Komand'r On Deck 21 (edited)

Komand'r On Deck

~/.\~

Chapter 21

(Milena, Melinda, Misha)

The ex-black widows used shots from their flamers to cleanse the lab of xenomorph eggs. The space marines came to help with their cleaning job, smashing eggs and burning them; their scanners were calibrated to find any xenomorph in hiding. Forcefield and full armor were mandatory for the work; even so, TALI and MACHINA scanned the space marines and ex-widows to see if a larvae got them and was gestating inside them.

MACHINA expected to have to turn that entire facility into stardust with many shots of the buster cannons, just to make sure that there were no more xenomorph eggs hidden in a spot the scanners couldn't reach. There were eggs hiding under the metal flooring, these beasties got everywhere! 

As she was crushing a face hugger under her boot, Misha shouted, “Fuck that Alstairan bastard, experimenting on these vicious, slimy bioweapons!”

Her sister, Milena, didn't like her tone. “Misha, language. We’re being recorded, remember? I don’t want to have TALI on my case.”

A face hugger flew at Milena's face but she used her heated blade to cut it in two before it could reach her. Misha used her flamer to burn down the bisected xenomorph larvae and clicked her tongue at the same time. “Tssk, fine.”

[Don’t worry girls, I have you covered.] MACHINA said, reassuring the ex-widows.

Melinda, the third sister, was silent while the cleansing was proceeding as expected. But she asked herself how the situation with the fleet was unfolding…

~/.\~

(General pov)

While the cleanup of the lab was underway… the situation in-system was slowly turning in Komand’r’s favor. Her flotilla was slowly grinding down the Citadellian pirate fleet. She was standing in the middle of the bridge, barking orders at her officers. “Destroy that group of ships at grid E12!”

“Yes ma'am!” The tactical bridge officer replied while targeting the group of ships in the middle of the astrometrics grid. 

“Firing optical light batteries!” The tactical bridge officer cried out. 

The slots hiding the optical batteries all over the Hyperdimension’s surface uncovered, and white light charged and became progressively more intense; until one hundred beams of light shot from the optical batteries and converged toward their targets, decimating the small fighters and eight cruisers of the enemy fleet. Only the huge carrier which was the flagship of the Citadelian pirate was left as they somehow weathered the assault.

When Komand’r saw the intact flagship, she ordered, “Weaken their shields! Take out their engines and any essential systems besides life support!”

TALI heard her and modified on the fly her targeting algorithms after scanning the flagship. The optical batteries focused fire on the areas highlighted over the ship’s hull where the shield emitters were located. The Cybernetic Intelligence almost spat at the inefficiencies she could spy from the pirate’s ship designs; even if she had disdained MACHINA’s toy space vessels, they were leagues ahead of what the Citadelians had.

Right at this moment, the Flagship spewed another wing of fighters toward the asteroid facility. TALI scanned them and detected that they were loaded with high yield fusion devices; the cybernetic intelligence warned Komand’r by uploading the information into her neural web. Komand’r reacted immediately, the facility was where all the slaves and a sizable number of her troops were located.

“SPEAR 1 and 2, target those fighters!” Komand’r barked.

Two crystalline ships detached from the flotilla’s V formation, performing a micro-jump to place themselves between the asteroid facility and the fighters.

“Fire at will!” The Tamaranean princess commanded mercilessly.

The fighters did evading maneuvers as the Two crystal ships appeared in their trajectory; but it was in vain as numerous screens of micro-torpedoes were shot at them. While the fighters were being destroyed, TALI discovered a spike in the FTL engine of the flagship.

“Emerging Quantum causeway detected,” TALI announced on the bridge.

Komand’r and her crew’s reaction was immediate. The Tamaranean princess quickly ordered, “They’re trying to run! Disable their engines!” 

The pirate flagship was struck with precision by an optical beam that sheared the thrusters off of the engines. Another beam took out the FTL engines, creating a small explosion causing the Quantum causeway to abruptly close.

Komand'r grinned predatorily. “Great Job, tactical.”

