"Radiant Barrier strength is marginal, Rama!" I distantly heard Winri call out.

"Flip the breakers for nonessential systems and focus the barrier around the main hull! We can afford to take hits to the wings, there's nothing there but empty quarters."

"On it!"

The ship rumbled and whined around us as I prepared my gambit. I was going to fold space to leave us, hopefully, outside the trap and far enough away to engage the FTL drive and transition to Subspace. Even if we weren't out of range of the disruptor, we would at least have increased our lead on our pursuers.

I had no way of knowing the exact cutoff where the Itzli disruptor started to take effect, so I would have to find how high I could push the power through trial and error. I continued my evasive maneuvers to try and keep the fighters and boarding craft off us as I experimented with the power settings, my split attention costing me precious seconds and space.

It took me four tries before I finally found the limit of power I could pull into the graviton arrays before it fizzled out. Our pursuers had continued to close in that time as I struggled to stay ahead of the swarm chasing us. Now I needed a clear spacelane to use this on so that we didn't end up with any unwanted tag-alongs.

"Someone find me a clear spacelane, our exit strategy is charged and ready," I ordered as I sent the specifications for the size of the empty corridor I needed to their consoles.

There was no response from my friends but the furious tapping of haptic keys as they desperately searched for the empty space we needed. I briefly checked one of the still functioning rear cameras, many of them having been taken out by stunner cannon shots, to see a pursuing arrow of blocky assault shuttles surrounded by a cloud of bent-wing fighters on our tail.

"I found one!" I pulled the coordinates from Tayle's console and grinned at the irony of what I saw.

By approaching so close with their capital ships, they had left enough room for the narrow end of the graviton cone to slip through their formation. This would leave us behind them with half their fleet blocking the rest. I couldn't have asked for a better corridor.

"Alright! Buckle up everybody, it's time for a magic carpet ride!" I brought the ship around in a swooping curve that would bring us into alignment as they frantically doublechecked their harnesses.

I pulled the mental trigger with visceral glee, and for a moment everything seemed to stand still. I watched as the space in front of us began to ripple, and the ship shook and groaned as we flew over the distorted space. Finally, it reached full power, and the Itzli fleet in front of us disappeared, replaced with open space.

"Yea!" Winri cheered.

Tayle sagged in relief, and Gericht leaned back a satisfied smile on his face as I shut down the graviton array and, aimed for open space to put as much space as we could between us and the Itzli fleet while the drive charged. The ship bucked, almost throwing us from our seats and shrill alarms began to blare.

"Rama! Behind us!" Arvin called out.

I switched back to the rear cameras to see space behind us uncoil like a snapped high-tension cable. The Itzli fleet was in disarray, explosions flaring as ships were thrown into each other as the recoil of the folded space pulled them towards the corridor we had used in our escape. Who needed plasma cannons when you could destroy entire fleets with the power of gravity?

The view of the Itzli fleet's destruction was abruptly obstructed as a trio of assault shuttles and a squadron of bent-wing fighters suddenly appeared. They'd rode the gravity wake we'd left behind and miraculously survived without the graviton shears destroying them. Several of them weren't so lucky on exit though as they left the wake at unpredictable angles.

Well over half the fighters and two of the assault shuttles collided with each other leaving brief fireballs and drifting hulks as the heavily armored shuttles were left adrift. The last assault shuttle and remaining fighters were undeterred and charged headlong toward us.

"It's not over yet, we've got incoming!" I yelled pulling my crew out of their premature celebration.

"Slag! They really don't know when to give up, do they?!"

I dove down as the Itzli fighters pulled high and dived, giving them the widest surface of the ship to aim for. They opened fire spitting red plasma bolts, having finally given up on taking my ship intact. I veered away to present a smaller target, easily avoiding the one-dimensional attack.

The ship rocked and the diagram in my vision zoomed in and highlighted the main airlock in red. My blood ran cold at what I saw on the internal camera. A pair of massive harpoon heads were firmly latched into the hull of my ship. I'd been outmaneuvered, they'd deliberately baited me into turning to expose the belly of the ship to the last functioning assault shuttle.

I maneuvered desperately trying to tear the harpoons free of the hull. No success, the incredibly resilient hull of the William Cody was proving to be a hindrance and not a help in this. The ship rocked again and almost threw me from my command couch as the assault shuttle reeled itself in and slammed into the hull.

