Far from the burning city of Det’em, engulfed in storm and fire, Liv sat atop a hill in front of the tree line, deep in farmlands, but neither her thoughts nor eyes rested on the smouldering city. Reflected images flickered across her face and the ground around her, projected by holographic displays dancing before her datapad. It now had the added capability of Hal. It unsettled her, the capability of Paba’s Hal, but at the moment, she was grateful for it.
Behind her, Worrec leaned his head against a tree root, chewing on a blade of grass. His detached gaze lazily fixed on the chaos of the city. He had been there since they had arrived, he seemed to be waiting, and nothing more. His presence was eating away at Liv. The screaming of her people did not seem to reach his ears.
She scanned the floating images of lighting, throwing her hands across the holos. She needed something, anything, that could save Yeley. Something the Dorlec would have done. In the left corner, she followed Meno, and the figure who Worrec had said was Ko. She was struggling to keep up with the spy as he kept switching between exo-suits. It was strange, though, as Worrec seemed to be completely confident that he knew which one he was, pointing him out to her from the tree behind her. She wasn't even sure if he could see the display, but despite that, she believed him when he said it. Whoever he was, he possessed knowledge he shouldn’t have, discerning things with no clear explanation.
She saw Meno rise up the temple, fighting against the odds to get through, fighting with all that he had, and she noted that the only times Worrec looked over was to watch Meno’s feed. She had wanted to see every moment of his movement, but she also needed to focus. There was a green dot that moved across the hologram and she knew that it was the display of Paba’s position in the sky as she moved within the storm on her glider, dictating the movements of all of them, while hiding from the Pillar, that was locked in the tempest of her own making. Worrec let her know that the Pillar would adjust soon to the storm, and its scanners would see through the storm. She wondered if this was what he was waiting for. For the moment when calamity struck, Paba had told him vehemently that she knew and that he needed to do something. He had, unsettlingly, not done anything and had merely raised his eyes to the sky, where Liv knew Paba’s glider was hiding within the storm.
She was exhausted, emotionally drained, and close to breaking point. But she continued to move her hands through the light display to find it, her eyes glancing periodically at her companions as they moved up. She felt wrenched with guilt that all of this had happened, that she may have been responsible. She knew that she had pushed Grasci at the Prelude Gala, and she knew that the planet was facing instability. No, not instability. Collapse. She wished she could take it back.
She couldn't, though, and so guilt compounded with her unconscious drift towards making this about herself. The creeping feeling of self-pity for the consequences of her actions. The awful comfort of that. From everything that had happened and everything that Worrec had told them, which admittedly was not much and left purposefully vague, this had all been a setup from the Dorlec. She needed to focus on that. She wondered if Artelis knew. If Sonny knew. Her thoughts strayed for a moment as she wondered. Would he have done anything even if he did?
“Paba, I can’t find it,” she said into her comm, after running through another footage file. It seemed that the Dorlec had been clever and not allowed themselves to be noticed as much as she had hoped they would have. They had been careful not to put themselves into a compromising position. But she would continue her search, hoping that their known arrogance would have caused a slip.
“Can’t talk, Liv”, Paba said, and again, a pang of guilt. Liv felt awful, powerless and useless in all of this. Everyone was fighting for her city, her planet, her people. Except for her. She was trying to gather evidence to save face for her family whilst her planet was already burning. She brought her hands to her face, closing her eyes tightly. She didn't know what to do.
She reflected on the last unbelievable few hours. It felt like a nightmare crafted specifically for her. Firstly, Grasci was murdered in front of the entire planet, her parents had been captured. The escape from the Temple had been successful but came with the cost of losing Angie. Then she found out that it was the Eshara that were saving her. Her bodyguard, a man that she had known since she was fourteen, was replaced, and she didn't notice. She had found out that her friends were in fact in her life as part of a mission to protect her, which was a shot in the gut, but not something that she had bothered to concern herself with now. That was something that she had become accustomed to in her position as the First Daughter of Yeley. Then, Worrec, a maddening human being who offered no answers, but also held a distinct familiarity to her. She didn't know how, but she knew him. She had stopped trusting her eyes when she had first seen him, knowing that the threads never lied. But this time, they had to be.
