Schemes

Sk’tharc flapped gracefully up to Kazlum’s side and bowed respectfully. “My lord, we have noticed movement on the Hellworlders side of things. I think they are plotting something.”

“That is to be expected” Kazlum said bored as he watched the scene below him. He had purchased a few healthy-looking slaves and set them loose in a pit to be preyed upon by some of his favorite pets. Their screams and pleas were satisfying to his ears. “Who have they contacted?”

Sk’tharc ruffled her feathers “Everyone, even our own council men”

This peaked his interest, he turned one of his eyes to face her “Have you spoken with them?”

“Yes, they assure me that they weren’t swayed the least by what the Hellworlders had to say. But my spies have noticed some unusual ‘gifts’ being wired to their accounts, and Kiret disappeared for a couple of hours last night and was unable to account for the missing time. He says that he can’t remember where he went, but I believe he is lying.”

Kazlum turned his attention back to the pit below as he pondered what this meant, only one slave remained. A filthy and haggard human man, he stared down the remaining beasts and clutched the broken bone he had used to slay Kazlum’s other pets. The man let out a roar and rushed the remaining beasts.

“Have Keret and Bekki replaced, it doesn’t matter whether the Hellworlders were able to make them turn traitor or not. They are replaceable and any attempt to turn my own tools against me should be treated as an insult. Who is in line to replace them?”

“The humans Riley and Cassady, the gifts you received from Domnall. But I fear that using them in this particular case might be against our best interests.”

Kazlum chuckled “Do not concern yourself with him, Domnall is a small fish in a big pond. He may have established his own little dominion over the Great Hollow, but he is little more than an old man desperately trying to hold together what little power and control he has. He exists only at my behest, if I had wanted I could have had him dealt with, and he knows this. He will be a useful tool in my new regime ”

“As you wish” she said softly.

There was a roar from the ring below as the human pushed his makeshift bone spear into the chitinous armor and into the creatures brain. It pulled its spear out of the dead creature and turned towards Kazlum, the human bent back and did a strange twisting motion as it launched the fragmented bone across the arena. The bone spear landed in the center of Kazlum’s chest, and the pitiful little creature had the gall to look smug.

Kazlum let out a huff as he rose from his throne and leapt high into the air to land before the little human who didn’t even reach as far as his knee. The humans eyes widened, and it tried to leap through the gap in between Kazlum’s legs to get behind him. But before he had even taken a single step Kazlum’s tentacles shot down and wrapped around the little creature and lifted it off the ground to bring it up to his eyes

“You know” Kazlum said softly, his words dripping with cold menace “I would have let you live to fight in my pit another day, I may have even given you some females as a prize for you continued existence”

The man struggled and looked Kazlum head on “Go feck yerself, ya big ugly fucker. I won’t be your pet!” and spit in Kazlum’s face.

Kazlum didn’t give the spiteful little creature another second of life, he lifted the human to his head and brought the creature to his toothy maw and bit its head off. He did it all so fast that the man didn’t even have time to scream. He tossed the body to the side of the pit with disdain as he walked back over to Sk’tharc. He had been trying to break a human for a while now, they could have been the perfect replacement for Ah’ared and his ilk. But they seemed far too spiteful to properly tame

“Have the Hellworlders made any other moves worth noting?” he asked as the teeth within his throat shredded the head apart before swallowing it.

“Yes, that troublesome woman had a meeting with the king” her tone dripped with disdain at that last word.

“I see, so X‘thar has grown tired of life and is ready for me to kill him?” Kazlum asked wryly.

Sk’tharc trilled “Yes, I even had a coffin large enough to fit his wrinkled hide made.”

“Don’t bother, when I’m done with him there won’t be anything left to burry. Contact that idiotic Kruhur Vicar, I will give them one last chance to raid the capital. This time we will personally ensure that they will get through the defenses. It is time for me to finally ascend to the throne of this ridiculous confederacy.”

