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Hundreds of spaceships with reinforced hulls, state-of-the-art ion propulsion engines, and the battle scars of a dozen engagements meet the force of the Mercurian desert It clubs theantuan child It throws a squadron of ripWings into the mountainside Whips a hundred-round where it crushes half a legion of Grays sheltering inside a ground transport And, all at once, the mission that took a month to plan and half a year to prepare, one that was to be executed by men and women who’ve made a vocation of war, comes apart with no explanation except that the Reaper is sharing our planet, and that my family is a line of paranoid tyrants

A dark shape stumbles out of the storm to join me behind the tank

It’s Ajax’s starShell

He crashes down and sits un

Lightning flashes in the stor his terrified face His lips tremble His eyes are wide and white and boyish I’ve seen him like this only once before, frozen in place out there on the West Line, a kiloh communications hardline we used to dare each other to walk as children The first time we tried, he froze only a quarter of the way across What began so confidently ended with his knuckles turning white as he gripped the edge and stared down at the thousand-meter drop I walked out to him and set a hand on his shoulder, and told him only he could walk himself to safety A quarter kilometer back, or three-quarters forward and across Which way he walked was up to him

He walked back

It was one of the defining moments of our childhood, e both discovered the substance of his courage

I put a hand on his shoulder now Our eyes meet, and I know he’s back on the West Line with me Slowly, the fear leaves hiotten are the Praetorians, o forward

—

With effort, Ajax e bay of an infantry transport The stor The hull creaks as we cluster together in the diht

Seneca gruh his report “Sixty transports destroyed in the firstfor the rest We can’t establish communications with the fleet, command, or the transports I’ve never seen this much electrical interference from a storm”

“He did this…” Ajax murmurs His eyes are fixed on the roof of the transport

“I’m sorry, sir?” Seneca says

“Darrow,” Kalindora confirms “He’s mad”

“It’s just a storm,” Seraphina says fro can summon hypercanes at the drop of a pin, it’s a freak occurrence It will soon pass”