RidOv Chpt-13

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==Ridiculously Overboard!! (A Captain Roberts Tale!!)Chapter 13 - Captain Roberts' first raid; A Girl's got to Eat.==
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She used...
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...one of the smallcraft from the ship for this job. That was clear from the on-board data, and from the testimony of survivors.
Seron gazed levelly at the Merchant Casteman. "So...let me get this clear. One intruder in light power armor...did this?"
"Aff. One intruder."
They were sitting on a Clan-owned, Clan-Operated Merchant class JumpShip that had been robbed while recharging.
"One intruder. What happened to the Warrior Caste security?"
"They were defeated during the boarding assault by this bandit!!"
"Aff, a point of warriors...and she took..??"
"She made us unload the food in the galley onto her shuttle after defeating the Warriors, and demanded specific field rations."
"WHICH field rations?"
"Number Seven, Eleven, Twelve, and Fifteen. She left the good-tasting ones."
Eew. Meat-substitute in what is supposed to be barbecue sauce, meat-substitute with potatoes in awful tasting gravy. Chicken Ala King, and the absolutely awful-tasting 'egg and sausage breakfast' field rations. Seron remembered despising those even in sibko as a child.
Most of the [solhama]] warriors assigned to the ship were humiliated, but alive. Their wounds were treatable, though most were also severe.
"Describe the assailant again."
"Old-style powered armor suit, right out of a Brian Cache museum, maybe a dumbed down Nighthawk type, light in any case. The girl's voice was clear enough on her PA speaker. She declared herself the 'Great Pirate Roberts' and she Robbed the ship's Galley!!"
"Did she take anything else?"
"I do not rightly know, she seemed interested in the ship's computer buffer and comm system, and she looked at our navigation databases and past flights..." there was something clarifying in the Merchant's eyes, "...and she was very interested in no-go-zones, areas where the Clan does not authorize merchant flights. She emptied our rations."
"Disproportionate force." Seron noted. "Was anyone with her?"
"Neg, we saw no-one, I assume her compatriots were still aboard their shuttle, she was talking to...someone? or herself maybe, but I think it was someone in particular, especially when she was entering our computers."
"And you did not consider resisting, quineg?"
"Hellooo...Merchant Caste?" the man pointed at himself, "I had no weapons that can penetrate light power armor, and she beat the crap out of five Elemental Warriors!! What would I use? Harsh Language??"
Seron brought up the exterior monitors.
The Lyonesse class Smallcraft wore the 25th century markings of the Outworlds military corps. A designed in 'escort' for DropShips and primitive JumpShips, one of the most common airframes at one time...long ago.
She'd walked away with several tons of food stores from a JumpShip in secured space. Walked in, disabled their comm, stole the food after defeating the garrison, and fled.
Food.
She stole their food.
"Did she steal anything else??"
"She raided our medical bay." the Merchant said quietly, "Antibiotics, nutritional supplements, and mild painkillers...that is, actually, all she took. In my cargo bay, I have components still waiting for delivery to the Touman. Battlemech components. she was uninterested in those high-value items."
Seron understood it immediately. "She is Hungry." he said, "She raided your ship, because it was unescorted and alone, and she was hungry."
"What?"
"The computer slicing was a secondary objective. Your 'Great Pirate Roberts' was hungry. Your food was her primary objective."
It was the only answer that made sense. The girl had stolen food and basic medicines that expire. wherever she is at, the food stocks are either missing, or expired.
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"...she moved fast, Sir. She used a vibrosword in cutlass configuration." Jerry was in his forties and would never have a bloodname. He would also likely have to be reassigned, since limb replacement for Solahma is low priority.
She had cut his right arm off.
"Fast? How fast?"
"She was through the lock and on my partner and I before we knew we were even being attacked. Like a lightning stroke, just a blur of motion. I had time to draw my needler and then I had to watch my hand spin away with it. The whole fight was like that. Like sib-cadets fighting a warrior from an elite Keshik. She gave us no time to suit up in our armors, though she did not take the armors. Then she robbed the bloody Pantry and declared herself 'The Greatest Pirate You Will Ever See!!' before racing off in that old relic."
"Anything else you remember?"
"The fighters had to wait for the crew to untangle whatever she did to the smallcraft bays aboard, before they could launch a pursuit sortie-it took the Techs several hours to figure out what had been done to the control systems."
"but there was just one assailant, quineg?"
The older man shook his head, "AFF, just one assailant!! I may be old, but I am not senile or stupid."
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"Let me see if I understand...
...correctly, this 'Great Pirate Roberts' stole the MRCs? Quiaff?"
"Aff." it was spreading through the touman faster than any rumor should.
"They raided one of our merchant-caste supply vessels, chopped a point of Elementals to chum, and stole Field Rations?"
"Meals rejected by civilians, aff."
"We do not use that slang term officially." Star Captain Lannister Snow Raven admonished his wingman, "Try not to let the locals hear you use it...but Aff. The word is, this pirate left hundreds of tons of military equipment and valuable technology in favor of a few tens of tons of the four worst 'meals ready for consumption' in the Clan's inventory."
"The Spheroids are Crazy."
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