Meanwhile, a long way away...
Chora Luna. A manmade asteroid, four kilometres in diameter, it orbited Saturn at a distance of two million kilometres. Chora Luna was one of the few outposts of space civilisation. It was set up as a trading post and minerals warehouse, storing all the valuable materials mined from Saturn's moons.
If this wasn't enough to make Chora Luna unique, it wasn't run by an ex-con or some strutting space pirate. Chora Luna represented the first foray into space by a major earth corporation. And amazingly, it wasn't doing too bad. There was much speculation about who ran the place - in the cutthroat world of outer space, it'd have to be someone tough as nails, able to kill without compunction when the time came.
Not far off, a squadron of pirate fighters was converging on it to attack.
Squadron Leader Marko Bent cracked his knuckles and sat back in the pilot's chair. Around him flew a fleet of twenty fighters, all flown by Upchuck's best men. Acknowledgements of position crackled over the radio. "Red rear locked and ready" "Blue point locked and ready." "Green attack locked and ready."
It was all done. Marko stared at the shining orb of Chora Luna, now filling nearly half his viewscreen. In a minute they would be detected. Marko smiled. In ten years of operation, not one pirate had dared to attack Chora Luna. Its formidable defenses had warned off even the most suicidal of wayfarers.
Marko wasn't worried. They had a perfect attack plan.
He spoke into the radio. "Interception in twenty seconds. Break off on count of three. One - two - three."
The sphere of fighters around him expanded, as they suddenly sped forward. Marko hung back, dawdling somewhat. He had a special role in the operation.
The radio suddenly crackled to life. "You are in unauthorized territory," snapped a computer generated voice. "Identify yourselves immediately." Without waiting for a response, the Chora Luna defense systems kicked into life. A spray of laser bolts were flung out in all directions. Upchuck's fighters dodged around, shooting at the surface of Chora Luna. Energy beams radiated out from the metal surface, buffeting Marko's slowly moving craft. He bumped up the frontal shields.
Vents opened in the Chora Luna surface, and a squadron of six fighters flew out. Marko whistled. Twenty seconds and already they had a few craft out and fighting. The whispers about a formidable defense system had not been exaggerated.
But this was what he'd been waiting for. Marko flipped on his cloaking device, and kicked up the speed. With the cloaking device enabled, he was nearly invisible, but couldn't fire anything. This should not be a problem.
Marko's tiny craft accelerated. All around him flew screeching hulks of metal, as Upchuck's fighters met the Chora Luna fighters. Marko paid the battle little attention. After all, it was just a decoy.
Marko had his eyes firmly fixed on the nearest vent. It was still open - maybe they intended to send more fighters out. His craft now little more than a blur, Marko sped toward it.
The metal surface of Chora Luna flew at him, like a plate falling from the sky. With a tiny jink left, Marko pulled the craft into the vent.
The vent was low and sheer, a rectangular passage of metal. It banked left and right, with twisting turns meant to be navigated by slow-moving craft that had barely taken off. But Marko took the turns perfectly, hunched over the controls, all concentration.
The vent widened into a fighter hangar. Four craft were out on the hangar floor, and pilots walked toward them with helmets in hand. They didn't even have time to lift their heads in amazement as Marko zoomed overhead, to a passage at the rear of the hangar.
The passage dived. Wider than the fighter vent, this was meant to be navigated by freighters, carrying ore from the centre of the asteroid out to the transport bays. Marko knew; he'd studied the maps. Other passages branched off from this one, and Marko periodically made turns left and right.
He was getting close. Not to the main ore storage area, but then that wasn't his goal. The informer who had come to see him two weeks ago had told him of a far more valuable prize. One that would be undefended.
A flash of blue made Marko bring his fighter to a total halt. Yes, there it was, a large blue door on his left. He was here.