Starship's Mage: Episode 5 Read Online Free PDF Page A

hidden colony, the old Mafia Families stretched their power across the Protectorate, and challenge the Syndicate at every turn. To them, the Blue Star Syndicate – his Syndicate, the most powerful crime organization in the galaxy – was a mere newcomer to the scene.
    “An opportunity indeed,” he agreed. “What do you know of their defenses?”
    “They were built to withstand a full squadron of Martian destroyers,” Wong told him. “The Azure Gauntlet is almost half again that squadron’s mass, and double its firepower. An assault on the station itself would be more difficult.”
    “Do we have the men?” Azure asked, considered the stars. The Blue Jay was a more valuable prize than Darkport, but if he could take both, it would be well worth the risk.
    “We would need time to prepare,” Wong replied. “Most of my crew have combat training, but we would need to refresh them and fabricate arms and armor for them.”
    “How long?”
    “Twelve hours,” the Tracker explained. “I did not wish to jump to Darkport without knowing if you planned to seize it or simply pursue the Blue Jay .”
    “Oh, my dear Mister Wong,” Mikhail Azure told him as he turned to face Wong, a cold smile on his face. “With your well-timed warning, I believe we can do both.”
     
    #
     
    Rice called a staff meeting as soon as he and Damien had returned to the Blue Jay . His meeting with the ship parts dealer on Darkport had been even more productive than he’d hoped, and he’d returned to the ship with a briefcase full of details. He’d noticed the young Mage had acquired a similar case of his own, but Damien had been unusually non-committal when asked about it.
    The youth had disappeared when they’d arrived back at the ship, but was still one of the first to arrive in the conference room on Rib A. Kellers, Jenna and Mike Kelzin drifted in shortly after the Mage. David waited for everyone to finish seating themselves, and then opened the briefcase to pull out the datachips he’d been provided.
    “We have a lot of work to get done in a short time,” he told them, “so I’ll give you the quick rundown.”
    “I’ve acquired several weapon systems we’re going to get mounted on the Blue Jay ,” he continued. The cost of said systems was still boggling him, but that wasn’t his crew’s issue. Thanks to the LMID’s payment for the Chrysanthemum shipment, he could afford it, but it was going to gut his reserves.
    “First, we’re getting two military-grade battle lasers.” David pulled an icon over from one of the datachips, flipping a blue highlighted wireframe of the weapons onto the image of the ship on the big screen behind the table. “These are two gigawatt pulse lasers, used by the Navy’s last generation of destroyers.” He looked at Kellers. “James, I’m assuming we can run them through the radiation cap without too many issues. The specs are on the chips,” he gestured towards the pile of datachips he’d dumped out of the briefcase, “so let me know ASAP if that isn’t the case.”
    “Those beams are energy hogs like you won’t believe, boss,” the dark-skinned chief engineer warned. “I don’t know if we can feed them from our current plant.”
    “I know we can’t,” David agreed. “The next piece we’re getting after those two is a new five gigawatt fusion plant, the exact same model as our current reactor. The dealer says – and I count on you tell me if he’s wrong – that we can basically bolt the reactor section on as a module at the front of the ship, replacing a bunch of our cargo space. Since we don’t have the tanker anymore…”
    “We have over a quarter of our cargo pylons free,” Kellers agreed. “We’ll need to re-arrange the containers we have left.”
    “My boys will take care of it,” Kelzin, the ship’s First Pilot, interjected. “I don’t know about anyone else, but I don’t trust this place with cargo.”
    “I’m unhappy enough trusting them to cut through