The Complete Warlord Trilogy: An Aeon 14 Collection

by M. D. Cooper

  Katrina knew that many of the Adder captains wouldn’t just fling themselves at a superior enemy. She needed to convince them that victory was possible.

 

  Stars, I hope that’s enough.

  The skiffs were settling down on a pad, and Katrina reached out and touched two of Lara’s guards as she walked past them, dropping her nano into their armor. She touched two more as Malorie and Lara led the way off the skiff and onto the catwalk that ran toward the Castigation’s gantry.

  Norm was right behind Malorie and Lara as Katrina initialized a combat net.

  Korin didn’t miss a beat as he unslung his kinetic rifle and opened fire at the backs of the Midditerra soldiers in front of them. Katrina held up her hands and fired bursts of energy at two more soldiers, burning away the ablative plating on their armor, but not taking them down.

  Behind her, the first two guards she had dropped nano on leveled their weapons at Katrina before they froze.

  Sorry, boys, Katrina thought as she directed them to turn and walk off the back of the skiff. She felt a moment’s regret, but using them as puppets was too risky with their armor’s countermeasures. Best to get them out of play as quickly as possible.

  Her fears were validated when the second pair of guards turned back and fired at Korin—the nano she dropped on them was taken out by an electrical surge across the surface of their armor.

  Katrina shot one of them in the chest, and Korin fired his rifle at the same place, tearing a hole through the man. They repeated the process on the next man, and he fell as well.

  she asked Korin as they crouched behind the bodies of the fallen enemy, firing on the Midditerra soldiers who had taken cover behind a piece of hull plating that was leaning against the bulkhead.

 

  Katrina nodded and consulted the combat net, tallying the remaining enemy. There had been sixteen MDF soldiers at the outset—now down to twelve—along with six inspectors, and Lara.

  The inspectors were still crouched on the other skiff, and Katrina sent a command for it to lift off the platform and fly to the center of the asteroid. That taken care of, she looked for Malorie and Norm.

  She spotted the pair further down the catwalk, crouched behind yet another hull plate. Lara was advancing on them, and Katrina hoped Norm could hold her off for another minute.

  Then she looked at the twelve remaining Midditerra soldiers between them and Lara.

  Maybe another few minutes.

  She fired more shots with the energy blasts from her hands, but it was draining her SC Batts fast. Already they were down to just over half charge. Katrina looked around for a weapon and spotted one of the Midditerra soldier’s rifles. She picked it up and checked for a biolock.

  None? Sloppy.

  A moment later, her weapons fire joined Korin’s, and two more enemy soldiers went down.

  Juasa’s voice came over the Link, joining the combat net.

  Katrina and Korin both crouched down. Seconds later, the point defense beams on the Castigation’s bow lit up, tearing through the exposed enemies and slamming into the hull plate. It glowed red hot from the beamfire, and the remaining soldiers—five in all, rushed out from behind the cover, their weaponless hands raised.

  Katrina said.

  Juasa said.

  Sam sent a grin over the combat net.

  Katrina and Korin rose and advanced on the Midditerra soldiers.

  “Down! Prone!” Korin hollered, and the soldiers obeyed. Katrina turned toward Malorie and swore.

  Norm was down, and Lara stood behind the protection of a piece of hull plate, holding Malorie before her. The Castigation’s beams couldn’t target either of them with the hull plate there; not before Lara could kill Malorie.

  “Give it up,” Lara shouted. “I have Malorie, and my troops will breach your station at any moment.”

  Ames cautioned.

  Katrina approached Lara, a cruel smile on her face. Malorie closed her eyes, and her shoulders slumped. She already knew how this would turn out.

  “You assume I care about Malorie.” Katrina lifted her hand and a bolt of lightning shot out, hitting both women. A weapon fired, and a red stain appeared on Malorie’s abdomen.

  Malorie slumped to the ground, exposing Lara. The Admiral still stood, though she shuddered from the electrical discharge.

  “Have another,” Katrina whispered as she fired a second bolt of lightning from her right hand.

  The energy struck the Admiral in the chest, and Lara fell to the deck. Katrina rushed forward, grabbing Lara’s gun and throwing it over the edge of the catwalk.

  Ames said.

  Katrina replied.

 

 

  Sam said tonelessly.

 

  Korin complied. Once he was clear of the five soldiers, the beams on the front of the Castigation lit up, tearing holes through the prone MDF soldiers and much of the catwalk.

  Katrina didn’t even look back as she bent down and picked up Lara, sending streams of nano into the admiral’s body as the woman moaned. She reached out to Malorie, whom Korin cradled in his arms, and performed a quick check on her collar. To her surprise, it was still functioning properly.

