Chapter 3 is finished. I think it came out rather ok (as far as story is concerned) with perhaps few more grammar mistakes than usual but that cannot be helped. Many teachers (some with more and some with less enthusiasm), one ex-girlfriend from States and various people had tried to perfect my English but it seems the finer points of English grammar will always elude me…
I am sorry for somewhat long wait for it – the reason is that I ended up in hospital some time ago (for second time) and right after that I had my hands full with responsibilities that had piled up while I had been sick.
Some additional background info:
Comparing to the game, UH: The Pirate starts some time before X3: Reunion plot begins (Previous chapter touched upon Argon Federation’s acquisition of Elena’s Fortune system, which is already under Argon control when X3 game starts). This means that there is some mixture of X2 ship technology and X3 ship technology in first chapters, with even few references made to earlier X-games. This is done on purpose, to add to the atmosphere and create a feeling of continuation.
I will adhere to the X-Universe “reality” as set by the game, with only few deviations from the game, however when game offers no explanation on the certain things or contradicts itself, I will let my imagination fill the gaps (in this and last chapters of “UH: The Assassin” that thing would be the rankings of the Split military).
On the story in general:
I have tried to write a summary of entire “UH - The Assassin” so people can refresh their memory. But I found the task so time consuming that I gave up the idea. Besides if you meet a character that you can’t remember, probably you will find brief explanation in the story’s glossary. Anyways here is at least an overview of factions in the story for those of you that had not been reading the story for some time:
“The Syndicate”:
Max Rudel, Boris Gellar, Senator McCarthy Senior, Olav Lie. All of them connected in their past with Argon Navy. When Erich killed Max Rudel entire situation exploded. Later when Boris Gellar kills Erich’s parents, Erich assassinates him in return. The Syndicate controls NSM and as we will see, Elena’s Fortune sector too.
“Navy Intelligence”:
More specifically its anti-piracy section headed by Colonel Forsyth. Jane Freedman work here too. Navy Intelligence is used as tool by Senator McCarthy for his hunt of Erich. Both Jane Freedman and Colonel suspect that there is something more here on the stake than just revenge for the killing of old friend.
“Xenon”:
Particularly one of them – the unit A89.0001. Self-aware as no other Xenon had been before. Individualistic, another unusual trait among the machines. Perhaps we can expect other unusual acts by this Xenon…
Who or what [n]does not[/b] play a major role in the story:
Khaak - several stories have been written about them. In my story they are threat, sometimes omnipresent, but I have no plans about going in depth about them or their society.
Other, new races – again, others have done it.
Unknown objects – see above
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Links:
Ch 2 - In the shadow of a giant
Ch 1 - The Duel
* * *
Unknown Heroes - The Assassin (This is the first book, where all action starts)
The glossary of Unknown Heroes
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Chapter 3
Zeroes and Ones
“Battlemaster D’frt! Sensors indicate suspected Xenon presence in the sector. Two destroyers and large number of fighters,” the sensor duty officer reported to his superior. The Battlemaster* D’frt felt the familiar tingle in his chest. It was the delight of oncoming battle, he knew. He was a proud warrior, veteran of dozens of duels and as many battles. His many scars were testimony to his courage. Yet, the undefeatable enemy called age slowed his reactions and calmed his anger. His Family and Split commanders noticed it and they retired him to this station. It was supposed to be honor – but D’frt knew better. It was a retirement. Last post until death came. This new Xenon invasion was perhaps the last chance for decent battle and D’frt intended to seize it.
“Shall we inform the Patriarch’s Fist?” young Fang that D’frt didn’t remember the name of asked, referring to Split jump fleet that was tasked with fighting Xenon invasions.
D’frt sneered on the lesser Fang and dismissed the notion, “We will test the new weapons! It is not necessary to bother Patriarch’s Fist”
The new weapons D’frt referred to was the two 172 mm Rail Cannons, large cousins of the Mass Driver weapon.
With recent Split breakthrough in sensor technology, it became possible for Split Navy to use Rail Cannons to engage targets theoretically over 22000 km in space. In reality the gigantic proportions of new sensors and power requirements of Rail Cannons meant that so far only planetary defenses were to benefit from new innovations. Then someone came up with idea to revive the concept of Battlestations. These installations were rarely used and then only as forward bases, resupply points or as integrated part of a planetary defense systems. Everyone in Known Universe knew that there was nothing a battlestation could do that a destroyer could not. In addition, destroyers were more tactically flexible and less costly to produce. However, the new weapons and sensors enhanced firepower of fixed installations so much that they made battlestations tactically viable option. One of the first sectors to receive such station was Thyn’s Abyss, a system plagued by Xenon raids. D’frt was appointed commander and one to evaluate the new weapon systems’ capabilities.
“Sound the battle alarms! Give me full sensor readings of the enemy, Fang!”
“Yes, Battlemaster!” the Fang acknowledged and started immediately working on sensors readings in order to give the Battlemaster the information he wanted.
“More destroyers have jumped in, six in total now. Still no data on fighter strength”
“Prepare the Rail Cannons, prepare for three shot bursts”
“Immediately, Battlemaster!”
