Unknown Heroes - Chapter 16

[Warenwolf]

The violence in this chapter may be too graphic for few of the readers. It is not worse than what you can see on most films or the evening news but I will warn you anyway…




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Links to other chapters:
Chapter 15: Machinations
Chapter 14: Sins revealed
Chapter 13: Cargo to die for
Chapter 12: Demons in Paradise
Chapter 11: The Elysium
Chapter 10: The Khaak
Chapter 9: New Player
Chapter 8: The Hunt Begins
Chapter 7: Among the Rogues
Chapter 6: Anger of the Giants
Chapter 5: Awakening of the storm
Chapter 4: Trade run to Hell
Chapter 3: Old connections
Chapter 2: Means for revenge
Chapter 1: First kill



The glossary of Unknown Heroes
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Pieces of Chessboard



“So you see, thousands of freighters are wasted and how do our Police and Navy react? By giving us the standard speech about protecting the strategic points and core assets, whatever that means… In other word the common man is left to himself. As usual…
But check this out - last wozura someone wastes couple of NSM’s freighters in the Kingdom and all of sudden both Police and Navy fall all over themselves to be the first ones to help poor little mega corporation… I am telling you, it is same tale as always – big guys walking over rest of us. Perhaps this Khaak thing forces people finally to realize that and perhaps even to do something about it,” Paul “Lurker” Stankovski was telling Erich.
Paul was information trader by profession (and obsession as evil tongues often added) and Erich often used his services. The self thought tech genius discovered by age of fifteen the trill of breaking into supposedly secure information systems. He grew obsessed by need to see what was hidden by passwords on his friends’ computers and from there he progressed to more advanced systems like police records. After couple of jazuras even the Navy communication systems weren’t safe from him. And all this time he was driven by same need - to see what was hidden in the next databank. As he bypassed the security in a system, he didn’t feel the satisfaction of mastering a difficult task but rather an anticipation to see what the system contained. In sense he was electronic voyeur, enjoying the act of “watching” the information. This set him apart from the rest if the “community” and he got the nickname “Lurker”.
Erich met him on a job and the two of them became friends as much as one can become friend with an assassin. Paul, of course, had no idea of what Erich did for living. For him Erich was just a friend in export/import business, occasionally in need of information about rivals’ freighters movements. And Paul gladly provided that information and unknowingly much more.
To Erich, Paul was often valuable source of information as long as one could discern the real information from Paul’s own interpretations of the mentioned information that tended to grow wilder as the night progressed. But he found Paul’s naivety and ideological viewpoints refreshing. The usual people he mixed with considered throwing thrash in garbage disposer and shooting their opponents in head instead of stomach to be nobleness.
The two of them chatted about several issues until it was time for Erich to drag the inebriated Paul to his apartment. Rummaging around for Paul’s keycard, he smiled when he found it behind the door’s nametag which Paul naively thought was a rather smart place to hide his keycard. Erich led Paul in, leaving him in the sofa before leaving the apartment.
Checking if he was followed, he walked across the small town to the small hotel catering to backpackers. He periodically checked his audio and visual receptors but he saw nothing moving in the dark and all he heard was the rain falling down. Erich entered the hotel and walked over to his room. The beds in the room were almost empty, except one man that snored loudly. Erich gathered his equipment and went outside.
Checking again to see if anyone was spying on him, he proceeded to the park beside the hotel. It was pitch dark and cold, with rain increasing in strength but Erich just adjusted his implants to compensate. He started to assemble a communication device allowing him to contact off world ships. As in most systems of Argon Federation that were colonized after 470, Novi Prag’s authorities forbid such devices. Erich had to smuggle in the parts disguised as household electronics.

“Ground to Space, you hear me?”
“Yeah, I hear you loud and clear,” Erich could hear Otto say.
“So what do we got?” Otto asked.
“My source confirmed what certain friend said to us,” Eric answered. The wozura earlier, Suad Khan had informed Erich that there had been changes at Navy’s Intelligence HQ. There were rumors that McCarthy was running the show which meant that most powerful intelligence agency in Known Universe was effectively under NSM’s thumb.
“Crap…”
“Yeah, I know. Still it isn’t all that black. Intelligence guys are bound to be unhappy about this”
“Since we have no way of influencing and shaping that unhappiness it doesn’t really help us at all,” Otto said, the skepticism in his voice not muffled by communicator demodulator’s robotic representation of his voice.
“Maybe we can find the way…”
“I say we kill them all!” heavily accented voice interjected followed by Split courses that translator had no equivalents for in Standard English.
Erich smiled. The Split member of the group was epitome of the stereotype of Split race. Ha’nt’s solution to all problems seemed to involve sharp objects colliding with opposition’s vital organs.
“Well, we will see about that. I will take the off-world shuttle at time and point already agreed. Pick me up at site Able. Is that Ok?”
“Yes, we are in range with plenty of time margin. See you tomorrow”





