Valley of Fires: A Conquered Earth Novel (The Conquered Earth Series)

by J. Barton Mitchell

  Mira flipped open the pocket watch and stepped back. So did Smitty. “What exactly does this thing do?”

  The black, squirming light, like a mass of worms, slowly fizzled into the air.

  “Never mind, don’t tell me.” He backed up farther.

  Mira tensed, watching the black light grow, a sign the Grounder wasn’t working, and that—

  The blackness was sucked back down into the combination, and she felt the floor under her vibrate strangely.

  A mass of projections assaulted her mind from outside like an explosion. Her knees buckled, she went limp, and if it hadn’t been for Smitty catching her, she would have hit the floor.

  The sensations were all the same. Revulsion. Shock. Fear.

  She could feel the Assembly recoil as one, pulling back in a wave as the train and the effect from her artifact rumbled toward them.

  The loud harmonic pings of Antimatter cannons filled the air. She heard Ospreys move into a hover, heard the loud thuds as the silver walkers cut loose and hit the ground.

  Sorcerer shuddered violently as it slowed, and Mira and Smitty moved for the side door. When they reached it, he stared at her with emotion.

  “Crazy to say it, I know,” Smitty said, “but this is the most meaningful thing I’ve ever done.”

  Mira felt emotion swell in her, and she looked back at him. “Thank you for coming, Smitty.”

  Then they yanked open the door and stumbled out into chaos, planting themselves against the back of a rusted water tower.

  Explosions blossomed everywhere in the night, colored crystals shot through the air, plasma bolts singed past. Distorted bursts of sound punctuated flashes of light as Brutes teleported in with reinforcements. Spiders, Mantises, Hunters, all adding firepower to the rest.

  In the distance, she saw blue and white walkers explode, saw a flight of Raptors crash into an old warehouse and, all the while, the Assembly were moving back and away, trying to get as far from Sorcerer and the horrible perverted signal it was broadcasting as they could. It was working.

  Mira could feel the same revulsion from the silvers, the same anxiety, but they held their ground.

  “Move as one!” Dasha yelled as she leapt into the air, followed by a thousand White Helix, their Lancets firing as they darted through the old train yard.

  Mira looked around quickly, trying to find any sign of—

  She saw it, about a hundred yards away. The distinctive, strobic flashing of gunfire. Someone had taken up a defensive position in front of the biggest building she could see, with three huge smokestacks stretching into the air. It had to be the Regiment.

  Mira started to move … then saw a small, gray shape bound out of the train. Its eyes found her almost immediately. Its tail wagged in spite of the destruction going on around it.

  “Coming, mutt?” she yelled as she ran. Max raced after her.

  They both dodged through explosions and plasma bolts. Blue and white gunships streaked over the battle, strafing the factory and Sorcerer and everything in between.

  She saw new crystals streak through the air and connect, big ones, blowing the Raptors to pieces. Mira looked behind her and saw what she’d hoped.

  The Landships had caught up, they were adding their firepower to the rest.

  Her radio crackled. “Mira, you out there?”

  “Go, Dresden.”

  “Gonna try and pull the Raptors off you, circle them back into the landscape, catch ’em in a crossfire.”

  “Be careful,” she said with hesitation.

  The Landships banked hard, their Antimatter crystals streaking back to their cannons. The Raptors took the bait, engines roaring as they raced after the ships, freeing up the skies.

  Mira and Max ran, made it to the building, and prayed whoever was outside didn’t blow them away as they approached. They didn’t. Instead, they motioned her closer, and she and Max leapt over a ring of old cars that had been piled together to make fortifications.

  There were about forty fighters there, some shooting through gun ports, others reloading … and many more lying in the middle, wounded, moaning. It was a testament to what they’d been through. The fact they were still alive showed just how tough they were.

  “It’s my sincere hope,” a tall, muscular kid behind a rusted van yelled, “you’re gonna tell me how in hell you pushed ’em back like that. Not that I’m complaining.”

  “You in charge here?” Mira shot back, moving for him.

