“We can’t fight them all, sir,” Jesse said.

  “No, we can’t.” He tapped the control pad to open the back of the ship. “New plan. I’m going down. Jesse, Spot—stay here and be ready to lay down cover fire when the time comes. Ike, as soon as I’m out, get the Parabellum away from the area. We’ll meet you near the foothills to the west. Max, do you copy that?”

  “Confirmation. Hahaha. Haha.”

  The ramp opened far enough for Nathan to jump. He leaped out of the dropship without hesitation. He was nearly two kilometers above the surface, with a good view of the city below. He saw the xaxkluth crawling away from the Relyeh ship, and a large group of the creatures Max had called Norg behind them. He didn’t see Max, but he found the truck a moment later, coming around the corner on a direct intercept with the bulk of the Relyeh forces.

  Nothing about this was going to be easy.

  He fired the thrusters on the back of his armor, changing his vector until he was on target to land between the pickup and the Relyeh, not far from where Max had just touched down. He was still pissed at the Intellect for disobeying his orders and seizing control of the dropship, but considering Max had been right about the mistake, he was willing to settle for chewing the AI out and letting it go.

  After they had the interlink safely aboard the Parabellum.

  He continued tracking the pickup, watching it accelerate. His HUD started to flash in warning almost two full seconds before Ivanov began shooting at him from the truck bed, bullets pinging ineffectively off his armor. He triggered his jets again to slow his descent, holding his fire. He didn’t want to risk hitting the interlink and preferred not to damage the vehicle at all.

  They would need it to get away.

  “Max, can you shut down the truck without damaging it?” he asked. He found Max at the corner of a building three blocks ahead of the truck’s current position.

  “How do you suggest, General?” Max replied.

  “Can’t you blow a fuse or something?”

  “I’m an Intellect, not a magician. I intended to destroy the engine.”

  “The Parabellum’s pulling clear of the city. She’s too damaged to risk hanging here in range of the enemy’s guns. We need to preserve the truck if we can for our own use.”

  “Compliance.”

  The bullets stopped coming as the khoron guiding Ivanov realized they were ineffective against the armor. The pickup continued gaining speed, and Nathan turned off the jump jets, allowing himself to fall the last ten meters to the ground. He hit hard—legs flexing, synthetic muscles under pressure as he bent and recovered—landing two blocks further from Max and the truck, and two blocks closer to the Relyeh. He turned to face the coming horde, the xaxkluth crawling down the street ahead of running foot-soldiers. The alien nature of the troops nearly unnerved him as he aimed the MK-12 and began launching grenades at the enemy.

  The first few balls detonated between a pair of xaxkluth, tearing away their outer limbs. Nathan continued firing at them, emptying the magazine within seconds. Explosions rocked the street, fireballs blooming and shrapnel flying. One of the xaxkluth toppled and didn’t move, as did a few of the Norg at the front of the horde.

  Nathan spun around. He could hear the truck’s engine roaring as it drew closer, approaching the corner where Max was positioned. Nathan brought his rifle around and started firing, the reticle in his HUD offering better aim than he could manage on his own. Rounds slapped against the front corner of the truck, forcing Ivanov to duck behind the cab to keep from being hit.

  Nathan ran at the truck, continuing to shoot. The vehicle reached the intersection, and Max leaped out from the side, landing almost gracefully in the truck bed. Momentum tried to pull the Intellect from his feet, but he seemed to stick as if magnetic, holding up to pressures no human or clone could shrug off. Ivanov spun to face Max, but he ignored her, vanishing behind the cab on the driver’s side. A moment later Jackson slumped forward, the truck slowing as its driver died.

  Ivanov shot at Max point-blank, her rounds causing the Intellect’s Skin to flare with blue shield energy, blocking the slugs. Nathan planted his feet and leaped, arcing toward the slowing vehicle. He got a better angle on Ivanov, placing his finger on the trigger. He hesitated to shoot. She was one of Hayden’s Rangers, a good person captured and used by the enemy. Her actions weren’t her own. None of this was her fault.

