It didn’t actually take all that much discussion to come to a consensus. In less than an hour over the conference call, the three leaders of the planet made their decision. The others had been scared to death over the idea that pirates had a hold on them and would be back again for another collection. Heb wasn’t a wealthy world and the fact that they were turning over a good portion of the He3 fuel, foodstuffs and other things was hurting the economy. There wasn’t anything to spare. The others were willing to give this councilor a shot, especially since he was bringing four warships with him. Or rather, that he was willing to leave those four warships here.
Acheron wasn’t so sure. But he wasn’t willing to go against the others on this. And they were right, four warships to defend the system was significant, certainly better than what they’d had before. Which was nothing.
He called Sebastian Chakrabarti back down to the planet and the four of them got together to hash out an agreement. It was nothing so formal as a treaty, but it was an interim agreement that could work. Mutual defense was the biggest item on the agreement, which right now was one directional and for now would consist of a payment sent to cover the costs of paying the crews and to cover fuel. It was a reasonable request, one that the three leaders of Heb quickly agreed to.
“I’m glad you made this decision,” Chakrabarti told them, as he signed his name on the document. They were using actual paper for this, as well as a digital copy for his own records.
“And I suppose this is where you tell us you need to stay here to ‘oversee’ your forces?” one of the other governors asked, his voice bitter. “To make sure that we don’t abuse the firepower?”
But the councilor shook his head. “Commander Dharvhan is perfectly capable of overseeing everything. She’ll do what she can to keep this system safe. But I have to inform you, Governors, that while she will respond favorably to any requests you make as far as system protection, but she is not your errand girl. She is not going to attack any of your fellows on your request. Please understand that.”
“Of course, that is understood,” one of the governors replied stiffly, offended. “We are very grateful for all this.”
“And for the factory parts,” the other governor stated. The factory in question was not being constructed in Vanoria, but on one of the other cities. They were taking this spirit of cooperation seriously. But then the man frowned. “So, you are not staying here?”
Chakrabarti smiled gently and shook his head. “Oh, I’m sorry for the misunderstanding. If it is agreeable, I will remain. But while I will be here to oversee the Navy ships, I’m not going to tell you how to run your system. And I know you were concerned that I’m here to rein in your enthusiasm, but I’m not going to be here indefinitely. My intention was to be here for a few months, let the situation stabilize and make sure everything goes smoothly. Then I will return to Seylonique, possibly on one of the cargo ships that makes a run through here.” Truth be told, he wasn’t thrilled with that prospect, but it would do if he must.
“So what is it that you intend on doing here?”
“I would like to look into other mutual opportunities,” the councilor said smoothly. “I’m sure there are some local businesses that might benefit from some… cooperation. But I do have a conference call with the captains of the defense squadron later.”
“Perhaps you could stay down here for a short while longer?” one of the other governors replied. “I’m sure we could find a few things to speak of.”
Sebastian Chakrabarti smiled and nodded. “I’m sure we could.”
~~~~~~*~~~~~~
Once the accords were signed, things moved with increasing alacrity. The crews managed to get the cargo ship unloaded, all of the containers on the shuttles and down to the planet in twelve hours. Another four hours and the Kara was loaded back up with the cargoes purchased by her captain and ready to go. Reshi watched as the boxy cargo ship began its lumbering acceleration away from the planet on a vector toward Heb. She’d discussed things with her Uncle, making it clear that while she would follow his orders, he had appointed her to lead the squadron and she wouldn’t appreciate him trying to micromanage her command decisions.
After Kara left the area, Reshi called the other ships in the squadron. “All right, people. I know this is all a bit intimidating, but this is now our our patrol area. But before we get started on any standard patrol, I want a full rundown on fuel levels. After that, we’re going to run a series of drills. I want all ships in this squadron to be prepared should the pirates show up.” She had no idea how prophetic her words would be.
Hidden behind one of Heb’s moons lay the pirate corvette Byvennot. For days the ship had maintained position behind the satellite, barely managing to remain undetected, which for the warriors aboard the corvette was a difficult thing to ask. They did not like hiding but they all knew that four to one wree very long odds.
General Typhon had given orders not to risk the ship as he had so few of them now, after the very costly raid in Seylonique. But he couldn’t possibly mean that in this case the Byvennot and her crew were to take the coward’s way out and run. He had to know that his wolves would need to strike at their enemies here, even though they were outnumbered. Well, they were outnumbered, but their opponents were only in corvettes and provincial vessels at that. Of course, Byvennot was a provincial system defense force ship as well; a prize taken by General Typhon in a raid two decades earlier. But that just meant that her captain and crew knew their ship inside and out, knew every bit of performance they could squeeze out of her.
If the crew could find any sort of advantage they would strike. But right now all four ships were in too close, both to each other and to the moon; the ships could too easily cover each other. So far the mass of the moon shielded the corvette from the enemy, but the wolves aboard were forced to remain in low-power mode to avoid detection, which was stirring up the crew. With each day this went on, the lower morale aboard the Byvennot sunk. Scraps and minor altercations were increasing. Something had to be done and soon.
