perfidy

Recently, I have been reading the delightful and sanguinary webcomic, "Schlock Mercenary." Amidst the many treasures to be found there, there is this, quotes from the self-help manual The Seven Habits of Highly Effective Pirates:

1. Pillage, then burn.
6: If violence wasn’t your last resort, you failed to resort to enough of it.
8. Mockery and derision have their place. Usually, it's on the far side of the airlock.
9. Never turn your back on an enemy.
12. A soft answer turneth away wrath. Once wrath is looking the other way, shoot it in the head.
13. Do unto others.
16. Your name is in the mouth of others: be sure it has teeth.
27. Don't be afraid to be the first to resort to violence.
29. The enemy of my enemy is my enemy's enemy. No more. No less.
30. A little trust goes a long way. The less you use, the further you'll go.
31. Only cheaters prosper.
34. If you’re leaving scorch-marks, you need a bigger gun.
35. That which does not kill you has made a tactical error.
36. When the going gets tough, the tough call for close air support.
37. There is no "overkill". There is only "open fire" and "I need to reload."
n. Give a man a fish, feed him for a day. Take his fish away and tell him he's lucky just to be alive, and he'll figure out how to catch another one for you to take tomorrow.
n+1. Just because it's easy for you doesn't mean it can't be hard on your clients.

If you are unfamiliar with the Schlock Mercenary universe, you can start here. And on your way out, ponder these last three nuggets of existential Schlock wisdom:

On a scale from 'that's not free checking' to 'heat death of the universe', I'd say we're looking at 'the enemy has a superweapon we can't track.'

Somebody sounds stressed, and I think it's a me!

'Minimal collateral damage' and 'Entire star system' do not belong in the same sentence