The ship reverberated with recoil as the rail gun, which Elvis had chosen to name the Ron Jeremy, fired. I would have to suggest a different name later; for now, though, we had more pressing concerns. We waited nervously to see what the response from the Retribution would be.

  CJ whistled from his chair. “Damn, you really did it! Good for you, having such big balls.”

  “Captain, the Retribution is hailing us,” Elvis said.

  “Okay, let’s see what they have to say. Can you put it up on the main screen?” I asked. I wasn’t sure how this worked, but I had watched enough Star Trek to have an idea.

  “Transmitting now, Captain. Should I prepare another blast from Ron Jeremy?” Elvis asked greedily.

  “Jesus, Elvis!” I cringed at his phrasing. Can we work on rephrasing that?!”

  I straightened my uniform top and tried to give my best Captain Picard. I wanted to look professional and in control, like I wasn’t going to take any bullshit. I didn’t know what a Havokium would look like, I suppose I should have asked Tiff in advance. In my mind, they were big, over-muscled warriors who operated in secret, living only to fight and kill. I was surprised then, when a tall, slender, Elven-like creature appeared on the screen before me. She had light brown hair, brown eyes, and slightly pointed ears and looked to be in her mid-twenties by Earth standards. There were other similar beings in the background performing various tasks on the ship’s bridge. Princess Denae was pissed, to say the least.

  “How dare you open fire on my vessel, human!” she sneered, contempt saturating her words. “I will have your head for your impudence!”

  I stood up from my chair and looked around. CJ was staring at the screen, vaping uncontrollably, while Tiff was sitting in the chair beside mine, trying her best to put forth a confident front. I turned my attention back to the display screen.

  “You, Princess Denae, will kindly shut the fuck up.” I stood with my hands clasped behind my back, really leaning into my best starship captain impression. “Right now, I have every available weapon in the Bloodhound’s very impressive arsenal trained on your vessel. By the way, I think it only fair to point out that your cloaking ability doesn’t seem to work against Elvis, so you can’t hide,” I looked at Tiff and CJ one more time, trying to convey confidence in what was happening.

  “Let me explain the situation, Denae. You have been meddling in my life since the beginning of the tutorial level. I understand that you have a vendetta to settle with the Universal Council, and honestly, I get it. Tiff debriefed me on everything and fortunately for you, I am willing to help, but on my terms, not yours. So, here is what is going to happen. I am going into that containment facility to get Tiff’s true body. You will wait inside the dampening field with your vessel cloaked to provide support for me on my flight back to the Bloodhound. If I am pursued or come under heavy fire, you will order the Retribution to cover me. Do you understand?” I asked.

  “Why would I agree to any of this, Human? I am no slave to be commanded by an inferior species!” Denae sneered.

  “Weeell shit, I was honestly hoping that you would be willing to help out of the kindness of your heart, but I guess that option is off the table,” I walked a few steps closer to the display as I spoke. “While we are having this little chat there are a couple things I need to get off my inferior chest. First, you will no longer refer to me as ‘Human’. My name is Andrew Dawes, and I am the captain of this ship. Right, Elvis?

  “Yes, Captain, that is correct,” Elvis replied.

  “Good, glad we cleared that up. Second,” I said, raising two fingers for emphasis, “The reason you WILL help is because if you don’t, if my transport takes one direct hit from the defenses on that facility, I have ordered Elvis to discharge the full complement of ordinance currently available on the Bloodhound. That ordinance will be aimed at the Retribution. Your ship will not survive. Elvis is confident in his ability to… how did he put it?” I put my hand to my chin in mock consideration. “Oh yeah!” I said with a snap, “I believe his words were that he could fuck your shit all the way up!”

  I returned to my more captainly pose. “In case that didn’t translate, Elvis is confident that he can fully eliminate the Retribution and every molecule of biological life on board. If somehow, we didn’t manage to completely wipe any trace of your vessel from the universe, and you managed to survive and try to commandeer the Bloodhound, Elvis will self-destruct the ship,” I said with a shrug.

  “What if the bitch runs?” CJ shouted from my left side.

  “Good question, CJ!” I said spinning and pointing in his direction, “Sure, you can run, and we won’t even chase you. I have a feeling, however, that you won’t since you really want this ship and armor. You see, at this point, us Humans would say you are between a rock and a hard place,” I made air quotes as I said the word humans, just to drive my disrespect home. “You might be thinking that even if you lose the ship, you can recover the armor if I’m dead. Well damn, I hate to say it,” I turned to CJ once again, “CJ should I tell her?” I asked, completely reveling in the position we were in.

  “I don’t know, Andy; she seems like a nice lady. Maybe you shouldn’t, but then again, she doesn’t seem to like humans, so yeah… go ahead and shit on her a little more,” he shrugged.

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  I chuckled in response, “Well, brace yourself, Danae, this one is gonna sting. The armor is genetically bound to me; it can’t be unbound! If I die, the armor dies with me. So, the way I see it, you are double fucked.”

  I could see Princess Denae boiling with anger. Her lips curled into a scowl, and her face took on a bright shade of red.

  “I do have some good news, though. I’m willing to assist you in your mission against the Council. However, I will not put my own mission to save my planet in jeopardy to do it. So, you will need to figure out how to make both missions successful,” I turned back to the display, “Just nod if you understand.”

  “I understand, Hu—Captain,” Danae said with a wince. “We will ally for the benefit of both our missions.” She was doing her best to hold it together.

