(NERV Game Site – Official DAtS Offline Forums)

Number5Alive, Golddigger, BurtBacharach, CrazyCelt, Blaze, DoYouEvenLyft?, MarcoPolo, MightMakesRight, l33tpally, Bennie, SEA-TAC_Sweetie, Requiesce-in-Pace, MacD, HaveGunsWillTravel, Guardian, GunKitty, Chummer, Inquisitor, Lizard, RedFox, SemiSolidSnake, ElfMama, Not_the_Face!, Anonymous3, Anonymous4, Anonymous7, Anonymous9, AggregatorOfSorrows, M.Mollen, WhiskeyTangoFoxtrot, Dolcett, Backlog, DarkAvariel, Knocker, Hullu_Kapteeni, GrimDark, BloodForTheBloodGod, Queen’s_Bitch, BackDat@55Up, DoYouEvenDPS?, MajorTom, Parca, and DarkAngel are in the chat.

Knocker: So, the Dungeon at Hadarada Prime is looking like it has become some kind of buglike aliens involved. Everything’s covered with this weird goo, too.

l33tpally: But where did the AI get Zerg from?

MarcoPolo: Zerg? What are these ‘Zerg’?

DoYouEvenLyft?: From RTS genre. Old game called Starcraft had them as one of the factions. Nasty things, good at sending waves of weak enemies to wear you down before their big troops came and annihilated you.

MajorTom: Damn, they must have had off-site backups.

DoYouEvenDPS?: Off-site backups? You mean you’ve seen shit like this before in game?

MajorTom: Boss, you want to take this one?

M.Mollen: The facility is gone, and anyone involved already knows what we got from it, get your brag on, Marine.

MajorTom: All right, then. This was our first major op as the Black Star Marines. All of us were Nomads at the time, and all former USMC, some for injuries or age, and some for other reasons. Black Star had just hooked up with Merida’s faction in the Civil War, and her people gave us targets to hit that would hurt Travis’s people the most while we got ready for the big push back.

BackDat@55Up: So this was just after Edena?

MajorTom: Correct. Our target was a Blacker than Black research site working on bioweapons and with links to other sites in the sector. We come in on our ‘liberated’ Marine Assault ship, and we time it so that Thunderfury announced herself by destroying the comm array the same instance our drop ships broke stealth and hit the doors to their landing bay.

MajorTom: Brought the whole company, even though we were only expecting light resistance. You don’t give someone a fair fight in their own house, after all. Good thing we brought them, because we quickly ran into trouble when one of the VIPs decided it would be a great idea to unleash the test subjects. I think the idiot thought she could control them.

Knocker: So these were the Zerg?

MajorTom: Ooh, yeah. Nasty fuckers, and if they hadn’t been trying to get through choke points that were designed to prevent escapes, they might have been able to overrun us. But that facility got blown to hell. The Self-Destruct was to let the antimatter containment drop in the reactor. Big boom, and a new crater on that moon.

Parca: You know, they might have had the originals of whatever they used for those test subjects at a different site.

M.Mollen: Either way, the AI had access to it, and other horrible things. Frigging lovely.

CrazyCelt: Hey, anyone know what’s going on in the border sector around Tietera? First, my favorite steakhouse on Zanchul Station closes down, and my ‘completely legitimate trade agent’ goes missing…

MightMakesRight: You mean your fence.

CrazyCelt: Potato, Potahto. Anyways. My trade agent goes missing, and now all the completely legitimate suppliers of sundry surplus items I go to have been disappearing left and right, even the big names!

M.Mollen: Sounds like you’re a smuggler who deals with pirates, CC. Unfortunately for you, the pirates in that sector have met with some unfortunate reverses in fortune, and are either enslaved, dead, or on the run.

CrazyCelt: What the hell? No way they were all taken out so quickly. You’d need a whole damn fleet to take out their base! There’s a reason the Navy never went after them!

M.Mollen: You own your ship, CC?

CrazyCelt: Yeah, the Cyfreithiwr Diog. Why?

M.Mollen: I bet you your ship against a brand new one from the Black Star shipyards that their base has fallen.

Backlog: Do yourself a favor, CC, and stop while you’re not too far behind.

CrazyCelt: *sighs* No bet.

M.Mollen: Backlog, would you kindly not ruin my fun?

MightMakesRight: So, what proof were you going to show him to win the bet?

M.Mollen: Screenshot of me, right now, sitting in the Administrator’s Suite, drinking his liquor as my people sort through all the slaves we took.

CrazyCelt: What? How did you take it?

M.Mollen: Trade secret. But Homer would approve.

RedFox: So, you did manage to slip someone in and take it from the inside. We’d been wondering.

M.Mollen: Oh, and who is we, Red?

RedFox: A newly formed ‘mercenary’ group that just got a contract on the other side of the Alliance border to keep the piracy issue under control. Formerly of Lark’s Clan.

M.Mollen: Ah, figured that message pulse was warning more than just the people on the station. Made us start before we were ready, so more people ended up dying instead of being captured.

RedFox: Hah. Glad to see my idea paid off, then.

M.Mollen: Oh, so you’re the one who got them to put repeaters around? Nicely done. Your ships, and some from the Duskspine clan, and a couple independents like CC here, are the only ones who survived with your ships and freedom intact.

l33tpally: Why didn’t you just blast it, like the other installations you’ve hit?

M.Mollen: Well, having a well-protected shipyard and fleet base has some benefits. Plus, there are a lot of slaves with skills I can use who are now under my control, ready to help fill out positions in the fleet. Of course, I might sell off the station, since it is pretty isolated.

Dolcett: So, back to the Zerg, any tips on fighting them?

M.Mollen: Shoot them. A lot. And then nuke the place from orbit. It’s the only way to be sure.

Dolcett: That… isn’t as helpful as you might think.

MajorTom: No real help for you. The Zerg are like fighting the tide. You have to withstand their initial rush, but then they got one coming after that, and another after that. You have to kill as many as you can and then prepare to strike back, HARD. Otherwise, they’ll destroy you.

Knocker: So, in context of the dungeon?

MajorTom: Pack plenty of grenades and explosives, pray you don’t run out of ammunition, fire is your friend, and shoot anything that moves. Platoon full of Marines in power armor using a choke point and automated defenses could only just hold them back, not push through and wipe them out, because of their numbers. Would not recommend unless you have uber high level skills and gear.

Knocker: Well, fuck.

(Administrator’s Suite, Madrigal Base, Madrigal System)

I’ll say one thing for the former administrator of Madrigal Base: he certainly knew how to live in style. While nothing in the suite he had used before his demotion screamed ‘lap of luxury’ on its own, together the whole thing came to a very comfortable bachelor’s pad, like you might see rich frat boys have when they were starting at whatever job their parents gave them. The fact that it wasn’t a gaudy flaunting of riches at least told me that the Administrator knew enough to not slap people in the face with how much he was skimming from the running of Madrigal Base.

Thankfully, despite the fact that it was a pirate base, the Administrator insisted on keeping records, so that he knew what was happening on his base. It didn’t take long to find both the public records and the REAL records, including some lovely hidden bank accounts in other parts of the sector that soon got added to Black Star accounts. Now, I was going through the paperwork, with Raven’s help, as I decided what to do with this lovely little fortress we’d captured.

Sure, part of me wanted to keep it. The idea of having a heavily fortified, easily defended base appealed to me, for all kinds of reasons. But I wasn’t a pirate lord. Running a base like this was expensive, and the pirates going out and bringing back spoils helped pay the bills. I wasn’t going to be doing that. And the things that made Madrigal Base so easily defended also meant that it was a crap location for legitimate business interests. It was too isolated to get good traffic, and anything that helped open it up would eliminate the fortifications.

There were some uses to the base, of course. I was already planning on having multiple groups in this part of space, so if I stationed the Fourth Group here when it was ready, I would have a decent staging point, since there weren’t any Gateways nearby. There was also the idea of using the shipyards here for building ships that weren’t going to be public knowledge. The shipyards at Dimiya and Nuevo Edo were larger, better equipped, but they were in plain sight, and it was getting harder to keep things secret.

The chime on the door sounded, and I checked the screen on the wall, which showed Captain Zylna outside. That’s right, her ‘liaison’ period was almost up, and she’d be returning to the Confederate fleet. I called out, “Open,” and the door automatically slid open to allow her in. “Good evening, Captain. What do you think of Madrigal Base?”

Zylna stepped inside, and did a quick look around the room. “Well, it wasn’t what I had expected, that’s for sure. I’ve been on pirate ships before, and seen the aftermath of when pirate bases were raided. I did not expect it to be this… clean.”

I nodded. “Pirates, smugglers, and even ‘honest’ merchants generally fall into two categories, in my experience. The first tends to get by with just the bare minimum of maintenance. Maybe they’re lazy. Maybe they don’t know how to maintain the systems. Or maybe there simply isn’t any profit in military-level maintenance schedules.”

“The other kind, they’re the smart ones. They keep things maintained and running smoothly, because they would rather spend a little now than have something important break when they really need it, like in the middle of a fight. Oh, perhaps they don’t keep to ‘military’ standards, but they don’t let things get out of hand like the other sort.”

“You can see some of both in the ships we captured. But the ‘cheap’ pirates tended to be from smaller clans or independents, while the ‘clean’ pirates were from the larger clans. The smart captains, the ones who led the clans and the ones who followed them, lost a little profit in the short run, but when things happened, they were less likely to lose everything.”

“Until they met you.”

I smiled at Zylna’s words. “Yes, until they met me. But it didn’t have to be me. With the way they let things get out of control in this sector, there was always going to be some kind of response. The only question was how bloody things would get. That’s why you see that, while other sectors have seen a rise in piracy, it hasn’t been anything like on the level we saw in this sector. They got greedy, and didn’t keep their younger and dumber sorts in line. And so they all paid for that mistake.”

Captain Zylna nodded. “Yes, sir.” Something was bothering her, but she didn’t seem to know how to just come out and say it.

I put down the tablet I had been reviewing the paperwork on, and said, “Well, that’s enough ‘Admiral’ hat for the moment. So, what’s on your mind, Captain? It is about time for you to head back to the fleet, isn’t it? I expect you’ll be extremely popular with the other commanders of the Assassins that the Confederacy has purchased.”

Zylna nodded, and said, “Yes, sir, it has been an interesting experience working with Black Star, and I’m eager to put that to use helping to train the new commanders as we establish Navy guidelines for the use of the Assassins. There hasn’t been a change like this in the Navy for over a hundred years, as far as I know.”

“Well, if it makes you feel any better, your Navy is going about it the right way, trying to change with the times, instead of fighting to keep things as they were.” I looked at the young captain, and sighed. “Captain, you’re wound so tight you’re going to break something.” I pointed to the other end of the sofa I was sitting on, and the table with a bottle of some alcoholic beverage and some glasses on it. “Sit down, pour yourself a drink, and tell me what it is that is on your mind. You didn’t come here to talk about how your ‘liaison’ job went.”

Zylna sat down at the other end of the couch, and said, “I’ve been… instructed by my superior officers to ask what you intend to do with the Kythaela Daven, and this station.”

I smiled at her, and said, “Asking is always free. Whether I answer or not is a different story, as is whether your superiors will like the answer. Now, you’ve got a lot of good qualities to you, Captain, but a master negotiator and spy you are not. So why don’t we cut through all the bullshit and games, and get to what whichever Senator is behind this really wants.” Her eyes went wide as she looked at me, causing me to laugh. “Oh, don’t worry, my dear. Nothing has leaked from your end. But the people in the military side know enough about me, and my methods, that they would have sent someone I’m familiar with from Naval Intelligence or the like to simply ask what I intended, and go on from there. That you look so uncomfortable means that some other crap is going on, and someone with power is leaning on people above you to lean on you. Did I get it about right?”

Zylna sighed, and said, “It is frightening sometimes, the way you work through these situations and come up with the truth.”

“Ah, I have experience with bureaucracies, and I’d already made it perfectly clear to both Naval and civilian intelligence that I was willing to be reasonable, depending on what they asked of me. Reasonable, of course, does not mean that I’ll blindly agree to anything they want, of course. It just means that I’ll approach deals with an open mind, and a long memory for betrayal.” I paused for just a moment, and then said, “Now, what did they want from you? We can start with the ship, that’s almost certainly going to be the easiest one to deal with.”

The captain took a deep breath, and said, “Well, and this actually does come my superiors, they would like the ship, of course. It was a CNS ship, and deserves to be brought back to the fleet, either for decommissioning or to refit it and return it to service. We have the remaining records from the Kyathaela Daven, showing how the ship was caught by pirates after they were disabled in a spatial anomaly. They’d like to honor the crew.”

I nodded. “That was to be expected, after all. Since your ship led the attack, and disabled it, and your Marines took the cruiser, I see no problem with the Kyathaela Daven returning with you as a ‘war prize’, to be returned to the Confederate Navy. I was actually going to do that anyway, since it would make a lot of people happy, and I don’t really need the ship. Now, what about the station?”

Zylna shifted nervously. “Some of the Senate, as you guessed, is putting pressure on the military to ensure that the station does not remain in Black Star’s hands. They feel that you have far too much power already, and don’t like what you might do with a fortress like this. Ideally, they would see you kicked off the station by the Navy, but the one putting pressure realizes that is unlikely to happen. So they ‘asked’ me to do anything in my power to ensure that the Navy had ‘access’ to the station.”

