"Space is a bitch."
Lt. Cmdr. Bron Squarejaw, speaking to new recruits on Tumeris IX
The man dressed in officer's garb was the captain of the USS Great Justice, named GoldBC. He had seemed stiff and formal at the launch committee, but now onboard he seemed in his element. From all the medals pinned to his armor, the man was a veteran of several wars including the Second and Third Robloxian Wars.
Right now he was in a long meeting hall, with a long table laid out down the middle and chairs surrounding the table, a cigar clenched between his teeth. He sat at the far end, in a raised seat with the "R" insignia of Robloxia drawn in gold on the back. Jack and the rest of the security delegation sat around the table. There were four dozen, all told, in the comfortable padded swivel chairs. Beside Jack, John was swiveling slowly while listening intently to Gold speaking.
"Whatcha need to understand 'bout space," he was saying, "is that it ain't pretty. A lot o' good people have died in space. Also there're a lot of nasty monsters out there that'd eat ya up in a snap. Debris can ground a small frigate, badly damage a larger one. Heat rays and surprise bursts of solar radiation can really ruin a spacecraft. Now, you're onboard to stop that from happenin'."
Gold took the cigar out of his mouth, blew a cloud of smoke out his nostrils.
"See, out in deep space and 'round the prime resource clusters, the biggest worry we got is space pirates. Now, does anyone here know 'bout space pirates?"
A man in a black and green army uniform raised his hand.
"Space pirates are any band of people in an unknown ship or ships who are openly hostile," the army man recited. "They normally target large space freighters transporting goods from centers of production such as Bela Kalemax and the H'Uatar Nebula, sir!"
"That's a-right," Gold said approvingly. "And I know you got that from the Field Handbook. It's real good to see someone studies it." He reinserted the cigar, and continued talking.
"Yeah, space pirates operate around trade centers. They attack ships that bring stuff out of the planets and do you know why? Either they need it to make a livin', or they're all just audacious little bastards. In either case, the stuff belongs to other people. Out here, crime is still crime."
"How're we going to arrest all those space pirates?" Jack blurted. "There must be a ton of them!"
Gold studied him for a moment with a small measure of contempt gleaming in his eyes. Then he took a puff on the cigar.
"Yeah, I can definitely tell you ain't been offworld before," he sneered. "Here's the deal, pretty boy: in space, criminals aren't arrested. No, we cap their asses. Cap 'em well and good!"
"But, here, hold on," Jack said, squinting. "There are several ordinances that say criminals must be tried in a court of law before being executed. Don't you acknowledge that?"
"Next time," Gold said, "read the small text too."
He laughed.
"Now where was I," he continued. "Space pirates, ehhhh... oh yes, space pirates. I know where I was. So they steal stuff from legitimate businessmen and sell them to illegitimate ones. That's basically space pirates. Oh, and they fight dirty. No honor! They will absolutely wreck you if you're off your guard."
Gold waved a hand. The assistant in the corner of the room hastily peeled off his headphones and walked to the back wall, pulling down a thin white plastic sheet from the ceiling. Gold then pressed a button on his wrist gauntlet, and a projector lit up the plastic sheet. The image shown was that of a medium sized blade-like ship, dark brown in color and set against a black background of stars.
"This is the usual model of ship space pirates use," Gold explained. "Conquistadores. They can develop a hell of a speed boost in tight circumstances, and have pretty low noise factors. Firepower's low, but the pirates don't care. They usually travel in groups, like I said afore now. And they usually board ships. If y'can snag 'em with artillery, you're in the clear. That's the basics of space pirates. Now," he said purposefully, pressing another gauntlet button, "lessee about our other enemies."
The picture shown next was of a grotesquely fat, bald Robloxian, with eyes of solid green (no whites or pupil). It was a photo of the man's head and shoulders, a portrait view of this fat sack of organs and skin.
