Free The Veritian Derelict (Junkyard Dogs) by Phillip Nolte

Catskill-Soroyan system, November 29, 2598.
    The Captains of the two mining ships saw the flash of a powerful explosion and the resultant expulsion of debris from the communications suite on the top level of the mining station.
    With destruction of the communications facilities of this system and those of several other nearby systems, the Stage II communicator onboard the Carpathia was one of the few remaining in this portion of the quadrant. The Sheik's terrorist group now had all but total control of communications for a vast area. They could continue their nefarious activities with virtual impunity. Leaving the situation more or less at a holding spot, the destroyer and the yacht left the system.
    " Damn! That was close, Seamus! " radioed Patrick.
    "Don't I know it!" came the reply. "All we did was buy some time though. We'd better figure out what the hell we're gonna do next!"
     
    ***
     
    Piedmont Mining Station, Catskill-Soroyan system, November 29, 2598.
    Hartmann and his men retreated to the security office where they could regroup and consider their next response. An hour earlier the hijacked destroyer and the mysterious yacht had been forced to leave the vicinity of the mining station. As the enemy was departing, Hartmann and his men had not only heard a muffled thump from the explosion that destroyed the communications suite, they had felt a sharp tremor reverberate throughout the entire structure . Alarms had begun sounding again and red lights had begun lighting up all over his security boards. On his bank of monitors, the ones dedicated to the communications suite had gone blank.
    He and his small security force had immediately gone to the communications suite, on the opposite side of the station from the security offices, to survey the damage and secure the area. Discovering that the communications suite was now open to space, they sealed off several compartments adjacent to it to provide a pressurized buffer between the damaged area and the rest of the station.
    "Why in Space would these bastards want to attack a mining station?" asked one of the men as they made their way back towards the security suites.
    "For starters," said Hartmann, "they wanted to hijack that Tunisian destroyer."
    " They hijacked a destroyer? Are they mad?"
    "Maybe, but they appear to have succeeded. Seamus O'Connell watched it happen out of the front viewport of the Donegal . It looks like the crew managed to disable the weapons first, though."
    " But why attack the station itself? And why did they blow the communications equipment?"
    " I can understand them destroying communications," replied Hartmann, "we won't be able to contact anyone outside of this system for help."
    "Yeah, I guess that makes sense," replied the man.
    That and there are a lot of other things of value on board a mining station," continued Hartmann. "We have a lot of partially refined ore that's waiting to be shipped back to orbital smelting facilities. It's a little bulky but it could be worth something to them. More likely they're after something more compact and more readily exchanged. Every now and then the miners find a big chunk of something really valuable. I think there was more than a kilo of gold, several kilos of cobalt and smaller amounts of platinum and titanium in the big vault on the lower level."
    "So you think they're looking for some spoils that are easily converted to credits to help bankroll their operations?" asked one of the other men.
    "Probably, these people are almost always short of cash, no matter how fierce they appear to be. There's also the NITrans supply ship that's only about half unloaded. Any terrorist organization would be more than happy to get their hands on food, medicine, liquor and other goods that they could put to immediate use or also convert to easy credits."
    "It makes a lot more sense , now that you explain it."
    "Yes, it does, doesn't it ? Are the transfer berths secured yet?
    " Yes, we got right on that as soon as the