Lasse was concerned. He had pulled half of the reserve forces available from the other defensive points and they were barely holding back the stream of pirates that seemed to flow like water from the makeshift barriers they had moved dangerously close to his barricades. The saving grace had been the shotguns stored near the frontlines for just such an occasion. He had been wondering if Dalle would be bold (or convincing) enough, to bet everything on a single attack aimed at flooding the battlefield and reaching melee combat, taking away the advantage of their position.

These truly archaic weapons had proven their worth, doing exactly what they were designed for. Making any potential problem in holding a trench line, simply not be a problem anymore. Using the same pump action system as the first effective combat model of the weapons, the Winchester model 1897, all a soldier had to do in a panicked situation was hold down the trigger and pump the slide to fire the weapon. Granted, this modification was illegal in most "civilized" galaxy nations, but Eirik had never signed any of those agreements, nor did he plan to, if Lasse knew his brother. And he did.

The results of the weapons were undeniable as limbs got blown off and chunks of torsos disappeared to the thundering rain of shells the defenders fired off. The ammunition runners had to get more of the soldiers on rest rotation to help out to not exhaust themselves. But they held the line, if barely. With every death, the pirates seemed to grow more intent on taking their position no matter the cost.

And they had casualties themselves. almost a thousand soldiers were out of the fight for good. Of those, only around 350 would live to see another fight, provided they kept the pirates back. And the numbers were still climbing...

2 hard knocks on his PESSA suit's left arm ripped him out of his thoughts and brought him back to the moment as the runner by his side shouted to be heard over the gunfire "YOU'RE FULL ON AMMO, BE BACK IN 3! MAKE IT LAST!"

Lasse immediately rose from the kneeling position that made it possible to load the internal firing mechanism and change out the ammunition box on the back, without wearing a suit yourself. As he rose he activated the speakers that had been built into the suit, hitting the extra button that connected him to the speakers of every PESSA suit within a 100-meter (330ft) radius.

"Come on, Dalle, I thought you were serious when you said you wanted to take this place!" He began taunting, just as he had done since the battle started. The rotary gun on his right arm was spinning up as he spoke and he used the short moment to fire 2 shells of buckshot into a group of pirates getting too close to their intended target, the momentary distraction buying the defending soldiers the second they needed to swing their guns around and open fire.

The rotary gun began spitting death and cleared a large area in front of Lasse in a spray of red mist and dismembered bodies, as he resumed his taunting. "YOU COULD AT LEAST HAVE BROUGHT SOMETHING OTHER THAN THIS RABBLE YOU ARE PUSHING IN FRONT OF YOU! IS OLD AGE CATCHING UP TO YOU?"

For a moment, Lasse thought he could hear screaming over the gunfire, but he knew it was impossible. He sent a quiet thought to Eirik to hurry up. He was beginning to run out of tricks to play unless he got back up. Even the 4 ships Eirik was bringing would do a great deal to change the odds in his favor

____________________

Dalle was seeing red. Not only were they being held back, but the armored fucktard had the gall to taunt him!! He took careful aim from behind the barrier and downed another one of the defenders. He was still a warrior, damn it!! He grabbed his personal runner and told him to make the ship ready for retreat, in case they could not push through. If this failed, there would be no saving grace. With that, he sent him running and returned to the battle. He still had thousands of lives to throw at the defenders, and those pirates that remained were learning very quickly.

They were pushing closer. Inch by agonizing inch, they were closing the distance. If they kept it up, they WOULD overrun the defenders. But only if Dalle's troop advantage held out the longest. There was one factor he had forgotten about earlier. Namely the effect of the gore this slaughter was causing. Every passing minute brought more dead bodies, more limbs strewn about, more entrails to get your feet tangled in. Grown men were weeping like whipped children as they were bleeding out on the ground. Young men were crying out for their mothers and fathers in a desperate primordial plea for some sense of security in their dying moments.

