Chronicles of Terrus Chapter 14: Time For A Change
-Several minutes after initial attack-Exact location: Unknown valley-
"Heyo, stay where you are!" I yelled at him. "But-" "LISTEN TO ME HEYO. STAY. THERE!" I screamed at him, almost BEGGING! Desha jumped at me with arm blades going for my legs, I flicked the pole, intercepting her attack. We were a raging storm, something nobody else would want to get into. I swung for Desha's head with my arm blades while bringing the pole around to hit her ribs, and she dodged by simply dropping to the ground, as if dead, then grabbed hold of my legs with her feet claws and pulled me off my own feet. I growled as I landed hard on the dirt, and as soon as I did, Desha was on me. Slashing, stabbing, punching and I was doing everything to keep from being killed. Throughout our struggle I didn't realize she was screaming things at me. One thing in particular was a shock. "Heyo is MINE, NOT YOURS! YOU STOLE HIM! I WILL GET HIM BACK AND KILL YOU TERRUS! YOU TRICKED HIM INTO HOLDING YOU-" I swung the pole hard and it connected with the side of her head, knocking her off me and shutting her up.
"I NEVER TRICKED HIM INTO ANYTHING! HE DID IT HIMSELF! YOU'RE JEALOUS DESHA, ANGRY AND JEALOUS BECAUSE MAYBE HE CHOSE ME INSTEAD OF YOU!" I screamed back as I got to my feet and slammed the pole down on her face as she tried to get up herself, brutalizing her face. Remarkably, she didn't stay down from that! She threw her arm out and stabbed her elbow blade straight through my ankle and sliced off my right foot with the wrist blades of her other arm, then she rolled away from me and got up. She smiled despite her bloody smashed in face, and laughed at my stump as it gushed blood. She raised her arm up, showing that she still had my foot impaled on her elbow blade. The claws were twitching. The foot was streaming blood too. "Terrus-" Heyo started before I screamed "NOT NOW HEYO!", and threw myself at Desha. I attacked with more rage and more speed than I'd ever known before, punching, slashing, and smacking her with the pole three times for every one attack from her blades.
I stood on the stump, ignoring all the urges to scream in pain, to give up, to DIE, and I kept attacking, making Desha give ground and backpedal quickly. She sliced me four times, on the arm, the ribs, the leg, and on my neck, but I didn't pay the wounds any mind. I stabbed forward with the pole but she twisted out of the way and sliced off my right hand as I lost balance on my leg stump and fell forward. I crashed into Desha, spurting out blood from my arm all over her, and taking her and myself to the ground again.
"DIE ALREADY!" She screamed at me as I stepped on her chest, trying to get up with my leg stump. I growled because she sliced off more of it, at the knee this time! I fell atop her, putting all my weight into my elbow blade as I did so. "You little Scretin! Feel this!" I shouted as I drove my elbow blade into her throat. She screamed out air and blood as it went all the way through and stuck into the ground, then screamed no more. She didn't move anymore. I laid atop her for seconds or minutes or hours, and finally tried to get up. I can't do this...I'm..."Heyo..." I said as loud as I could, which was a bit above a whisper. I laid there and blacked out and in again a couple times, hearing footsteps coming toward me, the distorted faint voice of Heyo, my being shaken...A Yeerk coming out of the ear of the host that I had my head rested next to..."Terru- Get out of your- Desha lived-" I couldn't even respond, I...How long am I here..? I wasn't even aware of lying on anything, it was as if I were floating in mid air somehow, or...falling...moving so fast... Skimmers...A fight on the ship...Desha...How am I here? Where am I? I blacked out one more time, and I remembered.
-Memory-Several minutes ago-Cargo bug fighter-
"What are we going to do?" Heyo asked in distress. The duty of answering fell to me. "She's going to die, Heyo." I said, surprising myself with how gentle I sounded. How I lowered my voice, How I hadn't wanted to hurt him any more than that would...NOT THIS AGAIN! "NO!" Heyo shouted in anguish. He loves her! But he- "I won't let this happen. Serri, stop the ship! Terrus DON'T fire on her!" He yelled, panicked and scared and angry and...Determined. The ship flew almost straight up, then went speeding back down to turn on it's side to fly between two smaller trees and again skim the valley floor. I watched two missles slam into each tree, causing them to fall over and have that process speeded up by Desha's ship ramming past them ruthlessly. She fired with her forward dracon beams and Serri swerved the ship left and right to dodge, but still we were being hit more times than we were dodging! "I'm taking her out." I said calmly. I moved the riticule over Desha's foward viewport, directly over the blurry body of Desha, and opened fire.
