After the freighter settled, a hatch opened and a small detachment of Vectorian soldiers had poured out. They were looking up at the hovering Ravenwing, shouting things Quintus couldn't (and frankly didn't want to) hear. He turned on the ship's loudspeaker and made his standard announcement:
"This vessel's cargo will be peacefully surrendered. Once your cargo has been safely disembarked, your vessel will be fixed for a nominal fee."
Quintus' statment resulted in even more angered shouting, followed by the captain using several rude gestures in the direction of the Ravenwing. Quintus smirked, knowing the futility of the Vectorian protestations. The first of several small Hoard fleet ships had began to arrive, unloading guards to ensure the transfer of cargo. Quintus monitored the process, laughing as one of the Vectorians began to fight with a couple guards. A dwarven wizard slowly levitated out of the Hoard ship, raised his hand and rained meteors down on the difficult soldier. He fell to the ground, mortally wounded and would die soon, if not aided. The other Vectorians took the opportunity to scatter away from the approaching detachment.The wizard returned to his ship with a wave toward the Ravenwing.
Quintus stepped away from the helm and inspected the configuration of the engines. "What happened here?" he asked, not expecting much of an answer. He opened the door to the aft drive engine bay and saw that his engine was nearly destroyed. Bolts were everywhere, twisted metal banding was strewn about and fuel was trickling down to the deck below. In his final push to catch the Vectorian freighter, the Thri'kreens had removed the safety throttler and in the process the engine had suffered a fate similar to that of the Vectorian lift engines. He sighed deeply and turned back to the helm. "At least we got them. As much cargo as they have, I can easily pay for a new engine. I'll have to tow back to Zozo, though." He noticed the Thri'kreens were apprehensive to approach him. "I am not upset with either of you. You did what you had to do. The objective was simple and we survived. You will be rewarded for your work here today." Quintus approached the helm and opened a small compartment where he kept small sacks of coin for bribing various blockades and trade representatives. He tossed two sacks to each Thri'kreen, each sack valuing around 100 platinum. They opened the sacks and immediately took to the air, swaying back and forth with joy.
"Remember what you saw here today. Work for me again and there will be ten times that amount if we can keep doing this. We've received an extremely large contract that demands large amounts of weapons, armor, food, water and more. Even better if we can take it from the Vectorians while doing so."
