All That Glitters Ch. 07

"Here, they once again have the platforms immediate defences to contend with, but we also can place Limpet mines outside of the lanes that would be tasked to attack vessels that have not shed speed by a certain point in the approach. That would give us a major advantage.

"If they jump into the ionosphere of the gas giant, we already have a unique defensive system waiting around Piscium-8. The one thing we don't have there is a method of seeing what jumps into place. I would like to place a probe where it can watch the likely jump points or install holo-vid equipment in some of the Limpet mines to give us a view of what would be happening. Unlike what happened to the Wimple, I anticipate that a pirate vessel or vessels WILL attempt to escape, with devastating results to the vessel.

But we would need to determine if the pirate vessel was there to reconnoitre or to act as something else. For instance, if the vessel that jumps into Piscium-8 was a single vessel, that would indicate a desire to research exact coordinates. If it was several supply ships with an escort vessel, that would indicate backup of an intended attack. Thus, the need for the hollo-vid equipment.

"All of these scenarios deliberately do not include our warships. The platforms efforts would be designed to hold the line, until the warships could arrive at the backs of the pirate vessels. Within all of the scenarios, there are minor variations that could occur as to placement and numbers of pirate vessels. But they all predicate on the same question. What is it that the pirates want from this system? That concludes my brief ma'am." He finished.

Fiona looked at Capt. Dostier, who gave her a slight nod.

"Well done Sub-Lieutenant Heem. Or should I say Lieutenant Heem."

"Attention to orders!" Dostier's Ex O shouted. All the navy personnel stood and came to parade rest.

"B-115116-734 Sub-Lieutenant Dalish Heem, you are hereby brevetted Lieutenant to remain so until you have complete level six of the Junior Officers Grade Course and level three of the Command Course." Fiona stood and presented a Lieutenant pin to Capt. Dostier. The two of them took the silver Sub-Lieutenant bars off his collar replacing them with those of the twin gold coloured Lieutenant pins. That done, Capt. Dostier gave the new Lieutenant a nod and he snapped a salute to the commodore, who returned it.

"I expect you to have completed both courses within the next six months. Don't disappoint me. Or yourself. Your pay at Lieutenant rank does not start until you have completed those courses. Dismissed, Lieutenant."

The men and women in the conference room broke into a round of cheers and back slapping of the newly frocked officer, who looked like he could have been pushed onto his ass with the wave of a feather.

***********

Fiona sent out a personal dispatch on the subject to FAdm. Thenton at Folden Naval Base including a holo-vid of Lt. Heem's brief and his being 'Frocked'. Her defence options were included along with thoughts from the three captains.

Fiona identified a parking zone five light years from the Piscium system that was out of line from any known traffic. She told the admiral that she would use her platform as bait for the pirates. She really had no choice as the pirates were in her system and watching, likely to hit Liramor-23 soon. Though 'soon' was a relative term.

She asked the admiral to provide two additional warships for a ten-day period at the end of each month and to shift the monthly navy supply ship to the end of the month.

Admiral Thenton made his own mind up. He ordered a second supply ship into the system at the end of each month, thus giving the navy and Liramor-23 an increase in necessary resources, especially resources for weapons, such as additional mines.

He ordered priority to placing the 150cm tubes on the platform and making them functional and brought in several missiles and torpedoes for each tube.

For ten days at the end of each month, he pulled five warships from anti-pirate patrol and placed them into the parking zone five light years from the Piscium system. The first time they jumped into the parking zone with the Wimple and the Kindalla, they scared the shit out of the crews of both vessels.

They were ready at the end of the month from the date they discovered the pirate vessel.

Alien Pod Location, Piscium system

The science team decided to retrieve the alien pod before the expected pirate battle and bring it to the platform to provide it with as much safety as possible. They didn't want to bring it aboard the Wimple, so Clark decided to retrieve it with his Rockhound.

Not sure how the vessel would react to the power of the electro-magnets on the Rockhound's pusher arms, Clark decided to use a Bravo-Type Pulse engine to push the tiny pod back to the platform. Bravo pulse engines were the smallest of the engines that miners had access to. These particular engines had a method of diverting their engine flow to aid in turning the objects they were pushing.

