chapter 48
POV: Wefstrat, Commander of the Weratile Trade Station’s Security
He was smiling like he knew something I didn’t.
“So you still think it's amusing, even though I know that you’re a spy? The only thing I don’t know is where your allegiance lies, and before this day ends, you are going to tell me.”
Once again, he was just silent. There was something wrong here. Spies like him shouldn’t be so uncooperative, as no one wanted to die. So what was going on?
Looking toward my assistant, she was just eager to get started.
All of a sudden, I heard commotion outside my office. The guards were talking loudly with someone. But to my surprise, they seemed to open up the doors. In rushed a young tech, panic in his eyes.
“Commander, many ships are disregarding their flight paths! They seem to be getting into battle formation!”
Immediately, my eyes went to the spy, who seemed to radiate smugness.
“Open fire on them immediately!”
“But sir—”
“No but! Do you want them to get into formation before we engage them? Attack immediately. In fact, the whole station goes into lockdown!”
“Yes, sir!” the young tech managed to get out and quickly rushed off.
Now, when I looked at the spy, he didn’t look so smug.
The klaxons started informing everyone that there was trouble. It took longer than I wanted for the lockdown to start.
That’s the problem with this 20-year contract bullshit the management has pushed on us. It’s way too little time for proper seniority to happen. Unlike before, when we had 100-year contracts. I was the last of the old guard and I no longer felt welcome here.
The entire station started to periodically vibrate as we opened fire.
“It’s too late for your allies now. They will soon be dust. So now that you're no longer employed, would you like to come clean about what your purpose here was and the overall plan of your master's?”
“You really are too old for this,” he finally said back. But I didn’t like what he was saying.
“Wefstrat, shouldn't there be more vibration from the weapons?” my second said, and she was right, something was wrong.
The same tech rushed in again, and behind him came more senior officers.
“Sir, only the minor weapons are working. We can't seem to get the main weaponry to function, nor activate the lockdown for the security floor. It’s just not responding.”
Looking at the spy, I remembered what position he held here.
“You’re no wind mage. What are you?” I asked him while pulling out my pistol.
Now he didn’t look so smug.
Then I felt something behind me. As I turned around, I saw my digital clock had formed itself into a spike that was about to launch itself toward me, but my second’s tail struck out, spearing the clock.
“You’re a goddamned technomancer?”
“You have already lost. Surrender now,” was all he managed to get out before I pointed my pistol at his head, channeled three of my skills into the shot, and pulled the trigger.
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He seemed to have some defensive skills, but I could see it in his eyes when the realization hit that it wasn’t going to be enough to protect him.
He died a moment later.
“Why did you do that? We should have gotten more information from him,” one of my officers nearly yelled.
Stupid idiots, the lot of them.
“Keeping a technomancer that has had months messing with our systems alive is the most stupidest thing I’ve ever heard. Let’s move.”
Immediately, I started to walk toward the command center. Who knows how messed up everything is and who we’re actually up against.
On the screens, we could see the mess that was the outside. There were a lot more of them than I thought possible, and now it was confirmed that they were pirates, as they were happily broadcasting their symbol.
It looked like a burning leaf. I was not familiar with the symbol, so they couldn’t be too high up. Which was strange. Was this their attempt to climb the pirate hierarchy? Not on my watch.
“The security systems for the residents seem to be working, but not for this floor. The pirates have access to the docks. We have received reports that one of the docks seems to have already fallen to the pirates.”
So they were already inside and who knows how many there are. They were so certain they were going to win that they were barely giving any attention to the station, choosing to focus on the other ships around the station.
“What’s the situation with the weapons? Can we fix it?”
From an open panel in one of the corners, a head popped out.
“It’s a mess here. Someone has done a really good job. It will take me at least an hour to fix this and get the rest of the weapons operational, Sir.”
That Sir was said as an afterthought. Immediately after that, he disappeared.
That was really unprofessional, but there was always leeway given to quirky people who were good at their job. And if he really could fix it in an hour—what the technomancer did with months of being able to mess with our system—well, then I would need to personally oversee his future advancement, as he would be too promising not to keep track of.
“Order security teams 1, 3, 7, and 16 towards the western dock. They are still on watch, yes?”
“Yes, Sir. Immediately, Sir.”
“Wake up everyone else if they already aren’t, and get them here in full battle rattle. And if there are any adventurers in booking, offer them—if they haven’t done any heinous crimes—a chance for a clean slate if they join the fight.”
