Thick black smoke, all around me. Flames, up ahead. I jogged through a muddy field. It must have just rained.
My darksight gave me the edge. The Systies were slightly behind me, off to the left. Snow Leopard was a little further to my left, ahead of us. He had told me to keep the Systies between us, if possible. I signaled the Systies to move up. Burning buildings loomed ahead of us. I intercepted a hard surfaced road, and started down it —it led right to our O. I could see it up ahead, on the tacmap.
'Keep awake, Sweety,' I cautioned my Persist.
'Sit is fine, Thinker. Humans approaching on the road—unarmed.'
Thick black smoke swirling past me. I saw them on the tacmap. I set my E to xmax.
'Refugees, Badboy. Let them pass.'
'Everyone in position, sir.'
'Tenners. Keep moving.'
'Badboy, Big Kid. We've got you on scope.'
'Badboy, Badass. You let me know when you need me.' Badass was Redhawk, Beta Ten, in the aircar.
'Keep on the move, Badass, and keep low.'
'Tenners.'
The refugees appeared out of the smoke, all on foot, hurrying along the road toward us. They saw Snow Leopard first, and scattered off the road into the fields, screaming. Children ran into tall grass. An old lady fell, somebody stopped to help her up. A toddler, lost and crying.
'They're humans!' A shout on the wind.
'Soldiers! It's the DefCorps!' The refugees thought we were Systies. We continued marching along the road. I could see the O on-screen. Flashes lit the sky ahead. It was like lightning, but I knew it was the O.
As the word was passed, the refugees straggled back to the road, and we could see the horror in their eyes as we passed them by.
'Aircars! Does it have aircars?'
'Groundcars! We need transportation!'
'Are there more soldiers coming?'
'The V's are right up ahead, they've got Fernveldt City—the Police stayed to fight them. Right up the road!' A madman, spraying spittle.
'Kill them! Kill them all!' A young man, in tears.
'Our daughter! Can we find our daughter? We've lost our little girl!' A young mother wandering in a dream, hand outstretched.
'Is the port still open?'
'Is it true that Century City is being held?'
'It should have let us have weapons! Cowards! Cowards! We die, for its cowardice! We spit on the System!' Another young male, convulsed, spitting his hatred at us.
Stalking down the road, we ignored them: holy pilgrims bound for death, clad in the armor of our God, carrying his terrible swift sword, fire from the core of a star. And death to all our foes! That's what I was thinking, hot and cold and terrified, as we got closer and closer to the O.
And I knew the refugees were wrong—there was only one O in Fernveldt City.
Burning buildings, roaring with flames. Corpses, blown to bits, body parts scattered all over the road. An explosion up ahead. A dull boom, a sharp shock wave, debris in the air.
'See him? See him? That's him!'
'Destructive little critter, isn't he?'
'All right, Badboy. We've got him zeroed,' Snow Leopard said. 'Two, move your element left. Gamma, move right. I've got the center. Nobody fire until I give the word.'
The city of Fernveldt was right up ahead, and the road led straight to it. I was with Beta One's element. When we were through, the O was going to be in the center of a u-shaped cordon of Legionnaires, and we planned to keep him very busy.
Lightning flashed ahead. The crack of doom snapped all around us. We could see the city—Fernveldt, a suburb of Century City. Burning, wreathed in clouds of fiery ash.
'Right, first volley. Five, hit him.' Snow Leopard was going to say hello.
I went to one knee, my E up and ready. It was all green, all around me, in the darksight. Hopeless refugees, a man with a baby, two girls, running frantically into the dark dawn of the System's end, veering away from me.
Flashes to the left. Tacstars crackled sharp and eerie, whistling downrange to the O. White-hot micronukes burst ahead of us, three, five, seven—a tremendous shock wave and a horrendous ripping noise hit us. Psycho put seven tacstars right on the creature's head. A huge, luminous, rolling mushroom cloud writhed up into the dark skies. Bolts of lightning snapped wildly all around the clouds. Introductions had now been made. We knew the damned tacstars couldn't hurt the O, but we hoped it would give him something to think about—and maybe just a little concern.
'Six, psybloc.' Snow Leopard was calm and his voice was clear.
Warhound was off to my right, out of sight. I craned my neck to see it. There was a faint flicker, a sudden flash and then a sparkling comet shot high into the sky, lost in the clouds.
'Bloc away.'
'Badboy—forward.'
Forward, right. I got up and continued the advance. Then the skies lit up. Fireworks, a bright, white-hot starburst, high above. Then another, phospho green. Then another, glittery red. And another, sparkly gold, until the sky was a glittering tracery of hissing streaks. And then each streak exploded at the tip, hundreds more flashing explosions high overhead, lighting up the world, and the fireworks fell like hot, slow rain. A great rattling, moaning roar filled the skies. This was our psybloc, falling slowly from the sky. Atom had assured us it would interfere with the O's psych projections, and protect us from its psypower. Otherwise, we were dead. All our fancy weapons were useless without the will to use them.
'Good—good! Now we attack, squad leader! Now we attack!' The Mocain soldier was a fighter, that was certain.
The three of them were just to my left, advancing cautiously. They had been told to keep me in sight. I wondered if the Systie dip recognized me as the one who had nearly executed him back on Andrion 3. He had been silent so far.
'Tacstar!' Sweety's warning and the explosion came almost simultaneously—a pulsating white sun burst to life just to my right and the shock wave bounced me off the ground. The sun rose into the sky, crackling and hissing, shooting off glowing white streamers.
'Tacstar! Tacstar!'
Two more evil, white-hot flowers just behind me. Two more shock waves, banging off my armor.
'That was the O.'
'Looks like Warhound upset him.'
'Six, One, are you tenners?'
Three nuclear blossoms, radiating heat and light, glittering in the sky. Psycho's micronukes still hovered up ahead, and Warhound's fireworks still fell, lovely multi-colored sparklers. It was truly beautiful.
'Enemy probes!' A fine tracery on my tacmap, lower left plate. Six, seven, eight, damn! Coming right at us, from the O.
'Auto xmax! Tacstars! Shoot 'em down fast! These are the guys we did before. Five, let 'er rip!' One was eager and excited.
They came in fast and low, just like before, splitting up, seeking out individual targets. Psycho's chainlink spat tacstars, autofire. The vibes crawled on my skin. My heart was in a vice. It felt good. It was like having a Legion fighter on call, bringing in the death from the skies.
I raised my E to my shoulder and found a probe and fired, auto xmax, and Psycho's tacstars filled the skies, nuclear airbursts, poison toadstools of power. Shock waves pounded at my armor. My E shrieked, everyone suddenly firing, an auto xmax morning, death whistling all around us.
The probes ran into a solid wall of fire. They exploded all around me, sharp flashes and glittering tracers as
