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I don’t like leaving Esthi behind, but she will be safe on the BlazeStar. Kelta gets word of Poppy’s arrival, reassuring me that Esthi’s made it back. Savage pilots with Kelta. She and Sefina managed to modify a ghostcloak for Menace’s BoltBurner.

We are the shielded Titans and the most animalistic of the Brothers. We cannot win in an outright battle, but we can take a stealth ship, sneak onto Corenge, and rip out its heart.

Sefina, Menace’s mate, is dressed in a StarJumper’s suit and moves around in it like she’s done it a thousand times. “Through the ion trails under the belly. If they’re going to catch us, that’s the last place they’ll be watching.”

“That’s dangerous,” Kelta counters. “But I like it.” She shuts down thrusters as we approach Corenge ’ s black hull. Green lights gleam along the perimeter of each rounded layer of the vessel. Even as we approach, a few more Skysprinters and other fighters depart the far hangars.

We drift in silence until we’re through the gap in the shield by the engines. It’s the only way to avoid setting off an alert. The heat of the thrusters sends red alerts flashing over the screens.

I shift nervously between my feet.

“It’s okay, guys. We’ll chill in just a second.” Kelta kicks the engines on as we cruise under the ship’s belly. Then she switches them off again. “Bump thrust will get us what we want without getting caught.”

Beside me, Thruster’s engines light up for a second, and I know exactly what he’s thinking about.

“Kelta, don’t talk like that. I’ll lose my head.”

“You better, later .” She winks back at him. “Just make sure I get it back in one piece.”

Thruster leans around her seat and kisses her as she sets us down, making me wish I’d had a chance to see Esthi one more time before we left.

I replay a memory of her skin against mine and let it burn in my ultromotor until I can’t stand the idea of being away from her. I have to get back to her in one piece, too.

Fury readies his rifle in the back. We’re all dressed in Starjumper suits and form our squads behind Sefina.

Commander Savage joins us, leaving Kelta alone on the ship. She’s the only one in a simple armored spacesuit without thrusters or weapons.

“You leave if I tell you to.” Thruster points at her.

Kelta doesn’t respond, just watches us leave through the airlock Firebolt’s fried. I’m the biggest Titan here, so it’s up to me to open the door.

I kick in the mechanical release, grab the door handles and pull. It slides open, letting out the scent of gilkyworm cakes and hot oil. I hold it open while our three squads enter. Fury is first with Redline, Javelin, and Whip. They’re fastest and scan the area, rifles radiant and ready.

“Clear,” Redline whispers.

Savage leads his team in next. Menace stays close to Sefina, his mate, while Shifter and Thruster bring up the rear. My squad is last with Mace, Karambit, and Firebolt. When they’re inside, I close the door, and Kelta closes her airlock.

We enter the ship in a lower maintenance area.

Commander Savage glances back at us. “Two minutes and counting. Mark.”

I start a timer in the corner of my vision. On average, it takes Solcrue about three minutes to detect a breach, track it down, and get crews to the location. We’re narrowing that window to be extra cautious.

Sefina leads us through the dark hallways of Corenge .

Mace reaches out into the shadows and swipes a blade through someone’s neck without a sound. He gets back on track, a line of blood across the chest of his armor and a smile gleaming inside his suit.

Redline dashes down a hall and is back with us before we’ve passed the opening. The blade in his right hand drips.

We continue toward the engine room, the speed units taking out every Solcrue who might see us but are out of reach for the stealth units like Mace, Karambit, Savage, and Menace.

Sefina leads us around a jog in the hallways, rifle up and ready. Menace mentioned she used to work for a bounty hunter. Watching her now, I believe it.

Holding her rifle in one hand, she signals us with the other that there are two combatants on an upper level, three on a lower, and six in the middle.

I move to the front with Whip, Redline, Javelin, and Firebolt.

“Unlock coms,” Commander Savage says.

I unlock my communications channel.

Commander SavageLocal: Claim your targets. Armor, guard Shifter and Sefina. The rest of us will clean up.

Time: 1:26 remaining.

Whip takes the top floor. Redline takes the bottom floor. Firebolt and Javeline claim three combatants ahead of us. As they charge out of the doorway, I curl a wing around Sefina and another around Shifter, who’s carrying Bomber’s most reaction creation.

We hurry out across the room as Savage, Menace, Mace, and Karambit confront the Solcrue entering from the soldiers’ quarters across the room. The moment we’re out in the open and seen, I light up my radiant shield.

Whip is a blur above us as he takes one Solcrue down with a blade and chases the other. Redline is similarly difficult to track; he’s so fast.

Electric arcs lash out from Firebolt, making enemy soldiers arch and topple. Javelin launches his body through the air from one landing to another, where he crashes into two enemy soldiers.

I take a hit to my left wing.

ArmorLocal: Attack, my eight o’clock!

Savage snarls somewhere behind us and to the left. Something tears.

SavageLocal: Resolved.

I glance back to see him spit something out of his mouth. Blood drains from his lips. His shoulders heave with his heavy panting. There’s a feral look in his eyes, and yet he looks more satisfied than I’ve ever seen.

We all want this. We’ve all lost Brothers and Sisters to Corenge battles.

Sefina motions to a system of pipes. “Fuels. Set it here.”

Shifter walks to the maze, fractures into millions of little bars that fold in on themselves in rippling waves, then slips through the pipes with the bomb until I can’t see him any longer.

I take another hit, this time over a wing mount. Pain flares in my shoulder so strongly I curl forward.

ArmorShifter: We need to go!

ShifterLocal: Explosive Timer – 1:01 remaining.

Shifter emerges like a fragmented liquid that rebuilds one foot, then another, and slowly reforms into an upright Titan again. He’s matched the timers.

