The Live Soldier Trilogy Box Set

by Liam Clay

  And Delez is heading straight for it. When they’re close, the damaged spitfire launches a rocket at the structure. The blast knocks a hole through the Aviary's reinforced glass shell. The plane drops into a dive, and flies right through the hole.

  “Null or not, that was fucking awesome.” Calendo says.

  “I'm following them in!” Tikal shouts back.

  “Right behind you.”

  We home in on the Aviary. Its interior is a biosphere unto itself: a place of overgrown gardens, lilypad ponds and savage birds. Shion must have let the place run wild after he assumed power. The stars have come out, and they illuminate the scene with a phantom brilliance. The Aviary fills my vision now. Then we're hurtling through the hole in the glass. Our right wing chops a palm tree in half, and we splash down into a marshy estuary. Green mud clings to the plane’s belly, slowing our progress until we come to a shuddering halt.

  Delez's spitfire rests not ten meters from ours. But of him and Peace, I see no sign. Twisting in my seat, I look for Calendo and Francis. They are barreling toward the hole at full speed. Then a blue beam flashes out from the Dragon. The strike obliterates Calendo's left wing, and her plane crashes straight into the Aviary's glass shell. Flames burst from its tail, and the aircraft plummets straight downward, landing in a bed of yellow daffodils.

  CHAPTER 31

  My carapace won't open. So I punch through it with my prosthetic, and climb up out of the hole. Tikal is right behind me. Both of us are dazed from our hard landing, but that is of no concern. Calendo's plane is partially engulfed in flames, and could explode at any moment. We jump down into the marsh and wade toward it.

  As we approach, the spitfire's front carapace slides back. Calendo throws an arm over the side and tumbles out of the plane, landing hard amidst yellow flowers. Tikal rushes to help her, while I continue on. Fire licks at the rear carapace, blackening its surface. I can't see Francis at all. Through roaring heat and towering flames, I push on to help my friend. The plane's remaining wing is scalding to the touch. Ignoring the pain, I climb onto its camouflaged surface. My composite fingers find purchase under the carapace, and I heave upward. The burnt shell is torn away. Then I look into the gunner’s berth.

  Francis is slumped inside. The left side of his face is one huge bruise, the eye swollen shut. But that is only a small fraction of the horror. A meter-long glass shard is lodged in the cockpit's footwell. It has severed my friend's right leg at the knee - and through its bloodstained surface, I can see the lower half. But even that is not all. The shard's jagged tip has punctured his left thigh, high up near the groin. And it must have hit his femoral artery, because the wound is pumping blood at a terrifying pace.

  Flames forgotten, I stare down on the devastation that is Francis. What have we done to you? My easygoing friend, always with a kind word or a joke, trying to please everyone because you love them all. You were never meant to be here, fighting these futile battles in a dying world. You were meant for a kinder time, when our planet was still whole and good. But you are not whole. You are like me now, only worse. If I move you, it will mean the end. Then you stir. Turning your face toward me, you say:

  “Get me out.”

  “But the glass... you'll die.”

  “I don’t care.”

  Forcing down my fear, I reach into the cockpit and break the shard. Then I remove the splinter from his thigh. When I lift him out of the plane, he feels light as air. But my foot slips, and we fall onto the wing together. Where it touches the metal, my flesh sizzles. Before I can react, Francis heaves us both over the side and into the daffodils. We roll down a gentle slope, coming to rest in a vale of long grass well away from the blaze.

  I'm lying on my back. Francis rests beside me in the same position. The stars are bright overhead, and so close I could almost touch them. But there is a curiosity in the sky as well. With a detached form of wonder, I study the anomaly. It is a nimbus of yellow light, occupying a small patch of the night sky. And it seems as though the stars around it are being drawn inward. Beside me, Francis speaks.

  “Do you see it, Anex? I didn't know it would be beautiful.”

  His voice is whisper-quiet, but lucid and free of pain.

  “Francis. Are you...”