  “Good!” I said with an exaggerated clap, “So now I need you to be a good little girl and sit out here and wait for me to get Tiff’s body. Then just make sure you take out anything that tries to hurt us. If you can do that, we can discuss next steps. Oh, just one more thing. You will have to make that conversation fast since we have a little less than 24 hours before we have to get moving again.” “Well! This was a solid meeting! So much synergy and positivity, right, guys?” I looked around the bridge at Tiff and CJ and bounced back and forth from my heels to my toes, smiling. “Oh, shit, I almost forgot. One more thing, Denae. When Tiff calls, you answer. I would hate to have to get your attention again through more… kinetic… means.”

  “All lines of communication will be open, Captain Dawes. Retribution out.” She ended the message without another word.

  “Hoooly shit, bro!” CJ jumped out of his chair and ran over to me. “That was crazy! Did you really order Elvis to do all that?”

  “Elvis, do you understand my orders?” I asked, looking up at the ceiling.

  “Yes, Captain. The Bloodhound will go down in glorious battle if that is your order!” he responded.

  “It is officially my order, Elvis,” I responded.

  “Understood, Captain. There is honor in this thing,” he said.

  Tiff was still sitting in her chair, staring at the black screen. She hadn’t said a word since the call ended. I knew this wouldn’t be easy for her, but we couldn’t let an outside party interfere with what we had planned.

  “Tiff, you don’t take orders from her anymore. You don’t have to take orders from anyone if you don’t want to,” I said, turning and looking at her directly.

  “I choose to take orders from you, Captain. Not because I have to, but because you have shown me kindness and allowed me the freedom that was taken from me. I will serve the Bloodhound, and we will save your planet and strike a blow against the Council,” she said, looking up at me.

  “If that is your choice, then I accept it, XO. I’m heading to the Armory to get ready for the exfil. CJ, you need to join me. Tiff, I’ll see you when I return with your body, okay?” I asked, placing a hand on her shoulder.

  “Be careful, Andrew.” She said, placing her hand on mine. She stood from her chair and gave me a quick hug before turning and walking to her quarters.

  When she was gone from the bridge, I turned and saw CJ standing there wide-eyed. “What the hell was that?” he asked with a raised eyebrow.

  “What? I’m sure she is worried about us,” I said, shaking off the question.

  “Us? I don’t remember getting a hug. Elvis, did Tiff just hug me,and I blanked out?” he asked Elvis.

  “No SR-Jennings, you didn’t get hug from XO-Tiff,” Elvis replied.

  “See? No hug for little ol’ CJ,” CJ scoffed.

  “Seriously?” I asked, clearly not amused. “Let’s just get to the damn armory already.”

  As CJ and I got to the elevator, the doors slid shut, and I heard music.

  Can you feel the love tonight?

  It is where we are

  It’s enough for this wide-eyed wanderer

  It was Elton freaking John…

  I leaned against the door in frustration, palms to the wall, “I swear to God, Elvis, if you don’t shut that shit off right now!”

  CJ was bent over, his hands on his knees, howling with laughter, “Hey,if we’re gonna die soon, at least we got one more laugh! Good one, Elvis!”

  “SR-Jennings didn’t get hug because he is piece of shit, nobody likes touching shit,” Elvis replied sourly. I couldn’t help it; I started laughing hysterically. These two were more than a handful, but they were my friends, and I loved them.

  As we walked to the Armory, I turned to CJ, “Hey man, I don’t think there is any chance of the Retribution attacking now, but if things go south in there for me and Tiff, I need you to make Elvis take you somewhere safe until this dungeon ends. I don’t even know if that is possible, but you gotta try. Maybe Princess Denae will take you in if you offer the ship. Just promise me that you will try to stay safe.”

  CJ stopped in his tracks. He didn’t even look over at me. “Andy, we survived for three years after the drop against all odds. Me and you have been through some hard shit, and you are coming back from this. That is the end of this conversation. You got me?”

  “Yeah man, I got you,” I said, and we continued toward the Armory.

  “You’re a captain now, so I need you to act like it because we’re all right on the ledge of “losing our shit canyon,” and the only way we keep from falling in is for you to keep getting stronger,” CJ said as we walked.

  “I got it, bro, we got this,” I said calmly.

  CJ and I took a few minutes to get supplies from the Armory. We quality-checked his armor as best we could before he turned to shake my hand. “I need you to go kick some ass and bring Tiff back. I’ll see you back here in a few hours.”

  “I’ll do my best, buddy,” I said as he turned to walk back to his station on the bridge.

  A couple of minutes later, the Havok Hound armor buzzed to life. “All systems go. Let’s get to the Pup,” CJ said through the armor’s external communicator.

  As I entered the Pup and strapped in, Elvis gave me a rundown of what to expect as I set the rifle I had taken from the armory on the deck beside me. The Pup would be on autopilot to the facility. I was to wait inside until we docked in the cargo bay and the doors opened on the Pup. We had been over this at least a hundred times now, but I still responded with confirmation. I could feel the sweat trickling down my back inside my uniform. I wasn’t hot; I was just scared out of my mind. CJ’s armor suit sat directly across from me, unmoving, holding one of the plasma assault rifles from the armory across its chest. It was eerie, the way that it sat there unmoving, staring into nothing.

  As I stared at the armor, it lifted its right leg, and I heard a farting noise come from the speakers. “Whew, I’ve been holding that one in for a hot minute,” CJ said. I laughed, trying to hide my nervousness.

  “We got this, bro. Put your head on straight,” he said.

  The flight in the Pup was uneventful. After about 15 minutes, we were approaching the cargo bay of the facility. The Pup hissed as the propulsion engines reversed to cushion our landing inside the bay. I unstrapped from my seat and grabbed my weapon as I heard the alarm start to blare outside.

  “Exit the ship, intruder!” something said in a loud robotic voice.