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Eluni and I look into the room Allele has opened and find weapons and ammo.

“Okay, so we go in,” I say. “But the Denarso are tearing up Earth’s orbit, picking off Terran ships, and firing at Abr vessels entering and exiting space.

The battle is quickly escalating into a bigger conflict, even though they’re outnumbered.

Isn’t there a way we can portal them out of here, all the flightless ones, take them away from all these innocent people? ”

“A mass teleport has not been done with enemy ships, but it could work. I have teleported MONA, Elix’s Scintilla,” Allele replies. “It could draw the attention of the Denarso to their abducted ships. Get them to leave Earth.”

“Can you get the others the message?” Eluni asks.

“I will coordinate the mission,” Allele remarks. “Is now a bad time to tell you the Ginarigons are entering orbit?”

Eluni races up front to check the scanners. I follow, curious what they’re doing here. She slumps like she’s relieved.

“What is it?”

She points to an area of space near the moon. “They’re taking up defense positions around Earth. Guess they’re not total assholes.”

“Tal said they hate Denarso.”

“Lots of females on Ginarigon.” Eluni rests a hand on a nearby wall. Allele’s milky sheen ripples with green electricity around Eluni’s hand. “Thank you for getting us here in one piece. Just keep your shields up, Allele. You’re Queen out here. I don’t want you unguarded. Call if you need us.”

She hands me a set of radiant chips. “For your gauntlets. I finished installing the shield generators. Even one can knock a Denarso off your ass. Copy?”

I take the orbs encased in my generator tech and insert them into my gauntlets. “Thank you.”

“You have no Storm, so you have little defense system otherwise.” Eluni motions to the cargo bay at the back. “Go test them. Be quick.”

I walk in and wait for the door to close, then tap my forearms together. The shield flashes for a second.

“Hold them,” Allele says.

I press my arms together in front of me, opening a translucent green shield that encompasses my body.

A bright arc slams into me, pushes me backward, and disburses around the shield. It’s startling at first, but the tech works.

“Do not tell Aura what we have done, or he may gut me.”

“I won’t say shit.” I walk to the door, feeling a lot better about running into battle when I know next to nothing about them. “And don’t worry, Allele. I like you too much to let him do that. He’d have to go through me.”

When I leave the chamber, Eluni’s dressed in armor and rocket boots with weapons all over her body.

“Do you know how to shoot?” she asks.

“No.”

Eluni flips a switch on a rifle and then hands it to me. “Auto-targeting then. It will take out anyone not Amphiran, well, and the shooter, obviously.”

“Is this really necessary?”

Eluni shows me how to hold the rifle. “Denarso will hunt you more if they find out who you are. They will want to hurt you in unimaginable ways.”

The way she says it makes me think she has experience. I’m starting to regret wanting to go after Aura. But if Eluni can survive it, and Aura’s risking everything for his people, I want in. I don’t want to be the princess everyone hates because she’s out of touch with reality.

This is reality.

Eluni looks me in the eyes. “I know this is different from your old life. If you get freaked out, take a deep breath and talk your way through the situation, where you are, and what you need to do next to stay alive and get to Aura. Got it?”

I nod, though I’m not sure I do get it. I know only that I must to keep going and do whatever it takes.

“We will be on an Amphiran ship with others who know you belong with Aura. Gravion is a Genesis ship. They will protect you. But we have to stop the Denarso before they take our females.”

“Denarsoan ships in tow. Jumping in five, four…” Allele counts down. Metal clunks near where we’re docked to Gravion. “Locked for mothership’s jump. Please, tie in .”

“Shit.” Eluni grabs me, throws us against a wall, and ignites something on her wrists that bonds them to Allele’s frame.

The ship lurches forward hard. Green light flashes by the windows. Gravion hits the brakes.

Eluni keeps me contained as my body is slung around by our momentum. I’m certain I’d be paint on the back wall without her.

She disengages her gloves. “Stay with me. We will get this under control.”

“More ships approaching. Denarso removed from Lunar airspace.” Allele reports. “Genesis and New Order.”

Eluni looks at me. “Perhaps we are not divided in this fight. That’s progress.”

“Or New Order is after Aura and me,” I say. “Vybron did say something.”

Eluni gives me a worried look. “Let’s hope they don’t want to war with us while we fight Denarso.”

The ramp lowers, exposing us to the inside of Gravion. Gunfire fills the dock with orange light so fast there is no time to think or lift my rifle. I duck, cover my head, and smash my armbands together.

