Cole wouldn’t say he was having the time of his life, getting to master and understand the controls of his brand new ship was such a therapeutic existence that for the first time since he started playing this event he had a genuine smile on his face. There was just something to be said about being able to freely sail the sea of stars, it was an amazing experience and the solitude had not be felt in a negative manner.

The truth was at the moment Cole was grieving, and while he would have happily just continued on without or even gave up on the event all together when he was told of his brothers dying. He should be spending every waking moment he possibly could with his family, because right now they could only go brought this rough patch together, as a family. And then it went and turned out that the final event of Titan Rising Online had even more stakes than what one would expect from a simple game. There were real world consequences that had to do with not just his family but the entire human race, and while that did put a bit of pressure on Cole, it was not to the point of giving enough fucks to start a righteous crusade.

At the moment for the first time in a long time, Cole was going to be a bit selfish and a team player at the same time. Except of course the only team he would be playing for would be his family, they were who he really wanted to protect, they above anyone else were what mattered to him. The idea of freedom and being willing to chase your dreams and live your life were overrated, such bullshit only existed in stupid romance novels that could never understand the reality of life and living as it is now.

Cole was not a puppet, and he was definitely not some fool who will jump when he’s told to jump or slide when he’s told to slide. What he was and is trying to be, is a shield for his family. Because at this point he no longer thought his life or living it for himself was a thing of value, he had tried that before… and all it did was leave him with a broken heart.

[Master Our Nav Systems Just picked Up three points on Interest. 1 is that there is an extensive asteroid field between you and the Donut Star, three Gunships are currently following behind us, but they are cloaked, and a contingent of what I believe is a Nijat Squadron has just dropped out of warp space given their current rate of advancement of say both groups will reach you in 10 minutes, the asteroid field will come up in 15, Sir.]

“Of course it won’t be that easy, they’d never let it be that easy.” Cole had a mocking scoff as he increased the Ship’s traveling speed. If he was being hunted by a squadron of Nijat aliens and if Gunships are involve then also pirates! He’d much rather be in that asteroid field. While flying through it would be a bit of a problem he knew he could at least coast by with the [Aeronaut] skill, the same could not be said for his pursuers.

Both sides showed up in just under 6 minutes. Cole had increased their traveling speed and both groups who somehow had a way to track Cole had sped up to intercept him before he could cross into the Asteroid field. The first to make contact were the trio Gunships. Cole almost successfully ignored the bailing request, but perhaps keeping them talking would buy him some time to come up with a plan.

“This is the Crimson Serpents pirate group, prepare to be boarded Mr. No-1 on the rankings, if you so much as twitch punk we will blow you and your pretty bird out of the sky!” Cole raised an eyebrow at that, then he replied with as dull a time as he could possibly managed as he found the entire event a little too dull.

“You do know we are in space right?…. there are no clouds here dimwit. And why in the hell will I let someone incapable of using proper terms onto my ship? If you have the capabilities to board The Morgan then please be my guest. But until then kindly fuck off as I have another floor to get to, or else it will be I who will hunt you and blow you out of your so called ‘sky’ you feel me?” Cole replied as he quickly jerked his ship to the right, the sudden motion almost throwing him off his pilot’s chair.

A bevy of laser shots flew over the right side of his ship as he tucked into a sideways roll, and then surged forwards, the pirates shocked but he turn of events as the Nijat aliens appeared and unceremoniously opened fire on everybody in sight. The Aliens themselves had 5 gunships and almost twenty skimmer class ships spread amongst it. Obviously they had come prepared and with all of their might…..Cole had stepped on quite too many toes, and it seems the consequences were catching up to him.

“hey! What the fuck man! Who are these people shooting at us! Tell them to stop you dickless freak!” Cole folded his eyebrows ignoring the screams coming from the other side of the intercom. A Nijat gunship was coming at him from the right with five skimmers in tow, he drove right into the asteroid field, putting an asteroid three times the size of his ship between himself and them. However instead flying forwards, he made a turn, the body of his ship barely skimming the top of the asteroid as he made a U-turn and opened fired immediately the skimmers and the Gunship and into view. .𝘤𝘰𝑚

He wasn’t really aiming to cause any sort of significant damage, he was just testing their defenses and giving what he has seen so far from the Nijat aliens, they were slow and glass cannons. And being slow was not in the sense of movement but rather intellect. They weren’t dumb per say, but it took them way too much time to react to attacks and come up with a counter attack. And because of these weakness, they were big proponents of swarm tactics.

But Cole was like a bullet, or perhaps you could also say he was like a flame thrower, the moment he’s in their midst it would be causing a significant amount of destruction that no one would be able to deal with or handle. But be that as it may the Gunships had better defenses and Cole did not have the firepower to break through their shields, at least not immediately. But the skimmers on the other hand were a different story entirely.

Two of them burst into flames as soon the guns on the Morgan perforated the hull of the ships. One had it’s engine knocked out and was right in the path of the one behind it. There was collision that lit up the darkness of space, as the sound of metal crumpling into metal spread across the void. Cole flew up, almost as if he was having his ship perform a back flip. He twisted the ship and righted it’s course before speeding into the asteroid field, lasers and bullets flying every which way as they tried to rip into him.

“Morgan what’s the ship’s statistics at?” Cole asked as he moved left and then right dodging a couple of asteroids that were in his path. He twisted the ship as he went in between a narrow gap created by two massive asteroids. The ship was sleek enough that he slipped past with not even a single scratch on the ship’s body.

*Boom!*

[That would be Three skimmers and one Gunships having a collision course with a rock….perhaps we should send a message and tell them to be careful, most asteroids have deposits of deuterium in them, it can be really hard to get through without some industrial grade mining laser.]

“Oh sure Morgan, LETS WARN THE FUCKERS THAT ARE TRYING KILL US HOW TO NOT GET THEMSELVES KILLED!”

[Ahh well when you put it that way it does sound a little stupid. Perhaps we should tell them to instead run into the asteroids.]

“Sure ahead maybe they will listen to you.”

Cole shook his head with a rueful smile, Morgan was designed like this for him, and while the Virtual Assistant now Artificial intelligence was no Jarvis. He was efficient in the way he took care of things both domestic and now inside the game. It still remains to be seen how Morgan would perform within Titan Rising Online. Either way they were off to a good start, maybe he won’t be as solitary as he thought he’d be.

And even if solitude is the only way to get things done, he would still make sure he’s the scariest thing alive this side of the universe.