“Ah, yes, it would be something like that. This wouldn’t happen to be from the same group who thought sending an attractive female captain to liaison with my forces would be a way to try and get a hold on me, hmm? Of course, a honeypot trap only works when the target doesn’t have a ton of honey already. Oh, don’t worry, I’m not judging you. So, what kind of access do they want, and what were they willing to give for it?”

“They want to be able to have a Navy ship here, or at least Navy personnel on board to ‘supervise’ things and ‘liaison’. I think they also want to have some Marines on station as well.” She paused, and then said, “The actual details of compensation and the like would be worked out at a later date.”

“And they expected you to try and seduce me into this, hmm? Yes, I can see it on your face. Well, in that case, you can tell them that, in the interests of being a good neighbor, I will allow a single person from Naval Intelligence to be chosen by and reporting to Lieutenant Zumrora (and him alone), to act as a liaison and contact should the Navy or other services wish to purchase ships away from the public eye. That is ONE person. No Marines, no warships in my space without leave, and so on. We will allow Confederate ships in need of repair access to the shipyards for standard rates, but the station and the shipyards will remain under Black Star control and jurisdiction at all times.”

Zylna’s eyes went wide at my pronouncement. I shook my head, and said, “Having a known intelligence officer in the midst is not nearly so annoying as having to ferret out the ones who try to worm their way into my organization. Zumrora has worked with me before, and knows what limits to put on his people. Frankly, I’m less surprised that anyone made this play, than that they forced you into doing it so late.”

Zylna nodded her head, and said, “I believe that is because Zumrora wasn’t there to tell them it wouldn’t work, like when I was getting briefed for this assignment. The Admiral will be happy to get the ship, but the people up the chain are not going to be pleased that they didn’t get what they wanted.”

“Well, if it becomes troublesome, you have proven yourself a talented and skilled commander. There will be a place in Black Star for you, if you decide to resign from the Navy, or are kicked out. You and your whole crew, actually. You’ve all done excellent work while attached to the Black Star Fleet.”

“Thank you, sir. I’ll keep that in mind.”

“You do that, Captain. Now, finish your drink, and when you’re done, you may return to your ship to start organizing the ‘prize crew’ to take the Kyathaela Daven home. Or you can stay, and try your hand at seducing me, without the orders hanging over your head.”

Captain Zylna blushed furiously, finished her drink in a single go, and then practically ran from the room.

(Former Slave Market, Madrigal Base, Madrigal System)

Walking into what had been the slave market for Madrigal Base back when it was run by pirates, I nodded approvingly as I saw that the area had been worked over to provide better housing for the slaves who were being kept on the station. After all, they were Black Star property, now, and I wanted to let them know that life was better with me than against me. The fact that there had been more than a few pirates and station staff helping with the work alongside their fellow slaves only helped improve the morale of those who had been captured by the pirates.

I was here because, frankly, while the Administrator may have kept good notes on the activity of the station, the people in charge of the slave market did not. There was a database, of course, but it only listed species, gender, and age, all by lot number instead of name. If you were lucky, there was a note or two about some special talent they had. Trying to work through that to find people who could be useful was annoying, at best.

In the month since I’d taken the base, I’d had people taking inventory of the slaves, expanding that database to include names, skills, and work experience, building it out so that I had actual data I could use to place these people where they would be the most help for the company. The interview process took a while, since there were almost a thousand slaves from all different species, and some of them needed time in the infirmary to make sure they were healthy before they could be interviewed. It was not a process that could be done both quickly and well, but it was finally over.

Which brought me to why I was coming down to the former slave market today. There were several slaves that stood out amongst the rest, and I decided I’d handle their interviews personally. Some of the positions I could see them filling would depend on their attitude, naturally. Looking down at my tablet, I checked to see the order of my interviews.

Name

Description

Ara Virstina

Knelfi Female, age 67. Former Confederate Navy captain. Martial training, space combat, small fleet tactics, companion training. Captured off CNS Kyathaela Daven.

Drah Sross

Ihm Female, age 20. Starship pilot (specialization in experimental craft), bodyguard training, companion training. Captured from merchant ship.

Ozmen Redmantle

Gauz Male, age 35. Mechanic, Consortium navy training, bodyguard training. Captured on merchant ship while on leave.

Suga Hibari

Human Female, age 18. Computer hacker, captured recently, fugitive from Imperial forces, companion training. Hid skills from pirates to attempt escape.

Konia Whitehand

Felisan Female, age 24. Assassin, chef, spy, companion training. Double-crossed by former employer.

Alea Pakas

Knelfi Female, age 43. Former Confederate Marine. Martial training, space combat, small unit tactics, companion training, bodyguard training. Captured off CNS Kyathaela Daven.

Yes, most of my personal interviews were female. Honestly, that had more to do with the pirates than me. Females who got captured by the pirates were more likely to be kept alive, and the few men who weren’t killed outright often got pressed into pirate crews. The ones who were in the slave market were mostly unsuited to anything but manual labor, and many were aggressive enough that they required Stepford protocols to keep them compliant. No one wanted people like that around them, so I’d see about getting them sold off someplace where someone else could figure out what to do with them. That did, however, leave me a lot of females to deal with.

Stepping into the room with the first of my interviewees, I nodded to myself as I looked the woman over as she sat at a table. She was older, of course, but that didn’t mean as much for knelfi. They routinely lived to be over two hundred Terran years old, after all, so 67 would still be considered pretty young for them. Indeed, despite the conditions she had no doubt been in, the woman I was looking at appeared to be no older than someone in their 30s.

I sat down at the table, and looked at the knelfi woman for a moment, before saying, “Hello, Ara. I am Mirikon Mollen, Owner of the Black Star Company. My forces are the ones who took this station from the pirates a month ago. As the person who conducted your initial interview likely stated, there were substantial gaps in the information the pirates left for us, especially about the slaves they were keeping here. Your name came up, once we were able to build a proper database, as someone that should be brought to my attention.”

The former captain nodded her head, and said, “Then, that makes you my new Master, yes?” When I nodded, she sighed, and stood up, so she could start stripping off the jumpsuit she’d been wearing. It was quickly obvious that she didn’t have anything on underneath.

“Hmm. Not that I mind the show, but may I ask why you’re naked?”

Ara looked at me like she was bored, and said, “I’ve been trained as a companion. New Master means you’re going to want to evaluate the goods. Would you like for me to start on my knees, or bent over the table, Master?”

I smiled, and said, “You may get on your knees, if you like, but I’m not here to see about your companion qualifications. You are the former Captain of the heavy cruiser CNS Kyathaela Daven, are you not?”

Ara blinked, and then said, “Yes, but that is old news. I haven’t been on the Daven since I was enslaved. The bastard that took her was too smart to leave any of the surviving crew on board. Last I heard, she was renamed the Vile Lust, and had been through three other hands as pirates killed their captains to advance. That was twenty standard years ago.”

I nodded. “My forces helped capture the Daven, along with a Confederate Navy ship that was liaising with us in our pirate hunting mission. The Daven has been returned to the Confederate Navy, either for decommissioning, or for refit and recommissioning, depending on the state of the ship. Unfortunately, because the pirates only used numbers to identify their slaves, it took us a while to identify you. As you may guess, you and your entire crew was declared missing, presumed dead in the wake of your disappearance. After several years, you were all moved to the ‘legally dead’ category. The Navy never knew that the ship had fallen into pirate hands until we caught her.”

I paused, and then said, “Unfortunately, there are several issues with your current status and what to do moving forward. We could return you to the Confederate Navy, of course, but your status as a slave, and as someone who is legally dead, would only complicate matters if you attempted to return to naval life. At the very least, you’d be looking at months, if not years, of legal wrangling and psychological counseling before you were ever allowed near the bridge of a Confederate Navy vessel. I can arrange for your return to the Confederacy, if you like, but there are other options, if you wish to take them. Those options depend on your attitude, of course.”

Ara nodded, and said, “I understand.” She went down to her knees, and said, “Would you like me to show you my ‘attitude’ now, or after the options are given, Master?”

Clearly, there was some work to do ‘deprogramming’ her from the life of someone who had been a slave to pirates for so long. Well, it was hard to come by skilled commanders, so I considered this an investment. “There are three options available to you, if you don’t want to go back to the Confederation and face the media circus your ‘resurrection’ would cause. First, you may join the Black Star Navy, where you would be put in command of a warship, one of my warships, as we go out into Unknown Space. We have a list of Gateways that is far more expansive than the sixteen that were originally known.”

I saw her eyes widen at that, both at the prospect of being in command again, and at going into Unknown Space. “Yes, I can see that appeals to you. On the other hand, if you feel that your life as a slave has left you unfit for command of a warship, the Black Star Company is growing our fleet of merchant ships and logistics vessels, and experienced spacers are always welcome.”

That option clearly didn’t sit as well with her, so I continued, “Finally, you could join the civilian side of Black Star in some way. We have a wide array of businesses that need staff, so I’m sure we could find something that suits your talents. So, which of your options do you want to take?”

“Y-you would put me in command of a ship again? Even after all this time? I haven’t been on a ship as anything but cargo or a servant in twenty years.”

I smiled, and nodded to her. “Yes, but the majority of my forces have very little experience in fleet tactics. And certainly no experience with larger vessels. I see from your public records that you were stationed on a dreadnought before you became the Daven’s captain. You would be one of the few members of my company that have ever set foot on a ship larger than a heavy cruiser, not counting the single carrier in my service right now.”

The knelfi woman took a breath, gathering her courage, and then said, “I want to be a Captain again. And I’ll show you just how much I want to be Captain of any warship you’ll give me, Master.” And then she moved forward her hands reaching to unzip my pants.

She blinked at what she saw when she pulled my still flaccid penis from my pants. “Th-that! I haven’t seen anything like that except in some of the pirates who had genetic modifications!” Gently she rubbed her hands along my ‘mini-me’, with skill that quickly had me ‘waking up’.

“Mmm. Well, I can tell already that you have some skill. So, if you are staying with the Black Star Fleet, then would you like a message to be sent to any friends or family that might still be alive? We’d also have you returned to the land of the ‘living’, as far as the courts go.”

“Yes, Master. I had a husband, and a daughter. I would like to see that they know what happened to me. Though without the details, please.” And with that, she stopped talking, as she attempted to show me just how eager she was to get my approval for her command.

Later, once she had swallowed my cum, and dressed herself, I allowed her to record a message to her daughter, Rina. She was sad to learn that her husband had died years before, due to illness, but the look on her face when I told her that her daughter was one of Dimiya’s Senators in the Confederation Senate? That was PRICELESS.

When she was finished, I said, “Now, allow me to tell you about the job I have planned for you. You see, the Black Star Fleet is expanding, after our recent encounter with a X’thari Variant Hunt. Before, we used a mix of lighter craft with high offensive capability, but this left us vulnerable when we were unable to maneuver because we were defending a fixed position, like a planet. I want you to be the captain of my first Battleship, the BSN Ama-no-Murakumo-no-Tsurugi.”

“That is a strange name for a ship. What does it represent?”

I smiled, and said, “It is a weapon that was once wielded by a god in the myths of Terra. All the battleships of the Black Star Navy will have the name of weapons worthy of gods, for they are capable of great and terrible destruction should any stand in their way. And make no mistake, Captain Virstina, you will be called upon to unleash that destruction upon the enemies of Black Star, such as the X’thari.”

(Former Slave Market, Madrigal Base, Madrigal System)

With the captain for the new flagship of First Group decided, I sent Captain Virstina back to her room to gather her things and then report to the navy part of the station for processing and an assessment on how much retraining she’d need before she was up to speed on current weapons and tactics. I’d brought her on board for her experience in larger craft, which we lacked as a Navy, but that didn’t mean I wasn’t going to make sure she wasn’t trained up as well as my current crews.

Looking down at my tablet, I sent a call for my next interviewee to be sent in. Pilots, especially pilots who specialized in craft that were wholly experimental, were always needed in any organization like ours. Frankly, not everyone is cut out to be a pilot. Flying small ships was exhilarating, but not many could handle the pressure of combat in those conditions. Flying a fighter was different from steering a warship, after all.

The door opened, and in walked an Ihm female, standing just over 1.5 meters tall. She was short for an Ihm, even a female, who were generally shorter and slimmer than the males, but according to her files she was an expert in hand-to-hand combat, among other things. Probably done as part of her Bodyguard training. I watched, interested, as she sniffed the air, and then sighed slightly, trying not to let me see the action. I knew that Ihm had a sensitive sense of smell, but it was impressive that she’d clearly figured out what had happened just before.

I pointed to the chair across the table from me. “Sit down.” When she’d sat, I said, “My name is Mirikon Mollen.” Her eyes went wide, and I grinned. “I see you recognize the name. Well, as you know, you are the property of the Black Star Company now. Which means, when it comes down to it, that you belong to me. The reason we are having this conversation is because I think there are better ways to use you than simply making you an exotic sex pet to be rented out as people see fit. Your name is Drah Sross, yes? Or is there another name you wish to be called? Oh, and you may speak freely in this interview unless I say otherwise.”

Drah took a breath, and then said, “Well, fine then. Yeah, the name’s Drah. So, if you’re not here to make me your next conquest, then what is going on here? Don’t get me wrong, I’m not missing getting put up on auction to be some pirate’s bedmate, but I don’t see why the guy in charge would be talking to me.”

