(Main Docks, Booty Bay, the Badlands)
The battle in space was done in thirty minutes from the first shot to the last. Overwhelming force against a group of unprepared pirates was like that, after all. The only reason it took so long is because they took pains to try and disable ships, rather than destroy them outright.
Still, pirate ships aren’t known for being the best maintained ships in the black, so there were losses. Of the thirty ships the pirates managed to launch, including the Wolf’s Fang, seven suffered reactor breaches because of faulty maintenance, and were summarily reduced to a (very) loosely floating cloud of debris. Twelve more, including the Fang, were damaged enough that they would never fly again, and it was honestly a toss-up whether it would be worth it to tow them to the breakers to salvage the materials. Still, they did manage to ‘rescue’ some crew and valuables from the ships.
The other eleven ships were damaged, but the ion cannons had done more to them than the other weapons, so they could be repaired enough to be flown back to Dimiya, where they could be sold for a decent profit. Their crews were less willing to be ‘rescued’ than the ones on the doomed ships, but the assault teams were very persuasive, with stunners being their opening arguments. Against the unarmored pirates who were still scrambling to try and get life support back on, much less anything else, it was a fairly compelling argument, and the unconscious men and women gratefully accepted their collars. Well, they were certainly grateful when the Stepford protocols came online, at least.
The fighting on the station was… well, it was certainly more chaotic. But a company of marines in full armor against a group of barely organized pirates? The only question in anyone’s minds was how much they’d make the Marines bleed before it was over. No one expected the assault to be completely clean. Assaulting someone’s home base never was. They knew the place like the back of their hand, and knew all the best spots to hide. And pirates didn’t believe in silly things like keeping weapons to things that weren’t as much a danger to the station as they were to potential boarders.
Still, the Marines were Marines, which meant that even though we lost twelve, they captured the station intact. More or less. Six of those twelve could be chalked up to a pair of pirates that had set up an ambush in a choke point, and thought using rocket launchers inside a ship was a good idea. They were lucky not to roast themselves with the backblast of their own weapon. The Marines did NOT take those two alive.
By the time the other ship-board assault teams and I had finished cleaning up and taking what prisoners we could from the wrecked pirate ships, and I could land the Starlight Raven in the pirate base, four hours had passed since the battle lit off with the simultaneous destruction of the other bases in the system. That was actually child’s play to set up. Ballistic trajectories in deep space against unmoving targets are really simple to calculate, so getting it timed to make sure all the impacts happened simultaneously was easy enough.
The fighting on the station had only just finished when we touched down on Booty Bay, with the marines switching from ‘Search and Destroy’ to securing prisoners and sorting out who was a pirate and who was a slave. Initial reports said that we’d just added at least four, maybe five, hundred now-former pirates to the Black Star ‘family’, and there were at least a couple hundred slaves. Most of them were in godawful condition, according to the marines.
Stepping off the Raven’s ramp, I nodded to Major Khan when he approached with his aide. “Major. Good work with the base. Dirty job, but it had to get done. I’ve been looking over the combat logs. Your men did excellent work, as usual. Have you located the ‘Pirate Queen’ yet?”
The Major nodded, and said, “She tried to flee like a coward when the troops were about to assault the command center. Unfortunately for her, the escape hatch she used wasn’t properly shielded against last-gen scanners, to say nothing of the current-gen ones, so we were able to locate her easily enough. Caught her in a private shuttle bay. She surrendered the moment she saw we’d cut her off from her escape shuttle. We’re holding her in a secondary cargo bay under guard with some of the others who surrendered, but not letting her converse with them.”
“Excellent. You and your men have earned a cut of the spoils, Major. Unfortunately, the weapons and armor the pirates had are all mostly trash, but they’re welcome to any they wish to keep as trophies.” I turned to look at the aide, who was the same woman who started off pissed at me back in the cantina. “Captain Meyers, the type of easily divisible loot that this station has are the captured pirates. According to Marine logs, there’s a roughly 70-30 split in male to female in the captured pirates, not counting officers. What is your opinion of allowing the Marines to pick a slave each, to do with as they will?”
Meyers clenched her teeth, not much liking being put on the spot like this, it seemed, and definitely not with the question I’d given her. “Sir, any restrictions on ‘what they will’?”
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“None, except those who are freed will be turned over to Confederate marshals for trial, using the evidence Black Star has collected. No restrictions on male or female, or on intended use other than that. They want a servant like a valet or maid for when they’re not on duty? I’m fine with that. They want a sextoy for ‘stress relief’? That’s fine too. They want to trade them to someone in return for favors, goods, or services? Doesn’t matter to me so long as it doesn’t blow back on the company. They want to live out some crazy snuff fetish? Well, that’s within their rights, but I’ll have them going to psych evals the second I hear about it, looking at Section 8-ing them ASAP. Don’t need that kind of crazy in my Marines. Anything that blows back on the company will be responded to appropriately. Anything that causes trouble within the unit will be handled by the unit, or the officers, as they see fit. Any questions?”
Meyers shook her head, and said, “The slaves people would be picking from would only be those confirmed to be pirates, correct?”
