Another blast rocked the hull and he caught his balance once again. Just barely. The emptiness was never safe, especially not on the rim. Not out here. Sure there was always some form of safety near the core. The most of which was the comforting fact that a few hours jump in any direction could put you back into safe territory. Back into civilization. But out here? To answer his question another shot from the laser battery rocked the ship once more.

"Now boy don't be playing games here. We can see you only got one gun, and you ain't in it. Power down, and I promise we'll leave ya with a fightin change." The smirk could be heard over the comm. Overconfidence. Good. A smirk formed over the dark lips of the pilot of the ship being attacked as well.

"Duwan!" He called on his wrist comm. "Is she ready?"

"Of course sir, it is our duty to make sure she's always ready." Came back the tinny voice of his local mechanic. Ah droids. The bit of sentiment passes over quickly though. There was a job to be done. And unfortunately the job this time was the saving of the skin of his own head-tails.

By the maker it looked so purdy. It looked like a jewel cast into a sea of blackness. Alone and forgotten. Begging to be snatched. Fingers stroked the beard of the pirate captain. Through the transparasteel the MonCal freighter looked close enough to kick.

By and by passing through they caught a sniff. A ship had been adrift out here for awhile. Doing what, its hard to say. All kind of people take a liking to settling out in empty space. Many of which interested Captain Yorn. Because if people have something that they want to hide, usually there's profit to be had in it.

"Fire again. Bring the ion cannon about. If this piece of trash ain't gonna hand over this thing, we're just gonna have to take it from him." He finishes his sentence and another crimson trail of plasma fills the void between the ships and silently splashes against the screen of the invisible shield.

It didn't make hardly any sense. A Deepwater class Mon Calimari freighter floating in the middle of wild space with nothing more than a little blaster turret on top of it. It couldn't have been easier of the captain of the stupid ship handed it to them. Ah well.

------------------
-------------------------------

A series of switches flicked on and the whine of the ion engines firing up filled the cabin. Corvin leaned back into his chair and flexed his fingers around the grips of the controls. He watched the HUD displays flicker on and felt the life of the ship wash over him.

"Cmon Babygirl. Don't let me down."

Have I ever?

The voice filled his ears and deep within his cranial horns he felt a sensitive vibration. Coarsing through his veins and even his very soul he felt the touch of an old friend.

"Duwan how we doing?"

"All systems are optimal sir. Though I must once again express my concerns. Is it wise to leave the ship at this junction? I feel as though the captain of the ship may be reasonable and will probably.."

"You know for a fix-it droid you sure do talk a lot." He says with a slight edge in his voice. It was one thing for the droid to be running its mouth in the middle of deep and boring space, but not with a pirate corvette bearing down on them.

"I believe you are referring to Deeoh."

"Ah yes, my mistake. But if you please, could we get about lowering me into action?"

"But sir!"

"I keep telling you Duwan, 'No Buts'" The ship lurched once again but this time the lurch was from a grab. An invisible grab of a fist that would refuse to let go. They had fired their tractor beam and it was not about to let go.

"I understand sir" Corvin felt the bottom of the ship give way and the compartment that he occupied start to lower itself from the bottom of the majestic MonCal ship. His eyes glanced around the cockpit checking for warhead capacity, laser cannon charge, and shield strength. His breath gave out in a long relaxing breath.

Its ok baby, I'm ready to dance.

He smirked once again. I know. Trust me.

His reassurance was short lived though. Through the corners of his eyes he caught the dangerous coalescence of an EMP shockwave ripping through the delicate electrical controls of the freighter.

"Oh no you just didn't. You did not just shoot an ion cannon at us. I know that…"

I think they just did.

Everyone has to be a comedian. "Duwan… Boost it."

"But sir!"

"BOOST IT!"

The clawed hand of Deeoh reaches out and collides with a large red button. And in a split second, things start getting very interesting for all parties involved.

------------------
-------------------------------

The captain of the pirate corvette felt a lurch as something exploded from beneath the MonCal ship. Normally nothing would be felt but the tractor beam worked both ways. It simply transferred kinetic energy since it worked like an invisible hand. But what he saw, and what he comprehended. In all of his years he had never seen anything just like this. Arcing up from under the nose of the freighter came a starfighter like none he had ever seen. Freed from its prison beneath the ship by a chemical explosion that could not be shut down by an EMP wave.

The fighter arced up and over the nose of the ship with its ion engines going into full pour. Corvin dashed the fighter up and over the top of the corvette in a single movement with both ion streams blazing. The top was of course the safest place to be in a situation such as this because who in their right mind would be expecting a disabled vessel to attack from above when, quite clearly, it was beneath. The missile launchers to either side of the cockpit flared with their dangerous life spitting out concussion warheads of massive destruction.

Each warhead alone could blow a AT-AT to bits, rip open a hole in a capital ship no one would forget soon, or vaporize a starfighter without a single moment of hesisation. These warheads, the pair of them, were targeted straight for the corvette's one weakness, the shield generators. The pair of high explosives make it to their target and blow explode simultaneously. Their destructive power alone couldn't damage a vessel that outsized the starfighter by about a hundred times or so, but what they could do, is blow a hole in the shields long enough to get a very precise and very accurate burst of green plasma through. The 4 blasts of super hot energy impact against the generator. Shorting it out, and blowing it completely apart. All around the ship the shields dropped exposing the ship to the corvette.

The fighter rolled around and once again ducked to the underbelly of the ship. The lasers of the pirate ship attempted to track the lone starfighter but the men in control of the guns lacked the proper reflexes. To them it seemed as though the mysterious starfighter could simply outrun their cannons. The ship arced up once again but halted just at the nose of the corvette. It pitched down and below the tracking of any gun on the corvette sat a single lone starfighter. The 4 panels surrounding the cockpit pointing foreward like a set of daggers, ready to make a single jab at the most vital location on any starship. Captain Yorn found himself starting face to face with his quarry. Corvin simply smiled bearing his razor sharp incisors.

"Now Captain. No one has died yet, and I would like to keep it that way. You stumbled upon something that's a might bit bigger than you can chew. I'm giving you this moment to walk away. If you refuse. Well I have a torp with your name on it, and I'm painting your face with the sensor right now." The red skinned being grinned through the pair of transparasteel ports. The captain looked furious. Furious and flabbergasted.

A moment passed before the answer came. The pirate captain had been bested, in a matter of just a few seconds. "Alright. Yeh made yer point." He says sitting down in his chair. Waiving his hand the ship slowly retracted and found a new heading, blasting off for hyperspace.

And just what warheads were you planning to use?

"Hey! He didn't know that!"