Page 48 of True As Steel

“Then it sounds like an all-around win for everyone,” Jarog said with a smile. “But understand that if this truly happens, my competence as the Cyborg military leader will be tested. While this role excites me, I do notneedthat position. If my performance isn’t up to par, I will voluntarily step down in favor of someone more adequate.”

“As it should be,” I said without hesitation. “But that’s going to be a non-issue. You’re going to rock it, and you’ll have all of our support to make sure you do.”

I didn’t know what reaction I had expected in response to my words, but not for his face to take on this strange expression. Jarog gently caressed my cheeks, then his fingers slowly traced my features.

“I’ve done a lot of silly things in my youth, but only a handful of illogical things since becoming a Cyborg,” Jarog said pensively. “The most irrational one was to pick up an unconscious female I didn’t know, lying on the floor of an exploding ship, and taking her with me in a far too small escape pod. That was the best decision I’ve ever made in my life.”

“Ooh Jarog,” I whispered, my heart filling to bursting. Leaning into him, I captured his lips in a tender kiss, then let him carry me to our bed.

The conversation with Haelin went even better than I had expected. Not only did that solve her long-term problem with Grellik but, as I had foreseen, she was beyond thrilled at the prospect of a Cyborg alliance further securing the neighboring territory.

Loreus’s pod and the other Cyborgs set off immediately to join us on Xyva. The non-combatant rebels and their families currently on Svaalis would follow once the Ferein territory had been secured.

It would take them a few days to arrive, which allowed us to prepare for the attack against Grellik, while thwarting his efforts against us. Haelin used that time to make an impressive display of her power and influence on Xyva. As the Ferein leader had sacrificed a large number of his troops during his previous attack on Satos, he had reached out to other mercenary cartels to join their forces to his, some with promises of reward, others through intimidation. Haelin warned them to stay out of it, not only for their own sake, but also if they wanted to preserve their beneficial business arrangements with the Narengis.

Everyone bought Dalirium from Haelin—who was its sole producer. She had set advantageous prices for the Xyva cartels who provided the safe recreational drug to their customers in their entertainment establishments. But Xyva only represented a tiny fraction of her customer base—one Haelin would have no qualms cutting off if they messed with her. Her business had made the Narengi leader insanely rich. She simply didn’t flaunt it. And money meant power. The mercenaries wisely chose to sit by the sidelines to see how the whole drama would unfold.

With more and more people deserting Tarkis and his allies abandoning him, Grellik quickly found himself with his back against the wall. According to the chatter leaking out of the Ferein territory, their leader was going berserk over the entire situation and threatening to nuke the entire freaking planet rather than concede defeat.

We originally intended to wait for the Cyborgs to arrive before making our move, but decided it was too risky to delay any longer. During our previous trip to Tarkis to free Loreus, our hacking wizard Miko had set up a series of dormant backdoors in the Fereins’s com systems. Miko activated them, taking over every visual display and audio system of Tarkis linked to their central network, to broadcast a live address by Haelin.

Sitting in her boardroom, flanked by Jarog, Loreus, Yelena, and myself, the Narengi leader looked utterly badass. The three of us who were survivors of the transport ship had chosen not to wear our prosthetics. It was no longer the mark of shame Emperor Shui had sought to brand us with, but the rallying symbol of all of those who would stand against him and the likes of him.

“People of Tarkis, Ferein and otherwise, I am Haelin Zorani, leader of the city of Satos,” the Narengi female said in a solemn voice. “For months, the greedy coward Grellik Diran, the pathetic would-be dictator who has imposed himself as your leader, has been mounting one failed murder attempt after the other against me. A few days ago, I sent him a clear message that these attacks would no longer be tolerated without consequences. But I did so while making sure that none of you—the innocent population—would be harmed. And indeed, you suffered no casualties.”

The image flickered. I cast a glance at Miko, sitting outside of the frame of the camera. His fingers were flying over the holographic keyboard of his computer as he worked on countering the Ferein attempts at reclaiming control of their com systems.

“Instead of taking his licks and considering himself chastised, your leader decided to sacrifice his troops to avenge his bruised ego,” Haelin continued. “More than 400 of your people and loved ones died against my walls because Grellik was pissed that I denied him what he coveted, and that I spanked him when he misbehaved one time too many. I sustainedzerocasualties. As we speak, he’s plotting another desperate attempt to save face. Will he lead the battle and put his life on the line likeIdid while defendingmycity? Of course not. He will sendyouto die for his pride, and dieyou will.”

