Elias was fuming. Why couldn't one single plan just go the way he'd hoped? The Sybil taking out one of the destroyers had been anticipated, but having another break and running before the fight started was unexpected. And what was with that idiot playing chicken with a larger vessel like that? Still, the remaining ships should be enough to do the job, but it would cost a lot more resources than he'd anticipated. However, he couldn't even watch his plan unfold because now he was running for his life!

He'd been almost sure the ship was being run by the crew from the Sybil, but judging by the size of the landing craft they'd sent in, it couldn't have had more than a couple dozen people on board. Less if many of them had any sort of battlesuit. His security should have been more than enough to handle it, but then the suicidal idiots had chosen to ram his station instead, sneaking a small group on board in a different location in the resulting confusion. No matter how carefully he planned things, there seemed to be one level of chaos beyond anything he'd anticipated, and it was getting more than a little annoying.

Taking a deep breath, Elias reminded himself that he'd gone overboard in the planning for just this reason. He just needed to trust in his planning and get the hell out of there before he became collateral damage from his own plan.

Walking up to the door to his hanger, Elias toggled the entryway switch, only for the light to glow red, indicating the door was still locked. That was annoying. After all, it should have read his biometric data from his ID chip, but the station was in shambles, so maybe that system was having issues.

With a sigh, Elias entered his manual override, and again, it flashed red. That wasn't expected. That override should work locally even if the central system is inaccessible. The only way that wouldn't be the case was if...someone had overridden it.

Elias cursed. If they knew to lock him out of this system, it meant they knew where he was. Which, in turn, also meant it was all too likely his unwelcome guests were headed his way.

Pulling up his datapad, he looked at the location of the station personnel. It looked like there was a squad near his position. He signaled them priority orders to intercept the most likely approach of the enemy to buy him time to get past the door's security.

-

Carter was literally holding onto his seat to keep from floating away when, suddenly, the ship started shaking violently. That must be the missiles hitting the ship. Was this how he was going to die? All things considered, captain of a notorious ghost ship fighting against a literal pirate armada was definitely a more notable death than he'd been anticipating, but he still didn't feel ready to just lay down and die. Then again, as all the systems were down, and he was just stuck holding onto dear life, he didn't see many available options either.

On the other hand, the shaking didn't feel like what he'd expect a ship being torn apart would feel. Not that he had a lot of experience in that field, but he imagined it would be a lot more violent. Particularly considering the fact that the inertia dampeners were probably offline. It was likely a much smaller explosion, like someone blasting a hole in the ship's side to board it.

Not wanting to sit around waiting for someone to come kill him if he didn't run out of oxygen first, Carter decided that sitting around waiting to die didn't sound appealing. He released his seat and started free-floating. He pushed off his chair, aiming for the door. His aim was slightly off, but he was mostly headed in the right direction.

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However, as the doorway loomed closer, Carter realized he had no idea how to stop his momentum when he hit rather than simply bouncing off the wall. Maybe if he could get his feet in front of him, he could bend his knees, absorbing some of the impact. That thought led to him uselessly trying to twist and turn mid-air, probably looking quite comical. Thankfully, no one was around to witness his futile attempt.

Out of time, Carter tried to use his arms instead. It kind of worked, absorbing much of the impact when he hit the wall. It was enough that when he bounced off, floating in the other direction, he was moving a lot more slowly than before. However, that still left the issue of him floating around uselessly. At his current rate, reaching the opposite wall would probably take a full minute. That would give him plenty of time to position himself so he could aim better for a second attempt.

As he planned how to push off the wall this time, a familiar voice spoke up next to him. "As amusing as this is to watch, what say I give you a hand with that?" Carter looked over just in time to see the girl smirking at him when the gravity kicked back on, sending him tumbling to the floor.

Thankfully, it wasn't a long fall, but it was long enough that hitting the ground momentarily took the wind out of him. As he got to his feet, Carter glowered at the girl. "You could have eased the gravity back on more slowly..."

The girl smiled. "Yes, I could have."

Realizing she wasn't about to elaborate or apologize, Carter decided to let it go. After all, he had more important things to worry about. "What happened? Why'd you all disappear like that?"

The girl's smile widened. "Well, to shake off the pursuing missiles, we simultaneously took a sharp upward turn to take us just over the enemy ship, launched our own missiles toward said ship, and powered off pretty much every system aboard the ship, leaving a simple subroutine in place to power us back up as quickly as it could. The idea was that this would throw off the missiles' guidance systems and force them to chase our own missiles rather than strike us while positioning the nearby ship between us and the other battleship. If we waited for the absolute last moment, the enemy wouldn't realize what we were doing in time to deactivate the missiles. As we were able to power back on, it seems to have worked."

Carter rubbed his aching backside. "So then that shaking just a minute ago..."

The girl lit up a screen, showing the flaming wreckage of the nearby battleship. "Most likely, what you felt was the impacts of debris from the nearby ship getting hit by the missiles meant for us."

Carter nodded as if everything made sense and he wasn't struggling to catch up. "Sounds like everything went as planned then. Just...uh...don't mention the part about me falling on my ass to the vixen, eh?"

The girl laughed. "Even if my other self didn't power up the same time I did, we share memories, remember?" Some derisive laughter behind him helped drive the point home.

Realizing he wasn't going to win this one, Carter just sighed and shook his head. Still, that left only one battleship and the cruiser to deal with. Things were finally starting to look up!

-

Alen looked over Cole's shoulder while listening in on his conversation with Erik. "So it looks like there's a squad between you and the bo...er Elias. But if you hang a left at the next intersection, you can bypass them easily enough."

That made sense and matched what Alen was seeing, so he was expecting Erik's response. "But will it take longer if we do?"

Cole looked confused as he tried to understand the point Erik was making. "I'm sorry, what?"

Erik answered again. "Will it take longer to go around?"

Alen felt the man's pain as Cole shook his head. "Not really, assuming it would take you at least a few minutes to get past the squad."

Erik laughed. "Well then, it sounds like we're going through."

Cole looked at Alen as if asking, "Is he insane?"

Alen smiled and shrugged. "Well, you did tell him it would only be faster if it would take him a few minutes to get past the squad."

Cole didn't look any less confused. "Yeah. It's a full squad equipped with battle suits. He can't afford to be pinned down by that!"

Alen laughed. "Yeah, I suppose you didn't see them in action on the way up here, did you? If you have any cameras on that level, you might want to tune in. This should be fun."

The recently retired pirate didn't look convinced but turned back to his screens to watch the unfolding chaos anyway.