AN: Is this going to get third chapter!?

Moments before the Nightwing made its first jump, Captain Crenshaw muttered "We are so screwed"

As expected, the first thing the crew of the Nightwing saw when they decelerated from hyperspace was the telltale markings of a Mantis cruiser. And, a message from its captain.

A scarred and mutilated Mantis appeared on the command deck, screeching "You! Federation Scum! Surrender all your cargo and scrap and maybe we'll let you live!"

Crenshaw scratched his head, and quietly asked "Is there any chance you'll let us go?"

There was a horrible screech, and the quiet notification that the enemy was powering their weapons. Crenshaw only shook his head and hoped that they didn't have a teleport system.

Moments after, his console alerted him announcing "Intruders on board!"

Dreading the possibility that the intruders may attack the Oxygen system, Crenshaw called out on the crew radios, ordering "Emma! I want you to man our doors and make sure that they can't get through, okay? I'm going to vent all oxygen from the ship except for the rooms we're in, so try not to leave any doors open okay?"

There was no response other than a brief crackling over the radio. Fear seized his heart at the thought of the multitude of bio-bombs the Mantis could use against his crew, but calmed when he heard Randy call back.

"Passed Emma on my way there! Apparently the fuckers are trying to get to our oxygen. Should I try and help out?"

Crenshaw flattened his hands against the piloting console as he desperately tried to think of a solution. After pausing to dodge a volley of lazers and a missile that felt like pure evil, he finally gave back a response. "No! Get back to weapons and give us a bead on this guy. I'm going to vent oxygen from every room except the ones we're in. Emma's keeping the doors together but I don't know how long that'll last!"

After a short crackle finally Randy replied "Acknowledged"

Alright. Here's to hoping I don't swing into a missile.

Contrary to what the fucking corpsmen or dirt crawlers said flying a ship wasn't as easy as it was shown in the sim-vids. Every moment you have to watch for a volley of whatever the other ship is packing and keeping note of how your weapons are charged so you can swing into a optimal position. It was stressful, unforgiving and was the number one cause of pilot death once out of the academy.

Crenshaw dared to glance at his monitor. What he saw filled his heart with fear. The intruders were now making good headway in breaking down the door close to Emma. His hands hovered over the executive command buttons, before steeling himself and tapped it twice. He immediately manually shut the rooms his crew were in, and deliberately closed the doors on the 2 intruders. Slowly, oxygen left the ship and muffled lazer shots and explosions grew silent outside his door. He checked Emma, and was relieved that she was perfectly fine. After oxygen left the open spaces the banging on Emma's door became more and more feeble. When they finally stopped and the enemy life-form alarm shut off he let out a sigh of relief and closed all doors. Slowly oxygen returned to the ship and returned outside sound to his command deck.

The radio crackled once again, before Darcy's nervous rumble advised "Captain? I believe we could maximize our damage if we were to target the enemy's right wing. It has already been damaged courtesy to the previously fired missiles and the halberd beam should completely cut off the wnig."

Crenshaw quickly ordered through the comms to immediately pull power from the engines, and to dump it all into the weapons system. Almost immediately his comm buzzed with indignation.

"Captain! Dumping all the power into the weapons will almost certainly damage the subsystem! Not to mention pulling power from our engines is a horrible idea!"

Well, Emma always had something to say

Randy's chittering immediately followed, saying "Captain I heard what Darcy said but if we proceed with his plan it's almost guaranteed we'll be sitting ducks while we try to repair the reactor"

Crenshaw finally pressed his comms and tried to maintain order. "Listen, if we can take these bastards out first then we can deal with the fallout later. Emma, can you get to the Sensors? I want to see what they're repairing"

There was grumbling on the comms, but eventually his command station lit up with a holographic of the enemy ship. The enemy ship was in a bad shape. Which is not to say it was pristine before, but after the volleys of lazers and hull-beams the pirate ship had taken quite the beating. He could see the captain of the pirates frantically directing crewmen around, seemingly overwhelmed with the multiple alerts on his command console. Crenshaw considered offering surrender, before deciding otherwise. They fired on us first

When the halberd beam tore the pirate ship in two Crenshaw let out an appreciative grumble, before turning his attention back to the comms. "They're dead. Suggestions?"

Almost unanimously there was a collective cry of "Loot!" Even Booster let out a weird crumpling noise, which Crenshaw's primitive translator worked together to say "Enthusiastic"

When they shifted through the debris, the joyful mood dissipated. There was very little salvage from the wreck, and the only thing of note they found was a weird crystalline pod which refused to open no matter what they did. Randy offered to try and slice into it but Crenshaw warned against it, in fear of someone damaging it. Either way, the fight was for very little.

Emma angrily banged her hand on the pod, yelling "Dammit! After all that we seriously only get dead weight? Let's jettison this piece of shit and move on"

Darcy raised his filaments in some sort of placating motion, before intoning "Doing such an action would make this battle truly null and void. I recommend trying to find a buyer"

Booster for some reason cradled the strange pod and held it close to his chest.

Crenshaw motioned for everyone to move out of the cargo-bay and to return to their stations. He raised his voice and said "Alright, alright. It was a shitty haul, but whatever. Maybe we can find out what it is and then sell it. But for now, we need to move. I'm sure the Rebel fleet is closing in on us."

The rest of his crew moved on, all except for Booster. Crenshaw gave the room's oxygen levels a nervous look and then moved closer to him. He lowered his voice and said "Booster, you okay?"

Booster looked up and made a sound which to him sounded like two ships ramming into each other, but his translater chugged out "I'm happy! Ancient!"

Crenshaw put a hand on Booster's shoulder and said "Listen, I know you like this but we're about to jump okay? We need our engine man"

Booster made a noise which was translated as "Resignation" and reluctantly moved away from the pod. Crenshaw patted him on the back and moved towards his flight console.

He strapped into his seat and announced over the comms "Alright! We have two options here. Number one is a binary system which means fire. We could vent all oxygen and move on, but I know you guys hate that. Now option two, however, I'm detecting a distress signal and we know how the captain's motto goes"

The rest of the crew chimed in "We don't leave each other to starve in space"

Pleased, Crenshaw finished "Well then I hope you guys know where we're going"

The FTL drive finished warmup, and the Nightwing flitted off into space.

Hundreds of systems away, deep in the heart of rebel territory, a terrified assistant shakily presented a report to his superior. The man, his face marred by high-tech implants making him look unhuman, slowly put down his mug and accepted it. The assistant squeaked and immediately disappeared, the super blast door nicking his heels as he ran out. The room was silent, save for the sound of flipping papers. Eventually, the man finished the report and silently contemplated its contents. There were multiple avenues of attack here, and he needed to consider them all. Finally, an accord was reached. A spindly hand reached for the comms, and after carefully inputting his credentials and desired recipient, he finally said "All lanes lockdown. Keep core open. Further instructions are pending."