The plan is revealed.

The Bitch materialised from the hyperspace jump on the edge of the system. I had to reluctantly concede that the transition back into real space was the smoothest I had ever experienced, Helcion IV was clearly a step ahead of the UCS in jump tech and must have some engineers who really knew their shit, unlike the present crew of slavers. I had surprisingly been allowed on the bridge for the jump along with the rest of the Helcions and sneaked a look over one of the twin's shoulders at the readouts on her station's screen. I could not place the system, we had double-jumped via an uninhabited system containing nothing but a dwarf red star and a couple of gas giants so we were probably a few parsecs deep into UCS space. This system had a rocky earthlike planet and the scanner showed an orbital platform in geostationary orbit above it. No other traffic was registering in the system and my guess would be that there was likely a mining outpost planetside and the only ships jumping in here would be an occasional ore freighter or UCS cutter for crew rotation of the marines on the orbital defence and communication platform.

"Got a ping from the probe Captain." One of the twins reported. "If they had detected it, they'd have destroyed it."

"Unless they saw it and set a trap," Whipp commented pessimistically.

"Download the data from the probe, what traffic has there been since we dropped it?" Domino ordered.

"A couple of ore ships going planetside to the mines. A small warship, in and out to the platform and a few ships transitting through the system without stopping." Ryoko reported. "Nothing presently in the system. We are being painted by the platform though, they know we just jumped in."

"Good, that will focus their attention on us." Domino looked smug. "It will take at least half a day for a distress call to reach a UCS naval base and for a ship to jump in. We will be long gone before help arrives."

"Lay in an intercept course for the platform, quarter sublight speed." The Captain seemed to be enjoying herself, I wondered if this was her first action as a ship commander. "That should focus their scanners in this direction. Give it a few seconds then target the platform with the probe and ram it right up their ass."

I was not on the bridge crew back in the UCS Navy, but to repair systems I had a good grasp of how they worked. I had another look at Lyoko's screen and the probe was on the far side of the platform from our approach vector. Unpowered and moving just on inertia it had a small enough signature to read as a harmless asteroid passing through the system. Since it was not on a course to pose a threat to the platform it would have been detected but ignored.

"A probe that size will barely scratch the paint of the platform if it hits it at all." I blurted out, surely the Captain knew UCS defence platforms were armoured to withstand weapon fire?

"True enough Sweetcheeks, only this probe is an EMP torpedo." Domino did not even bother to rebuke me for speaking out of turn, she was probaly happy for the chance to show off and reveal her strategy for disabling the platform. "If that hits then it's lights out for those marines and that shitty platform."

It was a pretty simple plan, but with what I knew of this ship and UCS electronics it had a high chance of success. An EMP burst from the hit of the torpedo would knock out targeting systems and point defence for several minutes on a target of that mass. The Bitch had the speed to accelerate to close range in that time and knock out the neutralised weapons before they could get back online. That would get the Helcion ship safely in a position to dock and board. Still, there would be a full squad of marines to deal with, so Domino must have more tricks up her sleeve if she was confident her small crew could take out the marines in close combat aboard the defence platform. I continued to watch as the plan went into action, the probe suddenly changed course and accelerated fast. The Marines must have spotted it just a few seconds before it hit as point defence activated just before it struck and were attempting to get a target lock. The two icons on the screen merged and the one for the torpedo blinked out of existence.

"Direct hit!" Domino gloated. "Speed to full impulse, target all weapon systems and fire at will."

Within a couple of minutes, the fire from the Bitch had reduced the weaponry of the platform to scrap. I could imagine the scene onboard the defence platform as the Marines hastily donned battle armour and readied small arms to confront a boarding party. On the Bitch Domino ordered to crew to also prepare for boarding as the twins manoeuvred the ship to dock with the platform airlock.