The door to my office opened suddenly. “What the frak?” I jumped off my seat. “Can’t you fraking knock first?” I was angrier than normal. The man across from me, the Security Officer of the Organization, stood by me five years now, five turbulent years, but I could not shake the feeling that all will come to an end.

“Why? Are you naked in here? Basking on Duval’s latest photos?” He replied with a thick sense of irony. “Of course not, but you scared the bejesus out of me”, a felt a bit of shame, as I had been naked in this office, basking on Aislings photos. I tried to mellow down. After all, it was not his fault. “Anyways, what you want? Don’t you have a war to prepare for?” Now it was my turn to be ironic. “Pfff,” he said, spraying his saliva all over my desk, “prepare for a slaughter? Have you seen their fleet?”

I had seen their fleet. Well, to be precise, I had seen the numbers and statistics of their fleet. The Buurian protectorate, the friendliest bunch supposedly, but with a navy of thirty commanders and over four hundred ships. “Yes, so? Are we supposed to bend over once again? We started our business venture five years ago, we colonized this place to make a better future for ourselves and our families. Only to be attacked by pirates, and every other Tom Dick and Harry out there in the Frontier” “We made some mistakes…” he interrupted me, “some serious mistakes…” “We are a corporation and fought a war with the Federation!” I exclaimed, I was furious, “and it was no mistake! The mother of all Corporations the mighty Federation came to our system but we could not ally with them. Being controlled by these alliance muppets, we could not forge a treaty, something with them. We went to war. Was it your mistake? Was it? Cause sure as hell it wasn’t mine, you know?” “Was mine neither! You told me to fight, and I fought. You told me to undermine and undermining I did, you are the general manager, the chairman of the goddamn board, of course, I will blame you for our demise. I did not even lose the war with the Federation”.

I stood up, I could feel my elevated heartbeat on the veins at my neck. “You did not lose the war, why didn’t you lose the war? Was it our mighty navy? No. Was it because of our advanced tactics? Hell no. It was because you went and sold us out to the Buurians. You did not lose a war but you betrayed us!” He came closer to my desk. He lifted his left arm and slammed it down on the desk. All the crap that I have on the desk fell over, along with my Lavean brandy”.

“I will kill you” and pointed his finger at me. “If you call me a traitor once more, I swear to Thargoids I will fraking kill you”. “Did you or did you not invite a commander” and I sneered the word commander, “to come and help you with the war?”

“That I did. He got paid and he left. What’s your problem?” He replied, oblivious of his mistakes. “That commander belonged to a nearby faction. A faction that has expanded in this same system. A faction that made arrangements with the Andromeda Corporation to own the Kneale Point!” He looked at me and turned his head sideways like a puppy. “But… but that is ours! This is our only base of operations. We have zero presence in other systems. Why do we have to give up…” “Because this is war!” I threw my Lavean brandy glass on the wall to my left where it shattered in million pieces. “Because this faction has twenty-nine Corvettes! Can you fight a war against that many Corvettes?” He moved a step back, he sat down at the business couch on the back of the room. “Twenty-nine eh? If we bring out smaller ships…” “You are delusional!” I yelled at him and walked over his seat. “Eighteen gunships, thirteen Fer-der-lance’s, and even ten Type-10 Defenders, I bet you all fully engineered, and pimped beyond belief, can you fight those with vipers?” I was hysterical. “Can we surrender then? Avoid the massacre?” “Surrender? My chief of Security asks if we can surrender” “Wait a minute, hold on a second” He stood up, and pushed with both hands on the chest, reclaiming his personal space. “Of course I can fraking advise you to surrender. Our forces, my boys will go and get slaughtered again in the middle of space, for a stupid outpost in the middle of fraking nowhere. Of course, I want to stop this war before it starts and give them a chance to live somewhere else, find a new employer, a new place to call home” “Only over my dead body!” I answered and stood upright in his face. “That can be arranged!” he replied and at the same time, his right arm reached for his belt and removed his gun from the holster. He pushed me back with his left hand and pointed his gun straight into my face. An inch before my eyes I was staring down the barrel of his gun. His legs a bit open and apart, his left hand down by his side. His right hand, of course, holding the big gun in my face. I moved suddenly to my right--to his left-- when he pulled the trigger. The slug missed my head but not the top part of my ear which disintegrated when it came in contact with the bullet. My right leg though had landed with all my might on his testicles. He kneeled over, and as he was falling down with my left hand I grabbed his right arm and took the pistol right from his hand. I switched arms, and as he fell on his knees crying in pain, I relieved him of his duties and his life with a big slug on the back of his head.

After tending my wound, went back to the desk, I moved the papers and miscellaneous stuff away from the cleaning control panel embedded on the desk. I pressed for full clean up, and went in the backroom to change from the high-velocity blood splatter that had cataclysmically ruined my clothes. The robotic cleaners were busy at their tasks, and I found the time to record a message for the loss of our Chief Security officer. Probably our last security officer we will ever need.

"It's a shame really!" A voice behind me, almost insulting, was directed at me. It took only a moment to get my super critical. I exploded in his face like a mushroom cloud, a fusion attack. "Shame? I have spent a year in this dump and is it shame now? Shame to help someone who is in need?"

