“I’m here.”Fuck.I gripped the controls until my knuckles turned pale, the strain of holding the shuttle steady against the shifting air currents making my arms tremble. I could see their figures below, dwarfed by the vastness of the landscape, moving like tiny specks against the backdrop of swirling dust and flashes of lightning. Every second was a lifetime, the storm hammering the shuttle with relentless fury, the thrum of the engines vibrating up through my boots.
As I approached, a shockwave ripped through the air. The shuttle bucked violently, alarms blaring, the sharp sound stabbing through the chaos. The ground behind Marz and Rowan split open, a fissure snaking out toward them with a rumble that I could feel even in the air. A deep vibration reverberated through the shuttle’s frame. The comms filled with static. The landscape blurred in a whirl of red haze and flashing lights.
“RUN!” I shouted into my comms but knew they couldn’t hear me.
“Vance—” Rowan’s voice broke through, but then it was gone.
“Vance?” Marz’s deep voice pierced my skull like hot knives.
I tightened my grip on the controls, determination flooding my veins like fire.
12
Marz
For a heartbeat,there was nothing but silence and the sound of my own pulse pounding in my ears, louder than the storm outside. Then, the storm’s howl surged back, louder, as if mocking me.
“Vance? Where the fuck are you? Can you hear me?” I shouted into the comms but doubted I would receive a response. If my second could hear us, he would respond. Which meant comms were down. We were stuck here until he came back for us.
And he would return to save our mate. Of that, I had no doubt.
A red haze swirled around us, thick and suffocating, as the wind howled like a tortured beast. Each gust slammed into our armor with the force of a hammer, rattling my bones. Sharp pellets of rock and sand etched thin scratches into my helmet, making it difficult to see clearly. I angled my body to shield Rowan as I scanned the shifting horizon for any sign of Vance and the shuttle. The storm had intensified faster thananticipated. What started as sporadic lightning and gusts had transformed into a chaotic onslaught. The sky above boiled with streaks of violet and white energy.
“Rowan, stay close!” I hoped she would be able to hear me over the roaring wind. I wanted to pull her closer, wrap my arms around her to keep her steady, but I didn’t dare distract her from her task. It took everything I had to fight down the urge, to remind myself that protecting her wasn’t the same as smothering her. That she was here to do a job.
"How much longer?" I yelled again over the roar, the comm-link crackling in my helmet like static. I gripped the hilt of my rifle, keeping it at the ready, my other hand itching to reach out and touch her, as if my touch alone could somehow stave off the gnawing dread clawing at my chest. The air seemed to grow thicker, the weight of it pressing down on us, vibrating with the unpredictable fury of the storm.
The storm wasn’t natural. I sensed malevolence. Intent. The very idea seemed insane, but no matter how I tried, I could not shake the feeling that we were being watched.Hunted.
Rowan’s gloved hands moved quickly, tapping away at the handheld data device she was using to take the planet's geological readings. "Almost… there…" Her strained voice was nearly swallowed by the howl of the wind. Her breath came in short, harsh bursts, fogging up the edges of her helmet’s interior with every exhale. A jagged bolt of lightning lit up the darkness, so bright it seared my retinas through the tinted visor, leaving a ghostly afterimage. The ground beneath us trembled, a deep, resonating rumble that rattled my bones, like the planet itself was letting out a groan of protest. I clenched my jaw, braced my legs to keep from toppling over, focused on keeping my balance despite the ground shifting beneath us like a restless beast.
Rowan glanced up at me, her eyes wide and frightened through the visor of her helmet. "There's something… wrong."Her voice cracked over the comm-link. "The readings—there are metallic structures deep beneath the crust, ones that shouldn’t be here.”
The planet trembled again, more violently this time, as if the very ground was rebelling against the intrusion of our technology.
“Oh, god. Marz. They’removing.”
The rocks beneath our boots gave off a dull, resonant hum, vibrating with the distant rumble of something shifting far below. I cursed under my breath, grabbed Rowan’s arm to keep her steady. Despite the danger, a spark of warmth shot through me at the contact, a reminder in the midst of chaos. Fuck The Colony. Fuck this red shithole of a planet. Rowan was the only thing that mattered. “We need to get out of here. Now.”
Before she could respond, another flash of lightning erupted overhead, the thunder cracking so loud it shook the air itself. The sky crackled and split apart, shards of raw energy weaving and twisting through the storm clouds, as if the heavens were tearing themselves apart.
The ground exploded behind us, loud as an explosive during battle. I watched in horror as the rock split, a chasm opened, spread, raced toward us.
A wave of heat washed over us, so intense it felt as if my skin was blistering inside the armor. The air vibrated with a low hum, setting my teeth on edge. This was more than just a weather anomaly—it was a cataclysm in the making. The storm's rage was a living thing, unpredictable and primal, and we were nothing but fragile intruders in its path. “Vance? Get us out of here!”
No response. We had to find shelter, and fast.
“Run! There!” I pointed toward a jagged opening in a nearby rock formation, a cave entrance that loomed like a black mouth yawning wide. The wind clawed at our backs as we stumbledforward, nearly driving us to our knees. I grabbed Rowan’s arm and pulled her away from her task. “The scans are almost complete. Just one more minute.”
“Rowan, NOW!”
Without another word I picked her up ran, the fierce wind nearly knocking me off my feet. She screamed as I leaped over a new fissure that opened beneath us, tried to devour us. “I’ve got you, mate.” I wanted to hold her. Kiss her. Tell her I loved her. It was madness to be thinking such things now, but I needed her to know, to see me, truly see me. My shame. My failures. All of it. I was tired of hiding, tired of holding part of myself back when I wanted to give her everything. Most of all, I was tired of hating myself for Perro’s failures, his choices.
We stumbled into the cave, the sudden stillness inside a stark contrast to the chaos outside. The darkness wrapped around us, thick and stifling, like a shroud pulled tight over our senses. I activated my helmet’s light, casting a narrow beam into the shadows. The hollow echo of our footfalls on the rocky ground filled the space, as if the cave were breathing us in.
"Are you hurt?" I couldn’t stop the way my gaze lingered on her face, the soft curve of her lips, the determination in her eyes. The longing that surged through me was like an ache, deep and unyielding. I swallowed against the now familiar sensation, one I welcomed. I’d never felt more alive than here, now. Never been more compelled to keep her safe.
Rowan’s cheeks were flushed. “I’m fine. But those readings… Marz, there’s something buried deep in this planet. Something not natural.”