  “Please tell Peace I'm sorry. She's family. I should have believed her.”

  “I'll get the med kit from our spitfire. Maybe we can -”

  “No! Don't leave me. Or I won't be here when you get back.”

  “But you're hurt really bad.”

  “Fatally. But it doesn't matter anymore. Look at it, Anex. The black hole, come to swallow us all.”

  Together, we gaze upon humanity's doom. Overwhelmed by the magnitude of events, my mind goes still and quiet.

  “Anex?” He says sometime later.

  “Yes Francis?”

  “If you survive today, can you find my brother for me?”

  “Of course. What do you want me to tell him?”

  “Nothing. Just be there for him while he grieves. It's what I would have needed, if he was the one to go.”

  Those are his last words. Tikal finds us there a few minutes later. She sinks down into the grass beside us, too crushed to speak. Calendo waits at a distance. In another world far away, the Dragon continues to pummel the city with laserfire. Making sure the job is done before the Architect turns her attention to the Hive.

  “Have you seen it?” I ask at last.

  “Seen what?”

  I point to the stars. Tikal looks up, and flinches.

  “So it's true then. This whole time, we've been on the wrong side of this war. It would have been better for the world if we'd died months ago.”

  Lying there beside Francis's body, it's hard to think of anything but pain and darkness. But giving up won't bring him or Lucy back. Nor will it honor their memories.

  “You're right.” I say. “I still think the Architect should have trusted us with the truth from the start. But if someone had to pick a hero out of all this madness, it would be her. This isn't over yet, though. The Null are using blunt force to steal the tools to get off this planet. But what happens when they meet their match? Kalana has had months to fortify the Hive. And if the Architect can't secure the Mindrack, then that interstellar ship we built her will be useless. Humanity will die right here, without ever seeing what else the universe has to offer.”

  “So what are you proposing we do?”

  “We need to find a way to message Kalana, and tell her to hand over the Mindrack.”

  “And you think she'll believe us?”

  “Yesterday, I would have said no. But with that thing up there, hanging in the sky for everyone to see? Maybe.”

  My girlfriend puts her head in her hands. “Why is there always more work to do? Ever since we started trying to be good people, our lives have been one impossible task after another. But... I guess there’s no one else to do it. As usual.”

  “Excuse me!” Calendo breaks in. “What the hell are you two talking about?”

  Awkwardness sets in as I realize that we've forgotten to tell the mercenary about what’s coming.

  “Do you see that yellow aura in the sky?” Tikal says tiredly. “Well that's an artificial black hole, on its way to eat the earth. In a few weeks, life as we know it will cease to exist. Our only chance of survival is to help the Null complete the spaceship they've been trying to build all this time.”

  “Well fuck me with a rusty screwdriver.” Calendo whistles. “But if that’s true, then what are we waiting for? Let's get out there and help those emotionless creeps!”

  “I'm sorry to keep playing the downer,” Tikal says, “but how are we supposed to do that? I trashed my spitfire on the landing, and yours is toast too.”

  “What about Peace's plane? Maybe it's still flyable.”

  “I suppose we could take a look.”

  Paying our last respects to Francis, we walk over to the third spitfire. It is empty, as we’d assumed it would be. And broken b
eyond repair. The tail has snapped off, and gas is seeping from a rupture low down on the fuselage.

  But our inspection is not entirely in vain. Two pairs of footprints lead away from the aircraft: one large, one small. We follow them through the tangled gardens. An overgrown path brings us to a white square set into the ground. We step onto it. The hair on my arms stands up, and the square sinks down into a featureless white box. This is the void cube we passed through on our way to confront Porter and his cabal of studio executives.

  “What am I looking at?” Calendo asks as the roof appears as if by magic.

  “It's a teleportation device.” I tell her. Tikal moves to a wall-mounted control panel. She activates the cube, and the lights go out. They flicker back on a moment later - but now we're in a black box instead of the white one. A door slides open, revealing a richly appointed hallway.