The two Tamaraneans at the weapon console high fived each other. Komand’r then went to sit on her command chair and leaned against its back and ordered, “Start teleporting the Space Marines in for boarding action. Send in the beta team. Kill everyone but the captain.” 

Jane, who was at the console at her side, looked shocked. “Ma'am, shouldn't we take them all safely?”

Komand'r shook her head, her gaze was chilling as she stared at Jane. “Believe me it's better this way. You'll see why.”

“V-very well.” Jane nodded her head and averted her gaze.

~/.\~

(Beta Team Sub-commander Zhanna Smirnov)

“The boss lady has sentenced all those pirates to death.” Zhanna said to her mixed crew of Tamaranean and ex-widow assassins. 

They really needed to find a name for themselves and stop thinking of them being ‘ex-black widows’; they were now more than that. They're Crew, a new family which has come together under the first princess of Tamaran.

Shanna checked one last time, her gear displayed neatly on her hud. Particle assault rifle, wrist mounted neuro-disruptor, jetpack, Light-bending adaptive camouflage: ready, charge emitter, wristBlade, pistol, plasma and flash grenades… 

As she finished her check, all one hundred of her troops had arranged themselves on the teleportarium pedestals of the transport room. Zhanna checked that her helmet was tightly sealed on her head; she remembered the time in the Murder Deck scenario boot camp when she had forgotten and got ‘killed’ because of lack of oxygen while in training. 

“Ready checks, everyone.” Zhanna ordered on the tacnet.

On her helmet’s Augmented Reality HUD, the ready signs of everyone lit up green one by one. When the last commando's name was highlighted green, Zhanna thought about the plan Princess Komand’r had sent her.

The team was going to be divided into small squads and were going to be teleported in the ship to secure different and important locations such as engineering, life support, and the bridge of the enemy ship.

“Ready for Teleportation.” TALI's voice warned.

Everyone readied their weapons and stood still, until it was time for transport.

“Energize.” TALI said and blue light wrapped around everyone and they disappeared from the pedestal only to reappear inside the enemy vessels in teams on every deck.

Zhanna's unit arrived directly at the bridge and, surprise surprise, the Citadelians' captain, who was distinguishable with all the gold he wore on his suit and his officers, were there too. “Who in the progenitor are y-”

“Take them down boys and girls!” Raising her energy rifle, Zhanna shot the captain who ducked preemptively behind his command chair, dodging the purple beam.

Zap! Zap! Zap! The chair had two huge incandescent holes in it; the third was stopped by a bridge officer who threw himself before the beam before it hit the captain.

“Roaaar!” The bridge officer roared in pain as the beam burned him and created a new orifice in his body.

A Tamaranean female shouted on the tacnet, “For X'hal!” As she charged one of the bridge officers and skewered one of the bridge officers attempting to shoot Zhanna in the back in the forehead with their wrist-mounted serrated blade. The captain roared and threw himself at Zhanna only to be caught right in the air by an electrifying net shot from the redhead’s wrist.

“GRAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!” The alien screamed himself hoarse as the equivalent of a bolt of lightning was coursing through his body. He fell flat on the metallic floor, seizing.

“CAPTAIN!!” One of the last surviving officers threw himself to his captain but a Tamaranean flew fast toward him and punched him in the head with all her strength.

Bang! The officer fell on the ground and found himself surrounded by three ex-widows agents and they…

Zap! Zap! Zap! …Gunned him down right away, filling his body with incandescent holes. 

Zhanna looked at the dead alien; the Tamaranean woman reported with a dutiful lilt in her voice. “Threat neutralized, ma’am.”

Zhanna laughed at the brutal take down performed by her team. “Good.”

Their time around the clock inside the Murder Deck was paying dividends, moving in survival maps and performing suicide missions without repercussion had a way to make your troops and operators deadly efficient.

“The Bridge is under our control!” An ex-widow reported.

It was easy to say who was who, The Tamaraneans wore the heaviest dark purple and blue armors, while the humans wore the lightest black and red ones. Zhanna Immediately ordered the sergeant under her, “Phonnall, download everything available on the computer database.”

Zhanna looked at the still sparking Citadelian captain who was unconscious on the ground. He was all tied up in the net. “Corporal Evelyn, secure our guest.”

