“I require an ick,” he replied.

  “What’s that?”

  “The organ in a Relyeh that allows communication through the Collective. I require it from a Norg. When the xaxkluth retreats, I will advance.”

  “By yourself?”

  “You’re welcome to come with me, Chief Deputy Barnes.”

  “Ahh, yeah, I think I’ll pass. I’ve got my hands full here.”

  “Affirmation.” Max noticed the xaxkluth was finally retreating, its tentacles slowly backing out of the hole. “Get ready. They are coming.”

  Barnes looked back at her people. “Get ready!” she shouted, returning to her crouched position at the front of the line. Max decided he liked her because she was in the front.

  He eased forward behind the xaxkluth, paying attention to the tentacles to ensure they didn’t lash out at him again. It wasn’t easy for the massive creature to move in reverse, but it pulled its body away, creating an opening for the Norg to get through.

  They didn’t waste any time.

  47

  Max

  Max was there to meet them. He extended his hands into blades and charged only the outside of the Skin, conserving his power. He didn’t need powerful ranged weapons to deal with the first line of Norg. They charged past the xaxkluth, carrying their long plasma staffs in both hands, ready to fire.

  They didn’t expect him to be there waiting. The first Norg died before it knew what hit it, Max’s blade cutting right through the soft skin of its neck, just under the rows of living tentacles surrounding its mouth. It loosed a meek squeal before toppling forward.

  One ick.

  He whirled on the next, coming from the other side. It tried to shoot him, only to have the plasma hit Max’s shields. His blade sliced through its neck, severing its head too.

  Two icks.

  The pace of the incoming Relyeh increased in a hurry. Max let another plasma bolt hit his shields and then chose a single direction of attack, staying with the right flank and allowing the Norg behind him to continue into the cavern. He swept into the incoming aliens with abandon, his blades whistling through the air and slicing easily through the Norg’s robes, flesh, bone and innards. The Hunger didn’t have the resources to both arm and armor all of its warriors, leaving the large squid-faces relatively exposed.

  Four more icks. Six in total. He just needed a short break to collect them. He had to keep fighting until he got that break.

  Gunfire started from behind him, the deputies rejoining the fight. Max could sense the Norg collapsing behind him, the barrage quickly cutting down the first few waves of warriors.

  The xaxkluth began reaching into the hole again, almost catching Max by surprise. He ducked away from a stabbing limb, ready to ignore it when he noticed it grab one of the dead Norg, wrapping around it to reel it in.

  He turned on the limb, sinking his blade through it and cutting it in half. The xaxkluth cried out, two more tentacles stretching into the hole. A pair of Norg rushed Max, preventing him from stopping the creature as it removed two of the dead from the space, clearing them out and making room for new fighters.

  He hadn’t counted on that tactic, and he would have preferred the xaxkluth not take his kills and his icks. He had to get rid of the large Relyeh if he was going to harvest the organs they needed.

  He ducked beneath a Norg staff, stabbing out and up to drive his blade through the enemy’s chest. He yanked it out and turned on the xaxkluth, returning his right hand to normal and putting his palm out. Energy gathered there, his hand turning blue.

  Something hit him from behind, knocking him over before he could fire. He rolled onto his back, looking up at the first armored Norg he had ever seen. Its face was hidden by a helmet, its body covered head to toe in dark metal. It growled and kicked Max, whose shields flared. The blow still sent him rolling into the next group of Norg, who turned their plasma staffs on him.

  Max redistributed the energy in his hand, sending a burst up around his entire form. It sank into the Norg, burning them and knocking them back, killing almost a dozen in a manner that likely damaged their icks. The effort allowed him to jump up, but not before the armored Norg charged past him into the passageway. Bullets pinged off its armor, and plasma bolts sank into it.The creature howled but didn’t slow.