The Battlemaster looked over his crew. Nothing bad could be said about their training and the manner they did their tasks. Still… It was the tension in the air, the unspoken dread of the battle that bothered the old veteran. It was no great matter, he finally concluded. Soon they will taste their first battle and they will then grow up.
“Rail Cannon One is ready, ” targeting officer reported and after few sezuras he added, “Rail Cannon Two is ready”
The Battlemaster’s gaze wandered over tactical display. Six Xenon destroyers, advanced towards the battlestation, full speed, in spread formation, ignoring the system’s station cluster. Bit odd, D’frt thought, scratching the scar on his left hand. Still the change in Xenon tactical priorities did not change anything – the battle could only end one way.
“Cannon One, target X-alpha! Cannon Two, target X-bravo!” he gave the command.
The Fang repeated his command over the com and then reported, “Cannons ready to fire”
“On my mark,” D’frt said. He glanced at the tactical display - The six destroyers were still approaching, four of the nearest destroyers were now only forty kilometers away. They had to be using booster rockets, D’frt speculated, checking the targets’ velocity readings. It confirmed his suspicion – the display showed 1400 m/s and increasing.
“Open fire!”
The two 172 mm cannons fired three shots each, in rapid succession. Almost immediately, the impacts registered on leading two Xenon destroyers.
A89.0001 was satisfied, as much as a machine can be satisfied when two decoy destroyer mockups were engaged by the Split battlestation. The mockups had been produced by a Xenon shipyard in neighboring system, using metal sheets and only the necessary hardware, such as remote control systems and engines only powerful enough to maneuver the four mockups in desired position. The booster rockets were used in last phase of the plan, to propel the mockup ships towards the battlestation.
A89.0001 noted that the two false destroyers remained intact after hits and continued towards their goal, which was good. With booster rockets spent there was nothing to explode on the mockups and their structural integrity was still intact even after second salvo. Twenty seconds had passed since Rail Cannons had engaged the Xenon force and the distance to the station was less than 12000 meters. A89.0001 instructed the rest of the Xenon ships, the real ones, to start slow down sequence.
“Battlemaster! The Xenon vanguard doesn’t seem to slow down” the Fang reported.
“What!?” D’frt looked with dread on the tactical display. The four of the Xenon destroyers were on the collision course with the station.
The Xenon mockup destroyers slammed into the battlestation right on the projected time. Their mass was small compared to real destroyers, but still the battlestation’s shield projectors were overloaded and many of point defenses were gone. Thirty cycles later, just as planned, Xenon carrier jumped in, barely 500 meters from the station. Immediately it started disgorging Xenon fighters. Ten cycles later, the two real Xenon destroyers, including A89.0001, moved in weapons range. The defenseless station was quickly destroyed.
Then entire Xenon force preformed a microjump to the system’s station cluster. As expected, the local Split commander had not warned the Split fleet of their raid and A89.0001 could take all the time in the Universe destroying the stations. For the first time in tens of thousands of teracycles, a Xenon raiding fleet had penetrated organics’ defenses without any losses. The success meant that A89.0001’s chances of being deactivated by the Network were far lower now, a probability calculation that he was very aware of.
Erich studied with interest the man sitting across the table. Martosh, the name that the man used as he had presented himself, was undoubtedly false but that was of minor importance to Erich. Among the pirates in the clan, even the lowly cargo lift operators used false names and if he had started kicking out people out of the clan because of that, only Ni Lan would have remained onboard. Besides, Martosh was leader to men that Erich wanted to join the clan and minor detail such as a false name would not dissuade him from this goal.
Martosh was leader to Lucky Brigade company of mercenaries, although the name was very much misleading in this case, as the mercenary company neither was luck or brigade sized. Otto had no trouble finding relevant information about Lucky Brigade at Olmancketslat’s World, once he linked up with his acquaintance there, Joachim*. The buzz on the humanitarian base was that Okha City had fallen to the SCS and the fleeing AFS forces accused mercenary treachery for the defeat. Lucky Brigade had been one of the mercenary companies hired by warlord in Okha that supported AFS. Now that wouldn’t be too bad for Lucky Brigade apart from for the three facts - they haven’t been paid, the rumors of their incompetence spread and last but not least Martosh owed some Credits. His situation was that his first problem, that of lack of Credits, precluded a solution to the third problem, that of debt to people who shouldn’t be owned money to. Of course, once the rumors of their incompetence spread, they could not get any more contracts, meaning Martosh could not earn Credits that would allow him to pay of his creditors. Fighting rumors of the Lucky Brigade’s incompetence proved a double-edged sword. To AFS security agency the dilemma was a non-existent one – If Lucky Brigade had capable mercenaries, the city of Okha would have never fallen. And if they were incompetent they got their jobs on false premises and cost AFS a important city. In either case they AFS reasoned that mercenaries of Lucky Brigade should be lined up and shoot. Caught between increasingly more aggressive creditors and paranoid AFS generals, Martosh and the men he had left, fled far away from the Olmancketslat’s Treaty system, all the way to here on the Freeport station. Their stay had been paid with money from the sale of their transporter and that money was running short. The Lucky Brigade could not hide her forever because while AFS generals couldn’t reach them here, the creditors, Martosh owed money to, certainly could.
