G-Pol Ch. 12

"Roger that Karl." Natasha replied over the com, "We're already on our way back. We should be there in less than a minute. Be careful, okay?"

Karl left the pilot where he'd secured him while he rushed down to the cargo bay to find the belly gunner where he'd expected, right at the bottom of the stairs "hey whoever that is, what's up? Why're we sitting still?" he wasn't armored either so Karl nailed him the same way he had the other gunner. This one was armed and carrying a canister of release agent, along with a foam gun. That made it pretty clear what this ship usually did. This guy wouldn't need a foam gun if they didn't have prisoners. He disarmed the man and foamed him in place with his own gun before he made a more thorough search of the rest of the ship. He figured that was the entire crew since he'd gotten five with that grenade, the captain, the pilot in the cockpit, and the two gunners. Still, it paid to be careful as Natasha had said, so he carefully searched the entire ship from spine to cargo bay.

What he found in the cargo bay disgusted him. There were a full dozen prisoners onboard, all but two of them women, all young and all attractive. Each was locked in a cell little bigger than a small walk-in closet. All were naked and all had obviously been sexually abused, even the males.

There were twenty cells all together with the rest of the bay apparently set up to carry valuable cargo stolen from their victims. Inspecting one of the empty cells he found they were very solidly built of reinforced heavy gauge sheet steel and had a portable chemical toilet glued to the deck and wall of each that was set up to be serviced from outside in the bay. That made deciding what to do with the crew until they got them to the station easy. He opened another channel to Czarina and piped his vid images through to a separate recording circuit so that this could be saved as evidence against the pirates for their days in court. And since this was a G-Pol mission, they would be facing a G-Pol court. That in addition to whatever charges they might face from Aphrodition law. This was their space after all.

The bay was a treasure trove of valuables of all kinds, from personal electronics, artwork to fine clothes to jewelry and liquors. He wasn't in the least surprised to see a large walk-in freezer and refrigerator to each side of the bay where he guessed he would find the fine foodstuffs stolen from the pirated vessels as well. The biggest surprise though was the weaponry! The most valuable single piece of which was the suit of Asperian Marine spacial power armor, very similar to his new heavier suit back on the Czarina! He was damn glad they hadn't intended to capture Czarina. If they had, he'd probably have had to face this thing in a power armor duel. It was clearly much better armed and armored than his current suit and undoubtedly carried a heavier force shield. A fight against this thing might not've gone the way he'd have liked in his personal suit. That was the business though and he'd been lucky this time.

There were also enough enhanced body armor suits onboard for the entire crew. This would make the pirates more than a match for anybody they might usually come across on a civilian ship. Inside a heavily grated locker near the hold door was a variety of weapons and power cells, all neatly wracked and secured. This cargo bay also obviously served as the ship's armory, with the weapons tauntingly out of any escaped prisoner's reach.

These guys were obviously slavers too. They had large amounts of equipment meant for the live capture of hostages and restraining prisoners. Most of that was also locked in with the weapons and for the same reasons. Speaking of prisoners, he began opening prisoner cells with the intention of releasing those held inside, planning on quickly assessing each one as she came out to be sure there weren't any potentially dangerous physical injuries. As he was opening the first cell though, he turned off his stealth system and clarified his silvered visor so his face could be seen. He was also glad his flat black finish was so different from the garish paint scheme the pirate had chosen. That would distinguish him from the pirates.

The woman inside the cell looked up at him in absolute terror as the door opened. She cringed back into the corner and stared up at him in hopeless resignation. "I'm Lieutenant Karl Steiner with G-Pol and CAF special forces. We've taken this ship and the pirates are all in custody. You're safe now."

She looked up at him in stunned disbelief. "Safe? I'll never feel safe again." When Karl stepped back and away from the door, she slowly got to her feet and tentatively stepped outside. When she saw the power armor standing in its place against the wall, she cowered away from it. "Oh God no!"

