Commonwealth Space (Semi-Open, Attn GD)

[Haishan]

HVN Naviza
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..."

---

VF M117
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.

[Mokastana]

The airlock hissed open, and two mechanical beasts emerged. They walked like men, but appeared like knights of old, clad in metal with large rectangular shields, coated in a fabric netting. 9mm machine gun rounds bounced away harmlessly from the armored warriors as the pirates tried to take them down. Even SLR rounds did little but dent the armor worn by the machinations. It was only a few seconds before they returned fire with guns of their own, built into their right arms. 9mm bullets swept the room with as unarmored pirates fell, and even those with body armor took punches in the chest from the high velocity rounds. A grenade rolled forward but the mechanical beast dropped to a knee, it's shield slamming into the ground in front of the grenade. The explosion ripped through the air and the blastwave disoriented the surviving pirates.

In the chaos, something fired into the room over a beast's shoulder. White smoke and blinding light accompanied the rapid temperature increase as someone screamed, desperately trying to remove smoldering clothing. It was too late, the fabrics had already began to fuse with the skin as the white phosphorus burned the pirates unlucky enough to be caught in the blast. The metal moved forward, and behind them more men followed, in armored space suits, but men for sure. More gunfire erupted and soon only a few pirates remained alive, but bleeding or cooking alive, on the floor. One of the space suits spoke into their microphone, barely registering to anyone outside, but clear as day to anyone on their radio frequency: “Second squad report, room secured. Preparing for next airlock breech. Three rooms to contact with allied forces.”

---

By the main airlock, one squad was kept in reserve. For if they lost the airlock, they lost their way out and could be cut off. Although no cosmonauts stood guard outside, they had cameras and sensors set up in case something happened outside. Such as an allied ship throwing a lot of something's out of an airlock, only for an unexpected missile to be fired at them followed by counter fire. The objects that hit the surface of the meteor hard, hitting with numerous clouds of dust. If that was the Haize team, the “mountain spikes” the Mokan teams used to enter were still outside, and could help the Haize get in quicker if they knew where to look.

Using agreed upon allied frequencies, the reserve squad sent a short burst radio message.
“Red Steel to allied units, what happened out there?” Red steel being the call sign of the PUF space infantry unit. They knew to expect a Haize observer squad soon, but with those crashes, did they even make it?

[Morrdh]

Using agreed upon allied frequencies, the reserve squad sent a short burst radio message.
“Red Steel to allied units, what happened out there?” Red steel being the call sign of the PUF space infantry unit. They knew to expect a Haize observer squad soon, but with those crashes, did they even make it?

"Red Steel, Crown One." Crackled the response over the radio net from Crown One, the call-sign of the designated command and control unit for the operation. "Tactical situation being updated, stand by."

A short while later another message crackled over the radio net. "All stations, all stations, all stations! This is Crown One. Be advised, enemy now confirmed to have MANPADS. Crown One out."

---

A flight of four Royal Space Force Viper spacefighters approached Objective Able, though used the surrounding asteroids to mask themselves before getting close. They had been hastily re-directed onto a so-called 'Ferret' sortie, effectively a Suppression of Enemy Air Defences (SEAD for short) operation in common military terminology. Though the spacefighters weren't properly equipped for a SEAD mission, mainly due to the mission's urgency, and they would have to conduct it in a more primitive manner. The four aircraft split off into pairs in order to cover more ground; one fighter practically hugging the surface of the asteroid whilst the other went 'high' and effectively acted as bait.

The idea was for the 'high' flying craft to draw out the pirates MANPADS by getting them to fire and thus reveal their location, allowing the 'low' flying craft to then engage them with its kinetic weapons. Though if the pirates held their fire, then the mission would still be considered to successful as the pirates wouldn't then be attacking other craft. If the pirates were deterred from firing, then ground forces would be redirected to conduct a surface sweep aided by the spacefighters.

[Haishan]

HVN Turzye
Low Lunar Orbit
Mare Serenitatis Region, Luna

The four thousand plus metric tonnes behemoth cast a cylindrical shadow on the pale Lunar soil. One of five Project 901 commissioned to date, HVN Turzye was specifically outfitted to carry mind boggling amount of cargo undreamt of for space aficionados. It slowly maneuvered into position, some hundred kilometers above the dusty plains of Luna.

For Flight Commander Zanzji and his crew, they were conducting an equally important mission as HVN Naviza to further the goals of Haize space forces. The craft suddenly shuddered in silence, its belly opening up like a jaws of a ferocious beast. Wire-spool radiators started to grow from its sides, painting an even bigger shadow on lunar soil. All of these were carefully choreographed from HVN Turzye's command center, buried deep inside the spacecraft with meters of shielding.

Zanzji's right hand man was the first to break the silence. "Reactors turning cold. Radiators extended. Velocities...matched. We're ready to drop the payloads, Flight Commander."

"Excellent. Guys, remember your limits. Don't stay out there more than necessary and be on your toes. We need every able-bodied men up here but we don't need heroes. Heroes die hard and fast. Pop pills and get to work." The Flight Commander squinted his eyes to one of the monitors, showing the descent of massive cargo pods from HVN Turzye to the world below.

"XO, any indication for next solar flare?"

"Insofar Spacom didn't tell anything. All green at this time."

"How much lead time we have if one is heading our way, XO?"

"Four days at best, two minutes at worst, Flight Commander."

At this point, Zanzji shifted his eyes to another monitor. Solar flares are always troublesome for cosmonauts. It cuts down their service time or worse, instant death. "That doesn't inspire any confidence at all, does it? Two minutes are hardly enough to set up anything down there. Or escaping to safety."

"Until HPVA somehow make personal forcefield possible, we're stuck with thick shielding Flight Commander. No way around it. Our cosmonauts wouldn't be cosmonauts if they also need to haul five tonnes of shielding around."

"Still, I wish for those brainboys to come up with something. I don't know, maybe more robots? I don't feel comfortable putting my men in a cosmic billiard."

"I am just as confused as you are Flight Commander."

"Well for our new branch...growing up is going to be painful. Sometimes I wish I can get those uptights in the Ministry work out here. See whether they like space radiation or not!"

"I agree with you Flight Commander. But orders are orders and we're just a cog in the machine. No one would remember us either but at least we wouldn't have to put our future generations in the harms' way."

"Right. We have our orders....we need to get this base up and running. Sacrifices must be made."

The Flight Commander inadvertently stared at the direction of the Sun. Due to certain parties in the Military Commission, the Space Forces didn't get all of the necessary funds. So certain tasks needed to be done the old-fashioned way and the job carried out by deckhands of HVN Turzye was no different than the ones being done by oil riggers back on Earth. However oil riggers don't have to deal with space radiation and be on the edge on every second. Radiation demands great respect and woe to the ignorant.

Meeting Hall № 5
Ministry of Defence
Icturk Metropolis, Haishan

"The Interstellar Forces are deploying our first extra-terrestrial base at Mare Serenitatis as we speak. The lead craft is HVN Turzye, unloading more than five hundred metric tonnes worth of equipment. We expect to get the base up and running within this week. On achieving that milestone, we're requesting additional two percent budget to finance further operations and feasibility study for a Lunar-based spacewright." Space Commandant Zachyr-Toshri started the meeting with a wave of his hands, bringing multiple imagery into view.

"Proposal № 83A was it? To establish construction of Project 902 and 903?"

The Space Commandant nodded to the question, "That is correct, Finance Minister. Construction and launch of Project 901 had attracted too much attention here and abroad. The cost of launches are no jokes either. Project 902 and 903 despite the expensive price tag, will be used to validate feasibility of high mass, long duration transport designs. Think it as a future investment when we're able to sustain mining ops in the asteroid belt."