His face was old, wrinkled in a way to give the impression he was twice as old as he was. His nails dirty, his clothes torn. I at once lost all appetite to hit him hard in the face, bash his head on the bar, and break his legs while standing. There was something, behind the tired eyelids, the wrinkled skin, the yellow teeth, and the dirty fingernails. No idea why, but now I wanted to engage this person in discussion. I want to hear what he thinks, why he scolded me.

"Sit stranger, make yourself at home. We'll get some brandy. Do you drink brandy? Lave is like 50-70 ly from here, we have a fresh supply weekly. I'm buying", I said trying to make him feel welcome and comfortable.

"Lavean brandy sounds alright. Only if you have some onionhead to go with it..." It's not like everyday when someone asks me for onionhead. "You spoke to the onionhead master in this quadrant! What do you fancy? Lucan? Alpha, Beta strain or a nice mix? If you want Onionhead, I got you covered buddy! Only thing, I just give it, I never sell it. I am against in making credits from Onionhead." "I only smoke Alpha strain" he said, his hands spoke as much as his mouth did. Almost like explaining what he said to the hearing impaired. "The other stuff, is genetically modified, I don't trust them" he said while still waving his hands around.

Once we had the brandy and were smoking merrily the alpha strain of fresh onionhead, I asked him bluntly: "Why you went batcrazy on me old man?" The question drawn on my face. "Do you know me? Heard of me?"

He took a long sip from his brandy, held the onionhead spliff with his lips, and stared at me in the eyes, "you're elite no?" asked casually, smoke blowing off the spliff as he spoke. "Triple" I replied in embarrassment. Not sure why was I embarrassed, but I was.

"So you go out and kill hordes of AI pilots, maybe even other commanders. You play political games and influence the lives of millions. Yet you have no idea what is like to live in a planet. If you get off your high horse and study people for a change..."

His words went straight through my heart. They stung. Indeed I was everyday in spaceships worth more than some of the airless moons out there. I had so much stuff, that I had to expand my storage. Credits? more than all minor factions can sum up in a small sized system.

"Life on a planet you see, is less complicated. It can be easily compared to what life was on Earth, before space travel. People born, grow up planet-side. They get a job, learn a craft, and keep making 100 credits per week, for the next 80 years. If they are lucky. They could be attacked by pirates, by triple elite commanders like yourself, their life is worth nothing to you or any other spacer".

I could not turn and face him, yet, I wanted him to go on, continue, and that he did. "These people, they know what space travel is, but they will never get their feet in a spaceship. They will fish, or make progenitor cells their rest of their life. And that's if they are lucky, and not be born or drawn into slavery. If they are not sacrificed for few million credits for some space-faring elite commander; one who could disable the power generator with an SRV, but was too lazy and instead he launched 20 medium missiles to the base, killing women, children, old men. These are the elites now days"

I took a big sip emptying my glass. Immediately I refilled it, and drank all the contents with another sip. Refilled it again. I started rolling a new spliff. I still could not face the old man.

"I have never traded slaves" my voice was apologetic, soft, almost mumbling. "That counts for shit" he cut me off. "I know, I just wanted..." "To apologize? feel good for yourself? You have not carried slaves and that makes you a saint? Well it doesn't" His words harder than the tantalum of my armor. "Not apologize, just we're not all the same you know" "shit!" and spat on the floor. "You're all the same. Dogs! really, how did you get to elite rank? didn't you have to kill people? While I could not find my words, I manage to say "They were mostly NPC's, AI's you know?" "AI's don't have souls you think? families? children who wait for their parent to return each day? When Lave reports 25 billion population, do you have any idea mr Elite how many commanders live there?" He looked at me. A stare I could no escape, I did not want to answer. I had no idea really. I had never thought of it. "Quite a lot" was the only thing my mouth said, after a plethora of words stopping but never dared to part my lips. "You're dumber than I thought. AEDC has less than 100 commanders there! Maybe with all the Lave Radio personnel could make one hundred. Hundred! that's it. The rest 24 billion, 999 million, 999 thousand, 900 hundred humans are not pilots. They are normal folks working at the radio, in advertising, in accounting. Lots of them are into growing food. You have more money than any of the 25 billion people living there. And yet, you are the deus-ex-machina that controls their lives" "I, I had not" that that was true, I had never, "never thought of that". "And that is a shame!" Our conversation had made a full circle. The brandy in the bottle was getting low. I was almost out of onionhead. Actually, I had to run really quick at the docks and fetch some more from my ship. "Just wait a min , or like 5, old man. I will be right back" I exaggerated. I could not be back in 5 minutes even if I wanted to. The lifts on this coriolis are crap, it would have taken good 30 minutes to go to the dock and come back. The old man was wiser than he looked.

"Listen son, mr Elite pilot. commander. I won't stay long. Go get your onionhead later, but remember... while you have 3 different strains of onion head in your ship, there are others, not so fortunate, that at this moment they get attacked by aliens, and you discuss with Gwydion the size of diamonds for Aisling. We have goddamn aliens killing humans and we stay away having our own civil wars, killing each other for a piece of an airless rock in the middle of fucking nowhere. You know commander, I had enough, from all of you, really" He pushed me, quite unexpectedly, I lost balance, i dropped my glass with the brandy, i dropped my onionhead spliff. "Geez old man" I stuttered, and bent over to get my stuff from the floor. When I looked up the old man was gone. No sign of him.

