Frozen Soul, and other works: September 2018

Sunday, September 30, 2018

Chapter 150 - Shockwaves

(Pirate Vessel Nightfall, Vulsore System)

Captain Marcela Stevens, known as the Red Fox to the public, and either ‘Cap’n Stevens’ or ‘that fine piece of ass’ to her crews, depending on whether they thought she was listening in on them, had the dubious distinction of being the first Nomad to become a Pirate Captain. Like many seasoned gamers, she’d chosen the hardest start available to her, to get the points to make herself badass from the beginning. Unfortunately for her, that start had dropped her into the lap of Marcus ‘the Rabid Dog’ Blackmore. She tried fighting, but even being as good as she was there was no way she could take on all the pirates at once. Someone got her with a stunner, and everything went dark.

She was collared and enslaved. She had to endure the tortures and ‘training’ that Blackmore put her through, but her persistence paid off. One day, Blackmore forgot to give her orders not to do anything or to go back to the crew once he was through using her, and fell asleep. After that, escape was as simple as using the captain’s own bracer to release her. A bloody mutiny later, and ‘Captain’ Stevens was the only living soul on the ship, aside from the fresh slaves that had been captured (and the reason the former Captain had been celebrating so hard). The slaves, not having anywhere else to go, joined her as crew, at least until they could make port someplace that wouldn’t shoot them on sight or try and enslave them again.

Madrigal Base was a shithole, but she was able to get some new crew, and her story of how she killed the Rabid Dog brought her to the notice of ‘Fierce’ Deverell Lark, and got herself brought in as Clan. Soon, she had established a reputation as being one of the Clan’s rising stars. And anyone that tried to stop her ended up very, very dead. That led to her being given additional responsibility, which is why her Nightfall was the leader of this group of five ships from the Clan, one of six such groups that made up the thirty ships of the Lark Clan, not including the Leader’s Group of three ships. Only the Shaxidor and Duskspine clans came close to their numbers, if they were all in place at once.

“Cap’n! We just got a message from the Maddy on those automatic transmitters we got put in last year!”

Marcela smirked for just an instant at that. The transmitters were HER idea, after all, a secret that could be used to warn off the Clan if anything happened to the Maddy, or call them together if there was a score too big for any group to handle alone and too tempting to leave alone. But it hadn’t been used since a brief test, to ensure it worked. Something must have happened.

“Well, what does it say, boy?”

“Cap’n Lark’s group has been taken by Black Star and the Confeds! They were waiting at the ‘gate’ to the minefield. We got one other transmission, too, someone’s trying to take control of the Maddy from inside!”

Marcela cursed. Of course, Black Star would have to come to her area. She’d been warning Lark for months that the rapid increase in piracy in the area would cause them troubles if the local politicians decided to call in a ‘fixer’ to get rid of the problem. He’d not taken her seriously enough, and now he was done.

“How much of the Clan was on the Maddy?”

The young pirate she’d put as her comm officer shook his head, and said, “Don’t know, Cap’n. The message got cut off before we could get any details. But there were at least three groups there when we left, with a couple others expected in the next few days.”

She nodded, and said, “And what of the other clans? How many of their ships were out? Who’s left?”

“Cap’n, there were ten Shaxidor ships in port when we left, and seven Duskspine. But we passed ten more of the Duskspine as we left the minefield, coming back after a raid. Can’t be more than fifteen ships from the other two major clans out there, and a good portion of the independents and smaller clans would have been stuck in, as well.

Marcela Stevens shook her head. “So, only twenty ships from the Three Clans are left? There’s no way we’ll be able to get a group willing and able to fight back against Black Star, certainly not and take the Maddy back. Not with those numbers.”

Her Second, Amra ‘Deadshot’ Caitoris, looked over to her. “You thinking that these Black Stars somehow managed to go and take the MADDY? How would they get in?”

“I’m a Nomad, remember? I’ve seen what that leader of the Black Stars has done. Last time pirates became an issue for him, he went straight back to their base, and blasted the hell out of all the pirates in the sector. That’s why there’s so many newbies who piss themselves at the mention of Black Star around here. And during the Imperial Civil War, he somehow managed to infiltrate a NAVY FLEET BASE and take it over from the inside, before ordering the surrender. You think the Maddy is more secure than a Fleet Base in wartime?”

“What’ll we do then, Cap’n?”

Captain ‘Red Fox’ Stevens sighed, and closed her eyes for just a moment. Then, she took a deep breath, straightened up, and said, “We’ll not be standing against this current. With the Maddy gone, every pirate in the sector will be scrambling for a new place, and they’ll be disorganized. Enough that the Black Stars or the Navy can pick them off, a couple at a time. Let the group know, we’re heading across the border to the Alliance, as a ‘mercenary’ group. You think a couple of those Alliance worlds would be willing to pay a bunch of pirates to ensure that no other pirates get a hold in their system?”

Deadshot laughed, and said, “Aye, Captain. Especially with those Kul’tiran snobs getting kicked around not long ago.”

(Pirate Vessel Freeman’s Fate, Madrigal System)

“Well, this is damn peculiar, is all I’m saying. Shax has never called us all in at the same time before. He hates the whole deal of the whole Clan being in one place at the same time, even at the Maddy. Says it makes us vulnerable.”

“Look, I get it, I do. But you heard the message same as I did. The Cap’n is spooked, and he’s needing us back at the Maddy, so we can plan a way to get out of this whole ‘Black Star’ situation without the fleet getting caught.”

The first pirate shook his head. “Sure, Cap’n. But that don’t mean it isn’t damn peculiar. What could have gotten to Shax so bad that it made him act like this? And if I’m saying it, you know the rest of the boys are saying it, or thinking it.”

“I know. And I’m wondering the same thing, myself. But we ain’t going to get answers just sitting around in space. And if Black Star really is out there, I like our chances with the Maddy’s defenses on our side better than if we just see them in open space, you know? But hey, we’re almost there, and we’ll be able to get the answers we need.”

And that was when the alarms began sounding.

(Pirate Vessel Raider of Catan, Zanchul Station, Tietera System)

“Damn it all, what do you mean that Gilwarin has gone missing? What the hell is going on?”

“Cap’n, we got the reports in. Looks like Gilwarin was having a meet with Shaxidor at that restaurant he likes, the one with the real meat. But they both got taken out sick all of a sudden, and disappeared before they reached the Health Center!”

The Captain looked at the footage, and cursed loudly. “FUCK! Gilwarin isn’t missing, you fools! He’s been grabbed! That was a professional hit on him and Shaxidor! Disconnect us! I want to be out of this system as soon as possible!”

“Captain! We’ve got troopers outside the airlock! Looks like they’re going to try boarding us!”

“Shit! Navy just dropped stealth on top of us, saying they’re the Luvon Gilrie. They’re demanding we surrender or be destroyed!”

(CNS Nym Hailana, Interstellar Space)

“Captain, we’ve taken another hit on the port quarter. Engines at 68% and holding, for now. The Engineer isn’t certain how long he can keep this going, however.”

“I know. We just have to keep it together until the convoy escapes from the tarpit. The closest Navy ship is at Tietera, three days away.”

“What would make the Duskspine clan suddenly get bold enough to try and attack a cruiser, though? Even if we are just a light cruiser, we outgun their little corvettes and frigates. If we weren’t forced to cover the convoy, we would have destroyed them all already.”

“I don’t know, but something must have made them desperate. I just wish I knew what it was.”

“CAPTAIN! New ships coming out of warp, at the edge of the tarpit! Seven ships in total, but six of them are barely larger than shuttlecraft! Scanners say that they’re Black Star! That big ship is reading as the Shinokage!”

