(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, BigGunn, Dolcett, Starwatcher, Backlog, DarkAvariel, Knocker, Hullu_Kapteeni, GrimDark, BloodForTheBloodGod, Queen’s_Bitch, BackDat@55Up, DoYouEvenDPS?, MajorTom, Parca, and DarkAngel are in the chat.

Blaze: So, any news on what is happening on that new world the Black Stars found?

Starwatcher: None. Several ships have gone to the gate address their fleet dialed when it left Nuevo Edo, but none have returned.

M.Mollen: Yes, a few trespassers unfortunately ended up getting caught while we were securing the system.

Knocker: Trespassers?

M.Mollen: Think of it like a store that is under construction. Breaking into the construction site is generally not permitted, yes? Since we were not ready to announce the grand opening, those people who were trespassing were stopped by the Black Star Fleet and given a very simple choice.

Lizard: What kind of choice?

GunKitty: “Become a slave or be destroyed.”

Anonymous3: No way! How can that be allowed?

M.Mollen: Well, if they have a problem with that, they are welcome to appeal to the local legal authority to hear their case.

Anonymous4: Who would the local legal authority be?

M.Mollen: Well, the ultimate military/security authority in the system would be the Admiral of the Black Star Fleet, which is me. However, for civilian matters, the ultimate authority in the system would be the CEO/Owner of the Black Star Company, which is me.

Knocker: How the hell does that work?

M.Mollen: Unclaimed space. First come, first served. So, unless someone comes along with enough force to take it from me, then it is mine.

Anonymous9: So, one of the interstellar governments, then?

Parca: Sure, if they wanted to come ‘the long way’. You gotta go through the Gateway one at a time, remember? Makes for a lovely shooting gallery if someone tries to come along uninvited.

Lizard: But that system is in another arm of the galaxy from the established powers!

Guardian: Which is part of the reason he isn’t worried about anyone trying anything. Unless they tried to come through Nuevo Edo or the Amazon system, they’d end up getting here sometime in the next fifty to sixty years, at the earliest. I’m fairly certain we’d be ready for them by the time they got here.

RedFox: As if they don’t have those Gateways watched.

Hullu_Kapteeni: Of course, we do. Which is why the pirate group heading for Nuevo Edo will be getting a much warmer reception than they had hoped for.

BigGunn: Hah! I knew it! The reason your fleet didn’t go through the Amazon system was because you knew we were there!

M.Mollen: Ooh, are you one of the pirates that were lying in wait on the Amazon Gateway, then? So, which group did you join, the people who don’t know they’re dead yet, or the ones who ran to live another day?

BigGunn: I convinced the others to follow me when it became clear that an ambush wasn’t going to work.

M.Mollen: I see. Well, the analysts have confirmed that, if we hadn’t been watching that system since we first liberated it, you could have done significant damage to our ships. The problems of going through the Gateway one at a time are universal, after all.

BigGunn: Glad to see that, at least, was true.

M.Mollen: Of course, I would have then hunted you down and exterminated or enslaved your clans, as a general principle, but that is beside the point.

MarcoPolo: Moving away from that, are you saying that if you explore closer to Known Space, that any discoveries might be taken away from you?

HaveGunsWillTravel: Yeah. Probably as soon as the nearest pirate lord or interstellar government hears about the new find, they’d send ships to ‘secure’ the system, and you’d be under, say, Imperial or Confederate control. Sure, you might be damn powerful, but you wouldn’t be the absolute head like the boss is.

Starwatcher: For those interested in exploration, the Black Star scout ship that was being built at Dimiya has launched. Two of their ‘gunboats’ escorted the ship out of the system.

M.Mollen: Yes, I am looking forward to seeing what happens with that ship. The crew of three is an interesting makeup.

Starwatcher: Three? Only two people were seen getting onto the ship.

M.Mollen: Ah, paparazzi never change. Anyway, yes, three. The Pilot, Mechanic, and AI. The AI was actually done under an arrangement with the dev team.

Anonymous3: What? Why?

M.Mollen: Medical testing for a new kind of immersion for players who may have… issues with large groups.

RedFox: Wait, there’s AI Nomads now?

M.Mollen: Only a few. It is still in medical testing, as I said, to see if the game can be used to help treat or manage autism.

DarkAngel: The fuck? How would that even work?

Medic_Oversight has entered the chat.

Medic_Oversight: The specifics of medical testing protocols cannot be discussed openly. However, certain facets of how the player experiences the world as an AI has shown positive effects in reducing or removing barriers individuals within a certain range of the autistic spectrum have to communication. As crowds or large groups are a common trigger for episodes and negative behavior in a large part of the spectrum, the test subjects have been put in small-group settings where socialization is necessary, but there is less pressure on the testers than in a face-to-face conversation or large-group situations. This initiative is one of several medical tests we are doing with the advanced EVA-02 medical pods, to help our users have the best game experience they can.

Knocker: Damn. That’s pretty cool. But why partner with Black Star?

M.Mollen: They reached out to me, since I was already in another section of the medical testing program, for those with permanent mobility issues.

Medic_Oversight: All individuals in the Medical Testing Initiative are constantly monitored for health and psychiatric issues, with teams on call to respond to emergencies, and counseling available if necessary. For more details on the Medical Testing Initiative, please visit the NERV website.

Medical_Oversight has left the chat.

Not_the_Face!: Damn, that’s heavy.

WhiskeyTangoFoxtrot: Hey, getting some info from Alpha Centauri! Black Star ships just entered the system via the Gateway from the new address, en route to Sol. Looks like a repeat of their announcement of Nuevo Edo.

M.Mollen: Well, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.

GrimDark: So this time, giving the Empress the first shot at trade deals?

M.Mollen: Exactly. Perhaps next time we’ll talk with the Alliance first, or the Ihm. But now that Star’s Reach is secured, and the infrastructure is starting to come into place, we’ll be opening for business soon.

(Shuttle 1, INS Thornbush, en route to Sol System)

Lieutenant Commander Amalia Kornilova breathed slightly easier as she saw the tactical plot on her tablet telling her that her shuttle was nearing its destination. Getting off Thornbush, even for a couple hours, was a rare privilege when the ship was in hyperspace. Oh, she didn’t begrudge the thought of five days staying on her ship. Thornbush was the ‘bait fleet’ used during the Battle for Earth during the Civil War, and she was its commanding officer back then. When one of their officers who was part of the AI’s cult managed to kill the Captain, she took command of her little corvette, and had held it since then. She was really quite proud of her little ship.

Of course, Thornbush was fifteen years old, and while she loved her ship as only a Captain could, Amalia knew she would be lying if she didn’t say she envied the capabilities of the newer, more modern ships she was escorting. The Assassin-class corvettes that the Black Stars created were as swift and deadly as their name suggested. Even that freighter, the Starlight Raven, had already been the subject of rumor when it had aided Princess Sheila’s escape at the beginning of the Civil War, and been used almost like a Q ship during the war, but it had taken on mythical status in naval circles when word spread that her captain had taken out three warships using lightspeed weaponry.

The five-day crossing from Alpha Centauri to Sol promised to be far more interesting than she had expected, to be honest. Shuttle flights between ships at warp were not easy maneuvers, for all kinds of reasons, but they weren’t uncommon. Any military small craft pilot was trained to do these transfers, and the shuttles themselves were designed with them as one of the primary uses of the craft. After all, travel times in hyperspace were long, and fleet commanders often liked to discuss issues with their subordinates face to face.

She’d been surprised when the Captain of the Starlight Raven had commed her shortly after they were in hyperspace, and invited her to dinner on the Shinokage. Normally, the idea of a captain of a civilian freighter inviting a Navy captain to dinner aboard another warship was too crazy to conceive of. Of course, since this particular freighter captain also happened to be the ‘Admiral’ of the Black Star Navy, and literally owned the warship in question (along with most of the people aboard her), things were just slightly different.

She adjusted the screen on her tablet to view the long, black lines of the Shinokage. There was a sensuous look to her. Internal cubage was always at a premium on a starship, but especially in a warship. That rarely left room for aesthetics, which caused ships to become more and more boxlike (or at least cylindrical) the more ‘functional’ they were intended to be, rather than playthings of the rich and powerful. Freighters, especially lighter ones like the Starlight Raven, had some more leeway, as their designers often gave at least passing thought to aerodynamics, to reduce fuel costs in atmosphere, and to at least lessen the burdens on a pilot if they suddenly lost power. The ‘arrowhead’ design of the Raven would at least have SOME lift, which might be all the difference if it ever needed to make a crash landing. Her Thornbush would simply fall like a brick if she ever took it inside the atmosphere and lost power.

Shinokage followed the ‘cylindrical’ school of thought, though only just. It was hard to tell because of the blacker than black paint job, but she could just make out the bulges on her outer hull that hid her powerful energy and missile weapons. No one (outside of Black Star) truly knew what the Shinokage’s actual weapons loadout actually was, but the famous twinned rail guns alone were enough to make short work of anything less than a dreadnought. And with the two assassins in formation, they could even take out a dreadnought in a single salvo, if they got lucky. And this Admiral Mollen had a whole fleet filled with predators like this.

She shuddered slightly, despite herself. She just hoped her Thornbush never had to go against Shinokage or one of her sisters. She was rational enough to realize exactly how long Thornbush would last under those guns.

(Owner’s Suite, BSN Shinokage, en route to Sol System)

“Aahn!”

Amalia moaned as a wave of pleasure passed through her body. How did it come to this? She’d just come to the Shinokage for dinner with the Black Star Admiral and his people, and now, ooh, what was he doing with his tongue?

“No one said you could stop.”

Amalia’s eyes opened as she focused on the pink folds in front of her face, and then looked up, across a firm, toned stomach, and round breasts, to the face of Princess Sheila. Whatever she was about to say was silenced as the princess forced those folds against her lips, smiling wickedly as she did so. Amalia sighed, and gave in to the inevitable, returning to her ‘duty’ to the princess, with all the fervor of a loyal supporter of the Empire.

The whiskered face that had been causing her such pleasure brushed against her own folds as the man’s tongue flicked her clit in such a way that it sent another electric shock of pleasure through her. And then she felt him moving, standing up, maybe? She could couldn’t see, due to the princess straddling her mouth, but she felt him moving, hands on her thighs, a touch of something hard against her slit, and then… oh, oh! OH! All at once? So good!

“Heh. I think the little captain enjoys it. What do you think, Princess?”

“Aah! I think that if she stops doing that with her tongue, we’re going to have words!”

Amalia couldn’t respond, she just moaned, and kept her tongue moving, as she felt the man grip her legs, using them as leverage as he thrust into her, filling her in ways she hadn’t thought possible with a human’s… equipment. The smacking of his balls against her rear punctuated the sound of her moans, and the moans of the Princess, as she did her best to keep the Princess happy while her head swam with pleasure. Oh, god, such pleasure!

Later, much later, Amalia found herself kneeling in front of this man, his seed dripping from her battered womb, as her mouth gladly cleaned their mixed fluids from his shaft. Even that gave her a rush of pleasure she did not know how to contain. It was the same as when he had kissed her during dinner. She’d suddenly felt light-headed, and all she could think of was getting some release. Even now, she was surprised at how she was on the verge of climaxing yet again just by cleaning him with her mouth.

She felt his hand brush her hair as he sat on the bed, and looked up to see the Admiral, with the Princess lying against his back, pressing her chest against him as she smiled down at her. The Princess licked her lips, and spoke softly into her lover’s ear, “Mmh. I do so love seeing someone fall to your… charms for the first time, love. And this one seems very good at polishing a rod.”

The Admiral laughed as Amalia’s cheeks burned red at the bold comment, and said, “Oh, yes, she is quite the artist with her tongue. Very experienced indeed. What do you think, my pet, is she worth giving another round to?”

Amalia looked up, eyes hopeful, though she didn’t stop her work. If she stopped, then they wouldn’t allow her to have more of this man’s delicious cum! That wouldn’t do at all! She’d never tasted anything like it before. Sure, she wasn’t exactly a wanton whore, but she was no blushing virgin, either.

The Princess grinned, and said, “Oh, no. I think she’s had enough for the moment.” Amalia’s eyes went wide. No, she certainly had not had enough! The Princess looked back at her wickedly, and said, “But perhaps, if she’s very good, she can use her tongue to clean me out after you put your next load in me?”

Amalia’s eyes went wide. Oh yes, she would be very good indeed!

(Main Bridge, INS Thornbush, Sol System)

Five days of travel through hyperspace, and they were now here in Sol System. Captain Amalia Kornilova shifted uncomfortably in her seat as the small flotilla dropped back into normal space. Her duty was to escort the Black Star ships while they were in Imperial space, unless they got a mercenary contract. She didn’t know what was going to happen now, but she knew that her immediate role would be a minor one from here on in. The owner of the Black Star company had come to that conclusion as well, and so he was very receptive to a final dinner with her, this time aboard Thornbush. He had only returned to his ship an hour before, when she came on duty.

Without undue vanity, Captain Kornilova could easily admit that she was a very attractive woman. Perhaps not in the way that some supermodels or exotic beauties might be, but she was far from ugly. Hers was the ‘girl next door’ kind of beauty, that was… more approachable than a supermodel’s glamour. Of course, that was before she put on her Navy uniform. She knew the effect that the Navy skinsuit, combined with her looks, had on people. But she was also disciplined enough to keep from getting into ‘entanglements’. She had had flings, even someone she would call a lover, before, but nothing like how this one man took a look at her during dinner that first night in transit, and decided he was going to have her. And have her he did, many times.

Which led to why she was slightly uncomfortable in her seat, of course. Since neither of them knew what would happen after they reached Sol System and that man attempted to get an audience with the Empress, he had decided to give her something to remember him by. She may not have been pure as new fallen snow, but she had never allowed someone to… go back there. But with the… impressive way he’d gone there, and the strength of the orgasm when she finally climaxed as he dumped his load into her poor back door, she was considering allowing that more in the future.

