Operation: Pirates vs Drones Read online

  Pirates vs. Drones

  By:

  J.L. Hendricks

  And

  S R Witt

  This book is a work of fiction. All of the characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.

  Copyright (c) 2017 J.L. Hendricks

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the author. Please purchase only authorized electronic editions, and do not participate in or encourage electronic piracy of copyrighted materials.

  This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. It may not be sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you are reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please purchase your own copy.

  Cover Typography by Victoria Cooper

  First Edition February, 2017

  All rights reserved. Copyright © 2017 J.L. Hendricks

  Books from the Operator’s Universe:

  Operation: Snowblind – Written by S R Witt and J.L. Hendricks

  (Look for more in this series from this writing duo, coming soon)

  Other books by J.L. Hendricks:

  Alpha Alien Abduction Tale

  Book 1 – Worlds Away

  Book 2 – Worlds Collide

  Book 3 – Worlds Entwined (Early 2017)

  The Expanding Universe – Scifi Anthology With a Novella From This Universe:

  Worlds Revealed – Book 0.5 (This is the true story of Roswell)

  The Original Eclipse Series

  Book 0.5 – Eclipse of the Beginning

  Book 1 – Eclipse of the Warrior

  Book 2 – Eclipse of Power (coming soon)

  Book 3 – Eclipse of the Heart (coming soon)

  Origins of The Eclipse – A stand-alone series in the Eclipse Universe

  Book 1 – The Eclipse of Time

  Christmas Shifter Romance

  Book 0.5 – Santa Meets Mrs. Claus

  Book 1 – Miss Claus and the Secret Santa

  Table of Contents

  Newsletter Sign-up

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Newsletter Sign-up

  If you want to make sure you hear about the latest and greatest, sign up for my newsletter at: http://jlhendricksauthor.com/newsletter/ I will only send out a few e-mails a month. I hate spam and lots of e-mails from others, so why would I do that to you? I won’t. And I will never sell your address either. I will however, do cover reveals, snippets of new books and giveaways or promos in the newsletter, some of which will only be available to newsletter subscribers. J

  Chapter 1

  “Hellz no! I don’t want anything to do with Operators! They always get into such crazy shitan! Not me. Who’s with me?” Rego, a swab on the pirate ship, Black Pearl, had heard they were going to transport cargo for an Operator group. The Operators were nothing but trouble, and a pirate crew already had more trouble than it could handle always on their heels. They didn’t need a job that was going to bring even more problems to their docking bay door.

  “Rego, ye don’t get a vote. This ain’t no democracy, she be a pirate ship, and I be her captain. If ye don’t like it, ye can walk your pansy butt off me plank! Anyone else wanna argue with me?” Captain Gore eyeballed each of his crew members with his oversized replacement robotic eye bulging from its cybernetic socket.

  He knew the clicking, whirring eye gave them the heebie jeebies every time he looked at them with it, which is exactly what he wanted. This was his ship and the crew reported to him. They didn’t get a say in what odd jobs they took or what targets they hit.

  A round of “No Captain” could be heard all through the ship. Their luck was down a lot lately; the Captain knew he was going to have to deal with a mutiny if he didn’t get some money coming in.

  The last time they accepted an Umbra game scenario, it went bad, really bad! They lost two crew members and didn’t win any credits. Plus, their ship barely made it back to a pirate-friendly dock. Several of the decks didn’t even have oxygen. Every one of them carried a gas mask because the engineering deck had a minor chemical leak. They had to take out a loan to get it space worthy again.

  Gore didn’t want to even think of the loss in rank his entire crew sustained when they lost the last scenario. This time he chose something simple. It wouldn’t put many credits in their account, but it would help to move them up a couple of spots in the rankings if they finished quick and found an easy target to loot and pillage along the way.

  When he’d heard there was a job ferrying the cargo across the quadrant, he’d leaped before looking too hard. Didn’t sound too bad, the pay was decent, and the payment was in a pirate’s favorite currency: gold.

  Usually, a pirate crew scored its loot stealing ships and stripping them for parts, or grabbing cargo to resell to the highest bidder through the Umbra auction sites.

  Ferrying cargo seemed like an easy pay day and a safe, boring job.

  Until now.

  Gore hadn’t known their employer was an Operator until one of the more notorious of them showed up with a giant crate full of who knew what, that the pirate captain really didn’t care to know about. While the Operators usually worked within the law, even if they did skirt the lines now and then, they were still deadly. And revenge generally trailed them wherever they went.

  Captain Gore looked back at his display to see where he missed the fine print.

  ..::..::..||..::..::..//\..::..::..||..::..::..