“Incoming transmission!”

“On screen!”

“This is the BSN Shinokage. We have received your distress call and are willing to offer our assistance as part of our existing anti-piracy contract in this sector. Keep those freighter’s safe, Captain, and we’ll get these flies off you.”

(A private room in a respectably discrete restaurant, Dimiya City, Dimiya)

Alok Paxisys truly enjoyed this restaurant. Whenever possible, he tried to have his meetings here. It wasn’t that it was known for having great food, or even having a reputation for discretion. For those who knew, those things were both true, but the reason Paxisys enjoyed this place was that it was barely known at all. It was one of those little restaurants that never made the news, never ran ads, and never seemed to be completely empty, even at slow times. The majority of the clientele were simply businessmen and women looking for a decent meal and a drink on their break from work, or perhaps something to eat on their way home after. It was so positively normal that it was completely unremarkable to most people.

For a spy, who made a business of blending into crowds, it was like heaven. A couple people in business suits chatting as they ate? No one paid any attention, so long as they kept their voices to a reasonable level. You just had to make sure to talk around any sensitive information, and anyone who might listen in from a couple tables over would simply think you were talking about yet another business deal.

He had just finished his first drink when his companion for lunch arrived, looking quite pleased with himself. “Oh-hoh! Zumrora you dog! Did you get that account you were talking about? Or perhaps that redhead you were eyeing finally fell to your charms?”

Maeral Zumrora chuckled, and shook his head as he sat down. “I’ll tell you about it in a moment, but it’ll keep until the kitchen gets our order.” As if by magic, the server appeared at their table, and once they gave her their orders, they relaxed a bit until after Zumrora took his first sip of his beer. “Ah, I do enjoy the drinks here.”

Paxisys chuckled, and took a sip of his own drink. “So, I take it things have gone well for you?”

“Oh, better than I could have possibly imagined. You know that contractor we’ve used in the past? Well, he’s definitely showing solid work yet again. If I didn’t know he’d refuse, I’d offer to take him on permanently.”

“Ah, yes, that one enjoys his freedom too much to get tied down to any job that someone else gives him. So, he’s gone in and done his troubleshooting routine again, I take it?”

“Yes, somehow he managed to get an invite to that exclusive retreat in the Madrigal System, and started cleaning house before anyone knew what hit them. Efficient work as always. And the intern we sent with him managed a pretty big score, herself, recovering some lost assets that had been missing since the last major reshuffle. Getting to close the K. Daven account is a major feather in her cap, you know.”

“And what about the competition? I know there was some staunch opposition in that area, from at least three companies, right?”

“Oh, they’ve been hit hard by legal action for the stuff they’ve been doing. Two of them are almost completely out of commission, their assets seized. The third had a group that went rogue, and we think they ran for it. There’s some minor players out there, as well, but they’re not anything the local office can’t handle.”

“Excellent! I think this calls for another round of drinks!”

“Ah, Paxisys, I knew there was a reason I liked you!”

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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

Omnibus 1 - Volumes 1-4
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

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
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

Thursday, September 27, 2018

Chapter 149 - Cassandra

(Main Control Room, Madrigal Base)

“Boss! We’re getting a transmission from one of the relay satellites outside the asteroid field!”

Administrator Mathers looked up from the table where he was going over the information that I’d brought him, while we worked to make the Captain’s Meeting happen. The ‘two hour’ timeframe had already been pushed back to three, because pirates were pirates, and some people had to be talked to just right. Fortunately, Mathers was an old hand at getting the pirates to work together. Well, if not ‘together’, at least he got them working ‘not against him’, which was no small thing.

“Well, what does it say?”

“The Vile Lust was coming back with prizes, and got jumped just outside the field! The transmission broke up fast, but they said it was Black Star ships!”

That news did nothing to ease the Administrator’s state of mind. In fact, he got positively frantic about it now. “FUCK! We gotta lock this place down right now! Miles, we gotta get those drones up and ready to fight!”

Branchaven was about to say something, but the sound of a stunner came out of nowhere, and his eyes rolled up into the back of his head, before he dropped to the floor, completely out of it. Though they looked the same in their Marine armor, I knew that would be Major Khan. Good, single shot to the back of the head, close enough that there was some energy singing on the target’s hair. Two other marines stopped acting casual, and snapped into motion, quickly covering the room with their weapons, while the fourth bound the man’s hands and slapped a slave collar on him.

“What the hell? What is the meaning of this? Shaxidor, you dirty, double-crossing—” The administrator’s rant failed instantly when he turned to see my own stunner held directly in his face.

Still wearing Shaxidor’s face, I smiled, and said “So sorry, Administrator. We would have preferred doing this the quiet way, but it seems uninvited guests came to the party early. As of now, Black Star controls Madrigal Station.” And then I pulled the trigger, sending the Administrator to the blissful oblivion of sleep.

THAT finally caused all the other pirates in the room to start panicking, but the first ones that tried to act like they were going for a weapon or calling for help got shot down with stunshot, and before long everyone that wasn’t Black Star was either lying unconscious on the ground or on their knees, but either way they were now wearing shiny new slave collars. I looked at my bracer. It had been three minutes since the Cassandra order had been given.

Tapping on the bracer, I brought up the comms, so I could get a status report.

M.Mollen: Main Control is secure, all hostiles collared. Report in.

MelMeyers: Engineering locked down, hostiles eliminated.

Raven: Computer Control and Drone Command locked down. Hostiles collared. Infiltration of ship systems 97%. All infiltrated ships have powered down and are on lockdown. Three ships are resisting infiltration, all belonging to the Lark Clan.

BangBang: All sweep teams reporting. Pillars empty, locked down. All hostiles collared.

M.Mollen: Zero atmo on the pillars. Full lockdown protocols. Isolate the pirates from their ships.

Raven: Done.

Wataru: Setting off atmo leak warnings on the promenade. Pirates rushing for the shelters. Looks like they know at least that much of ship drills.

Bagman: Captains and their guards that were on their way to the meeting are trying to run back to their ships. Shots fired!

Yeller: Shit, shots heard on the south end of the marketplace. People are trying to rush back to their ships.

M.Mollen: Weapons free. Stun when you can. Kill if necessary. Boots on the ground make the call.

Yeller: Aye, Sir.

Looking over to the Major, I asked, “You got things while I go slip into something more comfortable?”

Major Khan smirked. “Sure. We’ve got eyes on the cameras, just in case any of the idiot pirates decide to grow a brain and try and take the control room. Most would probably be running to their ships, but with no atmosphere in the pillars, the doors are automatically locked down, and the pirates don’t have suits, from what we’ve seen.”

I laughed. “Ship suits are common as hell, yeah, but they’re expensive to get and hard to repair, especially if you’re likely to get shot or stabbed a few times. Which is why they don’t wear them unless they’re going ‘outside’ or doing maintenance.”

And with that, I stepped into the administrator’s office, and made sure that all the recording devices were off, including the ‘special’ ones that Mathers had for recording his ‘licensing review’ sessions with some of the station’s escorts. He was into some kinky stuff, if the info I got from his mind was any indication. Once I was alone, and not recorded, I stripped off Shaxidor’s clothes, and shifted into my ‘normal’ form. A few minutes later, I was armed and armored in my spec ops gear, ready to take the fight to whoever was trying to ruin my day. A couple of the pirates who weren’t unconscious saw me, and their eyes went wide as they realized the disguise. Let them try and figure out how I’d pretended to be Shaxidor in close quarters.

“Status?”

