Chapter 26

Somewhere in the Sagittarius Dwarf Galaxy
The Indomitables’ Ship - The Harbinger
06:00 SET (14:00 EDT)
August 16, 12610 (August 15, 2019)

Omeron didn’t know what happened. One moment he was getting ready to thrust into his sex slave, Beria, and the next he appeared in a room he recognized as the brig on The Harbinger. The largest cell, to be precise. He looked around and saw many other people, including his XO. Unembarrassed by his state of dress, he stalked over to his XO.

“What the fuck is happening?!” he bellowed.

Ghur immediately spun and recognized the captain, saluting at once.

“Enough of that! Tell me what is going on!”

Ghur quickly put his arm down. “I don’t know, captain. I was making sure everything was ready in case we needed to jump, and then suddenly I was teleported here, along most of the bridge crew.”

Just then, the communications officer ran forward, “Captain! None of us can use Mindspeak or any of our abilities!”

The captain ignored the man and scanned the room, a sinking feeling quickly taking root in the pit of his stomach. As he looked around, he realized that he recognized every single person in the cell, which is very difficult on a ship with over ten thousand crew. He had recruited them all on Kaldrus Dhir’s orders, after all.

‘Damn that man!’ he thought to himself, certain that they were somehow found out.

The Indomitables’ fleet was more powerful than many of the other nation’s fleets that bordered Scyftan space, and Dhir wanted them for his own, or more specifically, the shroud generators onboard each and every ship. With the schematics, Scyftan engineers could quickly manufacture and outfit existing ships for use in the war with The Confederation.

Omeron’s task was to get those schematics, or remove one of the many shroud generators located on the hull of the ship, but it was a task he found impossible without being found out. The schematics couldn’t be found anywhere on his ship, or any of the others his allies had checked. He couldn’t have one of the shroud generators on his ship removed and studied, either. Shrouds required every single generator to be working to hide the ship. If one of them was missing, the shroud wouldn’t activate. If a ship happened to be crippled or destroyed in combat, Xigios was very quick to have all the shroud generators removed, or the ship outright destroyed.

He knew that the only probable location of the schematics was on non-networked computers aboard Nira’s Revenge. That made it absolutely impossible to get them with Xigios’ lap dog running the security aboard his ship. He had people make many attempts, but none of them ever made it through the screening process.

“Good morning everyone, this is your captor speaking!” a female voice said, quieting everyone down. Omeron recognized the voice as belonging to Esriro Dryth. “Now, as you have probably...”

“Let us out, you bitch!”.

“Ah, Omeron Tol. No, I don’t think I’ll do that. Do you like the security measures I had put in place?” she gloated. “Even now, all your compatriots are in the process of being rounded up and teleported into the brig aboard the newer ships, or captured one by one on the older ones. We know all about your plans to assassinate Xigios and hand over the shroud schematics to Kaldrus Dhir when we finished our current contract. It wasn’t very bright to keep recordings of your dealings on a networked computer.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about!”

“No? You know, you may have succeeded with your plans if not for a new friend of mine. Her name is Abi. You might have heard about her?”

‘Abi?’ he thought. ‘I have heard that name before ... where... ‘

Esriro laughed when she saw his eyes pop open. “I see you do recognize the name. She spent over twelve hours trawling through the computers on every ship in the fleet. What would have taken me months to do, she did like that!” she said, with a clearly audible snap of the fingers.

“What are you going to do with us?!” a man at the other end of the room shouted out.

“Well... , “ Esriro started.

“None of you say a fucking thing!” Omeron demanded. “If any of you so much as says a thing, I’ll make you wish you’d never been born!”

“Oh shut up!” Esriro barked. “Abi, can you take care of him please?”

“Certainly,” a female voice replied.

Everyone in the room heard a pop, and then saw that Omeron had been teleported to the back of the room where some sort of metal bands appeared around his ankles and wrists. He was clearly trying to get free, but wasn’t having much luck. The metal bands were securely anchored to the wall behind him, and didn’t budge so much as a micrometer.

“Release me this instant!” he shouted when he realized he wouldn’t be able to get free on his own.

“I don’t think so, and I’m getting tired of your voice,” Abi said. A second later, another band appeared, covering his mouth and securing his head against the wall as well.

