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Dispatches from the frontier. Published by Vanguard.
A masterclass in deception warfare — how an unassuming Polaris dismantled the most feared pirate organization in the sector
In the cold void of space, the VSS Miyagi hung silent, still, a lifeless husk adrift amidst a vast field of battle-scarred debris. Her once-proud hull bore the scars of a ferocious engagement, her elegant lines marred by scorch marks and jagged rents. To any passing observer, she appeared to be just another casualty of the endless wars that raged across the stars — a derelict tomb, ripe for the picking.
For Jargis Kol and his band of cut-throat marauders, it was a call to arms.
Kol was the mastermind behind the Carousel, a loose organization of pirates, thieves and general malcontents that prowled the sector like hungry wolves. United by greed and a ruthless hunger for profit, the Carousel was an ever-shifting mosaic of vessels and crews, held together by Kol's iron-fisted leadership and his uncanny nose for an easy score.
They'd just picked up the distress beacon, a garbled, looping transmission that painted a picture of the Miyagi's grim fate. Broken in the asteroid field, beset by a foe that outnumbered and outgunned her. A short, brutal fight, and then... silence. The beacon's dying gasp.
When news of the Miyagi reached Kol's ears, he wasted no time in rallying his fleet. This was the prize he'd been waiting for, and they'd need to move, now. But Kol was no fool...
He knew his wouldn't be the only organization winging its way towards this fresh carcass. Every two-bit pirate and would-be warlord in the quadrant would be racing to claim the Miyagi's bounty. Speed was of the essence, but so too was strength. Kol would need every ship, every blaster, every scrap of firepower he could muster to fend off the competition.
And so the Carousel descended upon the Miyagi like a flock of furious ravens, a motley assortment of ships bristling with guns and bad intentions. Kol's flagship, a battered but brutal Aegis Nautilus, led the charge, flanked by a pair of heavily-armed gunships that he'd won in a knife-fight with a rival gang. The rest of the fleet spread out behind him in a ragged crescent, each ship jockeying for position as they closed in on their helpless prey.
Kol purred over the comms, unable to keep the gloating edge from his voice...
Kol's sensor tech, a twitchy little man named Skald, chuckled nastily in response.
Kol replied, settling back into his command chair with a feral grin.
EVA teams swarmed from the pirate ships, magnetic boots clanking as they entered the Miyagi's exposed hangar. Cargo bays across The Carousel yawned hungrily, ready to swallow whatever loot could be hauled aboard.
On the boarding party's comms, excited chatter crackled as they confirmed what the scans had promised. The Miyagi was a ghost ship, her corridors echoing and empty. Caution gave way to giddy greed as the pirates realized the scale of the score.
On the bridge of his flagship, Jargis Kol allowed himself a moment of smug satisfaction. This prize was as good as his. The secrets of the Vanguard corvette danced tantalizingly in his mind's eye — next-gen weapons, bleeding-edge tech, maybe even an A-grade quantum drive they could ransom back to Vanguard for a fat stack of —
Skald's panicked yelp shattered Kol's reverie, snapping him back to the present with a surge of dread.
Kol was on his feet in an instant, adrenaline burning away the fog of avarice. He crossed to the tactical display in two quick strides, his eyes flicking over the readouts with a sinking sensation of déjà vu. He'd been in this game too long to be caught flatfooted, but even he couldn't entirely suppress the unease rising in his gut.
Ambush.
The word hung unspoken in the air between them. Kol's mind raced, calculating odds and angles. He'd expected someone to come looking for a ship like the Miyagi eventually — after all, Vanguard looks after their own — but not this soon. They should have had more time, enough to strip the corvette of something valuable before they had to run.
A dozen blurs of blue-white light emerged from the asteroid field, lancing across the starfield like an archer's volley. Burning hard towards the Carousel's position. They moved with the cool, synchronized precision of apex predators, focused and deadly — and flying in a tight formation Kol recognized with a sickening lurch.
It was Vice Squadron, the Vanguard's snarling wolves, hand-picked and custom-built to shred pirates and insurgents with brutal efficiency.
Half a dozen of The Carousel's fleet were still anchored around the Miyagi like lampreys, caught out in the open with no time to run.
Kol roared across the comms, his voice raw with an edge he couldn't quite disguise.
Across the pirate fleet, a mad scramble ensued. Ships peeled away from the Miyagi like startled fish, grapples and moorings disengaging in showers of sparks. Half-laden with loot and ill-prepared for a straight fight, The Carousel's vessels wheeled around to face the threat, staggering into ragged defensive formations behind Kol's flagship.
As the Vice fighters streaked ever closer, Kol found himself fixating on a single nagging detail — they'd shown up on sensors at forty klicks out. For an ambush, that seemed oddly far. Any fool would have time to turn toward the threat —
Then, a pulse.
A new alarm blared across the bridge.
The scan tech shouted, his voice cracking with terror.
As if in slow motion, Kol spun to the viewport of his ship's rear camera array, his nervous system pulsing with primal dread. He knew what awaited him there. The Miyagi's running lights flickered to life along her flanks. Her six, massive thrusters ignited with a thrum as she rose from her deathly slumber. And all along her sleek hull, turrets stirred and focused like hungry beasts at the scent of blood.
In the eerie calm between one heartbeat and the next, Jargis Kol watched as the Miyagi oriented toward his ship's recently exposed engines.
Over the muffled soundtrack of battlefield chaos, Jargis Kol heard his breath, slow and steady, as he watched the torpedo bays open, revealing four capital ship killers, primed and ready to fire. At this range, they wouldn't even need to aim.
No target locks.
No warnings.
Just the sudden, overwhelming fury of an apex predator revealing itself.
The Miyagi fired.
“I_Die_a_Lot commands the VSS Trogdor and VSS Miyagi, serves as XO of Defiant under CO Chakrin, and edits the Signal — Vanguard's official publication. He also built and maintains the platform you're reading this on.”