‘Thanks,’ Sam muttered inside his helmet.
You’re welcome, Selenne’s voice said in his head.
It was a bizarre sensation, like having a kind of active sixth sense that was always one step ahead of you. The feeling of barely controlling his own actions was unsettling, but seeing as Selenne had probably just saved his life, Sam felt inclined to roll with it for now.
‘Lots of angry Voidborn!’ Jack yelled in his ear. ‘Anyone want them?’
Sam watched as the suit tagged with Jack’s name shot past overhead with a swarm of Hunters in hot pursuit. Jack banked hard, plotting a course between Anne and Nat, who were dropping into flanking positions on either side of him. An instant later all three of them rolled on to their backs, firing their weapons to form a web of intersecting beams and cutting the pack into ribbons, chunks of Hunter shell tumbling to the ground in showers of sparks. Jack, Anne and Nat broke formation a moment later, each racing off towards fresh targets.
‘Don’t let up,’ Sam said. ‘We have to keep them off balance.’
‘Anything from Mag yet?’ Jay asked with a growl, the sound of his weapons firing and then something exploding nearby in the background.
‘Nothing yet,’ Sam said, ‘so keep them busy if you can.’
Mag scratched at her ear for the twentieth time in the past five minutes. The nanites that made up the Illuminate earpiece she was wearing directly stimulated her eardrum, making the alien device completely silent to the outside world. It also gave her the creeps. She poked her head out from the shadowy alcove in the superstructure on the top of the Voidborn base. As they’d hoped, the Scythe’s noisy fly-by had distracted the Voidborn from the tiny figure dropping out of the hatch in its belly. The trick now was to make sure that she remained undetected. The Scythe had vanished from view, but the sounds of battle from far below were all she needed to hear to know that her friends were doing everything they could to provide a distraction. She crept quickly across the top of the massive glowing pod at the centre of the canyon-spanning structure, flitting from shadow to shadow with inhuman speed and agility. She searched frantically for some sort of doorway or opening, anything that would grant her access, but could find no obvious way inside.
‘OK,’ Mag whispered, ‘looks like there’s no way in up here. Plan B it is.’
‘Copy that,’ Sam said. ‘Bringing the Scythe round for another pass. Stand by.’
Mag heard the distant whine of multiple drop-ship engines and the Scythe came shooting back down the canyon towards her with a swarm of the dagger-like ships still in close pursuit. The Voidborn ships’ cannons blazed as the Scythe bobbed and weaved through the hail of fire, splashes of light dancing across its rear energy shields as they absorbed the hits it could not dodge. Mag ducked down behind a solid-looking wall as the Scythe dived towards her with its forward cannons firing. The energy blasts tore into the upper surface of the Voidborn structure, sending clouds of debris flying into the air. Mag covered her head with her arms, ducking further behind the cover of the wall. The Scythe shot past just above her with the pack of drop-ships screaming after it, still in close pursuit. She waited a few seconds to ensure there was no sign of any new Voidborn forces and then dashed out from her hiding place towards the chain of glowing craters that the Scythe’s attack run had carved out of the ground in front of her. She peered down into one of the jagged holes and saw an opening that looked like it would be just wide enough for her to crawl inside.
‘Good job I’m not claustrophobic,’ Mag muttered to herself before jumping into the crater. She got on her hands and knees and slid slowly into the opening, barely able to squeeze her shoulders into the narrow crawl space. She pushed herself forward with her feet, trying to keep her breathing under control as she followed the dull crimson lights that pulsed through its dark translucent walls. As she slowly edged her way down, she couldn’t shake the feeling that she was moving through the body of some giant alien creature.
‘Think happy thoughts,’ Mag whispered, the sounds of the distant battle getting more muffled as the temperature in the tunnel grew warmer and the air started to smell like hot metal. She reached a junction and chose the path that most of the lights racing through the walls seemed to be following. Soon she saw a red glow reflecting around the curved walls of the passageway from a light source somewhere up ahead. She crawled round the bend, shuffling forward with her shoulders and knees, and let out a sigh of relief as she saw a glowing opening at the end of the tunnel in front of her. She slid out of the shaft and into the dimly lit corridor, feeling the floor vibrate with not only the force of the distant explosions outside, but also a deep throbbing hum that pulsed through the structure like a monstrous heartbeat. There was no sign of Voidborn activity anywhere nearby and Mag could only hope it would stay that way. For the moment at least, the distraction outside appeared to be working.
