by Brett Patton
The Hellions were on them again. Talons sliced deep. Fusion Handshakes rocked them. Matt/Michelle/Soto flailed and rolled, trying to drive them off.
But the Hellions were fast. Too fast. They drove the Demon to the center of the city. Kilometers-high buildings rose like canyon walls all around them, punctuated by pylons of glowing, green-veined metal. In Matt’s POV, the pylons emitted strong electromagnetic waves, perhaps part of the city’s still-working power system.
But there was no time to dwell on that. The Hellions came at them again. Biometallic flesh burned away and raw muscles glittered from the open wounds. Matt/Michelle/ Soto convulsed, and the Demon shook with them.
Matt had a sudden vision of their future: torn and broken, lying at the center of the grand HuMax city, another treasure for Rayder to plunder.
No! Matt’s rage exploded like a nuclear furnace. He wouldn’t let that happen.
And he knew exactly what he had to do.
You’re insane, Michelle thought.
Yes, he is, Soto thought. Let’s fucking do it.
They rocketed the Demon at the nearest pylon, embracing it with a lopsided hug. Their own talons dug deep into the metal.
Now, if it’s part of a power system, and if it’s smart enough . . . all intelligence yearns for Merge, Matt thought.
The babble of the city’s systems coursed through their Demon. Mindless routines, done over and over until failure. Historical records of the founding. Surveillance video of empty plazas, dead skies, as the city slowly crumbled over the years. Calculation and assessment of the environment, as it slid closer to unlivability. Incredible images of HuMax flying as gods under the purple sky. The sound and fury of the Human–HuMax War.
And power. So much power. More than he ever expected. This wasn’t a dim nuclear heart pulsing its last beats. This was raw, unlimited power drawn from the molten core of the planet itself.
Matt/Michelle/Soto reached for it—and became the city.
Suddenly they were everywhere. Every functional surveillance camera fed images to their minds. Every working node of the city’s power system waited at their will.
The Demon flowed into the city. Veins of biometal snaked down the pylon and through the streets, scarring their mirror-smooth surfaces. Ropes of power coursed up the buildings and deep down to the city’s core.
Matt/Michelle/Soto took the power into themselves. And then, in a concussive rush, gave it back.
NOW, Matt/Michelle/Soto thought.
Green fissures formed on the deserted avenues of the city as razor-sharp spears of silvery biometal erupted all around the Hellions. The spears shot at the Hellions simultaneously, moving so fast, no human eye could track them. Only vector traces in the trio’s goggles showed their trajectories.
Three of the Hellions were immediately impaled against the side of HuMax buildings. Spikes drilled deep into their arms, legs, and visors, until they hung limp. Tags indicated that the pilots were still alive.
Matt/Michelle/Soto felt the Hellion’s pilot’s thoughts. Single-minded in their dedication to Rayder. However, beneath that, good men and women who just wanted to be released from the mind control. The Union’s Mecha pilots were still in there.
None of the three were Kyle, though. Michelle’s waves of worry cascaded through Matt and Soto’s minds. But at the same time, she thought grimly, Let’s finish this.
Two Hellions fled. Matt/Michelle/Soto’s spears followed, snaking through the avenues of the city at dizzying speed. Matt’s POV blurred and went incoherent as it leapt from camera to camera. He had no idea where he was. But at the moment, it didn’t matter. The intense pleasure of chasing Rayder’s mind-controlled goons, moving without thinking, was enough.
Their spears struck the rearmost Hellion, shearing off its legs. It tumbled to a stop in a cloud of dust, at the edge of an open space full of vegetation. More spears of city biometal impaled its arms, holding the struggling Mecha down.
And in that moment, a sudden thought, familiar and intense :
Kill me.
Kyle.
Flashes of memory hit them: Kyle’s capture. The mind-control crown, the terror of nanonetworks in his brain. But a small part of him still fought on.
We’ll help you, Michelle thought through her tears.
No help! Just kill me! Kyle’s thoughts bounced between mindless devotion to Rayder and his true rage.
“We’ll cure you,” Michelle sobbed, out loud.
