Karl was nodding to himself as she spoke. "Gotcha Babe. I'll keep an eye out for any buddies he might have out here. It's too bad we can't warn Jessup without telling the pirates they're out here too. Anyway, if I get the chance, I'm gonna try and board them like we did when you first got out here. I'll let you know if the opportunity presents itself so you don't accidentally shoot me down too!" He laughed at that because their mutual IFF systems would ensure his safety to that extent at least. His bigger worry would be the pirates themselves. That, or though appreciably miniscule, there was the chance one of them would collide with him by mistake since they wouldn't be able to see him. That would be the end of both him and whoever hit him most likely, at least until he got up to speed. He was accelerating at full power in an effort to match their velocities. For something as small as he was in comparison to those ships, this was far easier to do. Given time and distance, those ships would eventually be able to simply outrun his power armor, but in a short race like this, his acceleration was far greater than theirs which gave him an advantage. It also meant that what he had in mind was possible if normally to be considered suicidally stupid. He'd done this before though and knew exactly what he was doing. In fact, this was a favorite pirate tactic.
Karl enabled his stealth system and moved away from the gigantic rock he'd been using as a base of operations. He moved in closer to the Czarina's charted course and waited for her to reach this point. Having nearly matched Czarina's speed by this time, he let off the acceleration and coasted along, adjusting his angle to meet the pirate shuttle as it approached. It hadn't announced itself yet or fired, but it would be trying to get closer before it did either so as not to give itself away too soon. There was no way those idiots would know just how sensitive the Czarina's sensory systems were, or that they'd long since been spotted and were being tracked. Natasha judged it perfectly. As the shuttle made its first attack run, they were just entering the fire zone as she'd called it. Karl waited until they were right in the center of the field and set the launchers so that they all launched their first two volleys of missiles rapid-fire, one at Czarina and one seemingly at the pirate, though it too was actually locked on Czarina. The pirate not knowing any of this dodged right to where Karl wanted him, just as Czarina opened up on his force shield with her particle beams and missiles while her laser batteries took out the practice missiles with ease. Natasha had positioned them as close as she could manage to directly in the middle of the launch envelope. To the pirates, it would look as if they'd flown right into a military style trap.
Karl opened up with his own weapons as well though they had nowhere near the firepower of either ship. By the time he got his shots off he was firing from almost directly ahead of the pirate and flying backward to do so. He emptied his missile wracks knowing they would do the most damage to those force shields and then spun around to continue accelerating so as to match speed with the pirate. Czarina was relaying her sensor images to his power armor so he could see when the pirate's shields suddenly collapsed. Apparently, his little addition had been just enough to do the job.
He was getting closer all the time and apparently, it hadn't registered to the pirates that some of what had hit them hadn't come from the Czarina. Either they weren't watching their sensors closely enough, or their sensors were simply substandard. Whatever the case, as the pirate passed just a few meters beneath him, he fired a magnetic grapnel straight downward and used it to reel himself in toward the shuttle's spine. Apparently, somebody inside heard the grapnel hit though, because the shuttle suddenly veered off in a dive away from him. He instantly applied vertical thrust and did his best to stay with them. Unfortunately for them, he was too close for them to get away from him that way. His maneuver and the grapnel brought him close enough for his magnetic boot soles to bind him to the hull. He immediately ducked down to attach himself by his hands and knees as well, then began to crawl spider-like along the hull toward the airlock. From what he could tell by looking at the Czarina's sensor images, there was only one airlock and a cargo bay door that couldn't be opened without depressurizing the bay first. They would be expecting him to come in via that airlock, but they wouldn't be expecting someone prepared the way he was. With his stealth system still enabled, they wouldn't have a clue what they were up against.
When the airlock exterior door opened without trouble, he immediately expected a trap. They were probably waiting for him just inside with heavy weapons. Then he saw the foam sprayers welded into the upper corners and laughed to himself. That would normally be effective against even power armor, but he had his own foam guns built in with their release agent capability and he was glad he'd elected to wear his personal armor for this job. His new stuff wouldn't have done well in this situation. He had to get those modifications made first chance he got.
He stepped into the airlock like the gullible fool they probably thought he was, and waited for the pressure to equalize. As he was waiting, he watched the pirate crew come into the passageway through the airlock door's window and assemble to witness his capture and gloat. He just stood there and grinned inside his stealth field. All they would see was an air distortion about the size of a man in a space suit, maybe a small suit of power armor. The only way to tell would be if they had a mass detector in the airlock, which most likely they didn't. That was truly paranoid level security.
The moment the lock equalized he immediately stabbed out his hand and hit the open button. The hatch began to cycle open and at the same moment the foam guns went off, dowsing him in rapidly inflating and stiffening restraint foam. They'd obviously wired the guns to go off when the airlock door was activated. That would've been the easiest way to trigger their trap without any special preparations. A simple on off switch on the bulkhead outside would disable the trap when not in use. Normally this would've been a pretty effective trick.
Just as quickly though, he was spraying himself and the vicinity with the foam release compound. The foam of course had covered the window into the airlock too, and he left it covered. So when the door finished opening, the pirates were surprised to find him standing there and a grenade rolling into their midst. It went off before any of them could react and they were all liberally doused in their own cocoons of restraint foam and fastened to the deck and whatever else was nearest them.
Still coated in release agent, Karl rushed through them and into the rest of the ship in search of any who hadn't been present. He found the crew quarters deserted and with bunks for eight, telling him how many were probably in the crew. He found the captain in his quarters, just about finished getting into his body armor and already armed. Karl foamed him in place starting with his feet and swatted the release agent canister out of his hands before he could employ it. "You know you're a dead fucker, don't you?" the man spat as he was secured by the nearly instantly hardening foam, "I got a crew of twenty, all in enhanced armor. Computer, mrrmph..." Karl silenced him with a further blast of foam to cover his mouth and prevent him giving the computer any orders. Seeing he had no other means of escape, he finished the job and left the man stuck where he was.
He found the next pirate in the dorsal gunner's station which also happened to be in the ship's main rec area, just forward of the crew and Captain's quarters and also containing the galley facilities. Of course the man had heard the captain's diatribe cut off mid-sentence, so he was ready and waiting. Unfortunately for him, Karl had come out of the Captain's quarters quietly and relatively slowly so his stealth system's distortion would be negligible. It was enough to give him the time he needed. He hit the man from across the room with an electro-stunner since he wasn't armored and watched him crumple like the proverbial puppet with its strings cut. Then he moved over to check him out and be sure he had no way of escaping before foaming him in place. If the layout was usual and he knew it probably was, the bridge cockpit would be the door in the forward bulkhead.
In the cockpit, he found the pilot who was alone and in furious combat with Czarina and having one hell of a time. He was obviously doing everything he could think of to get Czarina in his sights and failing miserably. Karl jerked him out of his seat, dropped him on the floor and foamed him in place. Then he took the controls himself and brought the ship to a halt and locked the controls, entering a code that was part of the one he used for his exercise on the bike simulators. It was one he wouldn't forget.
Finally, he contacted Czarina, opening both voice and vid channels. "Hey beautiful! I've got us a little present. The ship's secure so far, but I'm going through now to make a quick check to get the last gunner. I think he's in the cargo bay. Then I'll check the rest of whatever's left to be sure I got 'em all. You will want foam release when you come aboard though. I had to set off a grenade when they tried to trap me. See you in a bit ladies!"
