The pirates attack

The Soeck temple was a perfect display of traditional Eldireer Festival worship. It was also a perfect display of chaos. People ran screaming in every direction as pirates zipped about in the air above them, descending like carrion on the wealthier patrons, stripping them of everything of value.

Men screamed and women cried. Amid the confusion, a holographic choir sang praises to Soeck, oblivious to the carnage around them. Laser blasts and shrapnel passed right through them. As a holographic priest offered to teach lessons of peace, a pirate knocked a woman to the ground right in front of him and yanked her purse away from her, obscenities dripping from his foul lips.

Miss Stubbs cowered beneath the overturned remnants of the offerings table. Around her neck she wore every kind of good luck charm available, and was rubbing each one in turn, chanting "everything breaks... everything breaks..." to herself, over and over again.

A donation urn exploded as Tomar ran for his life, a fresh fertility statue clutched in one hand. He stopped as a barrel leveled itself in his face. He looked down its length and saw the filthy man at the other end. Cruel eyes stared out from beneath matted greasy scales.

Tomar's face was a mask of shock as the man pulled the trigger, then something collided with the pirate, knocking him over. The rifle went off in his grip, piercing a hole in Tomar's earlobe as the pirate was thrown to the ground by a dainty little girl, who expertly wrenched the man's arm into a lock, then pinched the pressure point at the base of his neck, knocking him unconscious.

Tomar couldn't believe what he was seeing. He looked up to see Trajey, her uniform torn, her doting eyes full of relief.

"Trajey... you... saved my life," he stuttered.

She looked around and led him to safety inside the Xovot. The statue fell away from his hand and was left behind. "I'm just glad you are okay," she said.

"Thank you."

She noticed the nick in his ear. "Oh, here, let me get that." She pulled out her medkit and applied a patch of synth-skin to his wound. The patch went hot as it sealed, and he flinched, his hand coming up, grabbing onto hers.

"Oh, sorry." She tried to pull her hand away, but he kept his hold on it. She got a little embarrassed and looked down bashfully.

"No, I mean it... thank you."

Blushing, she looked back up at him, and they looked deeply into each other's eyes.

* * *

High Priest Soa'Kal fell on his fat haunches, his jowls shaking pitifully as he backed up against the base of his golden throne. Lyssandra Bal loomed over him, her pistol whirring to life in her grip, her bewitching blue lips in a superior smirk.

"Please spare me," he said pitifully. "I'll pay you twice whatever you are being paid."

She leveled her pistol at his face. "Wow, you really don't put much value on your life, do you?"

An oracle opened up, revealing a hidden barrel and spat out a beam of energy. Without looking up, she held up her hand, and the beam reflected off the device she held, shooting back where it came from and destroying the oracle.

Soa'Kal licked his parched lips. "Okay, five times... NO! Ten times."

A guard ran up and fired at her from the entryway. She spun below the beam and threw out another device which unwraveled itself, binding the man with hundreds of cables. He fell struggling to the floor, hopelessly bound.

Lyssandra set her weapon to the maximum setting and pointed it at the high priest. "Goodbye."

"A hundred times!"

She lifted up the barrel. "Ah, so you do want to live after all."

He wheezed in fear.

Her glowing golden eyes were humorless. "Show me."

He reached over and put his clubbed fingers over the latinum bust of Soeck and pressed on the tongue. With a metallic clack, the wall behind them unlocked and opened, revealing a room practically bursting with credit chips.

Without taking her eyes off the priest, she raised her fist, and the pirates stormed into the room and pounced upon the money like starving jackals. She didn't seem to care at all, however, and kept her gaze fixed on the simpering priest as she knelt down to his level.

"Don't get me wrong, I'll take the money. Wars are expensive, after all. But you've sorely misjudged me if you think I am being paid to do this."

She grabbed his hand and removed the ring from his finger. "My men need drink and food and pleasurable company to keep them motivated, but all I need is this."

"My ring? But why?"

"Because unlike you, I am a true believer. I fight because it is the right thing to do. The universe is broken, and I intend to fix it."

"What are you going to do?"

She gave a smug smile as she rose back up to her feet. The rest of the pirates flew away laden with everything they could carry, leaving her and the priest alone.

"General, patrol ships are inbound," came the report from her communicator.

"Prepare for dust-off, sixty seconds."

She turned around and found Gerald blocking the doorway, cradling a branch from the Y'tzuma tree in the courtyard that had been destroyed.

"Lyssandra Bal, this is a holy place," Gerald said boldly. "You are wrong to defile it with violence."

She rolled her eyes and pointed her pistol at an amber statue of Soeck. Firing off a blast of crimson energy, the statue exploded.

"Oh, no! Now Soeck is going to curse me," she taunted. She stood there for a moment, arms outstretched, as if waiting for something to happen. Nothing did.

Her head snapped up. "See? Your gods don't dare stand against me. And do you know why?" She licked her blue lips. "Because the last time I faced the gods, I killed them. Every single one that opposed me is now dead."

Gerald swallowed hard. He had seen the footage fragments in the archives.

She flicked her tongue at him. "The rest of the gods know that. They won't intervene, they'll hide in the shadows like the cowardly rats they are."

Gerald dropped the broken branch. "Then I will stand against you."

Her mouth fell open and she couldn't help but laugh. "I remember you. You're the kid from the starliner."

"Yes."

She put her hands on her hips and sniffed. "You seem a little taller than before..."

She drew her pistol out and aimed it at him. "...but still so mouthy..."

Gerald held up his old translator in his grip. "Trahzi, now!"

* * *

There was a flash of flame, and Lyssandra found herself high in the atmosphere, standing atop a floating island of weli'hi, pointing her pistol at a thousand pounds of fireworks, ready to detonate. The timer clicked down, 2...1...

"Oh Frakk!"

* * *

The night sky above the temple came alive with a bright pyrotechnic display that illuminated the grounds brighter than midday. Dragons and serpents made of fire and light flew and slithered. White birds made of flame soared, and the great tree of Y'tzuma popped to life in green and amber explosions. The black pirate ship, heavily laden with treasure, shot up into the sky, frantic to escape before the system patrols caught up with them.