Space pirate's swan Song

17.08.41: SPACE PIRATE Kim Chung Song, the solar system's public enemy No1, has been captured in a dramatic 36-hour space battle.

The confrontation took place in the 1000-kilometre warren of lava tubes beneath the lunar crater Tsiolkovsky. It involved more than 500 officers of the privately funded Lunar Trade Defence Force.

Kim Chung Song has preyed on the spacelanes with impunity for the past seven years. But he went too far in 2037 when he intercepted a Mitsubishi-Kodaira ship carrying a cargo of gravidium to Earth. Mitsubishi-Kodaira and 24 other companies involved in translunar freighting formed the Lunar Trade Defence Force, or SpaceCorps. Officers of the force, carrying laser weapons and fighting for the most part in vacuum conditions beneath Tsiolkovsky, suffered heavy casualties before cornering Kim Chung Song and 34 of his cohorts. They are expected to be held at Lunar Penal Colony 3 before transfer to Earth for trial. Shares in the '25 companies' have leapt at news of Song's capture.

'With the threat of piracy removed, it's a new dawn for the space business,' said a spokesman. MC