Put on a show.

“Let us not make it too easy on them then.” I fired the thrusters dipping the noise of the craft and then accelerated on a new course. Their shot missed us as they had fired where we would have been if I had changed course suddenly. They had waited on me to rabbit. The reaction control system vented hot plasma from the main engines into the maneuvering thrusters allowing for unparalleled movement in almost any direction. They be hard-pressed to hit me. Especially with a rail gun that took a few seconds to power up between shots and they had to turn the noise of the ship to aim it so they had blown their only shot. They quickly changed tactics as a point defense gun began to fire as I barely dodged as I spun the ship flipped her before firing the engines and burning back the way I came. Their gun quickly readjusted to track me and unleashed a volley of bullets. I was just within range of the guns tracking system but they managed to get a few hits as I felt the ship shutter.

“Damage?”

“Minimal hull damage to the outer hull plating and thruster skirting. ” Artemis replied. The ship's thrusters were hidden behind an extension of the hull's armor that formed a skirt making them a lot harder to hit from the flanks. An enemy would have to be on my six to get a shot that would hit the engines directly without going through the hull plating. I had designed the hulls armor to resist micrometeorite swarms so she could take a few bullets but I was willing to play along. I put the ship into an uncontrolled tumble and killed the main engines and pretended to be trying to regain control of the ship or mostly pretended as the thrusters had a bit of a kick to them without the main thrusters. It was like trying to break a bucking bronco as the ship wanted to overcorrect. I finally managed to level her off and put her nose toward the direction I was heading originally. They weren't firing so they probably thought they had wounded me but if they brought that rail gun around I would gun it.

“They're hailing us. Audio only on a tight beam. Their jamming all radio communications.” Artemis stated. I could still call for help on a laser beam but no one I could call could reach me in time. They weren't firing so they probably thought they had wounded me.

“Let's hear it?” I replied. I didn't want them to see me.

“Attention yacht crew. Prepare to be boarded. Any further resistance and we will fire the rail gun and put a hole through your fusion core. This is your only warning.” The captain of the other ship stated and cut the channel. Brief and to the point. Their way of letting me know there was no negotiating.

“Talkative fellow.” I said and got up out of the seat.

“Sounds like the two of you will get along well.” Artemis teased.

“Artemis. Keep an eye on that railgun. If it so much as twitches get us the hell out of dodge.” I headed for the ladder, climbing down to the cargo hold where the airlock was. The room was full of crates locked into shelves. Spare parts for the ship encase anything broke. If the part wasn't in here it wasn't something I could fix on my own and would need to make port. I kind of wished I had put the ship's extra hull plating in the middle of the room to use as a barrier to take cover but I would probably need it to repair the damage to the hull now. This room wasn't ideal for a firefight with everything on shelves around the room while the middle of the room was empty. If I couldn't take cover I would have to ambush them where they wouldn't expect it. I opened the airlock and stepped inside and then closed it behind me. I floated to the top and were my boots and knee pad took hold of the ceiling. The waist-high cover of the doorway was better than nothing. Now I had to wait. Several minutes went by before I heard the ship's outsides docking clamps engage.

“Artemis. Give me the docking camera.” I said and a video of the exterior of the ship popped up in the corner of my heads-up display. They had extended a docking gangway between my ship and theirs. I waited for their airlock to open and four men came out. One in the lead had his rifle raised while a second carried a plasma torch for cutting through the airlock if I refused to open up. I would be more than happy to comply.

I waited till they got to the door and popped the hatch for them. The door sliding open. I was close enough to see the face of the guy from the lights inside his helmet. Me clinging to the ceiling of the airlock was the last thing he saw as I fired a shot and his face shield shattered in a spray of blood. The gun had no recoil at all thanks to the recoil compensator which was a good thing for zero gravity.

