Sholan Alliance - AU Bk 04 Ch. 01

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Pirate fleet start to get orders

The pirate commander wasn't happy. After escaping from the system attacked they had reported to the next closest base. Once there he had sent a report to their controllers. The orders he had received upon arrival forced him to scratch his head. There were actually several different sets of orders. The first was from the person known as one. He ordered them to change bases and look for some new ones. The order to find new bases also included being incredibly careful to avoid encountering the new enemy.

Another set of orders was telling them to try and find the enemy and spy on them. Preferably try and capture one of the parasite craft which was scouting. That didn't please him since chances were even a parasite craft had heavy weapons and he had not urge to have his ship damaged that badly.

The third set told them to do their best not to draw attention to them or the systems they currently occupied. That order didn't please him either since his crew would grow restive if they didn't do some pillaging. It was one reason he wanted to dock. Give them access to booze and slaves and it would help calm them down. It would be hard on the slaves but such was life.

One had sent snippets of the attack on earth and the system. They had reports from others as well and even as hardened as most of the pirates were, they had been shocked. They might take out a ship here and there but an entire habitat? That wasn't something they had ever considered. Even taking out the occasional fleet vessel was okay but again close to 3 million lives? That was numbers they couldn't even imagine. What was killing thirty or forty people compared to 3 million?

Before they could do anything, they needed to dock, refuel, on load supplies, and take a break. The fight had been hard on the crew. They had lost everything when the base had been taken out including their favorite slaves. Watching their fellow pirates blown out of the sky with virtually no damage caused to the enemy had been damaging as well.

When they docked, he sent an encrypted message to both the local commander of the station and one to be forwarded to the Numbers, as he thought of them. How many there were he didn't know but since he had dealt with One and Three he figured there were more, "What a cluster fuck of orders." He slugged down a shot as he was reviewing them with his XO and second officer.

That received a course laugh from them, "No shit. Three different sets of orders and we have to guess what they really want? We are so fucked it isn't funny. Which do you think we should follow?" She knew what she wanted but he was the captain for the time being.

The second officer slugged back a drink as well, "The one which helps keep our skins in one piece preferably. Not interested in being blown up or captured by anyone. Enemy or otherwise." He tossed his copy of the orders on the table and gave them a glare, "Fucking stupid as well. Tell us what to do and we go from there." They didn't always do what they were ordered but it was expected. They weren't military and were pirates. They were in this for the money and not much else.

The Captain grunted, "I have to admit I would like to strike back at the fuckers simply because of what they did to the habitat. Don't care about the people but that is our home and we need to get revenge for them even considering attacking it." He tossed his copy of the orders on the table, "That and forcing me to kill my favorite squeeze. She was so damn sweet. For that alone they deserve to be destroyed." That girl had been way too much fun for him. Feeling her fear of what he might do had made him hard even thinking about it. They continued talking about what they might do.

~~~

Investigation into vehicle crash

At Sue Anne's and Bo's house investigators were picking it apart. They had descended on the house with the best forensics team. The garage was first since if someone had decided to sabotage the vehicle that was the best place. Teams had spread out and spoke to all the neighbors to see if they had seen anything. They hadn't bothered trying to be subtle about the search. The two were considered to be national assets and if they had tried to hide the investigation it would have set off alarms. Instead they were being as obvious as possible about it.

A few of the neighbors had mentioned seeing a couple slowly walking down the street later in the evening. They had looked to be somewhat young and had acted like they were involved. The two had been holding hands, talking quietly with some giggles and kisses. They hadn't seen them before but they had been so normal nobody had really paid attention to them. Frankly they had looked like young lovers enjoying an evening out. Nobody had seen a vehicle which stood out or shouldn't be there.

At the mention of the couple several agents had started pulling all video footage from any camera's nearby. When they reviewed the footage, they weren't able to find them. It looked like they had known where to avoid the various cameras to keep their faces from being seen. One person did have some footage but it was late and since it was dark at night they didn't have very good images of the two. It was the best they had and they were doing what they could with the footage. The images had been sent to all the various police agencies, local and international, in hopes someone might recognize them. If they were identified it would give them a place to start.

By the time they were done with the garage, house, and nearby yards they had some evidence even if it wasn't much. They hadn't gotten any prints, DNA, or identifying information. They had found some indications some of the tools in the garage had been used to do something to the vehicle. Those tools had been taken to the central FBI labs for testing. The vehicle itself had been taken to the central labs already for a detailed examination.

Even if they didn't get any DNA or other evidence, if they could identify how the vehicle had been sabotaged it would give them a start. They could enter it in their database and see if there were any similar or identical cases. That would give them a start on identifying who might have done this. Chances were, it was a case of independent operators hired but once they identified them they could follow the cash trail. Since this was now a national security issue they had leeway on how to deal with this. That wasn't even mentioning the state of war they were now in.

They had also placed their children in protective custody and had a heavy security presence at the plant. There were more at the other two plants being built as well. Nobody was going to get near them if the government had a choice in it. Though it wasn't mentioned the family of the two killed had been quietly contacted and taken into protective custody as well. The death of their parents instead of Sue Anne and Bo needed to be kept as quiet as possible. This had been explained in painful detail to the children and why.

Even though they weren't happy the family had chosen to follow what their government wanted. It was the best they could do. The one demand they had was to catch the bastards who had killed their parents. They had recorded a message for Sue Anne and Bo as well. They weren't happy but with everything going on they weren't going to rock the boat.