  The last time we passed this way, I had just left Sophie behind to go after Korezon. I wonder what my daughter is doing now. How much she's grown. And whether she hates me. I can make all the excuses I want - like that it was only supposed to last a few weeks, or that I was trying to make her proud of me - but the bottom line is that I abandoned her to take this mission. A weaker child would have given up on me long ago, too hurt to keep setting herself up for disappointment.

  But maybe I can still make some form of amends. If we help the Null complete their spacecraft, Sophie might be able to escape the planet - in digitized form, at least. Being shot into space is not a future any parent would want for their child. But it is better than no future at all.

  We traverse the opulent hallways until we find an elevator. There is no way to know if Peace and Delez passed this way. But following them is no longer our goal. Their job is to deliver the black box to the Architect, and ours is to convince Kalana to hand over the Mindrack. But first, we need to make contact with her.

  The elevator brings us to Kore Tower's main control room. It is far larger than the Kogi cryobunker’s version. I had hoped to raise Kalana using the holo-couches I saw here last time. But when the doors open, that hope is instantly dashed. The Dragon has been here before us. All of the windows are blown out, and the entire floor is on fire. Many of the adjacent buildings have suffered damage as well.

  “This really is starting to feel like the end of the world.” Calendo remarks. Then a gust of wind sends flames in our direction, and we are forced to close the doors.

  “What now?” Tikal asks me. An ominous rumbling provides an answer.

  “We need to get out of the city before it drops out from under us.”

  Calendo runs her finger down the elevator buttons until she lands on one marked 'landing deck'. She punches it, and we start to descend again. This time, the door opens onto a more promising scene. The tower’s massive deck has yet to be touched by the fighting. And even better, there is an ancient choppertaxi sitting on the tarmac in front of us.

  I turn to my companions. “Can one of you hotwire that thing?”

  They both nod at the same time. Smog swirls around us as we hurry across the deck. Opacity's famed neon signage lends the air a gaudy glow, as do the laser blasts that rake the city at intervals. We reach the chopper and pile inside. Calendo squeezes in under the pilot's seat, pops open an access panel, and goes to work. Ten seconds later, the engine splutters to life.

  “Still got it!” She says happily. I doubt the mercenary has fully grasped the finality of our situation. But if ignorance keeps her functioning at a high level, that's fine by me. Tikal takes Calendo's place in the pilot's seat. She studies the controls for a few moments, and nods.

  “I can fly this - although it's not going to be pretty.”

  Out our right side window, a laser strike cuts a horizontal line through a spire of rainbow glass. There is a splintering crack, and the entire structure tilts in our direction.

  “Who cares!” Calendo shouts. “Just get us the fuck out of here!”

  The rotors spin up, and we gain just enough altitude to dive straight off the landing deck. The spire crashes into it a moment later. Sparkling glass rains down around us as we drop out of the sky. Then the smog clears enough to reveal a rooftop below us. Tikal pulls up. Our landing skids scrape over a ventilation shaft, and then we're past the building and into open space.

  But before we can take a breath, a dragonfly flits by. It releases a homing missile before vanishing into the gloom. Tikal swerves around a building. The rocket smashes into it and explodes. A chunk of concrete lodges in the helicopter's side, but we don't slow down. Calendo looks over at me.

  “Teeks was right: war does follow you around like a lost puppy.”

  Opacity is literally crumbling around us now. Tikal is torquing the joystick like a madwoman, trying to avoid falling debris and laser fire. Skyscrapers are knocking each other down like dominoes. Facades slough away, revealing the movie set deserts, jungles and foreign planets within. Music blares from amputated skybridge nightclubs. It is awful and jaw dropping and exhilarating all at the same time.

  Safety, we discover, lies lower down in the city, in places the Dragon's breath has yet to touch. We leave the triple digits behind and enter the Slump. This is where shadow labs reverse engineer the competition's tech to create illegal knockoffs. The smog is so thick that Tikal can barely see to fly.

