I draw closer, intending to listen in on the conversation, but the wind whistling in my ears makes it impossible to hear a word of it. Whatever the exchange entails, it ends with Momma waving us down the ramp. She hits the button to shut the ship’s entrance, and the three soldiers escort us out of the cave, past a handful of delivery drones, and toward the city.

The weather is even worse without the cave’s shelter breaking the wind, a howling storm that tugs at my protective gear like an angry beast. On another job, I might’ve made some excuse about staying back to watch the ship. But this isn’t just any job, so I grit my teeth and follow. Lyre is close on my heels, her small shoulders braced against the wind. I have to stop twice along the way to help her after she slips on ice. By the end she’s clinging to my arm, despite my attempts to shake her off. Up ahead, I see Momma doing the same to Pol, leaning into his bulk when the gusts buffet us. Drom is limping, her leg clearly still bothering her.

Drev Dravaask is flat on the surface but for a few ice-covered bumps and ridges that are barely discernible from the rocky tundra all around. When we draw closer, though, a group of soldiers emerges from out of nooks and behind rocks, converging on us from all sides and joining the three already escorting us. There are at least a dozen of them, hard-eyed and armed. I draw closer to Momma and the twins, and Lyre presses herself against me.

Even knowing these soldiers are from the Interplanetist side we’re working with, it’s hard not to be intimidated by the group of them. Titans have a hollow look in their eyes that I rarely see anywhere else in the system. Drev Dravaask is one of the better spots to be posted—a big city, well fortified, far from the thick of the fighting—but these soldiers still bear the marks of war. I spot gaunt cheeks and frostbitten fingers, puckered scars and red-stained gauze wrappings. One of the women near me is sucking on a blood-boiler pod like her life depends on it; her left boot has a hole in it, and the naked toe visible through it releases puffs of steam.