I heard a hiss come from Fornax as the fighters on the screen froze.

“Fuck,” Gem breathed quietly, staring at the wall of Guardians blocking the corridor we had once been kept in.

Their huge interlocking shields blocked the majority of the corridor but the reinforced bioplastic at the top showed the sheer number of Guardians lining the corridor.

“Throw grenades out,” Aquila said, her voice hushed.

Two of the fighters began fumbling with their belts, pulling out multiple grenades whilst the third fighter appeared frozen in shock.

“Hala,” one of the fighters hissed at her before reaching out and roughly shaking her elbow.

“Are the doors reinforced?” Cas asked loudly.

I blinked and looked at him.

His eyes were fixed on the screen but worry was carved into his face.

“They should be… right?” Gem asked, glancing at the screen as if she were trying to work it out.

“I don’t know,” he muttered.

“Peggy wouldn’t be standing near the door though, would she?”

I chewed my lip, trying to catch a glimpse through the small windows on the doors lining the corridor but they were all covered.

“I don’t know,” I said.

She would want to know what was going on but with all the Guardians there I know she’d be scared. Which would be stronger? Her curiosity or her fear?

“Andy, are the doors blast-proof?” I called.

On the scene, he froze.

“Hold!” he shouted, turning to someone else in the command centre and talking quickly. “Dial back the damage radius. Peggy is believed to be in one of those rooms and we don’t know how reinforced they are.”

I breathed out a sigh of relief, knowing that they’d follow Andy’s orders and watched as the fighters fiddled with their grenades for a moment before throwing them towards the Guardians.

The Guardians scattered, breaking position and whirling their shields around to block the blast from the grenades.

“Go!” Aquila urged.

Our fighters took advantage of the Guardians distraction, leaning around the edges of the elevator and firing in short burst, downing several. One Guardian stumbled forwards, their shield falling to one side and their body falling over one of the grenades that were flashing dimly in the bright white corridor.

“Look away,” Fornax warned me under her breath.

But I couldn’t. I wanted to close my eyes or focus on something else but I couldn’t tear my gaze away from the body slumped over the grenade. I was transfixed.

Are they dead? I wondered to myself, Why aren’t the others moving them?

The low beeping could barely be heard under the clatter of gunshots still raining down from our fighters.

“Aries,” Fornax whispered, her voice slightly sharper now.

The grenade stopped beeping and I felt the room hold their breath as the Guardian exploded, chunks of red and black armour exploded outwards. The walls were painted in a fine mist of blood whilst thicker pieces of the Guardian, with armour still clinging to it, slowly slid to the floor.

More flashes went off, lighting the room for just an instant and blinding me as I searched for signs of damage to the doors. I needed to know if Peggy was okay but I couldn’t see anything.

The Guardians snapped back into position, returning deafening fire at our fighters. I glanced at the other screen, fear rising in me as I realised I hadn’t checked on the other teams for a while.

The fight had continued. Even more Guardians had been downed but so had some of our fighters. Two were propped up against the walls as one of the other fighters tried to give them first aid, one more body was lying motionless on the floor. Their helmet had been opened to try and give them some more air but their face was blank. Expressionless.

They were dead.

“You okay?” Fornax asked as I stared at the dead young woman.

She looked young. Barely older than twenty but the flashing light from the alarm showed hints of lines on her forehead and in between her eyebrows. The look on her face was strangely comforting to me. She didn’t look in pain or scared. She looked at peace.

I almost longed for that.

The person in the helmet couldn’t seem to look away and I realised with a jolt that the muffled sound coming over the speakers was them crying.

I swallowed before I answered.

“Yeah.”

“Is this the first time you’ve seen someone fall in a fight?”

I nodded, not wanting to speak.

I’d been in fights before, of course I had, but it had always been minor ones whilst on missions. We’d always been able to subdue everyone and escape quickly, without casualties. Hells, we’d never even killed. Andy always made us use non-lethal weapons.

Fornax stood, moving over to the seat next to me and sitting down again. Her arm rested against mine, silently giving me strength.

“It’ll be okay. It’s always tough when someone dies but the mission will still be a success. We’ve been planning this for so long. Our fighters are better trained than the Guardians and they have better weapons. We’ve taken over the Information Centre so they shouldn’t be able to send any more.”

I should have known then that the Council would have never let us win. I should have known that this was all just a trick to lure our hidden Guardians into the open and eliminate our fighters from Nova.

I was stupid. As much as I tried not to, I still hoped that we’d win. Hope is dumb. Naive. It just leads to disappointment.

“I’ve been working with the fighters for a long time. I’ve seen countless battles and I trust that this will be okay.”

I took a deep breath, staring at the screen again. The person was still crying, alternating between looking at the woman and firing at the Guardians but their shots went wide. Their vision was clearly obscured by tears.

“I know this is tough. You shouldn’t have to see it. Do you want to look away? I can let you know what’s happening,” Fornax offered, her eyes flicking to the other members of the crew who weren’t paying any attention.

“I have to watch. We started this, I owe them this much,” I said almost silently, aware that most of the crew had mods and could definitely hear what I was saying.

“You didn’t start this, Aries. You may have helped kick it up a notch but you didn’t start it. The Council did years ago, long before you were even born. This mission isn’t just about Peggy, it was about gathering information too. Information we now have thanks to Team One.” She gestured at the screen where Team One were victoriously running through the corridors having finished in the Information Centre.

I nodded, feeling slightly better.

“Shit,” someone cursed loudly in the Command Centre.

“What is it?” Fornax asked immediately, her head snapping back up to the holos.

“Guardians pulling up. Lots of them.”

Fornax typed hastily before swiping up. An additional screen appeared on the holos below the fights showing the garage and the outside of the building. Dozens of vans were pulling up. Guardians in visibly thicker and more reinforced suits spilt from them, marching towards the building.

“Get out! Retreat now,” Aquila commanded, a look of horror on her face.