‘Every person that you meet will have a unique signature, even mass-produced signatures in tech will shift slightly under the influence of the user's own signature’ were words from Harold that flew around her head. She had to be wrong. Because she recognised this Worrec’s signature, perhaps more than she recognised any other. His face, though, did not belong to the threads that she knew so well.
Her eyes were caught by a movement to her left, and she inspected a frame that showed Meno in a hallway. He had just taken a kick from a Kryptea soldier, and another was coming,
“Worrec!” she roared behind her but was shocked to see that Worrec was now sitting next to her already watching it. For the first time, showing genuine interest in what was happening. Liv looked back and saw that in the moment she had looked at the tattooed man, Meno had now been thrown against the floor in the temple passageway, with 6 standing between him and the other Kryptea. She watched as in another moment he was on a glider that had been sent up by Paba, and was now facing 6 head-on. They were talking.
“You need to help him,” she pleaded into the display, feeling utterly desperate, but Worrec just shifted and grabbed his chin, running his curled forefinger and thumb across his stubble. He seemed to be deeply interested in this, in Meno. She had noticed this in the Farmhouse and seen how he toyed with Meno and what he would do next if pushed. He had poked at Meno, not giving him an idea of what he wanted, but highly interested to see what Meno would do once poked. Like an experiment.
“I dont think that I do,” he said thoughtfully after a moment of watching very carefully. His disengagement broke off. He didn't pull his eyes away from the hologram. “What do you think he’ll do?” he said absentmindedly. Had he been waiting for this, she thought. Had he been sitting patiently, waiting, and agreeing to allow them to storm the temple so that Meno would be thrown into this situation? She had been surprised at first when he had allowed them to go ahead, to throw themselves into a completely untenable situation, and then shown almost no interest whatsoever, until…her mind stopped with what she saw in her right periphery.
She forgot all about Worrec and whatever in the hells he was doing here. She looked at the hologram that she had been looking for, Hal had found it, and it was time-stamped. It broke her heart seeing it, but all that ran through her head was; I have it.
“And here comes Ko,” said Worrec to her side, pulling her out of her thoughts. She followed the tattooed man's gaze and saw a Dorlec soldier just outside her parents’ apartments on the holo.
*
In the Temple, echoes of the struggle on the lower floors rang up the stone temple, and the cracks of lightning caused the hallways to flicker as they rumbled with the thunder. Ko adjusted the new Dorlec suit that he had taken after swapping with the guard atop the staircase on the fourth floor. He felt the strain of using his tech too many times in a day as he adjusted it. The headache had been slowly growing more and more prominent, and he felt the fatigue of his muscles starting to set in. He needed to push through. He took four go pills from one of the soldier's medical packs and swallowed them at once. These were stronger than the Traes go pills, and he may have been overdoing it, but if he was right, things were about to get very messy, and he needed to be on top form. He felt the pills start to work, his vision becoming sharper, and his hands began to shake with unused energy. He stretched his back out and focused himself.
He readied the rifle. Looked at the two bodies beneath him, one still in his Dorlec uniform, and one that Ko had relieved of their uniform now wearing civilian clothing that he had used when getting from the second to the fourth floor.
He then lifted the shield generator that sat at the top stair on the fourth floor, a box about a meter wide and twenty centimetres across. He thanked Locne that he had the exo-suit, otherwise, he wouldn't have been able to pick it up, even with the go pills. These things were meant to protect larger groups and areas and were much stronger than exo-suit shields. If he hadn't had his tech, he never would have been able to get past this thing. It was being used to protect this floor, and he figured that he couldn't have found anything better for what was coming.