So Martosh should have jumped at any offer when Erich approached him. But he did not. Instead the last two stazuras two man had been arguing about prices, time payment, food quality and financing. Martosh behaved as if he was leader of a group of elite mercenaries, pondering one of many offers his group had.
He looked the cyberborg straight in the eyes, breathing normally with his pulse normal from what the cyberborgs eyes could see in IRR-Mode. He was dressed in leather jacket, a luxury for anyone in his line of work, that had stripes of POS film* sewed into the leather. A custom job, Erich gathered. Nowhere, not even in Teladi trade hubs was POS film sold over the counter. The green shades the man was wearing were also extraordinarily. They projected a HUD on wearer’s eyes and could be linked to variety of equipment. That too cost lot of credits. A smile danced on the mercenary leaders face and Erich wondered what kind of man he had in front of him. A compulsive gambler? He would not have lasted long in his line of work. Yet he seemed that way. Erich came up with offer that Martosh should have accepted whole–heartedly. Erich decided to try another tactics.
“Well, it seems that we cannot find common ground”
“It seems to me that you are not willing to search for it,” Martosh answered without blinking. Said a man that tries to press me 60 % over my initial offer, Erich thought.
The mercenary leader started to rise up from the chair as if preparing to go.
“You know I encourage my men to take small jobs whenever the opportunity arise, giving them chance to put few Credits in their pockets whenever they can”
“So?”
“Well one of my men went to Olmancketslat’s Treaty recently and came back yesterday”
“What was he doing in Olmancketslat’s Treaty?”
“Getting some info I needed…Anyways there was I just wanted to say that on the trip back he had some associates of certain Gunther Moltaker. They were very interested in a trip to this station,” Erich said. Gunther Moltaker was one of the creditors that Martosh owed money to.
“Why do you tell me this?” Martosh asked looking at Erich with hard eyes.
“It is self evident I think. Anyways my offer stands next twelve hours. I know there is small chance that you will change your opinion but if you do, you know where to find me”
“You are convincing man and leader. However such leaders don’t exactly breed loyalty do they,” Martosh smiled as if he had just told a joke.
“Tactically placed explosives and ability to vent all corridors of air within sezuras deal with that handicap of mine,” Erich answered him.
One station hour later, first group of mercenaries arrived with their gear.
“Dangerous game you play there,” Otto said as he and Erich observed on the monitors how the mercenaries mixed with pirates in the ship’s bar.
“Not really. Martosh will be angry but who cares?”
“His men?”
“And how many of them haven’t asked themselves why do they stick around with Martosh who can’t get them jobs and is more of liability than leader to them. I bet once they cleared the planet’s atmosphere of Olmancketslat’s World the men must have been upset once they fund out that they had to share exile with their leader. Remember, Martosh owed money, not those men,” Erich said pointing to the screen, “and I bet that Martosh sold that ship not just because they had to pay for the stay. Hell, they would have just left him here and continued on with new leadership and name”
The argument convinced Otto. The mercenaries on the bar laughed and cheered, looking as men reborn and not like infiltration squad, doing information gathering, looking at best way to take over the Mother.
“You got a point. I ask myself why we didn’t approach them individually,” he said to Otto.
“Don’t you think I kick myself over that all the time? That would have eliminated Martosh from the equation all together, but it didn’t came to me then”
“So how much do we pay them?”
“3.900.000 Credits per month”
“That is almost 400.000 more than we agreed on”
“Yep and those 400.000 go right into Martosh’s pocket… I had to give him a carrot”
Otto turned and looked at Erich with incomprehension.
“Erich?”
“Yeah?”
“When you want to kick yourself over this matter, tell me so I can come over and kick you couple of times too…”
Almost entire tazura after the main Xenon fleet had pulled out of the Thyn’s Abyss system, the Split fleet “Patriarch’s Fist” finally appeared. The remaining few Xenon ships that had retreated immediately, not offering battle, puzzling the Split fleet’s commander that had expected different type of response.
Not that there was much to fight over. Over dozen of stations had been destroyed, including both a well-defended system’s trading station and the most advanced battlestation in the Split arsenal. Only isolated mining stations, placed on asteroids far away from the system’s Gates, survived the Xenon raid. Perhaps the Xenon did not want to split their forces and risk defeat in detail from a Split force? But the Split commanders found it baffling – this is how a normal battlegroup commander would have thought, not mindless killing machine such as a Xenon.
Xenon did not have any reason to fear the Split’s jumpfleet. It was only after a human trader had warned passing patrol of the attack that wheels had been set in motion and even than many Battlemasters refused to believe human trader’s warning, delaying the deployment several stazuras. Reluctance of the Split families to go into each other territories played huge role too. Then finally a Split patrol from Family Njy decided to check out the matter, only to end up in a Xenon ambush. Only the patrol leader managed to turn and re-enter the Gate, bringing back the confirmation of Xenon raid.
