Jonathan A Countyman
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Interlude Raiding the Cooperative
🕑 Added 2025-10-20 21:08:43 +0000 UTCMeanwhile in Cooperative Space; The Outpost:
The figure shifted a bit on his bridge, he’d taken his flagship and a fleet of escort vessels into Cooperative space. They were now on the final approach to the Cooperative-held facility known as the Outpost. Somewhat out of the way, the Outpost was a heavily shielded facility on the surface of a small planetoid, one that still had an atmosphere. Barely breathable and cold, but it was there, largely thanks to a planet-wide defense shield. The Outpost planetoid was originally a small moon or something before being flung out into deep space, where an interstellar empire later terraformed it and installed a planetwide shield and built The Outpost, a state-of-the-art research facility. At the time anyway.
That facility survived the transition into the storm after the owners had fled the oncoming storm along with everything they could carry. The Cooperative were the ones who found and refurbished the facility. Their spies indicated they were currently conducting research into fighter drones. Something that would give them a tactical advantage over other factions, and having had his ass kicked by alien fighters, he now realized it would be a more significant advantage than he’d first thought. He’d known it would give them an edge, but if the Phantoms were any indication, it was a decisive one.
With that in mind, he was looking to acquire their research. His faction had their own projects, but they weren’t studying drone technology at the moment. If he wanted fighters of his own, he was going to need to steal the technology from someone else. Taking it from the Phantoms wasn’t an option, so that left the Cooperative.
“Have we completed our scouting survey?”
“Yes Admiral,” replied his most trusted friend. The other man grinned. “We even got to witness a few of the drones in action. They look mostly operational.”
“Excellent, defenses?”
“Minimal, Tumla’s distraction seems to have worked, there is only a single cruiser in the system. Once we sink that, only the facilities’ defenses will matter. They’ve got pretty much exactly what the reports said, there are six ground-to-space batteries on the surface near the main facility and a dozen orbital gun platforms in orbit. Nothing that big, our shields alone can take everything they’ve got, we can knock them out with a few well placed ion-disruptor shots. I’m more worried about the drones.”
“So am I, but we’ve added what defense we could. Unfortunately, there is no way to tell how effective the new flak and missile batteries will be until we test them... in battle.”
“Of course, deploy the fleet. I want the cruisers Queen’s Bounty and Tesh’s Gambit to anchor our formation. Tell Captains Gork and Temla that they are in charge of maintaining our perimeter. I don’t want any surprises.”
“Of course Admiral.”
The Admiral turned his attention to the coming battle. His flagship was an impressive battleship by any metric. It had been built by his people, a proper Drathik design. His ship, The Maiden was four thousand meters long with seventy decks. Her main armor belt was thirty meters thick with a secondary belt of nearly ten meters. Both belts were anchored by reinforced structural fields. The hull was built from a combination of polycarbonate steel and Drathik Alukar, an aluminum-based alloy. It was softer than the polycarbonate but it was quite flexible. When layered together the two alloys made a truly remarkable armor, and as a bonus Alukar was extremely resistant to high temperatures and disruption. The exact composition of the alloy was closely guarded as a result.
In addition to all that armor, he had nine primary shield generators and twenty-seven auxiliary generators, each with their own dedicated reactor. All part of one of the most impressive shield arrays in the storm, virtually nothing could get past his shields, they were so strong they could even repel an eddy. The Maiden’s shields supported a highly regenerative matrix that could recover even while under fire.
His weapons included a hundred and twenty superheavy Ion Disruptors mounted in triple turrets, there were over a thousand light Ion Disruptors also mounted in triples, along with numerous torpedo launchers mounted port and starboard. A recent addition had been the VLS missile tubes, intended for use against fighters and drones, along with six thousand dual plasma flak batteries that had replaced a few of his smaller ion disruptor mounts.
The Admiral figured the changes would be effective, but this battle would prove it.
It wasn’t much longer before the facility showed up on his screen. “We’ve been spotted, the local cruiser is turned towards us.”
“Brave aren’t they,” he commented.
His friend was already fighting the ship however, the Admiral listened to the orders as they were given. Giving him the luxury of focusing on the bigger picture.
As the cruiser came into range, it opened up with its forward particle batteries. His own ship returned fire. Several ion rounds slammed into the cruiser, her shields flaring but most of the rounds got through.
The hull glowed a bit, as blue energy crackled along its length, several guns falling silent. The second volley silenced them, the ship continuing to coast past them at high speed. Brave as they were, their gambit had amounted to nothing.
“Incoming! Cooperative drones on attack vector.”
“Standby all flak turrets, do not fire.”
“Aye sir!”
The Admiral leaned forward letting his friend do his job, while idly bringing up the scans. These drones weren’t particularly large, barely three meters long, no shields, polycarbonate armor plating just a few centimeters thick. Armament was two short-range plasma guns and a torpedo launcher. Each drone had a payload of six plasma torpedoes. They were fast though, closing the distance at an impressive clip, too fast for standard guns to track such small vessels.
He watched the range close fast, the seconds ticked by. Then they entered the flak envelope, yet they didn’t open up. His friend giving no order to fire, the range drew closer, the drones darting to and fro to throw off target solutions.
“Wait for it, wait for it... now! Fire all flak, standby missiles.”
The flak cannons lit up, both from his ship and the allied ships. Catching the drones in a crossfire. Plasma rounds bloomed in the storm, the brilliant light was oddly alluring, yet quite deadly. A number of drones were hit, but a few got through releasing their payloads.
“Incoming torpedoes!”
“Brace for impact, full power to shields!”
The ship rocked, as they were hit by several torpedoes at once.
“Shields held, no penetration.”
“Fire missiles!”
A rippling hum filled the bridge as the missiles fired in rapid succession. The deadly guided energy projectiles sought out the drones, which engaged in evasive maneuvers. Attempting to throw the missiles, a few missed but others found their targets. Brilliant blue bursts filled the screen, lighting up the swirling gasses of the storm in a dazzling display of colors.
The drones came back, unleashing more torpedoes and plasma rounds as the flak batteries opened up. Killing several more in quick succession before the ship rocked under the strikes of several more warheads.
Another hum filled the bridge as the next volley of missiles was unleashed. This time the drones weren’t so lucky and the drone wing was wiped out.
He relaxed a little as they pulled into orbit, all according to his plan. Nothing had needed to be changed. While his friend was taking out the ground defenses he gave the next order, “Landing parties are free to launch, remember boys we want those drones but take anything that looks remotely useful or interesting.”
There was a wave of excitement as they deployed to the surface amidst continued fire from the ground below. The guns didn’t last long, the transports were heavily armored and shielded, they moved fast as well, reaching the surface even while under fire. The men who got down quickly knocked out the surviving gun positions before moving to storm the facility. The Admiral sat back and waited, it wouldn’t be long before he had what he wanted.
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