Stars Rain Down (37 page)

She said, "To the ends of the Earth and right on into Hell."

The jeep slowed and pulled around the circle of trees. Jack took a deep breath and said, "Then it's settled. Do me a favor and keep cool when you meet my new friends. They may be monsters, but they're pretty decent folk."

The day of the attack arrived, and Elkellian was mounted up and ready to go. He felt nervous, as did his Yuon Kwon, Klethis Aum-Auresh. They were both eager to get things started, hoping the sprint would calm their nerves. The waiting was always the hardest part.

Rider and mount strutted and paced together, while the
Silgama
—the many-legged constructors—assembled fortifications all around them. Elkellian tried to calm Klethis, whispering, "Soon, honorable one. Just another few moments, and then it will be our time."

The other Yuon Kwon and their Alarhya stood at ease, and Elkellian wondered how they managed it. He was always a bundle of nervous energy before a battle, and he worried that it was just his own nerves and not Klethis at all. It was sometimes hard to tell which was which, even for a practiced rider such as himself.

He had reason to be nervous, though... This was to be the last great battle. Broken remnants of the Nefrem were still scattered around the planet, but the great bulk of their military was here, and they would fall. There could be no other outcome.

Elkellian cherished the thought of a day when the Nefrem were nothing but a legend, a scary story whispered to children over firelight, and the Oikeyans' new home was truly their own once and for all.

Then the war horns sounded and it was time. Elkellian and Klethis whooped together, their combined voices rising above the din of Yuon Kwon hooves. "For freedom!" they cried, their long legs launching them out over the open ground. The advance had begun.

Neck and neck, the tide of Yuon Kwon raced out across the plains toward the Nefrem fortress. Elkellian and Klethis became pure speed, each stride driving them faster until the world around became a blur, and only their distant target remained clear.

Open soil gave way to the enemy's primitive huts, and the pair cut hard to the left. Klethis' agile hooves found footing between the close packed shelters, while Elkellian scanned the trash heap for his target.

There it was.

Klethis' hooves clattered, his legs bent and filled with energy, then he leapt high into the air. They were pressed against the sky, the world around them eerily quiet at the top of the arc until the growing wind filled the silence.

Rider and mount cried out in unison, and spread their cannon arms like stubby wings. They sailed down toward the Nefrem air-defense tower and fired, a dozen bright blue blasts streaking out and battering the target into a cloud of smoke and burning debris.

The tower was no more. Elkellian and Klethis plummeted through its burning wreckage, reoriented in mid-air, and cranked hard to the side. As they hit the ground, they rebounded and raced off in a new direction, already on the hunt for the next tower.

***

The sky was clear except for a single cloud. Zelliar and Vissa Aum-Heirath climbed high into the air, twisting and spinning as they went, while the rest of their fighter wing trailed behind in a delta formation.

The rider and his flyer cut thrust and allowed their momentum to carry them up and stall. The Yuon Kwon's nose just barely touched that misty cloud, then together they tumbled back toward the swollen Earth.

Clouds were good omens, and since there was only one, Zelliar gave it a gentle kiss before rushing into battle.

The fin surrounding Vissa's hull spun into motion, and her thrust returned, then mount and rider howled as they bolted down from the heavens and opened fire on the ramshackle settlement below. The
Auresh
walkers had just sprinted clear after destroying the air defense towers, which paved the way for Vissa and her
Heirath
kin to finish the job.

Zelliar's fighter wing stretched apart and spat blue flames at the sprawling wooden city, which lit up like kindling and choked the air with smoke. They turned the Nefrem settlement into a raging firestorm, a twisting demonic inferno crackling beneath a sky of charcoal grey.

Flames reached upward, consuming everything but the dirt mound that was the Nefrem fortress, which remained uncaring and unaffected at the center of the blaze. Zelliar had an odd feeling about the fortress, as if it were moulting, shedding its skin and transforming into something else. Something unknown and terrible.

No matter. He could hardly wait to see it smashed to pieces, and he wouldn't have long to wait. He called out to the rest of his fighter wing, and they left the battlefield as one.

