Our ship shook with the impact of whatever weaponry the pirates were using, and through the halls we dodged, ducked, or bulldozed through the clamor of dozens of crewmembers rushing for the hangar.

Ship to ship combat in the void wasn't something I had experienced before, even as a spectator, but with a little imagination I figured it was quite simple. On our ship we had to hold back, had to try not to cause any damage to the vessel that gives us the ability to breathe, feeds us, and takes us from place to place.

On their ship we didn't. Technology could be salvaged, slaves could be taken, and we didn't have to be all that careful about anything. So we wanted to board them, and they likely wanted to board us.

The procedure itself wasn't all that unfamiliar. Me and Apara arrived in a busy hanger overlooking an open section of wall protecting us from suddenly being sucked into space only by some kind of energy field that I'm sure was paid for with the bare minimum the PTO was willing to provide. It was chaos.

Plenty of attack balls had already left or were in the process of leaving through the open cavity on one side of the room, their inhabitants eager for battle, or at the very least trying not to be sitting ducks for any surprises the enemy might have among their weapons. I could see light distantly flashing through the void.

Those left, including Apara and I, were dealing with the consequences.

Leadership hadn't been properly established yet, and most individuals seemed intent on getting in each others way. The closest thing to order were the conscripts, who ironically had seen more combat, and had an established chain of command. Even if they were loaded onto the pile of shit ships made to catch artillery fire over anything else.

I tilted my head back to Apara, ducking away from a stray blast as two others fought over the space in one vehicle. Never mind that most were personally assigned, given to you the moment you had a number attached to your name. If you started as a warrior anyway.

I could guess what happened, someone didn't bother learning which was their ship, and through violence or speed took off with one that wasn't his. The rest was just a cascading effect.

As I considered the question I wanted to ask Apara, I moved past the two fools, keeping a brisk pace as I looked for ships not being fought over. When I realized there weren't any, at least that hadn't already left, I began to move to one of the ones in the back. I wasn't going to bother looking for mine.

As for the Saiyan girl…

"Do you know how vacuum works?" I nearly had to yell it out in all the clamor. She looked back at me, confusion dawning on her face in the form of a snarl. We weren't exactly given full vacuum suits for this kind of occasion.

"You mean those stupid sucky things the conscripts use to clean?"

Of course she didn't. We were only in a society based primarily on planetary warfare in which we arrived from the bowels of-

"Space!" I growled, shoving aside a blue alien with enough power to send him cartwheeling over the top of an attack pod. "-I mean space. It doesn't just stop you from breathing, it sucks all the air out of you. Fucks with your blood and it kills you quicker than you'd think. It isn't like drowning."

She put on an expression of vague interest as I stepped past a conscript attack ball, quickly finding an isolated blue hoofed alien getting ready to enter my pod. It was a Naldinnian. Now the third most common alien around here after the new recruits came in.

I turned fully away from Apara, addressing the alien in front of me.

"You have about six seconds to find another ship, or your guts are going to be introduced to the floor."

He turned, a snarl on his face as he looked me in the eye. He was one of the more powerful examples of his race on this ship. Somewhere in the realm of four hundred. He had a scar over his right eyebrow, extending through his bald head.

Like the rest of the crew I knew him well, I could recognize his energy signature like it was an extension of myself. Very distinct. Very easy to pick out in the chaos of a battle. Maybe he'd find an accident waiting for him down the line. If I didn't kill him now anyway.

His species now enjoyed a certain level of notoriety around here as the "veterans' ' among the more common soldiers. The ones left had adjusted very well to the mentality you needed to survive on a Freeza Force ship. Very dog eat dog nowadays. They might have been fast tracked to it, but most of the ones left fit right in.

That said, they knew who I was, and they remembered me quite well after the first few murders. Rumors already spread the ship that my species had an effective battle power that couldn't be read by normal means. Something about my public profile.

I curled a brow at him, and the realization hit a moment later. He jerked backward, nearly falling into my seat before answering me.

"D-Dennis! I didn't know this was your pod!" He stuttered, his eyes drifting to the blade strapped at my side, before he wiped some imaginary dust off the console. "I was just making sure it was clean for you! No need to worry, right?"

I rolled the thought of his contradiction in my head for a second before I shrugged.

"Get the fuck outa here."

He nodded shakily, stepping out of my way and giving Apara a wide berth while he was at it. A good attitude if I ever saw one. Beneficial. No need to kill him then.

With a small laugh I took a seat at the command council, tapping my scouter and overriding the controls. I couldn't fly a ship, not really, but the onboard computer would listen to my commands while I was the highest ranking individual trying to fuck with it.

Apara spoke behind me as I fiddled with the settings.

"Should I hold my breath then?" I didn't look up from the monitor. I was still searching for the settings I needed.

"I bet a lot of sentients think that's a great idea. Absolutely not. If you know you're about to be spaced without protection, you want to exhale, it'll buy you more time. Not much but enough to look for safety if it can be found."

