“Sir, they used some unfortunate phrasing after the passing out parade. For a few seconds, it seemed like Julia, and I were still in the Peschal Alliance. I went into protective mode, intending to protect Julia. Keg suggested I should challenge them to the mats. By the time we made it to the Gym, I’d calmed down a lot, realizing they probably didn’t mean it the way I’d interpreted their words. Even if they had meant it the way it sounded to me, the law here would deal with them if they acted on it. I couldn’t back out by then, so all I could do was defend myself. They really shouldn’t pick fights, they’re utterly hopeless.”
Dickenson laughed, then said, “Fair enough. Now, the reason I brought you all here is that I wanted to tell you and Keg you are to be posted to the school for the present. I want you to understand, this is not a punishment, we only needed to find a job for you till the posting we intend you to take up becomes available. Rest assured, you are not being pushed into a dead end, this is just somewhere to park you till we’re ready for you to go where we want you. Do you have any questions?”
“No, Sir, no questions.”
“Good. It’s been nice meeting you Miss Julia. Now keep this man of yours in line, okay.”
Julia nodded, and the three of them left, the two men to pick up their orders, Julia tagging along because she didn’t have anywhere else to go. As it turned out, when they were given their orders, the two men found they had one week leave before they needed to report to their new duty stations. Keg invited Dave and Julia to come meet his family. As it turned out, Keg’s family didn’t live very far from where Colin’s house was. Julia had a car, so the two men picked up their belongings, and the three piled into the car and left the School grounds far behind.
After the three young people had left, Dickenson thought to himself, ‘I don’t blame you for defending that girl my friend, she’s worth it. Well, if young Dave is faking it, he’s damned good, he would have to be the best agent ever born.’ After giving it a few moments consideration, Sergeant Dickenson picked up his communicator and made a call to the Commandant.
When Commandant McMillan answered, Dickenson, asked, “Did you hear about the Gym?”
“Yes, she replied, I heard. Do we have anything to worry about?”
“Not from Dave ma’am. He was just protecting his girl. The two idiots he fought were threatening to take her away from him. It was a little too close to the environment in the Peschal Alliance for Dave. You do need to know, there were quite a few times when Mr. Bach could have killed one or both his opponents. He chose not to, just defending himself. I just spoke to him, if Dave’s an agent, then he’s the best agent who’s ever been born. I think he’s genuine. We will need to watch his triggers, though. The girlfriend is his weak spot. If anyone ever deliberately hurt her, I think he’ll become extremely dangerous. Still, as I understand it, she has some very powerful protectors, including Commander Gordon, and I suspect the Frasers as well.”
“Do we need to do anything?”
“Not for the moment ma’am. Dave and his girl have gone with Keg. I’ve known the family for a long time. They’ll let me know if they have any concerns.”
“Good, keep me informed. Now, what should we do about the troublemakers?”
“Leave them to me, ma’am. I’ll explain the consequences of any retaliation against Dave, or his girl for that matter.”
The two young men and Julia drove out of the Training Center with Julia at the wheel. When they arrived, Keg insisted on his two friends coming in to meet the folks as he termed it. His mother Meg Gibson, is a nurturing type of woman, she was physically only short and could be described as curvaceous, but she had a quick smile and ready wit. Still, even though most casual observers would describe her as curvaceous, there was almost no fat on the woman, it was mostly muscle. Meg is a more traditional type of mother, though she did put some time in as an enlisted person with the Troopers on Cambridge. Keg’s father was quite gruff at the time, but still friendly enough. Jason Gibson had been in the Navy for many years until his retirement. That was where he knew Sergeant Dickenson from. Dickenson was one of his troops in a succession of ships, and the two men became firm friends. It was a friendship forged in the fires of shared dangers and experiences. Jason only left the Navy because his family needed him. Both Jason and Meg were active in the Planetary Militia. This helped the family financially and kept them aware of what was going on outside the planet's atmosphere. Keg’s brother and two sisters were also there, so there was a lot of good-natured teasing going on almost as soon as Keg arrived with his friends. One sister was at university but planned to join the Navy when she finished her course. The other sister and brother were still in school. They both planned on joining the military as soon as they left school. When they found out Julia wasn’t living very far away, the two girls quickly took her under their wings. They informed Julia the three of them were now friends. Julia was a little shy at first, but they quickly battered down any reticence she had. In the end, they stayed well into the night before Julia took Dave home with her.
