Cole watched the massive ship bear down on the much smaller pirate vessel. While he wasn't sure he'd convinced them of their involvement, he took solace in the fact that at least they weren't shooting his way just yet. In fact, despite their claims about possibly hitting the station, the shots they directed toward the vessel they were chasing were surprisingly accurate. They could have easily overpowered the much smaller ship through volume of fire alone but instead seemed to be taking a much more surgical approach as they narrowed the gap between them.

Looking back at the new boss, Cole broke the silence. "Uh, boss? I don't think they're gonna last much longer. How close are those other ships you mentioned?"

The boss, who was watching his own screen intently, looked up. "Hmm? Oh, they're holding just outside the system so as not to spook our prey."

Cole looked at the one-sided "battle" playing out on his screen, and it seemed like the pirate ship's shields were failing. He then turned back to the new boss. "Uhh, shouldn't we call them in now? I don't know how much longer our guys can hold out..."

The boss waved away his concerns. "No, we wait until they start harvesting the ship for resources, then we call them in!"

Cole fought the urge to stare at the other man. Harvesting the other ship for resources? Did he mean looting the ship? Was he just gonna leave them to die? It would be one thing if they didn't have a way to deal with this ship, but he had ships ready to come and take them on. What was he thinking? "Uh, but what if they start attacking us after taking out our guy's ship?"

The boss shrugged. "The shields on the station should last long enough for our reinforcements to arrive, though I'm hoping to catch them in a more vulnerable state. That way, they won't be able to run so easily."

Not having any other ideas to offer, Cole turned back to his station. He was used to life being cheap out here, but the sheer indifference the boss showed toward the deaths of these men was something else. The man was psychotic, and right now, the best thing Cole could probably do was just shut up and keep his head low.

-

Alen wasn't particularly excited at the prospect of joining the raid, but as one of only two bridge officers to make it off the Trader's Vigilance, and with Commander Reid leading the battle suit squad, he was the most qualified to take temporary command of the ship once they'd cleared it of pirates. And that was how Erik and Vanessa had come to be assigned as his escort once again, as they'd done such a good job the last time.

Of course, remembering the last time he'd fought pirates made Alen look down at his metal foot. What might he lose this time? A whole leg? An arm? Something worse? He was starting to feel a little light-headed thinking about it, which was when Erik's "encouraging" back slap almost sent him flying out of his chair.

The large alien looked down at Alen with his usual overconfident grin. "No worries, kid. This time, we're in control of the situation. You'll see, it won't be like last time!"

Alen shook his head. "I still wish I'd had time to learn to use one of those suits... It would make me feel a lot safer if there was a solid inch of plate steel between me and any guns the pirates might have..."

Erik laughed. "Oh, those tin cans aren't as safe as people would make you think! They get hit in the wrong place, and the whole thing just becomes an expensive coffin for ya!"

One of the men in a battle suit standing near at hand gave Erik a rather unflattering look, making the alien laugh again. "Oh, not you! I'm sure you'll be fine!"

Then, turning back to Alen, Erik continued. "Just hang back once the fighting starts. So long as you're not standing out in the open where a stray shot can take you out, Vanessa and I can keep you safer than one of your overblown suits." He looked back to the guy in a battle suit. "Again, not yours! That's one nice battle suit you got there!" Then, back to Alen, "Besides, I got me a new toy I wanna try out!" With that, the alien viking hefted the new belt-fed chain gun he'd "liberated" from the hoard of weapons that had been intended for the battle suits.

Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more.

Alen couldn't help but grin a little at the look of manic glee on the large man's face but then remembered something he'd said a while ago. "But I thought you preferred your axes? What changed?"

Erik hefted the gun again. "Have you seen this thing? That's what changed! Besides, I can always drop it and switch to my axes again if things get ugly."

That was fair enough. Erik still had his oversized axes strapped to his lower back and sides. Finding room for them around the backpack full of ammo for the chain gun had been a bit tricky, but he'd been determined to try out his new toy and wouldn't take no for an answer.

