"Keep moving, Kane!" Captain Rusk shouted through the squad channel. "You stop, you die. You turn around, you die faster."
A round punched through the metal beside my head.
I hit the deck, slid under the wrecked carrier, and came up with half a rifle in my hands. The barrel had been sheared off. The magazine was empty. Great. Perfect. Exactly what every doomed pilot wanted in the last six minutes of his life.
"Rusk," I said, coughing through smoke, "you forgot to mention the part where your genius plan ends with everyone getting shot."
"My plan ends with you reaching the breach. Do your job."
"You mean die in the breach."
"I mean obey."
Another burst chewed through the carrier. Hot fragments slapped my cheek. I pressed lower, the steel floor burning through my gloves.
Behind me, three armored drones crawled across the ruined hangar, their red targeting beams cutting through the smoke. Ahead, the blast door stood open by less than a meter. Beyond it waited the launch tunnel, the outer wall, and the enemy reactor core we had been ordered to destroy.
The door was closing.
It had been closing for thirty seconds.
That wasn't a malfunction. The fortress command had sealed it while we were still outside.
"Rusk," I said, "why is the gate closing?"
The channel clicked.
Then Commander Selena answered.
Her voice was calm. Too calm. It always was when someone else was about to die.
"Because the breach is compromised."
I stared at the shrinking gap. "I'm still on this side."
"I know."
The words landed harder than the gunfire.
"You know?"
"Kane, get to the reactor."
"The gate is closing."
"Then move faster."
A drone vaulted over the carrier. Its claws hit the deck with a heavy clang. I rolled as its cannon flashed. The blast tore through the space where my chest had been.
I fired the broken rifle anyway. The useless weapon kicked against my shoulder. One round. I had one round left in the chamber.
The bullet hit the drone's optic.
It staggered.
I sprinted.
"Kane," Selena said, "you have four minutes until the core goes critical."
"You should've told me that before sending me in."
"You would've complained."
"I'm complaining now."
"You always do."
The tunnel shook. A pressure wave slammed into my back and threw me against the wall. My helmet cracked against the plating. My vision split into white sparks.
Somewhere behind me, the drones screamed through the channel as they locked onto my heat signature.
My fingers found the emergency hatch beside the closing gate. I pulled the lever. Nothing happened.
I pulled again.
"Open," I snarled.
The hatch stayed sealed.
"Selena!"
"What?"
"The emergency hatch is locked."
"I know."
I laughed once. It came out rough and ugly. "You really like that phrase tonight."
"Kane, listen to me."
"No, you listen. You sent me through a dead corridor with a broken squad, locked the only exit, and now you're counting down to a blast. That's not a mission. That's an execution."
Silence filled the channel for half a second.
Then she said, "Confirmed."
My feet stopped.
The drones came around the carrier.
Three of them. Heavy frames. Black armor. Plasma claws glowing blue-white under their forearms.
I looked at the closing gate. It had dropped another twenty centimeters.
"You just confirmed it?" I asked.
"Your unit was selected for terminal containment."
"Selected by who?"
"By me."
The first drone charged.
I grabbed a loose cable from the wall and yanked it free. Sparks sprayed over my gloves. The drone swung its claw. I ducked, stepped inside its reach, and drove the cable into the exposed joint beneath its arm.
The frame locked up.
"Kane," Selena said, "don't waste time."
"You just ordered me to die. I get to waste as much time as I want."
The drone's metal arm jerked. I twisted the cable around a support bar and kicked the machine's knee.
The joint snapped backward.
It crashed hard enough to dent the floor.
The second drone fired.
I threw myself over the first machine as the plasma bolt tore through its chest. Heat washed across my back. The armor alarm shrieked in my helmet.
"Armor breach," the suit announced. "Thermal damage at thirty-two percent."
"I can read, thanks."
"Kane," Selena said, sharper now, "stand up."
"You worried?"
"I'm trying to keep you alive for another three minutes."
"That's almost sweet."
"Don't make me regret giving you a command channel."
I rolled off the dead drone and ran for the gate.
The second machine lunged. Its claw caught my left shoulder and spun me around. Pain cracked through my arm. The drone lifted me off the floor like I weighed nothing.
I slammed my helmet against its faceplate.
Once.
Twice.
The third time, the faceplate broke.
The machine dropped me. I landed on one knee, pulled the emergency blade from my belt, and drove it into the glowing optic housing.
The drone collapsed beside me.
The last one stopped ten feet away.
It didn't attack.
Its head tilted.
A blue symbol appeared across my visor.
WARNING: TEMPORAL DESYNC DETECTED.
I blinked hard.
The symbol stayed.
"What the hell is that?" I asked.
Selena's breathing changed on the other end of the channel. Just once. A small hitch. Almost nothing.
I heard it anyway.
"Kane," she said, "what did you see?"
"You tell me."
The drone vanished from the center of the tunnel.
Not moved. Vanished.
My visor flashed a dozen possible impact paths. The machine appeared behind me, claw already swinging.
I turned before it struck.
I shouldn't have been able to.
The world slowed.
Not stopped. Slowed.
The claw dragged through the air like it was pushing through thick water. I saw the exact angle. The weak seam beneath the wrist. The three-step path to the wall panel. The overloaded coolant line behind it.
I knew all of it.
My body moved before I could think.
I caught the drone's wrist, let its momentum pull me sideways, and drove my elbow into the seam. The armor split. Blue fluid sprayed across my sleeve.
The machine shrieked.
I grabbed the coolant line and tore it open.
The drone froze.
Then it exploded.
The blast threw me through the open breach.
For one second, I was floating above the enemy reactor chamber.
Rows of red-lit machinery stretched below. The core sat in the middle, wrapped in armored rings and warning lights. I had never seen the chamber from this angle in my first life. Not before the blast. Not before Selena sealed the gate.
My visor marked the core.
A path appeared.
Left ring. Maintenance rail. Three seconds. Manual charge port.
I hit the rail hard, bounced, and caught the charge pack from my belt. My left shoulder barely worked. I used my teeth to tear the seal.
"Kane," Selena said, "report."
"Still alive."
"That wasn't my question."
"Then ask a better one."
"Are you at the core?"
I jammed the charge into the port.
"Yes."
"Arm it."
"The gate is almost closed."
"Arm it."
"If I arm this, I don't get out."