The result of Split indecisiveness, arrogance and incomprehension that Xenon that had left Split for so long had decided to strike again, was a ghost sector with few factories left.
The Split quarantined sector, holding tight on the information regarding the Xenon attack. The information of any Split weakness was to be withheld from the public.
Still, rumors traveled as rumors do and within few tazuras the talk of every watering hole in the space was that Xenon had eliminated Thyn’s Abyss sector’s defenses without taking any losses. In a time when Khaak threat was on everyone’s mind, news of the Xenon attack shocked and confused every race’s intelligence agency. Once again, the Known Universe was reminded that the Xenon was still a force to reckon with.
The five freighters traveled in line, with heavy escorts orbiting them. It was forbidden for foreigners to enter and travel the Split sectors with more than one escorting fighter per freighter – this convoy exceeded the allowed number by nine. However, the convoy had no worries about local Split forces making issue out of that.
The reason for that was the Split politics. The Family Z’rt system was originally planed to be colonized by Ryk family, only to be snapped by the Family Z’rt who then went on making alliance with family Njy, the old enemies of Ryk. The two allied families’ territories were separated by the only sector that Family Ryk held, making any trade between those two difficult. Even the food supplies to Z’rt territories were hindered by Ryk family who claimed in the Council of All Families* that the troubles for freighters were caused by pirates operating in Z’rt territories.
As result of the tense situation, only heavily armed convoys dared making trade in the system cluster. Had local Z’rt patrols known the cargo of the three freighters they would not have been so passive.
The convoy’s cargo consisted of 32 mercenaries and pirates, all well armed, including one cyberborg. The convoy’s destination was the prison station belonging to the system’s ruling Split Family. The plan of the attack had been Erich’s creation, based on the careful surveillance of the sector and Suad Khan’s information regarding Split slavers operations. The prison worked as collection center for slave labor, where new slaves were brought to and distributed to place where they were needed. It also functioned as semi-official slave trading center, where buyers outside the Family Z’rt could buy limited number of slaves, which meant that station had open docking status. And this was the weakness in security that Erich wanted to exploit. The mercenaries and pirates could dock unopposed with the station, posing as slave traders. The attack was to happen after the prison station received replenishment of its slave stock, an event that happened regularly and Suad Khan provided detailed information about.
After the final decision about the attack happened, the recently hired mercenaries and prates had to go through rigorous training, in effort to learn to coordinate and execute an operation such as this. Mock up training area was constructed in the cargo hold of the Mother according to the plans of the prison station that Suad Khan sent. Erich knew enough about the military planning and execution to know that the allotted time for the training of the men was not nearly enough. The pirates were not the type of the men one could expect to hold their own in the battle, while mercenaries proved to consist of the usual mix of fortune and adventure hunters that could only be used effectively to set off the mines and such. However the mercenaries had among them few specialists that truly were knew what they were doing. There were five of them and along with himself, Erich considered this to be the core of the assault team, the men that would win the battle ahead.
Those five men would be in the first team that got out once they docked. He looked at them. All five were calm, watching on the monitor the approaching docking tunnel. The “Highway Robber” was first to dock and Erich would in few sezuras find out whether his plan was good or not. By now, Ni Lan was working his magic on jammers they had bought for the mission, tuning them to the communication frequencies of the station and Erich hoped that Ni Lan was electronics wizard the Boron claimed to be. Sending white noise on the comlink was equivalent with sending out an alarm signal, so Ni Lan had to walk a fine line, sending the “destructive” signals on the comlink frequencies, so that the carrier signal would be disrupted.
It was only few sezuras left until “Highway Robber” finished docking procedures, so Erich had to focus on his own task. He checked once again his lasrifle, an old but reliable K67 lasrifle, bought for occasion from Teladi arms dealers that asked no questions. He switched off the security and changed the setting to “chain” fire mode, meaning that when he held in the trigger, the lasrifle would fire in bursts with a pause of 0.4 sezura between each laser burst.
As the last of the clamps were attached to the freighter, Erich checked his gear one more time, took a deep breath and said, “On my mark”
The freighter came to complete halt and the signaling light in the cargo hold signaled docked status. The sound of the locks being set to unlocked status could be heard. Erich tuned in his vision to tactical mode and yelled into his mic, “NOW!”
The five men went out of the door within one split second, fanning out with their weapons in ready position. Behind them, the rest of the assault time emerged, acting as auxiliary combat element. The first Split to die, was the mechanic that arrived to check the freighter for any micrometeorite damage. He was harmless but before that information filtered through Erich’s nerves into his brain, the induced accelerated responses took over and Erich had placed a burst into mechanic’s chest. The rest of the Split crew in the docking area was also too slow to react. The targeting computer inside Erich’s cranium analyzed the targets and their threat probabilities based on estimated enemy response times, and processed the list into Erich’s vision. He worked through the list in less than two sezura, semi-conscious over what he was doing. The rest of the clan was busy too and dimly lit docks were illuminated from the laser fire hitting their marks and setting them alight. Unlike other races, the Split did not scream when faced with sudden and violent death and there was no screams alerting the nearby guards.