  But this was war.

  He unleashed a burst of rounds that caught Ivanov in her side, the first grouping deflected from the combat armor, the second taking her in the neck and side of the head. The impact threw her sideways to the deck at the same time Nathan landed on the ground. Without a driver, the truck slowed and turned toward an old light pole. On the surface, the potential impact seemed innocuous, but if it did enough damage to the engine to cause it to fail, it might be catastrophic.

  He raced to get in front of the truck, bracing himself and holding his hands out. He caught the hood in his hands, pressing back against it to equalize its forward momentum. Backpedaling at first with little success in stopping the truck, he stiffened his knees, his metal-wrapped feet slid along the worn asphalt, offering enough resistance to finally bring the pickup to a stop.

  “General, let’s go,” Max said, swinging around the driver’s side and pulling Jackson from the cab. He dumped her unceremoniously onto the ground before getting behind the wheel and putting the truck in reverse.

  Nathan followed the pickup as it backed up and turned, running to reach the bed. He jumped into it, smiling slightly when he saw the interlink. He had promised Hayden he would get it back, and they were on the verge of keeping that promise. They just had to get back to the Parabellum and away before anyone could stop them.

  He spun around again, activating the magnets in his boots to lock himself to the pickup’s bed. The xaxkluth were only twenty meters away and closing fast.

  “Hit it, Max!” Nathan shouted. He aimed his rifle at the Relyeh creatures but held his fire. He didn’t have enough ammunition to waste making the monsters angrier.

  The truck lurched forward, engine roaring as it began to gain speed. Nathan rode facing backward, the xaxkluth trying to catch up behind them.

  This was going better than he expected.

  He smiled as the enemy lost ground, falling further back as the truck zoomed along the street. A quick check of the situation map showed the Parabellum two klicks ahead, Isaac in the process of positioning the craft for easy pickup. Five more minutes, and they would be back in the air with the interlink.

  Momentum tugged Nathan to the back of his suit as Max slammed on the brakes, the tires squealing and the rear-end fishtailing. The interlink slid toward the cab, yanking against its restraints and then settling when the truck slid to a stop.

  “Max, what the hell?” Nathan said. The xaxkluth were getting closer again, the sudden stop seeming to drive them forward even harder.

  “Standby.”

  Nathan turned his head. “Screw you with your standby, why did...you…” He trailed off when he saw the other Intellect, standing in the center of the street, blocking their path to the dropship. “Oh, hell.”

  An enemy Intellect raised its hands palms out, energy glowing across its Skin as it prepared to fire.

  12

  Nathan

  Max didn’t hesitate. He burst through the truck’s windshield, rolling across the hood and landing in front of the truck. A web of energy appeared ahead of him at the same time the Intellect loosed its attack. The web absorbed the assault, preserving the truck.

  But not for long. The xaxkluth were getting close, one of them pulling ahead of the rest. He and Max had maybe ten seconds to get the pickup up to speed again or they were screwed.

  “General, you need to drive,” Max said. “I’ll keep this one occupied.”

  “I won’t fit behind the wheel,” Nathan argued.

  “You must have an emergency release?”

  Nathan clenched his teeth. He did, but he wasn’t in love with the idea of stepping out of the armor and into the shit in his underwear.

  Max charged toward the other Intellect, raising his hand and firing a blast of his own from his Skin. The Intellect slipped aside, returning the attack. The beam flashed past Nathan’s head, nearly cutting into his faceplate.

  Nathan navigated the combat system’s menu to the emergency release. He hesitated a moment and then confirmed the command.

  The armor popped at the seams, a dozen small explosions ripping through the inner seals as Nathan grabbed his helmet and lifted it from his head. The front of the armor fell away, exposing him to the open air.

  He climbed out, grabbing his rifle and jumping out of the pickup bed. He found Max squared off opposite the other Intellect, locked in a silent stalemate.

