To Sail On Solar Storms

Volume One: The Star Raven Saga.

     

             

   A   Prologue

Time is a funny thing. Cyclic in nature. Almost as if the three wyrdling sisters really were busy weaving threads of destiny in patterns. Plaids of catastrophe, plaids of beauty, fate, destiny camouflaged in intricate patterns.
The Bronze age collapse brought in an era of Piracy. The sea peoples reigned the seas,  coasts of the Mediterranean world. Only those civilizations not dependent upon the sea routes  could withstand and repel them.

The late Migration Era saw another time of Dominate Pirate reigns. The Angles, Saxons, The Norse, The Viking era. On Land , the Goths, Alans, Huns, later, the Mongols dominated. The rise of the arab-Islamic Caliphates, began from land pirates. Caravan raiders, slavers, and sea, pirates of land and sea.

This repeated again in the complexity of the Enlightenment, the end of the Renaissance. Piracy again played roles in the new empires, their wars, expansion, exploration, trade. The late Fifteen Hundreds through the early Eighteen Hundreds was the Time of Drake, Grania, Henry Morgan, Black Beard, Jean Lafitte.

Seems piracy was part of the great pattern, woven into the plaid of time, destiny. Just about every four or five hundred years piracy became an important, intricate thing in the scheme of things.
The  late Twenty Second century witnessed this pattern once again. On a scale that no one could have imagined before.
The SOLAR System is a realm of such immense wonder that words cannot express it. At least, not yet. Language will most likely evolve to describe, explain, encapsulate the experience. For now though, a pidgin of Mathematics, equations, numeric ratio, vague analogies struggled to fill the gaps.

Humanity had finally broken free of the nest. The Moon and Cruithne, had been first.
Then, system wide Lagrange point stations followed. Mars, the cloud cities of Venus, Titan, Europa,  Ceres, Out posts, Colonies, Nations. The vast realms of space. Humanities new frontier.

With these expansions corporations formed. Much like the Dutch East India Company of the Eighteenth century. Out, off planet away from Earth these corporations became a force, a law into themselves. Though, they knew no law save profit and power.

Injustice breeds rage, rage breeds vengeance. Success, brings complications.

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Matching velocity with and maneuvering close enough to surprise the transport had been easy so to speak. The much smaller strike craft approached in a silent stealth mode. Using gyros and cold gas jets to maneuver close and attach to the transports main hull using electromagnetic grappling combined with an epoxy compound to bond hull to hull.
High Energy MASER  and plasma torches rapidly created  entrance, to the much larger transport.  The hull, mirror polished worked well to reflect and scatter LASERs. The plasma, worked quite efficiently at transmitting the directed energy from the MASER into the ships Hull.
The transport crew only became aware of the presence of the pirates when the five  simultaneous heat spikes on the transports hull were detected.
By the time the ships crew were aware,  twenty five armed, armored pirates were aboard and moving.
That was the first wave, another Five groups of Five rapidly followed.
The transport carried a basic crew of thirty. Plus a twenty four man security contingent.
The Pirates quickly overwhelmed the transport crew. 
All but five of the security team surrendered.  The nineteen security personnel had been caught sleeping  or eating,  unarmed unprepared.  No one expected a pirate raid this low in the orbital plane. No one would have believed any belt raider daring or equipped well enough to carry out a strike within twelve million Kilometers of Earth itself.

" Secure the hatches. Flash weld them!" Commander Carranza ordered.   In less than a minute all three interior hatches to the main cargo module were secured. Flash Welded closed with thermite infused det cord.

No one would be coming through those hatches now.
Armored, the hatches were dual structures, one hatch that opened into the transport. The second hatch opened into the cargo module. Which, modular in construction was actually separate from the transport with it's own power supply, life support, and reaction thrusters.
The Cargo Module was sealed off from the transport.  Leaving only the main cargo hatch, which opened directly into the exterior. Open space,  station Bay, landing platform etc.
Carlos Nickolae Carranza,  C-N-C to his men, a play on his initials, his command style and the age old military acronym for Command And Control, was well respected by everyone that served with him.
Moments after the "Fire in the hole" warning the team were secured into their descent harnesses. Commander Carranza spoke the override , and release commands. The Cargo hold blew the retention bolts and was detached from the transport.