He made one more check before moving on, he made sure that his ‘bang-bangs’, ‘innies and outies’ were ready for him. He honestly couldn't believe the names of these things and smiled thinking of Paba’s stone-cold face when she had told him. He checked that his own shield was ready to engage at a moment's notice and that he could flick between comms channels. The Dorlec comms, as all of their speech had still been encrypted, even on this level, was giving him intel of enemy movements, and the channel with Paba, who was coordinating the entire attack from the glider in the storm. The last thing he needed was both comms open at the same time.
The storm outside crackled, and he hoped beyond hope that Paba’s glider was safe in that sky. If the Pillar had a moment of relief through the storm, it would blow her from the sky and that would be it. Exit strategy gone. This was a ridiculous mission. That Worrec, whoever he was, approving this was the worst decision he had ever witnessed. He sighed, knowing that getting out alive was up to him, but getting sanctuary with the Eshara, that was up to Worrec. He would need to play his little game. Or at least, Ko thought that was the case. It was all fucked. Ko thrived in the grey, where alliances were just transactions—but even he had to admit, this was pushing it.
“Paba, I’m at the apartments. Status?” he said, making his way onto the patio through the passageway that was strewn with rocks and craters. This had been the passageway that they had made their escape from just hours before. It was now dark and dusty, and the markings from Angie’s grenades had scarred the stone walls and floor. They had moved the stone from the collapsed doorway that they had run from when Grasci was assassinated, and Ko made his way through, knowing that he was running out of time.
“Hurry,” she pleaded. He could tell that it wasn't good. She had been holding her emotions together, but she was beginning to lose grip now, “Meno is there, and the Dorlec has Angie” she said, which to Ko sounded like they had everything that they needed in one place to make a good escape.
“Okay,” he said, passing through the doorway, “Remember what I told you about those Daggers” he said quietly, even under the cover of the exo-suit.
“I’ll be ready”, she said, pulling herself together. He had to admit he liked her. She could fall apart one second, but give her a job and she would be ready to perform. He saw two soldiers ahead of him. They wouldn't pay attention to him, not now, not with what they had in front of them. He could walk straight into the room without any suspicion cast against him. He moved the heavy shield generator through the doorway, making sure not to acknowledge the flanking soldiers as he did so, not wanting to draw their attention. They would assume he was following orders, and bringing a shield generator to a standoff seemed like a plausible thing to do. It was like a person walking in with a datapad in an office. Invisible. At least, the logic tracked.
He took in the room and saw the soldiers around him facing the balcony, like the rest were as he walked through the doors. And there he stood, bold as brass, just off the balcony, pitched atop the hovering mirrored finish glider, two more banked on the side, like shields reflecting the patio back onto the soldiers. The storm raged in the background, with the looming shadows of the dagger-class fighters hanging suspended behind the temple's shield that glittered in the rain and wind just behind Meno, lurking like predators held behind a glass wall in a zoo, awaiting their opening. The Commander's Triumovirate vessel was just behind it. Flickers of light crackled behind, highlighting the Pillar in the background as it was struck time and time again by lightning in the maelstrom of the storm which was converged around it.
What a fucking hero, thought Ko, unable to stop himself smiling from under the helmet. He was facing down the Dorlec Commander in front of him, who was standing with his white robe and arrogance. He was holding Angie by the throat as a hostage. Ko could see the Dorlec Commander's stereotypical Dorlec look of superiority in the warped reflection of the glider. He could also see Angie’s face staring at Meno, not afraid, not angry. As though waiting for him.
He looked at Meno. Long gone was the kind kid who was always smiling, or locked in an inquisitive gaze listening to someone. This was anger, pure, unbridled, unrelenting anger. He looked like he was feeling the effects of his climb, though. But his face, only half illuminated by the patio lights, and the flashing of the storm showed Ko that he was not backing down. He would fight.
He had already been through two blockades, one Traes, and one Dorlec, and faced off with three Kryptea. This kid was fucking ridiculous. He was doing something that not even the most hardened could boast, but he hadn't just survived them, he had killed one of the Kryptea, possibly two.
