The Privateer

"Stealth is holding," said Lissa. "They don't know we're here."

It had been a frustrating two weeks. The last pirate group had laid low. The search for them had been complicated by the Brilend Militia. Every time a Militia group had spotted the Encounter, they'd moved to intercept. Mims had had to jump out of the system to avoid confrontation. No warrant had been issued. The crew of the Random Encounter were still privateers in good standing. That didn't change the fact that they were being hunted.

"Let's keep our distance," said the Captain. "Just in case."

The smart play would have been to leave. The Militia couldn't touch them once they left Brilend space. Mims had refused. He was pathologically incapable of leaving a job unfinished. The human wouldn't be satisfied until every pirate involved in the slaving ring was dead. Yvian would have admired his dedication more if she wasn't so worried he'd get them all killed.

"Are we sure this is a good idea?" Lissa asked. "I mean, attacking the Militia..."

The Flivvan media had plastered proof of the Militia running a slave operation all over the Nexus. The Brilend media hadn't acknowledged the story, but Yvian wagered most of their citizens had heard about it by now. To her immense disappointment, the Confederation Military had declined to investigate. They'd issued a statement declaring the matter outside of the purview and recommended a thorough investigation by the offices of the Brilend Magistrates. The Militia would investigate itself, and find it had done nothing wrong.

"Is suicide," Mims finished. "I know." Anyone foolish enough to attack a Militia vessel would have their IFF recorded instantly. Every Militia and Military vessel in the Confed would attack them on sight. Their ship would be impounded the moment they docked at a station. They would be forced to hide in the Unclaimed Sectors. Pirate space, and the pirates hated Mims as much as he hated them.

Mims continued, "But only if they know it's us." He started typing into his weapons console. "Open the bay doors."

The Militia didn't know it, but the playing field had changed drastically in the last four days. Migo had called. The Recompense was ready. The Captain had complained that the ship was supposed to be finished three weeks prior, but the gleam in his eye told Yvian he was pleased. Excited, even. Now she knew why.

The pirate fleet was small, more geared towards undefended traders than heavily guarded passenger ships. Three fighters, with a midsized freighter to carry cargo and slaves. Normally, they'd be easy pickings, but the pirates had refused to leave their station without escort. The Brilend Militia had obliged. Admiral Dresk himself had come. His ship, the Defender of Law, was accompanied by three corvettes, a frigate, and six fighters. The Defender itself was a battlecruiser, more than capable of dealing with anything a few measly privateers could throw at it. At least, it had been until four days ago.

The bay doors opened, exposing the Random Encounter to the void. Yvian held her breath for a few seconds. The stealth tech of the Recompense was new to them, and she wasn't sure it would be enough to hide the Encounter's presence. Mims had seemed fairly certain it would, as long as they stayed docked in the cruiser, but they had no way to be sure.

They waited. After a minute or so, Lissa let out a breath. "I think it's working. They can't see us."

Mims nodded. "If they knew we were here, they'd have done something by now." His fingers flew along the weapons console. "Double-checking our trajectory. Powering MACdriver." He paused for several seconds. "Any change?"

Lissa shook her head.

"Firing." The Encounter shuddered as the MACdriver did its work. Mims had visited his stash and loaded a full hundred rounds of his precious ammunition the day before. He used eighty three of them. When the vibrations stopped, he ordered, "Close the hangar."

The pirate fleet and the Militia were over two thousand kilometers away. MACrounds were small, fast, and produced a field that made them difficult to see on sensors. Yvian doubted the enemy ships would notice in time to evade. Still, it was a nervous wait. If Admiral Dresk caught on, or worse, survived...

"Are the missiles loaded?" ask Mims. He was as calm and steady as always. Even knowing he was as scared as she was, Yvian was reassured by the surety in his voice.

"Primed and ready," Lissa confirmed. She hesitated, then asked, "Are you sure firing missiles won't give us away?"

