Hammer was falling to the surface.
“Oh my worlds, oh my fucking worlds!” Eilentes breathed. She fumbled for her link. “Volkas, it’s Hammer. She’s coming down! Warn the other platoons! She’s coming down!”
“I see it,” came the crackling reply. “It’ll miss them by some distance, I think.”
The battleship was whining now, the sound of her engines fighting as valiantly as they could against the gravity of Woe Tantalum, and against the ship’s own momentum. The whine competed with the rushing roar of the air that the huge ship displaced as it hurtled heavily towards the ground.
“They’re not going to make it,” Eilentes said to herself. “They can’t possibly make it.”
The hull came closer and closer to the remains of the town that had once been the beating heart of a young colony world. Eilentes felt a knot of dread building inside her chest. She could not stand to watch this happen, but she could not turn away either.
And then it was happening, and somehow she was still looking, and time seemed to slow down to a crawl.
The gravity spur was the first part of the battleship to hit the ground. Protruding forward of the main engine blocks, angled slightly downwards, it practically invited its own destruction. It jabbed into the soil and rock like a needle striking through to the bone, and convulsed as it buckled and split along its length, bursting apart where it joined the hull.
The support skeleton of the spur tore away completely, taking with it the concentric collimator rings that helped focus its wormholes. They were ripped back and to the side, twisting and unravelling violently, throwing loops of xtryllium out into the air.
The nose of the ship hit next, crashing onto the ground and thundering forwards through already broken walls. Eilentes fancied she saw the whole length of the hull shudder and ripple, an understandable reaction to being smashed in the face with a planet.
The belly of the battleship came down, still sliding forwards, and the lower decks were crushed outright. Hull plates warped and sprang from their mounts, the engine blocks exploded, pieces of metal and jets of flame were forced from the many holes that seemed to appear everywhere she looked.
The wreck hurtled on, levelling everything in its path. Behind it, a wide trough of ploughed earth was littered with the pieces Hammer had left behind, and the few large stones her passage could not dislodge.
The sounds of explosions and screaming metal grew gradually fainter, and Eilentes’ view was blocked finally by an impenetrable pall of powder-black smoke.
She leaned against the cold stones of the dead tower, and covered her mouth with both hands.
• • •
“Fuck—”
“Come on Throam, we’ve still got a job to do.” Caden grabbed his counterpart by the upper arm and pulled hard. Throam did not exactly resist, but he was not easy to move at the best of times. “Come on.”
“Yeah, sorry. Just… fuck! That was the Hammer.”
“I know, nothing we can do about it. Best case scenario is we now have a short time to act before we get wiped out from orbit.”
“Right. Sorry.”
“Are you with me?”
“I’m with you. Yes.”
“Good. Look sharp, yeah?”
They were with you, and look what happened to them.
“Not now!” Caden muttered.
“What?”
Throam had started back along the road, and looked over his shoulder at Caden.
“Nothing. I didn’t say anything.”
“Sure? First sign of insanity, you know, talking to yourself.”
“I’m sure.”
“Wouldn’t be the first time.”
“Whatever. We need to get up to that structure.”
Throam seemed to recognise the tone and became serious.
“There’s a breach in the wall. It meets the ground on the left hand corner,” he said. “We should head there.”
“Fine. And let’s double-time it.”
Throam signalled to the others, and they all began to jog up the road, still keeping to the building line. There were so many places for people to hide, so many possible ambush points, that it barely mattered what other precautions they might take.
“A chemical works,” Caden said when they reached the perimeter fence. He scuffed dirt across the surface of a fallen metal sign. “Should have pretty solid interiors.”
“Solid enough to house an operation.”
“Chun, bring your squad with us. Everyone else, set up a perimeter.”
“Ready for this?” Throam asked.
“Of course I am.” Caden thumbed a helmet control. His face plate darkened, and light enhancement sensors switched on. “Let’s do it.”
They climbed through the tear in the outer wall, picking their way as carefully as they could through the mangled rooms beyond. Water dripped on them from somewhere above, somewhere it had had time to pool and gather rust from the twisted metal skeleton of the outer wall. It splashed across their visors like old blood.
The building was more heavily damaged than it looked from afar; inside the main block, floors were caved in and support beams were buckled and twisted. All that remained of the furniture and the more robust furnishings was in a long, burned pile against the far wall, as if it had all been swept there by a powerful wave of fire.
Caden opened a link channel to Throam. “Looks like it’s all admin up here,” he said quietly. “I’d bet the levels below are where all the real work went on, and ten to one says that’s where the work is going on now.”
“Underground plant?”
“Why not? All those wall boundaries we saw out there looked like shops and houses. The town probably didn’t plan on having any industry visible on the surface.”
“Hmm,” Throam said. “Aspiring to Earth’s standards.”
“If you can’t duplicate, emulate,” said Caden. “Let’s try and find the way down.”
Throam gestured to Chun, who in turn had his squad fan out. It was Norskine who linked back first.
“Lifts are out,” she said. “But there’s a staircase over here that’s big enough to roll Bruiser down.”
