First Principles: Samair in Argos: Book 3 (29 page)

              The ships converged, both sides pouring on the strikes.  But the light cruiser faltered before the crushing onslaught of
Legacy
’s weapons.  A flurry of missiles raced out and exploded in the
Ganges
’s path.  The ship’s weapons intercepted most of them, but a few got through, and tore up the ship’s unshielded bow.  Several salvos pummeled the nearest corvette, which veered off, accelerating for all she was worth.  The second corvette changed its attack vector, aiming not for
Legacy
, but straight at
Ravage
.  The Republic corvette returned fire and tried to evade, but attacks from the pirate cutter had battered her shields and she couldn’t twist out of the way in time. 

              The heavy lasers struck the forward superstructure, punching through the lighter armor ripping into the internals.  The energy blasts tore into the forward capacitors which detonated, tearing open the forward section of the ship.  Atmosphere ignited, as equipment and crewmen, or parts of them, were blown out into space. 

              “
Ravage
has been hit!” Droven called out.  “Heavy damage to her forward section, she’s lost main power.  She’s adrift.”

              “Damn it,” Harth swore, trying to remain calm.  There was nothing he could do to cover Lieutenant Tran and his ship, not with the shuttles racing over to board the pirate cruiser.  He couldn’t move the
Legacy
from where it was.  “Mister Kamerov, can you tag me that cutter?”

              “Sorry, sir,” the XO said.  “They’re being clever, keeping either the disabled cruiser or the
Ravage
between us and them.  And that little cutter isn’t a huge target.”

              “Do your best,” Duncan told him.  “If they stick their head out, you chop it off.”

              “Aye,
aye
, sir!” the XO said eagerly, retargeting the weapons.

              “Yesss!” the pirate lord hissed in triumph.  “They sstole that sship from me.  I tore it from their handz!”

              “Sir, we’ve lost most of our forward weapons,” Tyler said, indicating the display.  His ship was in tatters and he wasn’t sure that the
Ganges
would survive too much longer.  “We need to break off.  We’ve already lost one of the cutters,
Meghna
is disabled and being boarded and
Ganges
is hurt.”

              The pirate lord whirled, hissing menacingly.  But suddenly his antennae drooped.  “Very well, Commander, you are correct.  Order all sshipss to break and accelerate for the hyper limit.  I have worked too hard to conssolidate my forcez to lose them all here.”  More hissing.  “I
want
that Republic sship!  No, we will jump for Tysseuss.”

              “Helm, alter course, vector away from the Republic ship,” Tyler ordered harshly.  The helmsman was only too happy to obey that order.

              “
Sessilan
and
Korokat
are breaking off their attack on the cruiser,” the com-tech reported, sounding relieved.  “They’re racing away on different vectors. 
Toroj
is also moving off on another vector, Captain.”

              “Make ssure they all know to loop around and vector towardz Tysseuss,” Verrikoth stated plainly, his antennae raising again.  “Contact
Cierre
and
Ajax
.  They are to finish their loading and move sstraight for the hyper limit at max acceleration.  All sshipss will make a short hyperssspace jump and rendezvous at a predetermined sset of coordinatesss.”  He stepped over to the navigation console and the navigator slid to the side to allow him access.  He typed in a few commands.  “Here.”

              “Yes, sir,” the navigator said.  “I’ll get that course plotted right away.”

              Verrikoth’s compound eyes couldn’t be read, but anyone who looked at the pirate lord standing on the bridge of the damaged light cruiser could see disappointment radiating outward from him.  This was not the plan he wanted to be following, but it was clear that the Republic heavy cruiser was too much for his lighter forces. 
We will fall back to Tyseus. 
Ironhide
and
Wrath
are there, as well as the fighter squadron.  More than enough forces to supplement my flotilla, now that we have lost
Meghna
.  Curse that Republic pig.  Once my own new flagship is ready to fight I will get a second chance to destroy them!

              “Captain, the pirate ships are all breaking off,” Droven said, sounding bewildered.  “They’re all running away on different vectors, but I’d guess they’re all heading for the hyper limit.”

              “They’re heading somewhere specific,” Duncan predicted.  “They’re all going to scatter for the hyper limit, jump out and head for a specific set of coordinates to regroup.  Then from there they’ll head on to their true objective.”

              “Could be Tyseus, Captain,” Kamerov replied, turning away from tactical.  “We fought those ships there; they had that heavy cruiser in the construction yard.”

              Duncan twisted his lips, tapping his fist on the arm of the chair and cursed.  “Now I wish we would have trashed that ship.  I second guessed myself more than once while we were in the system.”  He sighed heavily.  “I never thought that bastard could take Byra-Kae.”

              But Kamerov was smiling.  “But sir, think of it this way.  He might have taken it but he couldn’t keep it.  We’ve taken it back.”

              “Yes, Mister Kamerov,” the Captain replied, nodding.  “I believe you are correct.”  He checked the display.  “Damage report?”

              “Hull breaches on the port side, port side shields are down.  Starboard shields are also down, but we’re working to rebuild.  Hull damage and a few systems are out on the starboard side.  Port side has lost two turbolaser batteries, two of the four missile launchers are down.  Engineering has dispatched teams for repairs.”

              “Very well.  Comms, what’s the status of the Marines?”

              Khovik nodded.  “Shuttles are landing their troops now.  Gunnery Sergeant Rajendra is debarking now.”

              “Keep me informed of their progress.”  Duncan checked his status feeds; the pirate ships were definitely on their way out of the system.  So, he and his ships had come in here and chased the pirate lord out of the system, doing what the local picket force couldn’t.  Of course, he’d had a heavy cruiser at his disposal and the Commodore who’d been in command here only had a pair of destroyers.  They were tough ships, Adder-class destroyers, to be sure, but they clearly had been bested by the trio of pirate cruisers.  But that begged a question.

