The first rule of combat is perhaps the easiest to understand! And it is this: Wear your helmet! I cannot count the number of times some idiot has gotten themselves killed in a breach because they were not wearing their void damned helmets!
- Excerpt from Professor Nerissus’ class on Naval Protocols 87MR
Pirates, the bane of civilizations everywhere. They rob trading ships, pillage planets, kill innocents, and now they were here. Or several thousand kilometers away rather.
“Pirates? Where?” I asked immediately.
“Not sure yet, Zehr is in communication with the callers right now.”
He gestured to Emily, who was quietly speaking into a microphone and interacting with her holo-projector, adding details about the distressed vessel’s situation. I decided to leave her to it and spun around to Poct, who had an uncharacteristically serious expression.
“Set course as soon as we get the coords,” I snapped.
“Aye Cap’n.”
Poct nodded grimly and I jumped as a bang sounded from behind me. I turned back to see Emily had slammed a fist against her desk in frustration.
“Void take it! Lost contact, might be being jammed.”
“Did you get the coordinates?” Hoffman asked, the tightness in his expression betraying his calm tone.
“Yeah,” Emily said. “You get ‘em Poct?”
“Yup, already turning.” He replied. “Should I burn [Overdrive]?”
The question was directed to me, asking if he should use a Skill. [Overdrive] would accelerate the Icarus past its thruster’s standard operating capacity for the duration of its burn. But the Skill would enter cooldown the moment we slowed down or changed direction too sharply; meaning it would not be available in a fight if we need it.
I briefly weighed the options, [Overdrive] would be very useful in combat, allowing us to make a fast maneuver or pull out quickly if need be. But that would be a moot point if we were too slow to arrive.
I glanced over at my First Officer and raised a brow in silent question. After a second he came to the same conclusion and gave a shallow nod.
“Yeah, pop it,” I said and turned to Emily. “What’re the details?”
“Um— the Saltpike, was en route to Arepata Station from Postharu Station when its scanner pinged an unknown vessel well within scanner range. Promptly received demands for surrender and they tried to outrun ‘em, but says they’re within a couple hundred klicks already. That’s when they sent out the distress call.”
I nodded, it sounded like a standard pirate attack, they had Skills to lower their radar signatures and close the distance to their prey unnoticed. Then demand surrender and swipe as much as possible before anyone else showed up. In this case, the Saltpike had tried to run, so the pirates would probably fire on and disable the ship and then steal the cargo.
“What sort of ships are we dealing with?” I asked.
“The Saltpike is a Termiski LS-3000 and don’t have much of anything on our bogey. Said they had some sort of heavy laser.”
I grimaced, Termiski LS-3000 were small freighters, only armed with the tools to fight back smaller monsters. I don’t know what the captain of the Saltpike was thinking making a voyage without an escort.
It would have also been nice to have any information on the raiders’ vessel, there was not much planning I could do without knowing what we were up against. Luckily, Hoffman had a little more insight.
“Probably a mining ship of some sort. Lots of local raiders are ex-miners from the belt.”
“Okay,” I said, chewing my bottom lip in thought. “Means they have the mining laser and what?— three or four guns?”
This was not too bad, mining ships would not be equipped with anything beyond lower caliber civilian hardware, although the mining laser would be a danger; they were designed to cut into asteroids for hours at a time, and a ship was just a different target.
It would also be outfitted with several guns to fight off monsters and raiders, but they would be less powerful than the Icarus’ coilguns. They would have to be with the mining laser, there would not be enough power for the hungry electromagnetic weapons. Instead, the pirates would have standard ballistics firing fragmentation rounds. Less accurate and weaker armour penetration than our coilguns, but that’s what the laser is for.
“Probably. Zehr, contact the Avalanche and request backup.” Hoffman said, interrupting my planning. “We should avoid an engagement if possible.”
“What? Why, it’s one ship?” I asked, surprised.
As dangerous as pirates were, the Icarus was a navy ship, operated by professional soldiers with training and specialized classes. We were equipped with significantly more firepower between the coilguns, spell array and rockets.
Hoffman gave me a flat look and I was reminded of my conversation with Gill and Kari. I had swiped his promotion out from under him and he knew he was more qualified. In any other ship, our positions would be reversed.
“We’re undermanned and under-leveled. Their captain could very well be over level 50 if they have experience as miners. Besides, it is protocol.”
I paused, I had completely forgotten about the missing mage in our crew. Not having a mage was not the same as missing another crew member, we did not have a missile specialist either; the fact of the matter was, we could not operate the spell array. We were already down a weapon before the fight even started.
