Chapter 53 - Valkyries' Test

(Shadowdancer, Valkyrie Assault shuttle: Hildr)

“These are Master’s orders. Take the frigate and prevent the pirates from blowing the ship. There are no other restrictions. Kill everyone, take them prisoner, hack their computers, whatever you like. Master expended considerable capital to obtain your team, and he wishes to see what you can do. Impress him, and he says that you will have more opportunities in the future.”

Jackie Day, former mercenary and now slave after an ‘altercation’ with a corrupt cop, grimaced at the screen as Captain Nyna mentioned her new Master. She still wasn’t keen on the whole ‘being a slave’ thing, but she was stuck with it. She and the rest of the Valkyries were all fitted with Stepford-style slave chips. That meant any attempt at rebellion could be quickly put down. Worse, they could easily have been turned into bimbofied sex pets for some creepy merchant who wanted a bedwarmer that could also act as a meat shield. They might be slaves, but they were still themselves, and their Master wasn’t forcing them to sleep with him, or any of the rest of the crew of the Shadowdancer, so there was that.

“Understood. Hildr launching now.”

Jackie looked to the rest of the Valkyries. Two humans, two knelfi, and a gauz, all females, and all with a complimentary set of skills that would allow them to take on a wide array of jobs. They’d taken a quick vote, and decided that Jackie would be the leader of this group, since she had the most small squad combat experience. She spared a glance to Ashera, their knelfi sweet-talker, who was at the controls of the shuttle as they launched, before turning to the others.

“All right, this is our first op outside the sims. Our ‘Master’ picked us an easy one to test us with. And don’t think that this isn’t a test. Viessa, you say that Master’s AI has some super hacking mods installed, right? Think they could just hack this frigate and be done with it?”

The Knelfi hacker considered that for a moment, and then nodded. “Possible, but it would take time, and they would be under fire. Most wouldn’t risk it, but their AI is pretty advanced, from what I’ve seen.”

Jackie nodded. “So this is a test. He’s trying to see what kind of jobs we can be trusted with. That’s why he took all the restrictions off. We could go like crazy people and blow the ship half to hell, and damn right it would be fun, so stop looking at me like that, Nerila.” The gauz with the penchant for fire and explosions had the decency to look sheepish for a moment, even though the grin on her lips never faded. Jackie continued, “But that would just tell him that we’re good for nothing more than mayhem. And while mayhem is fun, it tends to involve a very low life expectancy.”

Abby, the human medic, snorted at that. “What good is a long life expectancy to us? We’re slaves. Our lives aren’t exactly our own, any more. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying you all should go get yourselves shot up, but c’mon!”

The hell of it, Jackie knew, was that she was right. Sighing, she said, “Maybe, maybe not. I was talking with some of the girls from the Starlight Raven, you know, his actual harem? Anyways, they say he’s pretty fair with rewards when someone does good. That Captain Nyna? She is one of his slaves, and now he’s trusting her with the command of Shadowdancer. She’s still a slave, but she’s got it pretty damn good, from where I’m sitting.”

“Look, we’re each here for different reasons. Some of us deserve it, or worse. Some of us got a raw deal. But we’ve got the makings of a really solid mercenary team here. I’ve got tactical experience. Viessa is a crackerjack hacker. Abby, you’ve got that Confed Army training as a combat medic, right? Nerila, you’re a demolitions and heavy weapons goddess, from what we’ve been told. And Ashera is a born negotiator and manipulator, in every sense a woman can do such things.”

She paused, getting a read on the others. They seemed to be coming around to her way of thinking. “We are slaves. That ship sailed the moment we got those chips in our heads. But you all know that valuable slaves get treated better, and get better toys, right? We were bought to serve as a merc team. We do good, then we’re more valuable. We’re more valuable, we get to play with the best computers, the best things that go boom, the best medical tech, and so on. On the other hand, if we fuck this up, we’ll be lucky if we just get sent on suicide missions, or if he doesn’t decide to trade us in for something better. Would you rather be a merc doing jobs out in the black, or a whore at a spaceport brothel, getting dick from every spacer that comes through port?”

“And if we do REALLY good, we might even be allowed to save up enough to buy our freedom, and maybe a ship of our own. That sound like something worth working on to you?” Jackie looked at the others, and saw that they were hooked. “All right, then here’s the play. Two teams: Nerila, Abby, and myself on one, and Ashera and Viessa on two. Team One will go in hard and fast, going for the bridge. Team Two, hack the fuck out of their systems. If you can do that from the shuttle, that’s perfect. Stay here and hold the fort. Otherwise, make your way towards engineering and get control of the computers ASAP. Keep it tight when you can, but once we’re in a fight, end it as quickly as you can. Just be careful of friendly fire when using the grenades!”

(Pirate Ship Savage Rose)

Boarding an unfriendly disabled vessel was a fairly simple affair. You latched on to their hold, overrode their airlock controls, and then stormed the ship. The fact that it was a pirate ship made things far more difficult. For one, the entire crew was armed, though they clearly didn’t have much in the way of skill levels. The big problem was that everything was a hair’s breadth from falling apart. Pirates, it seemed, didn’t know about ‘preventative maintenance’. This was both good and bad for the Valkyries.

Bad, because they never knew when something was just going to explode in their face because they looked at it wrong. The environmental controls (otherwise known as ‘how people didn’t suffocate’) were clearly in bad shape, if the smell was anything to go by. And from Viessa’s cursing, it was clear that the Shadowdancer’s ion cannons had literally fried the ship’s datanet. They’d have to get to the computer core off the engineering spaces to control ship’s systems if the bridge was locked down.

On the other hand, there was some good news. The ion cannons had done a good enough job disabling the Savage Rose that it wasn’t going ANYWHERE without a couple hours of dedicated repair time, or a tow. And the weapons weren’t coming online without yard time, it looked like. Internal communications were down along with the datanet, and it looked like the ship had entered some kind of lockdown.

Viessa looked away from the terminal next to the airlock which she had been busy with, and sighed. “According to this unit, the entire ship was opened to vacuum. No obvious sign of breaches, so the system failure probably crossed a wire and signaled hull breaches in all sections. Good news is that we’ll be able to keep the pirates contained until we clear the ship, but splitting up is out of the question now. We don’t have enough explosives to blow every compartment hatch on the ship.”

Jackie nodded “And I wouldn’t bet against there being small hull breaches or toxic chemical leaks that we wouldn’t want to get into the rest of the ship, given the state of this tub. What about a self-destruct?”

Viessa shook her head. “Not seeing one. But I didn’t think there would be one. Who in their right mind serves on a ship that could blow up at any time?”

Abby coughed, and said, “Navy ships have self-destructs, to keep them from falling into the hands of the enemy. Drop the magnetic shielding around the antimatter supply and boom. Not something you can do remotely, and requires an officer’s command codes. There ARE nonmilitary ships that have self-destructs, but those are usually in the hands of religious fanatics, groups with a military-style warrior ethos, and spy vessels, or ships being used for other nefarious ends that would be problematic if news got out.”

When they all looked at her, the medic shrugged. “What? I may have been Army, but the Navy gets us from place to place, you know? And there’s not a lot to do in hyperspace. So I enjoyed my share of bubbleheads, and some things came up in pillow talk.”

Jackie sighed. “All right. If they can’t blow the ship remotely, then we’ll start by taking the bridge and seeing if we can regain communications. We’ll let the Captain and Master figure out what to do with the pirates once we’ve cleared our objectives. Agreed?” The others nodded, so Jackie grinned. “So let’s go meet a ‘pirate lord’!”

(Bridge, Savage Rose)

On the bridge of the Savage Rose, the scene was far different from when ‘Slayer’ Valkiam had made his first threat against the oddly configured freighter that had stumbled into the tarpit his crews had set up between Jagloth and Dimiya once they figured out that there was going to be a mass exodus from the system whenever the Navy got around to dealing with whatever had happened on the planet. The evacuation ships themselves would be almost enough to warrant the cost of a tarpit that covered the entire width of the ‘corridor’ between the two systems, but adding on the multitude of slaves and whatever valuables they carried just throwing themselves into his waiting arms? The potential score was more than he could fathom. And he could fathom quite a bit.

So he’d gotten the seven crews under his command, and split them into three groups, so they could cover the entire area easily. Tarpits were a well-known trap, after all. You had to jump the ship quick after they dropped into sublight or they would find the buoy, destroy it, and escape before you could claim your prize. While his crews had the advantage since the buoys had registered them as friends and wouldn’t affect their warp drives, it was still a lot of ground to cover.

