Chapter 3
“Three minutes until emergence in the Aberon system” Madex called from the sensor station. We Legionnaires were the Imperiums trouble shooters and were trained in ship operations and ground combat so while Madex wasn’t the best sensor operator he could do the job.
“Thank you Mr. Madex” looking around the bridge everyone but Fitz was there he was down in engineering. The time ticked down “Emergence, system seems to be as described” Madex reported “ excellent, first sergeant, bring us into escort position with the liner and match speed.” the comm panel lit up and I walked over and flipped it on. “ Unidentified vessel your ship matches the description of a known pirate vessel please declare your name and intentions powering up your weapons will be considered an act of aggression and may result in your destruction.” The transmission was coming from a destroyer being followed by two frigates that had changed course and were burning hard towards us.
“ This is the Queen of the stars, a former pirate vessel under new management currently escorting its last attempted victim to the Aberon Station to effect repairs Lt. Doolin of 9th commanding. sending recordings of the contract now.” Sally walked over to her imaginary desk and picked up an old style file folder containing the digital copy of the escort and recovery contract signed between the 9th a mercenary company Sally made to give us a back story and threw it at the comms station it disappeared when it hit.
“Receiving stand by, well done 9th way to make a name for yourself in the region. That ship has been causing problems for the last month. They were debating issuing a bounty. Had you taken it next month it might have paid more.” I shrugged, we hadn't done it for the money but we were playing mercenaries. “ The 9th is more about doing what’s right than getting paid the money is a nice bonus though.” the line was quiet for a moment “we could use more people like that around. Most independent systems can barely defend their own system let alone patrol the lanes between them . anyway 9th all appears in order transferring you to traffic control."
The comm went dead and the sensors showed the patrol which appeared to be half the systems fleet break off and return to their route. The rest of the operation went smoothly. We got a docking assignment and docked. The liner company accepted the deal that had been made and were grateful we took the assignment without a final price nailed down. They agreed to pay the going rate for recovery plus five percent and agreed to have it in our account in three days.
The crew went about their assignments I was alone on the ship going over the intelligence with Sally and Julie sitting in the Jubilant when Juliee suddenly stopped in the middle of discussing the current state of ship designs “ class two engines are currently available but they are considerably bulkier and more power intensive then their Imperial equivalents so they are only used by the big players on military vessels.” Juliee paused “Sir someone is requesting entry at the Queens airlock.”
I grabbed my rifle and attached it to my armor walking out of Jubilant and thru the Queen to the airlock checking the door camera I saw a single figure with a cloak standing outside, checking my armor shield indicator I opened the door “may I help you sir?” I got a look under the hood and saw the glowing eyes “my apologies my lady please come in”. I stepped aside allowing the high elf to enter the ship and closed the hatch behind her. “ Thank you Lieutenant'' she said, dropping her hood.
“I realized I forgot my manners when we first met. I am Kerina Grey of house Grey of the Tree of Atherna” she gave me a formal bow. “A Pleasure lady Grey I am Lieutenant Jack Doolin of 9th Legion no house but my own.” I returned the formal greeting. In my day an officer in the legion was afforded the courtesy of the lowest level of aristocracy until you reached Tribune then things got more complicated but an officer could be entitled to higher honors if they were from a noble house or otherwise titled within the Imperium. I had not been honored so after the declaration of rank came the phrase no house but my own.
“Well met Sir Doolin of the Imperium, may I find shelter here?” It was the traditional Elven request for safe passage if shelter was granted even if the lords went to war that night the sheltered one could leave unhindered and return to their territory safely in theory breaking shelter would tarnish a house's honor greatly. I finished the official greeting with a traditional legion answer “all loyal citizens of the Imperium may find shelter behind the rifles of the legion.”
a response given by the first legate of the first when first asked that question by an Elvaran noble rescued after his ship crash landed on a planet full of goblins, a mostly nasty race of small green creatures that will kill and eat anything or anyone for the fun of it. some had been civilized throughout the galaxy but they were the exception. The formal greeting finished, Kerina relaxed “I always wondered how the Legion answered the second question; it is not recorded anywhere”.
