Into the Chaos -- Author's note.

Welcome to the second chapter of my story 'Into the Chaos'. A Sci-fi story that just happens to take place in the Unknown Regions of the Star Wars universe just after the Great Galactic War, almost 4000 years before the events of the movies.

This is the second chapter and if you haven't read chapter one, I recommend that you do that first.

Disclaimer: I do not own or hold any rights to any Star Wars licenses, including the star ships used in this story.

Some warnings:

This is erotic action adventure, meaning that there will be both sex and violence, but I don't mix the two.

This story is posted on the Literotica website and the author does not give permission for it to be reposted or reprinted anywhere else without consent.

P.S. I haven't gotten an editor yet, so any mistakes are mine. Interested editors are welcome :)

P.P.S. While you're here anyway, please rate the chapter and leave a comment :)

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Chapter 2 -- Pirates at Centauri 21

"Speed is the essence of war. Take advantage of the enemy's unpreparedness;

travel by unexpected routes and strike him where he has taken no precautions."

From the Holy Book of War

The first day in hyperspace, Yaki and I used the description of the base to draw up a rough map of the facility and then ran through different scenarios of attack and defence, but we agreed that without more information about the pirates' combat abilities in ground combat, it was speculative at best.

The closest thing to an expert in that area we had was Lieutenant Samko, so Yaki went to talk with her to see if she knew something we didn't.

With that out of the way, I succeeded in relaxing for most of a day before I got bored and did some research in the ship's database in an effort to get to know more about Mahaw's background.

It took a good deal of searching, but after a few hours, I found something interesting: Some years ago, all the Sith we had encountered had worked for the Imperial Reclamation Service, called IRS. RS was a division within the Sith Empire, that was responsible for archaeological expeditions to recover both alien and ancient Sith artifacts.

The information on the IRS was limited, but as far as I could piece together, it was while Mahaw was working there, that he had found a Sith Holocron. An old storage device that was used to hold information on Force techniques, instruction manuals by Force users, blueprints of ancient starships, and historical information about the universe. Consequently, they were regarded as highly valuable and much sought after by both the Sith and the Jedi.

Mahaw had kept it hidden for years, instead of delivering it to his master, and used it himself to become stronger in the force. Mahaw had also found an ancient text, hinting that an ancient Sith ship carrying several artifacts had crashed on Alpha Viga.

I considered that for a while. If Mahaw had used the Holocron the become stronger in the force, the knowledge hidden in the artifact couldn't have been that earthshattering. If it had been, he wouldn't be out here in what the Sith considered to be even worse than the rim worlds, searching for more knowledge. He would have been building a powerbase somewhere closer to the centre of the Empire, instead of handing it to his associates.

Secondly, the thing about a Sith artifact on a ship that had crashed on Alpha Viga was also strange. Since we were mining Ultrachrome on Alpha Viga, parts of the planet had been surveyed at some point and that data had to be somewhere, though I didn't have it at the moment. That left two possibilities: Either we had already found the remains of the ship or we haven't, with the latter being the most likely option. With the interference on scanners from the Ultrachrome, the chances of finding anything by accident was close to zero.

Suddenly I remembered, that Yaki usually had all kinds of maps uploaded to her tactical computer whenever the Black Dragons went into combat and the survey maps had to be one of them.

I tried to call her room, but for some reason the call didn't go through, so I got of my lazy ass and walked to the passenger area, still thinking about the Holocron.

As far as I remembered from the treaty between the Chiss and the Sith, there was a paragraph involving artifacts and a quick search on the datapad confirmed it. All found Sith artifacts should be returned to the Sith Empire as soon as possible.

Reaching the door, I absently opened it and walked into the dimly lit room.

"Yaki, do you..." I started to say but stopped when my infrared vision kicked in and I saw that not only was Yaki laying naked on the bed but judging from the body-heat she was just about to have an orgasm, and an equally naked Lieutenant Samko was positioned between Yaki's long legs, with her knees on the floor and the upper body on the mattress, doing her best to make it happen.

When she heard my voice, Lieutenant Samko tried to move, but Yaki was having none of it and held the human woman in an iron grip, hissing. "Don't you dare stop now!"

Given Yaki's distrust for any non-Chiss, it wasn't what I had expected, but then again, despite her pink skin, Lieutenant Samko was a beautiful woman, and it only took a quick look at the heat they emitted to confirm, that both were enjoying themselves tremendously.

Satisfied that it was consenting adults having fun in their time off duty and therefore none of my business, I said "Oh, sorry to disturb." and turned to leave again, but Yaki stopped me by saying. "Don't go, Thalen. I would rather have you join us."

Interestingly, that caused a spike of lust from Samko, who clearly like the idea. I looked at them again. "Are you sure?"

"Yes, I'm sure." Yaki answered with an impatient grin. "Close the door and get undressed."

Lieutenant Samko removed her head from Yaki just long enough to say, "Yeah... Do that!"

I hesitated for a second. I had never been with a non-Chiss before and for some reason the thought was frightening. However according to my teaching, it was also something to be faced and conquered, so I took a deep breath and took off my clothes, while doing a mental exercise designed to dispel fear. That helped and by the time I was naked, the fear had vanished completely.

Switching to Cheunh, the Chiss language, I quickly asked, "Any difference in anatomy I should know?"

"No," moaned Yaki, shivering lightly.

Smiling to myself, I walked over to the two women and kneeled on the floor behind Elise Samko, reaching out to tentatively caress that perfectly round, but strangely pink, ass. Still, it felt just the same as always and hearing Samko moaning softly into Yaki's pussy encouraged me to fondle, squeezing the soft buttocks firmly, before leaning in to give her pussy a quick lick, testing how it tasted.

It was musky and tangy and tasted different, but just as delicious as any Chiss pussy, so I started licking down too her clitoris, greatly helped by the way Elise arched her back. The clitoris was indeed placed in the same old place, just as Yaki had said, and I sucked on the little nub of pleasure for a moment, before I put my tongue into action, drawing circles around it. Elise moaned pleasurably and from the sound of it licked faster, causing Yaki to groan as well.

Making my tongue hard, I rubbed it over her clitoris with increasing pressure, enjoying the groans and moans, as I let my fingers dance on her wet lips. Then I traded places, digging my tongue into her pussy, while circling two fingers over her clitoris.

The position wasn't the best, but it was one I could live with and I twirled my tongue in her pussy, savouring every fold and drop of juice, as I delved my tongue deeper and deeper into her, feeling her shake and the muscles twitching.

"Holy shit!" Groaned Elise Samko against Yaki's pussy. "His tongue is even longer than yours!"

"And he knows how to use it." Giggled Yaki.

Tuning them out, I focussed on licking the delicious pussy in front of me, exploring it with my tongue, alternating between going as far inside her as I could, while licking the insides of her pussy, to letting my tongue dance over and between the folds of her pussy.

Samko groaned, wriggling her shapely ass and despite what I was doing, she seemed to be able to keep up her own licking, because Yaki was breathing heavily, sounding like she was on the edge of an orgasm.

"I'm coming soon," warned Yaki in basic a moment later, confirming my thoughts. "Please, make her come, Thalen."

Removing my tongue from Elise' tasty pussy, I placed a thumb on her clitoris and then shoved two fingers into her drenched pussy, twitching them around until they were in the place where Chiss women had their pleasure spot.

Elise yelped when I shoved the fingers into her, but almost as soon as I started finger fucking her hard and fast, using two fingers on her G-spot and the thumb on her clitoris, she started to shake, groaning loudly into Yaki's pussy. Then her muscles began to spasm around my fingers, her body shuddering and shivering.

Since my mouth had nothing to do, I kissed her ass cheeks, lavishing them with my lips and taking the occasional bite. That made her groan even louder, so I ran my tongue between her cheeks until I reached her little hole, where I licked in small circles.

"Fuck yes!" Elise groaned, rocking her butt against my face, as I inserted the tip of my tongue into the tight hole, licking it, while I fingered her wet pussy and circled her clitoris with my thumb.

"Less talking, more licking." I heard Yaki demand.

It only took a few seconds more, before Elise erupted in an orgasm, crying out as it tore through her body, while her body shook like it was being electrocuted. Yaki went off a moment later, howling as Elise's orgasm set her off as well.

Sitting up, I, watching both her and Yaki as they were caught in their orgasms, absently letting a hand slide over the soft skin of Elise's back.

My eyes met Yaki's, causing us both to smile.

"I want to see you fuck her." Yaki declared in the Chiss language with a voice loaded with lust.

I shook my head. "No. First she gets to see you getting fucked."

It's not often that I simply denied a request during sex and it made her widen her eyes, but I gently moved a still shaking Elise out of the way and took my place between Yaki's long legs.

That brought her back to reality and with a smile she reached down between her legs and grabbed hold of my cock, lining it up with her entrance. "I can live with that plan."

"Good, because you're going to." I told her and leaned in for a kiss.

Yaki accepted gladly and the kiss she gave me held a lot of heat and somehow sent my heart racing. She tugged slightly on my dick, and in response I began pushing forward, pressing the head against her welcoming moist folds.

"Oh yes!" She moaned and reached behind me, grabbing my ass in her hands, and pulling me forward, burying my dick inside her and making me groan from the way her muscles clenched my cock. "I love that feeling!"

"That makes two of us." I replied, and pulled my cock almost all the way out, before slamming it back home. Yaki usually liked it a little rough, so that's what she was going to get.

Yaki's mouth opened in an 'O' as I rammed my dick into her repeatedly, moving as hard and fast as I could, groaning as pleasure shot through my body. My groans were soon drowned by Yaki's louder growls as she raised her hips to meet mine with every move.

Then she came, kissing me hard as her body trashed under me, shuddering, and moaning into my mouth. I kept moving in and out of her until the orgasm faded. The kiss ended, causing me to look at her with a smile and relax a little.

That was a mistake.

Yaki wrapped her powerful arms around me and held on tight, rolling until she was now on top of me. Bending over, she gave me another kiss, pressing her massive breasts against me, which made me even harder inside her.

Still kissing me, she began moving back and forth, sliding up and down my dick, while dragging both her nipples and clitoris over my skin. Yaki placed her hands on the bed next to my head and straightened her back, bringing her breasts right into my face. It was an invitation I couldn't ignore and while she impaled herself on my dick, I kissed, licked, and bit into her stiff nipples, bringing my hands up to fondle the rest of the breasts.

I moaned with pleasure, as Yaki let loose, her hips moving in a blur while she bounced on my cock, her tits bouncing and jiggling in my hands.

Yaki began panting and shivering, and pushed off my chest, sitting back up on my cock and bringing her breasts out of reach of my mouth. She didn't stop moving, but kept going up and down, the wet sound of our bodies slapping against one another filled the room.

Then, seemingly out of nowhere, Elise was by Yaki's side, reaching down between Yaki's blue legs with her pink hand, finding the clitoris and started to rub it.

"Fuck!" Yaki groaned, trembling all over. "Too good!"

"Come then!" Elise said with a grin and gave Yaki an aggressive kiss, that made the Chiss squeeze her pussy walls around my cock, making me groan from her tightness. As Yaki had said, this felt too good, and I didn't know how long I could take this without coming.

My groan became louder, when I felt Elise's fingers dancing on my balls, but instead of lingering there, they moved upwards to Yaki's ass. Yaki's groans suddenly turned into a little shriek and then I felt something enter Yaki, pressing against my dick, without actually touching it and I realized that Elise had stuffed a finger into Yaki's ass, finger fucking her energetically, while the other hand rubbed the clitoris furiously.

Yaki slowed down, kissing Elise passionately. With a smile, I moved my hands to her hips, held them still and began fucking her, adding to her pleasure.

Elise didn't slow down, and it didn't take long before Yaki's body was hit with a powerful jolt, as she screamed her orgasm into Elise's mouth. Shaking violently, her juices ran down my dick and balls, as her pussy squeezed my cock even more tightly than before. Then her legs gave out beneath her, causing her to collapse on my hips. My cock hit the bottom of her pussy and with Elise still going, Yaki came again, her body jerking and spasming uncontrollably.

Elise hurriedly removed her fingers from Yaki, as the marine tilted to one side and let herself fall on the bed, with a huge grin on her face, gasping. "I need a break!"

I nodded at her, but didn't say anything, because at the same time, Elise leaned over and kissed my cock, taking half of it into her mouth as she suckled at me, making me moan. Yaki's wild ride had taken its toll on me, and I could feel that my dick was extremely sensitive.

"Careful." I groaned.

Elise let go of my dick, swung her leg over me and sat down, so she straddled my hips, with her wet pussy pressing against the base of my cock. With her red hair and light-pink skin it looked so alien, that it sent shivers down my spine, but then she started to move, slowly grinding her clitoris against me, moaning as she did so. To my surprise she also let her hands glide over my chest, clearly enjoying the feel of skin under her fingers.

As turned on as I was, I needed time to cool down, so I enjoyed the touch, returning with two hands on the soft skin of her legs. That made her shiver, so I ran the tips of my fingers over the sensitive skin on her inner thighs. Elise moaned and goosebumps formed on her skin. It seemed like I wasn't the only one turned on.

With a little smile, she stood on her knees, reaching between her legs to hold my cock steady and then slowly lowered her body until the head rested between the wet lips of her pussy. She stood like that for a moment, making my dick wet by dragging back and forth with her hand, but then she placed it at the entrance and slowly sank down.

Her pussy lips spread for me welcomingly and the head of my cock slipped into her soaked pussy. I don't know why I had expected it to feel the same as Yaki, but it was different. Elise was warmer and tighter, and even soaked with juices as she was, it was a tight fit and I groaned as the walls of her pussy closed around my dick, caressing it.

"Oh, wow..." I groaned and ran my hands up her legs and sides before cupping her breasts, with those hard, red nipples.

"You like?" She asked in a whisper.

"A lot." I answered,

"Then you're going to love this." She declared with a sly smile and began rotating her hips, while her pussy squeezed my dick. Her blue eyes studied my face as she began to move up and down. Her strokes were slow at first, taking only a little of me at a time, causing her to moan and whimper softly with pleasure every time she moved.

The position she sat in made her breasts stand out proudly, red nipples looking hard enough to cut transparisteel. I ran my hands up her body until I reached those tempting breasts, cupping them and enjoying the smooth, yielding feeling of her tits, and the hardness of the nipples.

With a happy sigh, she lengthened the strokes until she took my entire length with each bounce of her voluptuous body. There was no hurry in her movement and no desperate race towards a climax, only relaxed movements, meant to enjoy the moment as much as possible and I found that I really liked that.

Keeping the same pace, and with an expression of ecstasy on her face, Elice started to shiver as she rode me in that slow, sensual pace, her moans increasing steadily. The moans turned into louder groans, when I found her nipples with my fondling hands, catching them between my thumb and forefinger, softly rubbing.

Elise sat down with my dick completely inside her rocked back and forth, grinding her clitoris against my pelvis. "Fuck, you feel good!"

"Likewise." I told her with grin. "I don't know how much more I can take."

"Same... here." She panted, shivering all over. Then she leaned down to give me a kiss and I had to let go of her tits, as the curls of her red hair tickled my neck while our lips met in a kiss.

Moving my hands to her ass, I squeezed those round cheeks and then held her still as I began thrust up into her clenching pussy. I started out using the same slow pace that she had been using, but gradually increased the speed, causing her to moan into my mouth as we kissed.

I found a pace and kept it, sliding in and out of her in a respectable speed that wouldn't make me come immediately, but was fast enough to make her shiver more and more.

Suddenly, Elise broke our kiss and gave off a little shriek as she bucked and writhed, slamming herself into me as a violent orgasm tore through her body, squeezing me so tight I couldn't help but erupting inside her, groaning with pleasure as I did so.

Still shaking all over, she collapsed on top me, kissing me passionately, before raising her head. "Damn, that was good."

"Yes. Very good."

"And sexy to look at." Said Yaki from the side. "Do we have time for another round?"

Since I had no idea how long time we had used, I asked the computer and then had to shake my head. "As much fun as that would be, I have to say no. We reach the Centauri 21 system in nine hours, and I need sleep to keep a clear head." I smiled at her. "And so do you."

Yaki sighed. "Yeah, you're right."

"Spoilsport." Mumbled Elise and rolled off me, before sending me a grin. "But I think I'll prefer you to be wide awake tomorrow as well."

With a smile and a nod, I stood from the bed, found my clothes, and started to dress.

"Oh, by the way, " said Yaki after a moment of silence. "Was there a reason why you came to my cabin?" She chuckled. "Not that I mind, but you usually do knock."

