Valentinas Voyage begins to break through Earth's atmosphere, evading projectiles as it starts its daring escape. The speakers in the ship suddenly ring, the captain glances over to see the received transmission from the central ship of the Minerau fleet that had just been floating over southern Europe in a city called Roma. The message reads ‘you have kidnapped our prisoners as well as our people, we consider this an act of treason against our people’.

“Well that’s unsettling…” whispers the captain.

“Set a course for the wormhole at the Suman colony” - confidently says the captain.

“Aye captain right away”. - the first mate replies in a rugged robotic voice.

Just as they leave Earth's orbit and pass the moon they turn on the ship's boosters to give them additional speed and maneuverability. They begin to pick up speed when all the sudden the ship's radar begins to show objects at the edge of their vicinity still close to Earth's orbit. The captain thinks to himself ‘well hopefully they don’t have the speed we do’. Meanwhile the dots on the radar are converging from all different areas of the planet to move in on the scavengers. The Automaton in the cabin runs diagnostics on the radar for what it could be and the reports confirm the captain's suspicion. Kyro thinks to himself frustratedly ‘not the hunters, anything but the hunters, he’s going to kill me if I lose his ship’. Kyro picks up the report and takes his frustration out by flinging the report back in the direction of the robot and hitting it in the head.

“How many times do I have to tell you Sib make the reports more eligible, there’s too much unnecessary data here”. - yells Kyro without turning back while focusing on the steering.

“Well there are a couple unidentified objects on course with this ship captain”.

“I hope it’s the others. Can you get a transmission over to them or did you already forget that we had two accompaniments?”

Sib says in a shaky voice: “Well one of the accompaniments is ahead of us, and the report says that the one that had tied up the ship has been blown to bits”.

“Well that’s rather unfortunate, is the remains of the ship after us or something? Bic can you get me a visual on what's behind us? This guessing game is pissing me off”. -grumbles Kyro irritatedly.

Bic replies: “Yes captain right away”.

Bic presents Kyro with a screen that shows what’s behind them. In the screen three small ships are visible with two more not visible on the screen but detected on the radar. Bic awaits a response from the captain, but Kyro is taken aback and sits down in his chair.

“This is bad, very very bad…” mutters the captain.

One of the Automatons walks up to Kyro: “We received another transmission from the Minerau”.

Kyro waves his hand over and points to the screen on which he wants the transmission displayed. The transmission is then displayed on Kyro’s screen that typically reflects what’s ahead of them.

The transmission reads: ‘Return back to the surface of the planet you just left, release all your cargo into our custody and we may yet let you live for the glory of the Minerau Empire’. The two Automaton crewmates look around at each other and begin to giggle a little bit quietly.

“They clearly don’t know who’s the captain of this ship” - jokes Bic.

Sib adds: “Well they didn’t even give much of an offer to begin with, do they realize we can take them in a firefight?”

Kyro stands up smirking underneath his tinted black helmet. The bulky dark armor hiding the figure underneath with a robotic cloak with holes from previous battles dragging slightly on the ground. The captain hunches over the computer and presses a button declining the proposal. The message is quickly transmitted back to the ships in pursuit of them.

Bic asks the captain: “What do you wish the next course of action to be?”

“Time to show these idiots that we don’t give a shit about the Minerau Empire. I’ll get us out of here myself, not putting up with their shit anymore” - Kyro says with determination.

Kyro grabs the mantle of the controls and sets it to the maximum speed of the ship. The ship takes a moment to access the full acceleration of the ship but quickly gets to its top speed. As soon as the ship picks up speed and flies past the moon, the hunter vessels pick up speed and begin to close the distance on Valentina’s Voyage. These hunters are shaped like triangular prisms with a round front, and along the three edges the ships have one laser turret that takes time to power up for its shots, one energy harpoon to latch onto other vehicles, and one rapid fire plasma gun. These ships are one of the many elite close combat aerial ships. But even with all the tools that are at the pilots disposal everything still depends on the pilot. After all that’s how Kyro has been able to last for so long in his shit box. It’s not long before the hunters, which are single rider ships and much lighter than the armored transport ship that is the Valentina’s Voyage reach within striking distance.

“Boss, they're almost within firing range of us, what do you wish to do?” - asks Bic.

Another Automaton walks into the cockpit. It puts away the energy chain on the wall and walks up to Kyro who’s busy controlling the ship.

The Automaton says: “What do you need of me, cap?”

“Took you long enough to get here Seabiscuits, is the cargo secure?” - exclaims Kyro.

The Automaton nods its head.

