---

As she marched down the corridor, the strap of her bag slipped, and she yanked it back up with an annoyed grimace. Tavi quickly caught up, once again placing himself at her left, and held out his hand.

“I can carry your bag for you, ma’am.”

Campbell shot him an irritated look. “I’ve got it.”

“Boys!” she barked. “I can carry my own shit, thank you very little.”

Tavi stiffened, and she sighed. She’d forgotten how fragile male egos could be at his age. Her little brother was just as touchy at times.

“If you really feel like helping someone,” Campbell said gruffly, “go see if the civvie needs a hand.”

Campbell pointed to the young woman struggling down the corridor a short distance ahead of them. She was a tiny little thing, and despite her murderous determination, she’d fallen well behind her companions.

“Please tell me you’re not threatened by a kid,” she muttered as Tavi took his suggestion as an order and hustled off to help.

“Of course not.” Campbell smirked when her bag slipped again and deftly relieved her of it before she could protest. “I just wanted you all to myself.”

Blue rolled her eyes again and decided the new habit had nothing to do with baby legionnaires and everything to do with men. Just before Tavi reached the young woman, a hulking man in the red jumpsuit of a maintainer bumped her shoulder as he brushed past her, and she sprawled to the cold deck with a frustrated cry. The burly man looked at her disdainfully before starting to move past without so much as an apology.

And Blue got a front row seat to why an undersized Legionnaire like Private Diego Tavi had made it into the Bronze straight out of training.

Tavi’s expression snapped into a hardened mask, and in the time it took Blue to blink, he had the hulking maintainer in a painful armlock. The kid certainly knew how to use leverage to his advantage, and he quickly had the bigger man pinned up against the wall. Blue wasn’t close enough to hear what Tavi said, but a moment later he released him, his expression still locked down tight as he helped the young woman to her feet.

The maintainer flexed his arm a few times, his ruddy complexion pale, and apologized profusely before he hurried away. The young woman stammered at Tavi, her face flushed and her eyes huge behind thick-rimmed glasses with the telltale markers of slate linkage. Blue mentally downgraded her age to twenty at best and bit back a smile as Tavi gallantly shouldered the girl’s heavy bag and escorted her down the corridor.

“Oh, that was very interesting.” Blue tore her gaze off the Bronze’s newest legionnaire and arched a brow at Campbell. “So what’s the deal with the civvies?”

“They’re the entire reason for our deployment.”

“Say what?” Blue frowned at Campbell, certain he was joking, but his expression was serious.

“There’s something weird going on with the native fauna on Aurora. Some kind of oversized reptilian species threatening the science outpost. One research assistant went missing, along with her guards, all presumed dead. The Council tasked a Survey team with figuring out the new aggressive behavior. It’ll be the Bronze’s job to keep them from getting eaten.”

“And as always, you guys are the taxi service,” she teased.

“Happy to give you a ride anytime.”

Campbell winked obnoxiously, but with just enough playfulness that Blue wasn’t tempted to put her fist through his face. Instead, she shoved him just hard enough that he had to sidestep to recover his balance. His husky laugh pulled a grin out of her, and they trailed behind Tavi and his new friend in companionable silence.

As they caught up to the rest of the civilians, she compared Campbell’s scuttlebutt to her official mission brief. It had said nothing about a science team but sure enough they, too, stopped at the Perseverance’s docking slip. She hummed thoughtfully as she noted Campbell’s smug grin.

“What aren’t you telling me?”

“Plenty.” He dropped his voice low. “But I’ll tell you this part for free. We’re not heading to Aurora first.”

Campbell fell silent, amusement dancing in his eyes as he waited. Blue huffed an annoyed sigh, but she couldn’t stop her slow smile.

“What will the rest of it cost me?” she asked as they drifted to a halt at the back of the small crowd waiting to board.

“Your soul.” He chuckled at her exasperated glare. “But I’ll settle for a night out drinking with you.”

Blue pretended to think about it, but really, she would’ve gone out with him for free. Judging by his confident grin, he knew it too.

“You’re on.”

“Can’t wait.” Campbell leaned close, his voice a quiet murmur in her ear. “We’re going to Sagetnam first. I can’t tell you what the Survey team needs, but I can tell you we’ll be there for at least forty-eight hours.”

Anticipation curled low in Blue’s belly. Among other things, Sagetnam was typically used by the Legions as a training ground, which meant she’d get at least one flight under her belt to knock the rust off before the mission. Even better, if they were going to be there for a few days, they’d almost certainly be granted liberty call—and Yortugan Bay was famous for its bars.

Somehow, she doubted the Survey team was interested in either of those things.

“Yortugan, huh?” Blue muttered as her gaze drifted back to the haughty scientist impatiently waiting for the airlock to open, his eager little helpers, his mousy assistant, and one short, dangerous legionnaire. “This ought to be entertaining.”

---

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Missed the previous snippets? No worries, I got you covered.

• Snippet 12
• Snippet 11
• Snippet 10
• Snippet 9
• Snippet 8
• Snippet 7
• Snippet 6
• Snippet 5
• Snippet 4
• Snippet 3
• Snippet 2
• Snippet 1