Galaxy of Empires- Space Pirates Episode #1

Copyright ©2015 by Bruce Marcom
United States Publishing

All rights reserved worldwide. No part of this
publication may be replicated, redistributed, or given away in any
form without the prior written consent of the author/publisher or
the terms relayed to you herein.

Bruce Marcom, United States Publishing, LLC,
Houston, Texas, 77449, USA

IBSN: 978-1-943917-04-4

Prologue

Chapter
1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6

It is a
busy day at the Consortium Consulate on Hosan, the home world and
capital of the Reptilian Conglomerate Empire. The Consortium—also
known as the Society of Machine People—is comprised mostly of
androids and other artificial intelligence, but it also has
citizens of other races as well. There are lines of people waiting
to get travel documents to and from Consortium space and, like for
most government jobs, one can sense the tediousness of routine in
the air.

Down below on the lower levels of the
Consulate are the private and classified areas where only
government employees with the correct clearance can roam about. On
the lowest level, there is a big chamber where only a few androids
and special guests who have been given clearance can have an
audience with the leader of the Consortium. The leader is an entity
of unknown origin but is believed to be some sort of energy being
who is vast in size and usually inhabits many androids at once
spanning over many galaxies in the universe. It is speculated that
this entity created the machine people and perhaps even telepaths
as well. The entity appears to have godlike telepathic abilities
and does show an interest in telepaths and androids. The entity
goes by many names, but calls herself Dracabardillous. The androids
address their leader as The Creator, while others or outsiders call
her Empress Draca. The androids she inhabits always have a humanoid
female shape, while all other androids have no sex distinction.

Evella Noctu, a half-breed human-reptilian,
is walking down the corridor to the audience chamber. There are
android warrior guards in pairs all the way down the hall. She is
wearing a brown leather outfit with matching boots and belt. She
has just turned 31 years old in the previous week, and she has her
own reptilian merchant clan. It is a small merchant clan, but she
has earned her six-ship fleet through hard work. She recently lost
a ship on a quest that revealed many things about her life. She
learned she was created in a secret illegal laboratory that was
funded by the Elemental Empire in an attempt to create powerful
telepaths that could be controlled to combat the Undead Empire. In
the Elemental Empire, telepaths are illegal because sorcerers
control the government and they feel that the telepaths could
threaten their authority.

This laboratory was discovered and attacked
by the Undead Empire, but the vampires unwittingly released some of
the experiments, two of which were the daughters of Evella Noctu,
named Xaqu and Chaca. These two daughters carry a very contagious
undead disease that can kill an undead in less than 30 minutes and
the virus remains active indefinitely in an undead corpse. The
disease, in addition to the daughters’ extremely powerful
telepathic abilities, killed everyone in the laboratory
station.

Eve walks up to the two giant doors as they
open up into a large room with a wall-size computer monitor on
every side of the room, except the side with the doors. The room
has a marble floor with a huge Consortium symbol in the center. The
symbol opens up as a female android appears on a floor airlift,
which closes after she steps off. The android is almost an exact
replica of Evella in appearance.

“I see one of my daughters has been working
on improvements on the new model,” Eve observes.

“Yes. I have been testing it thoroughly. Does
it feel awkward looking at yourself?” Draka asks out of
curiosity.

“It is a little strange, but I feel honored
she made the shell look like me. It looks very well-designed.”

“It is. Your daughters are both very gifted.
I am glad I could assist you in rescuing them from that horrible
place. Your other daughter is designing a new battle station for
the Consortium. They both have incredible engineering talents.”

“Thank you for educating them and me, too.
Our telepathic abilities have progressed in leaps and bounds.”

“I sense fear in you about this.... Is
because you are changing and morphing into something else?”

“Yes, my body is changing every time I use my
telepathic abilities, especially in a major capacity. My skin is
changing to a metallic color and hardening. I am getting bone
spikes from my forehead all the way down my spine. “

Draca waves her hand over Evella’s body and a
3D image of her insides appears next to them. Draca pulls out a 3D
DNA strand from the 3D body image and enlarges it.

“Hmm...interesting. We have always assumed
your reptilian half was Snakekin.”

“It isn’t?”

“No. Something considerably larger.”

“Larger? Croc?”

“Try serpent dragon,” Draca says bluntly.

“WHAT!” Eve shrieks,” How is that even
possible? I am part human.”

“Your DNA was spliced with not just human,
but 12 different parts of a variety of Space Dragons. That would
explain many things. You have telepathic abilities that no other
telepath in the universe has because you were artificially created.
You probably have dragon abilities as well. You must discover how
to use them once you find it what they are. That would explain your
appearance changing. You have only used your telepath abilities in
small quantities for most of your life, so it has not had much of
an impact on your genetic mutation. Now you are using them on a
grand scale, including ones that you have not previously used. This
is good and bad. You will become more powerful as you use your
abilities, but you will be mutating more and more into a Space
Dragon every time you do. Eventually, you will become a full Space
Dragon with your human DNA gone, except for your PSI because some
dragon species have PSI enzymes. Serpent dragons have the most PSI
that is probably why your creators used the largest percentage of
DNA fusion with that species.”

“To be frank, the only reason you survived,
according to the lab notes you downloaded from the secret lab, is
your human mother’s DNA had an unusual anomaly because of her high
PSI that would allow it to be fused with the magical DNA of Space
Dragons. Since that was the only sample they had of your mother,
they could not reproduce the affect, as you can see in the 400 or
so attempts. Your daughters have more human DNA and were designed
differently so they cannot mutate into dragons because it is only a
very small portion of their DNA.”

