Seras
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Phantom Star: Chapter 28
🕑 Added 2024-12-14 17:00:09 +0000 UTCSinclair Kirkbride
“What the fuck.” She hissed as she stared into a mirror. Grandpa… Her Grandpa had shown up out of the blue with an AI warship and rescued her…
The same man that had said without hesitation he would put a blaster through her skull when she ran off to join Trent. She’d thought it funny then. As she called him a relic on the comm, the last time she’d seen him fourteen years ago.
But now?
She’d sent out the distress message through some tricky routing to keep any of her crew, or worse other pirates from finding out…
She ran a hand through her hair. Actual hot water, what a fucking luxury. She needed a Klitz to calm her nerves.
She took the towel that had been supplied warm and fluffy and finished drying off. A few minutes later she was re-dressed enough and stepped out of the bathroom into the hold. She swallowed. She never did get used to just staring out into open space, especially not without a suit and Forcefield.
But what was worse was the swarm of AI floating around. They chattered to each other, and worse to anyone they saw as they floated around.
“Hello! Nice and clean!” One called out to her as it floated past heading back out of the hold. She shuddered. This was a disaster. Was the AI in control? Who flew around with an active AI!?
Yet she couldn’t help but stare as part after part was brought floating into the hold by a team of the drones.
It was part of the Huskarl Shield Emitters, and she was pretty sure that part was part of the weapons systems.
I guess having AI to help scrap a ship down was useful.
“Sinclair.” A rumbling familiar voice spoke up and she turned from where she was staring to see her Grandpa. Standing a bit awkward and looking like he wasn’t sure what to say.
Yeah her either.
Especially since all she wanted was to get into whatever room or cell that was waiting for her and just not, for a while.
“How did you even know to come?” She finally spoke, the question that had been burning on her mind throughout the shower.
“The Bounty… I always kept an eye out for you. I saw your bounty and started searching for you… I had to be the one, couldn’t let anyone else catch you. One of my contacts reached out to me, with your message.”
“So you thought, to just capture your pirate granddaughter?”
“Rescue.” He said instead and she flinched as she looked away.
“What happened to a blaster to the head?” She asked harshly, and he stopped looking at her, just as she had stopped looking at him.
“I said that in anger… I’ve dealt with pirates for decades. Couldn’t… I couldn’t deal with my own blood joining them.”
“Yeah well… How's Grandma? Aunt Cass?” She asked, it had been fourteen years since she’d even… Heard from them.
“Your… Grandma passed. About eight years ago.” He said almost gently.
“Fuck.”
“Cass is fine. You should call her sometime… The Captain of this boat is… Nice. She’ll probably allow it.”
She nodded and then shuddered as she was reminded of what was going on.
“What’s up with this ship? The AI, and the Captain… She’s kinda young looking.”
“She is. Not sure. Disavowed Noble maybe. She’s a bit awkward, but a good person.” Her grandfather finally offered. “A bit green, but she’s… Well she flys this thing.” He said while waving around, and yeah that fit.
“Fucking monster of a ship. When I saw it on the radar I thought I was dead.”
“You called out though.”
“Well of course I did! This thing would have butchered the Huskarl just like… It wasn’t a fight. Barbatos had delusions of grandeur.”
“Barbatos?”
“The Captain. He was… An evil bastard, but he protected me from Trent. So I… I guess I sort of regret it.”
“He was a pirate.” He rumbled, angrily, but breathed in and out. “I’m glad you’re alright.”
“Yeah well… They needed my skills. It kept me safe. Mostly.”
“I’ll keep you safe Sinclair. Sinny.”
“Ugh, don’t call me that.” She grumbled, her childhood nickname came off so lame. “I just go by Sin now.”
“Nothing wrong with your name.” He grumbled, but he stopped and spoke seriously. “I’ll talk to Katherine. We’ll get dropped off somewhere, and I’ll call in some favors to get home. Once there we can hide you out.”
“Sure. I’ll just go hide in the mountains living off stream water and fresh air the rest of my life. Nevermind the fact I’m an Electronic Warfare Specialist! I’m meant to be on a ship.” She hissed. All her life was down the drain. She’d hoped it would be a merc outfit that would have picked her up. Or at least a bounty hunter willing to put her to work.
She didn’t want to be useless on some dirtball.
