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My grip on Myria feels like it’s slipping, but I have plenty of my own problems to deal with before I can worry about where she’s gone, if she’s even still out there.

I freeze when Armor tells me to. My gun is on the bank behind him. It’s too far for me to reach. I know it as the wolf growls behind me. It’s fast, but Armor is faster.

Claws scrape on rocks. Armor lugs me behind him with a hand.

I spin around at the sound of a crack and a splash. Carver steps aside as the wolf’s body passes him, drifting downstream under the early morning light.

“We need to move,” Armor says, looking up the mountain. “I hope you two got what you needed.”

I scramble out, sling my bag on my shoulders, and grab my filled waterproof bag and charge harness. “Are you going to...”

Armor grabs me by my soaked Terran armor and slings me into the air.

Water drains from my body. Carver catches me as Armor opens his wings and runs toward us.

As he collects Carver under the shoulders, I glimpse a hundred or more shadows moving through the trees.

The ground falls away from us as Armor soars down the creek toward the desert.

“We’re going to have to be fast, Carver,” Armor says overhead.

Carver tightens his grasp on me as his eyes flash with Armor’s color of code. “I won’t!”

“Won’t what?” I ask. “Speed seems like a good idea right about now!”

Carver glances in my direction but won’t look directly at me. “I won’t drop her or cut her, Armor. My power level is plenty sufficient to maintain my position.”

“Plan,” Armor says. “Speak it so she can hear it.”

“I’m going to tunnel down, under each,” Carver says.

“We’ll drop everyone into a tunnel system, then close the tunnel so we’re locked in.

We’ll have to get the Brothers as hydrated and charged as we can.

Then we’ll haul the others out a passageway into a supply den.

Drillbit is sending me navigation maps. It’s not direct, but it’s relatively safe. ”

“Relatively?” Armor grumbles as he sinks us lower into the desert.

“Yes.” Carver’s eyes narrow, worrying me that they’re fighting over their telepathic connection.

“He says many human females have been collected from the area where the pods landed over the last few weeks. Every escape has needed a new route. Tunnels are full of welvirs, the mutant wolves on this planet. And they didn’t find us because we were too low on power. Drillbit won’t stop apologizing.”

“Who is Drillbit?” I ask.

“Another bore unit like me. I responded to Mother’s beacon, and our pilot, Clover, connected me with Drillbit,” Carver says. “Am I hurting you at all? I am trying very hard to be still.”

I shake my head. “Armor is protecting me.”

Carver meets my eyes. “He is trying to.”

I meant my body armor.

Armor glides us into a rather abrupt landing.

Carver immediately sets my feet on the ground. He lifts his hands in innocence. “Still okay?”

“Yeah.”

He steps back and glances at Armor, who glowers at him. “Jump two seconds after me.”

A dark wave thunders down the mountainside.

“Fuck!” I point at it as Armor snatches me up and holds me protectively close.

“I won’t let them hurt you.” Armor’s arms tighten around me, cradling me like I’m something precious.

Carver dives toward the dirt, spooling up into a mass of rotating blades that bite in and cut a vertical shaft into the desert.

I count. One, one thousand. Two...

Armor jumps.

We fall fast. My stomach flits into my heart the way it does when a Solcruean ship makes a portal jump without a warning siren. The surprising sensation strangles my cry from disorientation.

Carver’s hum darts off into the distance as a tunnel opens up to our right. Armor lands heavily, sets me down, and encourages me away, then punches the wall and rejoins me.

The thunder of rocks and dirt as Armor gathers me up and carries me away is deafening.

A Titan drops from the soil ceiling not far ahead. Armor shields me with a wing, keeping the falling rocks off of my head and shoulders. Then, another tumbles down to the tunnel floor further forward. A third falls from an adjacent tunnel.

The first opens his eyes. They’re bright red. He sits up and rubs his digibadge before freeing the dirt from his hair. “Bitch. Fuck me sideways.”

