Chapter 16: The Pirate Base

Beth slowly rose up to stand in front of both the groups who were seated around the usual table, waiting expectantly. She looked at Jason and started speaking. “Firstly, I would like to say how sorry I am about what happened to Razza. We saw on the surveillance in the room what was occurring, but it took us ten minutes to assemble our forces to take the building. Razza was clearly heroic, diving in front of Jason to save him from being shot. Jason your powers are singularly impressive.

“Secondly, it was fortuitous you missed Abel Satora, not because he didn’t deserve to be killed, but because he supplied us with much crucial information. He returned to his office to speak to the Coven Emissary. He arranged for the Coven to pick up their share of prisoners the pirates had incarcerated. Most importantly, he confirmed the location and identified precisely where the shuttles were to enter the complex. He asked the emissary who the prisoners were intended for and the emissary confirmed they were going to the Ghouls. Satora asked him what the Ghouls did with people and the emissary replied that they had asked that question and never received an answer. He said the Coven were puzzled themselves, because as far as they knew, the Ghouls had an independent power supply, but the Ghouls somehow used people for an arcane purpose that left the victims drained and lifeless.

“The Emissary asked about future deliveries. Satora explained he had attempted to kill Jason and had barely escaped with his own life. He explained he was now on the run but arranged with Etta Panella to destroy as much as she could. He said the building would go up with a big bang. He provided the Emissary with another contact for future purchases. He said he did not expect anyone to survive in the building.

“He then called his contact for the Dhoom. He made the same arrangements, thanked him for the equipment they provided and said it had been very useful and arranged the rendezvous. He made a time with them to accept delivery four hours after the time arranged with the Coven. He explained he was retiring and why and provided the agent with the same information as he had given the Coven. He also asked some important questions. He wanted to know why they wanted so many children and what they did with people. The agent was much more cooperative and forthcoming. He explained that there were two purposes. The Dhoom Octopi were attempting to understand how to transfer consciousness into a human form. He said they had a research facility on Earth and had preliminary success transferring their consciousness into humans. The octopus form was inconvenient and very tiring on land and as most sentient species they wished to conquer live on land, they felt it would be useful to have a different form. The integration was not easy because the other consciousness remained. He said that on Earth they were using people from the streets but had found a fertile ground in isolated institutions called mental health facilities.

“The children were useful to the Jellyfish/Slugs. The Jellyfish had an arrangement with the Slugs that was terminating and they needed another host. They felt that mammals were promising. They were attempting to modify humans so they could satisfactorily establish their alleged ‘symbiotic’ relationship but they could not do it with adults. They had been experimenting on many species in different parts of several galaxies. Humans showed the most promise. He also explained that the Dhoom had provided the technologies for growing clones and inserting crystals to the priests.

“He also threw in another interesting tidbit. He said that the Slugs/Jellyfish were terrified of the Dinosaurs. They had tried to work with them but found that they could not establish a satisfactory link. Then the Dinosaurs turned on them. He said the Dhoom and the Slug/Jellyfish related well. The Octopi felt that they had benefited enormously from new technologies and the Slug/Jellyfish felt that they were making good progress, could rely on the Octopi and work with them. He explained many Jellyfish were now in stasis waiting to be bonded to humans. Many in stasis were destroyed when the Dinosaurs saw their fleet and attacked them in the battle for Charassa.

“Abel Satora asked him how he established his relationship with the Dhoom. The agent explained that he was a merchant in his day job. He had a competitor stealing much of his business. He was approached by an intelligence officer acting on behalf of the Octopi who offered him a poison to deal with his competitor. He explained to Abel that the Octopi have an interest in poisons and they themselves produce poisons that kill their prey through the poisonous barbs located adjacent to their suckers. They and the Jellyfish/Slugs had a similar interest, as the Slugs were able to produce a variety of complex biological poisons. The agent received a poison that could not be detected by Empire technology and was able to bribe a servant of his competitor to place it in his food. He explained once the relationship was established, he was able to obtain unique products that he sold to the criminal underworld.

“We then knew where and when the Coven and the Dhoom Octopi would appear and established where the emissary and the agent for the Octopi live and are based. We also knew where the Coven were going to meet up with the Ghouls. We had confirmation of the operation on Earth. The problem was we had very little time to get ourselves organized. The Empire fleet was available, but the marine general had taken her officers to a course and they could not be back in reasonable time. General Janet Malone was very accommodating. She had up to fifty-thousand marine AIs if we needed them immediately, but she also had a million packed in the carriers and four thousand regular marines of ours and one thousand Bug marines who were on attachment. Thank heavens we had her and your fleet. You said only a small fleet remained close to us Jason but there were four battleships, eight carriers and many cruisers and destroyers and many frigates. The Empire fleet was also impressive, but was a lighter one with more cruisers, destroyers and frigates. There was also a small Bug fleet with one battleship and the usual accompanying cruisers, destroyers, and frigates,” explained Beth and then continued to describe the action.

“After Abel Satora had his conversations, we saw him open a trapdoor in his office and leave the building through an escape tunnel. He took Tania Biech with him through the hatch. She was very excited to go with him but he inexplicably killed her in the tunnel. He left the building a little after five-thirty in the afternoon an hour after you left, after confirming Etta Panella would launch her computer assault and push the button to blow up the servers when that job was completed by 7 PM. We launched an assault into the building as soon as he left and captured Etta before she was able to do irreparable damage. We found and removed a considerable amount of explosive from the building. We have found some very interesting advanced equipment which we are looking at with the Bugs as the Dhoom people have their hands on advanced and sophisticated security equipment and weapons.

“We have now inserted our people into all the government agencies and we will continue our investigations from within,” said Beth. “The next bit was where it got rough.”

“Satora flew into the pirate base after he left the building and went directly to the pirate base. The pirate leader was a real surprise to us. He was a respected captain of a heavy cruiser and after he left active service, he established a merchant business and has an impeccable reputation. Julia, he lives not far away from where you do and comes from a good family. He and Abel Satora talked very little. They had a meal and talked very briefly of future plans. No-doubt both lied about their intentions,” explained Beth, before continuing.

“We had one thousand Marines and twenty-thousand Marine AIs from your fleet along with those previously on guard on the ground. We found they had been recently rotated into service and had active experience in the battle for Charassa. That gave us an extra five thousand Marines. We recovered the original plans of the base. In fact, we went back twenty thousand years to the time that the base was built and looked at all subsequent modifications so that we could ensure that every escape route was discovered and covered. The base had potent automated defenses installed in the last fifty years which were modified again twenty years ago. Essentially everything was reasonably up-to-date.

“We are fortunate the Marines guarded the facility and were in charge of security. We acquired fifty guides from the group that had rotated out, and who had hundreds of years’ experience on the base. The marines disabled the base defenses before the attack and the guides led us directly to the only two possible locations where the captives could be held when we hit the base. We also found the site housing the escape shuttles, made sure that they were traceable identified Satora’s and inserted surveillance drones that would attach themselves to him,” said Beth before continuing.

“Meanwhile, the Coven fleet arrived and they hid near Corvana, our most distant gas giant.