Aelon, meanwhile, continues his banter.
“You’d be dead, fishface. Maybe I’d be dead, too – but I can tell you now, I’d have taken you down with me. Every battle is a coin flip.”
He leans back in his seat. Fuck, Aelon is magnificent when he’s like this. Somehow, removing that burning rage and fury from him seems to have made Aelon even more fluent and irreverent. The cockiness I’d detested when I was on the receiving end of it is now entertaining, magical and sexy to watch. He uses his tongue with the same skill he uses his Orb-Blade, pilots a Reaver, or…
I shudder.
…fucks.
Even though he’s not looking at me, I see Aelon’s lips curl, and I realize he could sense my adoration of him through our muted Bond.
He continues taunting the Toad commander:
“Now, I know what you’re thinking, frogspawn. You’re thinking you can succumb to your greedy Toad nature and demand more. You’re thinking you take the deal, and then you fight me for the scraps of ore on the planet down below, and whatever else you can salvage from my ship. Think carefully if you want to flip that coin – because I know how it lands.”
The Toad commander grunts. “Each one of your Reavers has an Orb. I stand to capture over a hundred of them.”
“Yes. Hundreds of small, mid-sized Orbs from my Reavers. Hundreds of even smaller ones from our Orb-Blades – not to mention the massive one, probably half the size of the one that powers your Mothership, right there in the bowels of The Instigator.”
Aelon leans forward menacingly.
“But remember – each of those Reavers is manned by an Aurelian triad with three-hundred years of experience in killing Toads – and who’ll use the full power of all those hundred or so Orbs against you. You don’t have the element of surprise, frogspawn. You’ll hurt us, I know. You may even kill The Instigator – but you’ll pay a heavy price for it. We don’t need to win to hurt you, badly.” Aelon’s eyes flash. “So, choose, Toad – but choose carefully, because this might be the last choice you ever make.”
Aelon’s bluffing against overwhelming odds, but the Toad doesn’t know that for certain. He has to think there could be more Aurelians lurking somewhere, hidden away. There can’t be enough to overwhelm him, or Aelon would have started the battle already – but there could be enough to make a victory worth less than the loss in his own ships and soldiers.
I have the feeling this Toad cares more about his ships than his soldiers.
“Give ten Reavers, plus Orbs, then I make deal!”
The Toad’s speaking pattern suddenly changes, becoming more guttural. The greed is twisting his words and simplifying his manner of speaking.
Ten Reavers... That’s a formidable fleet…
…but it won’t matter if Meelon has ten Reavers. Not if the explosives work.
“You need to make the deal fast. Those chemical explosives are on a timer.”
Iunia telepaths the words that put more pressure on the situation. We don’t have much time.
Come on, Aelon. Give him what he wants!
“No.”
Aelon’s voice is cold and flat. He made his offer – and he said it was his only one. If he negotiated more, he’d appear weak – so the Toads might chance an attack, or demand even more. Aelon’s rock solid in his confidence to bluff, and his arrogance through the Bond is infuriatingly reassuring.
“You are in no position to negotiate!”
“I know your hand, Meelon. Are you certain you know mine?”
The holograph of the Toad suddenly disappears. The Bond blinks out of my mind again. Red lights flash as our comms-link is cut off entirely. The auras of my triad are replaced by my own hopelessness.
Is the Toad going to attack?
Our fate is in the hands of that vile creature.
Aelon suddenly cranks the thrusters – piloting our Reaver directly towards the Toad ships. Alarms flare up.
The AI screams a warning that cuts right to my soul: “Target Lock! Target Lock! Target Lock!”
Over and over it blares – warning us that countless Toad missiles have locked onto our vessel.
“Dismiss,” Aelon snaps. The AI instantly obeys.
He might have cut out the noise, but I can still read the displays.
We’ve now come into range of the Toad Mothership. Thousands of las-cannons are aimed right at us. One word from the Toad commander and we’ll be blasted into nothingness. No one could escape the wrath of those weapons.
I want to scream at Aelon to get out of range, but he pilots us forward, veering into the storm.
“We’re in sub-coms range.” Iunia’s voice is stressed, but the nervousness is gone. We’re in battle now. The guns might not be firing, but there’s no room left for fear. Iunia’s been in hundreds of battles under Aelon’s lead and he trusts his Captain fully.
Fully, if not wisely. Iunia trusts a Captain who’s just put us in range of enough artillery to raze a city. If our plan doesn’t work, it won’t matter how well the miners on the surface of Tarrion hide. The Toads will just destroy everything, causing an inferno of fire in the jungles that will sweep the planet until nothing survives.
I grip the back of Aelon’s seat. Any moment could be my last. I look to my triad, staring at the lines of their faces, etching the details into my brain. I don’t regret boarding this Reaver with them. I might see one last blink of energy as the intense light of the Toad las-cannons power up, launching at me and sending me to meet my maker, but I made this choice.
I will live or die with my triad.
More lights suddenly blink on the panel, and for a moment I think they’re incoming missiles. In fact, it’s just a message from sub-coms. Aelon presses a button to open the communication.
It’s Meelon. “I accept your offer, Aelon.”
The Toad’s voice on the sub-coms is scratchy, but clear. Aelon successfully bluffed him. His move of entering weapons
