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The Captain's Authority 1 For Sidecord By Draconicon

The halls of the Silumgar were modified beyond the scope of most Dreadnought-class ships, with each passage raised by eight feet more than the normal plans and widened by another ten. It left them with fewer overall decks, but it meant that the captain could walk through the ship without being cramped.

Which Rumiir appreciated, considering the difficulties that he had with other ships before he could afford this one. The blue dragon strolled along, his tail sweeping in a wide arc behind him, his wings tucked tight to his back. The halls were wide enough for him to extend them if he needed to, but it was more comfortable not to drag the tips along the edges of the passage if he didn't have to.

Four legs carried him through the ship relatively quickly, despite its massive size. He had reason to move quickly. According to Comms Officer Alexsus, he was needed on the bridge. Something about chatter she was picking up towards the edge of the system.

Despite the urgency, he kept his pace measured, if quick. Androids, robots, and the occasional female crew member nodded at him as he passed by, and he gave them a short but respectful nod in return.

Wonder what's waiting out here, Rumiir thought to himself, the feral dragon pulling together what information he had. Not like the militia reaches this far out. Even the edge of the system would be dangerous for any law enforcement, unless they had solid information about where someone would be. And I haven't fucked them over, lately.

Not since the apple-stuffing incident, at least. He chuckled at the memory, and particularly of the stiff-legged walk that his opposing captain had displayed after they were done.

So, not law enforcement. Perhaps some competition.

If so...well, there could be some fun to be had there.

He reached the bridge, the automatic doors sliding open for him as he passed the biometric scanners. As soon as they opened, a familiar voice called out.

"Captain on deck!"

As one, the various officers stood from their terminals, snapping a quick salute. Rumiir responded with a flick of his tail, and they sat back down, their eyes on their consoles or - in the case of Weapons Officer Victoria - pacing back and forth behind the various gunners and their consoles.

He made his way to the center of the bridge, where his security officer waited. The python stood with her arms crossed under her breasts, and considering the skintight nature of her clothes, it was quite a lovely sight. Rumiir chuckled to himself as he settled down on the high-gravity 'seat' that the ship designers had put together for him, feeling the additional tug keeping his body in place.

"Good to see that you're keeping discipline."

"We might be pirates, big guy, but that doesn't mean we can't be good at our job. Show a little pride, huh?"

"You know it."

The seat molded itself around his bottom half, leaving a hole for his tail to slide through and a few supports along the high back for his wings. He pressed his forelegs into the long bottom of it, looking out through the transparent panels that served as windows. There wasn't much to see. The last planet in this system's orbital rings had already been passed, and ahead was a vast array of stars. Any planets would be too far away to actually see from here...and ships would be too hard to see until they were close enough to start firing.

He turned his head, looking towards the rabbit a few consoles down.

"Comms Officer, what's the situation?"

Alexsus turned her swivel chair around, looking up at him. The rabbit's ears dropped down over her head, one behind and one in front of her, the latter getting pushed out of the way before she cleared her throat.

"Sorry to disturb you, Captain, but I'm picking up something. Chatter on some scrambled channels from about 150k out."

"Anything dangerous?"

"Maybe. It's not militia encryption, but it's not that good, either. I can probably pull it apart if you give me a few minutes."

He looked forward again. 150k wasn't that much; a little less than half the distance from the surface of a number of planets to their moons. They'd cover that distance in short order, possibly quicker than the rabbit could unscramble the frequencies.

"Has the source of the chatter shifted in the last few minutes?"

"No, sir."

"Ambush, probably...Stop forward movement."

He felt the soft rumble through the ship as all the engines suddenly reversed, cutting off their forward momentum. Several of the other officers started sliding around, but thanks to the high gravity of his own seat, he didn't feel it. It was a rather nice boon. Even gave him a nice look at some of the ladies that slipped sideways, for that matter, considering those tight jumpsuits clutched at everything.

The dragon chuckled to himself, gesturing with a forepaw for Alexsus to continue her scanning and decoding. As the rabbit got back to work, the dragon turned his attention to Rashii again.

