by Kyle West
As if waking, the host of Blighters came alive, charging again up the hill.
“Alex!”
I turned to see Anna at the base of hill, and a body lying next to her.
Michael.
I ran down the hill as the worm roared again. Crawlers screamed as they crashed against the western line behind me. I remembered Quietus telling me that Askala had worse minions than the Radaskim dragons. Now, I knew what she meant. I wondered how such a giant creature could travel all this distance. Perhaps the fungus was layered deep, and there were huge tunnels below the surface.
I reached the bottom of the hill. Michael was completely inert, his eyes closed, and a giant bruise covered his forehead.
“He’s breathing,” Anna said. “I dragged him all the way here from the northern flank.”
“Makara and the rest went to get Perseus in the air. We’re heading for the Crater.”
Anna nodded. “We need to get to Orion, then.”
It would take ages to drag Michael there. By then, the dragons might have destroyed the railgun or even the ship.
There had to be another way.
“The medics will have stretchers,” I said. “We can use one to carry him to the ship.”
We dragged Michael down the line, searching for either a stretcher or a medic. Even in the chaos, the screams, and the roaring of the monstrous worm, we finally came upon two medics, running in the opposite direction.
Anna grabbed one of the men by the arm, bringing them both to a halt.
“You. Put him on.”
One of the men answered. “This is for Centurion Ramos.”
“No,” Anna said, pulling the stretcher to the ground. “I have orders from Augustus himself. Michael gets on the stretcher. Now.”
The men looked at each other, but acquiesced. They knew we were close to the Emperor, and didn’t want to risk disobeying him; Centurion Ramos would have to wait, and hopefully it wasn’t too serious. Together, we lifted Michael on.
“We’re heading for the gun,” I said. “Let’s move.”
The four of us each grabbed a handle of the stretcher and ran west across the plateau. Dragons circled above the railgun, but many had broken off to give chase to Perseus. Gunners in Recons put up a brave fight, firing on any dragon who got too close to the gun.
But it was not enough. Three dragons in tandem dove for the gun. The railgun shot one of them down, and it crashed to the plateau. Another fell to the concentrated fire of several of the roving Recons.
That left one, and there was no way the gun could dodge this attack.
Dread overtook me as the dragon’s talons slammed into the gun barrel, bending it just slightly. But even that much doomed the railgun to never be used again.
“Come on,” I said, sensing that we had slowed down. “We have to get there.”
The dragon wheeled into the sky above, out of range of the gunners below. The dragons retreated, their mission accomplished. Perseus swarmed around them, firing and bringing down one of the trailing dragons.
But it was all too late. The railgun was gone, and without it, this army’s time was drawing to a close.
***
We panted as we ran across the plateau, my heart racing at the effort. Even with four people, running and carrying Michael over this distance was a huge strain.
Just when we had closed half the distance to the railgun, several crawlers appeared from the south, somehow having slipped by the southern lines. We couldn’t get caught out here in the open.
The crawlers increased their speed, coming right at us.
“Go!” I shouted.
Somehow, we made ourselves run even faster, and it felt as if my heart would beat out of my chest. As the wooden stakes surrounding the gun neared, the crawlers continued their mad sprint, far faster than we were. The Reapers guarding the gun weren’t far, but they were so focused on the dragons that they hadn’t seen the crawlers coming toward us.
“Hey!”
One of the men turned at my voice, almost miraculously hearing me with the dragons screaming and the guns firing. The man tapped his partner, and pointed in our direction.
I held the handle of the stretcher in one hand, using the other to point to the crawlers in the south. Instead of two crawlers, there were now three, surging ahead across the plateau’s flat expanse.
They raised their rifles and opened fire. With luck, those bullets would buy us some time.
We were nearly there. Just thirty more seconds of pain. Thirty more seconds to outpace the crawlers.
Just seconds away, I turned to see the crawlers, about a hundred feet away. They were so fast. They’d close that distance in mere seconds. But at last, we wriggled between the stakes and to relative safety. I was the last one through.
We set down the stretcher, after which I turned and raised my rifle. The crawlers stopped at the stakes, far too large to work themselves in between. They screamed in frustration.
As the Reapers continued to fire, Anna once again grabbed the stretcher.
“Leave them,” she said. “We need to board Orion.”
“What about us?” one of the medics said.
“Thank you,” Anna said. “We can take it from here.”
Anna and I took up the stretcher, much heavier without the medics’ assistance. Orion sat parked next to the broken railgun. Close up, it was easier to see the damage. The barrel was bent at its end. Several men stared up at it helplessly.
But the railgun’s being broken meant we were free to use Orion. On its boarding ramp was a flurry of activity, several Reapers carrying the cable that had connected the railgun to Orion’s fusion drive.
“Let’s go,” Anna said.
We ran inside the ship, positioning Michael and his stretcher on the bridge. We set him down on the deck, then took up our seats. The priority was getting Orion into the air safely as soon as possible.
The ship was already powered on, so all there was to do was lift off.