Maybe. If it was him. Or someone who knew what they were doing like he did. Even if her poor rear felt like it was on fire, while she tried to keep his ‘gift’ from dribbling into her uniform since he’d playfully forbidden her to wear underwear for the rest of the day. Of course, the rest of her was pleasantly loose and her mind was euphoric at the thrill of what they’d done. She might be just another notch on his bedpost, but she had known what he was like before she met with him. And it wasn’t like there weren’t some big names keeping her company on that list of names.

She sighed as she leaned back, and looked at the plots. At her order, they sent out the response to the challenge they’d gotten when they entered the system, leaving her to consider things while her crew went about the business of escorting the Black Star leader and his people to the new heart of the Terran Empire, the city-ship Aurum Throni, where all the government affairs of the Empire were centered, now that the surface of Earth was uninhabitable unless you wanted to go back to the steam age, or live in the cramped enclaves behind the fences.

Hmm. Perhaps she should indulge herself a bit. The city-ship was a big place, and rotating the crew through shore leave was always a good way to improve morale. If the Black Stars were going to be hanging around for a while, and her orders to escort their ships remained in effect, perhaps she could slip her own name in the first batch of those going on shore leave? She may not have the kind of money that that man had, but she wasn’t poor. She certainly had enough coin to hire a… professional companion for a night, and the companions, male or female, at the heart of the Terran Empire were some of the best in the galaxy, or so she’d heard.

And maybe they’d teach her a thing or two she could do if that man ever wanted to give her another ‘something to remember him by’. Perhaps she’d get him to remember her! Her face didn’t show it, but inside she was giggling like a schoolgirl at the thought.

(Grand Throne Room, Imperial Cityship Aurum Throni, Earth Orbit)

A superdreadnought can carry over six thousand people, depending on how much automation you use in its running. Each could easily be called a small city in space, with personnel who’s only job, outside of battle stations, is to support the men and women who make that ship run. Cooks, quartermasters, barbers, even the ‘unofficial’ still that can be found on any ship that suffers from long deployments. All of it to see to the needs of a crew that is primarily military.

The Aurum Throni, the first of the great Imperial Cityships built in the aftermath of the Imperial Civil War, held over six million people, the majority of them civilians. This was the new capitol of the Terran Empire, held in geosynchronous orbit over the shattered remains of the old Capitol, which had been wiped clean by the Greenwave weapons that ended the Civil War. It was defended by shields and weapons that would have done a squadron of superdreadnoughts proud, for this is where the Empress of the Terran Empire lived and worked, the Golden Throne that all the Empire bowed to.

The Imperial Palace was at the heart of the massive cityship, a shining light at the center of the massive armorplast dome that covered the main part of the city. The Palace was built in an exact replica of the palace of old, with an additional array of defenses, so that even should an enemy penetrate the city, they would still find a heavy fight on their hands before they could reach the palace itself. Above the palace was a great beacon that shone to all whenever the Empress was in the capitol.

The Grand Throne Room was magnificent to behold, truly a sight worthy of the ruler of the Terran Empire, and lining the great hall were statues of all the true Emperors from the current Empress Merida, on back to the first Emperor Denarius Vaughn, who led the Free Union forces in Earth’s Last Great War, and united the entire planet for the first time under a single ruler, marking the birth of the Terran Empire. Behind each of those marble statues, made life size and with as much accuracy as was possible, were tapestries showing important moments of their lives or reigns. Empress Merida’s statue stood proud, clearly in her Navy uniform from when she fought in the Civil War. Behind her, the tapestry showed her upon the bridge of her command ship, watching the Earth below as hulks of destroyed starships were strewn in the background, symbolizing the final battle of the War, as she returned to Earth to claim her birthright from the Usurper.

And there, at the far end of the Throne Room, sitting upon a golden throne, with armrests shaped as lions, and the back appearing to be a dragon with wings outswept, was the Empress herself. She sat comfortably upon her throne, dressed in her customary formal wear that looked more like a Naval dress uniform than it did the gowns that previous Empresses had worn. Though she no longer wore her rank insignia or medals, the uniform was clearly designed to remind people that she was a Warrior Empress, not some soft flower. Her reign had begun in battle, and she made sure that those who saw her remembered it.

All the attendees of the Court, for there were always hangers on, courtiers, ministers, and other such people of varying importance who appeared whenever the Empress held court in public, grew quiet as the great doors to the throne room opened. The Master at Arms stood forward, and faced the throne. In a loud, clear, voice, he announced, “Now presenting Admiral Mirikon Mollen, Admiral of the Black Star Fleet, Hero of Nuevo Edo, Owner of the Black Star Company, Destroyer of Worlds, Friend of the Terran Empire, and his companions.” Some might find the order of those titles odd, but it was long tradition that anyone who was named a Friend of the Empire would always have that title left for last, in the place of honor, unless they had earned the even more prestigious ‘Hero of the Terran Empire’ title.

At any rate, that name and those titles caused a stir of whispers to go running through the hall, for everyone here knew the role that the infamous Black Stars had played in the Empress’s victory, to say nothing of their many exploits since then. At the door, one man stood in front, as seven women lined up in two ranks behind him, with three in the first rank and four behind. The seven women were dressed in formal gowns, despite the exotic mix of races and features they represented, while the man was dressed in the dress uniform of the Black Star Navy, proudly displaying his ribbons for the campaigns he had fought, and the medals he had received from the Empire and Nuevo Edo for his service in their name. As one, they began walking forward, not quite marching but all of them keeping the same steady pace as though they had rehearsed it ahead of time. When they got to fifteen feet before the raised dais that held the golden throne, they stopped, and, as one, bowed to the Empress of the Terran Empire.

“Rise, Friends of the Empire! You need not bow before any who sits upon the Golden Throne, for you have proven your honor and loyalty many times over. And We shall never forget or forsake our true Friends.” The Empress spoke the formal, ceremonial words that were said whenever a Friend of the Empire first appeared formally before the Court. Her voice was firm, regal sounding, but her face was smiling, and there was a light in her eyes that showed she would have spoken far differently had they been in private.

As the eight people rose, the man said, “Our thanks to you, Empress Merida, and to the Empire. We are proud to be numbered amongst the Friends of the Empire, and will not forsake that friendship so long as it lasts. Long may you reign!” That, too, was the traditional response, and the Court looked pleasantly surprised that these outlanders had performed the ceremony so well. But then courtiers always expected people from outside the aristocracy to be ignorant barbarians, it seemed.

The Empress smiled openly then, clearly glad to have such formalities out of the way, and said, “Now, tell Us, Admiral Mollen, what brings you to Our home today? There have been some interesting rumors preceding you.”

The Admiral smiled, and said, “Your Majesty, the Black Star Company wishes to publicly announce that it’s Black Star Navy has explored a nineteenth known Gateway address, and found a planet suitable for colonization. The corporate colony of Star’s Reach has been established as a free port, open to traders from all planets or empires. The capitol city of Starborn is already growing outward from the colony ship used to settle the planet.”

He took a breath, and then said, “We would also like to announce publicly for the first time that there is one of the so-called ‘dungeons’ on this world, and it appears to be the most advanced one yet, having two different difficulty levels. This alone would be worth the effort to create the town of Star’s Vigil. However, the reason we are announcing it now is that we believe that the ‘raid’ difficulty of the dungeon concludes with the puppet Usurper as the final ‘boss’ of the dungeon, guarded by the traitorous soldiers of the Mad AI, Deus.”

The Empress’s eyes went wide at that, and the murmurs of the Court grew louder in excitement. None of the dungeons found so far had seen even a hint of the Usurper’s presence. It had been a frustration for her, more than she cared to admit, since she had, on more than one occasion, expressed her desire to have her hands around that bastard’s throat for all the damage he caused to the Empire, and all the people, including her own family, who died because of his coup, and the Civil War.

Leaning forward, she smiled wolfishly, “Really, now? That is, perhaps, the most wonderful news anyone has given Us in quite some time. We trust that you would not mind if a detachment of Marines were to go and… voice Our displeasure with the Usurper? Preferably on an ongoing basis?”

Admiral Mollen smiled, “Your Majesty, I am certain that we could create a barracks near the town of Star’s Vigil, so that your troops may cycle through the dungeon now and then, along with others who seek the loot and glory by running the dungeons, on either difficulty. Ultimate authority of the site would remain in the hands of Star’s Vigil’s administrators, but I can safely say that allowing the Empire’s troops a higher priority on the runs, whether it is for training or the satisfaction of punishing traitors, than those who are simply there to get rich.”

Empress Merida smiled, and said, “Excellent. What numbers could you support in this training exercise, then?”

“Because of the limitations of the dungeon, there would be little point in your troops coming in greater than Company strength, your Majesty. The maximum size of any group entering the ‘raid’ version of the dungeon is thirty, and I doubt that your commanders would like to blitz the dungeon again and again, as no doubt most of them are not Nomads, and so would not be able to recover their losses as quickly.”

The Empress looked to the side, where a man wearing the dress uniform of the Imperial Marines was standing at parade rest. “General Kenobi, what do you think of this?”

The General stepped forward, and said, “Your Majesty, as you know, we have been using dungeons within our territory as a ‘final exam’ for soldiers who are finishing their training for advanced combat specializations. The higher tier of this dungeon suggests to me that we might use it in two ways. First, as a final test of units who are likely to be deployed in extreme threat situations. Second, as a ‘trial by combat’ for individuals and units who have been convicted of crimes, but wish to cleanse their dishonor by fighting against an enemy of the Empire.”

The Empress considered that for a moment, and said, “No, as much as We might wish it, We will not throw loyal troops into the fire repeatedly just to get our due vengeance on the Usurper for the troubles he has caused the Empire. Our forces deserve better than that, and We will not order them to that fate without need. Therefore, let it be known that any Company of the Imperial Army or the Imperial Marines may volunteer to cycle through the dungeon, and fight their traitorous brethren. Additionally, send word throughout the military and civilian prisons that individuals who have been found guilty of certain crimes shall be granted clemency by the Crown should they join with others of their kind and challenge the ‘raid’ version of this Dungeon and survive, bringing proof that they killed the Usurper. Their sentences shall be removed, and their honor restored, though they will still have to earn back any trust they had lost due to their crimes.”

Turning back to the Admiral after making that pronouncement, she said, “Admiral Mollen, We trust that We can come to an arrangement on that end, so that your people at Star’s Vigil will not be put out?”

Admiral Mollen nodded slowly, “A barracks suitable to hold, say, two Companies worth of individuals would be possible. If convicts are to be part of the groups sent there, we would ask for certain… considerations so that they are not able to escape into the general populace or the wilds of Star’s Reach. However, aside from the security concerns, I see no problems with that arrangement, so long as the standard access fees for the dungeon are maintained. Black Star and the Empire are friends, and friends do not cheat each other, except in a ‘friendly’ game where the results don’t matter. The standard fees for using the dungeon do not include food or lodging costs for those staying in town, of course, but are a simple tithe of any loot one pulls out of the dungeon, or 100 credits, whichever is higher, each run of the dungeon. However, because of our friendship, we would be willing to build the Barracks and the initial perimeter defenses for your people free of charge.”

The General moved slightly, catching the Empress’s attention. When she motioned for him to speak, he said, “What kind of defenses are we talking about?”

“Oh, walls, with a clearcut of fifty meters beyond the outer wall to provide a clear field of fire for the weapons and soldiers in place. While there are no ‘hostile natives’ or the like, Star’s Vigil is located in a jungle setting, and the local fauna is more than capable of catching, killing, and eating humans, should they choose to. They also include air defense capabilities, in case hostile forces decide to try and muscle their way into Star’s Reach. Too often young colonies have proven too weak to avoid being taken over by hostile entities, such as unfriendly star nations or criminal syndicates. I believe we are confident in our ability to stand against any such efforts, or at least to make the prospect’s risks far outweigh the wildest potential rewards.”

The Empress clapped once, and said, “Excellent, then it is settled. In that case, We believe that We shall retire for the evening. Admiral Mollen, you and your companions are, of course, welcome to dine with Us this evening.”

The Admiral smiled, “It would be our pleasure, your Majesty.”

(Private Dining Room, Imperial Palace, Imperial Cityship Aurum Throni, Earth Orbit)

“—and that’s when her mother walked in on us!”

The Empress of the Terran Empire laughed at my story about one of my little adventures on Nuevo Edo. I’d been surprised when our dinner invitation turned out to be in the private dining room, rather than one of the more formal affairs. There were only twelve of us in the room, aside from the ever-present bodyguards that an Empress will always have, even when in private. Actually, that was a matter of law. She couldn’t change that without going through the Senate to amend the laws. Fortunately, there were female members of the Imperial Guard, so that she could, say, take a shower without a man looking on.

It was an interesting setup, of course, long steeped in tradition. Inside the Residence, she always had one bodyguard near her, and any time she left the Residence, she had at least two. If she stepped out of the Palace, she would have three, at the very least, plus whatever escorts that accompanied her.

At any rate, there were twelve of us around the table. Myself, and my seven women were the largest part of the guests, but the Empress also had three of her friends along, as well, all of whom I recognized from the Civil War. Lucio de Lici was the Nomad who helped rescue the Empress, and had become her ‘Chief of Staff’. Admiral Yamamoto had been promoted from commanding the Imperial 8th Fleet to become Fleet Admiral, the Chief Naval Officer for the entire Imperial Navy. Admiral Han, on the other hand, had returned to service after maternity leave, and was the new commander of Home Fleet, stationed in Sol System.

Admiral Han leaned forward, looking at Sheila. “I must say, Princess, that I was surprised that you weren’t announced alongside Admiral Mollen. Was there a reason for it?”

Sheila smiled, and said, “Oh, yes. If I announced myself as Princess, then that would have all kinds of formal requirements. Officially, I have been ‘missing’ since that idiot Travis started his coup, and my Guardian was killed during the gun battle that led to me fleeing Luna. If I formally announced myself, I would have to have a personal Guardian again. I’ve grown used to not having a shadow in the bath.”

Lucio chuckled, and said, “Oh, it would be worse than that, my Lady. Until your sister manages to find time in her busy schedule for starting a family, you would be the Heir, should she fall. You’d have at least two shadows at all times.”

Sheila made a look of mock horror, and then turned to look at Merida. “Sister, dear, why don’t you hurry up and get knocked up? Please and thanks!” Another round of laughter broke out, aided, no doubt, by the good food, good company, and good wine.