~~~

What is happening in the solar system

Since they were now on a war footing the initial plant Sue Anne had started was going full bore. The other two plants became national assets and all stops were pulled out. The factories were going up in record time. One was for the refurb of tubes while the other was to build larger engines. Even if the engines were standardized there were different sizes needed.

With the first shop, they were primarily aimed at the upgrade modifications. With the third it was going to be building the engines from the ground up with schematics Billy had sent to Sue Anne. Those engines were going to be completely new. As the existing engines in the military vessels were replaced the old engines would be going in for refurbishment. The soonest the two new shops would be done was about a month from now.

With the various space docks, there was a hiring spree for anyone who had the skills needed. The docks were being expanded to deal with both new construction and refits. Based on the power of the one ship of the enemy they were going to need vast numbers. The Sholan's were helping by reviewing the weapons the Terran's had available and making suggestions. They couldn't simply give them the tech since it wasn't compatible. They could make suggestions on how to upgrade the tech of the weapons available. It was going to take time but it would give the humans a good boost in the ability to protect themselves.

All the militaries had started pulling the newest of the mothballed ships out of the shadow fleets. They were going to get the engine upgrades first since they didn't need to be pulled from service. The weapons were going to be upgraded to the most modern possible. It was a stop gap measure but it would give them more ships faster than building completely new ships. They wouldn't be as capable but it would free up ships of the line for active operations. The refurbished ships could be used to patrol and protect the various systems while the fleet looked for the enemies.

More scout ships had been dispatched to try and locate where the enemy was located. For this the ships were sent out in pairs. It was harsh but the first ship was forward point while the second was in case they did encounter them. If the first was destroyed the second would hopefully slip out of the system and report back to which world they were from.

For the colonies, the ships they were starting to build were small combatants for the most part. The production of space mines had kicked into high gear as well. They hadn't been used in ages since a ship could come into the system from virtually any angle. It wasn't possible to mine an entire system. What they could do was mine around the critical stations and the planet. It would hopefully keep missiles from hitting any habitats. The tech for the weapons the Sholan's were helping with was being sent to the colony worlds as well. The engine tech was a different issue but they would start getting the upgrades soon as well.

The surge to construct and upgrade the military ships didn't just impact the military complex. The miners in the asteroid belt had increased the search for the ores needed. They were going into full drive mode to make as much money as they could. Even if the prices of the ores ended up being standardized they could make some serious bank if they worked it correctly. Even as the miners were starting to work harder so was the ore processing plants.

As ore was brought in, it was processed, converted into the base metals and minerals and then loaded onto transports for earth. There the ore was offloaded from the ships and processed into the alloys needed. Everyone was starting to get into the swing of the processing and creation of new ships. Some looked back to WWII several centuries ago. All the people of the world was getting into what was needed to protect their planet. Even if they weren't working in the shipyards, processing plants, or even mining there was a great deal they could do.

Recycling hit an all-time high which was saying something since recycling had become big business. People were finding anything and everything they could recycle and taking it to salvage yards. In some cases entire junk yards were cleared out not to mention so many small farms. Farmers tended to hang onto anything which might be of use 'someday'. Now they were hauling piles of scrap, old vehicles, and falling down buildings in to make some money.

