Page 38 of Sixth
“Head Councilor,” Apex called over the open channel, tone formal and hard. “Stand your men down. The planet is hostile to your weapons. You will withdraw.”
Fear thinned the man’s voice. “You presume to issue orders.”
“I issue warnings.”
Voss cut across him. “I’m taking the girl.”
“You will not.” Apex’s calm came like ice. “By Sovereign law, by registry proclamation, by the right of the bond, you will not touch her.”
Voss laughed, and the sound was brittle. “You talk like a desperate trader selling broken wares at a market. Move aside and I will make your death quick.”
Emmy angled closer until her shoulder pressed his. The contact made the mark hum. The hum spread through his ribs, through his spine, down his legs. He found himself counting the beats between her breaths. Found that if he slid his thumb along the inside of her wrist the hum steadied to something that made the world outside of them a little softer.
“Core,” he said without looking away from the clearing, “what is our power?”
“Twenty-seven percent and climbing as the motes contribute charge to the hull. Weapon grid at twenty. Shields at thirty-two. Hull breach shielded by living veil.”
“Options.”
“Select: Shield burst to push enemy back ten meters. Or deploy sonic null field to soften local harmonics. Or fire.”
Emmy’s voice brushed his ear. “Sonic null. It will quiet us too.”
He nodded once. “Do it.”
Core thrummed.“Null field active.”
The world went hushed in a new way. Not the deadly listening of the Predator. Agentle lowering of volume. Even the concern in Apex’s veins dimmed to something he could harness. He turned to Emmy. Her eyes were wide with the light of the veil gilding her skin. He wanted to lean in until there was no space left. He didn’t. He wasn’t a man who stole moments when war was at hisdoor.
“Agree with me,” he said instead. “On the next move.”
She nodded, lips parting. “I agree.”
He touched her mouth with two fingers, apromise and a command. “Stay alive.”
He stepped into the doorway. Light poured over him. The veil rippled where his shoulder brushed it and left a shimmering print that looked like a hand of stars. He kept his arms loose, palms visible, the way one approached a wary animal.
“Head Councilor,” he said, voice carrying. “Your men die because of your noise. Leave. Now.”
From the bridge of his ship, Voss signaled his gunnery team. “You first.” He fired. The beam struck the veil and curled away again. Voss cursed and fired a spread. The curtain caught it and fed it to the ground, where mushrooms flared with sudden lamps and then went quietlydark.
As the Predator shredded what remained of the Council’s landing troops, the night filled with screams and static. Apex stepped back and held Emmy close inside the fractured ship, every muscle locked, the Valenmark burning steady against her pulse. The Echo Predator moved with liquid silence through the undergrowth, its form vanishing and reforming as it hunted sound itself.
A single soldier from Voss’s ship broke formation and bolted into the woods, his boots hammering through the bioluminescent moss. The Predator turned toward the noise, pursuing him in a blur of darkness and teeth. The forest swallowed themboth.
On his bridge, Voss leaned forward, eyes narrowing. He saw the distraction—the creature had gone after easier prey. The path to Apex’s wreck wasopen.
“This is my chance,” he hissed. He barked an order to his gunnery crew to hold fire and unsealed hisramp.
The Councilor’s voice crackled through the comm. “Voss, stand down. That thing isn’t gone—it’s feeding.”
Voss ignored him. “Cover me. I’ll end this myself.”
He descended the ramp into the glowing mist, the air thick with the smell of ozone and ash. The forest glimmered faintly, pulsing with the heartbeat of the world itself. He moved fast,confident, weapon drawn, his boots crushing the glowing leaves. The sight of the ship—the faint blue shimmer of its living veil—filled his visor.
Inside the wreck, Apex felt the disturbance. “He’s coming,” he said quietly.
Emmy’s voice trembled. “The Predator?”
