The personnel roster confirmed his fears. There were 18 serving crewmen aboard this Corvette, which meant that three were missing. Almost all the dead Federation crew they had found were men and after a quick scan of the crew listings, the missing crew were all women.

John turned to his young companion.

“It looks like they took three women as prisoners" He confirmed, with a grim look on his face. "I've seen what happens in these kind of scenarios before and it isn't pretty. Are you up for mounting a rescue operation?”

Alyssa looked up at him with wide eyes and she nodded her head vigorously.

“This could get very dangerous, so follow all my instructions to the letter" he ordered.

The young girl threw him a quick salute, her face set in a determined expression.

“Ok then, Let's move out" he instructed.

“Stay behind me and cover our backs. If you see anyone, try and let me know before you start shooting”

They left the medical bay and moved quickly and quietly to the airlock on the other side of the Corvette, the one that was connected to the Freighter. The connecting doors had been left unsealed, leaving the way into the grubby interior of the other ship yawning wide open. The battered Freighter was in a terrible state of disrepair, with wall panels discarded on the floor and exposed power cables showing evidence of crude patching efforts. The corridors were filthy, which made John's lip curl with disgust.

He moved forward, carefully checking each intersection as they moved further inwards. This Freighter was old and battered, but it was also big and it would be easy to get lost in here. He motioned Alyssa to hug the wall a moment and the two crouched in the shadows. He tapped at the computer built into the vambrace on his left arm and a schematic of this model of freighter popped up on the screen. With a few more clicks he marked their current position and the route they would need to follow to leave. John nodded to his young companion and they set off again.

They had still not encountered anybody and John was beginning to wonder where everyone was, when he began to hear the sounds of some kind of commotion up ahead. They moved closer, listening to the sounds of many raised voices shouting raucously. John turned a corner and saw that the corridor to his right opened out to the top Level of some kind of cargo bay. He could see dozens of dark figures on the overhead gantries, leaning over railings to look at some scene below. These men were clearly pirates and the baying mob were drinking booze and laughing at the evening's entertainment.

John held his hand palm upright to Alyssa indicating for her to stay right there, before he turned and crept closer to the cargo bay. As he approached the entrance to the room, he was eventually able to see through the transparent gantry floor. The dim flickering from the overhead lights illuminated a hellish scene below.

John could see two broken and violated corpses on the cargo bay floor, while a brutish hulk of a creature lurched around, it's back to him. He watched for a moment as the hulking shape moved to the side and a much smaller figure came into his view. The figure was a woman, clearly terrified, as she desperately tried to ward off the threatening creature with a short metal pole she was using as a makeshift spear.

The Largath, for thats what it was, was slobbering Lasciviously while circling the missing crewwoman. Its rippling muscles flexed in its shoulders as it reared backwards and roared, cheered on by the pirates watching from above. The roar revealed that the creature was naked, a burgeoning, bright red, two foot long cock jutted out angrily from its groin, clearly intended for the unfortunate victim it was trying to corner.

John darted back to Alyssa, his presence unnoticed by the distracted pirates. "Two of the women are dead" He briefed her rapidly "We have to move fast if we want to save the Last one”.

Alyssa nodded silently, awaiting his orders.

“I'LL use flash grenades to stun the pirates on the gantries, then I'LL take out anyone still moving" he said, outlining his plan quickly.

"I want you to shoot the beast below with your shotgun. It's a big target so should be easy to hit. Just watch out for the woman".

The teenager raised her weapon to her shoulder indicating she was ready and John turned back to face the cargo bay again. They approached quickly in a crouch and he let his Assault rifle dangle on its strap around his neck as he grabbed a flash grenade in both hands. He depressed the timer on each grenade before rolling one along the gantry to the Left and another to the right. He had just enough time to grab a third grenade which he lobbed in a graceful arc to Land on the gantry opposite.

The pair ducked down, closing their eyes tightly as the three grenades seemed to detonate simultaneously. The room was suddenly filled with different sounding screams as the men reacted to the searing Light from the explosives. John took in the chaotic scene before him. Two pirates had stumbled over the barriers and had fallen the 30' drop to the cargo bay floor below. A third was desperately hanging on to the railing to avoid a similar fate. Most of the rest were rolling around on the gantries, clutching their faces in pain. One however was still standing, a burly looking guy with a bulky cybernetic eye. He raised an ugly Looking pistol in John's direction as John levelled his own rifle back at the figure.

John's assault rifle chattered, as his three round burst hit the cyborg pirate square in the chest. The figure keeled over, red fountains of blood spraying out behind him. The heavy slug from the pirates pistol hit John in the arm, staggering him slightly. The round hadn't penetrated his armour, but it would leave a nasty bruise. John heard the bark of the shotgun from behind him as his young companion announced her presence.

Alyssa had kept her head down, waiting for the sound of explosions as John had instructed earlier. After the grenades went off, she moved forward to find her target. The Largath was roaring in defiance, it's four eyes blinking rapidly to try and shrug off the sudden blindness from the grenades. She Looked through the infrared scope, picking out the cowering form of the woman they were trying to save as she huddled in the corner of the cargo bay. Alyssa focused her attention on the Largath, seeing the blazing bright two foot phallus in her heat sensitive scope.