Ko moved to the Traes on the left-hand side of the room, in the corner. Eher was bleeding on the floor. Her skin was pale, and Ko could see all the blood that she had lost pooling around her once-white dress. Pac Traes haunched over her, a shadow of his former self. He was as pale as his wife, with the shadow of defeat hanging over his features. He caught the eye of Shilu Salfor, whose eyes were still red as she hung over Harold's body. He dropped the generator in front of her, trying to pass the movement off as inconspicuous. One of the Dorlec soldiers looked his way. This would be an awful time to be found out, but the soldier looked forward again. He took a breath, and, as quietly as he could, so as not to draw the attention of Archon, just a few paces away, said to Shilu,
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“On my mark” she looked up at him uncomprehendingly, but he didn't have the luxury of time to explain any more than that. He moved to the centre of the room, a few meters behind the commander. He counted twenty-three soldiers around the room, holding their positions distanced apart, all facing Meno, their rifles drawn. They were making it hard for Meno to target them all at once. He was positioned behind the only two other soldiers that stood in the middle of the patio, behind the Commander. The remnants of the celebration from earlier were all cast off to the edges of the room. The soldiers would use those broken tables and chairs as cover when Meno moved. There was only one other person besides the Commander with their helmet off and he stood in front of Ko. He must have been second in command here. The seer was on the side of the patio, standing behind a soldier, not wanting to be drawn into the fight that was surely about to come. They would be a problem, he thought. Maybe he could use Meno to draw their attention and take them out. He took in a deep breath. This was going to be a fucking mess.
“Very impressive, Meno of Gol,” said the commander, his cloak flapping in the open air. “Who would have thought a mongrel could get this far” Ko saw Angie being pulled up more tightly and knew that the Dorlec commander was ensuring that Meno knew what was at risk here. Ko had a full view of Meno from behind the two gliders that were being used as shields. He held down his hand, his index and middle held out. He saw Meno’s eyes flicker, and like a kid with his head in the game, didn't react any more than that.
“You must be Sheppard”, Meno said from atop the glider, his voice still carrying into the patio. He sounded exhausted. The soldiers around the room adjusted themselves, waiting for the order.
“Ko…Ko…” Paba’s voice rang through his head, “Is he okay…?” Ko disengaged the comms. Now was not the time for speaking, he thought.
“Stand down. You have done enough damage, you wouldn't want that to extend to your dear…” he held up Angie higher with his hand, lifting her with ease. This guy had at least class 2 tech. Ko knew from reports that he wasn't a primer, which, admittedly, was an unusual thing for a Dorlec Commander. Usually, to gain promotion in the Dorlec, genetic gifting was required, some form of superiority above the common Dorlec. He must have been something to achieve the rank without it. “What is she to you but a prison guard?” called the Commander into the void off the patio. His smile didn't last long.
“You good?” Meno said, not to the commander, but to Angie, who Ko saw in the reflection of the mirrored gliders and gave him a nod, even while struggling against the Commander's grip. He completely ignored Sheppard. Ko took in the moment, the act of defiance, the boy standing with the raging storm behind him, surrounded. Dagger-class ships behind him, being held back by an old shield, a Dorlec unit, fully armed, all zoned on him. A Kryptea in the wings and two that he had already downed. Blood on his face and arms, an exo-suit base that looked cut and torn, but there he stood. Atop a glider, staring death in the face, his sharp eyes unwavering, his posture high and ready for the next act. He was something.
“We’re going to get you out of here, don’t worry,” he said with a smile. The other Dorlec soldier without a helmet stepped forward and spoke in a condescending tone that only a Dorlec possessed,
“You are being addressed by Commander Sheppard, you…” he started,
“We’re going to get the Traes out of here as well, alright?” Meno said to her, ignoring the whiny Dorlec soldier. This kid. The soldiers shifted as though expecting an order. Ko doubted whether they had ever seen a ranking soldier ignored.
“You will burn like your silly little moon, child!” spat the second in Command. Meno locked eyes with the man who spoke, and Ko saw him hesitate for a moment, half-stepping back. The dark eyes, now trained on him, hit him like a poison dart.
