Ursa wasn’t surprised when the young woman, or Xael as she now knew, told her the ship had adequate fighting capabilities. She kept quiet as Cel began to speak, nodding in agreement that they needed to get the shields up. She held off though, powering on the ship would allow the scavengers to know they were alive. She noted Cel’s tone change and his quick departure for the bathroom. It was very unlike the Yakuza leader to show weakness such as that in front of strangers, so he must be in serious pain. When he came back his hair seemed to begin to change and with what she saw with Xael, Ursa was beginning to think that she was losing her mind.
As he tried to shrug it off she raised an eyebrow wondering if he really was okay when Orion spoke up. Ursa turned back to the window wincing slightly as the Dilithium Hauler was obliterated in front of them. She was watching intently the field before her, noting each large piece of ship debris and the interceptors nearing ever closer. She unbuckled herself floating slightly as she watched Orion instruct Xael to set the coordinates for the Briar Patch. She scooted out of the way slightly giving her room as she smirked. Little did Orion know she was quite familiar with the area. It was a smugglers paradise, and had got her out of quite the jam when she needed it.
She mouthed the ship's name to herself as Ace spit out this new knowledge. She eyed the behemoth and felt the name was fitting. A monster in space such as that deserved a sinister name. Death was the only thing that it gave. In buckets. She focused partially on Orion, but mostly on the field, as she winked at him clicking her tongue in agreement before she turned back to her seat and turned over to the young woman with a fist pump ready, “You think right Kimosabe. Now let’s show these fuckers what we got!”
She buckled back in then, tapped her ear-piece, “Track 578….”
She cracked her neck and knuckles before she began to sing in a very off key, “GIVE IT TO ME BABY UH UH UH! UHUHUH! AND ALL THE GIRLIES SAY I’M PRETTY FLY FOR A WHITE GUY!”
She looked at the group bobbing her head as she lifted her finger, waiting for the first of the ships to get just close enough. She hit the power on after a second before she swerved to the left, rolling the ship upside down as she shot right below it at a quickening speed. She jammed to the music, increasing her speed through the debris as the other ships began to give chase before she turned to Xael, “Alright. Babydoll, where we going?”
Xael watched as Cel disappeared rather quickly after giving a little speech about what he thinks might be the best idea. Everyone’s minds were in overdrive. Full fight, flight, freeze, or fawn mode. If it were just one person, the reaction would be immediate. But since it was four, and ACE, there had to be discussions, though quick ones.
All of the information that Xael was receiving was being computed quickly. She reached over in front of Ursa and put in the coordinates to The Briar Patch. She had heard of it before, but had never been close to it. She wouldn’t ever go there on purpose, normally.
Finally Cel arrived back and Xael glanced up at him almost immediately, her eyes narrowing and her brows furrowing together in confusion.
“What happened to you? What’s going on with your used to be white blonde locks?” she said blatantly. She was unsure if he would answer, but gave him a brief moment to do so before she responded to Orion’s question about hooking ACE up to the hyperdrive to input the exact coordinates that would reach them closest to his ship. Either way would work for Xael, but the risk of ACE screwing up was also apparent. They could always unhook him abruptly and get him fixed or reboot him if something went wrong.
She shrugged and then nodded to Orion. “Hook ACE up then. It will probably be faster. The ship should be good to go in about two more minutes I’d say.”
Ursa gave her a nod dodging around debris as shots fired around them, trying to hit the ship. She dodged a few, rolling around a floating hanger when the wing got a slight clip. She swore eyeing the nearest of them as the ship shook slightly. She turned to the boys, “Shields and get on that lazer!”
She looked forward, moving the ship through the chaos when she got an idea. She rolled to the left towards one of the ships, playing chicken for a bit as she missed a few shots, heading right towards the vehicle confidently. The other pilot chose to swipe right out of the way which is what she anticipated. She watched as it nicked part of a hanger piece rolling through space as it crashed into another broken speedster, fire filling the void. She couldn’t help the smirk on her face as she turned to see the behemoth. She could see it’s power humming, prepping to cut out their hyperdrive soon. She turned to Xael, “We have to move fast or we are gonna lose the drive and probably the big robotman if we don’t jet out of here..BUT IN HIS OWN MIND...HE’S THE DOPEST TRIP. Sorry good part.”
While ACE was being hooked up, the screens all lit up, a gentle but commanding female voice speaking around them. “All entities powered up.”
Xael glanced at the screens and watched as coordinates to The Briar Patch flashed up in front of Ursa, though not blocking her view. Xael pulled a second chair over as close to Ursa as she could without getting in her way and sat in front of the second dashboard. She reached out after clipping herself into the chair and a blue light flashed over the palm of her hand, reading her signature. Another beep sounded, followed by the voice again.
“Initiating Hyperdrive in 5.... 4… 3... 2... 1... “
The ship headed towards the outer-reaches of space the other ships hot on their heels as they shot forward at top level speed. The stars began to stretch around them as they were propelled through deep space, moving faster than light before suddenly they were gone, Phobos a forgotten image behind them.
Ursa gripped the handles tightly, veering out of the way as two of the interceptors came right behind them. She yelled at the boys, “Get on that lazer. This is gonna get bumpy!”
After a split second they were surrounded by deep space, large boulder like meteors and a gaseous miasma that made long distance navigation difficult. Ursa just narrowly missed a meteor, jetting a wing up so that it wouldn’t get smashed by the impact. She felt a shot on their left bumper and groaned, digging in her heels as she tried to attain her speed. She looked around, lifting out of her seat so she could see better when she saw what she was looking for. She hit the throttle, pushing the engine hard as she shot forward towards a large cavernous meteor. She turned to the camera’s displaying the other two fighters behind them and yelled at the crew, “Hold onto something. This may hurt!”
She kept going, her eyes narrowed when she slammed the brake hard, slowing down to a full stop as everything not tied down propelled forward to hit the dash. Ursa’s own body almost flew out of the seat, only stopped by her seatbelts. The tip of the ship scraped hoarsely against the meteor whilst the other two pilots attempted to copy her maneuver only too late, slamming into the boulder with a resounding crash. Ursa gasped, pulling the seat belt away from her throat as she slowly backed up, turning to the group, “Everyone okay.”
She smiled as if she almost didn’t just kill everyone in the ship.
Xael watched closely as Ursa began to intricately navigate her ship into deep space. She couldn’t help but stare half the time. It was an impressive skill, and the woman seemed fairly young to know how to fly so well. It made her curious, as well as slightly envious. She only looked away briefly to see the ships in the camera following behind them quickly, landing a shot on the back of the ship. “Dang.” Xael cringed a bit, hoping Orion and Cel could handle the shields.
The stars passed them at an insane speed, looking light little snowflakes or rain, or something similar shooting around them. Before she knew it, Ursa shouted for everyone to hold onto something, and immediately Xael clipped the rest of her 5 point harness in around her. It held her slim frame snugly against her seat, and she braced herself. Seconds later, the ship slammed to a halt and she watched the two enemy ships smash to pieces before them. Her eyes widened slightly before returning to the camera to show behind them. So far everything was clear. Xael looked then at the little GPS to see how close to The Briar Patch they were, and breathed out a slow and grounding breath.
“Alright Orion, we’re here. Where exactly is your ship? Once we can get to it, it should give us a second to breathe and let us focus. And if that fails, we can always go to my home planet. No one ever goes there…”
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