“Well, well. Will you look at that? Now there’s a familiar sight.” Lodan grinned savagely as the Ristval V appeared on the holo. “It’s just like the good old Imperial times, except now we have official permission to kick Daegan’s ass. He’s such a shitbag.”

They were close enough now for the Virdan X’s powerful sensors to see through her cloaking and perform a thorough analysis. The 3D image that appeared before them was incredibly detailed, allowing Enki to see everything, right down to the damage. One of the thrusters was on half-power, and parts of the hull had been crudely patched.

“Looks like she’s limping,” Nythian murmured, raising his silvery eyebrows. “So Silence really did some damage last time, eh? Can’t fix a battle cruiser without a Fleet Station… or a crew of stubborn human mechs. Just ask Kalan.” He laughed. “Hard to believe they’ve just been lurking around in the Ninth right under our noses all this time. You’d think they would have made some noise by now. Daegan will shit asteroids if he finds out we were able to trace them through the Alerak brother’s House comm. Sometimes I truly think the nonexistent Goddess is just fucking with us for her own amusement.”

This is not because of some deity, shadowkin. This is curlae. The strands of the Universe. Everything is connected.

This time, Enki didn’t fight. Instead, he pushed the Tharian’s meaningless chatter to the back of his mind as he watched the black ship. As it slowly rotated on the holo, he recalled the moment when the Ristval V had appeared in Earth’s orbit and threatened the planet with total annihilation.

Because General Tarak al Akkadian had stolen their Fleet Station, and they were enraged.

A complicated game of threats and subterfuge had followed, and somehow they’d managed to lure the battle cruiser away from Earth. Engaging in a vicious firefight, Silence had forced the Ristval V down the throat of an uncharted wormhole, and the massive battle cruiser had disappeared.

Blinked right out of existence.

And now they’d just found her.

Limping.

“The boss is going to be happy. Too bad Silence is deployed to Bartharra right now.” Lodan stared hungrily at the holo-image. “It’s the only ship that can match the Rist for pure firepower.” He turned back to the controls and closed his eyes, leaning back in his chair. A gentle shudder coursed through the ship and Enki felt its speed drop away until it came to a complete stop.

Now they were just hanging.

Waiting.

“This is as far as we go,” Lodan said. “Any closer and we risk getting picked up by their surveillance, even though we’re cloaked. We’re just too close now. You’re going to have to use a Stealthstalker to get inside.”

Enki grunted in agreement as summoned his exo-armor, visualizing the familiar forms in his mind. The black nanites emerged from his bloodstream, flowing over his lower arms and hands. A million tiny pinpricks of pain lanced through his skin as the microscopic machines coalesced to form a light but impossibly strong barrier, a sleek black outer shell that allowed him complete freedom of movement.

It was a monstrous feat of bio-engineering, turning him into something not quite Kordolian; something other.

Only a monster like Enki could break into a Kordolian warship and hope to come out alive.

“Ready, brother?” Nythian regarded him warily. Although none of them would ever say it aloud, they were all well aware that this was Enki’s first solo mission in a very, very long time.

Usually, he would have his offsider Torin nearby. With his even temperament and very un-Kordolian ability to diffuse tension, Torin was a stabilizing influence on Enki, especially when the Tharian got too noisy inside his head.

But during their last mission on Zarhab Groht, Torin had disappeared, somehow ending up on a Bartharran pirate ship bound for the War Planet itself.

And in the process, Torin had found his mate.

Madness.

Right now, Enki couldn’t even contemplate taking a mate of his own. First, he had to get his head straight, and this mission—finding Layla—was quickly becoming an integral part of his… healing, or whatever the fuck he was supposed to do.

But there was also another reason he specifically wanted to get onto the Ristval V. Ever since Zharek had given each the First Division warriors their datacubes—the secret personal files that told them who they were before the experiments—Enki had carried an infuriating secret in his heart, one he hadn’t even shared with the General.

Oh, he really wanted to encounter Righal Daegan the Third, if only to tear out the bastard’s fucking throat.

“I am ready.” He crossed his arms and glared, feeling defensive for some reason. You think I cannot handle this?

I won’t hinder you, Kordolian. The Tharian had been unusually quiet, but now it spoke. In this instance, I want what you want. Wanting to save the life of an innocent… that is so unlike you.

Instead of casting further doubt, Nythian just shook his head. “If anyone’s gonna blend in amongst Daegan’s crew, it’s you. Me and Lodan would be found out within the first siv. We ran missions with them in the old times. Someone’s bound to recognize our faces. Sorry to harp on about it, brother, but you’re the best fit for this job. If Tarak says so, it must be true.”

“Yes.” After being briefed on the situation, the General had issued a curt series of orders and approved Enki’s request to infiltrate the Ristval V, and for good reason. Enki knew very well that his distinctive features marked him as the son of a noble House. With the right uniform, he would be indistinguishable from the rest of Daegan’s troops. Nobody would recognize him as a First Division soldier. They didn’t know his face, because hadn’t had much contact with the other side of the military. After returning from Tharos, he’d spent a considerable amount of time locked up… for his own good.

“Boss says our first priority is the human. Get her out, get her safe, and if you can do it without them noticing, even better. Then we wait for backup. Destruction comes later. Boss has ordered the Warsong and its auxiliary fleet to our location. They should arrive from the Fleet Station in a few revs.” Lodan’s eyes glazed over as he stared at the endless stream of data flowing through the sylth. “If the Rist were at full capacity, I’d be worried, but Warsong’s packing more than enough firepower to take on this crippled beast.”

“Who’s in command?” Nythian raised a curious eyebrow.

“Ikriss.”

“Ah. The level-headed one. Good call.”

“I’m going,” Enki snapped, cutting the conversation short. Impatience ate at him like a starved and crazed varhund. Every siv they spent discussing things was another siv of torture for the human. Perhaps it was because he’d been the one to discover Layla that he felt a certain sense of responsibility for her. He’d heard her voice, and for the briefest of moments, he’d been able to taste her fear. “Once I’m in, I will go dark.” That meant strictly no communication through the comm. “I will not risk an intercept of my signal.”

“Holler only if you need retrieval,” Nythian said softly, still wearing that cryptic look, as if he were somehow concerned about Enki.

“That won’t be necessary.”

Nythian’s expression turned grim. “You know, there’s always a chance that when you find the human, she won’t be—”

“I know.”

“I hope it isn’t the case, but we’re dealing with a real throwback to the old Empire here. These people are animals.”

“I know that too.” Enki was under no illusions as to what his kind were capable of, but the thought of returning without Layla drove him a little bit mad, and he hadn’t even met her yet. Was it because he had given her his word, or was it something else? “If that is the case, I will have no need to exercise restraint.”

The two warriors were uncharacteristically silent as they stared back at him.

“Don’t worry. I won’t implode,” Enki said, trying to sound calm when really, a dark rage was brewing inside him. But he would not let his anger get the better of him, because his anger seemed to give the Tharian strength, and he wasn’t going to let it control him. Never again. “I’ll just kill every last one of them.”