"What do you think we're up against?"

"Best guess? Another bunch of pirates that think that they should get a cut of our work."

"Don't you think they'd have learned by now?"

"Heh, I hope not, big guy. Half the fun of this job is showing them just where they belong."

Smiling, Rumiir nodded his agreement. There was something to be gained from being a pirate, that was true enough. There were few other ways to amassing as much wealth as he and his crew had done, and there were few better careers that allowed him to spend it on things that interested him without consequence.

That said, the real joy was showing everyone else how much better he was, and he loved it when his opponents gave him the opportunity to do it.

Though he received several glances from Weapons Officer Victoria as they waited, he gave the raptor a slow nod to wait. She kept going back to pacing, her claws clicking along the deck as she went from one side of her consoles to the other, impatiently tapping her foot before making another pass. The other officers weren't so bad, but he could tell that they were eager to keep moving. Being in one place was a bad habit for any pirate, even when they were on leave.

He wasn't about to walk them into a situation that they didn't know about, though, and he wasn't about to hurry Alexsus along, either. The rabbit knew her business, and he wasn't going to tell her how to -

"I think I've got it, Captain."

"And a good thing to hear, Officer. Tell me what you got."

"Sounds like a patchwork fleet out there. Some heavy ships, some fighters. Pirate captains, too, no law enforcement or militia."

"Hmmm."

He leaned back, his wings flattening against his back. It wasn't the first time that he'd had pirates come swooping in to try and take stuff from him, but it was the first time that they brought more than one large ship. Or at least, what sounded like large ships.

"Have any names for me, Alexsus?"

"Three, sir. Cammus, Kandy, and Torgul."

"Ah...now that makes some sense."

"Sir?"

"Bring engines online again, but don't move forward yet. Helmsman Gloria, I want a fast jump forward, 147k, instantaneous. Broadsides facing towards the coordinates that Alexsus gives you."

"Aye, sir."

As the mare set to work, tapping out the computations on her console, he turned towards the raptor again. Victoria was already smiling at him in anticipation, her eyes lighting up like the predator that she was. He chuckled to himself, nodding.

"Get the broadsides ready. I want a full barrage at the biggest ship they have, as soon as we come out of the jump."

"Aye-aye, sir!"

Shouts of armaments went flying through the air as the raptor started pulling her people together, and Rumiir settled back with a smile on his snout. It was going to be one hell of a show, he was sure.

Torgul was one of those pirates that never learned his lesson the first time. He'd run into the wolf a few times before, always during a raid on some of the outer planets, and the other pirate always thought that he was entitled to some of the scavenging work on the wrecks that Rumiir left behind. He'd been chased off three times, and still hadn't learned his lesson.

More than that, he wasn't quite a pirate, at least not to the dragon. The wolf was more like a...a parasite, he supposed. Chasing after those that he couldn't be beaten by, and trafficking in slaves more than weapons or goods. Particularly lately, considering the prices of those people had jumped in the outer territories.

I'm looking forward to seeing how he takes this particular defeat...and seeing just who those other two are, that were stupid enough to get involved with him.

The helmsman turned his way, the mare nodding. Rumiir nodded back.

"All ahead."

The space ahead of them stretched. These short jumps were generally not recommended by the safety manual, but pirates tended to disregard that as a general rule. And besides, he'd seen Gloria take them through asteroid fields, through gravitational anomalies, and seen her thread the needle between twin planet gravitational fields with her piloting skills. There was nothing to be worried about.

He felt the ship turn, the mare throwing them into a drift in space, and felt the structure of the ship creak and groan from the stress on it, at the speed they were moving pulling the ship into different stress angles.

He resisted the urge to call for shields. It wouldn't do much, and the energy signature would give them away faster than anything. Besides, the Silumgar would last. It usually did.

Usually.

The flickering lights outside of the ship suddenly faded back to normal stars, and there, just outside of the port bridge windows, were the enemy ships.

Seven larger ones, alright. A command ship in the center of a crescent, with a carrier at its side, and a heavy cruiser on the other. The outer parts of their little ring were made up of a destroyer and a missile frigate on each side, and the ship's warning alarms for proximity were going off already.

