As the Zaku turned its back to search for Milos, Aris fired her emergency cold-gas thrusters. The Ball launched silently, like a fist from the dark. She slammed into the Zaku’s back, her claw arms latching onto its backpack thrusters.

Lieutenant Croft came to see her that evening. He looked older, the lines around his eyes deeper.

“Remember,” Darius said, “we are not here to destroy the Zakus. We are here to pop the fuel tanks and leave. If you see a mono-eye, you run. Understood?”

But the first Zaku was enraged. It vaulted over a burning fuel tank, machine gun blazing. Darius’s Ball took a hit to the thruster assembly. He spun out of control, tumbling toward the lunar surface.

He sat down on the edge of her cot. “They’re giving you a commendation. ‘For extraordinary initiative and bravery in the face of the enemy.’ It’s a piece of ribbon.”

Taggart didn’t scream. His comm just went dead as the heat hawk bisected his cockpit.


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