Snippet #1346857

Space soon coccooned the Empty Box and her unwitting meat-shields and protectors. The interceptor squadron was mere meters away and closing fast, and much to Searles' chagrin and fear a cloud of small, fish-like cylinders had split from them and were now on a crash course. The torpedoes launched by intercept craft like these, the captain recalled from his military days, were designed to rip apart capital ships in a few small volleys. A transport ship like his dear, beloved Box would be little more than a big bull's-eye on the scanners. Luckily, the bafflers were keeping those torpedoes away for the time being, but eventually - when the interceptors were upon them - they would be useless as the on-board cannons would rip them apart in a much more methodical way.

The captain had seen the wreckage of many a ship that had explosively decompressed due to multiple tiny puncture wounds from cannons like the ones those interceptors now trained on the trade fleet. It wasn't a pleasant sight - hull plates buckled and shrivelled like plastic wrap, their interior superstructure puncturing the plates like the ribs of some half-decomposed beast. The lucky ones were uninhabited, but occasionally you could hear distress signals within, or detect life-signs in the few areas that were sealed. Despite what pulp-fiction novels said, rescue operations on board decompressed vessels were vastly complicated affairs, and there was little you could do - if not properly trained - other than pass by and wait for their cries for help to stop.

"Open a channel, Alseni." Ian said over the comms network. The ship rocked as a nearby merchant vessel cut over the dorsal side of the Empty Box, shearing off a non-essential portion of the vessel's armor plating. "Otto," the captain said, turning to his left, "Take Sebastian down to the hold and start checking the locks. Make damned sure that box we took on doesn't go anywhere." Finally, steepling his fingers beneath his chin, he turned to Rosa.

"I need you prepared to take on survivors in case any of these ships around us go." His face turned grim. "We may as well repay them for acting as our means to an escape."

Turning away, he looked back to Alseni's comm channel. "What's the charge on our beam caster? We will probably need it if we can't just dodge through the fleet."