I found Vrehx and our team in the cafeteria, grabbing a bite to eat. “Commander!”

Vrehx looked up from his meal and swallowed his bite before answering. “You made it back. Karzin and his team had a pool started on whether or not you’d return. I…”

I didn’t let him finish. “Sir, I just found out from Rouhr that a Xathi horde was spotted just a bit out of Duvest.”

“That’s right.”

“Leena’s in that area. As are a bunch of wounded refugees and children.”

“Srell!” He turned to the rest of the team and issued orders. “Get your gear, we’re out in two minutes.”

The others nodded and left without question.

“If it’s a horde, we need more guns.” I needed to reload anyway.

“I’m not going to stop you from loading up, you know that,” Vrehx said to me, speaking slowly.

“Not what I meant,” I corrected myself, speaking slowly. “We need another team. They’re starting to use the suits.”

“Shit!”

I looked at him with a thin grin on my face. “Excuse me?”

He shook his head and chuckled as he opened the armory doors. “Been around the humans too much. Starting to pick up their language.”

“I understand that. These humans are intriguing.”

“They are, indeed,” Vrehx agreed with a chuckle.

The team laughed as they finished loading up. Then Vrehx looked at me and shook his head. “Turn around and take the straps off.”

“I don’t follow”

Vrehx sighed. “You’re bleeding all over my armory. Turn around so I can hit you with the med-foam,” he said to me. “You’re useless dead.”

It was my turn to sigh, but I did as ordered. I turned around and took off my hammer.

As Vrehx sprayed my wounds with the med-foam, a fantastic invention by Zairk and our medic, he told Tu’ver to go get Karzin and his team and have them catch up. He finished spraying my wounds, which stung just a little, but I was grateful.

I gave him a nod, then re-strapped my pack and put my hammer backinto its harness.

“The suits are a problem, however,” Vrehx said finally. “The queens must have decided to conserve their soldiers, send out weaker castes to fight.”

I nodded. It made sense. The Xathi were making use of every tool they had. Just as we needed to do. And for all we knew, they could make more suits faster than they could hatch more soldiers.

I grabbed a few more blasters, another pack of grenades, and headed out the door. I led the way, Vrehx and Daxion to my left, Sakev to my right, and Tu’ver bringing up the rear.

We made our way north at a healthy jog, Karzin and his team a few hundred yards behind us.

When we arrived at the Quake station, we turned a bit west. We were close. I kept a look out, hoping we would see the Xathi tracks heading away from the tunnels, and only slightly hoping we’d run into them first.

I was itching for another fight against those bastards.

We weren’t that lucky. The Xathi tracks were all over the entrance of the cave, too many of them going inside. I let out a very human string of curses and entered the tunnels.

Tu’ver took Rokul and Takar down one branch, Vrehx and Karzin went down another, Iq’her went down a third branch with Sylor and Sakev, leaving Daxion to try and keep up with me.

I knew the tunnels were empty.

There was no way they could have hidden that many people that well, or that quietly. The Xathi had them, I knew they did, but I tried to hold out hope. I didn’t try for long. The tunnels were empty.

Srell! The damn bugs had Leena. Had the one thing I truly wanted in this life.

I used the comms to call everyone back to the cave entrance.

“We need to go after them.” I fought to keep my calm as I paced back and forth.

Tu’ver examined the tracks, trying to separate the chaos from the questions.

Vrehx put his hand on my shoulder as he came up behind me. “We came out prepared for a quick strike and retrieval. Not this.”

I threw his hand off my shoulder and turned on him. “What in the name of everything are you saying? We’re not going after them?”

“The longer we’re away, the more we’re putting the entire ship in danger.” He scowled. “You know that.”

“I don’t give a shit,” I borrowed from Leena’s extensive cursing repertoire. “We can’t leave these people to the damn Xathi. We need to save them. Even if we don’t have room for them on Vengeance, we can escort them to Duvest.”

I was losing my temper. The only reason that I hadn’t punched this sanctimonious-rule-following-srell in his pretentious little jaw was that I needed him. I couldn’t rescue Leena and the others by myself.

I needed all of them.

Then Vrehx opened his mouth and said the wrong thing. “No, I’m calling this mission off. We don’t know what we’re walking into. We don’t know how many Xathi are involved right now, or even where they took the humans.”

Tu’ver spoke, “I know where.”

I don’t think I’ve ever seen Vrehx jump like that. I just wished I could make fun of him for it later, but I jumped about as high as he did.

Vrehx cursed a bit in his language as he started taking in deep breaths. “Damn it, Tu’ver. Stop sneaking around. And what do you mean you know where?”

“I know where, or at least, I know what direction. They headed east, towards Nyheim.”

“That’s where they crash landed. They’re heading back to their ship.”

“Then we know where to go,” I said.

Vrehx shook his head again. “That makes it even worse. They headed back to their ship where the rest of them are. Hell, by the time we get there, the humans might not even be alive anymore.”

“I don’t give a fuck. I’m going, with or without you,” I said slowly, not mincing my words.

“No, you’re not!” he yelled at me. “I’m giving you a direct order, soldier.”

I lost it. “Screw you and your damn orders! I’m going after them!”

“Don’t make me arrest you, Axtin,” Vrehx snapped. “I swear I will.”

“Take yourself to the Abyss. If this was Jeneva, you’d be going after her, but because it’s Leena and you don’t have a vested interest in her, she can just die?”

I was in his face, bearing down on him. “You’re honestly about to tell me that you’re allowed to sleep with a human and be happy, but if the rest of us find a mate, we can’t have them?”

He opened his mouth to say something, but I put my hand on his face and pushed.

“You can accuse me of desertion, you can hunt me down, you can try whatever you want, but I’m going to get Leena and the rest of them and I don’t really give a shit what your thoughts on that are.”

I hoped, so badly, I hoped he would attack me. I wanted to wipe that damn look off his face.

“You ever touch me like that again, I’ll break you,” he snarled, but didn’t move.

“So be it. I’m getting my mate back and I don’t give a srell what you say.” I walked off, heading towards Nyhiem and the Xathi ship.

I heard Vrehx and the others fall in behind me, Karzin talking to Vrehx in hushed tones. If they were planning my court martial, I didn’t care. I didn’t give a damn about that anymore. My only thoughts were on Leena and breaking every damn Xathi I could get my hands on.

The brothers, Rokul and Takar, came up beside me. Rokul was the one that spoke. “So, you’ve taken a human female. How is she?”

I growled at them both and increased my pace, trying to leave them behind. They kept up with me.

“Our apologies, we did not mean to offend,” Takar said. “We merely wanted to ascertain if being with a human female was worth the effort or not.” He was always formal when he spoke, even when he was being an asshole.

“You two are ridiculous. Get away from me.”

They retreated a few steps but stayed close by. I don’t know if they were ordered to stay close or if they decided to on their own. Frankly, it didn’t matter. In a crazed way, I was pleased. They gave me something extra to throw if anything tried to attack.