Prosperity's Rise Book 1

Chapter 1 Delivery to Kardonia

"Gods damnit! I can't get these guys off us!" shouted Horonoka, jerking the wheel to the left

Behind him Sana grimaced, her dirty blonde ponytail flipping about in a wild fury with every movement the ship made. "And you call yourself a top tier pilot," she grumbled.

"Focus!" bellowed Tygor.

Horonoka grabbed the lever next to his seat and thrust it forward, causing an ugly scraping sound of metal on metal. The three hurtled through space away from the trigger-happy fighter pods. Horonoka grinned thinking himself the victor only to curse when he looked up at the rear-view screen.

"Seriously? They're still tailing us?" he shouted.

"Well what did you expect?" scolded Sana. "You didn't even put it into accelerate! You just took us out of cruise!"

"Hey! It's my ship, I fly the way I want." he retorted. He shook his head and took one of his hands off the wheel to run through his red hair. He smiled, putting his hand back on the wheel. "Actually, I think I have an idea, but you guys are gonna have to trust me that it's not gonna kill us."

A shot from the fighter pods slammed into the ship. The cockpit's lighting flickered, and a shockwave pulsed through the crew members, shaking them to their cores.

Sana clutched at her seat belt. "I don't trust you with anything," she moaned.

Horonoka chuckled. "Well, the good news is that it'd be hard for me to make this worse." He pulled the wheel into his chest and twisted it. Each motion he made threatened to break the ship's mechanisms through sheer force. Somehow, the machine held, and the ship zoomed above the pods who followed close behind. With the assailants' main flagship in view, he flew straight towards it's charging cannons.

Sana's golden eyes grew wide. "Oh no, oh no, don't tell me you're gonna," She closed her mouth, unable to finish her sentence.

Horonoka let out a low and ominous laugh, a borderline suicidal look in his eyes. The cannons were about to fire, and they still hadn't decreased speed.

"Horonoka, I'm serious whatever you're doing just-"

"I'm gonna pop the shoulder!" he roared, then slammed his whole body on the wheel. The ship's thrusters flipped upwards, causing them to plummet. Above them, the flag ship's fire hit the fighter pods, destroying them in a single blast.

Horonoka looked back at his crew, full of hubris. "See? You can trust me."

"You do realize that only worked because they're slightly dumber than you?" mumbled Tygor, a few low clicks emanating from his pincers.

Horonoka shrugged and femininely gripped the wheel with just the tips of his fingers, lifting his pinkies. "Well, I like to think of it like I'm smarter than them, but to each their own."

He looked up at the ship's screens. There was a distinct lack of fighter pods, but the main flagship's cannons had already begun to charge once again.

"We should probably get out of here," said Sana. "That IROP ship looks ready for vengeance, damn pirates."

"Hey now," scolded Horonoka. "I say when we leave."

Tygor chittered aggressively behind him. His high-pitched clicks echoing throughout the room.

"And I say we leave now," Horonoka whispered, entering a code on the dashboard's keypad. He slammed a blue button with his fist shutting the ship's lights and viewing screens off and sending them directly into warp.

He leaned back and put his hands behind his head as the ship rattled. "See? Everything's under control," He swiveled in his chair to face Sana. "And you thought we were all going to die."