Hitomi had never seen an angel actually fly before. Unlike the demons, who were more bat-like, the floating angels were beautiful. Their wingspan was incredible, nearly ten meters from tip to tip, and the white translucent wings drifted against wind currents that just weren't there, like streamers on a breezy day. If two angels floated side by side, their wings passed in and out and through each other, neither pair being displaced or disturbed, as if the wings were merely an illusion. When the angels turned, the white strands lazily caught up.
Each plane had a cockpit, and through the tinted glass an angel could be clearly seen within, flipping switches, preparing the plane.
“Stay here. Do not move or you will be shot,” the guard said, pushing them against a wall and out of the way. He turned and leapt into the air, his wings expanding like a yanked parachute, drifting up into the air.
A group of about 200 angels in armor appeared from another hallway and marched past, their feet hitting the ground in an uneven, undisciplined staccato. They wore helmets, but with the visors up. As they passed by, some turned to glare at them.
Most of them had the unmistakable look of anxiety on their faces. A slight scent rose in the group's wake, like pan-fried sugar as it starts to burn. The smell of fear. She remembered Colonel Yehppael's story. Only a few of them were actual soldiers. The rest were engineers, those who helped behind the scenes, not in direct battle.
A loud but distant explosion echoed from high above, rocking the entire cavern. Followed by a few more. Rocks and dirt showered down after the first boom. She instinctively held her arms up, remembering the giant tree branch that had almost crushed her. Between the concussions, she heard one angel say to another, “The cannons.”
The ambient yellowish light in the room suddenly turned a deep red. The angels around the fighters scurried away, some flying up to a center platform, others down and against the walls.
The fighters abruptly streaked upwards and out of the cavern. Hitomi let out a yelp of surprise at the sudden chaos and fell, but Dave's strong arms caught her.
The fighters crashed straight through the ceiling of the room as if it was made of paper, leaving gaping holes that revealed the red sky. The cavern was filled with the choking stench of overburdened machinery. Hitomi's eyes watered as she gasped. It cleared away quickly, but the taste of metal remained in her mouth.
After a pause, the activity was quickly renewed. The angels were leaving. Most exited through the large passageway, but some passed out through the stairwell, none taking heed of the four humans.
After the room was almost entirely abandoned, four angels descended.
“It is time,” one of them said.
They all looked at each other. “For what?” Indigo asked.
He pointed up. “We're to expel you before this cavern is blown closed.”
“Whaddya mean?” Dave demanded. “You're putting us out there with the explosions and fighter jets and demons?”
“If you would prefer, you can stay here as we destroy the cavern.”
Hitomi's heart tightened. She knew what they wanted, but they were too proud to ask. Her hand reached down instinctively to touch one of the periscepters on her belt.
“Let's go then,” she said, stepping forward into the arms of the angel. He grabbed her roughly and jumped into the air. His arms made Dave's seem like twigs. They flew toward one of the openings left by the fighter jets.
They were plopped unceremoniously into the tall grass. They weren't far from where they had been originally captured. The tall trees loomed behind them, and the scattered hunks of fallen wreckage still littered the area like an overgrown junkyard.
“No weapons? Armor?” Dave asked. “At least you can give us what we had when we got here.”
The angel sneered. “Better run. When they blow the cavern, everything you see around you is going to be swallowed by the discharge.” The four angels turned and disappeared back into the hole.
Far to their left, movement caught Hitomi's eyes. A triple-barreled black cannon glared at the sky. It was something from the deck of a battleship. It roared, fire streaking from its jaw into the distant haze. The sound burned her ears, the ground shook like thunder.
“Hey, at least we're free,” Dave said dryly.
“What do we do now?” Gramm asked.
Indigo stared down into the giant hole, then at the cannon. “We run.”
* * * *
Colonel Tamael watched sadly as the twenty Forays burst from the ground and into the turmoil. She bore no false hope about their chances. There had been several hundred thousand of them in use when the demons had originally attacked, maybe more. The fleet had been annihilated, merely a nuisance to the invading armies.
The fighters screamed toward the invaders. She turned her camera drone back toward the holes they left in the ground. Any moment now. Yes, here they came.
She had silently ordered their expulsion, not wanting to upset Yehppael. If the Hashmallim had been correct, it was the proper thing to do. Their destinies were no longer in her control. If the Hashmallim were wrong, they would be quickly killed.
Either way, they were armed with enormously powerful weapons. She could never ask for their help, but placing them into the heat of the battle could possibly force them to react in self-defense. It was her only option.
She watched as they spoke, then ran. Three of them started back toward the forest while one—the former angel—actually headed toward Cibola. They stopped when they realized they had a different idea of where they were going, then argued. Indigo and the three others ran toward the danger. Tamael shook her head with surprise.
She wondered about that one, their leader. It was a shame she had no memory of her treachery. What could possibly bring an angel to such lengths? To kill herself dishonorably, to invite shame and scorn for eternity. She couldn't fathom it.
Though you aren't much better, are you?
Stop. Suicide was a deliberate, treacherous act. Failure in battle is an honorable thing as long as you offered everything you had.
