10 Megameter from Combined Colonial Task Force
After getting out of his personal room, Flight Commander Junzye took a small walk within a particular section of the spacecraft--partitioned to crews that are affected by the isolation directive handed out by Haize Interstellar Space Forces. Despite having intensive underwater training, he still had some difficulty of orientating himself in space and accepting the norm that down is opposite to whatever the direction of the spacecraft is going. If HVN Naviza turned on its left...then the right side is down. If it is flying backwards...now the top of Junzye's head is the new down.
Perhaps only submariners have excellent sense of positioning and Junzye kept questioning himself on why he decided this deployment in the first place. Thankfully HVN Naviza had ceased any rigorous maneuvers and instead started orbiting some distance away from Lycoas's bright star. Ten megameter away were the rest of the Colonial fleets and further than that were the asteroid belt of Lycoas system. The Haize spacecraft continued to keep its distance as any spacecraft not engineered for Orion propulsion will land in hot water as soon as they get too close, too close to the danger cone of Orion's atomic pulse detonations.
Like a sharp-eyed hawk, the Haize pride continued to observe the actions of Colonials and the 'pirates' they were supposed to fight against. True enough, in open space the Colonials dominated but it was different in the treacherous asteroid field. Junzye was continually updated through his personal communicator, on assets and results achieved by both belligerents. However the limited capacity of the communicator meant he should be better served by a more dedicated device to understand greater picture of the situation. He eventually went to a duplicated combat room of HVN Naviza, in order to fill the void in his knowledge.
Flight Commander Junzye finished strapping himself to a chair when a sudden thought passed his mind. He pressed a button on his communicator, "Hmm...they seemed to be...about done. What do you think, XO?"
"The enemy doesn't seem to matter much. Over the combined Colonial assaults, they quickly faltered. But there's also the asteroid field, Flight Commander. They're smart at using terrain."
"Right. They seemed no different than insurgents, knowing the area at the back of their hands." A holographic projection entered Junzye's view, replaying how some of the pirates managed to outwit the Colonials.
"Should we...pursue them, Flight Commander? Into the asteroid field? Weaponry stated they might've still out there, lurking between the space rocks."
Junzye shrugged in response. The data beyond him morphed to real time observation conducted by HVN Naviza. "Even if I want, I do not have the required resources, XO. Let the Colonials take the bulk of the work. We're here to observe, not fight another man's war."
"Uhh..and what about the deployment, Flight Commander?"
"Experience, that's all. We don't have cosmonaut fight program, just spacecraft combat. That will keep those fat cats in Military Commission shut." Junzye reviewed through the details again. He had ordered three of his men and a number of drones to join Colonial's assault on Objective Able.
"As you commanded, Flight Commander."
"Good. Keep an eye out for anything interesting to note." He then dismissed the link while scrunching his eyebrows. "I hope this isn't a nightmare..."
Haize Landing Craft
Approaching Objective Able
Thanks to the work done by the combined Colonial Task Force, VF M117 flew toward Objective Able without much trouble. Majority of the orbital path were clear from hostiles but hazards continued to linger in form of space debris and whatnot from Colonials' previous clash with the space pirates. Numerous space wreckage can be seen, ranging from human body parts to twisted bits of metal and semi-pulverized uranium fuel rods. The combat up ahead seemed to proceed on direct foot-to-foot fighting, as indicative by numerous Colonial transports landing on Objective Able.
Some flashes still bloomed in the distance as the space pirates tried to lure some parts of Colonial's assets into the deadly asteroid field. VF M117 barreled through the void, accompanied by a trio of space combat drones launched from HVN Naviza just in case there would be pirates trying to take aim on the landing craft. For the most part of the journey however, the drones helped to relocate obstructing space debris by firing their autocannons to the offending piece. Three Haize and six combat drones were on the delta-shaped landing craft, as ordered by Flight Commander Junzye to watch the Colonials in much closer action.
The squad leader of the group, Sergeant Verag fiddled with VF 117 instrumentation panel, checking awful amount of knobs and data. "Telemetry....check. Fuel lines...check. Good to go."
"Buzhak! How many of these things we need to check??!!" His more colourful companion, Junior Sergeant Byelov was more animated than others. Evidently a hard space suit is quite different than the tight fitting spandex attire of Haize Naval Infantries as Byelov kept tumbling his footing.
"Do you want to end up like that scrap metal out there? I am sure as hell, won't." Sergeant Verag shot him a side-eye and then swallowed several white tablets. "Also, don't skimp on iodine pills. We have strict limits out here."
"So...what are we supposed to do again?" The odd one between the two brawny men was Sergeant Hazak, which had greater reserved personality and leaner build. He was also cautious, already suited up way earlier than them.
Verag finally left the control stick and faced the duo, "Umm...based on what I know, we're supposed to storm this asteroid base they call Objective Able. We only have three men here...so we will just see what are those Colonials are doing. Maybe we can learn a thing or two from them."
