by M. R. Forbes
“Hornet,” Bastion replied, motioning to the gunship.
“We need to scout the citadel,” Hayley said. “If you want to wait here, that’s fine, but I’m going down.”
“Me too,” Less said. She was sitting on Narrl’s shoulder, holding the fur on his head to keep from falling off.
“Gant will tell us when Thetan arrives,” Hayley added. “We don’t want to be scrambling to find somewhere to hole up once it’s too late.”
“We also don’t want the Asura to kill us before Thetan has the chance,” Bastion said.
“We should be able to handle them,” Hayley said. “You can all see them, and they don’t use guns.”
“Let’s hope you’re right.”
Hayley started toward the stairs. They were uncovered now, exposed to the elements, but a pile of rubble around them suggested the rooftop had been used as a landing pad long before the Hornet had touched down.
She was nearing the lip of the steps when the first of the Asura appeared.
It rose out of the darkness, gray and froglike. It wasn’t one of the phase-shifting soldiers. Probably a scout of some kind.
It sprang forward on bent legs, landing right in front of her. It shriveled back in surprise, not expecting her to be so close. Maybe not expecting to find anything at all. It hissed and swung a large hand toward her, narrow arm stretching far from its body.
She wasn’t expecting it, either. She turned to take the blow on the side, letting it push her, rolling with the punch. The sharp report of a rifle followed, and the scout’s head snapped back, and it dropped to the ground.
“Geez,” Bastion said. “Sneaky bastards.”
Hayley looked back at him, and then up at the dragon.
Of course, it had heard the shot.
“So much for being quiet,” she said through her comm.
“Sorry.”
The dragon had turned in the sky and was heading in their direction, for the moment descending somewhat lazily. It seemed to spot them a moment later, and it shifted its wings for a quicker dive.
“Let’s move!” Hayley shouted, rushing to the stairs and pulling her rifle from her back. She pointed it at the dragon, but she wasn’t going to shoot unless she had to.
She didn’t want to piss the thing off.
The Riders rushed to the stairs. Tibor went down first, nearly falling on the slick, moss-covered metal risers.
“Watch your step,” he said, warning the others.
Hayley waited until the Riders had all started down. The dragon was getting closer. Close enough she could see its eyes looking back at her. She froze for a moment in wonder that she could see its eyes. It had been so long.
“Witchy, come on,” Narrl said.
“Yeah, come on,” Less repeated from her perch.
Hayley started down. The dragon was only a few hundred meters above them, and it spread its wings wide to catch the air and break its fall, dropping its hind legs and angling to grab her. She ducked low, feeling the wind pass over as it swooped by, missing her before touching down on the rooftop. It slid a dozen meters, lowering its front legs and turning its long neck back toward the stairs.
“Witchy,” Gant said through her comm. “Eight large objects just appeared in close proximity to the planet.”
“What? Already?” They knew Thetan would come, but how had she gotten here so fast? “Less, I thought you said hours?”
“I said it depended on how far they were from our position.”
“Apparently not very far,” Bastion said.
“It’s like they knew ahead of time we were going to be here,” Tibor said.
“Less, did you tell them ahead of time?”
The little girl didn’t respond right away.
“Less,” Hayley repeated more sternly.
“I might have suggested the location in the last transmission I was forced to send.”
“What? Why didn’t you tell me?”
“I was afraid if you knew too soon then you might not come here. That you might not believe in me.”
“I thought you’re supposed to be a super-nerd,” Bastion said.
“She’s also a child,” Hayley said. “No matter how intelligent Thetan made her, it can’t replace experience. It’s okay, Less. The good news is, this will be over with sooner.”
“I’m picking up energy spikes in orbit,” Gant said. “The platforms are launching their defenses.”
“Good. How long until Thetan can get a transport down here?”
“Fifteen minutes at best.”
“Not a lot of time.” She looked ahead. The stairs were turning at regular intervals, dropping deeper into the building. “How many floors are there?”
“I don’t know,” Less replied. “The citadel is two hundred meters tall.”
“Gant, keep me posted.”
“Aye, Witchy. So long as that dragon doesn’t think this vessel is a toy.”
“Or something else,” Bastion said.
“Xolo, keep leading us down. The deeper in we go, the deeper in Thetan has to go.”
“Roger.”
The rooftop shuddered, dislodging bits of rust and moss and sending debris falling around them.
“What the hell?” Bastion said.
“Uh, Witchy, new problem,” Gant said.
“What?”
A massive, scaled paw stretched toward her from the top of the stairs, the dragon reaching out to grab her. She saw it too late, twisting to avoid its reach. She could have ducked under it, evaded it completely, but then it would have found purchase on Narrl and Less.
It found purchase on her instead, long talons reaching around her and closing. She cursed as it held her, pulling her back up and out.
It towered over her, head swiveling to look down as it turned its paw over to view its prize.
Hayley looked back at it, fear and anger mixing into a dangerous cocktail.
Its qi was copper and green.
34
“Frag, how the hell did you get down here so fast?” Hayley said, looking up at the dragon’s face. She could almost see the Collective in its eyes.
