Chapter 14: Chapter 14

Chapter 14

The trio, Gree, Genesis, and Eve collectively piss themselves mentally.

Sure they were well-trained, but there were only five of them vs. one of them. It was doable, if not excessively difficult. But with Eve's radar picking out ten more ships ahead of them around this curve of the asteroid, it was not a good position for anyone involved. It was a pincer maneuver. It didn't matter what the other ships were. But at the speed they were going, they'd crash right into whatever firing line they might've thought up.

Genesis took the reigns instead with a sudden scream. "I'M MOVING US! CONTROL THE SHIP, EVE! TAKING A SHARP DOWNWARDS MOVE!" Genesis shot the debris she still had, collapsing it into several pebbles and creating high-speed flak toward the three following them. It was a maneuver to get them off their back. Genesis had to strain herself. Her brain throbbed when she raised her arms and collected her Ki towards the ship. Genesis' nose bled. It was absurdly heavy, even with her whole psychic force at her disposal. Her brain was searing itself to collect all the energy needed to perform it.

When she finally formed enough force, she SHOVED it downwards and forcibly ripped the spaceship down on the Y axis. For a moment, Eve lost control, sending the ship into a short-lived spin. At the end of the spin, they faced downwards to go through an entirely different path, dodging the others and the blockade they formed. Instead of circling the massive asteroid, though, they shot downwards into a field of medium-sized ones. 

Genesis felt sick to her stomach as her body tried to recover from using so much raw force. Unfortunately, she couldn't hold it in much longer and spewed nutrient soup into the vacuum of space. It promptly froze over once it left her personal air bubble. "Ugh...my head is splitting itself into four different pieces. That was...way more difficult than I thought." She sat down on the ship to get her bearings while Eve yelled over the comms channel, "They're not giving up! Lay flat on your back. Gree, point the turret upwards; here they come!"

Genesis did as she was told, and Gree did as well. Above them, near the massive asteroid, was a flock of burning lights. Thirteen was an unlucky number. Genesis cringes as the turret fires above her body. The laser fire aims to hit some of them, which some do. Several ships have their shielding flare up as the lasers blow into them. A few get minor hull damage but nothing substantial from the high rate of fire. They returned fire.

A blinding array of red laser fire shot from those ships. Genesis' heart rate picked up. Is this how they die?

No.

The ship lurches and swerves through a tight space between two asteroids dodging the hail of fire coming at them. It was a tight maneuver, enough that some of the pilots on the other end couldn't do anything with their scrounged-up ships. As a result, two of the thirteen pilots impacted the asteroid's sides, their fate unknown to the trio other than hearing and feeling the shockwaves of the explosions. Was it going to be an ugly dogfight, then? 

Genesis' brain still burned while Gree peppered their escape route between asteroids with laser fire. It was a wild chase between the fields of space rocks. Asteroids were blown up by missiles and laser fire in their wake. Ancient space stone finally being disturbed after god knows how long. Over time, Gree managed to clip the thrusters of at least three more ships, sending them hurtling into space debris and shattering in a space-rocking explosion.

They were hopelessly outnumbered. By now, their shielding was barely hanging on, and their gun battery was draining out. It'd need time to recharge. The enemies numbered fifteen but were shot down to eight. By now, Genesis had managed to scrounge up more energy in her body. "Eve, drive us past a smaller asteroid. I'm going to grab it. I see up ahead a very narrow path. Keep them busy and fly through the path when I give you the signal. I'll block it behind you." For the first time, Genesis kicked off the ship and sent herself hurtling through space. Eve was protesting and cursing out Genesis on her comms channel until she muted her.

She hid behind a smaller asteroid as the eight ships shot past her. She was on a time limit here. She grappled a medium-sized asteroid after launching herself off the smaller one. This one was a great size, enough to block the passage through the tight asteroid field that Genesis saw. She pushed it with minimal psychic force, hurtling herself through space. A few minutes later, she got there, listening to the explosions and laser fire in the distance in the high-stakes dogfight.

"Alright, Eve! Go on through. I'll block it behind you." Eve hissed on the other end - then moments later came hurtling through the thin spot. Genesis expended the rest of the psychic energy she had to shove the asteroid in place. The results? Several explosions were heard from underneath the asteroid. Metal shrapnel cracked the asteroid that acted as a lid. The force was enough to blow the cover off, but not before doing enough damage to even out the field.

When it finally pulled off, shattering into several massive hunks of rock, only crumpled ships were left. It was impossible to tell how many had fallen for it. Eve returned for a fly-by pickup, Genesis hopping from the rock she stood on and landing directly on the moving ship. "Holy shit, that worked. I don't even know how many I got with that. Gree! Get out here before the turret overheats!" Gree grunted on the other end, the turret sliding back into place as they shot out of the asteroid field, thinking they were fine.

But they weren't. A loud scream came from space, and someone was following them. It wasn't a ship. It was a single man. His aura was explosive as he shot toward their ship. Genesis' eyes zoomed in on the man, activating her enhanced sight. He was a sky-blue guy with very lanky limbs. In fact, he looked like he'd break if a strong wind pushed him. His body was covered in burns and gashes that bled a black ichor. But the ki he put off was just as strong as the pirate captain Genesis and Gree killed on the last mission. So this was just one of their soldiers!? He was definitely the captain of the force that had told them to stop. The same man.

