Blue Star Enterprises

Captain Krieger of the Epsilon's Dawn yawned as he entered the bridge. It was early, even for him, but this was when the jump was scheduled to exit into normal space again.

"Captain on deck!" the new watch officer shouted, making Vitor wince and give the man the stink eye.

"That's not necessary on my ship, Marine," he stated flatly.

"I'm afraid I must protest, Sir, STO rules state–," he cut the man off before he could go into the arbitrary rules that had been drilled into him back during training.

He wanted to rub his temples at the man's single-mindedness. The STO brass had agreed to the three-month checkup he had suggested, but they had also saddled him with a company of Marines. Technically it was more like half a company since the Dawn didn't have enough room to host a full company of Marines, but that didn't change how much it annoyed him.

He was black ops, the Marines were the exact opposite of that. And while most people considered Marines to be mindless drones hell-bent on fighting, Vitor knew they weren't mindless. The soldiers likely knew they wouldn't see any action during this deployment, and their boredom showed in how they acted around his ship. It wasn't anything overt that he could call them out on or reprimand them for. Their boredom manifested in them doing stupid stuff like calling out 'Captain on deck,' or even doing security watch in the first place.

Vitor had never had or needed a security watch aboard his ships. The people who were allowed aboard such a ship had long since been vetted.

"–I'm aware of STO guidelines, Private. Just do me a favor and do not yell so loud next time, especially so early in the morning."

The man saluted, "Sir, yes, Sir!"

The Private's volume hadn't decreased at all, making Vitor's eye twitch in annoyance. Instead of engaging further with the young man, Vitor went over and got himself a cup of caff and a bagel from the tray set off to the side. At least someone had brought that up during the night.

The caff was only lukewarm, but it was better than nothing. As the caffeine worked its way through his system to wake him up, he sat in the command seat. "Report," he said once he was situated.

"Most of the system is the same as when we were last here, Captain. The mining ship is still in the system, but the mercenary gunship isn't. It looks like they have also expanded their refueling station, and moved the three pirate ships over to it."

"Hmm, that is interesting. I would have thought they would have scrapped them but if they moved them, they are likely going to try and repair them. Are the sensors picking up any changes on the surface yet?"

"Not yet, Sir."

"Alert me when you get a clear picture."

The alert came much sooner than he predicted, and not for what he had hoped. "Captain! We have multiple jump signatures detected."

He straightened in his chair. "How many?"

"Twenty-two, Sir," the Ensign responded in shock.

He knew a pirate attack was bound to happen here at some point, but there was no reason for one this large. Where had they even come from? "Sound the general alert and get me eyes on those ships. I wanna see what we are dealing with."

He left the bridge as the alert went out. The Marine looked unsure of what to do until Vitor stopped next to him. "The alert means to get suited up, Marine. Now go!"

The young man saluted before he hurried off and Vitor couldn't help but smile. At least he would have some quiet when he returned to the bridge. By the time he had his vac-suit on and was back on the bridge, the night crew had been replaced by the day crew. All of the day crew were in their vac-suits. He didn't anticipate combat, but his orders were clear, he was not allowed to let this facility fall to pirate hands. The vagueness of those orders gave him a lot of leeway with which to act, but could also bite him in the ass later.

This time when he sat in his command chair, he strapped himself in. "Weapons, I want a full system check."

"Aye, aye, Captain."

"Engineering, status on ship systems."

"Everything is green across the board, Captain."

Vitor nodded at that. He hadn't expected any issues with the ship being fresh out of servicing. Any problems that arose the last time they were out had been addressed when they last returned to the shipyard.

"Crew status!" he barked.

"Seventy-five percent reporting a ready status, Captain," the Lieutenant said sheepishly.

Vitor stared daggers at the young Lieutenant. Apparently, he had been too lax in his combat preparedness. That would change after today. "Not good enough, Lieutenant. I want a report on those who haven't declared ready status. After we leave the general alert, I expect them to drill until they can keep up with the rest, is that understood?"

"Yes, Sir."

