Everyone on the command deck would be dead before they arrived.
Kronos had betrayed not just Styx legion, but all Hyperions on Rogue 5 when they pulled their raids. They threatened our existence. If the Coalition Fleet decided to wage war on us, one battleship would be all it would take to turn our moon base into a crater in seconds.
/> We were smugglers, pirates. We didn’t draw attention to ourselves, and we didn’t bring down hell itself with uncontrolled greed.
The Fleet ignored us because we made it easy for them to do so. We operated, we kept the peace, we kept the black market under control. Every once in a while, tossed them a bone and offered assistance. Like now, although this time, we only let them think they were in charge.
But if we slipped the leash, pulled too hard, men like Mervan would destroy everything our people had built. Our truce was uneasy, balanced on a razor’s edge. And Kronos had fucked with the system. Gotten greedy. Tried to take too much. To take people. We didn’t do slaves.
Astra, Cerberus and Siren had all agreed with my plan when I contacted them to let them know my intended course of action. I hadn’t asked their permission to kill the bastards either. Luckily, the others had been in agreement. Every Kronos legionnaire on this ship would die today.
We met little resistance as we rushed down the hall. Two guards stood at the entrance to the command deck, their bodies blocking the large doors, their arm bands telltale yellow. Not red.
They were not hiding who they were here. Either they were cocky fuckers who didn’t care or they never imagined we’d find them and bring them down. That cockiness was at the core of every Hyperion, but today, it would destroy them.
They didn’t flinch as they fired at us in a steady stream, their blasters set on the highest setting.
The first shot hit me in the shoulder, but I barely felt the sting. Our bodies were different than the other races in the Coalition. Our armor custom made to distribute ionic charges—something Mervan knew nothing about. I wasn’t injured like a fighter would have been. No, I was enraged. The strike only grew my need to kill.
I rushed the guard on the left as Blade ran toward his companion.
A killing rage was upon me as I wondered if this man had laid his hands on my mate. Had shot that ion blaster at her on Latiri.
Blade’s bellow echoed down the corridor like a cannon blast as he shoved his guard up against the door and buried a blade in his throat. The strike was ruthless, the death swift, but it no doubt helped his blood lust.
I was feeling less civilized, but more in control. I wanted to kill the guard before me, yes, but I also wanted to send a message.
Holding the Kronos soldier up against the wall by his neck, I looked over my shoulder at Silver. “Record this. I want it played on every comm on Rogue 5.”
Her grin was pure evil as she adjusted a sensor on her uniform and nodded.
Looking into the recording device, I narrowed my eyes and held the Kronos soldier still, my grip sure. His hands wrapped around mine, tugging, fighting for air. I ignored him and addressed my people.
“I am Styx. This soldier from Kronos is part of an operation that attacked the Coalition MedRec teams. Not only did Kronos disobey Legion Law in attacking outright, endangering all of us with their reckless taunting of the Coalition Fleet, he attacked my mate.”
Blade stepped next to me, his gaze fixed on the man I still held pinned to the wall. Face sprayed with blood, hands coated with it, he turned and faced the camera, fangs on display as he snarled his own version of a warning to anyone who might be watching.
“This is what happens to my enemies.” Turning, I ripped the offender’s throat from his neck with one hand and dropped his body to the ground with the loosening of my fingers. The scent of blood and death filled the air, filled my nostrils, making my fangs drop, too. Dangling the remains of his breathing tube and bloody flesh in my hand, I turned back to the camera and spoke in the calmest, coldest voice I could manage. “This is not Styx legion in a rage. This is not Styx losing control. This,” I dangled the bloody mess one more time before lowering it and taking a step closer to the camera. “This is what I do to my enemies. This is what I do to those who harm my mate. The rules about mates is bigger than Coalition Law. Than Legion Law. No planet, no leader in the universe will deny the need for revenge against those who would harm a mate. Let it be known what they have done and how I will finish them.”
“Send that to Rogue 5 now,” I said. “Right fucking now. We should play it morning, noon and night on every broadcast channel.”
I wanted the truth known. Unrest to end. The betrayers to cease to exist.
The Coalition fighters caught up to us in the hall. Their leader, a huge Prillon warrior with dark skin and amber eyes, frowned when he saw the carnage. “We were to take them alive, Styx.”
“They went after our mate,” I said, telling him what he missed because of their slow approach.
Apparently, that was enough explanation, because the Prillon dismissed the bodies with barely a flicker of his eyes as he pointed his ion blaster toward the door. I had to wonder if he had a mate and a second back on Prillon Prime. “Let’s end this,” he said. Duty and honor were both reasons for him to complete his mission.
Blade looked at me. No question, we were going in first. “Ready?”
I nodded, and he lifted the dead guard’s hand to press it to the door scanner, blood smearing as he did so.
The door slid open and we rushed inside, ready to fight. Ready to kill.
But Mervan was already there. The entire Kronos command crew was on their knees, their hands and feet locked in metallic restraints so strong even an Atlan in beast mode couldn’t break them.
The doctor stood over the highest-ranking enforcer from Kronos, a man Blade and I had known for years.