Mission 2: Frosty Reception

  — 17th of Lifesari, Year 390 PD, 09:00 local time; R&D Briefing Room, Bureau of Weapons Development, Admiralty House, Sanctuary, Traveler’s Rest —

  Rina showed her security pass to the marine sentry standing at the entrance to the briefing room that she had just approached, who pulled out a handheld scanner to swipe it through, after which they raised their helmet-covered head to look her in the eye as they performed a retinal scan using the helmets built-in scanners. The bulky-looking armor made it difficult to determine the gender of the one wearing it, especially with the visor of the fully-enclosing helmet lowered to hide the face, but after a few moments the device in their hands chimed and the armored figure looked down to confirm her clearance. With a short nod of acceptance, the marine handed back her security pass and waved her through the door. Rina nodded back as she walked in, taking a quick look around the room. Some of the faces were familiar to her, from similar meetings over the past two weeks, but there were a few new ones amongst them, one of which she was greatly surprised to see.

  Vice Admiral Tracy Springbottom, Countess of Everspring County here on Traveler’s Rest, was one such familiar face, who gave a short wave to her as she entered, gesturing to the empty seat beside her. The countess had been her commanding officer during Home Fleet’s latest set of exercises, and the two had developed a rapport over the past few weeks as they found themselves dragged into after-action reports and meetings to discuss the results, both with Admiral Iceveil, the current commander of Home Fleet, and his staff, along with the Bureau of Weapons Development’s research and development team that had put together the new weapon systems that her crew had been forced to use during them.

  Besides the two engineers that were the lead developers for her ship’s two newest weapons systems, Admiral Scott Sprystep, the current 4th Space Lord and head of BuWeaps, was also present, and while she probably shouldn’t have been surprised that he was the father of her ship’s EWI officer, to her credit the girl had gone out of her way to try and distance herself as much as possible from her father’s influence, wanting to prove herself on her own merits to avoid and claims of ‘nepotism’ shadowing her own achievements. That clearly hadn’t stopped her father from trying to drag her into his own projects though, as the girl had sourly pointed out to him when the Wakizashi’s officers had all been invited to a formal dinner with the Baron and his staff.

  Equally less surprising was the presence of Admiral Lloyd Reedhunter, the current 3rd Space Lord and head of the Bureau of Shipbuilding, as any decisions made here on how to start utilizing the new tech that her crew had been testing would have to go through his office.

  No, the surprise guest today was the First Space Lord and Chief of Naval Operations himself, Admiral Carter Miststep. The slightly taller than average brown-haired rabbit-kin was currently taking a seat next to Admiral Sprystep, a mug of tea in one hand and a data slate in the other, his aide standing dutifully by the wall behind him.

  Rina leaned over to Tracy shortly after she sat in the proffered seat, quietly asking the older officer, “What brings the CNO here? I thought this meeting was just another status update on Project Bowstring?”

  The countess beside her narrowed her eyes slightly as she leaned towards her junior officer, replying equally quietly. “No clue. I too figured that this was going to be another waste of time while the R&D boys keep wanking each other in celebration of their successful proof of concept.”

  Rina snorted at the image that statement evoked, fighting to keep a grin off her face. “Not the most…polite way you could have said that, your grace.”

  Tracy covered her mouth in a lady-like manner as she giggled slightly. “Maybe not, but I think it was fairly accurate, no?”

  Rina could only shake her head at her superior's antics, though her eyes gleamed with amusement. “You know that I dare not answer that truthfully, ma’am.”

  Now it was Tracy’s turn to snort, though they both quieted down as the last of the meeting's attendants took their seats and Admiral Miststep stood, gathering everyone’s attention in the process, before speaking.