“Okay I need you to operate the turrets as well as the targeting system on my commands, when I give you the signal you’ll need to release the flares and we’ll try to lose the hunters in the asteroid field that’s coming up”

The hunter ships begin to shoot energy harpoons in the direction of Kyro’s ship. With the purpose to board the ship and manually take back the cargo as well as take the ship back to the Minerau fleet to disassemble the ship and repurpose it. With a fatal outcome to be expected of the captain and the crew if they get captured. The hunter ships kept shooting and barely missing as everytime they shot Kyro would swerve the ship out of the way. The ships had to also maintain a distance from Valentinas Voyage to avoid getting annihilated by the ships cannons. It was the same as trying to shoot a fish in a barrel; although it might seem easy it requires precision and accuracy, and you have to keep a distance in case the fish jumps out and bites you. Valentina's Voyage makes it past Mars when all of the sudden there’s a tug on the back of the ship that causes everyone in the cabin to lose their balance.

“Captain, they've got us in the left rear of the ship!” reports Sib.

“Quick Bic throw the propulsion beams on that side so that we aren’t exhausting our fuel fighting through the energy strain!” - shouts over the captain getting his balance back and getting back on the controls.

“Yes captain right away!” shouts Bic and hurries over to the main system.

Kyro uses the controls to swerve the ship downwards and yanks it upwards sharply trying to get rid of the energy harpoon as well as dodge the next one coming the ship's way. The maneuver proves to only be half successful as it avoids the second harpoon but the original harpoon remains stuck. The more the ship resisted and pulled on the energy harpoon the more that it drained its reserves and slowed the ship down. Just as they’re about to enter the asteroid belt the ship jolts on the right side and loses speed again.

One of the Automatons says: “Captain you’re not going to like this but they got our otherside, if they land a third harpoon we won’t be able to depart from this star system and will surely be stuck to deal with the Minerau”.

“Well no shit I felt that jolt you don’t have to tell me” - annoyingly replies the captain.

Kyro adds: “No way I’m not dealing with those brutes, quick reverse the propulsion on both sides on my command as well as reverse the direction of the ship”.

Bic asks: “What are we going to do after that?”

Kyro says in a smug tone: “The old school slingshot should work just fine”.

“Yes captain!” - the Automatons say in unison.

The Automatons wait for the right moment and Kyro nods his head and two of the Automatons pull levers on either side of the ship reversing the propulsion of the ship while Kyro simultaneously reverses the direction of the ship sending it back towards the hunter ships. The momentum sends Kyro’s ship past the two hunter ships that had attached energy harpoons to them and then Kyro drops the ship downwards twirling the ship tangling the two energy cords coming off the harpoons together and as a result bringing the two hunter ships side by side trying to hold the harpoons. The more the hunter ships resisted the more it worked in Kyro’s favor as the resistance allowed for greater maneuverability from side to side and up and down but not forwards with the two Minerau ships acting like an anchor. After completely twirling the two harpoons together and bringing the hunters side by side Kyro yanks the controls upwards and goes straight up with the front of Valentinas Voyage through the bodies of the two hunter ships, immobilizing them for a brief moment. After reaching the maximum height given the harpoons lodged in the rear Kyro’s ship begins to drag the two hunters behind itself while the rest of the hunters try to get a precise strike on them.

Kyro yells to his crew: “We almost got them, just hold the course!!”

Kyro whispers to the controls: “Come on baby don’t let me down I know you have it in you”.

They continue to fly straight for the asteroid field dragging the two hunter ships behind them and as they're going forward Kyro slowly begins to spin the ship in the opposite direction to untwirl the two energy harpoons on either side of the back of the ship. While the energy harpoons uncoil the two hunters are trying as hard as they can to fly away from each other. As soon as they’re completely emerged into the asteroid belt Kyro finishes untwisting the two energy harpoons. The two hunters separate in the asteroid belt and begin to get their powers back online but it’s too late as they’re meters away from asteroids. As a result both go flying into separate asteroids exploding on impact. The energy cables connected to the harpoons are destroyed with the hunters and just the harpoons remain lodged into the back of the Valentina’s Voyage. The ship regains its speed quickly moving throughout the asteroid belt.

“Boss we’re going to completely scratch up the ship with all these asteroids. We could end up just like those two hunters” - nervously says Seabiscuit.

“We’ll be fine, she will hold, just hold the course and turn on the navigator. Let it pilot us through most of the field”

Seabiscuit adds: “What of the other hunter ships?”

“They’ll give up on the chase, no way will they go through this asteroid field without getting crushed like bugs”. -says Kyro feeling smug.

