Once aboard the Infinity, Adam made his way to the bridge, upon arriving, Natasha and the division leaders were already waiting for them. After taking his position, Adam pulled out a disk from his pocket, this was a link from his suit to the display, giving him full control of the display table using thoughts.
"Alright, I hope everyone is ready cause it's time to really work. I am confident in each of you, you have performed admirably up till now, most of you have been doing tasks outside what we were trained to do. Build a base here, transport rations and supplies, build colonies and ships, I commend all your efforts till now. Now that time is over, it's time to do your job, the one you trained for. Soldiers. No longer builders and miners, Soldiers. What do you say?" Adam looked around the room, instantly Adam got his reply, not just from those around the table, but also the staff manning their stations in the command center as well.
"Hoorah!" The crew all answered back, excitement clearly evident in their shouts, their eyes alight with the fires of determination. It was true most of the crew were soldiers and scientists, pilots and engineers.
There has been little work for soldiers, so they helped in other areas where they were needed, it's what the military does, they adapt to their situations. Now they finally can show their worth, opportunities are endless right now with the UNSC. New colonies need new generals, new positions available to them that they wouldn't be eligible for had they been in their own universe.
"Hoorah!" Adam answered back, the holo-table came to life depicting the files from Nova Corps, "I want two deep space recon probes fired at these coordinates," within moments the Infinity fired to small projectiles which entered slipspace as soon as it was a safe distance away from the ship, "this is a rescue and destroy mission, we have a band of Marauder pirates led by a Kronan known only as 'The Big One' apparently, no one knows his true name. They are a race of rock people, simple minded but they are strong and hard to kill. They are a warrior race after all. Currently they are attacking this planet and it is estimated around six thousand women and children have been abducted by these pirates." Suddenly the table flickered and was updated, the two probes had arrived under stealth and had begun to scan the planet and surround area.
Infinity was able to locate Nova forces within the system as well as unknown energy signatures, they quickly were able to locate a large energy signature hidden within a mountainous region on Krylor's surface. They had been able to slip their large ship past the orbital patrols, it wasn't that Nova Corps were horrible at their jobs, but there was a war going on, many of the soldiers of the Nova Corps were on the front lines.
Planets this deep in the territory, far from the front lines, the Corps were equivalent to security guards and nothing more.
Checking over the information, life signal count began as the sensors retrieved hull data and weapon systems on the ship, the image shown on the table changed to show the large Marauder main vessel.
The ship was 2,279 meters, or 7,805 feet long, 368 meters, or 1,207 feet wide in the middle, and 682 meters, or 2,237 feet high. It looked similar to a leaf in shape, with the ship being fatter in the middle and tapers inward as you move to the front and rear of the ship, round windows lining both sides of the ship, down the middle a large beam going straight up and another out the end.
It was primarily a large cargo vessel, the ship had been refurbished both inside and out. A mix match of weapon packs and modules had been custom fitted and added to the hull, the insides had been gutted and large cages were installed to allow transfer of obvious cargo, living creatures and in this cause humanoid cargo.
When the others around the table saw the condition of the cages and the people within, it sickened the members present. Although soldiers were ruthless, that was to enemy combatants, not many soldiers can easily pull a trigger and kill a child, even if that child is shooting bullets at you. Seeing these women and children caged like animals, it was a hard sight for them, even if they weren't human.
"Alright soldiers, we have our mission. Lets do this clean, let's do this right. let's show these pirates what UNSC Marines can do. Yelena, you and Natasha will lead a team to the ship, secure the area and the cargo hold. Frank, you will lead a team to this base," Adam highlighted a large Nova Corps base several hundred miles from the ship, "wait for them to attack before aiding the Nova Corps. That way we can add the inhabitants of the base to our rescue numbers." Adam was interrupted by a snicker from behind, it was Yelena who commented, "Jeez boss, quite petty aren't you? What makes you think that convoy is attacking the base and not the settlement that's before it, why wouldn't they go for the easier target?" Yelena asked after she had gotten over Adam's order to Frank just to increase the reward money.
"Look at their ship, they are basically full, they aren't going for more cargo this time around." Adam replied vaguely, to see if Yelena could catch on. After she didn't reply for a few moments Frank filled her in on Adam's comment, "Hostages. They mean to take the families of the soldiers of the Nova Corps hostage, in order to allow them to escape with their cargo. That ship is fully loaded now so escaping undetected is impossible." Adam nodded his head in agreement with Frank's assessment.
"Precisely, if the pirates have the soldiers families, they can use them as a bargaining chip to ensure the pirates get away with their haul. In order to leave, the ship will have to run on full power, they got in cause they were able to run just enough power to land the ship on the surface once they got within range. The ship was basically empty on the way in, now they aren't. I will be joining in the assault on the ship, the Korgan leader is there, that's where I'm heading." Adam commented and informed his own role in this fight on the ground.