And after that Kazlum would return to Draxar and reclaim his throne and subjugate the rest of his brethren to be the generals and admirals in his fleet as he began a new conquest of the core worlds. Soon he would begin a new era of Aunviry rule in this galaxy.

~~~*~~~

Three weeks of endless meeting and maneuvering had left Astarte feeling drained. The ships lawyers have been pouring over the thousand years of legal precedent and obscure rulings made by long dead kings. They had presented her with so many loopholes that Aster wondered how the confederacy had managed to not collapse under their own broken system. There were some obscure rulings that had her head spinning from how absolutely ridiculously specific and contradictory they were.

If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

But soon they would be able to lay this grudge to rest and then they could return their ships to making money, they may even plunder enough loot from the Aunviry that they press forward with the next stage of their plans.

The Bedona conflict was supposed to be their cash cow, allowing their fleets to gain experience while also bringing in tons of money in the process. Creating the second fleet, expanding her business’, and pumping new wealth and growth into Pandemonium, all rode on the success of that expedition. This three-month long excursion to the capital was losing them a lot of money, and since the crews were usually paid after every successful job Aster had to break open their emergency funds to start paying everyone a monthly salary while they were stuck in port to prevent any loss in morale. But soon it would all be worth it.

She knew that winning this battle would be costly, but the price of victory was too sweet to turn back on.

Aster stepped into the yard house for their last meeting before shit hit the fan, all her fellow captains were already seated around the table.

Her mother cleared her throat “Now that we are all here let us begin. Captain Bell if you’d please”

Bell stood “Right, things have gone as we expected for the most part, with the exception of the unexpected disappearance of Bekki and Keret, Kazlum’s council representatives.”

“Do we have any idea what happened to them?” Aster asked.

“Potentially, it appears that Kazlum may have decided to eliminate them for some reason we are currently unaware of. He has replaced them with two humans, a pair of thugs by the name of Riley O’kenedy and Cassady Donegan.”

“Sounds Irish, think Domnall is trying to play an angle of his own?” Aster asked to the table.

“No way of knowing” Her mother said grimly. “To be honest we have no choice but to trust Domnall. But if Domnall betrays us I can have Metallika and her squad execute him.”

“How, that bar of his is a fortress?” Aster asked bewilderedly, she had been thinking of the issue herself.

“No amount of hired muscle and armed thugs could ever hold up against a low yield tactical nuke.” Her mother said bluntly.

“You want to nuke the capital!” Modius exclaimed.

Her mother grinned wolfishly “Just a small one, it would only be enough to wipe out the Great Hollow market and depressurize about a fifth of the capital.”

“That would put us into a war against every pirate in the galaxy” he countered.

“If Domnall betrays us then we already as fucked as we’re gonna get. This is just an assurance against that.”

Aster sighed “Mutually assured destruction on a pirate station against the Irish mob while we try to take down a dangerous crew of space monsters, when did our lives get so complicated.”

“To be fair” Bell said “this whole crazy adventure of piracy and secret colonization was your idea Aster”

“I know, I just never expected things to spiral out of control so quickly. Oh well, what’s done is done.”

Bell gave her a soft reassuring smile “Well assuming Domnall doesn’t betray us, what’s the plan?”

“We can only wait for the king to make his move” Aster said as she sat straighter, her earlier melancholy gone. “I am pretty confident that he will have no choice but to attempt something after, or during our trial while all the council men are still assembled. After he presents the evidence Domnall provided there will be a vote, we will need 2/3 majority if we want Kazlum and his filth expelled from the confederacy. After that we will have to act fast, the fleet needs to stand at high alert and deploy the moment they get the news, all marines will be left ashore to begin hostile boarding ops on as many Aunviry ships as they can. A special team will be with me at the trial ready to try and kill Kazlum, we will have some of the virtues in cloaked EVA suited to sabotage the Igrathoth and keep it from detaching from the capital. After that it’s a hack and slash job.”

Modius chuckled “Have any of you guys ever noticed that most of your plans boil down to ‘overwhelming violence’” he said wryly.

“Is there any other way to do things” Aster and her mother said at the exact same time. There were amused grins and short laughs around the table from the other assembled captains in response.

They hours hammering out the finer details and only broke after everything had been planned out down to the ammo load-out for the marines. Modius caught Aster’s eye towards the end of the meeting, and she followed him out to a catwalk that overlooked all their ships, the crew of the Astaroth and the Beelzebub were tossing a volleyball across the empty space in between the two ships. Whenever a ball fell to the ground far below the two ships they all groaned and retrieved a new ball. Astarte had no idea what the rules to the game were or if there even were any, but they all seemed to be enjoying the exercise and lighthearted competition. Maybe she should look into starting ship football teams, or maybe basketball.

“It’s really interesting to see how easily they amuse themselves” Modius commented dryly.

“We ordered everyone to stay in the hanger during this last week, at least they took down the rope swing they had rigged to the gantry.”

“Only after someone broke their leg”

“Bones was so pissed, it’s been fun to watch her slowly lose her professional patience with us. She’s so gruff and grumpy with her patients she’s like a little purple Bachir.” Aster chuckled.

Modius’ smile faded “That’s why I asked you over here. That elite team of marines, does it include Alwen”

Her own smile faded “It does, she personally asked to be there.”

“Is there any way I can convince you to put her somewhere safer.”

“No. She needs this”

He sighed “do you think she’s ready?”

“As Ready as she’ll get, Gato and Alice assure me that she can handle herself, and we have already finished making some armor in her size. You have no reason to worry”

“I her brother, its my job to worry about her safety.” He countered with an exasperated tone.

“You should also trust that she knows what she’s doing. She’s seen all of this before and she is choosing to come back to it, have a little faith” She said with a smile as she rested an arm around him.

He leaned into her embrace, and they just sat there watching the strange game before them. Both knowing that they would be facing death and impossible odds tomorrow.

