‘At this point, I cannot guarantee its survival,’ the Servant replied calmly. ‘Warning: unknown process has hijacked control of Tokyo Mothership’s data core. Detecting network breach. Active anti-intrusion protocols ineffective. Central control systems off –’
The Servant froze in mid-sentence and then began to disintegrate, crumbling to the ground in a shower of sparkling golden dust. Sam looked up at the London Mothership far above them and felt his blood run cold. The familiar yellow light that had illuminated the hulls of both Motherships just seconds earlier was darkening to a vivid green. Whoever was now in command of the giant vessels far overhead, it wasn’t him. The mental hum that came with his control of the Voidborn was gone. It was definitely time to get out of there.
‘What’s happening?’ Mag shouted, staring up at the Motherships as the yellow lights disappeared.
‘Nothing good!’ Sam yelled back. ‘Mag, could you get a container from somewhere and take a sample of the Servant? We’ll see if we can work out what’s happened to her later. Then help the others get Stirling on board the Scythe. We’re leaving!’ He turned to Jack and Jay who were both looking as bewildered as Sam was feeling. ‘Jay, you and Jack, armoury run. You have two minutes. Go!’
Jay gave a quick nod and grabbed Jack, who was still gaping up at the scene unfolding above.
‘Come on!’
Sam ran towards the Scythe, the outline of the entrance hatch appearing in its flawless white hull as he approached. He ran inside and the construct hologram appeared.
‘The ship is ready for departure,’ the Construct reported. ‘All weapons systems active.’
‘Weapons?’ Sam said. ‘You never told me this thing was armed.’
‘The Scythe is a warship,’ the Construct replied. ‘I assumed that would be self-evident.’
‘OK, no more assuming with the Earthlings, right?’ Sam said. ‘We’re leaving in one minute, so you’d better be ready to rock and roll.’
‘To what?’
‘Just make sure this thing’s ready to fight,’ Sam said, turning and running back outside.
He sprinted towards the infirmary and saw Will hobbling out on a pair of crutches.
‘How are you doing?’ Sam asked quickly.
‘I’ll live,’ Will said. ‘What do you need me to do?’
‘Get on board the Scythe,’ Sam yelled as the sound of another explosion came rumbling from somewhere nearby. ‘We have to get out of here.’
Will gave a quick nod and Sam rushed into the infirmary, where he found Anne and Nat carefully strapping Stirling’s unconscious body down on to a lightweight field stretcher.
‘We really shouldn’t be moving him,’ Anne said with a frown. ‘He’s too badly injured.’
‘It’s a risk we’ll have to take,’ Sam said. ‘We can’t stay and I’m not leaving him here. I want everyone on board the Scythe now. Have you got everything you need?’
‘What I really need is a surgeon,’ Anne replied with a sigh, looking down at Stirling. ‘I’ll do what I can with what I’ve got.’ She picked up the pack she had filled with medical supplies and slung it on to her back. ‘Let’s go.’
Sam helped Mag with one end of the stretcher while Anne and Nat took the other and the four of them carefully carried Stirling out of the infirmary and across the compound courtyard to the Scythe. It took a minute for them to safely manoeuvre the stretcher inside.
‘Is your companion injured?’ the Construct asked as they placed Stirling gently down on one of the banks of seats towards the rear of the compartment.
‘Yes,’ Sam replied. ‘Is there anything you can do for him?’
‘This vessel is not equipped with medical facilities,’ the Construct replied. ‘However, I can place your companion into a stasis state. It may increase their chances of survival.’
‘Anne?’ Sam asked, turning to his friend.
‘There’s nothing more I can do for him,’ she said, shaking her head. ‘It has to be worth a shot.’
‘OK,’ Sam said, turning back to the Construct, ‘do it.’
The Construct nodded and motioned for them to follow him into the rear of the ship.
‘You guys, take Stirling and go with him,’ Sam said to Anne and Nat. ‘I’ll find Jay and Jack.’
The two girls picked the stretcher up again and followed the Construct through the hatch that hissed open in the rear bulkhead.
‘Isn’t that . . .’ Mag started, trailing off as she saw the look on Sam’s face.
