Chapter 2-25

LOCATION: ASGARDSYSTEM: YGGDRASIL'S EYE

DATE: 2399

"How bad is it?" she asked as she walked next to her main engineer.

"It could have been worse," the man stated flatly. "Odin was with us. We had hull breaches in four areas and lost a dozen brave warriors. Their rites were performed and we sent them to Valhalla to feast by Odin's side."

"Praise the All-Father," she responded automatically.

"The armor is slagged across a significant portion of the Valkyrie's port side. We can run with it, but I would like to replace it as soon as we can. The only major concern I have is the port thruster. A missile from that stealth ship got a little too close. The entire thruster will need to be replaced."

She ground her teeth, not at the damage, but at the damn ship that had appeared from out of nowhere to strike her fleet without warning. "What do we know about this mystery ship?"

The man scratched his beard. "Some of the men think it belonged to the people who took control of the planet…"

"What do you think?" she asked as they turned down a corridor, dodging a group working to repair some power cabling.

"I looked over the sensor logs. While it was true they both used lasers, they were not the same wavelength. The STO standard missiles from our stealthy friend are also a pretty clear indicator of who that ship belonged to. I've seen enough sensor logs over the years to tell you that much."

"Figures it was those honorless bastards who attacked us from the shadows. So either the STO has a vested interest in this outpost, or the people on the planet are actively working with the STO. Do we know anything about who took over the planet?"

"Not that I've heard," the man grunted. "That's something for a Loki to figure out," the man spit on the deck in obvious disgust when he suggested that.

Not many liked the spymasters of Asgard, but they were an unfortunate necessity. If it wasn't for them, she never would have heard about this rumor or where it had originated. Without that critical piece of information, she simply would have dismissed it. Considering how devastating the battle had been, she was glad she hadn't. Katalynn would rather know about a problem like this early.

And while both sides took losses, hers had come out on top. She would have gone back to ensure total victory, but she couldn't be certain of that with how many losses her fleet had taken. From twenty-two ships, only sixteen had made it back and every single one sported some sort of damage. The decision to retreat might make her look weak, but she wouldn't throw her people into a meat grinder for the sake of a bit of honor. A glorious battle was one thing, but that fight had quickly turned against her. It was better to retreat and reassess.

Her loss would quickly become clear to the other pirate families. They would perceive it as a weakness that they could exploit if she wasn't careful. She needed to shore up her borders and make any strikes against her and her assets far too risky before the other families caught wind of her loss.

That meant she also had to recall the Jarls who were preparing for a massive strike against the Anazi family.

Calling off the attack was going to ensure at least one of the Jarls challenged her for leadership. She would welcome a challenge from someone inside the clan over an attack from outside though. Katalynn needed to prove she was strong enough to lead, and after this disaster, she couldn't say she was. If there was someone stronger, may they send her to the feasting hall at Odin's side.

***

LOCATION: STO NAVAL HEADQUARTERS

SYSTEM: SOL

One of the senior analysts walked up to Fletcher and cleared his throat to get his attention. "Vice Admiral, a moment of your time."

Fletcher nodded to acknowledge the man before turning back to the hologram he was speaking with. "Governor, if you'll excuse me?"

"For now, Vice Admiral," the man spoke in annoyance, "but we aren't done discussing this."

The hologram flickered out and Fletcher wanted to roll his eyes at the man's declaration. The Planetary Governor from Ganos was the newest leader of the STO appropriations committee. A pompous windbag of a man who liked hearing himself speak more than he actually got anything done.

And like every previous appropriations committee leader before him, the man thought he could earn some political standing by reducing overspending in the Navy. They always targeted the black ops department first since there was little the department could show for their spending, being top secret and all. And despite their rank as a Planetary Governor, they did not have the security clearance to know what that part of the Navy Intelligence Department did. It was that lack of oversight that irked them, but Vice Admiral Fletcher had dealt with his kind for over two decades so this was nothing new.

He turned to the senior analyst and wished he could thank the man for his timely interruption. "What do you have for me?" he asked.

The man cleared his throat before responding. "Captain Krieger missed his last check-in."

Fletcher's slight smile was strained at hearing that. Krieger was a bit of a loose cannon, but the man wouldn't miss a check-in unless he had a good reason. "How long are they overdue?"

"A little over a week, Sir."

He already knew the ship's current mission so there was no point asking about that. The man might have run into trouble but unless it involved the surveillance of Eden's End, he doubted Vitor Krieger would have gotten tangled up in anything that could harm the Epsilon's Dawn.

If he was following a lead or one of his other standing orders, that could explain his absence. The ship's original purpose was to seek out the Shican and see what they were up to. Fletcher hoped for the best but prepared for the worst. "Are any of the other Erebus class ships near where Captain Krieger was operating?" The most important thing Fletcher had learned in his long career in the STO Navy was to always have a backup plan. Those plans extended to ships under his command. Instead of building one of the very expensive ships, they built five of the Erebus class stealth ships.

"Alpha's Sunrise and Beta's Twilight are monitoring the movements of Harlow's fleets. Gamma's Dusk is still out on its patrol."

