Have you ever wondered how the hell you got in a certain situation?

Well, James was starting to wonder exactly that when he found himself 601 million miles from Earth and passing Jupiter in a spaceship--or better referred to as, a battleship.

"I think we're starting to lose them," James' brother, Torlan, said from his seat behind him.

On cue, an explosion rocked the ship and sent pain radiating through James' head. A glance at a monitor which acted as a very precise rearview mirror showed the culprit. Two large battleships were shooting at their much smaller scout vessel.

That's right. This was no leisurely ride through space. 

It was the year 2102 and space travel had become a reality. In fact, space tours were becoming mainstream with the progress to inhabiting other planets gaining serious traction. Of course, though, space being infinite didn't stop humans from fighting over such a profitable enterprise and as space militants, James and Toraln found themselves smack in the middle of the first Space War.

"I don't think the ship can take much more hits, James!" Torlan yelled.

"Don't you think I know that?" James yelled back between grimacing from the immense pain assaulting his head.

The latest model of scout battleship technology allowed the ship to vaguely share its feelings with the pilot who had to stick their hand in a pod to drive it, partially becoming one with the ship. And yep, the ship was pretty much alive.

Alien technology probably, but the government was pretty tight-lipped on the subject. 

"And don't refer to her as the ship, her name is Petra!" James said amidst doing a barrel roll to dodge a particularly lethal barrage of missiles.

"Yea, well can't Petra go any faster? How the hell are the Etholian warships keeping up with a scout ship?"

"How in the galaxy am I supposed to know? It feels like their technology is always a step ahead of us!" One of the battleships was particularly gaining on them, and from the looks of the bright blue hue that was starting to form on its nose, death wasn't too far on the horizon if it got a clean shot.

"Sure seems like we're on the wrong side of the war then," Torlan whined.

"Can you shut up and do your job? How far away are we from the main fleet?" 

"One parsec away still! We'll never make it without the flow transition system."

James grimaced as he swerved around another barrage of missiles. The second battleship was still sending barrage after barrage while the first battleship focused on closing in for a certain shot. They were trying to rattle him and he had to admit, it was definitely starting to work.

"And whose idea was it to not wait for it to be implanted," James snapped.

"Hey, if we're doing the finger-pointing game, you're the one who said this would be an easy in-and-out job with a guarantee of no hostiles."

Just as James was preparing a witty remark, a missile connected with Petra's rear and caused James to drop to his knees under the tendrils of pain that threatened to shatter his very mind.

Torlan ran past him to a keyboard on the dashboard. "This isn't good," He said, worry heavy in his words.

"I'm fine, thanks for caring," James said sarcastically through gritted teeth.

"It's the shi-Petra," Torlan started, ignoring his comment. "We're losing thrust, I think the engine might've been damaged."

"Well, you're the engineer, can you fix it?" James asked, rising back to his feet. He pulled Petra into a loop, dodging another barrage from the persistent battleship.

"Not while we're being shot at by frickin' warships," Torlan said grimly.

His tone gave James pause. Torlan was the most fearless engineer they had, with a splash of unrealistic optimism and the tendency to complain about every minuscule mishap. But never, ever had James heard his brother sound so defeated.

"Torlan." James said, shifting his gaze to him briefly. "Strap in. We're going into Attack Mode."

Torlan's eyes widened in disbelief. "What the hell are you talking about, James? It hasn't even been tested and you want to try it out for the first time right now?"

"Damn right," James grunted after another missile hit. They didn't have much time. "There's no time like the present. We don't have much of a choice anyway, we're sitting ducks with our engine busted. If we go down, we go down with a fight, dammit. Ain't that right, Petra?"

Petra sent a warm wave of emotion at him that he couldn't decipher but he knew she was on board. They had been through fifty expeditions after all, completing every task handed to them without incident. It would be the same result here.

It had to be.

Torlan shook his head violently, throwing on a face of determination. James could see the cracks in the act, how the fear still lingered in his brother's grey eyes but he appreciated how much his brother trusted him regardless.

Torlan hopped into the seat next to him, sliding the belt on smoothly. "Lead us to victory, Captain."

James nodded, noting the first battleship starting to overtake Petra. 

It was now or never.

He closed his eyes and dug deep into his own conscience, finding the thread of connection that Petra was responsible for. Only the most skilled pilots could do such a feat.

Petra, Attack Mode!

Immediately, the blue thread started to turn red as a wave rippled through his mind causing an enormous strain and likely a future migraine...or worse.

But he couldn't worry about that now.

Flinging his eyes open, James was met with the battleship having overtaken them completely and stopped right in front of them with the blue hue brightening by the second.

Next to him, Torlan tensed up but didn't turn away, staring bravely at the enemy ship.

James pushed down the feeling of colossal pride he felt as he focused on timing the evasion. Just as the blue beam shot, he pulled upward, surprised by the increased responsiveness as Petra bolted upward out of the beam's path.

Instead, the beam connected with the second battleship that had still been behind them, leaving a smoke trail as it started to lose altitude in a deadly fall.

James gave the mental machine gun command, which orchestrated some mild machine gun fire at the front of the battleship.

Bulletproof.

The battleship started to ascend toward them and James started a nose-dive, meeting the charge.

"SHIT!" Torlan shrieked as Petra picked up speed and a massive collision seemed more and more imminent.

Just as the two ships were inches from colliding, James once again pulled up, rewarded with almost impossible responsiveness from Petra before giving the drop command.

Bombs dropped from the bottom of Petra, directly connecting with the enemy ship head-on, causing an explosion big enough to propel Petra forward a few paces.

James slumped over as blood leaked from his nose, the mental strain from entering Attack Mode where Petra has full access to his brain finally becoming too much as the pain caused by the explosion racked his very being.

"Fix..t-the..engine." James managed as he started to drift into unconsciousness with a worried Torlan holding him up.

It was time to trust in his brother's abilities just as he had a moment ago.

James welcomed the comforting darkness that enveloped him.

Good luck.