Space is too Smol/Prologue

Rita slammed the control stick down as far as it would go. "Come on..!" she muttered, her heart thudding in her chest as she dove her little ship towards the giant asteroid dead ahead. A burst of white hot plasma exploded off the bow to their right, making the girl flinch.

"Last shot missed by less than 35 meters," the ship's AI said in a sarcastic drawl. "It is highly recommended to switch to automatic pilot, Rita." The girl scowled up at the camera dome above the cockpit seat. "I know what I'm doing, AI_MI!" she growled, fixing her gaze back on the huge chunk of space rock rapidly getting closer. "If you had any stock as a pilot, you prissy AI, then Dr. Nebula wouldn't have any need for me!"

A proximity indicator flashed, and Rita jerked the ship into a roll as another blast from a plasma cannon exploded far too close to their ship for comfort. Her neural link with the ship allowed for faster reactions than anyone could dream to accomplish with manual controls alone. The system was a gift from her patron, Dr. Nebula, and one of his own design. It had allowed the girl to get out of tighter spots than this before.

AI_MI's drawling voice filled the cockpit once more. "Calculating a 37.943% chance the ship will impact the asteroid even with Rita's 'pilot skills'. Abortion highly recommended." Rita spun the ship in a rapid barrel roll to avoid three shots of plasma fired in rapid succession - their attackers were clearly getting frustrated. "Never tell me the odds!" she shouted, her wide purple eyes fixed on the asteroid.

"Almost there... Charge the rail gun!" she demanded haughtily. "Charging... Pull up. Pull up. Pull up." AI_MI repeated in a mechanized tone. "Not yet..." she whispered. "Chance of deadly impact climbing to 56.392%. Pull up immediately." Rita could feel sweat on her brow as she tuned out AI_MI's warnings and concentrated, the surface of the asteroid looming closer with every passing breath.

"Now!" Rita screamed, and slammed the ship into a kick flip, the omni-directional afterburners flaring up to full power as she executed a complex series of spatial maneuvers, virtually flipping the ship around in little to no space and slamming into full speed. Locking the rail gun on her pursuer, she fired the minute the ship had an alignment lock with the target.

The electrically charged metal rod shot out at a screaming speed, piercing the enemy ship's energy shield like a white hot knife through butter and impaling the cockpit. Rita jerked her ship out of the way as the damaged craft hurtled by. She shot out the engines as it passed just to be safe, and watched as it smashed into the asteroid.

"Recalculating... ... ... Flawless combat maneuver." drawled AI_MI. "Strategic plan detected: make enemy destruction appear to be an accidental crash. Confirmation required: Analysis correct?" Rita nodded, wiping sweat from her brow. "Yep, that was the plan. Leave no trace of your presence: we were never here."

The AI paused for a long moment. "Rita should have informed AI_MI before Rita saw fit to put my ship in danger, performing statistically questionable maneuvers." Rita let go of the dual control sticks, her hands shaking from an overload of adrenaline. "You mean MY ship." she retorted. "You're just along for the ride, AI!"

Chapter 1

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