Unfortunately for the Security team, that was exactly what the pirates had wanted.
As soon as the cargo module was clear of the solar sails of the transport, the waiting support craft of the pirates fired their grapples. In no time the Module was being winched into the cargo hold of the waiting mother ship.

Zero loss of life.  Absolute minimal damage to the target and zero damage for the pirates.  The raid could not have gone better.
There's always a fly in the ointment however.

The Cargo Module contained enough emergency supplies to keep the security team alive for Thirty days.  A guard was posted and the module secured, still buttoned up tight. No attempt was made to enter it. The pirates now had it, it wasn't going anywhere other than where they wanted. The pirates merely stood watch to make sure no one could sneak out and about causing mischief.

Recall was transmitted. The pirates had given the crew and security detail the option of signing on with the pirates. Three of the crew did. All of the security detail opted to.

The only reason the entire crew didn't sign on, was the fact of their wives, families back at the corporate station. Effective hostages ensuring obedient employees.

The Security detail were, all, expendable resources. Unmarried with no families and facing death or the mines for having not stopped the pirates. None of them had been volunteers to begin with.
The Pirates resealed the holes they had cut and departed. Leaving the transport crew alive,  unharmed if stranded. There was enough air, water, and food for the crew for near  on to  six months onboard. 

The Pirates did cut away the solar sails, and com array,  setting them adrift and  dumped all of the Isotopic fuel into space. In a day or so System Command and Control  would be responding to see why the Transport transponder  was not broadcasting.

With the exception of Communication relay installations and an  unmanned observatory,  there was no traffic outside of the orbital plane. All destinations lay along the orbital plane, so there was no reason to travel above or below the orbital plane.

That is exactly why the pirates had chosen to base themselves above the orbital plane. There happened to be quite a few large asteroids and comets that orbited crossing the orbital plane. Orbits that measured in centuries in some cases.
From those positions, on the high ground so to speak. The Pirates had line of sight view of the entire System. They could see anything coming and monitor all ship traffic.  So far,  System patrol had been working under the assumption that piracy operated out of the asteroid belt.
A misunderstanding  that the pirates worked diligently to encourage by targeting primarily the outer system. Until now.

The Five raider-assault craft docked and secured into their transport coves.
The Enterprise fired up , moving up out of the orbital plane at one and a half G acceleration. They would be dependent upon using their nuclear reaction engines, to attain travel velocity, then the Ion drives to maintain velocity. No Sails at all on this trip. The massive reflective area of solar sails were impossible to disguise. Being Easily spotted with an optical array.

The Trip home was uneventful. Thirty days at 1.5 G was a bit rough on the new crew. In time, they would adapt, or not. The security team in the cargo module was miserable to put it lightly. Accustomed to slightly less than one  gravity on average and often less,  everything weighing half again as much left them struggling and exhausted at all times during the trip.
Once they returned to port , the new crew would be processed, sworn in, they would sign the accords, and med techs would over see their acclimation. Hormonal-Steroid treatments, RNA modifier therapy, diet and exercise would adapt them to the 1.5  G environment the pirates preferred. It made them stronger, faster, gave them greater endurance, than the non pirates. All advantages for raiding, fighting, outrunning the planers  as the Pirates had taken to referring to those in the Solar orbital plane.

Five weeks after the raid, the  Enterprise,  spun on her axis and began the process of slowing down. Decelerating at one G,  took a week and a half. During that week, negotiation with the security detail was initiated. The security team was, bored, scared, hungry and thirsty. Four of them had chosen surrender.  Commander Carranza refused. That complicated things.

The O'Malley clann held tradition and honor very dearly. Utterly ruthless in battle, as a rule the clan was down right gracious in victory.  The Clann motto;  Grace, Fury, Honor.

Named for the famed late Sixteenth century through early Seventeenth Century Irish Pirate Queen, Grania " Grace" O'Malley, the Clann drew inspiration from those roots. The founder of the Star Clann O'Malley, was an O'Malley, so She had claimed.  She had captained the first  Enterprise of the small, though potent O'Malley fleet. The First Enterprise had been a captured patrol, exploration frigate. Great things begin small.
The Current flag Ship, Enterprise, a custom built ship, could haul two frigates in her hold, plus a bakers dozen strike ships on her hull. The O'Malley clann now had Three such vessels,  Enterprise, Grainne and Retaliator, fully equipped plus nine frigates and three destroyers. A potent fleet.

