September 30, 2552 CE

Maygar System, Grenadi Sector, Valkorion Governance Sphere, Imperial (Galactic Empire) Territory in the River Galaxy...

Kino took a deep breath as her Marauder-class corvette Hermes reverted to realspace. "What are our-"

"Sensors clear. No collision course in near radius." The ship's computer AI- Hermes- replied.

Kino sighed as she examined her sensors. "That was nerve-wracking. Take us to that asteroid and maintain safe hover with repulsorlifts. Minimize power output." She called out to her droid crew. "Ruby, Amber, power up the guns!

"Ditto that! But maybe you shouldn't take risks like this."

"Yeah, well I don't see a better option. I really don't want to run into a situation like Bavaria IV."

"Yeah, good point," Hermes replied. "But we also don't want to end up smashed to pieces on some asteroid in the middle of nowhere. At least, I don't."

"I can handle it," Kino asserted. "At least asteroids don't chase you from system to system. Now, shhh..."

Hermes made a brief noise as if to retort, but was swiftly cut off by Kino.

A group of starships emerged from hyperspace not far away.

Kino glanced up as the asteroid turned slowly, allowing the ships in the convoy to come into view of her forward viewport. "Yes, just on time." She looked down on her sensors and magnified the holographic images. "The convoy is just like I expected- a Xiytiar-class transport and a MB-C1 Mobquet…" She examined the Mobquet. "I see… it's modified to carry two Mining Guild TIEs. No doubt headed to the Imperial refinery on Maygar III."

"Mining Guild IDs confirmed," Hermes acknowledged. "Identified as Xiytiar-class transport Draisini and Mobquet MB-C1 medium transport Cyrus the Great."

She leapt into her chair and activated Hermes' thrusters maneuvering the ship out from the asteroid field she'd jumped into cover behind, bringing the corvette screaming down on the convoy.

Her initial gunfire was aimed at one of the TIE/mg starfighters attached to the bottom of the Cyrus like limpets. Her turbolasers skewered the rear TIE, blowing it to smithereens, and Kino kept firing, moving up to riddle the transport's engine with holes.

Heavily-damaged, the ship was now dead in space, but still managed to launch its remaining TIE/mg.

Kino snorted at the foolhardiness- or perhaps desperation- of the enemy pilot. A TIE/mg was even more lacking in combat capability and maneuverability than the average dime-a-dozen TIE/LN starfighter- or "eyeballs", as they were derisively known as- and was completely hopeless against a Marauder-class corvette.

As the Mining Guild TIE fired on her, Kino easily maneuvered the Hermes out of the way. Deciding on testing one of her tricks, Kino used one of the forward tractor beams to snag the small enemy fighter, before nailing with two shots from her starboard cannons.

Kino began broadcasting in Imperial Basic on open frequencies to the two enemy transports. "This is the Alliance privateer vessel Hermes requesting your surrender. If you surrender and lay down arms, you will not be harmed! Repeat, surrender you will not be harmed!"

The Cyrus, already dead in space, flashed its exterior lights, a typical sign of surrender, and Kino could see they were powering down weapons.

But the Xiytiar-class transport was turning aggressively toward them, showing no sign of submission.

"Uh, Kino, there's a transmission incoming. My triangulation seems to indicate the Draisini-"

"Put in through, Hermes."

"This is Captain Forma of the Draisini!" A shrill male voice exclaimed, sounding borderline hysterical. "I'll never surrender, pirate scum! For the Mining Guild! For the Empire!"

"Are you kidding me…" Kino muttered. A Xiytiar-class was more maneuverable, but it was less durable in combat and even heavily-modified as this one was, possessed worse armaments than a MB-C1.

And as maneuverable as it was touted to be, there was still a significant delay before it could complete a 180-degree turn and bring its four laser cannons- all inconveniently located in the front- to bear on the Hermes.

Sighing, Kino opened fire, peppering the engine with turbolaser fire, and the transport lost its ability to accelerate, albeit its momentum was still causing it to turn.

Kino sighed, as she knew it was time for one of the most risky segments of the operation- actually boarding the disabled vessels.

If her target had been a warship, Kino would probably have been fine destroying or disabling them, and departing to collect the Alliance bounty on her prize. But this was a transport, and she was a privateer- or a pirate, as some considered her- and looting was still part of the job.

"Hermes, scan the Draisini for active explosives, then bring us close for boarding. Ruby, you're coming with me." She gestured to a R-8009 utility droid who detached itself from a weapons control panel, and beeped in response.

"Doesn't look like they're ready to blow themselves," Hermes commented dryly. "On approach."

"Man the sensors and weapons, would you?" Kino said, already, getting into her spacesuit, and checking her weapons. "Keep in touch with comms- and you better not fall asleep on the job."

"Come on now, Kino, have I ever failed you? Actually, don't answer that."

Kino snorted, but mentally-acknowledged Hermes had always done his job when told to, not to mention he had good instincts for sensing trouble. "Ruby, latch your cable to my suit."

"Well… I trust you, Hermes. Later." Kino grabbed a sack of sticky explosives and exited through the airlock, the utility droid Ruby hovering after her by its repulsorlift.

On the outside, she used the electromagnets on the feet of her spacesuit to walk along the hull Draisi, towing Ruby behind her.

Once they reached the cargo bay door of the Mining Guild ship, she lay explosive charges on it, and clambered out of the way before triggering the explosion.