She crept along the corridor, moving silently towards the source of the pulsing sound. As the sound got louder she noticed that the scarlet lights in the walls were also increasing in brightness and frequency. She hoped that meant she was heading in the right direction and she continued along the passage, hugging the wall as the corridor grew wider and wider before opening up into an enormous chamber that was lit from within with searing red light. As she stepped out on to the walkway running round the sides of the cavernous space her mouth dropped open. The spherical chamber was at least two hundred metres across, the curved walls stretching up to a vaulted ceiling far above her. The walls blazed with lightning-bolt arcs of crimson energy that raced towards the equator of the spherical room before lancing out towards the giant machine that appeared to be levitating in the centre of the vast space. The floating structure looked like a giant inverted cannon, pointing straight down at the base of the chamber, a torrent of energy streaming from its barrel with a rumbling, thunderous roar.
Mag felt the hairs on her arms stand up with the static charge in the air. She moved towards the edge of the walkway, looking down into the yawning pit before her and watching as the thundering beam of energy drilled a seemingly bottomless channel into the canyon floor far below. The raw power that was being directed through the apparatus was breathtaking to behold.
‘Well, looks like I found it,’ Mag said quietly into her comms unit. She continued around the walkway as it spiralled towards the upper reaches of the chamber. Mounted on top of the cannon-like machine was a huge throbbing red crystal that sent a crimson stream of energy arcing up to another platform towards the top of the chamber.
‘Roger that,’ Sam replied in Mag’s ear. ‘Report as soon as the beacon is in place.’
‘Will do,’ Mag replied. She continued to walk towards the top of the chamber, running her hand over the smooth bumps of the black walls. Their texture here was different to elsewhere in the base, smoother and more organic and slightly warm to the touch. She looked up towards the platform near the ceiling of the chamber and broke into a jog, feeling increasingly confident that there were no Voidborn forces nearby. As she got closer she could see the patterns of scarlet lightning dancing across the underside of the platform where the beam of energy from the crystal below struck it. Mounted in the centre of the upper surface of the platform was a device she had only ever seen once before during their final battle with Talon in Tokyo. It was a massive black sphere suspended within a dangling web of cables with a glowing red portal at its base. That was Mag’s target, the central Voidborn command node for the entire American continent. She walked slowly towards it, her unnaturally acute senses still alert for any sign of Voidborn forces. She reached into one of the equipment pouches dangling from her belt and pulled out a small white disc with a fine pattern of blue light etched into its surface. She reached out towards the black crystalline surface of the command node and attached the small device to its surface.
‘Beacon placed,’ Mag said. ‘Ready when you are!’
‘Understood,’ Sam replied in her ear. ‘Get clear, I’m starting my run.’
r /> Mag ran back down the walkway, heading away from the command node. As she made her way towards the base of the chamber she noticed a flicker of movement out of the corner of her eye and glanced over towards the smooth chamber walls. She blinked twice, trying to clear her vision as the patterns on the walls seemed to shift and blur in unusual ways. It took a moment for her to realise what she was actually looking at and then she felt a sudden chill in the pit of her stomach.
There was nothing wrong with her vision, the walls were moving as the countless millions of Voidborn swarm creatures that lined the chamber walls began to stir and shift. She backed away from the wall, her eyes wide with terror as the first few skittering creatures began to scurry across the walkway towards her.
‘Sam!’ Mag yelled. ‘You have to –’
She never got time to finish her sentence. A black tentacle formed from countless thousands of the swarming creatures lashed out from the wall, slamming into her and sending her flying off the edge of the walkway. She felt a moment of sickening free fall before she slammed into the smooth crystalline wall sloping down towards the thundering beam of the energy drill. She clawed frantically at the slope, her razor-sharp talons scratching against the rock-hard surface, finally managing to stop her slide just a few metres from the drop-off to the canyon below. She could feel the heat of the energy beam on her back as she looked up at the walkway twenty metres above her. The Voidborn swarm began to pour over the edge of the walkway, surging down the smooth slope towards her. There was nowhere to run.
