"Give her here." Rex said to Bethany, of Yorna. "I can carry her."

  "I'd rather walk."

  "Noted. Don't care," Sheena said. "Scoop her ass up Rex, we gotta go!"

  "Sorry miss," Rex apologized, before he scooped Yorna up into a princess carry.

  The whole crew rushed aboard the ship. Bethany retrieved the dropped S-Meat Rations that had fallen to the ground from Rex's unsealed bag in the rush. They almost left some of it behind, but she wasn't going to let that happen.

  As they ran up the cargo ramp into the back of the ship, they looked up at the sounds they heard above and saw their new friends in the Frexard opening fire on the pirate ships above.

  Those pirates truly did not see it coming. Probably because it was such tactically wild thing to do. Shooting from below, within warp-bubble ruining distance of a gravity well, and stuck in heavy atmosphere to boot. That meant that shields would be barely operable even in the best maintained ship. The Frexard was not exactly a well-maintained ship, and therefore could not establish shields in atmosphere this thick.

  "How curious..." The Nuphidri said, her middle eye on her sensor readout. "I thought they were going to talk to stall, but they're just shooting. Bold move." With one hand she set Bob on the console that controlled the Revivification tank, and with the other she stripped the backpack off Sheena so she could race up to the bridge to fly.

  Lucas helped The Nuphidri out of her pack, and then stripped off his own before dashing to the bridge as well.

  "Thanks for the help." Bethany said, as she took off her own pack and made her way up to the bridge as well.

  "You ever been in a doc-tank before?" Rex asked Yorna as he set her down next to the tank.

  "No?" She wasn't even sure what that was.

  "Everyone hold on to your butts, we're about to launch," Sheena said over the intercom. Vines and roots had already reached over and wrapped around the landing struts sunk into the surface. They held the ship from launching for only a moment. "Aaand the planet is holding onto us. One second... Brace! Brace! Brace!"

  The whole ship lurched and jerked as all their new plant friends Let Go at once.

  The grav plates did good work, there was only a moderate sway inside the ship, despite them accelerating at nearly 20g.

  Rex triggered his mag boots and leaned into the sway. Yorna 'fell' against him for a moment to stay standing, and he caught Bob as his skull rolled off the console. When the sway ended, Rex put Bob back on the console he'd fallen from.

  "Thank you my good man!"

  "No sweat, Bob!" Rex turned back to Yorna, "This is a doc-tank, it uses that goo to make your boo-boo no boo-boo no mo."

  "What?"

  "It'll properly fix the hole in your leg." Bob translated, "And a whole lot more if you have any other issues or problems. Lemme guess, you nimrods have only figured out how to run it in idle mode?"

  "Not sure," Rex said. "Maybe? Is nimrod a good thing, or are you being mean?"

  "Mean." Bob said, rolling his eye-lights. It was no fun having a battle of wits with an unarmed opponent. "Sorry Rex, you're a good, dense egg. I'll adjust my expectations."

  "Thanks Bob." Rex smiled, happy to be called good. He grabbed the breathing mask from the hook it hung on and turned to start putting it on Yorna.

  "Whoa, what is that?"

  "Air mask. Technically don't need this, 'cause you can breath that goo and be fine, but... I wouldn't. It's pretty horrible coughing it all out afterward."

  "Oh. So I want this, yes?" She asked. He nodded. It was all happening so fast, and Rex did seem a good egg, she'd take his advice. She nodded back, "Okay, go head."

  He fit the full-face breathing mask over her head, the long straps dangling off the back and told her. "Big breath in, hard breath out."

  She did so and the mask automagically adjusted the fit and sealed to her face. Clean, fresh air flowed freely into the mask from the life support system strapped to the inside of the tank.

  "Sorry again," Rex said as he picked her back up and walked her up the stairs they'd built wrapping one side of the tank. He kicked the latch and the top popped opened. "In you go."

  Rex wasn't trying to be rude, he was just Rex, in a hurry. He tossed her in and slammed the lid shut like she was any other crew member with a hole in 'em. She went in with the dragons in her dress and everything. For a moment she thought he was trying to drown her, but the mask and his calm reassuring smile along with a thumbs up as he walked down the steps outside helped her realize he was not trying to be a dick. He was just being Rex; a good - albeit dumb - egg.

  Then she realized the dragons were in there with her and freaked out for about half a second before remembering they were the same kind of dragon as Flux; the breathing optional kind. They wriggled out of her sleeves and enjoyed a little swim while her leg started repairs. When they realized there was magic being done to her, they became extremely fascinated and swam down to watch her leg hole come back together. Even in the days of the highest of high magic, it took a little time to properly heal a whole ass hole in the leg.

  If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

  Rex did the same as the rest of the crew, stripped his pack off and headed straight to the bridge, still in his exosuit. Only he snagged a single S-Meat ration and pocketed it as he went. Whatever happened. If they got shot out of the sky, and he landed on the planet again below in only his suit, at least he'd still have an S-Meat ration.

  Before we follow the rest of the crew to the bridge... Let's cover what Bob did. Oh... Bob.

  Bob looked up and down the Revivification tank. He pinged it with close range detection magic. It was surprisingly well maintained for a thirteen thousand year old relic. The fluid within was simple ectoplasm. Both the ectoplasm, and the bodies inside regenerated dreadfully slowly when in idle mode like it was.

  Bob decided he had been a little harsh; the tank was missing its magimind (brain/computer), and was therefor stuck in idle mode. He could make himself work as a substitute, in a pinch, but he preferred not to if he didn't have to.

