(Main Docks, Booty Bay, the Badlands)
The battle in space was done in thirty minutes from the
first shot to the last. Overwhelming force against a group of unprepared
pirates was like that, after all. The only reason it took so long is because
they took pains to try and disable ships, rather than destroy them outright.
Still, pirate ships aren’t known for being the best
maintained ships in the black, so there were losses. Of the thirty ships the
pirates managed to launch, including the Wolf’s
Fang, seven suffered reactor breaches because of faulty maintenance, and
were summarily reduced to a (very) loosely floating cloud of debris. Twelve
more, including the Fang, were
damaged enough that they would never fly again, and it was honestly a toss-up
whether it would be worth it to tow them to the breakers to salvage the
materials. Still, they did manage to ‘rescue’ some crew and valuables from the
ships.
The other eleven ships were damaged, but the ion cannons had
done more to them than the other weapons, so they could be repaired enough to
be flown back to Dimiya, where they could be sold for a decent profit. Their
crews were less willing to be ‘rescued’ than the ones on the doomed ships, but
the assault teams were very persuasive, with stunners being their opening
arguments. Against the unarmored pirates who were still scrambling to try and
get life support back on, much less anything else, it was a fairly compelling
argument, and the unconscious men and women gratefully accepted their collars.
Well, they were certainly grateful when the Stepford protocols came online, at
least.
The fighting on the station was… well, it was certainly more
chaotic. But a company of marines in full armor against a group of barely
organized pirates? The only question in anyone’s minds was how much they’d make
the Marines bleed before it was over. No one expected the assault to be
completely clean. Assaulting someone’s home base never was. They knew the place
like the back of their hand, and knew all the best spots to hide. And pirates
didn’t believe in silly things like keeping weapons to things that weren’t as
much a danger to the station as they were to potential boarders.
Still, the Marines were Marines, which meant that even
though we lost twelve, they captured the station intact. More or less. Six of
those twelve could be chalked up to a pair of pirates that had set up an ambush
in a choke point, and thought using rocket launchers inside a ship was a good
idea. They were lucky not to roast themselves with the backblast of their own
weapon. The Marines did NOT take those two alive.
By the time the other ship-board assault teams and I had
finished cleaning up and taking what prisoners we could from the wrecked pirate
ships, and I could land the Starlight
Raven in the pirate base, four hours had passed since the battle lit off
with the simultaneous destruction of the other bases in the system. That was
actually child’s play to set up. Ballistic trajectories in deep space against
unmoving targets are really simple to calculate, so getting it timed to make
sure all the impacts happened simultaneously was easy enough.
The fighting on the station had only just finished when we
touched down on Booty Bay, with the marines switching from ‘Search and Destroy’
to securing prisoners and sorting out who was a pirate and who was a slave.
Initial reports said that we’d just added at least four, maybe five, hundred
now-former pirates to the Black Star ‘family’, and there were at least a couple
hundred slaves. Most of them were in godawful condition, according to the
marines.
Stepping off the Raven’s
ramp, I nodded to Major Khan when he approached with his aide. “Major. Good
work with the base. Dirty job, but it had to get done. I’ve been looking over
the combat logs. Your men did excellent work, as usual. Have you located the
‘Pirate Queen’ yet?”
The Major nodded, and said, “She tried to flee like a coward
when the troops were about to assault the command center. Unfortunately for
her, the escape hatch she used wasn’t properly shielded against last-gen
scanners, to say nothing of the current-gen ones, so we were able to locate her
easily enough. Caught her in a private shuttle bay. She surrendered the moment
she saw we’d cut her off from her escape shuttle. We’re holding her in a
secondary cargo bay under guard with some of the others who surrendered, but
not letting her converse with them.”
