The Siren, Part 1

The Song of the Sirens

Working as a pirate seemed to be the easy way of life – living by your own rules, living off other people’s property and profit, and owing to no one (well, except the law, perhaps). The Bilgra sector was easy pickings for piracy. Transports ranging from small freighters to large ore transports travelled in and out of the twelve systems in the sector, carrying ore and supplies from the many ore-rich asteroid belts found in the systems. The Morcap Corporation mines some of the richest asteroids. Morcap petitioned the Imperial Expanse Council to allocate one unit from the elite ranger force of GeePees – Galactic Police – to the sector to help deal with the pirates. The GP Unit 909 was assigned to the sector – The Hungry Wolves. Shoot first, ask questions later was their unofficial motto.

Captain Kratzolos “Krats” Obledon enjoyed the challenge of facing the most feared of all GeePee units. He drew their attention after he stepped up his operations by unprecedented levels. No one could understand how or why hundreds of shipments have disappeared in the past standard month. The Hungry Wolves were on the hunt.

Little did they know that Krats had discovered a little secret about an abandoned system – the Grenlish system. Nicknamed the Siren system, it was long abandoned after several attempts at mining ended in disaster. Mining the asteroid belt there was highly dangerous in this pulsar system.

The pulsar radiation interferes with any ships sensors if they fly too close. Legends say that it tricks sensors in believing it’s a jump point and causes many ships to jump straight into a star. As long as a ship stays outside the outer planet’s orbit, it is safe. However, any closer can lead to disaster.

Mining the asteroid belt has also proven to be very hazardous. The asteroids of this system are something of legends as well. They are shaped and curved like no other seen in the sector, like someone sculpted them. Made of a highly conductive ore, the pulsar signals pass through these rocky curve and holes to be shaped in ways to give off a wide range of strange signals detectable by just about any technology. The Song of the Sirens is legendary. In some cultures, the Song is considered the most beautiful and alluring sound in nature. While religions have been formed around it, some being drawn into the song. Of course, it too ends the same way with their ships being pulled into the pulsar jump point trap.

Expensive de-scrambling equipment developed to counter the pulsars effect but it was not practical to outfit a whole mining crew with it. But fortunately, Obledron was able to acquire enough of this technology to outfit his small band of pirates in the system and use the asteroid belt as a base of operations. Coupled with that, the pirates make no attempts to jump outside the far planet’s orbit and have established a stronghold like none other.

The pirate captain has manipulated some of the asteroids to cause the pulsar signal to trick incoming ships into following a Imperial Distress signal. With on little shift of an asteroid using shaped charges placed in the right place, sudden a signal is sent out causing nearby ships to immediately reroute here. Once in system, the interference prevents any signals getting out and the ships are easily overtaken.

It was here that Krats called the meeting of the Pirate Alliance to vue for more power. He wanted to be pirate king of the sector and with the Siren System under his control, very few could counter attempts to gain power.