Mess with them

"Hmm I have a couple ideas." Blackfire purred out as she leaned back into her chair, "I have a pretty good prediction of what they're going to do upon boarding so..., if we take into account that...,"

Zac simply listened to her plan. Hopefully this would end without any of them getting hurt.

The two ships finally reached the junker; one circling around towards the engine while the other came up along side. This one extended a connector and forcefully attached the two ships with a shudder running through both. Figures passed through this new passageway and soon gained entrance into the cargo ship. They weren't sure what to expect but more victims meant more cash at the end of the day.

They came with rifles and batons, clad in exo-space grade combat gear from their heads to feet. Not their tails though, they used shields for that when out in space due to sensitivity. Even if the crew attempted to vent their ship out of spite, they'd be okay. The pirates had raided a few die hard crews like that before but when they finally got into the ship, they didn't find... anything really. No shocked crew, or hastily barricades, no random traps or debris tossed up. Nothing.

If anything that was a bit more worrying than what they'd seen on other ships.

"Cargo." one of them spoke and waved their hand, noting with two of their seven fingers. Two of the pirates moved forward and headed towards the named location.

"Sleeping." Another wave and another two moved forward.

"Bridge." He pointed at one other and then himself. They would take the bridge while the remaining ones watched the corridor.

The pair moved quickly to the bridge, checking corners and any doors they came across that the others hadn't already cleared. When they got to the heavy door towards the bridge one of pirates took out a device and attached it to the command console on the door. It ran through several numbers and symbols before it pinged, unlocking the door. The two raised their weapons and breached the room.

"EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEK!!!!!"

Well there was the scream they were expecting earlier. But not for the... reasons they expected.

Two figures were in one of the pilot seats, but these didn't seem the kind that needed two people in one seat. The figure sitting on the other, female possibly, was trying to cover the large mounds on her chest with her arms as she fought to get a shirt back on. The male, his leggings pulled down about halfway save for a short pair around his groin, could only curse as he tried to button his shirt back up. This took both pirates off guard for a moment before they raised their weapons.

"Freeze."

"We surrender, we surrder just.... don't shoot us!" the male cried, holding up his hands while his partner got her shirt on.

"My daughter! Where's my...," the female started to get up before a rifle was pointed in her face, "Just... let me see my daughter!" She huffed out.

"Anyone else in the ship?"

"Just...*cough* a nurse droid. She should be with our daughter..., please she has a condition." the male said.

"Team B, advise; child and caretaker-bot should be the only targets in the quarters." the pirate spoke into his comms before motioning towards his partner, "Take her to the kid. We don't need either of them acting up."

His partner nodded and grabbed the woman by her shoulder and pulled her out of the cockpit, marching her down the halls towards the bedroom. Meanwhile the male was coughing a bit as his hands reached for something. The pirate motioned at him to stop with his rifle, only to get a glare in return.

"Have *Cough* condition too..., need better..., environment.... *cough*.... protective suit..." he weezed out as he motioned towards a weird looking device on his belt, "Wife is... immune to shit like this but you guys..., worth more alive..."

The 'wife' did look like a different species, at least a bit; the orange coloring was a bit off putting but he hadn't seen these kinds of aliens before. But dead hostages didn't pay out, at least not as well as live ones. He motioned with his gun to get on with it. The man nodded and fiddled with his belt.

Weird. Did most protective envirosuits announce themselves? And use the term 'armor'?

In the sleeping quarters, another pair of pirates swept the rooms. Nothing in the main bedroom but when they checked the other one, they found only a robot done up in a maid outfit. A pretty shapely bot but still metal and circuits. Maybe they could do something with it later, after all there's all sorts of weird people out in the galaxy. The maid simply had her arms out to her sides and hands up, sitting on the bed in the room. But this clearly wasn't HER room.

"Team B, advise; child and caretaker-bot should be the only targets in the quarters." came over the coms.

"So... where's the brat?" One of them asked, pointing his weapon at the robot.

The robot didn't say a word. But that didn't matter, it was a small room. They'd find her. One kept his weapon trained on the robot while the other started to ransack the room, trying to flush the other target from her hiding spot. Books, toys, trinkets, dolls; all were tossed on the floor, and several times stomped on. Not out of spite, but rather the pirate didn't care where his feet were while moving.

This however didn't matter to the child as she slowly took aim at the long thin tail that was whipping around in front of her.

"YYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEOWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW!!!!"
The pirate held the gun closer to the woman's back as he fiddled with the door control to open the room. The pair had heard a loud, if muffled due to the closed door, scream. He was annoyed; if there was some sort of trick going on here, he'd made the woman pay for her lies. For her part she just shrugged but she had a knowing grin on her face.

Once the door was opened, he rushed inside with his weapon ready. One of his fellows had a robot held up at gunpoint while the other had some sort of small squirming creature in his arms, trying to hold it still while it clawed and tried to bite at him. He gave a glare that was felt through the helmet he had on.

"Little FUCKER BIT me!" He waved his tail upward and there was a large visible bite mark near the tip of his tail, "Stupid brat I'm gonna...."

"Alive. We need them alive." His partner called as he rolled his eyes. Dumb-ass probably got cocky and was paying for it.

"I KNOW THAT!" the angry one shot back as he flicked out a knife from his belt, "But she ain't gonna die if I de-fang her a bit."