I gave everything I had.
Didn't I?
She forced herself to focus. After the humans were at a safe distance, she ordered the Foray launch chamber to be blown shut. If they were going to take this base, she wasn't going to make it any easier for them.
The enemy casualties were still not what she hoped. So far, less than a quarter had been destroyed. And even more worrisome, two of the three armored freighters still flew. She knew all too well what those were designed to carry.
“The forward group of the Pazuzu are firing their missiles!”
“Intercept!” she cried. Immediately, the automatic, close-range defense system sprang up. Hundreds of mini batteries would attempt to destroy the missiles moments before impact.
“They're not engaging!” an engineer cried.
Damn it.
“Brace for impact!”
She helplessly watched the radar as hundreds of red lights converged.
This place is designed to withstand several direct hits, she told herself as she grabbed the rests on her chair. She prayed.
Thump. Thump, thump. Thump.
That was it. Nothing. Not even a slight tremor.
Relief was soon replaced with alarm.
“Report?”
“Impact,” came the reply. “But no detonation.”
“Heavy signals emanating from the projectiles,” another engineer reported.
“What's their purpose?”
“I am unable to determine.”
She wanted to scream. “I want them destroyed. Right now. Blow those shells up one by one if you must.”
“Yes, ma'am.”
“Colonel Yehppael,” she said. “I want the cannons to focus on those two transports. They are not to land. Understand? The fighters are to engage them also.”
“Understood.” Over the next several minutes, the two transports were pounded heavily. They neither faltered nor seemed phased at all by the
attacks. Indestructible. It was amazing they even got one to go down.
The two giant airships began their descent, their forward jaws slowly opening, ready to reveal the terrors within.
Dear God no.
Nothing was going as planned. It was happening all over again. The unstoppable juggernaut of darkness was overrunning them.
Focus, focus.
“Release the wings. All of them. Hold the lines as much as we can, then regroup within the forest.”
“Abandon the base?” someone cried.
She ignored him. The mighty doors of the transports swung wide just as they alighted on the ground, crushing any wreckage underneath. She held her breath as she watched the shadows within. Several moments passed.
A few well-aimed cannon blasts lit up the cavernous interior of the transports.
Nothing. They were empty.
A diversion. And she had fallen for it.
Something didn't seem right, however. Another trap was in there somewhere, and she couldn't see it. “Are those projectiles still emanating a signal?”
“Yes. It has not altered.”
She turned toward a soldier desperately typing out her constant stream of orders.
“I wanted them destroyed by now. Why are they still there?”
“They will be destroyed, ma'am, but you must allow some time for....”
He never finished.
The rock ground below him fissured and cracked like glass. The whole control center sunk a few inches with a jolt, and several angels fell from their posts and toppled against one another. The center control screen ripped in half and blinked out, sparks screaming from the ruptured wires.
“What's going on?” she yelled, launching herself to hover over the chaos.
“The structure of the caves has been breached. We are under attack from below,” Yehppael called back. Then he was beside her, gun in hands. “We must get out of here before everything falls in on us.”
The third transport. It hadn't crashed at all. The beast within was now digging below. It was going to rip the whole place to rubble, and they were all trapped.
A simple diversion, and she had failed to see it.
Below, the rock churned like boiling water. Both angel and machine caught in the mix. Yehppael swooped down to grab the hand of an angel snared under a fallen computer, but the arm of the soldier turned to dust as his life slipped away.
“The humans,” Yehppael said, desperation in his voice. “We must ensure their safety.”
“They're already out,” she called, irritated. “Everyone on top!”
Rock fell like rain, walls cracked like ice.
* * * *
Hitomi dove as the loud explosion echoed behind her, shaking the soil. They had barely made it far enough. The grass was rough against her face, and the stench of soil and smoke burned in her nose.
“Come on,” Indigo said, jumping up. She bled from a cut on her forehead.
The cannons continued to fire, filling the air with an oil-rich stench, vibrating the ground.
“I still say we go back,” Gramm said.
“It's too late now,” Dave replied, pulling him up. He pointed back to where they had just come from. Dirt, rock, and old machinery continued to cascade down like it was a black hole. A hole that was still widening.
Above, a dark cloud was rolling in, broiling with bursts of thunder and lightning.
At least that's what Hitomi thought it was at first.
Indigo was suddenly beside her, her hand a vice on her shoulder. Like her father used to do when he didn't want her to turn away.
“Be strong, Hitomi. I'll do the best I can, but it may all come down to you.”
“I'll try,” she squeaked. The sound of her own voice reminded her of how small she was, how insignificant. How empty and frail.
“There is no trying. Only doing.” Indigo's eyes were wild and distant. It was a look she hadn't seen before from her friend, and it scared her.
Hundreds of missiles streaked over their heads, pounding into the ground behind the hole they had emerged from. Hitomi dove for the hard ground again, but this time there was no explosion. They jumped to their feet and ran for a blackened, horned skull the size of a whale.
