“Warning, shields at forty percent.”

“Fuck!” Jake pulled his Rattler into an upward spiral. Bolts of plasma fire flew by his cockpit dome. His shield capacitors whined under strain.

The Viper tailing him stayed on the offensive. Another Viper trailed at a distance.

“Eckos just had to die on me!”

Plasma bolts lit up his fading shields. Jake dove left. His pursuer matched the maneuver.

“Warning, shields at twenty percent.”

“Take this!” Jake spun his ship around and launched two missiles at the Viper. Unable to dodge, his target vanished in a burst of flame.

The second Viper showered him with plasma from above.

“Warning, shields critical.”

“Argh! Seriously!?” He pushed the Rattler's throttle to full. His vision went black.

'You are dead. Winner: Blue team,' the simulator screen displayed. 'Updated ladder rating: 2401 (-3).'

Jake punched the simulator's door. Damn it! I'm still nowhere near Nova or Sinn. With his ladder rating hovering above twenty-four hundred, Jake was undoubtedly the third best pilot among the Temple Wraiths. However, his rating stood over forty points behind Sinn and nearly a hundred behind Nova, a disheartening gap between their respective skill level. He fell back into his seat with a sigh. I need more practice.

Eckos said.

“Whoa there,” Jake said. “You're making money off our sim battles?”

Stevie's face appeared in a simulator window.

Eckos chuckled.

Stevie said,

Work? The org work schedule had nothing. Jake climbed out of the sim pod and joined the others. “What's up Stevie?”

“It's time to pick up our forge ship,” Stevie said. “Catch is, we need to sail it through some systems which harbor rats, so it's all hands on deck.”

“That's risky,” Paws said. “Why are we doing this?”

“I got a nice deal for our ships earlier,” Stevie said. “Saved us about twelve mil off the market price. In exchange, I agreed to do a pirate sweep for Arms and a Leg. So, the job's simple. Fly our way to Hephaestus, pick up our shiny new ship, and fly back to Specter through a few rats nests. Questions?”

“I have one,” Eckos said. “Did Arms and a Leg really build a forge ship in a single afternoon?”

“They had all the parts in stock,” Stevie said. “They'll have it assembled by the time we arrive.”

Jake looked around. “There's nine of us. Two frigates and seven fighters. How many rats are we talking?”

“No idea. Sinn and Myles said they'd join us later,” Stevie said. “And they'll bring anyone that logs on in the meantime.”

No idea? That sounds fun.

“Okay,” Mayto said. “So what's our formation?”

“You are FC, Mayto,” Stevie said. “You're the only flight lead right now.”

“Got it,” Mayto said.

Stevie motioned to the hangar bay doors. “Then if there aren't any more questions, let's move out.”

“Really, Lindsey? We're having dinner in about thirty minutes.” Regina confronted a tiny girl who stood in front of the subway station eating candy. With their disparity in height, the scene resembled a mother scolding her child.

“Chocolate is good for you,” the girl offered Regina some of her sweets. “Eating chocolate makes you happy.”

Regina inspected a chocolate bar and sighed. “I don't get how you keep the weight off. I swear, living with you will ruin my health.”

“Is this your roommate, Regina?” Mark asked. This girl who looks like she'd fit in at a middle school?

“Oh! Yes, sorry.” Regina introduced the two. “Mark, this is my roommate, Lindsey O'Connor. Lindsey, Mark Asami, the aerospace engineering student I told you about.”

Mark extended his hand. “Nice to meet you.”

Lindsey's eyes widened. “Is he the guy you- *mmgh*”

Regina forced her chocolate bar into Lindsey's mouth. “Yes! You don't need to say anything else.”

“What did you tell her about me?” Mark asked.

Playing with her hair, Regina looked back to him. “Mainly the stuff we do in Parallax. I know you don't like that spreading.”

“Didn't you say there was another AE student and org-mate you eat lunch with?” Lindsey asked.

“Ivan won't be coming. There was something he had to do,” Mark said. “He wouldn't tell me what though.”

“And Lindsey, where's your boyfriend?” Regina asked.

“Chris and Al are waiting for us there.”

Boyfriend? Mark glanced back at Lindsey. There's no way that's legal.

