Chapter 3

“Sir” Aragon said “When we arrived in Wolf there was no sign of Greeny or the Pride of Terra so we sent a team to the Cove.  According to the pirates there, a small fleet of ships arrived about an hour before the Emperor did and didn’t respond to any of the Pirates attempts to communicate.  The Cove pirates were going to launch an attack on them but during the launch procedures one of the pirate’s ships was damaged.  The captain of that ship started pointing fingers and a fire fight ensued.  By the time they had realised what was going on the Pride had been captured and the Fleet was gone.”

“Do they know where they went?” Sonar asked over the communicator.

“From the angle of their jump to hyperspace we have calculated that they have moved to Pollux”

“Pollux was recently taken by the pirates.  We were surprised by the strength and organisation of the Pirates I during that battle.  The Union forces were overwhelmed easily.  Our reports show that there is a state-of-the-art starbase there belonging to the pirates.  It seems likely that they took Greeny there” Sonar said.

“Should we head there now?” Aragon asked, leaning foreword in his chair.

“Yes, but stay aware.  We don’t know how large the force in that system is”

“Ok, we will make contact after we have arrived”

“Good luck Admiral” Sonar said, shutting off the communicator.

“What is he?” Greeny asked quietly.  Cold Fire looked like nothing Greeny had ever seen before.

The Plexxan looked up from his computer console.  “He is, well he is what he is.”

“Y’know, you aren’t very helpful Plexxan.” Greeny said, leaning against the wall behind him. “Do you plan to keep my locked up here forever?  Because you know the Terrans will send a fleet to find me.”

The Plexxan snorted “You don’t think we know that, in fact, they are already on the way” He walked up to the edge of the cell and leaned foreword “Actually, the whole reason that we kidnapped you was to draw you fleet here” He said, just above a whisper “And when they arrive they will be slaughtered” The Plexxan smiled to reveal a yellow toothed grin.

Greeny jumped foreword with lightning speed and punched the Plexxan in the jaw through the bars.  He hit the ground with a thud.

“Now, how to get out of here” Greeny muttered to himself.  The lock was computer controlled, and the console was on the other side of the room.  But at least he would have some quiet before the Plexxan woke up.

“Entering Pollux in 7 minutes Admiral” Shouted a voice from across the command deck.

“As soon as we enter the system start scanning for Greenys lifesign and Order the Fleet to fire on any pirate ship in range.”

“Yes Admiral”

“And contact the Imperial City.  Tell them that we have arrived”

Greeny began to pace, he needed to find a way out of his cell to contact the fleet.  He had tried to rewire the controls on the lock, but all he had got out of that was a nasty shock.

“Damn it!” he shouted as he swung round and kicked the bars.  He had never felt so helpless.  A loud ringing sound suddenly erupted from all around him.  For a second he thought that he had set of the alarm, but he quickly realised that it meant that the Terran fleet had arrived.

“Captain, we have arrived in Pollux and are moving to the specified coordinates”

“Excellent, power weapons and activate shields” Fallen Angel said.  Something didn’t feel right, he had been involved in many battles before, but this one seemed different.

“Captain, we have hundreds of energy traces in the system” Said a lieutenant, from the side of the command deck.

“Get me one of the Admirals” Fallen said, suddenly very worried. This was supposed to be an easy mission.

Armageddon appeared on the communicator, and was visibly worried.

“Sir, have you sensors...”

“We see them Captain”, he interrupted.

“What do we...”

“We need to rescue the Emperor, Captain.”

“Yes Sir, sorry Sir” Armageddon nodded and disappeared from the screen.  A few moments later Aragon issued a fleet briefing.

“The Pirates are stronger than we thought, there are at least eight hundred cloaked ships here, as well as a starbase and several dozen ships of various classes.  But we must rescue our Emperor.  Good luck to you all”

“You heard the Admiral” Fallen said “Bring us into firing range”

“Admiral, there is an Aurelius class cruiser near the starbase with abnormally high energy levels.  It appears to have some sort of weapon built on it, our scanners can’t identify it”

“What is it doing Commander?” Aragon asked.

