"Nothing!" Lisandra was ranting from the helm, their voice coming through the speakers. "All that effort jumpin' for nothing! I hate empty beacons."

"Jump again?"

"I know we can jump again, Magmar! But not right now, and I feel like beating something into the ground right now!"

Notch gulped, and leaned towards the speaker. "I-it'll be charged soon, you know."

"But not. Right. Now! Argh, this is the worst!"

All of a sudden Notch's screen lit up with a warning.

"Capt'n, there's a-"

"Incoming ship! Two ships! Oh, the hive queens have answered my call for glory... One of them's hailing us!"

One Rock Scout sped past the Mantis in a blur, but a Zoltan ship with pirate markings slowed and ominously passed by Notch's side window. A message appeared on screen:

STAY OUT OF THIS AND YOU COULD PROFIT

"Hmmm." Lisandra spoke again. "In normal circumstances I would take their offer, but I'm bored! Let's tear 'em to shreds!"

"Capt'n, are you sure?" Notch gulped as they examined the Zoltan's weapon systems. "That's an ion and a glaive beam on their ship!"

"Relax Notch, there's nothing a Mantis like yourself can't beat!" They briefly paused, before continuing: "Isn't that right?"

"Uhh, right."

"That's the spirit! Now concentrate fire on whatever, I wanna break down their overshield quickly. Glory through violence!"

Notch opened up both weapons and began to charge. The other pirate ship recognised this as an attack and brought out both of theirs in turn. The Mantis silently gulped as they saw the fearsome beam weapon come online on the screen.

The ion charged quickly, and fired. Notch saw the shield systems flicker on their screen.

"They're targeting shields!" Lisandra growled. Magmar made a series of completely untranslatable clicks. "Hey! You don't get to tell me I'm saying the obvious!"

After a couple of salvos from the ion that decimated their shields, their burst laser had charged. Notch aimed for the shields and fired: two shots slammed against the shield but the last missed.

"There we go!" Lisandra cheered. "Now we're-"

The glaive beam went off, cutting across the shield wing of their Mantis Fighter. There was a deep, low hiss before a giant explosion rocked the ship. Notch's door on the left creaked and ballooned forwards, just holding on.

"Magmar!" Notch gasped. On the comms, Lisandra was speaking.

"Magmar, do you copy? Magmar, answer me if you can. Do you copy? Do you copy, Magmar?"

All sorts of warnings were going off on Notch's screen, the most worrying of all the fire alert. "Lisandra, what do we do?"

"Put out those fires, of course! I'll do the weapons, shields and piloting."

Notch opened their mouth, but hesitated. Then: "Yes, Capt'n."

"We'll win this yet!"

The young Mantis grabbed an extinguisher and held it awkwardly in their hands as they ventured towards the door. They tried opening it but the controls were busted, so instead they kicked it down. Almost immediately a plume of smoke rushed out, causing Notch to hack and cough. Without any cloth, they opted to keep low to the ground and continue.

The first room was the ruined door system, and everything was on fire. The flames were dancing all around the corridor, mocking Notch as they attempted to put it out. Feeling their carapace beginning to smoke, the Mantis decided to drop all efforts to rescue this part of the ship and instead went after Magmar.

They struggled in the fire and heavy smoke. The oxygen system was still on, but it only served to further feed the flames. Eventually they managed to knock down two more doors and came across the shield room.

The room was completely engulfed, the system emitting a dangerous looking yellow smoke as it burnt out. In the middle was a white line carved into both the floor and the roof; the glaive beam's path. On either side of it was a dark, smoking figure with a large head.

"Mag-Magmar." Notch wheezed, and knelt down to their dismembered crewmate. The Mantis was limp and unresponsive. "Magmar...!"

A sinking feeling pulled on Notch's chest, but they knew now was not an appropriate time to mourn. With blurry vision they tried to stand, but their head swam and they toppled to the ground, fighting for breath.

"Notch!" Somebody was shouting in the distance, and a dull thump sounded. Notch dumbly absorbed this information, completely incapacitated by the fire. Somewhere in their mind was the nagging thought that they were going to die if they didn't get up, but they didn't have the strength to rise. Everything was bright and flickering and fading, and they closed their eyes.