“Well, the answer to that is simple. You are listed as a pilot, yes? With a specialty in experimental craft? The attitude it takes to do something like that is not exactly common. That you were a test pilot and still have all your limbs means you were good, and you were lucky, which is even rarer. So, the question I have for you, Drah Sross, is this. Do you want to be a pilot again, instead of lifting your tail for every pirate who wants to try something new?”

Drah bristled at that comment, but then according to the information we had on file, she hadn’t been a slave that long, only a few months, actually. That would explain the difference in her attitude with Virstina’s. “Of course I want to be a pilot! Why in the abyss would I want to do… that with anyone but a proper mate?”

I smiled at her, and said, “Excellent. Then in that case, there are several options for you. If you feel you have ‘settled down’ a bit, and no longer wish to do anything too experimental, there are always warships and freighters that could use an experienced hand at the helm.” The look of disgust on her face was clear enough, so I continued. “On the other hand, there are two different projects you might be attached to, if you’re looking for something ‘interesting’.”

Drah leaned forward, clearly interested at the prospect of doing something new and interesting. “What is it? You’re building some kind of experimental ship?”

“Ah, well, the first option would be for you to join our cadre of fighter pilots. We’ve currently got three basic types of fighters. The Raptor is a stealth interceptor, the Thunderbolt IV is a space superiority fighter, and the Dragon is a bomber. Of course, being a fighter pilot is a lot of excitement and danger, interspersed with a lot of training and boredom.”

I paused, and then said, “The second option, however, is not so much an experimental craft, but one using known technology in new ways. You are familiar with the X’thari, and their anchor drives, yes?” When she nodded her head, I continued, “The four weaknesses of the Anchor Drive is that they have a long charge time, they announce their presence before you arrive, and they must have either the start point or the end point in the vicinity of a Gateway. This need not be right next to the Gateway, of course, but within a radius of about forty light-minutes. Of course, since the arrival is easily detected anywhere within a solar system, these are critical weaknesses on their own. However, the fourth weakness is the reason why the X’thari drives are not typically used in most ships. Any X’thari in the area who detect a non-X’thari using an Anchor Drive appear hardwired to seek and destroy the offending vessel, ignoring everything else, even their own safety or any mission they had been on.”

“You’re building a ship with an Anchor Drive? Why?”

“Oh no. I’m building a ship with two Anchor Drives, charged separately and ready to use within moments of each other. Officially, the ship is an advanced scout ship that we’ll be using to explore the Gateway network and look for planets suitable for colonization. Naturally, that is just a cover, though one we will be actively working on. In truth, the Heartseeker is being built for one purpose, and one purpose alone. To find the X’thari homeworld.”

“I’m in!”

With Drah’s enthusiastic acceptance of the role as the Heartseeker’s pilot, I smiled as I mentally ticked off another box on the checklist of things I needed to do in order to give the X’thari reason not to come wrecking my plans any more. Expanding the Fleet was one thing. But the Heartseeker would give me the ability to reach out and give them something to think about.

After Drah left to get transferred to Fleet control, I summoned the next candidate. Ozman Redmantle was short and stout, like all Gauz males. Unlike most, he kept his beard short and well-maintained. Well, short for a Gauz, at any rate. The beard was about twenty centimeters in length, and didn’t have any of the normal braids or baubles most gauz favored. It was a habit common amongst gauz engineers, as well as other professions where long beards were a safety hazard (such as all lab sciences). He sat in the offered chair without comment, watching me like he was trying to figure out how I worked and what I was up to.

“I’ll keep this simple, since I am well aware that gauz have no patience for pointless talk. My name is Mirikon Mollen, and I’m your new owner. I have a whole fleet of ships, and I’m building more. That means I’m going to need engineers to keep them running and get the most out of them. The fact that you were part of the Consortium Navy is a point in your favor, as their certification process includes working knowledge of a large variety of ship systems, from shuttles to freighters to superdreadnoughts. Is this correct?”

Ozman nodded once. “Aye, that’s right enough, though only on the top level. No secret, but the training goes beyond just familiarity. As I told y’er people during the ‘sorting’ process, I was the chief engineer on the Nateak, which is a frigate. I was on leave, visitin’ me cousin in the Alliance, when the pirates got me. So, what kind of ship are you looking to put me on?”

I chuckled, and said, “Well, if you’re looking for a more sedentary life, after your ordeal with the pirates, I could always find a nice freighter or work in the shipyards for you. Be nice and safe, if a little bit boring.”

The Gauz looked at me like I’d just insulted his mother. “Ugh, no! No way am I ready to go and be put out to pasture with those damned yard monkeys! Those idiots think their precious schematics and manuals have all the answers, and don’t know a thing about being a true engineer!”

Smiling at the man, I said, “Yes, I thought you’d say that. In another life, I was an engineer, as well. You won’t be happy unless you were on the decks of a warship, keeping the engines in tune and making sure that your ship can keep running even with everything going to hell around you, because the people who keep the ship fighting when the damage comes in are the ones who truly decide whether their ship lives or dies.”

“Y’er not wrong about that, Master. You’re definitely an engineer, or ye knew one long enough to pick up on some things. So, now that we’ve established that you and I both know I’m best suited for working on a warship, what kind of ship are you thinking of?”

“Well, have you ever worked on a battleship before, Ozman? The first of our Wrath-class battleships is currently under construction, using plans modified from the Imperial Navy’s Vindicator-class heavy battleships. The Wrath-class incorporates technology Black Star has developed, as well as what we captured from the X’thari to be an incredible force of destruction when it comes to battles in space. It would not be out of line to say that one could go toe to toe with a modern superdreadnought and come out ahead, so long as the engineering staff are good at their jobs. And if the engineers were trained to the standards of the Consortium, which is known for having some impressive engineering…”

“Ah, yes, I can see what you be sayin’. But why go and copy the Vindicators? Those things are twenty years old, and they’ve got nothing on the Dhumal-class.” Ozman blinked, and said, “Wait a moment. Your group was involved in the Civil War the impies had, right? You stole their ship designs? How much did you get?”

I chuckled, and said, “Oh, only all current and historical Imperial Navy designs. Official designs only, of course. Experimental ships that never became production models, or those designed for other branches, like the Intelligence departments, weren’t included in the data we were able to ‘liberate’. Of course, the ship is still being built, so a Gauz engineer to help iron out the details wouldn’t be a bad idea. Especially since he knows what goes into keeping a warship running in battle.”

Ozman nodded slowly. “You’ve mentioned battle a couple times. You planning on going to war with someone?”

I shrugged, and said, “Oh, not any of the groups in Known Space, though if they come at me, then I’m not going to simply sit there and let them hit me without a response. No, I’m primarily thinking about the X’thari, and any other potentially hostile groups that may be out there. We’ve already tangled with the X’thari once, and come out on top, but they bled us plenty. I’d rather enjoy a chance to make them bleed instead.”

“And for that, you need a Navy, and ships that can bring the pain. My uncle fought in the last X’thari wars, and those were nasty as hell. Fine, Master, you’ve got yourself an engineer. Can’t wait to see what my new ship will be like. Stupid pirates don’t know how to keep their ships in order. Even this station is just barely holding together!”

“Well, suffice to say I have people working on that. Now, if you’ll head out the door, the person outside will show you where to go to get situated. And please send in my next interview.”

“Will do, Master.”

(Former Slave Market, Madrigal Base, Madrigal System)

When the door next opened, I looked up, and saw an attractive little Japanese girl standing there in the same jumpsuits all the slaves were wearing until they got sorted out. The outfit did little to advertise her assets, but the pictures that had been included with the information the pirates had kept were enough to show me that she had a very shapely body to go with that face of hers. She, on the other hand, was not looking entirely happy to be here.

“Ah, Miss Hibari. Good. My name is Mirikon Mollen, and I am the owner of the Black Star Company. This means that I am now your new owner. I called this meeting to see what you might be able to do for me and my organization.”

Hearing that, Hibari sighed, and began stripping off her jumpsuit to the waist, revealing her perky breasts. Walking around the table as she did so, she knelt in front of me, and began working my pants to pull my cock out of my suit. She still didn’t look happy, not in the slightest, but she showed no hesitation at taking me into her mouth.

I decided to allow her to go along with it, for the moment, and changed my plans for how I would conduct her test. Her technique wasn’t entirely unskilled, but she’d clearly only recently gotten the companion training, which made sense given her age and how long she’d been a slave. Seeing no reason to stop her, I allowed her to finish, until I was cumming in her mouth, her tongue cleaning me off as she swallowed. “Mmm. Well, your technique is decent, but your attitude is somewhat lacking. Fortunately for you, your ability with oral persuasion is not why I called you here.”

Hibari glared up at me, and said, “If that isn’t why I’m here, then what is it? And why did you let me go on with that?”

“Because, my dear, I will never turn down an attractive woman who wishes to give me a blowjob, provided we aren’t in mortal peril at the time. But in truth, I’ve called you here because you told my people that you were a hacker, and were on the run from Imperial forces. Is this true? And before you try to lie, just know that we have sensors set up to detect that.”

The Japanese girl bit back whatever she was going to say, and settled on, “Yes, I’m a hacker. I’ve been running from Imperial forces since the Civil War, because a rival called them and said I was a supporter of Empress Merida, and told them I was spying for her. Sure, I thought she was better than Travis, but I wasn’t a spy!”

Reaching down, I patted Hibari on her head. “Yes, I believe you, Hibari. A spy would not have been glaring at me all this time. She would have smiled, and done what she could to get information from me, or work her way into my confidence, either looking for a chance to escape, or do something else to better her situation.”

Then, grabbing her gently by the arm, I pulled the half-naked woman to her feet. She was short, only just barely 168 cm tall. Her body did have a pleasant curve to its silhouette, and while none would say her B cups were overly large, they fit her frame nicely. When I reached out and pulled her jumpsuit down, over the hump of her waist, and let it fall to the floor, the naked girl shivered slightly, though I knew it wasn’t from the cold.

“Tell me, Hibari, how far have you progressed in your companion training?”

I saw her cheeks burn red with embarrassment at the question. “I’m trained with my mouth only, Master. The slavers thought that I would sell better if I were a virgin, and I had not yet begun my anal training.”

“Well, then, I see a glistening here between your legs that suggests the blowjob you gave me earlier made you a bit excited. This will make your test better, I think.”

“Test, Master?”

“Yes, I wasn’t going to take your word on your abilities as a hacker, after all. So, we’re going to have a bit of a test. I had been concerned about how to add some pressure to the scenario, but it looks like I have an answer now.”

I pulled a second tablet out of my bracer’s storage, and placed it on the table behind her. “That tablet contains the encrypted schematics of the new Wrath-class battleships. I want you to hack into it, and tell me the maximum number of torpedoes a fully-stocked Wrath-class battleship can hold. Your work will be monitored, so going outside the parameters of the exam will not be tolerated.”

That kind of challenge got a bit more of a response from the hacker, as she smiled softly at the idea of being able to crack the encryption and see the armaments of an actual battleship. “How long do I have, Master?”

I stood up, pressing close to Hibari, close enough to hear her breathe in sharply as I looked down at her. “Turn around and lean over the table.” Shock and a bit of recognition went through her eyes, but she did as I told her. Reaching down between her legs, I said, “You have until I come inside you to complete the test.” I rubbed her nether lips gently, working down to her clit. When I touched it, I said, “You may begin.”

Hibari moaned softly despite herself when I rubbed her clit, but she leaned over the table, and began manipulating the tablet, looking for a weakness, any weakness, in the encryption. I felt her shudder slightly as I slipped my fingers inside her, testing to see whether she was ready or not. A little more, I judged, and then the test would truly start.

(Hibari POV)

Frantically, I worked the tablet’s controls, trying to break the encryption. It looked like normal encryption, not the stuff the Black Stars were rumored to have. But I didn’t have any of my tools and programs with me. This was just a test of my raw skills, it seemed. Of course, I would have preferred that the situation was not like this.

Oh, I’d heard about the leader of Black Star. Everyone had. The hacker boards were all over the place with how hard it was to crack Black Star’s code, but the general nets were all about how the owner was a legendary pervert and womanizer. So I’d thought I’d get one over on him, and just give him a quick blowjob, and then try and find a way to escape this station and Black Star’s clutches. Well, it wasn’t like Black Star was all that bad, from what I’d heard, but I rather liked not being a slave.

That little gambit had come back to bite me, hard. Mmmph. Bastard was good with his fingers. Can’t believe that swallowing his cum made me wet like that. It was a rush like I hadn’t felt before. How’d he do it? No! I had to focus on my task, get the info before he can breed me.

Aieeee! Oh god, it hurt! Was it supposed to hurt like that? Looking back briefly as I whimpered in pain, I saw a smile on the bastard’s face, his hands on my hips. I guess that meant I was no longer a virgin. I’d given up on the whole ‘saving yourself for the one you love’ thing when I’d first been enslaved. I knew it was only a matter of time. But oh fuck it hurt!

No, focus! Had to focus on the encryption, not the big, big, was it really that big when I was sucking on it? It felt like a fucking tree limb down there! NO! Focus. OK, here’s the –ugh! Why’d he have to start moving?—there is the key. This wasn’t Black Star’s encryption, but one of the more common commercial setups. Right, I can do this. Start with checking for clues on the password. There were always clues in the architecture, even if it just boiled down to how many digits there were.

