Another Left Turn at Albuquerque
Disclaimer: I do not own the characters and universes that I am about to mangle around and mash together for my own amusement – sadly all Robotech and Star Wars characters and concepts remain the property of Harmony Gold, Disney and Lucasfilm Ltd respectively – I am merely borrowing them and make absolutely no profit from their use. As a result, please keep the legal attack dogs – also known as lawyers – firmly muzzled and on a leash as I have no money to give to anyone.
Authors Note: First off let me start by wishing everyone a Happy New Year, hopefully 2025 will be better than 2024 was we will of course see what happens. To celebrate here is a new chapter for this fic which like a few others has finally worked its way clear of the quagmire of writer's block. So, without further ado let's get cracking.
Chapter Five
Tzarlas System, Tzarlas Cluster
That Same Time
Captain Dak Ermon, commander of the Black Sun owned dreadnought-class cruiser Dark Penance, groaned as consciousness returned bringing with it the sound of desperately wailing alarms, the hissing-crackling of sparks from damaged consoles and conduits and the terrible acrid stink of scorched metal and plastic. Ugh what the hell happened, he thought carefully picking himself up off the deck, feeling chunks of broken ceiling material slide off the back of his suit of beskar armour – the only connection to his Mandalorian heritage he really had these days, especially since that bitch Duchess Satine Kryze had outlawed their traditional warrior practices in favour of a new peacenik ideology – he stood. He immediately swayed drunkenly as his inner ears sent distress signals screaming into his brain at the movement and he closed his eyes for a few moments and took a couple of deep – quite painful indicating that even through the beskar plating and the reinforced bodysuit beneath he had gotten a few bruised ribs – breaths and let them out slowly. All the while focusing on regaining his equilibrium as part of Mandalorian warrior training – practically the only part still legally allowed in Mandalorian space – were such exercises to optimise your body and mind.
Finally, the disorientation faded away and he opened his eyes.
And beheld the ruins of the bridge of the warship he had commanded for the Black Sun – being one of only a handful of non-Falleen that the crime syndicate allowed to command one of their heaviest vessels – was in smouldering semi-darkness. The main lights were off, indicating that the ships main hypermatter reactor had shut down, leaving only pale red emergency lights to pierce the gloom. A gloom caused by the dense foggy haze of acrid-smelling smoke that filled the air the result of several consoles that had overloaded and continued to smoulder and spit sparks despite the responding astrodroids that were attempting to shut them down.
A few crew members, from the various species who worked for the Black Sun either by choice or to work off a debt owed to the Falleen, lay motionless on the deck either unconscious or dead there was no way to know just yet. Others could be seen picking themselves up and like him trying desperately to get their wits back. For a moment he couldn't remember just what had happened to put them all in this situation, to damage the ship this badly as the hologram floating above the main situation table showed the entire engine section flashing the frantic red of heavy damage.
As the residual fog in his brain, a legacy of having been knocked unconscious when he'd been flung across the bridge like a toy, left he remembered. They had been closing to engage the last remnants of the Tzarlasian fleet clearing the way for the complete pacification of the Tzarlas Cluster and its vast, largely untapped, resources. The enemy had fought well, especially impressive given that they were using such old albeit very well maintained, warships with the flagship being a centuries old Valor-class heavy cruiser but their victory was inevitable.
Until it suddenly wasn't.
Three unknown alien warships, warships that their sensors couldn't detect for some reason that made no sense as the Black Sun always made sure their warships had the best equipment that they could buy, had arrived. Warships that had announced their presence by shooting down the torpedoes and Z95's sent to attack the Endurance and remove her from the battlefield before firing an energy beam – and actual kriffing energy beam a type of weapon that was virtually unheard of since most weapons fired distinct bolts – at them from an impossible range. The beam had been precisely aimed, passing between them and the Tzarlasian fleet, in a clear warning shot.
The alien commander, someone called Vanessa Leeds, had then essentially ordered them to surrender or be destroyed. Naturally he had refused such an offer, both his pride as a Mandalorian warrior and as warrior in service to Black Sun and redirected their fleet to engage and destroy the unknowns. Unknowns who were meddling in a situation that was frankly no concern of theirs. Leeds had responded with devastating force not only once again firing from an impossible range but her beam weapons – which according to comscan were some kind of particle beams – had struck there's with a force that made even superheavy turbolasers look puny. In what seemed like seconds almost their entire fleet went down in flames, sliced apart by those blue streams of death shields and armour offering virtually no resistance.
