The aging commander shifted in her seat. This mission was one she planned to be her last. It was about time for her to retire, and she wanted a good success on her belt before she did. That had played into some of her decisions when organizing this latest sweep of the Delta Four system. These pirates had been especially problematic in this region not just with internal trade, but external trade as well. Not that the council seemed to care about that, but they were safe off in the core worlds. Completely isolated from the rampant piracy affecting the border worlds, and showered in the lavish luxuries those worlds had to offer. Which was also why they didn’t much support the military taking any actions to combat piracy, despite the fact that things had gotten so bad in recent years that the local police forces were overwhelmed. It was bad enough that many merchant companies had to hire mercenaries to bolster their escort forces or risk losing entire consignments to pirates. In some sectors, that wasn’t enough, and instead they had to pay protection money to the large more successful pirate clans to keep the raiders away. Clearing Delta Four would alleviate many of these problems, and make trade safer and more prosperous in this region.

Of course clearing, Delta Four was no easy prospect. The fleet had swept the system several times before but never did full clear it of pirate hideouts. There was a reason for that. The pervasive dust clouds, the dense debris fields, and the gravitational anomalies in the system made it a nightmare. Not only in a navigational sense, but also from a combat perspective. Since shields did not function effectively here, those debris fields represented a clear danger to large capital ships. A danger made worse by the unusual gravitational forces at play in the system. 

The fleet commander however had accounted for that. Her fleet was reasonably large, but the mainstay of her force was the Ophera Class Light Carrier. It was based on the Defender series of light cruisers and was often mistaken for one. The ship wasn’t as well armed, but it still had a respectable armament. Ophera class light carriers were armed with two forward plasma torpedo tubes and one aft. She also had four Type III ship-to-ship plasma pulse cannon banks. The Type III Pulse cannon was one of the heavier types of pulse cannon used by the navy. Compared to other plasma weapons used by other navies, it had a comparatively low yield, but it more than made up for it with exceptional range and rate of fire. Something that played into the strengths of the unassuming Ophera class. Ships of the class were built for speed and featured class two shields. Being agile, with strong shields, combined with a rapid-fire long-range primary weapon system already made it quite a threat. It paired that lethality with decently large hangers, allowing it to carry and support nearly five hundred strike craft. Although in practice they were rarely ever fully loaded. The council being a major factor in why. Most only had about a hundred strike craft at their disposal at any given time. A factor that played into her current force composition as well.

She had managed to assemble a force of two thousand ships. A rather impressive force outside of the core worlds, especially given how little money the military got these days. The core of that force was the eight hundred light carriers she had brought. Thanks to those carriers she had a massive 93600 strike craft at her disposal, and that was from the carriers alone. She also had about two hundred light cruisers, which had a few strike craft of their own. They were defender class vessels to be specific, the very same hull the Ophera was based on.

Defenders didn’t have much hanger space, but they were agile with good shields. Although that was about all they had going for them. The class was generally considered outdated. Not much surprise there since the original version of the class was first commissioned almost five hundred years ago. Its longevity as a class had nothing to do with it being an outstanding ship, it was effective thanks to being agile with good shields, but anyone can tell you it has its flaws. The fact that its generally outgunned by pretty much any other light cruiser class out there being one of the big ones. The real reason it has lasted so long, is that the ship is actually very cheap to build, its moderately effective, and most importantly a lack of funds to spend on developing new ships. Regardless it was a reasonably solid ship, and far from useless. In the right hands it was an effective ship, especially if played to its strengths. It was fast, and it could take hits. Its firepower left something to be desired, but you could compensate for that. Her plan was to combine them with jammers and keep them on the perimeter. Their speed would allow them to chase down, any ship attempting to flee. While their power was a little lacking, it was more than enough against pirates.

