“Fornax! Withdraw now!” Aquila’s voice roared over the speakers.

Fornax eased up on the thrusters, pulling us back.

“Tuc! Fall back. What’s going on, Aquila?” Fornax asked.

I clutched the screen as fear shot through me. Cycling through the streams I saw the problem.

“The camera on the roof cut off,” I muttered quietly.

“They bombed the building. Check the new stream,” Aquila ordered.

I swallowed down the wail of hysteria that was rapidly building as Fornax brought us to a safe altitude.

The stream was from a newsCam circling the building. The top few floors were entirely destroyed. Fire raged from the blown-out windows and consumed it hungrily. I stared blankly at the banner at the bottom of the screen.

“They’re saying it was us. That wasn’t us, was it?” I asked numbly.

“No,” Fornax growled. “Is everyone inside okay?”

I flicked through the camera streams, they seemed to be.

“Yes! The other two in the elevator are still shooting. Most of Guardians are down!” I said.

“Good. What about the others?”

The other corridor wasn’t looking as good.

“A lot of Guardians are down, I think. Most of our fighters are withdrawing.”

“How many are down?” she demanded.

I flicked through the cameras as I counted.

“Five! No, six.”

“Where are the others?”

I swiped through the streams again, ignoring the dull ache in my heart.

“On the stairs. They’ve started shooting down the stairwell at the Guardians.”

“Fuck, what are the Guardians doing? Are they shooting back or still climbing?” Fornax asked, checking the scanners to make sure we were not about to be ambushed too.

I flicked through the streams, most of them coming up blank, before finally finding one that showed them.

“I think they’ve shot out all of the cameras, they must know we’re using them. Some Guardians have lined the stairs and are shooting back but most are still coming up!” I said, trying to remain calm despite the urge to snatch the controls from Fornax and rush to Nova.

“Shit. Give me the screen,” she urged.

I thrust it into her hands, glancing at the screens and scanners surrounding us before looking back to Fornax. She was peering down at the screen with such intensity that she wouldn’t have even seen me move. I could have done it. My hands itched to reach for my harness. I wanted to knock her out. Maybe a well-placed punch to the head would have done it. Or, I could have gotten to the emergency medkit attached to the wall. That would have had the right stuff in. That could have done it. Then, I could take over.

“They’ve blown the roof and have most exits covered. The tunnels are monitored and the sky is full of newsCams. Now, what?” Fornax muttered quietly to herself as she surveyed the situation, snapping me back to reality.

That’s what I needed to be doing. Helping. Thinking of solutions not fantasising about committing what was most likely treason again.

The roof wasn’t an option. They couldn’t go further down without having to go through all of the new Guardians.

“Could they use the lifts to get past anyone?” I asked quietly, not wanting to interrupt Fornax’s train of thought just in case she almost had a solution.

She glanced at me with an intense gaze.

“Potentially. We know that the Council have some control over them though, it might be too risky.”

“We could stop them from dropping it though, right? Someone in the Command Centre would be able to, surely?”

Fornax cocked her head, her eyes bouncing from side to side as she worked out the plan.

“How high up did the other elevator go? Not the one Pac and the others are in, the other one.”

My heart squeezed at the mention of Pac but I racked my brain to try and remember. I hadn’t even glanced at the numbers in the lift.

“Do you have another screen I can use? I’ll check and see if the cam is still in the lift?” I asked, my words coming out rushed.

She reached into the side pocket of her chair and pulled one out without even looking up. I grabbed it and started trying to find the right stream.

The camera was somehow still in the lift. It must have been hit by something though because it lay at an angle, staring directly at the blinding white lights. Red still flashed across the camera but right at the bottom, I could see the edge of the panel.

“It goes up a little higher, only to floor forty though,” I said, a hint of relief rushing through me.

Fornax didn’t reply for so long that I looked up at her to make sure she had heard me. She was studying the floor plans before clicking back to the newsCam stream.

“There’s a big window on floor thirty-nine. It isn’t much higher than where they are now. If we hover outside there, we should be able to extend the ramp to them,” she said quietly.

“We’d need to be quick. The other Guardians are… three floors below,” I said, checking the cams.

She looked up at me, a look of total horror on her face.

“That isn’t enough time. Aquila! If the fighters can get to floor thirty-nine, we can pick them up at the south-facing window!”

Fornax glanced at the scanners quickly before reaching for the controls.

“It’s too late,” came Aquila’s quiet voice over the comms.

“No,” slipped out of my mouth.

It couldn’t be too late.

The Guardians were still a floor down from our fighters but they were taking them down with brutal precision. I don’t know what bullets they were using but they tore straight through the armour with ease.

“Forn, we’ll keep them distracted for now. Give the others enough time to get Peggy out,” one of the fighters who was shooting at the Guardians said.

I found the feed showing the fighters in the stairwell with just enough time to see two more fighters go down, their blood decorating the bullet strewn wall.

“You heard Ant! Crux, Pan, what’s the situation?” Fornax said, her voice was well controlled but her knuckles were white as she gripped the screen.

“Just got one more Guardian here then we’ll go in for her,” they grunted, leaning around the door to shoot again.

I forced myself to breathe deeply as I watched them continue to fire. My chest felt too tight.

“Then what? How are we getting them out?” I asked, glancing compulsively at the Guardians who were still mowing down our fighters.

Fornax nodded once before hitting the comms.

“Trolis, send down four jets to pick up Peggy and the two fighters. They should be able to fit in the back. It won’t be a comfy ride but it’ll do for now. Once we have a clear picture, we’ll send more down,” she ordered.

My foot resumed bouncing as I watched the jets pull away from the group and slip towards Nova.

It had to work.

“Yes! They’re down!” Pan hissed from the elevator making my heart leap.

That was it. They had no more obstacles to get to Peggy. I switched the stream over so that I was watching from Pan’s helmet as she and the other fighter, Crux, stepped out of the elevator and began advancing down the corridor.

Oh gods, it’s happening. We’re going to get her back, Gem whispered into our heads.

I held my breath as they stopped outside the first door and slowly lowered the hatch covering the window. It was empty. Of course, Peggy wouldn’t be in that one. They’d put her in the same one she was in last time.

I watched numbly as Pan continued down the corridor, peering through each of the windows. It felt like I was there too. I could feel the frigid air blowing from above, the slick flooring under my bare feet. I captured my bottom lip between my teeth and bit down hard as unexpected nausea rolled through me.

I forced myself to focus on the screen just as Pan stopped outside the next door. She glanced back at Crux before releasing the catch holding the window cover up. It swung down and my breath caught in my throat.

At the back of the room, her knees pulled to her chest with her hands gripping her ears to block out the sound of death, was Peggy.