"Did I fucking dream the whole thing?" I said aloud. I spent more than hour staring at the vast empty space. Humans were suffering, few light years away. The light of their death will arrive in 100 years from now if I stay at this bar. But this was 3304. I could be the same human day in Colonia, and next day be back at Sol. So why was I there in that desolate place, and I was not helping my fellow humans out? "Black Nancy? Can you call in Mitsarolito for this call? Is important" I asked from my holofax. Once all three of us were in the call I continued: "We gotta save the men from Thargoids. We just have to, you know? " I could not be more sincere. "Then what?" Mitsarolito seemed to agree, but he was not certain yet. Not like me. "First things first, I will go fetch as much onionhead I can, and donate it to anyone who wants! With the onionhead on board we can go kill aliens. Then we can help repair some of the damaged stations. There are Guardian sites as well you know?" "Actually this does not sound half as bad as I expected to hear..." Nancy said. In the holofax she seemed to be stuffing stuff in a box. "I am on my way to your ship. When do we move out?"

A Ballroom Blitz

An Elite Dangerous episode, March 3304 Starstone Enterprises Space.

An outbreak of criminal activities was observed early by 3301 throughout the populated bubble of star systems in the inner rim of the Orion arm of Milky Way. Systems on the edge of bubble suffered the most from all the criminal activities. Systems like Sanuma, Lahu, Daesitites. There crime paid every day. Important figures-mastermind criminals rose to power, and squeezed the life, credits and ore of many systems surrounding their lairs. Such a case was Mr. Nice Guy, who despite what his name suggested, was quite the opposite. He respected no living form -- apart his own -- and lived in contempt of pretty much everything around him. Thousands of lives had been lost, tortured, or had, even worse fate. More than two years, his name spread fear in the local systems. Local authorities gathered a small force, an armada of combat ships, and sailed after him. The battle was fierce and deadly. Many authority ships were lost, but in the end, they managed to damage enough Nice Guy’s Anaconda. Enough to force him to use the escape pod in a very calculated move. The escape pod would travel to some secret coordinates, where would be picked up by his associates. All was calculated. All but this...

The two Fer-der-Lance's appeared next to a small G white-yellow star. Tiny little specs in front of the enormity of a G star. The essence of infinity in a just a view.

"No sign of them, not yet anyways", a deep male voice echoed in the spacious bridge of the Fer-Der-Lance. The veteran combat pilot, Elite in combat, Elite in trade, had made a fortune as a paid mercenary, as assassin, and sometimes even paid to be the local police when required by his employers. Had made another fortune by selling medicine and food to systems in famine or outbreak respectively. He held the highest ranks with the Federation and Empire as well. Rumors say that he mostly bribed his way through, spent mythical amounts of credits oiling the well greasy machines of the superpowers.

His wingman was the seasoned commander Black Nancy. She was a smart space trader. With more brain than skills, more looks than moves, more guts than guns, had also built a small fortune. One can easily hear her say "The brush of dead cold gold, appease the means".

Nancy checked the ship console, made a grimace, and complained over the intercom to Ykanello: "I am a trader, a smart trader too. What I am doing in this combat ship. I am not feeling comfortable you know".

"It's like being a trader, and being attacked by pirates, except is different". Ykanello could hardly control his giggling.

"You're so helpful sometimes, geez"

"Glad to be of service mum! Seriously though, we do expect contact in this system. I am low on fuel, I assume you're too. I suggest we find this asshole’s escape pod, blow it to pieces, and head home for some fresh Onionhead, refuel and rearm."

"Yes fuel. Pretty please, with sugar on top. I am down to 1/3 by now, why we didn’t put any fuel scoops on our ships? can you remind me?"

"We need to find the escape pod of Mr. Nice Guy. You get to carry the collector limpets. What’s so hard to understand?"

"What’s so hard to understand? I don’t want to fly without fuel scoop!”

"Enough of that, I got a contact! Elite Anaconda 12LS away. I’m going to its six"

"What should I do?"

"Fly casual"

"What the hell do you mean casual? It's not a flight-suit you know, to be a casual or formal. Tell me, what should I do?"

"NavLock me! He will try to interdict me" The two Fer-De-Lance's lined up, the Anaconda snuggled between them and engaged his frame shift drive interdictor...

Mr. Nice Guy had calculated everything. The system response force, the destruction of his ship, . the block that will come and pick the escape pod up, everything. Everything except Black Nancy's Fer-De-Lance, The Raining Blood.

Black Nancy followed the low wake of the Anaconda having successfully won the interdiction. The moment her ship was in normal space (and time), she held the boost button down and maxed out the throttle. The growl of the engines, like the voice of a primordial beast unleashed to a scream, pushed the ship forward in speeds that defy the human physique. That is why the Remlok system injected the body of Black Nancy with stimulants to keep her awake, and alive. The specialized flight suit along with the injected chemicals were keeping Black Nancy very well alive and pumped for the upcoming dogfight.

