(Star’s Reach Business Licensing Office, Starborn, Star’s Reach)
“WHAT DO YOU MEAN I CAN’T GET THE DAMN LICENSE YET? I’VE BEEN WAITING HERE FOR TWO WEEKS!”
Lukkud Smeltstone was not happy. He had led his company to this backwater planet, hoping to get in on the ground floor of a new colony. Should have been a simple setup, land, claim some prime real estate, and set up manufacturing to support the settlement and make things into his own little empire. Nice, simple, profitable.
Except it wasn’t working out that way. These damn Black Stars had a major stick up their asses about not letting people do anything except in the ‘approved’ settlements. The one time he’d tried to take a shuttle out to look at options for landing sites on a new settlement, he suddenly found himself flanked by a pair of fighters that ‘encouraged’ him to return to the capitol by firing warning shots across his bow! The NERVE of it all!
The slave sitting behind the desk in the licensing office simply smiled at him. That was another insult! They didn’t bother having a free employee to run the office, forcing him to lower himself and deal with a slave as if they were his equal! And the damn slave knew how much it angered him, damn it! He could see it on the slave’s face. The smug bastard was just happy as could be giving a free man the runaround.
“I’m sorry, sir, but the Black Star Company is not licensing any independent settlements at this time in Star’s Reach space. As I stated, we do have settlement options available, either as joint-ownership or subsidiary arrangements. Or you can try and join one of the existing settlements by filing for a local business permit.”
Lukkud was beyond pissed. Those licensing deals were damn rip offs! The ‘joint-ownership’ settlement basically meant that he would have only a 45% share of the settlement that HE built, leaving Black Star as the majority shareholder, though giving him nominal rights as the settlement’s manager. The ‘subsidiary’ arrangement involved his group joining Black Star, and signing some fairly involved contracts to operate the settlement as they saw fit, though they were still subject to Black Star’s rules. Typical corporate overlord bullshit.
And if he just gave up on the idea of his own settlement, and joined an existing settlement as a businessman? Then he’d have taxes to pay, both individual and corporate taxes, which were at a higher rate for people who weren’t part of Black Star. Sure, those taxes weren’t too much. Some of the core worlds of the Consortium had higher tax rates, officially, but there were no tax breaks or loopholes in the system. It was ruthlessly efficient that way, and made no room for the typical maneuvers one could use to get out of taxes.
Lukkud took a deep breath, and said, “I want to speak to your Master about this! You have no right to treat me like this, slave!”
The slave did not tremble in fear like he expected. Most slaves, when confronted by a free person demanding to see their master because of their conduct, would have been bowing and scraping to find a way out of their coming punishment. This slave simply smiled.
“Well, sir, I am owned by the Black Star Company directly. The local officers of the company are all company slaves. However, the owner just recently returned from a trip to Sol System, where he met with the Empress of the Terran Empire. Please wait, and I will see if he is available.”
“No need, Carlo.” A new voice came from the doors behind Lukkud, and he turned to see three humans standing there, a man and two women, one of them having a slave collar around her neck. All three were Nomads. The man continued, “Raven has been keeping me up to date about the situation.”
Lukkud eyed the man, and said, “You are the Nomad who runs this whole shitshow? Do you have any idea how rude your slaves are? You should be teaching them proper respect for their betters!”
“Oh, but I have. Unfortunately, Captain Smeltstone, you are not one of their betters.” The man smiled wickedly at him. “Oh yes, in the eyes of Black Star, a free man who is not part of the company is worth less than the lowest slave belonging to the company. Especially when they that free man thinks he can take me for a fool.”
The man’s voice grew dangerous now, “I have reviewed your proposed settlement plans, Captain Smeltstone, and it is painfully obvious that they are clearly designed to rob the Black Star Company of the profits and taxes owed to it on land and material owned by the company. Indeed, it is an attempt at organized theft, and I am afraid that I cannot allow that to occur.”
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“THEFT? Now listen here—!” Lukkud’s response was cut off by the man’s voice, cold and imperious, like one pronouncing judgement.
“No, it is time for you to listen to me. As Owner of the Black Star Company and senior authority for all judiciary measures in this system, I declare you and your ships to be banned from Black Star controlled space until such time as you make reparations. You have one hour to return to your ship and leave Star’s Reach orbit or face summary enslavement. Once your ships have left orbit, you are to leave this system within one hour’s time. Use of the Gateway is prohibited.”
“WHAT? You can’t do that, you jumped up shitstain! Just because you’ve got those ships doesn’t mean you can play god! I’m going to file a complaint!”
“You do that. But the clock has already started counting down.”
“You’ll pay for this, I swear it!” Lukkud stormed out of the office, fully aware of the smirks on the damned people’s faces as they watched him. Once he got back to Gauz space, he was going to ruin this bastard’s reputation so hard, as well as sending a complaint to NERV! See how he likes playing god in his little colony that no one goes to!
As the doors closed behind Lukkud, the owner of the Black Star Company brought up his bracer, and said, “Raven, I would like you to connect me to the leader of the Chaos Brigade.”
