There is always a better pirate

"Knew getting away would be the hard part.."

Peter held onto the edges of his seat as the pilot threw the shuttle into a series of evasive maneuvers. He couldn't feel any of that, mind you. Even Grineer shuttles had state of the art devices that kept prodigious accelerations from turning the occupants into greasy red smears on the rear bulkheads. But he could see out the canopy as the stars shifted radically. Admittedly the various things that flew past them also served as a visual cue that something was wrong. But none of that the shuttle, so the pilot was doing things right. Her name was Ell, but she rarely used it, preferring to be called 'Flash' for some funny reason. Since she could outfly anyone on the ship, Peter included, they all allowed her some quirks.

"How long?" Peter queried.

"Two minutes left on the timers." Flash replied without turning. Peter approved. The woman had said when Peter had found her that she was good. She was proving it, maneuvering again and again to avoid englobement by the swarm of Dregs and Darygns chasing them.

"The Jolly Roger?" Peter scanned the screens he could see but did not see the icon for his ship.

"They moved out of sensor range a while ago. Whoops!" Flash did something and the ship groaned as the stars spun wildly. "Gogre disabled the Ogmas, yes?" Her question was loud, to be heard by the others.

"There was no way to do it permanently without blowing them up." Gogre called from the rear compartment. "I just made it hard. Have they launched any?"

"Two." The pilot said with a frown. "They shouldn't be able to catch us." She snarled as did something else. "Naught Temporal Dregs, trying to catch us with tractor beams. We need some guns on this thing, Boss."

"If we put guns on it..." Peter said with a grin. "Then you will blow everything up and leave us nothing to steal." Flash barked a laugh but did not look away from her controls.

"I wouldn't blow everything up!" Flash protested.

"Just everything you can aim at." Gogre's quick rejoinder had the entire team chuckling. Flash had a few anger management issues. Especially with recalcitrant Grineer tech.

"Hey!" Flash protested. "I didn't mean to shoot that wall. The controls made no sense. And nobody was hurt."

"No one will ever let you near an Ogma again." Peter said to general mirth. Flash pouted, but kept her focus on flying. "We like the ship intact with all the air on the inside." He checked the chrono. "Time?"

"Tine."The pilot agreed and pulled up a scan of the Galleon. It was still pursuing them but had been left far behind by the swift shuttle. The fighter swarm was still collecting all around them even as light blossomed on the side of the Galleon and Peter grinned. Flash let out a whoop as the Galleon went dark.

The plan had always been a deception play. The whole idea was to keep the Grineer guessing as long as possible. Peter's crew, while highly experienced in various forms of mayhem, didn't have nearly the numbers to fight a fully crewed Galleon and win. That had never been anywhere close to the plan. That was why all of the Dargyn that had accompanied Peter's assault force had been flown by remote control from the Jolly Roger and the boarding pods hadn't had any troops in them. He knew that the Grineer on the other Galleon would check the boarding pods, find them empty and assume that the troops inside had gone to do something else. That was what Grineer did. They sent hordes of clones in pods to assault other ships. If there were no troops in the pods, then they had to be aboard somewhere. Most of the crew of the Galleon had been scurrying around, trying to figure out where the boarders had gone, and that had left a golden opportunity for Peter's small team to get in and accomplish their theft. He had planned to just have the pods empty. But his crew were conniving little weasels and most of them had grudges against the Grineer, so...

Peter smiled at the cheer that went up through the shuttle as the Galleon that had been pursuing them lost all power. The explosives that had been put into each pod had been disguised as various things and made of field expedient materials. None of the devices were nuclear grade, but two of the pods had contained pressurized gases. Again, the materials were scavenged and cheap. Not to mention, without any high tech, hard to detect and counter. Those gasses would have been expelled as the timers had counted down, saturating the area around the pods with a highly volatile mix of pure oxygen and other things. The whole idea was to cause a massive explosion with as little in the way of materials as possible. Pre-Orokin the concept would have been called a 'Fuel Air Explosive'.

Now? Peter smirked as a hull plate ten times the size of the shuttle literally flew off the Galleon. Other debris was flying every which way as the atmosphere inside vented into space at an alarming rate from a dozen large holes. It wouldn't destroy the huge ship. It did make a hell of a mess. Such an attack wouldn't have worked on a Corpus ship. They put far more safeguards into their ships than Grineer did. Grineer tech worked and that was good enough. Most of the time.

For a moment, the swarm of Grineer that had been pursing them paused, as if in shock. Then they started closing.

"Oops." Flash had a malicious grin on her face. "I think we made them mad. Permission to make them madder, sir?"

"Don't start, Flash." Peter said with a growl. She looked at him and he shook his head. "Just get us out of here."