  The kid studied her skeptically. He was past twenty, his eyes almost as black as Major’s, and he would have been good-looking if not for the shrapnel scars on his face.

  “If you wanna call it that, sure,” he finally said. “I don’t think anyone could be in charge of this mess. Call me Shue.”

  “You got radios, Shue?” Mira asked.

  “No, we use smoke signals. Of course we got radios.”

  “Tell your men not to shoot the silver Assembly,” Mira said pointedly. “They’re on your side.”

  Shue seemed beyond skeptical. “On our side?”

  “It’s a long story.”

  All around them White Helix flipped into the air in bursts of yellow and purple, their Lancets spinning blurs of color. Bigger versions of the crystals shot out from the sides of the huge, armored train that had pulled into the yard, exploding through blue and white walkers.

  “Who the hell are you people?” Shue asked, studying it all.

  “We were supposed to meet in Burleson, your leader set it up. We’re here to help. What’s your status?”

  “Holding on, but without Isaac, things are going bad. He always pulls us out of scraps like this.”

  Isaac must have been the leader. “Where is he?”

  Shue nodded up and behind them, to where the factory yard ended in a street lined with old office buildings. One was burning, flames licking the side, and it looked like something had crashed into it.

  “Bastards brought in Vultures right at the beginning, when we were still bunched up. One of the claws got him, but I took the thing down with a SAM. At close range, those things go down pretty easy. Crashed right there, had Isaac and a few other kids in its grip. I sent a small team … but I don’t think they made it. I’ve never seen anything like this, this many Assembly all in one place. It’s hell. Even for Sisco.”

  Mira stared at the smoking building and scowled. It seemed like every time she finally made it somewhere, the universe just moved the finish line farther back. She tore her gaze away and flagged down a Helix. Then she hit the button on her radio.

  “Dasha, I need you. Look up.”

  Mira nodded to the Helix, and he understood, shot the red end of his crystal straight up into the air like a flare.

  Mira looked at Shue again. “I need this Isaac alive. I have to get to the Citadel.”

  Shue didn’t laugh out loud or even look particularly doubtful. He just nodded, thinking it through, like the request was a normal one. Maybe it was for guys like him. “You got a good-size force here. Isaac could do something with that. Probably get you there, but…”

  “Where’s the rest of the Regiment? Where’s everyone else?”

  Shue tensed at the question. “You’re looking at it.”

  The words hit her like a punch, anguish washed over her. The Phantom Regiment, one of the toughest forces on the planet, and the group she’d been counting on, were all but wiped out. She buried the emotions before they could form. They still had their numbers, and the artifact was working. If they could find Isaac, they might be able to still make it.

  A small force seemed the only way, leave the rest here to keep the foothold they’d gained, such as it was.

  Dasha landed next to her in a flash of cyan, and the Regiment soldiers all flinched in amazement. She didn’t notice, her eyes were full of battle lust.

  “We got something we need to do,” Mira told her. Dasha smiled.

  39. ISAAC

  THE SHAFT HAD BEEN SEWER and utility tunnels once, Mira figured
, but judging by the rough marks on the walls, the Regiment had expanded them over the years. According to Shue, the Regiment had tunnels like these running all through the city, which allowed them to move out of sight of the Assembly. Above, she could hear the sounds of explosions. More than that, she could feel them, the vibrations rattling down through the earth. She hoped the tunnel was as stable as it looked.

  Three Arcs of Helix flanked Mira on both sides but none of them seemed happy about it. Every time an explosion hit, they looked up eagerly. Their brothers and sisters were fighting up there, accruing honor, while they were stuck down here. Mira had a feeling that wouldn’t be an issue very long. Max was there too, but he’d pushed ahead into the dark, sniffing and exploring, the environment very much his kind of place.

  Shue and two of his men guided them through the tunnels, and she could see them stop at the front and stare upward. One of them scrambled up a ladder and pushed open a rusted manhole cover. The sounds of battle echoed down into the tunnels as the Helix followed up after them. When Mira reached the ladder, Max was still there, whining up at the exit.

