Augustus flew straight at Shihuangdi, turning away as Qin’s massive cannon opened up on the attacking fleets.

Augustus ducked Chimera away from the missiles and drones that filled the battle with explosions and erupting cannon fire. He dove between a Prosper frigate and Shihuangdi as a missile chased them through the melee.

“Coming through, pardon me,” Augustus said as he swung left and right, spinning between the capital ships.

“Power to the rear shields, route to the engines, temporary opal burst!” Pul ordered. He and Sisi resembled dueling piano players as they manipulated the ship’s systems to give it more speed and maneuverability.

“Gap through the ships bearing on this heading,” Jasper said, navigating their path.

Co hummed as she fired the ship’s cannon in all directions.

Chimera buzzed like a horsefly in a cavalry charge, the big vessels ignoring him as they fought each other.

“Duke’s systems are reading a green light for cascade ignition,” Ptolemy announced, the pyramid flashing ready on his console.

“Get us clear, Augustus,” Natalya ordered.

“Righto!” Augustus said. He turned the ship toward the rear of the Prosper fleet. Chimera orbited Tether, circling the moon in a flash as they emerged on the far side, safe from the battle and the projected blast pattern.

“We should be clear,” Jasper announced.

“Cascade ready,” Sisi added.

Natalya grinned and said, “Detonate.”

Ptolemy hit the flashing green button on his console.

The crew stared at the explosions and erupting spaceships on the viewscreens, missiles and cannon flying as the three fleets jockeyed to gain an edge in the close-quarters fight. Farbind, however, did nothing more than send a plume of rock into space.

The crag widened as the planet’s core compressed. Cracks burst all across the planet. Volcanic eruptions dotted the surface, but Farbind remained intact.

“Was that supposed to happen?” Pul asked.

“Talk to me, Sisi,” Natalya said.

“I’m reading cascade compression and magnetic concentration, but the ignition lacks sufficient energy,” Sisi said.

Augustus flipped Chimera to dodge an incoming missile. It exploded against the surface of the moon.

“Tell me plain, Sisi, how do we blow it?” Natalya asked.

“Vacuum exposure must have diminished the core’s energy quotient. My math was off — stupid, stupid!” Sisi said, smacking herself on the forehead.

“We need an energy discharge inside the core. Duke can’t deliver firepower like that,” Ptolemy explained.

Natalya watched the battle as Shihuangdi and Butterfly sent thick blasts of power into the colony fleets, punching holes in space with raw energy.

“Qin does,” Natalya replied.

“We could ask nicely to let us borrow his ship,” Augustus suggested.

“We’ll just borrow his guns. Jasper, the core shrank, can we navigate through it?”

“I’ll plot us a course,” Jasper replied.

Ptolemy’s eyes widened as he looked at Farbind’s exposed core, and the battle before it.

“You’re going to make them shoot the core?” Sisi asked.

“I like this plan,” Co said, readying her weapons.

“Will it work?” Natalya asked. “Will it recharge the core?”

“Oh, it’ll work,” Sisi replied. “The energy quotient from direct nuclear impacts on the core of that magnitude should bring its reaction potential back to critical with half a dozen shots. I just don’t—”

“That’s all I need to know.”

“Realigning emitters,” Pul said. “If I make the right adjustments, we should be able to withstand the planet’s temperature and pressure.”

“Recharging Duke’s cascade ignition,” Ptolemy said.

“Ptolemy, transmit to Qin’s flagship,” Natalya ordered.

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“Done. Message?”

“Come and get me.”

“Ooh, flirtatious. I love it,” Augustus said. He took a puff off his vaporizer, and leaned against the wheel.

“Take us in.”

Chimera rocketed toward the center of the three-fleet melee. Missiles and cannon flew past the hodgepodge ship as fighter drones zipped by, blasting at one another.

Augustus angled toward a Gaozu capital ship under heavy fire from Shihuangdi. He skimmed the surface of the vessel, skipping along the capital ship’s shields like a stone on a pond.

“Shihuangdi cannon charged,” Jasper pointed out as Qin’s ship opened fire with one of its three functioning main cannon.

The cannon-slug ripped through the Gaozu ship’s shields. Augustus flew above the shockwave of energy, diving to the side of the capital ship to avoid the second of Shihuangdi’s cannon-slugs.

“Now you see me, now you don’t,” Augustus said, steering away from the capital ship as the explosion ripped it in half. He spun around the shattering bulkheads before angling to the side of the Gaozu ship, its snake-like head obliterated in the third blast from Shihuangdi.

Augustus kept Chimera behind the tumbling snake head, using it to block incoming missiles before bursting out of the broken hull.

“I’m such a tease,” Augustus laughed.

Co spun Chimera’s cannon, focusing on blasting incoming missiles or deflecting cannon fire.

They made it to the center of the battle, where a Changyu frigate pulled into position behind them. The shields flashed in warning as the frigate opened fire. Co angled Chimera’s cannon to chase off the ship, when a Gaozu drone blasted it in the side, drawing the frigate’s attention away.

