A Special Thankyou to
@bullethead for his editing of these chapters to make them more presentable. You rock dude.
Jumpship 'Lucky Dip'
Cooperland Star System
"This place is dead."
"And buried." Agent Groves looked at the readings coming through from the refitted sensors.
"Someone nuked this place flat."
"That's the Succession Wars for ya!" Pieter Schwartzman, former Captain and current cultural advisor to the EIA recon mission tried to make it sound casual, like spilling milk. "They were handing out nukes like free candy from an unmarked crawler."
"Radioactive decay confirms the timeline, about two centuries." Commander Arron Freeman read off the data. "The area near the former settlement is still hot, but the rest of the planet is perfectly habitable."
"Something for the Explorer divisions then." Groves felt a little lighter. "I'd call this an excellent potential colony."
"Maybe, the Survey ships can figure it out." Freeman set the idea aside. "We're not here for a full planetary survey, a preliminary long range scan is enough."
"Fair enough." Groves shrugged, still feeling increasingly excited. "Hell of a thing though, perfectly good planet out there."
"Just a little bit irradiated." Pieter chipped in, oblivious to his input being unwanted. "Almost as good as new!"
Freeman ignored the previous owner of what was now his command. The Lucky Dip was a disaster from the outside, the hull worn and patched in a thousand places, but inside Earth Force had done a superb job stripping it down to the basics and replacing a lot of the old fittings with newer components. They had left the core systems intact, the power, propulsion and computer cores as nobody wanted to mess with those yet, but life support, sensors and communications had all been significantly upgraded. They had also added a few small hidden pulse cannons as a weapon of last resort.
One thing they hadn't changed was the jump drive, the only currently functional version in Earth hands. Doctor Ginelli, true to her word had made a functional small scale version in the lab, a scaled down copy of the Kearny Fuchida principles as she could see them, but until she found a way to scale it up the Lucky Dip remained unique. Even so this mission had been considered vital enough the deployment of this priceless asset was approved by the President.
Earth Force had tapped another element to the mission. On the way to the Tortuga Dominions the jumpship would have to stop off at three different star systems, all uninhabited. While the ship recharged its Jump drives using a massive solar sail to absorb energy from the local sun, a process taking at least six days, the mission would conduct a brief survey of the region and look for points of interest. Habitable worlds were certainly interesting, but of infinitely greater value were signs of Quantium 40.
"I'll leave a beacon." Freeman headed over to one of the control consoles newly fitted to the bridge, the clean and shiny Earth Force technology standing out from the simpler original components around it. "The Explorer ships can use it to find their way here on the last part of their journey."
That was another element of the mission, the Jumpship was also carrying a cargo bay filled with hyperspace beacons with orders to drop them at any location worth exploring. A single beacon wasn't enough to allow a hyperspace jump from Earth, not over the dozen or so lightyears, but did offer an end point for the slow laborious task of laying out a beacon path the Explorer ships were working through. Unfortunately the jumpships could only hop star to star, they couldn't lay the entire path, but it was at least a little help.
"How long until we can jump again?"
"About an hour to be safe sir."
"Any sign of useful minerals?" Freeman phrased the point carefully, he didn't need Pieter hearing the word 'quantium' and getting ideas about it. That was still something unique to the EA.
"No sir." Came the disappointing but not unexpected report. "Shall I transmit the sensor logs back to Command?"
"Do so, then begin Jump Prep."
The lack of Quantium 40 was a massive issue, Earth had a strategic reserve sufficient for about a hundred jump engines, or far fewer jump gates. While that sounded like a lot there was no reliable way to replace those stocks, once they were gone they were gone forever along with all the strategic advantages an alternate FTL method brought. It was likely the Quantium element existed, it had probably just been classified as dangerous and useless by the locals, but finding it at home had been extremely difficult. Out here...
"Signal away sir."
"Very good, begin calculations for our next destination. Two more jumps to Tortuga." Freeman tightened his lips at the idea. "Then we see how lax their security is."
New Haiti
Tortuga Dominion
Two weeks later.
The stolen dropship hung above the planet, the mildly aerodynamic brick awaiting a bit of free sky to make its dash to the surface. There wasn't anything resembling formal air traffic control, this planet wasn't sophisticated enough for that, a pilot just saw a gap and dived for the dirt.
"So when we hit the deck, just leave it all to me." Pieter tried to get the rest of the team to go along with him. "I know the planet, I know a lot of the locals, I can get us all what we want and then back home safe."
