The weak sunlight of Ounoth-10 glinted off the road. Like everything else at this frozen outpost, it was coated in a rime of azure ice that glowed even in this filtered light. By midday it would be blinding, but by then Agnieska Liss would be gone, mission accomplished.

She squinted into the dim blue, straining to make out the bulk of the equipment depot, which her Amaroq’s sensors told her should be within visual range. There! It squatted in the distance, a dark shadow against the horizon. At this early hour, the building remained unoccupied, its windows unlit. It would be a simple matter to gain entry and deliver the package. She’d been instructed to hide it inside the crates at the northwestern corner of the cargo bay. After that it was no longer her problem. Perhaps it would be discovered by some eager clerk double-checking the manifest? Maybe it would go on undetected to its final unknown destination? She didn’t waste time wondering about that, just like she never bothered peeking inside the parcels she was hired to deliver. From an early age, she’d learned that ignorance was usually a gift.

The approach went without a hitch. As she drew closer, her scanners confirmed no signs of life within the building. The security codes provided by her employer got her onto the grounds without triggering any alarms. Even if the worst happened and she was discovered, a review of the security footage would provide no identifying details. Only a nondescript zeoform. She’d scrubbed all insignia from the exterior. There must be dozens of Amaroq Master-Rigs scattered throughout the Ounothian heliosphere, thousands across the whole of the One Hundred Suns. All but impossible to identify this particular one.

Still, she wouldn’t breathe easy until she finished the drop, and not just because of the bitter cold. She couldn’t imagine trying to eke out a life on this icebox. Luckily, she didn’t have to. As soon as she got back to her ship, they were leaving. If fortune smiled upon her, they’d be out of orbit before her hands thawed.

“Terrier to Shepherd. You still awake and kicking, Shepherd?” she said into her commlink.

The coded speech probably wasn’t necessary since they transmitted on scrambled comms, but it didn’t hurt to exercise caution. The gravelly voice of Tajo, her second-in-command, filled her ears.

“Now, what kind of question is that? You got a problem with my age and experience?” he barked.

“No, sir. But if you wanted to catch a nap while I earn us a living, I promise not to complain. I hear stamina is the first thing to go,” she teased.

“Listen here, girl. I will turn that zeoform sideways and shove it up your—”

He broke off mid-sentence, leaving nothing but crackling static on the comm for a few seconds. She chuckled.

“Pretty sure I know all the bad words by now, plus a few you might not have heard of,” she said. “Please don’t censor yourself on my account.”

But when he responded, his voice was all business.

“I say, Terrier, did you bury that bone already, or you still got it with you?”

“I’ll do it in a second. Don’t get your skirts in a twist.”

She couldn’t help but grin as she picked her way across the grounds to the equipment depot. Despite their constant bickering, Tajo cared. She still wasn’t used to it. Sometimes, she wondered if he was so prickly because he realized kindness set her on edge. They spent most of their time giving each other crap, and she loved every minute of it.

“I ask because I’m seeing a little too much fauna out in the flora,” he said. “One of those zed-beasts, I think.”

A “zed-beast” meant another zeoform tromping around this desolate iceball in the middle of the night. That did not bode well; maybe she’d triggered some kind of alert. A quick glance at her radar showed nothing, but the Hound had better range than her suit, and she had no reason to doubt Tajo. He was the closest thing to a friend that she’d ever had. He’d pulled her out of the fire too many times to turn on her now.

“Which way are they headed?” she asked. “I might like to pet the cute little beastie.”

“You’re in luck, then. They’re coming in hot. Straight to you.”

“Goodie,” said Agnieska, frowning. She quickly evaluated her options. It would take a few minutes to input the rest of the security codes and make it through all of the doors; rushing would only increase the possibility that she’d muck it up and trigger the whole place into lockdown. Then she’d have to shoot her way out, and that was the last thing she needed. “You know, Shepherd, I think I’ll come home after all. I’ve just remembered that animals make me itch.”

Silence on the line.

“I think that’s wise,” said Tajo. “We can bury the bone later. Hightail it back, Terrier. I’ll be waiting.” He paused, the encoded doublespeak designed to fool any lucky listeners trickling from his voice. “You be careful on that ice. Don’t make me come get you, young lady.”

“Don’t break a hip, old man,” she shot back.