She’d run away to the pirates to get away from that!
“We’ll figure something out.” He said then, but she could tell he actually meant that he just wanted to wrap her in fabric and hide her away.
“Hey Uh, Crabbit. Where is Captain Katherine?” Grandpa suddenly called out, and one of the fucking AI drones, jerked from it’s path out the hold to float over.
“Hello hello!” I greeted as it floated sinisterly around her grandpa’s head before seemingly coming in to land on his shoulder, its gripper grabbing at his jacket to stabilize itself. “Captain is sad crying on the bridge as she oversees scrapping!... Oh I wasn’t supposed to say that… Uuuu. I’m a bad girl.” It offered as it seemingly donked itself on the head with it’s free arm.
Sin blinked as she stared at the drone. What the hell was that?
Grandpa seemed a bit more used to it and nodded. “I… Won’t tell her you told us?”
“Oh no! Lying is bad. Red! Very very bad!” It warned him before seemingly perking itself up from… It’s mood? It was all artificial, why would it have moods like that? Was it trying to trick them? Make itself seem slower than it was?
“Alright… We’ll leave her alone for now.”
“Okay okay! Back to work! Hehehe!” It giggled as it floated away rejoining the line of drones floating around the hold and back out of the ship.
“This ship is weird.”
“Hmm. I’ll take weird over broken. Tramp haulers…” Grandpa said with a tone of utter disgust.
“Oh yeah, I’ve been there. The Huskarl is the newer ship, we uh, captured it, before that the piece of junk we were flying around on would break down at random.”
His face tightened up for a minute before relaxing. “I wouldn’t mind hearing… About everything.” he offered and Sin knew a trap when she saw one.
“Maybe another time. You know where I can… Well I guess bunk? Unless there’s a brig I’m being stuffed in somewhere?”
“Yeah c’mon.”
—--
“Make sure you pull those power lines.” I said, as I looked over the Tab screen.
“Yes yes!” Chirped the Crabbit that was resting on my stomach. I had moved to my room and was currently curled up with a warm blanket and my Tab floating in front of my face thanks to my Crabbit as I took in the scans and data the Crabbit were sending over from the wreck.
I rubbed at my eyes again which felt puffy and itchy. Stupid crybaby.
All because I got scared in a fire fight. At least my Crabbit shield had sort of worked… It’d need a lot more adjustments. Considering how bad that had gone, it was now a much higher priority. Maybe… An additional attachment?
If I made a box that had the shield emitter, and just used the Crabbits as carriers it would probably work a lot better than trying to turn Crabbits into shields…
Then again both were a good idea. No reason to only have one source of shield. Emitter did work better in a group.
I sighed and looked back at the Tab. I had a thought of just keeping it. The whole ship I mean. It was… Well a Junker, but even a Junker had value. But I didn’t have the crew to even hope to handle that, much less want to put them in such a crunchy vessel.
No better to loot it down, including its really well equipped EW setup.
Sinclair… She was a pirate, but going over the scans of her EW equipment, she definitely knew what she was doing. The crabbits knew some basics, but… They weren’t amazing. Fast, but rigid. They only knew how to do it like they’d been shown by the Barons staff and what little I’d managed to work with them on.
But an actual EW specialist? Already the Crabbits were going to be grabbing every bit of the equipment. I’d have to set up a new console on the bridge really dedicated to it.
I swiped the screen and relaxed. The other wreck was drifting, but thankfully it was still in range without the sensors scattering too much, and it was still safe.
I’d have to go grab it soon to keep it from getting too far, but for now I wanted to ensure I got the best bits out of the ship first…
Well if I decided to leave it. I could fly it back to UNK-L. Its navigation system was still intact, and it still had its Iris Drive.
I groaned and turned over. Did I want to go home? Should I? I currently had a bounty target on board, and that would be really bad. Yet… Hammond had wanted to rescue her in the end. Not actually hand her over.
Can’t say I was pleased he had lied to me about it. If I had known this was a rescue mission from the start… Well I wouldn’t have done much differently, but I would have felt a lot better!
Plus there was the pirate issue. Sinclair was registered as a pirate. She even had a bounty on her head. No matter where she went she’d have to stay off any scanners, or anything like that, or she’d instantly be taken and thrown into prison.
Or worse.