Merida shook her head, and said, “Yes, well, you know how little time I had for dating when I was a Princess. My schedule hasn’t exactly gotten holes in it since I became Empress. And I am fairly certain that my Guardians would be very upset if I went and got swooped up by a freighter captain and inducted into his harem, sister.” She paused, and then said, “But speaking of children, it has been a couple years now. Surely one of you ladies must have…”

Cali giggled, and said, “Well, your Majesty, we do have plenty of fun ‘practicing’, but we’ve been busy, ourselves. Those of us who are slaves came with implants to ensure there were no ‘surprises’ unless our owners wanted them, and we’ve had them maintained since Master bought us. And the others have all had similar procedures done, so that we can pick and choose when things happen.”

Merida shook her head. “Then I guess that means that the only parents at the table are our Admirals, hmm?” Admiral Yamamoto smiled softly, since his son was older now, and had just entered the Naval Academy this semester. Of course, there were two other admirals at the table, as well.

Moon-Hee shook her head. “Well, despite the… circumstances around her conception, I wouldn’t give up little Kako for the world. Though tell me, Admiral Mollen, what should I tell her when she eventually asks how I met her father?”

I leaned back in my chair, thinking back on the raid on the slave ranch where we recovered the Admiral and several other slaves who had been ‘disloyal’ to the Usurper. “Well, I guess that depends on the age she is when she asks? As a child, simply telling her that you met during the Civil War should be enough, yes? But I guess eventually you should tell her the full story.”

Moon-Hee arched an eyebrow, “Really? You’d like your daughter to know how you raped her mother to sell a cover story?”

I shrugged. “Well, I wouldn’t put it quite like that. Perhaps that I had a role to play to keep people distracted long enough that we had a chance to escape with all the prisoners? I dislike nonconsensual acts, but if I had refused, then the ranch’s owner would have been suspicious, and we would have had a lot more trouble getting out of there.”

Merida chuckled. “And I’m sure that the fact that Moon-Hee is a beautiful woman did nothing to assuage your guilt.”

I gasped in mock shock, my hand over my heart. “Your majesty, you wound me! I would have you know that, though Admiral Han is a gorgeous woman, I would never take her without her consent unless there were no other choice in order to protect the lives of my team, or those we’d been sent to retrieve from that hell. I’ll admit that her beauty made the act easier from a physical standpoint, despite the audience, but I had only the best intentions, I assure you!”

Sheila giggled, and said, “You’re just saying that because you want to get into my sister’s pants, ‘Boss’.” When Merida nearly choked on her wine, she winked at the Empress, and said, “My dear lover has never been shy about the fact that he loves beautiful women, and feels that it is his duty in this world to ‘share himself’ with as many of them as he possibly can. I’ve known that since the first time these shameless sluts dragged me into an orgy.” She pointed at Cali, Jayne, Shearah, and Carissa, my original harem members. “And then even Raven and Sana got involved, even before Jagloth!”

I shrugged, and said, “Well, I at least like to believe that I have always been completely honest with those I sleep with, so that they never had any false ideas going in. If they chose to sleep with me, knowing that I was never going to be monogamous with them, then all is well, no?”

Lucio leaned back in his chair, and said, “You know, your Majesty, a lot of the political pressures from the reformed Senate and the bureaucracy would go away if there was a declared heir. After the Civil War, not having any recognized heir to the throne has people worried.”

Merida’s eyes narrowed at her friend. “We already spoke about this, Lucio. If Sheila doesn’t want to have her life invaded by Guardians again, then I’m not going to force it on her. The Senate and the bureaucrats aren’t going to make me ruin her happiness just for political expediency.” Everyone ignored the blush on Sheila’s face.

Lucio nodded, and said, “Oh yes, quite right. And I’m sure everyone here is more than happy for Princess Sheila to follow her heart, so long as you’re alive and well. But I wasn’t talking about her.”

Merida blinked, and then said, “We just got through talking about how I don’t have time for a relationship, Lucio!”

“Sure, but one need not be in a relationship for the necessary functions to be carried out. All you need is a man to take to your bed until you conceive an heir. Since you’re not a man, there can be no doubt to the legitimacy of your child, even if there is no formal relationship between you and the father.”

“But what would people think of me? I’m not going to have people thinking of me as the Slut Empress! If I don’t name the father, people will think I’ve been assaulting my Imperial Guard, or any other insane rumors!”

“Ah, but you can acknowledge the father without having a relationship with him, you know. Especially if the father is known as a notorious womanizer, who has bedded more than one high-ranking individual, even a head of state, and is open and honest about his intentions to ‘spread the love’, as it were.” And then Lucio’s eyes went from the Empress, to me, and back to the Empress, in a clear signal between the two.

“Lucio! I told you I wouldn’t do something like that to my sister!” Merida whispered angrily, her eyes looking from me, to Sheila, pleading with her sister to see that she had nothing to do with this situation.

Sheila met my eyes, and was clearly trying to hold herself back from laughing at the little drama going on in front of us. “Well, sister, I can’t say as I’m surprised that the idea came up. I do know that the only reason Mirikon hasn’t tried to sleep with you yet is because you haven’t seemed open to the idea. And, the circumstances with Admiral Han aside, he has never, to my knowledge, been with anyone who wasn’t either his property or verbally consented to his touch. And even with his property he never pushes it if they refuse outright.”

I cleared my throat, and said, “Well, as Sheila said, I am not averse to going to the bed of a beautiful woman, whatever their status or current titles might be. And, if I may be so bold, your Majesty, you are certainly a beautiful woman. So long as everyone consented, I see no issues in trying to help ease your people’s minds over the future succession of the Imperial Throne without forcing Sheila back into the limelight.”

All of a sudden, Yamamoto laughed. “That is the most courteous way I have ever heard someone ask to be allowed to impregnate a head of state!” The laughter spread to the rest of the table. I think I even saw a grin from the two Guardians flanking the door.

Merida looked like a fish out of water, looking from Lucio, to Sheila, to me. Lucio chuckled, and said, gently, “Come now, your majesty. You know you’ve wanted to taste a bit of what your sister has had ever since you found out about their relationship. There will be plenty of time for finding a proper Emperor-Consort to share your life with and gaining any additional heirs you might like, but having at least some stability in the line of succession would do wonders for morale. And I don’t doubt Press Secretary Parkinson would be able to spin a favorable tale about it, since you two did meet during the Civil War, and fought side by side.”

Moon-Hee chuckled. “It does have a holo-novel romance feel to it, doesn’t it? The roguish freighter captain turned mercenary and the Navy Captain who was forced to take up a responsibility she never believed would be hers? There’s a lot to like there. Especially if you go with the ‘our duties keep us apart’ angle.”

Merida gave Moon-Hee the Eye. “And what if I don’t want my life to be a trashy romance novel? And my kid, if I had one, would have to grow up knowing that?”

I cleared my throat, and said, “Well, I certainly hope I could give you a better time than a ‘trashy romance novel’. I can say without boasting that I am quite sure you’d find it at least at ‘trashy porn video’ level.” I smirked as the Empress’s glare turned my way, but held my tongue.

She held the glare for a moment, and then sighed. “Damnit, this is NOT how I wanted dinner to go! It still feels like I’m trying to get my sister’s man to cheat on her!”

Lucio smiled, and looked my way, “Don’t worry, she’s just surprised. We’ll get her to come around.”

Sheila, though, surprised everyone, when she said, “Well, if the concern is about Miri cheating, why don’t I just join in?” I’m pretty sure the Empress’s jaw made an indentation on the deck, it dropped so fast.

(Crystal Wind Nightclub, Thelorious, Dimiya)

“There’s our target.”

Konia Whitehand, former agent of the Alliance Intelligence Agency, and more recently reduced to a bedwarmer for pirate scum, but now a slave to the Black Star Company, sipped her drink as she leaned back in the chair she was sitting in. She gave no visible sign that she had heard the voice. Not a surprise since the voice had come from her noise-canceling headphones, and those weren’t typically used for carrying on conversations. The devices were commonly used by individuals who had enhanced hearing when going to places where loud sounds would be particularly ‘distracting’, if not damaging to their sensitive ears. Such places included nightclubs, naturally, with their loud music, pulsing rhythms, and all the other sounds associated with people enjoying their lives.

Of course, Konia’s muffler, as the devices were called, was not typical, even if it looked exactly like the most popular version of the device used by the Felisans on Dimiya. The Black Star Khsaoeb mufflers were quickly taking a rising market share amongst Felisans in the Confederacy, actually, since they had been designed from the beginning to fit a Felisan’s physiology, rather than being a ‘one type fits all species’ concept, like most of the items on the market. Rumor had it that the Owner of the company, her ultimate Master, had set his design people on the task when he found out that a friend of his, the owner of Kiki’s Custom Arms (which was itself becoming a major player in the custom weapons market, focusing on high-spec, custom made firearms tailored to the needs of an individual), had complained that she couldn’t enjoy the nightlife on Dimiya because they hurt her ears, and the mufflers designed by other companies didn’t take into account the differences in physiology between Felisans and, say, Knelfi, making the resultant devices clumsy at best for her to use.

Instead of simply just designing headphones that had a shape purpose built for Felisans (a similar model was already available for Knelfi, and other versions were coming out as they were designed, but the Felisan version was the original), the Khsaoeb (a word that meant ‘whisper’ in one of the old languages of Terra) was designed with noise-canceling and frequency shifting technology in mind, allowing one wearing the comfortable device to tailor which sounds made it through unaltered, and which were reduced to more pleasant levels of volume. It was a rather ingenious device, she had to admit, which is probably why it had instantly been a success amongst the Felisan population on Dimiya. Of course, the ‘civilian’ model was not quite the same as the one she was wearing. After all, those versions didn’t have secure communications devices in the ears, allowing her to hear the report of her subordinate while she was sitting at the edge of the dance floor supposedly enjoying her drink.

A halo popped up in her HUD glasses, another Black Star device, though one designed for general consumption, rather than a single species. Like her Khsaoebs, the glasses were slightly more than the normal version. Most important at the moment was the secure communication function worked into them. She looked at the man her ‘information support’ (read: hacker) had highlighted, and clicked the comm button hidden in the design of her flattering dress once to confirm she had eyes on target.

She had been working with her little hacker for months now, and was impressed with the way Suga Hibari had developed. The woman had been roughly used by the pirates, and had been under threat from Imperial forces before then, but she had taken to the role of ‘spook’ quite nicely, and her rough edges were getting worn down as she lost the need to constantly prove to herself, if not others, that she wasn’t a victim. With her help, she’d been working on building a successful spy network here on Dimiya. That was a task she had done plenty of times before, and she was glad to be doing it again, rather than spending time as an exotic pet for a pirate.

Their target for the evening was the newest potential ‘asset’ for their growing network of information sources. Toross Phileth was a high-ranking bureaucrat in the Ministry of Trade, serving under the Senior Undersecretary in charge of overseeing mercenary and private security groups. He was a career bureaucrat, who wasn’t likely to rise any further since he had no intention of playing the political games that were everywhere in the Confederate government. Higher ranking members of the Ministry had a tendency to come and go with every election, leaving him as one of the senior ‘lifers’. This made him rather more important than his title would suggest.

Unfortunately, that importance was not the kind of importance that got one into the fancy private clubs that the movers and shakers were a part of, like the Origin Club. Outside the Ministry, only a few people, most of them other bureaucrats, knew of his importance. That fact led to a certain amount of resentment that waxed and waned depending on the political climate (after all, HE, thankfully, didn’t have to deal with those jackals in the press), and had given rise to a couple bad habits he had gained as coping mechanisms.

His position had brought him to Konia’s attention as a potential asset. His bad habits (which Suga had artfully exposed with her computer wizardry) were the hook she would use to ensure he was properly held in line. She simply needed the proper bait to ensure that her little fish hooked himself. The ‘bait’, in this case, would be herself, as Mr. Phileth was something of a ladies’ man (in his own mind, at least), and he was particularly fond of non-knelfi businesswomen. He enjoyed using his power to help them with the red tape of the Confederate government and the slight (but noticeable) knelfi-centric bias that existed on Dimiya, being the Knelfi homeworld. Once he helped them, he had his claws in them, and he used the women as he liked. Having beautiful women under his power was his drug of choice, and his position and fetish for non-knelfi ensured he had a constant supply, should any of his current ‘stock’ being to bore him, or had the bad taste to get pregnant despite his arrangements.

Being a womanizer was merely one of Phileth’s vices, of course. It was simply the easiest way to get their foot in the door, as it were. What was going to make this man such a wonderful asset for them was the fact that he had been naughty in all sorts of other ways. There was a certain level of corruption that was expected in the higher levels of any government. That much power, money, and influence had a tendency to attract the types who would fall prey to offers of more power, money, and influence.

In Phileth’s case, he had a bit of a gambling habit. Well, the gambling wasn’t a problem, in and of itself. Plenty of people enjoyed gambling, after all. But he’d lost a sizeable share of his fortune a few years back, around the time the ownership of the Arena changed hands, and in the years since, he’d had a series of bad bets that had further depleted his funds, and racked up a good store of debts. Those debts had not gotten large enough that they were something that would ruin him outright, but they were quite embarrassing. Especially when his most recent ‘favorite’ thing to gamble on was not so respectable as Arena matches. Gambling is one thing. Losing money on the ponygirl races, on the other hand, was quite another. His career wouldn’t survive the scandal if it got out to the media, even if his finances could handle the impact.

Fortunately, one of the hackers that had tried to attack Black Star recently had also been working on gathering evidence on the ‘stars’ of the racing circuit, to use as blackmail material for their own ends. Once Black Star’s people knew about the circuit, they began digging. While individually they might not have been as good as the hacker that got caught, with twelve of them working in concert, they were able to get a LOT of dirt on the members of the circuit, both the ‘racers’ and the most frequent guests.

All of this was why Konia was about to turn him as an asset. Sure, she could have just gone with the blackmail approach, but entrapment and a bit of bribery, with the compromising material held in reserve, was better for a long-term relationship. It was easier to go from a ‘friends’ relationship to a ‘bitch’ relationship than the other way around.