Before Co returned to guarding their flanks, a missile crashed into Chimera’s side.

“Damage!” Natalya shouted as the bridge shook with the impact.

“Starboard shields deteriorated,” Pul announced.

More missiles zoomed around them. A pair of Gaozu drones locked on to their port side. Co obliterated one, but the second fired a missile that slammed into Chimera’s stern.

“Rear guns down,” Co announced.

“They burned Chimy’s ass. His beautiful ass!” Augustus shouted in defiance.

“Keep him pretty then, and move around Yellow Sun,” Natalya advised.

More cannon blazed at Chimera as Augustus spun through the thick of it, using the Changyu flagship as a shield. But Shihuangdi had taken the bait, and sped toward them.

A huge cannon-slug roared through Yellow Sun’s shields. Defense cannon ripped into Chimera, tearing holes in its wings and underbelly as Pul concentrated the shields on deflecting the most damaging shots.

Augustus circled Yellow Sun just as its six-barreled cannon opened up on Shihuangdi.

A Prosper capital ship maneuvered in front of Shihuangdi, however, shielding the flagship from the assault. Yellow Sun’s repeated volleys tore it to pieces.

“Approaching Farbind’s magnetosphere,” Jasper announced as the broken planet loomed before them.

Shihuangdi fired its main cannon and grazed the starboard side of the fleeing ship. The cannon-slug blew apart the orbiting chunk of Farbind’s mantle in front of them, and took Chimera’s wing with it.

The artificial gravity shut down and the lights went off in the bridge, sending Natalya crashing into the weapons console. She felt a snap of bone from the rough impact, but did her best to ignore the pain as she shouted through the darkness, “Shields!”

“Systems failing!” Pul said, hanging onto the engineering console as the lights and artificial gravity flickered back on.

“I’ve only got one engine!” Augustus said, trying to keep Chimera from crashing as he spun out of control.

“Get us in the planet, Augustus!” Natalya ordered.

“I’m trying.”

“Keep flying — I’ll get the shields,” Pul said, and ran out the bridge hatch.

Sisi shook her bleeding head and returned to the engineering console. “I don’t know what he’s gonna do but he better do it quick,” she said, trying to reroute power to the broken pieces of the ship.

Jasper grabbed Sisi and Natalya by the arm, his sword glowing as he healed them both.

“Can you do that to the ship?” Natalya asked.

Jasper shook his head.

Augustus flew to the far side of a massive piece of rock orbiting above Farbind’s exposed core, struggling to keep from skipping across its surface as Shihuangdi continued to fire.

Most of the main cannon-slugs pulverized the rock, but Co had to keep Chimera’s remaining guns blasting a never-ending barrage of missiles to carve a path.

Natalya shifted the viewscreens to survey Chimera’s damage, and spotted Pul standing on the ship’s broken wing. He ripped a shield emitter off his leg, attaching it to the exposed wires on the starboard side. Pul screamed in silent fury as he made spark-throwing repairs.

“Co, Sisi, we’re losing power to the opal-plant!” Natalya said, shoving Co away from the weapons console. “I’ll watch the missiles, get down there and fix it.”

Co didn’t hesitate. She grabbed Sisi and bounded to the engine room.

Chimera tumbled above Farbind’s surface, Augustus zipping through asteroid-like chunks of the planet as Shihuangdi blasted craters into the already broken crust.

Sisi and Co made it to the engine room amidst a shower of sparks. Natalya switched one of the viewscreens to show the engine room. She had the ability to jettison the whole compartment, just like any of Chimera’s other mishmash pieces. If the opal-plant was about to explode, she wanted to be able to signal them to get out.

“I’ll have to shut down the main fuel line manually and switch to auxiliary,” Sisi announced as she used a handheld multi-tool to manipulate the fried engine controls. “That lever there!”

Sisi pointed to a thick pipe that spewed sparks. Co took hold of a massive lever and cranked it closed, shutting off the main fuel line as the lights flickered.

An explosion erupted from the center of the opal-plant, sparks flying all around them.

“It’s no use. The opals are shot unless we can get that main line replaced,” Sisi said, shielding her eyes. Sparks flew out of a thick, snapped cable that had burst from the center of the opal-plant.

“Sisi, get out of there!” Natalya ordered.

“We just need to reconnect the main line to the—”

“Let’s go,” Co said, and grabbed Sisi with her robotic arm.

Sisi saw the metal arm, and smiled. She jammed her multi-tool into Co’s shoulder. Co’s eyes widened with shock and pain as Sisi removed her artificial arm. The scientist ran to the opal-plant and jammed the metal limb into the exposed wire, using her multi-tool to solder the jury-rigged cable in place.

The lights stopped flickering. The artificial gravity returned, and Pul returned power to the starboard shields just as a missile exploded against their side, the blast warping harmlessly around the shields.

Sisi looked at Co, stood proud over the repaired engine, and said, “That was for Pili!”

Co blinked and said, “Okay, I had that one coming.”