Earthfall

by Mark Walden

  Sam got up to leave, his head swimming with everything that Stirling had just told him. In the space of a few minutes, he felt like his life had been turned upside down yet again. More than that, he realised, he suddenly felt like a tiny, insignificant part of a conspiracy that was almost too big to comprehend. Halfway to the door, he stopped and turned towards Stirling.

  ‘The Voidborn are going to win, aren’t they?’ Sam said, looking Stirling straight in the eye.

  ‘Yes, probably,’ Stirling replied, ‘but that doesn’t mean we have to make it easy for them.’

  ‘I don’t . . . I mean . . . I can’t believe it,’ Rachel said. Thirty seconds ago, Sam had finished telling the others what Stirling had just told him and she was the first to speak. The others stood or sat around the small central room of the safe house with expressions of disbelief, confusion and anger on their faces.

  ‘He’s known this all along and he’s just telling us now?’ Jay said angrily. ‘They put these things inside us and you’re telling us that our parents knew nothing about it?’

  ‘That’s what he told me,’ Sam said. ‘Don’t forget, though, that if it wasn’t for these implants we’d all be just like the rest of the Walkers. Personally, I’d take the implant over spending the rest of my life as a Voidborn slave.’

  ‘Sam’s right,’ Kate said. ‘It doesn’t matter if what Stirling did was right or wrong – we have to concentrate on the future. We have to beat the Voidborn and we’re not going to be able to do that if we start turning on one another.’

  ‘I’m not saying that we shouldn’t fight any more,’ Jay said. ‘I’m just saying that he should have told us.’

  ‘Yes, Jacob, I should have.’ They all turned to see Stirling standing in the doorway of his room; he looked older and more tired. ‘That was my mistake and if it’s any consolation to you at all I regret not telling you sooner. Jackson always told me that I should have and he was right. What I won’t apologise for, and you may not want to hear this, is what we did to you to make you immune to Voidborn control. You may question the ethics of it, but if we had not done what we did, there would be no hope for us now. As it is, we are quite possibly the last form of concerted resistance to the Voidborn anywhere on the planet.’

  ‘Why didn’t you just tell everyone, the whole planet, what was going to happen?’ Rachel asked. ‘We might have had time to prepare, to defend ourselves.’

  ‘Who would have believed us?’ Stirling asked. ‘And, even if they had, it would probably just have caused mass panic and we still had no means of protecting the adult population from Voidborn enslavement. It would have served no purpose.’

  ‘That wasn’t your decision to make!’ Jay snapped. ‘That’s what this is all about – you like playing God, don’t you?’

  ‘Enough!’ Sam yelled. ‘I know you’re angry, Jay. I’m angry. We’re all angry, but we have a job to do. We can shout and scream at each other all we want, but it doesn’t change the fact that there’s a three-kilometre-wide Voidborn ship hovering over central London. It doesn’t change the fact that we’ve all lost people we care about and it certainly doesn’t get us our damn planet back. Only one thing can do that – us. Living together, working together, fighting together. If we can’t do that, it’s already over – the Voidborn have already won.’

  Jay stared at Sam for a moment, still furious, and then after a couple of seconds he threw up his hands in surrender.

  ‘OK, OK, you’re right,’ Jay said, sitting back down. ‘So where do we hit them? ’Cos I don’t know about anyone else, but I’m ready for some payback.’

  ‘I think we all are,’ Nat said. ‘They hit us; now we should hit them right back, twice as hard. That’s what Jackson would have done.’

  ‘Indeed he would have,’ Stirling said with a nod, a sudden look of cold determination on his face. ‘And that’s exactly what we’re going to do.’ He reached down and pulled a foot-long silver tube from the pack on the floor.

  ‘What is that?’ Will asked.

  ‘This is what we’re going to use to take the fight to the Voidborn,’ Stirling said, placing the cylinder on the table at the front of the room. ‘This cylinder contains a swarm of self-replicating nanites that will infect and corrupt any Voidborn technology that they come into contact with. In simple terms, it’s a technological virus. It is my belief, based on the description that Sam provided, that, if we can successfully release the nano-virus into the machine that he discovered beneath the Voidborn Mothership, it will disable it permanently. I am not entirely sure what purpose it serves, but I think it’s safe to assume, given the scale of the Voidborn’s efforts to construct it, that it has to be rendered inoperative, permanently. What’s more, any Voidborn technology that comes into contact with the machine will, in turn, become infected with the nano-virus. Any attempt to repair the machine or even approach the facility will simply result in more Voidborn becoming infected.’