Three volleys of cannon round slammed into her forward shields, and the explosions from the impacts got through a bit, making black furrows in her view-port and the frame. "YES! THANK YOU COUNCIL MEMBER! I'll never say another bad thing about our overlords again!" I shouted in delight. Finally an upgrade I can actually physically see that works! Who cares about engine or shield upgrades? I have CANNONS! "Missiles..." I muttered to myself, "Serri do we have the missiles? I want to give this little muragg something special." I looked over at him, annoyed at not getting a response, then looked at Eliza. "Liz, use your fancy tactical console to trade out cannons for missles please." A sad little "Okay.." was all she said. I looked at my consoles weapon indicator and saw the cannons image flash red, and a second later go dull as a prompt box appeared. I read it out loud, astonished at the stupidity of it! "You have chosen to change your weapon type. You have selected 'unknown missle varient'. Would you like to continue using the cannons, or equip 'unknown missle varient'- YES I WOULD LIKE TO USE THE MISSILES WHAT KIND OF STUPID QUESTION IS THIS? IF I PICK MISSLES YOU BET YOUR DARKAP REAR I WANT TO USE MISSLES!"
I angrily stabbed my claw at the 'equip new weapon' button and waited a second before the missle icon glowed red. "Let's do thi-" I let out a yell as the ship went in a complete backward loop, making me be held up only by the restraints for a few seconds until the ship scraped the ground as it leveled out again. "Don't you dare destroy my turret AGAIN!" I shouted at Serri. "I advise you to fire now, miss. Desha is now directly in front of us." He responded calmly. Time to die Desha.
I held the trigger down, swept the reticle over Desha's left and right engines, and let go. Four missiles streaked forward, two went to Desha's left engines and the other two missiles at her right engines. She went left around a giant tree, then swerved right again and climbed straight up into the air with the missiles in tow, and Serri making US be in tow as well. I watched, captivated, as the missiles all hit their targets above us. Shrapnel rained down to slam against our front shields and Serri weaved around the bigger pieces and slowed to a halt, still facing the ship straight up. I peered forward as the smoke cleared away, revealing that Desha's ship was flying up still, but on pure momentum. "It'll come down again. Be ready to move the ship out of it's way Serri." I said absent mindedly. "Yes miss..." He replied, equally as absent minded. In the silence I realized that Heyo was silently saying "no no no no no no no...", and when I looked over at him, he was CRYING!
I did this to him...I unstrapped myself, pushed the weapon controls away and climbed over to Heyo, using the consoles and chairs as handholds. I got next to him and hugged him from the side, (more to keep myself from falling to the back of the ship than to really HUG HIM) patting his shoulder and just holding him tight. I looked over my shoulder at my distractions, who didn't say any words. But I saw shock, amusement, and...pride. Are they proud of me? Heyo stopped full on crying and subsided into just silent sobs. "Come on you darkap. We're going on a trip." I said, laughing half heartedly as I sliced off his seat straps and pulled him out of his chair. We both fell back to the bottom of the ship, but he slammed into the crates, and I landed flat against the wall. I lost my breathe on impact and felt even more dazed as the back of my scaly Hork skull met metal.
Serri announced from above "Desha's ship is past us now miss!" A pause and a hiss, and I looked up and saw through the ship, through the view-port, Desha. Desha with a dracon beam hurtling straight at our view-port headfirst. "Does she EVER die?" I screamed in sudden rage. A second before impact, Desha fired and held the dracon beam on, and it was on setting ten! The viewport had a massive hole burned through it and I rolled left as the continuous beam flew past me and blew a huge hole in the wall! I saw this unfold in slow motion, my minds way of comprehending and allowing for reactions. Desha slashed down, nicking Serri's neck as she went by, half way down the ship's interior she flipped around so she was falling feet first, and when she was passing right by me, our eyes met. I didn't like what was in her eyes at all.
