"The shuttle?"
"No go. They're already on the surface. Closest pickup is three minutes away."
"Fuck. That's not fast enough." Grigg's jaw tightened and I knew he believed the warrior to be doomed.
True to Grigg's prediction, I watched a bright flare of yellow head toward the pilot floating in space like a rolling target. I stopped breathing as the orb engulfed him, his screams of agony filling the small room as the warriors in the ships around him spurred to action, taking out the Hive ship that had fired the shot.
"Kill that fucker!"
"Brax! Damn it!"
"Move Fourth, we've got more coming from the surface."
"Fuck. How many? I don't see anything."
"I don't see-wait. Fuck. Ten. No, twelve. Can someone fucking confirm twelve?"
"Another three here. Abort. There's too many." I recognized Captain Wyle's voice. "Shuttle crew, get out of there. Now. All fighters into defense formation. Let's get the fuck out of here. Commander Zakar? This is Wyle."
"I'm here."
"We're coming in hot. Nothing on our system scans, but visual count at fifteen fighters and they are in pursuit."
"Understood. Hang on. We're coming."
"Fucking hurry up, Commander, or we're all dead."
Grigg turned to one of the warriors in red. "Scramble the Seventh and the Ninth. Now. All pilots. I want them gone in sixty seconds."
The warrior didn't answer, just turned to his station and spoke to someone as bright lights and warning dings sounded from his workstation.
The dipping and zooming, the high-speed motion on the screens made me sway. I was grateful to have the chair to hold on to as motion sickness loomed. Determined not to look away I tried to track and understand the images moving at speeds that made me dizzy. I felt helpless, weak, useless. I could only imagine what Grigg felt like, his men out there under his command, under fire. Dying.
All around us battle chatter sounded as the pilots spoke to one another, fending off the pursuit. A small celebration sounded as the reinforcements arrived and the Hive fighters broke off their chase, turning around to flee in the opposite direction, back to wherever the hell they'd come from.
Captain Wyle's voice came through loud and clear. "They're running, Sir. Do you want us to pursue?"
"Negative. What I want you to do is find out how we were surprised by an entire fucking squadron of Hive scout ships."
"Copy that, Sir."
The mood in the room settled to a busy hum, one of recovery after an explosion and I leaned back in the chair, my pulse pounding and my mind racing as the pilots reported in. The battle had been real, the poor pilot, Brax, dead. But my curiosity remained unsatisfied. I wanted to see the face of the enemy, I wanted to know what they were.
I was so tense I felt like I was going to throw up in my mouth. Some of the tension was mine, but no small part came from Grigg, the energy and rage flowing through him in a tidal wave of raw hatred so intense I could barely comprehend it. Grigg hated the Hive with a vehemence that was a sucker punch to my gut. And I'd doubted this war. I'd doubted him.
But on the surface my mate's face was stone cold, calm as granite, and I marveled at the façade, the iron control required to govern the storm of power I felt brewing beneath his skin. My admiration for him grew as he anchored the crew with his level voice and confident stride. His power kept chaos at bay, his will alone all that stood between life and death for so many, both on the ship with us and out there fighting for their lives in space.
The warrior in white turned to Grigg. "The shuttle reports two survivors from the Hive base were brought on board, Sir."
Grigg's shoulders tightened and the pain that flooded me through our bond was old and deep, like a broken bone that refused to heal. On the surface? Nothing showed, not even a twitch of his eyelid nor the smallest frown. I wanted to soothe him, hug him, take some of the pain away. "Alert medical."
"Yes, Sir."
Grigg turned to me then and held out his hand. His jaw was tense. Every line of his body was tense. "You want to see the face of our enemy, understand them?"
"Yes." I placed my hand in his and stood as he gently pulled me to my feet.
He sighed then, his lips forming a thin line I'd come to recognize as dread. "All right, Amanda. Seeing the battle was bad enough. Come with me, but don't say I didn't warn you." I walked beside him as he spoke to a large warrior across the room. "Trist, the command deck is yours."
"Yes, Sir. Lady Zakar, it's an honor."
"Thank you."
