Predictably, I received a hail coming from one of the pirate ships.
I made sure that my ship’s guns were trained on one of the pirate ships before answering the hail, my screen blinking to show an angry looking middle aged man glaring at me.
“Hey! You’re in a really bad place girlie! We have a bone to pick with that fucker and if you don’t want to get involved, you best skedadle out of here, you hear me?!”
I raised an eyebrow at him, “Err… You expect us to ignore a situation that’s clearly a group of pirates bullying an innocent trader?”
“Ha! Innocent?! This bastard already killed three of my people! He’s definitely not innocent at all!”
“Isn’t this because your men tried to kill or rob him first? Why are you making it seem like you’re the victim now?”
“All we asked was for him to share some of his fortunes with us! He not only declined, he even killed us!”
Wow, I have come to the conclusion that this guy is a fucking hypocrite and he’s completely self-obsessed.
I gave him my business smile, “Is there anything I can do to convince you to leave him alone?”
“Hahaha! Do we look like children to you?! Of course there is nothing you--”
I pulled the trigger to fire my photon laser at the ship I had been targeting.
Probably by sheer luck, that ship seemed to have completely left their shields offline.
Now I know these people weren’t just hypocrites and self-obsessed, they were also incredibly stupid.
Like seriously? You don’t even choose to turn on your shields at this point? Then you get what you deserve.
My photon laser completely pierced through the pirate ship’s cockpit, blasting a hole through the front end and leaving through the back.
Whoever the pilot was, he’s probably burnt to a crisp right now. Even if he wasn’t, I would guess that he probably didn’t have long to live after finding himself floating in the void of space.
Amber took that as her cue and her ship’s engines fired up, boosting her towards the pirate group.
“Ahahaha! I fucking love you, Tera! Let’s goooo!!” She laughed through our comms.
I pushed my throttle lever to the maximum and felt myself get pushed back into my seat as my ship surged forward.
I pulled on the trigger again to fire at the second B Class ship but this guy was obviously smarter than the first one since his shield was activated.
I fired my railgun next but he managed to roll out of the way to avoid it.
Clucking my tongue at my missed shot, I turned my ship and started firing my energy chainguns that lit up the darkness of space with its energy projectiles.
The A Class fighter I was aiming at tried to dive out of the way but it was too late as a hail of energy bullets shattered its shield and burned multiple holes through its hull.
The pirates finally regained their senses and scattered themselves to avoid my shots.
A few of them tried to take pot shots at me but I weaved my ship through the debris and used them as impromptu shields.
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The B Class heavy fighter was trying to target me as well so I shot another photon laser at him.
His shield must be especially strong since that was the third shot that he managed to block and it still showed no signs of it breaking.
The pirate that I had been talking to screamed at me, “You fucking bitch!! You’re all dead!! Dead!! You hear me?!! Fucking dead!!!”
I guess this guy must be in that ship.
The surviving pirates split themselves up to engage us with two A Class fighters and the B Class heavy fighter targeting me.
I had to spin away as the three of them concentrated their fire at me, my shield taking a few hits but still holding strong before I got behind some debris to block the rest of the shots.
Still using the debris as a shield, I used my thrusters to peek out from behind and fired a railgun shot towards one of the A Class fighters.
The pirate didn’t even manage to react before the kinetic round shredded through the ship and cut it into half.
One down, two to go.
I reversed my thrusters to hide behind the debris again, just as several lasers passed through the space that my ship had been moments before.
The two ships then decided to try and flank me from both sides and I grinned as that was the worst thing they could do right now.
I turned my ship and sped towards the smaller A Class fighter, the pirate realising the blunder he had made too late as he saw my ship bearing down on him.
Switching to my ballistic cannons, I fired two rounds that completely shredded the pirate ship into pieces, causing the fighter to explode in a ball of fire.
I then did a corkscrew to avoid another hail of bullets coming from behind, the B Class heavy fighter hot on my heels while the pilot continued to curse at me.
I could see several of the energy blasters flying past my windshield from behind as I dodged and weaved through the debris field in an attempt to try and shake him off.
There’s the option of firing the railgun at him but since Amber was fighting the other pirates in the area behind him, I don’t want the risk of a stray shot from me impeding her.
The pirate was still cussing at me through the screen, “You killed my men!! I’m going to catch you and rape you and keep you as my personal fucktoy you fucking bitch!!”
I was trying to look for an opportunity to turn back around to face him when a sudden ballistic round smashed into the pirate ship from below.
Looking down at my screen that showed my external cameras, I saw one of the weapons on the transport ship was aimed at the B Class heavy fighter. Seems like that guy actually played his part after all.
The force of the blow caused the pirate to lurch upwards, forcing its course to alter and giving me the space I needed to turn back and let loose a hail of energy bullets to shatter its shields.
That was then followed closely by a railgun round that blasted a hole through its hull, the round exiting through one of its engines which caused an explosion in the ship’s side.
I watched it spin away to crash into a field of debris before I turned my attention to see how Amber was doing.
Despite being outnumbered, she was having no problems at all.
She also had to deal with three pirates but she had already killed off two by herself, the last one currently chasing after her from behind.
I thought about going to her aid but she didn’t need any help at all as she suddenly did a loop while the pirate least expected it and moved her ship behind the pirate.
A flash could be seen from her weapons and the pirate fighter was blasted to bits, joining the rest of its brethren.
Space was quiet again.
“That was some nice flying,” I praised as her ship flew towards me.
“Ahaha~ You were great too, Tera! I saw how you used those debris as cover, really nice~”
I then turned my attention to the transport ship that was still stuck in the debris field, “Hey, you alright down there?”
“Y… Yeah… I err… I’m a little shaken I guess but… Holy shit… You guys are pretty awesome.”
“Hehehe~ I know~” Amber preened.
“Right… Err… I guess… Sorry for doubting you two?”
I waved my hand, “It’s fine, don’t worry about it. Now any other threats we should know about before I tether your ship to mine and we can make our way back to the station?”
“There’s one thing I want to know though… How did you two find me?”
“Your boss sent us. He was panicking quite a bit when he realised he lost your ship.”
“Tch… And I bet he only wanted to save me because if he didn’t his bosses would know he hasn’t been using the allocated money the way they expected him to. Fuck that bastard… Anyway, I think it should be fine, just take me back.”
I raised my hand, “Woah, before that, there’s still something more important I need to ask.”
Both Amber and the transport ship captain looked at me through the screen in confusion.
“What?”
I gestured out into space, “All that scrap, do we get to scavenge that or does it belong to you?”
The transport ship captain let out a laugh, “Hahaha! Fuck that! What the hell am I supposed to do with all that? Just take it all, I’m already happy enough to still be alive! Thank fuck this ship is insured or else I’ll be ruined!”
Perfect! That’s all I need to hear!
Well, I’m going to need this guy to sit there for some time because I’m scavenging everything here!