Odin’s Revenge jumped deep into the outskirts of the system. Haldor had never been out this far from the STO border before, but all the other systems closer to the STO border were being picked over by the rger pirate crews. He couldn’t pete with only four in his warband. But they were four brothers and sisters he would trust his life with.

  “Anything?” he asked Freya, itg to find something to justify the fuel expense of heading so far out.

  “Don’t get your panties in a bunch, Haldor. Odin’s sensors take time. Unless you upgraded em without telling the rest of us.” The rest of the crew chuckled at Freya’s jab.

  “Maybe I will with your cut if we find anything,” Haldor shot back, earning a feral grin from the woman and another round of chuckles from the rest of the crew.

  He really hoped they found what everyone was looking for, he needed a big take if he wao move into Asgard and bee part of the tral family.

  The corvette he had ied from his father, and his father had ied from their father was old, but it was well-maintained. And even though it had less firepower than a gunboat, he preferred the extra armor and maneuverability that the ship provided. The extra space was oo, it meant he could have more than two people aboard.

  “Active transponder ping,” Freya said excitedly. “ing through as a mining vessel. If nothing else, we at least chase that down.”

  “Guarantee a ship of that size would have at least one engineer as well,” Ivar added. “I heard Lagertha is still paying good credits for techies.”

  Haldrimaced at that. Not the credits, those were always wele. But trying to board and capture people was always a mess. “That’ll be the st resort unless we e up with nothing else.”

  It took a few more minutes before Freya gave him some good news. “Looks like there could be a ship in orbit around the fourth phere also seems to be a station. ’t really get a good view from this far out. Whad’ya wanna do, boss?”

  Haldor rubbed his as he thought. They were already coasting into the system, but sooner or ter their jump would be detected. If he wao surprise the people here, he o speed things up. “Lo a us to that fourth p as fast as possible. I want hourly updates on the passives. If it looks like we got spotted, turn oive sers.”

  His crew cheered and they quickly buckled themselves in as Ivar powered up the drive.

  ***

  “Looks like someone spotted us, Boss. The mining ship is running for cover at the p.”

  “So much for surprise. You know what to do Freya.” The woman smiled and ehe ship's active sing. It would give them a much better idea of what was out there over the outdated camera system aboard Odin’s Revenge.

  “Holy hell!” Freya excimed. “They have three ships in orbit. A frigate is docked at what looks like a refueli and the other two ships are just floating a distance from the phe ships are all damaged though, and other than the reactor on the docked ship, the rest are cold. And even that reactor isn’t outputting much heat. It’s probably in standby mode.”

  He pulled up the sensor readings to his sole. Capturing a ship, especially a frigate would be a huge win, even if it was damaged. With the other two ships being cold, it was likely their reactors were offline and their activation keys removed, making them worthless. With luck, they might be able to s out their corvette’s activation crystal on one of the gunboats. But that would leave them vulnerable for hours if not days depending on the level of security aboard the ship and be a poor trade since he would have to abandon his own ship to do so.

  The more he looked at these sensor readings, the more he was leaning toward hitting the gunships. He wouldn’t be able to take them, but they might have something worth taking aboard. The frigate had a huge k missing and one of the engines was pletely gone. If it flew at all it would be a miracle. The other ships looked to be in slightly better dition but they were just floating out there. That fact was what eventually decided it for him. If those ships were left to drift, they were likely scrap. He also o take the gamble or he would never measure up in the eyes of the Lagertha.

  “Get us to that station. Is there any ce we beat the mining ship to the p?”

  “Unlikely. They were much closer to the phan we are now.”

  Haldor couldn’t dist the mining ship having ons. No sane captain would e out here uhen again, he had run into a lot of fools who did, so who knew? “Any sign of unched holes in those ships?”

  “The damage to the frigate looks to be done by multiple missiles. The other damage looks to be from projectiles. Sensors aren’t pig up any ons systems in orbit except the ones on the frigate.”

  “Are they active?”

  “Hmm, hard to say from this distance. I give you a better answer as we get closer. Don’t o worry about its missile tubes though, it's fag away from us.”

  He wasn’t sure he agreed with that assessment, but it would make the missiles easier to shoot down if they had to turn around before accelerating toward them. “What about pside.”

  “Just looks like some old structure. It is rather rge though. How much you wanhis is what that Anazi bastard was after?”