But the only thing they could do was hold him down as they went after the final Demon. Rayder.
Rayder’s Hellion shot down a broad shaft set in the middle of an industrial-looking area of the city, filled with shattered, low buildings that exposed complex mechanisms within.
Spears followed the last Hellion. But the shaft pierced deep into the planet. Without a source of power and intelligence, the shards grew thin and weak and fell away.
Rayder’s Hellion disappeared into the hot darkness.
20
RETRIBUTION
Matt screamed in frustration, struggling to pull away from the pylon. I’ll chase Rayder down! I’ll finish this!
“You can’t!” Michelle yelled. “We have to hold the Hellions !”
Matt sagged. She was right. They couldn’t go after Rayder. They had to hold the Hellions down until they could get the pilots out.
They do, Matt thought. Not you.
Fear from Michelle and Soto spiked through the Demon as they read his thoughts. You can’t unMerge now! Michelle screamed in his mind.
But she was wrong. He could. Matt saw every system in the regenerated Demon humming easily under the control of Michelle and Soto. They’d mastered it. They didn’t need him.
Matt pulled against the side of the Demon, thinking, UnMerge.
The Demon’s side stretched, twisting into a new form. An arm rose out of the silvery biometal, forming into talons as they watched. The edge of a visor peeked out.
Don’t leave me, Michelle thought, radiating fear.
I’ll be back, Matt told her.
The pilot’s chamber convulsed, and Matt felt himself moving away from Michelle and Soto. Soon he was alone in his own smooth, biometallic cockpit.
A tiny Mecha stood beside the regenerated Demon, its bright chrome surface reflecting the monumental architecture of the alien city. Only four meters tall, it was a little more in size and girth than a PowerSuit.
Inside, Matt’s view screen showed:
NEW CONFIGURATION ACCEPTED: MESH STABLE
COMMUNICATIONS: ENABLED
SENSORS: BASIC
WEAPONS SYSTEMS: NOT AVAILABLE
Matt grinned. A tiny, unarmed Mecha versus a half-smashed Hellion? That would have to be enough.
“You crazy man,” Soto said, his comms icon lighting. “You really won’t stop.”
“How are you two doing?” Matt asked.
“Good,” Michelle said. “We’ll be fine.”
Matt took off down the avenue toward the edge of the city. The mini Demon handled better than the reconstructed one, but it was still a little shaky.
“Make sure you come back!” Michelle shouted after him.
“I told you I would,” Matt said. But deep down, that little voice asked, Will you? What if that’s the price to destroy Rayder?
“See you both soon,” he added.
Matt rushed through the streets, following the Merged Demon’s spears. They led him to the industrial section and the yawning chasm. Up close, it was huge—at least fifty meters across. It descended into pitch-darkness.
Matt flung himself into it, like a pebble down a well. Rough rock walls rushed past him as he gathered speed, slowly disappearing into the darkness. Suddenly, Matt had a terrible thought: What if my thrusters don’t work?
He tumbled to orient the Mecha, then fired his rear thrusters. They came on with sputtering flares, but it was enough to slow him and light his way.
The hole above shrank to a faint purple pinprick as he descended. At the same t
ime, the rock walls changed. They began to glow red with heat. Veins of orange stone snaked down the walls. Magma? The outside temperature had risen to seventy degrees Celsius. Rayder, exposed in the cockpit, must be frying.
Boom! Matt struck a rock outcropping and tumbled, his vision wheeling.
Below him was another ledge and a deep alcove, filled with complex machinery and screens. In front of the machines crouched a trashed Hellion.
Rayder.
Matt spun in midair, hitting his thrusters full-on. He hit the ledge hard enough to send dust flying in the air. Shards of stone fell down on him. He ran at Rayder, who had just started to turn from his console.
Rayder dodged at the last moment and Matt crashed into the console, sending sparks flying. For a moment, he felt everything in the gigantic control system, the mother of the city’s own power grid. HuMax had been burrowing deep into the molten core of their world for hundreds of years. Adding nuclear generators. Carefully placing . . .