The ion disrupter quickly drained the shields of pirate’s Barracuda and began frying the onboard electronics. The frigate “Claw 5” had caught the pirate unaware and the Barracuda had no time to react.
“Maintain fire,” Jade Freedman ordered when she saw the fire control officers looking at her.
The Barracuda struggled trying to get away but frigate’s four ion disrupters killed her avionics quickly leaving the pirate’s ship drifting aimlessly in space.
“Bring her in!”
“Yes, Ma’am. Hooks extending…Ship is secured and are being dragged in the left pylon”
“The moment you are finished, jump to Argon Prime. We’ll let the AP5* do the debriefing on this one,” Jane ordered leaning back on her seat and closing her eyes.
This was the eleventh pirate that the “Claw 5” had captured since Jane had been ordered to investigate the attacks on NSM’s shipping convoys. She had been disgusted by the order – she knew very well by who and why this investigation was placed as the top priority mission. At the time she was briefed about it she had been infuriated, barely able to hold her mask in front of Senator McCarthy Senior and Colonel Forsyth. Even the Boron Kingdom’s Law Protectors were angry and that was telling in it self when Boron got mad at you. After all, Navy Intelligence had just waltzed in their turf…
The last wozura and half, the “Claw 5” had been patrolling Boron space, looking for and tracking suspected pirates. If it had not been for the E.Y.E system, the entire operation would have been like looking for a needle in a haystack. Thanks to the E.Y.E network, the frigate could track movements of the ships in the area without problems. Jane Freedman observed which ships seemed to keep the NSM convoys under surveillance. Identifying the likely pirates, she ambushed the ship and captured the pilot by using the well tested method of laying in wait for target to exit the gate, when the target was most vulnerable.
They had captured and interrogated five pirates before hitting the jackpot. The sixth pirate revealed that his group got their info about the convoys from an episode in a smuggling station. The next two captured pirates filled her with more details: apparently a drunken smuggler had lost a chip with scan data of the one of the convoys that their pirate clan had managed to get their hands on. Soon Jane had entire story. And she had rather good hunch who that drunken smuggler might be…
But when she sent the report back to AP5* the response she got back from Colonel, coded in manner so that only she could read the message, was that the report had been lost but that it would be beneficial if she focused on earlier theory she had discarded. From the second pirate they had captured, she heard the rumor that pirate clans had a man inside the NSM. The story had many holes in it and she discarded it immediately as fantasies, not pursuing it further besides sending back a routine report back to AP5. Now the Colonel insisted that investigating this lead would be “beneficial”…
Jane was no fool – she knew very well that her boss wanted her to give Senator McCarthy false results. The reason for that was not difficult to guess. It was obvious that Senator McCarthy and NSM had skeletons in their closets and Colonel Forsyth probably guessed that Erich and his associates had necessary keys to those closets. Jane thought so too. She speculated that Colonel Forsyth was hopping to obtain something from Erich that would free the agency from Senator’s influence.
So for the last few tazuras the “Claw 5” had been capturing pirates that would support the rumor about the insider in the NSM. The last pirate captured would be interrogated by Colonel himself. Jane had pretty good idea of what would happen. The man would be desperately gripping at any straws, eager to reduce his sentence. By giving him suggestive hints, Colonel would ensure that the man’s confession would be tailored to his needs. Jane had no problems with that. She learned early in her carrier that when running with wolfs you had to be wolf too.





