08:01, January 17th, 2135

“You’re confident this is going to work, right?” Kayden said, shifting in his seat uncomfortably.

“It should. In theory.” Selina replied, cracking her knuckles.

“Yeah, that’s not exactly giving me a lot of confidence.”

“Come on! This is your chance to set off the biggest explosion ever! Don’t tell me you’re not looking forward to that part.”

Kayden chuckled. “You know me best.”

Suddenly, their radio pinged. Using his neural link connection to the ship, Kayden accepted the call. The sound of Admiral Gibbs’ voice immediately began to ring in both of their ears, causing them to wince.

I’m glad this ship doesn’t have a viewscreen. He thought to himself. Otherwise I’d have to hide my face from that fucking-

[“Kayden, focus.”] Ali reminded him.

“-We’ve pulled back our harassment forces and left a clear path to the hyperlane you marked. Do you want to tell me what the hell you’re doing now?”

“Sorry Admiral, no time.” Kayden grinned. “Just let us handle this and watch for the big boom.”

With that, he cut the radio signal to the sputtering man off causing Selina to laugh. “You enjoyed that. Maybe a little too much.”

“Maybe.” Kayden admitted. “But it sounds like everything’s in place. Are you ready?”

“Ready.” Selina responded, her voice hardening. “Firing up the engines – let’s do this.”

All around them Kayden saw the enormous engines mounted to the Bluenose’s cockpit start to light up. The ship shot forward in the uninhabited system, far faster than anything he’d previously piloted. Even seated behind her Kayden knew Selina was grinning with glee – she’d spent years piloting racing craft before they’d met, and to her being able to fly the fastest human ship in the galaxy was a dream come true.

“Holy shit this thing can really move!” Selina said. “There’s no way they’re catching us now!”

Kayden looked out the window for a moment at the unnamed star system they were flying through. They’d visited once before, using the coordinates provided to them from the Vrul shipyard’s data cache on Tau Ceti. As solar systems went it was boring and unremarkable – completely devoid of life, with a lone, barren planet orbiting a powerful star at its center and a ring of asteroids surrounding it.

It's not going to be unremarkable for much longer. Kayden thought to himself as they skirted the edge of the asteroid field. Here goes nothing.

With a thought, he activated the Voidborn artifact they’d brought with them from Reaper’s Coast. The green glyphs on either side of the onyx-black pyramid began to pulse and glow as it tried to float through the small cockpit. Kayden watched as the restraints they’d brought with them strained but held it down.

“Looks like Ali’s research into these things paid off.” Kayden said. “I didn’t have to touch it, and it looks secure for the moment.”

Suddenly, a Voidborn crab-creature materialized into space beside them. Kayden had to resist cackling with glee as the creature was immediately left behind them and consumed by the wake of their engines. He watched on sensors as dozens more creatures materialized and met similar fates, either burning up or being left to suffocate in the void of space.

[“A far more efficient means of disposal than fighting them.”] Ali intoned in his mind.

Yeah, we’ll see how long it lasts though. Kayden replied as even more Voidborn teleported into space before meeting their almost-instant death. They’re smart enough to catch on eventually.

As if summoned by his words, Kayden saw a blip on their radar emerge at the edge of the system. It was quickly followed by several more – each of which seemed larger than the last. Using his neural link he ordered the ship to perform more intensive scans, but they only served to confirm what he already knew – the Voidborn fleet which had slipped through the Roccan defenses had arrived.

“They’re here.” Kayden said to Selina.

“Alright. Here comes the hard part.” Selina replied before dipping their ship to the side.

Kayden clenched his teeth as they darted into the asteroid field, narrowly avoiding a lethal collision with the nearest kilometer-sized rock. He did his best to focus on the radar when she threw them into a tight corkscrew around it before siphoning power from their shields to boost the engine output. He was about to question the move when he saw several beams of light carve up the asteroid they’d just passed, leaving it in pieces.

If we get hit in this thing, our shields aren’t going to matter. He thought to himself. Our only hope is to play the galaxy’s deadliest game of hide-and-seek.

Thankfully, Selina’s genetically enhanced reflexes were more than up for the task. She skillfully maneuvered them between haphazardly-drifting asteroids, using them to absorb weapons fire from the ever-increasing number of capital ships behind them. She gradually coaxed them deeper into the field of floating rocks, rolling and juking from side to side while occasionally laughing out loud.

“This is the best! I haven’t had a piloting challenge like this in years!” She cried out as she expertly dodged another pair of energy beams. “This is just like the racing course in Delta Serpentis, only better!”

