The end of piracy was a quiet affair for the general populace. People would get up in the morning and go to work, have fun in the afternoon and go to bed in the evening and not have noticed the disappearance of certain metallic bodies high up in the sky. The Imperial warships, hulls glittering in the sun, left orbit and disappeared for two whole days, leaving the systems of Imperial Region North largely undefended save for police cruisers and some smaller patrol craft. The fleets carved their way through space with purpose and under the command of Admiral Stephanie Laurent, the final downfall of piracy in the north wrote itself into history. Seven pirate bases had been located by Imperial Intelligence and Admiral Laurent oversaw the operation together with Sarah from the safe vantage point aboard the Imperial Fleetcarrier Swarm. Whole battlegroups jumped onto the unsuspecting pirates and boarded who would let them and destroyed who would resist. The comms chatter was filled with horrifying screams, grunts and cries for help. Sarah felt no mercy. Pirates were scum. Raiders who would threaten and kill just to get their hands on goods that were not theirs. Pure profit, no morals. Of the pirate codes of old, nothing was left. Each pirate faction was out purely for their own enrichment and joining up with one was to sell one's soul to those who could not care less about it. As pirate ships burnt and tried to get away, a call reached the IFC Swarm, forwarded by a battlecruiser fighting at the pirate base. Sarah exchanged a glance with Admiral Laurent and accepted the call. A distorted video stream appeared on the monitor, showing the bleeding face of Caspar Green.743Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZL6SRXn7uC
"You've made a mistake, Tanas!" he spewed.743Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡT0AHQ4qPrV
"Do you think so? We are having a blast over here."743Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9fF9BqZdfq
"You don't know what you disturbed. You should have stuck to our deal."743Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlzACflwnLK
"You must have suspected I would not do that. I have no problem with lying to a scumbag's face if it achieves my goals."743Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡtKvXXVC4uY
"I can only hope you recognize your mistake before your last breath. Perhaps I should have been more straight with you. Perhaps..."743Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUvem5qwHw0
He glanced to the side, then shut off the call. Sarah exchanged another look with Admiral Laurent, but neither would speak up. They went to the Admiral's ready room.
"What do you think?" Sarah asked.743Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLdHUHoSXGk
"He seemed to be afraid. Not of death, but of a consequence of our actions."743Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXFdVXp4MgQ
"I can't imagine there being any bad ones for us. The URS won't do anything about it. Even if they're gearing up, it'll be a while."743Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOvzDE5eo9q
"What about the mysterious ship that attacked the Fearless?"743Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOPhZbaZqkr
"We still don't know anything about it. You're saying he meant that?"743Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqLAbaZ2XTe
"I think so."743Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡtIYOV7qjsp
The Admiral stood up from her chair and poured herself a coffee. Sarah declined.743Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8pakmQyxJb
"Is it possible that it was a scout from one of the alien civilizations beyond our reach?" asked Admiral Laurent.743Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡw3h6GvC7Xg
"Perhaps. Powerful for a scout."743Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8NblCro0Wu
"Indeed."
Later, with the operation going smoothly, Sarah wondered about the future. Would she truly be successful after mere months? Would she return home celebrated a hero, or discounted in favor of the northern people's own effort to improve their situation? Somehow she believed she would not be finished for some time. When she had taken the position of governor, she had introduced the few measures within her power and it had stabilized the situation. For the URS, the empire's weakness was more than convenient. It was a gift. The Reformist Party had made sure that everyone in known space knew their disdain for the Second Empire. Now that they had been voted into power, intelligence circles heard rumors of plans for increased military spending and division in the upper echelons of URS politics. Allegedly, the president was in quiet conflict with parts of his party and virtually all other parties over the foreign policy, especially regarding the neighboring Second Empire. Imperial Intelligence, following the leads discovered by Sarah months earlier, was certain that the pirates enjoyed financial support from someone in the URS. It could not be dismissed that it all was a direct attempt to destabilize the empire prior to more direct action. Uncommon as they were, armed conflicts between Second Empire and the Union of Republican Systems did happen. The scale varied. From vast interstellar wars to regional disputes with stray shots exchanged, history had seen it all. The Human species was divided between empire and union, a fact grown from history and as much despised as it was accepted. The other two member states of the union were the Khal'Shelim and the Orkrasin. A thousand years ago, the old