Chapter Two
Nadir Jump Point
New Avalon, Federated Suns
1715, 1 August 3020
Pilot Sylvia Weiss sat exactly where she always did during a hyperspace jump, in the cockpit of her Stuka aerospace fighter. Of the three dropships attached to the jumpship, only theirs, the Union class dropship Eunomia, carried aerospace fighters. As standard operating procedure they had to be ready to launch to defend the jumpship and dropships if the jump point turned out to be unfriendly.
Since there was only Sylvia and her twin sister aboard her matching Stuka aerospace fighters, Sylvia's named Despair and her sister's Samantha named Desire, they might not be able to do much but that did not bother Sylvia. She lived to fly and fight among the stars.
She had chosen her ship's name when her space going merchant family had presented the two Stukas to her and her twin so her opponents would know their fate. Neither had ever attended an academy instead learning to fly from youth by doing it during their family's trips. When pirates had destroyed two of the family's dropships the sisters had had little choice but to become mercenaries and send money to help the family regrow its business.
The reason why her sister Samantha had named hers Desire was because unlike Sylvia, Samantha wanted bigger things. She wanted her family to regain what it had lost. She wanted to command a wing of aerospace fighters. She wanted to someday have her own mercenary unit of aerospace fighters.
Samantha had been a little disappointed during the meeting when hiring more aerospace assets had not been one of the priorities. After Colonel Stalwart had told her that the very next big ticket item would be contracting a unit of aerospace fighters and a dropship to carry them. He was very much aware of how little air and space superiority capability the Protectors had. He had even signed a contract with Samantha to keep that promise and guaranteeing she would be the leader once they came onboard.
She was then thinking "Of course we are jumping into the New Avalon system. As capital of the Federated Suns it is one of the best defended jump points in the whole Inner Sphere. Would be nice if something did happen though, there hadn't been any action except CAPs since Harrow's Sun." Suddenly a wave of nausea and dizziness swept over Sylvia. She had been so lost in thought she had not been paying attention to the countdown to jump. Having grown up on dropships, Sylvia was quite used to the ill effects of a jump and recovered immediately.
"Launch Immediately, say again Launch Immediately"
Sylvia felt the acceleration against her pressure suit but took no notice of it as her hands and feet acted on their own performing checks and sweeps. The Despair was in space in less than five seconds and she automatically maneuvered to the wingman position while scanning for whatever threat had caused them to launch. Seeing nothing of immanent danger she flicked her helmet radio on and listened.
"Dog House 1 this is Space Dog Leader where is the threat?"
"Space Dog Leader this is Top Dog Leader, relaying message to you."
A voice Sylvia did not recognize came over her radio, "All ships this is the Retaliation, search for a Bligh class dropship the Kabra, Ident beacon DB8374917YH736. They are wanted for smuggling and offensive action against Customs officials. When the Kabra is located, report immediately. The Retaliation will handle intercept."
The message began to repeat but Colonel Stalwart cut it off and came back online. "Dog House Actual says there is a pirate jump point he considered taking us in on that the smugglers are probably heading to. I'm sending coordinates now. If you max burn and glide you two can be there in about two hours. Check out the pirate point and report back to us and the Retaliation if you spot them."
"This is Space Dog Leader, wilco and out."
A little click told Sylvia the next message was coming over the sister's private channel, "OK Space Dog 2 link your navcomp to mine and we will get this done. BUT remember we are to seek and report and not engage."
Sylvia rolled her eyes and replied, "This is Space Dog 2, wilco and out." She always hated how formal her sister was even when only the two of them were online.
After all the initial hoopla, the two hour trip might have been a letdown but Sylvia had her routine to perform and scans to take and the stars to look out, these always kept her happy. She could not stop thinking and imaging the implications of that short radio message.
"Blighs are old style dropships with little weaponry and not much speed. They must have modified it a lot if it escaped the Retaliation. Wow, the Retaliation a Vengeance class fighter carrier with a full wing of 36 aerospace fighters aboard. The Kabra must have killed some customs officials during their escape to have those guys gunning after them."
Sylvia loved being in the Protectors but sometimes she wished there were more aerospace fighter pilots around other then her sister. Tin can pilots were OK but they just didn't understand what it meant to fly among the stars. They all thought that mechs were the ultimate war machines. She remember the thrill of knocking over those pirate battlemechs back on Harrow's Sun. The Despair was the ultimate war machine and she would gladly demonstrate it again.
As the pair of fighters closed in on the coordinates, Sylvia was a little dishearten when they found only empty space. Not even signals from any other ships nearby.
"Space Dog Leader this is Space Dog 2. Nothing here. How long are we supposed to hangout?"