I suddenly remembered the map question and explained it before asking. "So, do you have the survey maps uploaded?"

She nodded. "Yes, but I studied those closely before we made the drop and nothing there indicated a ship." She looked thoughtful for a moment. "Also, there's a lot of that planet that haven't been surveyed, due to scanner interference, so I'll recommend that you just hand over the information and let the Survey corps do their thing, instead of trying to figure it out yourself. It might be more fruitful in the end."

I finished putting my clothes on and nodded. "When you're right, you're right." I sent her a smile. "See you in the real world."

She grinned and nodded, while Elise looked puzzled. "What do you mean?"

"Oh... It's a reminder, that when we meet again it's back to military ranks." I explained. "Otherwise, things can go down the gravity well really fast."

"Especially, if the persons involved starts to argue as lovers and not military personnel." Added Yaki with a grimace. "I've only witnessed that once and it wasn't pretty."

She looked like she was starting on a longer war-story, so I quickly interrupted her. "I need to go. Thank you for a fantastic night, ladies."

That made Elise smile. "Likewise, Thalen."

"Yes, see you in the real world." Chuckled Yaki and with that I walked out of the room, heading to my own for a quick shower and some sleep.

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A new situation

Centauri 21 System

"All warfare is based on deception."

From the Holy Book of War

It didn't take more than a casual glance at the system map to figure out, that the only reason why anyone would place a base in the Centauri 21 System, had to be to keep it hidden. The system was far away from anything and unless you had the coordinates to come out of hyperspace in exactly the right place, you would have to enter real space at the outskirts of the system and then navigate through no less than seven asteroid belts, all at different angles to the sun. To make it worse, the scan picture was extremely disturbed by energy in the asteroids.

"LC?" Called Tavune softly from the communication controls.

"Yes, Mister Tavune."

"I've seen these energy pattern on scans many times before. There're Ultrachrome in those asteroids."

That made me raise my eyebrows in surprise. Aside from a few planets near Chilla and on Alpha Viga, Ultrachrome was extremely rare. On the bright side, when it was found it was usually in huge quantities that could be mined easily and apparently the asteroid belts here were no different.

"Very well, Mister Tavune. Please note that in the log and... " I paused "... since the asteroid belt haven't been named yet, most likely since we're the only ones to use Ultrachrome, name the nearest one Krott'avune'authum 1."

"Thank you, sir," he said, his ears becoming a darker shade of blue. Getting to name any celestial body was a rarity, as most of them were already named a long time ago, but unless they could be mined, asteroid belts were rarely named.

This one was named now and when we got back, the name would enter the Chiss astrogation database, meaning that as long as there were Chiss, the name Krott'avune'authum would be there.

Of course, the mere presence of Ultrachrome also meant that there was a good chance, that the Chiss Ascendancy would annex the system to mine the asteroids.

That was a problem for later, I decided and studied the system map again.

There was something strange about the way the system had asteroid belts instead of planets on every position except for the gas giant. Their position was also strange, as most asteroid belts are more or less in the same plane in relation to the sun and these was all over the place. To make it stranger, the gas giant itself had a ring and four asteroid belts, but only a single moon.

It looked like someone had used all the other planets in the system for shooting practice or test run with some kind of super weapon, blowing them all up. With the way the belts were positioned, it would have to have happened thousands of years ago, but it could be the reason that the Imperial Reclamation Service had created a base in a system so far away from the Sith Empire.

The longer I thought about it, the stranger the position of the base became. It would take anyone a long time to get from Sith space to Centauri 21 system, as it was basically on the other side of the galaxy, and the logistics must have been a nightmare.

Large for a moon, Centauri Delta, the moon with the pirate base, had vegetation, water, and a breathable atmosphere, but besides that, there wasn't much more. The plants and animals there were in a relatively early development and there was no sentient life on it.

It did have mountains though and it was at the foot of one of those mountain ranges, that the pirate base was located, beautifully camouflaged behind a series of waterfalls, that hid the entrance to several large caves. Being a former Imperial base, it was also protected by hidden turbolaser towers and a shield generator, though the generator wasn't active since shields are easily detected and having them up all the time defeated the purpose of hiding the base.

It wasn't the only installation in the system. According to the logs, there were sensor platforms on several of the large asteroids to be able to detect approaching ships, which meant that they should have detected us by now, if they could break through the interference from the Ultrachrome.

Not that being detected was a problem. Since we were using their ships and came out of hyperspace at the right place, which was just at the edge of the gravity well of the gas giant, with minimal distance to the moon, they were seeing exactly what they expected, which was most likely the reason why they haven't contacted us.

A call from the engineer who manned the sensors disturbed my thoughts. "Mass alert, LC! We got a ship dropping into realspace!"

"Right on time." I said and donned my helmet. "Let's get this show on the road, Lieutenant Samko."

The new arrival dropped into sub light speed close to the Fury. The sensors confirmed that it was a Heraklon-class freighter and without even being asked, Lieutenant Samko accelerated to match our speed with it.

"Jammer is active, sir." The Master engineer called. "They aren't calling nobody except us."

"Excellent." I said and turned towards the screen. This was normally the time where pirates would fire their ion-cannons to disable the enemy ship, but instead I said. "Mister Tavune, give me a line to the freighter. Lieutenant Samko, be ready. It's your show."

A moment later, an overweight elderly man appeared on the screen. "Why're you jamming us?

We're following orders!" Then he fell silent as he recognized Lieutenant Samko. "Elise?"

Lieutenant Samko smiled. "Hey Bobba. Everything green?"

Widening his eyes, he nodded. "We're green, except for two bears and the slave chips. Fortunately, the bears are sleeping in their den."

They were clearly speaking some kind of slang I didn't know, but I guessed the 'bears' were pirates piloting the shuttle they obviously had.

"Good." She paused for a moment, but then continued. "I guess they told you, that it was inserted by the force and couldn't be removed?"

Bobba nodded slowly.

"That was a lie. They can be removed the same way as all other slave chips."

"That matters little." He said sadly. "They took every piece of equipment that can remove a chip."

Lieutenant Samko's smile widened. "Then it's fortunate, that we have it on board. Are you willing to surrender in return for the promise, that you'll be allowed to go free? Unfortunately, I can't guarantee that you'll get your ship back, but it is possible and it's better than being a slave."

He nodded slowly. "Can you send some people over to deal with the bears? They confiscated all our personal weapons."

"If you leave the barndoor open, I think we can arrange that." Lieutenant Samko closed the screen and turned towards me with a wide smile. "He'll open the hangar door in a moment. There're two pirates sleeping in a shuttle in the hangar, but otherwise, they're no pirates on board."

"Thank you, Lieutenant Samko." I said and ordered Dropship 1 to land in the Heraklons hangar and take the pirates prisoners. Then they were to free the crew and prepare the ship for a return to Alpha Viga as soon as possible.

The dropship left the formation and a little while later it disappeared into the back end of the freighter. The lack of information made the wait seem like an eternity, but finally Tavune said. "Incoming call from the dropship, sir."

"On screen."

A happy looking Junior Lieutenant Seze appeared. "Mission successful, sir. Ship secured, along with four hundred and fifty of our people. There's an Imperial Transport here as well as a civilian shuttle here. Shall I see if any of our people can pilot them?"

"Excellent idea." I said and meant it. "Check the systems and see if they have been tampered with, as Lieutenant Samko explained, and then send the ships down to us. We'll go for the base. There's still fifty people missing."

"Yes, sir."

He closed the connection and I turned towards Lieutenant Samko. "Lieutenant, please set a course towards the base at Centauri Delta."

"With pleasure, sir."

---------------------------------------

"Let's reach out." I determined out loud when we reached orbit. "Open a line."

At the commlink Tavune nodded and pressed the control panel. A moment later, the face of a rugged looking woman appeared on the view screen. From the pirate's data, I knew that that had to be Bianca De Kraff, who commanded the pirate base, when the Sith Lords were away. Not that there were much to command, as the base crew amounted to a little under sixty pirates.

She widened her eyes, when she saw me, which was understandable. The new helmet was a rework of my old one, as there was a chance, that someone might recognize a Chiss helmet. Now, the form was changed into something that resembled the masks from one of the few vids of the Siths I had seen.

According to the engineers that had made the changes after looking at pictures in the database on the Phoenix, there was almost as many styles of helmets and masks as there were Sith, so they had simply added a few extras and repainted it along with the rest of the armor. I had also gotten a hooded cape that halfway hid the new helmet. All in all, I looked like the Sith raiders we had killed.

Before she had the chance to say anything, I took the lead. "You have invaded a site, I alone had access to and by that incurred my wrath. However, I am not unreasonable. As you were under the command of Lord Mahaw, your actions can be excused to a certain degree." I reached out through The Force and created an illusion of myself, standing right next to her. "Surrender now and I'll let you live. Resist and I shall crush you like a bug, as I crushed your master."

She looked at the illusion with real fear in her eyes and I guessed that 'Lord' Mahaw wasn't the easiest or most forgiving man to work for.

Somebody out of sight from the view screen took a shot at the illusion and the bolt passed right through it.

"Do that again and I will drop an asteroid on your heads." I promised. "Trust me, you're not important enough to risk anything for." On the screen, the illusion ignited a lightfoil. "I want an answer now. Live or die?"

Finally, she seemed to find her voice. "How do we..."

That was as far as she came, before she was hit in the head by a blaster bolt, killing her instantly. A moment later, a younger human man stepped in front of the view screen, as he holstered a blaster pistol. "Sorry about that, My Lord. We surrender."

"Wise of you, Base leader. Open your shields and deactivate your defences... we're coming in."

He nodded, and I cancelled the illusion as I switched of the comm and turned to the pilot. "Take us in. Shields up and weapons ready."

"Yes Sir!"

The data in the log hadn't included the dimensions of the pirate's cave system and as it turned out, the main cave was enormous. There was more than enough room to contain five or six ships the size of the Mantis and it wasn't empty: To the right, a small, powered-down freighter was stationed, loading ramp open, while a Kolareth-Class Imperial military transport was stationed along the inner most wall.

Along the left wall, a large group of pirates was gathered, exactly as I had requested.

"Guns, cover the pirates." I said as I stood from the commander's chair and walked towards the exit. The next few minutes would determine how well this deception would work.

I had told Yaki to make the Black Dragons look as grim and Sith-like as possible and I have to say that she had done exactly that. All insignia had been removed and the once all-black armors were now accented with red and dull silver, which, along with the long black capes they wore, created a menacing look. The charric weapons had been replaced by captured Sith weapons, so that each trooper carried a blaster rifle, had a blaster gun at one side of the belt and a vibroblade at the other.

"Amazing job." I told them and activated the ramp. "Let's do this."

As soon as the door was open, I walked down the ramp, followed by Black Dragons. Their power armors making the sound of their steps echo through the cave.

Stopping, I reached into the force and used it to read the emotions of the pirates, zeroing in on a feeling of defiance from one of them. With a flick of my gloved hand, I picked him up with the force, holding him in the air just long enough for everybody to see and then slammed him into a wall, causing him to fall unconscious to the ground. "Don't even think about it!"

Any thought of resistance melted away like snow in the sun, and with perfect timing, the Mantis and Dropship 2 landed, laser turrets turning ominous towards the pirates, while more black-armored troops came marching down.

That was followed shortly by the Cool Cat, adding even more troops.

"Second Squad. First group secure the freighter. Second group secure the Imperial transport." I ordered over the commlink and looked over the gathered pirates, as the troops turned towards the spaceships. The pirates were a diverse bunch, featuring several different races, most of which I had only read about.

One of the humans caught my eye. Not that he was anything special, but because the dark red voluptuous alien female standing next to him was dressed in the same revealing way as Lieutenant Samko had been when we rescued her. That made it likely that she was a slave, so I walked over and stopped right in front of him, causing him to look nervous.

"Is that your slave?" I asked calmly.

"Yes, sir." He gulped. "And I know you ordered all slaved to the pen, but I brought her along as a special gift to you."

That wasn't something I had planned for and for a moment, I was silent as possible correct reactions ran through my head. A Sith would most likely just have killed him, but killing a defenceless person wasn't my style, so in the end I settled for sounding like one of the villains from a holovid show.

"For that, and because you didn't lie, you will survive disobeying my orders." I replied, making my voice cold. "Do not do it again."

He nodded with another gulp and bowed while saying "Yes, My Lord.", before he handed me a little electronic device. I had never seen one before, but it didn't take a genius to figure out, that it was the controls to an implanted slave chip, just like the one Lieutenant Samko had.

Being slightly at loss of what to do, I just handed the controls to the nearest Black Dragon. "Have her scanned and brought to my cabin."

The Black Dragon nodded, took hold of the female, and walked towards the Fury.

Looking at Lieutenant Yaki, I said. "Search them and put them in chains."

She saluted and went to work, while I waited patiently, studying the small freighter to pass the time.

It was a pretty design for a freighter, looking more like a warship, than anything else, so I contacted Lieutenant Samko to get more into. "Lieutenant, do you know anything about the freighter over there?"

There was a moment's pause, where I assumed that she either thought or accessed the database, and then she replied. "Yes, sir. That's a Lethisk-class armed freighter. A beautiful little ship, but unfortunately the builders made it way too expensive for normal merchants... or smugglers for that matter." She chuckled. "It's almost twice as expensive at other small freighters and the ones ending up out here are usually ships that have been taken by pirates at some point."

"What about weapons?" I asked.

"Those laser cannons don't look like ordinary lasers, but they're too small to be turbolasers."

"I think they have upgraded them to Longshot lasers." She said speculatively. "That would give them the range of turbolasers, but without the punch of the capital ship weapons, which are illegal in most systems. Anyway, it can take sixty tons of cargo and eight passengers, but from personal experience I know, that many have modified the life support system to take forty passengers, if there's no cargo to move."

"What about the Imperial transport? How many people can it carry?" I asked. We had just enough space for our own people, but there were many more slaves like the one I had just encountered, and I would like to free them, which meant getting them out of here.

"One moment, sir. I'll check the database." She was silent for a moment and then whistled softly. "That's a Kolareth-Class CY-1 Imperial military transport, sir. It takes two to crew it, but it can take 150 metric tons of cargo as well as seven passengers in spacious surroundings, but its life support system can take twenty passengers if need be. As most Imperial ships, it's well armored and is armed with two light turbolasers as well as point defence lasers." She paused, but then said. "I wonder why they didn't bring it along."

The possibilities ran through my head. "My guess is to defend their base along with the Droid fighters, but that is just a guess." I chuckled. "It could just as easily be down for maintenance or repairs. Anyway, thank you for the information."

"You're welcome, sir."

While I had been talking with Lieutenant Samko, all the pirates had been chained and moved to a storeroom, under the watchful eye of 3rd Squad, so I contacted Yaki. "Lieutenant, we need to go free some of the slaves, but I do not want them to have free roam of the base until we're ready. Also, we need crew for the Lethisk-class armed freighter out here, so we need to make a list of those slaves that are pilots, navigators, ship engineers and so on."

Some slaves were hardcore criminals convicted into slavery in lack of a prison, and I didn't want them in any crew I had to order around. On the other hand, Samko had told me that skilled people were more valuable as slaves than unskilled ones, and the pirates had primarily preyed on light or medium sized ships, taken the cargo, sold the ships to a black marked dealer and enslaved the crew. However, that had to mean, that the pirates had three different contacts, because otherwise, they could just have flown the captured ships to a dealer and sold all of it at the same time.

It also raised the question, why Lord Mahaw had bought Elise Samko, when he had a cave full of pilots. I thought about it for a few seconds and snorted when the most likely answer presented itself.

"Yes, sir." Said Yaki. "But I didn't get the rest of what you said."

"Nothing, I just realized that most of the slaves are going to be non-humans." I said and when Yaki was silent, I continued. "Generally, the Sith dislike non-humans unless they're Sith, so when they chose their personal slaves, they would have chosen humans whenever possible, and those would have blown up in the Alpha Vida system when the Sith were killed, so those left will be mostly non-human. Anyway, we'll pick out those we need afterwards when I've had a chance to talk with them."

"With 'we', I assume you mean me and a squad of Black Dragons, sir?" came the reply, humour evident in her voice.

"Exactly, Lieutenant, but first let's take a look around the base."

"Yes, sir."

The main cave with the entrance had a lot of side caves and unlike the raw stone of the main cave, many of the side caves had been converted into actual living facilities, using standard building materials. Most of them were used for the various functions a base needed to have, like sleeping quarters, mess, sickbay, storage etc., but there were a few different ones.

