His eyes fluttered shut again and his plea echoed around my head as I frantically waved Trolis and Orchil towards us. Cory’s chest rose and fell evenly and I knew he’d passed out.

Maybe it was selfish but still, I looked up at them and said, “Save him, please.”

Orchil nodded and rushed forwards, her hands already fluttering over Cory’s body.

“We need to get him onto the ship,” Orchil said with a pointed glance behind me. “We can save him but we shouldn’t do it here.”

There were footsteps behind me, muffled voices that I hadn’t noticed before.

“And you’re sure he’s going to be okay?” I asked, refusing to turn around and needing to hear someone promise me that.

Orchil’s eyes met mine.

“As long as nothing horribly unexpected happens, he’ll be just fine.”

I slumped forwards, some of the fear and stress rushing out of me as someone else brought a stretcher towards us and loaded him onto it.

I wanted to fall forwards, to flop into the space where Cory had been and just cry or sleep or I don’t even know, but I couldn’t. There were people behind me, so many of them, and I needed to face them. They had been through so much, they deserved more than to see me crumble.

I started to push myself up, taking Cas’ outstretched hand and letting him help pull me up. I could see my reflection in his helmet. I looked a mess. My puffy eyes were bloodshot and my face drawn. I was clearly struggling but I forced myself to stand tall and glance around the mess we’d made of the garage.

The tutor’s bodies lay in the doorway, slowly leaking blood still, the walls were riddled with bullet holes and burn marks, and our shields were still up. I wish they hadn’t seen it.

If I’d had it my way, I would have snuck them out the hatch that opened in the landing area outside. It would have been better, I wanted to protect them from ever having to see or go through what we went through.

Sammy was at the front of the crowd, a gun held loosely by his side, his eyes on Cory.

“Is he alright?” he asked as he stumbled forwards.

The rest of the kids stayed back, letting him cross the garage alone as they hesitated by the hatch.

“He will be,” I said with more confidence than I felt.

I held my head high, my chin lifted as I examined the kids. They looked like they’d been through a war even though I wanted to protect them from it. Not a single kid was free from bruising and Sammy’s was some of the worst and yet he still smiled at me hopefully.

“We, urm, brought some medical supplies, if he needs any,” Sammy said, hooking his thumbs into the straps of his backpack.

I looked across at Trolis who shook his head slightly.

“Thank you,” I said to Sammy, “but he’s okay.”

Sammy smiled at him before glancing back at Cory, worry etched into his face.

I forced myself to take a deep breath, glancing at the kids behind him. I knew I needed to address them. I needed to say something.

Too many of them were staring at the bodies of their tutors but not a single one of them was crying. I wasn’t sure if that made me feel better or worse. I’m still not sure.

They were young. That was the main thing that I couldn’t get over and I couldn’t shake. They were kids. Such young kids. And yet, they were battered and bruised, forced to take part in a war they should have been protected from. Half-hearted anger reared in me but I was too tired. I was exhausted, physically and mentally.

But they deserved better than that.

They deserved better than me.

“Thank you,” I started, addressing both Sammy and the kids behind him. “Thank you all for everything you’ve done over the last few months. I know being here hasn’t been easy but you’ve all been wonderful. So brave and so strong. I know it doesn’t mean much but… I’m proud of each and every one of you.”

Sammy beamed at me, his reaction echoed by all of the kids behind him.

That should have made me happy but it turned my stomach.

I’m no one. Some small base Captain who made questionable decisions just to try and help other but it ended with death and destruction. I hate that they looked up to me.

“I know it’s still a scary situation,” I continued. “A lot of you don’t know us or the people behind me but, if you want to, we have enough ships to take you far away from here. To somewhere safe to hide out until this is all over.”

“What if we want to fight? I want to help,” Sammy said, his tone determined.

“No,” I answered immediately.

Sammy’s face fell slightly and he looked confused.

“I’m sorry. I appreciate your…” I searched for the word. “Dedication. But it’s not right. You’re kids. You should have to fight. You’re all going to go somewhere safe.”

“Where?” a voice from the crowd asked.

I searched to find the person who’d asked the question, my eyes falling on Pavo.

I felt my lips stretch up into a smile.

No. I almost typed it there. That was stupid.

I like to think that this thing is over but I know better. I’ve learnt not to trust people over my seventeen years of life. And I know what you might be thinking and you’re right. Some of those kids do have families that are searching for them but the kids have been given the resources to reach out.

It’s their choice. If they haven’t contacted you, they don’t want to. Respect that.

“Okay,” Sammy said quietly. “We’ll go.”

I nodded, a sigh of relief slipping from my lips.

“Good. Those ships there should take you where you need to go,” I said, pointing at the ships that had landed in the garage behind us.

Sammy nodded at me before starting towards the nearest ship but someone hissed his name.

“What about the stuff?” Pavo whispered loudly to him.

“What stuff?” I asked, worry spiking through my increasing exhaustion.

“Oh, yeah! We got some stuff for you and your crew!” he said, a smile coming over his face again despite everything that had happened.

I felt my eyebrows draw together in confusion. What would they have got for us?

“Okay,” I said cautiously.

