Chapter 1

Ben looked at the wall, next to his bed. It was covered with moving holo-images from his different outings. His latest addition to the Ben Reeper shrine was a holo-image of him, with an old school grenade pin in his mouth, smiling into the camera. Behind him was a desert horizon, broken off by a big ball of fire from an exploding building. He adjusted the magnetic frame with one of his large hands, so it hung perfectly spaced among the other images. He smiled, almost mirroring the picture. His face was built out of sharp angles, but it still looked friendly.

Someone's knuckles made a thundering noise on his door. He didn't notice any of it; he was completely mesmerized by the images. Some of them played short holo-clips. He figured he would some day scan the clips and compile a Reeper Chronicle.

The door slid open. It was Marty Cooper, also known as “The Jack”.

“Didn't you hear me?” he said, frowning. “What are you doing?”

“Hey Marty, what do you think about this photo?” Ben said and pointed at the “grenade pin in mouth”-picture. He knew Marty didn't like that he kept photos from missions on his wall. Marty called it a “breach of security”, but Ben didn't think it was so bad. They never had passengers so no one was going to see his photos anyway.

Marty walked up, avoiding parts of a weapons cleaning kit which lay scattered on the floor, and looked at the picture. Next to Ben, Marty, who was short and scrawny, looked like a child. His frown grew deeper as his eyes scanned the wall.

“Don't you think this is a bit... narcissistic?”

“Wouldn't this photo fit perfectly on one of those collector cards? You know, like the Space Ranger, or Bob Fury?”, Ben said, seeing the card in his mind; pondering on what the description of him should say.

“Collector cards?! Ben, this is a top secret unit. People don't even know we exist, heck, practically no one in the parliament know we exist.” He looked at Ben, trying to discern something in his face; when he didn't, he said “You do know that the Space Ranger and Bob Fury are fictive characters?”

“Yes, yes, I know about the parliament, but wouldn't it be cool?”

“Yeah, really cool. Listen, we've received new orders.”

Ben snapped out of his dreams of fame and glory.

“We have? Why didn't you say anyth—”, he began, sounding enthusiastic.

“I did! I made a ship wide announcement. You and Lily never showed up. I waited in Command for twenty minutes!” his voice turning into a scream at the last sentence.

“Oh, I must've forgotten to reconnect the loudspeaker.”

“You disconnected the speaker?!”

“Yes, I needed a rest after Sierra Prime. That sure was some great action! When that Krextan fighter was after us and you dove right into that asteroid field, that was awesome!”

Marty didn't reply. He looked as if he could draw his plasma gun and burn off Ben's head—although he was doubtful a plasma burst would do any damage to a head that thick. Instead, he said:

“So, if, say, we have a red alert, then I know I can't count on you?”

“You can always count on me, I never miss out on the action! You know that!”

“If your speaker is disconnected you won't hear anything. How will you know we're under attack?”

Ben looked at one of the cleaning brushes from the kit on the floor. He was thinking; his massive features made it look wrong, like a troll doing mathematics. Marty felt he was winning this one.

“You're right. But it's not like anyone would be able to board this ship, anyway, so I don't see how that's ever gonna happen..”

Marty headed for the door. Ben followed him.

“It's about principles, Ben.”

“What if we got Lily to disconnect some of the security systems and cruised around for a while near some of the Krextan worlds. I mean, odds are they would try to board us sooner or later.”

Marty stopped and turned around, furious at the big oaf.

“Are you absolutely—”, but he didn't get any further. Ben was smiling; a perfect line of white teeth. Marty frowned as Ben shoved past him. Marty's eyes followed Ben's big frame.

“Just kidding, boss. I'll go fetch Lily, it was she who helped me to disconnect the speaker. She probably didn't hear you either.”

Sometimes Marty couldn't grasp how many high risk missions they've pulled off, considering the crew. Not that he didn't like the crew, they had all become close friends of his, he was just amazed and wondered if it really was skill or just dumb luck. When Dopopega had gathered them to form the Peacemakers he really knew what he was doing, which, Marty thought, made him worth the respect Marty held for him.

Marty exited Ben's bunk and headed for Command.

Marty sat in his chair up in Command. This was where he spent most of his time. His bunk only contained a bed and a shower. His real passion was installed here: the MegaGrand 258, a computer prototype, supposed to be released to the public in six years. It served as the ship's brain and was hooked into every subsystem on the ship—and it was his favorite toy. The computers he had used during his previous career were no match for this monster. MegaGrand was one of two reasons why he had decided to join the Peacemakers. The other reason was avoiding jail.

But not just the computers were state of the art, you couldn't find anything better than what the Corrector had been fitted with, anywhere in the Galactic Union. Even the shower valves had special sockets which made the showering experience truly comfortable—a proof of the engineers' attention to detail. The Corrector's design was based on the Galactic Union's scout ships but had been built according to Dopopega's specific instructions. This meant the ship was small and fast. It had just eight bunks, although it was possible to work the ship with a crew of only two, a pilot and an engineer.

