Star Force: Bloodlust (SF54)

1

May 1, 2552

Gamu
System (Delta
Region)

Mensqua

Jamka waited patiently as the Lemickas vendor counted
out the
Critel’s
currency chips, a somewhat unusual
procedure given the electronic banking systems the ADZ worlds used but spacers
were notorious for preferring hard currency, especially when they dealt with
various races. Given that the Lemickas sold a good percentage of their products
to spacers they had a well-established system in place to handle large currency
transfers…which always required at least two counts.

Jamka watched as the shorter Lemickas ran his Star
Force credits through a machine that counted for him the second time, shoveling
the small stacks into the input cone and watching them disappear inside. Each
credit had an electronic signature inside the durable shell of the palm-sized
currency, identifying which coin it was and what value it had. Given the two
bags worth that the Critel had laid on the counter the Lemickas had opted for
the machine rather than a hand count.

Most of the credit coins Jamka had given him were
large, but given that he was purchasing
starships
that was to be expected. Most of the coins were 1,000 credit triangles, but
there were a handful of 10,000 thicker triangles thrown into the mix plus a lot
of lesser valued coins that brought the two bags’ full total to what the
purchase cost of the 6 vessels would be, given that Jamka had counted them out
himself earlier.

Once the vendor confirmed the exact price was paid it
transferred ownership records to Jamka and gave him a physical pass card that
would allow him to take possession. Without another word the Critel left the
vendor and headed off through the shipyard. The interior was a massive commerce
hub, designed and built by the Lemickas to facilitate their business, with the
actual construction slips for their starships spaced around it in clumps. Some
of them held completed starships, others held those still being built or
refurbished.

Jamka’s
new purchases were
located in two different holding areas, with him headed first for the communal
areas where his crewers were waiting for him. They were a mix of Critel and
four other races, but all had worked for him for multiple years and they were
individuals he could trust. Less savory individuals that his business relied upon
to function had been left behind to be picked up later, for the last thing he
wanted was for one of his new purchases to go missing as soon as they left the
system.

As crazy as that sounded it wasn’t unheard of. There
was corruption and backstabbing going on every day in the ADZ, and while there
were no outright wars going on inside thanks to Star Force’s restrictions on
such things and their willingness to throw their superior tech around in order
to enforce them, everything else was practically a free for all so long as you
didn’t poke the sleeping giant.

Those areas where Star Force had no presence, which
was most of the ADZ, the local races controlled or ‘claimed’ to control their
societies, but largely it was all a jumbled, chaotic mix of cultures, codes,
and lawlessness. Jamka had heard plenty of stories of ships going missing from
other spacers’ fleets for a variety of reasons, but usually it was either
pirates or an inside job.

Now would be a perfect opportunity for someone to
steal one of his new purchases, with only a handful of people to form skeleton
crews, which was why he’d pulled several of his most trusted employees off
their current assignments in order to bring them here to man the ships as they
took them back to base.

Jamka rounded up his shippers from the lounging and
entertainment areas, allowing them a few minutes to finish up their meals, then
took them straight to the restricted sections of the shipyard that his pass
card got them into. As a group they walked through the more or less deserted
corridors until they came to another vendor station where Jamka presented his
credentials.

After a quick check he was given access to one of the
nearby airlocks that connected to the first of the starships he’d purchased. He
boarded with three of his crew, inspecting the medium-sized cargo hauler and
finding all was in order. The Critel left the crew onboard to do a more
thorough inspection and proceeded to the next ship on his recent purchase list,
leaving behind three more there and at the other ships he eventually got
through checking.

Jamka stayed onboard the last, intent on commanding
that vessel out of Lemickas territory himself. He proceeded with a full
inspection and conferred with the other temporary Captains, finding everything
in order. He’d expected no less given the Lemickas’ reputation for
craftsmanship, but he’d learned long ago not to take anything for granted.

The ship he’d taken was the smallest of the six and
the only warship. It was designed for a crew of 60, but
him
and the seven others with him would be enough to get it moved out of the system
and back to their base in the
Vannsep
System. He’d
only come to this world to make the purchase, but otherwise did no business
here.
Mensqua
had a minimal Star Force presence, as
all Alliance worlds did along the borders between the 8 regional slots, but
they also possessed a planet of their own in the system and that kept a lot of
shenanigans from going on.

On the down side, that meant that a lot of the local
economies relied on the Star Force markets and there was little business
opportunity there for
Jamka’s
fleet. He serviced
areas of the ADZ where Star Force had no economic presence, or rather where
they had so little that they couldn’t meet the full demand. That accounted for
most of the ADZ, but not this system. The Lemickas had two territorial slots on
this world and were in the process of securing a third from a deal in the works
with the Densan, who were trying to consolidate their own holdings into a few,
highly developed regions and selling off the others for an exorbitant price.

Word was they were currently haggling over that price,
but once the deal was settled the Densan would leave the planet and the
Lemickas would expand into the new region. Such shuffling was occurring on a
slow, but steady basis throughout the ADZ as the various powers sought
advantage over the others. The Lemickas were choosing to develop
Mensqua
specifically because of the Star Force planet in
the system because it offered them a much greater resource base than the
limited facilities on
Mensqua
…and the industrious
little race of bipeds was buying up everything they could from the Humans and
using it to fuel their own shipbuilding industry.

