Chapter 23

Arion star system, inner system.

High orbit over Arion Prime.

"Traffic control has given us the authorization to depart." Said Connie. "Well, for what it's worth."

Sarah smiled, and shook her head. Arion's traffic control had reacted...badly to them wanting to leave orbit, demanding a small mountains of forms be filled out, alongside other bureaucratic hoops. She'd tried to cut through the red tape, but they'd proven determined to be as obtrusive as possible.

So she'd sent Elteria against them.

Traffic control was now much more amenable, and had gotten out of it's way to reassure them that all the proper forms would be taken care of by their systems, and there was no need to worry, and certainly no need to involve that absolutely terrifying AI in anything that remotely had to do with them ever again.

"Excellent then. Helm? Take us out of orbit. Elteria, status on our rebel friends?"

The AI shrugged.

"Same as last time. All of their ships have docked, and they've shut down all non essential systems."

"Very well. Let's plot a course that checks out the gas giants, close enough so that we can drop on them, but far enough that they won't panic as soon as we set the course."

"Already have one ready ma'am." Simply said Normensk, to no one's surprise.

"Good. Then let's get ready to say hello."

*****

"Anything new?"

The sensor officer sighed, and looked over her shoulder at her CO. CO who just happened to be her overly worrying, sometimes a bit fussy, brother.

"They're still accelerating, still on the same course. That's what they were doing 3 hours ago when you asked me the first time, and what they were doing when you asked me 5 minutes ago. So when you ask me 5 minutes from now, 'anything new', they'll still be on the same damned course, accelerating at the same damn pace!"

The captain smiled.

"Sorry sis, I didn't mean to annoy you. Still, there-"

They both winced as the display screeched, and dissolved into static.

"What the hell?"

"Shit! Shit shit SHIT!" Said the sensor officer as she practically jumped on her console. "They've just activated their electronic counter measures! I can't get anything! And- VAMPIRE! Missile launch! Confirming....6 missiles, incoming at 16 000 gs, impact in 9 minutes!"

Her brother's face went pale at those numbers, but he nodded, his voice firm.

"Copy that." He turned towards the communications officer. "Sound the alarm, and wake up the high admiral! It looks like we'll get to kick some mercenary ass today after all!"

*****

"Well, they've definitely seen us now." Commented Elteria as active sensors came online all throughout the NAR's cluster of space stations, and their handful of gunships separated from their berths. "5 gunships detected, all of the same class as before, no surprise there." Sarah nodded, she'd been expecting that the gunships had been built or delivered as a full ten ship squadron, but apparently the NAR's benefactors hadn't proved quite that generous. "The merchant ship is still docked, but I don't think it'll stay that way for long." The AI paused. "Second missile salvo launched, loading third one. Should we adjust the targeting?"

Sarah shook her head.

"No, those gunships aren't much of a threat to us." Their missiles had the same range as her battle laser after all. She could blow them all out of the sky before their second missile salvo even reached her, and 15 of their pathetic missiles wouldn't pierce her defenses. Hell, she could even shut down the point defence guns and just take them on her shield. "I'm more worried about the merchant ship."

"Agreed." Said the AI, before tilting her head. "I've finished scanning the merchant ship. 30 missile launchers and 15 lasers, and...Oh."

"What is it?"

"I've just scanned the station. You were right, it is a shipyard, but..." The AI gestured, and an hologram appeared in place of the system display. "They're not building gunships."

Sarah whistled softly as the hologram resolved itself into the same shape of the ship that they had encountered in the Calver system.

"Those are Vigilance frigates, right?"

"Correct. 8 of them, at various stages of completion. That could have crushed Arion's defenses..."

"And there's no way in hell they could have built everything with so few stations. Shit. Are any of these frigates combat capable?"

"Negative. However the station has some defense modules slapped on it. A dozen missile launchers, and 30 or so point defence lasers."

"They probably won't matter."

"Probably not, and-Status change! The freighter has separated from the station, and....they have powered up a dimensional interference drive! 400 gs of acceleration, heading for the hyperspace limit!"

