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Sigma Fuel
"Patrol
3, come in please. Patrol 3, what is your status?” the COM system crackled.
"No
troubles so far, patrol 3, out", commander Kurohyou answered. “Just like yesterday, last week, and last year. Patrol
duty in this system is so boring”, his wingman answered. “But, hey, I haven’t seen this fuel pocket yet”
The Sigma 13 system was nice quite place to get fuel form. Thousands of pockets
of valuable H-fuel created a huge nebula in the system. With 2 stars and no
planets, there was absolutely no sight in the system what so ever. The Gas
Miners Guild, simply called GMG first arrived into the system at 60 AS, and
started mining it shortly after. Now, exactly 540 years later, the GMG was
still here, mining it with a detailed plan. The goal of the current mining
operation was, aside from profit, to create a suitable spot for a base. It
would be the second or third base for the GMG. In another system, sigma 19, a
good spot was found also, but since the system was only 50 years ago discovered
and the remoteness of the system, not much was known about it. Still, plans
were there to create a jumpgate from
A small dark spot caught Kurohyou’s eye: “Kurohyou to patrol, I saw
something on the left, follow me to check it out, and keep you eye’s open”.
Slowly they closed in on the target. “It’s a spy drone. Looks like a Rheinland
design. Shall I shoot it, commander?”
“No, tractor it in, and we will bring it home. The intel guys on the
“Patrol 3 to base, we have found a drone, and we will bring it home. Can
you send another patrol to finish our sweep?”
“A spy drone huh?”
“Yes Emperor, a Rheinland one” the servant replied. “The technicians from
GMG were stripping it, but it seems it was booby trapped. It exploded as soon
as it came on
“Ok, thanks for the report. Let our agents keep an eye on Rheinland’s
companies, and there traffic to the sigma systems. Make sure the GMG sends all
their data they could gather.”
“Yes Emperor” the servant replied.
Emperor Yorukaze looked to the holoscreen, as the servant soundlessly
moved out of the room. It displayed a view on ancient
“Lord Emperor,
Miss Suzaka requests an audience about the spy drone matter”
Yorukaze
frowned. Miss Suzaka was, although just in her twenties, one of the top
strategists of the Kusari Naval Force and somehow had an ear in the
intelligence network too. Almost no event didn’t pass her desk. But for her, to
request an audience about a simple spy drone was uncommon. Sigma 13 wasn’t
Kusari space, and spy drones were found every once and a while.
“Let her enter”
the Emperor ordered, and saw the servant leave the room silently, as ever
2 Minutes
later, the servant opened the door again, but before he could speak, Suzaka
pushed him aside. “Emperor Yorukaze, we..
“Bow before
the Emperor, woman”, the servant shouted, as his hand moved to his kodachi, a
small sword. At the moment he wanted to grasp the sword, he caught nothing but
air.
“Don’t do
it, Suzaka”, the Emperor said: “It is hard to find such loyal servants”.
The servant
now noticed that his kodachi was in the lady’s hand, with the tip nearly
touching his ear.
“Leave the
Lady and me, and take your toy with you. And don’t do stupid things to
yourself, she could have killed us both before you even thought of reaching the
blade.”
Suzaka
handed the small sword to the servant with a smile, making the servant even
more uncomfortable then he already was.
As the
servant left the room, the Emperor smiled. “Please Suzaka, keep little
formality in front of other people. They are not used to your, hmm, style. My
ancestors might have let you killed for your disrespect for protocol.”
“Yes, lord
Yorukaze.”, Suzaka answered, as she bowed before the Emperor.
“Look up
child, there are no others here right now, and for now I can at least be human
instead of Emperor.”
As Suzaka
looked up, he smiled. “Not only a great strategist, but also a skilled in
combat.” He thought. “This, only surpassed by her beauty makes her a great
friend, or a deadly enemy.” She went through the ranks at a great speed,
something that might have killed her. Luckily the Emperor noticed her before
the most people, and thus protected her from anyone that might have a problem
with her.
“Still, I
need the Emperors ear.”
“Always the
working one, huh. Well, you shall have it. What is on your mind Lady?”