‘My dad?’ Sam asked, heading for the door. ‘Not really . . . sort of . . . it’s complicated. I’ll explain later. Get strapped in.’ Sam gestured at the half-dozen command seats on the flight deck. ‘As soon as the guys get here we’re leaving.’
Sam ran out of the hatch and into the compound. The scene that surrounded the resistance base was like a vision of hell; fires and secondary explosions were visible across the city and debris was scattered everywhere. Everything they had built since their victory over the Voidborn in London was damaged beyond hope of repair. The accommodation block had half collapsed, one end of the structure reduced to wreckage. He looked towards the armoury and noticed black smoke pouring from the roof and one of the windows towards the rear of the low building. A moment later, Jack burst from the door, coughing hard, struggling to carry the pair of packs, which were filled to capacity with weapons and equipment.
‘Where’s Jay?’ Sam asked, looking past Jack at the burning building as one of the windows at the rear shattered and orange tongues of flame began to lick at its frame.
‘He went to the accommodation block,’ Jack said, still coughing. ‘He said there was something he needed.’
‘Get to the Scythe,’ Sam said, jerking his thumb at the ship. ‘I’ll go find him.’
Jack nodded and sprinted to the sleek white vessel as Sam ran back towards the badly damaged accommodation block. He was a few metres from the doors when Jay came barrelling through them at high speed.
‘You good?’ Sam asked as his friend pulled up in front of him. Two packs stuffed with weapons and equipment were strapped to Jay’s back and he held an assault rifle in each hand.
‘Yeah,’ Jay replied, ‘just needed to grab something. Let’s –’
The last word of Jay’s sentence was cut off by an explosive crash from the far side of the compound. They both spun round just in time to see a Grendel smash through the main gate. The towering behemoth gave a single terrifying roar, its rows of dagger-like teeth glistening as it stomped towards them with its jaws wide open. Behind the Grendel, a wave of blackness swept down the street and surged over the compound walls and through the ruined gateway. The millions of tiny machines that made up the seething mass moved as if with one mind, washing around the Grendel’s massive clawed feet and racing across the ground towards them.
‘Run!’ Sam yelled, unslinging his rifle. This wasn’t a fight they could win.
The pair of them sprinted for the Scythe, neither daring to glance over their shoulders as they ran. Sam saw a flicker of movement above him and dived into Jay, knocking him to the ground. A split second later a Voidborn Hunter drone passed through the air where Jay had been standing just an instant before. The flailing stinger-tipped tentacles beneath its glistening metal shell writhed angrily as it spun around in the air, turning to attack again. Sam rolled on to his back, raising and firing his rifle in one movement. The bullets ripped into the Hunter’s carapace and it slammed into the ground, sliding to a halt in a twitching heap just a metre away from them. Sam scrambled to his feet and helped Jay up off the ground, his friend struggling with the weight of equipment he was carrying.
‘Thanks,’ Jay said, raising his own weapon and firing a short burst at another Hunter as it swooped past overhead. ‘I owe you one.’
‘Honestly,’ Sam said, ‘who’s keeping count at this point?’ He fired another burst at the second Hunter, sending it spinning into the roaring inferno that was now consuming the armoury. The pair of them covered
the final few metres to the Scythe in a full fighting retreat, their weapons firing constantly as more and more Hunters dropped out of the sky towards them. On the other side of the compound a second Grendel ripped through the perimeter wall in an explosion of shattered concrete. The swarm swept under the drop-ship that had brought them back from St Paul’s and a moment later its engines powered up and it began to climb slowly into the air. The pair of Grendels charged across the compound towards the Scythe, each step sending a shuddering vibration through the ground.
‘Go!’ Sam yelled, pushing Jay towards the ship before firing a short burst at the nearest Grendel, knowing full well that all that small-arms fire would do was make it angry.
Jay ran up the glowing blue steps and through the Scythe’s entrance hatch with Sam just two steps behind him.
‘Get us out of here!’ Sam yelled at the Construct as the hatch slammed shut and the sound of the ship’s engines increased in pitch. A moment later the Scythe shook as something outside struck the hull.