I moaned again as he flicked my clit with his finger. Oh, shit, he was moving again. Wait, there! ‘Naughty girl’? That was the password? Fuck, the bastard was teasing me. OH FUCK, that was so deep! Why the hell is he so big? No, password. Enter the password.

There, I was in. Now, I had to find the torpedo capacity. Holy shiiiiiit! On god, I just came. How the hell is it that intense? Never been like that before. Oh god, this was too good. I could just sit here all day, and… NO! I needed the torpedo capacity!

Sixteen launchers. Each launcher had a – fuck, was he speeding up? – capacity for eighteen Dragonbreath and two Starbolt torpedoes. Wait, here were the stats on those. Fuck, just one of those launchers could completely wreck a planet! Oh fuuuuck, this bastard is completely wrecking my poor pussy! Wait, no, concentrate!

Twenty per launcher. Sixteen Launchers. That’s three hundred and twenty torpedoes! “Th-three hundred aaaangh! And twenty!”

The man grunted. “Very good. You’ve shown the basic competence for the job, it seems.” And then he thrust hard into me, and I swear I came again, just before I felt warmth flooding my womb, giving me a tingly, euphoric sensation as I came again and again. Oh fuuuuuck!

(Mirikon POV)

The little hacker looked up at me, glassy eyed. “B-but I got it right!”

I smiled down at her. “Yes, you did. However, I never said that I wasn’t going to enjoy your delicious body all the way to the end, even if you passed.” Her eyes fluttered, and she passed out in a wave of bliss, it seemed. As I used a rag from my storage to clean myself off, I looked over to the screen on one wall. “Ah, such a lovely thing. Raven, how did our little hacker do?”

Raven’s face appeared on the screen, wearing a bemused expression. “She actually did better than I expected. Yes, it was only commercial encryption, with a rather obvious password hidden in the usual place if you knew where to look, but she was without any familiar tools or programs to help her. And you were being QUITE distracting to the poor girl.”

“Hey, can you blame me? She’s the second one to step in here and immediately start trying to go down on me once they realized I owned them. And it was a good test of whether she could act under pressure, without doing anything dangerous to her.”

Raven laughed, and said, “Yes, yes. Keep using that line. I’m sure some day you’ll find someone who believes it. Anyway, she successfully penetrated the encryption without setting off any alarms, and found the data she needed while under duress. I think she’s what we need.”

I nodded. “Fine. I think a bit of a break is in order while we wait for the poor girl to recover, and then we’ll have her sent over to one of the groups headed back to Dimiya, so she can start efforts there. Hopefully, the next interview will prove fruitful as well, and we’ll be able to send her handler with her.”

Shaking her head, Raven said, “Well, if you wanted to add to your reputation, you could always have someone come in and take her down to the infirmary, with the knowledge that she got knocked out by the power of your dick.”

I burst out laughing at that! “Oh god, the look on people’s faces when that gets around! I’m so tempted to do it, just for that, but it really wouldn’t be fair for our little hacker, and we’re wanting her group to be out of the public eye. No, we’ll go easy on her, and just let her wake up on her own.”

(Former Slave Market, Madrigal Base, Madrigal System)

Eventually, the poor hacker gathered her wits enough to dress herself, and went off to report for her new assignment. I wasn’t entirely wasting my time while I waited, as I needed to keep up with my paperwork, anyway. Being a starship captain, CEO, and Admiral all at once involves a lot of paperwork, even if you have capable assistants to shoulder most of the load.

Shortly after she left, a short Felisan female walked in, her fur a mottled array of white, tan, and brown patches, though her hands were white. I watched with interest as she sniffed at the room as she entered. The only visible sign of a reaction to whatever she scented was the way her tail drooped slightly. If I hadn’t met Kiki and been talking with the Felisan all this time in game, I would have missed the significance of that.

Deciding to get down to it, I said, “I am Mirikon Mollen, the owner of the Black Star Company, and, now, this station and all those who were on it. Your name is Konia Whitehand, correct?”

The Felisan sighed as she looked at me, and said, “That is the name I was assigned for my mission, yes. You’re the Nomad who introduced the new weapons and tactics that allowed the Empress to win the Terran Civil War, and your actions led to the rise of piracy in this sector. Yes, I am aware of who you are and what you do. Up until my superior turned traitor.”

I nodded. That was all in the basic files I’d gotten, but I wanted to know the full story. “Ah yes, the file my people got on you mentioned something about that. Tell me about your supervisor, and how he betrayed you. What agency did you work for?”

‘Konia’ sighed, and said, “I am… was Alliance Intelligence. With piracy on the rise, and the Kul’tirans losing local mercenary contracts due to being humiliated by you, things have been getting more and more dangerous in this sector. My mission was to infiltrate the pirate organizations on this side of the border, and see if there was some way to turn them against each other, to hopefully get them to kill themselves off and leave merchants alone. But my supervisor betrayed me to that snake Gilwarin. Turns out he was getting kickbacks this whole time, for helping to get the Kul’tirans knocked off some of those contracts!”

“I see. Then I guess it would no doubt please you to learn that Gilwarin is dead, having served his purpose as a means to get my forces onto this station. The pirate clans of this sector have been all but wiped out. At the very least, piracy will be going down back to ‘normal’ levels on this side of the border soon enough.”

The Felisan nodded, and said, “Then if you could arrange for my transfer back to Alliance Intelligence, I would be able to bring my old supervisor to justice.”

“And that is where we start to have problems. You worked for an intelligence group. Tell me, if an agent was captured by pirates, liberated from the pirates by another party, and then just returned to your group, would you trust what they say? Of course not. You’d debrief them, sure, but anything they said would be searched through for counter-intelligence, and you’d put the agent through extensive psychological and other screening to check for conditioning. Especially when the group that returned them is an interstellar group like Black Star, with access to all sorts of things from various places.”

Konia looked like she wanted to argue, but didn’t seem like she could come up with a good argument against what I’d said at the moment. “So even if you went back to your people, you would not be believed, especially if your supervisor was even the slightest bit competent in preparing for your ‘disappearance’ and planted a false trail about you ‘going rogue’. Without evidence that wasn’t tainted by coming from the group you were just released by, you would be seen as compromised, and you’d be very lucky if you weren’t buried somewhere nice and quiet while your supervisor continued his career, though perhaps under a bit more scrutiny.”

Slowly, Konia nodded her head. “Yes, that is probably what would happen, but I have to try. I won’t let him get away with what he did to me, and I won’t leave him in a position where he can do it to other agents, either. He has to pay for what he’s done!”

I smiled at the Felisan. She had some rage, but she didn’t let it rule her. That was good. Rage was helpful, but it could be destructive if it wasn’t properly honed. “Well, in that case, it probably doesn’t surprise you that I know quite a few people who know other people who know how to deal with problems. Call them ‘fixers’, ‘troubleshooters’, or ‘assassins’, but they are able to make problems disappear. And, if you gave me the information you have on your superior, I’d be willing to get in touch with them, and arrange for them to make sure he is no longer an issue for anyone, ever again.”

The Felisan’s eyes narrowed as she looked at me, her ears moving slightly backward as she regarded me with some caution. “And what, exactly, would you want for all of this? I can smell at least two women’s… excitement in this room. You aren’t intending to add me to the harem you are reported to keep, are you?”

I laughed, and said, “Well, there seem to be some misconceptions that came up when a man was sitting here telling female slaves who had been given companion training that he was their new owner. I actually lost twenty credits when you didn’t do as they did and try to at least ‘show off the goods’. Once you heard I was your new Master.”

Seeing the smirk on the Felisan’s face, I continued, “But no, I’m not going to add you to my harem. The reports about that are true, by the way, though they require a lot of attention. At any rate, I am more interested in your abilities as a spy. My forces are becoming more expansive, which requires me to become more mobile instead of staying at a base near Dimiya, or visiting Nuevo Edo. I have people who gather information for me, of course, but that is mostly involving hacking computers or other electronic means of intelligence acquisition. They don’t have the personal touch needed to get turn and manage contacts.”

Konia blinked once, twice, three times, her mouth hanging slightly open. “You want me to come work for you… as a spy? Against who? I was primarily working as a government agent, not corporate espionage.”

I nodded. “As I said, Black Star is expanding. We’re already located in two polities, and we’re likely going to be entering into more areas as time goes by. But a large portion of our personnel and materiel and logistics base is centered in the Confederacy. This means that if things in the Confederacy ever suddenly turned sour for us, that we would be substantially weakened. The best way to keep that from happening is to have the information and analysis we need ahead of time, so we can plan and move forces around, or thwart whatever changes were being talked about. And to do that…”

“You need spies.”

“Exactly. Oh, I’m not saying that it won’t be a challenge. It absolutely will be, especially since both Confederate Intelligence and Naval Intelligence are both aware of my capabilities (at least those I’ve shown them), and they will be watching any new ‘hires’ that get posted to Dimiya, suspecting some of them may be doing just what you will be. You may even have some trying to flip you, and make you a spy against me. But you would be in the field, and you’d be leading your department. Compared to endless psych evals and having people work over you with mental psy to ensure you remain loyal if you went back to the Alliance.”

The Felisan nodded slowly. “And you would actually let me choose? Why not order me to do it and be done? You can do that, since I have this collar on my neck.”

“Of course, I could do that, but unless I used Stepford protocols on you, it would not ensure obedience. A spy that is actively angry with you and working against you from inside your organization is even more dangerous than one from outside, especially if they control what information you hear, and how it is presented. And if I turned the Stepford part on, well, you should know how it makes those under its effects slightly dumb. They simply aren’t able to act as… organically when they’ve been turned into drones with programmed responses. And that simply isn’t tenable in a spy. So I need you willing to work for me. Otherwise, I need to find something else to do with you, whether it is selling you back to the alliance, or finding another part of my organization to put you in.”

Konia nodded slowly, and said, “And if I work for you willingly, you’ll take out my old supervisor? What guarantees do I have that you won’t simply dispose of me like he did?”

I leaned back in my chair, and said, “Because if you come and work for me, you’ll be a Black Star. And whether they are slaves or free, Black Star always looks out for its own. I won’t lie to you. People have died in my service in the past, and more will probably die for me in the future. But I don’t waste their lives or throw them into the fire without support unless the situation is truly desperate. And when that happens, they will know it going in. Because that is what they deserve.”

“And what kind of cover would you be providing for me? What support personnel do you have lined up? Logistics will also be a concern. And technical support?”

“I take it that is a yes, and you’ll be my spy on Dimiya?”

The Felisan took a breath, and then nodded. “Yes, damn it. I’ll be your spy on Dimiya. Now, what about my support?”

“I have already secured the services of a hacker that shows great promise. She will be serving under your direction. As I am not entirely familiar with what is needed for running a spy ring, once the two of you are together I’ll put you in contact with my associate Raven, who will work with you to pull together the basics of what is needed for this to work. And if you will give me the information on your supervisor, then I will have the contract for him in place before you leave for Dimiya.”

The Felisan nodded her head. “Very well. Understand that, like most agents, he goes by a variety of names. However, he is more skilled with information management than physical disguises, which is why he works primarily in an office, rather than in the field. I’m sending you my implant recordings of him, including full sensory mapping. His name is…”

(In-Game Private Chat Line, Smoker’s Den)

M.Mollen: And his name is Edgar Snyder, though he has at least a dozen aliases. However, the intelligence does include full-sensory mapped scans of the target, from a variety of angles, and a list of their favored places for meets, which should allow you to work from there.

Requiesce-in-Pace: I must say that, after how we first met in game, I had not expected to have you contacting me for a job. I have talked with the Smoker’s Club, and they agree that a business relationship between us is agreeable. Your target is rather low profile. Is this a ‘trust-building’ job, or something personal?

M.Mollen: The new asset had scores to settle, and helping zero those accounts makes the asset a reliable worker without the use of Stepford protocols, which are not useful for any skilled position. However, should this happen as agreed, then should any further troubles arise, then you would be the first troubleshooter I look to.

Requiesce-in-Pace: This is acceptable to us. We will take the job. Given the information about the target, and the remoteness of the region, the contract for this job will be 750,000 credits, flat, or 200,000 credits with a line for expenses necessary for reaching and eliminating the target.

M.Mollen: 750,000 is acceptable, provided that the target’s reputation is publicly outed as an Alliance Intelligence agent, and his reputation is destroyed.

Requiesce-in-Pace: Vicious, even for you.

M.Mollen: Traitors don’t deserve memorials.

Requiesce-in-Pace: Very well, we will take the contract.

M.Mollen: The money will be in the appropriate account in 24 hours.

(Former Slave Market, Madrigal Base, Madrigal System)

With my spy sent off to go and get kitted out, and then start working with her hacker so they could get some kind of work relationship going, I settled back and waited for my last high priority interview to come in. Oh sure, there were still plenty of slaves to sort through and organize, but most of the surviving station crew were all set to doing much the same tasks they had been doing before, though under new management, and with some retraining going on to get them up to my standards. The various pirate crews, well, they were getting to help tear their ships apart and feed them into recyclers which would then produce ships for the Black Star Fleet. Most of the slaves that had been ‘transferred’ from the pirates to me were unskilled at anything except bedroom work, and so they were going to be getting training as well, same as the first slaves who had been part of Black Star.

