Zane and Anden were flying about in a decked out Lambada shuttle they had rented. It had been modified for several purposes, some including a little more luxury, a little more defense/weaponry, a little more advanced technology, etc. There were many things they had done to it to fit their needs.

Right now they were taking a small observation trip to observe some ancient ruins on a distant planet. They had all supplies they could need for weeks, or even months. Most likely they would not even need all of it, but it never hurt to be prepared too.

Zane had just put in some coordinates for their destination an running some quick diagnostic checks as well. When he was satisfied that the ship was ready for take off, Zane gave Anden the word. Anden was one of the best pilots he knew personally.

They would make a quick stop near the a ways from the planet and pick up Andens New fighter, as well as Zane's new fighter if they needed it too. Zane had some old friends holding it till they needed them. The friends would do anything for him so Zane trusted them.

Zane was in charge of managing the ship and stuff while Anden piloted it. Zane was better at this stuff, although he was not a bad pilot at all. Zane had made the "bridge" or the cockpit big enough for both of them to be in it comfortably and have an okay amount of space to work.

Once in the air they prepared to take off into space. Within minutes they had done so and were flying through the endless abyss of deep space. After about an hour they both decided to let their droid-pilot take over the ship.

The droid they had piloted almost like a real human, maybe better too. They had no need to worry there. Now for the more fun parts at least. They immediately went to a lab they had customarily constructed inside the ship. They had some of the most advance technology they could get. It was all part of the package.

Zane went to work in what he called his section where he had several computer screens every where. In the center he had his chair and surrounding it was a nice sized desk. His desk was neat and tidy but had a few laptops, a few nice computers, a few data-pads among other things as well.

Zane started everything up and got to work. They wanted to research a bit about these ruins so that they would be properly prepared. It would take a while to get to where they were going too.
They researched for hours till finally Zane got tired. He didn't want to go to sleep, they needed to stay alet.

Plus word was out, Pirate Lords and Criminals of all kinds were out and about every where these days. They wanted to take no chances so they though it was best to be safe. Zane made himself work. He decided to work on his codex. He had been developing it and now was as good as time as ever. Then he heard it.

The alarms went off so suddenly Zane simply thought they were part of the simulation, but he soon discovered they were real not fake. Zane quickly shut down the simulation, right in the middle of a complex move on how to incapacitate an attacker, to see what was the problem.

He soon found that Anden had alreay ran to the bridge to see what was the matter. Zane did the same.

"Anden what the heck is happening?" shouted Zane.

"I don't know yet, I am still finding that out," Anden replied.

Zane took his seat and began to find out the problem, and within moments both he and Anden had both found it. Just ahead a little ways was a pirate mercenary ship. Zane didn't recognize it.  A gold skull with a round indent over the forehead, and blood red almost glowing eyes. Thats the symbol he saw on the ship.

Zane didn't understand and neither did Anden. They had never seen the symbol before at all. The ship was pitch black and without the sensors Zane wouldn't have known what and where to look at. The ship was fairly big too.

"Zane what is that?" asked Anden.

"Well, I think its a pirate mercenary ship that could blow us into smithereens, but thats just my guess," replied Zane.

"I take it your clueless too then," said Anden.

"Pretty much yeah," replied Zane.

They knew that if their ship had picked up the pirate ship, then the pirate ship had probably picked them up too. The only question was, what to do now? They were a little ways away from the place where Zane's friends were holding their fighters just in case they had needed them, and body, they might need them.

I guess we don’t have to guess much any more what they want.” Zane commented


“Heh, that is for sure. This is going to be tight.” He said as the ship was showing a bigger show of speed than he though possible, “We may have to delay that little study of ancient artifacts for a little bit…”

"Yes, I think so. Looks like we will be needing those star fighters sooner than we thought, lets hope we can make it to them," replied Zane.

"I don't know this is going to be a tight one," said Anden.

"Well I will try to keep the ship running at it's best then," said Zane.

