Everwinter: The Forerunner Archives (28 page)

"Take us down!" Pilcrow bellows, speaking to the creature at the front of the vehicle. Below us, the Fringe city of Takay appears in miniature, like a toy.
The view makes me nauseous and I have to turn away.

The machine we are riding inside is like every Forerunner fantasy I've ever had ro
lled up into one. For one thing it flies, gliding noisily but effortlessly through the skies of Takay. The body of the machine, bruise purple in color, is pill shaped, with seating for a half dozen in the back and two seats in the front for pilots. There's only one pilot right now, however, and Pilcrow and two of his henchmen are with me in the back, watching me like hawks. A layered series of wings protrudes from each side of the vehicle, all flapping furiously in unison, not unlike the hummer birds I see so often back home. The wings are slowing now, the pilot taking us down into a deserted but trash ridden field just outside the city. 

"Are you there, Pilcrow?" Altair's worried voice sounds
over the communicator once again. 

Pilcrow curses, ignoring Altair for the moment.
 

"What should we do?" one of the henchmen asks Pilcrow. The mutant has a single mohawk, grown long down his back. Other than
those weapon belts and dark goggles over their eyes, these mutants wear no clothing to speak of. "If they really do have the cure
and
another pureblooded human," the mutant continues, "then this female is useless to us!" He gestures to me like I'm garbage. 

A million things are running through my mind in that moment. First, I know it's a lie. Agoma and Ragyle never got any further than drawing my blood, so there is no fully synthesized cure yet. Ursa might be able to continue that work, but she seemed unfamiliar with the Doctor's techniques.
 Altair is just trying to lure Pilcrow back so that he can kill these mutants and save me.

He doesn't
really
love me. Does he?

And why is this Pilcrow so obsessed with my
Father?

The memory of Agoma and Ragyle, broken like ragdolls
on the floor, flashes through my mind. Even Altair and Glamis together would be no match for these mutants. I mean, look at them! They're freakin' huge! If we go back, my friends are just as dead as I am. And the knowledge of Traylor’s existence is out now too. They'll probably take him as well.

My mind is made up in that moment.

"Don't do it!" I blurt. "It's a trap! There is no cure! It's like you said! It was all destroyed!"

I cringe, hoping Pilcrow doesn't see fit to slap me again, but he just eyes me thoughtfully.
 

"I know," Pilcrow finally replies. "It very likely is a trap, and Altair knows that I know that. I just can't figure out his angle." He hesitates. "Do you
really
have a brother who is pureblooded like you?"

I sigh and nod. "Yes, unfortunately."

Pilcrow smiles. "It's settled then. Your friend Altair thinks I want the cure–and I do–but you are just as valuable to me, Juno. It may shock you to learn that this cure has been your Father's pet project for over twenty years. He's had labs all over the world working on it. Originally, I had planned to capture it and destroy it before his very eyes. But that was before I learned that you escaped the Final Judgment. Now that I have you..."

I'm stunned. "What do you know of my
Father?" I snarl. "Why do you hate him so much?"

Pilcrow just smiles knowingly.

"Jacobi," Pilcrow yells, addressing the pilot at the front of the vehicle. "Cancel that last order. Take us back up. I have a better idea."

"Yes, Pilcrow," Jacobi obeys. My stomach whirls once more as we ascend over Takay.

"What are you doing?" I ask, starting to hyperventilate. I feel a panic attack coming on.

Pilcrow ignores me. "Ready the Atom Smasher, Skarix," he says to the mutant with the long mohawk. Skarix gets up from his seat and moves over to the side of the vehicle. To my shock, he pulls open a sliding glass door, letting turbulent air rush in. The mutant then climbs out onto the
side of the cab, using a rail for support. There's something mounted to the rail. It's long and sleek, shaped like a bullet with fins. Crude words are painted along the side of it:

Megaton Death From Above!

I don't know what they mean exactly, but I don't have to.

I know what this thing is.

A Forerunner weapon.

I've heard of them, of course, from the old stories. They say the Great Poison of the northern ocean was a result of one of these weapons. An Atom Smasher. A weapon capable of
leveling an entire city with one deadly blast. I never believed such a thing could be real. Where had Pilcrow gotten it? This Atom Smasher is old and rusted, but Skarix, the mutant on the side of the flying machine, seems unconcerned with that. There will be no deal between Altair and Pilcrow. Pilcrow plans on simply killing
everything
that can pose a threat to him.

"Level the Thopter over the lab," Pilcrow orders Jacobi, the pilot. Apparently, this flying machine is called a
Thopter
.

Jacobi does as ordered, pulling and turning a steering device at the same time. Mutants in the desolate streets of Takay bolt as our shadow passes over them, a harbinger of death. I immediately recognize the crumbling warehouse tha
t Glamis had taken us beneath earlier. There's a small hope in the back of my mind that since the lab is underground, it will be somewhat protected from the Atom Smasher.

It
's not much of a hope though.

Pilcrow surely would have considered that already. The Atom Smasher will likely create a crater
halfway to the core of the planet!

Jacobi settles the Thopter over the street, the warehouse directly in front of and below us.

"Um, won't we be blown up too if you fire that thing?" I attempt to stall. "We're pretty damn close to it!"

Pilcrow shakes his head. "You have no idea what the Forerunners were capable of," he says. I stare at him, not really sure what that means. Pilcrow smiles, revealing his needle
-like teeth. "This machine is shielded," he boasts. "Nothing can harm us once it is activated." He reaches over, flicking a switch on the wall. A faint, metallic blue skin seems to grow over the Thopter. Pilcrow smiles and sticks his hand out the open door, blue light dancing on his pale fur.

"Just make sure you stay
inside
the Thopter," he states.

