POV: Draco
He was born to rule. He chooses to protect.
The order was to hold the line.
I held it for longer than the order required, which is the accurate statement of what happened — I held it until the specific moment where holding it and watching the settlement burn were the same choice and they stopped being the same choice the moment the Moon-loyal pack's trajectory became clear and I understood that the line I was holding was not protecting the thing the line was supposed to protect.
I break formation.
The decision happens faster than the thinking about it, which has been the way the good decisions on this journey have happened — the thinking running in the background and the decision landing before the thinking has finished articulating why. The settlement is north. The civilians who allied with our position are in it. The Moon-loyal pack is moving toward it at compelled speed.
I move.