Most places in the Duchy considered holding pirates a pointless affair. They were simply shot and spaced. Or if they were disliked, just spaced.
I rubbed my face. My hands weren’t shaking anymore. Not that I felt comfortable with what had happened today. I’d… I’d messed up. I shouldn’t have chased after Hammond with a half assed shield and no training.
“I’ll need to add some blaster training into my schedule.” I muttered, maybe Hammond could run me through some military drills?
No wait… He was leaving…
Hammond had been vital in taking out that pirate ship. I could probably have swarmed the inside of the ship with Crabbits, if I had bothered to actually arm them.
But… It still would be a risk. He had the training instincts, and equipment to do it himself.
Was I going to let that talent walk off my ship?
Former space marine, and former pirate Electronic Warfare specialist… That sounded like the beginning of a pretty good crew. Sinclair had managed to not just lock her own ship down, but keep the other ship from escaping all at the same time…
There was the start of a plan in my head, but I’d need to actually talk to people first.
I sat up. No point in hiding.
“Hmm? Kat?” My Crabbit asked, almost sleepily, she must be sharing most of her hardware with her sisters to sound like that.
“I’m feeling better, want to come with me?”
“Yes yes!” She cheered coming back online and flying around me.
I headed down and then into the mess room, fortunately it wasn’t empty. Hammond was there. Using the countertops to clean his blaster rifle. The large gun was disassembled and he was going over it.
I took a moment before I alerted him to actually listen.
The gun sounded well taken care of. Its tones were clean and clear. Yet… It felt old. Worn in places. No doubt it’d seen a lot of conflict. I considered how to broach the whole thing, and this was a good enough offer as anything.
“If you ever want me to go over that, I can do that. Replace some of the old parts if anything is getting worn.” I offered in greeting and he stopped.
“I’d appreciate it, but if I’m running Sinclair back home… There won’t be much reason to use her anymore.”
“If.” I added, and that finally got the older man to turn to me fully.
“If?”
“That’s what I said… I don’t… Need a crew exactly. Not for the Phantom, not if I’m just doing normal jobs. Going place to place just delivering packages, and stuff like that I can do alone… But hunting pirates? Getting into fights. That’s something… I’m not so good at, but you are.”
“Honestly I only came back to it, to hunt down Sinclair… I retired back to Callum after everything… Expected to live my life there. Lived with my sister's family for a while. Helped out around the place. Cattle ranching, farming and hunting…”
He went silent for a long while. “So you want to go back.”
“Hell no. I hate cattle, and I hate farming.” He said back instantly, surprising a laugh at how blunt his dislike was. “But it’s the sort of place that Sinclair can hide out. No one’ll ever look for her there… So that’s where I’m going.”
“But you’d prefer to keep working? On board a ship that could use a man that knows his way around a gun?” I offered, and with that he turned from his rifle to look completely at me.
“If I had a choice, that’d be preferable.”
“Sinclair’s a pirate. You’d need a noble, or someone in the government to help out.” I mentioned casually.
“I figure I would.” He responded back, his eyes intense. “This the big reveal that you’re some noble kid?” He asked suddenly and my entire thought process ground to a halt.
“What? No? My dad is a scrapper, and my mom is a… Let’s call her a socialite.” I explained and his face shifted into confusion.
“Really? With the ship I expected?”
“I made the Phantom Star myself. With a whole lot of help from my Crabbits.” I explained and the Crabbit on my shoulder waved at being acknowledged.
“Then… That still leaves us where we were. We need a Noble.”
“I… I know a guy. I could talk to him. I'd probably owe him a favor, but he’s a Baron. He’d be willing… Probably.” I offered and I saw something kind of flattering in Hammonds eyes. Hope.
“You’d do that?”
“I… It depends. I’m not entirely altruistic here. Sinclair’s an EW specialist. I’m sort of lacking one of those right now. But… I don’t like the idea of demanding she work for me, if I did this. I mean, we haven’t talked to her, to find out if she would even be willing-”
“Probably something you should do first, yeah.” Another voice called out startling me, as Sinclair came around the corner. She was wearing the same clothes as before, but she’d obviously showered, and wasn’t quite as done up. She looked… Tired to be honest.
“Sinclair. Eavesdropping is rude.” Hammond rumbled, but Sinclair despite being in her twenties rolled her eyes like a teenager.