Major Khan looked up from a tablet, and said, “Lockdown procedures in effect, Admiral. We’ve managed to isolate active resistance to four main areas, and are preparing to use the atmospheric controls to neutralize them if they get too troublesome. Most of the resistance elsewhere is disorganized, with sidearms, and easily dealt with by sweepers. We took down several key troublemakers before the Cassandra call went out, which pleased our ‘guides’ to no end.”

“I imagine they were a lot less pleased when it was their turn, hmm?”

Khan snorted at that. “Yeah, you could say as much. Quite a few very hurtful words were levied at our Marines, before they ordered the idiots to be silent, or just stunned them. All stunned targets are coming around, no complications from the rounds. Marines are using lethal rounds on the rioters, since they won’t have time to collar the targets before stun shots wear off.”

“Boots on the ground make the call. We want the facility intact. Any ships and crews that live through this are bonus points.”

Raven’s voice came over the room’s speakers. “Captain, we have a problem. Maintaining 97% intrusion and nullification of pirate vessels docked to station. Of 100 ships on the pillars, 16 are unmanned, 1 is the Death’s Shadow, 58 are on partial crews and their personnel have been isolated in cabins and nonvital areas, and 22 had crew actively attempting to disable countermeasures, resulting in termination of the crew by various means. Currently, 3 ships are still resisting infiltration, and have cut themselves off from the station datanet. Station cameras have detected airlocks opening and crew exiting the craft in EVA gear with what appear to be explosive devices.”

I sighed. Of course, it couldn’t just go our way. There were fourteen ships belonging to Lark’s clan in dock at the moment, but Raven had managed to get into all but three of them before they could respond to the damn alert from the pirate. Nothing for that, now. At least most of the ships were locked down. I didn’t bother asking how Raven ‘terminated’ the crews that resisted. Probably just vented the atmosphere, or similar. It was a simple and easy fix.

“Launch drones, and see if you can’t take out the engines. If possible, take out the space-walkers before they set their charges. That’ll give people something to think about. The Death’s Shadow is to launch and begin containment procedures, helping to kill or disable any ship that tries to leave without my permission.”

“As you wish, Admiral. Drones are launching. ETA to target, 60 seconds. Estimated time until first ship manages to set charges, 83 seconds. Prioritizing EVA crew as primary targets.”

Major Khan looked over to me, and said, “Admiral, the fighting is contained, for the moment, but three of the sections which had been separated by bulkheads have managed physical overrides, and opened their part of the station up to each other. They’ve also physically disabled environmental controls in those sections. I think they’re going to make a push for either Main Control or Computer Control. Our guys have them out gunned and outskilled, but they’re outnumbered 4 to 1. They can hold a couple choke points, but if the pirates start human wave tactics…”

“Show me the sections on the station map.”

“Here you go, sir.” Major Khan brought up the station map, and showed three sections that had (coincidentally) been located around the primary area for entertainment and shopping (meaning it was mostly bars, brothels, and stores). The fourth section was isolated from those three, but was located near the primary slave market. Hmm. I’d have to check through there for anyone useful when we pacified it. For now, I checked the schematic again.

“Pull back troops back behind bulkhead 13, and have them clear corridor D from bulkhead 15 to the intersection with Pillar 10. The entire run is to be blocked off from the rest of the station, just a clear channel straight to Pillar 10.”

Major Khan nodded grimly, knowing what that kind of order meant, and quickly gave his orders. Like a good commander, he confirmed that troops were moving in the right direction before reporting. “Corridor clear in twenty seconds. Troops pulling back behind bulkhead 13. All troops clear in sixty seconds.”

“Wait until all troops are clear, and then seal bulkhead 13. Once we have seal, Dock 1 on pillar 10 is empty, so open the airlock, and unseal the bulkhead at the base of Pillar 10. While we wait for the atmosphere to evacuate, have the Marines set up the temporary airlock so they can take out anyone who has ship suits or breathers on them once they’re ready.” I paused, and then said, “Raven, when we begin evacuating the atmosphere near the main fighting, I want you to pick some good footage, and pipe it through to the other sections, with the message ‘Surrender or Die’.”

“Understood, Admiral.”

Major Khan nodded. “Do you think the pirates will get the message? I know some of the troops would rather just shoot someone clean than see them suffocate to death. It isn’t a nice way to go.”

I shrugged, and said, “Hopefully, some will. Pirates hate the idea of getting spaced just as much as anyone who lives out in the black, so I really do hope that we’ll have some that will decide not to be stupid, especially in the slave markets and any isolated groups that might be holed up in access tunnels or crawlways and the like, thinking they’ll do hit and run shit. I’m not racking up casualties for this place. I’d love to have the extra workers, but for now I just want this station.”

“But there are innocent people in those sections! You can’t just kill them!”

I turned to look at the man who spoke up, one of the technicians who had been working a communications console before we took control. “This is a black market station specifically providing services to pirates, smugglers, escaped criminals, and all other manner of disreputable figures. Every free man and woman aboard that is not a part of Black Star is either a criminal or complicit. That I am attempting to take this station at all instead of blowing it out of the sky should be considered a grave mercy, and one that none of you deserve. The closest thing to innocents on this station would be the slaves. And I will do what I can to ensure that as many of those are retrieved alive as possible, but not at the expense of my people. You are all pirates, or supporting piracy, and Black Star has been hired to end the threat you pose to this sector.”

“But—!"

“Be silent! All of you are ordered to remain silent unless spoken to.”

Major Khan grunted to the side. “All troops have pulled back. Bulkhead secure. Ready to vent atmosphere.”

“Open the airlock. Don’t restore atmosphere to the sections until after pacification is complete, or the pirates signal surrender unconditionally.”

Omnibus 1 - Volumes 1-4
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

Tuesday, September 25, 2018

Chapter 148 - Weapons Free

(CNS Luvon Gilrie, Madrigal System)

Captain Zylna nodded to herself as she went over the latest reports on the Gilrie’s readiness for combat. She was Confederate Navy, through and through, but she had to admit that the concepts the Black Stars had come up with for their ships were extremely innovative. Using tactics that were more like submarine warfare than starships was something that would not occur to most people. But it allowed them to act as a force multiplier. And with the training the Admiral and his people had been putting her through, she couldn’t wait to see what the results would be in the first wargames she participated in after this detachment ended.

Alarms brought her out of her thoughts of victory against her fellow captains for bragging rights, and back to the reality of her current assignment. She turned to look at the sensor console. “Report!”

“Captain, we have incoming ships just leaving warp. Five ships, all heading for the pass through the minefield.”

Focusing on the sensor readouts on the screen, she said, “Do we have identification yet? What types are they?”

“One heavy cruiser, two frigates, and two freighters, captain. The frigates look to have the freighters under tow, so they are probably captured vessels. Freighters register as the Innuendo out of Kul’tiras, and the Bryynore out of Tecrone, both registered as legitimate merchants.”

Captain Zylna nodded. Definitely pirates, then, preying on traffic crossing the border. “I see. And the warships?”

“The frigates are the Curse of the Curse and the Blind Ranger. The Cruiser has two identity codes that we’re receiving. One says it is the Vile Lust, but the other registers it as the CNS Kythaela Daven!”

“What? The Daven was reported missing, feared lost during the last war! She’s been a pirate ship all this time? Who is supposed to be her captain?”

The intel analyst interjected here, saving the poor sensor tech. “This is the first time a Navy ship has gotten close enough to get transponder codes, I believe, ma’am. However, the Vile Lust is the flagship of ‘Fierce’ Deverell Lark. He’s the number one pirate in the area, according to what the fleet’s heard.”

“Comms! Get the Shinokage on line. Tell them that we have a pirate convoy making for the pass, including a VIP. Send our intel and request backup! Then get Lieutenant Daelen and let him know that he and his Marines are to armor up and get ready for boarding action.”