One of the large storage areas contained plunder that had yet to be sold and I was surprised by the amount and variety of goods. There were hand weapons, medicine, spices, droids, computers, art, armors and just about everything else that could turn a profit somewhere.

With the firepower this group had, they could take on the biggest civilian freighters and apparently the pirates had done just that, transporting most of the goods here to be stored, until it was time to sell it.

Another contained most of the base's defence force: Ten battle droids and twenty droid micro-starfighters of a design I had never seen before. Then again, the droids used in the Chiss Ascendency were primitive in comparison to the ones I had seen elsewhere in the Chaos.

These were anything but primitive. Four meters long, they were armed with two pairs of laser cannons and where I would have expected a missile launcher, there was an ion cannon, and a closer look told me, that they even had a shield generator and I guessed both that and the ion-cannon made sense for pirates.

The design was most likely something our designers in the navy would like to examine closer and I decided to bring a few of them home.

Crossing a hallway, Yaki and I walked into the base' infirmary, which looked much like any other infirmary I had ever seen, with one exception. For some reason, there was three huge tanks filled with a clear liquid in there and, even more puzzling was that one of them held a person, that floated around in the liquid, a breathing apparatus strapped to his head so he didn't drown.

"What in the world is that?" Yaki asked.

"No clue." I said, looking around, as I contacted Lieutenant Samko and inquired about the liquid-filled tanks.

"Oh, they're Bacta or Kolto tanks, sir." She said, sounding slightly surprised that I even asked.

"Please elaborate, Lieutenant. I have no idea what that is."

"Oh, they're transparisteel tanks filled with a regenerative liquid." She explained. "Both Bacta and Kolto are powerful healing agents and effective against almost every type of injury on almost any species. It's pretty much the best medical treatment you can get."

"Let me guess," said Yaki in dry voice. "It's horribly expensive?"

That got a chuckle from Samko. "Yes, sir. They're normally only found in hospitals, on capital ships or military bases like this one."

"Can they be moved?"

"As far as I know, yes, but they're extremely heavy."

"Want to install one on the Fury, sir?" said Yaki with a chuckle.

"Yes. We're bound to find some slaves that have been mistreated and these tanks could help a lot." I said thoughtfully.

"In that case," said Samko over the comm, "we need the medical droids as well. They're normally the ones that monitor the healing if there's no doctor present."

"Thank you, Lieutenant. Remind me to look into it later, when we have seen the condition of the slaves."

"Yes, sir."

Closing the connection, I looked at Yaki. "Let's go find the slaves."

She nodded. "They're in the prison area".

A few minutes later, we walked into the prison area, that consisted of three large caves. Why a military base would need a prison this large was beyond me, but as it was here, the pirates had made use of it.

I sighed inwardly when I looked at the cells in the largest of the three caves. The area was designed to hold up to four hundred people, but the pirates had crammed at least four time that number into the cells, making those placed in there live in extremely cramped quarters.

The pirates must have taken a passenger liner or two at some point or done surface raids like they had done at Alpha Viga, because normal freighters simply didn't carry that many people. The prisoners also looked like they haven't bathed for weeks and it made me thankful that I was wearing a helmet with a nose filter, because the room had to stink. At a glance, it looked like about two thirds were female and while most were human, there were several other species in there as well.

I had expected the prisoners to call out for help, but my Sith disguise and the black-and-red armors of the Black Dragons must had worked better than expected, because the prisoners were silent and looked at us with fear in their eyes.

It was too early to give them any hope, so Yaki and I walked out again, followed by the squad of Black Dragons.

The sleeping area for the chipped slaved was the next cave and again, there were more slaves than I had expected. They were also separated into males and females and last cave was an area with smaller rooms, holding only good-looking and chipped human or near-human slaves.

It was the pirates' very own brothel and the only remotely positive thing I could say about it, was that it looked like the slaves had been reasonable well treated.

I pondered the situation for a moment, but then made a decision. There were far more female slaves than there were males, and, in their condition, it was better that the first friendly voice they heard was a female. So, I handed the job to Yaki and went to look for Lord Mahaw's quarters, followed by the group of five Black Dragons, that had escorted me from the start.

We were halfway there, when Tavune, still acting as the comm officer, said. "Sir, the Heraklon just called in to report, that they have removed the sabotage and are ready to jump."

I thought about it for a moment. I would like to have them back at Alpha Viga as soon as possible, but on the other hand, we needed people. "Have them pick any Chiss experienced with spaceships, put them in the Imperial transport and bring them here. I'll send one of the Rendaran-class dropships up with more people and to act as an escort. Then they need to jump back to Alpha Viga as soon as possible."

"Yes, sir."

"Good. Give me Lieutenant Yaki."

"Yes, sir."

A moment later, Yaki said. "Yes, sir?"

"I'm sending the Heraklon back to Alpha Viga shortly. Pick thirty of our people that're not familiar with spaceships and have them board one of the Rendaran-class shuttles. They'll join the others on the Heraklon."

"Yes, sir."

"And have someone do a head-count of the slaves."

"Yes, sir."

"Thank you."

The door to Mahaw's quarters was big, almost like a blast-door, and the lock on it required both fingerprints and a DNA analyser for it to open. That posed a problem, since Lord Mahaw was currently in the freezer on the Phoenix in the Alpha Viga system, four days travel away. There was also the possibility of boobytraps since I doubted Mahaw trusted the pirates or the two other Sith.

Turning towards the Black Dragon, I asked "Can you open the door? Without setting off any boobytraps, I mean."

One of them went over to take a closer look at the lock, but came back a moment later, shaking her head. "Sorry, sir. That lock is tricky and there's no way of telling if there's a trap connected to it."

I nodded and walked over to the side. "Come over here."

The did as ordered and when I drew and lit the lightfoil, they lifted their blasters in unison.

Extending my other hand towards the lock, I focused on the Force and a moment later, a stream of purple lightning left the palm of my hand, hit the lock and both fried and overloaded the electronics.

There was a clanging sound, as the lock disengaged.

"Be ready." I ordered and used the Force again. This time to open the door.

Suddenly a hidden panel in the hallway opened and four huge canines came jumping out. At least that's what they looked like, but the glowing eyes and vibro-fangs clearly marked them as droids.

One of the Black Dragons fired her heavy blaster, hitting one of the droids in the chest area, making it stop. The rest of the droids fired a blaster that was hidden in their chest area.

The lightfoil glowed deep blue in the air as I deflected two of the blaster shots, making them hit the already damaged droid and causing it to break down. The last shot hit a Black Dragon in the shoulder but bounced of the amor plating.

Then they were upon us.

I dodged a bite and took the droids head off with a well-placed swing, while one of the Black Dragons took down another with a shot to the head. The last droid bit down on an arm, but the armor saved the soldier, as a salvo from the other soldiers ripped it apart.

"On the left!"

Looking in that direction, I saw two feline droids charging us from Mahaw's room. This time it was two panthers, but they looked just as deadly as the canines.

Without even thinking, I channelled the Force, causing purple lightning to hit them. They didn't fare better than the lock, as they overloaded and shut down.

Silence filled the hallway.

"Status?" I inquired and got five 'ready' back.

With a slight nod, I walked over to the door and peeked inside, lightfoil at the ready in case I needed to parry shots. Nothing came and I spent a minute wondering if the room looked like this when Mahaw claimed it or if he had sone some decorating himself. In any case, it was gloomy with dark red colours on the furniture and dark grey walls and ceiling.

"Depressing." Remarked one of the Black Dragons on the intercom, causing me to nod slightly. "Agreed, but we still need to search it. With this much protection, I hope there's something useful in there."

A Black Dragon said something I didn't catch, because at the same time the commlink switched on and Tavune, still acting as the comm officer, said. "Sir, we have a problem. A capital ship just came out of hyperspace in the far reaches of the system. I have no details yet, but it's big. Most likely a cruiser of some kind."

I sighed. Tavune was a good kid, but he seriously needed military experience. "Mister Tavune, imagine for a moment, that someone was out to kill you and I told you the killer was nearby... What would your first question be?"

"Ehh Where?" He paused for a moment and sounded embarrassed when he continued. "Oh... Sorry, sir. 5 degrees galactic north, 45 degrees upwards, heading directly towards us. Estimated time of arrival is 6 hours, sir. They're moving really slow."

That placed the newcomer in a position almost level with the moons orbit around the gas giant, meaning that in about 3 hours, the moon would be behind the gas giant, and we would lose any sensor readings of the ship.

On the bright side, the opposite was true as well and they couldn't detect what we were doing at that time. Considering that the whole system had no less than four asteroid belts and numerous other space hazards, the slow speed was reasonable. Especially if riding in a large capital ship, with limited manoeuvrability. Then again there was the possibility, that the ships slow speed was due to combat damage, but it wasn't something I was willing to bet our lives on. "Thank you, Mister Tavune. Has the Heraklon-class freighter left yet?"

"Yes, sir. They got out just before the unknown ship was detected and their Imperial Military Transport is landing as we speak, along with the shuttle."

That was one less problem to worry about.

"Good. Get me the squad leaders, captains, and pilots on the comm."

"Yes, sir."

I waited a few seconds until it was done and then said, "We have a capital ship arriving in six hours and a sensor block in three hours. When that sensor block happens, I want everything to be ready to lift off."

"We have a problem, sir." Said Captain Meistrin. "We came here to rescue fifty of our people and while they're on their way home now, there're more than twenty times that many slaves left here. No matter how we slice it, that's way too many for our life support systems."

The was silence for a moment.

"You're right. That is a problem." I slowly said. "Can we fix it?"

"Perhaps." Said Yaki. "I'll ask the liberated techs about the life support. They should know."

"Excellent idea," I said. "Here's what we do: Lieutenants Yaki and Samko, you two find the techs and have them work on the problem. Second Squad, you're going to search the cave with the plunder. Take everything that might help the techs and transport it to the ships, especially combat suits with their own oxygen supply. Captain Meistrin, you make sure that we get some of the droid micro starfighters with us home. Black Dragons, keep an eye on the former slaves. First squad, stay on the prisoners and give them food and water. I'll go have a look at the base's sensors and see if they can tell me anything useful about our visitor."

"Yes, sir!"

Switching off the commlink, I looked at the five Black Dragons. "I need to go. Pick two to go through the rooms. The rest come with me."

The leader picked two and then turned towards me. "Where to, sir?"

"The central control room. We have visitors and I need to look at the sensor readings."

"Very well, sir."

With the control room being located near the main cave, it did take a little while to get there, but as soon as we arrived, I walked over to study the readings.

The unknown ships transponder code said that it was a large freighter named Tigers Dawn, but the Tigers Dawn in the database was somewhat smaller than the one that showed up on the sensors. That it itself could be the result of a missing update, but it was suspicious and only strengthened my resolve to get away from the planet before it arrived.

I got hold of two troopers and had them bring me the newly promoted base commander, to hear if he knew something about the ship.

When they arrived, I used the Force to calm his nerves and as he walked over to me, he seemed almost friendly as he bowed. "Good evening, my Lord. I'm Frances."

I gave a polite nod in return and then pointed at the sensors. "Frances, we have a rather large ship incoming. Do you know anything about it?"

He walked over to the sensors, studied readings for a short while and then compared it with ships in the database. Then he cursed. "I can't be sure, my Lord, but I think that is the Red Widow. At least the drive signature looks like a Foray."

I gestured to him to continue, which he did. "Red Widow is a Foray-class Frigate belonging to Sharron the Red. She acquired it a while ago and had it modified with several ion cannons and tractor beam projectors, to make it better for capturing ships."

I nodded again. Like the Hammerhead Cruiser, the Foray-class frigate was an old design, originally used by the Galactic Republic, but it was still a frigate. Lighter armed and armored than a cruiser, at 155 meters in length, it was bigger, better armored, and armed than anything I had.

"And what is she doing here?"

"I guess she finally figured out, or got info about, where the base is and is coming to raid it." Frances said. "She knows that our best defence is the droid fighters, and that frigate can wipe them out in a minute."

"How is she as a person?"

Frances snorted, "She's an arrogant bitch, who think she's the universe's gift to pirates. She wants to be a pirate queen."

"Short tempered?"

"Not more than normal ... She just thinks that almost everybody else is beneath her."

Despite his truthfulness, there was an edge of satisfaction in his voice and being this close to him, I had no trouble feeling his resentment over the situation he was in.

"Frances," I said slowly. "You are aware that she has come to kill you, right?"

Looking up at me he blinked a few times. "What?"

"There's no way a bunch of pirates can take on three renegade Sith in close combat," I said. "And there's no chance, that she can take a cruiser, two other warships along with droid fighters with a frigate. Yet, Sharron the Red is here, willing to take you on. That means that she is perfectly aware that Lord Mahaw, the rest of his traitors and their ships aren't here, making a raid on the base possible." I tilted my head slightly. "However, the only way to ensure that nobody can identify the raiders to the traitors, is to make sure that nobody is alive to tell the tale." I let that sink in for a moment before I continued. "That begs the question, why is this would-be pirate queen willing to anger even renegade Sith by attacking their base?"

He stood in silence for a moment, becoming paler by the second, but finally said, "Four weeks ago, we got word that a rich shipment was on the way. Sharron the Red must have gotten the same info as well and got there before us. Unfortunately for her, it was better defended than the intelligence suggested and not only did Sharron waste most of her ships on knocking out the escorts, but she was also forced to flee." He smiled weakly. "That enabled us to take the shipment easily, there haven't been time to sell the shipment or the slaves yet and she must know that, since she has a good connection with the black market."

"Is that where all the extra slaves come from?"

"Some of them, my Lord. The rest are from various other actions." He shrugged. "The haul was so rich that Lord Mahaw bought the Last Chance to be able to handle all the slaves, but before we had the chance, he changed his mind and took off for Alpha Viga."

I was silent for a moment. There had been at least sixteen hundred people in the cells and even with the Last Chance to ferry people, that number didn't add up with what the life supports on the ships could handle. Not even with a Hammerhead Cruiser as an additional transport. There had to be at least one ship more somewhere, unless the Dark Maiden that Yaki had found in the notes could hold a lot of people.

"Thank you." I said and then added. "By the way, what kind of ship is the Dark Maiden?"

Frances smiled. "It's a modified Phantom-class yacht." He reached out for the controls. "One moment, My Lord. I'll put it on the left screen."

The ship that showed up on the screen was a beautiful slim-lined ship and I could only applaud the designers on this one. Then I read the data and got a surprise, as it was bigger than it looked like on the screen.

At 51 meters in length, 32 meters in width and 20 meters tall, it was about the size of a medium transport vessel, but it was seriously armed and armored with close to military grade hull and shields, three longshot lasers, two double lasers, four point-defence lasers and two missile launchers.

Added to that was state-of-the-art sensors and nav computers, along with a hangar large enough for a small shuttle or four small starfighters, while still having room for twenty passengers and eight hundred tons of cargo. In short, it was an awesome ship.

Looking at Frances, I asked. "You said it was modified?"

He nodded. "Yes. The missiles have been replaced with Ion cannons and both comm- and sensor jammers have been installed." He frowned. "Paul, that's our engineer, also did something with the lasers, but I don't know what."

"And when is it expected back?"

"They should have been yesterday." He stated. "But we're in the Chaos, so who knows?"

I nodded slowly, he had a point, but he was also not telling the whole truth. Even with twenty extra passengers on the Dark Maiden, there were still too many slaves. Looking at him, I asked. "And where is the extra ship? The one you haven't mentioned."

"Excuse me, sir?"

"There's no way you could have transported that many slaves in your ships." I said slowly, watching him becoming pale again. "That why Mahaw brought in the Dynamic-class freighter called Cool Cat. So where is it and what kind of ship is it?"

He sighed. "It's a Wanderer-class transport and it's in the next valley."

"And why didn't Mahaw bring it along?"

"Its drive had been damaged, and our engineer was trying to fix it when you arrived."

"Can it fly?"

"Just barely."

"I will look at it later," I decided. "You were telling me why Sharon the Red is attacking you."

Frances sighed again. "As I said, most of her fleet as severely damaged and unless I miss my guess, Red Widow is one of the only ships in fighting condition she has left. She desperately needs the profit from our base to repair and restock her fleet."

"What kind of weapons does that frigate have?" I asked. "Beside the ion cannons and tractor beam projectors you have already mentioned."

Frances sighed. "At least two heavy turbolasers on the front and a load of laser cannons on all sides. One of her crew bragged about it."