“We haven’t had a chance to talk, and it seems like you’ve been coming up with some ideas.” She offered to me, and I nodded my head.
“That’s right. You did a good job on that other ship. Kept them from jumping away.”
“It’s what I did for the last decade.” She offered simply, and I could see Hammond tense at the explanation.
“Then… If you could do it to hunt pirates instead, would you?”
“I’m not picky about targets.” She said which earned her no points for me, but she settled against the counter across from Hammond and crossed her arms. “But I don’t want to live the rest of my life on some dirt ball. If you can clear my name. I’ll work for you… Until it doesn’t work anyways.”
“Sinclair. Be more polite. Captain Katherine is offering you… Your life back.”
“And I’m thankful, but that doesn’t mean I’m swearing myself to slavery here.”
“I’m not asking for that.” I offered and then breathed in and out. “I’ll offer you the standard crew contract. You’ll get paid. You’ll work, and if you want to leave you break the contract and I drop you off.”
“And what’s the price then?” She asked, a bit harshly. “People don’t just ask favors from nobles for nothing. That’s a big cost.”
“I’ve already worked with him in the past. It’s fine.” I said despite it kinda not being.
Was this the right thing? She was a pirate, she didn’t even seem all that bothered by the fact. This wasn’t a woman that stopped being a pirate because she saw how horrible her actions were, she did it for herself…
I stared until her eyes caught mine and our eyes locked.
She looked away first. Almost instantly. Was that regret? Shame? Or was she just unhappy about her powerless position right now?
It was impossible to say, the only thing I could do…
“Okay. I’ll put my faith in you then.” I decided and that earned a look of surprise from the woman.
“What?”
“Well there’s no way for me to know for sure if you are really going to be a good fit, or a good person. So I can either turn you away, bring you on and constantly doubt and suspect you, or just have some faith. So I’ll do that. It’s less stressful.” I decided, and shrugged.
“That’s so stupid.” She offered back, and I smirked, because someone that was trying to trick me, wouldn’t have said something like that!
Probably!
“Alright, I need to go find the other ship and scrap what I can from it. We’re going to keep the hull of your ship, and sell it off back home. I’ll be able to talk to the Baron from there.”
Hammond nodded, while Sinclair continued to just stare at me with an array of emotions constantly appearing and hiding on her face.
“But before that… We did just finish a big battle so we should celebrate right? Anyone hungry?” I asked, pointing at the protein resequencer and earning myself a bit of a surprised look. “Great, what does everyone want to eat?” I asked before anyone could actually say anything. Some food would likely break up the tense atmosphere.
I hurried over to the protein resequencer, and started it up, slowly getting it turned on and active.
“Anything is fine.” Sinclair offered, but Hammond came over and put in his order as well. The fact both of us were setting up the machine got Sinclair interested.
“Wow. That’s not a cheap unit.” She muttered as she got closer.
“Nope. I splurged on a good one. Good Protein too.”
“The meals here are good.” Hammond offered to his granddaughter and she seemed to perk up at that.
“Wait, you buy high quality protein?”
“Yeah why wouldn’t I?”
“Maybe because it’s expensive?” She offered back a little shocked.
“It’s really not.” I couldn’t help but argue. “I bought a ton of it when I was first picking up rations. Oh we have some fruit in the freezer. It’s called Vinefruit. It’s pretty good.” I offered and that had Sinclair’s jaw drop a little in shock.
“Fresh fruit?”
“Well… It’s frozen now. But it should still be pretty fresh.”
“And I can just have some?”
“If you’re hungry you should eat.” I explained simply. And then smiled as the resequencer dinged. “Foods up!”
I smiled as Sinclair perked up at the smell wafting from the steaming plates. I grabbed two and carried them over. I handed one of the identical meals to Sinclair. “Welcome aboard.” I offered, and for a moment she smiled an actual normal look.
“Thanks.”
—--
It was a bit hard to have a big crew meal around the mess hall without a table, but that was still on the important things to buy list. But we made do, and Sinclair seemed to actually get used to the whole thing.
After the meal, I got back to work. Sinclair was still settling in, and Hammond was hovering over her, but that left the real work to me.
Which was fine. This was the fun part.
“Okay you know what to do?”
“Yes yes! Navigation complete!” Chirped the Crabbit and I reached down and stroked her chassis.