Lieutenant Leoven, the XO, looked over at her, and said, just loud enough that only she could hear, “Boarding, Captain?”

Captain Zylna smiled fiercely at her XO. “One way or another, the Kythaela Daven is not spending one more day in the service of pirates, XO. Either we take her, or she will be sent to the rest she has long deserved. But I would rather take her, so we might be able to figure out what happened to her all those years ago.”

(Pirate Vessel Vile Lust, Madrigal System)

Captain ‘Fierce’ Lark had earned his name over the years as a pirate who took no guff from anyone, and was always willing to give tenfold for anything he got. Well, there were plenty of pirate captains like that, but a lot of his success he owed to his first mate and prime fuckmeat, ‘Cutthroat’ Genny Grissom. The wench was sharp as a tack, and knew she was better off being the right hand and cocksleeve of the best pirate in the sector than trying to run things on her own. But she had a wicked mind when it came to managing the ‘fleet’ which left him more time for planning raids and enjoying the spoils of victory.

Some of those spoils were waiting on him back in his cabin, when they docked at the Maddy. He and Genny were going to enjoy the fresh meat until they broke the girl, same as they always did. The rest of the slaves were ready to be sold and spread around the station, seeing who needed new fuckmeat, new labor, or perhaps some new crew. There were some captains that liked having slaves instead of free crew, as a Stepford crew was utterly loyal. Lark didn’t hold to that himself. Not a moral thing, mind you. Just that Stepfords were never ‘all there’ while the controls were on, making them dumber than the average pirate, and not able to react to things.

“Captain! Sensors picking up an EM pulse. Location just outside the minefield.”

“Well, what is it, Mickey? Bring the ship on screen.” This wasn’t proper procedure for going to the Maddy, which made Lark all kinds of nervous. Fortunately, the pirate had made it a rule that his ships always came out of warp with the shields fully charged. Especially after those Black Star ships started showing up, being all sneaky like. Not much the shields would do against those things, but having them up might be the difference between instant death and being able to get away, or at least fight the bastards in a boarding action. Maybe even get a shot in return, if they were close enough.

“No ship on screen, Cap’n. Don’t know what it was. Doesn’t match a trace for comms that we’ve seen before.”

Lark’s eyes went wide, and he shouted, “SHIELDS TO CONFIGURATION TWO! EVASIVE MANEUVERS! ALL SHIPS TO BATTLE STATIONS!”

The crew reacted fast, as he’d beat into them. ‘Configuration Two’ was a secret he’d gotten from some Impies that they’d ‘acquired’ at the end of the civil war. The only way for a ship to not get wrecked by a Black Star ship was to be elsewhere. But the angled screens might help deflect the shot instead of letting it hit straight…

WHAM!!

The impact physically rocked the ship enough that the inertial dampeners couldn’t compensate, throwing crewmembers who weren’t securely fastened to their seats about the bridge. Even Lark just barely managed to stay in his chair. As the lights flickered and then went to the dull red of emergency power, the captain was once more glad that his crew weren’t Stepfords. They might actually have a chance in hell of getting out of this.

“Damage report!”

(CNS Luvon Gilrie, Madrigal System)

“Good hit on the Vile Lust, Captain! Shields are offline. Sensors indicate they are on emergency power. Reactor must have scrammed automatically in the impact. They’re dead in space, Ma’am.”

Captain Zylna nodded. “Status on the other two targets?”

“Shadowdancer and Simo Hayha have engaged the frigates, aiming to disable. Ghost Squadron is assisting with them and the freighters.”

“Very well. Target the cruiser. Ion cannons fire at will. Keep their systems down. Marines may launch when ready.”

“Marines away, Captain.”

“Give me regular reports on their status. Tell the Lieutenant that I want the Kythaela Daven out of enemy hands, but I’m not sacrificing his team to do it. If he feels taking the ship is impossible, then he is to retreat to the shuttle, and we will destroy the ship.”

“Aye, Captain.”

Zylna looked over to Lieutenant Leoven. The man was studying his console rather intently. Switching to a private comm line, she subvocalized, “Something the matter, XO?”

The Lieutenant glanced over her, and responded on the channel. “Not sure, Captain. Look at our sensor readings just before impact. Three seconds before our shots landed, the cruiser changed their shield configuration and began evasive maneuvers. Two seconds later, the frigates did the same.”

Looking at the data the XO sent her, Captain Zylna looked over to her console, she saw that he was right. “Something spooked the captain of the cruiser, and he reacted like he was expecting Black Star. That shield configuration is similar to the one the Navy techies were testing to use against Black Star weapons. They are able to ‘bounce’ the shots better than the standard configuration, but are worse against conventional weapons.”

Leoven nodded slightly. “Yes, but what alerted them? A ship that old won’t have the latest scanners, even if they’ve been updated somewhat. So what did they see?”

Zylna frowned at the readout. Something about the timing of the ship’s maneuvers… “Light speed! EM radiation goes at the same speed as light. The ‘light’ of our launch would have reached the target before our shot did. We launched at three light-seconds out, while at a relative closing velocity of twenty percent light speed from our combined velocities. The ‘light’ would have reached the ship in three seconds, but impact wasn’t for almost twelve seconds after that.”

The XO was nodding now. “Yes, that makes sense. They had a reaction time of six seconds between registering whatever EM we leaked from firing a rail gun directly at them. Seems slightly slow, but confirming the leak was not coming from a visible ship, and relaying information verbally on the bridge would account for that. Pirates aren’t likely to have expensive neural link technology.”

Captain Zylna nodded. “Write it up, XO, and attach it to our reports to Black Star and the Navy for this encounter. The fact that the ‘Vile Lust’ is only disabled instead of missing a significant part of her hull at the least is testament to that quick reaction when expecting Black Star ships in the area. We may be able to increase response time if we train crew members to respond to it like they do fighter pilots with missile launches.”

Her XO grinned. “Not much of an advantage, but ‘not dead yet’ does beat the alternative, I guess. It probably only helps if you’re directly on the line. Everything we’ve seen says that the leak of EM is very directional due to the construction of the ship and the nature of the weapon.”

“Sure, at the range we launched, it may be the difference between death and disabled, but we were practically in knife range already when we launched. You get an Assassin, or someone using the same railgun technology, since it isn’t that complicated, and shooting from far enough out that the attack takes MINUTES or even HOURS to reach the target? That’s one hell of a warning for static targets, like space stations.”

“Yeah, but what could a Station do to defend against that?”

“Put a ship in the path, XO. What do you think the Admiralty would rather lose, a frigate, or a fleet base with spacedocks? It is the same reason we have fighters that get swatted out of the sky by other fighters or point defense. They exist to take some of the burden off the bigger ships. Everything else they do is just a bonus.”

“Captain! The target managed to restore communications momentarily before they were disabled completely by our ion cannons. Detecting a comm relay satellite that hadn’t appeared on our scans before, probably due to being next to debris in the minefield.”

“Comms! Priority message to the Death’s Shadow, for retransmit to the Admiral! Let him know that he might be made!”

“Aye, Captain!”

(Main Control Room, Madrigal Base)

‘Captain Shaxidor’ looked at the message coming to him over his commlink. It had been a priority retransmit from the Death’s Shadow. Looking through the data, it was clear that the Luvon Gilrie had done well catching a big fish, but this fish had been expecting Black Star to come calling, and had been prepared. But then, rumors of our getting called in had spread, even before we got to Tietera. If Gilwarin had heard the rumors on Zanchul Station, then others may have heard it, too.

