Note. I've decided to repost this part of the story because I feel that it is very important to the main conflict for it pertains to the spark of it.
Voyager system
One week later
A medium sized asteroid mining ship left the atmosphere of the Earthlike planet known as ELP-101 and headed out for the local asteroid belt.
ELP-101 was home to Voyager Base, a scientific research base established by NASA in 2101. When the base was first established, the scientific teams were only capable of exploring the planet but thanks to the additional personnel and resources provided by NASA in the middle of 2101, their exploration capabilities were greatly expanded.
Another installation on the planet was Cheyenne 2, a military base under a mountain near the research base that housed a marine unit and an Air Force F-28 squadron tasked with defending Voyager base.
“Pecker 1 to Voyager Base, we are ninety-eight miles from the asteroid belt and closing.”
“Copy Pecker 1, the Spacefalcon Squadron is currently on patrol around the planet and the nearby space so if you need help, feel free to give them a call,” Dr. Gates said over the radio.
“Roger, hopefully we won’t run into any problems.”
Thirty minutes later, the mining ship reached the first asteroid at the edge of the belt and started scanning.
It didn’t take long for the scans to produce results.
“Wow, this rock is rich in metals and other mineral materials,” Dr. Winfield commented.
Should we start a drilling operation on this rock ma’am,” NASA pilot, Lieutenant Nicholson asked.
Absolutely, activate the drills and program our mineral extraction systems to draw out fifty percent from this rock once the drilling is complete.”
The ship moved into position a few feet over the asteroid and the three drills on its belly started making the necessary holes for the mineral extraction system to insert its tubes into.
F-28 patrol
Colonel Luke Macy was leading a six-ship flight on the space patrol while the other four fighters in his squad circled around ELP-101.
“Spacefalcon 1 to Spacefalcon 7, how are things going in orbit?”
“All is quiet on the orbital front boss. How are things on your end?”
“Pretty much the same, we’re just watching the mining ship on our radars.”
“Colonel Macy, I still can’t believe this is going to be your final year flying with us,” Macy’s copilot, Lieutenant Brown commented.
“Yep. When I return to Earth, I’m going to try and visit my family to see how they’re doing before going on to my new assignment.”
Near the end of last week, Colonel Macy received a message from General Dumars informing him that he would be called back to Earth next year for his new assignment of being an instructor for new F-28 pilots.
He found it quite interesting that he was going from being a combat pilot to an instructor.
“The mining ship is moving on to another asteroid,” Brown reported.
“I just sent them a message via IFDL to let them know we’re three-hundred miles southeast of the asteroid belt and monitoring their progress,” Macy said.
Four hours later, the mining ship approached its 17th asteroid and prepared to begin another mining operation.
“Given the size of this rock, it should be rich in mineral materials,” Nicholson’s copilot commented.
“Run a quick scan and if it’s rich in mineral materials we’ll drill into it,” Dr. Winfield said.
Like all of the other pre mining scans, this one yielded quick results as well.
“Results received. This asteroid contains sixty-eight-hundred hundred metric tons of mineral materials,” the copilot said.
Dr. Winfield gave the order to commence drilling and extract fifty percent of the rocks mineral materials.
The drilling was complete in no time and the mineral extraction tubes fell into the holes for their task.
Elsewhere in the system, a pirate cruiser flanked by two corvettes emerged from hyperspace.
Pirate cruiser bridge
One minute later
Commander, we’ve completed our long range scans and have discovered an unknown ship in a large field of asteroids,” one of the sensor operators reported.
“Why would a ship go there?”
“Don’t know Commander, but it’s currently hovering in place over one of the asteroids.”
“Tell the other ships to set course for the vessel and prepare our boarding teams.”
Pecker 1
A small chunk of space rock harmlessly bounced off of the ships shields as it operation neared completion.
“Mineral extraction complete,” the ships automated system voice reported.
This asteroid belt consisted of thousands of asteroids, but the mission plan called for conducting drilling operations on only twenty-one of them.
“Only four more rocks to go,” Dr. Winfield said.
But before they could get moving, a warning alarm went off.
“Ma’am, I got three unidentified contacts traveling through hyperspace and approaching us at high speed.”
“How far out Lieutenant?”
“Only a mile Ma’am.”
“Spacefalcon leader to Pecker 1, we’re detecting three hyperspace window signatures near your position. You’re about to have some company.”
“We’re well aware of that Colonel Macy,” Dr. Winfield replied.
The three ships dropped out of hyperspace in the blink of an eye and stopped short of the mining ship.
“What kind of ships are those?” the copilot asked.
Suddenly, the big ship fired off two energy shells and Lieutenant Nicholson instantly grabbed his joystick to steer the ship out of the way of the incoming rounds. She managed to doge two of them, but the third one struck the shield.