The doors opened, and in walked a Marine. I could tell she was a Marine, just by the way she walked. But I could also tell that she’d had a rough time of it over the last twenty years. Alea Pakas had apparently been used as a bodyguard and ‘companion’ for several different pirate captains, but she’d also done some time in pit fights as a slave gladiator. The fact that she was still alive, even if she had scars, said a lot about her. Only problem was, her right arm was missing, just below the shoulder. Nasty fight had made it so they needed to take the arm to keep her from dying, but replacements were expensive, and with her owner short on funds, he decided to sell her.

She stood at ease, as close as she could with one arm, as I examined her. She was still in good shape, despite the arm, and her red hair was cut short, close to her head, which was an interesting look. Her face sported one nasty scar across her left eye, which had been replaced by a cybernetic one. She looked ready to drop into any fight I could send her to, so long as I gave her an arm and some weapons and armor.

“Sit down, Marine. I’m not a pirate captain looking to get you on your back. I am Mirikon Mollen, owner of the Black Star Company, and you. I’m also the Admiral in charge of the Black Star Navy, and we’re expanding the fleet, which means I need people who are skilled at their jobs. You are having this meeting now because the number of military trained people from the slave pens that weren’t psychotic assholes was literally down to just two people, and I wanted them on my team.”

When Alea had sat down in the offered chair, I continued. “I don’t know how much information you’ve got about what has been happening in the outside world, but suffice to say that the Black Star Company is the rising star of companies in the Confederacy at the moment, and the Black Star Fleet is the premier mercenary group in Known Space. Fact of the matter is, we’ve got plans that are making us build up the fleet, so we can take on responsibilities in multiple places at once. But before we get into that, we need to talk about you, and what we are going to do with you.”

Alea looked a bit confused about that, and said, “Master? I don’t know what you’re talking about. I’m a slave. You can just order me, or turn on that damn Stepford setting and make me.”

I nodded. “Yes, you’re a slave, but that doesn’t matter as much in Black Star as it does other places. And the reason we’re talking about you is because Black Star has done work with the Confederacy. As a Confederate Marine, I could work with a friend I have in the Navy to get you returned to them as a free woman. That is an option available to you, but we both know that after twenty years, you’d get sent to counseling, likely get a nice ‘retirement’ ceremony, a basic government-issue arm to replace the one you lost, and then be kicked out into the Civilian world where you’d be on your own, looking to see what work you can find. Sure, you might luck out and be taken back and somehow manage to return to combat status, but you were a Private when you were captured, and you’d be a Private now, with people twenty years younger than you are.”

Leaning back in my chair, I said, “So that’s your first choice. Go back to the Confederacy as a free woman, head out into Civilian life, and find your way. It isn’t a bad choice, if you’ve seen enough and want to just settle down, maybe get a job in an office somewhere answering phones. However, that’s just one of your choices. I’m here to lay out what your other choices are, if you’re interested.”

The Marine frowned, and said, “Well, it might be nice to see home again, or at least let people know I’m alive. But they’ve all moved on, probably thought I was dead. And they’d want to talk about it constantly if I was a civilian. So what are my other options, before I make a decision?”

Smiling, I leaned forward. “Glad you’re at least going to hear me out. All right, so you’ve heard Option 1. Now here’s Option 2. Black Star is a big company, full of a lot of positions. We have people, both slave and free, who have gone through the same as you, or worse. Probably heard something about Jagloth getting an Exterminatus order, right? We have some of the survivors in our company. So you’ll have people around you that know what it is like to lose everything. And some of them have reinvented themselves, stepping into new fields. You want to learn to fly a shuttle? Maybe become a teacher? Pick up a trade? We’ll help you get the training you need. And, of course, we’d be getting you a new arm.”

I grinned at the woman, and said, “Of course, Option 2 might not be your thing. Flying a freighter or learning to tune an engine or becoming an artist might not seem too different from civilian life to you, except for you getting a better-quality arm out of the deal, and not needing to worry about a lot of concerns like taxes or cost of living. I’ve known Marines in two worlds, and I don’t think that’s something you’d go for, but I don’t want you thinking I’m leaving out any of your options, so I’m laying it out for you. But Option 3, well, that’s something I think you might like.” The door chimed, and I smiled, “And I have someone here to help tell you why that might be.”

The doors opened, and in walked Captain Virstina, dressed in her crisp new Black Star Navy uniform, looking worlds different from the slave who had left this same room a couple hours ago. There was a moment of shocked recognition as the two women saw each other, and the Marine shot up to her feet as the Captain walked into the room and then turned to give me a crisp naval salute. “Slave-Captain Ara Virstina reporting as ordered, Master.”

I nodded to Captain Virstina, and said, “I mentioned to Ms. Pakas here that there were two people from the Kyathaela Daven that we managed to retrieve from the pirates. After twenty years, I’m afraid it will likely be next to impossible to find any other survivors, but I thought that, as you are now a Captain in the Black Star Navy, you might like having one of your former Marines as the commander for your Marine detachment?”

Captain Virstina nodded. “Yes, Master, I would most certainly like to have even one member of my former crew under me. Did you give her the same options as you did me?”

I shrugged. “Almost. I thought I’d wait on the ‘join the Black Star Marines’ pitch until she saw you in uniform.” Turning to look at Pakas, I chuckled, seeing the state she was in. “Go ahead, Pakas, and ask Captain Virstina what you want to know.”

Pakas nodded once to me, and then looked back to Virstina. “Is… is it true? You’re a Captain on a warship, even though you’re a slave? An actual warship, in an actual navy, not a glorified pirate vessel?”

Captain Virstina nodded. “Yes, I am going to be the Captain of the BSN Ama-no-Murakumo-no-Tsurugi, the Black Star Navy’s first battleship. But it is a big ship, and I’ll need a Marine commander I can count on in order to make sure the crew, slave and free, keep in line. Do you think you’re up to the task, Marine?”

Alea Pakas, former Confederate Marine and slave to pirates, snapped to attention as best she could, and no doubt would have saluted if she still had her arm. Military habits never really go away, after all, even if there’s some rust on them. “Ma’am, yes, ma’am!”

I nodded appreciatively. “I take it, then, you are going to take Option 3, and become a Captain in my Black Star Marine Corps? Of course, on ship you’ll have to be called Major, because we all know there’s only one Captain on a ship.”

The Marine turned crisply in place, and said, “Yes, Master! I will join your Marines.” I could practically feel the salute in her voice.

Smiling, I nodded, and said, “Then Captain Virstina, if you would escort Captain Pakas to where the Thunderfury is docked so that she can begin learning about her new force, and can talk with the Marine doctors about what she wants for her new arm? And when you send out your next message to your sister, you might also send a message to her husband and daughter, if they’re living, and tell them the good news.” I looked at the Marine, and said, “I might suggest holding off on a video message until you’re in uniform, with at least a temporary arm to fill the sleeve. It will make them see you as less ‘victim’ and more ‘survivor’.”

Pakas nodded stiffly, and I could see she was doing her best to maintain that typical Marine composure. Not wanting her efforts to go to waste, I motioned to Virstina, who nodded with a smile. Together, the two women went out into the corridor, and the door closed behind them.

I waited twenty minutes for the two women to move down the hall and around the corner where they could avoid being seen by me as I left. The cameras in the hall showed the Marine’s composure start to slip, finally, and I turned off the feed. I had no need to watch that. Let her have a bit of privacy.

I stood, and slipped out of the room, myself, turning out the lights as I left. With the disposition of the slaves recovered from the pirates done, there were still plenty of things on this station that required attention. But for now, things were going smooth. The shipyards were up and running, and the station wasn’t about to fall apart. And we’d received our payment for the anti-piracy work in this sector.

There was a lot to do, but I’d been away from Nuevo Edo for a while, so it would probably be good to check in on things there, and see how the fleet was rebuilding. Tapping my bracer as I walked, I said, “Raven, what is the status of Fourth Group?”

“All sixteen gunboats crewed and ready, and training together. Three Assassins crewed. The rest of the Fourth Group is waiting on production time in the queue at the shipyard.”

“Transfer Fourth Group production to the Madrigal Base shipyard. Fourth Group will use Madrigal Base as their base of operations. Send the ships here to relieve First Group. First Group will return to Dimiya when they arrive. Have the Starlight Raven prepped for launch as well, and let the girls know. Detach the Shadowdancer to escort us. We’re going to check in on Nuevo Edo. It has been a while since I showed my face there.”

“Understood, Admiral. Deployment orders going out now.”

(BSN Shinokage, Amazon Gateway, Amazon System)

Cali moaned responsively as she bounced upon my lap while we relaxed on the Shinokage. The cruiser, along with the Shadowdancer and Simo Hayha were patrolling the Amazon system to ensure that foolish people didn’t try to land on the surface. Well, other than the group from the Empire.

Actually, we were watching that group with some interest. A group calling themselves the Friends of Humanity had conducted a test on Earth using Nomads as guinea pigs to try and make a new ‘sanctuary’ just north of London. Their methods involved setting off several EMPs to knock out the nanites in the area, and then rushing down with shuttles to try and set up the ‘fence’ before the nanites could fill in the sudden gap. On paper, it should have worked. Unfortunately, the whole thing ended in failure and the shuttles just barely managed to get out of the atmosphere before the nanites could get through their shields.

As for why it didn’t work? Well, I’d made the command decision to leave out a lot of the pertinent information about Greenwave and the fences when Black Star announced anything. Kept it off the forums or chat rooms, too. See, the first thing one thinks of when you talk about trying to defeat some technological menace is an EMP. It is so basic that everyone at least considers it, even if a lot of systems have moved past the point where an EMP will actually affect the circuitry. As an anti-tech superweapon, however, Greenwave was specifically hardened to shrug off an EMP.

So, someone in the Friends of Humanity group got the great idea that if knocking the nanites out didn’t work, maybe they could try blowing them up. The new plan involved actual nuclear weapons. More than a few of them, actually. There was literally no chance in hell that the Empire would allow these idiots to set off a bunch of nukes over North America, where they wanted to build their compound, so they’d come out to currently unclaimed space, to see if they couldn’t create a ‘sanctuary’ on the Amazon planet.

The Friends of Humanity ships (basically commercial freighters given a new coat of paint) flew in what could only be called a ‘formation’ if one took chaos theory and applied it to three-dimensional movement and then had a group of data points somewhere in the field. These were clearly civilian pilots at the helm of the freighters. Probably just people who had a few hours of flight experience before they came on this trip. If this was the level of technical expertise involved with the rest of their operation, I could see why the Nomads had decided not to come along on this leg of the venture.

Well, that, and the fact that apparently these humans were basically the Klan, but in space. They didn’t care too much about race, honestly, though they did have something against people who got cybernetics or other augmentations for anything other than ‘my arm got blown off’ or similar situations. Said it made them ‘impure’ and ‘less human’. They REALLY didn’t like people who ‘dirtied the blood’ by having relations with other species. They’d kept it quiet from the Nomads at first, but nutjobs like them can’t really shut up about their thoughts for too long.

So, this group was all just ‘locals’, who were trying to set up a haven on a new world, where there was no government, by nuking the hell out of the site they wanted to settle. Oh, sure, that pretty much guaranteed that the place would be a radioactive wasteland initially, but these people weren’t entirely stupid. The technology to clean up radioactive hellholes existed, and terraforming was an old process that people knew well. If the nukes actually worked to clear the Greenwave nanites from the area long enough for them to set up the shield fences, then they would have a nice little terrorist base to build up for their little campaign to make things pure again.

OK, maybe it wasn’t ENTIRELY coincidental that my ships were here watching the tests. Or the fact that we remained cloaked, so that they didn’t know were sitting there, watching. I didn’t care for these people, or their ideology, and having a haven for racist nutjobs so close to Nuevo Edo wasn’t something I was keen on. My main hope was that the nukes would fail to do the job, in which case I wouldn’t have to do anything. If they succeeded, though? Then I’d have to get creative in order to keep this from being a problem later on.

Cali’s moan brought me out of my momentary reflections. I’d been leaning back in my chair and letting her do all the work anyway, but now I grabbed her by her hips and slammed her down upon my cock, causing the pour girl to shudder in pleasure. “Mmm. Very good, my pet. I see you’ve been practicing those moves Shearah found in Dimiya’s cultural database. Their version of the Kama Sutra was quite… illuminating, don’t you agree?”

The lithe little warrior moaned happily in response. “Oh, yes, Master! We all had so much fun reviewing the ‘research materials’. Do you want to see what my next move is?”

“Master, this is Captain Inatumal on the bridge. You wished to be informed when the Friends of Humanity began their tests. They will be ready to fire their nukes in ten minutes.”

“Thank you, Captain. Begin recording, all sensors. I wish to see how they do. Maintain full stealth. I want them to think that they’re being sneaky. I’ll be there shortly.”

“Understood, Master.”

As I looked away from the communicator, I smiled at the pout Cali was giving me. “Don’t be like that, Cali. There will be plenty of time for you to show me your moves. But now, you better hurry up if you want to finish the job before I need to be on the bridge.”

Ten minutes later, I was on the main bridge of the Shinokage, standing next to Captain Inatumal, her sister by my side. Shinokage’s tactical team leader looked over to me, and whispered, “Should I have the teams ready to go, Master? We could take their four freighters easily enough.”