"Yes that would be helpful Zane," replied Anden.

"Alright systems are still at best, so far we've only taken one hit," reported Zane.

Zane kept the systems at their best while Anden flew the ships. Anden was pulling fairly complex maneuvers to avoid the consistent and heavy fire that was being thrown at them. So far Anden was doing excellent, they had only been hit once.

Zane watched the ship and made sure that it wasn't going to overheat, which at the moment it was trying to. The shields were still holding up good at least. Zane started putting the shuttle's power into the shields hoping that maybe they would hold up longer.

Anden was still having a hard time avoiding the intense fire. The enemy ship was quite big and very ugly. Something about it radiated power though. The ship seemed to have some deeper meaning to it. At first glance it looked like an ugly hard to see ship that looked as though two ships had been bashed together and then welded.

But at a closer inspection Zane saw that the ship was actually quite complex. It probably had a very dense hull, and obviously it had very good weaponry too. Zane also saw a potential week spot too right near the cockpit or bridge or whatever this ship had. Zane also had a weird feeling that this was no ordinary smugglers or pirate mercenary ship either.

"Zane was the ships status?" asked Anden, stress and deep concentration in his voice.

"Well we are doing okay so far. Sheilds are at 42 percent, power has mainly been put to them," reported Zane.

"Okay so we still have a good chance," muttered Anden.

"Anden, you look tired man," said Zane.

"Yeah, very but that doesn't matter. We are almost away from this thing, it just won't stop following us!" said  Anden.

"Okay well here let me take the control for a while then man," suggested Zane.

"Alright, just a sec," replied Anden.

After a moment more Zane took over, to give Anden a rest for a little while. Zane soon saw just what was making Anden so tired. The immense fire power from the opponent was relentless. Zane was going to hold up though.

Soon Zane saw something that might be able to help them though. Zane dove right into the asteroid field as fast as he could, trying to make the enemy think for a moment and maybe stop the intense fire and give their shields a break. Just as Zane planned the big ship swerved for a moment and paused, all while Zane was weaving on through the asteroids.

But the ship finally dove into the asteroids as well. Why were they so intent on following them? Zane and Anden had done nothing! That didn't matter though, they were for now, and Zane needed to get away or he would be in serious trouble. Zane soon noticed the other ship slowing down and just as Zane planned, having a harder time weaving through the asteroids.

Zane weaved for what seemed like forever. Slowly he was losing the other ship. Slowly but at least surely. Anden was giving him status reports periodically just so Zane knew what was going on with the ship, which did help. Zane was starting to get tired himself, he would not give up.

Zane weaved until he had eventually had been going a little longer than Anden had. But their luck was running short for the asteroids were thinning out and getting smaller. Plus their enemy was starting to catch back up again, which was not good. Zane told Anden to put  more power into the engines and thrusters so he could try to step it up.

It hit so suddenly Zane almost lost control. The ship was rocketed forward them back so quickly Zane felt his stomach lurch. Zane quickly got control of the ship. Smoke was coming in a little trickle, a few electric sparks were jumping around too. Zane knew he had been hit, but by what?

"Anden what was that? We are out of range for them to hit us with that much force!" said Zane.

"Well it seems another one of them has just joined us," replied Anden.

"Great thats just great," replied Zane.

"Well I'm all rested though, you want me to give it a shot then?" suggested Anden.

"Sure, my mind could use a rest for a minute," replied Zane.

Anden soon took over the ship's controls giving Zane a rest for a while. Zane started looking at the ship's status. Their shields were down at around 14 percent, not very good odds. Then the jerk was so sudden it threw Zane off his seat. He had seconds to react, and Zane put almost all the power into life supports.

Within 10 seconds after Zane switched the power over, they were blasted into the nearest planets gravitation orbit. Anden had almost no time to react, he was still in a daze. They both were only half-conscious until they saw the distant ground. Anden immediately became alert and attempted to get them safely landed.