Leblanc

Astarte strode through the gateway as it made its biweekly link up with its twin on Mars. She stubbled slightly as she stepped from one world to another, but she had done this enough times to gain a proficiency in adapting. She was starting to see why the Union employed these exclusively in zero-g, much less complications involved in transmitting the portal. She would have to remain on Mars while she waited for the next scheduled link up, but she had much to do while she was back among the heart of Terran civilization. After receiving that priority message from Minister Leblanc she had rearranged her whole schedule, getting the important meetings out of the way while also clearing her week.

Karega stepped through behind her, along with a few others who were actually scheduled to come through today. The scene on the other side of the portal had changed, instead of a facility under the highly visible OMU they had moved it to somewhere a little more discreet. Olympus Mons was the highest city on Mars and was also the second largest cargo hub on the planet. Extensive tunnels and roads had been cut into the volcano to connect the capital city to the cargo port of Medusa on the coast of the Amazon sea. It had been child’s play to buy an abandoned rail way tunnel and convert into a discreet smuggling operation. The real challenge had been secretly digging a tunnel to that new facility while also keeping the gate linked to the massive power grid needed to power it.

Most of the group were escorted in one direction while Astarte and Karega went another way. They boarded the small cart that connected this facility to the one under OMU, and quietly waited as it made its way thought the small maintenance and power tunnel. Upon reaching the end of the line they then stepped off and boarded the elevator that would take them to the surface. Had this been a normal trip Astarte would have just boarded a shuttle just outside the smuggling warehouse, but for this meeting they had taken extra precautions to ensure that no one knew who was meeting who. A shuttle registered in her name entering and then leaving OMU would be noticed, especially given who was visiting the campus today.

The alarming report she had received from the Prime Minister required immediate attention, and there was only one way to get all the details she needed. At the top of the elevator, in the basement levels of the physics department, Prime Minister Leblanc’s personal aid was waiting for them. Her skin was the color of ebony, her curly black hair was cropped close to her scalp, and her eyebrows had a precise angle to them that implied hours of plucking. Everything about her appearance lent itself to the impression of competence and duty, while also somehow making her presence unobtrusive. She was the kind of person you would give your full attention in a conversation and then promptly ignore.

The name on her ID and web article listed her as Veronica Grace, an educated woman with degrees in political science and sociology from a middling influential family from Elysium. If Astarte looked hard enough she could see the barest hint of a resemblance between the women before her, and her loyal lieutenant Karega. She was a cousin of his, and she had been very close with his elder sister Kora growing up. Karega said Veronica was almost like a second sister to him. It had taken some convincing to get a man as powerful as Prime Minister Leblanc to accept some one from Astarte’s camp to join his staff. But Astarte had made a point of using Veronica as a go between, and Veronica herself had gone to great lengths to show her competence.

“Come this way, we have a short window in the Ministers inspection visit.” Veronica said promptly before turning to lead them down the hall. There was no time for pleasantries today, everything about this visit had been planned down to the minute to give Astarte as much face time with the Prime Minister as possible.

They followed her as she led them through the maze of hallways, cutting through the occasional empty lecture hall to avoid windows and cameras. There could be absolutely no evidence that Astarte was here, any potential chance for their relationship to be compromised could jeopardize everything. The Prime Minister meeting with someone deeply suspected of piracy would draw to much attention, and if they dug deep enough they would find that he had also been meeting with leaders of the terrorist group the Terran terrors. Or that he had arranged a deal with infamous New-Mombasa gang leader Saint Mary, Astarte’s adoptive mother.

In a matter of minutes they reached a wing of offices and Veronica opened the door just as Minster Leblanc closed the other. And already waiting in the room Aster saw a second familiar face, Kora, Karega’s older sister. Veronica had likely smuggled her in just before she went off to retrieve Astarte. Kora glanced to Aster and gave the barest hint of nod before giving her brother a kind smile.

Astarte and Kora hadn’t gotten off on the right foot, what with her kidnaping her brother and trying to ransom him off. Their parents had been killed off in a competitors bid for power just as Kora was entering adulthood, leaving her with a struggling multi-billion credit company and a younger brother to raise. She hadn’t trusted Astarte at first, but after working together for close to a decade she had slowly put the past behind them, but that didn’t make them friends. In fact if it weren’t for Astarte’s connections and experience Kora might have tried to cut her out of her own fleet.

In her younger days Kora made some friends within the Revitalist party, and as her company began to flourish with the growth of the Hellworlder fleet she took a more direct role in the party’s affairs. Now she was a member of the Martian parliament and the head of the party. Which was another reason they went to such lengths to hide their meeting. Meeting with pirates was a scandal, meeting with the leader of your opposition was open betrayal.

They didn’t waste any time with pleasantries and immediately got down to business.

“How are things on Pandemonium?” he asked, directing his sharp gaze to Astarte and Karega’s side of the table.