"We're about to have some uninvited guests! Winri!"

"Y-yes?!"

"I'm transferring the helm to you! You have control. Gericht, Arvin, with me, we have a lizard infestation to burn out!"

"Uh, y-yes, I mean aye! I have control!"

"Yes."

"I'm with you!" Arvin's voice had a visceral anticipation to it, I noted.

Gericht and Arvin unbuckled their restraints and followed me as I made for the captain's ready room as my NIL directed me to the emergency armory. Barging through the ready room door, I triggered the armory. The entire back wall of the room dissolved into smart matter revealing rows of guns and armor.

"Whoa!"

The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

"Nice."

I began pulling equipment off the shelves and laying it on my desk. First was a trio of PL-77 proton rifles followed by sidearms and holsters like my own. Armored vests with bandoliers of spare magazines and jackets much like my own followed. We quickly began to arm ourselves when the door opened again. I looked up to see Tayle marching in with a determined look on her face.

"I'm coming too." She declared, stomping past me, "Just try and stop me." I watched, silenced by her glare, as she pulled a massive PL-44 proton cannon off the wall and slammed a magazine home as the weapon lit up with a whine.

I exchanged looks with Gericht and Arvin and deliberately went back to putting on our armored vests and jackets. Finished we exchanged nods and I grabbed an extra pair of sidearms before we exited the ready room.

Returning to the bridge I stopped to hand the extra guns off to Winri and Arvin's wife, who I realized I had never gotten the name of. She was scared out of her mind, eyes darting around the bridge for some unseen enemy and her hands shook as she took the offered gun.

"Lock down the door after we leave, just in case," I ordered as I handed the last gun to Winri.

Turning I rejoined the rest at the door to the bridge, "And if the worst comes to pass, make sure you save one shot for yourself. It's better than the alternative."

Turning away I triggered the door controls and they slammed shut behind us, and I heard them chirp and the distinct 'ca-chunk' as the physical locks were engaged. Now even my NIL wouldn't be able to open that door, only brute force or disengaging the lock from the other side would work.

I checked the internal cameras to see that the Itzli had brute-forced the airlock, and the doors were wrenched wide open. Only it wasn't Itzli I was staring down at, but Kekoan void troopers, their massive bulk easily distinguishing them from the Itzli.

"Forget the lizards, looks like we're having seafood today, a full squad of Kekoan VT's."

"Slag."

"You said it, Gericht."

"It looks like they're setting up an ascension system using the lift cables," I observed as I increased our pace to a jog.

"Easy targets coming up one at a time." Gericht opined.

"Not as much as you might think. Kekoans are fast and wear heavy armor. Unless you can hit the lighter armored areas consistently, the only thing that will take them down in one shot is Tayle's proton cannon, but it's short-ranged."

"So what's our plan then?" Tayle asked as she looked over her weapon.

"The lift is the only way to the other decks for the Kekoans, they're far too large to fit in the maintenance passages. I'll pull the lift to the upper deck and open the door. Then we can fire down the lift shaft on them from above."

"Attack them when they're most exposed, clever," Arvin noted.

"If we're lucky, they'll never make it to the command deck." We came to a halt in front of the lift doors.

Exchanging nods, I triggered the doors exposing the empty shaft. Looking over the edge I could see the first Kekoan already beginning their ascent. I knelt and opened fire, sending blue bursts of protons down the shaft toward the advancing Kekoans.

Gericht and Arvin moved to the ends of the open door and braced themselves on the door frame and began to send their own fusillade of fire down the shaft. Tayle knelt beside me, proton cannon at the ready to blast anyone who got too close. Below us, the Kekoans were quick to react and soon a storm of green maser return fire filled the shaft.

I watched as our fire pinged and dented the ascending Kekoans helmet before a shot finally made it through the heavy armor and the massive warrior slumped bonelessly in their harness. The automatic release system engaged and dropped the dead Kekoan back to the airlock doors as another prepared to ascend.

The Kekoan's aim was accurate, as maser fire scored the walls of the shaft below me in line with my torso, but they were equipped for a boarding action, not a long-range skirmish. Below me, I could see still more of them climbing through the hole cut in the outer airlock doors.