“The drone
that the GMG picked up. There are more things then that. I heard that the last
4 days 37% of our agents in Rheinland are not reporting in. We also noted that
there military activity has increased. Until now we believed it was to secure
the Omega systems. But with the drone, it might be that they aim for something
else, Sigma 13. And with their jumpgate access from the
“And we
can’t officially do anything about it. We have never claimed the system, nor
did any other house. But it is mainly controlled by the GMG, which supplies us
with H-fuel. And we supply the rest of the houses.”
“It’s a
smart plan. And we can’t officially do anything about it.”
“Not
without going into war”, Suzaka answered.
“Inform the
keiretsu, though they probably already know about most things. And gather try
to get more intel on their military movements. That’s all for now.”
“Yes
Emperor, she replied”
Yorukaze
saw her moving across the hall to the doors. “Not the gentle step of a woman,
but totally perfect movements for combat.”
“Suzaka, a
moment please. The generals keep you out of the blood dragon war aren’t they?”
“Yes, they
are afraid of loosing their jobs, Emperor”
“Well, how
about another task?”
“Emperor?”
“I will
leave you in charge of this matter. I will give word to the GMG that you will
come to discuss a few things. They have great pilots, but they have virtually
no intelligence agency, and no strategist of importance. Just by sending you
their, Rheinland might think twice. It will send a message that we do not just
sit and watch.”
“Yes,
Emperor” she muttered. She moved quickly to the door now, almost running.
As the door
closed behind her, the Emperor noticed her last expression. “Hmm, a genuine
smile, not a deadly one, like the one that she just gave the servant. I have
never seen that before.”
“It a
perfect plan, Chancellor Graff. We are dealing with most of their agents at
this very moment, and have removed about 71% of them. The storages are full and
our military can move out of the Nebula’s in the
Chancellor
Rudolf Graff looked at his general. General Schwanbeck was a long man. A little
over 2 meter, almost dwarfing the Chancellor. “Tall, but brilliant” the
Chancellor thought. “His plan to take over the sigma system had been created in
12 years, and will finish in the same number of days. After that Rheinland
would have its own fuel source. No longer would they be buying it from the
Kusari. And with the victory, the people will love me. Celebrations will be
made to honour my name. And it will echo to the centuries that would follow. And
all that with this generals plan. But, first there is work to be done.”
“How much
time until it is done, Schwanbeck. When will all of their spies be removed?”
“We estimate
20 more hours, sir. Then all is set to go.”
“Then we
will go in 40 hours. Let them get confused first. Are there any signs they know
about this?”
“No
Chancellor, everything is in order.”
“Ok, you
can leave then.”
Schwanbeck
closed the doors behind him. “Everything checks out fine, indeed, except for
the missing drone of last week. But only I know that. And you will not know
until you are blown to dust by the bomb on your little command ship. And then I
will step up in your place, and capture Sigma 13 with the remaining fleet.” As
he walked to his driver, he noticed a little child on the street. Probably lost his parents in this hard winter. “Well, that
is the workers life”, he thought. “You know kid, take this coin, and know it is
good to be in Rheinland.”
As the GMG
space station doomed out of the crow nebula, it became clear to Suzaka in an
instant. “The GMG is far more powerful then they are given credit for and far
more practical then any other corporation in Kusari.”
The station
was the main base for all operations of the GMG. Not only did it process most
of the raw H-fuel to the requested refinement, it was also the headquarters of
the organisation. Just a little outpost when it was first established, it was
growing and revisited throughout its history.
The
transport landed on the station smoothly. The speed was way too high to be on
autopilot, but the pilot clearly knew what he was doing. “Well, no time to lose,
lets get started immediately”, Suzaka thought. As soon as the docking bay was
pressurized she opened the door. Two men were waiting for her.
“Hello,
Major Suzaka I presume? I am chairman Toriyoshi. This here is commander
Kanwara. He will be your guide in the station, and in the GMG. Anything you
need, he will help you with it. But first a tour through the station”
“Thank you,
chairman. But I would like to start immediately. Commander, I will need a place
to sleep, and a room to work in. It needs at least 4 chairs, and must be able
to contain 20 people. I want to see the export to Rheinland over the last 20
years. I also want to see the full weapon inventory, and resources. Can you
arrange that for me?”
