Galaxy of Empires- Merchant Wars Episode #1 (6 page)

Back on the bridge, they are getting ready to
move away from the asteroid belt.

“Gartooth, I want you to blow that entire
place to dust, including the undead ships, so begin now.”

“Yes, Boss. You know how I love to blow stuff
up,” he commences to pressing buttons. They hear the large
explosions below them. They watch on the vid screen after 10
minutes of firing big cannons and unloading some missiles and the
entire asteroid is obliterated.

“Helma, let’s get out of here.”

“Yes, Boss.”

After about two minutes, 42 says urgently,
“Contact just outside the asteroid belt. Elemental Empire ship
signature: it is a battleship, dreadnought class, crew about 3,000,
and 35 fighters—they outgun us 10 to 1. The
Telherra
, the Telepath hunter flagship. They are
probably responding to the distress signal that we responded
to.”

“They are probably not going be happy that we
blew up their super-secret, black-ops, naughty, naughty laboratory
facility,” Gartooth remarks, being facetious.

“We are being hailed,” 42 warns.

“On vid.”

The screen lights up with a picture of a very
large black Wolfkin male in a smartly dressed uniform.

“I am General Hurt, the captain of the
flagship
Telherra
of the Elemental Empire.
You’re trespassing in our space. What business do you have
here?”

“I am Captain Noctu of the Reptilian merchant
vessel....” Eve paused, “Noctu. This is a neutral zone, so how can
you claim that we are trespassing? You have no claim to this area
of space.” She knew that he knew she was lying about the ship’s
name. She just did not want to say it because it was a name of
their main black-op project.

Eve continued, “Besides, there is nothing out
here that says Elemental Empire on it, now is there? We are just
doing an astrological mineral survey of these asteroids to see if
they contain any ores that we might be interested in mining.” They
knew she was lying. They also knew that she was the one that
probably destroyed their lab facility.

“I don’t think they are buying that story,
Boss,” Nelma says, nervously.

“Make sure the mines are active and the
status web is deployed and cloaked,” Eve says and then presses the
reply button to hear the general’s reply.

“I think you destroyed our lab facility, and
you probably took something that was not yours. I might be able to
forgive you for destroying our lab facility if you give me what you
took…, Evella,” General Hurt demanded.

42 says, “He launching fighters…looks like
all of them.”

Eve could not think of anything else to delay
for more time.

“You have 60 seconds to comply. What is it
gonna be, Captain?” Gen. Hurt insisted, with growing
impatience.

Eve instructs, “Fire all batteries at the
main ship now.” She knew they would never let them live no matter
what the general said.

Aboard the battleship, orders were flying
about.

“General, they are firing on us. Shields are
up. Fighters are almost in intercept range. Even though it is a
‘merchant’ ship, it has firepower, shields, and armor that are
impressive for that size of ship. Of course, it isn’t a match for a
battleship,” First Officer Bean informs. Bean was a human about 35
years old; he had been in service for seven years.

“Even if we get the data or whatever they
took, they cannot be allowed to live,” Councilman Jax demands.

“Yes, I am aware,” Gen. Hurt acknowledges.
The large black Wolfkin was rather annoyed by the whole
situation.

“Now if everyone is done telling me stuff I
already know, let me do my job.”

Back on Eve’s ship.

“Okay, Boss, the fighters just hit our traps.
The mines just took out nine of their fighters, and 12 of them are
stuck in the status web, and it is draining all their power. They
will have no power in about five minutes. The other 14 just engaged
us. The shields are holding, but will be gone in few minutes. The
small rail guns are firing on the fighters,” Grimtooth says.

“Keep hitting the big ship with the big
cannons, and fire missiles at the fighters. Nelma, plot a jump
course to Reptilian space. We are going to lightspeed as soon as we
get out of the asteroid belt. Steer us behind the status nets to
their block line of sight using their trapped fighters. Then hook
around the net at the last minute and get to our jump point,
Helma,” Eve commands with authority. Ship-wide intercom activates,
“Doctor bring my daughters to the bridge now. Rulu, report to the
bridge, and Pura do the same.”

