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I had been moving back and forth between the ship and the hive city to coordinate with the ghosts; the psyker's death aboard the vessel gave me total freedom to use my powers without restriction. The only one who could still detect me was the astropath, but he hadn't moved from his sanctuary and, as far as I could perceive, she didn't sense me at all.
The replacement psyker was young, clearly sanctioned, but his mastery was so poor that even if I manifested my abilities near him, he was unable to perceive me.
There was movement in the hive as well: local psykers trying to detect my ghosts. Many were so poorly trained that evading them became a training exercise for my operatives; they ran desperately after "psychic echoes," understanding nothing.
Once I gathered all the important information, we pulled away from the planet and I established a link with the rest of the Royal Guard commanders to decide what to do. Everything indicated that the merchant vessel intended to pass through New Korhal.
"The ship intends to stop at New Korhal to purchase minerals, since it's a civilian merchant," I said over comms, projecting the gathered data while the faces of the other commanders appeared on screen.
"The ship is CIVIL?" Kurt said, eyes wide; I could see one of his eyelids twitching at the information.
"Civil. Though heavily armed by our standards. It has several defensive battery emplacements, so a frontal attack would be complicated. But its sensors are poor, very poor. Their tracking and targeting systems likely can't handle the mobility of our bomber fighters nor the movements of cruisers at over two hundred kilometers."
"Holy shit… our worst nightmare is a civilian ship owned by some merchant… So what do we do? Try to intercept it or are you planning to pull one of your tricks to keep it from coming?" Mason said, still stunned by the information.
"Hard to say. The ship carries a lot of technology worth reverse-engineering. We could cut the Imperium's advantage by decades if we managed to understand how they build their vessels—how they place armor, what weapons they use… there are too many things we could improve.But we'd also risk drawing attention, or simply disappearing without anyone ever noticing.So you decide. Either way, I already plan to steal tech from the hive world once we settle this issue," I said, not particularly interested in the others' indecision.
"We shouldn't poke the hornet's nest. If the Imperium is as powerful as we think, it's not wise to bring it to our doorstep by stealing one of their ships. Even if it's a merchant, its disappearance would alert someone," Mason said, shaking his head at the idea of attacking the merchantman.
"We must stop thinking like cowards. The Dominion acts; it doesn't wait for people to forget us. Our Emperor would already have ordered us to seize both the ship and the planet for the glory of the Dominion. We'd bring those filthy mutants under Terran control and pull them out of that wretched theocracy," Kazimir said, increasingly aggressive.
"Don't look at me…" Harlan said. "I just burn things and make sure my boys are ready to fight, so don't ask my opinion." As always, refusing to get involved.
"We need to take control of that ship…" Kurt said, siding with Kazimir.
"Kurt, are you insane? It's reckless. We risk losing everything we've built on that planet this entire year just to capture a single civilian ship," Mason replied.
"What does that matter? If we want even the slightest chance to defeat the Imperium, we need to match their armor and firepower. And everything we need is right there, within reach. We could study how it was assembled, how it works internally. They must have full schematics for repairs.
That would change the way we design our shipyards. Producing the schematics for a Gorgon-class cruiser took the Dominion seven years with all available resources. Building bigger ships, two or three times the size, would take decades.And there lies our answer… we save ourselves decades of research," Kurt said.
"Exactly that…" Kazimir added. "That's the spirit. We must strike first, take the offensive."
"Don't get carried away. We're only planning to steal a civilian ship… fighting the Imperium is off the table unless we can cut every communication line and win a war before they get word. Besides, the Imperium's response will take twenty years to reach anyone, twenty more to send reinforcements, and maybe forty until they move. I'll bring more ghosts to that planet. We'll infiltrate the ship. According to my intel, they'll be there a couple of Terran weeks more, loading food before moving once the engine is fixed. At that moment I'll kill their astropath and cut off their communications. Then, with an internal strike, we'll cause chaos so the Dominion fleet can board," I said to the commanders.
"I'll have the fleet ready for your orders," Kurt said.
"Fine… I'll be there with my men in case things go wrong," Mason added, sighing loudly.
"I'll be eagerly waiting for news; my boys are dying to tear those mutants apart," Kazimir said.
I cut the transmission and began contacting the ghosts that were available, gathering around two hundred operatives for the mission—too important to leave loose ends.
Many stayed in the hive collecting information about our neighbors, finding weak points in their administration, the most fragile connections, the corrupt links… nothing to do when psykers showed up though, and a few less-talented ghosts were easily detected.
I should probably train them to enhance their psionic camouflage… but there was no time now. The mission was underway, and the merchant transport could leave at any moment.
We waited patiently for the perfect moment to infiltrate the cargo of the ship and finally enter the immense merchantman, just a couple of hours before they sealed everything.
Once inside, even we—who had seen battlecruisers and orbital stations—began to grasp the true size of the ship. It wasn't just gigantic: its crew was as well. It outnumbered the entire Royal Guard combined.