  ‘So we’re releasing a Voidborn plague,’ Anne said, eyeing the cylinder slightly warily. ‘You’re certain that this nano-virus isn’t harmful to humans, that it won’t spread unchecked?’

  ‘I can be reasonably sure that it won’t harm humans since it came from a human.’ Stirling gestured towards Sam, who looked slightly uncomfortable. ‘It will only spread into Voidborn technology. If this works as I think it will, we will transform central London into a viral hot zone that is a no-go area for the Voidborn for the foreseeable future.’

  ‘Are you saying that we’ve got to go back to the Voidborn compound?’ Nat asked. ‘Because I hate to sound negative, but the last time we went in there we barely made it out alive and they’re bound to have increased security after that. Couldn’t we just release the virus somewhere nearby and let it spread naturally?’

  ‘No,’ Stirling replied, shaking his head, ‘we can’t give the Voidborn the opportunity to put any sort of quarantine in place. As I said before, I’m not entirely sure what that machine does, but I have a theory, and if I’m correct the machine is our priority target.’

  ‘Why? What do you think it is?’ Liz asked.

  ‘Part of the Voidborn endgame,’ Stirling replied, ‘and very, very bad news for every living thing on the planet.’

  ‘Sounds like a suicide mission,’ Jay said, ‘so, obviously, you can count me in.’

  ‘I had a feeling that might be the case,’ Stirling said with a tiny smile. ‘Any other volunteers?’

  ‘I’m in,’ Sam said with a nod.

  ‘And me,’ Rachel replied.

  ‘Well, you’re not doing this without me,’ Nat said.

  ‘No,’ Stirling said. ‘I’m sorry, Natalie, but you’re injured. I appreciate your dedication, but you’re not ready for a mission like this yet.’

  For a moment it seemed as though she was going to argue with him, but then she just sat back in her chair, looking irritated. The trip to the safe house had been difficult enough with her injured leg; much as she may not have wanted to admit it, she knew she wasn’t ready for a mission like this yet.

  ‘I’ll go,’ Kate said. ‘Adam would never let me live it down if I didn’t.’

  ‘And you’re going to need someone who knows one end of a gun from the other,’ Jack said with a grin.

  ‘I will also be accompanying you on this mission,’ Stirling said.

  ‘I’m not sure that’s a good –’ Sam said.

  ‘I’m not going to argue about this with you,’ Stirling said, cutting him off. ‘This weapon needs to be deployed in the right location to ensure that the Voidborn machine is permanently and irrevocably disabled. I’m the only person who can be certain of doing that correctly. So I’m coming with you.’ He looked around the room. ‘William, Elizabeth, Natalie, Anne and Adam shall remain here and hold the fort. The rest of you need to be ready to leave at nightfall. We can’t use the same route into the area that Sam and Jacob did yesterday so we will need to work out a new approach.’ Stirling looked at his watch. ‘We have three hours to put a plan of attack tog
ether. I suggest we get to work.’

  11

  The squad moved from cover to cover, trying to make as little noise as possible. Nat’s prediction had unfortunately proved to be quite correct. There seemed to be a far greater concentration of Voidborn than when Sam and Jay had first scouted out the area the previous evening. They spent most of their time hiding, waiting for gaps in the Hunter and Grendel patrols, and progress towards their objective was, at times, frustratingly slow.

  ‘Looks like you guys did a really good job of irritating them yesterday,’ Jack whispered as the six of them hid in the darkened front room of an abandoned basement flat. He watched through a tiny gap in the lace curtains as another group of Hunters floated past outside.

  ‘That’s why we’re going to need a diversion,’ Sam said.

  ‘I’m starting to wonder if that’s going to be enough,’ Kate said. ‘I mean, I know that Jack’s really good at blowing stuff up, but there’s so many of them. Do you really think that we’re going to get anywhere near the compound, even if they are distracted?’