  Mira sighed. “You’re a real pain, you know that?”

  “Hand him up,” Shue told her from above, leaning back down through the hole. “Hurry, though.”

  Max growled slightly as she picked him up, squirmed in her arms, then, infuriatingly, seemed to calm when she handed him to Shue. Mira shook her head and climbed up, exited, and immediately looked for cover.

  There wasn’t any.

  The street they were on, a wide one moving between large, decrepit buildings, was a strange mix of destruction and desolation. The rubble was recent, it looked like it had rained down from the building just ahead. She could see the hole in its side where the Vulture had crashed into it.

  Other than that, the streets were empty. The Assembly Collectors had picked them clean of anything that could be used for raw materials. It was eerie, in a way, looking at it.

  Explosions spiraled back the way they’d come, and Mira saw Antimatter crystals streaking upward, could even hear the punctuated noise that marked Brutes teleporting in with reinforcements.

  The Assembly were being pushed back … for now.

  Raptors roared past overhead suddenly, and plasma bolts sparked all around them.

  Two Helix and one of Shue’s men fell. Dasha lunged in a flash of purple and drove Mira to the ground. The gunships banked sharply, coming back for another run. So much for being undetected.

  “We need to get inside,” Dasha stated.

  “I concur,” Mira shot back.

  They ran toward the building as the sound of engines grew behind them. Shue kicked open the big glass doors and they dashed in as more plasma bolts shredded the streets.

  No one stopped, just kept moving for the stairwell. The edifice was probably twenty feet high, and the Vulture had crashed about halfway up. Hopefully, they’d know the floor when they got there.

  Mira wasn’t wrong. The door to the eleventh floor had been blown apart, and smoke was still thick in the air. She could see flames as the group pushed through.

  A collection of dusty, unused cubicles and desks was blown forward in front of the crashed alien craft that had burst through the windows.

  The wedge-shaped machine was fairly intact, rolled over onto its side, and Mira could just make out the blue and white color pattern that covered its armor through the flames that burned around it.

  “Spread out!” Shue yelled with a note of desperation. “Find him, search the rubble.”

  Mira moved as fast as anyone, Max next to her, searching with his nose. Vultures had powerful grappling claws they shot from altitude to grab unsuspecting survivors. This one had grabbed Isaac, which meant he was riding underneath the ship when it went down. He would have been exposed when—

  “Here!” Dasha yelled. Mira rounded the side of the craft to see the Helix and Shue lifting off rubble and bent metal from a small figure.

  Before they could finish, plasma bolts sparked all around them as two Raptors appeared in a hover outside.

  Antimatter crystals streaked forward and punched through the ships in green and blue flame. They plummeted out of sight and crashed, but there were more outside, and probably walkers on the way now.

  “Get out there and hold them off!” Dasha yelled, and six warriors leapt outside in flashes of yellow.

  Shue finished uncovering the figure, and Mira breathed a sigh of relief when she saw he was alive. Scratched up and bleeding, but conscious.

  “Hey boss,” Shue said with a giant smile. “You look like crap.”

  Mira moved closer and stared down at a boy covered in concrete and glass, and he wasn’t anything like she expected. He was short and skinny, pale even, and the broken frames of glasses barely clung to his face. He studied the White Helix outside, just visible as they flipped up and down the side of the building, avoiding a storm of plasma fire and dropping another Raptor.

  “White Helix…” he observed in fascination. Mira was surprised. Few people had any idea what Helix actually looked like in action.

  “She’s got her own Assembly too,” Shue told him, helping him sit up. “And Landships. And an armored train with crazy guns on it. They’re cleaning house back at base.”

  Finally, Isaac looked up at Mira, and in his eyes she finally saw the trait which had probably earned him his position at the top of the Regiment. A flood of intellect, apparent by how he studied her up and down, and it way he did reminded her very much of Ben. They had a similar way, and the sight brought a dull ache as she remembered his sacrifice back at the Severed Tower.