  Good. Let’s see if we can make some lemonade.

  “What do you want me to do?” Another voice called out. Katrina turned to see Freya still back on the skiff, only now rising from behind one of the fallen soldiers.

  “Freya?” Korin asked with a laugh. “I thought you jumped off the edge.”

  “I did, I just hung on.”

  Katrina shook her head. “Well get up to the command deck, and make yourself useful.”

  “On it,” Freya said, her tone held a fearful warble, but the woman double-timed it off the skiff and through one of the doors leading into the station’s skin.

  Katrina turned her attention back to the issue at hand.

  “Holy shit, Katrina,” a voice said from behind them as they walked across the gantry into the Castigation’s airlock.

  Katrina looked back to see Jordan and a dozen men and women approaching.

  “Nice of you to join us, Captain,” Katrina replied.

  “Sorry, ran into some of Lara’s friends on the way down. We took care of them, though.”

  “I assume you’re all the new crew?” Katrina asked as she stepped through the airlock.

  “Yes, ma’am,” one of the men called out.

  “Good, get on the shipnet, find out from Sam where you need to go. Jordan, come with me to the bridge. We’re hitting Farsa.”

  Jordan glanced at Lara as she stirred. “I assume the admiral here is your lock pick?”

  Katrina laughed at the analogy. “Let’s hope that her people like her better than you all liked Jace and Malorie.”

  “I’ll have Malorie on the bridge in five,” Korin said as he veered off toward the medbay with Malorie in his arms. “I don’t think it hit anything too vital...probably just her kidney, by the blood coloring.”

  “Good,” Katrina called back. “See you there.”

&n
bsp; The interior of the ship was in better shape than Katrina expected, though there were still open panels and missing deck plates throughout the corridors.

  When Katrina reached the bridge, she found Juasa standing before a holotank that displayed the space surrounding Rockhall.

  “Shit-show out there, isn’t it?” Katrina said as she dropped Lara into a chair. Behind her, Jordan called out orders to the three crew that had accompanied her onto the bridge.

  “Yeah,” Juasa said softly. “A real freakin’ mess.”

  Katrina knew that Juasa was upset about the Midditerra soldiers she’d had Sam execute; there wasn’t time to hash that out, so she ignored the accusation in Juasa’s voice and examined the holo.

  The corvettes and corsairs had engaged six of the Midditerra ships that were on approach. On the planet-facing side of the station, two troop transports were drifting in space, as was a Blackadder corsair.

  A third troop transport was attached to Rockhall—the one that had disgorged the boarders Jordan had fought off.

  Katrina asked Ames.

 

 

  Ames laughed.

  Katrina couldn’t fault Ames’ logic.

  It took several minutes for the crew to get settled, and for the ship’s grav drive to power up. Katrina spent the time examining the scan data that was coming in.

  Blackadder ships had engaged Midditerra Defense Force ships all around Persia. Though the MDF vessels were better armed, the Adder ships were seasoned raiders. They struck in groups, used other vessels for cover, and then hit again from the flanks when the MDF ships gave chase.

  Already, several MDF patrol craft had been disabled. But it had not been one-sided; a dozen smaller Adder ships were dead in space, as well.

  Katrina didn’t need them to last forever, just long enough for the Castigation to get her to Farsa.

  “Engines are coming online, ready for grav boost out of Rockhall,” Jordan announced.

  “We need to get fuel?” Katrina asked Juasa.

  “No, Sam discovered that the fuel gauges were miscalibrated. We have half-full tanks.”

  Jordan made a choking sound. “That doesn’t make me feel real good.”

  Sam said.

  Katrina wondered what Lars had been planning to do with the Castigation. She’d have to ask him at some point.

  “OK, let’s go,” Katrina said to Jordan.

  She turned back to Lara, who had stopped moaning and appeared more alert. The burns on her face from Katrina’s lightning bolt were reddening, and she reached up to touch one gingerly.

  “What…?” she asked with furrowed eyebrows.

  “Shouldn’t have brought a chem-weapon to a beam fight,” Katrina said. “Nevermind, that doesn’t work at all. Get up.”

  Lara stood on wobbly legs, a look of fear crossing her features. “What? How?”

  “You follow my orders now, Lara. Understood?”

  Rage crossed Lara’s features, pushing away the last of her confusion. “Like hell I do. Who do you think you are?”

  Katrina took a step toward Lara and gave her a light pat on the cheek. “I’m the Streamer woman you were hoping to get your hands on. I’m also about to become the new ruler of the Midditerra System.”

  “Nice try,” Lara said. “You’ll never—”

  Lara’s words were cut off as Katrina took full control of the woman’s body, and marched her to the center of the bridge.

