The longboat was immense. It landed on the beach with a storm of wind and sand, a great black sliver of metal.
((get on, they’re close!))
Jennings was shocked beyond words. He stood and watched the craft land in utter disbelief, jaw agape in amazement. Was it really another Diablo vessel?
The men in black ran to the longboat, boarded it through a hatchway. Reynald snapped from his reverie, ran toward the longboat, slowed, halted.
Jennings was terrified. He sat alone on the beach, blood still coursing down his face. In shock, he wiped it from his eyes and wondered at the redness of his hand.
Reynald relented. He could not blame this man for Magdalene’s death or this insane war. He was just another innocent dragged into the war against the Enemy.
“The Enemy is coming for your planet.”
((HURRY.))
“I know you don’t understand any of this. I’m sorry you had to be caught up in this—”
((THEY’RE ALMOST HERE.))
“The Enemy’s coming for your planet. They’ll kill it. They’ll kill your people. They’ll kill you. They’ll steal your souls and you’ll be damned forever.”
((NOW.))
“If you want to live, come with us.” Reynald looked at Jennings with his too-gray eyes. “There’s nothing we can do now for your people, your planet, your time.”
Reynald looked to the northwest, where an ominous line of black clouds had appeared. The darkness swept upon them. The black lace of the Enemy web was already engulfing the sky.
“There’s a storm coming.
“If you want to live, come with us.”
Reynald took Jennings’ hand and helped him up.
The longboat ascended into the upper atmosphere, then into orbit, where it rejoined Simon, unseen by the Enemy.
((hello, reynald.))
“Simon, I—”
((you don’t have to say a thing. i know she’s dead.))
“Simon, there’s more. We—”
((it can wait.))
Zero-Four joined them. He placed his hand on Reynald’s shoulder, unspoken sympathy passing between the two Judas captains. “Good to see you, Jean. Unfortunately, we’ve picked up an Enemy fleet coming in. The readings from the Stream are off the scale. We’d better get out of here. Into the stasis chambers.”
“But we—”
“No time, Reynald. We have to hurry.”
Jennings stared lifelessly at a viewscreen. “Will they really kill them all?”
Reynald joined him. “It’ll do more than kill them… The Enemy is ravenous in its hunger.”
Jennings was pale, quiet.
“This is for real, isn’t it?”
“The Enemy is all too real.”
Simon slipped into the night.
At four thirty-seven Global Standard Time, the Enemy vessel took a position in Earth orbit, and all global communication systems planet-wide went silent.
The storm had arrived.
Deep within the black, laughter like screaming echoed into the void
PLANET OF THE SHADOWS.
…the sun how can they…
…is anyone there we’re surrounded…
…help please damn…
…we need more troops…
…they’re everywhere…
…pull back now pull back…
…saigon is out. bangkok, manila…
…chicago oh shit…
…what the hell is that…
…the sunlight…
…new york has fallen…
…pentagon satcom dead…
…wind river…
…regroup don’t let it…
…voices get the fucking VOICES out of my…
…nuke it nuke it nuke it—
…
silence fell, as did mankind.
the Stream.
a blackness moved, converged, lashed out.
the warriors of the Judas fled before it.
the black would harvest once more.
another When had fallen.
It knew only pain.
There had been a different place once, but the memory was but a haze lurking in what had been its mind. The line between reality and fantasy became a gray area into which it retreated.
There was no sensation of up or down in this black hell. It thought that time still existed, but it was not sure. It could see nothing, hear nothing.
Floating, floating in an ocean of rhythmic pulses.
It remembered the terrible loss of humanity, the invasive metal tendrils, the feel of flesh becoming silver decay, the incomprehensible mind that became its own. The incomprehensible Pattern.
It floated in the black and wept tears of damnation into the void. It sensed that it was not alone.
Indeed, it sensed that it was one among an infinity.
“Geiger’s off the scale!” shouted the man in black and gray over the howling winds and the staccato voice of the radioactivity meter. Another shockwave passed over them, and the men braced themselves against the hot blast of air. The world was dust and choking and burning breaths.
“Where’s ground zero?”
“Probably Chicago. That fleet of Spears…Well, they must have dropped everything they had on it.”
“How long do we have?”
“We can’t take this level of rads for much longer. Here.” The medic held out a hypodermic spray and reached out to administer the radiation treatment. He shook his head, motioned for the medic to tend to the other troops first. “We’re almost out of antirad. After that…” The medic shook his head.
Another man approached, looking apologetic. “Bates is fading.”
“Let’s go.”
The two soldiers dressed in urban warfare camouflage slipped through the shadows of the blasted-out building to the makeshift triage where the wounded lay dying and the dead were piled. Flashes of white illuminated the
