Galaxy of Empires- Space Pirates Episode #1 (10 page)

After a few chuckles, they begin heading
north toward their ship. It takes them about 15 minute of hiking
through this rough terrain to make it to the clearing where there
ship is parked. They make their way across the field and see Cogg
putting away tools and welding equipment. They reach ship and Cogg
sees Meek with a plant wrapped around his waist with a long gluey
mystery item stuck to the captain that is dragging behind him.

Cogg says, “What the...?”

Meek cuts him off, “Not a word.” As he walks
inside the ship, the crew follows behind him with a few chuckles
and grins.

Che asks, “Did you fix it?”

Cogg replies, “Should be good to go.”

“Great. Let’s get off this stinking
planet.”

Meek goes to the tiny infirmary room where
Sean is cleaning up. The rest of the crew goes to the bridge and
prepares for takeoff.

Sean says, “What the hell happen to you? Get
up on the table face down.” He puts on gloves and gets out the
medical scanner.

Meek says, “Giant frogs. Can you remove
this?”

Sean scans the Captain’s body with the
scanner and says, “Yes, but it will take a few minutes.” He pulls
out a laser scalpel and cuts of the tongue. Then he sprays the area
with some liquid and the rest of the tongue parts still stuck fall
off.

“That was the easy part. The leaf you were
using is Poison Jun Mack. You will have a nasty rash in the area of
contact for a couple of days. Use this lotion every four hours,”
Sean instructs.

Meek grumbles, “I can’t get a break.
Thanks.”

Ship’s intercom activates, and Che says, “Got
three ships headed our way, and we are ready for takeoff.”

“Get us out of here. Those are probably the
drug smugglers we just ripped off,” Meek says, rubbing lotion on
his private areas. The ship’s engines activate and the ship begins
to ascend upward.

Mcloud says, “Wolfkin cargo ship, small C
class, and two Wolfkin fighters, type A. All of them are pirates;
no ship registry. Fighters are headed our way and will engage us
right as we leave the atmosphere.”

“Python!” Che yells trying to enter in
navigation plot for jump speed and pilot at the same time.

“I am on it,” Python says, sitting in the
gunner’s seat above the bridge. He swings around with the twin rail
guns pointing behind them. He cocks both of them and targets one of
the incoming ships just waiting for them to get in range. The ship
leaves the planet’s atmosphere and heads to the jump point.

Mcloud says, “They just launched two
missiles; impact in 10 seconds.”

Python begins firing a hail of projectile
tracers flooding the rear area and striking one of the incoming
missiles, exploding it on impact. Che banks left and barrel rolls,
but the second missile hits the port side wing tip and detonates on
the energy shield. The explosions cause the ship to spin out of
control.

Mcloud shouts, “Shields are gone!”

Che desperately tries to regain helm control
as the ship the spirals out into space. The two fighters close in
while firing energy weapons but miss the spinning ship. Che regains
control and dips downward in a looping fashion. Python’s guns ring
out with a vengeance, catching one the fighters banking out to the
left in an attempt to jet over the top of their ship. He nails the
cockpit area with hundreds of rounds, killing the pilot. The
fighter spins out of control, catching fire, and begins hurling
down to the planet.

The other fighter reacquires his target and
fires energy weapons at the ship’s starboard side. Che hooks right
and upward and yells, “Crazy Ivan!” Python actually knows which way
Che will turn next and aims his guns where the fighter should be
after the next maneuver. He rotates in his chair and aims up and
the left as the ship turns to the right. The fighter follows their
ship and turns right into a hail of rail gunfire just as the
fighter releases another missile. The fighter is hit badly, the
engine is on fire, and the fighter disengages combat, limping off
toward the planet. The missiles slams into the cargo area of their
ship, blowing a huge hole in the back.

Mcloud shouts, “Cargo bay is open to space!
All of our supplies are gone!”

Che says, “Jumping.” The ship enters light
speed.

Meek says, “Status?” as he walks in, feeling
itchy in his groin area.

Mcloud informs, “Cargo bay is gone along with
supplies in there. Checking other systems now.”