That was less than I had expected, and I realized that I was still thinking about ships from a military point of view. Two heavy turbolasers and several medium lasers was a lot of firepower for a non-military ship and more than enough for a pirate, who mostly used ion-cannons anyway. It was certainly more than the civilian vessels the pirates were hunting.

"Thank you. You have been very helpful, and I shall not forget that."

He smiled and bowed again, before the two troopers escorted him back to the rest of the pirates, while I looked at the scanners again.

Frances had a point about the Chaos or the Unknown Regions as it was called anywhere else. Filled with time-space abnormalities, hyperspace storms and other hazards, navigating was just as difficult as one might imagine, and a distance that would take a few hours in the Core worlds, could easily take days out here.

That was one of the reasons why ships out here had twice the normal stock of consumables than they did anywhere else. On the bright side, the same chaos had kept major fleets from the Galactic Republic and the Sith Empire out of the area for thousands of years, with a few exceptions.

A bleeping sound from the timer on the sensors announced that one hour had passed, so I activated the commlink. "The ship coming to visit is a Foray-class frigate, people. Any progress with the life support? I would rather not have to fight it."

There was a moment of silence, before Lieutenant Yaki said "I'm sorry, LC, but the techs have been through most of the plunder, and it doesn't look like there is the right materials to work with. If we employ all the ships, we can get all our people out of here along with about forty more, but that's it and then we haven't left a ship for the pirates."

For a moment I was silent, considering the options. Then I nodded to myself and walked towards the door leading to the main cave. "Change of plans then. I'll be there in a moment."

Lieutenant Yaki, Lieutenant Samko, and a group of technicians were waiting for me and without wasting time on pleasantries I turned to Master Engineer Pring'acith'rezo (Gacith) and said, "Master Gacith, we're going up against a Foray-class frigate and for that I need to have a droid control unit installed on one of the ships and those micro starfighters recharged."

He blinked a few times, but then saluted. "Yes, sir. The Fury would be the best since it has the cargo space, but limited life-support."

"Get the engineers and have them help with the micro starfighter droids." I ordered. "Master Gacith, you have two hours to get it done. It doesn't have to be pretty. It just needs to work."

He paled a bit but nodded. "It'll be done, sir."

Placing a reassuring hand on his shoulder, I said. "Relax, Master Engineer. You've installed things a thousand time before. This is no different."

He saluted and got to work, picking out two other technicians to help him.

I turned towards Lieutenant Yaki. "Lieutenant, did you make that list of freed slaves we talked about?"

She nodded. "Yes. The total number of slaves is 2041, and among those are 32 pilots, 47 engineers, 12 astrogators, 65 gunners and 82 spacehands. You were right by the way. Most of them are non-humans and most of them are female."

I didn't curse, but I felt like it. That was way too many slaves for the limited space and life supports of our ships.

"There're more, but those are the ones I found trustworthy. You might have another opinion." Yaki hesitated for a moment, but then said. "Lieutenant Samko has suggested that we check the logs to see if any of the pirates had been pressed into service recently. Apparently, sometimes they get the choice to either join the pirates or take a stroll out an airlock... especially if they have skills, the pirates currently need. You said that they took a large ship recently and some of the people there might have been pressed into service."

"Sounds like a good suggestion. I'll go check the logs later."

"Yes, sir."

Lieutenant Samko opened a private line on the commlink. "Commander, you are aware, that a Foray-class frigate has a great deal of laser cannons, right? The droids will get shredded to pieces before they even get near the ship."

"Good thing, I'm not planning on sending in the droids then," I said with a chuckle. "Can you slice a transponder code, so that a ship shows something it isn't?"

She hesitated, but finally said. "Yes sir, it's fairly standard practice for smugglers, but there's some 'Mimic' Decoys in the cave. Wouldn't it be better to use those?"

Mimic Decoys was basically missiles with a simple droid brain and the ability to mimic the signature of a real spaceship, making them excellent for drawing away enemy fire. Especially since they could mimic just about any of the smaller ship types.

"Yes, that would indeed be better, but I still need you to slice the transponder on the freighter." I said and explained to her what I wanted. She chuckled and went to work, taking an extra technician along with her.

"Captain Meistrin, get our people into the Dynamic-class freighter and one of the Rendaran-class Attack Shuttles and have them take off when the sensor block happens. I want them out of here and in space, ready to jump back to Alpha Viga as soon as possible."

They would also act as bait for the pirate, making them focus on the freighters, instead of keeping a close watch on their surroundings.

"Yes, sir." She replied. "But, if you don't mind me asking, sir. What's the plan?"

A quote from one of the Chiss holy books popped into my head. "To fight and conquer in all our battles is not supreme excellence; supreme excellence consists in breaking the enemy's resistance without fighting."

"It's time for excellence," I said.

*********************************

Taking on Sharron the Red

Centauri 21 System

"If you find yourself in a fair fight, you didn't plan your mission properly."

Vice Admiral Zedais, CEDF

Four hours later, I was sitting in the command chair of the powered-down Fury, watching the passive sensors, as the Foray-class frigate flew past us in a respectable distance, while we hid in the shadow of a large asteroid.

The frigate was moving faster now they could see our freighters, who looked like they were running for their lives to get out of the gravity well, but the sheer number of asteroids prevented the large ship from going to full speed.

Just to make the bait more tempting, Lieutenant Samko had sliced one of the transponder codes, making the Rendaran-class Attack Shuttles look like an older and slow type of freighter.

"Guns, when I give the word, fire at the frigate. It doesn't matter if you hit it or not at this range, but at least I want them to feel threatened, so please take a moment after the command to recheck your fire solution and then fire."

"Yes, sir."

I looked over at the Engineer, a Chiss named Ring'abosa'taini (Gabosat). "Engineer Gabosat, when we fire, start the droids."

"Yes, sir."

Turning slightly in my seat, I saw that the frigate was out of sight, being hidden by yet another asteroid, and nodded to the comm officer, who pressed a button on his keyboard.

Far way and closer to the frigate, a single droid starfighter suddenly activated its shields and lit the engine as I used its communication system to send a pre-recorded message to the Frigate. "Red Widow. You are trapped, outgunned, and outsmarted. I advise you to turn around and leave this system immediately or face the consequences."

There was a snort on the intercom as a female voice sneered. "No chance. Your Sith Masters are away along with your warships, and we have the advantage. Fire!"

The droid disintegrated as a salvo of laser fire hit it, ending the communication.

Leaning back in the chair, I nodded to myself. The pirates had been warned according to the Chiss Code of Engagement. Now the only thing left was to win. As I had done before, I reached into the Force and used it to boost the skills of our pilots and gunners.

"Lieutenant Samko, power up. Comm, tell Captain Meistrin to do the same."

I waited impatiently until both the drive and shields came online on both ships. It felt like an eternity, but in reality, it didn't take that long.

"Take us out, Lieutenant Samko."

I waited until we were in view of the rear end of the frigate once again. "Guns, you may fire."

A moment later, bolts of light streaked from the turbolasers on the Hunters Gambit, followed by the two turbolasers on the Star.

It was an extremely long range, but boosted by The Force as they were, the gunners hit their mark.

The Red Widow's shields flared as it took most of the energy from four capital lasers.

At the same time and on the other side of the frigate, the nineteen droids woke up, followed by six 'mimic' decoys showing two formations of Fury's and Mantis class ships. A moment later, the two Kolareth-Class Military Transports came into view, as they left their hiding place among the asteroids and took their place in the formation, adding their light Turbolasers to our small fleet.

"Again." I commanded and the gunners fired again, the four turbolasers making the shield flare, and then vanish, leaving the frigate without a shield.

I opened a comm channel and this time, I put it on the viewscreen.

An angry looking elderly woman showed up and took in my disguise. "You're not Mahaw!"

"Correct, but that is not relevant." I said calmly. "What is relevant, is that your shields are down, and you have been caught facing the wrong way. Your forward weapons cannot hit us, while your laser cannons do not have the range. It will take you time to turn or enter range, while we can pick you apart right now. You're also in the gravity well of a gas giant and have no hope of making a hyperspace jump. In short, I advise you to surrender. If you do so, I'll let you live."

Her face contorted. "Fuck you! I'm going to kill you and ..."

I nodded to Gunns and the light turbolasers spoke again, peeling armor off the frigates side and interrupting her threats. "I was not kidding. Last chance."

"For fucks sake, Captain!" Yelled a voice from the bridge of the Red Widow. "They got us dead square. Just fucking surrender!"

Feelings fought feelings on her face, but finally she nodded. "We surrender."

As the battle was now essentially over, I let go of the Force, causing a wave of tiredness to wash over me. Being able to inspire the people under my command to do better was extremely practical, but it was also taxing, and I was glad that the enemy captain couldn't see my face.

"Wise choice, Captain Red. Any attempts to sabotage the ship in anyway, will result in the use of deadly force."

"Heard." Came the grumpy answer.

She didn't sound like she was completely willing to surrender yet, so to forestall any future problems, I conjured up an illusion of me standing next to her, causing her to jump in surprise.

"Listen closely." I said in a voice that was almost a hiss. "I reward people who follow orders and punish those who don't. Disobey me and you'll all spend the rest of your lives in a pain amplifier. Follow orders and you'll get out of this alive."

Visibly shaken she nodded hastily. "Y-yes, my Lord."

"Good." I said crisply. "Since you wanted to loot the base, I assume you have shuttles or dropships on board. I that correct?"

She nodded again. "Yes, my lord, but they can't carry all of us."

"I'll send more then. Gather in the Hangar and wait for us. You have fifteen minutes. If you have any slaves, they're staying on the ship, but you can take along your personal belongings, like a spacer's chest. Nothing else. We will check it."

She looked surprised at that, and I could hear happy chatter in the background. Most spacers had a rugged chest they used to store just about anything they deemed important or valuable to them. By allowing the pirates to take that along, there would be less resentment and chance of fighting.

"Get moving. I don't want to waste more time here, than I already have." I paused for a moment. "When and where are your transports coming, and what kind of ships are they?"

Sharon was silent for a moment, reminding me of Frances from the moon base, and then said. "It's two Sho-class transports and they should enter the system in about six hours, using the same coordinates as we did."

To my pleasant surprise, the stats on a Sho-class transport suddenly appeared on the other screen, proving that Tavune was paying attention.

The Sho-class was basically a locally made and slightly larger version of the Heraklon-class freighter. It had a crew of fifteen and could take six hundred passengers along with four thousand metric tons of cargo. Like the Heraklon-class the weak point was its weapon and armor, though the stock one had point defence lasers and two laser turrets.

"Any weapons beside the stock ones? Any escorts?"

"No and no." She answered grumpily.

The last part surprised me somewhat, but then I remembered, that Frances had said that most of Sharron the Red's ships were damaged, meaning that they most likely didn't have any left to act as an escort.

"Thank you. Now get moving." I finished and signalled to Tavune, who switched of the comm as I cancelled the illusion.

Turning towards the engineer, I said. "Engineer Gabosat, get half the micro starfighters close to the frigate and when the shuttles leave, escort them to the moon."

"Yes, sir." He answered with a smile and turned to his control panel.

Next, I contacted the Lethisk-class freighter, which held a boarding party, consisting of a squad of Black Dragons, a pilot, an engineer, all the gunners and a few of the spacehands I had deemed trustworthy. They were under the command of Ensign Turm'ivit'oashao (Mivito), who was one of the people I had gotten from the Phoenix before we left Alpha Viga. Until now he had been on the Mantis, but we needed Navy personnel on the freighter more than we needed an extra hand on the Mantis.

"Ensign Mivito," I said as the young man appeared on the screen. "When the pirates leave that frigate, please enter the hangar and take control of the ship."

"Yes, sir!" He said, sounding a bit shaken.

"At ease, Ensign." I said with a chuckle. "Since we need to check the pirates, we'll land the Fury in the hangar as well. As far as I can see, there's just enough room for that. Then we get the pirates off the ship before you take command. It'll just take some time. The first thing you need to do is to get the coordinates for their entrance point to this system as soon as possible."

"Yes, sir."

I switched over to the Mantis, ordering it to follow the two shuttles down to the planet and escort them to a clearing four-day travel from the base. There the pirates would leave the shuttles, along with their belongings, before our people would board them and fly to the base under the watchful eye of the droids. When they had done that, they had to return here.

Looking over at Lieutenant Samko. "Lieutenant Samko. When we have made sure, that the Cool Cat and the Rendaran-class Attack Shuttle have left the system safely, I want the Hunter's Gambit, Rising Star and the two Imperial Transports to set a course towards the coordinates Ensign Mivito sends you. A Fury and a Mantis with the help of the droid fighters as well as the two Imperial Transports should be able to take two freighter easily. The rest will go to Centauri Delta and continue their work."

"Yes, sir, but how did you know they had more ships?"

"They came for Mahaw's loot and slaves with about a hundred pirates." I explained. "The Foray-class can only hold 300 passengers and 2800 tons of cargo, so bringing only that ship means you're leaving a lot of slaves and cargo behind... which is money as far as pirates and slavers are concerned."

She nodded.

"So, we're going there to ambush them, because otherwise we won't be able to get everybody of the base. However, before we go anywhere, we need to check that the pirates don't try to bring weapons along and we also need to free those who are slaves or have been pressed into service."

"Yes, sir." Lieutenant Samko looked up at me with a smile. "By the way, sir. The way you took the Foray-class was brilliant."

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw several of the crew members nodding in agreement.

"Every battle is a gamble; I'm just stacking the odds in our favour." I said and took off the helmet. "Now, I need to relax a bit."

Lieutenant Samko nodded, but then asked. "One question, sir... What's a pain amplifier? Besides the obvious, that is."

"No idea." I said with a shrug. "It's a threat I read in a story once."

Her smile turned into a chuckle. "I see."

"Lieutenant," I said as I turned towards Yaki. "You have command."

"Yes, sir!" She saluted and, as tradition dictated, took my place in the commander's chair.

Satisfied, I walked into the captain's room, took off my armor and lay on the bed to get a powernap.

I almost made it, but just as I was on the brink of sleep, I got a shock when the door to the bathroom opened and the red-skinned, voluptuous alien woman from the pirate cave walked into the room, clad in only a small white towel around her waist.

As a Chiss navy officer, I'm used to many different and potentially dangerous things, but I was not prepared for having a dark red alien walk in on me, when I was about to sleep, and my heart skipped a beat until I saw that she was unarmed.

Calming myself, I took a deep breath as I studied her. As I had been busy intimidating the pirates the last time I saw her, I haven't paid her any attention, but now I had the time, I understood why the pirate had thought that such a gift would make an impression on me. Red alien or not, she was incredibly sexy.

The head was bald, but the two headtails that emerged from the crown of her head reaching down to the towel gave the impression that she had hair. Mostly because they, like the rest of her body, were adorned with black tattoos and rings of golden metal.

Her face was beautiful and finely chiselled, with high cheekbones and smooth red skin, that contrasted and brought out the light green colours of her eyes.

Traveling down her well-shaped, lithe body, my eyes stopped at her breasts. Big and perfectly shaped, they stood proudly on her chest, the darker red nipples pointing slightly upwards. Her waist was almost impossibly slim and flared out to hips as voluptuous as her breasts, before they turned into a set of long, shapely legs.

If she had any reservations about being almost naked in my cabin, she didn't show it, but then again, with the towel around her, she was wearing more clothes than I was.

The moment she discovered me, she stopped. Green eyes studying me for a fraction of a second, before she went down on one knee. "Good to meet you, Master."

Strangely the kneeling position didn't make her any less sexy.

I almost asked what she was doing in my cabin, but then remembered, that I had asked the Black Dragons to place her here.

"Oh, do stand up. I'm not your master, any more than you're my slave."

In a low voice, she murmured. "They told me so... I'm just not sure I can believe that."

"Believe it!" I said firmly and took a deep breath. "Now, please stand up and tell me your name."

"I'm Shakka." She said as she stood up slowly.

"Nice to meet you, Shakka. I'm Thalen." I gestured at the rooms only chair. "Have a seat."

A smile spread on her face, revealing white teeth behind the full lips. "Nice to meet you too, Thalen."

Gracefully and seductively, she walked over to the chair and sat down, keeping her legs closed under the towel. Not that it helped as that just gave me an excellent view of the side of her legs.

It dawned on me, that she was trying not to be sexy. She just couldn't help being it.

To get my thoughts of her sexiness, I asked. "So, Shakka. How did you end up being a slave?"

"I was born as a slave." She said simply.

"So, no education?" I guessed.

"I'm a doctor or MedTech as some call it. My first owner was an old man and he thought it was useful to have a medic around most of the time."

