Attention: Images from Spy Satellite Virgin-Sprint #998 were not available due to Cosmic Wind Vortex interference.
Anderson awoke to the sound of the battle alarm. He scrambled out of hi bunk and grabbed his pants. He had no idea what time it was but he knew that he was on Boarding Duty again so he better get his ass down to the airlock.
“Attention! The Socchi Grift has been spotted! Standby for boarding action!”
Anderson debated putting on shoes or just running to the airlock. That was when he saw a shadow move in the darkness of his cabin. He scrambled for the light switch and flicked it on. He screamed like a merchant when he saw what was there.
A man wearing a thong and black hood stood in his room. Muscles rippled along his shoulders as he shrugged.
“Lords of Space!” Anderson yelled. “What are you doing in my quarters, Skippy?”
The hooded man said nothing and walked out the door. Anderson knew where he was going. Skippy was on airlock duty too.
“Creepy psycho pirate freak,” Anderson swore.
***
Welcome to part two of my second AAR. In the last episode, the pirate ship, The Reroll encountered three military vessels and ran away before they could loot the Grand Freighter that they were crippling. The pirates were annoyed by this cruel twist of fortune and hope that the next PEF will be more profitable.
As luck would have it, they found a Class 4 Tanker, The Socchi Grift. Well, it is not a Grand Freighter but pirates can’t be choosers.
Long Range scans are conducted and the merchants kick butt with a total of four successes to the pirates’ two. Man, pirates really need a cloaking device.
Starting distance is 72 inches away. The Reroll spends a few turns closing in while The Socchi Grift hopes that the heavily armed ship that is coming right for them is friendly.
The Reroll closes to within 9 inches and opens fire with their guns and missles. My plan is to injure the ship before attempting a boarding action.
I get one success for the guns which means only one gun bounces off the Tanker’s one shield.
The missiles do much better. The Socchi Grift fails to evade both missiles. Both missiles explode into the hull for a total of two points of damage. Barely a scratch.
The funny thing about scratches is that Merchants don’t like them. They fail their Received Damage test and their Rep drops to 2. This is enough to trigger surrender!
Well now, that was easy.
I roll for the Merchants surrender and they fail both dice again. Uh-oh. The result is that all of the cargo is seized, the crew is captured and the ship is destroyed! Man, the merchants couldn’t even surrender right without pissing off the pirates.
***
Anderson sneered at the shivering merchant crew. They were terrified and scared out of their wits. Many of them had soiled themselves and one of them kept burping in fear. Anderson had never seen anything like it.
“Quit your crying!” he yelled. “We’re just going to take your goods and you can go on your way!”
“Attention! Fatal breach in the engine room! Evacuate immediately! Ship destruction will occur in three minutes. Please gather any personal belongings at this time.”
The captured crewmen wailed in despair.
“What the drek?” Anderson said. He didn’t know of any orders to scuttle the ship.
A door opened and Skippy walked out. In one hand he was carrying a wrench that dripped with blood. In the other hand he was carrying an engineer’s manual. The manual was soaked in blood too.
“Did you just murder a ship?” Anderson yelled.
Skippy dropped the wrench and headed to the airlock with the manual. Anderson knew that Skippy was going to add it to his box of trophies.
***
Before the destruction of The Socchi Grift, let’s see what cargo we picked up.
Bay 1 – commodities for cv 4
Bay 2 – commodities for cv 4
Bay 3 – commodities for cv 4
Bay 4 – commodities for cv 4
Bay 5 – goods for cv 12
Bay 6 – commodities for cv 4
Bay 7 – commodities for cv 4
Bay 8 – commodities for cv 4
That is a measly 40 cargo value. Pirating ain’t easy.
I make my After the Battle rolls and The Reroll is ship shape for more battles. Hopefully that last PEF will be more profitable.
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