Three days ago our ships landed on Purple Sticky Red Eyes. The smoke-filled atmosphere is crucially filtered through our helmets, so we can get our job done. Space weed is hard to find and harder to harvest, exhaustive scouting and meticulous pruning. The pink surface is littered with tall swaying plants and vents emanating the lethal gas clouds. We watch our backs and scanners as we haul the last load back to our ships. Two of our crews already made it back to their ships when we heard static come over the comms system. “INCOMING!" Suddenly, three ships screamed over head in a fly-by. The thundering sound and turbulence shook our ship. From the boarding ramp, through the smoke, I could see the last team scrambling back. The pilot yells we have to take off. I watch the overhead planes split three ways and circling back. “Close the door!” he yells again. Our engines begin to wind up as we see the first beams of light raining down and sizzling 100 meters from our ship. The lasers trace straight towards our ship as we inch off the ground and move forward. We lurch and accelerate as the line of fire nearly misses our tail. An attacker roars past as another line of fire streaks by on our port. The other boarded ship joins us in the air as we gain altitude. We loop back in a small circle and from the sky we can see the last lone ship sitting still. The third crew is running along the pink sands to their ship, a streak of lasers cuts across throwing them to the ground. Over the radio they frantically plead for a diversion. “Man down! We need some help!” The scattered crew scrambled back to their feet and dragged a face-down man the last 50m to the ship. We engaged our airborne enemies with return fire to threaten them away as they took a wide turn in front of us. Our sister ship screams past us in pursuit of another craft, the light from the passing barrage illuminating our cockpit. What seemed like minutes later, the thrusters on the last ship ignite far below us as we jerk through the sky. “We need get out of here! Regroup in orbit." Our nose pitches straight up and I'm thrown back in my seat. Looking back I can see our small squadron jetting out of the atmosphere. Close behind, the pirate ships fired up in futility as they try to catch up to us in our sudden coordination. Thirteen seconds later we're leaving the atmosphere when team leader chirps “We gotta fight our way outta here, re-engage now" Like dancers, we spin and enter our attack formation taking on the pirates head on. The distance created by our sprint and their hold-fire put the enemy ships nearly out of sight. The only indicator was our radar tracking their formation straight towards us. “FIRE!” All three of our ships fired synchronized shots towards the black. As if they hit a mirror, the lasers began to bounce back as ship hulls came into view. The incoming beams seemed to circle our ship as we accelerated towards their senders. “Full boost now!" Our ships whizzed past their in a blink of an eye like teeth on a zipper and the ceasing of fire brought silence to our cabin. From the radar, the enemy ships flew straight on their path until they blipped out of range. “Fuckin' weed pirates, debrief back at base.”