Captain Aurrum stood at the Andromeda's helm, with only Erin by his side. He'd worked contracts with the government before, but most of his dealings had always been with stuffy, soft-faced bureaucrats who spent their days wrestling with logistics.

Dr. Ademas was not the first military official who'd stepped on his ship, but there was a tough, weathered edge to her that went beyond the physical presence of your common soldier.

She was a scientist, for Ironsides' sakes, and yet she stared the fighters down, cool as anything.

He did feel for the kid, though. He'd looked stricken by the idea that they were under threat, which was understandable. He'd stumbled out of here with one of his new 'guests' like something undead.

"If you want to go check on your kid, I can hold things down here," he ventured.

Erin's eyes flickered to him, then back to the view.

"Thank you, but I'm sure he just needs some space to calm down. I need to be here in case there's a development."

Sure, leave your kid with a stranger you picked up at a black market station - but then what did he know about children? Aurrum was a die-hard bachelor, and intended to keep it that way.

Then he shook his head with a bout of annoyance. What was he even thinking about right now? They were about to be under attack.

Things weren't so dire as to be jettisoning from the ship, though. These fighters, whatever model they were, surely weren't the latest designs used by the galaxy's bigger factions. Erin was right - they looked a lot like pirate craft in form. The only difference was that unlike the roving bands typically seen, this squad had a cohesive shape and coloration.

"Alright then," Aurrum began pulling from long-ago experiences he hadn't thought about in years, from a time when he was a small-time trader.

"I'm guessing that the main threat here are the fighters. The core ship was probably just a way to get them all here using a single jumper - they're probably nothing more than simple thrusters on the thing. If we can get to Alto II-"

He was interrupted by a flash of light from the view as the nearest fighter took its first shot at the Andromeda. The ballistic projectile went high as his ship banked, still far enough ahead that they could easily dodge. Still, he had to bellow to keep the peace on the bridge, as frantic technicians reacted to the attack.

"Do we have any fighters?"

"No," Aurrrum answered between orders. "This is still a pleasure craft."

"Weapons?"

"Yes. Shields too. We can still put up a fight." Aurrum entered the feed, calling for a team to head to the Andromeda's aft weapons system. The bridge crew rushed to raise the ship's shield layer; a web of energy not unlike the barrier on Oynx that would disperse a measure of kinetic energy from impact.

He also singled out one of the techs on a balcony above, ordering the woman to send out an S.O.S. to the settlement they were currently on a direct trajectory towards: a resort complex owned by Aquatime Corp.

She complied, and Aurrum couldn't help but wince at what he'd just done. The place was little better than a glorified hotel, and he was bringing a battle to their doorstep, knowing they were legally bound to offer support. But he knew the stakes when Erin had approached him for the job, and so he'd long-past decided he'd do whatever was needed.

With that done, Aurrum focused on their weapons stock. The Andromeda had been outfitted with a under-the-table assortment of military weaponry: two high-powered missile weapons on the fore and aft of the ship, and a single, slow-firing railgun that was operated from the center of the ship. Useless against the fast-moving fighters, he'd have to lean on the expertise of his crew in nailing the squadron with a barrage of missiles. The shields would hold, hopefully. If not, the original infrastructure of the Andromeda had been altered to create individual pockets of space throughout the ship. If a section was compromised, they would just section it off and hope for the best - and that everyone could get out in time.

In fact, he began to cut off sections of the ship already, spaces that his feed informed him were devoid of human activity. It was a silver lining that he'd reduced his crew and taken no passengers, as per Erin's insistence.

There were more shots as the fighters edged closer, their combat engines faster than the Andromeda's massive, unwieldy bulk. Still, nothing hit their mark for the time being.

Aurrum continued to receive a stream of information. Weapons being prepped, engine and shield status, even the ongoing diagnosis of Viktor and the assistants were there if he chose to access them.

They entered the atmosphere as his tech continued to send out the S.O.S., but unlike before, the sudden friction of the planet's air had put them in real danger for the first time.

The fighters caught up quickly as the Andromeda lagged, fighting against the heavy gasses.

The techs did their best, weaving in a jagged flight pattern, but a dull whoomp and a sick jarring of the ship's entire frame indicated they had finally been hit.

