(BSS Starlight Raven,
Keen-arra Spaceport, kisArra)
It took Ehyu three days to arrange his affairs and get the
spice ready for transport. Which was good, because after the third night, we’d
caused a bit of a stir through the criminal elements of Keen-arra City, as we
basically helped clear up some of Ehyu’s outstanding debts and markers. As a
responsible businessman, he wished to leave kisArra without having and debts or
debtors behind him. I wholeheartedly approved of his responsible fiscal
attitude, especially since that included paying us for the jobs he’d given us.
Suffice to say, there were more than a few groups in the
local underworld that were now making advancements, as key members had quit
being counted amongst the living. The local authorities didn’t care, so long as
only criminals got killed, and we kept our stuff from spilling over into the
civilian population. I enjoyed myself immensely, since this was something we
hadn’t had a chance to do much of since we’d become big shots. Cali and Jaynie,
especially were happy as could be at the chance to cut loose.
However, that kind of excitement, while it did give me
enough XP to bump up to level 41, also attracted a lot of the wrong kind of attention.
While we hadn’t had another attempt on the ship after the blatant example of
our having paid our defense permit, the stationmaster meeting us as we were
preparing to leave told me that there was going to be trouble. The fact that
the man didn’t look to be concerned with things told me that the trouble was
going to happen somewhere else, so it wasn’t his problem.
“Ah, Captain Mollen! Glad I found you. There is a slight issue
with fitting your ship into the departure sequence.”
Looking the man over, I decided to play it cool for now. If
need be, I could always just blast my way out of here, though that would lead
to unfortunate questions eventually. “What kind of issue?”
“Ah, nothing that will prevent your leaving, I assure you. However,
as you have now filed exit plans, I’m required by your previous information
request to let you know that your departure details have been purchased by four
different parties. Unfortunately, each party paid the discretion surcharge, so
I can only tell you the number of people who bought your information. I hope
you have an excellent flight. Come see us again soon!”
As the man left, Ehyu walked up to me. “You paid the ‘Information
Request’ fee, but didn’t pay for the voiding of discretion surcharge?”
“Eh, what’s the point? The cost isn’t worth the benefit. It
is worth it to know that I have four groups that know when I’m leaving. Since
my official flight plans have us headed for Alpha Centauri, they know I’m going
to the Gate. They aren’t going to drop a tarpit on us in-system because the Navy
is here guarding the Gate. So their only hope is to get us between here and the
gate, and somehow keep us from just warping there. So I’m expecting the first
attack as soon as we break atmosphere.”
Ehyu narrowed his eyes, “You’re expecting to be attacked? I
know your freighters are things of legend, but this does not inspire
confidence, my friend. I am nowhere near as immortal as you Nomads are!”
I laughed, and patted Ehyu on the shoulder. “Don’t worry,
Doctor. I have a plan.”
(‘Free Trader’ The
Devil’s Slave, kisArra orbit, Aquaria System)
“Captain! The target ship is leaving kisArra!”
Looking over to the girl on sensors, Captain (oh, it was so
good to be called ‘captain’ again) James ‘Kick-ass’ Lorde slapped his ‘first
officer’ on her shapely rear, signaling the woman to leave his lap where she
had been lounging. Of course, the woman was all too happy to do that, but he
didn’t care about that. If he cared what the sluts thought, then he wouldn’t
have slapped slave collars on them the first chance he had. Stupid bint had
hired him as a hired gun for a run going through the Free Worlds Alliance.
Lucky him, since his target had made everyone realize how awesome Nomads were.
Everyone wanted one for suicide missions.
First thing he had done when he’d been able to reroll and
still keep most of the point value of the skills, experience, and so on that he’d
earned since that bastard had stolen everything from him and ruined his game
life as set himself up as a hired gun. He figured that was a good way to get
himself hired on a small ship, one that no one would miss. Of all the ironic
things that could possibly happen, turned out that the Captain that hired him
was flying one of the Black Star copies of HIS ship!
This one was brand new, and it didn’t have an uppity AI that
always argued with him, or kept getting upset when he renamed the ship. Even
better, there were women on it! The old Captain, by the name of Crowley, had
his daughter and a couple of her friends on board, serving as crew. Another
guy, as well. He didn’t bother with the men. Just popped them in the head, and tossed
them out the airlock once he’d slapped collars on the women. ‘Hired’ another
engineer and a gunner once he’d gotten the ship signed over into his name.
Now, he had a ship, and a crew that wouldn’t turn on him
(because they couldn’t), and even better, he had the target he’d given up hope
of finding on his own locked in his sights! Revenge was going to be so sweet! Once
they caught the bastard, he’d give his ‘first officer’ Lorna and her friends a
break. They’d been moping since he threw Lorna’s father and their other guy
friend out the airlock, anyways. And that bastard had plenty of pussy that
would be his once he took back HIS ship!
Sitting behind the helm, Captain Lorde knew he looked like a
madman grinning as wide as he was, but he didn’t care. Taking the controls in
hand, he set the ship on an attack vector. Time to take back what was his, and
make the bastard pay!
(BSS Starlight Raven,
kisArra orbit, Aquaria System)
All hands were at ‘battle stations’ already, because we were
expecting to get attacked. I’d been nice, and had Raven throw up a tactical
readout in the lounge area, so Ehyu wasn’t just sitting around, wondering what
was going to happen. That often led to people getting scared, and scared people
did stupid things. That was fine on a planet, but there were too many things on
a starship that reacted badly to high concentrations of stupid, so I needed to head
that off, if I could, and locking him in his room like a prisoner wouldn’t win
me any favors with the man.
