Captain Krieger of the Epsilon’s Dawn yawned as he ehe bridge. It was early, even for him, but this was when the jump was scheduled to exit into normal space again.

  “Captain on deck!” the new watch officer shouted, making Vitor wind give the maink eye.

  “That’s not necessary on my ship, Marine,” he stated ftly.

  “I’m afraid I must protest, Sir, STO rules state–,” he cut the man off before he could go into the arbitrary rules that had been drilled into him back during training.

  He wao rub his temples at the man’s single-mindedness. The STO brass had agreed to the three-month checkup he had suggested, but they had also saddled him with a pany of Marieically it was more like half a pany sihe Dawn didn’t have enough room to host a full pany of Marines, but that didn’t ge how much it annoyed him.

  He was bck ops, the Marines were the exact opposite of that. And while most people sidered Mario be mindless drones hell-bent on fighting, Vitor khey weren’t mindless. The soldiers likely khey wouldn’t see any a during this deployment, and their boredom showed in how they acted around his ship. It wasn’t anything overt that he could call them out on or reprimand them for. Their boredom maed in them doing stupid stuff like calling out ‘Captain on deck,’ or even doing security wat the first pce.

  Vitor had never had or needed a security watch aboard his ships. The people who were allowed aboard such a ship had long since beeed.

  “–I’m aware of STO guidelines, Private. Just do me a favor and do not yell so loud ime, especially so early in the m.”

  The man saluted, “Sir, yes, Sir!”

  The Private’s volume hadn’t decreased at all, making Vitor’s eye twit annoyance. Instead of engaging further with the young man, Vitor went over and got himself a cup of caff and a bagel from the tray set off to the side. At least someone had brought that up during the night.

  The caff was only lukewarm, but it was better than nothing. As the caffeine worked its way through his system to wake him up, he sat in the a. “Report,” he said once he was situated.

  “Most of the system is the same as when we were st here, Captain. The mining ship is still in the system, but the merary gunship isn’t. It looks like they have also expaheir refueling station, and moved the three pirate ships over to it.”

  “Hmm, that is iing. I would have thought they would have scrapped them but if they moved them, they are likely going to try and repair them. Are the sensors pig up any ges on the surface yet?”

  “Not yet, Sir.”

  “Alert me when you get a clear picture.”

  The alert came much soohan he predicted, and not for what he had hoped. “Captain! We have multiple jump signatures detected.”

  He straightened in his chair. “How many?”

  “Twenty-two, Sir,” the Ensign responded in shock.

  He kneirate attack was bound to happen here at some point, but there was no reason for ohis rge. Where had they even e from? “Sound the general alert a me eyes on those ships. I wanna see what we are dealing with.”

  He left the bridge as the alert went out. The Marine looked unsure of what to do until Vitor stopped o him. “The alert means to get suited up, Marine. Now go!”

  The young man saluted before he hurried off and Vitor couldn’t help but smile. At least he would have some quiet wheuro the bridge. By the time he had his vac-suit on and was ba the bridge, the night crew had been repced by the day crew. All of the day crew were in their vac-suits. He didn’t anticipate bat, but his orders were clear, he was not allowed to let this facility fall to pirate hands. The vagueness of those ave him a lot of leeway with which to act, but could also bite him in the ass ter.

  This time whe in his and chair, he strapped himself in. “ons, I want a full system check.”

  “Aye, aye, Captain.”

  “Engineering, status on ship systems.”

  “Everything is green across the board, Captain.”

  Vitor that. He hadn’t expected any issues with the ship being fresh out of servig. Any problems that arose the st time they were out had been addressed whe returo the shipyard.

  “Crew status!” he barked.

  “Seventy-five pert rep a ready status, Captain,” the Lieutenant said sheepishly.

  Vitor stared daggers at the young Lieutenant. Apparently, he had been too x in his bat preparedness. That would ge after today. “Not good enough, Lieutenant. I want a report on those who haven’t decred ready status. After we leave the general alert, I expect them to drill until they keep up with the rest, is that uood?”

  “Yes, Sir.”

