El Tercio Corazon Negro
By
UCSBdad
Disclaimer: I don't own Castle as I don't own many things. Rating: K Time: An AU future
Author's note: This story is set in the same fictional universe as my story Vengeance, but none of the characters from that story appear here.
They finally ran into a pirate on the next deck. He walked around a corner and ran into four soldiers not ten feet away. He hesitated a moment between fight or flight, but that moment was too long. A single shot to the head brought him down.
A quick check showed he had been coming from the comm center, which was otherwise empty. Another fire team was left to guard it and the rest of the troops moved upward. On the next deck they found most of the remainder of the crew. Twelve men and nearly thirty women were passed out in what was obviously the crew's party room. A squad was left to watch them and the rest of the troops headed for the bridge.
The bridge watch, five men, were at least awake and alert, but hardly ready for combat. They were quickly gunned down, but the noise woke up some of the men in the party room. A couple of knockout gas grenades were tossed in and the hatch slammed shut.
The recon troops checked the rest of the ship and found one more man, who was dragged before Lieutenant Molina, the senior officer.
"We got this one in the kitchen, sir," said Corporal Santos. "He says he's a slave and he cooked for the pirates. Looking at the way he's been beat up, I'd guess he's a slave."
"That right? You're a slave?"
The man began to cry. "Please don't kill me. I had to cook for them. They have my family. I just wanted to save my family. Please don't kill me." He began sobbing too hard to be coherent and fell to the floor.
Lieutenant Molina pulled him to his feet. "If you are a slave, we won't hurt you. In fact, you're all free. But, I need to know how many people were left by the pirates on the ship. How many."
"Nineteen. I had to make nineteen dinners and be ready for nineteen breakfasts."
Molina grinned. "We got 'em all then. Have the radioman tell command we have the ship."
The Valeria Victrix's third officer was William Colton-Lange, and everyone on Earth had agreed he had a bright future ahead of him as an officer of the Flying Dragon Line, which ran the most luxurious and expensive spaceliners from Earth to the planets of the Core. An unfortunate affair with the young wife of a very wealthy, powerful and vindictive man had ended that career. He had fled Earth a few steps ahead of a hired killer and decided that a job among many heavily armed shipmates was the best way to stay alive.
"Are you and your prize crew ready to take over the ship?" Colonel Esposito asked.
"Yes, sir." Said Colton-Lange." We won't be able to go FTL with this small a crew, but we can man the weapons with one platoon that'll be left aboard and we can get her into orbit if we have to."
"Then, go."
Meanwhile, the second battalion had marched to the east of the colony while the third battalion had taken position on the west side of the colony. The first battalion had tied into the other two battalions forming a U-shaped ambush that the pirates would have to walk into to return to their ship.
The pirates themselves were busy celebrating their victory with drugs, alcohol and rape. There were a few attempts to contact the ship by radio, but no one seemed to upset that there was no reply.
By dawn, all of the soldiers were in place. However, the pirates were still recovering from their victory orgy. The sun rose higher and higher in the sky.
"Dammit." Said Captain Altmann, commander of 5 Company, the furthest north company of the second battalion. "The damned pirates are getting ready to move in dribs and drives."
"Is that a problem, sir?" Asked Lieutenant Orozco, forward observer for the battalion's weapons company.
"It is. The pirates closest to the ship are getting a move on, and the ones furthest away aren't moving. When the shooting starts, the last quarter of the pirates' column won't even be in the ambush. RTO, over here. I gotta call Regiment." The radio operator dutifully turned around so Altmann could get better access to his radio.
A quick discussion changed their plans. The two northernmost companies on either side of the colony would move north and spread their platoons out so that they could cover the last of the pirates. When the shooting started, the infantry guns would drop a barrage just past the pirates in the hope of getting them moved into the main ambush. The two northernmost companies would attack at once to help move the pirates.
Captain Altmann's company had just gotten into position when they heard a distant burst of machine gun fire, followed by a fusillade of shots. The pirates below them in the colony began to react. Some moved quickly towards the ship, some tried to gather up all their loot before leaving, and some stood around, unsure of what to do.
