‘I thought our new Illuminate buddies had all the training we’d ever need,’ Jay said.
‘We are on a deadline, after all,’ Nat said, nodding in agreement with Jay. ‘How long is this going to take exactly?’
‘The purpose of the training is not to teach you how to use your new abilities,’ Selenne said. ‘It is to show you how to relinquish willingly some of the control you have over your own bodies. You cannot hope to learn to use these weapons properly in the time we have; instead you must learn to trust in the abilities of the Illuminate bonded with your implants. They are our finest warriors, hand-picked for their centuries of experience fighting the Voidborn, and it’s only with their help that we can hope to emerge victorious. Allow me to demonstrate.’
Selenne gestured for Jay to come and stand beside her. She gave a small wave and Jay’s suit of Illuminate armour dematerialised as quickly as it had first appeared.
‘Now,’ Selenne said to Jay with a wave of her hand, ‘please reactivate the weapons system.’
Jay stood there for a moment, looking slightly embarrassed.
‘Erm . . . how exactly do I do that?’ he asked.
‘You must simply use your neural interface to order your nanites into an appropriate configuration,’ Selenne replied. ‘Your familiarity with phase matrix construction scaffolds should make that straightforward.’
‘OK,’ Sam said, trying not to smile at Jay’s confused expression, ‘we take your point.’
‘I do not mean to imply this is something that you should understand,’ Selenne said. ‘It is a skill that takes an Illuminate warrior decades to perfect. It is only by tapping into that deeply ingrained experience that you will truly be able to exploit the combat potential of these weapons.’ She turned back towards Jay. ‘Now, try that again but this time with the cooperation of the Illuminate warrior bonded to your implant. You only need think about what you wish to happen.’
Jay stood there for a moment looking confused; there was still no sign of his armour.
‘Relax,’ Selenne said. ‘All you need to do is picture it in your head.’
Jay looked at her for a moment and then gave a small nod. An instant later he was surrounded by a glowing cloud that coalesced in a fraction of a second into the gleaming white armour of an Illuminate warrior.
‘I will say this for humans,’ Selenne said, ‘you’re fast learners.’
‘Hey,’ Jay said, ‘I don’t care how it works, as long as it does.’
‘It will take a couple of hours for your implant bond to strengthen properly,’ Selenne explained. ‘As it does your weapon will begin to respond to your mental commands more quickly. In the meantime I suggest we familiarise you with some of the weapon’s basic functionality.’
Over the following couple of hours, the Illuminate bonded to the implants in each of their skulls put them through an accelerated training programme that introduced the basics of the offensive systems built into their armour. Selenne and General Indriss’s holographic forms wandered the room, advising their new human recruits on how best to use them. If it had not been for the subliminal support of their implanted co-pilots, it would have been impossible to train them in even the basics, but with their assistance and a certain amount of bloody-minded determination, the human recruits made quick progress.The room shifted around them as they trained, morphing into whatever configuration would best suit their purposes. On one side of the room, animated combat dummies sprang up out of the floor around Anne and she spun in a single graceful pirouette, slicing them all cleanly in two with the energy beams that shot from her wrists. At the other end of the chamber, Jay was swooping and diving through a series of rings that hovered in the air, revelling in the suit’s airborne agility. It may have been due to the hard-earned experience of the Illuminate they were bonded with, but the speed with which they learned to master their suits’ abilities was exhilarating and their sheer raw power intoxicating.
Selenne had briefed them on the mission that the Illuminate had been planning, a mission that would only be possible with the help of Sam and his friends and their new weapons. If it was successful, it could permanently tilt the tables of the war in their favour. That didn’t change the fact that it would be the seven of them against an army.
‘They all look like they’re enjoying themselves,’ Mag said as she walked up to Sam. ‘You, though, not so much. Don’t suppose you want to tell me what’s bothering you, huh?’
‘I’m not sure,’ Sam said with a frown. ‘Just the usual, I guess.’
‘The usual being trying to work out how to save everyone from becoming a casualty of a war between two alien races,’ Mag said with a wry smile. ‘Which, I suppose, is kind of weird, when you stop and think about it.’