The majority of her remaining ship slots were filled with ‘Patroller’ frigates. While not the official name, their common usage had led to the nickname. They were fairly small, and lightly shielded. However they were surprisingly powerful for such a small ship, namely due to the presence of a single dual plasma torpedo launcher forward mounted. A factor that let the little frigate punch above her weight class, especially if her commander made full use of her powerful sublight engines. The ship was the fastest frigate class in the fleet, and that potent speed was paired with a healthy set of sensors. Factors that played in her often being used to patrol trade routes and border sectors. 

Those frigates and the fighters were key to her plan to clear this sector of pirates. Those frigates were the largest ships, she felt could safely navigate the denser debris fields in this system. Which would make them key to reaching those pirate bases hidden deeper in the system. They would also provide potent fire support for her fighter force. That was important since they would need to spread out to properly sweep the system.

Something they had already started. In fact she was currently monitoring the various deployed fighter groups as they scouted the debris fields. Fields that now included a few destroyed pirate vessels including a mobile base ship that she had once pursued before. It was the fighters there that drew her most interest, and she had a few screens dedicated to displaying the data feeds from those ships in her command center.

She was even listening to one of those feeds. Over the comm came, “...I’ve located a mine, and am sending my scan data.  Recommend all fighters clear the area, I am going to attempt to disarm the mine.”

The fleet commander monitored the scan data, as it came in. Giving the scan image a quick cursory examination. She had too much to consider to give it more attention than that, but she did note a few things. It was a fairly sophisticated, and rather alien piece of military hardware. Often times things like this would give hints on who made it, and this seemed to be no exception to that. It was certainly the most unique piece of hardware she had seen. Problem was it was too alien, some of it even looked totally nonsensical. That certainly said something, since she knew a thing or two about weapons design. Not only had she studied it back at the academy, but she had learned a few things over the course of her decades-long career.

Tapping the comm, she hailed the fighter, “Acknowledged pilot. I advise you exercise caution when you make the attempt. I am seeing a lot of unknowns in this scan.”

“Understood. I plan to make the attempt from just outside the projected blast radius as a precaution.”

That sounded like a good precaution so she approved it. While monitoring the tac plots. On those plots, she could see the other fighters clearing the area. Leaving only the one pilot who had found the mine. She quickly checked her records and found the pilot’s name and record. She was Sali of Clan Arimae. Her academy record was exceptional, really exceptional. She had even been marked as requested before she even graduated. Another mark showed that the ship that wanted her was later lost with all hands in an accident. The ship she was on right now however had a rather poor track record overall. The only real merit of note for that cruiser was her captain was well connected to several prominent and more importantly wealthy clan families. If she had been younger, she would have used her connections to snatch that pilot for herself. Instead, she made note of her. She had a cousin about ready for a command of her own. This Arimae would be an excellent addition to her crew.

While she was thinking about the pilot’s future, she heard her call out over the comm. It was the common pilot speak for active missile or mine weapon. Shortly followed by a massive energy burst that vaporized a good chunk of the debris in that area. Including possible clues about who destroyed those ships.

She hit her comm after a moment. Calling for pilot Arimae to respond. There was a delay, but after a couple of moments, there was a groan followed by a response. “I’m fine. A little shaken, but alright. My shields on the other hand got a little cooked. Running diagnostics now.”

Feeling a bit of relief to hear they hadn’t lost another pilot to the mines. She moved on. It was time for the important questions. “What happened out there, pilot?”

“I attempted to disable the mine with an ionic pulse.” the commander raised her eyebrow. That wasn’t something most fighter pilots knew how to do. All the more evidence that Arimae was wasted where she was. Arimae continued, “Turns out the things are not only shielded against ionic pulses but programmed to respond to them. Five of them activated at once, and then shot right at me.”

She interrupted, “Wait!? Shot right at you. I saw no evidence indicating...”

The pilot finished cutting her off, “That it had a propulsion system? I didn’t see any either. Yet apparently they are leap mines. Don’t ask me how.”

“I’ll inform the other pilots of that. Anything else you want to add?”

“Not much more to say about the mines, other than the fact that they explode when hit with plasma.”

