by Jay Toney
"We suspected as much. We have been secretly building our fleet. Our recent problems with the Keshian have set us back some, but the Iniguar have always been good allies and friends of the Vorg. They will help us to upgrade our ships, and prepare for the upcoming war. But what of you?"
"We have to keep running, carefully choosing our battles. We are being hunted by the Alliance. When they hear of the loss of the Ajax and Admiral Thornton, they will at the least double their efforts in locating us. Our travels will shortly take us spinward, along the fringe systems."
"Let us at least gift you in what aid we can. Our race were once great explorers, before settling down in our own space. The least we can do is provide you with a gift of our astrogation data. It may prove helpful."
Stella made a call to the station offices, and the files were downloaded to Persephone's navigation computers. "While you are here, you are all welcome as our guests. We will service your ships and waive all docking fees for as long as you care to stay."
"Thank you Stella."
"Persephone, start rotating the crew for in one week rotations. Make sure that our Iniguar officers get to take full advantage of their time. List our silver for sale at 85 credits per ounce by the pallet."
"Yes Captain."
I activated my comp, looking at what was open for trade, and replenished our fruits, vegetables, and staples. After finishing my ordering, I joined my wives. We boarded the Vorg space station, and were soon lost in its sights and sounds.
Spicer
After three weeks of celebration after celebration, it was time to leave. My Vorg pilots were so hung over, it would take a week to get them sober again. We sold 37 pallets of silver, bringing our inventory down to 110 pallets. We had more space now to work on and around our Vipers. I'd be glad when we got rid of it all. I had more credits than I knew what to do with now. I paid the crew their shares of the booty. I was already getting complaints from them about overpaying them.
They had no idea what to do with all of their credits. A good portion of it either went to the Lucy, or Sally's entertainers. The entertainers formally working for Sally, were now mine. I had 20 of them to keep our crew happy, and they were in high demand. Half of what they collected came back to our pursers office. It was a pay up front service, no credit allowed. With what I was paying the crew, there were no problems with the system. They had little else to spend their credits on.
We traveled out system for about an hour before making our jump. The new hyperdrive was working as advertised, but I would test it gradually moving closer to planetary bodies. It cut off over seven hours of travel time with that jump. With this new system, I would have to determine what was an appropriate distance for jumping. I didn't feel that jumping from just outside of space dock was appropriate, but I probably could if I had to.
We came out of hyperspace in the Spicer System. The system had a red dwarf sun, and seven planets. Our course had us approaching the second planet. This Vorg planet was unique in amongst the Vorg. Most Vorg maintained some type of military presence, Spicer didn't. They were a group that was totally dedicated to peace. They didn't even exchange the insults commonly given in greeting.
"Captain, I'm picking up a fleet of war ships orbiting the second planet. The fleet consists of a cruiser, two destroyers, two frigates, and several gunboats," Amber reported.
"Captain, they are Crimson Tide," Jewel added.
"Jane raise our shields."
"Amber, bring up our ECM and PDC."
"Jewel, sound battle stations."
"Natty, maintain cruise speed, lets not give away our speed yet."
"We are being hailed Captain." Jewel put the Crimson Tide commander on screen.
"Captain Roberts, The Alliance has placed an enormous bounty on your head. I will be glad to accept it. Make it easy on your crew, surrender and I will make sure your death is quick and painless."
"I've heard that before, most recently from Admiral Thornton. I am still here, as you see."
"I am sure you have scanned us, and know that you are outnumbered. Also, the good Admiral and his fleet will be back anytime. Its to late to escape."
"I wouldn't count on him, or his fleet. I have whats left of him, his robotic legs, in my rubbish bins. I left what was left of his fleet to scavengers."
The screen went dead, and Jewel brought up the tactical display. The crimson tide ships were leaving orbit, accelerating towards us. Shar'tu and the rest of second watch joined us on he bridge. He and his other officers were looking much better after their shore leave. I still felt exhausted. Doc repeatedly told me, "There is such a thing as to much of a good thing." I was beginning to understand the message now.
"Persephone, scramble our pilots. Let them know that if they make a mess in the cockpit, they will be responsible for cleaning it up. We didn't normally battle so often, but recently it was becoming more frequent. They need to be prepared."
"Captain, you were celebrating a little hard as well."
"I know, the same goes for me. I will be grabbing some space sickness bags and a new helmet myself."
Randolph found it easier to keep the ships armed, than to scramble to arm them. So it was no surprise that they were ready when we arrived. My hatch now had a frigate kill, another destroyer kill, and what looked like a pair of legs on the hatch. I wasn't sure what they referred to, I killed Thornton here on the hanger deck. I would have to ask Mike about that.
I climbed in, put my helmet on and strapped into the seat. I stowed the space sickness bags where I could easily reach them. I powered up the ship, and waited for the launch signal.
"Mike?"
"Yes Captain."
"I am curious about the legs on my hatch. I killed Thornton on the hanger deck."