  “Good morning, everyone. I realize my presence here today was not fully expected, but it appears that Project Bowstring has advanced considerably faster than initially projected, which is part of why I am here today. First I would like to congratulate the design team for their impressive work on bringing this project so far so quickly, as well as Vice Admiral Springbottom and Commander Silverveil for their contributions in helping us develop new tactical and strategic doctrines to optimize the deployment of the project. To that end, I am pleased to announce that the Bureau of Shipbuilding has approved the preliminary design of a new stealth frigate, to be purpose built around the new weapons system that Project Bowstring has brought us. We intend to use it as a covert scout and raider, and to support anti-piracy missions. Though once we get enough of them built we may also assign them for other related missions where stealth is more important than speed or firepower. That being said, the current design hasn’t been finalized yet, and unfortunately we are finding ourselves in need of a vessel like this soon, as we have been receiving an alarming increase in pirate activity from our agents in the Frostwood Cluster, which has led NavInt to believe that the pirates may have established a new base of operations in the region. Since NavInt hasn’t been able to isolate where this base is yet, we have decided to reassign the Wakizashi, as the only stealth-capable weapons platform we currently have, to a new task force that is being assembled to hunt down and eradicate these pirates before they start expanding their area of operation.”

  Rina couldn’t help but widen her eyes at that bit of information. ‘Sounds like we will finally be allowed to get off our butts soon. That’s good, I’ve noticed that the crew has been getting a bit restless without anything better to do than more drills and sim time.’ she thought to herself, before refocusing her attention on the Admiral.

  “Official orders regarding the re-allocation of assets related to Project Bowstring should be reaching their respective recipient’s desks by the end of the day.” He continued, “Once again, great work on the project so far, and I hope to hear great things regarding the project in the coming months. Dismissed.”

  With that, the room erupted into quiet murmuring as the Admiral scooped up his tea and data slate, nodding to his aide as the two moved to leave the room. Rina leant back a bit as she tried to absorb what he had told her, before Tracy nudged her shoulder to get her attention.

  “Well, it sounds like we will be parting ways soon.” The older rabbit-kin held out her hand to the younger fox-kin, which Rina happily shook. “I have to say, it was a pleasure to have you and your crew under my command, brief as it was.”

  Rina replied back as they finished the handshake, "Thank you, your grace. It was an honor and pleasure for me as well. If it isn't too presumptuous of me, I hope that I may be allowed to call on you when next we are in the same port, as friends?”

  Tracy gave her a bright smile at the question before replying, “Of course! So long as you don’t mind me potentially doing the same.”

  The two got up from their seats as one, gathering up their things and leaving the room together, offering up cheerful goodbyes as they each went their separate ways. ‘Hopefully our new CO will be just as accommodating,’ she thought to herself, as she made her way to the shuttle platform and the shuttle that would take her back to naval station Taiga, where the Wakizashi was currently docked.

  — 20th of Lifesari, Year 390 PD, 04:00 ship time; RHNV Wakizashi, Task Force 41 rendezvous point, High-Rest System —

  Rina gazed at the tactical display in front of her, currently showing the Wakizashi’s current in-system position and the known locations of every other ship within 2 AU of their current location. Highlighted for her were the nine other ships of Task Force 41 that her vessel had been assigned to, commanded by Commodore Sir Alex Rockvalley from aboard the Adventurer-class heavy cruiser Paladin. In all, the task force comprised of 11 vessels: the force’s flagship, the Paladin, two Shield-class light cruisers, the Rondache and the Aegis, six other ‘standard’ (at least compared to the Wakizashi) Sword-class destroyers (Falcata, Gladius, Kopis, Spatha, Claymore, and Estoc), the Wakizashi, and the Favored Soul-class support ship RHSV Angel’s Grace (The Angel’s Grace being a military freighter and repair ship that sported military-grade armor, grav-drives, hyper drive, and inertial compensators, but little in the way of weapons outside of point defense, as it was developed to provide basic repairs to other ships in the field, and could double as a hospital ship when needed).

  She saw the light of the ship’s comm system light up, and listened to her comm officer respond to the hail from the Paladin briefly before tuning them out as it became apparent that the task force’s flagship was simply sending over formation instructions and the hyperspace beacon information that would allow the task group to transition to FTL as one unit for the trip out to the Frostwood system without having to worry about superluminal collisions. The trip was going to take the task force close to a week, even with the usage of the Cassidy-Truesight Hyper Lane, a long ‘current’ that hyperdrive-equipped vessels could ‘ride’ along and greatly increase their rate of travel while in hyper. The hyper lane stretched from the Cassidy system deep within the Astral Federation across nearly a quarter of the galaxy to the Truesight system, home to the capital of the Ordan Theocracy, itself the central pillar of the Ordan Alliance.

