In deep space, the Trixian Royal shuttle was travelling to latest system in its search for a new world that the wayward race of women could claim and refound their Hegemony. However even at the speed they were travelling, the crew found themselves stuck on the ship for a couple of weeks. Now the Royal Shuttle was not without it luxuries and there were definitely worse ships to be stuck on, but nothing...absolutely nothing...could substitute for feeling the grass on a new world in between your toes. Or breathing in clean air.

It was these thoughts that was passing through her highness's head right now, even as she lay there in bed bored. Her handmaidens were up in the cockpit doing whatever it was they needed to do to ensure that the shuttle continued on its mission. She lay there in her white dress that was held up with spaghetti strings. It was a very comfortable dress once she wore often when she didn't expect to perform any official duties. The dress was complimented with a blue bow on front and one in her hair. She was experimenting with some exotic pearls in her hair, as well as matching earrings and a a necklace to see how they looked. Still that could only entertain her for so long...

Little did the princess or her handmaidens knew that her ship was currently being tracked...

"A princess? A few days ago, the syrictae mercenary was called by a shady politician for what he thought would be another typical mission of capturing slave girls. His mask showed no emotion, but he felt uncomfortable being in his house knowing all the wrong things his client did. It wasn't expected for a mercenary to have much decency, but Rahs still had the honor of a soldier and knew his client was almost the opposite of the leaders back in his planet. He was not one to complain, he knew that, and remained silent for he also understood the needs and desires of the aliens like Viro Plico after working for them for so long.

When he was called, it was because they wanted a very exotic female. Any other kind could be easily bought by someone in his status. But Rahs was surprised to hear that his new target was the princess of an almost extinct race, one that was very exotic itself. He had never heard of them, and searched about them as he looked for them. The mercenary had to ask around in the planets the princess had gone until finally he got a lead on where she was. His ship had remained stealthy as he followed them, but after making sure the descriptions of the ship he was told about matched the one he had in front, he let himself known to them, appearing just on the edge of their radar.

It was Enru that first noticed that their ship was not the only one in the system. The blonde immediately announced, "An, we have company. There is some sort of fighter following us. I don't know how long its been behind us, but I didn't notice it until now." The shorter handmaiden immediately responded, "Put some distance between us and that fighter. I will let the princess know. If the fighter starts being more aggressive, lose it." The taller handmaiden nodded as she added more thrust to make the royal shuttle accelerated.

The brown haired handmaiden made her way, her highness's chambers. "My lady, our shuttle is being followed and I don't think they have the best of attentions. They have yet to communicate with us, so Enru is trying to lose them."

Octavia ears perked up. You think they are a threat? An always erred on the side of caution, expecting the worse of any alien the Trixians came across. Still the concern was a bit higher than normal, something that made the princess pause a moment. Right well then carry on. Though please inform me if there is any communications with the craft. An nodded and bowed as she left to return to the cockpit.

It seemed obvious that they were not all that paranoid, for they didn't start any maneuvers when Rahs showed himself. He didn't take long to match the speed of the royal shuttle. It was a modest way to tell him that they wished to be alone, but the mercenary had no intentions to do so. Only a few seconds after matching their speed, Rahs accelerated quickly, starting to close the distance between them. He maintained a very straight line for now, and even though he didn't want to cause that much damage to the princess's ship, he was ready to use any weapons necessary to bring it to a stop without killing them. Hopefully, his ship would come close enough to hijack it, but considering that they changed their speed swiftly, they would catch on quickly.

Enru watched as the fighter suddenly accelerated towards the shuttle. Immediately the handmaiden began to accelerate the shuttle and the blonde began to prepare to find somewhere to elude the nimble fighter that was pursuing them. "The unknown fighter is closing," announced Enru over the loudspeaker. "I am trying to lose it but its pretty fast." An immediately began running back to the cockpit, so she could help defend the shuttle. The shuttle did not have very many weapons, but hopefully they would be enough to discourage the fighter if they had to use them.

As he expected, Rahs noticed the shuttle accelerated but not quite enough to lose him. He had started to get in close slowly, but surely. He would soon be close enough to activate the tractor beam so the tunnel on the underside of his ship could attach to any emergency entrance on the hull of the royal shuttle. The syrictae wasn't quite there, however, but he hoped to reach them faster than they could initiate any evasive or even counter maneuvers.

The fighter continued to get closer, the shuttle simply could not get away. Still there was something the handmaidens could do about discouraging the fighter. The blonde immediately began to make evasive maneuvers to try to avoid the fighter that was chasing them. Meanwhile, An began to point the shuttle's only turret towards the fighter hoping to scare off the nimble fighter.

His bright blue eyes narrowed a little with a faint smile behind the mask. They were going to resist after all. The mercenary's fighter followed the shuttle's maneuvers, staying behind it closely. Rahs could see the turret on the hull activating as it began to move and seek him. With quick flickering of his fingers on the controls, he readied special missiles designed for exploding abruptly on contact to damage more area, rather than penetrating the hull. They were convenient when pilots only wanted to incapacitate the enemy rather than destroying it completely. In this fashion, two missiles were launched quickly from Rahs's Skybreaker. One went for the turret and the other for the shuttle's engines as he put a little space between the two ships.