"On that notion, the Health Directorate wishes for the Space Forces to conduct clinical trials on measures against space radiation, Proposal № 12B. We need to see whether we can reduce or otherwise eliminate radiation damage with our new prototype drugs."

"The Space Forces will see whether it is feasible to carry out the tests, Health Minister. We will slot it for the next Raelizh launch window. HVN Turzye could be the first testers." Zachyr-Toshri nodded as a reply to the suggestion. The Space Forces needed all the support it can get, to navigate the glacial budget terrain of Haishan.

A raise of hand however broke the Space Commandant's tone. Colonel General Aluxoy at the end, with raised eyebrows. "If I may interrupt, Space Commandant?"

"Go ahead, Colonel General."

"While the General Staff as a whole were convinced on the utility and benefits of the Space Forces, as a representative of the Army I am less inclined to agree."

"Oh? Can you rephrase your question, Colonel General?" Zachyr-Toshri sighed a little bit. What does this old bag want now?

"As I understand, the Space Forces' current strength is at a Flight of Project 901, meaning five spacecraft of the model, right? And each one of them cost more than two billion hikans each? Doesn't that feel wrong? For one billion hikans, I can equip up to seven, yes, seven Maneuver Brigades with equipment that are no less inferior than Lyran ones. And the Space Forces are asking for even more money while the Army need to jump many hoops just to gain extra tens of hikans. How do you justify this expensive extension, Space Commandant?"

"Yes, you might be surprised of the price tag...but do our adversaries wait for us? Space is its own unique thing and have its unique requirements. I am not saying the Army would be obsolete but lets view history when airplanes were first made viable. People back then said land warfare will be a thing of a past but look at it now, land armies are still there and still strong."

Colonel General Aluxoy remained unconvinced. His mustache twitched. "What do you mean by that, Space Commandant?"

"Like I said earlier to the Finance Minister, think this extension of budget as form of investment. The Army are always on the lookout for better materials to protect our servicemen, right? Space provides that opportunity; it is the hardest domain around. So let's say our new armour can survive space environment...then it can survive anything you can throw at it here." The Space Commandant took a shallow breath and then took his time to explain.

"But you said that space domain is its own unique thing, Space Commandant. How does that mesh with Army requirements if the requirements are different to begin with? Space have its own demands. Army have its own stuff too."

"For the most part, I agree with you Colonel General. But we have some common denominators here. When we need to deal with fighting on the surface, it's Army techniques that would be employed. Army weapons, rifles and all since simple is good in space. If our cosmonauts got injured in space, we need to patch them quick. So the same stuff can be used to treat our wounded Army infantries. Just controlling the orbits won't do, we need boots on the ground too. So in fact, we really need Army's cooperation in wide range of stuff to make this venture work. Think about it, Colonel General."

A little bit of shine glowed in the Colonel General's eyes. What came next was an oddly phrased question. "So, you're saying that the Space Forces are willing to make concessions to other Services for this budget extension?"

"You can put it as that way, Colonel General. While we have the technologies, unfortunately new technologies means...new costs. Think it as a sunk cost however. We will test new stuff for you in exchange of the Army's consent. This is also in line on what Head of General Staff thought of, correct?"

The Head of General Staff that kept mum all these while eventually replied, "...You pass. We're just trying to gauge whether the Space Forces will be a white elephant or an instrument of our policy. It seems our warplanners really need to revise their view this time."

"Thank you for your confirmation, Commandant General. Now if I may continue the presentation?"

"Please proceed, Space Commandant."

From there, there were no more question of budget utilization from the attendees to the meeting. The involved parties had sensed that the Space Forces was willing to compromise one way or another and thus had given the Space Commandant some tacit consent. Whether it was a good thing or bad is a matter of the future. The Space Forces however can breathe easier after knowing most of the stakeholders were willing to negotiate at least. There are no free lunch indeed.

Objective Able
Pirate Asteroid Base
Surface

The trio of Haize cosmonauts continued to speed along the asteroid's surface, kicking up some dust in their wake. Out of seven combat drones deployed by VF M117, two were lost to hostile missile fire. The remaining five traveled in a chevron formation, with two armed with grenade machine guns as the vanguard and the other three carrying Haize cosmonauts over the barren terrain. Each of them maintained some distance from each other so the pirates cannot take all of them out in a single attack.

"How's the reading, Hazak?" Verag tuned to his suit-to-suit communication, eyes peeled on the horizon.

"Around zero point zero zero eight mili-sievert per hour, squad lead."

"That's awfully high isn't it? We can't stay out here more than necessary or we will spend all of our allowances for the rest of the operation. Do you spot anything, Byelov?"

The sharp eyed Byelov caught sight of some sort of metallic spikes in the distance, "I see some sort of cables there. I think that's where the Mokans are heading."

"Good, we will make haste. Eyes on the reading, we don't want to exceed our ops limits. Hail them when we get close."

"When will our ride catches us again, Sergeant?"

"I dunno, Hazak. After that surprise attack...it may take more than two days to return back. Our transport need to conserve its delta-vee after all. Just hope that we can go inside Objective Able deep enough and don't have to face any freak CMEs or similar." Verag frowned in reply. This was a totally alien star system, with no known pattern of solar activities.

Byelov chimed in, "Our lead craft saw that right?"

"They would. But getting them here would be tricky, lot of micrometeorites around. I don't want to get bathed in its sunshine either."

"Squad lead, I've received a comms from the direction we're heading. Should we continue forward?"

"Uh, we don't even have a choice out here. Reply with pre-arranged codes. If they're hostile, you boys know what to do."

"Roger." Both Hazak and Byelov replied in unison. Regardless of the circumstances, they were required to maintain strict radio discipline. Who knows if the pirates were currently listening and trying to plot their demise?

The formation of Haize combat drones shifted their vector and then moved toward the direction pointed out earlier by Byelov. A small airlock can be seen from the distance, finally an access point into Objective Able. All three Haize cosmonauts tightened their grips on their weapons, ready to respond to any probable ambush.

[Morrdh]

For Masefield's section and many others the assault appeared to be stalling, though some Mokan units had made further headway but were running into heavy resistance. The pirates had clearly been expecting the assault and had prepared their defence accordingly, their resistance seemed to be too well organised for what Masefield would've expected. Heavy machine guns had been setup to cover chokepoints in the passageways that led deeper into the asteroid base, thus they were able to fill these critical corridors with hot lead and murder anything trying to force a path. Somehow, the pirate gun positions would be needed to be dealt with.

Marine Morrogh was the 'lucky volunteer'.

Somebody had managed to find some air vents and Lofty (as Morrogh was better known) was the smallest member of the section, thus a natural choice for the venture. Though even for the diminutive astro-marine it was a tight fit, but he managed to crawl his way inch-by-inch. Due to the confined space of the air vent he carried no weapons, save for a pair of white phosphorus grenades that he held in his hands. The plan was pretty simple; Lofty was to use the cover of the air vent and work his way close enough to the pirates in order to drop the grenades into their midsts. The rest of the section did what they could to keep the pirates distracted and, more importantly, firing so that Lofty could use the sound to keep his bearings.

At last he shuffled round a corner and was rewarded by light shining through a grill and glimpses of the pirates beyond. Very carefully he worked his way up to the grill, gently pushed it open far enough to push the grenades through before pulling the pins. With that task done, he shuffled back as fast as he could before the grenades detonated. He heard the grill banging shut and curses from the pirates before flame and smoke filled the corridor with a loud bang. A moment later, the rest of the section came charging down the corridor and dealt with any surviving pirates.

"In here!" Lofty called out as he pushed at the grill, though unseen hands pulled the grill open from the otherside and a hand appeared to help Lofty out.

"Well done." Grinned Masefield as he pulled the lad to his feet and patted him on the shoulder. "Thats that roadblock dealt with."