  “Sensors, any more information on the ships?”

  ***

  Oalynn had gotten word of Arkonis Anazi’s ship being spotted in the system, she had jumped her entire fleet. It was an impressive dispy of firepower, led by her heavy cruiser, Valkyrie. None of the other ships could pare to her in tonnage or ons, but almost every other ship in her fleet was either a frigate ht destroyer. Three of the ships sisted of speedy little corvettes with the final two being gunships.

  The corvettes could chase down any fleeing ships, and the gunships would protect their fnks from a simir attack.

  Speaking of, she watched the tactical map as the three corvettes ged dire and raced after a rge mining ship that was running to a jump point. She doubted they would catch it, but she didn’t he three ships at the moment, so she let them do as they pleased.

  “Has anything ged since our scout was st in the system?” she asked.

  “It looks like they moved the two gunships and attached them to the Headhunter, Lagertha.”

  “Hmm. They are either using them as added shielding for the ship, or they want t them under cover of the ship guns. Do we have any information on the surface? Has that bastard mao capture the facility below?” sidering Arkonis’ ship was still in the system, there was a good ce he was as well.

  “Unsure, Lagertha,” the man added.

  The fleet slowed and slightly trailed the fourth p's closest satellite while their sensors sed the surfad everything around the p in the distahey were far enough away to avoid any sort of kiic attack. And even a ser at this range would be much reduced in power. Even if they did e utack, all they o do eed up slightly and the rocky barren satellite would shield them.

  “ig up six rge on instaltions on the ground as well as twelve smaller ohere is also a cluster of shuttles sitting on one nding pad, with a single rge shuttle or small freighter sitting on a different pad.”

  “What about in orbit?” she asked. You didn’t try to defend something if you didn’t have a way to defend it.

  “The Headhunter’s power is online, although we ’t tell if the ons are active.”

  She thought about that. The only ground-based defenses were around the facility, which was he equator. That left the geostationary station pletely undefended. It robably bait. Any raider entering the system would assume the frigate was crippled by the damage to its hull. It rize anyone would salivate over.

  “Radio the surface,” she ordered.

  “Lagertha?” her unication person looked fused by the and.

  “Do it.”

  The man nodded and turned back to his sole. “You have an open line.”

  “People of Eden’s End, I am Katalynn Char of Char. I see you have spit all over the agreement your people signed with my grandfather. Was it not enough that we let you settle in our territory? Was it not enough that three geions of my family kept our raiders from your doorsteps?” her words were filled with passionate anger over the betrayal.

  She hadn’t known the exact history of Eden’s End, only that her father had told raiders that it was off-limits. After hearing that this was the most likely pce Arkonis was holed up, she did some digging into the records. She found out her grandfather had made an agreement to allow the drifters to settle here and had guarahem autonomy with a few stiputions.

  It was the breaking of those stiputions that had her in a foul mood as she tinued her speech. “It seems not, since I see pary defenses and spafrastructure going up around your p. Both of which were prohibited by the agreement the inal drifters signed. You think you do as you please in our space without repercussions. Now you see that your hubris has sequences as it has drawn my sworn eo you, assuming any of you are still alive down there. It matters not. Arkonis Anazi, if you are still alive, I give you this opportunity to turn yourself in and prove to the gaxy you are not the coward that everyone cims you are. If any of you drifters survived his attad somehow mao capture or kill him, turn his body over to my people and I will spare your lives. You have two mio reply. Lagertha out.”

  It took a moment before a reply crackled through the radio. “This is Alexander Kane, owner of this facility. I don’t know what agreements the previous drifters signed with you, but I purchased this facility legally. As for Arkonis Anazi, he and his people are all dead. Their bodies have been ied so there is nothing to turn over. I’m sorry you came all the way out here for nothing.”

  “Legally! From who, the STO? The STO has no jurisdi out here ht to sell what belongs to others, but I’ll put that issue aside for the moment. If you ’t hand over Arkonis’s corpse, my people will o scour the entire facility to ensure he is truly dead. Once I firm that, eak about your so-called purchase.” The STO was once again stig its nose in where it didn’t belong. She couldn’t let that happen or she would lose all respect from her people.