I shook my head. “No, I have no interest in prisoners at this time. For now, we’re just observing to see if these people have discovered a way to carve out a ‘safe zone’ in a Greenwave area after the nanites have already spread. I doubt it will be so easy, but we’ll see.”

From the communications console, the crewman who was monitoring the Friends of Humanity ship communications called out, “Captain, the freighter Alamos 20K just reported to the other freighters that they fixed the launch rig that had been improperly installed. Launch commencing in thirty seconds.”

The Captain nodded to the comm officer, and then turned to look at her sensor operator, “Sensors?”

The sensor officer looked up from her screens. “All sensors locked and recording. We’re getting a solid record of everything they’re doing. However, we won’t know whether their plan works until they send the shuttles down with the fence materials.” She paused, and then said, “Freighter Alamos 20K has launched missiles. Counting seven good launches. Reading shields on the missiles, increasing their sensor profile. Detonation in three, two, one, now. We have multiple nuclear detonations.”

Captain Inatumal nodded. “Visual scanners, on the main screen. Let us see what the blast zone looks like.”

The scene that greeted them was just what one would expect in the aftermath of multiple nuclear strikes in the middle of what had probably been a city before Greenwave ate everything, given that there was a distinct lack of large trees in the ‘before’ picture, and any grass was patchy, at best. Now, though, we saw seven mushroom clouds rising over area, in a perfect hexagon with one blast in the middle of the effect. Frankly, I was just impressed that they managed to get seven nukes that actually worked. Figuring out who sold them the material was a job for someone else, but it did make me uncomfortable, having what amounted to racist gangs being able to get weapons of mass destruction was not a good sign about the state of the galaxy at the moment.

“Shuttles entering the atmosphere, Captain. Sensors locked on them. So far, we don’t see any sign of nanite interaction.”

I nodded from where I was watching. “Yes, that much is to be expected. A few nukes in the area are going to knock around and disorient the nanites a bit, to say the least. But the question is whether they’ve been destroyed, or merely knocked around? Every surface in that area was infested with nanites. To make the area ‘safe’, they would have to not merely suppress the nanites, but eradicate them, or you risk any little thing causing them to reawaken and spread throughout your ‘sanctuary’. It is like a cancer patient in remission before the cures were discovered. You could treat it, kill off a lot of it, but even when you cut it out, there was always a chance that it would return. For someplace like the Amazon planet, it would likely not be ‘safe’ for fifty years or more. And I wouldn’t put anything I wanted to keep intact long-term on that planet for at least a hundred years.”

“Shuttles have landed in their designated positions. Looks like they’re setting up the fences now.”

Thirty minutes after the detonation of the nukes, the eight ‘fenceposts’ were placed and ready. Then, the moment of truth, when the fence was turned on, and no one’s suit had been eaten by nanites. So far, the whole situation had been going according to plan. At least, until the first of the freighters, Hand of Five, tried to land in the safe zone, and accidentally broke through a place where underground works had been critically weakened by the nanites eating all the support structures. But those works had also been shielded from the blast waves of the nukes.

The screams of the crew as their ship began to get eaten around them, and then their suits were eaten, exposing them to the lethal amounts of radiation in the area, were horrible to hear. So I ordered the comms officer to mute the audio. “As I said, remission and reinfection. Captain, signal the group. Jam all transmissions from the freighters. Destroy the Alamos 20K, with prejudice. I don’t trust these idiots not to have more nukes to try and ‘cleanse’ the infection. Shadowdancer and Simo Hayha are tasked to disable the Humanis Policlub and Human Nation, and use tractor beams to push them into the atmosphere so they may join their friends on the surface.”

Three warships against three freighters was no contest, and the whole ‘battle’ was really not worth describing more than likening it to swatting flies. One ‘barrel’ of Shinokage’s main weapon was enough to utterly destroy the Alamos 20K, and the two other freighters were soon disabled, and deorbiting nicely as the nanites began to consume their unprotected hulls. “Send a message to news services. Advise them that, while on a routine patrol for pirates, we encountered several freighters that ignored the quarantine warnings around the Amazon planet, and attempted to force a landing in an attempt to set up a new ‘sanctuary’. The result was a failure, with all hands lost. Attach audio of the communications from the Hand of Five, but cut it before it gets to any of the gruesome parts. Make sure to tell them that all hands in the expedition were lost.”

“At once, Admiral.”

The sensor officer looked up, “Captain, the Gateway just activated. Probes register incoming gateway from Alpha Centauri. Three ships exiting… Identifications reading as the corvettes INS Adder and INS Copperhead, but the third ship only has a generic system ID, registering it as a… Nova Eden-class colony ship. It looks brand new, but those things haven’t been made in at least fifty years, not since the second round of expansion after the Gateways were discovered ended!”

I perked up at that. “Ah, good. Captain, if you would please hail the Imperial craft, I believe our waiting here has come to an end. The Empress has just delivered our payment for helping to free Terra from the clutches of the AI.”

(Admiral’s Suite, BNS Ama-no-Murakumo-no-Tsurugi, Amazon System)

I awakened to a lovely sight: Slave-Captain Ara Virstina moaning softly as she rode slowly on my cock, doing her best to keep her voice down as she fucked herself with my morning wood. While I had originally intended to break her of some of the conditioning she’d been subjected to as a slave for so many years, I had a change of heart when she and her daughter, the Senator, made me promise to let them have a ‘reunion’ when I next got back to Dimiya. Seems they’d been sharing stories about me with each other. Oh well, who was I to complain, after all the things I’d done in this game?

Reaching up, I gripped the Captain by her hips, causing her to open her eyes in surprise, just before I slammed her down hard. “Such a naughty little slave-captain you are, Ara. Perhaps I should find a way to punish you?”

Captain Virstina moaned louder now, not bothering to keep her voice down. “Whatever you wish, Master. I am just happy to serve you, as always!” Even as I held her hips down against mine, I could feel her grinding back and forth quite nicely. Whoever had trained her had done an excellent job.

Groaning pleasurably, I said, “Well, then I think I will punish you by having you report on the condition of the ship and the group, while I enjoy myself. If you mess up, then I’ll be adding new punishments. So do a good job, or I’ll be forced to get creative.”

“Aahhh! Oh, yes Master! Th-the fleet has finished gathering with the last of the new additions being added in the last six hours. The – ah! — Knight class Destroyers look to be very capable, M-master! They’ve been through f-field trials and are ready for action. The fu-uuull order of battle for First Group has the Ama-no-Murakumo, two Reapers, six Knights, eight Assassins, sixteen Gunboats, the carrier Pandora’s Box, and the heavy logistics freighter Davenport. We-eee also have the First Group of the Black Star Marines and the Nova Eden-class Colony ship Starborn which will follow us once we secure the other side of the Gateway.”

I smiled as she tried to keep things together, despite me becoming more active in this morning play. The ‘order of battle’ she described was the ‘standard’ for the Black Star fleet, but the Second and Third groups didn’t really bother with that as much. The Second Group was the Dimiya defense group, protecting our holdings in Dimiya and performing jobs in that sector. The Third Group was more geared towards support rather than offense or defense, and was typically going to be in rear areas. Neither of them needed the power that First Group had. Fourth and Fifth groups, though, were the ones that would be directly going into harm’s way more often than not, and they needed the boost. “Very good, my pet. I trust your people have made the best use of the last couple months?”

“Oooh! Yes, Master! They are aaaah-ll ready to go. Everything is ready for diving to check the Nineteenth Gate Address. We haaave calculated according to the texts left behind by the aliens which brought the Nuevo Edoans to their world, and we believe that o-one of the gates is nearby, like how the Desolace, Aquarian, and Nania systems were all relatively close, all being in Confederate space.”

I nodded as I moved to change positions, rolling over so that I was on top of the knelfi woman now. “Well done, Captain. You and your crew have worked hard to get ready for venturing through the Gateway. Now, take your reward!”

“OH! THANK YOU, MASTER!”

(Main Bridge, BSN Ama-no-Murakumo-no-Tsurugi, Amazon System)

I looked over the bridge crew, who were all smiles as they saw me enter alongside the Slave-Captain. No doubt the rumor mill had already let it be known that the Captain had spent the night in my quarters. Well, it was the truth, and I saw no reason to deny or be ashamed of it. It wasn’t like I didn’t have the reputation for doing that, and more, by now.

I turned my attention to the screens, seeing the fleet assembled. We’d chosen the Amazon system to launch our first expedition from because we could control access to the system easier than we could, say, Desolace or other worlds with Gateways. Even the pirates stopped trying their luck in getting the planet full of potential slaves, since the Amazon planet was still rich with Greenwave nanites (current estimates had it being another fifty years before colonization efforts could begin). This was important, not just for keeping the Gate address secret as long as possible, but also for not rattling our neighbors more than was needed.

The problem, of course, was that the Black Star Navy now had battleships and real carriers that weren’t war prizes. This was something that made people nervous when I had them parked places they did business. Which is why as soon as the Ama-no-Murakumo had finished construction, I had it ship out for the Gateway as soon as possible. It wouldn’t do to leave it hanging in the public eye and making people nervous.

The other two battleships in the Fleet were the BSN Gugnir in Fourth Group, based at Madrigal Base, and the BSN Banshee’s Wail, in Fifth Group, based at Nuevo Edo. This made the Banshee’s Wail the only one of the battleships that were in more or less constant view of the public. But Captain Windrunner was smart enough to keep the Fifth group from just sitting in orbit like a threat. They were officially there to help protect the planet and Black Star property if the X’thari returned. Unofficially, she was using Nuevo Edo as a staging point as the Assassins from Fifth Group were scouting the nearby systems.

As Slave-Captain Virstina had said, the First Group had grown considerably. Ama-no-Murakumo-no-Tsurugi was the center of the group, naturally. Of course, many of First Group’s ships were old hands, but there were several newcomers. Shinokage was one of two Reapers in the Group now, with the Shifrat Almawt (a name that meant Death’s Blade) as the second. Six Knight class Destroyers were added to the formation, and I had unilaterally declared that they would be named Lancelot, Galahad, Bedivere, Kay, Gawain, and Tristan, after some of the Knights of the Round Table. The blooded Assasins Shadowdancer, Simo Hayha, Wisteria, and Artemis were joined by the newcomers Spitfire, Whirlwind, Zephyr, and Reliant. Our little swarm of gunboats had risen to sixteen, and the Vicious Return had been shifted into the Marines, while the new carrier Pandora’s Box and the Oregon Trail class heavy freighter Davenport rounded out the ships in our group. The Vicious Return may have gone to the Marines, but Ghost Squadron was now stationed on Pandora’s Box, along with the new Red Guardian, Silver Sentinel, Gold, and Black Dragon Squadrons.

The First Group of the Black Star Marine Corps was going to be joining us on this venture, just in case we found some X’thari we needed to educate on their new place in the world, or anyone else we needed to make the kind of subtle diplomatic approach that only Marines offered you. BSMS Thunderfury led the way, of course, but now she was joined by the BSMS Vicious Return and her new Firelord Squadron. The three Crow class Assault Ships (Threnody, Deliverance, and Wrathgate) added to the Marine group’s firepower, both in space and on the ground, giving the Marines some powerful options. I’ve never once heard about Marines complaining about having more options on the battlefield that weren’t ‘field expedient’ patch jobs that were the product of pure desperation and insanity.

Of course, the final piece of the puzzle for our new expedition was the Nova Eden class colony ship that the Empress had gifted us with as payment for our part in the Civil War. We’d named it the Starborn, not only because it was easier to say than a complex alphanumerical serial number, but also because colonies often took the name of the colony ship that founded them. A Black Star colony being known as Starborn sounded like a nice fit. The Starborn would wait until we cleared the system of hazards before transferring through. There was no way I was risking that ship on the unknown.

Some would probably wonder why I needed a colony ship, if I had things like the Nightforge in Third Group. Well, to be honest, I could make a colony on a world without it. But the Nova Eden ships were designed to be a one-stop shop for setting up a colony overnight. The colony ship itself would form the basis of the colony, essentially landing shelter, defense, communications, manufacturing, food production, and all the other essentials on the face of a world that may or may not be capable of supporting the kind of life found in Known Space. While the capabilities of the facilities were limited, especially when taking into account the potential growth of the new colony, when trade and new settlers beyond the five thousand souls in stasis arrived, it was perfect for providing a secure site where the newborn colony could manufacture their own infrastructure.

Actually, the Nova Eden series were quite a bit smaller and more streamlined than the original colony ships, which would actually separate into sections in orbit, with each section doing a (hopefully) controlled descent to the colony location. The newer ships were only the size of a superdreadnought, instead of the far larger generation ships that were originally launched. Not needing to deal with the life support concerns of the five thousand colonists save for a small support crew made the whole effort far more streamlined, allowing the colony ship to actually land on the surface, which greatly reduced the potential problems in getting all those resources and people down to the surface.

I took a breath, and said, “Sensors, are we alone?”

The sensor officer nodded his head. “Aye, Admiral. No ships on sensors not belonging to Black Star. All satellites and probes not belonging to Black Star have been destroyed or commandeered, according to their origin. Last tachyon pulse of the system was twenty minutes ago, and showed we were all clear.”

