“We need to get out of here right now!” Samson yelled through our comms.
No need to tell me twice!
I pushed the thruster stick forward and my ship boosted itself towards the support ship to get within range of my weapons.
The pilot of that ship finally realised what we were trying to do and tried to turn the ship around to escape.
Unfortunately for them, it was too late and I fired both my photon laser and railgun at the ship, the laser shattering its shield and the kinetic round of the railgun blasting through the ship’s hull like it was made of paper.
I was about to tell them the good news when Amber’s panicked voice came from the comms, “Tera!!”
On instinct, I spun my ship in a corkscrew, spinning away just in time to avoid a laser fired from the battlecruiser.
Alarms started blaring around me as the battlecruiser had its weapons locked on me, ready to obliterate me from existence.
“Everyone get out of here!” I ordered, turning my ship around to engage the travel drives.
With barely a second to spare, my ship sped forward right before a kinetic shell tore through the space that my ship had occupied bare moments ago, missing my ship by inches.
The other two had also done as I told, all of us speeding away from the battlefield towards the trade hub the moment their travel drives engaged.
Several lasers and missiles were shot at us but they either missed or were deflected by our shields.
Soon enough, the pirate fleet disappeared behind us as we sped towards the station
I could even imagine the pirates cursing at us as we fled.
“Damn… Am I truly glad to see you two here,” Samson sighed, looking like he had just aged another five years.
I chuckled, “Did you think we would just ignore your call for help?”
“I won't lie… I wouldn’t be surprised if you did. Most would, after all.”
Amber grumbled from her side of the comms, “Yeah, you better be grateful for that! We even missed breakfast because of that!”
“Haha! Tell you what, I'll treat you guys to some food then! You guys did save my ass after all so that's the least I could do!”
Amber made a face, “Ugh, unless it's organic food, you can forget about it. I've been ruined by Tera’s cooking already… No synthfood can satisfy me anymore.”
He raised an eyebrow, “You guys eat organic food daily?”
I shook my head, “No, no. I just make stuff with the synthfood and then make them taste better.”
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“You know how to cook?!”
“To an extent I guess?”
He thought for a moment, “Maybe… How about we take a trip to the high end stores and I'll pay for three day's worth of organic food for you to cook with?”
Amber smirked, “Let me guess, you want to also taste her cooking, don't you?”
“I would be lying if I said no, but I would understand if you reject the idea. I will still offer to pay for the organic foods though.”
“Really? Don't they cost like a fortune though?” I asked.
He laughed, “Hahaha! I would most definitely not be here if you two didn't show up! What's the use of hoarding that many Credits if I'm not alive to use it? Don't worry lass, I have more than enough for myself so don't need to hold back, I've been working as a Merc for longer than you think.”
I shrugged, “I'll take you up on your offer then.”
Of course I wasn't going to say no to that! In fact, I would have been happy if he had just pointed me at where I could purchase them without even offering to buy for me!
I'm hoping that they might have some stuff there that I can at least try to grow on my own. I'm not expecting to start a farm or anything, but maybe just a small garden with my own potatoes or something would be good enough.
Like seriously, even potatoes would be good. Do you know how many ways you can cook a potato? A whole ton.
While I was thinking about just what I would buy, Samson’s face turned serious.
“We'll still need to inform the Guild about those pirates though. I'm guessing there's a pirate lord around here and that's not a good sign.”
I blinked, “Pirate lord?”
He raised an eyebrow at me, “You never met a pirate lord before? The place you came from must be really fortunate huh?”
“I don’t know… But it’s the first time I’ve heard of that term at least”
“Damn… Now I’m wondering if you defeated a pirate lord without even knowing they were one… Anyway, pirates aren’t just ragtag teams of bandits flying around in space. There’s going to be some of them who band together and create a group. Then those groups might join up with other groups and then a leader is placed at the helm who would then establish a pirate faction that has enough firepower to be a force to reckon with on their own. With me so far?”
I nodded, “Right… So there’s different pirate factions out there and one of them is just right at our doorstep?”
“That’s right. Normal pirates definitely can’t get their hands on a battlecruiser like that. And the fact that they have one this close to the station… I’m a little worried for what it might entail…”
“You don’t mean that these pirates aim to attack the station?”
“That’s exactly what I’m worried about. If they were to use the nebula to cover their approach, they could get a first strike on the station and even cripple the battleship stationed outside before it has a chance to fire its guns.”
“But the military would surely react to this right? They wouldn’t just give up after losing a station like this.”
Amber was the one who answered, “Oh sure they would, if the station isn’t taken over by the pirates that is. In order to take this place back they would need to send at least three times the force since you can bet every other pirate in this system would flock here and join up with this pirate lord after they take over this station. Then the military would have to worry about ambushes while making their way towards the station and lose a third or maybe more of their ships just to get here. Those are definitely losses that they won’t be able to accept.”
“But losing an entire station is?”
She shrugged, “Unless this pirate lord is a complete idiot, they will simply take over this station as their own but trade will still be open. Even being pirates, they can’t exactly survive on their own after all. Sure, they’re gonna jack up prices and probably treat others like shit, but it’s going to be a paradise for outlaws, smugglers and other lowlifes here.”
“So… Basically another Denibi system?”
“But shittier, yeah,” Amber agreed.
“I’m guessing this has happened before?” I asked.
Samson sighed, “Yeah… More often than you think actually… I know of four other stations that were taken over by pirate lords though one of them chose to occupy a rather important station so the military did end up getting involved and taking it back from them. It was pretty brutal and I would know because I was part of it.”
Amber made a money symbol with her fingers, “Basically more money for us! It’s an all you can eat buffet of pirates in such cases!”
“Hmm… In that case, if we bring this information back, surely we can avoid something like that from happening?”
Amber nodded, “Yep. If I’m going to take a guess, they would probably take a day to scout out the pirates and then we’ll get a guild request from the military asking for Mercs like us to join an offensive they have planned against the pirates. It’s practically standard now.”
“Eh? Is the military not going to attack them?”
“Oh they will. But they would definitely want more ships on their side of course. Or if you want to be more crude about it… More meatshields.”
I gave both of them a look, “And I take it that we are going to join that fight?”
Samson nodded, “I would definitely be going but I won’t force you if you don’t want to.”
“It’s not that… What about Reese?”
“Has she not contacted you?”
I shook my head to show that she has not.
He scratched his cheek, “I guess she must have forgotten or she’s expecting me to do it for her… Oh well, she already sent me a message in the morning to tell me that her ship will take at least five days to repair so we’ll be stuck here for that long anyway. What better way to spend the time than to shoot some pirates, eh?”
Oh… Well in that case, count me in then. I would definitely say yes to more Credits.
This would be my first big space battle I would say.