Eirik was pacing on the bridge. Leaving the action to other people was not something he enjoyed, but he would have to learn to accept it. The first report had been pleasant reading material and all that was left now was waiting. The following days were spent in a state of limbo. too excited to sleep, too tired to stay awake. Eirik ended up having Knud give him sleep medication to keep up a proper sleep schedule, prompting David to take over as the go-to person for emergencies that never came.
They received daily updates as time passed and each report was nothing but good news. But Eirik was worried. When everything went well, men tended to get comfortable, and comfortable soldiers got careless and sloppy. So it was with grim satisfaction that he read through the latest report, sent on the morning of the day the Pirates are scheduled to pick up the tribute from the town. The colonists are eager to spill some pirate blood, but they have been told to let them come as close as possible, preferably let them gather up and complain about the tribute not being present.
Bjørn was surprisingly detailed in his reports, meticulously describing their readiness level and the plans they had made. Eirik had to tell him to only stick to information that could not be used against him in the future after that message. The news of the Ymsaar being present made Eirik put the ship on yellow alert. All crew had to be ready to assume fighting roles within moments. That meant sleeping with your sidearm and armor next to the bed, if not equipped.
______________________
The Pirates were in high spirits as they drove the old hover vehicles towards the colonists. Being on the tribute run meant that you could put a little of it aside for yourself, and everyone enjoyed having more stuff to trade in for booze and drugs. The Ymsaar in the backseat of the lead vehicle suddenly started twitching their antenna vigorously, a sign they were communicating with either their hivemind or were having a private conversation. In either case, the driver slowed the vehicle to a crawl, prompting the convoy of Pirates to do the same, and turned in his seat.
"What is it? New orders?" He asked the freakish-looking Ymsaar.
"No," One of them gurgled. Even with translators, their natural voices were so alien from the galactic norm that they still stood out in conversation. "Something is different. Changed."
"What do you see?!?" The driver asked frantically as he started scanning the horizon. Besides the town a few kilometers away, there was nothing in sight and nothing out of the ordinary.
"We see nothing" The other Ymsaar gurgled. "We sense it. Something is changed." it insisted.
"Save your gut feelings for actual trouble. It's the same colony we have robbed for the better part of a year." The driver grumbled as he got the convoy moving again.
______________________
The old mayor was standing in the middle of the square, the colonists forming a half-circle behind him when the Pirates rolled into the small town. They all left the hover vehicles, trusting in the routine of the shakedown to protect them.
A Plyxii stepped forward and shouted, "WHAT IS THIS, OLD MAN? WHERE IS THE TRIBUTE?!!?"
The old mayor replied with a firm voice, "We are done paying you! Turn around and leave!"
"AND WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO ABOUT IT, OLD MAN!!" The Plyxii roared and stepped towards the old man before he was slammed into the ground by 4 dozen guns turning the mighty warrior into a pulp.
The Pirates were in shock at what happened, but a few of them was experienced enough to distinguish rifle fire from high-powered sniper rifle fire and they all screamed "SNIPER!!!" as they dove into whatever perceived cover they could find. The Terrans amongst the Pirates looked towards the Ymsaar but only saw crushed chitin and lumps of innards laying around their corpses, and they started fumbling for their radios.
They never made it.
As the first shots rang out, the soldiers on the roofs and the squad leaders left their hiding places and opened fire as soon as they had a clear line of fire. Whatever cover the Pirates thought they had more or less disintegrated under the combined firepower of the 5 squad leaders, and the remaining 95 soldiers of the commando group were on overwatch for any attempts to escape the ambush. There were no attempts made.
Unauthorized usage: this tale is on Amazon without the author's consent. Report any sightings.
Between the literal wall of bullets that had passed through the killing ground and the exploding hover vehicles, the remains of the Pirates were mostly blood splatter on the ground and a random chunk of flesh dotted around the area. Even their weapons had been mangled beyond belief.
"Well, that was fairly easy," Bjørn said as the fire stopped and the smoke started clearing. " I give it 48 hours at most until reinforcements arrive. It might be a scout group, it might be the entirety of the Pirate force. Get to work on the trenches, and when they are done, create a second trench line 75 meters in front of the first one. Someone get the barbed wire unpacked and start setting it up as the trenches get done! Haul half of the heavy weapons over to their designated spots in the trenches, and get the rest set up on rooftops with a clear view of the direction the enemy came from!"