With no option he had given the order to withdraw to the staging area where they could summon additional forces. That was when everything had gone crazy as abruptly the ship had been fired upon by this powerful new foe. He remembered being thrown out of the command chair as the ship bucked like a bantha in the jaws of a kryat dragon as the beams overwhelmed the shields and began cutting into the hull. There had been a blinding blast of pain then he had known nothing more...
...until now.
"Status report," he called out gaining the full attention of the surviving, conscious bridge crew "how much damage have we sustained?"
"It's bad captain," one of the Falleen crewmembers reported from the main operations station. "Our sublight engines are destroyed, primary and backup hyperdrives are also destroyed. There is heavy structural damage and radiation leakage on all aft decks. Main power is down, the hypermatter reactor went into emergency shutdown to prevent detonation. Auxiliary power is down to thirty-five percent capacity due to damage to two of the backup fusion generators. All remaining power is being shunted automatically to the life support and artificial gravity systems. There is a fire burning in the main cargo hold though the fire control droids are getting it under control it should be out shortly. Main hangar bay reports heavy damage, we're not going to be able to open the bay doors until they can clear fallen debris."
In other words, were dead in space and getting off the ship and fleeing to hyperspace in a shuttle is not an option, Dak thought both surprised and horrified by the extent of the damage and the fact that it had been inflicted so quickly. The Dark Penance was a Dreadnought-class heavy cruiser, a type of warship that was legendary all over the galaxy for being – like its smaller cousin the Carrack-class light cruiser – being virtually indestructible, being able to take more of a pounding than any other ship it's size and continue to fight. The fact that the alien weapons had damaged them so severely so quickly, despite the strength of their shields, the thickness of their armour and the complex internal bracing structure that was designed specifically to limit damage was quite frankly terrifying. Though it also raised the question why weren't they dead? With there previously unheard-of firepower the newcomers could have easily destroyed them, they certainly hadn't hesitated to destroy the other ships, yet they hadn't done so. The question therefore became why?
A moment later he had his answer.
"Captain we're picking up multiple small craft accompanied by starfighters coming towards us from the largest of the unknown ships," the human at sensors reported. "I believe that they are some kind of boarding craft."
"They want us alive," Dak said knowingly. Whoever the newcomers were they obviously wanted them for information as well as to gain access to their computers also to gather data. It was the only reason for not already blowing them out of existence that made sense. He would have to deny them that, both his pride as a Mandalorian and his duty to Black Sun meant he couldn't let the ship be taken. "Can we initiate the self-destruct sequence?"
"Negative the self destruct is offline," operations reported after a moment. Dak cursed knowing that the self-destruct worked by using explosive charges to deliberately rupture the hypermatter containment pods, letting the tachyonic matter within return to its natural faster than light state in an uncontrolled fashion. The resultant blast of energy and spatial distortion as the hypermatter breached the barrier between normal space and hyperspace vaporising the ship.
"Is there a manual system?" he asked, fully prepared to go and arm it himself as like any true Mandalorian death held no fear for him. It was a trait that they shared with their old, traditional enemies the Jedi albeit for different reasons.
"Yes, but unfortunately it's in the main engineering bay and that whole section is decompressed."
Dak cursed again right before a powerful series of jolts ran through the hull. "What was that?" he asked even though a part of him already knew.
"Enemy boarding craft have latched on, they're cutting through the hull. The closest is seventy metres aft on this deck."
"Seal off the bridge and close all blast doors," he ordered before reaching down and picking up his helmet from where it had fallen. He put it on before taking his Webster-35 blaster pistol from its holster. "Everyone prepare to defend yourselves."
Everyone alive on the bridge drew various weapons from blades to blasters and even disruptors. They all pointed their weapons at the now closed, reinforced by blast doors, entrance to the bridge.
A moment later the sound of weapons fire came from outside the bridge.
