Earthfall: Retribution (26 page)

‘Do you know what this is?’ Talon asked, pointing at the bright opening. Sam shook his head as he slowly climbed to his feet. ‘This is a pattern interface,’ Talon continued. ‘The Voidborn use it to assimilate new technology, copying it and duplicating it across the entire fleet. During our war, they used them to copy any new weapons we used against them, before turning the very same weapons against us. It was part of the reason we could never defeat them, no matter what new technologies we devised. Suran saw a different use for it, though, a means by which we could wake the sleeping people of Earth and have them rise up against the Voidborn.

‘His plan was simple: we would upload a modified design for their Drones, Hunters as you call them, that would unwittingly distribute Illuminate nanites to the sleeping humans in their charge, nanites that would wake them without actually severing their connection to the control network, leaving them unharmed, but still restoring their free will. The plan was elegant, the execution more problematic. When we first introduced the nanites to the enslaved humans we inadvertently created the Vore.’

‘My father was horrified by what you had done,’ Sam said. ‘It wasn’t him that released those things in Edinburgh – it was you.’

‘Indeed it was,’ Talon said. ‘Your father wanted to go back to the drawing board, try and find a way to wake the humans without turning them into monsters. He always was a naive fool. I saw the unmodified nanites’ potential immediately. We could turn the humans against the Voidborn
now.
It was the only way to protect the Heart, to make sure that the Voidborn would never be able to erase the last remnant of the Illuminate. To me, the choice was clear. I form-locked Suran, placed him in confinement and then released the Vore in Edinburgh. They were more effective than I could ever have dreamt. All I needed then was a way to spread the Vore to every corner of the planet. Thankfully, your father had already created that.’

Talon reached into the pouch at his waist and pulled out a glowing blue disc. ‘The nanites in this suspension field will implant a design for the Vore in the Voidborn creation matrix along with instructions for their Drones to distribute it amongst the entire population of enslaved humans. Every sleeping human on Earth will be transformed in a matter of days. The Voidborn will be destroyed by their own slaves. A rather fitting end, I think.’

‘You’re insane,’ Sam said, ‘but that’s no excuse for the thing you’ve become. You’re worse than the Voidborn.’

‘You wouldn’t say that if you had seen the things I have seen,’ Talon said, something cold and empty in his voice. ‘Enough talk. It is time.’ He walked towards the pattern interface, the blue disc sitting in the palm of his outstretched hand.

The wall of the glass walkway that ran alongside the plaza exploded as a Grendel smashed through it, landing with a crunch next to Talon and swatting him aside like a fly. Talon slammed into the wall on the other side of the plaza, momentarily stunned. The Grendel, lit with yellow light, turned towards Sam.

‘Miss me?’ Jay said, before striding across the plaza towards the other towering creature that was still holding Mag. Talon’s Grendel tossed the girl aside and Mag landed hard on the concrete twenty metres away. Jay’s Grendel slammed into it, delivering a massive blow to the other creature’s chest and sending it staggering backwards. Jay pressed home his advantage, slashing at the other Grendel’s face, his claws raking across its eyes. The other Grendel roared with rage, blinded and flailing as Jay side-stepped its wild uncontrolled swings.

Sam caught a movement out of the corner of his eye and saw Talon climbing to his feet before transforming in the blink of an eye into a swirling cloud of dust that raced towards Jay.

‘Jay! Look out!’ Sam yelled as he saw Talon materialise behind Jay, sword raised.

Something snapped inside Sam and he suddenly felt as if he were falling forward, but then he realised with a sudden jolt of disorientation that he wasn’t falling – he was
flying
across the plaza towards Talon. He re-materialised between Talon and Jay’s Grendel and the startled Illuminate warrior backed away from him.

‘That’s not possible,’ Talon hissed, shock in his eyes. ‘You are not Illuminate.’

‘No, but my father was,’ Sam said, finally understanding what Suran had given him at the moment of his death. He shifted again into a swirling cloud of glowing yellow dust as the nanites that now composed his body raced towards Talon.

Talon too became incorporeal and the two of them merged together into a single swirling cloud. Jay slammed the blinded Grendel into the floor, reaching down and ripping the creature’s head off with a sickening crunch. The decapitated creature thrashed for a moment and then lay still, green-black blood pooling on the floor beneath it.

Jay’s Grendel walked towards Mag as she opened her eyes with a groan. She saw the advancing Grendel and scrambled backwards, trying to get away from the monstrous creature.

‘It’s OK,’ Jay said. ‘It’s me.’

There was a fleeting look of confusion on Mag’s face and then she let out a relieved sigh. She looked past the Grendel and at the swirling cloud, lit up by blue and yellow light, that hovered in the centre of the square.

‘What the hell is that?’ Mag asked, her eyes wide.

‘I have absolutely no idea,’ Jay said. He had only caught a glimpse of Talon and Sam before they had transformed into their current state. He watched helplessly, having no idea how he could possibly help his friend.

Sam felt a wild sense of disorientation as he fought with Talon. It was not a physical fight as much as a mental one, each probing the other for a gap in their defences, their nanites attempting to assimilate each other and absorb one body within the other. He had no experience of this new form and Talon’s centuries of practice were paying off. He could feel himself weakening, losing himself within the swirling mass. He gave a mental wrench and felt himself become solid again, falling out of the air and landing on the ground, flat on his back, all the wind knocked out of him. He rolled over, gasping for breath, as Talon re-materialised behind him, looking angry.