“Yes, Gol”, said the Commander, with far more composure. “It wasn't long ago that I was standing like this with former Captain Lor Dimitri,” said the Commander lightly. Dont react, kid, thought Ko. “Are you going to beg for your life as he did?” he said softly, goading Meno. Ko readied himself, not knowing if Meno was going to react, but to his surprise, Meno smiled, not a malicious smile, not a false smile in anger. Genuine humour.
“Angie told me the Dorlec were cowards”, Meno said softly with a cheeky smirk, but it carried through the patio, hitting every corner of the room. “So you didn't face him yourself, did you, Commander?” Ko heard the Commander falter and saw in the reflection of the glider that his feigned comfort with the situation had gone. He also saw Angie, even through the blood and cuts on her face, smile, perhaps even chortle. “Wouldn't even fight an old dying man yourself. Captain Lor Dimitri did not know how to beg, Commander” Meno said, hitting a nerve and before the Commander raised his hand and issued his order, Ko shouted,
“Now, Shilu!” Ko raised the rifle with his right hand and felt the recoil of the spraying bolts in every direction as he spun, firing at the surrounding soldiers in blinding flashes of light. He used his other hand to roll out the grenades as he spun, scattering them to almost every corner of the room. He saw Shilu had activated the shield around her and the Traes, the bubble glowing in the darkness between the flickering of the rifles.
He made sure that he stayed in the middle of the room, spraying bolts out for long enough to draw the attention of the Dorlec soldiers. As they began to fire at him, and he had a moment where the room was illuminated with light, he caught eyes with Archon, who was already making her way towards him from behind Shilu’s energy shield. All he needed was for her to step out of it. He got the lock once she did and flicked his wrist, which was now free from spreading the grenades, and he felt the pull. He felt the burn of his tech as he did it.
He landed just beyond the shield that Shilu had engaged at his order and he began firing at the Kryptea, now in the centre of the room. Archon didn't have time to realise what had happened her being completely unfamiliar with his tech. Then he saw multiple things happen at once.
Archon, who had taken his position at the centre of the room, became engulfed in light as bolts hit from almost every direction. Angie lifted her head into Commander Sheppard's nose, which forced him backwards with a spray of blood as he had been distracted for just a moment by Ko’s order from behind. He released her, and she spun, ducking down low, looking as though the injuries she had sustained were not holding her back at all.
Meno who had run over the mirrored surface of the glider and jumped onto the patio without a moment's hesitation, launched himself at the commander, passing Angie before delivering a massive hit with his right hand square into the Dorlec Commander, who had managed to recover himself just in time, and had raised his hands up to block the blow. He was thrown backwards. Only then did the room become consumed by pure chaos.
The grenades that Ko had scattered around the room blew, in a cacophony of sound, light, heat and gravity. The reality within the room, warped. There were sounds like water dropping onto a flat surface that pulled soldiers in, pulling them from their positions and flinging them through the air, the cast-away furniture being pulled with them. It sounded like a cracking whip that pushed soldiers to all corners of the room, catching some of the soldiers that were being pulled by the innies, and, conversely, sending some soldiers into the collapsed space caused by the gravity wells. Then the bang-bangs, which erupted in bursts of fire and thunderous claps, spewed flame that got caught in the gravitational fluctuations and was pushed and pulled and drawn into spiralling tendrils in the air, like rivers of fire they were cast through the room. A twisting dragon of heat burned through everything around them. Ko needed to duck behind the shield to protect himself, even though he had not thrown any grenades in this direction. The bombs threw soldiers like rag dolls through the air as they moved away from the outies and pulled into the innies, meeting the explosions from the bang-bangs that were also pulled into the bright mass, like the formation of tiny suns. He didn't even have time to see the effects in every corner and felt his heart thump at the sheer destruction of it all.
