Chapter 49 - Evacuation

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

M.Mollen: Glad to be of service.

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

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

LeashLord: You idiot! You could have ultimate power!

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

LeashLord: What do you mean?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

(CNS Trawarin, Jagloth Orbit)

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

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

“To my screen.”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Chapter 48 - The Market

If you’ve seen one interstellar slave market, you’ve seen them all.

Can’t really believe that I just thought that. This game is too real, and yet too different from real life. Makes it easy to get lost in things, and just go with the flow. And I guess that’s what I’ve been doing, except for a couple times when I took preemptive action to make sure I had cards to play if I needed them.

At any rate, the statement wasn’t false. The slave market on Charybdis Station was remarkably like the one on Choson Ring. The auctions were postponed because of the volatile situation (no one wanted to draw more people to the station when it took time to carefully check every passenger and piece of cargo offloaded), but the market itself was still open for business. I just hoped we would be able to find enough skilled crewmen to man the Shadowdancer. Of course, I’d settle for a handful of skilled crew, and a group intelligent enough to learn.

Now, instead of paying for the slaves, I could always have gone out hunting and ‘found’ enough freshly collared slaves from some of the local ships that I could crew the Shadowdancer, but the Confederacy was stricter with who could be made a slave than the Empire. Part of the way they enforced those restrictions was by mandating that slaves be registered, and part of the registration included a requirement to have a licensed slave trader sign off saying the slaves were legally collared. You could get around it, sure, but that was annoying to have to jump through the hoops, and it drew the wrong kind of attention. ESPECIALLY when bodysnatching nanite plagues were running around.

With that thought in mind, Cali, Carissa, Nyna, and I entered the slave market the morning after I purchased Shadowdancer. I’d paid for the ship out of my own funds, but the slaves were going to be bought out of the Corporate account. Mainly because I’d spent the majority of my personal funds getting the damn ship, and I wanted to keep a heady reserve, in case I really needed something. Call it Murphy Insurance.

Product	Price	Description
Jeffery Blue	21685 Credits	Level 20 Human Male. Former Lieutenant in Alliance Navy. Reason for Enslavement: Assaulting a Government Offical
Khess Darkscale	1500 Credits	Level 13 Ihm Female. Trained Mechanic, and Bladesmith. Reason for Enslavement: Captured in pirate raid.
Seirye Binan	32000 Credits	Level 15 Knelfi Female. Trained surgeon from Diymia. Reason for Enslavement: Medical Malpractice.
Anna Chase	3000 Credits	Level 30 Human Female. Trained ship gunner and raider. Reason for Enslavement: Captured in pirate raid.
Galen Grinelis	500 Credits	Level 5 Knelfi Male. Trained starship pilot. Reason for Enslavement: Sold by Parents
Lornic Barrelbow	1000 Credits	Level 10 Gauz Male. Trained navigator. Reason for Enslavement: Defaulted on debts.
Sam Spacey	100000 Credits	Level 50 Human Male. Former Imperial Navy Marine. Reason for Indenture: Buying passage for family out of Jagloth System
Ayla Kelthyra	2100 Credits	Level 20 Knelfi Female. Trained bodyguard. Reason for Enslavement: Defaulted on debts.
Taenya Elro	2500 Credits	Level 20 Knelfi Female. Trained companion and gunner. Reason for Enslavement: Murder
John Dusk	2300 Credits	Level 16 Human Male. Trained Merchant. Reason for Enslavement: Sale of Illegal Nanites
Gaxl Bladeshimmer	5500 Credits	Level 23 Ihm Male. Trained bodyguard and companion. Reason for Enslavement: Captured in Pirate raid.

The first eleven purchases rounded out the crew of the Shadowdancer nicely, when one counted Nyna’s abilities in the mix. Some of the purchased slaves were of questionable provenance (I would have to have a talk with that merchant about the illegal nanites before he got on board), but the collection of victims and rogues was somewhat to be expected given where they were and the current situation.

A quick conversation with the former Marine, and his wife and two children were loaded onto the Raven, once they’d been cleared of nanites, and we’d set them up someplace on Dimiya. That made the Shadowdancer’s new security chief and chief gunner very happy. He was also the only Indentured rather than Enslaved person I picked up for the crew, but I counted it as my good deed for the day. He’d be mine to command for five years, after which he’d be free and we could renegotiate his service at the next port of call.

