Rebirth

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  It was obvious to Tyler that a time would come when the new defences of Orion would be tested. That day came when the small new world colony of New Earth, a planet in the next system to Orion, put out a planetary distress call.

  "This is the planet New Earth on the spiral arm of Perseus, we are under attack from space pirates, they have already landed on our planet and are attacking our town, please help us."

  The pirate ship had landed briefly upon the planet`s surface to land an attack force, then as in past attacks, it moved back into orbit to be in a better position to scan space with their limited technology to ensure that they were not surprised by an Earth vessel. However, as all Earth vessels communicated loudly wherever they went it would give them ample time to land once again, pick up their crew and make their escape well before the Earth space cruiser made its appearance. The pirate starship had now resumed its orbit above New Earth.

  By sheer chance the Orion Defender was in operation by then, and was even having a trial flight that day with a full crew aboard to give everyone experience of space flight before an actual emergency occurred. They were actually on the way to New Earth to make a courtesy call, and had taken off eight hours previously from Orion. The distress call was heard by Colin Freeman who was operating the Communications centre of the Orion Defender at the time.

  Tyler ordered Paul Johnson to take the Orion Defender around the system of planets that numbered New Earth amongst them, so that they could approach New Earth from behind its small moon, for Tyler hoped this would give them the benefit of surprise. At the moment, they were all listening to the pirate ship`s conversation with their ground attack troops.

  Tyler had Paul Johnson edge the ship around the moon until the pirate ship finally appeared in their telescope, Richard Smith had advised against using positive scanning, as this would let the pirates know they were around. Richard would move across to the weapons console just before the attack commenced, and his place at the monitor that was linked to the telescope would be taken by Caroline Burrows. All non-vital systems aboard the Defender had been shut down since they had arrived at the New Earth system, apart from the engines, environmental systems and the Phaser weapon.

  "When I say go, Paul, move us towards the pirate ship at our best normal space speed. Colin, switch on our defence shields, Richard, as soon as we are in range open fire with our Phaser weapon and keep firing until the pirate ship is destroyed. Paul, if the pirate`s shields hold up to the Heliot Phaser after we sweep by her, then bring us around quickly for another pass." They had practiced this manoeuvre before with just the essential crewmembers aboard the craft, and if all went well they should survive the real thing.

  "OK Paul, Go!"

  The Orion Defender swept out from behind the small moon, its small shape silhouetted against the moon, but luckily, it was a full moon today and the dazzling brightness from it made seeing the small ship against the bright glow almost impossible, or so they all hoped. The Defender raced forward towards the multi coloured planet, their speed increasing as the distance between the two ships decreased. The improvements added to the ship from technology pulled from the broken Heliot fleet, and the suddenness of the attack meant that surprise was almost complete.

  The pirate ship`s defence shields were still down because they did not anticipate any trouble this far from Earth. The officer on watch had in fact noticed their small cargo vessel appear from behind the planet`s moon, but he was not worried by the approach a small freighter, one that looked as if it operated a meagre living tramping through space in search of work.

  "Captain a small cargo vessel is approaching the planet from the direction of the planet`s moon; do you want me to open fire on it?" The officer was staring at the figures that came up on his computer but all they told him was the size and speed of the approaching vessel and not much else.

  "No let it make orbit around the planet, and when it has stopped we will board it and see if it has anything worth taking."

  Soon the Orion Defender got within firing range, and as there was no room for the correct rules of war against such an enemy, their heavy Heliot Phaser opened fire sending bolt after bolt of energy at the pirate ship. Tyler saw them strike the pirate ship as first one engine and then the other exploded into a mass of flames and explosions; these were followed by twin strikes from the Orion Defender that tore the middle of the pirate ship violently apart as more explosions signalled that the pirate ship had been badly damaged in the attack. The pirate ship may have been put out of action by the time that the Defender swept by it, but following the procedures they had practiced before; Paul Johnson quickly pulled the Defender about for another attack on the pirate ship. Richard Smith, caught up in the excitement of the attack unleashed their heavy Phaser weapon again, which this time caused the entire pirate vessel to explode in mass of fiery metals. A moment later it was slipping down towards the planet`s atmosphere, where whatever was left of it would burn up to give the planet`s population a brilliant firework display. Mercy towards space pirates was a dangerous emotion that could only be shown when you had an overwhelming advantage, which a recently converted and untried freighter flying with a new untested crew did not possess.

  Caroline whooped with joy and running towards Tyler threw her arms about his neck, her blue eyes glowing with excitement.

  "We beat them, Tyler, our first outing with the Defender and we destroyed the pirate vessel." From then on, the ship`s name was shortened to Defender by her crew.

  "Yes hopefully when this gets around it will deter all further attacks by pirates in our sector of space." Richard Smith said.

  "Well we still have to round up the pirates on the planet, darling, which might not be quite so easy seeing as how they must have seen their ship burning up in the planet`s atmosphere." Tyler said to Caroline.

  "Yes but with the help of the Defender, Appolon and his warriors will be able to cope quite easily, especially as they are armed with the Heliot Phasers." Caroline`s faith in her brother and her husband was absolute, as was the rest of the bridge crew, who all came forward to congratulate him.