“That’s a good girl. We’ll be following you soon, just head straight to UNK-L and send the message once you arrive, but we’ll probably beat you there.”
“We can do it! No problem!” She responded excitedly, and I couldn’t help but stroke all of their chassis for a minute.
Five of my Crabbits were taking the Huskarl, and would jump it back to UNK-L while I scrapped what I could out of the ship I’d blown apart.
It’d be good Creds, and… I already had to head back to UNK-L anyway to talk to the Baron.
But it still meant I had to leave my little Prize Crew traveling on their own.
I’d taken a bit of time to make sure the engines, navigation, and comm system were all functioning on the ship. Although not much else was.
Still… I didn’t like sending them off on their own. When I left the Crabbits back in the old freighter when I’d left it’d been something I had to do, and it was mostly safe since they were where they always were.
But now they were off on their own.
“Okay. I set up a Tab that’ll play lots of shows, and you can pause and stop it, but don’t get distracted and forget to check on navigation, and don’t watch it all the time. Do something else sometimes… Don’t forget to sync up, so you don’t overload your databanks.”
“Roger roger! We’ll be good girls! Everything Green!” They all nodded at me, and I nodded along with them. I’d picked some of the calmer less rambunctious girls for this.
“I believe in you. I’ll see you soon.”
“Yay!” They cheered as they floated onto the Huskarl. I hit the switch closing the airlock and disengaging the clamps.
They were on their own now.
Comments
Kara Nina
If they didn't cause their own bit of trouble they'd be cardboard cutout extras, not fleshed out people who make mistakes and change depending on the environment.
Elaine
I love crabbits
Thomas Keller
How AI think and how Humans think will always be different, so I imagine that even when the Crabbits are well versed on those special skills, the best scenario will actually be the Crabbits acting in support to and at the direction of the specialists, but that's just my opinion
R. Maxwell Steele
Or perhaps you only want to recruit people with special skills... temporarily. Eventually the hive mind will learn all the tricks and you won't really need that special skill anymore.
Paratus
I'm looking at Sin as a misguided youth who had an incorrect view of what the pirate life would be like, and once they were in they were trapped.
Paratus
Pirates = bad.. But, you have to think of the context. Look at how we look at pirates modern day. They're in kid's shows, we've got Disney movies about them, it's all about context. Guerrilla is a bad word from the conquerors perspective, but from the native conquered nation they are freedom figures. Victors write history...
Seras
That's a really interesting breakdown on it! Thank you! Yeah Sin was an idea I had for the second crewmember. Where Hammond is the experienced Veteran, Sin is the young hotblooded troublemaker. When Hammond wants to support the government, Sin doesn't care about that. When Hammond wants to shoot the pirates and ask questions later. Sin wants to try and work with pirates, or more... negative reputation. They're both playing the angel and devil for eachother, and when I thought of that, I wanted to see how it would work. Kat of course had a decision. Do I invite this pirate on my crew, one with a really useful skill, or do I let my other crewmate the frontline Space Marine disappear with them both. So Kat made a decision and we'll see what happens from here. Sin isn't innocent, and she will cause trouble at times, just like Hammond will. The interesting part is how the little crew handles those moments.