The smell of piss, shit, and the metallic odor of blood covered the area as the dead emptied their bowels. Soldiers puked out their stomach contents as a result, adding to the horrible stink of war. The hateful cries for death from both sides competed with the agonizing wails of the downed to be heard, all their feat and hate directed toward each other in the oldest and truest Terran mindset. Kill, or be killed.

Somewhere down the line, Dalle observed his soldiers reach the barricades, only to disappear under an angry retaliation attack from a group of recruits armed with fully loaded shotguns. One of those infernal suits they had came under concentrated fire from one of his barriers and tried retreating when a lucky bullet struck between the plating in the leg of the suit, rendering it useless.

Almost toppling over, the shield being the saving grace, the soldier inside the suit righted himself and swung the shield in front of himself, hunkering down behind it to function as a heavy weapons platform until he could be helped back or the pirates retreated.

Suddenly the speakers all across the station turned on and rang out with feedback so loud it momentarily stopped the combat as everyone collectively winced. A moment later, Dalle heard a voice that chilled him to the bone.

_______________

Eirik was having trouble sitting still, wired as he was on caffeine. They were only a few minutes away from leaving FTL. They would enter his territory near the space station, avoiding any potential ambushes the pirates may have in waiting, but Eirik and David doubted it. They would most likely be roaming the territory in the hopes that a stray merchant entered the space or someone tried escaping the planets. Greed drove these men, and Eirik would not suffer such an insult to his ability as a leader.

There would be no quarter and no mercy. Any that surrendered would suffer eternal indentured servitude, safely cared for the by empire directly, to ensure a long and healthy work-life could be lead where they would contribute as much as possible to the community they had tried so hard to ruin and rob. There would be no escape from this fate, but perhaps they could learn to find peace in such an existence.

Any captains taken alive would be executed immediately. He did not want leaders amongst the indentured servants, especially not leaders that perhaps had former crew taken as well. He COULD make sure to send them to different colonies, but having a pirate that is used to leading men, among people that were imprisoned, was asking for trouble that could easily be avoided by a swift bullet to the temple. Brutal and immoral, but ever so effective.

"Trasti, I want you to get Signe ready to hijack the communication system aboard the station as soon as we leave FTL, and connect me to every single speaker inside that station. Broadcast it openly as well, so any ships in the system can pick it up. I have a message for the scum that think they can take what is mine!" Eirik said through gritted teeth. Without Trasti's knowledge, he sent her a small message telling her to prepare the prototype bomber they stole from the Kloxna, for flight.

She had already finished all the work needed to reverse engineer the bomber-fighter with FTL capabilities. It only had 2 guaranteed jumps in it, maybe a third, and he doubted he would get the chance, but if he did, he wanted to take it for a spin, and test its limits.

"Eirik, do you have a plan?" David asked. He had made countless tactical predictions and scenarios, but Eirik had refused to elaborate on what he planned to do.

"You will see as soon as we leave FTL, old friend," Eirik said as he leaned back in his chair. "Narvik, are the screens working?" He asked over his shoulder. Narvik had been set up with a copy of the kind of the chair/pillow his people preferred, and a host of vidscreens, some of them showing nothing. Those were for the drone cameras that would observe the ground combat. The rest of the screens were connected to cameras mounted on the outside of the ship, currently with their lenses closed for FTL travel.

"I think so?? The engineer said yes!" Narvik said helpfully. That was good enough for Eirik and he watched his screens, waiting for them to enter his home. A few moments later they left FTL and his screens sprang to life as the bridge crew around him started their work on getting him a view of the battlefield before him.

"Channel open!" Trasti called out, prompting Eirik to push the button for his microphone and lean forward.

"Intruders, marauders, thieves, and deserters, I have been called away from my personal business to attend to this lunacy. You will be given 1 minute to offer your complete and unconditional surrender before I activate the orbital defense cannon grid present on every planet within my empire. Those that surrender will be granted life in servitude to the people you have wronged. Those that do not, will be killed. Those are your options. 1 minute!" Eirik turned off the microphone again and started looking at his wristwatch, counting the seconds.