The ship names were stupid, but they were designed that way in order to obfuscate their importance. As for the patrol, the analyst was referring to, that was the search for the Shican. Dusk was also tasked to find out where the unknown ship, which they used to reverse engineer the tech used in the Erebus class ships, might have originated from. That was a risk, considering the STO's policy to avoid Aliens, especially ones that might be technologically superior to humanity. The politicians could pretend the problem didn't exist, but Fletcher couldn't afford to stick his head in the sand and hope aliens left humanity alone. He preferred to at least know where threats were located so they couldn't surprise them.

That only left one Erebus class ship. "Where is the Delta's Eclipse?"

"They are monitoring the black market trade coming from Epsilon Indi."

Fletcher grunted at that. The trinary system had always been a thorn in his side. With no viable planets for habitation, all life within the system existed on the dozens of scattered space stations, and rocky asteroids that floated through the system. It made keeping track of the illicit trade in that system a nightmare. The Eclipse's job was to tag the transponder IDs of ships coming and going from the system. With enough data, the AIs could provide a more comprehensive list of ships to search.

While that work was important, it was less important than finding out what happened to its sister ship. "Send orders to Captain Greaves that she is to report to the nearest STO shipyard system. She is not to report in or break cover. Once she is there, she will rendezvous with the Goliath."

Using one of the mega-freighters to transport the ship wasn't exactly subtle, but it ensured nobody took notice of the vessel as it made its way through STO space. A ship burning at top speed through a system would be quickly noticed by almost everyone even with the stealth capabilities it had. With a time crunch on their hands, they couldn't afford to let Greaves coast the entire way or bypass the hypergates.

He knew the existence of the stealth ships would become known in time, but he preferred to keep that information secret as long as possible.

Even with the Goliath transporting the ship, it was still going to take months to arrive at Varlen. Captain Valeria Greaves was going to be annoyed that her mission was put on hold but she was going to have to get over that. Once she arrived in Varlen, Fletcher would deliver her new orders in person.

He sighed internally, this matter would be so much easier if he could just send a fleet of STO warships out to look for their overdue ship, but with the ongoing hostilities with the pirates, even Fletcher didn't have the power to pull that off without ending up in a military prison. So the best he could do was hope the Eclipse could find the Dawn.

***

LOCATION: HAVEN

SYSTEM: HAVEN

Harlow's fleet dropped out of warp as close to Haven as they could get. Even with all the upgrades based on Shican tech, it didn't get them any closer to the planet.

It didn't take long for people to notice his arrival. Most pirates simply fled, not wanting to get tangled up with whatever was going to happen. Some hung around, hoping to score some easy loot. Then there were the few that formed up to meet him.

He smiled as he recognized two of the ships. "Hail my parents."

Soon his holo display popped up a side-by-side view. One side held the angry countenance of his father, the other the disgusted look of his mother.

"Harlow," his mother said flatly. "Finally gathered the courage to stake your claim? Or are you here to finally bow like a good son?"

His father scoffed. "Considering how poorly his little war is going, he's probably here to beg for our help. Go on boy, beg! I might even let you live after violating the one rule we had. Don't kill the golden goose. Your pathetic little attempt at carving out a kingdom has stopped all trade in our area of space and cost us billions."

Harlow ground his teeth at the man's words. "Your rule is as pathetic as you are, old man. You sit on your little golden throne and rule over a shit heap, while I aspire to be greater. Surrender, and I might spare your lives."

Both his parents laughed at that, making Harlow boil with rage.

"Greater?" his mom asked. "You were a mistake. A bad omen. I should have ended you the moment you were born."

"Quit your posturing, boy," his father cut in. "We both know why you're here. May the winner take it all." With that declaration, his parents cut their connection.

"They are maneuvering into position," one of his people stated.

Harlow sat back in his chair and did his best to calm himself. He had given them the option. Now it was time to show them the power of his new dreadnaught.

His family's fleet outnumbered him by three to one, but all of Harlow's ships were updated with at least Shican railguns. And a few other surprises.

As he watched his family approach, he couldn't help but laugh at their disjointed organization. They had never been forced to work together, so they fought for position as much as anything. Meanwhile, Harlow's fleet had drilled with Coalition and STO fleet tactics in mind.

Soon they entered missile range, and both sides fired dozens of missiles. It would take time for the other side to get within autocannon range, but Harlow was within railgun range and had been for some time.

"Open fire with the main guns," he ordered.

The massive ship shuddered as all forty-six guns fired. While his family outnumbered him, his new dreadnaught, Harlow's Might had four times as much firepower as his father's cruiser.

He could see the moment of realization dawn on some of the ships arrayed against him as they detected the weapon's fire. Some broke off, others tried to hide behind other ships, but it was too late.

Most of the weapons slammed into their intended targets, damaging or outright destroying the smaller ships. He wanted to reduce their overall point defense coverage before the missiles arrived, and it seemed it had worked.

The opposing missiles flashed past each other and soon lit off their respective drives. Unlike the conventional missiles fired by his family, there were a few special missiles in Harlow's arsenal.