I shake my head, rolling my eyes. "I really hope you're wrong," I snarl.

Skarix climbs back into the cabin, sliding through the blue light of the shield and resuming his seat next to Pilcrow. "The Atom Smasher is ready," he announces.

Pilcrow nods. "You might want to close your eyes for this," he tells me. "I've heard the explosion can actually burn your eyes out." He taps the goggles on his face, indicating that he and his mates are protected. I already know that they wear those goggles because their eyes are light sensitive, having evolved in the eternal darkness of Everwinter.

"Great," I say, my panic reaching a fever pitch. I need to do something–
anything
–to stop this, but haven't a clue what.

Pilcrow turns back toward the
pilot. "Fire when ready, Jacobi."

"Yes, sir," Jacobi answers. I watch in helpless horror as the mutant reaches for the console in front of him, flipping up a cover with a red button beneath
it. Jacobi makes a final adjustment to the Thopter's altitude then seems ready. 

His hand moves for the button.

Everything seems like it’s happening in slow motion, time stretching to infinite. His hand is just inches from killing everyone I have left in this world...

I don't think. I act.

"NO!" I scream, leaping forward from my seat.

My hands are still bound behind my back, but Pilcrow and Skarix, staring out the front of the Thopter, are so surprised by my movement that I manage to slip between them into the cockpit, slamming up against Jacobi's cold back. My hands are useless at the moment, so I use the only weapon
s available to me.

My teeth.

I bite down, slicing into the cold flesh on Jacobi's face, taking the leather strap of the goggles he wears at the same time. Jacobi screams, his hands still on the steering column, jolting and sending the nose of the Thopter straight upwards. At the same time he hits the red button, firing the Atom Smasher. I'm grasped from behind by rough hands, pulling me backward like I'm a bag of air. I keep my teeth firmly clasped, despite the foul taste of blood and raw flesh in my mouth. Jacobi's goggle strap snaps, dangling from my mouth like seaweed. I'm torn into the backseat, but I catch a last glimpse of the Atom Smasher, streaking a trail of smoke harmlessly straight up into the sky.

Then it explodes.

I'm in the back again, being pummeled by Pilcrow and Skarix. My eyes are closed.

But Jacobi's are not.

His goggles are gone.

The light of the explosion flashes full into his sight, causing another scream, this one sounding a
million times more agonized. The pilot falls forward against the steering column, the Thopter sent straight into a dive. My world spins. I still feel Pilcrow on top of me, screaming too, but in rage not pain. His grip on me tightens. It feels like he's trying to pop me like a bubble.

Then inertia takes over and suddenly everything goes black.

42.

"Juno!" Altair screams. 

And he's not the only one.

Ursa, Traylor, and Glamis are right behind him, witnessing the same thing he just had.

They're standing in the alley directly next to the warehouse, having just climbed out of the sewer to street level. A Thopter
, a fantastic machine Altair has seen only once before in his miserable life has just streaked overhead, falling in a terrible nosedive. There's an explosion of some sort up in the sky. However, from where they stand, they can't see it directly. It's bright as hells, but it's dissipating.

"Come on!" he urges the others, keeping
his throwing stars at the ready. Two are stained with the blood of the mutants he'd already killed. He leads the way, darting down the deserted streets. It's as if the residents of Takay evacuated centuries ago. Smoke rises from an intersection dead ahead, and he's the first one there. The Thopter is engulfed in flame and black smoke, its purple, pill-shaped body now like a crumpled sheet of paper.

"Juno!" he cries, trying to get closer. The heat forces him back.
 They need to get those flames out!

Suddenly, Glamis is at the wreckage, diving in heedlessly, pulling the thin metal of the craft apart like tissue. Altair cringes as the hulking mutant cries out in pain
–he's burning, there can be no doubt–but then he finally reaches in, pulling something from the carnage.

A corpse.

He leaps away, pulling the body with him.

Even charred to a crisp,
it’s clear that the body is big.

T
oo big to be Juno.

Glamis stumbles back over to his friends, his hands and arms cracked, blackened, and bleeding. He's coughing and breathing heav
ily. "'Tis only midgets I can see inside," he huffs, gesturing to the Everwinter mutant's corpse. "There's might be more insides but..." He doesn't have to finish. They all know what he means.

There are no survivors.

"Juno's dead?" a voice squeals from behind. Altair doesn't have to turn around to know that it belongs to Traylor. The little boy's anguish mirrors his own. "No!"

"What's wrong?" a new voice asks from out of nowhere.

Altair whirls around, astonished.

Impossible!

He has to be hallucinating...

Juno strides toward them as if she hasn't a care in the world. She's all dirt and soot from head to toe, her hair a disheveled mess. She's covered in cuts and scrapes, but to Altair, she's an absolute vision.

"J-J-Juno?" Traylor trembles as she approaches.

"Hey, buddy," she waves, all smiles.

Behind Juno, a mas
sive ambling figure shambles along. It's limping, barely able to walk, but it's carrying something over its shoulder. Something equally big.

It's an Everwinter mutant
carrying the body of another.

Altair has his stars ready in an instant.

"No, Altair!" Juno admonishes, finally reaching her friends. Her mutant companion stops near the Thopter wreckage. "It's alright," she says. "I
think
." She smirks. "He won't hurt us. He had a chance to kill me but didn't." She turns to the mutant and gestures.

"Juno is a good human," the mutant says, defying all logic. H
is eyes are bleeding and pussy; he must be half blind.

"But... How?" Traylor ask
s as Juno reaches him, leaning down to embrace her little brother in the tenderest of hugs. Ursa is there now too, sobbing, expressing her own relief at Juno's miraculous reappearance. Glamis seems not to notice Juno; he's staring at the Everwinter mutant like he wants to rip its head off.