Sam whirled around, swinging the massive blade protruding from his right arm and slicing the Hunter that was buzzing through the air towards him clean in two in a shower of green blood. An instant later, a Grendel landed with a thundering crash just a couple of metres away from him, dropping from one of the structures overhead. Sam managed to raise one arm, the nanites of his armour forming a shield at the speed of thought as the Grendel swiped at him. The shield absorbed the worst of the impact but the force of the monstrous blow still sent Sam flying. He slid across the ground, slamming into a nearby wall. He rose to one knee as the Grendel charged towards him, trying to force himself to his feet. He barely had a chance to raise his shield again before the creature was upon him a second time. Again the shield absorbed the worst of the blow, but Sam could feel himself weakening in the face of the relentless assault, despite the amplified strength the Illuminate nanites granted him. The Grendel raised both its massive claws, bringing them together for one final blow. A split second later, there was a flash of light and the Grendel’s head was instantly vaporised by a pair of blinding white beams. Jay landed next to Sam in a cloud of dust as the decapitated Grendel toppled slowly to the ground.
‘You looked like you could use a hand,’ Jay said, and even though Sam could not see his face he knew that his friend was grinning inside his helmet.
‘Thanks,’ Sam said, taking Jay’s hand and letting his friend pull him up from the floor. ‘Mag’s planted the beacon. I’m calling in the Scythe.’
‘Want a wing man?’ Jay asked, looking up at the giant Voidborn structure far overhead.
‘It can’t hurt,’ Sam said, ‘but if this goes to plan we’ll have all the backup we could ever need in just a couple of minutes.’
The Scythe is inbound, Selenne said. ETA fifteen seconds.
Sam nodded at Jay and sent his suit shooting vertically into the air, powering upwards and heading straight for the centre of the Voidborn structure, with Jay close behind him. In the distance he could see the Scythe rocketing towards them from the other direction, its shield still just holding up under the relentless barrage of the pursuing Voidborn ships. He adjusted his own path slightly to put himself on a direct collision course with the Illuminate ship and the pursuing pack of Voidborn interceptors. At the speed they were both travelling, the distance between Sam and the Scythe closed in the blink of an eye, collision now inevitable. As Sam ploughed into the front of the Scythe, the front section of the ship disintegrated into a swirling cloud of energised plasma, unleashing a shock wave of energy that slammed into the pursuing Voidborn ships, tearing them to pieces and sending them cascading towards the canyon floor far below. The swirling cloud of superheated energy that was all that remained of the Scythe hung in the air above the Voidborn hive, flaring almost too brightly for Jay to look at directly. For a second or two the cloud swirled chaotically, but then slowly it began to coalesce into a single bright mass. At the centre of the boiling sphere of energy Sam felt the subtle influence of Selenne as he fought to control and guide the massive swarm of Illuminate nanites that had once made up the Scythe.
The cloud continued to solidify as it dropped towards the central Voidborn structure, forming a vaguely humanoid shape. Jay watched as a pair of massive armoured feet crunched down on to the top of the black crystalline hub. A giant Illuminate warrior, four times the height of a Grendel, appeared from the cloud and raised its twenty-metre-long sword above its head. The massive weapon came crashing down, hacking through the outer layers of the Voidborn hive’s superstructure before the giant warrior reached down and peeled back a massive section of the hull. Safely encased inside the enormous machine, Sam fought against the strange sense of disorientation that came with suddenly feeling like he was thirty metres high. He concentrated instead on tearing his way into the Voidborn base, heading straight for the waypoint inside it that indicated the position of the beacon Mag had placed just a few moments earlier.
‘OK,’ Jay said quietly, watching as the giant mech ripped into the Voidborn base, ‘maybe you didn’t need a wing man after all.’
‘I could do with a hand here,’ Nat’s voice said suddenly in Jay’s ear, sounding slightly frantic. ‘I’ve got Grendels.’
‘Roger that,’ Jay said. ‘How many?’