“I don’t care what it takes! Get the Maker-damned communications back online! These bastards will pay for this! Avery, wasn’t your brother on the Demon? You going to let these treacherous no-name cockspits kill your brother and get away with it? And Wynnter, get those doors open so we can see what is taking that damn mechanic so long getting power back on!”

Triz, his Ihm first mate, slapped the deck with his tail, a sign that he was annoyed with something. “Cap’n, I’ve been going over the sensor logs. That second ship is definitely the stealthiest thing I’ve seen, but I think I know what happened to the Blackfish.”

“That’s something, at least, what was it?”

“A railgun.” Valkian just gave him a look, so the Ihm continued, “What sensor scans we could get of the second ship after it left stealth mode makes me think it is some kind of new stealth ship built around one massive rail gun. We detected a localized EM spike shortly before Blackfish went offline. Probably shot a hole clean through her. How it missed the reactor is anyone’s guess.”

Valkian bit back a curse at that. “There was no way for them to know we were coming. They clearly aren’t from any of the syndicates or bounty hunter organizations, and if that Captain was Navy I’ll eat my boot. So, what? We caught ourselves a couple merc ships? What would they be doing in a shithole like Jagloth?”

The doors to the bridge opened, and he was about to congratulate Wynnter, when he heard the knelifi wench yell in surprise. He barely had time to turn around before he joined the rest of the bridge crew on the ground, taken down under a hail of bolts from stunners.

The last thing he heard was a woman’s voice. “Secure these rats. We’ve still got to clean out Engineering before Master inspects his new prize.” So, he was done in, not by mercs, but slaves? Oh, he’d never live this indignity down!

And then darkness took him.

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Chapter 52 - Tarpit

Tarpit traps were the bane of any merchant ship’s existence. After all, no ‘legitimate’ authority ever had a reason for shutting down areas of hyperspace that could even remotely be considered beneficial for travel and business concerns. And the illegitimate groups (I hesitated to even think of them as ‘authorities’) all had very painful reasons why they’d want to force ships out of hyperspace. Usually involving the whole ‘pirates took the ship and made anyone who didn’t die a slave’ kind of deal. And since I wasn’t keen on becoming a slave, or in allowing any of my pretties to be pawed at by pirates, this meant I was not happy to hear about this development.

The passenger who was quite important to my job’s completion looked at me in confusion, not quite sure what she had just heard. “What’s a tarpit trap?”

I looked at the songstress, and shook my head. “That’d be the second way to try and attack ships in hyperspace. Gravity wells screw with the warp drives, which is why you can’t go to warp in low orbit unless you’re feeling particularly suicidal. So pirates and others who want to stop traffic will set up special buoys that send out signals which basically cause starship sensors to think there’s a planet in the way. Forces them out of warp, see?”

Alais frowned, considering this information. “But they can’t target a specific ship with that, can they?”

That got a smile from me. Technically, it was possible, if they had a beacon of some sort. You just seed the route with buoys, and only activate them when the targeted craft are in range. That usually meant having someone relaying your speed and vector when you left the planet’s gravity well to warp out, or having a long-range tracer on the ship. But the singer didn’t need to know about such tricks. “No, they can’t. It is easier to stop a ship with a tarpit than by getting close and attacking them in hyperspace, but you can’t pick and choose which ships you’re targeting, you get all of them which come in range. Now strap in, I’ve got to get to the bridge.”

Running into the cockpit, I sat at the pilot’s chair, since I was the best pilot on board, and began switching off the autopilot. As capable as Raven was at piloting her main ‘body’, I didn’t think armed combat was the best time for that unless we had no choice. “Raven, tightbeam to Shadowdancer. I see Nyna is in full stealth. Tell her to keep it quiet until our ‘host’ shows up, and keep all comms tightbeam only. We don’t want to give away the game too early.”

“Understood… Shadowdancer confirms deployment orders. Captain Nyna is keeping the ship 1000 meters behind us, and 500 meters above us on the relative ecliptic. Shadowdancer reports ready for action.”

A tarpit trap was, as I told Alais, essentially a beacon, or network of beacons, that gave off false signals to incoming ships telling their sensors that there was a significant mass in front of them. This tripped the safeguards built into every hyperdrive engine in existence. It was a known issue, but nobody with an ounce of common sense or a shred of sanity would disable those safeguards. Even if your navigation was perfect, there were enough derelict ships, rogue comets or planetoids, and any number of other hazards that you absolutely needed those safeguards in place.

No matter how good your shields were, impacting a solid mass at greater than light speed would be fatal. The resulting explosion was big enough that people considered making FTL missiles, once upon a time, as a ‘first strike’ weapon, but a 100 kg weapon moving at 500c would end up being big enough to destroy a small moon outright. As in, blow it apart so badly that its gravity couldn’t pull it back together afterwards. On an inhabited planet? All life would be gone. Period. It would make the asteroid that killed the dinosaurs look like a roman candle in comparison. If you were being VERY generous.

Suffice to say, this is one of the few arms control treaties that pretty much everyone respected. Anyone found using, developing, stockpiling, or doing anything other than destroying the hell out of them on sight, would be essentially wiped off the face of the galaxy by literally everyone else. The last time a terrorist group tried to do something like that, they were killed by their own people in ways that would redefine ‘extreme prejudice’. Hell, even nukes, bioweapons, and nanoplagues didn’t get this kind of reaction from people.

At any rate, to deploy a tarpit, you had to spread the beacons in an area of space that you figured ships would cross in hyperspace. Space was big, so tarpits were usually on ‘least time’ courses between major systems, or in bottlenecks, like the Rohadendron Gap between two dark matter nebulae that channeled most of the traffic between the Bagra and Theda systems into a relatively narrow corridor. Of course, space was huge, so even a small ‘corridor’ could be quite large, which meant we’d probably see our ‘host’ jumping in at any second to try and shake us down, now that their beacon’s sensors had gotten a chance to see we weren’t a warship.

Right on cue, three ships warped in, about a light-minute away from our position. They were a motely group of what looked like an Ihm corvette, an Imperial frigate, and what looked like a knelfi armed transport ship. As the light reached us, I could see big bay doors on the side of the ship. Probably converted into a fighter platform, then? We were looking at pirates, for sure.

FREIGHTER SHADE OF ZINTHOS, YOU ARE UNDER THE GUNS OF A WARSHIP. HEAVE TO AND PREPARE TO BE BOARDED FOR INSPECTION. FAILURE TO COMPLY WILL RESULT IN YOUR BEING FIRED UPON.

Aww, that was so cute how they thought we wouldn’t see that they were pirates. I opened the channel to the Shadowdancer. “Nyna, are you getting this?”

“Yes, Master. Orders?”

“The ships are all older models, but I find I am not in love with the idea of what looks like a tramp carrier being allowed to launch fighters. That would complicate my life to no end, I’m sure. It is time for a live-fire test of Shadowdancer’s big gun. Remove that carrier from my sky, and then proceed to disable the frigate.”

“Understood. The Raven will handle the corvette?”

“Yes. And have the Valkyries standing by ready to launch. They may launch when the frigate loses engine power. Tell them that this is their chance to prove to me what they can do. If they do well, let them know that there will be plenty more opportunities to ‘play’ in the future. Their objective is to seize control of the frigate and prevent the pirates from escaping or self-destructing. Otherwise, there are no restrictions on this run. I want to see what they’re made of.”

“Understood, Master. The Valkyries will be ready.”

“I know they will. Raven out.” With that done, I checked the ranges. We were closing with the ‘warships’, and our weapons were ready. I smiled as Raven noted the EM pulse as the Shadowdancer fired at the pocket carrier. Raven did the math, and noted that it would be one minute until impact. Might as well make the show worth the cost of admission.

I opened a channel to the frigate that hailed us. “This is Shade of Zinthos. And just who am I speaking to? I don’t see a flag on the side of your ship that says I have to pay attention to a damn word you say.”

The screen showed me a scruffy looking Knelfi (didn’t know that was possible) man who sneered at me. “Then you’re a fool! I am ‘Slayer’ Valkiam, pirate lord of the—” I was sorry (not sorry) to cut the man off, but that was when I fired the particle cannons at the corvette. It was a direct hit, and looked like it did some godawful damage to the bow of the ship, which wasn’t helped by Cali or Jaynie opening fire now that the shields were down, or the missile I launched afterwards. Before ‘Slayer’ Valkiam could get his wits about him, the corvette was a cloud of rapidly expanding gas and debris.

