The enemy saucer's wrath hit them like the hammer of a god. The front of the Lodestar shattered, and the figurehead tore free and tumbled through space. Blasts ripped the shields open. Viewports shattered across the bridge and fell, revealing the bulkhead behind them. The bridge shook madly, and cracks raced across the walls.
"Fire!" Ben-Ari cried, but Niilo was down, buried under a pillar.
She ran to the gunner's station. She fired everything in the ship. Lasers, photon cannons, railguns. She fired a nuclear weapon, and the blaze washed across space. But the Claw of Nefitis kept flying, and her cannons pounded the Lodestar, and they were spinning, falling, careening madly, tearing apart. Chunks of the hull tore free and flew through space. The engine room caught fire.
Above, Ben-Ari saw the Claw of Nefitis hovering, eclipsing the sun. In its shadow, the Lodestar fell.
Earth's gravity grabbed them. They tumbled toward the atmosphere.
"Aurora, keep us flying!"
But the mollusk lay under fallen debris. She wasn't moving.
Ben-Ari stumbled across the bridge. The Lodestar spun, gaining speed, crashing down toward Earth. The artificial gravity on the ship died. Ben-Ari swam through the air toward the helm. She grabbed the controls.
Aurora had eight arms, Ben-Ari only two—and even one of those was a prosthetic. She grabbed what controls she could. She hit the thruster, but only one engine was still operating. It sputtered. She slowed their spin. She tried to raise their prow, but there was no prow left, only a gaping hole. The Lodestar careened down into the sky.
She switched off the cannons, diverting energy to the engine, and shoved down the thruster.
The Lodestar rose from the atmosphere, charging back toward the battle.
Ahead, the Claw of Nefitis fired her cannons.
The blasts hit the Lodestar, shoving the starship down into Earth's atmosphere.
They plunged through the sky.
I have time, Ben-Ari thought. I can run to the shuttle bay. I can fly out in a shuttle. If the shuttles are gone, I can find a spacesuit and jetpack and jump.
She prepared to run, to abandon ship.
But Niilo moaned at her side. The security chief was still alive. One of Aurora's tentacles twitched. On this ship, hundreds were dead, but hundreds still lived.
I will not abandon ship. Not so long as a single member of my crew needs me.
As the Lodestar streamed down through the sky, Ben-Ari reached back to the controls, determined to fly her ship.
She could barely see through the viewports. Wind roared through holes in the ship. The sky spun around them.
She pulled the controls.
She adjusted the sputtering engine.
She raised the ship's shattered nose.
A single viewport was still operational on the floor, connected to a camera on the ship's exterior. She could see the ocean below. A blur of land. A peninsula shaped like a boot. She knew where she was.
She was still falling fast. There were still fifty kilometers or more between her and the surface. Flames blazed around them. Shards of the hull tore free. They were burning up, falling apart.
The Lodestar was not meant to fly in the atmosphere. She had been built in space. She had been built to fly only in space. In the air, with no wings, she was like an anvil with a jetpack attached to the back. Bits and pieces kept tearing free, burning up. The ship was crumbling.
But Ben-Ari refused to crash.
She diverted more power to the shields.
They slipped, their last engine coughing.
They plunged down several kilometers, and her belly roiled and she passed out for a moment, woke up on the floor, grabbed the controls again.
She kept flying, diverting more power to the engines now. The sea blurred below.
And ahead she could see them—thousands of saucers descending through the atmosphere. Thousands of contrails plunging down to Earth's major cities. The ground invasion had begun.
I must reach Petty, Ben-Ari thought. I must reach Jerusalem. That is where the greatest battle rages.
Three saucers flew toward them. Ben-Ari fired her cannons, taking them out. The Lodestar kept flying, only ten kilometers above ground now and losing altitude fast. Their navigation systems were fried. The computers were dead. She recognized the Nile to her south. She flew with eye and hand.
She saw it ahead. The ruins of Jerusalem.
She flew lower. She was only a kilometer aboveground now. She flew over the desert, roaring toward the ruins. She could see the mountaintop city ahead.
And from the sky, thousands of saucers descended.
The ships charged toward her, lasers blasting.
Explosions rocked the Lodestar. Ben-Ari screamed.