  Their destination, while in the direction of Alliance space, wouldn’t take them that far. The Frostwood Cluster referred to a grouping of systems centered around the Frostwood system that sat astride the hyper lane, and while not heavily populated, the various independent colonies there had become valued business partners for the various merchant houses and shipping conglomerates that called the Kingdom of High-Rest home.

  Her comm officer signaled for her attention as they wrapped up the call from the Paladin. “Ma’am, Paladin wants us to take point for the jump to the Frostwood system. While the commodore is not expecting any trouble on the way there, he apparently would like to play it safe just in case. He also requests your presence for an all-ships conference aboard the Paladin once the task group is underway.”

  “Very well, comms.” Rina replied, “Helm, take us into position and wait for the signal from the Paladin to take us into hyper. Comms, once we are in position and we are ready for the jump, signal to the Paladin our readiness and let them know that I acknowledge the commodore’s request and will join him aboard their vessel at their earliest convenience.” Rina then flipped on the communicator in her command chair, sending a request to the boat bay requesting they prep one of the ship’s two shuttles for a mid-jump transfer.

  While the shuttlecraft that most ships in the Royal High-Rest Navy carried were not large enough to be equipped with a hyperdrive, their grav drives could, with time and the onboard tools available in the boat bays of the vessels carrying them, be converted to work in hyper as if they were still in real-space. This conversion, however, rendered them inoperable in real-space, at least until their drives were reconfigured back, which is why most commanders never bothered with mid-hyper in person conferences like this. Rina wasn’t too surprised by the request this time though, as this was likely the first time most of these ships’ captains would be working together, and they had plenty of time to reconfigure the shuttles’ drives during their long trip to Frostwood.

  Rina next sent a comm request to her XO, who was quick to answer from his station in engineering.

  “What’s up, skipper?” He asked.

  “It seems the good commodore wants us to take point for this stretch of the journey, and has requested my presence aboard his flagship for an all captains conference once we are underway. If you could find your way to the bridge before we make the jump, that would be lovely.”

  “Understood, ma’am. Consider me on my way.”

  “Thanks Cassidy. Bridge, out.”

  — 20th of Lifesari, Year 390 PD, 10:00 ship time; Flag officer’s briefing room, RHNV Paladin, somewhere in hyperspace —

  Commodore Sir Alex Rockvalley, Knight of the Silver Star and the appointed commander of Task Group 41, looked over the faces seated around the table in his flagship’s briefing room, observing as they studiously reviewed the the latest intelligence reports that he had presented to them once they had all been able to gather here. The short but stout mole-kin ran a hand through his thick black hair as he fought to keep his gaze from staring nervously at the lone fox-kin seated at the table. He knew intellectually from her dossier that he shouldn’t be concerned, but her kind had a reputation out here on the edges of settled space, one that created prejudices that he was finding it hard to fight against. ‘The fact that you’re not sure what to do with her ship certainly isn’t helping things either, now is it?’ He thought to himself, fighting to keep his concerns from showing in his expression. He shook his head slightly to try and clear his head, before rapping gently on the table to draw everyone’s attention.

  “Alright everyone, now that you have had a chance to see the same reports my staff and I have, we should discuss our options. As you know, our task group has been assigned with hunting down where these pirates are hiding and rooting them out. That being said, we will be venturing into territory that, while nominally friendly, is primarily occupied by sovereign polities that may not appreciate our presence. We have been directed to respect their sovereignty whenever we find ourselves in their systems, and are only to violate their territorial claims if we are either invited to do so, or it is clear that lives of High-Rest citizens are at risk. To that end we will remain at the edge of the heliopause of any system that holds a developed colony, unless one of the previous criteria is met. Any questions?”

  He looked around the room as he was met primarily headshakes, with occasional affirmations that the assembled ship commanders understood things so far. He nodded in approval at how serious they were taking this. ‘Good,’ he thought to himself, ‘I don’t want a diplomatic incident on my hands if I can help it!’

