The stars breathe, you know. And I'm not talking, "oh, every million years there's a superflare" or something asinine like that, I'm talking about on a daily basis. Stellar exhale leaves at hundreds of kilometres per second, from spots on the star dictated by its magnetic field. It travels out, for a yellow-range star, at least a hundred standard radii, and then it's slow enough that it just sits in that high orbit. A little protective bubble for every star, slowing interstellar particles. Isn't that amazing?
Do you know how infuriating it is when you're busy being a space pirate and the trader you're pirating says, "Okay, you can have some of the cargo. Have a wonderful day!"? Because it's so annoying. But of course since they dropped the cargo I can't even say "shoot one of their rockets, we'll see how nice and patronizing they are now." There's no respect for the business anymore, couldja at least pretend that I'm fearsome? I swear, this "pirate's honor" stuff is rubbish peddled by people who don't understand what it's like....
Security Force Leader- well... former leader, he supposed- Enchedon Marralis had to admit: despite it being a misappropriated hand-down, and despite its size, the pirate battlecruiser "Plan C" handled like a dream. Even in the cramped lanes within Amdelan's rings, the kilometre and a half long chunk of metal never touched so much as a boulder. Security Force ships alternately popped in to fire and popped out to avoid being fired upon, never quite scratching "Plan C"'s paint as Enchedon and his cohort fled to dubious safety.
---
It had begun with the inquiries, he thought. He had amassed one too many remarkable victories over pirate forces- and lower-ranking officers on both sides had begun to grumble about how "curbstomps weren't fun". He had shot back- how was the Security Force supposed to do its job if it had to play by the rules? But he had just kept losing ground with every argument. Soon he sounded almost like the sniveling coward he was being portrayed as... so his superiors had come to him with a deal. He would defect to the pirates' side, and in doing so even out the victories.
Unfortunately, they didn't know he had already made a deal with a pirate admiral to do much the same thing. He set the ship they were on to self-destruct, and in the confusion his savior pod made it aboard a certain pirate battlecruiser that had come to render assistance.
---
He had decided to go down to "Plan C"'s ventral lounge for this assault- it was close to the huge gun they called the Second Spine. He could feel the vibrations as the Second Spine swiveled in its naked-turret mount, pointing towards its largest target yet. Normally, vibrations on a ship would be cause for alarm- but it seemed these pirates enjoyed feeling everything their ship did. Enchedon Marralis looked at the screen and smiled a predatory grin as he watched the Second Spine's glowing end fix on Security Force Station "Ever-Vigilant".
Well... former station, he supposed.