“Captain, I have not finished my testing on
your daughters yet, so I do not know if they are contagious,” the
doctor says, using her personal com badge.

“It is not going to matter in a few minutes
when we get blasted into a million pieces by that battleship in
front of us!” Eve yells in a hurried fashion.

“We have taken out seven of the fighters, but
our shields are gone, and we are counting on our armor only right
now. Forward rail gun battery on the port side has been hit and is
not working,” Gartooth says over the exploding noises in the
background.

Nelma,” Course laid in for the jump,
Boss.”

“We are at the status net, but the battleship
has moved to the front of the opening and is blocking our exit!”
Helma says in a panic.

The doctor, the daughters, Rulu, and Pura
enter the bridge. Rulu goes over to engineering station and
transfers engineering commands to that console. Pura goes to the
ship status station.

“Doc, get them out of those spacesuits,” Eve
blurts out as the ship shakes from an explosion.

Pura says, “We were hit on the port side
again in the rail gun ammo holder, all the rounds detonated in the
magazine. There is an enormous crater on the port side; levels 13
through 21 and sections 10 through 19 are open to space: 93 dead,
almost half the crew.”

“The blast took out four fighters and
disabled two more. The last one got tossed into the status net from
the blast explosion,” Grimtooth reported.

“Sub-light and jumps engines still okay,”
Rulu says.

Helma responds, “Want me to make a run for it
and slip around the left side facing the starboard side of the ship
to the battleship? We still have armor and guns on that side.”

“Yes, when I give you the word. It is going
to be a tight squeeze, being that close to their guns we will only
have a few seconds to get into jump position. Helma, as soon as we
are in position jump, don’t wait for my command.”

Eve grabs both of her daughters’ hands and
begins communicating with them about the instructions for her plan.
They stand there holding hands and their eyes glowing blue to focus
their powers.

On the battleship, a different scene is
developing.

“Sir, all of our fighters have been
eliminated. It looks like they will try to make a run for it,
mostly like using their starboard side facing us as it is the least
damaged. They will probably jump if they can make it around us,”
Bean says with confidence.

“35 fighters! Okay, I am not playing around
anymore: open fire with everything we got including missiles,” Gen.
Hurt commands with a forceful attitude.

“Here they come, firing missiles,” Bean says
as he presses a button.

Second Officer Ham, “Sir, we are getting a
massive energy feedback in our main generator….” The power flutters
on the bridge and lights go off and on. “Shields just went offline,
Sir…and now the weapon systems.”

“What?” the General screams. “Get the backups
going now!” he yells.

“Bridge, this is security. We have fighting
breaking out on all decks. The crewmen are fighting against each
other,” the chief of security reported.

“What is the hell is going on? Don’t just
stand there looking at me, get back to work!” Gen. Hurt roars at
the station officers as the lights and panels blink off and on.

Ship-wide intercom is activated on the
battleship.

Eve begins to speak,” Looks like you have a
discipline problem, General…You know that is usually is a sign of
poor leadership. I understand that it is hard to find good help
these days,” She laughs an evil laughter that echoes throughout the
ship.

“Mind you, Witch, I going to kill you with my
own hands if it is the last thing I do. I am going to hunt you down
like the garbage you are. Your mind tricks don’t work on me.”

“Maybe not, but they do on your officers.”
Half of the bridge officers point their weapons and begin firing
randomly at people.

“Ha-ha-ha-ha!” Eve chuckles aloud.
“Councilman, don’t think I have forgotten about you and your
murdering band of sorcerers. I am going to enjoying watching my
daughters suck the life out of each of you.”

On the bridge of the Evella, missiles from
the battleship coming raining down on the starboard side. Several
of them hit, causing more explosions.

Rulu says, “Boss, jump engines hit, and
sub-light engines offline.”

“On the bright side, we have matching craters
on both sides now,” Gartooth cleverly inserts.

“Boss, I just lost helm control and we are
spinning like a Frisbee. We going to hit that battleship in 90
seconds or so,” Helma says with alarm.

