The hiss of air escaping was all the signal Kat needed to spring into motion. The heavy steel rolled to the left, barely making it a third of the way across the opening before Kat’s body squirted through the gap and into the room beyond.

There were three stallesp, all wearing heavy indigo suits that covered them from feet to neck, and given the barely visible glimmering bubble around their heads, Kat could only surmise that they were some brand of space or environmental suit. The room itself was spacious, but not so large as to make the three giant moles seem small.

One was hunched over a control panel, staring at a hologram invisible to Kat from her angle, but the other two whipped around, weapons in hand.

God were they moving fast. Even with her enhanced reactions, Kat could barely track the aliens as they squinted, trying to make out her body in the amorphous blob of darkness that coated her. A pulser barked, sending a dart tearing through the air just past her head.

Her back erupted in pain as the round slammed into the door, spraying a fine mist of superheated metal into Kat’s back. Almost immediately, her infiltration suit erupted into flame. A second shot missed entirely, the pulser bullet sailing through the air and carving a divot out of the hallway beyond.

Kat triggered her own shot, lining the red ball in her holographic sites up with the upper torso of the stallesp that had almost hit her. The carbine slammed against her shoulder, kicking harder than Kat had expected.

Then the room exploded into light. Whatever her gun was, it almost certainly was NOT a pulser. A wall of heat that made the tatters of her burning suit feel balmy slammed into Kat, knocking her from the air and slapping her into the ground.

Apparently the red dot in her sights wasn’t a targeting laser, rather it marked the spot where the projectile fired by the carbine would detonate, launching a cone of white hot flame into the two of the aliens holding weapons.

The nearest one simply melted, its suit holding up for a fraction of a second before the wave of superheated gas melted through it, incinerating the alien inside and barely leaving dust in its wake. The second stallesp survived, the right half of its body a charred mess of burned fur and scarred skin fused with the dark purple combat suit.

It collapsed to the ground, screeching unintelligibly as the cone of brilliant light disappeared, leaving behind the stench of burning flesh.

Kat rolled over onto her back, gasping for breath as the acrid, superheated air attacked her lungs. The stallesp working the console turned, almost in slow motion. Its hand went for the pulser at its hip in the same moment that Kat’s Pseudopod darted forward, slashing toward the alien’s eyes with the knife clutched in its grip.

The blade bounced off of the glowing field surrounding the alien’s face. It squeaked, backpedaling a half step in surprise as it tried to draw a bead on Kat. She rolled to the side, putting the embers of her suit out as she tried to buy time for the carbine to recharge.

A pulser cracked. The stallesp spun sideways, its right arm disappearing below the elbow as Whip stood in the now open doorway, gun gripped in her trembling hands.

The burned stallesp on the ground groaned, shifting slightly. Whippoorwill didn’t give it a chance, firing two shots in short succession from the alien handgun. Each one of the bullets shredded the creature’s armor, leaving a pair of volleyball sized holes in its now unmoving body.

Kat stood up and ripped her facemask off, her back and lungs aching. Whippoorwill stepped hesitantly into the room, pulser darting from one downed target to another. Kat balanced the carbine in the crook of her arm, wincing as she dismissed Shadow and began casting Cure Wounds I.

The burning pain in her back faded as Kat’s hands began to glow gold. Her breath hissed out in narrow gasps as the scars and burns stretched tight, smoothed out by the cool flow of mana over her skin.

A cough from the ship’s console, wrenched Kat’s attention to the side. The one armed stallesp had propped itself up against the base of the computer system. The alien’s pulser was gone, discarded halfway across the room along with the remains of its arm, but that wasn’t enough to stop it.

It raised its left arm, revealing a dark yellow gauntlet with two spikes sticking almost an arm's length from its end. Electricity crackled down the length of the weapon, arcing back and forth between the two razor-sharp tines.

Whippoorwill’s pulser clicked, finally empty.

Kat’s eyes widened as the stallesp leveled its glowing hand at her companion. Time creaked to a stop.

