OOC:
Sorry for taking so long with this encounter, folks. I'm a bit under the weather today. In answer to Kendall's question about what we know about the pirates, I'm going to quote what Lt. Mezron's research turned up earlier, because I don't see anything in it that would be so sensitive that Cass would feel wrong about sharing it, and this will make it easier than my trying to paraphrase it all.
Cass thinks briefly about what they've learned about pirates. It's frustratingly little. She decides to share what she has; perhaps this mercenary (because of course Cass has looked up Kendall F'breir before inviting her onto the ship) would have at least some hearsay information that could help.
bowlofspinach says:
In the time between chapter I and chapter II, Cass has received the information she had asked Lt. Mezron for. This sector of space has always had some pirate activity in it but it really started picking up four months ago. Since then, about three dozen privately owned spaceships have been reported stolen or missing in this area.
Even more shocking, in the same time frame, there have been three incidents involving small Consortium ships in this sector. Ten weeks ago, the USS Verdun, which matches the description of the ship you had assumed was the USS Sigma, was attacked by pirates. The ship’s warp core got damaged and the crew had been forced to evacuate the ship. They did not get pursued but when Spacefleet returned later, they did not find a wreckage.
Three weeks later, the actual USS Sigma, a similar but not identical model to the Verdun, was destroyed very close to your location. According to the reports, the entire crew, including Captain Ery-An, were killed.
Another week later, a small fleet of pirate ships attacked a convoy of trade ships led by the USS Antarctica, a Solar Class starship, much larger and better armed than even the Potential, which is well-known for being especially well armed for its size. The Antarctica succeeded in beating back the attack but one pirate ship had managed to attach itself to a convoy ship that was carrying almost a dozen Void Crystals and took it with it into Warp.
Lt. Mezron was unable to find any hint as to the location of the pirates’ hideout or the identity of the rumored Pirate Queen.
