“Now on to the main topic. I’ve talked to the other captains and they are readying their ships and awaiting a plan,” she smiled, “Hopefully we can come up with one. I assume you saw my conversation with the pirate captain.” Heads nodded.
“We could run, of course, but I’m not inclined to do that as it just postpones the inevitable fight if we want to stay in this region. Of course, we could evacuate our base and leave the region.” She looked around the table. “But there is no way in hell we are going to do that so we’ll make a stand here as the opening round of the campaign. We are being stalked by a larger force who thinks they have surprise on their side. Our great advantage right now is we know they do not. I suspect the OrCons promised the Goths they would eliminate us so the Goths would have a free hand here in the Badlands. That is the only reason the Goths would allow that force to transit through their space. If we run, the OrCons will be obligated to pursue us to keep their commitment. We can’t expect help any time soon. We have only one lightly defended base for support and everyone knows its location. We could stretch this out by running now and fighting later, but I don’t see it ending well for us. The Goths would continually keep the OrCons updated on our movements through other spy ships or traders or anyone who would gladly sell us out for a price. Let’s put a beating on them here and now.
“I see the OrCons coming out of subspace right on top of us. It would take them a few seconds to shake off the effects of departing subspace and fire on us, but if we were totally unprepared, they would have those seconds. However, we won’t be unprepared, and we won’t be sitting here when they drop in on us. I want to lay a minefield here and they can drop in on that. We’ll stand off and put a broadside on them before they get off a shot. Between the mines and our first shots, we should be able to offset their numbers. Biggest problem right now is how to handle that spy ship. They must be sending updates to the OrCons on a regular schedule. Any change in the spy ship’s transmission schedule will probably cause the OrCons to abort their attack and go to a Plan B. We need to take that spy ship but keep the reports flowing to the OrCons on their schedule.” Sky frowned, “Not sure how to do that. Let’s see this spy ship in real time.”
Sky gestured to Goldman to bring up the 3D display over the briefing table. He touched a few keys and the planet materialized over the table. Two more key strokes and the orbiting ships populated the display.
“Highlight Lodus.”
A ship on the outer edge of the lower orbit glowed bright. All the staff looked at the solitary ship as it circled the planet. There was no other craft immediately nearby.
“If any of our ships were to move toward Lodus, it will probably cause her to run or send out an abort call to the OrCons,” Goldman muttered.
As the planet and ships rotated in real time, another small ship came into Sky’s view as it trailed behind Lodus on the same track on the outer edge of low orbit. The second ship was slowly gaining on Lodus.
“Identify that ship, please,” Sky asked.
Goldman hit his key pad and the ship glowed in highlight. “The trader Shamrock out of Lisbeth; 500 tons, 8-man crew with a cargo of grain.” Goldman tapped more keys, “She claims thruster problems so is staying on the outer edge of lower orbit as she works on them.”
“When did she drop into orbit?” asked Sky.
“Earlier today at 0905.”
“When did Lodus drop into orbit?”
“At 0817.”
“Shamrock looks to be slowly overtaking Lodus. Project nearest point of approach, Shamrock to Lodus.”
“Aye, Captain.”
Goldman worked his keypad. The images speeded up as Goldman pushed the projections forward in time. The Shamrock gained on, and then passed the Lodus. Goldman stopped and reversed the images until the Shamrock was directly abeam the Lodus.
“What time will that occur and how far apart are they?”
Goldman consulted his data and replied, “Time will be in five hours and twenty-five minutes, and distance is fifty kilometers.”
Sky looked at Goldman and smiled broadly. “Commissioner Putinsky is correct. He is formidable, very formidable.”
“Captain?” Goldman responded in a puzzled voice.
But Sky was turning to her own workstation. She buzzed the bridge and when the watch officer appeared, she spoke quickly, “Whatever covered freq the pirate was on before, call him on it and then pass him through to me.”
“We’re not sure the pirates will be monitoring that freq, Captain. Should we make a general call over the open freqs?” Lieutenant Commander Boulanger asked.
