“We are cloaked, right?” Azrim calls up to Ignus.
“Yes, sir.”
He turns to me. “How could Tessi see us? She watched us leave.”
I shrug. “Must have something to do with her Isonian skills.”
He checks his weapons and ammo as he paces the cargo area of the ship in his starsuit like he always does before an infiltration mission. But something is different in the way he strains his neck and shakes his head like he and his Shifter are disagreeing on something.
I was trying to borrow a ship to search for them when he had arrived with Tessi and Rhysan. Azrim had slipped right back into his old role with Tessi, caring for her like she was his. I saw it in his eyes. He wanted to believe it.
Now he looks like he’s beating himself up over everything all over again.
I lean against the wall, grab a handrail as the ship tilts, and call to him.
Azrim fumes when he looks over at me.
“Do not tell me you hated it,” I say.
He walks to a window, rests his arms above it, and stares down at our blue world. “You should not be here.”
“Brother…”
Azrim wheels around and thrusts a clawed finger at me. “You know why! Do not, for one second, think that this is going to end well. It isn’t! It’s who we are to suffer and fight and lose!”
His anger speaks louder than his words. Azrim has always hidden beneath it when he is scared.
Marne gets his team ready, along with Spike, who has volunteered to help with this mission, despite not being assigned to it. The wariness in Marne’s eyes makes me think he doesn’t trust Azrim to pull himself together before we crack the first hull.
I hug my elbows and ignore the itch of my armor rubbing over my recently healed injuries. “I don’t like it either. But we can’t keep waiting for the enemy to show up on Mindor and hope we’re not caught with our pants down. We need to be proactive. Isonians need our skills. They have protected Tessi. Onidus has.”
“She’s not safe,” Azrim reasserts.
“She’s in the safest place she can be.”
He huffs and stalks to the back as Marne walks up to me.
“Carnas and Corzin are all that’s left of their shredder team. I’m sending them both with you.” When Marne’s eyes dart to Azrim and back to me, I know it’s because he doesn’t trust my brother. Right now, I can’t blame him.
“Our normal allies, Amphirans and Drathious, are still out of the system. It is just us against Nebs and the Denarso, but it sounds like Viriden has handled most of the spotted toads.”
I wish the Lunas would wake the fuck up and see that their denial of our situation is only making things worse. We need their help to fight off these invaders. “So we’re mostly down to the three Neb warships and their fleet of fighters?”
“A-firm.”
And here we are again, sticking our necks out for the ungrateful. “If we survive this, I’ve been thinking about asking Viriden for his help getting us assembled in space and building our own fleet.”
“Leaving this world?” Marne asks.
“Yeah. I don’t have a plan, but the idea is growing on me.”
Red lights flash in the cabin and Ignus’ voice comes over the shipcom. “Approaching drop zone. Team One please proceed to your ship.”
I hold up a fist to Marne. “Claws out, brother.”
He taps it with his.
“Team two…” I rap a clawed fist to my chest.