  Confusion, because it wasn’t carrying a weapon. Max finished the calculation. “Barnes, it’s—”

  He was cut off when the Norg leaped into the middle of the deputies and detonated. The blast blew its armor into fragments that tore into the ranks, shredding more than half of the deputies—even those in the back—in an instant. Pieces of the Norg’s armor bounced off Max too, leaving him staring perplexed at the unexpected carnage.

  He didn’t have that particular maneuver in his datastore. These Relyeh were fighting differently than others the Axon had encountered. Smarter and trickier. It had to be because of Vyte.

  He noticed movement among the dead. Deputy Barnes was still alive, her position at the front of the line having unintentionally saved her life. “Barnes, retreat!” Max shouted, turning back to face the Norg. They had eased off momentarily to let the suicide bomber through, but now they resumed their assault. He raised both hands, putting them together and directing a line of energy into the enemy. It burned through them, melting whatever was in its path and digging into the xaxkluth, which groaned in pain.

  Barnes stumbled to her feet, dazed by the attack. Her armor was covered in blood, but it was impossible to tell how much was hers. “Max,” she croaked.

  “Retreat!” he repeated, firing another blast of energy at the xaxkluth. It was retreating too, trying to escape the powerful beams. The Norg were slowing too. They knew he only had so much power to expend, and once it was gone they would break through to the cavern.

  The effort left a gap in time just long enough for Barnes to grab another wounded deputy and fall into the lift. She hit the button to descend while Max continued advancing to the entrance of the hole. He passed the ruined blast door, nearing the exterior. His power supply was already down to only twenty percent. He wouldn’t be able to hold the beam for much longer.

  He reached the entrance and looked out. The xaxkluth was severely wounded and had collapsed onto the ground thirty meters ahead. Hundreds of Norg stood around it, weapons leveled at the opening. Waiting for Max to show himself. Ready to blast through his shields and finish him.

  The Relyeh starship—a single ship but an unstoppable force, at least for the humans in the starship buried beneath him—was in the air behind them, its guns aimed in his direction as well.

  Unfortunate. He wasn’t prepared to cease operation.

  He continued walking forward toward the Norg army. The other xaxkluth were on either side of them, waiting for their orders to move in. He feared they had recovered the interlink only to lose it again.

  Or had they?

  Max shifted his attention to a sudden flash in the distance. He watched with curiosity as it streaked across the sky toward the Relyeh ship. The ship had seen it too, turning its weapons to shoot it down. But he knew it wouldn’t accomplish the turn in time.

  A plasma blast from the Parabellum suddenly lit up the sky while the streak split apart into six smaller streaks halfway from the enemy ship.

  The first projectile hit the side of the alien craft, sending up a plume of fire and debris much larger than Max had calculated based on the size of the missile. Then the second one hit, and the third and fourth. The fifth was destroyed by plasma, but by that point it didn’t matter. The other projectiles had torn the imposing starship to fragments that were in the process of falling into the middle of Vyte’s army.

  Max believed that would be the end of the assault, but it wasn’t. The Parabellum swept toward the field as the alien starship finished exploding, huge pieces dropping into the back of the scattering alien forces. A purplish metal form fell from the back of the dropship, tumbling through the air before straightening out, its momentum carrying it to the edge of the remaining enemy forces. It hit the ground still moving—an armored figure rushing across the brown terrain—the rifle in its arms a rapid rattle that mowed the last of the Norg down as if they were made of paper.

  Smaller shapes emerged from the back of the dropship as it crossed over the enemy position, large round metal balls that vanished among the enemy ranks. They exploded a moment later, throwing dirt and bits and pieces of Norg a dozen meters in the air, killing them by the hundreds.

  “General Stacker,” Max said over his comm. “Impatience. It’s about time you returned. Hahaha. Haha.”

  48

  Nathan

  Nathan ran across the terrain, feeling as close to invincible as he had ever felt before. His old power armor was an incredible work of engineering.

  This new power armor was sheer genius.