I didn't comment on that. Personally, I wouldn't put my life in the hands of somebody who, in all likelihood, disliked me. On the other hand, I couldn't detect any hatred in her and there was no bitterness in her voice, when she talked about her owner.

The clock on the wall behind caught my eye. I only had about half an hour before I needed to wake up again. "Listen, Doctor Shakka. I need to get some rest. I suggest that you get dressed and go talk with Lieutenant Yaki or some of the other troopers while I sleep. They can answer at least some of the questions you might have."

She looked surprised, but then nodded. "Yes, sir."

Her use of the military honorific surprised me, but then I realized, that not only did she know I was the commander, but right under the clock was a repeater screen, showing everything the captain could see on the screen in the cockpit. In short, she had had a front row seat to our battle and the way I had given orders, which clearly wasn't the way the pirates did things.

She stood up just as gracefully as she had sat down and walked over to the other side of the bed.

I just had time to wonder what she was doing, when she picked up a pile of clothes. Then she said. "Sleep well, sir." and quickly dressed before she walked out of the door.

With a sigh, I activated the computer. "Identify the race of the red female that just left the room."

"She belongs to the Twi'Lek race." The computer answered promptly, and a description showed on the screen. I quickly skimmed through it. Hailing from a planet called Ry'loth, the Twi'Lek had skin that ranges from vibrant shades of blue, green, purple, and even red, but their most striking feature was their head-tails, or 'lekku' as they were called. The Lekku were not just adornments but could be used to communicate through subtle movements, and since they were extremely sensitive and connected to the central nerve system as well as the brain, hard blows to a lekku could incapacitate and seriously harm a Twi'lek. Aside from that, they were extremely resilient to almost everything and could survive on food that would make most other humanoids starve to death.

The next paragraph made me raise my eyebrows. The planet of Ry'loth was a hellish place, with few natural resources and when the Twi'Lek were contacted by spacefaring races they only had one export people were interested in and that was their females. Thus, many of them were sold as slaves. A trade that had been going on for... I blinked in surprise... more than six thousand years!

The last paragraph stated that the Twi'lek were the most frequent female entertainer and were highly valued as dancers and sex-slaves.

I answered no, when it asked me if I wanted to know more about Twi'Lek, but out of curiosity, I asked the computer for a short update on the Chiss, just to find out what others knew about us.

"The Chiss have a striking appearance and keen intellect. Physically, most human find them beautiful with skin tones ranging from pale blue to striking cobalt, their hair often dark and sleek. Their crimson eyes, framed by elegantly tapered features, are perhaps their most captivating attribute and are said to grant them exceptional vision, both in darkness and across vast distances of space." The computer said, making me nod with a slight smile. "Their tongues are long for humanoids, with an average length of 8 centimetres measured from the lips, and their penis size tends to be longer and thicker than the galactic average. Two facts that together with their blue-skinned and crimson-eyed beauty makes male Chiss slaves extremely popular and sought after by rich female slave owners, and they fetch premium prices at slave auctions. Do you want to know more?

"No, thank you." I said, shaking my head slightly. I had forgotten that I was on a former pirate ship, which, at least when it came to Mahaw and his merry men, also meant slavers. Shaking my head slightly, I lay down to sleep. It was something I needed to think about, but now was not the time or place.

-------------------------------

The short nap made me feel better and thankfully, getting the pirates of the Foray went smoothly.

The shuttles turned out to be Fortitude-class shuttles, which couldn't take that many people, but using our own shuttles, we got the pirates down to the planet relatively fast.

Fortunately, twenty of the crew were slaves and with an additional fifteen having been pressed into service, that gave us enough to crew the ship with the people present, with Ensign Mivito in command, a Chiss First Officer to support him and a squad of Black Dragons to protect them. Not that I expected trouble, since I had used the Force to read the people staying aboard and they were more than happy to be free.

When everything was in order and the Imperial Dropship had returned from the moon, we took off again to escort our people to the jumppoint.

Still feeling tired, I left the flying to Lieutenant Samko, command to Yaki and went back to the cabin to relax.

Doctor Shakka had come back and was once again sitting in the chair but was now dressed in pants and a T-shirt, which didn't make her look one bit less sexy.

"Hello, Doctor Shakka. I see you found some different clothes."

She nodded with a smile. "Yes, one of the crew was kind enough to lend me this set. It's a little too tight for my liking, but I guess that beggars can't be choosers and she was the only one near my size."

I nodded. "When we're back at Centauri Delta, you might want to ask Pilot Satomi or Captain Meistrin. I think they're more your size." I chuckled. "At second thought, ask just about anybody that isn't a Black Dragon Space Marine. They tend to be taller and wider than the rest of the crew."

Walking over to the bed, I started to take off the armor. Unless I'm in the field, I avoid resting in armor. It's simply not comfortable and it'll make you wake up hurting in places you didn't know existed.

"Going to bed again?" Asked Shakka from her place in the chair.

"Well, this is the fourth battle I've fought today and right now, I need to lay down to relax and I hate doing that in armor." I explained and took off my socks before I lay down on the bed in my underwear.

Shakka was silent for a bit, but then said, "That looks comfy. Do you mind if I join you?"

"Not at all." I said, gesturing at the other side of the huge bed. "There's room enough here."

"Thank you." She said and stood. Then she surprised me by removing first the T-shirt and then the pants, showing that whoever had lend her the clothes, had also lend her a pair of standard military briefs, though I was willing to bet a small cruiser, that they looked better on the Twi'Lek. Placing the clothes on the chair, she walked over to the other side of the bed and lay down, the walk giving me plenty of time to admire her shapely body and perky breasts.

"May I ask a question?" She asked.

"Always, but I might not answer."

"That is fair, I guess." She said with a smile. "I always thought that space combat was done at great distances, but on the monitor, it looked like we were at extremely close range. Why is that?"

I thought for a moment, searching for a quick and easy way to explain it. "What do you know about space?"

"Well, basically, it's the huge nothingness between planets and solar systems." Shakka replied with a smile.

Nodding slowly, I said. "Yes, that is one of the most common misconceptions about space. Space it not empty. It's filled with Luminiferous Aether, an energy field spread throughout the galaxy. Luminiferous Aether does not interact with ordinary matter, but nonetheless provides a medium through which waves may travel."

"Really?" She said, sounding surprised. "I've never heard about it before."

I chuckled. "That's not unusual. Few people ever think about it, but it's the Luminiferous Aether that has allowed us to construct engines that can use this Aether to propel and control spaceships through space in the same manner as an aircraft through atmosphere. Unfortunately, it also has some serious drawbacks and one of them is that it limits the range of our weapons. If space was empty, any weapons fired would have a theoretical unlimited range, however since space is NOT empty, it takes a massive amount of power to not only energize a shot, but also to propel it through space at a speed that makes the shot hard to avoid, despite the drag from the Aether."

"So that Aether-thing is basically the atmosphere of space?"

"Exactly, and like an atmosphere, the ever-fluxing Aether influence how well a weapon can be aimed. To makes matters worse, the effect of the flux grows with the range to the target, making hitting targets at longer ranges a lot more difficult than one would normally expect, compared to shooting in atmosphere."

Her perfect mouth opened in an 'O'. "Well, that certainly explains the close range."

"Yes, and before you ask about targeting systems, there're problems with these as well. Every warship is protected by Electronic Warfare systems, but more importantly, living beings instinctively correct the fluxes in the Aether, but electronics like droids and automated firing systems do not. That makes living beings superior to both droids and automated firing systems. So, space battles are fought at ranges close enough for the gunners to align their cannons by scope assisted sights alone."

"That makes so much sense now." She declared, sending me a smile. "Thanks for the explanation!"

"You're welcome." I said and noticed the time. "Now, I need to close my eyes for a while, so please be quiet."

"Yes, sir." She said, humour in her voice.

----------------------

The soft 'beep' from the computer woke me up in time to hear Yaki say, "We're approaching the jump point, sir."

"I'll be there in a moment." I promised and discovered that it was easier said than done. Not only did I have a raging hard-on, but in the half hour I had been sleeping, Doctor Shakka had fallen asleep as well, and was hugging me in her sleep.

In all likelihood, that was the cause of my hard-on, because her well-shaped body was pressed against mine, sending horny thoughts through my head. She was also incredible warm to the touch, at least several degrees hotter than any Chiss I had ever been with.

It took me several minutes to disentangle myself from her, mostly because I didn't want to wake her, but finally I could slide off the bed and onto the floor, where I could don my armor once again.

I was almost done, when I discovered that Doctor Shakka's green eyes were open and that she was watching me from the bed.

"Sorry to wake you." I said, clicking the wrist-guard into place.

"No problem," She answered with a smile. "I enjoyed the view."

That surprised me. It sounded like she was trying to seduce me, but why a former slave that had been freed less than a day ago would try that, was beyond me.

Clicking on the last piece of armor and locking it into place, I sent her a last smile, said "Sleep well."

"Thank you... And Thalen, thank you for speaking to me like a normal being before. It's been a long time since anybody has done that."

I accepted that with a nod and walked out of the door.

---------------------------

There was a peaceful atmosphere in the cockpit when I returned.

In front of us, I could see the much larger Foray-class frigate glided majestically through space towards the jump point, where the Dynamic class freighter and one of the dropships would enter hyperspace towards Alpha Viga. Neither ship was truly needed, and I had decided to send as many of our people home as we could safely have on those ships as soon as possible.

That would also lessen the number of people we had to cram into the Foray-class later and it meant that all the people we had set out to rescue, had been returned home. Even the crew on the two ships had been chosen from among the Chiss.

"Welcome back, sir." Said Yaki with a smile as she stood up from the commander's chair.

"Thank you, Lieutenant." I sat down. "Mister Tavune, give me the Cool Cat."

"Yes, sir."

The pilot of the Dynamic-Class freighter, Wort'lath'hirgee (Tlath) appeared on my screen. "Yes, sir?"

"I just wanted to wish you all a good and safe trip. I trust everything is fine."

"Yes, sir. The course is plotted, and we just await your command."

I nodded. "Whenever you're ready, Pilot Tlath."

"Thank you, LC." He said and activated the controls. A moment later, the two ships were gone.

Satisfied, I leaned back in the seat. With two ships and fifty rescued Chiss on the way to Alpha Viga, at least that part of my job was done. Now we only needed to take the two Sho-class transports, load the freed slaves into the ships and get out of here before more people came to visit.

I had just finished the thought when I heard Tavune shout. "Mass alert! Two ships!"

At this jumppoint, it could only be Dark Maiden, Mahaw's Raiders last ship. A ruse might work, but it wasn't guaranteed, and I didn't want to have them running off to get reinforcement, so I slammed down the 'all-ships warning' switch and quickly ordered. "Incoming! Use Ion cannons!"

Even as I gave the orders, two ships dropped into realspace and it only took a glance to confirm, that one of them was indeed a Phantom-class yacht. You couldn't miss those smooth lines even if you tried. The other ship was just as recognizable as it was an old Class VI bulk freighter.

Despite being slow and sluggish at sublight speeds and equipped with a class four hyperdrive, the Class VI bulk freighter was cheap, readily available, and easy to repair and for those reasons, it was one of the most used bulk freighters in the Chaos.

I was waiting for the frigate to fire its ion-cannons, but the yacht made a sudden turn, proving that it was a lot more manoeuvrable than I had thought, and with surprising accuracy, their lasers hit our shield, draining them for half their strength. That was clearly turbolasers and not escort lasers!

At the same time, its shields snapped into place.

The ion cannon on the Mantis fired but missed, as the yacht took another unexpected turn.

"Evasive manoeuvres! Red Widow and the Fury stay at the yacht, all others, get that freighter." I ordered and a moment later, Lieutenant Samko threw the Fury into a complicated pattern, narrowly avoiding getting hit by another shot.

For a moment, I wondered why they were shooting at us and not the Foray, but then remembered that the Fury was the only Sith ship here, and I guessed the captain thought that Mahaw had betrayed him and that taking him out would stop the attack long enough for him to enter hyperspace and get away.

Taking a deep breath, I reached into The Force and used it to boost the skills of everybody under my command. It was the first time I had done it with that many people, but with the lack of experience on their side, they needed the boost.

A few seconds later a small salvo of laser shots left the frigate and hit the yacht. If it had been turbolasers, it would have seriously damaged the ship, but thankfully, it was normal lasers. The shots stripped the yacht of its shield and punched a few armor plates loose instead.

Despite my orders of using the Ion-cannons, I silently applauded the choice Meistrin had made. Utilizing the lasers to overload the shields, was a good idea.

Finally, the Foray's capital ships sized ion cannons came into play, hitting the yacht and ionizing its electronics, causing it to lose all power for a few seconds before the drive came back up.

Immediately, lasers streaked from the yacht to the frigate, wasting themselves against the frigate's shields. Another ion cannon salvo hit, making the yacht lose power once more.

The scenario repeated itself around the Class VI freighter, that was under assault from the smaller Ion cannons on the other ships.

Satisfied, I looked over at the Comm. "Tavune. Red Widow."

With surprising speed, Captain Meistrin appeared on the screen, like if Tavune had anticipated my request. The kid was getting better.

"Good thinking with the lasers, Captain Meistrin, but keep it up with the ion-cannons." I ordered and turned towards Engineer Gabosat. "Open the ramp and launch the droids."

"Yes, sir."

On my screen, the frigate poured ion energy into the shieldless yacht again and again, until the yacht suddenly went dark as its engine shut completely down. A moment later the Class VI followed suit.

I released my hold in The Force and was hit by the expected wave of tiredness.

Shaking my head to clear it, I ordered the Red Widow to stay in range of the ion cannons and had Engineer Gabosat position the rest of the droid fighters around the yacht, ready to attack, if they tried something stupid or suicidal.

Otherwise, this battle was over, and we could turn our attention to intercepting Sharron the Red's transports when they showed up, while the rest returned to the base.

Looking at the clock on the computer screen, I nodded to myself. Even with taking time to empty the two new ships, there was more than enough time to make it to the rendezvous point.

----------------------------

Ten hours later, I was yawning as flew the Fury into the main cave and touched down next to one of the Imperial Transports. One thing I had forgotten was our lack of pilots and in order to bring the two Sho-class transports back to Centauri Delta, I had to transfer Lieutenant Samko to one of them and pilot the Fury myself.

Aside from that, everything had gone according to plan, leaving us with two more ships to transport the freed slaves out of here.

Switching the engine off and lowering the access ramp, I relaxed in the seat for a moment before I stood and looked at Yaki. "Welcome back."

"Thank you, sir." She said with a smile, but then tilted her head. "And you need to sleep, sir. Not just a powernap, but a proper sleep."

"I know." I said with another yawn. Yaki had slept most of the way back to the planet and looked disgustingly awake. "While I do that, have the engineers check out the Sho-class transports. I'm not taking those ships into space until they have been checked out."

"Yes, sir. Anything else?"

"Count the number of people we have, including those from the yacht and the two transports. We need to know, if we got room enough for everybody. I know it's close, but we're talking life-support here, so we need to know the exact number."

"Yes, sir. I'll get the exact number later."

I nodded tiredly. One thing was how many passengers the ships were rated for, while how many the life-support systems could handle was something else. There was always a safety margin on life-support systems, so until the engineers came back with some data on exactly how much life-support we had, I wouldn't know for sure if we could carry everybody or not. People could sleep in cargo holds, but they couldn't live without oxygen.

"Good. Have the engineers take a closer look at the life-support systems, while they're checking the ships anyway."

"Yes, sir... and go to bed." She took her helmet and stood. "Sleep well, sir."

"Thank you."

Somewhat to my surprise, my bed wasn't empty. Shakka was still there, looking like she was asleep, so I took of the armor, enjoyed a very short shower, and lay down on the bed beside her, passing out as soon as my head hit the pillow.

------------------------------

I was awakened by the feel of soft hands sliding over my back, gently caressing me. For a while, I just lay there, enjoying the feeling while trying to guess who the hands belonged to. They were too small and soft to be Yaki's, so it was either Elise Samko or Shakka, with the first being the most likely candidate. Waking people up by touching their naked skin was generally something you did with people you had already been intimate with. On the other hand, my only experience with that was with other Chiss, and other cultures had different norms.

I opened my eyes just a little, enabling me to see the legs of the person next to me on the bed. Smooth red skin on the ankle made the person Shakka, as that was the only person onboard with that skin colour.

"Thalen?" She whispered softly. "You need to wake up. You have been sleeping for nine hours straight."

