Twenty-Nine

"Exiting," Benny said quietly. The constant thrum of the engines dying was the first change, followed by the many screens lighting up as they came free of the lane. Diur's hands danced over the controls, shielding them and then bringing up the stealth capabilities. Kon was only a split second behind her, activating the long range sensors as Benny carefully piloted the ship away from the edge of the lane.

"Shielded. Stealth active," Diur said a moment later as she registered the change to her station. Kon didn't say anything as he waited for the first reports to come back. In the meantime he was trying to aim the telescopic camera in the correct direction, the computer doing the majority of the work, but some manual input was needed.

"We just got pinged!" Diur said a second later, alarm in her voice. Benny reached over and tapped one of the holographic displays, read the report, and then dismissed the display.

"It's an automated system. Didn't detect us. Keep alert," Benny told them, his voice calm as he carefully piloted the ship deeper into the system. Kon felt pressure building as he waited for the reports, Diur's constant stream of alerts a strong contrast to his own silence. There were lots of small beacons out here by the edge of the lane, constantly pinging the area to see if there were any intruders.

"Lot more security than I expected," Benny muttered as he tapped a button on his display. The constant stream of pings died away as he continued them further. Kon let out a sigh of relief as his station finally started to report back to him. Skimming the report he felt his mouth dry out.

"Contacts. Fifty-seven estimated individual craft in system. Unique ionic trails centered around the fourth planet. Benny, the computer is saying the estimated tonnage is way too high. It's not a single frigate, but several of them along with possibly a light cruiser," Kon said as he read through the analysis.

"Send the information to my panel and get that camera pointed in the right direction. We need visuals," Benny ordered. Kon followed his orders as more information flowed in.

"Planet is heavy, signs of industrialization with high carbon monoxide levels in the atmosphere. Lots of disturbances around the exosphere. Benny, computer is reporting another twenty unique ship trails around that planet. The lightest being a cruiser." Cold sweat dripped down Kon's back as he kept his eyes running over the figures.

"What have we found out here?" Benny muttered. His fingers flexed and the engines responded, increasing in speed as they crept closer to where the goblin tribe had housed themselves.

The first visual images showed up and Kon's brow deepened into a scowl as he quickly flipped through the blurry pictures even as the computer tried to clear them up and analyze the visuals.

"There's only a few ships?" Kon didn't say anything, keeping his eyes glued to the console as more and more images flooded it.

"There's only a small grouping of ships, Benny. At least on this side of the planet," Kon amended a second later.

"Numbers," Benny said, still calm and collected.

"Seven ships. None larger than a frigate. Computer analysis has them as retrofitted fast freighters," Kon said a second later. Fast freighters, unlike heavy haulers, were built for speedy, small deliveries. They were still large, but not multi-kilometer long behemoths that could hold years worth of supplies in their holds.

"Let's try to get around the side then," Benny said, fingers moving swiftly as he changed the angle of approach, creating a long looping approach that would let them see the far side of the planet.

"Visuals coming in from the fifth planet. It looks nearly abandoned, Benny," Kon said as he looked over the report. No electricity was flowing through wide swathes of the cities, only a single location still active. Kon moved the camera to focus on that city, but the thick smog and distance made it impossible.

"No electricity in the majority of suspected cities. Only one hot spot," Kon said.

"What the hell is going on," Benny muttered. They fell silent for hours as the ship traversed the system in silence. Kon was able to find the small meeting area that they were going to raid, which was fully staffed if the sensors could be believed. Hundreds of heat signatures as well as power flowing around the asteroid field with the majority of the activity focused on a large asteroid.

Stolen novel; please report.

Benny took that news with nothing more than a nod, focused on the missing fleet and majority of the goblin tribe. When they finally reached the appropriate angle needed to see the far side of the planet, Kon cleared his throat before reporting.

"No ships."

"Shit. Start a full analysis of the system. I want to know exactly how many ships were in the system and how long ago," Benny ordered. Kon looked over at the hundreds of commands in front of him and suppressed his sigh of defeat.

"I don't know how to do that," Kon admitted. Benny stopped, looked around the edge of the chair and shook his head.

