Synthesis, p.33
Synthesis, page 33
“The shipyard itself is built within the core of an asteroid. You’d need the main guns of several battleships to blast it apart.” She responded. “You might be able to do it using the SCI’s 1st fleet, or the Roccan Alliance’s 4th fleet…but I doubt they’re going to just give you that kind of firepower.”
“That’s why I’m landing on the asteroid. I’ll sabotage it from the inside.”
This time, it was Anna’s turn to arch one eyebrow. “You’re going to land on it? Tell me, how are you going to manage getting past their patrolling fleet, and the defense cannons?”
“I’m bringing together a fleet of my own. They’ll engage the patrol fleet while I slip past in my own ship. In the chaos of the battle, a small team should be able to slip in unnoticed.”
Anna pursed her lips. “How big is your fleet?”
“We’ve got my frigate, and we’re retrofitting a cruiser.”
“That’s it?”
“So far, yeah.” Kayden responded.
“You’re going to need a lot bigger of a fleet.”
“That’s what I’m here for. I’m hoping you’ll join us.”
She paused for a few moments, deep in thought. “I have 2 frigates. Even if I joined you, it wouldn’t be enough.”
“I’m working on a few other leads.” Kayden replied. “You’re not the only one I’m talking to. There are others out there who hate the Black Company just as much as you do.”
“Are you serious about this?” She asked.
“I’m doing this.” Kayden responded with determination. “The only question is: are you going to keep doing your small-scale hit-and-run attacks against the Black Company forever? Or do you want to step up and do some real damage?”
She grinned. “You’ve got fire. I like that. Talk to me when you have the rest of your fleet, and maybe I can help. I’m not signing up for a suicide mission though – not when I have other priorities.”
Kayden shook his head, dejected. He turned to leave when a thought slowly occurred to him. “Wait. Your other priorities - it’s the Jigoku refueling station, right?”
Anna’s body stiffened as he said it, but she nodded. He turned back to face her fully. “How well do you know the station? The layout, the patrol routes, everything?”
“Too well.”
“How many Black Company ships are docked there, refuelling? On average.”
“10-12. Frigates, destroyers, sometimes even a cruiser or two. Between them and the defenses of the station, it’s a fortress.”
“The rumor is that you want Jigoku because you want to free the other transformed women there. Is it true?”
“Yes.” She said, her eyes narrowing. “You’re treading on thin ice here though, so get to the point. Why are you bringing this up?”
“I think there might be a way we can help each other.”
“How?”
It's definitely a gamble to reveal this much at this point. Kayden thought to himself. But if this pays off…it might be worth it.
“My ship has a stealth drive. It’s not enough to land directly on the station, but we could get close unnoticed. We’d have to use space suits and maneuvering thrusters to get the rest of the way, but…I think I could get us onto the station.”
“And then what?” Anna replied bitterly.
I’ve already done two prison breaks. He thought. Why not a third?
“Then we free the rest of the women there, and we commandeer the ships.”
“Impossible. Unless you’re an expert hacker, it’d take way too long to break through their security measures. And we’d need to fight our way through.”
[“Please tell Ms. Bedford I say hello.”]
“I might not be an expert hacker, but the AI living in my neural link is. She says hello, by the way.”
Kayden chose that moment to extend a cloud of nanobots forward, cutting through his bindings. He rolled his wrists with a sigh dramatically, then cracked his neck. The escort around him levelled their pistols at him again, but he held up his hands non-threateningly. “Everyone calm down. I could have done that at any time, but I didn’t – because I’m here as a friend. So how about it Anna? Want to go steal some ships?”
“O-Okay.” Anna said hesitantly as she stood, her hair and body bouncing teasingly. “Assuming you’re not full of shit right now – and believe me, I’ll make sure you’re not before we do anything - where do we go after? Even with the fleet you’re probably not ready to attack immediately, and I doubt the Black Company will wait around for us to get ready.”
“Oh, that’s easy.” Kayden said. “There’s a newly discovered system which only I have the hyperlane coordinates to. We hide out there until we’re ready.”
“If you were anyone else, I’d call bullshit. But I heard a rumor about that…so I might just be inclined to believe you.”
“So do we have a deal?” Kayden asked.
“Not yet. What about after we take out the Black Company? A lot of us were tricked into this situation. I’m not going to make that mistake again. If everything goes well, what will you do with us afterwards?”
He shrugged. “Up to you. There’d be room on Sanctuary for you if you’d like. It’s a frontier colony so you’d be expected to contribute, but… it’d be a fresh start, which I get the sense is something you’d want.”
Anna nodded. “Bring your ship around. I’m going to have a look for myself. If you’re telling the truth, then you’ve got yourself a deal.”
Chapter 30
22:00, June 9th, 2134
“Checking in on you two. How goes?” Dawn said over the radio.
“We’re fine.” Kayden responded. “Just…ya know, drifting through space.”
So far, the plan had gone off without a hitch. After inspecting the Broken Shackle, Anna had quickly agreed to attack the refuelling station. They turned on their stealth drive and hyperspace-jumped to the Deneb system. From there, they carefully positioned themselves as close as they dared to the Jigoku refuelling station before suiting up and leaving the ship via the cargo bay.
