October 1st, 8252

You gather your crew together over lunch for a small meeting. Reports are starting to flow back and forth to the Navy as to the wrecked ships in the Tumul system and you figure you may as well squash the speculation on its head.

“Right, gather round and raise an ear. First up is the good news. The Surveyor's Corps bureaucrats have seen fit to release the survey rewards for the Tumul system. The share for each person comes to out to five hundred and forty seven credits each on top of your monthly paycheck. This, of course, doesn't include any prize money from the Navy for the intact, well intact-ish, ships we have identified in the wreckage.

“Which brings us to the bad news. We are not going to be conducting the needed 'boarding action' needed to claim those ships. I've already checked and the Navy considers the HMS Dragon as too old to be worth salvaging. It would cost as much to reclaim and upgrade her to current Navy standards as it would to build a brand new Knight-class frigate. Accordingly I see no reason to risk the run into the middle of that debris field to 'claim' a wreck that's going to be written off and sent to the breakers anyways.

“'But what about that Thunderer class'? Yes, she is closer to the edge of the debris field. Yes, she is without power and thus most automated defenses. This also means she has no power, no gravity, and no safety features. She's also Pirate built. A full bore 'boarding action' by the book would require an end to end survey and appraisal. With only four people, plus the automatons, that would take at least a week. More likely two or more with each hour of each day aboard it a risk that one or more of us would be injured or crippled. And even after all that it's a coin flip at best if the Navy would consider the ship usable enough to buy in, even as a target hulk.

“Thus it is my decision that we do not attempt such a boarding action and forgo the chance at the prize money from her.”

Midshipman Engel simply nods in understanding, obedient to the chain of command. CWO Fish cocks her head trying to puzzle out what you aren't saying. Midshipman Huckle appears to be a mixture of relieved that he won't have to search another wrecked hulk and disappointed that he'll be missing out on the prize money.

“That being said, I'd like your honest opinions about conducting a raid on the Thunderer Class instead. We have enough information on file about the class to know where the cargo holds are, among other things, and we could take a crack at poking our noses in and claiming some of the bounty there for our own. Even if that is no more then old tech and oddities, that can be worth a fair bit to the right collector.”

CWO Fish crosses her arms and leans back. “The risks are lower sure but aren't exactly zero. A few curios isn't worth that much.”

Midshipman Engel waggles a hand back and forth. “Aff and neg. it depends a lot on what we find. And how we could claim it. If we are forgoing Navy prize court rewards anyway then we'd be claiming the cargo as salvage or as a prize of war, privateer style. I'd have to check the regulations on that. Pirates always make things murky.”

Midshipman Huckle leans forward and rests his elbows on the table, hands clasped beneath his chin. “I don't know the rules and regs that they Surveyor's Corps has but the Royal Marines are pretty stringent on what you can claim as a war prize or trophy. Rule of thumb was it had to be something you got from an enemy or that they left behind, command had to clear it, and you had to bring it home yourself. Mailing things was right out ninety nine times in a hundred, the EoD guys had to check it all over for traps, guns and the like had to have the cuts made so that it wasn't a usable weapon anymore, and a few other odds and ends.”

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CWO Fish looks interested, “ok, I can start to see the value in the things we could grab off for ourselves. Old and odd weapons are always worth something. Hell, I had to fight to get my old revolver re issued and the armory guy still made me an offer to buy it off me.”

Midshipman Engel starts to nod, a grin spreading over his face. “If I'm recalling the regulations correctly we have to get any weapons and the like cleared by the local command authority... but said command authority is sitting here at the table with us.”

You nod, “I think I'm starting to hear some consensus here so let me set down some ground rules. No explosives or things that can be made to explode for obvious reasons. Nothing that's going to bring an investigation down on us like gold, gems, or similar valuables. No drugs for the same reason. No human remains in any form. If you have a question about an object you raise it with me for approval before moving it back to the shuttle much less the Night Horse. Clear?”

There is unanimous agreement and so you begin to plan your excursion to the wrecked pirate ship.

October 3rd, 8252

The claimable loot from the pirate cruiser, within the time you set aside and the restrictions you set down, is somewhat limited. You have to reject a few items, such as a flamethrower that Midshipman Huckle found or the void capable jet pack that CWO Fish wanted to mod onto her frame. The former was both a fire hazard and explosion risk just waiting for Lady Murphy to show her face. The later even more so as it was designed to burn one of several kinds of 'zip fuels' commonly used in emergency high-energy thrusters mounted to shuttles, aerospace fighters, and even some smaller star ships. In the end you and your crew come back with a total of a dozen items deemed safe enough to keep.

Midshipman Huckle picked up an extra combi tool. It's a bit battered and aged but it's gilded casing and high precision tools mark it out as a premium model. It even works better then the one he purchased a few months back, a fact that midshipman Huckle contributes to the differences between mass production versus 'artisan craftsmanship.' Showing his ex-marine fascination and happiness with all things that go 'boom' he also brings back two firearms. One is something he calls a 'custom hotchkiss'. It's a heavy automatic rifle, a short barreled thing chambered in an esoteric seven point six nine millimeter rimmed cartridge. The other is a heavily modified M79 shotgun. The old Navy issue weapon having been captured or salvaged at some point received both a spiked muzzle to go with the under slung bayonet mount and a custom engraving of a fire breathing dragon on the receiver.

Midshipman Engel is a bit more conservative in his selections. He brings back the helmet of a pirate void suit with an imposing skull pattern worked into the armored face shield, a set of infrared vision goggles with an esoteric crystalline power cell that still reads 98% power despite being found turned on and active, and a boarding cutlass modified with a taser like neurodisruptor field.

CWO Fish snags off a particularly ostentatious armor vest with an elongated white skull spray painted on the front. The thing is laughed at by pretty much the entire crew because it's attempts at 'edgyness' and 'imposing iconography' make it come off as cartoonishly evil. The matched boarding ax falls into the same category with the 'shark fang' style teeth sharpened into it's edge. They look scary as can be to the uninitiated wile actually reducing the blades effectiveness. It does make for a nice decorative piece however. Her final selection is a holographic cloak generator. It may have began life as an attempt at a kind of stealth field generator but it has been repurposed to create a more literal cloak with programmable heraldry and options for 'impossible' virtual material options suck as liquid metal or glowing hot stone.

You pick up a pirate revolver as a pure show piece. While in theory it is a five shot shotgun revolver for boarding actions in practice it's far less useful. Made from a full-length eight gauge shotgun with a revolving action that has been cut down to a ten centimeter barrel and given an awkward pistol grip you suspect this weapon is little more then a broken wrist in the making if it was ever fired. Next you select what appears to be, at first glance at least, a humble improvised boarding ax made out of a scrap of battle steel ship hull armor. Closer inspection reveals a military grade disruption field generator in the haft re-calibrated to project a cutting field around the head fully capable of tearing through said battle steel and flesh with ease. A polished brass ship's compass rounds out your collection.