He taps the side of his visor. “Everyone, stand down.”
“Yes, sir!” Wren answers immediately.
Coda follows with a sharp, “Understood.”
No response from Echo. He trusts she’s still out there, dragging citizens out of the line of fire.
Still nothing from Viper.
As bikes sputter off and drones fly away, the street should be calming. Instead, a burst of noise rises from near the mill. It’s Viper with his squad driving for the entrance like he never heard the order.
“Viper, report in. Hold position!” Kane snaps.
The lieutenant pushes ahead, his crew moving with him.
Kane’s jaw locks.
His gaze flicks to the hostage situation. A smirk tugs at the Natural Order leader’s lips while the woman gasps.
“Can’t control your people, Baron?” he taunts, jerking his chin. Three of his men slip into the alley. “Our leader warned me your authority was crumbling.”
Kane barely has time to register the jab. Those same enforcers return, hauling civilians at knifepoint.
A weight settles in his stomach. Kane’s hand flies to his visor despite the danger.
“Viper, I said fucking disengage.” The edge in his tone is almost desperate. “More people are at risk. If you don’t—”
Viper’s voice finally crackles in. “I will. After this…”
Before Kane can demand clarity, gasps erupt from the hostages. He follows their wide-eyed stares.
The hostage-takers are dead, a clean bullet through eachskull. Their leader lies on his back with a hole between his eyes, blood staining his nose. Standing over him is the woman he held hostage, her hands shaking.
Kane freezes. This was Viper’s maneuver.
Effective. But it doesn’t erase the disobedience.
Echo’s signature flashes on his HUD from between the buildings. She waves the civilians toward her, and they bolt, stumbling past rubble and fallen robes.
With this, the battlefield is clear.
Kane shoots into the sky. “All units, push.”
Below him, the momentum shifts instantly. Coda’s drones hammer the Natural Order line until they buckle. Viper’s squad floods the gap, and the HOV riders sweep the remaining few, scattering them across the pavement.
When the rest of the enemy surrenders, Kane scans the ground. In his HUD, the losses pulse in harsh red. Viper’s top gunner slumped in a shattered window. One of Wren’s riders pinned beneath her burning HOV. And on the sidewalk, the twin recruits from last year lying side by side with arrows buried deep in their chests.
Weak vitals flicker across Kane’s display at the end of the block, where Dr. Hayashi and Jamal load the injured into the truck.
His fingers curl into his palms. All of this blood—all belongs to Athena.
Jamal’s voice comes through his commlink, listing critical injuries. Kane drops his bike onto the street, grounding it near the chaos. He moves to check the line personally as Echo rounds the corner.
She’s carrying a small boy with blood smeared across his shirt, dripping from a deep slice along his arm.
The sight is worse than any shrapnel he might’ve caught.
Natural Order didn’t just strike his crew. They hit his city.