Soon, Erich’s assigned sector, everything from 10 to 13 o’clock from the cargo hold door, was empty of any threats and he allowed himself to turn to look after other targets. Two more Split died from his laser fire, before entire dock was clear.
“All clear here!” Erich said in the mic, his eyes wandering over the bodies looking for any survivors. Other group leaders confirmed too that the dock was clear.
The second phase of the attack had succeeded. Now it was time for main show.
“Ok, lets move on!” he ordered. As planed, his pirates would remain in the docks, holding area against any counterattack. The mercenaries, spearheaded by his own group moved into the one of the corridors that, according to plan Suad provided, would lead into area where newly arrived slaves were kept.
“Ok, signal them to overload the power conduits,” Otto said to Ni Lan.
The Boron pressed the button that sent a prerecorded code to the assault force.
“Done”
Otto started up the engines and holding the Mamba as close to the walls of the station as possible, in order to avoid being hit by station’s point defense, he flew to the glass wall over the docking tunnel where flight control of the station was situated. It was a difficult task since the shields were still active and if the hull of the Mamba or its own projected shielding sphere touched station’s shield, the ship would have been pushed violently away from the station and probably into the firing arc of one of the defensive batteries. Otto had to monitor carefully the distance readings and at same time maneuver the Mamba.
“Shields are dropping…60 percent… 44… 20… Shields are down!”
“Excellent,” Otto said as he turned the Mamba’s high energy plasma throwers towards the glass wall. He pressed the trigger. Long burst of green plasma tore the glass wall, followed by the violent reaction as the stations atmosphere was sucked out, along with two bodies.
“They won’t be sending message drones this tazura,” Otto said grimly as one of the bodies slammed on Mamba’s hull.
“They may try to get behind us,” Erich said in the mic to the rest of the team, “leave four guys behind to guard this intersection, rest of you follow me.”
In that moment, one of the Split guards chose to pop out behind the corner. Nobody in assault team managed to react, except Erich. Before the Split managed to press in the trigger, his helmet and chest was hit by a short laser burst. He dropped to the floor with his uniform on fire, his body twitching couple of times in agony. Two men run ahead, while the rest provided cover. They fired few laser bursts into the body to make sure that Split was really dead and then progressed ahead, checking the area for more opposition. The Split guard had been alone. Rest of the assault team continued. As they passed the body of the dead Split, one of the pirates checked the body for the valuables.
Despite the fact that assault had begun eight mizuras ago, the Split guards had not yet managed to organize a coherent defense. The mercenaries had destroyed stations communications and power grid, further confusing the defenders. Ni Lan had made a virus that assault group had managed to upload to station’s defense computer network which was surprisingly weakly secured. The virus confused the life detectors, sending the guards in wrong part of the station, making them chase virtual ghosts. All of this contributed to make defenses scattered and uncoordinated - the assault party had never met more than four guards at time. Still, even with assault team achieving local number superiority, if one was not careful, Erich knew that in such situations one’s own overconfidence could easily get you killed.
With this in mind, he carefully turned around next corner in the corridor – only to be met by storm of laser fire. Erich’s tactical implant processed the visual information, decided that this was the time for an autonomous decision and using Erich’s enhanced neural pathways and muscle fibers, reversed the previous motion Erich had done, putting him in same position where Erich had been before he leaned. Fraction of sezura later, a barely measurable fraction at that, laser fire passed where Erich had exposed his body, leaning to see what was behind the corner. It was invisible for the members but its results, when the laser fire hit the wall, were not. The paint and metal below were scorched and area around glowed red in the dim corridor, radiating heat. Smell of burnt ozone was heavy in the air. The others looked with respect on their commander, pirates and mercenaries alike, seeing that he had dodged that what you could not dodge – laser fire traveled at the speed of light…
Erich was unaware of other’s admiring stares because he ordered replay of the scene he saw before the tactical implant decided that he was in harm’s way. Of course, in the brief moment he had peaked over the corner he had been unaware of what he had seen before the emergency system kicked in, but everything he saw was stored to small organic based HDD. Now the relevant data was retrieved.
The stored information appeared in front of his eyes – a laser turret on the wall and lone guard holding an energy shotgun. The Split had no time to react when he saw Erich, but the turret had started tracking immediately. Just before it fired, the tactical implant had initiated evasive action.
Erich signaled for hand grenades to be thrown in, giving agreed upon signal, a waving clenched fist and four fingers held up, signaling the number of grenades to be thrown. Four mercenaries took out their grenades and waited for his signal. He nodded. The four explosions happened simultaneously, their deadly effect increased by the confined space of the corridor. Immediately Erich leaned around, ready to fire on any threat. There was none. The turret had been destroyed; the explosions of four HE grenades having overloaded its shields and smashed the housing just as easy as pneumatic hammer would crash an empty can of soda. The mangled body of Split was not recognizable, with chunks of it spread across the corridor. Explosion had been powerful enough to blast open several doors.