They had to stop him from getting close - no, it was impossible. The man was getting closer and started to shoot ki bullets at the ship from afar with scary accuracy. Genesis had to muster up her own ki, shooting and hitting bullets that'd bust a hole in their ship to ensure they exploded away from them. "GREE, WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING!? GET UP HERE BEFORE HE-" From below the vessel in the airlock, there was a burst of energy as a high-heat raw BEAM of energy shot out the doors. 

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Gree was there, shooting the high-heat beam from his lizard maw toward the last alien. The alien dodged, barely. The energy that surrounded his flight was smashed into by the high-heat energy for a second. But that second was all it took for the right side of his body to be badly scorched by the beam. He wasn't killed, but he was hurting. Genesis wasn't idle during this time. She focused her ki on her fingers. Five points of purple light formed on each fingertip down to her claws.

She aimed towards the man with her hands wide open. Five beams lanced through space on every side of him. She closed her fingers as if pinching a bug. The lasers bent and moved with the fingers, slicing downwards on several points. She had burned most of her ki to do this odd technique, but the force showed. The man was dangerously low on ki, using this move cut off his escape and cut into whatever he had left to shield himself.

It wasn't enough.

There was an unholy scream of pain and anger that rippled across space before being silenced forever. Chunks of blue alien and black ichor froze over and floated in space forever afterward. Genesis collapsed and sat on top of the ship, panting and sweating. "Eve, did the Doctor know these guys were this strong? What was the point of only sending us three!? Isn't this a suicide mission!? We haven't even gotten there yet!"

Eve was dead tired over the radio; it showed in her weak voice. "I don't know. This was a lot to take in. The ship is damaged, we took a lot of minor scrapes, and some systems are shot from the rough handling of it. I'll need some time to do the repairs just so we can get to the station. The Doctor must've thought we could do it, or his information about their group was outdated. The dossier didn't say anything about pilots of this skill level."

Genesis groaned. All they could do was just suck it up. Gree wasn't as tired as they were, so he decided to say, "I'll let you two rest. In the meantime, I'll cook something up with what we got. Don't worry. I'll keep watch." 

Two days later...

The crew had done their mandatory rest and repairs. They were lucky to not have taken as much damage as they had. At most, they had to deal with burnout in the case of Eve and Genesis. Eve was dead tired from all the adrenaline during the dogfight, while Genesis had depleted too much of her ki and force.

There was little travel left. The trio was 7/8ths of the way to the station. It had been smooth sailing after the destruction of that patrol group. Most of the stuff they salvaged afterward was used to assimilate into the ship and give it a minor upgrade with the parts found. There was a lot of weaponry that Eve decided to take for herself to mix and match for fun in their downtime. The star map they had said that the enemy scavenger group would be visible in just a while. Gree, Eve, and Genesis were in the central cockpit to watch and see their target come into view.

They slipped into an asteroid-filled zone in the vicinity to ensure they wouldn't be caught. Then, using the ship's sensors, they brought up a zoomed-in picture of the space station. The space station used to house about 10,000 people back when it was made. It was a massive maze of material. But there was one glaring issue. Next to it was a monstrous carrier ship colored a dark brown. Heavy weaponry was put along the sides of the main ship while a small number of ships could be seen flying around it; some were transport vessels. The space station looked like it was being taken apart piece by piece and being assimilated into whatever the scavengers needed it for. No wonder there were so many ships that attacked them. The station had a monstrous amount of raw material.

How were they even going to attack the station to find what they needed?

Genesis looked towards Eve for answers, and when she responded with nothing but a blank look on her face, she looked towards Gree, who was very much similar to Eve. Genesis rubbed her chin. "We'll have to dock at one of the lower docks." She played with the display, moving it around and looking at the ships coming to and fro. "We obviously can't do shit to the main ship, so we'll have to go in on the opposite side of the station with our engines going dark. I can control this asteroid we're on to make it seem like it's floating aimlessly past it to cover us visibly. But afterward, we need to land in one of the bays." She pointed to one on the opposite side where the scavengers were 'mining' the station.

"There's a shit ton of them. But I doubt most of them are anything special. The dossier does tell us there are three executives and one leader. So we'll need to find and target these three before going for the leader. There's no doubt in my mind they have the relics we need. If they don't, they have them somewhere on the station or the ship." She sighed. "If we die, we at least all die together, you know?" She put her hands on her allies' shoulders and squeezed them.

She was feeling stressed. Why in the fuck would the Doctor send them on a suicide mission? There were bound to be very powerful figures here. Not to mention they had a time limit to get back. Why a time limit at all? Sure, suppose there wasn't a time limit. In that case, they could just do guerilla tactics and kill the enemies while dodging around on the space station - but that was impossible here. They didn't know the station either, not like these guys mining out a massive hole for raw material.

Genesis moved back and began to clench the asteroid they were magnetically attached to with her psychic power. Then, she sent it on a little push toward the station.

"We'll get through this bullshit together."