"Right." Flash threw a switch and Peter could hear the acceleration compensators whining to keep up. A piece of space debris appeared nearby. Something huge and silvered. Whatever it had once been, now it was a twisted and torn chuck of metal that looked oddly melted. Neither of them commented as the shuttle flew around the mountain of ancient metal. Flash did grin at the sight that greeted them on the other side. The rest of the crew had been busy with the remote control Darygns while they had been gone. Flash did not speak, simply threw the throttles wide open on a divergent course as the half a hundred angry Grineer followed them around the debris.

Right into the space junk minefield. Take high speed and inertia. Mix in some fairly massive pieces of space junk collected in close proximity. Add high grade explosives. Ouch.

"Yes!" Flash crowed as flashes started behind them. Peter just watched, eyes narrow as the Grineer chasing them were cut to ribbons. Explosions were happening faster and faster but then he tensed. Flash did too as an even dozen Grineer Dregs managed to turn away from the killing ground and arc towards them. None of the rest were going to get out of the mess unscathed if Peter knew anything about the crew's hatred for the Queens.

"Flash?" Peter asked quietly.

"We cannot outrun them." Flash licked her lips. "If we lead them back to the Jolly Roger, then this was all for naught." She shook her head. "We took out the turrets to make space for the loot."

"You protested." Peter said softly as the Grineer closed. "Should have listened."

"We need the Oxium and the crew voted." Flash shrugged. "Get to the escape pod, Boss. I got this." The pod would only hold one person since it had all the Oxium in it already.

"We live as a crew, we die as a crew, Flash." Peter did not move from his chair. "I am not going."

"Boss..." Flash turned to look at him and then groaned at his expression. "Ah, never mind."

"Smart human." Peter said with a smile. "The others will continue the fight even if we cannot. Was a hell of a-" He froze as something new impinged the sensors. "What the?"

"I..." Flash seemed stunned as the Grineer chasing them suddenly found themselves under attack.

The Tenno was tiny. It was little bigger than a human, that armored form. It was barely visible on their sensors. The golden wings on its back blazed with pure light as it danced through the suddenly desperate Grineer flight. Flash's mouth was hanging open and Peter was little better as the ancient warrior blew the Grineer that had been chasing them into space dust. They both tensed as the winged form flashed to match their course and speed. It looked at them and then it vanished as if it had never been there.

"Ah... Boss...?" Flash swallowed hard. "What just happened?"

"I don't know." Peter admitted. "Tenno don't like any Grineer. I doubt they would consider us any different."

"They don't." A new voice sounded and both froze as a hologram appeared over the console in front of them. The masked woman was calm, serene even. "As far as they are concerned..." The Lotus shrugged. "This is all an elaborate plot on the part of the Queens. You have to admit, the Queens could set up something like this."

"They could." Peter had drawn his Grakata in reflex, but stowed it. It wouldn't do any good against a hologram. He didn't want to blow a hole on the canopy either. "But they are not."

"Proving that will be somewhat difficult." The Lotus shook her head. "I was curious why Grineer were fighting each other. Now my curiosity is sated." Her tone hardened. "You have something that does not belong to you." Flash jerked, but Peter just nodded.

"Where do you want it delivered?" Peter asked calmly. He could swear he had startled the Lotus. "Hey, we don't want it. Tenno are bad news." Considering how effortlessly one had just wiped out the pursuers? No, he wasn't going to quibble. At all.

"Wants have very little to do with things at times. We will be in touch." Was the Lotus smiling? She was! "For what it is worth? Good luck. You are going to need it." She started to fade and then paused. The she grinned. "Drink up, me hearties! Yo ho!"

The others stared at each other as the holo vanished. It was a very quiet trip back to the ship.


An hour later

"That was... bloody weird." Flash hadn't spoken until they landed back on the Jolly Roger, the rest of the team was working to offload the Oxium. Peter nodded, lost in thought. "Boss?"

"She didn't say where." Peter said quietly. "I need to check some things. You are off shift."

"Boss!" Flash protested and then shut her mouth with a click as Peter glared at her.

"If everything had gone as planned, you would still have three hours on shift. It didn't. You just flew like a madwoman." Peter laid a slow hand on Flash's arm. She did not jerk away. "Get some rest. Well flown. I am going to ask for two extra shares for you when it goes to vote."

"I don't need money, Boss." Flash said softly. Peter nodded. "I just want to get some of my own back, you know?" She too had her demons, her own accounting for the Grineer.

"I know." Peter sighed and patted her shoulder. She froze and so did he."Sorry. I forgot. I am still going to ask. You earned it." She would not meet his eyes as he retracted his hand, cursing the Queens. "Flash, I am sorry."

"Not your fault. Just hurt them, Boss." Flash's voice was a monotone now. "For all of us. Hurt them."

"Don't you dare leave us, Flash!" Peter snapped. "We need you. We need your piloting. We need you mad skills. I shouldn't have touched you. That is on me! Not you." He keyed an emergency call to Anne.