She grabbed the edge of the hole in the wall, let the dracon beam fall toward the sky, and sprang herself back up, then came down on her feet next to me. "Hello Terrus." She whispered in complete and utter fury as she looked down on me. I rolled toward Desha, knocking her off her feet, giving myself a few precious seconds of life, and time enough to switch to the combat mindset. I got to my feet right as she did, and I immediately jumped toward her, opening the fight with a bold kick to the chest with the hope of knocking her over to the hole and down to her splattering death. She simply moved left and watched as I skidded on the smooth wall metal, almost going out of the ship myself! I spun back around and slashed for her ribs, but she blocked it and pushed me left against the deck. I swung my arm and ripped a gash in her stomach, letting alot of blood run free. I swung again for the same spot, hitting my mark and cutting even deeper, grabbed Desha's arm as she swung for me, then locked arm blades with her. "Why are you doing this?" I asked her as I spun us around so she was pressed up against the wall instead of me. "Funny you should ask," She whispered "That's exactly what I intend to find out-" I stabbed my knee blade up into her gut, pinning her to the wall. Blood poured out onto my leg and I was momentarily fascinated. I heard Serri say something from above, but I didn't pay it any mind.
Desha slashed me in the chest and shoved me back, unlodging my knee blade from her, then turned and leaped right over the hole. She hung in mid air for a split second, and then the ship leveled out. I fell left onto the deck, Desha flew forward still and crashed to the floor, then the crates fell on top of her, along with Heyo and the Skimmers. I dashed over to the wall and grabbed my pole, then made it back over to Desha to find that she was stuck under everything. "Heyo. Don't move." I said firmly. "Why? What's-" He stopped when he looked down and realized Desha was beneath him. "You're going to kill her Terrus!" He exclaimed, as if this was news to him. "Yes. I am." I said quietly.
I raised the pole over my head and brought it crashing down on her back, again and again and again, each time she cried out, each time I hit harder. Each time, Heyo flinched but didn't move. I stabbed the pole right through her back and she screamed. "I'm going to die." She whispered sadly. "Yes." I said, feeling nothing. I ripped the pole out of her back and stabbed it down again, and right when it was about to hit the side of her head, everything exploded outward. There was no rush of air or heat or anything, it wasn't an explosion from one of the handheld explosives, it was an explosion of RAGE! Of strength. My pole richocheted off a crate instead of going through her head. Desha rose up and Heyo hit the wall, the crates and equipment flew forward and slammed into me, knocking me back against a wall as well! Desha put a dracon rifle onto her belt, grabbed a Skimmer with both hands, ran left and then just stood there, staring out at the rushing by landscape for a second. She looked over at me with defiance, with pure rage, and I threw the ramonite pole at her as hard as I could- "DESHA!" Heyo shouted in a mix of anger and sadness. She jerked back, and the pole went through her shoulder, out the other side and kept going until it stabbed into the wall next to Heyo. Desha gave me one last glare and jumped out of the ship.
Dapsen! "Heyo grab a Skimmer, get my pole and get over here!" I shouted at him. He obeyed very quickly. I could tell he wanted to get to Desha as much as I did. But for different reasons. I grinned as he dropped the Skimmer at my feet and slapped the control pad to my arm. I slung the pole across my back before I stepped onto the Skimmer, locked my feet in place by way of the shield generator, and powered the thrusters up. "Get on, Heyo!" I said impatiently. He stepped on so we were chest to chest, and he put his arms around my neck tentatively. I rolled my eyes and pushed the middle holo-circle to the top of the little screen, and we rocketed out of the ship.
We flew forward through the air, not falling nearly as fast as we should have, but still fast enough to kill if we hit the valley floor. We fell for what seemed like forever, and I had a little fun on the way down. Heyo was screaming his darkap head off as I backflipped us over and over again in mid air as we fell. He screamed even more when he realized I was laughing my head off. "WHERE'S DESHA?" He screamed at me over the rushing wind and my insane laughter. I stopped laughing (and backflipping), and put the thrusters to full blast again. I leaned sideways on the Skimmer, making us strafe left- My legs went up into my head as the Skimmer landed on a giant tree trunk that could have had three bug fighters lined up across it and still would have had room for more. "I don't know where Desha is! Look around! I'm busy!" I yelled at him, a bit late. A beam flashed toward us from a branch to my right and I moved left, avoiding the shot that had been intended for my back, but received it on the foot instead. Maybe I should just push Heyo off. He's slowing me down!