Running a small squadron of warships was proving more taxing than Reshi Dharvhan originally expected. She was still required to command the Spirit, a task she absolutely refused to shirk. That being said, much of the day-to-day work of managing the ship was passed to her XO, Lieutenant Tessa Melendez, who grumbled good-naturedly about the work load. Reshi’s time was increasingly taken up with meetings with the governors, both by virtual conference and actual meetings, who wanted daily updates and what felt like constant assurance that her squadron would be there and ready if the pirates showed up again. Then there were the daily conferences with the other ship captains, the daily sims, then the inspection of Spirit, the work just never ended. Everyone was excited about being in a new star system, but for the moment, at least, Reshi was being very strict about shore leave. This was a new squadron, with new and inexperienced crews that Reshi was concerned about. The last thing she needed was for crews to go on leave, do some serious carousing and get into trouble with the locals. Seylonique didn’t have, until very recently, a serious space Navy but there were stories about drunken sailors in port cities and Reshi did not need her people giving a bad impression in the first week of defensive patrols.
It couldn’t last forever, of course. Morale was up, but even after a single week, the crews (and officers) of the ships were talking about shore leave. They’d been in hyperspace for twenty-eight days, with several more days in transit and now in orbit, so Reshi was feeling more pressure to start letting crews go down. It was a problem she would tackle eventually.
It wasn’t as though Reshi Dharvhan was scared so much as concerned. There were pirates in nearby space; perhaps not here in this system, but they were only a handful of light years away. As such, she didn’t want her people to slack off, now that they were away from any higher authority. The other captains understood her dilemma, but weren’t actually impressed by her credentials as all of them had graduated the Academy at the same time.
No one really had any seniority, but Reshi had the family connections. Up until now, it hadn’t made any difference; she had proven her worth in the Academy and she and others had earned their commissions and their commands together. But now she had command of the squadron. For the moment, the others were following; she only hoped that they would continue to do so as time passed.
“We’re going to change things up a bit today,” she said to the assembled captains on her conference display. They all perked up at this declaration. “I’m going to shift assets slightly.” She pressed a control and a star map of the system appeared, showing the habitable planet, also called Heb, dots indicating the squadron and the next planet out, the gas giant. “Governor Val indicated that in the atmosphere of this planet is a fuel collection platform. Nothing as grand as what we have back home, but they do get helium 3 fuel from it. So we’re going to rotate one ship to the gas giant, to extend our patrol a bit and to top off our fuel bunkers.” There were nods from the other captains. “I know all of us are lower on fuel levels that we’d like. We don’t have a fuel tender ship, so each of us will have to take turns going there and refueling. Lobo, you’re up first. You’ll head out there just as soon as this conference is completed. You’re to go out, fill up and then head back here. But maintain full scan the entire time. We don’t need any surprises.”
“Understood,” Lobo’s captain replied.
Reshi nodded. “Now, the rest of us will continue with our patrol, moving out from geosync orbit that we’ve been sitting in for the last week. I want to swing by this moon, here,” it flashed blue on the star map, “And then take up position at equidistant points around heb’s planetary equator. I know it might cause problems with communications, but we can deploy commsats. I want to be able to see threats coming from all directions and still be close enough to reform and deal with them.”
More nods from the others. She’d come up with this plan the night before and it seemed that the others approved. It wasn’t perfect, but it would ensure coverage. Around the planet, anyway.
“They’re moving, Lieutenant,” the lupusan at Byvennot’s sensor station reported.
“What, all of them?” the commanding officer, Lieutenant Ramza, demanded, straightening in his chair.
“One of them is headed away from the planet,” the wolf said, turning to look at him. “The others are moving in this direction.”
“Damn it,” Ramza swore. Well, it seems that our time of being trapped has ended. Byvennot’s sensors couldn’t penetrate the moon’s bulk, but that meant that the enemy’s sensors couldn’t either. What Ramza had done to counter this blind spot was to deploy a spy satellite, his last, which was a fine example of genuine Federation technology. It was small, a sphere barely half a meter in diameter, covered in matte black nanoweave stealth coating that absorbed all sensor signals. Since it had an exceedingly low power signal and no thrust emissions, it was terribly difficult to spot. It sucked in any kind of energy signature within range (two hundred thousand kilometers) and with a whisker laser from the corvette’s comm array, Ramza could get a blurry and incomplete picture of what was happening on the other side of the moon. Which was far preferable to a massive blind spot.
“Take us to battle stations,” he ordered. “We’re going to have to fight only three of them instead of all four.” He gave a grin as the red illumination bathed the corvette’s bridge. “Prep the missile countermeasures. “Let’s see if we can’t disorient them a bit.” The lieutenant turned to the sensor watch. “How long until they can see us?”
“Eleven minutes, current speed, Lieutenant.”
“Helm, once eight minutes have passed, swing us out on an attack vector.” He saw feral grins on the faces of the bridge crew and bared his teeth in response. “Launch our flares at the lead ship. We’ll try to throw them off balance and hit them with everything, tactical.”
“Your wish, Lieutenant,” the black-furred female growled, her fur rippling aggressively.