The ship switches over to the computer navigator and starts moving through the asteroid belt slowly and scraping by some asteroids while avoiding others. With the navigator carefully reducing speeds of the ship for the safest possible route through the field. The ship navigates through the asteroid belt with minimal scrapes as they move halfway through the belt before the hunter ships fly through the space above them. The hunters use the heavy cannons all over the asteroid belt splitting many of the asteroids into smaller parts in hopes of creating enough chaos to catch the scavengers off guard.

“You know what Seabiscuit you might’ve been right, we definitely need to get out of here quickly. Sib can you chart a course for us using an estimation of the trajectory of all the asteroids so that we can get out of here asap?” - asks the captain.

“Firstly what is asap? Secondly based on my calculations we will not be able to sustain much more impact head on without severely compromising the integrity of the hull I have sent over the course to your screen captain”.

Kyro ignores the comment and nods his head as the trajectory plans are updated on his screen. He starts by swerving the ship out of the way of the incoming asteroids coming their way. Then underneath a massive asteroid that had been moved by the blast. He takes a moment to familiarize himself with the course before increasing their speed and putting his craft to the test. As the asteroid belt continues shifting from the blasts and moving all over, knocking asteroids together, closing spaces and opening up new ones. Kyro’s quick reflexes save the ship from getting crushed on a few occasions as he follows the laid out pathway as much as possible. As two asteroids are about to collide Kyro pulls the controls up causing the ship to go nose up and parallel to the two asteroids. He accelerates the ship whilst spiraling it upside down as it goes above the two asteroids and he maneuvers it back as they get past them. They move closer to the edge of the belt swinging and dogding anything coming their way with a variety of moves to jockey the Valentina’s Voyage position as best as possible to line up with an exit.

Sib yells over to the captain: “In about 5 minutes an opening should occur along our pathway if we ready the thrusters to hyperspeed and use the energy harpoons we should be able to shoot out of the field without sustaining any additional damage”.

Kyro looks back to the other Automatons and nods his head to them letting them know to prep their energy harpoons. Bic goes over to the controls and begins to initiate the thrusters to maximum power and holding the power for a bit waiting for the pathway to align itself. Seabiscuit meanwhile goes over to the targeting computers and shoots two energy harpoons into two large asteroids on either side of them up ahead. Sib begins the countdown on the system until it’s time for the system to take off. The next few minutes go by very anxiously as everyone waits for the pathway to open up. As they wait patiently the constant shifting of the asteroid belt causes a general uneasiness as all them feel like their sitting ducks.

Finally in the last 30 seconds Sib says: “Prepare yourself captain, we're about to fly through here and be on our way!”

“Save your breath till we’re out of this hellish place” - Kyro yells at the robot

Then Kyro thinks for a moment and adds for himself: “Metaphorically speaking that is”.

“Launch the thrusters!” - shouts Sib.

Bic pulls down the lever letting the charged thrusters propel them forward meanwhile Seabiscuit retracts the harpoons that are lodged into asteroids adding to the momentum sending them forward. Kyro snaps out of his brief daydream and tilts the ship to meet the size of the opening. All of the sudden as they're halfway to the opening one of the harpoons dislodges and the energy cable snaps with the ship's momentum tugging towards the asteroid that still has a harpoon in it. Kyro jumps out of his seat and pushes Seabiscuit out of the way and dislodges the second harpoon from the ship leaving it in the asteroid. The action is too late as the momentum causes the ship to hit its side on the asteroid and spin out of control causing Kyro and the rest of the Automatons to go flying around the cabin. By their luck the ship spins its way out of the asteroid belt and continues to fly spinning its way towards Jupiter. Kyro manages to grab his seat while the ship continues to spin and turns on the stabilizers and stops the ship from spinning out of control. Kyro gets up and sits back down in his seat and the rest of the Automatons go back to their stations in the cabin as if nothing happened. They each take a moment to collect themselves.

Kyro exclaims with a happy tone: “See that wasn’t so bad now was it?”

Sib sombers the mood: “Captain we have three objects approaching us from above care to elaborate on the next course of action?”

“Way to kill the mood Sib, first the damage report now this? Anyways restart the navigator and let the ship go on auto pilot for now I need a break, also give me a run down of the damages that we have sustained up to this point”. - says Kyro with the joy instantly sucked out of him.

Bic says: “Navigator is down, probably damaged in the last bump with the asteroid back there, we will probably have to go old school and navigate without additional systems”.

“Man I’m getting really tired of this shit, that was already enough adrenaline for one trip but whatever, you sure you can’t get it restarted?” - says the captain.