As Erich was about to order the assault team to advance, one of the mercenaries they had left behind came sprinting.
“We got incoming hostiles from the left corridor, at least 20 of them. No way four of us can hold them back,” he said breathing heavily.
“Five of you,” Erich said to his personal team, “stay here and hold the area. Rest of you follows me, including any explosive experts”
He ran back, following the mercenary that had brought the message. Soon the sounds of battle could be heard. Two of his comrades were exchanging fierce fire with guards. The third was struggling to spray anti-septic spray on his badly burnt left shoulder. The wall behind them was scorched black with laser fire, a clear indication of which side had benefit of more firepower.
“Every one ok?” Erich asked.
“Just Kultha here had been unlucky,” one of the pirates said nodding to the wounded human, “but we are running low on energy packs”
The plan of this section of the station came up in front of his eyes. He could see that this corridor linked docks with both elevators leading to all docks. In addition there were stairs next to the elevator that linked the deck above and below with this section.
Erich turned to the explosive expert, a Paranid that had followed him, “I want you to follow me, keeping a distance of 40 meters or whatever distance that doesn’t place you in danger”
“It will be as you wish, Master”
“Excellent. Give me your hand grenades, all of you”
Taking the grenades, he placed them where he could easily reach them and then he redied himself.
“Remember - 40 meters”
“Yes, Master”
Erich jumped and rolled in the air as he threw the first grenade towards the Split guards. As he was on the floor, he quickly fired two bursts on two targets and then rolled again. Everything took less than 2 sezuras and would have been impossible for any regular man without aid of implants. The ferocity and speed of Erich’s attack stunned the Split guards and Erich rushed to the other end of the corridor, without being fired upon. Again he threw a grenade, and rolled forward and to side again. This placed him on the corner where the corridor turned around a turret emplacement. No danger of crew coming behind him and killing him, he quickly registered. The warning signs above the doors were warning of low atmosphere on the other side. He continued his attack around the corner. The two grenades had killed eight Split guards and wounded two of them. Quick scan of the body of one of the wounded told Erich that the seriously wounded Split would never pose a threat to him. The other Split wounded tried to grab him rifle and simultaneously hold back the intestines that threatened to spill out of his stomach that fragments from the grenade had tore open. Erich fired once and Split twitched and fell on the floor.
Further behind in the corridor, four Split guards had stopped what they were doing in the shock from the sudden killing of their comrades. Erich rolled to the side fired once, rolled again, firing twice more and again rolled. The last Split was still reaching for his laspistol when laser burst hit him. The spasms of his body, as the body reacted to the fact that some parts of it had been fried, gave the dead Split an illusion of making a strange dance, in what pirates called the “last dance”. He would have better chance if he had used the PMD that guards had been carrying, instead of reaching for his laspistol, Erich thought. The combat was like that – one bad call and you were dead. Often a chance decided whether you lived or not. If the last guard had reached for the PMD’s trigger, he would still have died but the PMD’s fire, even a very short burst would have killed the cyberborg in the narrow corridor.
It appeared that there was no more Split guards around. Still Erich threw a grenade and rushed ahead whenever he came around a corner. After short period of time, he arrived at his target, the elevator shaft and the two stairs. He checked whether the Paranid could see him and signaled him to come forward.
“You got explosive?”
“Indeed Master, one that could be easily triggered by laser fire”
“Enough to collapse this section?”
“Yes, Master”
The two of them placed the pack with explosive in front of the elevator door, quickly returning to the corridor from which they arrived. Just as they were about to reach the first corner of the corridor, Erich turned around and fired a quick burst into the package.
At first, nothing happened, except lots of smoke being made and Erich wondered if the Paranid explosive expert had miscalculated something. The Paranid on the other hand urged the cyborg to move on quickly and Erich decided that Paranid mercenary knew what he was doing so he followed the Paranid in quick jog through the corridor he had just cleaned from Split guards.
As they were passing the last turn, coming back to place where four mercenaries were waiting for them, the tremendous blast could be heard and walls shook so violently that Erich thought that the explosion had breached the outer wall, but he couldn’t feel that the air was being sucked out. He made a mental note about the Paranid explosive expert. There were always uses for capable explosive experts.
“The corridor has collapsed,” one of the mercenaries reported the rather obvious fact.
“I see it and I hear it,” Erich commented dryly.
Otto carefully flew the Mamba closer to the point defense cannon, cautious not to alert the defense crews of his presence. The Mamba was almost touching the station’s wall as he flew nearer and nearer. His task was just as important as the one assault team was doing.
The clan had not enough manpower to take over the station. The plan was only to take over the part where new arrivals were – the men not yet beaten and abused into submission. This meant that large parts of the station would be untouched by the fighting including the defensive turrets. The moment three freighters left the docking tunnel they would be inside the firing arc of several turrets that would gladly blast the attacking force out of the space. It was Otto’s task to make sure they never get chance to do that.
“I don’t think he had seen you,” Ni Lan said, watching intently the cannon barrels through cockpit glass. The tips of his tentacles were white from the tension.
