“It doesn’t change anything,” Kaiden said. “Maximus is big, but not big enough to take on the Warden Corps and guarantee a victory. We’ve only got one chance at the AFBS. This plan is too important to risk on a gamble. When we hit Warden HQ, we have to do it with overwhelming numbers.” He clenched a fist and cursed. “You guys put your trust in me and I blew it. I’m sorry. I screwed up. I wasn’t good enough.”
“Cut that shit out,” Titus said and punched him in the shoulder. Hard enough that it wasn’t playful. “I don’t want any of that defeatist bullshit. I’m not out of this fight until I stop breathing. We’re far from done.” He looked over to Thorne. “How about you?”
“Till the last,” she confirmed with a nod.
“Ellenton?” he asked next.
“I know you’re just asking for dramatic effect but of course I’m in to the end. And Dawson, too. Not to mention all the free wardens he’s been recruiting. I think you’ll be surprised how many out there share our cause.”
“And Zelda?” Titus turned to her.
“Stupid question. Of course.” She nodded, but she sounded distant. As if she was distracted by something.
“Great,” the big man said, then looked back to Kaiden. “Everyone else is still dedicated to this, dude. So stop moping. We lost this battle. So what? We’re not done. Are you?”
Kaiden sucked in a deep breath.
He’s right.
“I misjudged The Syndicate,” Kaiden said, trying to puzzle out where he’d gone wrong, and how he could avoid it in the future. “They value their accounts more than they care about the injustices of the Party.”
“Hold up,” Zelda said all of a sudden. “Say that again?”
“I misjudged The Syndicate…?”
“And ‘they value their accounts more than they care about the injustices of the Party.’” She said the words like there was some deeper meaning there. Kaiden certainly hadn’t meant any.
Zelda suddenly shot to her feet.
“What?” Kaiden asked, looking up at her.
“Ellenton, can you reach the Veritas II? Tell them to set course for NC451 and be ready to go the moment we dock.”
“On it,” she said from the cockpit.
“NC451?” Kaiden asked. “That’s Odditor’s moon. Why are we going back there?”
“The Syndicate won’t work with us, but he said he’d be willing to.”
“Yeah, but he wanted the database as collateral. We can’t risk it, you know that. And besides, even if we did, someone still has to run his labyrinth.”
The labyrinth that no one has completed since... since I don’t even know when.
“Yep.” Zelda nodded.
Kaiden scrunched up his eyebrows.
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“I’d never risk the database,” Zelda said. “You know that.”
“Then why is he going to let us run the labyrinth?”
“Because you just gave me a very good idea,” she said. “One that might just work.”
Chapter Forty-Six
Just because they were level fifty didn’t mean it was time to stop grinding. And considering the odds of them having to storm Warden HQ with an underpowered force, Kaiden made sure they picked up every mission they could on the way back to NC451.
They ground them out, rescuing hijacked ships and crews, shooting down pirates, and even making a quick stop in an asteroid field to eliminate a makeshift raiders’ nest that had been set up. The ship and crew still needed to be leveled as well, and between the missions and the random PvE encounters that always spawned on a trip across the universe, everyone picked up a fair bit of experience, all the while plying Zelda for information on what she was planning. But by the time they arrived at NC451, no one had managed to get anything out of her.
“S.S. Andronicus,” the voice of Whenstone, Odditor’s constant companion, said over comms. “Have you reconsidered Odditor’s terms? Ready to take a shot at the labyrinth?”
“Yeah, something like that,” Zelda said back as she boarded the Borrelly.
“Buckle up,” Ellenton said and Kaiden knew all too well to listen to her. Her flying had been tamer of late, but that didn’t mean he was planning on risking anything going squish.
“Odditor says he’ll see you, if you’re ready to accept the terms he laid out during your last visit.”
“We’ll be right down, then,” Zelda said. “And this time, we’re not fighting our way through the jungle for your amusement. If he wants to speak with us, he’s going to open a landing pad directly at his base.”
“The Madhouse,” Whenstone corrected, a note of annoyance in his voice.
“If you’re not going to tell us your plan, maybe the least you can do is not antagonize them?” Kaiden said to Zelda, careful not to broadcast it over comms where Whenstone could hear.
“Trust me on this,” Zelda said. “I know what I’m doing.”
Kaiden wanted to push back on that, but considering how things had gone with The Syndicate he wasn’t exactly in any position to bash someone else’s plan. After all, they were all in this together. If they didn’t trust one another, then what did they have? Common purpose, he supposed, but after everything they’d been through, he liked to imagine they had a bit more than that. He’d trusted Titus to take down Maximus’ tournament and he’d done exactly that. Was now the time to trust Zelda to carry the group for a bit?
“You’re cleared for landing at pad oh-six,” Whenstone said after a long pause during which Kaiden was sure he’d been speaking with Odditor. “That’s at the base of the Madhouse. Odditor requests your pilot is careful on approach. Any damage to the structure or surrounding jungle will be most displeasing.”
“We’ll be down in a minute,” Zelda said back, then gave the sign for Ellenton to undock from the Veritas II.
“Ah, so I see, uh, I see you’re back,” Odditor said, stumbling over his words in that way of his like he was constantly editing what he was going to say. Couldn’t settle on one way to say it. He had
