Freja was only slightly worried. From the stories told by the reserves when they came back from the front, they had beaten back the first attack without a single loss, but she also knew how devious and crafty Dalle could be. You did not wrong Eirik the way he had, and get away with it for so long without being slicker than an eel and more devious than an alligator.

She would like nothing more than to join the defenders, but being responsible for 2 lives instead of 1 made that impossible. She knew Eirik would throw a fit if he heard she had been fighting. She giggled at the thought of what he would do, probably wrap her up in bubble wrap and leave her in a safe room for the duration of her pregnancy.

She was happy to meet Krisnu again, the Kloxna mother had been brought to the station, along with any other settler that was involved in an entrepreneur contract with Eirik's empire. She was wearing a mixed expression of worry and pride as she told about her daughters being armed and asked to help defend the entrance. In the past, she would have happily sent them to the military, as that was the only way to ensure a somewhat decent living in Kloxna society if you were no high caste. But now, living among the Terrans under Eirik's rule, she had security in life she had never known. Her youngest children would not remember the time back on the homeworld, a fact she would be eternally grateful for.

She had never seen Kloxna children so carefree. They spent their days causing minor mischief around the farm and playing to their heart's content. Their bellies were full and round, something she made sure of at every meal, and the deep desire to experience life they showed from the moment they woke up, to the moment they fell asleep, much against their wishes. There could never be enough hours in the day for them.

her older children remembered the old life, struggling for the most basic of necessities needed to survive, every day a constant fight against an existence that was forced upon them by design. They were like her, silent and serious, but she saw the subtle differences when they had time to relax late in the day. They would work on small things, one of them whittling wood, another was studying for a basic engineering degree to take care of small repairs on the farm

A third had discovered a love of caring for livestock and spent most of her evenings around the chickens and cows. And on the list went. This was another first for Krisnu, seeing Kloxna spend time and energy on things that didn't relate directly to work or survival. She had taken up knitting. She was old enough to be a grandmother and she kind of liked the Terran stereotype of a sweet old grandma, knitting on her front porch, able to turn into a monster of a woman if she was displeased.

She spoke with Freja about all of this and more, equally as happy as Freja for the opportunity to catch up. krisnu also asked that Freja pass on her thanks to Eirik, for all he had done. She had almost started laughing when Freja revealed that Eirik may have done it out of the goodness of his heart, but he WOULD find a way to make it a benefit to him in the end, even if it was just using her story as PR for new colonists that lacked the funds to go start a new life. It was not a bad deal, signing a license that allowed you to sell your products exclusively to the Libertalian empire, with the added benefit of not paying tax, for 5 years in exchange for help in setting up a business with the prospect of slow but steady growth.

Once the 5-year contract was finished, they would be free to sell to anyone they wanted to, but any sale not made directly to the empire, would incur a flat 20% VAT (Value Added Tax) It was a simple, yet strong economic model. by allowing most of the profit to be retained by the prospective entrepreneur in question, they allowed for the growth of the business, while retaining a solid percentage of the income to pay, mostly for the safety of living within the borders of Libertalia, but also for the, somewhat slow, establishing of advanced infrastructure.

Of course, the majority of planets inhabited were colony worlds, still in the beginning of being settled properly. There were still vast expanses of land available on every planet and most of the inhabitants were farmers, except for the commercial starport established on every planet. and the militarized starport that was built a short shuttle flight away from the commercial starport.

Krisnu only kept one thing secret from Freja. Her fear that they might lose this fight and that everything she had built up, would fall apart. She refused to even entertain the thought. Together, they managed to keep up the spirits of those nearby, the good mood spreading like rings in the water.

They would need that morale if this dragged out. But judging from the actions of the pirates, this would not be a long siege.

_________________________

Lasse was about to put on his helmet and go help at the barricades. He was disappointed by the simplicity of the pirate attack, trying to bludgeon their way past the defenses. It was a firefight, turned slugging match. He had just checked his weapon and had lifted the helmet over his head when a runner arrived. "Attack on the Armory section!" He panted as he went down on a knee and heaved for air. Lasse barely had time to send the group of reserves on their way before another runner came. "Attack on the storage section!" he panted, just as out of breath as the first. Lasse quickly dispatched the troops and, against his wishes, put down the helmet to resume overall command of what had now become a proper battlefield. Maybe these pirates would be an actual challenge.

Losses had started being reported and many more were wounded, but they still had the numbers to keep the pirates at bay. They had barely lost 50 to death and 200 to wounds, spread somewhat evenly between the areas under attack

_______________________

Dalle was furious. He popped his weapon around the corner of the barricade and emptied his magazine in the general direction of the defenders. Not that it mattered much, but perhaps some of his men gained a window of opportunity by his little spray'n'pray. This was not how he had imagined they would be fighting. Caught in a contest of strength and will. His troops would lose this fight if they kept going like this. The defenders had more guns, more barricades, more supplies, AND Eirik was coming!