Oh well, this ruse was always going to break down quickly. It just happened a few hours earlier than he had hoped. Quickly, he got on the group comms.

M.Mollen: Raven, status on system intrusions?

Raven: 100% on station systems, including offensive drones and weapons. 70% on ships, but I can get to 100% in minutes if you don’t care about being quiet.

MajorTom: Something up, Boss?

M.Mollen: Word from the fleet. Changing to Status: Cassandra. Repeat, Trojan Horse is now Status: Cassandra. Weapons free.

Omnibus 1 - Volumes 1-4
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Sunday, September 23, 2018

Chapter 147 - Infiltration

(Pillar 4, Dock 2, Madrigal Base, Madrigal System)

Stepping off the Death’s Shadow with my team, I looked around, and saw two pirates step up to meet me. The files Raven had been able to access said that one of them (the tall, heavyset guy that was armed to the teeth and looked annoyed as hell) was the head enforcer for the station. The other guy (who looked like he was a stiff breeze from being blown away and was jumpy as a long-tailed cat in a room full of rocking chairs) was the chief system tech for the station. I stretched out mindread to the two of them, and was happy to see that they had not actually met ‘Shaxidor’ before. That made my life easier.

“Cap’n Shaxidor? Miles Branchaven, Chief Enforcer. Hope you don’t mind me saying that this is a shit move and only reason I’m going along with it is because Admin Mathers is convinced you’ve got some information that’ll have the pirates go fucking nuts, and draw heat on us. Mind telling me what it is?”

I looked the burly man over, and said, “Chief, I’ll be heading up to the Admin center with my team to brief Mathers, but I’m going to tell you and… who are you again?” I turned to look at the tech, questioningly.

The tech gulped, and said, “I’m Bretris Hartra, System Engineer. I keep the computers and stuff like that running.”

I nodded. “Good. Now, I’ll be telling you two early, since I don’t want this shit getting out and causing trouble. Big fence on Tietera has good info that the Confeds have called in Black Star to clean up the area, like they did in the core. Might already be in the sector by now, looking for pirates.”

Branchaven frowned, but didn’t seem to quite understand what I’d meant by that. Hartra, on the other hand, cursed, loud enough to be heard. When Branchaven turned to look at him, the techie said, “I heard it on the nets. The Pirate Queen made the mistake of trying to take on Black Star, so he went to Booty Bay and took the whole place. Blew up all the ships, so that they weren’t even good as salvage, enslaved most everyone except for Temptation and others, who they killed slow.”

Branchaven growled. “So Black Star will be coming here eventually?”

I shook my head. “Maybe. But Maddy is a tough nut to crack. We don’t let any of the little rats scared of the big bad mercs go off running and getting themselves caught, then they’ll have to map out the safe paths themselves, and we can hurt ‘em good. Maybe they’ll get the info from some of the pirates that are already out of port, but no sense giving them extra targets to find. We make it look too tough to take us out to make it worth the effort, then the Black Stars will decide they aren’t getting paid enough for this, and head back where they came from. We just gotta wait them out.”

Branchaven nodded slowly. “That won’t be a popular decision, you know. The newbs from the core are still pissing themselves at night any time they start thinking about Black Star. They’ll be up for running the moment that news hits the net.”

“Yeah, that’s what me and the boys thought, which is why we pitched a lockdown idea to Mathers. Your guys are only enough for a bit of busting heads to keep things clean in the bar fights, right? Not enough to bust up a riot of the little fish start getting scared and stupid. Half of them are already stupid, but adding scared to the mix won’t help any.”

I took a breath, and said, “So, I got people, and I got the kick-ass gear we ‘found’ on a transport running the border. You got, what, ten guys? Fifteen?”

“Twelve, plus me. Why, what you thinking?”

“Right. So we’ll have my people back yours up. Look real intimidating, right? There’s twenty pillars on this station. I figure put one of yours with each squad of mine, and they’ll patrol the pillars, making sure things stay quiet. My techies say they can break the computers the other ships are using, they just haven’t done it before because that’d be attacking people in the Maddy. But if the System techie asked us to help make sure they can’t override lockdowns and the like, that’s not a problem, now is it?”

Branchaven looked to Hartra, who nodded. “I’m good, but I can’t beat the whole fleet all trying different things all at once. Even just shutting the net down would just leave them able to do things to isolated systems without me being able to check and stop them.”

I continued on. “That only works with the pillars, though. The majority of the pirates are in the hub. So we need to keep the sheep from doing anything stupid. I’ll get some of my people to guard the important spots, like the reactor, the drone bays, and main control. Branchaven, you wanna sit with the one on main control? That’ll make Mathers happy, I’m sure.”

Branchaven frowned, and then nodded slightly, before looking over to the techie. “Hartra, you see any problems?”

The tech shrugged, and said, “Well, if their techs are like they claim, then we can work on locking out the individual ships, so they can’t disengage the safeties installed to keep ships from ripping away from the dock or blasting the base. Anyone starts causing trouble in the hub, we can have a fake atmo leak, seal everything up tight as a preacher’s daughter’s virgin honeypot. Then you and the Cap’n’s teams can go clear out the troublemakers.”

I looked at the tech. “They really start causing trouble, can you pump out the air?”

“Make it a ‘real’ atmo leak? Yeah, probably. The systems are old all over, but the maintenance guys are always on top of the atmo systems. I’ve helped them debug the computers a couple times when they were doing maintenance and had to install a new part that was… nonstandard in origin.”

I read that last bit as them taking parts from a captured ship’s life support systems to help repair and upgrade their systems. Not a bad way to go about it, if you had a tech who could work through the code to keep the different pieces from fucking things up. This guy was someone I was going to want to have on my team, when Madrigal became a Black Star property.

I nodded, and pointed to Raven. “Crow, go with Hartra here, and set up in the main office, start logging in and get it set up for the others when they get here.”

Raven nodded, a smile no doubt hidden behind her mask. “Sure thing, Cap’n.” She turned to the tech, and said, “Lead the way. We’ll get set up in a flash.”

I looked over to Branchaven. “I’ll have my people start spreading out as soon as your guys get here. Think they can point out the newbie ships first? Those are the guys most likely to freak when the news hits after the Captain meeting. Be good to have an eye on thing before things get that far, yeah?”

Branchaven nodded, before setting a few commands in his communicator. “All right, the guys will be around soon to take your people to the trouble spots, and drop the guys you are gonna have guard the reactor off. The drone bay and controls are next to Hartra’s techie cave.”

“Good. Nice to be working with someone who knows their shit. You ever consider working someplace other than the Maddy? I might be able to use someone like you.”

“Thought about it, but my sister an’ her kids work at one of the bars here. I’d need a good place for them if I left this gig for something else. Least working here I get to see the kids all the time, y’know?”

I smirked, and said, “Well, who knows. When this whole thing blows over, I’ll maybe get back to ya. Like I said, I value havin’ someone who knows their shit on hand.”

(Pillar 20, Dock 12, Madrigal Base, Madrigal System)

Whurfin Redpike walked with his pulse rifle resting over one shoulder, like he always did when he was walking the halls of the Maddy, looking for trouble. Only this time, the Gauz male had four of the pirates off the Death’s Shadow in some seriously badass armor. Too bad for him that the stuff apparently came from the Empire, and those racist bastards weren’t keen on making their shit fit ‘stubby little space dwarves’. Fucking pricks. If he could afford it, he really wanted to get his hands on the mech-suits that the military types in the Consortium could get. Made for Gauz, by Gauz. Those mech-suits were top notch, and could take as much of a beating as they gave out. Hell, some of the high end ones were even modded to do space combat!