"It's empty." Karl reassured her. He walked up to the suit and pressed its crew entry control. As he'd expected, the armor's security system apparently wasn't enabled and it opened right up. Though that was a bit of a surprise once he thought about it. Then he realized that a suit of power armor could make an excellent trap for an escapee too. If it were set properly, the armor could lock an attempted thief inside and prevent them moving any farther. So could the enhanced suits for that matter. There was no need to lock them from entry in that case. They were a second layer of defense. He was glad those pirates had been so confident, to the point of arrogance in fact. If they'd been properly trained and disciplined, they'd have been properly armed and armored and met him with overwhelming force when he attacked the way he had. This was bad news. These guys were getting more and more militant and that was disturbing. He hoped this wasn't reflecting a new trend. Hopefully, these guys were an exception to the usual rule.

The woman seemingly less afraid approached the suit and looked inside. "I wouldn't suggest getting inside there." Karl told her, "My guess is its set up to trap anyone who tries without the proper security code. If you get in, we'll probably have to cut you free to get you out. It'll lock up on you and you won't be able to move."

The woman nodded. "Okay, I'll take your word for it."

Just then, Natasha's voice came over the com. "Hey Karl, we're coming aboard now." he heard the airlock tunnel secure itself to the shuttle's airlock and seal. The woman looked up frightened again and Karl put on his loudspeaker so she could hear Natasha. Okay, airlock's open. Where are you?"

"In the cargo bay releasing prisoners." Karl responded. These guys were slavers and they had a full dozen on board already. Can you send Vixi down? These women and two men have all been raped and otherwise abused. I'm just glad there weren't any children among them. Otherwise our prisoners wouldn't have made it to trial."

Vixi came charging in at a full run right then. Her enhanced armor in its G-Pol paint scheme immediately reassured the still naked woman and she collapsed into Vixi's arms as soon as she reached her. Karl moved toward the next cell and cut away the padlock holding the bar that secured it. When he opened the cell, the woman inside threw herself into his arms crying. She was so grateful for her rescue she didn't even think about the armor separating her from her savior and didn't care at its cold touch against her bare skin. Karl was doing his best to see if she was injured in any way and he could see numerous bruises, but he couldn't get a clear picture because of the way she clung to him.

Bona was the next to appear and she came right up to Karl, relaying what she saw to him. The woman had been used hard and apparently beaten severely. They'd been careful about her face though. While it was lightly bruised in what Karl had to assume was a pattern that would probably have been left by openhanded blows, there was little to no swelling and no signs of bleeding. Her grip on him was surprisingly strong too. He didn't want to try to force her to let him go though. It would be easy to accidentally injure her with this armor. "I've got her Karl." Bona assured him as she reached up and gently tapped the woman's hip. "Come with me honey. My name is Bona and I'm also with G-Pol. I'm also an Enclave Killhound, so you don't have any reason to be afraid of me. Come on honey, you need to let Karl go so he can let the others out too."

Lisa was the next to come on the com. "I've got control of the ship in the cockpit. From what I can tell, these guys are out here alone. I'm not sure why they're alone this far out though unless there's a base we don't know about in the region. I'll start checking what's on their coms and nav systems to see what I can find and I'll let you guys know."

Natasha had elected to stay aboard Czarina and send over Vixi Bona and Lisa to secure the ship. Vixi and Lisa would be the ones to fly the ship back to the station when the time came. She was suddenly realizing they needed at least two more crew. Three or four might be better. So far, eight on board hadn't been too hard to handle, though at times she did miss being able to be completely alone on board, with the exception of Bona of course. Still, having that many people around all the time would take some getting used to. She didn't like having her entire crew off the ship when they weren't sure this pirate didn't have friends in the area. That was why she was still here, and it was why she would be moving Czarina away from the pirate ship so she could fight if anyone unfriendly showed up. It would give her friends time to get the other ship into the action as well if needed.

