raining sand.

"Pirates!" Kora yelled.

The Ginger Star tilted into the bowsprit of the pirate's ship. Kora and Scarlet landed on the floorboards of the middle deck and slid down into the left inner-wall. Sand rushing past them—along the deck.

Weapons.

They needed weapons.

Luckily the door from which they'd exited onto this deck had busted into a million pieces and was wide open. Kora scrambled to her feet. She reached out her hand to Scarlet, tried to pull her up and along. But their ship was listing more to the left by the moment.

That's when Kora heard a cable fly overhead.

She looked up and saw a second cable fly past and latch onto the mizzenmast. The cables were thick—too thick to be cords from grapple guns.

"They're going to flip us over," said Kora.

Scarlet got to her feet, fully, and got ahead of Kora, pulling her now. They ran seven feet up the deck, toward the door to the cabins, to the weapons. But the deck was sandy and slippery. In the back of Kora's mind, she wondered about Felix and Alex. They'd been on the poop last she'd seen. Kora's eyes snapped that direction. Couldn't see anything. Was no use worrying about them.

Scarlet slipped, fell to her stomach, letting go of Kora's hand. Kora fell as well. They crawled on hands and knees the rest of the way to the door, as the ship listed even further. More cables extended out over their heads, snapping onto the metal of the mizzenmast. Clack! Clack! Clack!

Then they were at the door, pulling themselves inside.

Kora was in the lead now.

They descended pell-mell—Scarlet keeping just behind, pressing Kora forward.

Down the winding stairs, which were awkward to descend now that the ship was nearly on its side. Kora had a hand on either wall beside her, adjusting handholds. They would be completely sideways soon. Then upside-down.

She'd seen pirates do this—turn ships upside-down, launch an assortment of attacks, turn them right-side up, then finish them off.

These guys were messing with the wrong ship.

Kora was not about to lose The Ginger Star to pirates—or her life.

Heck, even this mission, not that she cared much for it.

The door to the requisitions room was the floor at this point. Kora had to keep her body over and above it, reach down, then throw it past herself, as if it were a hatch in the floor. The door slapped against the wall—which, again, was now the floor.

Kora dropped into the closet.

Scarlet dropped in behind her, landing on her.

Kora realized in this moment that she'd underestimated Scarlet. Scarlet wasn't screaming or panicking. She wasn't as soft as her demeanor had suggested. Instead, she'd been keeping in step, moving fast, pushing. No words were necessary, apparently, because Scarlet strapped a grapple gun and equalizer to her hips, one on either side.

The ship shifted with a loud protest from the wood panelling—it was completely sideways now. Still flying quite fast, being pushed in the direction the pirates' ship was pointed. The pirates' ship was huge—made to brave sandstorms. Kora had heard of such pirates—such ships.

Kora and Scarlet were standing on supply boxes as they gathered weapons.

Alex had taken the only flying board, not that it would be any help in this storm.

Kora found two small knives in pouches—she strapped them to one side of her belt, having already taken a grapple gun and an equalizer.

She took a reverse-polarized electric sword, jammed it into a sheath, strapped it to her belt. She saw Scarlet doing the same thing. She, at last, grabbed a six-shot pistol, golden-plated trigger guard and trigger. Into the holster it went.

Kora and Scarlet, luckily enough, had been wearing clothes sufficient to carry all this gear. Neither were wearing body armor. Bullets could easily pierce their flesh and kill them.

Kora had on a tight corset and strong belt.

It held the equipment well enough.

She saw thigh holsters for the knives and made quick work of replacing them from her belt to each of her thighs. While she was strapping on the second one, she realized it would be cooler and more efficient to have them both on one leg only, overlapping one another. She finished tying them onto her left leg. Then she knew she was ready.

She saw Scarlet readying a sniper rifle, loading it.

Scarlet had already strapped on a bullet-belt. Long bullets. Deadly bullets.

The rifle was the closest-range one they had. Was good thinking on Scarlet's part.

Finally Scarlet placed the gun down, threw off her long red coat. She was wearing a long blouse that went under her belt and corset, fell to mid-thigh. Was wearing tight black pants, red boots.

Kora wasn't nearly as lavish as Scarlet—wouldn't really know how to be.

She was wearing a button-up long-sleeved shirt, worn and faded.

Was wearing khaki jeans, tight.

Added the corset, but only for gear—it was a tight corset, only hugged her waist.

Kora threw off her jacket, rolled up her long sleeves.

Then she grabbed two additional grapple guns—one for Alex, one for Felix. The rest of the crew would have to fend for themselves. She hoped that some were carrying weapons or gear. She knew that Ricky and Jeff—the crewmates provided for them by the Resistance—carried weapons on their person—pistols and swords. She'd never seen TJ with a weapon.

"Ready?" asked Scarlet.