Interlude 2

Purifier Folic, commander of the mighty thirty first squadron, clicked his long red tongue against his inner side of his maw in annoyance. He watched a screen, monitoring his many subordinates as they scurried across a massive dormant jump gate. The rhythmic clicking of tongue on teeth echoed throughout the command ship, grating on the nerves of the entire crew.

Despite that, not a single crew member had the stones to point out the annoying habit. His plans, weeks in the making, were seemingly ruined by some damned pirates of all things! He stewed in anger, debating on whether he should tell his fellow commander the news? This was not ideal at all, as his fellow purifier was a bit of a dick .

He stewed for a bit, annoying the shit out of his entire crew with the incessant clicking of tongue on teeth for about twenty minutes. The worst thing about this was the fact that his contact in the Zrixian empire would no doubt ignore his requests for more resources after two of their ships went missing.

That would be fine, but the fact of the matter was he needed both ships stocked with rare composites to repair the jump gate. His tentacles whipped around him as a flood of anger filled him once again. His own inpatients cost him dearly.

He glanced at the two disabled cargo ships clamped to the sides of one of his long assault transports. If he would have waited, and let the owner of that cargo ship explain they had only fifty percent of their cargo, then he could have sent the cargo ship back for more supplies.

But, just like the first time, he jumped the gun and instantly disabled the second cargo ship. Now he would need to find these pirates and reclaim the precious cargo they stole. The only upside to his blunder was now he had two dozen converts, each taken from the cargo ship.

Thier cleansing went surprisingly well, and he was able to keep twelve of their minds intact while striping the corruption from them. Sure, some of the newly converted might go insane from the strain of the cleansing, but the others would fall in line.

He turned his attention back to the massive jump gate drifting silently through space. His battle group of eighteen ships was in moderate condition after he used the other ten for spare parts. Not only that, but his team of engineers were using their ship's fabricators, working around the clock to fix the jump gate.

That was now brought to a crashing halt as their second cargo ship, stocked with a massive amount of composites and rare metals, was robbed.

He took in deep, calming breaths. All the engineers and technicians of his fleet were in space suits, going over the massive jump gate. And worst of all, once the gate was connected across the fringes to their home, his fellow commander would put all the blame squarely on his shoulders.

Annoyed, Folic tapped a button with a tentacle, activating a microphone to the head asshole, researcher and chief engineer. "What is your progress?" Folic asked, unable to hide the anger in his raspy voice.

"We still need time. Any word on the cargo ship full of composites you ordered?" Utan asked, his tone that of a stuck up lord. Folic, not wanting to look the fool, reply wearily." There were some minor complications. The company I went through to acquire the composites we need didn't ship the required amount of materials."

"And why not? Didn't you strip ten of our ships of their fusion reactors to pay for those materials?" Utan asked, annoyed. Folic opened his maw and hissed in annoyance, making sure to mute the sound feed. He got his emotions under control, removing the anger from his voice.

"The issue was not my payment, it was pirates. The cargo ship was robbed en transit, and the company is refusing to refund the cost of the supplies."Folic reply.

"Did you buy insurance? You know, if father gave me command i wouldn't have made such a mistake." Utan asked, in a hotty tone. Folic rose up, his heart racing and his teeth bared in a snarl. Of course he hadn't! That would have cost him parts from two more ships of the rapidly dwindling fleet.

"You know why I didn't buy insurance! Now, stop your gloating and get your tentacled ass aboard the flagship. We need to plan a way to find these pirates and retrieve our supplies."Folic order, inpatients in his raspy voice.