“Definitely not, Paul-Henri. And trust me; they are monitoring the covered freq.”
“Aye, Captain.”
Sky turned back to her staff. She smiled at them. “If I read my pirates correctly, we just got a big boost in solving this little dilemma.”
Her workstation softly chimed and Sky turned back to see Captain Hawkins’ image on her screen.
“Captain Hawkins, do you own Shamrock?”
Rafe Hawkins leaned back in his captain’s chair, propped his left leg over the arm, rested his left hand on his knife hilt protruding from his boot, laughed lightly, and nodded in approval. He was a man who got directly to the point, and it was a trait he admired in others.
“I do not own Shamrock, but at this point in time, she is responding to my wishes.”
“Are you positioning her to take Lodus?”
“Affirm.”
“Can this be done and still maintain the comm procedures with the incoming OrCon squadron so they don’t become suspicious?”
“If the plan goes well, yes. Of course, plans often do not survive initial contact with the enemy. But we have good people on Shamrock, and I am confident they can pull it off and continue to send bogus reports to the OrCons on whatever prearranged schedule has been established.”
“What do you want in return?”
“Forty thousand Empire credits.”
Sky pursed her lips and stared directly at Hawkins, “I am loathe to admit this, but due to my lack of experience in this area, I have no idea if that is a good price or not.”
“Check with Commissioner Putinsky if you like, but I can tell you, it is steep but not highway robbery,” Hawkins shrugged apologetically, “After all, Captain, pirates have to eat too.”
Sky hesitated only briefly, “Done. I’ll have my supply officer transfer the funds. How do you want to proceed on that?”
“There is a bank on the planet below. Account and routing numbers to follow.”
Numbers started to scroll onto the bottom of the screen. Sky motioned to the Supply Officer to grab a workstation and get it done. “Conducting a money transfer with a business savvy pirate,” mused Sky, “wasn’t something I saw coming when I got out of bed this morning.”
“Will you be in contact with Shamrock?”
“No. Lodus is monitoring Shamrock as Shamrock overtakes them and I don’t want a hint of anything unusual going on. We have a plan in place and my ops officer is onboard Shamrock. Lodus has been making reports every two hours. We know this because we have been monitoring their hull comm array and it rotates away from planet alignment every two hours for approximately ten seconds and then slews back. We assume she will probably send one last report prior to the OrCons going subspace, which they should do five hours out just prior to entering the planet’s monitoring range. That will be about four and a half hours from now. We will hit them right after they send that message. If the timing is off, Shamrock can slow down or speed up under the guise of thruster testing. If our attack is screwed up and Lodus gets away, she will have nobody to tell since the OrCons will be in subspace.”
“How are you taking Lodus?”
“Come close abeam. Blow out the comm array; damage the engines and then use grappling hooks across to their hull. Send over an armed party and if they don’t let us in, we blow our way in and if they die in the process, oh well. These guys aren’t hard-core. They�
�re doing it for the money. One thing about that is, it’s tough to spend money when you’re dead. We’ll let them keep their money and their lives so we expect we can persuade them to cooperate. My ops officer will get in touch with you on this freq after it is done.”
“Thank you, Captain Hawkins,” Sky spoke softly. She looked up to her supply officer who gave her a thumps up. “Your 40K should be in your account now.”
Rafe looked off to someone on his right. “It has indeed come into the account and gone onto other places, Captain. Thank you. You won’t be disappointed.”
“One more thing, Captain Hawkins. Since your intel seems to be up to date, do you think Lodus is the only ship tracking us or is there a backup?”
“I agree the OrCons would have loved to have their own ship in place to track you, but we’ve traced no backup. Only Lodus has been with you the whole trip and nobody has dropped in here who seems suspicious. I think we have only one stalker.”
“Thank you, Captain. I greatly appreciate all you have done for us.”
Hawkins smiled at her, “You can thank me by still being alive in a couple of hours. You’re much preferable over them. Later, Captain Mallory.”
