Faux Realm Ch. 10

After he was done His First Officer turned and said, "Do you think they have any weapons?"

"Some. But mostly docking clamps is what makes that ship scary." He started laughing.

"I do not know man, they spent quite a few weeks back on Grimova." Amon replied.

Yim nodded, "Yes apparently our target got his ass beat by his woman."

The bridge erupted in laughter. "Holy shit this is going to be easy." Amon said.

"Considering they only have 10 people on board, this is truly going to be the easiest job out there." Yim said.

He then rose from his chair and started to walk towards the crystal screen on a far side wall he then menacingly spat his words, "Considering they took my brother away from me, I'll take my time killing them."

"Captain." His navigator's voice woke him from his hateful ramblings.

"Yes." He said in a low voice.

"Their ship increased speed. They will be here in few minutes." Navigator said.

Both Yim and Amon gazed at one another. "Why would they do that? Are our generators functioning correctly?" Yim asked.

"Yes. There was a small burst of energy, but I think it went undetected." Amon said.

"Just old generator parts on our ships acting weirdly." He explained.

Yim flicked a button and the screen changed, the new picture revealed what was outside of the ship revealing his two generator vessels providing the necessary energy to Cloaking device that stood in the middle of a large circle. These two ships were old and out of commission, too old to repair or refurnish, so he was given an idea to repurpose them as a flying generators. Which he gladly did. Making these sorts of traps relatively easy to set. But the ships needed to be towed by a towing boat. All for this one ship he had to dig deep into his resource belt and bring out all 5 of his ships. Considering the meager rewards it was barely worth it, but for his brothers vengeance Yim gladly did so.

"Good." Sinister smile on his face revealed the amount of hatred he felt.

They waited few agonizing minutes for the ship to appear. Not realizing that they themselves have been watched.

***

Lineas sat in his chair. A woman was commanded by one of his staff, as they did so she quickly fell on her knees, patiently waiting, he did not glance at her, sparing not even a second thought about her condition. Lineas was a busy man, as he waited so many weeks for this to happen, for the pieces to finally fit in place, he was not about to miss one moment of this confrontation. Not even for a gift that was this delicious.

The woman watched him, she looked stranded, as she was looking at something much further away. Dressed in skimpy clothing, erotic nature of her naked body left everyone breathless. Patiently waiting as she was told, her sensual demeanor attracted everyone's gazes, her back was straight, and her breasts moved with her every breath.

She had big oval eyes, dark blue skin and a tail which swung around enticingly. Her long silky hair dropped down to her ass, while she knelt, some strands of her wavy hair easily brushed over the carpet. People in the room kept looking in awe as her hair had different colors running through her head. From different angles it looked like the color of her hair was slowly changing. Everyone's breath was taken by this alluring beauty. Several men and women stood silently around the room tending to their masters wishes. But her scent and allure left them aroused. Men and women.

Lineas was accustomed seeing wide variety of women, seemingly looking bored, he dropped his pants and said, "Suck me off while I watch this."

She approached fast on her knees, scooting closer she took his erection in her mouth and started to slowly lick and suck, she was trained to moan while pleasing her masters, so every time she took his rod in her mouth she would release a moan as if on que. She looked as she was worshiping the appendage, but on closer look she seemed lost. Something drew her attention elsewhere.

Men in the room started losing their minds, closing their eyes they imagined themselves on that receiving end. Some even wanted to move to appease their fiery desires. However they knew better than to approach Lineas Loog un-invited. If they did so he would mercilessly execute them on the spot.

Lineas grinned as he felt her lips trail little kisses around the head of his penis. Quiet moan escaped his lips. Waiting with baited breath for the show to begin.

***

'One For All' dropped to Normal space without much noise. Everyone around its bridge waited for the show to begin, however they knew what their plan really was; act like they did not know there was a trap somewhere inside this system. They did just that, at Ericha's command the ship started to move in a particular pattern experienced pilots knew that they were here just to explore. Using the space between themselves and where the battle was about to begin, they stopped as if they were scanning the relevant areas. They did this three times. After all they were here just to explore. Nothing else.

