Swivelling her chair around, Anna looked out the cockpit window to find nothing but stars against the blackness. Her shuttle was part of a swarm that had taken up position around one of the space stations orbiting the planet. A station with the specific purpose of defending Alios from a hostile fleet. Anna"s job was simple: prevent Ragnosian fighters from disabling the space station"s weapons.
Squinting through the window, Anna shook her head. “Where did it all go wrong?” All their efforts to build a lasting peace had come to this. They should have stopped this nonsense before it devolved into a shooting war. “You nervous, Cas?”
“Of course.”
Anna was about to say that Cassi"s apprehension was natural – only an i***t would be completely untroubled by the prospect of going into battle – b