Haelin gestured at Shalla with her head. She immediately broadcast camera feeds of Satos, showing the quasi-non-existent damage we sustained and then shifted to the body bags of the Ferein fallen and carcasses of the Burrowers we destroyed.

“Is he worth this?” Haelin asked. “Many of these poor souls will never even get a proper send off as they are buried underground, crushed by the Burrowers they had sought to infiltrate our city with. Will you come die on my walls, too?”

She once more gestured at Shalla, who stopped the feed, Haelin’s face filling the screen again.

“Grellik has proven he is too much of a threat to the stability of the region and the safety of its people,” Haelin said in a harsh tone. “I tried to be reasonable, but he has now forced my hand… and I don’t play. I am offering a five-million-credit bounty to anyone who will bring me Grellik, dead or alive. This offer stands for a maximum of 48 hours. After that—and maybe even before—my own people will come after him. Stand in our way and face our wrath. Before the week is up, there will be a change of leadership in Tarkis, one that will go back to the roots of Xyva. We’re here to make good business, not to be bullied by some asshole on a power trip. Let the hunt begin!”

It was a gamble, but one with the potential to seriously pay off. We didn’t want to have to raid Tarkis to try and root Grellik out. The bounty offered was insane. Under most circumstances, the majority of the people would have ignored it as a scam as no one would pay such an outlandish amount to take someone out. But Haelin’s reputation was above reproach. You could take her word to the bank. With the way she’d played on his people’s sense of self-preservation, they would be looking for a way out from under the thumb of such a callous leader. The sight of so many corpses over a single man’s greed had shaken me.

Mercenaries came to Xyva for the freedom they enjoyed in running their business with no one busting their balls. Grellik had started squeezing them on top of multiplying rules. With the tensions of the last few days, they were bleeding out money with countless deals falling through and customers avoiding Tarkis as a whole. Haelin had also felt the pinch of customers avoiding Satos while the hostilities lasted, but her real money came from exports, not local visitors. She could ride this for months without breaking a sweat. They couldn’t.

Grellik’s people taking him out for us or forcing him to flee would make our lives, as well as the transition of power, a lot easier. We hoped that one of his bodyguards would eliminate him, but there was a real possibility Grellik would attempt to flee if his people responded the way we hoped.

For this reason, Jarog, Loreus, Lanish, and I joined the rotation of fighter vessels flying around Tarkis in stealth mode in case Grellik made a run for it. Chatter in the city confirmed many were going for the bounty. Five hours after Haelin’s city-wide broadcast, the Ferein leader finally attempted to contact her. Since we had shut down his spaceport, Grellik had ignored any communication attempt by Haelin. That he would try to contact her now testified of his desperation.

She ignored him.

I didn’t know how I felt about that. A part of me believed she should have tried to find one last peaceful resolution. However, based on my observations of the past few days and on the report that Loreus had shared with us about Grellik, I doubted a negotiated outcome would be possible. And even if an agreement was reached, I believed he would renege on it at the first opportunity and stab us in the back. It never ended well with this type of power-hungry narcissist.

After four hours of circling around Tarkis, Jarog and I—each in our separate ship—were preparing to turn back home to be replaced by other people when my radar picked up something. The dot clearly indicated a vessel quickly ascending out of the city, but we couldn’t see anything outside. Moments later, a handful of ships began giving chase to the one hidden by a cloaking shield.

“I think that’s Grellik,” I told Jarog through our com.

“Agreed,” he replied. “All ships, rally around these coordinates and prepare to use your tractor beams on the cloaked vessel if his Ferein pursuers fail to catch him before he leaves Xyva’s atmosphere. Until then, remain cloaked and out of their way.”

His orders quickly proved even wiser than we thought as Grellik’s pursuers soon began shooting blindly in the general direction where they believed him to be. The way his dot flickered in and out of existence on my radar, I could only assume that he was modulating the frequency of his stealth shield to try and knock us off his scent. Unfortunately for him, Miko had cracked their algorithms long ago when the Fereins had first started harassing Satos. And the ships trying to bring him down were his own men, sharing the same technology he possessed.

A few shots randomly struck their target, making Grellik’s shield flicker, revealing his precise location. They unloaded on him. A part of me once more wanted to feel bad for him, but images of the rebels being crushed by the falling beams in the transport ship as it exploded reminded me what dictators like him were capable of.

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