Rumiir merely smiled, gesturing with a claw at his raptor Weapon's Officer. Victoria lifted a scaly arm and dropped it.

"Fire broadsides!"

Particle beams, turret weapons, and missiles went streaming out of the port side of his ship. Half of the missiles went flying towards the small ships that were coming off of the carrier, while the rest slammed into the sides of the command ship, heavy cruiser, and the nearer of the two destroyers. The carrier went down almost immediately, cracking along the nose, and he saw the signature puffs of air leaking from the massive hole in the ship.

You won't be releasing any fighters anytime soon.

"Alexsus, open a channel to the command ship, if you would."

"Opening channel."

A holographic display popped up in front of him, with a vested wolf on the other end. Torgul, alright. The wolf wasn't one for any of the better looks out there. Rumiir shook his head.

"That was a warning shot, Torgul. Are you going to get out of my way? You know this isn't going to work."

"I outnumber you six to one, still. And the carrier's still salvageable."

"Is it? I'm pretty sure that missile blew a hole bigger than any of its ships in the bow. I'm not putting long odds on it making it."

"I'm not putting long odds on you surviving. Heh. Why don't you just give up your cargo, huh? I know you got a pretty good haul in there. Just hand it over, and I'll let you go."

Rumiir chuckled, slowly looking down at Rashii. The snake was pretty good at judging the odds. He had a good opinion of their survival.

And so did she, by the way she nodded back as enthusiastically as she did. He turned back to the screen, shaking his head a few times.

"I think we'll take the hard way. Hard way right up your ass."

"You...Okay, you think you can take this, then?"

"Sir, the heavy cruiser Dominus is gathering speed," his scanning officer called out. "Building up energy in the engines, as well. I'm not detecting any lifeforms aboard."

"Ahhh, he's going through with ramming us, then."

"Bring all firepower on that ship! Blow it up before it gets -"

"Belay that, Victoria."

The raptor groaned, and he chuckled. Always so eager to show off the gunnery power of the ship. He couldn't blame her, in all honesty. The power of the Silumgar's weaponry was pretty amazing, and there were those that would learn a lesson by coming under the guns if they had to. But there were other things that the Dreadnaught could do, as well. Certainly more things that he'd like Torgul to see.

"Wait until the ship is within 5000 meters, and then activate deflectors."

The bridge crew looked at each other, and a low chuckle started to echo throughout the room. Rumiir didn't join them, but he did smile in agreement.

He didn't bother responding to the little pin-pricks of laser-fire that came from the destroyers. They were barely more than a distraction to something of this size. He was more focused on the heavy cruiser that was coming in, noticing the distinct lack of turrets along the top and bottom, the way that the armored ship had been stripped of everything but its armor. Probably to ensure that he couldn't do what Victoria wanted, though he was reasonably sure that it would still go down if he took a few good shots at it.

But why do that, when he could completely demoralize the pirate crew with this?

As the ship closed the distance, the Dominus suddenly accelerated. It was on a crash course, now, right for his sides, aiming down towards his engine section. He admitted, if Torgul had kept the element of surprise, launching the heavy cruiser at him while he was engaged with fighters and the missile frigates, it might have been a viable strategy. As it was, the ship was pushing forward into the danger zone without distractions.

It passed the twenty-thousand meter mark...ten-thousand...five -

"Activate deflectors."

Their view was suddenly colored blue as the shimmering protective field came up, sheathing the ship in the glowing color. The communications channel was already closed, but he could juuuuust imagine the wolf looking utterly shocked at the sight of that. He'd never used the deflectors before; he'd never had to.

The Dominus hit them just above the engine rooms at the back of the ship, the impact enough to spin them slightly. However, it just gave him a better view as the rapidly rotating shielding effect shredded the front of the heavy cruiser...and protected the ship entirely from the fireball that started devouring it from the back.

"What do you think, Rashii? Proximity detonator?"

"I'm guessing more of a shockwave through the ship. Considering how much he's stripped it, I'll bet that he stored all the ammo towards the front, along with some spare fuel, to start up a combustion that'd blow through the ship when he cracked through. Heh. Not working so well for it now, though."

