself as the unofficial mayor of the little town before he asked if they could do anything to help.
Not wanting to waste the opportunity, Bjørn lead them out to the crates with supplies and asked if they would help haul them over to the town and store it somewhere so they could get some sleep before the work began the next day.
The colonists were more than eager and in only a single trip everything was moved to the town warehouse. The building should have been brimming with food and trade goods, judging from the blooming fields and richly decorated workshops around them. But it barely had enough food for the village to last a month.
After moving the supplies to the warehouse, the colonists were ushered back to their homes and the commando group went to sleep inside the warehouse, leaving a minimal guard.
The following day was spent mapping the village, sending out scout drones to try and locate the base the pirates were sure to have nearby. Sending ships from the other side of the planet would be expensive in terms of fuel and would negate the incentive for the racket to begin with.
The colonists were eager to help and were overly excited to hear that a revolt by them was a part of the plan. But beyond that, they were to do nothing other than what they would normally do. Meanwhile, the soldiers got to work, finding areas around the town where they could hide soldiers for a multi-pronged ambush on the pirates, they prepared siege-grade collapsable cover in key locations and on rooftops where they wanted their heavy weapons deployed.
Once they finished these preparations, they drilled their deployment time, over and over again until they could do it effectively while being half asleep. with 3 seconds of deployment time on riflemen, 5 on explosives, and 8 on heavy weapons, Bjørn was finally satisfied with their performance and allowed them to start relaxing a little, but he demanded they stay in the warehouse when not performing a task.
This caused quite a bit of grumbling, but no one was going to argue with their squad leaders. They controlled the men with a short leash and severe punishment and it had worked. This was just nerves on account of the waiting. In the period of waiting, Bjørn and the squad leaders sat down with the villagers and tried to get a handle on the pirates.
They were a mix of Terrans, Plyxii, a few Kloxna, and surprisingly, a couple of Ymsaar, a rather reclusive race that rarely left their colonized planets and preferred their own company. They were not outright xenophobic, but they were pretty close. Their evolution had taken them down a path that made them look like an unholy amalgamation of a King-Emperor Scorpion and Black Crazy ants Being a race with a semi-hivemind that they could connect and disconnect with at will, they lived in what other races would describe as a utopian society with no crimes and no corruption
It came at a heavy price, as they lived under a totalitarian dictatorship with a king and queen on top, the king dealing with military and foreign matters, and the queen dealing with domestic issues and national affairs.
Seeing members of this race as pirates was ALWAYS either bad or REALLY bad. There were never just a few of them. It would admittedly explain the number of ships under the pirates' control. But it would also make battle so much more difficult. Orders were passed out that when the fighting began, the Ymsaar had priority. If they managed to send out a warning to their kin, they would be in for one rough fight.
Immediately, new plans were drawn up, detailing earthworks and trenches, fields of barbed wire, and mines to deny the enemy access and funnel them into the line of fire of their heavy weapons.
On the 4th day, the soldiers got into position. 4 of the squads took cover in several of the building in the town, including the roofs of the tallest of the buildings. The last squad split into 2 groups and moved into position to perform a pincer attack on the pirate delegation that would show up later in the day.
The colonists had their own weapons, mostly hunting rifles and shotguns, but with over 200 of them, it was a frightening amount of firepower nonetheless. Bjørn had instructed the colonists on the importance of taking down the Ymsaar as the first victims and he hoped that enough of them remembered it. Just to be sure, he had his snipers ready to take the shots needed when the fighting started.
A sudden cry from the lookout the town always had on watch alerted them of the pirates' arrival and Bjørn hurried into the nearby building and grabbed his weapon from the crate that had been opened less than an hour ago. As he smiled to himself he could not help but chuckle soundlessly at the memory of the town mayor anxiously asking if they were sure they had enough firepower to see off the pirates for good. He had just told him not to worry.
He hoped he was the first of the squad leaders that the old man saw armed.