"That took some careful research on my part, before allowing it. You were in such a hurry to kill the admiral, that you forgot to power down your ship. Because it was still under power, and you are considered an extension of each other, the kill counts. Besides you deserve it. I have never seen anyone fight so hard and so fast. We all thought he had you for a second."
I wasn't going to tell him about Astrea interfering on my and Natty's behalf. He already thought I was half crazy for talking to my deevil. But, he couldn't come up with any other explanation, as to why we were maintaining a constant population, and how I knew how to contain them where I wanted them. Niffid bites and the noids they created were rare now.
The red signal light turned to yellow, and Natty and I taxied our Marauders to the launch tubes. We lined up side by side and continued to wait. When we got the green light we took off. In minutes, our Vipers and Marauders filled the void between our fleets. Our vipers split off going after the gunships, the rest of us went after the capital ships.
Natty, Nord, Beck, and I went after a destroyer. This was going to be easy. The Crimson Tide were pirates, having little, or no formal training. They would be easier to defeat than the Alliance. They used gunboats, similar to, but larger than our Marauders. Their pilots were use to doing strafing runs on the planets population during raids. Not fighting ship to ship. They were outclassed by even most trained rookie pilots. They would be like shooting target drones to the Vorg.
On my first run, I selected guns and did a strafing run on the destroyers port side PDC. I fired my 40 mm cannon from amidships to the bow. Several explosions came from their detonating ammunition. It left that side of the destroyer nearly defenseless. They tried tracking us with what was left of the port side array, but it was useless. Natty took advantage of a clear shot on one of its main gun turrets. Her missiles blew it clear from the deck. Nord and Beck took out one of the destroyers engines, and the aft PDC on both the port and starboard sides. I rolled my
ship and pulled back hard on the controls, lining up on the bridge, I fired two missiles at it from point blank range without even bothering to get a missile lock. I pulled up hard, then nosed over in time to see several bodies float out into space. Natty lined up on an open missile port and fired her missile into the open missile launch tube. The explosion ripped open the bow of the ship. Only a few escape pods jettisoned before the destroyer was enveloped in an explosion by one of the Persephone's missiles.
We moved onto the cruiser. The Viper pilots were playing with what was left of the gunboats, but would soon tire. Doc, Mike, Amber and Jewel, just about had their destroyer finished, it wouldn't be long before it would be left defenseless. I saw two of its engines flicker, then go lifeless while I was passing the ship on my way to the cruiser.
The Vengeance and the Persephone didn't waste their missiles on the cruiser. They were firing their energy weapons at a steady rate, bringing its shields down. A full salvo from Red's battleship, blackened the cruisers hull, as the shields collapsed. Another salvo turned it into a glowing tangle of melted metal. Several explosions followed as its remaining ammunition exploded from the heat.
We weren't finished yet, I changed my course for the planet. Amber wasn't able to get much information from the surface. There was a thick cloud of dust blocking any signal to or from the surface. I signaled our other pilots to follow. The Vorg quickly finished off the remaining gunships, and joined our formation.
I dove towards the planets surface. Instead of the normal glow of plasma from the nose of my ship, I was showered in white hot sparks from the fine dust, even this high up above the planet. I wasn't reading any abnormal radiation on my instruments, and didn't have any idea as to what was causing all the dust.
I slowed my decent, not being able to see through the dust. My wing tips left a mix of fire, black smoke for contrails, and showers of sparks surrounded the hull. I should have been able to see the ground by now. The dust was so thick I could barely see the nose of my ship. My instruments were erratic if they functioned at all. I leveled off my ship, slowed some more, and began to spiral my way down. When I finally broke through the dust cloud, I couldn't believe the devastation. It looked like the planet had been bombed into submission by nuclear weapons.
This planet was a peaceful planet, without any military forces. This bombardment had no purpose. I knew what had happened by the craters that were left on the surface. The planet was bombed by kinetic weapons, probably from small asteroids gathered from this system and dropped from high orbit. The once beautiful planet was left in ruin.
Near what was left of the spaceport, I could see a Crimson Tide compound, and a fenced off area that they were using as a concentration camp to house their prisoners. Our presence didn't alert them. In all the dust, they couldn't tell our marauders from their gunboats. I called my wing to give them the signal to attack.
Most of them were below the cloud layer and got the message, the rest would be able to figure it out once they got below the dust. I locked onto the compound and selected two targets. It didn't matter what they were, I was going to destroy the entire compound. I fired my two missiles and banked away. Natty was right behind me and did the same.
I selected two more targets for my next pass, and flew in low, firing my missiles. That was two more targets down. The soldiers were scrambling to their posts, and began returning fire. Natty took out two defense towers on her attack run. Nord and Beck did the same. I selected my guns for the next run. I had a few bullets bounce off of my hull, fired by the Crimson Tide soldiers, without causing any damage to my ship. I targeted a squad of soldiers racing towards shelter and fired on them. I swung around to make sure that none of the soldiers were still alive.
