Piracy In Noders: An Act Of War!

[Knaves Rock]

The King was pacing like a madman. He had never ordered an operation like this before. The Kingdom of Knave's Rock had always been a peaceful, law-abiding place. But it had been losing ground in the race for military software for years. It need cutting-edge technology, and it needed it NOW!

King Charles was well aware of the pending alliances of the so-called "emergent nations" in his part of the world. He was well aware that they had a couple of powerful friends as well. Friends who would undoubtedly trade all kind of goods with the nations, including GPS, statistical positioning coordinate software, and possibly even the hyperspace tech of instantaneous transport through the space-time continuum known as the TransBeam.

He dared not hold a Council meeting. He couldn't trust anyone with his thoughts.

One morning, he was taking his customary stroll through his gardens, and he heard an accent that he was unfamiliar with. The man, presumably one of the gardeners, was speaking about "the boss", a person evidently in charge of something back in his native country. As the King listened, he discovered that the man was a citizen of Baal-Peor, a scrufty little island nation about 225 miles off the southern coast of the Rock. This "Boss" was very clearly a pirate.

A plan began to develop in the King's mind................

[Baal-Peor]

Diego was still pissed, but now that the GPS software was working correctly, he was at least in a good enough mood to order a wholesale attack on anything coming out of Noders. Anything, any size, any nation.

Which was his first mistake.

His initial foray into the Strait of Noders was a test run. All went well: the Noderian freighter was at the bottom of the Strait, as were all the crew, brutally executed by the BP marauders.

"Fuckin' right, dese fuckin' Nodees 'aint worth shit comes to fightin'!" Diego was very pleased with himself. A large load stolen, all evidence gone. "Yeah, dese assholes gonna be easy pickins."

The thought of the King of Knave's Rock providing the ships and the guns was a bit troublesome. He often wondered why Charles was going after Noders in this way. Why not just attack? Knave's Rock was a large, wealthy nation, militarily superior to Noders.

He was still thinking when a knock came on his stateroom door. "Commandant, I think you need to see this report."

Diego grabbed the report from the sailor, an his frown deepened. He spoke out loud, to no one in particular, "So dis is the way it is, huh? He no wanna make waves wit dis Noders 'cause Noders got two allies even larger than Knave Rock. Bastard! He set me up to get squashed!"

He turned to the sailor. "Get that fuckin' King on the radio and tell him to get his royal ass down to the docks tomorrow mornin'. We'll see about dis set-up."

"Aye, Commandant."

[Xeraph]

Orbiting Battle Station 2aAM4 was positioned securly over Noders, and was already picking up activity in the narrow strait off the southern coast of the new nation. Admiral Nah'th hit the button. "M'Lord Ricala, I've got six or eight fast-attack craft zoning in on two large freighters as well as a small security boat. Flag is a sort of a sun in a black sky."

Ricala Tan'it, uncle to the Emperor, former King of Auralinia, was now Lord High Prince of the Xeraphian Out Worlds. He had a considerable amount of power available to him, but obeyed the Emperor.

"OK, Admiral, I see them. I'll send simultaneous messages to Amra and this Robert Green guy. There's nothing anyone can do until our navy gets there."

"Well, hell, Ric, lemme blast 'em! I can take 'em out from here!"

"Negative on that, Admiral. Amra wants this alliance to go with conventual weapons, MT."

A long sigh. "Aye, M'Lord. Conventional it is."

Ricala knew it would be a few days before the first of the Xeraphian forces got to the area. The pirates could gain the upper hand by then and dislodging them would be all the more difficult.

He tapped his commpin. "Amra! We can't just let this happen!"

"Yes we can Ric. We have to right now. Stand down. No action til I say so."

[Noders]

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[Xeraph]

BUMP

[Xeraph]

Ensign Pulver scanned the horizon once more, just to be sure. Yep, there they were. Dots on the horizon, but moving fast. "Chief, we got bogies, straight due west."

"Them pirates, ya think?"

"More than likely, Chief. They're coming from the right direction. What's surprising is the level of tech they're showing. Pirates don't usually have naval-class FABs." He glanced at the OBP reports. "And they don't usually have GPS. These boats are first-line-defense units."

Chief Boyle looked through his binocs. "Yep. Look to be the SeaWolf 22-B boats. And if ya look a little closer, you can see a couple of subs. Probably Squids."

"Chief, where in hell they get equipment like that?"

"Latest I heard is that we got us a turncoat in the Empire providing arms, men, and money to various rebel groups, these pirates among them. We're not sure who it is yet, but we'll find out soon enough."