Not more than 3 meters in front of her cockpit, almost still in space, lay the precious escape pod of Mr. Nice Guy waiting to picked up by the second mastermind in the family of Alueta, Kesslee Shodan, famous pirate. With him was a small flotilla of 7 battle ships, making the detachment a force to be reckon with. Their purpose: locate and collect the escape pod, before paid mercenaries, paid by the local authorities come to destroy once and for good the evil bastard hiding inside.

The noises inside Nancy’s ship forebode any chance of hearing the metallic tick, from an unknown object that collided with her ship. Both made from hardened tantalum, provided the best example to explain an elastic collision in a physics student. Completely unaware she was when, her ship collided on the escape pod of Mr. Nice Guy, continued her flight and deployed her weapons to face the Anaconda.

The forces that developed inside the escape pod, were so immense no drug, no technology could do anything to keep a human alive. Human sort to speak, as this particular human was Mr. Nice Guy. Almost four million Newton forces was applied to his body. The technology of the escape pod was trying to compensate the forces and injected his body with every known chemical. Technology though could never beat nature. The sheer force, liquefied all the bones of Mr. Nice Guy. A fleshy blob, enclosed in air-tight sealed capsule heading with 1600m/s towards the sun. The computerized voice of the escape pod computer announced, to the still living amorphous blob of human DNA, 117 days until heliosphere. Dante's hell was a picnic in the country side compared to the 117-day lifespan of the newly created life form. This human blob was destined to live in an absolute nightmare for 117 days, as his escape pod had begun the 300 or so light second trajectory dive to the G star. In general, the universe was a better place after the confirmation of the fate of Mr. Nice Guy.

The combat was not interesting by comparison to the upcoming future of the escape pod. The two commanders quickly gunned down the Anaconda within seconds. Two robotic salvage collectors were deployed as the two Fer-Der-Lance ships had stopped after the kill to regroup and reorganize. Collecting salvage and searching for the stupid escape pod. Some contacts flickered at the edge of scanners, could have been debris, or a spy.

"We are being followed and I am down to 50% ammo, and 5% fuel. I am bellow bingo-fuel at this point. I need fuel in the next 5 mins, or you will be calling the Fuel Rats for me”, Black Nancy said in haste while controlling the salvage robots.

"All the scratches on your ship have made the red stripes look like is dripping blood. I guess the name you chose fits right in." Both Slayer identified ships, the Raining Blood and the Black Magic.

"There is an outpost with fuel. Caselberg's Exile is called, it is in the system. Once you're done with the salvage, let's go there. I am at bingo as well"

"Rearm, refuel, refresh. I hope they have these rent-a-hot-bath services on the outpost. It's the only good thing about outposts, I can think of"

"Listen to you! Too much imperial ethos has gone to your head... On the minus side, there is no repair nor rearm facilities on the station. Only fuel, but fuel will do for now”. Nancy made a grimace and repeated silently mocking her lead commander "fuel will do for now mmm my golden asp. why we do this if we don't indulge ourselves a bit while we do this? Is not that we need the credits"... She closed the cargo hatch, retracted the hard-points, and charged the Frameshift drive. "Let's see what a dump of a Station is this one" she said in disgust.

The moment the two FDL's entered supercruise, a message appeared at their panels. It made not much sense: The hornet has reach the nest, they stole the egg. "I think we're followed" Ykanello said coldly. Black Nancy rolled her eyes and mumbled few words. "I wish is only your paranoia this time". It was easy to see she was nervous. "I am a god damn trader not a mercenary. How did I end up making killing my business"

"I am not paranoid. I am right. Check your scanners. I see two boogies, approaching from the back. If I was to bet, I would say we got two bandits in our six, and they want to split us, and attack us separately" the voice comms blared.

Nancy instinctively look at the speaker annoyed. "OK I will fight my enemy" and tightened her grip on the controls even further.

"That is not what I meant!" The voice came so loud, that it distorted as it played back in Nancy's ship. "We stick together, we form one line. Our power is our wing, not each individual ship. Stick your nose on my six, commander. If they interdict you, you fight it. If they pull us out, we'll be together. Now focus!"


The Remlok was working overtime to keep Nancy's body cool under this pressure. Her eyes focused on the scanner and on the ever so closing outpost. She counted with her breath, 15 seconds, 14 seconds, "Interdiction!" she yelled.

The big circle appeared in front of her mask which automatically closed, as it always does in cases of emergency. She eased up the throttle, bringing it to the sweet spot. She let the Fer-Der-Lance dance at her fingertips. She seemed to anticipate each move of the opponent; with impressive skills she quickly dodged the first attacker. "What was it? Did you see?" Ykanello asked as he turned his FDL to circle the outpost and plot a new route since they overshot their exit.

Nancy quite stressed, answered mechanically, "It was same as us, a Fer-Der-Lance I think. Did not check the rank though"

"It's alright. They will come for me now” and the moment he finished the sentence, interdiction begun. “Interdicted!" he yelled.

"I will follow you, but I need fuel soon!" said Nancy, slowing down even more. She had to stay within distance to follow them up in case of a successful interdiction.

