Outside the music room, the air was charged with tension. Though they’d been instructed ahead of time that Annkor was to have a private conversation with Adrian, they were still uncomfortable leaving their charge unattended for so long. Annkor’s guards eyed Jyn and his team with mistrust, ready to defend their charge at a moment’s notice.

  Nobody’s hands strayed far from their holsters.

  Silent conversations played out between all the soldiers present. Everybody had collectively tensed when they heard music coming from inside, but Jyn quickly explained the situation and things calmed slightly.

  Time slowed to a crawl as Jyn waited for the perfect opportunity to strike. He almost pulled the trigger when the music distracted the Rukkan soldiers but had instead chosen to wait until his enemies were lulled into a false sense of comfort.

  He saw his moment when they looked away from him. It was a split second, but it was all he needed. Placing his arm behind his back and out of sight from the Rukkan, he flashed a series hand signals to Rann.

  The signal everybody had agreed on was Rann taking up position on the side along the wall to have a clear shot without risk of shooting towards Reya and Adrian should she miss.

  It was a subtle shift in her posture. Nothing more than two steps to the side. The floors creaked after her first step and caught the attention of the enemy soldiers. As one they whipped their heads towards her and tensed, but by then it was too late.

  On her second step, the team sprang into action.

  Tassie, Beor and Jyn fired the opening shots, each of them hitting an enemy. With such underdeveloped combat armour compared to them, they dropped to the ground like a puppet with their strings cut. What was left of their innards splashed onto the floor, spilling out from the sizzling, molten cavities left behind in their chests.

  Shouts filled the air as the Rukkan scrambled to defend themselves but there was no cover. Nowhere to hide and take up position to safely return fire. Before anybody could blink, Kell, Eimir and Rann swiftly eliminated another three of them, leaving only four left.

  The remaining guards fired back, the shots from their subpar weapons harmlessly absorbed by the team’s highly advanced body armour. Only one of them had the presence of mind in the heat of the moment to barge into the music room to directly protect Annkor.

  As the last of the Rukkan standing guard in the hall fell to Beor and Jyn’s final shots, the soldier in the music room panicked. Self-preservation took hold and she went for the first thing she saw that might help her survive.

  Reya.

  The soldier sprinted past Annkor and yanked Reya to her feet out of her chair before anybody in the music room could react. Jyn burst through the door a moment later, his gun raised and aimed at the final soldier. He immediately paused when he saw her aiming her gun at Reya’s head.

  “Take one more step and I’ll shoot her,” the soldier cried out. Annkor remained frozen in place, knowing it was the best chance he had of surviving. He had a small gun tucked away inside his robes in case of emergency, but he knew he wouldn’t have the chance to draw it without anybody noticing and possibly eliminating him.

  “Drop your gun and we’ll let you live,” Jyn growled back. His eyes darted between the enemy and Reya’s panicked expression.

  “Only after High Diplomat Annkor and I have been safely returned back to our ship,” the soldier replied, her voice quavering. Jyn hesitated for a moment, his mind spinning furiously as he thought of the best way to save Reya.

  Only Annkor had the presence of mind to glance at Adrian during the ordeal. Adrian’s expression of sheer rage took the diplomat by surprise and before he could warn his guard, Adrian flew out of his seat with unnatural speed.

  His left arm reached for the soldier’s gun and yanked it away from Reya while his other arm clamped onto her shoulder. Without a second thought, he pulled with all his strength to disarm her and save Reya.

  Stolen story; please report.

  A wet, sickening crunch resounded in the room as her arm was ripped clean off, separated at her shoulder. Blood gushed out of her, but Adrian didn’t let up. Dropping the arm onto the ground without a care, he grabbed both sides of her head and twisted.

  Her shriek of pain was abruptly cut off with a series of sharp cracks as her neck broke and her head was turned around to face behind her entirely. The last thing she saw was Adrian’s cold, murderous gaze filled with anger that she would dare attempt to harm the person dearest to him.

  He let go and her body dropped to the ground, the light from her eyes gone forever.

  “Was that the last of them?” Adrian asked, his voice hard. He’d heard the shooting from the music room and had quickly put together that the enemies were being taken care of.

