Two nights Soren had spent with the team on Dynassa.

  After interrogating Kang, they had scoped out the location of the network terminal. But by the time they felt they had a confident approach plan, the narrow window of opportunity had closed. The night's shadows were already receding, giving way to what little of the sun's dawn light actually made it down to the middle levels. Tempting as it was to push forward, they decided to wait and strike when darkness fell again.

  So, they'd found a halfway clean hotel in a forgotten corner, the kind of place that didn't ask for ID and accepted untraceable payment. Aurania had rented a suite big enough for all of them, and they had collapsed into their separate bunks, yielding to exhaustion and a couple budding hangovers.

  But Soren never actually fell asleep.

  He didn't tell anyone, he just waited for the rest of them to recharge. Inelius grumbled every so often in his sleep. Tamiyo made tiny little snoozing sounds as her antennae twitched. Between the constant flusters and the expensive whiskies, Veolo was heavily sedated and snoring like a diesel engine being smothered by a pillow.

  Soren found his gaze kept wandering to Aurania, however.

  She slept on her side, one arm beneath her pillow and the other thrown over her head. Her entire body was twisted in a way that accentuated the insane curves that planted the words fertility goddess in his head the first time he saw her. The fierce lines of command had softened in sleep, leaving behind a raw beauty that made his chest ache. She was gorgeous when she was awake. Like this, she seemed to glow in a way that didn't feel real.

  He didn't want to stare, didn't want her to think he was being creepy or anything. But time blurred. The hours of the night blinked by quicker than the 8,000 years he'd been out of the galaxy. And then, suddenly, he was staring a thousand yards through her cheekbone, when his attention was snapped back to reality by movement.

  Her eyes opened and it was like her gaze had locked with his before her eyelid even moved.

  For a long moment, neither of them moved. The city hummed outside, so distant it could've been another world. Then Soren looked away, and neither of them acknowledged it more.

  The rest of that day was spent in a mix of preparation and rest. Soren made a scouting run to the Davi-Co logistics tower with Inelius and Tamiyo while Aurania helped nurse Veolo's splitting headache. When night finally fell again, they made their move.

  They found security light, only two night guards on patrol that were easily avoided after disabling cameras. Despite only being a cargo depot, Tamiyo's advanced CIPHER suite surgically peeled back layers of code, bypassed security protocols, and used the terminal owner's limited clearance as a key to unlock doors he likely didn't even know existed.

  She was quiet for a long time as she worked, until finally, she firmly said, “Got something.”

  “Hit me,” Aurania said from near the door, eyes still on lookout.

  “All the major corporations,” Tamiyo said, “Davi-Co, Zark Industries, Hawk Incorporated, and about half a dozen smaller players—they all keep tabs on each other. It’s a web of corporate espionage, competitive sabotage... they rarely collaborate on anything. But I found this buried under heavy encryption.”

  Soren made his way over to the screen as she turned it up for him to look. He read off what he saw so the others could all hear. “It's a calendar entry, a high-priority, off-the-books meeting between Davi-Co and Hawk Incorporated.”

  “Two of the heaviest hitters on the planet,” Aurania noted.

  “Yeah,” Tamiyo confirmed. “But what makes it really interesting is the third heavy hitter, Zark Industries. They're listed as the subject of the meeting. But they weren't invited.”

  All five of them looked at each other.

  "So two of the big players are meeting in secret," Inelius had said, “to discuss a rival."

  So now, tonight, fully armed and armored, they were watching the meeting location. The penthouse suite where the meeting was supposed to happen was on the seventy-third floor of an obsidian-black tower on the city's upper levels. They watched it from an empty room on the third floor of a nearby tower.

  “A lot more guards than that network terminal had,” Veolo noted.

  Soren sighted down his rifle's scope—she wasn't wrong. There were armed guards everywhere.

  “Uh,” Inelius spoke up next to him. “Anyone else noticing what’s on their uniforms?”

  Soren saw it too. He handed his rifle to Aurania, who just had her greataxe and sidearm. She let the axe drop to the floor, a heavy metallic THUNK ringing out as it landed on the flat top edge and stood there. Then she took the rifle, shouldered it, and looked through the scope.

  After a moment, she dropped it from her shoulder and looked at the rest of them, brow furrowed. “Zark.”

  “Based on their casual demeanor,” Inelius observed, “I'd say this location belongs to them, not the others.”