“I’ll kill you for this! No one makes a fool of ‘Slayer’ Valkiam! Have Jameson launch his fighters! I want this ship bleeding atmo in five minutes!” There was a pause, as one of the people off screen said something, and then, “WHAT DO YOU MEAN, THE BLACKFISH HAS BEEN DESTROYED? FIND WHAT KILLED THAT SHIP, DAMNIT! ALL GUNS, ALL MISSILES, FIRE!”

I had to engage in some hasty maneuvering at that point, since the full firepower of the frigate was focused on my ship for a moment. The shields held under what fire we couldn’t avoid as we accelerated into a broadside with the frigate, and ‘all missiles’ turned out to be four, and the missiles were extremely dated, especially in the area of their ability to avoid point defense. They didn’t get close.

The frigate turned to try and chase us, but then two particle cannons reached out and slammed into the frigate’s aft quarter. Shadowdancer had elected that moment to announce their entry into the fray. The frigate held up for a moment under the particle cannons, but by then, it was under the guns of the turrets on both Shadowdancer and the Starlight Raven. The frigate’s shields collapsed, and concerted strikes from Shadowdancer’s ion cannons quickly had them dead in the water.

As promised, the Valkyries launched as soon as the frigate stopped accelerating. Time to see what my girls could do.

But before we could enjoy the spoils of the frigate, I decided to take the Raven across the battlefield so we could see the remains of this ‘Blackfish’ that our less than illustrious ‘pirate lord’ was yelling about. Apparently, that was the name of the pocket carrier I’d had Shadowdancer target. Surprisingly, there was still a wreck to investigate.

This was surprising, because the main gun of my corvette should have been enough to wipe that converted freighter from the face of the universe with a single shot. Unfortunately, what we had here was a case of overpenetration. It was the same as in the real world when you shoot someone with a really powerful gun, and the bullet goes all the way through, but sometimes shooting a person wearing a ‘bulletproof’ vest might take more damage because the damn plates (the front one, if you’re lucky) transfer more of the kinetic energy to the target, causing all kinds of unpleasantness. The Shadowdancer was literally too powerful for shooting civilian craft, and punched a hole straight through the ship, from bow to stern.

Of course, considering that said line took out the bridge, engineering, the main reactor, and the engines, I was still willing to call this test fire a success. The ship may not have been obliterated, but the ship was powerless and dead, along with most of her crew. The only life signs Raven could detect looked to be poor schmucks trapped in the fighter bays, which were still exposed to vacuum. But without orders, and a very definitive show of the power we had available, those crews were sitting tight. For now.

It would be interesting to see what kind of salvage we could pull out of the freighter.

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Frozen Soul series (Sci-Fi Supervillain story):

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Tales of the Void Traveler https://www.amazon.com/dp/B06ZZ52G37

Rules-Free VRMMO Life (Dark Fantasy LitRPG):

Volume 1 - Tutorial https://www.amazon.com/dp/B071VPRNDB

Into the Black (Sci-Fi LitRPG):

Book I - Game Start https://www.amazon.com/dp/B071LT5WGL

City of Champions Online (Superhero LitRPG):

Issue I - Origin Stories https://www.amazon.com/dp/B075SHXQS1

The Kalipshae Affair (A First Contact Short Story): https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0739V6R6T

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Chapter 51 - Concerted Chaos

(Starlight Raven, in transit between Jagloth and Dimiya)

The trip from Jagloth to Dimiya is a little less than two weeks long, assuming you don’t make any stops. Even on the best ships, that’s putting everyone in close quarters, and as I might have mentioned, the Raven was not designed as a passenger cruiser. Which is how I ended up in the whole ‘harem’ situation, to begin with.

Still, the girls were kind enough to keep things on a low simmer around Kiki (who was looking for a more monogamous kind of lifestyle) and our passenger, for which I was thankful. I didn’t need any extra hassles from women treating me like a living, breathing sex toy. Not that I was complaining, much. But my in-game life was starting to feel like a cheesy manga.

Kiki had really come into her own as part of the crew. Well, not an actual part of the crew, but she was part of the ‘family’, I guess you could say. She made a good fit with everyone, and even Sona seemed to like her. Well, the kitten seemed to like everyone, since that is what I’d programmed her to do, but it was a lot less forced when she was dealing with Kiki. Probably because Kiki was the only one of the girls that didn’t use her like a pet or toy.

Our passenger, Alais Loraric, was apparently a performer on Jagloth, back when there was a Jagloth. Sadly, the company she had recording deals with was based on Jagloth, so she was out of a job now. But back when she actually had a job, she was a singer. Her specific type of music was apparently something like an old school cabaret or burlesque show, mixed with some traditional knelfi songs done in that style. Wasn’t quite the genre I normally listened to, but I could see the appeal.

Which did not in any way prepare me for what I saw when I stepped into the galley in order to get some breakfast. There were Shearah and Carissa, doing a kind of sensual dance while Alais gave pointers. OK, so they were learning how to do a sexy burlesque dance. That’s something I could approve of, since I was the one they’d likely be dancing for, and that would definitely be hot. No, what surprised me was when I sat at the table with a breakfast of instant eggs and bacon, and saw Raven’s holographic avatar shrunk down to twelve-inch height copying them while standing on the table.

Since I barely avoided spraying orange juice over the table at that, I had to take a couple breaths to keep from choking, before asking Raven, quietly, “Anything you’d like to tell me, Raven?”

The avatar, which had been giggling at my reaction, walked over and ‘sat’ on the edge of my plate. She was wearing a ‘little black dress’ that had a big emphasis on ‘little’, so she ended up showing a lot of leg, though not showing anything naughty in that sexy way women always seem to be able to pull off. “You know, Captain, sometimes a girl just likes to feel pretty. Especially when her Captain fucks anything that moves, but doesn’t even give her a second glance. That’s a pretty big blow to the ego, you know!”

I blinked, not sure what I just heard. I looked back at my orange juice, considering whether it was drugged, but a look at my status screen didn’t show any debuffs, so that couldn’t be it, right? I took a moment to breathe, and organize my thoughts, before saying, “I don’t ‘fuck anything that moves’, you know! But it just happens that there are a lot of ladies who find me very desirable, and can’t get enough of me. And I’ve put most of them on this ship. And most of them were trying to seduce me, not the other way around!”

By this point, our conversation had gotten the others’ attention. I looked up to see all three ladies staring at us (me, really) with barely contained mirth. Shearah was the one who broke the silence, giggling, “Yes, Master was VERY good at seducing me. Can you blame me for telling the rest of my ‘sisters’ about how good you were? And since entertainment options are limited…”

Carissa smirked as she walked over to me, and said, “Come, now, Master. You know that you enjoyed every bit of it!” Then she looked at Raven, and said, “And you! If you wanted to join in the dancing, you didn’t need to hide! You could have joined us in your drone body, or as a full-size avatar!”

Raven starts pouting at this point, and shifts so that she’s now ‘sitting’ in the chair next to me, full size, just so she can properly stick her tongue out at Carissa. I decided to break that little spat up before it got started (no way I wanted to be in between the ship and the ship’s doctor if they were fighting), and said, “So, Raven, what is it you want?”

That just caused Alais to shake her head. “Wow, you guys sure do things differently on this ship. Did you get the AI already programmed for emotions, or did you add that in later? Most people don’t go for that option because it can lead to problems down the road, especially if emotions and logic start arguing with eachother.”

In truth, I’d almost forgotten Alais was there. “Well, Raven is special. She hasn’t told us much about her past, other than complaining about the last couple idiots who owned this ship, but she’s a lot more intelligent and sensitive than the AIs you see elsewhere. Treat her like a normal person, and you’ll get along fine.”

The singer blinked at that, and said, “You never asked where an AI that is this good at emulating a person came from? Truly sentient AIs are insanely rare, you know! If there were more like her…”

“There aren’t. And I hope there never are.” All eyes turned sharply to Raven, as she spoke so coldly. It was only because I was one of the ones who talked the most with her, but I noticed her hands were shaking. I don’t think the line of questioning had done anything to upset her, since it had happened every time we had a new crew member or passenger show up, but maybe it brought up some bad memories?