"So a space CQC. What else?" Byelov eventually calmed down as the drugs he took started to kick in. He then put on his helmet as VF M117 flew ever closer to Objective Able.
Verag followed Byelov's action and then motioned both of his peers to follow him to the dispatch area. "Watch out for the pirates? Dunno. Heard they're a ragtag group that happened to be in space. But I don't expect it to be easy either."
"Hah! How difficult it could be? This is no different than fighting underwater!" Upon hearing his words, Byelov thumped his chest with a metallic sound. Obviously Byelov didn't view these space pirates as something to concern about. It would be just a walk in the park.
Hazak chipped in as the trio went to the designated compartment. "Whatever man. I just want to get off this stupid suit and have a nice cig afterwards. Not some buffon vape-thing."
"We'll see, gents. All I know is that we're technically on an 'armed reconnaissance' mission. For that we have number of these babies here." Verag tapped some of the wheeled drones that will follow them to Objective Able. They were almost similar to a robot floor polisher, blocky and stout. Some were equipped with heavy machine guns, some with grenade launchers. Either case, absolutely lethal.
Byelov nodded as sign of approval. He had seen such drones before, in joint training between Haize Army and the Naval Infantries. They make excellent bullet sponges as they don't bleed and die like ordinary men. "Good! When will we jump, SL?"
"Gents, on my mark...three...two...one... JUMP!" Verag lifted his left arm and the bay doors in front of the team parted in the middle. Some of the wheeled drones ejected first, followed by decoy flares. He then jumped out in mere seconds, to the waiting grey world below.
Byelov followed next, with the rest of the companion drones. Bursts of nitrogen pushed him to the intended vector. "Gahahaha!!! A space jump!!!"
"Don't miss the landing point! If you miss it, you're dead! Get your speed and heading right! All weapons, hot!" Verag dived head first while bringing his weapon to bear. Was it simply too easy? He had some premonition of what yet to come.
"SL! Missiles!" Hazak screamed in their tactical radio link as VF M117 urgently informed them of three incoming rockets. By now they were mere kilometers from the asteroid, with VF M117 diverting to different orbit. Apparently the pirates knew trigger discipline and waited until VF 117 had moved away.
Verag ordered some of the companion drones to move between them and the incoming missiles. He himself executed a barrel roll and ejected fair numbers of decoys. "Jammers and flares! Evasive maneuvers!"
"God damn, they still have some defenses?!!" Byelov copied after him, breaking away from the main descent path in order to reduce risk to the rest of the team. Two more slender missiles flew toward the Haize group, their fiery plumes obvious versus the dark space background.
Verag took aim and fired his weapon with the help of his suit's built in targeting. He wasn't sure on how these missiles were guided and so he proceeded to try at least shoot some of them down. "Keep chatter to minimum! Opsec!"
Some of the missiles were destroyed with combined assault from the men and the descending drones. The danger didn't just stop there; while the destroyed missiles were no longer tracking them, their debris still carried momentum and headed toward the team's direction. Such bits and pieces would prove fatal to a cosmonaut, by either through suit puncture or worse. The team continued to expend their resources, particularly their propellant loads as dodging the missiles is one thing and avoiding newly created space junk is an another issue.
"Lost Unit One!" Hazak exclaimed in their radio link yet again, as new space debris took their toll on the team's companion combat drones. "Unit Two!"
Byelov barely dodged a half centimeter piece of metal, zipping directly in front of his helmet at five kilometers per second. "SL! Why isn't VF doing anything?!"
"Dunno! Get to surface quickly! Don't waste your dee-vee or you'll miss!" Verag gulped and took the first plunge for a hard landing. Their team cannot keep dodging forever or they won't have enough propellant to jump back out of this space rock.
The three of them and the remaining combat drones fell on the asteroid like a falling meteor. Huge clump of dust and random pieces of rock blew upwards as the result. Some of the drones managed to pinpoint the missiles' launch location and fired in retaliation but it was unclear how effective was the attack as they braked into the asteroid in a short order. Verag and his men survived the fall thanks to their suits' last minute counter-reaction jets while the combat drones simply relied on their beefy build.
"Whew! Can I get a raise after this?" Byelov removed bagful of space dust embedded in his suit's joints. Fortunately no Haize encountered suit puncture, just sore pains from lithobraking.
Several spikes immediately drove themselves from the soles of Verag, followed by periodic reaction thrusters' activation of his suit. "Only if you're in one piece. Let's regroup with the Mokans. Hope no surprise come in our way now."
The group rapidly left the crater, as fast as their suits allowed. There was no doubt the pirates are still alive and kicking, not truly dead. It was of high importance to quickly leave the area before Haize troops became surrounded by the pirates on Objective Able. Such sudden missile attack showed the pirates might have even nastier surprise in store, causing Haize combat team's alertness to be maximized. They plotted the direction of Mokan squad that had landed earlier and rode some of the combat drones to the approximated location.