Chapter 13: Capital kill

Two weeks in the station and the Norse were still screaming about acts of war. Of course we were also sending them a formal war noticed since they had allied with the Saints. The Saints had tried sending in a few warships to several systems but Fleet had just shuffled ships around and caught them.

Fleet intel was refusing to give us anything and acted like we were Saints. In fact they had been almost hostile and refused to give any information. We had been very quiet about the ship but captain Jennings, now commodore came for a visit. I was looking at three possible systems and glanced up from my desk when he stepped through the open hatch.

I sat back and he cleared his throat, “New ship?”

I smiled, “The other one had an accident.”

He nodded as he crossed to the desk, “It would not be what the councilors are blabbering about?”

I grinned, “I would not know about that.”

He snorted and touched one of the systems I was looking at, “This is the Saint capital system.”

I glanced at it, “So it is.”

He looked at me carefully, “Are you thinking of taking a ship there?”

I shrugged, “Since your intel people are no longer willing to provide us with information we are picking blindly.”

He looked back and sat in one of the two chairs, “I told you Fleet was doing a little rearranging.”

I leaned forward, “And we have given them a lot they did not know as well as vital technical information. Now they want to treat us like we are spies?”

I touched the maps, “After this mission we will be taking the colony credits we have earned and leaving. We almost died taking the damn yacht and the councilors and what did we get from you or Fleet? Not a damn thing and we killed two cruisers before we lost the ship.”

He nodded, “And I fought for your people over that. The new system admiral is not accepting your word or your data proving you have destroyed anything.”

I shook my head, “He wants what we can do without paying for it.”

I sat back and looked at him, “We will no longer retrieve data or pass it along to fleet. We will not inform or give any new tech cargo to fleet. As of this moment I am giving you notice, fleet has broken their contract with me. I will be filing a breach of contract note with the crown when we return.”

He leaned forward, “You can not do that.”

I smiled, “Actually I can and I will. You tell your admiral I intend to have his ass and his braid.”

He stood, “And if we declare you a pirate now?”

I stood and leaned over the desk, “Right now the contract still covers and protects us. You and fleet can say anything you want and I will shove that damn contract down your throat in any court.”

He turned and walked out and I sat before finally opening the ship intercom, “Peter?”

Within an hour we were separating from the station. I was in the pilot seat as I began to plot skips out of the system. We ignored fleet control but contracted the civilian system control. When we reached the heliopause I carefully plotted our jump and we came out a week beyond the Saint capital system.

I turned to start moving towards the system as Edgar began to scan. Peter sighed when the scan return started coming in. I smiled as I glanced at it and kept going. He cleared his throat, “What makes you sure Fleet will not try to blow us to hell when we return?”

I knew the others on the bridge were listening as I glanced back, “I gave a copy of the contract with all our mission logs to a solicitor. He has filed them with the crown ambassador with a letter of intent.”

I grinned as I sat back and relaxed, “By now the system commander is sweating and I am sure the emperor is hoping the newsies do not hear about us.”

He chuckled, “Fat chance the newies will not find out.”

Just inside the system three full fleets patrolled. One was always close to the jump points into the system and all ships coming in stopped and had to wait for a boarding party. It was just over a week and I was thinking we needed to try another system. At the moment one of the fleets was around and halfway into the system.

Another was on the far side and would take at least an hour to reach us by skipping. The last had spilt up, half going to the north pole of the system and the other half going to the south. A wormhole appeared and a new cargo ship jumped out very close to us. I sat up and then grinned as I switched the SFT and hit the general quarters.

I brought everything alive and accelerated towards the ship, “Keep the scan updated Tana and tell the ... Tinker to stand by for a boarding party.”

She grinned and nodded as I let her open the comm and tell the ship to stand by for a boarding party. I watched the scan as I slowed and started to dock with one of the other ship’s airlocks. Tana began jamming as I secured the docking clamps and that was when things started to change.

The boarding crew rushed into the other ship and since we had not done things like normal they were waiting. At least my people were in hard suits and protected. I was nervous as the fleet to the north and south continued to skip towards us, “Samantha when they are a skip away fire. Start with the largest ships first and work your way down.”

She nodded as she turned and went to active scanning. By the time we had the cargo ship the two fleets were closer and then Peter called, “They did something to the control boards.”

I cursed, “We do not have a lot of time.”

I checked and the boarding crew was back aboard so I undocked and moved ahead of the other ship. Samantha growled as I watched the scan repeater and every gun fired. The two fleets had just emerged from a skip and suddenly four vanished as they were ripped apart. I tried to follow the others as they continue to move while they plotted the last skip to us.

I did a skip plot just in case and looked at Lorenz, “We will need power to the shields.”

I glanced at Tana, “When they come out of skip kick out the decoy forward of the ship.”

She nodded as every gun fired again and moments later I looked at the scan. Six more ships exploded and the others finally skipped. Time seemed to slow as I opened the comm, “Peter any luck with the controls?”

He growled, “Yeah we found out what they did and are fixing it.”

The enemy ships came out of skip and we both fired. I braced myself as I saw the missiles streaking towards us. The destroyers and cruisers that had been left suddenly vanished in explosions that tore their hulls apart. I stiffed as all the missiles hit the shield and the whole ship bucked and shook.

The shields held and when the scans cleared we were still floating in front of the cargo ship. I relaxed a little and looked at the scan and then sat up, “Replay the system scan from a couple of minutes ago.”