As soon as the airlock sealed signal came, she separated the airlock tunnel and pulled Czarina away from the pirate ship. Now she had the time to look the ship over, she saw it was slightly smaller than Czarina, about the same length, but with one less deck and much less internal volume. Her computer identified it as a transit capable Triple S model passenger and cargo shuttle. A type often used as interplanetary passenger and light cargo transports. This one had probably started life as a cargo model from its single airlock and the presence of the cargo bay door. It had of course been heavily modified with welded on armor, its weaponry and the increased power output for its improved force shield. There hadn't been enough time or opportunity to find out if any of its other capabilities had been altered and it really didn't matter unless they got into another fight.

Lisa came back on the com with good news. "Well, we don't have to worry about any new friends showing up. These guys had just finished a raid and had come out here to let things cool off. They got here just as we were finishing our turn to start the run. They spotted us and saw who we were and jumped at the chance at a hundred-thousand-credit bounty. They didn't call anyone before they jumped so no one knows even where they went after their attack. We got 'em fair and square and they don't have any help coming."

Natasha let out a sigh of relief. "Thanks Lisa, I really needed to hear that. I hate sitting over here all alone and wondering if you guys are okay, or if we're gonna be attacked out of nowhere while we're separated like this."

"I know what you mean." Lisa replied, "I was getting pretty antsy when it was just Karl out here on his own. I couldn't imagine thinking Vixi was out here like that with potential pirates in the area. I'd be tearing my hair out! So why don't you come over here and dock up and help me secure these assholes while Karl, Vixi and Bona take care of releasing the prisoners and getting them taken care of."

"Roger that Lisa, I'm on my way." Natasha replied happily.

"Can we do anything to help?" Janice asked from the bridge hatch, "Did Karl really say they'd raped a dozen men and women?"

Natasha nodded grimly. "Yeah, it's common practice for slavers. They're the worst kind of animals in my book. They're all gonna be seriously traumatized by what's happened to them. Are you guys sure you wanna deal with that?"

"Definitely." Mike replied, "We wanna do whatever we can for them. Even if it's just a shoulder to cry on."

Natasha got the Czarina docked again and all three of them hurried aboard. Lisa was waiting for them at the airlock. Now the restraint foam had completely set, there was no longer any need to worry about it capturing any of them, so they pushed past the captured pirates. Several of them growled abuse at them as they passed, making threats and offering lewd suggestions. They did the only thing they could and ignored the vile mouthings. Lisa led Mike and Janice to the hold where Karl and the others were still working on releasing prisoners. Not all of them had been as cooperative as the first two, especially toward Karl who wasn't currently wearing G-Pol colors.

Karl was negotiating with one of the male prisoners who was still locked inside his cell, while Vixi and Bona were treating three of the women they had released by this time. Fortunately, all the body armor they'd bought had also been painted in G-Pol colors, so Mike and Janice looked like officers to these civilians. When he heard them come in, he turned around to address Natasha. "Captain," he began letting her know this was an official occasion, "I think we need to get those pirates secured in the empty cells as soon as possible. Some of our new friends are itching for a little revenge. That's why we haven't gotten more of them out of their cells yet."

"Yes Lieutenant I see." She replied, "I think you're right. And I hope seeing them in their own cells will reassure our new friends that we're serious about punishing these Cretans."

"Yes Captain exactly what I was thinking." Karl replied, "If someone could check the guy at the bottom of the stairs there and if he doesn't have them the captain for the keys to these cells. I think cutting them all open is going to leave us short a cell for the crew."

"Just save the cost of the trial and execute those assholes!" the man in his cell yelled at the top of his lungs." They raped my mother before they murdered her. They shot my father as soon as they saw him. My baby sister is only sixteen and what they did to her..." he finally broke down, sobbing bitterly.

"They're going to trial on Luna, in a G-Pol court." Karl reassured, "g-Pol courts are a lot less lenient than Aphroditian courts."

Mike appeared with the keys and tested them on the cell next door to this one. The man in front of Karl came alive instantly and rushed the door to look out and try to see what was happening. "That's my sister. Who's going in there?"

Stand back Mike. Vixi warned, "She's probably gonna be a bit man-shy for a while."

Suddenly the little woman came fully erect and pointed with a vengeful snarl on her face. "That's one of them! He's one of the ones who raped me!"