"No need for that now. Go to the outpost and refuel as fast as possible. I will delay these two as much as I can. Go now!" and the FDL turned in the black, like magic.

Nancy had refueled and undocked. She was pulling away from the outpost in hurry when a white lighting sprang in front of her cockpit. A black Fer-Der-Lance with the white letters Black Magic on the side came into view. "I am off to refuel and we're off. I am afraid we are being chased for good now. Maybe we should move closer to home before hell breaks loose". The Black Magic boosted towards the outpost.

"What happened out there? Did you get to fight them?" Now her voice was crackling under the pressure.

"Nothing of that kind, we did not exchange fire, not even words or looks. Its calm before the storm"

"You speak in riddles old man" she whispered as she turned the range of her scanners to max. "you surely speak in riddles"

After both ships refueled, departed the outpost. Flying in formation they faced towards Daesitiates K yellow-orange star which was visible at the distance of 8 light years. While both ships still mass locked, an emergency broadcast was relayed.

"This is Warm Donuts, System Authority vessel in pursuit of Criminal Kesslee Shodan! Requesting backup. Please respond!"

"I know of this criminal! There is lore behind that name you know?" The name surprised Ykanello apparently. Nancy was not amused.

"How come you know of all low lifes, all criminals in the world? this is beyond me" said Nancy and charged her frame shift drive.

"Well, have you heard of the tale behind Mr. Nice Guy?"

"Of course, I have, who has been to Sanuma's market to buy decorative meat and has not heard of that story?"

"Kesslee Shodan been said he is taking care of Mr. Nice Guy's fortune. He is the new criminal Czar in the area. Or so they say, he really does not play nice, please promise you'll be extra careful? Our lives can turn to the worse and even worse, very soon around Kesslee.... wait what?"

"Oopsie! i guess is supercruise first!" Nancy mistakenly had jump to supercruise instead of a high wake. Her fellow commander quickly cancelled his high jump and joined her ship in supercruise.

"Be careful before we jump! Everyone knows we're here now."
The scanners of both the ships light up like Christmas lights. Signal source of combat appeared right in front of the two ships, accompanied by cries on the voice comms. "I am under heavy fire, Pan Pan, Pan Pan, Authority vessel in distress! Help!" Nancy's eyes were wide open. She could not grasp the drama happening in front of her eyes. Without thinking she locked on the signal source. Did not pay attention to the scanner. Threat level 5. She did not pay attention to the screams from her wingman. She entered the zone and safe disengaged her FSD. The combat vessel entered normal space. Immediately surrounded by a number of vessels. “Return the pod now or die!” an electronically distorted voice was heard on the comms. “You have three seconds to comply!”

"I think it was trap...." Nancy managed to say. Three seconds later, a salvo from all the surrounding ships was aimed at her fully engineered ship. The space crackled and Black Magic appeared as well. The sound was deafening inside the bridge. Shells, lasers, cannons all exploding on the fast collapsing shields of her ship. The computer started reporting attacks, disruptions, malfunctions.

"Yan? some help?" Her trembling voice was covered with stress, fear, and desperation. The Black Magic entered space like Deus Ex Machina. The huge healing beam blaring from under the dark nose of the ship, recharging Nancy's shields. Both vessels boosted away from the swarm of enemies. Their modified grade 5 dirty drives were working overtime, but the work paid off.

"It was a trap, we fell into. They won the first round Nancy. "

"Hear me, Alala,” she said out loud, reciting the words of the ancient Athenian hoplites before the battle, “daughter of Ares, prelude of the spears, you to whom men fall as offerings for their homeland in death’s holy sacrifice” and deployed her weapons.

“First we take out their leader. Then we’ll deal with the rest of the scum”

If someone was observing the battle from distance, could have easily mistaken the dogfight with some form of dance. The sounds, the maneuvers, the lightshow with all the weapons. A divine, deadly ballroom, in a blitz. This person would be able to see a man at the back, as a matter of fact, his eyes red as the sun, and a girl in the corner, let no one ignore her, ‘cause she thinks she’s the passionate one. Oh yeah, it was like lightning, everybody was fighting, and the shooting was soothing, and they all started moving…. And the man in the back said ‘Everyone attack!’ and it turned into a Ballroom Blitz. And the girl in the corner said, ‘Boy, I warn ya’, it’ll turn into a Ballroom Blitz.

“Yan, don’t let them take me alive, would you?” Nancy was breaking down by now. They were surrounded by four Fer-Der-Lances, two Vultures, a combat Asp Explorer and a Federal Corvette. Eight assassins against two Fer-Der-Lance's. "I don't want to become a slave, please make sure I am dead" said on a low tone.

"No one is getting captured. Noone is dying tonight. Except for them. They have to kill me multiple times before I let them live.” He was a veteran. He had seen more battles than explorers have seen stars. His blood could cool the ship down. He had seen so much death, destruction and chaos, that nothing could scare him. Only piss him off, and pissed off he was. His eyes blood red like the devils

“First things first. Please, no stress; we got this. Trust me. You gotta stay focused and listen to me all the time. We’ll be fine, I promise. Now, I will boost past you. Aim at my ship and keep recharging my shields. I will attack the Corvette, while you keep my shields up. Let’s go, all pips to systems, and 2 to weapons. Go! Go! GO!”

