Rogue Trader CYOA Story 3
"FRAK THIS! MY SOUL IS MY OWN AND YOU'RE NOT TAKING IT!" - Ciaphas Cain
Part 3
The Enduring Triumph. Terminus Systems.
It felt good to be sitting here on the command throne of my Lunar-class cruiser as it once again sailed the stars. The bridge of this massive vessel was so large that my second officer had to yell every time he issued one of my orders and my command throne rested on an elevated stage that allowed to me look down on the officers and servitors that carried out my orders.
The role of a starship captain was an intoxicating one that needed to be handled carefully as from this throne I could travel to far off worlds and rain death upon anyone too weak to stop me. Yet I still had be careful as this was a demanding job the warp jumps were always risky and my might vessel required a great amount of resources.
"Warp jump is successful!" called out a member of the bridge crew.
The warp in this universe was far calmer than in the 40k galaxy and yet without my mind to guide this vessel we'd have become hopelessly lost after such a long jump. Even in a calmer warp there were still dangers involved in sailing the sea of souls and so now there was sense of relief in the air that you didn't need to be a pskyer to sense.
"The Silver-Swift" made it safely" my first officer let me know.
That was an odd name for the raider vessel as while it was certainly swift for an Imperial vessel it was not at all silver.
Soon we got some scans going and by comparing to that information to what we'd downloaded off the extra-net everyone soon knew that we were in the wrong part of the galaxy.
"This is not the system we're supposed to be in" commented the Inquisitor.
As she often did Du Gissal was doing a good job of looking much like any other officer who served the Imperial military. This was far from the truth as the Inquisition had taken over one of the moon of Thax II and aside from half a squad of Death Watch marines she had entire companies of fighting men and women that she'd helped to train over the last two years. She was a powerful player in this galaxy just on her own merits.
"I felt the urge for a stopover" I explained "There must be a good reason for us to be here".
Thanks to the upgrade sensors that I'd paid a lot for scans of the system showed a planet that could be habitable, and a number of vessels that quickly fled the system, not a surprise considering that a ship that massed much more than the Destiny Ascension, the largest dreadnought in Citadel space, had just appeared in system.
"We have a couple of targets of interest not counting the planets" my second officer informed "According our information one is a fuel depot of some kind and the other is a ship that appears to be disabled as unlike the others it is not fleeing".
That would be Purgatory the prison ship and the objective of my current mission. If I had my timing right Jack aka Subject Zero should be on board that vessel as Shepard shouldn't have come here looking for her this early on. I intended to take Jack as an ally as I'd seen myself do in a vision very recently. I could bring her into my service with the promise of riches and revenge against Cerberus, an organisation that I would need to take down anyway so that the Reapers could not take control of them.
I knew that Jack was abducted by Cerberus operatives when she was a small child. As a cover for her abduction, her mother was told that she had died due to complications of her eezo exposure. After initial tests, Jack became the prime subject of a sizable Cerberus experiments, with the goal of enhancing biotic potential in humans, regardless of the cost. The project was a typical Cerberus operation: lavishly funded, highly efficient, and morally indifferent to say the least, with a heavy reliance on brutal human experimentation and conditioning techniques in an attempt to maximize results. Not that different from Imperial methods really.
The project was shut down by the Illusive Man shortly after Jack's escape, and the leaders of Cerberus would claim it was a rogue operation, not that I would belivie such a statement. After her escape, Subject Zero went on to live a violent life as she lashed out at the galaxy that cared so little for her. In order to sever ties with her past she took on the name Jack. She ran with various gangs, became a pirate, crashed a space station into a hanar moon (becoming wanted for vandalism in the process), and at one point joined a cult, keeping her head shaved even after her departure. All of this and more I knew from the downloaded information and my own memories.
"Take us to the ship that didn't run when it had the chance" was my command "I'm sure our allies in the Ad-Mech wouldn't mind comparing it to the crashed ship we found on Thrax II".
Once my people had taken the vessel any Blue Sun mercenary who surrendered and wasn't as xenos would find themselves becoming a servitor as we needed more of those and the same would likely to any human prisoners that we secured since they were too dangerous to be trusted. They weren't at all important to me since I'd come here for Jack and to grab some tech before heading off to Freedom's Progress. The Ad-Mech should want to keep tech on a ship that had xenos running it, but they want to perform an examiation for their recordsa at least.
"Order the Silver-Swift to go after the fuel depot" I told my first officer "They can raid it or blow it up. I don't care which as long as its not suitable for use afterwards".
