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An action chapter with explosions and guns being pointed at people!

Cool guys don't look at explosions
They blow things up and then walk away
Who's got time to watch an explosion

---

As the gunship hurtled towards the oncoming missiles, Lenny tried his hardest to work the sensors. “It’s not telling me!”
“Did you adjust-”
“I know how to use sensors! The damn things just won’t tell me!”
Leo reached over and slammed his paw on the screen. “There!”
A new set of data was overlaid on the screen. “Oh. Thanks.”
“Fieru taught me that one. So?”
“Um… there’s about one hundred of them… they aren’t moving that fast, but it looks like the yield could take us out if we were hit. We’ll be in weapons range in one minute, and then in point range in another minute.”
Rico was getting used to moving the rear turret around. “Uh… so what are our chances here?”
Leo shrugged. “I have no idea. All we have to do is hold them off until… well I don’t know. We just have to hold them off.”
Lenny gulped. “Alright.”

Leph didn’t know what a re-acclimating Sytis ship was supposed to look like, but it seemed like Czyak was concentrating hard. The other ship flew by and disgorged a person. She flipped around a few times before Leph caught her. “Leph? Are you okay?!”
“Yes, I’m fine.”
“You didn’t even bother to check up on me!”
Zach swam over. “What are you guys saying?”
“Serleah’s fine.”
“Oh. Good. Hey, what’s that?”
From all around them, little bubbles began to form from nothing. As the three watched, the bubbles began moving slowly towards Czyak.