The guy carrying the torch went down next before he could draw his weapon while the one after him opened fire on me. I felt several burst hit my chest and shoulder knocking me back I took cover behind the wall and stuck my gun out blind firing a few shots before sticking my head back out and catching one of the guys in the back as he was heading back to his airlock. A rush of air almost pulled me out of the ship as they broke the seal and began to retract the gangway as the last attacker had fallen back to take cover in his own airlock and had hit the button. I jumped the gap firing at the enemy as I soared through the space between our ships managing to hit him in the shoulder. As he fell back into the airlock, blood squirting out into the void, I put several rounds in him. The airlock doors began to close as I just barely managed to make it in before the doors closed on me.

“Artemis. Evasive maneuvers. Put some distance between yourself and that PDC.” I said into my helmet.

“Confirmed. Come back to me safe.”

“Will do sweetheart.” I smiled. I pressurized the airlock as I felt the ships gravity kick in as they began to burn their engines. I took cover behind the inner wall and opened the airlock. I could hear footsteps coming and peeked out and fired as two men fired back down the hall as they took cover. Suddenly I saw movement out the corner of my eye as someone had flanked me from the other side and fired a shotgun. I shielded my helmet and took a blast. I winced in pain as I felt it hit me and drew my pistol as I fell back against the wall putting several rounds in my attacker. He took out the light as the shotgun went off when he fell back. I looked down to see several what looked like nails sticking out of the suit. Armor-piercing flechettes. Some were in-bedded in the polyethylene while others had pierced the suit as I could feel them. They hadn't gone all the way through the suit thankfully but they had hit the skin as it hurt like a fucker to move. I grabbed the fuckers and pulled them out. The main thrusters cut out and I quickly clicked my heels to the ground before I started to float in the air. I wasn't sure why they had killed their engines but I could feel the ship turning. I looked over to see the body of the one I had killed in the airlock begin to float. I stood up and holstered my pistol and grabbed him by the backpack air tube and hurled his lifeless corpse out. The two at the end of the hall began to fire on it and I popped out redrawing my pistol taking them down with a shot each. I used my pistol covering one way while I kept the rifle fixed on where I was going heading for the staircase.

Gravity kicked back in as the ship fired her engines having changed course and was now on a new trajectory. The course change probably meant we had company coming but they had to still be jamming the comms since I hadn't heard from Artemis. I made my way up the ship. I didn't run into anyone but these ships were typically run with as few people as possible when run by a legitimate crew so a group of pirates was probably running it with a skeleton crew. I made my way up to the bridge stopping just outside the door. It was quiet. I waved my hand in front of the door quickly and a shot rang out. Only one way in and one way out. I put my back to the wall and ejected my revolver cylinder and slapped another in place.

“It's over. Put down your weapons and surrender the hostages. This is your only warning.” I yelled and put my back to the wall and slid down the door frame.

“I want to negotiate. Send one man in to talk.” A voice said. It sounded like the captain that had spoken over the comm. They obviously thought I was more than one man meaning their security system was shit.

“Lower your guns and we can talk face to face,” I said and put my revolver in the holster.

“Done.” He replied. I peeked in to see who I thought had to be the captain in the middle of the room with a young man in front of him. One of the hostages. Another pirate was crouched behind a panel and another hiding behind the pilot's chair. I lowered my own rifle down to my hip but kept my left hand near the revolver.

“These are my terms. You call that yacht back and have your pilot and anyone else onboard come over and we will leave on it and you get the hostages and our ship. We will take this one with us. Otherwise, I shoot this one and my friend here will jettison the cargo hold where the others are.” He looked over to the guy behind one of the councils. No doubt ready to push the button to open the cargo bay. They would have locked down their cargo but the people inside would still suffocate.

“This isn't what we agreed on. You said you would release me.” The hostage began to speak. Apparently, he had cut some kind of deal for himself before I had interfered but I had a feeling he was trying to save himself and not the others.

“Deals changed.” The captain said pressing the gun against the guy's skull. The hostage was named Strickland as in Strickland shipping. The one thing they had in abundance was ships which was probably why they wanted to take him with them. How many ships could they get out of the boy's old man for in exchange for his son's life?

"Now decided bounty hunter. Do we all kill each other or do we make a trade?"