They decided in advance that they’d strap Anna tightly to Kayden’s front and a thruster pack to his back. This served two purposes: first, it would minimize the risk that they’d get separated in transit from the ship to the station. Second, by only using one thruster pack between the two of them it would reduce the risk that they’d get picked up by the station’s sensors. This risk was even further reduced by Ali, who pre-programmed a seemingly random route for them to follow so that they would appear like just another piece of space debris even if they were seen by the station’s sensors.
The good news was that their plan seemed to be working – they were drifting gradually closer. The bad news is that with Ali continually doing the ‘flying’, Kayden had an incredibly sexy goblin-woman strapped to him with nothing to distract him. He just had to hope that his space suit would cover up the growing excitement which was currently poking into her perfectly shaped bubble butt.
“Listen, before we get there…there’s something you should know.” Anna said.
“Oh boy. Some detail you forgot to mention?” Kayden replied, rolling his eyes and preparing for the worst.
“Yeah. Don’t worry, it’s not bad, it’s just… I should prepare you for what you’re going to see.”
“Alright. We’ve come this far. Lay it on me.”
“Part of the genetic template they applied to us was to both make us conventionally attractive and increase our libido exponentially.”
“So…you’re sexy and always horny.” Kayden summarized.
“Crude, but yes. It was part of their way of controlling us.”
“How does making you sexy and horny relate to controlling you?”
“On the station, they made us wear chastity belts. The few Black Company employees who worked there had the digital keys to them. Our increased libido combined with our inability to relieve ourselves made us very… controllable. We’d do whatever they asked, just for the opportunity to be released from chastity so that we could get relief.”
“That’s…fucking horrible.” Kayden replied. “The more I learn about the Black Company, the more sure I am that I’m doing the right thing by wiping them off the fucking map – and not just for myself.”
“I’m glad you feel that way, because I feel the same. I’m only telling you this because when you get on that station, you’re going to see a lot of horny little goblins.”
“Is that why you were having sex with that woman on the bridge when we arrived?” Kayden asked.
“Partly, yes. My crew takes care of each other sexually so our sex drives don’t cause us to make dumb decisions. I find it also encourages camaraderie between the crew – if you’ve slept with everyone on the ship, you’re far more likely to be willing to fight to the death for them.”
“And the reason they only transformed women was because…” Kayden asked.
“Because they’re perverted little bastards, that’s why. The non-goblin crew of the refueling station is exclusively men. Sometimes ‘relief’ came in the form of them using us. Nobody ever objected – getting relief any way we could was all that mattered.”
“Fuck. That’s dark Anna.”
They drifted for a few moments more. Kayden studied the station as they did – it was shaped like a disc, maybe 50 meters wide but almost a kilometer in diameter. It had been painted black, and small lights winked softly along its rim. In the middle there was a tower with several antennas pointing out, which Kayden guessed were used by the traffic controllers to organize the many ships which were docked along the exterior. There were obvious sections that were reinforced with additional armour, and several large gun emplacements covered all possible angles of approach.
Kayden spoke again. “Hey, if you don’t mind me asking, how did you escape?”
“A guard wanted to live out his fantasy of having three goblin women at the same time. Up until that point I’d managed to stay celibate despite the cravings. He thought he was getting my ‘first’ time as a goblin. He started with the other two girls, they distracted him, and I stole his pistol. Turns out the only thing he ‘got’ from me was a bullet to the head. I used his codes to unlock as many women as we possibly could, we stole two ships, and escaped. That was it.”
Kayden nodded. “Damn Anna. You’re a badass.”
She wiggled her ass slightly, and he could almost hear the grin in her voice. “Get us through this, and I’ll show you just how much of a badass I can be. Don’t think I didn’t notice the tent in those pants mister.”
He laughed in response. “Dawn and Selina might have something to say about that.”
“Both of them?” She asked incredulously.
“Yeah, both of them. The three of us are together.”
“Damn. Are you accepting applications for a fourth?”
“Yes.” Dawn and Selina said over the radio, clearly having heard the whole conversation.
“Maybe.” Kayden responded at the same time, breaking the tension and causing them all to laugh. “But you’d have to remember to not kill us afterwards.”
“Oh don’t worry. I can be a very good lover.” Anna replied seductively.
“Kayden, Anna. You will be making your final approach now. 2 minutes until impact.” Ali announced.
They refocused on the task at hand. “You know we’re just fooling their sensors, right? They can still see us if they look out a window.” Kayden complained.
“I do not understand the human need to place physical windows on spacecraft.” Ali replied. “They are structural weaknesses and should be eliminated.”
As they closed the gap, Kayden felt a slight impact from behind. Even though their combined shields were enough to absorb the blow, their bodies began to rotate in response. “Ali, what the hell was that?” He said as his thrusters began to fire.
“A microscopic meteor. I did not anticipate this.” Ali replied.
Their approach quickly smoothed out, but firing the thrusters had an unintended effect – they were now approaching the station far too quickly. “Kayden, alert: compensating for that meteor burned the last of your thruster fuel. I am unable to slow you down.”
