Aurania had the whole team assembled in Garrin’s briefing room, a quiet, idle chatter bubbling between them. They’d received word that they had another mission for them to assist with, and were waiting for the commander to arrive and give the briefing. But when the door slid open, a familiar face stepped through that was human, not shorn.

  “Admiral Marrow,” Aurania said, her brow drawing together.

  “Matron Aurania,” Marrow responded smoothly. He still hadn't figured out how to properly address her, but the attempt at respect was there, however clumsy.

  “To what do we owe the pleasure?” Aurania asked.

  “Garrin will not be joining us,” Marrow said, stepping further into the room and moving to where Garrin usually briefed them. He gestured for them to gather around the holo-table. “The mission we have for you is most sensitive. Commander Garrin is an excellent officer, but given the circumstances, I’m afraid I cannot trust him to give this brief with impartiality.”

  He brought up a hologram of a planet Aurania recognized, but knew few others would. “This is Lauriam, homeworld of the shorn. There is currently a civil war going on, centered on the coastal city of Kaopolu.” He zoomed in, the image resolving into a sprawling, ancient city built into the cliffs. “The planet is part of the Liberty Union, and the LU military does not typically get involved with local matters. But this has escalated beyond our tolerance.”

  “The hell you sending us into, Thane?” Riza’s voice cut through from the back of the room, her eyes boring into her old friend.

  Marrow’s professional mask melted a little. “I know you’ll see through any sugarcoat I powder on, Riza, so plain and simple: it’s a holy war. The aggressors, a fanatical sect known as the Revenant Saints, believe, as many others do, that Kaopolu is a holy city. These fanatics, however, believe that all those living there who do not share their specific doctrine—which is damn near everyone—are trespassers who must be wiped out.”

  The display shifted, showing seismic readings and tectonic fault lines beneath the city. “Intelligence leads us to believe they are seeking to detonate a high-yield seismic charge on a carefully targeted fault line. If they succeed, and our geologists believe they can, the detonation will trigger a megatsunami. Preliminary estimates say even the highest point of the city would be under at least thirty feet of water.”

  He looked around the room, his gaze settling on each of them in turn. “Regardless of the LU’s policy of non-intervention, there are millions of people in that city. They are under Liberty Union protection. We cannot let this happen.”

  “You just love sending us on the fun missions with big explosions,” Riza quipped dryly.

  Marrow shrugged. “Don’t be so fuckin’ good at what you do, Riza.”

  Tamiyo brought them in low and fast, The Ghost of Mandachor screaming over the top of the raging battle like a metal hawk. Smoke and fire raged below them as allied forces attempted to overtake the Revenants arming the bomb. The allied advance was all but stalled against a wall of fanaticism and heavy ordnance.

  The team braced against the G-forces as Tamiyo banked hard, diving toward the drop zone. The airlock doors slid open, revealing the whipping winds filled with dust. They were no more than a hundred feet above the ground, and Tamiyo was already slowing. They approached a wide, open courtyard that had been half-turned to rubble by allied shelling. The main bridge that accessed the site had just been blown out, cutting off ground troops from moving in.

  Good thing they had a ship.

  Tamiyo pulled up hard, the ship hovering just feet above the cracked pavement.

  “Go!” Aurania hollered, her voice barking over the roar of the engines and the cracking gunfire.

  They all piled out of the ship at once into a courtyard filled with enemies. Bullets pinged off the hull of The Ghost as Tamiyo lifted off, providing cover with her thruster wash.

  The team broke their immediate cluster according to their training.

  Three enemies were poking out above a crumbled pillar that lay on its side, peppering the landing zone with suppressive fire. Soren sprinted right at them, drawing their fire away from the rest of the team. Bullets sparked off his armor as he slid into cover behind another destroyed pillar. Amalia ran up and ducked into cover on his left while Violet did the same on his right.