“I’m getting us out here,” he shouted as more rounds struck the shields and caused the ship to shake violently.
“Mayday Mayday this is Pecker 1, we are under attack! I repeat, we are under attack,” Dr. Winfield shouted.
“Pecker 1, this is Spacefalcon 1. We got the hostiles on radar and we’re moving to engage. Keep pushing east and that will make our job of getting within attack range a whole lot easier. Spacefalcons 2 through 6, push your throttles up to max.”
“Roger Spacefalcon leader, I just told Cheyenne 2 about the hostile incursion and Colonel Bruce is contacting Space Fleet Command as we speak.
“Copy that Spacefalcon 2. Brown, run a scan on those ships to see if they match anything in our intelligence database.”
“Yes sir.”
Lieutenant Brown scanned the ships on one display screen and pulled up the intelligence database on another.
A matching profile of the ships in question was pulled up in seven seconds and Lieutenant Brown did not like what he was seeing.
“I got a match sir, we’re dealing with space pirates. Their ships are an exact match to the ones that attacked the Hydra on its maiden voyage, the big one is a cruiser and the other two are corvettes.”
“Flight, arm your Komodo missiles. I’ll light up the cruiser once we’re in firing range, Spacefalcons 2 and 3 your targets are the corvettes.”
“Roger that Spacefalcon 1, missiles are armed,” Spacefalcon 3 replied.
The Komodo was a brand new hypersonic anti-ship missile developed by the U.S. Air Force for the F-28s.
Named after the Komodo dragon, this fearsome weapon had a range of 250 miles with a top speed of Mach ten. The introduction of the Komodo greatly increased the F-28s payload capacity. Instead of carrying only eight SB-1000 plasma warheads for anti-ship duty, it could now carry sixteen Komodos in groups of two on its eight underwing pylons along with four Sidewinder and twelve ERAAMs on the launch rails attached to them.
“The targets are still in close pursuit of the mining ship and the cruiser is hammering away at its shields,” Brown said.
“Spacefalcons, do something about these hostile ships. We’re doing the best we can to stay ahead of them but I don’t think our shields are going to last much longer,” Lieutenant Nicholson shouted over the radio.
“Just keep going on your current heading, you’re leading them right to us and your six o‘clock will be cleared shortly,” Colonel Macy said.
The F-28s got to within 250 miles of the pirate ships and acquired them. Macy fired off two Komodo missiles and they were joined by two more from Spacefalcons 2 and 3.
The mining ship continued trying to outrun its pursers, but it wasn’t having much luck and the fire from the cruiser was now causing the shields to flicker with each hit.
“Unknown vessel, you have no chance of escaping us so you might as well just halt your movement and preparing for boarding,” The cruiser commander said over the ships radio.
Nicholson and the copilot simply ignored the taunt and concentrated on trying to hold out until the missiles took care of the hostiles as Dr. Winfield gripped the backs of their chairs with both hands and hoped for the best.
Nicholson decided to try shaking them off by moving the ship in a zigzag motion but every time he did, the ship ended up taking a potshot from one of the corvettes.
And with a length of 115 meters, the mining ship could not turn on a dime like an F-28.
“Zigzagging is out of the question,” Nicholson said as the ship shook from three more impacts.
The next hit is going to take out our shields and inflict some damage on the hull,” the copilot shouted in a panicked tone of a voice.
That troubling report was quickly followed by a fourth shot from the cruiser and the remaining strength of the shields dropped to zero.
A look of dread quickly formed on everyone’s faces.
But before the cruiser could take another shot, the six Komodo missiles flew over the mining ship on their way to the pirate ships who were put on the defensive by their sudden arrival.
They tried to intercept them with their plasma cannons, but the missiles were in holographic mode and flying too fast.
The missiles targeting the cruiser flew through its shields where they returned to solid form, penetrated its belly and proceeded to punch deeper into the ship.
They went up all the way to the central deck where they exploded with the power of two fifteen kiloton nukes and blew it apart as the fighters entered the area.
“Nice shooting Colonel, you blew that son of a bitch in half,” Lieutenant Brown said.
“This is Spacefalcon 3, pirate corvette destroyed.”
“This is Spacefalcon 2, my target suffered an extreme amount of damage from my Komodo strike and it’s floating like a piñata on a string.”
“Two and three, head towards the damaged cruiser and suppress any remaining weapon batteries and blow its engines so it can’t power back up and flee. The rest of us will check on the mining ship.”
“Roger Spacefalcon 1,” Spacefalcon 2 replied then the two fighters went ahead of everyone else as the mining ship came into view.
“Pecker 1, what’s your status?” Macy asked.
“Our shields were depleted by enemy fire, but we’re still in one piece. Thanks for saving us.”
“No problem ma’am,” Colonel Macy replied.
Spacefalcons, I will definitely be buying you guys some drinks when we get back to base,” Nicholson said.
