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  A View from the Other Side

  Samair in Argos – Book the Fifth

  By Michael Kotcher

  Copyright 2017 by Michael Kotcher

  All rights reserved.

  All characters and events in this book are fictitious. Any resemblance to persons living or dead is coincidental. All events and characters depicted herein are the results of my imagination.

  Proofread and copy edited by Maureen Nealon.

  Cover art by DasWortgewand on pixabay.com. Used with permission.

  Acknowledgements

  A great deal to thanks goes to my fans, I appreciate your faith and your patience. I’m truly sorry this book took so long to get published, I will try and do better for you all on the next one.

  Special thanks to Mo for her continued assistance and support, the sounding board is always a help. And I would like to say welcome to the new readers who have joined us in the Argos Cluster.

  Table of Contents

  Foreword

  The Zhongshan Job

  Prologue

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  A Different Interpretation of Orders

  Prologue

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  The Algae Payoff

  Afterward

  Foreword

  This is a collection of stories concerning the enemies, the ner-do-wells, the villains in the Argos Cluster. This is by no means a comprehensive listing, but a few of them should feel familiar, the lupusan General Typhon, the zheen Commander Skygexx, and there are new faces to be seen. For the most part, these stories take place in area of space around Seylonique, in different planets and star systems relatively nearby, though some do go pretty far afield from there. Some are familiar, some are new.

  We welcome you to a different part of the Argos Cluster: the less kind and less friendly part.

  Enjoy.

  The Zhongshan Job

  Typhon’s greatest regret about going into exile was not that he was leading his division, his wolves out of their home in the Federation and into the frontier backwater of the Argos Cluster. It was that he did not think to bring with him a way to properly maintain their equipment and ships so they could stay strong. In this story, he and his closest corps of soldiers seek to correct that mistake.

  Prologue

  The two senior and one junior officer in the Dog Soldiers, or what some called the “Typhon Division” walked through the corridors of General Typhon’s flagship, the light cruiser Illuyanka, heading for the conference room. They were accompanied by a pair of combat engineers who loped along behind. The ship was bustling with activity; techs were installing new and reconditioned replacement parts for damaged or worn out components, crewmen were moving in all directions along the corridor, though they flattened to the sides of the corridor when the trio of wolves walked by. The cruiser had taken a lot of damage months before in the raid in Seylonique and had taken months to limp home. As such, the ship had missed out on the second attack on Seylonique, and even now, more than seven months after the initial raid, the ship was still undergoing repairs.

  It only took a few minutes for them to negotiate their way through the ship to the meeting with the General. This was an odd request, for the General to bring these five: Colonel Arn, Major Nezerek and Senior Lieutenant Yanakov with the two combat engineers, aboard ship for a meeting. Especially with the repairs going on almost constantly and over nearly the whole ship, it would have made more sense to make this a conference call from the ground base, or one of the other ships in Typhon’s growing fleet. But, he was the General, and no one would dare to contradict him, certainly not when there wasn’t a danger to the ship or the mission.

  Arn reached out and pressed the chime on the hatch to the conference room. “Enter,” the General’s booming voice came from within the room. The hatch slid open, and the five wolves walked inside.

  General Typhon, very late of the Federation Navy now turned pirate, looked at his senior officers as they entered the room and nodded in approval. His people had performed superbly in recent months, first with the capture of a corvette and a destroyer from the Seylonique Navy followed by nearly a dozen freighters as prize vessels. And in a final, stunning display, Typhon’s second, Colonel Arn, led two companies of armored Grenadiers aboard the flagship of that same Navy, a battlecruiser and tore it apart. Arn’s execution was flawless and in short order, the battlecruiser lay in tattered ruins along with the morale of that backwater star system. They’d dared to think they could pull themselves up from a provincial nothing to a place of power and influence. Truth be told, though, Typhon relished the challenge.

  For too long, he’d been complacent. His troops and his warships had far outclassed anything the Argos Cluster had to offer. Some years back, he’d set up shop on the harsh world of Esselon-Moor and a good number of his troops and crews (a mix of male and female lupusan) had started families. It felt strange that any who lived life as a pirate would want to marry (or at least mate) and have children while still going out into space to fight. But these were warriors; the males and the females alike. They expected a harsh life and welcomed it for the benefits they saw as theirs to claim. Dozens of families had formed and hundreds of pups had been born over the years on that world. Many were grown and most had joined Typhon’s armed forces, but there were only so many slots available, even for ground forces. But if someone had the chops and they wanted in, Typhon and his officers always found room.

  Typhon’s standing army was small by galactic or even old Federation standards, but with enough prep time, he could field two full divisions of soldiers. The amount of advanced armor was nowhere near enough to equip much more than a brigade of his troops, so the rest of them had to make do with either armored skinsuits or more standard body armor not suited for operations in vacuum.