Four more dracon beam attacks flashed by, all of them barely missing, and I sped toward the edge of the branch. Come on MOVE! Another beam streaked by, which hit the rear thrusters on the Skimmer, and I lost speed. NO! "Why are you stopping? She's going to kill us!" Heyo yelled at me in panic. "I'm not slowing down on purpose you darkap! Look at the melted thrusters beneath you!" I yelled back in anger. We slowed down more and more, and I suffered two hits to the back from a dracon beam despite my evasive maneuvers. "Get off the Skimmer.", I told Heyo as I followed my own words.
I deactivated the foot holders and jumped off to the right, taking Heyo with me, and dodging another shot. We rolled on the ground and I felt his blades cut across my chest and arms, and I pushed him off and sprinted full speed for the branches edge. "Terrus wait!" He shouted from behind me. I looked back and saw Desha infront of him. Her wounds were healed again. She'd had time to stay still and wait for them to heal. She had the dracon rifle. I skidded to a halt and turned to face her fully from across the distance. For the first time, despite us being five bug fighters distance apart, I heard Desha raise her voice. "If you come closer to me or Heyo I'll burn every limb from that body of yours and make you suffer hours of torture."
I laughed and shouted back "Do you think you HAVE hours to do what you want to do here?" I casually began walking toward her as I continued speaking. "Think about it, Desha. My two good friends will find us soon, and then vaporize you with one little shot from the ship. You've thrown the mercy of the Council back in their faces! You've thrown MY mercy back in my face!" Not close enough to attack yet... "Shut up!" She shouted angrily. Again I laughed at her. "Or what? You'll kill me? I've had that threat my whole little life so far-"
She fired exactly as I'd expected she would, and I twisted my body sideways for a second, letting the beam go past, then began running at her. Desha fired over and over and I dodged them all by throwing myself sideways, jumping over them, and moving my body around them. In three heartbeats I was on her. I slashed for her weapon arm, she blocked and swung for my throat and drove a knee blade to my gut at the same time, but I leaped backward out of range of either attack. Desha was already rushing toward me even as I was flying back through the air and when I landed, she stabbed her claws into my gut and spun me around, then threw me toward Heyo. "Terrus, stop!" He said to me as I skidded across the ground, landing at his feet. I hissed and punched his leg angrily. "Tell that to Desha!" I said indignantly. The little darkap throws me bodily across a large distance and I get told to stop?
Our positions were reversed now, and Desha was running at me and Heyo. I grabbed Heyo's hand, but even after he'd pulled me standing again, I didn't let go. He looked at my face and searched my eyes, as if thinking I were about to hurt him and announce that he'd been tricked again. Not this time, you darkap. When Desha was almost within attacking distance, I wrapped my arms around Heyo and leaped back, taking us both through the air and over the branches edge. All the while, I watched Desha follow unhesitantly suite. As we fell through the air toward the valley floor I let go of Heyo and kicked him toward the tree's trunk, and he slammed his blades into it and kept sliding down as fast as Desha and I, knowing he could slow down and stop to let us fight it out alone. Like that will happen- Desha slammed into me head first, ramming the blades on her forehead into my chest while slicing my gut with her arms. I grabbed her head and shoved her up off me and punched her in the face, making her go spinning away from me to the left. She stabbed her arm blades into a passing small branch and flung herself around it to come flying back down toward me and I slashed her gut as she sliced into my shoulder. We exchanged clashes and blows and I broke the stale-mate by grabbing her arms in one hand and her throat in the other and spinning us so I was above her, and then kicking myself up out of her reach.
She stabalized herself so she kept falling backside first and brought the dracon rifle to her hip to fire up at me- Heyo slammed into her from the side which sent both of them spinning away from the trunk's trunk and most of the branches. I saw Desha's dracon rifle go spinning away. Dapsen! How am I going to get them back over here? I screamed his name over and over again as the valley floor rushed up to meet us. I saw them both slam into a branch that sent them spiraling back toward the tree's trunk, and we were so close to the bottom of the valley that it prompted me to snag a branch and fling myself over to the trunk as well. Desha and Heyo let go of each other and impaled the tree with their blades as I did the same. They slowed down as I sped up, and I slammed into Desha right as we reached the bottom of the tree, and we rolled across the ground together.
