Blue Star Enterprises

Arkonis ground his teeth in annoyance from inside his powered armor suit. He had seen one of the shuttles go down as his shuttle was landing on the far side of the facility. The crash was likely due to pilot incompetence. He was certain all the people aboard were dead. And if the pilot had somehow survived, he would have shot the man anyway. Their deaths were inconsequential, there were always new raiders on Haven willing and able to join a crew. Hell, he could even pick up more raiders on the other pirate outposts scattered around the outside of STO space. But a shuttle… A shuttle cost him money. And no matter what his crews might like to think, everything they used belonged to him.

He made a mental note to replace the leader of that crew. His third in command preferred to play captain instead of raiding and never got his hands dirty unless he had to or was ordered to. Arkonis preferred to let his people do as they pleased, it kept them happier most of the time, but it seemed he had been too lenient. Perhaps he needed to take a more hands-on approach like his brother. His life would be so much easier if all of his crews were led by thick-headed idiots like his second-in-command, Zade. Zade might be a loose cannon and a threat to his role as leader, but that’s what made him such an effective pirate. And idiots were much easier to control.

The shuttle touched down and his people raced toward the door to force it open. Unlike Zade, who he could already hear firing into the facility, Arkonis preferred an approach that damaged as little as possible. He could make money from even unexpected things like door controllers, so why damage them if he didn’t need to?

By the time he strode into the building, his people had already dealt with the few guards at this entrance. He had picked this side specifically because it showed the fewest signs of activity. They would have quite the trek to get to where the action and likely the best loot was, but he didn’t care. He got a cut of everything anyway and he only had one other goal here.

“Send out the seekers, I want to know where our quarry is.”

The man he addressed nodded and dumped out a sack of orb drones. Then he began tossing them into the air after activating the little devices. Someone dragged over a crate the defenders had been using to hide behind and Arkonis took a seat on it while his people monitored the drone feeds. He wasn’t about to go searching this place on foot, it would be like looking for credits in an asteroid belt.

The building shook and everyone turned as dusty air blew past them. It wasn’t a strong breeze, but this place shouldn’t have any breezes. Arkonis knew a shockwave when he saw it.

“What the hell was that?” he demanded to know.

“I don’t know, boss.”

Arkonis turned to the man and he flinched. “Find out!”

These local idiots shouldn’t have any active weapons systems after his EMP. But if they got one of the external railguns working, their liftoff could be in danger.

“We managed to triangulate the point of origin,” the tech said.

Arkonis focused on the projection that moved to the front of the holo display. It showed a scene of carnage. An entire team of pirates; dead inside a room filled with expensive-looking manufacturing machines. And if he wasn’t mistaken, the charred armor lying on the ground – covered in gore – belonged to his second in command, Zade.

The drone zipped to the back of the workshop where a cobbled-together railgun sat near a set of exposed wires from the local power grid.

“Pack it up, we’re leaving,” he stated as he began to stand.

Before anyone could reply, there was a loud crack followed by a much stronger shockwave. This time it originated from outside the facility

He rushed out the door and looked up in the sky, just in time to see one of the ships hovering in orbit burst apart as something slammed into it. It was one of the smaller pirate ships, but still.

Arkonis pressed the radio button on his suit. “Move the fucking ships out of orbit! They have a railgun online!”

There was no response to his command, but the ships started getting smaller quickly. The idiots should have been paying attention this entire time, then they would have seen the gun activating. The ships weren’t fast enough. The massive ground-based weapon fired again, sending the hypersonic round tearing through yet another vessel.

Arkonis screamed in inarticulate rage and stormed back into the facility. He couldn’t order the ships in orbit to fire down on the surface, those idiots were just as likely to kill him as they were to hit their target.

“Find me the gods damned control room. NOW!”

***

When Alexander finally heard the orbital railgun fire, he let out a quiet sigh of relief. The attack wasn’t over by any means, but the one working gun would limit the pirates’ options.

He was approaching another gunfight. It was clear by the growing sounds of weapons firing back and forth.