Jeffery Blue would be the XO of the Shadowdancer. Nyna had my trust, and she might have the title, but she wasn’t a seasoned starship captain. Blue would help her along, and take care of the logistical nightmares one might not immediately consider as a new captain.

The knelfi doctor was apparently a rising star in her medical practice, back before she’d picked up a nasty opioid habit. Doing surgery while under the influence was a bad thing, and when someone had died on her table because of it, she was picked up and enslaved by her insurance company. She was actually serving her enslavement on a corporate ship until pirates captured her, and sold her to the market.

The rest of the group was filled out either by captured pirates, those captured by pirates, criminals, or a young boy who had been sold by his mother after she remarried to a younger man. Of course, that probably saved his life, since he used to live on the main continent. Kid had the Hotshot title, as well as pilot training, so I was looking forward to see what he could do.

Product	Price	Description
Jackie Day	12000 Credits	Level 30 Human Female. Trained fighter and bodyguard. Reason for Enslavement: Assaulting a Police Officer
Viessa Balthana	50000 Credits	Level 25 Knelfi Female. Trained hacker and electronics expert. Reason for Enslavement: Hacking Government Computers
Abby Quest	50000 Credits	Level 32 Human Female. Former Confederate Army Medic. Reason for Enslavement: Assaulting an Officer
Nerila Hammerfeet	125000 Credits	Level 28 Gauz Female. Trained in demolitions and heavy weapons. Reason for Enslavement: Arson
Ashera Joxidor	200000 Credits	Level 40 Knelfi Female. Former Confederate Senator’s aide. Trained Professional, Companion, and Bodyguard. Reason for Enslavement: Embezzlement

Of course, if I was going to have a raider in my group, I needed some raiders! Or at the very least a team that could do all sorts of jobs for the Shadowdancer while she was away from me and my crew. These were all criminals, of one stripe or another, but I figured I’d give them a chance to prove themselves. I promptly named this group my Valkyries.

All this cost 172085 credits for the crew, another 437000 for the Valkyries, and an extra 50000 to kit out all of them with ship suits, armor, and weapons, so they’d be ready to fight in the very likely event that we saw combat with someone or something that didn’t care for us. Only reason the equip cost was so low is that Spacey, as an Indenture, still had his own gear, which was as good as anything sold on the station.

Since the ship was crewed entirely by slaves and indentures, that meant the profitsharing went a little different from normal crews. For the Shadowdancer, I decided that it would split four ways. As the Owner, I would get a share. Another share would go to the Ship, for repairs and resupplies. A third share would go to the Company directly. And the fourth share would be for the Crew. Spacey would be entitled to 5% of that share as part of his indenture, held in escrow until his indenture was up, but the rest would be under the control of Nyna, to manage as she saw fit, though she would have to send expense reports to Raven, just to keep her honest.

Now, however, I needed to make some money to get my mind off the literal millions of credits I just dropped on all of this. And what better way to make money than by picking up some jobs at the bar? With two ships headed to the knelfi world of Dimiya, we were able to get quite a few jobs set up, for both the Raven and the Shadowdancer. There were a couple cargo hauls, with expensive items people didn’t want to be caught up behind the quarantine, and a couple evacuation jobs for Raven, but Nyna and I were pleased to see several bounty hunter and pirate hunting jobs, which the Shadowdancer gladly took.

Preservation Run The Legion’s scourge threatens to make several species of flora and fauna unique to Jagloth go extinct should the Navy decide a quarantine would be ineffective at containing the threat. A stasis chamber with genetic material from Jagloth’s wildlife has been prepared, and rendered nanite free. This chamber must make it through the quarantine to Windrunner Spire in the Quel’Thalas Nature Preserve so these specimens can be preserved.
Rank	C
Success	Deliver stasis chamber to Windrunner Spire.
Failure	Do not deliver the stasis chamber.
Payment	1 Million credits

Netherstorm Delivery A Confederate courier vessel containing Councilor Socrethor was destroyed by quarantine forces. However, Socrethor’s personal effects were recovered by ‘salvage’ workers. The workers were then infected by nanites, but the Councilor’s personal data module was scanned and rendered clean of nanites. Interested parties on Dimiya’s Netherstorm Station would like to review the Councilor’s effects before usable information can be changed.
Rank	B
Success	Deliver data module to Ravandwyr on Netherstorm Station.
Failure	Do not deliver the data module. Copy the information on the data module.
Payment	500000 Credits

