Frozen Soul, and other works: Chapter 179

(BSN Reaper’s Blade, Madrigal System)

Captain Zrabewk Blackfeather perched comfortably in his chair on the bridge of his Reaper-Class Cruiser. He was one of the few Vroks to serve in the Black Star Navy, and the only one who had risen to commanding a warship. The rest, as far as he knew, were pilots, serving in the fighter squadrons throughout the fleet. Both those were to be expected, really. Vrokka, his homeworld, was in the Free Worlds Alliance, and Black Star had made few inroads there. The few of his people that emigrated (willingly or not) from the Alliance tended to be pilots and ship handlers. Not to put too fine a point on things, but his people were known as the best pilots in the galaxy, as a race. Of course, he wasn’t so naïve as to say that there weren’t individuals who proved themselves to be the equal or better of a Vrok pilot, and there were certainly Vroks who were decidedly average, even by other race’s standards, at the controls of a ship, but as a race, they were known for their abilities, and rightly so.

At the moment, his cruiser, along with her escort of three Assassin-Class corvettes (Antietam, Atlanta, and Dunkirk), were on a routine patrol through the Madrigal system, both to provide advance warning for Madrigal Base in event of an attack, but also to make sure that piracy in the area remained low. The Black Star Navy had crippled the pirate clans in this sector by taking Madrigal Base, and the few who had survived the purge had done a good job of keeping their heads down. Stamping out piracy entirely was impossible, of course. There would always be pirates where ships plied the space lanes between worlds, but it was possible to reduce their efforts to tolerable levels.

Or, at least, you could convince the rats to go somewhere more hospitable to their kind. That was what had happened with this sector, after the area around Dimiya had been cleaned up with the destruction of a major pirate base there. The rats had come out here, and the Alliance on the other side of the border couldn’t keep up, since the Kul’tirans were humbled. So Black Star got the contract to clean up this area, too. So far, the pirates had decided to go elsewhere, allowing the Confederate Navy to take over the majority of the anti-piracy efforts.

“Captain, the pickets are picking up unconfirmed readings in the outer system. Possible stealth ships inbound.”

Blackfeather perked up at the sensor officer’s report. “On screen. How many are we looking at, Lieutenant?”

The plot came up on the screen, focusing The lieutenant consulted the instruments, and shook his head. “Too hard to say for sure. Between one and nine probable contacts. The satellite only spotted them by chance because they passed in front of a tendril of the Thaxitoran Nebula. Unable to say more without going active.”

Blackfeather considered the plot on the screen. The direction was strange. Most ships, even pirates, came in on a roughly straight line from their destination, unless they were actively expecting trouble. He did a bit of quick math in his head. There wasn’t anything in that direction for almost four months at their maximum hyperspace speed, and no Gateways connecting them. It was only because the Admiral knew the value of coming in off the expected vectors, and had budget to burn, that the sensors had been extended into that area of space. His paranoia paid off, it seems.

“Contact Madrigal Base, let them know, quietly, what we’re facing. And contact Vice Admiral Vakrana. Let her know our status, and that we are moving to check it out. Tell the squadron to spread out, maximum coverage on the passive sensors. Anyone who gets a probable contact is to light it up with active scanners, and drop a tarpit to keep it from escaping.”

He paused, looking over the plot. There were several civilian vessels in the system, as part of normal in-system and intersystem trade. If these were pirates, they’d be looking for… there! A pair of freighters heading on a course that would take them not far from the projected trajectory of the stealth ships. The freighters were closer to them than they were to the contacts, too. He sent his numbers to tactical, and they confirmed the possible intercept times. Sending the course to the helmsman, he said, “Helm, put us on an intercept course in front of those freighters, stealth approach. If these are pirates, I don’t want to scare them off before we can get them under our guns. If these are something more, then I want to see them before they see us.”

A few minutes after they were set on course, the comms officer looked up from his console, “Captain, the Tribune is launching fighters. Shadow Squadron’s Raptors are scrambling now. They will jump behind the contacts’ track, and see if they can’t stir them up somehow. Green Blade’s Thunderbolts and Wrathspeaker’s Dragons will exit the asteroid field and hold position until enemy force and strength is identified. Admiral Vakrana is giving you tactical command while she prepares the rest of the fleet to mobilize if necessary, and informs Command.”

Blackfeather nodded. This was probably overkill, but pirates weren’t the only danger to face ships in space. The X’thari had started becoming active again, after the hellacious beating they’d taken at Nuevo Edo. It was better to have a ‘surprise drill’ that went nowhere, than to find yourself caught with your ships in port and unable to defend themselves.

He kept his eyes locked on the sensor data. There, for an instant, the energy signature of Shadow’s interceptors entering and exiting hyperspace in an in-system jump, coming out behind where the contacts had been spotted, before returning to stealth. He waited, looking along the projected track, as he considered how much longer until the light caught up to the stealth ships, letting passive sensors know what had happened…

“THERE!” He pointed at the plot, as eight X’thari raiders suddenly appeared on screen. They were the smaller scout ships, and they had split into two groups, one of six and one of two, with the two hanging far back from the first group, almost inside range of the interceptors. Shields came up, and active sensors blared, lighting them up for the X’thari to find them.

“Shields up! Tarpits active! Get us in range of the group of six. Comms, tell Green Blade and Wrathspeaker to take the stragglers first, and don’t let them get away! We’ll still be here when they are done, but Shadow will get mauled if they have to fight fair against those scouts!”

“Aye, Captain!”

