The stars were too quiet.Mira adjusted the throttle as the ship cleared the last boundary of the government sky-defense ring. One wrong move back there and they’d all be ash… literally. The adrenaline still thrummed through her muscles, an aftershock she couldn’t shake.Breathe. Focus.Sari leaned against a control console, breathing hard. Sweat had dampened the loose strands of hair falling over her forehead, but her eyes sparkled with leftover triumph.“That was insane,” she said.Kapoor was frantically tapping through a translucent holographic interface projected over his wrist tablet. “We need a destination before defense satellites target our heat signature.”Rourke sat in the co-pilot seat, boots planted firm like he had decided the chair belonged to him. “No one’s shooting us out of the sky just yet,” he said, though he kept one hand on his weapon like a nervous habit. “They’re trying to track us first.”Lyra remained beside Adrian in a passenger seat near the back of the cock

The rebel base wasn’t what Mira expected.It wasn’t a dirty bunker full of starved outcasts or a cluttered garage rigged with scrap weapons.It was alive.Carved into the jagged side of an abandoned mining asteroid, the stronghold felt like a heartbeat hidden inside stone. Lights traced metal walkways above a vast hub where teams hauled crates, engineers welded armor plates, and drones zipped past like mechanical hornets. A thousand voices blended into a single roar — organized chaos with purpose.The stolen government ship hissed as its landing gear settled on the pad. Mira released her harness, but her hand hovered near her holster. Rebel or not, new territory meant new threats.Rourke stretched with a grunt. “Feels like home already.”“For you maybe,” Sari replied, scanning every face in sight.Lyra helped Adrian stand. His legs wavered, but he steadied himself with a stubborn exhale. Kapoor hovered anxiously on his other side.“You sure you’re ready to move?” Kapoor asked.“Ready

The rebel base did not feel like victory.Even though Mira and the team had returned with critical intel and undeniable proof of the government’s illegal human enhancement program, the air inside the underground hangar buzzed with tension — not celebration.Technicians rushed around the newly-stolen ship, scanning its hull like it was a radioactive bomb. Soldiers whispered in tight clusters. Officers kept glancing at Adrian and Lyra with visible distrust. Even the overhead lights flickered as if the place itself was unsure what to make of their arrival.Lyra tried to ignore the stares burning into her back as she helped Adrian down the ship’s ramp. He wasn’t injured anymore — not physically — but the weight of what the government had done to him clung like shadows.Kapoor remained glued to his tablet, working to secure the encrypted data they stole. Sari walked beside him, alert, widening her stance anytime someone got too close.Rourke observed everything, jaw clenched, eyes sharp. I

The rebel base had survived the breach — barely. Smoke still drifted from scorched walls where the drones had cut their way through the lower tunnels. Engineers worked frantically to weld shut cracked support beams while medics triaged the injured in the stone corridors.But the worst damage wasn’t structural.It was trust.And trust was collapsing far faster than the ceiling had.Mira marched down the dimly lit corridor toward the command level, boots echoing sharply across the floor. Her jaw was tight, her shoulders squared — the posture of someone holding in more anger than she could safely release.Behind her, Kapoor jogged with his tablet, still scanning the scrambled logs from the drone incursion. Sari walked beside him, blades sheathed but hands twitching — she hadn’t cooled down since the attack. Rourke brought up the rear, bandaged around the shoulder from shrapnel, but refusing any rest.Inside the strategy chamber, Thale stood stiff as stone before a holographic map of the

The medic bay smelled of sterilized metal and old electricity — a scent Adrian hated more than any memory from the facility. It reminded him too much of conditioning rooms, needles, restraints, experiments disguised as “protocol.” Even now, standing in a rebel base, surrounded by supposed allies, the sensation crawled under his skin like a phantom.“Vitals stable,” the medic muttered, eyes flicking between Lyra and Adrian. “No destabilization since extraction.”Lyra sat on the edge of the examination table, arms crossed, foot tapping. She didn’t like being watched. She definitely didn’t like being monitored. And she especially hated the way the medic kept glaring at her resonance signature as if she were a bomb about to detonate.“See?” she said tightly. “We’re fine.”The medic didn’t look convinced. “Your resonance readings spike whenever you get agitated.”Lyra’s eyebrows arched sharply. “Then maybe stop agitating me.”Adrian almost smiled — almost. His muscles were too tense for it