Enru did her best to try to shake the fighter of the shuttle's tail, but the alien fighter was much nimbler than the royal shuttle. "I can get him off our tail." It was then that a pair of missiles was launched off towards the royal shuttle. An quickly moved the turret into position, and began to fire. The brown haired handmaiden knew she would only be able to stop to one of the missiles and immediately turned her turret to shoot down the missile heading for the engines. She was quickly rewarded with a huge explosion even as the camera on her turret went out, signifying the hit from the remaining missile. Now the poor shuttle was defenseless.

Rahs watched and chuckled upon seeing the shuttle's desperate actions. The crew seemed at least fairly prepared for the turret had indeed quickly aimed correctly and shot down the missile going for the engines, but wasn't quick enough for the one headed towards it. The mercenary would've suggested doing otherwise against the attack, though it would have been contradictory. It had worked better for him, but his blood had never been disappointed with a fight. Unfortunately for them, they were now defenseless and while they still tried to flee, it didn't take another second for Rahs to shoot another pair of missiles directly at the missiles, pretending to stop their retreat quickly before closing in for intruding.

An reflexively ducked as the missile appeared in her view screen and headed right towards her. Fortunately for the brown haired woman was looking at a view of a camera attached to remotely operated camera. So when the missile hit the turret and destroyed it and the camera attached to it. The woman let out a gasp as she realized that were now defenseless against the fighter's attacks.

A second pair of missiles streaked towards the royal shuttle. "This is going to be rough." says Enru. "Please forgive me, your highness," the blonde handmaiden said even though she knew the pink haired princess knew she would be unable to hear her. Enru quickly began to violently move the shuttle back and forth, hoping beyong hope that it would be enough to evade the deadly missiles.

The royal shuttle's now erratic maneuvers provided little assistance to avoiding the missiles, one of them failing to make a sharp dive while homing towards the engines and impacting the hull, while the other one hit clearly its mark. Rahs sighed as another pair was shot, this time one after the other locked on the damaged engines. Though capable of moving, the shuttle's speed decreased dramatically and this time avoiding the missiles would be much harder. The mercenary would keep hunting the princess' ship until the engines proved insufficient to keep course, if they had kept it after their evasions.

In the radar, they would only see the ship approaching slowly until it stopped above them. A hatch in the underside of Rahs' modified fighter allowed to connect with emergency exits, airlocks and main doors, designed obviously to hijack and force an entry if desired. A small exit on top of the shuttle was enough for the fighter to start connecting the ships, adjusting the pressure of the two airlocks and forcing the hatch open. Meanwhile, Rahs had already moved away from the pilot's cabin and proceeded with his armor on, waiting for the hatches to open.

The shuttle shook violently as the missile slammed into the hull, but somehow the ship's hull managed to remain intact. The other however was dead on and slammed into the engines. The shuttle lurched a bit to as the shuttle suddenly lost a lot of its thrust. As Enru struggled to keep control of the shuttle, when suddenly two more missiles slam into the remaining engines. The royal shuttle soon was completely off course as it began to drift helplessly through the solar system.

Soon the enemy fighter approached until it was directly above the royal shuttle. Immediately An and Enru left there stations as they grabbed their polearms to defend their shuttle. The two quickly headed to the middle of the shuttle as it became clear that whoever was on that fighter, they were attempting to make there way into her highness craft. The two took defensive position nearby as they prepare to repel any attackers who attempted to board.

Some moments and few noises of the machinery later, the hatches opened, connecting the fighter and the royal shuttle and allowing Rahs to move between them. But, he wasn't one to go recklessly after attacking the ship he was hijacking. An and Enru would only find themselves looking for someone to enter, but from the opened ceiling only a bomb fell, exploding on contact and releasing a large mass of smoke that besides hindering their sight, would affect the respiratory system, causing them to cough and have difficulties breathing deeply.

A couple of seconds later, the sound of metal against metal came as Rahs landed in the shuttle, his mask protecting him from the smoke and his natural heat-seeking eyesight allowing him to spot the two females. He moved slowly with a staff in his hands until he got near them. He swung it around before hitting An against the wall with it, then hitting Enru on her legs, parting them wide, leaving her completely stretched against the cold floor before he threw her along the floor to the other side of the hatch, out of the cloud of smoke.

An and Enru had moved to defend the shuttle when a bomb was dropped between the two. The two barely had time to react before the bomb went off. In a few seconds the two handmaidens began coughing as they struggled to breathe in the heavy cover of smoke. The two could not see each other much less the attacker who was now boarding the ship. The only thing that let the handmaidens know they were not alone was the sound of metal against metal.

Each pointed their pistols at the where the metal sound had come from, but they did not fire for fear of hitting each other. Before An knew what was going on she was hit in the midsection by a staff that threw into the wall nearby. The poor brown haired woman slid down as she struggle to breathe after such a hit. The blonde saw a bit of flash from the staff that had taken out An, and threw her arms up to protect herself from a similar hit, however Enru was swept of her legs. The poor handmaiden landed on her back with her legs wide open. Before the blonde could move she was thrown on the other side of the hatch. The young woman struggled to get her feet before whoever could make a second attack.