Lucas Grey leaned against a battered tree, his chest rising and falling in shallow breaths. The battlefield had finally gone silent, save for the occasional crackle of dying embers. The once-vibrant island on planet Cannadah was a graveyard now—proof of the sheer chaos of the day.
They did it. Somehow, against all odds, this small school expedition group from Earth had survived. Barely. The year-one soldiers, green and untested, paired with their seasoned year-three chaperones—the academy's top 25—had walked into what was supposed to be a routine expedition.
But it wasn't.
Some died. Lucas didn't know how many yet. He imagined there were survivors, perhaps hiding in fear among the dense forests and jagged cliffs of the island, too shaken to emerge.
But one name stood out among them.
Not his.
No, the name on everyone's lips tonight would be Noah Eclipse.