Payback Is a Given: Pirates of the Badlands Series Book 2

by Sean Benjamin

  Mallory turned to the two Marines. “I’ll take it from here. You can go about your duties.”

  The Marines saluted, did an about face in unison, and departed. Sky watched them disappear through the hatch, and turned back to welcome her approaching guests.

  “Captain,” Sky extended her hand and shook with Hawkins. She then turned to the others. She had seen all of them while in the Badlands, but couldn’t immediately place the tall, pretty blonde woman in the rear of the group. After a second, she realized with a start that the blonde was Ensign Lara Bychovskaya. She had lost weight that made her appear taller. Her hair was much longer and weaved into an intricate lengthy braid down her back. She was dressed in bright clothes with knee high black boots. A dagger in a sheath was strapped around her right thigh and a pair of cheetah earrings was in her earlobes. The most notable change was, the young woman moved with a confidence not seen in the inexperienced officer when she had departed the flagship weeks prior. Sky immediately recognized it as the aura of a combat veteran, a successful combat veteran.

  Blondie caught Sky looking at her. She smiled. “Captain, how are you?” No shyness on her part now.

  Sky smiled back, “I’m fine, Blondie. How are you?”

  Blondie’s smile widened at the use of her nickname. She recognized Captain Mallory was not going to toe the line on military etiquette by calling her by her rank. She knew Mallory was joining the ship on their departure, and the Captain was smart in adjusting to the pirate way of conducting business.

  “I’m great, Captain. Couldn’t be better.”

  “Good.” She turned to the entire visiting party. “Welcome aboard. We’ll be going directly to the command briefing room.”

  She turned and moved out of the hangar bay with Raferty Hawkins beside her, and the others in close trail. As they moved through the ship toward the briefing room, Hawkins looked around for the Marine escort.

  “The lads all busy?”

  “No need for them.”

  “That one Marine I offered a job to has decided to take me up on it, and you’re afraid to expose the other Marines to the same temptation.”

  Sky smiled without turning to him. “Yep, that’s it. You caught me. I had to limit exposure to you to prevent a mass desertion by all our Royal Marines.”

  On the edge of her field of view, she saw Hawkins nod. “I knew it,” he said. “The carefree pirate life…”

  Sky smiled again. Despite the seriousness of the occasion, Hawkins was in a very good mood. The training of his crews and preparation of his ships must have gone very well. The Home Fleet had seen the images of the Rosstrappe attack, but analysts pointed out few ships were hit and nobody knew what the pirate casualties had been. The fact the pirates were here, in good spirits and good health, tended to give credence to a successful raid against the Goth stronghold.

  The party moved through the ship to the now familiar briefing room. Weapons were left on the table outside the hatch, and the pirates entered the compartment. Lord Cunningham and Admiral Barrett met them immediately inside the hatch and introductions began. All was routine until the last person.

  “This is Captain Killian O’Hare of Nemesis,” Hawkins finished the introductions.

  “I’ve heard much about you,” Lord Cunningham extended his hand to her.

  “Nothing good I hope,” O’Hare stared intently at him as she grasped his hand tightly.

  Cunningham smiled at the joke, and then stopped short as he realized O’Hare was being serious. But he was caught short only for a moment. “Of course not. It has all been quite bad.”

  “Excellent!” proclaimed O’Hare. She leaned close to him as if to share a secret. “You kill a bunch of people, you destroy ships and bases, and generally work hard to build a bad-ass reputation for yourself, and before you know it, for absolutely no good reason at all, people start saying nice things about you. I really hate that.” She spoke rapidly and with an intense focus as she stared into Cunningham’s eyes while maintaining the tight grip on his hand. Her wolf head hallie also seemed to be staring at the Defense Minister.

  “Rest assured I’ve heard nothing good about you at all,” Cunningham calmed her with a smile.

  “Outstanding,” O’Hare smiled back at him as she released his hand. “I’m so pleased to hear it.”

  As O’Hare moved away, Hawkins caught Cunningham’s attention. “She really means it,” Rafe remarked.

  “Yes, quite,” Cunningham muttered, for once at a loss for words.

  Admiral Barrett had seen the exchange and merely nodded to O’Hare as he shook her hand.

