Chapter 40

Stuggart star system, inner system.

Stuggart Prime, Silver Syndicate planetary Headquarters.

Jorge looked at his screen, and sighed.

He had a bad feeling about this from the beginning, but this was far beyond even his worst nightmares. He had expected, at most, for the defense force to send some marines to check out the disturbance, and launch a few fighters, and system security to launch a thorough investigation. Not for the entire damned orbital defense grid to come online, and have the whole defense force just pile in!

And the worst part was that the people were cheering them on! There was no political angle to use to try and tone down the backlash, like he had so often done before. The revelations about the slave trafficking rings had been devastating. Coupled with the attack he himself had orchestrated on the secure berth? It had signed his organization's death warrant, at least in Stuggart. None of his political contacts even wanted to return his calls, and those that did told him to go to hell, right before his security system shut down the link because someone was attempting to trace him.

He was still getting constant reports through secure channels from his own people however, and none of them were good. Arrests everywhere, from the simplest security goon to the highest echelons. He was probably safe for now, but it wouldn't last long.

"Sir?" Said his aide from the door. "We're ready to leave."

Jorge nodded wordlessly, and tapped a command he had ready on his terminal. The system acknowledged, and deletion sequences began as his headquarters' self destruct armed. It wouldn't do much collateral damage, as the building and the charges had been carefully designed to contain the explosion as much as possible. For all of it's problems, the Silver Syndicate was made up of professionals, and professionals had standards.

He was halfway through the door when the building shook in a carefully timed sequence of explosion. His aide had tackled him to the floor before he even realized what was happening. After spending a few seconds catching his breath -he wasn't that old, but being tackled by someone who could have ripped the spine out of his body with her bare hands if she wished had knocked the wind out of him-, he was opening his mouth to ask what the hell was going on when the ceiling exploded in a shower of concrete fragments, and an entire squad of police officers covered head to toe in SWAT gear rappelled into the room.

His aide was up and had her gun trained on them before they'd even gotten their feet past the hole, but even she knew that fighting them was pointless. Even more so once the smoke cleared and showed the gunship to which the rappel lines were attached to...12 stories up and outside the building itself.

Jorge's mind idly noted that they must have known exactly where his office was -there would have been no time to check for anyone in the myriad of floors they'd just blasted their way through-, and then one of the officers, the squad leader most probably, reached the floor, and detached himself from the rappel line, before walking forward.

"Jorge Soldado, system director of the Silverine-Xiulan-Kisnar Syndicate. You are under arrest for suspicions of attempted murder, participation in the slave trade, kidnapping, and the deployment of a nuclear weapon on an inhabited world. Surrender immediately or we will use force to apprehend you."

Jorge almost laughed out loud. Use force? Use force? They'd blasted their way through an entire building to get to him! And they were talking about using force?

Then he met the officer's gaze, and he realized that the policeman wasn't joking, at all. In fact now that his senses were coming back to him, he could almost physically feel the hatred radiating from the rest of the SWAT team.

He had, after all, ordered the deployment of a nuclear weapon on their homeworld...and they thought he had dabbled into child slavery.

All in all, it was surprising they hadn't just shot him and told their superiors he had resisted arrest.

"Stand down Sofia." Said Jorge softly, as he slowly got up. "There is no need for further violence."

He drew himself up. If he was going down, he could at least do it like a Syndicate system director, not some beaten whelp.

"I surrender."

*****

"And that's one less thing to worry about." Said Elteria smugly as she watched the news broadcast. The arrest of thousands of criminals linked to the slavery rings and the nuclear attack on the planet had understandably completely taken over the news channels, and occupied every headline.

Sarah sipped her hot chocolate calmly, before looking up at her AI.

"Indeed. Still, we have other concerns. What's our status?"

"We are fully refueled, rearmed, and ready to go ma'am!" Formally said Elteria. "The crew has been recalled, and everyone is accounted for."

"Good. Business dirtside?"

"Everything has been settled. The office has acknowledged that we are departing, and that we wish to keep it quiet. The Divinium container and briefcase have also been transferred into secure storage." And very secure storage at that. They had a lot of different levels of security for the variety of stuff they kept in stockpile in Stuggart, from classic warehouses with basically beat cops and cameras as security for routine materials like raw materials and foodstuffs, to a vault buried in the single most secure facility on the planet after the Defense Force's headquarters, a facility that was built in a decommissioned Defence Force command bunker literally made to survive the entire planet being glassed. The Divinium was about as safe there as it could get.

