To Hell and Back (Hellworlder pirates)

Ch18 Modius

Modius

The Astaroth flew side by side with the Asmodeus, the older ship slightly ahead of the younger, like a mother guiding her daughter through her first steps. That wasn't entirely accurate, Asmodeus had been operating solo for a while now, and her crew were old salts from the other ships mixed with some talented fresh-faced sailors. But this was the first time the Asmodeus worked in tandem with another ship of the fleet, and it was the eldest Archdevil cruiser to boot. So Astarte reveled in her own personal simile for these two ships.

The business of rescuing slaves wasn't usually a fruitful endeavor, not unless the slave in particular was worth something to someone. Astarte had only dismantled Gaw's slaver empire here in Orion so that her own freighters wouldn't need to worry about raids, she even got a small protection fee from other freighter companies as well. Hellworlder slaves were worth a lot, and freighters made easy prey.

This time though was the exception. She had returned the Torweni sailors as a personal favor to Modius and Bones, but the return of long-gone sailors abducted long before first contact by an alien race resembling the 'sea spirits' of old had stirred up a frenzy of ravening reports and news anchors. Demanding their elected officials do something about it. The government of Torwen publicly reached out to the Union, and the Union characteristically responded with indifference. They weren't a Union planet, so why should they waste their resources on them. The Union was so used to being the only major government in the Milky Way that they didn't really understand the finer arts of foreign diplomacy. As far as they were concerned Torwen would one day join the Union, it was inevitable, why give away their services to a planet that hadn't joined yet. Arrogant yes, but not entirely wrong either.

Thus came the Torweni bounty on every returned citizen, a means of reimbursing the Union for their troubles. But the bureaucratic cogs of the Union moved slowly and was no match for a fleet of opportunistic freelancers ready to jump on the offer. Or at least that's how it was supposed to look on the surface, in actuality Astarte had a long-standing relationship with Torwen that she didn't want the public knowing about.

And so the Astaroth and Asmodeus hit station after station, like clearing away a termite infestation. They made a pretty penny, earned fleet experience, and generated Torweni interest in her weapons manufacturing. She had already secured a very lucrative deal for building advanced monitoring stations on Torwen, and the military had ordered ten interplanetary Javelin missiles from Pandemonium Arms Co and a few hundred Bodkins for defending against hostile ships.

The voidlings hunting had been good while it lasted, but now the last Kruhur station was in sight of the hyperspace radar, the largest one so far. The attack would need fire power and marines from both ships, and would likely be their most lucrative attack so far.

"Station is in sight Sir, looks like there are several freighters in system along with warships." The bridge talker called.

"Looks like they're trying to pull out of Orion" Karega offered rubbing his chin.

"Indeed, send a message to the Asmodeus, 'destroy any warships, disable the freighters, then we will send in the marines.' End message." Astarte ordered as her whole body began to tense for battle. She had forged herself into a great captain, but a part of her felt useless just sitting in this chair staring at monitors while far more competent crew members went about their jobs. But she couldn't let anyone know that; her serene and stern voice was what held the bridge crew together, and she wouldn't really be much help on the ground or in the engine rooms. Still she hated it.

"Thinking about claiming the freighters?" Kar asked conversationally, he always entered a sort of loose and slack mentality before battle. Never careless, just relaxed.