"Stand by," says Moyasmedsev through his translator. "I am working up a fix on them."
"I have them," chirps the little droyne, its eyes glittering in the light of his computer panel...
"I think that we can take them man-to-man," Jenni says bitterly. I hate pirates. They're the scum of the galaxy.
Moyas get's a good sensor scan off the pirate, and finds it's a heavily retrofitted Devil Fang armed transport. Basically a former military ship, 200 tons normally. However, this one has been modified to include a pinnace as part of it's profile, not just mounted on, but actually running and providing additional energy to the ship. The Devil Fang would normally be equipped with two barbettes, port and starboard, but this one's been modified (the power profile is higher than standard), and the pinnace may have a firmpoint as well. The pulse laser likely came from the pinnace, and fires straight ahead. If the ship still has it's barbettes, it could be using Missiles, particles or plasma's. If it's managed to get ahold of some Imperial Equipment somewhere, it could also be using Fusion Barbettes or Ion Cannons. Given how amped up the power curves are, it's likely the ship has some captured imperial equipment on it.
"Listen I have no idea if the weapons on this tub even work, let alone how to fire them...I'm just the pilot, not a combat fighter! Does anyone else have any knowledge of ship-borne weapons?"
"I'm a rated gunner, but I'm not suggesting that we can outfight them in this tub. I say let them come aboard and try to take it from us!"
"I like the way you think Glitch!! I am a pretty good shot..maybe we ambush them when they arrive...but we will still need to deal with that ship out there...can you tell if our weapons will even work?"
"I think we're better off not letting them on board. I'm useless in a fight. Do we have a fighter onboard that is usable?"
"If we fight them when they come on board we will still need to deal with their ship,"
She begins pacing, "We will have to find a way to jam their communications once they are on board our ship." Concluding with a shrug, Disable the boarding party and then board their ship."
Moyas is fairly sure the Pirate can take the Kektys, even before it's mods. However, the Phoenix is more heavily modified, with a potential to equal the Pirate's ship. However, it's not at full capacity, and the weapons are iffy.
If this was a military fight, it'd be straight up even odds on who'd win, the two ships are sub-par, but they out number the enemy, and possibly equal it's damage potential.
However, given it's a pirate, pirates don't make money fighting to the death. Moyas figures there's three ways to handle it, buy him off, give him cargo, or do enough damage to him that he leaves. The first might not work, and will cost money. The middle will certainly work, Pirates don't shoot things they get cargo from. The latter can work, but could also leave the ships damaged more than the likely 30 tons of cargo he'd demand.
"You lot need some prodding? I got no issue poking a few holes in your hulls!"
Another pulse laser blast lights up the Kektys, the laser is close enough to the hull that heat warnings start to blare on the bridge, indicating the laser either scraped the hull or came close enough to the hull to hit a sensor array or five as it passed by. No damage warnings, but it was very close.
"We're sitting ducks just floating here. We either need to bring them aboard, fight, or try to flee. I don't believe that we can outfight them, but we might make it not worth taking our cargo."
Moyasmedsev opens up the broadcast channel on the same frequency. "Black Fang, this is Captain Moyasmedsev of the Droyne ship Kektys. You are in violation of the Treaty of Oaeough, giving Droyne ships free run of merchant lanes in the Ruler of Five. This action is a direct challenge to the authority of the Ruler of Five. Also, this aggression will be reported to the Droyne Assassins Brotherhood. Moyasmedsev out."
"This s Captain Dev Vorn of the ISS Pheonix. We are heaving to and awaiting your arrival. Pheonix out."
Dev looks at the others on the bridge.
"Ok, so now what?"
Jenni sighs. "We let them come aboard and do whatever they want to us, apparently. We have *got* to get better armaments."
"Ahoy, you short annoying lizard space lawyer! I'm The Dread Corsair Black Fang! I have a letter of marque from Aesthera, who are having a tiff with the Salvash. You are not an Aesthera registered ship, so your damn treaty don't apply, you smelly lizard. As long as you ain't Vargr, or are Vargr and Salvash, my letter says I can capture your stuff. Now shut up and get off the comms if you can't come up with something better. Black Fang out." Comes the swift reply to Moyas post.
This is not uncommon, unfortunately, two of the 5 clans are having a 'tiff'. Tiff is a special term that means 'we are trying to kill each other but we are not actually going to kill each other, just screw each other over, along with anyone not aligned with one of the other clans'. Moyas could probably argue a claim against the Aesthera for treaty violations, but it'd take a decade in court, and the chances of a Droyne winning is slim. As long as he doesn't kill you, there's not much he has to worry about. And if you fire back, he can kill you and still probably just get a letter from someone else.