  “They don't look like they're expecting company anytime soon,” Veolo said as she watched through her own scope.

  After a moment of thought, Aurania looked around, then up. “Inelius, you and Tamiyo, head up this tower. See if you can get eyes into the upper levels of that building.”

  “Copy,” he responded, and he and Tamiyo moved out.

  “Veolo,” Aurania continued. “Start sneaking up. Slow. Advance only if you’re sure you’re hidden. We’ll give you eyes from here.”

  “On it.” Veolo moved back toward the way they'd entered the building. A minute later, they spotted her darting through the shadows on the ground level.

  After twenty minutes, she had inched close enough to hear them. “They're not talking like they know any meeting is going down,” she whispered over comms. “Just standard patrol chatter.”

  But not five minutes later, the atmosphere on the street shifted. The guards all stiffened, their postures snapping to alert and ready. Several black corporate vehicles pulled up to the curb, and a handful of suits emerged.

  “Those are the heads of Zark Industries,” Tamiyo radioed from above.

  They made their way inside with a heavy escort of guards, and Veolo moved like a shadow in their wake. Soren had no idea how they didn't notice her following, she was close enough to leap forward and grab one if she wanted. He felt a knot of tension in his gut as he lost sight of her and she disappeared into the building.

  Time felt like it crawled by. Soren kept his scope trained on the building, but there was nothing to see beyond the handful of guards that remained outside.

  Eventually, Veolo’s hushed voice crackled over the comms. “Okay, I’m secure for the moment. They’re all pretty worked up about something. I’m not sure, but I get the vibe from the way they’re talking that they might have someone from the escape pods stashed here.”

  “You might not be the only one thinking that,” Inelius responded. “Davi-Co and Hawk, inbound.”

  A convoy of armored trucks rolled in, fast and aggressive. Five from the east, five from the west, their tires screeching against the pavement as they boxed in the Zark corporate vehicles. Men with rifles and flak jackets poured out, surrounding the Zark guards in moments. They saw the overwhelming force, and though a couple initially lifted the barrels of their weapons, they all yielded within seconds. Not a single shot was fired.

  “Veolo!” Aurania said urgently. “Tuck in quiet! Things just escalated, this is looking like an ambush.”

  “Shit, okay,” Veolo responded.

  “We’re coming to you,” Aurania added. “Inelius, stay up there. Protect Tamiyo. Provide cover fire if needed.”

  “Roger,” Inelius replied.

  Aurania picked up her axe and looked at Soren. “Quick and quiet. No engaging unless spotted or I tell you.”

  “Yes, ma’am,” he said formally, falling into step behind her as she moved toward the stairs.

  When they were down on the street, moving hastily toward the tower, Aurania asked over her shoulder, “Have you tried intentionally using your strength? Not during a fit of rage?”

  Soren hesitated. He had done so only once. Against Klix and Kasey. He wanted to answer her, but the words caught in his throat. She must have sensed his thoughts through their damn mental link, because she slowed her pace for several seconds, glaring hard over her shoulder. Then she muttered, “No glowy shit,” and kept moving.

  Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

  They got as close as they could without being spotted, taking cover behind some large concrete pillars. From here, they could peek out and get a clear view of the tower’s main entrance. Soren felt confident he could effectively engage with his rifle and get killshots if needed.

  “Veolo, status if no one is nearby,” Aurania whispered into her comms.

  After a moment of quiet, three sharp clicks came over the channel. She wasn’t able to speak. A second later, her mic keyed open, the sensitivity turned all the way up. The voices of the corporate executives filtered through.

  “…seriously wish you hadn’t just dropped in unannounced. But you’re here. I see no reason not to be civil.”

  “I wonder how different your civility would be if we hadn’t shown up. Were you planning to keep him for yourself?”

  “No. I know you don’t believe me, but it’s irrelevant. We all want the same thing. Let’s just go talk to him together.”

  There was a sound of heavy footsteps growing quieter. After several moments of silence, Veolo’s voice came through. “Following.”

  “Be extremely careful,” Aurania hissed. She looked at Soren.

  “They obviously have someone,” he noted.

  “Yeah,” she agreed. After a moment of careful thought, she stood. "Stay here."

  "What?" he started, but she was already moving, stepping out into the open.

