Out of the frying pan....

Calvo pressed himself tight to the ground as he heard the merc's shuttle landing followed by the pneumatic hiss of it's cargo bay doors opening. Loud raucous voices marked the disembarking of it's unsavoury passengers. Suddenly a shout of surprise sounded as the mercs discovered that Calvo and the captain had escaped from the makeshift gallows. Orders were shouted for the men to spread out and search the area. Calvo lay still, hardly daring to breathe.

The sound of heavy footsteps nearby told him one of the mercs had come to investigate the scattered boulders. He inched himself up and took a look, barely a dozen paces away a merc stood with his back towards Calvo. The merc-pirate was dressed in a ragged assortment of uniform with pieces of metal armour strapped on over the top, around his head was wound bandages that completely obscured his features. Slung across his back was a heavy blaster rifle and at his hip a holstered sidearm. No other mercs were in sight. Calvo saw his opportunity, if he took the scavanger out now while he had the drop on him his chances of survival would be greatly increased with those weapons. His hand closed over a small boulder and he rose up and stealthily closed on the unwary pirate. At the last moment the man started to turn, but it was too late. The rock in Calvo's hand smashed into the side of the man's head and he fell to his knees. Calvo lifted the rock high and brought it down with crushing **** and the merc went down permanantly.

Calvo stripped the body quickly, the man was roughly his size and weight. It occurred to him that if he disguised himself as the merc he could probably pass any of the other pirates without being challanged. He unwound the bandages from the dead man's head. Underneath in addition to the wounds Calvo had inflicted in his attack the man's face was a molten mess of scorched flesh, clearly the result of severe plasma burns. Feeling sickened Calvo wrapped the bandages around his own head and put on the dead man's clothes. With a bit of effort he hauled the captain up and slung her over his shoulder and started to walk towards the treeline.

He made it halfway before three of the mercs emerged from the woods ahead of him, the bald headed leader amongst them. The men came straight towards him and Calvo felt his heart racing from fear, all three had their guns drawn and he wouldn't stand a chance if he tried to draw his own.

"Hey, good going. You got the ginger cunt." The bald merc shouted as he approached. "Did you find that asshole convict too?"

Calvo swallowed hard and shook his head. The leader walked up and punched him on the shoulder.

"I know what your up to." He smirked, winking at his two fellow mercs. "Fancy a ginger fur coat for your cock I'll bet. Thought you'd slip off to the trees to give her a good seeing to."

All three mercs laughed at their leaders coarse wit and Calvo nodded.

"We just got word from the ship that one of the bitches warships is inbound on long range sensors." The chief merc told him. "We'll have to cut this short and skedaddle. If you want this red haired bitch you'll have to tote her along."

Calvo shrugged and nodded again. The men started to move towards the shuttle and he had no other choice than to go with them. All the other mercs were returning too and they crowded aboard. Calvo dumped the guard captain on the floor and took a seat. The doors hissed closed and with a feeling of impending disaster Calvo felt the shuttle lift off.