“We managed to get a wide a distance from the enemy ships just before they turned into fireballs. Were those tactical nukes by any chance because those explosions looked and felt too powerful be normal missiles? And do you have any idea who those guys attacking us were?”
“Your attackers were a group of space pirates just like the ones who provoked the Hydra on its first voyage, we don’t know why they would come all the way out here to try and hijack a ship apart from just doing it out of spite. And to answer your second question doc, our anti-ship missiles aren’t tipped with nuclear warheads, they just have explosive power that is equal to that of one or in the case of the Komodo, fifteen kilotons,” Macy explained.
Crippled pirate corvette
Four ERAAM missiles from Spacefalcons 2 and 3 flew in and wiped out the remaining weapon turrets then the two fighters came into view and took out the engines with five more ERAAMs from their weapon bays.
Although the turrets we’re rendered inoperable by the missile attack, nothing was being left to chance.
“Spacefalcon 2 to Spacefalcon 1, the enemy ships turrets and engines have been blown to kingdom come and our scanners aren’t picking up any internal activity.
“Roger, Spacefalcons 5 and 6 are escorting Pecker 1 back to ELP-101 where it will recharge its shields in orbit before returning to base while we remain on station with the crippled ship pending further orders.”
“Understood.”
“I got to admit Spacefalcon 2, you weren’t kidding when you said this thing suffered an extreme amount of damage,” Spacefalcon 3 commented as he and his copilot looked at the smoldering wreck.
Spacefalcons 1 and 4 joined in the wide orbit around the ship and it wasn’t long before they were contacted by Cheyenne 2.
“Spacefalcon flight, this is Colonel Bruce. Good job dealing with those pirate ships, Space Fleet Command has been notified of the incursion and is sending the space destroyer USS Montpelier to the neighborhood to help us guard against any further pirate attacks.”
“How long will take for the ship to arrive?” Colonel Macy asked.
“She was conducting a space patrol in a system two-hundred lightyears from here and will arrive within a few hours. I need your flight to remain station until then.”
“Solid copy,” Macy replied.
Space Fleet Command operations room
The Pentagon
November 15th
5:54PM
Admiral Thornton was on the Phone with President Hayes as everyone else tended to their duties.
“I just got done talking to Colonel Bruce sir, the pirate ships have been neutralized and the mining ship is safely in orbit above ELP101 under fighter escort while it’s recharging its shields. The Montpelier is on its way to the Voyager system as per your orders.”
“That’s all well and good Admiral, but NASA is highly pissed about this pirate incursion which is understandable and I think it’s finally time to put these space pirates in their place. Whatever battle plans you have against them, I suggest you set them into motion immediately.”
“I’ll get right on it Mr. President,” Thornton replied then Hayes hung up and Thornton told one of the console operators to get destroyer group one on the line.
USS Hydra
Earth’s orbit
“Captain Garff, we have an incoming priority one message from SFC. Captain Schuab on the Ofnir and Captain Kimmel on the Grabak are also receiving,” Lieutenant Velmont said.
“Bring’em up on the overhead monitors,” Garff ordered as he walked back to his chair and faced the three monitors above the viewscreen as Thornton, Schuab, and Kimmel appeared.
“Saddle up gentlemen, it’s pirate season.”
The three captains were well aware of the incident in the Voyager system and were not surprised by this response, in fact they were expecting it.
“Where do we start hunting sir?” Garff asked.
“The same system where you first encountered them which we have designated as SY-1407. We’ve been monitoring the area with a drone since your return and we have enough intelligence to launch a counterstrike with the sole aim of the clearing out all pirate forces. The Beowulf was at Octavia base at the time of the Voyager system incident, and is now heading towards the target area to provide extra support if needed,” Thornton explained.
“Understood sir, we’ll show the space pirates that Earth has zero tolerance for acts of aggression being conducted against its ships,” Garff replied.
Admiral Thornton was just about to end the briefing when one of his officers handed him a piece of paper.
“The alliance has been briefed on the situation and the Greeks have decided to send the Leonidas to link up with the Beowulf. The Perseus is still conducting trials in the neighborhood so they’re keeping that one close to home. Good luck gentlemen.”
Thornton closed the transmission and Captain Garff gave a quick briefing to the crew about the mission they were setting out on before the three space destroyers broke orbit and entered hyperspace.
On the inside, Captain Garff was grinning at the prospects of this operation.
“If those pirates think that facing off with one Hydra class destroyer was bad, I can’t wait to see the looks on their faces when they’re facing off with three. Plus the possibility of two battlecruisers and their fighter wings getting in on the action is like the icing on the cake,” he thought to himself.
The other parts of chapter 5 and the first two parts of chapter 6 have already been posted. I will post the 3rd of chapter 6 sometime next week.