Pirates of the Asteroids by E S Martell

Author:E S Martell [Martell, E S]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction
Publisher: Second Initiative Press
Published: 2019-05-13T22:00:00+00:00

Ngombe turned out to be a competent captain, having captained two prior, successful voyages. His crew both respected him and relied on his judgment. Once he fully understood the tactical advantage of the shields and the cannon, he became quite enthusiastic. He hadn’t lied. He had almost as much reason to hate the Feds as had Suarez.

He was close-lipped about it, however. Adam couldn’t get him to disclose any of his back story, other than he’d been so downtrodden that the idea of asteroid mining had seemed a welcome opportunity. Given the radiation-lowered life expectancy of the profession, that said volumes about his past life.

The two of them spent hours discussing strategy for the small fleet. If they could bring all four of their ships into battle at the same time, the strategy would depend on how many enemy vessels they faced. It was a given that none of the current generation of ships had an advantage in acceleration, turning ability or sensor suites. The Fed ships mounted long-range and short-range missiles with conventional warheads; at least they had heard of no nukes so far. The Fed’s point-defense system was powerful, but it was old tech. It was a variation of the old sea-based Aegis system.

The point defense system used a combination of radar-guided short-range missiles to intercept incoming missiles and two to four modified Phalanx CWIS turrets. The radar domes for these turrets had been miniaturized. They no longer looked like the robot that had given them their nickname, R2-D2.

This generation was shaped like a thick pancake with the 20mm Vulcan cannons mounted to cover half of a sphere. They were dangerous weapons that could defeat both incoming missiles and boarding attempts.

The Vulcan’s round was heavy enough that it could penetrate a space ship’s hull, and its lethality was increased by the lack of ballistic drop.

Once fired, the round would continue on the same trajectory until it struck something or was captured by a gravity well. The main weakness of the system was that its velocity was ploddingly slow when compared to that of a space ship. This meant that its best use was to create a storm of projectiles that might intercept an incoming missile.

Given these two weapon systems, the obvious attack method was to use the plasma cannon at its maximum effective range. A direct hit would burn off all external antennas on the target. This would leave the Phalanx still operational, but its fire would be unguided. A closer cannon burst would take out the Phalanx systems, rendering them unable to fire.

As for the longer-range missiles, they could also be taken out by a plasma burst, as Adam had previously discovered. The shield system provided far more protection against incoming debris than the armor plate the Fed cruisers depended upon.

The two discussed their options. They wanted to avoid dog-fights. Splitting their small fleet up to go one-on-one would minimize their advantage. They decided that their preferred plan would utilize a loose formation, where one of the mining ships led.

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