“Don’t tell me,” Matt said as I shot him a look.

  “Coil was here.”

  CHAPTER 16

  We knew that the Sanguine starship we had escaped from Mertan in, the same ship we’d set General Coil free on, had turned up on the barren, mountainous planet of Gloin. Our recon AI had determined it was sitting about twenty klicks from an entrance to an underground facility surrounded by multiple fixed gun batteries, missile launchers, and mechs. Individuals who apparently had nothing better to do loitered outside the facility in the planet’s sweltering heat.

  What we didn’t know was whether Coil had made his way to the planet before he helped Jason Yen seize Grizz’s family, or if his wife and kids might also be in the facility with David. On one hand, I hoped that was the case. Killing two birds with one stone would easily get me back to Atlas within the three days I’d promised Keep. On the other hand, after getting my first look at the defenses, I had to believe his family would be safer anywhere else. If the Kritchek Aleal had warned whoever was in charge of the base that we were coming, how many additional assets had he hidden inside the compound or temporarily positioned beyond the range of our drone’s sensors?

  Getting David out would be hard enough. Rescuing Grizz’s family on top of that would increase the difficulty level exponentially. The problem wasn’t necessarily getting them out. It would be getting all of them out alive and unharmed.

  What we also didn’t know was how Coil knew about Gloin. The easy assumption was that he was an Aleal and had faked his blindness to pass himself off as human. But having dealt with the colonel as both ally and enemy, I found that conjecture hard to believe. I also couldn’t come up with a good motive for the Aleal to infiltrate Kill Spree, of all places. Arguably, they could have gone there in hopes of killing me when I came to rescue Matt and the others, which I imagined was something Blorb figured I would do. Only Coil hadn’t tried any harder to kill me than he had anyone else. Maybe he’d been even less determined to take me out, because my death wouldn’t have scored him any points in the game.

  My next best guess was that he had managed to access the Sanguine ship’s comms and had searched through the frequencies to put out a distress signal. All he would’ve had to do was wait for someone to respond. Maybe that someone had been Blorb or maybe someone loyal to Blorb’s cause. Through whatever stroke of luck, he had managed to locate a savior who’d of course demanded something in return.

  And here we were.

  Maybe that was a good theory. Maybe it wasn’t. In the end, it didn’t matter. I had promised Grizz I would help his family. If they were on Gloin, I would find them and get them out. Full stop. End of story.

  We spent three hours in the conference room after the discovery of the Sanguine starship reviewing the estimates of the enemy’s resources, planning how to best approach planet orbit, and then successfully penetrate the hardened installation on the ground. Major Nori and Commander Volker discussed the Royal Marine ingress at length to ensure the landing team made it to the surface in great enough numbers and with the right equipment to punch through the outer defenses and then continue carving through the installation once they got inside. There was no question we would be outnumbered and outgunned. Even our most conservative estimate put us in an unenviable tactical position. But like Keep had said, I was worth more than a hundred Royal Marines. Both Nori and Volker counted on me to be the equalizer.

  I wasn’t convinced I would be enough.

  We had no idea what waited for us behind the entrance to the enemy lair. A thousand armed and armored fighters? A dozen Gilded? Blorb himself? I doubted the latter, but couldn’t say the same for the first two. More likely, we’d encounter some combination of both. Whatever it was, I didn’t have a good feeling about it.

  I wasn’t worried just for myself. I was worried for everyone else, too. My crew, David, Grizz’s family. And the Royal Marines who would follow me into the breach.

  My head was spinning from exhaustion by the time the briefing ended. Unfortunately, there was little time remaining to rest. Seven hours. It would go by in a flash, and the nervous energy pulsing beneath the surface of my fatigue would make it hard to sleep. Returning to Head Case with Matt, Justus, and Dryka, I decided to pass the time in the lounge, while the others settled in for a snooze they hadn’t been able to steal time for earlier, thanks to my incarceration, as short-lived as it had turned out to be.