“Well” Aster answered promptly. “We’ve hashed out a deal with the Kunan’ai, they’re going to lend their expertise in the Obama project. Mining, farming, and manufacturing is on track, and we’ll be able to start stockpiling weapons and construction material within the next year. One third of the newly ordered ships have been completed and their crews are currently on the first trial runs. Marshal Penton is fulfilling his end of the bargain and we expect the first Hellhawk prototype within a half year.”

Leblanc nodded; he didn’t receive any of the regular reports Astarte did so as not to raise suspicions. Astarte could have lied and said they were ready to wipe the floor with the Union and he would have to take her word. Of course, that was assuming he didn’t have some spies reporting to him. Access to Pandemonium was tightly controlled, but half of that control came from Leblanc’s side of the gateway.

“That’s good, the sector governor recently sent me a warning that a major naval shipyard was attacked in Wrethren, was that you?”

“Yes, the new king of the pirates is on a crusade in Wrethren, we thought it best to turn our two greatest threats against each other” Technically it had been Lucille’s decision to attack that base, and didn’t confirm with the rest of the fleet. But Astarte didn’t want to give Leblanc the impression that they weren’t one cohesive unit.

“And the increase in Orion piracy?” he asked.

The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

That one had been Astarte’s order. The clash between the Draxori and a Union patrol fleet had forced Tharadun’s to pull his forces back. And with the chaos in Wrethren, the physically closest sector to Orion and also the largest sector linked to Orion through gate travel, Astarte had seen an opportunity. Previous hyperlane privateering had been focused on hit and run attacks, with the sole goal of stealing the cargo. But now that the Union naval presence in Orion had been weakened she ordered a change of tactics. Now her raider groups were focused on attacks that would critically weaken Union stations, standard rations, industrial goods, and munitions. Her ships were under orders to board and seize the ship whenever it was possible, or outright sink the vessel if they couldn’t. They had previously allowed the freighters and crew to escape their runs mostly intact, this allowed for more opportunities to steal their cargo out in open space. But now Astarte wanted to put pressure on all the supply routes while she refurbished the stolen ships to take their place.

“That is also us, expect shortages pretty soon. We’re trying to leave the Sol routes alone, but they might pull ships out of the sector entirely to save on costs.”

“A strain on daily goods might work to my favor” Kora said, speaking up for the first time in their meeting. “The pro-Union party has always supported Union imports for daily goods, a shortage in those might give us a boost in popularity. Especially if I make an open challenge on our import reliance.”

Minister Leblanc shifted his gaze to Kora and nodded. Astarte always wondered how he plot the downfall of everything he’s worked for with such cold indifference. He had been groomed to take his father’s place as Prime minister from the moment he was born, but that didn’t mean any of it came easily. A quick glance through Leblanc’s personal history and Aster saw the tale of a talented young man who put his nose to the grindstone to rise as far as he had. It took a special sort of person to stop and objectively decide that everything he has ever wanted was wrong, and instead work to destroy it all.

“That brings us to the topic at hand” he said calmly, his voice was smooth and husky like a fine rum. “What happened to the special package?”

Kora looked uncertain “We’re not entirely sure, according to Equara our special order was built and sent out as planned, but somewhere during the transit the transport was attacked by pirates and the Terraforming was stolen.”

Astarte raised an eyebrow at that “We’re assuming that’s bullshit, right?”

Kora turned a disdainful look on Aster “I don’t know, as our resident expert on piracy can you verify that it wasn’t stolen?” she asked venomously.

Karega cleared his throat and interceded. Kora could respect Astarte as a businesswomen and a capable commander, but she would never truly respect Astarte’s lowly origins. Even though it was her prior experience serving as Greyson’s second in command that had gotten them this far. “It sounds highly unlikely. We paid extra to have Equara use an armed escort, there would have been enough weapons on hand to scare off any two-bit thug with a gun strapped to their private transport. Not only that but there’s no money in stealing Terraforming equipment.”

Leblanc leaned in “If I recall, we spent a hefty sum on that equipment. Nearly half of Mar’s annual GDP.”

“Right” Astarte said seizing on the opportunity, “But spending a lot of credits doesn’t mean its worth a lot of credits. Tech like that is custom built and highly specialized, it can only be used for the one planet, and it can’t be altered. Otherwise we would have skipped the middle man and stolen a set of our own.”

“Exactly” Karega agreed “We had plans to attack one of Equara’s facilities to steal the base components and try to figure out the rest for ourselves. But stealing the final product is pointless unless you also plan on using it for that one specific planet. And I doubt that any one else really plans on fixing Earth’s declining climate themselves.”

Well, Astarte wasn’t to sure on that front. She thought of Domnall’s whispered promise back on the pirate capital, “We still have much to do before we can make the Union pay for what they did to Earth.” Domnall obviously knew about the Union insidious attack and planned to get revenge. It wasn’t too hard to imagine that he might also want to save the Earth while also taking matters into his own hands. But Astarte kept that to herself. She instead asked “Didn’t we have insurance?”

