One Last Visitor
The lucky devil pirates arranged for support by pirates tied to the Malthar. The Lucky Devil pirates came out of their secret cryo chambers early and began trying to take the ship. The pirate assault scout will show up after the fight on the Venture is concluded. The referee can determine exactly when but it shouldn't be more than a few hours later.
The Malthar pirates expect to dock with the Venture and kill the 4 Lucky Devil pirates (or anyone else still alive) and send the Venture to their fence. They don’t want it because the CFM is known for having an extreme response when its members are killed. If the Venture is completely under the PCs control then it’s entirely likely that these pirates can be talked into leaving. They are not really looking for a stand up battle.
The pirate assault scout will show up after Captain Kleevor has been released from the tangler threads and revived from the stun attack. He will not endorse any plan that allows the assault scout to dock with the ship after this encounter where he potentially could have lost his ship. If a space battle breaks out and the Venture shows herself to be whole and well-handled then the pirate ship will be quick to break off.
It is always an option to run a KHs battle between the Venture and an assault scout as a finale to this adventure. There is also an upcoming Abstract Knight Hawks Combat article with details on running a star ship combat without the Knight Hawks board game and this final encounter could be run with that article.
In the Event of Capture
Should the Venture's crew capture any of the pirates they can be turned over to the militia at Inner Reach or to Star Law. Star Law considers the book closed on the Lucky Devil pirate band after its dismantling due to information provided by the Venture's crew at Lacco. Therefore there is no reward for turning them over to Star Law. The Inner Reach militia, however, is constantly dealing with the depredations of pirates and has even fought wars with the pirate supported naval force of Outer Reach. Thus they have a standing bounty of 2000 Cr for pirates taken in the act of piracy. The reward is good whether dead or alive.
If the referee desires to continue the adventure and give the players a chance to pursue the Malthar pirates as well, the referee could allow any captured Lucky Devil pirates to know the name and/or where to find their Malthar contact on Inner Reach, thus providing them with a lead.
Payday?
The delivery the Venture’s crew is expecting to make is faked and there will be no payday here in the Dramune system for their cargo. The only profit from the delivery will be in the form of equipment captured from the pirates and any robots captured.
Captain Kleevor is alive and well though embarrassed. The pirates hit him with a tangler grenade and then stunned him to prevent him from talking more on his chronocom. Once he realizes that the delivery contract was faked and there is no deliver he will decline to take a cut the bounty on the pirates, grateful to the crew for preserving his life and ship.