  At first, I found myself alone with Shaq, a pepperoni pizza on the sofa beside me, my new guitar cradled in my lap, and a bottle of beer on the end table. Eyes closed, I swiped my fingers across the guitar strings in no particular order or rhythm, listening closely to the resultant sounds. My ability to pick out the resonance of chaos energy behind the audible notes continued to improve, leaving me able to charge my construct with only a few notes, in only a few seconds. It was a major upgrade from the minutes I originally needed, cementing my belief that the protostem had something to do with it. While Meg hadn’t used the material for anything other than to make the paint, she had accidentally given me exactly what I needed to up my game.

  “Captain,” Dryka said from behind me.

  I opened my eyes and stopped playing, looking back over my shoulder at her. We hadn’t spoken on the way back to Head Case. Nobody had said much of anything. The weight of knowing what was to come had left us all lost in our thoughts.

  “Duchess,” I said. “Did you sleep?”

  “Some,” she replied.

  I scooped up a slice of pizza and held it out toward her. “Hungry?”

  She smiled. “No, thank you. At least, not for your wheel of death.” She paused, staring at me, hesitant to speak.

  “Are you still mad at me for not giving you a ship?” I asked, trying to prompt her for an answer.

  “Yes,” she replied, “though I understand why you rejected my request. I would have done the same in your position.”

  “So why are you angry?”

  “For most of my life, I’ve led and others have followed. Being a follower is a new experience for me.”

  “Being a leader is a new experience for me.”

  “You wouldn’t know it by watching you. Watching you is like watching my father all over again. He was a great leader. For all my disappointment and rage over being denied, I’m equally impressed with your poise and maturity, and that you weren’t afraid to say no to me.”

  “That means a lot to me, coming from you,” I said.

  She smiled. “I’m honored to serve under you, Ben. You’re a good man, and I know you’ll do the best you can.”

  “I know you’ll do the same, as will our combined crews. That’s how we’ll win.”

  “It is,” she agreed.

  “Do you want to watch a movie or something?” I asked, motioning to the television. “We still have a few more hours before we need to be in position for the assault.”

  “No, thank you. I’m going to have a snack and return to my room. I’m thankful I didn’t trip over Justus on my way out the door. Hopefully, I can repeat the victory on my way back.”

  “I’m sorry Head Case doesn’t have more rooms for everyone. I don’t think Keep ever expected the head count to get this high.”

  “I’m used to crowded spaces, and Justus doesn’t snore too loudly.”

  “Heya, Boo.” Emerald said, coming down the stairs to the lounge. “Nobody told me you had come back from your meeting. How did it go?” She circled the sofa and plopped down on the opposite end, reaching for a slice of pizza.

  “The odds are against us,” I admitted.

  “We’re all going to die!” she screeched gleefully, bursting into a fit of laughter that was stifled when she took a bite of the pie. “I believe in you,” she added with her mouth full.

  “I heard Emerald laughing,” Sheri said, wearily entering the lounge dressed in a t-shirt and shorts, her hair tousled from sleep. “What’s so funny?”

  “Don’t ask,” I replied.

  “We’re all going to die!” Emerald repeated with the same gusto as the first time.

  “You’re going to wake up everyone in the ship,” I said.

  “Good. We should all hang out one last time before we die.”

  “We aren’t going to die.”

  “Prove it.”

  “I’ll prove it when I don’t die.”

  “And not until then.” She laughed again.

  “This is the dumbest conversation I’ve ever eavesdropped on,” Matt said, not far behind Sheri. Ki was with him.

  “What kind of party should we have?” Emerald asked.

  "A sober one,” George said, joining the rest of the group. “Believe me, alcohol and firefights don’t mix.”

  “Maybe we can play charades,” Sheri suggested.

  “I don’t know what that is,” Emerald said.

  “Me either,” Shaq agreed from where he sat on my shoulder.

  “Why don’t we just watch a movie?” I suggested. “It’ll kill time and distract us without any physical demands.”

  “I’ll get the popcorn!” Emerald shouted, jumping up and running to the kitchen.