Clad in a full suite of Cyclone powered armour and holding a powerful EP-37 particle beam rifle Colonel Dana Sterling charged off the Limpet boarding pod and into the interior of the disabled pirate/slaver warship. The corridors around her, and the rest of the marines charging aboard the boots of their armour-mode Cyclones clanking ominously, were mostly in darkness being lit by only pale red emergency lights. Smoke hung in the air and here and there sparks spat periodically from damaged power conduits. The smoke and poor lighting was not an obstacle for her though as sensors on the Cyclone could see through it with no problem, protecting it onto her helmet HUD.
"Man, the ship did a real number on these guys," she heard Lieutenant Richards say from behind her. That they did, Dana thought recalling the damage she had seen on the hull of the warship as they approached it. The vessels simple, brutal lines and obvious weapons blisters had appealed to the Zentraedi part of her and while she wasn't navy, she could appreciate just how tough the ship had to be especially given it had absorbed a beam assault that she had seen destroy many other vessels. Though she also had to acknowledge that Captain Leeds gunners had been excellent with their aim, damaging the ship enough to disable it without outright destroying it. Something that would be easy to do given how powerful robotech weapons were.
"Cut the chatter," she ordered firmly, "our objective is to secure the bridge and the command crew for questioning before they can do something foolish like try to scuttle the ship. Let's go."
Deciding to lead by example, she began a rapid jog towards where - according to a scan carried out by the Agamemnon – the bridge was located. To her the bow section seemed to be a very strange place to place a starships command centre but it made some sense as it was surrounded by dense layers of armour. Certainly, a lot more armour than the quite exposed – well if you didn't count that each had its own defence barrier generator and multiple defensive laser turrets – command citadels on their ships used. It was also only seventy meters away from them.
They quickly rounded a corner to the passage that led to the bridge. Only to run into a party of pirates from several different species – none of which were known to them which was not at all surprising given they were in a different galaxy in a completely different part of the universe – who immediately opened fire on them unleashing a blaze of red plasma bolts. It was immediately obvious that they were either panicked or simply just bad shots as the shots went wide, hitting the bulkheads and producing sprays of hot sparks more than hitting of the Cyclone clad marines even though they were all between two and two and a half meters tall when clad in armour.
The return fire from the Cycloners was far more focused, disciplined and devastating. A single volley of charged particle bolts tore into the pirates dropping all of them to the deck as the heavy bolts, designed as they were to rip through the tough biomechanical armour of Invid battle mecha, simply tore their bodies apart. Dana couldn't help but give a quiet shake of her head at the sad waste of life. Her experiences against the Robotech Masters during the Second Robotech War had made her far more sensitive about such things and now she never relished taking a life. Of course, back home, with the Invid, there was no real choice as if you used protoculture and you didn't destroy them they destroyed you.
She shrugged off those thoughts. She had a job to do and if accomplishing the task that Captain Leeds had set her to capture this ship meant she had to kill more pirates and slavers – people who she had to admit were the scum of the universe wherever you found them, whatever species they were from – then was what she would do. She could rage and cry about it later in the privacy of her quarters aboard the Agamemnon.
"Advance," she ordered moving forward. The rest of the squad from the Limpet boarding pod followed closely behind her all of them keeping their weapons ready and their sensors sharp. After all, in their experience pirates could be tricky especially when it came to trying to evade the law, especially the Expeditionary Force and their well-known zero tolerance approach to piracy.
Strangely they encountered no one else as they approached the bridge, which was blocked off by thick, strong looking doors. Dana raised an eyebrow slightly even as she instructed her Cyclones computer to scan the doors. Immediately the results came back, and she noted that they were primarily made from some kind of advanced steel composite reinforced with titanium and boron nanofibers and was three and a half inches thick. A strong door for sure but nothing that the weapons they carried couldn't penetrate since they were designed to defeat materials that were just that little bit stronger.
"Richards, Peters sync your missile targeting with mine," she ordered raising her free arm and pointing the dual GR-97 missile launcher mounted to her vambrace at the door. A target rectangle appeared on her vision and pulsed once to confirm that the Scorpion micro-missiles within had a solid lock on the door.
"Yes ma'am," both marines answered as they levelled one each of their own GR-97's at the door while giving orders to their respective targeting computers. A moment later an icon appeared on Dana's helmet HUD confirming that they were locked on and ready to fire. She immediately clenched her forearm muscles in the correct movement to fire.