“Erich, we got incoming communication signal from Elysium,” Ha’nt said. The two Bayamons had been traveling to the acceleration station. As always, they avoided the space around the Elisa’s Elysium*, not knowing how the station would react to their presence now that shipbuilders of Elysium had no need for them.
“Patch the extension to Otto and then put the caller on speakers,” Erich said wondering what the Elysium station wanted from them. During the last stay they got the message that their kind was not desired at the station. What had changed?
“This is “Elisa’s Elysium” to “New Galaxy”. Do I speak to Erich Campbell?” the female voice on the other end asked.
“Yes you do. What can we help you with?” Erich answered.
“This is Elysium’s Security Chief, Christine Holm speaking. We have need of your services. In exchange we offer great rewards”
“Well, what kind of services do you need?”
“Two tazuras ago, pirate chieftain Sergey Nuzvinsky, leader of Black Gang, took over one of our ships and forced the pilot out of the airlock without EVA suit.”
“A tragedy among many in these troubled times but I fail to see how I can help you with this matter”
“If we let this act go unpunished other pirates and warlords may get the idea that our ships are for taking”
“Then why don’t you do something about it?”
“Our security fleet is purely defensive and relying heavily on station’s own static defenses. We don’t have the logistical capability for waging an attack on well defended station several sectors away. Baring the Black Gang from trading with us is not effective either – pirates don’t buy their ships, they steal them…”
“The two Bayamons are scarcely capable of doing station assaults either…”
“Don’t play games with me Mr. Campbell. I know what you are – a manhunter. You are a breed we to this point were happy to never have on our station. You can dock with Black Gang’s base and kill Sergey Nuzvinsky for us. In exchange you get 60 thousand credits, docking and trading rights at cost price”
“Excuse me if I am wrong but Elysium’s unique position in the shipbuilding business allows you to “convince” for example one of the two neighboring warlord alliances to wipe out Black Gang once for all. Why don’t you do it?”
“Very perceptive of you, Mr. Campbell. However, we have decided that we need to expand our arsenal so to say…”
“By obtaining the services of an assassin?”
“That’s right,” the voice on the other end answered. Unexpected twist, Erich thought. He exchanged glances with Ha’nt.
“Give me a moment to discuss the matter with my colleagues”
“Certainly, Mr. Campbell. Take all the time you need”
Turning off the channel, Erich reconnected to Otto’s ship.
“So what do you people make out of this?” he asked.
“The morally esteemed people of Elysium want us to do the dirty work for them,” Ha’nt said with contempt.
“I agree with Split,” Ni Lan said.
“I don’t know… Special trading rights with Elysium… You know that transport company I was talking about. With money from Nividium we got from NSM and access to Elysium hardware at cost price I could just make it happen…”
“I know… And we need to solve our logistical problems one way or another and this is best option…” Erich added.
“Put it that way, I agree,” Ni Lan said. “Our tentacles are already dirty,” he added.
“At least, we are going to eat something else than beans. That alone is worth it in my opinion,” Ha’nt said.
Erich turned the connection to the Elysium back on and said, “We accept. Transfer the details on target.”





The Black Gang’s base was hidden on the dark side of the Seluca portion of Nopileo's Memorial’s asteroid swarm, masked as an asteroid. Not expertly as Otto commented.
The analysis of the mock up asteroid revealed a somewhat elongated version of Split Rhino* which Otto estimated to hold no more than 30-40 pirates. While the mock up was visually good, it proved inadequate against sensitive probes of the two Bayamons. The effect was additionally diminished by eight pirate fighters floating around the area.
Erich was willing to bet a hefty sum that those pirates were not even patrolling the space around the station. Sensors proved him right. The pirate ships floating around stations were without occupants.
“This may be easier than I thought,” Erich said to Ha’nt.
“A female scu’tha would have organized better guard,” Ha’nt said with contempt looking at sensor readings. Erich did not know what exactly a “scu’tha” was, but he got the general meaning from the tone in Split’s voice.
“Erich, do we go with plan A?” Otto wanted to know.
“Yes, it seems Elysium’s had provided us with excellent data about the target. Makes you wonder how they knew so much about Black Gang.”
“I am more worried that they chose us to deal with them. From the readings on my sensors, they don’t even have sensors relays emplacements. I don’t think they even know we are here. I saw several M560 missile ships at the docks on the Elysium. One of those babes along with escorts would have destroyed the base in few moments. I am not even reading the shields emissions from the Rhino’s generators.”
“It seems that Elysium’s rulers have manipulated us, yes?” Ni Lan asked.
“There is much to profit from this deal,” Erich slowly said
“Providing the Argons of Elysium keep their part of the bargain,” Ni Lan interjected.
“We will cross that bridge when that times arrives. Let us dock with the base”
The plan Erich intended to use was simple. According to info Elysium provided, Sergey Nuzvinsky and his Black Gang were small fishes that recently moved in the area, fleeing from stronger pirate clans in New Territories. The small group and level of organization indicated that Black Gang most followed the same codex that was so prevalent among small gangs, where a strong leader kept his position trough his physical prowess. That also meant that anyone could vie for position of the top dog by simply challenging and defeating the current leader. And exactly this was what Erich hoped to use. He would provoke Sergey Nuzvinsky to such contest, thereby engaging and killing the pirate leader without having to worry for interference from rest of the pirates. Plenty of things could go wrong but Erich’s experience and instinct told him that this might just work.

