Vanessa knew the fighting would probably be fiercest as they unloaded from the small cargo hauler. They'd done their best to retrofit the ship to distract their opponents, allow rapid disembarking, and obscure their exact positions. Still, for a brief period, they'd all essentially be in one location, with the pirates able to position themselves around the ship to catch them in a crossfire. The hope was that given the sorry state of the ship they were attacking, the enemy wouldn't be nearly as well geared or trained as the last group they'd fought had been, thus giving them the relative advantage due to their new battle suits of Sybil's design.

As soon as the gangplank crashed to the ground, Commander Reid led the initial charge with his squad of fully suited-soldiers. Vanessa knew Erik would have been right there with them if he wasn't responsible for keeping Alen safe, but he still provided covering fire as they disembarked, plastering the far wall with bullet holes to force the pirates to keep their heads down while the suited soldiers established the initial foothold.

Everything was going as planned, which was how Vanessa knew it was only a matter of moments before something went wrong. She allowed her body to still as she allocated a more significant number of resources to processing information, essentially slowing the action down from her perspective, a skill that was uniquely hers as a lone Vitexrā, granting her the level of control over her one body that most of her people spread throughout thousands. That's when she saw it, a small cylindrical object flying through the smoke that could be easily missed in all the chaos. Its trajectory was carrying it toward the ship's entrance, which could cause considerable damage to those who had yet to offload.

Narrowing her attention to just the grenade and focusing all other internal resources to act as fast as possible, Vanessa launched herself forward, flying through the air on an intercept course. Knowing she likely only had a second or two to spare, she swatted the grenade away as far as possible.

The grenade was still far too close when it exploded, sending shrapnel in their direction and tearing into her carapace, but at least it was far enough away the concussive forces weren't enough to cause significant damage, and she'd been able to cover her few vital organs with her limbs, losing only one hand in the process. Thankfully, Vanessa's carapace had kept the shrapnel from penetrating very deep elsewhere, and she was able to increase clotting activity around the holes in her carapace, allowing her to act relatively unimpeded until she could later extract the pieces of metal now embedded in her. Of more significant immediate concern was her trajectory, which was carrying her toward a group of pirates. If they hadn't briefly taken cover after the explosion, she would have likely been an easy target, but as it was, she landed in the midst of them as they were just recovering.

When she hit the ground, Vanessa lashed out at the closest pirate. The wounds were deep but not immediately lethal. However, the pirate dropped his weapon in shock and pain, meaning Vanessa could focus on more pressing threats. With a lurch, Vanessa pushed off toward the left, bodily impacting the pirate with a shotgun who'd been about to fire, throwing his aim wide as she turned and impaled him with her good hand, whose fingers could act as blades if properly flexed. Then, with a rapid spin, she slammed the pirate now on her hand into a second nearby opponent, flinging them both to the ground.

Two more pirates who had the advantage of distance turned and took aim. Unsure of what else to do, Vanessa lurched forward, hoping their fear would throw off their aim, only to skid to a halt when the two pirates were suddenly and violently wrecked with dozens of bullets as the whine of Erik's chaingun filled the air, tearing their insides to pieces.

Vanessa turned to her companion and bowed respectfully. "Thank you, my lady. I appreciate the assistance."

Erik simply laughed and winked. "Well, when I saw you dive headlong into the fight while I was sitting back, all trying to show restraint and everything, I had to chip in! I couldn't let you have all the fun!"

Looking around, it seemed the initial assault was starting to wind down as Commander Reid launched a counteroffensive against the pirate's last entrenched position. As she was looking around, Erik looked down at her momentarily before pointing toward her damaged hand. "That salvageable?"

Vanessa raised the appendage to examine it. "No. At this point, the damage is extensive enough that I've already cut it off internally. At this point, it's just dead weight."

Erik nodded and reached over, pulling out one of his knives, then flipped it end over end and grabbed it by the blade to hand it to Vanessa grip first. She accepted the offered blade and cut off the hand with one quick motion.

About then, there was an exclamation from the ship, and when Vanessa looked up, Alen was approaching with a med kit while almost shouting. "You shouldn't have cut it off like that! We got to get the bleeding under control quickly!"

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Vanessa held up the appendage for the human to see as she explained. "I've already stopped nutrient flow to the hand. I am in no danger of 'bleeding out.'"

Alen didn't seem appeased as he looked the absent hand over. "But what about the pain or possible infection? Also, you might have cut something that could have been used in a prosthetic!"

Vanessa was somewhat annoyed by the pestering. "I cut off the nerve endings, so there is no pain. I am also considerably more robust than humans, with little chance of infection. As for a replacement, I will just grow a new hand rather than use a prosthetic. It is both more efficient and more functional that way."