“Watch how you speak around my mate,” Armor snorts.

“Indirect statement of relief. My apologies.” The CyberTitan promptly gets to his feet, finds me, and takes a knee. “Gray Esthi?”

“That’s me.”

“I am Mace. Please do not let us get close. I startle easily and Spike Out when I do.”

I laugh nervously. “What?”

He gets up and shakes off the dust, exposing his red digibadge. Mace is about two-thirds Armor’s size, stocky, and covered in dots. When Carver drops into the passageway up ahead, Mace jolts. Thousands of spikes punch outward from his synthskin, turning him into an evil-looking porcupine.

He shudders. “Got about twenty stuck with gravel, but that release feels good.”

I give him a handful of berries and a water bottle. “Save some for the others.”

Armor urges us on to the next unit, who is dark and doesn’t move. I brush the dirt from his sides, find his ports, and connect him to Armor.

The transformers I’ve wired in spool up and charge the Titan to ten percent. His eyes open a fiery orange. Whip lights up on his chest beneath a film of fine, sandy dirt, that Whip immediately brushes away. Armor makes me disconnect from him and continue on as Mace helps him up.

The next unit’s digibadge is a dim green. Catalyst doesn’t open his eyes.

“If we can get him online and fuel him, he can help charge others,” Armor says. “Take more for him. He has transformers built in.”

I connect them. “How are you doing, Armor?”

“I am within operational parameters.”

I slump. “You must know what I mean.”

His eyes fall to his Brother. “My duty is to protect them and you. I will not allow myself to be damaged beyond repair unless it is your life or mine.”

It’s uncommon to encounter another with the same dedication to their job as I have. I’m glad I’ve found Armor. “I hope it never comes down to that.”

Catalyst blinks. His green eyes find me in the dark. “Esthi, GMARTR. Armor’s mate.”

I let out a nervous laugh. “Guess you all get the update the moment you wake.”

“A-firm.” Catalyst sits up with effort. He’s a wide unit, barrel-chested, and covered in ports and groans as he gets himself to his feet. He shares a look with Armor. “Download complete. Thank you, Brother. I understand the situation now. Just wish I had some fuel.”

I hand him the jerky from the bag strapped to my chest. “I don’t have much else but berries.”

“Do not sacrifice this for me.” Catalyst looks at the strips. “I cannot take from a human.”

I slump. “Oh, for fuck’s sake. This programming is shitty to your survival, you know that? Initiate your survival programs or whatever you have to do to accept this.”

Catalyst shakes his head and wipes off his digibadge. “Human preservation overrides all others, Bonded or not.”

I take his hand and place the jerky in it. “Fucking insane. I need to have a chat with a Titan designer.”

“They’re all dead,” Armor says.

“Doubt it,” I offer. “I’m certain there are a few out there still. You think I became a Gray by chance? No. By design. Someone somewhere always has a plan.”

“What makes you say that?”

“Because no one survived outside the last city of Naryth without a very detailed plan and backups for backups. We might’ve served Solcrue, but that doesn’t mean we didn’t have an underground where we trained for the day we would break free.” I march myself to the next Titan.

Catalyst hustles along the tunnel and picks up another unit I don’t catch the name of. I find another red unit named Javelin. He’s a slender Titan with pointed fingertips and sharp angles at every joint. “Armor?”

He quiets as he walks up to us.

“Are you giving them some sort of update when they wake?” I ask.

“Yes.”

“Processing that takes energy. How about you do a group update later? Just get a few with updates to guide the others for now.”

“It is protocol.”

“Survive first, or protocols won’t matter,” I mutter. “I’ve sacrificed a lot to stay alive. But surviving is essential to continuing my work.”

Javelin pries a rock out of an ear. I help him to his feet.

He polishes his digibadge with a hand like every Titan seems to do when they wake.

My first thought is that it helps them see.

But I know they have scanners like I do in my goggles, likely more.

And by the tender way they do it, I think it means something more to them.

