Yvian stood in front of the airlock. She took a deep breath, running a checklist in her head to see if she'd forgotten anything she was going to need later. A few seconds of thought told her she either had everything or wouldn't notice what was missing until she needed it. Crunch. Yvian took another slow, steady breath, trying to quiet the blood pounding in her ears.

She wished she could hear what was happening. Mims and Lissa were still on the bridge. The Encounter was flying at the Big Dirty with no shields to speak of. The frigate's weapons were heavy enough to smash them into debris in one hit, and she wouldn't even know when they started firing.

She activated STEALTH, signaling to Mims that she was ready. STEALTH wouldn't make her invisible, but it did make her nearly impossible for sensors to detect. She didn't know exactly how. Like most of her voidarmor's functions, STEALTH was a mystery of Terran technology. The only indication she had that it was working were the words STEALTH ACTIVE displayed in her HUD.

The airlock opened. Yvian took a breath, then launched herself into the void. She activated her jetpack and shot away from the Encounter as fast as she could. A few seconds later she turned back to look. The fighter had maintained its course. Fourteen High Energy Plasma Cannons began their assault, launching ten meter lances of green plasma at a rate of six per second. The Random Encounter was large for a fighter, just over 90 meters, but it seemed much smaller compared to the streams of bright destruction it produced.

A few seconds later, the Big Dirty responded. Massive bolts of blue and yellow energy leapt towards the human's ship. The frigate's guns were an order of magnitude larger and more powerful than the Encounter's. Plasma and charged particles speared through the void, faster and heavier than anything the HEP cannons could produce. The Big Dirty had over fifty of them, a cascade of bright death spreading forth to swat Captain Mims out of the sky.

Mims was, of course, ready. The Random Encounter strafed upwards from Yvian's position, easily allowing the streams of killing light to pass by untouched. Yvian's pounding pulse sped up even more as some of the Big Dirty's massive blue bolts speared through the space she'd occupied several seconds ago. If one of those things touched her...

Yvian shook herself. Now was not the time to panic. With a start she realized she hadn't started decelerating, yet. Inertial dampeners protect people inside a ship from the rapid changes in speed, but the void itself was far less forgiving. She was approaching the Big Dirty at the speed the Encounter had been moving when she'd jumped out. If she wanted to land on it without splattering on impact, she'd better start decelerating.

Jetpack engaged and autopilot active, Yvian had nothing better to do than watch the fight for a few minutes. The Random Encounter was keeping its distance, firing continuously as it dodged and weaved around the heavy weapons of the frigate. The Big Dirty maneuvered as well, but its slow turn rate and sheer size made avoiding the Encounter's fire nearly impossible. It was a weakness most capitol ships shared, but one that few fighter pilots tried to exploit. It would take well over half an hour for the human to get through Captain Galbalan's shields, and the slightest mistake or a lucky shot would reduce the Encounter to molten debris.

In a one on one engagement, Yvian would put her money on Captain Mims. She was absolutely certain he was skilled enough to take the Big Dirty if he had the time. He didn't have the time. The Militia were coming. It was up to Yvian to take the ship before they arrived.

She was closer, now. Yvian disengaged the autopilot. She doubted she'd be fast enough to dodge if a stray plasma blast came her way, but no way in The Crunch was she surrendering control now. The Encounter was on the opposite side of the Big Dirty, drawing fire away from Yvian's approach. Yvian gave a quick prayer to the Bright Lady that her STEALTH would hold and the frigate wouldn't notice her.

The frigate's shields were visible, a crackling blue dome revealed by the impacts of the Encounter'scannons. Yvian activated SHIELDBREACH a moment before she reached it. SHIELDBREACH was probably the scariest thing the humans had invented. It created a field that disrupts force fields just enough for an object to slip through. Shields were the main defense all ships employed, and the ability to pass through them made humans the most dangerous species in the verse. As if they weren't already.

The downside to SHIELDBREACH was that it also disrupted her STEALTH. Yvian dropped the field as soon as she was through, hoping the half second sensor blip wouldn't be noticed. The Big Dirty was still concentrating on Captain Mims, but it would be trivial to fill the space Yvian was in with plasma if they noticed her.

Yvian let out a sigh of relief when the Big Dirty ignored her. She maneuvered close to the hull, staying as far from the gun ports as she could. She made her way to the bridge, stopping just shy of one of the large viewports. She magnetized her hands and feet, sticking to the hull. She slipped her head down in front of the viewport for a peek at the opposition.

There were six of them. Two were in standard Confed voidsuits, bulky but functional. The other four were in powered armor. The gleaming metal of the armor would repel small arms fire, and the armor itself would allow the wearer to lift up to two tons. Powered armor was rare outside the Military, and she'd never seen one in person before. Her own armor was Terran make, and might give her an edge, but she had no idea if she could take four of them at once.

Yvian cursed. There was no help for it. She checked her wrist console. Two minutes. She had two minutes before the Militia reached weapons range. Two minutes to take the ship.

Yvian demagnetized her hands. She spooled out a line of breach cord from the pouch at her belt. She started laying it out on the hull. She stopped. She cursed again. The Big Dirty was heavily armored. Yvian doubted the cord could generate enough heat to melt through half a meter of tungsten. She tried placing some of it on the viewport, but the clear material wasn't magnetic. The cord wouldn't stick.