“Yes, though I expect most will need a shower and probably getting checked out by the medics for diseases, but only confirmed pirates will be up for grabs. The slaves we captured from the pirates are going to be examined by the docs, and we’ll figure out what to do with them based on their skills and how much trauma they have to work through. But they aren’t up for grabs by the Marines.”
“Then while I find the process distasteful, myself, I have no objections to it, sir.”
I nodded. “Fair enough.” Looking back to the Major, who nodded slightly to show he appreciated me getting the Captain’s opinion before just rolling it out there, I said, “Major, set up a method for your marines to make their picks, and the order they pick in. I might suggest a lottery or similar to choose the draft order, perhaps allowing anyone who went above and beyond in the battle to head to the front, but that is your discretion. I will have Raven assemble a listing once we’ve finalized how many slaves there are, with a head shot and basic bio sheet on each one with some of their skills.”
Major Khan nodded. “I’ll see to it, Commodore.”
“All right, now that we got that stuff out of the way, let’s go down to the cargo bay the prisoners are being held in, and see which way they decide to jump, after watching what happens to their Queen.”
As we walked to the cargo bay, I said, “Khan, Meyers, assuming that this Pirate Queen doesn’t give the mother of all pleas for her life, what do you say we do with her? Honest opinions only, please. I want to make an example of her, so that other people don’t get the idea that they can do this kind of thing while we’ve got most of our forces on the expedition. But I also don’t want to go full on evil overlord and do something that might turn my own people against me. So what do you think the troops will accept as a punishment for the pirate queen?”
The two looked at eachother, and I didn’t doubt they were shooting messages back and forth over PMs to come up with a suitable answer for the ‘boss’. Sure, I could have just gone with whatever horrible fate I could come up with for the pirate queen, but I didn’t want to walk too far down the dark path, you know? I started this intending to play a charming rogue, not an evil mastermind, so I didn’t want to get that reputation from my people. Plus, I knew Marines wouldn’t go for it, anyways. But with their input, I knew I’d get buy in from the others, and it showed my people that I cared about their opinions.
Finally, just as we were about to get to the cargo bay where the prisoners were held, Khan said, “Well, Boss, I’d say that the best way to deal with her, if we’re not just handing her over to the Confederates for them to put on trial, would be to rig up some kind of execution. No need to make it quick and painless, but don’t make it too gruesome either. We could rig a simple noose, and hang her, like they used to do to pirates. And Meyers had the suggestion that we give her the choice we’re giving the rest of the captured pirates, accepting a collar or death.”
“And what would you have me do with her if she asked for a collar? I’d have to leave too much of ‘her’ there for her to be much use commanding a ship, and I don’t trust her further than I can throw you in full armor, Major.”
Meyers cleared her throat. “Sir, I’d suggest putting her up for public auction at the slave market, and letting everyone know you were selling her. Let her be someone else’s problem. It would be better than scum like her deserves, but wouldn’t bring us down to her level. Sir.”
I nodded to let her know I’d heard her, and but motioned for them to keep all communications subvocal now, to keep from letting the pirates try and play us against eachother as we stepped into the cargo bay.
Loraine Savant was on her knees in a cleared area of the cargo bay, bound with her hands behind her back, attached to manacles on her ankles. The human woman was… not pretty, but striking, with red hair, green eyes, and an athletic figure that curved in the right places, but sporting a nasty scar on her face that clearly came from a fight of some kind long ago. Nearby, a camera drone hovered in the air, recording everything.
Stepping in front of her, I said, loudly enough for the few dozen other pirates who had surrendered to hear, “Loraine Savant, you have been caught in an act of piracy. As the leader of a recognized security force with credentials certified by the Confederacy, I am empowered to make summary judgements and executions of pirates caught by my forces. Your life is forfeit, and any decision about your future now rests in my hands alone. Do you have anything to say in your defense before I declare judgement?”
“Just get on with it. I got friends who will make your life hell for this, and I’ll be free before the year is out.”
M.Mollen: Thoughts?
MajorTom: Well, I’d say she’s just chosen the noose. Sell her off and someone frees her, she’ll be looking for revenge.
Shelley_Meyers: Agreed. Too dangerous to let her live. Her ‘friends’ may still cause trouble for us, but they won’t stick their necks out too far for a dead woman that can no longer hold anything over their heads.
M.Mollen: Then get the noose ready. No gallows, we’ll just hang her where she is. Let the pirates watch.
I turned to give the Major a nod, as though instituting some pre-arranged order, and stepped past the woman to come into full view of the other captured pirates. Behind me, a cargo crane moved into position above Savant’s head. I looked at the pirates, and said, “Your leader has been found guilty of attacking my people. However, she has chosen to refuse the mercy I might have shown her. You will bear witness to what happens, and then you will have a choice of your own.”
“No, you can’t do this! I surrendered!” It would seem that the marines had just shown her the noose out of high-tension rope. She screamed, and tried to struggle, but bound as she was that was essentially futile as the noose was moved into place about her neck. The pirates looked on in shock as the hook from the gantry came down, and the other end of the rope was tied to it, before the crane began lifting up again, pulling the screaming, frightened captain slowly up off the floor. It was not a nice way of hanging her. No break of the neck for her, but a dance as she asphyxiated slowly.
Not taking my eyes off the pirates, I said, “She has chosen death. You may either accept enslavement to the Black Star Company, or you can join her. Choose wisely.”