Khal'Shelim Empire had controlled a good part of modern Imperial space and the Orkrasin had been its subject nation. If another war was to come, the front would be certain. The Tletan Kingdom would aid the empire and the Draoll would form an alliance of convenience with the union in the hopes of grabbing some territory from the Tletans. So far, they hadn't dared to because of the empire's guarantee of the Tletans' territorial, political and cultural sovereignty. A full war between empire and Draoll would inevitably lead to the latter's utter defeat. But nothing defined a politician more than the desire to look out for themselves and a place in the history books as the one who expanded the Draoll, they would do so. Especially considering their boisterous and aggressive nature. If the URS declared war on the empire, the empire would fall. Under Therana's reign, the empire had savored soft power and eroded hard power. In Sarah's private opinion, Therana was nice, but inconsequential. She tried to make life the best it could be for her citizens, but she was too hesitant of investing in and using military power due to her past in the Zephalan invasion. Sarah thought differently. So far, she had held back with her opinion because she liked her aunt and saw no reason to push for anything, but now, with all the piracy that Sarah was sent to mop up, a feeling in her grew. The empire should never have let its grasp on its territory slip like this. It should never have let pirates infest an entire region to this degree. It should never have tolerated the refusal of the southern planets to take on Zephalan refugees and Therana should have used her rightful power to distribute the Zephalan refugees evenly for the good of the empire and its future. For now, Sarah believed that Therana had understood more needed to be done, but if she did not, more persuasion might be required.
Hours later, as the status reports flowed in, Sarah stood before her own personal victory. Admiral Laurent had executed it, but Sarah had been the driving force between the whole project. The pirates were fleeing left and right, trying to creep away in damaged ships and throwing cargo overboard to free themselves of any mass not needed to run away. By now, Sarah almost felt sorry for them being so hounded. More than 17000 prisoners had been taken and 5000 killed. Pirates were flexible. Not many were required to run a ship and steal cargo from others. Many were required to keep control of territory and and hegemony, but that was not their goal. Their goal was self-enrichment and it didn't matter who paid and supplied them so long as the business model worked out. They were the perfect mercenaries to cause unrest and disruption. They would not even want payment because that was what they were out to get anyway. Give them ships and equipment and the machine would feed itself. Sarah thought about her home on Ayonar, her husband and her staff, her family back on Zah'Aharon and found space awfully cold so far from an inhabited system. Walking among the stars was a lonely endeavour unless one had their family and friends with them. But even then, you were so far removed from anything that you could fall into loneliness. On larger ships, this was commonly mitigated by having a large crew. Your colleagues would become your family and in the case of the Imperial Navy, it was permitted for spouses to work on the same ship and even in the same department. Compared to the life of a pirate, a member of the Navy would have a safe job, a regular income, a civilized working environment, clean and often modern ships and the assurance that you are well cared for instead of being sold out at any second. Caspar Green was a pirate. Admiral Stephanie Laurent was a Navy officer. Where Caspar Green would be afraid of what loomed behind him, Stephanie Laurent could rest easy, knowing that she was working a good job.
The first few battlegroups switched their status signal to green as the day drew to a close. The fighting had been far away from the IFC Swarm, but while at each location, only the immediate aftermath was apparent, in the headquarters, the true horror of what had happened on this day became tangible. The empire had expected there to be a fight and had accepted that there would be blood spilt, but Sarah was surprised by how vicious the fighting had been and how many pirates had refused to be boarded. Those that had let the Navy arrest them had survived and were treated welll, but space battles were dirty much like submarine duels were. Gruesome spaceborne deaths were normal. Sarah didn't know yet where Caspar Green was. Whether he had died or fled or had gotten arrested was anyone's guess, but Sarah would love to interrogate him. She was a bit shocked at her lack of a reaction at the pirates' demise. She could not bring herself to care. She saw Johanna before her inner eye, in the hospital bed with a bandage and hooked up to life support. She remembered herself being shot at with a rocket launcher and having been almost killed along with the crew of the Fearless. These pirates deserved it.
Sarah called home and reported the victory to Therana. Sarah had been up for 30 hours at this point and was very tired. The whole conversation went by in a blur or accolade and new orders. Sarah would have to re-read them in the morning. The action of this day had been distant, almost serene. Comms chatter from far away, death and suffering lightyears from where the IFC Swarm was. This was a day she would never forget.
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