  “I’ll get the drinks,” Sheri said, looking at George. “Non-alcoholic only.” She picked up my beer bottle, only half empty. “That means you, too.” I shrugged.

  “What about our engineers?” Matt asked. “And Quasar, Narayan and Ixy?”

  “Unfortunately, Meg, Leo, and Grizz still have a lot of prep to do,” I said. “If the others are sleeping, we shouldn’t wake them.”

  Justus stumbled down the steps. “What’s going on in here?”

  “We’re going to watch a movie while we wait to attack Gloin,” George said.

  “What movie?” he asked.

  “Ben’s the Captain,” Dryka said. “He should pick.”

  “As long as it’s not That Darn Cat,” Quasar said, entering the lounge. “I’m ready to jettison the entire datastore out of an airlock just to never have to see that dumb film again.”

  “Ditto,” Shaq agreed. “Blech.”

  “Alter liked it,” I countered.

  “She was the only one,” Quasar added. “Trust me.”

  “I’ve got the perfect pick,” Matt said before I could think of anything suitable for such a diverse audience. He picked up the remote for the big tube television and turned it on. “Someone cover Ben’s eyes, I don’t want him to see it before it starts playing.”

  Quasar leaned over me from behind the couch, putting her hands over my eyes. “No peeking.”

  “I wouldn’t dream of it.”

  “Popcorn for everyone,” Emerald announced, returning to the lounge. I heard her passing out bags to the crew.

  “Drinks too,” Sheri added.

  “Hurry up and sit down,” I said. “The suspense is killing me.”

  I knew the movie as soon as the orchestra started playing, and started to laugh. “How do you even know anything about this movie? And where did you find it?”

  “It’s been on the datastore the entire time,” Matt replied. “Keep told me about it.”

  Quasar removed her hands, leaving me looking up at the opening credits to The Last Starfighter. Of course. It was one of Keep’s favorites.

  I looked around at my crew as they settled wherever they could find space. Of course, Emerald tried to choose my lap, but I got the pizza there in time to stop her. For a moment, I thought she might put her butt right in the cheese and sauce, but she settled for squeezing onto the sofa between me and George instead.

  I wished the rest of the crew could be here.

  I had a sinking feeling we might never be together like this again.

  CHAPTER 17

  I stepped out of the elevator on Deck Five, my palms slightly sweaty as I made my way forward to the sigibellum. I had traded the fancier blue uniform for what the Marines called Scout Armor. Essentially, the base underlay with a second, slightly less revealing layer on top that could chroma-shift like a chameleon. It wasn’t the same as being invisible, but it did make the wearer a little harder to see. Major Nori told me the outfit cost five times the price of regular combat armor, and only their most elite fighters had permission to wear it.

  And he had given it to me. I was honored.

  The second major benefit to the armor over regular gear was its increased freedom of movement. While I could play my guitar in Tsu’s armor, if everything went according to plan, I would need to do more than stand in one place and play. I would have to keep the music flowing while taking enemy fire, and spitting riffs in a crouch would have been impossible in a heavier, less flexible shell like Tsu’s.

  I shifted the instrument from behind my shoulder to across my chest as I reached the sigibellum. Ixy was already there, ready if I needed her to click out the timing of the music, ready if needed to join me in the second phase of the fight. Shaq hopped off my shoulder, jumping to one of the displays ringing the outside of the sigibellum while I stepped into its center.

  Parabellum. I’d always liked the word and its meaning—if you want peace, then prepare for war—from the John Wick movie. I never thought it would come so acutely into play in a similar way in my own life. But here I was. Here we all were.

  I strummed my guitar a few times, adjusting the volume and waking the sigibellum. The displays activated along with the sensor grid, giving me a view of the massive starships surrounding us, each appearing kilometers long from my perspective. Of course, we were scaled down, a soccer ball resting in a launcher at the front of a line of starfighters.