The Black Magic boosted leaving blue engine trails behind it, with the Raining Blood followed behind with green engine trails. Locked on the Corvette, both ships got so close to the enemy megaship, one could smell the fear of the Corvette crew through its vents. Full blasts of the four double shot fragment cannons, and simultaneous continuous beam laser, hammered the Corvette. The rest of the pirates were struggling to get actual hits on Nancy or Ykanello. Having their ships so close to the deadly behemoth, meant the pirates could not shoot at will, risking of hitting their leader’s ship. Not that the two commanders let things in luck. Constant lateral and vertical movement, spraying lead and laser fire all over the Core Dynamics haul at the same time. Enemy shields below 30%!

At that point, criminal mastermind Kesslee Shodan, started using his shield cell banks, one after the other. "Switch! Switch!" said swiftly Ykanello via the intercom. Nancy has been listening and acted upon instinct, on the commands of Ykanello, as had lost contact with the world. She was so focused to combat, she had lost count of the enemy ships, had no idea that her shields were almost gone. Relentless fire from the remaining seven ships was dancing between her shields and Ykanello's shields few meters away. Now it was her turn to attack the Corvette, only with the Beam laser Ykanello ordered her, and she complied. Not sure why, but she did. Her Raining blood was now increasing its shield strength, as Ykanello slipped behind her ship, and used his beam to recharge her shields, and setting himself up as target practice for the rest of the villain group.

The criminals flying in theFer-Der-Lances tried their huge plasma accelerators. One of the four landed on Ykanello, one of the four landed on Black Nancy, and the rest of the two landed on the Corvette. Their defensive offence, was working fine. Both commander ships had extra defenses for laser fire. Their modified shield generator had extra resistances for laser, so the concentrated laser fire, was mostly harmless. Some of the laser cannons had been overly engineered, causing hull damage even with full shields. The battle was intense and the deafening noises inside the cockpits were adding a new element of fear in the whole drama of the battle.

"Switch! switch!" The order came again. The Corvette showed no signs of hull damage. The shields again at 80%, still spamming shield cell bank after another. The Black Magic and Raining Blood, were down to one third of their shield strength down to 90% hull health. Although their plan was working, filling up the shields of the other as they took turns at the attack, but their arch-enemy was not losing the shields fast enough. The outcome of the battle surely looked grim for the commanders. Self-destruct? Never! Escape? impossible. No way to hide, fight 'till death! The word slayer echoed loud in all ships. Ykanello had reached his threshold. "All together now! “he screamed at Nancy. “Kill with power! DIE DIE!”

Both FDL's boosted at the same time and flipped turned. Calculated maneuvering brought them again so close to the engines of the Corvette, their cockpits lit up from the colors of the Corvette thrusters. The pounding from the remaining group slowed down again, once they were so close to Kesslee Shodan ‘s ship. The Asp managed to land several railgun hits to both ships. Both shields generators shuddered but never failed. The four fragment cannons peppered the shields, two huge beams of laser, and four overcharged multi-cannons did not miss a single shot. All landed on the diminishing shields of the Elite criminal, then slowly perforated the armored hull of the Corvette. Pieces of tantalum flew in space. Light sources poked their way out of the giant spaceship, from newly formed holes that were not there mere seconds ago.

The scanners notified the commanders that the enemy ship was now at its last legs.

"Boost away” Ykanello ordered again, “turn around and attack that bloody Vulture. Its beam laser is killing me softly. I will end the Corvette."

Black Nancy boosted indeed away. Reach a distance of four kilometers within a second, flipped the FDL around and started an attack on the Vulture. All guns blazing towards the Vulture annoying Ykanello. Inside the Black Magic things were not peachy either. The temperature stuck at 105% , sparkling fires and noise. Modules getting damaged, warnings from all systems. Shield generator struggling to maintain any type of force field now down at 2% shield strength.

"Keep it together a little bit more baby" and Ykanello caressed the vinyl surface of the dashboard. The fragment cannons never stopped firing. Double shot after double shot. Four shots left. Now three. Two. Down to the last.

"Dodge this!" he said and fired his last bucks of the cannons.

"One percent hull left! Mother..."

“What? What?” Nancy questioned over the intercom.

“Drop everything and shoot whatever you have on this mother…”

"Hello boys! I am back!" Nancy laughed out loud at the comms. The unmistaken sound of four multi-cannons, the deep hum of the huge beam laser, all echoed like classical music inside the cockpit of the Raining Blood which boosted towards the Corvette.

Crackling sounds, while small sources of internal fire escaped the armored haul and expanded momentarily in space. A very loud thump silenced all other sounds. The Core Dynamics Federal Corvette was no more. It exploded in spectacular red and white blast sending a plethora of debris, scrap metal and materials into space, marking the spot that the criminal once was. Both the commander ships passed through the flotsam and jetsam, and boosted away, enough for both Ykanello and Nancy to catch a breath.

"I can't believe we killed the Kesslee Shodan! I just can't!" Nancy boosted again. "We killed him, let's get out of here now"

"No" Said Ykanello and only silence came out of the speaker. Just this no.

