Upon Celestial Tiger: Chapter One

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A small, fast space yacht. The last owner named it Celestial Tiger.

Three small bedrooms (with bunks), one bathroom. Very small storage hold. combined dining/living area. Everyone's going to hate each other by the end of this road trip.

https://i.servimg.com/u/f11/19/46/08/46/small_10.jpg

Swarm would of course see other slaves when they got inside the castle, mostly dragons since it was one home of the self titled queen of all dragons(who I still can't remember the name of, lol). There were other species there, but it was mostly dragons from every variety known to the empires.

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Rigel nodded and took aim, firing at the keepers to knock them down without hitting Starr. He aimed for the male's leg so he wouldn't drop Starr or Run.

Tala started firing on the keepers, trying to avoid Starr, but not really caring if she hit them in the head or whatever. The job at hand was striking hard and fast, and then running before the inhabitants of the hold started responding.

Ethan followed suit, not as enthusiastically, but with slightly better aim.

One of the keepers, the one Rigel shot at first, fell to the ground with a scream, grip loosening on Starr. His body started healing rapidly, but he was still too surprised to use his magic just yet.

Shane and Helen would fly in to get Starr and bring her back to the Tiger if they weren't stopped by anyone.

Rigel and Sawna would keep cover fire over the dragons from beside the Tiger.

Swarm sadly couldn't do anything to save the captives, they needed a bigger crew to take on this entire keep surely? They kept watch for anyone coming to respond to the attack outside.

There were alarms when shots were fired, though they seemed to stay in the castle instead of going to help the keepers. Swarm might hear some thinking or talking about not putting their necks on the line for keepers who hadn't paid their bills.

The keepers were much too distracted by the gunfire to intervene in Shane and Helen's retrieval of Starr. And once Starr was clear, the crew would be able to pin down the keepers with gunfire very effectively. Ethan headed in, trying to stay out of the line of fire, to try and take out a keeper with his dagger when he ran out of bullets.

Tala holstered her pistol and pulled out her automatic rifle once the alarms sounded. The need for secrecy was over, and they just needed to get the keepers killed quickly before they ran.

Shane and Helen took Starr back to the Tiger, despite her drunken 'fighting' at being held. She didn't seem to know who they were.

Rigel helped keep the two keepers pinned down while Ethan approached them. Now he was able to use kill shots to have them down for longer so that they could be killed off more permanently. "Swarm, get the rest of you back here before we take off." He said softly

Swarm did as they were told, the scouts heading for the ship while the rest remained with the crew members.

The ones still one the ship relayed what was happening to Luka, telling her she should prepare to leave.

Luka nodded and started the engines.

One keeper started to get up, Ethan got in close enough to grab him by the hair and slit his throat. The dagger's mana crystal blazed with power and the keeper gurgled a last breath.

Ethan was about to go to take care of the other keeper, when the hold's guards finally realized that these guys were about to capture the queen of the star dragons, and opened fire on them.

Ethan headed for the other keeper, stumbling as a bullet hit him in the chest and was deflected by his armor, and hissing in pain.

"Shoot at the guards if they approach us!" Tala called to Rigel, "Don't waste any more bullets on the keeper for now!"

Rigel nodded and turned to keep a bead on any incoming guards. He would make them regret coming near them as he waited for Ethan and Tala to get back to the ship. He wished they had time to finish the last keeper off, he was already starting to get up again.

Shane and Helen had strapped Starr in for the ride, since she wasn't staying still or making sense right then. They returned to the door to help as they could from there. Both star dragons started forming meteors and sending them at the castle like cannonballs

Ethan hesitated, wondering if he should try to kill the other keeper.

"Leave the keeper! We must fly!" Tala bellowed at him.

He ran for the ship, swearing and falling as another bullet hit him, this time in the leg. Tala snorted and ran back to grab him by the arm, hauling him bodily back to the ship and barely noticing the bullets she was taking as well.

She dragged him onto the ship and looked to Rigel. "Everyone, return to the ship!" She called to the others.

Luka's brow knit with concentration, she couldn't take off till everyone was aboard, but it was only a matter of time before they started firing at the ship as well.
Come ON.

Swarm gathered together, chittering in agitation and stress.

"we must leave." The small number with Rigel told him.

"Do not destroy the keep, they have dragons held!" the rest of Swarm protested.

"Maybe we should sedate the queen?" another group suggested.