They treat it like a symbol, like the torch pendant I keep against my chest.

Perhaps it is their hope. But I think, more than anything, it is a reminder of their purpose.

I motion Armor to the next Titan, half-buried in loose rock. I brush the dirt from the sides of a large, bulky Titan. Armor’s wings twitch behind him like he’s irritated. “Speak your mind, Armor.”

“You touch us with such care when we are machines,” Javelin remarks.

I connect Armor to the dark Titan. Brunt lights up in deep violet shades on the Titan’s chest. “You are sentient. You were once human. To me, you are more than we will ever become.”

Armor helps Brunt to his feet.

Brunt’s body looks like it’s made of stacked metal boulders. He polishes his digibadge with a hand. “Thank you. I was going crazy recirculating memories to pass the time. Most are not ones I wanted to replay, but there’s little else to do in a mud tomb.”

I draw in a deep breath and think of my days hiding when I knew I couldn’t leave if I wanted to stay free. But I had a choice. They didn’t.

Armor’s wings launch into an umbrella shape, shielding us as dirt rains down.

“Son of a mother...”

Armor chuckles, draws me under the shield of his body, and folds his wings back. A cyborg sides off his wing to the floor in front of us with a mound of rock and dirt.

“Motherfucker!” The unit stands, holding his hand. He’s hunkered with bright blue eyes, pointed teeth, and claws for hands. “Wolf nearly took off my favorite finger. Look at this fucking mess!”

Karambit shakes his hand, his middle finger hanging on by a single cable. “Punk ass mutant.”

“Look who’s talking, Karen .”

“Oh, ha-ha. Hello to you, too, you hull plate of a Titan. No one ever calls me Claw. It should have been Claw , not this monstrosity or a name. Does anyone even know what a karambit is anymore?”

I motion for his hand. “Let me look while we move to the next, please. I’m low on energy.”

He jerks it away from me before he looks and suddenly takes a knee. “Ow.”

Armor hangs his head and sighs. “She is my Bonded, Karambit. Let her help you.”

Karambit winces as he strains against what I can only assume is his punishment program that’s causing him pain. “Oh, stars. It hurts. But feeling anything other than that damned mud is wonderful right now. I’ll take it. You can punish me later.”

I laugh nervously as I take his hand and inspect the damage. Taking my multitool from a pocket in my bag, I reattach the connectors I can, twist together some frayed wiring, and sleeve his torn synthflesh back into place. “You’ll need a better repair later. But this should hold together for now.”

“Thank you.” Karambit gets up. “Esthi.”

“Before you kneel or do any of that, go help another Brother so we can get out of here.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

Armor guides me through the rubble to the next Titan. Catalyst has roused a few more and still has a strip of jerky sticking out of his mouth.

In the distance, Carver drops down with another Titan.

“Firebolt is the last. That’s all forty-four of us.

I did a back-up scan. But forty-four fell when we landed.

So I’m going to cut a path to the supply den Drillbit suggested over the net.

Any who can fight should follow first in case welvirs get in.

Mace and Karambit march ahead of the group, just behind Carver.

Armor turns to the crowd forming in the main tunnel. “Carry those who cannot walk. We can charge them up as we follow Carver’s lead. Drillbit wants us to close channels as we exit them, so make sure no one is left behind.”

A team of Titans brings a dark unit to us as we exit the desert landing site and head for the supply den. I sigh wearily and connect Atox to Armor.

“If you get too tired to walk, let me know,” Armor says. “I will carry you.”

The biggest struggle since my crash landing wasn’t searching for my sister. It was finding the courage to trust a stranger. But Armor protected me then, and it seems like he wants to now. I just wish I didn’t feel like I was sinking too deep into something I can’t back out of.

There’s a pressure to Armor’s hand as it slides around my waist and steadies me, which makes me think something more is going on with him that he has yet to tell me about.

I just hope, whatever it is, that it doesn’t make me regret bonding with him.