by R. E. Graham
"Truthfully, my first, second, and third primary concerns with your pilots are that they serve me and Onyx diligently and that they are skilled. Decide who you want to fill those roles then bring the list of names to me."
“Aye, aye.”
Mikhail stood up from his seat, and Daena did likewise. "Now, I must do some askin' about these techs. You get on that list and get back to me in the next few rotations."
“Yes, Lord. I will,” the Major said as she bowed her head slightly then exited the office just before the pirate lord did.
She quickly walked off down the hall to the right while Mikhail went left.
So, I guess this will be my first real test as lord of Onyx. I need them to work faster. For all we know the Republic could be sending a War Carrier to Ko’Bac right now!
Despite the concern for the conversation he was about to have with the master technician, he did enjoy the long walk to the mech hangar in the warehouse. Several new faces of fellow Onyx pirates waved or smiled at Mikhail as he passed them. Word had spread about what happened to Yondo, and it seemed that no one really wanted to be on his bad side.
While he certainly hadn’t made an effort to be aggressive to anyone, he also made it clear that no one was going to deny his orders.
The acrid smell of oil and metal filled his nostrils as soon as he neared the repair gantries. One of the salvaged Sierra’s was undergoing extensive work as four techs had all sorts of panels open with wiring hanging out. Another two technicians were installing a new missile launcher arm onto one of the recovered Arbalest’s.
Mikhail actually stopped to admire the massive machine. The Arbalest was a fearsome sight with its long-range missile launchers for arms. It stood so tall it barely fit inside the repair station. At three full stories, it was easily the largest WarMech he had seen in his entire arsenal. However, he couldn’t help but wonder how expensive it was going to be to maintain a machine like that.
Aw geez, I’m already changin’…
He was shaken from his internal thoughts as a loud man began shouting over the noise of the repairs. “What in the void is goin’ on ‘ere?!”
Mikhail walked closer to the boisterous speaker to find Toni Baxter screaming at someone. While the master technician wore the typical clothing of any grease mechanic, the other man wore more traditional clothes.
“Look, I told you that it is goin’ to take a few rotations for us to get the new engine installed in your Sierra," Toni growled as if he had the conversation many times.
“I’ve got nothing to do around here Toni. At least let me work on her targeting computer,” the other man pleaded. “I’m bored out of my mind.”
The master technician, however, was not moved by the pilot's concerns. "That ain't my problem."
“That’s true, it isn’t,” Mikhail said jumping into the middle of the heated discussion.
Toni stood up straighter at the sight of the other man. “Lord, my apologies.”
“There’s no reason for that. What’s your name pilot?” the pirate lord asked.
“Kilo. Kilo Bright,” he replied as he realized who he was speaking to.
“What seems to be the problem here?” Mikhail asked with a serious face.
“I just wanted to be able to do some maintenance work on my WarMech, Lord. Not trying to cause nothin’.”
"Aye," Toni nodded to the pilot. "But you are just the same. You can't work on a mech with no power source, and we are too busy to rig up a temporary one."
“Be patient,” the pirate lord said as he looked back at the pilot. “I do appreciate your enthusiasm though. The techs have a lot of work on their plate.”
The master technician smacked his lips and was grateful for the mention of their workload.
Kilo reluctantly retreated from the area and headed off into the hangar. Toni watched as the pilot wandered away as Mikhail switched his focus to the master technician.
“Toni, I wanted to check in on things. Hadn’t heard from you in a few rotations.”
The older man wiped his forehead, clearing it of the sweat buildup. "Sorry about that Lord. Things have been crazy here. Have had to put in some really long hours."
A sharp noise caught Mikhail's attention, and he looked to his right to see a mechanic picking up a hand tool that he had dropped. Two other technicians were standing around talking while one other was working on tightening something inside a recovered Enforcer.
“I’m curious, is everyone putting in the same level of effort?”