"Too busy by far. Follow my instructions," Benny said, then began to lay out a step by step instruction on how to bring the Puca's robust sensory suite. Benny took the ship back toward the lane, his brows furrowed as he waited for the response to come back.

"It looks like, holy shit, ummm…nearly three hundred ships," Kon said as he read through the report. Benny was over his shoulder in an instant, scanning down the list with a furrowed brow.

"Not a lot of warships, there would be wider ionic rivers for us to read. I'm going to bring us up to one of those beacons and we're going to see what's in the memory banks for them. Maybe they'll have some more information. Regardless, we're hitting these bastards and sending them to their makers."

They approached one of the beacons and Benny spent a few minutes at his station before a new wave of information started to cross across Kon's station. The computer began breaking and analyzing the data, forming efficient summaries in only seconds.

"We tripped something. The number of pings just tripled and one of the ships is leaving orbit and heading toward us," Diur said as she read over her own display. Kon looked at his and saw that she was right, one of the retro-fitted freighters had broken from its orbit and was heading towards them quickly.

"Kon, what's the data saying?" Benny asked. If he was concerned about the goblin ship headed toward them, he didn't show any sign of it.

"Six days ago the beacon pinged off of, oh shit, ummm…three hundred forty-eight ships. Scans are still being compiled but early analysis looks like a real fleet. Tonnage puts at least two heavy cruisers, one carrier, then a bunch of frigates, destroyers, corvettes, and gunships. Density readings on the ships show plate armor and not standard ship hull, and there was isotopic residue to suggest nuclear weapons." Kon swallowed hard as he stared at the still deciphering analysis.

"Did the beacons take any other readings besides that?" Benny asked.

"No. Size, density scans, isotopic readings, and ohhh…heat readings? Showing me lifeforms on the ships. Three ships were packed with bodies, way higher than the rest."

"Troop carriers?" Diur asked while Benny just sighed and shook his head.

"When did the fleet leave?" Benny asked.

"Two days ago. They had an extra twelve ships with them, outside of formation. Similar but not quite the same heat readings on those troop ships," Kon said.

"Mission parameters just changed. Someone just bought an entire goblin tribe of troops to do something. Time to head back and get this started, I'm curious exactly who is paying for all of this," Benny said as he dropped back in his chair and aimed the Puca toward the lane.

"How far out is that freighter?" Benny asked.

"Hour or so. She's moving quick, but not full speed. I don't think they know we're here," Kon said.

"The pings have fallen back to normal levels and no other scans have occurred that the ships counter-intelligence capabilities have picked up," Diur confirmed.

"We stay quiet then and get out of this system. This is getting messy," Benny complained as he sent the ship flying back into the lane. Both Kon and Diur relaxed as they entered the relative safety of the lane.

"What's going on?" Kon asked after only a moment. Benny sighed dramatically while Diur muffled a laugh behind her hand, though it sounded more like a bout of stress relief than anything truly funny.

"Goblins are nasty bastards. They sell their services and anything else they can get their hands on. Those ships full of people were their payment. The ones leaving the system were filled with goblin mercenaries," Benny said, wiping his face with his hand.

"Meat is meat," Diur whispered in horror.

"Yes. Meat is meat. Slave labor to continue building their cities, fresh genetics to add to their polluted gene pool, who knows. Nothing good. The Wild Bunch are going to have to be a bit more careful when they land," Benny said.

"We're going to rescue them?" Kon asked.

"No. The Wild Bunch and Commodore Darcy will be rescuing the survivors. Our mission is the same. Secure Te'Vin and the databases. Maybe now more than ever it is critical we have this information," Benny said.

"Becuase the last time this tribe was hired they attacked humans," Diur said instantly.

"Yes. They have shown they have suicidal levels of stupidity. It's our job to ensure that stupidity doesn't kill more humans," Benny said. He rose from his chair, shooing them out of the bridge which locked behind them. Benny headed directly to the armory, bypassing his room of cosmetics and prosthetics to start checking his inventory.

"There will be no discretion here. I have heavy armor for you and I will be insisting you go with heavy kit. We are going to crack these bastards open and it's going to be fierce. Who knows, maybe Jurgen will be able to show you what a full Knight can do?" Benny said as he dragged out heavy armor, laying it out for Kon and Diur to begin going over.

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