He had a point about the levels as well. I was confident in my abilities, but they would have Skills to buff their vessel in ways I could not yet. Even a [Mining Captain] would have some combat-capable Skills.
“Very well. Em, do it, also let the crew know what’s going on,” I said, unhappy about needing to ask for help. “But we should still go in, they might get spooked by us coming in.”
“Might not if they’re Scarrows,” Poct interjected.
At my confused look, Hoffman elaborated.
“Local group. They have been a growing problem in the last year.”
“Nasty buggers, they fight dirty,” Poct grumbled.
“Even so, we need to protect the Saltpike. We can re-evaluate when we get there.”
***
“Saltpike just pinged on the scanner,” Emily said, voice sounding too loud in the silent bridge.
“Acknowledged. Any sign of our friends?” I said.
“Yup. Looks like they’re hanging back about five hundred klicks. Holding steady too.”
I had spent the last seventy minutes reviewing the Skills of the crew and discussing plans of attack with Hoffman. But there was not much we could do, not without more information, so we gradually drifted into a tense silence.
Yet now the pirates were hanging way back. It was possible they might have pulled out the moment the Icarus appeared on their scanners, we would have appeared a while ago as we were coming in hot, making our signature larger from the emitted energy.
I didn’t buy it, Poct had recounted several stories on the Scarrows, and they did not sound like the sort to give up on a mark just because of an imperial patrol ship. There was also the fact the Saltpike had lost contact, which was worrying as they were now resting outside of any reasonable engagement range. So, they had been closer at some point and now backed off, but not left entirely.
I figured the pirates were waiting around to see if an opportunity appeared, they might have not realized we were navy and not local system forces, which were generally weaker and easier to drive off.
“How far away is backup?” Hoffman asked.
“Um— As of last communication the IMS Sidewinder is thirty-six minutes out.”
“Alright. Drop shift and bring us in close Poct, let’s see what shape they’re in. And query the Saltpike and the pirates now that we’re in close range.” I ordered.
“Aye Cap’n, matching speed and bringing us in.”
The Saltpike had dropped out of void shifting to make itself more visible to scanners, as various signatures were not as visible when in the void. The pirates had followed suit so they could attack their quarry, you couldn’t interact with something on a different plane easily.
A moment later Emily piped up.
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“Contact restored, seems they took some damage and lost long comms.”
“What about the pirates?”
“Uh— No reply, but apparently they pulled after taking some shots, maybe we spooked ‘em after all?”
“In my experience, that means they will still be in the area, waiting for an opportunity,” Hoffman interjected having come to the same conclusion as me.
“Agreed, can you keep an eye on them Hoffman?”
“I already am,” Hoffman replied. “Also helmets. Might have trouble soon.”
I nodded and grabbed my helmet from the hook it was hanging on. There was still a risk of an engagement and I had zero desire to be caught out with no helmet.
There was a hiss of air as it sealed around my neck and I reached down to grasp the nozzle hanging by my chair, connecting it to the slot in front of my mouth with a click. Now I was connected to a backup air canister beneath my seat in case of total atmosphere loss.
A look around the room showed everyone else doing the same, and all of a sudden everything felt real. Seeing everyone’s faces disappear beneath blank glass visors made them seem more like faceless soldiers than people. No personality, no emotion, just cold, ruthless efficiency. Just how the Empire liked it.
It had only just hit me, I was preparing for real combat for the first time. This was not a simulation or a drill, a mistake now could cost lives.
I had a sudden desperate need for a drink, but I did not want take my helmet off and show my nervousness. I could not afford to be seen as weak, not now.
In an attempt to distract myself and shake off the nerves I swapped to general comms to check in on the rest of the crew.
“Check in, how are we doing?”
Marcus was the first to respond.
“Legionnaires are ready to go.”
“Gun A-1 is green,” Mackenzie said, quickly followed by Gill.
“Gun A-2 is green.”
“Gun B-1 is green,” Kari said next.
“Gun B-2 is green,” Raul ended.
“Engineering is green,” a gruff voice spoke into the comms and I jumped in my seat, having completely forgotten about the engineer on the crew. I believe his name is Rhusk, the highest levelled person on our ship as a 46 [Starship Engineer].
“Good,” I said, glad to my voice sounded calmer than I felt. “We’re coming in up on the Saltpike, potential Hostile sitting out about five hundred klicks.”
A chorus of confirmations followed my words and having confirmed every station was ready to go I switched back to the bridge comms channel. As I did so, I noticed we were close enough to the Saltpike to observe it on the optical cameras if we zoomed in enough.
