thin air that was left. We headed upward, hundreds of us, standing on our dishes and gliding closer with alarming speed. I sensed I was caught in a current, as were a hundred others.
I almost blew it-I almost fought the current. I tried to keep my wits about me, but it was difficult. The wind was so powerful, so loud, it was like standing next to roaring train in a tunnel. I recalled the advice given to swimmers in the ocean, when sucked under by a wave. One should go with the flow, let it take you with it.
I took that advice and was swept upward with dizzying, sickening speed. I spun around and around. My dish stayed adhered to my feet via magnets and countless chains of straining nanites. I saw them ripple over my suited body, as if I was wrapped in aluminum foil or dunked in mercury.
Bodies, both living and dead, swept by. Fifty to one of them were Centaurs. Some of them kicked feebly. As I’d said before, they were hard to kill.
Jagged edges of twisted metal filled my vision for a moment, and then I was out into the blackness of space. The planet below was engulfed in darkness. The yellow star, being on the far side of this world, did nothing to illuminate the scene.
I flowed with the rest as the ride died down to a gentle, bumping flow. We steered toward the assault ships on the surface of the structure.
“What now, Colonel?” asked Kwon, now that conversation was possible again.
“We do as we said,” I told him. “Get to the assault ships. Form up around all four of them. I want three companies behind each. Don’t launch until I’ve talked to the Macros.”
When I’d managed to reach Lieutenant Marquis’ assault ship, I looked back toward the rupture. The flow had lessened a great deal now. But still bodies were puffing out of it, like a volcano of death. The surface of the structure rained with Centaurs. Their bodies came floating slowly back down to rest upon it, as it was big enough to have some degree of gravity, and the gravitational fields that made the floor far below us adhere to our feet had some draw even this far away.
I stood there, and it rained death upon me. I’d never seen the like of it, and the sight made my stomach roil. I used the pain of it, the sad horror of it, to deepen my hatred for the Macros.
For I had no doubt that if they had pleasure centers in their metal brains, they were humming with happiness right now.
15
“Macro Command, this is Kyle Riggs.”
Nothing. I fiddled with the touch screen and tried again. “Macro Command, do you read me-”
“Yes.”
“We have completed our mission. We are returning to the invasion ship.”
“The structure still operates.”
“Yes,” I said, my voice threatening to rise into a shout. “But the people inside are dead. Are you happy?”
They didn’t answer. I breathed through my teeth and closed my eyes. I’d put a word like happy into a question. That was two strikes as far as the Macros were concerned.
“We have completed our mission,” I said as evenly as I could. I tried not to think about the geyser of bodies and warm gasses that still shot out of the hole I’d blown into an idyllic sky. “We are returning to the invasion ship.”
“The structure still operates.”
“We do not have any armament to destroy the structure. We are ground forces carrying light arms. We have completed the mission as required.”
They paused again. I wondered if I was going to be required to send this entire station-with any survivors huddling inside-burning and sinking down into the atmosphere of the planet below us. I didn’t think I could do that.
“Return to base.”
That was it. They didn’t tell me ‘good job’, nor did they chortle and giggle at my foolishness. I was a good tool, but they didn’t care about me. A carpenter was more likely to feel love for his hammer. They simply put me away in a drawer or dropped me in the dirt until I was needed again.
I got aboard Lieutenant Marquis’ assault ship and ordered my dish-flying troops to aim themselves at the invasion ship. Everyone was to stay together, not to string out or fool around. The injured were allowed to board the assault ships, but I wanted most of my men free and open to maneuver.
We took off and headed toward home-such as it was. I wondered if the Macros had any idea what I intended. I certainly hoped not.
The first few thousand miles went smoothly. I still hadn’t told my troops anything about a planned rebellion. There hadn’t been time, and I hadn’t wanted to leak anything on an open channel.
As the curvature of the planet swept by underneath us, I marveled at its austere beauty. The mountains rose up so high they seemed like spikes. The ice dominated the upper and lower quarters of the planet, making the polar icecaps huge. Nowhere on this cool world was completely free of ice and snow. All the way down to the equator the top of every glacier-carved mountain was crusted in white.
It was the last thousand miles to the invasion ship when things went badly. We were forced to turn around then, to brake and slow our approach. We were moving at high speed and would be smashed like bugs against the hull if we didn’t slow down.
The Macros picked that moment to act. Maybe they’d overheard us plotting, even though I had been careful to use scrambled channels for every communication. Maybe they’d planned it this way all along, intending to destroy us in an effort to keep the peace with the Centaurs. Another possibility was they had decided we were a failed experiment and it was time to dump the Petri dish into the sink. I’m not sure why they turned their guns on us-but they did.
The cruiser gave us the first hint of what was coming. It rotated itself onto its back, in respect to the planet we all orbited. The big belly cannon poked upward now and swiveled in our direction. The dark, ugly snout of it brightened as it prepared to fire. Fortunately, my people were watching the ship carefully. They shouted the alarm, and everyone took whatever evasive action they could. I gave the go signal, and I knew the marines left in the bricks in the invasion ship’s hold were moving.
My original plan had been to order the assault ships to veer off at the last moment, targeting the cruiser instead of the yawning hold doors on the invasion ship. We needed the drilling lasers on the assault ships to burn their way through the cruiser’s hull. We felt confident we could take out the small crew of the invasion ship without too much trouble, but the cruiser was another matter. It was a real warship, and we knew next to nothing about its crew, internal layout or armament. The good news was that it was close to the invasion ship it was escorting, less than two miles distant.
The big cannon flared and gouted brilliant light. I had thought I might talk Macro Command out of this, but when the belly cannon fired, I knew the game was up.
One of my four surviving assault ships bloomed into a fireball. There wasn’t even a ship there anymore. Nothing could have survived.
“All marines, this is your commander, Colonel Riggs,” I shouted into my com-link, broadcasting and overriding everyone’s helmet audio input. “We’ve all been thinking about a change of direction, and apparently the Macros have been too. They are firing on us, and you are hereby ordered to destroy every Macro you can.”
I quickly worked my com system to link me up with the surviving assault ship pilots. I could see the muzzle of the cruiser’s big cannon glowing brighter again. In seconds, it would fire again. I could tell no amount of jinking and dodging would suffice. “Pilots, I’m ordering you all to abandon your ships. Everyone must grab a dish and bail out. I don’t care if they are on life support, put a helmet on them and push them out the back door!”
I followed my own orders then, grabbing an unconscious marine by the boots and dragging him after me. IV bags rattled and flopped behind him. We fell out of the rear doors as they spread open and allowed us to drift into space. Others fell with me. I saw Kwon dragging an extra dish behind him. No doubt, he intended to give it to Lieutenant Marquis after she bailed out.