When everyone stood still, waiting for more orders, Bjørn thundered "ARE YOU WAITING FOR A WRITTEN INVITATION, YOU BRAINDEAD MORONS? GET A FUCKING MOVE ON BEFORE I KICK YOU TO WHEREVER YOU NEED TO GO!" The threat had the desired effect and his soldiers started running to their designated assignments.
The old mayor came over to Bjørn and started speaking, "Now I know what you answered me the way you did. Tell me, do you believe that you can defeat the pirates?"
Bjørn pondered this for a moment. "If the colonists help with the earthworks and trenches, we can be ready within 12 hours. And to answer your question. Yes, I do believe that. If we start getting in a tight spot, I can call on my boss for backup."
"I would like to meet him. He is doing us a great service by accepting this contract. I just hope his rates are fair." The old man continued.
"Rates?" Bjørn said, "You were a mercenary in your youth?"
"Indeed I was, youngster. A bloody good one too, I might add!" The old man chuckled
"I can imagine!" Bjørn said with respect, "Few mercs live to retire. And yes, his rates are more than fair."
"Oh really?" The old man said, squinting his eyes at Bjørn. "Pray tell, how much do you get to keep?"
"70%," Bjørn said nonchalantly. This floored the old mayor.
"In my days we only got 20-25%!! He is undercutting the market!" The old man barked.
"I would say he is not. I had to attend 6 months of harsh training just to be accepted into the mercenary group. The only reason we have such a high recruitment rate is on account of the pool of potential recruits coming from a smuggler station. Not the most civilized of places. So sentient beings are hardy, though the vast majority of recruits are Terrans."
"I see. Special training?" The old man asked with twinkling eyes.
"Not allowed to talk about it," Bjørn said with a smirk and patted the old man gently on the back. "I need to get to work. I can do the work of 3 of these lazy dogs I brought with me" The last part was said with enough volume for most of the surrounding soldiers to hear, prompting them to increase their efforts to get defensive works made.
__________________
Eirik read the after-action report on the first encounter with the pirates. It did not go exactly the way he wanted, but if he was right, the enemy would show up in force when they came next time. Ymsaar only needed a thought to connect to their hivemind and there had been several seconds' worth of time to do that before the snipers could take them out. Even if it was just a scout force, they would not know what to report back to gain a significant tactical advantage.
He made his wolf packs go on standby mode. They prepared the armory, laid everything out to minimize equipping time, and made sure to sleep in shifts so there was always a group of Eirik's men ready to drop down and assist the commando group. After that, there was only the waiting, the damnable waiting. Even Freja could not distract him from this kind of waiting.
____________________
The pirate leader was annoyed. The Ymsaar at his base had become agitated moments after the crew collecting tribute had arrived at the small colony. When he inquired about it, they claimed to have lost their 2 brethren on the tribute run. So, he had riled the troops, leaving a skeleton crew to defend the base. He regretted having to wipe out the colony, they had made living so easy until now. But an example had to be made and the video of his troops burning the colony to the ground and pissing on the ashes would be a great deterrent in the future.
While he only outnumbered the colonists ever so slightly, he had the advantage of experienced killers on his side. And he had Terran pirates as well! Uniting the different pirate groups had been a stroke of genius on his part. He played on the other pirate leaders' greed for wealth and power, enticing them with the promises of the plunder they could steal when they worked together.
And it had worked so well. Several colonies were paying tribute to them every week, allowing the pirates to live a life of debauchery and indulgence. But now they had to work a little to maintain the lifestyle and it made them angry. Angry men that had killed before were not something you wanted attention from, and the colony had just gained the full attention of all the pirates.
"This is going to be so easy it's almost insulting," He thought to himself as they neared the colony, almost 40 hours after the Ymsaar had claimed their brethren lost. And since the tribute crew had not returned, he had a sneaking suspicion they were right. "Bloody colonists. When were they going to learn?"
Everyone had a place in life and the colonists were very low on the list. It was a fact of life, and now he had to kill them before any of the other colonies got any bad ideas.
They were only a few hundred meters from the outskirts of the town when his driver called out. "Something is wrong up ahead! It looks like they tried building some kind of defenses!"
"Let's just finish this!" The leader said. "ATTACK!"