She barely even realized that she was moving. The knife clutched in her Pseudopod stabbed into the creature’s suit, failing to penetrate but pushing its arm to the side.

A bolt of electricity launched itself from the end of the alien’s gauntlet, scarring the far wall as the energy tore at the dark metal.

Then Kat was standing in front of the stallesp. The blade flipped out of the front of her carbine, vibrating to life as her Pseudopod wrenched her knife upward, pressing it against the creature’s armored throat. Its eyes widened, and the alien struggled to wrench its remaining armo back toward Kat, but it was too late.

The buzzing bayonet swing downward. It met the stallesp’s dark blue suit at the elbow. The tough fabric that had stopped every thrust, slash, or stab of Kat’s knife barely offered any resistance as the alien weapon sheared through it, cauterizing the wound in its wake.

The stallesp screamed, thrashing handless beneath Kat. She planted her right foot in its shoulder, pinning it to the ship’s console as she lifted the carbine again to skewer the pain-maddened alien.

Something about her slamming it into the computers knocked some sense into the alien, and the pain cleared from its eyes long enough for them to widen, flickering from Kat’s face to the humming bayonet poised above its chest.

“You,” it croaked, its English almost too accented to understand. “From the boat in dreamscape.”

Kat’s eyes darted to the alien’s gauntleted arm, remembering its slow, almost awkward movements in their brief battle. Her face broke into a toothy smile.

“You don’t have an avatar anymore do you?” She asked, pressing the vibrating tip of the bayonet against the dome of force surrounding the alien’s fuzzy face. Its eyes widened in confusion, pink nose twitching as it focused on the blade slowly forcing its way through the field.

“Turn off your helmet if you want to live,” Kat growled, pulling the carbine back just enough that the stallesp could shift its focus from the weapon to her.

Hesitantly, it reached up with one hand, tapping a button on the side of its collar. The energy field dissipated with a crackle of static. It wrinkled its nose at her, whimpering slightly.

Kat reversed the grip on her gun, swinging downward with its butt and connecting with the stallesp’s forehead. The dull thump of metal on bone filled the ship’s backup bridge, and the alien’s eyes unfocused before it slumped over backward insensible.

She took a step backward, weapon ready as she surveyed the room. The stallesp in front of her was clearly unconscious, and the other two were clearly dead. One barely had enough of a body for a funeral, and the other was missing almost the entirety of its torso.

Before she could say anything, Whip almost tackled her from behind, drawing a ripple of pain from her still recovering burns.

“Oh my God, Kat.” Whippoorwill was talking so fast that she could barely make out the individual words. “I can’t believe that happened. I know you told me to stay back, but then the door opened and you were on the ground and on fire and-”

“Shhhh,” Kat whispered, twisting so that she could pat the back of Whip’s head. Warmth filled her chest as her gloved fingers rested on the back of her friend’s mask. The other woman pressed closer, practically burying herself in Kat’s shoulder. “You did the right thing, and both of us made it. For now, all that’s important is finishing the mission. We can talk as soon as we're done.”

Whip pulled back, reaching up to pull off her mask now that the two of them were alone. Her pink hair tumbled out of its confines, framing her face and contrasting with the unshed tears rimming her eyes.

“Give me just a second,” Whippoorwill said quietly, blushing slightly as she reached up to dab one of her eyes. “Two of the ship’s reactors are down, their failsafes activated and they turned themselves off to avoid a meltdown. The third is still working, but it’s not fully connected with the rest of the power system. I think the lokkel were interfering with things because it shouldn’t be that hard to-

The entire ship shook, a humming sound filling its halls as the lights brightened slightly. In the center of the bridge, a hologram popped to life amidst the chaos showing a 360 degree panorama of the sand dunes surrounding the downed battlecruiser.