‘I try not to worry about it too much any more,’ Sam said, shaking his head slightly.
‘I don’t believe that for a second,’ Mag replied, looking up at him. ‘In fact, I don’t think I’ve ever met anyone who worries about things more than you.’
‘Hey, someone has to,’ Sam said.
‘Maybe, but it doesn’t always have to be you.’
‘Yeah, I know.’ Sam sighed. ‘It’s just that none of us ever asked for any of this. I don’t just mean us here; I mean all of us . . . everywhere. Humans.’
‘It’s not the first time that innocent people have been caught up in a war,’ Mag said. ‘It’s not only your responsibility, you know, and you’re doing everything you possibly can. Just because you were unlucky enough to have that thing stuck in your head when you were a baby doesn’t mean you’re responsible for the safety of everyone on the planet.’
‘I know,’ Sam said. ‘I just think that if we don’t look out for humanity, no one else will. Definitely not the Voidborn, but maybe not the Illuminate either. And if I’m honest, that’s what worries me more.’
‘Yeah, well, don’t worry,’ Mag said with a grin. ‘I’m keeping both eyes firmly fixed on our blue friends here. Nice to know I’m not the only one who doesn’t trust them. Speak of the devil.’
Selenne was walking across the room towards them, a smile spreading across her face as she approached.
‘Hello, Sam,’ Selenne said. ‘I was wondering if you would have time to talk with me.’
‘He’s all yours,’ Mag said. ‘I’ll catch you later, Sam. I’m going to go and check on Stirling.’
‘Your companions are surprisingly resourceful and tenacious,’ Selenne said when Mag had gone. ‘I have seen Illuminate warriors with less resolve. They are adapting to the weapons with impressive speed.’
‘We’ve all become fast learners over the past couple of years,’ Sam replied. ‘We’ve had to.’
‘Yes, I suppose you have . . .’ Selenne suddenly looked sad and slightly distracted. ‘Many have paid the price for the Voidborn’s madness. Perhaps what we are preparing to do here today will change all that.’
‘Or it could just be a suicide mission,’ Sam said, looking at her and raising an eyebrow. ‘Let’s face it: it could go either way.’
‘We are confident that the device we detected at the Voidborn site is the correct target,’ Selenne replied. ‘If we are successful . . . if you are successful, it could be a critical step towards ending this war once and for all. We have to try.’
‘I’m not saying we shouldn’t. I just don’t want to lose anyone else.’
‘Sometimes losses are inevitable in war. Believe me, I understand the burden of leadership.’
‘I’m not their leader, though,’ Sam said, gesturing towards his friends busily training at the other end of the room.
‘They think you are,’ Selenne replied. ‘Sometimes that’s all that’s important. In my experience, the greatest leaders are the ones that don’t want to lead.’
‘Oh, that’s definitely me,’ Sam said with a chuckle. ‘Honestly, I’d rather be just about anywhere else right now.’
‘And yet here you are, and that’s what matters.’ Selenne turned and looked him in the eye.
‘In my experience, the universe has a way of giving you exactly what you need only when you most need it. Call it fate, call it destiny if you will, but it is a gift that one would be foolish to reject. If it were not for your abilities, the gift that Suran gave you, we would not be able to strike back against the Voidborn. You give us hope, Sam, which is something the Illuminate have not had for a very long time. I am honoured that you have allowed me to bond with your weapon, so that I may assist you in the battle ahead. Apart we stand no chance; together we can defeat the Voidborn once and for all.’
‘I suppose, but –’
‘Sam!’ He was interrupted by Mag’s panicked yell as she ran back into the room. ‘It’s Stirling. I think he’s getting worse.’
Sam ran towards her and followed her down the corridor to the docking bay. The pair of them sprinted up the boarding steps of the Scythe, running through the bridge and heading for the rear compartment. Sam raced over to Stirling’s stasis pod, quickly examining the holographic display floating above the glowing chamber. He didn’t have anywhere near enough medical training to understand what many of the numbers meant, but the fact that most of them were highlighted in red couldn’t be a good thing. A moment later Anne ran into the room, pushing Sam to one side and studying the display carefully.