  “Wolf got your tongue?” O’Hare asked. She then laughed and moved into the room without waiting for an answer. Barrett stared after her and smiled.

  As the introductions at the hatch concluded and the party moved inward, Lord Cunningham pointed out food and drink on the far side of the compartment to be enjoyed at one’s leisure. He then turned to two people standing behind the long narrow table at the front of the space.

  “This is Captain Luther Norton, Operations Officer for Home Fleet, and Captain Diane Zerbe, Fleet Intelligence Officer. They will sit in on the brief as they will be responsible for planning supporting ops along the border to assist your mission.”

  The Zekes moved to seats behind the long table as the pirates moved to chairs set in an arc around a briefing station centered in front of the command table. Baby Doll moved to the briefing station.

  As people moved toward their seats, the voice of Captain Zerbe broke through the background noise. “Ensign Bychovskaya, you’re out of uniform! Your assignment was to provide assistance to the pirates on a one time basis, not go native!”

  Everyone froze for a moment. Raferty Hawkins stepped into the line of sight between the two women but he did not look at Zerbe. He was staring directly at Lord Cunningham. He was silent but a clear message radiated from him, “You handle this or I will, and you won’t like how I go about doing that.”

  Cunningham had much bigger concerns than uniform regulations. He had been in this same compartment months earlier when Hawkins had issued the order telling the young ensign to leave her uniforms onboard the flagship. He had had no problem with it then and he did not now. He silently cursed Zerbe. We are here to receive a brief on a plan to attack a secret enemy base deep in their territory and Zerbe is worried about shined shoes. “It is no wonder we’re losing the war,” he thought grimly.

  The Defense Lord turned to Captain Zerbe. “I authorized the ensign’s manner of dress for her new assignment. There is no problem here.” He turned to Hawkins. “If we could continue?”

  “Of course,” Hawkins replied in an affable manner.

  Everyone took seats, and Baby Doll placed a chip in the briefing table projector and activated it. A 3-D diagram of a large section of space appeared. There was a red blip at one end and a blue one at the other end. One third of the distance from the red to the blue blip was a yellow line.

  Baby Doll began the mission brief. “This display represents this sector of space. The red is Wanderlust. The blue is the Orion base codenamed Murmansk. The yellow line is the current front lines between the two combatants. We will depart Wanderlust in four hours. We are not taking the direct route from here to Murmansk but are going to approach in an arc to bypass the more heavily protected sectors that are on the direct route from Aurora space to Murmansk. We will stay in Aurora space from here to the Langley system, and then cross into the neutral system of Merlon. We request you raid in the Astra system near the junction of that system with Merlon and Langley. We will cross through Merlon and move into Orion space near the planet of Quagga in the system of Naufrague. Your raid should pull the reserves currently in Naufrague to the Astra system. As you know, Naufrague is a desolate system. If the military patrols move out of there we should get through with minimum risk. We will cross Naufrague and then cross through the Etesian system into the Gossamer system.” As Baby Doll spoke, a green dotted line appeared from Wanderlust and
moved along the route as it was described. “Our target codenamed Murmansk is in the Gossamer system. The actual name is the planet Naissance. Planned transit time is eight standard days and nine hours before entering subspace near Murmansk.”

  The display changed as the blue dot of Murmansk and its surrounding space formed over the table in a much larger scale. The planet and two moons revolved slowly. “This is Naissance, but we will continue to call it Murmansk. The planet has two moons, the outer moon moving faster than the inner. There is an extensive surface establishment, dozens of space docks, and a large floating repair station; also an extensive defense system consisting of floating batteries, and systems on both moons and on the planet’s surface.” Again, as Baby Doll talked, the display filled in with facilities, defense systems, and large tinted orbs to reflect the zones covered by the defense systems. There were multiple overlapping zones with no dead space gaps anywhere to be seen. “I now turn the brief over to Blondie.”

