“Airborne or ground-based?” Max asked.

  “Airborne, I think,” Cameron said. “I’m not used to these systems. I know I worked with Governor Duke, but I’ve never worked with anything like this.”

  “It’s okay, Cameron,” Pyro said. “Just do your best.”

  Pyro gave Max a look he didn’t understand. The ship shuddered suddenly, enough kinetic energy reaching it to cause a slight vibration.

  “They’re attacking,” Max said.

  “They know the ship is down here?”

  “Affirmation. Their sensors can penetrate the rock, and Bennett likely gave them the position. Don’t be alarmed. Their weapons systems can’t pierce the stone to reach the ship. They’re trying to frighten you.”

  “It’s working,” Pyro said.

  “The Hunger feeds on fear. If you’re afraid, you make them stronger.”

  “That’s easy for you to say, you don’t have feelings.”

  “All will be well. Cameron, contact Deputy Barnes. Inform her of the requirement to keep the door sealed and barricaded. Allow nothing to enter. Compliance?”

  Cameron wasn’t sure how to respond to him. “Uh. Yes. Compliance.”

  “Cameron, keep me posted,” Pyro added. “I want updates every five minutes.”

  “Yes, ma’am.”

  The comm fell silent. Max stared at the terminal display. He was confident he could increase the power output, which would make it easier to access the Collective as he understood it. But to use the gained efficiency, they would need a more resilient ick, from a Relyeh stronger than a Norg, xaxkluth or trife.

  Perhaps Sheriff Duke would bring one back with him.

  If not, it would be a requirement for Max to locate one himself.

  But how?

  37

  Nathan

  Nathan threw himself out of the way, cursing as the tentacle shot past him, nearly catching him with a mouthful of gnashing teeth. He rolled back to his feet, shifting his rifle and aiming into the darkness. The tentacles caught Alpha Three behind him, one of them grabbing her leg and pulling her onto her face before a second tentacle plunged into her back. She cried out in pain as Nathan started firing into the limb, cutting it away.

  He whirled back toward the entrance while the rest of the deputies shouted and scattered, trying to line up a shot against the creature without hitting one another.

  How had a xaxkluth gotten inside the cavern?

  The monster revealed itself as something else a moment later, when a large, dark body sprang from it. It had the general appearance of a black, hairless cat with four legs designed for pouncing, padded feet and long claws to go with a monstrous maw. Tentacles rose out of its side and back—nearly a dozen in all—swinging wildly and snapping out at the deputies around it. One of the whirling limbs caught Foxtrot Four in the shoulder and bit all the way through his combat armor. The deputy screamed in pain and backed off before crumpling to the deck, clutching his bleeding shoulder and writhing in pain.

  Nathan fired again at the thing, the rifle’s beam of energy hitting the back of its massive head, but all it did was piss the thing off. It turned back toward Nathan and was on him before he could take another shot. He dropped the rifle, barely getting his augmented hand around its neck before the mouth closed on him. He held the creature’s face only centimeters in front of his own. Its large, powerful jaw stretched toward his head, its hundreds of razor-like teeth snapping at him and its stinking spittle dripping on his cheek.

  Nathan reached for his sidearm with his free hand, but the monster reached up with its claw, going for the hand and forcing Nathan to pull it back.

  “Get the hell off me!” he roared, getting his replacement leg under it and kicking upward.

  The force of his foot was enough to unbalance it and Nathan took the opportunity to throw the thing sideways with all his strength. Bravo Three and Four scrambled aside as the creature rolled toward them and hit the wall.

  “Shoot it!” Nathan shouted. “Now!”

  The deputies began firing at the creature as a single unit, hundreds of bullets sinking into it as it cried out. Nathan picked up his rifle and pointed it at the beast, ready to add to the slaughter. Then the creature disappeared.

  “General, do you copy?” Isaac said, his voice desperate. “General, it’s not real. It’s not real. Over. Do you copy?”

  Nathan stared at the blank wall, cracked and torn from the combined firepower of the platoon, suddenly angry with himself for not realizing it was a damn hallucination.

