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now joined by the rest of his Marines and a burly engineer. The cook with the bleeding eye had been taken to the first aid station. “Set up your sniper rifles and take out those guns. Try not to hit the crew members, if possible. This is a ‘needs of the many’ type of situation.”
     
    The four Marines began taking pot shots at the Medved brothers. In the flurry of shots the two quartermaster loaders were unfortunately shot and killed. With their human shields now gone the pirates were forced to abandon their positions and retreat back to their defensive line.
     
    The Marines tossed several improvised explosive grenades built from plastique and scrap metal at the two heavy guns. The resulting explosion destroyed the guns setting off the ammo like a string of firecrackers. Echos of the explosion were heard across the whole ship.
     
    ___
     
    Alvin’s head jerked around at the sound of the explosion, the repetitive sounds were magnified by the corridors. “What in the hell was that! Contact McCoy, that better have been him destroying those navy pukes or I’m working on my collection tonight!”
     
    “Sir, Alvin, sir! Please don’t kill me..” The messenger dropped to his knees.
     
    “What ..Is..It! If you didn’t do whatever it is then YOU have nothing to worry about! What?”
     
    “The navy killed the human shields and blew up both big guns!” The pirate looked scared as he huddled on the floor.
     
    “What the Hell are those idiots doing down there! You, get up! Stand over there by the wall.”
     
    “Thank you sir, thank you.” The pirate got off the floor and turned away from Alvin. He started to walk away when Alvin pulled his pistol and shot him point blank in the head. The messenger fell to the floor with half of his head now gone.
     
    All of the other pirates looked away or at the floor when Alvin passed. Once he was out of sight, money began to change hands. There was a large pool over how long a messenger would survive.
     
    ___
     
    Deep in the access tubes a small party of men were still carefully making their way toward engineering. Seth was about on his last nerve. The western hicks that he had picked for this mission were driving him insane. They had claimed to be from a known pirate ship but the world they all came from was a backwoods hellhole that had nothing but horses and hicks on it. They had zero knowledge on how to open airlocks or access doors. They kept telling these god-awful stories about something called a wagon train. Seth had scratched his head on that one. How DO you train your wagon? That must be a fecked up planet for sure.
     
    “OK you idiots. We have about another 200 meters or so to go. Once again don’t touch the conduits they have electricity in them. Like we learned last time. I think Flint may have feeling coming back to his hand by now. Whatever you do don’t pee on them, right Duke?
     
    “Uh, yes, sir, lieutenant, sir.” He was scratching his beard. “Uh, sir? What do you think all those ‘splotions were a bit ago?”
     
    “What I think is that we need to get moving. The dang battle will be over before we get there! Damn it, now I’m talking like y’all again. Aaargh!”
     
     
     

Chapter 5
     
     
     
    Captain Pigot sighed with relief. Good news at last. Hopefully that was all the heavy ordinance those pirates had. There were still too many of them to attack head on. He looked at the schematic of the ship. His forces held engineering, medical, and life support. The pirates had everything else. “If I was a pirate what would I attack first?” He stared at the screen for a few moments then yelled for his aide to call the Marines.
     
    “Did you call for us sir?” The Marine Lieutenant had arrived with his four man squad. One of them, Sergeant Sveldig, looked a bit tattered and worn.
     
    “Is your sergeant there OK? He looks a bit bedraggled.”
     
    “Sir, he is fine. The sergeant was up front at the barricade with me when the rockets hit.