Seeing the target moving towards the bar, she finished her drink, thanking Black Star’s technicians for installing the toxin screens in her digestive tract that stripped out poisons or drugs from her system. Drinking was part of the job, but getting drunk was not. While one could use a variety of tricks to make it look like you drank more than you had, counterespionage types were trained to look for that, so the advanced bit of cyberware allowed her to drink normally, which reduced suspicion.

She arrived at the bar just as Phileth did, just by coincidence sliding up next to him at the crowded bar. She smiled at him as she excused herself for bumping him, and he smiled back clearly not having a problem at all. The lure was clearly working. When he offered to buy her a drink in one of the VIP lounges, she could tell he was hooked. She smiled naturally, and agreed. He wasn’t bad looking, for a knelfi, and he was definitely smooth. Too bad he was clearly such a pervert. But perhaps she could turn the tables on him while she turned him. Teaching someone who fantasized about control to submit would make him easier to handle in the future. Some alcohol to help relax the mental defenses and cloud his memory, and a bit of mental psy to complete the job, and he would have an ‘awakening’ that would leave him like putty in her hand.

Dragging a man around by his kinks, especially those you created for him, was always more effective than just trying to scare them with blackmail.

(Confederate Intelligence Service HQ, Somewhere on Dimiya)

Alok Paxisys frowned as he read the reports. For his sins of being one of the few people in the Confederate government (and the only one in the CIS) that the eccentric owner of the Black Star Company actually liked talking to, he had been put in charge as the head of the small (but growing) task force in the agency that was tasked with investigating Black Star, finding out what they were up to, and, hopefully, getting any of their secrets that he could. It was not, as one might think, an easy task.

Which is why the report that was the cause of his current ill mood had landed on his desk. Well, no, that wasn’t fair. It was simply the latest in a string of reports that had landed on his desk, all implying the same thing. The Black Star Company was making moves. They had been beefing up their already formidable security ever since they found out they were being attacked by the Shining Path idiots, but now they looked to be going for a more proactive approach. Major Zumrora (who had also been promoted to get more responsibility from the Navy’s intelligence branch when it came to dealing with Black Star), had passed along a report his ‘liason’ at Madrigal Station had written. While a known Intelligence officer was obviously going to be watched like a hawk, they couldn’t expect him to be on the station and not find some way of getting information about what was happening there.

In this case, it was a manifest of the slaves the Black Stars had taken when they captured the base and most of the sector’s pirate fleet in that ‘Trojan Horse’ style action where Admiral Mollen disguised himself as the leader of one of the three pirate clans in the area. The fact that it had taken so long to get the list wasn’t a problem. After all, Black Star was paranoid by nature, and believed in treating their slaves far better than most companies out there. Getting the profiles on that many slaves was never going to be easy.

No, the problem was a few specific items in that manifest. A few specific individuals that his dataminers had managed to discover as being important. Two were former Navy, the Captain and a Marine off the Kyathaela Daven. The Navy wasn’t going to be happy about the two survivors of that ship not being returned with the ship itself, but he had offered them both the ability to be on a warship again as officers, which would have never happened if they had come home to the Navy. Even after they were ‘raised from the dead’, legally speaking.

The others were, mostly, not that interesting, except for one name. There was a slave in the registry by the name of Konia Whitehand, a Felisan who had been recently enslaved by the local pirates. According to the notes in her file, she was Alliance Intelligence, and had been given a mission to infiltrate the pirate clans and turn them against each other. According to the file, she had been betrayed by a superior who had gone dirty, and had taken bribes from the pirates, which explained how she ended up a slave. He had done some digging, and, within two months of Black Star taking Madrigal base, that dirty superior had been killed and exposed, with his misdeeds laid bare in what was the mother of all black eyes to an Alliance already reeling from the Kul’tirans’ misfortune.

To Paxisys, this suggested that Mollen had arranged the hit to buy the loyalty of this Whitehand, in addition to whatever he got from rescuing her from life as a pirate’s whore. That kind of loyalty, on top of what Black Star consistently tried to build for itself by focusing on its workers and their families first, had led to massive success for Mollen in other fields, as devoted employees who are inspired to new heights will do amazing things. If he now had a fully trained spy in his employ…

Paxisys stopped moving for a moment, before rushing to check some of the other reports that had come in, closer to home. Mollen had access to a fully trained spy, used to going into areas and building up networks, and he already knew that there were factions inside the Confederacy that had decided to make enemies of him. If there was anywhere Mollen would choose to start a spy ring, it would be here, on Dimiya. And he had the perfect pawn to use in the opening gambits! Damnit!

(Empress’s Chambers, Imperial Palace, Imperial City-Ship Aurum Throni, Earth Orbit)

“Are you sure this is all right?”

The Empress of the Terran Empire, perhaps the single most powerful human in the galaxy, was blushing like a nervous schoolgirl. This state of affairs amused me slightly, but I had the good grace to pretend I didn’t see her discomfort as we sat in the living room of her private quarters in the Imperial Palace. Her sister, Sheila, on the other hand, was more than willing to take up the slack.

“Oh, come on, Mer! If I had trouble sharing him, I would have ended it long ago! It isn’t exactly a secret that he sluts it up with any woman he finds attractive whenever he has time. Hell, I’m pretty sure he’s slept with half of Nuevo Edo already!”

I coughed, “That is not true! While I admit that I’ve had quite a few liaisons with individuals on that world, it is nowhere near the number you are implying!”

“Dear, be quiet. This is girl talk.”

I sighed as I was coldly shushed by Princess Sheila. She, Raven, Admiral Han, and Lucio were visiting with the Empress in her quarters (under the watchful eye of the Empress’s primary Guardswoman), several days after Sheila had made her rather… profound offer to the Empress. After that little bombshell, the conversation had gotten completely away from the Empress, with everyone else chiming in their ideas on how to make the proposal work, regardless of what the Empress (or me) thought about the matter.

The only stumbling block to the rumbling freight train that was my pets and the Empress’s advisors planning her impregnation was the slight matter of my being a chimera. Once the idea had moved from ‘wild fantasy’ to ‘working probability’, she had asked me, quite politely, about my heritage, since her child had not only the ‘Nomad Born’ title, which gave the kid a +10% to all XP gains (including skill XP), but also the ‘Chimeric Bloodline’ title, which appeared on those up to the fifth generation from a Chimera parent. Fortunately, that was a question I could answer.

It had taken all of a couple in game months for people to realize that, unless the normal precautions were taken, Nomads could most certainly have children in game. This led to some embarrassing developments for certain ladies and gentlemen who had been rather more libertine with themselves in game than they would have been in real life. The fact that the first confirmed in-game Nomad pregnancy happened to a cross-player streamer who was a man in real life but was playing a Knelfi female in the game only added to the craziness.

At any rate, I had realized early on that I needed to check up on my options, and whether a Chimera could even breed. Turned out it was possible, but difficult when dealing with ‘normal’ groups, but with other Chimeras it was next to impossible. That is why my pets all had the implants which shut that off unless I chose otherwise, since the law of probability said that even a rate 30% that of normal human conception meant the numbers would eventually catch up to me. But since I didn’t have the option of getting an implant myself, I had to do more research to invent a cover, in case any ‘accidents’ happened outside of my inner circle.

The Chimeric Bloodline title was bestowed on all hybrid chimeras that had at least 1/32nd Chimera blood. While this rarely had more effect than slightly boosting some of their resistances or other minor things, there was a chance that the Chimeric Bloodline could be awakened, though it usually happened naturally in less than half of those with the title. This typically happened in puberty, or under intense stress, like when they are in mortal danger. What form the Chimeric Bloodline took when it awakened was typically a random ability somehow related to their chimera ancestor’s abilities, but could manifest as a reaction to the cause of stress or danger that made it awaken. That had given rise to people who tried to force title inheritors who had not awakened their bloodline during puberty into life-threatening situations in order to ‘cultivate’ certain types of abilities. Such ‘forced activations’ were generally outlawed, as the practice usually involved torture or attempted murder, if not worse, and not all of the ‘tested’ survived.

So, I was able to make a plan that didn’t involve outright lying. Trying to come up with consistent lies was always easier when it was mostly the truth. Since there was no way to deny that any kids I sired would have the ‘Chimeric Bloodline’ title from birth, I would have to come up a good excuse.

The answer I’d come up with was a simple one. In the world Nomads come from, I had done deeds which the ones who maintained the ‘bridge’ between our worlds rewarded by giving my ‘vessel’ here a unique bloodline amongst Nomads, already activated when I came here. I, of course, hid this truth because I understood that there was some bias against those of Chimeric lineage, and because it was the source of some abilities that had been quite helpful in the past, abilities I had taken great pains to hide, so that they would retain their usefulness.

Every word of it was the truth, a fact that I was quite proud of. I could gloss over the ‘deeds’ I had done to deserve this reward with a simple mysterious ‘not allowed to say’, implying that it was some classified secret of my home world. And while Chimeras were basically kill on sight, there were too many people around with Chimeric Bloodlines for any of my kids to be automatically on the chopping block. And unless they did DNA tests, or had access to my titles, then I could pass myself off as a first or second generation Chimeric Bloodline holder, especially since the abilities I actually displayed to people were very minor in scope. Chimeras had grown into myths and legends like the boogeyman or Baba Yaga, and so not having fearsome powers (that people could see) allowed my… inferred meaning (which was different from the real meaning) to play into people’s preconceptions, causing them to believe I really was just a Chimeric Bloodline holder.

Only my people knew the truth, and I had kept that revelation off the streams, so that none of the other Nomads could gainsay me. Sheila wasn’t comfortable lying to her sister, but I pointed out to her that, if we told her the truth, she would likely have to know it ‘officially’. Whereas with my little play on words, she could ‘officially’ be convinced that I was a Chimeric Bloodline holder, whatever she personally believed. I had no doubt that the Empress’s ‘inner circle’ from the Civil War days had an idea about the lie in the truths I’d told.

At any rate, if we were going to ensure an heir to the throne of the Terran Empire, without me spending months in Sol System banging the Empress (which would have been problematic on all sorts of levels), then steps needed to be taken. The fertility drugs that had worked on Admiral Han at the slave ranch were common enough, and raised conception rates to over 100% when administered properly, with twins being a common occurrence, but they took a few days to properly work through a woman’s system and prepare them for breeding. Combined with a potency enhancer I’d taken, there was a 97.5% chance of pregnancy if I had ‘relations’ with the Empress in the next twenty-four hours.

Which had led to the Empress getting a bit of ‘stage fright’, you might say. The legal requirement that one of her Guardsmen be inside the room (since I was not a member of the Imperial family) was bad enough, but she was still uncomfortable with the idea of ‘stealing’ from her sister. Said sister’s dinner offer only made her more uncomfortable, rather than less, due to the depravity of it all. The Empress was not a prude (although it seemed she was not very experienced in this field), but she was definitely more conservative than most of the people who fell into my orbit. That had led to this little gathering, where persuading her to go through with the plan was the order of the day.

I sighed as the girls went around the arguments yet again. I could see that the Empress was trying to talk herself out of this, which was understandable, given the complexity of the situation, but was also annoying as hell to me, especially given the… discomfort the ‘enhancers’ I’d taken were causing in my pants. Instead of simply sitting around waiting for them to finally come to a solution, I looked over to Raven, who had a certain detached amusement at the whole situation, and sent a brief outline of my plan to her from my bracer.

Her eyes met mine, and I could see she was trying hard not to laugh as she raised an eyebrow, questioningly. I simply nodded slightly, and she leaned over in her seat next to me and deftly reached down and opened my pants to free my barely constrained erection. Her new body was the latest model of the ‘companion’ robot line that we’d picked up in Alpha Centauri just after the game’s launch, and there had been some definite improvements in the design that we both enjoyed. The flesh and blood ladies were so into the conversation that it wasn’t until Raven’s mouth descended over my shaft that they noticed what was happening.

“W-w-what are you doing!?”

I looked to the suddenly flustered Empress, and said, disinterestedly, “Well, your Majesty, I was simply getting a bit of relief since this conversation seemed to be going in circles. Raven kindly agreed to help me deal with the side effect of the potency enhancers I took to help with this project, as I was in a good bit of discomfort over here. Please, pay it no mind and continue with the conversation.”

Admiral Han and Princess Sheila were both trying hard not to laugh. They had figured out my plan the moment I started speaking. The Guardswoman’s eyes narrowed, as though she didn’t much care for this turn of events, but kept her silence, as was proper for a sentinel. Though, I didn’t doubt she would be all too happy to respond if the Empress ordered me thrown out of the room.

The Empress, however, simply stared. ‘Dumbstruck’ would be an appropriate adjective to describe her expression. Her eyes were fixed on my staff, which was now coated in the special lubricant the Nadeshiko line was known for, and her mouth seemed to be flapping open like a fish out of water. I was starting to get the idea that, other than any incidental exposures caused by being a member of the Imperial Navy (training groups were co-ed, after all, because modesty was less important than efficiency when you had a decompression drill), this may have been the first time she’d seen a man’s penis. Even if she was just a member of the Imperial Family instead of the Empress, having a guard trailing you around through training and aboard ship could certainly put a damper on the chances for romantic interludes.

Seeing that the Empress was at a loss for words, I looked over to Sheila, whose grin could be called the textbook example of ‘shit-eating’, and she turned to look at her sister. “Come on, Mer. Don’t tell me you’ve never seen someone giving a blowjob before.”

Empress Merida blushed deeply, and said, “Only in movies! I’ve never—Well, there’s never been time for such things! And most of the boys when I was at school were either idiots trying to gain position through me, or were frightened off by my Guardsman! And once I was an officer, I couldn’t very well do those kinds of things with my subordinates! It would be a complete breakdown in discipline!”

Sheila smiled, and said, “Oh, yes, I was a virgin, too, before the Captain took me in an orgy with myself and four other women set up to sate his lust. And he kept going until every one of us was satisfied, I’ll have you know.”

“I-I don’t want to know that! I’m your sister!”

