The pirate lord glanced at a control panel to the side of him and pushed a button, the image of his face replaced by vid-feed of human prisoners locked in cells, before the image returned to his smug face once again.
“Now how about you turn your splendid ship around and let me be on my way, or who knows what terrible fate might befall them!" he said with mock lament.
"You bastard!" John exclaimed.
“Bye-bye Mr Blake, just accept you've been outplayed and everything will be just dandy!" Pirate Lord Everett Hitch said, waving farewell with a taunting smile and ending the communication.
“What now John?" Alyssa asked him, Calara and Sparks looking up and waiting with baited breath.
“I want that man dead" John grimaced, “but we can't just carve up his ship with the Invictus. The vid-feed footage might be fake, but I don't think it is".
“Boarding action?" Alyssa suggested. eah, I think we have to." John said.
“LL soften the ship up for you" Calara volunteered.
“They won't be going anywhere."
Sparks had finished performing an active scan of the Stalingrad and she turned to face the command podium.
“It looks like the prisoners are been kept in the ships brig.“ she said, hitting a button on her console to bring up the scan of the Stalingrad. It showed a group of 15 life readings in an area highlighted as the brig, on the detailed schematic overlay showing the floor Layout of a Terran Federation heavy cruiser.
“Can you upload that data to the computer in my armour please.” John requested.
Sparks nodded eagerly and turned back to her console to make sure John had a detailed map to guide him in the pirate ship.
John rose to his feet and Alyssa joined him, as they prepared to get ready for an assault on the heavy cruiser. They took the elevator down to their quarters and hurried to put on their combat armour and collect their rifles and ammo. Alyssa looked at the ragged hole in the shoulderpad of her armour with a raised eyebrow.
“Yeah, I know." John muttered, as he slammed in a magazine of hollow point caseless into his bullpup rifle.
“If I'd known I'd be doing this much combat, I would have bought a few dozen suits of armour just in case!" he said with irritation.
“The trials and tribulations of being a trader?" Alyssa said, smiling.
“I've seen more combat in the Last month, than I saw in my last couple of years in the military!" John said in exasperation.
“If it's any consolation, I've been in more combat in the Last month, than my last 18 years!" Alyssa said, smiling wryly.
“Ok, that has me beat.“ John said, grinning at her.
“Come on, let's go say hello to Mr Everett Hitch." he said with grim finality.
“Don't you mean goodbye?" Alyssa said, smiling.
John nodded in agreement and they headed down to the Hangar bay. They boarded their captured Kirrix dropship and once John had opened the outer hull doors, Alyssa powered up the engines and carefully exited the Hangar. From outside, the two space Leviathans loomed above them, the Invictus and the Stalingrad Locked in a one sided melee. Calara was using the Laser cannons to completely cripple the heavy cruiser, having firstly melted down the relays that powered the Stalingrad's defence grid and now taking out the enemy ship's engines with her uncannily accurate shooting.
"Escape pods leaving the Stalingrad." Alyssa said, pointing to the small metallic spheres being jettisoned from the escape pod launch tubes along the flanks of the heavy cruiser.
“Rats deserting the sinking ship." John muttered darkly.