When they emerged in their target system, all hell broke loose. The Pirates had left a minefield in place. Luckily, Colin entered the Jump at one percent over the maximum published speed allowable for making a Jump, so he was past most of the mines before he emerged. As the ship emerged from the Jump-Point event horizon, the Shields progressively powered up and the Point-Defense came on-line to begin destroying the mines around them. The ship operated flawlessly throughout. Carl had been a little reticent at first to enter Jump carrying the excess velocity, but eventually, he agreed after Colin showed him the results of several scientific tests. FNS Theseus continued moving forward in her exit lane, destroying mines as she went till about ten minutes later, Thor emerged. She too had Point-Defense firing almost as soon as the weapons cleared the event horizon. Apparently, some additional mines had either drifted or been pushed to replace at least some of the mines destroyed by the Theseus Point-Defense. About this time, FNS Theseus exited the minefield and began to put together a comprehensive picture of its extent. It was evident, the Pirates had been very busy indeed. In the distance, they picked up a large Freighter, fleeing the scene. She didn’t seem to be broadcasting a regular Federation IFF, so, as soon as Thor extracted herself from the minefield, the two ships set off in pursuit. When they’d closed the gap sufficiently to allow real-time communications, Colin had Sam hail the Freighter, telling them to heave to and prepare to be boarded.
This ship didn’t appear to have very much in the way of weaponry, and Colin thought the Freighter he’d helped had turned up and caught them in the act of laying the mines so they’d simply tried to blow it out of space using the limited weaponry they carried. Of course, the Pirate refused to surrender or to even acknowledge them so Theseus and Thor began to methodically burn the weapons emplacements they or their Sensors could see, off the hull. Clearly, he was a legitimate target, but after they’d been working at pulling his teeth for a while, he finally condescended to hail them. He accused them of unprovoked aggression, of Piracy and a few other things. Sam began to question whether they should continue their current course of action but Colin stood firm, telling him the other ship could’ve answered when hailed but chose not to, it could’ve been broadcasting a legitimate IFF but wasn’t and why was it running from the scene of the minefield anyway. Sam subsided, but Colin saw he would need to put a lot of work into this young Officer before he could take a ship of his own.
Both the Cobras were going to send their Trooper contingents over to board the Freighter, but Thor’s Trooper commander was to have overall command because he was more senior. Both Assault Boats launched at the same time. Sensors indicated life signs for around forty personnel on the Freighter, which seemed a little high for such a ship, typically, modern Freighters only carried between ten and fifteen crew. The crew on this ship was stupid enough to try keeping the Troopers from boarding by disabling the airlocks. The Troopers simply forced them. Then somebody tried locking every door they came across. The Troopers stunned everyone they met, placed them in restraints then put them into a secure location till they could sort out who was responsible for what. When the Troopers boarded the Freighter, one of the first things they did, was to hack into the ship's core using some specialized equipment they had. This injected a worm into the Computer-Core which effectively gave the Federation Troopers control of the ship.
Several hours later, the Federation Troopers had complete control of the ship, with all the people on board in custody. A quick look at the data in the computers showed the Freighter was indeed there to lay a minefield, in fact, two minefields, one at each Jump-Point in this system. When they checked the cargo inventory, they found the ship still had nearly a thousand mines available to lay the next minefield. As soon as the ship was secure, Colin sent Sam over to take command of her. Between Theseus, and Thor, a prize crew was put together, then they turned all three ships around and began the trek back to the Jump-Point to Cambridge. As they approached it, the two Cobras, raced ahead and began mine clearance operations. The mine clearance took another two days, but eventually, they’d destroyed all the mines. Along the way, they found the wreckage of two ships, neither of which had any live crew on board. Both wrecks were boarded, and the boarding parties managed to extract the computer cores for later forensic analysis. When the Jump-Lane was clear again, Thor Jumped out first so she could tell the picket ships on the other side not to shoot at the Freighter. Ten minutes later, the Freighter departed the system, bound for Cambridge then finally, ten minutes after that, Theseus followed.