Everyone was on edge as they did not want this to fail. Ericha was in a similar situations across many battlefields, so she knew what their concerned faces meant. She used her voice to calm their fried nerves.

"Easy. We act when we're near them." Ericha's kind voice reached every ear making the people who heard it wrestle with their fears and forcibly take its rains while they focused on task at hand.

Lindsay and Liza sat at their consoles around the crystalline screen now looked as if they had a different goal. They took their time while doing their tasks at hand. Two women breaths came easier and their minds got clearer.

"What about Lucian's plan? Are we going to go with it?" Liza asked.

"He'll be here in a moments so he'll tell us himself." Lindsay responded while she flew their ship.

She punched few coordinates in space that she knew would leave any prying eye feeling comfortable about the actions that they did, as per Ericha's instructions the ships' fore arc was kept pointing toward the space where they expected them to be, nothing seemed unusual.

Lucian strolled into bridge while carrying his Pad strumming his fingers while looking at the big crystal screen in the middle, "It seems so - empty." He said.

"Yes that is the point of using cloaking device. Everything might seem normal, however behind that veneer are things that are best left alone. Sometimes." Ericha said.

"But they are there, watching our every move." She commented quietly.

"You think we'll have enough firepower?" Lucian asked.

All 3 women laughed. They left Ericha to respond, "Do not worry your pretty little head about that, I want you to use that plan of yours when the time is right. Let us show you what this baby can do."

As they talked sensors started to detect something in the vicinity leaving Ericha to take control of the coming situation, "Full stop."

"Yes Ma'am." Lindsay responded smiling.

"Quite strange that we'd detect them even while Cloaked." Lucian observed.

"Not really. Cloaking can conceal any structure if it has enough power, if you probe it with a strong enough scan it can reveal where the area actually is, however there are only few ship classes that can do that." Ericha explained.

"Science or 'Sci' boats can do it from larger distances but they have less armaments to compensate for their ship's nature. Usually they are accompanied by other ship classes to defend them while they do their stuff." Liza said while her console started bringing in necessary data.

Several pictures revealed an unassuming area that hid danger in front of their eyes. They all had their own assumptions on what was in front of them, however they knew, whatever it was, and they would fight it to bitter end.

It was about time to take their fates in their hands.

"On my mark; fire all weapons." Ericha's sinister voice left Lucian reeling in shock.

He'd never saw her in this state. It was as if her persona changed and she donned a different mask ready to do anything. Tense seconds passed as Lucian saw this woman change in front of his eyes.

"NOW." She yelled.

***

"What are they doing now?" Amon asked.

After the smaller ship weaved through the area, seemingly inspecting the zone they currently flew through, it came to a full stop just in front of the effective range of their Cloaking device. What was stranger; the ship stood there motionlessly for few minutes before Yim started to bark orders. Something was strange. His old instinct was never wrong and this time his sense of danger was alarmingly high.

"Start moving our ship." Silently he said to his navigator.

"Bring us to far side of this area. We will wait there." Yim said.

Amon looked at his captain and started asking, "What are you doing? They are right there."

"Shut up!" Yim barked, he felt the hairs on his skin stand up, that alone rarely happened.

Amon immediately bit his tongue seeing his captain rage flare up, he never saw him in this state, on edge. Yim usually had a calm demeanor, even if he was a bit insane from time to time, Amon knew his captain was one of the rare ones that could take command of any situation. Strive for that end goal.

The ship slowly banked starboard, drifting to its new location, all the while their sensors focused on the smaller ship and their weapons primed and ready for whatever Captain Yim had in mind. Uneasiness spread quickly across his crew and they slowly started to lose focus while they expected something.

They reached their destination and made their ship face the smaller one, while they did that, everything erupted in balls of explosions.

Smaller ship started firing from every pore on its small structure and while they were still maneuvering their own ship to face the smaller one. They saw their cloaking device get hammered by thousands of pellets.

"SHEILDS UP!" Yim started yelling.