“No…”

“So I gotta open up the front barrier to the glass?”

“Precisely…” - replies Bic.

Kyro pushes a button to open up the panels and there are cracks going through the panels on either side of the ship.

Kyro points to the clear panels: “See that right there, that’s why I don’t want to open up the panels!”

“It’s okay that’s only on the first three layers, the rest of the seven layers are fine, all that it might do is make the cabin feel a little cooler”. - says Sib giving an analytical perspective.

“Cold? No no no, I get cold you trash bins don’t get cold don’t get it twisted who’s getting cold here” - annoyingly replies Kyro.

Bic inserts himself: “We really ought to get going, the hunters are quickly gaining on us”.

Kyro walks over and puts a hand on the glass: “Don’t worry Bic we’ll get going soon, but is this why you worried me about taking on another head on collision?”

“Well we don’t exactly know how much more impact the layers can hold”

Kyro waves the robot off and sits back down in his chair picking up the control panel and flying forward towards the gas giants of Jupiter and Saturn. As Valentina’s Voyage picks up in altitude the hunters that are after them close the distance as they approach the first gas giant. They fly parallel to Jupiter, remaining just out of range of the gas giant's gravitational pull.

Seabiscuit asks Kyro: “Why not just go underneath Jupiter so that we could buy ourselves some more time away from the hunters”

Kyro chuckles: “Because with no navigational systems we don’t know how far out of the way we would have to go underneath the planet to escape its gravitational pull”.

“Isn’t that why you have eyes, to see when the ship is being sucked in by the gravitational pull?” replies Seabiscuit sarcastically

“You know what you little shit if I wasn’t busy keeping us alive I would do something about you but no here I am being a saint, also be useful and check out the damage done to the right side of the ship”.

Seabiscuit mutters under his breath: “I am worried about myself…” and leaves the cabin.

A few moments pass in silence, after which Kyro breaks the silence.

“How’s the update on the systems Sib?” asks Kyro.

“Well the navigation system is damaged due to the crash with the asteroid, and we’re lucky the right boosters didn’t get hit along with it because that would have caused half of the ship to blow. The front of the ship is partially compromised so I wouldn’t recommend taking any chances head on. The bottom of the ship as well as the central top are in good condition. The left rear thruster is damaged from the energy harpoon, as well as one of our own energy slots is damaged from the snapped harpoon and by the looks of it half of the cord is being dragged right now.”

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“How about our energy turrets? How are they holding up?”

Sib runs through a quick analysis on his tablet and says: “Right side is completely destroyed and that side may actually have an exposed side because the central cabin's air temperature keeps dropping slowly. The top and bottom 360 turrets are fine, and the left side turrets are in good condition. I cannot stress enough that we cannot get hit head on or the right side of the ship without potentially receiving critical breaks in the ship”.

Kyro: “Hmm how are our energy reserves holding up?”

Sib looks through his info-tablet and says: “Right side is fine and the left side is leaking through the boosters that got hit by the energy harpoon”.

“So I’d say we’re looking at a solid three to seven out of ten right now”.

“Why didn’t you just start off by asking that question instead of all these random questions?” - chuckles Bic

Sib answers: “I’d probably give us a three out of ten maybe that’s pushing it, based on my calculations we have a 25% chance of surviving and making it to the Passageway…”

“Psh that’s fine we’ve had worse odds in the past and we’re still being tracked by three hunters? How close are they by the way?” - asks Kyro

“Almost within striking distance so we have to figure out what we’re going to do”.

Kyro continues to pilot the spaceship around the side of Jupiter. Through the slow feel of the ride and the moment of silence gives way to a profound thought for Kyro.

Kyro lets Sib and Bic know the plan: “We’re going to go into the highest levels of Jupiter's atmosphere and then quickly move to Saturn’s when we get close enough. Even with our damaged thrusters and boosters we should have enough power to not get sucked in, but if the hunters follow us they’ll get caught by the gravitational pull of the gas giants. We’ll at least be able to make it semi safely to the edge of Saturn, Sib does it check out?”

Sib looks down at his screen: “Yes captain it checks out, but we need to go along the line very carefully so as to not get sucked in because we’ll all be crushed by the gas giant's atmosphere”.

They continue flying closer and closer to the upper layer of the atmosphere of the gas giant with the hunters keeping more of a distance from the gravitational pull of the gas giant. The ship shudders a bit at certain times from slight increases in the planet's pull as they straddle the atmospheric line so as to not get sucked in.

Bic watching the ships radar exclaims: “One of the hunters broke formation and is closing in on us rapidly!”

