Jett's fleet was a gloriously chaotic sight. There were twelve ships, and no two looked alike. There was a small freighter with harpoon cannons bolted to its fuselage, an old mining vessel with a drilling arm adapted as a battering ram, and several other craft that looked like they had been assembled from three different ships and held together with duct tape and sheer stubbornness. It was the perfect antithesis to the Syndicate tow truck, which was a single, massive statement of impersonal order and power.
"The cavalry has arrived!" Jett's voice boomed over Leo's communicator, filled with manic glee. "And it looks like we got here just in time for dessert!"
The Syndicate ship halted its advance, its sensors undoubtedly analyzing the unexpected threat. Its amplified, emotionless voice echoed through the void, this time addressed not to Leo, but to the fleet of salvagers.
"Unidentified entities. This is a Syndicate containment operation. Disperse immediately or you will be classified as hostile accomplices."
Jett responded by opening a comms channel to all ships. His voice, now filled with a mock formality, echoed across the sector.
"Greetings, Syndicate! Captain Jett here, of the Crossroads Salvage and Recovery Guild, license number seven-three-four-alpha!" He was making it all up. "As per the Void Salvage Accord of cycle '34, this area, following a Class-4 annihilation event, has been declared an open salvage zone. All unclaimed assets, including floating technology and surviving personnel, are now the legal property of my recovery team!"
It was the most absurd, transparently false legal argument Leo had ever heard. He was claiming Leo and Kael as if they were a pair of floating lug nuts.
There was a pause from the Syndicate tow truck, likely as its logic processor tried to find a protocol-approved response to such nonsense.
"Your claim is invalid. The assets are Syndicate property. Disperse."
"Negative, big guy!" Jett shot back. "Possession is eleven-tenths of the law out here in the Void! And we've got more guns!"
With that, the battle began. It wasn't a battle of elegant tactics. It was a cosmic bar fight.
Jett's ships didn't attack to destroy. They attacked to annoy, to disable. Magnetic harpoons fired out, latching onto the tow truck's fuselage, doing no damage but interfering with its sensors. The mining ship surged forward and used its drill arm to rip off a communications antenna.
The Syndicate tow truck, a machine built for recovery and containment, not a fleet battle, was forced to react. Its defense hatches opened, not with heavy weapons, but with dozens of containment drones, the same spherical models that had surrounded Kael. They swarmed out, firing energy nets and small tractor beams.
Leo and Kael were in the middle of the crossfire.
"To the left!" Kael shouted, his voice regaining its tactical authority. "That drone is trying to flank us! Their net launchers have a three-second recharge time!"
Leo obeyed, the 'Phantom' swerving through the beams of energy with an agility his old scooter could never have managed. He wasn't just piloting; he was dancing. Kael, sitting behind him, acted as a tactical officer, analyzing the battle with his elite eyes.
"The tow truck," Kael said, his mind working quickly. "Its main weakness is its tractor beam generator, on the underbelly. It's heavily shielded, but it needs ventilation ports. If we can damage those ports, they lose their ability to capture us from a distance."
Leo saw it. Jett's flagship, the "Wrecking Ball," was a sphere of patched-together metal with girders and weapons sticking out in every direction. One of its hangar bays was open, a small patch of inviting light in the middle of the chaos.
"We need to get to Jett's ship!" Leo shouted to Kael.
"We'll never make it through the drone swarm," Kael replied.
"Then let's give them a bigger target!"
With a sharp turn, Leo stopped running and flew directly towards the Syndicate tow truck, heading for its underside.
"What are you doing, amateur?! That's suicide!"
"You said the vents were the weakness!" Leo yelled back. "Let's give them a headache!"
He dove under the belly of the massive tow truck, the metal hovering just a few meters above his head. The drones followed, their swarm converging beneath their own mothership.
"Fire on the vents!" Leo ordered. "Now!"
Kael, seeing the logic in Leo's madness, didn't hesitate. He took his damaged energy baton, which could still emit short-range discharges. Leo fired his ion cannons. The blue beams and Kael's red energy arcs slammed into the ventilation grates.
There was a shower of sparks and a burst of leaking coolant. The tractor beam generator overheated. Alarms blared from the mothership, and the main tractor beam, which had been trying to capture one of Jett's ships, flickered and died.
The bold maneuver came at a cost. The coolant blast washed over the 'Phantom', its fuselage icing over. The engine sputtered. They were losing power.
"Now!" Jett yelled over the comms. "While they're trying to put out the fire! Go!"
With his last ounce of power, Leo aimed the dying 'Phantom' towards the "Wrecking Ball" and gunned it. The drones, momentarily confused by their ship's failure, reacted too late.
They chased the 'Phantom' as it streaked across the battlefield. Leo could hear the whine of their engines behind him, closing in.
He saw the hangar bay approaching. "We're not going to make it!"
"We are!"
They shot across the hangar's threshold just as the heavy metal doors began to slide shut. One drone pursued them inside, its mechanical claws outstretched.
One of the massive doors slammed into the drone, crushing it in a shower of sparks and shattered metal. The other door closed with a final BOOM, plunging the hangar into red emergency lighting and blessed silence.
They were safe.
Leo tumbled off the scooter, his body finally giving in to exhaustion. Kael landed on his feet, his posture still tense, but the relief visible on his face.
The hangar's inner door opened, and Jett strode in, his manic face covered in soot and a grin that stretched from ear to ear. Behind him, a motley crew of aliens and cyborgs watched them with curiosity.
"That," Jett said, his voice echoing in the hangar, "was the most fun I've had in months!"
He walked over to Leo and Kael, his gaze flicking from the damaged scooter to the two exhausted couriers.
"Welcome aboard the Wrecking Ball," he said. "Glad I could save you." His grin turned razor-sharp. "Now... let's talk about your bill."