The screen went blank. Sky turned to her staff. “Here’s the broad plan and two contingencies. You will fill in the details for each plan. I want the three plans done by the time the pirates take Lodus. Once they control Lodus, we can proceed with obvious battle preparations when the prying eyes are off us. If you come up with any more ideas in this short time frame, we can look at them, too. I will send a message to our base on Gammatiga to prepare for evac and we will send our two support ships to the base to handle the evac. We will cut them loose after Lodus is taken.”
Chapter 4
Raferty Hawkins turned from the screen and turned his command chair to look behind him at his intel officer at her station. Baby Doll tilted her head expectantly. Rafe read her thoughts. “We’re not moving out yet. We’ll stay in the clutter in low orbit using the planet’s comm system to bounce our messages around for now. We need to stay here to monitor Shamrock’s calls to the port authorities. And besides all that, I’m hungry and want to eat in peace for once.”
Rafe moved to the hatch on the aft bulkhead leading to his cabin, but Baby Doll cut him off with a tray of sandwiches and beer. “Only one,” she cautioned.
“Only one sandwich?” asked Hawkins mockingly.
Baby Doll, giving him a look, placed two sandwiches and one beer at his command chair and moved to the side. Rafe reseated himself and ate while watching his console display of Shamrock closing on Lodus. Baby Doll sat nearly at his feet on the three steps leading from the back of the bridge to the forward stations. She had a tray of food also and looked out the bridge windows forward while she ate. Ships maneuvered about them to get into a space dock, down to the planet surface or back into space. Their destroyer blended in well. Despite a shimmering fake paint job and a false ship’s name displayed on the hull, most of the surrounding ships knew this vessel and its captain and concluded discretion was the better part of valor so left well enough alone. There was a Goth reward for Hawkins and Predator but, as stated by Hawkins earlier, you had to be alive to spend the money. If a ship turned in Hawkins and Hawkins got away, he would hunt that ship and its crew to the ends of the universe. If a ship turned in Hawkins and Hawkins was taken, then Hawkins’ flotilla would hunt that ship down. Also that would leave Killian O’Hare in charge of Pirate Flotilla One and nobody wanted that. Most of the ship captains liked Rafe Hawkins. He might attack the big corporate freighters, slave ships, and government craft, but he left the small traders alone. He had helped many of them out with other pirates, the Goths, or God’s little acts of nature. Besides, with him acting as a lightning rod for the Goths and various planet authorities, they were free to smuggle and break other laws in peace.
There was always the chance one crazy guy wanting money or fame might try to take on the Predator. To that end, Hawkins maintained the ship at a relaxed combat posture. Two 75 mm guns and the laser close-in support weapons were manned. The engine room could get underway in a hurry. Nobody was ashore. Hawkins did not think his ship would be surprised here. Money to a few key port people had ensured the ship’s name did not appear on any roster or database as being in port at this time. The only way anyone would know Predator was in orbit would be through visual sighting, and anyone close enough to visually identify Predator was decidedly not interested in any sort of follow through.
“Captain Mallory seems to be on top of things,” Baby Doll stated without looking over.
“Yep, her rep seems well deserved.”
“How did you know she would fight here? If she had run, all our prep to take Lodus would have been for nothing.”
“It wouldn’t be the first time we worked hard for nothing. Mallory has a rep as a fighter, and she is smart enough to realize time is not on her side. If she ran, the OrCons would smash her only base at Gammatiga and then pursue her. Only way for her to get away clean would be to leave the Badlands with her tail between her legs and that simply is not in her DNA. A stand here at least gives her the element of surprise and several free shots before taking any incoming in return.”
“I don’t think she can win here.”
