Again, we hold a strategy eting about our next campaign, the Ileviar pirate empire.
I power up the cogitator screen and put up the findings of my father, notes and rumors obtained during his own travel and conquests.
My XO...one of the oldest clan mbers and an uncle of mine, with the greatest experience in void warfare takes over the eting with practiced words and gestures.
He doesn't look over a thousand years old, but he served on the sa bridge with my grandfather in the past. I found him while training with the grenadier regint, relegated to weapons instructor by my father due to so disagreent.
Decima might have pointed him out as well.
"If I may, Lord Captain." Clan Elder Wentian says politely. I nod in acceptance and let him take over the holographic screen.
"Please, Major Wentian." I agree in a mild voice. I gave him the rank for a reason after all. Experience matters with warfare.
"First thing, reconnaissance. We can insert the Requiem at the edge of this mining system, and send out a fighter squadron coasting with unpowered engines to retrieve operational data. Number of ships, trajectories, target's mass and everything else we need to plan our assault. We can't rely on old maps and astronomical observations." he proposes in a calm voice.
"They will detect the Warp fluctuations anyway. Better to exit in force, and blast whoever we catch." I argue with a glance at my enginseer advisor.
Signus nods hesitantly, and wipes his cyborg eye with a cloth. Possibly terrified of being the center of attention. He'll get used to it.
He's not quite a tech priest, and his expertise is sort of limited to Warp systems, but he does know them inside and out.
"The frigate will produce a wide area radiation wake as it exits the Warp, as well as a hugely visible flash. Even at light speed, everyone in the system will know they have visitors, in a few hours." the enginseer explains in a weak tone.
My uncle nods and tugs on his grey beard. "Knowledge of sothing arriving is not evidence of an enemy. It could be so ore miner ship or a cargo vessel. Perhaps...yes. We can send a transport ship as well, to serve as bait and draw out the pirates."
I power up my implant and review the system map. "If we insert behind this gas giant, they will not see us at all. They will see a transport ship, leaking atmosphere as if damaged. We can insert our fighters and let them scan the system while we follow the bait with cold engines."
Once the decision is made, I speak with every staff officer for more ideas and solutions but the unknown limits our options. Can't plan for what we don't know, after all.
Decima advises to keep two fighter squadrons for defense, should anything surprise us while we are flying blind and unpowered. It makes good sense so I approve.
Then she drags to the bedroom and presents to two soldier girls from the void marine battalion, vetted and eager to provide babies for the clan.
Oh well, it is duty after all. Might as well make it pleasant and fun. We all work hard on this for half the night, and then I crash into sleep.
The two concubines are assigned as permanent guards for my apartnt and move in, as there would be no point to lose them in a firefight or boarding action. They have a higher calling now.
Decima goes exploring a few more companies and talks to a few more won soldiers, looking for more concubines, but she fails to find soone she likes.
In the end, she picks another cousin of ours as a second wife. Henna Octa looks amazing with brown skin and hair, green eyes and a loving smile. And has bountiful breasts and hips, sothing rarely seen aboard void ships. Most won crew are solid packs of muscles and training, unlike the fat and lazy groundpounders.
Octa used to work in the hydroponics, and likely had more fresh food available to maintain her nice looks. Not that I'm upset by that. Not at all.
So three weeks later, I'm almost certain to have a couple more kids on the way, and Magos Gyron is rather displeased with my priorities, arguing for the Quest for Knowledge and less flesh pleasures.
"I won't say sorry, my ntor. Blank officers won't appear out of nothing. Did you have any success with the Atomantic reactor?" I wonder in turn.
He shakes his head and points at the simulation. Still not enough depth with our scans, so no progress. "This reactor is very compact. And the Tigris tech-priests are too secretive on their prized Fellblades."
"Isn't that how all Forge worlds do things?" I ask rhetorically.
A tallic tentacle pokes my forehead. "You are changing things, Captain. Spreading new patterns and more efficient machines. I can barely wait to see what else you might discover."
I sit down next to him, in the only chair. The Magos never sits down, although with his tal fra he probably doesn't need to rest anyway.
"Let's start with the missile launchers then. We have plenty of them to test and see what can be simplified."
Waiting for the trap to work and draw out the pirates takes another week, and I do find a way to increase the range of our missiles by 10 percent, with so clever software upgrades, or rather by uncluttering so buggy programming.
With simpler commands to follow, the logic-engine can maintain target lock for a bit longer.
Gyron goes to update our missiles launchers with the new patch, and I visit my wives and concubines for a few hours.
Then alerts blare out and the fun tis are over.
The pirates arrive with 2 that fires plasma bombs. I find it strange that I never heard of it, since it's very potent, both for planetary bombardnts and void combat.
"What do you say, ntor? A dozen of these on every cheap corvette and they'll have the firepower of a frigate. Maybe more." I ask Gyron while examining the trophy gun.
Gyron spins an arm for so reason. "Not a dozen. One per ship. I doubt our own reactor can power a dozen such cannons."
Damn it. Limitations are not fun.
"Would it be stronger than the heavy lance on the Requiem?" I wonder hopeful. The new frigate has exactly one heavy lance, just as powerful as the ones on my cruiser.
Only, the cruiser has eight of them, in 4 twin batteries.
"At least three tis stronger. It would have a longer range but a slower rate of fire. Perhaps twice slower than a heavy lance." the Magos explains while interfacing a few chadendrites with the captured weapon.
I hum inward. Not that great then. I need these ships to match frigates in firepower.
But perhaps I can improve it a bit. I haven't found a single machinery without flaws, not yet.
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