“Excellent. You and your men have earned a cut of the
spoils, Major. Unfortunately, the weapons and armor the pirates had are all
mostly trash, but they’re welcome to any they wish to keep as trophies.” I
turned to look at the aide, who was the same woman who started off pissed at me
back in the cantina. “Captain Meyers, the type of easily divisible loot that
this station has are the captured pirates. According to Marine logs, there’s a
roughly 70-30 split in male to female in the captured pirates, not counting
officers. What is your opinion of allowing the Marines to pick a slave each, to
do with as they will?”
Meyers clenched her teeth, not much liking being put on the
spot like this, it seemed, and definitely not with the question I’d given her.
“Sir, any restrictions on ‘what they will’?”
“None, except those who are freed will be turned over to
Confederate marshals for trial, using the evidence Black Star has collected. No
restrictions on male or female, or on intended use other than that. They want a
servant like a valet or maid for when they’re not on duty? I’m fine with that.
They want a sextoy for ‘stress relief’? That’s fine too. They want to trade
them to someone in return for favors, goods, or services? Doesn’t matter to me
so long as it doesn’t blow back on the company. They want to live out some crazy
snuff fetish? Well, that’s within their rights, but I’ll have them going to
psych evals the second I hear about it, looking at Section 8-ing them ASAP.
Don’t need that kind of crazy in my Marines. Anything that blows back on the
company will be responded to appropriately. Anything that causes trouble within
the unit will be handled by the unit, or the officers, as they see fit. Any
questions?”
Meyers shook her head, and said, “The slaves people would be
picking from would only be those confirmed to be pirates, correct?”
“Yes, though I expect most will need a shower and probably
getting checked out by the medics for diseases, but only confirmed pirates will
be up for grabs. The slaves we captured from the pirates are going to be
examined by the docs, and we’ll figure out what to do with them based on their
skills and how much trauma they have to work through. But they aren’t up for
grabs by the Marines.”
“Then while I find the process distasteful, myself, I have
no objections to it, sir.”
I nodded. “Fair enough.” Looking back to the Major, who
nodded slightly to show he appreciated me getting the Captain’s opinion before
just rolling it out there, I said, “Major, set up a method for your marines to
make their picks, and the order they pick in. I might suggest a lottery or
similar to choose the draft order, perhaps allowing anyone who went above and
beyond in the battle to head to the front, but that is your discretion. I will
have Raven assemble a listing once we’ve finalized how many slaves there are, with
a head shot and basic bio sheet on each one with some of their skills.”
Major Khan nodded. “I’ll see to it, Commodore.”
“All right, now that we got that stuff out of the way, let’s
go down to the cargo bay the prisoners are being held in, and see which way
they decide to jump, after watching what happens to their Queen.”
As we walked to the cargo bay, I said, “Khan, Meyers,
assuming that this Pirate Queen doesn’t give the mother of all pleas for her
life, what do you say we do with her? Honest opinions only, please. I want to
make an example of her, so that other people don’t get the idea that they can
do this kind of thing while we’ve got most of our forces on the expedition. But
I also don’t want to go full on evil overlord and do something that might turn
my own people against me. So what do you think the troops will accept as a
punishment for the pirate queen?”
The two looked at eachother, and I didn’t doubt they were
shooting messages back and forth over PMs to come up with a suitable answer for
the ‘boss’. Sure, I could have just gone with whatever horrible fate I could
come up with for the pirate queen, but I didn’t want to walk too far down the
dark path, you know? I started this intending to play a charming rogue, not an
evil mastermind, so I didn’t want to get that reputation from my people. Plus,
I knew Marines wouldn’t go for it, anyways. But with their input, I knew I’d
get buy in from the others, and it showed my people that I cared about their
opinions.
Finally, just as we were about to get to the cargo bay where
the prisoners were held, Khan said, “Well, Boss, I’d say that the best way to
deal with her, if we’re not just handing her over to the Confederates for them
to put on trial, would be to rig up some kind of execution. No need to make it
quick and painless, but don’t make it too gruesome either. We could rig a
simple noose, and hang her, like they used to do to pirates. And Meyers had the
suggestion that we give her the choice we’re giving the rest of the captured
pirates, accepting a collar or death.”