“Not a complete victory in which the enemy is defeated in total. Her best move is to land some solid blows and run away before absorbing serious losses, win a small victory here by reducing the numbers against her, and live to fight another day while allowing the OrCons to do the same. The OrCon strategy must be a quick surprise attack resulting in a total victory through the destruction of the Zeke squadron and then a fast departure out of the Badlands. Also, the Goths may be supporting the OrCons now, but there is no way they want this to be a long, drawn out affair. An inconclusive fight here and a surviving Zeke squadron will require the OrCons to stay in here and chase them. Neither they nor the Goths will want to do that, but they will have no other choice. Surviving and keeping the OrCons and Goths occupied will be a Zeke victory in itself.”
“You haven’t said if you’re going to actively help her when the shooting starts?”
“Haven’t decided yet.”
Baby Doll looked at him for the first time and smiled, “Yes, you have. I think you’re going to help.”
Rafe smiled back, “Probably. I don’t think we can stand by and let her take a beating.”
“Why didn’t you bring Flot 1 together? We’ve known there was something up since we found Lodus. There was time to get a few of our ships here.”
Pirate Flotilla One was a loosely organized force of fifteen ships divided into three squadrons under Hawkins’ sometime direction. He could get them together for major operations requiring a high level of force. It was a power to be used sparingly as each ship could ignore the call if that captain and crew decided they didn’t want to participate. There were also the diplomatic considerations if the pirates were to suddenly appear to help the Zekes.
“I don’t want Mallory accused of employing her new friends, the pirates, against the OrCons. The Goths could accuse her of some sort of covert partnership with the pirates in the Badlands if several of our ships show up here to help her. I hope we don’t have to support her during the battle, but I’m not letting her go down in flames without assisting.”
“And if we help her and she comes through this, she will owe us one.”
“I hope. But if she lives through this, it will be because she won. I suspect she will be pulled out of here by her high command and brought back to the home systems. The Empire fleets are going to take a pasting. After that they will recall the one officer who actually won her battle and post her in the home fleet.”
Baby Doll considered this and nodded. “She won’t make much of a difference at home.”
“Not at first. Hell, maybe never. But it might be good for morale. After the surprise attack is over a lot of their admirals and captains will be dead or disgraced. They’ve got to replenish the sen
ior officer herd and buck up the home front. Bringing back their only successful commander will help in both causes.”
Baby Doll paused for a long moment but decided she had to ask. “If we had found out about the attacks against the Empire in time, would you have warned them?”
“Yes.”
“You still feel the obligation?”
“Guess so ... and so do you.”
Baby Doll avoided an answer and looked straight ahead. All was quiet as the bridge crew went about their duties. Predator leisurely cruised along the inner edge of low orbit and waited.
Chapter 5
Captain Hawkins had a good ship and a good crew. His vessel was the former ESS MacConnell, a ship of the Clan class in the service of the Edinburgh System Navy. The Edinburgh System was actually several solar systems adjacent to the Badlands. It had the misfortune to be between the Badlands and the most populated sectors of the Goldenes Tor Empire. The Goths had been trying for decades to get treaty rights to cross Burgh territory en mass whenever they wanted for whatever reason they wanted. However, the independent Burgh natives were never inclined to see it from the Goth point of view so the Goth military and commercial interests had to take the long way around Edinburgh space while remaining in their own territory until they could enter the Badlands and other nearby areas.
After decades of negotiations going in circles and the Edinburgh government refusing to grant transit rights despite threats or money offers, the Goths finally moved against them. Using lies, bribes, spies, saboteurs, commercial transports, and military forces, the Goths took the Edinburgh System two years ago in a nearly bloodless coup. They installed their own puppet government that promptly ordered all the Edinburgh naval vessels into port. While tied up in space dock, these ships made inviting targets. Rafe and several associates liberated three destroyers and three corvettes. The job had been especially easy due to the active assistance of Edinburgh naval personnel and several members of the former government. The ships then proceeded to two outlaying Edinburgh naval bases and stripped them of all munitions, supplies, and equipment with the military personnel there assisting in the loading of the material. The new Goth masters were getting none of the naval stores. The pirates now had supplies and maintenance parts for the foreseeable future.
Allies of Convenience: Pirates of the Badlands Series Book 1 Page 3