Well it would at least show they weren't fucking around. Some sort of proof to the rest of the family these people were part of and....

That was when the pirate realized a few things at once.

First; in his haste to enter the room, the woman was now behind him. Second, apparently she had put her hand on the back of his helmet, as he could feel pressure of someone holding him there. Third; .... the helmet was starting to crack.

"What do you MEAN we lost contact with the away teams?"
The bridge of the pirate vessel was busy..., well busier. They had already picked off one mining vessel when another ship had warped in. This one much smaller and seemingly not connected to the first one. So they had sent two of their smaller ship to go collect it. To at the very least stop word from getting out. But rather than the ship being dragged closer..., it just sat there. With no response from the team save for two reports; one of the vessel being boarded. And the other of a purple flash being detected.

This had made the bridge crew sit up and take notice. The new vessel just looked like a junker of some kind. How'd it beat two away teams? And more importantly, what would they tell their boss?

Their boss, who was looming large over one technicians, growled for an answer as his two lower limbs crackled his knuckles while his upper ones were folded over his broad chest. His tail lashed hard against the metal floor, leaving a good sized dent. He growled again, as his lips peeled back to show his fangs.

"Explain to me again WHY we lost two teams?" He growled out.

The tech gulped and was about to try explaining when the terminal in front of him pinged. Working quickly he brought up a display for the captain and the rest of the bridge crew. The junker ship had just... launched something? It was small and fast moving..., and giving off purple glow.

"That.... could be the weapon that took out the others...." the tech offered.

"Get weapons on that. I want it shot down, NOW!" The captain slammed the floor with his tail once more which sent everyone working at a faster pace.

Weapons and countermeasures were brought to bare towards the missile that was rapidly closing in. Yet when they fired at the missile, it had just..., dodged. And not in a manner that most missiles would at this range. No, instead it seemed to do a long sideways barrel roll; they could see the purple glow spin from one side to the other. And this kept happening; anything they threw at it, the missile seemed to dodge perfectly and in impossible ways before returning back to it's flight path.

Before a better picture could be picked up, the missile seemed to vanish from sight. But not before detaching something from itself, that was still flying at them.

"SHOOT IT!"
"It's too close, brace for impact!"

Those near the wall ran for cover as something large and heavy slammed through the hull of the ship with enough **** to bounce a few times on the metal floor. Emergency procedures were launched and the gap was quickly sealed up before too much air or worse the crew was sucked into space. And that left what just slammed into them was...

A rock.

A large rock about the size of their captain sat embedded in the floor, right in the middle of the bridge. The junker ship had what seemed to be a highly advanced and mobile missile and yet it had just.... launched a rock at them? It didn't even seem to be special, just..., rock. Much like the asteroids that floating outside the ship.

"CAPTAIN, .... Uh... the screen..." A tech shouted once he got back to his station.

He looked up at the screen and saw...., the 'missile'. It was a woman wearing..., well not a space suit that was clear. Her orange skin made her stand out against the blackness behind her, along with the purple glow around her limbs and eyes. She had a wide grin and... gestured something towards the camera before flying off screen.

"SIR she's heading towards the rear of the...." A crash and several more alarms cut the techie off, "Correction, she's INSIDE the rear of the ship...., I think she's going for the Engines."

"Get the combat team down there, and get my weapons ready. I'll go deal with her myself." The Captain ordered. The team wouldn't last long against her but maybe they could stall her from doing any heavy damage till he got there. His personal armament was tough enough to take down some of the largest predators on and off planets; it should work on her regardless of how tough she was. He glared at the large rock next to him though.

"And someone get this thing out of here!"

"Yeah yeah gimme a sec."

.....wait. Who just said that?

"OH It'll be a fun idea." "They won't see it coming." "Its the easiest way to do this." "Come on!"

He shouldn't have gone along with it but Blackfire made it sound..., okay? Not to mention Layla thought it would be 'awesome' and she needed something to cover up the threat the pirate made towards her. So he went along with the... worst idea he'd heard since waking up in bed with Blackfire.

He had to shake his head a bit in the darkness to get the stars to stop spinning in his sight. Upside was he hadn't gotten motion sick from the trip; either of them. Taking a moment once his head was clear, he checked everything else over. Limbs felt right, head was okay, a little nasuated but it felt more like something he'd get at an amusement park ride than... what had just happened. He should be good to go and....

"- get ---- thing out ---!"came a muffled voice that only had some of the words understandable. He wasn't sure if it was the suit translating that or something else but he was going to humor someone in just a moment.

"Yeah yeah gimme a sec." *KA CHING* "TAURUS ARMOR!!!

The pirates watched in horror as the rock seemed to crack apart before finally shattering. A large armored figure, styled after some sort of creature, stood up from the remain, hefting a large ax into a combative stance. The figure turned it's head from side to side, taking in the bridge before him. It then spoke, loud and through some sort of translation filter.

"Don't suppose... you surrender?" the figure asked.

The pirates seemed to weigh their options for a moment. Before the Captain flicked something in the large gloves he had. Two short blades of plasma burst from hidden compartments as he charged the armored figure.

"Yeah. Figures it wasn't gonna be that easy." Zac thought as he got ready for this new fight, "Not gonna be a boring day with Blackfire huh?"