Chapter One Hundred and Three - Decency

"You killed my family and yet you don't even have the decency to know who I am?" the woman on screen asked.

"Sorry?" Twenty-Six said. "But, uh, when did this happen? I don't remember killing anyone."

"And I don't know who you are, so kindly shut up," she snapped. "Aurora Sterlingworth. You killed my sister. You ruined years of planning. And now, for the temerity you showed, I give you a choice."

"Pause a moment," Aurora said. "I still don't know who you are, and I don't recall killing anyone. No one here has killed anyone..." Aurora glanced over to Pixie, who was a bounty hunter, then Sonic Spectre, then Ivil herself.

"I'll need a timeframe for that one," Ivil said. "It's been... at least a few days. Maybe even a week."

"Yes, well, I don't know who your sister is, but I don't think we assassinated her. This must be a misunderstanding."

"It isn't," the woman said. "Do you fail to remember every person you kill?"

Ivil leaned back. She had a pretty decent memory, certainly, but she didn't like clogging it with unnecessary data. No one kept track of how many times their heart beat in a day. It was just something that happened. "Knowing that it's a woman does, statistically, narrow it down," she admitted. "But we'll need more specificity than that."

Bleue must have overheard her, because she growled over the line. "You killed Rouge. If that was all, I might have been satisfied in sending assassins after you, but then you proceeded to foil plan after plan."

Aurora rocked back. "That's the pirate woman," she said after muting the mic. "The one on the station where we acquired the Sappho."

"Ohhhh," Twenty-Six said. "Yeah, I remember her. She was kinda ho-- horrible. Because she's a pirate. And those are bad."

"Yes, very horrible," Ivil agreed. "Because pirates are bad, bad girls."

"That's right," Twenty-Six agreed with a nod.

Pixie didn't seem impressed with their bold-faced duplicity. "You two are incorrigible. And if I ever discover a pirate joining in on... whatever this is, I'm shooting them, then the rest of you."

"Noted," Ivil said. "In any case, yes, I remember killing her. I suppose this is attempted revenge?"

"I suppose so," Aurora said before unmuting the mic. "It seems as if we recall the woman you were talking about. While you have my most sincere condolences for the loss of a family member you no doubt cherished, you must understand that she died in the act of committing piracy. On us."

"Oh, I'm not so sentimental that I can't understand that," Bleue said. "That was just business. A bad move. What really pisses me off is how at every turn since you've arrived in the Jovian system you've been undermining me and my company."

Aurora muted the mic again. "Miss Penderghast, Miss Mint, might I inquire as to if either of you have access to recent financial records? Especially the Jovian stock market?"

"I should have that, yes," Pepper said. She tapped her tablet a few times, then looked up to meet Aurora's curious gaze. "What are you looking for, exactly?"

"Can you draw up the Thebe Corporation's records for the past quarter?" Aurora asked.

Pepper nodded, then drew up just that. Ivil noted that the company had been on a slight rise for some time, only to take a nosedive in the last week.

"Interesting," Aurora said as she glanced over the data. She unmuted the mic once more. "Forgive me for the constant interruptions. I was looking up some pertinent data with regards to what you said. It does seem as though your company has suffered some losses recently, but I can't see how any of these relate to myself or my companions."

Ivil had sunk a few companies before, but only rarely by accident.

"Are you saying that Phobos's increased presence in the system was a mistake? That Mars' sudden interest in exporting materials to Jupiter is a fluke? That you weren't plotting the demise of the corporation with the other delegates this entire time?" Bleue asked, while seemingly working herself up to a frothing frenzy.

"Um," Aurora said. It was unusual for Ivil to see her hesitate so much, but Aurora looked like she was genuinely confused. "I believe so, yes? To be clear, I believe that most if not all of the events you mentioned were at most coincidentally related to you and the Thebe Corporation."

"I don't believe you," Bleue said.

"That seems like your prerogative. In any case, we have business around Uranus. Your small merchant fleet is standing in our path. Please desist and move aside before this turns bloody. We can discuss the legal ramifications of your assault and your accusations at a later time."