Colin considered the mission a success but worried this effort to mine the Jump-Points may be a prelude to something else. As soon as he arrived back in the Cambridge System, he contacted Commodore Nicholson with the news about capturing the Freighter and finding the two wrecks. He recommended that Theseus and Thor depart as soon as possible on patrol, with the intention of ranging as far afield as possible within the two months available to them and for as long as they held adequate stores. The mission would be to interdict any Pirate activity in the Sector. She didn’t give him permission to do this in her reply, just told Colin and Carl to report to her at Headquarters as soon as possible after they docked.
When they arrived at Headquarters, they were immediately taken to the map room. This is a place, similar to the navigation compartments in ships, where 3D maps of any known region of space could be projected. When they arrived, Sonya was already there, looking at a map of the sector and a little beyond, walking around, looking from all different directions.
She looked up as they entered the room, saying, “Good work gentlemen. I’ve skimmed through your reports, and you did exactly the right thing. This is something a lot bigger than just an attempt to block a Jump-Point into Cambridge. It’s a prelude to something, I just don’t know what, not yet. Colin, I agree with your basic assessment, we need to get out as far as we can and look carefully at what is happening in the sector. Honestly, I’d send one of the bigger ships simply because they have longer legs than your Cobras, but what they don’t have is the sheer density of Point-Defense you have. If one of our Cruisers Jumped into that minefield the way you did, it would have been severely damaged at best. I see you’ve cleared it, that’s good, it was a hazard to navigation there. Now let’s see where you two are going next.”
They stood looking at the map for a few minutes, Colin allowing himself to be immersed, taking in the patterns of the stars and the Jump Corridors. Slowly, he began to see how it all fit together, and he could see where they should be heading. As Colin looked at the map, a suitable route became evident. The course would allow him one place, a planet called Lahoshar, where he could stop for food resupply, and that would allow him plenty of opportunities to interdict Pirate activity in the area. He pointed his proposed route out to Sonya who considered it for a moment before suggesting a slight variation that meant they wouldn’t be stretching their resources quite so thinly. They discussed it for a few minutes before agreeing Sonya’s route was the best one to follow but decided they’d stuff the two Cobras to the gunwales with supplies to give themselves a little more leeway in case they were held up somewhere along the way.
Once the decision was made, Sonya gave Carl a considering look before asking, “Carl, I know you haven’t complained about it yet, but do you have any kind of problem with me giving tactical control to Colin?”
Carl glanced in Sonya’s direction then replied, “Sonya, I promise, there are no problems in my quarter. Colin asks my advice and takes it when there’s time, and his tactical decision making has been some of the most original, and useful, I’ve ever seen. It really isn’t a problem ma’am.”
She watched him as he spoke, then said, “Good, I’m pleased to hear it. Colin, could you give us a minute please.”
Colin nodded then left the room to wait outside. He didn’t need to wait long, only a few moments before Carl and Sonya came out smiling. He idly wondered what it was about for a second or two before concluding it was none of his busi
ness if he needed to know, one of them would tell him. When the two of them came out, Colin and Carl headed straight to the Shuttle Station where a Shuttle was ready, waiting to take them to the Orbital and their ships. As soon as they boarded, they began the arrangements for departure. This required a little cajoling with supply to make them release the additional supplies. They even managed to find room to store an extra flight of ten missiles on each of the ships. When they were fully loaded, they had enough food and spares on board for a ten-week cruise. The additional stores meant things were a little cramped in a few places, but this would resolve itself relatively quickly.
By the time they were loaded, they’d also taken on a prize crew for the Freighter that was still only half way back. They were to leave the prize crew and take their own people back on board for the voyage. Colin insisted on this because he felt a need to demonstrate loyalty to the people he’d left on the Freighter. They managed to rendezvous with the ship and carry out the personnel swap before once again Micro-Jumping out to an area near the Jump-Point. They recharged the Jump-Drives, then entered Jump, bound for the next system. Once Theseus was in the Jump, Colin called Sam to his office to talk to him. When Sam arrived, Colin took him over to the comfortable chairs and asked him to sit.
