He stepped down from the shuttle, trying not to look long at her, as if she were the sun. Yet he saw her, like the sun, even without looking.
She kept him still and held his beating heart with one gaze, feeding off of him. She was a succubus, beauti...
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Laser fire flashed on all sides, illuminating the cockpit in a chaotic dance of crimson light. The cockpit buzzed and rang with the near-misses of scarlet energy-scatter spitting from the pursuing shuttle, the wails eclipsing even the explosions of expanding gas and the roar of their own sublight engines. The Imperial shuttle tracked them as they darted in and out of the billowing veils of clouds at roughly the speed of light.
It stayed impressively on their tail as if they were dragging it by a tow cable.
Inside the cockpit, Tech's teeth grit in a focused glare as he twisted the shuttle around another explosion. Laser blasts ripped past them, barely missing.
"Any sign of that bounty hunter?" Hunter demanded, grimacing as the effort to speak pulled at the wound in his chest. Talia and Echo had removed his armor to properly bandage him, yet he insisted on sitting in the cockpit with the rest of them, determined to find the Duros who had bested him and taken off with Omega.
Brilliant red flashes illuminated the cockpit as laser bolts burst out of the predatory shuttle, tracing lines all about their ship which cut a snap-roll to the right and down. Tech slammed the control yoke forward as though jamming it against its impact-rest would push the battered starship faster.
"The only vessel on our scanners is Crosshair's," he responded distractedly, his voice tight with concentration. "And he is right on top of us."
The Nu-class shuttle's cannons stitched plasma across the rear of the swooping ship, until Tech put the Marauderthrough a wild series of dips, climbs, and turns, then finished with a straight-out run. The ship shook violently with each maneuver, each hit making the hull shudder and groan.
In the gunner's mount, Wrecker uncapped the firing trigger and squeezed the plunger, spitting back deadly fire, his fingers pressing harder as if sheer force could improve his aim.
The Marauder plunged into a fast dive, then jerked upward in a sudden turn, followed by a snap roll and bank to the right. They flew straight into the line of fire, and the ship bucked violently as a laser bolt clipped it, sending pieces flying and alarms blaring.
"It's getting hot back here!" Wrecker called from the gunner's seat, his voice straining to be heard over the cacophony of warning sirens and the roar of the engines.
"Prepping to jump," Tech answered promptly, flipping a switch to begin priming the hyperdrive. The hum of the engines shifted, growing deeper as they spooled up.
"Not without Omega," Hunter objected, frowning in indignation as he registered the words, his voice taut with a mix of determination and pain.
Echo spun around, his eyes fierce. "The bounty hunter who took Omega is long gone," he countered forcibly. "We'll have no chance of finding them if Crosshair shoots us down!"
