The Next Day…

Another explosion rocked the ship as John piloted the Phoenix Hawk away from the pirate base, leading a merry band of spaceships behind him. His radio crackled to life again, Lieutenant Eligan’s voice coming through the speakers. 

K – [I am having some doubts about your sanity, Captain]

J – [Little late for that now, Lieutenant, besides everything is going according to plan… more or less.]

The ship rocked again, another salvo of missiles from one of the batteries detonating beside the ship, the anti-missile system clipping the majority of them just before they impacted. Luckily, despite the concentrated fire he had been receiving for the last few minutes, his shields were still sitting above ninety percent.

Luck, or is it just this overpowered ship?

J -[All fighters, get ready to deploy. Our reinforcements should be landing in five minutes.]

The Night Before

“How about this. They don’t know my ship is working for the INP yet, so I will fly right up to their base and ask to join them. When I get close enough, I will open up with all my weapons, causing as much chaos as I can. Once they launch their ships, I’ll hit the throttle and burn away from the base, leading their fleet away from the cover of their guns.

When we are far enough away, your team launches and we pin them down until the rest off the INP fleet lands on top of them.” John said, laying out his plan to Katrina in the cockpit simulation. It would take some coordination on the INP’s part, but he was sure she could manage that.

She would have to. She was going to be part of the anvil for this hammer and anvil tactic.

“Ahh… I’m not sure…” She said nervously. 

“Really? Are you showing your nerves now? You were ready to just drop our fleet on the front door a few hours ago.” He replied. He had no clue if his plan would work, but it sounded better than a straight up frontal assault. 

Back at the Battle

J – [All fighters, launch]

John opened the hangar doors, releasing the flight of INP fighters and the handful of mercenary vessels. Once they were clear of his ship, he closed the bay doors again, cutting the power to his main thrusters. He let the ship continue forward on its own momentum for a few moments, then rotated it on its axis, bringing all his forward weapons to bear on the conga line of pirate vessels stretched out behind him.

“This will probably only work once.” He said, adjusting his ship’s attitude with the assistance of his piloting skill. Once he was happy, he barked into his comms. “Fighters, stand clear of my frontal arc, firing the MAG.” 

He pulled the trigger and released the weapon, the hundred pound ball of metal flying out of the cannon at some crazy high velocity that was measured in decimal points of light speed. 

The results were nearly immediate, with the lead pirate ship just disintegrating in front of him. It continued on down the line through several more vessels, blasting through their low quality shields and armour like a shotgun slug going through wet tissue paper. Finally, its momentum was arrested enough to deflect off something inside one of the ships, changing its trajectory and flying off somewhere into space. 

“Damn, if I were only that good with the rest of my guns.” He murmured, switching back to his other weapons. The MAG had to be fired by aiming the ship, not by aiming a weird 3d targeting recital. He instinctively knew how to line his ship up, the rest, not so much.

In the chaos that ensued, he took a moment to listen to his surroundings. Sure, he could hear his ship’s powerplants humming loudly behind him, and the pilots on the comms were calling out targets or could be heard mocking their adversaries. Filtering those out, other than when something hit his shields, the battlefield was silent. 

It makes sense, being in a vacuum and all, but it just seems so surreal. Though I have questions…like why are both sides using the same channel for communications? Are there no separate channels, or I don’t know, some form of encryption?

He filed that away to ask Katrina later. 

The battle began in earnest then, the pirates starting to swarm his ship, using no apparent tactics other than trying to overwhelm him with sheer numbers. Their cobbled together ships came towards him with no apparent plan, the front ships fouling the shots of the ones in the rear, giving him some breathing room.

The fighters he had launched were the polar opposite of the pirates. The INP force was flying in two, four ship formations, conducting strafing runs on the edges of the blob of ships in front of him, concentrating fire on the vessels they deemed more dangerous. They were being chased by enemy fighters, but the pirates’ vessels were outclassed by the government forces, both in equipment and training.

The mercs he had launched were no less effective, the two corvettes and a fighter circling behind the swarm to pick off stragglers coming in from the base, the gun boats almost looking like disco balls in space with the amount of plasma and lasers they were firing off. 

Then there was the one merc fighter who was operating solo, and all he could think of was that whoever was flying it was nuts. They were moving at lightning speed through the centre of the swarm, passing close enough to the enemy ships that they would be trading paint if one of the pilots sneezed.  At that range, the pirates couldn’t shoot at them without risking hitting their own ships, letting the pilot sow more chaos in their ranks.

This wasn’t saying the pirates were completely inept. Despite their lack of coordination, the sixty or so vessels remaining still had a massive numbers advantage over them. They mainly used their numbers to concentrate fire on the Phoenix Hawk, his massive vessel much larger than any three of theirs. His shields continued to flare from incoming weapons fire, plasma spreading over his shields like a weird aurora borealis. 

The bridge door opened and closed, but he had no time to look behind him to see who walked in, his focus on trying to hit ships with his own plasma beams while trying to maneuver around the battlefield. He wasn’t good with hitting anything but their larger ships while he was moving, but he could use his bulk and speed to provide cover for the fighters.