“Do you want us to give you the medical stuff too or…” he trailed off looking between Trolis and me.

I glanced at Trolis.

“We’ll be heading straight back to the ship, it makes more sense for us to have them, right?” I said, too tired to make a proper decision.

The adrenaline was leaving me quickly and I was tempted to take another tablet but I knew I should wait until I was back on the ship to try and limit how many I’d have to take. If Cory were conscious, he would have warned me not to have too many.

“Yeah, good idea. Things aren’t going quite as well for the others so the sooner you can get that stuff to Chal, the better,” Trolis said.

I nodded.

“Do they need us to go to them?” I asked.

He shook his head.

“It’s pretty much over now, they have control.”

I fought the urge to rush back to the ship and ignore what he said, forcing myself to look back at Sammy who was watching us carefully.

I knew he was bursting with questions.

“We’ll take the stuff,” I said.

He nodded and rushed towards, fumbling to take his bag off without dropping his gun.

“Some of the stuff in here is mine but most of it is medical supplies. I have some clothes and some stuff from my mom but… that’s it.”

He swallowed and stared at his bag for a moment before taking a deep breath and looking up at me with a forced smile.

“Oh, that’s fine. We probably have some bags in the ship, right?” I asked, looking back at Peggy.

She’d taken her helmet off at some point, probably so as not to scare the kids, and she smiled at me before saying, “I’m pretty sure I saw some in there. I’ll go grab them.”

“Great!” Trolis said, his tone a little too cheerful. It sounded weird coming out of his mouth. “We need to be a bit quicker down here just in case the Council work out what’s happened and do end up sending some Guardians so if you want to just leave all the stuff with Aries and her crew, they’ll pack it all up and bring it when they’re ready.”

He glanced at me, as if checking to make sure that I was happy with it.

“Yeah, that’s fine,” I said.

“Great. I’ll leave Vela with you to help pack up and in case you have any problems here. They’re a great gunner,” he said, gesturing to the short but powerfully built person behind him who stepped forwards at his words.

“Pleasure to be at your service,” Vela said in a deep voice. “I’m not sure if you remember but we’ve worked together on a few missions back at the ship.”

I scanned my memory quickly, trying to place their face.

“The supply drop to Dandon-Four?” I said, pretty sure I was right.

Their expression didn’t change in any way but they stood up a little straighter.

“Affirmative,” they barked before wincing slightly. “Sorry, years in the IE made me a little…”

They seemed at a loss for words and I felt the need to cut in.

“Don’t worry about it. Happy to have you on board,” I said with what I hoped was a smile.

I was honestly too tired to tell.

“Okay, great. Crack on, kids!” Trolis said before turning and striding towards his ship, speaking softly into his comms so only my crew could hear. “Orchil said Cory is stable and she’s going to get him back to the ship but he’ll be fine.”

“Thanks, Trolis. Are you taking the kids?” I asked, bringing my hand to my mouth and pretending to rub my nose to cover my lips moving as the kids rushed towards us, pulling at their bags.

“Yeah, I’ll be piloting one of the ships. We should be back at Freo by tomorrow morning though,” he said. “Stay safe and if you need anything let us know. We have a bunch of ships scattered around, we’ll be able to send someone down.”

“Thank you,” Cas said, pretending to turn to look at Peggy.

What have they brought for us? he asked me.

I watched the kids scuttle towards us, most unable to look us in the eyes up close. They placed items in front of us before hurrying away, almost as if they were offerings. It made me uncomfortable.

N’hitel, I replied, eyeing a familiar bottle as another kid came forwards, a handful of torn fabric clutched in their fist.

“What’s this?” I asked.

“It’s…” She trailed off before peeking up at me and trying again. “We were going to go to Sphoreia, to tie them on the trees for… but they wouldn’t let us leave the base.”

I swallowed down a hard lump of emotion, looking at the jagged edges of the ribbons.

“What are they made of?” I asked.

“Oh,” she flushed and looked down embarrassedly. “Well, we couldn’t get any actual ribbons so we just tore up our clothes. Most of the people here donated stuff… I know they’re not like real ribbons but I thought it might be enough.”

I nodded, wanting to tell the girl who wasn’t that much younger than us how much it meant to us but I settled just saying. “It’s enough. Thank you.”

She smiled at me, her expression radiant, before hurrying away and being replaced by two kids who were lugging something big and wrapped in a bag between them.

“What’s this?” I asked cautiously.

One of the kids grinned mischievously up at me before reaching for the zipper and I fought the automatic urge to reach for my gun. I wouldn’t do that to a child.

I forced myself to breathe normally as I waited for the kids to finish wrestling the big metal object from the bag and place it on the floor.

A genuine smile started to spread over my face.

“Where did you find this?” I asked, marvelling at it.

“Andy’s going to be thrilled,” Peggy breathed as she returned, her arms full of bags.

“I found it in a storage cupboard somewhere,” one of the boys said.

“And you’ve just been lugging it around ever since?” Cas asked, sounding incredulous.

“Yeah… I thought Andy might like to have it back,” the other said.

“He’ll be so happy,” I said honestly as I stared down at the panel from Mersa.