Hadorix had no clue of the value of things in Galactic society. He had 0 credits to his name. The resources he had available were in Deviant Home and would be needed to grow the Deviants. Rather than answering the tiger, Hadorix felt his best option right now was to talk to Alice. "Alice, were you able to gain any information from the ships the Shadow Armory obtained?"
Hadorix could feel that Alice was in a rather good mood. Knowing this he hoped she would have good news. "After being informed of my identity all 250 AI from the ships decided to join us. Most of these ships are worthless. I suggest we break down all but 5 of the stealth's for resources. Those 5 are of a mid-grade and could be useful for the Shadow Armory's raids on the pirate factions. I also managed to download all the data the ships and AI possessed into our mainframe in Deviant Home. While most of it is useless, it will help us to understand the changes that have occurred since I have been locked down. The locations of the pirate factions as well as the slavers and free pirates will come in handy. The Pigeons work with some of the slavers. There is a possibility that you will be sold to pay for some of the ships you have stolen."
After hearing that the Pigeons worked with slavers, Hadorix felt better about the ships they had liberated. It was rather unfortunate that most of them would be useless. This information gave Hadorix an idea. "Can you use your systems to upgrade the AI's that exist in the ships? If you upgrade them, is there a way to keep them attached to both your system and that of the Pigeons without them being aware?"
Alice understood what Hadorix intent was from his questions. In essence this would give the Deviants 250 spies in the Pigeons that could be recalled back at any given moment if desired. The stronger the AIs were the better spies they would be. There was also the potential to recruit other AIs from the fleet if they were able to gain enough strength. Alice replied, "Given that the technology I possess is made primarily to benefit AI's growth and development, if you can give me a week, I think I could upgrade them all to Grade A. If you want them to Grade S we will need a century or so."
Hadorix replied to the tiger, "I will return most of the ships in a week. Of what was taken, only 5 stealth's will have any real use to my people. What do you want for those 5?"
The tiger replied, "You want 5 of my ships, I will take 10 of you for slaves, excluding you, that means I need 9 more. Outside of that option, I will simply sell you. Your ability should bring quite the profit."
Hearing what the tiger said, Hadorix changed into one of his empty manikins. To the surprise of all present, he suddenly stood there naked. He had no intentions of being relieved of any of his gear.
Seeing this, the tiger spoke with disgust in his voice. "Have you no shame furless beast? Quickly, someone get some rags for this beast and slap him in restraints. Remember he is a Super, restrain him as such."
Several guards grabbed Hadorix and clothed and bound him, hand and foot and drug him to a floor of cells in an upper area of the ship. There were thousands of cells on this level alone. He imagined this was the true financial support of the Pigeons. He would simply bide his time until he was sold off, and hopefully deal with a lesser AI. Dmitri the Grade S was far to difficult to deal with.
During the following week, the cells began to be flooded with prisoners. Hadorix took this time to examine his surroundings and communicate with Alice and Alexus. In their updates, Hadorix discovered that Anubis was now ready to begin his trip into the galaxy with Cy by his side. He intended to hit various criminal groups on his way to reclaim his army from Earth. Alice would be heading out with the spirits soon as well. The Shadow Armory had postponed their trips into space until the 5 stealth ships AIs were upgraded. They then intended to move toward a different area of criminals in the galaxy. Bill had already been revived. For now, he was comfortable in his surroundings, and had caused no issues. On the flip side, the mission Alexus and the others had undertaken was proving far more time consuming than originally anticipated. The area under Anvilmar was extremely extensive and led to far more areas than they had anticipated. Fortunately, they consistently gained new recruits. Of the slaves they freed, at least 10% would aid in the following battles. The other 90% would return to their homes, which would also increase the reputation of the Deviants. The mission was proving to be a win win situation for them on Pax. Cato commanded one of these groups of freed slaves. He was proving quite the able commander.
At the end of the week, Alice teleported 245 of the ships back to their original locations. This scared the Pigeons. They did not know what limitations this unknown technology possessed. The tiger was more concerned however when Dmitri notified him of the level advancement of the AIs on all the ships. Dmitri did a full scan of each AI and found no discrepancies. They appeared to be untainted and completely in control of all of their functions. As such they would be monitored but not removed for service.