"Set us on an intercept course, combat acceleration!" Immediately said Sarah, as she processed the implications. Dimensional interference drives were a complicated and finicky technology, with a myriad of quirks that made them difficult and expensive to build. Mid Verge powers for example could build them for their missiles, but where incapable of equipping a ship with them without killing everyone aboard or just straight up destroying the whole ship. One of the requirements to be considered of the High Verge technology level was the capability of making ships with those drives. "And get me everything we can on that ship!" She looked at Elteria. "It looks like we're going to be fighting someone on an even playing field. At least more event than usual."

The AI nodded.

"Indeed. I'll ready the Azimuts for launch."

Sarah nodded grimly. The Azimut missiles made up the entirety of their limited -and expensive- stockpile of High Verge missiles. But with 60 000 gs of acceleration and 150 megaton bomb pumped laser warheads they were infinitely more dangerous than the Mid Verge Artemis missiles they were currently throwing at the ship.

Hopefully it wouldn't come to that.

Hopefully.

*****

"Sir, the enemy has upped their acceleration to a thousand gs, and are currently on an intercept course." The executive officer shook his head. "There is no way for us to avoid laser range with that kind of velocity advantage, let alone get out of missile range."

Crescent frowned, and nodded.

"Very well. Turn us around, and begin firing back as soon as we are able."

The XO blinked.

"Sir?"

"We can't outrun them, and if they've taken out a gunship in a single shot, I really don't want to get into laser range of them. At the same time, a stern chase is a very stupid idea here." If nothing else, their opponent would end up in the mess that surrounded the gas giant while they were out in the pretty, thoroughly empty space. There was little truth to the bad entertainment holovids showing ships darting around asteroids, using them to block shots, behaving like planes in atmosphere, but when so much ECM and jamming was in play, every little bit of distraction helped. "Contact our NARN 'friends', and let's see if we can't combine our efforts." If nothing else their gunships would make much better decoys than asteroids. "Then begin firing at that gunship as soon as we are in range."

"Sir yes sir!"

*****

"Looks like they've decided to unite forces after all." Commented Elteria as the merchant ship reversed course. "They haven't fired back either. Odd."

"They probably aren't packing the same kind of missiles we are." If nothing else, even Mid Verge missiles were expensive here, if you even knew who to acquire them from in the first place. "They'll have something better than the locals, but I think it'll be designed to have an edge over their stuff, not fight something of the same technology level as them." After all they only had such advanced missiles on board because they routinely fought enemies that vastly outnumbered them, and as such 6 missiles wouldn't do anything without a considerable edge. Having an intergalactic smuggler owe their lives to them also considerably helped in keeping those missiles in stock. "Any thoughts on their ECM and defenses?"

"It's not...bad. But it's not High Verge either. Mid Verge at best, and not very good ones at that."

"Ah. So they took a High Verge express delivery freighter..."

"And refitted it with second rate Mid Verge hardware. Certainly looks like it anyway."

"Well, that makes this easier. Time to impact for our first volley?"

"3 minutes ma'am!" Said Connie as she continued working at her console. "The ECM from the gunships is crap ma'am, I'm afraid we're going to lose a bunch of missiles to that."

Sarah blinked.

"I beg your pardon?"

"Their ECM is so bad compared to the merchant ship they'll be much easier target than it. If they lose their lock...."

"They'll go for the shiny gunships." Sarah sighed. "Well, at least they won't just wander off into the void. What about the station?"

"All of it's defenses are live, but they aren't doing anything else. They seemed to have evacuated the shipyard slips as well."

"Good." Sarah looked at the display as her ship's twelfth volley spat out into the void. "Well, I suppose we'll just have to wait to see how our missiles do."

One of the problem of space combats was that it took forever after all.

*****

"Enemy missiles approaching interception range."

"Very well." Said Crescent as he contemplated the display. "You may fire when ready." In truth, he'd been fairly reluctant to use counter missiles, as in this department his ship only packed Dominion Navy Aura missiles, which were uncompromisingly optimized to intercept and kill Low Verge missiles. It did a very fine job at that too, but it also meant that it's usefulness against more advanced missiles was....dubious at best. But he'd need to grab every advantage he could get. His allies had also loaded their own counter missiles, but he had little faith that theirs would help. They were, after all, using the kind of crap the Dominion saw fit to give it's systems for home defense.