The giant warrior bowed to me as we walked past. Grigg led me out into the hallway, my hand safely in his warm touch. He made me feel safer just by the contact. I had to hope that he felt at least soothed by mine. "Where are we going?"
"To medical."
Conrav, Medical Station One
I shuddered as the two contaminated warriors that had survived their time on the Hive base arrived on field cots, rushed here from the shuttle.
We would try to save them. We always tried.
"Doctor Rhome?"
"I'm here." The cool-headed doctor had transferred here after his only son perished in battle in Sector 453. He was twenty years my senior, and he'd seen more Hive Integrations than I cared to think about. It was my goal, Grigg's goal, never to compare.
The two bodies twitched and fought the restraints that held them strapped to the exam tables. Two days ago, they'd been young Prillon warriors in their prime, lost on a scouting patrol. Now?
The were still warriors, but with no memory of their pasts, their identities wiped away by what had been described to me as a constant buzzing inside their minds. Like all warriors, they were large, and with their new Hive implants they would be stronger than any but our Atlan warriors in berserker mode, the microscopic bio-implants integrated into their muscular and nervous systems making them stronger, faster, and harder to kill than us inferior biologicals.
Fucking Hive.
"Which one do you want?"
Doctor Rhone shrugged. "I'll take the right."
I nodded and he stepped forward instructing the crew to wheel his patient toward the surgical station. I'd go left with my own crew and the warrior who still bore the dark orange collar of a Myntar mate around his neck.
Fuck. I knew him.
The door to the medical station slid open and I sensed who would be on the other side even before Grigg and Amanda stepped into the room. I motioned my surgical team to go ahead and prep the warrior at the station and glared at Grigg. "She has no business here. Are you fucking out of your mind?"
She wasn't a warrior, wasn't a doctor. She shouldn't see this pain, this disturbing reality of war.
Grigg's stare was cold, hard and completely unrelenting. "She needs to see what happens to us, what will happen to Earth."
"No." I turned to our mate, to the soft brown eyes, so innocent, so fucking stubborn. "No, Amanda. I won't allow it. You should not see this. I am speaking as your second, my only wish to protect you, to shield you from it all."
The contaminated warrior to my right bellowed and raged as the surgical team struggled to sedate him for extraction of the core processor the Hive had implanted. Amanda jumped at the sound and I shook my head at her. If the warrior survived, he'd be sent to the Colony to live out the rest of his life in peace.
Most did not survive.
I couldn't let her see this dark misery, didn't want her tainted by Hive filth. "No, Amanda."
"Please, Rav?" Her eyes were fervent. Eager, not to see the harshness of what the Hive did to us, but eager for the truth. "I need to see for myself."
"No," I repeated. My first instinct was to protect my mate, and there was no fucking way she was watching one of these motherfuckers die on the table.
Grigg growled and I knew I was going to hate the next words out of his mouth. I wasn't wrong. "Show her, Rav. That's an order."
"Fuck." I shook my head. "I fucking hate you right now."
"I know."
I couldn't look at him as I turned to my team. I ignored Amanda as well, she and Grigg following me like shadows.
The warrior had been strapped to the surgical table with special bonds we'd created just for this purpose. The Hive implants made them so fucking strong we'd had to develop special alloys to contain them.
The warrior Doctor Rhome had taken settled and I knew that his fate would be decided in the next few minutes. I dismissed him from my mind. He was in Doctor Rhome's hands now. I had my own patient to worry about.
The warrior on the table before me was covered with silver skin starting at his neck, up his face to his temples, but for some odd reason the Hive had left his forehead and hair alone. His left arm had been completely mechanized, the robotic compartments opening and closing as small gadgets and weapons searched for a target. His legs appeared to be normal, but there was no way to be sure until we'd stripped him naked and done a full inspection.
We wouldn't bother unless he survived the next five minutes.
"Sedate him, now."
"Yes, Doctor."
Amanda hovered near his feet and I couldn't look at her as my patient strained and cried out, the words an unintelligible jumble of sounds. The noise faded and the bio-monitors on the wall indicated his mind had settled into unconsciousness.
"Turn him." Four medical staff hurried to do as I bid, all of them faces I knew and trusted, faces who'd gone through this hell with me before. Again and again.