(-), that's frustrating, Verity thought, as the ship came into her line of vision.
"We have to turn around."
Icarus and Naomi's heads swiveled as one towards the source of the absurd notion, disregarding the sight of the ship before them readying its missles.
"We cleared Diamondus's atmosphere almost three hours ago, Verity," Icarus said, trying not to sound as though he was explaining two plus two to a small child. "Without a teleport we're still only halfway to Carrotus. Why would going back help us? Lets go to Nimbus or -- "he glanced briefly at one of the screens-- "we're even close enough to Muckamo to duck under the cloud cover."

Verity sighed, looked back and forth between Icarus's and Naomi's young, but never naive, eyes, and made up her mind.
"No," she said, "We aren't. What do you two know about the Diamondus Warzone?"
There was a brief pause in which another blast rocked the ship.
"Never mind," said Verity, "I'll tell you later. Until then, I'm going to fly for a moment, if you don't mind. " She reached for the control panels, but a gold-furred paw blocked her own. Verity looked up into Naomi's eyes.
"I beg your pardon," Naomi said calmly, "but first of all, this is my ship, and I don't think anyone flies it better than I do. And secondly I may not know anything about the war here but Icarus has been flying escape transports off of Diamondus for the past thirteen months. I think I might assume enough to say that he has some idea what's going on here. With all due respect, I'm not ready to just let you take off with my ship and some (-)-and-bull story."
Verity inclined her head, refreshed by the courage the younger woman offered.
"Understood, Naomi." She used the other rabbit's name in an acknowledgement of the new respect she had for her, and could see that Naomi appreciated it.
"I am out of line to assume that I am in any position of authority here. The situation is merely one that I believe I understand a little better than you do and it may be safer to allow me to use my knowledge. However, if you would prefer to fly the ship, I would rather you do so, although it may be advisable for you to pay attention and do exactly as I tell you." Verity spoke quickly, knowing their time was short, and hoping to disguise the note of panic she feared would creep into her voice.
Naomi slid back into her seat, her fingers light on the controls, and Verity braced her paw against the doorway of the cockpit, as another blast, stronger than the last, threatened to knock her off her feet. The local force field around the small shuttle was rapidly weakening.
"Icarus," said Verity, "they've been aiming at the left engines, have they not?" From the copilots chair Icarus nodded, his eyes focussed on the screens.
"Knocking out a side engine would put us into a spin, " Verity murmured under her breath.
The shuttle shuddered as Naomi's skillful fingers maneuvered it between blasts from the opposing ship.
"That ship is a member of the party on Diamondus that's still in control. The federation is trying to prevent import and export and recently there's been theorization about a projective screen that they wanted to put into action to prevent unauthorized ships approaching or exiting the planet. I have no idea why private shuttles are being disallowed, but basically what I'm saying is that we've been locked into a synthetic orbit around the planet for the past three hours and that the planet--" here Verity waved at a bunch of symbols on one of the screens-- "is really just a projection and we've been blocked from seeing the real planet which is still right underneath us. They're going to knock out our side engines so we'll fall directly downward, through the atmosphere, and potentially crash on the planet rather than drift off somewhere else."
Icarus gave Verity a look that clearly spelled double-ewe-tee-eff.
"That's the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard."
"It's government, Icarus. They don't know the meaning of a simple plan."
Naomi dodged a blast from the opposing ship.
"Naomi, engage the ship," Verity said suddenly. Naomi glanced briefly up. "Engage? They're six times our size. That's practically the size of a transport. I only have the lowest level preinstalled weaponry on my ship."
"I want you to fire one round at them and then turn around and head back towards the planet. We have to land again or they'll kill us."
"See? Imminent death," Icarus joked, but was stifled by a withering glance from Naomi before she tapped the trigger twice with her thumb. The shots ricocheted off the laser shield surrounding the larger ship in a burst of sparks and smoke and Naomi grunted, "hold on," before dragging the stick hard to the left and hurtling back towards the blue-glowing, grapefruit-sized globe on the screens that represented Diamondus.
As Verity suspected, they were not pursued, although a few parting shots glanced off the flickering force field on the tailfins of Naomi's shuttle.
"Give it five minutes..." she guessed, leaning over the window screens.
The three rabbits were silent as Naomi guided the ship, watching the screens, and then the whole display blackened for a fraction of a second before a scrolling static bar slid down the screen, flickered, and the horizon of a planet mere miles below them became visible glowing under its gentle purple atmosphere. Icarus swore softly.
"They've cloaked the whole planet."
The cool female voice of the Intergalactic Positioning System droned on the overhead, "We are now entering the United Diamondian Planetary Systems. Preparing to enter stratospheric levels on Diamondus, intrauniversal magistration code 36873912L-t. Please note that none of the Diamondian Territories nor the outlying planets in the Diamondus Union are able to support any freelance communications units at this time."
The trio ignored the voice, focussing on the planet below them. Icarus noticed Naomi's paw, shaking slightly on the controls of her ship. He reached over and covered it with his own black-furred paw.
"Hey," he said softly, "We're okay. It'll be fine."
She mustered a smile. "It just...really shakes me up that they can mess with us like that. What kind of place is this? How do we get off the planet?"
Icarus shrugged. "It's never been a problem before. I make pretty regular trips on and off and I've always made it just fine. Verity's familiar with the situation anyway. We're all in good paws." He looked over to the grey rabbit for confirmation of his statement, but Verity was gazing at the printouts on one of the screens and did not meet his eyes.
Naomi's eyes were wide, though, as the small shuttle tilted through the myriad of rainbow coloured gas layers composing Diamondus's atmosphere and they landed the shuttle on a small charred landing strip in a suburban area on Diamondus's southern curve.