Once again, my officers looked at me weirdly. This made me want to shake my head in dismay, but I kept myself in check.
Everyone was too green around here. We were fighting for our survival, and they still wanted to go by the books. Yes, there are things you shouldn’t do, even for survival, but we haven’t even reached close to that.
The situation outside looked desperate. Our defense forces were not going to get here for at least four hours. The spy problem must be larger otherwise that request for the fleet to move out wouldn’t have been put through, even with my vehement protest. If we survived this, it was time to sell my shares and get out of this sinking ship.
There were adventurer ships out there, but I didn’t understand what they were doing, especially that battlecruiser. They were just defending. That didn’t make any sense. They should have just tried to leave. Were there people here on the station that they cared about? Then why were they not fighting back?
I was interrupted by one of the lower-ranked techs.
“Sir?”
“Not right now. Can anyone get me in contact with that adventurer ship? I want to know why they aren’t accepting our quest to help us.”
“Sir, please?” the same tech asked, but now, when I looked at him, he seemed entirely too green for his species.
“Make it fast.”
“There is an adventurer ship continuously, asking for a quest to help. Should there be a quest from us asking adventurers for help?”
I looked towards my second, who seemed utterly confused.
“Of course there should be a quest. What do you mean there’s no quest? Aren’t you following siege protocols?”
“I am, to the letter. But there is nothing about a quest.”
That doesn’t make any sense. It should have gone out automatic. Of course… the technomancer.
“Everyone, listen up! Grab physical copies of the protocols. We need to go through them step by step. A technomancer has had access to our systems for months. We do not know what’s compromised or what’s not. Everything must be done manually and triple-checked to see if the changes made actually functioned as they should.”
“You, immediately give out the quest!” I commanded the tech who notified me of this problem.
At least everyone seemed to be trained enough, as they immediately started doing things properly.
On the main screen, we saw the security detail make contact with the pirates, but a few moments later, we lost signal.
“Barricade protocols! Everyone, get out of here into the secure command room. Move, move, move!”
“Get me an engineering team to start putting out barriers for the four hallways leading here focusing on the western one!”
“If we still have access to the residential areas, issue a mandatory draft for any veterans.”
The first bit of good news came a moment later when the adventurer battle cruiser opened fire, taking out seven frigates in its first salvo, and then started to focus on the pirate battle cruisers.
Immediately, most of the enemy fleet focused on the adventurer battle cruiser. It started to take heavy fire, yet it still held, not even its shields dropping. That was impressive, but I had expected that from a high-ranked adventurer ship with a high-ranked crew.
In fact, to my complete surprise, two minutes later I saw three of their crew members walking in with other detainees who accepted our deal. So that’s why that ship didn’t leave. Those pirates could never have predicted this. This was good news.
Not a moment later, the defenses that had been set up in the western hallway were smashed through by two battle droids that were soaking up weapon fire without any visible damage. Many of the defenders laid dead.
I only briefly needed to look towards the three members of the adventurer crew and give them a small nod before they rushed in, smiles on their faces.
They moved so fast it was hard to keep track, but the battle droids matched them. They must be getting skill support by someone who’s close enough.
“Leave the battle droids to the adventurers. Focus back on the hallway. Don’t let any pirates in here!”
The engineer team worked fast, and we managed to set up some barriers before our security forces opened fire on the approaching pirates. The pirates themselves quickly popped out some barriers, and some of our specialists managed to block their barrier busters.
Seems like we managed to weather the first assault. This command centre was quite big—nearly a 300-metre circular room. Half of it was currently taken over by the fighting adventurers and battle droids. The command stations were destroyed, but all necessary personnel were already in their secure command room.
We unfortunately seemed to have a lot fewer forces than I wanted, and even though the pirates wouldn’t be able to get through the western hallway quickly, as we had enough forces to currently hold it, they would try to outflank.
“Sir, two adventurer ships and their crews are offering to cover our flanks. One of them seems to be able to command quite a lot of drones.”
Once again, good news. Even if they’re only able to give us a little more time, it would be incredibly helpful.
“Keep them informed of everything we know. Do the same with the adventurer battlecruiser.”
I pulled out my pistol. They would need my help to hold the western hallway. Hopefully, I will manage to hit whoever is boosting those battle droids because they seem to be equal to the three adventurers.