  But the buildings are starting to thin out. Somewhere below us, the flooded streets are giving way to the polluted expanse that is the Gulf. Behind us, the laser strikes have stopped. But Opacity's heart is already a single mass of rampant flame. With the world ending as it apparently is, my city's demise shouldn't matter. But losing the earth is too big a concept for me to grasp. Whereas this is real and raw and personal.

  The smog dissipates, and then fades entirely. The stars make their return. The chopper's engine is making a nasty coughing sound; but it has brought us this far, which is more than I expected. Tikal sets a course for the Hive. Calendo stares out the window for a few minutes, and then lies out full length on the floor. Taking a seat beside Tikal, I start to scan the airwaves again. This time, I'm hoping to find a feed from the island.

  But nothing comes up. In the distance, a darker shade of black appears on the horizon. That will be the Hive's infamous curtain wall. I remember standing on top of that soaring edifice, looking out over the island's interior for the first time in 15 years. Delez was at my side that day. I wish he was now, too.

  The wall grows larger, and I see that it is lined with new gun placements. Nor are they the only defenses in play. Hundreds of airships are lined up around the island, guarding it against aerial incursion. Kalana really has been busy. Tikal slows down so that we don't look like a threat, and begins her final approach. Then the radio crackles, and a woman's voice comes on.

  “Opacian aircraft, this is Hive tactical base.” She says brusquely. “We have prepared a refugee camp just inside the curtain wall. Please continue on your current heading, and our ships will escort you in.” And then, less formally, “But be quick, because that Null mothership is right on your tail.”

  Shifting in my seat, I look behind us. The Dragon is closing in on the island with a swarm of dragonflies at its back.

  “Tactical base, this is Anex. I need to speak with Kalana immediately.”

  I'm gearing up for another argument; but this time, the response is much different.

  “Anex... is that really you?”

  “I swear to god. Who’s this?”

  “It’s Tiana, you dunce. Being dead must be bad for your memory.” The mic rattles, and then she shouts, “Hey Morgan! You're not going to believe this, but I've got Anex on the phone.”

  “Quit fucking around, T.” Comes the faint reply. “We're about five minutes away from being at war.”

  “I'm serious! Here, I'll put him on speaker. Anex, say something.”

  I want to tell my old platoon mates how good it is to hear them. But like Morgan said, the Hive is a few short minutes from being at war. Plus if I talk to Morgan, I will have to te
ll him that his brother is dead. And I don't think I can handle that right now.

  “Guys, I really need to speak with Kalana. Can you make that happen?”

  “Holy shit, it is him!” Morgan woops. “How you doing, man? I knew that Grav bitch wasn't the end of you.”

  “Thanks Morgan. Um, Kalana?”

  “Right, sorry. You've probably got some pressing issues to attend to. Let’s see what we can do.”

  The next thirty seconds are some of the longest of my life. We are caught in a rapidly shrinking space between the Null armada and the Hive curtain wall. If we can't convince Kalana to stand down, we're going to get lit up like a Christmas tree. At last, a familiar voice speaks into the comm.

  “Anex, are you there?”

  “Kalana! Yes, it's me.”

  “My god.” She breathes. “I thought Morgan had lost his mind. It's been months since your feed went dark. Where have you been?”

  “Nowhere particularly fun, I can assure you. Listen, we don't have much time. The Null are -”

  “Daddy, you're okay! See Mom, I knew he was still alive!”

  “Sophie! It's so good to hear your voice. I've got so much to tell you.”

  “You sure do.” She says, angry now. “You and me are going to have a proper talk when this is over. But Mom looks like she really needs to go first, so I'll put her back on.”

  The mic is passed over again. And then Kalana says, “Anex, you need to get out of there right now. Our guns will start firing soon.”

  “No! You've got to call them off.”

  “I can have my people wait until you clear the area, but after that -”

  “You don't understand. The Null are not the enemy. They just need the Mindrack. If you give it to them without a fight, they will leave the Hive alone.”