Erik simply laughed. "Yeah, this isn't the first limb Vanessa's lost in our time together. She'll be fine! It'll probably only take her two or three days to grow a replacement once we get out of here!"

Alen seemed at a loss. "Oh, well, I guess you got it well in hannnnn...er... I mean, you seem to have everything under control."

Although it was a bit annoying, Vanessa had to admit, it was a new sensation to be fussed over by a human rather than simply tolerated by them. At the very least, he deserved some acknowledgment for his attentiveness. "Thank you. Your concern is noted. I will remember this."

Alen looked up at Vanessa and smiled awkwardly. "Uh, yeah, anytime..."

The rest of the unarmored humans, mostly engineers the Commander was going to escort toward engineering, finally exited the ship to examine the battlefield, which was now quieting down. A few looked a bit sick, but most looked like they'd seen something similar before. Erik hefted his chaingun up onto his shoulders and grinned. "Well, now that the rough part is done, let's get you to the bridge!"

Alen suddenly looked a little more pale. "I wish you wouldn't say things like that. You're practically asking for bad luck!"

Of course, Erik didn't seem fazed in the least. "Eh, bad luck, good luck, it's all the same, just a question of how you look at it!"

For some reason, Alen looked even more pale after that.

-

Once they were confident the crew of the Trader's Vigilance got aboard the pirate vessel relatively safely, Carter turned toward the girl. "Well then, shall we finish up with the station? You did say you were certain they're pirates, too, right?"

The girl nodded. "Yes. With nearly ninety-nine percent confidence, we can state that pirates are now running the station."

Carter frowned. "Nearly ninety-nine percent? Any way we could get that to one hundred percent? I don't particularly like the idea of having innocent blood on our hands if we can avoid it."

The girl didn't seem fazed. "Well, if we can take down their shields, it'll be much easier to get a reading on the station now that we're closer."

Carter thought about it a moment, then nodded. "Alright, but before we go in guns blazing, why don't we simply ask them to lower their shields? It can't hurt, right?"

The vixen looked at him doubtfully. "You really think that'll work? They'll just lower their shields because you say so?"

Carter shook his head. "Probably not, especially if they are pirates like you think. But I wanna at least give them a chance, just in case. It's not like that outdated station can do much to us anyway. If they could, they would have made their move by now."

The girl nodded. "There is merit to that idea. Should we speak with them again?"

Carter shook his head. "Nah, let me. I wanna get a read on them myself."

-

Cole was just coming to terms with the fact that he was now at least partially responsible for the deaths of a good number of their men or at least for refusing to help when suddenly his console lit up again. With hesitation, he turned back to the new guy in charge. "Uh, Boss? It looks like Sybil is calling again..."

The man in charge gave Cole an indecipherable look. "Have they started assimilating the smaller ship yet?"

Looking at his screen, Cole shook his head. "Uh, no? Or at least I don't think so? It looks like they sent an assault craft and are taking the ship from the inside."

The boss frowned. "Hmmm... Better put them through, then. Let me speak to them this time."

With relief that he wasn't going to be responsible this time, Cole complied. This time, it was a male voice speaking. "This is Captain Carter of the Sybil. Who am I addressing?"

The boss looked as cool as ever as he answered. "This is Elias, temporary Commander of the refueling station. What can I do for you, Captain Carter?"

Cole tucked away that bit of information about the Comander's name while Captain Carter continued. "Well, here aboard the Sybil, we're in a bit of a pickle. See, we're almost certain that you all are also pirates, but we're not one hundred percent on that, so I have a request. If you'd be so kind as to lower your shields, we'll do a quick scan to make sure. If you're not pirates, we'll leave you be."

Elias laughed. "Quite direct, aren't you? And what if we are pirates? What will you do then?"

Cole couldn't believe he'd just say it like that! Was he insane? The answering voice was a shade cooler this time. "Well, if that were the case, I'd recommend getting to whatever escape pods you can quickly reach because you won't have a station much longer."

Commander Elias's grin sent a shiver down Cole's spine. "Copy that Captain. We will comply. Just give us a moment, old equipment and all that."

This time, the voice sounded ice cold. "You've got thirty seconds starting now." Then the line cut.

Cole looked over at the boss. "So, umm, should I lower the shields, like you said?"

Elias gave him a look as if to say, how stupid could you be? "No, pour all non-essential power into the shields and call in our reinforcements."

-

Well, now Carter was ninety-nine point nine percent certain. "If their shields aren't down on the second the countdown ends, hit em with everything we've got."

The vixen looked pleased, but then several alerts started going off. Without being prompted, the girl spoke up. "Looks like we've got incoming, at least six of them."