“I’ve run back and forth to the Imperative so many times I’m dizzy, and salvage has lost its appeal. I want to go hunting.”

Warwick chuckled. “Oh? You thought you found a nice juicy wreck to liquidate, only to find a survivor with a legitimate claim on board, so you’re stuck with a lousy percentage? I can see how that would be a little demoralizing.”

“I’m totally demoralized. I want to go demoralize someone else. With guns.”

“Hmm, well, there’s a smuggler running Liar tech from their outpost on Iukkoth past us and on through the Jovian bridge. They’ve got a wicked fast little ship and some kind of masking technology they appropriated from the Liars, but the Raven is probably a match for them.”

“Mmm, no. My mood is less chasing, more laying waste. I want to go after Glauketas.”

Warwick pushed her tablets away, paying full attention now. “Are you sure? You’ve always said no to that mission before. I believe the words ‘suicide mission’ and ‘do I look stupid to you?’ usually come up.”

Glauketas was a fat pear-shaped asteroid that drifted in the blurry disputed area between Jovian Imperative and TNA territory. There were rumors, never confirmed, that the Imperative offered the pirates at least passive protection, and it was incontrovertible fact that the thieves hit TNA targets more often than Jovian ones. The TNA was reluctant to send a formal military force to take out Glauketas for fear of triggering a Jovian reprisal – moving a bunch of warships close to another polity’s space tended to produce a negative reaction. The pirates knew that, and took full advantage of their position. There was a bounty for the capture of the pirates, though, and if a crew like the White Raven, which did security work on a contract basis, wanted to try to collect that bounty, well: that was different.

“I always said no before because the White Raven is too pretty to risk getting blown up trying to take out a hardened base. But I heard a rumor you got your hands on some new armaments and defensive systems that could make an attack a lot more lopsided in our favor.”

Warwick sighed. “My engineers talked to Ashok, didn’t they? Why do engineers always talk to each other? So. You just want to play with my new toys.”

“I want to do my duty and help the Trans-Neptunian Authority promote peace and prosperity and safe shipping lanes. And to play with your new toys. Ashok said there’s some fancy stealth tech? Or shields? He wasn’t clear on the details.”