Trag looked up at the object in horror. “You killed… you killed the captain!” A Secaaran head stared back at him, a small amount of blood trickling out onto the deck plating.
The wolf snarled at him and hefted her rife, aiming it straight at his head. “I will kill you if you don’t surrender!” The others in her group aimed their own weapons.
Everyone else on the bridge immediately raised their hands over their heads. Two guns clunked onto the deck, and the silver wolf addressed the display. “Ship secure, Captain.”
“Well done, Sai,” the man replied, smiling as the other two security officers rounded up the rest of the bridge crew and marched them out. “Send back one of the shuttles with the prisoners, and I’ll have a tech team come back over.”
“Get a medic here as well, Captain,” Saiphirelle Hyjae said, slumping into the chair at the Operations console. “Got some casualties.”
“On it, Sai. You did very good work!”
She smiled wanly. “Thanks, Cap. Be waiting here.” And she pressed a control, ending the call. Saiphirelle slumped back in the chair, continuing the smile. “You had no chance, you bastard,” she said to the severed head on the deck. “We were the predators.”
The head didn’t answer. Saiphirelle didn’t expect one; her logic had stumped him.
Davan Hamma – Secaaran male, Captain
Trag – human male, sensors
Meredith – human female, navigation
Xeakenn – zheen male, tactical
Author’s notes:
Pirate gangs: This is a comprehensive list of pirate gangs operating around the Seylonique area of the Argos Cluster, though none of them have been to Seylonique in decades, if ever. Some of them appear in the stories in this book; some didn’t.
Baron Death
- Z’k’vn’k - armed A200 Bulk hauler
Viscount Kl’knor, zheen
Crew of 18 humans, 8 Severite, 2 zheen
4 Halberd-class gunboats
- 2 armed medium freighters
Trokakk – tractor
Bemish
Summer Grass
- 3 cutters
Sever – Krugik – zheen
- 1 frigate
Flamenco
Bloody Hawks
- two corvettes Slasher and Spite
- three armed medium cargo ships
- Rock Hammer – Secaaran male (huge)
Drill Fists
- Empress Rose – armed Imperial-class passenger liner
Brain Trust, human male
Two forward heavy lasers, twenty rail guns, two ventral rails capable of hurling a 500kg slug, enhanced heavy cruiser level of shields, military-grade hyperdrive.
Twenty shuttles, fourteen assault (40 passengers), six cargo
800+ armed soldiers, 250+ crew
Argos Liberation Front
- 3 corvettes – Nexus, Todra, and Atacama
- Frigate - Fidelity
- Valiant - fighter carrier (converted med freighter), 6 H39 fighters – Sabre flight (flat trapezoid /=|, four lasers, two missiles, armor, shields)
- 1 armed medium freighter – Pax Bolivar
Committee for Public Safety
- Shield of Argos - bulk cruiser (fighter carrier) – 18 F322 starfighters, Goliath Squadron (double right triangles bubble cockpit in the middle), pair of laser cannons, four missiles
- Gavaros – cutter, two light lasers
- 4 armed medium freighters
- 2 armed light freighters – Dreyvis (Citizen First Duane Halsey), Kaeli
- Astrid Markaasdottir – Vice Chair, Commander of Alpha
TrinaMarie
- armed large freighter – Syndari class
- heavily damaged, 2 of four cargo holds open to space
- corroded plating, heavily patched plasma conduits are one step from falling apart, covered with a fiber reinforced concrete
- pair of starfighters strapped to the outer hull, a Sepulcre and a H39, giving 2 lasers on port side four on starboard, but all are locked into the forward firing position, no turret. Fire control is hard wired into a console on the other side of the hull from the fighters. Two eight missile box launchers are bolted to the dorsal and ventral sides of the hull, only two missiles left in the ventral launcher
- Shotgun Bob - human male captain/navigator, former slave, always calculating odds, courses and probabilities.
- Human male chief engineer, Zheen assistant chief engineer, female human sensor operator, male zheen aquaculture, hydroponics and environmental expert, 30 able seamen (scrubs, 19 humans, 9 zheen and 2 hak’ruk), a teacher and 15 Republic Naval cadets (shanghaied into the crew)
- Ship is falling apart, fluctuating 15-18% on the reactor, barely enough for life support, basic ship function, can make Red level 3 on the rainbow. But with some quick fixes using proper tools, engineers and parts, could get that bumped to 35-42% on the reactor and Yellow level 5.
- Robert “Shotgun Bob” Darling – navigator, Captain
- Megan Tremere – pilot, bosun
- Zezisz – zheen, environmental
- Sashek – severite, comms, ops
Verrikoth’s fleet – The nature and numbers of the ships in Verrikoth’s fleet changes as the story The Warlord’s Fist unfolds. Included in these notes are names of characters and what position they hold aboard the ship at the outset of the story.