“Thank you, Abi. Now, I believe I was asked a question, which I’ll answer now. What we do with you will depend on what you’ve done. We know some of you were coerced, while others were all too happy to take Kaldrus Dhir’s money and work for him, doing various jobs. We also know some of you, particularly people in positions of power, have been kidnapping young women of various races to use as sex slaves, or purchased sex slaves outright. Know now that anyone who has taken part in such acts will be executed in the coming weeks. Jonuth Kidravia will not tolerate rapists or people owning slaves, and neither will I. Murderers will also get the same treatment.”

“Now, as for those of you who are guilty of lesser crimes, don’t worry, you won’t be executed. Instead, you’ll be injected with special nanites developed by Pygmaean scientists, which have done an incredibly good job of curbing crime within the Tetrarchy...”

Everyone in the room had started talking all at once when they found out what was in store for them. Many of them had heard of the Inhibitor Nanites that were developed within the last twenty years. Once inside the body, they were self-replicating and impossible to remove without specialized equipment. If someone had them injected into them, they would quickly lose the benefits from their attributes and the use of their skills.

For Scyftans, it was much worse, however. A Scyftan injected with Inhibitor Nanites would lose both the ability to Mindspeak, and the ability to shapeshift. As such, it was considered a fate worse than death by Scyftans who had been found guilty of a crime within Pygmaean space.

“I see many of you have heard of Inhibitor Nanites,” Esriro said, quieting everyone down. “Only the most grievous crimes will result in someone receiving the nanites permanently. For most of you, it might only be a few hundred years...”

The room started shouting once more, but Abi quickly put a stop to that. There were pops and then every single person in the room had the same metal band covering their mouth, as well as the bands around their wrists, which were then quickly pulled in front of them, acting like handcuffs.

“Like I said. We know some of you were coerced, and we’ll do our best to get your families and loved ones released. As for the rest of you, you made your bed. Over the next two weeks, all of you will be interrogated and then handed over to Pygmaean authorities. We can’t very well have you letting Kaldrus Dhir know what’s happened, now can we?”

Somewhere in the Sagittarius Dwarf Galaxy
The Indomitables’ Flagship - Nira’s Revenge
06:11 SET (14:11 EDT)
August 16, 12610 (August 15, 2019)

Xigios had just briefed the rest of the fleet, and was now being briefed by Abi who was using her incredible ability to process data very quickly to brief Xigios on what is happening. She was tied into the computers aboard every ship in the fleet, and thus had access to everything that was going on.

“ ... destroyers did their job perfectly. They fired from almost point blank so the bridge crew on those ships weren’t able to get the shields up in time. As we planned, the bridge was locked down, and the missiles fired were at various yields. Just enough to open the bridge up to vacuum, but not cause any collateral damage.”

“How many people have we rounded up so far?” Xigios asked.

“Three thousand, three hundred sixty-four captured. Two hundred thirteen have been killed, including those aboard the nine ships with destroyed bridges, leaving one hundred fifty-six left. Everything has been locked down and every ship has its Inhibitor active. I’m directing various squads around ships to make sure we get everyone. I calculate that we will have detained or killed the remaining criminals in approximately eight minutes.”

“Good. Is Tala on her way?”

“I’m righ’ here!” a boisterous voice sounded from behind him. He turned around, expecting to see a four foot tall Dvergr woman, but instead he saw an eight foot tall mech ducking slightly to enter the bridge. The mech looked very impressive, with the torso having her family crest embossed on it. The head had retracted, allowing him to see the red-headed woman’s smile as she stood back up to her full height.

Xigios facepalmed upon seeing her in her mech, to which she responded with a chortle.

“Did you really need to bring your mech?” he asked, walking to stand in front of her.

“Of course I did. It’s the only time I get to look down on ya!” she chuckled. “Besides, it’s faster to take me mech than it is to take me shuttle.”

Xigios couldn’t help but laugh. He always enjoyed Tala’s company.

“So how’s baby...”

“Marra!” she laughed, interrupting him. “I can’t believe ya forgot her name!”

He smiled sheepishly before Tala answering him.

“She’s doin’ what babies do; eat, sleep and poop, and not necessarily in tha’ order,” she shrugged. “So why have ya asked me over?”