"Because you are an honest trader." Jiang Li, the mission commander harbored a healthy skepticism. "Who would never betray his employers?"
"Who was that guy who hired you that you let eat plasma cannon?" Groves wondered innocently. "The guy who's dropship were in right now?"
"That was different, nobody liked him, least of all me." Pieter beamed his trademark golden smile. "But you guys are different, firstly I actually quite like you, second, I am genuinely terrified of what you'll do to me."
"Good." Li nodded. "But you forgot something."
"Really? What's that?"
"If you do right by us and we get the President to pardon you, which we might," Li explained, "then you get to live on our planet. Fresh running water, clear blue skies, good food, nobody trying to shoot you in the back... think about it."
"That, errr, well, yeah... that." Pieter had to genuinely stop for a minute. "I mean if I turned you in I'd be rich, I could live like a king... but king of a shithole."
"Kings don't usually live long either." Li added. "And you still couldn't buy with all the money on this planet what we'll give you for free. A good life, and if we like you enough a job with us. You won't need to worry about anything for the rest of your life. How much is that worth?"
The ship lurched before Pieter could answer, the dropship seeing it's opportunity and taking it.
"All stations better strap in, we'll be going in hot." The pilot calmly announced.
"Express elevator to hell..." Groves began before Li cut him off.
"Yeah, yeah, we all know. Buckle up."
Earth Force had made sure it had assigned its best, and that usually meant craziest, assault shuttle pilots to this mission. The Leopard class dropship was far larger than the standard Hades class attack shuttle and the pilots had been training extensively to get a feel for the bigger flying brick, but each had found the new toy exhilarating. It could take far more punishment than their shuttles and they greatly enjoyed pushing it to the edge of its envelope.
Consequently the descent was rapid to say the least, the dropship maintaining supersonic velocity until the last possible moment before the pilots snapped the nose up, blasted the retro thrusters and let aerobraking do the rest. It was very loud and showy, but also not out of place. A careful precise approach might have looked too professional, like the ship was being flown by military officers and not mostly drunken pirates. Ironically drawing attention also let them fade into the rest of the noisy random background ships putting down on the outskirts of the main settlement.
"Okay." Pieter exhaled, his fingers in a death grip around his seat harness. "All your pilots fly like that?"
"They do if you want to avoid Minbari air patrols." Groves shrugged. "Long story."
"Alright." Li squared up for the task. "Alpha team will head into town and acquire up to date intel however we can. Bravo team will standby at the ship and be ready to bail us out if things go sideways."
Bravo team in this instance being a platoon of commandos with a quartet of fast attack trucks.
"Quick and clean, Pieter, you stay close to Groves. Mr Bester, you stay close to me."
The final member of their team gave a small smile and nod, a perpetual smirk never far from his features. Pieter wasn't entirely sure what this guys deal was, but it was evident nobody on the ship was especially happy with him.
"You're up Pirate Piet, take point, we'll follow your lead."
New Haiti was just as wet and humid as he remembered, stepping into ankle deep mud a timely reminder of why he had chosen a life of space faring. The spaceport, as the muddy field called itself, was a mess of random ships, most of them small, all of them sitting wherever they wanted. The only common factor was they all had to pay a tithe to the local boss if they wanted to sit and do business here.
"We better talk to the dockmaster." Pieter pointed at a grimy building at the edge of the field standing in front of the eclectic town. "You bring the bribe money?"
"I got it." Groves nodded. The team had dressed as Pieter suggested, hardy but worn clothing and unkempt hair. They were all experienced field agents and could alter their body language and attitude to avoid standing out, but they were still heavily reliant on Pieter for culturally cues. That was a potential vulnerability none of them were thrilled about.
"You!" A booming voice bellowed across the field. "You scrawny shitbeetle! Get over here!"
Pieter put on his best smile and turned to face the voice. "Brad! Have you lost weight? You look great!"
"You pussed out! How the fuck are you back here?" Brad was a fat but clearly strong brawler, bad tempered, badly dressed and clearly not happy. "You owe me! You said...!"
"It's all cool, check it out." He gestured to Groves. "My new assistants."
Brad gave them all a menacing look. "I don't care, you owe..."
"Brad here is the Dockmaster, and he's not going to list our arrival."
"The hell you talking about?"
"You won't list our arrival, because here is double what I owe you." He gestured to Groves who put a hefty bag in his hands. "All in nice untraceable gold coins. Gold Brad, actual gold."
