The ship jerked to a halt. Every troll on the ship was thrown out of their recoopracoons and onto the floor. There were sounds of yelling, cackling, and frightened screams coming from the top of the ship. On the left side of the ship, a large dent had formed, and another ship was the cause. Coming from the battery room, there was an agonized scream, which rung throughout the whole ship.

Sollux had been knocked free from the holder. He was too small to fit in there, so he fell out easily. With as much energy as he could muster, he ran toward the unlocked door and swung it wide open. While the guards were discombobulated by the damage to the ship, he sprinted toward the nearest hiding place he could find; under a stairwell.

He would have been able to get out sooner, if his friends had bothered translating his messages. He may have been hooked up to the ship, but that did not stop him from hacking the ship's main computer.

The guards, frantically searching for him, ran right past Sollux. Apparently they didn't anticipate their battery hiding from them. How hard would it be to find a tired out Helmsman running away? That is, if he was running. He was a strategic troll. Instead of wasting his energy on running away as far as possible, he saved his breath and hid in a small area they wouldn't even bother checking out.

After about ten minutes without seeing a guard, Sollux tentatively slipped out of the staircase and sneaked up the stairs, to the hallway with his respiteblock. He checked for guards around every corner, and sulked around as silently as possible. After five minutes of sneaking around, he came to his respiteblock. He looked both ways, and knocked on the door twice. When Vriska opened the door, he ran right inside into the safety of the room.

"s0llux!"

The remaining trolls in the room greeted Sollux with tears and hugs, which Sollux resisted greatly. He was so tired; he didn't need all these trolls around him like this. He just wanted some sleep. Nonetheless, he was happy to be out of that personal hell.

"Any idea what stopped the ship?"

"ii wa2n't payiing attentiion. two bu2y runniing for my liife."

"yOU'RE NOT HURT, aRE YOU? tHAT WAS A PRETTY LARGE CRASH,"

"iit only knocked me out of the holder, nothiing 2peciial."

Sollux looked around the room, and noticed two trolls missing.

"what happened two kk and gz?"

Everybody stopped. What did happen to Gamzee? He had simply disappeared the night before, along with Equius. Perhaps the two of them left together?

"we don't have any idea," said Nepeta.

There was another crash, this time coming from the right side of the ship.

"We should go investig8. Seems like fun, who's with me?"

"ii'm 2tayiing here."

"me t00."

The other trolls agreed to go investigate with Vriska. They were just as curious as her, anyway.

When they exited the respiteblock, they were thrown into a small battlefield. Space pirates had infested the entire ship, and their mission was quite apparent: To kill or recruit lowbloods to their ships.

Vriska was absolutely ecstatic about the turn of events. As she wanted to become a pirate herself, this was probably a perfect opportunity to steal a ship and start her career with a good foot. She was going to get culled immediately after leaving this ship anyway, why not break some rules? As a pirate, she didn't need any rules in the first place; only ships.

Vriska ran to the stairs, looking for the leader of one of the ships. The other trolls followed her, and they found themselves at the top of the ship. The two ships that had crashed into their ship were fairly small, but Vriska mumbled something about starting from humble beginnings. Suddenly, the small group realized they were surrounded.

Meanwhile, a separate group of pirates were surrounding Gamzee and Equius. Gamzee, who had drastically changed since the night before, had just pulverized some of the pirates with his clubs. His makeup was messy, his hair more tangled and wild than usual. A murderous smile replaced the genuine, happy one. He barked out various orders to Equius, calling him a "dirty peasantblood". The pirates, sensing the highblood's hostility, dropped their weapons and ran. Gamzee smiled again, and laughed at the dead bodies. Around the corner, there was a spy. The spy looked at the highblood and scrunched up his face.

This wasn't happening. It would never happen.

The spy put his arm on his eyes, and red tears fell to the floor.

Shit, nobody saw that, right?

On the deck of the ship, pirates were running everywhere, and the trolls had to dodge their various attacks and reciprocate immediately. Out of the corner of Terezi's eye, she saw Tavros fighting a fairly large pirate, but he was doing well enough. He seemed to be well adjusted to his legs by now. She looked over at Nepeta, who was kicking the shit out of some of the bigger pirates. Vriska kept rolling her dice, but no luck blessed her today. She used to have all the luck, and now she was relying on stupid Terezi to cover for her mistakes. She was quickly the loser in this battle. Terezi had to fend off another attacker, and Tavros took Terezi's place, covering for Vriska's unluckiness.

Suddenly, a suprise attack sprang on a tragic troll.

However, before a word of warning could be uttered-

"W4TCH OUT!"

All eyes turned to Tavros and Vriska.

The meat shield had been deployed.