The two Bayamons were only hundred meters from the docking ring when they were challenged for the first time.
“What’s ya want?” a slightly drunken voice asked.
“I got unfinished business with Sergey the Coward. Let me in, or I’ll blast myself in with Hornets”
“Sergey the… Are ya threatening us? ”
“Yes I am. And do the cargo scan and see the Hornets for yourself,” Erich bluffed. He was rather sure that the Black gang did not possess the cargo scan. Not the kind that could scan through shields.
“All right, I am letting ya in…”
“My friend is staying here. Only I am docking. Just in case Sergey thinks that he can avoid what is coming”
The docking ring’s doors opened and Erich proceeded in, entering a small tunnel barely wide enough for the Bayamon. At least the small docks were pressurized, so he wouldn’t have to float exposed in EVA suit.
He docked at the nearest bay and exited the ship.
The rumor of their arrival spread throughout the base. It seemed that every pirate had found their way to the docks. There were not many Sergeys among them and most of them realized that someone had come to challenge their leader. They pushed and shoved to see the arrivals. Then the crowd cleared as a man approached. The man was dressed in typical pirate garb, featuring leather jacket strapped over multicolored faded pilot uniform that once belonged to a militia pilot. He was not tall man, but he was build like a bull. The arms of the uniform were cut off and revealed huge biceps. The numerous scars in his face marked him as a veteran from many close combat fights. Part of his hair was missing – melted skin on his scalp witnessed that the cause was a laser wound.
Erich recognized the man from the photos Elysium provided. He immediately made his move, seeking to dominate the situation.
“Ahhh…Finally after all this time. Sergey the Coward. The time for you to pay your debts has come”
“Who the hell…”
“Shut up and stop pretending you scum! I am not here for the money. It is too late for that!” Erich shouted.
Then he smiled an evil smile and looked Sergey straight in the eyes, “I am here for your life…”
Sergey was obviously confused. The newcomer, who he had never seen before, called him coward and challenged him. He sensed a trap and his instinct was telling him to be careful but he could not control the anger that was building inside him. Besides, backing out of a fight would cause him to loose face in front of his men.
“Oh and if you think that you can avoid the fight like last time, I have friends outside pointing Hornets at this rat hole…”
Sergey’s face turned red from the anger. Erich had him where he wanted. Sergey couldn’t avoid battle now. If he did so, he would loose face in front of crowd and his days as pirate chieftain would be over.
“I don’t know who you are but if there is fight you want, you’ll get one!”
“Now Sergey! Not tomorrow – I want one now!”
Sergey turned to the old Boron behind him that had trailed Sergey like shadow, “Professor, I want the bar cleared for a fight. Now!”
Sergey turned and started walking with Erich trailing him. They walked through narrow corridors, typical for Split design in the period the ship had been constructed. The Rhino class was a small TP type of ship and every space onboard was made compact as possible. That resulted in narrow corridors, allowing only two and two pirates to walk together. Erich scanned the group of men in front and behind him. As expected they were all armed but their hands were away from their weapons. It appeared that nobody planed on interfering in the fight between their boss and the unknown challenger. After a particularly steep stairs, they finally arrived in area that previously part of the cargo hold. The room’s function was announced by sprayed word “BAR” in Standard English beside the entrance. Inside ten tables were being cleared by the pirates and some of them even attempted to remove litter from the floor, sure sign that people were excited about the battle. People poured in the confined space and soon only area 3 by 3 meters remained in the middle.
“Are your ready?” Boron that Sergey referred as Professor asked Erich.
“Always,” Erich said looking straight in the eyes of Sergey. The later did not blink. It was clear that Sergey, being both experienced fighter and stronger built than Erich considered himself a winner. He just smiled staring right back at the Erich. Bets were already placed on who the winner would be.
“Alright, here is the knife,” Professor said. It was a handmaid pirate knife with Bora blade, poorly balanced and too short to be efficient killing weapon. The blade was short on purpose – the chance of punctuating inner organs was small making the battles longer and more interesting.
Professor handed the second blade to Sergey and then the battle was on.
The two argons circled around each other, seeking an opening. They both tried to determine what type of the fighter the opponent was. Erich had the stats and surprise on his side – Sergey did not know about Erich’s augmentations. However, Erich had seen enough of fights like this one to know not to rush headlong on his enemy. It was against the rules to fight with anything besides the knives but the rule was often ignored and Erich expected Sergey to have s secondary weapon on him.
Both man continued to circle around each other, waiting for the other to attack. The crowd around them was wild and thirsty for blood, screaming encouragements and taunts. Sergey made a feint but Erich saw through it and did not react. He took one step closer to Sergey and made his own feint attack. Sergey moved to block but Erich used his augmented superhuman strength to push Sergey’s block away, surprising Sergey totally. With extreme speed, Erich cut deep in the fingers of Sergey’s left hand, turning the blade in his blade on the way back, cutting deep into Sergey’s right hand that was holding the knife.
The speed of attack took everyone by surprise and Sergey had no time to counterattack. But he managed to step one step backwards, placing himself out of the reach of Erich’s follow up attacks.
The crowd was now silent and wide-eyed. The first blood has been Sergey’s, giving Erich a psychological advantage. In the corner of his eye he could see Ha’nt excitingly reporting to Otto and Ni Lan about the situation. But Erich did not feel triumphant. Despite the wound in his right hand that must be giving excruciating pain, Sergey was holding his knife firmly.
It was Sergey’s turn to attack. Erich had no plans of attacking further Sergey. His tactic was to wait for Sergey to bleed enough for his reactions to slow down. Sergey was aware of this so he did not wait long.
The attack was an ancient variant of old tactic in knife combat. Sergey attacked with his right hand, than shifted the weight on his left side and simultaneously threw the knife from his right hand intending to catch it with his left and then to continue the attack towards Erich’s throat. But the knife was interrupted in the mid-flight by Erich’s enhanced reflexes and augmented response mechanisms. Sergey did not even know what happened. Fortunately for him, his instincts, honed in hundreds of fights like this one, made him to throw himself backwards as much as he could, into the crowd behind him thereby avoiding Erich’s stab towards his own throat. He reached for his right boot and pulled out another knife, a Split Tri-blade.
Erich almost relaxed seeing that Sergey’s secret weapon had only been a reserve knife that was only slightly longer than the original. This was something Erich could handle. He had feared a laspistol or sudden attack from behind from one of the pirates.
Sergey attacked again, in a most unexpected manner, with knife’s blades pointed towards Erich, using the knife as spear. Erich moved to intercept and to finish off his opponent when the unexpected happen. Bright flash erupted between the mainblade and the secondary blades in Sergey’s Tri-blade. The middle blade detached and flew forward as projectile embedding itself into Erich’s stomach. The human portion of Erich’s brain was paralyzed by the shock. What saved Erich in this moment is that his implants simply took over the control. Like robot, Erich parried Sergey’s next attack, forcing his opponent to fall back. Erich then staggered back, away from Sergey. His health-monitoring sensors, informed him that damages were fatal if not treated soon. Erich’s blood was dripping freely mixing with Sergey’s blood on the floor, making the floor slippery. Now it was Sergey’s turn to smile.





