The enemy fleet had deployed in the system, and it's collective mass had lead to the collapse of the spatial phenomenon. So far the main body remained assembled at their point of arrival, but scouts had been dispatched to collect tactical data. With the Janissaries keeping surveillance over the system, there was no way to safely search for a new exit. Even if they wanted to run, they could not. It was here that Awakened Industries had to take a stand or submit to the demands of their adversary.
Alira had ordered a small squadron of light frigates to harass the enemy scouts in attempts to draw away ships from the assault force. Her own scouts reported, though, that the Janissary fleet remained in position. As Cedrien had predicted, they were too professional to be baited by such obvious tactics. On the other hand, those attacks would, hopefully, be effective as a means to create a false impression of the strategy Awakened Industries was following. The first real trap was laid right here, where Alira was waiting in her concealed heavy interdictor. Halfway between the position of the enemy fleet and their main control tower.
'Ma'm. A group of four Legion cruisers and their squadron of interdictors have seperated from the main force and are aligning towards our main tower.' one of the covert-ops spotters close to the enemy fleet reported to Alira.
Her body subtly stirred within the shell of her pod as she prepared her ship's systems. She opened a channel to her local squad. 'Everyone get ready. Decloak once my bubble is up. Bombers, remember, the interdictors are your primary targets. Shisei, you make sure those Legions are jammed.' she ordered.
All squad members confirmed the orders while Alira saw the the group of enemy ships appear on her long-range scanners. The lips on her dormant face twitched slightly as if they wanted to form smile. She derived grim satisfaction from the knowledge that those ships were unaware of what waited for them under the cover of cloaking fields. She also knew, though, that they would not have much time. The destruction of those interdictors, before reinforcements arrived, was instrumental for further plans to work. With a thought, she willed her ship to shed it's cloak and activated the warp disruption field generator. Within seconds the powerful emissions formed a transparent sphere around her ship. The enemy's ships would have no way of avoiding it.
It took only a few moments until metallic hulls looking like archaic fish ground to a sudden halt inside Alira's disruption field. Immediately she pointed her guns at the closest. In her pod, her hands stretched out under the influence of residual nerve-impulses and high-powered projectiles were propelled against the defenses of her target.
A second later, the armor-clad shapes of enemy Legion cruisers were wrenched out of warp too. Right at that moment a whole squadron of stealth bombers materialized. They perched like gleaming armoured spiders well outside the sphere of pulsing energy. Then the dark, angular shape of Shisei's electronic warfare cruiser emerged among them, dropping it's cloaking field.
Within seconds, that region of space – deceptively empty and serene only moments ago – was transformed into an inferno of torpedo explosions, scorching laserbeams and a hail of cannon-fire. None of the enemy ships were in range to engage the small stealth bomber craft or Shisei's Falcon-class ship, so they concentrated on their only possible target: The compact hull of Alira's heavy interdictor cruiser. Her senses registered the relentless onslaught as constant impulses pricking her pain receptors. The heavy defenses of her ship held, though, and the sensation was still far from affecting her adversely.
The light hulls of the enemy Sabre-class ships could not withstand the barrage of torpedoes that was sent against them. They succumbed quickly to the powerful explosions. The more dangerous and heavily armored strategic cruisers of their opponents, on the other hand, could hardly bring their weapons to bear. They had come prepared for a siege, not for defense against electronic warfare.
Shisei had known which types of ships he was going to engage, and his systems were prepared. With intense concentration he directed the emissions of his specialized sensor jammers against the enemy. Then he saw two of the brass-tinted interdictors breaking away from the fight and head towards him. A Legion cruiser followed in their wake. Soon, they would be in range to engage him, and – even worse - out of the warp disruption field. 'Two Sabres and one Legion approaching me.' he announced tersely.
'Concentrate fire. Those two Sabres are primary targets.' Alira sent the targeting data out to the rest of the fleet. Moving fast, the small destroyers would be hard targets for the stealth bomber's torpedoes, even with the target painting systems they employed.