As the regular missiles accelerated toward the fleets, the other missiles continued to coast in. As soon as the other missiles were engaged, his new weapons activated.

These new missiles were the result of a decade of forced research from his most prized engineer slaves. They were much larger than a normal missile, which required their own dedicated launch tube. Harlow's Might had four of these tubes along with twelve regular missile tubes. The weapons activated their scaled-down fusion reactor and zipped to their target before the ships could react to their presence. As soon as the weapons reached a certain distance, the reactor onboard each was flooded with all of the remaining fuel and the containment field was disabled.

Harlow watched in satisfaction as the missiles were turned into a fast-moving stream of superheated plasma that melted through armor and bulkheads like a hot knife through butter. Four ships, including his parents, exploded as the molten material reached their weapon stores. The effectiveness of the weapons was more than he could have hoped for. With this new plasma missile, he would quickly shift the battle against the STO.

The new plasma missiles were outrageously expensive to manufacture, but he needed to make a statement here. And it seemed it had worked.

The remaining ships were signaling their surrender.

His fleet hadn't taken a single hit, all of the incoming missiles had been shot down well before getting close, and his family hadn't even had the chance to fire their autocannons.

He smiled at the one-sided victory. Now that his family was out of the way, it was time to consolidate his rule over Haven once and for all.

***

LOCATION: BORRUS

SYSTEM: KAPTEYN'S STAR

Jasper did his best to look engaged during the contract meeting he was attending, even though he didn't feel like smiling and was having a hard time keeping his thoughts focused. He needed to keep up appearances even though he worried about his friend. He had received two Qcomm messages from Alexander since the Zephyr departed Eden's End. One of the letters let him know that he had made the right choice to leave as pirate activity increased significantly in and around Y6X-3H2. Alexander even let slip that the people of Eden's End had fought off an attack.

It was just like Alexander to leave out the severity of the attack though. But he and Yulia were alive and well, so it couldn't have been too bad. That thought changed when Captain Matthews sent him Alexander's follow-up message and one of his own.

Alexander's message said repairs were ongoing and he was making good progress. Matthews' message was a bit different.

Captain Daniel,

I am sending you this message because I saw how close you were to Mr. Kane. I feel our mutual friend might need some additional help. He likely hasn't told you the whole story about the attack Eden's End suffered. It was significant, with more than a few deaths. I will leave it at that.

Despite the setback, Mr. Kane has profited from this. He has tasked the Hawks of Ganos to purchase a Qcomm on his behalf and we plan on returning to the system within a year's time for a mutually beneficial arrangement. Mr. Kane has also given me access to a significant source of funding, which will be deposited into his Blue Star Enterprises account after the Qcomm purchase. See the attached list of components he wishes you to purchase with the remaining funds.

If you need any help sourcing these items, please let me know. The Hawks have some contacts that might make purchasing them easier. To prevent multiple trips, the Talon will be available for storage on the return journey. I have included our storage location on Ganos where you can ship items.

That being said, I think the biggest thing our friend needs is capable and trustworthy crewmen as he finds himself with some new ships but nobody capable of operating them for him. The Hawks have some people we know and will be calling in, if you have anyone you trust, please do the same. Once again, the Talon will provide passage to the system.

Please reach out to me or Anthony Baru, our Operations Lead if you have any questions.

Captain Matthews.

Just what the hell had Alexander gotten himself mixed up in?

While it was good to know Alexander was making more allies, he was concerned. Not about Captain Matthews or the Hawks. They had been professional and friendly the entire time he worked with them. He was concerned his friend was moving too fast, gaining too much notice. The last time that happened, Omni got involved.

When Jasper had looked at the attached list, he had nearly choked. It was a doozy this time around. The problem was that Alexander's appetite was bigger than his pocketbook. When he checked the assets in the Blue Star account, Jasper found only one hundred and seventy million credits. Seventy of which were left over from Alexander's previous balance.

It wasn't a small sum by any stretch of the imagination, but it wouldn't last indefinitely either. He really hoped his friend knew what he was doing.

Filling the list would take time, thankfully Naomi was up to the task. Jasper's task was to reach out to his contacts to see if anyone was interested in relocating. He didn't know many retired STO people, but he knew a few. The problem was what could he say to convince them to give up their easy life and move out to unregulated space? It's not like he could tell them that they would get access to learning modules by moving. Giving unrestricted access to learning modules was illegal in STO space and he wouldn't advertise it even if it wasn't. Too many people would jump at the opportunity and simply leave after getting what they wanted. Jasper sighed internally, it seemed he had his work cut out for him.

The meeting finished and Jasper shook the hand of the grinning man who had signed the transport contract. The man probably assumed he got a killer deal. In normal circumstances, it would have been, but the Zephyr required less fuel thanks to Alexander's minor improvement so Jasper was making more in profit for this trip than he normally did.

While not all that welcome, the timing of Matthews' message was ideal. The Zephyr would finish this run and start collecting the items Alex wanted him to purchase. Sёarch* The NovelFire.net* website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.