  “I- I ’t allow that,” Kane replied.

  “Then we have nothio discuss. I hope you greet your death with more dignity than Arkonis likely did.” She made a cutting motion and the li dead.

  “Have one of the frigates send a volley of three missiles at the station. I wanna see how they respond.”

  The three missiles unched from one of the ships before turning and quickly lighting off their drives to reorient themselves. The people below would see the missiles ing but that was kind of the point. If she wao hide them, she would have told the ship to turn before firing them off, that way they could cold coast in.

  She watched the grainy video as the three tiny specs of light, that annouhe ons going active, appeared. The ons had termeasures and avoidance systems in them, but they weren’t up to the standards of what STO missiles might use. Even with their archaic systems, one of the missiles nearly made it to the ship before the autoons and defeurrets took it out.

  “Is that forward autoon damaged?” She hadn’t seen it move at all during the test.

  “It's impossible to tell from this distance, Lagertha,” the sensor operator spoke.

  She gru the man’s response. She had been staring at the distant image so she knew how bad it was. Despite the state-of-the-art nature of her ship, le optical sensors were extremely hard to manufacture properly. If they relied on them specifically, her ship would have been a plete joke.

  “Take us around the moon and line us up toward the station. I want that ship destroyed before we deal with the facility guns.”

  ***

  “Sir! The pirates are making their move.”

  Vitor cursed internally. He had hoped they would just leave after trying to poke at the p’s defenses, but he khat was a long shot. At least they had given him time to reorient the Dawn into a much more advantageous position.

  “Sound the red alert, and prepare for battle stations,” he said grimly.

  The officer b the order but sent the alert.

  It was sometimes easy tet that the majority of his crew were still green. The only live bat they sahen the Dawn chased down those three damaged gunships. “This better be worth it,” he muttered under his breath.

  Vitor saw two possibilities with this battle. He could wait for the pirates to destroy the ons on the surface, or he could attack them while they were occupied with those defenses. her was a very good option, but at least the tter had some hope of succeeding.

  “Helm, get us on a chase course. ons, I want every single missile tube to unch with an intercept time to match when the enemy is in rao fire on that station.”

  The crew went to work while Vitor sat bad waited. They had the most advantageous position, but he wasn’t fident the Dawn could take down even half the ships arrayed against them, let alone all of them. At least he knew who he was going against now.

  Katalynn Char’s fgship was in the fleet, but he wasn’t sure who that big bastard beloo. She may have upgraded or someone much more powerful took over the Char family. Either way, that ship boasted more ons than half the ships in that fleet. Taking it down was not going to be easy.

  ***

  “They're ing,” Lucas firmed, his voice shaking slightly.

  Alexander put a reassuring hand on the man’s shoulder. He uood the trepidation. This fleet of pirates was much rger both in numbers and ship size. He had hoped that some uanding could be reached when Katalynn Char tacted the surface, but as soon as the woman demahat her people be allowed to scour the facility, he k oio reason with her. He would not allow a group of pirates uered access to the facility or the people living in it. The pirate fleet might be formidable, but Eden’s End was ready as well.

  The bunkers now sported bst doors like on the un. Not even the grenades from that rge grenade uncher were getting in there. The exterior doors were simirly reinforced after the previous attack. But being exposed to the outside enviro made them easy targets for ship-mounted guns or missiles so he couldn’t see those surviving for long if the pirates made it down here.

  The main dome was actually the weakest point of the facility since repairs on the massive structure were taking time and it was still exposed to the outside atmosphere.

  He would o trust Damien ao keep the entry points safe. They certainly were better equipped this time around. While the engineers hadn’t figured out how to make augment armor, they had takeachable legs Alexander had designed for his robots and repurposed them as a walking mount for heavy ons. A simple remote trol and servos repced the fancy chip. Alexander appuded their iy in the face of limited time and resources.

  “We’re far more prepared than we were st time, Lucas. Don’t worry.”