Just Another Day at the Office
13 Mar 2022Voetsak
As Voetsak closed on the signal source, he quickly reviewed the contract he was about to complete. "Assassinate Pirate Lord Killadude". He sighed at the name - they always used idiotic callsigns. Always. He thumbed disengage, and dropped down, quickly scanning the area as he did so - one ship, a Fer-de-Lance. Presumably that was his target.As he turned to line up, three more ships dropped in - traders, by the looks of them - and the lead immediately started squawking on the local comms band. "Help! We're under attack by pirates and can't hold out much longer!!" Voetsak raised an eyebrow as "Killadude" responded in indignation. "Dude! You dropped on me! And I haven't even deployed my hardpoints, much less opened fire!!"
A set-up, then. Plausible excuse by the Company for taking out someone they didn't like. Voetsak began to wonder if Killadude was even a pirate, never mind a Pirate Lord. Still, a contract was a contract... He thumbed the comms button. "I feel your pain. But I have a contract here to send you on a Remlock ride to the nearest detention centre; and you have Wanted tags and a sizeable bounty on your head. That's two wins for me in one job. Besides, if calling yourself Killadude isn't already a crime, it should be. Sorry...."
"This from the guy who calls his ship Alphabetti Corvetti!?!"
Voetsak gave a rue smile. That was a fair point. Flick comms closed, trigger weapons open, watch impassively as the FDL flies apart. Just another day at the office.
Voetsak retracted his hardpoints and triggered the FSD to jump back to supercruise. As the COVAS counted down, there was a brief fwip, the silhouette of another ship out his left-hand window, and a gleeful cackle. "Ahahaha!! Fate has brought us toge...." The countdown reached zero, he jumped, and local comms was unceremoniously cut off. Voetsak smiled. A genuine pirate about to teach those fake traders a valuable lesson, he hoped...
---
The newcomer was cut off in his prime as Voetsak jumped. Although having seen it was a Corvette leaving, and spotted the slowly growing cloud of debris that used to be Killadude's ship, he was beginning to think it was a good thing that fate had kept them apart. Then he spotted the three now-undefended "traders", and smiled...