When he rounded a corner, he spotted a group of twenty locals behind a makeshift barricade. They had somehow gotten their hands on some of the pirates' guns and were using them to keep another group of pirates pinned down at the far side of the hallway at an intersection. What he wasn’t expecting to see was Eva Wu leading the defense.

The woman must have heard him coming because she ducked away from the battle and leveled the gun she was holding on him. “Alexander!” she exclaimed. “Why are you out here? You should be with your daughter.”

“I could ask you the same thing.”

“I’m just doing my part,” she stated casually.

“I can see that,” he glanced down at the gun she was holding.

She smirked. “This isn’t my first tussle with pirates.” She glanced over at his cart, “And maybe not yours either.”

“They attacked my workshop, I got lucky. Do any of your people need guns or ammo?”

She whistled, the sound cut through the noise of battle and three people dashed toward them in a crouch as the return fire subsided for a bit.

“What’s up, Eva?” one of the men asked.

“Distribute the weapons to anyone who needs one. And top off with any ammo that’s compatible.”

One of the guys attempted to lift the launcher, but it was way too heavy. Alexander walked over and easily picked it up, earning some whistles of approval from the gathered people.

“How many rounds you got for that thing?” Eva asked.

“I’m honestly not sure. I kinda just stuffed everything on the cart and hurried over to the closest fight.”

They quickly counted out ten rounds.

“If you don’t mind, could you clear out the far end of this hallway with them? I fear some of the pirates are trying to flank us, but if we leave this spot, they will simply rush the barricade.”

“Gladly,” Alexander said, walking over to the barricade without a worry.

Eva tried to stop him, but he watched her pause as the pirates started firing on him. Their bullets seemed to stop in mid-air until he passed, and then they fell to the ground, all their momentum lost. He aimed the large grenade launcher down the hall and fired three times.

The pirates either didn’t realize what was going on or were too stupid to seek cover. But the hallway went eerily silent after Alexander’s exchange.

“What was that?” Eva finally said, running up to him.

He shrugged. “Just a feature I learned about recently.”

The woman looked like she wanted to know more, but she simply nodded. “Uh-huh. Thanks for the help. Now we can start pushing the pirates back. Maybe we can even link up with more security teams.”

“I’ll leave you to it, like you said, I should be looking for my daughter.”

“Good luck, and stay safe, Alexander.”

“You too, Eva.”

***

“Sir, we found something!” one of the techs exclaimed.

“If it’s not the weapons control room, it better be damn good!”

“…It’s the little girl. The one you said we could use as leverage.”

Finally, some good news. That damn railgun had been firing every twenty seconds and he was unsure of the status of his fleet because these damn walls were disrupting radio communications. “Where?”

The man presented a map with a glowing path. “Two of you guard this door. The rest, with me.”

If he couldn’t find that control room, a hostage would be an acceptable alternative.

His people raced through the winding halls of this massive complex, avoiding or ambushing defenders when they could. But the resistance was starting to increase as they made their way deeper inside. Instead of running into teams of defenders with only pulse rifles, they started running into scattered groups of locals with scavenged pirate weapons. He knew they were pirate weapons because the vast majority of them had kill tally marks on them.

Arkonis was so angry that this raid was going sideways that he crushed one of the weapons in his augmented grip.

“We’re almost there. Pick up the pace!”

The girl in question and a slightly older boy with her were running for all they were worth since spotting the drone trailing them. But they were children. They couldn’t outrun adults forever.

His raiders came around a corner and he spotted his quarry just turning down the next hallway. He smiled wickedly and raced after them, not bothering to wait for his people who were far slower than he was in his augmented armor.

He rounded the corner and slowed to a stop. The kids were running toward another target he had been looking for. The robot.

Cursing, he rushed forward. A useless cargo robot was no match for his state-of-the-art armor. He doubted even the STO military had armor as advanced as his. Hell, he knew they didn’t. When the STO turned down the outrageously expensive contract for this armor, the company that made it, turned to the private sector for sales. Plenty of corporate bigwigs wanted the best of the best, so they actually made more money that way. It was easy to get them to sell a pair of the suits to him. More specifically, his shell company. It was pretty clear the company he had purchased the armor from had not done their due diligence and looked into his company’s records. His company’s records wouldn’t have passed even minor scrutiny. Or maybe they did and simply didn’t care, most STO companies only cared about money. They didn’t care where it came from.