              “Where is Verrikoth’s third light cruiser?” he asked. 

              “Sir?” Kamerov asked, confused.  “There were only two here.”

              “Correct,” Duncan replied.  “But when we saw him at Ulla-tran a few months ago, he had
three
cruisers and all of them jumped on a vector for this system.  But we never saw any sign of it.”

              “Well, sir, we are coming in a month after they arrived and there was a battle that happened before ours,” the XO pointed out reasonably.  “But it’s also possible that that ship is simply out of sensor range further in the system.”

              “Yes, it is,” he said.  “All right.  Comms, send a message to the trade station, let’s see what kind of response we get.  Let them know the outcome of the battle and that we’re in control of things again.  Once the Gunny gets the pirate cruiser captured, we’ll set it up for a tow and we’ll bring it in system.”

              Kamerov frowned.  “You want to keep it, Captain?  A pirate cruiser?”

              Duncan shrugged.  “Well, we can’t stay here forever.  We turn the ship over to the locals and let them fix it up.  Maybe they can use it to defend the system.  Depends on what the engineers say and of course how much carnage the gunny and his boys inflict on the internals of that ship.”

              “What do we do with the crew?”

              Harth started to answer, but Khovik interrupted.  “Captain, I’ve got an incoming message from Gunny Rajendra.”

              “Put him on.”  The channel opened.  “Gunny?”

              “Captain, we’re moving through the ship, so far, minimal resistance.  I’ve got fire teams spreading out through the ship.  Moving on the engine room, bridge and environmental.”

              “Good.  Keep me informed, Gunny.”

              “Understood, sir.  Rajendra out.” 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~*~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

              Verrikoth was fuming.  Jensen Tyler was concerned that steam was going to start emitting from the chinks in his carapace; he had never seen his lord so incensed.  “They are in possession of thiss ssysstem again.  They ssteal one of my cruiserz!”  He hissed several times, as though he was trying to control his temper.  “What iz the sstatuss of
Cierre
and
Ajax
?” he demanded, whirling on the sensor officer.

              “They will be departing the trading station within the hour, Captain,” the comms watch replied.  “They are loading up the computer cores, weapons and other items on the list.  Leader Wu says once that is completed he will be headed straight to the hyper limit and from there straight to the rendezvous.”

              “Good.  I do not want thiss sstop here in Byra-Kae to have been a losss.”  His mouthparts writhed for a moment before he spoke.  “Tell him to make ssure chargez are planted on the station’z reactorz.  The Republic might own thiss ssysstem again, but they will own a dead ssysstem.”

              “Leader!  We’re buttoned up, the holds are full.”

              Wu jumped into his usual seat at the operations console of the armed merchant ship
Cierre
.  “Good.  Disengage docking clamps, clear mooring lines and get the sublight engines humming.  We need to get gone before that Republic ship decides to pay us a visit.”

              “Pulling away from the station,” his pilot reported.  “Thrusting away at fifty kps.”

              “Activating sensor suite,” Wu said, tapping a control on his console.  The sensor display activated, showing the station and the nearby shuttle traffic.  There were two freighters currently docked here at the station, freighters that did not belong to Lord Verrikoth and therefore were expendable.  The Republic had been in control of this system for centuries and the few cargo ships that were still in the Argos Cluster tended to come through here at one point or another.  There were four, in fact, that didn’t stray more than two systems from Byra-Kae, foolishly assuming that the Republic ships here would protect them.  But it was a flawed theory.  As Lord Verrikoth had proven, the Republic and its ships weren’t invincible.  Tough, yes.  Unbeatable?  Clearly not.

              And now,
Cierre
’s holds were full to bursting with anything related to the Republic: Sierra-class missiles, computer cores, small arms, ammunition, as well as more mundane bits of swag like gold bars, containers of gadolinium, 100 liter drums of He3 fuel, even ration packs.  They’d also loaded up the two class-three industrial replicators, which were packed very delicately, wrapped up in secure packing materials to protect the machinery.  Those two replicators were worth more than all of the rest of the cargoes combined.

              “How close are we?”

              “Ten klicks, Leader,” the pilot replied. 

              “Good enough,” Wu said.  “Engage main engines.  Max accel away from the station and closest vector to the hyper limit.  Make sure that
Ajax
is following on the same vector.”

              “Copy that, Leader,” the Secaaran sitting at the comms station.  “Should I also send a message to the
Ganges
?”

              “Yes, do that.  Inform Lord Verrikoth that we’ve cleared the station, our cargo bays are filled with everything on the checklist and the charges are set.  We await his order to detonate.”

              “Incoming message from Gunny Rajendra, Captain,” Khovik said, some time later.

              “Put him through,” Duncan said.  “Gunny, what do you have for me?”

              “The ship is secured, Captain,” the Marine said, puffing slightly.  He was standing on what appeared to be the bridge of the ship, communicating through the light cruiser’s own comm array.  He was still wearing his battle armor, but his helmet’s visor was popped open.  It looked as though the armor had some carbon scoring from some blaster hits, as well as superficial damage from bullet strikes.  “I’ve lost four of my Marines, with seven more injured, the rest of us are fully combat functional.  I’ve got seventy-three prisoners, and over a hundred casualties from the ship’s crew.  I think there were somewhere around four hundred people on board initially, but they apparently lost a lot of people to the hull breaches.  And I think a few were taken to crew the lighter unites you fought against earlier.  But otherwise, the ship is ours.”