Something about what Toran said the night before nipped at Raze’s conscience, but when he woke up the next morning, he pushed the thoughts aside. So what if human mates had been discovered? It couldn’t change his situation. He’d given up the part of himself that could sense or care for a mate, so even if she did exist, he’d never know. That, at least, was a small comfort. If he could sense his mate and never claim her, he’d go over the edge for sure. And while he had little life to live, his will to survive still pushed him forward every day.

The three Detyens took down their camp and covered any hint that they’d spent the night in the area. Once that was done, they took off on foot, heading closer to their destination in silence. Raze kept his mind alert as they moved. In the distance he saw a ship flying, but it headed away from them. Even if its sensors detected life, it was unlikely to check them out.

As the suns rose high overhead, sweat dripped down Raze’s neck and clung to his top. Removing a layer would be more comfortable, but he couldn’t risk it when they could come under enemy fire at any moment. Even Kayde seemed bothered by the heat. He placed his fingers in the collar of his shirt and pulled, trying to circulate some air. Though his face remained impassive, his lip twitched and he gave up the effort after a moment.

They came to a rise in the land and moved carefully, unable to see the path ahead of them. The caution was warranted. As soon as Toran cleared the hill, a shout rang out and he cursed, dropping down low and waving at Raze and Toran to do the same. They did without question.

Crawling on his elbows and knees, Raze moved closer until he could see what Toran saw. He would have cursed too. Ten pirates, armed to the teeth, were running their way. One of them clutched something that might have been a perimeter drone, specifically, one of the drones that Toran was using to ensure that they weren’t seen. They were almost impossible to detect.

Almost.

“Engage your camouflage and try to flank them. We can’t let them call in any backup.” Toran kept his gaze glued to the pirates while he gave the command.

Raze slunk back, making space for Kayde to take up his position. Under other circumstances, they may have been able to get away from the engagement without any bloodshed, but the drone changed things. It was military grade and didn’t belong on this planet. If the pirates called for backup, the mission would be compromised in no time. They were too close to the shipyard to be discovered now.

The camouflage in his uniform made him blend in seamlessly with the area around him, but the battery wouldn’t last more than an hour before needing a charge and constant use caused the tech to overheat and malfunction. Raze noted the time he’d engaged and moved slowly, following Toran’s orders. As he got closer, he counted the pirates again and confirmed that there were ten, all armed and ready to shoot at anything that moved. Raze couldn’t use his own blaster until he was in position, and he spotted at least two las cannons among the pirate’s weapons. They wouldn’t need to see him to kill him with those. One blast in his vicinity and he’d be cut in half by the searing flames.

Shouts rang out as the pirates climbed the hill where Toran and Kayde had waited. He didn’t spare a glance, his men needed a distraction to handle the problem. He couldn’t take out the enemy before anyone else was in danger. All he could do was his own job. And to do that, he needed cover. The moss all over the place was no good—even if he laid down he’d still stick out. But the territory here was even rockier than where they’d bedded down for the night. He found what he needed a short jog away. Three towers of stone, close enough to dart between if he was spotted while giving him room to move if the pirates had any friends coming up behind him.

He disengaged his camouflage and grabbed his weapon. Rather than aim for the men still rapidly climbing the hill, he sent a charged shot to a moss-covered rock behind the men. It exploded, the wet moss smoking wildly and making visibility hazy. He sent another shot and watched it blow a hole in what he’d thought was a rock but must have been a fallen tree of some kind.

The pirates didn’t scatter, instead falling into a formation that suggested they had some sort of training and discipline. It wouldn’t save them. Not against three warriors of the Detyen Legion on a mission to finally discover who or what had destroyed their homeland.

Raze aimed his weapon, but the smoke was too much for him to risk firing. He couldn’t get a shot, could barely see the outlines of bodies scattered on the ground. When the blaster fire subsided, he engaged his comms, calling up Toran for confirmation of his next move. But his comms were strangely silent, the barely audible hiss that indicated an open line too quiet.

“Toran, are you there?” he requested.

Toran didn’t respond and Raze tried to call again. Still nothing.

The smoke began to clear and Raze counted the bodies lying on the ground. The number was difficult to discern. Someone had lost control of a las cannon and body parts were flung about. He counted seven heads on the ground. Potentially three survivors. And no response from Toran or Kayde. Raze waited a few minutes more to see if the clearing air revealed any more heads or if he saw movement from the pirates or his fellows. But all was still on the hill. The bodies needed to be hidden before the pirates and slavers could find them, and he needed to find Toran and Kayde to ensure they were safe and continue the mission. There weren’t enough Detyens left in the legion, they couldn’t afford to lose anyone else.

That was his only concern, he tried to tell himself. But the warring priorities buzzed in his head, freezing him in place. This was why the soulless didn’t lead. Both objectives were equally important: hide the bodies, find the men. And Raze didn’t know which one he should do first.

Calm down, Raze. He could almost hear his younger brother, Dryce, speaking to him. You can do this, just pick one. He’d said that at their first meeting after Raze lost his soul when he’d needed to choose a meal in the mess. Raze had frozen in place, unable to choose between one dish and another since neither held any significance to him. He didn’t crave the taste or texture and they had the same nutritional value. Neither was better or worse than the other.

Bodies first.

Toran and Kayde could be right there, injured or simply with malfunctioning comms devices. If Raze went to deal with the bodies, then he could find out whether that was true or not. And if it wasn’t, he’d use any information he found on the bodies to hunt down Toran and Kayde and recover them before continuing with the mission.

Plan in hand, he took off at a fast clip, almost choking on the rotted stench of the smoke as he ran through it. Whatever that moss was made of, it smelled terrible, like fish guts and bile that had been left out in the suns for weeks.

