The Art of War

While Slayed talked to the assistant chief of security, Lady Nitrane looked for starport executives in the better restaurants and cafes on the station. After a few hours she found two who were talking to each other but didn't approach them. Instead she watched closely to see what they liked and then returned to the ship.

Unter had been going through possible scenarios and tactics with the tactician from the mercenary company. They had identified a number of places where they would have advantages, and some where they would be at a disadvantage. Assuming nothing, they then considered how they might initiate the assault on the ships.

If the convoy ships were docked only briefly while they refueled and then withdrew to take up an orbital position there would need to be a ship-to-ship boarding action taking place on the prisoner ship and freighter while the Harriers took care of the Gazelles. If the ships were docked then they could approach either by ship or via the docking port itself.

With the addition of the Patrol Corvette to their fleet Unter also considered using it to trick the Imperials. One approach considered would be to pretend to have captured a pirate ship and crew and ask the convoy captain to come and take possession of them. That would take some crew and marines from the ships, and also give an opportunity to eliminate them in a smaller group.

The Patrol Corvette deception might work but it might also be destined to fail even before contact was made. The transponder had not been changed, so it reported the ship as the one that may be known to be missing on Arunisiir. Also, if someone like Jaggad were to pretend to be crew - having the correct Imperial codes and passes - her defection may have been reported to the fleet already.

Lastly, it might be suspicious if the convoy captain was approached to take pirate prisoners if the purpose of the convoy were not known. In the end it was decided that the deception using the Patrol Corvette might have more chance of failing than succeeding, as well as splitting the combat resources too thinly.

The party determined then that the approach to assaulting the convoy would be as follows:

• The Q-Ship and Frontier Trader would be in either a waiting pattern or just emerging from the station.
• The Harriers would ambush the Gazelles, aiming to disable one within a couple of rounds with concentrated fire, then focusing on the other. They would be docked in a hangar (with the occupants of the hangar recorded in the highport computers as being a small freighter or other innocuous ship).
• The Q-Ship, which looked like a tramp Aslan freighter, would dart in and engage the liner with the pirate prisoners, using its forced linkage apparatus and breaching tube to gain access. 30 mercenaries would be on this ship.
• The Frontier Trader would approach the megafreighter and disgorge its marines to forcibly gain entry to that ship via the bridge and the engineering decks. 20 mercenaries would be on this ship
• Once the marines were off the ships they would assist the Harriers if needed.
• The Harrier with the Command Module would coordinate the on-board action, and if necessary the 22 additional marines held in reserve would be deployed to one or the other ship as needed.

If things went well, it might be possible to take the liner and megafreighter as captured ships - the non-military crew, if any, could be forced to assist.

If things went badly then whichever ships remained would flee, taking as many people as possible and jumping away.

Slayed reported back the outcome of his long discussions and meetings with the assistant chief of security. The Imperial ships would be sent to the docking facilities most advantageous to the party plans. The system defense boats and local security guards would be located elsewhere. Alerts and alarms would be disabled for the duration and comms would be blocked. In addition up to 12 of the travellers crew could be taken on as temporary security guards, with uniforms, passes and comms gear so that they would be the ones to react to any contact by the imperials.

In exchange for this the assistant only needed 9 MCr, which was considerably less than his initial asking price, but still acceptable. He would keep 6 MCr and the rest would be used for bribes, to hire hackers, and so on. It seemed that he had only needed a small push to turn against his employers, and as a bonus had set things up so that his superior would take the blame while he, reportedly, would die in a successful effort to repel the pirates after everything had completed.

With the plans in place, it was now a matter of sending the ship back to the base and picking up the assault forces, who had been training in the enormous hangar for the past three weeks.

To be continued.