There were exclamations throughout the bridge, but the crew continued to work. Beside him, Erin was silent.

Then, there was another impact. And another. Still, the shields held on for the time being.

The tech on the comms checked in with him, reporting that Aquatime had confirmed their message and was working on a response. It was little comfort, however, as they were pelted with weaponry.

Then, another report came in, this time from the aft weapons crew; the nearmost fighter was within range.

He called for the Adromeda to slow, baiting it even closer, and then made the call.

Through his feed, the captain watched as the turret burst into life, his crew strafing the surprised fighter for a few long seconds before the fighter burst into a ball of flame, tumbling away.

Shouts of worry quickly morphed into cheers, as some bold technician adjusted the views to focus on the destroyed fighter falling down into the vast ocean below.

"Hey now!" Aurrum called out. "That was just one, yeah? We got a battle on our hands - let's keep this going!" He needed to rally the crew, keep them confident. They were trained, but they weren't military. The only other on the bridge who truly knew how bad their odds were was the woman next to him.

"There's about seven left," she murmured.

"I know," he said, stumbling as they were hit by another shot. This one managed to punch through the overtaxed shields, and now a new kind of alert was plaguing his feed: structural damage.

For a few minutes, he left the task of piloting to the rest of the bridge as he directed a team to the damage site. They could deal with it for the time being - but soon enough the ship was going to shut down, piece by piece.

Erin gestured for his attention, and he looked at the front view to see that they were in the skies above the resort. From above, the perfectly circular landmass looked like the only sign of civilization, but he knew that the hints of shape and shadow in the ocean surrounding the complex was a hint of the sprawling settlement that lay below the surface.

"We need to get to the complex," Erin said. "They have the facilities to get us underwater and away from any remaining fighters."

Aurrum agreed. The one advantage they had was that Aquatime could provide them an escape under the waves. But it meant that they'd have to land the Andromeda first, and that was proving to be an increasingly daunting task.

The fighters had fully caught up by now, and were swooping and diving all about the ship, a frantic dance to avoid the Andromeda's turrets. They didn't have the same luxury. The big ship took hit after hit, despite their attempts to dodge out of the way.

The comm technician reached out again, brought his attention to a rising speck on the ship's radar on his feed. Aquatime had sent a ship.

A single ship.

"Ferrus help them..." Aurrum trailed off, aghast at the little shuttle that climbed towards the air towards them.

Should we tell them to retreat? The comms tech asked over the feed. She, like the rest of them, saw the craft for what it was: a dinky little civilian shuttle.

They both watched the craft arc higher as it headed straight for the Andromeda.

"That's useless." Erin scowled. "How are they so close to the frontier with no defenses?"

Whoever was in charge down there had sent a team on a death wish. But if that's the best they could offer, what choice was there otherwise? Law was law.

Aurrum was a hard businessman, but he wasn't a killer. He drafted a response to the comms tech, but a flash of light caught his attention. A fighter had broken off from the rest, peeling away to target the shuttle. Faster than anything, it launched a missile that the other craft couldn't ever hope to dodge.

The whole maneuver took only a handful of seconds, and Aurrum could only gape as he watched the smoldering remains of the shuttle fall back down to the ocean below.

He turned to Erin, aghast, only to see that she had done the same to him. For once, that hardness about her eyes was gone, replaced by raw horror.

"We shouldn't have done it..." she breathed. "Had them honor the Code."

"No, no," even as he responded, Aurrum's attention was dragged back to the crisis at hand, his feed blaring with warnings. "We couldn't have known they had nothing," he managed to get out. "A single shuttle as backup, all the way out here?" These people are clearly far more isolated than we thought-"

Boom. Another shot rocked the ship, and those who were standing stumbled.

"We can't deal with this now," he said, after they'd caught their balance again. "We're on our own."

"A single shuttle," Erin murmured to herself, shaking her head. "What is the Rete thinking?"

But Aurrum wasn't listening. His rader was pinging; one of the fighters was diving in closer than the others. He notified the turret teams, who focused their fire on the unfortunate target. It managed to outrun the fire for only a moment before being devastated by a hit.

"Almost there," he murmured, trying to keep his ship together.