“According to our preliminary analyses, the leaked information about convoy routes and the cargo itself had to come from someone inside the NSM itself. We believe that a corrupt employee had somehow contacted pirates and provided them with information in exchange for a cut of the profits. Of course we need to do additional data collection and analysis but I am confident that further investigation will only confirm this theory,” Colonel Forsyth* said, finishing his presentation on the progress of investigation of pirate attacks on NSM’s convoys. There had been eight attacks in a relative short time on NSM’s Nividium convoys, all leading to loss of ships and human lives. As the news of attacks reached the Argon Prime, pressure to resolve this matter increased on his agency. The news services owned by allies of Senator McCarthy Senior screamed for the heads of the responsible ones. The masses of course did not remember that the same news services were silent on the deaths of the hundreds of independent traders each jazura in pirate attacks.
“I suggest that at this point we involve the local police into investigation and hand them over our information and evidences. The task of finding this corrupt employee is more suited as their task,” Forsyth added. He hoped that Senator would swallow his bait. If local police took over the investigation, Senator would turn his attention elsewhere and agency would be able to operate independently again.
“You are wrong Colonel. The Nividium is strategic asset of the Federation. We are not talking here about Bo Gas transporter getting ambushed in middle of nowhere,” Senator said. Forsyth thought that Senator would not be so callous about that Bo Gas transporter if it was owned by NSM but he wisely held his tongue.
“No one is more capable to solve this crisis than your agency, Colonel. Let us not forget what is at stake here. Nividium is core component in our war machine, a war machine that is already strained to keep up with losses in battles with Khaak. Those attacks were not only attack on NSM but they were attack on Federation itself. It is your duty to protect that Federation”
“Point taken, Senator,” Forsyth said, not because he agreed but because he wanted to stop any further speech Senator was warming up too.
“May I suggest we bring in new blood into this case, a new leader of investigation?”
“You think that Ms. Freedman is not competent to lead the investigation?” Senator asked.
“Not at all Senator. It is just that investigation needs fresh perspective. It will aid the process too,” Forsyth said. The truth was that Jane was the only person Forsyth trusted totally and he did not want her tied up in an investigation that was supposed to hunt ghosts.
“Well, Colonel, I am here to provide general guidelines not to micromanage your agency. I leave such decisions into your hands,” Senator said smiling a friendly smile that Forsyth thought made Senator look like a hungry wolf. Forsyth smiled an equally false smile back.
At least he got this small victory. He did not win the war, but at least he won one small battle.





