Shoot me then, you coward!Rhea screamed the words into the howling crimson sandstorm, her voice cutting through the scream of tearing metal and the roar of the desert scorpion-crawler. She didn't draw her sword. She didn't raise a shield. Instead, she took two fast, defiant strides across the shaking roof of the command rig and pressed her bare chest directly against the glowing violet palm of Idris's gauntlet.Do it! she yelled, her soot-stained face inches from his blank, glowing eyes. Pull the trigger and finish what the Architects started! Prove to every man on this rig that Idris Cole is already dead!The first emotional beat struck like a high-voltage shock through the center of the roof. Below them, Unit Four and the rest of Squad Alpha were firing wild plasma volleys into the Sun-Scar raiders boarding the lower deck, but their eyes kept flicking upward in sheer terror. They weren't just fighting for their lives against the scavengers anymore; they were watching their commande

Jump! Jump off the roof right now!Rhea screamed as she grabbed Idris by his collar, yanking him backward with all her strength just as the giant's dark matter scythe cleaved through the front cabin of their command rig.The sixty-ton armored vehicle split like a ripe melon down its central frame. Sparks, screaming steel, and jet-black dark matter lightning tore the mobile platform apart in a deafening fireball. Unit Four and the remaining Vanguard Phalanx clones of Squad Alpha were hurled violently out of the lower bay as the rear section overturned, tumbling two hundred yards across the jagged red dunes before slamming to a halt in a cloud of black smoke and burning diesel.Idris didn't let the rig crush his men. Even with the sickening, violent violet fog of the parasitic corruption clouding his brain, his human instinct flared hotter than the alien code. He caught Rhea with one arm and swept his bare right hand toward the falling wreck.System! Idris commanded, his voice strained

Not her, you bastard!Unit Four screamed as he threw his battered body straight into the path of the falling dark matter scythe.The heavy blade cut through the air with a horrific, metallic whistle. Unit Four didn't hesitate. He thrust his cracked plasma rifle sideways, catching the glowing edge of the scythe just inches above Rhea's head. The kinetic impact smashed the rifle to pieces and sent the clone skidding thirty feet across the scorching red sand, his chest armor cracking open under the sheer pressure.Move, Rhea! Unit Four choked out, coughing up black synthetic fluid as he dragged himself up against a rock. Protect the commander!The first emotional beat hit Idris like a hammer to his ribs. He was frozen, completely locked by Kael's systemic paralysis code, forced to watch his men throw their lives away for him. His dual-core matrix was offline, choked by the dead-lock algorithms sent through the three severed host heads. The machine inside him had failed.