A Displacement Drive.
Rayder was trying to Displace the entire planet?
Rayder’s good arm flickered out, too fast to see, and caught Matt’s mini Demon by the neck in a viselike grip. Matt squealed as Rayder yanked him off the ground and brought him close to his face for examination.
That face. Those yellow and violet eyes, as cold and dead as he remembered them as Rayder stood over his fallen father. Red rage blotted out Matt’s vision. He lashed out furiously at Rayder, but the man held him fast.
Merge, Matt thought. But nothing happened. Rayder’s Hellion might as well have been stone. He couldn’t even feel Rayder’s thoughts!
Rayder held the mini Demon carefully away from his body. A knife-thin smile grew on his features.
“You’re a persistent fighter, corpsman,” Rayder said. “Let’s see who you are.”
Open, he thought.
The mini Demon unfolded like a flower. Baking heat hit Matt like a hammer, but he pulled his face mask off. To see Rayder with his own eyes.
Rayder looked at him calmly, without recognition.
“Fifteen years ago,” Matt said. “Prospect.”
Rayder threw back his head and laughed. “The child. Bravery must have its reward. But I’m afraid the reward is only death delayed.”
Rayder walked to the edge of the pit and dangled the mini Demon over its side. Corrosive gas stung Matt’s eyes, making him tear up. His whole body was cooking. He tried to close the hatch, but the Mecha didn’t respond to his command.
Rayder? Is Rayder in my systems?
A creeping coldness came over him. Yes. Rayder was in his Demon. Merging. Pulling out data.
“Who do you think created the HuMax, child?” Rayder asked. “None other than your perfect Union.”
Matt rocked back in shock. That couldn’t be true! The Union was created out of the rubble of war and desperation to destroy the HuMax! They’d risen to turn the tide of the Human–HuMax War! They—
“Have been chasing us down for a century and a half,” Rayder said. “And studying us. Why did I strike Geos, and why was your news so silent? We were freeing our comrades—that’s why.”
Matt hung openmouthed. Could it be true? Was the bombardment an excuse to release HuMax prisoners? Or, worse, lab subjects?
But in the back of Rayder’s mind, something coiled. Something dark. He hated all humans. And it wasn’t just revenge. It was an all-consuming insanity that wouldn’t be satisfied until humanity was extinct. But he wanted to study Matt. Matt’s Merge capability was better than any Rayder had imagined. But once Rayder knew the secret—
I’m in his mind now, Matt realized.
From Rayder, a sudden pulse of panic. Matt didn’t hesitate a microsecond. He reached out hard, thinking, Merge!
The two Mecha melted together. The resulting black-chrome sculpture toppled into the abyss. Toxic gases welled up at them as the temperature rose. None of Matt’s systems responded to his thoughts.
No time for finesse. UnMerge! Matt screamed in his mind.
The two Mecha melted back to their original forms. Matt’s hatch slapped closed and he snugged the face mask into place. Rayder tumbled next to him, slumped half out of his Mecha, seemingly inert.
Pressure and temperature rose rapidly, and Matt’s antimatter core was finally blinking its low-energy warning.
He had no choice. Matt fired thrusters and headed toward the surface.
Watching Rayder spiral down.
Back in the city, Matt found Michelle and Soto’s part of the reconstructed Demon still Merged with the city. Its visor swiveled to watch him approach. His comms flickered to live, showing Michelle’s icon.
“You made it!” she cried.
“What about Rayder?” Soto asked.
“Dead,” Matt said. Or at least I hope so.
“Congratulations,” Soto said.
Matt nodded but said nothing. Victory didn’t feel, well, like he expected it would. Your father’s killer is dead, he told himself. You should be ecstatic.
But there were too many other questions.
“Now all we have to do is get off this rock,” Soto said. “From what I can tell, the thrusters should be up to it, but how do we drag the Hellions back with us?”
“Merge with them,” Matt said.
“But what about the Helios?” Michelle asked. “It was boarded.”
“We’ll deal with that when we’re there,” Soto told her.