MV – [Argh! Need support in the rear! They brought up a big boy.] 

One of the mercs called out, and John looked on his radar screen to see what the issue was. A large, destroyer sized vessel was making its way ponderously towards them from the pirate base, laying heavy fire down on one of the merc corvettes. The merc’s shields flared, then failed, its armour starting to boil off from the heat of plasma hitting it. 

Making a decision, John jammed the throttle forward, charging through the line of ships in front of him. He ploughed through a few of the smaller vessels, the cobbled together ships breaking apart on his shields, the impacts doing more damage than the combined weapons fire he had received so far. 

A – [By the World Tree, what manner of insanity is this! You nearly crushed me!]

John ignored the elf, focusing on trying to twist his ship through the masses of pirate vessels in front of him. He treated them like he did small trees and rocks when driving his tank during his military service, avoiding them if he could, running over them if he couldn’t. It was working, though he was taking damage.

“Captain, shields are down to sixty-three percent. I am routing power from less critical systems to compensate.” A voice from behind him said.

“Very Good. Just make sure the MAC has power.” He called out, not caring that someone had entered the cockpit without his permission. At that point, he had his hands full just trying to fly this beast. 

He exited the other side of the pirate fleet a moment later, giving him a clear run on the incoming vessel. He lined up the siege weapon and pulled the trigger, sending the heavy round towards the larger ship. 

It connected a moment later, a massive hole forming in its hull. Unlike its smaller counterparts, the destroyer didn’t just disintegrate from the impact. However, it did list to the side a bit, its guns silenced. John could only imagine the confusion going on inside that ship, the explosive decompression, the noise, not knowing what just hit them. 

He shook his head, putting it out of his mind for now. There was no need to worry about pirates who made a career preying on those weaker than them.

MV – [Thanks fer the assist. My ship’s thrusters ‘re unresponsive. Requesting recovery to make repairs.]

John sighed, not sure if that would be possible. His blitzkrieg attack was effective at confusing the pirate fleet, the INP fighters, and other mercs, all taking advantage of the disarray. Despite that, there were still over a dozen ships chasing him. 

J – [I’ll do what I can]

John moved his vessel between the pirates and the floundering corvette, shielding it from enemy fire. That just made him an easier target for his pursuers. 

They continued to exchange fire for another minute, John cycling through his weapons and coring a couple of vessels. His ship rocked several times as missile fire made it through his point defences, straining his ship’s shields to their limits. He did manage to keep the corvette protected from the majority of the weapons fire.

K – [Reinforcements have arrived]

Moments after Katrina called that out across the comms, the INP fleet landed above the pirate fleet, the two dozen frigates opening fire immediately. 

The battle did not last long after that, the fleet mopped up the pirates quickly. The base fell quickly afterwards, the fleet hanging back at maximum range and dismantling the defenses. The INP forces were clearing the interior of the asteroid they were using as the main hideout, leaving John and the mercs to salvage operations. 

John was alone on the bridge, the blue haired dwarf woman having excused herself earlier to go make repairs on her brother’s corvette. He thanked her for the assistance, but didn’t get a chance to get her name before she darted out of the room. 

I guess she is a mechanic. Though with her skills managing the ship’s power systems in battle, it really shows me that I need to get some crew members. As for her, she was definitely short, but sitting down here, I couldn’t get a look at anything but her hair. 

That left him to start up his tractor simulator again, bringing in the rest of the mercs and INP fighters. Several showed signs of significant damage, but they were all still mobile. Paired with the fact that the reinforcements came out unscathed, they completed the operation without sustaining any significant losses. 

This ship is insane compared to those pirates. It was almost as if I dropped a World War Two battleship at Trafalgar. Even crashing into other ships, my shields held. And according to these screens, it has some significant amounts of armour as well. Is the ship itself the New World Bonus from DEN? No, that doesn’t make sense. I didn’t get one when I died in StarCraft.

After that was done, he started to run salvage operations. He didn’t really understand how that machine in the cargo hold did it, but it would take scraps that were floating in space and process them all into its base materials.  All he had to do was tractor it in, use another control to cut it up into manageable sizes, and the machine did the rest. It was pretty mindless work.

Several hours passed, and no one came to bother him on the bridge. He was making steady progress learning how to salvage materials, but even that massive bay didn’t have room to fit it all in, so he focused more on electronic components.

There were a couple INP frigates following his ship around, pulling survivors out of escape capsules and arresting them. He asked over the comms to break up the monotony, what was going to happen with them. Turns out they would be processed back at the station and become IDS. Any bounties would be divvied out in a few days to the mercenary forces. 

John sat back, processing that information. On one hand, he was happy that he was able to help take out the pirate base that was hounding the merchants and transports in the system, saving people from death or a life of illegal slavery. 

On the other hand, he just helped the government enslave hundreds of pirates legally. They can call it IDS or whatever, but it just seemed dirtier than throwing the lot of them in jail. 

He massaged his temples, beginning to get a bit tired and cranky again. He didn’t want to think too deeply on it, it wasn’t like he was in any position to make reforms to their nation.

He went back to salvaging wrecks, burying his thoughts in the mindless work. 

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