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Kerusso easily dodged the first missile, but the second struck the aft near the engine. The ship shuddered and power flickered. Kerusso fired five more missiles at the Corvette. He was lucky that the Captain of the Corvette had underestimated him, and he had used it to his advantage. The fifth missile hit the Corvette and dropped its shields. Kerusso fired another missile and his proton cannons at the Corvette. The Corvette returned fire with its laser turrets and Javelin rockets. The rockets struck Kerusso's shields, and they failed just as Kerusso's last missile struck the Corvette's engine and disabled it. Kerusso told his crew to prepare to board the Corvette. He threw on an Armaplast blast jacket and picked up two laser pistols, while his crew carried the larger and more powerful laser rifles. Kerusso also picked up two pulse grenades as he piloted the ship closer to the Corvette. They connected to the airlock of the opposite ship, and then Kerusso popped the hatch. He dove into the Corvette, laying down cover fire so that his crew could work their way into the ship. The crew of the Corvette fought with energy, fearing persecution and a definite death sentence if returned to any planet. Already Kerusso could see dead Pirates strewn around in the corridor. When his crew got into position, Kerusso began to advance to the next bulkhead. The Pirates, with no where else to go, began to retreat to the bridge and the cargo pod. Kerusso and his crew followed the group to the bridge, allowing the other group a brief reprieve from the battle at hand. As the crew fought their way onto the bridge, one of Kerusso's men found himself on the wrong end of a laser rifle, and was killed. This gave Kerusso the wanton anger to kill the rest of the bridge crew. He saw the Captain of the ship attempting to board an escape pod, and shot him in the head without any hesitation. As the remaining Pirates saw the death of their leader, they began to give up the fight. The rest of Kerusso's crew became judge and jury, shooting the Pirates down like dogs. Kerusso walked over to the main control panel of the ship and transferred the credits into his own personal account. Then he took stock of the weapons. The computer registered 8 missiles and 42 Javelin rockets in the cargo hold. The crew made their way down there carefully, fearing an ambush by the few remaining Pirates. As they made their way around the last curve to the cargo pod, just that happened. The 4 Pirates jumped out from their hiding places, taking another of Kerusso's crew down before being blasted into the walls by one of Kerusso's pulse grenades. At the death of the last Pirate, the rest of the crew breathed a sigh of relief and headed the rest of the way into the Cargo pod. There they loaded up two hovercarts with the missiles and Javelins, maneuvering them to the airlock and onto the Clipper. Then the Clipper broke away from the Corvette, turning and firing on it until it exploded in a giant fireball. Kerusso gave a prayer of thanks for the completion of his mission and set the autopilot for Blackthorne..
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