“Yep its your ol pal Frank, lets get your squad of boys in the shadows to take care of these scum before we get to what we really came here for, sound good Beerman?”
“I have not heard than name in a long while, Frank.”
“Yeah, I am honestly surprised that you lasted this long. Then again that is why the Cap’n loved you androids so much. Never forget a debt wasn’t it?”
“Aye that was, nay, is one of my peoples core beliefs. Now what are you really here for?”
“Well, we need to get into the Base. we only have a lil while before the local crime lords and the system defense forces realize our ship is definitely not a freighter.”
“OK, follow me to the back I will send you down in a jiffy. By the way, you do know that you will also be facing some hooligans Ire, they wont be happy that they were shown up. Even with the decline of influence, and partial fall of the Order of Immortals in this area there are certain aspects that still retain their hold on these men, such as the Don's code of Honor when interacting with each others ships.”
“It is a shame regarding the Order, The Cap‘n really liked this one. If nothing else I guess it is about time to make ourselves known to the Galaxy, regardless lead on lets get this done.”
As Beerman Lead the four through the hive of backrooms and hidden chambers into the base itself on another part of the star system an equally important conversation was going on.
On the bridge of an Athena class cruiser hiding in the outer edge of the Naraku system
“Comm.'s man report.”
“Aye Don, sir, unidentified signal coming from an area closer to the spirals' center, sent under the ‘code blue’ caching encryption.”
“Open it quick you fool, that is an urgent message.”
“Aye sir, routing the QCA, aligning coordinate shift vectors, running caching type decryption, and you are good to go.”
“it is about time you finally picked up.” a disembodied voice echoes through the machine
“Master, this one humbly greets you and apologizes, I was just conversing with some of the other more local Dons.”
“Hahahaha, don’t worry about that I am just messing with you. However the Order is in need of your and the local Dons assistance.”
“We live to serve the order, what is it which you need my lord?”
“The founders have awakened and we believe them to be in your star system, you and the other Dons loyal to the Society must quickly gather and get to them in case something happens. then once you have made contact you will have to route me through your QCA, to theirs since I have been unable to make contact. Provide them with any and all assistance required, If it comes down to your life, well I hope you know what you must do.”
“ This Life of mine, and my families would not currently exists without your and the Orders' constant help. I would give it proudly an honorably!!”
“Good, remember those words well. We believe their ships is currently docked on the 4th planet of the Naraku system due to their beacon's signal. Now enough dallying about, move quickly and gather support, the dragon has awoken and it will be moving in interesting ways soon. Hahahahahaha, I haven’t been this excited since that war with the United Underworld. I would advise you to tell your crews to assemble off Naraku 4’s 3rd moon, Cartagena. The Debris fields would be beneficial defensive point and our outpost there is well stocked. I would also advise having Don MacDonald’s men join yours since your other ships are busy with business and will take a little while to assemble. Those are merely suggestions though, otherwise Don Lean you are dismissed go complete these quests for the order.”
“I hear and obey master, I will do as you advise and move quickly, Comm.‘s man end transmission.”
“Aye sir. Do you want me to send a message to Mr. MacDonald on his Zeus, the Bone Ghost?”
“Aye send him the following message on an encrypted channel before he leaves the system. The Order is calling, have fleet fall in on me and set course lock on my trajectory, we move in ten minutes. The council is alive. End message,
Helmsman set the course for 135° relative on the horizontal, -68° relative on the vertical, downward spiral revolution of 1 in 9 as course being executed. Execute in exactly 12 minutes we have places to be and I doubt Don Mac will miss this opportunity to show his gratitude. Speed will be set for 2/5ths light minutes so start prepping the engines.”
“Excuse me sir may I say something?”
“Go ahead helmsman.”
“I have an objection. It is suicide, going at such speed inside a star system, we hit a single bit of debris…”
“Objection noted, defense officer ensure the new hard light shield we received from the order are focused on the bow in a conical shape and have it set to block all debris that would hit Mac’s ships.”
““Aye Sir.”” the crew says, as the Helmsman asks “Will it be enough” hesitatingly.
“Yea Son, it will do hella fine.” The defense officers, a one-eyed grizzled veteran of many campaigns responds with a grin, as he thinks to himself ‘this will be one interesting ride.’
Elsewhere in the system, on Naraku 2 in the N.I.D.F. HQ (Naraku Inter-Planetary Defense Fleet) A heated conversation was taking place.
“Commandant, Please I am begging you to let me bag these guys. I mean look at these reports there is no way in ever living hell that this ship is a freighter. Look at it, it is 4 bloody times the size of any freighter on record, besides look at those weapons. Freighter my Bloody arse.”
* Sigh “Do you have anything to add to the 4th fleet admirals rant Assistant Commandant, Admirals??”
The one who was addressed as Assistant commandant raises his hand and says “Permission to speak freely suh?”
