Mag sprinted across the top of the Voidborn structure, vaulting over the piles of debris that lay scattered in her path. In the air above her, her friends fought a desperate battle for survival and she was powerless to help them.
‘Never wanted to be a bloody superhero anyway,’ she growled to herself as she leapt over the burning remains of a Grendel that had been struck down when the swarm cylinders had impacted barely a minute earlier. She tried to ignore the battle going on around her and focus on the scent trail that she was tracking. Jay might not have been responding on comms, but he was somewhere nearby, she could smell it. She ran past the cordon of Grendels, the trail leading towards the hole that Sam had torn in the roof of the core chamber. She looked down into the cavernous room and spotted a figure lying prone on one of the half-collapsed walkways towards the bottom. She dropped through the tear, landing silently on the control node platform and sprinting down the nearby walkway. When she reached Jay’s immobile armoured body she knelt beside him and gently rolled him on to his back. His helmet was still sealed and there were black scorch marks all down one side of his suit, its surface melted and glassy. There was no way of telling how badly injured he was while he was still encased within his armour and Mag could see no obvious way of opening it. She gently shook him, trying to wake him, not knowing quite what else to do.
‘Come on, Jay,’ Mag said. ‘I’m definitely not giving you permission to be dead, do you hear me, soldier? So you’d better just wake the hell up.’
She felt an overwhelming flood of relief as Jay gave a low groan, his helmet moving slightly. A few seconds later his battered faceplate melted away and Jay slowly opened his eyes.
‘Did you have a nice sleep?’ Mag asked him with a relieved grin.
‘What hit us?’ Jay said with a confused frown. ‘I got knocked flying by that shock wave and fell through that hole.’ He gestured towards the tear in the ceiling as he slowly sat upright. He looked down at the scorch marks on his armour. ‘I’m guessing I probably landed on that big glowing crystal over there. Whatever happened, I can’t feel anyone up here any more.’ He tapped the side of his head. ‘Looks like I’ve lost my co-pilot.’
‘Is this thing still working, then?’ Mag asked, waving towards Jay’s armour.
‘Guess there’s only one way to find out,’ Jay said, getting unsteadily to his feet.
‘Whoa there, big guy.’ Mag grabbed him and helped him to stand. ‘You might want to take it easy for a minute or two.’
‘Not sure a rest break is an option at the moment,’ Jay said with a pained groan. ‘Let’s see if I can get this thing off the ground, shall we?’
Mag took a step back as Jay closed his eyes, concentrating hard, trying to remember what the suit felt like to fly when he’d had the luxury of Illuminate assistance. A moment or two later he felt himself gently rising into the air, his feet slowly coming off the ground.
‘OK, that’s still working, at least,’ Mag said. ‘So how about you give me a lift up there –’ she jerked a thumb towards the ceiling – ‘and we get back in this fight.’
‘Sounds good to me,’ Jay said.
Jack screamed in frustration as he saw Sam’s floating body vanish through the glowing red portal that had opened in the ship’s hull. He dived towards the hatch as it began to close, willing it to stay open just long enough for him to make it through behind Sam. Jack would never know whether it was his own instincts or those of the Illuminate bonded to his implant that jinked his suit a metre to the left as the energy beam lanced out from the hull. That tiny manoeuvre was the only thing that prevented the bolt from striking him dead centre. Instead, it just glanced off his right shoulder and fried the systems controlling the nanites on that side of his suit. He felt a sickening lurch in his stomach as the flight systems in his armour went haywire and he plummeted towards the ground far below, spiralling wildly out of control.
‘Jack!’ Nat yelled in alarm as she saw her friend get hit. She aborted her attack run, banking sharply and diving after him. She accelerated hard, her controlled power-dive rapidly closing the distance to his freefalling body. She could feel the Illuminate warrior bonded to her implant subtly guiding her flight path as she rocketed towards the canyon floor, weaving in and out of the Hunters that were swooping towards the approaching swarm. She closed the last couple of metres to Jack’s plummeting body, stretching out her hand and grabbing on to his ankle, the nanites of her glove bonding to Jack’s suit and strengthening her grip. She felt sudden dramatic deceleration as air brakes flared on her back, her armour shifting to help slow their descent as she fought to pull out of the terrifying dive. They were too close to the ground and travelling way too fast to stop in time, but her last-second manoeuvre meant they hit the ground at an angle, the impact bone-jarring but not fatal. They tumbled and slid across the desert floor in a cloud of dust before crashing into the side of one of the Voidborn buildings at the base of the canyon wall.