"Inform anyone that surrenders to shut down their ships when the time is up. Otherwise, they will suffer death anyway." Eirik said to Trasti without looking up from his watch. As the timer ran out, Eirik punches a code into his datapad and sent it to a satellite hidden in an asteroid belt orbiting one of the many desolate moons. The satellite woke up and started transmitting its code to every system, activating the orbital ground defense cannons.

The underground system grind to life and they deployed in less than 5 minutes. Caught like this, unprepared and out of position, there was not much the pirate ships could do to avoid the first barrage. With their shields up, it would not be killing blows and they would have enough time to get away, shaken and hurt, but still able to fight. They would be prevented from getting near the space station, and those that had been too close to the station had not escaped in time. Their debris cluttered the area and made the approach more difficult, but Eirik didn't care. He was headed straight for the station with no intent to let anyone or anything slow him down.

The ground battle was raging and he wanted to add voice to the argument, so to speak. Covered by the planetary defenses, he could approach unhindered and dock at the far side of the station. This gave him free room to organize his troops and head toward the fighting.

"Lasse, where are you and what is the situation!" Eirik demanded over a closed security channel.

"BROTHER!! It's good you are here! The main point of attack is the hospital and the situation is unsustainable. We can hold them off for a few more hours, maybe 3, but I doubt they will give up that quickly!" Lasse replied with the sound of heavy gunfire in the background.

"The hospital? Give us 15 minutes, we will circle around and hit their left flank, be ready to lay down as much fire as you possibly can when we do. No holding back, brother!" Eirik said, relieved that his brother was still in fighting condition. He changed to his own secure channel and ordered his old wolf pack, all clad in PESSA suits.

"Leave the shields, we will not be slowing down! We will fire as we go until we run out of ammunition. With 27 of us, we have enough ammunition to kill a small army. We push them back to their precious hangar and lay down suppressing fire until they leave in their ships, prompting their doom!"

They all nodded, understanding the severity of the situation. This would not be a hunt to finish a fight. This would be a hunt of extermination. They broke into a light run, following close behind Eirik.

________________

Dalle could see it now! They were so close he could almost reach out from the barriers and touch the barricades! Suddenly, the sounds of gunfire from the defenders disappeared and for a short moment, the pirates stood in confusion to the sound of running feet. A group passed the barricades and was immediately gunned down by the soldiers now occupying the second defensive line almost 25 meters (82ft) behind the first. When Dalle realized what had happened, he roared in anger before he ordered the attack to begin again.

"We have them on their heels!! Last push boys!" He called out before he started firing around the corner of the barricade the defenders had left just moments before. The sound of gunfire woke the pirates up from their confusion and they reacted as Dalle had hoped. They attacking again.

That's when he heard something... Different. It sounded like many many hammers hitting the steel plating on the floor, with the noise slowly growing in volume. Suddenly realizing that a very lengthy amount of time had passed, he started making his way to the back of the line, all of his survival instincts screaming in unison that something was horribly wrong and he needed to leave 5 minutes ago!

Dalle barely made it around the first corner before he heard Eirik's voice, amplified the same way his cursed brothers had been during the entire battle, call out. "FACE OBLITERATION YOU HONORLESS WHORES!! PIRATE SCUM!! CANCEROUS GROWTHS OF SOCIETY!" Whatever else Eirik had to say was drowned out by a sound Dalle knew very well from this attack. The sound of the miniguns of those suits. But this was overpowering. Like there were several dozen of them, firing in unison! That would turn the battlefield into a slaughterhouse that would put the worst serial killers in Terrans history, to shame. In any case, he was busy making his way back to the hangar. But to his horror, it sounded like the gunfire was following close behind

He speed up, knowing full well that his urgency to get away from the battlefield would affect the troops moving towards it, but he didn't care. If Eirik saw him here, he would be willing to blow up half the station just to take Dalle out!