“Destroy them,” I told him, steering us around the nearest asteroid belt to where the Cerberus ship was. “No prisoners. No mercy. They are here to kill our people. We take them out by whatever means necessary.”
I’d fought the Hive before. Not as a fighter but as a rebel. I’d never once considered the Cerberus legion to be an enemy. Most steered clear while I was aiming my ship right for them.
My father made a noise that sounded like a groan, but this was not up for debate. Cerberus wanted Zara for himself. No farking way that was happening. He was going to destroy a city on Trion. No farking way that was happening either. If I didn’t stop him, no one would. It would be too late for any Trion military to put up defenses.
I needed the leader of one of the most notorious Rogue 5 legions to hear me loud and clear. Go after Zara, you die.
Go after my people, you die.
In this, Zara was correct. I was not my brother. I would not negotiate. Fark that, I wouldn’t even listen to people from such a vile criminal organization. I was not a diplomat or a politician, I was a hunter, a killer, a warrior without mercy if someone threatened what was mine.
But then, Zara wasn’t truly mine. Neither was Trion… not anymore. But I buried those thoughts. They were not for now. Later, I would deal with the fallout of this fight. Later, I would deal with my father’s disapproval and my mother’s sorrow because this time. I would leave, and they would know the true reason. While we all mourned Malik still, the truth couldn’t hide behind his loss. Right now, I had to protect them all.
“I have nothing on my scanners. Are you sure this is the right place?” Erick asked.
“Yes. Trust me. They’re here.” I reached forward and adjusted my ship’s scanners to a frequency that would detect the stealth technology I was sure the Cerberus ship was using. Zenos had it, could see them. He was used to the Hive tech. I knew because I’d sold it to them. “Adjust your scanners to match mine. You won’t see the ship, more like a shadow.”
“Fark. I see it.” Erick sounded shocked. My father leaned forward in the co-pilot’s seat and reached for the controls.
“Targeting their ship’s engines.” My father’s nimble fingers moved over the controls with a practiced ease that reminded me he’d once served in the Coalition Fleet, that he’d been a fighter before becoming a diplomat. That my mother, like Zara, was an Interstellar Bride.
“Don’t activate the ion cannon yet,” I told him. “As soon as you lock on target, they’ll know we can see them, and they’ll attack.”
“They could fire on Bakkarholt at any moment.” There was no censure in my father’s voice, mere statement of fact.
He was right, but we could not destroy their ship, not yet. “We need them to set their target before we take them out. We need proof to take down Bertok. He’s too powerful and has too many friends on Trion. Just being here isn’t enough.”
“It’s a risk.”
“A necessary risk, Father. Trust me, Bertok is too dangerous. We have to finish this.”
Patient as a spider, my father sat with his hands hovering over the controls. “Agreed.”
“Intercept in two minutes. Target acquired but not locked,” Erick reported.
“Perfect. They won’t lock on to Bakkarholt until we fly past their ship. They think we can’t see them. Be ready to reverse course and fire immediately from the rear. If we’re fast enough, we’ll catch them with their shielding down.”
Erick mumbled through the comms, just as eager as I to end the enemy. “Trust me, we’re ready.”
The longest two minutes of my life ensued as I watched the Cerberus ship grow closer and closer. But they were smart. Sneaky. They did not activate their ion cannon. They did not activate their targeting systems. They flew like a ghost ship. Had Zenos and Ivy not warned us, there would have been no way to stop them. None.
We flew past them as if out for a practice run. No hurry. No shielding. No weapons. Two ships flying a routine patrol.
“Get ready.” I inspected the Cerberus ship as we flew by. It was twice the size of the ship I flew and loaded with three times the weapons. “Don’t miss, Erick. They’ve got enough firepower to take out a small fleet.”
“Holy gods, what the fark is that?” Erick’s shock had my father leaning forward.
“Drift up, son. Get a closer look.”
I followed Father’s words, so I could get a good look at the top of the Cerberus ship.
“That farking Xeriman. She bought my Spectra IV.” The irony was not lost on me. There, mounted atop the Cerberus ship was the Spectra IV ion cannon I had ordered from the Silver Scions. I knew it was mine because I had requested a special insignia be embossed on the side of the cannon. My family crest.
“Is that… is that our crest?” Father asked, wide eyed.
“That was to be mine.”
“You negotiated with the enemy?”
I looked to him, his gaze serious and dark.
“You negotiate with the enemy, Father. What I’ve done is diplomacy. Watched. Listened. Fark, if I hadn’t been selling to them, we wouldn’t be here right now saving the planet.
Father listened, studied me, then nodded.
I didn’t know what it meant, but it wasn’t hurtful words.
“She probably used my money to buy it.”
Now Ulza, or one of her sons, was probably on that ship. And they intended to use my Spectra IV to kill an
