Captain Joseph Briggs sat in the captain's chair aboard the
Dominant
. It was a Federation battleship, Arbiter class, which had been slated for decommission. It was because of Briggs' contacts within the Federation, which allowed him to purchase the frame of the ship. It was mostly panels and old wiring when he had acquired it. But he had the time and resources to refit the ship into a fearsome vessel once more.
Briggs listened to the voice who had told them to fuck off. She had refused to identify herself, but he knew who it was, as he'd heard her dulcet tones many times before. It was Inari Sunara, who was once his Wing Commander aboard the carrier,
Maelstrom.
He hadn't seen her since the day she had nearly beaten him to death.
"Communications?" he called out, getting the officer's attention.
"Yes, sir?"
"Triangulate where that transmission came from. I want to keep a lookout for the ship that told us to 'fuck off'!" the pot-bellied man growled.
"Aye, aye, sir!" the comms officer replied.
The rotund man thought about how he'd nearly had that woman once. She'd taken much of the drink she'd offered, and she was feeling the effects of the drugs. But the batch of Devil's Kiss hadn't dissolved fast enough, so instead of talking her into doing what he wanted, he tried to force her. That was a horrible idea, because him getting physical had woken her up, kicking the effects of the drugs.
She'd fought back fiercely, showing the man who'd been her commanding officer no mercy. Inari had stopped shy of killing him, which he was thankful for, but he'd made that woman pay. More than half the ship was in his pocket and they'd done an admirable job of dancing as he told them to. It had been a bit of a stretch in some ways, but he'd fabricated enough falsified evidence to have Inari dishonorably discharged from the Federation Navy.
If he hadn't acted as quickly as he'd did, she might have caught onto the fact that she wasn't the first. Inari wasn't the last either, but he had to be careful right after her discharge. It was a while before he felt safe enough to start up with his games again. He used drugs to seduce women in his command, turning them into doped up sexual playthings of his. It was something he'd done since his days at the academy. That was before he'd caught wind of a Federation investigator sniffing around.
He would have tried to do something about the investigator, but removing her would have been a dangerous move. Especially since his latest plaything was a senator's daughter, which he didn't know about until after he'd broken her. The girl had used her mother's maiden name, wanting to get ahead on her own merits, rather than her father's laurels. He knew that getting out while he still could, was his only option.
Briggs hated to leave behind his cushy life, but he hadn't gotten to where he was by taking risks. There was no way he'd be going to a Federation prison colony, especially not when he had important work to do. His employers had been generous and had moved him to his new command early. It wasn't ideal, but he still had many of the comforts he was afforded under the Federation.
Briggs turned his attention to the rest of the ship and how the crew were handling their stations. Many of them were former military, disgraced and thrown out of an organization they had served with pride. Just because they wanted some fun on their own terms is what got them thrown out. Many had turned to piracy and criminal activities to get by, after being ejected.
Like him, they were men who would make those who spurned them, pay dearly. This place, Veldhern, was just the first step. It was risky, but they had timed things perfectly, and had their own little game going. The first fleet which was the most powerful and well-seasoned group, was in drydock for repairs and maintenance, several systems away.
The second fleet, under Commodore Williams, was busy chasing a squad of decoys. Williams was a formidable and strong-willed commander but had an incessant hatred for pirates. That didn't mean that she was an utter fool though, as she required confirmation of a pirate settlement or base before acting. The squad was playing things up, doing what they could to keep her occupied, while his fleet slipped into the Veldhern system.
Ana Williams was the kind of woman Briggs would have loved to have made into one of his playthings. That was before he'd learned of how she dealt with anyone who tried to take 'liberties' with her. Last guy who'd put his hand on her uninvited, nearly had his arm torn off. She broke the arm in several places and destroyed his tendons. The officer required several surgeries just to use it again.
Afterwards, there had been a court martial and witnesses came to her defense, stating that the officer acted in an untoward manner. He was her direct superior and as a result, because of overwhelming evidence, they acquitted her of all charges. The officer, however, was prosecuted and stripped of both his command and his rank. By the time the Federation was done with him, he was shipped off to penal colonies.
Such a fate was one that Briggs had wanted to avoid, which was why he'd been careful. He wasn't careful enough though, as he recently heard that there was a bounty on his head. Briggs had checked back and saw that it had been posted by the senator and someone had smeared his name because of what the investigator had unearthed.
That wasn't the worst of it, as many other officers, all women who had been his playthings at one point, had come forward. It was a complete media scandal, one which the Federation had done an admirable job of containing. They had got out in front of the media frenzy and downplayed the scandal. That didn't mean that they abandoned the victims, though.
The ramifications of this resulted in a complete reorganization of the Federation Navy and Army. Briggs hadn't been the only who had slipped through the cracks and fooled the psychologists and psychiatrists. There had been dozens more, many of whom were in positions of command. The Federation quietly had those individuals removed, making it appear as though they'd taken early retirement.
In truth, they'd all been sent to one of the worst hellholes humanity could have conjured up. One of the worlds in question was called Tartarus, which was a hellscape, and that was putting things mildly. The world had once been a mining colony of humanity until the war between the Federation and Confederacy flared up again. It was called Phaeron back then and was on loan to the Federation from the UCW.
The Confederacy, seeing how well the Federation prospered from the resources of it, decided to take it for itself. What resulted was one of the longest and bloodiest battles in their histories. It was an even fight to begin with, but once the UCW got involved, the Confederacy executed one of the worst crimes in living memory. On orders, the entire fleet was to ram the planet's surface.
Ordinarily, that would have done little to the planet, but each ship made for active volcanoes. They fired upon them, sending every piece of ordinance they could into them, trying to make them erupt. It worked and once the ships were close enough; they dove straight into them. The resulting explosions set off a chain reaction in the planet itself, forcing every dormant volcano to become active in a matter of hours.
The amount of ash and toxic gas that was spewed into the air killed thousands before the world could be evacuated. That was well over seventy years ago and much of the ash and volcanic activity had settled since. But the world, which was being terraformed into a Gaia class planet, hadn't recovered. Since reclaiming it, it had become a prison world and a forced labour camp for prisoners.
To this day, it was the single greatest atrocity the Confederacy had ever committed. The Confederacy was required to cede at least ten percent of the territory they owned to the Federation. They initially balked at the idea, but violating a world in this fashion had not only attracted the ire of the UCW, but every member and empire in the galactic community. Reluctantly, they did as they were asked, and since then, relations with them have been strained.
"Captain?" the comms tech asked, breaking Briggs out of his thoughts.
"Yes?" the round man replied.
"We have a location on that signal. It came from a ship known as the
Darkstrider
, a registered merchant vessel," the tech told him, handing him a tablet.
"Excellent!" Briggs responded.
He looked over the pad, and a pensive look overtook his features. The
Darkstrider
, which had been an old
Pioneer
class exploration vessel, had been upgraded. It was more like a military frigate, with substantial upgrades made to it as a whole. Inari must have been doing well for herself as a merchant, if she was capable of affording such upgrades.
He'd have to question her directly once he had her begging for his mercy. The round man grinned, as he relished the thought of finally snatching the one that got away. He stroked his goatee, with lascivious thoughts running through his head, about what he'd do to her, once he had her. Briggs then started barking orders left and right, getting the fleet into attack position.
******************************
"You going to answer that?" Priya asked, looking Inari's way, as the comms system beeped.
"I guess I'd better," the middle eastern woman mused. "Hello?"