GET ME OUT! Alais Loraric, the most famous performer in Jagloth City, was touring the system when the Legion virus claimed her home town. Now stuck on Charybdis Station, and with everything looking like it is only getting worse, the songstress wants to get out of the quarantine zone, to Dimiya, where she has family. Unfortunately, there are some who may try and take her off your hands once she is away from the safety of station security.
Rank	A
Success	Transport Alais Loraric to Shvehona City on Dimiya.
Failure	Alais Loraric is not brought to Shvehona City. Alais Loraric is enslaved, kidnapped, or killed. Alais Loraric is infected with Legion nanites.
Payment	2 Million Credits Increased reputation with Confederate factions

Bellerophon Prototype Before they were wiped off the map on Jagloth, scientists working for Spriteshack Industries managed to create a prototype weapon against the Legion virus. Called Bellerophon, the weapon is supposed to seek out and cleanse an individual of Legion nanites. Unfortunately, the device was still in the prototype stages when they were attacked by members of the Legion. The prototype does purge Legion nanites, but it unfortunately is not yet able to discriminate between Legion nanites and other nanites. Or cybernetic implants. It also has a distinct tendency to make a test subject’s flesh melt. But the nanites were destroyed, so it is important that the prototype get to Spriteshack headquarters on Dimiya for further testing and refinement, in case the Legion virus spreads.
Rank	D
Success	Deliver the prototype to Spriteshack Industries headquarters on Dimiya.
Failure	Do not deliver the prototype.
Payment	Increased Reputation with Spriteshack Industries 50% of any one augmentation for each member of the Company from Spriteshack Industries.

Naturally, I was going to scan the hell out of any of the packages or people I brought on board the Raven, but this looked to be a very profitable trip to Dimiya, if we could just escape the quarantine, and not get infected by the Legion. And with Shadowdancer watching our backs as we played bait for pirates, this would be a good chance for the crews to work together, and see the full potential of my new ship.

If we didn’t die horribly, that is.

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Rules-Free VRMMO Life (Dark Fantasy LitRPG):
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Volume 2 - Beginning the Journey https://www.amazon.com/dp/B071VR7M41/
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Book II - Choson Ring https://www.amazon.com/dp/B071X3LL9D
Book III - Alpha Centauri https://www.amazon.com/dp/B073X8J9GF
Book IV - Aquarian Desert https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0756V1VX5

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Chapter 47 - Shadowdancer

The U-221 was a beautiful ship. Oh, sure, it didn’t have any of that graceful styling like something out of those Star Trek movies, but it was beautiful. It was also clearly designed by a Nomad. The angled hull sections of the arrow-like made getting a clean read off the ship problematic, something clearly taken from real-world stealth designs. In addition, the hull had the same sensor dampening paint job that the Raven did, but included the full stealth module I hadn’t bought for her yet. The hull and decks were not made from traditional metal plating, but a high-strength composite that reduced mass significantly and further reduced their sensor profile. Even her engines and heat sinks had ways to dampen their emissions. U-221 was, quite literally, a hole in space unless she did something to draw attention to herself.

She was also armed to the teeth, and designed more for sneak attacks and dogfighting than for traditional ship to ship battles. Two dorsal and two ventral turrets were packing point defense energy weapons. Concealed missile launchers were set in the hull to port and starboard of amidships. According to the specs, the setup was worlds better than the Raven’s guns for point defense. Once we got some gunners trained up, they’d be good cover against fighters.

For main weapons, the ship had four torpedo launchers (two fore and two aft), a pair of forward-facing cannons, and a pair of forward facing ionic cannons, which were designed to disable, rather than destroy enemy ships, but were useless against shields. Of course, that didn’t compare to the Big Gun. Knowing that the ship couldn’t survive prolonged engagements, the brilliant madman who designed her had a massive forward-facing railgun running the length of the hull.

