[AN]

I know, it's been a long hot minute.

My creativity took a seriously steep nose dive these past months what with the shit show that is the world right now, but I finally figured out where I want to go with this little tale...

I stalk down the corridor with Opal on my heels. My jaw is clenched against the flood of emotions raging through me: fury at Unalaq for shaming our family and threatening the peace we have all fought so hard to attain, frustration at Raava's painfully bad timing for discovering emotions which both brought Bolin back from a seemingly insurmountable catatonic state while also putting him at horrific physical risk.

"You got a plan, Avatar?" Opal asks quietly. I glance over at her, noticing her usual sardonic expression is a little more tense than usual.

"A few," I growl irritably. "All bad."

"Copy that," she pauses. "I was thinking—"

" Bridge to Avatar ," Jinora's voice blares through the comm system, interrupting us.

I slap the voice control on my flight suit. "Go ahead, Wee."

" Another mine just dropped ," she replies. " Almost feels like a present, given the circumstances ."

"Nothing I'd want for my birthday," Opal mutters under her breath.

" Now for the bad news ," Jinora continues, her voice shakes a little. "Long range sensors have picked up a transport convoy heading towards Terra. We can see them but can't talk to them yet. Their range seems to be pretty limited. "

"Fuck, fuck, FUCK!" I growl furiously, increasing my pace to a run. "Are any of the remaining mines along their path?"

After a tense wait Jinora responds, her tone telling me everything I need to know. " If they keep their current heading, they're going to trigger at least one of them ."

Reaching the hangar entrance I slam my hand against the access panel and wait impatiently for the doors to open then turn to face the final piece of my anger trifecta, taking in the determined expression of Asami Sato, my beautiful, genius, civilian doctor, only on my now terribly fragile ship through the connivance of my commanding officer. Behind her Wing and Wei are closing up the hatch on the fighter they'd been working on, scorch marks visible along it's hull but otherwise appearing sound. Kuvira hurries over when she sees me, dragging Bolin with her.

"We heard," she says grimly. "What's the plan, Avatar?"

I point at Wing. "Status."

He pats the hull affectionately. "She's good to go. Had to replace a couple of things but the system check just came back clear."

I acknowledge this with a short grunt, then take a deep breath and look at everyone in turn.

"I see a whole lot of bad choices and not a lot of time to execute," I begin. "Raava!"

"Yes, Colonel Korra," the AI responds.

"Would it be possible to replicate your little stunt with the mines against the ship launching them?"

It's actually Asami who responds, frowning. "Doubtful. From what I remember of the schematics Itchy and I reviewed, Unalaq will be able to deactivate it as soon as he sees it coming."

"Doctor Sato is correct. The historical records describe a control system that is certainly on the ship, negating any attempt to use the mines as an attack vector."

I sigh. "That's what I was afraid of, leaving us with only one other option." I refuse to look at Asami and instead lock gazes with Kuvira. "We need to get onto Unalaq's ship. Raava, if we got you connected how fast could you take over the control systems?"

I hear Asami sharp intake of breath behind me.

"Lieutenant Bolin's fighter will need to be wired to the ship, and unfortunately it is doubtful that ship has the correct access ports for that to be a simple connection."

I quickly look at the twins, and they both wince and shake their heads. "We didn't review any of the stuff about the old tech," Wei says ruefully. "We'd be more likely to fry the fighter's computer."

I feel Asami's hand on my shoulder and I whirl to face her. Her face is pale but resolute.

"We will not falter," she reminds me, her voice quiet yet still heard by everyone in the hanger. My eyes sting with angry tears as I meet her gaze.

"Nor fail," I reply softly. I reach up and squeeze her hand, then turn to face the others. "Okay, here's the plan…"

—

"Avatar to Valkyrie One, we are launched and you are clear to proceed."

" Read you loud, Avatar ," Jinora replies. " We're heading towards the convoy now. "

"Copy that Valkyrie. As soon as you get within range get them turned around. Threaten to shoot if you have to, because you know somebody is going to complain about deadlines and schedules and shit. And for the love of all that is holy you keep away from those mines too."

" Copy that, Avatar. We'll meet you on Daedalus Three when the screaming stops ."

I blow out a breath. "Wee…" I start to reply.

" We'll be expecting you ," Jinora says firmly. "All of you. Valkyrie out. "

"She has a lot of faith," Asami murmurs from where she sits behind me in the jump seat. I feel her fingers brush against my cheek. "So do I."

My eyes flutter at her touch, and will myself to share in their optimism. In the distance I see the flare of the plasma contrails of the Valkyrie fade into the distance as the big ship heads out. It disappears quickly into the dark, the light of the engines getting lost against the backdrop of a billion stars.

"Okay," I say finally, and thumb the comm. "Boss and Little Mouse, ready to roar?"

