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“Captain!”

Sawoot’s voice alerts me to the behemoth before us. There’s an unmarked warship ahead of us, resting in space like a sleeping kraken.

Where the fuck didthatcome from?

There’s no question – as soon as I run my eyes across the sleek, predatory design of the hull, I know we’re in trouble. This is no merchant’s vessel, fat with cargo for a long-haul flight.

The warship ahead of us is a killing machine.

The warning systems suddenly go haywire, overloading me with feedback as they beep and chirp loudly, blinking red and amber warning signals.

The HUD automatically tracks the artillery that’s suddenly pinpointed right at us. Batteries of Orb-Beams, no less; weapons that could shear through our hull as if it was butter.

I freeze. For the first time in my career, I’m petrified – completely lost as to what to do.

We’ve lost the hunters for the moment – but there are still three Toad assault ships in hot pursuit. Unless I get some distance between us now, we’re toast…

But to do that, I’ll have to fly directlypastthis ominous warship – and Toad assault ships are going to be the least of my problems if we’re blasted into nothingness by the overwhelming firepower of that hulking battle-craft in front of us.

I press on the transponder and attempt to open a communications channel with the ship – but instead of answering, the ship’s loading bay door merely opens up in front of us; gaping like a massive maw of some gigantic space whale.

Then, suddenly, our whole vessel rocks and shudders. The controls jerk in my hand, as our ship starts movingtowardsthe warship.

“What are you doing?” Theme cries. “Why are you headingtowardthem?”

“I… I don’t have any choice!” I struggle with the controls. “They must have a tractor lock on us.”

I feel like our vessel is a tiny minnow, being swallowed up whole as we’re pulled closer and closer towards the loading bay of this gigantic warship.

I try to correct our course to take us away from the ominous hulk, but the ship’s HUD reports that we’re already accelerating far beyond our engine’s capability to break free. We’re like a fish on a line; being slowly drawn toward that gaping, menacing, mouth-like abyss.

For the first time in my life, I’m at a loss at what to do. I’ve never been in such a hopeless situation before – utterly at a loss as the sinister ship’s tractor beam pulls us in. As the captain of the ship, I’msupposedto be in charge –supposedto be in control…

…but right now, I have no choice but to let go.

I finally release my hold on the controls, snarling as the full weight of the situation hits me.

It wasn’t meant to be this way! We were supposed to berichafter pulling off our last job.

Now, it looks like we’re going to be the opposite – prisoners, and totally at the mercy of whoever or whatever is in command of that sinister, unmarked ship.

2

Tasha

Our vessel is finally brought inside the gaping maw of the ship’s loading bay. The immense doors shut behind us with a menacingclunk.

The tractor beam continues to carry us across the landing bay – presumably to some spot large enough to place our ship.

I sit at the helm, watching my ship move without my touch on the controls.. The rational part of my brain knows that trying to fight the tractor beam of a behemoth ship like this would have been foolish – but it still doesn’t make me feel any better.

Likewise, trying to fire our weapons at this warship might have been as futile as throwing darts at the chitinous armor of a Scorp; but at least we would have been doingsomething...

But both actions would have been useless at best – or suicide at worst.

So, instead, we just have to sit there at our stations, helpless.

All our energy is diverted back to our shields, at least – even the power from our now useless engines. Breaking through our deflectors might be little more than an inconvenience to whoever commands this ship; but I’m certainly not planning to make iteasyfor them.