Note: This series uses characters from 3DX artist Dizzydills. However, it is not set in any of his storylines. Feel free to treat it as a fan work or as an independent story.
Thanks to Bianca Rose for editing this story.
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Part 1: Pirate Raid
Sasha Freelane wasn't a day away from the Solar System before things got silly.
She was listening to some audio broadcast about cultural history in her ship, the
Lazy Brown Dog
, her vessel of choice on this road trip. Suddenly she felt it slow. The Light Lanes, which enabled low-light speed travel through the Oort Cloud and its various colonies, shut off in the local area. Right then, she understood what was going on - her self-defense training courses before she left Earth taught her what to expect. The woman jumped into action and assessed her location: 10 minutes at max cruise speed to the nearest light gate. At some point, she would be caught.
She made it about five minutes before an anti-cruise missile exploded on contact off her stern, 7 o'clock high. The ship slowed to a max speed of about 300 km/h with her cruise engines offline. Not fast enough for what bore down on her: Three zoomers. Small vessels, lightly armed and armored, barely fit two pirates in them. But they're very fast, agile, and have light drives and universal docking clamps. They're meant to serve one purpose: Hijacking.
Sasha picked up on them, and decided to get clever by pulling her emergency stop. If they didn't match speed, they'll overshoot, and she could pick them off before they had a chance to turn around and maneuver. However, the trick only worked on one zoomer, where she made quick work of its engines with her ship's guns, sending it adrift. The other two immediately saw through the ruse and slowed as well.
"Dammit," Sasha muttered under her breath. It would be at least another 3 minutes before her cruise engines restored power and she could escape. She tried to maneuver the
Lazy Brown Dog
away from the zoomers, but they were just too quick for her to keep away from them. She heard the clunk of magnetic cables hit the top of her ship, aiming for the emergency port. However, it took another two minutes for her to hear the second set attached to the main dock. Two zoomers were able to get a hold of her ship, which meant at least 4 pirates. She realized she had an advantage over the pirates: They couldn't ambush her at the same time. At least, in theory. It's unlikely they were that coordinated.
Sasha rushed over to her bunk space and opened up a locker, brushing aside her short dirty blond hair. She pulled out her personal laser pistol and a gauss rifle she had little practice on. It'd be enough to take out two aliens at a time. Then she moved into position below the first dock. She would have to be quick on the trigger: The training courses taught her they'd occasionally drop smoke flares to throw off defenders. Of course, she was rather vulnerable, wearing only a black tank top barely containing her ample chest and tiny khaki shorts. With the adrenaline came a bit of fear.
After a moment, she heard the inevitable beeps that indicated her docking doors being overridden, and aimed. Her hands shook a bit. The training courses hadn't really prepared her for real-life scenarios, just simulations. The moment the doors opened and she saw the vague darkness within, she fired a quick shot, the recoil throwing her off. She heard a single scream, only to see another alien move. Without thinking, she fired another shot blindly. Somehow, she heard another scream, with a pistol falling into her ship. It seemed like both aliens were disabled, if not dead. She could not believe her luck, since she thought she missed each time.
Sasha knew she wouldn't have that much time to get rid of the first zoomer. So she merely reset the lock and sealed the door shut for the time being. She then picked up the pistol that fell: Teloan Model 8. She's handled those a couple times in planning her "road trip." She made some setting adjustments, reset the auto-pilot, and waited for the inevitable second ambush to close things out.
A few moments later, the main door opened, and two pirate aliens burst with pistols. "NOBODY MOVE!" Sasha yelled, aiming at both of the aliens' heads.
"You surrounded, earth-woh-man," said one of the aliens. The accent was gravelly, low and bellowing.
"Oh, you mean by your two dead buddies, and the other two guys who are just drifting away right now?" she said. "Good luck trying to take this ship from me."
The other alien spoke frustratingly, but in awe. The one that spoke to Sasha responded in kind. She could make out just enough to understand they were being crude to her...and lewd.
Sasha smiled. "You know," she said, "with the way you're talking about me, if you just threw your pistols back into your ship, we could have a proper flirt. How about that?"
The aliens were stunned that not only could she understand them, but was interested in what they were saying. Usually the Earth aliens were too stupid to even understand their broken Earth tongue. "This some trap?" one of them asked.
"No," Sasha replied. "It's just us three. And really, there's no need for further violence. But there's always time for a bit of fun."