‘Nice catch,’ Jack said with a pained groan.
‘Are your weapons systems online?’ Nat asked as she staggered to her feet.
‘My Illuminate tells me they’ll be back up in just under thirty seconds,’ Jack said. ‘But my flight systems are fried.’
‘Tell your Illuminate to concentrate on getting those weapon systems working,’ Nat said, raising her arms and levelling her own weapons at something behind Jack with a growl. ‘We’re going to need them.’
9
Mag wrapped her arms around Jay, hanging on tightly as he shot up through the hole in the chamber roof and back out into the chaos that was unfolding on the top of the Voidborn structure. An outer perimeter of Illuminate Hunters was swooping and diving towards the leading edge of the swarm as it advanced along the span of the giant bridge-like structure, the energy cannons on their silvery upper carapaces firing constantly.
‘Who’s that up there?’ Mag yelled, pointing up at the two suits of Illuminate armour that were buzzing around the giant ship overhead.
‘I’ve got no idea. My HUD’s not working properly,’ Jay said, peering up at the tiny figures that were dwarfed by the massive vessel they were attacking. ‘Have you got comms?’
‘Yeah, give me a sec,’ Mag said, tapping her Illuminate earpiece. ‘This is Mag calling whoever it is that’s attacking that giant spiky thing above us, sound off!’
There was a moment’s silence and then Anne’s voice replied, the sounds of weapon fire loud in the background.
‘Roger that, Mag, this is Anne. It’s me and Will . . . aahh!’ She let out a sudden pained grunt and cursed under her breath. ‘It’s getting a little busy up here. We’re going to need a lot more firepower if we’re going to have any chance of stopping this thing.’
‘There’s no way we’re taking it down,’ Mag replied, ‘not without some Mothership support anyway.’ Mag looked down the length of the span as the outer defensive line formed by the Illuminate Hunters gradually retreated towards them, slowing but never halting the advance of the swarm. The massive vessel overhead seemed only concerned with firing defensively at the Illuminate armour suits that swooped around it; it wasn’t attacking the Voidborn facility below at all. ‘Fall back and help protect the control node,’ Mag said. ‘If we can hold that, we can let the Motherships worry about that thing when they arrive.’
‘You don’t understand,’ Anne snapped back in Mag’s ear. ‘That thing’s got Sam.’
‘What do you mean it’s got Sam?’ Mag yelled, turning towards Jay, causing his eyes to widen as he heard what she said. ‘What happened?’
‘We don’t know,’ Will said, joining the conversation. ‘It was just sitting there and then Sam went in for an attack run and it opened fire on him. He got hit and then some sort of tractor beam seemed to pull him inside. Jack tried to save him, but he got hit too and Nat went down into the canyon after him.’
‘OK, understood,’ Mag said, looking up at the giant vessel above her. As she watched, the colossal ship started to move, climbing back u
p into the sky, slowly at first but steadily accelerating. It was leaving, with Sam on board. ‘Keep firing. Try and slow that thing down and keep it distracted at the same time if you can.’
‘Roger that,’ Anne replied. ‘On it.’
‘Jay,’ Mag said, her mind racing, ‘we have to get on board that thing now. Has your suit still got enough juice to get us both up there?’