“No idea Admiral, but its energy levels are growing”.  Suddenly PhantomGODdess’s image appeared on the communicator.

“Aragon, those cloaked ships aren’t moving.  Our scanners show that they are too small to be manned craft.  And the uncloaked ships are staying well back”

“I don’t like the look of this Phantom, how long until we are in firing range of the uncloaked pirate ships”

“About ten minutes.  Do you think we should call off the attack until we can determine what they are?” Phantom asked.

Aragon began to speak but was interrupted by several dozen communications channels opening at once.

“What the hell is going on Commander!” he shouted over the noise.

“Our communications are being jammed Sir”

“Shut that noise off!”

“I am trying Admiral” The Commander shouted back. “Done!” he shouted as the sound died away.

“Sir sensors report that the Aurelius is moving to a position directly behind the cloaked ships” The Commander said, slightly louder that he had anticipated.

“What the hell is happening here” he muttered.  Suddenly he had an idea.  “Could those cloaked ships be mines Commander?” he asked.

“Possibly Sir”.  Mines were pretty much useless in space combat.  They were static and their cloaks gave off an energy signature so any ship with even the oldest sensors could detect them before they came within the blast radius of one.  But this didn’t make any sense to Aragon.  Why would the pirates have wasted time putting up this mine field if they knew that the sensors would pick them up from millions of kilometres away?  Suddenly it dawned on him.

“Turn the ship, Order the Fleet to disengage, prepare to jump to hyperspace on my mark.”

“Sir communications are still down, we can’t contact the fleet”

“Well then I hope their sensor officers are paying attention.  Turn the ship and go to full speed, don’t go to hyper until I say”.

“Yes Sir”

“Captain, Admiral Aragon’s ship is changing course and is heading away from the pirate fleet.”

Fallen looked at his Commander “Are communications still down?”

“Yes Sir, but all other systems are functional” The Commander replied.

“How long until we are in weapons range of the Pirates?”

“Three minutes Captain”

Fallen sighed, “I can’t believe that the Admiral is running.  Continue on our current course Commander”

“How many ships are following us Commander?”

“Fifty six including both the other Admirals.  The rest are still on course for the Pirates.  Sir, may I ask what is going on?” The Commander said, looking slightly worried.

“When Greeny was captured he clearly didn’t enter Wolf through choice, he must have been pulled in somehow and I am willing to bet that it has something to do with that Aurelius.  Here we have a mine field that we clearly aren’t going to fly into ourselves, but maybe we are going to be pulled in.”

The Commanders eyes widened.  Aragon knew how he felt.

Fallen suddenly felt weightlessness but didn’t have long to come to grips with the sensation as he was thrown across the command deck to the front wall.

“What’s happening commander” He shouted, nursing his back.

“Sir the Aurelius cruiser has activated some sort of high powered tractor beam, we are being pulled directly towards the fleet of cloaked ships.  The entire fleet except those that ran are being pulled in”

“Brace for impact” Fallen shouted, but he knew that they stood no chance.  They couldn’t even reach the weapons command console from their position on the front wall.

“Sir, those aren’t cloaked ships, they are mines”

“Oh sh…” but he never got a chance to finish that statement.

“Sir, Communications are back online”

Aragon felt sick.  Almost one hundred ships destroyed, several thousand Terran lives extinguished and they hadn’t even destroyed a single pirate ship.

“Contact what remains of the fleet” he said quietly “Tell them to head back to Sol”

“Greeny” said Cold Fire, in his usual theatrical style “There is something I think you should see”.

“I think I killed your Plexxan” Greeny said nodding in the direction of the unconscious man.

Cold Fire shrugged “It was bound to happen someday” he said, unlocking the cell door “Follow me please”

“Where are we going?” Greeny asked, he knew that trying to escape would be futile, he didn’t even know where he was.

“To Sol” Cold Fire said, matter of factly “Just as soon as I show you the remains of your fleet.”