"This system is now under the jurisdiction of the ISC. Your station will hand over supplies and refuel our ships."

The communication relay went silent after whoever the fleet admiral of this Interstellar Confederacy fleet made their demands.

"I'm afraid this system is neutral in the ongoing conflict, ISC fleet. Therefore, we are under no obligation to acquiesce to your demands. If you would like to purchase the aforementioned goods, the Portal Trading Company will be happy to supply them."

The PTC employee was a robotic construct that had a female humanoid shape with silver colored plating in place of skin. The unit was equipped with an artificial intelligence, and bore the designation PTC-44114, though it was frequently called Patricia. Patricia and her fellow robotic employees ran PTC Branch #194.

194 was currently one of the most profitable stores for several reasons. The biggest reason was that 194 was a massive orbital space station that was in a geostationary orbit around the planet below, where the branch had originally been founded. 194, or rather PTC as a whole, actually controlled the entire planet, which it wasted no effort in stripping of valuable resources. It also controlled a partial Dyson sphere around the system's star, which allowed the branch to sell local fuel to all sorts of travelers. The location of 194 was at an intersection of five major interstellar highways, bringing practically all galactic trade through the system and giving the branch store an entire galaxy's worth of goods. Lastly, there was the current interstellar war that was raging.

It could be argued that the PTC may have played a role in the war starting, as they supplied all factions so long as they paid, but the current level of the war was beyond their influence. It had started with the Vorras Swarm. The Vorras were a hive-minded centipede-like race that sought to consume everything biological that was not Vorras. They had launched a massive invasion on the rest of the galaxy from their corner of space. Though there were several other major players in the galaxy, it was a united front from the Sinrathi Commonwealth, the Aurian Imperium, and the Interstellar Confederacy that turned the Swarm back. However, victory breeds arrogance and greed, and the three empire's unified front broke down seemingly overnight.

The Imperium fired the first shots, a fact the proud owl-like avians boasted about. The Confederacy was certainly the weakest player in this new three way conflict, but did have only three access points to their sector of space where they dug in, metaphorically, their defenses. In fact, the incursion towards the PTC system was their first major operation in some time.

As fate would have it, the Confederacy's admiral would not have the chance to respond to Patricia's statement. Both a Commonwealth and Imperium fleet appeared in the system, igniting what was sure to be a battle that was both grand in scale and fierce in nature.

"Alice, raise the shields," Patricia seemed to speak to no one.

"Confirmed," said an identical looking robot that appeared next to Patricia, "I think the Swarm will show up too."

"Preparing salvage operations for the aftermath," added yet a third robot that also appeared.

PTC-41133, otherwise known as Alice, and PTC-1415, otherwise known as Iris, rounded out the three counter staff of Branch #194. Were it not for the embroidered names on the uniforms, it would have been impossible to differentiate the three artificial intelligences.

As the fleets drew closer, automatic drone strike craft were launched from carrier-class ships while long range beam weapons and torpedoes were fired from battleships and missle frigates.

"Alpha strike hits," commented Alice, "Brace for impacts."

Despite the vacuum of space, the volume of the initial explosions sent out shockwaves across the system. Several ships across all the fleets that were spearheading began to drift as they suffered damage that overwhelmed shields and ripped through hulls.

Railguns, laser cannons, and plasma cannons spat their respective payloads as speedy corvettes, frontline cruisers, artillery dreadnoughts, and the battleships came into range of each other. In minutes, the star system had devolved into a lightshow of color as projectiles both physical and energy filled the void. And watching it were the three robotic staff members.

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It was difficult to run the shop, or rather station, when the military based customers were currently focused on destroying each other and any civilian craft entering the system immediately turned around and left.

“Surveillance drones reporting the first escape pods are landing planetside,” Iris reported.

“Lodging fees applied. Applying to participants,” Alice added.

“Dispatching medical supplies. Fees tabulated at each site,” Patricia concluded.

None of the three glanced away from the battle, instead transmitting orders to simplistic drones.

“Wager?” Alice asked.

“500 credits,” Patricia replied, “Imperium.”

“500 credits. Commonwealth,” Iris stated.

“500 credits. Commonwealth,” Alice agreed.

“Why the Imperium?” Iris asked.

“Strong leadership. Organized structure. Better technology.”

“Weaker economy, forced labor, delicate politics,” countered Alice.

“Mr. A dislikes the Imperium,” Iris stated.

The three silently continued to watch the battle which continued to rage outside the viewport.

“The Confederacy fleet is retreating,” Patricia commented.

Indeed, ships bearing the Confederacy’s symbol were pulling back towards the jump point in the direction of their territory. Mostly, it was larger craft like their battleships, although some of the artillery and carriers that fought at distance were likewise doing so. Despite pulling back, every ship seemed to have extensive damage and it was questionable how much longer some would last.

The Commonwealth and Imperium refocused their attention on each other. More explosions ripped apart hulls and sent hundreds to their deaths in the void of space.

“Incoming fleet,” Alice reported.

A new fleet of ships entered the system from one of the other main routes into the system. Immediately, their weapons and strike craft began bombarding the Imperium fleet. As they came into clearer view, the three staffers could see the Commonwealth’s symbol on display. Though the second fleet was smaller and not as diverse in its ship types, the combined might forced the Imperium to pull back from the battle and retreat. Once the Imperium had retreated out of the system, the Commonwealth likewise limped away.

“No Swarm appearance,” Iris commented.

“True,” Alice said, though she did not sound broken up over the matter.

“Lift shields, keep tallies on planetside supplies and dispatch salvage drones. We may recover useful technology from the wrecks. I will contact the empires for their ransom bills,” Patricia said.

Just as spontaneously as they had appeared, Alice and Iris disappeared and set about their respective tasks. Patricia let out a sigh, which was simply the sound of one. It was difficult dealing with organics, at least to her, since they tended to get emotional and irrational at times during transactions. She much preferred operating with other synthetic lifeforms, who tended to have straightforward thought processes. She opened interstellar comm-lines to each and set about selling PTC wares.

Down in a salvage bay, drones were returning segments of wrecked spacecraft to be processed by the station’s auto-deconstructors. Iris stood nearby, scanning each segment that came in for any new sort of technology. The scanner buzzed occasionally, and several portions were rapidly analyzed. Mostly it was upgrades to existing technologies, be it shields, hull strength, or weapons. However, there was one recovery that was both interesting and strange.

The unique find appeared at first to be nothing more than a metal box locked by an alphanumeric passcode. Iris could tell that whatever was inside the box was being kept frozen, due to the thermal scan of it. The scan had also revealed biological material within the box. Placing an autohacker into the passcode entry, Iris had to wait only a moment before a click sounded, signaling the box was unlocked.

A small wave of frosty mist poured out of the box as Iris opened the box to examine the contents. Dozens of small vials were neatly organized and labeled within. Each vial contained a small amount of fluid, most of which were red in color.

“Genetic samples,” Iris spoke as she inserted the find into the branch’s network remotely.

Resetting the passcode to something suitable for PTC staff, Iris shut the box again and continued sorting through the incoming debris. The box of genetic samples, containing a variety from every sentient race in #194’s galaxy, was sent straight away to Headquarters.

Over the next month, shuttles from each of the respective empires arrived in system to collect their surviving soldiers, well after paying hefty credit sums to Branch 194. Again, 194 would top the branch income charts for the month.