Mims shook his head. "It'll show there's something there, and the missile trajectory will give away our location, but I don't think it'll be enough to identify the Recompense. Not at this distance."

"Are you sure?"

The Captain shrugged. "I'm not sure of anything. I'm just going with what the manual said."

Lissa managed to glare at the human despite the fact that her helmet hid her face. "The manual." Her voice dripped with disdain. "You based our whole plan on what you read in the manual? You don't even know if it works!"

"It'll work," Mims assured her. "Terran tech's pretty reliable, and the High Commander said this thing's top of the line." He scratched the back of his helmet. "It's just they didn't have stealth cruisers when I left the Federation. All I know about the ship is what I read in the manual."

"The manual." Lissa shook her head. "I can't believe I'm sleeping with you."

"Me neither," said the Captain. "Engineers make terrible girlfriends." He leaned towards Yvian conspiratorially. "They're like pirates. They take everything literally."

Yvian stared at him. "Did you just... make a pun?" Her translator allowed for easy communication, but it didn't allow for wordplay.

"I even did it in your language," the human said proudly.

Mims was making jokes. Yvian sighed. "I was not ready for today."

They didn't have to wait much longer. When the MAC rounds hit, their comms were flooded with Militia distress calls. To Yvian's immense relief, the automated messages declared the ships under attack, but had no information on the attackers. If the Recompense had been visible on sensors, that wouldn't be the case.

"So far so good," said the Captain. "Fire missiles."

The Recompense, and by extension the Random Encounter, registered a very slight vibration as the missiles launched. As soon as the vibrations ended, Mims repositioned the Recompense, sending it on a course away from the pirates.

Another series of distress calls popped up a few minutes later. The messages displayed the missiles, but there was no indication of who had fired them. Yvian let out a breath she hadn't known she'd been holding. "Looks like we're clear."

"I told you it would work," said Mims.

"The frigate's shooting," said Yvian. The sensors were in passive mode, as active scanning would give them away. She could see the frigate shoot its guns, but she couldn't see how many people were still alive on board. She didn't know whether the frigate still had shields, either.

"Shit." Mims swore. "Somebody must have left the bridge before they got hit." He paused, thinking. "The good news is, they weren't taking evasives, so the MAC probably took out their shield generator. Now it's just a question if they can shoot down the missiles or not."

Mims had opted for overkill, firing far more missiles than Yvian would have. Now she wished he'd fired a few more. Missile after missile was blasted out of the sky. For a few seconds it seemed the frigate would destroy the entire barrage by itself. Then it exploded.

Yvian knew what happened. The fission torpedoes they'd launched were dumbfires, expelling their fuel shortly after launch. They were built to destroy a stationary, unshielded target, but the lack of maneuvering and targeting scanners made them hard to spot amidst all the swarmers and other missiles. One of them had struck the frigate.

Fission torpedoes were useless against shields. They were pure explosive, and the kinetic energy they released didn't amount to much if there was no matter to transmit the shockwave. Against an unshielded target, the torpedo's raw speed and sharp reinforced tip allowed it to penetrate armor before it detonated. It used the atmosphere inside its target to transmit a devastating amount of energy. As a bonus, the electromagnetic pulse the torpedo generated should have fried whatever remained of the ship's computers.

Admiral Dresk's ship exploded at nearly the same time as the frigate. The remaining missiles slammed into the smaller ships. The frigate had destroyed half of them, but the remaining half was more than enough to turn the entire fleet into debris. The only ship left was the freighter.

"No mercy for slavers," said Yvian. Lissa nodded her agreement.

"Now for the dangerous part," said Mims. "Yvian, have any more Militia come out?"

Yvian checked the sensors. "No Militia IFFs in the sector," she reported.

Mims nodded. "Let's move in fast." He set a course for the pirate freighter. "Reinforcements will be on the way. I don't want to be here when they get here."

The Recompense was fast. Too fast for a battlecruiser, nearly as fast as some fighters. Yvian wished to The Crunch it was a little bit faster. The Militia were coming. They'd be out for blood. All their sneaking and stealth tech would be worthless if some Enforcer spotted them docked with the pirate freighter.