That made me open my eyes in surprise. I rarely sleep more than six hours, seven if I'm extremely tired, and I hadn't slept for nine hours for as long as I could remember. "Nine hours?"

"And fifteen minutes." Added Shakka with a smile. "I guess you needed it."

"You're most likely right." I nodded in agreement, before I sat up and stretched. My mind might not know how long I had been sleeping, but my body most certainly did, because as soon as I sat up, I felt a pressing need to pee.

"Excuse me." I said and quickly got out of the bed and walked to the bathroom.

After having peed and cleaned my teeth, I walked into the bedroom again. Shakka was still there and now that I had the time, I noticed that she had changed clothes again. Now she was wearing a standard spacer jumpsuit that fit her size better than anything I had seen her wearing so far.

She also looked like she was about to ask me a question, but I beat her to it. "So, Doctor Shakka. What're your plans for the future, now that you're free?"

That caught her by surprise, but she recovered quickly. "I honestly don't know. My dream has always been to be a doctor at a hospital, but I don't know how that could possibly happen. I have no money and nowhere to go."

I chuckled. "Well, if you elect to stay with us for the time being, I can almost guarantee that you're going to be working as a doctor, because we only brought combat medics along with us."

"Really?"

"Yes, we came here to rescue our people, having no clue that the pirates had taken so many other people."

She tilted her head a little. "I'll think about it." She paused, taking a deep breath while she looked at me, like if she was steeling her nerves for something. "Do you have a wife?"

Blinking in surprise due to the unexpected question, I said. "No, why do you ask?"

"Because Lieutenant Yaki said something to Lieutenant Samko that made it sound like the two of you were together. On the other hand, Lieutenant Samko's answer seem to indicate that you were with her instead, so unless you have been with both of them, I might have misunderstood it all."

"Oh." I chuckled. "I won't go into details, but it all likelihood, you didn't misunderstand anything. However, I don't have a wife, I don't have a girlfriend and I'm not looking for one either."

She fell silent again, biting her lower lip. "This is just as weird as I thought it would be."

"Just say what you're thinking." I suggested. "That's usually easier and I'm not easily offended."

The beautiful Twi'Lek took a deep breath and nodded. "Okay. I've been working as a doctor on the base for since the ship I was on was taken by the pirates and I haven't had sex in seven months." She signed. "I'm so horny I can't explain it and you don't react as most men do... Can we have sex? I really need it."

If there ever was a no-brainer, this was it and without hesitation, I said. "Yes! I would love to. I just didn't think a former slave as sexy as you are wanted it."

"Lord Mahaw didn't want his medical personnel to be abused, so he simply forbade it." She explained. "Don't get me wrong, there were none of those pirates I wanted to have sex with, but my first owner treated me really well and taught me to enjoy sex, so I'm just about ready to explode and ... "

I interrupted her by taking her by the neck, dragging her up from the bed and in for a kiss. She must have been surprised, because it took her a moment to respond to my lips pressing against hers, but then her full lips parted and she returned the kiss greedily, our tongues duelling softly.

My free hand wandered over her body to her amazing ass, and she groaned into my mouth as I squeezed it softly. Moving my hand upwards, I caressed her back and was so engrossed in our kissing that I almost got a shock when something glanced over the back of my hand.

Then I realized that it was just one of the lekku or headtails and relaxed again. There had been something about the lekku in the computers information, but with us kissing at the same time, it took a while before I remembered, that it had stated that the lekku were 'extremely sensitive and connected to the central nerve system as well as the brain, hard blows to a lekku could incapacitate and seriously harm a Twi'lek'.

To me, that sounded like they were just as sensitive as balls and if that was the case...

I let my hand glide over one of the lekku, fingers dancing softly on the smooth, soft skin. The effect was immediate and very good as she shivered all over, while groaning into my mouth, so I used the hand on her neck to hold her closer, while I caressed both her lekku, one after the other, treating them like they were extremely sensitive breasts.

It still felt a little strange, but as Shakka moaned, shook, and groaned when I did it, I couldn't care less. A little strangeness was a fair price to pay for having a woman react like that even before she was out of her clothes.

Still groaning, Shakka turned her body a little, a hand sneaked in between us and a moment later I heard a zipper being opened, followed by her yanking the upper part of the jumpsuit off, causing the whole thing to land on the floor.

Then her hand dived into my briefs. Her fingers found my cock and began to caress it lightly, fingertips just touching me, but it felt almost electrical.

Breaking the kiss, I bowed just enough to be at level with her magnificent red breasts, opened my mouth and placed them as softly as I could over the hard nipple, before swirling my tongue over it, making Shakka give off a deep sigh of pleasure. "Damn, that's good!"

I silently agreed, but I was standing in an awkward position, so I gently pushed her backwards and down on the bed. "I want to lick you."

"Yes, sir!" With a grin, Shakka lifted her hips from the bed and took off the underwear, before laying down again, spreading her legs, so there was room for me between them. Like Shakka herself, her pussy looked delightful and strange at the same time. Strange because even between her legs she was red. Delightful, because she was totally hairless, giving me a clear sight of her pussy, where her inner petals poked just into the open through the glistening outer lips.

Licking my lips in anticipation, I moved forward and licked the soft skin of her inner thigh, coming closer and closer to her pussy with every lick. This close I could smell her scent and it was fresh, spicy, and sweet all at the same time.

Reaching my goal, I slowly kissed the outer lips, enjoying their softness and the shivers my moves created in her. Then I began licking the outside of her lower lips and the skin around them, making the shivers turn into groans, before my tongue parted her lips so I could lick between then. She tasted just as good as her aroma had promised, and I happily let my tongue play around the opening, taking a detour to her clitoris from time to time.

Thankfully, according to the computer all near-human races were built almost the same, so with the exception of the lekku, everything was placed in the same place as with other women I had been with, making pleasuring her so much easier.

Making my tongue hard, I drove it as far into her as I could, licking the walls of her pussy with long, firm licks for a minute, before withdrawing it to let it swipe over her clitoris, teasing the little hard nub for a while before licking up and down her slit, drinking her juices as I finished off by going back to her opening again.

The third time I did it, I felt her hand on my head, shaking as they pressed my mouth against her crotch. Looking up at her face, her eyes were closed, and the beautiful face was twisted in pleasure as she enjoyed the oral attention. She was also very close to coming, so I reached up and caressed her lekku as I picked up the speed.

Her groans suddenly increased in volume, as I focussed on the clitoris, licking it hard and fast. It didn't take long before she came, her hips bucking against my face as she shrieked in pleasure.

The moment her loud shriek of delight began to fade, and her body began to relax, I moved my hand from a lekku and inserted two fingers in her, found her G-spot and began to pump my fingers in and out of her. I waited a few moments more and started to lick her clitoris again.

Shakka groaned and almost immediately came again, her scream a little deeper this time, as her pussy clenched around my fingers.

I gently took them out so she could cool down a little.

She recovered quickly, raising her head to look at me. " That... was... incredible. Come up here!"

"All in good time." I chuckled and crawled onto the bed, licking my way over her flat stomach until I reached her magnificent breasts. It suddenly occurred to me, that I haven't really paid those perfect balls of flesh any attention, since I had been occupied by the Lekku, but there was time to redeem that oversight now.

Shakka moaned, when I licked and kissed the underside of one breast and then travelled over her skin to the other, giving it the same treatment as the first, before going upwards towards the nipple.

Swirling my tongue around it, I could feel the small bumps of her aureole against my tongue. Giving the hard nipple an extra lick, I closed my lips around it and sucked it into my mouth, causing Shakka to gasp and her hands grabbed my head, pressing it against her chest.

I closed my teeth on the nipple, biting lightly, while flicking my tongue on top of it, and then released it, so I could do the same with the other nipple.

That was how far I got, before Shakka pulled me up to her mouth so we could kiss. Seeing the green in her eyes was still a little strange, but her full lips were soft as we kissed.

Shakka reached down between us and a moment later, I felt her warm fingers against my dick, stroking it a few times, before placing it right at her entrance.

No words were needed and with a slow push, I began to press into her. She groaned happily as I sank in, delving a few centimetres or so into her, then backing off just a fraction, before sinking in further.

Breaking our kiss, Shakka gasped "Fuck, it's good", as I pressed deeper into her tight confines. Her moist, hot embrace of my cock was wonderful as I kept working into her, taking my time. Not that Shakka just lay there, she was rolling her hips, doing anything in her power to get more of me inside her, groaning with every move.

Finally, my pelvis hit her clitoris, causing her to moan even louder. I retracted my length from her slowly, almost all the way. Then I sank back into her almost twice as fast. Then I did it again, even faster, hitting her clitoris every time I bottomed out in her.

Keeping the pace, I fucked her like that for a while, enjoying the feel of her around me, as the rolling of her hips made her pussy massage my dick, the sensation of her breasts against my chest, her strange red beauty, and her sounds of pleasure as she came closer and closer to an orgasm.

Her arms moved from my head to my back, nails scratching gently on my back, as her pussy suddenly contracted again and she screamed into my mouth, her body shaking and trembling under me.

I lowered the pace, luxuriating in the feeling of her pleasure.

Finally, her orgasm subsided and she broke the kiss to send me a dazzling smile. "That was awesome, Thalen, and I love that you didn't come."

"Why?"

"Because I want to finish this on top of you." She told me and removed her hands from my back. "Roll over."

Taking hold of her, I did exactly that, ending up with her on top of me and a leg on each side. Despite my best effort, I did slip out of her, but Shakka sat upright, took hold of my dick with a slender hand, and smoothly sat down again, enveloping me once more inside of her.

The position made her red breasts stand out even more than before and giving in to temptation, I reached up and caressed them. As I had felt when I kissed them, they were smooth and firm, and I happily sank my fingers into them.

"Keep doing that," Shakka gasped and began moving up and down on my dick, each move sending shivers of pleasure through my body, as she was going faster and faster. Suddenly she slammed down against me and sat still as she came yet again, the muscles inside her pulsing around my dick, milking it in a way I had never experienced before.

Placing her hands on my chest, she leaned forward and began rotating her hips as she rocked back and forth, changing the angle of her hips slightly each time.

Since her leaning forward had made her lekku fall to the front of her body, I began alternating between caressing her breasts and the sensitive head-tail, being careful to be very gentle on the lekku and somewhat rougher on the breasts.

"Fuck!" She gasped, looking at me with delight in her face. If she was going to say more, a sudden small orgasm silenced it.

The milking sensation started again, bringing me closer to my own orgasm. Shakka must have felt it, because she began moving quickly up and down again, slamming down on me every time.

I tried to prolong the incredible feeling by sheer will, but despite my years of training, the feeling of what we were doing quickly overrode anything.

"I'm coming!" I managed to growl.

That only made her go even faster and a moment later she came with a howl, rotating her hips around my dick. The milking sensation started again and this time, I had to give into it. Lightning of pure pleasure ran through my body, as I emptied myself in her milking pussy.

The feeling of me coming in her, sent Shakka into yet another orgasm. Making her squeal and jerk on top of me, each movement getting smaller and smaller until she just sat on me, her pussy vibrating away on my still stiff cock.

Acting with one mind, Shakka leaned down at the same time as I moved my hands to her back to pull her in for a soft kiss.

"Well, that was epic!" Shakka said a little while later. She was still laying on top of me with her head resting on my shoulder, my hands caressing the soft skin on her back. She gave my skin a little kiss. "I hope we can do this again another time."

"Oh, you can be sure of that." I said fervently. "That was insanely good."

"Yes, but now you need to go. Lieutenant Yaki wanted to talk with you."

I lifted my eyebrows in surprise. "Did Yaki send you in to wake me up?"

She nodded. "Yes. She even told me that the best way to get you up was to caress your back."

That made me laugh. "It is, but it's normally only done with lovers."

She lifted her head to look at me. "What?"

"Normally that way of waking up another person is only done when the two of you have been intimate." I explained. "Yaki has a strange sense of humour from time to time."

"Oh, that's embarrassing."

She looked so horrified that I have her a little hug. "Well, I can't complain about the outcome, so I guess it was all for the better."

The beautiful Twi'Lek sent me a smile. "You're right about that."

She moved off me, so I could get out of the bed. "And now you need to go to work."

"No, now I need to take another bath." I chuckled as I stood up and held out a hand towards her. "Do you want to join."

With a smile, she accepted the offered hand. "I would love to."

*********************************

Organizing the next step

Centauri Delta

"Leaders instil in their people a hope for success and a belief in themselves.

Good leaders empower people to accomplish their goals."

From the Holy Book of War

Half an hour later, I was standing outside the cave opening along with Yaki, looking at the ships parked there. In a surprisingly short time, our force had grown from two patrol crafts, and an armed freighter supported by a couple of Rendaran dropships, to include a Lethisk-class armed freighter, a Foray-class blockade runner, a Phantom-class yacht, a Class VI freighter, a Wanderer-class freighter, and two Sho-class transports, along with a couple of Imperial Transports.

I hadn't heard about the Wanderer-class before but according to the database it a was a catch-all ship designation for military vessels that had been converted to civilian use. Basically, they removed all military systems from the ship, installed some civilian-size lasers and sold it.

The one we had was named Barracuda and was a stripped-down variant of the Thranta-class frigate, but the pirates had their engineer reinstall the military grade shields along with a pair of twin laser cannons and two tractor beam projectors, making the 450 meters long ship more than capable to defend itself. More importantly was that it could take four hundred passengers and several thousand tons of cargo with a crew of only eight people and ten gunners.

As many smaller capital ships, both the Foray-class frigate and the Sho-class transport could make landfall, so we had landed them outside the caves along with the Phantom-class yacht and the Class VI freighter. Like the other pirates, the crews from both ships had been removed and the slaves as well as those pressed into service had been freed, while the rest had been transported to the clearing.

"You need to stop capturing ships, sir." remarked Yaki with humour in her voice. "We're running out of space to place them and people to crew them."

"I know, but that demands that people stop attacking us or try to take away the former slaves." I replied with a slight smile. "I suppose we could place an automated beacon in the outer rim of the system, telling people that attackers will be defeated, and their ships taken."

"Excellent idea, sir." Said Yaki with a chuckle and turned serious. "May I make a request and a suggestion, sir?"

"Go ahead, Lieutenant."

"If we transport the base prisoners to the clearing where we keep the rest of them, we don't need to keep all our troops here." Yaki said. "Then we can send the rookie troopers home in the last Rendaran-class shuttle. The Black Dragons can easily keep the freed slaves from running wild. Especially if we move most of them into the larger ships and put some of those we can trust in charge of the rest."

Looking into the air, I thought it over. It was a brilliant suggestion. As a frigate, the Foray-class even had a brig, where we could put those of the former slaves, we deemed untrustworthy.

"Good thinking, Lieutenant. Make it happen."

"Yes, sir." She paused for a moment. "What do we do now, sir?"

"Now we load everything from the base into the ships." I said slowly. "The bulkiest cargo goes into Barracuda, as that one has the bigger cargo space, but spread the rest over the other ships. I intend to leave the Class VI freighter here for the pirates to use when we're gone, so we need to empty that as well."

"That'll take some time." she remarked.

"Yeah, but it has to be done." I said and explained, that unless we removed the loot and everything else, the pirates would not only be back in business all too soon but would also have money enough to get better ships.

Yaki nodded slowly. "With the amount of plunder here, I doubt we can get all of it in our ships, but I'll get right on it, sir."

I nodded to her.

Next item on my mental list was checking the state of the ships, so I contacted Master Engineer Gacith and had him come over.

To my amazement, Master Engineer Gacith brought a middle-aged human male along with him, which told me that the human had to be extraordinarily gifted. Otherwise, the Master Engineer wouldn't have bothered, so I took a moment to study him. Tall and lean, with light brown skin, piercing azure eyes and a short beard that was as black as his dishevelled hair, he wore a practical engineer's jumpsuit, adorned with various tools and gadgets strapped to his belt.

Stopping in front of me, the Master Engineer saluted. "Hello, sir. I brought help along. This is Paul Keller, the local engineer. He's a former slave and knows a great deal about the ships here. He is the one that fixed the drive on the Barracuda."

I nodded to the man. "Hallo, Engineer Keller. Nice of you to come help us."

The human nodded shortly. "Don't worry about it, sir. I'll do anything to get off this base." He paused and added. "I don't like being a slave and this place become dull as a desert after a while."

I nodded to him and looked at Master Engineer Gacith. "So, how're the ships coming along?"

"They're done, sir. Well, except for the Phantom-class yacht." He said with a smile. "According to Engineer Keller here, there are some complications with that one, so we waited until you were here."

"Oh... What complications?"

