Dalle was content as the fleet approached the space station at a slow and steady pace. Unbothered by the defenders and without anyone to challenge their stride into Eirik's territory. This was what power felt like. Intoxicating. Addicting. This was a feeling he could well get used to.

"I suppose it would do best to show myself as a generous and overbearing new emperor," He thought to himself as he watched the station approach on the viewing screens. It had been a difficult task, keeping the pirate captains focused on the prize, their lust for simple credits almost driving them to throw their bulk at one of the planets in the hope of acquiring some easy pickings. "Mindless idiots. There are much grander things at stake here, but you would never understand!" An angry thought flashed through his mind. He was already tired of the constant arguing about the same idiotic things over and over.

Looking at the station, he weighed his options carefully. He knew from Jimmie, before he went silent that the station had seen rather significant expansion, and therefore also offensive and defensive capabilities. He still felt confident they could take the station with little trouble if it came to a fight, as long as they could deal with the ships protecting it, first. These were Eirik's ships, and that idiot always went overboard with weapons. "Accuracy through volume," was his mantra in an open fight.

While it did certainly work, in a crude and primitive way, Dalle preferred to think of an attack in a fight, as a surgical strike. A single attack that would leave the enemy dying before they knew they were in trouble. Hopefully, Eirik had left someone in charge that would present such an opportunity for him, though it did not look that way. The defensive ring around the station was locked down tighter than a ticks ass, and contrary to what he would have expected, the heavy hitter was placed in the back of the formation, with the heavier shielded ships up front to absorb the damage.

This was not good. It would allow the station to utilize the full extent of its firepower for the longest amount of time. It seemed he would have to extend the olive branch. "Connect a call to the station and deliver them the standard terms of surrender! Keep up the approach." Dalle ordered the man sitting in front of the communications console. He quickly got to work and started the conversation, only to suddenly jump out of the chair as an eruption of cursing flooded the speaker in the console.

"YOU INSIGNIFICANT WORM, YOU WILL GET ME WHATEVER EXCUSE YOU HAVE FOR A LEADER AND PRESENT HIM TO ME THIS INSTANT! I WILL NOT PARLEY WITH THE MERE LACKEY TO A LEADER OF RABBLE! YOU GET ME THAT SPINELESS, PSORIASIS-INFECTED, NECROPHILIAC, COCKROACH FUCKER YOU CALL A CAPTAIN BEFORE I COME OVER THERE TO PERSONALLY RIP YOUR SPINE OUT OF YOUR ASSHOLE AND BEAT YOUR FAMILY TO DEATH WITH IT! "

Dalle could not help but be impressed at the creative language as he walked over to the console. He could feel memories stirring as he listened to the tirade spilling out from the speaker. Whoever he had expected to see on the screen, was not the man he was greeted with.

__________________________

Lasse had been growing angrier as the pirate fleet had first gathered up and then started moving. Everything he had tried had failed, thankfully without loss of life or materiel. But he would show them eventually. They didn't know who they were messing with!:

So, he was more than a little surprised when a call came through and some random pirate started listing off terms of surrender with a voice filled with avarice. So it was only natural he took out a bit of his anger on the idiot. After his first tirade, as he took in a deep breath to continue, a face came into view. A familiar face from long ago. It looked older, as would be expected. but also more worn and ravaged. The skin had an unhealthy hue to it, his eyes were sunken into his face and the worry wrinkles were etched into his face.

Dalle. For a moment, Lasse lost the ability to think as memories flashed through his mind. the biggest loss he had ever felt, followed by 10 years of hollow existence. His face turned ashen-grey and for just a moment, the guards in the office thought he would pass out, but just as suddenly as it had left his face, the color returned, and a vein started pulsing on his forehead as his facial expression twisted into a mask of rage.

Lasse, as the eldest of the brothers, had always been the most level-headed of the 6. Always the voice of reason and calm control, even when everyone else was panicking. It took almost godly effort to push this man to his limit, but one look at the man that had betrayed them so long ago was enough to put pressure on the wall he had built around his emotions.

"The betrayer! you have got some nerve, emerging in this manner after spending 10 years running with your tail between your legs, just like the cur you are!" Lasse spat as he focused on Dalle. "Is this supposed to be a joke?? Do you honestly think that you would just be handed the fruits of our hard labor?? You are even dumber than I remembered. Did old age start messing with your head?"

Dalle felt a pang of anger at the mention of his age. He did not need that reminder, but he swallowed his pride as he responded, " The oldest of the brothers, the head on the snake, trying to instigate. I never thought I would live to see the day."