The missile launch had produced an unexpected side effect inside the cargo bay. The smoke was apparently not blocked by the force field. The sheer number of missiles produced quite the quantity of smoke, and enough of it made its way into the air that Nai could barely see the paws in front of him. He looked down at the computer, bringing his face close to it. He turned it on again and quickly typed something into Grey Fox’s document. He then quietly slipped away. God waved a claw in front of him. “I cannot see! What is this?!”
“The force field is too large. It is letting in some of the outer atmosphere.”
“Get rid of it. GET IT OUT OF HERE! I AM BLIND!”
Cain blinked smoke from his eyes. He looked over at Gray Fox and Polos. “How is this not irritating your eyes?”
Polos chuckled. “We’re Atrieans.”
Cain was about to respond when he heard something. Nai was whispering from the opposite wall. Cain was, of course, the only one that could hear him. “Hey! Meathead! Don’t say anything. I’m getting out of here, but I need a little hand.”
Cain could also hear that Nai was tinkering with something. He realized that Nai was somewhere near the shuttle that they had been supplied with for close spatial scans. “First of all, I need you to say “Hey God, how many people are standing here?” Just say it.”
Cain remained silent. He had no idea how God would react to that. “Do it! I need to know if he can tell I’m gone.”
Cain crossed his arms, annoyed he couldn’t answer. “Okay. You don’t want to do it. Fine. But I need help, here. If I can make it to the Frontier fleet, I can maybe get them to help me! Y’know, help me stop a genocide!?”
“Fine! God, great one, how many people are standing here?”
God grunted. “What!? How many… Ah! You are testing me?! Or not!? Well no matter your motives… There are exactly six, counting the Rhetorician. Now, if you will, I require silence. Otherwise I will be forced to remove your ear canals and use them to build a toy to amuse me.”
“I heard that, Cain. Good work. Okay, now I’m sure someone will notice as soon as I launch this thing. When that happens, detract God. I need time to get away. I think those Rhetorician guys and the robots can’t act without the word from God.”
Cain sighed. He was hating this plan, but it looked like he had no way to say no. After a minute, he heard the shuttle’s engines begin to hum. Before anyone else could speak, he approached God. “May I speak?”
The smoke moved around him strangely, as though people were running past and disturbing it. God didn’t respond right away, but when he did, he didn’t sound pleased. “You are lucky. This smoke is disorienting. Anyway! Yes! SPEAK!”
“I realize that I’m uh… Small in your eyes.”
“Indeed. Your life is my whim.”
“Um… I can’t even compare to those creations of yours. I’m beneath even them.”
The smoke was beginning to clear, and Cain could see God now, and the Rhetorician that stood nearby. The Rhetorician looked nervous somehow. “You are right, worm. Very astute. What is your point!?”
The shuttle took off. Cain could hear the concierges stop their work, but none of them moved to intercept. The Rhetorician raised a finger. “There is a pr-”
“I wish to be great like you!”
“You do?! This is strange! Many people see me as a monster! WHAT IS YOUR AIM, THEN?! DO YOU IWSH TO USERP MY THRONE?!”
“The shutt-”
“No! I simply want to approach your greatness! I know I can’t reach your… Godliness!”
“The shuttle has-”
“Good! I need more people like you?! You- YOU want to assassinate me?!”
“God-”
Cain swept his arm in a dramatic arc. “No! Look into my eyes and tell me I am lying!”
“That small man, he just-”
Cain turned to the Rhetorician. “God! I would like to ask you a favor! Silence that Rhetorician! It is jealous of my wishes and wants to stop me!”
God turned to the Rhetorician and smashed his claw into its face with full force. The Rhetorician flew several meters before sliding across the floor in a streak of blood. It twitched for a moment, then died. Cain, Polos and Grey Fox all stood in shock as God reared his head and roared. “YEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA! You shall have it! You will be my right-hand man, fleshy thing! I will make you great! Powerful! Yes!”
Polos and Grey Fox looked at Cain with complete disbelief. Cain had no idea how he was going to explain it to them, but he knelt anyway. “I am glad.”
God then grunted. “Ah. I have killed one of my Rhetoricians. Excuse me, I must get a report on the battle. USELESS CREATURES! DIE WITH A SINGLE STRIKE! I MADE YOU BETTER!”
He lumbered through a door, and was gone. Grey Fox grabbed Cain before he had a chance to react. “What they hell were you thinking?!”
He glanced at Polos, who gave a subtle shake of the head. Cain pushed Grey Fox off of him. “That’s why I did it.”
He pointed to Nai’s screen. Grey Fox crouched down and skimmed the screen. Cain could hear his breath catch ever so slightly when he realized what was on it. Polos peeked over Grey Fox’s shoulder and read aloud what Nai wrote under the math. “I know what you want.”
Grey Fox kicked the screen, smashing it. He whirled on the two, his gun in his paws. Neither were sure how it got there. “What did that fool tell you?”
“Enough to know what you’re up to.”
Polos backed off. “Nothing.”
