Outer Belt Patrol

Year: 308 CE

CSS Retribution is on patrol in the Kuiper Belt.

She launches two FSL-1000 Sabre Fighters on patrol.

Sabre one, Known as Viking 1-1.

"Hangman you still with me?"

"Aye sir." Says his wingman, flying in close formation

"Alright, let's go."

Both of them go to maximum impulse, pushing them into the backs of their seats and accelerating extremely quickly.

They are around 710 Kilometers out from the ship now.

Iceman (Viking 1-1) looks at his instrument panel.

His back seater, Phoenix keeps an eye on radar.

"Hey, Ice."

"Yeah?"

"We got 5 contacts on radar."

"The fuck?"

"Designated Romeos 1-5, bearing 107 degrees x plane 29 degrees y plane."

"Copy, where are they heading?"

"Straight at us."

"Hangman you hear that?"

Over the radio "Yessir."

"Distance?"

"100 kilometers and closing."

"Alright, Break off, attack formation." Says Iceman

Both fighters pull away from each other going opposite directions.

A few minutes pass.

Something new comes over the radio.

"May--shsh- this is ADS Hercu--shsh shhhsh unde--shsh shhhsh two pirate shi--shsh"

It is coming from the direction of the 5 contacts and seems to be heavily distorted and filled with noise, clear indications of some sort of jamming device.

"Report to the Retribution: We have been engaged." Says Iceman

He locks onto one of the Bogies.

He slaves a missile to the weapon control system and fires it.

In sight comes an Elephant-Class Ore Freighter. There is a huge hole in one of its cargo compartments leaking materials. Attached to it via a boarding tunnel is a vessel which could very much be made from scrapyard materials. The engines of both vessels are off but it seems the engines of the freighter not so much by choice as out of necessity.

About 100 meters away from the freighter in different directions are 2 Honeybadger-Class Mining Ships, one of the few classes fit for operating in the barely secured regions of the outer rim. They are heavily damaged and are currently being tethered to the freighter by about 5 people in space suits. All of them carry weapons.

"Escorting" this assembly of different ships in a distance of 400 meters is a Delta-Class Small Cargo Ship. It shows heavy modifications including multiple PDS (Point Defense System) guns and one top mounted medium kinetic artillery cannon. A custom paint job on the side brings a white skull with crossing wrenches under it to display.

Mining laser burn marks stretch across different parts of its hull.

A radio transmission comes in, the jammer seems to have been disabled.

"This is FPRS Dikaios, disengage or we will destroy this freighter with all its crew inside it."

The artillery cannon from the "escorting" ship is pointed at the freighter and its PDS guns seems to start tracking the fighters.

As the missile is detected a volley of rounds is fired from the two PDS guns facing the missile. It explodes mid-flight.

Two more fighters from Viking squad come in and start helping.

Iceman radios: "Alright looks like we got a substantial pirate fleet on our hands, time to bring out our the big guns."

"FPRS Dikaios, This the CSS Retribution of the CSIS. Surrender immediately. prepare to to be boarded"

FPRS Dikaios: "If you board us we will blow that ship up."

The people in space suits make their way back to the ADS Hercules.

2 more sabre fighters fly in. total 6 fighters. its clear to the pirates that Retribution is launching an entire squadron.

Viking 1-1 (Iceman) flies in and lights up the Dikaios' bridge with a flurry of gunfire and rockets.

His wingman, Hangman, follows in and does a close in strafe.

The FPRS Dikaios starts its main drive and goes full power.

The CSIS ships let off a few flares to confuse the Dikaios.

The Dikiaios' bridge is damaged by the salvos.

Four more fighters fly in and begin laying punishment on the Dikiaios, as well as the elephant class

An explosion can be seen at the ADS Hercules

3 Pelican Dropships fly in, hover near the airlocks of the Hercules

The FPRS Trapper separates from the ADS Hercules. Its boarding tunel blown off.

The CSIS ships begin dropping troops to clear the Hercules

Iceman fires a rocket, his back-seater guides it into the hole where the boarding tunnel once was on the Trapper.

"Time to sit back and decompress, y'know?"

The main reactor of FPRS Dikaios explodes as it attempts to engage warp.

The missile tears into the interior of FPRS Trapper and explodes the ship from inside, its engines and power signature go dark.

Troops begin clearing and securing the Hercules.

The team quickly clears out the pirates from Hercules and the crew is found fortified in the emergency room.

CSS Retribution can be seen keeping a safe distance.

The troops knock on the door and tell them that the FPRS is gone.

Over the radio they hear.

"Hello? Who is there?"

"We are from the CSS Retribution, one of our patrols found you."

"Both the Dikaios and Trapper are gone."

"You got identification codes?"

The Sabre fighters survey the wrecks of the Dikaios and the Trapper, checking for survivors.

"Staff Sergeant, Boris Yarislav, Marine code 19489."

Rummaging and sounds of metal being pushed away.

The door opens.

"Ah, great that you were around. My name is Vincent Burk, Captain of the ADS Hercules and operation leader for Astrodrill Group 12."

"Boris Yarislav, CSIS Marines."

"Whats left of your group captain?"

"Well, John and Alex went and remote controlled the honeybadgers, buying time and allowing us to get in here before they started boarding. I think they were either picked of or taken hostage. I think there were also 3 others who went towards the engines and should be fortified there somewhere."

"Other than that all accounted for."

"Alright."

"We are still clearing the ship."

"Understood."

He radios in to keep an eye out for 5 unaccounted crewmembers.

"One of our hotshot flyboys and his wingman found you guys out on his patrol."

"I see. Seems we picked the right spot then to get ambushed." He chuckles

"Ha, yeah."

The CSS Retribution measures faint warp activity far beyond the Oort cloud, after some secondary measurements however it is documented as a sensor malfunction.