“Yes, yes, Big Sister.” Sheila smiled, and then half-dragged, half-led the Empress to her knees before me, so she could get a very good view of Raven’s work. “But why don’t you and the Captain go to bed and let him take care of that problem? Unless you would rather the rest of us join in, like I suggested?”

“F-fine! Captain Mollen, I require y-your presence in m-my b-b-bed at once!” Struggling to get the words out in the heat of her embarrassment, Merida quickly rose and turned, her cheeks red as could be, as she made her way to her bedroom. I patted Raven on the head so that she could stop her ministrations, and followed, not bothering to tuck myself back in. After all, the only ones who hadn’t seen it before were the Empress and her Guardswoman, and they were about to see quite a bit of it in the immediate future.

(Private Vessel Eternity of Pain, Star’s Reach Gateway, Star’s Reach System)

“We’ve made it through the Gateway, Warmaster!”

Warmaster Abaddon Horusson of the Chaos Brigade nodded to the Pilot. They had conquered the dungeons that had opened to them so far, enabling them to buy and maintain the Destiny-class heavy cruiser that they had renamed the Eternity of Pain. Nothing, perhaps, compared to the power that the Black Star Navy possessed, but outside of that group, it was the most powerful warship in Nomad hands. Having been bought instead of constructed to order, they could not make it a true representation, but they were building their war chest. With hard work and skill, they would be able to commission a vessel that would be worthy of the name Vengeful Spirit, even if they had not found any sign of the Dark Gods of Chaos in this game.

In the real world, he was the leader of a miniature gaming group spread throughout the New York area. When they had heard that there was not only a Terran Empire, but some form of Space Marines, he had convinced much of the group to take their shot at being the first forces of Chaos in this new world. Two hundred Nomads formed the core of his Brigade, with some locals falling sway to their dark words. When the word had broken that the first designated Raid Dungeon had been found, and that the one who had tried to be Emperor was located there, Abaddon had convinced his fellows to make the journey as soon as the Black Stars allowed passage into the system.

Unclaimed Space

This system is not claimed by any of the recognized interstellar governments. Individual factions and governments may fight to claim any parts of this system they can hold through force of arms.

Current controlling group: Black Star Company

Abaddon smiled slightly as he saw that notification. So, if you went beyond the reach of the main governments, it became a ‘survival of the fittest’ situation, where anyone who was not strong enough to conquer either submitted, fled, or died? And until the Black Stars were recognized as the government of this area, they could be pushed out? Hmm. The Black Star ships were dangerous, but they couldn’t be everywhere at once. If they could…

“Warmaster, we’re being hailed by the BSN Ama-no-Murakumo-no-Tsurugi! They are challenging us, demanding our name, affiliation, and purpose.”

Abaddon shook himself free of the fantasy of claiming the system from underneath the Black Stars. Quickly, he brought up the sensor readouts for the ship that had challenged them. Just as quickly, he buried his fantasy of taking this system and poured concrete over it to ensure that no one would be digging it up. That was a true battleship, but if even half of the weapons readings they were getting were correct, then it could easily slug it out with any ship in Known Space.

“On my screen.” His terminal’s sensor readouts were replaced by a stern-looking woman in a black star uniform. “This is Warmaster Abaddon of the Chaos Brigade. We have heard the tales of the dungeon on this world, and have come to conquer it!”

“This is Captain Virstina of the Black Star Navy ship Ama-no-Murakumo-no-Tsurugi. We will be assigning you an orbital slot near the capitol of Starborn. You may take shuttles down to the planet there, and take an atmospheric flyer to Star’s Vigil, where the dungeon is located, or you can wait for fighter escorts for your shuttles going to Star’s Vigil directly. Be advised that unauthorized traffic to or from Star’s Vigil will be met with summary destruction of the craft involved, without warning. Shuttles getting ‘lost’ or taking the ‘scenic route’ will not be tolerated. Ama-no-Murakumo-no-Tsurugi clear.”

As the woman’s face disappeared from the screen, the Warmaster leaned back in his command chair. “Pilot, take us to the orbital slot they have provided. Inform them that our shuttles will make for Star’s Vigil directly. Have the shuttles launch, but wait for the escorts before heading to the surface. Use this chance to get as much sensor data as you can on their ships.”

The Pilot, a local named Jack Springer before he was swayed by the preachings of chaos, looked up at him. “Course set, Warmaster. If I may, why are we putting up with this treatment? Surely there are other places we could go that would be less… adversarial?”

The Warmaster considered the man, and the question he asked without asking. The pilot would make an excellent follower of Khorne, if the Dark Powers existed in this game. He already had the proper disregard for anyone who he felt was weaker than he was, and enjoyed the slaughter quite nicely. Indeed, he was one of the first choices he had to command the Eternity of Pain once they could get the Vengeful Spirit built.

“The other dungeons have all been plundered by now, their treasures known. According to the whispers I’ve heard, this dungeon has a second level, one suitable for large groups such as the Chaos Brigade to take on, and it has not yet been conquered. It will be the most difficult challenge available to us that is still within our reach. And when we triumph, we shall be one step forward towards building the forces of chaos.”

Warmaster Abaddon Horusson, commander of the Chaos Brigade, stood tall, and hit the button to transmit his voice throughout the ship. He took a breath, and said, “Children of Chaos, hear me now! The time has come for us to test ourselves in the fires of battle once again! The dungeon below is the most advanced, the most powerful that has yet been discovered, and its most terrible trials have not been conquered! In the name of Chaos we will conquer this dungeon and turn its treasures to our own uses! Now, have all the troops prepared! We will take to this dungeon and conquer it! The loot we shall gain will light the path into our future! Soon, the Vengeful Spirit shall rise, and our fleet will grow, and worlds shall burn in the chaotic tides that follow at our heels!”

Cheers went up throughout the ship as Abaddon released the connection. Catching the Pilot’s eye, he said, “Pilot, see to a rotation, allowing those crewmembers who would test themselves against the ‘normal’ dungeon to gain experience and a taste for slaughter.” The Pilot’s smile at the thought of the killing to come was infectious.

(Private Vessel Forgeheart, Star’s Reach Gateway, Star’s Reach)

Captain Lokkud Smeltstone, leader of the Crimson Sun Company, smiled as his ‘armed freighter’ passed through the Gateway. The Forgeheart was an older design, but had been updated over the years, until Lokkud and the Crimson Suns had gotten hold of her during a… hostile takeover of the Dark Sentinel Company. While officially called an armed freighter, the Forgeheart was, in fact, a mobile production facility that could be configured to manufacture pretty much anything one could wish for. Perfect for getting in on the ground floor of a new settlement, that didn’t have manufacturing capabilities.

Of course, those production facilities would need raw materials to work from, which is why the Metaleater and Logsplitter were following his Forgeheart through the Gateway. The mining ship could start grabbing and processing asteroids, turning them into raw materials, while the other landed on the surface and began harvesting local lumber and stripping an area for resources as it cleared out space for a new settlement. Space for this kind of work was limited in the Gauz Consortium, where the major companies could lock down entire asteroid fields, but this was virgin territory! Sure, the Black Stars may have claimed the planet, but they couldn’t complain if some entrepreneurs went and started a new settlement, right?

“Captain, initial scans coming in. The primary planet is extremely suitable for life, and according to the data, there are several large asteroid fields that would be ideal for mining operations. No data on rare elements or other valuables yet, but it looks like there are plenty of choices for settlement sites. Only two established settlements on the planet, though it looks like the beginnings of a military base in a third location.”

Lokkud nodded, “Excellent. Let’s find someplace quiet and away from prying eyes. I’m sure the Black Stars are going to be upset if we don’t pay taxes or some crap, but the less they know about, the better, eh? They can’t watch the whole planet, after all.”

“Captain, we’re being hailed. There’s a warship demanding we identify ourselves and our purpose. I don’t recognize the configuration, but it looks to be a destroyer in size.”

“Hmph. Arrogant bastards. Think that, because they have big guns, they can just order us about. Send back that we are the Crimson Sun Company, and we’ll be claiming an unclaimed section of the planet for a manufacturing settlement.”

“Sir, they just responded. Apparently, the Black Star Company has claimed the entire system, and everything in it, and they are not allowing unlicensed settlements to exist.”

“WHAT? Those assholes! Typical military crap. Put me on with him!” The main screen lit up, showing a female knelfi wearing a black naval uniform and what looked like some kind of rank insignia. “Now what the hell do you mean you aren’t allowing new settlements to exist? You can’t keep us from going and making a new settlement!”

“This is Captain Naevys Elafina of the BSN Galahad. Who am I speaking with?”

Lukkud ignored the frosty tone in the woman’s voice. She was just another primitive that thought military might was all that mattered. “This is Captain Lukkud Smeltstone, CEO of the Crimson Sun Company, registered in the Gauz Consortium. We are a fully licensed settlement creation and support company with accreditation throughout the Consortium!”

“Well, Captain, you are no longer in the Gauz Consortium. You are in the corporately owned colony of Star’s Reach, which is property of the Black Star Company. As the Black Star Company has no treaties or agreements with the Gauz Consortium, your licenses and accreditation are null and void in this space. If you wish to create any business, much less a settlement, in the Star’s Reach system, you will need to stop at the capitol of Starborn and apply for a business license. Unfortunately, applications for new settlements are not being maintained at this time, to ensure that those who seek to violate Black Star corporate laws do not manage to get a foothold in the system. Ships attempting to conduct illegal mining operations or conducting illicit trades are subject to seizure without compensation and the enslavement of their crews. Illegal settlements are subject to orbital bombardment without notice.”

“WHAT? YOU CAN’T DO THAT! THIS IS A GAUZ CONSORTIUM SHIP! You would be risking trade embargoes, and perhaps open war between the Consortium and Black Star. They won’t simply allow you to get away with taking over an entire system like this!”

The captain smiled wolfishly at him, “They are, of course, welcome to try and take it from us. But to have any chance of that, they would need to come the ‘long way’. Even if they staged through Nuevo Edo or Amazon, I can promise you that we would be quite prepared for any military response they might make. And, as I said, the Black Star Company has no trade agreements with the Consortium as it is.”

Lukkud shook his head. These people were insane! How could they simply throw aside the lucrative trade deals that the Consortium offered? There was a reason why no one went to war with the Consortium. There was simply too much economic power there for anyone to overcome. These damned Black Stars were getting damn uppity just because they had some shiny warships! He couldn’t believe a fellow Nomad would be so stupid as to allow his people to just run off at the mouth like this!

“Now, with that out of the way, you may either proceed with us as escort until you reach your assigned orbital slot, where you will be under the watchful ‘protection’ of the defense platforms to prevent any accidents or people getting lost while your licenses are applied for and processed, or you can go back through the Gateway and let people know that Star’s Reach is under Black Star control and subject to Black Star’s rules, not the Consortium’s.” The captain’s voice went glacially cold, and her smile was one that promised pain to anyone foolish enough to disagree with her. “Or, you can refuse, be branded as pirates and trespassers, and become a quite permanent addition to the workforce of Star’s Reach.”

(Star’s Reach Business Licensing Office, Starborn, Star’s Reach)

“WHAT DO YOU MEAN I CAN’T GET THE DAMN LICENSE YET? I’VE BEEN WAITING HERE FOR TWO WEEKS!”

Lukkud Smeltstone was not happy. He had led his company to this backwater planet, hoping to get in on the ground floor of a new colony. Should have been a simple setup, land, claim some prime real estate, and set up manufacturing to support the settlement and make things into his own little empire. Nice, simple, profitable.

Except it wasn’t working out that way. These damn Black Stars had a major stick up their asses about not letting people do anything except in the ‘approved’ settlements. The one time he’d tried to take a shuttle out to look at options for landing sites on a new settlement, he suddenly found himself flanked by a pair of fighters that ‘encouraged’ him to return to the capitol by firing warning shots across his bow! The NERVE of it all!

The slave sitting behind the desk in the licensing office simply smiled at him. That was another insult! They didn’t bother having a free employee to run the office, forcing him to lower himself and deal with a slave as if they were his equal! And the damn slave knew how much it angered him, damn it! He could see it on the slave’s face. The smug bastard was just happy as could be giving a free man the runaround.

“I’m sorry, sir, but the Black Star Company is not licensing any independent settlements at this time in Star’s Reach space. As I stated, we do have settlement options available, either as joint-ownership or subsidiary arrangements. Or you can try and join one of the existing settlements by filing for a local business permit.”

Lukkud was beyond pissed. Those licensing deals were damn rip offs! The ‘joint-ownership’ settlement basically meant that he would have only a 45% share of the settlement that HE built, leaving Black Star as the majority shareholder, though giving him nominal rights as the settlement’s manager. The ‘subsidiary’ arrangement involved his group joining Black Star, and signing some fairly involved contracts to operate the settlement as they saw fit, though they were still subject to Black Star’s rules. Typical corporate overlord bullshit.

And if he just gave up on the idea of his own settlement, and joined an existing settlement as a businessman? Then he’d have taxes to pay, both individual and corporate taxes, which were at a higher rate for people who weren’t part of Black Star. Sure, those taxes weren’t too much. Some of the core worlds of the Consortium had higher tax rates, officially, but there were no tax breaks or loopholes in the system. It was ruthlessly efficient that way, and made no room for the typical maneuvers one could use to get out of taxes.

Lukkud took a deep breath, and said, “I want to speak to your Master about this! You have no right to treat me like this, slave!”

The slave did not tremble in fear like he expected. Most slaves, when confronted by a free person demanding to see their master because of their conduct, would have been bowing and scraping to find a way out of their coming punishment. This slave simply smiled.

“Well, sir, I am owned by the Black Star Company directly. The local officers of the company are all company slaves. However, the owner just recently returned from a trip to Sol System, where he met with the Empress of the Terran Empire. Please wait, and I will see if he is available.”

“No need, Carlo.” A new voice came from the doors behind Lukkud, and he turned to see three humans standing there, a man and two women, one of them having a slave collar around her neck. All three were Nomads. The man continued, “Raven has been keeping me up to date about the situation.”

Lukkud eyed the man, and said, “You are the Nomad who runs this whole shitshow? Do you have any idea how rude your slaves are? You should be teaching them proper respect for their betters!”

