Quite a nice arc all in all. While the show certainly takes some freedom from physics and other matters for the sake of entertainment, I feel having this kind of introduction was better than throwing Marika immediately into the captain's chair of Bentenmaru and real, heated fights of split second decisions.

I didn't deem Bentenmaru and the other pirate ship appearing strange. All things considered they must have made the decision to interfere when the enemy started shooting. It's only that they appeared when the situation was already over, practically speaking. The navy appearing might be a bit more strange. Who told them to be ready to intercept?

Marika and Chiaki will be rivals, then. It's yet to be revealed just what licensed pirates can do and can't do, but one would assume they aren't bathing in gold coins. No matter how vital they were to the indepence of the planet in the past, they went around robbing every ship, no government would stand them, despite dusty old treaties. If they mainly attack foreign vessels, it's a different thing, but I at least hope in this show lone pirates aren't stronger than navies backed by whole worlds of industry, research, military academies and whatnot.