Holy cow![/color]
Beware of Loki.
......................................................
[Chapter VI]
Azula
"Okay, I think I've a purchaser for that Perseus. Would you...? Thanks." Evy's ability in multitasking was naturally way higher than Golos, so the AS was in charge of managing the details of each sale with customers picked by the hands of the boron.
Most of the scavenged ship where hardware wich beforehand belonged to the Argon military, making it impossible to sell the ships to the official market.
This, and the fact that they were used and in some cases had been abused, the ships worth was further shortened. 5 of 13 ships had been sold, when Evy received a data burst.
"Incoming transmission from 'Outlaws Heaven'." "Put them through." Evy's virtual representation left the screen to make room for a human face.
"So you're that Squid everybody is talking about." the man said and laughed rather impolitely. Golo ignored his attitude for the moment.
"What do you want?" he asked, making his most serious face, wich caused another laughter.
"Relax man. Azula-hime told me to contact you."
"The princess?" Golos Eyes widened and he couldn't trust the translator about what he heard. The human laughed again, this time he seemed annoyed
"Never heard another Azula. At least, not on board this station. So, yes, Azula-hime it is." "How may I help her?"
"You may sell the Blue Fire Clan four of the Novas you claimed during the raid in Elena's fortune. We'll pay you a good price. You won't find many customers for stolen military Novas in Argon Space anyways, won't you?"
"He's probably right." Evy added, suspending the conversation for the brief moment she needed to say this. Golo nodded.
"Deal." "Excellent. The princess will be pleased with your decision. Just leave the Novas on the Shipyard for us to claim them. Your payment will be transferred as soon as they are in our possession." "Confirmed."
"Nine sold, leaves us with four to take care of." Evy agreed and suggested:
"I think we should keep the Mercury Hauler. With the CLS from the Buster Raider, it would make a decent ship to store freight and your captives."
"Okay. So we'll keep the Merc, the Falcon and Kappa. That should be all we need at the moment." "I guess. With just the two of us it'd be pointless to keep, what we don't need." "You could fly the other ships..." "Don't overestimate my capacity. It's one thing to order the Ships Autopilot around, another thing to take remote control of a ship. I may be able to do it with one ship at a time being in the same sector, but apart from that I'm not better than the average auto pilot."
"Yeah, I didn't though of that and I'd want to keep you unique. Okay, that means we need a crew." "If you want to expand, that is indeed the only way." "Why wouldn't I want to? I'll be the pirate king one day!" "You want to be." "Yes, I don't know what's wrong with my dream. Well, I don't care either. You didn't believe we'd come this far in the first place." "I admit I thought it to be next to impossible."
Golo sighed.
"You could've said that a bit more polite." "I'm not allowed to lie." The Lar laughed.
"I know, but you're not forced to tell the truth either."
Evy was quite for a moment and arranged the To-Do-List.
"You'll need to decide wich of the Novas to keep. Also, the Falcon and the Mercury Hauler will need some Names, if you don't want to refer to them by type." "Thought of that, had some Ideas."
"Geez, it sure was a pain to get all these Ships back together and up for sale." Maybe for the first time in his still short life as a pirate, Golo felt more comfortable in the pilot seat of the Starfish than outside of it.
They repaired, they had cargo moved around, they searched and found buyers in the local underworld. For every ship but one. The Military Nova Raider not sold to the Blue Fire Pirates was still docked in his initial bay. Repaired and stripped of everything but his SETA-Device.
The four ships Golo had decided to keep had been upgrade with everything stripped from the other ships. Software Enhancements and Hardware Upgrades of every kind had been distributed between them and the money from the sales went into tuning the engines and rudders or into enhancing the cargo bays. Also the Captives were moved from the now "Moldy Crow" named Falcon to the 'more comfortable' because wider cargo hold of the Mercury with the odd name "Rule of Acquisition XLVIII"
Swordfish and Kappa were still fully equipped with either PACs or IREs, but the choice of weapons for the falcon was somewhat more messed. With Four PACs, one PRG, one PBG, one IRE and at least a FBL it was stocked, but nothing more.
The Rule of Acquisition had to be content with a single IRE for missile defense duties.