  The rest of the team stayed huddled, pushing toward a pile of debris on their right, waiting for an opening. In the center of their formation, Brana carried a bag on her back and a handgun in one fist, her eyes wide but focused. They kept her cradled in a pocket of protection with their bodies—she would be the one actually disabling the bomb.

  Allied ordnance continued to fall as Soren, Amalia, and Violet dropped the first three enemies. The three of them pushed forward, taking up cover behind the pillar with three fresh bodies on the other side. Veolo moved up to the pillar where Soren had just been. Inelius moved up on her left, Aurania moved up on her right, Brana trailing close behind. Riza split off to their right, and a moment later—

  BOOOOOMMM!!!

  NMW sent a shockwave rolling through the entire battlefield as it turned a far off enemy into red mist.

  “Goddamn!” Brana yelled out. The d’moria was right behind Aurania, but it was still easier to hear her over comms.

  “First time hearing that thing shoot?” Aurania asked with a grin.

  “Fuck—yes,” Brana answered.

  “Hope you’re ready to hear it a lot more!” Veolo screamed.

  Soren and Violet's covering fire gave Veolo and Inelius the opening they needed. They broke Amalia free from being pinned down, and the five regrouped into a single firing line, scything through the last of the courtyard's defenders.

  Aurania watched it all from the rear, protecting Brana and coordinating the assault. The courtyard was almost completely clear, save for a single enemy that was dug in behind a thick concrete emplacement at the entrance to the next building.

  "Riza, clear the chokepoint," Aurania called out.

  BOOOOOMMM!!!

  The concrete, the man, his weapon—all of it was vaporized in an instant.

  As a shower of pebbles rained down, they resumed formation. Aurania and Riza moved up to join the others, bracketing Brana between them once more. They pushed up a debris-strewn incline, Soren and Veolo taking point. Violet and Amalia stacked up behind them as they prepared to breach the next room. Riza crept forward, her eyes trained down the scope of NMW.

  A hail of gunfire answered Soren when he leapt to the far side of the threshold, sparking and whining off his armor as he tucked into a small corner. "There's a handful of them in there!" he yelled over comms. "One is right inside the doorway, hugging the wall!"

  He and Veolo both stuck their rifles around the corner and blind-fired half a magazine into the room. A sharp yelp of pain, cut short, was their confirmation. Riza's cannon roared again, neutralizing another threat further back in the complex that the rest of them hadn’t even seen yet.

  "Moving!" Veolo shouted. She and Soren pushed in, but were immediately pinned by an automated turret at the back of the room. As they traded fire with the last two fanatics, Amalia and Violet burst in from the flank, their crossfire dropping the guards. The four of them then focused fire on the turret, chewing through its armored housing until it shrieked and sputtered into silence.

  “How we doing on ammo?!” Aurania yelled out.

  “Couple drinks left, but getting thirsty!” Violet answered.

  “Eyes!” Aurania hollered. “How many in the next room?!”

  After a second, Soren said, “Counting three at most!”

  Enemy gunfire followed after his voice.

  “Brana, stay close to Inelius!” Aurania commanded. She gripped her greataxe in both hands and strode toward the entrance to the next room. “Riza, on my six! The rest of you, stock up!”

  Aurania flew into the room with a speed that belied her size. She held the massive blade of her axe out in front of her, using it as a mobile shield. Bullets sparked off its surface as she closed the distance on a shocked Revenant, then cleaved him from collarbone to hip.

  Another enemy further back was shooting at her, but she was already ducking low and moving sideways. His gunfire chased her, several rounds bouncing off her pauldrons, but none found a way through. She closed the ten-foot gap in three strides and removed his head from his shoulders.

  The last Revenant in the immediate room fired wildly at her. Her blade rang like a bell as she blocked the rounds and moved on him with a brisk, focused stride. She swung the haft of her axe into his rifle, knocking it from his grip, then slammed a massive, armored hoof into his center mass. The shorn flew backward out of the room through the wide, blown-open section of wall they needed to go through.

  As she strode toward the opening, a new enemy emerged from cover in the hallway beyond, his rifle already trained on her.