After attaching the engine to the pod, he slowly brought the pod up to thirty percent of light, at which point the vessel began to shake violently. Raymond immediately dialed back the speed until the shaking stop around twenty-seven percent light. To be safe, he dialed it back to twenty-five percent light. It would mean an eight-hour trip to the platform, but he had spent much longer shifts monitoring rocks he had moved about.

Once the pod was in its respective bay, the team went over it carefully, hollo-vids recording all that was done. One of the scientists noted a small rock jammed into a panel at the lower right-rear of the pod. He worked it free and the panel immediately began to open. People jumped back and out of the way.

An arm extended outward and upward. The end of the arm expanded into a rough circle and pointed up to the lights in the bay. Nothing else happened so people just left it like that and went back to other tasks.

Several hours later, one of the scientists was looking through the pod's window when she noted that a black square dot at the bottom of a white row was now blinking blue. Above it, another square dot where one had not been before, was now blinking grey and one above it blinking black. He brought it to the attention of the other scientists, and they surmised that the pod was recharging itself using the dish at the end of the arm.

The scientist brought in a series of powerful natural light emitters and pointed them toward the extended arm. It didn't take long for the scientists to see a difference as the pod's charge indicators started to firm up. It quickly went up three levels of solid blue to blinking blue to blinking grey to blinking black. They determined that the pod had taken just shy of a quarter of a charge in a little over eight hours. They would leave the lights on for the next twenty-four hours to see what difference it would make for the pod.

There were four other white rows of power indicators that had not yet responded. The scientists determine that it would take the vessel upwards of two weeks to fully recharge all five rows of power indicators. Then things might get interesting...

Liramor-23 Mining Platform, Piscium System

Near the end of the second month, the probe watching the pirate vessel recorded the FTL entry of a second vessel. Both vessels remained in place for several hours before the first vessel jumped out. The probe had carefully recorded the entry of the second vessel and the exit of the first. It dutifully sent the information to the platform via tight beam transmission.

Ten hours later, three different command structures, the NS Wimple, the NS Kindalla, and Lirmamor-23 Control, worked to determine where the ships had come from / jumped to and came up with the same conclusion. The vessel had jumped approximately ten light years into a star system in Sector Forty-Three. They did not know if that was a jump point or the end destination. It was, however, not a jump point that was known to be used by commercial ships. Fiona ordered an FTL probe into the edge of the system to wait and watch.

Several times the probe caught vessels jumping in and out of the system and dutifully reported back after the fact. It would arrive near Liramor-23, disgorge its data pack and wait for instructions, then jump back to its watch point.

Near the end of its second month on watch, eight vessels jumped into the system and turned their bows towards the Piscium system. The probe had its orders. It did not wait. It jumped back to Liramor-23 immediately.

When the probe gave up its data package, all hell broke loose on the platform. Fiona ordered an immediate red alert and sent out the specialized Rockhounds to wait above and below the inbound lanes out of the way of the Limpet mines. Six hours later, things started to happen.

The first action in the battle of Liramor-23 was around the gas giant Piscium-8, when three ships jumping into the ionosphere.

Clark had seeded several Limpet mine shells armed with holo-vid units with orders to watch and record. He saw a small Ballang Class Escort Vessel and two rather large naval supply ships. The Ballang Class was an armed escort ship that was almost all teeth. Small, fierce and very dangerous, its purpose was to protect other vessels and act as an attack vessel. All of the ships were Confederation of Planet design, and still had faded CP logos on their hulls.

By luck, the ships jumped almost into the middle of the Limpet mines. The mines followed their programing and began to latch onto the vessels and, just as Lt. Heem had predicted, the ships did not surrender.

The Ballang Class started shooting at the Limpet mines and maneuvering to better place itself to protect the other ships. Being such a small vessel, when the mines detonated, the ship was instantly destroyed.