The tactical officer nodded, and pressed a button, activating his fire plan.

The ship shook slightly as concealed hatched popped open, and 30 missile launchers extended into the void.

And after a second they fired as one, spitting out 30 missiles into the void, who immediately lit up their drives to meet their targets.

"First counter missile volley away...." The tactical officer swallowed as the icons from their counter missiles and the incoming missiles slowly crept towards each other, before merging. On the screen it looked positively mundane, but in the vastness of space over a hundred brief stars appeared as the missiles separated into multiple smaller kill vehicles at the last second, and 300 kiloton thermonuclear warheads detonated. "No hits, I repeat, no hits! All enemy missiles are intact!"

Crescent looked incredulously as the tactical officer, before exchanging a worried look with his executive officer. Their counter missiles only had 3 million kilometers of effective range, as precious space was taken by their multiple, smaller kill vehicles. That only gave them 33 seconds to engage the enemy, which wouldn't be enough to fire another volley with the 45 seconds load time of their launchers.

"Stand by point defence!" Yelled out the executive officer, and Crescent nodded. Their lasers only had a million kilometer effective range against missiles which would only give them 11 seconds to try and take out those devilish missiles, but at this point it looked like their only hope.

The ship shook once more as the last of it's hidden hatches opened, and 15 lasers, meant to engage starships and missiles alike, slowly rose from the ship's hull like the tentacles from a kraken. Then for a few seconds, they carefully aligned themselves, taking the time to track where their targeting systems thought the missiles were...and fired the second the projectiles entered their range.

"Firing point defence...we got one! The NARN is engaging with their own counter missile fire! No hits! Firing point defence again! No hits! Switching to final defensive fi-"

5 missiles, centuries beyond the best the Dominion could hope to build, charged through the ships' formation. Automated computers worked tirelessly, constantly refining estimates, trying to guess where the ship they had been ordered to destroy was in the sea of jamming, and angling towards where they thought their quarry lay...then suddenly they were through. All extraneous systems, including the main drive, were shut down and jettisoned as a massive sensor pulse flashed from the missiles, stripping away the jamming and revealing the ships to them, completely wrecking their own sensor arrays in the process, and painting a massive target on their backs. They aligned themselves with their target, and detonated.

The converted merchant ship shook, and Crescent gripped the armrests of his command chair.

"What's our status? Report!"

"Confirming a direct hit on our shields sir! 60 megaton, shaped warhead. Shields at 60% and climbing." The tactical officer swallowed. "Our lasers got another missile at the last second sir, the rest...the rest converged on the NARN gunship Harbinger of Freedom. It's....It's gone sir."

Crescent licked his lips, and leaned back into his chair. This...wasn't good. His shields would recover, but they weren't made to sustain that kind of punishment forever.

"Next missile volley in the interception zone sir! Launchers have reloaded, firing counter missiles!"

*****

"Well, we got a gunship. The merchant took a hit as well, but it's shields are recovering fast. Must have fast recharge shields like ours." Said Elteria as she paced slowly along the bridge.

Sarah nodded. Most classic military shields were divided into two categories: fast recharge and endurance shields. Fast recharge shields couldn't take even nearly as much punishment as endurance shields, but they could recharge incredibly fast, provided the ship had the energy to feed them. Most ships considered escorts, basically everything smaller than a heavy cruiser, mounted such shields, as enemy broadsides were usually fairly limited and it was overall more effective to use the time between volleys to recharge than to just have one hugely powerful, but extremely slow recharging shield at the beginning.

Endurance shields however were practically mandatory for ships of the wall, since they would be expected to fight in fleet engagements, where full sized squadrons of vessels would focus their entire broadsides on a single ship, meaning that any shield that couldn't take the hit would just get their ships vaporized. These shields were also much harder to pierce by just throwing too much firepower at a single point, which was crucial in such engagements as well, although that tended to matter only for the larger capital ships.

"Very well then. Time to laser range?"

"20 minutes."

Sarah leaned back into her seat.

"Well, it looks like this will be a missile fight. Let's see what they've got."