Page 69 of Storm of Stars

“These teams will target the power relays, weapons caches, and the guard towers’ core systems,” I continued.

“Then comes wave three,” Devrin said. “Strike squads assigned to each tower. With comms down and defenses failing, they’ll move in to neutralize the remaining guards and take control. Lock down the towers.”

“Healers and Medics can push in but hang back to care for the injured,” Edgar added, pointing to a few spots on the map.

Bex leaned in, tracing a finger along the route. “That clears a path…”

“For us,” I said. “Wave four. The tip of the spear.”

Thorne’s eyes lit up at that, and Ezra gave a short nod of approval.

“Our team. We’ll move straight down the center once the guard is neutralized. If things go according to plan. We can slip right through.”

“We take the Show Center,” Zaffir said, his voice steady. He pointed to a cluster of buildings at the city’s heart.

“If we can take control of the network,” he said, “I can plug in, I can show them the real Praxis. Everything they’ve hidden. I can put it on every screen, every frequency. I can wake them up.”

“It could spark support from the inside,” Ezra added. “And at the very least, it ensures they can’t rewrite this later. We’ll have already told the truth.”

I nodded, drawing a clear circle over the Show Center. “Then that’s our first stop.”

Zaffir met my eyes. “I’ll show them. No more propaganda. No more filtered feeds. I’ll show them what Praxis really is.”

“And after that,” I said, closing my hand into a fist over the location of the Archon’s command quarters, “we finish this.”

Bex’s voice was soft but firm. “We try to negotiate surrender first.”

Everyone nodded. No one here wanted to kill unless there was no other choice.

“But if she refuses to step down,” Edgar said, “we end it. One way or another.”

Silence fell across the tent. The map lay covered in scribbled notes and routes and names, our plan written in ink and desperation.

Outside, the distant murmur of thousands of voices hummed against the wind.

Tomorrow, we’d make history.

“I’ll organize the strike teams,” Edgar said, already rolling up the sleeves of his battered shirt like he was ready to dive into the trenches right then and there.

I gave him a firm nod. “Good.”

“Do you have leaders for each group?” Devrin asked Edgar.

He nodded. “Yeah.”

“Think you can gather them for a debrief?” Devrin asked.

Edgar stood from his crate. “Absolutely.”

“Think it’ll work?” I asked Edgar. He was the one who’d been planning this rebellion, I didn’t want to steamroll him with our idea if he had a better thought.

“It’s better than the one I came up with,” he said with a smile.

“What was your plan?” I asked.

“It included a lot of explosives,” he shrugged before stepping out of the tent.

“Think you two can go help him brief the teams?” I asked Thorne and Ezra.