The journey began, and I have to say it: the engine of this ship… was very, very slow. The Dominion's warp drive engines, even at sublight speeds, were far faster.
So the trip I expected to take hours seemed like it would take entire days.
I used the time well.
I approached the captain's cabin after he finished his shift in the control room. I waited until he returned to his quarters. The man was dressed in… extravagant fashion.
More than fifteen different colors. The word "frivolous" didn't begin to cover it.
He quickly undressed and pulled out several liquors from his shelves, and from a side compartment he took what looked like an apple… or a peach… and began eating it with a smile while dropping into a cushioned throne from which he admired the void of space, crossing his legs with ridiculous elegance and drinking.
I moved behind him, placed a hand on his shoulder, deactivated my cloak, and stared directly into him as I applied my powers.
The man froze in fear, eyes wide, until he remained completely immobilized under my telekinesis.
"You have a beautiful ship, don't you think?" I said while continuing to manipulate his mind.
"Yes… very beautiful," he responded without the slightest resistance.
"Good… I'm glad you know that. But today you feel… very generous, don't you?"
"No… not really," he replied, still helpless.
"Ugh…" I intensified my power. "Are you sure?"
"Yes… today I feel quite generous…" he finally answered, once I managed to suppress his greed.
"In exactly two Terran days you will hold a great celebration to show your generosity.You must make sure everyone on your ship has access to food… and large amounts of alcohol. A lot of alcohol. Everyone must drink. Everyone must gather in the mess halls.And no one can carry weapons to the celebration. Otherwise everything falls apart."
"But… the profits…" the merchant murmured emotionlessly, clinging to his avarice as one last reflex.
"For the love of Arcturus… how greedy can this idiot be." I increased my power even more. "You'll earn more profit with a happy crew… they'll do anything to repeat this occasion, won't they?"
"Yes… you're right," he answered.
"Follow your orders," I commanded. I released him from my mental control, reactivated my cloak, and left the room as he continued his routine.
For the next two days we hid in the ship's storage bays, eating nutrient bars we found in crates and waiting for the moment. At the merchant's current speed, we should have been a week away from New Korhal.
The signal came when thousands of workers entered joyfully, pulling out crates full of bottles and raiding the stores desperately while smiling like idiots.
"You have your orders. Carry them out," I told my ghosts, who began spreading throughout the ship's multiple cantinas, while I made my way toward the astropath's chamber.
It didn't take long: all the corridors were empty, and the noise from the cantinas was deafening. The entire ship felt like a drunken anthill.
I reached the astropath's chamber and entered the security codes I had stolen from the captain's mind. The doors opened with a heavy clank.
A woman with her eyes sealed under metallic plates turned her head toward my direction.
"Leave the tray on the table, please," the astropath said.
I walked slowly toward her while preparing my psi-blade.
"Why don't I hear your footsteps?" she asked, uneasy.
I activated my psionic blade and drove it straight into her skull. She had only an instant of surprise, raising both hands to try to grab my arm. I twisted the blade several times to make sure she was truly dead.
"It's done," I said, sending the mental message to the other ghosts, then headed toward the ship's command deck.
As I passed one of the cantinas, I found absolute chaos. Thousands of workers were drinking, laughing, fighting, singing. Some were so drunk they couldn't even stand. It was only a matter of time before everyone reached that state.
I continued my path to the command deck and, upon arriving, found it completely empty. Not a single officer, not an operator. Nothing.
I activated my communicator.
"Do you read me?" I asked, waiting several seconds for the signal to reach them.
"Loud and clear, Lord Regent," Kurt replied, with a small delay.
"Remind me to replace my communicator when I return… too much signal delay. It's done: ship sabotaged and isolated. In an hour they should all be so drunk they won't even be able to resist," I reported, waiting for the response.
A few more seconds passed.
"Understood. We were triangulating the emission. Keep transmitting to measure their current speed and calculate the optimal tactical jump point," Kurt said.
I left the transmitter emitting for several minutes.
"Travel speed calculated. We'll be there in two minutes," Kurt said through the communicator.
"Delay the jump," I said immediately. "Let them get drunk. We avoid fights and save ammunition."
"As ordered, Lord Regent. Jump delayed. Recalculating trajectory for the next hour," Kurt replied.
I waited for the hour to pass and, exactly when the time was up, dozens of Dominion battlecruisers emerged from warp jump, surrounding the merchant ship in tight formation.
"Prepare to subdue any who might resist," I said, sending a mental message to my ghosts as I watched the cruisers deploy their docking tubes. They were about to connect at any moment.
The external lights of the merchant flickered upon detecting the gravitational fields of our cruisers, but it was already too late for anyone to act: most of the crew was too drunk to walk straight, let alone organize any kind of defense.
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If there are spelling mistakes, please let me know.
Leave a comment; support is always appreciated.
I remind you to leave your ideas or what you would like to see.
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