Kora nodded “We did, and as soon as Equara reported the theft they launched an investigation. However I recently received word that the whole company was slaughtered. I couldn’t learn much, but apparently someone or something had massacred the whole office.”

“Massacre, on Unity?” Astarte asked before she could stop herself.

Kora nodded “Yes, and since the insurance company was completely wiped out our claim is currently on hold. The parent company assured me that they would take up the slack, but by that time the elections will have come and gone.”

“And the trail would go cold” Karega said gravely.

Astarte drummed her fingers. “This all sounds shady as fuck. At this point I think what we need is a beach head.”

Karega gave her an incredulous look “Do we really need to go that far? A beach head on Femeri is one thing, but this is Unity we’re talking about. The population on that station alone outnumber the entire population of Sol, and it dwarfs the whole GDP of Orion by several orders of magnitude. That kind of operation could draw a lot of attention to our operation.”

Leblanc raised an eyebrow “Anyone care to inform me what a ‘beach head operation’ is?”

Aster turned to the Prime minister “Put bluntly, it’s a legal bitch slap followed by a legal gangbang.”

Leblanc blinked in surprise, the first crack in his stoic expression Astarte had seen all day.

Karega grimaced “What she means is that we send one of our ships in and issue a formal lawsuit. And as one suit begins two more ships pull in to issue more suits for other issues. Its what we did on Femeri when the previous Chief of Station Security impounded the Astaroth. We drowned them in lawsuits until they just started throwing money at us to leave them be.”

Leblanc nodded and turned to Astarte “And you believe this is the best course of action?” his tone was neutral, but Astarte detected a hint of condescension in his body language.

“Not that exactly, but it’s pretty apparent that someone on Unity doesn’t want us to look into the disappearance, and they’ll go to some pretty extreme means of deterrence. After what they did to the last insurance claims investigator I’m almost certain that no one else will take our case. Which means we need to take this into our own hands, and the benefit of pulling a warship into Unity is that we can ensure our lawyers safety. I’d like to see that asshole try to massacre a ship of Hellworld marines.”

“I take it from your tone you intend to personally handle this.”

“Half measures wont get the job done. Like Kar said, Unity is one of the largest and most influential stations in the Union. A suitably determined enemy could brush aside any lesser ship we send, but the Astaroth is a different matter. And as I said, this will be a beach head operation. We’ll act as the first wave, and our reinforcements can act as the second and third. How long until Lucifer and Beelzebub return?” she directed this last question to Karega.

“Two, maybe three months.”

“And the repairs will be done in one, With another month for travel time. Should be enough to get our bearing and feel out the local scene.”

Kora looked irritated “Let me get this straight, your plan is to sail your newly rebuilt ship into the heart of the Union, and have the rest of your pirate fleet follow you.”

“Yes.”

“That is stupid on so many levels.” Kora rebuked.

Aster shrugged “Tell me, can you really win without that terraforming tech, or did I spend billions of credits on something useless.” Kora said nothing and glanced down. “Thought so, and unless you can think of a better idea I’m afraid we’re all out of options.”

Leblanc looked thoughtful “You said that you intend to bring Astaroth, Lucifer, and the Beelzebub. Why only those three?”

“We can’t really spare any others. Things in Orion have reached a point that our Archdevil class ships can’t really do anything the rest of the fleet can’t. We sent first fleet to the Bedona conflict because they weren’t any use here, same with the Wrethren expedition.”

“And the Asmodeus?”

“That’s complicated. It’s a mixed ship, it has both Torweni crew and Terran, and is serving as the Torweni’s primary training ship as they get their own forces off world. They’ve already got two destroyers, with more on the way. Taking the Asmodeus could put a strain on our alliance, plus we need to leave at least one Cruiser in Orion.”

Leblanc nodded before glancing down at his wristwatch, an old fashioned model with a real mechanical clock face. “Unless anything else comes along to change things I believe you have your marching orders. Make it happen.” He said before standing to leave the small office room.

The moment Veronica closed the door Kora fixed her eyes on Karega “Are you certain this is the safest plan?”

He snorted “Safest, no. But it is the best plan we have at our disposal.”

Her eyes stared at her feet for a minute before she turned them back to Astarte “Then make sure that whatever trouble you cause you keep my brother safe.” She commanded.

Astarte’s ego writhed at the direct challenge, but she held back whatever venomous retort she was about to spit. Instead she reminded herself to see things from Kora’s position, the only family she had left was about to fly into the heart of enemy territory, with an admittedly less than trustworthy space pirate. She was just nervous. “Kora, I take the safety of my crew with the utmost care. But not everything goes to plan.”

Kora stood. “yes, but I know your plans often involve needless personal risk, keep my brother out of those.” And with that she turned her back on Astarte and strode out of the room.