  ‘We’re making progress,’ Rachel said. ‘It’s not far to the compound’s outer perimeter. Once we get there we’ll have a better sense of what we’re up against. If Jack’s pyrotechnics can distract enough of the sentries and we manage to mingle with the slaves, we’ve got a chance. If push comes to shove, we’ll just release the virus as close as we can to the centre of the compound and hope that it spreads quickly enough. Right, Doctor Stirling?’

  ‘Yes,’ Stirling replied. ‘The nanite swarm should spread aggressively to any Voidborn that come within a few metres of a host. It’s not an ideal solution, but it would be better than nothing. It may even be that under those circumstances the resultant chaos would give us an opportunity to enter the structure at the centre of the Voidborn compound and directly sabotage the machine within somehow.’ Stirling had the cylinder containing the nanite dispersal device in the padded backpack that was hanging between his shoulder blades.

  ‘That’s assuming we ever get out of this flat,’ Jack said. They all heard the thudding footsteps of a Grendel getting closer and the rumble of a drop-ship somewhere overhead. Sam heard the low growl of the Voidborn creature in the back of his head and noticed something strange about it. There was a higher-pitched whispering tone mixed in with the low guttural sound that the Grendels usually made. It was just like a sound he’d heard the previous night.

  ‘Jack!’ Sam whispered urgently. ‘Get back from that window.’

  Jack just had time to turn his head towards Sam, a slightly confused expression on his face, when a Grendel’s tentacle smashed through the window behind him and wrapped itself round his neck. Jack gave a strangled cry of surprise and then he was jerked backwards and lifted through the shattered remains of the window and out of sight. The others backed away, raising their weapons, waiting for the next attack. Suddenly, a familiar voice came from the street outside.

  ‘I know you’re in there,’ Oliver Fletcher said calmly. ‘Your friend here appears to be having quite a lot of trouble breathing, so I suggest you throw down your weapons, come outside and surrender yourselves to me as quickly as possible. I really am so very keen to meet you all.’

  ‘What do we do?’ Rachel whispered.

  ‘We surrender – what else can we do?’ Stirling said with a sigh. ‘Damn it all, how did he find us?’

  ‘I’m not just giving up,’ Jay said. ‘I say we go down fighting.’

  ‘He’s got a point,’ Kate said, her rifle still levelled at the window. ‘We’re dead either way.’

  ‘No,’ Sam said, dropping his rifle on the floor. ‘Surrendering is not the same thing as giving up. Jackson taught me that.’

  ‘He’s right,’ Rachel said, lowering her rifle and following Sam and Stirling towards the door.

  ‘Guess this really was a suicide mission,’ Jay said as he watched Kate slowly lower her weapon.

  Sam walked up the stairs from the flat’s front door and out on to the street. Fletcher stood in front of the Grendel with a triumphant smile on his face. Jack hung a metre off the ground, his hands clawing at the slick black tentacle wrapped tightly round his throat. Fletcher turned to the Grendel, closing his eyes for a split second and the giant creature lowered Jack to the ground and released him. Jack collapsed to his knees, sucking in ragged lungfuls of air. There were drop-ships hovering at either end of the street and half a dozen Hunters were approaching from each direction. Sam heard the persistent buzz of the Hunters in his head, but once again it was layered with the strange whispering he had heard before. Obviously all these creatures were under Fletcher’s control, all thanks to his Voidborn implant. Sam tried to concentrate as Kate and Jay came out of the flat, hands raised. Sam tried desperately to exert control over the Grendel as he had done the previous evening, but it was no good – he couldn’t give the giant creature an instruction. He still had no idea how he’d managed to do it before. The Hunters descended on the captured Ops Team, tentacles wrapping round their arms and holding them in place.

  ‘How lovely to see you again, Iain,’ Fletcher said as he walked up to Stirling. ‘We’ve been looking for you for such a long time. I know someone who is very keen to talk to you. I’m afraid you’re going to find out the hard way what happens to people who betray the Voidborn.’

  ‘Wake me up when the monologue’s over,’ Stirling said calmly. ‘You always did like the sound of your own voice, Oliver.’

  Fletcher closed his eyes for an instant and Stirling gasped in pain as the Hunters holding him tightened their grip, crushing his arms.