“So, you’re saying that they went and put all the new pukes from the core on this one pillar?”

Whurfin looked over to the armored guy that spoke. “Well, this one, and 19. 18 sometimes has guys who work both sides of the border with the Alliance staying there. The newbs from the core, they were all spooked. Boss talked with Mathers, and after the fifth time with those crybabies whining about how the Black Stars whooped their asses all over the place, they got moved over here. Hell, even the ones that came our way after Jagloth got trashed didn’t whine so much.”

The armored guys turned to look at Whurfin. The one that spoke said in a very calm voice that Whurfin didn’t trust in the slightest. “Jagloth? You did check them, right, make sure they were still them, and not that Legion fucker?”

“Nah, we’re pirates, but that doesn’t mean we’re idiots. These were folk coming from the outer stations mostly, or smugglers and the like who got turned back by the Navy when they tried to get to the planet. That techie, Hart-something? He pulled up this kick-ass way to scan people for nanites. No one new was allowed to dock before they’d been scanned. Don’t care what kind of nanites they were. You had nanites, you went out the airlock, simple as that.”

“Good. That shit ain’t anything to play around with.”

(Tech Suport Room, Madrigal Base, Madrigal System)

“So, um, what is it like being the tech on a ship like the Death’s Shadow? I mean, you have to have some bitchin’ stories, right? You ever get to try and take over someone’s computers in battle and turn off the guns like you see in the movies?”

Hartra was nervous, and not just because he didn’t like guns. Working with pirates, you didn’t see too many women that weren’t either slaves or hardened killers. He wasn’t a virgin (one of the station whores had taken care of that for him years ago), but you don’t see too many female techies on a pirate base. Or rather, he hadn’t seen one, ever, until this Crow showed up.

Crow chuckled, as she looked around his ‘office’ and support center, and said, “Sure, I got stories. But some of them, I’d be needing to kill you, to keep the story from getting out. Too much riding on people thinking they hadn’t been screwed. If they knew what I’d done to their systems, they’d go upgrading things and taking out the back doors I put in. Then I’d have to go and do it again. Lot of extra work, you know?”

Hartra nodded, and said, “So, um, Crow, you want to go watch some movies when we’re done getting ready for things here? I have some good ones from Earth, back in the day. I can get some dinner sent up for us.”

Crow shook her head, and said, “Focus, Hartra. We need to get this set up for when we bring the other techs in to seriously fight the attempts the idiots will make. You can unlock these consoles to allow new users to access the system, right?”

“Ah, yeah, sure. And you can call me Bretris, if you like. Or Bret. I go by Bret a lot, too. Just let me put the admin key in, and I’ll have it ready for you to start doing the setup.”

“That’s great, Hartra. I’ll get to work right now.”

Raven: Captain, I’m in. The idiot is too busy trying to flirt to realize that I stole his admin key. Breaking the systems now to gain control.

M.Mollen: Good work, Raven. Try to keep the idiot unaware as long as possible. If we can keep everything quiet until the Captain meeting, we’ll be set up to take everything over at once.

Omnibus 1 - Volumes 1-4
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Thursday, September 20, 2018

Chapter 146 - Battlecruiser

(Pirate Vessel Death’s Shadow, Tietera System)

Naturally, one could not simply park a battlecruiser in orbit over an inhabited planet, even a border area like Tietera, and not have someone notice it. Even with space being huge, having a warship in orbit is going to be noticed. Which is why the former captain of the Death’s Shadow had taken a shuttle to Zanchul Station. The battlecruiser had been left in orbit of the sixth planet of the system, a gas giant that was unremarkable save for a few automated gas mining stations in the upper atmosphere.

The Death’s Shadow had put up a decent fight, considering that the ship had been running in a low-power state, trying to be as stealthy as she could. They had, however, been running with the shields charged and up. Normally, that kind of thing from a ship would ruin their stealth profile, but the atmosphere of the gas giant provided enough background radiation that their shields would have been lost in the mix, if we didn’t know exactly where to look. Still, when my ships dropped in right on top of the battlecruiser, all opening fire simultaneously, the pirates didn’t have a chance.

Once the ship was disabled, the Marines got their chance to play. The fighting was fast, furious, and both easier and harder than fighting the Imperial Marines or Deus’s forces that my guys had faced before. It was easier because the pirates were no Marines. They had no discipline, barely any training, and they were certainly not armed and armored like Marines. But ask anyone with experience, and they would rather face ten men with real training than one untrained idiot in a real fight. Untrained idiots are unpredictable. You don’t know when they’ll do something completely stupid that will get you all killed. Case in point, the dumbass who brought out a rocket launcher in an enclosed space, or the one who actually used white phosphorous on a starship.

Once the surviving crew was properly incapacitated, collared, and corralled like their captain was, I had my engineers start going over the ship, preparing it for what was to come. See, the not-so-good Captain Shaxidor had proven a literal wealth of information about the defenses of the pirate base. And, frankly, they were enough that it was easy to see why the local Navy didn’t try and take out this group.

Before you ever got to the base, you had to deal with the asteroid field. This was a particularly dense one, leaving only a few paths through the field unless you were in a ship as nimble (and small) as the Starlight Raven. Fighters would have a field day there, but warships would be limited to only a couple paths. Worse, there was the remains of an old minefield littering the asteroid field, making navigation even more hazardous.

Then you had the defense platforms. The pirates knew the best ways for any big ships to get through, so they had automated defenses set up in the asteroid field, ready to open up on ships that didn’t have the right passcodes. Since ships couldn’t maneuver properly in the field, that made getting through without being blasted to pieces ‘problematic’, at best. At the very least, the mix of asteroids, mines, and weapons would certainly slow any attacking force, and give the pirates plenty of warning.

Which is where you had the third big problem, the drone fighters. The pirates figured that keeping a whole bunch of wannabe fighter pilots around, and training them to fight actual fighter pilots, was too much of a headache, so they had a fleet of armed drones which controllers on the base could use to attack incoming ships. They were half the size of regular fighters, but had the engines and power plant of a full-size fighter, making them lighter, quicker, and still able to hit like a fighter. Apparently, the Pirates called them ‘Piranhas’, since they would basically swarm a target taking lots of little bites until the target died.

Then, of course, you had the station’s ACTUAL defenses. Since the station was originally designed to be a fleet base back during one of the wars, it was big, heavily armored, and armed to the teeth. And by the time a ship could maneuver to get a clear shot at it, you were already within its attack range. So anyone who survived past the mines, and the defenses, and the piranhas, got to deal with dreadnought-level weaponry at close quarters. Oh, and any pirate ships that happened to be in port, as well. If you managed to get on the station itself? Then you had thousands of pirates, all shooting at you.

In short, it was one godawful nasty place to try and take by force. In fact, the multiple layers of defense inspired a comparison to old walled cities in a siege. We couldn’t get ‘siege weapons’ to bear on the ‘walls’, so the only conventional way to deal with the base would be to do a frontal assault, eat hellacious casualties, and still probably fail to take the objective. But then, Black Star hadn’t made its name with frontal assaults. No, we were going to cheat, and the Death’s Shadow was going to help us in what I was calling ‘Operation Trojan Horse’.

Like the ancient stratagem of myth, we would take the Death’s Shadow through the minefield, using the pirates’ own codes against them. The fleet would guard the passages out of the asteroid field, with the fighters from the Vicious Return hunting to take any of the little ships that tried to escape. The real challenge would be for those of us in the ‘Horse’, as we would have to take the base without fleet assistance.

And who was going to be the Greeks to my Odysseus? That was obviously going to be my Black Star Marines. As I’d said before, I have Marines, and I was not afraid to use them for mayhem. And frankly, this was going to be one of the jobs that they were going to love.

