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Wolves In Flight

SAVVINE

T he massive loading dock of La última Sombra was a tempus of quiet efficiency.

Unlike the harsh, noisy capo -led launches Savvine was familiar with, this was quieter and smoother, with no barked orders or clattering boots.

The space thrummed with the sounds of warming engines, the flick of magnetic clamps disengaging, and the shimmer of cloaking tech powering up along the black Corvette hulls.

The Signet strong guard prowled around Savvine.

Mak, Rigo, Zev, and Kaal suited up and booted, checked ammunition, secured missiles, and laser rounds.

Boaz and Xander stood over an army of drones they intended to use for surveillance and flyovers before the crew infiltrated.

They were now in execution mode.

Miral had pre-loaded a detailed game plan into their HUDs and neural nodes.

It included intel hacking the system, the latest Eterna ship security codes, and her UAV rotations supplied by Abby.

The infiltration squad aimed to regain control of the massive vessel in less than an hour, a fast strike mission with minimal casualties.

Miral materialized, a box in hand, sashaying toward Savvine in platform combat boots. ‘I’ve got a present for you, Chief. It’s a custom-fit shimmer suit. A Sable weave with a neural sync. The HUD is calibrated to your node.’

She passed the package to Savvine, eyes gleaming. ‘You’ll be a ghost in it.’

Savvine ran her fingers over the jet-black braces.

‘Where can I change?’

‘There’s a prep room next to the rear deck of the última X. ’

Savvine headed into Xander’s Corvette, climbing the ramp into the aft hold.

She soon found the prep area, stepping behind a privacy screen to strip off her jumpsuit, down to her underwear.

She slid on the cross-body brace and tapped the Signet sigil at the centre.

Milliseconds later, a skin-tight suit shimmered all over her body.

It sealed itself to her frame with a hiss and ripple of metanoids, adjusting to her vitals in real time.

It was lighter than she expected, soft as air, cool with stored charge.

Another second tap activated a HUD helmet that slid over her head like liquid, powered by the quantum-infused noids.

She wandered towards the exit and was tightening the clasps on her boots when she sensed a gaze on her.

Xander leaned against the open door frame of the Corvette’s loading rear compartment, arms folded, the dim light glinting on his dark violet hair.

‘If I knew that suit would look like that on you, I’d have banned it on this ship.’

Savvine turned slowly, giving him a dry, amused look beneath her new HUD visor. ‘You like?’

‘I adore,’ he said, voice molten, eyes raking her from collar to toe. ‘However, I’m starting to regret seeing you in it. It’s killing me softly.’

‘You’ll survive.’

He shoved off the wall with lazy grace, sauntering over to her. ‘Will I? I know you’re a badass security chief, but the man in me loathes letting you go on a dangerous mission.’

He tapped a button on her shoulder, and her helmet retracted away so he could see her face.

‘I can’t afford to think about danger.’

‘It’s not you I’m worried about, it’s those who you’ll kill looking like that.’

She laughed, the nerves in her chest loosening a notch.

Still, the dread of what lay ahead played on her mind.

She had no idea what they’d find when they entered her ship to confront the man formerly known as Eugene.

He took note of her worry.

‘Hey.’

His fingers lifted her chin. ‘It’ll be fine, mi cielo .’

He dipped his head, banded his arms around her waist, and kissed her in a long, deep, anchoring caress.

She melted into him despite the armored suits between them.

He embraced her, tongues melding, as she reached into his hair with her free hand and lashed his mouth.

When they pulled apart, she let her forehead rest against his. ‘You better not lose me out there.’

‘Over my dead, lycan body,’ he whispered, brushing her lips once more before jerking his chin toward the cockpit. ‘Let’s roll.’

She followed him up the stairs, strapping into the crash couch beside him.

He took the pilot’s seat, his element, hands dancing over the console as the systems powered to life.

Sleek lights pulsed along the control deck, and her HUD synced with the ship’s nav tools, streaming mission objectives and the Eterna’s map overlays into her peripheral vision.

Around them, the other Signet Company Corvettes shimmered to life, dark, angular shadows stealthed to near invisibility.

Mak and Rigo in one. Zev and Kaal in another.

Boaz piloting the last, with Miral curled like a cat in his co-chair.

Above and behind them, La última Sombra loomed, a floating cathedral of obsidian steel and pulsing violet corelight.

Xander leaned back, flicked on comms, and looked over at her. ‘Ready, Chief?’

She slid her visor back down, voice steady. ‘Let’s free my ship from the enemy.’

With a deep hum of thrust and ignition, the Corvettes detached from the star destroyer’s rear deck and dropped into black space.

Quiet, swift, and armed, cutting through the dark with righteous intent.