  ‘And you’re still as naive as I remember you,’ Fletcher said, his voice dripping with contempt. ‘And here’s our little Trojan Horse,’ he continued, standing in front of Sam.

  ‘I don’t know what you’re talking about,’ Sam said.

  ‘Oh, if it weren’t for you it would have been much harder to find everyone. You see, now I know all about your little passenger up here.’ He tapped the side of Sam’s head. ‘I have done ever since you did this.’ He pulled a crystal disc from the pocket of his overcoat and held it in the palm of his hand. A moment later a video was projected into the air above the disc. It appeared to have been shot by a camera on-board one of the drop-ships that had been flying over Parliament Square the previous evening. It showed Sam shouting at the Grendel that was about to crush Jay to a pulp and the monster being frozen in its tracks.

  ‘You see, you’re not supposed to be able to do that,’ Fletcher said, ‘not unless you have a Voidborn interface implant and only members of the Foundation have those. So once we saw this footage we ran a scan for any implant that had started transmitting within the past twenty-four hours and, lo and behold, there you were, sneaking back towards our compound.’

  ‘That’s impossible,’ Stirling said. ‘His implant can’t transmit.’

  ‘Oh, Iain, you’re really nowhere near as clever as you think you are, you know,’ Fletcher said with a nasty smile. ‘The boy’s implant started to transmit the instant he used it to exert control over one of these things.’ He gestured over his shoulder at the Grendel. ‘You can’t have it both ways; the moment he used it, the Voidborn could detect him. They only had to realise that and start looking.’

  ‘Wait a minute,’ Sam said. ‘What do you mean “one of their machines”? You mean these aren’t Voidborn?’

  ‘Of course not,’ Fletcher said, laughing. ‘Does this hulking brute really look like something that could enslave a planet? These are just the Voidborn’s tools, constructs that do their dirty work. The machines you call Hunters, the Voidborn call Workers, and these,’ he said, pointing at the Grendel, ‘are Soldiers. Don’t worry, though; ever since your little trick with one of the Soldiers last night the Voidborn have been very keen to speak to you. You’ll be meeting them soon enough, though I have to tell you that I don’t think you’re going to enjoy the experience.’

  Fletcher walked further along the line of prisoners, looking at Jay, Rachel
, Kate and Jack.

  ‘You shouldn’t all look so worried,’ Fletcher said, smiling at them. ‘There’s really nothing to worry about. Well, other than whether or not the Voidborn bother with an anaesthetic before they dissect you, of course.’

  ‘At least I’m not a traitor to my whole species,’ Jay said angrily.

  Fletcher closed his eyes and Jay gasped in pain as the Hunter holding him snapped his wrist effortlessly.

  ‘I can do that all day,’ Fletcher hissed, bringing his face close to Jay’s. ‘Anything else you’d like to say?’

  Jay opened his mouth to say something.

  ‘Jay, don’t,’ Rachel said. ‘Don’t give him the satisfaction.’

  He closed his mouth, his jaw muscles clenched, fighting to ignore the waves of pain shooting up his arm from his broken wrist.

  ‘Your friend here is clearly a lot cleverer than you, young man. You’d do well to listen to her,’ Fletcher said. ‘Well, we can’t just sit around here all night – we have people to see.’ He closed his eyes for a moment and the Hunters started marching them towards the Voidborn drop-ship that was slowly descending towards the ground at the far end of the street. As it touched down, a hatch in the side opened up and a wide ramp was lowered. One by one the Ops Team were escorted up the ramp by the Hunters and into the belly of the Voidborn aircraft.

  Sam didn’t bother struggling against the Hunters’ hold on his arms; he knew from the previous night that it would be pointless. They pushed him through the hatch and he got his first look at the inside of the drop-ship. The floor looked like it was made of black glass covered with spiderweb cracks that pulsed with green light. The walls were made of the same material, but they were covered in irregular cuboid blocks that pulsed with an identical eerie glow. The air inside was uncomfortably hot and dry and Sam could hear another background noise in his head, a kind of squawking chatter interspersed with digital distortion. The Hunters pushed him down next to Rachel and held him firmly in place. Jay grunted in pain as the Hunters shoved him next to Sam, with no regard for his shattered wrist.