“Above you and to your left." the redhead grinned impishly.

John looked up and left and spotted a small security camera set into the ceiling.

“I'LL call and let you know if I see any trouble coming your way, but it looks pretty chaotic from up here, the pirates seem to be evacuating." Sparks said reassuringly.

“Very nice Sparks, thank you!" John said appreciatively, wondering how she had managed to hack military grade security subsystems.

He ended the call and prepared to move onwards, Alyssa falling into line at his side. They moved up to the end of the corridor and saw that the Gatling Laser was now pointed at the guard station and two pirate guards had been shot to pieces by the point blank laser fire, their corpses smouldering from the high energy Laser impacts. They cautiously headed into the brig which was Lined with rows of cells on either side of the corridor.

John walked ahead and looked into the cells, seeing the captive people Sparks had picked up on her active scan of the Stalingrad. He unlocked the cell doors and the energy fields securing each cell disappeared, freeing the prisoners. The men and women locked within came out carefully, unsure what to expect.

“My name's Commander John Blake, we're here to rescue you." John said, “Follow us".

The relieved traders and ore haulers nodded eagerly and huddled in a group behind John and Alyssa. They were all about to head out of the brig and back to the elevator when John heard the distinctive sound of the Gatling laser firing again. He darted forward to see what the problem was and he saw three figures slumped over in the corridor, smoke rising from their perforated corpses. He Looked up and around for another camera and when he spotted one, he gave it the thumbs up sign. The Gatling laser bobbed up and down like it was nodding and John grinned at the camera.

"Can any of you use handguns?" John asked the freed prisoners and most of the people raised their hands.

“Ok grab the guns off the dead pirates, we might need the extra firepower" he instructed.

Two traders picked up guns from the guard pirates, three more from the ones that Sparks had ambushed in the corridor. John and Alyssa led the group down the corridor and back to the elevator, which they called to take them back down to the hangar. When the elevator arrived, John got in with five of the prisoners, three of them picking up guns from the pirates that had been killed earlier. They headed down to ground level and then waited in the corridor, sending the elevator back up. Alyssa sent five more armed prisoners back down to join John and the growing group on the bottom deck, before finally coming down with the Last group.

They headed back to the dropship, leading the bedraggled group of ex-prisoners behind them. When they arrived in the hangar, they saw a group of three pirates trying to figure out how to open the airlock door at the back of the Kirrix dropship. With a few well aimed bursts, John and Alyssa gunned down the men unceremoniously and then Led the freed captives over to the dropship, where three of the ore haulers grabbed guns off the fallen pirates.

"We're going after the Pirate Captain" John said to the group as Alyssa opened up the airlock.

“We won't be Long.”

The traders and haulers nodded and then gratefully climbed into the safety of the dropship. It was a bit of a squeeze, but they managed to fit all 15 prisoners into the ship.

“Ok that's them free, now let's pay a visit to Mr Hitch." John said smiling grimly.

They quickly jogged back to the elevator, before taking it all the way up to the second deck. The second deck held a handful of officers quarters that led off their corridor, but they had all been hastily abandoned in the rush to evacuate the stricken ship. Light spilled from the room at the end of the corridor, which the embossed nameplate at the side identified as the Captain's quarters.

John and Alyssa walked cautiously forward, eyes focused on the movement coming from the room ahead and Listening to the sound of boxes being moved about. They raised their assault rifles, ready to react in an instant, as the sound of someone's voice drifted down the hall to meet them.

“Commander Bloody Blake..." the figure in the room ranted.

"Curse him all the way to Hades!" the angry man exclaimed.

"Can this one assist?" A high pitched voice asked curiously.

“Shut the fuck up!" The man snarled in irritation.

John and Alyssa finally got closer enough to see a familiar figure frantically stacking crates together. He walked over to the left side of the room and bent over to pick up another crate.

“Mr Everett Hitch..." John said menacingly as he stepped into the room, his weapon sighted on the Pirate Lord.

Hitch whirled to face them, the tails of his buccaneer's jacket whirling around him.