The Nemesis

Gerard sat at the ship's controls, looking for any other ships that would be carrying precious cargo. Of course this meant items such as gold and silver, but also things such as ammunition and batteries that his crew could sell easily or use themselves. His crew of The Nemesis wasn't the largest ship around but wasn't small by any means. She was fast and strong, capable of surviving space storms and meteor showers.

He could hear his crew going about what they did everyday. Pete bothering Patrick as he tried to cook something, Alex stealing Pete's ammunition to perform some kind of experiment with Mikey, Alice and Eve doing small repairs on the ship, and J.I.M. (the ship's A.I.) beeping alerts to certain crew members. His crew was the best at what they do. Whether what they did was good or not, was highly debatable.

The charts in front of Gerard showed every ship that was also docked at the Hadron port. The Nemesis was on the end of the dock, where a dock hand had been paid to not register the ship and close the slot for maintenance. He scanned the charts carefully, Hadron was known as a pit stop between the two biggest ports in the sector. Most of the ships on the list carried fuel or building materials. Each was helpful, but too heavy for his crew to move quickly and easily.

He froze the chart as soon as he saw the ship named Lavandino. He knew that ship. It was the ship captained by Elli, his ex girlfriend as Mikey called her (Gerard would never admit it). He pulled up the records of the ship which showed the cargo was listed as "food items". Gerard knew this would be false information. What did surprise him was that the number of crew was listed as five people. Elli's crew was only four people, that hadn't changed in years. This meant only one thing, that the crew was hired for a pick up and drop off. Lavandino was known on the black market for stealing anything at all, no questions asked. They specialised in "recovering and delivering" any species, humanoid or otherwise. Most of the people that were "recovered" were escaped slaves from wealthy families, or even the family of a rich person's competition to be exchanged for money. To put it simply, Elli's crew were kidnappers.

If they had a job, the Lightning Chasers will take it from them.

Gerard and his crew didn't believe in stealing people. If someone needs to be stolen, they probably don't want to go to wherever they're taken. His crew never took people or something that some rich guy could use as a weapon, Elli's crew didn't really feel the same evidently. Ok except that one time that they stole a llama from an agricultural planet, Pete became very attached to it after they stopped to refuel. It was fine until we realised that llamas and space didn't mix, Pete was very heartbroken when Gerard told them that it couldn't stay on board after eating several crates of blankets. The llama now resided with their good friend Joe at his farm on Earth.

Examining the records more closely, Gerard found that Lavandino was due to leave the port the following night. He immediately called in Mikey to discuss plans to raid the ship.
"We have to wait until they're out of port otherwise we draw attention to ourselves", Mikey said.
"I agree, but boarding the ship won't be easy at all. They have security just like we do", Gerard explained to his brother.
"We don't know the details of the ship well enough", he added after a minute of thought.
Mikey smirked at his brother.
"Oh please, we all know how long you spent on that ship. You have to know something useful".
Gerard paled at this and Mikey laughed.
"So we go with a small charge on the side of one of the airlocks. Once it goes off, we board before the hole is sealed off. To get off again we'll have to open the cargo bay doors to let a pod take us back."

********

They had boarded the ship easily enough. Unfortunately, it seems that more internal security had been installed on the ship. When the charge had gone off, small robots with big (huge) lasers had started shooting at them. Pete then thought it was a great time to test out his new grenades. Just like most of Pete's experiments, they didn't blow a hole in the enemy, just spluttered and released a tiny puff of smoke. Gerard and Mikey turned to Pete with raised eyebrows, Pete smiled sheepishly before they returned to shooting at the robots.

When the robots were taken care of, Gerard led Mikey, Pete, Alex and Eve through the halls. The alarm was still wailing obnoxiously which made it difficult to focus on potential targets. They arrived in the cargo bay and opened the doors for Patrick to fly an escape pod in from their own ship.
"Patrick, help Eve load this cargo onto the pod", Gerard ordered, indicating the crates on the floor.
Patrick nodded, setting to work helping Eve. The other four checked the batteries on their guns before venturing back into the halls. They rounded a corner and came face to face with San, a member of Elli's crew. Sep was behind him with his gun raised.
"DOWN!" Gerard yelled.
The four pirates ducked as they were shot at. The Lightning Chasers returned fire and managed to send the men retreating down the hallway.

Gerard looked at his crew and saw Alex lying on the ground. He groaned as Mikey pressed on his chest, inspecting a wound on his right shoulder.
"I'll head back to the others and send Eve to you guys, I can't shoot like this", Alex said to Gerard.
Gerard didn't like the idea of Alex walking off alone but they didn't have a choice, the other pirates would be regrouping and be after them soon. They needed to be quick. He nodded to Alex and turned back down the hall.
"Tell Eve to meet us at the bridge and make sure Patrick is ready to leave as soon as we step into the pod".

********

After ten minutes of carefully dodging more tiny laser robots, Gerard, Pete, Mikey and Eve were running towards the bridge. Only minutes earlier had they spotted the crew dragging someone in the same direction.
"Hurry up, we have to get to the bridge!" Gerard yelled to his companions.

They arrived at the door to the bridge and Mikey opened them without hesitation. The four had their guns raised and fired as soon as the saw their targets. Sep, Zori and San crumpled to the ground clutching their respective injuries. In the centre of the room stood Elli, smirk painted on her face and gun at the head of a boy none of them had seen before.
"Put the gun down Elli", snarled Gerard.
She didn't move.
"Now now Gerard. I'm the one with the prize here", she replied as she pressed the gun under Frank's chin, making him whimper.
Gerard and his companions made no move to lower their guns.
"What is he to you Elli? Is he worth the lives of your crew?" Gerard asked her as Mikey shot Zori in the knee.
"You're just jealous that I like him more than I ever did you", she replied curtly.
Pete snorted and Gerard glared at Elli.
"Doesn't mean I won't shoot your crew".
No one moved for what seemed like forever to Frank before Elli stepped back and dropped her gun.

"That's better", Eve said as she pushed the pirates into a service room off to the side and sealed the door.
Frank gulped as Gerard eyed him carefully.
"Mikey, download the data. Pete, fry the controls. Eve, set off the distress signal. We're out in two minutes", ordered Gerard.
Frank watched as they all moved about the room. Gerard picked up a rag from a cleaning bucket before walking over to Frank and tying it around his eyes. He couldn't have the boy getting loose and running off could he. He then moved over to Mikey, taking the data stick he held out to him and placed it in his pocket.
"We're moving", he ordered.

He grabbed Frank by the arm and dragged him through the doors. The security robots had been turned off by Mikey so the moved swiftly through the halls to the cargo bay. Gerard tossed Frank inside, sealing the door after the others had boarded. Frank was on the verge of a panic attack when Pete leant over him.
"Night night Princess", he whispered before punching Frank in the face.
Frank hit his head on the crate behind him and blacked out.

Notes

I was meant to upload this a few weeks ago and I forgot :/ so sorry for that (if anyone actually reads these.......)