  A massive shockwave rang out behind her, and NMW deleted the man in a cloud of concrete dust.

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  Aurania passed through the doorway and immediately saw the Revenant she'd kicked, scrambling back to his feet. Next to him, another fanatic had just brought a second automated turret online. A stream of heavy-caliber bullets tore through the air, forcing her back. Pain flared along her side as several rounds punched through a weaker section of her armor, searing her skin with grazing burns.

  “Fuck!” Aurania spat, more out of frustration than pain. “Inelius, get up here! Need grenades!”

  He was at her side in moments, slapping a high-grade explosive into her open palm. She primed it with a flick of her thumb and, without even looking, casually tossed it around the corner.

  “Shit!” came a muffled enemy scream.

  The floor shook as the grenade exploded. A pained, electrical whine sputtered from the turret.

  Then silence.

  Aurania peeked around the corner.

  No immediate threats.

  She cleared it further. Then, “Next hallway is clear! Soren, Veolo, take point! Everyone move up!”

  They ran down a destroyed hallway, residual fires licking at the scorched walls and casting hellish shadows, then scrambled up an inclining pile of destroyed concrete to reach the next level. After killing four more Revenants in the next hallway, they pushed through to the far end.

  Aurania yelled, “Anyone bleeding?!”

  “Probably,” Riza’s dry voice came back, almost bored.

  “Couple grazes!” Veolo reported.

  A low, bass filled groan sounded off, “No.”

  “Soren,” Aurania barked flatly. “Stop getting shot.”

  He just let out another pained groan in response.

  A gaping hole in the floor forced them to hop back down to ground level, sliding down a steep incline of rubble. At the bottom, a wide courtyard awaited with a Revenant shuttle that was attempting a hot extraction. A shorn on a mounted turret saw their movement and opened up, hot lead tearing apart the concrete around them.

  They all dove for cover.

  “Riza!” Aurania yelled out.

  The sniper took rough aim, firing NMW through the wall using only sound to locate her target. Aurania couldn't tell where the slug hit, but the turret's stream of fire suddenly lurched away. The shuttle's engines whined as it aborted the extraction and began to flee.

  Out into the courtyard and into the next tunnel, three Revenants were scattered among the rubble. Another three provided suppressive fire from beyond the far end.

  "Split breach!" Aurania commanded.

  Soren and Veolo sprinted across the gap to the far side, their armor scraping against concrete as they stacked up. Violet and Amalia stacked on the near side and waited for a lull. Then they all leaned out and filled the tunnel with a storm of bullets. A Revenant who peeked out went down in a spray of red. Another collapsed like all his bones had vanished. Into the rubble-choked passage they went, as the shuttle circled around and dropped low just outside the far end, trying for another extraction.

  As Veolo neared the far end, a shorn burst from behind a collapsed support pillar, his arm cocked back to swing a wrist blade at her. She dodged on pure instinct and brought her rifle up, ready to fire.

  She could have shot him.

  Instead, she slung her rifle onto her back and squared up with the man.

  While Soren, Violet, and Amalia laid down a wall of fire, Veolo danced hand to hand, fist to blade with the man. Parry, dodge, block—she was slightly less agile in full armor, and sparks skittered as the shorn's blades scraped against her gauntlets.

  Riza re-introduced her cannon to the extraction shuttle, this time with a clear line of sight. The engine exploded and the entire vehicle spun violently out of sight. The shockwave tore through the tunnel, throwing the shorn off balance and likely rupturing his eardrums if he didn’t have proper hearing protection. Veolo seized the opportunity, sidestepping and grabbing his arm. She used his own momentum to hip toss him headfirst into the ground, and there was a sickening crunch as his skull met the concrete.

  He didn't get up.

  They rushed forward, cresting the final rise of rubble at the tunnel's end and spilling out onto a wide, cavernous precipice. There, suspended over a deep chasm by a massive, spider-like gantry, was the bomb. It was a monstrous piece of machinery, a cylinder of dark metal and glowing conduits, easily the size of a freight hauler like The Ghost of Mandachor. The burning wreckage of the shuttle lay down in the ravine.