Dave and Julia spent at least some time every day with Keg and his family, often having visitors at Colin’s house. When Dave realized they were drinking all Colin’s beer, he went to the nearby shopping precinct and replaced everything they had used. On the last night of the boys leave, Julia invited Keg and his family up for some dinner. She had been discretely checking with the family to see what they liked eating and found they all wanted seafood, so she made an entree of baby octopus-like creatures with the main course being baked fish on a bed of leafy greens with a rich, creamy source drizzled over it. Julia served an excellent wine, the best she could find, with the fish. The gathering was a highly successful one.
When Jason asked if Commander Gordon would mind them visiting her there, Julia told him what Colin said before he left, “While you are living here, this is your home. Julia, you are entitled to have friends visit.”
Julia also said Colin didn’t mind provided her guests didn’t trash the house and weren’t obnoxious toward him if he happened to be home at the time. Like nearly everyone else in the Federation Jason and Meg had seen the news stories about Colin, but they hadn’t heard any other information about the man. If even only half of what they’d been told was true, they agreed Colin Gordon was a man they could follow. He apparently cared about the people under his command and tended to look for ways to win without putting his people at undue risk. Some Officers were in the habit of happily expending the lives of the people under their command to make themselves look good.
Peschal Alliance Space
Magni and Kurama Down-Jumped into the deserted System and began running passive System Scans. The two Cobras were running dark as they moved through the System so if anybody else was here, they would be very hard to spot. They were deep in Indian Territory now, and a long way from home, looking for signs of trouble on the way. This was to be the furthest System from Lahoshar they were planning to check. When Magni and Kurama left here, the plan was to parallel the border for several Systems before beginning to work their way back home. By cramming both ships full of supplies, they managed to extend their endurance to about ten weeks but if they stayed out that long, by the time they arrived home they might be starting to feel a little hungry. The two Cobras had departed Lahoshar three weeks previously, and Captain Wolf, who was in overall command of the patrol wanted to be back home in another six. The two Federation ships had been in the System for only two or three hours when unidentified ships began Down-Jumping from one of the Jump-Points. As the hours passed, more and more ships appeared in the System. Nearly nine hours later, Captain Wolf had counted fifty and more were still arriving. The ships that were already in the System began spreading out, actively scanning as they went. Wolf decided they should move and had Magni signal Kurama that they were going high up above the System elliptic in the hope they could stay to observe while hopefully remaining undetected. It was evident to both Federation Captains, Wolf, and Camon that some
thing big was going on. They were going to need to keep an eye on this and try to work out what it was. By the time the Cobras had finished repositioning themselves, they had counted eighty ships entering the System, and more were still coming. By now, all the ships were broadcasting IFF codes identifying them as Pirates. If this fleet stayed together, someone, somewhere, was going to be in a world of pain. Finally, hours later, ships stopped entering the System. By then, the Cobras counted 120 ships in all, though thirty of those were clearly Freighters.
Wolf thought, ‘A fleet train. They have a damned fleet train. They’re planning a lot of trouble for someone, but who?’
