“All the outposts have been scrapped already,” Ash reports. “So we’re going to have to travel.”
“Or...” Aera starts.
When the gathering Rebels, Relics, and Rogues turn to look at her, she shrinks back behind me like she’s changed her mind. Savage’s team, Chasm’s team, and Toriszi’s have all gathered. Even Poppy and Clover of the BlazeStar look over at her.
Savage tilts to get a better look at her. “Speak up, female. There are no bad ideas when ideas are limited.”
She touches my back as she moves around my side. The willing and unnecessary contact knocks my ultromotor into a faster pace.
“We have, on occasion, taken out small Solcrue vessels, only ones we knew we could overpower. But maybe there’s a way we could lure in a vessel, slip in with maybe Chameleon and Atomizer. They’re sneaky.”
I’m saddened she does not consider me for infiltration. The recording of her hands grabbing my sides during the rough passage through the asteroid field replays. Each time she touches me, my ultromotor keeps spooling like I’m prepping to enter a high-conflict zone. I had hoped she was interested or at least was starting to feel as I do. But now I’m not sure.
“I could get with that,” Vandal says with a sinister grin and wicked delight in his neon green eyes.
The way he says it, while he looks at Aera, makes me put a protective arm around her. He doesn’t know what she is. And he can’t have her.
Vandal>>Evo: Easy, big guy. I didn’t mean your female.
Evo>>Vandal: She is my Bond, not my mate. But do not get ideas. She deserves a human male.
Vandal waggles his brows. He plants his hands on his hips, and I catch the scent of fresh paint from him.
Vandal>>Evo: That’s a shame. You should see your synthskin right now. If that isn’t a blush, I don’t know what is.
I run assessments but don’t know what he’s referring to until my temperature sensor lights up, signaling extra heat production in my body.
Evo>>Vandal: I am keeping myself warmer for her. She was half frozen when I found her.
Vandal>>Evo: Whatever you have to tell yourself, Brother.
Chasm looks me over with curiosity and paces the far side of the table. “Okay, so we take a Solcruean ship. We need to find one large enough to have the supply volume we need, come up with a plan to rid it of Solcrue, and break it free from the Solcrue network, so they don’t summon the army after us before we’re ready for a full-scale battle. It’s going to have to be a quick, efficient mission.”
“Give us a day of food and rest, and you’ll have more soldiers ready to fight,” Brodin offers.
“No offense,” Savage remarks. “But you are not in fighting shape after such a long time rationing critical supplies.”
Daken speaks up. “Do not take the honor of fighting from us. We want to be in this war as much as anyone.”
Vicious, a stealth model Rogue Saber with fuming red eyes that shimmer with wisps of steam, counters their participation. “You will only be a hazard since you’re operating at suboptimal capacity. When we go in, we have to be able to rely on each other. Humans cannot carry Titans.”
“Fuck that.” Aera straightens beside me. “Solcrue have taken enough lives. If the mission is a go, I’m going with. I’m tired of hiding, of barely staying alive in the middle of dead space. I want to take from them like they have taken from us until they are the ones begging for hope or for death, whichever chooses to greet them first.
“Send me in with a specific task that doesn’t require dead-lifting metal dudes. I don’t care. But I want to kill some of these bastards!”
Daken smirks privately to himself.
“If she goes, I go,” Steele says. “Maybe only a few of us are ready, but take us. A lot of us have been on Solcrue ships and operated within thin margins of existence before.”
“Same with us,” a female says behind us.
Many of my Relic Brothers’ mates fill the doorway, covered in StarJumper suits and armed to the teeth.
Savage’s mate, Leah, adjusts a rifle that hangs from her shoulder. “Cara would join us, but in case we gotta use the blue bomb or Iridithatium shots, she’s staying here, in the center of Mother, in isolation so the nebula doesn’t drive her crazy.”
Esthi, with a bag of CyberTech gear strapped to her back, hooks a thumb over her shoulder. “I got her and Amp working on some new Titan telenet headsets to coordinate with all these additional human crews, so Titan coms will feed into an audible network for us in case we have to switch suits or our visors go offline.”
Chasm points at Aera. “You may go with Evo. The rest of your team needs to stay and recuperate.”