The three fighters were fully shielded, while the Freighter had only 60MJ of Shielding from 25 and 5MJ-Modules. Not the best, but still enough to work.
Upon exiting the station, Golo noticed a lonesome Paranid Hades traveling in the direction of the shipyard. Immediately the Swordfish turned and approached the enemy from the rear.
"What do you ahve in mind?" Evy asked sceptically.
"Destroying it." "You know this thing has Tomahawks on board, do you?" Golo nodded.
"How many?" "Enough to turn us into background radiation." "Evy..." "Two."
The AS didn't want to encourage her creator to take the M8, but she had to answer, even if only in the second go.
"Ridiculous. Lock the target."
The Hades' rear turret opened fire only moments after Golo unleashed the first volley of PAC-Fire onto the Hades Shields, wich quickly dropped.
"Shields down to 57%, you should utilize the steering jets." Evy commented, while bolts of accelerated particles continued to harass both ships shields.
Golo agreed and steered out of the incoming fire, while Edy took care of reducing the Hades' hull integrity, after its shields collapsed.
"Warning, the enemy ship armed its warheads. I recommend immediate retreat." "It's alright, cease fire and let me take care of it." The ship dived, enabling Golo to aim for the launchers. When the hades launched the two tomahawks, it practically turned itself to dust.
"I'm impressed." "Thanks." "Still, it was a unnecessary high risk." "That's what a pirates life is all about. You'll get used to it." Golo turned is eyes inwar for a moment.
"I doubt it.
The Starfish turned and set course for President's End, with Brennan's Triumph in mind as point of destination. The Kappa and the Moldy Crow had been ordered to accompany the Rule of Acquisition to "keep the Passengers safe on the Way back to Elena's Fortune".
Of course Golo had no intention to let go of even a single of his captives until selling them on the Slave Markets of Outlaw Heaven.
Elena's Fortune was dead silent. The pirates had called of their forces, when a Colossus accompanied by a Minotaur showed up, both of them now laying in wait near the Military Outpost.
The Trading Station, a Rhymes Factory and a Cattle Ranch had been turned to piles of scrap. A successful raid in any case.
Continuing into Split Fire, Golo loaded his weapons to fly several attacks on Split Transports in the System, destroying four Ships of various Classes without any big problems and being able to cap another Perseus before proceeding into Brennan's Triumph and right into Danna's Chance, unwilling to wait for his convoy to arrive and doing nothing in the mean time.
The system was not as busy as usual, only a abandoned Susanova and a lonesome Astronaut indicated an already ceased battle. Golo approached the bailed Yaki slowly.
"Hey there, need a ride?" he commed.
"That would be great. Just to the next Pirate Station." "Sure. Hop in."
"Do you want to enslave him also?" Evy asked.
"No, we'll space him near the Rehabilitation Facility. I don't want a Yaki to haunt me. Separate him from the other guests." "Confirmed."
Things went like decided. The Yaki pilot was spaced near the next pirate Station and happily docked there. He wouldn't find his ship where it was though, since the boron took it as payment for the little rescue operation.
Upon exiting the gate into Nopileus' Memorial, the scanner showed a rather lively sector. Most of the traffic however went to the east, with the exception of a few paranid and split traders.
The first target to fall into the hands of the Boron was another Perseus, a dedicated weapons trader without noteworthy cargo and only a few fighter drones. Three or four attacks late it was mostly destroyed and the pilot bailed, condemning himself to a life as a slave to one of the lowlifes he despised that much.
The following scout ships pilot did choose death over slavery and was granted to and in the little fireball his ship exploded into.
Next on the list was a Demeter Super Freighter, wich carried a load of soybeans. At first, the pilot refused to give up on his ship, but after his two MK2 Drones bit the dust and the freighter was near to do the same, he finally came to his senses and bailed, choosing live over death, and regretting it the very moment he was picked up by the Starfish.
Waiting for his weapons to recharge, Golo already marked the next targets. An undershielded Split Chimera guarded by a single M5 and two more Freighters belonging to the Paranid.
The fight with the did go as every fight with them, it was hard and fast, nearly scrapping the Chimera, while the Swordfish had to endure some scratches on the hull, driving it under 90% integrity.