She fired her guns. But there were too many saucers. The enemy ships mobbed her. Their blasts ripped more holes through the hull. Fire gusted into the bridge. Ben-Ari stared ahead, desperate to land, to reach the human army, to save those still alive aboard the Lodestar. To rejoin the fight. She flew lower. She was almost there. Grays below saw the ship, raised guns, opened fire. Ben-Ari was just a hundred meters over the ground now. She—
A blast hit her last engine.
It burst into flames and shattered.
The Lodestar streaked downward and slammed into the ground.
The mighty ship plowed through the earth, uprooting olive trees, shattering stones, burning up.
Ben-Ari grimaced and hit the brakes, desperate to stop the ship. The thrusters screeched. Sparks flew. Smoke filled the bridge. Monitors shattered. The ancient wall of Jerusalem rose ahead, and Ben-Ari screamed as the ship slammed into it.
They tore through the wall with a shower of bricks, screeched across the ancient cobbled streets, and came to a halt among the ruins of Jerusalem.
Ben-Ari lay on the floor, breathing.
I'm alive.
She could barely believe it, but it was true.
I survived.
The bridge of the Lodestar was located deep within the ship, protected with additional shielding. She was alive, but was the rest of the crew as lucky? She shoved herself up, limped toward Niilo, and tugged off the beam burying him. The beefy man moaned, bleeding from a gash on his head, unconscious. Ben-Ari turned toward Aurora. The mollusk was struggling to free herself from an overturned workstation. Ben-Ari strained, lifting off the heavy controls, and the alien slithered free.
"Mistress . . ." Aurora's translation device was cracked, the voice staticky. "You . . . flew . . . wonderfully. Like . . . a true . . . Menorian."
Outside the ship, Ben-Ari heard it. Gunfire. Booming cannons. Roaring engines. The battle for Earth was raging.
She ripped the HOPE insignia off her shoulders.
"Right now I am no longer the captain of the Lodestar," Ben-Ari said. "Right now I am Major Einav Ben-Ari, a soldier of the Human Defense Force."
She stepped off the bridge. She moved through the ravaged ship, passing by racing medics and engineers. She paused by the armory, grabbed a plasma rifle and grenades, then made her way to a hole in the hull.
She climbed out into the world. Into war. Into the final battle for Earth.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
"Tomiko!" Marco took a step toward the brothel, reaching out toward her. "Tomi—"
Addy grabbed him. She yanked him away from the brothel. They stood on the shadowy roadside, the jagged towers of Gehenna rising around them. They still wore the plague doctor disguises, but thousands of grays crowded the roads here, and eyes were turning toward them.
Addy thrust her beaked gas mask near Marco and sneered.
"What the fuck are you doing, Poet?" she hissed. "You'll blow our cover."
Marco's heart raced. His head spun. He looked toward Tomiko, but the grays were dragging her between their brothel's columns. Marco could barely breathe.
"Addy, it's—"
She gripped him tighter. Her clawed gloves nearly cut his forearms. "I know who it is." Addy's eyes narrowed with fury. "If you go in there to s
ave her, we're fucked. Our cover is blown."
Marco looked from side to side, desperate. The dark city spun around him, the towers leaned in, and the obsidian idols along the roadside seemed to mock him. Addy was right, he knew. If he ran into the brothel to save Tomiko, he might never make it to the pyramid. He'd jeopardize the mission. He had to carry on. And yet how could he abandon Tomiko here to rape, to torture?
"Poet." Addy spoke softly. "Poet, she dumped you. She cheated on you. She treated you like shit."
He shook his head, eyes damp. "No, Ads. I'm the one who treated her like shit. I drove her to leave me. I can't abandon her now. I can't." He touched her shoulder. "Go on without me. Get the job done. Kill the Oracle. I'm going in after Tomiko."
"Like hell I'm going on without you!" Addy said. "Fuck that shit. We do things together. We do everything together. Weren't you just telling me that yesterday?"
From inside the brothel—screams. Tomiko's screams.
"Addy, I have to," he whispered.
She sighed and rolled her eyes. "All right. All right! We'll save Tomiko. Fuck it. Why not complicate things? It's tradition." She gripped his hand and pulled him toward the brothel. "So come on, Poet. Let's save the bitch."
In their plague doctor outfits, they stepped between two columns, entering the brothel.
