"Connor, those people that were trying to save us. We left them." Liz said from beside him in the darkened quarters that they had been assigned by the pirate steward.

The room was impressive for a space ship, not that Connor had any experience in the field, but it was so big that they had pulled their beds together the first night because it felt safer.

"I know, I feel terrible that we're safe up here and the people on Dottier are still fighting. I keep telling myself that we'll fight again and it'll be the one that breaks the Sharlah. That ends it. We just have to wait and do it right." Connor said.

"Yeah, you're right. I've just been having nightmares about it and I wake up feeling guilty for being safe."

"We almost died so many times. I don't think we would have lasted much longer. They were looking for us specifically." Connor said as he rolled over to face her bed. "You can come over here and sleep with me if you're scared."

Liz smiled and did a couple of skillful rolls until she crossed the crease between the beds. "That does feel better."

"Yeah, you're right." Connor said with a grin and draped his arm across her shoulder.

The guilt was still there for him but it was just another emotion on the pile to be silenced. He had the dreams too. Vicious firefights with the Sharlah, people dying, his parents laying crumpled on the floor of their farmhouse, Vigas sitting against the wall of the break room in the mine. Snapshots of the horror on Dottier playing all night until he was so disturbed that he woke up to stop them momentarily.

Morning came and with that was breakfast and then weapons and tactics training with the pirate boarders.

"When we enter through a door that probably has resistance inside, we first toss in a stun grenade." The pirate raider known as Hamilton shouted to his trainees which included Connor and Liz.

He pulled the pin and chucked it inside before covering his ears. The blast was loud and the flash blinding. He hadn't told them to look away but some took the queue to cover their ears at least. The five armed men being used for his demonstration filtered through the door one at a time, each going the opposite direction of the man in front of him.

"When you enter as a group, you do it like that. One goes left, the next goes right. When you're inside, you take the next available area in the direction that you went. It might be another doorway, stairs, the corner of the room. It doesn't matter. If the guy before you didn't go there, you do!

IF you are alone for some reason, and you shouldn't ever be.. but if you are, you're going to SLICE THE PIE!" He said and began his demonstration of that tactic. He kept his weapon pointed into the room and took each slice of vision slowly as he worked his way through the door, only exposing himself to the piece of room that he was ready for.

"Ok, we gonna try this now. Take a laser trainer from the table and turn your vest on." Hamilton said and suited up himself to play the role of bad guy. "I'm gonna be in there and I'm gonna lay you out if you do it wrong. Jimmy you're first. Slice the pie." He said and pointed to a skinny young man with messy hair.

Jimmy nodded and watched as Hamilton closed the door to another room of the large training area. It was made up of several hastily built buildings with multiple rooms inside that served to train both shipboard and surface fighting. Jimmy pulled the pin of his practice grenade, kicked the door open and tossed it inside. Before the grenade even went off he went rigid and tried to scream as he hit the ground.

Hamilton stepped out with his weapon lowered and motioned for one of the other pirates to shut off the vests. Jimmy gasped and held his chest as he rolled over onto his side. "What did he do wrong? It's pretty obvious."

Connor raised his hand and waited for Hamilton to acknowledge him.

"Beach Boy" Hamilton said and pointed to him. It was his nickname for not being as pale as winter snow.

"He just stood there after he opened the door. He didn't take cover." Connor said, shooting Jimmy an apologetic cringe.

"Correct. Don't just stand there like a retarded ape Jimbo. Connor you're next."

The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

Liz slapped him on the back as he stepped forward. He lined up with his body pressed against the doorway, images of his knife fight with the Sharlah trooper flashing through his mind, and reached for the doorknob. He hesitated, remembering how bad the haptic vest hurts when you get hit, and then cracked the door open wide enough to toss the grenade it. When it went off he hit the door with his rifle butt and sliced the opening a few inches at a time before finding Hamilton on all fours behind the couch. He fired and Hamilton yelped as he flattened out against the ground but before he could celebrate his own vest shocked him into oblivion. A second instructor came out from the far left corner firing his weapon several more times than needed.

"Alright stop, cut it." Hamilton coughed out. "Good job Connor, but you fucked up and died. Don't assume anything in here. You only thought it was just me, you didn't know that."

Connor looked up sheepishly and nodded, thoughts of the dirty collaborator tackling him from behind in the house flashing into his mind. "You're right, sorry."