But first we had to get through the defenses, so the Marines could play. That was why I was now on the bridge of the Death’s Shadow, dressed in Captain Shaxidor’s clothes and wearing his face. I had to get us in to dock with the station. So far, the codes that the Captain had provided had all worked as we passed through the asteroids.

Coming into view of Madrigal Base, I whistled appreciatively. This was no little waystation. Built and designed as a fleet base, the central core was as large as a superdreadnought, with docks extending out from it in all directions, allowing room for almost a hundred ships to dock at one time, provided they were smaller ships, like frigates. There was an organized ‘graveyard’ of scrapped and wrecked derelicts off to one side, near what was obviously a full-fledged shipyard! Of course, a fleet base would need to repair damaged warships. But with this under Black Star jurisdiction…

This was looking to be a VERY profitable job, indeed.

“Captain,” the communications officer said, with as much venom and disdain as he could put into his voice, “the station is hailing us.”

Looking over at the surly human male, I activated the Stepford protocols on the man’s collar, and said, “Put it on screen, and then go outside and repeatedly punch yourself in your genitalia as hard as you can until a member of Black Star tells you to stop, and don’t make a sound doing it. Make sure you smile the entire time.” The man’s sneer turned to a wide smile, even though his eyes burned with hatred, but he turned the screen on before walking off the bridge all the same. The rest of the crew made VERY sure to be looking away from me, and not saying a word.

“Death’s Shadow, this is Madrigal Base Control. Good to see you again, Captain. Good hunting out there?”

The person on the screen was an acquaintance of Shaxidor’s. Not a friend, or even someone he knew particularly well, but there were only three people that did ‘flight control’, such as it was, for the pirate base, and Shaxidor was one of the big three in the area, and Death’s Shadow was distinctive. My ‘interview’ with Shaxidor had gone over all of this, and how the interactions between him and the controllers normally went.

“Not as much, Control. Managed to hit an arms shipment on the way back from a meet on Tietera, but had to blow the ship as there was enough company inbound that we couldn’t tow it with us. Seems there’s trouble coming this way. Let’s just say that I’m keeping my ships in for the moment.”

“Damn. Enough ‘company’ that you cut and ran, instead of fighting? Felt like it had been going too good, lately. What’s the word? Anything that needs to go on the nets?”

“Yeah, well, I’m no idiot. There were three ships to my one, and the middle one was broadcasting that it was the Shinokage. The local government has called in those Black Star assholes to ‘clean up’ the area. Wants them to do to us what they did to the pirates in the core.”

“Fuck. That’ll wrinkle a few feathers. All those newcomers have been talking up the way the Black Stars rolled up all the pirates in the core for months. Hearing they’ll be coming this way might start a panic!”

“Well, if that’s the case, why don’t you talk to the stationmaster, and get them to lock down the docking rings and the ships, so they can keep any of the rats from fleeing and spilling the beans in order to save their own skins. You know some of these newcomers will do just that.”

“Hah! With what men? You know we only got enough guys to break up the bar fights and keep a few guns on the critical systems!”

“Hah. Tell ya what. You get the stationmaster to send me the right codes, and I’ll have my boys here on the Shadow dress up in that fancy armor that we got off the transport. We’ll spread out through the station and secure everything. While you guys lock it down. My guy on Tietera told me Black Star’s been asking around about Maddy, so you can bet that they’ll be looking for rats to flip, if they haven’t already.”

“Fuck. Wait a sec, Shadow, stationmaster’s here.” There was a pause as the man looked off to the side. “All right, Shadow, stationmaster agrees with your call, but different reasons. Conference of all the captains in port scheduled for two hours from now, to go over what any response ought to be. In the meantime, if you are willing to suit your boys up and have them help secure the station, we’ll put the Shadow at Pillar 4, Dock 2.”

“Good plan, Control. Death’s Shadow out.” He hit the control to cut the transmission, and then looked to Raven, who was standing just out of sight of the viewscreen. “Bring the idiot back in, and let the Marines know to suit up, but remember that we’re supposed to be Pirates playing at being Marines. Keep it loose until it is time to go to work. Trojan Horse is a go.”

Raven smiled, and said, “Oh, I’m sure the Marines are going to be absolutely thrilled about goofing off in armor. The Major will be pissed as all hell, though. I think the only thing that will make him happy after this is getting to run roughshod over all the idiots on that station, blasting anyone who doesn’t surrender. Poor Major hates it when his Marines start doing stupid things.”

I laughed at her words as Raven went to the bridge door. It opened to reveal the crewman from earlier, collapsed in the fetal position, quietly sobbing, with tears running down his face that didn’t match the wide grin he sported, which didn’t falter in the slightest as he got one more good hit in on himself before Raven stopped him. I nodded slowly as I saw the man, and looked to the rest of the bridge crew. “Now, if I hear any more back talk, instead of just punching them, I’ll make you guys go down to the galley and slap them on the stovetop while it is on. Do I make myself clear?” A round of frightened nods came my way. “Good. Don’t fuck up, and you’ll get to live through this. Screw with my operation, and you’ll wish you were dead.”

Omnibus 1 - Volumes 1-4
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Tuesday, September 18, 2018

Chapter 145 - Interrogation

(Holding Cells, BSN Shinokage, Tietera System)

I watched as Captain Aeson ‘Quickblade’ Shaxidor began waking up, clearly having the mother of all headaches. It was a common side effect of the knockout poison on the darts we used. Works like a charm on most species, and twice as fast on Knelfi, but it leaves them with an absolute bitch of a headache when it wears off. Since we didn’t usually sleepy-time anyone we actually cared about, that wasn’t a priority of ours.

The Captain was currently sitting in a chair we’d designed to be uncomfortable, especially since he was tied to it with his hands behind his back, and dressed only in his underwear. The bright white spotlight above his head made it difficult for him to see anyone or anything in the darkened room outside his little circle of light, adding to the psychological pressure of the whole ordeal. Normally, we wouldn’t have stripped the man, but we’d found enough hidden weapons, escape kits, and other nasty surprises that we just stripped him of everything. As a precaution, the doctor scanned him, and found a false tooth filled with poison, an effective suicide pill if he got captured. We also dug out the emergency beacon in his wrist, so that he wouldn’t be able to call for help.

Shaxidor groaned, and finally opened his eyes, blinking and squinting in the bright light. “What the? Where am I? You got no right to be doing this to me!” Ah, it seemed he was lucid enough to complain, which meant that he was lucid enough for us to begin the questioning.

“Aeson Shaxidor. Pirate. Smuggler. Slaver. Thief. Murderer. Oh, dear, you even are involved in dealing addictive pharmaceuticals. You really are a renaissance criminal, it seems. Let’s see, Captain of the Death’s Shadow. Now isn’t that ironic?”

All the while I was speaking, I walked softly outside the circle of light, so my voice was constantly changing position, causing Shaxidor to turn his head to try and track my movements in an attempt to see who he was dealing with. I kept my voice calm, conversational, like I was simply reading something off the pages of a dossier. It was a psychological game, of course. The unknown figure who knows so much already, what else is in their file on him? That was a powerful lever I could use to break Shaxidor.

“What do ya mean, ironic? And who in the hell are you? I got rights, damnit! You can’t be doing this to me! I’m a free trader—”

“Oh, please, Aeson. Can I call you Aeson? Anyways, do give us some credit for our intelligence department’s ability to get to the truth behind the lies. You are no ‘free trader’. You are a pirate, and have been working this area of space for twenty years, now, always knowing the right officials to bribe so that the Navy never troubled you, so long as you kept your activities within an acceptable level.”