***

Ten-thousand Heirath Yuon Kwon filled the darkening skies as they formed up and raced away from the burning lands. At the battle line beneath them, a Kitsu named Arcotis sat atop one of the many
Khoom Yuon Kwon,
the massive siege-cannons which surrounded the fortress. The Khoom could fire incredible distances but their vision was terrible, making the Kitsu and their sharp eyes ideal companions.

When the last of the Heirath were clear, Arcotis gave the signal. The great walker leaned forward, braced itself and fired its unbelievably large cannon with a deafening thump.

The other Khoom and their Kitsu also fired all around the great Oikeyan battle line, creating a thunderous cacophony without tone or rhythm. Their rounds exploded in star-shaped bursts on the other side of the inferno, biting deep craters out of the armored mound.

The chaotic thump of the cannons continued throughout the day while the crackling firestorm raged, yet the Nefrem fortress remained standing. Arcotis called out adjustments, placing shells all over his target, but the building stood despite him, pitted and chewed up yet seemingly indestructible.

Twilight came and the charcoal sky turned black. The fires burnt on, unquenchable and undying, lighting the landscape in flickering yellow and orange, but still the fortress stood.

Arcotis called out another adjustment and shouted above the racket. He watched yet another blast take an insignificant hunk out of the fortress, and grimaced with the realization that breaking it might take all night.

***

Daniel waited in a dark and cramped room. There were other men at either shoulder, in front of and behind him, and he felt like a sardine. Or maybe a canned mackerel. Or anchovy. Definitely a fish of some sort.

They'd been standing there in the dark throughout the day, while the thunder of nearby artillery rocked the shelter over and over again. It didn't seem so bad at first, but after more than eight hours of standing nuts-to-butts, Daniel was uncomfortable in a way he never thought possible.

Then a red light flicked on to signal the assault, and Daniel told his men to check their weapons one last time.

"Locked and loaded," a sergeant yelled.

"Ready to rock and roll!" the others replied.

Ground charges went off. The Earth rumbled and shook as thousands of buried explosives detonated for tens of kilometers around, tearing the ground asunder and disrupting the enemy line. Alien screams and panicked cries rose above the din, as the constant thump of artillery finally came to an end.

The release hatch opened with a groan, revealing the riven landscape and raging fires outside. Gun emplacements on either side of the hatch opened fire, spitting hot uranium at the alien bastards, the bright tracers streaking the dark sky above.

"Go, go, go!" Daniel shouted, accompanied shortly by the sound of boots pounding dirt.

All along the battle line, a flash flood of fresh human troops numbering in the millions surged out from their underground shelters. Teams took turns, one providing cover fire while the others advanced, then struggling forward a few more meters while their allies returned the favor.

Together, their front push the panicked enemy in towards the Ark and the ravenous blaze which surrounded it.

Daniel's squad pushed fast and hard, and as a group, dove to their bellies and opened fire, punching holes in the invaders who scrambled for cover in half-demolished forts. The twitching corpses of the giant cannon walkers lay beyond, most of their legs shattered by the surprise attack.

"Move up the machine-gun!" Daniel shouted.

A gunner stomped up behind him, hit the deck and leaned into his weapon as it spat another stream of hot lead into the alien hordes.

Grenades arced high then dropped to the ground, rolled and exploded, raining shrapnel in every direction. Rockets whistled overhead, leaving smoke trails that gleamed in the orange light of the inferno.

"We got 'em. Keep up the pressure!"

"Right flank. Pin it down."

"Die, bastards!"

Daniel was sighting targets and dropping one alien after the next when he heard a sound like he'd just grabbed hold of a live wire. He heard and felt it, like the buzz of a defective speaker at a concert, but amplified a thousand times. He looked all over for the source of the noise, and finally found a titanic silhouette in the smoke filled sky.

An instant later, metallic bubbles like boiling quicksilver appeared around the alien troops. Bullets and rockets alike bounced off the bubbles impotently, unable to penetrate or even disturb them, while the enemy regrouped inside.