"Sensors, any more information on the ships?"

***

Once Katalynn had gotten word of Arkonis Anazi's ship being spotted in the system, she had jumped her entire fleet. It was an impressive display of firepower, led by her heavy cruiser, Valkyrie. None of the other ships could compare to her in tonnage or weapons, but almost every other ship in her fleet was either a frigate or light destroyer. Three of the ships consisted of speedy little corvettes with the final two being gunships.

The corvettes could chase down any fleeing ships, and the gunships would protect their flanks from a similar attack.

Speaking of, she watched the tactical map as the three corvettes changed direction and raced after a large mining ship that was running to a jump point. She doubted they would catch it, but she didn't need the three ships at the moment, so she let them do as they pleased.

"Has anything changed since our scout was last in the system?" she asked.

"It looks like they moved the two gunships and attached them to the Headhunter, Lagertha."

"Hmm. They are either using them as added shielding for the ship, or they want to bring them under cover of the ship guns. Do we have any information on the surface? Has that bastard managed to capture the facility below?" Considering Arkonis' ship was still in the system, there was a good chance he was as well.

"Unsure, Lagertha," the man added.

The fleet slowed and slightly trailed the fourth planet's closest satellite while their sensors scanned the surface and everything around the planet in the distance. They were far enough away to avoid any sort of kinetic attack. And even a laser at this range would be much reduced in power. Even if they did come under attack, all they needed to do was speed up slightly and the rocky barren satellite would shield them.

"We are picking up six large weapon installations on the ground as well as twelve smaller ones. There is also a cluster of shuttles sitting on one landing pad, with a single large shuttle or small freighter sitting on a different pad."

"What about in orbit?" she asked. You didn't try to defend something if you didn't have a way to defend it.

"The Headhunter's power is online, although we can't tell if the weapons are active."

She thought about that. The only ground-based defenses were around the facility, which was near the equator. That left the geostationary station completely undefended. It was probably bait. Any raider entering the system would assume the frigate was crippled by the damage to its hull. It was a prize anyone would salivate over.

"Radio the surface," she ordered.

"Lagertha?" her communication person looked confused by the command.

"Do it."

The man nodded and turned back to his console. "You have an open line."

"People of Eden's End, I am Katalynn Char of clan Char. I see you have spit all over the agreement your people signed with my grandfather. Was it not enough that we let you settle in our territory? Was it not enough that three generations of my family kept our raiders from your doorsteps?" her words were filled with passionate anger over the betrayal.

She hadn't known the exact history of Eden's End, only that her father had told raiders that it was off-limits. After hearing that this was the most likely place Arkonis was holed up, she did some digging into the records. She found out her grandfather had made an agreement to allow the drifters to settle here and had guaranteed them autonomy with a few stipulations.

It was the breaking of those stipulations that had her in a foul mood as she continued her speech. "It seems not, since I see planetary defenses and space infrastructure going up around your planet. Both of which were prohibited by the agreement the original drifters signed. You think you can do as you please in our space without repercussions. Now you see that your hubris has consequences as it has drawn my sworn enemies to you, assuming any of you are still alive down there. It matters not. Arkonis Anazi, if you are still alive, I give you this opportunity to turn yourself in and prove to the galaxy you are not the coward that everyone claims you are. If any of you drifters survived his attack and somehow managed to capture or kill him, turn his body over to my people and I will spare your lives. You have two minutes to reply. Lagertha out."

It took a moment before a reply crackled through the radio. "This is Alexander Kane, owner of this facility. I don't know what agreements the previous drifters signed with you, but I purchased this facility legally. As for Arkonis Anazi, he and his people are all dead. Their bodies have been incinerated so there is nothing to turn over. I'm sorry you came all the way out here for nothing."

"Legally! From who, the STO? The STO has no jurisdiction out here or right to sell what belongs to others, but I'll put that issue aside for the moment. If you can't hand over Arkonis's corpse, my people will need to scour the entire facility to ensure he is truly dead. Once I confirm that, we can speak about your so-called purchase." The STO was once again sticking its nose in where it didn't belong. She couldn't let that happen or she would lose all respect from her people.

