To Hell and Back (Hellworlder pirates)

Ch35 The Spiders Nest

The Spiders Nest

The next morning Astarte prowled into the meeting room in the Yard house with a feline grace and an easy glow of life. She and Modius had worked through much of their troubles, and now she felt less daunted by the task ahead of her. Bell and Lucile noted her easy glide with hints of confusion, and Karega just gave her a knowing smile. Exactly five minutes after Aster, Modius strode through the doors still wearing the same clothes from yesterday. If anyone noticed that, or the slightly darker shade of purple bruising under his eyes, no one commented.

"If we're all assembled then lets begin" Her mother said sternly. "Captain Bell if you'd please"

"Right" Bell said as she stood up and began to pass around manila file folders "Only an hour after we arrived the Aunviry marauders made their initial move. They have filed an official complaint against us for our unwarranted attack on the Coiled Strike, they are claiming that we acted without provocation and are demanding the Astaroth as recompense for the loss of that ship. They have already submitted the video evidence of your hostile boarding actions to the Council of nine"

That was expected. They had been hoping to make the first move, but the Aunviry had apparently beaten them to it.

"We should file charges of our own then" Aster said as she flipped through the case book "We have more than enough evidence to refute their claim of an unprovoked attack, and even more to prove that the Eggads were in the wrong."

Lucile frowned "Counter charges will force the council of Nine into Arbitration, if it comes to that do you think we will have enough of the Nine on our side?"

The Council of Nine were one of the Confederacy's oldest institutions, Nine retired pirate lords who served on the station full-time resolving disputes and guiding the Confederacy. Any who wished to join their ranks had to first gain the influence of enough pirate factions to support their bid for a seat, or grow their own faction strong enough to claim a seat on their own. Of those Nine seats of power it was known that the Aunviry held two seats by their own power and had deep ties with two more and plenty of influence over the rest. That meant there were five contested seats that the Hellworlders needed to wrest from Aunviry control.

"I have a hunch that the Shadow league will support me, Ah'ared killed one of their own when he tried to have me ambushed on Femeri." Aster said with confidence. Not much was known about the Shadow League, only that they controlled the greatest network of spies and informants across the Union and had deep pockets. The only members most ever met were the 'Contacts', mysterious and influential people who held great sway over whatever station they controlled. "And its well known that the Wrethren Terrors are openly opposed to the Aunviry after Kazlum killed and ate their previous leader"

There was a collective shiver around the table at the mention of the terrifying leader of the Aunviry. 8 meters tall with black beady eyes and regenerating tentacles that hung from his bulbous head like a writhing beard, and it was no wonder why most feared the creature. Aunviry looked like the worst horrors from H.P. Lovecraft's pantheon of dark elder gods. Even being a Hellworlder wouldn't put them on equal footing with the Aunviry's natural strength and speed, they were essentially super deathworlders.

No one knew where they came from, or what they were. Dissections on the few intact corpses that weren't completely burnt by the overpowered plasma cannons it took to take down an Aunviry warrior only revealed vague hints towards major genetic alterations in their past. They had torn through Union fleets with ease and descended upon the undefended citizenry of the core worlds and revealed their terrible bloodlust for all to see. They had carved up the core sectors into their own private chiefdoms and were only expelled from the core when the Aunviry began to war with themselves and weakened themselves enough for a Union counterattack. Only a few pockets remained clinging to broken planetoids in the void, and were considered a part of the caste of Voidlings like the Kruhur.