Sergey kept on rotating around Erich keeping his distance, waiting for Erich to weaken from the loss of blood. The crowd was silent, everyone expecting the killing move. Erich looked at the Ha’nt with corner of his eyes. The Split looked worried and angry at same time. He clenched his hand around his laspistol. Erich had no doubt that if Sergey managed to kill him, Ha’nt would try to revenge him ignoring the consequences of such act.
Time to end this, Erich thought. He started to move slower and slower, trying to entice Sergey in attack. He half-closed his eyes as if being sleepy. However, Sergey looked like he had learned from his previous failed attack. His continued to wait for the right moment.
Erich had still some tricks up his sleeve. He waited one mizura before doing his move. While the two men circled around each other, Erich suddenly slipped on the floor that was now slippery from the blood. Sergey, sensing no trap this time, moved in, aiming for Erich’s throat. But he did not know about Erich’s implants. The cyberborg easily regained his balance, impossibly quick for a human, and took around Sergey’s left hand in which Sergey held his knife. He twisted it around, hearing the ligaments tearing and snapping. Sergey’s face contorted in pain and he let go of the knife. In next moment, using Sergey’s arm as support, Erich pressed himself forward while at same time turning Sergey like a doll into position he wanted. The crowd went wild with pirates pressing forward and pushing each other out of the way so that they could see better. In sweeping motion Erich cut Sergey’s windpipe. Sergey dropped to the ground with panic in his eyes. He was trying with his hands to stop the flood of his blood.
Erich looked down on him and than pressed hard and quickly his boot on Sergey’s neck. The crack could be heard clearly in now silent bar followed by one Split’s victory cry.
Pirates looked all at Ha’nt and Erich, waiting to see what would happen next. Ha’nt was excitingly reporting on the victory to Otto and Ni Lan over his com unit.
Erich looked around, spotting Boron that Sergey had referred to as Professor.
“I guess you people wouldn’t have a doctor around?” Erich asked the Boron. His health monitoring sensors were telling him that he had between 20 to 25 mizuras left of his life.
“No, your guess is indeed correct. However, we do have an excellent auto sani* unit. If you want I can show you the way”
“Lead the way,” Erich said.





Xenon battle group 14D2-84 took the sector’s defense by total surprise. The entire two tazuras the Xenon’s had been assembling in XS 347 in front of the gate leading to the sector Scale Plate Green. Two battle groups were ready to move in. And when the finally the attack came and alarm sounded, Jump Fleets were ready to meet them. Except that only one battle group had moved in Scale Plate Green sector. Two Grand sector never stood a chance.
The new Xenon entity, A89.0001 had moved the battle group 14D2-84 together with 87D1J1-40 that was preparing to scheduled attack on Scale Plate Green. To the scouts of the organic entities they would look like the usual Xenon attack force. But A89 had other plans.
For hundreds of jazuras, Xenon attacks followed a pattern of attacks based on attrition warfare. They would move into a sector and attempt to inflict as much material and infrastructural damage as possible. This time A89 planned do something unusual. He managed to convince the leading CPU of 87D1J1-40 to use his forces to engage only the jump fleets, ignoring sector’s infrastructure. At same time his own forces would jump to Two Grand and wreck as much havoc as possible.

