Nate bled a trail to the finish line, streaking red over fresh snow, his vision blacking in and out.
"Almost there," Lunar urged. "They have a big gold flag on a pole, stretching above the trees, even."
"Guh," Nate dribbled blood down his chin, mustering his strength. He wanted to walk across the finish line of his own accord.
But as they made their way past spiky pines, they heard the finish before they saw it. A ship settling, the trees shaking in its wake, the unmistakable roar of the engine, the clap-clap-clap-clap o as ship's legs settled down, the hiss of the ramp unfolding.
Through the dense pack of trees, Rivero stalked toward them. Her black eyecovering was awash with red...and hung around her neck. The full fury of those glowing red eyes stormed toward them. Even her long shock of beautiful ivory hair was bloody.
Nate limped forward to meet her.
"Are you okay?" He got out first.
Her lips twisted. Annoyance or humor, he couldn't tell. "Are
you?
"
"No," He said honestly. "Bastian — the inside man. One of them. He had five others, trainees or smuggled in, I don't know. Snowmobiles, guns." His breath cut off, his lungs hurting. So much to say, but his words failed. "H-he said they were purging the whole Judge programme. The trainees. You. The Admiral. We fought...things got out of control."
"For you and me both. Is he dead?" She said shortly. Her head tilted to the side, considering him.
"Yes."
"And his—"
"Dead. All dead."
"Good job."
"Lunar helped. The Admiral?"
"Dead." She lowered her head.
"Fuck." Nate bit out.
"Yes."
"I," Nate took a long painful breath. "I think Bastian was going to finish the trainees at the finish line, the ones that—" He trailed off.
"Yes," Rivero's eyes glowed. "I've taken back control of our drone array. I'll send them to pick up those still out there." She snapped her fingers, gesturing someone forth. "The people I trust will search for in the places the drones can't. You've got questions — they'll have to wait."
"Ok." Nate's knees buckled. Lunar held him up.
"Get this man medical assistance, now." Rivero barked behind her.
He hobbled past her. Her hand on his arm stopped him. "Nate?" She squeezed his arm, looked past him with a distant stare, shoulders low. "Thank you."
The words didn't come. He nodded and moved away.
###
Nate sat in a rickety wooden chair, watching as his fellow trainees streamed into the Oversight deck, a swarm of medics fussing over them. Not as many as there was, and those that remained were gaunt, bloody, blue. The lucky walked. Some lay in stretchers, straight to the medbay. Some took a different direction, zipped into body bags.
Nate watched it all with tired eyes. Lunar stood next to him, a silent guardian, her fingers tousled in his hair.
He embraced Hakeem when he saw him, the triumph on the man's face dissipating when he saw Nate's condition. Lita clutched him too tightly, shaking in his arms. Graziano was silent, pale, even as he joined them. His hand trembled.
Finally, when people stopped streaming in, Rivero stood on some crates. Her deep red eyes glowed evermore, its black covering abandoned. Nate wondered if she'd even noticed.
Her voice was firm when she spoke, but her tone was flat. "As soon as you were dropped into the wilderness, we were attacked by a well organised mass attack on the entire Judge camp. They hit our camps. The dorms, the offices. They were well equipped — some of the attackers came from within. They killed Admiral Li—" She took a deep breath. "My friend."
She held her arms behind her back and then held them in front of her and then finally rested them by her side. Nate had never seen her like this. "My friend Carmichael turned out to be...not my friend." Her jaw set. "A traitor. In this camp," She gestured to the medics, to the staff that remained. "We had to fight for your lives."
The silence was stifling — Nate felt it in his throat, like it took even his breath. "And yet — and yet," Rivero tilted her head. "I know that what we went through did not compare to what you have all been through."
The crowd buzzed, stifled rage, confusion. "I have excuses, many." She said. "They took control of our drone array, halved them in number. They used the crates to direct many of you, to trap you, and to starve the others." She stared down at her hands. "We could not recover the drone command center."
Rivero looked around with dull eyes. "We should have seen it coming, should have seen their preparations, should have realized something was wrong."
"No," She reconsidered. "
I
should have seen it coming. We failed you." Her chin trembled. "
I
failed you."
A man sobbed, loud and sharp, breaking the silence. But it was a woman he didn't know who spoke, a Revert. Five of her twigs shook, like there was a storm inside that transparent bowl. "I offer the fullness of apologies, but what remains of the Judges? What will be the fate of the organization?"
If anything, Rivero looked even more miserable. "We are still waiting to hear back from our people in the field. We number few already, because few can be trusted..." She laughed bitterly at her own words. "I...I have spoken to the Council already. They will send support, with our own people pulling out of their active missions."