It didn't stop there since the workers on the stations needed food. The production of food items started to ramp up as well. It was going to take some time to get all the farms growing fruits, veggies, and grains on all the fields available. Until that kicked in most people started to become more careful with what they ate and used as much as possible. Very little food was disposed of and what was wasn't edible anymore.

It didn't matter what part of the globe you came from, everyone was getting into the action. The attack proved to the man on the ground that they could be killed as easily as the habitat had been destroyed. If they enemy didn't have a problem destroying a habitat which was obviously civilian, they wouldn't hesitate to toss missiles and bombs at the planet. There was still the demand to 'protect us' but there was also the 'we will help you protect us' feeling.

~~~

Last of the original pirates

The dead pirates were doing their best to hold on but once Sing had vanished they started to crack. It wasn't much longer before another pirate gave up and requested to talk to someone. He didn't have any expectations of being left alive but any way of being killed other than hanging was preferable. He was taken out of his cell in the middle of the night with a minimum of fuss. By now all the pirates were being worn thin and tended to sleep like the dead. Virtually nothing would wake them and the opening of a cell door wasn't going to bother them. It helped that they had been medicated with a sleeping drug.

The next morning Percival had lost it again and had to be drugged into somnolence. He spent several days in medical until he had recovered enough to be returned to his cell. By then there was a third pirate gone from the cells. That had entailed another visit to medical. Even if Percival didn't realize it, he was playing into their hands. Each time he lost it and started frothing it made another blow against the pirate's moral.

Another thing Percival didn't realize was the authorities didn't expect to get anything from him. His only purpose was to get the others to break and give them information. By his actions, it was causing some of the other pirates to try and trade information for some sort of deal. Once all who would break had he would be disposed of. He was entirely to fucking nuts to be of any use for them.

It took several weeks but by the time he had finally settled down there were a total of three of the pirates left. Based on their profiles none of them would break and would die first. The officer eventually walked in after they were left waiting for several days, "Your death sentence is going to be finished. We have come to the conclusion you are of no use to us. Tomorrow morning you will be shot, buried in a plot with no name, and forgotten. Good riddance vermin." He walked out along with all the remaining guards in the section. If they tried to commit suicide good for them. It would save them a bullet.

The next morning when they came in one had actually managed to kill himself. They didn't care how he had managed it. Two shots rang out and the last two were dead. Their bodies were dumped on a cart and carried out of the prison. Behind the cells were being hosed down for the next possible use. As he had said they were buried in pauper's graves and listed as the Swiss version of John or Jane doe's. Now that they were done the balance of the guards reported to medical to be evaluated.

~~~

Possible pirate bases identified

From the pirates who had given up and started talking they had identified two potential bases. The Swiss had considered the information and finally decided they had to take a chance. By now they were sure the Organization had infiltrated the ranks of some of the militaries and governments. To test this, they sent out misleading information and identified two different systems. They had dispatched scouts to the identified systems to see what the information might cause.

The ships had been gone for several days before they let the misleading information out to the three primary governments. It was going to take some time but they were going to track what they could of ships coming and going from the system. If they could identify even a few ships which might be involved it might lead them back to someone. Chances were any ships in system belonging to the Organization was going to be buried under reams of shadow companies. It would give them a start though.

With the crew of the second ship they were going to be tried here shortly. The ship had finally been landed and stripped of any information possible. They had found a similar setup with a hidden storage unit in the Captain's cabin which proved they weren't what they had said. They worked for the pirates and they were being prosecuted that way. With all the uproar in the system a single ship vanishing didn't even register on anyone's radar. The ship, once stripped of anything considered evidence was going to be sent to Billy as well.

They weren't going to send many more ships unless needed but since the two ships were prizes they could send them. The first belonged to Billy since he had captured her. The second they were handing over to him so he could keep working on engine modifications. One thing they, and others, had found was with the new engines they had more power for weapons. It would allow them to mount heavier beam weapons. Missiles didn't need the intensive energy expenditures of the beam weapons.

The speed increase was valued as well. It might not be quite what the Sholan's could do but it was something which would give them a better chance against the enemy. Even the more powerful energy weapons would bring the gap closer and give them a better chance. With the help the Sholan's were working on giving they were getting much better output from some of the weapons. Others not so much. The Sholan's didn't use Pulse weapons. They had passed the need to use EMP weapons to throw a metallic projectile at other ships.