“Fuck that,” Bruiser chimed in.
“Knock it off,” Chun snapped. “Daxon, your fire team takes point. You all seem to like courting danger.”
“Sarge.”
Daxon jerked his head in the direction of Norskine, and Bruiser and Bro went after her. They moved stealthily down the wide metal staircase, even Bruiser managing to tread lightly. Caden and Throam followed with Daxon; Chun led the rest of his men after them.
On the landing of the flight below the ground floor, they saw the first light. There was a chain of them, simple maintenance lamps on tripods, slaved together with a power cable. Dim spots of light were visible through the grille panels on the landings, stretching down into the darkness.
“Someone is definitely here,” Caden breathed.
It was not until they reached the sixth level down that they saw the first person.
By the time Caden reached them, Norskine and Bro had re-emerged from their hastily adopted cover on each side of the gaping entrance. Bruiser was still in the stairwell, peering around the corner with his machine gun trained on the pale figure.
“What’s going on?” Caden asked.
“You tell me,” the Rodori’s link said. “That human is not moving.”
“He’s just standing there,” said Bro.
“Remind you of anyone?” Throam asked Caden.
Beyond the wide doorway, the light fell off sharply. The gloom was punctuated by another lamp on the far side, which illuminated a similar doorway opposite.
Caden stepped down onto the landing, around Bruiser, and moved up to join Norskine. “Cover me.”
“Hell no,” Throam said. “I’ll go.”
“Suit yourself.”
Throam raised his rifle and flicked on the light. It threw a tight beam out into the darkness, and he pointed it at the motio
nless figure. He advanced cautiously, almost sideways on, one foot over the other. Moving to the side, giving Norskine a clear shot, he reached out gingerly with his hand, and prodded the man in the back.
The man moved forward slightly, without resistance, and then tipped back again.
“Just like Naeb,” Caden said. “Exactly like her.”
Throam moved around, and the light from his rifle speared the gloom. It flashed over another pale shape, and another, and another.
“Fuck, oh fuck… they’re everywhere.”
The counterpart tightened his stance, turned slowly in a full circle. Caden watched the beam of light from his rifle as it splashed over still bodies, one after another.
“Fifteen,” Caden said.
“They were waiting,” said Throam. “They’re all armed. Like they were laying in wait for us until a few minutes ago.”
“Creepy,” Norskine breathed.
“What do we do?” Daxon asked Caden.
“Follow the lights.”
They carried on, quietly picking their way through the throng of statuesque bodies, and passed through the far doorway.
Beyond the doorway was a short corridor, opening directly into a cavernous chamber. The roof was two stories high, and barely visible. Bright yellow markings were painted on the floor, indicating where safety margins and clear walkways should have lain. Whatever this plant had been designed for, it looked as though calamity had claimed Woe Tantalum before the machinery had been installed.
But the space itself was not empty. In the centre of the huge expanse of floor, arranged in neat rows, were dozens of metal racks. Some of them held warheads.
“Jackpot,” Caden announced.
Norskine and Bro entered the space, veered off to each side, swept back and forth with their rifles. Bruiser lumbered forward more casually, hefting his machine gun.
“I wouldn’t come much closer,” came a voice from the gloom. There was a wobble to it, as if the speaker were forcing himself to talk. “I’m not sure how my companion will react.”
Throam and the others directed their lights towards the voice, and the beams converged on a gaunt-looking man standing just within the shadows, on the other side of the racks.
Caden reacted first. “Morlum?”
“Not so often as I would like,” he said.
Another figure took a much heavier step forwards, and stopped just behind Morlum. It towered over him. It was as tall as Bruiser.
“And this would be…?”
“Prem; Penvos Robotics Exterior Maintenance. You see, I need maintaining.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“They needed me, but I’m resistant in some ways. They couldn’t empty me out. This here” — he gestured at Prem — “this is my… chaperone, I guess you’d call it.”
“Chaperone?”
“Yes. I programmed him to try and fight them. I suppose they thought it would be fitting to do the opposite.”
“He’s nuts,” Throam called across to Caden.
“How I wish I were,” said Morlum.
Caden stepped closer. “Who brought you here?”
“Oh dear, I knew you would ask me that.”
Prem shifted and looked down at Morlum. The man was now sweating, Caden noticed. He cast his eye over the android. It was a common model, designed for prolonged tasks in hostile environments. Its chassis was basically humanoid, with a thick flexible covering. He had no idea where the actuation processors were. If it became hostile, it would not be put down quickly.
He noticed Norskine and Bro were edging silently around the outside of the racks, one on each side. They looked like they were aiming to take up positions behind the android.
“Those people back there.” Caden nodded back towards the doorway. “What are they?”
“Vassals. Thralls. Servants. We’re called different things, depending on who you ask.” He looked Caden right in the eye. “I hear some call us Rasas.”
“You heard that specific word? Where?”
Morlum’s eyes drifted to Prem uncomfortably, as if he were testing a limit. He spoke very deliberately. “We hear things… all over the place.”