"Fuck!" Screamed Altmann. "There's a damned truckload of the bastards heading north out of the ambush. Orozco, drop some mortars on them."
Orozco did his best, but the truck dodged the mortar shells and disappeared behind a grove of trees.
Altmann got on the radio. "5 Company, attack now." Looking across at the other company, he saw they were already attacking.
5 Company advanced slowly, stopping to fire single, aimed shots, as they didn't want to kill any colonists by accident. But accidents happen.
Getting a burst of fire that glanced off his protective vest, Private Hidalgo fired a grenade into the back of a partially wrecked truck. The explosion blew out a young man in a dirty, torn white robe. He looked around, bleeding heavily from his chest, then fell over. By the time Hidalgo reached him, he was dead. Hidalgo looked in the back of the truck. There were four dead pirates. He made sure of them with close range shots to the head.
Moving on, Hidalgo found a woman lying on top of two young girls, screaming "Don't hurt my babies! Don't hurt my babies." Over and over. The girls were alive and unwounded, but the woman was forcing one girl's face into the dirt, smothering her. He tried to pull her off, but she had a death grip on the girls and would probably kill them both unless he did something. He kicked her hard in the head, knocking her out. He pulled the two girls out from under her, but they tried to burrow back under her. Hidalgo left them.
The battle dissolved into a confusing series of close-range firefights. Knowing they'd be executed, the pirates fought with desperation. Some tried to kill their captives before dying themselves, others tried to take as many soldiers as possible with them.
Hidalgo saw a pirate run towards a machine gun team with a live grenade in each hand. The machine gunner killed him, but the explosions killed one and wounded the other.
Finally, the fight ended with just the occasional shot as badly wounded pirates were put out of their misery.
Colonel Esposito was called to the wreck of an expensive hover car. Captain Diego O'Donnell, the regiment's intelligence officer had good news.
"The skinny bastard with the beard is Pi, sir. We got a DNA match out of the intel we got from the Pomeranians. He's worth a hundred thousand UK pounds, dead or alive. I had to use facial recognition on the three men with him, but they were too badly shot up to get a good match. However, since they were travelling with him, I'd guess they were his right-hand men and worth a handy reward as well."
"What about the woman?" Esposito asked, pointing to a gaudily dressed woman sitting next to Pi. "Is she a local?"
"I doubt it, sir. Intel is that Pi carried a regular harem with him. Some of them were really sadistic. There might be a bounty on her."
"Put them all in a stasis chamber on our new ship. You're taking vids and DNA samples of all the dead pirates in case there's a bounty on them?"
"Of course, sir."
"Excellent."
"There's one more thing we got out of the car, sir." He handed Esposito a tablet. "That's the records from the colony. The number of people, equipment, and their finances. We'll need that for the Admiralty Court."
"Good." The Colonel said. "Now let's see if we can find someone who's in charge here."
Luckily for them, both Elder von Demming and his daughter, Thomasina, were still alive. The Elder was still alive as Pi had hoped to force him to hand over money the colony had in a bank on Pomerania. Thomasina had, unfortunately, attracted the attention of three pirates who had a thing for chubby girls. She held onto her father tightly and cried as the Elder talked to Colonel Esposito.
"My people were killed by your soldiers and our colony destroyed. I intend to file charges against you….someplace." The older man raged.
"If you had accepted our initial offer, your people would have been safe and not in the middle of our ambush. As far as the deaths and destruction, it would have been much worse if we'd just left after you turned us down. Those of your people who weren't murdered would have been sold as slaves, which is usually considered to be a short, brutal life. Especially for those who end up working in the mines. Your material possessions would have been loaded up and sold to people interested in bargains and not much interested in anything else. But, please do as wish."
"I see you have our records. Return them to me at once." Elder von Demming held out his hand.
"Sorry this is being held by my legal officer for the Admiralty Court. It'll be returned to you when the proceedings are over."
"This is outrageous!" Screamed the old man.
Esposito ignored the outburst. "I'll be happy to take you, your daughter, your surviving Elders and your wounded back to Pomerania. Since there appear to have been some pirates that escaped the ambush, I'm leaving a reinforced company here to hunt them down. You'll have to make the trip in what were the slave quarters, but they're being cleaned up and we will use your food for the trip."