“Noted,” she replied while glancing at the mission clock. Enough time had passed, so she inquired, “What’s the status of your fighter?”

“Most of the systems seem okay. Looks like my shields were cooked pretty bad, but they aren’t gone yet. They might be able to take a hit or two. Structural integrity is reading nominal, and my engines are fine. I am however out of missiles.”

“Acknowledged, be careful out there pilot.”

Sali closed the channel. Then she let out a breath, and briefly celebrated the fact that she made it through that without dying. Unfortunately, it nearly burned out her shields and left her out of missiles. Thankfully everything else was perfectly alright. Glancing at her scanners, she noted things were rather clear. Then she briefly went over her logs but found little of note. There was nothing to indicate what kind of propulsion those mines had used. Most plasma and ion engines for example left an ion trail that could be tracked. While chemical engines left their own kind of trail. Yet no such trails existed in her logs. Absolutely nothing.

Rather than dwell on the problem, she instead decided to ping the beacon for her carrier. She needed to get back, so that her shields could be patched, and her missiles rearmed. After a moment, she noted the location of her ship. It was not where it had been when she left. Rather instead it had repositioned to a location deeper into the system. A debris field suspected to contain one of the larger pirate bases. Muttering to herself she said, “What in Valoria is he doing over there?

Regardless of her questions, she set a course. It would be several minutes before she would be able to rendezvous with the carrier.

Countryman settled into his command seat, as he watched the alien ship approaching. It was a rather elegant-looking vessel. The hull had a blue tinge to the metal. It had a large spherical forward hull section that connected to a thinner boom section, that looked deceptively thin, that widened into a large secondary hull. The lower half of that hull was a rounded half cylinder, with the top being wide and flat. With a smaller rectangular structure mounted on the top. Melded at the port and starboard sides of the ship was a pair of angled rectangular nacelles. Overall the ship was much longer than it was wide, with a length of 1200 meters. It was only about 400 meters wide with space for about sixty decks. He did note a few weapon ports.

The ship had been spotted on approach. Thankfully they were nearly done buttoning the hull up. With the last of the mining shuttles deployed docking just five minutes ago. All of the viewports were closed as well. The armor itself was coming online now, but it would be a few minutes before it was fully charged. A glance to his display showed the plating at four percent charge and climbing. Not enough energy to really harden the armor against anything, but being armor it still had some resistance to weapons fire.

He looked away from the display, and down towards Misaki his operations officer. Who was dutifully trying to raise the alien ship. So far to no avail.

“Still no response on any frequency.”

Countryman glanced to Eri. “Move us off. One-quarter sublight thrust.” then looking at Kaori his tactical officer, “Maintain a weapons lock, but keep all weapons in standby mode.”

“Aye sir,” were the responses. Countryman recognized that this wasn’t a pirate vessel. He was hoping to establish proper first contact. As he based on what he saw believed this to be a Valorian vessel. The Krall database did give some info on their ships, and general design characteristics. This alien ship certainly matched those characteristics, and quite closely as well.  As such he figured it best to avoid hostilities, and establish proper contact. Yet the alien ship was curiously silent. Not a single hail returned, not even a signal that they were receiving the hails.

Facts that made him a little concerned. A concern that was justified a moment later when a series of red energy pulses erupted from the hull of the alien cruiser. He didn’t even feel it, but without looking he knew they had just taken a few hits.

“Direct hit, port side aft quarter. Minor damage, no penetration.” came the rapid fire report.

His response was instant, “Target their weapon arrays. I want them disabled now!”

Kaori responded instantly, “Aye, sir. Returning fire, targeting weapons only”

An instant later, a blue beam lanced out from the Enterprise. It lanced across the short distance, and struck a vibrant purple energy barrier. It held for a moment, flickered, and then failed locally. The beam ripped through the hull like wet tissue. Flames erupted as the beam tore deep into the hull before ceasing. Not even a full discharge, a second followed an instant later. Striking a second location in rapid succession. No third strike followed.