I told her the story of how the answer came about “although I guess we will need to change it now that the Imperium is reduced to two vessels and no planets” I sighed regretfully. Kerina disagreed “leave it, its tradition at this point and you would be surprised how many houses still swear loyalty to the Imperium despite its death ages ago house Grey among them”. I blinked in surprise “in my time house Grey was headed by one of the Dukes”.
Kerina nodded “there have been a few changes since then but that is pretty close to accurate and as a member of a great house that honor their oaths I intended to honor the Imperium observer duties again as the Legion is the only functional part of the Imperium and this vessel is Imperium territory I wish to Declare for the legion as is my right as a Mage although I request a month to get my affairs in order first.''
She said this all in a rush and it took me a moment to process “granted your ladyship here is my Comm code” Sally popped up in my view and ran over with a long string of numbers pretending to push them down into Kerina’s communication device. She looked at it in confusion for a moment before coming to a realization she cast a quick spell and suddenly she was looking right at Salley “oh you are bonded it is a pleasure to meet you.”
Salley caught off guard, switched into her uniformed avatar “ nice to meet you too Lady Grey I didn’t know there was a spell to allow others to see me. That is good to know'' Kerina laughed lightly “ the ability to make cheap easily accessible holo admitters died with the Imperium; the few Elvarn bonded wanted a way to interact in public so they invented a spell that had the same effect as a holo emitter I learned it so the house AI could interact.”
I rejoined the conversation “ as a mage joining a military position in the Imperium the charter you are granted the right to bring along two personal Mage guards will you be bring any upon your enlistment” Kerina froze for a second “I had better, daddy’s already going to be made about my enlistment but I’ll be giving my oath before leaving so nothing he can do about that but this might make him less mad” I chose not to comment on that.
Kerina departed shortly after that and I started to head back to the Jubilant but Sally interrupted me “ ut-oh” I stopped “I don’t like ut-oh'' Sally popped up “nope you're not going to like it this time either, Madex and Doc are in a spot of trouble, from the calls to station security they were accosted by some drunks” I sighed, “what did Madex do?” I ran back to the Jubilant and dawned my armor. “Him? Just punch a few guys and break a bone or two.” I ran final checks on my gear.
“Oh that's not so bad, what's the issue?” I began a light jog towards the airlock “the problem is they were in the station interior unlike out in the visitors sector law enforcement is a bit thinner. The drunks appear to have been members of a local gang and one of their buddies stabbed Madex in the back” I started sprinting “ shit, Doc is going to start a blood bath.” I hit the airlock and manually cycled it since we were at the station there was no need to equalize pressure.
Sprinting down the docking arm I arrived at the main thoroughfare everyone moved out of my way as I ran. I made it out of the dock area and was headed deeper into the station when a cart passed me heading towards the dock area before it quickly flipped a U-turn and polled up next to me keeping pace. The man in the passenger seat wearing a station security uniform leaned out looking at me.
“Excuse me sir, we had reports of someone matching your description causing a disturbance. Can I ask where you're going in such a hurry?” the officer asked in a polite but authoritative tone. I looked over at the officer and Sally put a profile of the officer up on my H.U.D “ Officer Hubert I am headed into the interior section of the station to stop one of my crew members from leveling the area.”
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the other officer named Brooks snorted “ I admit you have pretty fancy armor but one person isn’t going to be able to level the station interior.” I kept up my sprint and kept my voice in check. “ Officer Brooks perhaps you are not aware of the fact my crew member is a full Feyurie who is an experienced soldier whose boyfriend was just literally stabbed in the back during a fist fight.”
In any other situation the dichotomy of their reaction would have been priceless. Brooks scoffed and rolled his eyes and started to say something I’m sure would have been condescending but he was drowned out by Officer Hubert. “Fuck! Can you stop her? Nevermind hop on having you with us will be more likely to slow her down than not.”