He climbed the rise with care, weapon in hand and senses alert. But the only sound was of the gentle breeze and the dying fire. He didn’t hear Kayde or Toran, and there was no sign of the surviving men. Raze studied the spot on the hill where they’d crouched only minutes ago. A small patch of green caught his eye and he knelt down, placing his hand in the sticky fluid.

Detyen blood. Not enough for a killing blow, but one or both of the men was injured and in the hands of the enemy.

The mission had just changed. The ship and data on it could wait. He needed to find his men, make sure they were okay, and kill whoever he needed to make sure that they posed no threat to any of his people ever again.

***

Sierra cursed and dove for cover when the weapons started firing. She tried to call Mindy over the comm, but something was up with the signal and all she heard from her ear piece was silence. The moss that seemed to be everywhere didn’t offer much in the way of cover, but a large boulder was enough to squat behind to wait out the firefight. She tried to get a look around to see if she was in anyone’s sights, but the band of pirates climbing the hill off in the distance seemed more concerned with the blaster fire coming from their front and the explosive charged shots aimed at their rear.

Trouble in paradise? Intel hadn’t said anything about factional violence, but pirates and slavers weren’t the most forgiving bunch. She’d keep her eyes peeled for any other signs of trouble, but this could just as easily be some dumb squabble.

Smoke stung her eyes and the stench made her gag. What the fuck was the damn moss made of? She was far enough away that she didn’t have trouble breathing, but that didn’t help when she still wanted to throw up from how bad it smelled. While the smoke grew thicker, the sound of blaster fire cut off. A few strangled moans echoed eerily across the rocks near her, but otherwise it was silent. She tried her comm again, but still nothing. She was still close enough to the shipyard that she suspected something there might be causing interference.

Sierra waited to see who came out the winner of the firefight. Her fingers itched to grab her blaster and finish off the unsuspecting champions. Chances were, anyone who found the bodies would think they’d all done each other in. But she kept her hands off her blaster. That wasn’t the mission and she wasn’t going to screw this up and endanger the women who’d been captured. The information she gathered out here could be instrumental to freeing them.

Minutes ticked by and nobody moved. Maybe they had finished each other off, but something was bugging her, something was off. Sure, pirates fought all the time in space, but whoever was living here had to be living under some sort of organization. They might not have any law or military, but they wouldn’t have lasted a year if gangs of a dozen men got into fire fights with any regularity. And that had been some heavy duty weaponry. Despite the stench of the smoke, she caught a hint of the burning ozone smell of las fire. That shit meant business. It could eat through just about anything and had only one use: destruction. A blaster fight between rivals? That she could understand. But bringing a las cannon to this kind of battle showed they meant business.

Maybe this was all part of some leadership challenge and the place was on the brink of war. Given the intel they had, that might be why the pirates were moving on. But one fight wasn’t enough to think that was true. Not yet. She pushed the thought to the back of her mind with a note to keep an eye out for anything that might be relevant, and then she was on the move.

She didn’t make it far before darting back behind her boulder as some of the survivors started moving. She grabbed binoculars from her belt and slipped the sleek glasses on. She spotted three men in gear not that dissimilar from her own. One had a blaster out while the other two dragged two other men, one with golden skin and the other a greenish blue. Two of the slavers were human, the other a humanoid with purple skin and no hair. Oscavian if she had to guess from this distance. She couldn’t identify the species of the guys being dragged, but that didn’t matter for the moment.

They moved with the slick efficiency of those accustomed to stealing people, and though Sierra was watching them closely, they disappeared between one blink and the next.

What the hell?

She refocused her binoculars, but it was like they’d never existed. All that was left in their place was the haze of smoke and a pile of dead bodies. Curiosity urged her closer. Though it was a trait that served her well in her line of work, Sierra forced herself to stay still. Unless there was a hidden entrance or a stashed vehicle of some kind over there, those slavers hadn’t just disappeared. There were types of camouflage that could disguise people like that, and she didn’t want to march on up there if she couldn’t see them. Besides, it wasn’t her problem.

Just as she was ready to move again, she caught movement coming from the other direction. Though most of him was obscured by his clothing, she caught a hint of light green skin on his face and hands. She pressed the button on the side of the binoculars to take a recording. If the AI system couldn’t identify him, maybe Jo or Mindy would recognize his kind.

Something rooted her in place as she watched him cross the killing field and climb the short hill with the self-assurance of a man who thought he was invulnerable to blaster fire. He barely spared a glance for the dead bodies of his fellow slavers, but why would he? Pirates and slavers were a heartless lot, and he’d been one of the guys firing at them. Hell, she was surprised he wasn’t grinning from ear to ear. She couldn’t quite make out the details of his face, but there definitely wasn’t a grin. She couldn’t see any expression at all.

Her heart clenched and Sierra shook her head to clear the unwanted thought. She could barely see the guy, let alone read his emotions from almost indecipherable expressions. For all she knew, he’d eaten a bad sandwich for lunch and was trying to keep from throwing up.

He crested the hill and froze in place. Sierra wanted so badly to stay and see what he did that she forced herself to turn away. She needed to continue on to the coordinates where the slavers were keeping the women and plant her surveillance gear. The sooner she had that information, the sooner they could work to get the women to safety.

The first step was the hardest, when something in her chest was tugging at her to turn back around and… well, she wasn’t sure what she was supposed to do. She only knew that she didn’t want to leave. But that was too bad. He was just some pirate, better off dead or caught in a power struggle. And there was no reason for her to tell him that his buddies had been dragged off by survivors. No reason to offer help.

That was crazy talk, and finally got her feet moving away.