The other ships didn't fair much better. The first ship attempted to open its missile/torpedo doors on the bow and the mines there instantly detonated, destroying the bow and the holo-vid and sensor suits that gave forward visibility and information to the ship. The ship was effectively blind looking forward. When it attempted to engage its sub-light engines, the mines there detonated, ripping apart the engines and opening the rear section of the hull. The ship lost twenty crewmen before the captain shut down his remaining weapons and the FTL vanes. He had surrendered the vessel with 160 of the remaining crew.

The middle ship unmasked its guns and lost them within seconds, before they could even be fired. The captain attempted to run and lost his sub-light engines. Fortunately for the crew, the hull remained intact. The captain wisely left the FTL vanes folded, effectively surrendering the ship along with 230 crew. Three enemy ships had been destroyed or captured in the space of five minutes. Liramor control watched the entire episode twenty-eight seconds light, waiting impatiently for act two.

Fiona had ordered the FTL comms probe sent to the warship parking zone with imagery of the destruction in Piscium-8's ionosphere. The probe arrived at its pre-determined point and sent out its data package. Almost immediately after, seven Navy ships began to jump into Piscium space.

Five pirate warships jumped into the inbound lanes, moving at high speed towards the platform. The Limpet mines reacted, placing themselves in harms way. The lead ships in both lanes were heavily damaged and went tumbling on past the station and out into space still moving at seventy-five percent light.

The second and third ship in the in the commercial lanes slowed dramatically, but that allowed the Limpet mines to properly attach themselves to the ships. The second ship lost its sub-light engines and FTL vanes within seconds of each other. It unmasked its guns and swung them on the platform.

Rockhounds dove on the ship from 'above' and 'below', firing kinetic shot into the roofs of the turrets, effectively destroying the main guns. The ship was now virtually helpless. The third ship in the commercial lane masked itself from the platform behind the damaged hull of the second ship and brought its guns into battery before moving up to unmask its guns against the platform. More Rockhounds dove and fired kinetic shot on the turrets, while three Rockhounds ran down the length of the ship with hardened spikes on their arms, slashing it open to space. The ship vented its atmosphere and most of the crew died. Only those in sealed compartments survived.

The second ship that jumped into the Navy inbound lane also slowed considerably but was able to bring its close in weapons to bear on the mines and the Rockhounds causing significant damage to the four Rockhounds that repeatedly attacked it. The pirate ship survived the initial counterattack, but the captain had forgotten about the pirate's game plan.

Six supply ships jumped into the inbound lanes, three to each and quickly ran up the aft ends of the two damaged warships in the commercial lanes and the now considerably slowed warship in the Navy lane. Two of the oncoming vessels died instantly in the collision as did the three vessels already in the lanes.

The four remaining pirate vessels began to spool up the FTL vanes to escape when they were hit by a barrage of fire from TUSN ships that materialized around them. They tried to fight but, with the combined firepower employed against them, were left defenceless and powerless in seconds.

In the space of thirty-four minutes the battle of Liramor-23 was over. Fourteen pirate vessels were destroyed or captured. All were damaged beyond repair. The total included six warships destroyed, all of CP design, four navy supply ships captured, two of CP design, and two of the missing ships that had been sent to be mothballed, along with four civilian supply ships captured but damaged beyond repair. Of the enemy warship crew, only 465 survived. More survived on the supply ships, especially those that surrendered but the loss of life for the pirates was staggering.

More important for the Navy was the intelligence it was able to glean from the ships. It told them where the pirate strongholds were and how many ships were still in the pirate arsenal. The pirate armadas would be dealt a fatal blow in short order.

One shock found on the supply ships was the slaves. Captured from pirated vessels, there were roughly one hundred slaves on each of the ships. They were used to crew non-essential systems on the ships and to 'entertain' the pirate crews. The pirate ships were crewed mostly by males, so the majority of the slaves were females. They had been placed in the brig during the attack to keep them out of the way so, fortunately, most survived. They had intentionally been left hungry to control them. They were in need of food, medical care, and psychological care.

Of the platform's defences, they lost four of the specialized Rockhounds but recovered all eight of the crew alive though injured. They had expended 118 Limpet mines to destroy seven enemy ships. The platform hadn't fired its Mk-48s, nor fired any of its 150cm missiles/torpedoes. Though there were some injuries, no loss of life on the platform, Rockhounds, or Navy ships was recorded during the attack.

