Chapter Thirty-Four
Opening Moves
“Now, there is no need to get upset, Captain,” Berenice smiled at the scowling woman. “There is no ill will involved in this.”
“Yeah, I wouldn’t be so sure about that,” the freighter captain snapped. “This is no way to do business!”
“I’m sure I have no idea what you mean,” Berenice said calmly.
“This is my damn ship!” She jammed a finger at the shape behind her on the landing pad.
“Well, no, it actually isn’t,” Berenice pulled out a datapad with a bright smile. “Thirty percent of it is yours; the rest belongs to the Ember’s Hearth Trader’s Union and Guild Bank.” She tapped the pad meaningfully. “According to the agreed terms, you would pay monthly to clear the remaining amount. That went into arrears some six months ago.”
“I demand an extension!” the captain snarled. “They can’t just take her from me.”
“Oh, honey,” Berenice laughed. “Yes, they can. And they were going to, until I convinced them not to.”
“What?” the captain frowned.
“You are a great captain but a poor trader,” Berenice said quietly as if it were the most shameful thing in the world. “I am an excellent trader, and they decided to back my plan to allow you to work off the payments instead of taking the ship.”
“Wo-work off the payments?” the captain glared.
“Certainly. With my help, you will own this beauty and be debt-free! Isn’t that great?” Berenice leaned forward, putting her hand on the captain’s shoulder as she leaned in. “Don’t worry, I’m here to help.”
“Thank you?” The captain said, getting that dazed look Berenice loved to see.
“You are most welcome,” Berenice gave the woman a one-armed hug as she led the way back toward the ship. “And don’t worry. I won’t throw my weight around or anything. The ship and crew are all you. I’ll just tell you where to go and what to carry. I’ll handle all the trader crap, leaving you free just to do as I say. It’s a perfect system for you. You can be a real Captain again!”
“That, that sounds good,” the captain frowned, and Berenice knew that at least part of the woman had caught the ‘do as I say’ part of the sentence, so she hurried on. “Now, as my captain, please tell my people where to stow their gear.” Berenice nodded encouragingly. “Go on, it’s going to be great.”
“The captain’s cabin?” the captain stopped. “I’ll need to—”
“I wouldn’t dream of it!” Berenice said quickly. “I’m quite happy with a regular old bunk for now.”
“Oh, right,” the captain hesitated before giving an awkward salute and hurrying off.
Her new chief of security walked over.
“Is that some kind of mind control Imperial thing?” He asked suspiciously.
“No, bless,” Berenice laughed. “That’s just a merchant at work.”
“Remind me never to buy anything from you,” he shook his head and hurried toward the freighter as Berenice smirked.
Twenty minutes later, they lifted off and headed for Forest’s Hush in a Confed ship with a Confed registry and even a Confed crew. In fact, if it weren’t for Berenice, it would have been a completely unremarkable ship.
In her cabin next to the cargo bay, Berenice sat and scanned the trade database she had gotten from the Trader’s Union. There were bound to be a few holes somewhere to squeeze a few extra credits out of.
In the half-light of the one flickering bulb, Berenice jabbed at one of the listings and smiled like a shark.
“Gotcha!”
/===<<>>>===\
Banjo’s Arrow popped out of jump space like a bullet, the In-System drive already burning at nearly max. The acceleration left the enemy ships floundering as their firing solutions failed, and the mines laid around it exploded much too slowly.
One of the destroyers managed to reposition in time to attempt to cut them off, the bow cannons and arrays unloading everything they had at the tiny craft that looped and swung through the fire.
“Please can I put on–” thunk, “A seat-” thunk. “Belt!”
“Go ahead if you think it will help!”
“Colby!” Sec yelled as he was catapulted out of his chair and flattened against the canopy.
“Sorry, couldn’t resist,” Colby grinned. “Besides, you kind of had that coming.”
“Yeah, I kind of did,” Sec chuckled. “Come on then, flyboy,” he clicked his flight harness into place. “Let’s see what you can do with this baby.”
Colby grinned, tightening his grip on the yoke as they approached the enemy lines.
Sand’s Embrace, it turned out, hadn’t been entirely honest about its defenses when speaking to the other clans. In fact, they had lied their asses off, and bless them for that! Between their ground-based defenses and a pair of moons with more weapons than moon, they had managed to drive the enemy forces back and away from the planet when their own ships were forced to retreat. The Falling Waters Clan had surrounded the place and blocked off the jump points to try and starve them out while they sent occasional sorties to look for weak points in the defenses.