  Blondie stepped forward next to the display. “I will cover the subspace approach to our firing stations.” The display began to speed up for several revolutions of the moons around the planet. The display had had the two moons on opposite sides of the planet but with each circle, the outer moon closed on the inner moon. The display stopped with the outer moon lagging slightly behind the inner moon on its outer orbit. A red light appeared beyond the outer moon. “The moons will be in this position when we begin our approach. In this position, the only coverage over our approach vector is from the two moons as the planet’s systems are screened by the outer moon. Our engine harmonics are in tune with the outer moon.” As she talked, the red light moved toward the outer moon on an intercept course, always keeping the outer moon’s mass between it and the planet. There were only two threat orbs covering the approach path, one from each moon. As the red light grew close to the outer moon, the threat from the inner moon was blocked out by the outer moon. The red light closed on the outer moon, went below it, and paused. Blondie picked up the narrative. “Here we pause below the outer moon to reset our engine harmonics for the inner moon, and to blend in with the noise turbulence caused by the inner moon’s sensors hitting the outer moon. We pause below the moon rather than above it, using the inner moon to stay hidden from the planet sensors.” The light now rose to put the outer moon behind it, and began to set up an arcing intercept on the inner moon while using the moon to shield it from the planet. There were two sensor orbs covering the arc. One from the planet side of the outer moon, and one from the space side of the inner moon. “We start out well inside the turbulence created by the splashing of the sensor signals off the outer moon. As we close on the inner moon, we lose this coverage and have to adjust our engines on the run to account for that. We move to the inner moon and stop towards the bottom, but are still protected from the planet sensors.” The light paused in front of the inner moon near its south pole, just shielded from the planet’s threat system orbs. “We are in the splash created by the outer moon sensors hitting the inner moon, and the noise generated by the inner moon itself. We make final engine adjustments and adjust timing as needed. Then we move to our shooting positions.”

  Here the display changed scales again. The display reflected the harbor and surface base only. The planet was on one side of the display and the inner moon on the other. In between, the space harbor was filled in with floating docks of several types, repair facilities, and floating batteries. The surface showed a base with several buildings and large industrial parks of warehouses, and manufacturing plants. Storage tanks and large cranes stood out. Shuttle pads dotted the base at intervals. A large building near the edge of the base was obviously headquarters. The inner moon now had four red dots by it.

  Blondie continued. “The four ships will move to this firing position as it gives us the widest range of targets and the clearest view of the surface.” The four lights moved under the moon and then rose up to place the moon behind the formation. Then the lights moved to a quarter distance between the moon and the planet surface.

  At this point Blondie stepped back and Tactical moved forward to the display. She was a quick speaker and used her finger to stab at the display as she spoke. “Local time of attack is 0630. Two-minute time on target. Bandit is totally dedicated to reducing defenses that are blocking our departure route. Vindictive is dedicated to protecting the formation. For Predator and Nemesis, the priorities of targets are the building docks, repair docks, and storage facilities in the space harbor. On the surface, priorities are manufacturing areas, assembly plants, and storage tanks. Guns and lasers for soft targets. Missiles for hard targets.”

  Tactical covered ordnance expenditure, formation protection, and was about to go into withdrawal measures, but was interrupted. O’Hare had heard the brief several times as she had helped build and refine it, and now it was obvious she had lost all interest in the proceedings.

  “These chairs are very comfortable. You should have gotten these as part of our payment,” she suddenly declared as she shifted in her chair and stared at Hawkins.

  Silence took over the room as everyone looked at O’Hare. The Zekes stared at her in muted amazement, and the pirates stoically took this strange interruption in silence.

  “I simply must have these chairs,” exclaimed O’Hare as she again shifted in her seat and tentatively rocked back and forth on the two rear legs. “These are very nice. Sturdy too.”

  Hawkins turned to Cunningham, “Give her the damn chairs. Trust me; you’ll thank yourself for it.”

  Cunningham needed no urging. He addressed O’Hare, “Captain, by all means, let me present the chairs to you as a personal gift. I hope you will enjoy them for many years.”

  “Thank you, Lord Cunningham. You’re very kind. I’m sure I shall enjoy them for a long time.” O’Hare then turned to Hawkins and repeated herself. “You should have gotten these for us.”

  Hawkins pretended to scan the data pad in his hand. “Let’s see here…” he faked reading from the pad, “One hundred fifty million credits, hydra missiles and mines, threat intel, enlist Blondie, oh, here it is, six briefing room chairs for O’Hare. I don’t know how I forgot that.”