“So they’re everywhere. And you’re… like them?”
“Almost. As I said, I’m resistant in some ways. I don’t always sing the song, not if there’s no choir to join.”
Caden glanced at Throam, and saw that he was stood stock still, his rifle aimed unwaveringly at Prem’s head. He could not tell if the counterpart was making any sense of Morlum’s words, if he recognised their significance. Was he too remembering Aldava right now? There was no way to tell.
“Amarist Naeb, you’re the same as her?”
“Not quite. Poor Amarist. Totally swept away by the current. I left her for you, you know.”
“Why?”
Morlum’s wary eyes again travelled to Prem, then back to Caden. “To start the trail,” he whispered.
“The ones back there. Why don’t they move?” Caden asked.
“Nobody to tell them to.” Morlum made it sound as if the explanation should have been obvious. “There were enough to tell them before, on the surface; you must have killed them.”
“The Viskr?”
Morlum actually smiled, as if Caden had made a deliberate joke. “No. No, not the Viskr. The—”
Prem made a very discouraging sound. Caden saw Throam take a half-step forward, and sensed him tensing up. He did not need to look to know that the counterpart’s finger had started to tighten against his trigger.
Morlum waved his hand at the racks, and changed the subject. “These are all that are left.”
“The others?”
“Taken. Distributed. I don’t know where, I don’t know why.”
“We’re going to take them back. Will Prem try to stop us?”
“I don’t know.”
“Prem,” shouted Caden. “What do you think about me taking back these warheads?”
The android gave no reaction.
Throam smiled grimly. “Guess that’s your answer.”
“He’s almost as helpful as you, Morlum.”
You’re so close to the truth, why don’t you just take it?
The words burst into Caden’s head like a white hot spear of pain, so blinding that he almost forgot to remain standing.
No, he thought. Prem will kill Morlum if he gives us anything concrete.
What does it matter?
I won’t get him killed.
The worlds think him dead anyway.
I won’t do it!
One meaningless death could be worth millions of lives. Billions!
We don’t know that.
You have killed so many already, do you want the blood of whole worlds on your hands as well?
Stop it.
Murderer, they’ll call you.
Stop it!
Murderer, like they called Maber Castigon. Butcher.
STOP IT.
You and he should team up again.
Caden felt a sudden wave of anger burst inside him, from deep inside, from the place he had almost forgotten about. It burned through him and forced its way into his thoughts. His scalp crawled and the back of his head felt empty.
“Morlum, whose song are you singing?”
“I… I can’t…”
“Tell me Morlum. Who’s in charge?”
Morlum looked at Prem, and took a faltering step away. “I mustn’t, no, don’t ask me that!”
Prem turned to face Morlum, and took a step of his own, closing the space between them.
“You know I need to know this. TELL ME!”
Throam advanced, side-stepping diagonally to keep Morlum out of his line of fire. Caden was peripherally aware of Norskine and Bro doing the same thing.
“No…”
Morlum was wild-eyed, panicked, stepping back away from Prem as quickly as the android reclaimed the ground.
“Tell me, or I’ll shoot you myself!”
> Morlum stopped, and turned to look at Caden.
“He will know, he will know. He always knows. Don’t make me name them.”
Caden’s pistol raised to point at Morlum’s forehead.
“Tell me. Tell me now.”
The wretched man looked at Prem one last time, sniffed, and looked straight into Caden’s eyes. Caden felt the meaning: you killed me, you can watch my light go out.
“Shaeld Hratha!” He hissed.
Prem had more than enough time to smash Morlum’s throat, before a hail of bullets took the huge android down.
• • •
“Disputer Actual, this is Lieutenant Volkas, acting commander of Bullseye Company. Glad you could join us.”
“Bullseye Actual, we have your signal locked in. Hostile contacts fled the system on our arrival, so we will be able to recover your forces immediately.”
“Copy that, Disputer. Be advised the planet has a formidable quarantine network in place.”
“The quarantine network has been disabled, Bullseye. We’re sending landers to your position now.”
“Any word on the Hammer?”
“We’ve picked up nothing at all from the crash site, but recovery is inbound. Stand by on that.”
The channel closed abruptly.
“Captain Thande,” Volkas said apologetically. “She always was brusque.”
Throam nodded. “They came, that’s what counts.”
“Oh right, yeah. All they had to do was turn up.”
“You did good, Volkas. Worked for me, anyway. I wasn’t expecting to see even more bodies out here when we came back out of that place.”
“What about him?” Volkas nodded towards Caden. “He still going to be giving me a hard time for no reason?”
“I don’t know,” Throam said. “I honestly don’t know.”
He stepped away from the lieutenant, and picked his way slowly through fused rubble towards the Shard he had sworn to protect.
Caden was standing at the edge of a mound, looking out across the hillside along the length of the road they had used to reach the chemical works. Far in the distance smoke still rose from the long scar Hammer had gouged in the ground. Landers were beginning to descend towards the smoking wreck.
Books One to Three Omnibus (Armada Wars) Page 25
