staring into space.
'How's Fourteen doing?' Dragon asked. Speedy was outside, with the others.
'Merlin, you were close to him, weren't you?' Snow Leopard asked.
'Sorry, One—the guy's just fallen apart. There's no talking to him anymore. He just doesn't want to hear it.'
'He's bad news, One,' Psycho said. Snow Leopard did not respond. But I knew he would deal with the problem, one way or another.
'How about our weapons, Merlin,' I asked. 'Will all this fancy hardware really work?'
'Don't worry about the weapons,' Merlin said. 'We're set—and you can thank the techs. The stuff we used on Mongera was so primitive I'm amazed we survived. But the E2…' He lifted his weapon to examine it. 'It's specifically engineered to bust O's. Fire canister x and you shatter the mag shields and explode the O simultaneously. Then you can finish him off with whatever you want—more x, biobloc, plasma, even laser. Once the shields are down, he's dead meat.'
'Forget it, gang,' Psycho interrupted. 'My tacstars are tipped with magbusters now. You'll never get close to the O's. I'll get 'em first.'
'How about the O's psypower?' I asked. 'It's not going to give us any trouble?'
'I don't see how,' Merlin said. 'We had to fill the skies with psybloc last time. This time we carry it with us. We've got the freqs and as soon as the O projects, our helmet units will counter.' Our A-suit helmets had been modified and were now topped with psybloc transmitters.
'It'll make us easy to spot,' Dragon said. The psybloc was not subtle when activated. It was kind of like walking around under a fireworks display.
'The important thing is, they won't be able to control us,' Merlin said. 'And you've all got plenty of psybloc grenades. If you're ever in doubt, use 'em! You have no idea how wonderful this psybloc is. Our fathers died by the billions, helpless in the power of the O's. But the Legion has just changed that. It's payback time, gentlemen.'
Psycho laughed. 'I had no idea you were such a hardcore, Merlin.'
'It was Mongera,' Snow Leopard said quietly. 'It was Beta, it was Badboy—it was us. We did it, gang. We killed the first O, and brought its stinking carcass back to the lifies. Everything flows from that one dead O. We're all going down in history, guys. When they look for the turning point, they'll find Mongera—and Beta, and Gamma. They'll find the Black Twelfth.' History—that was One's obsession. Well, he was probably right. Maybe it was our destiny to kill that original O, and then die on Uldo along with the rest of the 12th. Fine—let it be so. But we'd go down fighting, I knew. They couldn't deny us that.
###
We were walking into a silent, holy snowfall. Fat white snowflakes drifted down gently, covering the ground, transforming it all. The sky was all white as well. It all seemed so clean, so pure—as if we were walking through heaven. Most of the wreckage from the Eighth was gone by now—we were on the outer fringes of the Cauldron.
'How you doing, Thirteen?' I asked. I don't know why I was so worried about Twister, but I was. I felt she was a part of our squad now. I didn't feel the same about Speedy.
'Thanks, sir. I'm here. You're not going to lose me—no way.'
'Good. That's great! You just stay close, Twister. You need any help, I'll be there. Remember it!'
'Thank you…Thinker.'
'ALERT! ENERGY SPHERE!' Sweety's metallic voice echoed harshly in my ears. 'Two energy spheres, as marked! Recommend biodee!'
'Go to ground!' Snow Leopard ordered. 'Freeze! Weapons on biodee!' I dropped to one knee, my E up, making the adjustment. The tacmap was a blizzard of chaff, but I could see two phospho specks, fading in and out, off to the north, heading roughly east.
'They may not spot us,' Snow Leopard said.
'Spheres changing course,' Sweety informed us. 'Spheres reversing direction, spheres heading for our zero.'
'They've spotted us!' Snow Leopard said. 'These ones were probably searching for us. All right, gang, I want only biodee—no need for anything else. We did these guys on Mongera—fire at my command!'
'Two energy spheres approaching—spheres gaining altitude, spheres may dive from above, recommend auto biodee.' Absolutely right, Sweety, absolutely right! My heart was thumping. I watched the spheres on the tacmap, shooting up into the snowy sky like rising fireworks, then hovering for one horrible instant at the top of the arc.
'I still have two spheres,' Sweety added. Now—they dropped on the tacmap, falling straight down, coming right at us.
'Spheres attacking!' These were the weapons that had decimated Gamma, on Andrion 3. The spheres home in on the appropriate genetic material and merge with it, burning until all life is gone—a horrible death. The spheres killed five from Gamma squad and on Mongera, it was a sphere that killed Warhound.
'Fire,' Snow Leopard said calmly. Two glowing stars on my faceplate, growing, shaking, spitting sparks, coming right at us!
We all fired straight up and two white-hot explosions suddenly lit up the sky, glittering green cores, a tremendous double bang shattering my ears. A shock wave bounced off my armor, phospho white tracers spitting flame, covering the entire sky.
'Spheres destroyed,' Sweety informed me. Genetic bullets, I thought—that's biodee. Eat flesh, you bastards, eat flesh and die!
'Burn in hell!' Valkyrie muttered.
'That was not so bad, huh guys?' Merlin said.
'ALERT! Energy spheres approaching!' Sweety broke in. 'I detect additional energy spheres—two, three, as marked. Attention! Four, five, as—attention! Six, seven…Alert! Alert! I have…eleven, twelve…fifteen…eighteen. Eighteen energy spheres, as marked, vectoring in on our zero. We are under attack! Spheres approaching from low, medium, high altitudes! Recommend full auto biodee!'
'Oh scut! No! No!' Speedy choked.
'Silence!' Snow Leopard snapped. 'Fighting circle—now! Back to back! On me!' I ran through the snow to our One in a blind panic, and suddenly we were all there, a massive clash of cenite metal coming together as one, twelve armored troopers back to back, E's pointing up and out. The spheres on my tacmap circled lazily through the sky, gliding toward us, and it appeared they were in no hurry at all. Gildron snarled, roaring, spitting fury. Speedy cried, hysterical. The fighting circle was our only option—otherwise we'd all be shooting ourselves in the horrific firefight orgy that was coming.
'Keep an eye on the sky—Five, Eight, you're responsible for whatever comes at us from directly overhead.'
'Tenners.'
'Ten.' We were back to back, cenite against cenite, the metal screeching like wounded beasts. Charged and terrified, as the spheres came closer and closer. They were all around us, hugging the ground, floating in the sky, high above us, taking their time.
'Total of twenty-two spheres,' Sweety informed us coldly.
'The fools have got us surrounded,' Psycho said happily. 'They're in trouble now!'
Suddenly they were there, coming right at us, a snowy sky full of glowing stars rushing at us like comets, drawn irresistibly by our genetics, absolutely lovely and totally deadly. Only biodee could stop them, and if even one sphere got past the biodee, someone would die.
'Fire at will,' Snow Leopard said calmly. 'Full auto biodee.' We opened up, and the earth shook. I fired on full auto, snapping my E from one target to another and the spheres burst white-hot in my face, titanic explosions, rattling my teeth, deafening me. Spheres blasted apart all around us, showering us with tracers, but I had eyes only for what was coming for me, one down low, almost rolling over the ground. I sprayed biodee and it erupted, flash, phospho green core, yellow streaks all over the sky, another coming at me on the left, medium altitude, I fired up at it and it ran into the biodee and erupted, a titanic bang. I snapped the E back to the right, high altitude, right there, dropping like a meteor, coming right at me. I centered it in my sights and it exploded, another dazzling white-hot blast, a sharp electronic crack. The sky flashed, flamed and rained shrapnel, the ground hissing, and we continued firing.
