“The torture cells are accessible only through them,” I coldly reply.
Savage>>Evo: Would have been useful to know this ahead of time.
Evo>>Local: I had hoped I would never return, so I compressed the memory files. They are opening now.
Menace>>Local: Anything else you want to share?
I ignore the sneer in Menace’s voice even though I know I should probably heed its warning. I should’ve tried harder to pull out important information earlier. But I was preoccupied with keeping Aera safe and getting the junk out of my nanosolution.
Evo>>Local: Self-destruct is in the officers’ quarters. Hangars can be manually opened from the jump box at the top of each door. And fuel cell access will require a Solcrue eye. It does not have to be...attached.
Menace chuckles.
Terror>>Local: Now you’re talking!
Jeris waits by the nearest door to the officers’ quarters with Redline and several others.
I take off a glove and hover my hand over the screen.
Aera pats my back. “You got this.”
I’m glad she’s confident. I’m not.
Settling my palm onto the screen, I mentally sink into the ship’s computer system. It tries to shut me out like it always did, but I manage to pull up the access program, read the code that streams across my vision, and fill in the blanks with my pattern recognition software.
The door unlocks and slides open. Aera is the first to peer into the passage. Before I can pull her back, she steadies her rifle in her arms and leans into the rapid string of shots she fires down the hallway. The firelight flickering off of her angry, focused eyes is the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen. She doesn’t run for cover even if she uses it, rotating behind the edge of the wall to redirect her shots into the passageway.
Jeris mutters. “Your girl’s got skills.”
“She is my Bond, not my mate,” I tell him.
Jeris hums a note of interest.
I pull my hand off of the panel and point at him. “Don’t get any ideas. I am eager for a reason to turn you inside out.”
Aera pauses her shooting as another Titan squad approaches. “Redline, you look like a fast unit. You want to tap in?”
He pats her shoulder and bolts inside. Panther, Cobra, and RamBash are next, along with several human Rebels in StarJumper suits like Aera.
Evo>>Local: Officer quarters open.
Terror>>Local: Engine access open.
Savage>>Local: Hangars opening. I need confirmation that self-destruct is offline.
I slip past Aera, steady my handgun in my palm, and hustle through the corridors. I have not served on this ship, but Iknow the symbol I need to find. Aera helps me hunt for the commander’s chevron stack and find it outside a room. Aera stays at my back, rifle ready to fire at anyone who comes up behind us.
“Stay a few paces back, please,” I warn her. Down the hallway, Redline is a blur of red-hot metal, smashing through Solcrue and leaving only green blood spray in his wake. RamBash body-slams officers, knocking them through walls. Panther leaps onto them and claws them to pieces, while Cobra drops into a snake form that ricochets through the hallways, punching through Solcrue chests before landing in humanoid form again.
“Watch your back,” I warn Aera.
She nods. “I never got to see you guys in action so...up close, only in training at the port, and on the holoas a kid.”
“Just keep your earcom on, and Titans will sense you.”
Only the commander’s DNA and iris will open his door. Not even I can hack that without having first touched him to replicate him. Which means I have to gothrough.
My armor heats as I pull up my memory of touching Relic Magma. Anything could greet me on the other side. My scanners won’t show me anything but a faint orb of heat.