A moment later, Captain Carter's voice came over the system. "Alright, their shields are down, and Sybil will get that bay door open for you. Time for you lot to go earn your ticket home! Just remember to return my ship to me in one piece, or I'll be billing it to you later!"

Alen didn't know why the Captain was so attached to this outdated cargo hauler when he had the Sybil. Although admittedly, that ship was even more outdated in many ways.

However, any response Alen could have made died in his throat as soon as he experienced the mild disorientation caused when one smaller pool of gravity began fighting with a much larger one as the cargo hauler took off. Typically, it wasn't so offputting, but typically, he wasn't flying into an active combat zone.

-

Only a short while ago, Riley had thought they were gonna score an easy payday when an old cargo hauler had strayed into their trap, just like the new guy in charge had said would happen. He was all geared up and ready to board the ship and clear it of any resistance when suddenly, the ship had turned fast enough that the inertia dampeners couldn't fully compensate, and he'd been thrown to the side of the prep room. That was when the lights started surging. He'd been in enough shipboard combat on older ships to know that was the generators of this bucket of bolts pouring energy into the shields. At first, he thought the cargo hauler was fighting back, but the way the lights kept dimming and occasionally even started going out, he knew the guns they were being hit with were big ones.

Not long after that, the lights went out completely, bathing the area in the familiar red of emergency lighting, and the ship started shaking under direct impacts. Riley was certain he was about to die when suddenly, the shaking stopped, everything became eerily quiet, and then the shouting started.

Riley poked his head out the prep room door, only to see a bunch of the guys running past. One paused long enough to look over to him. He shouted something, but Riley wouldn't make out much, although he did catch the word "boarders."

Was the merchant ship some kind of trap set up by the core patrols? Rily decided he didn't care. Whoever it was, if they were boarding the ship, he was gonna try and kill at least a few of them before dying today, so he grabbed his favorite shotgun and followed the crowd toward the storage hold.

He arrived just in time to see a small cargo hauler fly into their hold and set down. How they'd gotten the bay doors open, he didn't know, but now they were in trouble. Assault ships were usually set up to allow the people inside to disgorge rapidly, often under cover fire, but this was just a small cargo vessel with a single ramp for workers to go in and out. Enough guns were pointed at that opening that not even a battlesuit could get out in one piece. Maybe this had been a last-ditch effort to save themselves, but if so, all they'd done was make Riley's job easy for him. He found a heavy crate to take cover from and waited for the hatch to open.

Looking at the entrance, it seemed like there was some kind of odd plating where there shouldn't be. Was that some hastily added armor plating? But its location didn't make any sense. It wasn't protecting the cabin or the storage hold. It was right above where the ramp would extend...

Then, as the plates suddenly released and fell along with dozens of smaller objects hidden inside, Riley remembered what he'd thought about assault ships usually having covering fire and ducked down just in time to avoid the explosions. Those odd metal plates had been hollow and filled with grenades, based on what he could hear and see from cover, both smoke and shrapnel.

In the middle of the chaos, Riley heard a secondary explosion, followed by a loud clang of a giant metal plate falling to the ground, probably the ramp. Rather than lower it the usual way, they dropped it to get out as quickly as possible while still covered by the smoke filling the room.

Riley stood up and started shooting in the direction of the ramp. A few others were shooting as well, but in all the smoke and chaos, it was impossible to tell if the shooting was from their side or somewhere else. At least the vacuum suit protected him from the smoke, but if the boarders got lucky or some idiot wasn't careful with their friendly fire, he could get taken out quickly.

With a curse, Riley ducked back down and pulled out his own grenade. Not wanting to give them time to react, he popped the pin and started counting in his head.

"One." He could hear heavy footfalls out there now. They probably had battle suits. Damn it!

"Two." The gunfire was getting more intense. It was clear both sides were firing now.

"Three." The screaming was slowly shifting from warcries to cries of pain as people hit with gunfire or shrapnel fell.

"Four." A new sound joined the cacophony of noise. The Brrrt only a heavy machine gun of some kind could make, behind which was the audible laughter of some maniac.

"Five." Riley tossed the grenade over the box he was hiding behind toward the ramp and ducked down, instinctively trying to cover his ears just as the explosion went off.