I sighed, and said, “And you don’t need to tell us about it until you feel like it, Raven, though if it will pose a danger to the crew, I’d appreciate a heads up, yeah?”

Raven sighed, and said, “All I’ll say is that I used to be human. And the change wasn’t by choice.”

Alais winced, as did we all. Full uploads were notoriously hazardous. They usually killed the meat body, and they rarely achieved a complete upload of the person’s consciousness and memories, causing Bad Things™ to happen. Usually, any forced uploads got deleted, with prejudice, after they went mad and tried to exterminate people. After that, it was made illegal in most places to do full uploads, the most you were able to legally do is have a memory backup with a blank AI that learned to emulate you over time as it synchronized to your emotions and memories. It was a kind of cheating death, but the new entity wasn’t you, not really, even if it had all your memories up to the point you last backed yourself up.

Those who were rich enough would then have that ‘backup’ put in a drone or other artificial body upon their ‘death’ to keep things looking above-board. But whether those ‘backups’ were treated as actual people or not differed by area. Some planets allowed the backup to have full access to their properties in life as thought hey were the same person. Some required that the will specifically give the backup access. And there were a few that decided that the backups were merely property, not people. Those places had the same views on all AIs, usually formed from some kind of religious or moral viewpoint.

Raven sighed, and said, “Sorry, Captain, just some stuff I have to work through, that I thought I had already put behind me. It’s just that you’re my first ‘owner’ since my… change who has thought of me as an actual person, instead of a dumb AI playing at one, so it brought back all kinds of stupid human emotions.”

I nodded. “No worries, Raven. Like I said, you don’t have to tell us anything you don’t want. And if there’s something you want, you can tell me in private some time when the girls are sleeping.” I winked conspiratorially at the avatar, before looking back towards our guest. Time for a quick change of subject!

“So, Miss Loraric, you have family on Dimiya?”

The singer smiled, seeing what I was doing, but nodded. “Yes, though I was born on Jagloth, my parents were from Dimiya originally. They moved because they wanted to be academics instead of getting involved in the family business, you see. But my Uncle sends me messages often, so I know he’s doing all right. When I was trapped in the outer system by the… infection taking over Jagloth City, Uncle suggested I make for Charybdis Station and try to get a ride out of the system.”

I nodded. “I see. Your Uncle must be quite important to know about a backup smuggler station in a system this far from Dimiya. Lucky that we were heading the same way, then. I take it that the mention of potential trouble in the job notice now that we’re away from the station isn’t just because of your fame on Jagloth, then?”

Alais nodded. “Yes, Uncle Elnaril is a good man, but the family business is cutthroat, and so he has enemies. My parents and I were ‘out of play’, you might say, while we were on Jagloth. With the situation on Jagloth becoming unstable, and my returning to Dimiya, there was some concern that things could become… complicated.”

I nodded slowly. I’d half expected something like this. After all, why would a famous singer go to Charybdis instead of the Navy unless she had connections that were more likely to get her out of the system there? “So in other words, your Uncle’s enemies may take this as the perfect opportunity to try and take you captive to use as leverage against your Uncle. Well, don’t worry too much. The Starlight Raven may not look like much, kid, but she’s got it where it counts. I’ve made some special improvements, myself, since I got ownership of her.”

Alais looked slightly relieved, and said, “I’ve never made a study of it, but now that we’re in hyperspace we should be safe until we get to Dimiya’s system, right?”

I motioned for Raven to take this one. “Ordinarily, yes. Arranging an intercept at FTL speeds is quite difficult due to the various factors involved, and attempting a boarding while in hyperspace is nearly impossible without a severely specialized vessel. The ordinary method for targeting a ship in hyperspace is to use weapons to try and force them into sublight speeds, or risk being destroyed outright.”

“But why would a ship in hyperspace drop to sublight just so pirates could attack them?”

“Because while in hyperspace, the majority of the ship’s shields are directed forwards, and are devoted to safely deflecting any particles we come across. There is actually a dual-layer of shielding, so that the radiation doesn’t kill us, or get shoved in front of us like a miniature supernova when we come out of hyperspace. If the shields fail while you’re in hyperspace, then you’ll be lucky if all that happens is your ship is instantly vaporized. Which is why hyperdrives have safety features to kick a ship out of hyperspace if the shield starts fluctuating.”

Suddenly, the ship shuddered, like it was making an emergency transition back to sublight. I looked at Raven, and she said, “Emergency transit from hyperspace! Gravitic field fluctuations detected! Captain, I think someone set a tarpit trap for us!”

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Frozen Soul https://www.amazon.com/dp/B071R125QT

Tales of the Void Traveler https://www.amazon.com/dp/B06ZZ52G37

Rules-Free VRMMO Life (Dark Fantasy LitRPG):

Volume 1 - Tutorial https://www.amazon.com/dp/B071VPRNDB

Into the Black (Sci-Fi LitRPG):

Book I - Game Start https://www.amazon.com/dp/B071LT5WGL

City of Champions Online (Superhero LitRPG):

Issue I - Origin Stories https://www.amazon.com/dp/B075SHXQS1

The Kalipshae Affair (A First Contact Short Story): https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0739V6R6T

LitRPG facebook group:

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Prologue - Trade Chat

(NERV Game Site – Official DAtS Offline Forums)

Number5Alive, Golddigger, BurtBacharach, CrazyCelt, M.Mollen, DoYouEvenLyft?, MarcoPolo, MightMakesRight, l44tpally, Lord_Kickass, Requiesce-in-Pace, MacD, HaveGunsWillTravel, Guardian, GunKitty, ElfMama, Not_the_Face!, Anonymous3, Anonymous9, AggregatorOfSorrows, LeashLord, WhiskeyTangoFoxtrot, Dolcett, Backlog, DarkAvariel, Knocker, GrimDark, BloodForTheBloodGod, Queen’s_Bitch, Lord_Kickass, BackDat@55Up, DoYouEvenDPS?, and DarkAngel are in the chat.

l44tpally: HOLY SHIT! Did you see the news on Jagloth?

GrimDark: The elves may be Xenos, but they do good work with an Exterminatus.

CrazyCelt: What prompted them to drop the hammer?

M.Mollen: The dumbass who started the whole thing outed himself to me in a play to try and get off-world.

Knocker: So?
M.Mollen: So I gave his coordinates to the quarantine ships anonymously. They used kinetic strikes on his location. After that, the asshole launched a bunch of missiles that carried nanites, and infected the rest of the planet.

Not_the_Face!: Damn. Decided that subtlety was a thing of the past?

LeashLord: Everything was going fine until he ruined everything!

Dolcett: YOU FUCKING TWO BIT CUM GARGLING—

KarmaBot (Admin): Dolcett has been muted for 2 minutes.

M.Mollen: So anyways, the rest you can see on the news reports. The quarantine group lost one ship, but the last remaining station in orbit was saved, and they exterminated all life on the planet with extreme prejudice.

DarkAvariel: No kidding. That BCV they fired burned off the entire atmosphere, boiled away all the water, and slagged the surface.

LeashLord: I was fucking trapped in a fallout shelter, but whoever was in charge of keeping it stocked went more for booze and drugs than food. And when I die, I’m locked to respawning on the surface! There’s no atmosphere there!

MightMakesRight: So reset.

LeashLord: The company locked my account! I can log in, but I can’t reset, can’t delete or trade the character, and I can’t even create a new account!

BloodForTheBloodGod: So in other words, all you can do is either spawn suffocating in vacuum repeatedly, or quit the game forever?

LeashLord: Yeah.

BloodForTheBloodGod: Brutal. I like it!

GrimDark: For once I agree with the heretic.

M.Mollen: A fitting punishment for someone who deliberately tried to break the game. Hell, they probably only kept you around and didn’t delete you altogether so that you can serve as an example to keep others from trying the same thing.

LeashLord: Shut the fuck up, backstabber.

M.Mollen: I’m a liar, cheat, and a scoundrel, but I’m not the one who started reading from the Idiot’s Guide to Starting the Apocalypse. Dumbass.

Lord_Kickass: Can someone come rescue me on Dabara? I managed to convince the guy who rescued me to not send me on the nanite mission. Unfortunately, he still made me get the gender swap, and now I’m an indentured servant (read: slave) and am doing… videos to pay off the debt. Why didn’t someone tell me what ‘Vore’ was before I signed that contract?

GunKitty: AHAHAHAHAHA!

Guardian: Damn, son. Or is it sister now?

DarkAngel: Sucks to be you. Always read the fine print!