"Thanks corp, fancied going fer a nice stroll."

"Well, yeah....take this." Masefield replied, handing Lofty back his SMG. "We've still got work ta do."

[Morrdh]

Gilbert System
Gilbert V

With a general lack of both threats and resources, the Commonwealth never established and maintained defence fleets for each of the systems it had colonized. The Lycaon Taskforce represented around two-thirds of the Royal Space Force’s overall strength, a huge and draining commitment for the Commonwealth. Most colonies tended to rely on locally raised Colonial Defence Forces for protection, most were part-time volunteers with a few lucky to process anything more than rifles. Some of the larger colonies, like Gilbert and Adlelaide, were able to boast a cadre of full-time soldiers and heavier weapons like surface-to-air missiles.

Considered to be the Commonwealth’s most important base outside of the Sol system, Gilbert V could count on having a frigate class vessel in orbit and a squadron of spacefighters on standby at all times. The spacefighters were housed on the same space station, in the orbit of Gilbert V, which was also home to Gilbert’s Traffic Control. Officially the space station was called Polaris Station, but most folk tended to call it Control or simply ‘Big C’. Regardless of what people called it, the station bristled with sensors and point defences in addition to being recognized as the symbol of Commonwealth authority in the Gilbert system.

However, the station suffered from two issues.

The first issue was that the station was decades old and showed its age, an ad hoc series of repairs and upgrades over the years had given it a patchwork look. There were plans to replace the station with an entirely new one, though the sheer amount of money and resources that this involved meant the project kept getting postponed. The CCA Secretariat has ensured that whenever the project gets brought up in budgetary reviews that it gets bounced around a myriad of sub-committees in order to quietly bury any proposals related to it.

The other issue that the station faced was to do with local conditions than any fault of the station itself. Gilbert’s star, small and unusually dim (roughly half the brightness of Sol), emits radio frequency radiation on a frequent basis which plays havoc with the station’s sensors. There was also a large asteroid field through which vessels had to travel as they transited between Gilbert V and the system’s main wormhole. The asteroid field in particular helped mask the approach of ships until they’d cleared the field, thus reducing the effectiveness of the station’s sensors to local space round Gilbert V.

It was something that Darian Hist, space pirate and one of the dangerous men in Commonwealth space, knew all about. He’d been using the asteroid field, despite its danger of rogue comets, for years to pull off smuggling runs or to attack shipping and remote mining outposts. His gang had adopted the name ‘Rock Rats’ and enjoyed a regime of terror that abruptly ended when Hist’s ship got disabled by a rogue asteroid and he then got picked up by a Space Force patrol. He’d expected to spend the remainder of his life rotting away on some asteroid prison, though unexpectedly he was offered a second chance.

At first he wasn’t sure what to make of his new benefactor, though the word ‘mad’ certainly crept into his thoughts. Yet his benefactor had access to a lot of money and, more importantly, the resources needed to get things done. Forming the pirate fleet had been a stroke of genius and had only required finding the price of each pirate captain, though what he had at his disposal right now paled in comparison. A freighter built for moving ores or water in bulk, a pair of frigate class vessel and a cruiser class. A token force meant more for raiding than fleet engagements and with a specific purpose in mind.

When the flotilla of vessels appeared on the scopes of Polaris Station, the normal procedure of identifying them and establishing communication went into effect. The lack of ID transponders wasn’t an immediate cause for concern, damage from the asteroid field or burnout from the emissions of the local star was often used excuses for this. Though a lack of response to radio calls from the station did raise an eyebrow or two and a flight of spacefighters, kept on Quick Reaction Alert, were scrambled to intercept the vessels. Though at this stage they weren’t considered hostile and wouldn’t be until every attempt at communication had been exhausted.

As a precautionary measure, both Ground Control and the Gilbert Defence Force were alerted to the situation in orbit. Being planetside there was nothing neither could do to effect what was going on in orbit, though the GDF did duly place its missile defence batteries on high alert. Likewise Gilbert V’s guardship, the frigate HMSS Claymore, went to Action Stations and broke orbit.

Still the flotilla kept coming, neither deviating from its course or even slowing down as it rapidly closed the distance between it and the spacefighters. Finally the commander of the station gave orders for Action Stations, resulting in bulkheads throughout the station being sealed and the remaining spacefighters being launched. By now Claymore had aligned its trajectory for an intercept and was burning hard to bring it within engagement range.

Then the flotilla of ships fired a missile barrage. Some of them were aimed at the spacefighters that hastily broke formation and tried desperately to evade the incoming warheads, the rest were bound for the station and Claymore. The Commonwealth forces returned fire, launching missile barrages of their own as their point defences came to life. Very quickly the void above Gilbert V was filled with exchanges of fire between the two sides, explosions soon filled the starry sky as the point defences took out some of the missiles. Though some of the missiles still got through.

Polaris Station took two hits; one missile blew out part of the station’s outer ring whilst the other hit the station’s main body and destroyed a power conduit, causing a critical power failure that effectively disabled the station. One of Claymore’s missiles struck one of the pirate frigates amidships, breaching its reactor and destroying the ship in an instant. Though Claymore soon found itself in a desperate fight with the surviving pirate frigate, though some of the spacefighters were able to come to the Commonwealth vessel’s aid.

The pirate cruiser stuck with the bulk carrier, covering it from Commonwealth missile fire as it barreled towards the planet. The surviving QRA spacefighters tried valiantly attacking these two larger pirate vessel s, though with their missile expended all they could do was nuisance attacks with their autocannons. Suddenly the pirate cruiser broke formation to turn and focus its efforts on the spacefighters, letting the bulk carrier fly on alone. At no point did the bulk carrier slow or alter course, instead it flew straight at the planet.

Its forward hull plating began to glow with heat as the bulk carrier entered the planet’s atmosphere, its thrusters still burning hard as gravity reached out and helped pull the ship down towards the planet’s surface. Down it came, like a gigantic missile leaving a vast trail of smoke behind it. Up from the ground came missiles from GDF defence batteries, though they only succeeded in changing the trajectory of the vast projectile rather than any telling damage. It struck the ground, hard, with a resounding thunderclap as a new sun briefly lived and died upon the planet’s surface. Shockwaves and earth tremors ranged out in all directions from the blast, causing further devastation.

In orbit the pirate cruiser retreated back into the asteroid field, the remaining pirate frigate covering it as it also disengaged from the battle. Claymore reluctantly did not pursue the ships, with Polaris Station out of action the ship was the defence Gilbert V had against further attacks. Emergency orders were slow in coming as the planetary government reeled from what had occurred and recovered its wits, it would be some hours before a State of Emergency was declared and the GDF formally mobilized.

---

Morrdun
Commonwealth of Morrdh
One Month Later

Whilst the discoveries of wormholes enabled the Commonwealth to establish extrasolar colonies, interstellar communication was still the speed of the fastest ship. The Gilbert colonial government had dispatched a fast courier in the immediate aftermath of the attack, that vessel and its messages hadn’t arrived until a day or so ago. Every single CCA representative had been summoned to an emergency meeting, the various off-world colonies stationed delegates in Morrdun for such an occasion whilst the ‘earth-bound’ members of the organization sent their own when needed. Already the General Assembly hall was filled with shouts and cries that reverberated throughout the building.

The leader of the Commonwealth, Taoiseach Ser George Whittleton, sighed and turned to face an aide who came running down the corridor waving a piece of paper. “Wot is it?”

“Another message from Gilbert has just arrived.” Gasped the aide. “Initial casualty figures.”

“How bad it is?”

“Pretty bad; some from the shockwave from the blast, others from the fires and earthquakes that followed in its wake.” Answered the aide. “Hospitals are overflowing, they just weren’t prepared for such a thing!”

