“We believe the bunker on Xenon was a trap designed to eliminate our newest Starfighter Titan, Lily Becker of Earth,” General Romulus added from where he stood to the side of the nav grid. “They knew we would deploy the Titan teams to that location. Not only was the interior wired to blow, but the cliffs had been drilled to ensure anyone in that area would be buried under massive rockslides.”
Lily leaned forward, an angry glare on her face. “Are you telling me they set that whole thing up for me?”
Mia looked her dead in the eye. “Yes.”
“That’s insane.”
“And yet you survived,” the general pointed out. “Elite Starfighters are powerful. You are no exception.”
“But—”
I placed my hand on her thigh and gently squeezed. Lily blinked rapidly, shaking her head. To me she whispered, “I’m a librarian, Darius. This is crazy. How do they even know about me?”
“Spies.”
“Brilliant.”
“They were nearly successful in killing not only Lily, but several members of the Titan teams,” Kass added. “Three Titan fighters remain in medical. Lily, your Titan, Athena, was destroyed. They are building you a new one, but it won’t be ready for several days, and we don’t have that long.”
Was I an ass for breathing a sigh of relief at the news? I did not want my Lily in another battle so soon after I’d nearly lost her. The medics said her leg was healed, but that did nothing to calm me or my need to protect her.
My relief was short-lived.
“Elite Starfighter Titan Divi suffered severe burns during the battle on Xenon. She is still in the medical station, sedated, as her skin regenerates. Her second-tier bonded fighter, her sister Dea, spoke briefly with Divi this morning, and she has agreed to transfer her Titan, Bellator, to Lily for use in this battle.”
“Athena was completely destroyed? Wreckage?” Lily looked heartbroken.
“She saved your life, and she is being rebuilt,” Mia assured her. “She just won’t be ready for this mission.”
Lily sat back, her arms crossed over her chest. As Mia adjusted the images again, Lily turned to me. “Sisters? I didn’t know we could be siblings.”
I shrugged. “Off-world pairings have always been pair-bonded, but not all partnerships are. Some are siblings. Best friends. Anyone you fight well with and are willing to die to protect.”
“Except your brother died and you didn’t.”
The cutting voice came from nearby. I closed my eyes as the familiar guilt and pain swelled in my throat, burning its way in two directions to make both my chest and my head ache.
“What?” Lily turned around. “Who said that?”
“Lily.” Mia cleared her throat and Lily faced forward to listen, but her gaze repeatedly darted to me, the accusation I saw there one I could not deny. I had not told her everything, that was true. But I’d done it to protect her.
Mia and Kass detailed the mission. Queen Raya’s fleet was set up for multiple waves of attack. First would be drones to take out Velerion’s satellite defense grid. Thousands of them. Followed by waves of Scythe fighters clearing a pathway for ground troop deployment via shuttle drops. The cruisers were going to triangulate multiphase and multifrequency jammers so we would have direct line of sight, laser communication only.
It was going to be a complete fucking nightmare.
And then General Romulus spoke directly to the Titan teams.
“According to intel, Queen Raya will be orbiting near Velerion’s equator on this cruiser.” He pointed to a large ship. “Our plan is to take one Titan team to each cruiser before they arrive in Velerion space. The Titan teams will deploy from a stealth shuttle that will use Xenon’s magnetic field to hide their presence and remain just outside their scanner range. When the cruisers pass Xenon on their way here, those Titan teams will rely on ejection velocity and their own boosters to navigate and attach to the cruisers’ hulls.”
“Holy fuck.”
Ryzix again, and I completely agreed. The Titans would be hurtling through space with no support team, no backup, no way out if they didn’t make it, and not enough air or reserve fuel to return to Velerion any way but on one of those cruisers’ hulls.
Titans could fly, but the external shielding couldn’t handle the heat and stress of planetary re-entry. Nor did the Titans have enough energy reserve to make that kind of landing or wait for another ride home.
“We have analyzed their attack strategy. If they succeed in placing the cruisers in orbit, Velerion will fall.” General Aryk, our highest-ranking officer in the fleet and leader of the Galactic Alliance, paused for a long minute to let that sink in.
“So, how do we stop them?” Lily asked. “The shuttle shoots one of us out like a cannonball, we adjust on the fly using our boosters, grab onto the cruiser hull, and then what? Won’t they know the second we land?”