  Alex activated the holographic display at the center of the table, revealing a star chart of the Frostwood cluster, with a portion of it highlighted. “Very well. As you may have noticed in those reports, NavInt has managed to narrow down the region of space that is most likely hiding our pirate nest to this part of the cluster. Unfortunately, that leaves us over a score of systems to scout. While NavInt has assets in Frostwood proper that should hopefully have additional information for us when we arrive, I’d like to see if we can figure out a way to do it ourselves without blindly jumping from system to system, hoping we get lucky. I’d also prefer to keep our strength as concentrated as possible, to ensure we are able to strike quickly once we do find our target, to keep as many as we can from escaping. Initial thoughts?”

  Silence filled the room for several moments, as the collected captains and commanders dropped into thought. Rina suddenly straightened her posture as she seemed to flick through the data slate in her hands, her ears flicking forward in concentration. Her fingers paused, her nails gently tapping the screen for a moment, before she lifted her head and her hand, indicating a request to speak.

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  Alex noticed, and gave her a reluctant nod. “Commander Silverveil?”

  “Yes sir, a question. What relationship, if any, do we have with this World Tree Enclave, on Treetop in the Tundra’s Garden system? I’m not seeing any information available in the reports from NavInt.”

  Alex looked down at his own data slate and started pulling up the information available in the ship’s data banks on the system, not seeing much himself. “I’m not really sure myself. Why?”

  “Well, it is located almost dead center in the middle of the region that NavInt believes they pirates likely have their base, which would make it a good spot to use as a base of operations for us, assuming they are willing to accept our presence there, or that we could come to some sort of arrangement with them. It does appear to be a religious retreat of some sort, which explains both why there isn’t much active ship traffic moving between them and their closest inhabited systems, and why there hasn’t been any reports of pirate activity there.”

  Alex thought about that for a moment. ‘She’s right, it would be an ideal location, assuming we could make it work.’ “You may be onto something, commander. I think for now we will plan on them not being cooperative, but I will definitely reach out to our assets on Frostwood when we arrive there to see what they can find out. Anyone else?”

  The others started chiming in, and soon enough rough plans began to emerge. Little did they know what kind of welcome awaited them in Frostwood…

  — 23rd of Lifesari, Year 390 PD, 16:00 station time; Crimson Claws regional headquarters, Space Station Conquered Dreams; system 1478 —

  Karlow stalked down the station’s halls towards the Overseer’s office, his black-tipped white tail swaying steadily behind him. The various claws and enforcers that came across him as he walked all were quick to move to the side, bowing their heads nervously to him as he passed them upon seeing the growing fury that was growing on the stoat-kin’s face. ‘Damn it all, why are they showing up now, after all this time?’ he thought to himself, not bothering to hide the scowl growing on his face. ‘Hopefully the boss doesn’t try and take this out on me, it's not like I’m going around calling up those stuck up Resties!’ He shook his head as he reached the door to the Overseer’s office and schooled his face before rapping on the door.

  A gruff voice called out. “What is it?”

  Karlow replied, “It’s me boss, with fresh news from one of our informants on Frostview Station. You probably want to see this in private.”

  Karlow could hear the frustration in his boss’s growl as the door swung open, revealing a large, silver-haired wolf-kin, his scarred face glaring at his station supervisor. “Well, out with it. I’m busy.”

  Karlow gave a quick bow of respect to his boss, then held out the datachip he had brought with him from the station's comm center. “Here’s the message, Overseer. It seems somebody is trying to get out of sending us tribute, and is trying to call in some backup.”

  “Give me that.” the Overseer snarled, snatching the data chip out of the stoat-kin’s hand before striding over to his workstation. Karlow couldn’t help but notice the curled up form of a rabbit-kin girl trying to hide in the corner of the room opposite the desk, desperately trying to hide her nudity behind a discarded towel, the slave collar around her neck linked to the wall by a chain.