Her enthusiasm was infectious and despite the situation he couldn’t help but grin. “You’ll have to show me when this is all over!”

“Even better, we can race there together!” She replied as she threw them into a nosedive. “You might be better at combat flying, but in a straight-up race you’ll be staring at my ass the whole time!”

“So no different than usual!” Kayden responded as she pulled them out of the tight dive.

“You said it!”

The energy beams firing from the capital ships behind them gradually began to lessen, giving them a short breather. Kayden took a moment to perform several scans on the radar, plotting a course that would take them dangerously close to the sun. As he did though, he couldn’t help but notice that the number of small ships behind them had grown considerably.

“Looks like they took the bait. Their capital ships are holding position just inside the asteroid belt, but they’re deploying fighters to chase after us.”

“Does that mean break time is over?” Selina asked, grasping the controls.

When an errant missile screamed past them before exploding against a nearby asteroid, Kayden nodded. “Yup! Time to go!”

Kayden had to hand it to both Selina and the racing ship – when he said those words, they went.

Somehow the last few minutes seemed like they were in slow-motion by comparison. Selina’s enhanced reflexes were strained to their limit, dipping and diving to avoid all manner of fire while staying close enough to lead the Voidborn interceptors ever-closer to the sun. She practically made the ship dance with her use of tight pirouettes, barrel rolls, and flips. More than once she whooped in victory as one of the enemy fighters reacted too slowly and slammed into an asteroid, exploding into a million pieces.

“How far?” Selina shouted through her gritted teeth.

“At this rate, 1 minute until the launch point!” He said, highlighting it on their shared heads-up display.

“Fuck!” Selina swore before performing another death-defying spin that made Kayden grateful there wasn’t any gravity in space.

Even as an experienced pilot, her moves made him nauseous. He clenched his teeth harder and ensured his helmet was on securely in the event he lost his lunch unexpectedly. The space around them blurred from the combined energy and projectile fire as she pushed the engines to their absolute limit, doing her best to get them to where they needed to be in order for their plan to work.

[“Kayden, I may be able to speed up your craft by a few more seconds. If you-”] Ali’s voice sounded in his mind.

Do it. Kayden interrupted her, not needing to hear the details.

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Around them their ship suddenly began to fall apart. Their canopy, much of the paneling, and life support systems ejected themselves from the ship, becoming projectiles in their own right. They were quickly followed by several other parts – the hyperspace drive, the radar components, and the short-range communications array. Kayden let out a shout of surprise, but Selina was so focused on flying that he questioned if she even noticed.

Ali what the fuck is going on? He asked, suddenly regretting his choice to blindly accept her help.

[“The Bluenose is designed modularly, such that components can be ejected at will. The ship is now 56% lighter and more maneuverable than it was before.”] Ali replied cheerily.

Ejected? Why the fuck would they build that in?

[“For maintenance purposes. It’s safe enough to do in transit, so long as the pilots themselves are wearing armour or spacesuits that are rated for hard vacuum.”]

Ali we’re flying a fucking convertible through space!

[“Indeed.”]

What if a micro-meteor hits the cockpit?

[“At your current velocity, the canopy wouldn’t protect the pilots and they would die anyways.”]

Fucking fantastic. Kayden replied sarcastically.

He ground his teeth even harder as Ali spun close enough to an asteroid that the rocky surface blurred in front of his eyes. She pulled out of the spin at the last moment before juking hard to the right, causing a black missile to scream past them, its orange plume lighting up the void. He tore his eyes away long enough to look back and see dozens of menacing-looking interceptors on their tail, their black crescent moon shapes illuminated by the nearby star.

“We’re here!” Selina announced. “It’s now or never!”

[“Activating device.”] Ali announced.

For a moment, Kayden and Selina were given front-row tickets to the galaxy’s powerful light show. Explosions began to ripple within the star, followed by an enormous solar flare that raced towards their small ship. Kayden grinned one last time, thinking about all the Voidborn ships which would be caught in the blast.

Then everything went dark.

Back on the Broken Shackle, Kayden felt someone pull his control cable from the port he was inserted in as they removed his helmet. He slowly opened his eyes and glanced around to see Selina taking off her virtual reality helmet next to him, shaking her black hair free. Glancing around he saw Mirana and Anna facing away from them while poring over a pair of workstations, deep in engineering conversations about energy transfer efficiencies and blast radius effectiveness. Despite the fact that they still had to use a computerized translator to communicate, to Kayden it seemed like their shared love of solving technical problems had made them fast friends.