'What do you mean by no? You have almost no shields, i have almost no shields, you have no ammo, and I am down to 30%. There are four Fer-Der-Lances, two Vultures left, one of them without shields but still, and one Asp. Are you mad?"

She was shaking now. The sweat and the stress of the battle had tired her down, she was cold, shivering, with butterflies in her stomach. That no, was not what she expected nor wanted to hear.

"No. This time is personal. That was a trap. To try to kill me, I understand. Trying to kill you, that is not acceptable. It’s time for a lesson in violence. Time to teach them what is Familicide"

"Fami what?!"

"Familicide. The art to kill a family. The Family of Aleuta in this case. Follow my lead. Stick on my tail. Charge my shields. Once I get their shields down, we switch. I will charge your shields, and you use your multi-cannons to kill 'em all"

"Roger!"

If one could listen to the comm panel during that moment, could have heard a millennium old song, silently sang… Grand canyons of space and time universal, my mind is subject to all! Exploding, reloading, this quest never ending Until I give out my last breath… Fire, roll, boost, crawl Hooks to my brain are well in… Fire, roll, boost, crawl I know what I am, I'm Elite

And so, the systematic annihilation of the Aleuta of Family began. One Fer-Der-Lance after the other, lost its shields, then got drenched by steel rain, then exploded into space. Seven explosions later, the two Slayer type ships turned their thrusters off.

They were in combat for 20 continuous minutes. The physical stress on their bodies from the high G-Force maneuvers was visible. The psychological toll was also great.

Nancy let the straps of the chair loose and let her body float into space. She started crying, then laughed, then cried again. Her little limpet robots were collecting all salvage from the area.

“No sign of that escape pod… I guess it got destroyed during the battle. Is it safe to assume Mr. Nice Guy is stone dead forever?”

“I dunno. I only trust my feelings, I listen to my feelings” Ykanello smirked.

“And what do your feelings say?

“Hear them stalking, soon they’ll please their appetite, they devour. Hammer of Justice crashes Nice Guy, over power, Justice is Served, Justice is done commander Black Nancy”

“Old man that keeps talking in riddles” Nancy murmured. Remnants of a great battle, a battle that will not be taught in schools, will not be written in history books. A battle that has changed the course of evil, a battle that brought back justice to a not so just corner of our universe.

"I will escort your ship to Ellis Gateway. Starstoners will repair it for you and rearm. You can also cash your bounties there. You fought like a lion today Nancy. It is an honor to have flown with you today.

Nancy's cries could be heard over the communication system. She said something, but it was inaudible.

"What did you say? I did not copy that commander" asked Ykanello in a joyful tone.

"I am a bloody trader for frag's sake! I am not supposed to enjoy battles like that, but if you ever need a wing commander Ykanello, I, the Independent combat Master and Entrepreneur trader commander Black Nancy at your service!"

Welcome to 3303 commander. Today we will fly to the Pleiades sector to help with the evacuation of a damaged space port. If you feel dizzy at any time, please gently remove the mask, sit back, and close your eyes.

Our journey to space today starts at the main star called Electra, some 350, odd, light years away from Earth, In the Pleiades sector, of our galaxy, the Milky way. The B Blue-White is a main sequence star; B-type stars are extremely luminous and blue, because of the extreme surface temperature. These stars have from 2 to 16 times, the mass of the Sun, and surface temperatures, between 10,000 and 30,000 degrees Celsius.

This particular one, has 2.66 times the mass of our Sun, and 2.9 times the radius of our Sun, which is an astonishing 2.1 billion kilometres!

It is 644 million years old, which is actually, a new star by comparison, to our own Sun, which is 4.6 billion years old!

The Electra solar system has also 7 planets. Four of those planets have atmosphere and are like Earth high metal content worlds, but also has three planets without any atmosphere.

We are heading towards the Electra 4, the fourth (in order of orbit) planet which has atmosphere. At very high orbit on this planet there is a space station that had some catastrophic failures, and we will dock there, to help evacuate refugees.

If we could land on Electra 4 would we looking at a very strange planet. The average surface temperature is 800 degrees Celsius, the atmospheric pressure is 2.26 atmospheres, and gravity higher than Earth at 1.29 geez. The reason is because it is almost as twice as heavy as the Earth at 1.48 Earth masses. The surface is ridden by volcanic magma, flowing from the surface active volcanoes. The atmosphere is made of sulphur dioxide, which is extremely poisonous for humans, and contains no oxygen. There is also no water on the planet.

Earth is about 500 light seconds away from the Sun. This planet almost twice the distance from star, at 900 light seconds, is so much hotter than earth because the star is so much hotter and bigger.

As we are getting closer you will start seeing the planet and we will make several manoeuvres to enter its orbit and align with the space station there. The station reportedly has been attacked, so the docking will not be easy. At 900 light seconds distance from the star, the fourth planet was able to cool down enough and keep its atmosphere, on contrary with the first three planets that have been cooked to crisp. Its orbit brings it around the star (what we call a year here on Earth), every 565 days, but what we call a day here on earth, its rotational period is only 12 hours. That means it spins much faster around itself, and slower from around the star. Comparing it with the Electra 1, the first planet in this solar system, which orbits at 360 light seconds from the star, and has a day of 3.4 days and a year of 135 days.