He knew he had to track these people in the hope he could work out where they were going before they arrived there, wherever there was. Captain Wolf concluded running to tell somebody now wouldn’t do much good because where could they send a fleet to. It would take months to assemble a fleet large enough to be able to deal with this anyway. When Wolf knew where they were going, or at least had some idea, he might be able to Jump ahead of them and warn people before this lot arrived. It was evident, this Task Force would even give Home Fleet at Sankarah a hard time, nearly everywhere else, the Navy was quite thinly dispersed. Of course, all the major Systems had significant forces defending them, but very few would have anything capable of defending against this. As the crews on board the two Cobras watched, the Pirates spent the next six days exercising, trying different tactics. It was evident to Wolf, at least some of the tactics they practiced were intended to counter some of those Colin Gordon had employed against the Pirates so successfully in the past.
Six days later, the Pirates split into two groups. One of the groups, comprising thirty fighting ships and ten Freighters exited the System, apparently heading deep into Federation space. The remaining sixty fighting ships and twenty Freighters continued exercising for another four days before they also formed up and began moving to a Jump-Point, it was the same one Magni and Kurama entered this System through. Even this reduced fleet took nearly a day to exit the System, and they had ships patrolling around with active Scans running the entire time. Wolf knew he couldn’t attack these ships, not yet. The only consolation Wolf and Camon had, was that the first group to depart weren’t heading toward Lahoshar, at least not directly. This other, larger fleet though was an entirely different matter. They wouldn’t know for several Jumps whether Lahoshar was the target for this group or not.
CCC FNS Theseus en route to Cotoni System
Colin sat in his command chair, watching as the days ticked away. With his suspicions the way they were, Colin didn’t like being away from Cambridge for so long. Still, he had a job to do and could only follow orders, even though he was chaffing at the bit about those orders. The convoy reached another Jump-Point, and after checking the System was evidently empty except for his Convoy, Theseus and Loki entered Jump in formation. The other three ships would follow thirty minutes or so later. This Jump had a duration of ten days and was the third last they needed to traverse before reaching Cotoni System. Colin felt very uneasy, since embarking on this cruise, they had either seen a few unidentified ships or detected ion trails on several occasions. The unidentified ships were not broadcasting legitimate Federation IFF codes and began running as soon as they saw the Federation Warship IFF's. The entire situation was disturbing for Colin, there didn’t seem to be a consistent pattern to what was going on, or if there was, he simply couldn’t see it.
Uninhabited System FZ-216D near Cotoni
Ten days later, they emerged in one of the many uninhabited Systems within the Federation. The two Cobras began passive Scans of the System as they moved out of the Jump exit corridor to leave room for the ships that were following. Soon they could see contacts at one of the other three Jump-Points in FZ-216D. They had barely picked up those contacts when one Jumped out. The others followed at ten-minute intervals, the last Jumping out a minute after FNS Destiny arrived in the System. By the time the last contact was gone, the Scan Techs on the Cobras had concluded they were Pirates. Colin found himself wondering about the number of Pirates they had seen lately. It seemed as if every time they left Cambridge, they were seeing Pirates, sometimes just leaving when he arrived, but it seemed clear that Pirate activity was increasing steeply of late. When all the other ships in Colin's convoy arrived, they started heading across the System to their next Jump-Point. Colin was thankful it wasn’t the same Jump-Point the Pirates used to leave the System. In less than two weeks, the convoy would be in Cotoni System, and Colin could arrange to load his three ships with whatever they could fit and head back to Cambridge.
Cambridge
After their leave was over, Dave and Keg returned to the Training Base to take up their duties in the logistics section. Most of their classmates had gone already, but there were still a couple who were waiting for the ship assignments to arrive. Whenever Dave saw one of them, they treated him a lot differently than they had before, they weren’t willing to try to bully him any longer, not since his sparring match with the other two on graduation day. Dave supposed he didn’t fit in here, not really, but then he was used to that, he didn’t fit in when he was in the Peschal Alliance either. Dave simply wasn’t cruel or ruthless enough to fit in there. At least here, Julia would be safe, and there seemed to be more than a few senior people who were willing to take a risk and give him a chance. He would do the best he could for all those individuals who believed in him, no matter what it took, they deserved that much loyalty from him, they’d earned it.