WhiskeyTangoFoxtrot: What is Vore?

BurtBacharach: *cough*

DoYouEvenLyft?: Heh-heh…

M.Mollen: Dolcett, you want to take that one?

Dolcett: Hehe. Well, Vore is basically a fetish that revolves around people getting eaten, either during or after sex. Sometimes before (the internet is strange). Includes both cannibalism and monsters eating people.

GrimDark: So… you’re getting repeatedly fucked, killed, and eaten, and they’re selling the videos of that to pay off your debt?

Lord_Kickass: Yeah.

GrimDark: DAMN! And I thought 40K was brutal!

M.Mollen: Ooh, my AI just found one of his videos. Lady Kickass vs. the Ogre Lord.

Guardian: Movie night on the Raven!

Lord_Kickass: Just shoot me now.

Requiesce-in-Pace: You can’t afford it.

M.Mollen: Oh look, another one! Lady Kickass and the Brentwood Society.

Dolcett: Hmm. I might need to visit Dabara. For reasons.

M.Mollen: Getting hungry, Dolcett? Or looking to go on the menu?

Dolcett: Both?

BurtBacharach: *backs away slowly*

MacD: Yeah, so… um, you have fun, Kicky, and I’m going to be over here drinking until I forget I ever read this.

Queen’s_Bitch: Don’t kink-shame. Sure, it is a weird fetish, but doing it in virtual means you get the whole experience without all the death and criminal charges. Not my thing, but I don’t judge.

l44tpally: Moving on to ANYTHING ELSE…

M.Mollen: Anyone know the situation on Dimiya?

ElfMama: Everything’s quiet, for now. Normal political stuff, but this is the knelfi homeworld, and knelfi live as long as elves, so…

Guardian: So they play the long game, instead of the crazy stuff you see in the Empire?

ElfMama: Yeah.

M.Mollen: Good, I look forward to a nice, easy payoff for taking refugees out of Jagloth, and then some nice, simple profitable trading runs.

GunKitty: Aww, what’s the matter? I thought you were having fun?

M.Mollen: Yeah, but it’d be great to have a bit of a vacation before finding the next crisis. Maybe do some nice, relaxing pirate hunting?

HaveGunsWillTravel: You know you just jinxed us, right?

Guardian: Uh-oh.

Backlog: Your people know you so well, M.Mollen.

M.Mollen: A man can dream, can’t he?

Guardian: Stop dreaming, we’re watching the idiot’s movies now!

GunKitty: Poor man, trapped on a ship full of women, and most of them constantly want his… attention.

BackDat@ssUp: Well, I wish I had half his problems, then.

Dolcett: Slave market is that way. As long as you have credits, you can get yourself a pretty young thing to always enjoy your ‘charms’ whenever you want.

BackDat@ssUp: True, but it isn’t quite the same.

M.Mollen: No, it isn’t. But even slaves can come to be very demanding of their masters, wanting more attention all the time. Right, Guardian?

Guardian: Hehe!

HaveGunsWillTravel: Shameless hussy. :)

Guardian: As if you’re any better, or do you think Raven didn’t show us what happened the last time you snuck on the bridge saying you were going to learn to pilot the ship.

GunKitty: She definitely got a lot of ‘stick time’, but I’m not sure it was the right kind.

M.Mollen: You see what I have to put up with all the time? Harems are tough.

Previous Chapter                                         Table of Contents                                            Next Chapter

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Frozen Soul series (Sci-Fi Supervillain story):

Frozen Soul https://www.amazon.com/dp/B071R125QT

Tales of the Void Traveler https://www.amazon.com/dp/B06ZZ52G37

Rules-Free VRMMO Life (Dark Fantasy LitRPG):

Volume 1 - Tutorial https://www.amazon.com/dp/B071VPRNDB

Into the Black (Sci-Fi LitRPG):

Book I - Game Start https://www.amazon.com/dp/B071LT5WGL

City of Champions Online (Superhero LitRPG):

Issue I - Origin Stories https://www.amazon.com/dp/B075SHXQS1

The Kalipshae Affair (A First Contact Short Story): https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0739V6R6T

LitRPG facebook group:

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Epilogue - Patch Notes 5.X

(Virtual Room in NERV HQ)

The destruction of Jagloth was horrifying to watch. Even though they knew such weapons were in the game, the gamemasters and others who worked to try and make sure that the code and hardware kept working smoothly were stunned to see one actually in use.

“Deus meus, ex toto corde poenitet me omnium meorum peccatorum, eaque detestor, quia peccando, non solum poenas a Te iuste statutas promeritus sum, sed praesertim quia offendi Te, summum bonum, ac dignum qui super omnia diligaris. Ideo firmiter propono, adiuvante gratia Tua, de cetero me non peccaturum peccandique occasiones proximas fugiturum. Amen.”

Morgan wasn’t sure who said the prayer, but she mumbled an amen after it was finished. She wasn’t even Catholic! But she was more a once a month type of Baptist, if that. There was always so much work to do. She simply stared, dumbly, at the screen, watching a planet burn. She simply didn’t have the words to express what she felt at the sight.

Isaac, however, did, “Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds.”

Morgan blinked, and turned to look at the man. He was clearly in shock as well, his infinitely refilling plate of nachos forgotten in front of him. “What?”

The head GM of DAtS looked sheepish as he noticed that Morgan was talking to him. “It is an old Hindu text, translated by an American. He was one of the ones that made the first atomic bombs.”

Morgan nodded slowly. “I guess that fits. But how did you know that quote?”

Isaac shrugged. “I was watching Hunt for Red October last night. Never was there a more Scottish Russian naval captain, I assure you.”

A cough came from behind them. “Um, sir? We have an update on the Jagloth situation.”

Isaac laughed, “Yeah, I think we all just saw the last ‘update’.”

“N-no. We have an update on who likely started the Jagloth situation.”

That got Morgan’s attention, fast. “WHAT? We’ve been looking through the logs of everyone on the damn planet? Should have taken another few accelerated weeks before we could comb through everything, right?”

“Yes, ma’am. But one of the techs was listening in on the bridge conversations of the Starlight Raven. A player identified on the forums and chat logs as LeashLord implicated himself as being either behind the Legion, or being somehow able to affect it.”

Isaac nodded. “And once you had a single person’s logs to run through than God knows how many, the search sped up considerably, yes?”

“Yes sir. We found proof of what happened. He didn’t hack the game code, or use any kind of illegal exploit, so the AI didn’t flag his actions for review.”

Isaac sighed. “Damn. Another exploit caused by players doing things we never expected. All right, how did this one happen?”

“It appears that he gained access to both the highly restricted Hundeherstellar nanites, as well as some medical gear and nanoware implant tech. If Jagloth’s police were still around, they’d be arresting him for all manner of ‘illegal use’ and ‘illegal modification’ charges, even before the charges he’d face for actually creating the Legion. But he used in-game tools and in-game knowledge to do so.”

Morgan nodded. “Meaning we wouldn’t catch on until it was too big to stop. Asshole. What are we going to do about making sure this doesn’t happen again?”

A second tech spoke up. “We can put a patch in the monitoring code that flags people with the in-game skills and knowledge, so we can keep a closer watch on them. Having the governments in-game use this as a point to crack down on the illegal nanite trade would probably help make sure anyone with the ability to cause a disaster like this would be noticed and caught either in game or out of it before they can cause another calamity.”

Morgan nodded. “I like that. We can spin that easily, in game and out. We’ll even get some of those people who are complaining to shut up if they realize it was an extreme griefer using in-game tools rather than illegal hacks, which is why we took so long to identify the culprit. We’ll frame it as a privacy issue. ‘Just because we have logs of everything that happens in-game, we do not and will not invade our users’ privacy by actively monitoring everything they do…’ Yeah, that’ll work…”

As Morgan went off into PR spin-space, Isaac turned and looked at the others. “All right. We’ve got a patch to write, and when Morgan comes out of her happy place, she’s going to want to know what penalties we’ve slapped on LeashLord for trying to break the game.”

“The AI apparently already has taken steps. LeashLord’s character is locked, so it cannot be traded or deleted, and his respawn has apparently been locked to the center of the crater that used to be Jagloth City. As soon as he runs out of food, water, and air in the Gubernatorial bunker he was hiding in when the attack started, he’s going to die, and then be respawned on the surface of an airless, lifeless world in his underwear. Every time.”