“Okay, let's go then,” Regina said. She grabbed both Lindsey and Mark's hands and pulled them down the station steps. After a scan of their IDs, the three passed through the fare gates and stepped onto the cement platform. With perfect timing, an automated broadcast announced the next train's arrival.

The train doors opened with a hiss, and Mark followed the two girls onto the crowded car. On the way, Mark simply listened to the two chat. Their conversation wandered from professor quirks to paranormal romance fantasies, none of which fell into his own interests. Ten minutes later, their train arrived at Boston's Waterfront District, and a frosty breeze greeted their party as they left the station.

Regina and Lindsey clung to each other shivering. “Maybe coming to the Waterfront in late October wasn't the best idea,” Regina said. “Hey, Mark, can you walk ahead of us?”

“I can, but why?”

Regina pushed him forward. “You block the wind that way.”

So I'm a walking windshield now!? With another nudge, Mark agreed and led the odd procession down the brick-paved wharf toward the Boston Channel. Their destination, the popular Pier Garden's Restaurant, overlooked the harbor from the Long Wharf's end, less than five minutes away on foot.

Outside the restaurant, a voice called out from the crowd as they arrived. “Mark Asami, we meet again!”

“Albert,” Mark said, greeting his old acquaintance, “nice to see you too.”

“If you're with this group,” Albert said, “does that mean you're transferring into the computer science program?”

Mark grinned. “Keep dreaming. I'm pursuing aerospace to the end.”

“I see your head is in the stars like always.”

“Wait, Mark,” Lindsey asked, “how do you know Al? You're in completely different colleges.”

“We were classmates back in high school,” Mark said.

Perhaps amused, Regina sang out. “It's a small world after all, it's a small world after all…”

“Regina,” Mark said, “stop it.”

“But it seemed so appropriate,” she giggled and motioned to the man standing by Albert. “Anyways, this is Chris, Lindsey's boyfriend and our classmate in the computer science program.”

“Hi Mark, I'm Chris, a pleasure.” Chris extended his hand while Lindsey clung to him. Slightly shorter than average, Chris somehow matched well with the petite Lindsey.

“And Mark is one of the leaders in my new Parallax org,” Regina said.

“If Regina's introducing me that way, then you're another PG player,” Mark said, shaking Chris's hand.

“Yup.” Chris beat his chest. “Not just any player though. I'm one of the top pilots in the Crimson Suns.”

“Oh!” Regina exclaimed. “You were in the Crimson Suns? That was the org at Elaris, wasn't it?”

Chris groaned in frustration. “One bad loss by a novice fleet commander, and that's all we're known for now? Next time I meet with those Temple Wraiths, we'll definitely show them who the elite org is.”

Well, this could get awkward soon.

A familiar melody echoed again in Mark's ear.

“Regina, no whistling either.”

Their trip to Hephaestus lasted thirty minutes without any encounters. Though Stevie took half an hour finalizing the sale and pick-up of their new forge ship, the group saw no sign of Sinn or Myles arriving. As the group contemplated waiting for their arrival, Stevie settled on a decision.

Stevie said.

In the enormous forge ship, which he named Specter's Mint, Stevie directed the band into lawless space. As the fleet reached the system's midpoint, company appeared. “Contact,” Jake's ship AI announced. “Multiple unknowns detected.”

The pirates? Bring it on.

Mayto said.

Twenty markers, four frigates and sixteen fighters, appeared on his radar in three groups. Half the unknown force waited dead ahead, and another small group approached from either side. Each group approached them from a hundred klicks away. Damn it. Why are we always outnumbered?

A disheveled face appeared on his display. The man wore a bandana complete with skull and crossbones.

Eckos snickered.

“Our most valuable ship?” Jake said. “There's no way in hell we'd leave the forge ship.”

Mayto said,

Stevie said.

Paws asked.

Mayto said.

Ducks said.

Chase said.

Stevie commanded.

Four violet pulses streaked toward the lead frigate before them. Two shots from Ducks's frigate struck the pirate flagship on center, illuminating its shields. The next pair from Chase also hit dead on, noticeably cutting their intensity.

All the red markers accelerated towards the Wraith fleet.

“Hahaha! You pissed him off now!” Jake laughed. “What happened to 'the shots would miss' Mayto!?”