“Weapons, I want everything up and ready to go! Fire the primaries if you have a shot at close range. We won’t get them standing still long enough for ballistics to hit them except by luck until we get to that range. Not with those ships’ speed and agility.”

He looked to the comms officer. “Inform the squadron that ‘Eagle’ is in effect. Atlanta will form point for the Assassins, weapons at their discretion, but remind Captain Glavine that we don’t want any of those primary weapon shots going wild. Reaper’s Blade will attack head on, and attempt to sucker as many of them in as we can so the assassins can pick them off.”

He paused, looking at the plot as ships moved into tracks to intercept and begin the fight. It looked like the X’thari were caught unawares by the Raptors dropping in behind them. But why only eight targets? Something wasn’t right here. “Go live with the active sensors on the perimeter satellites. If they find anything, Shadow is to terminate with prejudice. The others can take care of two scouts, easy.”

Active scanners went off, and, sure enough, there was a new contact. The ninth Raider was hanging outside the heliopause, and above the ecliptic. It was just sitting there, watching. “JAMMERS! I DON’T WANT ANY TRANSMISSIONS GETTING OUT OF THIS SYSTEM! HAVE SHADOW KILL THAT SHIP NOW!”

Things began happening rapidly. As Shadow squadron turned to warp towards the new contact, the two scouts were coming into weapons range of them. Just before they launched, the Thunderbolts and Dragons of Green Blade and Wrathspeaker squadrons dropped out of hyperspace directly astern of the two scouts. It only took a single Dragonsbreath torpedo each to destroy the scouts. The next moment, the Raptors were in range of the last scout ship, their weaker missiles not having the same level of power as a Dragonsbreath torpedo, but numbers were not on the X’thari’s side, especially with their shields only starting to come online as they secured from stealth.

And then the six on four dance between warships started. Two X’thari ships were taken out by point blank shots from the massive rail guns aboard the Reaper’s Blade and Antietam. Two more were battered by more conventional weapons, as the ships closed into what was essentially knife range. The Black Star ships did not get off without a scratch either, as a lucky hit punched through Dunkirk’s shields and holed her side, taking out main power, along with most of her engineering crew. It was only because Atlanta was there in an instant to cover the wounded Assassin that the X’thari didn’t take her out completely.

Three squadrons of fighters dropped in on the remaining X’thari, pinning them between Reaper’s Blade’s guns and Green Blade’s missiles. Ten minutes after the first shot was fired, the battle was over. Not a single X’thari ship survived, having all been destroyed, or self-destructing when their engines were disabled. Other than Dunkirk, the rest of the casualties were light, with the other ships taking minor damage, and only two fighters having been damaged badly enough that their pilots were forced to eject, but they had good signals on them, so they could be recovered.

“All ships, stand down. Damage control teams, get to work. Launch shuttles to do Search and Rescue for those pilots. Drop jamming.”

“Captain, Admiral Vakrana is calling.”

“On screen.”

The screen lit up, showing the knelfi woman wearing a slave collar over her Black Star Navy uniform. Slave Vice-Admiral Essaerae Vakrana was one of the Jagloth group, and had been promoted after the Civil War business. In other circumstances, Blackfeather might have smarted at taking orders from a slave, but Black Star was a unique organization Slave or free meant nothing if you didn’t have the skills for the job. She had proven her worth.

Vakrana got straight to the point. “Good work, Captain. Smart thinking on using the active sensors to catch the last ship outside the system.”

“Thank you, Ma’am. It seemed like the logical course, given the reconnaissance efforts that the raiders have been doing lately. If they were looking for more news of Black Stars, somewhere that they could attack without being slaughtered, like at Nuevo Edo, then they would have had to have people outside the engagement area, ready to get any information they could out, if the rest of the group were destroyed.”

“Yes, and I concur. Return to base, Captain. The gunboats will run system patrol for the moment, while we look to Dunkirk’s repairs and getting a full debrief. I’m passing this information on to higher. I want a system defense plan in place in case they decide to return. Madrigal is no Nuevo Edo. We might hold the base indefinitely until they reduce it to scrap, but that would leave the rest of the system open to attack.”

“Understood, Ma’am.”

(Confederate Navy Liaison Office, Madrigal Base, Madrigal System)

Lieutenant Wynrie sighed. They called this a ‘Liaison Office’, but it was basically just her, and her two staff members (a most welcome concession by the Black Star CEO). They were officially a liaison between the Confederate and Black Star navies, but everyone knew she was Naval Intelligence. An ‘open spy’, in other words. That limited her effectiveness, but made her a vital semi-official backchannel way for the two navies to pass information between each other, outside of the gaze of politicians or the press.

Which is why a copy of a report from Slave Vice Admiral Vakrana had just been ‘accidentally’ diverted to her desk. The X’thari had launched a probing raid on the system, and been soundly beaten, losing all their scouts, but it was clear that they were stepping up their attempts to find Black Star in more vulnerable positions than they had been at Nuevo Edo. They might not know Black Star’s name, but they had to know a new group with new technology was changing the playing field.

And X’thari didn’t like it when people changed the playing field on them.

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Be sure to read my published works!

Frozen Soul series (Sci-Fi Supervillain story):
Frozen Soul https://www.amazon.com/dp/B071R125QT
Tales of the Void Traveler https://www.amazon.com/dp/B06ZZ52G37

Rules-Free VRMMO Life (Dark Fantasy GameLit):
Volume 1 - Tutorial
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B071VPRNDB

Omnibus 1 - Volumes 1-4

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0774T354X