Toni pursed his lips while he thought of how to respond. He rubbed the back of his head and laughed a little. “What do you mean Lord?”
“Well, it just seems that I see some of your crew working hard while others are…not.”
The master tech followed Mikhail’s eyes to the two men having a conversation while others completed tasks. One of the two began laughing hysterically at a joke. The laughter was so obnoxious that it shrieked above some of the noise of the others working.
"Oh, well…you see Lord…" Toni started to say, but Mikhail didn't want to hear any excuses.
The pirate lord strolled over to the two men with his arms crossed. A broad smile covered his face, and he appeared as though he was in a wonderful mood.
Time to make an example out of these two slackers.
"Hello, gentlemen. Must've been an awesome joke."
Both men looked at him, but neither seemed to realize who he was. "Yeah, it was funny," the one who had been laughing said sarcastically.
“That’s great. Really great,” Mikhail said as he motioned with his hands to everyone else in the hangar. “If it’s so good then why don’t you share it with the rest of us, so we can all get a good laugh in?”
“Why don’t you mind your own damned business?” the second man asked as he was getting very annoyed with this conversation.
Mikhail’s face warped from humor to bitter anger as he stepped forward and into both men’s faces. “This is my business!”
They were so startled by the verbal assault they each took a step back.
“Perhaps you two idiots didn’t get the message, you work for me now.”
Realizing their mistake their eyes grew very wide.
“My apology Lord…” the second began in an attempt to cover his rudeness.
However, the pirate lord wasn’t about to let them off easily. “If you are going to stay on base and eat my food, breathe my air, then you are damned well gonna pull your weight around here.”
At this point, everyone within earshot stopped what they were doing to watch the confrontation. Toni felt a mixture of anger and embarrassment as two of his people were getting chewed out by the new lord.
"You have orders to Finish these repairs not stand around while others have to carry your load. Otherwise, you can kick rocks. You will not diddle around and steal time from me."
The first man stammered his response, “Ye…yessir.”
Both men ran off and got to work while Mikhail slowly turned around, his face was bright red. Everyone else quickly went back to whatever they were doing not wanting to attract the fury of the pirate lord upon them.
The master technician carefully walked over to Mikhail. “I’m sorry Lord, I will make sure that everyone works harder.”
“Getting them to work at all would be a fantastic start,” the pirate lord said bitterly. “I want these WarMechs done within a week.”
“But Lord, we don’t have all the parts we need.”
One of the mechanics, a younger man with white colored hair, looked up from his station to watch as his CO got reprimanded publicly by the Lord. “Ha, serves that fat bastard right.”
Something out of the corner of his eye caught his attention. A different man who stepped out from behind a work station pulled out a small handgun out of his work uniform and aimed it at Mikhail.
Acting on impulse, the mechanic jumped to his feet and threw the heavy tool in his hand smacking the would-be shooter in the side of the head.
As the hitman fell to the floor, he raised his arm and fired his pistol.
Mikhail and the others ducked from the gunshot and searched for the source. In a flash, the mechanic hopped on the man and began wailing on his face. The attack was so devastating that the other man's nose was broken along with one of his teeth.
Several others rushed in and pulled the mechanic back while Mikhail retrieved the pistol.
“He was trying to shoot you in the back Lord!” the young man said as he breathed heavily from the adrenalin coursing through his body.
Mikhail eyed the man with the deadliest look he could muster. “And what in the void were you thinking of doing to me, hmm?” the pirate lord asked the bloodied man. “Just shoot me and be done with it?”
Even though his left eye began to swell shut, the attacker looked up at the pirate lord with his right eye filled with venom. “It worked for you, didn’t it?”
As the words processed into Mikhail’s mind, he stood up straight and clenched his jaw.
This is precisely what I was afraid of happening…
“It wasn’t the same for me.”
“Yes, it was!” the attacker shouted. “You just walked up and killed Yondo in cold blood.”