“uh, yes Major.”
“Call me
Suzaka from now on, protocol tends to get in our way when we will work in this
short time. Now hurry.”
As she saw
him quickly walk to follow his orders, she looked at his pace. “Fast but firm,
seems like a good man.” She looked back to the chairman: “Do you have the pilot
here; I want to speak to him as soon as possible. And, if it is not too much
trouble, can I get something to eat?”
The
chairman smiled: “I am glad that the rumours are true. They said you were more
of a worker then an officer. I must check in with the latest survey of sigma-19
specimens. The gas looks very promising, but it’s an unstable jumphole that
leads to there. If this checks out fine, I might convince the board to push for
Jumpgate. As for you, take the elevator over there, and go to the level twenty
four. That is the recreation and mess deck. I will inform commander Kurohyou to see you there.”
As she moved to the elevator, she couldn’t help but notice the eyes of
the workers that followed her. “They must be suspicious about the navy. Well,
can’t really blame them. The government never really accepted the GMG as a
keiretsu and thus was never really important to Kusari. Strange, cause they
monopolize the H-fuel mining. There must be a reason. Why doesn’t the
government keep a closer eye on this large organisation? I must look into that
later.”
“Miss, what level do you need?”
She looked up from her thoughts: “Sorry, I was out of it. Level 24”
“F&R level, coming up.”
20 seconds
later the doors opened again. “Here is your stop. Try the fried eggs; they say
it is the best in the
As she
entered the hall, it seemed like cantina for everyone. The pilots, workers and
all the other residents were eating together at the long tables. As she walked
towards one of the food displays, a large man crossed her path and stopped her.
“We don’t
need Navy here. Not even when they are here to help. We manage here just fine.”
The room
became a less noisy.
“If you
want to work in the next few weeks, it would be wise to remove that hand.”
More faces
turned to look at them.
“And what
would a little girl like you do to me. Call in your precious generals?”
Just a few
whispers crossed the room.
“I had
something else in mind. But mostly I reserve such things for real men. Now,
remove your hand.”
Total silence.
“Well,
let’s dance then little girl”
The man
tried to hit her with his left fist, but smacked into nothing but thin air. As
he tried to recover from his initial attack, a sharp pain in his entered neck.
He suddenly felt very weak and dropped on his knees.
Suzaka
removed her foot from his neck. “Maybe you should try to pick some girls from
you own size.”
“Or Yuji
should keep his mind to his work and own wife.”, a
voice went from behind her. It was the guy from the elevator. “Right, Yuji?”
Sounds were
suddenly spreading though the hall again, and here and there credits exchanged
from owner.
“Say that
to me sooner, little brother.” The large man named Yuji stood up. “Wow, woman! Is that the new academy fashion in New Tokyo?”
“No, just
some own style”, Suzaka replied.
“Meet my
brother, Kurohyou Yuji. He is not that
bad as he may look at first sight and he is a hell of a mechanic.”
Yuji bowed before Suzaka. “Kurohyou Yuji, at your
service. And if you excuse me, that mechanic part of me should get his
butt 22 decks lower.”
As Yuji walked to one of the elevators Suzaka looked at the younger
brother. “And you are?”
“I am the man that you are looking for. Commander Kurohyou Ryosuke. Saviour of big brothers and finder of explosive
spy drones.”
“So, the Rheinlanders are willing to start a conflict with the Kusari.”
Queen Andrade I of the Bretonian kingdom looked across the table. Colonel
Graves of MI6 was sitting at the other end. “Or do they expect that the Kusari
government let the GMG down.”
“All our agents within Kusari have heard of no troop movement within
Kusari. That could indicate two things. It could mean that the Kusari
government knows nothing, or that they indeed let the GMG loose their control
of Sigma 13. The Rheinland agents must have drawn the same conclusion.”
The Queen pressed a button on her panel, and the holoscreen displayed the
Sigma-13 system. “How long until they will attack”, queen Andrade asked.
“The Rheinlanders are trying to remove all Kusari agents as of last week.
We estimate that they will move their fleet within the next 30 hours.”
“That fast? And we were thinking that they were building forces to secure
the Omega regions against the Corsairs. Well, nothing to be done about that.
