flash faded, a spectacular eruption, millions of dazzling streaks rising, growing, forming a massive fireball rising high into the atmosphere, blasting a shock wave of smoky debris ahead of it. My eyes were still dazzled by the flash—I couldn't see the target.
'It's headed for the vac!' Warhound shouted.
Then the shock hit us, flipping our car like a toy as the crack of doom resonated with my armor and rattled my teeth. Upside down, we hurtled to our death—until Redhawk regained control and righted us.
'That was the first anti!' Snow Leopard shouted. 'Take a look!'
'I never woulda guessed it!' Psycho quipped, 'Thanks for enlightening us!'
Everyone ignored him—we had a pretty scary view all right. The spectacular geyser of lava blasted its way completely out of the at with cosmic force, filling the sky, erupting from a giant irregular lava lake set at the foot of a bleeding volcanic mountain chain. There—that was the target! I could see nothing of the starport but as I watched, a heavy lava rain showered the lake, falling from the antimat blast.
Much of the surface of the lava lake had disintegrated or was still heading skyward, but there was plenty left. Nobody had ever before used antimat on an Omni starport hidden deep under the surface of a moving lake of lava. Command believed two strikes would shatter the upper portion of the Omni installation and probably kill a great many O's. We certainly didn't want the entire starport destroyed. It was an incalculably valuable prize of war, if we could win it. We had no idea of the size or structure of the installation—the lava was good camfax. We knew so little about the O's it was well worth the risks—that's what they had told us. The mission was to record and exploit everything we found, and recover what we could. If the antimat strike prompted the O's to retreat, we'd seize and hold. If they survived and rallied, we'd retreat rapidly. And all this to be done with lava presumably pouring into the base! Life ain't easy, as Snow Leopard often said.
I prayed that
'Look out!' An irresistible fist of gas hit us and a hailstorm of lava and pumice and ash peppered the car, screeching and pinging off the armored skin. We flipped again, my stomach swirling unhappily as I prayed to Deadman. In an instant, we were back on track, more or less right side up.
'I'm approaching the zero,' Redhawk reported. 'There's antimat number two—stand by!'
'Oh, no!' somebody objected.
The second of those awful phospho tracks was about to hit target—right on the Omni starport. I saw it coming down, the finger of God. Another elemental, eye-searing flash lit up the world, an antimat sun, an artificial comet impacting to shake the planet with cosmic force. The lava lake blew open with a mighty crack, punching a gigantic gassy plume of smoking, burning debris into the upper atmosphere while ejecting a stunning display of white-hot lava contrails ripping out in all directions—how could anything survive? The O's must be history! I gritted my teeth. The car rattled and lurched wildly, and my head snapped back and forth in my helmet.
'What's that?' Snow Leopard asked, pointing straight ahead.
Smoky clouds ahead of us were filled with incandescent little green tracers, meandering around lazily—as if looking for something.
'They're shooting at us!' Redhawk sounded shocked—as if it were not allowed. He snapped the car in a turn that must have been greater than 90 degrees, but I couldn't tell exactly because I lost consciousness when the gravs on my body exceeded the weight of a neutron star—or at least it felt that way to me.
When I came to, we were dropping like a meteor, and those green bastards were following us down like a swarm of bees. Then my heart leaped to my throat and the adrenalin cocktail shocked me awake as it all came into focus. The armored plex was riddled, streaks of blood shot past on the inside of the plex as I watched in amazement, trying to understand it. Redhawk's blood! He screamed in agony, his armor smoking as the planet's poisonous air roared into the cabin. A section of the armored wall had peeled open and loose junk whipped past me. The readouts on the cockpit all glowed red, an electronic crackling indicated the aircar's instrumentation was fried, and Sweety was calmly relaying it all.
'…brace for crash landing, recommended, emergency navcom still functioning, pilot is unconscious, flight controls are partially responding. Hit! Hit! Hit! Major damage, land and abandon vehicle to…'
We were dropping fast! My seat was right behind Redhawk and he was slumped down in his seat. I activated the emergency release on my restraints and vaulted over Redhawk's bloody armor to seize the controls. I managed to veer the car away from a sheer cliff—just in time! Warhound and Priestess frantically hauled Redhawk out of the cockpit as I forced my way into the pilot's seat. The controls vibrated harshly and I could barely hold them steady even with Sweety's help.
'…EMERGENCY LANDING SYSTEM FAILING!' the car announced. I struggled to gain lift as the aircar fell like a brick towards the surface. It was all dark out there except for a wide river of glittering golden lava—we were headed right for it!
'Look out, Thinker!' Snow Leopard warned. A slice of velvet suddenly split the river and I pointed the car's nose right at it—we were going down and I didn't want to land in the lava. I prayed our target was flat land and not a pile of slag floating on top of the lava river.
We hit with a bone-jarring impact and skidded out of control through a stony surface as I struggled to stay conscious. Dead! We were dead!
###
'It's an island—just as Sweety said,' I told Psycho. 'And there's no way off.' Psycho and I lay motionless in a field of pumice, under a smoky night sky full of burning ash. Our recon was over—and the result was not good. Our aircar had crashed onto a long island of volcanic rubble set in the middle of a wide, relentless, white-hot river of lava that ground past us with elemental force. The rock around us steamed, poisonous yellow gases hissing. A phosphorescent red glow lit up the lava river. Pumice glittered like glassy diamonds on the shore. The ground shook like jelly as we watched, and an awful shrieking, grinding noise set my teeth on edge. A hot breeze blew against our faceplates—a dull roaring and crackling. The temperature kept rising—our armor glowed.
'They'll spot us out here,' I observed.
'You're a real strategist,' Psycho replied. 'Nice work on picking this spot to land. How come you're not an officer?'
'It's because I don't want to have to deal with people like you! Shut down, will ya?' I snapped. I was getting sick of his jibes.
'Let's get closer!' he said, snaking forward.
The lava river rumbled past us, a fiery torrent of glittering, molten lava. Massive chunks of golden goo bobbed and churned in eerie slow motion, hissing and sparkling. A mighty, magical river of liquid stone, flowing into the unknown. Hot volcanic winds roared all around us. Sparks filled the air. Fire and brimstone, a glittering, luminous river from the heart of Hell. We watched the molten rock grind past, flickering and spitting, and listened to the roaring of the wind.
'This is the most beautiful thing I've ever seen.' Psycho sounded completely content.
'Psycho, look at the tacmap,' I said. 'This river flows down towards the Omni base. It empties into the lake.'
'Who cares?' Psycho asked. 'We're trapped like rats. We're going to have to go back to Snow Leopard, confirm there's no way out, and then all we can do is wait for somebody to show up—and if it's the O's, we're cooked. So say your prayers.'
He was right. If we called for help, or signaled a nova, the O's would have us.
A double blast echoed above us. Golden laser tracks flickered high above through the smoke. The fighting was going on without us and the flames from our aircar wreck would be an effective homing beacon. Sooner or later, someone would come down and investigate. I feared it wouldn't be the Legion. Every extra instant we spent on this island brought us closer to death.
'I suppose so,' I responded. 'I suppose you're right.'
'You can bet your next watch on it. We're all going to die, just like the Second said, but I promise you, we're going to take some O's with us. You can bet on that, too.' Psycho's boyish features twisted, behind his faceplate— an evil grin.
I looked again at the river of lava. Surely this was the River of Doom, where the souls of the dead board the