“Go ahead Halsey.”
“Well the 4th admiral has a good point but due to our agreements with the local Dons we cant touch them until they give us ‘probable cause’. Besides if this ship really is carrying anti matter as they say and we disturb it in our search then we are looking at one hell of an explosion. Which might I add we don’t have the resources to deal with. Some of the local gangs are probing about at it our request, we should hear back in a few minutes the only real reason we could nail them with the support of all parties if they violate Haven which is where they were supposedly heading.”
“Gragh, but think of the gains that could be made. If we were to add such a ship to our forces those damn units at the Es-cu-Al system would think twice before overstepping their bounds.” the 4th admiral growls as the other admirals at the table make sounds in affirmation
Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.
“If this ship is as powerful as you think” the commandant says signaling for the admirals to quite down “What makes you think we can even capture it in the first place. Mull over that for me would you as we await our reports.”
Suddenly a man bursts in “Commandant, Sir’s, urgent word has come in from the Probes about that ship.”
“ I will ignore your breach of conduct ensign due to the importance of this Intel.” The Commandant says “Now report.”
“Aye Commandant. The crew members of the ship that came ashore and headed to haven,... well sir’s, they violated Haven.”
““““WHAT???””””
“Yes Sir’s, one of the men who we were having give information claims that the newcomers threw the first blow before leaving with Beerman into some of the back rooms.”
The entire group of officers fall silent in shock that there were people who would so boldly violate the rules of Haven.
“Very well, we must move quickly, not even those fools from Es-cu-Al are so bold. This is a matter of dignity, Haven is a historic landmark, more treaties and accords have been signed there than the planetary governmental offices have ever even seen. 1st and 4th fleet admirals move out intercept them once they leave the planets orbit. Defense System admiral, once they leave ensure they cant try to flee back into orbit. 2nd and 3rd admirals you will run interference stop outside sources from interfering and standby to assist. 5th and 6th will remain on standard patrol routes to maintain order throughout the system, preferably one of you ensure The outer planets such as Naraku 13 and 15 maintain motionless, those loyalists would leap at this opportunity to undermine our power as an independent system.” The Commandant orders.
“Umm Commandant?”
“Yes ensign, you are dismissed if there is nothing else.”
“Well there is something,” the ensign says nervously “Many of the smaller Crime lords are offering assistance in the subduing of this ship hoping to curry favor with the major Dons’ since they still don’t know about this incident.”
“How would they not know? their Intel ops are greater than ours by far.” the 4th admiral inquires
“I do not know sir I am just reporting what I was told. That is all sirs I will take my leave now.” the ensign salutes turns and leaves the room.
“Well gents” the commandant address the other officers with, “It is your call as to the level of involvement you wish them to have. If there is nothing else you have received your orders and are dismissed, remember though to be cautious we have no idea as to the power this ship possesses and we do not want to have any unnatural incidents of any sort. Especially not this close to the systems annual budget meeting, Now Move Out.”
“““““Aye Sir!!!”””””
As the officers leave the commandant turns to his assistant and asks him “tell me Halsey on a scale of 1 to 10 how screwed are they?”
“Depends sir, they are friends with Beerman, allowed into the backrooms of Haven, and have a ship that has more guns than the total volume of our largest vessel, and are even able to resist the most advanced scanners we have available. I would say a 9 if they are friends with haven, maybe a 6 if not.”
“So regardless of what we do it wont look good to the ruling committee, or the Dons. If only those admirals realized this, my power is waning... If I did not give them the go ahead much more drastic measures would have been taken. At least this way civilians casualties will be minimized and we wont collapse, even when the royalists begin to consolidate power here, we can continue to protect the citizenry.”
“But sir what about Haven, and the royalists?”
“Hahaha, if the royalists are foolish enough to even attempt to mess with Haven this system would do an immediate 360 back to independence. Haven has saved the citizenry, and halted the collapse of the system, and it's neighbors more than once. Only a fool would mess with it, such as our large visitors. Haven will be here long after we are dead and gone.”
“I Understand now sir, thank you for opening my eyes.”
“Go ahead and alert all major medical facilities that they may be needing to stand at red alert for when this goes south, also get all first responding EMS and rescue unit on standby as well. When it goes south it will do so in a large way. Dismissed Halsey.”
“Aye Sir.”
Back in the warren of rooms that existed inside and under Haven, Beerman lead the crew along.
“You guys do know that the room has been sealed for 8,000 years, might be a bit of a pressure differential” Beerman says as he leads them to an elevator.
“What does that mean?” the princess asked Bryan as they continued walking.
“Well It is either going to have explosive power, or extreme suction depends on how large of an atmospheric pressure has changed, and seeing as to how this planets Population has changed to such extremes it shouldn’t be at a lethal level.” Bryan says as they continue walking.