Thomas Keller
This makes sense *nodnod* Okay so, we're basically building up a CRPG Party here with the Crew, as the Crabbits make the plentiful mundane tasks of actually running a ship essentially redundant meaning that you only really want or need to recruit specialists who bring something to the table that a baby AI hivemind isn't really good at yet. In that vein, *all* CRPGs have some sort of Chaotic Asshole who's in it for the love of the game so to speak, but also because they ended up dealt a bad hand, made some bad decisions, and then did what they needed to do to survive. This character generally has several different potential directions they can take, obviously, but *generally* speaking the most appreciated path taken with them is the "Shown A Better Way/Redeemed/Gives A Shit About You" path, but to do that sort of character development you need them to start off as, well, someone who's an ass. But the *timing* of the joining of this character is very important, because if you don't give them enough time to grow and interact with you, you end up with an asshole who doesn't really do anything besides annoy you before Endgame. Enter, The Phantom Star. Very importantly, while "The Redeeemable Asshole" isn't the first recruit, Sinny *is* the heavily related to the first recruit and was essentially the (initial) Loyalty Mission of that first recruit, revealing that Hammy is actually a Grampa, that he's *retired*, and that the only reason he came out of retirement was a mad race to try to find his "missing for 14 years" granddaughter who left to go play pirate with her shitstain of a boyfriend. This mission revealed *so much* about who Hammy is, where he comes from, and what he wants, and that is just fantastic. Now, for Sinny, we're still getting to know her. She's become hardened and cynical from "the Pirate's Life" and she wants *out*. Considering the bounty on her head, she doesn't really know what her next steps were going to be, but she's had her fill of killing innocents for paydays and dealing with assholes. She doesn't truly say it on screen, not out loud, but she wants something *more* from life than being a parasite. And then along comes *Grampa Hammy*, here to save the day, even if the last time they talked he was threatening to kill her if she became a pirate (which, low key fair). And he brought along this weird pseudo-Noble brat, and she's not immediately being shot and thrown out the airlock? And now this brat is saying that she has faith in her???? What????????? By having Sinny (and Sinny's narrative role as "The Redeemable Asshole") come in this early while having such a deep connection to the existing Crew (if only the very first crew member to join, and if only as the second crew member), this gives her *anchors and time and reasons* to try to turn her life around and become someone she can look at in the mirror. She can't let Gramps down after all, and she can't let the first person who has *faith in her* down after all, right? All in all, very intrigued by this direction and seeing that "I Believe In You" Charisma that Vickys tend to have shine through.
Evernigh
When did Kat become the Magog?
R. Maxwell Steele
Vegeta subjugated thousands of planets and caused trillions of deaths and still ended up coming around to morality when surrounded by the right people
Rafał Stępień
Exploding undead goats and burning cities with goblinfire is not politcs.
Berserkslash
Probably dropping this one, bringing on a Pirate who lead who knows how many people to their deaths and from her own thoughts didn't really care.
Runehkt
You know, she is not captain Kathrine anymore. She is....Commodore Kathrine! What's better than 1 ship? Two ships. What's better than two three. Then a fleet. Then a MOTHERSHIP THEN A STATION THEN A PLANETS THEN A SOLAR SYSTEM BUHAHAHA. Because you know what is better than traveling around with your own solar system. Mhm
Giperman
A Practical Guide to Evil is very good political fantasy series.
Adam Davies
Crabbit road trip. What could possibly go wrong….
Robin
Sin kirkbride, that name... is she going to boink her way across the galaxy? (Much like kirk before her).
Evernigh
So considering some of the comments I have seen time to play devil's advocate for Sin (Pirate Girl). To start with by the sounds of it she had some romantic idea of being a Pirate with her at the time BF that she ran off with at a young age (16 posibly) who hasn't done stupid shit when they were that age and if had the chance to be some space Jack Sparrow. Also who said she ever actually killed some one herself she was an Ewar specialist doubt she did any boarding actions. Though yes she would be accountable as ahe facilitated it. Finally once she left she may have regretted it a long time ago and wanted out a lot sooner I get the feeling this is the case she just saw no way out. I mean knowing what happens to pirates that are captured as Seras put in the chapter she wasn't expecting her Grandfater she was expecting some Merc group who would have basicaly enslaved her shitty choices all arround. I doubt she is evil as some people have said just some one who's choice led them down the wrong path who once they took the first step had no way out.
Evernigh
Nah defonot Isis more like some hardcore gang/ cartel.
closeded
I played video games, did aggressive inline, dated a gaslighting cheater, looked after my younger siblings, drove fast sometimes, got a job at winner Dixie while going to college? Enlisted at 18 for digital forensics. What she did was the equivalent of running off to join ISIS. Which yeah, some teens do that? Not something you come back from though. Joining an org with no long term benefits, that's known for rape and murder, then, betraying them when you get tired of it... Sinclair is fairly straightforward Chaotic Evil.
Garrett Cannon
serras would u ever do a heavy political story kinda like ascendence of a bookworm? i cant find any heavy fantasy political series.
Breaker_p16
I don't I love how the Baron was written and hope he's gonna be an ally to Kat through thick and thin. Also noble backup can deal with a lot of pointless drama leaving more time for Kat shenanigans.
Jared Obermeyer
Just ignore the tube of nano machines they took onboard. Nothing to see here.