“Yes, ma'am.” The ex-widow saluted and crouched down to grab the captain and place nano-flex restraints on him.

This was quick, having teleportation technology and scanners that could pinpoint a needle in a haystack made boarding or infiltration way too easy. Zhanna wished she'd had that kind of tech back in the day when she was just starting up as an assassin. Don’t get her wrong, she didn’t like having to kill as a living; but just having the ability to go anywhere would have saved the life of many of her friends.

She looked at the time, it's been 5 minutes since they've boarded the pirate vessel, the other teams must be done by now. Zhanna spoke on the tacnet and commanded, “Team 2 to 12, report!”

The answer was immediate.

“Team 2, we secured life support. Over.”

“Team 3, 4, 5 and 6, we secured the hangar after a fierce fight, some of those bastards were ready to bolt.”

Zhanna nodded and praised her troops for their decisive action. “Good work.”

After the first teams finished reporting, the rest gave their report. “Team 7 to 11, we have pacified the hallways.”

“Excellent. What about Team 12?” Zhanna asked as she focused on the name of Team 12’s leader, Sergeant Rillazol.

A strong baritone voice replied, “This is Team 12. We’ve secured engineering, Vice-Commander. Oh and we did the same with… the brig.”

Zhanna frowned, watching as the captured pirate captain was disappearing in motes of blue lights after the corporal placed a teleportation beacon on him. “By hearing your tone, I won’t like what I’m hearing next, ain’t I?”

Silence stretched on the tacnet for a moment. Sergeant Rillazol continued his report. “Indeed ma’am, they kept female slaves for… entertainment. Some of them are unresponsive. The male ones are half alive or mutilated, some have their wings ripped or have been… um… emasculated.”

Zhanna had expected it; Captain Komand’r had loaded Sims in the Murder Deck about how Citadelians and Gordonians did war. They were slavers and psychotic killers. “I see, secure them as well and slap a teleportation beacon on them; I will have them taken care of by medical.”

Zhanna switched channels on the tacnet and spoke. “TALI, did you hear?”

The cybernetic intelligence's answer was immediate. [The medical bay will be made ready, Vice-Commander Smirnov.] 

“Roger that.” Zhanna acknowledged. 

As she accessed the data with her computer terminal on her left gauntlet, Zhanna saw what the pirate’s plan was, inevitably they had been pushing toward Earth and even had the coordinates of the planet. “Princess Komand’r was right, The Citadelian are a race that we don’t want around.”

Corporal Evelyn walked up to Zhanna and asked, “What do we do with the surrendered pirates, Ma’am?”

The Vice-Commander turned to the Corporal. “Remember what the princess said, no prisoner.”

With this sentence, Zhanna sealed the fate of the surrendered pirates. 

~/.\~

(Shayera Thal II)

10 minutes earlier…

Shayera hadn't been prepared for what happened to her after she'd been captured. After a brief fight where she killed thirty or so pirates, she was stripped of her weapons and armor. Then she was brought to be interrogated. Those savages didn’t even brutalize her, instead they gave her an ultimatum, to give her ship’s access codes or they would kill the Thanagarian children in their custody.

Her ship was made out of Nth metal and if the precious metal fell into the hands of the pirate, terrible things would happen. But when Shayera saw the fear on the ten children’s faces and the pirates about to tear their small wings from their backs, she caved immediately. It was as if those barbarians knew what button to push to get her to give up.

After giving her codes, Shayera was thrown into the brig with all the children. Since then she had to manage ten scared children who steadily lost hope each passing day. In the other cells next to hers, unspeakable acts were happening, and it was all Shayera could do to spare the children from bearing witness to them, but the Wingwoman couldn't stop the children from hearing the acts of depravity and senseless torture perpetrated on their people by the Citadelians. 

However, today was different. The ship they were on went into red alert; the pirate’s entire fleet was being attacked from what she could glean from the warden's chatter with the guards. Then twenty minutes or so later, the ship began shaking as it was impacted by something.