“You should know our constraints are not your constraints,” it replied, its voice completely in her head. The dragon’s mouth was closed, but sharp gusts of air were escaping through small nostrils at the tip of its snout. “This mind is large and simple, and easy to control.”
“I assume you aren’t planning to kill me.”
“No. We will hold you here until the rest of Thetan’s forces arrive.”
“Thetan’s forces, or your forces?”
“They are the same. Thetan’s mind is too powerful to take, but there are other ways to control. Mazrael is a trusted ally.”
“Witchy,” Tibor said. “We’re on our way.”
“No,” she replied. “Xolo, keep the Riders moving down. It won’t kill me. It wants me. It wants Less, too.”
“But Witchy, I-”
“That’s an order, Sergeant,” she snapped.
“Trouble with your pet?” the Collective said.
“Shut the hell up,” Hayley replied. “You might have me, but you don’t have the Oracle. And that’s why Thetan’s here, isn’t it? You can’t get out of here without her or her ships, and they’re going to get blown to shit up there.”
“You’re a fast learner, Hayley. Not that it will help you. The ships will be fine. You forget who Mazrael is. Or should I say, was. He was on the Shardship with Lucifer. He knows how to get into the Seraphim Shield platform’s subsystems. He knows how to let us in.”
Hayley cursed silently. Their three percent chance of survival had just dropped to some minuscule fraction above zero.
“Gant, can you confirm?” Hayley asked.
“Confirmed,” the AI replied, it’s voice sour.
“As before, we’re willing to make a deal,” the Collective said. “Surrender to us. Surrender the Oracle to Thetan. The rest of your Riders will go free. We will even spare the planet Koosa du
ring our conquest. They can live there in peace.”
“Does Thetan know you intend to turn on her?” Hayley asked.
“No. We are Mazrael, and Mazrael is hers. She trusts us. She loves us. We may not betray her.” Hayley couldn’t help but be amused by the Collective’s choice of words. May not? “You have no options, Hayley Cage. You will not leave this planet except under our power. The Oracle was wrong to bring you here. Take what you can get, or we will take everything.”
“Witchy, the platforms have all stopped firing,” Gant said. “A dozen smaller objects are dispatching from the battleships and moving toward our position.”
Hayley couldn’t believe it. It wasn’t just that they had lost, but how quickly and easily they had lost. Why had Less thought they had even a small chance? Why had she led them here to die?
They didn’t have to die. She could save them. All she had to do was surrender. And what did surrender mean beyond her current situation? She was already caught. She couldn’t break free of the dragon’s grip. The Collective wasn’t wrong to say it was being generous to offer anything at all.
Still, she had been raised by the Colonel.
And the Colonel would never, ever surrender.
He sure as hell hadn’t died just for her to give up.
“Your time to decide is running out,” the Collective said.
“I’ll tell you what,” Hayley said, staring the dragon in the eye. “Why don’t you go frag yourself?”
“You’re a stupid, stupid thing,” the Collective said, tightening its grip. “I’ll make sure your Riders die, but not too quickly.”
“Hey, asshole!”
Hayley tried to turn her head in the direction of Tibor’s voice. Hadn’t she told him to leave her?
Tibor roared, and then the dragon was moving, shifting its weight to hold her up and make an attempt to get its mouth around the Goreshin.
Gunfire split the air, bullets raking along the dragon’s snout, picking at the scales but not punching through. Hayley managed to shift her eyes enough to find Tibor in her peripheral vision, making an insane jump toward the creature’s face.
More gunfire added to the first, multiple rifles firing on the dragon.
Hadn’t she ordered all of them to leave her?
The dragon roared as Tibor dug his claws into its nostril, using it to get a grip and swing himself onto its snout. The Collective whipped its head sideways, the motion throwing him away. He hit the rooftop and rolled, sliding to a stop just before going over the edge.
“Come on, you big ugly iguana,” Bastion said, firing at the dragon.
It dipped its head, opening its mouth. A small ball of flame was sitting in the back of its throat, about to be unleashed.
It would burn all of them to ash.
Hayley stopped struggling against the dragon’s grip, relaxing into it instead. She focused on her visor. On sending a command out through the new amplifier.
“I said, go frag yourself!” she shouted through it, directing it at the Collective.
The dragon roared in sudden pain, but it wasn’t the dragon crying out. It was the Collective. She had told it to disburse, to separate and die. At least some part of it had heard the order and wasn’t able to resist. The green and copper naniates were pushed forcefully from the beast’s qi, scattering into the wind before detonating in a billion tiny points of light.
The creature’s hand opened, and she fell from its grip, rolling to her feet, fighting through a sudden wave of dizziness and nausea. The command had hurt the Collective, but it hadn’t destroyed it. She could hear the dragon recovering behind her. Was the Collective still in control?
“Watch out!” Tibor shouted.
He scooped her up in one of his arms, lifting her from the ground and diving away as the dragon’s mouth snapped down where she had just been standing. Tibor rolled and slid on his hind legs, changing their direction with his free hand.
Hayley felt a sudden charge in the air, and then watched the plasma cannons on the gunship begin to fire. She followed the first pair of bolts as they slipped past a trio of incoming Nephilim transports.