Kyro mumbles: “What’re these idiots doing now…”

The hunter aligns itself behind Valentina's Voyage and begins to open fire on the ship. Kyro jerks the controls upwards and the ship slowly changes its angle to be in ascending fashion so as to protect its back thrusters and boosters from any direct hits and allow for the top of the ship to take on the brunt of the firepower. As the barrage continues steadily on the ship the captain continues to guide the ship along the edge of the planet's atmosphere maintaining the course and slowly over the next 30 minutes the strikes become more and more infrequent until they finally come to a stop.

Bic raises the question: “Why did they stop, you think their turrets malfunctioned?”

“Check the radar, where is the ship?” - asks the captain almost knowing the answer already

“Two ships considerably behind us and way out of range and the last ship is nowhere to be found”.

Sib says: “It means the plan worked and the planet sucked in the idiot, idiot”.

“Don’t call me an idiot or I’ll string you up and use you for spare parts”

“Ooooo spooky you’re making me shiver” - taunts Sib

Seabiscuit returns to the control cabin and states: “I don’t know why you decided to do that maneuver back there but you blew a hole in the central top section of the ship and almost ripped us in half. I welded parts of the top together but I don’t know how long it will hold or if that section can take more damage”.

Kyro raises a finger and says: “So by the process of deduction we should aim to take most of the future damage on the left side of the ship and the bottom of the ship”.

“Captain it would be foolish to take any more hits to the hull of the ship or anywhere for that matter, you heard what CB-1C said, if we take any more damage the ship might tear in half. We don’t even know if we can survive the gravitational pull of the next planet coming up!” - interjects Sib

“I’m not going to invite them to open fire on us, I just mean those are the areas that we should leave exposed in a worst case scenario”.

“Yeah let’s not do that, I’ve seen you pilot through worse situations and take less damage, remember we need to deliver this cargo to Vossos…”

“Yeah yeah I know, you don’t have to remind me. Just watch the analysis for any updates on the ship's status…” - replies the captain.

The ship continues to fly along the trajectory of the rim of Jupiter without any more issues as the hunters keep their distance to avoid the gas giants' pull. As they reach the midpoint of Jupiter they move away from the gas giant, towards Saturn’s rings, as soon as they leave the atmosphere the hunters pick up their pace to close the gap and catch up with Valentina's Voyage. Kyro glides on top of Saturn’s rings so as to not go through it, but uses them as a road to guide itself easily along. The two hunter ships split up one going above and one going below Saturn’s rings to have the element of surprise even with the radar able to detect it, but not pinpoint where it's coming from. Kyro takes a moment to look over at the planet and the rings they’re floating above.

Kyro sighs: “Beautiful isn’t it…”

“You’re scaring me captain, that’s not something we should be focusing on right now, we have to survive these hunters”. - Sib says nervously.

Bic laughs: “You’re worried about nothing CC-1B, if captain’s this calm means we’re basically already out of danger”.

They glide above the rings for a while around the gas giant. The one hunter on their plane is shooting at them but can’t get off a good shot from the dust that’s constantly blocking its targeting system, leaving it to shoot blind.

Kyro asks Seabiscuit: “Can you hook up the energy harpoon to the radar? I may have another idea…”

Seabiscuit nods its head and goes to the back of the cabin and begins rewiring a control panel and adding wires, at one point Seabiscuit gets shocked back and Kyro shakes his head. Seabiscuit gets back up without complaining and continues rewiring the panel.

After half an hour of fidgeting, Seabiscuit yells over: “All done!” and sticks up its thumb.

Kyro nods his head: “Shoot the energy harpoon at the hunter below us, where the radar is pointing for it to be, can you do that?”

“I’ll do my best captain”

The first harpoon misses the spot, the second harpoon also misses, but Seabiscuit refuses to give up and continues shooting.

Kyro, feeling anxious asks Seabiscuit: “How’s the progress going?”

“Not great…”

Bic goes over to Seabiscuit to give some words of advice as the robot continues to miss. Seabiscuit pushes the Automaton out of the way while slamming the trigger and the ship feels a sudden tug.

“Gotcha!!” - exclaims Seabiscuit

Kyro yells over to the two of them: “One of you reel them up quick and we’ll see if this works”

They quickly pull the lever to reel up the harpoon and as they pull up the hunter ship and drag it through the layers of particles that are flying at rapid speeds the hunter gets covered in ice shards. After a few moments erupts into flames and explodes from the sustained damage of the particles caused by Saturn's rings. Now all that’s left is the last hunter that’s on their tail yet not making any aggressive attacks or maneuvers at this point to not miscalculate like its predecessors did. They fly one after the other past the rings of Saturn and towards the next planet Uranus, and Kyro quickly begins the same act of balancing the ship on the edge of the atmosphere of Uranus. The flight continues smoothly with Kyro occasionally checking up on the radar of where the last hunter is positioned.

