“Careful! We don’t yet fully understand this tech, so for all we know it could send us all to kingdom come!”

A dwarven engineer went over the data streaming through his pad. If they did things properly, then this ugly hybrid of a Salamis and a Musai would be the first ship from Gaia to enter Hyperspace. Thankfully, he was not in it, and it was merely being manned by a skeleton crew of Mobile Suit Golems who had been kind enough to risk their own lives to try out this piece of appropriated technology.

“Everyone! Clear the area up to forty miles away from the ship! Once that is done, Voyager is clear to engage its FTL Drive!”

All ships pulled back from the vessel and the Worker Balls that had been touching up the ugly vessel moved back to a ‘safe’ distance.

“Initiating jump to Lightspeed in T-minus 3, 2, 1, GO!”

The ship seemed to elongate for a few moments before it seemingly pulled its entire existence into nothingness. Seconds passed as the crews of all of the ships held their breath and waited for any reports from the MSGs aboard. One of the engineers felt sweat go down his face as the minutes ticked by. The jump should have been over by now, as it was merely supposed to be a short transit. He hastily rechecked the calculations and realized his mistake.

“Ooooh, bugger me… This is not good…”

In their haste to finish the design, they had accidentally programmed in the wrong coordinates. Instead of using the final jump point that the AHU’s ships had used which would have sent the prototype to the edge of the solar system, they had instead used the second most recent jump coordinates. This put the ship directly in AHU controlled space, or at least what they assumed to be AHU controlled space.

Finally, a communication line was established between control and the Voyager.

“Control, we are far off our intended coordinates. Attempting to jump back to Home.”

“Go ahead. Get out there as fast as you can.”

“Hold on, Control. There are several large vessels approaching. They appear unarmed, but we aren’t taking chances. Initiating emergency jump in 3, 2, 1!”

“GO FOR IT!”

The signal cut out as Voyager reentered Hyperspace. A few minutes later, Voyager reappeared from where it had initially left, just facing the opposite direction.

“While that was quite a scare, I think we can call this a successful trial. Let’s redo the calculations and see if we can’t…”

Another ship dropped in on them. It was stylistically different from the AHU’s ships, featuring a sleeker design over the more angular ships of the AHU. The colors that adorned the vessel were different as well, and the icon painted on its sides was different as well.

Instead of a sword with wings, this ship had a coin-like design with a weird symbol inside it.

“Sir, we are receiving a wide-band hail from the vessel. It identifies itself as an Urk Consortium ‘Acquisition Vessel’. It is requesting that we open negotiations with the Consortium regarding ‘the opening of business ties,’ whatever that means…”

Before the commander could respond to the hail, a call from the Queen arrived.

“Whatever you do, do NOT talk to them until I get there! NO COMMUNICATION AT ALL COST! DO NOT TRUST THEM!”

The Queen seemed to know these ‘Urk’, and obviously did not think highly of them.

“Well, this day just got weirder…”

…

Gurkon Smordul sat in his chair, his property on either side of him and one in front. He let out a guttural sigh through his tusks as he let loose a massive load on the piece of property in front of him, that desperately tried to swallow it all. However, some of it fell on the shag carpet in front of him and even though his property begged for mercy he still kicked it across the room with a foot to its face.

This was a new civilization that had just discovered FTL travel. He could make more of a fortune than he already had by dealing with them. Surely they would not mind him setting up a ‘legitimate business’ on their primitive world. And even if they did, he did not care as he would establish a branch of the Consortium there anyways. He would get more property, which would elevate his position in the Family even higher.

“Oi, meat. Why have they not responded yet?”

“I-I-I don’t know, master! Maybe they are just startled by your magnificence?”

“Hurmph! Well, they better have a good reason! The Consortium doesn’t tolerate defiance, especially from primitives!”

“Yes, master!”

Gurkon’s property desperately licked up the ejaculate that had fallen on the carpet, trying to consume every last sperm like their lives depended on it.