As she broke off comms and turned her full attention to the display, her system finally picked up the zeoform. Her suit automatically ran through a series of calculations, throwing up mass and speed estimates to the right-hand side of her vision. Probably a GuardCorps Stormer, but without visual confirmation, she couldn’t rule out larger models. It could be a Macer or even a Ravelin, although if that was the case, she’d eat her shoes. No reason for another Pact pilot to be sprinting around this frozen blue dump. It didn’t really matter, though. At this speed, that pilot would burn out their reactor in a matter of minutes. This was no routine patrol. Either she was very unlucky or very caught. The package still sat in her exterior carriage compartment, a silent unknown. For the first time, she wondered what it might contain, and what sort of trouble she’d gotten into as a result.

Fear welled up inside her, stirring up her pulse, but after the upbringing she’d had, a sense of imminent danger felt like a return to her natural state. This was what she’d quite literally been bred for. She made a series of quick calculations in her head, bringing to bear years of study and training. A mental command brought up the topographical map of the area. She’d studied it for hours, but it didn’t hurt to double-check. The other zeoform had probably picked her up on radar already, but if it stuck to the road like she expected, she could remain out of sight until the last dash toward the Hound of Fortune. Then Tajo and the Hound could back her up.

Her zeoform lurched, servos whirring, as it crested another ridge and plunged into the trees. The shift in momentum threw her against her pilot’s restraints, making her momentarily aware of her body before sinking back into the connection with her suit. She could feel its minute adjustments as she shifted course based on the movements of the other zeoform. It was tracking her outright now, moving to intercept before she reached the safety of her ship.

The Hound was just over that ridge. She had no visual contact yet, but she could see the hump of rock that shielded it from view. Safety was only a short distance away, and her heat levels hovered right near the redline. Time to push it.

She sprinted across the plain. Her pursuer burst out of the trees not too far behind, but the bitter cold distorted its energy signature, confounding her zeo’s sensors. Scarlet alerts blinked in the corners of her vision field as her suit warned her about the presence of active weaponry behind her. Beyond the rocks, a bright white light pierced the blue glow of Ounoth-10 as the Hound of Fortune deployed its defenses. 

The nanodrone hiveswarm hummed as it sped overhead toward the other zeoform, which zagged sharply to the north in an attempt to avoid being engulfed. Agnieska’s suit screamed a weapons lock warning. She dodged sharply to the left, hoping to avoid a direct hit without losing too much speed.

The battlesuit’s foot slipped on the ice. Metal groaned as if in pain and Agnieska’s vision went fuzzy as her brain tried to make sense of the input from the damaged suit. The average zeoform had stride-limiters and auto-stabilizers to keep it from toppling over, but the slip had pushed it dangerously out of balance, straining its joints to the limit. Every readout she could see was redlined. If the suit fell, she would die. 

Agnieska Liss had not survived a brutal childhood and almost a year’s worth of high-risk jobs to die out here in the ice and cold. She had been bred to be the ultimate pilot; she’d trained in zeoforms since she could barely walk. She had customized this suit from the ground up. It was made for moments like this, when the training failed and her life was on the line.

The enormous armored suit went down with one hand on the ice as it slid, the blast of a Tenshi lance cutting a fiery line through the air a hair's breadth away. The Amaroq continued to slide toward the drop where the Hound of Fortune awaited, the ship’s lights blazing in defiance of security protocols, engines already rumbling.

She might just pull this off.

The zeo overbalanced despite her best efforts. Machine and pilot tumbled, metal screeching. She went over the lip, dropping off the edge toward the slip runner below. Sky and earth tumbled end over end, merging into a blue, featureless glow. She fired her thrusters as she dropped, hitting the ground next to the ship with a crunch that set off even more warnings even as she continued up to her feet. It took all of her considerable skill to remain upright despite the not-insignificant damage to the suit. Staggering aboard, she hammered against the side of the Hound’s open hatch.

“Go, go, go!” she screamed, but Tajo knew what he was about and the ramp was already closing behind her.

The comm crackled back and she braced herself for another lecture from Tajo. But the voice that her suit transmitted was low, sly, and female.

“Nice piloting, Mouse,” she said. “But you’ve got something that belongs to me, and I want it back.”

She would have sworn if she’d been able to breathe. Her lungs refused to inflate. The ship banked and shuddered as it sliced through the gathering storm clouds. By the time Agnieska sucked in air to reply, the connection was dead.