The advantage went back to the invaders just like that, while the human soldiers sought cover and dug in.

A new battle line quickly emerged, with forces entrenched on either side lobbing explosives and firing at anything stupid enough to lift its head. It ceased to be a battle, and instead became a meat grinder that churned human and alien alike into a smear of stinking offal.

Suppressed by fire and locked in place, the soldiers on both sides fought without rest. The lines never moved more than a meter in either direction, and the carnage continued until morning.

Legacy's bridge was oddly quiet. The tiered ivory room had been redecorated, now sporting a combination of human and Eireki technology, as did much of the rest of the ship. Dozens of computer workstations lined the decks, each manned by a crew member busily making final preparations for the return.

Marcus Donovan was floating in place at the command station, the exact spot where he was bonded to Legacy more than a year before. He'd become so adept at manipulating the gravity systems that his feet never touched the floor anymore. He was content instead to fly from one position to the next, like a proper creature of the void.

"This is taking too damn long," he said. "Mason, give me some good news."

"Loading procedures are nearly complete, sir. We're waiting on the last troop transport from Ares."

Much to Marcus' surprise, things had gone largely according to plan during the previous nine months. The two factories, one inside Legacy and the other on Mars, had worked virtually non-stop using material reclaimed from the two small moons. Deimos had been completely dismantled, and Phobos was nearly hollow.

The three habitation domes of Ares Colony were transformed into a sprawling metropolis that far outpaced its population, while a half-dozen destroyers and an assortment of smaller warships joined Legacy in orbit. They also surrounded Mars with a network of defense satellites, capable of putting a serious hurt on anyone reckless enough to arrive unannounced.

Mason said, "The last transport is docked, sir. We're ready to go."

Marcus nodded. "About time. Open a priority channel to Administrator Saladin."

Mason tapped at his console, and a holographic image of the administrator appeared at the front of the bridge.

"You're ready to depart then, Dr. Donovan?"

"As ready as we'll ever be. Does my fleet meet with your approval, Administrator?"

"Of course," Saladin said. "Not as if I could stop you now if I wanted to. Just take care of my people, Marcus."

"I'll bring them back to you, sir."

"Good luck and God speed."

The administrator ducked his head and his hologram vanished. The bridge's walls shifted into crystal mode the instant it was gone, revealing the endless sea of stars and a particularly bird-like cruiser doing lazy barrel roles in space.

"Should I inform Phoenix we're ready to get under way?" Mason asked.

"No," Marcus said with a grin. "Faulkland's a big boy. He'll figure it out."

He told Legacy it was time, and she did the rest. The starscape lurched out of position as the ship came about, then she launched off toward Earth accompanied by the feeling of falling.

Sarah Park said, "I'm reading zero obstructions between here and our destination. Hollow-drive at ninety percent output. Linear gravitational accelerators running at maximum efficiency. Current speed is .108 C, Earth relative. ETA forty-three minutes."

"Good," Marcus said, but he didn't mean it. Forty-three minutes was too long. A minute would be too long, but Legacy was still running on a single hollow-drive, which strictly limited her straight-line speed, and prevented the use of her instantaneous
traversal
system altogether. That last part meant they were confined to a single star-system until they could somehow crack the secrets of hollow-drive manufacture.

With only one drive, Legacy was always riding on the razor's edge of failure, a mind-bogglingly powerful ship that was never-the-less crippled compared to her former glory. And worse, overdrawing could destroy the one remaining drive, and Legacy would simply die.

Without access to new hollow-drives, she also couldn't construct sentient vessels like herself. The fleet was instead composed of hybrid vessels which bent Eireki technology to their own designs. They were human ships cobbled together from alien aftermarket parts.

Rao had made some headway in his study of hollow-drive technology, but it was slow going. He theorized that the device used a gravitational lens to distort the fabric of space, warping probability and producing a fountain of exotic particles at its center. It essentially generated a near-infinite supply of energy out of thin air. Or maybe it sucked power out of another dimension, or out of magical pixy farts for all anyone knew.