Lines and lines of tanks thundered over the wasteland toward them, supported by more artillery and lighter armored vehicles that Kat could count. A larger formation of at least a couple thousand NeoSyne vehicles covered most of the western horizon with a smaller but still large group of Tri Holding tanks engaging from the South. The 3445 was dug in around the battlecruiser, small ‘forts’ made from the smoking machinery of their enemies dotting massive trenches that had been dug in the sand.

There wasn’t any sound, but APEX suits’ rifles blinked, launching penetrators into the approaching walls of steel. The shots knocked the attackers out of formation, wounding enemy tanks and destroyed infantry fighting vehicles entirely. Behind the power suits, hover tanks wove a complex pattern, using their mobility to avoid enemy fire while providing cover for the entire formation from the advancing artillery.

A volley of rockets and artillery shells arced overhead, arcing from the advancing NeoSyne units toward the downed spaceship. The trio of air defense pylons opened fire, the lasers mounted at their tops blinking rapidly, each flash of light destroying another projectile.

“Got it,” Whip said triumphantly. “Automatic repair systems are now active, but most of the ship’s extremities are pretty beat up. Shields are available at 12% of full power. Drives are offline along with half of external weaponry, but internal security and communications are functioning.”

The door hissed shut, locking the two of them into the battlecruiser’s backup bridge. Beneath Kat’s feet, the deck rumbled slightly. On the hologram a thin line of gleaming metal appeared in the distant North, GroCorp forces arriving far too late to have any sort of impact on the titanic conflict around the downed starship.

She turned to Whippoorwill. Her eyes were unfocused, staring blankly off into space as she interfaced with the stallesp computer network, a shock of damp pink hair draped across her face.

“Don’t try and leave Kat,” Whip continued absently. “There are five or six stallesp still alive. I just activated the internal turrets to fix the problem, but I had to turn off their friend or foe indicators so that the guns would actually target the moles. Things should be getting pretty spicy out there in the next couple of minutes.”

“What about the ship’s shields and guns?” Kat asked. “You said we had some functionality back. Is there anything that we can use?”

“I’m not really sure what half of this stuff means,” Whippoorwill replied with a shrug. “The lokkel cypher translates the system, but it’s not like it properly explains what I’m dealing with. I mean, we have 20% of our railgun turrets and about half of the point defense lasers are working, but I have no idea what a plasma lance is. There’s only one working, and it's eating up a bit over a quarter of our power supply, but I don’t really know anything beyond that.”

“I think I’ve heard Dorrik talk about them before,” Kat responded, nodding slowly. “They’re the big guns used by capital ships to tear each other apart. Even at a fraction of its full power, there shouldn’t be anything on Earth that can survive a hit from it. With that we should be able to-”

She trailed off, a smile growing on her face.

“Say Whip?” Kat asked sweetly. “You mentioned that the ship’s communication system is working, right? I don’t suppose you’d be able to patch me through to our friend Belle Donnst. I want to make sure that everything is set in stone before I do anything dramatic.”

“I can do one better,” Whip answered, nodding at the holographic display of the battlefield. It rippled, the images fading away to be replaced by a boardroom filled with GroCorp shareholders, figures Kat had only seen on gossip channels and billboards. “I just used the communication suite to break into their smartglass. You’ll be visible shortly.”

Kat squared her shoulders, linking her hands in the small of her back as she smiled at the hologram. All of the shareholders were seated around a U-shaped table with a handful of executives standing in the center. All but Belle Donnst stood deferentially, their eyes downcast as the shareholders accosted them. A moment later the silence of the bridge was broken by a clamor of voices.

“Donnst!” A man shouted, standing up and jabbing a finger in Belle’s direction. “Do you really think that we would water down our shares for this… barbaric power grab?”

“Do you really expect us to believe that this was all the idea of some street rat?” His face was beginning to turn red, spit gathering in the corners of his mouth. “Everyone here can see that Haupt and you cooked up this plot of yours. There’s absolutely nothing stopping us from simply feigning an agreement with this Debs child only to turn our backs on her once the alien equipment is in hand.”