"Lissa, get the drones ready," Mims ordered. "Yvian, go with her. We'll be docked with the Bang Bus in eight minutes. We need to snatch the cargo and get out fast."

"Will docking make us visible?" Yvian asked.

"Basically," Mims confirmed. "The Recompense is a unique design out here. Anyone gets a scan in and we'll be recognized." He glared at the sensor screen. "Here's hoping nobody cares enough to look."

Yvian hit the armory while Lissa set up the cargo drones. They left the Encounter and walked to the hangar bay next to it. A terrible clanking sounded as the Recompense forced a connection to the cargo bay of the Bang Bus. Yvian tossed Lissa an assault rifle as the big doors slid open. A second set of doors belonging to the Bang Bus were still closed. Lissa worked an override on their control panel to get them open.

They moved in. The pirate's cargo bay was a mess, with random crates stacked everywhere. Yvian and Lissa activated their strength enhancements, using their voidarmor to toss things out of their way and clear a path for the drones. Yvian ground her teeth at the delay.

Path clear, Lissa sent the drones for the cryopods. There were four hundred of them, and Yvian took a moment to thank the Bright Lady these were newer models with an independent power source. Waking that many people up and herding them onto the Recompense would be a nightmare, and it would take far too long.

Yvian chaffed watching the drones work. Rescuing the prisoners had been her idea. If they were caught because of it, it would be her fault. The drones were efficient. It took barely ten minutes to transfer the cryopods. Every second grated on her nerves.

When the last cryopod was through the bay door, Yvian and Lissa each grabbed an end of their parting gift. The Parting Gift was a fission bomb Lissa had taken out of a torpedo and rigged with a timer. They lugged the thing into the freighter's cargo bay. Lissa set the timer for twenty minutes.

As soon as Lissa got the doors closed, Yvian ran back to the bay the Encounter was in. They didn't dare use comms. Any stray transmission might be picked up. She sprinted for the bridge, yelling at the Captain to go. He was already moving. The Recompense pulled away from the Bang Bus. Stealth came back online.

A minute later, Lissa came back on the bridge. A minute after that, a small fleet of Militia emerged from the West Gate. They set a course for the freighter.

Mims kept the Recompense moving towards the North Gate. The Jump drive would negate their stealth. Yvian tensed, but there was no indication they were seen. The Recompense stayed well away from the lanes of traffic that crisscrossed the sector. The manual had warned that their stealth tech wouldn't hold up at a distance under five hundred kilometers. The only ship that had been close enough to see them was the Bang Bus, and that was a problem that was about to be solved.

When the timer hit zero, the bomb detonated. The Bang Bus blew apart. Yvian wasn't sure there were any pieces left big enough to be classified as debris.

"And now everyone has paid," said Yvian. Technically, everyone had paid when the missiles hit, but she hadn't considered the job done until the prisoners had been rescued. "Do you think we should tell the client?"

The Captain removed his helmet and gave her a condescending look. "Yvian, what's the first rule of crime?"

"How would I know?" she asked. "I'm not a criminal."

"The first rule of crime," said the Captain, "Is don't get caught. Which means you don't tell anyone you're doing crime." He leaned back in his chair and rubbed his hands through his hair. "He knows we killed the men who took his wife. He's got his vengeance whether he figures out the rest or not."

"And he already paid us," said Lissa. She frowned. "You know, this was an awful lot of work for just thirty thousand credits."

"Don't knock it," said Mims. "That was his life savings, and most of our money comes from selling captured ships, anyway."

"And we shut down a whole slave operation," Yvian chimed in. "We're a force for good."

"Stop saying that," said Mims.

"But we are, though," Yvian grinned. "We're like Space Captain. A force for good."

"I don't care," said the Captain. "Stop saying it or you won't get any cake."

"Ooh," Lissa oohed, "We're getting cake?"

"Not if Yvian keeps talking."