“No, don’t suppose they were…though how could they?” Muttered Whittleton. “Regardless, time ta face the mob and see if anything can be salvaged from this mess.”

Whittleton walked into the hall and it fell silent as his arrival was announced, dozens of eyes all bored down at him. The delegates from all the various CCA members were present; the Mokans who had ships in the Lycaon anti-piracy campaign and the Lamonians who had colonists on Gilbert V. Though no word had yet been received about the state of the Lamonian settlers, their government would understandably be worried and demanding answers. The Gilbertian delegate in particular looked the most angry, Whittleton knew that the man had family in the town of Mikado a scant few miles from ground zero.

He was going to have to consider his words carefully, least the organization end up fracturing.

“My fellow delegates, a great tragedy has fallen one o’ our members and brought us here taday.” Whittleton called out to the hall. “A relief force fer Gilbert’s aid is breaking orbit as I speak, though we must now determine our response ta the callous act that has fallen one o’ our own.”

“A great many questions will no doubt be asked; why did this happen? How did it happen? Could it have been avoided?” Continued Whittleton. “Questions that will receive answers, no matter how uncomfortable they may be.”

[Morrdh]

Objective Able

It took some creative tactics to deal with the pirates’ defences, though once the cracks were made the defences gave way like a burst dam. Though the defences had been prepared exceedingly well, there proved to be a glaring lack of a centralized command & control structure for the pirates as well as any effort to co-ordinate things. After the first few breaches in the pirates’ defences had been made, the pirates’ resistance crumbled. Aside from a handful of diehard holdouts, the battle for Objective Able was effectively over. The hanger bay was secured in short order and additional forces ferried over, including engineers to check for booby traps and to ensure that critical systems hadn’t been sabotage.

Though Objective Able was declared ‘safe’ a few days later so that it could be used as a forward supply base by the task force, it would remain on a high security alert state for the rest of the campaign. In addition, Objective Able was renamed Morrigan Station after one of the trinity of Mordentish War Goddesses. The other two Objectives in the system, Baker and Charlie respectively, would be similarly named once they’d been captured by the task force.

Interrogation of prisoners began within a day or so of Objective Able’s capture, conducted mainly by RSF Intelligence but Allied forces were offered the chance for their own operatives to take part. The task force’s planning staff went over the asteroid base with a fine tooth comb, collecting data to help them plan out the tactics to take the other two Objectives. It was all in the hope of finding some weakness, at least something that would make the task of taking Objective Baker much more easier.

In the meantime, smaller ships and spacefighters aggressively patrolled the asteroid belt to ensure that the task force had space superiority over the pirates. Dozens of skirmishes and running battles broke out as the two sides clashed amongst the tumbling rocks and ice. Pirate raiders frequently threw themselves at the task force, only to be beaten back each time as it turned into a war of attrition.

[Morrdh]

After the capture of Objective Able, the campaign settled down into a routine pattern of skirmishes between the pirates and elements of the task force within the asteroid belt. These skirmishes, in conjunction with the density of the belt, made the task of scouting out the location of Objective Baker that much more difficult. Each sortie often returned empty handed as attrition started to take its toll on men and equipment alike.

Other elements of the task force, led by the carrier Athena, advanced slowly along the exterior of the asteroid belt. It was safer for the ships of this flotilla, plus the advancing carrier provided a base for the spacefighters helping to sniff out the next pirate base. It was hoped that this method would increase the chances of locating the hidden base so that the task force would be able to take it like the task force had managed to do with Objective Able.

After a couple of days, forward scouts reported detecting a formation of vessels approaching the task force on the far side of the asteroid belt. Using the belt as a screen, this formation had managed to get up close before being spotted. Athena’s flotilla would be engaged long before the rest of the task force could be redeployed to face the new threat. The carrier and its escorts would have to stand their ground before any help could arrive, so the Athena’s captain reluctantly ordered battle stations.

Klaxtons sounded throughout the ship as the crew made ready for battle stations. Various sections reported in their state of readiness as weapons systems and gun batteries came online. Sensor gains were boosted as the fleet of spacecraft orientated themselves into a battle formation, the chatter of voices over the radio waves sounded like a background buzz on the command deck. Technicians positioned or removed markers on the battle display table as the static in their headphones was interrupted by bursts of data.

“Sir, all sections report ready!” Announced a junior officer, indicating the ship status panel that filled one wall of the command deck. “Awaiting further orders.”

“Very well, launch our fighter screen and calculate firing solutions on the enemy vessels.” Ordered the captain before he turned his attention to the battle display, noting the vast but steadily decreasing distance between the opposing fleets. Radio chatter increased as the captain’s orders were relayed round the command deck and throughout the ship as a whole.

“Tango One, carrier profile, range two hundred clicks, calculating targeting data… Tango Two, escort, range…”

Away from the command deck and on the flanks either side of the ship laid the hanger decks, equally busy as the command deck and no less important. Deck crews manhandled crafts and munitions, a task impeded by the magnetic boots the crewmen had to wear and clamps on the equipment to stop both from floating freely in the absence of gravity. One-by-one each craft, each one a one-man fighter, was manoeuvred into the maws of the waiting launch tubes.

“Clear!” Came a shout after the last crewman had ducked out of the way, the maw closing with clang as a blast door locked and seal. The pilot of the fighter had been running through pre-flight checks and now he spooled up his craft’s engines, clamps held his fighter firm as the air was sucked out into the void as the outer door of the launch tube opened. The fighter’s engines spun up to a roar, flames shooting out of the exhaust and scorching the metal of the blast door. A launch officer had monitoring the fighter, watching for tell-tale signs of malfunctions and spotting none. Satisfied, he signalled the pilot and slammed his hand down on a large button on his console.

“Launch!” Was all the pilot heard before a force that felt like a sledgehammer propelled both him and his fighter forward like a bullet from a gun. G-forces pummelled him for a mercifully short few seconds before he shot out into the inky blackness of space. To either side of him, other launch tubes launched other fighters out of the side of the ship like a volley of cannon fire. Each fighter was exactly like his own, a white dart with three ‘fins’ and the thrusters of the engines at the rear. Looking through the armoured glass of the cockpit, the pilot could see the nose of the fighter stretching in front of him. Turning and pulling the control stick to one side caused reactive thrusters to fire and manoeuvred the fighter onto a new heading.

“Fighters launched!” An announcement declared on the command deck and the battle display was updated, smaller markers with a number were positioned to represent the fighters. In the time that it had taken to launch the fighters, the different coloured markers of the opposing fleets gradually closed the distance as a near-constant stream of data was fed to the operators whose charge was the battle display. By now firing solution data had been fed into the targeting computers and distributed to the weapon crews all around the ship.

“Confirm solution on Tango One.”

“Aye sir, solution on Tango One confirmed.”

“Lock-in solution for missile tubes one through four.”

“Solution locked-in and missile tubes ready.”

“Fire!”

A shudder ran from the bow through to the aft of the ship as four missiles shot out of the forward launch tubes, each one trailing a stream of smoke as they rocketed towards their target. The enemy fleet answered with its own volley of missiles as their own fighters raced towards to intercept, the larger enemy vessels opened up with flak batteries and close-in weapons systems to create a wall of fire.

“Enemy missiles inbound.” A junior officer declared as more markers appeared on the battle display. “Tracking confirms three have lock on us.”

“Acknowledged,” responded the captain. “Order our fighters to intercept and establish flak zone.”

“Aye sir.”

[Morrdh]

BSG Deadlock - Skirmish 3

As the three missiles rapidly closed in on the Athena, the carrier's point defence systems swung into action and started spewing out a storm of solid projectiles. A literal wall of fire was thrown up around the carrier, destroying pirate craft and missiles that got close. Though most of the pirate attacks on the carrier was eaten up by this flak field, some attacks still got through. The odd fighter or missile was lucky enough to get through, though the damage they inflicted was easily shrugged off by the carrier. Though the pirate strike craft that got through focused their efforts on taking out the point defence systems, thus weakening the Athena's protective field of fire.