Raven shook her head, and said, “First contestant just broke
and is accelerating into an attack run. Markings indicate that it is a Raven-class freighter that we sold to an
independent shipper. Except the records say it was later sold after the death
of the former owner and captain, and is the property of a James ‘Kick-ass’
Lorde now.”
I blinked at that, and just shook my head. It had to be a
coincidence. No one could be that stupid, right? I sighed, and said, “The other
contestants?”
“No clear identifiers on who is playing and who is simply
watching yet, Captain. I’m afraid it is probably just this Devil’s Slave that will get to play, once the other contestants
realize what we’re doing.”
I nodded. “Well, that’s the smart play. Let someone else be
stupid and take the risks. If they see we’re too tough to handle, they back
off, no harm no foul. Otherwise, they jump in either in the middle and make it
a three-way dance, or they wait until one side wins, and attack them. They just
happened to have one person who was willing to play the idiot. I wonder if he
even paid the surcharge to know if anyone else purchased the information on our
exit time?”
Raven smirked at me. “The art of naming bribes in seedy
spaceports aside, what are your orders, Captain?”
I sighed, and said, “Well, I’m really sorely tempted to let
this play out, and see if the idiot is as good as he thinks he is, but I don’t
want our passenger to start getting antsy. Is everything in place for Operation:
Can’t Touch This?”
“Affirmative. Ready when you are. And remember, you are no
longer allowed to name plans when you’ve been drinking.”
“Spoilsport.” I took a breath, and got a wolfish smile on my
face. “Let’s show these people who they’re messing with. Activate.”
(‘Free Trader’ The
Devil’s Slave, kisArra Orbit, Aquaria System)
“Captain, we are within optimum range of the particle
cannons.”
Captain Lorde looked over at woman sitting at the console next
to him. “Well, what are you waiting for? FIRE!”
“Yes, Captain. Firing.”
Unfortunately, the next instant he heard sounds of blasters
hitting his hull! Power began fluctuating wildly, and soon the ship was
completely without power!
“NO! What happened?”
The girl on the sensors (Gwen, wasn’t it?) shook her head,
and said, “Unknown, Captain. It appears we were struck by Ion canno fire from
astern. Without the shields online, we were quickly disabled.”
“What? Why weren’t our shields up?”
“You never ordered us to put the shields up, Captain. You
expressly ordered us not to implement any ship commands without your approval,
to prevent us from attempting to kill you in your sleep.”
Captain Lorde snarled at Lorna. “You stupid whore! What if
those had been live weapons, not ion cannons? We would have all died!”
Lorna’s response, whatever it would have been, was cut off
by the sound of a ship docking at the airlock. Lorde’s eyes went wide. If they
were only doing what he told them to, then the compartments weren’t locked
down, the airlock would be on automatic reserve power, and he couldn’t do
anything about it from the cockpit!
Grabbing his pistol, Lorde ran out of the cockpit, heading
for the airlock. He had to reset the controls, or at least set up a kill box to
make sure the assholes couldn’t get on board until Myriam got the engines
running. Damnit, he would have to order Myriam to get the engines running!
Stupid women were going to be the death of him!
Captain James ‘Kick-ass’ Lorde never saw the stunner that
hit him as he ran around the corner.
(BSN Shadowdancer,
kisArra orbit, Aquaria System)
“Captain! Five other ships moving off in three groups,
heading away from kisArra. I believe we frightened them all off.”
Slave-Captain Nyna Thelynn snorted at that. “They are
smugglers and pirates, Ensign. They know an Assassin when they see one, by now,
and they know that where there’s one Assassin, there may be others. And none of
those ships are a match for Shadowdancer.”
“Valkyries reporting in, Captain. They have taken the ship,
minimal resistance. The Captain was the only one to take up arms. He’s been
stunned and collared. The rest of the crew were all slaves, but had not been
ordered to resist us. According to Valkyrie One, that’s why they never raised
their shields, or attempt to get the ship systems back online.”
Nyna nodded. She expected nothing less than the best from
her Valkyries, and they’d always come through. But she’d be the first to admit
that it was nice to have an enemy that was actively resisting their leader. “Give
the Valkyries my regards, and have them bring the ship online as soon as
possible. The Master will be joining us shortly to determine what we will do
with our new friends. Send word to the Master that these slaves may be worth
keeping, if they’re not too intransient.”
(BSS Starlight Raven,
kisArra Orbit, Aquaria System)
I was looking at the video captures the Valkyries had taken
of the brief fight in the corridor of the Devil’s
Slave. I shook my head and sighed. “I can’t believe the idiot never even
bothered to change his face!”
The other girls were with me in the lounge. Sona spoke up
for the ‘native’ contingent, and asked, “What do you mean, Master? Does he have…
specialized Psy like you do?”
I smiled as she edited her speech for the benefit of Ehyu,
who was watching with us. “Ah, no. But just as Nomads project ourselves into
this world (that being the reason why we cannot die), some people grow
dissatisfied with the way their lives here are going, and arrange for a new
projection. If this Captain Lorde is the same person I think he is, then he
didn’t even bother to change his face, the arrogant bastard.”
Ehyu chuckled, and said, “It sounds like there’s a story,
there.”
“Oh, there is. You see, I was on the Luna colony, on a bit
of unrelated business…”
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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
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B071VPRNDB
Barnes & Noble: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/rules-free-vrmmo-life-stuart-grosse/1128941349?ean=2940161995297
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0774T354X
Barnes & Noble: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/rules-free-vrmmo-life-omnibus-i-stuart-grosse/1128953195?ean=2940162052081
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
Omnibus 1 - Books 1-4 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07FBPF6HR
The Kalipshae Affair (A First Contact Short Story): https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0739V6R6T
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