What do you think will happen?”
“I think you are right”, the GMG doesn’t stand a chance. “Do the lords
know about the situation?”
“They are being informed by my men at this moment.”
“Good.” Queen Andrade pushed another button, and a man entered the room
within seconds. “Summon all lords for a meeting. I want them all here within 6
hours. Make preparations for it too.” The man left a quickly as he came in.
“I want you at the meeting too. Go to the housemaster to get decent
clothing for it, and report back her in 5 hours. I will contact the
“Yes queen.” He bowed and walked to the door.”
“Colonel?” He stopped his
movement and looked at the queen. “What if the Kusari knows about it, and they
will lead them into a trap?”
“Then the Rheinlanders will need far more supplies then they have stored
I guess.”
Marlene Schwanbeck looked at her ship. One of the new cruisers,
secretly created in the
“A second command bridge on the
fleet”, went through her head. “The Chancellor will control one and I will
command the other. But at the end only I will command the fleet. With the
destruction of his battleship, the fleet must still be commanded to destroy the
GMG. And my dear Brother in
“Ok, you can land now”.
The pilot carefully executed the landing manoeuvre. He slowly placed the
transport in a good position and contacted the cruisers flight control to take
it from there.
As the ship steadily landed, Marlene moved to the door: “take my bags to
my room as soon as possible, soldier.”
“Yes Sir.”
As the door opened, she heard the attention signal. All men immediately
jumped into position.
“Carry on.”
A man moved toward her. “Colonel Schwanbeck, I am captain
Schwarz. I hereby transfer control to you, sir. As I understood I will be your
second from now on.”
“you are right, commander Schwarz. We will leave
within 30 hours. I heard you have had command training?”
“Yes sir, I have attended the same class as your brother.”
“That’s why I asked you as my second. There are a few private things I
want to discuss with you. I want you to come to my quarters at 2100.
Understood?”
“Yes sir”.
“Ok, carry on with your duties.” Marlene looked as he walked toward the
stairs. “A fine person, but with one weakness,” she thought: “He has not had a
woman since he came here 4 months ago. That will be the bargain chip. At least
he looks alright.”
“An increase of 46% highly refined fuel to Rheinland in the last 9 years,
and you do not think it is strange?” Suzaka looked at Toriyoshi. She was still
in the mess hall. Kanwara
gave all the info and stuff she wanted while she was still busy with her dinner.
Now, three hours later she had not toughed it since. Commander Kurohyou was called away for another patrol,
this time in the nearby crow nebula. After a while chairman Toriyoshi came to
look how she was doing, and found an angry Major.
“No need to get hard, miss Suzaka. Do not forget that the Empire sent you
as an advisor.” Suzaka quickly calmed herself. “I will let you in into a little
secret. In the last 6 days, our agents in Rheinland are being hunted as hell.
In the same time we find a spy drone in your precious sigma 13, and now we find
that Rheinland has been stockpiling enough fuel to remain independent for the
next year. And you do not think that is strange? My best estimation is that
they will invade sigma 13 in 26 hours and with an overwhelming force. We know
there military has consumed about 27% of there total income last year. Now you
know what is aimed at the GMG. Luckily, the Kusari government would hate to see
Rheinland so close to our borders. Sigma 13 is only 1 jump away from this
system. And we also do not wish to see any other house producing H-fuel. That
would ruin our economy. But we also know that Kusari cannot go to an open war
with the Rheinlanders. So, there we are. If you have any idea’s, now is the
time.”
Toriyoshi was silent, and looked a bit pale now. For at least ten seconds
it was quite on the table. He grasped his communicator: “Ops, I want the board
in 30 minutes in the conference room. I also want the leaders of Samura Industries
and Kishiro on the line, before that time. Give them the following message: Tasogare. Also, scrap all flights to any other system then
13. To 13 I want only patrols, double strength. Retreat the gas miners
stationed there” He looked at Suzaka: “If what you say is true, we will need
all the help we can get and all ships we have, and even that might not be
enough. Can you get all the data organised and ready to be presented before the
board meeting starts? Kanwara, help her with that. I will set the great lobby
machine in work.” He immediately walked to one of the elevators.
