To Hell and Back (Hellworlder pirates)

Ch15 Slavers

Slavers

Ukulah knew of only one major slave operation in Orion, and knew that the coiled strike did business with them exclusively. The operation was a thinly disguised sweat shop, the workers were all assigned fake accounts where their 'wages' were channeled into, then directly back into company accounts to throw off the tax officers. Aster's Terran instincts insisted that there must be some sort of corruption and bribery occurring there as well, but her time as a pirate taught her that while the Union was slow, inefficient, and devoutly bureaucratic to the point of idiocy, it wasn't corrupt. The closest she had ever come to getting arrested as a pirate was when she had tried to distinctly bribe port authorities on Femeri. Even tips were forbidden.

The operation in question was an electronics factory on 'Verdant', a class six frontier world the union was trying to prop up as a planet of opportunities and prosperity. It was relatively close to Femeri, and should have been a prime place to colonize, at least on paper. The world was close Femeri but didn't have a cleared space lane to streamline travel, nor a spaceport or space elevator. And what trade there was suffered high attrition from piracy, she was partially responsible for that. She didn't use any of the Archdevil class ships for a poor world like Verdant, but some modified freighters she stole did just enough to justify the deuterium she spent on them.

So while the world failed as the prime example of Orion's opportunities, it did act as a discreet hub for shady companies and outlaws. No major cities meant that they were far from any prying eyes, and had they not entered Aster's radar they could have functioned for another thirty years without interference. But slavers always preferred deathworlders, which meant the longer this operation went on the more damage it do to her business'.

She and her officers stared at the impossibly realistic image of Verdant and the facility holographically displayed other the alter table.

Karega, the typically tactical observer cleared his throat. "Stealth is our best bet. Verdant has sophisticated enough tracking equipment that any orbital actions from Astaroth would give us away, and any alarm the facility raises might alert the nearby planetary defense fleet. Verdant might be a shithole, but the union has enough firepower around it to give me pause."

"That means the entire 400-acre complex needs to be dealt with by Virtue team, with no fire or air support?" Alice accused, that was too much for her sixty strong team. It would have been a lot for both teams without any air support. This wasn't like the mining base; this place was just short of a supermax prison in terms of security and weapons, staffed by well-equipped mercs.

"Not an option" Astarte snapped, she turned to Ukulah who had joined them for this briefing. "What other detection abilities does the planet have"

She shifted uncomfortably in her chair, they were designed to be compatible with people wearing armor, but her bones plates weren't in the original considerations. "Wake detectors are sensitive out to 40 lightyears, and planetary stations would spot a ship like Astaroth if you remain in orbit. But there are no satellites pointed planet side, and this complex is outside of the radar's range" she purred in her vaguely Russian sounding accent, Astarte knew that the melodic quality of her voice was preformed by dual vocal cords, creating two different pitches to every word she said.

"What if we brought Astaroth down planet side?"

"Maybe" Karega mused while rubbing his chin, "I don't think it will work though. We can get down unnoticed, but if we remain in air radar will spot us. And if we touch down any missiles we launch would be detected and traced back to us."