Silence settled over Dock Three.
Not the calm silence of discipline.
The dangerous kind.
Every Legion rifle was raised toward Container C-Seventeen.
The loading crews had instinctively backed away. Abandoning the forklifts. Automated cranes hung motionless overhead, their enormous loads suspended in midair.
Leah could hear the reactor humming somewhere beneath the deck.
Even it seemed louder now.
Kael stepped toward the container.
"No one follows."
James looked up immediately.
"Kael,"
"That's an order."
He didn't draw his weapon.
Instead, he crouched beside the container. Silver eyes sweeping over its reinforced shell.
Nothing looked wrong. Sealed. Food distribution markings. Every code matched. His fingers brushed across the electronic manifest plate.
"James."
"Here."
"Read me the original shipment."
James' fingers raced across his tablet.
"C-Seventeen."
He frowned.
"Registered yesterday."
"Origin?"
"North Continental Food Authority."
Kael's expression didn't change.
"Owner?"
James stopped typing.
"...That's odd."
"What?"
"The ownership record was rewritten."
Leah looked between them.
"Rewritten?"
James nodded slowly.
"The shipment changed hands four times in the last six hours."
Ava appeared beside him, carrying another terminal.
"Five."
James looked over.
"What?"
She rotated her screen.
"While you were talking."
The ownership changed again. Right in front of them. Leah's stomach tightened. She'd seen it a few times. Nothing good happens after a changed.
"Someone's inside the system."
Ava's golden eyes hardened.
"No."
She zoomed in.
"They're inside several systems."
The holographic dock layout flickered. Green loading lanes suddenly flashed amber.
Red.
Cargo routes shifted. Elevators stopped accepting commands. Forklift navigation grids disappeared. Across the enormous docking complex as machines began stopping. Failling like dominoes.
An alarm echoed through the bay.
WARNING
LOGISTICS NETWORK INTERRUPTION
MANUAL OVERRIDE REQUIRED
A second alarm joined it.
Then another.
James stared at the wall display.
"Oh..."
Leah looked up.
"What?"
James pointed.
"Every automated loading system just went offline."
Twenty-three hours until launch. And thousands of tons of supplies had just stopped moving. Conveyor belts shuddered to a halt.
Kael stood.
"Manual operations."
Nobody hesitated.
Legion officers immediately began shouting orders.
"Teams Alpha through Delta!"
"Manual lifts!"
"Bring out the crawler tractors!"
"Get engineering down here!"
Workers sprinted in every direction. Within seconds the bay erupted back into motion.
Slower. But moving.
Leah watched four soldiers attach heavy tow cables to a cargo module that had previously been moved by automation.
Now they dragged it by sheer muscle and machinery.
"They planned this," she murmured.
Kael nodded once.
"They don't need to destroy the Ark."
He watched another lift stall overhead.
"They only need to slow us."
James' earpiece suddenly crackled.
His expression changed instantly.
"Repeat."
Static.
Then shouting.
Gunfire.
Leah heard it through the tiny speaker.
James turned toward Kael.
"We've lost contact with Convoy Nineteen."
Kael's head snapped up.
"What cargo?"
James checked.
His face lost what little color remained.
"...Fusion control assemblies."
Silence.
Without those assemblies Ark 0 wasn't launching.
Another transmission burst through. Automatic emergency frequency.
The voice was distorted beneath weapons fire.
"...under attack..."
Gunshots.
"...multiple hostiles..."
An explosion.
"...can't identify uniforms..."
The signal dissolved into screaming interference.
Leah's pulse surged.
"Where are they?"
James brought up the tracking map.
A blinking blue icon sat less than five kilometers away.
"They're almost here."
The icon stopped moving.
The command center froze.
Ava whispered first.
"...Why did they stop?"
Before anyone answered, the emergency frequency exploded back to life.
Heavy automatic gunfire.
Metal tearing apart.
A familiar voice cut through the chaos.
"Move!"
"Keep those trucks moving!"
Another explosion shook the transmission.
"Don't stop!"
Leah stepped closer to the console.
"Jace?"
Gunfire answered instead.
James isolated the signal.
Helmet cameras flickered onto the main display. The image jumped violently. Smoke. Armored transports.
Black tactical armor. No insignia. Faces completely hidden.
One of them fired an anti-vehicle rocket. The lead transport vanished behind flame. This look like train military or something even more professional.