Marty sat in front of a big viewscreen. Graphs and text printouts flickered by. He was reading the briefing for the fifth time. He sighed and looked at the time in the upper left corner of the screen. It was five-thirty. He spun his chair to face the holographic projector in the middle of the room, a low, circular, metallic device mounted on the floor. It was turned off at the moment.

“Computer, locate Ben and Lily!” The computer started talking almost before he had finished his command.

“They are currently in corridor A-2.” At the same time the letters “A-2” materialized in the air above the projector. They spun slowly. Every time one expected to see the back of the letters, the computer twisted them around so all one could see was the front, creating an optical illusion.

“Computer, I have told you not to use the letter, when giving me locations.”

“Galactic Union Military protocol states: corridor and room locations are always to be given using an alphanumeric letter and number pair.”

“Computer, how many corridors do we have on this ship?”

“Seven.”

“If that is the case, why do you need to use the letter? Stop using the letter when giving me ship locations!”

“The letter is used to avoid the limited allocation of numbers in conjunction with the human brain's error prone capacity for storing large numerical sequ—”

“Oh, shut up!”

Ben and Lily entered command just as Marty got out of his chair to make permanent alterations to the voice interaction subsystem. He turned around and faced them. Ben was smiling like a big child. Marty noticed that Lily had done something to her hair—it was pink and green and seemed to move all by itself.

“The crew is gathered, sir!” Ben said and then he slammed his feet together and stood at attention. Marty liked that his crew called him “sir” even though he didn't have any military experience. Although they only did it during briefings, if he was lucky. The only one of them who had military experience was Ben. Lily despised the military. She looked at Ben and frowned. Then she turned her attention to Marty.

“So, big guy”, she pointed a thumb at Ben who stood next to her, “says we're about to see some action. We have new orders?”

“How's the speaker sabotage business these days?” Marty said. Lily stiffened and glanced at Ben who was still standing in attention—attempting his best to not look back at her.

“Yes, we have gotten new orders.” Marty continued. “There are reports which tells of a new weapons factory, built by the Velusans. It is in orbit around their home world. We have lost contact with the informants we had on Velusia some time ago, and now we are to go there and confirm the reports. The mission status on this one was classified as urgent which is why I told you to get ready, because we're almost there.” Marty did his best to look grim.

“What? When did you—”

Ben interrupted her with a booming whisper: “Speakers...” Marty grinned. Lily decided standing at attention was the relaxed thing to do, so she mimicked Ben's stance, and stared at the air in front of her.

“At ease.” Both Ben and Lily relaxed with a sigh.

“Sir, why is this so urgent?”, Ben said, “I mean urgent would be an impending war or something, but this is just a factory. I mean, It's not like they're gonna go to war.” He was scowling and then his eyebrows suddenly shot up, and his face started to glow. “They are going to war!” He sounded a bit happier than Marty would have wished, but that was Ben alright.

“The Velusans think waging wars are bad for business.”, said Lily. She looked grim.

“They might have changed their minds?” He looked from Lily to Marty with hopeful eyes. Marty didn't meet his look, instead he looked at the hologram projector; “A-2” still hovering above it.

“They're building core destabilizers.” Marty said.

“Are you sure?” Lily asked, looking worried.

“Yes, according to the reports, that's what they're doing.”

Ben's expression had turned solemn. Then he said, more to himself than to the group: “Planetbusters.”

Marty realized what he had just said was not good for morale. Trying to patch things up, he continued “Come on, we're the guys who're gonna stop them. If they are building planetbusters we are authorized to disrupt production using any means necessary. It said so in the letter. You know what that means Ben, don't you?”

A grin slowly appeared in Ben's face.

“We're gonna do a hot touchdown. Lily, will you see to it that everything is prepared when we get there. Ben, this is a list of what you need when you're inside the station.”, he handed him a datapad, “And remember, this is a stealth mission. So this time, only take weapons which you can carry, okay?”

Ben nodded, somewhat disgruntled.

“Dismissed!”

Ben and Lily turned around and they both paced out of Command. Marty walked around the holographic projector and sat down in his chair again. In a few more minutes he would be in communications range with the station. He wondered who in their right mind would build planetbusters. He couldn't quite get his head around it. He had read about the First War, when planetbusters were first used, when he was younger and still busy hacking the school networks. That war had annihilated three whole civilizations and over forty planets had been hit, killing billions. After the war, the Galactic Union banned all possession and use of core destabilizer bombs. That was three hundred years ago.

When he was in school he had considered the era of the First War primitive and uncivilized. Apparently the Velusans didn't share his idea of civilized. His thoughts were interrupted by the computers voice.

“Station GU-A741 Research and Development Facility 2, are now in communications range.”

He attached electric pads to his head. Two on his forehead, one on each temple and three on the back of his neck. Each pad was connected with a thick fiber optic cable, which ran into a large device above him, mounted in the ceiling. Then he said: “Computer, open a connection...” and closed his eyes.