“Stop being a coward, Polos.”
“I have no idea what he’s talking about!”
Grey Fox sighed. “Shut up, both of you! Cain. Where is Nai?”
Cain cocked his head towards the wall, which was still shrouded in smoke. “He flew off.”
“You… you let him escape?!”
“Yep.”
Grey Fox raised the gun. He was beginning to lose his temper, which was a new and terrifying thing to see. “You idiot! Who knows what kind of damage he’ll do!”
“The foiling kind, I hope.” Cain grinned.
Polos nudged him. “Shut up!”
Grey Fox grinned. He then chuckled a little. “I actually didn’t see this coming. Nai escaping on his own? Sure, that’s possible. But both of you helping him?”
“I did not-”
Cain clamped his mechanical hand over Polos’ muzzle. He shut up, but scowled as he did.
Grey Fox continued. “You reprobates were going to be paid a dictator’s wage! Drifrasa’s tits, do you know what you’ve thrown away?!”
Polos tried to nod, but was physically unable to. Cain shrugged. “Genocide don’t sit right with me. I may be a criminal, but I have pri-”
“Bullshit you do. You’re a murderer. I understand you undertook this mission out of some sort of petty revenge! I’m here trying to make Atriea greater even than the Yerin empire! I’m sure as shit not going to let you two stop me.”
“I might… A-at least I’m not willing to kill an entire universe…”
Polos was almost limp at this point. Grey Fox lowered the gun. “You’re willing to destroy this universe for money. I would have made you rich, then shoved you off to some corner of the Atriean Empire and let you die in whatever VR toys you could buy. I can see it on you. You want that. Well now you won’t have it.”
Cain let go of Polos’ muzzle and averted his eyes. Grey Fox raised the gun again, but Cain interrupted him. “Wait. I’m God’s right-hand man. If you kill me, he’ll probably make you into a paper airplane.”
Grey Fox hesitated, then lowered the gun. “Fine. Go sit over there, on the other side of the bay. I’m going to save all our lives, but if either of you come over here, I will break your fingers.”
Cain nodded, let go of Polos and walked towards the other side of the bay. Polos glanced at Grey Fox for a moment before following quickly. “You idiot! I could have stayed with him if you hadn’t spilled the beans!”
“He’s not an idiot.”
“No, you are. Why did you let Nai escape?! What could he possibly do out there?! We should-”
“He’ll help, don’t you worry. For one thing, without Nai Grey Fox has no more help.”
“Yeah?! Fucking great, he’ll take twice as long to kill us.”
They sat against the wall. “Nai isn’t an idiot either. If he can warn the Sytis, they can take action. And they’re probably a hell of a lot better off fighting this God fellow than we are.”
Polos shook his head. “Let’s just kill him. Use your gross fake arm to do it.”
“Now you’re not thinking. He’s the only one that can get that bean working!”
“I could do it! Come on, I’m sure we can set something up!”
“You could do it? Really? Because I remember that you never actually put this Oculus beam thing into practice.”
Polos flushed red. “Given the time, I could… maybe… But that raises another question. If the Sytis destroy this place, even if we get away, we’ll still be stuck here!”
“Nai knows that too.”
“I wouldn’t bet on him.”
“I would.”
“Tch. You’ve gone soft. I never should have hired you.”
“I was the one that hired you!”
“That’s what you think!”
Grey Fox yelled from across the bay. “And keep your mouths shut! I can’t think over your bickering!”
The two reluctantly shut their traps.

~~~

When the gunship came into range of the leading missile, Lenny shut his eyes. There was a shot, and explosion, and the sound of tiny bits of metal hitting the hull. When a much larger chunk hit the hull, he screamed. Leo reached over and gave him a quick push. “Lenny! Get your head in the game, I need a report on our hull.”
Leo turned sharply and yelled back. “Rico!”
“On it!”
Rico strafed the oncoming salvo with the rear cannon, lighting up space with a series of explosions. “Woooo!”
Lenny pulled his display down and ducked to see it, blocking his view of space. “Um… Uh… Minimal damage! System checks are coming back green…”
Leo made another sharp turn, sending a burst from the main cannon into a missile that was speeding ahead of the others. “Are you sure!? I think something’s happened to one of the port thrusters, it’s a bit sticky!”
“Um… Shit, yeah… Uh, Leo?!”
“What?!”
“BANK RIGHT!”
Leo didn’t react in time. The port thruster began firing uncontrollably, sending them into a spin. Lucky for Lenny and Leo, the cockpit was semi-free-floating inside the gunship, and quickly set itself not to spin with the rest of the ship. Rico, however, was treated to a death-defying ride. “Stop this thing!” he yelled.
Lenny was given a slew of prompts. “Drones?! Would drones help?!”
“Yes! Deploy them! Hurry!”
A missile was coming right at them. Leo tried to fire the main cannon, but it was offline as well. The drones spun off the ship, extending a multitude of tools from their metal casings. They approached the ship and attached to it near the thruster, getting to work without pause. Lenny watched as the thruster went green. “Okay! Try now!”
