18
Thedraanthicthought they were clever, hiding in an asteroid.
Grey and jagged, the asteroid's cratered surface was scarred from abandoned mining.Raaevik's eyes narrowed as it filled the viewscreen.He'd tracked their engine signature and found them...now he just had to find a way in.
There… he spotted it finally, a shuttle bay carved into the rock face, its atmospheric shield flickering against the black.
He didn't bother with landing protocols or the automated docking sequence.Instead, he cut power to the interceptor's stealth systems, diverted everything to engines and shields, and shoved the throttle forward.
The shield tore apart around the interceptor, sparking as the hull ripped a hole the size of a building through it.Alarms shrieked.The console lit up, warnings he ignored.
The bay deck rushed up to meet him.
He fired reverse thrusters at the last second, just enough to keep the landing short of a crash.Metal screeched as the struts bit, skidded, caught, and held.Engines still cycling down, he hit the ramp release and dropped into the bay.
His boots hit the floor with a crash.He didn't pause.Didn't check his surroundings.He just ran.
The bay was small, crates piled along dusty walls.Three warriors stood by the far door, weapons half-raised, staring at the wreck of his entrance like they couldn't believe anyone was insane enough to do that.
The first took a blade through the ribs.The second dropped with a crushed windpipe.The third fired...a bolt screamed past Raaevik’s shoulder to punch a hole in the bulkhead.Raaevik broke his neck, dropped the body, and kept moving.
He could feel it in his blood.She was closer.
The corridor beyond the bay was narrow, carved from rock and lined with exposed conduits.Emergency lighting cast everything in red.Her scent pulled him.Sharper now, cut with fear and chemicals.He followed it deeper into the rock, left at the junction, then down.
Six more guards spilled out from a junction ahead.
"Contact!"The point warrior bellowed.
They were fast and professional.Rifles up, stocks to shoulders in unison.Energy bolts filled the corridor in a storm.
Any other day, he'd be tactical.Smart.Alone in enemy territory, his plan would change from a full-on assault.Logic vanished once he’d realised Emily was taken.Now, only the mission mattered: getting her back.
He pulled his lips back from his teeth in a snarl.
He didn't check his stride, didn't weave, just lowered his head and ran straight into the fire.
A bolt caught his shoulder, another his thigh.Pain flared, hot and immediate, but it didn't matter.He registered the damage and kept moving.
He returned fire instinctively.Two guards dropped.A third scrambled, shouting into his comm.Raaevik put a blade through his throat before he could finish.
The corridor sloped down, and he followed it deeper into the asteroid.
Then he caught her scent—sharp and wrong, terror bleeding through it.The fear wasn't hers alone.It pulsed through him, overriding tactical sense and the knowledge that this was stupid, that he should slow down andthink.
But she was scared.
And that was unacceptable.
He dug deeper, legs burning, lungs dragging in thin air.She was close; he could smell her through metal and rock.The corridor blurred as every cell screamed for more speed.
The corridor opened into a wider junction, and five warriors stepped out to meet him.Weapons up.Formation tight.Professional.
He didn't care.
The bolt caught him square in the chest.
The impact drove him backward, his booted feet skidding on the metal deck-plating as he landed on his ass, back against the wall.He looked down.Smoke curled from the burn hole in his leathers, and beneath it, the wound was deep.Fatal.He saw his own heart struggle to beat as blood welled hot and thick, spreading across his ribs.