“Oh, but I have. Unfortunately, Captain Smeltstone, you are not one of their betters.” The man smiled wickedly at him. “Oh yes, in the eyes of Black Star, a free man who is not part of the company is worth less than the lowest slave belonging to the company. Especially when they that free man thinks he can take me for a fool.”

The man’s voice grew dangerous now, “I have reviewed your proposed settlement plans, Captain Smeltstone, and it is painfully obvious that they are clearly designed to rob the Black Star Company of the profits and taxes owed to it on land and material owned by the company. Indeed, it is an attempt at organized theft, and I am afraid that I cannot allow that to occur.”

“THEFT? Now listen here—!” Lukkud’s response was cut off by the man’s voice, cold and imperious, like one pronouncing judgement.

“No, it is time for you to listen to me. As Owner of the Black Star Company and senior authority for all judiciary measures in this system, I declare you and your ships to be banned from Black Star controlled space until such time as you make reparations. You have one hour to return to your ship and leave Star’s Reach orbit or face summary enslavement. Once your ships have left orbit, you are to leave this system within one hour’s time. Use of the Gateway is prohibited.”

“WHAT? You can’t do that, you jumped up shitstain! Just because you’ve got those ships doesn’t mean you can play god! I’m going to file a complaint!”

“You do that. But the clock has already started counting down.”

“You’ll pay for this, I swear it!” Lukkud stormed out of the office, fully aware of the smirks on the damned people’s faces as they watched him. Once he got back to Gauz space, he was going to ruin this bastard’s reputation so hard, as well as sending a complaint to NERV! See how he likes playing god in his little colony that no one goes to!

As the doors closed behind Lukkud, the owner of the Black Star Company brought up his bracer, and said, “Raven, I would like you to connect me to the leader of the Chaos Brigade.”

(Private Vessel Eternity of Pain, Star’s Reach Orbit, Star’s Reach)

Pilot Jack Springer was bored. He knew his job was important. One could not bring the word of Chaos to the galaxy without ships, after all, and the Chaos Brigade was building its strength so that it could gain more ships and gather a fleet like the one these Black Stars had. At the moment, the majority of the ship’s fighters were on the ground below, rotating through the dungeon.

Learning from their experiences in the other dungeon, the Warmaster had led the teams through this new dungeon on the ‘normal’ mode first, as they learned the techniques these Deus Marines used. Know the enemy so that you could hunt them better. A week ago, the first of their groups had cleared the dungeon’s normal mode, and had worked on polishing their skills while the rest of the troops completed their runs. Now, they were preparing for the ‘Raid’ version of the dungeon, to gain glory for Chaos.

However, that left Jack and the other crewmen of the Eternity of Pain sitting in orbit around the planet of Star’s Reach, and they couldn’t even engage in a little freelance slaughter, because the Black Stars were watching everything. They knew the Black Stars were watching because they had seen a couple of their stealth fighters appear out of nowhere any time they had launched a shuttle for the surface. And they had been getting some ‘ghost’ sensor returns that could have been stealth ships nearby. The Warmaster believed that the returns were intentional, allowing the Chaos Brigade to know that they were being watched, but not being blatant about it. That didn’t change the fact that they couldn’t have any fun while they were in the system, though.

Suddenly, the communication systems came alive! Snapping out of his bored funk, Springer checked the incoming transmission and saw that it was coming from the Warmaster himself! With excitement, Springer accepted the communication. An unscheduled message from the Warmaster meant there was a task he could do, something that would stave off the boredom of sitting around a planet endlessly.

“Warmaster! How may I serve?”

“Pilot, ready the ship for battle! It would seem that another guild of Nomads has annoyed the owner of Black Star, and he has barred them from the system, on pain of death and enslavement. They have also been prohibited from using the Gateway, meaning they must flee the system the ‘long’ way, and the nearest gateway is a month away in realspace.”

Springer quickly hit the console commands to ensure that the crew aboard the Eternity of Pain would be getting ready for deployment, even as he listened to the Warmaster’s words. “What are your orders, my Lord?”

“The Black Stars have given us dispensation to slip out of orbit under stealth when the three target ships leave orbit. You are to follow them out of the system. The Black Stars have assured me that, so long as anything that happens occurs outside the system, then they will not interfere. Hunt down the ships, and do with them as you will. Any who are captured may be turned into sport, or enslaved as servants for the crew. But if they are all killed, then be sure to offer their deaths to Khorne.”

Springer nodded vigorously. “Blood for the Blood God! Skulls for the Skull Throne!”

“Indeed. Let none of those ships make it to safe harbor. Even should they surrender, you are to take the slaves and then destroy the ships after looting anything of value that you can take from them. Am I understood?”

“It will be done, Warmaster. The Eternity of Pain stands ready to visit the will of Chaos upon these unknowing fools, and give them over to Khorne!”

“Then go, and bring glory to Chaos this day!”

(Private Vessel Forgeheart, Interstellar space between Star’s Reach and Nuevo Edo)

“Damn it! What the hell are we going to do now, Boss? The Black Stars have the only new colony going right now. And our setup won’t exactly work on any civilized planets. Not if we want to strike it rich in a hurry. This was our ticket to the big time, and now we got nothing!”

Lukkud Smeltstone sighed. “You think I don’t know that? But this damn Mollen is thinking he can do whatever he wants because he has a fleet. We’ll get back to Gauz space and make a play to get some sanctions brought against the Black Stars. Enough people have been concerned about how quickly they’re gaining power that they won’t hesitate to throw their weight behind some way to cripple the bastards.”

“You think that it will actually do anything? How much exposure do they have in the Consortium?”

“Well, if it doesn’t hit them directly, it will encourage others to hit them or risk things spreading to—”

Alarms cut their discussion short, however, as explosions rocked the ship. The two Gauz were thrown by the artificial gravity failed for half a moment before kicking back in again as emergency power came online, sending them into the bulkhead with a crash. Lukkud Smeltstone groaned as he pulled himself off the forward bulkhead, wiping away the blood that was starting to flow from his head wound. He felt like someone was doing one of those Russian tank ballets in his head, but he forced himself to think. Nothing good happened when there were explosions on a ship.

“Report!”

“We… we’re under attack! We’ve fallen back to normal space. The Metaleater and Logsplitter are with us…” His second trailed off. “Never mind. The Logsplitter just lost containment on their reactor. They’re gone.”

“What hit us?”

“We have a cruiser coming out from stealth astern of us. Transponder calls it the Eternity of Pain.”

Suddenly, the communications system lit up, on the emergency band that was answered automatically on Consortium ships. A man wearing armor with some strange symbols upon it was looking back at them.

“ALL HAIL THE GODS OF CHAOS! ALL GLORY TO KHORNE! BLOOD FOR THE BLOOD GOD! SKULLS FOR THE SKULL THRONE!”

(Officer’s Club, Sarcyne Naval Base, Dimiya Orbit)

“So, what did you need to see me about, Alok?”

Captain Maeral Zumrora was in a rather sour mood, despite his recent promotion. While a captain in Naval Intelligence was important, it really just meant that they were dealing with important problems. Like Alok Paxisys, he was one of the few intelligence officers that the Black Star Company’s CEO liked, and was willing to work with, which is why he was stuck on the Navy’s version of Paxisys’s task force.

Today, they were both meeting in the Officer’s Club here on the base. While the Confederate Intelligence Service was a civilian organization, they worked with Naval Intelligence often. Each group had different specialties and focuses, which helped to paint a broader picture of the situation. Of course, Paxisys was wearing a Lieutenant’s uniform, unmarked, as a polite cover to let him sit openly here in ‘officer country’.

The reason they chose to meet here was because of concerns they both shared about other parties who may be looking to listen in on their conversations. Actually, they rotated their meeting spots regularly, so that it would be difficult to plan an ambush, or arrange anyone to bug their meeting location. It was simply good tradecraft to not allow yourself to fall into predictable patterns. Those patterns might be unavoidable when you were dealing with contacts who didn’t know your face, or who communicated through dead drops, but when you knew the person on the other side, you could dispense with some of the checking of bona fides in favor of ensuring that no one knew where to set up to spy on you. With enough time and preparation, he knew, it was possible to get an agent into even the most secure facilities, and exploiting habits was one of the ways infiltrators got on the inside.

Paxisys sighed as he took his chair. “Remember that exclusive retreat you hired a special contractor to clean up a while back?” Despite picking new places to meet whenever they needed to talk without leaving electronic trails, there was no excuse for sloppy tradecraft like saying things openly.

“Yeah, can’t say everyone was happy with the end result, but so far things have worked out fine. Why, something come up?”

“Well, one of my people was looking over the supply manifests detailing the takeaway from that job. You know they used reclaimed materials for some of the new work, right?”

“Yeah, can’t say as I blame them, honestly, with the way that whole business went down. And their business is built on using reclaimed goods wherever they can to keep costs down, right? The quality has never suffered, so it hasn’t been an issue, and that attitude instead of just scrapping everything and starting fresh makes them popular in some circles.”

Paxisys nodded. “Yes, well, you heard how they got a couple pieces out of that which were better than the rest? Most of them went to decorating the contractor’s yacht.”

“Yeah, I remember. Also, one got sent to that long-term expansion project he has going, right? What about it?”

“Well, a couple of the special pieces went missing after he took delivery. I’ve done some checking, and the original supplier of one of those pieces went out of business rather suddenly over in Alliance space. I’m wondering if you’ve heard anything more about where those pieces may have gone?”

“No, I haven’t. But then, my associate in the area isn’t exactly well informed about such things. He does his best, but the limitations we had to put on him to keep the relationship…” Zumrora shrugged helplessly.

“I understand. Unfortunately, my gut is telling me that the contractor may be looking to expand operations locally as well as abroad, or at least open channels for information gathering to try and predict future trends. One of the pieces that went missing would be perfect for a local office.”

“I see. So, is this a continuation of the SP debacle, or something else?”

Paxisys considered that for a moment, judging his answer carefully. “Between the SP, and that hothead you had to deal with before the contractor worked on that retreat, I’d say it is more of a CYA setup, but you know how quickly things can go from CYA to something more proactive if things hit the rotary air mover.”

“You think this is going to be a problem?”

“On its own? No. But sooner or later someone is going to start going down the path the SP did, because that contractor doesn’t play by the rules everyone else does, and he’s made no secret about the fact that he isn’t going to play their game. There are a lot of important players out there, and they do not take kindly to people refusing to dance to their tune. Eventually, someone is going to get a case of terminal stupidity.”

“And that guy isn’t going to just sit back and let it happen, especially now that he has diversified into other markets. They know they’re losing any leverage they might have over him, and he knows they know. They’re going to try something stupid, and he’s going to be ready for them.”

Paxisys nodded. “So now I’m stuck between a rock and a hard place. On the one hand, I would really like to keep incidents of terminal stupidity from causing more collateral damage than is absolutely necessary. On the other hand, part of my job is to keep monitor and control unauthorized information channels.”

Zumrora winced. “Yes, I can see where that would put you in a difficult position, especially given the nature of who was most likely to get stupid. Thankfully, my area of responsibility isn’t as contentious. Some pride involved, maybe, but the new tools and the training opportunity they recently gave us went a long way to smoothing over those issues.”

The captain considered for a moment, and said, “From what I know of the man, he won’t get too upset about any actions you take to curtail his access, as long as they are ‘part of the job’. Like how he tolerates and even invites a certain level of action when the roles are reversed.”

Paxisys considered that. “So, focus on protecting major assets, while allowing him to essentially do as he pleases inside certain boundaries? Yes, I can make that work. We have to accept a certain level of these things from other governments, after all. But if it comes out, there are people who will be more than simply annoyed with a business doing it.”

“Well, they are in that interesting middle ground. Owning an entire star system as an independent colony may qualify them as a government in some eyes.”

“Yeah, but if you go that route, then you have to deal with the major holdings they have in Confederate space.”

“Yes, there is that.” Zumrora paused, and then shook his head. “I’m sure that guy has considered that point, though, or someone in his group has. Might be better to just be ready to react to whatever he has planned than trying to run preemptive damage control and making things worse because we guessed wrong about which way he’d leap.”

Paxisys considered that. “It may leave us open to a bit of backlash, but compared to the other potential problems, I like it. Though I just hope that nothing happens before we get an idea of the size of his network.”

Zumrora chuckled darkly at that. “And since when have we been that lucky since that guy came on the scene?”

“That’s what I was afraid you’d say.”

(Private Box, Shadowlight Concert Hall, Thelorious, Dimiya)

Senator Ayda Bryneiros was enjoying the performance of one of Thelorious’s hottest acts when the door to her private box opened unexpectedly. Her eyes flashed to the Felisan woman who entered, and then to the guard behind her. He said nothing, but gave her a signal they had arranged long before. Anger turned to caution in a flash. This woman was trouble. What kind, she didn’t know, but if Rathal had used the signal, then it wasn’t good.

“Who in the abyss are you, then?”

The Felisan smiled, and moved easily in her expensive dress gown, looking not out of place in a setting like this. She said nothing until she was seated next to Ayda, her tail swishing slightly in what Ayda knew was a sign of confidence. Finally, she settled in the chair, and said, soft enough that eavesdroppers would be quite frustrated, but Ayda could still hear her over the performance, “Who I am is of no importance. Who I serve is quite another matter altogether. You see, my Master is someone of a degree of importance, and because of that, people tend to seek out disagreements with him, and his people.”

“What does that have to do with you, you might wonder? Well, Senator Bryneiros, you are a member of the Intelligence Oversight Committee, which has, in the past, been used by my Master’s rivals to try and impact his affairs. You, yourself, were not a part of those activities, which is why you retain your position when so many others have lost theirs. Now, my Master would like your… cooperation so that, should similar activities come up in your committee, then you will allow him to know, so he can take proper measures to prevent things from getting out of hand.”

Ayda’s eyes narrowed. This Felisan couldn’t be suggesting… No, she had to be. The last major shakeup on the Committee was because the Shining Path had taken a run at Black Star, and had apparently gotten their hands caught in the cookie jar. The idea that their faction leader organized an assassination was foolish, despite the evidence given to the insurance company after that particular policy was paid out. No, despite what was said publicly, everyone knew that the whole thing was a very pointed hit, and the one who did it had gotten away clean. It was a very clear example of why one should get the measure of their opponent before they tried to strike.