“She’ll kill you Richard,” Belle replied dryly, meeting the sputtering shareholder’s gaze. “She’s done it before, and she’s only grown more powerful since then.”

“I will you know,” Kat agreed, flashing a shark smile at the gathered shareholders and executives. “I’m Katherine Debs by the way. I was just calling in to make sure that my terms were going to be met. I’m not a terribly huge fan of fulfilling my end of a bargain without some sort of assurance that I won’t be left high and dry.”

“How dare you interrupt this august assembly,” he spun, jamming his finger into the air in the direction of whatever display Kat was appearing on. “How did you manage to break into our communication network? We are in the middle of a crisis here, and now is not the time for a distraction.”

“Don’t worry,” Kat replied, waving a hand dismissively. “The crisis is over. I won. I’m just here to provide you with my invoice before I hand over the spoils of my victory.”

“What do you mean the crisis is over?” Belle asked, speaking over the quivering shareholder.

“It’s over.” Kat stepped backward, waving a hand at her surroundings. “I have control of the stallesp ship, and it’s in much better shape than expected. Right now, my friends are being charged by three different armies, but I’m afraid the attackers will find that our deflectors and weapons are quite operational when they arrive.”

“Hold on now,” the man interrupted, raising a hand. “You’re a GroCorp employee, right? I order you to turn the ship over to us. By the terms of the Philadelphia charter, any salvage found by you must be forfeited to your employer in exchange for suitable compensation.”

Kat reached up, scratching her cheek as she stared into the holograph bemusedly. Finally she cocked her head slightly to the side before responding.

“Why would you think that I’m a GroCorp employee? I live in Chiwaukee, but at the end of the day, I’m a freelancer and I have been for a while now.”

“Donnst!” The shareholder sputtered, “I thought you said that she was an associate of yours and a student at the academy? How can she not be an employee?!”

“Just out of curiosity, what would you consider ‘suitable compensation’ for delivering a crashed aliens spaceship into your hands?” Kat asked. “Possessing the wreckage will change the balance of power in an instant. I honestly thought a little bit of stock was letting you off fairly easily.”

“She’s right Richard,” another male shareholder chimed in. “If we picked the right arbiter we might be able to argue them down to a billion credits, but this is too big of a case for us to just make it go away. The other companies would be watching us like hawks.”

“I still don’t see why we have to give her stock,” the standing man blustered back. “We can find a billion credits somewhere if we need to, but we haven’t invested more than one shareholder a year since the company was founded. Three at once would be unprecedented.”

“I can always ask Tri Holdings what they’d pay for the ship,” Kat interjected. “Their army is closer than yours anyway. I’m sure they’d be more than willing to pay what the wreckage is actually worth.”

The angry shareholder began saying something only for the other speaker to wave him off, raising his voice to speak over the blustering older man.

“Oh shut up Richard. It’s a fair offer and she has leverage on us. Anyone with half a brain can see it. I’m calling the question.”

The handful of executives that were standing in the center of the room relaxed. Richard spun away from the camera, looking from face to face at the table full of shareholders in search of support. Finally, finding none he plopped down in his seat, glaring at Kat through the camera.

A woman at the head of the table slammed a gavel down twice, silencing the whispering that had filled the boardroom.

“Shareholder Waggoner has called the question on Miss Donnst’s proposal, “ she began, her voice monotone as if she were reciting a script for the fiftieth time. “At this time I am directing the secretary to begin calling role. Each shareholder may vote aye, nay, or abstain.”

“I motion that we adopt the proposal by unanimous consent,” Waggoner cut in, exasperation filling his voice. “We’re literally voting while our assets are trapped in a war zone.”

The woman glared at Waggoner for a second before speaking up again.

“Shareholder Waggoner has called for unanimous consent.” She stopped for a second to look around the table. No one spoke. The shareholder that had been complaining earlier just glared at Kat, but she ignored him, her smile unmoving on her face.