  “I copy,” he hissed into the comm. “I take it the jammer is active?”

  “Affirmative. The range is shorter than I thought.”

  Nathan turned, looking at Alpha Three. She remained face down in the dirt, dead despite the lack of real damage. Foxtrot Four was looking at his shoulder, face pale but no longer in pain. He could see there was no wound.

  “Where the hell is it?” Nathan said, checking his HUD. He knew the source of the neural disruptor had to be somewhere close, but there was nothing on his sensors. He swung his rifle toward the deputies. The Axon couldn’t disrupt and project at the same time. “Nobody move.”

  Nobody did. They were still as Nathan swept his eyes across them, checking their status on the combat network. Green, green, green. All of them were green—except Foxtrot Four. Nathan stared at her for a moment before walking toward her.

  “General, the xaxkluth will be here in less than a minute,” Isaac said. “Whatever you’re going to do, you need to do it now.”

  “Jesse,” Nathan said.

  “Yes, General?”

  “What was your boyfriend on Proxima’s name again?”

  “General?”

  “Just answer the question.”

  “I don’t have a boyfriend.”

  Nathan glanced over at her. “Lead the others into the cavern. Buckets off as you enter. No excuses, no exceptions. Let Foxtrot One touch your face to make sure it’s really your face. Spot, cover her.”

  “Roger, General,” Spot said.

  “Everyone else, you’re going in.”

  “What about you, sir?” Jesse asked.

  Nathan still had his eyes on Four. It was a hunch, but it made sense.

  “I’ll be right behind you.”

  The deputies moved toward the halfway open cavern door. Jesse took position beside it as the first deputy pulled off his helmet and stood beside her. She swiped her palm along his cheek and nodded, and he went inside.

  Nathan took another step toward Foxtrot Four, rifle trained on her corpse. He had no doubt the deputy was down there and dead, but what if she wasn’t alone? He activated the helmet’s external speakers.

  “I’m onto you,” he said. “Get up.”

  If the Intellect was there, it didn’t respond. He took another step toward the body.

  “General, you’re running out of time,” Isaac said. “I need to get some altitude or the bastards will grab the ship.”

  “Get the hell up!” Nathan shouted as if the Intellect would respond to his anger. He stepped forward again, shifting his finger to the rifle’s trigger. He didn’t have time for this bullshit. “You have until the count of three to get up. One...two…” He opened fire after two, his rounds hitting the Axon’s blue shield as the projection dropped. The Intellect was already in motion, planning to attack before he reached three.

  It was exactly what Nathan had expected.

  He kept shooting, the bullets deflected by the Axon’s shield. The Intellect was shaped more like Krake than a human—taller, longer and leaner. It ignored him, fixing its aim toward the sky. Toward the Parabellum.

  “No you don’t,” Nathan said, lunging forward. He swung the rifle like a club, hitting the Intellect in the back of the head. The shields absorbed some of the blow, but not all. It rocked sideways, lashing out backward with its arm.

  Nathan shifted his weight, barely avoiding the attack. He grabbed the arm in his augmented hand, twisting and pushing it into an awkward angle that would have broken it if the Intellect had flesh and bones. The Axon turned, its other hand growing quick claws and slashing at Nathan’s helmet. They sunk into the material, swiping only centimeters past his good eye. Nathan turned again, shifting his weight and bringing his augmented leg up to his chest. He kicked the Axon hard in the chest and it stumbled backward. Nathan started shooting again, his bullets hitting blue shields. Then the Intellect aimed its palm at him, preparing to unleash a bolt of energy.

  A loud crack like thunder sounded from behind Nathan. The Axon’s head didn’t just snap back from the impact of the round that hit it. The force of the projectile broke its shield and tore its head clean off its body, sending gel splattering on the ground. The Intellect stumbled again, falling onto its knees.

  Nathan looked back to where Jesse was standing, one of Tinker’s guns in her hands.

  “Hit him again,” he said, stepping out of the way.