  Bob's maker was Darsun. His brother Andurian, responsible for the accursed codpiece, built this miracle machine. The ultimate automagical doctor, made by the ultimate wizard doctor. If you put a brain, fully detached from a body, but still alive - I won't ask how you got it that way - would take only a month to regenerate a whole new body. Does pretty much any ol type of alien too. Quite the device.

  Well after scanning it over and determining that a simple magimind was all it needed, Bob sent out a longer range detection ping of magic. To take make sure they were getting away from danger... but it seemed they were not.

  "Gods and Devils, Star and Stones, FINE!" He hooked himself into the tank.

  "Yorna," Bob spoke into her mind. "If I unkink your magic whatsits right now with this here fantastical whoosit, are you gonna flip out and kill everyone, or only kill the badguys?"

  "If by badguys you mean the pirate slavers. Then yes, I will crush them."

  "And the guys trapped in collars?"

  "I will try to spare them, if I can..."

  ___

  Meanwhile, on the bridge.

  "Scanning," The Nuphidri said from the scanning station. "Looks like they really caught them by surprise. The destroyer's warp engine is crippled. Shields are still down. They are shooting though and their escorts are engaging the Frexard."

  "The sooner we leave the sooner the Frexard can leave." Bethany said, sorta assuming command, because she sat in the captains chair. "Lucas get us a warp vector any vector and as soon as we get the altitude for it, punch it Sheena."

  "Does it morally complicate things for it us if the Frexard will not be able to make a warp jump? They just lost a ventral thruster control cluster. Assuming they continue taking fire they will longer capable of gaining altitude fast enough to escape. I put their chances at less than 5%."

  "I assume that means you have a plan?" Lucas asked.

  "We be their thruster," Sheena said, turning the Chrysaora toward the Frexard. "Put the bell of the ship against where the cluster went out, and push."

  "Correct."

  "All while not getting shot by their escort gunships." Lucas said, this did not help Sheena concentrate.

  "Bethany be a dear, please channel your shield spell through the ship's shield generator." The Nuphidri said, "We will require every ounce of defense we can get."

  "I can stop maybe one shot, but it'll knock me right out. Yeah, sure... better than dying awake." She strapped herself in to the captain's seat and started to concentrate on extending her shield spell to wrap the entire ship.

  "I got Yorna in the tank for her leg." Rex had been on the bridge for a moment, silently waiting for a moment to say something.

  "Thanks Rex." The Nuphidri said. "Please monitor the engine flows."

  It was the simplest task on the bridge, and it did not generally really need doing.

  The enemy escort ships circled around up toward the top side of the Frexard as the Chrysaora approached. They were using the Frexard for cover. These particular pirates were not yet aware of their lack of offensive combat power.

  "Frexard, you guys want a little kiss, maybe some slap and tickle to help you get it up over there?" Lucas hailed them, ever the professional on comms.

  "Oh sure," The new captain of the Frexard said, "I heard certain kinds of jellyfish stings help with that. Ha ha! Any thing you can muster, we'd surely appreciate."

  Sheena managed a relatively gentle collision with the underside of the Frexard, and together, they sort of became one ship for a little bit. Together, the Frexasoara started to rise from the atmosphere.

  As they gained altitude, the assault from above continued, but the Frexard up top could take a beating. The pirates had reinforced her with thick armor. Maybe part of why she was struggling to break atmosphere.

  The gunners on the Frexard managed to disable one of the escort gunships with the turbo cannons on the topside. It careened down toward the planet below and exploded when it hit the ground.

  The other gunship destroyed that turbo cannon and looped around underneath; they seemed to have realized the Emergency Thruster had no way to defend itself.

  "You ready for that nap yet Beth?" The Nuphidri asked.

  "AHHHH YES!" Bethany shouted, pushing with her will and magic to channel a pulse of power through the shield generators. The outer, ablative shield was attached to her personal magic. If she were a much more powerful wizard, they could be nigh invincible in such a small craft.

  The gunship missed its first two shots from the triple shot burst. The first shot just missed everything, the second hit the Frexard above them and the third shot hit the Chrysaora. The outermost shield shell fell away, and Bethany was unconscious, strapped in her seat.

  "The actual ship's shields will take only a few of those hits while we're still down this low." The Nuphidri said.

  The Frexard's ventral defense guns fired at the gunship, but it was faster than the turret could slew, so mostly they were just blasting jungle down below. The gunship's aft guns fired again, into the Frexard's belly.

  The whole battle pushed higher, into thinner and thinner atmosphere. The gunship orbited taking pot shots at the remaining weapons systems as it strafed over the top of the larger ship. The destroyer above had reoriented and was ready to open its battery of weapons up on the Frexard.

  But the Frexard was finally high enough to engage her shields, not high enough to warp away, but it was something. The blue-green shimmer snapped into place only after the first round from the destroyer above had already exploded into the armor. The shields absorbed the rest of the first volley, and could have probably soaked another two or three if they were all the way out of the atmosphere. But such as it was, they'd overheated the shield generators and would need some time to flux the heat out.

  "The Frexard's shields are back down. That destroyer is charging up for another volley." The Nuphidri reported. "Twenty kilometers up to warp-altitude!"

  The gunship came back around to the under side of the Frexasoara and started working on removing the upward thrust again. A full barrage from the main gun's triple burst slammed the ship.

  "Shields at 52%"

  The gunship stayed low took its time to aim, and sent another volley upward. Their patience paid off.

  "Shields at 4%"

  "One more volley and we're dead"

  "Twelve kilometers up to warp altitude."

  "They're charging to fire again!"

  "I love you guys."

  The door to the bridge hissed opened, and an angry, goo-covered woman, with a skull in her hand, a green dragonling in her hair, a black one wrapped about her wounded leg, staggered onto the bridge.