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The ship lurched as Pixie fired half of their manoeuvring thrusters all at once and made the Sappho pull a wide barrel roll. A split second later a shot from a particle cannon cut through the space they'd occupied.

"Nice dodge," Ivil said.

"Mostly instinct," Pixie replied. "And some experience dealing with pirates. The moment you remind them that you're willing and able to sue, they tend to open fire. I think it's like... an allergic reaction. Like a sneeze."

"Do all pirates do that?" Twenty-Six asked.

"No, of course not. The really scary ones have lawyers."

Ivil took a split second to observe the situation. Their discussion with Bleue Herring had brought the Sappho far closer to the Thebe Corporation fleet. At the moment they were flying backwards towards the fleet, their main thruster still firing to slow them down for an approach around Uranus that would have them captured by Oberon's orbit.

The Silent Sentinel Washer at the Gates wasn't too far behind. Its own slow-burn wasn't as harsh as what the Sappho could endure while Ivil negated the negative side effects of so many Gs of force.

Ivil sat up straighter. This was, in essence, a fleet action now. Her side had a pocket cruiser and a ship about as large as a well-armed destroyer. Against them, three cargo ships, all of which seemed to be retrofitted to cause some trouble, three patrol destroyers, likely armed with relatively light guns but plenty of point-defence installations, and a frigate. A commercial war frigate, so likely nothing as potent as a Martian frigate, but still a large enough vessel that was well armed judging by the near-miss from one of its guns.

Considering the odds, the Thebe Corporation actually had a strong leg up.

Then Ivil placed herself on the scale and the scale flipped over, broke into a million pieces, and then those pieces spontaneously combusted.

There was a standard method to space combat in this day and age. Mostly, it involved out-maneuvering foes for days or weeks at a time until the side with the longer weapon range killed their enemy.

Warfare at the moment was very much about leveraging long-ranged attacks as best as possible. That meant supplementing warships with disposable decoys and missiles and drones. Anything to extend one side's range while negating the other's advantage.

Once that barrier of range was crossed, however, the winner was usually the one who could outshoot their enemy first.

Missiles were again popular, but so were lasers, kinetic weapons, smart rounds, and basically anything that Martian R&D could produce to justify their multi-trillion dollar budget.

"Hey, Captain Antagonist," Pixie said, and the name almost had Ivil burst out into laughter, though she didn't, because that would ruin her cool and suave image.

"Yes?" she asked.

"We're safe to keep on moving, right? Because my instinct right now is to spin us around and gun it, orbital entry be damned."

"We'll be just fine," Ivil said. "Sonic, you may want to inform the Silent Sentinel Washer at the Gates that I won't be protecting them as passively. Though there might be some proactive protection."

"Proactive protection?" Twenty-Six asked. "Why does that sound like something really violent?"

Outside, the nearest of the cargo freighters opened its sides, revealing that the containers within were little more than disguised missile pods. The space between them filled with a few dozen smoke trails and the Sappho's alarms started up again.

"It's somewhat violent, yes, but you don't have to worry," Ivil said. "It won't be violent for you."

The missiles the cargo ship had fired suddenly spun around on their own axes and blasted back towards the large ship. It fired more missiles in retaliation, but the mind guiding those was merely artificial.

"How are we feeling about survivors?" Ivil asked.

"Needless complication," Pixie said. Then she noticed the others giving her looks, and she shrugged. "What? They're pirates. Maybe not officially, but they want to do piratical things, and one doesn't suffer a pirate to live. If you do, they hatch revenge plots, and that's what got us here in the first place."

"I will... opt to not speak up, for fear of compromising my own moral integrity," Aurora said. "But also, I want to highlight how this will be very noticeable. The Earth Alliance fleet will see what's happening."

A large explosion lit up a tiny corner of space in the bridge's window as the cargo freighter ate its own payload.

"Yes, I was counting on that," Ivil said.

***

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