Still, one of the small enemy destroyers got thrown off course by a heavy torpedo impact. Shattered solar panels and melted armour plating flew off it like a shower of glowing metal ingots. Before it could re-align itself, another torpedo tore through it's midsection. The bow of the ship broke off like the decapitated head of a prehistoric sea-creature, then the second ship exploded in a ball of superheated gas and molten metal.
'That's the last of the interdictors.' Alira reported to the ships under her command. 'The Legion on course for Shisei is your primary target.'
'Not a moment too soon.' the spotter at the enemy fleet reported. 'Their Proteus wing has just warped to your position, and the carrier is aligning.'
'Everybody, concentrate fire. One last salvo at that Legion. Launch all you got, then disengage and head for your rally points. Fire!' Alira ordered.
The jabs at her nervous system became more urging. Her shields were close to failure. Her target was barely in range. She let loose with a final barrage and then engaged her warp-drive. Nothing held her down. This forward strike-team had relied on the interdictors for that job. The last vain attempts of her opponents to score a hit, stabbed past her hull as lances of searing light. Then her ship hurtled off into the depths of space.
At the same time the rest of the small Awakened Industries fleet scattered and vanished under the safety of their cloaks after the bombers had launched their devastating payload. They would all go into hiding at remote locations far off the range of any standard scanning equipment, preparing their next move.
The single ship which had tried to engage Shisei maneuvered frantically to avoid the swarm of torpedoes and bombs that still headed for it. It was already without shields, and the armour repair systems had difficulty mitigating earlier damage. It's nanites were rendered sluggish when exposed to the radiation emitted by the cataclysmic variable star. The vessel's heavy plating melted under the extreme heat of the thermal torpedoes' impacts. In his final attempts to get away, the capsuleer captain avoided one bomb explosion successfully. The second and third battered his ship brutally though, and when the last torpedoes finally struck, there was hardly any armour left to safe him and his crew from certain destruction.
***
Commodore Sivaata observed the ongoing siege with calm satisfaction from the bridge of his carrier. His fighter squadrons were successfully decimating the station's defense fleet comprised only of frigates and light cruisers manned by standard crews. The two powerful Bhaalgorn battleships were battering down the station's shields with support from the heavily armed and armored Legion cruisers.
The squadron of Proteus-class ships orbited around the Caldari-designed construction and took out defensive batteries whenever they came into range. With his fleet supported by powerful repair systems projected from the carrier, the opponent's perimeter turrets were hardly a match for them.
Soon the defense systems of this structure would run out of power, and then victory would be within reach. The trap that had been laid for the advance strike-force had only been a minor setback. Certainly, with the interdictors lost, there would be no way to restrict the movement of the carrier Sivaata knew to be in this system somewhere, but their objective did not include the destruction of the enemy fleet.
An ever so subtle smile alleviated his stony faced expression. 'Roucellis always was a crafty strategist, and wormhole life certainly made him even more creative.' he thought, and pondered what the younger Gallente commander might be planning. Momentarily he was forced to squint due to a bright explosion just outside the bridge's wide observation window.
'Commodore, our pilots report the destruction of the defense squadron's leader. Green One has his capsule pinned down and requests orders.' one of the tactical observers announced from his station.
Without looking away from the well conducted symphony of destruction outside, the Deteis veteran commander responded 'Tell them to bring him in. The Empire will pay a good amount of ISK for the apprehension of Keram Themas. Inform the pilot of Green One that he and his crew will receive an extra share of this reward.'
'Sir, I am receiving an encrypted message from our inside contact, requesting a meet.' the communications officer interjected.
Now Sivaata turned and sightly rose an eyebrow. 'A meet? What for?' he wondered with slight suspicion.
'Sir, the message does not say. It only includes a set of coordinates.' the officer consulted her console. 'It is far off the ecliptic in deep space. Outside the range of scanners.'
The old commander frowned. 'Sounds like a possible trap.' he strode across the bridge and stood behind the station of the fleet command crew, looking over the roster of deployed ships.
'Recall group blue. Instruct them to dock and change ships. I want an escort of force-recon cruisers standing by. Recall Kueres from the siege and inform him that he is in charge of this personally. He is to take blue squadron to the assigned location.' he ordered after a few moments of deliberation.
