+++ [REDACTED] +++

Kingdom of Loran

Sagittarius Union

"Oh, there you are, grim face." A man in a black trenchcoat approached me as I backed off. "Still got the nerve to piss us off, eh?"

"All you and your boys screwed up big time," I said. I took my pistol and smirked. "The law's hot on your asses."

It was a messy street. A gunfight between us and them broke out just mere moments ago, and I was unfortunate enough to be caught late at the getaway part. No matter, I scanned my surroundings for an escape. The faint, flickering neon lights illuminated a lane nearby, too dark and as I hoped at the moment, filled with corners.

"We had a business deal, grim face. Have you not told your boss that? You think you can just drag us down that way?" He suddenly drew his pistol and aimed it at me, and I did the same to him.

I moved cautiously, while he grinned ferociously at me.

"Oooh… grim face. You screwed up. They left you didn't they?"

I didn't reply. Faintly, I could hear movement nearby. Perhaps it was the cops? Who knows. I stepped back further while keeping my pistol pointed at his arse.

This guy, this guy was dirty. Real dirty. They had these…trafficking rings. Things that our "group" would find too distasteful to even cross. They weren't doing these things to survive in this hellhole, these dirty rats were doing it to enrich themselves.

And to satisfy their hedonism. Exactly the type of targets that the law, or what was left of it, prioritized to extinguish.

But we did do business with them. I laughed inside. Who am I to claim the moral high ground?

"No one's coming back for you kid." He said. "So put down the gun, son. And join us. Join us instead. We have lots of women. If you know what I mean."

"Yeah, sure. But that ain't my style." I saw a splash of footsteps. That was my opening. I ducked down, and we both pulled the trigger. His shot missed—so did mine, but it took down a sign above him. The policemen shouted at him, and I made a mad dash to the dark lane as the gunfire flared up.

Run like a rat when the opportunity presents itself. I reminded myself. Smooth.

+++

+++ Jonathan Jones +++

This time, I won't run.

We pushed, and they pushed. We didn't make up and made peace. Ain't no peace deals today, just pure chaos. But, they were Pirates. I hardly expected proper last-minute negotiations.

"Get that Photon Lance ready!" I said as I kept the Jukebox right beside the Shine.

There were missiles and kinetics already flying straight to us, which were being swatted by my Licht PD Lasers. But one of them, their Log-Class Converted Shuttle, seemed to have picked up an interest in me.

"I know! And be careful, Jon. That ship is looking at us weird." Juliett said.

She was in control of the other drone ships remotely, while I held control of the Jukebox. After all, if I just sat in my arse, the enigmatic Fed-System would reward me with seventy-five percent less experience.

And I wanted some proper skills to supplement my already struggling arse.

"Yeah, I'm going to keep my distance from him. It seems to be firing autocannon shells at our shield." I pulled back, it was kinetics, and that was bad. Already, my reactor had to compensate with the power production to keep the shields up.

"Reactor Heat Capacity now at twenty-five percent. Temporary disengagement is advised." SYS said, and I agreed. I pulled back even more while under heavy fire, noticing another five missiles homing at us.

"SYS, open up our ECM flares!" I said, as one of our Licht PD Lasers was cooling down, thus potentially leaving us vulnerable. "Now!"

"Acknowledged." My ship pulled back even more, releasing green flares that distracted the missiles. I watched as our point defense lasers finished the job, downing the incoming missiles in mere seconds when they reached the effective range.

"Juliett, how are we doing?" I watched as the Shine opened up its Photon Lance at one of their Bungaloo-Class Frigates, fully disabling its shields and forcing it back. "You did it!"

"Of course I did! I'm firing missiles to finish it off." She laughed. "My drone ships are well designed. That's for sure."

"Unfortunately, your ego is gigantic as well."

"Shut up. Focus on your flank."

"Aye, Ma'am."

I checked the reactor heat. It was already at forty-seven capacity. I still kept the Jukebox on the frontlines, even when that dipshit Log-Class Shuttle kept me suppressed with its kinetic autocannons. Still, I had its attention, thus keeping it off from the Shine. But this wouldn't last long.

I should have probably installed some Tandem Light Coilguns on my front-facing mounts. But, then again, I didn't expect to do anything other than running. It would have worked quite well though, the Coilguns for shield pressure, and the PD Lasers for anti-armor. Oh well, no time for that.

I took a look at the Bungaloo-Class that she disabled earlier. Their PD guns made short work of her missiles, and now the frigate was venting its emergency heat coolants.

"Alert! Reactor Heat Capacity is now up to fifty percent. Deployment of Emergency Heat Coolants is advised." Well, that was bad.

"Juliett."

"Yes?"

"Can we pull back to vent?"

"Not yet. I'll try to get that Log-Class off from our tails first. I'm still feeding the targeting solutions to the Shine's Photon Lance."

"Wait, their Bungaloo-Classes are closing in on the Shine."

"I'm pushing the Glisten forward."

"Right."

As their Bungaloo-Class Frigates attempted to take the new opening to the Shine, the Glisten moved forward and began covering her. I watched as its long-range beams of red lasers targeted the two frigates alternatively, keeping them from attacking the Shine.

Then, the quick pulse of the Photon Lance from the Shine opened up on the Log-Class ahead of us. Its shields were already raised, so it deflected the first few milliseconds, but it dissipated, probably since it overheated its reactor, and allowed the Photon Lance to snip clean through its frontal armor and hull. It was also disabled without its power generation.