"Not at all, not at all."

The other ships were starting to spin around, moving to different angles. The carrier was still non-responsive, but the command ship was rising upwards, likely trying to get a view from the space 'above' the battlefield, but Rumiir wasn't about to let that happen.

"Victoria, target our missile batteries on the command ship. Make sure that he's not able to move freely, if you would. Target the rest of our batteries towards the missile frigates until they're disabled. Other than that...have fun."

"Aye-aye, sir! Get me a lock, girls! I want a good shot at that asshole. Now!"

It was always fun to let the officers have their own freedoms, Rumiir found. A good captain should allow talent to flourish. Better that they learn how to take these people down on their own rather than him pulling the strings all the time.

Not to mention that Victoria has one hell of an ass, and she might be more interested in handing it over after a good time, he thought with a smirk, his sheath swelling slightly at the thought.

But that would be for another time. Passing an order to Alexsus to keep him informed of the level of panic on the other end of the battle, he watched the progression through his own consoles, taking in the information from all the various operations.

The missile frigates were already in complete disarray. Both the Rapacious and the Obliterator were having issues keeping their engines going, let alone their targeting systems, and they were getting ripped to shreds every time that Victoria launched another volley of the particle weapons. The Obliterator in particular was getting...obliterated, getting pieces of its hull sliced off every time the raptor called out another shot.

The command ship above them, the Wolfpack, was not in much better shape. The missile batteries targeting them and following them was making sure that Torgul didn't have the chance to interfere with them, nor do anything that would keep the others organized. He imagined that the other captains - this Kandy and Cammus - were likely regretting their decision to help out with this particular ambush.

Finally, the Obliterator went down with a crashing explosion, lighting up the space it lay in for a moment before disappearing into blackness again. He shook his head. Quite a pity to see a ship go like that, but there was no need for more in his operations, and there was definitely little need for enemies that might backstab him later.

As the Rapacious joined her sister frigate in that fate, the destroyers started to take flight. He arched an eyebrow.

"Alexsus, status report?"

"Looks like Torgul's ordering them to cover his retreat before we blow his ass out with missiles, sir."

"Hmm, we can't have that. Helmsman, bring us about. I want you to line up a good disabling shot for Victoria, and then we'll pass between them."

The raptor's eyes looked like glowing lights from her excitement, and she rushed over to him as the mare took that route.

"Please, please, please tell me I get to use...everything."

"Heh, yes, Victoria. Use everything."

"Oooooh, this is gonna be good."

The raptor ran back to her station, shouting at the other gunners to load everything they had. The high-end missiles, the extra power cells for the particle beams, everything. Rumiir could already imagine the explosions that would come out of that, and he chuckled...even as Rashii glared at him.

"What's the matter?"

"You're going to blow up everything without leaving me something to work on?"

"Oh, don't worry about that one, Rashii."

He smiled.

"I have something special planned...Knowing Torgul, this isn't going to end just with blowing up his fleet."

Not with that cowardly wolf. There was always some way out that he tried to keep for himself, and he doubted that this was any different. The dragon had shooed him off, blown him up, and done who knew how much damage to the wolf's operations, but Torgul kept coming back for more.

If it wasn't nearly impossible, he'd think that the wolf was some sort of sucker for punishment.

The Silumgar turned towards the three departing ships. The destroyers were already somewhat damaged, no longer able to push ahead of the Dreadnought, and he pushed onwards. He could feel the slight strain that came with the engines being pushed past their normal power, but if they were going to do this lesson, they were going to do it right.

The nose of his ship pushed between the destroyers, forcing them apart and giving them space. The inset-nature of the guns on the sides protected them from being sheared off, and gave them juuuust enough of a holding area for the explosions that were about to come.

Soon, the nose of his ship pressed past the ends of the destroyers, and he looked over at the raptor.

"Fire when ready, officer."

"Thank you, sir."

Victoria cleared her throat, the raptor looking port, then starboard, before grinning like a maniac.