I took a breath. “Communications, put me fleet wide.” When the communications officer nodded that we were live, I looked into the camera, and said, “Men, women, and others of the Black Star Fleet, this is the Admiral speaking. We are gathered here on the precipice of history once again. Since the fires of Jagloth, Black Star has been pushing forward, always on the cutting edge.”

“It was no government entity that recovered the address for Nuevo Edo. It was Black Star. It was not an empire which helped Nuevo Edo fight off their ancient foes, and help them stand on their feet again, fighting alongside our forces with no less courage than we showed as we defended their world from the X’thari threat. It was Black Star. It was no Confederate or Terran Marine force that captured the first intact X’thari carrier class vessel. It was Black Star.”

“Once more, we are poised on the brink of history. We have functioned as mercenaries and businessmen as the case may be, hiding in the shadow of larger governments. Now, we are a power that is too large for governments to simply ignore, but too powerful for them to easily take down. Already, we have had to fend off attacks from the rich and the powerful who thought that they could pressure us and take what was not theirs simply because their methods had always worked before. We repulsed them emphatically, and now we have made many people nervous as all hell.”

“Some of you may be wondering why we would push the boundaries again and again. Why should we be the ones to explore, when it is nice and safe living in someone else’s shadow, letting others do the hard and dangerous work of venturing into the unknown? I will tell you why! For over a hundred years, we have known about the Gateways. In that time, only a handful of people have ever tried flying through addresses that were not on the Valoys Tablet found in the Ihm Imperium that gave us the first sixteen addresses in Known Space. The only ones who tried were those so desperate or insane that they tried dialing random addresses, and the overwhelming majority were never heard from again. And then Black Star came along. We found the seventeenth address, and with it, Nuevo Edo. There, we found an address book, containing many, many more addresses.”

“So why hasn’t anyone gone visiting to these addresses? Because it is the unknown. We know that there must be a Gateway with the X’thari homeworld on the other side, but we have no way of knowing where it may be. And that is only considering the X’thari, and not any other threats or hazards that may be out there. After all, a group of aliens was responsible for droping the Nuevo Edoans where they landed.”

“That is why we have gathered here, in order to make history. We have a fleet unlike any that has been assembled before, one capable of defending itself at need, and fighting off a superior foe. We have some of the best people in the galaxy in our fleet, blooded in battle with the Usurper Emperor and the X’thari. We will do what others dare not, for we are Black Star!”

“And should the forces be too great for us, and we are forced to flee away from the Gateway? We believe the gate we are dialing is a little over a month’s travel from Nuevo Edo with conventional FTL drives. So even if the worst should happen, I will not throw you needlessly into the fire. We may get battered, but we will not be broken. We may get pushed back, but we will not be defeated. We are Black Star, and we lead the way where others dare not tred!”

“This is Admiral Mollen to all ships, prepare for Gate travel!”

(Main Bridge, BNS Ama-no-Murakumo-no-Tsurugi, Unknown System)

In a system unnamed by any species known to those living in Known Space, the Gateway opened. Forty-five light years away from Nuevo Edo, and a more sobering seventy light years from the Amazon system, this gateway had never before been dialed from one of the known gates, not since any of the races that now resided in Known Space had watched them. From the gate emerged the Black Star Fleet, flying fast as they hoped for the best, and prepared for the worst. Ghost squadron led the way, blasting through the Gateway almost the instant it had opened. Behind them came the rest of the fighters from the fleet, like a cloud of angry hornets ready to break up any defenses that may be in place in front of the gate.

Then the heaviest, most durable ship in the group emerged, the BSN Ama-no-Murakumo-no-Tsurugi leading the fleet as they ventured into the unknown. The entire fleet filed through the gate behind her, every ship ready for action with shields fully charged and weapons at the ready. No one knew what the situation would be, and so everyone was ready for anything. Running straight into an enemy fleet would be bad, but the fighters and the Ama-no-Murakumo would ensure that the little ships would at least survive the transfer, and they would have a chance to fight back.

The other side of the gate contained… nothing. Well, not nothing. There was a star, and planets, and moons, and asteroids, and all that fun stuff, but there weren’t any enemy ships waiting to try and blast them to bits, which made everyone very happy. Of course, not having anything directly in their path meant nothing, since ships could be fairly stealthy.

On the bridge of the Ama-no-Murakumo, I tore my eyes away from the first look at brand new, unexplored space, and looked to the captain. “Captain, coordinate with Shadowdancer and Shifrat Almawt. Tachyon pulses from all three ships on my mark. Let’s get an idea of what we’re dealing with while the light catches up to us.”

“The cruisers report ready, Master.”

“Mark.”

Three pulses emitted from the fleet as the battleship and the two cruisers spread out into a defensive line. This separation served more than just allowing for overlapping fire control to defend against incoming attacks. Three pulses, offset from each other in three dimensions, gave us an instant ‘snapshot’ of the system.

“X’thari probe sighted. Firelord Leader responding. Firelord Leader reports that the probe has been destroyed. No signs of other ships in the system.”

That wasn’t a certainty, and everyone knew it. Tachyon pulses were a great (albeit LOUD) way to get a complete read on the masses in a solar system. But no sensor tech was without its flaws. Just like active sonar in the days of submarine warfare, there were ways to hide from the tachyon pulses, if you knew how. Making like you were just another part of an asteroid belt was the simplest. Proximity to planets or moons could throw things off, especially if you were on the far side of the planetary body from the pulse’s origin. And then there were quirks of the ‘weather’, for lack of a better term, that could cause interference based on the structure of space. It was an open secret that every military R&D company in the world wanted to be the one to crack how to have stealth systems be able to actively hide from the pulses. To my knowledge, no one, not even the X’thari, had managed it. Physics didn’t complain too much when you bent a law here or there, but breaking them entirely got difficult, fast.

Slave-Captain Virstina looked over to me. “Preliminary scans of the system show seven planets, Master. Four gas giants in the outer system, and three rocky worlds. Best bet for life would be the second planet. It is in the ‘Goldilocks zone’, so it may be able to support life. We’ll have to do an in-depth study to be certain.”

I nodded. That was what I wanted to hear! “All ships secure from battle stations. Helm, take us towards the second planet, defensive formation Delta Seven. Have gunboat Peru dial the Amazon gate and get the Starborn to join us. Contact Thunderfury, and ensure that the Marines and the scientists are in the loop, so they know conditions of the planet and start looking for landing sites. We will finalize plans for a landing when we get into orbit.”

(Conference Room, BSN Ama-no-Murakumo-no-Tsurugi, orbiting the second planet)

We’d arrived in orbit of the second planet after an easy nine hour cruise, but the work of going over the preliminary scans of the system as a whole, and the more in-depth scans we were able to do as we moved closer to the second planet took time to do properly. We only had one colony ship, and moving the colony once placed would be… problematic, to say the least. Better to take the extra time and do it right, rather than to lose everything because were rushing ahead. After all, we had plenty of time since the only ones who knew we were here were the X’thari, and they wouldn’t know the specifics until much later.

Firelord Leader had done very well with that probe, and it was destroyed before the light of our arrival could get to it. The X’thari didn’t like to place the things too close to inhabited planets or the Gateways, it seemed, since that raised the chances of someone stumbling onto them. But having placed it just over fifteen light minutes from the Gateway, Firelord Leader was able to get to it just before the light of the Gate caught up to it, with an in-system jump. The X’thari would know what it meant, of course, but they would be cautious, especially after the last beating we’d given them.

Of course, once we got the colony established, we would have to work on constructing defenses. I intended to call Third Group out here once the colony was on the ground, and have them start constructing the orbital shipyards and defenses. Hmm. Better add a space station for offloading large freighters that couldn’t land on the surface, like the yards at Nuevo Edo were working on. If my plans for this system went through, then it would be quite a windfall for Black Star.

Why would I want my own planet? Because a ‘company planet’, where everything was owned (directly or indirectly) by Black Star, would allow for all sorts of things to happen. Like Nuevo Edo, it would be a free port, in the sense that none of the interstellar governments would have a say there, but while Nuevo Edo was trying to keep their noses clean, I could offer the same services for those who might not be as legitimate as I was. I was thinking something like Las Vegas, back in the old days, when the mob really ran the place, with shades of Amsterdam. Any vice or service available, for a price, with some very simple rules. Theft, murder, piracy, and the like would not be tolerated. But anything else? As long as the Company got its cut, then they could do what they liked. I imagined we would have a great deal of trade with ‘legal’ smugglers coming through the system to make exchanges.

But that was filed under ‘long term goals’. In the short term, we needed to decide on the site for the colony and get things established before we opened the system up for others to join in the colonization effort. Which is why I was sitting in this conference room now with several scientists and other important people from the fleet, twenty-four hours after our initial incursion into the system. We had to pick a colony site.

Lieutenant Kian Windos, the leader of the Ama-no-Murakumo’s science department, was talking about the scans of the second planet and its two moons. “As you can see, the planet is roughly analogous to Terra in size, being 1% larger than humanity’s homeworld and having 5% higher gravity. Sixty-five percent of the planet’s surface is covered in oceans of water. So far, we are not detecting any lethal radiation or other extreme hazards, other than a few volcanic eruptions in isolated areas. Mineralogy reports will take time to complete of course, as we go exploring in depth. Temperatures range from tropical towards the equator to arctic in the polar regions, as one might expect. We don’t have enough data to talk about weather patterns, but we have noticed one hurricane forming in the middle of one of the oceans.”

I nodded slowly. So far “Would you say that the planet is suitable for colonization, Lieutenant?”

Windos paused, and then nodded his head. “Yes, Admiral, but strict quarantine measures should be in place for anyone heading to the surface. While the atmospheric composition appears breathable, we will need time to analyze filtration reports on the air and water before we can say that it is safe. The last thing we want is for an alien version of some bacteria that is usually harmless mutating to become some kind of super-plague. The galaxy only needs one Twilight system.”

We all gave a collective shudder at that. The Twilight system had been the target of one of the early knelfi colonization efforts. Unfortunately, something on the planet had caused runaway genetic mutations in those exposed. The colonists had suddenly become, for some reason, hemovores, and began attacking each other, spreading the infection until it was too widespread. In addition to physical changes, which included some bizarre crystallization of the skin when exposed to sunlight, were severe psychological changes, resulting in what could basically be summed up as whiny, emo, co-dependent idiots, with a marked rise in sexual deviancy. The Knelfi had quarantined the planet and, after finding that there was no cure, had condemned the planet to be the first world in the galaxy to receive an exterminatus order.

Of course, that was only the worst, most horrible example, but there were plenty of other examples in the early days of interstellar colonization. Thankfully, the ones who came before had thought of such things. Looking to the scientist, I asked, “Do you think the standard protocols will be sufficient, or should we design new protocols for this planet?”

Windos shook his head. “The standard protocols should be sufficient. We will want to enforce the testing regimens to ensure that any incidents remain contained, but the protocols were designed to be adaptive based on the situations on the ground. I believe that, if we follow them, we should be able to significantly reduce the risks to the colonists.”

I nodded. “Very well. Now, to the next point of business. Any signs of previous tenants?”

“Nothing definitive, Admiral. However, there are two points of potential interest. First, we have some energy readings on this continent here that may indicate some kind of previous civilization. The site is centered in a dense jungle, so we are unable to get visuals from above, but it may be worth checking out.”

“Second, and a bit more worrisome, is this impact crater on the southern continent. It appears to be a high-speed impact from a spaceship of some kind. We can see some of the wreckage on scanners, but there is indication of some sort of installation there, like what was reported in several areas of Known Space shortly after the fall of Terra in the Imperial Civil War.”

THAT got my attention, fast. I looked to Major Khan, and said, “Major, the Black Star Marines have a mission. I want you to drop on the crash site and investigate. Full contamination protocols, just in case.”

The Marine nodded grimly, and excused himself to begin planning his deployment. When he was gone, I looked to Windos again. “Transfer your readings on the energy source in the northern continent to Raven for further analysis. If there is a source of Lost Tech on this planet, we need to secure it. I’ll have teams go and check it out as well.”

I looked at everyone remaining in the room. “All right, people, this world appears to be even better than what we were looking for. Of course, it could be a hundred times more dangerous than we’d hoped, but we’ll adapt. I’m officially declaring that the planet and system will be named Star’s Reach. The colony of Starborn will be established on the surface. Now, we just have to find a good spot for it. So let me see the options.”

(BSS Starborn, Star’s Reach orbit)

Slave-Captain Jaez Thozka looked at the ten members of her crew, her tail twitching in excitement. A total crew of eleven for a ship the size of the Starborn was, frankly, absolutely insane under normal circumstances. However, this was a colony ship, not a bulk freighter or a warship. And there were plenty of other ships guarding them that she could call on if there were problems her ten crewmen couldn’t handle.

The Ihm female took a breath, and then said, “All right, the Master has given us our orders. The scientists on the fleet took a while, but they’ve decided on the best location for the new colony. As you all ought to know by now, this colony will be called Star’s Reach, and the city of Starborn will be its capitol. But for that to happen, we have to get the sections on the ground without anything going wrong.”

“Some of you may be wondering why we should bother doing our best work since we’re slaves and all. Well, you’re all slaves, and nothing anytime soon will be changing that. However, I’ve talked with some of the other slaves in the fleet and the company, and I can tell you that this is the best owner we could have. Black Stars are Black Stars, whether slaves or free. There are free men and women who treat their enslaved commanders with respect in Black Star.”

