Thump!

It had no spin at all, and the Ones were trailing behind. Somehow the Eight that was towing the pair of ones managed to smash dead on into the tightly bound chain of riglets. Perhaps it was the angle, or maybe the number of times that the stressed Eight-Six bond on the short side of ringlet chain got hit. Regardless of the cause, the result was quick and divisive.

Somehow, the incoming One-Eight-One was positioned by the loosely held Twenty, which was even looser. The now suddenly free Twenty, heading toward the Seventeen in the middle, did a nice job of freeing the nearest One of the incoming One-Eight-One, at the same time moment that the remaining Eight-One dropped into the stressed and stretched Eight-Six link.

Once the Twenty popped free, the monster shuddered a bit, helping to complete the transfer of whole atoms from the inbound One-Eight-One to the retained Six-Eight and the liberated Six. The orbits settled as the squeeze of the monster pushed the chain out of the trap. As the pair of ringlets that were on the other side of the trap began to pull away, a quick scan revealed that the new One-Eight from the inbound had neatly replaced the position liberated when the Eight was disconnected and mated with the floating One. The result, the Sixes bound by the Eight were now hooked to separate Eights, which were capped by ones. The Sixes will never know the difference.