<strong>Rose</strong>turned to Mya with surprise in her eyes,<em>"No! Don't move the ship!"</em>she shouted. But it was too late. The Belle Dame lurched forward, the grapple lines wrenched from the pirate ship. As the Belle Dame moved, the cloak deactivated, the systems unable to run the engines and the cloaking system at the same time. Suddenly, the approaching pirate cruiser's comm system lit up with chatter as they saw the mercenary ship.<br/><br/><em>"They've spotted us!"</em>said Rose, turning to her screens,<em>"The pirates are sending men to board us..."</em>she started, a little fear in her voice,<em>"...and our entire assault team is still on the pirate ship."</em>The lovely second in command cursed under her breath, then turned to Kiyanee,<em>"Activate all our defenses. They're preparing to send boarders."</em><br/><br/>Indeed, within minutes the pirate ship dispatched men. Twenty of them were starting to head across open space towards the Belle Dame. Much like the Rogues, they were planning on hacking through the hull, invading the ship and shutting down the systems from inside. The Dame's exterior defenses kicked in as soon as the pirates got into range, small autocannons firing upon the approaching men. Some of them were cut down, but there were too many targets for the Dame's minimal defenses.<br/><br/>Suddenly, the Spiteful Crow started to open fire upon the converging pirates. Jinny in the ship's bridge must've found the pirate's weapons systems and had turned them upon the approaching boarders. The confusion caused the pirates to scatter momentarily as they seemingly were fired upon by their own men. It bought the ladies aboard the Belle Dame a little time, but the boarders started approaching again, at least a dozen of them left landing on the hull.<br/><br/><em>"Kiyanee, lock us down! Mya, get us back over the pirate ship and get those grapples down, NOW!"</em>said Rose, before tapping her comm system,<em>"Ladies, how are things on the ship?"</em><br/><br/>Meanwhile, back on the Spiteful Crow, the ladies' combined assault had made quick work of the zombified pirates. What had caused them to turn into decaying horrors was still a mystery, Vix would have to examine the medicine to figure it out. It was up to the girls how to proceed; they had one of their own trapped on the bridge and an untold number of zombies between them and her, plus they had cargo to recover, and their own ship was under siege. The mission was not going well.