She paused, to make sure that everyone understood the meaning of what she just said. “When we get down to the colony, some of us are going to be in positions of power, heading departments as we chart the course of this new colony, until things get established. But if we do a good job, and get this baby on the ground without anything screwing up? We might get to make that permanent. So let’s do this right, and we’ll all be having the good life!”

Her crew all nodded, cheered, or responded in other ways that made her know she’d be getting their best from them. “All right, then. Everyone to your positions, and prepare for separation. Your section computers should have the flight data in them, so once everyone is ready, we’ll separate and begin our de-orbit burns.”

(BSS Starlight Raven, Star’s Reach Orbit)

I watched from the Raven’s cockpit as the Starborn began breaking up into her eleven primary sections, dropping from the skeletal frame that held them. These sections would provide the backbone of what any starting colony would need. Food, shelter, power, manufacturing… anything they didn’t carry, they could make. Of course, the two most important sections were the massive stasis chambers holding the five thousand individual pods used for the new colonists. If those went boom, then the colony would be missing its main population, and the part of the ship that was to be broken down and turned into housing.

Of course, the skeleton of the Starborn wasn’t going to go to waste. While not up to the capabilities of an actual shipyard, the skeleton was capable of serving as a temporary yard until proper facilities could be built. In fact, part of the mass not going down to the planet was designed to be converted into small mining and processing ships to supply the raw materials needed to start some space-based industry, and start work on a basic space station.

That process would go along much faster once I brought the Nightforge and her group here. The Nuevo Edoan Navy were starting to get up to speed, and Fifth Group for the Black Star Navy was already starting to get up to speed. Sending the Nightforge and Third Group to Star’s Reach would keep the locals from getting too antsy about our power, while keeping our people there safe. Black Star was now officially based in four different systems, in two arms of the galaxy, so having ships protecting different areas was within our purview.

“Captain, the shuttles from Artemis, Reliant, and Simo Hayha have launched, and are descending alongside the sections of Starborn. All ships on course, and the shuttles are ready to set up a perimeter around the colony site until initial defenses come online. The shuttles from Shadowdancer and Wisteria are coming alongside. Both shuttles report ready for descent.”

I looked over to Raven, and said, “Anything new on the energy source?”

“Negative, Captain. I’m monitoring sensors, but the energy signature has not changed. It may be in some kind of standby.”

“Understood. Beginning our descent. Catspaw and Valkyrie are to follow our lead. Keep scanning with the sensors, I want to find someplace we can land near the site. No one is to overfly the energy signature until I say otherwise. I don’t want to discover this thing is some kind of defensive system the hard way.”

“Understood, Captain. Orders going out to the fleet. I have a potential landing that will fit the Raven and the two shuttles. It is a small clearing two kilometers from the energy source.”

“Give me coordinates, and pass them on to the shuttles. All teams are to go in with full contamination protocols in place. We don’t know what we’re dealing with, so maximum prudent safety measures. I would rather go slow than lose a squad due to carelessness.”

“Course entered, Captain. Catspaw and Valkyrie acknowledge orders. No change in the energy signature.”

I took a breath, and then led the way, as the two shuttles followed my freighter into the atmosphere. This wasn’t the first combat mission we’d done, but there was something different about this, that had me getting excited. We were here, on a planet that no one other than the possible servants of Deus, the mad AI, had been to in who knows how long, and now we were going to start checking for what could very well be Lost Tech just waiting to be found. The possibilities of what we could find were mind boggling. I was just glad that the possible ‘dungeon’ was on a completely different continent, and would be the responsibility of the Marines. With the reports that some of the dungeons were getting abominations in them, I didn’t want to press my luck while we were in the initial exploration stage.

Besides, the Marines would be all kinds of upset if I stole their fun.

(BNS Thunderfury, Star’s Reach orbit)

Major Khan looked at his marines, assembled on the flight deck of the Thunderfury. The atmosphere, gravity, and humidity in Marine Country had been adjusted to the planet below’s ‘normal’ giving his people at least a little time acclimate to local conditions. Assuming that they were ever out of armor on this pass, which they shouldn’t be. Because that was just stupid, unless things went really, really badly. And because they were Marines, they were going to just assume that things were going to go badly, and prepare, so that they could adapt and overcome.

“All right, you maggots, listen up!” The deck went silent as a flight deck ever got as the marines stopped talking and snapped to attention. “We have ourselves a mission, as you all know. The southern continent of the planet we just found shows signs that it has been hit with a ship crashing from orbit, just like has been reported in all those places the damned AI, Deus, ran to hide and put all those dungeons up. We still don’t know where Deus itself went to run, but even if this isn’t one of the AI’s core sites, it has still had almost a year to prepare to receive visitors since the battle for Sol System finished the Imperial Civil War. Naturally, we can expect the ‘dungeon’, if there is one, to be fully formed, and ready to receive us.”

“You all know what the AI’s defenses were like the last time we fought it someplace where it had had plenty of time to prepare for unwanted guests. Going by reports from Nomads who have ventured into other dungeons, the AI not only has access to drones and cloned slaves, but also creatures like the ones we fought in that weapons lab. And we probably haven’t seen the end of its possible tricks. So we’re going down in full contamination gear, assuming all kinds of attack. This AI has already shown itself willing to use nanites and augmentations to enslave and control people, and it is likely that these things could work on Nomads as well, as it was a derivative of the Legion Plague.”

“I’m not going to lie to you. This is going to be our most dangerous drop to date. There is a very good chance that there are challenges in this place that could be ‘permadeath’ events if you get sloppy, or take things for granted. I want you all to remember that this AI likes to think that it is a god, and that anything that isn’t it is simply a tool to advance its own survival. We kicked its ass hard in Sol, hard enough that it had to flee all across the galaxy in order to escape, but the parts of it that live are damned dangerous still, and you will respect that fact. Assume that everything down there is willing, able, and eager to kill you and wear you like a cheap suit afterwards.”

Major Khan took a breath, and said, “Questions?” One hand went up. “Yes, Lieutenant Xiler?”

“Sir, why aren’t we just nuking the thing from orbit, or dropping Greenwave on it?”

The Major nodded once. “An excellent question, Xiler. The reason we’re not nuking this bastard from orbit is because we don’t know if that will allow the nasties to spread beyond the dungeon. Everywhere else that there is a dungeon, the nasties seem confined to its halls. Nuke the dungeon, and anything that survives might escape.”

“As for Greenwave? We don’t know the layout of this complex. Even if we drop a fence around the entrance to keep things contained, that means nothing if the beasties get outside the fence because the dungeon went on outside the perimeter. And we want to be using this planet more than just a few isolated sanctuaries inside fences, like they’ve been reduced to on Earth.”

He took a breath, and said, “We cannot simply wipe this threat off the face of the planet until we know the extent of the complex, and how dangerous it might be. Also, there is the very real danger of adaptation. The AI is smart, people, and it learns. We don’t want to expose it to Greenwave too much, or it might learn how to adapt and defeat it, perhaps by becoming technorganic like the X’thari. And I think we can all agree that we don’t want the AI being like those bastards.” That got a round of chuckles from the company.

“So, our mission is to go down there, see what kind of enemies are in this dungeon, kick their ass, and map out the extent of the dungeon. If possible, we will determine if we can destroy this infestation without things spreading all over the planet. We don’t know whether we’ll need to do that or whether we’ll actually be able to set this place up for farming unless we go in and check it out. Best case scenario? This place provides a nice, profitable training ground for new recruits to give them some live combat experience as we bring them up to Black Star levels.”

“Any more questions? No? Well then load up, and let’s move out! We’ve got a dungeon to explore, Marines!”

(Elsewhere, Star’s Reach)

Beneath the ground, something stirred. Sensors that had been quiet now detected disturbances. The sleeping consciousness that had waited for this moment slowly began wakening from its slumber. And it began to prepare.

(A Virtual Room in NERV HQ)

“What in the hell?”

A phrase that never bode well was uttered in the control room, causing Isaac’s gaze to snap to the technician who uttered the words that foreshadowed a lot of extra work on his part. “What happened?”

The tech turned to look at him, and said, “We just had a new entry appear in the list of possible spawn sites for new players who are coming in on an Advanced or Hardcore start. It is not in the list of new starting zones we were going to add in to encourage people to start in new or underserved areas.”

Isaac blinked. “What? So you mean the AI added in a new starting zone? Bring it up on the screen.”

Starting Zone: Starborn Colony

Location: Star’s Reach, Star’s Reach System

Restrictions: No racial restrictions. Limited to Advanced or Hardcore starts.

“Star’s Reach? I haven’t heard of any such system. Must be player-discovered. Can we see the full admin details of the system?”

Star’s Reach System

Designated Gateway 19

Discovered 30 hours ago in-game.

System claimed by Black Star Company as corporate-controlled system.

Star’s Reach

Primary habitable world in Star’s Reach System.

Primary settlement: Starborn (1 hour old), located on coast of Western continent.

Planet owned by Black Star Company.

Dungeon 125-A located on Southern continent.

Location A2-D234-2C9X-Epsilon located on central mountain range of Western continent.

Starborn

Population: 11 (5000 additional in stasis)

Note: 100% of current population, including those in stasis, are registered as slaves of Black Star Company.

Isaac nodded his head. “Ah, that explains it. Our favorite tester found a shiny new world when he went exploring through the Gateway, and put a flag down as soon as he could to ensure that he could claim everything in the system as his. As the only ruling authority in the system, with a colony of over three thousand people on the ground, he has a solid legal claim to the system and anything in it.”

“Isn’t that a little rushed, though? He hasn’t had time to check the planet out yet.”

Isaac sighed. “Of course, it is a bit rushed, but in this case getting the claim in means all rights are his. Any government, corporation, or other concern that wants in on the new colony is going to have to go through him, since he’s got the legal claim.”

“That’s going to make a lot of people unhappy.”

Isaac laughed. “Oh, that won’t be what makes them unhappy. It will be the ones that choose the new Starborn colony as their start zone, and find themselves slaves of the Black Star Company before they even logged in. They’ll scream bloody murder at that.”

“Should we do anything about it?”

“If someone complains about being slaves at the start, inform them that the determination of a new starting zone was made by the AI, and their legal status is part of why it is restricted to higher difficulty levels. If they whine about the fact that Mollen got something special again, inform them that it was the fruits of his own labor. Then add in that, since the revelation of Nuevo Edo’s existence, fifty-seven ships have been lost dialing unknown gate addresses, not counting twenty-eight ships that ignored quarantine orders for the Amazon planet, and wound up becoming permanent residents, or worse.”

Another tech said, “Sir, what about those two notes on the Star’s Reach listing?”

Isaac pulled up his developer’s notes, and said, “Hmm. Dungeon 125-A looks to be a standard Deus dungeon, not one of the corrupted ‘Zerg’ dungeons. Right now, it is listed as stable and contained, meaning no one has tried to destroy it causing the dungeon’s forces to disperse and go ‘rogue’, spreading across the planet. Hmm. Oh, it looks like there’s a VIP as the ‘boss’ of this dungeon, if the teams can get to him. That should be a very interesting fight to watch.”

He flipped through his screens, and said, “Ah, here we go. Location A2-D234-2C9X-Epsilon… Oh. Oh my.” Looking away from his notes, he brought up a chat application, and dialed in a contact code. When Morgan’s face appeared on the screen, he smiled weakly, and said, “Honey, would you mind stopping by the control room. I think things are going to be getting interesting on your end. It has to do with the planet ‘Admiral Mollen’ claimed for himself.”

“He did WHAT? I’m on my way!”

Moments later, Morgan materialized in the control room, looking upset. “What is this about Mollen claiming an entire planet?”

“Well, an entire system, actually. He took his fleet through a 19th Gateway address, decided he liked the neighborhood, and set up shop. Claimed the entire system as corporate property, since he had a colony ship that he got from the Empire as part of his payment for the war. The planet itself is a decent, earth-like planet, so I can tell why he would want it. Anyways, the AI picked it as a new spawn site for people starting as Advanced or Hardcore players, starting them as slaves to the Black Star Company.”

“Shit! That’s just great. People already think we’re playing favorites with him. How bad is it going to be?”

“Well, that part isn’t too bad. There’s also a dungeon on the planet, which should provide some extra income once he goes public with the fact that he owns a star system, and has the tools necessary to keep it.”

“What else is there, Isaac? You wouldn’t have called me down here if there wasn’t something important.”

“Well, before the game started, we scattered thousands of special locations around the galaxy. Some are known, like the Grand Arena on Dimiya. But some of them are not known to the public. All of these locations, however, have Lost Tech. And one of those locations is on Star’s Reach.”

“Oh, great. So, what kind of Lost Tech are we talking about here? Please tell me it isn’t weapons. We don’t need him getting any more superweapons on top of the ones he’s already got.”

“Well, I’ll have to deep dive the code to find out what exactly is there, but it is apparently called the ‘Sanctum of Perpetual Knowledge in Motion’. Probably loses something from whatever language it was originally in, but I think he stumbled onto an ancient technological archive of some sort.”

“Well, that’s just great. People are going to be screaming at us if he gets any more of a tech advantage with his ships.”

Isaac grinned. “Well, at least the pirates will be busy for a while, once news of a new isolated colony becomes known. Maybe it will take a while for the news of the Sanctum to make it out.”

Morgan sighed. “We can only hope.”