He almost laughed when the robot told the children to keep running. The thing raised the grenade launcher it had taken off of his second in command at him and pulled the trigger. When the weapon failed to fire, Arkonis laughed. “Best armor and EW suite money can buy. Don’t worry though. I’ll make sure your adopted daughter remains alive and mostly unharmed. You just need to turn yourself over to me.”

Arkonis didn’t know or care if his words had gotten through to the man behind the machine. His EW module had probably fried the dumb thing's electronics already, but he would know that his daughter had been captured. That would be enough.

He went to skirt around the inert robot when a hand shot out, wrapping around his bicep. Arkonis was jerked to a halt so fast it felt like his arm had almost been ripped out of its socket.

“Wha- What?” he asked as the robot lifted him into the air with little effort.

“What did you say about my daughter?”

Arkonis didn’t have time to respond as the robot smashed him against the floor like a child throwing a temper tantrum with a stuffed animal. He groaned as the armor started spitting out damage notifications in the hud.

“Nobody will lay a finger on my daughter… ever!”

Arkonis pulled his pistol out and fired it point-blank into the robot's torso. He wasn’t sure why it was still active but the armor-piercing rounds should be enough to damage the robot so he could free himself. Then he could finish it off. The bullets ricocheted off whatever material the exterior of the robot was made of, only leaving small chips on the surface.

Before he could fire again, The robot crushed his hand around the gun and swung him into the wall with a reverberating boom. The impact gel absorbed some of the damage, but he coughed, and blood speckled the inside of his armored faceplate. If he didn’t free himself or disable this damn robot, he wasn’t going to last long.

Then the sweet sound of gunfire erupted. He smiled despite the pain. His people had arrived.

***

Alexander held the armored man, his rage over the man’s threat not yet quelled. But he wasn’t blinded by it like he had been when Yulia was injured aboard Petrov Station. He kept one eye on the fleeing pair of children. When he saw the pirates rounding the corner and raising their weapons, he stepped into the hallway to block any possible bullets from hitting the kids.

The pirate hung loosely in his hand, but even he was saved from the bullets as Alexander’s defense field stopped them. It was good to know that it wasn’t unbeatable. The three small dark spots in his vision proved that.

When the kids finally turned another corner, Alexander focused on what was to come next. He wound his arm as fast as he could and threw the armored form at the pirates before he rushed forward. What happened next was not a fight.

He stood there, surrounded by dead bodies. The pirates hadn’t even lasted a full minute after he crashed into them. The armored one had taken the most effort to kill, but he had been knocked senseless after Alexander hurled him like a baseball into the pirates. Even then, it took effort to ensure the man inside the armor was dead, but the crushed helmet was enough proof for him.

Alexander was still angry despite the threat being eliminated. He was angry they had dared to try and harm Yulia, angry that they had forced him to kill. They needed to die, he knew that. That didn’t bother him. The fact that the universe seemed to be conspiring to change him into something he didn’t want to be was what pissed him off.

All he ever wanted to do was find out how he ended up in this body and have a pleasant life. Then the corporations got involved, stealing his invention and forcing him to reevaluate his goals. Alexander hadn’t even had much time to do that when mercenaries attacked him and injured Yulia all to get their greedy little hands on a few weapons. So he had to reevaluate again. But the universe wasn’t done with him yet. The Petrov Station Council decided to stick its nose into his business.

He should be more angry about all of that, but each setback only pushed him to greater heights. If it was only him on the receiving end of this bad karma, he probably wouldn’t be nearly as upset. But they had intended to harm his daughter. That was unacceptable.

It was clear by the man’s words that they were here specifically for him. This put to rest any doubts he had that there was a traitor on Eden’s End.

Alexander could still hear the orbital railgun firing, which meant the attack wasn’t over yet. He decided to catch up to Yulia and Markus and find a safe spot for them while the rest of the facility was cleared.