AMP Private War

"Sometimes you have to take things on by yourself. Things that only you can do or accomplish. They may not be pleasant, but they will be yours. Call it your own private war!"

S.A.

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Copyright 2013 Stephen Arseneault, All Rights Reserved

A year had passed since I fled from prosecution on the Grid. My relationship with Ashley Elizabeth stood at a standstill. Several more visits had been made for the purpose of gathering information, nothing new was revealed. Dearest Kreed was helpful, but her knowledge of the happenings on and around the Grid was shrinking. Her handlers suspected her of being a double agent, a suspicion they had been unable to prove.

The mine continued to turn out high quality Tantric ore. Frig's continued survey of the vein had located a vast store of Tantric, deep into the core of Bullwort. Our credit store was already large and growing larger with each new sale of refined ore. With the credits we had amassed, we continued to add updates and improvements to our fleet.

Each ship now had the best environmental system available; even our bunk rooms had been remodeled. With the new equipment added our cargo holds had become ever smaller. It was a trade-off that we were more than willing to make.

During his hunts, George managed to find two new Defender Hulls. Our fleet now stood at eight. The Torrent and the Bull were our newest Defender additions. Gy continued to work his magic. The hull of each ship was now covered with 18 layers of Tantric armor that was interlaced with Aquamarine. A full strike from Milgari battle cannon would only fracture and burn two layers at a time. Our already tough ships had grown ever tougher.

The Milgari showed no new signs of aggression other than the continued construction of the massive ion cannons in the Felgar sector. A raid was in the works as the first of the cannons neared completion. My time had been spent on the business side with George growing and refining the relationships with our customers. Even though we were flooding the market with volumes of refined Tantric ore our pricing was on the increase. Demand for the ore continued to outstrip supply.

The team had been hard at work on our plan of attack. I sat in a conference room with the others for a presentation on what they had decided upon. Frig spoke, "Sir, we felt the strategy used in our last raid was worthwhile. Move in close and do as much damage as possible. Gy and Rita have a design for a Tantric shield. It will be 90 meters in diameter, allowing our fleet to ride behind it in single file. We should be able to ride safely all the way up to a target."

"The shield would be constructed of 126 layers of Tantric and Aquamarine, it would have a forward image projector, keeping its visual signature to a minimum, and a signal inhibitor to keep any reflections from giving away our position. We have been discussing whether or not to add a propulsion system to it Sir. It would be costly in both time and credits, but we believe it would make the shield functional in a higher number of situations."

I looked over what they had laid out before me. "This is outstanding work... all of you. And I like the shield. Anything that gets us close enough to use our weapons, before taking a beating, is a worthwhile investment. I would say, let’s get to work on this immediately. We have credits coming out of our ears and with a new shaft coming online in the next few weeks we will be doubling our ore production."

The shield took two months to complete. It was constructed as sections that could be assembled once in space. Five small ion engines and a nav computer would guide it to its final destination. Once deployed, the Tantric shield would be a throw away. Once abandoned, I struggled with the thoughts of it being a source of Tantric that could later be used against us. Those thoughts were put to rest with the addition of thousands of small micro-charges that would be embedded within its layers. With the push of a button, or at a programmed time or location, the shield would self-destruct.

Our newest pilots were Harley Shoals in the Torrent and Desire Phillips piloting the Bull. Harley had been an off-world Messenger while Desire had recently retired from the Marines. Both were gruff with spit-in-the-dirt attitudes, both were excellent pilots.

Before our trip out to the Felgar sector, we decided to make a run on the pirates who had forever plagued commerce near the Gonk system. Their ionic field generators had nearly trapped Frig and I as we had once attempted a shortcut near their stronghold. Our engines were now switchable and we intended to use that fact to put a end to their ways.

As we approached the Gonk system our sensor displays lit up with the outlines of their ionic webs. I got on the comm, "Ok, listen up. When we get in the web we need to come to a complete stop. It won't take them long to send out their thugs. Switch your engines to negative and we will free the sector of their nasty threat. I want to clean out everything until we have an unconditional surrender."