"Excellent. Alright. Warn traffic control that we will be requiring a course out of this system. Then begin plotting a hyperspace jump to the Fringe. It's time to get the bottom of this mess."

"Yes ma'am!"

*****

Faldor stopped the recording, and leaned back into his seat.

The amount of money it had cost him to get it had been...rather extravagant, especially as it served no real purpose, but he needed to see it.

"So Jorge is captured...and our operations on Stuggarts gutted." He muttered under his breath, before sighing. "Stars damn it all to hell."

He moved his hand to his desk, and pressed the holographic button that called his aide.

"Yes sir?" Said Roman as he poked his head through the door, a few seconds later.

"Roman. I need a status update on Merio. Was he still in Stuggart?"

His aide blinked, and quickly pulled out his tablet.

"No sir! He left Stuggart a few days ago. Since he had gathered forces he thought sufficient, he went out in a shake down cruise to make sure his ships could work together for the job."

Faldor smiled. Bless that overly professional bastard. Merio could be be a royal pain in the ass to work with -the ex-Dominion navy commodore was arrogant as they came sometimes-, but he was almost as good as he thought he was, and he was a professional.

"Excellent! Finally some good news!"

"Sir?" Asked Roman in confusion, before Faldor gestured, flipping the holographic screen towards his aide. "Is that-"

"Jorge? Yes. He got captured today. Our operation on Stuggart has been effectively dismantled."

Roman swallowed, hard.

"That is..."

"Almost unprecedented, I know." Faldor sighed. "I need you to schedule a conference call with the council. Then...Then I need you to schedule another call with Merio."

"Yes sir, right away!"

*****

"Special Enforcer?" Asked Merio as the call began. "To what do I owe the pleasure?"

"Things have changed. I have new instructions for you." Said Faldor.

"Ah. Another round of internal politicking made the higher ups change their opinions again?"

Faldor smiled, and Merio's mouth closed with a snap. It wasn't a nice smile. At all.

"No commodore. What happened is that our dear...target has just managed to dismantle our entire organization in Stuggart."

This time shock shut the ex-Dominion navy officer up. He opened his mouth and closed it a few times, before managing to form a sentence.

"All of it?"

"All of it."

"Damn...I...I knew these guys. I mean, I didn't like most of them, but I knew them. They wouldn't have gone quietly."

"They didn't, but..." Faldor shrugged. "System security came down on them in a coordinated operation. They didn't stand a chance."

"Damn."

"Indeed." Faldor sighed. "Which brings me to my new instructions."

"I'm listening."

"It is the opinion of the council that attempting to capture Sarah Ciel-étoilé and her ship is simply no longer viable, and that the potential consequences of a failed attempt far outweighed the benefits of success." Merio began sitting even straighter, his eyes widening slightly as the special enforce met his gaze. "Commodore Merio...I order you to eliminate captain Sarah Ciel-étoilé and the crew of the Eternal Seeker through any and all means necessary, up to and including requisitioning direct combat assets."

Merio swallowed audibly. The Syndicate's 'direct combat assets' were a small fleet of well hidden, stolen Dominion navy ships, dispersed throughout the galaxy. Some of which Merio himself had helped divert from their legitimate owners or the scrapyard.

It also included a single Dominion battlecruiser, with it's full ten heavy cruiser escort, forming a full battlegroup. The cruisers weren't all of the same class, or hell, even used the same level of tech, but even then put together with the battlecruiser they represented enough firepower to conquer a thousand star systems.

"Do you understand commodore?" Said Faldor calmly.

"Yes sir. I understand."

"Excellent. Good hunting commodore."

*****

"Captain, we have crossed the hyperspace limit." Formally said Normensk.

"Excellent. Prepare for jump to the Narval star system, full hyperspace speed."

"Aye aye ma'am. Preparing for jump. Lowering shield. Hyperspace field up. All systems green. Hyperspace coordinates locked in. Hyperspace jump in 5...4...3...2...1...Jump."

Sarah tensed up slightly, before relaxing. They were out of Stuggart, finally.

It wasn't that the star system had become unwelcoming, but their status as semi celebrities had become stiffling...and the knowledge that they possessed data in their computers that even an ex-Imperial shock commando was worried about was a sobering one. The TRF had been willing to kill millions to protect the source of their conventional gear. Who knew what they'd be ready to do to keep their source of Divinium a secret?