“there is an internal pressure gauge we can check before we try and bust in. Scarlet will be able to read it form outside, we just have to get in range for her to begin though, that is one of the few things that can be read from outside without a full AI.” Frank says, not even turning to look behind.
“Here we are, can she check now or do we have to wait to get down there?” Beerman said looking at Frank before he even attempts to touch the controls for the elevator.
“We can check it here, Scarlet go on in.”
“Aye skipper, checking differential, running data alongside with samples from the ship, and… WoW.”
“What do we got Scarlet?”
“Well Frank, You are going to want to stand Far away when that door gets opened.”
“Pos or Neg Scarlet, and how many PSI?
“Positive, huge Positive Skipper, probably do to the space traffic constantly weakening the atmosphere we are looking at 800 psi.”
“All right, well then Bryan, I know you brought something for defense after I told you no heavy, what you got?”
“First Frank, Promise you wont get after me.”
“Fine, so what we got Bryan?”
“I brought 3 Hard light dome shields, we could deploy one in the hall, remote open the door and that will keep it from wounding us.”
“Good, everyone step aside, when I give the word open it up Scarlet,”
“Aye Sir” she replies as everyone quickly steps away from the door and into the hall.
“Activate shield”
“Yes Frank,… Activated.”
“Everyone cover ears, and whatever you do, do not clench your teeth, Scarlet open doors on 3 . 1. 2. 3.”
As the door open the rushing air explodes outward for a solid minute and a half. Slowly it peters out into a slight breeze.
“Alright, cut the bubble lets go in. Bryan go ahead and tell your men to stand guard outside the warren and have them radio us if they get any info from the ship. Now Henry, Samantha watch yourselves, there MIGHT be traps once we get to the bottom of this shaft, scarlet will deactivate them so don’t go wandering too far off. Lets go”
“““Aye Skipper”””
They say as they step into the elevator.
“Beerman you coming?”
“No, Bryan I am going to stay here I imagine there will be some people ready to cause trouble due to your appearance and actions in the bar. Let me get a hold of some guys and see what’s up, HAhahahaha. Never underestimate the info network of a guy who works at a bar.”
“Good luck, see ya in a bit then.”
Beerman turns and leaves the room as the other ride the elevator down, in less than 30 seconds the elevator stops.
“That was fast is their a problem or something?”
“Naw Princess” Frank replies “ It was only bout 5 kilim, nothing to far nor fast.”
“In 30 seconds???” Henry says with a look of shock on his face.
“Yeah, now enough of this. Scarlet access ships security measures deactivate the traps and light up the path to the bridge please, also have the kernel ready for extraction.”
“On it, and done follow the path it should only be a minute before the kernel is ready, and there is an encrypted data package marked urgent pickup, I cant decode it, it seems to be hard data, but I can add it to the kernel package.”
“Good” Lets go get it and get out,... wait who is the message from?”
“Well Frank, ummmm, Quantum…”
“Make it Fast Scarlet, Lets go guys we need to get that to the ship NOW!”
“Who is Quantum?” Henry asks as the 4 sprint down the twisting hall way.
“That the Captain’s call sign, anything hard data and encrypted like this from him is important.” Bryan responds as they reach the bridge.
“IS the Packet ready scarlet.” Frank asks quickly reaching the command console.
“Yep and here it is.” she says as a small cylindrical crystal emerges from the console, along with a small square piece of plastic. Frank quickly grabs and stows the items in his robe.
“Frank got some bad news from the ship, lots of activity around it and a bunch of ships are amassing in the atmosphere, they seem ready to rock out, Hardcore. And some odd movement on the 3rd moon but nothing too odd just yet.”
“Right then lets make like tree and get the hell back to the ship. Bryan, Tell Beerman to send any info he has to our ship on the standard encryption channel, if he has any advice or assistance they can contact us the same way since we might not have time to chat. Also tell the guys that if anyone gets too close to the ship to hold position and don’t fire first.”
“Roger Frank, I’ll let em know that we be moving.” Bryan said as they jog back to the elevator rode it up to the surface and
Quickly left the bar nodding to Beerman as they left.
They had their squad follow them back to the ship, when they got to the station they found a mob of the scum of society fully armed blockading the station, and even further more surrounding the ship. Fully armed yet no one was making a move all were staring at the ship’s main doors ready to open fire upon the slightest movement.
“Pst.. pppssst... Hey Frank? Can I please get the tank out now?? Pretty please with sprinkles on top???”
“Fuck it, go for it Bryan. It is the fastest way to get back into the ship, and we need to decrypt this message, and run this 4 inch Floppy. And before you even ask I am not going to put money down on your bet.”
“Come on Frank, not even 20, Chits?”
“Not jack shit.”
“Fine Frank whatever you say. Knightstalker Bridge, I know you are there Ghost, this is Deck Officer, Agent Bryan Arkanis. Call sign verification code Ladies Man, Requesting Heavy support 1 deployable Heavy Battle tank. How copy, over?”