“Helm, once we pass the first ship, the others will be moving to try and engage us, so be ready to evade.”
“Now,” Ramza told his crew. “Now, we pick them apart, one at a time.” He didn’t even chastise them when they broke into howls, which quickly spread throughout the ship, every single wolf on board the the fury burst forth.
“Commander, there’s a ship exiting the shadow of that moon,” the sensor operator shouted, her voice deafening in the small bridge.
Reshi felt adrenaline surge through her. Before she could chide the woman for her excessive enthusiasm, the XO spoke, “Calmly, Ms. Trudel. We can hear you just fine.”
“But, ma’am, they’re right on top of us!”
“Sit down, woman!” the XO said, grabbing the young woman’s shoulder and wrenching her back around to face her console.
“Battle stations!” Reshi called and klaxons blared. The red lights activated. She didn’t have time to get into a suit, the enemy was almost on top of them. “Helm,” she ordered, her voice turning harsh. “Take us out from the planet, twenty degrees to port. Comms, have the others form up on us. This is just like we trained for.”
And it was at that moment that the enemy corvette fired two blinding white projectiles that seemed to home in very slowly on Spirit. When they were five hundred meters from the corvette’s hull, they exploded, energy washing out from them, lashing the shields and the sensors of the Navy warship.
“All sensors are blind!” the operator screeched. “The plasma wave has flooded local space with radiation. It’s overloaded the sensors. It’ll take some time to clear it.” She actually seemed to be calming down, though the shaking of her hands and the fact that she kept wiping her palms on legs of her ship suit gave her away.
“Damn it,” Reshi hissed. “Alter course, twenty degrees to starboard. Guns, fire a full salvo forward on the enemy’s last known position, then hold fire. I want to keep them busy. Keep it together, people. We’re going to get through this. Sensors, get with engineering and get me my eyes back.” The ship lurched as a volley struck the shields.
The enemy corvettes hadn’t been caught completely flat-footed, more’s the pity, Ramza reflected. All the better, actually. It meant that he and his crew would be fighting for their lives instead of taunting the easy prey. The initial trick with the flare pulses had worked well, but it had only worked because they’d managed to get in so close and the lead ship had just flown straight into it, all fat and happy. After that, Byvennot swept in and hammered her. Nothing too damaging, sadly, but it was something to make them remember him and then broke away hard, easily evading the feeble return fire.
“Bring us around but drop us down below the ecliptic,” Ramza ordered. “I want a high speed firing pass on that same target, but keep us on the outside of the enemy formation.” No reason to get pinned between them, he reasoned. Byvennot was the only one of the general’s light units to survive the battle in Seylonique, which gave his crew a degree of bragging rights. It also gave them a thirst to avenge their friends and fellows against these bastards from Seylonique. What the hell are they doing here in Heb, anyway?
A storm of metal slammed into Spirit’s shields and more than a few made it through the spotty energy barrier to strike the hull. It rang like a bell with each hit, but in the small numbers that were hitting the ship, it was hardly damaging. It all added up, however, and a lucky strike could break something vital.
“Sensors, give me something!” Reshi demanded, checking her own displays. She cursed the ingenuity of the enemy captain and her own complacency. Who knew that something as simple as a plasma flare, otherwise harmless to something as large as a ship, could so thoroughly overwhelm Spirit’s sensors? She vowed that if they survived this fight, she would see about adapting that tactic to her own arsenal and see if there was a viable countermeasure.
“Trying, Captain,” the panicky sensor operator said, stabbing at the keys on the console. “Lateral sensors are starting to clear a bit, but the forward grid is still down.�
�� Clearly her forced calm was eroding under the press of enemy fire. “Damage control says they’re working on it.”
Reshi gritted her teeth in frustration. “Helm, new course. Drop us down below the plane of the ecliptic. We need to get out of their range until our sensors clear.” She hated to disengage and leave the others but what could she do? She was blind and helpless right now.
That first ship was pulling away and he’d hurt them, but they weren’t crippled, not yet. Ramza checked his tactical display. “Helm, bring us toward Sigma 2,” he snarled, indicating the corvette to port. “Guns, pick a spot on that ship and hammer it!” The ship started to move.
“Sigma 3 is maneuvering to try and cut us off from an attack run on Sigma 2,” tactical called.
“Teach them their mistake, Guns,” he ordered with a growl. Byvennot’s weapons lashed Sigma 3, who replied in kind. A second too late, Ramza realized he’d erred. He should have changed vector instead of continuing the charge on Sigma 2. As Byvennot closed the distance, both ships were now clear to strike at him.
Fire struck the pirate vessel from two sources and in seconds, the forward shields collapsed under the pounding. Energy weapons tore at the forward hull and Ramza ordered an immediate turn, putting Sigma 3 between Byvennot and Sigma 2. This forced all the ships to have to maneuver.
The fighting continued for another twenty minutes with all three ships making high speed runs; the Seylonique Navy ships trying to maneuver to hit the pirate vessel while switching off, trying not to let the pirate concentrate his fire on one target for too long. All the while the three ships continued to accumulate damage.
A Greater Interest: Samair in Argos: Book 4 Page 51