Everything went dark in the brig, and when the emergency lights came on, Shayera heard a commotion outside the brig. She focused her hearing and listened and the cacophony of energy weapons being used  was her reward. The noise stopped and finally, the door to the brig opened and people in purple and blue power armor stormed the cells where all the Thanagarian prisoners were kept and with ruthless efficiency dispatched the cruel warden and guards with plasma fire.

One of the children, a small little girl, trembled in Shayera's arms. “Miss Shayera, what's happening?” 

Shayera patted her head. “I don't know, Sheeleen.”

“Pirates dispatched, Sergeant!”

This was news to Shayera, the Citadelians had seemed so organized; them being so easily defeated despite the numbers in their flotilla was incredible. Shayera had guessed that those Citadelians were remnants of the war of Tamaran, where they've been soundly defeated by the royal family. 

“Check the cells!” She heard a deep voice outside of the blurry forcefield of her cell.

“They’re coming!” One of the boys whispered just as Shayera positioned herself protectively before the young children.

I wish I had my mace… Shayera found herself thinking as she missed the comforting weight of her weapon at her waist.

The door of the brig opened, and Shayera saw a towering figure in dark purple and blue power armor entering the cell. 

Stomp. Stomp. The being’s feet resonated on the metallic plates on the floor. The figure in power armor stopped and looked right and left, their helmet visor stopping on Shayera. “Sir! There are Thanagarian children and a woman here!”

Another armored figure quickly came next to the one who opened the cell. “By X’Hal, what happened to you?!”

Shayera stood up, spreading her tawny colored wings to shield the children from view and taking a fighting stance. “Who are you?”

“Easy there, we're not with the Citadellian pirates, ma'am. Wait for now, please.” The being lowered their rifle, and their helmet’s visor became transparent, showing an orange-skinned humanoid; Shayera recognized the Tamaranean race. 

A soldier hollered, “Sir! There are more women in the cells, they don’t look good… and we also found some men who’ve been chopped up, sir.”

The Tamaranean swore. “Damnit, this is the worst.”

The children and Shayera were made to exit their cell, one of the soldiers scanned them with some kind of device and they showed Shayera some kind of kit containing a hypospray with a dark green solution in it. “Those are medical nanites, they will kill the infections some of those kids have. We don’t want any of them to die under our care.”

Shayera saw that some of the Citadelian guards were alive but made to kneel with their hands behind the back of their heads. They were guarded by a different set of soldiers, who wore black and red armor. The Wingwoman asked herself what was the difference between the two types of soldiers.

“Please, help them.” Shayera asked as she remembered how some of the kids were beaten up for the sick fun of their jailer.

“You don’t have to ask, ma’am. That’s what we do.” The male Tamaranean said as he crouched on a knee and started working on Sheeleen, who had approached warily.

The sub-leader of the soldiers walked up to the medic and briskly said, “Vice-Commander Smirnov has taken the bridge and ordered us to take no prisoners, so we’re killing all the Citadelians scum and taking all these enslaved people to medical.”

Shayera’s eyes widened at those orders; they were going to summarily kill every pirate without a trial? She was about to tell them not to do it when the leader added, “Order from the Princess, huh. She doesn’t treat Citadelians like people at all.”

The Wingwoman stopped herself. They have a royal family member in the vicinity who is giving ‘lawful’ orders.

Shayera continued listening and she was shocked by what she was hearing from the medic who had seemed so understanding and competent. “Technically they aren’t, sir. It’s proven that there’s something fundamentally wrong in the cloning process that makes them. The genetic degeneracy found in each of them so far explains why they’re so cruel and psychopathic; they act more like machines that detest all races but their own. After we found those quantum chips that attached to their brain with behavioral controls, the brass is less inclined to speak with any Citadelians.”

Then again, Shayera could understand why they were acting this way after seeing firsthand the casual cruelty the Citadelians had made her people go through. Like a good Wingwoman, Shayera kept her mouth shut for now, until she could ask to see the Tamaraneans’ leader. The soldiers started rounding up every prisoner into the Mess onboard the flagship after executing the Citadelians; they had the decency to do it away from the gaze of the children.

They began sticking adhesive tags on every prisoner’s clothes. Shayera asked the nearest soldier, “What are those?”

