Chapter 36: Chapter 36: Ambush
Commander Borak of the Imperial Destroyer Infix, lead ship in the Imperial Convoy transporting the merchant ship Clar, was concerned about their next destination. A few weeks ago, he'd received a report of two convoys that had been hit by Federation privateers around the area where his convoy was destined to pass through.
He sat quietly in his chair, mulling over his options. He couldn't reroute past the Lahr System, because that would mean he'd be late to the rendezvous. That would ultimately end in him getting a new asshole courtesy of the Rear Admiral.
He sighed, before signaling his helmsman to set a course and jump.
A fraction of a second later, Convoy 336-L9 disappeared, before emerging in an expanding ball of energy 60 km from an Asteroid Field. His Astro section reported that the Field hadn't been there according to maps from the last survey team, but Borak chalked it up to a cosmic shuffle. He went about ordering his convoy into a standard wedge, with the Imperial Destroyers Infix, Cor, and Falanc creating a triangle with the him and the Infix at the front, the Clar trailing behind, and the Cor and Falanc covering the sides.
After a few minutes, the convoy found itself situated in the center of the asteroid field. If it wasn't so insane, Borak could have sworn that a few of the Asteroids were following behind them. As he watched, an asteroid that was previously floating about 40 degrees to the left of his own trajectory slowly turned in an oddly beautiful way. At least in the sense that a 3 million ton rock could be beautiful.
Borak directed his bridge crew to point their Sensor toward the curious phenomenon. Afterward, he looked closely at the master plot, searching for a hint of an anomaly among the sea of numbers, data streams, and wavelengths.
After five minutes of searching, no such anomaly presented itself. The plot dutifully reported that the odd shift of trajectory was entirely natural. Borak frowned slightly, not totally convinced of that. He was about to order the Cor to drift slightly off course to get a better look of the opposite side of the asteroid, when his Comms officer got his attention.
"Sir, we've picked up a Sauveterre Engine lighting off about 500 km to our Starboard, 15.3 degrees above the ecliptic."
Borak whipped his head around to stare back at the master plot, watching in growing concern as a blip of light appeared on the plot. His feeling of concern grew as the Tactical Computer reported the signature to match that of a Light Cruiser, although it wasn't telling him what class it was, which was odd. Naval intelligence made a point of keeping the Tactical Computers updated with a list of all known Federation warship classes, although Borak took that list with a grain of salt. Federation Counter-Intelligence was famously adept at keeping at least a handful of their newer classes secret for at least a few months, barring any prolonged contact with Imperial ships.
While they were distracted, the Bridge of the Infix didn't notice the spectrum of data that was monitoring the curious Asteroid flicker as it registered a very small Sauveterre Engine maneuver around the side of the Asteroid.
Borak instructed his crew to start analyzing the distant energy signature, trying to puzzle out what a Light Cruiser of either the Federation or the Empire would be doing in this backwater system unaccompanied by a Destroyer escort. It was common practice to send any higher classed warship with a least two smaller warships as escorts, especially since formations like that were used to escort a high-powered officer or a physical intelligence asset.
Suddenly, a priority message from the Clar flashed onto the master plot in a bright red request for attention. Borak's Comms officer quickly accepted the message since protocol dictated that a red priority message must be accepted immediately. Borak's eyes widened as the pale face of the Clar's captain flickered into view.
"Commander, we are under attack! I'm getting reports of boarders in armor sweeping through the cargo hold! We need-"
The captain's voice was cut off as he looked of screen, obviously receiving another report from someone off screen. A moment later, the captain's face somehow paled even more and he refocused on the pick up. His voice was now eerily calm, a total 180 from his first few sentences.
"Sir, they appear to be clearing in a very controlled manner. Projections show that they will eventually reach Level 3... Sir, our guard commander says he's never seen armor like this. He reports that their plasma rounds aren't even scratching their paint."
Borak sat back, dread written across his face. Level 3 had only 5 rooms, which made the likelihood that the cargo there would be discovered was almost guaranteed.
Before he could even consider the ramifications of losing control of one of those rooms in particular, another report from his Comms section drew his attention back to the mysterious blip, which he now knew was there to draw their attention away from that Assault Shuttle which was now attached to the side of the Clar. Borak briefly entertained the idea of aiming a railgun at it and trying to blow it off the hull, but again the knowledge of that one room on Level 3 prevented him from giving the order.
He sighed, wishing he'd listened to his instinct about this damned Asteroid Field from the very moment he'd arrived in this system. He directed the anger at himself toward the silent monolith that was just floating peacefully nearly 500 km to their starboard side.
At least that's what he expected them to be doing. Instead, the mystery warship was now approaching the convoy at a lazy pace, as if the commander expected whatever was going on within the Clar to be resolved by the time it reached them.
Borak silently raged at the obvious ambush he was now caught in, but instead of being surrounded by superior firepower, he was being held hostage by his own orders.
Weekly Power Status
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Ranking 
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