"George is heading to Malcon to enlist their help with cleaning up the Gonk government. With luck, shipping will move easily through there and who knows, Gonk might even become a hub of commerce. I'm sure most of you knew Bat Geathers. These are the thugs who did him in."

Our trap to lure out the pirates worked flawlessly. The bulk of their fleet was easily destroyed along with the equipment that made up the ionic webs. The following day the government of Gonk collapsed and its politicians fled. Malcon troops arrived the day after to put a conventional, commerce friendly government in place.

The event had been good practice for our new pilots. Their interactions with my commands and the other ships had been nothing short of perfection. Desire had proven to be both ruthless and persistent with her attacks. Harley had been close behind.

The ride out to the Felgar sector was again filled with targeting and tactics drills. A simulation of the shield was run on the fleet’s computers for a mock attack on a two kilometer long asteroid. The pilots followed our decided upon attack plan with precision and power. Our small fighting force was unequaled in strength and skill. Our practice only served to make us that much better.

When we arrived in Felgar the Milgari were hard at work on a fourth and fifth cannon. I was shocked and angered to see that two of the massive cannons that were previously under construction had already been moved.

I spoke, "We should have come back out here three months ago. Those cannons could be anywhere now."

Frig responded. "Sir, we cannot do anything about them now. Our focus should be on putting an end to the ones we have here, along with those construction bays. I count 32 battleships in their ranks. Once we show our hand I would expect them all to engage. Perhaps we should focus on attacking them first."

As always, Frig was right. We needed a strategy to take down the battleships. The ion cannons on their cruisers and other vessels had always been underpowered. Our ultra-thick Tantric hulls could handle a cruiser’s cannon for a nearly unlimited number of hits. The battleships however, were powerful enough to do heavy damage.

I threw out our overall plan and was immediately replied to by Barg. "This is the Hammer. I would like to suggest a divide and conquer strategy. Two of us will cause diversions in two different areas and the six remaining would swoop in to take out any battleships that came our way. If we get lucky and they send out at least four of the big guns I say we make use of the shield to catch them by surprise."

"I'll volunteer to be a lure this time, but I don't want to make a habit of that and miss out on all the fun!"

We discussed the strategy for several hours before turning it into a plan. Divide and conquer would be used for the initial culling of the Milgari battleships. The Hammer and the Frost would be the bait.

The Tantric shield would be assembled and waiting when the trap was sprung. If four or more battleships came out in pursuit the shield would be put into play. Four exploding decoy probes would be placed on the opposite side of the Milgari base and fired off periodically. The hope was to keep the rest of the fleet from joining in. We counted the seconds until Divide and Conquer was put into play.

Once the Hammer and Frost were in position I gave the signal to begin. The Hammer was first to fire a low power ion pulse at the Milgari. The Frost fired several seconds later. As the first of the ships turned and began to race out to meet the attackers I flipped the switch on the decoys. The first of the four probe explosions was easily detected.

The Milgari sent out 12 of their 32 battleships, along with two dozen cruisers. Eight battleships and 10 cruisers raced for the Frost while the remaining headed for the Hammer. I powered up the shield's thrusters and headed in to meet the Milgari defenders. As planned, the extra explosions worked to keep the remaining ships in the fleet frozen in place.

I spoke, "Frost; hold your position as long as possible. Then head our way. Hammer; don't try to be a hero. Move just far enough away that they will stay in pursuit while we work on the rest. Target those battle cannons on the big boys. If we can take those offline the rest will be gravy. Prepare to break away and engage in five... four... three... two... one. Let's show 'em what we've got!"

I flipped the Swift out to the port side and we immediately fired upon the lead ship. The first of its battle cannons was destroyed by a precision shot from Frig. I banked hard left as the first bolt left the battleship's remaining cannon. Hundreds of tiny blue streaks lit up the surrounding void as the Milgari gunners fired everything they had.

Three more of the 16 battle cannons were knocked out in the first run. Barg growled over the comm channels as his only task was to stay just out of range of the pursuing portion of the fleet. The Fist quickly joined our fight. The Milgari crews were confused as the tiny Defenders flew between and around them. Their calibrated firing mechanisms were quick to adjust.