Six Scorpion micro-missiles shot into the air and quickly crossed the distance between the squad of Cycloners and the blast doors protecting the bridge. The missiles impacted and detonated with the familiar, at least to REF personnel, yellow-white flash of plasma explosives. The six missiles annihilated the door vaporising most of it and sending the remaining fragments flying into the bridge beyond accompanied by a flash of hot plasma and smoke.
Bolts of red energy immediately came back at them from the smoke as the bridge crew opened fire. Idiots do you really think we're just going to walk into a kill box? What do you think we are Invid, Dana thought before pulling a neural shock grenade from her belt and priming it. She wasn't the only one as all the others in her squad were doing the same.
In unison and taking full advantage of the increased power, they could impart thanks to the Cyclone armours servo motors, threw them into the bridge beyond the slowly dissipating smoke cloud. Then they stood back to wait and didn't have to wait very long as the neural shock grenades went off flooding the bridge with a burst of high frequency light and sounds that were designed to temporarily overload the nervous system of any species with an actual nervous system – they didn't work of species like the Spherisians as they didn't have a nervous system per say as each Spherisian was a colony of cell-sized crystal lifeforms – without permanently harming them. Yes, there were side effects some quite embarrassing, but they were minor and faded quickly.
The light of the shock grenades quickly faded, and no more weapons fire came from within the bridge. Dana smirked slightly before hefting her rifle to her shoulder and heading into the bridge of the pirate vessel, the rest of her personal squad following closely. As soon as she was through the smoke Dana beheld the bridge of the vessel. It was a vaguely rectangular room with viewports along one wall with consoles along all the other walls. There were a few free-standing consoles and, in the centre, on a slightly raised dais, was a command chair.
Almost all the bridge crew were lying unconscious on the deck, certain key biological functions needed for consciousness to be maintained essentially having been stalled out by the effects of the shock grenades. Exactly as the Robotech Masters had designed them to do. The effect was almost complete as she could see a human figure, clad head to toe in some kind of silver-grey armour with black and silver swirl patterns across the chest, struggling to stand up and shaking his helmeted head to try and clear the effects of the shock grenades.
Dana wasn't about to let him. Attaching the EP-37 to her right forearm vambrace panel she withdrew a neural shock baton and charged the staggering individual. He clearly heard her coming as he turned a T-shaped visor towards her and started to raise some kind of pistol. But he was too slow to compete with the power armour augmented speed of a Cycloner. Before he had even raised it halfway, she was on him, a kick sending the pistol flying accompanied by a loud crack and a scream of pain as his forearm was broken by the force of the impact.
Not giving him a chance to recover Dana jabbed the neural shock grenade into a gap between his armour panels and activated it sending a charge of energy, that was like that used in the shock grenades but less powerful, into his body. The man writhed screamed in pain and defeat before crumpling to the deck unconscious from the effect.
"Well, that was easy," Richards commented as the other Cycloners spread out securing the bridge.
"Don't jinx us," Dana snapped at him knowing that the fleet had been screwed over by that mysterious, but absolutely powerful, bastard Murphy enough already with everything going to hell in a hand basket – whatever that meant as she didn't always get her father's sayings as they came from before the First Robotech War and a Terran civilization that she could barely envision – from the moment they had tested the neutron-s missile.
"Sorry colonel."
"You better hope nothing happens Richards or you're going to be on toilet cleanup duty in the barracks after curry night," Dana said warningly making the other officer go pale in horror and emit a sound that sounded suspiciously like eep. Deciding not to verbally torture her subordinate anymore for his stupidly she instead activated her comm unit. "Colonel Sterling to all boarding parties report."
"Major Caldwell here colonel we've secured the computer core," a male voice responded immediately. "A lot of dead pirates in the corridors though. Looks like many of them were killed when the fleet took out the engines."
"Understood. Have your IT specialists begin trying to access the computer."
"Already on it ma'am."
"Let me know if there are any problems," Dana instructed before switching to another channel and checking in with her next subordinate. Major Anderson had managed to take complete control of the auxiliary command centre and the hangar bay though he reported that the latter was heavily damaged. He had managed to subdue quite a sizeable number of pirates and was now holding them under guard until either Captain Leeds – or more likely Admiral Hunter – decided what they were going to do with them after a thorough interrogation which would certainly include neural scanning.