  SCENARIO: CARGO TRANSFER TO BACKWORLD PLANET: DARJOON

  EXPECTED OPPOSITION: Possible Mechanurge drone sightings near the trade lanes en route to Darjoon, in the Mufesio System (Drones identified two standard weeks prior to assignment date)

  OBJECTIVE 1: Deliver cargo unscathed within 7 standard days (100 points)

  OBJECTIVE 2: Discover a soft target to loot and pillage (150 points)

  BONUS 1: Stay on Target (No friendly casualties, 200 points)

  BONUS 2: Collect a Mechanurge drone’s skull (50 points repeatable)

  SCENARIO REWARD: 750 credit units (conversion rates apply)

  EXPENSES COVERED: Up to 500 credit units (ammunition and fuel reimbursement included)

  Payments are to be in Universal Credits, unless Gold is requested.

  ..::..::..||..::..::..\//..::..::..||..::..::..

  Not one thing was mentioned about working with the wanking butt sniffer Operators, or even who the owner of the cargo was. “Next time, I be checking names first.” Gore mumbled.

  “Alright, stop yer lolly-gagging and get that crate loaded.” The Captain turned to head back inside his ship then thought better of it. “And don’t ye dare take a peek inside of that thing! Who knows what type of boobie traps those metal heads set up in there.”

  “Captain, if I may have a word?” The Operator, Throd, walked to the side of the ship and looked at the Jolly Roger emblazoned in bone white across the Black Pearl’s stern. He gave the image a double take and then said, “Making it obvious who you are?”

  “Why not? Keeps the local thieves and nosey bodies away. Most times we pull into ports where they couldn’t care less wh
o we be.” He shrugged his shoulders. “What’d you want?”

  “I’m a part of the transport. You’re to take me with you and drop me off with the cargo.” Throd stood at least a meter taller than Captain Gore, but Gore didn’t back down for one second.

  “No deal! That wasn’t part of the contract. Ye said cargo, not people or person.”

  “People can be cargo too. How many times have you transported slaves?”

  Captain Gore’s hand rasped across the wiry stubble sprouting in patches across his chin. “That’s different. They belong to the clients. Besides, don’t you have yer own ships ye can use?”

  Throd bristled at the assumption that people were somehow property. The Metal Rats, his crew, included a rescued slave, an Awakened drone, and two different escaped test subjects. These beings were his family, not some piece of equipment to own.

  “Only if we want the entire galaxy to know what I’m up to. Cameras everywhere capture what we do on Dragora.”

  “I see. What about the implants in yer brain?” Captain Gore pointed to the tech on the side of the Operator’s head. All Operators were equipped with an electronic device implanted on the side of their head. This device recorded everything they said or did for the Umbra networks to broadcast to their subscribers.

  “Disabled. No one will see what I’m doing on this trip.”

  “How do I know ye ain’t got yer own assignment here?” Gore eyed the implacable Operator up and down and felt déjà vu flashing in the back of his brain.

  “If my cameras are off, then so is the game.” Throd crossed his thick, metal arms across his chest and raised an eyebrow in defiance. Half of Throd’s body was metal. He set off every metal detector in the known universe, even those engineered to scan Operators. Both of his arms and legs had been replaced years ago with metal. He was more drone than he was human, on the outside.

  “It’s gonna cost extra to feed and house ye. Five standard bars of gold. Or ye can take your cargo back too.” Gore crossed his arms over his chest and used his fake eye to stare down the Operator. It was insolent pirate versus a ruthless operator.

  “Three, and I’ll pay you once we get to our destination.”

  “Unacceptable, payment is always up front.”

  The Operator smiled and said, “Fine, four up front, but not until we’re off orbit. Then you get paid. I don’t trust pirates. You might take my money and leave me here.”

  Gore leered at the Operator, “Ye’re questioning my morals?”

  “You’re a pirate. Don’t you steal for a living?” Throd took a step towards the unruly pirate.

  Captain Gore started to laugh and slapped his thigh. “Ye be smarter than I thought. Of course I steal, but not from an Operator.” He shook both of his hands out in front of him, palms towards the Operator, then put his fists on his hips. “I don’t need yer union of merry misfits banding together and coming after me crew and me. It’s a deal.” He held his right hand out to the extremely tall and rather strong man who had been augmented with too much metal for his liking.

  Chapter 2

  The Captain realized he needed to have a chat with his crew. They were going to be lived when they discovered an Operator onboard. By the stars, he was already fuming. They only looked out for themselves and sometimes they even set up pirates to take their falls. Gore thought he was good at sussing out a liar, but this Throd guy wasn’t giving off any emotion one way or another. It didn’t feel right, but they needed the payout. There was a small voice in the back of his head that wondered if they had met before.

  He thought about how he was going to break the news to the crew while he walked slowly to the gangplank. Wyko was working with a few of the new swabbies to load the last of the provisions for the trip.

  That lazy scum bucket Rego and his cronies were still making merry on the loading dock with their wenches and dice. This band of pirates had a thing for dice games and every single one of them carried a set of dice in their pockets. Even on missions.

  The wenches? There were some in every port they stopped in. Most looked almost identical and he could swear the ugly one sitting on Ailerk’s knee was the same one as the last three ports. She had a huge, disgusting mole in the same place as the last three wenches. It reminded the Captain of those old Earth cartoons with witches. But who knew with this lot maybe that was a requirement to be a wench. Or maybe it was part of their game persona. The Captain walked away wondering if it was possible they were clones. Awful expensive use of such advanced technology, he thought.

