Caught

You're almost to the jump lane, now. Kalis inputs the commands and lets loose another round of weapons fire into the remaining frigate, this time the Mass Accelerator ripping a hole in what appears to be either the ammo dump or the fuel storage, judging by the resultant explosion. Only the Red Empress is left to pursue you.

BOOM!

The Royal Flush shakes as the plasma bolt hits, taking down the shields and hammering the hull. Vel calmy states, "The engine housing is hit. Shields are down. Thruster temperature is at critical levels and the engines are going into automatic shutdown." Since you were drifting on inertia, the bolt also knocked the ship off course. You see the circle of pulsing green lights that mark the boundary of the jump lane off in the distance, getting farther away.

Vel looks up at you. "The Red Empress is hailing us."

"Put 'em through," you say. They've got you now, and they know it. On the main viewscreen you see an image of a pale human woman with long, slightly wavy red hair. You would find her regal features very attractive if she wasn't one command away from turning you and your ship into space dust. Her piercing blue eyes seem to look directly at you as she speaks. "John Doe, I presume. I am Captain Tering Cale of the Red Fleet. Your shields are down, as well as your engines. You've nowhere to run. Power down your weapons and prepare to be boarded." She pauses before adding, "You know how it will turn out if you resist." With that, the screen goes back to the external view, where you see the massive battleship plodding towards you.

"Power down the weapons, Kalis," you say, your voice heavy with resignation. You've heard stories about Tering Cale's taste for unspeakable acts of cruelty and perversion, and you wonder what she has in store for you. She's after Osha, of course, but she wouldn't be a pirate if she didn't find any use for the other captives.

Soon the Royal Flush is tractor-beamed into a docking bay on the hulking Red Empress. Vel informed you that the engines had cooled down enough to come back on-line, but at this point it's too late. Even if you could break free of the tractor beam, there's no way you could avoid all those guns.

The docking bay is large and dirty, with weapons crates and transport carriages strewn about the place. The Royal Flush has docked in one corner that appears to have been hastily cleared, as there are still bits of trash and spare parts lying about. The welcoming committee is composed of twenty-something men of various species, some of which you don't think you've seen before. All are heavily armed and dressed in such a ragtag collection of clothing and armor that there is no mistaking them for pirates. Most of them look like they have a pretty bad case of space scurvy.

Lowering the boarding ramp, you all step out with your hands up. You wrinkle your nose; it stinks in here.

A short human woman with black, close-cropped hair steps out from the group of pirates. She's cute, for a pirate. You can tell that she's not wearing anything under her chest armor, and her tanned skin looks very inviting. "So," she says. "You're John Doe, huh? Funny, I thought you'd be taller. Follow me, all of you. Don't try nuthin' stupid."

You all follow her out of the docking bay, surrounded on all sides by filthy, leering pirate scum.