I set the frequency to Perseus’s channel.
“Perseus, this is Orion,” I said. “We have Michael.”
“Good,” Makara said. “Get in the air, now.”
“Copy that, on the ascent.” Anna said.
At that moment, the ship elevated from the ground.
“We’ve got dragons heading that way,” Makara said. “Get moving, quick.”
“On it,” Anna said.
Anna accelerated the ship to avoid being blindsided by dragons, pointing it in the direction of Perseus. The dragons themselves swirled around Perseus in a cloud.
“Makara!” I said.
“I know,” Makara said. “I need you to bail me out here.”
“On our way.”
Orion took on more speed, closing in on the swarm of dragons tailing Perseus.
“Aiming for the stragglers first,” Anna said.
Before Makara could respond, a missile streaked out from beneath Orion’s hull. A trail of vapor colored the air as the missile homed in on a lagging dragon. The dragon ignited in a giant plume of flame. Several of the dragons scattered from the blast, so only a few were now pursuing Perseus.
“Get to the clouds,” Anna said. “I’ll take care of the rest.”
As Perseus changed trajectory, Anna readied another missile strike.
“How many of those we have left?” I asked
“Four,” Anna said.
With that, another missile shot off for the central dragon, obliterating it in an orangey ball of fire. The two remaining dragons fanned out, spreading their wings and wheeling toward us.
Anna swerved to port. As she aimed for the sky, following Perseus’s trail, it wasn’t long before we had broken the clouds.
“Makara...I think we need to call Lauren,” Anna said.
“There was a giant worm,” I added, “the size of a skyscraper.”
“I know, we saw it from the air,” Makara said. “You’re right, Anna. It’s time we called Lauren. If we do nothing, the entire
army will be overwhelmed.” Makara paused a moment. “Lauren?”
“Makara?” Lauren asked. “How is everyone? Is Michael...?
“Michael’s alright,” Makara said. “I need you to do this, quickly. You know why I’m calling.”
“What’s happened?”
“Use the coordinates we programmed. We’ll be overrun otherwise. In the meantime, I’ll tell Augustus to pull back.”
Next, Augustus’s voice broke through the dash.
“Makara...”
“I’ve already called it,” Makara said. “Withdraw your men to the center.”
“You’ve...called it?”
“Yeah. Lauren’s working on it.”
Augustus didn’t argue. He didn’t say anything, not for a long time. Finally, he gave a sigh, long and tired.
“How long do we have?”
“I can be at the Command Center in ten minutes,” Lauren said.
“Make it five,” Makara said.
“We have to do what we have to do,” Augustus said. “What’s important is that all of you got out alive. Now, please...hurry to the Crater. We won’t last another day under these conditions.”
Anna looked at me. I’m not really sure what her expression conveyed – whether sadness, fear, or a combination of both.
“Augustus...” I said. “Thanks. For everything”
“Take care, Alex. I wish you all the luck in the world.”
“I’ll need it.”
“We all do,” Augustus said. “We all do.”
I felt a chill at those words.
“Augustus...” Makara said. “Hold on, for as long as you can. I’ll...I’ll see you on the other side. Wherever that is.”
“We’ll stay here to the last man. Carin has some ideas to draw this out as long as possible. That’s all this was about anyway, right? We’ll hold them off for as long as we draw breath. The legions of Nova Roma have never lost a war, and I do not mean to lose one now.”
“Good luck, Augustus.”
“Likewise, Makara.”
“I’ll advise you when the nukes are out.”
The radio was silent for a long time. The two ships joined above the clouds, far out of sight of the killing below. We headed east toward the darkening sky.
At last, Makara spoke.
“Orion.”
“Yeah,” Anna said, voice thin. “Go ahead.”
The following pause was heavy, almost painful. I knew the words to be spoken before they ever came.
“Set course for Ragnarok Crater.”
Anna trembled a bit at the words. “Following your lead, Perseus.”
I realized, once we were going full speed, that I could now measure the rest of my life in hours rather than days.
Chapter 16
We’d been traveling ten minutes when Lauren’s voice returned.
“Alright,” Lauren said. “I’m here.”
“Are you in front of the screen?” Samuel asked.
“Yes.”
“Password is ‘Raine’. With an ‘E’ at the end.”
“Alright,” Lauren said, a moment later. “I’m in.”
“Head to Nuclear Development. Everything is already programmed. You only have to initiate the launch sequence.”
“How?” Lauren asked. “How many are we launching here?”
“Just one,” Samuel said. “Silo Six. It’s programmed to fire. Just click on ‘launch’.”
“Samuel...”
“We have to do this, Lauren,” Makara said. “Men are dying.”
Lauren sighed. “Alright. Initiating.”
We waited for what seemed a very long time, when in reality it was probably more like thirty seconds.
“Lauren?” Samuel asked.
“It’s not working,” she said.
“Go through all the steps,” Samuel said.