"As soon as we leave slipspace, I want two light frigates loaded with electronic warfare modules installed, and two heavy frigates deployed as their defense, I want them to lock down the pirates comms. I want them deaf and dumb of each other's plights. Use the voice synthesizer to disrupt their communication, they are a pretty chatty bunch, a lot of radio chatter has been intercepted so we easily have enough data to mimic all the voices. We don't want to give ourselves away too early. I think it's about time we put those two S-930 Pegasus thru some tests. Frank you will have air support if needed." Adam planned out the mission details, he wanted to see how the experimental fighter craft handled so that they could make adjustments as needed to improve it.
The Pegasus was in direct competition with the FSS-1000 Sabre fighter, although it ultimately lost and the Sabre was chosen as the UNSC primary fighter, the Pegasus didn't lose because it wasn't as good as the Sabre, it lost because the Sabre was cheaper.
The Pegasus is 'extremely' heavily armed compared to other fighters of its type, much like the Sabre, Longswords and other space fighters. It had two M90A 30mm Gauss cannons as its primary armament rather than the more standard MLA, or Machine-Like Autocannon, typically found on most fighters, additionally it had two M11B nonlinear cannons as a secondary armament.
The M11B is a directed-energy weapon, part of the Spartan line of laser weapons, it could bulldoze threw energy shields and turn armored hulls into liquid metal.
It didn't stop there either, the Pegasus also had two M4370 ST/Medusa missile pods, along with two additional hard points for mounting various weapon modules. So needless to say these two ships were swiss army knives, loaded with various missiles specialized for each mission. They would have various air to air and air to surface missiles loaded.
After the ground assault teams were split amongst Yelena, Natasha and Frank, the three broke off with their individual teams to go over the operation and rules of engagement.
Excitement buzzed in the briefing rooms as Yelena, Natasha and Frank went over their plans with their teams, the air hummed with positive energy, even though this was a dangerous mission, the soldiers had not one ounce of fear present, this is what they're trained to do. Kick alien ass.
The time chosen to deploy was timed perfectly with the arrival of the Marauder Pirates to the base, Infinity made the slipspace jump just outside the atmosphere of Krylor, as soon as she fully exit, four frigates shot out of the Infinity at once, their deployment well coordinated and was a beautiful spectacle if seen.
Immediately the pirates communications were intercepted, the AI program used recent radio chatter to answer the comms for check ins and reports, not only could it mimic the voice but even the personality if given enough data. This allowed the two teams no need to defend against the convoy returning to the ship to defend their cargo.
This was what the two Pegasus would be in the air above to guard against, if the convoy returns and begins heading back, the Pegasus would unleash hell on the convoy to allow Frank and his team time to reposition since they would be in ambush positions near the Nova Corps base.
All teams landed at their designated positions, Yelena and her team moved in first, Yelena and her team began to quietly infiltrate the pirates camp from the west while Natasha's came from the east side, killing the pirates with cold weapons so as not to set off alarms. It was only a matter of time, it was like that in any infiltration, no matter what you do you will eventually be found out, a patrol doesn't check in, or a body or pool of blood found, many things can cause the alarms to be triggered.
So in these cases, it was kill quickly and quietly until the alarm sounds, then it's open season. Adam watched, his admiration growing, not just in Yelena but also in the UNSC Marines on her team. They moved like seasoned ninjas, dashing in and out of shadows, cutting throats, breaking necks, stabbing sleeping pirates, by the time the alarm went off Yelena and her team had already secured the cargo hold in the main ship. Natasha soon followed.
Adam had already split off from Yelena's group, as they began extracting the abducted citizens, he was making his way to the bridge of the ship. As soon as he stepped foot on the bridge, he saw why the giant humanoid made of rocks was called 'The Big One', he was at least 9 feet tall and literally built like a mountain.
He held a large and heavy two handed mace, five other pirates, most likely his pilot and crew that handled piloting and maintaining the ships various systems stood in front of him.
Each had vicious grins as they looked at Adam, they couldn't believe someone would dare get in their leaders way, he was the biggest and strongest of all of these pirates within this group.
The giant rock of a guy smirked at Adam, as soon as he pointed his mace at him, the five other pirates raised their weapons and aimed at Adam.
"I am here on behalf of the UNSC, this is your one and only chance to surrender peacefully. Dead or Alive, you're coming with me." Adam said as he stared over at the group.
"Hahaha, you want Grok to surrender? Grok never surrenders! Kill this pesky human, call back my men. We crush our way out." Grok may not be the sharpest tool in the shed, he saw his own numbers way out matching this unknown opponent.
Kronan's were simple minded creatures for the most part, Grok saw that not only was his own numbers in height more than his opponent, but Grok saw himself having six people on his side and one on the enemy's side.
He couldn't believe the enemy would just walk into his domain and tell him to surrender, but as soon as his order left his mouth Grok had realised his numbers were wrong somehow.
Grok watched in shock as, within moments after his order was given, Adam disappeared, the next thing Grok heard was five consecutive thuds hitting the floor in front of him. Looking down, Grok saw his five crew members, their eyes as still as a dead fish, their expressions frozen in their grotesque grins. This showed they didn't even know how they died.