Harley was the first to take two simultaneous hits in the Torrent. Both impacted his tail section, fracturing and blowing off four layers of his armor. "Crap, those hits hurt boss. Systems remain green."

The Dagger, the Swift and the Saxon each took a hit in quick succession before four more of the Milgari battle cannons went silent. Two of the disabled battleships turned back towards the main fleet and the Fist was quick to cut deep into their engines. Both ships began to roll uncontrollably from the loss of primary propulsion. I pushed the stick hard left and took out another cannon before taking two hard hits to my undercarriage.

I yelled, "Frig, where did those come from? That battleship should be offline!"

Frig diverted his attention for only a moment. "Sir, both bolts came from cruisers. It seems a significant upgrade has occurred during our absence. The cruisers appear to each have a single battle cannon. That will change the dynamic of our strategy Sir. We may have to consider an early departure."

I thought for a moment before Frig's words sank in. "What? Are you saying cut and run?"

As I rolled over Frig fired two more bolts taking out the battle cannon of a cruiser before responding. "I'm only saying we should consider it Sir. We have now taken 14 hits and counting. At what point should a crew leave the field of battle Sir? At eight layers? Six would be cutting it a bit close."

I let out a growl of my own as I lined up for another precision shot by Frig. "Listen up all. If your layers get to eight I want you to head out to the prearranged rendezvous point. No sense in us getting killed today if we don't have to. There are seven of us and they are down to nine of those battle cannons between them. Fist, your primary mission now is to target the propulsion of ships that no longer have use of a battle cannon. We need to keep them here if we are going to take them out."

The big Milgari guns were quickly taken from eight to four. The Fist had disabled two battleships and seven of the ten cruisers. Two other damaged battleships managed to slip away. When the final Milgari battle cannon went silent, the Torrent had taken its ninth hit.

"This is the Torrent boss, I'm down to five layers on my tail. Just say the word and I'll peel off. I would like to stay for the party though. It’s up to you Sir."

I gave Harley the order he was looking for. We had ships to kill and only a short time before the Milgari sent out a second wave, or before those who were chasing the Hammer wised up to his game. Our prior experience with the Milgari told us of a vulnerable point at 100 meters in front of their engines.

It was the point where streams of ions were recombined to create the swirling vortex that gave their ships thrust. A well placed shot would cause a rupture, enabling the feed streams to spew outwards, effectively destroying the ship from within.

I yelled, "Target those recombiners and let's get out of here. I don't want to engage any more of those cannons until we have a full evaluation of our own damage."

We made short work of the battleships and cruisers that had been disabled. The Milgari were caught off guard and their response had been disorganized. Their upgraded weapons were a surprise and had caused nearly half of our damage. We had used our shield and its thousands of fractured Tantric shards now filled the void around us, the final cruiser exploded from within.

I ordered the team back to our rendezvous point for an examination of our hulls. The Torrent had been the hardest hit. We counted only three layers remaining on the port tail fin. Two of those layers had taken partial damage. The Torrent was only a hit away from hull violation, an outcome that would mean certain death.

The Dagger was second with the loss of nine layers on her nose. The Swift was third with five. After several hours of evaluating our options the decision was made to return to Bullwort for repairs. I did not want to risk losing a ship and her crew if we didn’t have to. The massive cannons were nearing completion, but I wondered if we would be better off to allow it, and then to follow them to their destination.

Our rendezvous point was on the dark side of an uninhabited rocky planet. It had given us a chance to fully quantify the damage we had taken. But there was huge oversight on our part, an oversight that placed us needlessly in peril. We had been followed. Our position on the small planet had been observed and then relayed back to the main Milgari fleet.

Each of the pilots had returned to their ship and I had only given the order to return to Bullwort minutes before. Frig was the first to realize our mistake. "Sir, a Milgari frigate just entered orbit around this planet. We should have placed a sensor probe on the other side before setting down. We have been sitting blind for nearly an hour Sir. If the Milgari were sm..."