Screw it. Yvian didn't have time to be subtle. Deactivated her grav boots and grabbed the BFG14 Plasma Gatling gun strapped to her back. She jetted a few meters away from the hull and took aim at the viewport. Then she remembered the recoil and jetted back to set her grav boots on the hull, She didn't want to get pushed out past the frigate's shields.

Yvian planted her feet, aimed, and activated AIMASSIST. Her strength enhancements were already active, as she needed BRAWN to lug the heavy weapon around. She pulled the trigger, rapid fire bolts of blue plasma smashing through the ten centimeter thick material of the viewport. AIMASSIST helped her sweep the weapon in a circle, severing a three meter section of the viewport from the rest of the ship. Decompression launched the severed circle into the void, followed by two pirates and all the air on the bridge.

Yvian wasted no time swiveling the gun to deal with the pirates. Powered armor might be sufficient for small arms, but the heavy plasma of the BFG tore through them with ease. AIMASSIST worked with her strength enhancements to hold her arm steady. and she quickly pumped the pirates full of holes.

Yvian briefly considered throwing a couple ion grenades through the hole before she jumped down herself, but rejected the idea. She didn't want to take the time to holster the BFG14, and without the protection of her armor's personal shields the grenades would disable the gun. Instead she said, "Shields up," and activated her jetpack.

Weapons fire greeted Yvian as she flew through the hole in the viewport. Plasma splashed against her shields as she fell to the deck and stumbled. The bridge of the Big Dirty had been decompressed, but the gravity field was still active, and it took Yvian a second to adjust.

The pirates weren't carrying any heavy ordnance, but blaster fire from four people was rapidly depleting her shields. The voidarmor itself could maybe tank a few hits once they fell, but it didn't offer the same level of protection as powered armor. Then again, powered armor didn't have personal shields. As far as Yvian knew, only humans and the Vrrl had access to that kind of tech.

Yvian targeted the unarmored pirates first. Two quick volleys from her BFG14 put them down. The next one took a little longer. His powered armor held for a full half a second before the heavy blue bolts turned him into a puddle.

The last pirate had sprinted forward almost as soon as she entered the bridge. His plasma repeater continued hammering her shields dead center above her chest. Guy must have the Confed version of AIMASSIST. Yvian didn't feel like screwing around with a hand to hand fight. She just swiveled the BFG14 again and hosed him down.

The bridge was secure. There were holes in the bulkheads where the BFG14's heavy plasma had ripped through the pirates, but AIMASSIT had made sure none of the consoles had been hit. Yvian walked over to one, dropping her personal shield and strapping the big gun to her back.

She pulled up the weapons display. Most of the Big Dirty's cannons were automated, and still firing at the Random Encounter. Four turrets had been set to manual to allow some of the pirates to aim in themselves. Yvian switched those turrets to autopilot. She was a little worried the turrets might manage to hit the Encounter, but she had no choice but to trust the Captain a little longer.

The fight hadn't lasted very long. The Militia wouldn't be in weapons range for another minute or so. Panic hit Yvian as she realized that two dead pirates and a plate of viewport were floating outside of the ship. She ran back to the hull breach, but a transmission came before she could jump out after them.

"Attention all vessels, this is Captain Mutari of the Brilend Militia. Lower your shields and prepare to be boarded."

Captain Mims answered on an open comm. "Captain Mutari, this is Captain Mims of the Random Encounter. We are licensed privateers performing lawful activity."

"I don't care who you are, Mims," Mutari replied. "Lower your shields and prepare to be boarded."

"I'd love to," said the human. "But there's a frigate trying to shoot me out of the sky right now." Yvian checked the sensors, and noted that Mims had moved to put the Big Dirty between himself and the oncoming Militia. He was still raining fire down on the frigate, dodging and weaving around the columns of bright death the Big Dirty spewed forth.

There was a pause. Then, "Captain Galbalan, you can cease fire. We'll handle it from here."

Yvian didn't dare answer on the comms, but she had the turrets shut down. She fervently willed the Militia pilots not to scan the area too closely. If they noticed the dead pirates floating around outside the ship, things would go very badly.

Captain Mims continued to rain plasma down on the frigate. An irritated Captain Mutari said, "Alright human, the Big Dirty's stopped shooting. Cease fire, drop your shields, and prepare to be boarded. Don't make me ask again."

The Random Encounter ceased fire. "Don't get your panties in a bunch." Mims moved his ship a little further away and came to a relative halt. "I'm doing it now."

The Militia fleet closed in, moving into the frigate's firing range without a hint of concern. That, more than Mutari's familiar way of speaking to Captain Galbalan, told Yvian everything she needed to know. No sane person would get that close to a potentially hostile frigate. Mutari knew Galbalan. He was confident he wouldn't shoot.

Yvian waited until the fleet was nearly past the Big Dirty. Then she cut loose. The frigate's powerful cannons smashed the fighters apart in seconds. The corvette lasted exactly long enough for Captain Mutari to transmit "Galbalan, what the-" before it was reduced to molten slag. Yvian smiled in grim satisfaction.

The Captain was right. Everyone must pay.