CHAPTER 10: SHADOWJACKS SHADOWS

Shadowjack went back to his quarters. Although he had managed to stay nimble over the years, Warfish’s agility and slick counter moves in their brawl left him a little sore. He was smiling a little to himself at the conversation the two had after their fight. She was thoroughly impressed by the new magnetic blaster he had engineered.

“Made some new toys I see?” She couldn’t help but contain her excitement. “Man I wish we could have filmed that!”

“What do you mean film?” Shadowjack was a little confused.

“Well I added a cam to my fleets. I want to start recording all our moves and then have you do your little tech thing and observe our opponents strategy. We can save the data and deliver reports to the officers! We can also test out ship designs! We can record which ones are effective, how much resources we lose…”

Shadow was about to lift his feet into his bed but his eyes grew wide. A camera? Warfish had a camera on her fleets. He rushed into the lab.

“Adriana! I need you to hack a camera on the loading dock station! Warfish’s main fleet has a new cam installed. Can you get me the…”

“Hey daddy, the footage is being processed and will be done in 8 minutes.”

He reviewed the past footage where Warfish, Daredavil and Blazing11 left to the loading dock which was the same time the autonomous transmission was sent warning BU of an imminent attack. He began to piece their movements together. Finally the footage rendered and he studied it closely.

He saw the lens through Warfish’s main fleet. The three got into their fleets around the same time. They left the loading dock one by one. He slowed the footage and rewound.

Pause.

He saw a familiar face and ran out of his quarters. He rushed around the station to secondary sergeants shared quarters. It was quiet at night but just as he turned the corner, he a saw man lurking in the shadows.

Shadowjack lunged forward smashing the guy into the wall and then pinned the side of his face in place.

“I KNOW IT WAS YOU KOWALSKI!” He said in an angrily loud whisper so that no one else on the station floor would awaken. Shadowjack looked left and right then leaned in.

“I want the truth” The grip on Kowalski’s neck grew tighter.

 “Plllllease!! Don’t hurrrrt me!!!” Kowalski whimpered desperately.

“I know it was YOU who sent the transmission to BU warning them of the possible attacks from Warfish. What are your intentions in FU. Who sent you?” Shadowjack was always excellent at divulging information.

Through the gasps of breath Kowalski began to sob. “I admit! I didn’t have the best intentions!”

Shadowjack squeezed tighter as Kowalskis face began to turn slightly blue, “Be quiet, do you understand me?”

Kowalski partially nodded and Shadow released his grip.

Shadow began to interrogate him and Kowalski fell to knees begging for his life. He explained that BU was forming an alliance with $FC and that they were under a new order. They weren’t strong enough to sustain against the attacks of FU and their leadership had gone awry.

“We are changing our leadership. Please you have to believe I wasn’t doing anything but trying keep my team safe. You would do the same!” Kowalski looked pathetic and Shadowjack began to pity him. He designated coordinates of the nearest escape pod.

“You have exactly 1 minute 58 seconds to launch back to wherever the fuck you came from and never look back.” Kowalski slowly stood up and nodded as Shadowjack leaned in closely and whispered very carefully. “And if you ever so much as think about attacking Warfish, I will finish what we started here.”

Kowalski ran down the station frantically to the location Shadow had given him and shot off into the distance towards BU.

Shadow returned to his station quarters but looked outside his window. Suddenly a giant explosion across their galactic space ripped a whole in their galaxy. He ran some calculations and called for another emergency meeting with the lords of both the North and Southern space. Something big was about to happen and he knew that the great galaxy of Tyrfing had to rise together if they were to survive the terror that they were about to face.