<strong>"My Lady, it appears that the ship is barely operational... that last barrage we took seems to have disabled our hyperdrive capabilities.  We can move, just relatively slowly".</strong><br/><br/>The officer's words came as no real surprise to Cy'la, but she still dreaded hearing them.  Looking back, she had thought they were dead at one point, all of the sacred water of life lost forever to either the void of deep space or even worse, in the hands of those damned pirates.  Their ships had come out of nowhere, somehow cloaked from her ship's sensors.  Three heavily modified Galaxy Class frigates, a damned Skrull Class Dreadnaught and lots of fighters had assailed her ship after she had refused to relinquish her cargo to them.  The battle was hard... her ship was superior if not for that Dreadnaught.  She had been preparing to go out there and join the battle herself, much to the dismay of her crew.  Then, out of nowhere came the Hydran.  His power helped turn the tide and all the pirate ships were destroyed.  This left them critically wounded though.  She had invited the Hydran inside the ship and expressed her gratitude, using some of the water of life to heal the minor wounds he had.  Hydrans.  She didn't know a whole lot about them but she knew her race and his had some sort of relationship and that his race had suffered a tragedy.  She looked at the officer in charge of the damage report.<br/><br/><strong>"My Lady... long range sensors have picked up a nearby world that we could limp to in about 4 days.  No information about it though.  Most of our databanks were damaged in the battle.  Our other option is to use the water of life on the ship".</strong><br/><br/>Cy'la shook her head and explained that to heal something as massive as the ship to the extent that it had been damaged, it would take the vast majority of the life water stores.  No, as much as it pained her, they would have to let the ship heal on it's own and lay low on that planet or even in orbit, assuming it was uninhabited.  The officer nodded to her.<br/><br/><strong>"Setting course for the planet now, My Lady".</strong><br/><br/>Over the next four days the Hydran and Cy'la would have plenty of time to talk of whatever they wished.  The ship limped along at thousands of miles per hour... still slow by interstellar standards.  Eventually, the crew was thrilled to find that they had arrived at their destination.  Scanners had repaired themselves somewhat and reported that most of the planet was inhospitable, save but a 100 mile area surrounded by alien generators that seemed to produce a livable area on the barren planet.  They saw other ships in orbit around the planet, many of them obviously pirate vessels.  They were quickly hailed and told that they had arrived at a refuge... the planet Skarr.  All ships in orbit around Skarr were under the protection of the Pirate Nebula.  They would be welcome in the city below but were given the same warning...<br/><br/><strong>"The only rules are this... do what Nebula tells you to do and don't make trouble you can't buy your way out of.  If you damage someone else's property, you got to pay for it, in galactic credits or in flesh.  Most importantly... whatever you're here for, don't get caught... follow those rules and you might survive".  </strong><br/><br/>Having decided that the city might be worth exploring, Cy'la was joined by the Hydran known as Ether, who insisted on accompanying her to ensure her safety.  The two of them beamed down via the ship's transporter, one of the few things that hadn't been too badly damaged.  As Alexander set his scanners to sweep the area, two beings materialized not far from him, between him and the alley.  There was a small blip on his scanners from the alleyway but not enough to get a solid reading and his suit's computer automatically scanned the alien newcomers... "threat level increased" pinged the soft voice of the suit's computer.  "Target one, male of unknown species... threat level 98%... Target two, female of unknown species... threat level 75%... helmet will environmentally seal in 3 seconds pending an override by yourself".  The two "aliens" could see a sprawling city with abundant alien life, most of them humanoid... and what looked like a Terran (if they were familiar with them) in a suit of high technology power armor staring right at them.