  He watched as she approached the collection of Davi-Co and Hawk guards, who immediately tensed, their rifles coming up. She stopped a respectful distance away, one hand raised, the other holding her axe casually behind her. He couldn't hear what she was saying, but he could see the effect. The guards hesitated, their postures shifting from aggressive to confused.

  Soren followed her lead, stepping out into the open, his own rifle held low. He gave the guards a slow, easy nod. One of them, a man with a jagged scar across his cheek, kept his weapon trained on Soren.

  "Nice piece," Soren nodded toward the guard's rifle. "That’s gotta be custom-built, right?"

  The guard slightly recoiled, his focus shifting for a fraction of a second from the threat to the compliment. "Uh, yeah. Custom venting helps with the recoil."

  Soren took a casual step toward the armored trucks. "These things are badass," he lifted a curious hand toward it. “May I? The armor rating has to be insane, looks way sturdier than what I drove in the military years back.”

  “You were a driver?” The guard asked skeptically. He was indicating Soren’s immense height. “The fuck kind of vehicle has a driver’s seat big enough for someone like you?”

  Soren was trying to think of a convincing answer when Veolo’s voice crackled over comms. “Oh shit,” she said in an amazed gasp. “Governor Anturi. He’s alive. I’m looking right at him.”

  Then, a new voice cut in from her end. “Who are you?”

  Veolo nervously replied, “Uh, hello.”

  Soren looked at Aurania.

  He looked back at the guard.

  Then Soren shoved a front-kick into the side of the truck like he was kicking an opponent in the chest. The multi-ton armored vehicle shot twenty feet backward, lifting several feet off the ground as it partially rolled mid-air. It slammed into a group of at least half a dozen guards who barely had time to register before they were flattened.

  The guard Soren had been talking to pulled his rifle up to shoot but Aurania’s axe caught him in the chest.

  Three more guards were scrambling. A bullet pinged off Soren’s shoulder armor. He pivoted and gunned the man down. The other two were firing at Aurania, but she was steadily advancing toward them with her greataxe held up like a shield, bullets sparking harmlessly off the massive blade. Soren dropped one of the men as the other turned to run.

  Aurania’s axe caught him in the back, cleaving him from shoulder to hip.

  There was a moment of silence.

  Soren ejected his magazine and it clattered to the pavement. As he was loading a fresh one, Aurania rounded on him. “I told you to stay put!”

  “You told me to use my strength!”

  “Then I told you to stay put!”

  “Veolo,” Inelius’s voice cut in firmly over comms. “Status report.”

  A confused overlap of voices came in from her end. It sounded like the executives from all three companies were trying to figure out which one she belonged to.

  “Veolo,” Soren said. “You still on the seventy-third floor?”

  This time, she answered. “Y-yeah.”

  “Yeah what?” a man’s voice demanded from her end.

  “What are you doing?” Aurania asked.

  Soren ignored her. He set his rifle on the ground, moved to another of the armored trucks, and crouched down, his hands gripping the vehicle. He tried to lift it off the ground but only succeeded in tearing off a chunk of the fender. He adjusted, finding better grips on the wheel with one hand and a solid piece of frame with the other.

  With a deep breath and a heavy groan, he lifted. The entire vehicle rose off the ground and he stood.

  “The fuck are you doing?” Aurania pressed as she stepped closer.

  “Inelius,” Soren grunted, his voice strained with the immense effort. “Shoot the window. Seventy-third floor.”

  “Aura?” Inelius asked.

  She growled in frustration, then spat, “Do it.”

  A single, sharp crack echoed through the air. Soren looked up, and high, high above, he saw the glint of shattering glass. He took another deep breath, let out a short roar of effort, and hurled the truck. It sailed upward, arcing through the air, then crashed into the side of the building.

  Soren and Aurania both stared at it.

  Then she turned to him, her voice dripping with condescension. “Please tell me you weren’t aiming for the window he shot.”

  Soren grimaced, his shoulders slumping. “I was…”

  The rear half of the truck stuck out from the side of the building, about forty feet to the right and at least ten floors too low.

  Aurania’s glare dropped to him. “Pick up your damn weapon, follow me, and stop ignoring my fucking orders.” She turned and stalked toward the tower's entrance.

  The elevator moved quickly upwards, but it was still a long ride up seventy-three floors. As they waited, Aurania let out a sigh. “What was even your plan back there?”

  Soren shook his head, feeling embarrassed. “It seemed like a better idea in my head. If I was able to get it up there accurately, I was going to have you get on another one and throw you up.”