While Dave and Keg didn’t know about them, the construction and loading of the secret resupply bases around the System were proceeding very well. A search of the records the miners kept, identified several large asteroids that had already been hollowed out to a significant degree for their minerals. This allowed only relatively minor work to be done to stabilize them, enabling those asteroids to be sealed and shielded if any unfriendly ships were in the vicinity. Power systems were being installed right then. Each of these bases could sustain the entire Cambridge defense fleet for a significant period of intensive operations, or they would be able to when they were fully stocked. The problem was not space, it was finding the ordnance to fill the three bases. In the end, Henry and Sonya decided to load as much in the way of stores as they could on the Warships first. When that was done, they would shift almost all the remaining missiles and Rail-Gun rounds to the new bases. The factories in Cambridge System were manufacturing new stores as fast as they could, and would continue to do so for as long as possible but nobody knew how long it would be before it became necessary to shut down production. Thankfully, these factories were very highly automated, so the higher production tempo did not require many additional staff. Transfer of ordnance to the first base was due to start, and the Freighter Colin and Carl captured was being loaded for the transfer. This Freighter was a large ship, about 800 metres in length and a full load was nearly enough to empty the armouries near the planet Cambridge.
Chapter 15
Cotoni System Naval Headquarters
Admiral Charkon Hanadon was relaxing in his quarters when his communicator buzzed. As soon as he picked it up, the voice on the other end only informed Charkon he was needed in Operations. The Admiral changed into a uniform and headed toward his office. Charkon arrived at his office to find several people waiting for him. This concerned him because usually, to have so many people all wanting to tell the Admiral something rarely ended well. Everyone moved to a briefing room, and the briefing began.
It seemed there had been several simultaneous attacks by small Pirate fleets in Systems that were not too near Cotoni but were still Cotoni’s responsibility. Admiral Hanadon began reviewing the assets he had available. There were eight Destroyers and twenty Patrol Boats available to protect Cotoni System, two of the Destroyers were out of the System on interdiction operations, and only six of the Patrol Boats were Jump-Capable.
After discussing the options, Hanadon decided they should send four of the Destroyer
s, along with the six Jump-Capable Patrol Boats to investigate the reports. He concluded he should send them out as two task forces so they could concentrate firepower if necessary. Hanadon knew that the Pirates were massing larger forces lately, but his head wasn’t in the game yet, not the way it needed to be although he did decide to send a report back to Navy Headquarters on Sankarah requesting some additional assets to help defend the sector. It took almost a day to flesh out their plans and when the job was done, and the ships that would make up the two task forces notified, Hanadon was exhausted, so he returned to his quarters for sleep.
FNS Hidacki
FNS Hitachi exited Jump Space in a System adjacent to the one where FNS Destiny had her series of battles with the Pirates. They were right out on the edge of Federation Space here, so the crew was already on full alert. That fact saved the ship, and most of the crews lives. Captain Sydnasi read everything he could find about FNS Destiny’s adventures and knew they couldn’t assume they would only meet the occasional isolated Pirate anymore so now he’d made it a standard practice to begin active Scans as soon as the ship exited Jump. Point Defence was already active, and everyone was at their battle stations. As soon as Hidacki exited Jump Space, the alarms went off, and the Point-Defense firing. The ship shook as a missile penetrated the Point-Defense and impacted on the hull because the Shields were still coming up. There seemed to be missiles coming from everywhere, Sydnasi ordered a hard turn to port, and for the ship to go to flank speed, they needed to buy a little time for the Shields to come up to full strength and maneuvering room. The Scan Techs reported four ships around the Jump corridor all firing everything they had at FNS Hidacki. Another two missiles made it through the Point-Defense one being stopped by the Shields while the other impacted near one of the engine nacelles, causing that engine to lose most of its power. Some Rail-Gun rounds and Lasers were also penetrating where the Shields were down because of the previous two missile hits.
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