  It was sleeker, lighter, faster. The synthetic muscles were stronger, the battery pack more dense and powerful. The hands were normal sized and able to carry any standard weapon in their new arsenal, and the jump jets were strong enough to make maneuvers he never thought possible in a suit of armor. It was such a massive upgrade over the last version he had trouble believing Tinker had made it and not an Axon.

  He expected to find the enemy nearby when they returned to the Pilgrim. Loading the Parabellum had taken longer than he originally planned, but he couldn’t bring himself to leave before the dropship was fully loaded. He had compensated by hefting the Dragon Claw rockets to the ship—he was the only one with the strength to lift the dense warheads and their launcher—and it had been immediately useful, overwhelming the Relyeh ship and blowing it to pieces.

  Everything they carried was more than enough to overwhelm the enemy. With the rockets, grenades and coilguns—the small group of Centurions and Earthers had quickly decimated nearly five hundred of the squid-faced Norg and taken out two other xaxkluth.

  A few of the alien creatures remained, but not for long. Jesse, Spot and Hicks were leading their teams against them, their new firepower ripping the giant monsters to shreds.

  The fight as good as over, the Parabellum touched down near the entrance to the cavern. Max was nearby, crouched over one of the Norg, busily slicing it open.

  “Max, what are you doing?” Nathan asked, coming up beside the Intellect.

  “You have a new suit,” Max said. “Impressive.”

  “Do you like it?”

  “Affirmation. The alloy is interesting. A blend I don’t have in my datastore. The composition is exotic.”

  “What does that mean?”

  “The ore used in the making isn’t from Earth.”

  “Where did it come from?”

  “Unknown. As I said, it isn’t in my datastore. Intriguing.”

  Nathan was surprised the Axon didn’t recognize the metal. If the Axon didn’t know its origin, where had it come from?

  “I’m harvesting the Norg’s ick,” Max said, answering Nathan’s earlier question. “It’s challenging, as many of them took extensive damage.”

  “Sorry,” Nathan said, even though he wasn’t really.

  “There are many Norg on the ground. Probabilities are high to recover at least one ick.”

  “Pyro, do you copy? This is Stacker.”

  “Nathan,” Pyro said. She sounded relieved. “It’s about time you got back.”

  “I need all hands up here ASAP to help unload the Parabellum. We cleaned up the first mess, but our sensors picked up more activity further out. I expect enemy reinforcements to close in soon.”

  “General, the enemy wants the interlink. We should get it out of here, away from the civilians.”

  “And take it where? We need the Pilgrim’s infrastructure to help power both it and the gate. Otherwise, we can’t get Caleb and Hayden back, and we can’t send a strong enough broadcast.”

  “General,” Max said, getting Nathan’s attention. “This enemy doesn’t fight like the Hunger I’m accustomed to. Vyte’s tactics are brutal and effective. He utilized a suicide bomber to destroy most of Chief Deputy Barnes’ unit. Hahaha. Haha.”

  “What? Barnes is dead?” Nathan felt his body stiffen and his blood run cold. A suicide bomber? It was a whole different challenge to defend against an enemy that would outright kill themselves to kill their opponent.

  “Barnes survived, along with one other deputy. The rest of her squad wasn’t as fortunate. The Norg wore armor the human weapons couldn’t penetrate. When it activated the explosive, it turned that armor into a fragment grenade. We have no way of knowing how many of these weapons he has at his disposal. If there are five hundred Norg on every ship, the potential—”

  “I get it,” Nathan said, cutting Max off. “Pyro, get the units up here. Civilians too. I want the dropship unloaded within the next twenty minutes. That’s all the time we can spare.”

  “Yes, sir. Standby. I’ll send the call out shipwide.”

  Nathan watched as Max opened the Norg, slicing through it and removing a small piece of organic material the size of a fingernail. “Is that it?”

  “The ick, as Natalia Duke called it.”

  “What do the Axon call it?”

  “For us, it’s a mathematical algorithm that describes its properties. There’s no direct translation to English. Ick will do. It is icky. Hahaha. Haha.”

  “General, the deputies are on their way up,” Pyro said.

