Violet danced and weaved through the volley of plasma bolts fired at her, each one just barely missing her. She aimed down the iron sights of her pistol and fired every chance she got, and every time a man or woman guarding the bridge fell to her plasma bolt. ‘Five down. Thirty to go,’ Violet thought as she fired. The hallway she fought in widened from fifteen feet where she stood to thirty-five, where the guards had placed tungsten-steel barriers. She took care not to fire too often; the pistols she took from the guards had a nasty habit of overheating. She couldn’t afford to stop firing or fire too much and risk overheating.

She spun, ducking under a bolt, and fired with her left pistol at one of the guards, then jumped while she still spun and barely missed another five bolts. She heard a man curse among the guards, and she took a quick second to look at them. ‘Twenty-nine left. Twenty panicked and overheated their weapons,’ she thought, then fired four quick shots with her pistols striking four of the nine guards who hadn’t overheated their weapons. Another smaller volley of bolts came at her from the remaining five guards that didn’t overheat.

Jumping lightly to the left and fired twice before going into a roll and jumping as soon as her feet hit the floor again, going into a somersault, sticking the landing, and firing thrice more. The last five guards with no overheated weapons fell. ‘Fifteen down. Twenty to go,’ she thought, then ran and flipped off the nearest wall as she dodged the volley of bolts. She continued to dance through the hail of fire as she slowly picked the rest off one by one. ‘Nineteen…eighteen…seventeen…sixteen…Oh shit, didn’t mean to shoot you there,’ Violet thought as she missed her shot and accidentally shot a man in the groin. She quickly shot the man in the chest, so he didn’t suffer too much.

Soon after, five guards remained. Then four…three…two…and one. The last guard tried pleading for his life, but Violet didn’t pay attention. She didn’t care for what he may have to say with a plasma bolt in his face. Then the corridor went silent, and she looked at one massive airlock door with closed electromagnetic blast shields.

“Did you have to kill the last guy?” Yang asked cautiously.

“Yep,” Violet answered without hesitation while examining the door blocking her way. Then she pointed to a panel on the other side of the corridor and said, “Open that panel and wait for my signal.”

“O-okay.”

Violet went to the opposite side of the corridor and examined the security panel. ‘Type six holographic forty-five-digit rolling encryption combination lock! Fuck! This will take ten minutes, maybe. Let’s see,’ she thought as she began decrypting the codes.

“Uh, Violet, I think we have people incoming,” Yang said, distracting Violet from her hack and forcing her to start over.

“Can’t you handle it?” Violet asked, struggling through the decryption.

“No. I’ve never killed anybody before.”

“Well, this is the perfect time to start. Grab a pistol or rifle, aim down the sights, and pull the trigger.”

“You make it sound so easy,” Yang said sarcastically.

“It is,” Violet retorted, then cursed as she had to restart the hack. Violet heard shots being fired behind her, and she did her best to ignore them as she restarted the decryption. After concentrating on the lock, she finally heard the lovely sound of the blast doors opening, and she saw the system commands she had access to, which opened and closed the door, turned the lights on or off, and opened or closed the door blast shields.

As her vision cleared and she snapped back to reality, a plasma bolt passed inches from her head, and she whirled on the guards, shooting. Yang cowered behind a barrier and fired blindly with a pistol, every shot wasted. Violet made five quick shots and killed the guards that had entered the corridor. Then mentally closed the airlock opposite them.

Violet looked down upon the cowering Yang and said with as much restraint as she could muster, “Did you not hear what I said? Aim down the sights and fire. Not fire blindly at the guards while cowering behind a barrier!!” Violet’s voice rose to a roar by the end, and Yang flinched hard enough to drop her pistol.

“I-I’m sorry! I-” Yang pleaded, but before she could get anything else out, Violet dashed forward and kneed her in the jaw, knocking her out.

“We’ll sort this out later,” Violet said, then turned toward the airlock door between her and the bridge. She willed the door open and entered, everything about her emanating calm as though she walked into a coffee shop, while several dozen guns pointed at her from all sides. Her calm aura confused the soldiers and guards on the bridge just enough that they didn’t fire.

Violet closed and locked the door behind her, and she examined the space around her. The room had been made thirty feet wide and fifty feet long with ten-foot ceilings, screens, and buttons flashed. Near the front of the room, two crevasses filled with computers and a few men and women within using it as cover and several large viewports between them and the vacuum of space. She then examined all the men and women in the room; only one caught her eye, though; she stood in the middle of the room with perfect posture and caramel skin; Violet guessed her height to be five-foot-ten inches tall like her. She had a dimpled chin, a lithe, muscular body, chestnut hair in a bun under a military cap, and steel-gray eyes staring daggers into Violet’s soul.

‘She’s not fazed by my entrance, which means nobody else is phased either. So, she’s the commander or someone of importance and high rank,’ Violet thought as she stared back at the commander. She smiled and said, “Hi, you must be the commander of this vessel. Mind if I know your name?”

