The hardest part of preparing was choosing the correct equipment. Back in her combat engineering days, she’d have an entire squad to spread the gear among. Electronic toolset - yes, no telling what was wrong with Moray’s computers on the physical side of things. Welding equipment - no, would be on board along with cable patches should it be needed. Vac suit - definitely, that shouldn’t even be a question. As with all other engineering personnel who had suits issued on a permanent basis, hers was adorned with personalized markings so they could easily tell each other apart in a manner similar to medieval heraldry, since otherwise all the suits looked mostly the same. In addition to name, rank and position inscribed on her shoulders and back of her helmet, the front chest piece and the back of the backpack were decorated with a white silhouette of a spin-gravity station on a red background. The engineering suits also differed from the standard model by the type and layout of armor - where the arms and legs tightly hugged the body to make movement easier and allow the wearer to survive with nothing more than a bruise if the suit got torn in vacuum, the torso and helmet were lined with boron carbide and tungsten armoring to protect the wearer from harm as well as shield them against various types of radiation.

On approach, she observed neither the Moray’s engine nor its maneuvering thrusters looked damaged, at least from the outside. It was possible Moray’s crew were too scared by their situation to run, something she could hardly blame them for, so the pirates didn’t bother targeting the propulsion and risking harming the passengers by accident. If that was the case and Moray complied willingly, they could’ve pulled the entire kidnapping off without physically damaging anything else besides the communications arrays, which gave her hope that getting the navigation computer up and running would be no harder than entering a few commands or flipping a breaker switch. It would make the task quite easy. Almost too easy.

Astrid was more than happy to let the big guys out of the shuttle first, implicitly considering Geu’rach to be in command of the boarding party. Truth be told, she felt a little inadequate among the two alien giants, each towering over her by at least half a meter, and armed only with a laser carbine either of the two could almost consider his sidearm, but at least any potential hostile would be busy looking at them and ignoring her. Not that the thought of danger to her comrades was a particularly comforting thought. Fortunately, at least the immediate vicinity seemed to be clear of any trouble.

“Have you seen the sum that octopus-looking bastard is asking for? ISA could save money by buying the hostages at slave market value instead of paying the ransom. At least we don’t have to feel bad shooting at slavers.” Astrid rambled while unloading a case containing some of the heavier tools she couldn’t carry on her person all the time out of the shuttle. “Hmm, they left ventilation on. Not just that - lights, gravity, A/C… Most pirates I’ve encountered would’ve stripped it clean of anything useful or vlauable. As if he’s expecting to get paid, return the crew and fuck off. Can’t be that naive, can he?” After three years of salvaging dead and silent ships, finding one for all intents and purposes untouched, yet vacant was a strange feeling, even if they knew exactly what happened to the crew.