As 'Flight', or the 'Air Boss', Tanner ran Flight Ops and co-ordinated the Athena's fighter squadrons during combat. Though the carrier's captain still gave orders for the fighters, it was Tanner's job on how those orders were actually carried out. Right now he was having to pull in some of his fighters to deal with the pirate craft skimming the carrier's hull, in turn this reduced the fighter screen and further weakening the carrier's protective screen. It was a task that wasn't made any easier by the grumbling of the pilots who believed they were being withdrawn from the actual 'fight'.

It was the combination of a critically weakened protective screen and the flotilla focusing on knocking out the enemy vessels that led to a disastrous error. With the fighters divided and distracted, more pirate craft raced through the Athena's flak field towards the carrier. These particular craft were unusual in that they carried a pair of heavy missiles, though most of them fell prey to the surviving point defences or RSF fighters. One pirate craft managed to get close enough to launch its payload.

One was all that was needed.

As the missiles flew through the void, time seemed to slow. Everything else seemed to be moving as if caught in treacle as the missiles rocketed towards the carriers, the fighters seemingly too distant to intercept. The point defences lazily swung their fire round, just managing to take out one of the missiles. The last remaining missile was now fully locked on and had reached its terminal stage, smacking into the side of the great vessel.

A new star was birthed, its flash engulfing the carrier.

[Mokastana]

The International Group, made up of the PUF space fleet and their recently acquired escort of the HVN Naviza, was the first to respond to the ambush. Of the small flotilla, the HVN Naviza was easily the most well armed, being the size of a decent CCA cruiser, compared to the PUF's frigates or small escort carrier. However, this would be the Haize's first serious battle in space, compared to the experienced Federal fleet.


Commanding the International Group, was Space Commodore Wilson Cordova, onboard the FEM Camaxtli. The FEM Camaxtli had just finished launching its squad of eight fighters when the Athena turned into a bright ball of flame. Those that looked felt the sting of a new sun in their eyes, wondering if they were now blind for a few seconds,before being thankful for the filters on the windows. With that worry resolved, another rushed to take its place.

The pirates had nuclear weapons.

This alone was perhaps the most dangerous bit of information the fleet had learned in their entire deployment out in the brink. It not only meant the pirates could easily wipe out any major craft in their way, but who knows how they might use them in the future. Nuclear ambushes were now a distinct possibility, but so was planetary bombardment. Every nation on Earth feared non state actors with nuclear weapons, but these ones had space weapons and nuclear arsenals. If this leaked back home, the CCA could suffer a severe blow to its reputation. It was time to get into the fight.

"All vessels, combat procedures engaged. HVN Naviza, your codename is now Badger3.

Stag1 Stag3, go full Sparrow.

Moose 1, Moose3, prepare duel silver bullets

Padre2, stay with mother and Wildcats.

Badger 3, Naviza, how good is that particle cannon of yours against a wave of fighters? Move up the center, we need to plug that hole and stay away from the asteroid belt. We're going to be nuking it.

Ninos, Stag 3,Moose 3, escort Badger 3 to objective.

Stag 1 moose 1 in reserve.
Moose one, fire silver bullets when ready, detonate on edge of the asteroid belt. Blind them."

What probably sounded like gibberish to anyone else listening was the beginning of the Federal response to enemy vessels. The first order, "Stag1 Stag3, go full Sparrow" indicated to the two interdiction craft, FEM Xipe-Totec(Stag1) and FEM Ullr(stag3) to load all four of their missile tubes with Space Sparrow Anti fighter/missile missiles, the smaller Sparrow missiles were triple packed into a missile tube, giving the Frigates 12 anti fighter missiles each ready to fire. If that wasn't enough, they both had 3 double barreled 30mm chain guns to resolve disputes with fighters or other frigates.

The second order, "Moose 1, Moose3, prepare duel silver bullets" ordered the missile boats, FEM Taranis(Moose1) and FEM Svetovid(Moose3) to each ensure two of their 12 missile tubes were loaded with a Wide Angle Casaba Howitzer nuclear weapon, aka the 'silver bullet'. These missiles were good at spreading a nuclear blast in a wide angle, designed to hit numerous, less armored, targets, such as fighters, densely packed frigates, or in this case, asteroid belts.


"Padre2, stay with mother and Wildcats." Was the basic order telling the troop transport(Padre2) to stay back with the carrier and supply vessels(mother and Wildcats).

The rest of the orders was the opening moves of the battle plan.The HVN Naviza, the well armed but untested warship of the Technocracy, was going to be the spearhead. It's unfamiliar particle beam would be backed by the FEM Ullr(stag3) running fighter interception, and the FEM Svetovid(Moose3), providing missile support against fighters or heavier enemy ships. The eight Federal fighters also joined the spearhead. Acting as eyes and support in case a sneaky attack craft got into the group. Up ahead they faced a wave of inbound fighters backed by what looked like a squad of pirate controlled frigates. Although their exact class were a mix, many were armed with naval cannons and missile launchers. The Ullr and Stetovid opened up with missiles and bullets of their own as the battle commenced

With the HVN Naviza and team attracting all the local attention, FEM Taranis(Moose1) would launch two missiles towards the asteroid belt. The pirate fleet would probably be expecting these missiles to try to weasel their way through the asteroids towards the enemy fleet behind it, but that was not the case. At the edge of the asteroid belt, the two missiles detonated, creating a wide cone of nuclear energy directed at the fleet and asteroid belts. At only a few hundred kilotons, these wouldn't be ending the battle, but instead would add enough propulsion and heat to the numerous asteroids that the belt turned into a large shotgun. A near wall of unguided superheated debris was now barreling down towards the pirate fleet, taking away their main advantage of stealth in this ambush. Whether or not it killed any pirates, was just a bonus.

[Haishan]

2.3 Justifications for Neutral Particle Beam

As aforementioned in Section 2.1, Neutral Particle Beam (NPB) weaponry involves accelerating certain particles to fraction of light speed, neutralize them before emission and direct it to designated target(s). NPB weaponry hold several lucrative advantages over conventional kinetics, nuclear-driven weaponry and lasers. Since the accelerated particles move at fraction of light speed, the particles arrive almost instantly and their directivity allow for pinpoint destruction [32][34].

Despite being slower than high energy lasers (HEL), NPB do not require massive focusing lenses; the opening for NPB can be several millimeters wide and behind significant mass of armour, thus not as vulnerable as laser focusing optics [32]. Depending on the type of ions being used, NPB can exhibit several useful effects that cannot be achieved by traditional weapons. By accelerating electrons and/or protons and then measuring the target's backscatter, decoys can be differentiated from the real targets [31].

Decoys are likely to be light and small, giving entirely different response compared to a target built to survive the harsh space environment. According to [30], the main attraction for particle beam weaponry is its penetrative capability; proton beam for example can penetrate several centimeters into a certain mass, depositing their energy inside the target. This principle is well known in the medical field where they are used to destroy cancer cells inside patients without affecting the rest of the patients' body.

In context of NPB, beam neutralization allow the same concept to be employed in outer space where engagement ranges may be measured in megameters (1 megameter = 10,000 km) or more. Neutral hydrogen beam can bypass classical space shielding and literally cause internal damage at designated stop point at the molecular level. Electronics will be destroyed through atomic lattice dislocations [32] while humans are subjected to ionizing radiation within their bodies as the stream of particles interact and cause breakdown of their DNAs and biological mechanisms [33].

