The Bolt of Justice sat around the small table. Senn reviewed the reports on his scanner, nodding with satisfaction.

  "Well, gentlemen," he said, "our plan is working quite well. Quite well."

  "It ought to," Rax grumbled. "It's costing enough."

  "Come now, Rax, you're a businessman. You must understand that you have to spend money to make money?"

  "Oh spending money, yes, you're quite good at that. First for the Oryndrax, and now for pirates. I haven't done anything but spend money."

  "Ah, but look at the reports!" crowed Senn, sliding his scanner across the table. "Look at the disruption! People are scared! The Navy is in disarray, playing a galactic game of 4-D whack-a-mole! Faith in the Imperium is faltering!"

  "That's all fine and good if our goal was only to destabilize the Imperium," Rax groused, "but you promised an invasion force. I don't see any invasion force."

  "They're on their way," Senn cooed. "I can assure you, it will be like nothing this galaxy has ever seen." He rubbed his hands together. "I was finally able to make contact."

  "When, Senn? I'm still accountable to the board of directors! I have to explain what we're getting for all this money! You're sitting there all mysterious and smug, and my backside is out, dangling over the fire!"

  "I don't have a specific date, but it will be soon. Please trust me on this. Your participation will be richly rewarded, I assure you." Senn turned to Idrian, changing the subject. "What of the Emperor?"

  Idrian looked distracted, troubled. He'd been a little disconnected of late.

  "He's continuing to degrade," Idrian said finally. "He's started missing some of the Council meetings. When he's there, he looks ill. The entire council is starting to panic. They think the Emperor may be dying, but he refuses to discuss succession, or a backup plan, or anything. He assures everyone that everything's fine, but that's an obvious lie. It feels very familiar," he finished, staring pointedly at Senn.

  "This disruption serves our plans well," Senn said. "The Imperium is crumbling. The Emperor is dying. External threats are on their way." He chortled, oblivious to the concerned frowns of his cohorts.

  "Everything is going perfectly," he said.

  Grimthorn sat in his office, trying to work. His eyes kept sliding off of the numbers that scrolled past his console.

  He rubbed his face and shook his head. He walked over to the counter and fetched a cup of coffee. He sipped at it, even though it merely seemed to be bouncing off of his tiredness.

  His scanner beeped. He picked it up and stared at it dumbly for a moment before answering.

  "Admiral Stonefist here."

  "Encrypted comm for you, Admiral."

  "One moment. Lieutenant Baric, I'll need a few minutes for a private conversation."

  Sol nodded, gathered a few slips and his scanner, and left the office. Grimthorn stared at the two empty desks in his office for moment before turning back to his scanner.

  "Put it through," he said finally.

  "Admiral... Stonefist," said a voice like broken glass.

  Admiral Stonefist frowned. Why were the Cryptographers contacting him now?

  "You... are... distracted," it said.

  "What do you mean? The pirates?"

  "There... is... a... disruption... in... the... Solution."

  "What kind of disruption? What's going on?"

  "A... new... threat."

  "What threat? What about the pirates?"

  "Find... Rax... Daggoth."

  "Who? Who is that? Why?"

  "It... is... time... to... fetch... your... Assistant."

  Grimthorn sat bolt upright.

  "Yes? Has she been cleared?"

  The line went dead. Grimthorn slammed a fist down on his desk in frustration.

  "Blast you all to Geina!" he shouted at the dead scanner. "Give me a straight answer for once!"

  He took a deep breath. He toggled the comm console on his desk.

  "Bridge, turn our detachment to Takkar. We're going back to the Kobold homeworld." He paused for a moment. "And have Infography look up any information they can find on someone named 'Rax Daggoth.'"

  He stood and straightened his uniform. In spite of his powerful annoyance with the Cryptographers, his heart sang.

  He was finally going to get Kinnit back.

  "Rhydak!" Tazrika screeched. She clung to the top of the wall with her legs and reached down, holding her hand open.

  Rhydak bolted for the wall. He leapt and grabbed Tazrika's hand. The weight of him nearly pulled her shoulder out of socket, but with a mighty heave, she yanked him up to her. Rhydak laid like a sack across the top of the wall. Shouting reached her ear.

  "Rhydak! Look out!"

  She looked over just in time to see the Helios Titan's main gun leveling directly at them.

  She leapt to her feet on the top of the narrow wall and lifted the pipe over her head. Outlined by the moonlight, she shrieked her final defiance at the tank, the Imperium, and the entire universe.

  With a burping roar, the tank fired, and all her vision vanished darkness and smoke.

  She landed with a bone-rattling thump. Tangy smoke filled her lungs, her eyes. All she could hear was ringing in her ears.

  As her vision slowly cleared, she tried to take in the situation.