  Haldor smiled. “That sounds like a bad bet on my part. The fact that the frigate is active and isn’t broadcasting a transpoells me everything I o know. Those three ships probably beloo Anazi. Looks like he bit off more than he could chew out here,” Haldhed. “Adjust our heading ahe station and ship between us and the p. If they do have ground-based defehat should give us time to bug out.”

  “Got a shuttle leaving the station. Looks like they are abandoning the frigate,” Freya stated triumphantly. “You may have been right about the ground-based defenses, boss. Looks like we got movement around the rge structure on the surface. The sensors are having trouble peing the sulfur-rich atmosphere though.”

  He grunted. “Keep a for unches. We hide from anything else behind the ship.”

  ***

  “What are they doing?” Alexander asked.

  He had been called up to the security room when the ship was first spotted by Captain Na. It was obviously a pirate ship but their initial headlong rush into the system had turned into a very cautious approach.

  “It looks like they are trying to use the station as cover as they get closer,” Lucas responded.

  The geostationary orbit of the space station made it easy tram the capsules to fly to it, but it seemed like that choice was ing back to bite him in the ass now. “Are the ons aboard Eden’s Fury ready to go?”

  “Yup,” Lucas replied. “Just drawing them in closer before we activate them as Captain Matthews suggested.”

  Alexander nodded. He had spoken to Matthews a bit about how to utilize the ships in this mahe Captain was the oo suggest turning them into unmanned ons ptforms until they were in flight-worthy dition. Matthews was clear that the ships wouldn’t be much good at range, but if they could draw an enemy close to them, they might be able to surprise an enemy.

  “The guns are already orieoward them?” Alexander asked in .

  “Yes, Alex, quit w. We did that as soon as we realized what course they were ing in on. I’m surprised they didn’t pick up on the ons reorienting, but I won’t pin.”

  “I’m sorry. I’m just nervous. How’s your brother doing?”

  “Eh,” Lucas shrugged. “He’s getting the remaining guards in position to cover the entrances in case this group decides to nd. Although that would be a very stupid idea on their part. Uhey have a bunissiles and a o match the previous pirates. And I somehow doubt that little ship could carry twelve missiles.”

  ***

  As they got closer, Haldor started to feel like something was off. He asked Freya multiple times to res for further ons, but she kept ing back with no other ons in orbit, and his stant requests were getting on her he mining ship was staying on the far side of the p from them so it wasn’t likely to be a threat. Odin’s Revenge could out-accelerate that mining ship to capture it or flee if it came to that, but not before it made it to the cover of those surface ons. So what was off with this picture?

  He couldn’t shake the feeling that someone was watg him. “Freya, give me a video feed of the frigate. I wan for myself.”

  She gred at him but sent the feed to his terminal. He wished he had one of those fancy holo dispys to make the image rger, but he would have to make do with the s size he had. He moved the image around and frowned. He could see where the turrets stuck out from the hull, but not the barrels. Haldor zoomed in on the image. It got grainy the closer he tried to zoom but he finally saw what had his hackles up. The guns were pointed directly at them.

  He was about to shout, but Freya cut him off. “Ining!”

  The ship jerked hard as Ivar pulled it to one side to try and avoid the ining fire. It wasn’t fast enough. A series of metallic ks shook the ship before he heard the atmosphere venting. “Ivar, get us the fuck out of here! The rest of you, suit up.”

  Haldrabbed his helmet and was just about to put it on when something fshed through his vision. White hot pain gripped his abdomen and he dropped his helmet on the floor and reached down. His hand came aith blood. He stared at it in mute bewilderment before another round tore through the bridge and removed any further thought.

  ***

  “The guns are out of ammo, Alex. But the ships definitely drifting. Wanna send Branston out to make sure?”

  “No. I don’t want to risk our only pilot in case anyone is still alive aboard that ship. Record its trajectory, if it hasn’t fallen into a moon or p in the few weeks, we ask Na if he’ll recycle it for us.”

  “You don’t want to tow it back?”

  Alexander looked at Lucas. “How many rounds did you fire at it?”

  “…Uh, probably more than strictly necessary.”

  “It’s not worth fixing if you hit it with even half of those,” he stated.

  Turns out, it didn’t matter ns Alexander had. The issue of the ship resolved itself a half hour ter when its reactor tai failed. Without gravity to keep the damage tained as it would on a p, it did resemble an explosion. The ship turned white hot, before bulging outward into a retively slow spray of molten material. It was quite something to watch, but it was also a strong reminder of what would happen if a fusioor failed. They would o that mess up or at least track the path of the debris to ensure nobody ran into it on act.