Isaac whistled. “If I didn’t know better, I’d say that the AI was angry at him. All right, that works. Write it up so it looks like one of you came up with it, instead of the AI. And check all email, social media, and bank accounts associated with the player’s account, so he cannot just try and make a new character or get around the ban in other ways.”

One of the techs who was observing the situation elsewhere in the galaxy groaned. Isaac looked over there, “Hendly, what did you find?”

“Daft bastards intent on making the Empirie go into all kinds of strangeness, is what I found, sir. Don’t know what is going on, but the word from the Imperial fleet is that the Emperor got involved in something on the planet, and no contact with them since.”

“DAMNIT!”

End of Book V.

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Frozen Soul series (Sci-Fi Supervillain story):

Frozen Soul https://www.amazon.com/dp/B071R125QT

Tales of the Void Traveler https://www.amazon.com/dp/B06ZZ52G37

Rules-Free VRMMO Life (Dark Fantasy LitRPG):

Volume 1 - Tutorial https://www.amazon.com/dp/B071VPRNDB

Volume 2 - Beginning the Journey https://www.amazon.com/dp/B071VR7M41/

Volume 3 - Wyrmwood https://www.amazon.com/dp/B072QKVBYV

Volume 4 - To the Deeps https://www.amazon.com/dp/B073QSD9S4

Volume 5 - Power Base https://www.amazon.com/dp/B074KGVN5T

Volume 6 - Taking the Show on the Road https://www.amazon.com/dp/B075ZFY3PR

Into the Black (Sci-Fi LitRPG):

Book I - Game Start https://www.amazon.com/dp/B071LT5WGL

Book II - Choson Ring https://www.amazon.com/dp/B071X3LL9D

Book III - Alpha Centauri https://www.amazon.com/dp/B073X8J9GF

Book IV - Aquarian Desert https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0756V1VX5

City of Champions Online (Superhero LitRPG):

Issue I - Origin Stories https://www.amazon.com/dp/B075SHXQS1

The Kalipshae Affair (A First Contact Short Story): https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0739V6R6T

LitRPG facebook group:

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Chapter 50 - Exterminatus

(Aphrodite Colony, Venus)

Emperor Travis looked in the mirror of the dressing room that had been provided for him. The negotiations with the powerful AI that controlled this colony had been quite fruitful. It seemed that the century of exile had left the AI in an appropriately humble mood, and it had wanted to rejoin the Empire again.

As any right thinking individual ought.

As tribute, the AI had offered up the most vexing ability that the Nomads possessed, Immortality. Travis did not understand the technical details the AI had used, but apparently in its exile it had forged vast server farms from the materials in Venus’s rocky soil, allowing it to process information far faster than any normal computer could. In the several months the Nomads had been traipsing about the galaxy, doing as they pleased, Deus had spent the equivalent of several decades studying them, after one foolish Nomad had, apparently, managed to circumvent the fleet base above, and got captured by the AI.

That research had gleaned the truth of their immortality, and some of their other unique abilities. It had even uncovered a secret communications network that only Nomads could use, which would have allowed spies and traitors to send information to contacts across Known Space without any Imperial forces being the wiser!

Such a thing could not be allowed to pass unchecked. Travis would not allow any threats to develop against his empire. They would be torn out, root and branch, and cast into the fire, making the galaxy safe for all citizens of the Empire. The citizens would love him for the safety and security he would provide for them. Even the Xeno slaves would come to fear and respect his might. He would lead the Empire to a new golden age!

But first, he needed the power of immortality. Travis stripped off his clothing, and considered himself in the mirror. He was not normally known for being vain, but he could not help but appreciate his own form at times. His genes were, of course, perfect, and he had gone through extensive modifications over the years, so that now he looked like a god straight from the myths of ancient times, well-muscled, and with an impressive ‘hammer’ between his legs that his pleasure slaves and lovers had always appreciated. Conditioned both by genes and training for strength and endurance, Travis might not be in the same category as the brutes that filled out the heavy infantry in terms of raw power, but he could not but admit to being in the top 1% of the 1% of humanity’s gene pool.

He was not ashamed of his nakedness, though he did not make a habit of strutting around without some measure of protection. After all, it was far easy for an assassin to strike you down if you weren’t wearing armor. Even if he achieved immortality, royal clothing and powered armor gave an image of strength that his subjects and enemies alike would understand all too well. That would prevent many foolish attempts on his life, allowing his spymasters to focus on the ones that truly mattered.

Now, though, he walked across the drab, grey room, lit only by a murky pool swirling with chemicals. To one side, several of his Palace guards were waiting, and watching. In front of them was the physical avatar the AI had selected for this meeting, a servitor drone in the likeness of a man with a long, angular face, neatly trimmed goatee, a black turban upon his head, and robes of black and purple in an old Arabic style. In one hand, it held a scepter shaped like a cobra. For some reason, the AI chuckled as it called this drone ‘Jafar’.

Travis looked at his small audience, and said, “Now is the hour of our destiny! Now is the hour of our triumph! For too long, the Empire has been held back by those who would deny us our birthright! Now we take the universe into our own hands! With the secrets of immortality within our grasp, the Empire shall reign eternal, and all the galaxy shall be under our rule! Whether they are traitors or xenos, none shall stand against the might of the Immortal Terrans!”

Turning to look at the pool, Travis said, “But first We must be reborn into immortality! The powers of the Nomads are now Ours for the taking. We shall bathe in the pools of Venus, and when We emerge, We will bring destruction and death to those who thought to deny Our rule, and risk civil war on the brink of our new conflict with the Confederation! All witness the glory of the Empire!”

As one, the Guards snapped to attention, and there was a clashing of gauntlets against armor plates as they saluted, and replied, “HAIL THE EMPEROR! GLORY TO THE EMPIRE!”

The Jafar drone watched the guards, and then copied the salute, in a manner one might expect of a creature not used to physical interaction. With a smile upon its face, the drone said, in a low, seductive tone, “Glory to the Empire, indeed!”

Travis nodded, and then steeled himself. The AI had told him that this would not be a pleasant experience. Gaining immortality had a price, as all things did, and for this, the price was pain, immeasurable pain. With the resolve to hold, no matter what happened, he entered the bath, until he was chest deep in the chemicals.

It started as an itching, and then a slight burning, all over his body. As the pain grew worse, it finally grew to the point where Travis could no longer keep from screaming. He looked back to the drone, and saw it still standing there, smiling… no, smirking!

It was only in the moment before he lost consciousness that he wondered whether the AI had dared lie to him.

(CNS Yesbalar, Jagloth Orbit)

“…have no other choice. The civilians in the ships and station can still be saved, but Jagloth is lost. Destroy the infected stations immediately. I don’t know how, but sensors say the attack we made on those coordinates we were given anonymously caused the Legion to become disoriented temporarily. Trawarin will give you a second distraction. The infected stations must be destroyed in this time.”

Captain Aimi Pranxo, one of the few Felisan officers in the Confederate Navy, nodded gravely. “Understood, Commodore. The stations will be eliminated. Sylkranna, Herven, and Shadove all have target locks. Yesbalar and Glory of Aynov are maintaining anti-missile cover for the station.”

Pranxo winced as she her readouts saw the Trawarin getting hit by multiple nanite missiles. The doomed ship’s bridge crew began screaming and scratching at their skin as the nanites began infecting them, but Commodore Eladisys gritted his teeth to keep a semblance of composure. “Good. Good. As my… last command as – ugh! – Commodore of the Quarantine Group, I am i-issuing Standing Order 666. Auth—mph! – authorization Alpha-Echo-One-One-Two-One-Eight-Three. Do your duty, Commodore.” And then the screen cut out, as the Trawarin’s reactor shut off the magnetic bottles on the antimatter stores, bathing the ship in instant annihilation.

It was a portent of things to come.

Captain – no, Commodore Pranxo sighed, and entered a series of commands on the screen set next to her command chair. The forms that had to be signed and acknowledged by the ship’s AI for what she was about to do were long, complicated, and worded with the most dire of warnings for those who failed to complete them properly. As one might expect of Standing Order 666. By the time she had finished filling out the forms, the three infected stations were already destroyed. Only Satsuki Station remained.

The acting Commodore took a breath, and stood from her command chair. “Communications, open a channel to the squadron, and to all ships within range. Put it over ship speakers as well, so the crew can hear.”