  The chasm prevented a direct charge, but a section of destroyed building on their right wrapped around the abyss. Soren moved up first, the ladder groaning against his immense weight. Veolo went next, then Violet, Amalia, all of them one by one as they continued to push toward their objective. A room opened on their right, its ceiling blown open and exposing sky, with another shuttle attempting to pull more Revenants out.

  Aurania let her team handle it, turning around and taking a knee. “If they’re trying to pull people out like this,” she yelled over the cacophony of gunfire, “they’ve gotta be close to setting that thing off!”

  “Get me down there!” Brana answered. “I’ll take it apart!”

  Aurania nodded, then barked, “Riza! Post up here for overwatch!” She turned back to the rest of her team. "We good to push?!"

  "Clear!" Veolo yelled back.

  They dropped down another incline of destroyed concrete, and a room opened on their left. Two Revenants were retreating while a third laid down cover fire from the back with his rifle and another automated turret. The kill squad quartet stacked up on the entrance as the turret's fire chewed through the wall beside them.

  "Inelius!” Veolo yelled over comms. “Give me three!”

  He passed three high-yield grenades up the line. One by one, Veolo primed, handed to Soren, and he tossed them in. Three ground-shaking explosions tore the corridor apart. When the smoke cleared, the turret was a mangled wreck, and the hallway was littered with body parts.

  "Pushing!" Soren yelled.

  The bomb’s support structure lay on the far side of a long, wide courtyard. They leapt down and sprinted across, Brana centered in their tight cluster. When they reached the gantry, she climbed up and got to work.

  “Soren!” Aurania yelled. “Follow her up! Sorry—need you to keep the bullets away from her!”

  He did as instructed as the rest of them dug in for a defensive firefight.

  The Revenants had seen that they were trying to disable it, and instead of retreating, they switched to offense. A wide wall at the base of the bomb’s support leg provided a good holdout point for Aurania and her team. But to both the left and the right of it, shuttles began arriving to drop enemies into the courtyard.

  The first shuttle arrived and Riza shot it out of the sky immediately. It crashed into the courtyard and half a dozen shorn piled out of it, raising rifles to shoot. Veolo and Amalia cut them down before they ever presented a target. Another shuttle arrived, the side door already open and the turret already spitting hell at Riza’s location, forcing her back into cover. Shorn started piling out and dropping into cover before Riza just shot straight through her own cover to take the shuttle out.

  Violet, Inelius, Veolo, and Amalia all traded fire with a courtyard full of enemies tucked into cover. Aurania peeked, got a good bearing of where the enemies were at, then charged. She tore across the right side, dismembering three shorn before diving into cover. She peeked back out just as a grenade arced through the air at her, and she dove away from it, barely avoiding the explosion.

  When she scrambled back up, she heard another shuttle inbound. “Just a fuckin’ acre of these assholes!”

  A dark shape dropped from the sky—Riza with her massive combat dagger in hand.

  Aurania charged into the fray next to her. “Out of ammo?!”

  Riza spun and threw the knife spinning through the air, sinking it to the hilt in a shorn’s face. “Only for the cannon.”

  The Revenants started falling apart, targeted by rifle fire and sharp blades. But when only two were left, the sound of a shuttle once again split the air. When Aurania looked up, she shouted, “Watch out! Get in cover!” And she did the same.

  The shuttle didn't even try to land, it just slowed and dropped its payload, the ground shaking and a cloud of concrete dust pluming up. A massive, bipedal mech landed hard, skidding across the ground. One arm was a multi-barreled heavy machine gun, already spinning up. The other was a heavy cannon, ready to throw explosive shells.

  Veolo shot first, a burst of rifle fire sparking off the mech’s chest and drawing its attention. It turned, the HMG opening up and chewing the concrete she was using as cover to pieces.

  "Flank it!" Inelius yelled, already moving.