  She did as he said, sending another shell out of the gun and into the Intellect’s chest. It sank through the Skin and detonated, exploding the machine in another spray of gel, some of which splattered Nathan’s armor. All that remained of the enemy Intellect was a pair of legs.

  “That should do it,” Nathan said. “Ike, clear the area. I’ll call you when we’re ready for pickup.”

  “Roger, General.”

  Nathan heard the Parabellum’s thrusters increase in pitch as the ship rose and accelerated away. He retreated to the cavern blast door, getting behind it as the first xaxkluth appeared on the horizon.

  He tapped on the controls, and the door slid closed.

  38

  Nathan

  “It didn’t take you long to find the Mach Three,” Nathan said, looking at the weapon in Jesse’s hands. It wasn’t overly large, black with a snub barrel and an extended magazine that hung in front of the grip. While she had aimed it two-handed, it was light enough to use in one, and the kickback was minimal. It fired specially designed fifty caliber projectiles with explosive, armor-piercing tips and small EMP generators designed with Axon shields in mind. Nathan had never seen it, but the records of the weapons in the cache suggested Tinker had tested the gun by firing it at Edenrise’s shield.

  It was a perfect Axon killer, and likely one of the weapons Vyte most wanted to keep out of Nathan’s hands. The downside was that they had only one extra magazine for the gun, a total of twenty rounds.

  Eighteen now.

  His deputies were already inside the three-meter corridor that opened up into the actual armory. They were standing near the entrance and staring at the cache of weapons with looks of awe. Nathan paused as the xaxkluth hit the door for the first time, causing a slight vibration through the stone. It smacked at the steel twice more before giving up, realizing it couldn’t penetrate.

  “We’ve got one hour to load up and get out,” Nathan said. It didn’t matter if the xaxkluth couldn’t get in if they gave the enemy enough time to bring in reinforcements to prevent them from getting back out. “I want that dropship so heavy it can barely move.”

  “What about the xaxkluth, General?” Spot asked.

  “We’ve got equipment to deal with them. Let’s move.”

  He hurried into the corridor with Jesse right behind him, pausing for a moment when he reached the vault. The entire complex had initially been much larger, but unlike the Pilgrim, the Deliverance had left the planet, the main cavern caving in as it launched. What remained were the quarters where the scientists, techs and Marines had lived during its construction. Tinker had excavated the side of the mountain to reach those spaces and had turned them into storage. He had installed the door to keep everything else but them out.

  The room where he had hidden the weapons had been a large supply closet, though the idea of it didn’t do the size justice. It was nearly a thousand square meters of floor space with shelving units, racks and crates rising four meters toward the stone ceiling, creating nearly ten thousand square meters of usable space. It was enough to house more guns than Nathan could even imagine. Enough that after dozens of years the cache was only a quarter full.

  That quarter still looked impressive, and they couldn’t take anywhere close to all of it.

  “Focus on the crates there,” Nathan said, mentally recalling the schematics Pyro had shown him of the cache. Fortunately, Tinker had been as organized as he was insane. “Bring them to the mouth of the cave.”

  “How many, General?” Hicks asked.

  “As many as we can.”

  Nathan walked over to the first crate, opening it with his augmented hand. A dozen rifles rested inside, each with a long barrel wrapped in a cylindrical coil.

  “Definitely these,” Nathan said. He moved to the next type of box. A missile launcher sat on top of soft padding, a quartet of missiles arranged around it. Ten of the crates sat in twin stacks beside other munitions. “These too.”

  He continued along the line, checking the weapons as the deputies began toting them from the cache to the cave mouth, pairing up to move the boxes as fast as they could. Nathan wished they had time to take everything in the vault. It was enough to arm every survivor on the Pilgrim, every survivor from Edenrise—and then some. At least his people were relatively safe. The invading ships couldn’t land in open water.

  He continued through the vault, circling the cache and picking out other boxes for the deputies to carry, including entire stocks of advanced MK machine guns and hundreds of magazines of both bullet and grenade rounds—more than enough to replenish their supplies. He continued past the shelves and racks, moving toward the back of the space to search for more useful ordnance.