"Ladies...FIRE!"

The explosions rocked the ship as the missiles and particle cannons and everything else rocked through the destroyers. There was no way for them to survive, no way for the smaller ships to come back from something like that. Their momentum kept them moving forward, but Rumiir would put long odds on anything surviving after that.

The Silumgar pushed past the sucking hulks, and called for another channel. Alexsus gave it to him, and Torgul popped up in front of him again.

"Well, you were saying that you were going to win this, Torgul, but frankly, I don't really see it happening."

"You cheated."

"Really? You were trying to make an ambush happen, and you say I cheated just because I figured it out?"

"You...I...Look, it doesn't matter. I'm leaving, and you can just fuck right off."

"Leaving? Oh, I don't think so. Not this time."

"...What?"

"All those other times, you tried to settle in and steal something from me. You've tried attacking me openly before. This time, you brought other people into our little feud."

The dragon shook his head.

"That's not acceptable, my little pest. You aren't allowed to start reaching out. I never have, have I?"

"You've got a fucking Dreadnought! You don't have to!"

"Oh, real mature. If you were a half-capable captain, you could probably figure out something that might work. But no. You had to go out and get help, and show just how weak and worthless you actually are.

"But more to the point. You've shown that you can't just be left alone. You're not going to stop, and now, I have a chance to end you for good."

"...You're bluffing."

"Victoria, do we have any of the big missiles left?"

"Four, sir."

"Load them, and target the engines."

"Wait! If you shoot those, you're going to blow everything to kingdom come!"

"I already told you that was the plan."

"What if I gave you everything that I know? What if I told you -"

"Are we locked, Victoria?"

"Locked and ready, sir."

"You can't - this is a death sentence."

Rumiir couldn't help but smile slightly, slowly shaking his head a few times. It was taking this wolf so long to grasp such a simple concept.

"That's the whole point...but I believe you can still run. Try. Go on. I like a good chase..."

The display cut out, and he imagined Torgul running like hell through the ship. Probably fighting with the other pirate captains, for that matter, struggling to get to the escape pods ahead of everyone else. No honor among thieves, certainly.

He hummed a little tune. Not so much for the music itself as it was for the timing of it. He would allow a little chance. Not much, but a little.

Seconds ticked by, ten, twenty, thirty. He hummed, tapping a claw against his seat. Forty, fifty, sixty -

"Fire."

"FIRE EVERYTHING!"

Victoria's shout was met with a slight rocking of the ship as the missiles were launched. They went streaming from the ship, leaving a bigger trail through space than usual before it faded. Rumiir recognized the armament. Heavy stuff, looking to blow the hell out of the ship. Even one of them to the engines probably would have brought down the command ship, but all four would send the Wolfpack straight to hell.

They slammed into the rear of the ship, and if Rumiir wasn't mistaken, one went right into one of the engine holes. He chuckled.

Trust Victoria to aim for one of them.

The subsequent explosion was as huge and grand as anyone could have expected or asked for. The command ship went up in a plume of green and red flames, the light sucked away almost immediately by the darkness and void of space. The crew leaped to their feet, cheering at their win, and Rumiir gave a nod to Rashii to allow the snake to join in.

As the crew celebrated, he tapped a few buttons on his chair, bringing the information from the scanning officer to his particular console. The most recent scans showed that the ship had been perforated with internal explosions, that the atmosphere had been vented completely through holes the size of small fighter craft on every deck. There was little to be found in the cargo bay, just a couple of pieces here and there, but -

Rumiir tapped the images on his display, magnifying it a few times over. There was something that had been ejected at the last second. Not an escape pod - too large for that - but something that looked like it might have some value to it. A cargo pod, perhaps large enough for a small freighter's worth of goods, or, more likely for Torgul, a number of slaves that he was planning to sell.

That meant that there was some salvage from this, after all.

He closed the display, turning his attention to the python. His security officer immediately rushed over to his side, snapping a quick salute, and he leaned in, whispering.

"I want you to get together a little salvage team together. They ejected something all quiet-like just before the explosion, and I want to see if it's something valuable or something dangerous."