That industry was larger than Star Force’s own now,
given that they built quality ships that undercut Star Force’s prices by a
hefty margin and there was such a huge market for ships within the ADZ that no
one faction could supply it all. Most races preferred to spend their limited
resources on that which would give them the most return in the ongoing power
games being played on the economic front, and in most cases they didn’t want to
suffer the expense of building their own shipyards when there was a much
cheaper and efficient means of purchasing starships from a nearby vendor.

The Lemickas were happy to be one of only a handful of
such large scale providers and Jamka bought exclusively from them. Star Force
ships were preferred, but they were far too expensive. The Lemickas built solid
ships that he could rely on and still make a profit…besides, Star Force queues
were so backlogged that he’d have to wait years to get a purchase order from
them. So much of their production was going to the warfront now that the
Lemickas and a handful of others had actually surpassed them as the primary
starship vendors within the ADZ.

They also built warships, which Star Force did not
sell. Jamka needed another because the piracy rates were beginning to creep up
amongst his competitors. His own fleet hadn’t been hit yet, but he
was having
to run some convoys without an escort and that
was something he literally couldn’t afford to do much longer. Star Force ships
were constantly on the prowl in Alliance systems and their own, but with the
fronts sucking so many of them away the pirates had gotten a bit
bolder…sometimes too bold and Star Force would nail them, but the successful
strike rates were climbing and in truth most of the other races didn’t care so
long as they didn’t hit any of their shipping lines.

That left independent shippers like Jamka as easy prey
if they couldn’t defend themselves…and given the fact that virtually all of his
business occurred well away from Star Force’s fleet he needed the ability to
fend off at least light attacks and perhaps scare others away before they could
happen.

Jamka would have brought one of his current warships
into the system to escort the cargo ships out if he hadn’t been purchasing one
of his own today. He’d brought along enough crew to be able to fly and shoot at
the same time, but he didn’t expect any trouble here. No, if there was to be
any pirate activity it would be in transit or at their eventual destination.

Once all six ships were checked and prepped, Jamka had
his fleet move off from the shipyard and gradually transition over to the
stellar jumpline. They made a group microjump out to the double stars at system
center, ending up at the
larger
of the pair and
transitioning around to their exiting jumpline. Running their drives nearly as
high as they would go, the Lemickas-built ships launched themselves into a slow
jump without the benefit of a jumpship.

It would take nearly 3 weeks for the first leg of
their journey and some 8 in total before they arrived at their home base, but
the ability to free fly through the ADZ without having to own a jumpship or
purchase a berth on one was something that could never be overvalued. Star
Force’s ADZ transit system would have gotten them to their destination within 2
weeks, but the cost of taking all six ships in the hold of a jumpship was far
more expensive than the fuel and time he would expend traveling independently.
It was one of the reasons for the profit margins he had, for Star Force vessels
available for sale didn’t have the drives strong enough to make independent
jumps.

That wasn’t due to a lack of tech, but because they
built them small and efficient knowing that they’d only need to make insystem
microjumps. Those independent shippers that went that way utilized either their
own jumpship fleet or, more likely, purchased travel berths on the grid, giving
them faster shipping times but much more costly ones.

And
Jamka’s
customers valued
cost more than they did time.

They also valued not having to deal with Star Force in
any way, shape, or form, especially if some of the cargos they were having
shipped didn’t match up with ADZ protocol.

Jamka knew better than to risk that, so he kept his
fleet clean of any obvious contraband…at least anything large enough to stand
out to a casual inspection. Small items, a few individuals seeking to go
unnoticed…that sort of thing was standard practice and considered a small risk,
but Jamka wasn’t going to go any further, for the stories of how Star Force had
dealt with previous violations had put the fear into many independent shippers.
‘Break their rules and they take your ships’ was their standard practice…and
they wouldn’t return them, essentially putting you out of business for the
first offense.

Several large shippers had had their entire operation
shut down by Star Force, with their Archon strike teams coming in and blowing through
any personal security they’d had in place. No, the wise knew to avoid Star
Force and their code of conduct…and be extremely clean whenever operating under
their gaze.

Technically the entire ADZ was under their code, so
there was always a risk of them finding out about violations and coming down on
you for them, which was why Jamka wasn’t going to risk his fleet on anything
obvious. That
said,
when operating in the shadows you
had to let a few small violations slip by just to pick up some extra credits.

The systems that
Jamka’s
small convoy moved through were inhabited save for one, which made it the
biggest risk of getting jumped. When they arrived there were a scattering of
other ships in transit as well, but none came near to his and he made sure they
spent as little time as possible making the transition around the star to their
outgoing jumpline. After that the chance of pirate raids was less, but he knew
better than to ever let his guard down.

Eventually he arrived back in the
Vannsep
System, which had no Star Force presence whatsoever. It was a Lacvamat system,
with three inhabited planets, one of which belonged to the Reen. The system
itself had been given to the Lacvamat along with 5 others for them to colonize
independently, putting them on par with the Scionate, Dvapp, and Hycre colonies
that existed without Star Force assigned territorial slots on Alliance worlds.

The Reen had negotiated with the Lacvamat to get
their own
planet in the system. It wasn’t a very good world,
barely habitable for their race, but it was their own and outside of Star
Force’s leash. Technically they still had to obey the same rules given that
they were in the ADZ, but Star Force had no outpost in the system, making it a
defacto ‘free’ zone, though with the Archons able to snoop about one never knew
when or if they’d come down on you.

On occasion you’d hear of a clandestine raid that
scooped up somebody from somewhere, but for the most part
Vannsep
was Star Force-free territory…with all the economic opportunities that
entailed.