Jonas sat in the captain’s chair of the Grimwold. His data-band buzzed and he tapped it.

“Hey captain, the repairs are complete. My brother headed back to the lament a few minutes ago,” said the mechanic.

“Thanks Toby. Our watch is over,” said Jonas. “We’ll be heading back to the station soon.”

“I’ll be sure and get an early start tomorrow and make sure everything is running with all the replacements,” said Toby.

“Sounds good, Jonas out,” he said as he ended the comm. It wasn’t more than ten seconds later, that another notification caused his band to vibrate. Jonas groaned and tapped it again. This time, Lyra’s face appeared on the display before him.

“Well don’t you have a foul look?” she accused.

Jonas lifted a brow and grinned. “Sorry, long day.”

“Don’t I know it,” she said as she leaned back in her seat. “James just got back to the ship and our replacements are enroute from the station. Ready to get back?” she asked.

Jonas briefly pictured the two cruisers which would take over their watch at the gate. “Absolutely. I’ll see you at the station then?”

Lyra made an extra effort to shrug. “Maybe, we’ll see if we bump into each other,” she teased, before ending the comm.

Jonas was left with a wide grin on his face, when he looked over and noticed Harriett looking at him. “What?” he asked.

Harriet shook her head and looked back to her terminal. “Nothing, captain.”

His eyes narrowed at her suspiciously. “Route us back to the station, I want to put an end to this day. It’s been—” his data-band buzzed again.

“I’m gonna throw this thing out the damn airlock,” he grumbled as he tapped it again.

The display initialized and a face he hadn’t seen in a long time appeared.

“Hey Jonas, been a while,” said the black-haired human.

“Marcus? The hell do you want?”

Marcus’s shoulders slumped. “So it’s gonna be like that between us?” he said. “I didn’t know you hated me so much.”

“It’s not so much as hate, as it is...annoyance,” he said. “Now what do you want? We’re not friends, and you never call me unless you want something. So what is it this time?”

Marcus shook his head. “Fine then, let’s cut right to it. I need your ship, Jonas.” A moment later, a notification appeared on Jonas’s display. “There’s a vessel heading towards Malstyx. It’s most likely a pirate vessel working for one of the corporations. It’s going to level a facility in the wilds on Malstyx. We can’t warn our associates inside. You have to intercept it and disable it, or at least buy us time for our associates to get out of there.”

“Why would I bother with this?” asked Jonas. “You realize the ADA is gone, right? You have no rank. You have no authority to command me. What do I care if the corporations are levelling each other’s facilities? I have enough problems with real threats to Malstyx.”

Marcus ran a hand up through his hair and narrowed his eyes at the comm. “Well, let’s see if this changes your mind at all. I don’t know who this person is, but maybe you do?” said Marcus. An image appeared on Jonas’s screen. The image of a woman.

Marcus spoke up again “I’ve never met her before, but I’m told she’s currently in that facility. The one that’s about to be leveled by that ship.”

Jonas’s eyes widened when he saw the image of the woman. The crimson hair. The blue eyes. He knew damn-well who it was.

Marcus cleared his throat. “Now, if you have any—”

“Cut it, Marcus!” Jonas bellowed. His head turned to Harriet. “Harriet, can we engage this pirate vessel before it reaches the designated coordinates?” Jonas asked as he forwarded the vessel’s location to her.

Harriet’s fingers moved swiftly over her terminal. “Certainly, we can intercept it. But...captain, it’s a vampiric battlecruiser. It outclasses us.”

Jonas looked back to his display and at the information of the ship. “Damnit,” he murmured.

“Old or new?” asked Alexa.

Jonas glanced back to his weapons tech.

Harriet glanced over the specs on the vessel. “Mmm, looks like it’s one of the verean’s newer models,” said Harriet.

Alexa laughed. “Good! Our chances of survival increase! Their new ships are always half a class lower than what they appear. So pretend it’s a cruiser-plus, instead of a battlecruiser.”

“Does that mean you’ll do it, Jonas?” asked Marcus, who was still on the comm.

Jonas looked to Marcus with a stern face. “That ship is no longer your concern, Marcus. I’ll see this done.”