“Then why are we having this ‘conversation’? You know that I’m protected, so there’s no point keeping me here. When the people in the Governor’s office hear I’ve been taken…”

“Oh my. You are behind the times. Here, let me play you a little something. I think it will do wonders to show you exactly what your position is.”

A screen popped on in front of Shaxidor, showing the local Tietera News. There was an attractive female reporter standing in front of the Seven Star Lounge.

“Still no word from officials in the Tietera Health Services on the identities of the two men who were taken from the locally famous Seven Star Lounge here on Zanchul Station by emergency medical transport earlier this evening. However, we have received unconfirmed reports that this may have been a case of Morbilor Astsimus poisoning, a condition that is known to be caused by consuming the flesh from infected Vermaw. Sources in the Seven Star Lounge confirm that the two men were eating vermaw steaks sourced from the Sagthad region of Ziphad. We here at Tietera News will work to find out whether this was an isolated incident, or whether our food supplies are at risk of contamination.”

The anchor cut in here, and said, “Taenya, is there any news on when we may learn more about the identity of the two men who were evacuated?”

“Unfortunately, sources in the Medical Service have said that an official announcement will not be made until the families of the victims are notified, if possible. However, we have obtained this footage of the medical teams evacuating the two men from a nearby store’s security cameras. We’re going to show you an enhancement on one of the victims now. Facial recognition gives a 67% match to Aiwan Gilwarin, a local financier and number 454 on the Orbesf 500 list for the Tietera System’s most affluent people.”

I cut the screen off, and said, “So, unfortunately for you, you haven’t been arrested, and no government contacts will be calling demanding you be released. Of course, even if they demanded it, that wouldn’t mean anything. After all, no one on this ship is a government official.”

“What? If you aren’t government, then who the fuck are you? Some spy agency? I got nothing for you backstabbing spooks. Saw how you just like using us and then tossing us aside when it is politically inconvenient.”

“Ah, no. You see, I told you that the name of your ship was rather ironic, didn’t I? Death’s Shadow has such a nice, grim ring to it. The irony, of course, is that the name of the ship you’re currently on translates to ‘Shadow of Death’. But you would probably recognize it better as Shinokage.”

Ah, there it was. Even if I wasn’t in his head, reading his surface thoughts, it would be easy enough to see the fear that just went through him, as the Captain stiffened in response to my declaration. “No way, we haven’t done anything to your group!”

“Oh yes, that is why you are still alive and uncollared. Whether either of those things remain true is something I have not yet decided. Some of it will depend on your attitude, of course. I have this thing about people insulting me or mine. It makes me want to smack them around a little bit until they’ve learned their lesson. Sometimes, though, it involves someone taking a walk outside without a suit.”

Captain Shaxidor grit his teeth, not trusting himself to say anything that wouldn’t get him into more trouble, though he did have some interesting thoughts about what he wanted to do. I continued my little trick of moving around the room, and said, “Don’t bother trying to use the implant to signal your crew. We made sure to remove it after our operative brought you in for questioning.”

“Operative? You mean that blonde bint? She was working for you guys?”

“Oh yes, it was quite easy getting her a job as a server at the lounge. Your friend Mister Gilwarin is, unfortunately for you, a rather bad judge of character. But don’t worry about him. He’s currently being interviewed in another cell. Though I’ve been informed he’s currently working very hard to make a deal for himself that will allow him to go free after all of this is done.”

“What? That rat! What is he telling you?”

“Oh, nothing much. Just all the accounts that he has used to launder money for you pirates over the years, and details on the loans and other financing he’s done as well. I do believe he’s been keeping careful records of all of his dealings since the beginning, just in case a day like this ever came up.”

I paused, and then said, “Now, as you can see, this leaves you in a somewhat worse condition. The more information he gives us, the less valuable any contributions you have may be. Right now, your best-case scenario is… well, I won’t say, but at least you’d be alive. That’s something, right? But right now, you’re looking at death. Maybe slow and painful, as an example to other pirates. Maybe something quicker and more dignified, an easy end, if you keep your attitude in check. But you’re going to have to do a lot of work if you want to keep breathing.”

Shaxidor’s eyes widened, his nostrils flared, as a surge of anger flared through him, but he stomped down on it swiftly, keeping it in check. Promising himself that he’d get revenge in time. Just had to keep it together, give me what I wanted, and then get out of there. Get his crews, and taking them out of the sector until we had finished killing the new pirates, and then returning to pick up the pieces at a more established rate, until they could find a chance to fight back. Too bad it would never work, but whatever little lies he told himself to keep his ego in check were fine with me.

“What do you want?”

“It is simple, really. We had a great deal of success last time we went up against pirates by attacking their bases. We have received confirmation of the location of the main pirate haven in this sector. But your people aren’t as foolish as the so-called Pirate Queen from the Badlands. The reports we’ve gotten talk about all kinds of defenses.”

Shaxidor glared at the empty space where I formerly was. “You’re going after Madrigal Base? That’s madness! Even the Navy isn’t stupid enough to go trying and taking that base! We’ve been building it up for almost a hundred years. The damn thing is as good a fortress as you’ve ever seen!”

“Ah, yes. That was what we have heard. However, you forget who you’re talking to. Black Star has launched successful attacks on some of the most heavily fortified positions in the galaxy, slipping through Defense networks that make yours look cute and antiquated by comparison. If we set ourselves to wiping out Madrigal Base, it will be wiped out. The only question is what will it cost us, and what will it cost the pirates.”

“Then what in the abyss do you want with me? If you’re so certain you can break the Maddy, then why all of this?”

“Simple enough, Aeson. Destroying Madrigal Base and everyone on it would be child’s play, when you have precision mass drivers, and other, even more destructive weaponry. No, we could easily destroy Madrigal Base. But taking it? Capturing the base, complete with all its supplies and personnel intact? That takes more than simply going in and blasting away. And so we come to why you are here. You are one of the senior captains in this sector. Twenty ships answer to you, mostly little corvettes and frigates, of course, with some converted freighters. You’re the third most powerful pirate captain in the sector, which means you would have quite the inside knowledge of Madrigal’s defenses.”

Shaxidor blinked. He didn’t like that I knew about the number and type of ships that answered to him. Worse, I knew things that I wasn’t supposed to know. Someone had leaked the existence of Madrigal Base, and told me enough about the defenses that I decided to get an ‘inside man’. But he knew he was trapped. If I didn’t get cooperation from him, he’d die, or worse, and I’d find some other patsy. There were plenty of pirates out there that would throw the rest of them under the cargo transport to save their own skins. Maybe he could feed enough false information to—

“Oh, I wouldn’t recommend doing that, Aeson.”

“W-what? What are you talking about?”

“You were just thinking about how you were going to try and deceive me, getting me to take out most of your enemies while getting me killed, no? Unfortunately, that plan simply isn’t going to work. No, that plan won’t work either. And really, trying to sell your sister to get me off your case? Tsk, tsk. Very disappointing, Aeson. And here I thought we were going to be able to work together, instead of you just being a corpse.”

Shaxidor’s mouth went dry at the sudden realization that I was in his head, and had been this entire time, even before I started talking. Everything he thought was an open book to me! Gritting his teeth again, he tried to think of horrible things to get me out of his head. Too bad for him, I was able to retaliate with images of my own. A montage of all the pain I’d felt since coming to Dreams Amongst the Stars. Shaxidor screamed, his head already hurting from the drug, and now wracked by even more pain. It only took a moment for him to stop trying to keep me out.

“Now, Captain, we will discuss the defenses of your hidden pirate base.”

Omnibus 1 - Volumes 1-4
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