Rigel fired off shots as he followed the others all back onto the ship then closed the ramp so they could leave. "That's everyone, right?" He asked, glancing around

Tala looked around, counting quickly. At least part of Swarm was here, hopefully all of them, but it was hard to tell. "Swarm, are you accounted for? We must depart in all haste!"

Ethan hauled himself to a seat to buckle in, clenching his teeth against the pain in his leg. He had forgotten that he could switch off his sense of touch for the moment, the fear and pain had distracted him.

"Yes." "we are" Swarm coalesced into their humanoid form.

Luka hastily began take off procedures. "We got everyone!?" She called to make sure.

"Yes! Take us away, Luka!" Tala called, grabbing onto a handrail for takeoff.

By now, the guards were firing on the ship. Not with heavy artillery yet since they didn't want to ruin their spaceport, but bullets were pinging of the ship's sides.

Luka took off, hard and fast, which would probably throw people around a bit.

"SORRY!" she yelled. "this is gonna be a bit rough!" She intended to get back into that asteroid field, it would be easier to lose these guys if they chased after them.

The hold wouldn't want to lose the three dragons, so they would give chase, trying to take the ship without blowing them up since they wanted them alove.

Ethan got himself buckled in, thankfully. An android being thrown around the ship would hurt. He held onto the seat, trying to suppress his sounds of pain as the rough takeoff jostled him.

Tala held on tightly, she was stupidly strong so so far, she seemed to be okay doing that. "Roughness is better than death!" She called. "Rigel, take copilot and assist Luka! You have flown together before!"

"just keep them off our tail! I'm gonna try to lose them in the asteroids!" Luka called to Rigel, concentrating on getting away without taking too much heavy fire. Thankfully the Keepers' reluctance to blow them out the sky was an advantage.

Swarm scattered in the tubulence and took refuge in the ducts.

Rigel nodded and moved to get into his seat and buckled so he could help them get to the asteroid belt again. "Good thing we have been through here before." He said and shot Luka a smile then focused on the controls.

Sawna, Shane and Helen found seats to hold on also.

Several ships were in pursuit now, rapidly lifting off and stringing out in a ragged chain behind the Tiger. The Family's ship was among the followers, although with only one pilot it wasn't going to be very effective in a chase.

The Hold seemed to be at least somewhat accustomed to star dragon escape attempts though, they started firing missiles at the Tiger. Judging by their shape, the missiles were EMP missiles intended to latch onto the ship and fry its electrical systems, hopefully without killing the people on the ship in the act.

Tala and Ethan waited in silence now, occasionally punctuated by a hiss of pain from Ethan, not wanting to distract Luka and Rigel.

Rigel focused on shooting down the missles before they could reach the Tiger and letting Luka focus on flying. We can't let any of them touch us or explode near us"

Shane heard that and frowned, glancing to Helen then taking off his belt and going to a window to stare out there. HE took a deep breath then focuses on making rocks out there in space, lots of little rocks that would hit the following ships and missiles due to their speed. He didn't even have to try to move them, just make them.

Shane's debris field proved to be pretty effective, taking out quite a few missiles and making a lot of smaller ships pause or detour around the mess, losing precious time. Rigel should be able to handle the missiles that made it through the debris pretty well.

Luka swerved and dove, pushing the little ship to its limits as she urged it on. Under her breath she talked to the ship in her native tongue, telling it to keep going, just a little further girl.

They reached the asteroid field.

She was concentrating too hard to really speak now, brow furrowed as she slipped the ship around an asteroid and a few of those missiles exploded on the rocks around them.

Shane would continue to do what he could to slow down the ships and missles until he got tired, then Helen would take over for him as he rested in a seat.

Rigel looked at the asteroids, as they entered the belt and smiled a little. Now things would get interesting. He continued to shoot at the missiles and the trailing ships even when most slowed at the entrance to the belt.

The Tiger was smaller and more maneuverable than most of the ships chasing her, a lot of them weren't able to follow her into the asteroid belt for fear of crashing into a boulder. Now the smaller ships had the advantage, well, sort of, and they chased the Tiger in, slowed down repeatedly by Shane, and then Helen, as the star dragons created obstacles.

The good news was, the missiles were hard to shoot in here and so the small ships largely stopped firing in order to conserve ammunition. The bad news was that the Tiger was still being followed fairly closely.