Page 64 of Sy

She had to make sure Lila got off the planet safely.

Even if she didn’t.

20

They were too late.

They couldn’t be too late.

Sy’s heart pounded as he raced through the garrison’s corridors, each echo hammering home the wrongness of the silence. No voices carried from the common areas. No equipment hummed behind closed doors. The halls that should have bustled with activity stretched empty before him, abandoned and cold.

His pulse thundered in his throat as they ran. They had to reach Lila before that shuttle left, before Ashley could whisk her daughter away to safety. She didn’t know the girl was their only chance against the Purists’ weapon. He felt awful that she was, and what they had to ask of her, but they did.

Tor, Kraath, and Zeke matched his pace, their footfalls creating a desperate rhythm that bounced off the stone walls. Ashley’s face from the command meeting flashed through his mind—the way fury had transformed her features when he’d dismissed human strength. Insulted her. He’d seen trust shatter in her eyes, to be replaced by something harder, colder. The memory twisted in his gut like a knife, but he forced it aside.

Later. He would fix that later,ifshe gave him the chance.

They tore through the main hall, their steps ringing out against the stone floor. It was empty. Completely empty.

The humans had left. Ashley had left.

His lungs burned as he raced for the main doors, but he pushed harder. The entrance waited ahead, and beyond it, the steep road down to the landing pads.

The storm slammed into them as soon as they burst through the doors. Rain lashed his face, soaking his clothes in seconds. Lightning split the sky, illuminating the treacherous descent—a mud-slick path down the cliff face, littered with loose rocks and debris. The wind howled around them, carrying the distant clang of machinery from below.

His boots slipped on the wet earth as he sprinted down the incline. Sharp rock bit into his palm as he caught himself, the pain barely registering. His thoughts raced ahead to the landing pads, to what waited for them there. Thunder cracked overhead as a section of mud gave way beneath their feet. Pure reflex had him grabbing Kraath’s arm, steadying them both before the slope could claim them.

The construction site spread before them like a graveyard of machinery, its earthquake damage partially cleared but still bearing scars. Makeshift paths wound between stacked debris and salvaged equipment. Through the rain, humans worked with focused intensity around the remaining machinery. The sharp whine of cutting torches pierced the air, and sparks flew despite the downpour as they methodically broke down larger pieces into smaller components.

His instincts prickled as they threaded their way through the site. The humans should have been loading everything onto shuttles, but they weren’t. Instead, they seemed to be dismantling it piece by piece.

He frowned. What the hell were they doing? The question nagged at him, but he pushed forward. No time to investigate. Not with Lila waiting.

The path curved around a massive drilling platform, its hydraulic arms reaching up like a dead spider’s legs against the storm-dark sky. Beyond it, the shuttle pad finally came into view.

Relief flooded him as he spotted the shuttle, its running lights cutting through the rain like beacons.

Lila stood near the shuttle’s ramp, her face streaked with tears as she clung to Ashley’s arm. Ashley’s other hand smoothed back Lila’s rain-soaked hair as she spoke quietly to her daughter, too soft for him to hear over the storm. The tenderness of the gesture contrasted sharply with the rigid set of Ashley’s shoulders, the tension visible in every line of her body.

Thunder cracked overhead. Ashley looked up, catching sight of them. Her expression hardened, that same steel entering her eyes that he had seen in the command room as they approached.

Lila pulled away from her mother, wiping at her eyes. “I don’t want to go without you,” she said, her voice carrying on the wind like a child’s plea.

“You have to, baby,” Ashley said, her tone firm despite the tremor in her fingers as they brushed Lila’s cheek. “The shuttle’s waiting.”

Sy stepped forward, rain streaming down his face. “What do you mean you don’t want to go without her? She’s going with you. Right?” He turned to Ashley, dread building in his chest at her expression. “Right?”

Ashley’s jaw set in a stubborn line that made his heart clench. “Some of us are staying.”

“Staying?” The word came out sharp as broken glass. “No! Ashley?—”

“We can help.” Her voice held the same conviction it had in the command room, unwavering and determined. “Some of us know this equipment better than anyone. We’re not running. We’re reconfiguring the excavation equipment into weaponry.”

He looked back at the construction site, at the humans systematically breaking down the machinery with their cutting torches, their grim focus suddenly making terrible sense.

The humans weren’t leaving… They were preparing to fight.

She wasnotgoingto deal with Sy right now. She couldn’t.

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