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Armor’s shield generator is damaged but not irreparable. I work through my plan for repair so the moment I’ve got time and opportunity, I can get it done quickly.

“Isn’t that hypocritical?” Mace asks. “You want to kill your uncle for betraying you, but you don’t think Solcrue killing Solcrue for betraying them makes sense? I mean, I’m all for taking out the enemy, but...”

“It’s not the same.” I flash Armor a glance, realizing he’s shared what happened with his brothers. I should’ve expected as much with the regular updates. “He is a threat to all humans because he’s willing to sell us out to save himself like most CSP soldiers.

“Sathrin was still serving his kind in Venom Squadron. He wanted to protect them; he just thought they should do it differently. But his goal was the betterment of his people, not himself.”

“Fucking head games.” Karambit curls his repaired finger. “I prefer simplicity. With me or against me. I protect or kill. There’s nothing in between.”

A shudder runs through the tunnel.

“Report!” Armor calls out.

Radar’s green eyes find us. “Skysprinter attack. Distraction operations beginning. Civilians loaded. BlazeStar prepped for launch.

“That’s all I can pick up from the transmissions. I relayed your message, sir. But without a way to scan for Venom ships, there’s no way to predict where they’ll be or how many we’re up against.”

We’re running out of time to get up there and help.

“I’m sorry, I don’t have any data on Venom ships. I can’t help with that,” I admit.

Armor turns me around, picks me up, and runs. All of the Titans are suddenly moving fast, as if they all felt the same urge at the same time.

The tunnel collapses behind us.

Brunt struggles to catch up. “I’m not doing that!”

Armor’s wings take hits from rocks. He clenches his teeth and hunkers around me as we race through the tunnel after Carver.

“Someone’s found us.” Armor holds me tighter. “I need that shield, Esthi. Can you fix it?”

“While we’re running?” I can barely read my tablet with all the bouncing.

He adjusts his grip and tries to smooth out his paces.

Fucking hell. I dig into my bag for my multitool, careful not to drop it.

Prying open his chest, I find the damaged wiring around the shield generator that’s been knocked loose, tighten the unit back into place, and begin reconnecting the wires.

“It’s going to be a hack job for now. You have a damaged circuit board and need better connectors. ..”

“Don’t care! I just need it as fast as you can get it up!”

I work my way through the wires again and find one I missed that’s broken free of a control module. “Magma!”

He drops back with us again, the hydramidium in one hand.

“Heat my multitool? I have to solder.”

He reaches a finger toward me that glows like molten lava. It’s not easy to get lined up as we run with rock raining down on us. But Magma manages to tap the tool long enough for it to glow. I immediately stick it inside Armor’s chest and reattach the loose wire.

The moment he’s back together, I close up his chest panels and watch the shield symbol light up. “Can’t take a plasma hit from a mothership, but she’ll hold for Skysprinter missiles.”

Armor’s eyes brighten. With a single blink, he thrusts out a shield that fills the tunnel. Rock stops falling on us, and Brunt finally catches up.

“Solcrue have our position,” Radar calls out.

“We’re almost to the outpost,” Firebolt adds. “Smash and grab?”

Several Titans confirm interest.

Armor agrees. “Not much else we can do. No time to scout or plan.”

The Titans change their order, sending Radar, Javelin, Mace, Whip, and Karambit up front with a few others. Atox, Brunt, Catalyst, and other heavier units remain behind to carry their offline brothers.

Light pours in from the end of the tunnel, following a horrid boom. Titans charge into a hangar, taking up squads that skirt open areas from behind pillars and cargo crates.

Solcrue in black armor and CSP soldiers in gray fire at them. But the Titans have only themselves as weapons. Armor’s shield spreads around the group, protecting them from gunfire.

Javelin is the first to leave the shelter at a sprint. He launches into the air, spins into a dart shape, and knocks down three Solcrue before tumbling to a stop and swinging his body behind a concrete pillar.

At the same time, Whip zigzags through the soldiers, stealing weapons and knocking several back before a warping pulse from a gun makes him duck and slide under a dune buggy for cover.

Karambit crawls up the walls, chewing up the concrete, and drops down on the roof of a large transport at the end. “No good! Severe hull damage! Still under repair!” He swivels around and dodges a shot from a CSP soldier. “But there’s another!”

Karambit launches off of the hull, away from us. “Back here!”

Three more Solcrue squads enter the battle from other rooms and hallways, firing from hangar doorways, one from the damaged ship’s dropped ramp.

“Merry-go-boom?” Mace offers a hand to Brunt, who takes it.