The three Merged into the fully reconstructed Demon configuration. Red and yellow warnings still scrolled on their screens, but the thrusters appeared to be almost fully regenerated.
More magic, Matt thought.
“What?” Michelle asked.
“Nothing.”
One by one, they Merged with Rayder’s captured Hellions. The mind-controlled pilots’ thoughts buzzed in their heads like angry bees. But it wasn’t enough to challenge their control.
Up to orbit, the thrusters were a little unstable, but Matt/ Michelle/Soto were able to maintain their attitude and direction.
The icon for the UUS Helios appeared in their view masks. It was still there, at least. As they drew near, they could see a Hellion crouching near its hangar doors. The Hellion raised its head to look at them, then grabbed for its Zap Gun.
But they’d destroyed or captured all of Rayder’s Hellions. Which meant this was the one from the Helios. The one Matt had used. So either it was captured or—
“Captain Ivers!” Matt barked. “It’s us! If you’re in control of the Helios, please answer!”
Ivers’ comms icon immediately flashed to life. “What the hell did you guys turn into?”
Matt/Michelle/Soto all grinned, imagining what the lopsided, reconstructed Demon, now half-Merged with a bunch of Hellions, must look like on Ivers’ screen.
“We don’t know yet, sir,” Soto said. “Are you secure? Can you share your bridge surveillance with us?”
“Good man. Don’t trust—verify. I think someone said that a long time ago.” A video feed from the Helios’ bridge came on. It showed Ivers and two pilots in interface suits reclining behind him. The third pilot’s seat was empty, as was the rest of the bridge. “They were tough buggers, but Sam cleared them out.” He nodded at the empty pilot’s chair.
Matt started. “Your pilots are Mecha Corps?”
Ivers nodded. “Where else? They have the interface-suit experience.”
The Hellion outside the dock lowered its Zap Gun and returned it to its holster. Still, Matt felt gnawing unease. Using Mecha tech in Displacement Drive ships meant Dr. Roth’s technology was spreading. He was consolidating more power. What does that mean? Another question to be answered.
Damn it, life after Rayder is supposed to be simple! Matt thought.
“Life is never simple,” Soto said out loud, as waves of amusement radiated from Michelle. Matt swallowed. He’d forgotten about sharing his thoughts.
“What happened with Rayder?” Captain Ivers asked.
“Killed, si
r,” Soto said, before Matt could speak.
Ivers smiled. “Good deal. Now let’s get you guys home.”
21
REWARD
Despite their triumph, it was a chilly reception back at Mecha Base. Matt, Michelle, and Major Soto were immediately marched up to the debriefing room by armed Auxiliaries, past swarms of repair crews still working on the compromised base. The atmospheric leaks had been silenced, but most of the slit windows were still covered in opaque foam. Large impacts from the maelstrom shuddered through the base, making the construction dust dance in the bright work lights.
Matt walked through the hallways in a daze, his Velcro soles heavy on the utility carpet. He hadn’t slept since before they left. Their unMerge and return to the Helios was a blur, as was their last brief battle with the Corsairs. Michelle and Soto had done most of that. He’d still been in a daze, thinking, Rayder is dead.
I hope Rayder is dead.
No. It was unthinkable. There was no way he could possibly survive. He’d fallen into the molten core of Jotunheim and been consumed. That was the only possible ending.
Like the histories? Matt thought. The ones with the valiant and innocent Union fighting the HuMax scourge?
Who did you think created us? Rayder’s voice echoed in his mind.
No. How could he even consider the word of a HuMax monster, the man who so casually killed his father?
But if his race was being used by the Union and his father had been part of the research . . .
Matt shook his head. “No,” he breathed.
Michelle looked at him. “No, what?”
“Nothing.”
She nodded, but kept studying his face for a long time. He felt her gaze hot on his cheek.
You should be happy, he told himself. You’re free.
In the meeting room, Dr. Roth, Yve Perraux, and Colonel Cruz flanked a jumpy FTL display that framed Congressperson Tomita and a woman. Someone very familiar.
Kathlin Haal, the Union’s Prime.