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

knowledge, the Royal Navy of the Mage-King of Mars had used antimatter missiles for as long as they’d existed.
    “Yeah, but the Tempests are approved by the Martians for police, security and armed transport use,” she replied. “And the Navy authorizes all of their installs. The software is written by the same people as the big antimatter birds.”
    “The code we got has some gaping holes in it where the remote shutdown orders were, too,” Kelly finished grimly. “The arsenal the Captain has us installing would take down a destroyer if we got close enough.”
    “So could the amplifier,” Damien reminded her grimly. “At least these weapons are obvious, not completely invisible.”
    “It’s easier for me to grasp the missiles as a threat,” Kelly admitted. “That these people will happily arm us this heavily – it scares me. I knew the pirates have to come from somewhere, but if it’s this easy to get an armed ship, I’m surprised there aren’t more!”
    “There were, thirty, forty years ago,” Damien told her. “Then there were half a dozen ports like Darkport. The Protectorate hunted them out and destroyed them.”
    Kelly shivered against him.
    “And we’re on this side of that fight,” she said quietly. “The side of the slavers and pirates.”
    “No, we’re not,” Damien told her sharply. “We’re hiding from the Protectorate, yes. But it’s not the Martians we’re getting guns to protect ourselves from – it’s the ‘slavers and pirates.’ Sooner or later, we’ll be back in the light. I promise you,” he said softly, “I will find a way for us all to go home.”
    He held her for a long moment, both of them drawing comfort from the others’ touch.
    “It’s not all on you, you know,” she told him quietly. “It’ll take all of us to dig our way out of this hole – and we all put ourselves here knowing what we were getting into.”
    He thought of the locked case tucked away in his closet, with the skin of a Hand of the King. If he could find a way to get that back to the man’s family, maybe that would buy them some leniency. It wasn’t as if they’d hurt anyone from the Navy, all they’d done was run away.
    “All right,” he conceded, “ we’ll find a way.”
    Kelly’s response was interrupted by the beeping of a priority alert on Damien’s com. He hit an audio-only channel button.
    “Damien,” he answered sharply.
    “It’s Jenna,” the ship’s XO replied. “We have a big problem – a god-damned cruiser just jumped into the system.”
    “And it’s not from the Royal Navy.”
     
    #
     
    The rats ran for their holes, and Mikhail Azure smiled.
    The Azure Gauntlet advanced on Darkport, making no attempt to conceal their intentions. Around him, Wong’s efficient bridge crew went about their duties. The ship’s First Officer, the senior Mage aboard other than Azure, stood by the glowing silver simulacrum at the heart of both bridge and ship.
    “We have identified multiple small craft launching from the asteroid,” one of the junior pirates, a bronze-skinned woman with slanted eyes named Hu, reported. “They appear to be carrying multiple missiles each.”
    “When will we range on them?” Wong asked. Azure remained silent, allowing the bounty hunter to command his ship – he knew the limits of his own expertise.
    “About thirty minutes,” the ship’s gunner, a man named Monroe with dark skin and a spectacular pink Mohawk, reported. “The missiles appear to be Phoenix Sixes –twenty years older and slower than ours. They won’t range on us for ten minutes after that.”
    “Do you wish to speak to the Falcones, my lord?” Wong asked Azure after considering for a moment. “There are several hunter ships at Darkport and the station itself is well armed. Once we have engaged their pilots, I doubt they will talk again until the dust settles.”
    Azure settled himself carefully in his chair – the one added for an Admiral to observe the workings of his