  “Roger,” Nathan said. “Ike, what do our sensors look like?”

  “Clear for the moment, General,” Isaac replied. “But I don’t think it will stay that way.”

  Nathan stared at the carnage he and his team had already wracked. The weapons they had recovered would help, but they still might not be enough. Should he cling to the original plan and hope Hayden and Caleb could get back to them in time? Or was there another option? A better option?

  “Pyro,” Nathan said. “I remember you said you didn’t think there was any reason the Pilgrim couldn’t lift off.”

  “That’s right. I mean, theoretically. The thrusters are in good shape, and the capacitors are fully charged. If we attach the QDM to them again, we should have more than enough power to get her off the ground. Well, if she wasn’t covered with a thousand tons of rock, I mean.”

  Nathan looked at the ground. The cavern had partially collapsed a year earlier, leaving the starship truly buried. She was right, there was no way to move that much debris, especially in such a small amount of time. It was a daring plan, but there was no way to make it work.

  Nathan looked up as the first of the deputies began rushing from the tunnel to help Hicks and his people carry the creates of weapons and ammunition from the Parabellum. They had no choice but to make their stand here and hope they could hold out against the onslaught long enough for Hayden and Caleb to return.

  The entire future of humankind rested in their hands.

  49

  Hayden

  “Hayden,” Caleb said, moving into the central cabin of Flint’s ship. Hayden lifted his hat from over his eyes and looked up from his place on one of the couches. The Marine was standing near the passage leading to the cockpit. “You’ll want to see this.”

  Hayden dropped the hat beside him and got to his feet. He glanced over at the others in the cabin. Gray and Stacker were at one of the tables, an empty plate resting between them, two half-empty glasses nearby. Flint and Tora were at another table, playing some sort of game. They all looked relaxed. Maybe too relaxed, all things considered.

  But what else was there to do? Panic wouldn’t help. Neither would worry, tension or stress.

  Neither would mourning.

  The feeling sat in Hayden’s chest, a growing hardness he wanted to both shove away and embrace, but the time wasn’t right for either. Until this was done he had to remain calm and focused. He needed to be the Sheriff everyone expected him to be. And then some.

  He got up, crossing the room and following Caleb to the cockpit. He froze as soon as he came around the side of the pilot’s chair, and his eyes landed on the object ahead of them.

  “Rig Six,” General Haeri said from his place in one of the seats. “And the Invincible.”

  Rig Six was bigger than anything Hayden had imagined. Bigger than the Pilgrim by far, the rig could have swallowed the large starship whole and had room for a few more. It was a web of rounded corridors connected to large rectangular blocks, which themselves had protrusions, indents, windows and other external features that seemed both random and ordered at the same time. He could tell right away which section was the crew quarters because it was one of the largest and was lined with evenly-spaced viewports. He also knew which part was for processing the rock delivered to the rig, because it was lined with exterior pipes and arranged right beside a long hub where nearly thirty smaller mining ships were docked.

  It was impressive, but the idea of it was even more incredible. This was an orbital station, massive in scale, floating in the cold silence of space not far from an asteroid field that was nearly five light-years from Earth. People had made it. Humans had designed it and put it together. He could only guess at the scope of the effort. The pieces must have been transported in smaller ships like the Parabellum and assembled over the years.

  But something was missing.

  “I don’t see the starship,” Hayden said. “The Invincible.”

  “Maybe you aren’t looking hard enough,” Haeri replied. “It’s there.”

  “Cal, do you see it?” Hayden asked.

  “I do now. I didn’t before.”

  “The true nature of Rig Six is a secret, Sheriff,” Haeri continued. “Proxima has a lot of secrets, but this is probably one of its hardest to keep. How do you construct a warship and keep it hidden, not only from the civilian population but from the CSF? From the Trust? You can try to put it somewhere else; space is a big place after all. But there would be records. Travel logs. Fuel expenditures. Someone, somewhere would catch on, even with all my efforts to prevent that.”