I recovered and on a single roll I got to my feet. A split second later Desha did the same. I saw Heyo start over to us from his position next to the tree trunk, and I grabbed the pole off my back and pointed a claw at him as I yelled "Heyo, stay where you are!" "but-" "LISTEN TO ME HEYO. STAY. THERE!" I screamed at him, almost BEGGING! Desha jumped at me and I flicked the pole down-
-Present time-Location: Unknown valley, Cargo bug fighter-
My awareness came back. "...I was unconscious again..." I muttered, not knowing that I'd said said it because I had only been thinking it to myself, yet I got a response, so I had to have said it. "You know miss, If you were a bit less reckless and dramatic, you would spend less time suffering the consequences, which in your case seems to be being unconscious." Serri, of course. My vision faded in. As did everything else now. I was sitting up against a crate with my friends around me, but I jumped to my feet as everything came back. "Desha! Where is she? She-" "Left her host, we know." Heyo finished for me. He ran a claw down the side of my face, and I didn't even tell the darkap to stop. I let him stroke my face, let him comfort me, calm me. "Eliza.." I said quietly. "Terrus." She said with a smile, "You're safe again."
I finally grew annoyed and slapped away Heyo's hand. He drew his hand back, looking hurt, and then stepped away from me. "How am I safe again? How am I here?" I asked Eliza, putting the old confidence and strength and cheerfulness into my voice again. She glanced at Serri, who glanced at Heyo, who glared back at both of them and then looked away from me.
"Heyo...carried you..." Eliza trailed off and that just made me feel ever MORE annoyed. "The darkap CARRIED ME?" I shouted incredulously. "Yes..." Eliza said quietly. I payed her no attention, and sent a death glare at Heyo. He met my eyes and backed away some more.
I ignored him too and addressed to Serri, "Get the ship in the air. Now."
When Serri gave me a confusd look, I repeated it angrily. "Get the ship in the air!" "Yes miss." He replied, still confused, but he obeyed and went to the front of the ship very quickly. I looked at Heyo and asked amusedly "Where's my pole?". He smiled and I knew it was here on the ship again because if Heyo had lost a weapon of mine he'd be looking like I was going to slice his head off in an instant.
He extended a hand and I took it, which resulted in him pulling me close, and I let him embrace me. I looked over his shoulder at Eliza and asked, "Where's Desha?" Heyo's body seized up and he pushed me away quickly, and when I met his eyes I saw many emotions, most prominent of them being anger. "I'm not going to let you kill her Terrus." He said bravely. I laughed at him and replied coldly, "Are you willing to die honoring that statement?" Something in his eyes shifted, and then his whole composure did. When he spoke next it was with extreme sorrow, but also determination. "Yes...I'm willing to die in order to stop you." Unbelievable! "AFTER EVERYTHING DESHA HAS DONE TO US? YOU CHOOSE TO DEFEND HER STILL?", I screamed in anger, in sorrow, in PAIN! "What do you think will happen if we let her live? She'll come at us AGAIN, but harder! She's proven she can't be trusted, she's insane, she's veangeful, she's a very dangerous enemy. If we let her live now, all of this happens again! Another trial! All of it! We can't let her live Heyo." I glanced at Eliza, looking for her to back me up, but she didn't.
"Terrus, I...agree with Heyo. I won't let you kill Desha," Eliza said firmly, then added in a raised voice "And SERRI won't let you kill her either! Isn't that right?" Serri's head twisted around to look at her from the front of the ship, and he said resignedly "Yes...I'll stop Terrus from killing Desha." I growled in anger and I said with cold fury, "Tell me where that vile grub is or I-" I broke off instantly, realizing what I'd been about to say: Or I'll kill you all. I stepped back physically and my back hit crates.
"Let her go, Terrus. Let this go. If you do this, you'll be as bad as she is. You'll go to another trial and you'll be killed for sure! Please..." Eliza said, voice cracking, flat out BEGGING ME! I stood there for many minutes, frozen in place and deep in my mind, thinking this all out. Neither Heyo nor Eliza said anything. They didn't move either. Finally I said, "Okay. We let her live. We'll turn her over to some Visser. Fix the two darkap giant holes in the ship, then take off for the Taxxon homeworld. There's work to do there anyway, and I'm sick of this planet and everything that goes with it."
Both of them agreed in a heartbeat, as well as Serri, to everyone's surprise. Upon questioning he only said, "It makes sense. Everybody wins."
For the first time, I had put the best interests of my team and myself over my personal emotions and desires.
