You nod to Jace and tap your microbead again, "Zheeves, see if we can get a scan of the Golden Butterfly. Don't go so far as to be obvious about it though."

"Affirmative Sir. We'll continue our survey work for the moment, as the Golden Butterfly should cross our path on her outbound leg. We'll get our scans then. You think she might be our void pirate out of the Procyon System?"

"It’s possible. She could also be a covert supply craft for the real combat ships though, or simply a captured ship. The scan should tell us more. Tristan, clear." You turn to face Jace, "when we get those scans, I would appreciate your input. Any notable modifications, oddities, so forth. You probably know more about ship construction than anyone else aboard and you have seen the Golden Butterfly before."

Jace nods, and resumes working on the cleaning robot.

Several days later, after the Golden Butterfly has left the Helia system and the Aegis is headed for the warp lane to Nesre Secundus.

You, Frank, and Jace are standing around the holotable at the back of the bridge. Simo would also be present, but he is covering Frank at the helm. Displayed on the table are the scans you picked up of the Golden butterfly, and Jace has tagged several areas in yellow, indicating points of interest. Both of the ship's weapon systems are illuminated, as are several area of hull-plating. Jace points first to the hull-plating sections, "these are new. Last I saw the Golden Butterfly, she had banks of extra thrusters to improve her less than impressive maneuverability. They don't take up any space inside the hull, but can be real power-hogs. Now, she has bare armor plate in those locations. My guess is that extra power has been diverted to her weapon systems, which have also been overhauled." He gestures to the heavy turrets along the Golden Butterfly's dorsal spine, "These are new entirely, and probably where the power is being diverted to. Rhyza-pattern Plasma Macro-Turrets: shorter ranged than our own Sunsear Lasers by almost a factor of two, but packing a bit more firepower and a nasty habit of vaporizing subsystems and backups. If the Golden Butterfly gets these into range, they can inflict a lot of hurt." Jace gestures to the prow next, "and combined with this chin-mounted Titanforge Lace, the Golden Butterfly is mounting a lot more firepower than any tramp freighter should be. In fact, she is paying a heavy penalty in power consumption and available space just to mount those weapons. If she is our void pirate, she will be a nasty handful within her weapons reach, and her hull is slightly more durable than ours, but we have a decisive advantage in speed, maneuverability, and weapons range."

Frank nods, "the usual tactics for running down a pirate are to get up close and hammer away at the engines. Prevent them from running so you can either board them or pound them into scrap at your leisure. Not going to work well for us this time, however. I am concerned about her weapons load-out however. If she sets her teeth into us, she can inflict a lot of damage, and a lot of critical damage in a hurry. We will have to balance keeping her in range while staying out of the range of her own batteries. Given that we cannot fire our weapons astern, she can keep turning inside us to close the range. On the other hand, she will suffer from the same problems. If we can get on her stern, we should be able to stay there. And should she try to run, we have twice her speed in reserve."

Jace nods in agreement, "the Vagabond-class freighters are not known for either speed, maneuverability, or the strength of their sensors. We should be able to spot her first and asses the situation before engaging."

It is your turn to nod, "all well and good gentlemen, but we need to confirm that the Golden Butterfly is our prey before we start blowing holes in her hull. I'll have Zheeves put out feelers looking into her, and we should have some information on her by the time we get back to Viking. In the meantime, we have three more systems to survey."