(Private Vessel Eternity of Pain, Star’s Reach Orbit, Star’s Reach)
Pilot Jack Springer was bored. He knew his job was important. One could not bring the word of Chaos to the galaxy without ships, after all, and the Chaos Brigade was building its strength so that it could gain more ships and gather a fleet like the one these Black Stars had. At the moment, the majority of the ship’s fighters were on the ground below, rotating through the dungeon.
Learning from their experiences in the other dungeon, the Warmaster had led the teams through this new dungeon on the ‘normal’ mode first, as they learned the techniques these Deus Marines used. Know the enemy so that you could hunt them better. A week ago, the first of their groups had cleared the dungeon’s normal mode, and had worked on polishing their skills while the rest of the troops completed their runs. Now, they were preparing for the ‘Raid’ version of the dungeon, to gain glory for Chaos.
However, that left Jack and the other crewmen of the Eternity of Pain sitting in orbit around the planet of Star’s Reach, and they couldn’t even engage in a little freelance slaughter, because the Black Stars were watching everything. They knew the Black Stars were watching because they had seen a couple of their stealth fighters appear out of nowhere any time they had launched a shuttle for the surface. And they had been getting some ‘ghost’ sensor returns that could have been stealth ships nearby. The Warmaster believed that the returns were intentional, allowing the Chaos Brigade to know that they were being watched, but not being blatant about it. That didn’t change the fact that they couldn’t have any fun while they were in the system, though.
Suddenly, the communication systems came alive! Snapping out of his bored funk, Springer checked the incoming transmission and saw that it was coming from the Warmaster himself! With excitement, Springer accepted the communication. An unscheduled message from the Warmaster meant there was a task he could do, something that would stave off the boredom of sitting around a planet endlessly.
“Warmaster! How may I serve?”
“Pilot, ready the ship for battle! It would seem that another guild of Nomads has annoyed the owner of Black Star, and he has barred them from the system, on pain of death and enslavement. They have also been prohibited from using the Gateway, meaning they must flee the system the ‘long’ way, and the nearest gateway is a month away in realspace.”
Springer quickly hit the console commands to ensure that the crew aboard the Eternity of Pain would be getting ready for deployment, even as he listened to the Warmaster’s words. “What are your orders, my Lord?”
“The Black Stars have given us dispensation to slip out of orbit under stealth when the three target ships leave orbit. You are to follow them out of the system. The Black Stars have assured me that, so long as anything that happens occurs outside the system, then they will not interfere. Hunt down the ships, and do with them as you will. Any who are captured may be turned into sport, or enslaved as servants for the crew. But if they are all killed, then be sure to offer their deaths to Khorne.”
Springer nodded vigorously. “Blood for the Blood God! Skulls for the Skull Throne!”
“Indeed. Let none of those ships make it to safe harbor. Even should they surrender, you are to take the slaves and then destroy the ships after looting anything of value that you can take from them. Am I understood?”
“It will be done, Warmaster. The Eternity of Pain stands ready to visit the will of Chaos upon these unknowing fools, and give them over to Khorne!”
“Then go, and bring glory to Chaos this day!”
(Private Vessel Forgeheart, Interstellar space between Star’s Reach and Nuevo Edo)
“Damn it! What the hell are we going to do now, Boss? The Black Stars have the only new colony going right now. And our setup won’t exactly work on any civilized planets. Not if we want to strike it rich in a hurry. This was our ticket to the big time, and now we got nothing!”
Lukkud Smeltstone sighed. “You think I don’t know that? But this damn Mollen is thinking he can do whatever he wants because he has a fleet. We’ll get back to Gauz space and make a play to get some sanctions brought against the Black Stars. Enough people have been concerned about how quickly they’re gaining power that they won’t hesitate to throw their weight behind some way to cripple the bastards.”
“You think that it will actually do anything? How much exposure do they have in the Consortium?”
“Well, if it doesn’t hit them directly, it will encourage others to hit them or risk things spreading to—”
Alarms cut their discussion short, however, as explosions rocked the ship. The two Gauz were thrown by the artificial gravity failed for half a moment before kicking back in again as emergency power came online, sending them into the bulkhead with a crash. Lukkud Smeltstone groaned as he pulled himself off the forward bulkhead, wiping away the blood that was starting to flow from his head wound. He felt like someone was doing one of those Russian tank ballets in his head, but he forced himself to think. Nothing good happened when there were explosions on a ship.
“Report!”
“We… we’re under attack! We’ve fallen back to normal space. The Metaleater and Logsplitter are with us…” His second trailed off. “Never mind. The Logsplitter just lost containment on their reactor. They’re gone.”
“What hit us?”
“We have a cruiser coming out from stealth astern of us. Transponder calls it the Eternity of Pain.”
Suddenly, the communications system lit up, on the emergency band that was answered automatically on Consortium ships. A man wearing armor with some strange symbols upon it was looking back at them.
“ALL HAIL THE GODS OF CHAOS! ALL GLORY TO KHORNE! BLOOD FOR THE BLOOD GOD! SKULLS FOR THE SKULL THRONE!”