  Clacking boots drew my attention away from the displays. I turned to greet Dryka and the members of the ground assault team, led by Ki. George and Sheri were with her, along with Quasar, Emerald and Narayan. Each of them were dressed in combat armor, though from the way Sher kept twitching and shrugging beneath hers, I could tell she hadn't yet adjusted to the fit. Or maybe it was just her nerves making her fidgety.

  “Captain Murdock,” Dryka said.

  “Duchess,” I replied.

  “Ki and the Litter reporting for duty, sir,” Ki added, coming to attention. The rest of my group matched her to varying degrees of success.

  “You can strap in there,” I said, pointing to eight stand-up restraint systems the Marine techs had pulled from one of their surplus dropships and installed a few hours ago.

  “Yes, sir.” Ki led the assault team over to the restraints.

  “This reminds me of Disney World,” Sheri said as she backed up against hers. A series of bars lowered from overhead, pulling back to hold fast to her knees, waist, chest, and helmeted forehead.

  Emerald laughed before stepping back against the system beside Sheri, the bars coming down and quickly locking her into place. I expected her to shout “we’re all going to die!” again, but she managed to restrain herself. The rest of the Litter took their positions and locked in.

  “Cap, do you copy?” Matt asked, his voice coming out of buds nestled in my ears. I wanted to wear a helmet like the others, but the built-in noise cancellation of the system would have made it too hard to hear the music. The Marine earbuds were the next best thing, offering access to multiple channels and an AI that would distribute my voice to the right one seemingly automagically.

  “I hear you,” I replied as I maglocked my boots to the sigibellum. Dryka locked in immediately beside the platform, ready to replace me when the time came.

  “We’re t-minus two minutes,” Matt said.

  “Patch me into the officer comms.”

  “Aye, Captain.”

  “Nori, Volker, do you read?”

  “Aye, Captain Murdock,” Volker said. “Loud and clear.”

  “Head Case is locked and loaded,” I said. “All assets are in position.”

  “Copy that,” Nori said. “The Royal Marines are ready to disembark.”

  “As is the Royal Navy,” Volker added. “T-minus eighty-eight seconds to drop.”

  My heart began pounding, my mouth suddenly much drier than a moment earlier. The increased heart rate didn’t serve me well. My vision started blurring, my balance failing. I leaned forward, putting a hand on one of the displays.

  “Ben?” Dryka said. “Are you okay? I can take over.”

  The dizziness passed. I straightened up. “I’m okay.” I took a few deep breaths, steadying my nerves as I glanced past the displays to Sheri. She was shaking visibly with anxious energy. I had tried and failed to talk her out of joining the ground assault after the movie ended. She wanted to do her part protecting Earth. Protecting me. I wished she was anywhere else but here.

  “T-minus thirty seconds,” Matt said.

  Head Case shuddered slightly as the launching system activated. A chill ran through me. It was go time. No turning back now. I hoped we had covered all our bases, hadn’t missed anything and were as ready as we could possibly be.

  Looking at the displays, I watched the starfighters shifting around us, the system cycling them into position for launch. Being so tiny right now, it was easy to feel insignificant and alone. But we weren’t on our own this time. In this fight. We had the full force of a Royal Sentry at our back and a full complement of Marines at our side.

  Better than having a bounty on your head, for sure.

  “T-minus fifteen seconds,” Matt updated.

  The launcher slid forward, positioning us at the head of the tunnel leading out into space. LEDS flashed on along the length of the tube, revealing the way out.

  Matt counted down from ten seconds. The officer channel remained silent as Volker and Nori made final last minute adjustments prior to launching their own teams into battle.

  “…zero. Launch!” Matt announced as the force of the launcher’s sudden acceleration pulled at me. I tensed my core and legs against the g-forces, watching as Head Case rocketed through the launch tunnel, approaching the quickly opening bay doors.

  My hands found the strings, and I started playing Hendrix’s Voodoo Child. I was no Hendrix. Not even close. But it didn’t matter how well I played. All that mattered was the chaos energy behind the sound. It flooded into and through me. The etched floor of the sigibellum glowed more brightly as I passed that energy into the sigils etched into the panels of Head Case’s hull.