  Rhydak lay on the ground next to her, shaking his head and struggling to get to his feet. His fine suit was tattered, one sleeve ripped away completely. Naval Intelligence officers surrounded them. A net was cast over Tazrika.

  She snarled, thrashing with sudden energy. A NavInt officer tried to hold her down, but got some nasty gouges in his hand for his trouble.

  Hissing and screeching, she tried to break free, but the net tangled her movements, held her down. She snapped and snarled at anybody who got too close.

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  A net was cast over Rhydak as well. He struggled, but he didn't have Tazrika's energy. The NavInt officers began dragging him away.

  "So now you can take me to your torture chambers," he snarled. "Just like you've always wanted. You'll never get anything from me, you hear? Nothing! Tazrika, hold the line!" he yelled. "We'll return! The Electroveil Collective will rise again! The Collective--"

  Then he was dragged out of sight.

  The NavInt officers surrounding Tazrika stood quietly at a respectful distance for a few minutes. The sounds of combat from the other side of the wall died down as the rest of the EVC was rounded up.

  Dass Gunstar strode up, a sassy half-smile on his face.

  "Very good, gentlemen. You can release her."

  "You sure, sir?" one of the young officers asked. "She's pretty, uh, lively."

  "She's with me. It's fine."

  The NavInt officers hesitantly untangled her from the net. As soon as she was free, she stalked over to Dass and slapped him hard. The whipcrack of the strike echoed across the lot.

  "You shot me with a tank!"

  The officers started forward in alarm, but Dass only rubbed his face and chuckled.

  "Hah, uh, yeah. Sorry about that. Don't worry about it, it was just a stun round. Lots of flash and smoke, not much impact."

  "'Not much impact?' You can 'not worry about it' when it's you getting shot! I didn't know you were going to shoot me with a tank!"

  "Ah, but we were able to capture Rhydak! None of the Electroveil Collective will try to break him out of prison if they all think he's dead. They won't be after you, either." His eyes shone. "I watched it on the security monitors. It was dramatic. You were perfect! Screaming defiance into the teeth of a Titan! You should get a medal for that performance!"

  Kinnit ripped off the tattered cloak and threw it violently on the ground.

  "I don't want a medal! I want junk food and a trashy adventure novel!" She stuck a finger in his face. "Next time, you tell me what you're up to before you do it!"

  The rest of the NavInt officers were standing around awkwardly as the argument unfolded. Dass turned to address them.

  "Ah, thank you for your assistance, gentlemen. You can all go... ah, finish things up. My colleague and I are going to go debrief."

  "Debrief? Oh, I've got some things to debrief, and it won't be brief."

  Dass grinned uncomfortably and withdrew with Kinnit.

  The ISS Swordheart lurked in the sky near Takkar. Admiral Stonefist stood in the captain's dais on the bridge, bubbling with worry.

  Kinnit hadn't been in touch in weeks. He'd tried hard to convince himself that the comms array the Imperium had installed over Takkar was flaky, and just couldn't get a reliable signal out.

  Now they were over Kinnit's home planet, where they should be able to communicate directly, and still there was no response to his comms.

  "Scan the surface again, Lieutenant Renning. High detail."

  Lieutenant Renning had already scanned the planet three times, but he nodded and dutifully re-scanned.

  "There's no sign of her shuttle's energy signature, sir."

  Admiral Stonefist stood ramrod-straight, his arm crossed, considering.

  "Okay. Contact docking bay 3, have them prep a shuttle. I'm going downplanet."

  "Sir, the planet..." Lieutenant Renning paused. Admiral Stonefist was famously prickly about being warned about imminent danger. "There's a large storm system moving in over her last known location."

  "Noted. Thank you for the alert, Lieutenant. I'll be cautious."

  "Shall I contact Pilot Dabrini to man the shuttle for you?"

  "I'll pilot it myself."

  A worried frown creased Lieutenant Renning's face.

  "Sir, are you s-- I mean, yes, sir."

  Within 15 minutes, Grimthorn was in pilot's seat of a shuttle, flying toward the planet. As he approached atmosphere, the details of the planet became clear.

  The planet Takkar was emerald-green, with the occasional sparkle of giant lakes peeking through. One third of the planet was in shadow, a clear, curved line separating day from night.

  Grimthorn moment of self-doubt as he flew closer. Ordinarily, most of the Lieutenants overestimated the danger of everything they reported, but in this case, Renning might have been underselling it some.

  The storm system was visible as a single, thick, impenetrable cloud, moving in a slow, heavy rotation that covered nearly half the visible crescent.

  Under other circumstances, he might have reconsidered his course of action, but he had to find out what had happened to Kinnit.

  Besides, her last known location was outside the storm system. Not much outside, but enough.

  He throttled back only slightly before he hit atmosphere with a bone-jarring thump. Flames wreathed the shuttle as friction caused the air he was dropping through to immolate. He was able to see the leading edge of the storm as he descended next to it.