We were still moving at speed but I grabbed onto the overhead rack of the cart and hauled myself in before Brooks could even begin to slow down. Hubert flipped on the lights and sirens. “ Step on it Brooks!” Brooks picked up speed. “What's going on boss, one lady can’t be that dangerous.” Hubert was busy calling all the backup he could find, mostly medical. So I took the time to explain.
“ Feyurie as I’m sure you know are mostly a laid back race who have a hard time overcoming their empathic senses to harm sentient beings. But if they have the right training and truly feel they or someone close to them have been dishonored a change can over take them causing them to go into a rage or as it is more commonly known as a fury. She will eventually pass out after a few hours and collapse for multiple days but until then.”
I trailed off and Hubert who had finally gotten off the radio responded. “ she will be damn near unstoppable, nothing but immediately lethal strikes will stop her, she will have enough strength to lift this cart up and will be able to track those she feels wronged her across the station.” Sally chimed in in my mind “yeah now wait till they realize she’s in darn near impervious armor and this was the first time they have had off in eight months and the first real date in over a year and I think they are going to be a gang short by the end of the day.” “Let's not mention that until it becomes necessary.” I thought back.
We got to the general area and I used Madex’s tracker to find him. He was leaned up against a wall. Davis had clearly patched him up before she took off. He had a local pistol in his lap and had gotten about half his armor on over a set of blood stained civi’s. I hopped out of the Cart and ran over to him, helping him slip his chest armor on. He immediately relaxed as the on board medical sweat kicked in. “thank you sir I fucked up, I didn’t think they would pull a knife and I had switch out of my armor.”
I didn’t worry about reprimanding him. No doubt the first sergeant would have words for him about not wearing his armor in unknown territory when this was all over. “What about Doc?” I asked handing him his helmet and my pistol. He sighed “she is still in full gear, we were heading to a clothing store she wanted to try out when it happened.” I sighed “well shit. O.k.” I checked my H.U.D.
Sally ran over to a file cabinet and grasped out a map and threw it up, a layout of the station popped up, one showed first sergeant and Fitz two minutes out and running our way and it showed Doc in a warehouse nearby. “ First sergeant, will you be here soon, are you going to be ok?” Madex nodded. I turned back to Hubert. “He will be fine and my people are almost here. Let's go find my other crew member .”
I gave them directions but as we got close it became obvious there were six men with red bandanas dead in the street. With what appeared to be four rounds to the chest each being the Legions drilled shooting pattern and our calling card. We bailed out of the cart and Brooks looked around in shock while Hubert just looked grim and grabbed some kind of automatic scattergun off his cart and looked at me. “These are men from the Calininco gang. They are the largest gang on the station, we don't have enough cops on the station to raid their headquarters.” he pointed at a warehouse with the front door kicked in. I smiled although he couldn't see it through my helmet “ we should be fine.”
“That armor any good?” I snorted and replied “stay behind me.” Brooks finally gathered himself and a slug thrower from the cart. We worked our way into the building instead of a wide open warehouse. We found it subdivided on the inside into more of an office building style. I led the way as we began to sweep the building.
Everywhere we went we found death. The building must have been stuffed full of gang members. We made it through half of the building stepping over nearly forty bodies. After the first few they were heavily armed and even armored but it didn't seem to help them. At one point the injuries changed to smaller three shot groupings Hubert looked concerned when I pointed it out.
“Do you think she's hurt?” I shook my head. “Nope that's about the amount of ammo Madex would have had with his rifle that she borrowed she just switched to her pistol.” We came around another corner and found a gang member who must have hidden earlier as he was picking his way through the dead heading towards the exit. Nobody had a chance to say anything before he threw his hands up. “I surrender! I’ll tell you anything just please please arrest me!”
Brooks blinked a few times but then moved up to make the arrest while Hubert covered him. The gang member started blubbering every crime he committed. My favorite was when he admitted stealing a pack of gum when he was thirteen. Brooks stayed with the prisoner and Hubert followed me to a set of stairs into what looked like a basement. By the time she had gotten here she had run out of pistol ammo two as she switched to using the gang members weapons against them.