Timer 2: 1:00 remaining.

Timer 2: 0:59 remaining.

Commander SavageLocal: Escape route blocked.

Thruster rockets overhead, smashing through incoming squads as bullets rain down on us. I hunker around Sefina and Shifter while I scan the ship for nearby exits. “Hangars?”

She motions to a narrow passageway. “On other ships, we’d take the servants’ passageways to escape.

Thruster knocks down the Solcrue that fire down on us as we cross the catwalks to the passageway.

“Sefi!” Menace rejoins us and picks her up, clutching her to his chest. “Hang on. We have to run!”

Savage bounds on four limbs beside us like Menace. Whip and Redline are first through. Javelin is next.

I check behind us as we run. It’s my job to be between my charges and the incoming fire.

I am the bullet sponge. Fury swings Mace one more time, sending him tumbling down a filled catwalk.

Mace’s body produces spikes and shatters his Starjumper’s suit, save for his rocket boots. But he clears two full squads.

“Come on!” I shout.

Mace gets up and hurries after us. Fury’s augmented shield takes hits between his Torching bursts that wipe out bullets and bodies. Thruster roars in and sets down, his shield flickering out.

“I’m low on power.” Thruster rushes ahead of me with Fury so that I’m at the back, Shifter just ahead.

When we enter the hangar, I find Karambit clawing his way up the wall to a security system in the ceiling that’s preventing the hangar from opening.

ThrusterLocal: Kelta on approach. We’re going to have to run for it.

A squad of Solcrue bursts into the hangar, sees Karambit and fires.

I leave Shifter vulnerable to leap up and sling my wings up in a shield.

I take three hits, but Karambit takes one too.

He arches and falls, scraping his claws erratically as the hangar door opens and a sealscreen shimmer becomes visible.

Commander SavageLocal: Everyone out now!

Fury fires back at the Solcrue as Javelin picks up Karambit and darts out of the hangar into space.

Redline smashes into Shifter, Whip into Firebolt, and Fury into Mace.

Menace and Savage guard Sefina as they make the jump.

Thruster rockets out. I am last. I don’t get up as much speed as them, but I don’t need it.

I have mass, and I need to be the shield behind them.

The moment my feet leave the deck and air pressure behind, I open my wings.

Savage’s squad lands on Kelta’s ship first. Fury’s crew is second. Mine only half makes it. Mace lands with Firebolt, but Javelin struggles to hang onto Karambit’s failing body. I land, grab Karambit’s dangling leg, find a handhold, and lay my wings over my Titan Brothers and Sefina.

ArmorKelta: Locked in. Go!

Timer 2: 0:12 remaining.

Kelta’s engines kick hard, straining my grip as we race away from Corenge .

Please work.

Timer 2: 0:10 remaining.

My Brothers watch behind us as Kelta races us with redlined thrusters.

KeltaLocal: We’re not going to make it out of the blast range. I need more power!

Thruster slides back on the ship and opens ports on his body.

ThrusterLocal: Firebolt, hit me. Don’t ask, just do it, now!

Firebolt glances at me. He’ll destroy Thruster. We all know it.

ThrusterLocal: Kelta, I love you.

Firebolt releases a surge that Thruster’s body takes in like he’s practiced some sort of insane new form of torture. Thruster seizes. His engines brighten so much I fear he’ll explode.

Firebolt strains to pull back, but he’s always had trouble with restraint. There’s a baseline discharge that he has to send out before his system will shut off.

I cannot stop him or help either of them. All we can do is watch Thruster sacrifice himself for us.

Corenge pops with light behind us. It fractures in two as the fuel systems detonate. The bright green blast ring surges out, heading for us.

ArmorThruster: We’re going to make it. Shut down, Brother. I will catch you.

Thruster’s engines dim and wink out. His grip slips, and he begins to drift behind us. I catch his wrist and draw his body under the shield of mine.

KeltaLocal: Why is Thruster not responding?

Commander Savage looks down at the hull we’re hunkered against as she flies us out of range.

KeltaLocal: Someone respond!

FuryLocal: Get us to the BlazeStar as fast as you can.

KeltaLocal:…

She opens the channel, then doesn’t speak.

ArmorKelta: I have Thruster. He has overheated. Still registering a ping. I don’t know how long he’ll hold.

Kelta sniffles.

KeltaLocal: Understood. Hang on. We’re entering space with the last mothership, and she’s a beast of her own kind.

Commander SavageLocal: Seen it before?

KeltaLocal: Unfortunately.

The silhouette of the vessel that I glimpse behind the BlazeStar, which thankfully sits near the portal, makes my core stutter.

Fighters spew from the sides in the hundreds.

MaceLocal: Fucking hell.

KeltaLocal: Someone, kick the damned regulator off this ship! I’m overtorquing this bitch, or we’re not going to make it to the BlazeStar before they do!

Fury hikes across the hull to the torque regulator on the engines and rips it free.

Kelta flies faster, but the ride soon becomes bumpy and rattling.

MaceLocal: Why isn’t the portal opening? Why aren’t they through?

Commander SavageLocal: Clover says the portal won’t open.

My ultromotor stalls for a beat. A terrible sinking feeling grips me.

I know where my beautiful mate is, and it’s the most vulnerable place to be in this battle.

There’s no one to save us now. We’re at the mercy of the Boltburner’s engines.

Commander SavageLocal: I want all of you on fighters the moment we’re back on board. Protect the portal and Mother. Do not let the enemy through.

All of my Brothers click back except Thruster and Karambit.

My insides twist with fresh guilt and anger.

Commander SavageArmor: Do you comply?

I look down at my darkened Brothers and swear to them that they will be the last I permit to sacrifice themselves on my watch.

ArmorCommander Savage: I comply.