  After he made his way up the plank, he stopped and called his crew over.

  “I have good news and bad. What do ye want first?” he asked his crew.

  Rego shook the dice in his closed palm and threw them at the feet of his Captain. “The dice, they call fer good news.” Rego exclaimed as he squinted at the filthy dice on the grimy floor. “Or, is it bad?” He picked up the dice and tried to scrape them clean. “Oh, it be good.” He held up the dice for all to see while he showed off his toothless mouth in a crooked smile.

  The Captain shook his head. “Alright, we be going to make some extra gold on this trip.” His men had a mixture of smiles and narrowed eyes. Most of those smiling showed either mouths with missing teeth or full of gold caps. Hygiene wasn’t a priority for pirates, which is why their ship perpetually smelled of sweat and grease. Scents that tended to make most noses twitch from the ammonia-like stench.

  They lived in the moment and worried not about what might happen tomorrow. Until they met up with pretty wenches, then they wished they had taken better care of themselves. Maybe the next assignment he took would have a hygiene component. Gore brought up the Augmented Reality interface and adjusted the scoring table for his crew.

  ..::..::..||..::..::..//\..::..::..||..::..::..

  +10 points for brushing your teeth. Repeatable daily.

  +10 points for taking a shower. Repeatable daily.

  ..::..::..||..::..::..\//..::..::..||..::..::..

  “So, what’s the bad news Cap’n?” Wyko asked. Wyko was a swab, but he was smart. He normally got along with the Captain and didn’t question him too much, at least not anywhere near the Captain.

  All eyes narrowed as the Captain considered what he was going to say to his men. “We have a passenger on this trip. I be tell’n him to stay below decks for the voyage. He be going to the same destination as our cargo.”

  Gore started to leave the area when Rego spoke up again. He really needed to learn when to keep his mouth shut. The Captain was getting tired of his back talking and bad mouthing. Plus, he was the only one who refused to shower, even when they made port. “Who’s the passenger? Someone important?”

  “Important enough for ye to stay away from him. As long as ye all stay above decks there won’t be any issues. Now get back to work.” The Captain noticed all eyes widen as he sensed someone walking up the plank.

  One of the pirates to his left stood abruptly and dropped the poor wench who was sitting on his lap kissing his neck. Poor thing, ended up on the hard ground with one leg caught on the top of the pirate’s boot. A very ladylike pose, for sure.

  Why couldn’t one thing go right today? Gore thought to himself as he prepared to turn around and welcome his new passenger aboard.

  “Throd, perfect timing. This be me crew.” The Captain pointed to his shipmates, some still drinking while others had moved to get working. “Follow me and I’ll show ye where ye can stow yer gear.”

  Throd nodded to the crew of degenerates as he passed them on his way to his new quarters. “Captain, do we have a problem?” He nodded back to the crew who were staring daggers at Throd’s back. One pirate was cleaning his nails with the tip of his knife and stared with narrow eyes at the Captain’s back.

  “Ye’ll have to stay below decks, for yer own safety. My crew ain’t used to passengers of the male persuasion.”

  “That’s unacceptable. I won’t stay here like a prisoner. Where will I eat?” Throd stated. But he didn’
t want to make too much of nuisance since he planned on going wherever he wanted anyways.

  “I must insist. Ye joining us has caused too much commotion. And I’ll bring ye food so don’t worry about starving.” The Captain led Throd to a room that could be used as a cabin for the trip. If he could just find a bed to put in there.

  “Hand over ye blaster. Can’t have ye blowing up me ship before we even get our initial points for this scenario.” The Captain extended his hand to Throd, who looked like he was about to blow a gasket. If looks could kill, the fearless pirate would be dead.

  Throd detached the autocannon from its cybernetic mount on his left forearm and handed the heavy weapon to the captain. “That’s worth more than your life. If I don’t get it back just the way I gave it to you, I’ll take your life and your worthless ship as payment.” Throd said through a curled lip.

  Gore left the Operator to his own devices after giving him a brief tour of the smaller cargo hold and his recently created “stateroom,” if it could be called that. When he went to the upper deck to get the ship going, he walked in on Rego and Wyko arguing over the situation. As soon as the first man saw Gore, he yelled, “Cap’n on deck!”

  Everyone shut up and looked anywhere but at the Captain.

  “What, are ye already planning a mutiny?” Gore drilled his eye in on Rego, who shuddered involuntarily when that giant glass eye focused right on his face.

  “We want to know why ye accepted that new ‘passenger’? He’s an Operator Cap’n! Carrying their cargo is one thing, but hauling them around is only going to advertise our location to any enemy of ours, which is too many to count these days.” Rego huffed.

  “Not exactly true. I’m keep’n a list of our enemies in me quarters. Plus, he has disabled his tracking device and cameras. The net won’t know where he be.” The Captain walked to his chair. “And he paid four bars of gold for his passage.”