Tevin crouched behind a ridge of red stone and watched the lake shrink. His wrists ached inside the glowing blue shackles the Vael had locked on him back at the camp. He had been a nobody once, a man who picked beetles off fallen logs. Then the Vael took him, and he watched another prisoner get carried out limp and peaceful, shackles still glowing. He decided he would not be the next one. That was why he was here, on the wrong side of the ridge, leading four people he barely knew toward a power core that might get him off this planet for good. Below them, a machine the size of a house crawled along the shore on tank treads. A clear tank on its back sloshed with lake water. A long curved hose sucked at the shallows and pulled the level down by the minute. Purple Vael workers moved around it, six that Tevin could count, tails dragging in the mud. "Core's in the shed," the old engineer whispered. He tapped his goggles. The blue lenses flared. "Behind the machine. Small building, tin roof." "You're sure," Tevin said. "I built half the parts they stole," Ambrose said. "I'm sure." Riley shifted her makeshift gun against her shoulder. "Six workers. No commander." "Yet," Harlen said. The red rig over his mouth hissed once. Elina crouched beside Tevin. Her stained glass wings folded tight to her back so the sun would not catch them. "Go low. Follow the hose line. They won't look down." Tevin nodded because he did not trust his voice. He led them off the ridge on his bare feet, quiet across the cracked mud. The machine's siphon covered the sound of their steps. They passed close enough to smell the Vael, wet and sour. One worker turned. Elina touched Tevin's shoulder and they froze behind a treaded wheel. The worker scratched its antenna and turned back to the tank. They reached the shed. Tevin pressed his ear to the tin. Nothing. He lifted the latch and eased the door open. Ambrose pushed past him. The shed was empty. Bare dirt floor. A single bolt on the wall where something heavy had hung. Four clean squares in the dust where a crate had sat that morning. "No," Ambrose said. He touched the bolt. "No, no. It was here." "They moved it," Riley said. "Today," Harlen said. He crouched and pressed a finger to the dust. "Warm." Outside, the siphon changed pitch. A low horn sounded across the lakebed. Tevin turned. Through the crack in the door he saw the six workers stop and lift their heads at once, antennae swinging toward the shed. Elina drew her wing forward. The sharp edge caught the light. "They know we're here," she said.

The horn kept blowing. Tevin shoved the shed door wide and stepped out with the alien gun Ambrose had pushed into his hands on the ridge. Six purple workers were already running at them across the mud, tails whipping, claws out. Tevin raised the gun. His shackles flared blue against his wrists. He fired. A bolt of white light punched the lead worker off its feet. The others split sideways. Tevin ran at them anyway, barefoot in the wet, shouting something that wasn't words. Behind him Riley opened up with her makeshift gun and dropped a second worker mid-stride. Harlen went past Tevin at a dead run and the red rig over his mouth hissed once, then roared. A cone of fire caught a Vael in the chest and it went down screaming, curled around itself. "Cover me," Ambrose said. The old engineer was already moving, goggles blazing blue, harpoon gun bouncing on his back. He ran for the flank of the siphon machine. Tevin swung around to shield him and fired twice more, keeping the workers off the machine's side. Ambrose reached the chassis. He dropped to his knees beside a panel under the water tank. "Buy me two minutes." "You've got them," Tevin said. A worker came in from Tevin's left. He didn't see it. Elina did. She dropped from above, wings out, and the sharp edge of the left wing came down across the worker's neck. Stained glass caught the sun in reds and yellows and blues. The Vael folded into the mud. She landed light beside Tevin and did not look at him. "Two more," she said. Riley took one at fifteen paces, one clean shot. Harlen took the last with fire, close enough that Tevin felt the heat on his face. Then the mud went quiet except for the machine's siphon and Ambrose's swearing. Something inside the chassis clanked. Ambrose pulled back and stood up cradling a black cube the size of a loaf of bread. Its seams glowed the same blue as Tevin's shackles. "Got it," Ambrose said. He was breathing hard. "We go. Now." Tevin let himself feel it for one second. The core. The thing that might get him off this planet. It was warm in Ambrose's hands. Then Harlen said, "Look." Tevin turned. The mountain rose behind the lakebed. Along its lower slope, a dark line was moving down toward them. Not six workers. Not ten. A column. Purple bodies in loose formation, antennae up, tails dragging. A scout ran at the front, faster than the rest, already pointing. Riley lowered her gun. "That's a lot." "They felt the core come loose," Ambrose said. He tucked the cube under his arm. His voice had gone thin. "They know exactly where we are." Elina folded her wings tight. "Move." Tevin ran.