In the unlikely even that the factions in the Terminus Systems allied against me they be easier to handle if their logistics were affected. Besides it was a good idea to let the raiders go have some fun as they'd waited long enough.
"The Silver-Swift is moving out" I was informed.
Since the raider was must faster than my cruiser she'd return to us before we left, but there was no need to think about that right now as I had something else important to focus on. It would be hours before we were range to send a shuttle to dock with the prison ship. This gave me plenty of time to deal with other matters such as my first wife coming up onto the bridge with what looked to be bundle of papers.
"I see you've been busy" I said.
Over the last couple of years I'd brought Dany more into my confidences. She was well aware that I had a power that others lacked which had nothing to do with my wealth, political influence or Imperial technology, and she kept it to herself.
During our preparations we'd spent hours discussing far more than my plans for the Terminus Systems. She had little interest in what systems I'd plunder as she knew that I would little trouble filling the coffers of House Thrax. She was more interested in setting up a trade agreement with the Systems Alliance with the intent of supplying them the kind of military technology that would make them a real threat to the Reapers as we couldn't take them all alone.
The documents she presented me also included drafts for peace treaties between House Thrax and the human colonies that I wanted to bring under my protection here in the Terminus Systems. The colonies were not part of the Systems Alliance and while I could conquer them in order to bring them into the Imperium this seemed like a waste of resources given the future threats I needed to concern myself with.
I simply didn't have enough people for keeping hold of colonies so it would be better to bring them under my influence and to help defend themselves when the Collectors turned up. My big fancy ship had plenty of manufacturing capacity and the cogboys on board my cruiser had orders to begin the manufacture of Fallout laser rifles on mass as I felt sure they'd sell like hot cakes once word of them got out.
To help get the ball rolling with talks I would be gifting Freedom's Progress with a number of AER9 laser rifles as I wanted to hold back on the more advanced AER12 model for when it was time to start selling to the Systems Alliance. I had no doubt they'd modify the tech once they'd gotten it figured out which shouldn't take long since the laser weapons weren't complex.
While I had access to the even more advanced AER14 model having acquired the proto-type while from one of the Vaults I'd wait a while before offering to sell copies of the proto-type because it wouldn't be long before the plans for lesser models fell into the hands of the xenos and then the System Alliance would be willing to pay more to stay ahead of the other factions.
Dany had even written out a proposal to invite humans seeking work to move to Thrax II and while the standard of living with Alliance space was quite high there were always those who would on the bottom rung of society's ladder who would be willing to start afresh elsewhere. The Imperial Church could focus on converting these people while others took advantage of the extra firepower.
Getting them to Thrax II would be the hard part as I'd have to arrange some sort of transport for the civilizans and make sure that we had psykers in place to weed out any spies. Lucky for me I had people who could figure out those arragments for me.
"These look good" I praised "but you'll have to wait a few more weeks my love before we get you anyone to talk with. We ended up detouring to a system with some valid targets and I decided to take this opportunity to allow our warriors to finally see some actions".
Dany wasn't disappointed as I'd mentioned to her that we might get side tracked.
"If we are here then it must be the Emperor's will" she said.
Well it was my will, it was just good for me if no one knew that even if Dany had some understand of the truth, let everyone think that the Emperor guided us to systems through me.
"On the subject of unleashing our warriors" said Du Gissal "I would like to send the Death Watch kill team to secure our target. Space Marines are not meant to sit idle and we don't yet fully understand the capabilities of the xenos who pollute this galaxy".
We'd all read the codex entries available on the extra-net, but no amount of information downloaded off the space Internet could subsite for real life experiences and she was right about the Space Marines being made for war.
"Very well" I agreed "In the interest of cooperation between House Thrax and the Inquisition I will step aside and grant the honour of first blood to the Death Watch".
Blasting mechs and feral humans on Thrax II didn't count as expedition was only now truly beginning.
"As long as they bring me back some captives to speak with" I said "I need to learn more about this galaxy so before we process any prisoners let me have a look at them".
Even my knowledge of the lore from playing the games and having access to files from the Extra-Net wouldn't mean I knew enough to do what needed to be done in this galaxy.
"Don't worry, my lord. The Death Watch know what they are doing" the Inquisitor assured me.
I'd find out for myself soon enough.
(Line Break)
Purgatory Prison Ship. The Terminus Systems.
For Jack aka Subject Zero today had been a very strange day. Something had gone wrong with her containment and upon escaping she'd found herself free to rampage within a ship that was already under attack. That she was a prisoner here would come as no surprise to anyone as she'd committed a number of crimes, one of which involved crashing a small space station into a moon. No one had gotten killed as the moon had not been inhabited and the station was evacuated, but it had sure pissed a lot of people.
