The pirates drove towards the small town at high speed. They planned to ram through whatever pitiful defenses the colonists had constructed, and they expected an easy victory. So when they came within 50 metes and could recognize the barbed wire for what it was and saw the deep, manned trenches in front of them, everything turned to chaos.
The pirates in front tried to turn away and get to safety, resulting in them hitting other hover vehicles, causing a domino effect. Within 15 seconds more than half the vehicles were effectively out of the coming fight despite the pirates inside only suffering minor bruising and still being in fighting condition. As the dust settled, the soldiers of the *Night Stalkers* opened fire. Rifles and machineguns roared their promise of death and the pirates jumped into cover behind the fallen cars while those that were still operational managed to turn around and drive to safety before the pirates returned to the fight on foot.
The commando group lacked the heavy firepower of the squad leaders, 4 of them standing ready at the second trench line to provide cover fire in case of a retreat from the first line, and Bjørn was situated on top of the largest building in town with a pair of binoculars and a radio. He was directing his forces as a battlefield commander, his minigun laying on the ground beside him.
The pirates were a stark contrast to the commando group, with no cohesive battle plan or any real leadership. They were used to rolling up on unsuspecting victims and brute-forcing their way to victory. Here, against a well-trained and well-coordinated enemy in an entrenched position, this thuggish mindset put them at a great disadvantage. But what they lacked in training and leadership they made up for in determination and volume of fire.
Wild and inaccurate as it was, enemy fire was still enemy fire, and the pirates were using their energy weapons to the fullest extent of their capabilities. The commando group was relying more on accurate burst fire, working in tandem so someone was always firing while others were reloading.
Suddenly the radio's flared to life and Bjørn warned them of enemies trying to flank them. In the confusion of the firefight, some of the pirates had slipped away and were trying to cut around the village to hit the defenders from the back. Thinking quick, Bjørn directed a squad to block them off and lead them towards him. He was eager to get his share of the killing done, even if he knew he should be a commander before being a soldier.
He saw the first pirate turn the corner with his back to Bjørn, firing desperately at the squad that was steadily forcing the flanking pirates down the streets of the town. Bjørn hoisted the minigun and with the press of a button, the barrels started spinning. As the first of the redirected squad turned the corner and saw him, the soldier jumped back into cover and Bjørn pressed the trigger, laughing uproariously as he did so.
At the trenches, the missing squad could be felt as the pirates intensified their efforts to get some breathing room to reorganize. Only the foresight of the defenders had saved the situation as the pirates that attempted to storm the trenches and disrupt the firing lines met a swift end as multiple shotgun-equipped soldiers, held in reserve for this purpose, opened fire from multiple angles.
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When the pirates realized that the flanking maneuver had failed, they started withdrawing, leaving scores of their dead on the battlefield. The defenders were in much better condition but still had 8 dead and a few dozen wounded. When Bjørn noticed the enemy withdrawing, he called out over the radio to let the soldiers know so they could call down medical support from Eirik.
The colonists started cheering and celebrating but they were quickly stopped by the squad leaders. This was far from over.
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Eirik watched the fight unfold on the screen in front of him. The mandatory deployment of scout drones during any operation since his duel with Tai'Tanu was proving useful. He would have done things differently, but Bjørn's tactics were sound if a bit simplistic. But the command of a battlefield was a learned skill. No one was born with that knowledge.
Shortly after the pirates withdrew, he got the call he had expected. Despite the commando squad failing in locating the pirate base, he had taken the liberty of finding it and taking it out of the equation. So when he got the call requesting medical assistance, he was more than happy to send down a shuttle with people to help out and load the dead into the shuttles so they could be stored in the morgue until they returned to the smuggler station and their last wills could be read.
He decided to treat the wounded on board the ship on account of the risk of the pirates returning while he had non-combatants on the ground. While he and his soldiers were more than happy to walk into the hellfire of battle, he did not want nor would he allow his non-combat crew to be exposed to the horrors of war if he had anything to say about it.
Since the battle had been under surveillance, they were ready to treat the different injuries before the soldiers made it on board and they worked quickly once they had them in sickbay. They all wanted to return to the planet below, but only 5 of them were cleared to do so by Knud. The rest were confined to several days of bed rest, and since they did not have the power Eirik did, they could not overrule anything Knud said.
A few hours later the after-action report came from Bjørn, detailing what Eirik had pretty much seen, but getting to know the thoughts of the commander on the ground could more often than not prove invaluable in devising new tactics and strategies. It also gave the commander a moment to look inwards, to use introspect to critique their own performance.
An addendum in the report mentioned Bjørn's intent to dig in deeper, confirming Eirik's suspicions about the man. "He may not be the smartest man in the world, but put him in a location and tell him to hold it, he was going to do everything in his power to hold it, no matter the cost. Now let's see if he can evolve as a commander" Eirik thought to himself as he filed the report. He sent a message back to be wary of further casualties as he still had ships to capture once they had successfully defended the town.
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Trasti was chatting with Las'Tai in the comm room when a message ticked into the system. It was marked as a high-priority message, designated for Eirik's eyes only. This was the first time such a message had come since Trasti started working on the ship, but Eirik had instructed him to simply message him and leave it be. He would along as soon as possible to deal with it. So, he sent the message to the Captain and leaned back to wait. Las'Tai asked if they should open it, but he just pointed to the *Captain's eyes only* mark next to the message. A minute later they heard Eirik's boots in the corridor outside the coom room and he entered at a quick pace.