hulks of metal and frozen blood.
Everyone in the Empress’ chamber set up a great hullabaloo. There was now nothing between them and the target world. No defenders could stop them. They were going to make planetfall with their invasion ships, and commence a most gleeful slaughter. The Empress in particular began to describe to the others the choice meats they would sample, and everyone slavered at the prospect of live food.
Alone among them, the Parent worried. She thought about the skalds in their enclosure, and the Tulk they’d discovered in their skulls after vivisecting them. She thought about the enemy tactics, which had almost succeeded in overcoming their defensive fighters. These humans were full of nasty surprises.
As they fled deeper into Nightside, Sixty-Two decided to follow Garth’s advice and head for a region known as ‘The First Deep’. It was essentially a gigantic sinkhole that wound down into the planetary crust. The rim of this region wasn’t a cliff, but rather a stair-like series of jumbled rocks. From the depths of the hole steam and other vapors rose from geothermal vents. This sounded promising as cover. If the Twilighters were looking for them from the sky, they could be tracked via their heatsinks, which would glow brightly for any thermal-sensitive cameras. The hot vapors would obscure these telltale signatures from the sky.
As they reached the rim of the upper vents, Sixty-Two saw the billowing heat roiling up like a dark pillar that propped up the stars. He suspected the skald had led them here for the warmth, if nothing else. The place would increase the man’s odds of survival as well. It was not important, however. As long as the humans lost their trail, that was good enough.
“Steam, where there should only be ice,” the skald said aloud from Lizett’s back. He was standing high now, fully exposed. The air had warmed considerably, and he was taking full advantage of it.
“This is the spot?”
Ornth shook Garth’s head slowly. “Farther. We must find the source of the anomaly. Standing on the rim gazing in wonder is insufficient.”
Sixty-Two swung his orbs downward, doubtfully staring into the jumble of steam-slicked, fallen stones. His feet were metal, but he did not relish sliding down into the darkness on those wet rocks. Every surface appeared treacherous, whether it was frosted with a glaze of ice or dark and shining with hot liquid.
“I think if we circle the vent, we’ll do fine,” he said. “This is an excellent place to avoid our pursuers. I commend you for thinking of it, Ornth.”
The skalds burning eyes turned to him, as if seeing him for the first time. “What? You must proceed! I have come so far. Lightyears and thousands of miles on foot.”
“For this? You must explain yourself or I will not step another inch closer to that hole.”
“This is the anomaly!” Ornth said, becoming excitable. “Can you not see with those optics?”
“What anomaly?”
“That which cannot be, but is. That which can’t be found, because it is plainly visible.”
Sixty-Two clacked his grippers in irritation. Always it was like this with the skald, or the Tulk, or whatever he called himself. There were no clear answers, nothing useful. Sixty-Two turned away from him and his army of mechs followed. The man made a few squawking cries, but Sixty-Two ignored him. They would circle the vent, using its heat to shield them from detection. After that, they’d plan their next move. He thought the best move would be to head even deeper into the freezing wastes of Nightside. The crazy skald could stay behind if he wished. In fact, leaving him here would be a pleasure. Lizett would be heartbroken, of course, but it couldn’t be helped. If they pressed on into the darkest regions of the planet, he could not survive anyway.
It was Lizett’s cry some minutes later that caused Sixty-Two to relent and look back. Immediately, he worried she had fallen into the dark crater. But he could see her. She was at the very rim, looking out into the rushing vapors.
Sixty-Two signaled a halt and moved to her side. “Have you gotten your foot stuck, Lizett?”
“No,” she said. She pointed with a gripper out into the plumes of fog. “Look!”
Sixty-Two peered into the steam and adjusted his orbs in vain. It was difficult to focus when the gasses were opaque and shifting. He did notice, however, that Ornth was no longer riding on Lizett’s back. Immediately, Sixty-Two directed his orbs downward, expecting to see a mangled body on the jagged rocks.
“Did he fall out?” he asked.
“I don’t know how got out there. I could not feel him climbing free of his sack. Only when my weight and balance gyros registered a shift did I suspect it. I reached for him, but he evaded my grippers.”
“Got out where?”
Insistently, Lizett pointed not downward, but directly out in a horizontal direction. Sixty-Two peered-and finally, he did see. The skald appeared to be standing in the midst of the rising steam column, where there was no surface to stand upon.
“How did you get out there?” Sixty-Two demanded.
“This is the place. The place that cannot be. Follow me, if you would know the truth.”
“Follow you? How can I do that? You are a mad-thing.”
“Place one of those great clanking feet in front of the other until you stand at my side,” Ornth said.
“I’ll do no such thing. Come, Lizett. He’s trying to trick us. He stands upon a stone we can’t see. We’ll leave him here. Either he’ll come to his senses, or he won’t, and I’ll be rid of him at long last.”
Sixty-Two turned and walked away. The rest of the mechs formed ranks again to follow.
“I’ve done it!” cried Lizett’s voice behind him.
Suspecting he wouldn’t like what he saw, Sixty-Two swung his orbs back to look at Lizett. She was walking on nothing, heading out into the vapors to where Ornth stood waiting. Sixty-Two stared at the pair, dumbfounded.
Aldo and Nina rode their mounts at the head of their combined armies, driving deeply into Nightside. Now that they had the numbers, Nina no longer moved carefully. She wanted to find the enemy, and overrun them. Moving at full speed, their mounts were capable of nearly twice the pace of a running mech. The ride wasn’t comfortable, however. The freezing air rushed by like a hurricane. Their goggles were soon frosted with rime and even with suit-heaters running at full blast, their extremities were numb from the cold. Aldo wondered if he’d have all his toes left after this expedition. He doubted it.
The mechs were relatively easy to follow, as they left clear tracks. At first, they passed by half-frozen mud and tundra. As they pressed more deeply into the colder regions, there was only ice and dry, blowing snow.
“We must press hard,” Nina radioed to Aldo. “We can’t let up for a moment. We can see their tracks now, but if the wind picks up and the snow falls deeply, the tracks will be filled in as fast as they make them.”
“Can’t you see them from the air?”
“Those assets have been reserved for surveillance over Twilight. You did your work well, Aldo. The Duchess is quite fearful of an attack on our best lands.”
Aldo privately thought the Duchess was the saner of the two, but he held back his opinions on the matter.
Not being certain where they would contact the mech forces, they spread themselves wide and sent scouts rushing ahead. A squawk of radio came back from one of the scouts on the left flank. Nina tried to raise him-but there was nothing but the single moment of contact. Not even an intelligible word had been heard.
“Swing left!” she shouted over the command channel. “Captains, detach your nearest group of squad strength and rush to that spot. Report the moment you get there, even if you are under fire.”
“You may be sending those men to their deaths,” Aldo said to her on a private channel.
“Command is difficult. Perhaps you are not up to these hard decisions.”
Aldo stayed moodily silent. In his mind, he could not reconcile this harsh woman with the soft sultry thing she had been when she’d first met him in a chiffon gown. He could scarcely believe he’d bedded her and enjoyed himself immensely.
Being within a reasonable distance, the two commanders sped to the spot with their personal guard drifting behind. They arrived in the middle of a full-pitched battle. Just before they came over a lip of land and were confronted by an immense column of rising steam, a squad-leader radioed in he’d met up with a small group of running mechs. The enemy turned and the fight began.
The enemy consisted of twenty ex-perrupters, each with laser cannons affixed to one arm and power-
