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well,” she added, her tone shifting from playful to serious. “Sora will be overrun in my lifetime if we do not find a way to end this war soon. Defenses are breaking down across the rim systems every day. They could be here within a decade. And truth be told, we don’t have the strength to hold them off again.”
    She tucked a loose strand of hair back into a braid and continued. “I’m tired of war. We all are. Soran history is full of them. We’ve fought over land, money, race, religion. We had to fight our own creations, the machines, and now we’re doing it all over again with the Xalans. We’ll never learn.”
    “Earth wasn’t so different,” Lucas said. “Rarely a century went by without millions dying in conflict. It’s human nature, I suppose.”
    “Ah yes,” she said. “That’s what you call yourselves, isn’t it, ‘humans.’”
    “It’s going to be hard to break that habit.”
    She fell silent for a minute and took a sip from the glass in her hand.
    “Just promise me something, will you? Finish this.”
    Lucas raised his eyebrows.
    “Your drink?” he said, nodding toward the blue vial she held.
    “The war.”
    “That’s a tall order.”
    “I know what they’re planning, revealing the truth to the Xalans. It can work.”
    She really was well-informed.
    “Convince the Xalans we can live in peace. Expose their leaders for the liars and murderers they are. Winning their minds is achievable. Wiping them out entirely is not.”
    A few trillion marks in genetic material had obviously made the woman in front of him poised, intelligent, and disarmingly beautiful. As she drifted slightly closer to him, Lucas realized it could be a potentially dangerous combination.
    A shiver ran through her and she took a few steps back.
    “It’s a bit chilly out here. I’m going to return to the party, as much as it may pain me. I can’t remember the last time this many windbags were in one room.”
    “Alright,” Lucas said, chuckling. There was a raucous chorus of laugher from inside. “I’m going to wait a minute longer.”
    She backed away from him and spoke as she headed toward the entrance back into the gala.
    “It was a pleasure, Earthborn. I’m glad you found us.”
    And then she was consumed in a ball of flame.

3
    Lucas’s back arched as the fiery blast that shot out from the balcony entryway flung him against the stone banister. He hit the ground conscious but disoriented, with pain surging through his body. A dull tone sounded in his ears while his eyes could only see enormous red spots.
    He fumbled around on the ground, crawling forward, feeling bits of stone and glass under his feet, trying to understand what had just taken place. An explosion. A bomb. An attack. Immediately, his mind raced to Asha. He tried to stand, but the attempt resulted in an instant collapse to the ground. As his vision slowly came back into focus, he saw a pair of glassy, prismatic eyes staring back at him. Corinthia Vale lay on her side, her cheek and neck blackened, her tattered dress aflame. Her gaze was fixed and unmoving.
    Lucas dragged himself over to her on his elbows and placed a trembling pair of fingers on her neck, confirming what he already knew. She was gone. Looking past her, the Throne Room was a hellish furnace of smoke and flame, and Lucas could hear screams coming from within. How had this happened? His mind swam as he tried once more to get to his feet, this time with greater success. He rose unsteadily, bracing himself against the railing. Corinthia lay still in front of him.
    The ground shook as an armored figure landed on the balcony next to him, cracking the tiled floor. Jets protruding out of its back flickered with blue light, then went out completely. It turned to Lucas and revealed an assault weapon in its clutches and a face hidden by a helmet. The figure was a tower of black armor streaked with four blood-red lines intersecting across its breastplate. It was taller than Lucas, but