  ‘Busy my ass!’ he thought to himself. ‘Well, guess I don’t have to worry about my hide today, if he has a pretty thing like her to take out his anger on.’ He stepped inside the room and shut the door behind him, even as his boss snatched up a data slate off his messy desk and practically jammed the data chip into a slot in the side of the slate, quickly pulling up the message within. A few minutes later, he threw the slate aside as he let out a frustrated growl.

  “Damn it all! Just as things were finally starting to settle in!” He whirled about and practically jabbed his finger into Karlow’s chest. “I want you to find out who’s been squeaking to them Resties. I need to make an example of them if we are going to keep our operations here going as well as they have been.”

  “I will do my best, Overseer. I assume you will be arranging a distraction for our unwanted guests?”

  The wolf-kin gave him a feral-looking grin. “Oh yes, and I think I know just the tool for the job. The Bloodseekers have been acting out the past few weeks, and I suspect that they are at least partially responsible for this mess, so I think it only fair we have them see if they can clean it up, don’t you think?”

  Karlow suppressed a shudder at his boss’s cold tone. “O-of course, boss. Only fair of them.”

  “Good, here is what I want you to tell them…”

  — 25th of Lifesari, Year 390 PD, 13:50 ship time; Bloodseeker, Frostwood System —

  Andrei Bonebreaker sat in his command chair, hands together as he chittered in excitement. The black haired, heavy-set rat-kin captain looked over the plot in front of him as his gang’s ships all settled into position to ambush the incoming convoy from High-Rest. This opportunity was practically a dream come true for the ambitious pirate. After all, how often did they know the exact heading and arrival time for an entire convoy, whose ships would be stocked full of the best tech in the cluster? The salvage alone would be worth trillions! He glanced down at the incoming messages from the other four captains in his gang, each reporting in as their ships settled into their positions. Sure, they were all converted merchant ships, outfitted with grav drives and plasma cannons that had been salvaged from the wrecks of older warships, or stolen from less scrupulously guarded wrecker yards, but they were more than enough to outrun even the most modern of cargo ships, and their guns represented a real threat to their unarmed prey. Then there was his ship, the Bloodseeker.

  The Bloodseeker had begun life as a Truthkeeper-class heavy cruiser, the Inquisitor’s Calling. Slated for the breakers nearly twenty years ago when the then eighty year old ship was being replaced with a newer design, Andrei and his crew managed to infiltrate the ship while it was being transferred between yards and stole it, fleeing out here to the Frostwood cluster with their prize. Over time, they had stripped out the old missile tubes (they knew better than to think that they had any shot at nabbing any replacement missiles for them, after all) and replaced them with additional plasma cannons and some old fashioned chemical-based projectile launchers, using the ship’s onboard engineering workshop to manufacture their own ammo and parts for the modified artillery. Sure, long range shots with the guns would be difficult, with how slow their projectile speed was, but at least it gave them the chance to fight back against anything outside the range of their plasma cannons!

  Not that he was worried about that today though. Assuming the information leaked to them by the Crimson Claws was accurate, the incoming convoy should revert back to real-space from hyper right into their laps, and well into the range of their energy weapons.

  Thinking about the claws turned his previous grin into a slight frown. While he had to admit that their information sources had always proven accurate before, he still didn’t like how bossy and controlling they were, or how quickly they had muscled into his territory and taken control of the criminal underworld in the cluster. ‘One day,’ he thought to himself, ‘I’ll show them who the real boss of this cluster should be! But not yet, I need more time to win the other captains over to my way of thinking. But the first mistake that “Overseer” makes, I’ll be ready to pounce!’

  His thoughts were interrupted when his sensor tech let out a confused squeak. “Well?” he asked, “What is it?”

  “I…I…I’m n-n-not q-q-quite s-sure, Cap’n.” The tech stammered. “I-I thought I p-picked up a hyper s-signature r-roughly two hundred thousand kilometers a-above us, b-b-but our sensors a-aren’t p-picking up anything there! No grav pulses, no EM signatures, nothin’!”

  “Hmmph, perhaps you were seeing things, or maybe one of the merchies strayed, and popped out early and decided to hide when they saw us. No matter, we stick with the plan. It’s only one ship at best, and we can send someone to take a look later. Prepare to activate the buoys.”