‘Erm . . . all of them, I think,’ Nat replied.
‘Understood,’ Jay said, the display in his helmet highlighting Nat’s current position. ‘On my way. Anyone else who’s in a position to help should provide backup. Sam’s nearly at the target.’
‘I’ll be with you in ten seconds,’ Jack said. ‘Just mopping up over here.’
On top of the Voidborn base, Sam tore through what he thought was the final bulkhead separating him from his target, bright red light pouring from the open wound that he had inflicted on the giant structure. He ripped at the tattered edges of the breach, widening it just enough for him to force his way inside, then dropped into the chamber below, the clawed feet of the Illuminate mech encasing him fighting for purchase as he landed on the smooth, sloping surface of the chamber walls. He glanced up at the platform at the top of the cavernous space, his target clearly marked on the heads-up display inside his helmet. A split second before he could issue the mental command that would send the giant machine he was piloting soaring to the top of the chamber, something slammed into his back with enough force to knock him clean off his feet. He tumbled down the smooth slope at the bottom of the chamber, rolling towards the massive drilling beam while desperately grabbing for anything to hang on to. The clawed feet of the mech left long gouges in the wall of the chamber as he finally managed to slow and then stop his descent.
Sam shot a glance upwards and immediately saw what it was that had just struck him in the back. Rearing into the air above him was a swarm of the same creatures that had attacked London, the skittering insectile machines crawling over and around each other, forming a solid mass. He dived to one side as a huge tentacle speared out from it, crashing into the ground where he’d been crouched just a moment before. He had no time to dodge as the tentacle whipped towards him, slamming into the chest of his mech and sending him flying backwards. He crashed into the fragile walkway, smashing it to pieces, and raised his arm, willing the Illuminate nanites that it was made from into the shape of a cannon. He fired a searing bolt into the seething mass and the beam vaporised countless thousands of the Voidborn creatures, sending the heaving swarm recoiling across the chamber walls. Sam took advantage of the
momentary retreat to transform the Illuminate mech’s other arm into an identical weapon before firing again, the twin beams slicing through the surging Voidborn horde.
‘Oh God, no.’ Sam spotted a limp form lying on a section of the undamaged walkway thirty metres away. ‘Mag!’
Sam felt a sudden hot rush of anger, letting out an enraged howl and charging at the Voidborn swarm.
Sam, Selenne said, no, you can’t fight . . .
Sam wasn’t listening. Without even properly understanding how, he channelled a massive energy charge into the right hand of his mech, swinging its balled fist into the centre of the mass of skittering creatures. There was a huge violent discharge of energy as Sam’s blow struck home, whipping through the swarm in a searing white explosion. The swarm retreated for a second and then surged back towards him with renewed speed and aggression, slamming into him like a tidal wave. He staggered backwards, flailing against an enemy that he could barely hit as it swept over and around him, dragging the enormous mech to its knees despite its colossal strength. Sam felt the horrible sensation of individual swarm drones burrowing their way into the mech’s armour plating, scratching and clawing their way inside. He continued to struggle fruitlessly as the hissing wave swept over his head and everything went black. Then came a moment of panic before he heard Selenne’s calming voice in his head. She said just two words.
Star Lance.
Immediately Sam understood what she meant. He willed the Illuminate nanites around him back into their original form, hoping that they still had the power required for what Selenne was suggesting. For an instant Sam found himself floating inside the cockpit of the Scythe, the black mass of the Voidborn swarm scratching and clawing at the armoured glass outside. A split second later the Star Lance drive fired and everything went white. The Scythe was instantly transformed into a bolt of pure white energy that erupted up and out of the swarm, spearing towards the top of the chamber. Sam materialised on the upper platform in a blinding flash of light, the Illuminate nanites that had once composed the Scythe cascading to the ground around him, their glow fading, their power reserves spent. Sam staggered forward, trying not to think about the limp body lying on the walkway far below. The only possible way he could help Mag now was to complete his mission. Her life and the life of every last person on the planet depended on it. He half walked and half fell the last few metres towards the Voidborn central command node, stretching out his hand and thrusting it into the glowing crimson portal at the base of the black crystalline sphere.