mars

Pirates of Mars, Sample

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Chapter 1

Getting Started

“Good morning, Captain Lucius Silvanus, and thank you for stopping by,” said Commodore Nero.

“Thank you Commodore.”

“As per your request, we agree to issue you a letter of marque and grant you the rights and privileges of the brotherhood of the pirates of Mars. Furthermore, we agree to support your efforts as best we can. Now I understand that you and your crew are almost ready to go?”

“Yes, we are close, now that we are official with the brotherhood we will be loading the additional weapons and equipment. We estimate we will hit space in a few days. We will run a few drills once we leave Phobos then proceed to Atlas station for final arrangements.”

“Good, I assume you have a plan?”

“Of course, we plan to head to the asteroids and see if we can pick up an ice/gas hauler or snag a mining ship.”

“Well, either would be good; we will provide you with the most up to date info on the UN warships, the privateers, and others.”

“Well, that sounds great, now I have got a lot to do so I will see you later,” replied Lucius, straightening his jacket as he headed to the airlock.

“Hey Captain, we are now official like and everything?” asked Cicero Severus, the ship’s navigator, a young outrageously dressed skinny man.

“Yes Cicero, we are now part of the brotherhood.”

“Cool, now I am sure to get more interest from the women, a young and dashing pirate that I am.”

“Oh you are correct in being young, not much on the dashing or pirate side as we have not captured anything yet,” responded the ship’s weapons officer, Julia Kamakura, also young, good looking and very smart.

“Don’t worry, I got a plan, we will be sure to capture something in the next year or two for sure, then you both can claim to be pirates. Now let’s go back to the dock, I assume you both finished your chores?” asked Lucius.

“Sure did boss man, I got the updated charts and information as ordered and she got some more boarding weapons.”

“Good, then let’s go back, I am sure Aetius Aurelius is waiting for us so we can get started on loading the brotherhood weapons.”

The pirate ship, Old Fat Lady was at dock three on the outer secondary arm. On board Aetius Aurelius was waiting patiently as possible for the Captains return since he had the codes and voice print to get the new weapons released. Once they were finally stored and the additional food and water brought on then they could finally leave this pretentious station. Aetius was not impressed by the brotherhood, nor most of the pirates of Mars, while he understood the reason for the eternal war with Earth and was more than happy to fight, he though Mars could and should do better. When he first met Lucius Silvanus many years ago working on the asteroid mining ship Big Tub 3 he did not like him. He though he was stuck up and acted better than everybody else. Most put this down to him being born on Earth, unlike much of the crew. In the middle of the mining run, one of the mining tugs collided with the main ship and caused some damage, during the ensuing chaos caused by the unexpected loss of air and damage to some of the systems Lucius was calm, cool and in control. Still a junior officer at the time he and Aetius were able to reestablish some of the systems and capture some of the escaping air by directing it into an unused cargo bay. These actions helped prolong the mission and were well appreciated by all. Still working on the Tub, he was able to work more and more with Lucius and quickly developed respect for him. Many years later he still respected him and considered him one of his closest friends. Still waiting by reading some reports, he finally heard the sensors announce the Captain and others had finally arrived.

“Welcome back, I hope that,” said Aetius

Holding up his hand a smiling Lucius started walking to the bridge. “I will input the codes and release the weapons, let me know when we are close, will this make you happy?”

“Of course, sir, this will be lovely, just lovely,” responded Aetius Aurelius the first officer of the ship.

A few minutes later a very busy and happy Aetius was starting to prepare to load the weapons with help from Kamakura and some of the crew. Lucius was starting to review some of the new information with Cicero and planning the next few months of action.

“Goldhammer, what is the status of the engines, is the shielding still looking good?”

“Good Cap, they are looking good, I could hope for a little better, but we should emit little traceable radiation from the type 4 nuclear engines. In addition the main and secondary reactors are looking good, we finally were able to clean them up, we will need to monitor them closely once we get underway, but I think we should be fine,” said Goldhammer, the chief engineer and the person in charge of most of the refit for the Old Fat Lady.

“Good, I know the additional reactor was very difficult to work with and not in very good shape, but we need one as you know. If we can pick up a few prizes or just some extra credits, then we will look at a proper overhaul if you think we need it,” responded Silvanus.

“Sounds good, I know we have talked about it often, but I think we will be ok. The program you provided of changing a captured and broken mining ship into a raider was very ambitious. We both know we have some more work to do, but based on your plans to pick off a mining ship then we should be ok. If we head to Earth or Jupiter, then that is another story.”

“I agree, I want to start with something easy, we both have severed on pirates before and know that there is little glamour and lots of work. Most crews start strong, but then become weak due to boredom.”

“I know, one of my old shipmates was captured by a UN ship because they got lazy and once the fight started their systems were not in good shape. My mate was hung on the moon. They put a noose around his neck and then chained his feet. He dropped slowly at first, then when his neck tightened they pulled the chain and killed him. He and the entire remaining crew died that day.”