Marcus nodded, “Thank you, captain,” he said, just before cutting the transmission.

“Setting intercept course for the pirate vessel,” said Harriet. “It’s not emitting a signature, so I can’t discern its name.”

“Disengage our MG signature, set us to freelancer. I won’t give command a reason to decommission us from the guard.”

“Yes captain,” said Harriet as her fingers moved across the terminal.

Another notification appeared on Jonas’s display. He tapped it immediately.

Lyra’s face appeared, her eyes narrowed. “Where are you heading off to?” she asked.

Jonas took in a deep breath. “Just a patrol, a little sight-seeing,” he said.

“Then why’d you disengage your signature? What are you up to?” Lyra asked pointedly.

“I just didn’t want anyone thinking I was still on the clock, is all,” he said.

Lyra shook her head. “Fine then. Be that way.” She cleared her throat. “Harriet! The hell is Jonas up to?” she yelled through his comm. “Answer me!”

Harriet noticeably tensed in her chair as she looked up to Jonas. “Don’t put me between your lover’s quarrel!” she said.

Lyra grumbled. “Alexa!”

“We’re going to go hunt a pirate vessel for a friend of the captain’s. Wanna come? I’ll send you the coordinates,” said Jonas’s weapons officer.

Jonas turned his head “Damnit Alexa! I didn’t want to involve her with this!”

Alexa shrugged. “But Lyra would be upset if you went and got killed. Honestly, I’m just thinking about her, captain.”

“Thanks, Alexa!” said Lyra with a big grin. “Send me those coordinates.”

“Yes Ma’am!” said Alexa.

“You’re supposed to be my crew,” Jonas grunted. He then looked to Lyra.

“I’ve gone ahead and set the Saturn’s Lament to freelance,” she said. “Ready to back you up. So, why are we about to intercept a…” Lyra’s words trailed off as she looked down at the specs for the ship they were after. “A battlecruiser? Explain! This isn’t some frigate, it’s not even a cruiser!”

“I like to think of it as only a cruiser-plus,” Alexa murmured under her breath.

Jonas brought a hand to his forehead and rubbed his temples.

“I’m repaying a debt,” he said. His hand lowered and he looked to Lyra. “That’s why I didn’t want to involve you. It doesn’t matter what that ship is. It’s on its way to Malstyx and I can’t let it get into weapons range. I don’t care if it was a damned dreadnaught. I would still do everything I could to slow it down. That’s all we need to do. Just buy as much time as we can.”

Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

Lyra’s featured softened slightly. “We all have debt, Jonas. Don’t for a moment think you’re the only one who owes someone something.” She shook her head. “How’re your weapons looking?”

Jonas tapped at his display to check on his ship’s active capabilities, but Alexa spoke up on his behalf. “We have two active missile ports, and four medium projectile turrets. Regular countermeasures are still down since our scuffle earlier. Small turrets are assigned to short-range defense.”

Jonas listened as a heavy thrum sounded within the Grimwold as its engines took it blazing towards an intercept course for the verean vessel. The Saturn’s Lament was following a short distance behind.

“So we doing this standard style, partner?” asked Lyra.

Jonas lifted a brow. “I don’t recall us ever taking down a battlecruiser together.”

Lyra laughed. “Just pretend it’s a big fragile cruiser. You tank it, while I keep my distance from its weapons and annihilate it from afar. Simple.”

Jonas grinned at Lyra’s optimism. They didn’t even know what capabilities the verean ship had. But their standard maneuver involved him soaking up whatever munitions the enemy might throw, and becoming the primary target, while Lyra kept her distance and deployed missiles and other long-range armaments.

“Oh, by the way,” said Lyra. “I fired the last of my munitions for the rails, when I saved your ass earlier. All I have is missiles and…” Lyra looked down at her terminal and tapped at it several times. “I’ve got thirty missiles left. So, I hope your weapons cache is looking better than mine.”

Jonas rubbed at his stubbled chin. “We’ll make do, Lyra.”

“Well we’ve managed this far, Nothing’s changing for us now.”

