[Nyneve bites off more than she can chew]

The docking queue was quick and the station comparatively quiet. Ysolde disembarked from her pod and took Nyneve for a walk around the station as the hangar crew unloaded the packages for her agent and performed basic maintenance on the Adamant. Nyneve had perked up again considerably and was eager to see what the Angel pirates were like first hand.
“But I don’t’ see why they don’t use pods too…” Nyneve was gesticulating excitedly as she drank her kaffe.
“A question of economics. The majority of the Angel Cartel pilots are grunts. They have neither the training nor talents to be worth a pod, in their eyes. The higher ranked members are capsule fitted and recently some of the Curse and Stain alliances have found this out first hand with the rising tensions between the Cartel and Sansha’s Nation.” Ysolde answered back, matter-of-factly.
Nyneve’s face fell. “So… that means when we hunt them, they’re all going to die? No pods?”
“Yes.” Ysolde shrugged lightly. “But they know this too. Remember also that the vast majority of pilots out there are not capsule-fitted and their ships also have more crew. We are the lucky ones who get a second chance. And even if we do die if we are in our capsules we will live again as clones. These are all choices that are made by the individual pilots. Take the risk and prey on innocent miners and you will forfeit your life.”
“Yeah… I guess.” Nyneve’s facial expression was a little hard for Ysolde to gauge. Somewhere between distaste and pity.
“No matter how peaceful your intentions are as a pilot, if you ever undock then you will at some stage find yourself in the situation where it is either you or them. Sometimes, ‘they’ are pod-fitted and sometimes they are not.” Ysolde continued. “For what it’s worth, I have never destroyed a defenceless capsule.” She glanced down at her empty cup of chai. “And I do not fly ships that require crew much, in case I get shot down.”
“I heard about the Hades Express from my Uncle…” Nyneve nodded slowly.
“It’s all past history though. I’ve settled on my course as a pilot and I do not see myself ever piloting large ships with extensive crews. The skeleton staff of an Interdictor or Destroyer is my limit. Even my Industrial vessel is automated. And besides, lazy pilots often underestimate what you can do with a frigate. I have yet to ever find a situation where I wished I was in a cruiser instead.”
Nyneve’s eyes gleamed at Ysolde’s comments, as if it were some sort of challenge.
Ysolde noticed and raised an eyebrow. “You don’t believe me?”
Nyneve smiled coyly, “I’d like to see you stand up to a couple of good cruisers.”
Ysolde made a quick motion as if checking a wristwatch, “what, now? Certainly! And you’ll have the best view as well!” A cunning grin followed Ysolde’s statement as Nyneve realised she’d just talked herself into a corner.
With a resigned “arse…” Nyneve finished up her kaffe.
“I’ll meet you back at the Adamant. I have an agent here who keeps tabs on the Angel movements. I’ll see if he’s got a couple of ‘good cruisers’ to hunt. Oh and so you know, they always have support wings of frigates. Some of theme even splash out on elite ships like mine…” Ysolde smiled wickedly as she got up.

Nyneve looked up at the Adamant as she waited for Ysolde. She was hopping from foot to foot nervously and really couldn’t imagine this ship holding its own under the combined firepower of several cruiser class vessels. She was really hoping Ysolde had done this a million times before and hadn’t just accepted the challenge to call her bluff. Nyneve had been wanting to pilot cruisers since she signed up at the RMS; in particular she liked the look of the Rupture. The news that ships like this one, impressive as they were she had to admit, could take one of those down…
“OK are we ready? Let’s roll.” Ysolde had approached and Nyneve hadn’t noticed, flinching a little in surprise.
“She’s all loaded up. Targets are grouping at a deadspace beacon the other side of Matar so we have to be quick.” Ysolde waved Nyneve over to the elevator. “We don’t’ have exact numbers but I’m guessing it’s a standard medium-threat raiding formation. Looking at six Cynabal-class cruisers with a backing fleet of 8 to 10 Dramiel and Daredevil-class frigates. They’ll be of mixed configuration with target painting support, some missile use and a combination of artillery and autocannon fire consisting of a balance of the various damage types.” Ysolde explained her thoughts to Nyneve as they entered the ship and walked down the gangways to the bridge.

Nyneve was a little pale and Ysolde noticed, smiling in a reassuring manner. “Don’t worry. I own. The Adamant owns harder. You’ve heard the tales of what we’d encountered and survived together. This is absolutely nothing.”
Nyneve was left alone, strapped in and waiting. For the first time, she took a few moments to peer over the bridge area. She could see the panels that would have been filled with controls and displays had this not been a capsule-fitted solo ship. She thought it was kind of cool to have your own private frigate class ship that didn’t need any crew because you were a capsule pilot that could command it all solo. But in her mind this was only a runabout. The real way to fly was with a grand ship and full crew complement. She was definitely going after that Rupture now.