"I- I can't allow that," Kane replied.

"Then we have nothing left to discuss. I hope you greet your death with more dignity than Arkonis likely did." She made a cutting motion and the line went dead.

"Have one of the frigates send a volley of three missiles at the station. I wanna see how they respond."

The three missiles launched from one of the ships before turning and quickly lighting off their drives to reorient themselves. The people below would see the missiles coming but that was kind of the point. If she wanted to hide them, she would have told the ship to turn before firing them off, that way they could cold coast in.

She watched the grainy video as the three tiny specs of light, that announced the weapons going active, appeared. The weapons had countermeasures and avoidance systems in them, but they weren't up to the standards of what STO missiles might use. Even with their archaic systems, one of the missiles nearly made it to the ship before the autocannons and defense turrets took it out.

"Is that forward autocannon damaged?" She hadn't seen it move at all during the test.

"It's impossible to tell from this distance, Lagertha," the sensor operator spoke.

She grunted at the man's response. She had been staring at the distant image so she knew how bad it was. Despite the state-of-the-art nature of her ship, long-range optical sensors were extremely hard to manufacture properly. If they relied on them specifically, her ship would have been a complete joke.

"Take us around the moon and line us up toward the station. I want that ship destroyed before we deal with the facility guns."

***

"Sir! The pirates are making their move."

Vitor cursed internally. He had hoped they would just leave after trying to poke at the planet's defenses, but he knew that was a long shot. At least they had given him time to reorient the Dawn into a much more advantageous position.

"Sound the red alert, and prepare for battle stations," he said grimly.

The comm officer blanched at the order but sent the alert.

It was sometimes easy to forget that the majority of his crew were still green. The only live combat they saw was when the Dawn chased down those three damaged gunships. "This better be worth it," he muttered under his breath.

Vitor saw two possibilities with this battle. He could wait for the pirates to destroy the weapons on the surface, or he could attack them while they were occupied with those defenses. Neither was a very good option, but at least the latter had some hope of succeeding.

"Helm, get us on a chase course. Weapons, I want every single missile tube to launch with an intercept time to match when the enemy is in range to fire on that station."

The crew went to work while Vitor sat back and waited. They had the most advantageous position, but he wasn't confident the Dawn could take down even half the ships arrayed against them, let alone all of them. At least he knew who he was going against now.

Katalynn Char's flagship was in the fleet, but he wasn't sure who that big bastard belonged to. She may have upgraded or someone much more powerful took over the Char family. Either way, that ship boasted more weapons than half the ships in that fleet. Taking it down was not going to be easy.

***

"They're coming," Lucas confirmed, his voice shaking slightly.

Alexander put a reassuring hand on the man's shoulder. He understood the trepidation. This fleet of pirates was much larger both in numbers and ship size. He had hoped that some understanding could be reached when Katalynn Char contacted the surface, but as soon as the woman demanded that her people be allowed to scour the facility, he knew it was pointless to reason with her. He would not allow a group of pirates unfettered access to the facility or the people living in it. The pirate fleet might be formidable, but Eden's End was ready as well.

The bunkers now sported blast doors like on the launch room. Not even the grenades from that large grenade launcher were getting in there. The exterior doors were similarly reinforced after the previous attack. But being exposed to the outside environment made them easy targets for ship-mounted guns or missiles so he couldn't see those surviving for long if the pirates made it down here.

The main dome was actually the weakest point of the facility since repairs on the massive structure were taking time and it was still exposed to the outside atmosphere.

He would need to trust Damien and Eva to keep the entry points safe. They certainly were better equipped this time around. While the engineers hadn't figured out how to make augment armor, they had taken the detachable legs Alexander had designed for his robots and repurposed them as a walking mount for heavy weapons. A simple remote control and servos replaced the fancy chip. Alexander applauded their ingenuity in the face of limited time and resources.

"We're far more prepared than we were last time, Lucas. Don't worry."