Frozen Soul, and other works: Chapter 206

(Conference Room, Admiralty Building, Boralus Station, Kul’tiras Orbit)

“The continued rise of this upstart Black Star Navy is unacceptable! Our contracts and relations with other groups across the Alliance have still not recovered, and they have already grabbed more power thanks to their actions fighting the Harvester. Now, even their Marines are gaining fame, which is putting pressure on us from the Tuskarr mercenary groups we normally employ as fodder for ground operations.”

Lord Admiral Tandred Proudmoore winced as he heard his father, Lord High Admiral Daelin Proudmoore, raging against the Black Stars, yet again. No one cared that his men had captured a X’thari carrier intact, giving Kul’tiras a valuable insight into the newest class of ship that the bugs had developed, and opened up a number of technological possibilities to their own research programs. No one cared that he led the Kul’tiran Navy forces in the victory against the Harvester. No, it was all about the Black Stars. Ever since the Black Star owner had destroyed three Kul’tiran ships and (more importantly) captured his sister, Jaina, for ransom, and announced that to the entire galaxy, all the Kul’tiran leadership had focused their attention on little but the Black Star Navy.

With a sigh, he stepped into the conference room. It seemed that not just the Family were here today. Sure, he saw his mother, Katherine, and Jaina seated near his father at one end of the central table. But it appeared that every other senior Captain or Commander in both the Kul’tiran Navy and the Kul’tiras Mercenary Force had been summoned to this meeting. The only ones not present were those on assignment. There were depressingly few open seats, a testament to the truth behind his father’s words.

“Ah, Tandred! So good of you to come. How goes the repairs, after the Battle of Second Coldana?” His mother looked grateful for his arrival, no doubt hoping that a change of subject could keep the railing against the Black Stars to a minimum, if she could remind his father that the Kul’tiran Navy had won some honors recently.

He nodded to her, and said, “Lady Admiral, the repairs of ships that were salvageable are proceeding apace. We are now back to 75% combat strength, and are closer to 90% when considering superdreadnoughts, cruisers, and destroyers. Unfortunately, our screening force was hit hard, with only 35% of the lighter ships surviving the battle. I understand new hulls are being laid down. A larger concern is replacing the trained spacers and officers that we lost in the battle.”

He took a breath, and then said, “That being said, I am happy to say that our losses were no worse than those suffered by the major powers, and we have proven yet again that the Kul’tiran Navy is the equal of the navies of the major powers. Our participation in the battle should go a long way towards repairing some of the damage caused by recent events. And the capture of a X’thari carrier, complete with portions of its fighter compliment, offers new and interesting possibilities for future tech development.”

The Lord High Admiral growled, “But it wasn’t Kul’tiras that got the glory for the Harvester’s destruction. And none of the other powers are turning to us to increase their forces. Even in the Alliance, the other systems are starting to speak to Black Star, in hopes of building their own forces!”

The assembled Captains and officers of the fleet went deadly silent at that. None of them wanted to risk the Lord High Admiral’s displeasure, not when he was clearly bordering on obsession with the idea of beating Black Star. It had been so long since Kul’tiras had been faced with an actual rival for military dominance in the Free Worlds Alliance that the very idea of someone else stepping into that role was alien to them. And yet, the Black Stars had proven their worth in combat, showing more than once that they were capable fighters.

Tandred looked at his father, and was disgusted. None of what he said mattered when compared to the petty wounds to the Lord High Admiral’s pride at Kul’tiras being mocked by the Black Stars. With a deadly calm, he said, “Then where are the supplies of FTL torpedoes for our ships, hmm? It isn’t like we don’t know perfectly well how effective the weapons are, given how all this recent trouble started. Why hasn’t Kul’tiras started making their own version of these ‘Starbolts’ to arm the Fleet with? Where are our stealth ships with rail guns that can take down ships far above their weight class? What has the Admiralty been doing since the Mercenary Force got itself humiliated by a single freighter taking down three warships?”

THAT caused a stir amongst the captains, as the thought wormed its way inside their brains. What had the Admiralty been doing? How many new weapons could they have had if they didn’t spend a ludicrous amount of money to ransom back the Lord High Admiral’s daughter and what was left of her crew? And how had the job that resulted in Lady Admiral Jaina Proudmoore’s capture gone so wrong? They had seen the intelligence reports, after all. Everyone knew, even back then, that Black Star was a dangerous foe to have. And yet, the Admiralty had not foreseen any danger to their forces, resulting in the worst humiliation that Kul’tiras had ever suffered in its long history!

The Lord High Admiral was LIVID! He rose from his chair, eyes burning with hatred at being challenged over such a thing. “HOW DARE YOU! You know full well that we did not have the resources for that, after the incident! Not only did the Confederates never pay after that job, but the other contracts were canceled after! You know this! All the more reason you should have taken out those bastards when you had the chance!”

Tandred did not back down. Not this time. “And do you know why the Confederates never paid, Admiral? Because they were all dead! The man you were hired to capture or kill then went on to kill sitting members of the Confederate Senate, business leaders, and the leader of a crime syndicate, all while framing one of the major faction leaders of the Senate for the deeds, resulting in his death! Did you even read the intelligence reports on the man before you agreed to the terms, or sent the ships to face him?”

“Listen here! I’ll not be—”

Tandred cut his father off, not bothering to let him finish his attempt at a rebuttal. “Oh, but you will! The Intelligence group clearly stated that this man was one who was extremely paranoid, and took the idea of vengeance and raised it to an art form, the likes of which few ever get to witness, and fewer still survive after seeing it! When pirates attacked his base and barely scratched the paint on his ships, he sent the bulk of his forces to chase them down, and found where they came from.”