The big man took the bag, had a look in, blinked, then hung it on his belt.
"Welcome to New Haiti random people I've never seen before."
"Attaboy Brad, you were always were smart."
Pieter led them past the Dockmaster, Brad pausing a second to call after them.
"Hey, that was Tomas' dropship wasn't it?"
"One of them, yeah."
"So he ain't coming back then?"
"Only as a dream, or vapour on the solar winds."
"Huh." Brad nodded. "Good, I owed him ten grand. Enjoy your stay."
The settlement itself was barely standing, its square hastily assembled buildings mostly uncared for showing a patchwork of repairs slapped on with no real skill. Some places were abandoned, some collapsed or burned out and just left where they had fallen. Despite that the place was busy, its crushed stone roads, dirty and littered, thronged with people. Most seemed to be just as shady as Pieter, but considerably more drunk.
"This is a bandit town, where pirates trade their spoils and set up the next job." Pieter gave them the tour. "Sometimes you get farmers selling food but not so much, they usually stick to market towns."
"How big is this place?" Li asked, keeping his eyes moving from threat to threat.
"About fifty thousand people, decent enough." Pieter led them through the streets. "Tortuga itself is about a quarter million."
"Not huge colonies then?"
"Big enough for here. It's all either pirates or farmers, and the farmers can barely feed themselves." Pieter shrugged. "These aren't great worlds."
They moved a little further through the streets until the ragged buildings finally opened up into a central plaza, the administrative centre of the planet such as it was. The building had at least been painted a few times which marked it as superior to anywhere else they had seen so far, but what really caught their eye was a massive metal bipedal warmachine crouched beside the structure.
"Holy shit." Groves whispered.
"Yeah, yeah." Pieter misinterpreted the exclamation. "It looks like crap next to all your shiny SLDF machines I bet, but it can still fight."
"A Battlemech." Bester recalled from the scant data recovered from the Jumpship. "Did we all know they were that big?"
"It's only a medium." Pieter shook his head. "You guys never seen one close up?"
"We aren't army." Samantha set up a convenient lie. "They get bigger?"
"Yeah, sure, there's a whole bunch on Tortuga. Dozens of them."
"And they're good in a fight?" Bester asked.
"Of course they are, you guys really don't get around much do you?"
They stopped in front of a worn looking shop, Pieter turning to grin at them, an expression so common now it meant nothing. "This is it. Walt's Emporium."
"This?" Li glanced at the building. "What does he sell?"
"Cigarettes." Pieter answered. "And information on the side. If you want something, he knows it."
Li wasn't convinced but had nowhere else to start. "Alright, Sam, Bester, with me. Groves, stay out here and keep an eye open. You too Piet."
"You don't want me to introduce you guys? Negotiate?"
"Mr. Bester is all the negotiator we need." Li opened the door. "I don't think we'll be long."
The trio headed in leaving Pieter and Groves to hang around outside and watch the activity in the plaza. It was busy, but there was a definite lack of vehicles, just a few grimy looking trucks chugging past mostly loaded with bandits.
"Not much to do out here huh?" Groves peered around. "Apart from the booze."
"Not much, I mean we don't got a bunch of TV like nicer places get." Pieter related. "But people don't come here to watch TV."
"There much money in piracy?"
"Sure, if you are good enough or scary enough." Pieter watched a gang of louts yelling amongst themselves. "Mostly though it's low pay and a lot of getting dead. Worst ain't even running into an armed gunship, it's the other pirates."
"No honour among thieves?"
"Not out here, if you're weak you're dead, or worse."
He nodded toward a group of people in raggedy clothes, even for this planet they looked in awful health. They were shifting rocks onto a horse drawn cart, it was like a scene from centuries ago if not for the robotic warmachine parked just beyond.
"What's up with them?"
"Slaves." Pieter said simply. "Sometimes when places get raided they take the people as well as the cargo."
Groves gave Pieter a sideways look. "Slavery? Seriously?"
"See for yourself."
It was hard to deny it, the gaggle of worn out men toiled while a pair of brawny bandits directed them, each holding a hefty stick to administer beatings.
"Why take slaves?"
"Labourers, cheap workers to plough the fields." Pieter's face was blank. "If they take women, well, that's for a different type of ploughing."
"And nobody stops this?"