Spaceborne electronics may require dosage around 1 kJ/s while humans will immediately die when exposed to 0.3 kJ/s [35]. As aforementioned, the pinpoint capability of NPB when combined with its penetrative power, allow possibility of remotely disabling specific section(s) of the target [36]. This posit obvious benefits as other options are either too risky or will cause the target to disintegrate and generate deadly space debris. Therefore, it is argued that the benefits of NPB weaponry far outweighs its disadvantages when one consider mission flexibility and long range space combat.

Kalesho V.K, Nianya H.C & Lovano N.M, Doctrinal Formulation of Space Weaponry for Haize Interstellar Military Forces (2005), pp 23, Haize Military Journal

---

The attack on Colonial's Athena was both unprecedented and stunning; the space pirates flew what seemed to be ramshackle constructions, rockets and machine guns strapped to suitably sized boosters that flew straight into one of heavily protected Colonial spacecraft. Whether it was suicidal or brave was out of question as the results were clear to see; an incandescent flash grew out of Athena, seriously damaging its superstructure even though the Colonials had shot down majority of the incoming space fighters.

This had momentarily startled HVN Naviza and its crew; while Junzye had expected some form of response from the space pirates after Objective Able was taken down, it was too furious and too abrupt. Junzye snapped to reality as his subordinates had informed of the rapidly developing situation. He immediately moved to the nearest command room in HVN Naviza.

"HVN Naviza affirms. Our NPB is pretty good. We're going to give you guys a light show. Appreciate the escort." He shot a terse radio message to Mokan spacecraft in proximity, followed by giving string of orders to his subordinates. "Weaponry, what's the status on NPB?"

"NPB up and ready in 10 secs, Flight Commander. When and how should we shoot?"

"Wait for my mark. Set to cone." Junzye then focused his attention to tactical picture of the overall situation, "Recon, where is my targeting solution?"

"Working on it, Flight Commander. These are what we had managed to detect."

"Great. All hands, strap yourself down. We're going combat speed!" Junzye strapped himself down with several straps. The acceleration would throw anyone off balance.

Accompanied by bright flashes in the foreground of the asteroid field, HVN Naviza quickly retracted its wire radiators and start to angle them backwards. Massive metal slabs descended on the pusher's recoiling mechanism, to protect it from combat damage. Plumes of plasma raced from its secondary NERVA engines as it was unfeasible to use the main Orion propulsion in close proximity of allied forces.

The wire radiators spun even faster and started to glow in deep red as the Haize spacecraft plotted its course to computed intercept point. A small armoured port in front of the spacecraft nose opened into a five millimeters gap. The spacecraft relied entirely on radar detection as ongoing nuclear flashes had deterred usage of optical detectors. Roughly fifty targets were located and locked on, at various distances from the accelerating behemoth.

A deep thrum resonated inside HVN Naviza as its synchrotron came into life, boosting protons in a circular track at high energies. These stream of energetic protons were then deflected into a receiving linac and staggered at various positions in order to be emitted in a shallow cone. An adjunct electron beam neutralized them before the particles left the beam port and traverse the space beyond. The proton beam was intentionally made to wander in sectors as the detected targets were far from each other and to account for enemies' maneuver capabilities.

At first it looked like HVN Naviza didn't do anything except from opening a small window and accelerating but the effects arrived twenty milliseconds later. The neutralized beam slammed into the approaching pirates' fighters and missiles, causing damage on the atomic level. The stream of hydrogen atoms poked through the targets, bulldozing their way before coming to a stop and depositing all of their energies. Some did not penetrate as deeply but instead caused the structure of the targets to become radioactive, emitting deadly radiation to their innards.

Electronics ceased to function and the pirate pilots were instantly rendered dead as the particle beam smashed their DNAs into pieces and exploded their heads. Tens of the incoming targets bathed by the hydrogen stream glowed in white before vapourized into plasma. The targets in fringe of the beam's firing arc had largely survive in one piece but their pilots had already succumbed to deadly radiation. Nevertheless, these objects were still traveling forward due to their momentum.

HVN Naviza rotated some of its secondary NERVA thrusters in attempt to bring the neutral particle beam in bear. The particle stream stopped for a moment and then resumed in concentrated form. This time, the beam power had been collimated in a narrow angle and thus bringing the full might of the weapon on the targeted object. One by one, the leftover targets were vapourized as the hydrogen stream released their tremendous energies inside their structure, heating them to point of explosion.

Another reason was that Junzye took inspiration from the Mokan space flotilla and ordered for the weapon to heat and explode some asteroids in the foreground. It was hoped that the broken space rocks will pepper whatever behind them and flush the reserves of the space pirates. A few seconds later, HVN Naviza executed a lazy turn in attempt to avoid leftover targets that the spacecraft did not manage to irradiate in time. The Haize spacecraft mirrored Mokan spacecraft by launching several wide-angle Casaba but instead for destroying remaining mass flying at the formation.

The four thousand metric tonne plus spacecraft tweaked its orientation, shifting its mighty NERVA engines in order to present the smallest possible cross-section to likely enemies. Several bigger covers on HVN Naviza parted, bringing out some of its 30mm rotary cannons just in case the space pirates thought to attack the Haize spacecraft from unexpected angles. At the same time, several decoy drones were ejected from the spacecraft's side drone bays as further insurance. The war had just begun.

[Morrdh]

Steam Powered Giraffe - Fire Fire

The Athena was adrift.

Its hull glowed with heat where searing atomic fire had caressed it; armour plating buckled and explosive decompressions ripped along the flank of the carrier. The wounded craft made a lazy roll to one side like the slow-motion dance of a levitation gliding through the void. Smoke and derbies trailed the great vessel like confetti in the wind, making an almost serene scene despite the destruction wrought.

Inside it was anything but.

Amidst the chaos unfolding on the Athena's bridge, Space Commodore Fiann was trying to make something salvageable of an extremely bad situation. Comms, both external and internal, were down and communications with the various sections of the vessel was having to be maintained via runners and short wave radios. The ship's exterior sensors were completely fired by the EMP burst from the explosion, leaving them blind but it appeared that the pirates had stopped shooting at them. Athena was, to steal a mariner's term, 'death in the water' and the pirates could finish her off at their leisure.

Thankfully the ship's thick hull kept out most of the hard stuff of the nuclear warhead, though a good chunk of the carrier's internal systems had been shot. Fires had been reported in a number of sections and he was still waiting on confirmation of a hull breach in section twenty-six. No firm numbers on casualties yet, last word from the infirmary was that it was being swamped by the sheer influx. More sobering was that a good portion of the crew was unaccounted for, admittedly it wasn't such a good time to do a head count and the present communication situation made it difficult to get a clear picture of what was actually happening.

Right now, none of that really mattered to Fiann.

The master of the Athena's attention was solely focused on events unfolding round where the nuke had struck the carrier; the port-side hanger bay. A fire was raging through compartments thirty-seven through forty-two, the fire suppression systems were down and the DC teams were having to fight the flames with handheld gear. Unsurprisingly, the fires were winning and steadily creeping along the length of the ship as the DC teams were beaten back. It was only a matter of time until the flames reached the fuel storage tanks for the carrier's air wing, when that happened....well, there really wouldn't be anyone left to worry about anything.

Though he was loathed to admit it, it was going to take a harsh and brutal action to put the fires out.

---

Tanner coughed and instantly the noise assaulted him.

Wailing alarms, the dry roar of a fiercely burning fire, men shouting and the groans of tortured metal threatening to tear the ship apart. As he tried to recover his wits and recall what had happened, a mask was thrust over his mouth and he started breathing in pure oxygen. It helped clear his mind a little and he became aware of the thick smoke filling the room and the DC man pulling him out of the room. Tanner also realized that his mag-boots had been switched off and that he was floating in zero-g, no doubt his rescuer was responsible.