When Dev gets finished talking, the comm opens back up. "Well now, that's right smart of you, but also darn boring. Oh well, no zap zap boom boom agghhh I can't breath pop in vacuum then. Stand by, I'll be over in a jiff with the pinnace."
About 10 minutes later, the pinnace detaches from the ship, and zooms over and docks to the Phoenix's airlock (since the landing bays are full). Once it's fully connected, a voice comes over the comm.
"Alright, now let me explain a bit. This here pinnace is wired to blow if anyone tries to enter it but me. It's also monitoring my bioreadings, and if it detects I been knocked out, or killed, it'll detonate. I got a pair of nukes hooked up to the fusion engine. Should turn you lot into a nice ball of rads. And if I send a signal, even if I'm alive, the nukes go boom boom. So, mind your manners."
Then the airlock cycles, and a truly memorable Vargr steps in. He has solid black fur, and a literal patch over his left eye. A scar (the only non-black fur on his face) leads up to his ear, which is cybernetic. Literally, where a pointed black ear should be, there's a metal ear with hinges that allow it to fold into various positions, and a base that rotates. The pirate has boarding armor on, but doesn't have his helmet on. There's a plasma gun on the arm of his armor. And, even odder, a floor length black and crimson cloak, and what looks like a black powder pistol shoved into a hoslter on the armor's chest plate. He also has a long rapier with a monofilament blade on his hip.
"Ya'll have done been boarded by The Dread Corsair Black Fang! Ya'll damn lucky, you got a tale to tell now!" He turns his plasma gun toward the wall, and a small jet of flame burns a set of fang marks into the wall, with a circle around them. "There, now people will believe it! Now, you want to do cargo or money? Cargo's good, money is better. Don't have to go dock and sell money." He's speaking rather good Imperial.
With a heavy sigh, Dev asks, "How much? As you can see we are not a wealthy vessel."
The Vargr snorts. "Don't try to con me, I know you bought hundreds of thousands of dollars of cargo on the station. I figure you got money, and if you don't, I can take the cargo." He sighs. "But that means I gotta jump to another system, putter around for a few day to get to the station, sell the damn cargo, which takes time, then putter back to the gas giant ot refuel, then jump back here and wait for another fat duck. All things being equal, how about 50,000 credits, and you tell everyone you got taken to the cleaners by The Dread Corsair Black Fang. You know, dashing, handsome rogue who took you by surprise, totally out classed you, made your ladies swoon?" He looks at Glitch. "Not that I'm looking for any bedtimes with humans, sorry, you're all kind of ugly you know, no fur."
Jenni curses under her breath but holds her tongue. Getting shot is not high on her priorities list.
Elric lets out a long sigh, as if a long series of horrible events have started to finally started to have an effect on the man. "Well this can only end poorly. Hey Moyasmedsev, what do you think the odds are of this ending in a firefight?"
Trying not to look too elated, Dev curses and grumbles and attempts to barter the price down a bit.
"50K...you got to be joking. We could maybe a bit more than half that...say 30,000?"
The vargr rubs his jaw. "Hmm, so we're negotiating, ok. I can't take 30,000. How about 70,000 instead?"
"Yes, well if that is the way it is going to go..then $50K will do."
"Well, we have a deal then." He pulls a computer out of his pack, and hands it out. "Just deposit in the computer please, and we can have a nice tea."
Dev keys in the account number and transfers the 50K into the pirate's account.
"Well, there you go. Follow me to the galley and we will see what we can rustle up."
Dev takes him to the ship's commissary and serves him some tea and cakes.
The vargr goes along with you, sweeping his cape in a magnificent flourish. When the tea and cakes are served, he tastes both and then laughs. "Humans sure do know how to make good tea. So, where are you folks off to next? If you don't mind my saying, you should get your ship fixed up. You need some real weapons, not those antiques that are creaking in your turrets." He takes a sip of his tea. "I've got some contacts, if you can scrounge up the money. Or steal it, hah!. Even that old scout ship is getting long in the tooth, and it's younger than this bucket of bolts. And why did you bring the droyne along? They're a real pain in the tail."
Your resident Vargr also helps himself to some tea and a cake. "They didn't have any choice, Ol Admiral Nova said if they didn't, she'd throw the lot of them into the primary."
The pirate gives a laugh. "I can see that, she always did have a temper. How's she doing? She still having trouble with that cyber foot?"
The resident Vargr nods. "Yeah, and the docs can't get it to work right, and she won't replace it. Keeps her up most nights with little shocks."
The pirate shakes his head. "She always did have more stubborn than a ship full of human religious nuts. That thing was garbage when she got it."
"About 60/60," says Moyasmedsev over the comms. "But if we nail this Vargr's head to our nose cone, maybe the next pirate will think twice. Predator or Prey. You can only be one in the Vargr Extents."