I stopped, the thought catching up to me.

"Not that it very likely would be found, or would even be accessible over the possible fifteen seconds you'd have of consciousness, but it's better than your lungs exploding. Possibly."

I hummed as what I was looking for flashed across the screen, tapping a few buttons as everything was calibrated. Thinking on it, If it was like our ship we could just break our way back in, quickly enough and you just might get past the blast doors before they close on you.

That's quite the IF though.

"Computer, can you hear me?"

"Acknowledged, 4561 Dennis. Objective is destruction of an unknown vessel, currently classified as 'pirates'. How will you proceed?" The gentle monotone of the attack ball's computer emerged from a set of small speakers behind my seat, and in my ears.

I sneered. I hated how useful the scouter was. Such a perfect tool to spy on me with. I needed it for half the shit I'm expected to do damn near every day we fought something.

"Violently, but I don't want to get hit. Send me with the next wave, but have us approach from below. Center of the ship, bring me in deep. I want it to be a surprise that I'm there."

"Acknowledged."

I looked over to Apara.

"You know how to find me. When you do, make some noise, and I'll silence the ones you can't handle."

She growled, presumably because I implied there were ones she couldn't handle, before
stomping off after her attack ball, or at least one she could steal in the meantime.

I rested my chin on my fist as the pod closed around me, blue light illuminating the claustrophobic space of the interior. A helmet descended from an open panel, E.V.A. emblazoned clearly on the side. Extra vehicular activity if I remembered right. It'd help with the breathing problem at least. Apparently I was on my own when it came to regulating temperature.

Not as bad as you'd think. I'd had years to look into that particular problem, and apparently you don't lose heat all that quickly. Wont save me from a breach in the helmet though.

After around forty seconds of system checks and calibration my vessel rose up with around forty others, firing from the side of the Diligent Frost like cannonballs from the broadside of an old English war vessel.

I felt it as we passed through whatever energy field they had used for the purpose of protecting the hangar from vacuum, my ears popping as the pressure suddenly changed.

My attack ball broke off from the rest, shooting downwards as the rest fired off in the direction of the now very visible laserfire being exchanged with our ship. A pod I recognized Apara's energy in followed after my own, before we began to move at speeds impossible to process with the naked eye.

The standard attack ball was built to travel through space on its own, only stopping to refill its air supply and recharge if needed. Oftentimes they ferry warriors across the cosmos to whatever world they needed to clear, crashing down without care and easily destroying miles of landscape without even jostling its inhabitant.

There's no need for such efficiency aboard an attack ship, but while the fuel systems aren't as good and the stasis is all but non-existent, it is still quite fast.

Fast enough to remind me as my pod plowed right through an enemy fighter ship without a care that strength might not be the only reason the Planet Trade is all but uncontested in this universe.

Durable enough not to care as it embedded itself deep into what I assumed to be the hull of the enemy ship.

To their credit I felt as several pods were shot down by what had to be a very advanced defense system considering it was fast enough to anticipate their approach. It just didn't matter when you considered how many could and did get through.

I could feel the surprise and the pain of the aliens caught in the devastation of my approach, the feeling only growing as what they must have assumed was a missile or some kind of bomb open up and reveal a living being to them.

The interior of their ship was different from our own. The walls and ceilings, even scorched, were a stark black decorated with strange yellow symbols in a language I could only guess at. The artificial lighting was a fluorescent white that might have given off the same almost hospital-like vibe the Frost gave if it weren't for the harsh contrast of the color of the hall I was in.

I easily dropped down around ten feet, looking up to my attack ball as a thin, almost paper material attempted to close around it, trying and failing to close around whatever had broken through the walls. I could see several other walls closing around my entry path, filling rapidly with some kind of substance to reseal the damage.

That was better than what we had. My brow rose as I admired its work.

The surprise the other inhabitants of the room felt however, was pretty quick to fade. I heard a yell in a language I couldn't understand, before I ducked down under a shot from some kind of laser rifle clutched tightly in the hands of an alien behind me.

They were an interesting species, the one who shot at me was around nine feet tall, and his other comrade in the room was close to that height as well.

In an instant I was on him, my hand grabbing the barrel and directing it at one of his comrades behind me, leaving a sentient grasping at the burning wreckage of his ribcage as I looked past the mirrored visor of my helmet and into his own. My hand came up to the layer of reinforced glass protecting his face, bringing him down to my level, before squeezing.

I heard his muffled yell past some kind speaker on his person, before It became much more clear when his suit's integrity was compromised with the screech of shattered glass and metal.

The individual whose jaw I was now grasping was almost human, just like most species I had run across during my time in space. Orange skin covered in burns and light cuts on what might have once been a handsome face, yellow eyes looking back at me in fear and defiance. A decent power level. If they were anything like the rest of their species they may have a chance at joining us.

I smiled, before ripping his lower mandible away, leaving him to bleed out as I stepped deeper into the pirate vessel.

Time to get to work.