‘Engaging point defences,’ the Construct said calmly. ‘Prepare for departure.’
Outside, the smooth white hull of the Scythe began to split apart in several places and turret-mounted guns made from an ivory-like material popped out and locked into place. An instant later the long barrels of the turrets began to swivel and fire at impossible speed, their muzzles flashing with a blue light as each one independently tracked and attacked their own targets. The Grendels were torn to shreds by the magnetically accelerated slugs from the Scythe’s cannons, their shattered bodies collapsing to the ground as the other guns continued to pick off the Hunters that were diving towards the compound in ever greater numbers.
A sudden barrage of bright green energy bolts lanced across the Scythe’s hull as it rose into the air, leaving black scorch marks. The Voidborn drop-ship that was now banking back towards the compound opened fire. The Scythe’s engines flared and it rocketed away from the compound, weaving between the surrounding buildings at unbelievable speed, with the Voidborn drop-ship in close pursuit.
Sam dropped into one of the cockpit seats next to Jack and Mag, wincing involuntarily as the Scythe banked sharply down another street with total precision, missing the structures around it by just centimetres. He felt none of the massive G-forces that should have accompanied such a manoeuvre; in fact, it barely felt like they were moving at all.
‘Computing optimal escape vector,’ the Construct said. ‘Multiple enemy contacts inbound.’
‘Show me,’ Sam said and a moment later a holographic view-screen materialised in the air in front of him. The feed on the screen showed a cascade of dagger-like black triangles – hundreds of Voidborn drop-ships pouring out of the hangars that lined the outer circumferences of both Motherships – all following an identical flight path in pursuit of the fleeing Scythe.
‘That’s a lot of angry Voidborn,’ Mag said with a slightly nervous sideways glance at Sam.
‘Can we outrun them?’ Jack asked, his knuckles white from gripping the armrests of his seat.
‘No,’ the Construct replied, ‘but we can outmanoeuvre them.’
‘What do you me– wooooaaahhhh,’ Jay said, grabbing on to the back of Sam’s seat as the view through the cockpit window flipped upside down in an instant and then was filled with a head-on view of the swarm of pursuing drop-ships. An instant later the Scythe’s forward cannons opened fire, filling the cockpit with bright blue light as a torrent of searing energy bolts shot into the front line of hostile ships. The Voidborn fleet scattered, firing wildly as the Scythe flew straight into the middle of their formation, guns still blazing.
Sam couldn’t help but flinch as ships exploded all around them, chunks of blazing debris tumbling through the air. The enemy vessels returned fire and the Scythe shuddered as their shots struck home. The Scythe’s nose tipped upwards and the ship went vertical, heading straight up towards the London Mothership.
‘Regenerative shielding at sixty-three per cent capacity,’ the Construct said. ‘Powering up Star Lance.’
‘I hope he knows what he’s doing,’ Mag said, her eyes widening as they rocketed towards the underside of the Mothership. Sam felt himself involuntarily pressing back into his seat as they approached to within a couple of hundred metres of the Mothership, still accelerating.
‘Three . . . two . . . one . . . firing.’
There was a dull thud from somewhere behind him and Sam winced as the cockpit window suddenly filled with painfully bright white light.
From the outside, the Scythe appeared to vanish, consumed by a searing beam of energy that punched straight through the Mothership, erupting from the top of the giant vessel in a volcanic explosion of molten debris. It speared upwards into the heavens and, with a flash of light, it was gone.
5
‘That’s just about the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen,’ Mag said, coming and joining Sam as he stared out of the cockpit window at the glowing blue curve of the Earth. The Scythe hung in orbit, just beyond the fringes of the planet’s atmosphere, running on minimal power, waiting and watching for any signs of Voidborn pursuit.
‘Yeah,’ Sam replied, ‘it’s hard to believe what’s going on down there when you look at it from up here. You know, it’s funny: before the invasion I used to dream of coming into space. It seemed like it would be a massive adventure, but now . . . Well, now we know what was waiting for us out there, don’t we?’
