Princess Rescue Inc (131 page)

The following is a RAW excerpt
from Jethro 2, First to Fight.

-WARNING SPOILERS!!!-

"Sir
we've got a situation, the freighter Lieandra just jumped in system screaming
her head off about pirates," the communications rating said looking up.

Captain
Mayweather blinked from her Captain's chair. "The Lieandra?" she
asked. She remembered the ship, she'd had contact with them once or twice on
the Carib queen. They made a circuit run, Centennial, Antigua, the empty b459c
red dwarf chain, Protodon, Kathy's World, then south to the B452c system, and
then on to Agnosta, and then Pyrax. Sometimes they mixed it up by heading to
Triang but not often. It was one of the better freighters out there plying the
space lanes. She was a medium sized freighter with three or four thousand
people on her. "What jump point?" she demanded sitting up straight.

“
Briev
ma'am."

"Did
they say if they were followed?"

"No
ma'am. They were in Protodon when the pirates came. They immediately ran for
the jump point. The pirates were on a short course for the point leading to
Antigua and they just made it clear and to the jump point to Kathy's world
ahead of them."

"Lucky,”
she said. She didn't sound like she believed it though. She looked at her XO.

Shelby
grimaced. It could be a trap, her mind had tripped over that after a moment.
She was pretty sure the Captain was suspicious of that very thing. But
something rang true.

"I'll
say. They jumped to B452c but went north to Briev with a pirate hard on their
heels. They made their way out from the Briev jump thinking they'd be followed
but the pirates apparently didn't follow. Only a frigate emerged and it went to
the planet instead of trying to run them down. They had just enough fuel to
double back and head here."

"Crap,"
a tech said softly.

Mayweather
thought hard. A frigate had short legs. Lieandra had pretty good legs, she had
heard they could do up to three jumps without a refuel. Apparently they'd
picked up some legs somewhere to have made it all this way. Most likely
Lieandra had run the frigate to exhaustion and she'd given up the chase to
refuel at the planet. "Size of the main force?" she demanded.

The
tech looked down at his tablet. "CIC designated the first force as Alpha.
At least four ships CIC designated frigates, a destroyer sized ship, a possible
second tin can, one or two corvettes, a tanker, at least a half a dozen
freighters, and a dozen other unidentified ships. Lieandra was too far away to
see them clearly. That and they said there were some asteroids in the way."

"Crap.
How could they outrun pirates?" she asked dubiously. Did the pirates
really send just one frigate to run them down? If so why? “Any self respecting
pirate could overhaul a lumbering freighter.” Their recent experience as convoy
escorts had made that point painfully clear.

“
Unless
they weren't interested in catching them in the first place ma'am,” Commander
Logan said quietly. Mayweather glanced her way and then nodded.

The
tech waited for the Captain to return her attention to him before continuing.
"Ma'am there is more. Admiral Irons sent Lieandra out. Apparently he had
repaired and upgraded her Ma'am. She had a full drive and major system
rebuild."

"He
was aboard?" Mayweather asked, sitting up straight, Her hands clutched at
the arm rests. Her eyes cut to Shelby. The XO was looking eager as well.
Expectant faces turned to the tech who shook her head.

Disappointment
cut through the compartment as quickly as the eager thoughts had. "No
ma'am, he had planned to leave Antigua on a rebuilt yacht some time ago.
Dispatch 1701E he renamed it Phoenix. He... Ma'am apparently he and the crew of
the Kiev 221 managed to salvage a ghost station. A full factory city. Antigua
prime!"

"Seriously?"
Shelby asked, eyes wide. "Anvil was just a pre-processing node for one but..."

The
tech nodded, face serious as he continued to digest the report. One hand was
still on his ear, a clear signal that he was still getting information.
"Yes ma'am he did it. They did it I mean. He sent Kiev 221 and Lieandra
out to let people know. Lieandra was supposed to let us know. Kiev 221 headed
south to B450a and Centennial."

Shelby's
eyes were wide. "So, if the pirates jump to Antigua..."

"They'll
have a cake walk. The system is mostly undefended," the tech replied
grimly.

"Not
if Irons has anything to do with it."

"He
was not in system. He left for Centennial ma'am."

"Shit."

"There
are defenses on the planet but they aren't well maintained. They also only
cover a quarter of the planet. If they stand out far enough..." Shelby said,
pulling up a sketch report from the mainframe. They had little intel on
Antigua, most of it provided by Mayweather herself.

"They
can rock bomb them. Yeah. And the station is completely undefended," the
Captain replied grimly. She was now looking at the report the communication's
rating had just sent her. The rating had highlighted that little tidbit of
intel.

"Yes
ma'am, apparently so. It had been on the outer edge of the system, out beyond
the heliopause apparently. Kiev 221 literally stumbled across it while
transitioning out of hyper. Now it's in an Lagrange point in the inner system
and lit up but defenseless. I'm getting something about that, something about
that's why the admiral left the system, the people refused to defend the
station."

“
Lotus
eaters,” the tac officer said.

Mayweather
shot her a look and then nodded. "We'll have to do it," Mayweather
said as faces turned to her XO.

Shelby
blinked. She knew the way it was going to go down but she also knew she had to
play her role anyway. "Ma'am our orders..." she started to say
cautiously.

Captain
Mayweather held up a restraining hand. "There isn't time. A month one way?
Two months?” She shook her head. They all knew the information lag was a
killer. “By the time we get word..."

"It'll
be too late. but still..." Commander Logan said doggedly, feeling her own
emotions twist. On one hand she wanted to kick pirate ass. But she they also
had a duty to the people on Agnosta. Not to mention to Pyrax. Firefly was the
biggest fully operational warship in the sector. It was the only ship over one
hundred megatons that was fully functional. Even Fuentes had some rough edges.

"I
think we can do it,” Mayweather said tugging her jacket down firmly and
straightening her shoulders. “Firefly, prepare for movement. Get me Hecate, She
is stuck as rearguard. Tell Lieandra we want everything they've got and then to
refuel and then head to Pyrax at their best speed to report. Refuel on our tab.
Dispatches to follow."

"Aye
aye ma'am." He frowned, one hand on his ear. “Ma'am the admiral has
dispatches and cargo aboard the ship for us.”

Mayweather's
sculpted eyebrow rose in polite inquiry. “Us personally or the navy in
general?”

“
The
military ma'am,” he said, face working. “They have a general inventory. Most of
it is like what we received on Destiny.”

She
nodded. “Good. Send it along to Pyrax then. They can sort it out there. I'll
take a copy of the dispatches though. Firefly can puzzle over them while we're
in transit. Right Firefly?”

“
A
pleasure,” the AI responded.

“
Aye
aye ma'am,” the rating replied as she looked at him.

"Get
with the ground side. Let them know the plan and that I intend to move out in
six to eight hours. I want this ship fully refueled and stuffed to the deck
heads so get on that. We'll be a long way from home so remember that. Barrels
of spare fuel, parts, missiles, stuff them in every nook and cranny you can
find. Then call down to the planet. Get the Major to send up his best, I think
we'll need them. Recon and Raiders. Noobs need not apply."

The
rest you'll have to wait to see when Jethro 2 comes out. Hopefully before 2014!