**Interlude pirates: Pirates of the Outer Rim**
**Scene 1: Bridge of the Acushnet**
A young Weequay standing beside Hondo Ohnaka scratched his head, looking thoroughly confused. "Boss, why do we even need to go so far?"
Hondo Ohnaka leaned back in his command chair on the bridge of the *Acushnet*, gazing up at the ceiling with theatrical exasperation. "Every time! Every single time a new guy joins the crew, I have to explain everything from the ground up. How do your mothers even give birth to you like this?" He poked another wide-eyed newcomer in the chest. "Listen and remember. You too."
Different cargo could be sold in different places for different profits. Some places you couldn't sell it at all. Knowing these subtleties made life easier—and filled your wallet. Luckily for you, I know what, where, and to whom to sell. In this particular case, Old Gilbert is the perfect choice. He won't ask where we got two dozen nearly new BTLs from, and he'll buy them from us for a perfectly reasonable price. You'll have to haggle, but that's okay. Then again, Old Gilbert can get repairs and refueling inexpensively. This is the Outer Rim, after all, not the Colonies. Generally, Gilbert doesn't like pirates—pun intended, right?—but he's kind to entrepreneurs like me."
"So since he's got some cash, maybe we should rob him?" suggested the second recruit.
Hondo dramatically pressed his palm to his forehead. "Oh, my sins are grave. If I rob everyone, there'll be no one to sell my wares to. And Old Gilbert can fight back."
"Boss, but we have a cool ship," the recruit insisted. "Look, it's almost four hundred meters in diameter. It has two medium turbolasers, four heavy ion cannons, four rapid-fire medium laser cannons. And there are six shuttles in the hangar! That's powerful!"
Hondo smiled, a gold tooth glinting. Yes, his *Acushnet* was indeed a fine ship. He'd bought it for just over four million credits. Initially, he'd wanted a Corellian CR-70 upgraded to CR-90 specs, but he'd stumbled across an offer from some small company and couldn't resist. In the end, he got this powerful vessel, plus six versatile shuttles—essentially a fusion of shuttle and fighter: fast, maneuverable, and well-armed.
"Yeah, I'll bet we're tough… But Old Gilbert's tougher. He saved up some money in his time and when he retired—that is, when he retired from active operations—he picked himself a nice little planet, a backwater but at least unclaimed, and brought the *Firestar* there. That station might be old, but it can give you a run for your money. Its shields are only slightly weaker than those of the Trade Federation's container ships, and those are tough nuts to crack. Fifteen hundred rapid-fire launchers, sixty missile and torpedo launchers, and two hundred and forty fighters on board… I myself once delivered spare parts for Gilbert's Daggers. He bought them used, for only five million. And to top it all off, he had about ten ILH-KK Citadel fighters. No, we can't handle that…"
**Scene 2: Emergence into Chaos**
At that moment, the *Acushnet* dropped out of hyperspace… and the ship shook violently. Then again. And again.
"What the hell is going on?" Hondo barked. "Did you drag us out into the middle of an asteroid field?"
"No, boss," the helmsman responded, voice tight. "They're not asteroids. They're debris. If I understand correctly, we slightly grazed what remains of one of the *Firestar*'s towers…"
Hondo's eyes widened as the viewport cleared. The station was gone. Instead, a slowly expanding cloud of twisted metal and scorched plating drifted in orbit. Several Dagger starfighters floated lifelessly nearby, heavily damaged, their hulls blackened and torn.
"Get me a connection!" Hondo commanded. "Gilbert usually hangs out in the planet's settlement with his concubines."
"There's no connection, boss," the comm officer replied after a moment. "The settlement isn't responding. No one's responding at all."
Hondo adjusted his tricorne hat, expression hardening. "Okay… Launch the shuttles—let them inspect everything here. We're landing near the settlement. We need to find out what happened."
He glanced at the newcomers, who were already looking green around the gills. "Although… They have every reason to empty their stomachs."
**Scene 3: The Settlement**
The settlement was destroyed. Completely.
Houses lay in charred ruins. Smoke still rose from collapsed structures. The inhabitants… most had been taken. The rest had not been so lucky.
Hondo stepped off the shuttle ramp, boots crunching on debris. Three hundred sentient beings—men, women, even a few children—had been impaled on metal and wooden stakes driven into the ground. Their faces were frozen in masks of horror and agony. This had been done while they were still alive.
"Boss, do you think this is McKnight's business?" one of his lieutenants asked quietly.
"Definitely," Hondo muttered, staring at the distorted face of Old Gilbert on one of the stakes. "He'd have the strength to pull something like this off."
Shinii "Stake" McKnight had earned his nickname honestly. He impaled those who resisted his pirate gang. A very large gang.
"Boss, we found several downed fighters and a frigate," another assistant reported. "They're definitely not from around here. Purple and green."
"It's definitely McKnight," Hondo concluded. "What are we going to do, boss?"
Looking at Gilbert's ruined face, Hondo sighed heavily. "What to do, what to do… Get your asses up and see what we can get out of here. Shini's bastards aren't very careful. And they definitely didn't know where *Firestar*'s fuel supply was. Hey! You got a special invitation? Start looking!"
The crew scattered, some still pale from the sight. Hondo walked slowly through the carnage, tricorne casting a shadow over his eyes. The Outer Rim had always been dangerous, but this level of brutality was becoming more common as the war between Republic and CIS spilled over into neutral territories. Pirates like McKnight were growing bolder, feeding on the chaos.
One of the shuttles reported back: the *Firestar*'s main fuel depot was intact. Weapons lockers had been looted, but not completely. Spare parts, some ammunition, even a few barely damaged Daggers could be salvaged.
Hondo allowed himself a small, pragmatic smile. "Load everything useful. We'll sell it elsewhere. Gilbert would have wanted his goods to keep moving."
As the crew worked, Hondo stood on a small rise overlooking the ruined settlement. In the distance, the debris cloud of the *Firestar* continued its slow orbit. The war was changing everything—even the pirates.
"Boss," a subordinate called, "we've got a partial manifest from one of the intact terminals. Looks like Gilbert had a big shipment of high-grade fuel cells and some Republic surplus blasters ready for sale."
Hondo's eyes gleamed. "Good. Very good. Load it all. We'll find new buyers. The galaxy is at war—someone always needs what we have."
He adjusted his hat once more and headed back toward the shuttle. Grief for an old contact was a luxury he couldn't afford. Business was business.
The *Acushnet* would leave this graveyard richer than when it arrived. And somewhere out there, Shinii "Stake" McKnight was laughing, unaware that the Dragon's war was making the Outer Rim smaller and more dangerous for everyone—including rival pirates.
Hondo Ohnaka intended to survive it all. And profit.