Bic asks the captain: “What do you think they’re waiting for?”

“I don’t know, maybe they’re planning something or have decided to just track us instead” - says Sib

Kyro adds: “I wouldn’t count on it, but we’ll see…”

The rest of the pathway along Uranus goes smoothly, the two ships don’t interfere with one another but continue more or less along the same trajectory. The flight continues smoothly as they go from Uranus to Neptune and calmly through the highest layer of atmosphere in the planet. Kyro slows down the ship to see if the hunter will overtake them, but on the radar the hunter slows down along with the ship. The atmosphere inside the control room is both anxious and calm unbeknownst of what their opponent is deciding to do.

“So they’re definitely tracking us” - is said quietly

Bic overhears Kyro: “So what do we do now captain?”

“Just follow the charted path that’s all we really can do”.

Valentina’s Voyage begins to pick up speed and fly through the upper echelon of Neptune's atmosphere, along with them the hunter picks up speed again and continues keeping within range of them. They fly around the atmosphere of the planet and out towards the Kuiper belt where the dwarf planet of Pluto orbits. As they begin to leave the atmosphere of Neptune the hunter ship begins its pursuit once again picking up speed and gaining on Valentine’s Voyage. Except this time the hunter doesn’t shoot any harpoons at the ship nor does it fire from its turrets, it simply picks up speed and begins to slowly gain on Kyro and his crew.

Sib says to everyone else: “They’re gaining on us but they’re not positioning themselves to fire on us”.

“Maybe they’re just going to maneuver into the striking position once they get really close to us”.

Kyro mumbles: “That wouldn’t make sense they would be putting themselves out of position and giving us a chance to strike them”

Sib says: “So what do you think this is all about captain?”

“I don’t know, Sib, can you track their trajectory on the radar and see where it’s headed?”

“Yes captain, it quite simply seems as though they’re planning to fly to the Suman colony on Pluto the same as us”.

Kyro replies: “Okay how much do I have to change my trajectory from here to go straight for the wormhole?”

Sib walks over to Kyro with the tablet and shows how much he has to change the trajectory of the ship to avoid the colony and go straight for the wormhole. Kyro nods his head and begins to alter the trajectory of the ship to the left.

Kyro asks: “What now? Do they fly by us now?”

“No, they've also altered their trajectory for the wormhole and are continuing to pick up speed in our direction”.

“Let me know when we’re about to collide” - says the captain. (you should probably be warned that ahead of time, then again I haven’t flown many spaceships so maybe the captains onto something)

They wait a few moments in anticipation in the ship until Sib begins to count down with its four fingers. Once the countdown reaches two, Kyro maneuvers sharply to the right to avoid the ship as it passes them by and goes ahead of them.

“Open fire with the turrets on the ship!” - shouts Kyro

Seabiscuit opens fire on the hunter, but misses every shot as the hunter performs multiple evasive maneuvers while beginning to circle around to attempt to knock the ship off course again.

Bic announces to everyone in the crew: “The hunter sent us another message”

“Can you just say what it is? This is a very stressful situation for some of us that are piloting this hunk of metal. Beautiful hunk of metal that is” - says Kyro carefully so as to not upset the ship.

Bic rolls its eyes and says: “Fine it reads, since you evaded my brothers I will take you down with me even if it costs me my life”.

“Wouldn’t shooting us down make more sense and be more worthwhile?”

“I guess they’re not thinking straight which could be beneficial to us” - says Seabiscuit.

Kyro says with hesitancy: “Or kill all of us if they succeed…”

The hunter makes another attempt to ram Valentina's Voyage but fails to make contact with the ship just missing the edge of the ship. Seabiscuit continues to shoot from the turrets to try to knock out the final hunter ship but it has no luck as the hunter ship avoids the turret fire. The hunter makes a third loop around and as Kyro is about to dodge the hunter yet again, but the hunter harpoons the back of Kyro’s ship and uses the harpoon to launch itself into the side of the ship. The hunter lodges itself into the damaged left side of the ship and completely pierces the hull of the ship.

Sib yells: “We have been pierced yet again and now the hunter is in the side of our hull! What do we do captain?”

As the control panel rings alarms throughout the ship and in the control room warning of a potential vacuum that could be created if the hull becomes more exposed that could lead to the ship being ripped in half.