The female soldier answered bluntly, “Ma’am, those are teleportation beacons, we will send you to our flagship for medical aid.”

“Everyone! Get ready for transport!” The leader hollered to everyone.

Shayera asked the same Tamaranean woman, “Can I keep the children with me?”

The soldier nodded and her gaze softened as she looked at the kids under Shayera’s wings. “Yes, of course. We would prefer it this way, to keep them calm.”

“Thank you.” Shayera slightly bowed her head.

She finally released the tension in her body, her people were getting saved. Shayera, before her capture, had thought herself invincible, after all she was one of the best rising wingmen of Thangar; the savagery and malice she had seen outside of the peaceful Thanagarian society simply broke her.

“Transport in five seconds.” Was shouted and silenced all the children gradually gaining hope.

“5, 4, 3, 2, 1…”

Blue light enveloped Shayera, momentarily blinding her, and when her eyes adapted she saw that she was in a huge room with many pedestals and workstations around them. The room lighting was completely white, silver walls surrounded each alcove where the teleportation pedestals were at. On each such pedestal, soldiers in power armor and Thanagarians were appearing in a flash of blue lights. Some of her compatriots were in complete catatony and being transported on levitating gurneys.

Shayera then realized teleportation was a theoretical technology even for Thanagar; how did the Tamaraneans get ahold of it? If they could board ships at will, how come did they have a hard time with the Citadelians for decades? Unless this was a recent development…

The room’s mechanical doors opened and what Shayera thinks is the medical staff wearing pink skin suits filed into the room. A particularly tall Tamaranean with blue hair entered and gave precise orders. “Place the critical cases under stasis.” And he continued with a more alarming one command, “Start for Quarantine check if you detect any Xenomorph eggs inside of them.”

“Xenomorph?” Weren’t those bioweapons like the broods? Shayera wanted to know more, but she couldn’t as the children pressed to her sides, reminding her of their presences and need of her protection.

Everyone was ushered out of the room, and made to follow the medical staff to the third deck where the medical wards inside this huge spaceship were located. At least that’s how Shayera perceived how big the ship was because of the long and serpentine corridors. She was surprised to see two other species onboard the ship, Asgardians and Terrans; Shayera wondered how this happened.

Did Asgard and Terra ally with Tamaran? Her thoughts came to a stop as she saw a Tamaranean woman that she recognized from the headline from the galactic network. Entering gracefully the medical Ward as if she owned it was Princess Komand’r of Tamaran, the Butcher of the Citadel Homeworld.

Many an old Thanagarian warhawk call her a hero, some of the reformists who are moderate in their views of how much violence needs to be applied in war see her as a war criminal. Before, Shayera would have said that she would have had the same opinion as the reformists, but after staying a week under the tender mercies of the Citadelians, she was divided on what to think.

As Shayera looked around, she saw that some of her people recognized who the new Tamaranean was. She wore a black skinsuit that simmered like a night sky with golden sheen with a sword at her hip. As Komand’r opened her mouth to speak, her voice carried to everyone somehow. “Welcome everyone. I’m Komand’r first Princess of Tamaran. The leader of this ambassadorial mission.”

This is an ambassadorial ship?! Then what do they call a warship! She had seen how the ship looked on the interactive holographic plan mounted on the wall of the medical bay. The ship was two kilometers long, the size of a Dreadnought. 

“I'm glad that we found that stealthed buoy just in time to discover the locations of those pirates.” The princess said with a magnanimous smile as she started walking amongst the patients.

Shayera came forward and shouted, “You found my message?!”

“Yes, Wingman Thal.” The Princess called out her name.

Shayera didn’t like that. Often, being under the nose of a politician could get dicey. Why is she the one who came to save us? Wasn't Princess Komand’r considered a war criminal? Her crusade and hate against the Citadelians is Legendary. How come the royal family gave her a fleet?! It’s obvious that she’d continue looking for those having escaped the slow death of an FTL lock in their core star systems.

But could Shayera have the luxury to choose who is her savior? No she didn’t. The Princess glided toward her as if she was flying and said in a cryptic tone, “You and I,  we have a great many things to speak about.”

