Flash back vignette (predates this adventure and the Mercy mission to Madderley's star)
Players start with pre-gen Royal Marines on Clarion station. and a boarding shuttle is available to them in the central hub but their vacuum suits are not on board.
They have drawn an execution by vacuum detail where they must escort a pirate from his cell to an airlock for execution.
The pirate runs his mouth the whole time taunting and threatening and promising that he will get even with the royal marines
Sentence is read by high ranking RM officer Pirate is placed in airlock and the restraints removed. Offered chance to say last words, resorts to an insult and I'll get even threat.
The button is pushed and he is blown out of the airlock he has 1 minute to live in total vacuum. However, through the viewport to the side of the air lock, a large launch looms into view with its bubble canopy open, a space suited individual with a net grapple gun fires on the executed pirate. The PCs are stunned to see the pirate captured and reeled into the launched and being placed in a freeze field bodybag as teh launch heads for a nearby frighter.
PC's had the execution duty and see what happens and are forced to run for the elevators, to the station docking bay, cut short a pre-flight check (give the players the pre-flight checklist and ask them how much of it the want to skip in the interest of running down the criminals. For every item on the checklist they skip, there is an accumulative x% that an engine will hyper ignite which cuts the ship's ADF in half. no real time to don vacuum suits which may still be stored in a locker on the space station.
The freighter has a lead and the PCs are in pursuit (potentially at half ADF) The freighter begins detaching cargo container to try to hit the PCs ship requiring a pilot roll each time.
They can board it but the ship is empty, when they get to the bridge the view screen is active and the
"executed" pirate is on the screen smiling at them with a towel hanging loose around his neck. He taunts, "So long suckers" then presses a button and the bridge blows up. a cargo container pops open and a thruster class privateer emerges and targets the freighter or the boarding shuttle the PCs used with assault rockets.
All the pre-gen PCs could/should be killed. TPK but perhaps not if someone gets lucky somehow but these are throw-away characters and this event gives the Royal Marines a huge motive to get this pirate.
(Obviously, he is going to show up during the convoy mission.)
Players may possibly have a personal grudge for this NPC at this point? Play the NPC are arrogantly and dismissive as possible, make his taunts as personal as possible, and use the "Gollywog" insult. Perhaps he favors a catchphrase: like Suckers or something.
