LOCATION: OUTSIDE OORT CLOUD

  SYSTEM: WOLF 1061

  DATE: 2400

  Harlow waited nearly a full light day outside of the system with his fleet. It hadn’t taken long to solidate his power ba Haven. Everyone had seen what he did to his own parents, and they respected power.

  He didn’t let his new subjects idle about though. Any ship with FTL was ordered to reinforce his other fleets. Today was the day he would take the step to increase the size of his empire.

  “Is everyone ready?” he demanded from his hrone aboard Harlow’s Might.

  “Yes, Emperor,” the man bowed.

  Harlow grinned widely at the itle and the respect it garnered. He would no longer have to fight over scraps from his family, everything was now his to cim. As soon as the STO took the bait, it would be time.

  He went over the pn in his head o time. A group of his weaker ships had already jumped into the system to harass the spaes. It was a rge enough group to provoke a response from the STO fleet statiohere but ne enough to scare them off. The STO fleet would give chase like they had been doing for the st few months. When his people pulled the STO into an open jump corridor, his people would jump out without engaging.

  The only reason this pn would work is because he had been ditioning the STO to respond this way every few days. The spies he had in the system had reyed their respoh before and after his people left. It was always the same. Once his people jumped out, the STO would flip around and start decelerating back to their patrol route.

  “Jump tacts, Sir!” the sensor operator shouted in glee.

  Harlow grinned. “Start the tdown ahe ships that just jumped in to swing around but not to decelerate.”

  His people went about their tasks with rabid fervor. And who could bme them? The system they were going to hit might not be a core world, but it was a rie. If everythi well today, it would be ripe for the pig.

  “Jumping!” the pilot yelled.

  The jump from a light day out took hardly any time at all and when they came out, they were practically on top of the STO fleet as far as stelr distances went. He didn’t o give any orders, his people had already been told what to do. As soon as their sensot a firing solution, missiles and railgun darts fired from every single ship in his fleet.

  The STO ships were caught at a near-dead stop as he had timed his jump to cide with their velocity having been nearly celed out as they attempted to return to their patrol route.

  Even though he caught them ft-footed, the STO ships fired their maneuvering thrusters to try and aheir vulnerable engiions away from the ining fire. It wasn’t fast enough to save them all though.

  Railgun darts puhrough the engines of half the ships iO line, sending the vessels jerking wildly as their ines sent them off course. Then the missiles arrived, detonating nearby as the enemy fleet failed to orient their point defense ons in time. Three of the STO ships bleart as they were struck by multiple missiles but the rest were turning to engage.

  That was when Harlow ordered the psma missiles fired. The ons were unched from the ship and lit off their drives almost immediately as they locked onto their targets. Sihe STO ships were moving so slowly, they had no aneuver out of the way as the projectiles turned into miniature suns that fshed through vessels oer the other.

  Eight more STO ships drifted aimlessly after that attack, leaving only two ships remaining. They tried to flee but there was no ce as the rest of his fleet pouhem with a hail un darts. One of the ships lost tai and Harlow watched in glee as the back half of the vessel bubbled away into spa an orb of expanding molteal.

  “Report!” he demanded as he pulled his gaze away from the holo dispy that showed the fight.

  “One of the older frigates lost power, and the crew is likely dead, Your Majesty.”

  “And Harlow’s Might?” he demanded, not g about the dregs of his fleet.

  “Minor armor damage from return fire.”

  It had been an overwhelming victory and his dreadnaught had once again shown it was the undisputed powerhouse otlefield.

  “Tell the rest of the fleet to put some more holes in those disabled ships, thehem to go wild. It's time to celebrate!”

  The crew roared in approval and Harlow ordered his fgship deeper into the system so they could finally cim the phe other ships jumped ba to join the festivities not long after the initial fight had ended.

  Those ships joined him as they approached the p. Already he could see people trying to flee the system as ships desperately exited the atmosphere while others were pushing their drives as fast as they would go to make it to the jump point. The corvettes that had apanied him zipped oo disable or destroy those ships before they could clear the gravity well. They wouldn’t get them all, but that was fine.

  They soon caught and disabled the majority of the vessels as they all streamed for the designated jump point. It was like shooting fish in a barrel and he was gd that most people were too ignorant tram alternate jump points on their own. He had to thank the STO for f standardized jump points, it made hunting down ships so much easier.