We are traveling faster than the speed of light, that is why these distances seem so close. In 2017, unfortunately we do not have frame shift drives, so our interplanetary travels take years, and not mere seconds.

We are approaching the space station Cavaliery. It rotates slowly to create the artificial gravity inside the station. This phenomena is called the Coriolis Effect. Once we enter the station we have to be quick accept the passengers and head out to the the Rescue ship 5 thousand kilometres from Cavalieri.

The voice comm alert startled me. The view was magnificent, I wanted bad to open the SRV door and walk and investigate the mines, but my EliteFit spacesuit was still not ready, “it will be ready Soon TM”the shop owner assured me.

“Shabooka! What a pleasant surprise buddy, how are you?”

“Hello commander; we are doing fine, well not really fine you know. This expansion is taking so much of our energy, there are so many things to take care of, so many things to organize, and you know well, Starstone Enterpise is not known for its organizational competence...”

“Tell me no more my friend, I understand the crazyness you are into. What can I do you for?”

“Well you see, that is why I have called you. Being a bro and all, maybe you can give as hand? Maybe?”

“For sure, count me in. I just need to get back to our new home, and yeah...”

“Why, where you at?”

“You know that Dav’s hope or not hope, not sure what the name is. The old mining thing that sort of collapsed after some weird quakes?”

“Yes I know the place! Been there myself”

“The view of the mountain is breathtaking. Too bad the mountain ate them alive or something”

“That wasn’t the case there”

“There were zombies I think in the caves”

“You’ve been smoking that onionhead again?”

“Never left the docks without any. So what you need to bring?”

“Well, its few things if you don’t mind”

“Oh, will it be like the stories Ascorbius told us of him and Felicity?”

“Not that big of a list, are you writing these down? We need, like 27 tons of fruits and vegetables, we’re starving and the new station is completely empty. We need some food”

“Fruits and veggies. Got it. That's it?”

“We also need tantalum”

“Not to eat I hope”

“Not to eat. Bring some please”

“27 will do?”

“Some more, maybe, actually yes for sure some more, make it at least 50”

“Got you”

“and....”

“and...? “

“We had sent this stupid npc with some data storage and got killed...”

“You want the hard-disks then. Hope they are encrypted”

“Oh yes they are, you’ll see”

“Where was the ship lost you know?”

“Ngandji A5, on the back side of the planet”

"OK, I will get the tantalum from that dock in Ngandji, the fruits from somewhere else, dunno, I’ll check... By the way how soon do you want these stuff?”

“Well the sooner the better, its now the 5th day and we still have not set the office in our new system, let’s get things going.”

“Better late than never, see you in Ellis Gateway dude in like I don’t know... let’s say 1 hour alright?”

“Alright. Fly safe!”

“I’ll fly anyway I can!”

....

Two hours later...

....

“Faulcon DeLacy Yankee Kilo Alpha, Welcome to back to Ellis Gateway”

“Ellis Gate this is commander ykanello, please contact commander Shabooka, Please!”

“I am afraid this is not possible commander. Please dock and then seek the commander you seek within our Coriolis. If you wish to dock, ask for permission first. Loitering is a crime punishable by death”

“Alright, lemmy dock”

“you have to ask nice”

“No I don’t. You did not say you have to ask nicely to dock. you’ve been a douche, I’ll be a douche. And get me a fucking pad to dock now”

“Landing pad 42 is cleared for your arrival. I hope you get tangled in the mailslot and have to shoot you myself to death. Have a nice day asshole”

My voice comms started ringing again...

“What the fuck, who is this?”

“Chill commander. This is Shabooka, I heard you call me”

“I am trying to be calm but dude, first your comms are compromised”

“What?”

“The first jump I did out of the Dav’s false hope thing, I get jumped by a DBX.”

“You escaped...”

“No I died and came back to bitch at you. Of course I escaped. I reached Ellis, took the python and went for your chores. Three god damn elite pythons interdicted me, expert and two dangerous. Killed them all, but what the fuck. Then as I come back, another jocker! This guy was with the DBX. He had me followed here! He’s dead anyways. But what the...”

“Did you get the stuff?”

“Of course, I got the stuff! That is not the point”

“What is your point then?”

“I don't know dude, you could have said that there will be idiots trying to stop me”

“But I did!”

“Where?”

“I sent you a crypto message with the information of what we wanted”

“Dunno, I didn’t see it”

“It’s ok. I know you’re pissed so here’s the deal. Wanna kill someone? Feel a little better...”

“Yes yes yes! Thank you thank you thank you!”

“Ok, ok calm down, there is this dude in HIP 15 something, its near by, I will send you the data, just find him and kill him. He’s in a corvette, can’t miss him.”

“Roger! Ehm, one more thing. I started reading the messages, and apparently a ship I destroyed the other day was like I don’t know, clean? Got a dormant bount, not much like 3k, will pay you double, can you clean it up?”

“Dude, who did you shoot again?”

“Noone who did not deserve it...”

“Will see what I can do. Give me like couple of days”

“Dude no! It will expire in two days, will go to pilots federation and then I have to bribe more people to get it fixed”....