"Juliett! That ship's disabled. I'm going in for the kill!" I said, pushing the Jukebox forward. In just moments, the Licht PD Lasers began opening up on the shuttle, tearing chunks of its hull and armor and burning away everything inside.

[ISS Rapier disabled!]

"Jon! I thought we'd back off and vent! Don't move any further, I'm repositioning the Shine and the Glisten to cover us."

"Sorry, I saw an opportunity." I kept blasting away at the downed shuttle with the lasers until it completely shut down dead in the void.

"It's down. Divert your attention to their Bungaloo Frigates. We're going to try to swing forward quickly."

"Our ship is now at eighty-percent heat." And, indeed, it was starting to look bad with the amount of alerts on the screens. SYS was also really chimping out, as it decided to change the CIC lights into red. Already, the passive venting and heat cycling increased the ship's internal heat marginally, and I could feel sweat trickling down from my face. "I think we need to vent."

"Move back. Do it. My drone ships are covering you."

I pulled back the Jukebox out of its firing range and began initiating emergency cooldowns, lowering all power and the shields. I watched as the reactor heat capacity fell down to zero percent, fully cooling it down.

Purple superheated gas vented out of the vents of my ship, as the internal heat returned down to normal levels. I breathed out, before re-raising the Jukebox's shields. I gave my face a pat with my handkerchief to remove my sweat. The Reaper-Class could really easily overheat from its reactor due to its size, I suppose.

"Alright, what's our next move, Juliett?"

"Again, we'll swing forward. Close in on them. They're already backing off. I think they're looking for a way to escape."

"Are any of your drone ships overheating?"

"No. Their reactors and shields are heat efficient. Unless they overwhelmed the two they wouldn't go down that easily."

"Alright, good. We'll push forward. We'll use the Shine as our main punch. Then our ship and the Glisten will finish them off. Sounds good?"

"Good."

I breathed out and began to return to our formation. They were backing off slowly, their forward thrusters already engaging slowly. I expected them to turn around soon once they found a good distance, before blasting off out of our engagement range.

That wouldn't be acceptable. We moved forward much quicker than they could back off, and I could see that the continued pressure from the beams and autocannons of the Glisten and the Shine's Photon Lance prevented them from backing off well.

Suddenly, I received a transmission.

"Oh, what now, degenerate?" I refused to look at the camera, and I scoffed. "Got your tails blasted?"

"Three thousand SCs kid. It's a bargain. Already better than government bounties."

"So what? So you can run off and report me to your boss? I ain't a fool, you're going down here."

"You're making a mistake, kid."

"And? You made a mistake first."

I closed the transmission before he pissed me off further. I heard Juliett on the intercom.

"Hm, why did you even accept the transmission? You know, I can just block it." She said, and indeed, she had a point. I laughed.

"Call it tradition. A holdover from the past." In a way, these Pirates were no different from our "business associates" back in Loran. In fact, what was this but mere competition for who gets to loot, err…I meant, "salvage" the goods in this long abandoned system? "Perhaps, I just like hearing my enemy speak first."

"Oh, like in gentlemen's duels?"

"Where did you even get the idea? And do you seriously read that?"

"Excuse me! Just because I'm an AI does not mean I'm not versed in humanity's literature and entertainment. A lady has her needs."

"Yeah, sure, whatever you say. Push forward now, I think they're close to overheating from the pressure."

"Copy. All-out charge I guess!"

Almost simultaneously, the two Bungaloo-Classes, now side by side, lowered their shields in sync after our attack run. The Photon Lance shot from the Shine and the Tornado Missile System from the Glisten, which released a hail of high-speed kinetic slugs at the two targets, fully overheated their reactors by overwhelming their shields.

They were so down, that even the desperate attempt of their assault drones from our flanks, who released a hail of kinetic slugs on my ship, didn't save the two. I almost laughed in glee, as our energy weapons feasted on the two like butter. It only took seconds before they went nuclear side-by-side—leaving a bright burning wreck in front of us.

[ISS Bolt destroyed!]

[ISS Trifecta destroyed!]

"...Jonathan. That's…a lot of dead people." Her voice seemed devoid of any warmth now. "I…I always hate it when it comes to this. They're pirates. But still…"

I heard her mutter a tiny sorry at them. "I know…I guess bad people would always have that coming for them." Much like me. "Their drone tender might escape, Juliett."

"No worries…we'll put them down."

We began diverting course, starting full burns to chase the lone drone tender. It was unarmed, but it could still communicate. It only took a few minutes of a chase, but a shot from the Shine's Photon Lance split the thing in half, ending the battle.

[ISS Tier destroyed!]

I breathed out, looking at the wrecks and damage around us.

"Juliett? Are you still there?"

"...Even the worst criminal deserves a second chance to redeem themselves, Jonathan. But not all of them do that. And many of them end up too late. These pirates, they're victims forced to this life."

"Do you feel bad for them?"

"You don't?"

I looked back at that pirate. He didn't seem too far from me, I suppose. The difference? He was still in that life. But was that really true? Had I…really left that life in Loran?

"I do, Juliett. I do."

But, it was too late for them. Nothing can be done. Either us or them.

Either us or them…

+++

Engagement Results: Hostiles Extinguished!

Rewards: 150 (3x Frigate-Sized Ships) + 25 (1x Corvette-Sized Ship) = 175 (Base XP) x 1.25 (XP Modifier) = 219 XP Points!

Experience: 606 (+219 Last Chapter).