Page 70 of Stars in Halo

He gritted his teeth, took a deep breath, steeled his resolve, and focused on one thing, one goal: survival. Not just his, but for the innocent on his watch.

‘I concede. I’ll let you do it,’ he growled, brimming with defiance, ‘but only if you let Katya, her children, and her siblings go unharmed.’

The monarch raised an eyebrow, his lip curling in triumph.

‘It’s a small price to pay for the metanoids,’ the King said, his voice cold and calculating. ‘House D’Hanna, you are free to go. Guards, take the Rider away.’

Xion turned and nailed Katya with a look. He sliced his eyes to her brothers, the guards at the door, and then back to his bonds.

She pursed her lips and gave him a tiny nod.

She’d gotten the memo.

His vision exploded with a blow to the back of his head. As he sagged to the floor, he only hoped she had the wits to execute her part well.

Xion woke with a start, struggling and resisting the synth steel cuffs that were holding him down.

He turned his strapped head, wincing at the limited movement, but he tried regardless.

Catching sight of a cluster of people gazing down at him from behind a plexiglass wall.

Fokk, he was an experiment rat. Again.

Vivid memories of the endless torture he’d endured in a lab like this one, at the hand of the crats, crowded his mind, and panic hit.

Xion struggled against his restraints, feeling the cold shackles dig into his flesh. The disinfectant in the air nauseated him, a scent that triggered agonising flashbacks.

An icy voice called out. ‘Begin.’

He was familiar with that intonation.

K’Sumi.

The King of Iccythria was about to harvest his noids.

Xion’s breath hitched as he sent a frantic neural link command.

His limbs relaxed with relief when Mirage pinged back.

Just then, an apparatus on a swivel headed towards him.

It looked like something out of a torture chamber.

The instrument descended to him, its sharp edges glinting in the sterile light. Sweat broke out on Xion’s brow, and his heart thumped against his ribs as memories of past experiments flooded his mind.

‘Do we need to go down this route?’ he rage quipped. ‘Let’s discuss this, perhaps find another solution.’

K’Sumi smiled, his eyes gleaming with a sinister glint. ‘Oh, we’ve already gone too far to stop now, my dear Xion. Your time has come.’

Mirage, I’m ready. Deactivate them as soon as he siphons them out of me.

Are you sure? As I warned, it will make you vulnerable and weak, and our neural link will also be affected.

Please make it so. I can’t give them unprecedented access to my noids. It’ll trip the balance of power, and lord knows what they want to do with them.

Mirage sighed. Alright. But I won’t shut down all of them. I’ll leave a few active and hide them in your arm marrow where you had the synth steel plate put in after your injury a few years ago.’

‘That’s a good plan. Let them drain the rest. But retain a small neutron of power in each to make them think they’re still potent.’

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