Leo reversed the thruster and stopped the spin. Too late. The missile collided with the hull, bouncing off and detonating a split second later. This delayed fuse was probably the only reason why the ship wasn’t pulverized. It did knock them into another spin. Leo straightened them out again. “Lenny?!”
Lenny was leaning into the back seat, which had just been aligned with the main cockpit. Rico was vomiting onto the floor. Lenny was trying to comfort him, but Leo grabbed him and pulled him forward. “Head in the game!”
“S-sorry! Er… We’re de-channeled!”
Rico called forward. “What the hell does that mean?!”
“It would take too long to explain.”
“Wait, it’s charging, er… Channeling again… Other than that, we’re mostly green…”
Leo gripped the sticks and backed them off a bit. “Rico, get yourself up.”
“Aye… ugh…”
He cracked his neck and accelerated towards the onslaught of missiles. “Let’s try that again.”

The three watched as Vaà concentrated hard. The bubbles were forming into a much larger bubble. It was now large enough to fit one Atriean, and growing fast. The flashes from the exploding missiles started again, and Leph turned. “Damn…”
Zach bit his lip as he watched another group of missiles explode. “Damn impressive… How much time do you think we have?”
Serleah smacked him lightly, though their oxygen bubbles actually prevented the blow from connecting. “Don’t talk like that! You’re forgetting who’s up there!”
“I know who’s up there, Serleah.”

Rico was lined up for another strafing run. When he pulled the trigger, however, there was nothing but a click. “Uh… Shit! I think it’s jammed!”
Lenny looked back. “It’s not supposed to jam!”
“Well it’s not shooting!”
Lenny leaned back and checked the screen that Rico hadn’t even noticed. “It’s empty!”
“Empty?!”
“What, you expected it to fire forever!?”
“I guess!”
Leo gritted his teeth and accelerated. “We’re burning up most of our fuel, too… but we can’t- Shit!”
One of the missiles was careening out of control. It would have collided with them, but the ship unexpectedly jerked away. A Sytis ship flew in front of the cockpit and fired some sort of florescent gooey liquid from its front. The missiles it touched stopped flying. Rico cheered. “Just in time!”
Instead of attacking the rest of the missiles, the ship flew away, taking the gunship with it. Leo tried to break away. “Hey! Dammit!”
They outran the missiles, but Leo was getting angrier. “How the hell are we going to protect the others now!”
Lenny grabbed Leo’s paws. “Stop! We’re nearly out of… everything. We wouldn’t survive another minute!”
Rico groaned. “I’m still dizzy…”
Leo threw the stick down. “Fine…”
“You did a good job.”
“You did too, my friend.”
Leo and Lenny looked out at the missiles.

Leph watched the gunship and the other sphere ship fly in close. Debris from the missiles were already hitting them. He floated over to Vaà. “Are you almost done?”
“Yes. Please wait another moment.”
There was a small ripple in the atmosphere. Vaà opened his eyes. “We must leave.”
Leph beckoned the others over and they quickly piled into the newly formed ship. From the gunship, Leo, Lenny and Rico were staring wide eyed at the ship that had seemingly come out of nowhere. Lenny collapsed. “What luck…”
Leo laughed. “I don’t understand it, but I’m glad… Whoa!”
The ship lurched as both sphere ships began flying away, the missiles disappearing behind them.
Rico looked away, holding his stomach. “Ooh… I need a- AHH!”
Another object, constructed similarly to the missiles, was careening towards them. “L-L-Leo?!”
The other two turned. The object veered away from them, flying parallel to them. To the three’s surprise, the gunship’s radio blared to life. “Is it this one?! Oh! Ah! Don’t shoot! I’m a prisoner! I escaped! Help!”
“Lenny! Answer before he has a panic attack!”
“Er… This is Lenny.”
Leo leaned over. “Identify yourself.”
“Nai Mosin! I’m a weapons developer… I got dragged into this universe too! I have some very important information!”
Leo looked at Lenny. He shrugged. “I don’t know how to hail the Sytis’ ship. Um, just hold your course!”
The two sphere ships slowed down, coming to either side of the shuttle. Rico scratched his head. “I think they know by now.”

~~~

God sat on his throne, waiting for a new Rhetorician to arrive. He tossed small objects around the room with his mind, listening to them squeak as they hit the walls. Finally, a Rhetorician stepped out of a receptacle on the wall. He shook fluids from himself. “Ahem. God?”
“What of the Sytis?!”
“They have escaped.”
He slammed his claws down. “RRRAAAGH! My inventions have failed! Or perhaps it is the fault of those four meddling-”
“God, about that…”
One of the objects God had been playing with began to crawl away, and he pulverized it into a wet slushy mess. The Rhetorician flinched, but continued with his report. “During the fight, one of the guests stole a shuttle and fled. They escaped with the Sytis.”
“Why?! HAVE I NOT BEEN HOSPITABLE?! Have the other three tortured.”
“God, I don’t think the escapee planned this with the other three. They seemed constantly at odds with him, and he escaped without speaking to them.”
“Fine! Just get him back so I can look at his neurons up close! No one leaves my ship without my say so. LEAVE!”
The Rhetorician bowed and walked for the door, stepping over the stain of God’s plaything. It was still writhing, trying to make its way to the door.