Despite being border territory, the sector’s defenses were virtually non-existent, a very typical situation for the profit oriented Teladi. The lackluster defense organized by few Profit Protection pilots was not helped by the fact that most fighters owned by the factories that were supposed to assist them, were instead concentrating on covering their own factories. This allowed the 14D2-84 to defeat the Teladi forces piecemeal without casualties of their own. A89 let the one of the destroyers to guard the gate along with half of the fighters, while he moved with rest of the forces deeper into sector destroying the mostly defenseless stations, being careful to avoid sector’s trading station that A89 had no data on.
Twenty mizuras after arrival, twelve Teladi stations, heart of sector’s capital accumulation, were hulks. A89 decided that it was time to move on. The response of other jump fleets was to be expected and it was best to let them guess.
The fleet moved on, entering Profit Center Alpha system. This time Teladi forces were better prepared. The word of attack in Two Grand had reached them. Twenty mercenary ships along with three pocket cruisers formed the battle line. Behind them four corvettes waited.
A89 analyzed the situation. The fighters and pocket cruisers were obviously here to entice the Xenon battle group to go into close range for kill. The four corvettes were of Paranid design and A89’s info in the database told that such ships were capable of harming his destroyers seriously. Unfortunately for mercenaries A89 had expected to fight against destroyers. At the expense of energy cells storage, A89 had ordered the two destroyers to carry extra missiles and torpedoes.
It began with a trickle of missiles but it ended with storm of deadly missiles and torpedoes racing towards their targets. Several hundred missiles on torpedoes left the two destroyers, some of them aimed towards distant stations but most of them locked on the four corvettes. The corvettes opened covering fire but it was to no avail. A89 had ordered destroyers to maintain steady fire of missiles in layered pattern. PSG fire of corvettes dealt easily with first waves of incoming missiles but then their energy dried and their fire became sporadic and uneven. First few missiles got through, crippling two of the corvettes then a torpedo got through destroying one corvette. The remaining corvettes were destroyed in next few sezuras as now totally unopposed missiles started slamming into them. The crews did not even manage to reach the escape pods.
Letting his heavy fighters and one of the destroyers to deal with pocket cruisers and remaining fighters, A89 moved with rest of the force to the center of the sector. Several factories here had the passive defense systems and A89 was careful not to send his light fighters against those. Instead he ordered them to go after freighters that were now in full flight towards South Gate. Again the destroyer fired missile after missile into the stations and laser towers. They had just destroyed the fourth station when message came from 87D1J1-40 that battle group was no longer capable of defending itself against organic forces deployed in Scale Plate Green. A89 advised 87th to pull back while at same time ordering his own fleet to jump to XS 347.

When Teladi Company Profit Estimate later that day calculated the losses, red banner, banner of tragic investment loss, was hoisted in many places across Teladi space. The stock markets plummeted while mercenary market reached new heights. For first time in fifty jazuras Board Of Profit, Investment and Trade Protection granted Profit Protection Force 150 millions of Credits. It was indeed a black day for Teladi society when one had to fall back to barbaric ways of violence to protect their ways…

In Xenon space, C500 reviewed the performance of battle group 14D2-84. For only small loss of one destroyer and twenty fighters of battle group 87D1J1-40, Xenon forces destroyed 124 freighters, four corvettes, three pocket cruisers and 51 fighters. One destroyer from the Jump Fleet would require extensive repairs at the shipyards. Most importantly sixteen stations were destroyed along and many others damaged. For small price, the Network had managed to disrupt several sectors and inflict huge material losses to the enemy for the first time… Perhaps new era has arrived for Xenon?



Continue to next chapter

[VioletRapture]

You know, you could at least use the same thread to post all your chapters in. Making 30 different threads for the same story with about 4 or 5 sentences in each is called spamming.

But it's a decent read.

[Warenwolf]

You know, you could at least use the same thread to post all your chapters in. Making 30 different threads for the same story with about 4 or 5 sentences in each is called spamming.

But it's a decent read.

I am first going to comment the second sentence of your post. The Unknown Heroes (16 chapters posted so far) was started a year ago with initially two chapters per month posted, later reduced to one chapter per month. Each of chapter has over well 4000 words in them (over 9000 in chapter 1). That makes it slightly more than 5 sentences in each thread... Usually I post entire chapters or in parts. This time I choose to "create chapter online", adding sentences whenever I have chance because of the real life issues.
By the way I haven't made 30 threads in "Creative Universe" subforum during the time I have registered as user of this forum...
Perhaps you were confusing me with someone else or speaking figuratively?
Of course, since I am legalist I strongly believe that if you think I am spamming this forum you should report this to the moderators.