  She barked a laugh, a sound that was more surprised than mocking. But then she said, “Ain’t no fuckin’ way I’m letting you throw me through the air.”

  Soren just sighed in response.

  The elevator let out an innocent ding, and the doors slid open. A guard was standing nearby, a Davi-Co insignia on his flak jacket. He had a finger pressed to his earpiece, his back half-turned to them. “...There’s a truck where?”

  Then he noticed them and he spun, his weapon coming halfway up to aim. “Whoa, whoa, whoa, who are you?”

  “Who are we?” Aurania asked in feigned confusion. She took a slow step forward. “We were just up here. Are you seriously telling me you can’t keep track of everyone?”

  That threw him off balance, just enough. His barrel dropped a few inches, his brow furrowing. “Well, there are guards from three companies everywhere. But you’re not wearing… and I would rememb—”

  The air was knocked out of his chest.

  Aurania had chucked the axe toward him with a quick snap of her arm, the flat top of the blade slamming into his torso. He went flying back ten feet, crashing into a decorative planter as the axe dropped to the floor with a clatter.

  She scooped her weapon without breaking stride. They quickly encountered more guards, rifles coming up to block their path.

  "Hold it right there," one of them barked, a captain by the look of his insignia. "This is private property, drop your weapons."

  Soren flinched at the sheer volume with which Aurania's voice boomed through the entire floor. "I don't give a shit what you all are fuckin’ doing! I'm looking for the little bitch that wronged me! You seen a pissy little silver-haired lacravida around here?!"

  They paused, a ripple of confusion passing through the ranks. The captain keyed his comm. "We've got a... big-ass lacravida looking for the other one."

  Several doors along the hallway opened up, and a whole gagglefuck of guards filled into the wide hallway, a mix of uniforms from all three corporations. At the far end, a heavy-set man with a Hawk Incorporated patch was aggressively pulling Veolo by the arm.

  Aurania stopped, her eyes locking on Veolo. She spread her arms wide in a silent question.

  Veolo's head nodded toward her right, indicating where the governor was.

  And then Aurania was moving.

  She surged forward, her axe swinging in long arcs. Left, then right, each swing a scythe that cut through at least two bodies. Men went down in pieces and heaps, the corridor filling with blood streaks and pain screams.

  Veolo headbutted the man holding her and joined the fight with just her fists, her two favorite weapons. Soren advanced behind Aurania, his rifle shouldered, calculated shots dropping anyone that tried to flank her. The hallway became a chaotic kill box, three teams of corporate guards dying as one.

  It took less than a minute before Soren followed Aurania's carving carnage into a large room. At least twenty different corporate executives were present, their faces a mixture of terror and anger. Veolo was right beside Soren, her rifle recovered from whoever had relieved her of it.

  “Nobody move!” Aurania bellowed.

  Three of the suits made a break for a far door. It led back into the hallway they had just cleared.

  Rather than use the door, Soren leapt sideways, crashing through the interior wall in a shower of debris. He blocked their path, rifle leveled at them, and they all froze in place.

  In the center of the room, Governor Anturi was tied to a chair. He had a gag in his mouth and had several bumps and bruises, but overall, he looked fine.

  Aurania tapped her comm. “Inelius, call the LU. Give them the access code from Admiral Marrow. I want no less than a battalion of soldiers here within the hour.”

  One of the executives scoffed. “I'm not going to some LU prison!”

  “You don't have a choice,” Aurania replied, her voice dangerously calm. “We still have senators missing. You're all going into custody until we find them.”

  The man made a dismissive sound and took a step toward the door. The haft of Aurania's greataxe slapped into his chest, sending him sprawling onto his back, gasping for air.

  Another man made a move toward the governor, a small, concealable knife appearing in his hand.

  A single gunshot cracked through the air. The man's head snapped to the side, a red trail flowing from his temple as he crumpled to the floor.

  Soren looked over.

  Aurania had drawn the handgun from her thigh in a flash. She still held it extended, the barrel smoking. She scanned the room with cold eyes and snarled, “Anyone else want to choose?”

  The silence said no.

  To anyone else in that moment, anyone not experienced in war, Aurania might seem cold and ruthless. But Soren had made calls like that before, split second, victory or failure, life or death. She was intense, hot headed, and deadly. He'd already stopped trying to fool himself about being attracted to her.

  But now he admired her too.