As Suzaka looked at the pads before her, Kanwara saw the face of her.
“Miss Suzaka, please let us go to your work room. We can get the presentation
ready, and in the meanwhile get you into shape for the meeting. Though the GMG
is more liberal then other companies and the chairman is one of the more
liberal amongst the board, there are a lot conservative minds in the higher
places.”
Suzaka replied: “With old fashioned thinking about women.”
The gas miner Sakura was one of the oldest ones in the Guilds possession.
Though the ship was a larger then most miners, its
cargo hold was on the smaller side. This was mainly because the first miners
were not fitted with shields, and thus needed a strong armoured hull. Shields
were later installed, but the armour remained, making it ideal for deeper
mining in more hostile environment. And so it did, now doing its third run in sigma
13 this year, it was harvesting H-fuel the on the edge of the gravity dead zone
between the two stars. It was a more dangerous place, and without strong
shielding and armour the ship could be torn apart. That would also be the case
if they were going too far in the dead zone or if they would come to close to
one of stars. In the latter case they would sink into the star. But the rewards
of this place were high. The warmth of the sun’s, in combination with the
gravity of them, and the dead zone between it, created fuel pockets that were
far richer then the average pocket. “Commander, we have an urgent transmission
from
Commander Kaori Hanto walked to the screen near
the processor.
“Put it through”, she replied to the voice. The screen displayed a single
word:
“Karasu”
She switched off the screen, looked at the heavy mining equipment in the
processing area, and shouted a few curses. “Nothing on this damn trip works
properly. First the accident that killed 4 men and injured the captain, now we
have to get back home with a half cargo.” She pushed a few buttons and got the
medical bay on the line. “Doc, when the captain wakes up, tell him we are on
our way home.”
The refining foreman walked toward her. “That wasn’t a retreat message
was it?”
“It was”, Kaori replied, “Finish things up, I will go to the bridge and
hope I can get this thing out of the zone.”
While she walked to the stairs to climb four decks to the bridge, she
could hear the foreman shout: “Ok, maggots, we are going home. Now get that last
fuel in and out of the way. It is going to be a bumpy ride.”
When she arrived on the bridge, they all looked at her. They were still
not used to be commanded by a woman. But when the captain was down, she was
next in line. “
“This is what we have been waiting for!” The lord Lorean stood up from
his place, and walked to the centre of the room. “Ever since we arrived here in
Sirius, we had to buy our fuel from the Kusari. If that damn monopoly could be
broken, we could thrive from the lower prices resulting from it. I say that we
should just sit and watch.” The room mumbled with most voices positive to the
idea. Queen Andrade looked in the hall and raised her hand. The room fell
silent.
“Before anything is decided, I would like you to listen to our
Intelligence officer. I give the word to colonel
The room kept silent as the colonel stepped back. Lord Lorean stepped up
once again: “It is ridiculous to assume they will go to war with us after
having taken control of some fuel. They cannot have the recourses for that.
Maybe it would be time we did some controlling ourselves, after the Kusari
economically broken. This can be a glorious day for our great empire! I say we
vote for it.” Rumour came again though the hall.
“Let’s build more ships and weapons”, it sounded from the right.
Queen Andrade now stepped up. “Ever since we arrived in Sirius, the
Kusari never used their monopoly against us. The price of fuel moves up and
down with their needs. They have never done anything that threatens us.”
“And now we make sure they will never be able to do it”, Lord Lorean
shouted:”We should…”
“Interrupt me again Lord Lorean, and you will never be able to do anything
again!” A total silence came over the room, as if it was a presence of its own.
Never had anyone ever seen the Queen this angry, but they all knew that she
would warn only once.
Andrade breathed heavily. She let the silence rest for a while, while she
calmed herself. After a minute she continued: “Now, Ladies and Gentlemen, let
me finish. I suggest that we return the favour to the Kusari. We should make a
deal with them. They keep a low price for us and we get mining rights for a few
systems. In exchange we will not support Rheinland with any special requests
and offer a lower price on ships that they will buy from us. And with this war,
they will buy them. I say it is time for a vote. Time is short on this one, so
we keep a 30 minutes recess.”