They had probably landed a few troops by now as well, but Colby and Sec were more interested in the agents they must have had in place. After all, if they were on Ember’s Hearth, they had to be everywhere, right?
In short, they were going hunting.
All that stood between them and that goal was about twenty ships, a bunch of mines, a defense array, a pair of over-armed moons, and what was no doubt some serious ground-to-air missiles.
Not to mention what was waiting for them if they made it down in one piece.
“Let’s fucking go!”
The Arrow corkscrewed between a pair of fighter craft and hugged the surface of one of the larger capitals as Colby wove between the shield generators.
“Beep, boop, beep!” Sec cackled as he hacked the enemy comm systems. “Well, hello, pretty!” The capital above them suddenly shot forward as every ounce of power in it was routed to the engines. “Got us some cover.”
This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.
“Nice,” Colby saw a destroyer ducking beneath the bow of the capital and aiming their way. “One sec!” He wove wide of the shots, leaving them to smash apart the pursuing fighters before slapping the arrow back into position before the destroyer could aim at their new position.
“Ooops, friendly fire,” Sec laughed. “Tsk, tsk, they are having a bad day.”
“I know, it’s just sad, it really is,” Colby said as the destroyer was left behind by the accelerating capital. “Uh, we will know when to leave this thing, right?”
“Meh,” Sec shrugged.
“Sec!”
“I’ll do my best,” Sec grinned.
“We are so fucking dead.”
The capital ship made it almost halfway to the planet before it was holed. The wreckage made it another third of the way before the combined defenses rendered it little more than a light meteorite shower for the people below. Sec estimated that none of the remaining pieces would even survive entering the planet’s atmosphere.
“Kudos to whoever designed this detection system!” Sec yelled as the Arrow shuddered. “Didn’t fool them for a moment!”
“Kind of wishing it had!” Colby yelled back as their shields flickered from a glancing blow by one of the massive lasers. “I thought you said going ballistic would work.”
“I assumed they were stupid!” Sec yelled back. “Most people are!”
“We climbed in here voluntarily,” Colby said through gritted teeth as warning lights began to flash pretty much everywhere. “I’m not sure we should be calling other people stupid!”
“You may have a point,” Sec replied calmly as the reentry turbulence ripped one of the small wings off the hull. “Also, I really need to design a safe way to leave these things.”
“Now? Now you think of that?” Colby yelled.
“Wasn’t a pressing consideration before,” Sec admitted.
“How about now?” Colby asked as the other wing parted company with the fuselage, and they emerged tens of thousands of feet up in the atmosphere, completely without any form of flight surface.
“Pretty pressing, yes,” Sec admitted. “Ooops”
“Nope, that’s it,” Colby unclipped his harness. “I’m going to choke you to death now.”
“Ow,” Colby said dumbly. “That really hurt.”
“You should have left the damn harness on,” Sec said, standing over him. “I didn’t even know you could be thrown through that canopy.”
“Can confirm it is both possible and extremely painful,” Colby said as his shoulders popped back into place. “We have any visitors yet?”
“Nope,” Sec shook his head. “Hey, I see your left leg over there. Do you want it back?”
“Please, I am kind of attached to it. Sentimental fucking value, you know?”
“You are actually not attached to it,” Sec pointed out. “But you can be. Wait right here.”
“Fuck, I really hate that guy,” Colby muttered.
Shall I send him that pic of you banging Prim now?
“No, wait until he gives me the leg back first,” Colby smiled. “Then include the sound file.”
She was surprisingly cool with this.
“She’s a great girl, and no mistake.” Colby sighed happily.
/===<<<>>>===\
Leah laughed, the light glinting off the gold badge on the long, figure-hugging robes she wore. The young man whose arm she was holding onto beamed with pride, his own gold badge so new it hadn’t had the film taken of it yet. She reached over, peeling the cover away while pretending to rest her hand there as she leaned in, whispering drunkenly to him that they needed to hurry and get to the lab.
Blushing slightly, he added an extra quickness to his steps.
The Sagacity Spiral Endless was not as grand as the one Nellie had visited, but it was only a single jump from High Water. Getting through the Confed systems would have been tough, so Leah had simply gone around them. The long Sagacity border with the Confederate Planets had made that a fairly monotonous trip, but needs must. While she traveled, Leah made sure to let it be known that the cute young gold badge she was pretending to be was making an in-depth study of the sociological aspects of the Clan system in Confed space.
It had led to many soul-achingly dull conversations, but finally, on the Endless and only a single jump from her destination, she struck paydirt.