Paws asked.

Mayto said. Like Aero's battle at Elaris, Mayto decided to eliminate the manageable smaller fleet before the other pirates arrived. Against the smaller group, the Wraiths likely held advantages in both numbers and skill.

Stevie said.

“Doesn't mean they know how to use 'em,” Jake quipped. He locked onto the assigned target, a Rattler configured with a topside auto-turret, and charged in, guns blazing. His opponent rolled away, and Jake pursued. The enemy Rattler danced back and forth ahead of him with its turret chipping away at his shields.

Not good enough. Jake locked his cannons onto the fighter before him and poured plasma shots into his target's shields. After five seconds, the Rattler broke into pieces and burned away.

Mayto said.

The pirate captain taunted the Wraiths.

“Contact,” Jake's ship AI announced. “Multiple unknowns detected.”

Jake checked his radar. Six new signals broke away from the three distant pirate frigates and shot towards their ship group at high speed.

Mayto said.

“Roger, I'm on it.” Jake pointed his Rattler ahead of the nearest craft and pushed the throttle to full.

Eckos said.

“I'll take them,” Jake said. “Cover me.”

Of all the possible targets on a battlefield, boarding craft annoyed Jake the most. While their pathetic shields and paper-thin armor left them vulnerable to even stray shrapnel, their high speed and minuscule size forced interceptors to either waste missiles or draw into close range and pray for a lucky hit. Plus, they were worth far less than his missiles in a combat zone.

His first two marks, a pair Jackknifes identical to their own, slid into his reticle. Jake pulled the trigger, and the craft tumbled aside before detonating.

Eckos said,

He locked onto the next Jackknife, five klicks away and zipping towards their largest ship. “We're too far, hitting afterburners.”

Eckos and Jake raced to the next pair of Jackknifes. The escorts, two Vipers, faced them and launched four missiles at the two. Following the missiles, two streams of plasma streaked their way.

Shots of plasma deflected off Jake's shields. He thumbed the decoy button in anticipation. Two fireballs expanded in his view. Jake shouted.

Eckos said.

Jake smashed the decoy button. Two missiles whizzed below the Rattler. A string of fire flew by his cockpit from behind and lit up a Viper's shields. As he hoped, the first Viper dodged aside.

“Warning,” his system reported, “shields at sixty percent.”

Still safe, Jake thought. He arrived within two klicks of the next targets, the maximum range for his plasma cannons against enemies so small, then dumped plasma into the boarding ships' flight path. Another two fireballs bloomed in his sight. “Two left.”

A Wraiths' frigate sat between the remaining Jackknifes and the Mint. Chase said,

“Don't worry, I got it.” Jake aligned his sights on the next target.

“I got it,” Jake insisted. With open space behind his target and the distance indicator below a thousand meters, he squeezed the trigger. The last two pirate boarding craft became interstellar debris. Yes! They can't steal the forge ship anymore.

The pirate captain appeared on his display again.

Fourteen pirate interceptors and three frigates had reached firing range around the Mint. A storm of missiles and plasma rained down on the ship's shields.

Oh fuck! How strong are a forge ship's shields? Are we seriously going to lose the forge ship? Jake found the closest interceptor and fired off his missiles hoping to cut the damage by even a little.

“Contact,” the ship AI announced. “Multiple ally transponders identified.”

“Whoa!” Jake said. “You're late Sinn!”

Paws asked.

Sinn laughed over the public channel.

“Yes!” Jake said. “Time for the fireworks.”

The pirate interceptors turned to escape.

Sinn laughed maniacally. Hundreds of smoke trails blossomed from the Phantasm's missile pods, their payload overwhelmed the pirate fighters.

Stevie said,

Sinn shouted. The destroyer's main guns fired upon the enemy frigates. Despite having the highest quality shields, each of the targeted ships sank within three hits.

Only a single frigate, the flagship, remained of the pirate fleet, and the pirate captain broke from his character.

Jake could hear Sinn's bubbling pride as the last frigate blossomed into a ball of flame.

“Man, I'll never get tired of this!” Jake laughed.

Eckos said.

Like before, Sinn's light show filled their comms channel with delighted shouts. When the cheers finally died down, Stevie asked,