Ko felt himself being pulled in a cross current in the room but kept firing forward as much as he could. His bolts were now flying true as the gravity began to stabilise once more. All of his shots had been bending around the room, dragged by the gravitational forces. Shilu had moved over the Traes, protecting them with her body even under the shield.
He saw that Angie had moved to the far side of the room and was wrestling a rifle away from a soldier. She didn't have any tech, though. Fuck, thought Ko, and he drew a knife with his left hand, threw his rifle into the air just above him and twisted his right wrist. Suddenly, he had the Dorlec soldier in front of him, and he plunged the knife into his neck, between the armour plating. The soldier struggled against him, grabbing his helmet, but Ko shrugged him off, pushing the Dorlec against the wall, feeling the strength wane as he turned the knife.
He turned and saw Angie had not skipped a beat, as she was firing his rifle at the other soldiers. She had caught the rifle that he had lifted into the air, and unquestioningly stuck to the mission. She stood in front of Shilu and the Traes and fired from behind the shield at the Dorlec who were trying to take cover, dancing between the shadows of the fire and the bolts of light that darted across the room from each side.
Sheppard and his second-in-command were in the centre of the room with Meno and so had not felt the full effects of the bombs. He saw Meno moving toward the Commander ominously, the second in command struggling to get himself up to what Ko imagined was to run away. He held terror in his eyes. The room was still filled with blinding flashes of light and sound, and perhaps it was that and the fatigue, but Ko hadn't seen them arrive next to him. He had missed them, foolishly. He had made a mistake.
The flash of the large red cloak, the hood that covered the face, the black-gloved hand that reached to his forehead, the glowing white eyes that looked into his own through his helmet. The Seer had gotten him. He tried to pull away, but in a moment, he…
Ko was standing in a brilliant city, blueish stone cast buildings high into the air, reaching for a clear sky. Trees lined the borders of Kopt, he saw the university in the distance, glistening in the sunshine, its tall peaks sparkling in the clean air. Its streets passing with friendly faces, its warm air upon his skin. Then he was taken to a small room where he saw his reflection in a broken mirror, a young boy with dark hair, tears in his green eyes, and his cheeks still dirty from the street that he lived on. He looked malnourished. When was this? Then Lot said to him,
‘Soon it will be us’
He was standing before Grand Lord Le’Marc. Why was he here again? He turned to see Lot standing next to him, young, blonde, and eager. She looked so proud to be in the company of the Grand House Head. She turned to him and smiled,
Then he stood in an empty ship, with blood-stained hands, the knife still held in his left as he looked over the bodies in the cargo bay. He no longer had tears for such things, it was just another job. The bodies lay around him. Merchants, just going about their lives, but he needed this ship. He remembered being nine then.
Then he was back on Kopt, standing in the Dean’s office, a black box open on his table. They are trying to get into my mind. Ko knew what was in there. Their tech, chosen for them. Military grade. Only the best for them, only the best for the Alpha candidates. He looked next to him and saw the cold look on Lot’s face that he had never seen before. A look that Ko knew she had earned through no effort of her own. He remembered this. He remembered her.
Ko was looking at himself in the mirror again, his face changed, distorted, dulled. He didn't recognise himself. That was the point. If you couldn't recognise yourself, how would anyone else? He felt his cheeks, now thin and clean, no longer his own. No, this already happened, I’ve been here.
He was standing in a white marble room, surrounded by men and women in luxurious suits. Their chatter echoed off the walls as he stood in the corner. He tried to open his eyes again. He was walking out of the marble room, wiping at the blood that had splattered on his cheek. Lot was saying something to him.
Ko pulled at himself, clinging onto his own consciousness, dragging himself toward reality. He wasn't here, he was on Yeley. He fought for control, as he had been trained, focusing on his mind and his own thoughts, the images in front of him shifting like smoke.
“I am your instrument,” said Lot, bowing to a holo of the Grand Head. No, thought Ko, she doesn't sound like that anymore. She looked back at him, the cold taking her features. No!
