Chpt. 17) Rise Of A Monarch
After a long drive to avoid the local police in Methven and get out of the Braxen system, I made it to my ship and immediately took off, jumping a few systems away as soon as I could. After a few random jumps, I stopped and waited for Ghost to call with the drop-off point. While I waited, I got out of the horrid, cheap business lady suit and got into my usual skin-tight shirt, cargo pants, jacket, and boots. Re-equipping my usual gadgets and taking stock of them, I had my Kyoketsu-shoge, twenty-five throwing knives, two plasma blades, a tungsten steel combat knife, and Orcus. With my count, I made a reminder to re-stock my throwing knives and pistols. None of the eight pistol holders on Mualer had my pistols, and my stash of nineteen hundred knives has dwindled to the last twenty-five I have on me.
I sighed and scratched my head as I talked to myself, “I really need some more materials for my equipment. It’s a good thing Sparky borrowed those fabricators from me. Now I need the materials for them. Hopefully, Monarch has all that.”
“I-I’m pretty sure she does,” Ghost’s soft voice said over the Mauler’s intercom.
“Ghost! About time you got in touch with me,” I said as I went back to the bridge and got in my seat, “Where’s the drop-off?”
“GC-2890J, north 45.6614, west 110.5600, elevation 2,111 kilometers. Space ejection at an angle of X:0 degrees, Y: -20 degrees, Z: -20 degrees. Charlie will be there in one hour and eleven minutes. I suggest making five jumps with a fourteen-minute stop between them to ensure you aren’t followed,” Ghost answered promptly with exact instructions.
I began plotting the course immediately, “Heard that. And about my payment—”
“I have already sent everything to your ship’s fabricator and loaded the instructions onto the ship you’re currently on. Just need to read that and load everything required into the fabricator. You, hmm, you sure you want that as your payment?” Ghost answered, cutting me off before asking the question.
“Yes, I’m sure, along with your involvement with the team. I expect to have you join in on the conversations from wherever you’re hiding,” I confirmed.
“I-I’ll help, but … I’m not good with people.”
“And the only way you’ll get over that is by participating in team discussions,” I argued nicely.
“I-hmm-I don’t want to talk to anyone but you, though,” Ghost said nervously, making me chuckle.
“Fine, fine. You don’t have to join in conversations right away. But answer when I talk to you, at least,” I conceded as I finished mapping my jumps and said, “I’m about to jump. Talk on the Reaver, yeah?”
“Y-yeah. I-I’ll be in touch. And Violet … thank you,” Ghost said as she cut off communications. I smiled as the feeling of everything coming together gave me a warm, fulfilling feeling in my chest, and I jumped into hyperspace.
This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.
***
After the successful ejection of the security tube through the waste airlock in the Mauler, a ship dropped from hyperspace and picked it up before jumping again. Then I jumped back to the Reaver, only a little hounded by my newly acquired fleet, and landed in the main docking bay where my type-E cargo ship still sat. I sighed and rubbed my face, feeling exhausted and in need of a nap. Instead of getting off my ship, I instead walked into the main cabin and crawled into one of the bunks.
I quickly passed out from the day’s events and slept for a good few hours before waking to a banging noise on the side of my ship. I rolled over and ignored it for another minute before another set of bangs woke me again. Then, I realized someone was trying to get my attention. Why is someone trying to kill themselves by waking me? There are plenty of easier ways to die.
BANG! BANG! BANG!
Fine, I’ll kill them slowly! I got out of bed, grumbling to myself as I threw on my jacket and slammed the button to open the airlock door. It opened up to reveal Haru, lightly bruised from her recent attack and fist raised to bang on my ship’s hull again, only to stop as the airlock opened and the small ramp extended. I rubbed my eyes blearily as I grumbled from the airlock, “Babe, honey, darling, the light of my life. If you wake me up like that again, I don’t care how beautiful and sexy you are to me. I’m skinning you and making boots out of your skin. What do you want?”
Haru blushed a little at the successive pet names and said, “Oh, those are all good pet names. Might have to reward you for that later. But for now, have you made contact with Monarch?”
I rubbed the gunk from my eyes and scratched the back of my head, feeling the bedhead I clearly had, and shook my head, “No. I was doing a job for Ghost. Why?”
Haru raised an eyebrow curiously at my statement before brushing it off, “Okay. Well, I have some news on the Monarch front,” she said with a smile and a little hop that made her breasts jiggle, which I did not miss.
“What do you want?” I asked, not awake enough to mince words.
Haru scowled a little, “What makes you think I want anything?”
“You only jiggle your breasts for me if A: I give you an orgasm or B: you want something from me. So, what do you want?” I asked again.
Haru sighed, relaxing her shoulders a little, “Okay, okay. I do want something. I want to be in the room when you negotiate with Monarch. Can I?”
I thought for a moment before nodding with a sigh, “Sure, what news do you have about the Monarch situation thing?”
“She is in a five-way turf war with four other fleets. And if my sources are correct, she’s on the losing side,” Haru said with a smile.
Suddenly feeling awake, I blinked and asked, “What are they fighting over?”
Haru’s smile broadened, “A newly discovered, resource-rich mining planet. Whoever takes control of it first before the Federation gets there has the opportunity to make billions in contracts and resources.”
I smiled, “Let’s win this planet in one go,” I said before going back into my ship to fix my hair with a comb I had stashed with my hair-dresser machine.
“Do you really need to do that now? We could do it on the way there,” Haru hedged.
I stopped with the comb stuck in my hair and turned to her with a flat expression, “Well, sorry, I don’t have hair that doesn’t need any fixing.” I said before grabbing the comb again and continuing to brush my hair, “While you wait for me to finish here. What has Sparky done on the ship?”
Haru took a minute to answer as she thought, “She’s been working on something in the bridge. It’s got holographic fighter things and stuff. I don’t really know, but she was nearly done last I heard about it. She’s been working on it for the past week or so after Jin went into the cloning tube while working on your cybernetic upgrades and her own project. Or so she’s told me. Why?” Finishing combing my bedhead, I dropped the comb, bolted out of the airlock, and ran to the elevator with Haru, confused and chasing after me. “Why are you asking about Sparky?” Haru asked once again when we were in the elevator.
I chuckled, “You’ll see soon. But for now, when we get to the bridge, tell the crew to get to their ships, and the captains to prepare for a war.”
***