"Colonel Sterling this is Major Faran," came the voice of the only full blood Zentraedi under her direct command. Faran seemed to be somewhat in awe of her both due to her role in finally defeating the Robotech Masters and the fact that her mother was Miriya Parino. Something in the Zentraedi's voice made the hair on the back of Dana's neck stand up in alarm.
"What is it?" she asked concern in her voice.
"Colonel we've entered what the Agamemnon's sensors identified as barracks due to the concentration of lifeforms," Faran answered sounding very grim, "but they're not barracks."
Dana felt a cold shiver of dread run down her spine. "Then what are they?" she asked knowing that she wasn't going to like the answer.
"They're slave pens ma'am," the Zentraedi replied a hard note of rage in his voice. Something that was completely understandable as ever since they'd been freed from their own enslavement to the Robotech Masters the Zentraedi had become zealous supporters of slave abolition across their own galaxy. Dana cursed softly. "There are people here from dozens of species including other human stock species. All being held in pens. They're in quite a bad way."
"Damn. Alright contact the Agamemnon directly and inform Captain Leeds about what you've found," she ordered after a moment. "We're going to need specialist medical and support teams sent over here asap."
"Understood colonel. I will see to it immediately."
"Excellent," Dana replied before switching channels again and checking in with the other three boarding parties. After learning that the securing of the ship was going very well indeed, the pirate crew being no match for their forces due to both their superior discipline and far superior firepower, she turned back to the rest of her squad. "Alright let's finish securing the bridge and then get these people back to the Limpet they're going to have a few questions to answer back on the ship."
"Yes ma'am."
UES Agamemnon
That Same Time
"Slaves?"
Sitting behind her desk in her office aboard the Agamemnon Captain Vanessa Leeds stared in a mixture of shock and disgust at the active comm unit. Like everyone else in the Expeditionary Force she had an almost pathological disgust for slavery, something that they were steadily stamping out back home with the assistance of the Sentinels many of whom had all experienced what it was like to be slaves. First to the Robotech Masters and then to the never to be damned enough Invid, who even now were keeping several million Terrans enslaved on their own homeworld.
"I am afraid so captain," Major Faran's voice said from the comm. "There are about fifteen hundreds of them here from numerous species including humans. Some appear to be in quite a bad way having been beaten and otherwise mistreated by their captors. We're going to need specialist people here as soon as possible we also need some ordinance disposal personnel."
"Ordinance disposal!" Vanessa asked even as she entered a series of commands into her desk console, instructing that the handful of medical personnel they had aboard the Agamemnon trained in how to deal with newly liberated slaves to board a shuttle and head over to the disabled pirate ship which according to reports from the other boarding parties as well as Admiral Keanuth was called the Dark Penance. "May I ask why?"
"It appears that each of the slaves has within their bodies a transmitter coupled with a micro-explosive charge implanted within their bodies," the Zentraedi officer answered his voice hard edged with rage. "If they attempt to escape their masters, or go beyond certain areas, the transmitter will trigger the explosive killing them immediately."
"I see," Vanessa said inwardly cursing up a storm in a variety of different languages. As if enslaving these people wasn't enough their captors had to do something that callous? It was unimaginable not even the Robotech Masters had ever been that cruel, hell even the Invid weren't that cruel. "Are they able to leave the ship at all?"
"Yes, we have been able to locate a few of the handling devices that will keep the explosive implants disarmed until they can be removed. Ma'am, do we have anyone aboard the ship trained to deal with such things as this?"
"Not here no. Though the medical teams on the SDF-3 certainly do. I will speak with Admiral Hunter as soon as we sign off and get some specialist personnel sent here," Vanessa answered. Though if I know Rick, he will come himself bringing the SDF-3 and leaving the other ships to guard the kernel module, she thought aware of just how Rick Hunter thought and how he was likely to react in any given situation. She had after all known, and been friends with him, for decades. Plus, she knew that Lisa would want to meet with the leadership on Tzarlas IV to determine what help they could provide them.
"I understand ma'am. What do we do with the slaves in the meantime?"
"Do your best to make them comfortable until medical and other specialists arrive," Vanessa ordered.
"I understand and I will do as you wish."
