Chapter 15 · Six Cities Burning

The first city died without making a sound.

From the command deck, Kellan watched its lights go out across the storm. One moment, the distant mining settlement burned like a necklace of amber against the black clouds of Ashring. The next, the necklace snapped. Thousands of windows vanished beneath a spreading wave of blue-white fire.

The deck trembled.

A second later, the shockwave reached them.

Every loose panel rattled in its frame. Dust shook from the ceiling. Somewhere below, a pressure alarm began to scream.

Sable caught the edge of the navigation console. Her face flashed in the red emergency lights, pale and sharp, her eyes fixed on the tactical display. Six city markers glowed around Ashring’s upper atmosphere. One had already turned gray.

“Impact was not orbital,” she said. Her voice sounded too controlled. “They fired through the storm.”

Kellan stared at the gray marker. The shape of the burning city overlapped the memory still clawing through his mind: a rescue fleet entering the Gray Ring under his command, civilian transponders blinking out one by one.

His own voice in the archive.

Proceed with the test.

His fingers tightened around the console until the metal creaked.

“How long?” he