I flinched back as the new arrivals added their own fire to the fight. My eyes flew to Gericht as he grunted and jerked back, his rifle tumbling down the shaft. His hand was a charred mess of cooked flesh as he staggered.

"Slag! Gericht!" Tayle gasped in horror.

"I'm fine."

"Like hells you are!" My eyes darted around as I searched for one of the wall-mounted aid stations.

"Tayle! Get to that aid station and get his hand treated!" I pointed to the station and Tayle took off at a run as I reloaded before leaning back over to resume firing.

I watched Tayle and Gericht out of the corner of my eye as I continued to pummel the ascending Kekoan with proton fire. The aid kit at the station should be intuitive enough to use that she can figure it out even without knowing written English.

A pair of shots from me and Arvin finally killed the next Kekoan as they landed on the collar of his armored suit and severed his helmeted head, leaving it to fall free to the floor below a moment before his body followed suit as the emergency release activated.

More Kekoans climbed through the hole and dread pooled in my stomach at the last one's appearance. They'd pulled a Kekoan-sized exo-suit from somewhere along with a massive heavy maser cannon more suitable for a light vehicle. I pulled back just in time to avoid the barrage of green maser blasts as the Kekoan opened up with the massive cannon.

Arvin also pulled back from the ledge, wisely deciding it wasn't worth the danger to keep firing. I risked a look over the ledge only to flinch back as more maser blasts peppered the doorway with one passing close enough to my head I could feel the heat. The exo-armored Kekoan was slowly ascending up the cable, his heavy weapon balanced on his torso and aimed at the open doorway.

"We don't have the firepower to take that down, we'd be slagged if we tried." Arvin noted, his voice grim.

"What about Tayle's cannon?" Gericht prompted as the two rejoined us, his hand a mass of bloody bandages.

"It's no good, we'd get shredded before we got through his armor. How's your hand?"

"Hurts like the hells, but I'll live."

"The lift!" I looked at Tayle.

"What about it?" I asked.

"What if we dropped the lift on them? It's heavy enough it should be able to just crush them against the hull." I frowned in thought.

"Can we even do that?"

"You should be able to, Rama! But you'd need to disable the four safety locks on the bottom of the lift." I jerked as Winri's voice emanated from everyone's jackets.

"Winri? You can hear us?" Gericht asked.

"Well yea, those jackets all have microphones and speakers in the collar, didn't you know that?" I shrugged sheepishly at the looks they all gave me, hey it's not like I'd ever needed to use that function before.

"Disabling those isn't going to be easy," Tayle noted grimly.

"The farthest two will be simple enough, but the two closest to the door are the problem." I agreed.

"What about the ship's hull?" Arvin noted, "It's already been compromised by the two harpoon strikes and the hole they cut into the outer airlock doors."

"That might actually be a good thing. If we can blow out that section of the hull that should dislodge the assault shuttle from our hull leaving us free and clear." I pointed out.

"Once the safeties are destroyed I can override the lift's speed from here on the bridge." A quiet voice noted.

"Nathalie! Are you ok?" Arvin asked, concerned.

"Uh-huh," came the quiet reply.

"Alright, so I'll knock out the safety locks. Tayle, give me-"

"I'll do it." Tayle declared.

"No way, that's crazy, Tayle. It's my ship, I'm the one most familiar with it so it should be-"

"I said I'm doing it, Rama!" My mouth snapped shut, startled, as Tayle forcefully cut me off.

"Look, all three of you have people relying on you, waiting for you to come back. All I have... All I have is all of you. So please, let me do this." I swallowed thickly as maser fire continued to spatter across the doorway before my resolve hardened.

"I'm not going to let you just commit suicide to save us Tayle," She opened her mouth to retort but I cut her off, "If we're doing this, we're doing it right. Gericht, give Tayle your jacket, and I want your sidearm as well, then head to the medical bay and get your hand properly treated and bandaged." I ordered.

Gericht dutifully shrugged out of his jacket with Tayle's help and I passed my rifle to Arvin accepting his handgun and pulling my own from my hip. It was almost uncanny how they all read my intentions as Tayle tied Gericht's coat around her hips as I had intended and Arvin easily held both rifles like he was born with them. We all took a moment to check our ammunition and reload our weapons as we lined up just out of sight of the lift shaft. Exchanging nods Arvin and I stepped forward and held down our triggers.