“You better shut up boy,” Toni said from behind the pirate lord. “It’s gonna get real bad for you if ya don’t.”
“Oh, it already is bad,” Mikhail said with a growl.
Hearing the gunfire Hern and a few other men rushed into the hangar with their guns drawn. Spotting the group, they realized that the incident was already contained.
“What in the ‘verse is goin’ on here?” Hernando asked as he stepped up beside the pirate lord and saw the beaten man.
“Guess this fella here thought it was a fine idea to try and gun me down in the back.”
The gunner slung his rifle behind his back and leaned down to grab the attacker by the collar. He hoisted him up then punched him as hard as he could in the stomach. The man bent over and spat blood on the oil-stained stonecrete floor.
“Mind if I ask him some questions?” Hern asked Mikhail.
“Sure. Do what you need to.”
As the man was escorted out of the area by Hern and the other armed men he turned back. “He will bring Onyx to ruin!”
One of the other gunmen used his rifle stock to smack the attacker in the sternum. “Shut up!”
Mikhail looked around the room, trying to read everyone else’s face. “Listen up and listen good. Yondo was a piece of garbage. I don’t care if you miss him or not, because I’m in charge now,” he said boldly as he thrust his thumb back at his heart. “You will do your job, or you can squat off!”
The crowd began to disperse while the pirate lord sought out the young mechanic. He found him at the back of the group flexing his hand. It was too hard to tell from where he was standing if some of the blood was his own or not.
“What’s your name kid?” Mikhail asked as he still held onto the pistol.
“Skarr Sarius, Lord,” he said as he stood up straighter.
“Sarius? Did you come from a wealthy family?”
Skarr shook his head. “No Lord. There was wealth somewhere in my bloodline, but that was back before the machine war.”
“I see,” the pirate lord said as he nodded. “Thank you for looking out for me.”
The young mechanic shrugged. "Just doin' my job, Lord. I don't miss Lord Horsh by any stretch. But it still isn't right to just shoot a man in the back."
“How long have you been a mechanic?”
“For eight cycles Lord. Been a big fan of WarMechs since I was a little kid,” Skarr said as he looked up at the recovered Enforcer off to his left. “Always wanted to pilot one.”
“Why haven’t you then?” Mikhail asked as he slid the pistol into his pants at the base of his back.
“I didn’t want to join the Republic military, so I never really got a chance. I’m good with fixin’ ‘em though, so I at least got this close.”
The pirate lord suddenly got an idea, and his face lit up some at the thought of it. "Well, I am in need of several mech pilots. If you're serious, you can speak with Major Wer and tryout."
Skarr's head quickly spun back around, and he grinned widely. "Seriously? Oh, thank you, Lord. I will, I'll speak to her today."
The pirate lord took several steps backward. “Haha, no problem.”
He turned around and headed out of the hangar, his face becoming increasingly angrier with every couple of steps. Toni sighed as the Lord left the area. He wasn’t ready to continue the heated conversation and was grateful that something came up to distract his boss from reaming him out.
Mikhail felt himself getting more and more worked up. After taking a few deep breaths, he yanked the radio free from his belt. Short range radios worked perfectly for pirates or other criminal groups. Using communicators meant that the call would go through local transmission towers where they could be more easily intercepted. Seeing as how the Onyx HQ was so out of the way and was located on Ko'Bac which was outside of the Republic he felt relatively fine using them.
He squeezed the button on the side of the device. “Lord Tarvus calling for Captain Deimos.”
He released the button and continued on his way. After a moment or so the fellow pirate spoke up.
“Deimos here, Lord.”
“I was just attacked in the hangar. I want to speak with you and the Duchess immediately in my office.”
“I will be there in ten minutes,” Deimos said with a neutral tone.
He doesn’t seem affected by the attempt on my life. Maybe he knows something…
“Make it five!” the pirate lord snarled as he clipped the radio back onto his belt.