"NOW! SHEILDS UP! NOW!" Amon reacted similarly after he saw the amount of damage first salvo of gun fire did to their device and surrounding ship support.

As other ships were in its vicinity they also took severe damage by just explosions shrapnel that bounced off while the device exploded. Effective range of their weapons was astounding. Yim glared at the tiny ship, fuming with rage.

Some of the junior members of his crew did not know what was happening as they reacted quite poorly to his commands. They moved but not fast enough. While he was screaming orders. They were mesmerized by the smaller ship's actions. It stood still, yet while the tiny ship did that it kept firing its second salvo of gunfire which slowly spread carnage in its wake.

Their ship started to get hammered by rippling explosions that shook every one of its members. They were suddenly afraid not knowing what was going to happen, some of the members of this elite pirate crew started to run towards the exit. Screaming for their safety they started escaping towards hangar and escape pods.

Almost immediately Amon reached to his holstered gun and executed 5 members of his crew almost without mercy, as some of these men were good friends of his, but orders were orders. Cowardice on this ship was treated quite harshly.

"Where is your honor?" Amon barked.

Few men wondered what where was honor in a job such as this, ambushing ships and taking away people from their homes and loved ones. All for profit. Everyone smiled at the gut wrenching irony.

While he shot every one of the young men in the back the rest of Yim's crew worked as if nothing was happening. Some of these people had friends among the executed ones, but they knew life of a pirate was riddled with dangers.

"Full power to engines." Solemnly Yim said as he knew what just happened.

They were beaten by their naivety.

"Evasive maneuvers." Yim said.

"Engines are down!" A man behind one of the consoles said.

"Well get them up." Yim barked while scowling at the tiny ship.

"Cloaking device is down, Captain." Amon said while working the consoles that suddenly became free.

"Call replacements for the consoles. Prepare weapons." Yim said as if nothing was happening. He had mass behind him. His ship was big and beefy, nothing that ship throws at him would damage him, probably.

Amon had to work few of the consoles alone, his fingers strumming through several affected systems. Damage seemed minor, but while he did that he noticed he was slowly losing control of several systems. Minor things started shutting down. Damage to the ship must be extensive. He opted to call down to engineering to see it everything was all right.

While he did that Yim was still barking orders to what few men he still had, while others were on their way he was resolved to push through this low point of his plan.

"Engineering; this is bridge." Amon said to his coms.

"Yes. Sir is everything all right?" A voice said through the link.

"We got hammered a bit. What is the situation with the ship? I'm losing some of the systems." Amon asked while before his eyes some of the systems controls started disappearing.

"Everything in tip top form sir." The voice sounded smiling, like there was nothing to worry about. "We've just received some residual damage from their guns." Voice said.

"It's still happening!" Amon exclaimed.

By now whatever damage was received to their ship just knocked their engines offline. Bridge erupted in buzz of energy. "We've lost engines and weapons."

"WHAT?! HOW?!" Yim screamed while running toward the console that was just manned. The young officer behind it winced when he saw his captain move.

The confusion was palpable. Everyone was looking for someone to direct them through this exceedingly damaging development.

Amon was flabbergasted, "Engines and weapons are offline. What are you doing down there?!" He almost screamed.

Yim started to approach Amon, he saw Yim's look and was, for a second, afraid for his life. Yim was furious inside and while everyone managed not to see his rage, Amon saw it almost instantly. He managed to deflect some of the ire by screaming into the link, "If you do not get them up in 10 seconds I'll come down there personally and execute you for dereliction of duty."

"But sir everything is working fine from here." Voice begged across the link.

Yim spoke up quietly through their link, "Tell me then. How do you explain this?" His voice was shaking with rage.

Yim waited for his answer, but all he could hear was breathing across their established link. There was several seconds of tense silence when he could hear the voice of a man saying, "We can't explain it sir. I'm sorry. Do what you need to do."

Amon winced. His back was turned, so he could not see Yim's expression, but he could almost picture it vividly, twisted mask of rage. He almost jumped out of his seat when he heard Yim's soft shaky voice, "Go down and put a bullet in their heads."