"This is Oil Duke Shako Hadad," Gold said. "He's not based in the H'Uatar Nebula, but he's got dealings in every single valuable untapped system. Hadad's got a sort of... private army." He flicked to another slide, showing a grainy photograph of a large fleet of roughly pyramidal ships massing in front of a red cloudy planet. "These are his ships. In a confrontation, the base is the weakest point; aim for that."
He slid a switch on his gauntlet, and the projector shuddered off.
"Okay," he said, "questions? Complaints? Anything?"
None were forthcoming.
"Good," Gold said. "Everyone get out."
-OOO-
The official messenger aboard the USS Great Justice, Phirefox, was a tall gangling man with light green skin, a dark green and white striped jacket, and a green baseball cap. His face was screwed up in the expression of an apprehensive cynic looking for something to ridicule.
Phirefox was a Robloxian filmmaker, who would be called an "indie producer" on any other world. His latest film, "The Selfie", had caught Builderman's attention, and now the Admin had recruited him to be the Great Justice's liaison with Robloxia.
Right now he was speaking to mission control on the third-to-top floor of Admin Tower, from his chambers within the Great Justice's bridge.
"This is Mission Control," a voice crackled from a speaker above Phire's head. "State your position, over."
Phire checked the screens in front of him. The grid in front of him showed a patchwork of small and large asteroids, and one solitary planetoid to the bottom left-hand corner.
"Still approaching the Gate, I guess," he said.
"Roger." The voice broke off contact.
The Great Justice sailed through space. Eventually, ahead of it, a small gray ring became visible. The ring became larger. A blue glow emanated from the inside edges of the ring. The Great Justice ground slowly to a halt, and came to a complete stop almost resting its prow inside the ring.
-OOO-
It was a corrugated steel ring , the diameter and circumference of a small planet. Jack, looking from a side window, saw thousands of glittering lights that were all presumably rooms on the Gate's surface. Blue light swirled around them.
He'd never seen anything so bizarre in his life. It was like something out of a shitty Robloxian war movie, only in real life, in front of him, in stunning 3D visuals.
"Looks real good, doesn't it?" Uuom said.
"Damn," was Jack's reply.
"This ring took up two years to construct," Helen cut in.
"Well, that's a hell of a lot of good work for-" Jack began.
"Two Grand Years," snapped Helen.
"Oh," Jack said, embarrassed.
The ring's light began to grow brighter, turning more of an icy blue and flaring all over the dirty transparent plastic. Jack shielded his eyes. It was so bright, brighter than even the most dazzling morning and the palest winter sky...
Something rocked the ship. At the same time, the sound of an explosion came from outside. The light flaring through Jack's eyelids died down suddenly, and there sounded more explosions. He heard people standing up sharply before a hand fell on his shoulder and he opened his eyes. The Gate's southwest region was ablaze. Several powerful shots had been fired, and the framework of the ring was exposed.
A slim, sharp spacecraft sailed past the window, and Jack's eyes followed it in alarm. It was exactly the kind of craft space pirates were reputed to use! Jack stood up sharply just as an alarm sounded and the light turned suddenly red.
"Run!" Helen shouted. They ran down the length of the galley; no sooner had they escaped the room then another pirate craft sailed past and opened fire. Jack heard the room behind him being shredded to pieces, and frighteningly the sound was drawing nearer. He increased his speed, his brain in panic mode.
They arrived in the bridge just five minutes later, and saw GoldBC standing purposefully in front of the transparent windshield. The space pirates had amassed into a large cloud facing them from the other side of the dormant Gate. Gold drew in a deep pull on the cigar.
"This is fucking audacious of them," he growled. "That there Gate's Robloxian property. Why'd they attack Robloxia's direct territory?"
He swiveled in his chair, and saw the group.
"Well, what in Admin's name are you waiting for?" he barked. "Go assemble some strike teams in the hangar or something! We need to meet 'em face to face, and someone's got to fix the Gate!"
Tahlia nodded. "C'mon," she ordered, "follow me and we'll set up some ship formations."