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His squad and his fellow surgeon followed.

Handing over Zera to Juno, he found a crash couch and strapped in.

He caught Issa and the crew doing the same, securing Zera’s transport.

The pilot’s voice echoed through the comms as the cruiser’s engines growled to life.

The docking clamps released, sending a brief shudder through the metal flooring as the vessel disengaged from the massive dreadnought’s hold.

Perseus Prime loomed above them as they moved from beneath the translucent steel canopy of the floating titan of medical salvation.

Ki’Remi glanced at it, appreciating its sleek black-and-gold hull glinting under the system’s twin suns.

Below them, Alloria stretched out like a jewel, its silver-dusted mountains merging with endless sapphire plains, the ancient jungle curling like vines across the planet’s equatorial belt.

The Sableman canted his eyes to the view.

Still, all he beheld in his mind was one enticing woman with a lopsided smile on her sensuous lips and those dancing astral bright eyes.

Fokk me.

Issa Elaris was one hell of a walking anomaly, and he intended to unravel all of her.

The descent was smooth.

The Ravager-Class medical cruiser cut through Alloria Prime’s dense atmosphere with calculated precision, its stabilizers adjusting for minor turbulence.

Inside, the cabin was eerily calm, the kind of quiet that felt unnatural, and for some reason, the Rider’s hackles rose.

He sat rigid in his chair, scanning the readings in his neural HUD, his fingers tapping against the armrest, unable to relax.

Klash, in his usual loose-limbed arrogance, piloted with one hand, the other lazily flicking through the ship’s sensory displays.

‘All clear,’ Klash muttered. ‘This’ll be a sweet-ass, easy touchdown—’

The screech of klaxons cut him off.

Red emergency lights bathed the cabin in a sickly glow as the ship jolted violently.

The vessel’s warning bells blared in deafening succession, screens flashing.

HOSTILE LOCK DETECTED.

Zera screamed from her hover bed as an alarm siren squawked over their comms.

‘Thefokk?’ Ki’Remi snarled, pushing off his seat as the cruiser pitched sideways.

A massive shadow loomed ahead, materializing from the nothingness of deep space and inserting itself into the planet’s atmosphere with an earsplitting bass-laden boom.

He stared at it, disbelieving.

Twas a hulking warship, its obsidian hull gleaming under the planet’s sun as it de-cloaked, cutting off their path.

Shaped like a behemoth, it was rugged, jagged, and cruel, with no markings or transponders.

Weapons fire erupted.

‘Incoming!’ Klash shouted, banking hard to the right.