TheLord999
I feel like that last sentence is very ominous and very foreshadowing
Pholt
Carrot approach would make sense, but I personally am hoping for an - at least partially - heavy handed approach. I would like to see a dynamic of using each other to achieve their own goals, with the baron not shying away from manipulating, and borderline blackmailing Kat when he thinks he can get away with it. And next time perhaps he'll give Kat a good deal, to make it worth it for her to keep in touch. If you have read Supreme Magus, I'm thinking of the dynamic between the MC and the royal family there.
ArtHunt
Yeah and there’s a difference between rescuing a killer and having them join your crew. Kat just is someone who cries over killing people, it feels really out of character for her to go out of her way for a murder who joined pirates because she wanted to get away from home.
Adam Danielson
As far as pirates and such go, think back to all the dumb stuff you did as a teenager. I know it's not the same level as pirating but just something to think about. not saying she's innocent or guilt free but reality is usually very different from how you perceive things to be.
ShadeByTheSea
Well a crabbit adventure sounds cool, I'd rather it as like a Xmas special or April fools joke. Kinda a one off this.
ShadeByTheSea
Time for a crabbit suit, power armor with a heart of gold and status of yellow.
ShadeByTheSea
Pirates are people too, and not all of them are bad people. There is a difference between doing bad things and being a bad person.
Happy
Nice.
White Neko Knight
I'd say the Crabbits count as Digital Sophonts. They'd count as casualties if they die. To me at least, other have weird ideas on what counts as life.
Seras
Yeah it's going to be a constant thing that Sin is the former pirate. Her opinion will always be sort of influenced by that.
Adelphos Praeses
I think I could get behind that if we get a clearer picture of exactly how many people the pirates were able to successfully catch. 14 years is a pretty long time and the pirates had to sustain themselves somehow. Exactly how many people have had their lives ruined over time? How does Sin feel about all those lives she's possibly ended or ruined?. Considering you have these dark undertones in the story I don't think you're planning ignoring those consequences. Maybe it's just not easy to see considering she just escaped.
Teej
Not yet at least 😉
Teej
If they used crabbit to pilot ships in the war it would reduce casualties if the ship were destroyed but I doubt she wants her little girls to break either
Seras
I get that. But keep in mind Sin was 14 when she joined, and you can't just leave a Pirate band. She basically learned a valuable skill while she was still in the honeymoon phase, and by the time she realized she wanted out, she couldn't.
Seras
Unfortunately I didn't write a Crabbit only adventure.
intata
Dang. Really seeing some progress now. Thanks for the chapter!
Einhander
That would be hilarious. Maybe they rescue a ships cat from a derelict too.
Einhander
My god, I would love to see a side chappy with the crabit's driving a known pirate ship through space starting rumors of Flying Dutchman pirate ships that only respond to hails with childish gibberish.
melchi
More friends!
Stefan Landshut
this made me laugh!! I mean they have infinite energy, the ship has infinite energy. That could be an infinite show!!
nugitoBambino
Kat: my little girls are growing up and doing stuff on their own *single tear falls as she forces the watery smile to stay on her face Everyone else in the galaxy: you let an AI do what????
Jared Obermeyer
Or, 'it followed us home, can we keep it?'
Just A Dude
Seras has said the Baron is trying to entice her to work for/with him because he recognizes her as a technological prodigy and generational talent even without knowing about the Diamond Array. She also mentioned he's smart enough to understand forcing someone like her to work for him against her will is just asking for a massive disaster. That means he'll gladly trade favors with her, and give her a good deal at that, because he's taking the "carrot" approach to recruiting her.
Rothgaar
How about let’s not hire the pirate lol just seems like a bad idea but I suppose it’s interesting to see how that plays out.
Just A Dude
Space, the final frontier. These are the voyages of the starship Bonus Prize. Its five day mission: to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations, to boldly get back to UNK-L before Captain Katherine gets worried.
Theo Exall
Probably a pardon for some of the nanotechnology?
Duke of Coffee
Welp the Crabbits are loose now. 😜 Anyway two crew members get maybe? Anything can happen in space~
MikeL
I hope they go on an adventure and maybe rescue another new crew member.
Xegzy
it sounds like the crew need to talk to kat about how the crabbit functions and why having an AI seems to be so scary for them.
