Chapter 77: Base Observation

The chat discussed the fact that Royal Entertainment and Diva Lorelie had just openly accused Drotas Entertainment but suddenly had their attention shifted elsewhere when Spector spoke up.

"I have just intercepted a communication between the base and one of the pirate patrol vessels, the patrol vessel reports that they have sighted the pirate elimination fleet."

[Beczontop (Imperial Down): Told ya. 🤭]

[Tessisdabest (Imperial Down): To be fair that wasn't really what you were indicating.]

[Beczontop (Imperial Down): Booo.]

Adam was about to reply but Spector beat him to it saying, "My sensors indicate an alarm just went off inside the pirates base."

"Most likely because of the fleet's detection." Adam mussed.

"They have disabled the alarm, however I am detecting a lot more activity than normal."

"That's not surprising if they received word of the fleet approaching."

"My sensors show that only a certain number of the individuals on the base are rushing around, most are still acting as they were before, mainly focussed in the main market area."

"That's interesting, with the Palaxia Defence Force fleet on the way I would have thought that all of them would be scrambling to return to their ships and run." Adam replied as he thought for a few moments until a possibility occurred to him.

"It's possible that not all the pirates know about the approaching fleet."

[StealthAssassin9 (Earth): How is that possible, your ship detected the transmission between the base and patrols as well as the alarm sounding.]

[Beinglittleisnotadisadvantage (Strathorp 7): I follow what your saying streamer. What if only those who run the base know about the fleet.]

[Handsome3horns (Vinox 2): How's that possible?]

[Beinglittleisnotadisadvantage (Strathorp 7): Simple, all you would have to do is not tell the other pirates on the station about it and say that it was a false alarm or a test or something.]

Naruto_shippuden_6468 (Earth): Damn that's cold.]

[Pokemonking0924 (Mobius 2.0): Well we are talking about pirates, they tend to only look out for themselves.]

"My sensors show the pirates that were rushing around boarding ships that are starting to come online." 

"How many ships?" Adam asked.

"I'm detecting thirty-seven ships of varying classifications powering up."

"Thirty-seven? That's no small amount." Adam said in surprise before asking, "How far out is the fleet."

"By my calculations at current speed it will take them just under ten minutes to arrive." 

"That's more than enough time for those ships to get away while I can't engage and stop them all in battle. Suggestions."

[Vinnaka (Felinia 6): Did the defence force not anticipate this scenario?"

[Noobkiller9000 (Earth): Apparently not.]

[Prestigious3horns (Vinox 2): It's not that surprising really. While pirate bases do exist there not exactly common, also pirates tend to build their bases far enough away that it's too costly for defence force's to bother engaging in these sorts of base elimination missions, meaning it's very rare to find a pirate base so close to an occupied planet.]

[Superior4horns (Vinox 3): Not to mention pirate bases are normally controlled by several different pirate crews or groups who have formed an alliance, making it impossible for only one crew to know when a fleet is approaching like now]

[Whostolemyduck (Earth): So what you're saying is the defence force didn't anticipate this because they figured the base would be under the control of multiple grounds and not just one.]

[Superior4horns (Vinox 3): Exactly.]

[Justiceistruth: (Earth): But the streamers stream showed the boss of the base.]

[Tessisdabest (Imperial Down): Just because it showed a boss, doesn't mean it was the only boss. As Superior4horns said, most pirate bases operate a fragile sort of coalition built around profit and mutual benefit.]

[Superhearofangirl (Earth): So since the streamer is alone does that mean he has to let the majority of the fleeing pirates go?]

"Since the fleet is almost here the best course of action would be to prevent any of the ships from leaving." Spector replied.

"Ok, and how do we do that?" Adam asked.

"The best way would be to disable them, I recommend we fire a spread of Tempest IV EMP Scatter Missiles so as to knock out the power of both the ships and base."

"What about their shields? Are they still offline? Also the captives , will the EMP blast affect the station's environmental systems?" Adam asked.

"The pirate ships shields are still offline as they are yet to depart, the environmental systems will indeed be taken temporarily offline however there should be more than enough excess oxygen on the base that no one will die of suffocation and the systems should reboot before carbon dioxide poisoning becomes an issue."