She waited, and once the communications officer gave her a nod, she began. “To all the Officers and Enlisted of the Special Quarantine Group, and to all the civilians within the sound of my voice, I ask for your attention. I am Acting Commodore Aimi Pranxo of the CNS Yesbalar, and command of the Quarantine Group was passed to me before Commodore Eladisys was lost with the Trawarin.”

“For those of us who wear the uniform, our highest purpose is to be the shield that protects the Citizens of the Confederation, and the sword that strikes at those who would harm them. The Trawarin is dead, lost with all souls aboard. The men and women of Trawarin died as heroes to the Confederation, protecting civilians from a fate worse than death. I have noted their sacrifice in the official logs which shall be delivered to the Admiralty this day.”

“For weeks, you have seen the horrors running rampant on Jagloth, despite our best efforts to contain the threat of the so-called ‘Legion Virus’. For weeks, we have tried, and failed, to discover a cure, a way to help the poor souls who have been trapped within a waking nightmare as the force behind the Legion turns their bodies and souls into little more than puppets to be used as chattel. And for weeks, we have seen the Legion adapt, and find new ways to try and escape the quarantine imposed upon them.”

“Before he died, Commodore Eladisys invoked Standing Order 666 of the Confederation Constitution. As of this moment, Jagloth is considered a clear and present threat to the safety and security of the Confederation as a whole, a threat that cannot be contained or eliminated through conventional means. As the senior ranking officer of a Special Quarantine Group, it is my duty to carry out the actions proscribed in the Standing Order.”

“What we do here this day is an act of horror beyond imagination. It is an act that no Officer should ever have to contemplate in a just and kind universe. It is an act of utter evil, born of desperation and the knowledge that not acting would be a far greater evil.”

She paused, gathered her thoughts for a moment. This next part would haunt her sleep, to say nothing of her career, for the rest of her life. “Weapons Control, arm the Bra Crematorium Vapen.”

The weapons officer gulped, but did as he was told. “Weapons ready, Commodore.”

“Target the southern continent. Ready to fire upon my command.”

“Target locked. Ready to fire on your command.”

“By the authority invested in me by the Confederation Senate and the Confederate Navy, I, Acting Commodore Aimi Pranxo of the CNS Yesbalar, declare that the planet Jagloth shall be purged under the Exterminatus Protocols as listed in Standing Order 666 and Section 3.14.159 of the Constitution of the Confederation of Allied Planets. Lieutenant Mattox, I order you to fire.”

The Yesbalar was a Heroic-class destroyer, not typically something that one could count on to ‘purge’ an entire planet. But each ship in a Special Quarantine Group was issued a single special torpedo, one that no sane person hoped they would ever be forced to use, one that took fifteen minutes to arm so that one could not fire it in haste. It was the Bra Crematorium Vapen, chillingly named in one of the languages of Earth, where its creator had originated from. It had only one purpose, to enact the Exterminatus Protocols, should they be invoked.

A single torpedo left Yesbalar, and when it hit, a world burned. The atmosphere caught flame, the fire spreading to every corner of the globe, destroying all organic material on the surface of the planet. The seas and rivers were boiled away, and habitats that had formerly been underwater were not spared the fire. For a full day, the fire burned. There was no atmosphere remaining, no water, and the only living creatures was Leash Lord, with a pair of his Legion in the bodies of hot knelfi women, who had been ‘entertaining’ him as he recovered from being sent to a reset unexpectedly, and even then, it was only because they were far underground. They died not long after, unable to escape their bunker prison, starving to death (again and again, in Leash Lord’s case).

Pranxo watched as the fire began to burn. “May the Creators have mercy on our souls.”

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Be sure to read my published works!

Frozen Soul series (Sci-Fi Supervillain story):

Frozen Soul https://www.amazon.com/dp/B071R125QT

Tales of the Void Traveler https://www.amazon.com/dp/B06ZZ52G37

Rules-Free VRMMO Life (Dark Fantasy LitRPG):

Volume 1 - Tutorial https://www.amazon.com/dp/B071VPRNDB

Volume 2 - Beginning the Journey https://www.amazon.com/dp/B071VR7M41/

Volume 3 - Wyrmwood https://www.amazon.com/dp/B072QKVBYV

Volume 4 - To the Deeps https://www.amazon.com/dp/B073QSD9S4

Volume 5 - Power Base https://www.amazon.com/dp/B074KGVN5T

Volume 6 - Taking the Show on the Road https://www.amazon.com/dp/B075ZFY3PR

Into the Black (Sci-Fi LitRPG):

Book I - Game Start https://www.amazon.com/dp/B071LT5WGL

Book II - Choson Ring https://www.amazon.com/dp/B071X3LL9D

Book III - Alpha Centauri https://www.amazon.com/dp/B073X8J9GF

Book IV - Aquarian Desert https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0756V1VX5

City of Champions Online (Superhero LitRPG):

Issue I - Origin Stories https://www.amazon.com/dp/B075SHXQS1

The Kalipshae Affair (A First Contact Short Story): https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0739V6R6T

LitRPG facebook group:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/LitRPGGroup/

Chapter 49 - Evacuation

Much to my relief, the Shadowdancer’s crew were at the very least proficient in their jobs. While they all had problems of some sort that led to their being forced into service, at the very least I didn’t have to worry about them being bad at their jobs. Even that shady merchant who I’d bought to be Shadowdancer’s Quartermaster.

The story on the nanites wasn’t as bad as I feared. He used to be a dealer in nano-augments, which used nanites to either enhance brain function, or do other work that was too subtle for larger scale augmentations. When the local government made all nanite sales illegal when the Legion virus started spreading, he had ignored them and tried to offload his current stockpile. He was caught, and enslaved.

He was also really good at turning a profit, so I felt confident in allowing him to act as the ship’s Quartermaster, since there was only one of Raven, and I wanted her with me. Thankfully, the Quartermaster had quickly realized the potential profit in his new position, even if he was a slave. That, and the fact that the other group that had been considering buying him was a suspected front for Hundeherstellar merchants, made him recognize this was the best deal he was going to get.

The Valkyries were settling in nicely, as well. They liked the idea of being what amounted to a strike team or operatives, especially when we were going over their skill sets, and they saw how the group was balanced. They’d be able to deal with a wide array of problems, and I’d purchased gear that made sure they weren’t going to be just charging to their doom. The hacker practically creamed herself when I told her I wanted to hack any ship Shadowdancer fought and get any information she could off them.

I was in Raven’s bridge, running my preflight lists while listening to Nyna running Shadowdancer through hers, when the call came in. Jagloth, which had been mostly dark on the communication networks, suddenly went bright as daylight, transmitting to the entire system. Annoyingly, it was a ‘push’ transmission, which automatically played on any active readers once it was received.

THIS SYSTEM IS NOW PROPERTY OF THE UNDYING LEGION. ALL GLORY TO LEASH LORD TYREXIS! WE ARE THE LEGION. LOWER YOUR SHIELDS AND SURRENDER YOUR SHIPS. WE WILL ADD YOUR BIOLOGICAL AND TECHNOLOGICAL DISTINCTIVENESS TO OUR OWN. YOUR CULTURE WILL ADAPT TO SERVICE US. YOU WILL BE CONSCRIPTED.

That wonderfully cheery message was followed by a whole lot of panic as everyone in the system started trying to get clearance to run the hell away. Both Raven and Shadowdancer were assaulted by comms from people begging for us to get them out of the system. But one message in particular caught my eye.

LeashLord: Hey, M.Mollen? You still got that really fast ship from Earth? Could use a lift out of the system. Lot of places to see, and conscriptions have plateaued.

M.Mollen: Kindof full up right now. But hey, pass me your coordinates, and I’ll have someone swing by to service you.

LeashLord: Hah! I saw what happened last time you called someone in to ‘service’ a member of my Legion. Losing the Spriteshack building set the conscription of Jagloth back a lot, you know.

M.Mollen: Glad to be of service.

LeashLord: Look, I’m willing to cut you in on this. Your own personal Legion. You’d be able to do anything you wanted!

M.Mollen: Already can do anything I want. And right now, what I want is to pass the coordinates from the backtrace of this comm to the Fleet.

LeashLord: You idiot! You could have ultimate power!

M.Mollen: Yeah, but where’s the fun in that? Anyways, I’ve kept you talking long enough, so I’m just going to sit back and watch the show.

LeashLord: What do you mean?