It wasn’t long until they were nearing the verean vessel.

“Sir, I’m not reading any weapons ports on the scans,” said Harriet. “Should we hail them?”

“That’s why a good pirate keeps their weapon ports sealed until they’re ready to strike,” said Alexa.

Jonas sat in his chair with narrowed eyes on his display. He watched the verean ship on one section, while Lyra’s face remained off to the side as he kept an open channel with her.

“Hail them, tell them they’re in violation of...” Jonas’s brow furrowed.

“Smuggling enemies of the state?” Lyra commented.

“Perfect,” said Jonas. “Accuse them of that. Tell them to cut their engines and prepare for boarding procedures.”

“Opening a channel now, captain,” said Harriet. “They’re not respon—”

“They’re firing!” shouted Alexa. Moments later a series of loud cracks sounded against the outside of the hull and reverberated throughout the ship. “They’ve deployed four railguns! No signs of other weapon ports.”

Jonas quickly zoomed into the image on the pirate vessel. They had very limited knowledge of the ship they were dealing with, other than its size. But now they knew it had long-range capabilities and accuracy.

“Harriet, get us closer but keep us between it and the lament. Alexa, prioritize engines, then the turrets. Return fire!”

The guns of the Grimwold sent micro vibrations throughout the ship as two of its turrets blazed away. Projectiles, the size of Jonas’s head, were being thrown across the distance of space in rapid succession.

“Careful on our ammo supply, Alexa,” Jonas warned.

“Aye!” Alexa called back as she focused on narrowing down the targeting parameters for the turrets, so that they would only fire when their tracking provided a ninety-percent chance or higher of landing a hit.

“Jonas I have a lock. Firing tubes one through ten,” said Lyra. “They keep throwing out some sort of interference, are you getting any of that?”

Another series of harsh cracks impacted the hull of the Grimwold as it was hit by railgun projectiles.

Jonas centered his attention on the display as the fire from his ship reached the pirate vessel. Only about thirty percent of his firepower was landing hits on the enemy ship.

“I’m getting it too!” called Alexa. “It’s screwing with our trajectories. Their ship’s evading, but that interference is keeping us from landing most of our hits.”

Jonas watched as the ten interspersed missiles from Lyra’s ship soared through space. Four streaks shot from the pirate ship and detonated four of the missiles before they could make it a third of the distance.

“Alexa, overclock those turrets!” Jonas bellowed. “Decrease the hit chance ratio. I don’t care if we miss more and use more ammo now, I want to barrage them with as much fire as we can manage. We’re not going to stop them at this rate! Switch target priority to those railguns!”

“Aye!” she called as she swiftly made the required changes as per Jonas’s orders.

The remaining six missiles closed in on the enemy, but four more streaks shot from the verean vessel’s railguns and neutralized another four missiles. Seconds later, two of the missiles smashed into the side-rear of the ship.

“Confirm two hits,” said Lyra. “Tubes are reloaded, but I’m down to twenty. Advise.”

Jonas listened to Lyra as he watched the enemy vessel. He wasn’t sure what to have Lyra do.

“No decrease in speed on the enemy,” said Harriet.

Jonas’s fists clenched. “Did the hit take out any of their—”

Another series of flashes from the verean vessel and new impacts hit the Grimwold . A beam in the outer hall cracked and smashed into the floor as several panels burst from the walls.

“Three of their rails are still active!” said Harriet. “Another volley and we might start losing systems. The volley after that, might breach us.”

“Changing course! Let’s give them another target!” said Lyra as the Saturn’s Lament shifted from its course so that the Grimwold was no longer eclipsing the enemy.

“Damnit Lyra! Get back in formation!” called Jonas. “Your armor’s too thin!”

“Shut it!” Lyra called.

The pirate vessel raced towards Malstyx with the Grimwold in close proximity. The guns of the Grimwold were pouring out fire at the enemy ship as they flew through space.

“Decrease of enemy’s engine speed, fifteen percent!” called Harriet. “Projectiles are eating through their armor on the engines.”

“Alexa, how we looking on munitions?”

“Not good!” she replied. “I can keep up this rate for...sixty seven seconds!”

