I brought my ship to land on Monarch’s flagship and quickly exited the Mauler to meet a greeting party of twenty pirates. All of whom were pointing guns at me. The pirates were dressed in Monarch’s chosen uniform for her crew. They all wore dark blue jackets with geometric, black butterflies on their backs. I gave them a friendly smile and waved, “Hello! I’m here to see Monarch. Would you, gentlemen, be so kind as to lead the way.”
The only man not pointing a gun at me with a scruffy beard and wearing a purple jacket stepped forward and said, “Greetings, Mrs. Reaper. I am Captain Falcone, and I will be your guide. Right this way, please.”
I continued to smile as I walked down the ramp, “Why, thank you,” I said, ignoring the guns aimed at me. As I walked down the ramp, I noticed a few guns falter as they saw Haru exit my ship with a brilliant smile and a sensual sway of her hips as she followed after me. I sneaked a glance over my shoulder and bit my lip slightly. Damn, she’s still hot and confident after her recent incident. I think I’ll try using ropes with her when I get a chance. That’ll be fun.
Haru noticed my glance and smiled, giving me a playful wink before addressing the captain, “So, captain, what happened to the fleet? I remember it being bigger.”
The captain turned and led us through the pirates as he answered, “We had a slight setback. An unforeseen circumstance. We found the planet GC-1852C first, and within a day, another fleet, the Draegers, dropped out of hyperspace and attacked. We managed to hold them off for a day when the Eclipse dropped out of hyperspace and joined the battle, making it a two-on-one situation for everyone. Two more days of on-and-off fighting went by when the Aurora fleet stuck their noses into the battle, and a few hours after that, the Treasure Hunters swung by and kept their distance, content with just watching us fight amongst ourselves.
Captain Falcone scratched his beard as he entered an elevator and selected the top deck of the ship before continuing, his voice dropping low for dramatic effect, “After another day of fighting, everyone pulled back except for us. We had fifty ships in total, twelve cargo transport frigates, and thirty-seven starfighter carriers with fourteen thousand five hundred and ninety-one starfighters. After all that fighting, we only lost one frigate, two carriers, and one thousand five hundred and seventy-nine fighters. We were confident we could win. But we were wrong. So, so wrong.”
“What happened?” Haru asked, placing her hand on his arm to comfort him.
Captain Falcone didn’t acknowledge the touch as the elevator doors opened, led us through the halls, and continued, “They came back a day later and cornered us. All of them retreated to come up with a strategy to fight us, and they coordinated their attack. We had to resort to a full offensive to break through their blockade and escape at a significant cost. Now, all that’s left is what you see.” He stopped just outside the bridge as he finished filling us in on their circumstances.
As the bridge door opened, I tapped him on the shoulder comfortingly and said, “Don’t worry. I never cared about your crew or that story.” Then, I walked past him, ignoring his stare of anger and disbelief.
Entering the bridge, I took in its layout and committed it to memory. The bridge had three tiers to it, with two sets of stairs leading down to the bottom tier of the bridge. On the top tier, where I stood, looked to be the cannon and turret controls area. The second tier had the navigation system, shields, and engine controls. At the bottom was a holo-display table surrounded by ten men sitting at consoles and a steel throne where sat the Monarch herself.
I began my descent to the throne and spread my arms wide in greeting, “Monarch! Good to see you! How’s that paranoia of yours?”
Monarch visibly ground her teeth and growled, “I don’t have trust issues, I don’t have paranoia, and I don’t have my planet yet. Will you hurry up already!?”
I slowed my descent and said, “Sorry, I’m going as fast as I can.” Monarch growled again and impatiently tapped her fingers on her throne. As I slowly descended, I asked, “So why do you distrust me? I never did anything directly to you.”
“You blew up my last flagship while I was still on it in an effort to kill one of my pilots, who was blackmailing a corporate officer,” Monarch answered through clenched teeth, “I nearly died because of you!”
I soon stopped in front of the display table and raised my hands, “In my defense. He wouldn’t reveal the location of the blackmail, so I had to make sure it was destroyed. And if that inconvenienced you in any way, I’m only a little sorry. Can we push past it and conquer a planet for you now?”
“No,” Monarch spat, rising from her throne with each word, “You cost me billions of credits and thousands of my crew because of your laziness and boredom! Why would someone not telling you something be a good defense for blowing up my ship!?”
Before I could respond, Haru walked between us with both her hands raised to stop us, “Hold on now. This is why I’m here. I know you two don’t get along all that often, with Monarch’s paranoia and Violet’s lack of fucks. But can we agree that taking over a planet that could be worth trillions of credits is a good apology and is at least a step in the right direction?”
“I can agree to that if a step in the right direction means total forgiveness,” I conceited.
Monarch rolled her eyes at me as she sat back on her throne and said, “Fine. Where should we begin?”
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I thought for a moment and said, “Let’s get a projection of the battle area.” Without warning, someone appeared out of the corner of my eye, and I immediately reacted. Pulling out my sheathed tungsten-steel knife, I drove it into the man’s neck and ripped a hole through his throat in a spray of blood that covered part of the display table and my pants. I looked down at the man as he bled out, staring up at me with questioning, pleading eyes before the light left them and he died.
“SEE!” Monarch exclaimed, making me turn to face her as she stood and pointed at the dead man exasperatedly to Haru, “This is why I don’t trust her!”
Haru looked between the dead man and Monarch as she tried to calm her down, “I know. I know. Please calm down. She was just startled and reacted. It wasn’t on purpose, and I’m sure she’s sorry about killing one of your crew again.”