“And what would you have me do with her if she asked for a
collar? I’d have to leave too much of ‘her’ there for her to be much use
commanding a ship, and I don’t trust her further than I can throw you in full
armor, Major.”
Meyers cleared her throat. “Sir, I’d suggest putting her up
for public auction at the slave market, and letting everyone know you were
selling her. Let her be someone else’s problem. It would be better than scum
like her deserves, but wouldn’t bring us down to her level. Sir.”
I nodded to let her know I’d heard her, and but motioned for
them to keep all communications subvocal now, to keep from letting the pirates
try and play us against eachother as we stepped into the cargo bay.
Loraine Savant was on her knees in a cleared area of the
cargo bay, bound with her hands behind her back, attached to manacles on her
ankles. The human woman was… not pretty, but striking, with red hair, green
eyes, and an athletic figure that curved in the right places, but sporting a nasty
scar on her face that clearly came from a fight of some kind long ago. Nearby,
a camera drone hovered in the air, recording everything.
Stepping in front of her, I said, loudly enough for the few
dozen other pirates who had surrendered to hear, “Loraine Savant, you have been
caught in an act of piracy. As the leader of a recognized security force with
credentials certified by the Confederacy, I am empowered to make summary
judgements and executions of pirates caught by my forces. Your life is forfeit,
and any decision about your future now rests in my hands alone. Do you have
anything to say in your defense before I declare judgement?”
“Just get on with it. I got friends who will make your life
hell for this, and I’ll be free before the year is out.”
M.Mollen: Thoughts?
MajorTom: Well, I’d
say she’s just chosen the noose. Sell her off and someone frees her, she’ll be
looking for revenge.
Shelley_Meyers:
Agreed. Too dangerous to let her live. Her ‘friends’ may still cause trouble
for us, but they won’t stick their necks out too far for a dead woman that can
no longer hold anything over their heads.
M.Mollen: Then get the
noose ready. No gallows, we’ll just hang her where she is. Let the pirates
watch.
I turned to give the Major a nod, as though instituting some
pre-arranged order, and stepped past the woman to come into full view of the
other captured pirates. Behind me, a cargo crane moved into position above
Savant’s head. I looked at the pirates, and said, “Your leader has been found
guilty of attacking my people. However, she has chosen to refuse the mercy I
might have shown her. You will bear witness to what happens, and then you will
have a choice of your own.”
“No, you can’t do this! I surrendered!” It would seem that
the marines had just shown her the noose out of high-tension rope. She
screamed, and tried to struggle, but bound as she was that was essentially
futile as the noose was moved into place about her neck. The pirates looked on
in shock as the hook from the gantry came down, and the other end of the rope
was tied to it, before the crane began lifting up again, pulling the screaming,
frightened captain slowly up off the floor. It was not a nice way of hanging
her. No break of the neck for her, but a dance as she asphyxiated slowly.
Not taking my eyes off the pirates, I said, “She has chosen
death. You may either accept enslavement to the Black Star Company, or you can
join her. Choose wisely.”
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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 GameLit):
Volume 1 - Tutorial https://www.amazon.com/dp/B071VPRNDB
Omnibus 1 - Volumes 1-4 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0774T354X
Into the Black (Sci-Fi GameLit):
Book I - Game Start https://www.amazon.com/dp/B071LT5WGL
Omnibus I - Books 1-4 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B077X2KR7Y
City of Champions Online (Superhero GameLit):
Issue I - Origin Stories https://www.amazon.com/dp/B075SHXQS1
Lewd Dungeon (Dungeon Core GameLit):
Book 1 - Welcome to the Apocalypse https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07BB34DHF
The Kalipshae Affair (A First Contact Short Story): https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0739V6R6T
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