Finally Hubert and I came through a final doorway into an open room. where there was one last dead guy. He had his pants down around his waist and a pistol not far from his hand. It was hard to tell how he died whether it was the pistol shot to the back or the knife wound to the chest. In the middle of the room I found Doc helping a group of mostly women and few men were chained to the wall. She had her helmet offended, her head snapped around to face me, her eyes glowing red and a pistol coming up.
I had dealt with this before and knew the best way to steady a Feyurie was to bring them back to ingrained controlled habits. “Doc medical report.” the pistol jerked off line and she returned to work. “ Sir fifteen injured twelve walking wounded three in critical conditions, nanites deployed nanite supply at 40%.” Hubert started cursing behind me. “Fuck, this is going to be bad.”
he looked over at us then noticed the victims and cursed again. And hit the communicator on his chest. “I need all available units at my location ASAP” he looked over at me “please tell me your suits have a video feature like our systems.” I nodded “yes why?” Hubert intentionally turned his chest away from the dead guy on the ground before kicking him. “
This illustrious individual who so unfortunately has passed on is council member Darius Kenland, one of the twenty individuals of the council and the leader of one of the major parties. And his death is going to cause chaos.” Sally accessed Docs archived data and quickly pulled up the video. It showed Doc kicking in the last door, and seeing Darius with his pants down bent over one of the women who was chained to the table and struggling with him.
He held a knife and was trying to stab her when Doc put three rounds into his back. His grip on the knife slipped and the woman grabbed it and stabbed him in the chest. Then you could tell Doc surveyed the area before calming down. I heard Doc's voice before the camera angle changed as she took her helmet off. “ My name is Jennifer Davis and I am a trained Legion Medic. May I provide you aid?” I saw the women nod before the video ended.
Please send an un-editable version of that to the officer. I thought to Sally, I watched her grab the file and run over to his tablet then jump on the file to shove it into the tablet which dinged. He looked at it with a frown as his eye widened “that came through an official Imperium drop link. That has only happened once in my career when an Elvaran diplomat was passing through and got pickpocketed, who are you people?”
I shrugged and answered honestly “Legionaries of the 9th” he looked at me then he seemed to recall something. “Oh you're those mercenaries that took out the pirate ship. Man they must have really pissed off the elfs for them to send you after them.” I shrugged noncommittally and Hubert let it drop. He watched the video before sighing.
“Ok good news with this video the evidence is clear. The bad news is guy had a lot friends and fans in low places, if you can please take your crew mate and that women somewhere else I don’t think there is anything anyone can legally do but I’d recommend you guys all be off station by tomorrow morning when the politicians wake up and might start to make noise. This will blow over in a few months but until then.”
he trailed off and I nodded one long term storage spot was as good as any other for The Queen about then the other three team members in full kit ran into the room. My HUD showed each of their names over their heads in green except Madex whose name was in yellow showing he was injured but still combat effective. It was right about then that Doc finished up with the last prisoner and slumped. “Fritz take Doc.” I looked back at Hubert “what about the other prisoners will they be targeted?”
Hubert shook his head. “No, I can make sure those who will be mad enough to do something stupid over this will see the video and they are not stupid enough to go after those not responsible and the department can make a big win out of the rest of this and that should protect the rest of them.” I moved over and scooped up the prisoner we were taking with us. “Madex take point, First cover our rear.” Hurbert followed us out. “I will call a crew pick up van and convince them to take you without asking questions.” As we passed Brooks Hubert took control of the prisoner and brought him outside and informed Brooks he needed to start a crime scene log as other first responders arrived.”
The first few patrol cars arrived and Hubert expertly directed their attention away from us and towards the building. The van arrived and the driver looked concerned until Hubert ran over and reassured him. We loaded into the van with our injured and protectee, the last I saw of officer hubert was him reporting to what appeared to be a supervisor as an ambulance crew brought out the first of the prisoners. The van turned the corner and I began planning our next move.