"Jump complete."

"Alright." Sarah turned towards Elteria's hologram. "Switch to hyperspace watch rotations, then take the con, I'll be in my office."

"Aye aye ma'am! I have the con."

Sarah nodded in thanks, before leaving the bridge, and making a beeline towards her office. She'd barely sat down in her seat when Elteria's hologram appeared on her desk.

"Should I call the others?" Asked the AI, and Sarah nodded.

"Might as well."

The AI nodded back, and tilted her head, her eyes unfocusing. A minute or so later, after a bit of small talk, Hector, Turral and Seria came through the door.

Sarah gave Turral a sharp look, and the chief engineer shrugged.

"We're all in this together ma'am. And if she doesn't stop fussing over Cindy someone is going to hit her with a wrench. Probably me." The chief engineer gave the newbie a withering look, and Seria visibly deflated under her superior's gaze.

Sarah chuckled. She'd heard that the armorer had a tendency to be a bit of a worrier, and after what had happened to Sally and Kyre she'd been treating Cindy like she was made out of porcelain. Before she'd believed that the mercs she was working with were pretty much invincible with their tech.

Having one of them turned into a half insane AI as a last ditch solution to save her life had amply demonstrated the contrary.

"Fair enough. Take a seat, all of you." She waited until they were all comfortable, before leaning forward, setting her hands on the desk. "Alright, as I'm sure you've all deduced, we have a target. We have received information about what appears to be the first transhipment point of the Divinium from the mining site itself."

That got her officers to twitch.

"Ah. And only the location of the transhipment point?" Asked Hector, and Sarah nodded. "I assume you want me and my marines to find the next location then?"

"Yes. Unfortunately, a regular investigation won't cut it. Given our enemies' pervasiveness in the government of every system they set up shop in, it is more than likely that they have taken control of the government in that star system. So a regular investigation, hell even a Dominion backed one, is a no go."

Hector nodded, and leaned back, as Turral frowned.

"What do we do then?"

"We cannot investigate the warehouses or the transhipment facilities themselves...but we do have detailed scanner data for the ships they are using to transport the Divinium."

Turral opened her mouth, and closed it, before leaning back.

"Stars, not this again..."

"What's going on?" Asked Seria, looking around the room in confusion at Hector's amused, and Turral's exasperated, expressions. "I mean, couldn't we just...summon them to surrender and arrest them with some help from the Dominion?"

"That probably wouldn't work. They were willing to blow up a million civilians to cover their tracks, I'm ready to bet they have a self destruct for their freighters as well. So politely asking them to surrender, even with a Dominion warship at our back, wouldn't yield us anything."

"So what do we do then?"

"We do one of the oldest naval mercenary traditions in history. We board their ship. Ladies and gentlemen, prepare our boarding equipment. We're going privateering."

Seria stared at her in shock as Turral groaned and Hector grinned. The Eternal Seeker hadn't served as a privateer for decades, but they had all the equipment required for it.

"I have deactivated our transponder, and set our course to make us emerge deep into the outer system. This far out, they shouldn't be able to see our jump flare with precision, but just to be sure I have placed one of the uninhabited outer planets between us and the rest of the star system." Said Elteria. "This, hopefully, will net us the element of surprise."

"And once we're there, we will lay low, and collect some intel. We need to know if those freighters stick to any kind of schedule. If they do...we set up an ambush, and we disable their ship, before boarding it hard and fast." Continued Sarah. "If we do it quickly enough we can prevent them from activating their self destruct or destroy their astrogation databases."

Hector shifted.

"I'm flattered in the faith you have in me and my men ma'am, but...if they are paranoid enough, we won't make it there in time."

Sarah nodded.

"I know. Which is why you'll be using this." She gestured at the desk, and a hologram popped up.

It was only the hologram of an unassuming looking canister, but it caused Hector and Turral to cringe.

"Fuck. I forgot we had that. Are you sure?" Said the sergeant, and Sarah nodded.

"I'm sure. It's probably our only shot."

Hector winced, but nodded back regardless.

"What...is that?" Asked Seria.

"That, Seria, is a secret you'll keep to your grave." Answered Sarah, before gesturing at the canister. "This is our last canister of ASOD-NCS-3. We called it Nic-3 for short."

"What is it?"

"It's a weaponized nanomachine swarm."