Without knocking the door slid open and Rhonda rushed inside of the office. She genuinely appeared worried. “Are you okay?” she asked as she looked him up and down.
Mikhail held up his hand to ease her concern. “I’m fine. Thankfully someone saw the guy before he was able to shoot me and tackled him.”
The woman let out a visible sigh as she tried to calm herself. “Deimos told me what happened, and I ran right over.”
"Thanks, Rhonda. But I'm okay. Just really pissed."
Once again, the door opened, but this time it was Deimos. "Are you hurt Lord?" he asked as he stepped inside.
The pirate lord shook his head. “No, but it was very close.”
"Well, thankfully the attacker failed."
“Yeah, well he is being interrogated by Hernando,” Mikhail said as he leaned against his desk. “I’ll get my answers here soon enough. But right now, I want to know what in the frag happened back there. Why would one of my men attack me?”
“Without being there Lord, I don’t know if I could give a proper answer to that.”
The pirate lord’s face became very red. “Okay, how about this then. Have you heard anything in the pipeline that there are others that are upset?”
Rhonda looked at the Captain. He shook his head. “No Lord, I do not know of anyone in particular. However, I have heard that there is some concern amongst the men.”
“Concern?” the Duchess asked as she crossed her arms.
Mikhail held up his hand to signal her to not interject. “Why would they be concerned?”
Deimos cleared his throat. “Well Lord, from what I have heard there are some who were upset that we lost so many ships during the fighting. They may be worried that with the urge to focus on repairs that there could be more fighting soon.”
“How does that translate to me being targeted?”
"I don't have a good answer Lord," Deimos said as he placed his arms behind his back.
“Wha…what is this posture?” Mikhail asked as he moved his hand up and down. “Are you closing me off?”
“No Lord. I just don’t have much more information at the moment.”
“Why didn’t you bring it to my attention that there was this much discontent among my people?”
The Captain’s eyebrow
arched. “I didn’t know that it would mean that someone would actually try to harm you.”
“Well, you truly dropped the ball there!” Mikhail shouted. He took a moment to calm himself before he continued talking to Deimos. “Going forward, I need both of you to be my eyes and ears into the mood of the people. We aren’t part of the Republic or somethin’…so there isn’t exactly a chain of command where you don’t go and shoot an officer in the back!”
“I will Lord, and I apologize for my oversight.”
“It isn’t your fault Deimos…I’m just a little rattled,” the pirate lord said as he visibly lightened up. “I don’t enjoy being shot at. Especially when I don’t see it comin’.”
“Agreed,” Deimos said as he too loosened up.
Mikhail looked up at the ceiling of the office and sighed. “How is the Midnight?”
"She is ready to take off as soon as you wish. She currently stands at eighty-seven percent completed repairs, but she is more than solid for a trip to Dusk."
“Good. Good,” the pirate lord said as he nodded to himself. “I want any of the mechs ready to be loaded up as well. Just in case we get some surprises.”
“Yes, Lord.”
“May I share an idea?” Rhonda asked as she raised a finger.
“Yes. Go ahead,” Mikhail said as he looked over at his counselor.
“Everyone has been working so hard lately. Perhaps it would be a good idea to have some kind of celebration or somethin’ to let the men blow off some steam?” the Duchess suggested.
Deimos nodded approvingly. “That would probably do everyone some good.”
“Then it’s settled. Rhonda, can you oversee this and break out some drinks?”
“Consider it done,” she said happily.
“Alright, thank you both.”
The Duchess and the Captain both left the room, excited to go but for different reasons.
I need to reel all of this in before someone else gets the bright idea of tryin’ to shoot me…
He pressed himself off of the desk and exited the office. His mind wandered thinking about how close he was to death and how he felt about it. Surprisingly he wasn’t shaken like he thought he would have been. Yes, he was furious at the attempt, but the events the past few weeks had changed him.