Her spine bowed. Nate felt a pang of sympathy. "Considering my failures, I suspect that I shall be removed from my position as the lead instructor here."
"What about the traitors?" It was Hakeem that asked that, his fists clenched.
"Of the traitors, we know only of Bastian of the Eagles." All eyes met his team. Nate swallowed. "Nathan Clancy has kindly doled out an appropriate punishment already. We do know he had help — at this point, we believe that help was smuggled in on the far side of the planet."
A Lops woman stood up, ears blood-red to match her bloody face, her chair scraping on the floor sharply. "I don't give a fuck about them, what about the rest? Is this all of us?"
Rivero scanned them all. "My best people are searching. However, of those who have not yet returned, it is highly likely they are dead."
"Fuck you!" The woman cried. She ran forward, slammed into Rivero. The Voor woman didn't flinch — stepped off the crate, let the woman slap her. It was like slapping stone. The woman buckled, went to her knees, weeping. The grief wracked through her body like a wave, arms stretched, nails digging, back arched, legs bouncing uncontrollably. From the floor, she gasped out. "You - you put weapons in crates. You put us naked in freezing conditions, amongst the monsters and the wolves. And then you
fucking dare
to pretend to care when we die?"
The crowd murmured in agreement. Rivero nodded. "You're right, in some ways. My assignment here was to break you and remake you. To make killers, unbreakable unshakable killers, killers who could make decisions no one else could. And..." Rivero swallowed something in her throat. "And to put those conditions in place, there was an...acceptable death rate." She didn't wince. Nate watched for it. "All of you knew that coming in." She stared around the room, meeting their gaze evenly.
"But—" Someone started.
"But," Rivero held her hand up, cutting them up. "But the risks have far outweighed any benefits of joining the Judge programme. I know that. That, that is my failure."
Nate didn't expect it to be Lunar's voice that spoke next, her fingers digging into his shoulder. "When Nate was first attacked in the medbay, you should have known then of the threat."
Rivero smiled grimly. "I should have. I thought I knew the last perpetrator. I wasn't even close. I," She exhaled a long breath that blew her white bangs high. "I was arrogant."
Someone's voice muttered, but it was loud enough for everyone to hear. "They never should have put a Voor in charge."
Rivero flinched but said nothing.
"What will happen to us?" A voice came from the crowd.
"While the council investigates, I cannot graduate you, with my own abilities in doubt." Rivero said honestly. "I ask you all to return home for the time being. As soon as we have cleared house, we will be in touch — we need the time to understand if more...rot remains amongst the Judges."
"This is fucking bullshit." Nate heard. The room grumbled. Some wiped wet eyes. Rivero was implacable.
"There are shuttles arranged to depart to any of the three nearby planets. Alternatively, you may continue to stay in your dorms and wait for own transportation."
Slowly, they trundled out of the room — sleep-deprived, shellshocked — to find a bed, Nate imagined. They looked how he felt.
Nate waited until they'd all left, even his own team. Except Lunar, who simply shook her head when he looked at her.
Rivero was expecting him. She just threw him a look as she reviewed her tablet, showing various drones flying back to base.
Nate crossed his arms. He wasn't going to let her dismiss him. "What about the bug threat? The reason behind all of this. The invasion — you have to know that all of
this—"
he threw his arms wide— "was just the first step." t
Rivero scrunched her face up. "I'm stuck here, Clancy. I can't
do
anything — I'll be lucky if I'm not bodyguarding popstars next month."
He ran a hand through his hair, turning in place. She didn't see. Nobody saw. The bugs were coming. Traitors everywhere. Where would they hit next? Something big. Something to weaken them, to panic them, to split the Lunari, the Fed—"The Jubilee!" He took her tablet and threw it aside. "The Fed Jubilee, it's next week. That's where they'll hit." He rubbed his neck. "The Judges are being pulled off, the Admiral dead," He muttered to himself. "The Council's will be all over the place, panicking...they'll hit the Jubilee."
Rivero wrinkled her nose. "Really, Nate? The Jubilee is the most protected party in the galaxy. Nothing's getting through that blockade. They're moving entire battlecruisers around it."
His anger boiled over. Didn't she see? "Fucking damnit, Rivero, would you wake the fuck up?"
Her eyes widened but he was on a roll. "It's a systematic fucking dismantling of our whole alliance. First the Lunari,
Ana
— fuck, maybe they even have her now. Then they hit you, the Judges. What comes next? The