The journey to the Venantia Eterna was silent, almost too hushed.

The only sound in Savvine’s ears was the soft, rhythmic breath inside her helmet and the whisper-click of her suit syncing with the HUD feeds projected across her vision.

She sat strapped into the crash couch of última X.

Her fingers flexed and un-flexed over the armrest, and her legs were restless beneath the sleek compression fabric of her gear.

Beside her, Xander commanded the pilot’s seat, hands moving with practiced precision over the navigation console.

He was a rock, calm, unmoved.

The blue of space reflected in his dark violet hair and glittered in the cyber-sheened threads woven into his jacket.

He didn’t speak much; he didn’t need to. His presence was grounding, like gravity shaped itself into a man.

But none of it eased the pounding in her chest.

She ran through the touchdown plan in her mind for the fifth time: While Xander and the Signet Corvettes took on the external defense system, she would drop onto the aft service deck.

She’d bypass the outer hull sensors through the maintenance ingress, override the security grid using her neural node, and open the corridor locks from within.

Simple, surgical, and clean.

Until then, all she had were her thoughts, which kept spiraling back to her mother’s quiet wisdom. To her father’s dignified pride, and her sisters’ laughter echoing through their quarters.

She mulled over how her nieces always raced to greet her when she walked through their front door.

Now, they were held hostage by whatever entity supplanted Eugene. Stronzo .

She sensed Xander glance at her, a subtle brush of awareness.

His hand reached momentarily and touched the edge of her leg.

She turned to look at him, and he gave her a raised chin. ‘I’ve got you, belleza .’

It helped, just a little.

Soon, the stealthed Signet Corvettes slowed to within a few thousand feet of the Eterna’s safe perimeter.

From this angle, the generational vessel loomed like a sleeping beast, a vast silhouette against the speckled black of space, its posterior decks lit by navigational strobes.

Savvine watched as the countdown to the operation began. Comms were silent as much as possible, with Miral limiting them to flashed messages in their neural nodes or HUDs.

.:: Prepare to release the scout drones ::.

Then Savvine’s HUD flared.

.:: WARNING: BOUNDARY brEACH DETECTED ::.

‘They’ve spotted us,’ Miral’s voice murmured through the channel, clipped and tight. ‘Rail guns have locked on. Repeat, we’re compromised.’

Savvine’s breath caught. ‘How?’

Outside the viewport, the void sparkled with sudden motion, then erupted.

From beneath the Eterna’s stern, a swarm of obsidian-hulled UAVs spilled outward like ink in water, fast, angular, predatory.

Each one bristled with silver-mounted rail spears, their cores pulsing with illegal nano-reactors that gleamed in eerie blue flickers.

They swarmed to the perimeter, where they stopped, in a wave that almost obliterated all view of the ark shop beyond.

‘What the hell are those?’ Savvine muttered, pointing at the screen, to the structure on the side of every one of the hovering robotic army.

Xander zoomed in on the colossal drones, flicking the feed to the holo display.

‘Those are swarming Oedipus EM energy missiles in massive multi-missile pods.’

Savvine’s heart sank. ‘I’ve only heard rumors of these. They’re worse than the Hades -class.’

‘ Fokk , that’s enough payload to detonate the sun and explode an electro-magnetic pulse, destroying all electronic devices in the flotilla. All comm tabs, appliances, controls, and ships will go down.’

‘Also, they have a propulsion system, meaning they can change direction mid-battle.’

‘This isn’t possible,’ she hissed. ‘My family doesn’t have any Oedipus -class munitions.’

Xander’s voice came through wrathful and brutal. ‘They do now.’

‘Holy shit,’ she gasped, ‘we can’t fight them.’

‘ Nada, we cannot,’ Xander shot her a regretful look. ‘If we do, we won’t come out alive, and neither will anyone within several thousand klicks. We also don’t have enough point defense rounds. We can only hope to fokkin ’ out run them if they deploy.’

His voice dropped as he sent her a private neural node message.

.:: Savvine, mi cielo, we’ll need to turn back, and return for your family when Miral has a good enough deterrent to challenge the Oedipus weapons ::.

They stared at each other for a beat, then she gave him a tight nod, her heart sinking even as she did.

More warnings flared in Savvine’s helmet, harsh crimson glyphs pulsing across her HUD.

‘The freakin flying robots are charging weapons,’ came Miral’s clipped voice in her ear. ‘They’re deploying normal missiles for now. Seems they’re keeping the Oedipus for the ultimate moment, whatever that might be.’

‘Shields,’ Xander growled.

Seconds later, the void ignited.

The wave of obsidian drones unleashed a barrage of torpedoes.