~~~*~~~

Domnall looked over the last report of the night, his scouts had sighted four unknown figures in samurai armor and wolf pelts enter the Great Hollow market before disappearing without a trace. He knew who they served, and he knew that they had only let themselves be seen. They were the girls means of assuring his cooperation and loyalty, knowing them they were likely carrying a nuclear warhead with orders to set it off if he tried anything.

She was a tricky girl to deal with, and if he was being honest with himself he had dangerously underestimated her. When he first met her standing by that bastards side he didn’t pay her any heed, and when Greyson let his infidelity slip he had considered killing the little whore. But I t was like she said, he knew that was what Greyson wanted him to kill her, so he chose to let her live. In turn she had destroyed the fleet and clan he and his three brothers spent decades building from scratch, and in their place she had taken over Orion so thoroughly that he had to give up on ever reclaiming what he lost.

He had spent decades to get this far, and out of his mothers four sons, only he remained. His younger brothers had all been lost along their long path from that little flooded coastal town to where he stood now. Ian had died shortly after their first run at piracy, they had let the crew leave with their lives and they led the Union police right back to them. Ian was killed by a Union officer and James lost his leg to plasma fire. After that they became far more ruthless, because being kind only brought more trouble. A rival gang Domnall was trying to make peace with ambushed Sean and his lovely fiancé, and after that Domnall swore that he would give his enemies no mercy. James was the youngest of the four and he survived just as many dangers as Domnall, by the end of it all, his final remaining brother had his innocence stripped away and Domnall had to put him down like a mad dog before he went too far. They had all made an oath by their mothers grave long ago to stay good, honest, Catholic men, and of those three Domnall had only maintained the last part. Even after all he had done he still prayed for the souls of his mother and brothers, he knew there would be no place for him in heaven after what he had done. But maybe God would favor his brothers with peace if all his plans came to fruition.

Soon a lifetime of schemes and bloody sacrifices would finally be worth something, he just had to make sure that devil girl didn’t get in his way.