Simply Business by Stuart Grosse

Author:Stuart Grosse
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Published: 2024-02-04T00:00:00+00:00

“And finally, that leaves First Group, and First and Fourth Companies. We will go to the Yathru Corporation’s corporate headquarters on Maccara. We will destroy their defenses. We will capture what of their leadership we can. We will strip them of their wealth as ‘reparations’ for making us do this. And then, when we are done, we will give them a final gift to remember us by, all within the letter of the Bylaws of Corporate Warfare.”

(Hedarik Space Station, orbiting Drotkins II, Drotkins System)

Dispatcher Fifth Zixly chirped happily as she watched the cameras in the Main Security Room of the station. She was a Vrok, an avian race that did not typically endure the confined nature of space travel that well, making them somewhat of a rarity in the wider galaxy. That didn’t matter to her. She was born on a space station, and had never known anything different. She just liked watching things.

That’s why she became a Security officer on the station, after all. She got paid to watch things all the time, and could then send Security officers to deal with any problems while she watched them too! It was the best job ever!

She liked watching things, so when her coworker, Dispatcher Fourth Jackson came in, looking troubled, she noticed. “Friend Jackson, what’s wrong? Did you and your nestmate have another fight?”

Jackson was a human. Humans were all over the place, but they were not common on the station. According to the numbers, Jackson was only one of seven humans on the station, and one of those was his nestmate. She liked watching them when they were in public. She didn’t watch when people were in private, of course. That was wrong.

“No, not that. Janet and I are fine. The problem is that a Corporate War has been declared, and the time limit for arbitration just ran out.”

“Oh, yes, that stuff with the, what are they, Black Stars? But why is that troubling you? There’s no Black Star facilities near here to launch attacks from, so we should be safe. All the stuff on those shows are fake, the Corp News said so.”

Jackson sighed. “The Black Stars don’t need local facilities to attack, Zix. They have a fleet. And I have a second cousin who is Confederate Navy. He was at Coldana. The Black Stars are the real deal. We’re all—”

His words cut out as alarms rang out across the system. Zixly frowned. That was the invasion alarm. Then there was a horrific screeching noise from the speakers that hurt Zixly’s ears, before a voice came over every speaker, using the emergency corporate address protocols.

“This is Commodore Keh Draka of the Black Star Navy. A state of corporate war exists between the Yathru Corporation and the Black Star Corporation. All non-Yathru shipping has thirty seconds to signal their noncombatant status.

“All Yathru shipping will be destroyed. All Yathru orbital infrastructure will be destroyed, including Hedarik Station. You have five minutes to evacuate, or be destroyed.”

Zixly chirped at the speaker in wonder, before bringing up the sensor data.

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