“Shit. I’m open to suggestions.” Kayden responded.
“Impact in 10 seconds.” Ali warned him. “You will need to hold on.”
“Fucking hell.” Anna said, gripping onto Kayden as best she could.
Kayden wrapped one arm around Anna protectively and braced for impact. The suit absorbed most of their momentum, but it still hurt like hell. They skidded along the hull of the ship, the bleed-through effects of the artificial gravity generators making their stomachs do backflips the entire way.
On instinct, Kayden’s nanobots formed into a hook. He shoved the hook downwards into the hull of the station, clawing through the top layer of armour and bringing their momentum to an abrupt halt. His shoulder jerked causing him to cry out in pain, but somehow it held. Anna’s restraints tore as they stopped and she almost drifted away, screaming as she desperately held onto his outstretched arm.
They remained like that for a moment, catching their breaths and recovering from the almost-disaster. Kayden pulled Anna close to him before swinging his feet below him, placing them firmly on the station. With a series of slow, careful steps that were anchored by Kayden’s arm-hook, they made their way to the closest airlock.
“Are you two okay?” Selina said over the radio.
“Fuck. That was…close. I think we’re okay though.” Anna said.
“Too close.” Kayden agreed. “Why do all my spacewalks seem to end with near-death experiences now?”
“I bet if that wasn’t a prosthetic arm, your shoulder would have ripped right out.” Selina added.
“She is correct.” Ali chimed in. “The forces were strong enough to have dislocated a biological shoulder and torn several muscles.”
“Thanks guys.” He responded, shaking his head. “Let’s not dwell, shall we?”
Kayden had never been more excited to touch an airlock door. “I’m going to need to put you down now.” He said to Anna as he leaned towards the controls, intent on using Ali to hack them.
“No need. Let me do it.” She responded, entering in a code which opened the door.
Kayden’s eyebrows arched. “They didn’t change the airlock codes?” He asked as he carried her inside, the door closing behind them.
“Why would they?” Anna responded over the hiss of the room repressurizing. “The only people who know the code outside of the Black Company are me and my crew, and they never thought we’d be crazy enough to try a hard vacuum air drop onto the station.”
The room finished repressurizing. Kayden and Anna both pulled off their helmets, and he could see she was grinning at her last comment. “Don’t underestimate how crazy goblins can be.” He said, chuckling. “Got it.”
They stripped off the rest of their suits. Their armour was too bulky to wear underneath, so this left Kayden in his bodysuit and Anna without any clothes at all. Kayden did his best to ignore her nakedness, but it was difficult with the way her body bounced pleasingly.
“There should only be a few Black Company guards, but they’ll be armed.” Anna said, pulling two pistols from the storage compartment of the thruster pack and handing one to Kayden. “How do you want to play this?”
He checked the pistol for damage, then nodded as he thumbed the safety. “If they figure out we’re after the ships, they’ll just disembark and we’ll be screwed. We need to knock out their comms first – where can we do that?”
“There’s a central comms relay on top of the station which routes all local traffic. We can take it offline from the station’s bridge though.” She replied, waving him forward. “Come on, I’ll show you the way.”
“Wait.” Kayden said, summoning his nanobots. “Just…hold still for a second. I don’t know how this will feel. Ali, can you help us armour up?”
With a thought, the nanobots swirled around the two of them for a few moments. They settled on both of them, forming the combat armour that Kayden had become familiar with. The instant the last nanobot settled into place, a static charge raced through the armour and the shields hummed to life.
“You’re full of surprises.” Anna said, inspecting the armour plates on her hand.
Kayden grinned. “Oh I’m just getting started. Let’s get to it.”
She opened the airlock and the two of them crept through the darkened halls of the station. The interior was painted the same black as the exterior, and lights were kept low in several sections. “Come on, we should move quickly.” She urged him quietly. “This place is soaked in radiation. It won’t hurt me, but if you spend too much time here without protection it’ll kill you.”
With a renewed sense of urgency, they moved through winding hallways until Anna stopped suddenly. She leaned forward carefully into the next hallway before suddenly leaning back. “The door to the bridge is beyond there.” She said. “Two guards, maybe 20 meters away.”
Kayden nodded, and held his pistol up. The two of them leaned into the hallway together, Kayden holding his pistol over top of Anna. In the darkness neither guard seemed to notice them, giving him more than enough time to take careful aim.
I almost feel badly for them. He thought to himself. Almost. But not quite.
He squeezed the trigger, firing two energy rounds into each guard. They stumbled to raise their rifles, but the movement was far too slow. Anna followed up Kayden’s shots with two carefully placed projectile rounds – one into each of their helmets. They dropped quickly without being able to return fire.
Kayden and Anna rushed forward. Kayden checked the bodies and recovered one of their rifles with extra ammunition while Anna worked on the door control. When she was ready, she paused for a moment to look back at him.
“Want the other rifle?” He asked.
“No, it’s too big for me.” She responded, levelling her pistol. “Ready?”
Kayden nodded, and she pressed a button on the panel. The door to the bridge opened to reveal a dozen Black Company employees, none of them armed or wearing armour. Changing to projectile rounds, he fired into the ceiling to get there attention.