  He turned the corner around the last of the shelves, reaching the back wall.

  Then he froze.

  He raised his rifle, confused. He had looked at the vault inventory multiple times, and he was reasonably confident the item in front of him wasn’t listed.

  “General,” Hicks said, coming up behind him. “Oh. That’s a nice upgrade.”

  Nathan looked at him. “It isn’t supposed to be here.”

  “You think it’s a trick?”

  “I don’t know what to think.”

  “I think if Vyte had gotten in here, he would have cleaned the place out, not left a trojan horse behind with all of the advanced weaponry we’re hauling. Unless there are a billion microscopic Relyeh hiding inside.”

  Nathan turned his attention back to the powered armor. It was a definite upgrade from the one he had left behind—slimmer and sleeker more like an exoskeleton than a suit. It had been made with a mixture of dark Axon alloy and something else that gave it a purplish-blue tint.

  And it was perfectly sized for him. Or rather, for his clone-twin James. A gift Tinker had never had the opportunity to give to his son.

  “What are you waiting for, General?” Hicks asked. “Try it on.”

  39

  Caleb

  “General,” Jason Stacker said, entering the small cube where Caleb, Hayden, Tora, General Haeri, and Sergeant Gray were making final preparations for their escape. Haeri looked up in response. “Probably not a surprise, but they found us.”

  “It took them longer than I expected,” Haeri replied. “They’re at least five minutes behind, and I believe we’re all just about ready to go. Sheriff?”

  Caleb looked at Sheriff Duke. Hayden had reluctantly accepted a shower and change of clothes, swapping out his filthy, torn and bloody duster for a more modern coat, plain black pants and t-shirt, along with dark boots, shoulder holsters that hid his revolvers and a more modern version of a stetson, black with a wide-brim.

  Tora had called the coat a scaley. It was designed to mimic the look of lizard skin, available in a huge assortment of scale shapes, sizes and colors. Hayden’s was relatively straight and fell almost to the knee, with a high folded collar that sat over most of his neck. The scales were what Tora called dragon patterned, dark red and maroon in color, large and overlapping. Added to his sunglasses, the coat gave Hayden an intimidating but stylish look, reminding Caleb of the assassin thrillers he had watched when he was a kid. Because the apparel came from the Organization, the jacket was also bullet and stun resistant, offering the best protection under the circumstances. They couldn’t exactly go out into Praeton in full combat armor, guns blazing.

  “I’m ready,” Hayden replied. His damaged arm hung at his side, hidden by the coat. Caleb imagined the loss must have impacted Hayden in some way, but it hadn’t stopped him from getting Caleb off the Centurion base intact and saving his life. General Haeri promised to get it repaired once they were safely on the Invincible.

  Caleb was excited about the prospect of heading to the human-made warship. He was excited about being one step closer to having the data Valentine had left in his brain finally put to use. He had never expected anything to turn out the way it had, especially after using the portal to cross from Essex to Earth, but now that he was in the middle of it, he was beginning to get a sense of how all the pieces connected. He hated to admit it, but he was developing a stronger respect for Riley Valentine because of it. She had played the long game, helping the Organization plot a path that began centuries before that path would eventually become viable.

  How much of it had gone the way they planned? How much was pure luck or coincidence? There was no way to know. But Valentine had dedicated years to deciphering the trife, and she had passed that information down to him. Had she foreseen the invention of the interlink? Had she guessed at how it could be modified or extended? The questions were intriguing, though he would never have the answers.

  Or maybe he would when there was time. The Organization knew more about the Hunger and the Axon than anyone, and now he was a part of it. In his wildest dreams, he never would have imagined he would be playing for the same team as Valentine. Part of him wanted to stay angry about the secrets the Organization had kept and the lies they had told. But he was a Marine Raider. He understood that secrets and lies could protect people as much as they could harm them. He recognized that sometimes innocents got caught in the crossfire and became unfortunate casualties. He didn’t like it, and would always do whatever he could to prevent it, but he also knew that it couldn’t always be helped.