Following the return of the ships, Hadorix and many of the other prisoners were removed from their cells and taken to a medium sized ship. This ship was clearly a slaver or prison ship, as aside from the cockpit, the ship contained nothing but cells as far as Hadorix could see. Row after row was filled with the prisoners from the ship Hadorix came from. Hadorix did not know the value of the group he was in, but he imagined it would be rather high he could not count the number of prisoners that were housed with him. Fortunately for Hadorix, this ship also contained few guards. Only the pilot and 5 others were stationed on this ship. The prisoners were all restrained in state-of-the-art restraints. Even supers would be powerless, and none would dare attack an ally of the Pigeons. To do so in this sector would be akin to committing suicide.
Soon the spaceship was off. Hadorix contacted Alice the day after they left. He wanted to know what level of AI the ship possessed. Alice investigated and giggled while reporting to Hadorix, "The AI in this ship is a Grade B. I also figured out the real reason it is so lightly guarded. There are robots in the walls in each cell. If a prisoner manages to get free, the robots will be activated by the AI to restrain the prisoners. There are also stronger robots at the cockpit to ensure it is secure. Those could be activated to help with the takeover if you desire. Pretty efficient way to manage it. There are also small combat ships with heavy shields in the lowest level. In the event of an aerial attack, the guards will fly these ships to protect the slave ship. I of course suppressed the AI and have fully taken control of all the ships and robots. I can unlock your restraints and open your cell at any time. At the rate, the ship is traveling you will have at least another 5 days before you arrive at the ships destination. You will have to be careful where you take this ship though. In this system, slavery is legal. It will take at least a month's travel to get to a system that would free the prisoners and grant you the rights to this ship."
Hadorix was slightly relieved. After hearing about the ships in the bottom Hadorix was more excited than ever. He would essentially be getting 6 ships for the price of one.
The following day, Hadorix asked Alice to be freed from his restraints. They immediately fell to the floor and his cell door opened. He visualized his armor and was instantly armed again. It felt good after the weeks of imprisonment to be free. As he stealthily made his way towards the cockpit, the other prisoners resisted the urge to call out for help. In their eyes, if Hadorix had managed to get free, he obviously had a plan.
When Hadorix arrived at the entrance to the cockpit, Alice opened the door and activated the protection units inside. As soon as the door opened, Hadorix began throwing daggers. He planned to take out as many of the guards as possible before they could respond. Thud, Thud, Thud, Before the pilot could even blink three of his guards fell forward with knives sticking out of the back of their heads. The protection units began to move, and the pilot sighed a breath of relief. Unfortunately, they fired upon the remaining 2 guards killing them as they turned toward the door to the cockpit. The souls of each of them were sent to the Well of Souls.
Quite suddenly the pilot realized he was the only one left alive. He raised his arms in the air and begged to be spared as Hadorix entered the cockpit. Hadorix had the robots take him to the cell he had just escaped from and restrained him. Hadorix debated whether he should absorb the bodies or turn them in when they reached one of the settlements Alice pointed out. She had already changed the flight path and transferred the AI's that she had thus far suppressed to Deviant Home for recruitment. There would be plenty of time to decide if they could be trusted on the trip. In the meantime, Alice could manage all the robots and ships herself if needed. There would be no danger.
Seeing the guards were no longer alive, and the ship was firmly in the hands of a former prisoner, all the prisoners began to beg for release. The ship became so loud, you would have thought they were under attack. Hadorix had Alice go over the intercom to make an announcement. "By now you all clearly realize that the ship has been freed from control from the slavers. I will be reviewing each of your files from the database. Those of you that have committed no crimes will be freed at our next stop. Those of you that are criminals that have bounties, may find yourselves in the hands of law enforcement at the next stop. As always, your choices determine your future. If you continue to scream and cause unneeded issues, you will also not be freed at the next stop. Thank you for joining us for this trip. We look forward to our journey together."
Hadorix laughed as he spoke to Alice, "Look forward to our journey huh? We are on a prison ship, and they are all restrained. You have already gone through the files of everyone of the prisoners. How many should we refuse to free?"
Alice hesitated before replying. "That is a decision you will have to make. While there are few supers among the prisoners, there are many that could be beneficial to the Deviants. There are also some that are loyal to the Galactic Tree."
Hadorix replied without hesitation. "Release the bindings of those with no criminal record. We are currently in no position to offer any of the people here a position. As such I will not openly recruit anyone. If any ask us to join however, we can consider it."
Alice complied.
The next week went by relatively uneventfully. Hadorix spent a great deal of time talking to the newly freed prisoners. By doing this he managed to get a new understanding of many things in the galaxy. From what he discovered mercenary groups were relatively well respected in all corners of the galaxy. It could possibly be a good start to his expansion as it would be a descent way to begin forming a stable income.