“Once he found out where they were based, his fleet came in, destroyed the majority of the unaffiliated criminal outposts in the system simply for the crime of them not telling the pirates that attacking his people was a bad idea, and then proceeded to eliminate over eighty percent of the pirates in the entire sector in one fell swoop, before attacking their base with ground troops and enslaving or killing everyone he found. Have you seen the video of how he dealt with the Pirate Queen?”

He hit a control on the tablet in front of him, and the screens in the room came to life, playing the video of the Pirate Queen’s hanging. “All this, for someone scratching the paint on his ships. Frankly, you are lucky that he stopped at only humiliating the Kul’tiras Mercenary Force. He could have easily brought his forces in, and done immeasurable damage to our fleet and our defenses. He has the ability to make more of the Greenwave nanoweapon, after all. I don’t need to tell you what would happen if he used it on Kul’tiras, do I?”

Tandred paused, and took a breath, to steady himself. “You are dealing with an immortal Nomad who has the resources and will to depopulate entire worlds if they give him reason to. Any attempt to take him on like some kind of minor mercenary leader is doomed to failure, and you’ll be lucky if the worst that happens at the end of it is that Lady Admiral Jaina is returned to his ‘care’!”

“NO! I WON’T LET YOU! I WON’T LET ANYONE DO THAT TO ME AGAIN!” Tandred winced as he heard the scream from his sister. Perhaps he shouldn’t have pushed that particular button. Jaina hadn’t talked about what had happened to her during her brief stint as that man’s slave, but even a brief spell under the effects of one of the Stepford collars could leave someone with all kinds of lingering trauma, from what he had heard. He hadn’t wanted to bring it up, but they had to see the truth of what would happen if they went against Black Star.

Unfortunately, whatever had happened to Jaina was more than she could bear at this moment. If he hadn’t turned towards her to apologize, he never would have seen it coming. Psy energy swirled around her hands, more energy than he had ever seen someone using at one time. He knew that Jaina was a powerful psychic, but this?

Squelch.

Tandred looked down, and saw a great shard of ice sticking out of his chest, where Jaina had sent it with her psy power. As he fell to his knees, he saw more spears flying randomly from her hands, attacking everyone in the room, even their parents! Oh, god, she was going crazy!

(Tiragarde City, Kul’tiras)

A man in a well-tailored suit sat at a table, looking into the camera. His hair was styled in his signature look, but the smile that had made him the most eligible bachelor in three systems was replaced by a carefully cultivated look of concern. That look had won him the award of ‘most trusted newsman’ in two other systems.

“This is Special Correspondent Hamish Weaving, for the Confederate News Network with a live update on the chaos that has descended upon the nation of Kul’tiras, one of the key systems in the Free Worlds Alliance. CNN has confirmed that Boralus Station, heart of the Kul’tiran Navy and the Admiralty of the military junta that has led Kul’tiras for the last hundred years has been the site of a massive psychic disturbance of unprecedented scale.”

An image of Boralus Station appears to Hamish’s side. The station is a fairly common example of that type of structure, which makes the game of finding what is wrong with the picture trivially easy. A space station should not have massive shards of ice piercing the walls of the station, after all.

“The cause of the disturbance is unclear at this time, but sources inside the Admiralty government claim that the disturbance began during a meeting of the Kul’tiran Navy’s senior commanders, including the entire Proudmoore family. While the cause of the incident is unclear, the incident’s immediate effects are quite evident. As you can see in this graphic, the disturbance was enough to cause visible damage to Boralus Station itself.”

“The full casualty reports will take some time to compile, but at this time we already have confirmation that Lord High Admiral Daelin Proudmoore, Lady Admiral Katherine Proudmoore, Lady Admiral Jaina Proudmoore, Lord Admiral Tandred Proudmoore, and the majority of the Captains and Commanders of the Kul’tiran Navy and the Kul’tiras Mercenary Forces have been killed in this tragic incident. This represents the single greatest blow to the Kul’tiran government since the Proudmoore Admiralty forcefully took command of the system after its founding. Already reeling from the loss of contracts throughout the Free Worlds Alliance following the ‘Theramore Incident’, this could spell disaster for the people of Kul’tiras.”

The image expands, to become a two-shot, with a well-dressed (and well-fed) woman sitting at a table next to Hamish. She does her best to give a confident smile to the camera, but comes off looking just a little like a cartoon villainess. It is not an altogether flattering look.

“Joining me now is Lady Priscilla Ashvane, one of the few surviving leaders of the Kul’tiran government, now that the Proudmoore family has been effectively wiped out. Lady Ashvane, thank you for joining us in this troubled time. I was wondering, what can you tell us of what this may mean for the future of Kul’tiras? How will the system recover from the deaths of so many key figures?”

“Thank you, Hamish. It is a sad day indeed, but Kul’tiras will weather this storm, and emerge stronger than ever. As the ranking member of the government, I have ordered an investigation to find out who is responsible for this tragic incident. My people are already reaching out to officers in the chain of command, promoting promising officers to replace those that have died. In the future, my government will conduct several reforms, including…”

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Frozen Soul series (Sci-Fi Supervillain story):
Frozen Soul - https://www.amazon.com/dp/B071R125QT
Tales of the Void Traveler - https://www.amazon.com/dp/B06ZZ52G37
Memoirs of a Supervillain - https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07R9NWS8J

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