“Geez, I got to pee so bad now,” Gartooth
added.

“Remove command module clamps and begin
bridge separation. We are going to detach from the ship and then
get as far away as we can,” Eve sputters out. She activates
ship-wide intercom, “This is the captain. All remaining crewmembers
abandon ship, abandon ship!”

“Detaching complete,” Rulu says. “Activating
Command Module engine and helm control.”

“Helm control up. I am steering us away, but
this has a small engine’s sub-light speed that is lame,” Helma says
with regret.

Pura says, “Boss, we are are not going to
make it out of the blast area in time. The Evella will slam into
their reactor core hard because their shields are down.”

“Now I really gotta pee,” Gartooth
squeaks.

Nelma frowns at him and barks,
“Seriously?”

“Sorry, I usually just have gas when I am
about to die, but I think I drank too much water earlier.”

On the battleship, collision alarms are going
off.

“Sir, that ship is going to hit us in the
reactor core. We need to abandon ship—not that that it will help
much.”

“Turn the ship some, so we at least have a
chance to escape in the pods, you idiot.”

“Yes, General.”

The General presses a button and abandon ship
messages thunder out, as he runs down the corridor heading to the
fighter bays. He makes it into the hanger bay of his personal
fighter just as a tremendous explosion reverberates throughout the
ship. He activates his fighter and begins launching just as a chain
of explosions marches down the ship in his direction. He jettisons
out of the bay into space and heads full throttle away from the
battleship. The battleship begins to break up as a monumental
explosion completes the devastation. Large quantities of debris go
in all directions, destroying everything in their path.

Both Eve’s command module, as well as the
General’s fighter, are hurled into open space in opposite
directions. The electrical systems in both ships flicker off and
on. Both are floating in space.

“Wow! That was a heck of an explosion,” Rulu
says.

“Yeh,” Pura agrees.

“Report,” Eve requests.

“I need to change my shorts,” Gartooth says
hesitantly. Helma slaps him on the back of the head.

“I should have everything running in an
hour,” Rulu assures.

“Until then we will be free flying through
space with no controls into the Elemental Empire,” Nelma
states.

“How far to the nearest Reptilian planet?”
Eve questions.

“About 100,000 years without lightspeed, but
we will run out of food and water in a week or so, so that is
irrelevant,” Nelma guesses.”The only planet in range is about 10
days, but it is in Elemental Space.”

“Set a course for there, as we don’t really
have an option,” Eve says.

“Okay, will do as soon as Rulu finishes
repairs. I will assist. Just hope we don’t have any hostiles pop up
because we don’t have weapons or shields in this thing.”

A few hours pass and they make repairs and
head off to the nearest planet.

Chapter Five

After traveling into Elemental Space for seven days,
the crew is out of food, and very little water is left. Long-range
sensors start beeping.

42 says, “Contact bearing 90 degrees
starboard. They just dropped out of warp, probably because they
detected us. We are not in commercial shipping lanes. What you want
to do, Boss?”

“What type of ship is it?”

“Looks like a small Elemental Transport ship,
not commercial. The ship’s ID indicates a governmental transport of
some kind, with about 30 people.”

“Okay. Lets play dead; maybe they will try to
board us.”

“Just life support barely on…well, that
actually isn’t false, ha-ha,” Helma laughs.

“Pass out the weapons.”

“Roger that, Boss.” Gartooth starts handing
the weapons.

“They are heading this way,” Pura says. A few
minutes pass and they hear the other ship trying to attach to the
airlock.

“They will come up to the bridge first, so
lets wait in the storage space downstairs that is near the airlock.
When they come in, they will go down the other hall and up the
stairs to the bridge. We will slip onto their ship, de-attach the
airlock connector, and trap them here. Then we’ll take over their
ship. They will probably send over most of their security since it
is a small vessel, and we can trap them on our ship.”

They run down to the storage space and wait.
After a few minutes, they finally see seven people who look like
security guards and a couple of leader types. Eve senses magic, so
one of the leaders must be a sorcerer. She can feel the
overwhelming urges of her daughters, as they smell food come
through the doorway.