  And that was one of the problems, Typhon thought to himself. A particular moment of shortsightedness ended up hamstringing his forces. For want of a single replicator, he mused, we would be in much better shape.

  “All right,” he said, calling the meeting to order. The general didn’t often call meetings like this and he knew that his officers were surprised by it. But then, it wasn’t often that he was planning an operation this big. “I want to outline the objectives for the raid.”

  The others straightened on their stools a bit. Having a tail made sitting in standard human style chairs extremely uncomfortable, but the General had long since done away with those kinds of things.

  “There are two primary objectives and a few secondaries. This mission is a failure if the primaries are not achieved, obviously, or if in so doing we bring down a squadron of ships on us.” He eyed the other lupusan at the table. The others exchanged glances. “We’ve set up a nice operation out here and I want very much to avoid any serious entanglements. Things are plenty complicated out here in Argos without a major Federation presence.”

  There was no argument. Previously quiet and dormant systems were on the rise, as their sojourn into Seylonique had recently proven. Republic ships were also making appearances and piracy was rampant. Adding another heavy hitter to the mix would only throw petroleum onto the heated situation.

  “Now, to that end, as I said, there are two priorities on this trip. The first is practical: a military industrial replicator, preferably a class M or higher. We’ll also need to secure access codes or reenable my own codes so we can run it properly.”

/>   Again, there were no objections. Everyone knew of how desperately the division needed replacement and spare parts. As they’d just seen, Typhon’s flagship, his terrible swift sword, was run down and barely functional due to lack of proper parts and battle damage. After the fight in Seylonique several months earlier, the locals had suckered Typhon with a feint and Illuyanka suffered heavy damage and had to limp home. The techs did their best to fix her back up again, and even now with a load of cannibalized parts and gear from several civilian freighters, her systems were far from optimal. However, the techs had managed to get Illuyanka’s hyperspeed back up to low levels of the green and her shields back up to 85 percent of maximum.

  “Our ships have taken a beating in recent months,” the general went on. “All of our corvettes lost, Illuyanka damaged. Even the new prize Kingston was heavily damaged. Having an industrial replicator will get things moving in the right direction.”

  “Yes, sir,” Colonel Arn agreed in his cold, raspy tone. “In addition to the structural repairs, I can think of several upgrades all of our ships can benefit from.”

  “Indeed. But one thing at a time,” Typhon said with a slight smile. Wuffs of light laughter broke out. “Second priority. I want to load up on as many anti-geriatric meds as we can get a hold of. As you know, our supply of such treatments ran out decades ago. I want my army to remain strong for as long as possible.”

  There was no real argument here, but the General was not stupid. He knew that if the people in the top positions stayed on and retained their youth (or had it restored), then promotions would slow. He had plans for some of those younger troopers.

  “We will have an advance team pave the way for the main groups,” Typhon said. “In those main groups, Sigma will lead the first, looking for the replicator. Peregrine will lead the team looking for the medicines. As our most experienced medic, he’ll know what to look for.” The young looking she-wolf nodded in understanding.

  “You said there were secondary objectives, General?” Arn asked.

  He nodded. “We will bring with us a considerable amount of treasure as well as currency we’ve collected over the years: credits, coins, and paper money as well as gold, osmium and even platinum. Hell, I think we’ve got a load of gadolinium we can trade. Septima, you and Major Nezerek are going to take two teams and go shopping.” The combat engineer looked positively delighted while the major looked thoughtful. “We have all this swag from over two centuries worth of raids and so far nothing to spend it on. So, I want you two to splurge. As a rule, I’m looking for military hardware, but anything of use… Well. Just see what you can get.”

  “Looking forward to it, General,” Septima replied happily.

  Nezerek gave her a look but then turned back to the General. “Do we have a cover story, sir?” he asked. “If we come in on merchant ships, the locals might be surprised at a horde of new players coming in and flashing money around.”

  “A concern,” the general conceded. “Work that out amongst yourselves. Any data we have to work with is horrendously out of date, so we’ll be improvising the bulk of this mission. Any advance teams we send will need a fair amount of lead time.”

  “But you’ve already dispatched a team,” Lieutenant Yanakov stated shrewdly.

  “Bucking for promotion, Lieutenant?” the general asked with a smile.

  “Only always, sir,” the ambitious junior replied, receiving a cuff on the shoulder and a few yips of laughter.

  “To answer your question, though, yes. I dispatched Lieutenant Braelock before we departed for Seylonique to deal with the battlecruiser. Which means he has a good two-month head start on us. He should arrive in the target system with plenty of time for his team to get the lay of the land.”

  “What’s Braelock’s cover story?” Nezerek pressed.

  “He’s a merchant from Gala, in the northern quadrant of Argos. The northeast, actually, so it should keep anyone there on their toes.”