‘Do you want this?’ Mag asked, pulling a sealed plastic test tube filled with grey dust from the breast pocket of her jacket. ‘It’s the sample of the Servant you wanted. Looks pretty dead to me, though.’ She gave the inert dust in the tube a quick shake.
‘No, you hang on to it for now,’ Sam said with a tired sigh. ‘We’d need Stirling to analyse it anyway.’
‘You should try and get some rest.’ Mag slid the tube back into her pocket and gestured towards the rear of the ship, where their friends were sleeping in the handful of tiny cabins that served as crew quarters.
‘You’re not the only insomniac around here, you know,’ Sam said with a smile. He relaxed his control and his features shifted, transforming into his Illuminate form. ‘I can live without needing to sleep, but it’s getting harder and harder to keep myself looking normal.’
‘Hey, define normal,’ Mag said. ‘It’s not like either of us are going to be winning any beauty competitions any time soon.’
‘Yeah, sorry. I know, poor me. It just seems like the Illuminate part of me is getting stronger and stronger the more I use the abilities that Suran gave me in Tokyo. I’d be dead without them, but there’s still so much I don’t understand. Not to mention the fact that they also seem to mean the Illuminate can turn me into some kind of zombie puppet whenever they fancy a chat.’
‘Oh, come on,’ Mag said with a grin. ‘It’s not the end of the world.’ She paused for a moment. ‘Well . . . OK, technically speaking it probably is the end of the world, but I think it’s best we don’t dwell on that too much.’
‘Wow, great pep talk,’ Sam said with a chuckle.
‘I do my best. Someone has to keep morale up around here, you know.’ Mag stared out of the window for a few seconds and then turned back to face him. ‘So, how long do you think we’re going to sit here?’
‘I’m not sure,’ Sam replied. ‘All the Construct said was that it had to be sure we got to the Heart.’
‘Which is what exactly?’
‘Your guess is as good as mine,’ Sam said with a sigh.
‘You know, I’m really, really bored of cryptic alien mumbo jumbo,’ Mag said, flopping down into one of the seats on the flight deck. ‘I mean, seriously. Would it really be so hard for someone just to give us a straight answer once in a while? You know, go here, kill that, then blow that up. That kind of thing.’
‘I suppose we’ll find out what it all means soon enough,’ Sam said. ‘I’m going to check on Stirling. You coming?’
‘Nah, I’m going to make the most of the vie
w while I can,’ Mag said, reclining in her seat with her hands behind her head and her feet up on the control panel in front of her. ‘Let me know if that thing starts giving you any straight answers.’
‘Will do,’ Sam said, walking past the Construct, who was standing silent and immobile in the centre of the compartment, and heading down the central corridor that formed the spine of the ship. He passed the closed doors of the crew quarters and entered the stasis chamber. Here, six large transparent pods were set into the walls of the circular room, only one of which was currently illuminated. Inside that pod, Dr Stirling lay motionless, looking more dead than alive. A panel lit up on the side of the pod as Sam approached. It reported that Stirling’s vital signs were weak but relatively stable. The Construct had explained that the chamber could only slow the decline in his condition, not stop it. Without proper medical attention, it was only a matter of time before he succumbed to his injuries. It was just one more anxiety to add to the ever-growing list of things that Sam felt powerless to control. The speed with which everything had gone to hell in London had been terrifying and had served as a painful reminder that the forces arrayed against them were still vastly stronger than they were. For a while he’d allowed himself to hope that somehow they might be able to stop the Voidborn one day, but the catastrophic events of the past few hours had put paid to that. Now their only hope was that the Construct was taking them somewhere they could regroup and come up with some kind of new plan of attack. Sam couldn’t shake the feeling that this was their last, desperate roll of the dice.
‘Could do with some advice, Doc,’ Sam said quietly, placing his hand on the stasis pod. ‘I’ve got a horrible feeling we’re running out of options here.’ He stared down at the old man on the other side of the glass, as if willing him to make a sudden miraculous recovery.
‘Hey,’ Jay said, entering the chamber and making Sam jump, his features shifting almost instantly from their Illuminate form back to their human shape.
‘You don’t have to do that, you know,’ Jay said, watching him.