Pushing 8-Directionals

I've looked everywhere and can't find a solution on how to make an 8-directional object to move into certain directions as if they are hit by something. Imagine a spaceship getting hit by a meteor. The controls should be enabled all the time but there should be a seperate physics impact, without using a physics object.

Confuzzling, yes. Indeed.

quick and ugly but I hope that's what you are looking for

http://db.tt/ecvaeDRk

edit: space to shoot ball at player, move player with arrows