“I did exactly as you said,” Lauren said. “It’s showing the silo to be online, but it’s still armed. Isn’t it supposed to give some indication that it launched? Wouldn’t I have heard it?”
“It’s old,” I said. “It might not be operational.”
“Alright,” Lauren said. “It’s saying system malfunction.”
“What is the nature of the malfunction?” Samuel asked.
“I don’t know!”
“There should be a dialog box of details.”
“It’s...indecipherable. ‘Process could not be executed, vector error.’”
“Vector error?” Makara asked.
“Something’s off about the flight path,” Samuel said. “I must have programmed it wrong, so my inputs have conflicted with the desired target.”
“Meaning?” Makara asked.
“Lauren can reprogram it to where the system can find its own flight path,” Samuel said. “Automatically.”
“Why didn’t we do that the first time?” I asked.
“I was afraid the system could fail, after so many years and with satellites in a questionable state of functionality. So, yes. I programmed it myself. Apparently, it didn’t work out.”
“If there’s a chance the missile could miss, maybe we shouldn’t take the chance,” Makara said.
“I agree,” I said.
“What do you propose instead?” Samuel asked. “Without some heavy damage to the Radaskim, that army won’t last much longer. Besides, Augustus has already told his men to pull back.” Samuel paused, letting that sink in. “We can’t just reset.”
Makara sighed. “I don’t know. Augustus expects that nuke to fall where it’s supposed to. What if it doesn’t?”
“If it hits the wrong spot, it hits the wrong spot. We can’t do anything about that. The army will be dead either way.
A long pause followed, everyone thinking.
“So, what are we doing?” Lauren asked.
Makara paused a breath. “Do it.”
“Alright,” Samuel said. “Click on Silo Six’s program. Clear the flight path. Then hit auto-program.”
“Just a second...”
We waited while Lauren worked. Anna clenched her fist on the control stick, keeping pace with Perseus nearby.
“Got it,” Lauren said. “Launch?”
“Yes,” Makara said.
“It just went off,” Lauren said. “I heard it.”
“I’ll let Augustus know,” Makara said.
“Lauren,” Samuel said. “Good work.”
“I guess we’ll see about that soon, huh?” She paused. “Michael? Is he there, on the bridge? Put him on.”
Anna and I looked at each other. Michael was still knocked out on the floor.
“Uh...he’s fine,” Anna said. “He just...took a hit to the head.”
There was a long, cold silence following that statement.
“I’m sorry...what? You’re only telling me now?”
“He’ll be fine,” Anna said. “It doesn’t look too severe.”
“And how long has he been like this?”
“Not long,” Anna said. “Look...we’re waiting for him to come around. He’s breathing, he’s comfortable, and he’ll be fine. Alright?”
“No,” Lauren said. “Not alright. If you’re going to the Crater, Michael needs to be at his full capacity, otherwise...” Lauren paused. “What if he’s still knocked out by the time you reach the Crater? I want him here. Now.”
“There’s no time, Lauren,” Makara said. “We have so much riding on this and we can’t spare the extra two hours. By then, it might be too late.”
“That’s my husband!” Lauren said.“I launched that nuke for you, and now you’re just going to send Michael to die?”
And that was when Michael coughed.
Anna and I turned around, seeing him try to lift himself off the floor.
“Whoa, stay there, buddy,” I said. “Don’t move too quickly. You took a nasty hit to the head.”
Michael looked up at me. “Yeah. I might not be Einstein, but I know that.”
“Michael?” Lauren said.
&nbs
p; “Lauren, he’s awake,” I said, then asked him, “How you feeling?”
“Like shit, but yeah. I’m here.”
“Michael...” Lauren said. “Baby, you alright?”
“Fine, honey. Right as rain.”
“No, you’re not. I can hear it in your voice.”
Michael didn’t answer for a moment. “Okay. I will be fine. Got a splitting headache, though.”
He pointed toward my canteen. I passed it to him, and he took several giant pulls.
“Something knocked you out,” Anna said. “I just found you lying there.”
Michael lowered the canteen. “I lost sight of the group, somehow. Next thing I know...everything’s dark. I think a Behemoth might have gotten me.” He paused a moment. “Yeah, I remember now. Big one, too.”
“Michael...” Lauren said. “Are you going to be okay to fight? I mean...what if you have a concussion, and after that writhe...maybe going to the Crater isn’t the best idea. You have me and Callie here.”
“I can’t miss this fight,” Michael said. “The whole world’s depending on us. That’s how I’m going to protect you.”
“You need to be here,” Lauren said.
“I can’t back down now,” Michael said. “I’ll make it back.”
“No, you won’t! You’ll die if you go there! Anyone with half a brain knows that, which you probably do after that knock to the head.”
Michael said nothing.
“Sorry,” Lauren said. “I didn’t mean that.”
Michael looked at me. “Where are we, anyway?”
“We’re on our way to Ragnarok Crater. And a nuke is on its way to the battlefield.”
“That bad, huh?”
“Michael,” Lauren said. “Are you okay? Really?”