‘Let’s hope so,’ Jay replied. ‘Come on.’ He put his arms around Mag again and tilted his head back, the helmet of his suit reforming as he turned his face up towards the massive ship that was climbing into the sky overhead. He concentrated hard, willing the suit to lift into the air once again, before quickly increasing thrust, accelerating hard and sending them streaking up towards the strange alien dreadnought. Mag hung on to Jay with all her might, pressing her face into his chest as the ground dropped away beneath them, the wind whipping past her at hundreds of miles per hour as they rocketed straight up. She felt her claws digging into the armour on the back of Jay’s shoulders as she clung desperately to him, glancing up to see that the giant alien ship was now just a couple of hundred metres above them. She knew that Jay couldn’t slow down if they were going to catch it, but she didn’t know how much longer she could hold on to him at the speed they were travelling.
They shot up past the flanks of the giant ship, flying close to its segmented hull as Jay searched frantically for somewhere to land. He was starting to feel tiny variations in the levels of thrust from the suit and he didn’t need his Illuminate co-pilot to tell him that his badly damaged armour was starting to malfunction. Meanwhile, Anne and Will concentrated their attacks on the opposite side of the huge ship, focusing less on causing any specific damage and more on providing as much of a distraction as possible. Jay could only assume that the lack of any defensive fire aimed in his direction as he raced low over the hull meant that the diversion was working. He dived into one of the narrow gaps between the massive, shifting outer plates of the hull, his eyes struggling to adjust to the relative darkness as they flew through the shadowy ravine, its walls lit from within with a dull red glow. He swooped to the bottom of the trench, touching down gently as Mag released her vice-like grip with a relieved sigh.
‘Let’s not do that again,’ Mag said, letting out a long, deep, slightly shaky breath. ‘Ever.’
‘Judging by the way that my suit was acting in the last few seconds there,’ Jay said, ‘we’re not going to be flying again any time soon.’ He looked up at the strip of bright blue sky above, framed by the alien vessel’s crystalline black superstructure. ‘Which could make getting back down interesting . . .’
‘I’m not so worried about how we get off this thing at the moment,’ Mag said, looking around at the monolithic black slabs that formed this section of the hull. ‘In fact, I’m actually more concerned with how we get inside it.’
They suddenly both stumbled, fighting to regain their balance as the ground beneath their feet seemed to shift. The whole section of the hull on which they were standing appeared to undulate for a moment and then several of the nearby slabs split apart, clouds of white vapour gushing out from within.
‘Come on,’ Mag said, gesturing for Jay to follow her as she sprinted towards the new opening in the hull. The cloud of steam cleared as she approached and Mag peered inside, seeing a narrow shaft beyond, its grilled walls and ceiling dripping with moisture. After a few metres the passageway disappeared into darkness, a low, rumbling hiss the only clue as to what might lurk in the shadows beyond.
‘Seriously?’ Jay asked, staring into the cramped, damp tunnel. ‘Does this look like an entrance to you?’
‘Nope,’ Mag said with a grin, baring her razor-sharp fangs. ‘And that’s exactly why it’s perfect.’
‘I was afraid you were going to say something stupid like that,’ Jay said, shaking his head. ‘I suppose you want me to go first too, don’t you?’
‘Well, you are the one wearing the armour,’ Mag replied with a crooked smile.
Jack spun around just in time to see the energy beam from Nat’s wrist strike the leading edge of the swarm as it rushed towards them.
‘We could do with some backup here!’ Jack yelled into his helmet’s comms system. Wherever Nat’s weapons struck, the swarm was temporarily driven back, only to surge forward in another area. It was like trying to hold back the tide with a shotgun. The swarm rushed to one side, sweeping up the canyon wall, attempting to flank Jack and Nat while more Illuminate-piloted Hunters swept down from overhead, their weapons blazing as they joined the fight against the seething black mass.
‘We’re going to be surrounded if we’re not careful,’ Nat yelled, maintaining her withering barrage of fire on the swarm, determined to slow it down even if she could not stop it.
‘Can you fly me out of here?’ Jack asked quickly. ‘We need to get back up top and help protect the control node. If we lose that, this is all over.’
‘Yeah, I think I can get you up there,’ Nat said with a nod, vaporising a swarm tentacle as it lashed out towards her. ‘We’re going to need to stay away from that huge ship though. There’s no way I can dodge the fire from that thing if I’m carrying you.’