"Who would? The Davions? They can't garrison every planet and never react fast enough." Pieter shrugged. "They won't invade here, these planets are worthless, they need those armies watching the real threats. Just the way it is."
The door opened behind them, the eternally smug Bester leaving the shop sorting through a handful of datacards. Pieter had to suppress a gasp.
"How much did you pay him?"
"I was very convincing." Bester put away the data, the other two following. "We should head back to the ship."
"Agreed, lets get this stuff uploaded and transmitted back home." Li reassembled the group.
"We'll stay here a week or so, monitor traffic and local forces, then see if command wants anything else from us."
"We may have something to discuss when we get back." Groves lowered his voice. "Things are worse out here than we guessed."
"We'll send everything back to Earth including our personal reports." Li looked to the battlemech. "And observations on that thing."
Earthdome
Geneva
"That would be the full report." Vic Chapel concluded, for a change the Presidential conference room far emptier than usual. "We still have people on site if we need anything more specific, but my assessment is that there's little else we can learn right now."
"Slavery? Piracy? A real bandit kingdom?" President Levy had trouble believing it. "How far has humanity fallen here?"
"No more than back home." General Denisov remained grim. "Given opportunity the worst of us will find a way to indulge their nature. It appears there is no one to punish these pirates, or to free their captives."
"Because the local powers lack the ability, or lack the willpower?"
"Perhaps both." Chapel answered. "The up to date geopolitical information we acquired confirms that the big players, the Succession states, are in a constant stand off with each other. It is unlikely any of them can deploy a punitive expedition against this pirate kingdom."
"Despite pirates kidnapping their citizens for slavery?"
"There have been attempts, but the ability of even the biggest nations to project meaningful power is scant." Denisov shook his head. "They have no warships, their navy is limited to system patrol ships. They don't have the scientific or industrial power to make more, and without them power projection becomes extremely difficult."
"The damage inflicted in past wars was almost total, we need more information but galactic society has regressed considerably, in many ways they are behind us despite being nearly a thousand years older." Chapel explained. "And billions are paying the price for it."
"Is there anything we can do?" Levy asked.
"That would be your decision to make Madam President."
There was of course one obvious thing she could do, send in the Marines. It would normally be the obvious answer to Raiders and Pirates, especially those who took slaves. But these weren't strictly speaking her people, and if she did intervene she would have to see the job to the end. The complete destruction and pacification of the Tortuga Dominion.
"What would it take to send a mission to New Haiti?" She asked. "And maybe beyond?"
"About eight months to lay a beacon path." Denisov had already checked with the Explorer Division anticipating this line of questioning. "We have sufficient military forces for an attack, while our fleet was massively reduced by the Minbari we have enough operational ships to take and hold several targets."
"And ground forces?"
"Our armies are ready and available."
"Can they win?" Levy asked the real question. "Regressed or not there's enough technology laying around that random pirates have access to military grade weaponry and vehicles. All of which are centuries more advanced than our vehicles."
"It is impossible to say for sure, but we have orbital supremacy and I'd put the training and fighting spirit of our men and women above any pirates." Denisov displayed no doubt or question. "This is a worthy mission, and after so much grief fighting the Minbari maybe what we need is a genuinely good fight for the right reason against a purely evil enemy."
"If we commit, we'll have to take them all, all six planets in the cluster." Chapel warned. "Thats a major campaign, the populations aren't huge but these pirates are very well armed."
"And it will take months to set up beacons across that region." Denisov added. "Those planets are a fair distance apart."
"But they are temperate habitable colonies, run down but if we get rid of the pirates I think the locals will see us as liberators bringing them a far better life." Chapel noted more optimistically. "We need to expand, increase our resources and industry. We won't stay hidden forever and we need to be ready for contact with the real big boys."
"Taking out a bunch of pirates preying on the locals might even give us some goodwill." Levy considered. "Improve our position in any diplomacy."
"Returning any slaves or captives that want to go home would be a good policy." Chapel reasoned. "If you give the go order Madam President."
"Be aware Ma'am that people will die in this operation, potentially a lot of people." Her senior General emphasized to make sure the point was clear. "We will take casualties."
"But in so doing destroy a slave state on our doorstep, liberate millions, and expand our influence." Levy considered that very carefully. It was morally right and offered tangible benefits, but if they were wrong it could be another blood soaked disaster.
In the end though Levy was one to look for the good, not the bad, and even now after everything she couldn't change her heart.
"Make your plans General. As soon as the beacons are placed, we liberate those worlds."