Nemesis – heavy cruiser, flagship
- Commander Jensen Tyler
- Helk – zheen male, sensors
- Coryn Garethos – human female, flight ops
- Killix – zheen male, comms
- Group Zeknix
4 Sparhawk starfighters
- Group Kekzikan
4 gunboats
- Ground forces
War Leader Vok – zheen male Smash Pack Stryx – shield, flail
Cromm – war axe
Dragga – war hammer
Unruk Platoon
Valha Platoon
Tetros Platoon
Remmen Platoon
Ros Platoon
Tsu Platoon
Forsa Platoon
Ganges – light cruiser
- Commander Hestian – male lupusan
-
Gawilghur – light cruiser
- V’ka’sith Ka’zh
- Djarok – sensors, domak male
- Grokk – tactical, zheen male
- Xerit – gunboat
Gloth – male geckon, tactical
Trarn – male human, pilot
Troubanee – male Guura, engineer/sensors
- Pirk – male zheen, Sparhawk pilot
Karimnagar – light cruiser
Toroj – stealth recon cutter
- Gokon
Devonii – dispatch cutter
Kopesh – Destroyer, Amethyst
- Flayl, captain, hak’ruk female
Gr’kenth – corvette, Amethyst
- Kipris, captain, zheen male
Korokat – corvette, Cetitia
Xekxik - corvette
Vin’zyek – corvettes, Tyseus
Sessilan
Circe
Fletcher’s Dolly
the ysh’kai and drei’kai – zheen worker and warrior drones
Xai’ryn – broodmother
Worlds of Verrikoth
Northern Section
- Tyseus
Base Commander Yelkiq – zheen male
Yard Supervisor Hulquk – zheen male
Population: 20K 120 Republic, FP slaves
Small shipyard, fuel mine in gas giant
- Amethyst
Primary Yokusk – zheen male in life support tube
Population: 85K
Ice mining and hydrogen, deuterium refinery
Mineral extraction from moons of nearby gas giant
Red Sphinx Worlds
- Caridosia
Governor Pallas – human female
Lieutenant Xhik – male zheen
Population 8.6 million
Heavy element mining, deuterium mining, industrial factories
Ferrer-class Frigate Salvadora SDF
- Vybex
Red Sphinx Xheeshan – hak’ruk male
General Peppard – Secaaran male
Population: 200K
Agricultural world, two cities in large grasslands, massive farms for crops, one island city, fleet of fishing vessels
One Dancer-class light cruiser Granby (Prince-Captain’s flagship), two Paris-class corvettes in SDF
- Reeshee
Regent Damas – hak’ruk female
Population 9 million
Heavy industry, metal and trace mineral mining, hydrogen, deuterium mining
Small shipyard (corvette sized only)
Fenix squadron – 12 F-229 starfighters
Leo squadron – 14 RB-61 starfighters
RS1 Systems corvette Umbara
- Doldrums
Governor Trask Mueller – human male
Commander Shelby Remington – human female
Chief Science officer Shen – Lupusan female
Population: 4K (science base), 15K agricultural areas and in city of Founder
Reactivated Republic science research station, developing advanced shield generators
Southern Tier
- Hecate
Governing Council, Governor Trebus – human male
Population: 90 million
Medium shipyard, mineral and hydrogen fuel extraction in gas giant.
- Cetetia
Primary Zetzik – zheen male
Secundus Wollke – zheen male
Governor Teroken – zheen male
Population 250 million
Medium shipyard, 2 large slips, four small ones, one heavy cruiser 60% completed, 2 corvettes 40% completed
Heavy industry, mineral and He3 extraction in asteroid belt and gas giant
Agriculture areas on planet, foodstuffs for use and export, large beef cattle business
Titania-class light cruiser Corvus, 2 corvettes Migros, Space Scourge
- Trullium (Capital)
Duchess Karyna Krystellian – Severite female
Baron-Commander Terrukhan – zheen male
Population 840 million, former Republic hub world
Small shipyard (frigate), 2 small slips for maintenance and repair
Heavy industry, planetary and lunar mining (5 moons of inhabited world of same name), He3 and hydrogen mining of gas giant, agriculture for export
Thorius-class light cruiser Herald of War, 2 frigates Moruchai, Riechesk
Rennaro Wing – Republic Sentinel starfighters – 36 ships
Elessar Wing – Republic Caret starfighters – 36 ships
8 squadrons of aerofighters
- Venarris
President Jamis Aran – human male
Population 35K
Foresting and terrestrial mining, slate and copper mines
Blue Ocean, Utys – armed freighters
- Tri-clypse
Governing Triad, zheen male, human female, Severite female
Population 50K
Agriculture and fishing
Big Sal – armed freighter, cutter Eloran
- Z’han’zk
Governor Dekk – zheen male
Population 35K, a moon of the gas giant
Asteroid mining and hydrogen, He3 fuel mining
Gerig – armed freighter
Afterward:
Again, everyone, I wanted to thank you all for your patience and I was glad I had another book for you so quickly. I wanted to do a story about the bad guys, who get plenty of page-time anyway, but they’re pirates and warlords, and they just decided to steal this book. Verrikoth especially demanded his own book, but I did manage that last story while he was distracted with Cetetia.
The Kingslayers are still out there, and they will be seen again. While Verrikoth’s fleet certainly is the biggest and strongest in the Argos Cluster this new group seems to be on the rise. They have at least two cruisers that we know of now, and they were getting ships from all over (Brain Trust and the Drill Fists brought them a couple, for example). As I said, we haven’t seen the last of them, and neither has Verrikoth.
But I haven’t forgotten about Tamara, and we will be returning to her in the next book.
I have my own website! Right now, there’s not a lot of traffic (it’s a new site), but I’ll start working on a blog there, and it will also show my collected works.
Join the community at mikekotcher.com
Or, for those of you who haven’t, join us at my Facebook fan page: Samair in Argos
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments
Table of Contents
The Republic War Report
The Warlord’s Fist
Prologue
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Epilogue
The Fat Prize
Author’s notes:
TrinaMarie
Afterward:
The Warlord's Path Page 35