While trying to find a way off the prison ship Jack got to watch as massive black armoured figures cut their way through the Blue Suns mercs who ran the prison ship as if they were mere children playing at war. The black armoured guys had guns that went off like grenade launchers and weapons that looked like the offspring of a sword and a chainsaw, she'd seen what those could do to a person, it had sure been messy.
Those that surrendered and wore the colours of the Blue Suns were simply cut down even as they begged for mercy. Not that Jack cared much as they were just a bunch of slavers and hired thugs yet she'd come to realise that the armoured figures were only killing the guards and ignoring the inmates as long as they stayed out of the way.
Upon seeing that she'd decided to surrender as the other prisoners had, it seemed to be the Blue Suns that the new folks wanted to slaughter, or that seemed to be the case until one until humans in less bulky armour who carried different weapons had separated the humans from the aliens and started shooting the aliens before dumping the bodies into the airlock so they could jettisoned out in the void of space.
Even for Jack that had seemed harsh, and it had made it very clear to her and the others that she should behave herself, her biotic abilities were fierce but they didn't make her unstoppable, if they had she'd wouldn't be stuck here.
"Hello Jack" said one of the strange humans.
This guy was almost as weird in apperence as the big armoured figures. He wore some really odd looking armour and carried a few weapons she'd never seen before, and he seemed to be in charge of all of this.
"Who the fuck are you?" she demanded to know.
The man seemed amused by her lack of manners.
"I have lots of titles" he replied "You can call me Captain Thrax, I command a very big ship and I'm looking for some extra crew. If you come work for me I can offer you riches, action, and when the time is right you'll get your revenge on Cerberus".
That last part really got her attention.
"You're not part of Cerberus?" she asked.
They certainly had the resources for an attack like this.
"No I'm an independent trader you might say" Thrax answered "I plan to shake things up around here, make a lot of profit and Cerberus is on my list of people who need to die. I'd like you to help me that".
Revenge on Cerberus did sound sweet.
"What are you paying?" she wished to know.
Somehow she didn't that money was much an issue for this guy not with all the fancy equipment he had and all the fighters he had working for him.
"You'll get a share of the spoils" Thrax promised "And I can promise you some really nice quarters".
For a moment Jack could have sworn that she felt something in her own mind urging her to trust this man, she just ignored the strange feeling and decided to go along with what this man wanted as she didn't mind having a boss if it kept her wallet full. She'd killed for less and spread her legs when it was required. She could do so again.
"Okay guess you're my new boss" said Jack.
Thrax seemed pleased by this and urged her to follow him out of the room where the captives were being stored.
"What happens to those fuckers?" she asked.
Thrax didn't seem concerned over their fate.
"They'll be put to work" he said.
So they'd be slaves she figured. Couldn't be worse than what they'd been going through until now, and it wasn't her concern.
"Any chance I can get some weapons like yours?" she requested as they boarded a shuttle of some kind.
They looked a lot more deadly than what the Blue Suns had been carrying.
"You'll need some training before then and some body armour" Thrax told her "I don't want you getting killed".
What kind of guy wanted her to wear more clothing.
"Sure boss" she said.
It felt good to listen to this man. Maybe he would treat her right and if he didn't well she could always jump ship later on.
When she saw the cruiser that Thrax commanded she wondered if jumping ship was a good idea because the massive dreadnought they were now flying over looked as if it could pound the entire Citadel Defence Fleet into junk metal.
"How can you afford a ship this big?" she had to ask.
"I might be the single richest person you could ever met" he replied.
Guy wasn't even trying to show off, he sounded causal about the whole thing.
"And you want me in your crew" she said.
She didn't understand why. This dude had entire armies at his command by the looks of things.
"You're a powerful woman, Jack" Thrax was now saying "And I need powerful allies and you need a powerful ally as well".
Subject Zero felt the urge to say something about her not needing anyone, only she again felt the urge to trust this man.
"Yeah I guess" she admitted "You treat me good and I'll watch your back".
That was as much as Jack was willing to offer. At least for now.
(Line Break)
Freedom's Progress. Terminus Systems.
Long before landing here I'd known that Freedom's Progress was a human colony located far outside of the space regulated by the Systems Alliance or the Citadel Council. The people who had founded this colony had in fact come out this far in order to escape the authority of those government bodies who they felt regulated too much of their lives.