  — Elsewhere —

  Rina was on the bridge as the Wakizashi dropped out of hyper right on schedule, ten minutes ahead of the rest of the task group and dead-on 250 thousand kilometers ‘above’ their intended emergence point. She was about to congratulate Lieutenant Sprywave for her excellent astronavigation work when the klaxon of alarms began blaring throughout the bridge.

  “Report!”

  “Contact, make that multiple contacts! Picking up five unknowns, two two four thousand kilometers below us! No active transponders. Initial readings have them pegged as a probable cruiser and four merchant ships.”

  “Full Stealth! Helm, pull us away on an evasive course! Engineering, drop one of our recon drones, programmed to send a Code Epsilon alert to the Task Group upon their reversion. Guns, start charging the main gun. We should have time to get one shot off as the group arrives. I want that cruiser gone before it has a chance to do anything!”

  Her crew acknowledged her orders and began frantically carrying them out. Thankfully they had followed procedure and raised the ship to full combat readiness prior to their reversion, so everyone was already at their stations and ready for action, even if they hadn’t been expecting any.

  A few minutes later, two things became clear. First, their quick action to activate their stealth systems had clearly confused the pirates, as no-one was trying to pursue them or even fire on them as they pulled away from their initial reversion point. The second was that these ships were clearly pirates, as their passive light-speed sensors began picking up greater details, and they could tell that the ships were all armed and armored to some degree. How these pirates had gotten their hands on a heavy cruiser, even one as old as the one here now, was of lesser concern to her than why they were here now. ‘The pirates must have a mole here in Frostwood somewhere, the question is, with who?’

  She didn’t have time for that now though, as the task group was only two minutes away from their scheduled arrival time.

  “Helm, bring us about and line up a shot on that cruiser. Guns, how long until the main gun is ready to fire?”

  “Just under two minutes, ma’am.”

  Rina nodded in response, her face still and eyes narrowed in sharp focus as she looked over the readouts before her. “Fire as soon as the task group starts reversion, Guns. Then be ready to engage with energy weapons.”

  “Aye ma’am.”

  She thought for a few more moments as she looked over what they had managed to dick up from the ship’s database about the pirate’s cruiser, then gave a slight smirk. She then frantically started typing up a set of commands that she sent over to her engineering team to implement. ‘That ought to give them a nasty surprise.’

  — 7 minutes later —

  “Task group reverting in thirty seconds, sir.”

  Commodore Rockvalley nodded to his navigation officer as he sat up in his command chair aboard the RMNV Paladin’s flag bridge, responding. “Thank you, Navigation. Comms, let me know the moment we have contact with the Wakizashi, I want…”

  The commodore was interrupted as the claxon of alarms went off throughout the ship, shortly after they reverted to real-space. He turned in his chair, pulling up the tac-display while calling out for a status update.

  “Multiple unknown contacts sir, all less than a hundred thousand kilometers away!”

  “Incoming communications sir. It’s a Code Epsilon from Commander Silverveil!”

  His eyes widened as the reports came in, but he didn’t let surprise freeze him. Years of experience and discipline moved him to act, as he jammed the button opening a communications link to all the ships in his command via the task group’s tactical net.

  “All ships, Code Epsilon! Confirm, Code Epsilon. Engage at will!”

  As he switched off the transmitter he felt the ship shudder as Captain Strongtail, the Paladin’s captain, ordered the ship into an evasive maneuver. “How many?” he asked his sensor officer as he turned to look back at the central tactical display.

  “Looks like five ships sir, four armed merchant ships and what appears to be a salvaged heavy cruiser.”

  He found himself narrowing his eyes at that report. “That could be a problem…”

  — Elsewhere —

  “That is NOT a convoy!” Captain Bonebreaker cried out as he looked in disbelief at the display in front of him. They had been told to expect a convoy of five merchant ships with a single destroyer escort. Instead they found themselves starting down eleven ships, only one of which resembled any kind of cargo vessel! Then a new alarm went off, announcing the activation of the grav buoys they had seeded in the area earlier. These buoys were developed to prevent a ship from jumping into hyper while within their sphere of influence by generating a false gravity signature emulating that of a massive star, taking advantage of the hardlocks built into every hyperdrive as a safety measure that prevented a ship from entering hyper while in close proximity of large gravity wells.