All the major militaries used energy weapons because they fired quicker and were harder to dodge. Military shields were perfect for stopping energy weapons, though they didn’t ignore physical attacks. They’d stop small meteorites, and missiles exploded on contact, so it was not so much a physical attack but an explosion to weaken shields. Slow-moving (in relative terms) objects like boarding shuttles couldn’t get through until the shields were down. Anything bigger than a small meteorite could be dodged, in theory, but there were plenty of ships with repaired hull sections that told tales of meteorite strikes, or the few groups crazy enough to use penetrator drop pods on a ship (literally ramming a hole in the side of the ship to do hostile boardings).

Point was, other than the thickness of a ship’s hull, the defenses were all geared towards energy attacks. Railgun rounds were slow moving compared to the energy weapons most ships used, and could be dodged much easier because of that. Well, if you saw them coming. But railgun rounds didn’t use any propellant, didn’t have active scanners, and didn’t maneuver. That made them difficult to pick up against the background of space, unless you got lucky with a mass scanner.

U-221’s railgun fired a twenty-kilogram mass at a little over .001c, delivering an astounding 900 TeraJoules (TJ) of kinetic energy upon impact. A dreadnaught’s shields might be able to take that kind of punishment, or at least mitigate it enough that the hull could withstand it, but anything smaller would be in for a seriously bad day. It was a simple game of rock-paper-scissors. A civilian craft would likely be reduced to so much debris in an instant. However, the massive power requirements meant that U-221 could only fire the main gun once every ten minutes. In addition, if an enemy knew there were kinetics inbound, the standard procedure was to go evasive. Since kinetics couldn’t change course once they were fired, simply moving around slightly was enough to throw off targeting solutions. That made the ‘Barrett’, as the designer called it, a first-strike weapon.

The U-221 had the same length and width as a normal corvette, but there was a reason why it only had half the crew. The mad genius who designed her had fit the engines of a light cruiser with the power core from a heavy cruiser into the frame somehow! The shields were milspec, which was nice, since her composite hull was not designed for resisting impacts, but they were only corvette shields. Still, that made the U-221 without a doubt the fastest and deadliest stealth ship anywhere in known space. The crew, though, would be in pretty close quarters, like on a submarine.

And, thanks to the misfortune of one Falael Dorynore in getting caught up with the Legion, it was now mine. It just needed some work finishing the installation of several key items, like the onboard AI, but would be ready to go in a week. I patted Nyna on the head, and said, “So, any ideas on the name? Or do you want to keep it as U-221?”

The Knelfi looked up at me, with a grin like that of a child who got to pick their own Christmas presents. “Shadowdancer. She’s going to be called Shadowdancer.”

Jaynie nodded. The gunner wasn’t much for ships unless she was firing the guns, but even she wasn’t blind to the new ship’s specs. “A good name for a ship that is stealthy and fast. She’ll be a good scout or escort, I think, but doesn’t strike me as being the best for raiding ships. That big gun would destroy any prizes outright, or at least make them not worth more than scrap.”

I chuckled. “Yeah, but whoever designed her probably wasn’t intending to use it on civilian ships, but on convoy escorts. A single shot from that gun would at least disable a cruiser on escort duty, to say nothing of a frigate or corvette. If you were a civvie freighter captain and your escorts just got blown up in a single shot, would you risk fighting back?”

The gunslinger shook her head. “Not so much, no. Running? Sure, and I’d hope that whoever was on that ship decided to pick on someone else, first.”

“Now picture if you had a group of these ships, working as a pack. It gets worse if you use hit and run tactics. You could do a lot of damage to even a vastly superior foe. I doubt even a superdreadnaught would be able to take three or four simultaneous impacts without serious damage. It would cost an epic amount of credits, but a group of ten ships like Shadowdancer could do serious damage to even an interstellar navy. Especially if they hit a naval base, while the ships were either holding station or in dock for repairs.”

Nyna frowned at that. “Sounds like something you start and finish a war with.”

I nodded slowly. “Well, the Nomads can all see that war is coming, at least between the Empire and the Confederacy. A smart man would take this custom design and then start trying to market it to one of the militaries, or to the kind of ‘contractors’ who usually turn privateer when war breaks out. If this ship was a proof of concept…”

Raven chimed in from our communicators, “Then it would potentially change the tides of war, yes. Fortunately, we have the full schematics, as I just completed a ‘side deal’ from the account I have for the Raven. When construction ends, we’ll be the only ones with the plans to the Shadowdancer.”