As for the colony which shared its name with the planet, it was situated on blocky terrain, and by the time I'd landed it was dark here so I got to see its night time skyline, which was dominated by what appeared to be two moons: a large one hanging overcast, and another one roughly analogous to my worlds Luna in both its size and brightness.
When Commander Shepard travels to Freedom's Progress to investigate an attack on the colony by the Collectors. The colony was attacked only several hours before Shepard's arrival with no signs of conflict. While there, the Commander encounters Tali'Zorah vas Neema, and several other quarians who are searching for another of their kind, Veetor if memory served, who has gone missing while on his Pilgrimage. However, while there, the Commander is confronted by various security drones reprogrammed by Veetor to attack anyone in the area, in order to protect himself should the Collectors return.
Things had worked out a little differently in this time line due our presence here. We'd arrived before the Collector vessel only for the alien cruiser to drop out of FTL much closer to the planet than we had so they'd been able to launch their attack before we could enter orbit or even get into range of weapon's at least not with running the risk of hitting the people that I wanted to defend.
While they had run from my cruiser and the raider that escorted my vessel I didn't know why they'd waited so long. I could only speculate that they'd thought they could disable the colony grab its people and bug out, pun intended, before we got into range. That hadn't turned out to be the case as the Silver-Swift had faster engines than my cruiser and so it had sped on ahead.
The Collector vessel had fled leaving many of the Collectors behind and most of the colony. Freedom's Progress had a population of 912,810 and the foul aliens had only managed to abduct a few hundred people of the reports were correctt before they'd fled leaving many of their own behind. Alas the Silver-Swift had not managed to engage the xenos vessel without running the risk of destorying the very colony we'd come to protect.
As for the Seeker Swarms they'd not been able to effect the Death Watch Kill Team because Space Marines had been created to immune to such things or because their armour was simply too tough. I'd leave the how and why to the Ad-Mech and the Ordo Xenos, all that mattered was the Death Watch had been able to slaughter many foes with only minor injuries taken by them.
I'd landed with enough troops to secure the colony and begin deposing of the bodies so that before long the only alien on the planet was that skittish guy called Veetor who I was sure Tali'Zorah would soon come looking for, allowing me to make contact with her people and to extend my offer of an alliance against the geth. I wanted that faction dealt with before the Reapers turned up so that the geth couldn't be used to challenge me.
"You promised me some action" said Jack.
I'd had the chance over the weeks of warp travel to mess with the mind of Subject Zero so as to make her feel loyalty towards me without messing with her personality too much as I needed her to still be willing to commit horrible acts of violence should that be required. My hope was that she'd be my personal attack dog my leashed bitch.
"My intention was to get here before the Collectors so that we could prepare for them" I reminded Jack as I had mentioned this already "Not to worry they'll be plenty of chances for you to crack some skulls".
I'd have to satisfy the bloodlust and desire for loot felt by Subject Zero and others sooner rather than later, and that was fine as I had a target in mind for this
"Fine I'll just follow you around" decided Jack.
I'd brought here down here so as to let her off the leash so to speak. She kept to herself and didn't go out of her quarters much. Mostly this was a good thing since while her boitic abilities were nothing magical or warp related the average member of my crew might not see things that way if my new ally got into a fight and started using her talents. I wanted her isolated from the rest of my ship, but I didn't want her to feel locked up, hence my desire for her to explore the colony.
"They're bound to have a few clubs around here that are already back open for business" I suggested to Subject Zero "Or at least bar or two, why don't you go get yourself a few drinks".
I handed over a few credit chips, which were a physical version of the currency used in Citadel space since the Terminus Systems didn't make as much use electronic banking as in more civilized parts of the galaxy. Some of this currency had been taken from the Blue Suns mercs. There hadn't been much to go around so it was good that I plenty of goods to barter with.
"We'll hook up later" she promised.
I liked Jack it was just that Dany and I had a meeting the colony administrator, who was basically the major of this far off city, and the young biotic wasn't the diplomatic kind. My wife had already laid the ground work and so I found the two women chatting all friendly like in a small office.
"This is my husband" stated Dany as I entered the office "My love Miss Locke and I were just talking about Freedom's Progress obtaining more laser weapons".
I'd already sent a few dozen of basic laser rifles I had in storage and I had a trusted officer showing the colony militia how to use them. As for Miss Locke she wore clothes fashionable for humans in this galaxy and era. They looked practical and sadly were not flattering to her phsyical form.
"We are grateful for the extra weapons and for you coming to our defence" said the mayor "Its just that I have to think of our long term safety".
