Mutiny!

“We just lost Engineering!”

“Communications are down!”

“”Deck Three has surrendered!”

“What do we do, Captain?”

Captain Fenner had no answers. He had commanded The Diligence for seven solar cycles but this was his first mutiny. This wasn’t supposed to happen! Press ganging white collar criminals for petty crimes was guaranteed a hundred percent safe by the Admiralty! Now the damn civilians were mutinying!

The mutiny was surprisingly well organized. Attacks had occurred simultaneously all over the ship. Security had been laid low with food poisoning. The First Officer had been taken out while working out in the gym. The Tactical Officer pulled a hernia when he was seduced by a dexterous crewwoman. The day had been one long disaster for the real crewman. 

This mutiny was too organized to be disgruntled penal enlisted. Captain Fenner knew it had to be something else. It had to be Hishen sabotage. Or maybe Xoeg infiltrators. It certainly wasn’t a failure of his leadership that was for damn sure!

The bridge doors blew open. Mutineers dressed in full combat armor charged through.

“By the Gods, they’ve gotten into the armory!” Captain Fenner said.

Laser fire ripped through the security team on the bridge. A crazy woman ran onto the bridge wearing a mish-mash of armor. She swung a stun baton like a club and crushed a security guard’s head in before the shock could stun him. Another mutineer charged out wearing nothing but underwear and a black hood. He grabbed a guard by the throat and strangled him with his bare hands.

“Death before dishonor!” Captain Fenner yelled. He took out his sidearm and stuck an inspiring pose.

The rest of his crew surrendered.

“You bastards!” Captain Fenner yelled at his crew. The crazy woman with the stun baton charged him and he dropped his weapon as fast as he could. The woman looked like she was going to hit him anyway.

“Stop, Jennix!” a voice called out. The crazy woman stopped in mid swing. “The good Captain surrendered and we need him alive.”

A man walked onto the bridge like he owned it, which technically he did now. The man was armed with a blast pistol and one of the swords from the armory. Captain Fenner sneered at the man’s sunglasses but he had to admit it did make the mutineer look badass.

“Wait a minute?” Captain Fenner said. “Walters? Is that you? You work in the Sensors department! What the hell are you doing leading a rebellion? You were a damn insurance adjuster before your arrest!”

“That’s Captain Grognard to you,” Walters said. “And yeah, I may have been an insurance adjustor but I was also a wargamer and three time champion of the Games Fabricator Open Tournament.”

Captain Fenner shook his head. “This makes no sense! How did you take over my ship? Who’s helping you? Is it the Hishen? The Rebels? You’re just a bunch of civilians!”

Captain Grognard laughed. “We’re a bunch of petty criminals who happen to have had lives. Jennix here was a Roller Derby Captain, which makes her a warrior and good person to help organize things. That guy in the hood? That’s Skippy and by day he was a package delivery guy but at night he used to live action roleplay as a serial killer. Just between you and me, civilians are a hell of a lot crazier and more violent than criminals. We got all sorts of mental issues.”

Captain Fenner relaxed a bit. They were just civilians, Civilians he could handle.
“Look, this whole penal enlistening business still has a few problem areas that need to be worked on. If you surrender now, I’ll speak on your behalf at the court martial and recommend a mental disability discharge.”

Captain Grognard smiled. He then kicked Captain Fenner in the crotch. As the Navy officer fell to his knees, Captain Grognard squatted down beside him.

“Here’s my counter offer,” he said. “You give me the access codes for the ship and I let your crew escape in the life pods. Or I turn you over to Skippy here who has been looking forward to doing some real torture scenarios for most of his life. Make up your mind quick, I got four hot crewwomen who hate to work for a living looking to audition to be my Cabin Girl and I rather do that in the Captain’s quarters.”

Captain Fenner gave him the codes. It was the only way to save his life. He shuddered as he thought of the atrocities that these lawless bastards would commit with The Diligence. He thought of the atrocities that this crew of psychos would commit on the men and women of the Star Navy. Worse of all, he thought of the atrocities that were about to be committed in his old bed.