Engineer Keller smiled a bit. "Have you talked with Resa yet?"

As I haven't talked with anybody except Yaki about the yacht, I shook my head. "No."

"You're in for a surprise then." He determined with a laugh. "I better go fix it, so you're registered as the ship's owner. Otherwise, you won't get much help from her." He paused again. "Oh, what shall I call the ship, sir? I need a new name for it before I can change anything."

I thought about it for a moment. I didn't know how other cultures felt about naming ships, but in Chiss society the name was important, and nobody went into battle with unnamed ships if they could avoid it.

Looking over at the heavily armed luxury yacht, I admired the sleek lines and the elegant design for a moment, before finally saying. "Duchess."

"That's a good name." He stated. "And the Foray-class?"

"Ask Captain Meistrin for that. She took it into battle, so she gets to name it." I paused to use the Force as I asked. "Oh, by the way, can we trust you not to sabotage the ships?"

He looked surprised at the question but nodded. "Yes, I'm not an idiot and you guys are our ticket out of here."

Even while using the Force, I couldn't determine any falsehood in him, so I nodded. "Thank you. Oh, by the way... what do you know about the Phantom-class yacht?"

The engineer lit up in a smile. "Oh, about four hundred years ago, the Imperial Intelligence Service designed and used a ship called the X-70B Phantom. Back then it was state of the art, nearly invisible to sensors, while packing quite a punch. It was designed to be able to go undercover as a Yacht, as you can see. However, it wouldn't be much of a cover, if every Phantoms were an undercover IIS ship, so a civilian version was made as well."

He gestured at the ship in front of us. "This version is not nearly as powerful as the original, but it's still a beautiful little ship."

With the warships the Imperial Shipyards made, it was easy to forget, that they could make ships that weren't totally dedicated to war, and the Phantom was proof that the Empire had some extremely good ship designers and ditto engineers.

Of cause, it was entirely possible for a ship to look good, but perform badly, though it was rarely the case in the Sith Empire, as shipbuilders that delivered faulty ships to the Sith-lords tended to die. "How good is it?"

"Well, it's fast, agile, well armoured and reasonable armed, but the development in sensors and the lack of secret technology have made it more visible to detection systems than the original." He shrugged. "In short, it's a good craft on par with the Fury, if not a little better and somewhat harder to detect, especially at long range, but it's not even close to be the cutting-edge stealth ship the X-70B Phantom was in its time."

That made sense and with a nod, I looked over at the Phantom again. "It's a beautiful design... What about weapons?"

"Well, it's designed to pass as legal in most systems... even non-Imperial systems... so, it has two heavy Long Shot Laser cannons, two Ion cannons and some point-defence lasers."

I nodded slowly. That made the Phantom extremely well-armed for its size, but then again, if you were rich enough to buy a personal craft it made sense to make that craft as well-protected as possible. "Thank you, Engineer Keller. You seem to know a lot about these ships."

He smiled a wry smile. "I'm a ship engineer with a lesser degree in Naval History and ancient ship designs is a hobby of mine." The was a small pause, before he added a belated "sir".

"Very well. Then I'll stop delaying you in your work."

"Yes, sir." He gave a kind of salute and ambled off in the direction of the ship.

The Master Engineer sighed. "Sorry about that, sir, but having Paul Keller along will speed things up. I've talked with several of the slaves that worked as engineers here and they all swear that he's a technical genius... even if he hasn't got a clue about military etiquette."

"If he can make this go faster, I can live with it, Master Engineer," I said. "Now I need to get back to the problem of crewing the ships."

He saluted and followed the human engineer.

Looking at my datapad, I nodded in satisfaction. The capital ships along with the freed crew aboard them had made distributing the crews a lot easier than before. The Barracuda might be stripped of its military system, which included the open hangar, but a ramp had been installed instead, enabling us to park the shuttles in there, freeing pilots and engineers for the other ships.

The Foray-class had most of the needed crew already, but it took a crew of forty just to operate it at anything that resembled an orderly, efficient manner. That posed a problem since I simply didn't have that many people with the skills to do it. At least not among the Chiss and especially not now that we planned on sending at least some of them home.

"Lieutenant Yaki." I called over the intercom. "When you're done arranging the transport, please bring out the crew members you found."

"Yes, sir."

--------------------

According to the logs, fifteen of Sharon the Red's spacers had been pressed into service the last four months, so I had them moved into another room, along with the people Yaki had found and had a little chat with each of them, using the Force to determine if they were lying or not.

That way I could determine not only if they had been involved in crimes like murder or were a danger if they could roam freely on the Foray, but also if the base crew had been in contact with Sharron the Red or her crew. Someone had fed information to the pirate queen and if it was one of them, I wanted to know it.

Unfortunately, all they knew was that a member of Mahaw's Raiders had struck a deal with the 'Pirate Queen' in exchange for a small freighter and enough money to get away. That was mostly things I had already figured out, but on the positive side I discovered that the pirates in the area met at an extremely well defended safe harbour, called Thief's Den, where they sold some of their stolen goods. Sadly, only the pirate captains knew the exact coordinates to the place, so unless I got hold of Sharon the Red again, the location would continue to be unknow.

I just left it at that. According to the crew, Thief's Den didn't trade slaves and there were no blue-skinned people there, so it wasn't anything I wanted to risk ships or people on.

In the end, I only had to discard five, leaving me with an additional pilot, three sensor specialists, a medic and five extra gunners. Along with the other people here, like Lieutenant Samko and her pilot, that was enough to crew all the ships, meaning that we could get out here as soon as we were done loading.

I had just finished with the interviews, when one of them approached me. It was an elderly man named Eric Kansen and from what he had told me, he had been a Master Gunner at a heavy freighter before the vessel was captured and he was pressed into service.

"Excuse me, My Lord."

"Yes, Mr. Kansen?"

He blinked a few times in surprise when I used his name, but then took a breath and asked. "Do you plan on raiding Sharron the Red's bases?"

It was hard to miss the hope in his voice, but I also noticed that he was using plural. "Bases? As in more than one?"

He nodded. "The bitch has two of them. One is a small refuelling station close to the Outer Rim and the other is a planetary base located here in The Chaos. The last one is in a box system, but I know the way into the system and winning any battle should be easy, since they're busy repairing their ships."

I had to dig into what I had learned at the Naval Academy before I could remember what a box system was. Extremely rare, a box system was a star system with strong electromagnetic fluxes wrapped around its outer edges, which interacted with solar wind to obstruct hyperspace travel and the strong ion flux would short-out both shields and engines of any spaceship traveling through it, crippling the spaceships seriously and sometimes permanently.

However, planets created a gravity well that made holes on the flux as it bent the electromagnetic flux. Unfortunately, such holes were extremely difficult to find from the outside, but easily seen from the inside, making the system easily defended and perfect for a pirate hide-out.

I regarded him for a moment. "I doubt they have anything that interest me but do continue. Start with the refuelling base."

Kansen nodded nervously and explained everything he knew about the bases, which unfortunately wasn't much. The refuelling base was an old Imperial from the Great Sith War some three hundred years ago and was inside a large asteroid, hidden away from prying eyes. The biggest difference between the Centauri 21 base and the Refuelling base, was that where this base was in an out-of-the-way system, the refuelling base was a lot closer to the Outer Rim and had been used as a staging point for the Sith during the war and abandoned when they lost.

Sharon the Red used it as a place to rearm and refuel her ships after raids in the Outer Rim, while the loot and slaves were being sorted. When that was done, the non-humanoid slaves were sent off for auctioning at the Zygerrian slave auction on Phiscar 3, while the humans or near-humans were transported to the planetary base in the Debra system.

The planetary base was located on a large island on a primitive, but habitable planet in an out-of-the-way box system and consisted of several old ships the pirates had landed, before stripping them for parts, leaving the hulls as living areas for the pirates.

The island was extremely fertile and suitable for agriculture and Sharon the Red had taken advantage of that in a big way in the years that had passed since she discovered the planet. She had used the slaves to populate the island, making them live in small villages, creating several communities that either supplied the pirates with fresh produce, worked on repairing the pirate ships, or just provided services that such a society needed.

Basically, it was the same setup as the noble-and-serf system that some planets used and I realized that Sharon the Red wasn't satisfied with just being a pirate queen, she wanted to become a real queen and from the sound of it, she was well on her way to make it happen.

Depending on the rulers, that kind of society could be good or very bad for the serfs and according to Kansen, it was very bad. The pirates were abusive, imposed strict discipline with a lot of punishment and took anyone they wanted as their personal toy.

Peace was enforced by patrolling Security droids and even though there were more than twelve thousand slaves to about five hundred pirates, all the slaves had a chip implanted in them and had no realistic hope of leaving the island or the planet.

He continued to tell me about the slaves for a while, dropping several interesting bits of information, but finally I held up a hand and he stopped talking immediately.

"Who do you want to be rescued?" I asked. "You wouldn't plead me for help, unless you want us to save someone special."

"My family." He said with tearful eyes. "My sister, my wife, and our children. They were taken at the same time as I was and are current on the planetary base."

"Thank you, Mr. Kansen. I shall think about it." I said, as I turned around and walked away.

--------------------

A little while later, I was sitting in the meeting room on the Fury along with Lieutenant Yaki and Captain Meistrin. Since nobody could see us, we had all taken off our helmets and were relaxing with some soft drinks in our hands.

"Ahh, this is good." Declared Yaki and leaned back in the seat before she looked at me. "Though, I doubt that was the reason you wanted to see us, sir."

"Correct. One of Sharron the Reds' former slaves wanted us to raid her base and free the slaves there." I paused to drink some more. "Considering the risk to our people, I was inclined to say no, but apparently Sharon the Red was lucky half a year ago and managed to cripple and board a large freighter. The special thing about this freighter was that it was staffed with blue skinned humanoids with red eyes and their weapon technology was different from the normal lasers."

That made Captain Meistrin sit up in the chair. "That has to be the Flower Spirit!" Looking apologetic at me, she continued. "Sorry, sir. But the Flower Spirit is a large freighter that disappeared without a trace six months ago and the Phoenix spent weeks looking for it in various systems on it's known route, without any luck."

"Did it transport anything special?" asked Yaki.

"Not to my knowledge." Meistrin said and thought about it, before she shook her head. "If they did, we were never informed about it and there was no mention about securing any cargo if we found it." She shrugged her shoulder slightly. "I guess it was just the normal trade goods."

"Except for the mention of the different weapon technology." Yaki said. "But that might just have been normal side arms."

Meistrin nodded. "A freighter would have been equipped with lasers, not masers."

Holding up a hand, I interrupted their debate. "Ladies, according to Kansen, there're still eighteen Chiss alive on that base, so I wanted to hear your opinion: Do you think that we can liberate those people without undue risk to our own people?"

"Yes!" They answered at the same time.

"I agree, but we'll have to take the refuelling base first. According to Master Gunner Kansen, they have several ships there, though he didn't know which class of ships. However, if we don't take that refuelling base first, we can expect the pirates to get reinforcement at any given moment." I thought for a moment. "This is a major change of plans and I don't want to assume that the freed slaves will join a fight that isn't theirs, so I think we should give them a choice between coming with us when we go to free Sharon the Red's slaves or make their own way home."

"We can ask the leaders of the former slaves." Suggested Meistrin. "Then they can sort it out among themselves."

"Good idea."

"Then you'll have to excuse me, sir." Said Captain Meistrin with a smile as she stood up and donned her helmet. "We better get this fixed as soon as possible."

She left, followed by Yaki, and I went back to work.

*********************************

Duchess

"True leadership lies in guiding others to success. In ensuring that everyone is performing

at their best, doing the work they are pledged to do and doing it well."

From the Holy Book of War

Master Engineer Gacith and Paul Keller came back from the Duchess to report that everything was fine. Then they went over to check the Sho-class transporters, and I walked into the Phantom-class yacht to check it out.

I had expected opulent luxury, as I walked into the ship but while it was most certainly luxurious, the interior was as clean as the outside, with no unnecessary frills. Just exquisite engineering and design.

The corridors and doors were mostly hexagonal in shape and even in the crew department, there weren't any visible pipes or cables.

For me, that was the most important part. Everybody can design a ship with luxurious guest quarters but extending that luxury to functional crew quarter and engine department was what truly made this ship the luxury yacht the description in the database had said it was.

By necessity, the cargo space was practical and the same with the hangar next to it.

As it turned out, the database had been wrong about the yacht having a shuttle. Instead, it had a pinnace, which was basically just a space-capable car armed with light lasers and shield. It was a lovely little ship, but it wasn't a shuttle, as there only room for four people in it.

To my amazement, the four small starfighters were Aurek Tactical Starfighters. A design about as old as the Foray, the Aurek was one of the best small strike fighters in its time, easily surpassing their Sith counterpart.

Deciding that I had amble time to study them later, I walked past the crew's rec room and the galley, before I took a quick look into the medical bay, which was another state-of-the-art facility with room for six patients.

The passenger section was kept in the same clean lines as the rest, but the designers had added green plants and other small improvements, that made for a relaxing atmosphere.

From there, I took the lift to the bridge and then stopped in amazement. It was without a doubt the best-looking bridge I had ever been on. The layout was perfect and there even was a military-style tactical hologram in front of the commander's chair.

An unknown female voice interrupted my thoughts. "Sorry sir, but are you the new owner?"

Looking in the direction of the voice, I could feel my eyebrows raising in surprise. The woman standing there was extremely well-shaped and dressed in the same kind of revealing clothes that both Shakka and Elise Samko had been wearing the first time I had seen them. The major difference was that a toolbelt and a blaster had been added to the outfit.

"Yes, I'm Thalen, the new owner." I said slowly. "And you are?"

"I'm Resa, your companion droid." She said with a smile. "I come along with the ship... Oh... I like the new name by the way. Duchess is so much more fitting that Dark Maiden."

Her statement about being a droid surprised me a bit. Mostly because she looked like a woman and not one of the typical droids. It was only when she mentioned being a droid, that I noticed the small LED on her right-side temple, that gave her origins away.

Most droids I had seen or read about were easily recognized as artificial constructs, with metal skin, 'eyes' that were clearly sensors and a certain stiffness and artificiality to their movement.

Resa was clearly different. There was an uncanny naturalness to the way she moved and spoke. Her hair looked real, her skin seemed soft and alive, and her eyes looked like Elise Samko's, as they sparkled in the light from the screens on the bridge.

One of the other praetorians once told me, that such droids were occasionally used as bartenders, prostitutes, and dancers in bars in the Outer Regions of Space, but with the limited experience I had with droids at the time I simply haven't believed her, because how could a clunky moving machine made from metal be dancers or prostitutes?

Seeing how Resa looked, it was suddenly more believable.

"Thank you." I said with a slight nod. "May I ask what kind of ... hm... chassis that is?"

"Oh, it's the body of a DD-series Hospitality droid." It informed me. "They're a series of human replica droids, designed to look as human as possible within the law."

"And why're you in that?"

"The first owner found the DD-series Hospitality droid more pleasing for the eye and so he had me moved to a new body." It said lightly and looked down at itself. "This chassis does move faster; hands are useful as well and it has other benefits."

I nodded slowly. "Could you please give me an overview over your skills, stats and anything else you think I might need to know?"

"Certainly, sir." It replied cheerfully.

The view screen flickered for a second and list showed up, showing that Resa was hooked remotely into the ships systems or some of them at least.

I spent some time going through the list and as with anything else regarding this ship, I was impressed. The processor core was an Automata Galactica R3 Ship Assistant droid aka. RESA and it was designed to be a ship droid specializing in personal etiquette and spaceship upkeep.

It was programmed with extensive knowledge of spaceship design and could perform advanced maintenance and upkeep, including everything from cleaning the ship's fuel injectors to dusting the crew's personal quarters. It was also designed to cater to the crew on an individual basis, attending to the personal preferences of each crewmember when possible.

It was equipped with a heuristic processor, allowing it to learn new skills on its own and somewhere along its lifetime, it had learned to pilot a ship, shoot with both personal and ship-based weapons, and on top of that, it still had retained the skills that came with the chassis.

Acting in concert with the heuristic processor was a later modification called an 'organic neural sensory processor', that along with an advanced humanoid behavioural program allowed her to act human.

Impressive as the skillset was, the chassis was even more remarkable. According to the information on the screen, it was an extremely advanced version of the Automata Galactica's DD series Hospitality droid, and whomever had ordered it, must have paid a small fortune for it.

The eyes hid advanced sensors, providing it with infrared, low-light and telescopic vision, while the memory recorded input from the sensors, including audio recording. It also had an integrated, encrypted commlink for both secure communications and the remote system, it had just demonstrated.