Meek grumbles, “Figures. I have been taking
it in the ass all day today, so why not the ship, too.”

“I had just restocked the galley, so we had
about two weeks of food,” Chad says.

Che says, “We lost about half of our
supplies. The rest was restocked in the appropriate areas of the
ship, depending on what it was.”

Meek says, “Head to Laughing Skull. We need
to restock and see about repairs,” Meek orders.

“Roger that.”

Mcloud’s leg pops off and hits the
ground.

Meek sighs.

Chapter 6

As the jolly band of misfits head toward
Laugh Skull at light speed, they take a much-needed break and
settle in to the mundane routine of ship life. After a few days,
Capt. Meek’s rash goes away, but not until he becomes the victim of
unending jokes from the crew. It will take another week to get to
their destination. Focusing on the ship’s maintenance to make sure
no other problem will pop up this consumes most of the crew’s
time.

Four days out from Laugh Skull while they
still in Reptilian space, they drop out of light speed to check out
an area that had multiple distress signals coming from it. They
move closer to investigate.

Che says, “In range now; looks like a bloody
battlefield.”

The crew looks out the window and sees about
a dozen warships floating in space. Parts of ships are floating
around. A few of the ships have entire sections of their hull
missing. There are some battleships, destroyers, and fighters
scattered about.

Mcloud says, “Reptilian Navy and some other
unknown ships. The unknown ships are not in our database.”

“Hmm... it is not like we can salvage
anything because we don’t have a cargo hold,” Meek says a loud
while thinking to himself.

Just as they slowly maneuver through debris,
they notice a small ship with lights on parked in one to the
landing bays of a battleship with huge craters in its side.

Mcloud says, “Sir, that small ship is the
ship Ullas stole from us.”

Meek says, “There is justice in the world.
Have they spotted us yet?”

“Unlikely. We are just floating among the
debris.”

“They are probably filling up their cargo
hold with loot from the battleship. Can we maneuver around and land
inside the landing bay without them knowing?”

“No way, but I can scan to see how many are
on board. There is one person currently on board, and the others
are probably in the battleship looking for loot,” Mcloud says.

“I could sneak aboard and kill the wanker who
is there. I will signal you when he is taken care of so you can
land and bring the rest of the crew on board. The ship needs two
people to pilot. We can just leave the junker here,” Che says.

“Sounds like a plan. Move us to where we are
just above the landing bay entrance, but go around the backside
over the top. We will just wait there until you signal,” Meek
instructs.

“Roger that.”

Che moves the ship around the back and over
the top to position the vessel just about the landing bay entrance.
She changes into spider form and goes outside the ship into the
vacuum of space, which is an arachnid’s natural habitat. She turns
invisible and climbs down and into the landing bay. She slides down
a spider web after scurrying across the ceiling of the landing bay
on to the little ship. She drops on the loading ramp and goes into
her former ship. She hears someone playing “We Will Rock You” over
the intercom, probably from Meek’s collection.

She heads up to the bridge were she finds a
human male sitting at the sensor station with his legs propped up
on the display board while eating a piece of fruit. She sneaks up
on her prey slowly as she makes a thin wire-like web and comes up
behind the unsuspecting human. With amazing speed, she grabs the
human by the throat with the wire and pulls back with both hands as
hard as she can while he flails about for a few moments until he
goes limp and lifeless.

“He is dead.”

She begins activating the engines. Meek moves
the other ship into the landing bay and sets it down next to the
loading ramp of the passenger ship. He hits a button that dumps the
fuel to the ship. Then he runs out of this ship along with his
mates wearing environment suits and up the ramp into his new ship.
They close the cargo bay and the ship begins to lift off. They crew
looks through the window just in time to see Capt. Ullas and his
crew running across the bay. Meek, joined by the rest of his crew,
all salute Capt. Ullas and his with the middle finger as they fly
away. Still on the same channel, the intercom activates and Ullas
says, “You wanker!”

Meek adds insult to injury, “Thanks for
loading it up for us. Good help is hard to find nowadays.”