  He looked up from the pad and then lightly slapped his forehead with the palm of his hand, then turned to O’Hare, “I remember now. We got bogged down in negotiations over trading a cow for some magic beans, and the chairs just slipped off my sensor scan. Sorry.”

  O’Hare looked at him for a long moment and then burst out laughing. Unlike her usual laugh with its slightly maniacal quality, this laugh was warm and heartfelt. She gave Hawkins an affectionate smile and in a loving voice she said, “You always could make me laugh, Raferty.”

  “And I have always enjoyed doing it, Killian,” Hawkins replied in equal measure, and they both laughed again. O’Hare’s laugh became strained, and the warm light drained from her face. The brief appearance of another Killian O’Hare had come to an end. She abruptly stopped laughing and assumed a superior look as she caressed her chair’s arm possessively.

  “Now where were we?” Hawkins stated casually as he turned back to the stunned Zekes.

  Tactical took up the brief as if nothing had happened. She covered the remaining attack briefing points, and completed withdrawn procedures. The brief was set to conclude with Baby Doll covering the return flight to Wanderlust when another interruption occurred.

  Zerbe broke in again. “Before we get off the brief on the base, what are your intel sources for the base layout and defense capabilities?”

  “Our sources are classified,” Tactical replied. “But they’re reliable. We’ve compiled them over several months with different sources.”

  Zerbe was not going to let it go. “We need to know the sources to verify them for reliability. For all we know you are making it up and have no intention of actually attacking…”

  “Shut up.”

  The voice was not loud but carried to all parts of the room. All eyes turned to Hawkins. He had not moved fro
m his relaxed posture in the center chair, but he was staring directly at Zerbe, the first time he had acknowledged her presence. “That’s the second time you have insulted one of my crewmembers. When you insult one of my crew, you insult me, and I don’t handle insults well. If you do it again I will be forced to express my displeasure in a more concrete fashion, so you should take steps to ensure there is not a next time.”

  “You wouldn’t dare!” Zerbe heatedly replied. A captain in the Royal Navy was not used to being talked to in this fashion and it showed.

  Hawkins gave her a very cold smile. “You would be amazed at the number of people who have said that to me over the years and each time I did dare.”

  Cunningham’s smooth voice cut into the discussion. “I’m sure the Captain meant nothing by the remarks.”

  Rafe’s gaze now switched to his Lordship. “Point of fact, I’m sure she did mean something. Another point of fact is she brings nothing to the current discussion, so I can only assume she is here for other reasons. I suspect she will be charged with going over the briefing and related materials with a few others from the staff, to evaluate and catalog our capabilities, tendencies, sources of intel, and tactics. That is the real reason she wants to know our intel sources. This will be a beginning of a database so you will have substantial information to work with when you return to the Badlands after the war, and start hunting pirates if the situation calls for it.” Cunningham started to say something but Hawkins held up a hand. “I’m not offended by it. Hell, if I was in your position I would do the same damn thing. But I am not going to sit here giving away my secrets to a potential adversary, and be insulted at the same time. Not a chance in hell I let that happen.”

  Silence reigned for a few seconds. Sky suddenly noticed while Rafe had everyone’s attention with his comments, several pirates had shifted position. Delacruz and Legrand had stepped backward several paces and had an unobstructed view of the entrance. Their right hands, their gun hands, were out of sight. Tactical had taken a position behind Hawkins’ right shoulder so her left hand was hidden. Baby Doll was next to her behind Hawkins’ left shoulder with her right hand hidden from view. Somehow, Killian O’Hare had silently risen from her newly acquired chair, moved to her left, and was now leaning up against the bulkhead at the end of the table, looking down the long axis of table. Her body was turned so her right hand was between her body and the bulkhead, out of view. Blondie had moved back to be well out of all fields of fire. Somehow, with no signal or order, the pirates had moved quickly and silently to cover every part of the compartment and the entrance. Sky knew the pirates had placed many weapons on the table in the passageway before entering the room, but right now, that knowledge did not give her a secure feeling. She looked at Admiral Barrett. He had not moved. He had seen the shift in pirate personnel, but he seemed to be taking it all in stride. He sat with his hands in plain view and was regarding the situation with a wry look. He clearly had no intention of interceding in this tense moment. He was quite content to let Cunningham handle this.