  Nobody spoke for they were all still reeling from that casual display of brutal violence Adrian had committed. Even Reya. She knew Adrian had murdered some of his gru’ul captors but had never given much thought as to how he’d accomplished such a feat. Seeing his strength in action drove home exactly how he might have dispatched his tormentors without any weapons.

  “You monster,” Annkor whispered, horrified. “You tore her apart like wet paper. That shouldn’t have been possible.” Even Jyn couldn’t help but silently agree with the man, despite the fact that he was the enemy.

  Adrian turned to face Annkor and couldn’t help but feel satisfied when he flinched as their gazes locked. “Now that you’ve seen what I’m capable of, still want me?” Adrian wasn’t a fool. Though the Sunalii had mistreated him at first, they’d ultimately provided the care he’d needed when he was rescued and had done their best to protect him from global backlash. The Rukkan were completely unknown to him, and he had no guarantee of having the same rights afforded to him should he defect to their faction. They were new, and Adrian didn’t like new.

  Sometimes the grass was greener in your pasture.

  And his pasture had Reya in it, something he would never give up.

  Annkor came back to himself and assessed the situation. If they hadn’t killed him yet, he figured he had a good chance of survival. He just needed to play his cards right. “The gods have spoken,” he said, trying his best to keep his fear out of his voice. “You will always be welcome among the Rukkan.”

  Beor and Rann chose that moment to enter the music room, having confirmed that the enemies outside it were truly dead and not faking. Not that anybody could survive having a good portion of their body vaporized, but they weren’t taking any chances.

  Both of them paused when they saw the gore spread all over the floor. “That must have hurt,” Beor remarked as he took in the details of the mutilated body. Their kills had been clean while Adrian’s was not. He wasn’t quite sure how Adrian had accomplished it, but he wasn’t complaining. Dead was dead, after all. And his job was to make sure their enemies stayed that way.

  “She wouldn’t have felt it for long,” Adrian replied, entirely unfazed. He turned back to face Annkor. “So, what do we do about you?” he hummed.

  Annkor blanched as Jyn and Beor advanced towards him.

  Annkor looked around his new cell dejectedly. He should have known the Sunalii wouldn’t adhere to their promise of peace. All they knew was violence. His data slate had been confiscated before he’d been thrown in prison on Jyn’s ship. Surprisingly, they hadn’t been rough with him when escorting him to his new home for the foreseeable future.

  That didn’t mean he was entirely helpless, however.

  He raised the sleeve of his robe and gently peeled off a patch from his arm. Recent advancements had granted his faction build secrete communications devices that could avoid detection and looked identical to the wearer’s skin.

  Luckily, the Sunalii didn’t know about the technology yet.

  Annkor had done his homework before descending to Verilia’s surface. A team of communications experts had hacked into civilian data networks while waiting to depart and had uncovered what recent news was causing a stir.

  And one reporter came up over and over on prominent reporting websites. So much that his officers dug deeper into why, only to discover everything about Reya earning the Silver Star.

  It had been a hasty decision, but Annkor decided to program his patch to send out two signals should anything happen to him. One to his ship and the other directly to Miarre. He touched the spots on the skin patch that would execute the transmission to both recipients and hoped the reporter’s curiosity would get the better of her.

  Annkor grinned, fully aware of the chaos he was about to unleash.

  He would make the Sunalii suffer for their transgressions.

  Nessah hung up her call with Jyn, relieved that their mission had gone so smoothly. She picked up her data slate and sent off her newest orders. A live feed appeared on a large holoscreen in front of her. From her desk, she watched a small squadron of ships leave the flagship.

  It took them only a matter of moments to reach the enemy vessel thanks to their new engines. As one, her ships fired upon the space ship Annkor had arrived in.

  Nessah watched in satisfaction as the powerful energy beams ate into their target, the barrage thoroughly destroying the enemy ship and with it, all life onboard. The beams cleaved the ship into sections before the fatal damage triggered an explosion, marking their success.

  She didn’t need to wait for confirmation before calling the Tribunal directly to inform them of the good news.

  Their weapons were far more potent than they could’ve ever imagined.