***************

Fourteen days after the attack, the enemy ships had been corralled and placed into a parking zone while medical and intelligence staff ran through the carcasses of ships. Bodies were being taken out of the ships, by the dozens. Very few on the warships were taken out alive, and those that were often had horrific injuries. The pirates would face a Court Martial that would likely see the death penalty applied to them, their own ship's records and statements from those held as slaves incriminating the survivors.

The NS Dewfall snapped into the incoming navy lane and moved to its assigned parking zone, which was pretty much anywhere as mining activity had not yet restarted again due to the pieces of the destroyed ships still floating around. Rockhounds and mining shuttles were busy trying to capture all of the many pieces that could affect work in the cages or endanger ships in transit. Mining would resume after this cleanup was completed.

Fleet Admiral Thenton came aboard with a surprise. Three five-star admirals were with him. They were Admiral James Hannison, the Judge Advocate General of the Navy, Admiral Rallond Heist, Chief of Navy Intelligence, and Admiral George Ramison, Chief of the Navy. A dozen aids, all captains, scurried around them.

The admirals held an honours parade in conference room one with Fiona Marsh and all of the ship's captains involved in the battle along with each ship's Boatswain. On hand were the Rockhound pilots who had been involved in the defence, including the injured members, now doing noticeably better, and the fire crews that had saved Liramor-23 during the recent explosion and fire. The conference was being broadcast throughout the platform and to all ships in their parking zones.

"Gentlemen and ladies," Ramison began, "some good news for you. The President of the Terran Union and myself, Chief of the Navy have determined that a General Battle Star will be issued with a bar titled Liramor-23. All personnel on the ships involved and on Liramor-23 will receive the battle star, whether or not they are Navy personnel.

"This battle has provided us with an unprecedented intelligence haul that we believe will result in the destruction of the pirate threat derived from the former members of the Confederation of Planet's navy personnel gone rouge. The first of these strikes will likely happen within the month.

He motioned one of his aids forward who opened a case placing it on the table.

"Attention to orders!" shouted the aid.

The aid picked up some notes and began speaking.

"By order of the President of the Terran Union, Wilford J. Hallaway, a Presidential Unit Citation will be presented to the warships involved in the battle of Liramor-23, the NS Wimple, the NS Kindalla, the NS Carmen, the NS Kologn, the NS Claridge, the NS Severmore, and to the hospital ship, NHS Mercy, whose crew worked tirelessly to recover pirate personnel and enslaved citizens from the damaged vessels and provide medical aid to the same, to the Liramor-23 command staff, who directed the defence of Liramor-23, to the Rockhound pilots involved in defence of Liramor-23, and to the crews that manned the weapons on Liramor-23.

"Would the Captains and Chief Petty Officers of each vessel and Director Fiona Marsh and Liramor-23's Chief of Maintenance please form a line," the aid finished then directed each of the command personnel into their assigned spot.

The admiral went down the line and presented each Boatswain and the Chief of Maintenance with a scroll with the Presidential Unit Citation for each ship and the platform. He then returned and presented a blue colored patch that was to be worn under the ship's logo on the uniforms of each command to each of the Captains and Fiona, shaking hands and giving a salute to each in turn.

The aid picked up a large box and opened it.

"Mining Shift Foreman Mark Brent, of Liramor-23 Mining Platform, in the Piscium star system. Who, on the 23 of March 2483, did enter the platform's Construction Bay Eight during an intense fire caused by an explosion, along with six other miners at high risk to themselves, and began to knock down the fire in the bay under his direction with water hoses. The work of these seven people to control the fire, gave time to other teams to rescue twenty-two personnel that had been injured during the initial explosion and to a team of maintenance specialists to attempt to reset damaged electronics in the bay.

"Foreman Brent, by order of the President of Liramor Prime, Marcel Lapierre, and confirmed by the President of the Terran Union, Wilford J. Hallaway, your team are awarded the Medal of Bravery for your actions, presented this day by Admiral George Ramison, Chief of the Navy, on behalf of a grateful people."