Golo collected the Pilot, claimed the enemies ship and repaired his own where it was necessary, before he set course for the next targets.
Those turned out more of nuisance than expected. Not only where both of them armed with PACs, but they where close enough to each other to cause the second freighter to help the first one.
"The enemy deployed drones." "How many?" "12 all together." "12?! He only had 4 on board." "Correct. But the second target seems to have decided it'd be a good idea to join the fight." Golo took a barrel roll and sheered to the left to loose the drones following him.
"How troublesome. Switch to configuration two, we don't need all the PACs dto destroy these drones."
The Starfish turned, aimed and blew three drones up with just a couple of shots.
"Shield Threshold 80%, dropping." Reversing the thrust, Golo stopped the ship in an instant, causing 3 of the drones following the ship to pass and get into the cone of fire. The first was destroyed upon entering, the second and third didn't managed to turn, before they also were destroyed.
"Shields down to 40%, we take fire from the freighters." "Got it." The Star Fish accelerated and outdistanced the freighters for good, before turning and taking on another batch of drones.
"Shields critical. 15% and dropping." Golo steered and turned like crazy to get rid of the last four drones, finally killing all of them with only 1% of Shields left on the Starfish.
Unfortunately, neither of the Freighter Pilots decided to stay alive, instead, both blew up along with their ships.
"Damned Monks."
The next raids went better. A Kaiman and another Demeter, both Super Freighter Variants were abandoned fairly early, leaving them to had back for 'Outlaw Heaven' with a far more reasonable speed compared to the chimera or the former capped Demeter.
An uneventful period followed, until a Manta entered the scene. A Manta owned and piloted by a split.
"Didn't you want a TP?" Evy asked and highlighted the ship.
"It's a boron ship owned by a faction hated by the borons. I think you're allowed to take it back." Golo sighed.
"We'll take it. But the TP I wanted was an Angel, not a Manta. The Manta is just old fashioned." "I don't really see a difference between TP and TP." "It's not about the class. It's about the status and symbolic meaning." "I see."
Apparently, the Split was a bit more interested in his TP. He refused to hand the ship until is was merely qualifying as a swiss cheese, but finally bailed and was promptly taken captive.
Golo just had Evy take over the Dolphin, when the ship was hit by a couple of energy blasts and turned into a fireball.
"Golo, you should come back, Paranid Patrol incoming, Distance is just above 3km." Golo turned his space suit, having a quick glance at the Heavy Nemesis, accompanied by a dozen of fighters ranging from M5 to M3+. More Ion Shards where already on the way, failing to hit the little ship and the space suite for the time being.
As fast as possible Golo made his way back to the Starfish and accelerated to top speed, right when some of the shots hit and stripped the ship of ~70% of it's shields in an instant.
Golo steered to a nearby asteroid and hid in its shadow, while the Nemesis strictly followed it's course to the gate into Danna's Chance, casually obliterating a pirate wing and destroying one of Golo's capped Demeters.
"It looks like we're safe now." The last escorts of the Nemesis passed the Gate.
"Keep an eye on the Chimera, it's still in Danna's Chance and I don't want it to get caught like the other ships." Golo replied with a grim face.
"Will do. Are you okay?" "Yeah, just pissed." The Starfish sped up and left the Asteroid. Golo targeted a bypassing Perseus, the only paranid ship left in the sector, and opened fire without a warning, determined to make the pilot pay for the lost ships with his life. Even when the paranid bailed, his suit was just targeted and a few particle bursts blew the pilot into oblivion.
Evy kept silence. 'Pissed' slightly failed to describe Golos mood adequately. So instead of questioning his action, she searched for a replacement for the Manta and found it in form of a Hermes passenger transport in Danna's Chances, moving to Brennan's Thriumph.
"The Chimera is save and there's something you might want to know: A Hermes filled with passengers."
Golo looked at what Evy showed him.
"Paranid. What's with the Nemesis?" "She would have crossed path with the Chimera right now. I assume its destination was freedoms reach." "Why...? Well, not of concern to us. Take us to this Hermes, I'll rest for the moment." "Confirmed. Do you wish to hear some relaxing music? I downloaded 'Tracks of Nishalla' recently." "Yeah, thanks."