Grays lay around them, copulating on the floor. Others hung from cages, engaged in deviancy for all to see. Across the hall, the grays were dragging Tomiko onto an altar. Chains awaited.
Addy marched across the hall and doffed her robe, exposing her rifle, grenades, and blades.
"Listen up, bitches!" she shouted, boots clattering. "We're here to eat sausages and kick ass, and we're all out of sausages!" She glanced at Marco. "Seriously, we are. I ate the last one on the way here." She looked back ahead and shouted again. "Hand over the human and I might let you live!"
Marco too doffed his cloak, exposing his weapons. He raised his rifle and yanked back on the cocking handle. "Tomiko, I'm here!"
From the back of the temple, she looked at him.
Marco ripped off his gas mask and met her eyes.
God. It was real. It was impossible, yet there she was. She was really here.
Tomiko. The girl he had fallen in love with. The girl who had come into his life with smiles and tears, with kisses and shouts, with fire and water, a tornado of emotions and shattering and rebuilding. A woman he had given his heart to. A woman he had betrayed. A woman who had betrayed him. A woman he hated and still loved with all his heart.
I was broken when I met you, he thought. I was hurt, so I hurt you and you hurt me, and we created a dance of pain. But I'm here now. And I'll save you.
"Marco!" Tomiko cried.
The grays spun toward them. They shrieked. Several leaped back. Others laughed. A few copulated with more vigor.
But many leaped toward Marco and Addy, claws lashing.
Marco and Addy fired their railguns. The bullets shrieked out, pounding into the grays, knocking them back. More grays kept leaping toward them. Marco and Addy walked down the hall, boots thumping, firing bullet after bullet, blasting back gray after gray. Blood sprayed. Some grays shrieked and fled. More raced forward. A few fired electrical bolts. A blast hit Marco's chest. His armored spacesuit saved his life, but the blow felt like a hammer. Ignoring the pain, he fired his railgun again and again, taking out more grays. Addy took a blow to the side and kept walking, spraying bullets. Blood washed the brothel, grays screamed, and the creatures scurried between the columns, fleeing the building.
Marco and Addy reached the altar.
Several grays lay dead around the altar in pools of blood; the railguns had torn them apart. One gray was still alive, blood staining his indigo robes. The towering, wrinkly creature held Tomiko, his claws on her neck. The gray leered at Marco and Addy. His eyes filled with delight. He let out a long, luxurious hiss.
"This is getting interesting." The gray licked his lips. "Take one more step, and I slay this whore. And I will take you both to be my slaves. I—"
Marco fired his railgun.
His bullet tore through the gray's head.
As chunks of skull and brain flew, Tomiko twisted herself free from the claws and ran toward Marco. He lowered his rifle, and she leaped into his arms.
"Marco!" Tomiko said, weeping, trembling. "Oh, Marco. They came to your house. They were looking for you. For Addy too. They thought I knew where you are. Marco . . ." She dissolved into weeping.
"I'm here, Tomiko," he whispered, holding her close. "I'm here. You're safe now."
"Um, Poet?" Addy said. "That sentiment might be a bit premature."
He looked at Addy. She was pale, gun clutched in her hands. Marco looked around and felt the blood drain from his own face.
Hundreds of gray soldiers were advancing toward the brothel.
Several saucers hovered above.
The troops stepped between the columns, guns pointed at Marco and Addy, eyes glittering through the holes in their helmets. Tomiko clung to Marco. Addy winced.
"So, Tomiko," Addy said, "did you remember to bring the entire HDF with you?"
Marco gently moved Tomiko behind his back.
"Stay behind me, Tomi," he whispered.
One of the gray soldiers stepped forward. She was a towering female in gilded armor. A jeweled ankh hung around her neck, formed from finger bones, and rotting bat wings sprouted from her back. She raised a spear, a pulsing heart skewered upon it. The creature nodded at Marco and Addy.
"Welcome, friends," the winged gray said. "We knew you would come." She turned toward her troops. "Take them alive!"
"Yes, Mistress Isis!" the gray warriors cried.
The grays—hundreds of them—swarmed.
Marco and Addy fired their railguns. Bullets slammed into the grays. Dozens of the creatures fell. But dozens more were charging. Thousands filled the city. The creatures shrieked, cackled, scuttled across the ceiling, climbed the columns. Their guns fired.
