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Xander tore through a second one with a rail arc cannon, the echo thudding into her bones.

Then came the real problem.

TheSanto Venado, the Lombardi’s prize destroyer.

It was massive and downright ugly, covered in armored plating and built like a slow-moving killer.

Its gun turret tracked them with predatory focus, loaded with enough firepower to tear both their ships to shreds.

It locked on.

‘They’ve got us pinned,’ Xander muttered.

‘Not for long.’

Savvine slammed the thrusters into a barrel roll, thePeñatwisting in a complete spiral.

She threaded between plasma volleys and spiraling wreckage, her eyes fixed on the behemoth ahead.

She let the gunship lock on her signature, letting it think she was predictable.

Then, she reversed her thrust in an insane move, cutting her core drive for a millisecond and letting the fighter stall.

The gunship fired. Missed.

She spunPeñaup, corkscrewed under the blast arc, and landed right beneath its blind spot, the exposed cooling vents of its rail gun mount.

At the flick of her thumb, two fusion torpedoes launched.

They impacted a half-second later.

The Lombardi’s cannon erupted in a dazzling shockwave, spiraling into fragments.

The gunship listed, crippled, dead in the void.

She kept racing over its spine, releasing a third torpedo into one of its engine manifolds.

A blooming explosion detonated, destroying several decks and leaving a gaping hole in the side where a propulsion system once thrummed.

Xander barked a shocked, heated laugh over the link.

‘Madre de todo. A knockout punch that took its teeth out.’

Savvine panted from the adrenaline, wild-eyed and flushed, her pulse singing.

‘Told you when I race and I fire, I kill.’

With the rail gun down, engines compromised, and the gunship faltering, the Lombardi warhorse was vulnerable.

Savvine surged forward, flicked her toggles, and launched a net disruptor drone.

It unfurled mid-flight, latching onto the enemy’s remaining engine core.

It froze, paralyzed, sputtered, and flared out.

TheSanto Venadowas dead in the water.

She eased in beside it and opened comms.