LOCATION: ASGARD

  SYSTEM: YGGDRASIL’S EYE

  DATE: 2399

  “How bad is it?” she asked as she walked o her main engineer.

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

  “Praise the All-Father,” she responded automatically.

  “The armor is sgged across a signifit portion of the Valkyrie’s port side. We run with it, but I would like to repce it as soon as we . The only major I have is the port thruster. A missile from that stealth ship got a little too close. The ehruster will o be repced.”

  She groueeth, not at the damage, but at the damn ship that had appeared from out of o strike her fleet without warning. “What do we know about this mystery ship?”

  The man scratched his beard. “Some of the men think it beloo the people who took trol of the p…”

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

  “I looked over the senss. While it was true they both used sers, they were not the same wavelength. The STO standard missiles from our stealthy friend are also a pretty clear indicator of who that ship beloo. I’ve seen enough senss over the years to tell you that much.”

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

  “Not that I’ve heard,” the man grunted. “That’s something for a Loki to figure out,” the man spit on the de obvious disgust when he suggested that.

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

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

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

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

  Calling off the attack was going to e least one of the Jarls challenged her for leadership. She would wele a challenge from someone ihe over an attack from outside though. Katalynn o prove she was strong enough to lead, and after this disaster, she couldn’t say she was. If there was someoronger, may they seo the feasting hall at Odin’s side.

  ***

  LOCATION: STO NAVAL HEADQUARTERS

  SYSTEM: SOL

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

  Fletcher o aowledge the man before turning back to the hologram he eaking with. “Governor, if you’ll excuse me?”

  “For now, Vice Admiral,” the man spoke in annoyance, “but we aren’t done discussing this.”

  The hologram flickered out and Fletcher wao roll his eyes at the man’s decration. The Pary Governanos was the leader of the STO appropriations ittee. A pompous windbag of a man who liked hearing himself speak more thaually got anything done.

  And like every previous appropriations ittee leader before him, the man thought he could earn some political standing by redug overspending in the Navy. They always targeted the bck ops department first sihere was little the department could show for their spending, being top secret and all. Ae their rank as a Pary Governor, they did not have the security clearao know what that part of the Navy Intelligence Department did. It was that ck of ht that irked them, but Vice Admiral Fletcher had dealt with his kind for over two decades so this was nothing new.

  He turo the senior analyst and wished he could thank the man for his timely interruption. “What do you have for me?” he asked.

  The man cleared his throat before responding. “Captain Krieger missed his st che.”

  Fletcher’s slight smile was strai hearing that. Krieger was a bit of a loose on, but the man wouldn’t miss a che unless he had a good reason. “How long are they overdue?”

  “A little over a week, Sir.”

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

  If he was following a lead or one of his other standing orders, that could expin his absehe ship’s inal purpose was to seek out the Shi and see what they were up to. Fletcher hoped for the best but prepared for the worst. “Are any of the other Erebus css ships near where Captain Krieger erating?” The most important thing Fletcher had learned in his long career iO Navy was to always have a backup pn. Those peo ships under his and. Instead of building one of the very expensive ships, they built five of the Erebus css stealth ships.

  “Alpha’s Sunrise aa’s Twilight are monit the movements of Harlow’s fleets. Gamma’s Dusk is still out on its patrol.”

  The ship names were stupid, but they were desighat way in order to obfuscate their importance. As for the patrol, the analyst was referring to, that was the search for the Shi. Dusk was also tasked to find out where the unknown ship, which they used to reverse ehe tech used in the Erebus css ships, might have inated from. That was a risk, sidering the STO’s policy to avoid Aliens, especially ohat might be teologically superior to humanity. The politis could pretend the problem did, but Fletcher couldn’t afford to stick his head in the sand and hope alie humanity alone. He preferred to at least know where threats were located so they couldn’t surprise them.

  That only left one Erebus css ship. “Where is the Delta’s Eclipse?”

  “They are monit the bck market trade ing from Epsilon Indi.”

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

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

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

  He khe existence of the stealth ships would bee known in time, but he preferred to keep that informatio as long as possible.

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

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

  ***

  LOCATION: HAVEN

  SYSTEM: HAVEN

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

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

  He smiled as he reized two of the ships. “Hail my parents.”

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

  “Harlow,” his mother said ftly. “Finally gathered the ce to stake your cim? Or are you here to finally bow like a good son?”

  His father scoffed. “sidering how poorly his little war is going, he’s probably here to beg for our help. Go on boy, beg! I might eve you live after vioting the one rule we had. Don’t kill the golden goose. Your pathetic little attempt at carving out a kingdom has stopped all trade in our area of spad cost us billions.”

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

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

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

  “Quit your p, boy,” his father cut in. “We both know why you’re here. May the wiake it all.” With that decration, his parents cut their e.

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

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

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

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

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

  “Open fire with the main guns,” he ordered.

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

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

  Most of the ons smmed into their inteargets, damaging or ht destroying the smaller ships. He wao reduce their overall point defense ce before the missiles arrived, and it seemed it had worked.

  The opposing missiles fshed past each other and soon lit off their respective drives. Uhe ventional missiles fired by his family, there were a few special missiles in Harlow’s arsenal.

  As the regur missiles accelerated toward the fleets, the other missiles tio coast in. As soon as the other missiles were engaged, his neons activated.

  These new missiles were the result of a decade of forced research from his most prized engineer sves. They were much rger than a normal missile, which required their own dedicated unch tube. Harlow’s Might had four of these tubes along with twelve regur missile tubes. The ons activated their scaled-down fusioor and zipped to their target before the ships could react to their presence. As soon as the ons reached a certain distahe reactor onboard each was flooded with all of the remaining fuel and the tai field was disabled.

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

  The new psma missiles were eously expeo manufacture, but he o make a statement here. And it seemed it had worked.

  The remaining ships were signaling their surrender.

  His fleet hadn’t taken a si, all of the ining missiles had been shot down well befetting close, and his family hadn’t even had the ce to fire their autoons.

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

  ***

  LOCATION: BORRUS

  SYSTEM: KAPTEYN’S STAR

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

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

  Alexander’s message said repairs were ongoing and he was making goress. Matthews’ message was a bit different.

  Captain Daniel,

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

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

  If you need any help s these items, please let me know. The Hawks have some tacts that might make purchasing them easier. To prevent multiple trips, the Talon will be avaible for ste ourn journey. I have included our ste location on Ganos where you ship items.

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

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

  Captain Matthews.

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

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

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

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

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

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

  While not all that wele, the timing of Matthews’ message was ideal. The Zephyr would finish this run and start colleg the items Alex wanted him to purchase.