Interstellar Age

Mirage was forced to join Erich aboard his new vessel, the Vigilance. She was not in the best of moods, but she also did not make it Erich's problem. Specifically, because she knew he was in a worse mood than her, and the last time she had pissed him off this much, the man had ripped her throat out with his teeth. Which was something she would prefer to avoid now that she was permanently assigned to be his assistant

As for Erich, he sulked in silence for a long time while seated at the bridge of the frigate. He was more than qualified to fly such a ship, even if it did not need an actual pilot, and in fact, he found it to be rather therapeutic. He had just found out that his first love was still alive, and was a hostage of his former mentor.

Erich had no idea how he would free S'aleth from her current status as a captive, and Tia seemed to be equally as stumped as him. She had a rather depressed expression on her face, as she admitted the technology used to lock up S'aleth in the cloning vat was not something which she was accustomed to.

"I'm sorry, Master, but Tia does not have the ability to slice into the cloning vat. It seems to be functioning off of its own internal network, and if that is the case, you would have to upload Tia to the pod itself for her to break the lock, and free your woman..."

However, Erich knew this was not possible, specifically because Emrys would have secretly moved the pod to an even more secure facility after he revealed its existence to Erich, and thus he could only sigh in defeat as he realized that S'aleth was now a pawn to be used against him.

"It's not your fault, Tia. Even if we could go back and break into that bastard's office, S'aleth has likely been hauled away to some place else that is even more difficult to get into. It will be a long time before I can even locate her, let alone come up with a plan to set her free. In the meantime we have to focus on the task at hand."

It was at this moment that Mirage entered the bridge, and stood by Erich's seat, where she made a suggestion to him.

"So let me get this straight. You're putting together an elite team of aliens from the Alfheim Quadrant, to combat the enemies of the Alfheim Dominion, no matter where they may be in the Galaxy? Do you have any idea where to even look for such talents?"

This was something that Erich had indeed not been able to think through. He knew of two women who could prove useful to him. One he was not allowed to even speak to at the moment. And the other was Mirage. As for other people, and the talents they would need to fulfill these roles. He handout the slightest clue where to start looking for them. Which he was not afraid to admit.

"That's right, although I have a few skill sets in mind that will be useful. I don't have the slightest idea where to look for them."

Mirage sighed heavily, as if she were dealing with an errant child, before scolding Erich for his carelessness.

"Now I see why you wanted me on your team. You need someone with some actual brains to organize shit for you. Alright, well, first thing is first, we need some muscle. Someone capable of doing the heavy lifting, someone who is well versed in all kinds of combat, and preferably has contacts in the galactic underground."

Erich was a little offended when he heard this before voicing his grievances aloud.

"What do you mean, muscle? Do I not have that covered?"

Mirage looked at Erich as if the man was an absolute moron. Before outright telling him he was one.

"What do you think, idiot? You're the commander. Your job is to lead us! We need an actual skull cracker, somebody who isn't afraid to get their hands dirty, and who can intimidate people into doing shit we need done... Fuck.... I hate to say it, but we need an Orc..."

Erich knew very little about the rest of the galaxy outside of where he had already explored, and was quick to ask about the Orcish race.

"An Orc? What are those?"

Mirage sighed heavily once more, completely forgetting that Erich's understanding of galactic politics was little more than what he hard learned in his first year of politics, and thus she summarized a brief history of the Orcs.

"Orcs, they're a large green skinned humanoid race. They have a penchant for violence and only respect strength. We call ourselves warriors in the Empire, but Orcs are outright barbarians. They were uplifted by the Alfheim Dominion from a bunch of stone age savages, out of a particular need for cannon fodder.

You could say the Orcs were the Light Elves' first attempt to make a proper war hound. It failed spectactularly, because the Orcs were so violent and disorganized that they couldn't even comply with a basic command structure. Once that war was over, the Orcs returned to their homeworld with the weapons that the Light Elves had given them, and turned their planet into an irradiated wasteland.

The survivors took to the stars, and have been a nomadic race for millennia. Some of them live in clans which travel the galaxy within giant fleets where their primary means of survival is raiding. While others have integrated in the galactic underworld as gangsters.

Orcs are sexually dimorphic species, but unlike ours, there is little, if any, difference in strength between the males and females. Because of this, you will often find females leading Orc Clans, as the only requirement is to defeat the former Clan Leader in single combat.

And you should be aware that your average Orc male is even larger and stronger than your average Star Marine. You might be able to take one on in single combat, but to do so without your power armor would be a struggle.

I have no idea how this elf tech works, so I don't know whether or not it will enhance your physical abilities as much as our power armor does. Not that it will really matter, because the duel is sacred to the Orcs, and is fought without armor. And the only way you will win an Orc's loyalty is to challenge them to a duel for it.

Erich scoffed at the idea. He had no idea where to find an orc, or how he would be able to secure their loyalty without his power armor. Thus, he was quick to ask how Mirage planned to achieve this.

"Any bright ideas where we can find this orc, and how we will win their loyalty?"

Mirage once more looked at Erich as if he were an idiot, before explaining why he was.

"Finding an Orc is easy. Just go to whatever planet is being raided by one of their clans. As for winning their loyalty, there is no trick, or cheat to it. The duel is held under sterile conditions. You will fight naked, with an Orc, using only your nine limbs. All methods of hand to hand combat are permitted, there are no rules. And you will either have to force the orc to admit defeat, knock them out, or choke them out."

The idea of fighting while naked with an Orc revolted Erich, as he quickly made it a condition that he would have to fight a female orc.

"Naked? Fuck that! I will only do so a thing if it's a female!"

Mirage simply rolled her eyes as she heard this. She had been anticipating Erich to say such a thing. And thus she immediately accessed the Alfheim Galactic Network in search of the most fearsome female Orc warriors. Where, after some digging, she landed on one. With a smirk on her face, she pointed to the picture.

"Mala Ironhand, she is the current War Chief of the Ironhand clan. Which was founded by her father, a notorious Orcish warrior once known simply as "the Ironhand". She apparently fought her elder brother in single combat for the right to lead the clan and emerged victorious after claiming his head. She is among the galaxy's most notorious Orcish warriors, and would be a fine addition to the crew, assuming you could win her loyalty.

Currently, she and her clan are raiding a system not far from here. At least not by the standards of this frigate. We could arrive before the battle is even finished. What do you say?"

Erich thought about it for several moments, before ultimately agreeing to Mirage's request. All the while he stared at the picture of the muscular humanoid woman, who, for whatever reason, Erich thought, was actually quite attractive, in a savage kind of way.

"That sounds good to me!"

With this said, Mirage set a course for the system that was under siege. Of course, there was something that Mirage deliberately left out about this whole situation. But Erich would find out about that soon enough. Assuming he actually won the contest of strength.