“What’s the ETA of their firing solution on the facility?” called Jonas.

“Three minutes and some change. Their engines are fluctuating. I think they’re overclocking it!”

“Good, maybe that’ll give us more time before they hit us with another—”

Three flashes came from the verean ship. Jonas waited for the rounds to hit the Grimwold, but the only sound was the Grimwold’s engines and his ship’s own firepower. Flashes in the corner of his eye brought his attention to Lyra’s comm.

“Damnit!” called Lyra as a fire could be seen in the background. Her fingers flit over her terminal and extinguisher vapors gusted across her command deck to put out the flames.

“Lyra, report!” said Jonas.

“Minimal damage!” Lyra said in an insincere voice. “Damn, I’ve lost scanners and Long-comms. I’m flying nearly blind here!”

“Can you fire all your missiles in one salvo? I know how much you love that,” said Jonas, trying to remain upbeat as he wondered if Lyra was lying about the severity of the damage.

“Looks like the lament got pelted, those shots targeted her systems,” said Harriet in a low voice meant mostly for Jonas.

“I can fire them,” said Lyra. “But It won’t do any good! I don’t have the capacity to direct them and guide them to the ship. I buy the cheap missiles, remember?” she did her best to smirk.

“Lyra, fire them now!” Jonas yelled.

Lyra blinked and shook her head as her fingers tapped at her terminal. “Launching all tubes! But there’s no use in—”

“Alexa,” Jonas broke in. “Hijack Lyra’s missiles, guide them to the target!”

“I forgot you have my codes,” Lyra murmured.

“On it!” called Alexa as she directed her attention towards taking control of Lyra’s deployed missiles.

“Can we increase output of those turrets?” asked Jonas.

“Not unless you want to lose those turrets as well,” Alexa replied.

“Jonas, I’m moving back behind you,” said Lyra as she directed her ship back into formation.”

“That’s where you should’ve stayed,” Jonas grunted under his breath.

“I heard that,” she said.

The twenty missiles launched from the Saturn’s Lament passed around the Grimwold and headed for the verean ship.

“It can only take out six of them,” said Jonas. “Just keep our—”

Three flashes and then the Grimwold groaned as Jonas’s terminal blew in a brilliant flash. He winced and brought his arm up to shield his face. Luckily it didn’t explode.

“They hit us instead?” asked Jonas.

“They hit our reactor, losing power across all systems!” said Harriet. “Relays are blowing out, systems are going dark!”

“I’m losing guidance on the missiles!” said Alexa.

“Drop whatever you have to, route whatever you have to! Keep those missiles active!” Jonas pulled out of his chair. His terminal was fried. He lost visual on the ship as well as Lyra. His data-band was only allowing him to interact with it but without the terminal and required systems, his communications were lost.

“Can we contact Lyra?” Jonas asked as he rushed around to Harriet’s terminal to stand beside her as he gripped her chair and the terminal for support in case of another hit.

“Negative and we’re losing speed,” said Harriet. “I don’t think our reactor’s going to make it.”

Jonas looked over to Alexa. “Tell me those missiles are still on course!”

“I’m working on it!” she said. Her eyes were wide as she stared at her terminal. Her fingers flew as she made calculations and programmed the missiles with swift commands.

“Sir, our reactor’s going into the red,” said Harriet. “We need to evac!”

Jonas nodded to Harriet. “Evac the crew,” he said. “Alexa, we’re running out of time!”

Alexa didn’t reply. Her ursari adrenaline was pumping as her hands moved faster and with more precision than his or Harriet’s ever could.

Suddenly Alexa’s terminal went dark as a fuse blew within the compartment housing its electronics. Alexa shouted as she smashed her fist into the display, crushing it.

“Did you get a hit?” Jonas asked. “What happened?”

Alexa sucked in a deep breath as she looked to Jonas. “Five seconds to impact. I had control of thirteen of them. I programmed them in a spread-pattern, based on the enemy’s last coordinates and where it was heading. I have high-hopes that at least one of them will hit,” she said.

A deep groan resounded from within the Grimwold as everything went dark.