  “Mira Toombs, I’m guessing,” Isaac stated.

  “We had a meeting in Burleson.”

  “Yeah,” he answered without much enthusiasm. “As you can see, we got a little sidetracked.”

  “We have to get you out of here. Can you walk?”

  With the question, both Isaac and Shue looked at her with conflicting stares. Shue’s was almost hostile, while Isaac just seemed embarrassed.

  “No,” he said.

  “Are you—?” Dasha began, but he cut her off.

  “I’m paraplegic,” he said, looking down at his legs, and it was then that Mira noticed just how thin they were.

  Mira tried to hide her frustration. There went that finish line again.

  “We’ll get him,” Shue told her. “Don’t worry, heaviest part of this guy’s his brain, right boss?”

  “I hate it when you say that,” Isaac responded as Shue picked him up and tossed him over his shoulder.

  More plasma bolts sparked around them, ripping into what was left of the support structure of the floor, spraying sparks and debris everywhere, and it was coming from below. Mira looked down and saw a dozen blue and white Mantis walkers converging on their building, their cannons spraying plasma up at them. She could feel their lust, their desire for carnage.

  The floor under her shook. The remains of the Vulture groaned as it began to tip and bend, loosening from where it rested.

  Dasha grabbed Mira and pulled her up. Shue lunged forward with Isaac. Two Helix were cut down by plasma before the rest of them leapt away.

  Mira and Max ran as everything vibrated like an earthquake. There was a horrible rending sound as the supports of the building caved in and the Vulture fell, taking most of the floor with it, falling in a shower of debris to the ground below.

  Mira slammed to the floor just past where the whole thing had come down, and grabbed Max and pulled him back from the breach. It was like being outside now. The wind blew through her hair, there was nothing on either side, the whole building swayed precariously, and still the Mantises fired up at them.

  “Stairs!” Mira yelled, and Dasha kicked the door open, let Shue and Mira burst inside. More plasma burned the air as she lunged through after them, and before she did she heard the whining of Raptor engines. They were in a lot of trouble.

  They reached the bottom and Mira burst through into the lobby, followed
by Max … then she pulled him close and ducked behind the remains of an old reception desk as plasma bolts shredded everything.

  Shue, Isaac, Dasha, and a few of her Arc slid into cover with them.

  “Can’t get out the front anymore,” Shue stated, looking over his shoulder.

  “The rear!” Isaac yelled. “The older sewer grates. They’re not directly connected, but—”

  “I get the gist!” Mira yelled as more glass shattered.

  “We’ll buy time for you,” Dasha told Mira, holding her gaze pointedly. “Get him out of here!”

  Before Mira could argue, she and four Helix leapt up and dashed in flashes of purple, exploding through the glass windows, and engaging the Mantises outside. It did what it was supposed to: distracted the walkers, got their fire on something else. For now.

  Mira grimaced, but there wasn’t time to lament it.

  “Tell me which way, I’ll lead!” she told Shue.

  “That way!” He pointed behind them, toward the other end of the building.

  Mira and Max ran from the old reception desk. She could see the glass doors out the back and raced for them.

  Then the ground shook under her feet. Not from an explosion … but from a footfall.

  A huge machine stepped into view outside, past the boundary of another building. Eight massive legs held the Spider walker thirty feet off the street. Mira saw its body twist, felt the sensations wash off it as it spotted them.

  “Down!” Mira pushed Shue and Isaac to the floor as plasma bolts blew apart the wall in front of them. Two more Helix were incinerated as the others crawled behind the building’s cement support columns.

  More plasma came from where they’d just run from, the Mantises at the front, and it was ripping apart everything in that direction. At first it seemed like indiscriminate fire, but Mira could sense the Assembly around them, their intentions.

  “They’re going to bring down the building,” Mira said in horror.

  The plasma kept coming, decimating everything. She could hear the building groan, could see pieces of it beginning to fall. They would be crushed, and there was nowhere to go.

  She thought of Ambassador, she could maybe guide him in, but there just wasn’t—