"Don't worry honey," Vixi reassured, "He's going into one of his own cells and he's gonna stay there until we get him to the station. From there it's a short hop to Luna and a very uncomfortable interrogation followed by a very long stay in a small cell. Being that he's a pirate, a rapist and probably a murderer, he's probably going to Timian which will make his cell here and on Luna look like a resort vacation on Aphrodite. After what happened in sol system last year, pirates are not at all popular in any court out there." The girl's vicious smile told her the reassurance had done its job. She'd deliberately spoken loudly enough that the pirate couldn't miss hearing her, and she was happy to see him go pail at her words. She hoped this was the least of what happened to that monster.

"That will be the least of it." Natasha assured following her lead, from what I'm getting from these people, these guys are in for hell. Each and every one of them is probably headed for Timian for life, without chance for release. From what I got from the guys around the airlock as I came aboard, there aren't any innocents among their crew either. Even the two newbies who were there had raped and murdered multiple people. The Psychic investigators will get it all out of them easily. These guys are toast!"

Now the keys had been located, Karl and Lisa had also gone to hauling in prisoners while Vixi and Bona worked on freeing the would-be slaves. Karl had been leading in the Captain and Lisa the pilot as Natasha spoke. He caught onto the game immediately, "You know, that last group we pinched will probably spill their guts on these guys too if they think it'll get 'em some leniency. I wonder if any of them know any of these guys? They've been back on Luna now for about two weeks haven't they? That's plenty of time for them to have been broken enough for that. Oh and captain, you forgot to mention slaving. Nowadays in sol, that's worse than murder. They've got at least twelve counts on this trip alone! I'd say toast isn't the word for it. I'd say python vine fertilizer."

"Or flesh locust feed." Lisa agreed, "Depends on where they end up I guess. Most likely though, they'll end up providing the services they intended to sell these poor people into in one of the colony towns. They're always looking for fresh meat since there're so few women on Timian." By this time, they'd deposited their prisoners in their new homes and had made it most of the way back to the airlock to pick up two more. As quiet as the ship was, those waiting to be moved could easily have heard almost all of the conversation. "You ain't scarin us loser." One of them said as they approached to secure their next prisoners. Karl ran a low-level radar scan of the captured men to spot any weapons they might be carrying. This was yet another of the sensory modifications he'd made to this suit. It was an option often included in Space Marine power armor for situations exactly like this. Troopers trying to capture a ship didn't usually have the time to search a prisoner before they secured him or her. A low powered radar scan with the right electronic filters in place could spot almost any type of personal weapon. He hadn't had any time to wait, so he found several on each individual. If they hadn't been completely surprised and almost completely covered in foam, they might've had a chance to escape if they'd managed to get a hand on one of those weapons in time. Obviously, none had.

He indicated the first man he'd scanned. "Club, right hand." Lisa nodded and he sprayed the correct area. The foam dissolved rapidly and as it began to free his hand, Lisa caught it hard around the wrist and twisted in a move to paralyze the joint and disable the limb. The pirate groaned in pain as she cuffed his wrist and secured it to the wall via the magnetic clamp built into the cuff's body.

Karl nodded. "Good, pistol in an underarm holster opposite and a knife on the left front belt. Looks like crossdraw." At Lisa's nod, he again sprayed a small amount of release agent and they watched the foam slowly disappear until that hand too was free. At that point, Natasha showed up as well and watched as Lisa took control of the prisoners hand using a thumb lock before the dissolving foam could free the rest of his arm. Karl opened his mind to Natasha and gave her the image of the man's weapons and their locations so she could secure them the moment they were released. By the time they were, Lisa had secured the prisoner's wrists behind his back and added a second layer of security by cuffing his thumbs together as well.

They repeated this procedure with two more prisoners and moved them all down to the cells. When they got back into the cargo bay, they found all the cells that had originally contained prisoners now empty, giving them room to spread out their own prisoners. They spaced them with one open cell between each inmate and his neighbor, thus isolating them to some degree. The cells' tops were open other than a grating of reinforced steel mesh, so complete isolation was impossible without suffocating them.