PART I:
THE FORGE
Chapter 1:
The River of Doom
'We're in the at!' There was no need to announce it—the assault carrier shook scarily in the atmosphere, vibrating all the way into our bones. In armor, strapped down in the aircar, we felt helpless in our death suits, black armor and red faceplates. Our assault carrier fell nose first, punching out a deep, hot combat drop into the atmosphere of Andrion 3.
All of
The O's awaited us. The Omnis were deadly alien warriors with immense psychic powers, invulnerable mag fields, and lots of experience in killing humans. We had never had any success in killing O's, but their intrusion into ConFree vac had to be countered. And there we were.
I listened to the music of the stars, roaring inside my helmet, incredibly beautiful, the stars hissing and booming as the assault craft bounced and shook, carrying us down to an unknown fate.
'Aircars—prep for launch.'
'Beta Air ready for launch.' Redhawk's armored fingers flew over the console, and all the lights glowed green. Snow Leopard sat beside him, still checking out the squad.
Snow Leopard began his pre-launch sermon, 'Psycho, if it moves…'
Psycho seemed edgy, 'It's dead. I know—tacstars, all the way!'
'Thinker, we'll be depending on you!' Snow Leopard's voice had a very hard edge on it, with more urgency than I remembered hearing before.
'I'll be there, Snow Leopard,' I said. I was oddly calm. Determined. Doomed.
'Warhound, there won't be time to double-check anything. If it moves…'
Warhound snapped back, 'Kill it. I've got it, Snow Leopard. Don't worry.'
'Priestess…'
'I'll be as close as I can get, Snow Leopard. Don't worry.'
Command interrupted, 'Launch aircars!'
The lights flickered and an alarm shrieked once again. It felt as if the gravity god were smashing me right through my armor. A great roar as the aircar jets erupted to full power, the console aglow, my entire body trembling from the vibrations. The aircar fell wildly into the dark, bouncing and shaking in unstable air. It appeared pitch black outside, but soon weak flickers of light were visible—sparks, lost in the awful night. Black clouds, flashing past us. A tremble of lightning. A glow, somewhere ahead and below. A soundless explosion, lighting up a sudden jagged black horizon, the lightning of the Gods. A dark volcano erupted, glittering streaks of golden lava bursting up into the night in heart-stopping slow motion.
'Look at that!'
'It's beautiful!'
'Thinker, I'm listening to the stars.' Priestess, a dreamy whisper. Priestess. Fragile Priestess. My hope. My strength.
'I'm with you, Priestess. I'm with you.' The car shook wildly, the engine shrieking, seemingly out of control.
'To the death…to the death…to the death…' Someone prayed quietly. And suddenly the Drop Song came on.
'The past is dead and gone,
The scent of flowers in a tomb,
A half-remembered tune
From a half-remembered time
Open your eyes, cast off old dreams!
A New World awaits you—
A New World to love you—
Drop, drop, drop!
The past is dead and gone!'
I tuned it out. I wanted to listen to the stars.
'Heads up, gang!' Redhawk warned us, snapping me out of my reverie. 'Here comes the antimat!' We fell through that evil night like a great cenite bat. The aircar's tacsit screen glowed hot with Legion aircar markers. The grav pulled at my restraints as the car buffeted wildly. Thick clouds edged with burning embers flashed past the plex. I caught a quick glimpse of another aircar, a sinister black bird, cutting through the soup, then gone. Up ahead, two glittering phospho white tracks relentlessly traced their way almost straight down towards the shrouded surface.
A blinding blue incandescent flash suddenly lit up everything, freezing it all into my retina, a fraction of time caught forever—a world afire below, dull red volcanoes belching fire and ash, ochre rivers of lava burning their way in great loops through that hellish underworld. A titanic blast of glittering orange lava shot skywards as the initial