Kyro yells over to the rest of his crew: “Seabiscuit go and patch the hole as much as you can while the hunter is stuck in our side, Bic go on the exterior of the ship to help from the outside, and Sib run an analysis if we can still make it to portal.”

All three of the Automatons yell: “Yes captain!” and rush to complete their tasks.

As Bic and Seabiscuit leave the cabin, Sib continues to run through the analysis of the trajectory of the ship along with the energy that’s left in the reserve of the ship. Valentina’s Voyage continues to wobble as Kyro changes the course of the ship towards the wormhole since it no longer has to sway to various sides to avoid the hunter that’s lodged into its side. The more the ship shifts in its trajectory the more the ship shakes and wobbles as the hunter tries to dislodge itself from the side of Valentina’s Voyage. After a few brief moments Sib brings over the analysis report of the ship to Kyro who’s trying to keep the ship going in the right direction instead of getting dragged by the hunter.

Kyro briefly glances at the report and yells: “I’M NOT READING ALL THAT WILL WE MAKE IT?!”

“I DON’T KNOW WE’RE GOING TO BE CUTTING IT CLOSE AND THE HUNTER ADDS MORE WEIGHT THE SHIP HAS TO CARRY SO WE HAVE TO DISLODGE IT!”

“WE CAN’T DO THAT TILL THE HULL IS PATCHED, HOW MUCH DO I HAVE TO OVERSHOOT IT FOR US TO CRASH THROUGH THE WORMHOLE?!?”

“BY A LOT!!”

Kyro shakes his head and pulls on the controls sending the ship flying upwards. The hunter ship continues to be lodged into the side of the ship and continues to shake as it tries to dislodge itself and set itself loose.

Kyro communicates over the relay tool with Seabiscuit: “Seabiscuit what’s the status of the inside of the hull?”

The Automaton replies over the communication tool in a shaky voice: “Captain it’s not looking good so far the hull is badly damaged with the nose of the hunter piercing the middle of the hull. I’ve put some sheets over the nose and sealed most of it but I don’t know how it will hold when we disengage the hunter”.

“Don’t worry about that, I’ll let Bic know what you told me and maybe we won’t have to rely on just the sheets…”

Kyro calls up Bic: “What is the status on the exterior of the ship, how’s the spacewalk going for you?”

Bic replies: “This really the time for making jokes, captain? We could lose an engine at any point and there’s multiple weak points in the hull. If the hunter detaches there’s a very large chance the ship will break down and we’ll be stuck”.

Kyro asks: “Bic, what are you doing right now?”

Bic answers: “I’m solidifying the sheets that CB-1C has put up from the inside but I don’t think they will hold”.

Kyro replies: “Don’t worry about that, I need you to weld down the nose of the hunter to our ship, they’re coming with us through the wormhole”.

Sib hears this and tries to interject to the idea: “Captain we need to lose the hunter it is causing too much drag on the right side, considering we only have one good thruster left and the one good engine with energy still in it we’re running the risk of crashing on the station or the dwarf planet”.

Kyro waves off the Automaton inside the cabin without the Automaton realizing it: “Leave that part to me, as long as the ship isn’t torn in half I’ll consider that a success”.

Sib shakes his head: “Goodluck captain hopefully we can make it through”.

Kyro adds another point as they begin to approach Pluto and the space colony around it: “I need you to relay to the Sumans to open up a lane in the lower sector of the wormhole”.

“What do we give as an incentive for them to do so, you know the tower control organization there is an expensive lot”.

Kyro laughs and says: “Tell them we’ll drop off a Minerau hunter ship for them in exchange”.

“Yes captain, I'll relay the message”. - Sib replies nervously.

Sib goes on his tablet and charts up a message for the TCO (tower control organization) explaining the need for an immediate lane as well as the payment for such a request. After a few moments as the message transmission goes through the authorizers at the TCO decide if it’s worthwhile payment for the service, the ship receives an approval message to proceed for the lower sector of the wormhole that isn’t particularly busy.

Kyro goes back on the communication tool and relays a message to Bic: “Hey Bic I need you to chop off the nose of the hunter when we get to the lane”.

Bic yells in outrage: “HOW DO YOU EXPECT ME TO DO THAT?!?”

Kyro laughs: “I don’t know but leave the nose in we’ll need that, if you have to use a turret to shoot it off”.