“Seeing none,” the woman continued, slamming her gavel down once. “The motion carries. So long as Miss Debs can deliver the wreckage, new shares will be issued on the first on the first of the next month, and Jasper Haupt, Belle Donnst, and Katherine Debs will be invested as the newest shareholders in GroCorp.”

“Chiffon!” Kat called out, “Fire up the plasma lance and target the NeoSyne tanks. Let’s show the nice people what they just bought.”

The hologram in front of her rippled, transforming back into an image of the battlefield around the crashed ship. In the upper corner of the display, the GroCorp boardroom hovered above the sandy wastes.

Then the lights in the bridge dimmed for a quarter of a second, a distressed whining noise filled the ship as damaged machinery came to life. Then, the crashed battlecruiser in the hologram flared to life, a beam of brilliant white light stabbed from its prow.

The lance only fired for a half a second, but that was all it took. It traced a quick line through the center of the NeoSyne formation, flickering out even as the air itself caught fire. Explosions rocked the barren landscape, swallowing up the entirety of the enemy unit and buffeting the flickering barrier of defensive fields that had expanded outward from the battlecruiser to encompass the 3445 units huddled in its shadow.

Despite their distance, the Tri army took some damage. Unarmored individuals and lighter vehicles were tossed into the air by the shockwave from the blast. Even the heavier tanks and self-propelled artillery had to halt their advance, hunkering down and doing their best to survive the windstorm incited by the single shot from the stallesp ship’s main cannon.

Ten seconds later, as the mushroom cloud that had grown above the NeoSyne army like a weed began to fade, there was nothing left but dead bodies and twisted metal. A massive crater, covered in black glass from where the plasma had melted the sand itself, gaped in the center of the holographic display, replacing most of the now absent NeoSyne forces.

“It was a pleasure doing business with you,” Kat said with a smile as she stared into holographic projection. “Just make sure to invite me to the next meeting. I’m looking forward to meeting you all in person.”

Kat motioned to Whip, and the feed cut out, leaving only the smoking and debris strewn battlefield. Whippoorwill opened her mouth to say something, but Kat spoke first.

“We’re almost done, Whip.” She reached up, brushing a strand of hair out of her face before turning to look at the other woman. “I just need you to put me through to whoever is running the Tri army, and then we can rest.

Indecision warred with…something else… on Whipoorwill’s face for a couple of seconds. Finally, she nodded, and the hologram flickered, revealing a hispanic man in his early 50s that was pondering a smartglass image of the 3445 fortifications that ringed the entrance to the battlecruiser. From the looks of things, he was in a command vehicle of some sort. His surroundings weren’t terribly well lit, but the display on the wall and the table beside him both rumbled and shook as the war machine plowed through the desert.

“Hello!” Kat said cheerfully, announcing her presence. The man jumped, spinning around to look at the smartglass she was projecting from. “My name is Katherine Debs, and I am currently in control of the downed stallesp starship. May I ask who I am addressing?”

“General James Francis, Tri Holdings Security forces,” he replied, brow furrowing. “Can you tell me what is going on and how you got this-”

“I am calling as a courtesy to inform you that I have complete control of the battlecruiser’s weapon systems,” Kat cut him off. “As you can see, one shot was more than enough to annihilate the NeoSyne forces. I have no animosity with Tri Holdings, but I’ve cut a deal to sell the salvage to GroCorp. If you turn your forces around now, we will not pursue you. You will be allowed to leave unmolested.”

“Wait.” His face lit up. “If you’re the one in charge of that mercenary group, name your price. That alien tech will be the find of the century, and if you’re selling, Tri is buying. Whatever they offered, I can double it.”

“Can you give me two percent of Tri’s voting stock?” Kat asked, raising a single eyebrow. “General seems like an awfully dangerous position for a Tri shareholder.”

“Oh,” he replied, deflating on camera before lapsing into an uncomfortable moment of silence. Finally, he sighed and continued. “I suppose I’d better order my troops to turn around then.”

Kat smiled, feeling the tension leave her shoulders for the first time in days before she answered.

“I suppose you should.”