He fought back with the memory of himself, of who he was in that moment, where he was. He saw the blood on his left glove, he felt the grip of the Seer. He was in the Traes apartments, he was saving a soldier, and he was in the middle of a battle. The smell of blood and fire in the room. He was not here! Light flooded his mind, breaking through the fog, and he pulled himself back to consciousness, like forcing yourself to wake up through exhaustion. The fog silted back,
He heaved himself back, gasping against the humid, metallic air inside his suit. His body ached—like something had scraped his nerves raw. The moment shattered, and he came to. He was looking into the white glowing eyes under the red cloak. The sound of the room echoed around him. Screams through his comms tech. The seer got closer and, through the distortion of their mask, said,
“Nissar’ra…” Ko needed to move his limbs to know where he was and what was happening. He felt the knife in his left hand and said,
“Yeah,” he said, planting his feet, “You should know not to get this close to one”, and he thrust the knife under the chin of the Seer, who lifted at the action. He pulled the knife to the side, feeling the flesh and the wiring to the mask under the hood being pulled and cut. It didn't cry out, it didn't make a sound. The seer dropped at his feet with a thud. Ko dropped to a knee, steadying his breath. He needed to pull himself together. He didn't have time to focus on the mistake.
“Ko!” screamed Paba through his comms. She must have overridden it. He looked around and saw that he could afford a breath and tried to straighten his mind out. “Ko!”
“Not now, Paba!” he said under the helmet as he picked up the rifle that Angie had been trying to fight for from the now-fallen Dorlec. He aimed at the middle of the room to where Meno had been and saw that he had the Kryptea in front of him. Archon had scorch marks all over her body, shallow wounds, like little craters on her body. The bolts had only been enough to pierce her skin. She stood circling the kid. He saw Angie and Shilu in the far left corner shooting at soldiers from behind the shield. Shilu had gathered a weapon now.. He saw the Commander getting back up to his feet and the second-in-command helping him to do so.
“Whatever, just look out”, said Paba’s voice in his comm, and he noticed all at once that Angie pulled Shilu down, and Meno turned to look behind him even though he had a Kryptea standing in front of him. Then he noticed why, he saw what Paba had planned. The two gliders that were being used as shields for Meno banked back onto their right side and sped up instantly, jetting into the patio over the balcony. They crashed through the patio into the room, breaking the ceiling and the balcony as they came in. The room shook with their entry, and Ko saw the inhabitants of the room scatter as they screeched across the stone and ground the litterings of furniture into the room, moving as though unimpeded. Ko realised what this was for, and ran forward toward the balcony to get away from the oncoming mirrored finish glider hurtling towards him.
“Now, Ko!” said Paba as he rushed to the edge of the balcony.
“Fucking hells, Paba!” He dropped the rifle, knowing he didn't need it anymore. His legs burning, the firing from behind him had stopped for a moment and the light from the fires still raging in the room cast across the wrecked stone ahead of him. “This was not the plan!” He was now in a cloud of dust but could see where the balcony ended, the darkness of the storm with its flickering sparks of lightning crackling behind it. He saw the shield that wrapped around the temple and the open air in front of him, and he jumped into it, into the open space, his aching legs treading air as he did so.
The Dagger-class ships hovered beyond the shield, unmoving. He drifted away from the tower and felt a moment of serene silence and cold air. He felt the lock and twisted his wrist.
He was in the cockpit of the Dagger class ship, his arms in front of him, in a flat position with his legs behind him. He watched the pilot that he had swapped with fall through the air in front of him, dropping down the side of the temple and drifting soundlessly into the darkness behind the shield that protected the temple. He saw the screens all over him, showing him every angle of the ship. He saw the other dagger class around him turn toward him, the storm behind him and the chaos of the patio in front of him. He took out and placed the pendant on the Dagger's console. The smile appeared, spinning on the displays.
“It’s done”, he roared into the comms as the other Daggers loomed. “How do I…” he didn't need to finish the sentence. Hal spoke.
“Oh babes,” he said as though receiving a truly amazing gift, “I like this ship”