Their closest Allies,  Roberts Roughnecks, fielded one cruiser, the Grok This, and three destroyers. The Roger Young, The Galileo, and the Heinlein.
One other clann shared the largish Asteroid they called Home.  Ragnars Ravagers.  They fielded a Light Cruiser and Two Destroyers.
The Wotan, The Loki, and the Thor.
Those Three Clanns dominated the Solar north .
The Solar South, was a hodge podge of disorganized Islamic raiders, and East asian origin pirates.  There were small single ship crews working the Belt also.
The one thing all of them had in common was, a deep abiding hatred of the Corporate realms and the Collective.
The Northern Alliance, did not get along with the raiders of the Solar South at all. One main bone of contention was slavery. The Northern Alliance did not tolerate Slavery. 

After days of deliberation a compromise was reached.  The Clann champion would duel Commander Carranza, for the Liberty of his team.  This was the result of maintaining both, the Honor of Clann O'Malley and Commander Carranza.  Carranza was betting, that his public death, would prevent the Blackhawk Corporation from executing or enslaving his wife and daughter.
Arrangements were made. This was to be a public relations coup! Not only would Clann O'Malley be known for such a daring and deep raid, a serious P.R. blow for Blackhawk, but the duel and subsequent public freeing of the Transport crew, and security detail,  followed by them signing the Articles rather than return to the planers corporate realm, would serve as a pr coup and recruiting tool.

Close Quarters Combat had made a major return in the Twenty Second century.  Materials tech had rendered man portable kinetic weapons effectively useless. The armor would stop any ballistic projectile short of ship mounted rail guns. The advanced  materials could shield from microwaves, sound, kinetics, just about any directed energy weapons than were man portable. The tech that would negate the armors effectiveness, was tech no one wanted to use inside a station or vessel.
Which brought back, boarding pikes, axes , blades.
The new hand weapons, while vaguely resembling the ancient Swords, axes and spears had a few twenty second century upgrades. Upgrades required to defeat the tech armor.
Monomolecular carbon fiber blade edges, compound composite Graphite blades, dense alloy wires woven through the blades. Creating Blades of extraordinary light weight that could cut through anything due to the monomolecular cutting edges. Plus, those alloy threads, when an electric charge was applied, heated the blade up literally hotter than the sun. Air around the blades burned, turning to plasma. These weapons did no collateral damage, yet were highly effective and defeated nearly any armor. In appearance and capabilities, these blades resembled some twentieth century fantasy weapons. Bright sabers or some such.

Commander Carranza carried a cup hilted Saber.
Donal, wielded a two handed Irish longsword. Both with the Carbon fiber blades. "Sun-Swords" they had come to be called due to the bright glow of the blades.
After the first exchange Donal was highly concerned. Carranza barely knew how to hold his sword. If this was to be any sort of show he would have to some how make Carranza look better.

Unfortunately Carranza was not being cooperative.
His ineptitude was, embarrassing.
The man was brave. Just, completely unskilled with a blade.  Donal closed, slamming the pommel of his sword right between Carranza Eyes. Carranza was stunned. Donal continued, advancing , entangling Carranza. Donal dropped his sword, to wrench Carranza saber away and immediately strike, once again closing. This time striking Carranza in the jaw with the hilt of his saber, Carranza dropped  to the polished concrete floor.

Donal flourished the saber, retrieved his long sword and walked away. Carranza, lay battered, unconscious on the floor.
With any luck, they could edit the video to conceal the fact that Donal had not slain Carranza.

He had not intended to to begin with though Carranza had not known that.
Hopefully Carranza’s Honor would be satisfied and his wife and daughter could be saved.
It would not be easy to sneak them out of Blackhawk 's facility, but Donal was betting it would be worth it. Carranza had proven to be a good leader, shrewd, respected, courageous and honorable. He could be an asset to Clann O'Malley if he could be convinced to sign. Not to mention the P.R. when it was revealed Carranza was alive and the O'Malley Clann had rescued His wife and daughter.

The first shot, so to speak of the war, had been fired. A war declared, so far with no blood shed. The transport had not been corporate property. It had been owned by an Earth nation. With a contracted corporate, crew. Slaves by any other name.

The war between pirates and corporations had just expanded to include Earth.

Donal was pleased so far. He had been wanting this for near fifty years. Vengeance, justice, coming due. The corporations serviced Earth and drew most of their profits from Earth. Time to hit them where it hurt.