“We shall find out soon enough,” Otto said as he used the thrusters to maneuver the Mamba so that all of the high energy plasma throwers could fire on the turret. This was a risky part, since it meant that cannon barrels could bear on the ship too. Otto counted on one and half sezura rule – the time for an enemy to process and react to your actions. A limit that had to do with body’s physical limitations and that no amount of training or experience could improve on. Once the target lock signal sounded, he fired.
As the turret exploded, very much relieved that they still lived, Ni Lan commented, “Five down, three more to go”
First upon reaching the holding cells for slaves, did assault team meet an organized defense force that tried to hold them off.
“Four or five guards ahead,” one of the mercenaries said. He was holding an energy shotgun and was periodically firing back.
“Give me your hand grenade,” Erich said to the nearest mercenary. Taking it, he activated it and run into the corridor, throwing himself on the floor and rolling around, making it difficult for Split guard to aim. He threw the grenade towards the defenders position with only sezura and half before detonation. The shockwave of the explosion throw him back, thrashing him around as a leaf in a hurricane. Erich counted on that Split guards would take longer than he would to come to their senses. He was right. As Erich went into the room the corridor was leading to, he saw the four guards on the floor, obviously in shock after the explosion. He put a burst in each of them.
Then he was hit hard in his back. He stumbled forward, the pain shooting through his body as if someone had hammered a large nail through him. His implants subdued the pain and he was 100 percent functional within few moments. The warning that the full functionality could not be maintained flashed over his vision. Erich turned quickly around, ready for another attack.
The fifth Split was the warden as Erich could see from the traditional weapon Split was wielding. It was an iron ball with spikes on it, hanging in a chain that was fastened to warden’s wrist. It had small thrusters in the iron ball that wielder could control, making the weapon far more manageable than one would expect from such ancient weapon. If the Split had followed up with another strike, aiming for the head, Erich would have died. However, the warden had not expected a cyberborg. Erich’s quick recovery was unexpected to him.
Erich took few steps backwards, placing himself outside the reach of the weapon, lifted K67 and fired a salvo into a warden that haven’t yet come with terms that his intended victim still was moving.
“Clear!” Erich said in the mic, after checking that no more guards were around. First then did he notice the warm salty taste in the mouth. When he had been hit he had bitten hard into his tongue. His med-implant informed him that damage was superficial and that regenerative processes were underway, so he just spat out the blood and ignored the pain. Erich was far more worried of the type of damage he received when Split had hit him in the back – to his relief, the summary of the damage showed that it was only flesh wound, that although painful, was not really dangerous.
“Master, this is the area were newly arrived slaves are kept. The cells should be right behind that door,” one of the mercenaries said, a Paranid.
“Alright, blast it open.”
“Immediately Master”
Erich watched as the two mercenaries professionally placed the explosives on the door, just enough to blow open the door and not kill everyone behind it or in front of it. Few mizuras later, two small explosions sounded, barely more audible than a firecracker and the door flew open.
Immediately four of the mercenaries stormed inside in order to subdue any potential opposition.
“No Split guards in sight, Master,” they called back.
Erich stepped in. The prisoners watched him with curiosity, crowding in front of the bars, struggling to see what was happening.
“I am Erich, the Master of Black Gang Clan. I need tough men and women – and I heard that this was the place to get them. The warden outside disagreed but a laser burn in his head convinced him otherwise. So this is the deal – those of you that want to live come with me - those of you that want to die working as slave in a Split mine can stay behind in the cells.”
He turned to the Paranid mercenary, “Open the doors to the prison cells”
As the mercenaries left the holding cells area, every prisoner followed them…
Former slaves took longer to load into the third freighter than expected, but the clan had nothing to worry about. By knocking out the communication grid, they had decapitated the defense more thoroughly than they assumed during the planning. The Split security on the station relied entirely on electronic surveillance and automatic defense systems to keep slave population under control and when those were gone, the Split security guards simply couldn’t cope without. They were still chasing Ni Lan’s electrical ghosts and whoever was leading the other side, had not brains to send guards to the docks, the only escape route for any assaulters who arrived by ships.
Twenty nine mizuras after the attack began, the last of the prisoners walked aboard and the three freighters undocked. As they were leaving the docking tunnel, the “Highway Robber” dropped a container with power cells. Inside the container, tucked between energy cells, was a detonator that was designed to detonate when it no longer received any signal from the “Highway Robber”.
One kilometer from the station, the three freighters and their escorts activated their gateless jumpdrives. Almost the same moment they disappeared, the detonator exploded inside the container “Highway Robber” had dropped, igniting the power cells and producing an explosion that blinded every sensor within 70 km radius, leaving the local Split forces puzzled about what had happened.
Only when the prison station had failed to send their regular reports to the system’s Battlemaster, did the Split forces investigate. But by then it was too late to do anything.
During last few wozuras, senator McCarthy Senior had ensured that Olav Lie would climb the social ladder. And as some dared to comment to their trusted friends in the halls of the Senate, of course not too loud, the senator was man of his words when it was beneficial to him.