Electric bolts slammed into Marco. He took three on the chest but kept firing. A fourth bolt drove between his ribs, cracking his armor, knocking the breath out of him. More blasts knocked him onto the floor. Marco screamed, struggling to shield Tomiko under his body. Addy stood above them, firing in automatic, slaying more grays. Blasts slammed into her. She fell to her knees, still firing, still shouting. A bolt slammed into her chest, and she too fell.
"Keep them alive!" screeched Isis, the winged gray. "Bind them!"
Claws grabbed Marco. He fired his gun. Bullets slammed into the gray gripping him, pulverizing its helmet and the flesh within. Another gray grabbed his hot barrel, and the creature's flesh sizzled, but the gray kept his grip tight. God, the beast was strong. The gray ripped the gun from Marco's grasp. Tomiko screamed. Claws grabbed her, tearing her skin. Marco shouted and leaped onto the grays, drawing his knife. He lashed the blade. It sparked against armor. Addy fought at his side, screaming, blood in her mouth. The grays were everywhere. More electrical blasts flew, hitting them. Marco screamed and fell back down.
They brought out chains.
They slapped Marco, Addy, and Tomiko in irons.
They lifted them overhead, shrieking, cheering, jeering. Claws cut into them. Their blood fell. The guttural voices chanted in triumph.
"We caught the humans!" cried Isis, her rotting wings spread wide. "Take them to pain! The Tarasque shall feed!"
Addy was screaming and cursing. Marco struggled but knew it was hopeless. The grays carried them out of the brothel and along the boulevard. Across the city, grays stared and laughed and licked their teeth.
I'm sorry, Ben-Ari, Marco thought. I'm sorry, Addy. I'm sorry, Tomiko. I'm sorry, Earth.
The grays kept carrying them, moving away from the pyramid, and the crowds roared, and the chant echoed.
"To pain! To pain!"
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
Lailani stood on the hilltop, rifle in hand, helmet on her head. A dozen years ago, as a young private
, she had scrawled words on her helmet with a permanent marker: Life is a bag of dicks with syphilis. She had been young, been hurt, been afraid, had sought comfort in her anger and twisted humor. Today was her thirtieth birthday. Today she was a captain in the Human Defense Force, commanding a company of two hundred warriors. Today on her helmet she had drawn only two words: Earth Eternal.
Her warriors stood behind her, guns in hand, two hundred of Earth's finest. The hill they guarded was the tallest peak of Jerusalem, overlooking the ruins. Elvis stood at her side, smiling thinly.
"Well, they outnumber us about ten thousand to one," he said. "Plenty for us to kill. I feel almost bad for the poor bastards."
He was telling jokes. But his voice trembled. He was pale. His fingers shook around his gun.
Thousands of saucers hovered above the city. Countless gray soldiers were marching across the ruins, surrounding the hill. Across the land, the HDF was fighting the invasion with artillery, tanks, fighter jets, and good old infantry. Saucers were reported over every major city. This battle raged across the world.
They have us in a stranglehold, Lailani thought. She smiled thinly.
"Those bastards don't know what's coming to them." She slapped Elvis on the back. "Ready to fight?"
Elvis took a shuddering breath. "No. But hell, I missed the last war. Might as well have some fun now."
Grays were beginning to climb the hill. Thousands of them.
Lailani turned toward her troops. "Soldiers! Today you will win! For Earth!" She spun toward the enemy and aimed her rifle. "For Earth, fire!"
She opened fire. Across the hill, her company fired their guns. They tore into the grays. Hundreds of the creatures fell, only for others to step over the corpses, to keep climbing the hill.
"Earth!" Lailani shouted, loading and reloading.
"Earth!" her soldiers cried, guns blazing.
The grays returned fire. Soldiers fell. Gray corpses piled up below. A saucer streaked overhead, and lasers tore through her company. They fired skyward, taking the saucer down. It crashed at their side, crushing an archway. The soldiers kept firing. More fell. The dead lay around Lailani's feet. She tore the magazines off their chests and reloaded her rifle. Hot casings piled up around her. She fought on. Elvis was shouting at her side, firing with her, slaying the creatures.
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