  He didn’t have a comm anymore to speak to Max or the Parabellum, so he did the only thing left to do. He pulled himself into the driver’s seat and put the pickup in gear. Hitting the gas, he drove the truck toward the pair of fighting Axon, the horn blaring.

  The sound caught the enemy Axon by surprise and it froze for a split second. Max reacted instantly, grabbing its arm and twisting at the same time he shoved a foot into the Intellect’s back. The quick movement drove it to the ground.

  Right in front of the pickup’s wheels.

  Max stepped aside as the truck hit the Axon, bouncing roughly over it and crushing the alien beneath its wheels. Jostled from side to side by the impact, Nathan braked and held the truck steady. He looked into the rearview mirror, eyeing the interlink as it reacted to the collision, hoping it hadn’t broken the delicate machine.

  The pickup rocked again as Max grabbed the back corner of the cab and climbed up into the bed behind Nathan. He leaned down over the side so their heads were relatively close. “Nice work, General,” he said through the open window.

  “Keep the interlink stable and hang on!” Nathan shouted back, stomping his foot down on the accelerator. The truck roared forward just as the building a block in front of them suddenly exploded. Rubble and mortar spewed into the street ahead of them as a xaxkluth pushed through the mess, tentacles stretching toward the truck. Nathan cut to the right, skidding around the corner, tires screeching.

  “Yee-hahaha. Haha.”

  Max was enjoying this chase entirely too much.

  Nathan could hear the xaxkluth behind them groaning loudly, it’s tentacles slapping against steel. Glass shattered as it plowed through another building and started to climb the next one.

  They were running out of time. The xaxkluth and the rest of the Relyeh mob were closing fast, and no matter what Nathan did, it was going to be close as to whether they would make it or not.

  Nathan reached the next corner and threw the truck into a hard left, the back end sliding out once more. Max held tight to the interlink, remaining planted as the tail slammed into an old wreck, pushing it sideways. The collision nearly pulled Nathan out of the seat, but he held tight to the steering wheel, gripping it so tight it bent beneath his augmented hand. He sped up again, leaning forward and looking up. The xaxkluth was on top of the damaged four-story structure beside them, its leading tentacles dangling down and reaching for the truck.

  Nathan didn’t hear the grenades launch, but he saw the resulting explosions. They slammed into the xaxkluth’s side. One, then another and another. Six detonations in all rocked into it, knocking it off the side of the building. Half its tentacles caught onto the lip of the roof; the others reached for them. Getting closer.

  “Come on!” Nathan shouted at the truck, its engine already struggling to add speed even though his foot was mashing the accelerator all the way to the floor. Nathan thought one of the reaching tentacles was going to get them as it made one last desperate grab for the back of the truck. But then Max put his hands together and launched a blast of energy into the limb, severing it near its base. They rocketed ahead and into the clear.

  “Success,” Max said calmly.

  Nathan drove two more blocks until he could see the Parabellum waiting on their left. A quick glance back revealed the xaxkluth and soldiers catching up. Blasts of energy zipped across the field, fired at the stationary dropship. Isaac fired back, the plasma cannons opening up on the incoming aliens, the impacts sending the Norg soldiers tumbling. Nathan made the next corner and skidded around it, coming at the Parabellum from the port side.

  He heard gunfire from the Parabellum as Jesse and Spot started shooting back at the enemy with both bullets and grenades. The rounds blasted down the street and into the Hunger while the plasma from the dropship continued to chip away at them. One of the Norg’s attacks hit something important on the Parabellum and smoke began to pour out of it. Ironically, the smoke offered unexpected cover for their approach.

  Nathan slammed on the brakes to bring the truck to a stop at the back of the Parabellum. Max was already moving, releasing the straps securing the interlink to the bed as Nathan leaped from the cab.

  “Got it,” Max said, lifting the interlink and jumping off the truck just before bolts of energy whipped through the smoke, quickly turning the vehicle into fiery wreckage.

  One of the energy bolts hit Nathan, nearly severing his augmented arm.

