Most of the fleet was only too happy to comply.

     Some stayed, enraged, to unleash all they had on the mass murdering juggernaut that was Tindriss, the Coal Maiden.

     Beams targeted her. 

     Missiles illuminated the darkness as they detonated. 

     One warship slammed full into her...

     to no effect. 

     Nothing could stop Tindriss. 

     Caracaw went to give his own flagship the command to retreat to fallback space. It wasn't a verbal command he had to give, but a mental one communicated through one of his hundred appendages. 

     Still, he never got the chance. 

     Tindriss smashed through the hull of the flagship, revealing all those inside to the frozen nothingness of space. She bulleted around until she found Caracaw himself. 

     In less time than it took to blink, Tindriss ripped the appendages from Caracow's torso.

     Caracaw no longer controlled anything and could communicate with no one. 

     A thousand warships. Two hundred times that many soldiers. 

     All thwarted by a single entity. 

     A single woman. 

     Tindriss, the Coal Maiden. 

     Caracaw wanted to get a good look at the entity who was about to murder him.

     Tindriss stood six feet tall, and her body really did look like it was made of gleaming black coal. She never wore clothing, although nothing about her, certainly nothing between her legs, could be described as sexual. Something that looked very much like a cape hung from her shoulders, only it, too, looked chiseled from coal. 

     Her eyes glowed as if lit from within by flames the color of rubies. 

     Caracaw had a single question: "Where did the Folock get the funds to hire you?"

     Tindriss smiled as she pulled a communicator from her "cape".

     "Done," she said into the transmitter. "I'm looking into the eyes of their egri right now." 

     "Kill it," came the reply.

     Caracaw bellowed, "I DEMAND TO KNOW HOW THE FOLOCKS..." 

     Tindriss dove into the center of the egri and thrashed around until only shreds remained. 

     Then she did the same to the flagship.

     Into her transmitter, Tindriss tapped, "Attack terminated. Coordinates?"

     The coordinates she requested appeared immediately on the screen, her payment for her services. 

     Tindriss smiled.

     Here I come, Adam Forwarder, she thought. 

     And, this time, I will tear you apart so thoroughly, you will never return.

END OF CHAPTER NINE

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