The bone structure was constructed of high-strength, polymer-covered alloys, while micro-gyros embedded in the joints gave her a perfect sense of balance. The bone structure was supported by biofibre muscles in a soft inner shell that also functioned as a cooling mechanism, making the body feel soft and warm to the touch. To make it even more realistic, the body was covered in synthetic skin, that looked and felt exactly like real skin.

In short, she could eat, drink, and perform any other function needed to pass for a normal woman, including all the "more intimate" functions, which I assumed was the reason for the model being used as a prostitute.

The last line was the weirdest one. "I like sculpturing, engineering, designing spaceships, music, dancing and being respectfully treated as a woman."

I knew advanced droids developed some personally traits over time, but even taking the much more advance droid technology into account, this was beyond normal, and I hoped it was just advanced programming and not some serious glitz, because I was listed as it's... her owner and that meant, that from now on, she was my responsibility.

"This looks brilliant, Resa," I said. "I'm looking forward to working with you."

"Likewise, sir." She said with a slight bow. "Can I bring you a refreshment?"

"A soft drink would be nice ... By the way, did you choose that outfit yourself?"

She shook her head. "No. That was the preferred style of former owner."

"Well, wear whatever you want for the time being."

"Yes, sir."

"Good. Before you leave, could you put the technical data on the ship on the screen?"

"Certainly, sir."

The screen changed and now I was looking at the ship.

"Thank you, Resa." I said and started to study the technical data.

--------------------

At some point, Resa came back with a soft drink, placing it on the armrest beside me.

I nodded a thanks, but then blinked in surprise as I discovered, she was now wearing a black and white servant uniform, that was even more revealing than what she wore before.

Ignoring the outfit, I asked. "Resa, I have a couple of questions."

"Just ask, sir."

"The lasers that hit my ship took about half the shield in one salvo and only turbolasers have that much power, but according to the specs, Duchess doesn't have turbolasers. Can you explain that to me?"

She was silent for a moment, before saying. "Yes, sir. The escort lasers follow the edict about civilian weapons by drawing power from a low-powered generator." She pointed at the placement on the drawing, but then moved her finger. "However, this addition here allows the ship to siphon power directly from the reactor core, if need be, and that gives the lasers military strength."

I nodded slowly. Escort lasers were essentially just low-powered turbo's, and this was a clever workaround to give the ship more punch. "Nicely done."

She nodded with a smile. "Yes, Paul is an excellent inventor and engineer."

"Engineer Keller made that?"

"Yes, he did."

It seemed like the other engineers assessment of Engineer Keller as a technical genius was correct, I determined and asked. "Did he do the same with the lasers on the Lethisk-class freighter?"

"Yes, he did the Jackpot first as a test run."

That made the engineer a good man to have around, and I made a mental note of assigning him to the Duchess.

"Nice. In your stats, there was something called an 'organic neural sensory processor'. I don't know much about Droids or their components, so could you explain what that is?"

"The best invention ever! It translates electronic sensory data into organic responses and the other way around. It's what sets me apart from most other droids." Declared Resa and started on a longer explanation that involved a lot of bio-technical terms, which I didn't understand.

"Resa, I'm a naval officer, not a scientist, and I have no idea what you're trying to tell me."

She was silent for a moment, but then said. "I could show you, but that would take some time. May I show you at a later date?"

"Sure." I replied with a nod. "I need to go see how things are coming along."

She smiled and nodded. "Have a good day, sir."

I donned my helmet again. "Likewise, Resa."

----------------------------------

When I walked down the Duchess' landing ramp, I saw that the area between the ships and the cave opening was busy, with people and droids carrying things from the cave into the larger transport ships and I noticed that Yaki and Lieutenant Samko was standing by the loading ramp to the Foray, tallying up the loot as it was loaded into the cargo bay by several bulk loader droids.

"How the loading going, Lieutenant?" I asked over the commlink.

"This, sir, is insane." Declared Yaki. "Right now, we're just looking at numbers of items, but unless Lieutenant Samko here is completely wrong, the content of these crates alone could easily buy a sparkling new and fully armed frigate or two."

Lieutenant Samko added. "And this is just one load out of many. No wonder that pirate queen wanted this. She could have a new fleet in a week!"

"Exactly the reason why we're taking it," I said. "By the way, Lieutenant Yaki, did you arrange for an airdrop of supplies to the stranded pirates?"

"Yes, sir. They got it earlier when we dropped off the rest of the pirates." There was amusement in Yaki's voice as she continued. "They weren't happy, but the fact that we got them food, seemed to reassure them that you would keep you word and not just leave them stranded here." She paused. "After they had delivered the food, the shuttle left for Alpha Viga with two squads as you ordered."

"That is good." I said and meant it. With the two squads safely away, there was only the Black Dragons and the few Chiss that had experience with spaceships left here. Enough to crew the ships and keep the freed slaves from doing anything stupid.

"Have you taken a look at the cargo hold of the Class VI freighter?"

"Not yet, sir, but according to the cargo manifest, it carries two thousand ton of agricultural droids, agribots, asteroid mining equipment, several different kinds of seeds, algae spores and a huge amount of other agricultural stuff meant for Xeta 5. I guess, they'll have to order a new shipment."

"In a couple of years when they can afford it, though they might have insured it against pirate attacks." Added Lieutenant Samko. "Fortunately, Xeta 5 is a relatively rich agricultural world, with a nice planet-side starport and even a planetary defence force, so they'll survive. Others might have been in greater trouble."

"You have been there?"

"Yes. A few years back I delivered a load of wood manufacturing equipment there and stayed for a few days, while I had the techs at the starport do maintenance on the engine. They don't have a lot of valuable metals on the planet, but their woodcraft and foods are first class."

"Nice to know... Well, keep up the good work."

"Thank you, sir."

I had just closed the commlink, when one of the Black Dragons that Yaki had reserved as my bodyguards came walking my direction, carrying a bag. "I think you need to see this, sir."

Looking at the bag, I asked. "What is it?"

"Something we found in Mahaw's quarters." She said and stopped in front me. Then she reached into the bag and handed me another, but smaller, bag.

Curious, I opened it. It was filled with several hundred glittering green gemstones.

"We've scanned them and they're Nova Crystals." Said the Black Dragon. "All 400 carat of them."

I whistled softly. As far as I knew, Nova Gemstones were one of the most popular gemstones and people used them as payment whenever other currencies wasn't accepted. Unfortunately, I had no idea what they were worth.

Activating the commlink again, I called up Lieutenant Samko. "Lieutenant, do you have any ideas what Nova Gemstones are worth?"

"Last time I heard, they went for about fifteen thousand credits per carat." Came the precise answer.

"Thank you."

That meant, that there were crystals worth six million credits in that bag alone. Unfortunately, there wasn't any cash economy in the Chiss Ascendancy, so I could only compare it to the prices of warships I had heard about in the Naval Academy and as far I as I remembered six million was about the prize of a light frigate. If you split that up, there was enough to pay people for a long time, which was most likely what they were for.

"There're more gemstones in the other containers, but those are the most valuable we have found so far. Shall I bring them to the captain's cabin, sir?"

"Yes, please. With the all the desperate people around, I'm not gonna take any chances."

"Yes, sir. Are you going to move to the Foray class?"

I shook my head. "No, Captain Meistrin will command that. I'm going to move to the Phantom."

"Yes, sir. I'll get it over there."

"Thank you."

She walked away, but almost as soon as she was gone, I got a call from Master Engineer Gacith. "Good news, sir. We have looked at the life-support systems of the larger ships and not only are they in excellent condition, but both Sho-class have had their life-support systems reconfigured for transporting livestock, meaning that they can support a hundred extra persons per ship."

I breathed a sigh of relief. With life-support for two hundred extra people, we had enough for everybody. Granted, the two Sho-class would be filled to the brim, but it was better than leaving people here.

"Thank you, Master Engineer Gacith. You just made my day."

"You're welcome, sir." He replied with a chuckle.

"One more thing, Master Engineer. This base has three regeneration tanks. Could you have someone move at least one of them to the medical bay on the Phantom-class yacht and the remaining two to other ships? Some of the wounded slaves could use it."

"Not a problem, sir." He answered. "The bastards have left us plenty of loader droids."

"Thank you."

Closing the commlink, I went back to juggle crews and ships.

Since I had already decided to let Meistrin command the Foray-class ship, as she had training and experience with large warships, I placed Georgina Writ as the pilot, along with an astrogator, two medics and most of the spacehands. As the Foray was the ship with the largest number of guns, naturally it also was assigned most of the gunners. That still left a lot of room open, so I added the Master Engineer to the Foray, along with a few other specialists, and with Yaki and half a squad of Black Dragons for protection.

I would have preferred to have Yaki on the Duchess, but the safety of the biggest warship was more important than my own comfort.

I wasn't ready to let the freed slaves be in command yet, so I assigned a Chiss pilot to captain each of the other ships, along with a couple of Black Dragons to ensure their safety, and a co-pilot from the freed slaves.

As the remaining Sho-class would transport most of the freed slaves, I placed Ensign Mivito as commander, with another Chiss, Tes'atomi'eorge (Satomie), as pilot, six gunners and another half squad Spacemarines.

Turning my attention to the Duchess, I placed Paul Keller as the Master engineer, Lieutenant Semko as pilot, Resa as the co-pilot with Tavune as the comm officer and Shakka as the doctor.

That still left the Wanderer-class freighter, so I assigned pilot Zwul to that.

To my surprise, that still left me with four pilots from the former slaves, so I assigned them to the Duchess, where they could pilot the four Aurek Strikefighters in case we needed some more firepower.

I got hold of Captain Meistrin again and went over the crew assignment again, making a few adjustments at her suggestion.

"I have to admit, I look forward to getting out of here." She said with humour in her voice when we was done. "I'll feel safer once we're back in space."

"So will I... oh by the way, have you chosen a new name for the Foray-Class yet?"

"Yes, sir... Chariot." She shrugged slightly. "I know it's not the most original name, but it was the name of my grandmothers ship and I wanted to honour that." Before I had the chance to say anything, she continued. "Which reminds me... There was a shipment of clothes among the pirate loot. Can we give it to the freed slaves, so they have something else to wear? There even were some uniforms we could use on the ships. They look like something for a local security force, but they're perfectly usable."

"Good idea." That would certainly make it easier to determine who was a crew member and who wasn't. "Is there enough for all?"

"Yes, sir. We found ten tons of clothes along with eight tons of uniforms. Some of the alien races might have trouble fitting it, but we can put the former slaves to work on those." She paused for a moment and then asked. "What colours should we use, sir? I would like to avoid copying both the Sith and the Republic."

"Well, what are the choices?"

Captain Meistrin thought for a moment and then said. "All the pants are black, but the tops are of different colours. The colours are red, blue, green, dark yellow, a greyish white, purple, and full black." She paused, but then continued. "I would like to reserve the all-black for you and the other captains, sir. It will go well with the Sith ruse, you have used."

She had a point, so I nodded. "We can use the all-black for ship commanders. Then we can use the greyish white for ordinary spacers, dark yellow for technicians and engineers, green for science and medical... hmm... Red, blue, or purple for Command?"

"Red, please." She said with a chuckle. "It's one of my favourite colours... and I would prefer the purple for the gunners." She looked thoughtful for a moment. "What about the blue, sir?"

"Spacemarines and troopers." I said, smiling. "They can't always wear their armor."

"Good point, sir."

"Well, we can't go into Sharon the Reds base as Chiss Expansionary Defence Force. Not this far from Chiss territory and not with the amount of non-Chiss we have with us." I said and leaned back in the seat. "So, in the unlikely event that we encounter some kind of local security force, we become a mercenary group hired to extract some missing people from Sharon the Red."

She frowned. "Is that legal?"

"According to Chiss Law, yes. Here, it's a grey area according to Lieutenant Semko... mostly because we're not registered anywhere... but it shouldn't be a problem. Our force here's big enough keep most of the smaller planetary forces away and it's unlikely that we'll run into any larger Sith or Republic forces out here."

Captain Meistrin nodded. "That sounds like a good plan, sir... Oh, do you have a name for our

mercenary group?"

"Not yet, so let's leave it to the crew to come up with a fitting name."

"Well, it'll have to be soon, because if we're to look like a mercenary group, we need patches, rank insignia and all the rest."

"We do, but we also have a lot of idle hands. Let them figure it out and let's get out of here."

"Yes, sir." She replied happily and walked away to get things moving.

I still needed a name for the Sho-class transports, so I got hold of Ensign Mivito, who didn't hesitate to name his ship Roadrunner

With everything organized, we only needed to do the work and then we could get away from the planet.

--------------------------------------

Even with everybody working in shifts, it still took almost thirty hours before everything was loaded and ready, but on the bright side, that gave the freed slaves time to get some food, a bath, and new clothes, and they started looked more like ordinary people, than the defeated slaves I had seen when I entered the prison cave for the first time.

One of the last and more pleasant tasks was saying goodbye to the six hundred free slaves, that had chosen to take one of the Sho-class transporters. Yaki had arranged for a small honour guard to stand on each side of the path the freed slaves had to walk on their way to their transport, with herself and me standing next to the loading ramp to wish them a safe trip.

The gratitude was almost overwhelming, as every one of them wanted to thank us, and I had to admit to myself, that having that many aliens so close to me was unnerving. A lifetime of cultural xenophobia didn't erase itself after a few days of exposure.

"Do you think they'll make it?" asked Yaki, as the Sho-class lifted off and everybody else had gone back to the main cave.

"I hope so." I replied. "One thing that counts in their favour is that with Mahaw's Raiders out of the picture and Sharon the Red stranded here, there's a lot less pirates in this region than there were before. With just a little bit of luck, they should be able to reach either Prega or Cail in a few weeks."

"That is true, sir." She admitted and paused for a moment to take off her helmet. "Ready for your speech to the new people?"

I followed suit. With the rest of the freed slaves coming along with us there was no longer any need to conceal our faces and the wind felt good against my skin. "As ready as I can be."

"Good." She smiled and nodded in the direction on the entrance. "After you, sir."

The main cave was filled to the brim, as the Space Marines had gathered all the former slaves in there, including those who had already become part of the fleet, like Engineer Keller.

The cave was filled with a low buzzing, as people talked among themselves, but as Yaki and I walked towards the front without our helmets on, the buzzing changed to a hissing sound as people started to whisper instead of talking. They might not have seen our faces, but they had surely recognized our armors.

Reaching the end, I turned around and looked at them. Most looked hopeful and excited, some looked curious and a few looked like they just wanted to get this over with and get out of here.

"Attention on deck, ladies and gentlemen!" Yaki said, her voice loud enough to be heard by everyone in the cave. "I would like to introduce you to our Commanding Officer, Thalen. Captain Thalen, these are the people that have chosen to join us."

I waited a moment, making sure everybody was quiet, and then said. "Ladies and gentlemen, you have all chosen to stay with us, as we set out to liberate the people Sharon the Red has taken as slaves. However, let me be crystal clear: your place in the fleet depends on your willingness to conduct yourselves with honour and respect. Not only for each other, but also the rules and laws that govern our group. We have fought to liberate you, but we will not tolerate any form of violence, aggression, or criminal behaviour among you. This is a fleet, not a mob, and joining us is a privilege, not a license for chaos. If we're to reach a place where you can live in peace or from where you can go home, that freedom comes with a shared responsibility, not just to yourselves, but to this fleet as well."

I paused to look around in the cave and at all the serious faces looking back at me. Then I smiled. "That being said, welcome to our fleet. I hope you will find not just comrades in arms, but a family bound by a shared purpose. Remember that our strength lies not only in our weapons and ships, but in our unity, our discipline, and our unwavering determination. Each one of you brings unique skills, perspectives, and talents to our fleet, and it is these differences that make us stronger together."

People were starting to smile and many even looked hopeful, which in all likelihood was the first time in a long while.

"So, I welcome you as integral members of our fleet, ready to shoulder the responsibilities of duty, leadership and service. Your dedication is the backbone of our strength, and your presence here today fills me with confidence in our future." I continued. "Thank you for choosing to stand with us, for joining this extraordinary journey. Together, we shall navigate the Chaos, and together, we shall prevail."

That got a cheer from the crowd of people and with my speech done, I nodded to Yaki, who let the cheering die out a little before lifting her voice again. "All right, crew. Everybody goes to their assigned ships, so we can get out of here!"

That brought another round of cheers and then people started to file out of the cave, going towards the ships.

*********************************