After about 10 minutes, nothing remained of the compound. We landed our ships, to offer what aid we could and free the prisoners. Three of the commanding officers were all that was left between me and the prisoners. My energy lance found its way to my hand, and the blade extended set on kill. They fired their blasters at me. I hardly noticed, deflecting their bolts away from me. It took only a few swings of the blade, to leave them lifeless. It was over to fast. I had intended to make them suffer, for all the suffering they caused. They laid lifeless at my feet, in no more than a couple seconds time. I stopped to throw up, before continuing to the prisoners.
I let them loose. With Doc's help we set up a proper triage center and camp. When the dust settled enough to allow communications with our ships, we began sending down more shuttles with food, water, and medicine. The most severely injured people were shuttled up to the Persephone for medical treatment. Most of the people were in shock wondering around aimlessly. They needed more help than we could give.
Red didn't like it, but he agreed. He would take his ship back to Capsia and Haven to gather help. The Lucy would follow him Capsia then leave him going to the Omicron System seeking help, before returning. They didn't like leaving me here, but they agreed it had to be done.
It took a week for the ships to return. They each brought a fleet of ships, that were hurriedly assembled for this rescue. They had suffered devastation from in war in the past, and knew that time was of the essence to save as many as they could. Both Vorg and Iniguar rescuers came to aid the people of Spicer, with calls for help going out to more systems, and rescue ships arriving in a constant stream. In the weeks time that I had been on planet, our camp grew to ten times its size, and our supplies were nearly depleted.
Stella was sent to take over the management of our camp, and begin rebuilding. She surveyed the damage with tears in her eyes. She didn't insult me as was customary, but instead hugged me.
"My people can't thank you and your people enough, for your help. If you hadn't defeated the Alliance fleet when you did, this is what we would be facing ourselves or worse. They may have used nukes on us instead of rocks." She turned away and began shouting orders to get the camp in order and begin reconstruction. I hoped this time they decided to keep at least a small defensive force as a deterrent. I knew that Stella would make her opinion heard.
So, we meet again Captain Roberts," the Iniguar representative I met on Haven said. He made a sweeping gesture, "This is your doing?"
"The aid we have given freeing these people is, not the devastation of this planet. You can blame the Alliance and Crimson Tide for that."
"What has become of them?"
"With the exception of the few still drifting in escape pods, they are all dead. They didn't have enough honor for me to spare any of their lives."
"Then we, and the Vorg are very much in your debt."
When I returned to the ship, I had another surprise waiting. One of my crewmen was caught steeling from the Vorg pilots, while they were on the planets surface helping with the refugees. I usually didn't put my own crewmen in holding cells, other than to cool off after a rare fight. They were reserved for prisoners being sent to a lifetime of slavery, or execution.
I wasn't about to stain my cells with the taint of a thief. I didn't feel that his crime met the level of execution, but I was open to marooning. I had our shuttle pilots search for an escape pod, with life signs. They towed it to the hangar deck. The thief was stripped of all possessions, including his clothing. He was left in chains and leg irons. I wouldn't have them removed for any reason. He had a gambling problem and thought a little pinch here and there would go unnoticed, allowing him to pay his debts.
He didn't have anything left to pay restitution to his victims, so I did it. That made him my property, to do with whatever I wanted.
I stared him in the eyes as I said, "Stealing from your shipmates is intolerable. Worse is the fact that you did it while they were on the planets surface giving aid to the victims of the Crimson Tide and the Alliance. You have nothing to pay retribution with. I have made retribution for you
. That makes you my property. I have no need of anyone such as you. No one will cover the cost of your debt."
"Captain," Nord spoke up, "we can take a collection to pay his debt, at least in part. Then we can at least have some sport with him before feeding him to the niffids, betting on how long he will survive. If the niffids can stomach someone like that Thornton fellow, then he shouldn't be a problem."
I didn't want so grisly a punishment but added it to my list anyhow. It would be the prisoners choice. The prisoner hearing this fainted. I had to wait until he was awake again, supported by guards to pronounce my sentence.
I will give you three options to choose from:
1. You can go down to the planets surface, in this escape pod. I am not sure how the planets population will treat you, but you can at least expect a lifetime of hard labor, rebuilding the damage, as their slave.
2. You can accept Nord's proposition, they won't let you live long. There is always the chance that the Vorg will have some mercy on you.
3. You can face my blade. You won't last any longer than two seconds. I'm sure you either witnessed my battle with Admiral Thornton or heard about it. I will make it quick.
What is your choice?"
"As you say there is always the hope for mercy with the Vorg. I choose Nord's proposition."
It was a foolish, and the most grisly of deaths he could choose from. He didn't understand the Vorg. Their mercy, if granted would only come after a long, lingering death, if at all. It was his decision though.
Nord and the rest of the Vorg huddled together talking for a few minutes. "Captain, we offer two credits as payment towards his restitution, unless there is another offer." There wasn't. I accepted his offer, and the Vorg led him away.