Taking the Arioton, Part 1

Anton leaned against the console in the CIC while Heydar paced back and forth with the patch in his hand.

"So..." Anton started.

"Chimera... chimera... who else uses this... got it!" Heydar suddenly yelled while pointing up.

"You know who we're dealing with?"

The Chimera Mercenaries. They are a veteran private military group within the Amalga Dimension. The reason for their name was due to combining their tactics from various interstellar nations, until they eventually had their own which was said to be at one moment predictable, and then an outside the box idea the next. Well, mixing one invisible swordsman into those riflemen squads was something that indeed did catch Anton off guard initially.

"However, I don't know who's hiring them."

"Well, let's narrow it down. Who most definitely can't hire them?"

"That's a no-brainer, factions using first generation starships. They can barely afford to develop a warp drive, much less the services of a private military group armed with stealth destroyers with significantly more advanced jump drives."

"The mercs have jump drives?"

"I looked through the sensor data during our break. There was a trio of condensed energy signatures in the arrival coordinates where the enemy jumped to."

"What else do we know?" Anton asked.

"I don't have a full detail about the destroyers they're using, but after a couple favor calls, a more thorough analysis of the hulls, and some comparisons, here's what I do know."

Anton followed Heydar over to the central hologram table and brought up the complete scan of the three destroyers: Duranigul, Arioton, and Ivila.

"The latter two are actually named after two astropoli they formerly operated in until their contracts were fulfilled. Arioton is a rather large astropolis in comparison to most others in the Soliv Disputed Area, as well as a major trade hub. Ivila is... well, was another astropolis in the area as well, but after the Chimera Mercenaries fulfilled their duties and left, Giniri Shipping showed up and started taking claims and increasing profits, driving the city to bankruptcy, and then it was sold to Giniri and subsequently scrapped. Duranigul, however, I haven't heard of the name until now. The ships also appear to mostly match Straezir's Daneralin-class destroyer, though Daneralins lack stealth. It's more than likely that they are a modified version manufactured under license."

Anton nodded. He looked over the information shown before asking a question.

"You think Giniri Shipping is behind the hiring of Chimera?"

"It wouldn't be far fetched," Heydar responded. "Alzitoran Expeditions in prior times didn't just carry supplies for a long journey to explore the Dimension, but also pioneer hopefuls and adventurers from many other nations, along with valuable goods. The aforementioned pioneer hopefuls and adventurers would represent the Alzitor Republic in exchange for freedom of operation. Of course, with the help of the expedition's supplies, they're able to get some really valuable stuff made and sold to the market. It was actually three pioneers aligned with Alzitor that discovered the synthesis of the Rubryx Compound used in current stealth composites."

"Okay, so they bring all this stuff to the market, and it ramps up the stocks. Good for everyone, right?"

"Not when the stocks being ramped up are those of your competitors. When we were allowed to synthesize the Rubryx Compound under license, Giniri was pissed. It's a lesser known fact that they have a weapons division, and they went ham on marketing new weapons. When that failed, they established their own private army, started forcing cities to invest on them, then actual militaries got involved when they openly attacked a Zeshan owned city, and look where we are now. But enough about Giniri and their aggressive negotiations. Chimera's the more immediate threat."

Anton moved back from the table and thought for a moment, the occasional faint sound of the point defense guns firing emanating through the walls.

"Can we risk trying to board them?" Anton asked.

"That would be considered impossible."

"So, what then?"

"Nothing."

"Nothing, great."

"Because luckily for you, Zeshan's Soliv Branch prides itself in marketing the impossible, and I like being a troll. Now let's get a shuttle prepped."

----------

"Go for launch!" Heydar announced.

The shuttle rocketed out from the launch catapult and into space, in the orbit of the rocky mountainous planet where Anton first arrived. The minor detail that he learned was that it was called Siradan, which was apparently ancient Zeshani for 'ordinary.' Or so Heydar mentioned.

Anton looked around to see the volunteers that came along. A few Zeshani troopers, and volunteers who proved to be well versed in combat. Another shuttle flew alongside the first within sight of the left viewports, and from the cockpit, a fighter flew up ahead, firing two missiles, destroying two enemy boarding pods.

Heydar fastened his helmet, and Anton did the same. Then he tapped once on the in-helmet communications.

"Can you hear me, Anton?" Heydar asked.

"For the second time since this battle started, yes," Anton responded.

"Ship speakers don't count."

Anton simply scoffed and checked to make sure his own helmet was working properly. He never noticed that he nearly left it behind in the area of the crash planetside. He mentally reminded himself to send a 'thank you' note to whoever recovered it for him.

'DA-6 locked and loaded, stocked on ammo and grenades, backup pistol and ammo, and wound-sealing gel,' Anton mentally checked off the list of what he brought with him to board the enemy destroyer.

"Closing in on the Arioton, ETA one minute," the pilot announced.

"Wait until we're 700 meters away to fire," Anton said. "That's our best distance between preventing a response from point defense guns and to avoid getting caught in the blast."

"Understood."

As the shuttle continued on course, the Arioton opened up several cells on it's Vertical Launch System, and four missiles shot upwards from the midsection of the destroyer.

"Release flares, evasive maneuvers!"

Anton grabbed onto a support handle as the shuttle turned sharply, the flares deployed behind and doing their work in diverting the missiles. The shuttle made another turn to face the Arioton.

"850... 800... 750... now!" Heydar ordered.

The two missiles fired from the pods on the wings of the shuttle. Anton watched as they made impact and punched a hole in the side of the destroyer, specifically the airlock, using the information Anton had on the related Daneralin-class. Scraps of metal and damaged equipment flew out from the following decompression. The shuttle flew close and stopped by the breach, and everyone checked their equipment one last time before the ramp opened.

Anton leveled his rifle and fired a round at a mercenary rifleman, the bullet punching through the visor. Heydar jumped out and floated across, bringing out a scimitar and impaling another rifleman that was trying to unjam his rifle behind cover. He looked through the small viewport on the intact airlock door before giving a hand signal.

"The adjacent area has decompressed as well, but the remaining door is jammed," Heydar spoke over the comm. "I take it no one brought a crowbar?"

Anton looked back to see everyone stare at each other, until one brought out several strips of KT97 explosives.

"A bit overkill, but it'll do," Heydar said.

Anton led the group across the gap and into the ship's destroyed airlock chamber. The explosive strips were handed over to Heydar, who began installing them on the door frame, while the shuttle left to rearm at the Uruk.

"Blast-propelled kinetic thermite... that is overkill," Anton said.

Heydar finished installing the explosive strips and signaled everyone to back off. The ship shuddered as another volley of missiles were fired.

KT97 has two phases, with a metallic segmented separator between them. The first involves the ignition of the thermite in front, melting and weakening the frame of the door. Due to it's kinetic treatment and compression, the thermite holds it's shape for the duration of the first phase. Once the thermite reaches it's peak reaction and begins to lose form, the heat will break through the seams to trigger the directional explosive, forming the metallic segmented separator into a series of explosively formed penetrators that punch through the thermite and weakened framework, and sending the once jammed door flying into the corridor. As a bonus, the fragments from the blast left the opposite end of the area covered in shotgun-like damage, with one unfortunate crew member of the Arioton having been killed by the shrapnel.

"We're in," Anton said. "Now to find out what what the mercenaries are here for."