They wouldn’t be able to resist much longer. Everything hinged on those towers. Without them, she was marching her entire fleet into a massacre, and if the infiltration team had been discovered, then that was exactly what she was doing. But backing down too soon would be just as bad as staying too long. For a brief second, fear gripped Caledonia’s lungs and squeezed. She heard the screams of her people, tasted the hint of copper on the air, and felt the flush of explosive heat rising around her.

The wrong decision now would be catastrophic.

As the gun towers fired again, striking a ship on their starboard side, Caledonia steeled herself. Time. She needed to give the infiltration team just a little more time.

But as an arm of Lir’s fleet split west, aiming for her flank in an effort to surround her entire fleet, she knew time was the one thing she no longer had.

“Hold this course, Nettle.” Caledonia left the bridge at a jog, then slid down the companionway ladder to the main deck.

She spotted Oran, hunched beneath a rail, reloading weapons he could not fire with his fingers still wrapped in braces, but one look from her and he was on his feet. Without a word, they hurried belowdecks, racing to the weapons locker on level two.

“You’re sure?” he asked as they reached their destination.

“I’m sure. We don’t have any other options, and we are so close, Oran.” She hesitated, feeling the full weight of what they were about to do land on her shoulders. “We can end this here. Now. We just have to hold on.”

There were no more questions. Oran unlocked the storage container, revealing a wall of star blossom bombs. Four black orbs rested in stabilizing racks, but at the pull of a lever, their restraints came loose. Oran pulled a cloth hammock from the floor of the locker, stretching it between them so they could carry all four bombs.

The ship lurched to port, nearly knocking them off their feet as they raced topside once more. The sky was clouded with smoke and streams of fire. Round after round fired from the gun towers, exploding against Caledonia’s fleet. Smoke clouded her vision, stinging her eyes and making them water as screams threaded the air. It was all they could do to face off with the ships between them and the breakers, while still others were close to flanking them. Caledonia could see Lir’s fist quickly closing around them, getting ready to squeeze the life from her entire fleet, and her stomach twisted painfully.

“Hurry!” she shouted, beginning to climb to the forward deck.

They rushed to four of the catapults bolted against the nose and as quickly as they could loaded a star blossom bomb into each.

“Captain!” The call came from the lookout atop the bridge, where one of Amina’s Knots pointed toward the city.