The Ballad of Iron Kelly: Pirates of the Twenty-Wun Stars, #2

By Jerri O'Powell

    As the deep sea once gave rise to pirates, so also did deep space . The crew of The Twenty-Wun Stars is one such group of opportunistic souls. This exceptional group of serendipitous scoundrels find themselves under the leadership of Captain Jake Wade. The swaggering mojo at which this man moves thru life is literally infectious. The Captain and the crew travel the galaxy, always on the lookout for their next big score to keep the rum taps flowing in the mess hall, with pirate booty for all.

    Kelly Irene, AKA Iron Kelly, is an invaluable member of the crew of the "Pirates of the Twenty-Wun Stars". As a soldier in the civil war on Winston Proper she was in possession of two very, oversized for her body, cybernetic war amrs. Each arm could transform into a triple barrel particle cannon that could take out a tank. She was the type of military personnel that would get her own piece on a strategic war board. This type of augmentation does not usually exist outside of war times and a war zone, and for that matter on a person of her size, but thru a turn of events she ended up part of the crew of the Twenty-Wun Stars. This is that story.

    Over three thousand years after the final battle over the soul mankind, between God, Satan, and Nefarious, destroys the earth, a new chapter begins. The resulting hyperspace blast from the earth's destruction flings the last of humanity into the furthest reaches of space on their surviving starships. Over a 300 years passes before these star cast seeds of mankind reclaim the stars, and begin to find each other. The first of the new worlds to find each other and reconnect old humanity on new worlds, would eventually form The Confederation of Republic Worlds. This union would be marked with the erection of the Jara Timekeeping Tower on Jara Prime, broadcasting a synced time throughout the known universe. This is the Jara Era.

• Language: English
• Publisher: McMillian
• Release date: Jan 22, 2022
• ISBN: 9798201696818

Book preview

The Ballad of Iron Kelly

Pirates of the Twenty-Wun Stars, Volume 2

Jerri O'Powell

Published by McMillian, 2022.

The Ballad of Iron Kelly

Table Of Contents

Prologue

The Opening Chorus

The Melody

The Closing Chorus

Prologue

Three months ago I was a pirate. Well OK, the chief engineer on a pirate ship. OK, in all fairness, it was a ‘pirate like’ ship, piratey as it were. I overheard that we did NOT in fact have any outstanding warrants in the confederacy. I'm not complaining or anything. That's a good thing. Some ‘Piratey Things’ are good things. We had rum on tap in the ship mess hall at dinner time; at breakfast and lunch on holidays. A few months ago we survived a mutiny that resulted in a new captain, first mate and the whole crew becoming millionaires overnight. I also became a stakeholder in, what I guess I can now call MY pirate ship, the Twenty-Wun Stars. Less than 2 days later the new captain and first mate vanished, as well as 80% of the crew. Our first port after we were rich was a casino. In retrospect, maybe that was NOT a good idea. We were supposed to rob it after a few hours of R & R but most of them never came back. They were millionaires, why would they? I know for a fact that a lot of them became pirates because they were on the run from some underworld figures they owed money to. With money now, I have to guess at least some of them went to pay those debts. At least that's what the first person said when they showed up in dry dock, 6 weeks after they vanished. They didn't have debts that could result in their death any more but they also had limited job skills and so why not go back to the place that made them a millionaire?

The handful of us that never left the ship, invested in it and became part owners. From that point on we would get our pay and split a pool from our future scores. THIS was indeed the first document I ever signed in over 4 years on this ship and we all signed in blood on real paper on the first page of a leather bound book. The captain still had his First Mate, but we all got the title High Mate. I take that as a promotion. I am now High Mate Uncle Dave, Chief Engineer. We all came up with a plan for shipwide improvements from quarters to engineering and propulsion. With little to no crew, not even enough to safely put a ship of that size back into space, now was as good a time as any to get these upgrades installed in dry dock. In the