"Well any assistance you can offer to us would be greatly appreciated. We are slowly trying to make our way out of this area and back to Imperial space. Contacts are great, and perhaps if we can make a little profit on this cargo we might be able to update one of our ships with better weapon. More tea?"
The pirate pushes his tea cup over, obviously hinting at a refill. "Empire? Then I bet you're heading through Ansana. There's an Imperial Consulate there. That means from here you're likely going to Onggvaerrgh, Ksagval, Inudak to Ansana. If it was me, I'd change those plans. I'd instead head to Oukhsoureghz, Verundzogz, Rongaerrg to Ansana. The two clans really are having a tiff, and one owns Ksagval, and the other Inudak, so travel between those two systems is a right pain in the tail right now. The other route gets you there the same time, but you'll be giving up the bigger markets on Inudak. Worth it if you ask me, not to get blown out of space by some stupid green eared pup hoping to earn some glory when you pop out of space near a cruiser or a battleship." He rubs the side of his nose with a clawed finger. "Tell you what, toss in another 50,000, and I'll escort you. Honestly, I need to empty my hold anyway, it's damn near full."
Re-filling his tea, Dev looks at the rest of the crew to try and get a sense of what they think of the offer.
"Well let me have a word with the captain of the scout ship and see what he thinks. Enjoy the tea and cakes for the time being and I will be right back."
Jenni rolls her eyes and gives Dev a look that says, we're inviting them in for tea, now? What's next? Invite them to bunk with us?"
"Well that is a very generous offer, but I do not think we could afford your protection, I'm afraid. Our margins are pretty narrow at the moment, but thank you very much for the offer!"
Dev continues with some small talk until the pirate decides to leave...and he continues to be courteous and pleasant the entire time.
The pirate finishes his tea and crumpets, talking about the local politics, the local news on sports, and other small talk. When done, he stands up, bows, flips his cape, and bids you all adeu.
As he leaves the airlock, he drops something in it that he takes from his ship. "Now then folks, I've left 50 lbs of high grade explosives laced with a bit of depleted uranium and active thorite. There's a 30 minute timer on it. If the timer counts down, it'll disarm, and you can open the outer airlock and blow it out into space, so you don't get blow outs or radiation sickness or anything. If my ship is attacked, or my pinnace, the ship will send a destruct signal, and it'll go off in your airlock and open your hull to space and irradiate your ship. Sorry, I do know we had a lovely tea and crumpet session, but I suspect some of you would prefer to blow me up as I leave. Since I'd hate to kill you all, I think this gives you an excuse not to." He slaps the device on the wall in the airlock, where the camera pickups can see it, and then gives a final wave to the camera before leaving. "Oh, and I wouldn't mess with it. The mercury switch on it is a little tempramental. I'd keep your engines offline for until it disables itself."
The pinnace disengages and starts it's way back to the pirate ship.
As the pirate leave, Dev gives out a sigh of relief.
"Well it could have been a lot worse! Let's just stand down until he is gone and we can jettison the 'little gift' he left us."
As long as no one does anything, 30 minutes count down, and the magnetic clamp disengages, leaving the device floating in the airlock.
Opening the airlock results in the device being sucked out, and the two ships are free of entanglement to refuel.
"Well that happened. So are we going to follow his advice or stay the course?"
"He was a pirate. I'd say the chances he told the truth are 60/60. But my gut says take his advice."
"I'm not normally one for taking the word of a pirate, but he did leave us alive when he could have easily destroyed us. I say that we follow his advice."
"Either he's got friends that way to take more of our cargo, or he's telling the truth and doesn't want more trouble to come to a quarry that rolled over so easily for him. Either way there's danger - skirmishes or pirates?" Alison sighs the thought of ship to ship combat makes her feel sick, "Honestly I'd rather take his word and risk more pirates than trigger-happy battleships."
"I think I would agree. Let's skirt the fighting factions and take the more serene route. It might cost us a little, but at least we will not get caught up in some squabble between factions. Ok, make ready and lets get moving...I have to re-calculate our trip."
Astrogation:
The Phoenix and the Kektys both jump to hyper space, and two ships vanish from normal space. The crews spend 2 weeks hoping they come out near each other.
The two ships come out of hyperspace a few million miles from each other, pretty good for space purposes. It will take then days to reach the planet.
Oukhsoureghz has no space station, instead there's a large flat stone area that is used for landing and cargo transshipment.
Two cities have grown up around the transshipment area, each about the same size with 15K people each. The planet has a thin atmosphere, and requires respirators. Local production is primitive, although they have modern computers and power sources (shipped in). Beyond that, local production is cheap electric grid trolleys and primitive slug throw firearms. Concealed weapons are probhitied by both towns, but other than that, you're ok. IE: Open carry is legal, concealed weapons isn't, so make sure any weapons you carry are out in the open. There's no charge for landing at the landing base.