muddy water behind her E, trembling with hate and terror. A wave of sympathy swept over me. She had switched sides! It was almost miraculous—after all that Valkyrie had said about her. Why? What could have motivated her? Of course they would never have told her about the plans for the aircar—such knowledge is dangerous. They would have simply listened to the progress of the op, and then suddenly neutralized the aircar, and shown up themselves in an identical car, to collect the results. No mess, no fuss.
A brilliant op. Millina knew the System well. And she had switched sides!
The sky flickered and laser snapped over Millina's helmet. Death, we had said, launching the op. Yes, death it was, death for us all, Legion and Systies and O's, death for everyone, without favor or prejudice. And I suddenly understood about Millina. Death was Millina's goddess—Death, a remote pale blind goddess with a black cloth wrapped around her eyes, and a huge sharp sword. And whenever she heard a noise, she swung the sword.
The Hand of the Mocain, suddenly awakening to the truth, after a lifetime of service. I knew Valkyrie was part of the answer. Millina had hit at least two of the DefCorps soldiers as they leaped from the aircar, but they must have had two squads in that car, and most of them made it out before the car had been shot down. One of them was right up ahead, hiding in the energy field of a fiercely burning groundcar. It was time for Millina to play her dangerous game.
'It's Millina! Millina! DefCorps, hold its fire!' Millina shouted it out, her skin crawling as she crept forward. If even one DefCorps soldier had seen her firing at them during the landing, she would die as soon as she exposed herself.
She scrambled to her feet and charged forward into the rain, her E held low. The DefCorps soldier was on his belly in the flames from the burning groundcar. His SG was up and scanning. He motioned Millina down with one hand. She hit the ground, breathing hard. Rain hissed off her A-suit. She switched to laser. All those years, in the service of a false god. All that misdirected hate. It wasn't enough, to betray humanity. Now she had to betray the System as well. I felt an indescribable sadness, for Millina. Then she stood up and fired laser, right into the DefCorps soldier's A-suit.
###
It came out of nowhere in a heavy sheet of rain, spitting tacstars, booming past in a heartbeat, gone, back into the dark sky. Micronukes erupted in its wake, sudden flashes, the earth shaking, and a winking forest of phospho fireballs, rising to the sky. Lightning flickered wildly, and there was a stunned pause as a great crackling roar rolled over the battlefield.
My head was throbbing. My faceplate was covered with mud. I strained to move—a black cloud of pain. I squirmed over on to my back. Tacstars rose all around me. I smeared the mud around on my visor and stared out stupidly. Alive—I was alive! And back in my body!
'Cover me, gang…' Who was that? It was Merlin, suddenly up and running towards our tragic pile of shattered A-suits, Coolhand and Snow Leopard and Priestess and me. Merlin, for God's sake, throwing himself away, for Beta. Behind him, Psycho suddenly appeared, running forward firing his chainlink, full auto x, hosing down everything in sight to cover Merlin. Tacstars erupted in great, glowing flashes. Psycho hit every building in the vicinity. The buildings disintegrated, spitting phospho streaks, the sky full of junk, the buildings falling slowly in massive clouds of dust and Psycho crouched there, a perfect target, panting and screaming, finger fixed on the trigger, firing right over Merlin's helmet.
It was a nuclear morning for Fernveldt.
###
The escape pod hovered a few mikes over the smoking earth of what had once been Fernveldt City, and the access door snapped open and a girl appeared, an E in one hand, the other hand covering her mouth. The girl was unarmored, her hair blowing in the backblast. She paused briefly in the doorway, then leaped to the ground. I was still in the mud beside Priestess, too weak to move. I had ripped open my medkit and spread medpads all over her wounds, but the blood was bubbling up around the bandages and I didn't know what to do. I couldn't understand why nobody was helping me. What had happened to Merlin? Perhaps we were still fighting. It slowly dawned on me that the escape pod had strafed the Systies and probably turned the tide of the battle. And then I recognized the girl. It was Tara.
Dragon faced her with his E. Behind her, in the escape pod's doorway, a second person appeared. A savage face, heavy brows, violet uniform, also unarmored but wielding an E—it was the humanoid, Tara's pet! What was his name? Gildron! How had he gotten loose? He leaped to the ground, snarling and holding his E up warily.
'You!' Dragon exclaimed to Tara in total surprise. 'Good shooting! We need evac, now! We've got dead and wounded!'
Tara stood there gaping at the scene of devastation around her. The entire city had been nuked. Not a building remained standing, and the sky was a poisonous brew of writhing fireballs. Fierce fires roared up to the sky. Nuclear light glowed on her face. A hot breeze carried a misty rain, stinging her flesh, and the fires flickered all around her. It was a miracle anyone had survived. The A-suited delegation before her was covered with mud and blood.
'Bring me your casualties,' she responded.
'I've got life!' Merlin and Valkyrie were hauling shattered A-suits through the mud to the escape pod.
'Where are the others?' An eerie silence settled over the battlefield. There was only a deep rumbling from the sky. Psycho stopped firing. Smoke curled all around him—his chainlink was glowing.
'Everyone to the escape pod! Where's Gamma Five and Seven? Check the casualties! Quick!'
I was vaguely conscious of A-suited figures struggling above me. Then I was moving, under luminous skies. Priestess, don't forget Priestess, I struggled to say, but I could not. Someone's faceplate came close to mine. Horribly scarred plex, but I could make out the face—Valkyrie! Just for an instant she was there, and it was like a kiss, the kiss of life.
'Thinker…Thinker! Stay with us, Thinker!' Then she was gone. A quick glimpse of Merlin, and I was on my back again, and a hot wind was blowing debris all around us.
The escape pod exploded with a tremendous crack, dazzling and deafening me, the shock wave knocking everyone flat. When I struggled to my elbows in the mud, I saw the escape pod had been blown into the sky and was disintegrating, separate sections flaming through the air trailing white phospho smoke. The wreckage impacted several K away, testifying to the force of the hit, multiple flashes, multiple booms. My tacmod shrieked. A tacstar had exploded right on the escape pod. Dragon brought his E around in a slow motion blur towards a Systie soldier staggering from a smoking pile of rubble, Manlink at his shoulder. Dragon fired, Psycho fired, Merlin fired, Valkyrie fired, even the humanoid fired—another nuke shimmered and rose and the Systie was gone, snuffed out like a candle.
Tara was face-down in the mud, stunned. The humanoid was on his knees beside her, his eyes glazed over. I couldn't even get off the ground, but Dragon was there. He gently turned Tara over and held her in his arms.
'They got your ship—I'm sorry,' Dragon said. The tacnet was working now and I could hear every word. It was like the crack of doom. It was hopeless now, I knew—Redhawk had to be dead. There would be no evac for us.
Tara's lips moved. Her hands came up. She activated her wristcom. 'Whit—Whit, come. Come.' It was a whisper. How could anyone possibly hear her, under this nuclear holocaust? Impossible.
'Coming!' The reply came immediately. 'On the way, Commander!' My heart leaped. The Gods were there after all!
A huge, hairy hand placed itself on Dragon's armored chest and gently pushed him away from Tara. Gildron reached down and took her in his arms and stood up, Tara's arms and legs dangling, Gildron's E hanging loosely from one arm, a light hot rain hissing down all around them. Gildron looked around the sky in despair, rolling his eyes and snarling quietly. It was as if his whole world was ending.
Chapter 12:
Ghost Riders