“I’m not sorry about it,” I argued flatly, earning me a pair of matching glares from Haru and Monarch. I shrugged, “What? He did startle me, but when I go for a kill, it is entirely on purpose. Who did I kill anyway?”
Monarch looked dumbfounded for a moment before falling back into her chair and rubbing her temples, “That would be Lieutenant Gregory Coscof.”
“Oh,” I said with a nod, “Should I know who that is? Or rather, was.”
Monarch stared at me, even more confused, “He was my communications officer and long-ranged sensors specialist.” I shrugged, shaking my head, “You had a conversation with him.” I cocked my head at her, still drawing a blank, “You talked about his daughter Annabel.”
I made an, oh, face as I nodded, then said, “Yeah, I still don’t know who that is, nor do I care. So let’s just move on and pull up the projection of the battle area.”
Monarch continued to rub her temples as she said, “That’s what Lieutenant Coscof was doing for us. He’s the one who knows the controls on the table.”
“Ooh, that’s what he was doing. I guess I’ll have to do it myself,” I immediately began hacking into the display table and ran into the massive firewall around its systems. “Hmm, this might take a few minutes to hack. You two can just fuck while I do this,” I said as I waved a hand at Haru and Monarch, putting my full attention into hacking the table.
***
After a few minutes of hacking, I finally had access to Monarch’s systems and sensors. Pulling up the battlefield. I sighed in relief as I finished and noted that the fleets were untouched for the most part and had the same number of ships that Monarch had told Haru about while they waited for me to finish hacking. I wiped an imaginary bead of sweat from my brow and ruffled my hair while I scratched my scalp. “Okay, I got everything under control for this table, and now we just need a plan. Any idea where we should start?” I asked Monarch and Haru, not expecting an answer.
Monarch leaned forward and examined the display a moment before answering, “Sparrow was the one who brought them all together. He should be the first one to die. Cut the head off, and the body will fall with it.”
I nodded, not super pleased with the plan, “And how much of the head will we be cutting off?”
“All of it,” Monarch hissed.
I pursed my lips and thought of the best way to politely say no. “Well, that is a fucking terrible idea,” I said, defenestrating politeness, “I need a massive fleet, much bigger than what I have now, for my plans. So that will require having as many ships as possible. I can’t let you destroy all the ships.”
Monarch looked as though she was about to defenestrate me through a non-existent window as I explained. “If he is allowed to live, his crew will rally everyone against us, and it will be a four-on-one slaughter like last time!” she growled.
“And he won’t get that opportunity,” I countered and began fiddling with the display table and called my battleships to include them in the meeting. I didn’t have to wait long before they answered. “Lieutenants, congratulations on a sudden battlefield promotion to captain,” I began before introducing them to Monarch, “Captains Herald, Nathen, and Quinn. This is Monarch. She will be in charge of you from now on after this battle. I called you to ask a question. How well do our stealth frigates work, and how do they work?”
Herald rubbed his chin thoughtfully and said, “If I remember correctly, they don’t show up on scanners or sensors. The only way to fight them is through a line of sight. Automatic firing systems don’t work on them. As a result of these modifications, they don’t have any shields, have thicker hulls than average, and are relatively slow compared to a standard frigate.”
I nodded and directed their attention to the display. Pulling up five triangular markers with an S on all of them, I positioned them underneath the treasure hunter fleet that was currently fighting The Draeger fleet. “We’ll have the stealth frigates attack from below and weaken the fleet from below when,” I pulled up a large triangular marker with an M, placing it a little higher than the fleets, “Monarch attacks with six of her carriers and eighteen hundred fighters along with,” I pulled up another marker with a B on it and two more with FS on them, “You, Quinn, for support, along with two of our support frigates.”
“That’s not nearly enough to take out a fleet as big as that!” Monarch argued, “My ships will be torn apart!”
“They won’t,” I countered, “the Treasure Hunters are currently engaged with the Draegers, so they will be surprised when you appear and have all their attention on your carriers. When that happens, the stealth frigates will attack and draw their attention again. That’s when your carriers attack, splitting their attention three ways. While that’s happening, we’ll send Sparky onboard their flagship to kill or capture Sparrow.”
“Wouldn’t she need backup?” Haru asked, concern in her voice.
I nodded, “We’ll send a few men with her to watch her back. But I have faith in her capabilities.”
“And what of the rest of the fleets?” Monarch asked, “When do we fight them?”
Pulling up more markers labeled M and two labeled R, I placed them right next to the main fighting. “We are having a head-on assault. Herald and Nathen will attack from the left with the remaining half of our fleet. With Monarch attacking from the right with her remaining carriers and flagship while I go straight down the middle with the Reaver and support wherever needed.”
“Are you sure this will work?” Haru asked, “This seems like a very risky gamble. Our fleet is a quarter the size of all of them combined.”
“I’m sure it will work. While we attack, we’ll have Adjani board the Eclipse flagship and capture their fleet while Oni captures the Draeger fleet. Once we have those three fleets under our control, we’ll demand Fulger’s surrender and win,” I answered with a smile, “It’ll be that simple. Just not easy. We have to hold out as long as possible to buy everyone enough time to win.”
“Easier said than done,” Monarch said with a sigh and a moment of consideration, “But it’s the best we got. Let’s get this over with.” I smiled and ended the call with the other captains before turning on my heel and running off the bridge to get to my ship and start a fight.
***