"Slave quarters!" He would have said more, but his daughter began to have hysterics at the mention of the word "slave".
…"And you came directly to Pomerania from the colony of Eden, Colonel?"
Esposito nodded. "That's correct."
Herr Zeigler turned to Justice von Goetz, "That's all I have, Justice von Goetz."
The Justice turned to Elder von Demming. "Do you, or your advocate, wish to cross examine?"
Von Demming shot to his feet. "This man has brought untold suffering to our colony by holding a battle in our poor peaceful colony. I demand to know why no charges have been brought against him and his men?"
Von Goetz sighed and waited for a moment. "As I have explained to you before, Elder von Demming, pirates are the enemies of all civilizations. According this Admiralty Court was established to hear cases involving piracy, and piracy only. However, Pomerania makes no claim to any other jurisdiction beyond our own solar system. Therefore, any criminal or civil proceedings you may wish to bring against Colonel Esposito and his unit will have to be brought in a court of competent jurisdiction. You may file in Pomerania, but as a Justice I can assure you that that would be futile. It would appear to me that the only courts that would have jurisdiction would be those of your colony."
"But this man and his accomplices will never agree to be tried by Eden."
The Justice nodded. "Quite possibly, but that is not something that this court is legally competent to comment on. And, if you have no further questions, this court is adjourned until 0900 hours tomorrow when I will render my verdict." She slammed her gavel down and left before von Demming could complain.
The Court resumed promptly at 0900. Justice von Goetz began reading from the documents in front of her. "Firstly, in the matter of the ship called Red Ruth, Four Horsemen, Death's Betrothed, and other names, previously captained my one Aldus Pi, deceased, the court finds the ship was taken in the act of piracy by the Tercio Corazon Negro. Accordingly, this ship and all of it's fixtures and fittings are awarded as a prize of war to said Tercio Corazon Negro."
"Secondly, as to the pirates, deceased and alive, brought to Pomerania. Those alive are remanded to a court of competent jurisdiction for trial. Pomerania has a bounty on any and all pirates of fifty UK pounds each, plus certain higher bounties for some pirates. Colonel Esposito may wish to review my decision, but with the death or capture of 940 pirates, plus the bounty on Captain Pi and his henchmen, you are owed 172,000 UK pounds for this."
"Thirdly, the matter of freed slaves. There were six hundred and seventy-one slaves held on Pi's ship when captured and a total of five thousand, one hundred and eighteen who were members of the colony of Eden."
"We weren't slaves!" Yelled von Demming. "Our souls were free and saintly."
"But your bodies were not." Said von Goetz. "Pomerania pays no bounty for the release of slaves, but the Anti- Slavery Society does. Did I see Herr Brunkle of the A.S.S. here?"
"Yes indeed, Justice von Goetz." A painfully thin, but well-dressed man shot to his feet. "If Colonel Esposito will come to my office when this is over, I'll be happy to pay him a bounty for each and every slave he rescued."
"Lastly, Colonel Esposito recovered various items taken by the pirates from the Colony of Eden, for which he is due a salvage and recovery fee. As is the law in such cases, he is entitled to fifty percent of the value of the goods he recovered."
Esposito rose to his feet. "Justice von Goetz, on our way here we used foodstuffs taken from Eden by the pirates to feed the freed slaves. As half of it should be mine, I should like to donate that food to the former slaves."
"That's our food!" Screamed von Demming.
"Not anymore." Growled von Goetz. She turned and smiled at Esposito. "That is very generous of you colonel. I will, of course, have to recalculate the salvage and recovery fee, but as a rough guess, you should be owed some four million UK pounds by the Eden colony."
"That's almost all the money we have in the bank here! Our brethren from here on Pomerania, on Seydlitz, on Luderitz, have saved for years for our colony." Screamed von Demming. "This is robbery."
"You would have nothing but short, brutal lives but for Colonel Esposito." The Justice said. "Now, be quiet. Now, if there is no further business before this court, we are adjourned." She slammed her gavel down, wishing it was on Elder von Demming's head.
TBC