Page 50 of Claimed By the War Brute
I toss the plasma satchel. Vell screams as the blast hits. His image fractures, then dissolves into smoldering echoes.
The station’s heart cries out—alarms scream, the floor vibrates under our boots.
“Time to go,” Syd snaps.
We race through folding corridors. Laser turrets spit bolts that whine by our heads. I charge into the first wall of them, grenade in hand. Boom—pressure shudders into the hull plating. One down. I crouch-slide around the carnage.
Syd drops behind me like a phantom, her pistol speaking quick justice—two turret down, sparking overdrive in the third before it explodes.
We hit the access lifts. The station’s carcass quakes—great groans that echo the loss of countless ghosts.
We smash into the airlock hatch, mud and fluid sloshing onto my boots. I jam the manual seal. It slams shut as the station roars behind us.
The hull rips open. We’re bathed in expanding firelight and sucked into the void for a heartbeat. Then the ship shudders violently, jolting us into the pilot’s chairs.
Inside the command room, the viewport frames the dying station, fractured over black space. The wreckage glows faint red embers, fading fast.
Syd slips out of armor, exhaustion etched into her features. She settles next to me, code-patting the console.
“This says final rupture in ten seconds,” she murmurs without looking up.
I swallow. “Dark place. We made it worse.”
She presses a hand to my side. “We made it end.”
Space around us is quiet, hypnotic—but inside, I feel thunder in my ribs. Syd leans on me, our breaths syncing, a fragile tether in a cold expanse.
She whispers, “You okay?”
I close my eyes, the station’s final rumble echo in my mind. But then I feel her fingers brush my arm, hearth warmth. A light touches inside me.
“Yeah,” I say. “With you? I might be.”
She smiles, head resting on my shoulder. The cockpit hums, systems ticking. It’s not peace yet. But it’s something better: purpose, partnership.
The broken station drifts behind as we slip away into new missions. And for the first time in years, I don’t feel hollow. I feel ready.
And so we fly on—shadows in the void, two souls stitched together by chaos, carving a path toward justice.
CHAPTER 36
GARRUS
Ikeep the comms window closed, letting the silence stretch between us—the Vigil’s End humming like a wounded beast in the void. Syd glances over, fingers brushing across the console nearly tenderly as systems reboot with methodical hums. I shift toward her, still blood-pulsed but steady.
She meets my eyes—sudden gravity. “You ready for what comes next?” she asks, voice laced with something fierce and weary.
I shrug my broad shoulders, then reach for her hand. “Not without you.”
She breathes a soft laugh, one part relief, two parts storm. “Promise you won’t drag me back into something… worse than any battle?”
I squeeze her fingers. “I promise. Nothing but what comes from us choosing it.”
She steps closer, every shift of air charged electric. I can feel her heart speeding. My scaled chest rises and falls. I close the last distance, hands sliding over her arms, thumb resting against cool skin. “You're safe with me,” I murmur.
Her eyes glisten—not tears, something more molten. “I know.”
I press my forehead to hers. “Goddamn, I’ve wanted this.”