In their sweep of the ADS Hercules the troops find 10 pirates, 3 of which die in shootouts. They also discover the bodies of two crew members. They also find the three alive crew technicians fortified in the engine room. During the time of the boarding by CSIS forces they started working on repairing the engines and possibly sending morse code via burn signatures.

The crew starts retaking control of the ship and initiates first repairs.

The two damaged honey badgers are attached as good as possible to their respective transport ports.

ADS Hercules activates its four tug drones and starts gathering materials and components from the wreckages.

CSS Retribution's captain seems skeptical and says its probably worth checking out just to be safe, so he keeps the ship on yellow alert as he sends another squadron to scout the area.

As the cargo compartments of ADS Hercules reach their maximal volume an arriving Aeternus Materials salvage group takes over. ADS Hercules departs from the site of the incident with the help of a dispatched warp tug.

The fighters patrol for a while but report nothing unusual.

Fighters come back around and land at CSS Retribution.

CSS Retribution resumes normal patrol.

After some time It picks up the same faint signature again. Just closer than before.

She comes back around and heads backl

She deploys a stealth fighter to the area.

After some time without any reports the fighters return to the Retribution when...

"Sir, we just picked up a large warp signature moving past us, about 500 km out."

"Fighters, return back. We're pursuing"

"Yes si-"

It cuts off.

From the bridge the officers witness as the fighters are torn to shreds by a ship just a bit smaller than the CSS Retribution, exiting warp at the position where the fighters were.

"What the..."

From here on out things happen very quickly.

A superheated projectile launched from the middle of the other vessel at ridiculous speed tears through the main communication array of CCS Retribution, passing through several layers of armor.

The Retribution immediately engages red alert. The ready group of fighters is launched and all defensive squadrons currently in flight turn to engage the hostile craft.

"EVASIVE ACTIONS"

Two more ships of the same type exit warp. The Retribution is now encircled. The two new ships unleash the same payload onto the Retribution, crippling its main engines.

The fighters start unleashing missiles and rounds on the first hostile.

On the surface of the targeted vessel, several ball shaped extrusions start to come out of hatches in the hull. They seem to be direct beam lasers as they quickly start rotating and tracking individual missiles. One by one missiles explode mid-flight. Those that are not shot down seem to curve unnaturally towards two points on the ship where they abruptly impact some sort of forcefield.

The tungsten and depleted uranium round of the fighters impact the hull of the vessel but seem to only scratch it.

The two larger gun turrets of sort on each of the different hostiles now start tracking the fighters and one by one taking them out using proximity fuse ammunition.

All the while the Retribution is slowly crippled by the constant fire of the main guns of each hostile ship.

"EMERGENCY WARP."

"SIR, WE CA-"

"JUST DO IT."

The three ships start entering a formation with each other.

"WARP IN 3"

They seem to charge their weapons again and orientate themselves to all point towards a single point on the Retribution's hull.

"No... they wo-"

"2"

The three ships fire their main weapon all slightly timed after each other. The three projectiles impact the hull and tear through several layers of armor.

The last one hits the warp drive.

CSS Retribution is blown to pieces by the following explosion. Its structural supports already weakened by the previous constant barrage.

What few crew remain of the carrier are now in escape pods slowly drifting in space. All communication attempts are in vain as it seem the ships have engaged some kind of jamming device. The crew do not dare activating engines as it would give away their position to the three ships which seem to drift around in and around the remains of CSS Retribution.

They witness as all three ships start unfolding large radiator sails from their two larger outgoing extrusions which start lighting up in an almost ominous red glow.

All is silent. The battle is over.

---

CSIS has lost contact with CSS Retribution. Two ships, CSS Undoubtable and Indefatigable (Both Behemoth Classes) are dispatched Immediately.

A few hours later.

Undoubtable and Indefatigable come out of warp in the outer Belt, near the remains of the CSS Retribution.

A few escort ships, around 1km long each (10 of them) also come out of warp.

"CSS Retribution, this is CSS Undoubtable, please respond."

"Is there anyone out there?"

They keep repeating the message.

At some point during their warp the ships experience a slight disruption and the sensors suddenly change their outputs. Where previously was just asteroids now reveals... something very bad.

"Sir, this doesn't make sense."

"Prepare for ba-"

Red alert is sounded as the ships exit warp and are greeted with a... warm... welcome.

About 30 vessels expect them with around 4 different designs between them.

The ones of same make as the previous ones immediately unleash their main weapon payload into the Undoubtable and Indefatigable. From the second type of vessel, large missiles of unknow design start to hurl towards the escort ships. 6 missiles are sent to each ship. Ever one of the escort ships is crippled as giant explosions tear through their armor and vital systems.

From the 3. design of ships, smaller craft start detaching from the inner sides of the vessels. Fighters of sorts.

The two CSS Carriers launch their ready groups.

Several dogfights start occurring while the Undoubtable and Indefatigable are pierced by high velocity, high temperature projectiles.

The different escort ships stand no chance and are annihilated within minutes by explosive artillery shells fired into the holes in their Armor.

Fighters start exploding and while the CSIS can achieve some casualties among the enemies it is no surprise when the last of the flying CSIS fighters is torn to pieces.

Next to go is the Indefatigable.

The last standing is the Undoubtable which in a last ditch kamikaze manoeuvre manages to destroy two of the gun type vessels, its own warp core deliberately self-destructing.

The remaining in escape capsules witness as every enemy ship starts unfurling radiator sails, the gun type vessels having the largest ones. The ominous red glow bathes the site into a shuddering look.

The hostile fighters start sweeping the remains of the battle for survivors. Some they grasp hold of and take them to their home ship, the others they kill.

It is silent.