-One hour later-Cargo Bug Fighter-
We'd left Desha to Sub Visser 312 at a relatively small out of the way Yeerk outpost on the edge of the mists, taken advantage of their resources to repair the view-port and the hull, and now we were flying up and away from the planet that I had come close to calling "Home". With Desha and the problems she posed now left behind, as everything else was being left behind, I felt that everything between my team was healed. The rifts and strains were gone. I was sitting again at my weapons station, and I was grinning again too. "Serri, are you going to get us out of the atmosphere on your own or do you want that darkap ship computer to do it FOR YOU?" i asked him with a laugh. He turned to me and spared me a fake glare, and replied with amusement "I can pilot this ship through the middle of an Andalite fleet of Dome ships and tail-fighters if I have to. Exiting a planets atmosphere is quite simple, miss." The ship hit some invisible force of nature and science that I didn't know or care about as we flew up, and the ship began shaking. I tightened my grip on the control sticks in front of me and suppressed a hiss. Serri tapped a key on his console and within seconds the ship stopped shaking. "Don't be afraid, miss. Nothing is going to happen. If you would like, I could go into Z-Space and then re-enter real space above the planet."
How lucky I am to have a darkap like this as a friend. "That would be nice, Serri. But no thanks. Keep going." I replied with a smile. I don't need to tell him he's a good friend. He knows. Serri gave me that trademark darkap grin of his and I smiled because of that, and the ship's shields gave warning sounds. "Shut up already." I told the ship with a laugh. Serri tapped a holo-key, which shut it off, also making it seem as if the alarms had listened to me! I broke out into laughter and I knew I had a huge grin too. I laughed and grinned as the ship flew ever more up, and...Now that I think about it, the red and the orange and the...It's beautiful. It's not really scary!
With this revelation, I laughed even more, and when the ship broke free of the planet finally, I was joined in my laughter by my Distractions and Heyo.
We kept on laughing so hard that I thought Serri had forgotten to keep piloting, but I was proven otherwise when he took the ship into a downward cork screw and then took us straight through a broken in half cruiser ship's debris.
"What faction did that ship belong to?" I asked him curiously.
He looked at me with that darkap grin still on his face and said loudly over the continuing laughter of Eliza and Heyo "I don't think that's relevant. But, for the sake of curiosity, given the crystalline nature of the hull and the general shape of the ship itself, I would guess that it belongs to the Xandar." I grinned back at him and said in amusement, "They're just lucky the Empire has an established alliance with them, or they'd be dead. WHY DID WE EVEN JOIN WITH THEM IN THE FIRST PLACE? That seems very stupid to me! We're conquerors!" I held the weapon control sticks tighter as he flew crazily through a group of asteroids. He laughed maniacally and then continued the conversation as if that haden't just happened!
"If you bothered to pay attention to Ennen 106 during the history courses miss, you would know that we're allied with the Xandar because the Empire realized that with all the weapon and ship factories the Xandar have on their home planet and how wide spread their fleets are, we can't conquer them without suffering so many casualties that we would be easily destroyed by the Andalites. We trade technology of all kinds between each other in this alliance. But the situation between the Xandar and our Empire is unstable, to say the least."
As soon as he finished talking, I realized the ship was dead silent. "Serri. Never. Do anything like that again." I told the darkap slowly. Heyo and Eliza both muttered agreements on their side of the ship, and I saw them suppressing laughter.
Another alarm blared, but it was entirely different than the other alarm sounds I'd heard before on this ship. I saw through the forward view-port that four ships about our size were approaching rapidly. The ships looked like spheres with two cylinders sticking out behind them, and four "U" shapes on the sphere. Two facing forward sitting atop the sphere, and two hanging below the sphere. And attached to the two cylinders I saw dracon cannons. One ship went left, one right, one beneath us and one above us, each ship firing dracon cannon bursts at our ship, but hitting shields only. For now.
Serri turned the ship around and Heyo nailed one in the engines with the forward dracon beams as it was turning also, and Eliza shouted in panic. "They're Norshk!" I fired off a missile at the sphere part of my acquired target, and it opened up with the dracon cannons and destroyed my missile before it even hit it's mark! "WHO CARES? They're still going to die!" I shouted back as I fired two more missiles at the same ship, one of which hit the sphere part. The other missile blew right past the ship. A miss!
I heard Serri say calmly "You will wish you would have payed more attention to your courses miss. Norshk are often accused of pirating against other space-faring beings." Pirates! This is the last thing we need!
"Let's kick their darkap rears and get out of this sector." I said arrogantly as they closed in on us again.