"I don't wanna hear sorry. Sorry is what I'll say to your friends when some alien fucks you up and rips your throat out because you didn't check your corners. Get back in line."

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Kate ripped back on the control stick and the Solent groaned in pain as it responded to her command. She waited for the weapons lock warning to stop before activating the stealth cloak and cutting power. The lights in the cockpit turned a deep blue color to indicate that she was in stealth mode. She liked that.

The pirate engineers and mechanics went above and beyond to outfit the Solent with new tech and quality of life improvements. She knew it wasn't charity. They wanted to live on Dottier and the only way to do that was to beat the Sharlah in a stand up fight. The Solent, however, would not survive in a fight like that. Even with new weapons, shields, and stealth capabilities, it was still a space truck at heart.

Her trainer, callsign Haymaker, was looking for her. She had ducked between two asteroids that were nearly touching before going cold. She watched as his fighter passed by the crack between them and went active again. Her pulse cannon automatically tracked his movements and Charlie worked to get a missile lock. He dodged in every direction and rolled his wings over but it was too late, the AI had him.

"Send it!" Kate shouted and several seconds later his voice came over comms.

"I'm dead, nice one."

"Was that a compliment from the legendary Haymaker?"

"In the flesh and at your service. Well done, seriously. You knew you couldn't out maneuver me so you did something to shift the paradigm. Don't fight unless you can win." Haymaker said in his fatherly tone. He was probably old enough to be her father and had been in more fights than he could remember. It was solid advice.

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"Jayden, would you do anything to save your friends?" Charlie blurted out as he was checking the readings from when Kate went from hot to stealth and back to hot. It wasn't good for the Solent to do that. Letting your components go cold and then blasting electrical current and heat through them was about the worst thing actually.

"Whoah, um yeah I guess Charlie, why do you ask?"

"How far would you go?"

"I'm not sure I understand what you're asking. I would give my life. I would die if it meant that Ash and Kate could continue on and save Dottier."

"Interesting. Would you sacrifice others for the mission?"

"Other people? Like civilians?"

"Yes." Charlie said simply.

"Well I wouldn't feel good about it, but if that's what needed to happen, I guess I would have to make that decision. Charlie if we don't stop the Sharlah, it's a genocide. Every human dies or is a slave to them. No single life is more important than stopping that."

"I see. Thank you Jay. How is the ship handling it's new equipment?" Charlie said.

Jayden chuckled. "You are the ship Charlie, you already know that she didn't like that, but we're holding up. It's nothing."

"Yes, I was just feeling uncomfortable and wanted to change the subject."

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Ruo stood on the bridge of the Wraith and marveled at it's cleanliness and sharp minimalist interior. It smelled of bleach but in a good way. It was sterile.

"This is amazing." Was all that she could muster.

Volkov smiled. "Yes it is. We took this from a Callidus battle group after they got into a scuffle with the Syndicate. It was limping home and we pulled it out of hyperspace to face us. It's designated as a super destroyer but it took a lot of repairs and resources to get it back to functioning like one."

"You.. pulled it from hyperspace?"

"Yes. It's called interdiction. The Callidus can do it, so we can too with their tech. They can detect ships in hyperspace before they arrive and disable their hyperspace drive. They drop out right there in front of you if you do it perfectly. We dropped the Wraith too far ahead of us, but it was nearly crippled so we advanced like a pack of wolves to a wounded animal. They surrendered, the idiots."

"You killed the crew?" Ruo asked with some discomfort.

"Oh yes, standing orders. No Callidus prisoners. For what they did to us."

Ruo looked away, out of the viewport. The ship was massive, like a floating city. The crew had to number in the hundreds if not over one thousand. There was at least twenty or so on the bridge alone manning the various terminals and sensor stations.

"Do you command the entire fleet?"

Volkov scoffed "Yes but also no. I have the final say but there are captains under me who manage their own groups. They come and go as they please and bring back their treasures to go where they are needed. If we move out as one, I am in command."

"I was the captain of a large ship from Dottier, but nothing like this. The Sharlah destroyed it. Have you heard of hyperspace missiles?" Ruo asked.

"Yes, we have them." Volkov said with a wolves grin.

"But can you stop them?"

The grin faded. "No, they cannot be stopped."