That was, of course, until the floor tilted sharply downwards and they slid into oblivion. At first they thought they had slipped into some sort of hell, but a voice spoke up.

"Notch, you must rouse yourself before you slip into the void."

"Sem?" Notch rasped. "How..."

"Your cages bars were always a little too wide to hold me." They pulled on the Mantis' arm. "Stand up; you are too heavy to carry, and this ship won't last long."

Notch groaned. "I... can't..."

"Need a hand?" There was a voice from above.

"Lisandra." Sem stood up. "What are you doing?"

"I heard sounds." The great warrior leant down and effortlessly picked up Notch. "You saved one of my crewmembers, Zoltan. Thank you! I thought I was all alone, but we have a fightin' chance now!"

Sem did not follow. "I'd rather go down with the ship than fight."

"Suit yourself!" Lisandra waved at the top of the stairs, where smoke was beginning to gather. "Some of us have better survival instincts!"

The Zoltan shook their head, then sat down on the floor and began to meditate.

Notch looked up. "Lisandra, Magmar... is-"

"Yeah, yeah, the guy's dead." Lisandra set Notch on their feet in the weapons room and began beating back the flames. "There's no reason to be sad; he died like a Mantis. Glaive beam to the face, what a way to go!"

The young Mantis felt their legs shaking, but they managed to stay on their feet. "Really? So... what now?"

Lisandra tore out a piece of the wall and leant it against the battered door. The flames licked at the edges.

"That pirate captain has been taunting me with his stupid rock face. They shut off the glaive beam and are just watchin' and waitin' for us to burn out. I tried to shoot 'em, but we only need one more laser shot before we break their overshield and I can beam in." They grinned dangerously. "Whaddya say we give these 'dirty pirates' a taste of justice?"

"We're also... pirates."

The great Mantis chuckled. "Smart aleck. Why don't you fire the last shot?"

Notch limped to the controls, where they touched the screen. Almost immediately they stepped back. "The weapons are too... damaged."

"What?"

"There's only one system bar left... we need two to fire the burst laser."

"There were two when I was last here! Nothing's changed, except for-" Lisandra looked over to the piece of wall they had ripped off to barricade the door. "Curse the void, I kinda had a feeling that was important! Arghhh..."

They then paused, and with a smirk stalked out of the room towards the engines.

"Where are you going?" Notch called hoarsely.

"We're winning this fight."

The young Mantis blinked. They glanced nervously at the barricaded door, where the fire was beginning to break through again.

Before they could do anything, the sound of shouting came from the engines.

"Put me down!" A rather outraged voice demanded. "I swore never again to participate in the killing of another creature. Put me down!"

Lisandra kicked down the door, Sem's glowing green body grasped firmly with two hands. The Zoltan appeared to be fighting with all their might, but it was no use.

"See? This Zoltan simply standing in the room should give us enough power."

The Mantis checked. Sure enough, it was and the laser began to charge.

"Notch!" Sem reached out. "Don't do this. There are better ways to resolve this conflict than violence. If you can get in the helm-"

"Shaddup!" Lisandra snapped. "A Mantis never backs away from a good ol' fight. I'm doing you a favour by draggin' you out here so we can win. Think of it as a thank you for savin' my crew."

"Please." Sem pleaded. "I could never forgive myself if it was my power that was used to end lives."

"Just do it, Notch!"

The young Mantis snapped to attention. "Yes, Capt'n." They aimed at the ship and fired.

"No!"

The three watched the lasers travel towards the pirates. Two struck the Zoltan overshield and pierced it, leaving them vulnerable.

"Nice work, Notch!" Lisandra dropped Sem to the ground, who collapsed in a defeated heap. "They're powering up that glaive beam, so teleport me into the weapons!"

"Yes, Capt'n."

"Glory through violence!"

Notch redirected power as the captain left, acutely aware of a broken groaning sound from behind.

There was still a sinking feeling in their chest, but strangely enough it was no longer for Magmar.