Dead Beckoning

ica

loves dark, twisted st

Bec

, if yo

adi

cents and waged a campaign of terror against the colonies for decades! Meradinis! The reputation of that place – that terrible place, a place of death and destruction that beckoned to adventu

every single Human colony over the span of a century, sowing terror, death and misery as they went, were not the corn-ball comics from old

ness and a cruelty – and a drive to survive by any means necessary – chiefly of which was their predation upon other worlds… And it was their predato

states. The ancestors of what would become the Corsairs fled the turmoil and left the ruined Earth behind. Legends and myths told of these rough, tough survivors who made a home for thems

istine beautiful blue-green planet, and thought it far away enough from Earth to start over. That was what they'd wanted – to start over – at least that had been the plan all alo

equent news and developments from Earth. They never knew that Earth recovered from the turmoil of the 'Big One', or about its miraculous unification and advancement – or about the ravages of the Gimp War j

eded than to actually produce it themselves, leading to the development of a culture based entirely on piracy. At the end of the Gimp War, the victorious planet Earth had beaten off the alien invaders, and Earth emerged as the new power in that part of space, and as might be expected – as new powers do – they began to expand and to exert their control

ce travel, colonization and commerce. These new Terran colonies had the very resources the Corsairs found hard to come by out in deep space. Taking the be

round them. The Corsairs' home was known only as Turtle Island, named so after the mythical island colonized by Earth buccaneers in the 17th century. At first, the Corsairs were really only bothersome, merely poking and prodding at the outskirts of the

, subsisting off detached, larger, more conventional economies. In this case, trade agreements would've been impractical beca

me theirs because they could take it – and because they did. The Corsairs resented the Terrans because to them, the Terrans were the 'haves' – and they were the 'have-nots'. The Corsairs had a need and were smart enough and strong enough to take what they wanted – and of course, were prepared to fight for it. The Corsairs also no longer viewed themselves as being b

the daring and enterprising new space pirates – who plundered and murdered their way into the next century. They knew very well that Earth would not

us to more re

d been attacked by a large fleet of Corsair raiders, and virtually destroyed. Everything of value had been looted and plundered from the station, with great loss of life. The psychological shock

ase, and captured it – with the location of the Corsair home world still intact inside its nav-computer! Following a successful scouting operation, in which agents of the Terran Imperial Space Fleet infil

heavy industrial lasers, electro-magnetic rail guns that fired everything from iron-rich meteorites to warheads made from mining explosives. They had put up a fierce fig

attle of Turtle Island was fought, the remnants of the once feared predatory Black Fleet drifted, blazing, while the Corsair civilization below breathed its last. Too many of the black ships were destroyed to count, but it was later estimated that they numbered

e invasion. The Corsair's strength had been their fleet, and the scant ground forces would offer little noteworthy resistance to a well-discip

pping with blood and who had profited from the bloodshed and violence that had terrorized dozens of worlds – escape was the only option left, and he would not be the only one to mount an escape attempt, nor be the only one to succeed. For years to come there would be countless bounties of

land! …It was a litt

! For three days the accursed Imperial warship Indomitable had followed, firing on them at every opportunity. Death or imprisonment now awaited those who called themselves Corsairs – and th

r systems of the peaceful Terran Empire. At forty two years, Sona Kilroy stood tall and strapping, a powerful figure. Rising to the rank of Admiral in the Corsair fleet had been no easy feat – nor had it ever been so for any predecessor. It took