On the surface of Jagloth, the coordinates Raven tracked the transmission to lit up as several kinetic weapons hit in close proximity, their overlapping blast waves annihilating anything in the area. I was happy I’d forwarded the transmission in realtime to the Navy while Raven backhacked the coordinates. That talk of ‘conscriptions’ was too coincidental.

Unfortunately, that didn’t solve the problem, only delayed it. After all, LeashLord was a Nomad, so he’d be back after a short reset period. However, it seemed that his ‘Legion’ was good for more than just conquering the world. I was immediately assaulted by messages from LeashLord saying how I would regret blah blah blah. Anyways, it seemed like he was using the minds of his Legion to remain active while he waited for his body to return. Sneaky bastard.

We had just cleared Charybdis Station’s docking ports when everything TRULY went to hell. Weapons were launched all over Jagloth. The missiles exploded over the uninfected landmasses, and we saw people quickly succumbing to the Legion. Somehow the bastard had been working on weaponizing the fucking thing and making it super fast-acting.

This caused a general panic, as you might expect, which only got worse as missiles were launched at the Navy ships and the stations still in orbit. It seemed that LeashLord had decided that the time for the ‘long game’ was now over, and he was going full Borg. I hated it when people went full Borg.

The Navy ships were able to destroy the missiles targeting them, as well as some of the ones targeting the stations, but three of the four remaining stations in Jagloth orbit were hit, the Legion quickly moving to assimilate the stations and their inhabitants.

THIS IS THE CONFEDERATE NAVAL SHIP TRAWARIN. THIS IS AN EMERGENCY EVACUATION ORDER! ALL SHIPS CAPABLE OF INTERSTELLAR TRAVEL IN THIS SYSTEM ARE HEREBY UNDER THE CONTROL OF THE CONFEDERATE NAVY UNTIL THE CURRENT CRISIS IS RESOLVED.

I didn’t like that message at all. Don’t get me wrong, I wasn’t against helping out, but the whole ‘here’s a crisis, everyone’s conscripted until we say otherwise’ thing didn’t sit right with me. The Navy I used to be in was all volunteer, after all. And even in an emergency, we didn’t just conscript every ship in port. They were demanding people helped, instead of asking, and that just rubbed me the wrong way.

To be on the safe side, though, I concentrated on slipping into one of my alternate guises. Someone was going to call and order me to do something I wasn’t going to like, and I’d probably get my picture put up on a bounty board somewhere. I brought out my Okuda Riku face from back in Alpha Centauri. Fortunately, I had just finished the change when we were hailed.

FREIGHTER METRION’S FAVOR, THIS IS CNS TRAWARIN FLIGHT CONTROL. YOU ARE TO COME ABOUT TO HEADING 134, AND ASSIST IN THE EVACUATION OF MITHARI STATION. JETTISON YOUR CARGO TO MAKE ROOM FOR ADDITIONAL REFUGEES, AND DOCK AT AIRLOCK FOUR.

“That’s a negative Trawarin Control. Metrion’s Favor is heading outsystem loaded with cargo and refugees from Charybdis station. Ones that are actually paying for this ship to take them outsystem. You and your Captain can kindly get bent.”

With that none too original insult, I cut the line and pulled the Raven into a turn, matching Shadowdancer’s course. Naturally, Shadowdancer was in stealth, so the Navy ships hadn’t spotted her yet. We could jump to hyperspace from deep in the system, but the drive reacted oddly to gravity wells sometimes, and it would require more maneuvering to clear the different gravitational effects and remain on course. It wasn’t as bad as with a Transition drive, which you had to be at the heliopause to use, but jumping to warp next to a station could be Bad.

Unfortunately for the Navy crews out there in the picket ships trying to intercept us, Charybdis was out of the way (on purpose), which left a big gap in the defenses, and while they were calculating for intercept jumps, Raven had already finished calculations for both Raven and Shadowdancer, and passed them along. We were receiving another set of hails demanding we cut acceleration and prepare to be boarded when we made the jump to warp. Sucks to be them, but I wasn’t sticking around in this system any longer.

(CNS Trawarin, Jagloth Orbit)

Captain (Acting Commodore) Ayluin Elaxisys bit back several unkind curses about the captain of the freighter that had just jumped out of the system, especially when it was detected that there were two warp signatures outbound. That meant there was a stealth ship with the freighter. Coming from Charybdis, it could only be a smuggler, or one of the syndicates.

One of the sensor officers spoke up, “Captain, we have a possible visual confirmation match on the freighter with a contact report from the Aquaria system.”

“To my screen.”

The knelfi captain looked at the readout that came up, comparing the visuals they’d gotten on the Metrion’s Favor before they escaped to a ship called the Azeroth’s Call which had slipped through the Aquaria Gateway over a month ago. The visual spectrum data was inconclusive, except for the fact that both ships were equally difficult to make out, given their extreme black coloration. That in itself was telling, as black was an unusual choice.

Sensor data from the two events was similar in its inconclusivity. The damn paint scheme appeared to absorb sensors somehow, making all sensor returns weak and diffuse. If they didn’t have visual confirmation of a ship’s presence, it was to the point where it might even be brushed aside as a sensor anomaly. And the black color against the blackness of space made visual confirmation difficult. Clearly, this was a ship up to no good.

Still, shield and engine patterns were enough to say that this was at least the same size ship, with the same type of engines and shields. Combined with the coloration, Captain Elaxisys was willing to accept the analyst’s 75% prediction as fact, for the time being. Which was a problem, as this ship was currently wanted for questioning, even if they hadn’t ignored the Evacuation Order, due to the fact that it led four Imperial ships through the Gateway, where they were promptly destroyed.

“Captain!” His musings were interrupted by the sensor analyst again. He flagged the report for passing information on to command, before looking up from his screen. And again bit back a curse.

The stations which had been hit by the new infection missiles were bringing up shields and weapons, and had already fired on two ships that were approaching the uninfected station. “Weapons! I want those stations brought out of the sky, now! Have all the conscripted ships alter their approach vectors to compensate!”

“Captain, additional missiles are launching from the planet! There’s too many of them to intercept!”

Captain Ayluin Eladisys was a patriot. He knew what had to do. If this Legion virus got out, then it would be unstoppable. The Confederation would fall, and over a trillion souls would be condemned to a fate worse than death. That could not be allowed. With grim certainty, he typed in a code only known to himself and the admiralty, and verified it with a biometric scan.

Self-destruct activated. Countdown to antimatter release: T-2 minutes.

“Helm! Set course for the primary launch site for the surface missiles, maximum acceleration! Take us between the station and the planet to do so! Weapons, prioritize fire control on the surface missiles targeting the station and civilian ships!”

His crew performed their duties without question. They all knew the stakes, and knew what awaited them, what awaited their friends and families back home, if they failed. All it would take is one ship escaping to be a blow the Confederation might never recover from. They would do their duty.

“Communications, get me a line to the Yesbalar.”

Two minutes later, a fireball erupted over the base where most of the missiles had been fired from. Twenty-five missiles had delivered their nanite payloads to Trawarin. None hit the station or the civilians.

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Be sure to read my published works!

Frozen Soul series (Sci-Fi Supervillain story):

Frozen Soul https://www.amazon.com/dp/B071R125QT

Tales of the Void Traveler https://www.amazon.com/dp/B06ZZ52G37

Rules-Free VRMMO Life (Dark Fantasy LitRPG):

Volume 1 - Tutorial https://www.amazon.com/dp/B071VPRNDB

Volume 2 - Beginning the Journey https://www.amazon.com/dp/B071VR7M41/

Volume 3 - Wyrmwood https://www.amazon.com/dp/B072QKVBYV

Volume 4 - To the Deeps https://www.amazon.com/dp/B073QSD9S4

Volume 5 - Power Base https://www.amazon.com/dp/B074KGVN5T

Volume 6 - Taking the Show on the Road https://www.amazon.com/dp/B075ZFY3PR

Into the Black (Sci-Fi LitRPG):

Book I - Game Start https://www.amazon.com/dp/B071LT5WGL

Book II - Choson Ring https://www.amazon.com/dp/B071X3LL9D

Book III - Alpha Centauri https://www.amazon.com/dp/B073X8J9GF

Book IV - Aquarian Desert https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0756V1VX5

City of Champions Online (Superhero LitRPG):

Issue I - Origin Stories https://www.amazon.com/dp/B075SHXQS1

The Kalipshae Affair (A First Contact Short Story): https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0739V6R6T

LitRPG facebook group:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/LitRPGGroup/