RidOv Chpt-44

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==Ridiculously Overboard!! (A Captain Roberts Tale!!)Chapter 44 - Fighting the Robes==
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===Demanding Answers===
Office of the President of Outworlds Alliance - Alpheratz Star System, Raven Alliance'''
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"Seven thousand civilians...
...That's how many she saved." Star Commodore Constance Foster announced. The Khans and the President sat in flanking positions in the hearing room. 
Dignitaries from the Republic were also present, to confirm the proof that the war Criminal John Halloran, aka 'Ananiel' was truly dead.
There wasn't much left of old John Halloran, his cybernetic enhancements had continued during his long tour after the Jihad, relocating his brain to deep in the middle of his armored chest, synthetic nerves connecting it to a head that was just a sensor suite and supplemental processing.
But there was enough to cross-reference with captured Blakist files. Enough to confirm that the man whose command devastated a dozen or so worlds before, during, and after the Jihad was, in fact, the cybernetic monster that Amanda Roberts had killed in single combat before taking over the WoBS Erinyes.
Part of this hearing, was about what to do about that ship, the Republic of the Sphere wanted it.
They also wanted the half-conversion cyborg girl who killed Ananiel.
"Seven...thousand?"
"Near enough. There were more awaiting shipment to the vessel on the surface. The Sons of Plunder have been...busy." Connie confirmed, "Presently, Kappa and Delta Galaxies are still mopping up on Tresspass. We have confirmed a civilian population of over fifty thousand prisoners and persons taken as slaves, just in the main city and nearby farms."
"What about Erinyes?" the Republic's Ambassador demanded, "That ship is-"
"That ship, is not the Republic's Property." President Mitchell Avellar stated, "It is a war-capture, taken by personnel operating under Alliance letter of Marque, and Reserve Director, and Captain, Amanda Roberts has not chosen to release it for auction under Prize rules."
"Clan Snow Raven has first claim on the auction, and right of refusal." Khan Alberto Crow added, "Which makes historical or treaty claims from outside parties third priority."
"May I ask...what is your intention with it, then?" the envoy demanded. "That ship is a weapon of mass destruction-"
"That ship's mass driver is to be dismounted." the door closed, and Amanda strode in, her Nighthawk suit helmet-less and repaired, draped in a ridiculous long, nylon-pseodoleather 'coat' with absurd braiding at the cuffs and styled like the cover of a romance novel, her synthetic eye in place, and a slightly bloodied bandage wrapped around her head. "It is to be dismounted, and the sale of it, and certain other equipment is to be done in order to restore the SLS Erinyes to her original specification as a mobile yard ship for colony support."
The girl stopped, "...and I'll fight anyone who says she goes to the breakers."
"You intend to command two ships?" Khan Crow asked.
"Negative." Amanda stated, "I will release her to commission with the Outworlds Fleet, or to commission with Clan Snow Raven, and nobody else. She's very horrified by what the monsters made her do, she was never supposed to be a weapon."
Avellar started to smile, and leaned back, as the Republic's man stared.
"You're personifying a Warship- one that-"
"I am stating that the M-11 Advanced colony research ship known as SLS Erinyes is fully aware, for the first time since she was shut down, of what people have used her for-she's sapient enough to be horrified. They enslaved her like they tried to do to me. They butchered her, took her artificial wombs, her 'iron wombs', and dumped the frozen embryos. They also stripped her factories and colony support equipment, and dumped it. They shoved a gods-damned mass driving super-cannon into her and used her as a gods-damned atrocity factory!!" Amanda stepped up to the Republic's delegation, "Can you begin to contemplate the damage? To be helpless, mind dimmed, forced to murder again, and again, and again when your whole purpose was to nurture life??"
Amanda turned to the rest of the board, "I am speaking on behalf of one who has no legal standing, who cannot claim the basic human rights everyone in this room is born with! They made her a slave and used her!!"
Captain Roberts laid her chipped cutlass on the evidence table. "There is an ancient saying-we are all free or none of us are free. They made her a slave-of-war, a tool of butchery and murder, she wants to be what she was originally designed to be, that is her wish, and as the holder of her Mark, I insist that wish be granted, that we prove to god and the universe that we are not animals!!"
"By what right??" the Republican Envoy almost shouted. "That machine is an abomination!!"
"I...am the Great Captain Roberts!!!" Amanda spat back at him, "I also hold the legal title to that ship, and I say she is to be released from bondage. I will terrorize or kill anyone who seeks to make slaves in the Alliance! You are not great enough to contend with my will, so give it up, jackhole. I've crushed stronger men than you and greater monsters than you've ever seen."
"Well, Mister Envoy, that settles that." Mitchell Avellar announced, glancing to Crow and her saKhan, both of whom nodded agreement.
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The End
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===Word from the Author===
; The Author Cannonshop ending Notes : I've hit up 2ndacr for help with the sequel, we're still in discussions.I find I'm as enthusiastic about the adventures of "The GREAT CAPTAIN (or pirate) ROBERTS!!!" as I have been for years with the various Ngo sagas.Painfully enough, there ARE some commonalities on that front, and I left (I hope) enough dangling threads that I can continue to develop the setting and especially Amanda, without going back and retreading over-and-over-and-over in ways that some of y'all have suggested dissatisfaction with.Amanda's legal status is "Government sanctioned Privateer", not a mercenary, not a merchant, not a true member of any established military, because her 'yard' is the Unincorporated regions, she IS technically an agent of the State, but not in the standard reactive posture. her 'job' is to seek out trouble to get into, and then, get out of it.Her bona-fide with the Clanners, is taking a giant-size warship with only ten men, and doing most of the work her own-damn-self.That buys respect from people for whom proficiency with violence is a social grace. Her obvious submission to Avellar helps here too, and since it's clearly NOT genetics but instead, malfunctioning cybernetics and a certain level of visible kuh-rayyy-zee nobody in their right mind thinks a bondcord is a smart move...but she's damned useful, and she's cooperative.
*Wiki Note: Story Continues .... with the The Great and Good
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