Scavengers

The first part of their trip was quiet. The size of their combined fleet was enough to scare off anyone that might want to loot them. Fortunately there were not too many, because they also wanted to avoid gossip. So far, so good. Unfortunately, good things never last, Kallou thought as the sensors picked up a disturbance up ahead.

Shpak was quick on the uptake, contacting him at once. "This looks like damage, the fluctuations suggest some ships got recently damaged. I don't trust it. Once one of us decides, we both fire, alright?" The channel was encrypted enough to make sure the other side didn't get to prepare.

A few minutes later, the sensors finally could see and hear what was going on. A distress signal, with several damaged ships and some scattered data suggesting the presence of wreckage outside hyperspace. Audio came in soon after, a repeated loop of emergency message that quickly was replaced by an actual cry for help.

Shpak went through the motions, telling them they would come over and see what they could do. All the while, Kallou's advanced sensors were running silently. As they came closer, it confirmed his suspicions. He sent a careless message to Shpak on a weak encryption, "be careful, we don't know what's going on here". Shpak didn't even bother answering, the message was clear.

With the fleet taking protective position around the damaged fleet, Shpak started discussing logistics on sending over a repair party. Just then, ships suddenly entered hyperspace next to the damaged fleet. Their location already had been identified, however, and neither Kallou nor Shpak cared for handling survivors. Their weapons fired the very instant the pirates entered hyperspace, taking out their bridges in an instant.

The next step was boarding. Cleanup would take a few hours, but they needed to make sure there were no hostages or anything. But there would be no prisoners.