---

Fiann weighed up his options and knew he couldn't hesitate any longer. Close to a hundred crewmen were still in the danger zone, trying to hold the flames at bay as casualties were evacuated. Every second he delayed meant another one of those crewmen got to safety, but also put the ship in ever greater danger. If there was going to be any chance of saving the ship, he had to act now.

"Mr Lappin," He called to one of the nearby officers. "Seal o' everything port-side 'tween thirty-five and forty-five, then begin e-vent procedures."

"Sah, we've still gots over two dozen crew still trapped down there!"

"I'm aware o' that Mr Lappin." Growled Fiann. "If we let the fires continue they'll reach the fuel tanks and so we might as well kiss our arses goodbye, so do it."

"Aye sah..." Replied Lappin, giving Fiann an evil look. "Sealing o' port-side thirty-five through forty-five, standby for e-vent procedures."

---

With the heat of the flames chasing their backs, Tanner and his rescuer stumbled through a bulkhead into another compartment. Looking round, Tanner stopped a large '36' marked on one wall identifying the compartment. It wouldn't be long until they reached the main hatchway for the port-side hanger bay and thus, the rest of the ship. Just then a klaxton sounded and yellow warning lights started flashing as the bulkhead blastdoor started to descend.

"Shit!" Exclaimed Tanner's rescuer. "They're gonna feckin' e-vent, we need ta step lively and shift our arses!"

Tanner mumbled an acknowledgement and tried to run, though the mag-boots felt as though he was trying to walk in lead shoes. They'd barely reached halfway across the compartment when the blastdoors as either end slammed shut, trapping them and a bunch of others as the klaxtons and warning lights continued. There was a metallic that reverted as machine gear groaned into life, Tanner felt his ears popped as the pressure changed.

"Keep yer air handy mate, yer gonna ne-..." There was a sudden bang and hurricane strength winds sucked at everyone in the compartment as the air was violently forced out through emergency ventilation shafts in the ship's hull. On the hull's exterior, pillars of flames briefly shot out from several ports along the ship's port-side flank. Derbies and hapless crewmen were also blown out into the cold, dark void.

---

"Emergency venting complete..." Lappin reported. "Fires out."

"Give it five minutes and then re-pressurize, have med-teams standing by." Said Fiann. "After that, I want ye ta get comms back up so we can actually talk ta the rest o' the fleet."

"Aye sah." Nodded Lappin. "There was sixty-three at last count in those compartments, alot o' 'em rooks."

"Nobody's a rook anymore and we're gonna loose more 'fore all this is done."

[Morrdh]

Before the timely arrival of the International Group, the Athena's flotilla had taken a pounding from the pirates with most of the damage caused by the nuke attack. Alot of the Commonwealth spacefighters were destroyed by the nuclear explosion, a few had their electronics fried and became drifting tombs for their pilots beyond any hope of recovery. The Athena's escorts of the frigates Macha and Oberon and the cruiser Deirdre only fared little better. Macha being completely destroyed whilst her sister vessel Oberon was severely damaged but remained operational. Deirdre meanwhile fought a long-range duel with the pirate ships until reinforcements arrive.

The International Group's arrival quickly turned the tide against the pirates, the last remaining pirate spacefighters were shot down in short order. The Haize beam literally punched a hole in the pirate fleet, the remnants panicked and started to scatter. Sensing an opportunity, the captain of the Deirdre ordered his vessel to charge guns blazing into the now disorganised rabble in order to keep the pirates on the backfoot. By the time other Commonwealth vessels arrived, the battle was effectively over with the pirates beaten largely due to the efforts of the International Group.

Athena's part in the campaign was effectively over, it took hours before she was baseline operational again. A fair number of her systems were completely shot, requiring bypasses to restore functionality to her basic systems. Life support systems were the priority, closely followed by communications and navigation. Though the wounded carrier still required a tow from another vessel to make it back to Lycan Station. Her casualties were transferred to other ships where possible in exchange for personnel to relieve the Athena's own exhausted DC teams.

The Commonwealth Fleet had been bloodied in a critical point in the fight for the Lycaon system.

[Morrdh]

Lycan Station

Vice Space Marshal Paine's mood was sour as he read the after-action reports; over a hundred personnel were listed as MIA, accounted for but most likely dead with many destined to have their frozen corpse drift endlessly in the cold hard vacuum of space. It was the blackest day the Space Force had ever suffered in its history, an absolute disaster. A carrier knocked out of action and morale amongst the Commonwealth elements hitting rock bottom, one fell swoop had seen the pirates put them on the back-foot.

A gods-cursed nuke.

That was the worse part, somehow the pirates had nukes. There was also reports on the weapons captured at Target Able were not only of non-Commonwealth design and origin, but were also beyond the capability of the pirates to manufacture themselves. Somebody had supplied these weapons to the pirates, a fact that was confirmed by the interrogation reports he'd received. But why?

The Commonwealth's mastery of space was undisputed and it was either allied or on good terms with the other space faring powers of Greater Dienstad. Who would benefit from most of the Commonwealth's space assets being sent off to fight in some remote system? Likely somebody hostile to the Commonwealth, though there was a gentleman's agreement amongst the Dienstad powers regarding space warfare. Somebody outside of GD then? One of the Gothic nations perhaps?

It was a far from comforting thought.

With little else he could do, Paine called for a meeting of his senior commanders including those of the International Group. He would lay out his suspicions and then determine what the Task Force's next course of action would be.

[-Itailia-]

---

Commander Istion Baldir Arnakhôr, Imperial Space Force

---

Sun's Dusk 11, 3E9 | 22:45 hrs [DCT-5]
Mylsethas Aeroport, Tornacum City, Istrus Province | Full-Spec Aero Command Room, Briefing Room 2-A
40° 41' 28" N, 74° 0' 58" W

A sharp clap to the back of the neck, the cascading yet temporary pain firing through his neck to his breath jolted Istion's head up, his eyes catching no one in front of him so he twisted in his small brown chair quickly, his eyes meeting the grinning face of his fellow aeroman, Lieutenant Lhaechon who was half slumped in the chair two rows behind Istion, his deep voice booming out to answer the harsh glare from his friend "Oh come now Istion, don't tell me you didn't get a long sleep last night or have an easy shift today."

Istion sent a glare that mimicked that of the rocket engines not too far away on base "You know full well a certain individual decided to keep moving around in our bunk, almost if they wanted to ensure I would need to consume too much caffeine today, and then further decided to misplace half of our tools needed to work on our craft's highly technical PX-11 engines."

Lhaechon laughed and opened his mouth to say something, when both of the men noticed their tall, white haired superior officer, Commodore Julius Visiusien Pinato stride into the room from the rear western door, his hand holding his tell-tale inches thick briefing binder and a strong cup of coffee, the smell pungent enough to carry across the entirety of the class room that served as the briefing room that the forty or so officers found themselves in. The commodore's presence finished all idle chatter and activity, and quickly each and every face was facing the front of the room, where Commodore Pinato had taken up a lax position behind a prepared podium, his hands gripping either side of it as he flicked his eyes across the room and then addressed the men and women "Thank you all for coming in so late tonight, I know many of you just left your shifts or were pulled from them, however I wouldn't have done this unless it was absolutely necessary."