The brash young man had only three days before reached maturity in the Sagacity. Twenty-one seemed ridiculously old to Leah, but then she killed someone on the first day she could remember existing… each to their own?
To say he was eager to impress was an understatement.
As he prattled on, a single line had caught her attention.
“My master works extensively with the Falling Waters Clan. Even now, he works to supply their new shipyard with new technology. I’m sure there is much I could show you.” the grinning idiot had said, his eyes only looking into hers once or twice every few minutes. They sure seemed to like the rest of her, however.
Finally arriving at the private lab, the young man pulled out a key wand with trembling fingers and managed to get the gate open on the second try.
Leah ran her fingers up and down his arm as he whispered she needed to be quiet while he turned off the security system.
Leah obediently kept her mouth shut until he turned to her, grinning and opening his arms wide. “The place is ours! My master sleeps like the dead on the top floor, so as long as we don’t disturb him…”
Leah gave him a dazzling smile before wrapping her arms around him. Her hands found the pulse in his neck and squeezed. He was unconscious before even realizing what she was doing.
Wiping her hands absently on her robe, Leah stepped over the unconscious man; finding suitable ties on the curtains, she restrained the kid and shoved him in a cupboard.
No need to kill that one; he was young and a bit leery, not evil.
The lab was a mess, and Leah gave up searching it quite quickly. Investigation was not really her forte. Quick steps took her up the winding path to the top floor and into the room of a middle-aged man with a stern face. Who frowned even in their sleep?
Leaning over him, she breathed a toxin over him to keep him asleep. It was one of three she could make internally and had already proven very helpful in avoiding unwanted attention from those she shared a bunkroom with on the cheap transports she was using.
Sitting on the end of the bed, Leah scrolled through the man’s personal datapad until she was convinced the young man downstairs was telling the truth. This was one of Cyrus’ outside hires. He was designing an autonomous repair system for the Falling Waters Clan ships. Specifically, for their new Imperium Class knockoff that was apparently called a ‘Cyrus Class’ because the man apparently knew no end to his vices. Why not a little wild egotism as well?
There were substantial payments involved and a complete lack of hiding that Cyrus intended to attack the other Clans. In short, Leah felt this man chose his own enrichment over the lives of tens of thousands.
That matched with one of the definitions of ‘Evil’ she had memorized. Papa Leo would also have called it Evil.
With a happy smile, Leah turned and crawled up the bed, straddling the man and placing her hands over his nose and mouth. While he thrashed and twitched beneath her, and then while his heart slowed and stopped, Leah mentally planned her next move. If one person here was working for Cyrus, there might be more.
Once she was sure the man was dead, Leah climbed off the bed with fluid grace and pulled off her robe. The armor beneath was sculpted to her skin and soft to the touch. As she reversed the robe, she revealed the grey cloak underneath. Pulling on and slipping the hood up, Leah slipped from the room, vanishing as she walked down the stairs. A few moments later, the door opened and closed on empty air.
She had more work to do.
/===<<<>>>===\
Crush-Cha walked the lines of Ember’s Hearth security officers, looking for the spark he needed to make them into Marshalls. Police officers, no matter what you called them, were a mixed lot. It attracted bullies as often as true believers. Even with the true believers, you had to get them before the job beat the life and the hope out of them.
To be fair, he hadn’t expected much of a crop from this lot. They did a thankless job in a shitty world while working for a Clan that seemed to change loyalties as often as they did clothes. Not conducive to a positive outlook from their peace keepers.
To his increasing surprise, they had ten recruits and counting.
Clark might have been a spineless bastard, but the men and women working to protect the place were good stock. They were believers, not in the Clan, but in doing things to help and protect others.
He tapped a pair of twins to join the others and stepped back.
“Frankly, I could take more of you,” Crush gave them all a smile. “Ember’s Hearth should be proud of you all.” He actually meant that, mostly. Or at least, about most of them. “I may come back to train more of you later, but for now, twelve is the most we can handle at one time.”
An old-timer with scars and a missing ear stepped smartly forward.
“Give me a guide and another dozen; I’ll whip ‘em into shape.”
Crush gave him a considering stare.
“Trust us, Marshall.” He looked straight ahead, unwavering.
“Done,” Crush nodded. “I look forward to seeing the results.”
“You want to choose the candidates?” the man asked.
“If you couldn’t do that yourself, you shouldn't have spoken up,” Crush called back as he and Prim walked the new recruits away.
“That’s the truth!” the man called after them, “You can count on us!”
Crush grinned to himself.
This might actually be more fun than he thought.