  He and Amalia broke in opposite directions, their rifles spitting fire. They were gnats trying to sting a titan. The mech ignored them, its logic prioritizing the most immediate threats.

  "I feel like we’re not even hurting it!" Violet yelled. She leaned out from cover to fire a volley, then ducked back just as a blast from the cannon destroyed the wall next to her.

  Riza charged straight at the mechanical monstrosity, using its own hull as a ladder to scramble onto its back. She sank her dagger into some exposed cabling, trying to tear apart any weak point she could find.

  "Armor’s thick!" she yelled, her voice strained with effort.

  The mech’s torso spun fast, sending the legend flying off it.

  Aurania rushed in, aiming her greataxe at the leg joint. Sparks erupted as the shriek of metal echoed through the courtyard. The mech stumbled for a second, then recovered.

  It spun again, the cannon arm swinging like a club. It hit Aurania squarely in the side, sending her flying at a speed that made her sight blur as pain flared in her arm. The next thing she knew, she was on her back, ears ringing and vision flashing.

  She heard the mech’s hydraulics whining, and then she was staring down the cannon barrel.

  A 7’5” armored cannonball slammed into the side of the mech with a furious roar. The war machine stumbled sideways, then spun back, the HMG spraying wildly across the entire courtyard.

  A pained gasp filled their comms.

  “Brana!” Violet screamed.

  The d'moria growled in pain. "I'm fucking fine. Think a round bounced off my ribs. Just grazed me."

  "That doesn't sound like you’re fine!" Inelius yelled back.

  "Kill the damn thing!" Brana grunted stubbornly. "Let me do my job."

  Soren charged the mech again, fighting it with just bare hands wrapped in armor. He dodged, then hammered his fists against the plating hard enough to dent it. The mech brought the HMG around, pressing the barrels directly against Soren's chest and opening up at point-blank range. Pain flared in Aurania's mind as she felt him absorbing an onslaught of high-caliber rounds that would have torn anyone else apart. Soren screamed and grabbed the rotating barrel of the HMG. Metal shrieked and smoked as the gun grinded to a halt.

  With a roaring grunt, he tore the whole damn arm off.

  But the mech turned, placed the cannon barrel to his chest, and fired. The cannon arm itself exploded, and Soren was sent flying backward, slamming into a concrete wall. Aurania leapt up, seized her greataxe, and charged. The mech was disarmed and wounded, but it was still a threat.

  There was no glass for the pilot to see through; it relied on optical cameras. She just started driving it back with a relentless storm of brute-force hammer blows from her axe. Swing after heavy swing, she beat the mech backward until its legs met a pile of rubble. It tilted, lost its balance, and crashed onto its back.

  She was on top of it in an instant, her greataxe raised high. She slammed the blade into the mech's chest plate like it was firewood she needed to split. Three, four, five hard strikes later, a deep, ragged gash was torn open in the armor.

  “Grenade!” she roared, throwing a hand to the sky without looking away from her target.

  Inelius hurled one.

  She grabbed it out of the air, primed it, and shoved it into the hole. Then she leapt off the mech, landing in a crouch as the muffled explosion from within blew the cockpit hatch clean off.

  Silence fell over the courtyard, save for the crackling sound of burning wreckage.

  Aurania’s head whipped about, scanning the battlefield to assess the situation. Inelius was scrambling up the bomb’s support leg to check on Brana. Amalia, Violet, and Veolo were helping Soren to his feet. His smoking armor was torn to pieces.

  “Think we’re clear of hostiles,” Riza reported from up on a roof. Aurania wasn’t sure if she’d climbed up there or if she’d just landed up there after the mech spun her off.

  “Inelius?” Aurania asked. “Our girl still alive up there?”

  “Grr, fuck you,” Brana growled. “Bomb’s disarmed.”

  Aurania smirked. “Good girl.”

  She took a deep breath and let out a long sigh. Then she keyed her comms again and said, “Tamiyo—come on in for extract. Call Marrow. Mission complete.”