  The p had some orbital defenses, but Harlow’s people picked them off oer the other. The STO relied too heavily on missile defenses around their ps, and the few Gauss ons they had in pce were quickly destroyed before they could do any signifit damage. As for the missiles, they couldn’t get past the jammironic termeasures, and PDC fire to do anything.

  The orbital defenses were never meant to fun without a fleet as backup, and he had ered that possibility.

  “Open a el to the p, all bands.”

  The sensor operator nodded and poio him when it was ready.

  “People of Poltaryov, you are now free from the oppression of the STO. I am Emperor Harlow Anazi the First and I graciously extend you this offer to join my burgeoning empire.”

  “Emperor, we are receiving a response from the pary governor.”

  He nodded for the man to put it on the holo.

  An older man with gray hair at his temples popped up on the dispy. “We reject your offer, and you go to hell, you pirate scum!” The man ehe call after that, leaving the bridge deathly quiet as Harlow did his best not to ugh.

  “Did you pinpoint the location of the transmission?”

  “Yes, Emperor,” the unications person replied.

  “Let's send the man a gift, perhaps that will make the rest of them more amenable?”

  Most of the people on the bridge didn’t seem to get the joke, but his sed-in-and did. The man chuckled darkly, “It will be done.”

  Less than a mier, a single missile fired out from the front of Harlow’s Might and streaked toward the surface of Poltaryov. There was a fsh that bahe night on that side of the p before a mushroom cloud boiled itself into the cloud yer.

  The STO may not see a o use nuclear ons, but Harlow had no puns about gssiire cities to get the popution under trol. And thanks to seg his parent's enrit facilities, he now had more of the ons than he could ever need.

  It wasn’t long before some low-level adjunct tacted him from the surfad surrehe p. It seemed anyone higher up was too busy hiding or beio respond. A pity really, Harlow would have liked to have taught them a lesson in person but he was a busy man and an Emperor now, there were others to get their hands dirty.

  Simir attacks took pce at four other systems where the STO had fleet presences. Not all of them were as devastating for the STO as Harlow’s ambush, but the STO suffered heavy losses with eater, so they were forced to pull bad abandon each of those systems, expanding Harlow’s empire yet again.

  ***

  LOCATION: FLEET HEADQUARTERS

  SYSTEM: SOL

  “Expin to me how a mob of unruly pirates mao take four more systems aroy over twenty-five ships, Admiral Clement. And it better be good.”

  Clement ched his jaw to prevent himself from saying what he wao say to the STO Chairman. The man was obviously looking to pin the bme on this colossal screw-up on aher than himself. Clement knew he was already on thin ice, rog the boat would likely get him a military tribunal instead of just a dishonorable discharge. So he decided to respond as diplomatically as possible.

  “There was no indication that Harlow had these sorts of resources avaible to him.” This was true, and also a major miss by the intelligence people.

  “No indication?” the Chairman’s hologram replied casually as it tapped its fingers on the surface of some invisible desk. “Am I meant to believe that our intelligence services are so utterly inpetent that they could not find a sihread of evidehat led to this monstrosity!” the man’s words peaked in volume toward the end as he gestured to the enormous ship captured iill frame that floated between them.

  Unfortunately, Clement had no respoo that accusation, so he remained silent, which seemed to ahe Chairman even more.

  “You are officially relieved of duty, Clement. You will remain where you are until the judiciary ittee determine if your as were simply gross inpetence or treason. You best hope they don’t have reason to believe treason. We are at war, Clement, and there is only one punishment for traitors during wartime. Now, get out of my sight, you disgust me.”

  Now that the Chairman had found someone he could pin the bme on, it was vely a war. He really despised politis and everything they stood for.

  Without another word, Clement nodded ahe room. The oute was much as he expected when he first got the news of the attack. He didn’t know which Admiral would repce him and he didn’t particurly care. The STO had turned into a cesspool, so it would likely be some bootlicker of the Chairman or the mega-corporations.

  He was gd he warned Fletcher before this meeting sihey were likely monit all his unications now. Vice Admiral Fletcher was likely the on the chopping block si was his department that had missed this critical information. Then again, the man was much better at the whole political wrangling tha had ever been so he might somehow survive.

  Clement didn’t bme Fletcher and his people for the miss, space was impossibly huge, and the STO’s budget wasn’t endless, so they did what they could with what they had.

  Even though this devastating attack was awful and tragic, maybe it was what the STO o finally take the pirate threat seriously, like he had been campaigning from the start. If not, he suspected Harlow was going to tinue annexing systems until he started to do some real damage and the corporations had to get involved.