“Master, we have a hail from them!”

“Finally. Put it on.”

A holographic screen merely showed a line.

“Bah! They are so primitive they don’t even have adequate cameras!”

“I heard that.”

The voice on the other side was definitely a female’s, which caused Gurkon’s member to go fully erect once again.

“Ah! Greetings! I am Gurkon Smordul, a proud businessman and representative of the Urk Consortium! May I know who I am speaking with?”

“This is Asharia Ophedein Draconis, the Queen of the Arcadian Commonwealth.”

A Queen! Oh, how he would enjoy making her his own! He just needed to get her on board, then he could implant her with a Slave Chip and she would be his forever!

“My good lady, might I ask that you join me aboard my ship? We can discuss a wonderful opportunity for us both. I guarantee you will enjoy it just as much as I will.”

“No.”

No? What the fuck?! How could a bitch refuse him?!

“If you refuse to talk business, I will be under the assumption that your world is hostile to our company.”

“And why would that be a bad thing? I know all about the Consortium. It was founded by Gazruk the Insatiable more than ten thousand years ago, and has spread corruption, criminality and illicit narcotics to every corner of the galaxy. Why would we want to have a ‘business partnership’ with a bunch of slavers and drug dealers? We fought off two invasions by the Angelus Holy Union. What makes you think your Consortium can match us?”

A bluff. They may know about the AHU, but there was no way they could have fought off two invasions, let alone one. A single AHU corvette could rip apart twenty Consortium ships of the same size, so how could they have possibly been able to do something that even Gazruk the Insatiable could not do?

“Your bluffs are pointless. If you know about the AHU, then you know they are impossible to beat with your technology. I will return, and I will lay claim to your world, and you will be my bitch.”

“No.”

All at once, every sensor system on the ship was rendered blind and the communications were cut by some unknown interference.

“Open the viewports!”

The blast screens that covered the windows opened and revealed that thousands of warships and hundreds of thousands of humanoid strike craft had surrounded the ship. Without their sensors, the ship could not make a jump to Hyperspace, and with this many craft all aiming their weapons at his ship, even the shield and armor would not be able to stop it all! He had been outplayed!

“Damnit! You fucking whore! Ramming speed! Take them down!”

His ship was a pleasure yacht, and while it had a lot of warriors on board it had nothing to defend itself with aside from a few wimpy point defense blasters. With no control over their own actions and the commands of their master forcing them, the slave crew tried to put the ship into full motion. However, as soon as they did so, a barrage of various types of fire hit the rear of the ship and took out its main thrusters.

The strike craft moved in and began to tear open holes in the ship, before they seemed to compact themselves into a smaller form and move inside. Soon, warnings from the onboard systems showed combat in every deck aside from the bridge, and Gurkon made the call.

“Slaves! Fight to the death for me! This is an order!”

His property rose to its feet and rushed out of the bridge, leaving him alone to slowly realize that he was totally screwed. Worse still, he would not even be able to contact the Family to tell them what had happened. In his haste to get to the top, he had neglected to tell anyone where he was going. He would effectively vanish from the galaxy altogether, and in his absence others would seize what was his.

“Damn, I’ve got to look out for number one. To the shuttle I go.”

As he pulled up his pants and moved over to the escape shuttle that was attached to the bridge, a single massive light shone in from the viewports. Gurkon slowly turned his head to see a single glowing photoreceptor looking at him, which quickly pulled back and revealed a heavily armored war machine.

“Oh, fu-!”

Before he could finish, the machine leveled its oversized anti-tank missile launcher at the bridge and fired a shot. If it was not the round from the Giant Bazooka that took him out, it was the near vacuum that came after it. Gurkon died in a single moment, but his slaves and subordinates fought on. They were too afraid of Gurkon and the Family to try and surrender, and they soon met their end.

Another ship was added to the list of ships to be autopsied.