A lot of the other pirate captains had snickered when Dalle had expressed deep concerns about this but he had managed to convince at least some of them that the idiot would be a considerable factor in the battle if nothing else than for the sheer amount of carnage he could inflict in such an unreasonably short amount of time. If he didn't know better, Dalle could almost swear that the man had some divine form of protection.

Another shower of pinging against the makeshift barricades told him that the heavy machine guns the defenders had set up had been reloaded and had resumed their suppressive fire while the infantry line reloaded. It had been going like this for almost 15 minutes! Controlled fire from the barricades and their supporting weapons replaced one another, ensuring the attackers never had time to engage. Worse was the fact that the amount of fire from the defenders had intensified after the first 10 minutes, telling a story of ample troop reserves. Hopefully, the other attacks were doing a better job than he was, but he doubted it.

If Lasse had the troops to spare reinforcements here, surely the other attacks were being held at bay as well. But to his surprise, one of the captains attacking the armory came running up from behind, calling out his name. Switching out with a random idiot hiding in safety, Dalle quickly made his way over to the man. "Report!" He snarled when he got within earshot. He would execute the man if it was bad news!

"The attack is to be succeeding! the route passes through a smaller, empty hangar with a strong point set up at the door near the armory. So some of the boys had the idea of smoking the defenders away from the barricades and threw a ton of molotovs into the hangar. IT WORKED!! They have withdrawn to the armory itself, taking any heavy weapons with them, perhaps in the faint hope that we will not fill the room with sleeping gas!" The captain was almost cackling with delight as he gave his report and Dalle immediately lightened up. Getting a hold of the armory and by extension, the ammunition held within, would drastically change the dynamic of the battlefield!

"Lead the way!" He ordered and tapped a few captains on the shoulder as he made his way back through the corridors, indicating they take their troops with them. As they entered the hangar, Dalle stopped for a moment to take in the situation, but the rest of his troops kept running, doing their best to catch up with the attack group that had been waiting for the backup.

Something felt wrong and Dalle looked around in desperation to figure out what it was. The hangar was empty aside from the dim light of the stars hanging in the void, the barricades covering the entrance to the armory itself, and... wait, stars in the void? "THE VOID DOORS ARE OPEN!!" Dalle screamed as he dove back toward the corridor, just in time to sail past the closing doors. The pirates crossing the hangar stopped in confusion as the heavy bulkhead doors closed the hangar off at each end and the forcefields that covered the void doors flickered out. Dalle could not see what was happening on the other side of the door, but he didn't need to either.

The men would have been sucked out into the void, the small pressurized atmosphere inside the hangar rushing out to fill a space infinitely larger than itself, in an attempt to equalize. In the time it took Dalle to stand up and start shaking uncontrollably at the knowledge of how close to death he had just been, the men outside would almost be dead. Most of them would, by instinct, try to hold their breath, only bringing death faster. The smart ones would have exhaled as they were sucked out and prayed that when they passed out after 15 seconds, someone would somehow get them back inside within the next minute and a half.

"They still control the entire station system! I should have focused on the security center!" Dalle admonished himself until he remembered that it lay at the heart of the 3 fronts he had attacked. Of course, they would be running the defensive operations from there! And he had lost at least 300 more men just from this little hangar stunt alone!

He turned around and made a rash choice. running back to the main attack force, he sent someone to gather up anyone they could find and try to overwhelm the defenders in a massive push with all the barricades. Together, they could turn them into a small moveable wall and get into close-range combat. Hopefully, the brutal nature of the pirates would bring them the advantage, but the quality of Eirik's troops surprised Dalle. How long had that man been planning this?

_________________________

Eirik slowly woke up. He felt angry and impatient. This had already taken too much time from his hunt on Dalle! He looked at the clock and saw that they were still 3 hours away. He wondered what was going on at the space station. He hoped Freja was safe and the thought of filthy pirates threatening his future child infuriated him. They would feel his wrath as when he arrived!

For the moment, he got dressed in his finest casual clothing, the cargo pants, black shirt, chainmail vest, and leather jacket accompanied by combat boots. He felt most at home in those clothes. The chainmail was also an added protection, no matter how you twisted and turned it. He bound his hair in a tight knot, not wanting it to get in his eyes in battle. He was a bit torn between going in PESSA armor or the kevlar suit, but he would make the choice when he knew what kind of opposition awaited.

He went to the cantina and got a pot of coffee before returning to his room. He needed to be alone.