“Target disabled, sir, but I am reading some rather severe fluctuations in her power grid.”

Countryman glanced at the ship. On screen, he could see a few fires on the hull. Plasma fires. Not the best sign, considering they weren’t shooting to kill. He turned his attention back to operations. “Hail them again, see if they are more willing to talk.”

They weren’t, strangely. As no response was forthcoming. Moments later, the fires on the other ship expanded, something exploded triggering a series of secondary detonations. The ship went up like a thousand firecrackers. A few escape pods were launched but none were able to safely clear the hull.

Kaori voiced what they saw, “Target destroyed, no survivors.” Unlike with the Cathamari there was no joy, no excitement in those words.

Sali cleared a rock just in time to witness her carrier open fire on a massive ship of alien design. It dwarfed the Profit’s Bounty by more than five times her tonnage. She starred as the red energy pulses of the carrier’s pulse cannons raked the armored hull of the alien ship with minimal effect. It didn’t even penetrate her thickly armored hull. All the barrage did was melt a few shallow furrows into the hull, and leave a few scorch marks. Nothing that looked truly serious. Yet enough to provoke a response. The alien ship returned fire, two precise strikes from a lateral beam array. They punched through the shields and tore into the hull.

Sali noted where each strike landed, the primary plasma manifold, and the backup manifold which supplied power to the main weapons. Being primarily a carrier the Profit’s bounty only had those two manifolds supplying power to the weapons. Those were disabling shots, but she did notice signs of plasma fires erupting. Emergency containment systems were obviously not responding. Her readings indicated power fluctuations in the main power grid as well. Perhaps secondary damage to the main grids? Then she saw escape pods, moments before the ship went up in a series of devastating explosions. None were able to clear the hull. They ruptured, exposing their occupants to the harsh environment of space. It wasn’t hard to tell that poor maintenance of critical systems was to blame for her going down.

Before she could think more on that, or even decide her next course of action. An alarm went off. Alerting her to a pair of alien fighters on an intercept course. With no time left to even think about what her damn fool of a captain was thinking, she reacted. Her training kicked in, and she beamed her logs back to the fleet. At the same time, she pushed the throttle to full. She was alone against two alien fighters, her wingwoman having remained with the squadron rather than stick with her. Perhaps that was a mistake, but there was no time to regret it. Her training told her it was better to keep her distance, and avoid an engagement if possible.

The aliens seemed to have other ideas. A gut feeling, made her roll her fighter to the left. Just in time as well. A series of blue energy pulses tore through the space her little fighter had occupied a mere second before. Close enough to graze her shields, and trigger a shield warning on her overtaxed and barely functioning shield generator. These aliens were fast. In fact she felt they had the edge over her fighter in terms of agility. They were clearly gaining, and no move she made seemed to throw them.

Zipping around a convenient rock planning to use it, to gain distance. She instead found herself unable to make any distance. Instead, they closed, and only a quick roll saved her from the next volley of deadly blue bolts. She knew a single hit could spell the end of this fight. Running wasn’t working. She worked the controls and spun the craft around. Seeing a shot, she returned fire. Red plasma pulses raked the hull of the lead alien fighter with little effect. The other one let loose another series of pulses.

Her ship shook slightly, as they grazed the hull. Her shield alarm blared warning her, that she had lost shields. They were cycling, but for the next few seconds, she was vulnerable. There was nothing between her fighter and death now. Thankfully that was the worst of the hit. Nothing vital had been hit, but the hull had taken damage. She made a mental note to be more careful about exchanging fire, while shifting into her next maneuver. One that got her behind one of the two alien fighters, giving her a good line of fire. She unleashed several quick barrages before breaking off, to avoid fire from the other one.