"Leeds out," Vanessa finished before closing that comm channel and opening another to the bridge. "Leeds to bridge hail the SDF-3. Inform Admiral Hunter that I need to speak with him immediately."
"Aye ma'am," her communications officer acknowledged. Vanessa sat back to wait knowing from experience that she wouldn't have to wait long for Rick's attention. While she waited, she scowled at the reports of slaves on the Dark Penance and had to wonder if there had been similar slaves on the other pirate ships. If there had been how many innocent beings had she inadvertently killed when she destroyed those pirate ships as standard REF rules of engagement for pirates stated. It didn't bare thinking about to be honest though she knew how well this development was going to go down with Rick. The phrase lead balloon readily came to mind.
She was brought out of her thoughts by the sight of a projector field powering up and a holographic screen coming into existence. A screen that showed the face and upper torso of Rick Hunter who from the looks of him was in his own ready room on the SDF-3. The warm greeting that she could see he was about to give her dying before he could speak as he beheld the look on her face.
"What is it, Vanessa?" Rick asked concern colouring his voice. "What has happened? Have the pirates and slavers been neutralised?"
"They have we destroyed all but one of the pirates ships the other we disabled for intelligence gathering purposes," Vanessa answered, "Colonel Sterling and the marines are securing the vessel, the Dark Penance, and her surviving crew as we speak. They should be ready for interrogation soon. But Rick there's a situation and it isn't a good one. In fact, I don't think anyone back home, even the Masters, were ever this fucking cruel."
A concerned look appeared on Rick's face, and he nodded silently instructing her to continue. Which after taking a deep breath, to throttle down her own increasing rage over the plight of the discovered slaves, she did. As she spoke and laid out everything that had been discovered on the Dark Penance with the slaves Rick's face went rigid in the way that it always, always did when his temper was really starting to be roused prompting the hard man that was normally hidden behind Rick's jovial somewhat extrovert nature made his presence known. The only true sign of rage was in his blue eyes which turned increasingly cold, becoming even colder than space itself. Which was always a scary thing as Rick's rage wasn't loud or in your face like many other peoples, no when he was angry Rick could be one hell of a cold, utterly ruthless bastard.
"I see," Rick said once she had finished his voice cold enough to send a shiver down her spine. She had seen Rick this angry before, but it never got any easier to see. The last time had been after Edwards nearly killed Lisa during his little mutiny, in the process costing Rick and Lisa the life of their unborn second child, against the Plenipotentiary Council and the Expeditionary Force. She still shuddered to think what Rick would have done to Edwards if Lisa had died and not just been in a coma for a few months.
"We will be there shortly Vanessa," Rick added after a few moments of quiet seething. "Make sure the prisoners are ready for interrogation as soon as possible. I want to find out just where this lowlife scum came from, where their base is."
"And then?"
"Then we will destroy it after liberating anymore slaves of course."
"I understand. We'll begin interrogating the prisoners as soon as they're aboard and as soon as those effected by neural shock grenades regain consciousness. I'll also send my top IT specialist Lieutenant Rico over to Dark Penance to begin prying secrets out of their computers. We'll get the information we need to eliminate this scourge."
"I know you will Vanessa. Is there anything else?"
"Not at this time no."
"Then I will let you go to get to work," Rick answered, "I'll be there shortly myself."
"I'll make sure everything is prepared for your arrival."
"I know you will Vanessa. Hunter out."
As the holographic screen pixeled out of existence Vanessa allowed herself a small smile, though it was one without any warmth. As she had expected, Rick was pissed by that Dana and the boarding parties had discovered aboard the disabled pirate ship. Pissed and intent on wiping the pirate base, wherever it was and however well it was guarded, from existence in retribution for their actions. She could almost feel sorry for the pirates as few who had ever faced an angry Rick Hunter, from the likes of Khyron to Thomas Riley Edwards had ever lived to tell the tale. There was no way that these pirates would, especially if the ships they had at their base were as weak as the ones she'd destroyed here, which was why she could almost feel sorry for them.
Almost.
Authors Note: Well, another chapter bites the metaphorical dust, I hope you all enjoyed it. The alliance of crime syndicates that are attempting to take over the Tzarlas Cluster to mine its resources are in serious trouble now though they don't know it yet. Until next time.