That was a concern of mine as well and to address it I used my omni-tool, a technology incorporated by the Ad-Mech slowly over the last two years and was used only by the elite of the Imperium within this galaxy, to display an Imperial fortress via hologram, after whispering the battlefield versions of the correct prayers just in case anyone from the 40k galaxy was spying on us.
This fortress came with the kind with a laser cannon big enough to if not outright destroy then at least damage a Collector cruiser enough to drive it off, although given that a Collector Cruiser fled from the weapons of Horizon during the game I might be overestimating the defences of a Collector ship. However I felt it best to be careful.
Not that it was meant only to defend against the Collectors. I knew that Reapers would not be defeated by one Imperial world and a few ships. I needed allies and well defended planets that the Reapers would lose a lot of resources trying to harvest.
"With your permission we could have a fortress of this class erected within weeks" I said "Not only will the fortress protect your colony from hostile aliens with its weapons, it can double as an embassy between Freedom's Progress and the Imperial expedition. With an embassy you'll be able to stay in contact with us".
Miss Locke hid her interest well and I could sense that she had concerns.
"We can't afford something like this" she pointed out.
In reality she could.
"You have ownership off the whole planet and you only occupy one landmass" I pointed out "Aside from renting or buying the land for the fortress I'd like to barter for ownership of land on the opposite side of the planet".
While I had a man power shortage in terms of labours I had more troops then I knew what to do with. More than enough to garrison a few fortresses that could be mostly automated by servitors and robots from the Fallout universe.
"You want land?" asked Miss Locke.
I could understand why she'd be confused about me wanting to trade empty real estate for technology beyond that of any known race.
"The land is only part of the deal" I explained "Having an embassy here will draw visitors to your colony as those visitors will want to met with someone form our expedition to discuss business. We can both profit by this".
Miss Locke considered my words.
"I'm a little worried about having a garrison of people we barely known so close to the colony" she admitted "We can't be sure that the Collectors will be back. Heck until day we didn't even know that the Collectors were anything more than a spacer's tale and now you claim to be from some empire outside of the known galaxy".
We were from further away from even that.
"I've already considered this and I may have a soluation" said Dany "Would you approve of joint custody of the fortress that is meant to protect your colony?. It's internal operations, they'd have to remain in our hands since our technology needs to be protected, but if you study the hologram you'll notice that the fortress is not so well defended from the ground without a garrison. Your militia could make the garrison and by keeping a presence there your citizens will be reassured rather than frightened of the fortress".
Of course Dany and I had discussed this possibility well in advance, she was playing her role perfectly as would Sarah who spend a couple of weeks training the colonies militia in the use of laser weapon once we a trade agreement to supply them in large amounts. I'd happily arm the vast majority of the adults who lived in and try to bring some of them into my service.
"Plus we'd need to hire a few of your people to act as go-betweens if any visitors wanted to discuss trade agreements with the people I leave here" I mentioned "This will help your people accept us outsiders as part of the colony. We should try to get along, after all this is a human colony under threat by alien abductors. We need to work together to defend the colony".
Details of the agreement were discussed and while the proposal had to be run past the colony's ruling body, which was made up leaders of different factions, I figured that after today's near miss that only the most foolish would protest the idea of increasing their defences.
"If all goes well we'll remain for a few weeks to oversee the installing of defences" I said "and to train your colony defenders in the use of laser weapons".
Which should be more than enough time for a few quarians to turn up and Shepard as well who would bring Miranda Lawson with them and put me in contact with the Illusive Man as in the short term I might have use for him even if I plotted his death.
I wanted to keep Miranda Lawson for myself a personal assistant and I'd tell her boss that she could serve as a liaison. The Illusive Man would have to find someone else to babysit Shepard and that was fine with me as stopping the Collectors wasn't that important when compared to my plans to defeat the Reapers.
The Collectors could be dealt with as well as I'd catch up to them sooner or later and if needs be I'd destroy the Omega Four relay so as to cut them off from their base. It was possible to destroy relays and if anyone could figure out a way it would be someone under my command. The downside to that was the loss of the Omega system, but that wasn't really a loss.
"I'll have some more laser weapons sent down from orbit as a good will gesture" I told Miss Locke once our meeting came to an end and another was arranged "That should help win to my proposal some support".
Dany made her goodbye and seemed very charming while doing so. I'd forgotten that she could be very good at getting people to see things her way.
"Fine work my lady" I praised as headed back to the shuttle.
I didn't forget to call Jack back, no doubt she found a watering hole by now and wouldn't be so happy to leave it, only I couldn't simply leave her here to get into trouble.