19

February 23, 3023

A few seconds after jumping in Pirate's Haven Badlands Zenith jump-point, a collision alarm could be heard.

'Proximity sensors report two objects near!'

'Sensors, identify them now! Prepare to launch ASFs.'

'Aye, Aye, sir. Identification coming… wait, they are both Leviathans.'

Leviathans ? I thought that they were all retired long ago. Nice, if I remember right, they had eight Docking Collars each. I started to think what I could do with so much capability.

'ASFs and Assault crafts launched! No reaction from the bogies.'

With luck, we could capture both with little damage…. Stop dreaming, when did things go so easily?

Two hours later, the news weren't good. Yes, we had captured both JumpShips without opposition. But that was only because they were both derelict, none in working condition. Members of Dr. Murad's team that were with us on this mission are busy inspecting then to see if they could be repaired or not.

Let's hope that the team that inserted through the Nadir jump-point will be more lucky.

Four days later after landing in Badlands

Two pirate locations had been detected from orbit, one much bigger than the other. Vasseur took our more experienced force (with all the Royal 'Mechs except mine) against the big one, with full ASF support and I took one lance with vehicle support against the small one.

My warning system informed me that a pirate Rifleman was targeting me. Without giving it a thought, I sidestepped to the left, making the pirate miss me while at the same time turning the torso to put a Gauss round and an ERPPC shot right in the torso of the pirate 'Mech. It seems the last years of training had paid, finally. Not designed to survive that kind of punishment, and already in bad condition, the pirate 'Mech collapsed with its center torso destroyed. Two of the other pirate 'Mechs, a Commando and a Vindicator had already been neutralized, but the last one, a fast Locust was running away. I couldn't let it escape. I carefully targeted it and with the extended range of my weapons placed a solid Gauss round on is right leg, making it splash on the ground and letting it unable to move. The pilot must have been knocked-off.

Just like on a training ground, I directed our long range support (four Hunters) a bit behind, to drop fire on a group of enemy vehicles, mostly technical ones according to my battle computer that were the only forces left in front of us. After softening them, we advanced and quickly destroyed the last remains of the pirates.

Meanwhile, the other group provided the bigger pirate force with what could be expected from a SLDF, Royal equipped veteran force: a lot of pain. We took no losses, just a few soldiers of our infantry forces were injured. I do hope that we will be so lucky in the next missions.

Some hours later I got the final report of the Badlands operation.

The other team had indeed luck, capturing a lightly damaged but still operational Merchant. Unfortunately for us, it was a Concordat ship, so we had to return it to its real owners, 'only' getting a rescue bonus. We also captured two DropShips, one Danais and one Mule. But again they were both sailing under Concordat flag. On top of that we also freed several civilians, including the crews of the JumpShips and DropShips.

Not a bad result, even more when taking into consideration that Dr. Murad said that maybe, with a lot of effort and extra spares, many of them we might have to build specifically as nobody had them anymore, her team could perhaps repair one of the Leviathans. The other one had its K-F drive cracked and was only good for scrap. Even if said drive had so much refined germanium in it that extracted it could alone pay for the full mission. Since both were of unknown origin, it was worth a try.

This mission also proved that Badlands was still viable as a colony, so the Concordat could settle the system if it wanted.

I had high hopes that we could get our hands on more loot on Lorkdal

Two weeks later, Lorkdal Zenith jump-point.

'Sensors ?'

'Nothing near captain.'

'Understood, detach the DropShips.'

Three days later in orbit around the planet

'We detect a small settlement near the Equator. Energy readings show that at least a lance of 'Mechs is present. No DropShips detected and because no JumpShips were found in the system, our analysis is that their main force is out there raiding.'

'Understood. I propose that the ASFs do a strafing run while we land near. We have more than enough forces to deal with such a small group.' Said Vasseur during the planning meeting.

Following Vasseur's plan, our forces easily captured the pirate base. I didn't even fire a shot this time. One of the disadvantages of the Nightstar was his speed and before I could come into range, the others had already secured the pirate base and dispatched the five 'Mechs protecting it, no fun.

Interrogation of the few captured pirates reported that they had an Invader JumpShip but that is was already late from its estimated time of return from a raid in Estuan in the Federated Suns. We waited one more month, but the pirate JumpShip never returned. Years later, we got the information that they had been captured by FedRat forces during that raid.

Apart from the Leviathan (if we could repair it), we got our hands on one Shadow Hawk, one Commando (made with parts of two) and the Locust whose leg I had destroyed. The rest was only good for scrap, except for the Rifleman that could be repaired if we could get a new gyro as my shots had completely destroyed it and nobody in the Concordat made them.

The conclusions of the university team on both planets were that both were still viable to support colonies and that they were perhaps even better than before as with hundreds of years with almost no human on these planets, the biosphere had developed in a way that was favorable to the human beings.