"Do you have a dog on board that just farted or did you speak? I can't tell the difference!" Lasse quickly retorted.

"I did not come to inform you about your many shortcomings, Lasse. Surrender or face obliteration! I hold all the aces, I have all the advantages."

"Bring me my armor and weapons!" Lasse ordered one of his guards, the man all but diving out of the room. They had seen Lasse annoyed before, but never angry like this. His very presence was weighing down on them like a physical burden, and he was all too happy to escape that oppressive aura. "Unfortunately for you, Dalle, There is 1 thing you don't know, and 1 thing you didn't expect! " Lasse said with the smuggest of smiles.

"And what would that be? You got a new axe and you found out you were adopted?" Dalle snorted.

"The thing you don't know is that Eirik is on his way back as we speak, so unless you can work fast, you will be face to face with him. Are you prepared for that?" Dalle felt a bead of cold sweat run down his forehead as a shiver ran up his spine when he heard the words.

"And the thing I didn't expect?" He managed to croak out.

"This," Lasse said as he slammed down the button on the intercom system next to him. "FIRE!!"

The continuous approach of the pirate fleet had brought it within the extreme range of the railguns on the ships and the station. Concealed weapons platform was revealed as the ships in the defensive ring opened fire mere moments before the station fired off its countless weapons array.

Dalle uttered a small "What..." as the sensor on his ship started beeping. Looking over at the screen, a wall of death, in the form of tungsten rounds fired at 1% the speed of light, was approaching his formation, fast!

"EVADE, EVADE!" Dalle screamed as he switched the signal to the private channel all the pirates were using. The shots might be 45 seconds out, but movement in space takes time and precision. Unfortunately, discipline is not a thing pirates are well known for. The chaos that ensued as everyone scrambled to save themselves was glorious. 6 ships were taken out of the fight by crashing or ramming each other. Countless more suffered minor damage.

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Then the first salvo hit the pirate fleet, adding to the destruction another 15 ships were taken out of the fight, with several more receiving decent damage, but still leaving them somewhat combat effective. This still left just under 100 ships to deal with, and a 2nd salvo had been fired 10 seconds after the first one. The shots were more spread out, attempting to account for the evasive action taken by the pirates. While most of the 2nd salvo missed, another 3 pirate ships were taken out of the battle before it had even begun.

At this point, the pirates had managed to get far enough away that the railguns would no longer be a viable method of attack. The travel distance to the target was too great and would allow the ships more than enough time to get out of the way at their own leisurely pace. Dalle started regrouping his formation, sending out ships to gather as many of the incapacitated ships as possible. Unfortunately, Lasse had the same idea and his ships had the advantage of the protection of the station.

With a simple act of extreme aggression, in a situation where you would expect them to dig in and prepare for the worst, the defenders had robbed the pirates of 21 fighting ships and over 1/10th of their effective fighting force. But it had also made the rest of the pirates extremely wary in their following approach. overlapping shields, enough room to get out of the way of incoming fire, approaching from the least defended side of the station, they took every precaution they could think of.

Lasse saw no problem with this. Using defensive tactics when you were on the offensive meant giving up the momentum. And the momentum was crucial if you wanted to take a heavily fortified position if you did not have the luxury of bombing it into oblivion from afar. You needed to hit the enemy so hard and so fast that even their bunkers and heavy weapons appear useless at the moment of the attack, forcing them to abandon any hope of holding the position and either surrender or flee. With him taking the initiative, he had taken that advantage away from Dalle.

It would buy them some time, but if it would be enough, he had no idea. He just knew, that when Eirik showed up, Dalle would either have to stop the attack and turn his attention to Eirik, leaving him open for an attack from the defensive fleet, or flee the battle outright. Eirik may only have 4 ships with him, including his own, but Lasse knew his little brother well enough to understand that he would gladly fly straight into the swarm of pirate ships, guns blazing, just for the chance of taking Dalle out with him. Dalle also knew this, and he did not like the idea of Eirik being this close. If the man even caught a glimpse of him, shaking him off again would be all but impossible.

Out of the 21 ships that were left drifting aimlessly in the void, 18 of them were taken by the defenders, the pirates that had survived surrendering immediately in exchange for their lives. Once the floating ships had been recovered and the pirates had room to move freely in their approach, they started forming the hammer to strike the anvil that was the space station. The largest and most heavily armed ships moved to the front with the more shielded ships protecting the flanks. Standard void tactic when it came to attacking stationary targets. But this anvil had protection. The defensive fleet was the balancing factor in all of this. Had it only been 10-20 ships, they could have overwhelmed them with sheer numbers. But with more than 50 ships defending the station, they could only gang up on them 2 to 1, with this advantage being useless as long as the station weapons were online.