" Ready to get this over with, Avatar ," Kuvira mutters. " And I'm putting in for about five year's worth of leave when we get back. I'm already having to listen to Wei complaining about how small the jump seat is."

I snort. "That's what he gets for making the winner of rock, paper, scissors the person coming along rather than the person staying with the Valkyrie ."

" What happened to your sense of adventure, you guys ?" Bolin demands. " This will be fun !"

I snort despite myself, feeling a little bit of the old Fire Ferret irreverence. "For some definition of fun I guess," I agree. "Let's go play chicken with a mine, beat a bad guy, and drink some whiskey."

We all slam our throttles forward, leaping towards doom or glory. I am still unable to decide which was more likely.

—

" Boss to Avatar, got a lock on that last mine ."

"Copy that, Boss," I reply. "Raava, last chance to tell us this is a bad idea."

There's a small crackle as the AI replies. "There is no numeric certainty, Colonel Korra. This is the most likely path to a successful conclusion, but I calculate the odds at sixty three point eight percent."

" Never tell me the odds ," I hear Kuvira groan.

Behind me, I hear Asami hum. "Honestly, I didn't think they'd be that high."

" Not helping, Doc. Mine contact in three minutes ."

"Copy that, Boss. Mouse, you ready?"

"Little Mouse is ready to rumble !" Bolin crows. " Come on Raava, let's show 'em how it's done !"

Kuvira and I position ourselves between the mine and Unalaq's distant ship, letting Bolin and Raava take on the delicate task of getting the mine to follow us. Either Unalaq won't be able to turn it off, in which case all we can do is hope to get out of the way of the mine hopefully going for the largest and slowest target, or he'll be so focused on turning it off and hopefully not be paying attention to our three much smaller fighters. We have no idea how good his equipment is, or what kind of crew he has, so any distraction helps.

No matter how or what, we have to stop that ship before it makes it close enough to launch any bombardments.

—

" Contact ," Kuvira shouts, and my sensors show the mine changing course as Bolin's ship once again begins it's weird flight path, attempting to entice the mine's response system into following along a while and not just blowing up.

I swing my fighter's nose around. "Okay Boss, we need to stay a minimum of twenty thousand kilometers away from the mine to avoid tripping its sensor."

" Copy that, Avatar ," Kuvira replies. " Mouse, make sure to shout out any speed or course changes ."

"I advise extending that distance to twenty five thousand kilometers, Colonel Korra," Raava interjects. " That gives us sufficient room to make our necessary course adjustments without risk. Be advised that we will need to get the mine moving faster than previously due to the need to overcome the velocity of our target."

"Copy that, Raava," I acknowledge. "Standing by."

Behind me I hear the clicking of Asami's keyboard as she continues hunting through the archives her pal Itchy had managed to get digitized for her before we left, hunting for any additional information that will allow us to take control of what is likely a Galactic Empire cruiser, definitely carrying a whole lot of really scary weapons, as quickly as possible.

"Any luck?" I ask.

"Maybe," she says, though her voice sounds dubious. "I've found the system schematics of the most likely possibilities, so as long as what we find is in that category, I've got some information that will help. But of course, each type of ship has pretty different setups. Guess they didn't believe in fleet wide consistency."

I smile despite myself. "I remember Bumi mumbling about that at one point. He said the different planetary systems within the Empire were pretty competitive with each other, and deliberately avoided any kind of sharing of information or resources. It was part of what made Aang's campaign against the Empire succeed, because once he was able to successfully disrupt enough of the different supply lines, the Empire fleets started running out of fuel and they wouldn't or couldn't share."

"Thank goodness they were still reliant on chemical rocket fuel back then."

Raava interrupts us. "Colonel Korra, Lieutenant Colonel Kuvira, please increase speed to point six sub."

"Copy that."

The mine is definitely moving faster now, and I continue to watch Bolin's fighter continue it's maniac course, relentlessly drawing the mine towards Unalaq's ship, but we're overtaking it far too slowly for my impatience. Raava, however, seems to anticipate me.

"Colonel Korra, Lieutenant Colonel Kuvira, please increase speed to point seven sub."

" Whoo, I love going fast ," Kuvira cheers.

"Simmer down there, Boss," I grouse. "We go too fast and we're going to overshoot—"

"Speed is now point eight sub."

"Whoa," I call out. "Raava, we're not going to have enough time to slow—"

"The mine is now increasing speed without our influence, Colonel Korra. We have abandoned our original flight plan and are now simply trying to stay ahead of it."

"Oh shit ." says Kuvira. " We should hit the sensor boundary between the mine and Unalaq's ship in a few minutes. If' we're going this fast …"

"Unalaq won't have a lot of time to hit the stop button," I finish. There's a sick feeling in my stomach; I remember what happened last time I was this close to one of these damn things. "Mouse, you better be ready to dodge!"