‘He’s crashing,’ she said with a sudden edge of panic in her voice. She turned toward Selenne as the others hurried into the room behind her. ‘Is there anything you can do for him? Whatever you did to fix Will’s ankle – can you do the same thing for him?’
‘I will do what I can,’ Selenne replied.
She walked towards the stasis chamber, which slid silently open as she approached. Raising a single hand above Stirling’s prone body, she closed her eyes as a glowing stream of particles flowed from the wall of the Scythe next to the pod. The bright ribbon of nanites moved quickly through the air, settling on Stirling, flowing up and over his chest and into his nose and mouth. Selenne’s face was a mask of concentration as she continued to hold her hand out in the air over the old man’s body. She stood there, immobile for several long minutes as Stirling twitched and convulsed on the bed. Eventually, she opened her eyes, looking over at Sam.
‘I’m sorry,’ Selenne said, ‘his injuries are too severe. Our nanites were not designed to repair human physiology. His injuries are too extensive, I have done all I can. He is dying.’
‘No, there’s got to be something else you can do,’ Anne said, shaking her head in denial. ‘You travelled across the stars, you built machines like this.’ She waved at the walls of the Scythe. ‘There must be something . . .’
‘Sam,’ Stirling said suddenly, his voice little more than a strangled whisper.
Sam hurried to his side and crouched down beside the stasis chamber, taking the doctor’s hand as he slowly lifted it from the bed. Stirling tried to say something, his voice virtually inaudible. Sam leaned in closer, bringing his ear within centimetres of the doctor’s mouth. Suddenly, he felt Stirling’s grip tighten as he whispered a single phrase into Sam’s ear.
‘Don’t trust them.’
The doctor gave a single pained grunt, his body convulsing one last time before his grip on Sam’s hand went loose. His war was finally over.
‘What did he say?’ Jay asked as he came over and stood beside his friend.
‘It doesn’t matter,’ Sam said, glancing over at Selenne. ‘I’ll tell you later.’
‘What are we going to do now?’ Jack asked, as they gathered solemnly around Stirling’s body. Without him, there would never have been a resistance movement at all. In fact, they would have been lying unconscious in a Voidborn dormitory somewhere in London if it had not been for his efforts.
‘We take the fight to the Voidborn,’ Sam said, feeling something suddenly harden in his gut. ‘We go out there and we kick their asses off this planet once and for all.’ He turned towards his friends. ‘We do it for Stirling, we do it for Liz, for Rachel, for Adam, for Jackson, for Toby, for Tim, for every last person we’ve lost. We go out there and make the Voidborn pay a hundredfold for every drop of blood they’ve spilled. That’s what we do.’ Sam looked at each of them in turn. He no longer saw the children they’d been two years ago; now he saw a hardened group of veterans whom he would have followed into hell. That he was going to follow into hell, he reminded himself. ‘We have a war to win.’
7
Sam rocketed through the night, the flat, scrub-covered desert floor racing past just a couple of metres below him. The others were spread out behind him, travelling at hundreds of miles an hour, their suits automatically following the slight undulations in the terrain. A projected display inside his helmet told Sam that they were now just a couple of miles from their target and he felt his mouth turn dry. They all knew what this meant: they had to succeed in their mission or there would be nothing to stop the Voidborn laying waste to the Earth. The stakes could not have been any higher and there still seemed far too few of them to succeed, even with the undoubted advantages that the Illuminate nanite armour provided.
Remember the plan, General Indriss said in their heads. Keep them scattered and off balance.
Let our warriors guide your actions, Selenne said. Use their experience to supplement your own instincts. Remember, they have fought the Voidborn many times before.
‘We’ve had the odd tussle with them ourselves,’ Jack said, his voice clear in Sam’s earpiece.
‘Yeah, maybe we’ll even teach you a thing or two,’ Anne said.
‘Approaching target,’ Mag whispered. ‘Ready when you are.’