Bic curses over the relay tool and begins to work on separating part of the hunter from the ship. As they approach the space colony of Pluto where generations of humans have lived effectively becoming a new species. The base of Pluto had been transformed into an oasis-like colony with the power of artificial sun technology. It had become a tropical exotic like planet similar to many planets that had colonies set up around wormholes. Where they would welcome many different species of beings with many riches as they built different resorts and places of leisure on the planet's surface. Much of the business and military were found on the various moons of Pluto each providing its own purpose. They had their own guard system to take tariffs for passing through the wormhole as well as catch illegal trading activities that had not been sanctioned by the Joint Galactic Wormhole Organization. At the same time there’s a lot of value that goes through areas where there's room for corruption which is how Kyro’s crew planned to escape the system they were in.

A message comes through to the ship providing Kyro with instructions on where to go and to which lane.

“Buddy thinks this is my first time here…” mumbles the captain

Kyro talks over the communication tool: “What’s the progress looking like on the hunter Bic?”

Bic replies angrily: “Well I’ve almost shot off the hunter but there’s not much left of nose either…”

Kyro shakes his head and adds in disbelief: “You had one task to do Bic, okay I’ll have to do it myself”.

Bic fires back: “Actually you gave me like three tasks but what’s that matter”.

They fly over the various resorts of Pluto and begin to descend into their lane of the wormhole. On their way down they almost crash into the guards operating that lane.

“Keep our trajectory steady” - says Kyro to Sib.

The captain hastily leaves the cockpit and enters the main cabin. He quickly attaches an unseverable cord to a backpack and snaps it on. He puts on the contraption and fastens it to himself as fast as possible and goes through all the security protocols before opening up the hatch and quickly jumping out of the ship before activating the gravity boots to anchor himself to the damaged smoking and sparking ship. The captain makes his way over to Bic who’s cursing and struggling with the task at hand. Kyro pushes aside Bic who stands back and quickly assesses the situation. Kyro then slings the metallic tattered cloak behind his shoulders to reveal two ammo-like drums on each hip. He puts a palm on each drum pressing them to his hip and activating a stream of blue lights that light up his palms and hands and go up his arms and over the shoulders and connect at the spine which then connect back to the drums at the hips completing the circuit. The captain removes his hands from the drums and extends his hands outwards towards the Minerau hunter stuck in the side of the ship. Out of the drums two electric energy coils shoot and begin to coil around the nose of the enemy ship. As this is happening Bic taps Kyro’s shoulder letting the captain know of the transmission coming in.

The guard asks over a transmission: “What’s this ship, where’s the incentive, and where are you off to?”

Kyro replies to the guard: “The ship is the Valentina’s Voyage, the incentive is being dropped off right now and we are heading to the Gliese 876 system”.

As Kyro finishes saying this he puts his hands on the coils on each side and yanks it back, ripping off the nose of the hunter and revealing the unconscious Minerau pilot inside the single seater. What’s left of the hunter with the Minerau inside begins to tumble onto the ground of the landing platform as the artificial gravity of the station pulls it in.

The guard takes a moment to look at the transcript of the ship as well as the state of the incentive that just got dropped off. The guard inspects all elements and makes a final assessment of the situation. Bic and Kyro return rapidly, moving to remove the external gear and then reenter the control room and see what’s going on.

“So what’s the verdict Sib you think we’ll be good?” - asks Kyro.

“I don’t know we haven’t received any clearance or any updates from the TCO”.

Kyro gets on the transmission communication system and asks the Sumans: “What’s the hold up over there we’re trying to get going!”

The guard informs Kyro: “Just a moment longer captain, we’re making final reviews”.

“Something’s not right, it usually doesn’t take this long”.

“Did we drop off the hunter in the right spot?” - asks the captain aloud.

Bic responds: “I mean we didn’t have much choice of where to put it but I think it was good. I mean a guard did just inspect it briefly”.

Kyro sends a transmission to the guard: “Since everything is in place I will be going and it's been nice doing business with you fine folks!”

The guard responds: “We haven’t cleared your ship yet, we're going to inspect the cargo of your ship”.

Kyro laughs over the transmission: “I’ll have to pass on that sir”.

Kyro launches the ship forward towards the wormhole as the guards attempt to stop the ship by sending their patrol vehicles after Kyro and his crew. They shoot at the Valentina’s Voyage hitting the left thruster causing the ship to drop and drag itself along the runway. The ship continues to take damage from the guards shooting at it until it barely drags itself through the wormhole but not before the nose of the hunter falling out of the side of the vessel.

Valentina’s Voyage flies through the wormhole and once it exits the wormhole Kyro and the crew find themselves in unfamiliar territory as they exited the wormhole and it was not the Gliese 876 system. The ship's band aid repairs holding strong as the crew look out the glass to see the unknown environment where there had been a colossal cylindrical blockade of an outpost built around this wormhole exit.