He straightened himself and returned his attention to the besieged station outside. 'Their defenses are close to entering reinforced state. We will maintain our siege and ready the troops for boarding the station.' grimly he pressed his lips together. 'If that meet turns out to be a trap, the crew of that tower will pay for it.'
***
Kueres Saremar quickly gained his bearings after his Legion cruiser dropped out of warp in the emptiness of space, far away from any celestial body. The massive red sun and it's small white companion were but somewhat larger beacons on the firmament when viewed from this remote location. His escort reported that they were in position around him, hidden by cloaking fields.
Their rendezvous was nowhere to be seen either, though.
Hastily the Khanid capsuleer extended his perceptions into the depths of space, looking for ships that might appear within sensor range. There was nothing, only the emptiness of the void. Then the star-spangled view off his bow began to waver and distort as the gleaming, rounded hull of a Gallente covert operations cruiser emerged into visibility. He registered a hailing signal on the pre-arranged encrypted channel and answered. 'Speak!' he commanded tersely.
No verbal answer came, just a stream of encoded data-packages. Kueres re-routed them through the decryption algorithm they had been using for communication with the spy. 'What I have to say is better relayed face-to-face. Your opponents are aware of a spy within their organization and there might be hidden listeners. I can not risk exposure. Permit me to dock with your ship.'
The Khanid mercenary pondered the message and scanned the Gallente ship floating motionless in space. It had it's shields deactivated and seemed to be completely unmanned. Finally he took a decision. He opened a channel to his bridge commander. 'Bridge, prepare a full compliment of soldiers and technicians as a boarding party. I want them on standby to board that Arazu as soon as the capsuleer pilot is on our ship.' then he maneuvered his ship alongside the curved hull of the other vessel.
***
For security reasons, Kueres had decided to remain in his capsule and had a detail of four guards escort the spy into the pod-chamber of his ship. He was both surprised and confirmed in his assumptions when he saw the tall, dark-haired Gallente woman on the chamber's visual sensors. She was unarmed and only wore the sleek and tight-fitting inner layer of a space-suit. Her raven hair was gathered into a tight bun. She carried herself as if she were completely in control of the situation. Kueres felt angered by her display of aloof confidence, but also stimulated by the opportunity for a contest of wits with this infamous individual.
'Sandrielle Jaunes.' he acknowledged by translating his thoughts into soundwaves emitted from the chamber's speaker system. 'I would have thought your reputation for treachery was known all over New Eden. It seems that your current commander is either ignorant, or has vastly underestimated it.'
If the taunt caused any reaction, it definitely did not show on her subtly tanned features. 'I have come to offer you information about your objective.' she stated business-like. 'In addition to strategical intelligence.'
'I am listening.' Kueres replied curtly.
'I have brought a full data report on their fleet composition and their positions. Also, I know that the Amarr capsuleer you are seeking is hidden in the spaceport facility on the third planet of this system. She is protected by a few platoons of soldiers, but nothing you can not overcome with your own forces.' the Gallente elaborated. 'I have all the information here.' she reached for a small satchel buckled to her suit.
Immediately the guards drew and aimed pulse pistols at her. 'Now let's take this slowly.' Kueres interrupted. 'Please Madame Jaunes, put your hands behind your head. One of my guards will retrieve the data carrier.' he didn't feel like taking any chances with this woman. 'Lorkh, take the storage module she carries and plug it into that interface port.' A console lit up at a mental command of his to indicate the appointed location.
Cautiously the guard-soldier approached the woman. Warily he kept his pistol aimed at her head while he reached out to open the pouch on her hip. She just stood there, fully relaxed and apparently unimpressed by the proceedings. Once Lorkh had retrieved the small storage module, he walked away backwards, slowly heading over to the console, his weapon still leveled at the woman's head. Finally he turned to connect the small device to the interface port
The last thing Kueres registered was the screaming warning signal of his neural interface, not unlike an imminent hull breach, then he was plunged into total sensory isolation.
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