The Reaper Chronicles

Pirate Soup

    Lee barely had any time to react. The massive group stealthing that covered the pirate squadron fizzled away as visible propulsives behind hundreds of brightly colored rockets passed through the stealth's border. The reaper poked a select few of the rockets interspaced throughout his display and watched as tiny tendrils of blue light intercepted and detonated each rocket, creating a chain reaction that detonated the surrounding missiles. He misclicked one at the end and it accidentally hit one of the smaller pirate ships, touching it only for the tiniest fraction of a second. Even with the DEB spike's power being turned down as it was he was worried it would simply tear the enemy ship apart, shearing through it and overrunning it with raw energy like some devine punishment from an angry god--that was usually what happened when ASASN's barrier hit other ships. Lee breathed a sigh of relief at the sight of the accessory ship seemingly unharmed--until a few seconds later when it exploded anyway.

*   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   * 

    "Bloody Arsehole!" Daedric exclaimed before spinning around in his chair to face his captain. He was Goob's chief weapons guy. The one that fired the missiles and stuff. Daedric was an extraordinarily large man, well muscled and mean looking, with a respectable gut. It always surprised Goob the Dreadful how high and squeaky his voice was when he spoke.

    "I'll show them a bloody arse." Goob grumbled. "Daedric, what do you make of all this?" he said with a lethargic wave at the screen.

    "That ship has to be class A or higher, or their weapon's system is at least. It's got to be worth millions of bites."

    That made Goob's eyes bulge more than just a little. But he quickly pulled his cool and collected persona back over. "How do you think we should proceed?"

    "Our normal explosives aren't working. But even with all their fancy weapons their ship is so tiny. They can't have more than fifteen people. I think boarding would be the best option if we can obtain a scan record of its interior so that we can program the tele where to drop us without infusing us into the wall or something." Daedric noted.

    Goob looked over to Skalder, his resident computer nerd/digital warfare expert. He was already typing furiously on his outrageously tiny, holographic keyboard. He gave a deranged cackle that would make any witch jealous before turning his slumped head to Goob. "Already have it. They recently took on some supplies before this mission. The scan was made by loading drones after the drop-off and sent to their helm to confirm delivery." Skalder reported

    "Should we cease fire and prepare the tele for a raiding party sir?" Daedric asked, already standing up and slinging the rifle he had hanging off his chair over one of his massive shoulders.

    Captain Sourgout's face appeared on screen again. "Again, this is captain Dale Sourgout, I demand your surrender or I will use lethal force as previously demonstrated. Any ships showing signs of FTL engines charging will be instantly terminated. Power down your weapons and thrusters and await police escort."

    Goob yelled a primal scream of defiance at the screen before shutting off communications. "Do as he says." He told his men. "Power down the thrusters and guns, but warm up that teleporter. We'll need to move fast boys." Dashay raised a hand as if in protest to this but his captain ignored him as he carried on. "They've earned the anger of Goob the Dreadful. I'll go myself. That Dill doesn't look too tough to me."

    This earned an "Ooooo" of awe and respect from every man aboard--well, almost every man; Dashay looked positively sick--followed quickly by a whoop of excitement over the chance to board. "Bring me my LightMail! And Daedric start that volley."