  But now, what had been intended as a trap for an incoming convoy, was now trapping them within energy range of a naval task force! Andrei spun around to shout out orders to his crew.

  “Helm, get us out of here, and start spooling up the hyperdrive! Guns, give them hell and keep them off our back! Comms, shut down those buoys!”

  However, seconds later his communication officer gave him more bad news. “Cap’n, something's jammin’ our signals! Nothing seems to be getting through! I can’t even get a hold of the other ships!”

  Captain Bonebreaker felt his blood go cold, as he realized how the hunters had become the prey, and then he didn’t feel anything, as his vision suddenly went blindingly white.

  — 25th of Lifesari, Year 390 PD, 14:01 local time; Task Group 41 arrival point, Frostwood System —

  As the pirate’s grav buoys came online, preventing either side from escaping into hyper, the RHN showed their greater discipline and training as they reacted first, their ships quickly rolling and twisting to present the thicker armor of their ventral hulls, and giving their plasma cannons better targeting angles. The pirates, still reeling from the sudden sight of being confronted by nine more warships than they were expecting, broke. There was no co-ordination between them as they began to attempt to cut and run, opening fire on whoever was closest in an attempt to stave off total annihilation. Just as they started to maneuver though, the Wakizashi made her presence known, as the ten kilogram projectile from her main gun slammed into Bloodseeker with the force of a nuclear bomb, shredding through the ship’s ill-kept armored hull and slamming into its central fusion core. The strike destabilized the core’s containment field, causing it to go supercritical before enveloping the ship in nuclear fury. One moment, the pirate gang’s flagship was readying to fight. Then, in a flash of light, it was gone. Just an expanding cloud of dust and debris remaining.

  After that, whatever fight that was left in the pirates was gone, as each ship tried to flee independently. All of them were destroyed, as blasts of plasma slammed into them from multiple ships, tearing them apart.

  The Task Group didn’t get out completely unscathed, though compared to the pirates their damage was minimal. The worst was to the destroyer Estoc, which took two hits into its starboard flank before it could roll over in time, damaging two of its vertical missile tubes and costing them the lives of 28 crew, with another 66 wounded. They would live to fight another day, but until their fighting strength was severely cut, and she would need to spend months in a proper repair dock to be back to full strength.

  The Wakizashi moved to rejoin the task group, even as shuttles began launching to search the debris for survivors and the group pulled away, to avoid any damage from stray debris.

  — 25th of Lifesari, Year 390 PD, 17:30 local time; RHNV Paladin, Task Group 41 rendezvous point, Frostwood System —

  Alex looked across his desk at his latest guest, thinking not for the first time just how well suited to her chosen career the woman seated in front of him must be. Special Agent Christine Springpaw was certainly a very average-looking woman, and yet something about her seemed like she could be equally at home in either a ballroom or a factory floor, though he knew better than to ask. He sighed as looked down at the report she had brought with her, along with her own analysis of the situation.

  “You’re certain the leak came from Frostwood’s system defense force?”

  “I wouldn’t say I’m certain about that,” she replied, “only that since I’m certain it didn’t come from us, the only logical explanation is that the pirates must have a mole in the FSDF. Must be someone decently high up too, since the information of your task group’s arrival was meant to be fairly hush hush. They're probably getting a kickback from the pirates to report known movements of any warships in the region, to help the pirates better dodge local patrols.”

  “Guess we’ll need to be more careful about sharing our schedules with the locals then. It also means that unless they start cleaning house and find out who their mole is, any reports we get from them regarding reports of pirate movements and activity are potentially unreliable.”

  Christine nodded in agreement as she replied, “Agreed. I’ve already got my team reviewing the reports our embassy received from them, cross-checking them against the reports from our own merchants to check for discrepancies where possible. With any luck, there will be a noticeable pattern in them that we can follow up on, maybe even expose whoever their mole is for them.”

  “One can hope. After all, without reliable support from the locals, this mission is going to be both longer and harder than I would like…”

  — End of Mission 2 —