Most of the Lords walked toward the door to consult with their advisors,
others stayed in their seats and replayed the events of the last minutes.
Colonel Graves walked toward the Queen: “Queen, might I trouble you to sign
this investigation form. I am concerned about one of our Lords and I need your
permission for this.”
“Stupid
idiot”, Marlene shouted to the screen. She was standing in her own room at the
cruiser. Commander Schwarz entered the room two hours earlier and after a short
dinner Marlene trapped him as planned. The sex wasn’t great and the dinner
before neither. But it was enough, it was enough to
convince him. When the battle started, he would go to the Chancellors ship and
give the Chancellor the package. Schwarz was told that he would give a present
for the oncoming victory. Unfortunately for them both it would release a toxin
and trigger the explosives on board after a few minutes. Later it would look
like the engine was overloaded by GMG fire. But now she was shouting to the
monitor. “Listen Lorean, we paid you for the last 10 years to keep Bretonia out
of it in any way. And now you tell me that the only thing you had to do in this
last 10 years has failed. We must now move ahead of schedule. What do you think
we were paying you for?”
“Well,
Lady Marlene, I thought that.”
“Stop it, I do not want to hear your excuses. Our agents in
Lorean
received his orders and ended the transmission. “Stupid bitches. First the Queen and now this Rheinland woman. They all push
me around like some doll. They will regret it someday. But for now I will play
along with them.” He looked at the orders and pushed a button. “Get me an agent
of Bowex on the line. They need to ship something out of Rheinland for me.”
"Gentlemen,
I would like to give the word to Major Suzaka." Suzaka walked before the
table in the conference room. The GMG directors were almost all there. Also
representatives of Kishiro Technologies and Samura Industries were attending.
"Gentlemen,
as you have read in the report, Rheinland has built up considerable military
forces in the last decade. They also increased their fuel reserves
considerably. This is for one reason only: the sigma 13 system." She
waited to let the words settle in on the board members: "Rheinland’s eye
is fixed on the fuel recourses there and we can not allow that. The fuel mined
by the GMG supplies all of Sirius. It is one of the main export products of
Kusari. It is vital that Kusari holds that monopoly. This means we will have to
fight. Your chairman has spoken with the other Keiretsu. They have agreed to
aid as much as possible. However, these forces may not be enough."
"Can't
the government do anything?" The question was asked by the representative
of the dockworkers from the station.
"Officially,
no. But unofficially, yes. Currently there are negotiations with the Bretonia
and Liberty governments. Liberty seems to stay away from any conflict and will
not aid us. However, Bretonia is willing to negotiate. They seem to be willing
to pay in various manners, in trade for rights in the tau
systems. Aside from that, we suggest an sudden price
increase of fuel. This can also be paid with security forces. To make things
short, the government is already painting GMG emblems on the ships. However,
there can be no battleship support. There can also be no official support. As I
understand Samura and Kishiro will dedicate some security forces also. And,
important on the long run, all deals and trades with Rheinland are off. Every
Rheinland ship, government or otherwise, are not wanted. Every ship flying
under the Rheinland flag may be shot by GMG forces. And every jumpgate and
jumphole will be monitored by Kusari naval forces, flying under GMG flag. The
official documents are currently being made and they will be delivered to your
desks as soon as possible. They also incorporate the transfer of personel. Kusari has also given a list of former generals
and ones that are willing to join the GMG for this war. This is for a fleet
commander. This person will be leading the defence fleet, if you allow
it."
"That
will not be necessary." It was Toriyoshi.
"You
must understand, chairman" Suzaka replied. "This is not a simple
pirate incursion. These are trained forces, with battleships and combat
experience. With all respect to the Guild, nobody here has the qualifications
to command such a force here."
"You
misunderstand me. I know that we will need a commander with training and
experience. But, if the board allows, I would like you as that commander, miss Suzaka." He looked at the members: "Is there
anyone who has a problem with Major Suzaka?"
The room
stayed silent until the dockworkers representative spoke: "Yes, I have. It
should be commander Suzaka.
A laugh
went through the room, until the door opened. A man walked in, went to Suzaka
and said something in her ear.
"Gentlemen,
one of our agents in Rheinland transmitted from the
"It
has begun"