“I’m sure you’ve seen the ships being towed...”

“Aye, I have. I was wonderin’ ‘bout tha’,” she interrupted.

“You heard my transmission while you were on your way over, right?” he asked. When she nodded, he continued. “A lot of the traitors were found on some of our new ships, which means we need to move our best people around. One of those ships is The Harbinger...”

Before Xigios could continue, Tala let out a whoop and rushed forward, embracing him in a bone cracking hug. One that would have done a serious amount of damage if not for his high level.

“Thank ya, thank ya, thank ya, thank ya,” she said, like a little girl who got the present she always wanted, with a few more ‘thank ya’s’ on the end.

“Can’t ... breathe... , “ he wheezed out, before she finally let him go.

Tala looked around the bridge and saw that everyone had stopped to look at her. “Back to work, all o’ ya!”

There were a few laughs around the room, but everyone listened to her and went back to doing what they were doing.

“I think you almost broke some ribs!” Xigios said, rubbing his torso.

“Ah, don’t be such a baby. I really appreciate it, though. I was royally pissed off when the doctors told me I would be bedridden for a month while I healed. It seems like it all worked out in the end, though.”

“You’re lucky I took a look at the list Esriro put together before everything happened. She almost gave command of The Harbinger to Zech Duch. Instead, he will be moving over to The Terigon, so you’ll need to transfer all your access codes to him. We’ll be jumping back to hyperspace at 09:00, so you’d better get started.”

She nodded. “Where are we goin’, anyway? Ya didn’t say in yer transmission.”

“I didn’t because there is a chance someone is able to get a warning off before we make the jump. We’ll be heading to Pygmaean space. I’ll let you and the others know more when we arrive there,” he continued, before she could interrupt him to ask why they were changing course.

Her helmet formed around her head and she half-turned to head back out the door. “Alright, I’ll get goin’ now, but tell that missy tha’ I’ll be givin’ her a paddlin’ when I see her! Not even on the list,” she grumbled.

Xigios laughed as she left, and then turned and walked back to his chair. As soon as he sat back down, Abi continued her briefing.

The Moon
Spectre Moon Base
August 15, 2019
15:02 EDT

[ ... everything went off without a hitch, ] Abi said, briefing everyone almost an hour later. [All three thousand seven hundred thirty-three traitors were captured or killed, with no injuries to anyone else, or damage to any of the ships. They’ll be ready to jump in two hours or so, and then it will take them twelve days or so to make it to Veria.]

[There wasn’t any collateral damage from the nine ships that had to have their bridges destroyed?] Gabriel asked.

[Nope. A few of the bridge crews were all traitors, while others got out just in time. Esriro was able to contact the innocent ones via Mindspeak and give them the signal to get out shortly before the missiles were launched.]

[They were very fortunate, then. What is going to happen with all the prisoners?] Tich asked.

[Well, some were coerced into working for Kaldrus Dhir, either by having their family or loved ones abducted, or having some sort of incriminating evidence held over their head. Rapists, murderers and people who participate or help facilitate the slave trade will be swiftly executed, while everyone else will have Inhibitor nanites injected, for varying amount of time. So far, thirty-seven young women of various races have been found while searching the quarters of high ranking crew members.]

[Execution is too good for those bastards, ] Alexandra spat. [What is happening with the women?]

[Esriro Dryth is taking care of them, personally. I did some searching and found that all of them were abducted from the Pygmaean Academy on Veria over the past twenty years. All of them have living family, so I will be contacting them shortly with the details. I was thinking that the Warvyn Industries Shipyard would be as good a place as any to reunite them with their family. Can you set it up, Thomas?]

[I’ll do so as soon as we’re done here. I have to contact Ercan anyways, since I said I would let him know whether or not Spectres would be sent to level up or not. He’ll be holding shuttles for them until they arrive.]

[It’s a good idea, and probably something we should have thought about sooner, ] Alexandra said looking over at Gabriel. [They’re not really needed here, and they could have been incredibly high level by now.]

[I know, I know, ] Gabriel said. [I’ll be picking out eighty teams later today, and give them all Legendary Insight Skill Gems if they don’t have the perk already. Can you hold that many, along with the dragons, Abi?]

[It won’t be a problem, there is more than enough room.]