Blasts deflect off of my shield, keeping Allele’s insides safe. But the blasts push hard against me. It takes whole-body effort just to keep me upright.

A green arc lashes out from beside me. Eluni retracts a hand, looks at the angry orb of light in her palm, and grins. “I am done with New Order rules. Let’s toast these bastards!”

I think I’m starting to really like Eluni.

“Remember that Aura won’t like you two leaving the ship,” Allele calls after us. “I’m closing the ramp to avoid another attack.”

As Eluni and I enter the hallway, I get my first head-on look at a Denarso. Black and orange striated eyes. Oily orange, brown, and black spotted skin. And thousands of pointy teeth designed to rip flesh apart.

“Shoot him!” Eluni shouts.

“Fuck!” I clumsily aim and pull the trigger. The auto-targeting bullet changes course and punches through the soldier’s core.

Adrenaline and the sight of him toppling backward makes me feel hot, shaky, and sick.

Eluni rests a hand on my shoulder. “Popped the cherry girl. You lived to talk about it.”

“I feel ill.”

“I know. But we have to keep moving. Focus on the next one. There will be more.”

We hurry around a corner toward the main hangar. Well, Eluni jogs. I’m still trying to tamp down the memory of my bullet taking life.

A huge Denarsoan soldier barrels at us from the ship that’s managed to slip inside Amphiran shields.

He crashes into Eluni, throws her to the floor despite her electric arcs, bares his teeth, and goes for her neck.

She’s going to die! And yet she doesn’t scream. She fights.

I scramble and fire at him, tagging him once. He whips his head at me and snarls. I fire three more times, each one knocking me more off balance until I fall on my ass and drop the gun.

“Eluni!”

“I’m good. I’m okay!” She crawls out from under his smoking body, gives me a hand, and helps me up. “Come on.”

“Who let them in?” I ask, picking up the rifle.

She slows as we continue into the hangar big enough for fifty fighters, where gunfire and arcs light up the walls. “What?”

“Who let them in?” I reiterate.

Eluni’s expression is unreadable, but she calls out on her wristband for Talros to meet us by a control station.

We weave across the hangar deck, ducking between fighting squads of Denarso and Amphirans.

Nearly a hundred Denarso have taken over the deck, and the Genesis soldiers, a green stripe painted over one shoulder, strain to hold them back.

The air is a laser lacework littered with warping pulses and fragmenting metal, shouts, and growls.

We’re almost to the desk when a familiar voice calls out, “I found Bakka!”

Jorusk, in the middle of the fight, out on the floor of the hangar, grabs a Denarso by the collar of his suit, flames up a fist, and smashes it into Bakka’s face. At a crack, Jorusk lets him fall, then heats up his hand again until it catches fire.

A Denarso charges at Jorusk. I lift my rifle and fire. He falls to the floor near Jorusk’s feet.

“For our females. Enaenev afara!” Jorusk’s body catches fire, making many Amphirans and Denarsoans alike run from him. He buries his fist to the wrist inside the Denarsoan, charring him from the inside out. “Justice served! Stay dead this time, creep!”

The body falls to ash.

I’m not sure I heard him right. “ Stay dead?”

Eluni grabs the shoulder of my armor and lugs me after her.

“Yeah, they are super healers. You know, like those lizards on your planet that can grow limbs and tails back? Denarso have this bad habit of coming back to life. You must obliterate their core. Not their brain. Their core. Even if they’re brain dead, their core will keep them alive and work like a beacon, summoning rescue ships. ”

“Effective,” I remark. “And terrifying.”

“No doubt.” Eluni looks over a screen as Talros runs up to us. Jorusk stands guard, so I try to do the same, shooting at the Denarso that I can.

“We got separated from the other two in the battle,” Talros says, then looks over the screen Eluni’s working on. He points. “Is that a code for something?”

“Son of a bitch.” Eluni steps back and growls. “How could he?”

“He has to be here somewhere,” Talros says. “That’s a local system, right?”

“Who?” I ask.

Eluni’s eyes fill with light. “Ijor. He has found another way to torture me.” She steps off the control podium and lifts a hand at an approaching Denarso, frying his core with a pulse like he’s a pesky fly she’s swatting away.

Jorusk steps out of her way, glances at us, then follows her. “New mission?”

“Aura’s in trouble.” Eluni lets out a fuming breath. “And there’s a traitor of Genesis on board. We need to end him .”