12 Mia Jamie and Alex flew the Valor back to Battleship Resolution with the comm channels open so we could all hear what was happening. When our ship exploded, the mission had been paused. All teams had been battle ready and waiting for the shields to go down to begin their portion of the takeover of Xenon. But the entire plan hinged on Kass and me overriding the controls on the moon base. No one—ourselves included—expected to do it by hand. On the moon’s surface. Or that we’d survived the crash. But our comms to General Jennix had kept the mission from being aborted or delayed. As soon as we’d shut down Dark Fleet control of the moon base, the mission was a go. We’d survived. We’d taken down the force field around Xenon that the Dark Fleet was using to keep Velerion forces from regain