“Excellent work, Raven. I’d rather not find myself on the receiving end of an attack from a ship like Shadowdancer. Still, do me a favor and see if you can’t get a patent on the composite used for the hull, and a price comparison based on the difference between it and standard hull plating. Both cost to install, and how the reduced mass will change maximum cargo and speed ratings for ships of the same design.”

Raven chuckled, seeing where I was going with this. “So don’t sell everything Shadowdancer has to offer, but ‘invest’ in a new technology that anyone making stealth craft or cargo haulers might appreciate?”

“Exactly. And how easy would the composite be to repair, if it were damaged?”

“For best results, a fabricator with appropriate feedstock could create replacement hull sections, and a nanite spray would seal the gaps. Obviously, without a supply of the Null-Paint, the repaired section would compromise the stealth profile on the Shadowdancer until it was repainted.”

Nyna shook her head at that. “If there are holes in Shadowdancer that require repair in place, rather than going back to a yard where the paint can be applied, then at that point stealth is probably a moot point, anyways.”

I considered, and said, “True, but the same issue would apply to Raven’s hull, as well. Raven, ask Cali and Carissa to go secure us a supply of the Null-Paint, and gear to apply it with, in addition to the normal resupply work.”

“Understood, Captain.”

<INS Aureum Throni, Venusian orbit, Sol System>

The Aureum Throni was unlike any other superdreadnaught in the Imperial fleet. Oh sure, externally the only difference was the brilliant seal of the Imperial crest emblazoned on the hull. All the sensors, point defense, and big guns were there. But inside, the Throni was a flying palace. Which was fitting, as it was the Emperor’s personal warship.

This was actually the fifth Aureum Throni, the others having been retired due to age or battle. The name was passed down, so that no matter what, when the Emperor of the Terran Empire traveled through his domain, it was always upon the Aureum Throni.

The Royal deck, something other superdreadnaughts simply didn’t have, lived up to the ship’s name, as it was no less richly appointed than the Imperial Palace was, before the explosion that kicked off the young emperor’s rise to power. Sitting upon his throne of gold, Emperor Travis looked at the display with annoyance.

“It wants WHAT?”

The Lieutenant, the ranking officer of the mission with the death of his commanders, did well in not flinching before the Emperor’s accusing tone. “It wishes to negotiate with you personally, Emperor. In Aphrodite.”

“And why would We agree to something so foolish? We will not go into this rogue AI’s den until it has been properly shackled again, to prevent further rebellion.”

“Yes, Your Majesty. The AI did say that what it could offer included a means to return from death, as the Nomads do.”

A wicked grin crossed the Emperor’s face. What could he do with such a gift? His armies would be unstoppable, and he would never need to worry about some upstart trying to recreate his successes and assassinate him. The possibilities were endless. He could conquer the galaxy! Perhaps even the universe, if they ever found a way to travel between galaxies.

Looking back at the Lieutenant, and said, “Good work, Captain. Secure a place for this conference and the route between it and the landing site. Inform the AI that We shall grant it an audience, but We expect for it to use some manner of physical avatar. We shall not be amused if it attempts to force Us to speak to a disembodied voice.”

“As you will, Emperor.” If the Lieutenant had any emotions about the promotion he’d just been given, he had the discipline to keep them off his face while he was speaking with the Emperor. That got a nod of approval from Travis as he cut the connection. The Lieutenant was loyal, and skilled. Promoting him would also show that he rewarded hard work and results. That always did wonders for morale.

Now, he just had to decide on a wardrobe for his meeting with this AI. With the secret of immortality in his hands, he wouldn’t even need the AI’s help in destroying his sister and her rebels, they could simply move in and wipe them all out in a battle of attrition, while keeping up the defenses on other fronts. Seeing immortal Terran Imperial Marines might even convince some of the rebels to return to the fold.

Yes, he would be merciful to any Rebels who saw the light. They would be watched, of course, and anyone of flag rank would be replaced as soon as was practical, but they would not be harmed. The chaos caused by his sister’s survival and attempt to rally the Senate and fleet to her rebellion was unfortunate, but the damage could be repaired. His sister, and her top commanders, however, would have to die, as an example to all other challengers.

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