"Can't scan it?"

"Tried. Looks like it's covered up. One of those stealth things."

"Hmmmph."

"We use it too, remember?"

"Doesn't mean it's any less annoying."

"Heh. I know. But go and get it, and then come right back."

"You got it, big guy."

The python darted off of the bridge, and Rumiir went back to watching his people celebrate. It was hardly a hard fight, but it was good to let them get out all their excitement now. Otherwise, they'd end up drinking it off later, and there wasn't much to be gained from a drunk crew. Particularly when they all looked this good...

The dragon's eyes lingered on the well-displayed rumps of so many of the ladies, particularly the helmsman mare and the raptor by the guns. A scaly ass and a soft, fuzzed one. Side to side, without the suits on to cover them...he licked his lips at the thought, and wondered if either of them would be interested in trying something like that. Wouldn't hurt to ask, he supposed, though he doubted that they would do anything about it.

Heh, sometimes I wish I wasn't so nice a captain...

The celebration came to an end a few minutes before Rashii returned, though everybody was fine with waiting for a bit. The fact that they'd taken out a fleet of competitors was enough to make them feel safe enough. That display of might would be more than enough to keep anyone but a full militia fleet away, and they'd get warning of that many ships long before they got close enough to fire.

Rumiir, on the other hand, was getting antsy. The more that he waited, the more he wanted to know what had been left behind by the other captain. Torgul doubtlessly had something in mind, and he doubted it was something generous for someone else.

If it's not some way for him to escape, then it's a trap for me. Something that I'll have to disarm before it does something to my ship.

Slightly paranoid at the idea, the dragon excused himself from the bridge, sliding out through the sliding doors and making his way towards the cargo bay. Down several decks - in an elevator that was just as enlarged as the halls were - and over towards the center of the ship, the captain made his way past the usual ensemble of robots and androids, and the few crew members that Rashii had arranged for the retrieval.

He could already tell that there was something beyond cargo with this, and the feeling only got stronger as he watched the small ships drag the cargo pod through the shield to the bay and lay it down. It was big enough to hold a lot of things, but more than that, it was sealed and had a series of engines of its own. Not much more than floatation rockets, but enough to make it so it could be piloted.

As soon as the cargo hold was properly pressurized, Rumiir descended to the pod. As a feral dragon, he was about as tall as it when he stretched his neck up, and he was able to see that it was probably a multi-level thing, if it was carrying normal goods. He pressed his head to the side of it, hearing a slight shudder of something moving around before it went still.

That was all he needed to know. He nodded to the robots on the floor.

"Open it."

Mechanical arms made short work of the process, and as soon as it came open, the cargo was revealed. Five dozen slaves, kept in little more than collars and chains, and three people that were most definitely not slaves. Torgul the wolf, as well as two females - a vixen and a wolfess - were near the back of the second story of the container, their backs to the wall and trying to hide among all the other females.

His crew yanked them out, dragging them to the ground before restraining them properly. Rumiir loomed over them, chuckling to himself.

"So, you lived through it, after all. Torgul the pirate? More like Torgul the timid."

He shook his head, looking at the other two. They were adorned much like Torgul was, with thick leather vests, but with tighter pants than him. They were probably other slavers, coming together to protect their profits and to try and bring down a real pirate. He could already see some of the benefits of having them around, though...

He shook those thoughts away, looking into the cargo container. The slaves were nearly naked or fully naked in many cases, but he could see some marks of wealth on them. A few accessories here and there, a few faces and bodies that looked particularly well-cared-for. Probably some noble relatives, or someone well off from a rich family that had been kidnapped.

A number of good people here, who would likely have people willing to pay ransoms, now that I think about it...

He turned back to Torgul, smirking at the wolf.

"Looks like I get a chance to show off how much better I am than you at everything. Thank you for the opportunity."

"I swear...I swear that I'm going to get you for this."

"For being better? You're welcome to try. But...first...I think we're going to have a little talk."

"What about?"

"You offered me a lot of information. Like it or hate it, you're going to start sharing it...or I'm going to have to start getting rougher with you."

The End