About first sentence in your post:
Actually I was thinking about doing it that way, but decided against it because when I read other peoples work I found it more esthetically pleasing (in my opinion) when thread was started with chapter with comments on that text following later. With list of links in the very start linking to other chapters in the story the issue of finding previous chapters is easy (I even end my chapters with links to the next chapter of the story).
This method works for me and you are the first of my readers to complain (When I finish the part one, the story will be available in pdf format at least in one webpage so if you want to read it "all parts in one place" format you will be able to do so in one to two months time).

[Fly_by]

hey warenwolf thought you had given up on us. glade to see you back and still in form. i hope the "real life issues" sort them selfs out ok.

fly_by

[Warenwolf]

Hi, Fly_By!
It has been busy month with too little time to write, hence the slowdown in the production of new chapters. I have also fallen back on rewriting of old chapters but that will have to wait.

Anyway I got vacation this entire week so perhaps I am going to be able to finish chapter 16 at least. I got plenty of ideas it is "just" the matter of writing them down

[Fly_by]

i know what you mean i keep meaning to post a story up here but evey time i write about 4 lines then hit a "creative block" good to hear that chapter 16 is going to be finished.... i hope, good luck

Fly_by

[budda]

Warenwolf. Thanks for the story so far, just read through the whole lot up'til this chapter.

I appreciate that english is not your first language and to write even a half decent story must be difficult not using your mother tougue. Well done.

I just had to comment here as I agree with you that that each chapter is better in it's own thread. All the best long stories in the Creative Universe in the past have been done this way. Just keep doing what you are doing.

I hate reading a long story where all the chapters are in one single thread.

Cheers

[Gvork]

Great to see you back on the boards Warenwolf.
Slight grammatical error:
"purely defensive and relaying heavily on station’s static defenses"
Should be "relying heavily"

Thanks again for the stories.

[Warenwolf]

Great to see you back on the boards Warenwolf.
Slight grammatical error:
"purely defensive and relaying heavily on station’s static defenses"
Should be "relying heavily"

Thanks again for the stories.

Thanks for heads up. I corrected the mistake .

[Warenwolf]

This is it for now. It took some time for me to finish this and chapter is shorter than I usually tend to post and somewhat rushed in production, but I hope it will still give you a decent reading experiance

I consider this chapter for finished with only grammar and stylistic corrections remaining (which basically means rewriting and adding few sentences here and there – no reason for you to read this once again when it reaches 1.0 version ).

EDIT: I just realized that I had forgotten to name the chapter... Oh, well I will come up with one in version 1.0

[Gvork]

Apologies Warenwolf, bored at work today so had a little longer to read Erich's battle (great scene btw) and saw some more spelling mistakes:

Analyzes of the mock up asteroid
Analysis of the mock up asteroid

they were all armed but they hands were away from their weapons
they were all armed but their hands were away from their weapons

Sergey made a faint but Erich saw through it and did not react. He took one step closer to Sergey and made his faint attack.
Sergey made a feint but Erich saw through it and did not react. He took one step closer to Sergey and made his feint attack.

It was Sergey’s tour to attack.
It was Sergey’s turn to attack.

Of course we need to do additional data collecting and analyses
Of course we need to do additional data collection and analysis

regained his balance, impossible quick for a human
regained his balance, impossibly quick for a human

There had been eight attacks in relative short times on NSM’s Nividium convoys,
There had been eight attacks in a relatively short time on NSM's Nividum convoys,

Its a great story, I cant wait for the next chapter. Cheers.

[Warenwolf]

Hi, I thanks for notifying me about grammar and spelling mistakes. Corrections are included in final version.

About "Analyzes" vs "Analyses".
Is it not just American English version of the word? My MS Word spellschecker did not complain (it is set on US English)... Anyway, I used your version to be sure.

[KiwiNZ]

Great new chapter! Pretty fierce fight but by the looks of it, Erich is going to make it. I suspected a trap and am still not certain if it is a trap. It could well be they just want to lure Otto and Erich back to the station, which they'd otherwise would have avoided. Does killing the clan leader make Erich his successor?

Looking forward to the next part.