Leah's breath caught.
"My God..."
The camera shifted.
Jace appeared. Covered in dust. Rifle already firing.
This was a fight for survival and the commander was in front of it. Directing the fight as many of the teams moved.
"Second vehicle!"
he shouted.
"Push through!"
A truck accelerated.
Two attackers stepped into the roadway.
Jace dropped both before they fired.
Another explosion ripped across the intersection. Concrete rained onto the convoy.
The camera lurched. Its wearer hit the ground.
Kael watched without blinking.
"Magnify."
The image enlarged.
Leah studied one of the attackers. Professional. No wasted movement. They weren't desperate civilians. They moved like trained operators.
James frowned.
"I don't recognize the equipment."
Ava shook her head.
"Neither do I."
"No corporate IDs?"
"Nothing."
"No military registry?"
"No."
Leah stared harder.
"They're ghosts."
Another burst of gunfire erupted through the feed.
The camera caught Jace dragging an injured Legion soldier behind an overturned carrier. Blood streaked across the pavement.
Jace grabbed the soldier's radio.
"This is Commander Jace!"
He fired twice around the corner.
"We're one kilometer from the tower!"
Another explosion.
"They're trying to box us in!"
He looked directly into the helmet camera.
"If we stop—"
Gunfire interrupted him.
He shoved the wounded soldier toward cover.
"They get the reactors!"
The feed went black.
James looked up.
"They're after the fusion assemblies."
Kael's jaw tightened.
"No."
His silver eyes narrowed.
"They're after time."
Leah understood immediately.
"If Jace can't deliver those assemblies..."
James finished.
"...we don't launch."
An officer sprinted into the bay.
"General!"
Kael turned.
"What?"
"Unidentified forces have breached the eastern perimeter."
Another officer followed immediately.
"South checkpoint requesting reinforcements."
A third voice shouted from across the dock.
"Power fluctuations on Deck Seven!"
Another.
"Cargo Lift Four has stopped responding!"
Then another.
"Medical storage lost internal communications!"
Reports came faster than anyone could answer them.
One problem.
Then five.
Then twenty.
Every corner of Ark 0 seemed to erupt with a new emergency.
Leah looked around the dock.
Workers were still loading supplies.
Still hauling food.
Still dragging water processors into place.
But now every face carried the same expression. This wasn't an accident. This wasn't equipment failure. Someone had declared war on the evacuation.
Kael reached for the command console.
Every Legion soldier stopped talking the instant they heard it.
"Lock every gate."
He looked toward the dark entrance leading into the city beyond the docks.
"Find out who those people are."
Then his silver eyes settled on the frozen convoy marker still blinking on the tactical display.
"And bring Jace home."
The order had barely left his mouth—
When a deafening explosion rolled through the tower. The blast was so powerful the docking bay floor bucked beneath their feet.
Lights flickered.
A cargo crane snapped one of its support cables, sending a fifty-ton container swinging wildly across the dock as workers scattered below.
For one terrible second, everyone thought the explosion had come from inside Ark 0.
Then James looked at the security feed.
"The front gate..."
Smoke billowed across every camera. The blast rolled through the tower like thunder.
Dust drifted from the ceiling.
Several suspended cargo containers swayed violently above the loading crews.
For a heartbeat, nobody moved.
Then training took over.
"Secure the cranes!"
"Medical teams!"
"Keep those containers moving!"
"Nobody stops loading!"
The dock exploded back into motion.
Workers grabbed guide cables, trying to steady the swinging cargo while forklifts reversed out of the danger zone.
Leah looked toward the security monitors.
Every camera covering the main entrance had dissolved into smoke.
James was already switching feeds.
"Camera two..."
Nothing.
"Camera five..."
Static.
"Camera eight..."
The image finally cleared.
The reinforced front gate was still standing.
Barely.
One of its massive armored doors hung crooked on its hinges, blackened from the explosion.
Outside—
Chaos.
Concrete barriers had been overturned.
Burning vehicles blocked the roadway.
Legion soldiers were exchanging fire with shapes hidden inside the smoke.
Leah frowned.
"I can't see them."
James enlarged the image.
Neither could he. The attackers refused to stay exposed for more than a second.
They fired. Moved. Disappeared again.
"They're using the wreckage as cover," James muttered.
"No..." Kael answered quietly.
"They're advancing."
Another transmission burst across the command channel.
