Hendricks and ANDI stood in the hallway connecting the two ships while waiting for Captain Starforged to respond to Hendricks. Hendricks had gotten bored waiting and began throwing popcorn in ANDI’s mouth hoping it would react. After several attempts that ended with popcorn hitting ANDI''s face, Hendricks finally made it into its mouth, but ANDI didn''t respond.


    Captain Starforged contacted them a couple of minutes later and told them to forget going after Rebecca and lock down the ship. ANDI, who had now been ordered to listen to Hendricks again, assisted locking the place down, but after a couple of minutes more pirates arrived trying to break into the ship. From what they could tell one of them was attempting to hotwire the panel to open the door, but wasn''t having much luck.


    While the pirates where busy Hendricks picked up a random rifle from the shelves, and returned to the airlock door to discuss with ANDI how they should take care of these pirates. "We could take one of the grenades and toss them out there, then just reseal the door, and keep doing that every time one of those patrols comes by."


    "Negative,” ANDI said. “We only have three remaining, and these grenades are not easy to acquire according to the captain. We need to be conservative with them."


    "We can''t really win in a straight up fire fight. They''ll overwhelm us next time a patrol comes by."


    ANDI conceded to Hendricks’s point and the two of them tried thinking of other ways they could deal with the pirates.


    "We could just detach the Appalachia from the Baron, then they wouldn''t be a problem", Hendricks said, wondering why he hadn''t thought of such as simple solution earlier.


    "Then they will start focusing all of their attention on the captain and the rest of the crew." ANDI pointed out. "Their survival depends on us staying here and splitting the pirates’ forces until they can deactivate the jammer."


    Hendricks could see ANDI’s point, so he took a moment to think before an idea suddenly struck his mind. "Wait ANDI we can use Charlotte."


    "How will Crewman Morgan''s mech help us?" ANDI asked curious about what he had in mind.


    "It''s simple, we can use the mech to blow a hole in the enemy ship and it''ll suck all those pirates out into space. Then the crew on the bridge will be forced to reseal them with the blast doors to prevent the rest of their buddies from flying out into space."


    "The plan is crude, but it should be effective in resolving our current predicament." ANDI agreed with the plan, so he stayed behind to defend the ship while Hendricks ran to the cargo bay.


    Upon arrival, Hendricks entered the mech’s (a.k.a Charlotte’s) cockpit and opened the cargo bay doors on the roof.


    Hendricks flew Charlotte to a wall on the UFS Baron near the Appalachia’s airlock, and pulled out the rifle on the Charlotte''s back.


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    Meanwhile, inside the UFS Baron the group of pirates trying to break into the Appalachia couldn''t hear the laser fire since the Charlotte was out in a void, but they could hear a banging sound on the ship’s hull. The sound repeated several times, until suddenly- Bang! A hole was blown into the ship, and a strong suction force swept the pirates trying to break into the Appalachia into the empty void of space. The last thing they saw was the Charlotte before their bodies instantly exploded from the lack of gravity.


    A few moments later another group of kelafi pirates who were presumably on their way toward the captains group got sucked out of the ship as well before the blast doors sealed the hole.


    Hendricks tried to do the same thing again with another airlock, but once he got through, it appeared that they had already sealed that one too.


    "We''ll ANDI, I think they caught on to what we were doing and sealed all of the airlocks." Hendricks said over the com. " I''m returning to the Appalachia. We''ll have to come up with something else if they try getting into the ship again."


    ***


    Meanwhile Captain Starforged, Rodriguez, and Morgan we busy trying to hold off a swarm kelafi pirates. There were several blast doors between this section of the ship and where the Appalachia was parked, so they were unaffected by the giant hole Hendricks blew into the side of the UFS Baron.


    Ahg! Captain Starforged bellowed after almost being hit by a laser. All the chairs and tables thrown about made it difficult for the kelafi pirates to move around in the mess hall, but Captain Starforged and his crew were still backed into a corner.


    An enemy tried crawling under the table they had placed in front of the door, but once it got up from under, it was gunned down by Morgan. A couple of them tried shoving both of the tables in front of the door, but Captain Starforged and Rodriguez took them out before they got very far with it.


    One of the pirates attempted to lift the tables using their psionic powers and toss them toward the Appalachia''s crew. The tables didn''t get very far, and that kelafi pirate was left wide open, providing Rodriguez with the perfect opportunity to take it out.


    Rodriguez triumphantly pumped his fist as he took cover behind a cabinet to avoid incoming laser fire. “Yes. That’s three down for me. How are you two doing?”


    Morgan rolled her eyes. “Are you two really counting to see who can kill the most?”


    “Everything’s a competition.” Captain Starforged then shot two overeager kelafi pirates who tried rushing them. “That makes five for me, Rodriguez.”


    Another group of half a dozen pirates tried entering the kitchen through another door, but were obstructed by more tables and chairs and were shot down. However, the kelafi pirates used their psionic powers to remove the obstructions from the other side as well, leaving Captain Starforged and his crew with nothing to prevent more pirates from entering the room.


    The pirates swarmed the room, and eventually there were enough firing at once that the crew of the Appalachia couldn''t even stick their heads out to fire back.


    Captain Starforged pulled the other grenade out of his coat, and rolled it toward the enemy. It made it a quarter of the way across the room, and stopped once it bumped into one of the chairs that had been randomly tossed.


    Captain Starforged rolled his eyes and shot near the grenade a couple of times hoping the force of the blasts would get it to move a couple feet toward the center. After a couple of shots, the grenade was just close enough, and he detonated it with his wristwatch, taking out all but one of the dozen pirates who were in the room at the time.


    The last one was taken out by Morgan since she was able to get a shot off now that there weren’t dozens of lasers firing in her direction.


    The trio was silent as they stared at the empty room before them, until Captain Starforged said. “Rodriguez, that makes sixteen.”