The moment the ramp is lowered, the Red Baron’s crew rushes forward from the adjustable bridge. Three of the pirates come through, armed and built nearly as big as my younger siblings. I barely get a glimpse of them before a smoke grenade goes off. The room erupts in obscured chaos, shouts and laser-fire seeming to come from every direction at once. Momma’s pulse rifle fires off steady bursts amid the fray. Drom tosses a grav-grenade that throws two of the pirates screaming and flailing into the air, and Pol forces the third back with a steady stream of laser-fire. But more soon rush forward to aid their fallen comrades and renew the assault.

I move forward along the wall of the bridge, avoiding the thick of the fighting. Lyre is gone from my side already, having disappeared into the smoke when I wasn’t paying attention. Or maybe I was the one to leave her behind. No telling now—I need to keep going. I toss my smoke grenade ahead of me as the first begins to dissipate.

I nearly fall on my face as I transition from my own ship to the Red Baron, the few-inch drop onto the other deck catching me by surprise. Thankfully, the laser-fire and shouting from the nearby fight drown out the sound. Our one advantage here is that the Baron’s crew won’t expect us to rush forward onto their ship, and if I give us away, we’ll lose that.

Eventually, the footsteps fade and the smoke clears, leaving me in an empty hallway. This ship is huge, and I’m not familiar with its corridors, but I assume the breaker room will be somewhere on the lower deck.

As I jog through the hallways looking for a way down, I try to push away my concerns for both Lyre and the twins and focus on my own job. I have enough to worry about myself. My path should take me down to the heart of this very big ship. If all goes well, I’ll be able to cut the lights and give my family—prepared with their goggles—the upper hand in the fight… but that assumes I can figure out how to manage it, and that I don’t get killed along the way. I’m not much of a fighter. The idea of killing has always made me squeamish, and thus far I’ve managed to avoid it. But unfortunately, that makes me a liability for my family in fights like these. Usually the best thing I can do is stay out of the way.