Someone had decided to paint the Saltpike a garish hot pink that stood out starkly in the blackness of the void, it was so bright it took a moment for my eyes to pick out any other details.
A Termiski LS-3000 was a small freighter, meaning it was still over ten times the Icarus’ size; small, but ideal for working in the dense asteroid clusters of the Dedian belt. They were outfitted with half-dozen rapid firing turrets, which fired explosive fragmentation rounds. Ideal for fighting off many the smaller monsters commonly found in the void of space, but lacking the penetrative power to threaten armoured targets without prolonged fire.
However, the Saltpike appeared to have had some modifications done. Two of the bow turrets had been replaced by a single higher caliber cannon, capable of firing larger munitions at higher velocities. It would not be tremendously accurate, but the cannon would have higher a higher firing rate and velocity for its munitions.
I raised a brow upon noticing it, the only reason something like that would be installed would be if the Saltpike regularly ran into trouble. I had heard Dedia had a high concentration of monster infestation and rifts, but did not realize it was bad enough to warrant the installation of an expensive piece of weaponry like this.
“Damn, these dudes are packing!” Poct exclaimed upon noticing the cannon.
“It does not look like it helped them much.” Hoffman said.
Indeed, the Saltpike had several large scorch marks burned into the hull. The damage looked to be mostly aesthetic, but it was difficult to make out detail and the beam responsible for the damage could very well have melted a breach in the rose coloured hull.
“How did they lose contact with that installed?” I remarked upon noticing the other modification to the vessel, a large satellite dish installed on the Saltpike’s underbelly.
“Could have hit internals, civilians ships do not have as many redundancies as military vessels.” Hoffman replied.
“Maybe, still see— ”
“Saltpike is reporting multiple casualties, requests immediate medical aid!” Emily interrupted.
I glanced at the scanner, the pirate ship was still maintaining its steady distance, if we docked with the Saltpike we would be sitting ducks for any attacks, unable to maneuver. But at the distance it was keeping, there should be enough time to quickly offload a couple legionnaires to render medical attention and pull back before the pirates could close the distance.
“Ok, Poct bring us in, lets make this qui— ”
This time it was Hoffman who interrupted, speaking loudly into the channel.
“No! Demand they power down their systems before we dock,” the First Officer snapped.
“What?” I asked, annoyed at being interrupted again. “Why? There’s pirates right there!”
“It’s protocol.”
I looked at the scarred freighter drifting a hundred meters to our starboard, and then over at my First Officer, aghast at his blunt words.
“We don’t have time for protocols! They don’t apply to every situation!” I argued.
His helmet tilted as he stared back, I imagined he was just as annoyed as I was judging from the tone of his voice.
“It is protocol Captain Fox. And protocols are made for a reason.”
“Uh— they’re refusing anyway,” Emily broke in and I looked over, a little betrayed she had simply followed Hoffman’s orders without my consent.
“Reiterate the order, we cannot render aid with their weapon systems active,” Hoffman ordered.
“Won’t matter anyway, bogeys are comin’ in hot!” Poct shouted.
My gaze shot over to the scanner, where I could see the red dot labeled Hostile 1 had begun accelerating towards us, rapidly closing the distance.
“We should pull back, they will not be able to board with us in the vicinity. Better to outmaneuver and hammer them from the sides in conjunction with the Saltpike.” Hoffman said, bringing up the plan we had hatched on the way over.
The idea was that by enlisting the Saltpike, the pirates would be unable to commit to a boarding action, where they would probably outnumber us, because they’d be a sitting duck. The plan was for the two ships to split apart and attack from different angles, forcing the pirates to expose their more vulnerable thrusters. A similar strategy to what Acaba had tried on my yesterday, but this would work as unlike a full battlegroup, the pirates did not have the armour or weaponry to combat multiples angles.
But I shook my head.
“No, that won’t work anymore. Saltpike’s already taken hull damage, any more and their at risk of multiple breaches,” I said analyzing the aforementioned ship’s scorched hull. “We need to get in front and shield it from more.”
“They have high intensity laser, we cannot take many hits of that either. And we are still outgunned.”
“We have rockets, and besides it’s a mining laser,” I said. “We pull hard evasives, get in close and we’ll tear ‘em to shreds.”
A mining laser might have similar power output to a laser cannon, but it was designed to drill through rock for hours at a time. It would not have the motors to rotate the tool turned weapon quickly, meaning if constantly varied our approach their gun would not be able to keep up. At long range this would only be minimally effective, but the results would improve the closer we got.