  The forward view showed them passing out of Rockhall, and Katrina opened up a wideband feed of Lara on the bridge of the Castigation.

  Katrina smoothed Lara’s angry expression and fed her body the words to speak.

  “All Midditerra Defense Force ships. Stand down. The Blackadder and I have reached a consensus. All ships and stations: stand down. I repeat, all MDF forces, stand down and return to stations.”

  At the same time, Katrina passed separate orders to the Blackadder ships using Malorie’s tokens. The MDF would intercept and crack the message, but not in time.

 

  Katrina was surprised at the amount of carnage that could occur in fifteen minutes. The Blackadder ships had pounced on dozens of MDF patrol craft before the system’s fleet even knew what was happening and delivered a withering initial blow.

  Though the Midditerra Defense Force possessed many more ships than the Blackadder, the vast majority of them patrolled the outer reaches of the system, days of insystem flight from Persia.

  Near Persia, the forces were more evenly matched. Even though the MDF vessels appeared to be sleek, new war machines, the corvettes and corsairs of the Blackadder were the masters of misdirection. Their captains fought battles in the black for a living, while the MDF patrolled and enforced order.

  The Midditerra ships hadn’t fought a real battle in decades, and it showed.

  From what the Castigation’s scan could pick up, a dozen MDF ships were destroyed, many others had suffered damage, and at least three already had prize crews aboard.

  Toward the end of the brief engagement, the MDF ships had strengthened their response, but the pirates were the clear winners. A few battles were still raging; captains who were not quite ready to give up their potential victory, duking it out in the higher orbits around Persia.

  Katrina had Lara send out repeated commands to fall back, while she used Malorie’s tokens and sent out messages telling the Blackadder to hold back and wait.

  Slowly but surely, all the battles ended, and a nervous truce spread through the system.

  “Holy shit…” Jordan whispered. “We’re gonna do it. We’re gonna fucking wipe out the MDF in one single offensive.”

  Further out in the system, fights broke out and then ended as the battle cry reached distant stations, and then the ceasefire followed fifteen minutes later. It was like a wave of aggression, spreading out in a sphere from Persia.

  Katrina called out to the Blackadder captain as the Castigation boosted toward Farsa station.

 

  Katrina sent a look of surety over the Link.

 

  That was what Katrina hoped, as well. They had this one chance. Get onto Farsa Station, take control of Midditerra’s central command structure, and kill Lara. It wasn’t her original plan, but it would have to do. Then they’d wait for Jace to come back. At that point, taking him out should be child’s play.

  She glanced at Juasa as the Castigation continued to boost toward Farsa, its fusion drives burning as much as they dared after lying dormant for so long.

  Katrina said.

  Juasa spun, her eyes flaming.

 

  Juasa turned away and shook her head.

  I already am. Katrina thought the response that she didn’t want to share.

  Sam said.

  Katrina shook her head. “Negative, Sam
, tell them to assign us an internal berth. I don’t want the Castigation to be a target for every MDF ship out there.”

  Sam replied.

  Katrina asked privately.

  Sam snorted.

  There was more vitriol in Sam’s voice than Katrina expected to hear—though considering the anger being a slave for a month had created in her, Sam’s centuries made his behavior saintly.

  “I have a channel open with the station,” Jordan announced.

  “Farsa, put Dockmaster Ribis on, now!” Katrina had Lara say, taking care to make her voice sound angry and natural.

  “Ribis here,” a man’s voice said over the audible channel. “Admiral Lara, we can’t let a foreign ship like that have an internal berth, it’s too—”

  “Ribis, you fool. This is a prize ship that the Blackadder would very much like to have back. If I leave it on an external berth, it may get blown out of the black. Give me an internal bay, now!”

  There was silence on the comm for a moment. “Opening up Bay 422.”

  Katrina searched Lara’s mind for the details on that bay. She saw that it had something labeled a ‘crusher’ secreted within. That didn’t sound like anyplace she wanted to dock.

  “No, Ribis,” Lara responded. “If I wanted a crusher bay, I would have asked for it. Give me Bay 199.”

  “Understood, yes Admiral,” Ribis replied, his tone worried. “Passing approach vector now.”

  Katrina wondered if it was worry over the foreign ship, or the anger in Lara’s voice. Perhaps some of both.

  “Can’t believe that asshole was going to put us in a crusher bay,” Jordan swore. “I’ve played cards with him, let him win once, even.”

  “We still in one piece?” Korin asked as he stepped onto the bridge.

  Katrina turned to see Malorie walking beside Korin, a hand on her side where a bandage was wrapped around her waist. She wasn’t wearing her towering heels anymore, and her sleeves had been ripped to give full use of her arms.