"...Gate One requesting immediate reinforcement!"
Automatic fire rattled through the speaker.
"We've got wounded!"
A second voice shouted over him.
"They're flanking us!"
The transmission cut off with a burst of static.
Kael activated the command frequency.
"Legion Actual."
Dozens of voices answered instantly.
"Standing by."
His orders came without hesitation.
"Shield Teams One through Four reinforce Gate One."
A pause.
"Heavy units hold Dock Three."
James looked up.
"We're splitting our forces?"
"We're protecting the reactor."
Leah understood immediately.
"If Dock Three falls..."
"No launch."
A fresh alert flashed across Ava's console.
"Jace!"
Everyone turned.
His convoy signal had begun moving again.
Much slower.
The tactical display zoomed automatically.
Originally there had been twelve armored transports.
Now seven remain.
Five blue markers had disappeared.
James stared at the map.
"...He's losing trucks."
The radio erupted.
Gunfire.
Someone screaming.
Metal grinding.
Jace. Breathing hard. Still calm somehow.
"This is Convoy Nineteen."
Another burst of rifle fire.
"We're approaching East Access Road."
His voice hardened.
"They're trying to pin us between the overpass and the river."
James immediately overlaid the city map.
Leah's stomach tightened.
"They're boxed in."
There was only one road left.
And it ran directly through the burning industrial district.
Helmet camera footage returned.
Three black armored vehicles burst through the side of a warehouse.
They accelerated straight toward the convoy.
"Incoming!"
A Legion gunner swung his turret.
The heavy machine gun roared.
One vehicle exploded.
The second swerved through the fireball.
The third launched something.
James leaned forward.
"Missile!"
The rocket streaked across the road—
And struck the rear transport.
The armored truck lifted completely off the ground.
For one impossible second it seemed suspended in the air.
Then it rolled.
Once.
Twice.
Three times.
Sliding across the highway in a shower of sparks.
The convoy couldn't stop.
The remaining trucks drove around it.
Leah closed her eyes briefly.
"They're leaving them."
"They don't have a choice," Kael replied.
Jace appeared in the camera frame again.
His armor was scorched.
Blood ran down one side of his forehead.
He ignored it.
"Truck Six!"
he shouted.
"Stay tight!"
The driver answered immediately.
"Yes, Commander!"
Another explosion shook the convoy.
Chunks of concrete crashed into the road.
The lead truck skidded sideways before recovering.
Jace looked toward the collapsing overpass above them.
His eyes narrowed.
"No..."
Leah saw it too.
Figures.
Dozens of them.
Standing silently along the bridge.
Waiting.
Then they jumped.
Ropes.
Magnetic boots.
Combat harnesses.
The attackers landed directly on top of the moving convoy.
"Oh, hell..." James whispered.
The helmet camera lurched upward.
One attacker punched through the roof hatch.
A Legion soldier met him point-blank.
The rifle fired.
"They're boarding the trucks," Ava said.
"They're after the cargo."
Jace saw it.
Without slowing, he sprinted alongside the moving convoy.
Leah watched him leap. One boot hit the rear bumper. The second landed on the roof. He never lost balance. He reached the nearest attacker just as the man raised an explosive charge.
Jace drove his shoulder into him.
Both men crashed across the roof.
The explosive slid toward the edge.
Jace caught it with one hand. Then threw it backward. The charge detonated in midair, swallowing two more attackers in flame.
"That's Jace," James muttered with something dangerously close to pride.
Leah almost smiled.
Then another warning flashed. Convoy speed.
James frowned.
"They're slowing again."
Kael's expression darkened.
"Why?"
The answer came seconds later.
The lead camera swung forward.
Leah felt her heart stop.
Hundreds of tons of steel blocked the only direct route to Ark 0.
The convoy screeched to a halt.
Smoke rolled through the ruined street.
Shapes emerged from the haze.
One.
Five.
Ten.
Twenty.
More kept coming.
Black armor. The convoy was surrounded.
Jace climbed down from the truck roof, rifle hanging loosely in his hands.
He looked at the blockade.
Then at the growing circle of enemies.
He keyed his communicator.
"General."
Kael answered immediately.
"I'm here."
Jace's voice remained calm despite the army closing around him.
"I've got approximately sixty hostiles."
Kael's silver eyes narrowed. Knowing that if Ravenna hadn't sent them. Then someone far more dangerous had just entered the game.