The rig swerved so hard Liara slammed against the door, her shoulder flaring in pain.

Outside, bullets tore through the dust and smoke. Red tracers lit up the sky like dying stars.

Garret grunted, gripping the wheel like he was trying to strangle it.

Garret: "They're gaining. Shit, they're gaining!"

Liara cursed under her breath and yanked the harness tighter around her chest. The dash lit up with alerts. Hull integrity dropping. Rear shields cooked. Smoke was pouring in from somewhere behind them.

Liara: "They're hitting the fuel lines! One good shot and we're fried!"

She leaned toward the back window.

A matte-black Dominion interceptor roared behind them, sleek, armored, fast. Its front gun glowed hot, ready to fire again.

Liara: "They're not backing off. They want the fragments."

Garret: "Yeah, no shit!"

Another round smashed into the right panel. The rig screamed, metal screeching as a side panel peeled back.

Liara: "WE'RE LOSING COVER!"

Garret: "I see it!"

He cut hard to the left. The rig veered off the road, tires skidding across cracked earth and old metal debris. The back wheels lifted, slammed back down.

Liara: "We need to drop them. NOW!"

Garret: "I'm working on it!"

He twisted the rig around a collapsed overpass. The Dominion vehicle followed like a ghost.

Liara: "I got an idea, take the next ramp and hold steady!"

Garret: "You better be right—!"

They hit the rise. The rig bounced hard, almost lost traction.

Liara crawled toward the back, every step stabbing pain through her ribs. She ripped open a storage crate, grabbed the shock-charge launcher—an experimental cannon with two uses: overheat or obliterate.

She flipped the safety.

Liara: "Keep 'em lined up!"

Garret: "DO IT!"

She braced against the frame, aimed back, heart pounding in her ears.

The enemy vehicle surged up behind them, close now. Too close.

Liara: "Smile, assholes."

THWUMP!

The launcher kicked like a bull. The charge hit dead-on.

For a second, nothing.

Then—BOOM!

The entire front of the vehicle burst into fire. It swerved violently, skidded, hit a concrete pylon, and flipped.

Liara collapsed back inside, chest heaving, arms shaking.

Garret: "Did we get 'em?"

Liara: "Yeah..."

The rig slowed. Smoke filled the cabin. The alarms kept screaming. Everything felt wrong.

Garret pulled them into the shadow of a ruined structure, killed the engine, and slumped forward.

Liara sat on the floor, clutching her ribs. Her hand came away bloody.

Garret: "You okay?"

Liara didn't answer.

Then—

Liara: "You left him..."

Garret looked up.

Liara: "YOU LEFT HIM TO DIE!"

Garret: "Liara—"

Liara: "DON'T. Don't you DARE try to explain it. You turned and ran. You ran! And now he's GONE!"

Garret stood slowly, wincing, blood soaking through his side.

Garret: "I saved your life."

Liara: "I DIDN'T ASK YOU TO!"

She shoved him hard. He didn't fight back.

Liara: "We go back. We find him. Now."

Garret: "No. It's suicide. They've got him, Liara. He's captured. You know what that means."

Liara: "I DON'T CARE!"

Garret: "I won't lose you too!"

Silence. Harsh and final.

Liara stared at him, shaking with rage.

Liara: "You think I give a shit about safety?! You didn't even TRY—"

Garret: "He told me to protect you. So I did."

Liara stared at him, eyes wild.

Garret: "And if I had to choose again, I'd do the same. Because if we both died there, no one would be left to bring him back."

Liara: "If you won't go back, I will. Alone. I don't care."

Garret: "Liara..."

Liara: "NO! Shut up! Just shut up and LISTEN!"

She staggered toward him, every step like thunder in the ruined rig.

Liara: "I will not follow you anymore... I don't want your protection. I don't want your logic, your experience or your cowardly fucking wisdom!"

Garret clenched his jaw. Didn't answer.

Liara: "I'm not getting on another fucking ride unless it's headed one way — to him."

Garret: "You're not going anywhere..."

Liara: "Don't you dare tell me what to do!"

Garret just stared at her.

Liara: "What you did back there, what you chose,  was fear."

Garret: "It was survival."

Liara: "AND WHAT'S THE POINT OF SURVIVAL IF WE LET THE BEST OF US DIE?!"

She drew the sidearm from her belt and held it low, not at him—just present. Just real.

Garret flinched, eyes narrowing.

Garret: "What are you doing."

Liara: "Maybe for you this is just another mess. Someone dies, you run, and call it logic. But not for me. I can't leave him. I won't. Without him, there's nothing. No future. No point. Just... nothing."

Her voice isn't shaking, it's burning.

Every word hits him like a blow to the gut.

He's never seen her like this. Not broken, on fire.

Liara: "So this is it. One last shot to do the wrong thing for the right reason.

A long silence.

Liara: "Come with me... Or turn your back and lose everything."

Garret looked away. Looked back. His mouth opened, but no sound came.

Liara: "Help me fix this... and maybe I won't hold what you just did against you. Maybe..."

That landed. Like a knife to the chest.

Garret turned his face, just slightly, eyes flicking away like he'd been struck. And maybe he had.

He stood. Slowly. Bones grinding. Wounded, weary, older than ever.

And he nodded. Once. A bitter, broken gesture.

Garret: "You sound just like him, you know that?"

Liara didn't blink.

Garret sighed. Sat back in the pilot seat. Hands on controls. Fingers trembling.

Garret: "Fucking psychos... Both of you."

Liara climbed in beside him, silent now, trembling all over.

He started the engine. Lights flickered to life, weak and flickering—like ghosts refusing to die.

Garret: "Where did we lose them?"

Liara: "East ridge. Past the broken spires."

Garret nodded.

No more words.

The desert opened before them.

Liara slammed open the tech bay, blood still crusted on her knuckles. She threw herself into the drone chair, fingers dancing across the cracked interface.

Liara: "Come on... come on, wake up..."

Two HUDs flickered alive.

[VOLTURE DRONES - ONLINE]

[HACKER DRONES - OFFLINE]

[TITAN DRONES - OFFLINE]

Liara: "I guess... that's all we've got."

She launched them into the air, screens lighting up with heatmaps and target tracking.

The sky opened.

And there, moving across the basin,

the Dominion convoy.

Liara: "I've got them. They're moving north-east. Five klicks. No aerials."

Garret didn't reply. He just turned the wheel, hard, cutting across the dunes like a charging beast.

The rig jolted, climbed a ridge, dropped like a hammer.

Liara turned to him, breath caught.

Liara: "What are you doing?"

Garret's face was grim. Focused.

The soldier was gone.

Only the man remained.

Garret: "You wanted to save him, right?"

Beat.

Garret: "This is the only plan I've got."

He slammed his foot down.

The rig howled, closing in, two hundred meters. One-fifty. One hundred.

Liara braced.

Fifty.

Thirty.

Ten.

BOOM!!!

The rig smashed into the side of the Dominion APC like a battering ram forged from rage and desperation.

Metal shrieked. Armor cracked. The convoy's lead vehicle shuddered—

—and flipped.

Wheels spinning in the air. Fire licking across the underside.

Soldiers thrown. Shouts over radios.

Liara's drones captured it all.

Chaos, shock, panic.