She did score a few hits in those brief moments, but nothing that seemed to actually do any damage. It seemed those fighters had strong defenses, and her pulse cannons were woefully inadequate. Unfortunately, she was out of missiles, and she was really regretting using them on those mines. Not that she had much time for that. Her focus was more on staying alive. Thankfully that alien capital ship wasn’t firing at her, or she might have been in real trouble. As it was the only thing keeping her alive were her skills and instincts as a pilot. Another volley coming uncomfortably close to actually doing more than grazing her fighter reminded her that it was only barely. There was also this nagging feeling that they weren’t seriously trying to kill her. Something a scan she managed to make seemed to support. Both fighters carried missiles, and torpedoes in addition to those cannons they were shooting her with. Not that she had time to wonder why they weren’t using them.

Coming out of another trick maneuver, she fired a quick volley. Scoring about a dozen close misses, and a few glancing hits. At the same moment, she took a glance at her tac-plot. Mainly to check the positions of her foes, but she did note that the capital ship was now uncomfortably close. Close enough that she could clearly see it on optical sensors if she looked towards it, without enhancement. Not only that she could make out details on its darkly colored hull, such as the open hanger, and the turrets aimed toward her. Not that she had any time to consider what that meant. A lightning-like discharge suddenly hit her ship. For a couple of seconds, everything went dead and then rebooted. Long enough for some kind of projectile turret to fire on her ship. Several disk-shaped projectiles hit her hull while the shields were cycling again. Rather than penetrate the thin skin of her fighter, they adhered to the surface. A few more bounced off her shields as they finished cycling, and restored the thin protective barrier, her taxed shields was giving her. Not that the barrier was going to do her any good against something already inside the shields.

The fleet commander checked over the last data burst from Sali of clan Arimae. The pilot had sent it with a code Contact: Purple tag. Something that caught her attention particularly for what it meant. It referred to a first-contact situation where things had gone wrong. A quick review of that burst showed she was entirely right. On it she saw an alien capital ship, its posture and movements didn’t seem that aggressive. In fact it was moving off slowly. No comm bursts were detected coming from either the capital ship or the carrier Profit’s Bounty. She had no idea what that ship was doing there. It wasn’t even supposed to be in that debris field. Her plan called for a fighter and patrol boat sweep of that field, in about three hours. Unfortunately it seemed she would never know what that damn fool was doing. As he opened fire on the alien capital ship. An act she just couldn’t wrap her head around. That ship was huge, and while its shields were down she knew its sheer size alone was a natural protection. The minimal damage of the barrage was therefore not that shocking. What was shocking was the return fire.

The alien vessel responded with two precise beam weapon discharges. Pinpoint targeted. Outside of the Krall Imperium she had never seen anyone use continuous beam weapons. A glance around her combat information center, and noted no one else seemed to realize the significance. They seemed more appalled by what followed. Minutes after the hits, the ship exploded in a spectacular display. It was clear that the crew did not abandon ship quickly enough, and no one survived the destruction of the carrier. Well aside from Sali who had not been aboard.

She had a feeling that wouldn’t last long thanks to the idiot. She barked out orders, sending several squadrons, and a few frigates to the area. With any luck, Arimae would be able to hold out until they got there. More importantly, she was hoping that she could establish communications before things get too hostile. As such the forces sent were given orders to attempt contact before they engage. It had been nearly seven hundred years since the last time the Confederation fought a real war. In recent memory the most they had to deal with were pirates, and the occasional border skirmish. Seven hundred years of peace, that was not something she wanted to end. Not right now, and certainly not with her name attached to it. Especially not when she was so close to retirement. Besides she knew better than anyone else that the fleet just wasn’t prepared for war. Too many ships in their fleet were outdated undergunned designs. With very few exceptions, the ships in the fleet relied on strong shields, and decent agility to win in battle. As most ships in the fleet were undergunned, with few heavy weapons if any. In fact the only ship class they had, that couldn’t be classed as undergunned was the Protector Class heavy cruiser. A good ship, and one of their newest. However they had few of them outside of the core worlds. Certainly not enough to be used in any meaningful way. Deep down, she knew a battle here could potentially cost the Confederation dearly.