The woman stuck up her chin, looked down her nose at Violet, and said in a cold, controlled voice, “My name is Admiral Mori. And you must be our prisoner Violet V. Vermillion. I’d say it’s a pleaser meeting you, but it’s not.”

“Ha! Good one,” Violet laughed, “I thought I liked you. Hey, how about after I finish slaughtering all your men and women in the room, we go a few rounds in your privet courters.”

“What?” Admiral Mori asked, disgusted.

“Oh, sorry, is common vernacular too difficult for you. Allow me to be more verbose. Once all your people are viciously and violently eviscerated in various volatile ways, would you like to have visceral and vociferous intercourse?”

“What!?” Admiral Mori asked again, even more disgusted.

“Oh, for fucks sake. Listen up, panty soaker. I got a job to do and people to kill. So, if you could roll over and fuck me raw, it would mean a lot if you could just do that. My safeword's Zoidberg.”

Admiral Mori grew visibly angry and said, “My orders are to take you in alive. But I’m sure they’ll settle for a corps. Fire at will!”

Before anybody could fire, all the lights went out, and the blast shields on the viewports closed, incasing everyone in total darkness. “Aww, what did Will ever do to you?” Violet asked, her voice echoing in the darkness. Then a tiny blue light lit up where Violet stood in the shape of a dagger with a crescent blade. It began to rock back and forth, slowly gaining speed before moving in a circle, illuminating Violet’s maddening wide smile in flashes. Then the dagger started to pick up speed until it made a high-pitched whistling sound and bathed Violet in blue light. “Well, what are you waiting for?” Violet said, “Fire at Violet.”

They did, and the room lit up with blue plasma. Violet ducked and spun, throwing the glowing dagger at the closest person. The blade passed through their neck and decapitated them in an instant. She pulled back on the cord and grabbed high on the cord with her opposite hand, and spun the blade several times around her, killing more people. She pulled back on the cord and spun it in a small circle before her while sending power through it, making a shield that blocked a good portion of incoming fire.

She then swiveled to the side and threw the dagger at the next unlucky people killing them. The glowing blade met flesh and tore through it hungrily. She pulled, grabbed, and swung the blade in a wide ark around her before bringing it down on another person slicing them in two. Violet pulled on the cord, spun, grabbed, and spun again in the opposite direction, grabbing the cord and spinning it again to make a small shield.

Then she took a moment to count the people in the room. She killed ten, leaving fifteen left, not including the Admiral. Violet took a deep breath and let time slow down around her; then, she sprung into action. She dashed to the right side of the bridge and swung her blade, rending two people in half as she sent a pulse of energy down the length of the cord. Grabbing the base of the blade as it came back around, she through it at the next person in line, sticking the man in the chest. Violet pulled him forward, wrapped the cord around his neck, used him as a meat shield, then sent another energy pulse through the cable and decapitated the man.

Violet then threw the dagger at the next person, hitting them between the eyes and going into their brain. She pulled back and made several quick spins with the dagger, killing the people in the control crevasse, then threw it at the next person, killing them. Violet jumped over the control crevasse and swung the blade at the Admiral and the last few people in the room. Admiral Mori nonchalantly ducked, making Violet miss but still killing the last few people above and below in the last control crevasse. Then she deactivated the blade casting Admiral Mori and herself in total darkness.

Then Violet turned the lights on, revealing the gruesome mess around them. Admiral Mori didn’t move a muscle other than when she ducked to avoid Violet’s attack. Violet chuckled a little, “You are one cold bitch. I just slaughtered your crew, and you didn’t lift a finger to help them.”

“This coming from the person who slaughtered them.”

“True. So, what now, Admiral Mori?” They fell silent for a moment, then they both burst out laughing, clutching their stomachs and doubling over with mirth. “You have no idea how hard it was not to laugh at that name! HAHAHAHA!!!” Violet said, laughing when she caught some of her breath.

“You thought it was hard! Imagine my position, being called that for two months straight!!” Admiral Mori said in a higher voice, laughing.

“Ha! Oh, god, the torture! Haha! Aw, it’s good to see you again, Haru!” Violet said, turning toward Haru

Haru turned and threw off her military cap, letting down her wavey, long, chestnut hair. “Aww, no pet names? I missed those,” Haru said.

Violet stood straight, gently took Haru by the chin, and said, “Good to see you again, my sunray.”

Haru’s smile disappeared as she said, “That’s a terrible pet name.”

“I know. I’m out of practice.”

“Well then, best get in practice or else no, how did you put it, visceral and vociferous intercourse,” Haru teased, then walked over to a control terminal on the left side of the room while taking off her military jacket, revealing a black tank top and bandages peeking out from underneath that around her chest.

“Aww! Fine, I’ll come up with something. But for now, we got to deal with a different problem.”

“What problem?”

“The failed apprentice outside that door,” Violet said, pointing at the airlock entrance.

“That sounds like a personal problem,” Haru said.

“True, but I need the right stage. Think you can help with that?”

Haru looked over her shoulder, smiled, and said, “Don’t worry, I got you, darling.”

“OH-”

“You can’t use it.”

“Fuck!”

***