“I do not want to be a Space Dragon! Is there
any way to stop this from happening?”

“I am afraid not. However, some of the
higher-intelligence Space Dragons can shape shift into humanoid
form and back to dragon at will. Your IQ is definitely high enough
to do that. The PSI test only goes to 20, and your daughters are
both 19. I suspect that your PSI will go far beyond 20 as you
develop, maybe even higher than mine, if that is possible.”

“I doubt it will go higher than yours.”

“Anything is possible,” Draca says in a
serious tone.

“You need to go to a region of space where
there are many species of Space Dragons and learn from them and
their culture. They are a dying race because of poor leadership and
warfare. Their domain used to cover a large area and contained
thousands of Space Dragons. Today, they is only a few hundred
scattered herds across a small area. Their domain has been overrun
by the Undead Empire, the Hive, the Wolfkin, and other
species.”

Draca creates a 3D space map and points to an
area: “This is where the bulk of what is left of the Space Dragon
territory. This is the Dragon World, a planet where the chief
leader council is based and where the largest population of Space
Dragons lives. This reddish planet is Ferna, home world of the
Serpent Dragons as well as the Lava Dragons, and it is a volcanic
planet. Go there and seek out Grimace, an ancient female Lava
Dragon. She will advise you about dragon culture and politics. This
will give you the experience in politics you’ll need when you
return.”

“How do you know so much about Space
Dragons?” Eve inquires.

“I was not always an energy being. I was
mortal once.”

“Really, wow! Were you a Space Dragon?” Eve
asks in an uncertain tone.

“With a name like Dracabardillous, what do
you think? But that is another tale for another time.”

“Uh, okay. Thanks for the information. What
about my daughters?”

“They can stay here while you are on your
‘walkabout.’ I do suggest using black-market transportation as you
have to go through Elemental and Undead space or through Wolfkin
space to get to Ferna. Elementals are searching all Consortium and
other races’ ships going through their territory. As for the
Undead, well, they kill everyone.

“Holy crap! I wish I could turn myself in and
collect the bounty. I guess they are mad about me blowing up their
secret lab facility and destroying their main flagship. They are
probably the wankers who got my boyfriend shot. They will get what
is coming to them someday soon.”

Back-story crossover from
Merchant Wars #1 (takes place before this episode) and Rise of the
Space Dragons #1 (takes place after this episode).

Chapter 1

It is a nice day on Hoshan, the home world of
the Reptilian Conglomerate Empire. Business is booming all across
the planet as this is the center of commerce in this area of space.
Merchants from every government region are busily conducting
transactions. In the seeder part of the planet, there is an area
known as Whitecap where all the undesirables come to deal in the
black market and such. Whitecap is known as a place for smugglers,
bounty hunters, assassins, prostitutes, and other “fine” services.
On this particular day, a small group of people are walking down
the street and look up at a sign—”The finest ships in the galaxy
for sale here”—attached to a big hangar that was obviously for
spaceships.

“The sign should say the hottest ships for
sale here, implying how freshly stolen they are,” Captain Abel Meek
comments.

Captain Abel “The Rod” Meek is a human male
in his late forties who was about 5’ 10” and 280 pounds. He has
grayish black hair and a full beard with a mustache, both of which
are black and gray. He is known for his famous “The Rod” salute,
which is his middle finger shot in the direction of those that
offend him. In the past, he was a professor of ancient earth
history from 1700 to 2200 before being fired for scamming students
and faculty with the various schemes he concocted. He owns 1,000 or
so TV/movie videos from that time period and some books as well. Of
course, he stole them all. He wears flamboyant, brightly colored
pirate clothes from the 1700 era complete with a pirate hat, big
belt, and big boots. Today, he is wearing a bright-red-velvet
outfit with fluffy white cuffs and a matching fluffy button line.
He carries two blasters. He once had a bird on his shoulder most of
the time but got tired of the bird crapping on him.

Capt. Meek is currently wanted for piracy,
murders, scamming, kidnapping, extortion, and violating (when he
was drunk) a prize sheep belonging to a planet governor in the
Elemental Empire. The captain claims he thought the sheep was a
hairy prostitute and even gave the sheep a tip. One of the pirate
lords named Cos, heard of Capt. Meek’s impressive scams and decided
to hire him as a freelance pirate. His crew is called “The Smoking
Aces,” which has nothing to do with their piloting skills; instead,
it refers to their ability to cheat at cards.

“Okay, let’s go inside,” Meek states,
wondering if they can afford anything inside. At least this time,
they will complete the scam without his arachnid first officer
eating their kidnapped victim before they get the money. The four
go inside.

“Just make sure the clunker runs before you
give him the money this time,” Che Chizital insists. Che is a
female arachnid sorceress who is also the main pilot and first
officer for this crew. She has been with Capt. Meek for couple of
years now. She is also wanted for piracy, murder, and a list of
other things in several empires. She was a full-time professional
assassin, but only does hits on a part-time basis now. She has
green skin, red hair and fingernails, four arms, and a big red
hourglass on her stomach. She is wears a yellow silk bikini-type
outfit with a matching cloak and knee-high boots. She usually
carries a few daggers laced with her own poison. She is an expert
all forms of dagger or knife techniques and can hit a target up to
25 feet away with pinpoint accuracy. She never carries any other
weapons, except a magically enchanted staff, as she prefers to use
magic in combat. Most arachnids come from the insect empire called
The Hive.