It was not until 4kms away from the Gate to Split Fire, that the Starfish caught up with its target. Upon entering weapons reach, Golo took the back the helm and unleashed his fury upon the TP, destroying it's 5 defensive fighter drones without even getting a single hit.
Soon after the pilot tried to get away by bailing, but as usual the Starfish gathered him out of the void and afterwards escorted the Hermes with its full dozen of passengers - all of paranid origin - to "Outlaw Heaven, where all the other captured ships and Golos little convoy already where docked.
"I'll have a look on the slave markets." The boron informed his AS, while leaving his seat.
"Anything you want me to do?" "Nothing in particular. Keep an eye on the ships and enjoy yourself." "Okay."
When Golo set foot on the gangway, a Split accompanied by two armed Humans appeared at the entrance to the hangar bay. All three of them carried a stylized Blue Flame Symbol in one way or another.
"You Golo?" the split asked with a harsh undertone. Golo eyeballed the three and nodded.
"You come. Princess Azula summoned."
The boron figured he'd have no choice but to follow the invitation.
"Lead the way." he replied and tried to sound as if he wasn't daunted. The humans flanked him and the Split led the group to an elevator at the end of the hangar deck, wich carried the group all the way to one of the top decks of the station.
The door opened into a large hall with wide panorama windows and made of precious materials. Lo pitched classic human music filled the room with a warm flair, and despite his company, Golo was quite comfortable.
The Hall was filled with several lounge suites, with about half of them occupied by people who looked as wealthy as shady. Most noticed the grouped with a quick glance and ignored them afterwards.
At the far end of the Hall an especially precious suite was occupied by a human woman in her late twenties, accompanied by two females - who looked like teenagers - of Argon and Split origin. All of them very attractive spoken in humans standards.
Even as a boron, Golo was able to notice the sizzling sexuality engulfing the three of them.
"Lar Golo, I suppose." the oldest of the three raised her voice with an undeniable grace. Her black hair emphasized her bright blue eyes, wich reminded Golo of Nishallas Oceans.
"I'm honored to meet you, Princess." he replied, lowering his head as if she was a member of the royal family.
"You are. But it is my pleasure as well. Please, raise your head and take a seat."
The boron did as he was told and placed himself at an armchair to the Left of the three womans.
"How may I help you?" he asked.
Azula smiled, whispered something to her human escort and watched her leaving the scene, before she answered.
"I want to ask you to join my crew. You only stepped in here recently, and now you're one of the most active pirates at pirate alley." she stated.
"If you join me, I'll provide you with a ship, even a fleet if you keep working like this. You'll make yourself a name among the pirates in no time."
Golo gulped. The offer was tempting, but he had already made his decision right after the first words.
"I afraid..." he started
"I'm afraid I cannot join you, Princess. I plan to assemble a crew on my own. I always wanted to be the captain of my own crew, since I first heard about the pirates."
Azula still smiled, she seemed pleased with the answer beyond expectation.
"I see." The younger woman returned and brought a data pad with her. Azula took it and typed something on the touch screen
"I'm saddish to not have you join my crew, but I acknowledge your determination. I'm sure you'll find yourself a fine crew soon. With your skill you should be admired by the pirates around here." The princess handed the data pad back to her escort, wich gave it to Golo.
"Take this as a gift." Azula explained.
"It will open you some doors in our small world. However, since you want to handle things yourself, I won't spoil you the fun to find these doors yourself." Another smile took possession of the Princess' face.
Golo stashed the pad away without looking at it.
"I'm honored by your generosity, Princess Azula." he said thankfully.
"You are. But you deserve it. I had my first mate reserving docking bays for you to use them as you see fit. You'll always be welcome on board this station."
Golo lowered his head and rose from the chair.
"Thank you. Please feel free to summon me, whenever I may be able to help you out. It was a pleasure to meet you."
Azula nodded faintly.
"May the stars guide you."
On his way back, no one accompanied the boron.
Permanent Assets:
Starfish (M4 Pike)
Rule of Acquisition XLVIII (TP Mercury Hauler)
Moldy Crow (M3 Falcon)
Kappa (M5 Discoverer Vanguard)
unnamed Nova Raider
But I guess it was more likely a boron one.
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