As soon as they were both comfortable, he said, “Sam, what happened when we were chasing the Freighter? Why did you start questioning what we were doing?”
Sam looked a little embarrassed as he replied, “I’m sorry Sir, I lost my nerve, I started worrying that the Freighter was legitimate, that we’d end up being accused of Piracy. I’m sorry Sir.”
Colin regarded him for a long moment before quietly replying, “You know, Sam, being on trial for Piracy is not as bad as it seems, remember, I’ve been through all that. Look, we, are in a profession where we must take risks sometimes. Sometimes we should put ourselves between innocent civilians and bad people who want to kill them, hurt them or take their property. In this case, the Freighter was guilty, he laid the minefield we Jumped into, then he ran and wouldn’t stop, or even reply to our hails, yet you were still questioning our actions. Worse, you questioned what we were doing when we were in the middle of an action. You never question what we are doing at a time like that, never. You look at a situation, then decide and carry it through to the end. The only time you change what you are doing is when there is hard evidence telling you the information you based your original decision on was wrong. Is that clear.”
Sam looked very uncomfortable as he replied, “Yes Sir, clear Sir.”
Colin regarded him for a few more minutes, then growled, “Now get out of here and do better.”
Sam Jumped up and left. Once he’d left, Colin paged Anne to his office. When she arrived, a questioning look on her face, he waved her to a chair.
She sat, still looking at Colin, questioning what he wanted when he said, “Anne, this discussion is to remain strictly between you, and me.”
She nodded, so he continued, “Keep an eye on Sam, please, help him if you can. He has the potential to be a first-class Officer, but he lacks the self-confidence he needs. It's going to need both of us to knock the problems out of him, but I don’t want to be too hard on him either. Okay?”
She replied, “I’ll see what I can do Sir.”
After Anne had left, Colin lay back and closed his eyes, to rest them. He woke some six hours later with a light blanket draped over him. Colin felt a little embarrassed that sleep overtook him so completely. He hadn’t even woken even when someone came in and put the blanket on him. Colin made his way to his quarters, showered, changed, and then went to the CCC an hour before the Down-Jump. When they dropped into real space again, there were no mines, no enemy ships, and their defensive systems didn’t activate. When Thor came through, both ships prepared to Micro-Jump over to near the next Jump-Point, while they waited at either Jump-Point they carried out Scans of the system. This pattern continued one System after the next. The days passed, till they reached the six-week mark without encountering any issues, or even any ships at all. While the Cobras were in each System, they took the time to run a Scan. Finally, six weeks into the cruise, they dropped into the Lahoshar System, where they planned to resupply their food stores. As usual, they began their System Scans, looking for any anomalies. They were soon joined by Thor and started dropping in towards the planet, Scanning all the way.
They’d only been in the system for about thirty minutes when the Sensors picked up four ships ahead of them. None of the four ships had valid IFF’s. Colin ordered Theseus and Thor to go dark, and then they ramped up their acceleration to catch the four before they could reach the planet. When they went dark, the Shields had to be stepped down significantly so they could only hope the other ships didn’t know they were here and didn’t drop a stealthed mine. Once again, Colin had two spreads of missiles from each ship, reprogrammed for remote activation and with a wild weasel mode. They loaded the first flight into the tubes, preparing to fire them as soon as the range had closed sufficiently. He intended to let them drift ahead of the ship a little before activating their propulsion. Carl on Thor did the same, so when they finally fired the missiles, there would be forty missiles heading for the Pirate ships at a very short range, giving them only a small amount of time to react. By the time they could respond, both Theseus and Thor would’ve changed course drastically and be attacking them from either flank. The time came for Theseus and Thor to launch the first spread of missiles. As soon as those missiles were away, the two ships began moving apart. Ten minutes later Colin dropped a relay buoy. When it was time to contact the ships ahead, he’d do it via Laser-Comms to the buoy which would retransmit on RF. If the suspicious ships turned out to be hostile and started shooting, they would effectively be shooting at nothing. After another ten minutes, Theseus and Thor changed course slightly and launched a second spread of twenty missiles in total. They turned again and raced to place themselves a little closer, and above the plane, their targets were traveling on. Once in position, Colin set up the Comms and transmitted a demand for identification, being very careful to identify himself as Federation Navy when he did so. The four ships all fired missiles in the direction of the buoy soon after they received his message.
