Chapter Twenty-Seven
Bron
I burst onto the command deck, not waiting for my raiders to salute me with their heels. “Report!”
Svar spun toward me, his kilt catching air and slapping his thighs. “We’ve picked up a distress call, Raas.”
The tension in my shoulders uncoiled. After the Zagrath had sent—and lost— another assassin, I’d expected it to be an imperial fleet hot on our tail.
“The Valox,” Corvak added, his voice humming with barely contained urgency.
“Here?” I turned to my battle chief then back to the view screen. The Valox resistance was a ragtag operation that had been waging war against the empire less successfully than us. Comprised of fighters from various planets and species, they were able to blend in on imperial outposts whereas we could not, and their ships did not have any distinctive markings like Vandar warbirds. But their nondescript ships could not fly unseen as we could, which left them exposed to Zagrath attacks.
“This is not their usual sector,” Svar said, as he pivoted back to his standing console, “but it appears that a battle chased them here.”
“How long until we reach them?” I drummed my fingers restlessly on the hilt of my axe. It was not often I was in a position to lend assistance to fellow enemies of the empire.
“Approaching now, Raas.” Svar’s fingers flew across his screen then he snapped his head up. “On screen.”
The streaks of light as we raced through space became pinpoints as we slowed to approach a squadron of battered ships. I leapt down from my vantage point overlooking the command deck and walked to the glass, as if I could get closer to the injured ships. “Damage?”
“They’ve been badly hit,” Corvak said. “But life support appears to be functional, and they do have some shield capacity.”
I released a breath. “Hail them and offer assistance.”
“Should we drop invisibility shielding?” Svar asked.
I gave a sharp shake of my head. “Not yet. We cannot discount the possibility of an imperial trap.” I thought about Alana’s insistence that the Zagrath would come after her. “I want full scans of the system. If there’s anything out there, I need to know about it.”
“Yes, Raas.” Svar focused on his screen as he transmitted the hail.
I took long steps to join Corvak at his post. “What do you think, battle chief?”
“I see no reason to think it isn’t a damaged squad of Valox resistance fighters, Raas.” He tilted his head at me. “Do you have reason to believe otherwise?”
“No,” I answered quickly. “But Kratos taught us both to be cautious, and always suspect the empire.”
Corvak’s upper lip quirked. “We both learned that lesson well. We can never let down our guard when it comes to the enemy.”
I slid my gaze to the ships on our screen, their gray hulls scorched and pocked by laser fire. “But we should not withhold aid from those who also fight against the Zagrath.”
“Our enemy’s enemy is our friend.”
I clapped a hand on Corvak’s bare shoulder. “Well said.”
“Raas.” My majak’s voice pulled my attention. “The Valox have responded to our hail and welcome our assistance. One of their ships has a significant hull breach and another has a damaged engine.”
“Are repairs already underway?” I asked.
Svar frowned. “The engineer on one of the damaged ships was killed in the battle and there are only a handful of survivors on the other failing ship.”
I considered this for a moment. “Is it safe for us to board and assist with repairing the engine, while the ship with the breached hull is evacuated?”
“I believe so, Raas.”
I squared my shoulders. “I will join the boarding parties. Tell one of our engineers to join me on the hangar bay.”
“You, Raas?” Corvak asked.
I flicked a glance at him. “I wish to see these fighters who also despise the empire.”
“I will join you,” he said.
I shook my head. “I need you here monitoring long-range sensors for any enemy activity. If you pick up any incoming attack, I need your battle experience to hold them off until the boarding parties have returned.”
He met my eyes with a determined glint in his. “It is done.”
“Good.” I turned on my heel and headed for the door as my majak fell in step with me.
“Before you object,” he said, holding up a hand as we passed through the arched doors and stepped off the command deck, “it would be a dereliction of duty for me to allow my Raas to go on a raiding mission without me.”
“This is no raiding mission,” I said, although I did not slow as we both thundered down the walkway, side by side.
“You do not know what we will find on the Valox resistance ships. Or what will transpire. Just because it has been quiet since we left Zendaren, we should not expect the calm to last.”
He had a point, and it was Vandar protocol for my majak to be by my side during battle. My fingers tingled at the thought of a fight. Though fucking had slaked some of my desire, my heart still raced at the possibility of another imperial attack.
“I’m afraid we will both be disappointed when we find wounded ships and injured resistance fighters.”
“Better than imperial fighters on our warbird attempting to kill our passenger,” he said.
I forgot that he did not know what I did about Alana, although I suspected he’d heard the assassin call her Mantis before he’d fallen. If he knew that an imperial assassin remained on board, he would not find our situation so dull. “Peace never lasts long. We will find ourselves drawing Zagrath blood soon enough.”
We made our way quickly down the iron stairs, and across rattling bridges that crisscrossed the dark, yawning chasm of the warbird. When we entered the hangar bay, a group of raiders waited next to a raiding ship. I spotted one of our engineers, nodding to him as I hurried up the ship’s ramp with the rest of the raiders followed me.
“This