  “Tell Ike to get us out of here!” he bellowed at Jesse as he followed Max up the ramp, holding his damaged prosthetic to his chest. The ramp was already beginning to close, the dropship starting to shudder as the engine spooled up for liftoff.

  For a moment, Nathan was terrified the Parabellum was too damaged to leave the ground. It whined and complained but finally started to rise.

  “General, buckle in!” Jesse said, rushing to help him get seated and strapped in.

  “Never mind me,” Nathan snapped back. “Just tell Ike to get us gone. Now! Full-throttle.”

  It took her two seconds to relay the message, and then both she and Nathan were slammed back into the closing ramp, hitting hard enough to knock the air out of them. They remained there, pinned by the inertia and struggling to breathe as the Parabellum shook hard, rumbling up and away, air screaming in through the gash in the hull.

  It wasn’t pretty, but it had worked.

  The interlink was theirs.

  13

  Aeron

  There was a reason Aeron and Fox emerged from the loop in Dome Three instead of Dome Nine. Code Nineteen was designed to be played as a ruse, though few enough members of the Organization even knew it to be so. As far as Gorman had known during the time he was alive and in control of his own faculties, he was in charge of the facility where Aeron would come to hide in the event of a Code Nineteen. The former Centurion had spent years in that position, waiting patiently for the day to arrive when he would do his part in the war the Organization had always known would come.

  That day had arrived. He hadn’t known beforehand he would become so deeply compromised, the Organization infiltrated, the Judicus Department under enemy control, khoron hiding among the population and illegal clones produced from equally illegal replicators. But he had known the situation was possible, however unlikely it may have seemed at the time.

  The Organization had spent two hundred years watching the Axon and the Relyeh, intervening when needed. They knew how the two alien races worked as well as any third-party could. On the surface, it seemed inconceivable that their infiltration would be so complete. At the same time, it felt almost inevitable.

  While Gorman in Dome Nine was waiting for Aeron to arrive, Sato in Dome Three most definitely wasn’t. Aeron approached the C-District block without much caution, making his way across a nearly deserted strand to the front of the aged structure. He paused there momentarily, glancing back to the split where Fox was waiting and nodded just deeply enough the clone would understand. It was Fox’s job to play lookout for as long as Aeron was inside.

  Hopefully, he wouldn’t be there long at all.

  Aeron reached into the pocket of his coat, finding a new Oracle resting in the bottom, as per his instructions. He put it on, his left eye focusing on the overlay for a moment as it booted into a blank screen.

  “Fox, do you copy?” he asked, speaking softly.

  “I copy, General,” Fox replied clearly through bone conduction via the Oracle’s temples.

  “Standby.”

  Aeron went into the block. This was a purely residential structure, one of the old buildings that had been moved out of its ship’s Metro but otherwise left intact. The lift banks were straight ahead, emergency stairs on the left. A few cubes were organized on the ground floor, though he didn’t think any of the windowless living spaces were occupied.

  He grimaced when he saw the lift was out of order. There was no shortage of parts for the equipment. No reason it should be offline beyond the bureaucracy of ordering the repair. He felt compassion for the residents at the top of the block, forty floors up while he wondered how long the lift had been down.

  He entered the stairwell. It smelled like urine and sweat, the evidence a stain on the floor in the corner. He shook his head slightly and started to ascend, climbing quickly. His legs complained about the activity. He was physically tired from his escape. At least he didn’t have to climb far.

  He reached the third floor, walking to cube 305 and tapping on the door. It swung open a few seconds later.

  Tora Sato’s face fell when she saw him standing there. “Shit,” was all she said.

  Barely one and a half meters tall, thin and sinewy, both of her bare arms covered in tattoos of dragons and Buddha’s that vanished beneath a light tank, Kim was a miniature powerhouse—a clone of a different color. She was like Nathan Stacker—one of the originals, over eighty years old though she didn’t look a day beyond thirty. She had been tucked away by his predecessor in the Organization, all of her records erased, a secret weapon for the day Aeron might need a secret weapon.

  And that day had come.

  “Tora,” Aeron said. “May I come in?”