Brunt swings him in a loop and flings Mace out across the floor and toward the largest mass of gathered Solcrue. Mace cannonballs through them. When they turn to attack, his spikes flare in erratic patterns that match the incoming assaults as if he can sense them.

All I can do is stand in the doorway Carver has made, watching the battle.

We built them to do what was necessary to save us and to preserve the minds of our best soldiers, to give them a second chance, a chance to be immortal.

And we have made them into effective killing machines.

But seeing them now, knowing what they put themselves through to protect us, I feel only shame we never gave them more respect and honor.

They deserve so much more. Humanity may be near extinction, but I pray we aren’t hopeless and that we can have a second chance, too, to do things right.

Armor encourages me through the facility as his brothers make a mess of the scene, killing Solcrue and raiding storage rooms. Behind the first ship is another, larger vessel.

Karambit tosses a limp human CSP soldier over the side as he lowers the ramp. “Traitor.”

Armor’s shield gives us a safe zone in the mayhem until a Solcrue dares enter the shield. Light swells in the barrel of his gun as he points it at me.

Armor steps between us as the blast goes off. He spreads his feet as the flames dissipate around his body.

“No!” I scramble to reach him.

“Ow?” Armor looks down at the male, grabs the Solcrue’s gun with a hand, jerks it free, then punches him so hard in the chest that he flies out of the shield and smashes into a wall. The soldier slumps.

What the…

Armor must see the surprise on my face. “It takes a lot more than a standard bullet to damage my synthskin.”

Karambit climbs back up the ramp as Armor encourages me after him. “Still need a sweep.”

My gun shakes a little in my hand. I’ve been in smaller confrontations, never something this big. As we board, other Solcrue and CSP fire into the hallways. I react on instinct, even though Armor’s shield still extends around me. I take down a CSP soldier. He coughs and stills.

I don’t want to kill anyone. But at the same time, I know I have to do what’s necessary to end this war.

Titans load.

“Scan complete. No mines or traps that I can detect,” Radar remarks.

Firebolt stands by the ramp, throwing electric arcs at everyone who dares set foot near the ship as the engines warm.

Rooms smash around the hangar, and Carver comes out, leading Brunt and other Titans who carry crates of food, ammo, and medical supplies.

More soldiers appear at the far end of the outpost.

“Time to go!” Javelin says, righting a sniper rifle on his shoulder. He takes a shot from the ramp as it begins to close.

Armor looks upfront to where two Titans, Lance and Hydra, have taken the pilot’s seats. Four more guard them. The offline Titans are already strapped to beds in the CSP’s medical bay with Atox.

“Shields up, ninety-two percent,” the automated system reports. “Panel SB four-four-alpha down.”

Two Titans break away from helping Atox to address the shield’s downed panel while Armor escorts me to the seats behind the pilots. Outside the windows, the ceiling retracts, and we burst up into the sky.

“Two bogies, approaching from the southwest,” Radar mutters from where he stands behind the pilots.

“Copy, hang on,” Hydra remarks as he adjusts a setting on a screen in front of him, and he and Lance change our trajectory.

Armor braces me and grabs a handle overhead. “Let’s give them a chase and a distraction while we figure out what to do about Venom squadron.

“I think I have an idea.” Karambit steps into the hallway behind us with a highly augmented blond with eyes an inhuman blue. His resemblance to Myria makes my stomach burn with anxiety over what’s become of her.

Behind them, Mace brings forward another man. “I can make them talk.”

“I’d like to help.” Karambit grins.

“Don’t say shit, Lenarro,” the second man growls.

The blonde grimaces and spits blood from his bleeding lip onto the floor. “Shut up, Joey. I know.”

Lenarro gives me a once over like he recognizes me, but I don’t know him. It’s his augmented body that concerns me.

“CSP?” I ask Lenarro.

He watches me closely but doesn’t say anything.

Joey laughs, then groans when Mace punches him in the stomach.

I step up to Lenarro to get a better look at his eyes. Karambit holds his arms behind him while Armor shifts uncomfortably beside me.

“Esthi...”

“It’s okay, Armor.” I glance at him. “Lenarro won’t hurt me.”

“How know you say that?” Karambit growls. “All CSP types want is to destroy us and you.”

Lenarro winces. He’s trying hard not to show his damaged state in front of Joey. It makes me wonder why, but it brings back a memory of childhood and trying to be tough like Myria.

“I can fix you,” I tell him quietly enough that Joey can’t overhear. “But I’m going to need something from you.”