The Buccaneers Bay

[Thexare]

Milton approached the door somewhat cautiously, and was - like so many other Prospects - stopped by the doorman who, he noted, made all the other security measures quite pointless.

"Yer lookin' scared, kid," the bouncer said as he pointed his gun at Milton.

"I bet you would be too if you had a gun in your face! I'm Milton! Milton Radley!"

"Nope, don't know ya," he replied, causing Milton to step back a bit. "Hah! You're that new Prospect, get in here before I change my mind."

Milton complied. But despite having a gun in his face just now, he was on top of the world. Just two weeks ago, he'd hotwired the Dromedary now sitting in Dock 4, now christened the Silver Arrow after the nickname the news channels gave him a year ago. Since then, he'd been in a dry spell; his computer crime and corporate espionage work dried up since Ageira made such a big show of almost catching him, while covering up the almost catching him, and he hadn't had any successful piracy either. Until today.

"Took you long enough to get yer scrawny ass down here!" another Buccaneer shouted mockingly.

"Didn't want to stop in until I'd actually done something," Milton replied.

"Spit it out, then, who'd you rob?"

"Some Percheron captain. Scanned his ship and picked up a bunch of people. Not nearly enough for a Percheron, though, figured they were a bunch of self-important idiots who demanded their space," he explained, sitting down across from the other pirate. "No use for people like that short of ransom, and who'd want to be the poor bastard keeping them fed until then? So I just extorted a quarter million out of the captain and let him run along." He grinned and added, "Of course, the transfer 'glitched' and I got about fifteen thousand more than the captain meant to send."

"Hah! Not bad," the veteran pirate laughed, leaning back in his chair. "Hey, Johnson, get this man a beer!"

"But the day was off to a crappy start before that. Tried to rob a miner. He didn't get the message, and I hadn't brought enough EMP mines to keep his shields down. Got some scans of his ship, though - [DSE]Serrian, didn't have a single mining laser on him. Who the hell mines without the right gear anyway? That's like pirating without a disruptor."

"Yeah, well, he fought you off, didn't he?"

"Hah! Good point. But I'm ready for him next time," Milton replied, clearly in a good mood despite the screwup and enjoying his beer.