Both he and Selina were sitting in a pair of comfortably reclined chairs in one of the Broken Shackle’s mission rooms that they’d quickly retrofitted for this purpose. To their right was a row of workstations monitoring their vitals, sensor readings, and various other information. Ahead of them was a window showing their position at the very edge of the system, through which Kayden could see the event horizon of the newly created black hole.

With everyone else in the small room distracted, Kayden locked eyes with Selina and arched one eyebrow at her. She grinned in response before gracefully stalking over to him and sliding onto his lap. Her soft painted red lips pressed against his neck and her tail curled around his leg before she nestled in, wiggling her tight black bodysuit-encased ass onto his crotch suggestively.

“You were incredible out there.” Kayden said, stroking her hair softly before rubbing her ears.

She purred in response to his touch before kissing his neck again. “I bet you tell that to all the sexy catgirl pilots you meet.”

“Only the ones who blow up a star with me.” Kayden replied with a wry grin.

“Technically we imploded it, but I’ll let the distinction slide.” She replied with a chuckle.

The sound alerted Anna and Mirana to the fact that they were fully awake. The two of them turned around, with Anna placing one hand on her hip and grinning from ear to ear. “So it looks like Mirana’s modifications worked well?”

“Yeah, they worked perfectly.” Kayden nodded, still stroking Selina’s ears. “We were able to control the ship without any latency, and the kill-switch pulled us out just before the explosion hit us.”

“Good.” Mirana said. “I’m already working on installing them on the scavenger bot. We’re building new ships as fast as we can, and being able to control them remotely will be an enormous advantage in the battle to come. Based on the readings it looks like we still need to be in-system to control them with minimal latency, but at least it’s better than trying to crew each one individually – we just don’t have enough people to do that. Ali’s AI…friend will also be helpful in that regard.”

“In anything larger than a fighter they’ll be less effective than an actual crew.” Selina warned. “Nothing beats hands-on flying.”

“Given that’s not an option for us, it’ll have to do.” Kayden responded. “Still, I can’t wait to see the look on the Queen’s face when we show up with a brand new fleet of Vrul ships. I can’t believe our plan is really coming together.”

“Did the other device work though?” Selina asked. “I mean, I saw the explosion and everything, but did we destroy the Voidborn fleet?”

“Oh, we did.” Anna nodded as her grin turned slightly feral. “That sun is now a black hole. The gravity crushed everything in that system – planets, asteroids, ships – all of it. Initial reports confirm that 87% of their capital ships which broke through the blockade were in-system when the star collapsed. Admiral Gibbs and his reserve forces are just cleaning up the survivors now.”

“And the artifact?” Kayden asked.

“Even if it can’t be destroyed per se, it may as well have been.” Mirana answered. “It’s sitting in the middle of a black hole. Any forces that she sends through using that artifact will be atomized.” She paused before adding. “Painfully.”

“Good.”

“Should we throw the other one we’ve got in there for good measure?” Selina asked. “Now that we know we can take it out of play, we should try to do so as soon as we can.”

“Not yet.” Kayden shook his head. “Ali has asked that we keep it for study, at least for the moment. I know it’s a risk, but it’s a calculated one – we never would have pulled this off if she hadn’t spent time examining the first one.”

Selina nodded before pressing her lips to Kayden’s neck one more time, leaving a lipstick stain. “So…what do we do now? Want to go back to our room and…”

Suddenly, Ali’s voice rang through the room. “While you were remote-piloting the Bluenose, Elara called. She has been waiting to speak to you.”

Selina groaned and Kayden chuckled. “Put her through the speakers.”

“Hello husband.” Elara’s voice chimed. “I miss you.”

“I miss you too.”

“Did you and Selina have your fun?”

“Yes.” Kayden answered.

“Not entirely.” Selina countered good-naturedly. “But we were about to.”

“Then I won’t keep you very long. I have news though: our pressure campaign has been more successful than we anticipated. The Kel government is afraid of being voted out of office, so they have agreed to another meeting. Your presence is formally requested on Kel Prime.”

“That’s great news!” Kayden replied. “We’ll head there now.”

“Excellent. I’ll make the arrangements. See you soon, husband!” Elara said before the radio cut off.

“I am setting a course for Kel Prime now.” Ali announced. “We will be there in approximately 10 hours.”

“Perfect.” Selina replied, tugging on Kayden’s arm. “We both need to unwind. Let’s go to bed. Ladies, you don’t mind if I take our man and spend a few hours alone with him, do you? It’s been too long.”

“Not at all.” Anna replied. “I’ll take seconds.”

“And I, thirds.” Mirana added.

“No argument here.” Kayden said, easily picking up the lithe catgirl and carrying her out the door as she cackled with glee.