“Shields at 72%.” Sparks called out, the beams from the destroyer and the hits from theser cannons taking their toll.


    John nodded his understanding and watched as the duel unfolded.


    Alyssa brought the Invictus around in a sharp turn, putting them directly behind the Heavy Cruiser, just as the cooling icon disappeared from the beam weapons on the weapon loadout disy. Cra pulled the trigger and the beams cleaved into the shields, which flickered desperately as they tried to withstand the concentrated energy. The front mountedser cannon turrets took over the work from the starboard facing ones and fired relentless fusides ofser bolts into the back of the Stalingrad.


    The Stalingrad pilot tried desperately to shift their stubborn pursuer, but they had neither the skill nor the manoeuvrability to shake them. The Stalingrad heavy cruiser returned fire, but now the Invictus was directly behind them and no longer in the broadside arcs of the beamsers or heavy cannons, leaving onlyser cannons able to attack. Still, the Stalingrad massed considerable banks ofser cannons in their rear arc and with not much room to dodge, a lot struck home.


    “Shields at 46%!” Sparks replied, “They won’t stay up much longer against that much firepower.”


    Alyssa dipped the nose of the Invictus so that the entire top deck could open up on the rear of the bigger ship. 16ser cannons spat a steady stream ofser bolts into the back of the Heavy cruiser, causing the enemy shields to ripple with the repeated impacts. The Stalingrad opened up again and this time it was the front of the Invictus that was peppered with dozens ofser cannon sts.


    “Down to 15%!” Sparks cried out in rm.


    Cra kept her crosshairs squarely over the heavy cruiser as her relentless barrage ofser cannon sts kept up the pressure on the Stalingrad’s shields.


    “Nearly there…” she said softly, watching the tactical summary of the Stalingrad out of the corner of her eye and the predicted shield strength disyed next to the heavy cruiser.


    Finally it was time.


    “Pull up Alyssa!” Cra demanded and her friend brought the nose of the Invictus up to face the rear of the Stalingrad, just as the cooling icon disappeared from the beamsers on her weapon loadout hologram.


    Cra narrowed her eyes in concentration and targeted an upraised tower on the back of the heavy cruiser. She pulled the trigger and six beams of coruscating energynced out from her ship and punched into the enemy shields, finally overloading them at longst. The beams from the Invictus seared onwards and shed through the tower with a 6 wed swipe, shearing the entire structure off the back of the heavy cruiser.


    “Oh yeah…” Cra said, grinning with satisfaction.


    The enemies rear facingser cannon turrets powered down, the enemy fire control tower eviscerated by the brte’s precision shooting. The Stalingrad was now helpless andpletely at their mercy.


    “Iing hail John” Alyssa said, putting themunication on the vid-screen when he nced her way and nodded.


    A swarthy looking figure wearing a tricorn hat filled the viewscreen.


    “Everett Hitch, Pirate Lord at your service.” the man said with a sweeping flourish of his archaic looking hat.


    “You seem to have me at somewhat of a disadvantage, may I ask for a pay?” the Pirate Lord requested cordially.


    “I don’t deal with vers.” John snarled. “Especially not someone who sells people to the Kirrix!”


    “At least tell me your name, good sir!” the Pirate Lord requested, surprisingly calm despite the desperate situation he found himself in.


    “Commander John ke and I’m here to end you!” John said, pointing at the man.


    “Well Mr ke, that’s as may be, but I think you might want to hear what I have to say before you shoot any more bits off my fine ship” the Pirate said a sardonic smile.


    “Ok let’s hear it.” John said, his dislike of the Pirate Lord growing by the moment.


    “I didn’t trade all our captives with the Kirrix. Let’s just say I kept a few behind for insurance purposes, so to speak” he borated with an evil glint in his eye.


    The pirate lord nced at a control panel to the side of him and pushed a button, the image of his face reced by vid-feed of human prisoners locked in cells, before the image returned to his smug face once again.


    “Now how about you turn your splendid ship around and let me be on my way, or who knows what terrible fate might befall them!” he said with mockment.


    “You bastard!” John eximed.N?velDrama.Org owns all ? content.


    “Bye-bye Mr ke, just ept you’ve been outyed and everything will be just dandy!” Pirate Lord Everett Hitch said, waving farewell with a taunting smile and ending themunication.


    “What now John?” Alyssa asked him, Cra and Sparks looking up and waiting with baited breath.


    “I want that man dead” John grimaced, “but we can’t just carve up his ship with the Invictus. The vid-feed footage might be fake, but I don’t think it is”.


    “Boarding action?” Alyssa suggested.


    “Yeah, I think we have to.” John said.


    “I’ll soften the ship up for you” Cra volunteered. “They won’t be going anywhere.”


    Sparks had finished performing an active scan of the Stalingrad and she turned to face themand podium.


    “It looks like the prisoners are been kept in the ships brig.” she said, hitting a button on her console to bring up the scan of the Stalingrad. It showed a group of 15 life readings in an area highlighted as the brig, on the detailed schematic ovey showing the flooryout of a Terran Federation heavy cruiser.


    “Can you upload that data to theputer in my armour please.” John requested.


    Sparks nodded eagerly and turned back to her console to make sure John had a detailed map to guide him in the pirate ship.


    John rose to his feet and Alyssa joined him, as they prepared to get ready for an assault on the heavy cruiser. They took the elevator down to their quarters and hurried to put on theirbat armour and collect their rifles and ammo. Alyssa looked at the ragged hole in the shoulderpad of her armour with a raised eyebrow.


    “Yeah, I know.” John muttered, as he mmed in a magazine of hollow point caseless into his bullpup rifle.


    “If I’d known I’d be doing this muchbat, I would have bought a few dozen suits of armour just in case!” he said with irritation.


    “The trials and tribtions of being a trader?” Alyssa said, smiling.


    “I’ve seen morebat in thest month, than I saw in myst couple of years in the military!” John said in exasperation.


    “If it’s any constion, I’ve been in morebat in thest month, than myst 18 years!” Alyssa said, smiling wryly.


    “Ok, that has me beat.” John said, grinning at her.


    “Come on, let’s go say hello to Mr Everett Hitch.” he said with grim finality.


    “Don’t you mean goodbye?” Alyssa said, smiling.