They cowered within the shelter. It smelled dreadful in here, like a barrel of gutted fish left to rot in the sun. Hitomi had to hold back the gag reflex.
“Why do I get the feeling we've done this before?” Dave asked.
A Split in the Path
The cursed hallways were too narrow to allow proper flight, and the cave system hadn't been designed to be defended against a subterranean threat. Whatever it was, it had torn through the lowest of levels, and it was about to shoot through the main floor, forever breaking the back of the base. They had no way of stopping it.
The angels fled through the few—too few—hidden escape tunnels like birds off a burning tree. The attack had been precisely timed, and they escaped directly into the murderous crossfire of the Pazuzu Stingers.
Yehppael and Tamael burst through a tunnel at the last possible moment. The collapsing rock tried to devour her legs and feet, and it almost had her. The screams of the others still echoed in her mind, and she briefly wondered why she could hear it. Then, Tamael realized with terror her helmet was gone! Lost in the chaos. A blast burst off her chest as she turned back toward the decimated base.
No, not again.
She had to get it back. How could she have let this happen? Again. Thrown into the heat of battle without a helmet to give guidance to her position and aim. Without communication.
Without the filter to remove the unspeakable carnage.
“Don't even consider it,” Yehppael cried, firing his weapon off at a boiling group of Stingers. He reached out and grabbed her by the back of her armor.
“Take my helmet,” he said into her ear. “Just don't break down. Not now.”
Before she could protest, Yehppael's helmet was shoved onto her head. It took a few moments for it to self-adjust, and she focused just in time to see him pulling another helmet onto his own head. She didn't see where he got it, but the angel that had been flying to her left a moment ago was gone.
She breathed in and assessed the situation. The angels were scattered and disorganized. They were being picked off almost leisurely.
She screamed orders. A loose, three-tiered wedge was hastily formed, and they swooped east toward the smaller of the two Dahhak formations. She pulled herself to the front of the middle line.
Three battered Forays remained, and they strafed the Pazuzu to cover them. She winced as one exploded in a ripping fireball. Her plan was to drive the formation under, then to the rear of the Dahhak. From there they would lay a suppressing fire and retreat to the rally point. It was weak, but it was all they had.
* * * *
The ground shook as the base was destroyed, and through a crack in the massive skull, Dave watched the angels’ desperate escape. They flew incredibly fast, a blur in the sky. But the demons were precise with their weapons, and most of the blasts seemed to make their target. It took several direct hits to knock an angel from the sky, but some were getting peppered with the blasts.
The sound of a dying angel was a terrible, unforgettable thing. A high-pitched, mirror-shattering squeal, but also flush with a low distorted rumble. Dave felt each death in his bones. Their pain was heart-wrenching.
“They're getting slaughtered out there,” he said.
“We have to do something,” Indigo said.
“What're you talking about?” Gramm said. His face was covered with red dirt, and his long hair was disheveled and grimy, like a mad man. He shrieked the words. “You want to help them. They're the ones who put us here. They're the ones who tortured you.” He plopped himself down. “This isn't our fight. I thought maybe it was at first, but it's not.”
Dave was speechless. It was something he'd have expected Rico to say.
“You've changed,” Hitomi said.
Gr
amm stared at her for a long moment. “No shit.”
“Listen,” Indigo said. The trident-shaped injury on her face almost glowed in the shadow of the giant skull. “I don't like most of these guys either, but the demons would kill us in like two seconds. The angels are the good guys, even if they don't seem to be.”
Gramm spit. “You amaze me.”
A dark figure appeared at the entrance to the skull. They all cried out in surprise, scattering against the far wall. Except Hitomi, who pulled her periscepter like she was Billy the Kid. She lit up the helmeted form of Colonel Yehppael wearing full armor.
“You are not safe here. We must leave immediately.”
“Get lost,” Gramm said. “We don't want your help.”
Yehppael punched him in the face, his arm flying back then forward at a speed Dave didn't think possible. Gramm crumpled, blood spurting like a popped water balloon.
“Hey,” Indigo yelled, running forward.
Yehppael threw Gramm over his shoulder. “We haven't time to argue. Come.”
Dave looked at Indigo. She shrugged. They didn't have much choice. Hitomi wielded a periscepter in each hand.
They crept out of their hiding place and into the turmoil. The sky above was lit like a day-time laser show. A pair of the fighter jets they had watched take off streaked over them in the sky. One smoked badly. They curved in the air and plunged into the middle group of demons—the terrifying giant scorpion men. The plane that hadn't been smoking suddenly blew up. It tumbled like a bowling ball through the demons, ripping them apart. The wreckage somersaulted and exploded, taking its place on the ground amongst other relics of past battles.
“Where are we going?” Indigo demanded.
“I don't know,” Yehppael grunted. He seemed unused to the quick walking. “But we're too close to the base. In any moment....” He paused, then jerked his head suddenly up in the sky.
“No,” he cried. “Wait before you charge.”
The angels had formed a group, but they were mixed in with the demons.
He looked at Hitomi. “I beseech you. Please help.”
* * * *
The Shivered Sky Page 15