"But who will -?" Amon started to say, but was abruptly interrupted by screaming Yim.

"EXECUTE THEM ALL!" Yim waved his arms as if trying to make Amon move faster.

Amon did, he started to run as if, no, his life WAS depended on it. He ran towards the EV lifts. Marveling for a second at their expensive nature. He was almost happy when a soft woman's purr welcomed him. He was smiling broadly by the end of the ride.

He entered engineering and saw 5 men lined up. He walked to them and saw their determined gaze. "Sir we are here for execution." One of the 5 men said.

Every one of them was old, experienced engineer that knew everything about their craft. Ship always ran in top condition and Amon was sad a bit until he remembered that it could easily be him on that receiving end. It was such a shame. "I'm sorry, but orders are orders."

Deep down inside he was not sorry, he was actually glad, something that one of the men noticed and pointed at, "You are glad it's not you. We understand."

For the second time that day he un-holstered his semi-automatic. "I'll make this as painless as possible."

Still Amon was reluctant, something deep down inside was fighting this order. He knew this was how things worked here, however to send these men to the Nether was something that was troubling him, how strange.

Lifting his arm and cocking his gun, he pointed the barrel of the pistol to first engineer and pulled the trigger. Gut-wrenching sound of exploding flesh intruded into his ears. He could see and hear the splatter of blood that pushed through the newly acquired hole in the back of this man's head. There was no pause, there was no contemplation on whether this was right or wrong. He just moved from one person to the other repeating the action.

By the end of it every last one of the dead men's faces were integrated into his consciousness. Their faces never wavered, even while their comrades bodies dropped down with a loud *thud* sound. A sickening feeling washed over his body. The last man's face was, again, strangely calm. He looked at Amon with reverence and that unnerved the First officer greatly.

He did not remember pulling the trigger, but his body slumped down and lied sprawled next to his comrades.

Amon holstered his weapon. Looked at his work and quickly moved towards several panels and consoles. Low pitched sounds of pressed buttons echoed through engineering. His fingers worked for several moments. At the end of it he was sick. Amon checked and re-checked his findings, but everything checked out.

They were telling the truth. Everything worked fine.

He screamed. His anger flared up, at his cowardice, negligent behavior, but mostly his anger was directed towards the man that ordered this atrocity to be committed.

Amon again for the third time un-holstered his weapon and started walking slowly. His steps reverberated through the interior. He was determined to execute that son of a bitch.

He did not remember reaching and riding the elevator. But suddenly his target was in front of him, Yim barked orders while sinisterly laughing. Divine help him, how he hated that contemptuous laugh.

"You done down there?" Yim was smirking while he asked Amon.

IT was nonsensical to argue but Amon was inwardly almost belligerent, "It's done." He managed to squeeze out while anger boiled inside him.

"Good, good." A sinister look appeared on his face.

"Did you repair our engines, we managed to get weapons back. However they seem to be ineffective." Yim said slowly.

Amon's face was now in a mix of emotions. "No everything worked fine." He explained.

He watched the screen and the tiny ship was no longer in the same spot, but was moving through the area with great speed. The ship's mass and swiftness prevented the ship's weapons from locking on and hitting their target. Their weapons couldn't hit it at all and were missing wildly. Yim was smiling however.

"We managed to hit them once. Probably did some damage, since then they haven't stopped moving erratically since then." His grin showed pure delight at those words.

"Only a matter of time. We have plenty of energy." Yim said.

Amon saw the wreckage that surrounded the combat area, laser shots again missed their target and he was thinking it was enough of this game. He started to think that they are being toyed with, but thought nothing further about it.

Big pieces of jagged metal, seared and melted in some areas, floated through space. He could clearly see that there was some life left in these husks of metal, but until they could resolve this situation they weren't going to help their comrades. Amon wondered how long did they have until their last breath?

Yim and the rest of the crew seemed to look elated and some of them cheered whenever the laser missed. But Amon knew that was not the point.