Tevin ran three steps and stopped. The others kept going. Ambrose was already ten paces ahead, the black core clutched to his chest, blue seams pulsing through his fingers. "Wait," Tevin said. Then louder. "Wait!" Riley skidded in the mud. Harlen turned, the red rig on his mouth still hissing smoke. Elina dropped from a low glide and folded her wings. "The camp," Tevin said. He was breathing hard. He pointed back at the mountain, at the column of Vael coming down it. "They don't know where the camp is. They only know where we are. If we run home, we lead them right to it." Ambrose stopped. His goggles caught the sun, blue on blue. He looked at the core, then at Tevin. "He's right," Ambrose said. "Take it," Tevin said. "Go the long way. Around the ridge. We stay here and hold them." "You can't hold that many," Ambrose said. "We don't have to," Elina said. "We have to slow them." Ambrose looked at each of them once. Then he ran. The core glowed under his arm as he cut sideways across the flat, away from the direction of home. Riley was already scanning the ground. "There," she said. She pointed at a gap between two tall rocks maybe forty paces off. The gap was narrow. Two Vael wide, no more. "They funnel through that." They ran for it. Tevin got there first and pressed his back to the left rock. His shackles flared blue against the stone. He raised the alien gun. The first Vael came through at a sprint. Riley shot it in the chest. It fell and the next one tripped over it. Harlen stepped into the gap and opened his mouth. Fire rolled through the pinch. Two more went down screaming. A scout tried to climb the rock on the right. Elina jumped, snapped her left wing out, and the stained glass edge came across its throat. It fell inside the gap and blocked more of the opening. Tevin fired steady now. White bolts, one after another. A Vael got close enough that he saw its black eyes before Riley took it. Another lunged and Harlen burned it at arm's length. The rig on his mouth was glowing hotter than Tevin had ever seen it. It went on. Tevin lost count. His hands shook. His shackles were bright enough to hurt to look at. Then the gap was quiet. Bodies lay four deep in the pinch. The last of the column was retreating back up the slope. Riley sat down in the mud. Harlen shut off the rig. Steam came off his face. "We're all here," Elina said. She sounded surprised. Tevin looked at his three companions. Then at the retreating Vael. Ambrose was gone with the core. The camp was safe. He was still on the planet, still shackled. But for one breath, they had won.

Back at the dome, Bethany kept her eyes on the monitors. Ambrose had shown them how before the group left. Green frames for the outer ridge. Blue for the near approach. A row of small screens along a wood-and-metal shack under the glass. Emmy sat cross-legged on the floor beside her, chin on her fist. Julius stood behind them, arms folded, watching the door as much as the screens. "Still nothing," Emmy said. "They'll come," Bethany said. She did not know if that was true. Tevin had been gone since sunup. The core mission was simple on paper. Nothing was simple with the Vael. Julius tapped the middle screen. "Movement." Bethany leaned in. A shape crossed the blue frame, low and fast. One man. Goggles glinting. The core clutched to his chest, blue seams flashing under his arm. "Ambrose," Emmy said. She stood up. Then the second shape came into frame. A maw. Long body dragging through the dust, mouth already open. It was gaining. Bethany ran for the dome door. Her hands shook on the lever. Julius was beside her before she asked. "Wait for my mark," he said. He watched the screen over her shoulder. "Wait. Wait. Now." Bethany threw the lever. The door slid up. Ambrose came through at a stumble, the core banging against his ribs. Julius slammed the lever back down. The door dropped. Something heavy hit it from outside. The dome shivered. Then it was quiet. Ambrose bent double, hands on his knees. His goggles fogged. "Where are the others?" Emmy said. Flat. No softening. Ambrose swallowed. "It went south. A column came off the mountain. They stayed at a gap to hold them." He looked at Emmy, then