Jonah felt it happen before he actually saw it.

It was a tearing feeling. It felt like space itself was being ripped open by force.

Every alarm in Haven went off at once.

"Contact!" Warden's voice was loud through the station. "Massive energy signature detected. Distance: two hundred thousand kilometers and closing."

Jonah's eyes quickly opened. Through Haven's sensors, he could see a dark scar that pulsed with wrong energy.

Something huge was coming through.

"All ships, battle stations!" His voice was heard across every comm channel. "This is it. Sterling's here."

The scar became wider. Light bent around it. Then something pushed through.

The Apex.

Calling it a ship felt like calling the ocean a puddle.

The thing was easily ten times the size of Haven's ring, covered in sharp spikes and huge cannons that locked into them, tracking every move they made.

"Oh no." Vanessa's voice crackled through his link. "Jonah, that's not a warship. That's a mobile weapons platform. A flying siege engine."

"I know." His mouth was dry. "I can see it."

The Apex moved closer, blocking the stars from view. Its hull looked old and full of dents. Gun ports opened along its surface. Hundreds of them.

A communication request pinged.

Jonah almost didn't answer. But he needed to hear Sterling's voice. He needed to understand what kind of person built something like this.

Sterling's face appeared on every screen in Haven. He looked... calm.

"Jonah," Sterling said, with a smile on his face. "I'm impressed. You have come this far. Further than I expected."

"Turn around," Jonah said. "Leave. Before this gets ugly."

Sterling laughed. "I admire your spirit. Really. But you have something I need. That station. That knowledge. Hand it over, and I will make your deaths quick."

"No."

"I was hoping you'd say that." Sterling's smile became bigger. "Fire."

The Apex's main cannon fired up.

Jonah had never seen a weapon that big. The barrel was the size of a city block. Energy gathered at its tip. It wasn't fire or plasma. It was something worse. Void energy.

"Get ready for impact!" he screamed.

The beam shot out.

It crossed two hundred thousand kilometers in a heartbeat.

Jonah reached through his connection to the flawed Weavers he'd bonded with ships just hours ago. "I need you! All of you! Now!"

They responded instantly.

Four ships broke formation and flew to the beam's path. Their hulls glowed as they activated every defensive system they had. Hard light shields expanded, forming a wall of energy.

The void beam struck.

The impact was silent in space, but Jonah felt it through the psychic link. He felt the strain of it. The ships screamed in his mind as they held the line.

Then two of them broke.

The beam punched through their shields like paper. One ship simply ceased to exist, vaporized instantly. The other broke apart, its hull cracking open and spilling atmosphere and flame into the void.

Jonah felt them die.

Felt Subject 47, the girl whose name had been erased, simply vanish.

The remaining two ships managed to change the beam's direction. It sent it shooting off into space where it could hurt no one.

But two were gone.

Jonah's hands shook. His vision became blurry. He had felt death before. But this was different. These weren't his Progeny. They were people. People he promised to help. People he had given hope to.

And they had died protecting him.

"Jonah!" Vanessa's voice broke through his grief. "I need you focused. I found something."

He forced himself to breathe. "What's that?"

"The Apex's shields. They are not running on a reactor." She sent him data. Visual scans of the enemy ship's hull. "Look at those pods. See them?"

He zoomed in. Rows and rows of glass containers lined the Apex's surface. Inside each one was a person. Connected to cables and tubes.

Weavers.

"Sterling's using them as batteries," Vanessa said, her voice shaking with rage. "He's draining their life force to power his shields. Those are the flawed Weavers from the factory. The ones we couldn't save."

"How many?"

"At least two hundred." Vanessa paused. "Jonah, we can't just blow the Apex apart. If we do, we kill all of them."

"New plan," Jonah said. His voice was steady now. Cold. "We don't destroy the Apex. We disable it. We cut its legs out from under it, board it, and free those Weavers."

"That's insane," Ariana's voice joined the channel. She sounded breathless. "I love it. What do you need?"

"A miracle." Jonah brought up a tactical map. "That main cannon is charging again. We have maybe three minutes before it fires. Someone needs to take it out."

"I'll do it." Ariana didn't hesitate. "The Celestial Falcon is fast. Faster than anything Sterling has. I can make the run."

"It's suicide," Vanessa said flatly.

"Then I'll die doing something that matters." Ariana's ship broke from the defensive formation. Its solar sails blazed with light. "Wish me luck."

The Celestial Falcon flew down fast.

Jonah watched through Haven's sensors. The Apex's drone swarms reacted instantly. Hundreds of small, black fighters detached themselves from the hull and rushed toward Ariana.

"I see them," Ariana said. Her voice was tight. "Falcon, I need everything you have."

The ship responded. Its hull glowed. Its speed doubled.

But there were too many.

A missile hit her port wing. The explosion tore through the ship's armor. Jonah felt Ariana's scream through the comm. He felt the Falcon's pain as its wing broke off.

"Ariana!" Vanessa's voice was sharp with fear.

"Still flying!" Ariana gasped. Blood ran down her face from a cut on her forehead. "Almost there. Just a little more."

The Apex's main cannon glowed brighter. Ten seconds from firing.

Ariana pushed through the pain and fear. The Celestial Falcon struggled to move forward, leaving a trail of broken parts and glowing sparks behind it.

Five seconds.

"For Haven!" Ariana screamed.

She reached the cannon's exhaust port. She triggered every weapon the Falcon had. Solar flares. Plasma bursts. Everything.

The cannon's energy backfired.

The explosion was terrible. A burst of bright white fire spread out against the Apex's side. The main weapon tore itself apart from the inside, melting and bending.

But the blast caught Ariana's ship.

The Falcon went dark. It tumbled toward the Apex's hull, spinning out of control.

"Ariana!" Jonah reached for her through his link to Haven. "Ariana, respond!"

Static.

Then, faint and weak: "I'm... alive. The Ship's dead."

She was alive. But helpless. Spinning toward the enemy's ship with no power and no way to stop.

"Nomad, go!" Jonah commanded. "Get her out of there!"

"Already moving," Vanessa said.

But even as Nomad flew to rescue Ariana, Jonah saw the Apex's secondary weapons tracking her. He saw the smaller cannons powering up.

Sterling's voice came back over the comm. He didn't sound angry. Just... disappointed.

"Brave," he said. "Stupid, but brave. Let me show you what happens to brave people in my war."

The secondary cannons fired.

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