Unknown location
August 1, 2558
After seeing the distress beams that the jackal ship had sent out, the medium sized vessel changed its course and headed on a bearing towards them. The jackal ship Secular found an open frequency channel and broadcasted his SOS signal, a single beep that was far from Morse code. Secular was a kig-yar merchant vessel with a crew of twenty five, all of them jackals. The avian race was known to be traders, bandits as well as a very dangerous opponent for humans when they were deployed as Covenant scouts and sharpshooters.
Blue flames trailed from the stern as the engines continued to run without coolant and other vital components. A second later the nearby ship connected on the channel.
"Secular, this is the captain of the Stillaba. We are responding to the distress call, what seems to be the problem?"
"This is Hys, shipmaster Secular." The skirmisher shipmaster spoke broken English with a heavy raspy accent that sounded like sandpaper grinding together. "Have bad engine, require new pieces. You let us aboard."
"What are the engine's symptoms?" Stillaba's captain asked.
"Do not know sim-tums word." Hys' tone hinted at slight impatience as the jackal glanced at another crewmember.
"What is wrong with the engine?"
"Overheat bad. Many parts gone and burnt."
"Okay, dock with our aft hatch. I will send my chief engineer and a team over to inspect and repair what we can."
"Thank you." Hys replied, "We no go back to our homeport because we must stay for trade."
"I understand." Stillaba's captain signed off. The jackals made preparations to dock. Secular was about one third the size of Stabilla and the crew maneuvered her underneath the larger ship.
Hys had the Secular move towards the hatch that the captain instructed. With a solid clank, the Secular had moved at the same idle pace as the Stillaba before the hatches connected. Once it was in place, a couple jackal deckhands sealed the two ships together. The Secular was much smaller and was below the Stillaba, allowing Hys to give it a good long look. It was definitely a ship that was either quite rare, or he had never seen it before. Old hull plating had paint that looked as if it were to flake off caked the sides, meaning she was years past of needing a new coat. What was once a hangar for smaller ships was now a place to hoard large storage boxes with just as much rust and chipped paint. No doubt, this ship was nearing the end of her life. He guessed there were about thirty personnel onboard, deckhands, engineering and main crew. He left the bridge with three other skirmishers to greet the engineering team. He was relieved when he saw no noticeable weapons on the hull.
As soon as the hatch turned and opened, Hys recoiled from the dank smell emanating from the holds. The Stillaba's walls were bare, save for the floor that left visible footprints from the three men that Hys guessed were the engineering crew. The chief engineer seemed to be a middle aged man with two others, one larger with a darker skin carrying a datapad and the other wearing glasses and with a handheld box filled with bizarre tools. In the background lights flickered at different rhythms, casting shadows that danced as if they were actual specters.
Hys wondered if the vessel was even able to help them. The ship seemed to barely maintain its own functions.
"I'm chief engineer Davis and these are my aides, Farhan and Duane." The leader greeted, holding out his hand, but recalling it after a second. Hys smirked, an expression indistinguishable to humans. "Alright, show us the engine room." He gestured back to the decks of Secular. Hys complied, leading the three humans back. The three accompanying kig-yar watched as they passed by. One of them nodded to his comrades while watching the three humans.
Before they could register what had happened, Davis had a butt of a rifle slammed into the side of his head. Just as quickly and surprising, the other two engineers had met similar fates.
"Pirates!" Duane had managed to identify the occupants of the Secular before he found himself gagged by a rag. Farhan and Davis were both gagged as well. The ship wasn't as promising as they hoped, but the pirates were not going to let this grand opportunity pass.
"Do as you are told and nobody will be hurt." Hys snarled concealing no effort to make his voice accented, taking the Type-31 rifle from his comrade. The needler rifle was among the most feared in the Covenant arsenal. Firing similar rounds to the common needler, all it took was a single shot to the head to finish just about anybody, even an armored Spartan. Even if the shots missed the head, it was still dangerous from getting hit with multiple pink crystalline rounds because they would combine and explode, killing the unfortunate victim in a horrible way.
Pirates, especially jackal ones, were common near busy shipping lanes. They would often capture a ship, usually a commercial freighter in a similar manner they had done to the Stillaba and would then contact the company for ransom. Piracy was a huge matter ever since travel was ever theorized, with jackals probably looting rival ships before humanity first discovered fire.
Hys turned to another dozen of his men, all armed with plasma and needle weapons. "Fall in line and get ready to contact whoever owns the ship."
Hys needed all crew members alive if they wanted to make a profitable ransom, when it was possible. So far, the ships they have attacked had maybe one or two security onboard, which was quickly dealt with. Their prey was mostly human ships belonging to the main governing body, but would occasionally go after some of the freighters belonging to the splinter groups that opposed them. He pointed the rifle at Davis. "You are to use your personal com device to tell your crew to assemble inside the mess hall. Everybody must be there. We kill anybody caught wandering around."
Davis remained still, defiance flickering in his eyes. It was inevitable, as he accepted defeat and spoke into his comlink that was closely monitored by one of Hys men. The message seemed satisfactory to him. He then escorted him to the bridge with the two other engineers moved to the galley. The control room was just as bad as her decks. The walls and floor seemed like they had not seen repairs since the ship was first christened. The controls had worn buttons that had barely recognizable labels. Dust bunnies the size of golf balls sat in the corners. A lifelong living in poverty had hardened Hys, yet he was disgusted.
"How did it go with the merchants?" A younger man asked. Unlike standard ship uniform, he wore overalls and a striped long sleeved shirt overhead. Upon looking up at the chief engineer with a rifle pressed in the back of his head, his eyes widened in terror.