"Andrew go ask Admiral Dexter his thoughts on the idea, since I'm part of the fleet under his command I can't just go ahead and attack without permission." 

[MerceadAnderson (Palaxia): Standby.]

[Beczontop (Imperial Down): The admiral will probably give the green light since the captives won't be harmed.]

[AlamoMatador4thewin (Earth): I know he used them earlier to get past the EM countermeasures, but are these missiles enough to disable a base like this?]

[Beinglittleisnotadisadvantage (Strathorp 7): In this situation they are. The base itself is relatively small and lacks any type of shield so a calculated spread of the Tempest missiles should be enough to take the base and docked ships temporarily off-line.]

[Noobkiller9000 (Earth): Do bases normally have shields?]

[Beinglittleisnotadisadvantage (Strathorp 7): Yes. This base would be better classified as an outpost since it lacks any of the normal facilities a base should have and is sorely lacking in defensive capability. Normal land bases and space basses have powerful weapons and shields to protect them against attacks so the streamers strategy would not work against them, however for this makeshift pirate base it should be fine.]

[1000yearsofdeath (Earth): Makeshift. Kekeke]

[MerceadAnderson (Palaxia): Admiral Dexter said that since this plan will minimise the risk to the captives it's fine to go ahead.]

"Copy that, battle stations."

"Affirmative." 

[[Condition Red]]

[[Normalizing energy output]]

[[Re-enabling non mandatory systems]]

[[Weapons systems online]]

[[Shields to maximum]]

[[Defensive systems online]]

"Loading Tempest IV EMP Scatter Missiles."

"Calculating optimal target coordinates for maximum EMP impact."

"Ready to launch on your command."

Adam nodded before saying, "Fire."

The stream view switched to the external view of Spector to allow the chat to watch as the missile battery compartment opened before four missiles shot out and the compartment closed again.

The camera switched to show the four missiles in flight before the front of each missile opened and 18 smaller EMP missiles shot out of each making a total of 72 missiles that each locked onto a different section of the base or ship that was docked.

[Gunlovergirl (Earth): Oh hell yeah 72 missiles, look at them go. Tony would be proud.]

[Superhearofangirl (Earth): Damn right he would.]

[DeverinianLordMalacoss (Deverinian 9): That's an impressive sight, you don't often see that in huge space battles since each side is more focussed on killing each other.]

💫💫💫

"We're ready to launch, captain." One of the pirates said to Bonnie who stood on the bridge of her personal pirate ship called Revenge.

"Good set sail." Bonnie said loudly.

"Aye captain." The helmsman replied just before the ship started to shake.

"What the hell happened?" Bonnie asked just before the ship's power went offline and they were all covered in darkness.

"Unknown captain, all our consoles are dead and the ship's power is offline." 

"I can see that, emergency power." Bonnie said angrily.

"No response captain." 

"Get someone down to the engine room and check it out, also have some check the other nearby ships. This can't be a coincidence." 

"No need." A mans voice replied that Bonnie recognised as her first mate before a clang was heard and he cursed, "Fuck my head."

"Report." Bonnie ordered.

"I banged my fucking head on the door frame I think, can't see a bloody thing."

"Not that, report on what you meant when you said 'no need."

"Oh right, I was the last onboard and the power went out as I was closing the hatch. When I tried to inspect it from the outside I noticed that all the other ships are also without power as is the base."

"The base as well? What happened?" 

"Not certain captain, but if I had to guess I would say the entire base was hit by an EMP blast."

"How's that possible? The defence fleet is still just under ten minutes out."

"unknown but everything electronic has gone offline, including our unibands."

Bonnie tried to access her uniband on her wrist but found that it was indeed unresponsive.

"I want my ships up and running so figure out the issue and fix it, in the meantime set up a guard near the ships entry hatch in case it is an EMP from the fleet and they decide to take this opportunity to board the base." Bonnie instructed.

"If it was an EMP we can't just fix it."

"What did you say?"

"Nothing, Captain."

"Then move your asses."