So Dalle's plan had become the solution. Strike hard, secure a beachhead on the station and start landing troops. Once they secured the area, they could cut power to the station weapons protecting the area they invaded and have a stable staging point for the ground invasion of the station.

Lasse knew he could not stop them if they were fully determined and sent out orders that no one was to throw their lives away if it could be avoided. When things got hot, they were to flee to a pre-determined location one system over and start guerilla warfare on the pirate ships while the battle raged on the station.

When the strike came, it came as expected. Hard and fast. The pirates didn't bother engaging the defending ships, instead focusing all their attention on taking out defenses near some of the less defended dock areas, Just as soon as the point defense systems started firing, they were pulverized under vast amounts of firepower, much more than was needed to silence the firing systems. The defenders did good work though. Ship after ship fell to the station and defending ships in their mad rush to land troops, but they were too many and too focused on their task to stop. The weapon emplacements were blown away under a withering hail of fire that punched through the station shields within the first 13 seconds. 9 seconds later, almost all the station weapons were gone, and just under a minute later, the first ship had to engage its emergency breaks to stop in time before ramming the station.

At this point, the defending ships turned into a fighting retreat, making their way out of the system under the cover of the station defenses that were still in operation. They lost 2 ships that were not fast enough in their evasive maneuvers as the pirates opened fire with all their ships, now that the immediate objective had been accomplished.

When the pirates charged off their ships, they expected heavy resistance and came out firing in all directions, only to be met by empty docks with no barricades, no soldiers, not even furniture. The docking area could be seen in all of its enormously empty glory. Confused, but very happy with the situation, the pirates began unloading their supplies from the ships, setting up a temporary base, and taking their sweet time preparing for the next offensive. None of them spared a thought as to why the defenders had let them enter so freely.

_____________________

Lasse was not happy, but things could be worse. The pirates had taken the bait. He would let them set up their little base, and lull themselves into a false sense of security and superiority in the numbers they would land. Even with the ones they took out, they still faced a force over twice as large as themselves, and only half of his troops were fully trained. Those 4000 soldiers represented the bulk of the active defense, key locations that needed to be held at all cost, and areas that required denial, not because of the tactical advantage to the defenders, but for the attackers. The 4000 troops undergoing training had completed the physical tests and basic firearm handling, but not much beyond that.

Lasse had relegated them to manning heavy weapons in fortified locations, acting as reserve reinforcements that rushed to whatever area that came under attack, the moment they came under attack. Sending the reinforcements before they were needed might seem like a bad idea, but with 4 main areas to defend, the armory, supply storage, powerplant, and hospital, he had divided them into 4 groups with each their area. If judged to be needed by the experienced troops he had at his disposal, an additional group could be dispatched upon request.

Heavy barricades had been erected at these locations, part poured concrete and part sandbags. Small fallback positions with their own small stores of ammunition and medical supplies. Sharpshooter positions were placed far behind and above the defensive line to point out targets of interest and pick off the frontline leaders. Any civilians had been herded into the bunkers that functioned as a last fallback position. If needed, they could close the bunker doors from inside and live for almost 3 months before the supplies ran out. It would seem Eirik's insistence on stockpiling absurd amounts of supplies had not been a bad idea. If the treasury guardians had their way, there would barely have been food and water for 2 weeks.

And then, of course, there were the PESSA suits troopers. He had 50 suits in the storage on the station, old siege armors that had been bought up cheap and, using Signe's designs, refitted and upgraded to meet the new specifications. and put in storage for when they were needed. In time, they would start selling the suits, under legal agreements that any form of a copy of the design or purpose of the suits would be met with insane legal fees. Eirik had secured total copyright protection on the new suit designs and no new forms of the same suit could be developed by anyone other than his empire.

They were one of the aces he had up his sleeves and he had released 10 suits to each area that needed defending. Hopefully, the level of destruction they were capable of would diminish enemy numbers during the first attack. The last 10 suits had been split into 2 groups and attached to 2 of the reserve groups each. When they reached the fighting, they would hit as hard as the pirates had hit the docks and most likely rout the attacks. They just had to hold out until Eirik got there. Being flanked, even if just by 50 men, meant dividing your force's attention, and that created opportunities for him.