Valuable Assets for the Federation
01 Nov 2016Tristan Pacheco
I had quite the weekend. In a temporary absence of orders, we had been at Haberlandt Survey in Sol practicing 0G combat, when we got surprise orders from Admiral Eickert telling us to head, of all places, to Maia. I'd been once on my own accord, but that was in Chasing Infinity, which has a far greater jump range than the Last Horse. The worse part, he didn't even tell us why. He just added that we would have backup this time. It wasn't until we were roughly halfway there that we learned (or, more like assumed) why we were making the trip. A Galnet news headline read that some Corporation with a small arm based in Maia was trying to expand, but was being violently opposed by a criminal organization that had remained in control of Obsidian Orbital (and thus the entire system) almost since it had been built. Both sides had asked for help. The problem was that the Ant Hill Mob (the aforementioned criminal organization) had specifically asked for Imperial Pilots. Not Navy pilots, mind you. Just Imperial aligned pilots, because they knew tensions were rising and any action that looked like it was being committed by the Federation would be quickly opposed by the Empire, the rat bastards. This caused a huge problem. For one, as everyone knew, but the Federation refused to admit openly, we want Maia to ourselves. The Empire has no place keeping such a valuable system to themselves so they can send slaves there to do their bidding. Normally, we would have sent a "security detachment" of the Federal Navy to kick out the Mob. The larger problem? The Imperial Navy was already present in the system, fighting the Alliance defense force in a civil war that had broken out some time prior. Sending a Federal Naval detachment in any official capacity would've incited another Battle of Daramo, which we need to avoid, at least for the time being.
But the Imperial Navy already being there doomed the Federal corporation and thus our only chance at securing some real stability in the far-out system. So...what did we do? Sent black ops squadrons along with willing civilian Federal pilots. Not just the 50th, but the entire 170th Special Operations WING, including the 42nd, the 83rd, the 16th, the 350th, the 125th, and the 98th Fighter Squadrons, all operating as non-military registered vessels in the system. There were over 1000 Federal Navy Vessels, including 3 Farragut-Class Battlecruisers that were kept in deep space for most of the conflict to avoid detection. That's not including the 1000's of civilian pilots that came to aid us. Our staging area was in Maia Point, where we were requested to turn in any combat bonds gathered during the period. The Navy had secretly made the corporation aware of their aid, and we had thus secured a large section of the facility to ourselves for battle-planning. As a flag officer, I had a small part in planning the tactics of the operation, but most of it was left to the Federal Admiralty, operating out of the battlecruisers. I suspect that quite a few civilian pilots knew of our presence, since it was hard to disguise jet black Corvettes, Dropships, Assault Ships, and Gunships.
Not to mention our part of the facility was very obviously cordoned off, which actually cut off access to one of the nicer bathrooms in the building we were in. It was definitely the largest special operation I had ever been part of. Combat was nerve racking. The Imperial Navy is no pushover. Fortunately they had few capital ships and none of them were reserved for the fight against the corporation. Apparently they thought it beneath their notice, but that didn't stop quite a few Imp Navy ships from fighting against us. From experience, I can say, a Cutter with prismatic shields is a terrifying beast indeed, but they didn't stand a chance against my squadron's...non-standard weaponry. Obsidian Orbital very nearly became a battleground several times, but it was avoided in the end, which meant there was no fighting on the ground anywhere. It was all space battles, which raged all day all weekend. I stayed the night in my ship the whole time, since Maia Point had no spare bedrooms open after Friday. As a matter of fact, I didn't even get to dock AT the station at all on Sunday. I had to drive my SRV into the base, as did many others.
The landing pads were filled, and the landing queue was hours long. It was also on Sunday that the battlecruisers came out of hiding and started assaulting Mob positions around Maia A 7. A few Imperial Navy ships showed up incidentally in the zone, but were immediately incinerated by capital class missiles and broadside cannons. It was a massacre. Needless to say, the corporation now has a solid and defendable presence within Maia, although in return I'm sure the Federal government has quite a bit of say in their actions. I wouldn't be surprised if the businessmen were slowly replaced by Federal officials. That being said, this didn't stop the corporation from insisting to the media that the Federation as a whole had nothing to do with this operation, and they were working entirely independently from us. I wonder how many will buy that. Not many, I suspect. Not now. The event came just in time for me to test out the fighter bay that I had recently installed. We welcomed Midshipman Ripley Mueller (female) into the 50th Fighter Squadron, and she's now based on my ship. She's very professional, and a damned good pilot. She, I, and the rest of the Black Angels are now back in Eta Cassiopeia for a debrief session, which will probably last for the rest of the day if the Battle of Daramo's debrief was anything to go off of. As a matter of fact, I just received a message from Adm Eickert saying we need to meet up immediately before the next session. Gotta go.
Until next time, RADM Tristan Pacheco