She took a breath, and said, “And why would your Master, no matter how many Black Stars are in his skies, think it would be appropriate to come to me? Why would he believe that I would agree to even listen to what he has to say, through you, instead of reporting you to Confederate Intelligence? That is, after all, what I should be doing this moment.”

“Ah, but that is simple enough. You are from Tevion, are you not? A very conservative planet, that one. Very religious. If I’m not mistaken, Tevion boasts the largest concentration of hardline worshippers of the Communion of the Three Divines. Things like the Rite of Luwreni aside, they tend to be rather set in their ways when it comes to issues of morality, especially sexual morality, yes?”

Ayda most certainly did not like the way this conversation was starting to go. Hesitantly, she nodded, “Yes, it often puts us at odds with other parts of the Confederacy, but Tevion is more conservative than most. Your Master would probably be run off world the moment he tried to set foot on the planet, to be honest.”

“No doubt, no doubt. But it isn’t my Master that is the concern here. You, on the other hand, are known for being something of a moderate, at least as far as your people are concerned. Your opponents have mentioned more than once that your appearances at services are few and far between, and have gotten less frequent the longer you’ve held your seat. The last election was a close one, wasn’t it? Your opponent got over forty percent of the vote.”

“And what does that have to do with this?”

“Why, that should be obvious, Lady Sugarplum.”

Ayda’s blood froze at the name, and she was sure her heart stopped at the mere mention of it. No wonder Rathal had given the signal. Oh god, how did she know? How had she found out? She’d been so careful.

“Yes, I think you begin to see how this affects you.” The Felisan was still talking but she was hardly listening. “Imagine the shock back home when people learn that the respected, if somewhat moderate, Senator Bryneiros was moonlighting in an underground ‘ponygirl’ racing league, and as one of the prize-winning mares, no less! And that her trusted bodyguard was not only her owner, but her breeder as well? The scandal!”

“W-what does your Master want?”

“My Master is a fair man. In return for his help ensuring this information does not come to light, and perhaps entertaining him with an ‘audience’, when he happens to be on Dimiya, he simply asks that you provide regular reports on anything ‘interesting’ that comes across your desk, or is mentioned in Committee.”

She paused, and then said, “Oh, and should you wish to continue on the racing circuit, have no fear, as my Master does not shame others for their kinks. And, as the new ‘manager’ of the League, after the former manager had a sudden urge to retire, you will find that the information on all participants, as well as that of the regular spectators, is far better protected than it was before.”

With that, the Felisan handed her a card, which she took dumbly, and left the box, leaving a horrified Ayda alone with her thoughts.

(BSN Reaper’s Blade, Madrigal System)

Captain Zrabewk Blackfeather perched comfortably in his chair on the bridge of his Reaper-Class Cruiser. He was one of the few Vroks to serve in the Black Star Navy, and the only one who had risen to commanding a warship. The rest, as far as he knew, were pilots, serving in the fighter squadrons throughout the fleet. Both those were to be expected, really. Vrokka, his homeworld, was in the Free Worlds Alliance, and Black Star had made few inroads there. The few of his people that emigrated (willingly or not) from the Alliance tended to be pilots and ship handlers. Not to put too fine a point on things, but his people were known as the best pilots in the galaxy, as a race. Of course, he wasn’t so naïve as to say that there weren’t individuals who proved themselves to be the equal or better of a Vrok pilot, and there were certainly Vroks who were decidedly average, even by other race’s standards, at the controls of a ship, but as a race, they were known for their abilities, and rightly so.

At the moment, his cruiser, along with her escort of three Assassin-Class corvettes (Antietam, Atlanta, and Dunkirk), were on a routine patrol through the Madrigal system, both to provide advance warning for Madrigal Base in event of an attack, but also to make sure that piracy in the area remained low. The Black Star Navy had crippled the pirate clans in this sector by taking Madrigal Base, and the few who had survived the purge had done a good job of keeping their heads down. Stamping out piracy entirely was impossible, of course. There would always be pirates where ships plied the space lanes between worlds, but it was possible to reduce their efforts to tolerable levels.

Or, at least, you could convince the rats to go somewhere more hospitable to their kind. That was what had happened with this sector, after the area around Dimiya had been cleaned up with the destruction of a major pirate base there. The rats had come out here, and the Alliance on the other side of the border couldn’t keep up, since the Kul’tirans were humbled. So Black Star got the contract to clean up this area, too. So far, the pirates had decided to go elsewhere, allowing the Confederate Navy to take over the majority of the anti-piracy efforts.

“Captain, the pickets are picking up unconfirmed readings in the outer system. Possible stealth ships inbound.”

Blackfeather perked up at the sensor officer’s report. “On screen. How many are we looking at, Lieutenant?”

The plot came up on the screen, focusing The lieutenant consulted the instruments, and shook his head. “Too hard to say for sure. Between one and nine probable contacts. The satellite only spotted them by chance because they passed in front of a tendril of the Thaxitoran Nebula. Unable to say more without going active.”

Blackfeather considered the plot on the screen. The direction was strange. Most ships, even pirates, came in on a roughly straight line from their destination, unless they were actively expecting trouble. He did a bit of quick math in his head. There wasn’t anything in that direction for almost four months at their maximum hyperspace speed, and no Gateways connecting them. It was only because the Admiral knew the value of coming in off the expected vectors, and had budget to burn, that the sensors had been extended into that area of space. His paranoia paid off, it seems.

“Contact Madrigal Base, let them know, quietly, what we’re facing. And contact Vice Admiral Vakrana. Let her know our status, and that we are moving to check it out. Tell the squadron to spread out, maximum coverage on the passive sensors. Anyone who gets a probable contact is to light it up with active scanners, and drop a tarpit to keep it from escaping.”

He paused, looking over the plot. There were several civilian vessels in the system, as part of normal in-system and intersystem trade. If these were pirates, they’d be looking for… there! A pair of freighters heading on a course that would take them not far from the projected trajectory of the stealth ships. The freighters were closer to them than they were to the contacts, too. He sent his numbers to tactical, and they confirmed the possible intercept times. Sending the course to the helmsman, he said, “Helm, put us on an intercept course in front of those freighters, stealth approach. If these are pirates, I don’t want to scare them off before we can get them under our guns. If these are something more, then I want to see them before they see us.”

A few minutes after they were set on course, the comms officer looked up from his console, “Captain, the Tribune is launching fighters. Shadow Squadron’s Raptors are scrambling now. They will jump behind the contacts’ track, and see if they can’t stir them up somehow. Green Blade’s Thunderbolts and Wrathspeaker’s Dragons will exit the asteroid field and hold position until enemy force and strength is identified. Admiral Vakrana is giving you tactical command while she prepares the rest of the fleet to mobilize if necessary, and informs Command.”

Blackfeather nodded. This was probably overkill, but pirates weren’t the only danger to face ships in space. The X’thari had started becoming active again, after the hellacious beating they’d taken at Nuevo Edo. It was better to have a ‘surprise drill’ that went nowhere, than to find yourself caught with your ships in port and unable to defend themselves.

He kept his eyes locked on the sensor data. There, for an instant, the energy signature of Shadow’s interceptors entering and exiting hyperspace in an in-system jump, coming out behind where the contacts had been spotted, before returning to stealth. He waited, looking along the projected track, as he considered how much longer until the light caught up to the stealth ships, letting passive sensors know what had happened…

“THERE!” He pointed at the plot, as eight X’thari raiders suddenly appeared on screen. They were the smaller scout ships, and they had split into two groups, one of six and one of two, with the two hanging far back from the first group, almost inside range of the interceptors. Shields came up, and active sensors blared, lighting them up for the X’thari to find them.

“Shields up! Tarpits active! Get us in range of the group of six. Comms, tell Green Blade and Wrathspeaker to take the stragglers first, and don’t let them get away! We’ll still be here when they are done, but Shadow will get mauled if they have to fight fair against those scouts!”

“Aye, Captain!”

“Weapons, I want everything up and ready to go! Fire the primaries if you have a shot at close range. We won’t get them standing still long enough for ballistics to hit them except by luck until we get to that range. Not with those ships’ speed and agility.”

He looked to the comms officer. “Inform the squadron that ‘Eagle’ is in effect. Atlanta will form point for the Assassins, weapons at their discretion, but remind Captain Glavine that we don’t want any of those primary weapon shots going wild. Reaper’s Blade will attack head on, and attempt to sucker as many of them in as we can so the assassins can pick them off.”

He paused, looking at the plot as ships moved into tracks to intercept and begin the fight. It looked like the X’thari were caught unawares by the Raptors dropping in behind them. But why only eight targets? Something wasn’t right here. “Go live with the active sensors on the perimeter satellites. If they find anything, Shadow is to terminate with prejudice. The others can take care of two scouts, easy.”

Active scanners went off, and, sure enough, there was a new contact. The ninth Raider was hanging outside the heliopause, and above the ecliptic. It was just sitting there, watching. “JAMMERS! I DON’T WANT ANY TRANSMISSIONS GETTING OUT OF THIS SYSTEM! HAVE SHADOW KILL THAT SHIP NOW!”

Things began happening rapidly. As Shadow squadron turned to warp towards the new contact, the two scouts were coming into weapons range of them. Just before they launched, the Thunderbolts and Dragons of Green Blade and Wrathspeaker squadrons dropped out of hyperspace directly astern of the two scouts. It only took a single Dragonsbreath torpedo each to destroy the scouts. The next moment, the Raptors were in range of the last scout ship, their weaker missiles not having the same level of power as a Dragonsbreath torpedo, but numbers were not on the X’thari’s side, especially with their shields only starting to come online as they secured from stealth.

And then the six on four dance between warships started. Two X’thari ships were taken out by point blank shots from the massive rail guns aboard the Reaper’s Blade and Antietam. Two more were battered by more conventional weapons, as the ships closed into what was essentially knife range. The Black Star ships did not get off without a scratch either, as a lucky hit punched through Dunkirk’s shields and holed her side, taking out main power, along with most of her engineering crew. It was only because Atlanta was there in an instant to cover the wounded Assassin that the X’thari didn’t take her out completely.

Three squadrons of fighters dropped in on the remaining X’thari, pinning them between Reaper’s Blade’s guns and Green Blade’s missiles. Ten minutes after the first shot was fired, the battle was over. Not a single X’thari ship survived, having all been destroyed, or self-destructing when their engines were disabled. Other than Dunkirk, the rest of the casualties were light, with the other ships taking minor damage, and only two fighters having been damaged badly enough that their pilots were forced to eject, but they had good signals on them, so they could be recovered.

“All ships, stand down. Damage control teams, get to work. Launch shuttles to do Search and Rescue for those pilots. Drop jamming.”

“Captain, Admiral Vakrana is calling.”

“On screen.”

The screen lit up, showing the knelfi woman wearing a slave collar over her Black Star Navy uniform. Slave Vice-Admiral Essaerae Vakrana was one of the Jagloth group, and had been promoted after the Civil War business. In other circumstances, Blackfeather might have smarted at taking orders from a slave, but Black Star was a unique organization Slave or free meant nothing if you didn’t have the skills for the job. She had proven her worth.

Vakrana got straight to the point. “Good work, Captain. Smart thinking on using the active sensors to catch the last ship outside the system.”

“Thank you, Ma’am. It seemed like the logical course, given the reconnaissance efforts that the raiders have been doing lately. If they were looking for more news of Black Stars, somewhere that they could attack without being slaughtered, like at Nuevo Edo, then they would have had to have people outside the engagement area, ready to get any information they could out, if the rest of the group were destroyed.”

“Yes, and I concur. Return to base, Captain. The gunboats will run system patrol for the moment, while we look to Dunkirk’s repairs and getting a full debrief. I’m passing this information on to higher. I want a system defense plan in place in case they decide to return. Madrigal is no Nuevo Edo. We might hold the base indefinitely until they reduce it to scrap, but that would leave the rest of the system open to attack.”

“Understood, Ma’am.”

(Confederate Navy Liaison Office, Madrigal Base, Madrigal System)

Lieutenant Wynrie sighed. They called this a ‘Liaison Office’, but it was basically just her, and her two staff members (a most welcome concession by the Black Star CEO). They were officially a liaison between the Confederate and Black Star navies, but everyone knew she was Naval Intelligence. An ‘open spy’, in other words. That limited her effectiveness, but made her a vital semi-official backchannel way for the two navies to pass information between each other, outside of the gaze of politicians or the press.

Which is why a copy of a report from Slave Vice Admiral Vakrana had just been ‘accidentally’ diverted to her desk. The X’thari had launched a probing raid on the system, and been soundly beaten, losing all their scouts, but it was clear that they were stepping up their attempts to find Black Star in more vulnerable positions than they had been at Nuevo Edo. They might not know Black Star’s name, but they had to know a new group with new technology was changing the playing field.

And X’thari didn’t like it when people changed the playing field on them.

(Medical Center, Starborn City, Star’s Reach)

Lukkud Smeltstone groaned, and reached down to grab the sides of the medical table where Nomads typically respawned. Generally, if you got killed in the game, you respawned in the medical center of the last ship or planet you visited. There were exceptions to that, of course. You could designate a certain medical center to be your primary, and you’d go there when you respawned, if the ship was within reach. That was something like the distance between Earth and the Moon. Or, if you set foot on a planet that didn’t have a medical center, you would respawn somewhere close to your landing site if there wasn’t an acceptable medical facility in orbit.

None of that information, however, helped keep the room from spinning as he tried to get to his feet. He’d only ‘died’ a couple times in the game, but the ‘respawn sickness’, as people were calling it on the forums, hit him like a truck every time. It would pass in a couple minutes, but at the moment, he could barely see straight, much less carry on a conversation.

You have been found guilty of trespass against local institutions, and have been sentenced to judicial enslavement. You are now property of the Black Star Company.

New Title Gained!

Slave

Some people have all the luck. You are not one of those people. You have lost your freedom, and are now a slave. But hey, at least anyone attacking you without permission of your owner risks being brought up on charges of vandalism.