"Space Dog 2 this is Space Dog Leader. I did some calculations on the flight out here. This pirate point will be open for only about another hour. We can stay here and watch it then head back to the Eunomia."
Sylvia had to give it to here sister for thinking like that. Since jumpships had to be clear of all gravity fields but still get close to their target world. They usually came out of hyperspace at either the zenith or nadir points then released the dropships they carried which traveled to the planet in system while the jumpships stayed in space and recharged their jump drives for the next jump.
Since everything in space was in constant motion there sometimes opened so called pirate points. Areas were the gravity fields were temporarily gone. They were usually much closer to the target planet but posed many hazards. If the navigator made even a slight mistake the jumpship could be torn apart when it jumped in. Since these points weren't mapped or patrolled any kind of object from a comet to space trash might be waiting for the jumpship. Something as small as a rogue satellite could seriously damage a jumpship when it came out of hyperspace.
Twenty minutes had passed with still nothing to detect. Then a strong magnetic disturbance began to form right in-between the sister's fighters. Taking immediate evasive action they rolled out in opposite directions. Once done, Sylvia saw a single scout jumpship had arrived. The smallest of the massive jumpships, scouts could only carry one dropship. Scouts did have the advantage of having a large enough battery capability to make two jumps before recharging. This one did not have a dropship attached to its docking collar.
On their private channel Sylvia called, "Well now what do we do?"
Samantha just said, "Quiet, I've got this."
On a general channel Sylvia heard her sister send, "Incoming jumpship we are conducting operations on behalf of the New Avalon Customs Authority. Identify yourself and your mission immediately."
Sylvia thought that sounded good and wasn't stretching the truth too far.
In response the scout fired a laser battery at them. The shock of it took Sylvia by surprise. The loss of technology over the centuries meant that every single jumpship was a technological treasure that could only be replaced through extreme effort. No one engaged jumpships directly. Boarding actions were might be used, but usually jumpship crews surrendered and were released instead of risking their ships. The only reason most of their family survived the pirate attack was because not even blood thirsty pirates would take the risk damaging a jumpship.
Sylvia flew in close to the scout hoping they couldn't track her and then sent, "This isn't going well."
Samantha sent back, "Hang in there. The scout isn't jamming and I've already sent a request for help to the Retaliation."
"How long till they get here?"
"Should only be…." Her sister's response was cut off as the scout's laser fire found her fighter. She took the hit on her wing and the 100 ton fighter's heavy armor took the brunt of it but that wasn't her problem. The sudden loss of tons of armor and her already erratic flight combined and sent her into a spin heading off into deep space. She was now a much easier shot for the scout to hit and they proceeded to pummel her with hits. Even the Stuka class fighter could not stand that kind of fire for long.
Outrage clouding her vision Sylvia swore, "She might be a pompous ass but she's my pompous ass."
Climbing around the scout's hull, Sylvia cut speed and crash landed in the middle of the scout's docking collar. Despite the pain of the restraining straps cutting into her, Sylvia released her safeties and fired all of her lasers into the docking collar.
As the molten metal of the ruined docking collar sprayed out and instantly solidified some of it hitting her view screen, Sylvia sent out a general signal, "Jumpship cease firing immediately or I'll punch a hole straight through you."
Having the docking collar damaged and a violently angry fighter pilot attached to your hull, the scout's captain quickly realized she would not be able pick up her smuggling companions. Even jumping out to save themselves would not get rid of this crazy pilot. Bowing to circumstance the scout signaled its surrender.
After a minute and much to Sylvia's relief she watched Samantha straighten out her flight path and head back toward them. Once there she sent over general frequency, "The Retaliation will be here in 72 minutes. Lock yourselves in your cabins and await their arrival. If I even see someone on the bridge we will vaporize this ship."
On their private channel Sylvia sent, "Glad you could join me. I can sit here for an hour but what do we do when the Kabra shows up?"
"No problem the Retaliation caught her and they didn't hold back. We'll help them drag back what's left of the Kabra on our trip to New Avalon. Their fighters will actually get here in about 30 minutes but won't have much fuel left. When the Retaliation does arrive she will take this one off our hands and give us a ride to New Avalon."
"Yes! Finally we can hang out in a real pilot's lounge and trade beers and stories with our peers."
"Don't start celebrating yet. The scout's crew will probably claim they thought we were pirates and were defending them selves. We will probably have to testify at a tribunal."
Outraged anew, Sylvia almost fired into the scout again. Then she slowly let a smile creep across here face and sent, "Hey do you think the tribunal will find us like not only in the right but award us the scout as a prize? After all the Protectors did figure out the pirate point and we did capture the smugglers ride."
This time Sylvia could hear the smile on Samantha's face, "Either that or you and me are going to jail for a very long time."