Hoffman thought over my plan for a moment and acquiesced.
“Very well, it seems sound. I will inform the crew.”
“Perfect! Em, tell the Saltpike to get out of here, the further they are, the less likely they are to be targeted or hit by stray rounds.”
“On it!”
I felt my pulse quicken as I watched the Icarus move into position between the Saltpike and the pirates. I was scared, this was real battle and the danger was all too real as well. But there was also excitement, this was my first real test as an [Imperial Captain], the first time I could show off my abilities and I have always reveled in demonstrating my prowess in tactics.
“Optics on Hostile,” Emily intoned as we reached three hundred kilometers.
I zoomed in on the incoming pirate ship and examined its features.
“Looks like a Materik,” I named one of the more common mining ships in the Empire. “Don’t see any mods, so we’re dealing with a mining laser and two 30mm guns on the front and one more on the upper rear.”
Then I noticed the Saltpike keeping pace with the Icarus, staying just behind by a few hundred meters. If they didn’t move, our evasive options would plummet as we would need to shield them for longer.
“Oi! What the hell! Tell the Saltpike to bugger off! They need to get out of here!”
Emily relayed my orders, probably in a more diplomatic manner and replied after a moment.
“Umm— they’re refusing to leave, they want to help.”
I scowled beneath my visor, their Captain’s decision was putting us at more risk. But they weren’t part of the imperial navy, and I could not force them to comply with my demands.
“Void take them!” I spat. “Guess we’re going back to plan A.”
Except now we were stuck together, as the moment the Saltpike split off the pirates would punch a hole right through their damaged hull.
“Prepare for incoming fire,” Hoffman said calmly as we closed to within a few kilometers. “Fasten restraints if you have not already.”
I nodded, then realized no one could see.
“Acknowledged. Poct start juking.”
“Aye Cap’n.”
I quickly fastened my restraints so I would not get thrown around during maneuvers.
There was not time to react to the first attack. One moment the outer hull cameras showed the blank void of space, the next a searing beam of light flashed across the Icarus’ hull. Their was flash of light as the beam punched through the weak ship wards, but there was no sound to accompany the laser. One of the cameras shut flicked off in flare of light. Then it was over as fast as it had appeared.
I flinched back in my seat, trying to blink the bright light away and then stared at the damage. There was a black scorch mark stretching across the top of the Icarus’ hull, it had been a glancing blow, so it was mostly cosmetic. The only real damage I could see was the camera that had shut off had been in the middle of the beams path and been destroyed.
But I was rattled, that had been right over top my head. If that beam had pierced the hull, I would have been cooked alive in seconds. As it was the armour plating would be permanently weakened, making I more susceptible to the smaller munitions fired from the enemy guns.
I switched to general comms.
“Return fire, three second burst, no Skills; I want a benchmark for their defenses.” I snapped, stress bleeding into my voice. “Rhusk can we get a damage analysis on that?”
“Aye Captain,” Gill replied and a faint whine started up as the coilguns began to fire.
A standard coilgun like the ones found on the Icarus could fire 50 six inch metal darts a second at over 1000m/s. Our three second volley launched four-hundred and fifty projectiles at the enemy. Maybe fifty of them connected.
The pirates vessel rose in altitude in reaction to our volley and combined with the innacuracy over range many projectiles missed. But those that connected exploded in flashes of light as their kinetic energy was transferred directly into the hull, leaving deep pock marks.
But no breaches, not even close.
I nodded to myself, it had been about as effective as I had thought it would be. Mining ships had extra armour on the front to protect them from flying debris as they mined asteroids; so the easiest way to breach their hull would be from the side.
The purpose of the volley had been to check if the enemy [Captain] had any defensive Skills reinforcing the hull. Luckily it did not seem to be the case. It would still be best to get around the side, but it was good to know I did not need to rely solely on my few rockets for breaching the hull.
Emily interrupted my thoughts.
“I’ve lost communication with the Fleet! Think we’re being jammed.”
I frowned, that was unexpected, we had thought the pirates had a jammer before when the Saltpike had lost contact, but later learned that was not the case. And I still did not see any sign of a jammer on the pirate ship.
A terrible thought struck me and my heart leapt into my throat. The Saltpike had a large signal dish installed. Which would usually be used for long range communications, but could double as a jamming device if one knew what they were doing.
With trepidation I looked over at the bright pink freighter on the cameras, soaring through space a few hundred meters off our stern.
Just in time to see the flashes of light as the large cannon on its bow fired.
Straight at the Icarus’ rear.