As soon as the Buoy was destroyed, both Theseus and Thor activated the weapons they had running unpowered and then fired a third spread towards the four Pirates. The Pirates now had a total of sixty missiles heading in their direction, forty of them following random patterns. The two Federation Warships quickly changed position yet again and fired another spread of weapons before they pulled back a little to begin firing Rail-Gun rounds at the enemy ships. The Pirates finally managed to identify a location in space reasonably close to the actual positions of Theseus and Thor and fired about fifty missiles towards them. As soon as the Pirate’s missiles started heading towards them, both Theseus’ and Thor’s Shields were ramped up to maximum, finally making them visible to their quarry. The Pirate's fire control was reasonably disciplined, but the Patrol Boat Point-Defense quickly dealt with most of the incoming weapons, some others missed altogether after never managing a lock on the target and the remainder impacted the Shields. About the same time, weapons began hitting the Pirate's Shields, each impact draining more power from them. It didn’t take long, these ships had woeful Point-Defense, so only fifteen of the eighty missiles Theseus and Thor fired at the four ships were stopped, all the rest impacted the Shields or in the case of the last five, the ships themselves, causing extensive damage. One of the Pirate ships just exploded, causing further damage to the others close by. Then the Rail-Gun rounds began arriving, tearing through the hulls, causing, even more, damage. Soon after the first grouping of Rail-Gun rounds began tearing their way through the remaining three ships, they started ejecting escape pods. When he saw the pods on his Sensors, Colin called a cease fire, these ships wouldn’t be doing any damage now. He took in the situation, knowing he would have no option but to either make multiple, Shuttle runs to Lah
oshar or request help from there. He opened a channel to Lahoshar Orbital Control, identifying them as FNS Theseus and FNS Thor, on patrol out of Cambridge.
When Lahoshar replied, it was with a question, “Are you really Federation Navy? We don’t recognize the ships types or the names.”
Colin explained they were a new class of ship and this was only the second time they’d been outside Cambridge System. He then asked if they had anything that could help transport prisoners to Lahoshar, explaining how they had a lot of pods needing recovery. While Colin waited for a reply, he started reviewing the records to see if they even had the ability to keep these prisoners incarcerated till the Federation could send a ship to pick them up. Colin realized there were a little over two hundred Troopers stationed here, so security shouldn’t be too much of a problem if they could get all the prisoners there. Finally, Orbital Control told Colin they had an ore hauler on the way and a small ship carrying a contingent of Troopers for security. The Lahoshans asked Colin if he had Shuttles he could use to help pick up the pods and move them to the ore hold on the ship they were sending. They felt, reasonably enough, that by leaving the ore hold in a vacuum, security would be a lot better, then they could open the pods when they were somewhere a little more secure.
The rescue operation proceeded quickly, and afterward, the flotilla made its slow way to Lahoshar. When they arrived, Colin finally identified himself to the authorities. When they found out who he was, it caused quite a stir, he was so well known throughout the Federation, but especially on the Tangesha worlds, and his legend had grown with the telling. Everyone in the Federation had heard about FNS Destiny, and about Colin’s part in that voyage. Now he’d arrived and rescued Lahoshar from a Pirate attack. Colin was invited to a state function which he very politely declined, explaining he had to remain with his ship, in case more Pirates arrived. As an alternative, he invited the appropriate government members to join him on FNS Theseus for a meal. They readily accepted and asked if their local Navy commander could come along as well. She was mostly only there to be a point of contact and for recruitment purposes but Colin agreed. Anne made herself busy, buying foodstuffs to replenish the stores for the balance of their voyage and making the arrangements for the visitors. They’d used nearly half their missiles in the last engagement. Unfortunately, there were no ammunition stocks on Lahoshar to replenish the weapons they’d expended, so they’d need to be a little more careful if there was a need to fight again.
Star Man 2: Star Rise Page 10