White Neko Knight
Sin will eventually convert to the Crabbit cult. I'm excited to see her arguing with her E-War Crabbit.
MisterTubs
Tftc! I wonder if that little "roger, roger" at the end was foreshadowing for some crab it misadventures. Their personalities kind of fit with good 'ol fashion B1 antics.
William Johnson
Crabbits away! Everything's green and nothing could possibly go wrong! They definitely will not convert that ship in to a warship by the time they get to UNKL!
Ralph Smit
Will she get a upgrade of size later in the story she is now a phantom but not a star. Few things to add to ship mabye a field With trees for fresh food mabey annimal or sommting else. extra fighters for crabit crabit mech or tank for grond support. a place to relax gym Pool idk .research place i think she running out of space for her projects .shooting range .3d printer or somting like That to make stuff she already has someting like That but idk for otter tings. If you go lager in size mabel a few support ships she love to build and in a scrapyard a few pirates she got plenty to build.
Garrett Cannon
I love a good whiplash in the story.
thomas j walters
are we getting a crabbit only chapter? That would be hilarious
Tsume Eiranis
Thank you for the chapter. Am looking forwards how things will progress, for Kat, her misfit crew, and the Phantom Star's further upgrades.
R. Maxwell Steele
I'm always impressed by the adorable crabbits and think oh I should share this with my many nieces and nephews (42! 😅) when it comes out as a book. And then flinch at every F-bomb and remind myself... yeah their parents aren't going to go for that.
Emblyon
Hmm......maybe less evil, but a bit overly ambitious instead?
carebear90
Oh no... I hope those Crabbit don't get lost and turn into Xenon/AGI before we ever see them again. :D
joss sim
More gremlins gain more freedom.
Straven
Oh god now I can't stop actually seeing it in my mind!
Aaron Greene
Yay!
Garrett Cannon
i hope the baron turns evil. muhahaha
Jared Obermeyer
Ooo. We found this and brought it too. *Flailing little crabbit arms point to the hulking alien ship floating next to their vessel*
Carrotglace
And so begins the spin-off series: Lost in Space: have you seen UNK-L? Uuuu~!
Adelphos Praeses
Yeah maybe 14 years is a bit of a stretch to be realizing that pirates aren't handsome swashbuckling Chad's. Maybe 14 weeks or a year or 2? Gives a lot more leeway for a young adult who made a bad decision rather than a 14 year vet who not that long ago realized piracy was bad. I'll have to go back and check but how long has Hammond been searching for sin? I liked their family dynamic and hope to see some more of it in later chapters though.
wylie99998
Awww she's worried about the crabbit going off on their own.
Endymion2314
Honestly I see this as the Baron will help for tech. Tech for Favors is a decent trade. Otherwise a Job for the Favor. Kat's already shown that she will hunt pirates without being asked. Which means she will hunt pirates when being asked to. Honestly I want to see what kind of crazy EW setup she and Sin can come up with.
Bisontastic
I am just imagining a side story of the crabbits journey, with the intro being like the intro to star trek tng
Straven
Good developments but even more curious what's going to happen when she actually asked the baron for something....that'll either be interesting or horrible. Thank you for the enjoyable chapter, looking foreword to how well or not the little one do in this first real off course run!
Bosparan
Thanks for the awesome chapter!
Uroš
I'm happy that Phantom Star is back on the menu
Nathan R Chase
They are going to assimilate everything between here and their destination
Greki K
Ohh I hope that favor doesn't come to bite her in the back, but happy to hear she's getting crew.
Ya Boi
Yay! I love this story so much. Favorite author by a mile.
Mariana
I'm loving these chapters, everything is coming together!
Southernwind
Oh dear, AI let loose on to the universe.
outlaw
Woot woot! Another chapter!
Enkelados
I went into the chapter hoping the pirate would not join but here we are. She was a pirate that joined out of free will a murdering and raping band. She was there for fourteen years, accomplice to hundreds of not thousands of murders. Because she wanted to rebel against granddaddy. There are concentration camp guards with less blood on their hands. She deserves to be spaced and nothing else. I kinda regret it doesn't cut it.
Jeff091
hi, thanks for the new chapter typo “Hello hello!” I greeted as it floated sinisterly around her grandpa’s head I-->It “Hello hello!” It greeted as it floated sinisterly around her grandpa’s head
