The cutlass is figurative, of course. In space battles there isn't any need for actual hand-to-hand combat. Most space battles consisted of the artful use of energy and grappling beams to inflict damage and physically steal the cargo from the hold of the victim ship. Rarely is the preyed ship ever boarded, except in times where the cargo was simply too precious to be wrestled from the warm bosom of the cargo hold. In those times, the pirates stole upon the ship with all the stealth of a fifteen megaton asteroid and rampaged through the ship until the desired cargo was actually in their hands. This type of plundering was only attempted by expert (where expert can be considered a synonym for foolhardy) and experienced pirates because it required that the pillagers leave the safety of their own ship and venture out into open space to the wounded ship below. It can be done. Many still remember the ravage of dread pirate Arrghrazam and his pillage of the Martian ship Hughes. The ship itself was not of stellar reputation, its cargo being twenty-five adolescent girls to be sold into slavery on the moons of Jupiter. Arrghrazam and his first mate single-handedly boarded and captured all twenty-five girls after incapacitating the crew of the Hughes with a large nitrous oxide grenade. The girls, believing themselves to be freed, went willingly into Arrghrazam’s ship, the Red Pulsar, only to be sold into slavery by Arrghrazam himself! It was told by a knowing source that the girls pleaded with the dastardly pirate to release them to their families, to which Arrghrazam only laughed as he handed their chains to the foreman of the mine they were to work in. The knowing source also said that the girls were not in chains to begin with, but Arrghrazam placed the chains on them because he knew that that was the proper way things of this nature were done.

Not all ship board pillages are this successful. One remembers the tragic and often laughed-at story of pirate Eggy and his ship the Plimsoll in their failed attempt at kidnapping the Homelegate Duke of Europa from his vacation to the Earth Moon.

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Total Word count: 1115

Notes to self: I need to be doing better. Also, think of a really crappy and botched way for Eggy to die in his attempt.