‘Actually, that might not be an issue,’ Jack replied, opening fire as the Illuminate inside his head informed him that his weapons systems were finally back online. ‘Look. It’s moving away.’
Nat glanced up and saw the giant alien vessel climbing into the sky with Sam on board. She could see the blips designating Will and Anne still flitting around it, diving in and out of its colossal superstructure, the bright white beams of their weapons flaring. The effects of their attacks seemed negligible at best as the vast ship pulled away.
‘Come on,’ she said, stepping behind Jack and threading her arms under his, wrapping them tightly around his chest. ‘I’ll fly, you shoot.’
The Illuminate bonded with Nat subtly helped her to compensate for Jack’s additional mass as they flew over the seething black tide below. Jack fired his weapons into the swarm, carving furrows in the dark mass that closed up again just as quickly. Nat adjusted her course, angling up towards the spanning structure, then dropping down next to the tear in the core chamber roof. She watched as the swarm surged forward along the span towards them. It was now barely fifty metres away from the frontline of Grendels that were the control node’s last line of defence. The Illuminate-controlled Hunters continued to lay down fire on the creeping mass, but Nat could see that despite the accuracy of their fire they were doing as much damage to the superstructure as they were to the swarm itself. Suddenly the germ of an insane idea formed inside her head.
‘Selenne, come in, can you hear me?’ Nat yelled into the comms system, shouting to make herself heard over the deafening sounds of battle surrounding her.
Selenne is not responding, the voice of General Indriss replied. Do you require assistance?
‘Yes,’ Nat snapped back, ‘we need every Hunter you can spare right now.’
That will weaken our defensive line considerably, General Indriss said. What exactly do you intend to do?
‘Buy us some time,’ Nat replied. She explained the plan as quickly and efficiently as she could.
I cannot decide if you are brilliant or insane, General Indriss said when Nat had finished.
‘A bit of both if you ask me,’ Jack said, shaking his head.
It’s risky but it could work, the general said. As it stands, we are fighting a losing battle. This might be all we need to hold out until the Motherships arrive.
The general began to issue orders to the rest of the surviving Illuminate Hunters throughout the canyon that were engaged with the Swarm but not actively defending the control node. First dozens and then hundreds of the silvery, jellyfish-like drones dived towards the Hunters that were already fighting to hold back the swarm as it advanced. The swooping pack divided in two, with one half dropping below the suspended core of the Voidborn hive, where they landed, inverted, on its underside. Their tentacle
s snaked through the crystalline structure of the building’s outer walls, attaching them to its surface like giant limpets. The Illuminate controlling these Hunters boosted the power to their drones’ antigravity generators, pushing them to their very limits. At the same instant, the fresh wave of reinforcements that had joined the Hunters already attacking the swarm all opened fire simultaneously. Their target, however, was not the tide of tiny, skittering metallic creatures, but the ground ten metres in front of the swarm.
The effect of the sudden, concentrated barrage of fire was instant and catastrophic. A section of the giant bridge-like structure disintegrated in a series of searing white explosions as the sustained torrent of energy bolts carved through the floor and supports below. Nat felt the ground lurch beneath her feet as the span was suddenly severed and fiery explosions erupted from the disconnected part of the bridge, which was beginning to lose its increasingly futile struggle with the forces of gravity. The blue lights glowing within the shells of the Hunters attached to the underside of the core chamber glowed fiercely as their antigravity generators collectively fought to support the massive weight of the colossal structure that was now only attached to the canyon wall at one end. The Hunters in the air continued to pour fire on the unsupported section of the span covered by the seething black mass of the swarm. There was a sudden shrieking groan as the supports carved into the canyon wall that were bracing that part catastrophically collapsed, unable to support its weight. With a thunderous roar, the rest of the swarm-covered section plummeted towards the ground far below, slamming into Voidborn buildings in a fiery explosion of debris, filling the canyon floor with a thick impenetrable cloud of black dust. Back on the top of the remaining half of the Voidborn structure, Nat and Jack felt the floor beneath their feet lurch again and there was an ominous-sounding groan as the massed Hunters on the underside of the structure fought to keep it from collapsing.