‘Roger that,’ Sam said. ‘Twenty seconds.’
Sam sent his suit shooting over the edge of the drop, before diving towards the floor of the canyon far below. There, the Colorado River continued its ceaseless task of carving a massive channel out of the desert. Sam levelled out as the canyon floor raced up to meet him, skimming low over the water, almost close enough to reach down and touch its surface. The others followed in tight formation behind him, the Illuminate bonded with their suits guiding them safely to their destination. They were now just seconds from their target and Sam found himself silently praying that their approach had gone unnoticed. Stealth was unimportant once they reached their target, but the element of surprise would be essential.
Sam banked hard, sending his suit racing around a tight bend in the canyon, hugging the wall. Seconds later they saw what they’d been looking for. The massive structure spanned the gap between the canyon walls far above, and the giant, bulging oval of black crystal at its centre hung suspended like some form of monstrous chrysalis, glowing with a deep crimson light. A scarlet beam twenty metres wide seared downwards from the crystal, blasting into a deep bore hole in the canyon floor. The canyon walls either side of this central span were covered with Voidborn structures dug into the rock face, all of them swarming with Hunters and Grendels. Dozens of drop-ships were also circling overhead, providing aerial defences for the Voidborn platform.
Sam’s suit systems automatically tracked and targeted the Voidborn ahead of him, highlighting their positions throughout the structure. The tactical data was instantly shared between all of their suits, their Illuminate co-pilots allocating targets for each of them based on threat levels and range.
‘That’s a lot of Voidborn,’ Jay said with a low whistle.
‘OK, guys,’ Sam said as his suit plotted an attack vector ahead of him, ‘you know the drill. Shock and awe.’
A split second later, the Scythe screamed past overhead, shooting across the top of the glowing hub in the centre of the Voidborn hive, missing it by just metres. The response from the drop-ships buzzing around the structure was immediate; they banked sharply to intercept the Illuminate vessel and raced after it as it rocketed away down the canyon.
‘Hit ’em,’ Sam said, willing his suit to accelerate and feeling the odd sensation of benefiting from years of another being’s experience as he swooped through the outer structures of the Voidborn base, missing th
e black crystalline buildings by what seemed like centimetres. He powered through the outer defences, green energy bolts sizzling through the air around him as the Hunters in the outer perimeter began to react to the Illuminate warriors that shot past them, weaving this way and that, diving through and between the fortifications.
Airbrakes flared on the back of Sam’s suit and he landed hard, the nanites of his armour absorbing the impact as he slid across the ground and pointed both hands at the Hunter that was shooting at him. The bracers of his armour flashed with blue light and a searing beam shot from each of his clenched fists, punching straight through one side of the Hunter’s silvery shell and out the other. The Voidborn creature exploded in a shower of dark green liquid and Sam spun around as he felt the ground shake. A Grendel charged towards him, its blade-tipped tail sweeping through the air. Sam fired the beam weapon again, punching a hole in the giant creature’s chest as his other arm morphed into a glowing rectangular shield with which he blocked the Grendel’s whipping tail, its razor-sharp tip glancing off it in a shower of sparks. Without thinking, Sam willed his other arm to shift into a long, flat-bladed sword, its edges crackling with blue fire. He fired the suit’s boosters and closed the few metres to the staggering Grendel, dark green fluid gushing from the hole that Sam’s weapon had created. Sam swept the blade upwards, putting all the energy from the short burst of speed into the swing. The sword tore through the Grendel’s abdomen, slicing upwards and out of the top of the hulking beast’s shoulder. The Grendel gave a single strangled roar and toppled forward on to the ground, where it lay twitching. Sam spun around, watching as his friends and their Illuminate passengers tore into the Voidborn defences, explosions and flashes of bright blue lighting up the base.
More Hunters flew towards Sam. He launched himself straight upwards, firing his beam weapons while sweeping his arms in a wide arc and slicing through several of his predators at once. Suddenly, Sam’s suit jinked to the left as a green bolt of energy arced through the air where he had been hovering just an instant before.