Bethany. "Tevin's idea. If we all ran home, we brought them here." Bethany's mouth went dry. "How many Vael?" "Too many." Emmy did not move. "Are they dead?" "I don't know," Ambrose said. He straightened. "I have to install this now. If we sit and wait, nothing they did means anything." He crossed to the shack in the center of the dome and knelt by the panel under the satellite rig. He pried the cover off. The black core caught the blue light of the dome and threw it back. Bethany watched him work. Emmy watched the door. Julius watched the screens. "Come on," Emmy said, under her breath. "Come on." Minutes passed. Ambrose muttered to himself. A wire sparked. He swore and kept going. Julius spoke first. "Bethany." She was already looking. Four shapes on the green frame. Walking, not running. One with wings folded low. One trailing smoke from his mouth. One with a gun over her shoulder. And the last one in front, shackles glowing at his wrists. Bethany ran the lever again. The door lifted. They came in one at a time. Bruised. Bloodied. Riley's arm was wrapped in a strip of her own shirt. Harlen's mouth rig was cracked. Elina's left wing had a shard missing. Tevin walked last and stopped just inside. "You held," Ambrose said, without looking up. "We held," Tevin said. Emmy walked over and put her hand on Tevin's arm. She did not say anything. Bethany closed the door. At the shack, the core clicked into place. The blue seams brightened. A low hum spread through the floor. On the outer monitors, the ridge was empty. The mountain was quiet. For tonight, they were all inside. The dome was live. And Tevin's shackles still glowed.

Morning light came through the dome in blue panels. Tevin sat on a crate with his wrists in his lap. The shackles still glowed. He had slept two hours. Every time he closed his eyes he saw the gap in the rocks and the Vael pouring through it. Ambrose was in the yard behind the shack, kneeling by the war rig. The machine stood two stories tall. Desert flowers grew out of its shoulders. Stone plates covered its chest. Blue seams ran down its arms to the spiked pods on each fist. A glass cockpit sat in the center. Ambrose had spent all night bolting the last plate. "Bring it here," Ambrose said. He did not turn around. Tevin carried the second core across the yard. It was smaller than the one in the dome and heavier than it looked. Ambrose pried a panel off the rig's back. Wires spilled out like roots. He fitted the core into the slot and turned it a quarter clockwise. The seams along the arms brightened. The flowers on the shoulders opened. A low hum started in the chest. "It works," Ambrose said. He climbed down and pulled his goggles up. His hands were shaking. "It works." Elina landed beside them, wings folding. "Then we go." They met at the worn sand table inside the shack. Harlen brought a scrap of paper he had drawn on. He tapped the center. "Main site. Vessig's camp. Resource pods here, here, here. Forcefield around the whole thing." "The rig can't punch through the field," Ambrose said. "Not from outside." "Someone drops the field," Harlen said. "Then we go in." Emmy was already at the table. She had been listening the whole time. "I can do it." Tevin looked at her. "No." "I'm small," Emmy said. "I'm fast. They look past me. You know that." She met his eyes. "I drop it, I run back here. I don't fight." Julius stood at the door with his arms folded. "I'll walk her to the ridge. She goes in alone from there." Tevin's shackles pulsed once. He set his hands flat on the table. "Ambrose pilots the rig," Elina said. "He hits the pods. Riley, Harlen, me, we keep the Vael off him. Tevin stays close to the rig." "Two days," Ambrose said. "I need two days to test the joints and load the fists. Then we go." No one argued. Harlen folded the paper. Emmy did not leave the table. That night Tevin walked out to the rig. It stood in the yard like a mountain with flowers on it. He put his shackled hands on one stone leg. The metal was warm. The plan was set. Emmy would run alone at a wall of Vael. In two days he would stand beside a machine that could tear Vessig's camp apart, and he still could not take the shackles off his own wrists.