The Cemiess Crisis Part V
24 Sep 2016Jellicoe
A jet black corvette rose from its pad at Pelliot Town Cemiess, hovered unsteadily for a few seconds before the pilot pulled the ships nose to the sky, engaged his engines and powered away from the small space port. The ship had been a regular visitor over the past week and for no apparent reason, several times a day it would land, spend a couple of hours on the ground, doing no apparent business then take off again. Such behaviour would attract attention anywhere especially at a port widely known as the system's entrée port for contraband, throw in an apparent attempt to flood Cemiess with illegal weapons and it was only surprising that the pilot had not attracted police attention earlier. A more experienced smuggler would have known that."Corvette Resolution this is the Imperial security service ship Cossack, you are under arrest on suspicion of smuggling and membership of a prescribed organisation, you are instructed to return to port immediately, should you fail to comply deadly force is authorized."
"Sorry old boy no can do, got an appointment to keep with an arms dealer ." a voice drawled lazily in reply. Arrogant Fed bastard! The Imperial policewoman thought with a flash of anger, fortunately this arrest had been planned in advance.
"Patrol ship Cossack to alpha and beta wings, target is resisting arrest all units go, go, go." she pushed her Viper towards the corvette and put a burst from her laser across its bow as her wingman took up position on the other side of the target vessel, then seeing with relief her scanner light up as heavy support arrived.
"Three Anaconda's and four Eagle's plus the two Vipers." The tactical officer on the corvette announced.
"How long till we clear the mass lock?" the pilot asked.
"Too long." came the reply.
The pilot nodded then smiled. "Right ho then, hold tight chaps." He threw the ship into a near vertical spinning dive only levelling out at the last moment before boosting away with the two Vipers closely followed by the Eagle's in hot pursuit, their small lasers raking the corvette's shields.
"What are you doing?" the first officer's terror stricken voice asked through gritted teeth.
"We need to lose those Annie's before we can jump, only way to do that is at low level." The corvette plunged on, hugging the ground while twisting and spinning frantically to avoid some of the stinging fire from the fighters. A flash and eruption of earth and rock followed by a rumbling boom as the ships computer simulated the sound of a plasma accelerator strike a little to their starboard side, seconds later another struck the ground a few hundred yards to port.
"They're a bit cl..." the navigator began when the whole ship rocked as the third Anaconda's shot found its mark. It was a glancing blow easily absorbed by the corvette's shields but the shock of impact jarred the pilots grip on the stick and as he fought to regain control the ship clipped the ground. Hard.
"Shields at 7%." the tactical officer said once the pilot had regained control. It was a miracle they had held at all.
"Can we jump once we clear the mass lock?" the pilot asked.
"Not our planned one the planet's in the way."
"Find one we can make, we're going to have to make a run for it. This could be fun." the pilot said with a grin before pulling the ships nose up and boosting while the Imperial ships, scenting blood, pressed home their attack the Anaconda's now swooping in to reposition themselves, but in their eagerness to get the kill they left a thin corridor to open space.
"Shields offline. Taking damage." The Resolution was at the centre of a storm of fire from the Imperial vessels as she powered her way to freedom, laser and auto cannon fire bit deep but the Resolution's armour, like the rest of the ship, engineered way beyond factory standard just about held her together. Sparks flew and fires broke out throughout the ship but she somehow survived long enough to jump.
The docking bay of Dean Hub in Yawa resembled the aftermath of a major battle as lines of damaged and crippled ships limped in, just ahead of the Resolution was a cutter with several rents in its elegant hull and plasma venting from its port nacelle while behind came a Cobra with smoke pouring from its engine housing. The Children of Raxxla might be continuing to get weapons through to Cemiess, but they were paying an increasingly high price for their success.
Stannis Jellicoe sat in his ready room while the repair mechs patched up his ship and keyed into another holo-conference, the other faces around the virtual table looked tired and strained, with several familiar ones missing altogether. The Cemiess authorities had clearly come down hard on the smuggling operation and appeared to have had considerable success.
"We have to have permission to return fire." the thickset man was saying. "we're getting slaughtered out there."
"If we start shooting back we will be damned as terrorists and they'll hunt us down like Emperors Dawn." the slender man replied.
"We have to do something." a tall man with a fresh scar running down his cheek responded in a voice filled with barely suppressed anger. "We're losing too many ships, I barely made it out myself, my Co-pilot's still in the hospital wing, there's a chance he won't pull through."
"The police action shows our plan is working." the sharp faced man in Imperial uniform put in. "I have access to intelligence the rest of you do not and it all says that the authorities are under severe pressure and are struggling to cope. We need to keep the pressure on, the system is close to being put into the security lockdown and that is our objective."
"How many of us will have to die first?" the thickset man demanded.
"You agreed to smuggle illegal weapons into a system at the heart of the Empire, surely you weren't stupid enough to think this wouldn't involve a large measure of danger?" the Imperial responded.
"You patronising bastard." the thickset man snarled balling his fists. "It's not the risk, we all know the risk, it's going in with one hand tied behind our back. Let us shoot back, if only in self defence."
"Do you know police procedure when someone opens fire on them?" Jellicoe asked. The thickset man shuffled in his seat and muttered something. "They have alert wings in super-cruise all over the system and when a call goes out they flood it with ships so you are very quickly overwhelmed. Returning fire will mean we lose more ships not fewer."
"You have to let us do something." the thickset man slammed his fist onto his desk but the holographic conference table was unmoved robbing the gesture of much of its impact.
"We could have our own alert ships." the scarfaced man suggested. "Have our most powerful warships ready to jump in if one of us is attacked and cover their withdrawal."
"So your plan involves putting an extra ship at risk every time someone is attacked while taking our biggest ships away from the smuggling operation as well as getting us branded as terrorists? Quite brilliant." the sharp face Imperials voice dripped sarcasm.
"I don't care what you say from behind your nice safe desk, I'm not going back in without protection. End of." the thickset man said firmly to widespread murmurs of agreement.
"Juliet Echo Echo what do you say?" the man at the head of the table asked Jellicoe via his codename.
"I don't like it, very few of these people are soldiers and giving them the okay to fire at professionals will only get them killed, but if it's the decision then I'll go along with it."
"What about you November Uniform Sierra?"
"It's insane." the sharp faced Imperial replied. "But if it's the only way to sustain the operation I shall have to agree to it, it might even stretch their forces and increase the pressure on them but we'll pay a very high price for it."
"Foxtrot Oscar Echo?"
"I want no part of this." the slender man was angry. "I don't agree with the smuggling and I will not give my consent to firing on the authorities under any circumstances whatsoever."
"I do understand and I do sympathise." The man at the tables head replied. "But we did not fire the first shots, the first shots were fired when Salomé was abducted secretly and illegally. We have acted with great restraint, we have asked and pleaded for information and been met with silence and contempt. In view of this I cannot deny our pilots the right to defend themselves, all cutter and corvette class ships are withdrawn from smuggling and asked to mount security patrols and assist any of our vessels that come under attack." He spoke slowly, as though he were trying to convince himself as much as those sat around the virtual table. Every word he said was true but it was a big step, once shots were fired there was no going back. The Children of Raxxla were going to war.