“What?” Shayera backed away.

Komand'r floated thirty centimeters from the ground and looked down on Shayera while crossing her arms under her impressive chest. “Case in point, those Citadelian pirates were involved in forbidden experimentation while using your people as test subjects.”

“What?!!” Shayera couldn’t believe what she was hearing.

~/.\~

(Komand'r/Blackfire) 

The dark of space was cold and inimical for most, but for me? It was a Tuesday, I had calmed down after satiating my bloodlust for Citadelian blood. Flying toward the asteroid base with Kara at my side, the Kryptonian girl was wearing her solar armor, which was designed for Kryptonian users, supplying them with yellow sun radiation. It even worked underground, allowing the wearer access to their powers. The current star system has an orange sun, it wouldn’t allow Kara to use her powers. All around us, there was debris of destroyed Citadelian ships and fighter crafts.

“I am  fury, I am wrath, I am vengeance.” I quoted on the comm channel linking me to Kara.

“Dramatic much?” My Kryptonian paramour quipped.

I chuckled. “Yes, but it fits the moment. My people have been at war with the Citadelians for a century.”

Kara stopped before me, we started orbiting each other, and then she put a hand on my head. “You won’t have to convince me that the Citadelians are horrible. I have heard stories back in my universe; even there they were notorious.”

Komand'r sighed with visible relief. “Good… I don’t want you to think less of me, Kara-Love. I will strive to be worthy of you.”

At that, Kara took my right hand and squeezed it affectionately. “You already are, Kom. I am lucky to have you…”

She chastely kissed me on the lips, eliciting a smile from me. Kara’s face was completely red, she was so easily embarrassed.  “N-now, let’s get to work, don’t we have an asteroid base to destroy?”

Kara often made me forget my surroundings as I focused on how cute she was all the time. “You’re right, Kara-Love.”

I looked around me, looking for my target, and I found it immediately as my HUD pointed me in its direction. It was under me. Unsheathing my Skysword, I started channeling Star Bolt Energy into the adamantine blade, it went from a sky blue color to gradually become a dark purple.

My HUD showed a targeting computer and zoomed on the asteroid base for me. I raised my sword in an overhead position; then with a cheeky grin on her lips, she uttered, “Heaven Rend!”

As she let her sword fall downward, a giant dark purple beam of energy was generated by the tip of the Skysword and made a beeline for the asteroid base, descending upon it like the wrath of the gods. The empty asteroid base was hit by the Super Star Bolt, the space rock started to turn into dust, the facility mounted upon it started to melt. I continued channeling energy into the bolt until the asteroid completely disappeared.

I would never use this against a life-bearing planet, but targets like an asteroid? It was perfectly viable! Especially asteroid bases with a lab where Xenomorphs were seen. There were things that you just didn’t do, like experiment on extraterrestrial hive-based endoparasitoid with a multi-staged life cycle. More advanced species have tried, and were humbled and destroyed as the beasties have run amok on their worlds.

The onslaught of purple energy gradually ceased as I stopped channeling my starbolt in the sword; nothing was left remaining of the asteroid base when the beam abated. Kara floated next to me and had an expression on her face that showed that she wanted to laugh. “Kom… Heaven Rend? Really? Did you watch too many anime to call out your attack’s name?”

I blushed, “Darcy said that I should.”

Kara rolled her eyes and said between her teeth. “Of course… It's Darcy’s fault.”

With a nod I replied, “I will give her a video of me doing it, she’s making a comic about my adventures.”

Kara shook her head, not believing what she was hearing for me; Darcy wanted to wash away my bad reputation from a war criminal to a hero in the eyes of the powers in the Milky Way and Andromeda galaxies. My first girlfriend was gungho in becoming my PR advisor. I have plans to establish a principality and become an independent power after stopping my job as an ambassador; this was in essence the logical step to take.

Queen Komand’r sounds really good! I nodded with a satisfied smile. “Now that’s that. We need to be going.”

Kara looked at me. “Where?”

My eyes focused on the star system 370 Light Years away from this location. “Thanagar.”