All Reputations reset to 0.

All bank accounts, properties, and interests transferred to owner.

As a Nomad, your collar will respawn with you after death.

Stepford Defiance Slave Collar

Type

Neck

Rank

Common

This piece of hardware has been graciously gifted to you by someone who simply won’t take no for an answer. Not that you’ll be able to say no anymore, since this collar will make sure that you are properly compliant and respectful to your new owner.

+10% Mental Psy Resistance

Slave Collar – Contains standard tracking systems, registered with Slaver’s Guild. Unable to attack owner. Allows owner to monitor slave’s biometrics and location. Includes microphone and camera for monitoring working conditions.

Defiance – Administers painful electric shocks ranging from ‘uncomfortable’ to ‘debilitating’ and even ‘deadly’.

Stepford Protocols – This collar allows the owner or authorized users to subvert the wearer’s original personality, even tailoring a new personality to their tastes. Wearer retains the use of their skills and abilities.

Which is why he didn’t notice the collar until it was already around his neck. Eyes suddenly wide, he looked around, and noticed that the crew of the Logsplitter was already there, and they were wearing collars like he was. There were technicians in the room, dressed in white. THERE! Lukkud’s eyes grew wide as he saw the pompous ass that was in charge of Black Star, with his harem of floozies.

“WHAT THE HELL IS THE MEANING OF THIS?”

The owner simply hit a button on his tablet, and suddenly Lukkud had bigger problems than figuring out what was going on. The electric shocks running through his body hurt like hell, and he heard screaming as he fell to the floor. It took him a second to realize that he was the one screaming.

And then there was release. Blessed release. “Now that I have your attention, slave. You will keep a civil tongue in your head, or you will experience pain, and then have the Stepford protocols turned on. Under the laws of Star’s Reach, the highest judicial authority ordered you to leave the system under threat of enslavement. You were not given leave to return to Star’s Reach, and, so, you are deemed to be trespassing. You, and these others who were added to the Black List, are now property of the Black Star Company for your crimes.”

“You can’t do this! We wer—aAAGUH!” This shock was not as bad as the first one, but it still shut him up fast, and nearly caused him to bite his tongue off. Lukkud glared at the smug bastard.

“You will address me as Master if you must speak. As for whether of not I can do this, I can assure you that I can, and have. My law is absolute in Star’s Reach. Play nice, and don’t cause trouble, and you’ll find it just as ‘free’ as any independent settlement or free port can be, but less hazardous to your health. Break the rules, make yourself a problem to the company, or even just acting like a spoiled brat to company officers? Then your life is going to be a lesson to teach others on why they should follow the rules.”

The bastard paused, looking down at him, and then said, “Now, if you can be respectful, I will allow you to speak.”

Lukkud grit his teeth, forcing himself to be polite, even though he wanted to rip this bastard’s spine out his ass. “We did not come back here on purpose! Our ships were attacked after we left the system. You can’t blame us for where we respawned!”

The asshole sighed dramatically, and Lukkud winced as another small jolt hit his system. “You will address me as Master when you speak. Now, your respawn point is of no concern to Star’s Reach. Likewise, the fact that your ships were attacked outside of our space is none of our concern. You did not purchase a protection plan for the transit, and the Black Star Navy has not been tasked with patrolling those routes. It would be a gross misuse of power if I were to condemn people for things they did outside my jurisdiction unless there was a contract in place that I was acting on as a mercenary leader.”

One of the women near him raised one hand to her ear, a sign that she was receiving a transmission of some kind. “Sir, the sensor net has detected the Eternity of Pain returning to the system.”

“Oh, excellent. I wondered where they had run off to. I’m glad the Chaos Brigade isn’t going to be stranded here while they run through the raid tier dungeon. Assign them the same orbital slot, and send word to their people on the ground that the ship has returned.”

The woman nodded, and the bastard, his ‘Master’ turned back to face Lukkud. “Now, as I was saying, you have all been found guilty of crimes against Star’s Reach, and shall be added to the work force for a term of no less than twelve months. The guards outside will escort you to the work allocation center, where we’ll determine what tasks you’ll be best suited for. As a reminder, if you fail to perform at your tasks, your Stepford protocols will be turned on. Work hard, and you may earn promotions, or even early release. Guards! Take them away.”

(Owner’s Suite, Obsidian Star Hotel, Starborn, Star’s Reach)

After the ‘fun’ of dealing with those asshole Nomads who thought they could just bluster their way in here and make demands of me, or set up their own settlement without my permission, I went back to work. I was, after all, a CEO and an Admiral, so I had a lot of paperwork to do, even if Raven took care of a lot of it for me. If I let things go too long, then bad shit could happen.

Of course, just because Raven and I were working didn’t mean everyone was working. Cali and Jaynie had convinced the others to have a ‘girl’s night’ in the living room, complete with chick flicks and snacks and all the rest. I pointedly excused myself to the office, and left them to it. It was good for the girls to have some time for themselves, so they didn’t feel like they were only existing for my whims.

“Admiral, a report just came in from Madrigal Base. A group of X’thari raiders was spotted and destroyed in the Madrigal system. One of the raiders may have gotten a partial dispatch out before they were destroyed. If so, this would be the first time since Nuevo Edo that the X’thari have come up against our ships.”

“Have the Confeds been informed?”

“Unofficially, sir. Vice Admiral Vakrana arranged for a copy of her after action report to fall on the desk of the ‘liaison’ you allowed Naval Intelligence to place there. So things should be moving through their chain of command.”

I nodded, half listening as I read over the report of the battle itself. “Good. That is half the reason we allowed the spy to be there, so they could report through backchannels, and as a concession to keep them from trying to send more spies. Also, make a note in Vakrana’s file commending her for passing tactical command to the captain in thee field while her ships were made ready. That was the right call, but it isn’t one many officers would willingly make in the heat of battle, since it would open them up to accusations of cowardice or the like.”

“Understood, Admiral.” Raven began making notes while I continued looking over the report. So far, the X’thari had been launching raids across Known Space, almost certainly trying to figure out what had happened to their Hunt at Nuevo Edo. They weren’t fools enough to go poking their heads into that trap again unless they had better information. The intel analysts agreed that this was a probe to try and figure out who had the tech, and what its abilities were.

“Raven, what is the status on Heartseeker?”

“The scout ship transitioned out of the Amazon system two weeks ago, beginning their series of scouting runs using the X’thari Anchor Drives installed on their ship. They have, it appears, gone for a stealth approach.” I raised an eyebrow to look at her, and she continued, “As X’thari raiders typically do, they used the Amazon Gateway to anchor the drive, allowing them to emerge significantly outside the first system they are going to check out. Not wishing to emerge into a swarm of angry X’thari, they are being cautious. If all goes well, they should have cleared the system just under an hour ago, and begun setting up their jump for the next target.”

So far, so good, then. While it would be nice if the X’thari just happened to have their home world, if they had one, in the first system Heartseeker visited, that was a foolish idea if he ever heard one. While the slowness of this approach annoyed him, he made a point of confirming his support for the Heartseeker’s actions so far. This was a marathon, not a sprint. Running ahead wouldn’t do them any good if the scout ship was destroyed by the X’thari before it could even report on the systems it charted. That was the whole reason they weren’t using the Gateways directly, after all.

If the X’thari came in force, things would get… dicey. Fourth group had only a fraction of the ships that had been at Nuevo Edo. He didn’t like the idea of just hoping that the raiders came with fewer ships. Problem was that most of Second Group was committed to anti-piracy efforts throughout the Confederacy’s core worlds. Fifth Group was tied down at Nuevo Edo, and they still hadn’t built up Star’s Reach to the point where it could fend for itself, so they needed First and Third Groups here. And Black Star had a private contract with the Madrigal system government to help provide security, so they couldn’t leave the planet to its fate. Not that he would have ordered them to do that in the first place.

No, somehow, they needed to reinforce Madrigal Base. It would have to be done quickly, too. Hmm. There weren’t any big ships they could send, but perhaps something simpler? They had plenty of Dragonsbreath torpedoes… Yeah, that could work.

“Raven, go over the design I’m sending you, work out any obvious flaws, and send it to Vakrana, along with orders to deploy her ships as she sees fit for defense of the planet and the base.”

With any luck that would give the Vice Admiral options on how to deploy her ships.

(Virtual Room in NERV HQ)

Isaac looked around his control room with pride. The place was a madhouse of activity, but it was only chaos to the untrained eye. Everyone knew their jobs, and was working like parts of a well-oiled machine.

Next to him, Morgan shook her head slightly as she viewed reports on her virtual tablet. “Well, most of the complaints from the Chaos Brigade’s actions at the megadungeon have cooled off. We confirmed no hacks or game infractions were committed, and the sneaky bastard in charge actually negotiated with the local government for a ‘timed exclusive’, and rights to enforce it, so they are clear on that front, too. We’ve put a forum post up explaining the situation, so while people aren’t happy, they’ve turned to bitching about the Chaos brigade throwing their weight around, rather than saying they were cheating somehow.”

Isaac nodded. “That isn’t going to be viable in the long term, of course. The AI have any suggestions on how to discourage that behavior in the future?”

“Well, it depends on the system. That system’s governor was already incredibly corrupt, so it was easy to trade a bribe for his writ letting Chaos Brigade do what it wanted. The AI has already twigged a member of one of the oversight groups in the Empire’s bureaucracy, causing a complaint that had originally been quashed by the local government to ‘accidentally’ get routed to higher authority instead, and the ball has been started rolling on getting that official out of his job. Less corrupt officials might not let things get to that point, of course.”

“Fine, that will work. I’ll have a developer post put up on the forums so people will quit bitching as much. Make it be a part of the ‘living world’, and let them know that if they aren’t getting traction there are other ways to do things.”

Morgan nodded. “Of course, the bitching about Star’s Reach has already begun. First with the Black Stars claiming a whole system, including the Gateway, as well as a dungeon. But one of the exploration and production guilds from the Gauz side of things has issued formal complaints about what Mollen’s been doing.”

Isaac looked over at her. “Really? What did he do this time? I haven’t been keeping up with his stuff, what with everything going on towards Coldana Prime.”

“Well, it seems that this small guild decided to take offense that they weren’t being allowed to claim land on Black Star’s planet for an independent settlement without dealing with the official taxes and everything. They then proceeded to get belligerent with the people running his licensing bureau, which caused Mollen to get involved. He informed the guild that, as the supreme authority within Star’s Reach, their whole guild was banished from Star’s Reach, and they had an hour to get to their ships and another hour to be out of the system. And he wouldn’t let them use the Gateway to leave. If they weren’t gone by the time limit, or they returned after the limit was up, they’d be enslaved or killed.”

Isaac nodded. “Harsh, but not completely out of line, and certainly within the realms of what he is allowed to do.”

Morgan grinned like a cat who caught the canary. “Then, he got in touch with the leader of the Chaos Brigade, since the guild was on the planet to run the dungeon, and their warship was in orbit. Unlike the Gauz, the Chaos Brigade did just as they were told, so they’ve had no problems with the locals, and they’ve been on the forums talking up Star’s Reach. Well, it seems Mollen told the leader of the Brigade that he would allow their warship to break orbit, and follow the Gauz out of the system, and that anything which happened outside of Star’s Reach space to unaffiliated parties was not his problem or concern unless someone was paying him to care.”

“Oh, he didn’t!”

“He did. So the Eternity of Pain catches up with the freighters the Gauz were using, and takes them out. Two-thirds of the guild was killed in the attack, with the remainder being captured and enslaved by the Chaos Brigade. That third is likely going to be going to the cash shop to get New Character Tokens instead of waiting for the reroll period to come up. The Chaos Brigade is apparently roleplaying crazy people.”

“It is a 40K thing. I’ll explain it to you later. So what about the ones who died?”

“Well, their ships were all destroyed, so they respawned at the medical center of the last planet they visited, Star’s Reach. And they were promptly enslaved one by one as they respawned, being charged with trespassing, and judicially enslaved for twelve in-game months.”

Isaac winced. “Brutal. And the full scope of what Mollen did should come up on the stream, right? Yeah, I can see all kinds of people getting their panties in a wad over that. Seems to be a definite ‘play by the rules, or suffer’ theme going on there.” He shook his head as he sighed. “Still, it could be worse. It isn’t like those Nomads will be dealing with the Coldana Prime situation.”

Morgan perked at that. “So, what is happening at Coldana Prime?”

Isaac sighed. “The X’thari are moving. There seem to be different factions with different goals, but the AI tells me they’re all basically looking for the source of the tech that defeated them at Nuevo Edo. We have three main groups so far. The first two are doing commerce raiding and reconnaissance efforts in the Terran Empire and the border between the Confederation and the Alliance. They’re mostly small ships in groups of three, six, or nine, scouting areas for the mystery tech. They don’t know what they’re looking for, but they know humans were on Nuevo Edo, so they’re looking at places with a bunch of humans.”

“What about the third group? What are they doing?”

“That’s where things get tricky. The initial scout at Nuevo Edo took on a Gauz freighter just before they got discovered and destroyed, so the third group is following that lead back to the Gauz Consortium. Unfortunately, the leader behind that group is more hawkish than the others to begin with, so he has turned this into a full assault. There’s two systems his ships looked to be aiming at, Coldana and Shadowgate.”

He paused, and then said, “They tried to move on Shadowgate, but somehow they blocked the Anchor drive from allowing them to drop in on the system, or anywhere within a week’s travel from Shadowgate. That’s some major tech, there.”

“I’ll say! Is this related to how they keep ships from going through the Gateway?”

“Apparently, yes. So the X’thari decided that wasn’t a nut they wanted to try cracking at this time, and they turned their attention to Coldana. Unfortunately for the Consortium, Coldana is nothing like Shadowgate. There’s been a couple small skirmishes, and the locals are frantically calling for reinforcement. Long range scans showed they brought a Harvester.”

“Well, Coldana’s fucked, then.”

“Yeah, seems like. But expect whining players to be sending complaints when it goes down.”

Morgan laughed. “When aren’t players whining about something? At least this is something that matters, in game, instead of complaining about drop rates in dungeons.”

“True, true.”