Kohn leaped off the asteroid like an idiot.

Well, that’s the best way to describe it really. He was trying to time it so that he would fly straight through gaps in the asteroid road, but somehow managed to hit the closest rock. Luckily his head broke the impact.

From the ships viewing it looked like he disappeared behind a man sized rock, but after waiting a few seconds it spun around on its axis and they could see Kohn’s legs pointed out into space. His head wedged into a suddenly visible helmet-sized crater.

“Oww.”

[That did not look good.]

He pulled his head out.

“Nah. I’m sure it looked better than it felt.”

[It’s impossible to clear the road in a single go Kohn. All the different sizes, speed, random impacts and ricochets makes the whole thing unpredictable. Your best option would be to think about a course through the road by jumping from asteroid to asteroid. Make a series of short ranged jumps.]

“Roger that.”

[No one here is named Roger.]

“No… it means I understand and will take your advice under advisement.”

[Oh, good]

Looking at everything around him Kohn looked for the closest rock. One that was in the general direction he wanted to go and that also had as few of the Jzanna black covered pits as possible.

“There are too many out here.” He spoke more to himself than to the ship. It was a bad habit of his to complain during incredibly difficult and tedious tasks.

[You’re doing just fine Kohn. Just take it slowly one jump at a time.]

Learning his lesson from before, he adjusted how much power he put into each jump. Trusting momentum with zero resistance in space to carry him towards each targeted area.

“Ewww.”

After one particular long jump Kohn came exceptionally close to one of the Jzanna black-covered pits. His left boot landed half in it to be precise. The toes of his boot came away with black strings that didn’t come off no matter how much he shook. Even rubbing it against the asteroid didn’t help much.

It was incredibly gooey. It reminded him about the fake monster goo that he got once as a kid. A little container with bright green sticky goo and a fake soft-rubber eyeball.

[Did you step in it?]

“Not by choice!” Kohn felt a little defensive from Leete’s tone.

[It’s not waking up is it?]

He watched the stuff, but it didn’t even so much as shake.

“No movement.” He chuckled a little bit. Maybe these things were incredibly heavy sleepers.

[LOOK OUT!]

“What?!”

He looked up just in time to see a bowling ball sized rock coming straight for his head at an incredible speed.

“FUCK!”

Kohn jumped backwards more out of instinct than anything else. His body understood that he would be killed if he got hit by that thing before his brain even fully grasped the realization that he spoke.

“SHIT!”

He jumped out of the path of the high speed rock, straight onto the black goo.

Rather than pushing him out of it the black goo seemed more eager to swallow him whole.

[KOHN-]

The communications cut out as he fell through the goo, landing on something hard yet pliable. It vibrated strongly underneath him. He couldn’t see it in the pitch black, but there wasn’t a single doubt that it was a Jzanna he had woken up.

“Not good.”

He got his legs underneath him and kicked as hard as he could just as the small pit suddenly had a large snake like thing thrash widely in it. The sticky goo offered very little resistance to his empowered jumped and he broke out of it with a Jzanna mouth snapping at his heels.

The only thing that saved him was his completely reckless desire to escape.

[KOHN!]

“THAT SCARED THE SHIT OUT OF ME!”

[Kohn don’t stop! It’s right on your heels!]

He didn’t look back. Kohn kept his eyes looking ahead, trying to find a safe rock to land on before jumping away from his previous spot.

[Go faster! It’s gaining on you!]

Though he was unable to hear the Jzanna crashing into rocks behind him, the small but quickly appearing clouds of dust and pebbles scared him into overdrive.

Adrenaline coursed through his body allowing him to make quick decisions and flying through the asteroid road. The silence on the communication spell didn’t calm him one bit.

“Leete, speak to me!” If he turned around he’d be unable to figure out where to go next fast enough, but he needed to know what was happening behind him.

[It’s still chasing you, but it’s crashing into asteroids and a few others have woken up. They’re also in a tail-end chase.]

“Well fuck me.”

[Now’s not the time for that!]

“Whatever! Just keep talking to me. Let me know what’s happening behind me.”

He kept the chase going for several dozen minutes, but it felt like hours. The adrenaline was starting to wear off just as he jumped off the final asteroid into empty space. The fleet was barely visible a long distance away.

“I am not going to die here!”

Kohn activated the jets on his boots, quickly gaining speed.

Turning around he brought the Buster Arm up and started charging it.

“Holy shit.”

There were 7 angry, hungry Jzanna coming at him. Their mouths were open and didn’t close as they got closer to him.

“Well I’ll at least take one or two with me.”

The test shot on the ship had punched a hole in the wall, but oddly enough there wasn’t a single burn on the next wall. Meaning that no matter how powerful it was, the Mana Ball would only affect one or two targets at most.

[KOHN! LOOK OUT!]

“Huh? What’s Leete talk-“

Kohn was interrupted out of his internal thought as a fast moving asteroid the size of a football field entered the side of his vision.

It hit the hungry, slobbering Jzanna at an incredible speed, missing Kohn by inches. It was so close that he had to pull his arms back as far as he could, making a hilarious ‘I didn’t do it’, hands up gesture.

The asteroid cradled the Jzanna for a few seconds before crashing into another asteroid with such force that both disintegrated with a meteor shower-like appearance.

Thinking that he was saved Kohn was about to relax when he pulled his Buster Arm back down as fast as he could. The charged Mana Ball fired right into the open mouth of a Jzanna.