  “What is the target world, General?” Arn asked.

  “If it weren't such a damned long way, I’d say we should go all the way to Xeleros X itself. Might be good to shake up the Federation Capital world, but that’s an additional 400 light years into Federation space. No, we’re forgoing the capital world, but I still want to hit a major trade port. That’s why we’re going to Zhongshan. It’s about 45 light years into the Federation, and unless things have drastically changed, it still should be the major hub for commerce and activity we’re looking for, perfect for our needs.”

  The three senior wolves, Arn, Nezerek and Sigma, all nodded in satisfaction. They were all grizzled veterans, old enough to remember the old days and the war. General Typhon and his troops had been stationed in that sector briefly, so they were all familiar with the bustle of Zhongshan. The general was right; assuming little had changed, it would be a perfect place for a raid.

  It also sounded as though the General was breaking with long-standing tradition and wanted to make this as much of a shadow operation as possible, instead of an assault. No one was contradicting these orders, but it was a change from standard procedure.

  “We’ll be bringing Illuyanka to support the operation, but we will keep her well back and over the hyper limit.”

  “General, that will keep her days away from assisting in the operation,” Nezerek pointed out.

  “We will play things by ear, but if the security net within the system is less than we expect, I’ll bring us in closer. Otherwise, it will be up to the ground teams and cargo ships to carry the day. If we have to bring in cruiser support, then we’re already in trouble. Better they think pirates or dissidents than us.” The General let out a huff of air. “But that being said, we will render what assistance we can.”

  His words sounded right, but none of the assembled staff misheard: Typhon would do what he could, but the ground teams and cargo ships would be on their own.

  Typhon nodded to them. “All right, Major, you and the lieutenant will be accompanying us. Arn, you will be remaining here. I need someone minding the base while I’m gone.”

  The colonel was impassive, unreadable; everyone knew he had to be disappointed. But he took it in stride. “Understood, sir. What assets will you be keeping here?”

  “Illuyanka and four of the freighters are going, including Braelock’s ship. Everything else is staying here, including Kingston when she finally arrives. As much as I would like to have Equinox with us, bringing a Republic warship into Federation territory is just asking for trouble.” He paused, thinking. “It would make for good cover… No. I’d rather have her back here, covering the base. It might be too much of a temptation. Now, logistics. What can we afford to bring and what is needed here?”

  Typhon allowed another week of preparation, loading, and repairs for the flagship. There was nothing more that the technicians could do, as far as the hyperspeed was concerned, not with the parts that they had on hand. No, sadly, there was nothing more that could be done until they received that replicator. Other repairs needed doing, but those could be handled during the trip. And even then, it would be a “that’s the best we can manage” state of affairs until the proper parts were available. But Typhon was willing to be patient. He’d lived with this state of affairs for over two centuries. There was nothing critical that needed attending to, thank the stars. Hopefully, all that would be changing in a few months.

  Each of the freighters was loaded with one of the stealth shuttles, though no one in the group going to Zhongshan held any illusions that they would be able to pull the same tricks on Federation Navy ships that they did on the provincials in Seylonique. Maybe back in the heydays of the war, or even just after. But now? After two hundred and fifty years? There was no telling what kinds of improvements Federation scientists might have made to their sensor systems. But Typhon brought the ships anyway, hoping that there would be some advantage they could squeeze out of the small ships. Even a split second of confusion generated by their stealth armor might be enough to help.


  The convoy broke orbit of Esselon-Moor, the light cruiser in the center of the formation of four blocky freighters. The freighters were holding position relative to the warship, in a loose box formation, about a kilometer behind and one hundred to the sides. They slowly accelerated out system, on a course for the Federation. They’d hit the hyper limit and begin the long journey. It would be about five months to get there at the speeds available to the transports, but Typhon was confident that Braelock would put the two-month head start he had to good use.

  Chapter 1

  “Unidentified freighter, this is Orbital Traffic control. State your business here in Zhongshan and transmit your identification.” There was a touch of mild interest in the otherwise bored tone of the controller’s voice. An unfamiliar ship coming into the system might be news, after all.

  Braelock nodded to his comms officer, who keyed the channel and nodded in confirmation. “This is freighter TC2741 out of Gala in the Argos Cluster. We’re looking to establish a trade route between the Federation and the Argos Cluster.”

  There was a pause. When the female comm operator’s voice came back, she was clearly irritated. “Copy, TC2741. Sending course instructions now, do not deviate. And just to let you know, Zhongshan left the Federation fifty-four years ago. You might want to get an information download about the Baenres Union and local history. And I wouldn’t go around saying this is part of the Federation. You won’t win many friends.” A pause. “Acknowledge receipt of transmission and your course.”

  The console beeped, and the wolf at comms nodded. “Course received, Control.”