cenite cavern within the Mound, and an emerald city rose all around us. It was a city of tall spidery multi-faceted crystal columns shining like diamonds in the icy air, all interconnected, the walkways and the ice tubes slowly moving. The flat ceiling blazed with phospho green lights high above.
We crouched at the foot of one of the towering columns, by a field of luminous miniature white flowers. I could hear a faint roaring. The air was misty and cold. There were a few tall, slender trees ahead, with pale wet bark like lizard skin, topped by masses of dark spiky leaves.
'Look!' Off to one side, an icy black lake—a waterfall, thundering down from a cliff of porous white rocks, filling the air with mist. And I knew it was a glimpse of the Omni's home planet. I had never even imagined such an eerie, lifeless landscape, such a bright, dead city.
'Deadman!'
'We've got to get higher!' Snow Leopard said. 'The ceiling is flat—there are more levels above. The ship will be on the highest level.' Snow Leopard was right—the columns were buildings and their tops merged with the brightly lit ceiling.
'Attention! Energy source! Three enemy probes approaching!' We crouched in the slowly settling cloud of smoky debris from the hole we had blown in the corridor. It was a tube, covered with frost, and it headed into a nearby building.
'Grenades! Biodee!' Snow Leopard snapped.
'Negative,' Sweety corrected. 'These are not genetic weapons! I have high and rising psyprobe energy readings. I have concluded these are psyprobe directional amplifiers. Three targets!' We could see them now, three shimmering silver orbs arcing lazily through the air, circling our position. Five or six psybloc grenades burst white- hot all around us. I kept my sights on the nearest probe.
'Fire auto x,' Snow Leopard commanded, and we all fired at once. The shriek of auto xmax shattered the eerie silence of the alien city and the three probes exploded, glittering phospho blue core, spitting white tracers, flashing out of existence.
'Targets destroyed,' Sweety said.
'Nothing to it,' Dragon added.
'They must have thought we were civilians,' Valkyrie said. 'Those probes are what the O's use to control them. The Systie said 'you can't resist them', remember?'
'How long before they figure out something's wrong?' Dragon asked ominously.
'We're not important,' Merlin said. 'I'd like it to stay that way!'
'Move out!' Snow Leopard snapped. 'On me! Attack formation! We've got to…'
The air exploded above us, an ear-splitting crack of lightning, a brilliant writhing phospho fireball, icy-green flames, the shock wave driving me to my knees.
'Biotic field, human range! Unidentified power source, laser guidance, recommend…'
'Tacstars!' Snow Leopard shouted it out before Sweety could, and a tacstar exploded directly above us, right in the center of that glittering fireball, a white-hot core, golden tracers peppering us all. Dragon had fired almost instantly. The O's had used this weapon on Mongera, and without the tacstar to diffuse the fireball, we would have had only instants to live.
'On me!' But another fireball erupted right over us, before I could even get to my feet. Hot green death, and I could only twitch, screaming inside my A-suit. My guts churned—a tremendous pressure built up in my head. Blood burst from my nostrils. It was the O's biobloc, and our bodies were about to self-destruct.
Another tacstar, a titanic bang, a holy nova of life, and my A-suit rang and smoked with hits. My faceplate flashed with critical warnings and Sweety was relaying vital information to me but I was receiving none of it. Dragon fired full auto tacstar, and the O's little slice of home was about to change.
'Fire full auto tacstar!' One shouted to make himself heard. I scrambled to my feet, stunned, raising my E. Tacstars burst all around us and the sharp crack of canister fire interrupted the ripping and banging of the tacstars. The O's trees fell, disintegrating, the lake boiling, vaporizing, the waterfall gone, the rocks blown to splinters. The airy buildings exploded, flashing white-hot, glittering with tracers. The shock waves rocked us. And through this flaming wilderness, a tall shimmering unearthly figure walked in a mag field of pale violet air, a dark looming skeletal creature, its features hidden by the force field. It was the O. He raised a dark spidery arm and he was holding something. He was right in my sights.
I fired auto canister, my E flashing and bucking. Another fireball blasted me off my feet. The answering tacstar almost deafened me.
'In here!' Scrapper crouched over a smoking crater in a field of burning earth. The tacstars had blown huge holes in the deck, revealing a hidden world below.
'Squad on Twelve!' Snow Leopard commanded. Dragon stood over the hole firing auto tacstar as we dove in. I had trouble moving my right leg. I got one last glimpse of the alien city, the tall column towers exploding outwards, the air filled with debris and flashing with tacstars.
Not important, are we? Maybe the O's will notice us now!
We scrambled away, suddenly in darkness. My darksight activated. We were under the O's city, running through cold wet cenite tunnels, bending over to avoid cables and pipes lining the roof. Another green flash burst behind us. Eight fired a tacstar in response and the blast almost deafened us all.
'Beta, One! Count!' We counted off, a rush of voices—we were all there, crouched in a confusing maze of pipes and walkways running through coiled cenite tunnels lined with ice.
'Move! Move!' We ran blindly away from the hole. A screeching blast of flame suddenly filled the tunnel, shooting past us, enveloping me in fiercely burning blue-hot gas.
'NOVA WARNING! Exterior temperature rising! Now exceeding acceptable tolerances!' I outran it, then turned to fire auto canister into the hell raging behind me. Tara and Gildron were beside me, also firing. My heart raced. There were more flashes back there. Someone screamed.
'Get out! Get out!'
'Run!'
'Heads down!'
'It's the O!' The firing was deafening. I continued, switching to auto xmax. Then I switched to flame, blasting it all, letting it all burn. I knew there were none of our people back there.
'Medic! Medic!' Someone called out. I looked around. Tara and Gildron and I were alone, a cenite ceiling close overhead, a cenite grate underfoot. We had somehow been separated from the others. The tacmap was useless. A deceptor burst. Another tacstar erupted somewhere behind us.
'Follow me!' I charged forward in a panic. An open hatch on the left—a black pit. I jumped in, feet first. I landed in water, knee-deep. Tara and Gildron hurtled in after me. It was a large water pipe, a sewer, full of dark sluggish liquid—filthy wet walls.
'One, Three, I'm…' I didn't get to finish.
'Beta, One! Split up and get that ship!' Deceptor static drowned him out, then he came back again. '…the upper levels! Get out of here, and get to…' Gildron snarled, looking around, his E up and ready to fire.
'Look out!' someone screamed.
'Oh my God! Help! Help!' Scrapper shrieked, the tacnet roaring with static.
'Run! I'm coming!' Priestess responded. Priestess!
'Priestess!' I shouted. 'Priestess! Where are you?' Someone screaming, a terrified, primal scream. Priestess!
'I'm dying…' I could barely hear it—was it Priestess?
'I'm coming!' someone shouted. 'Priestess, I'm coming!' Who was it?
'Come on, Tara!' I sloshed through the liquid, my heart pounding. Where was Priestess? What the hell was happening? Tara was right behind me.
'Black Jade, Blue Gold! Hang on! We're almost there!'
'Beta, One! Ignore all…' And then the deceptors overcome it all, a horrid screeching.
'Careful, Wester!' Our sewer roared, the water gathering strength. We slid down a slimy chute and found ourselves in another huge pipe, this time almost waist-deep in frothing oily liquid.
'Beta Four, Eight, Thirteen approaching!' Sweety suddenly announced. They were on us in fracs, splashing wildly, their armor burnt and smoking.
'Deadman! Thinker!'