As the Elena’s Fortune was annexed by Argon Federation, McCarthy had convinced the Senate with help of his daughter, to name Olav Lie the security director of the new colony. Elena’s Fortune would be under special status for the next fifty jazuras and McCarthy intended to place his men in key positions.
Sector security director commanded the police forces and acted as liaison between civilian government and military presence in the sector. Security director was also responsible to raise the sector’s militia. Unofficially, Olav Lie’s new position allowed him to keep an eye on the sector’s two senators in case they strayed too far from the path McCarthy had decided. They owed their positions to McCarthy but men were forgetful specie and Olav Lie was there to ensure that two senators did not “forget” anything.
For most observers, the most astonishing thing was the vigor Olav Lie put into raising the sector militia. Responsibility of raising new sector militia was in fact a security director’s responsibility but most directors shirked or at least did not put much effort in it. Raising a militia was an expensive undertaking and it caused even much confusion when one news service reported that it was mostly financed through NSM money. Everyone in the political life knew how much NSM and McCarthy family were linked.
As security director, Olav Lie supervised closely who was recruited into the sector militia forces, even down to the mechanic level. Most of the ground crews were former NSM employees from NSM security division and it was true for pilots too. Their loyalty was not blind of course, but he could relay on them to take his orders without question. He also had benefit of having files on most of them.
As the attacks on NSM continued, the militia got their own pocket cruisers, one of the first militias to do that in Federation. Normally the Navy would objected to an essentially civilian force having three pocket cruisers, but with mounting losses to Khaak raids and news of Xenon raid on Thyn’s Abyss, no admiral was willing to raise the question.
The new pocket cruisers were not conversions from merchant freighters – they were prizes captured from the warlords when Elena’s Fortune was invaded by Argon Federation. All three of them were of Flail class, constructed on the Independent world of Clavetius and nobody knew how the warlords got their hands on them. They were balanced designs, unlike the specialty focus in modern ship designs of such type. All of them had two launchers for torpedoes for use against capital ships. In addition, a missile turret on the top, in 40 mm and 80 mm tube configuration, ensured anti-missile and anti-fighter capability. Both front and sides of the pocket cruisers featured particle accelerator turrets in twin configuration, making it six particle accelerator cannons in total. The pocket cruisers were much larger than normal conversions from the freighters and were in fact larger than Dolphin super freighters.
Few noticed and of those that did even fewer talked about it, when one of the pocket cruisers one tazura disappeared.
The successful operation was celebrated throughout the Mother and nobody celebrated as much as former slaves. Some of them could not believe their luck and wandered around in shock, waiting to wake up from the dream.
As usually, Erich did not participate in the party, preferring instead to immerse himself in the day-to-day business of the clan, with legs on the table, coffee mug in one hand and watching reports scrolling over the screens.
It was in this position Otto found him.
“Ah…there you are! Don’t tell me that you reading reports while there is party down there”
“I’ll pass this one”
“Come on! Load of girls arrived from Freeport and they don’t seem to be the picky type so you got a decent chance to lure few of them into your bed. Especially if they take few drinks first…or bottles”
“I’ll pass, thank you. We got forty pilots and thirty one technicians out of this operation. Rest is utter garbage but that is the average pirate too. All in all we profited well on this operation”
“Ok, if you insist being boring we will talk business. You remember Sulk’har?”
The memory augmentation implant in his cranium made sure he did as relevant data scrolled over Erich’s vision,
“Split master engineer, working on Elysium. Made us two custom Bayamons that we thrashed very soon after. Not very wise use of our Credits in retrospective…”
“Well, he wants to join us. I said yes, if you are not against it. He is down in the bar”
“Are you kidding? We have been looking for decent engineer for some time now. All I got is a Teladi that thinks docks are his own private property and tries to charge me for using the pressure pumps on the docks to clean my ship. On MY OWN STATION!”
Otto laughed, “I know him. Crow gave him some real beating last wozura when he tried to charge him a parking fee”. Then he became serious again, “So what do you plan to do now? We got enough men; threats to our leadership of the clan are removed or neutralized. We are in a mini-battleship and we got Suad Khan providing us best intelligence on this side of Known Universe. So what are we going to do now?”
Erich was silent for few moments, watching on the screen people having fun in the crowded bar two decks below. On the next screen the inventory status of the Mother rolled over, along with number of detected life forms aboard. A number largely increased lately.
“Now? Now we go on offensive”
Continue to next chapter
Unknown Heroes: The Pirate - Chapter 3 (finally finished!)
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Warenwolf
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Unknown Heroes: The Pirate - Chapter 3 (finally finished!)
Last edited by Warenwolf on Fri, 30. Nov 07, 20:17, edited 2 times in total.
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Captain Chris sTc
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Gvork
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KiwiNZ
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collins50
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Captain Chris sTc
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NAG, NAG, NAG.-
Warenwolf
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Warenwolf
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, I present you the finished chapter 3. New part starts from "The freighter came to complete halt...", however my advice is to reread entire thing because I added few bits here and there.-
KiwiNZ
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Captain Chris sTc
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