Kino waited until the debris was clear before descending down to the cargo bay again, grabbing a large piece of door debris that hadn't detached completely from the ship and cutting it off with her fusioncutter to use as a makeshift shield.

Then she used it to push experimentally into the energy shield just inside the cargo bay door. Judging it safe to pass through, Kino pushed forward and entered the still-pressurized cargo bay.

"Hmm... no life signs in the cargo bay, looks like... a couple womp-rats in the ducts, and a mynock in the engine room, just great... I'm guessing the crew has to be in the bridge." She detached her utility droid from her spacesuit. "Ruby, plug yourself into one of the terminals, take a look."

The feeds Ruby supplied to her helmet seemed to indicate the ship was largely undefended, with a skeleton crew of five, with most of the maintenance and utility tasks left to non-hostile MSE-6 mouse droids.

Nonetheless, she remained alert for any nasty surprises such as booby traps, hostile droids, or automated defenses as she made her way toward the bridge.

She activated the door leading to the narrow corridor connecting the cargo bay to the bridge, and passed through with the slab of durasteel debris carefully raised to block potential attacks on her. But none came.

Finally, Kino reached the bridge, where she came upon a group of four scared-looking people in Mining Guild uniforms- one security guard, two Guild workers, and a crewman. Kino noticed they hadn't drawn their weapons, but their hands hovered close to them. On the ground lay a fifth man in officer's uniform, who looked very much dead, blaster wounds in his back.

"Pirate, I am Lieutenant Parna," The security guard began cautiously. "If you promise not to harm any of the crew, I surrender the cargo to you."

Kino gestured with her pistol to the dead man on the ground. "That the Captain? Forma, I think it was? What happened?"

"Captain Forma, uh... refused to surrender. He was going to resort to some downright suicidal measures that would've killed us all, so we were forced to... put him down."

"I see," Kino nodded. "Well, your terms are... acceptable. I am just after the cargo. I will need to detach the cargo compartment from the rest of the ship, though."

"Blimey, she's so young, she's barely a kid..." One of the Mining Guild workers, a human, muttered to a colleague as he glimpsed Kino's features through her helmet's transparent faceplate.

Lieutenant Parna jabbed the worker in the ribs before replying to Kino's demand. "Understood. We have no objections, and we will not resist."

Kino kept a watchful eye on the crew, who remained in their positions, more or less docile, as she disabled the bridge's locking mechanism on the rear cargo section and retreated back through the narrow corridor. Once she was through, she shouted to Ruby, "Okay, detach it now!"

The rear cargo section separated from the Draisini, still magnetically clamped to the underside of the Hermes.

Sighing in relief, Kino reattached Ruby and headed back to the Hermes, this time entering through the corvette's hangar.

Releasing Ruby once more, Kino now boarded the only shuttle she had on board- an Alliance-made UT-47 Kodiak Drop Shuttle Traveler One, in which Kino had installed the VI Aurora.

"Aurora, set course for the Cyrus, and attach us to the rear module," Kino ordered. "And scan for life-scans and estimated crew positions."

"Acknowledged. Scans indicate ten life-signs that match known sentient races, four are located in forward module, six in center module. Two life-signs match non-sentient race known as mynocks located in rear module."

"I guess that the center is being used as crew quarters, then. Let's steer clear. And another infestation, huh?" Kino groaned, looking at the scans. "Let's avoid disturbing them."

As the shuttle touched down on the damaged transport, Kino exited it and cautiously entered through a hole created by the Hermes' own turbolasers.

Picking her way through the mangled engines, Kino soon found what she had been looking for- container after container of fuel- helium-3 containers, Malastarian fuel, and anthracite crates- rattled and scattered about, but packages otherwise intact.

Grinning greedily, Kino began hastily loading as many containers as she could one after another, filling up the Kodiak's floor space, and stacking containers on top of one another, yet it seemed there was no end of fuel.

"Dang, I'll have to make another trip…" Kino muttered disappointedly as she made some mental calculations of how many trips it would take to ferry Cyrus' cargo to Hermes.

"Kino!" Hermes' urgent voice grabbed the girl's attention. "We have bogeys inbound, about 180 klicks! Three possible capital ships, two fighters just exited hyperspace!"

In an instant, Kino was inside her Kodiak and piloting it at top speed back to the Hermes. "Mining Guild?!"

"Still scanning IDs!" Hermes replied, with a slight edge of irritation. "Got it! Hostiles confirmed, identified as Xizor Transport Systems AEG-77 Vigo transport Auspicious, two X4 Gunships, and two Cloakshape Fighters!"

"XTS is a Black Sun front company, isn't it?" Kino thought. "The Mining Guild must be desperate if they're appealing to the Black Sun for help."

"Or the Black Sun's here to protect their investments." Hermes paused for a moment. "We're detecting contacts incoming from the Mining Guild facility on Maygar III! They… appear to be TIE/mg starfighters and DP20 Corellian Gunships!"

"We've really overstayed our welcome…" Kino muttered, maneuvering her Kodiak into the Hermes' hangar.

"Okay, I'm aboard!" Kino yelled as soon as the Traveller One was safely docked into the Hermes' hangar. "Set course for New Jaffa!"

The Black Sun ships, although still out of range to aim accurately, had already begun to fire wildly in the general direction of the privateer corvette.

"Dirty assholes…" Hermes grumbled quietly, as the corvette turned as hastily as it could, with the rear module of the Drasini still attached to it. "Coordinates… are in!"

And with that the Hermes was safely into hyperspace, retreating to the safety of Alliance space.