Julius took a brief pause, clicking a button on the podium which turned on a projector that was installed on the ceiling of the room and dimmed the lights, projecting forward an screen that was emblazoned with the Space Force's flag, the four quarters of crimson and or color with a white star in the left corner, and the words underneath with glaring red boxes "Classified, Not Approved for Open Dissemination"

A few moments pause took place as Julius flicked through some documents in his binder and then clicked the button again, transitioning the screen to a series of images that caused Istion, and everyone else in the room, to become suddenly apprehensive, and the hair stand up on the back of their necks slightly "These images are as you may or may not be able to discern combat footage captured last week, from a number of Commonwealth and Mokan space assets near the Morrdh colony of Gilbert, in a system they're calling Lycaon. Our representative was not able to ascertain specific details, but he was pulled aside privately after the briefing by the Secretariat-General; a black day has occurred for our allies in the CSA. "

"Evidently, from what we have been informed on or been able to ascertain ourselves, a joint Commonwealth fleet composing of Mokan, Morrdh and other Tier One member states vessels assembled at the colony of Gilbert to assail this Lycaon system, which they believe has become an hot zone for piracy. They met in a battle, where we are still trying to confirm this, but it appears nuclear weapons were used by the pirate forces they engaged."

Istion felt like time had slowed in the room, nukes? In space, by pirates? What did the mess put in his coffee this morning?

Julius continued "As I've mentioned, we are still trying to confirm that, I know it sounds outlandish, but I do not believe it to be impossible; look at how far we have progressed technologically here since we joined the Space Administration. Initial reports put the losses and missing in the hundreds, and it appears the Morridane RSF have lost an carrier, either destroyed or mission killed, we're uncertain."

"In the wake of this disaster, our Plenipotentiary Tribune to the CSA has formally petitioned the Diarchs and the Consul to intervene in this expedition and render assistance, both to the colony and the task force as it's undoubted that both are overwhelmed in the face of recent events. Their Imperial Majesties agreed with the Tribune's recommendations, and despite our initial pass on joining this expedition when the Morridane invited us, we will now be joining. Our command staff here have come up with a coordinated mission, which we will be doing in conjunction with our Legion brothers, code named Operation Strong Pass. For the next 24 hours we are requisitioning every set of hands we can find so we can assemble the resources needed to bring relief to the forces at Gilbert, and getting our Legion attachment up to speed. We will be bringing 1st and 2nd Cohort of Legio CLI Sammonia will be accompanying us, in order to replenish any ground units needed at Gilbert and also to assist in any engineering or facility expansion efforts needed there, as we are relatively unaware of the specific situation right now, other then assuming worst case for our operational planning needs. We will be converting the four Maew long haul cargo vessels we have in orbit, their combined capacity of 84,000 tons will allow us to bring vast quantities of medical supplies, food and other essential items to relieve our allied forces. Furthermore, we will be bringing the Valenter with us, it has been decided to use this as her official shakedown cruise. I will need all of you at your fittest shape, so, pilots get with your CAGs make sure your vessels are in top shape and get them coupled with their carrier as soon as they pass the checks; staff officers, report to your ships immediately, get your crew in position, we have alot of work to do before we leave and time is of the most dire essence. You all are dismissed."

The commodore clicked another button and the projector turned itself off, the lights returning normal and Istion felt himself blink a few times before he slowly stood up and saw Lhaechon moving towards him, the jovial expression long gone and replaced with a determined face. The two quietly shuffled out of the room with the others, both making their way to exist the expansive command building. "What do you think Istion, pirates in space with nukes?"

Istion shrugged as the two walked through the door to enter a crowded elevator, filled with others like them that were eager to process, and then hit the ground running with getting their work finished "I would call it far fetched, but if you told yourself four years ago that we would be waltzing around in space with military assets and colonizing and using ships that have rigid hulls and not just thin metal sheets with air-inflated canisters, would you have believed it?"

Lhaechon opened his mouth, but than stopped himself "Fair enough Commander, I suppose I would have said the same thing then as well. But still, I'm shocked to hear of the defeat, I mean that's what it sounds like, and the RSF boys are supposed to be the gold standard up their in the cosmo. Like, we're only just getting our feet wet and our bearings straight in the last few years."

Istion smiled "Which is probably why we're bringing Valenter with us, no other reason we would bring the one of her kind, brand new, massive cruiser to the party other than to show off the Space Force's capabilities a little. Speaking of my ship, I need to head over to the port's armory, get the quartermaster to ensure we get the full load up of Quatico, Sinastram, Spinalis and all that other good stuff meant to keep us healthy, alert and awake."

Lhaechon chuckled "Better get a hurry on that, I bet you the Legionnaires are going to be fighting us for the supply of Quatico. I better check in with the Perierat myself, I know we have alot of work to do in the engineering hot spots before we go on a full out deployment. I mean a trip like this, you figure a minimum of what two years?"

" At the least, transit time and then dealing with the situation itself. Good thing the port here as that stockpile we can just pull the resources from rather than trying to drag them in from all across the Empire. Shoot, everything from the combat drugs, hot and cold food, and all the weapons you could think of, just buried a couple hundred feet below us. I don't envy the technicians charged with making sure the surface elevators remain operational for the next 24 hours. Tell you what, get your engine core in line and then try and catch a ferry over to the Valenter, I want to show you the guns we got on her. Plus, it's not every day we'll get to see a formation of three dozen small, medium and large cargo haulers, military craft and transports all assembling to go help Gilbert."

[Haishan]

HVN Naviza
Lycan Station's Parking Orbit

Flight Commander Junzye went through the reports, some crafted by human hands and others by computers aboard HVN Naviza. Pages of reports detailed Colonials' constellation movements, weaponry trajectories, enemies' distribution et cetera. The conflict had been a pyrrhic victory overall; while the Haize spacecraft did not sustain any damage apart from some broken surface panels and lost wire radiator loops due to combat debris, the Colonials' Athena group suffered the most losses. The Colonial spacecraft grouping around Athena was all but devastated and it would take years to restore them to sufficient levels. Or decades even, as presumably hundreds of the finest Colonials' space elites also lost their lives in the disaster.

The numbers were a bit painful to look at but at the same time this was Colonials and not Haize. One can call it a different philosophy or thought; Haize expected the worst and this is evident in HVN Naviza's design that dared to subdue the power of exploding atoms in order to completely ignore the tyranny of rocket equation. Junzye thoughted to himself that if only the Colonials had the gall to do the same, Athena could be better armoured. Her escorts could be better armed. A couple of nukes exploding on the hull would be nothing more than a scratch on the paint job by then. When he looked at Colonial spacecraft shapes before this and now, Junzye can only hide his grimace lest he offended them.

He however, was aware of different approaches took by either side. Once felt threatened by the Colonials themselves, Haishan devised its spacecraft to wage a war against a numerically superior opposition. Spacecraft that were expensive but at the same time armed and armoured to the teeth. Colonial space fleets were assessed to prioritize overwhelming critical mass but scant in defense. Such was the divergence between school of thought of Haishan and Colonials that if Junzye could get hold on whoever designed Colonials space assets, he would immediately threw them to the nearest star. One thing certain however, Colonials had a major setback at the hand of the space pirates. These foolhardy interlopers somehow were able to dance around Athena grouping until he and the Mokan partners in the operation reached the stricken constellation.

The incidence where the pirates used nukes against the space carrier raised some brows in HVN Naviza but Junzye and his men had expected someone will (and did) considering all Haize cosmonauts on combat duty were inculcated on the norm of nukes being used like candies in any space conflict. If Haishan could muster the path to the stars with exploding atomic bombs, what's stopping others from gaining a similar realization? Its principles were within reach and the only roadblocks were political will and bravery to ride on top a tin can full of atomic firecrackers.

The only surprises were on how the motley crews cooperated with each other and their success to nuke Athena despite all those escorts surrounding her. There was a slight worry among HVN Naviza crews that these pirates may even have access to casaba howitzers no matter how crude but Junzye was optimistic it was largely out of reach for most of the pirates. Deep down nevertheless, he hoped such privateers wouldn't have any in a best case scenario or just a handful numbers of it. Eventually, the Haize Flight Commander put his musings to the rest as he called his trusted aides to attend a meeting called by the Colonials' commander in charge of now concluded operation.