They were out of time.
“We have to get off the rooftop,” she said. “Now!”
“Roger,” Tibor replied, still carrying her.
He charged forward, taking long strides in the direction of the stairwell. Jil and Bastion were positioned beside it, crouched down and firing their rifles at the dragon.
She turned her head, finding it a dozen meters back, covering its face with its claws. The copper and green was gone from it.
Had she managed to destroy it?
Or had it gone somewhere else?
35
“Incoming!” Bastion shouted over the comm, trying to warn them.
Tibor cursed, throwing himself to the side, rolling with his shoulder tucked and arm out to protect her as they dove away from an inbound projectile.
A missile slammed into the rooftop, blowing up chunks of stone as it detonated only a few meters away. Two more followed in rapid succession, both off the mark to hit the Goreshin.
“It got ugly up here and fast,” Tibor said.
“Which is why you should have fragging listened to me,” Hayley replied. “Put me down.”
“Witchy-“
“I’m fine, put me down.”
Tibor let her go. She was almost knocked over as soon as he did. The dragon began flapping its huge, leathery wings, creating a burst of air.
The gunship continued to fire, casting round after round of plasma bolts up toward the transports. The three at the front of the line were being followed by a second group, coming into view after passing through orbit.
One of the bolts managed to find a transport, slashing it across the starboard side. Smoke started pouring out of it, and it veered off course, heading for a crash landing a few kilometers from the citadel.
“Nice shooting, Gant,” Hayley said.
“Thank you,” the AI replied. “Oh. Shit.”
Hayley looked back toward the gunship. A red and gold halo had formed around it, and it was sliding toward the edge of the rooftop.
“No,” she said, about to reach out for the naniates, to stop them from carrying the gunship over the edge.
“Witchy, don’t,” Gant said. “It will drain you too much, and it isn’t worth it. I’m not real. I’m not alive. Just a program.” It chittered in mock amusement.
She let go of the idea. Gant was right. It would weaken her too much. That didn’t mean she didn’t feel the sting when the gunship groaned, teetering at the edge of the rooftop before tumbling off.
“There goes our ride,” Bastion said.
“Get down the stairs!” Hayley shouted.
She started sprinting for the stairwell, skipping along the ground, using the lightsuit to propel her forward.
She and Tibor had to come to an abrupt stop as another round of missiles slammed the roof ahead of them, showering them with debris and raising a cloud of dust.
Then the dragon swept through it, gaining the air and rising to meet the transports. It roared as it neared one of them, passing it by before lashing out at it with its tail. It slammed the machine, hurtling it to the ground.
The remaining transport reached the rooftop, the hatch at its side opening before it touched down and dropped dozens of blacksuits from its hold.
Hayley lifted her Uin from her lightsuit, along with her sidearm. She fired at the blacksuits as they fell to the rooftop, landing easily and taking aim with their rifles.
Three of them fell to a barrage of fire from Bastion and Jil. Then Narrl appeared, charging toward them in his battle suit, firing his heavy railgun.
The rounds blew through the blacksuits, rapidly cutting almost half of them down. The enemy recognized the threat, turning to concentrate fire on him.
Where was Less?
“Less, where are you?” Hayley said. She ducked and raised her Uin, just in time to deflect the gunfire that swept past
her.
“One landing down on the stairs,” Less replied. “I’m okay right now.”
She couldn’t believe Narrl had left her alone. She continued her quest to reach the stairwell, bouncing toward it.
She saw the first Shifter as it came up from the stairwell behind Jil, sword in hand, ready to stab into the Trover’s back.
She didn’t have time to warn the pilot. She aimed her pistol, waiting. She couldn’t hit it until it came into their spacetime.
It did, an instant before it would have stabbed Jil in the back. Hayley fired while running, two rounds from the plasma pistol that caught the Shifter in the side of the head.
Jil flipped her attention to Hayley and then turned back to see the dead Asura on the ground behind her.
“I think the Asura know we’re here,” she said over the comm. “Can we please retreat down the stairs now?”
She finally reached Jil and Bastion’s position at the stairs. Tibor had diverted, rushing the blacksuits and diving in among them, cutting them down with tooth and claw.
The next round of transports was getting close. They weren’t firing on the rooftop, but rather doing their best to steer clear of the dragon.
It was still out there, screaming and chasing the vehicles. Hayley watched it launch a gout of flame from its mouth at one of them, bathing it in fire but not doing any real damage.
Someone had thrown the Hornet from the rooftop using the Gift. Was it Thetan, or were there more Gifted Nephilim on the way?
“Xolo, Bullseye, let’s go,” she said. “Now!”
They both turned and started back toward the rest of the group. Only three of the original blacksuits were still upright, cut down by Bastion and Jil seconds later.
“Hayley, help!” Less shouted.
Hayley spun to look down the stairs to the first landing.
Less was gone.
“Damn it, Bullseye, you were supposed to watch her,” she said.
“Hayley, they’re taking me. Let me go!”
Two of the Shifters appeared at the landing, coming up toward them. Hayley bounced down the steps to meet them, using her Uin to block their swords and easily cutting them down.