“Bastard! I’m going to get you, Meek!” Capt.
Ullas threatens.

Che informs, “Jumping to light speed and
heading to Laughing Skull.”

“Excellent. Chad and Sean, let’s go see what
they loaded in the cargo bays. Cogg, put lock-out codes on this
ship, so no one can steal it without knowing the command codes,”
Meek says, not wanting that to happen again.

“Yes, Boss,” they say in unison.

They go down to check the cargo decks below.
They look into several of the cargo areas.

“Looks like we’re only half full. Got marine
weapons, armor suits, grenades, computer parts, fuel cells, medical
equipment, and some ship parts. That is still quite a haul. Fill
out our own armory with some of the marine weapons, armor, and
grenades. We sell the rest. Keep some of the other stuff for spare
parts and fuel cells. The rest I can sell easy. I still have the
diamonds from the drug smugglers. Will probably upgrade the weapons
and shields on this beast and split the rest with everyone,” Meek
says.

Chad agrees, “Would be nice to have some real
weapons and shields, not those lame ones that came with the
ship.”

“That reminds me, did you check and see if we
still have that cloaking device on board this ship?” Meek asks.

Chad says, “I really don’t know. I can run
and check.”

He runs off to the engineering room. A few
moments later over the intercom, “Yes, it is still here, but not
hooked up yet.”

Meek replies, “Good, if we get enough money,
we might have that fixed and installed.”

“That would be good,” Chad says with
excitement.

***

The week passes quickly as the crew enters
orbit around Laughing Skull. They land on the platform on the space
station above the planet.

“I think we can get more money for our stuff
from the legit merchants up here on the space station rather than
down on the surface using fences. Remember we have a salvage
license for this ship, so all of this is considered salvage,” Meek
explains, “Che come with me to sell this crap, and the rest of you
just sit tight and watch the ship and cargo.

“Roger that.”

Meek and Che head down to the market exchange
on the station. The station is full, as it is most days. The two
make their way through the busting crowd and enter the main market
area.

“Let’s find an arms dealer first.” They
squeeze their way over to the weapons vendors. They walk up to a
Snakekin merchant who is standing in a booth with display screens
and product examples lined up on the tables.

“Greetings. I am Otto. You buying or selling,
Sir?”

“Selling. I have few tons of Reptilian Marine
weapons and armor for sale.” Meek shows the picture of the items on
his inventory pad. “They are all salvage, with the correct
paperwork.”

“Hmm, how about 30% of retail?”

“I can get that much from the fences on the
planet surface without any paperwork. I want 75% of the market
value.”

“But this is used, not new: 45%”

“65%.”

“I can go 50% and that is my highest offer,
I’ve got expenses, too”

Meek grumbles, “It is obvious we aren’t on
the same page. Maybe we can do a trade. Do you have any ship
weapons?”

“What type of a ship do you have and what
size and type of weapons do you want?”

Meek shows him his trading pad.

“I want big guns,” Meek says.

“Well, the biggest guns I can mount on that
ship are duel hybrid rail guns that shoot plasma projectile ammo.
Can mount a pair in a swivel turret on top and one pair on bottom,”
Otto says.

“How much?”

“I take your whole inventory, and toss in
five tons of ammo to go with your guns. This includes the cost of
mounting the guns.”

“Hmm, how long will it take to mount
them?”

“A few days. Can do it here in the repair
dock. That is a serious upgrade to what you’re using now.”

“Six tons of ammo and you got a deal.”

“Er...well, I guess I can do that. Put your
hand on the scanner here to seal the deal,” Otto requests.

They trade pads and scan each other’s
hand.

“Take your ship around to the repair dock and
I will send my crew to get the merchandise and begin mounting your
new guns,” Otto assures.

“Okay.”

Meek turns to Che and says, “You can deal
with the gems. You’re better with diamonds than me.”

“You’ve got that right,” Che says. “The
jewelry vendors are on the other side of the market.”

They begin making their way over to the other
side of the market. Pushing through the crowd, they finally make it
to the jewelry vendors. Che walks up to a female Arachnid
vendor.