Inside the flagship of The Order was a small command deck - a shielded portion of what was once a cargo vessel - from which I lead the First Fleet.
This First Fleet was unusual, not only because it was comprised entirely out of civilian craft, but also because it's commander had a false identity. Yet, the oddities didn't end there; the command ship, arguably the most important ship in the fleet, had practically no defensive capabilities especially when compared to the rest of the fleet. The 'official' reasoning for that was the technical difficulties of running real-time tactical computer software on ancient embedded civilian operating systems, but if I were to make an educated guess, The Council simply didn't want to risk me trying to get away somehow.
I could not run, and if the fleet had a catastrophic failure, I would be the first to die in the chaos. And now thinking of it, I was pretty sure that they've put at least a few people on this ship to keep me under watch.
While thinking about all this, I slowly moved away from the sensors console and had a look around the command deck. No member of the crew was watching me, or they were looking away on purpose.
Except for one person, Mei.
"We are getting closer." she said. "So, can we go over that plan of yours now?"
"Sure thing. Get the ship's commander to me."
Unlike how it has been in the Martian Navy, here, the fleet commander and the flagship commander were different people. The person who was in command of the fleet was not in command of the command ship.
"Okay, listen closely." I said. "Our fleet is made out of civilian ships, but reportedly, the Imperium has at least one military ship somewhere within their territory."
"How did they even get their hands on a surviving military ship?" Mei asked.
"It's not important right now." I said. "The point is, the moment that warship reaches us, we will all be sitting ducks in our poor cargo and passenger liners. Unless they accept our surrender, no one will make it out alive."
"How are you so sure?" the ship commander asked.
"Because I served aboard Federation warships, commander." I replied. "But don't worry, I have a plan. If we execute it well, the Imperium shouldn't even know what hit them."
"I am interested." Mei said. "Please, go ahead."
"We know where they are and what they are doing, but the enemy has no clue that we are coming. And, according to our intel, the enemy warship is not near their mining fleet. I would assume they are keeping it near their homeworld for protection."
"Makes sense." the ship commander agreed.
"Our scout shuttles and probes have been silently observing the mining fleet for a few days now, and I think I might have found a weak spot. We should be able to finish the job before the mining fleet can report our attack to the Imperium. They will not know what hit them."
"How?" Mei asked.
"Their cargo ships are making transport runs back and forth from the mining fleet to what I assume is a storage facility far away. These ships have no protection, at all, except for a single cannon turret."
"What will we do? Hunt down their cargo ships so they can't get the resources? The moment they know, they will send out that warship to protect their vessels and obliterate us." the ship commander said.
"No. When a lone cargo ship is far enough from both the mining fleet and the depot, about halfway in between them, we will take out their comms system by launching a flak missile." I said.
"Sir, we only have 4 of these military-grade flak missiles in the entire fleet." the ship commander argued. "Shouldn't we save them for dire situations?"
"No." I said. "We don't have powerful enough lasers to make a long range attack. A flak missile is the only thing we have that can shoot beyond the enemy vessel's sensor range."
"Then?" Mei asked.
"Once we take it out, our fleet will approach and knock out the enemy cannon, should they resist. After that, we will board the cargo ship and take the crew as prisoners."
"Interesting..."
"We will then proceed to load the ship with explosives and send it back to the mining fleet."
"Let me guess..." said Mei. "It will then sit closely next to the mining ships, and..."
"And fireworks." I completed. "Exactly. Even if the mining fleet somehow reports an accident, no one will be able to trace back the steps quickly enough to accuse us."
"So, let's get underway."
The First Fleet separated into two. One portion, including the command ship, remained near the enemy mining fleet, but far and silent enough to not be seen by them. Our thrusters were disengaged and all of our emissions were directed away from the enemy fleet to stay undetected. Some ships were hidden behind asteroids nearby, so unless an enemy ship accidentally came very close to us, we were safe for the time being.
The second portion of the fleet was sent to intercept the next lone cargo fleet coming from or going to the mining fleet. They had all 4 military-grade flak missiles with them to accomplish their mission, even though they only really needed one.
Now, all we had to do was wait for a nice catch.
It took about one Earth day for interesting things to happen.
"Wake up!" Mei was in my face.
"W-what? I'm awake." I said. That was a lie, I had fallen asleep in the command deck.
"We've got news from the Second Flotilla. A single cargo ship is coming their way from the mining fleet. They've engaged their drives to match velocity and maintain distance."
"How long until they can engage?"
"Should take less than an hour."
If we were in a military vessel, I would immediately open up a 3D tactical map to watch the events, but it was not possible here. All I had to do was sit down and wait for the next report. However, it was anything but easy. My anxiety was rising... Even though the weapons were less scary and battles were smaller now, the new era of space warfare wasn't exactly better than how it was before.
All crew members in the command deck were waiting for the news. We were all hoping for the best.
And it eventually came.
"Sir, the Second Flotilla reports that they've launched the flak missile..."
Everyone quickly gathered around the comms officer in excitement. There was a short pause.
"...and successfully destroyed the enemy comms system."
The eerie atmosphere turned into a celebration in the matter of seconds. Crew members congratulated the success of the Second Flotilla, high-fiving each other. Those were people who had never been in an actual space war, I could tell; because if it was otherwise, their only visible reaction would be letting go of the breath they've been holding the whole time.
"Everyone back to your posts!" I said, instead of waiting for the ship commander to restore order aboard. "And never again will you leave that sensors console unattended, soldier!"
"Sir, yes, sir! Sorry, sir!"
"Wait." the comms officer suddenly caused the command deck to go silent again. "Uh... sir, the enemy cargo craft has reportedly self-destructed after a few escape pods were launched."
Every smile disappeared as quickly as they appeared. The dominant feeling was anxiety once again. Not only we had failed to acquire an enemy cargo ship, but each escape pod had their own small comms systems, with which they could contact home.
"Sir?" an officer turned to me, as if he was waiting for an order.
"We messed up." I said.