"No heroics." Davis warned. "They promised not to hurt me as long as everyone is gathered in the galley and offers no resistance."
"Yes sir."
"I demand to see your captain." Hys urged on.
"Our captain is dead."
"I find that hard to believe human. Your captain spoke to me."
"Then he would probably be in the galley."
To Hys, the money was all that mattered. Like his fellow skirmishers, he still harbored a deep hatred for humanity from wiping out nearly the entire skirmisher subspecies during Reach in 2552. He had served in the military and deserted the Covenant during the final stages of the war to avoid the vengeful Sangheili. He now found himself employed as the leader of a pirate group that made horror stories of hijackings a reality.
He was directed by another pirate to the galley, where the eighteen others were herded without a fight. Trying his best to look menacing, he found a table to stand on where he was above them. One of the crew members held a bloody rag to the back of his head, no doubt having done or said something that pissed off the skirmishers.
"What's going on?" One of them asked.
"What does it look like dumbass? We've been hijacked by pirates."
"Silence!" Hys snarled, his feathers fanning out in an aggressive expression. The two arguing crewmates instantly blanched, more scared of their weapons than his startling voice.
"You are now under control of Hys and his pirate cell. As much as I want to put a needle in the back of all your heads, I am holding that thought. Your company, Galactic Shipping Enterprises will probably pay a handsome price for your safe return. Therefore, you do as we comply and nobody will be hurt. Anyone attempting to resist us will be shot and ejected into space. Anyone who tries to call for help will be killed and my men will slaughter the crew."
"We will follow your orders." Davis lowered his head down in resignation. "We all want to see our families again."
"That is quite intelligent human." Hys spat the final word with a hack of saliva on the floor. "We will be in touch with Galactic to negotiate your release."
Three of the skirmishers had gone into the back to the kitchen to gather what could have possibly been used as a weapon. Merchant ships like the Stillaba had a kitchen that was small and not the cleanest, but sufficient to say the least. One of them dragged a bag out full of knives, cleavers, forks and even the soup pot.
"These guys know what they're doing." Duane muttered to the crewman next to him. "I would have gone for a knife once they'd let their guard off." He hadn't realized that two skirmishers were right behind him.
Duane found himself slammed into the ground from the needle rifle's butt. The pirate raised his rifle and bashed repeatedly as the crewman was helpless to defend himself.
"Hey!" Farhan shouted, "That's enough."
"Stop!" Hys snarled, grabbing the rifle from his fellow pirate. Both subordinates backed away as Hys grabbed Duane by the chin and looked him in the eye. He was clearly uncomfortable and showed traces of fear, which the skirmisher took much delight in. "Talk again and you die."
Hys regarded the chief engineer, "Show me the captain's office."
Davis complied, standing slowly to his feet under the skirmisher leader's watchful eye moving in front with Hys and his two henchmen behind him.
"Is that really necessary?" the engineer brushed off the plasma pistol that was pressed into his back. Hys clicked his tongue at the other and the skirmisher named Lok rolled his eyes, but tucked the sidearm away by a square container attached to his belt with a greenish liquid inside. Hys had reminded him about his drinking, but somehow he was unable to shake off his habit.
The pirates had been ambitious in nabbing ships lately. At first, when the war had broke out, they had started out with simple raids from boarding parties taking whatever they could. Now there were entire ships being captured, with their cargo being sold on the underground market and the crew ransomed, abandoned or executed, most likely the latter two. Eventually the size of their prey grew. The ships captured were often smaller commuter ships or merchant ones. Now larger freighters were being held with the biggest story of a human cruise liner having been held hostage for two weeks before the pirates negotiated a ransom with an ODST rescue team that ended without a shot fired. Recently, a skirmisher warlord had been putting a tight grip on other kig-yar pirates in the region until every bandit pledged their loyalty to him alone.
His name was Prith and he'd been a major commander for his skirmisher troops during the Battle of Reach before commandeering a phantom and escaping the doomed planet. Securing himself a place in kig-yar piracy, he managed to evade both UNSC and Covenant radar by plundering resources that was lightly guarded. Prith himself had personally spearheaded a charge into Reach's city Quezon, using a Beam Rifle and afterwards over twenty kills to his credit. He then injured a handful of human civilians and hauled them to his controlled area for him and his fellow kig-yar to hunt down for sport.
After the war, neither side had resources to hunt Prith down, thus their ignorance allowed him to span his influence. It was with his arrival that pirates under his command were held until a ransom was paid. If it was not met after a week, he often killed them on the spot. It was rumored that he wore adorned armor of his former competitor's bones and a necklace of the human victims' precious metals and stones he had personally killed.
The ship's office was even more in sad shape than the rest of the it. A desk was in the center covered in so many papers and decorations that it was hard to tell if it was even an office. On the bare walls were portraits of poorly drawn trees and oceans. A bed with ruffled and stained sheets was in the corner.
"Give me the override to your self-destruct sequence."
"You can't!" Davis protested.
"I can do what I want, since this is now my ship. Now give me the code."
"Only the captain can give you that and he's not here."
"Who's the captain? Describe him for me."
Davis sighed and gave the best explanation of what the captain looked like. Hys looked at Lok and the other skirmisher named Tig relaying the human's instructions and they nodded, heading back to the mess hall.
They had posted three more guards with plasma pistols and needle rifles at the only mess hall entrance. After stating what Hys wanted, the five of them opened the door, gasping at what they saw.
The mess hall was empty.
The crew is very sneaky! Next chapter might explain things a bit. Hope you all are enjoying it so far!