“I think that will be a valuable lesson to teach some of the others. If we get caught, we will be killed by most.The UN will kill pirates outright or hang them, some of the mercenaries will do the same or much worse.”

Four hours later Aetius Aurelius reported in. “Captain we are about two more hours on the new weapons. We will need three to four hours after that to shift a few things and get them secured. I would now like to get the last of the food, water and stores on board.”

“All right Aurelius, make it happen, I have one last meeting to go to and I think Octavia does as well. Once we get the remaining food and stuff on board, keep the crew on the ship, I want to be ready to break dock in six to seven hours.” After ending the call with Aetius he followed up with Octavia, the ship’s communication officer as well purser and accountant.

“Octavia, you still need to finalize a few things right?”

“Yes, Captain, once we are about a six hours out I can start to finalize and shut down our remaining accounts here.”

“Good, I talked to Aetius and we are looking around seven hours now. I will be going to one last meeting with with the brotherhood to confirm the weapons.”

“Ok, I can leave here whenever so just let me know a few minutes early and I will come with you. I would also like to bring Paul with me.”

“Sure thing, I will let him know, it will be about two hours, see you then.”

The Old Fat Lady was now a ship of beauty, deadly beauty. The war with Earth had been going on for decades with no end in sight. Over that time some ships were captured by both sides. Those ships that could be reused where. Early in the fight each group of builders and users started to develop unique items and protocols for each of their ships. The Old Fat Lady was no exception, she was highly customized by her first and later second owners. Her third owner was a near bankrupt mining outfit trying to make a quick profit, instead they were an easy capture. Once they were brought back to Mars various people inspected the ship, but decided not to use it. It sat for almost ten years before a young and rich owner came along, Captain Lucius Silvanus. During his previous cruise as a pirate he was made prize captain of a ship which he lead the capture of. On his way back to Mars he was able to also capture a mining ship that recently suffered a serious accident. He and his two prize ships with skeleton crews on board were able to outrun the pursuing ship and make it back to Mars. His share of the prize money was very large. He decided to buy the Old Fat Lady and convert her to a warship.

The large, bulky cargo containers along with the open netting and frames were removed and sold. The bridge was also removed and sold. The frame and engines was all that was left. Silvanus had these upgraded and refurbished. In addition, he clad the entire ship in asteroid armor. Every ship that came back to Mars from the belt had a large amount of scrape rock that was either poor quality or it was rubbish. He used this waste and reshaped and heated it in order to cast it into large scale like armor plate two meters thick. These overlapping plates burned to a deep black formed the hull of the new ship. An additional nuclear reactor, salvaged from another ship was added. Standard missile tubes and defense laser were the primary weapons. Improved brotherhood missiles were now being loaded for these. The ship was designed for war with four extra missile tubes, more than most, the Old Fat Lady carried twelve. Six forward and six on the stern. In addition, eight surface mounted point defenses guns, each shooting steel rounds, were located at the bow and stern as well. For its size it was a very powerful ship. The wedge shaped front part followed by a long defensive tail made it look like a stingray or some other type of ocean creature. At 330 meters long, 40 meters wide and 20 meters high it was a remarkable and untested design.

“Captain, the ship is ready to depart,” reported Aetius Aurelius

“Good, bring the thrusters online and prepare to clear the dock,” order Captain Silvanus.

“Thrusters are now online, port control has us cleared for departure on lane 3a,” reported Aetius.

“Very good, Cicero, engage the main thrusters 10% and move us to lane 3a.”

“Thrusters are at 10% and holding. We will enter lane 3a in, 3, 2, 1. Now rotating to 180×180 per comms port.”

“Very good nav, once we hit point 3 all ahead full.”

“Passing point 3 now, going to all ahead full on the thrusters,” reported Severus a few minutes later..

“Goldhammer, how are things on your end?” asked Silvanus

“We are looking good, everything is in the green, main engines are online and ready for build up.”

“Good, once we pass point 12 we will open her up again.”

About one hour later they passed point 12.

“Captain, message from the port,” said Octavia.

“Thanks, put it on screen.”

“Good day Captain, just wanted to see you off and wish you good hunting, you are now clear of the zone,” said Commodore Nero standing in the main control room.

“Thank You Commodore, for Mars,” responded Silvanus before ending the transmission. “Ok Goldhammer, let’s see what you have done this time, Cicero start the build on the main engines, set course plan delta epsilon 56.”

“Copy Captain, starting to build on engines, the course is set at delta epsilon 56.”

Turning to look around Silvanus was happy to see everything and everybody as they should be. The first test flight last E month things could of gone better, this time they were and he was starting to get happy. “Aurelius, give them about an hour or so, then start on some drills. We have long voyage and need to get better.”

“Of course, sir, I have a few simple ones in mind to start off with,” responded a smiling Aetius Aurelius.