"It hurts... so much..." Flash was shaking now, her tone oddly childlike. "It is all gone, all of it! Why does it still hurt so much?"

"They want you weak, Flash." Peter said sharply. "You are not!" She looked away and he snarled at her. "Don't make me thrash you, Maureen!" Flash jerked and then turned to look at him, hurt in her eyes.

Anne appeared and without a word, injected Flash with a hypo she had ready. The pilot crumpled without another word. Peter caught her and held her gently.

"I messed up." Peter said with a grunt as he carried Flash from the shuttle. "Shouldn't have touched her shoulder." Anne winced and he nodded. He was not surprised to find a gurney ready that he laid Flash on. Anne started working. "Should have remembered. Remembered what they did to her."

"You are not perfect anymore than any of the rest of us are." Anne said as she started the gurney off. "She won't remember this episode, will she?"

"No." Peter sighed as he followed. "Part of the programming they did to her. Bastards. Tell her what happened when she wakes. She will understand."

"And if she chooses an end?" Anne asked. Peter looked at her and she slumped. "I don't like this."

"None of us do." Peter agreed. "But it works. We are all that we have. All that we can rely on. If we start making arbitrary rules for our own convenience, this will all fall apart."

"I will tend her." Anne said sadly as she guided the gurney. "Swan is awake and the milk seemed to help." Peter froze in mid-stride and Anne was quick to reassure him. "We haven't released her."

"How did you get milk?" Peter demanded. "That only comes from...female..." He trailed off and then groaned. "Zei."

"She did not do it herself." Anne said calmly. "No one has physically touched Swan. Zei found a chemical formula for something like milk and we made it. Swan was moaning in her sleep, we fed it to her and she relaxed. She woke and wasn't hungry. Boss, maybe..."

"No." Peter said flatly, turning on his heel to stride from the confused doctor.


The Galleon seemed empty. The crew were either working or sleeping. He had a lot to think about, but right now, he had to check the cryopod. Something about the Lotus' comments about wants bothered him. He opened the hatch and stepped into the room. Then he froze. The cryopod was open! He hit an emergency code on his personal com.

"Oh crap!" Peter kept his hand well away from his Grakata as he scanned the room. He spun to hit the door and froze. A figure out of nightmare stood between him and the door.

The Tenno was odd looking. The bio armor did not look like anything Peter himself would call armor. He had only seen a few Tenno and rarely for very long. The one in space had been the closest he had ever been to a Tenno. Until now. This one's armor looked more cloth-like than armor-like. But Peter could see patches of thicker bioarmor at the shoulders. The hands were human looking. But it was the head that had him staring. The helmet looked... familiar.

No. No, not the helmet. Just the shape of it. It was reminiscent of a hat that pirates were commonly seen wearing in many of the movies he had managed to find. Something called a Tri-gun, Tri-glore, or something? He wasn't about ask the Tenno.

"You are free to go." Peter said with commendable poise. "No one aboard will try to stop you." The Tenno just looked at him. Peter stepped back away from the bio-armored form. The Tenno did not move and Peter sighed. "Look, no one aboard is dumb enough to fight you. Go on, get out of here. You have bigger fights than a bunch of..."

"Pirates." Another voice had Peter spinning and reflexively drawing his Grakata. The human form that had been concealed in the shadows did not react. The human was shaking his head. "Do you have any idea the mess this going to make?"

"Who are you?" Peter demanded as he glanced at the Tenno. Had it moved? Hard to say. It didn't seem to have any weapons handy, but then again Tenno were weapons.

"Calmly, my friend." The human held up empty hands. "Parley?"

"Parley?" Peter couldn't possibly have heard that right.

"Yes, I know the Code is more guidelines than actual rules. I watched that movie from the ducts as a pair of your crew did and I find it hilarious." The other replied. "But this doesn't need to come to a fight. A fight I would lose. As to who I am? My name is Edmund." He bowed to Peter. "I would like to join your crew."

"Join... my crew." Peter was having an existential moment. He wasn't sure what was real right now. Here he was, standing almost within reach of one of the warrior gods of antiquity and he was discussing recruitment? Then he stiffened, the Tenno was gone! "What?"

"He doesn't like crowds." Edmund said with a shrug as five heavily armored crew came running in only to skid to stop on seeing the tableau. "To answer your question I have been on this ship for some time. I was taken in a Grineer slave raid and I woke up here. I managed to get out of my cell and made it to a duct." He made a face. "And let me tell you, raw rat is disgusting."

"Ah, captain?" The leader of the team asked. "What is going on?" He swore as he saw the cryopod. "What the- What did you do, human?"

"I am afraid that is my fault." Edmund said weakly as the crew moved to restrain him. "I was curious. I touched it and it opened." Edmund hissed as the team moved his arms and Peter's eyes narrowed as he saw one had been broken and crudely splinted. "He wasn't very happy with me."

"This I have to hear." Peter said dryly. "But yes..."

"Parley."