‘You pathetic half-breed,’ Talon spat. ‘Do you seriously believe that you could ever defeat me? Suran was a fool to pass his gift on to you. How could an unenlightened ape like you ever hope to defeat a warrior of the Illuminate?’

‘Oi! Big mouth,’ Mag yelled from behind him, ‘you dropped something.’

Talon whirled round in time to see Mag throw something to Sam. The blue disc spun through the air and Sam caught it in his outstretched hand. He concentrated for an instant and his hand and the disc disintegrated into a swirling gold and blue sphere that shot across the space between him and Talon too quickly for the Illuminate warrior to dodge. The glowing ball struck his chest and Talon gasped as he once more exploded into a boiling cloud; but this time something was different. The cloud moved chaotically, horrific half-formed limbs and organs forming within it and then vanishing again in the blink of an eye. The cloud sank to the floor, where it writhed and thrashed as it slowly became solid. The pitiful thing that lay squirming on the floor in front of Sam turned his stomach. Part Illuminate, part Vore, even part human, it was a thing of nightmares.

‘What . . . have . . . you . . . done . . . to . . . me?’ Talon said, the twisted voice coming from the lipless, ragged hole of his mouth barely comprehensible.

‘No more than you deserve,’ Sam said as he looked down at the revolting heap of twisted flesh in front of him.

‘You . . . will . . . die . . . screaming . . . human,’ Talon said, his voice weakening. ‘You . . . will . . . all . . .’

Jay brought the foot of his Grendel down on Talon with a crunch.

‘You talk too much,’ Jay said. A moment later the Grendel’s chest popped open and Jay half slid and half fell from inside. He climbed to his feet, retching and coughing, clearing the gel from his lungs.

Sam stepped forward and hugged his friend. ‘Thought you were dead,’ he said.

‘So did I,’ Jay said with a smile, looking up at the immobile Grendel behind him. ‘These things are tougher than they look.’

Doctor Stirling’s voice suddenly crackled from somewhere inside the Grendel.

‘I don’t know if anyone can hear this, but there are three Voidborn Motherships less than seventy kilometres away from the city and closing. If we’re going to leave, we need to leave now.’

Sam reached out and touched the Grendel’s armoured skin.

‘We read you, Doctor Stirling,’ he said, interfacing effortlessly with the creature’s systems. ‘We’ll be with you in five minutes.’

The three of them headed out of the plaza beneath the Skytree and hurried down to the drop-ship sitting on the road outside.

‘Hey,’ Jay said as they approached the boarding ramp, ‘where’s Rachel?’

‘Get on board,’ Sam said, a sudden empty feeling in the pit of his stomach. ‘There’s something I need to tell you.’

Nat and Liz walked out into the compound and over to where Jack was standing with his arm in a sling watching Will and Anne digging Adam’s grave. It had been nearly forty-eight hours since the Mothership had left and there was still no sign of its return. The fallen Grendel lay in the middle of the compound, a constant reminder of their recent loss.

‘Let me help,’ Nat said, taking the shovel from Anne and helping her up out of the hole.

‘Thanks,’ Anne said, her face red with the exertion of digging up the frozen ground. ‘I’m going to go get a drink. Anyone want anything?’

‘Yeah, some water would be good,’ Will said, stopping for a moment to rest.

‘No problem,’ Anne said, ‘back in a minute.’

‘Here,’ Liz said, offering Will her hand, ‘my turn.’

‘No, it’s OK,’ Will said. ‘I’m all right for a few m—’

He stopped and cocked his head to one side as he heard a strange, barely audible throbbing noise. He looked over Nat’s shoulder and his mouth dropped open in surprise. The others turned and looked in the same direction, and saw the distant outline of not one but two Motherships dropping down through the clouds and heading for the city. As the Motherships drew closer over the following minutes, they could all see the clear signs of battle damage on both of the giant vessels. They looked as if they’d been to hell and back.

‘Do you think they’re friendly?’ Will asked as they drifted ever closer.

‘Maybe we’d better take cover until we know one way or the other,’ Liz said.

Liz helped Will up out of the hole and they all hurried towards the dormitory block, crawling under the raised structure and hiding in the shadowy space beneath. They lay in silence for what seemed like an hour, but which was probably actually no more than a few minutes, before they heard the familiar sound of a drop-ship’s engines approaching. A minute later the black triangular aircraft touched down in the compound next to the fallen Grendel, and the hatch in its side hissed open. Doctor Stirling was the first to exit the drop-ship, closely followed by a girl with strange marks on her face. They crawled out from under the dormitory and walked towards Stirling and the girl.

‘Are we glad to see you guys!’ Nat said happily as they approached.

Doctor Stirling didn’t say anything. He just looked back at the hatch in the side of the drop-ship as Jay and Sam walked out carrying between them what was unmistakeably a body wrapped in a plain, white sheet.

13

Sam looked down at the grave. The simple wooden cross at its head bore the single word ‘Rachel’. Next to it was another cross that marked Adam’s resting place. Sam took a deep breath and closed his eyes. He had lost so much over the past two years. He had hoped that at some point he might get used to the grief, but now he was beginning to wonder if he ever would.