  It was ominous, impenetrable, and dark, nearly twenty kilometers tall. As he descended further, the shuttle rattled as it dropped through rough winds. The surface of the shuttle was hot enough that drops of rain sublimated into steam three feet from surface of the craft.

  Grimthorn clung to the controls, his lips tight. The shuttle shook violently. Winds tore at the vessel. The drop zone calculations on his console widened. He'd aimed his re-entry for the cave where they'd met her family, but the circle of possible landing points expanded to nearly five kilometers.

  The closer he came to the surface, the more violent the winds became, and the worse the visibility became. Grimthorn applied nearly as much thrust pushing against the wind as he did pushing against gravity. The portal was nearly white with fog and rain. He was flying blind. Only his console gave him any indication where he was, and how close he was to the planet's surface.

  The portal cleared, and suddenly Grimthorn could see the tops of trees lashing in the wind.

  Too close.

  With a hiss, he fired the atmospheric thrusters at full power. In spite of the emergency thrust, the shuttle slammed solidly into the ground, whipping Grimthorn back and forth in restraints of the seat.

  Admiral Stonefist took a moment to catch his breath. He checked his console.

  He'd landed nearly 600 meters away from the cave. Looking at the driving rain through the portal, he decided that was further than he wanted to walk.

  After checking the shuttle's diagnostics for damage, he lifted off no more than a few dozen meters off the ground. He wrestled the shuttle through the twisting winds, pushing toward the cave entrance. The shuttle sawed back and forth, fighting toward the destination.

  At last Grimthorn set down within visual range of the cave mouth. He let out a long breath of relief. He shut the shuttle down and opened the hatch.

  The winds had seemed violent during the flight, but that was nothing compared to walking through them. Grimthorn was glad he'd made the effort to land closer to the cave. The wind bellowed and howled, constantly shifting in every direction. Trees shook and bent under the relentless battering force.

  Grimthorn held one hand up in front of his face and pushed himself toward the cave.

  At last he arrived. The long, low entrance shielded the interior from the violent winds.

  He walked in and stood tall, his dark form limned by the fitful storm light outside.

  "Where is Kinnit Longlegs?" he shouted.

  Bundles of Kobolds lay scattered around the floor of the dim cave. The looked up as he came in, their eyes wide with awe. Mutters and whispers circled the cave.

  "It is the Grimthornstonefist!"

  "He is come from the Great Storm!"

  "He seeks Kinnit Longlegs."

  "He has fought the Great Storm!"

  "He is angry."

  "Where is she?" Grimthorn yelled.

  There was a disruption in the nearest pile of Kobolds. One unlucky Kobold was volunteered and forced out of the bundle. He tumbled across the floor toward Grimthorn. He slowly stood.

  "Greetings, mighty Grimthornstonefist," the Kobold began, after looking around for anyone else to take this role. "Our home is honored beyond measure by your presence."

  "Where is Kinnit?"

  "She has left, mighty Grimthornstonefist. She departed the day after you did."

  Grimthorn barked with frustration and slammed the meaty part of his fist against the cave wall. He winced. The cave wall was not as forgiving as the steel walls of the Swordheart.

  "Where did she go?"

  "She only said she was going to help you, mighty Grimthornstonefist. Did she not find you?"

  Grimthorn's brow drew down in a fury. She'd run off to get herself into some kind of trouble. All the time, all the messages she'd been sending him, and she'd been jetting across the galaxy somewhere, no doubt to put herself in mortal danger.

  He had to find her, and she had to be okay.

  He spun on his heel and headed back outside.

  Though he'd only been in the cave for a few minutes, the storm had noticeably worsened. Trees were lying nearly flat in the wind, and droplets of rain drove into the skin hard enough to leave a rash.

  Even in his fury, he knew he couldn't take off in this.

  He marched back into the cave, soaked and seething.

  "Fine!" he barked. "I'll take off later. How long do these storms usually last?"

  The unlucky volunteer looked back at his peers, but no one rushed to his aid.

  "It is the Great Storm, mighty Grimthornstonefist. It comes every year."

  "How long!"

  "The Great Storm lasts a half-moon. We stay in the cave and eat our saved foods and sing and tell st--"

  "Two weeks?" Grimthorn wailed, unbelieving. "I can't be here for two weeks!" He stalked back and forth. "I have to find Kinnit! Where has she been all this time? I have to fight pirates! I have to stop Ordren! I can't be trapped in a cave!"

  The Kobolds watched him with wide, silent eyes as he paced and ranted.

  Finally he stormed back outside and began screaming oaths and imprecations into the driving wind.

  The cave was silent for several minutes.

  "He calls for battle with the Great Storm," someone said finally.

  More silence.

  "Does he protect Kinnit Longlegs from the galaxy, or does she protect the galaxy from him?"