Fall of Angels

by Matt Larkin

Knight leaned on the table, drawing close to the angel. “You speak of the sin of pride—but you made me! You chose to play God and create a person. Why? Why did you do this to me?”

  “You were supposed to be a weapon. I knew what Apollyon was trying to do, the Rephaim Project. He was creating cybernetic super soldiers. He worked in secret for centuries, and so did I.”

  So Knight was no different than the Asheran forces. A weapon, engineered by angels, to fight their wars.

  “Oh, you are different,” Raziel said, clearly reading his mind again. “What I did was long forbidden by the Ophanim. I used the knowledge of what we had done to our own genetic code to create an evolved bloodline. Apollyon might have been able to mimic some of our implants to create soldiers, but I created something more. Something to bridge the gap between your evolution of mankind and our own.” The angel reached under the table and pulled out a curved short sword in a scabbard. “I had this made for you. Back before I knew how badly you would betray me.”

  “I didn’t betray anyone, angel.” He snatched the sword and pulled it from its scabbard. A simple switch expanded it into a full katana, much like he’d had back on Gehenna.

  “No,” Raziel said. “Better than those. The mono edge is reinforced, the tempered metal nigh unbreakable. It should stand up even to angel wings. That is what you plan to fight now. Angels. Though not even you can take on the dozens who remain on the Ark.”

  “I have to try.” He owed it to everyone. Maybe Rachel could use the Ark to stop the Adversary. Maybe they could save the universe. It’s why he had become the Pariah. Because the personal cost didn’t matter.

  He was a weapon.

  A weapon to save mankind.

  “I know.” Raziel rose. “There’s so little time left. All I can do now is try to atone for my mistakes.” He walked over to a footlocker beside his bed, entered a code, and popped it open. “Do you know how Apollyon took the Ark in the first place?”

  Knight folded his arms.

  Raziel pulled some kind of device from the footlocker. It was the size of a grenade, but thick wires spiraled out of it, wrapping around like the double helix of a DNA strand. In the center was some kind of console. “It’s a QEMP—quantum electromagnetic pulse bomb. Angel cybernetics are shielded against normal EM radiation. This device pulses through quantum tunnels, shutting down electronics in range.”

  Electronics. Including cybernetic implants?

  “Do you understand what I am giving you, nephil? This constitutes the ultimate betrayal of my race.”

  “Apollyon used one of these on the Ark,” Knight said. “Six hundred years ago—the Vanishing. It disabled all the implants.”

  “Yes. And my people cannot live without those implants. I returned too late to stop him, though I drove him off the ship. I was forced to put the other angels into cryo sleep, so their systems could recover. By the time that was done … mankind already saw the angels as Vanished.”

  And so Raziel had chosen to see how mankind would adapt without the angels. Much to his disappointment, Knight was sure.

  “So can we fire this at the Ark?”

  “No. You’ll have to detonate it as close to the center of the Ark as possible. Near the singularity drive, if possible. Failing that, the bridge should give you a decent blast radius. Enough to disable most angels on the ship. If you do so, you must get us to the cryo chambers. We cannot live long otherwise.”

  Us. Raziel would be affected too. Which meant he planned to come along. To fight.

  Knight tucked the grenade into a storage compartment in his suit. “I’ll make it my last resort.”

  Raziel nodded. “Leave me. I must commune with the others.”

  Was he going to tell them …?

  “Get out, Pariah!”

  Knight blew out a breath, then did as Raziel asked. The angel was right. There was not much time left. He needed to see Phoebe.

  37

  “Human science has never worked out what dark matter is. The angels knew, of course, but we never revealed its secret. That alone should warn you that your souls might be in danger for seeking that answer.”

  Sefer Raziel, translated by Dr. Rachel Jordan

  MAY 20, 3097 EY — ANDROMEDA GALAXY

  Thanks to the modifications Phoebe had made, the Sephirot’s view screen revealed the outline of the Lotan. They remained invisible to the naked eye, of course. But the screen allowed Rachel to see the basic shape. Hundreds of jellyfish-like creatures swarmed around the Ark.

  NER ships continued to fire on Redeemers, separating them from the Ark, while the Lotan forced it farther away from the Conduit. Cornering it. There would be no escape.

  Rachel pushed the flight stick forward, taking them in.

  Explosions rocked along the Ark’s hull as the Lotan’s strange energy weapons lit it up.

  “What the void are they shooting?” she asked.

  “I’m not sure,” Phoebe said. “It seems to be similar to our antiproton cannons. Plus the tendrils themselves seem to create breaches in the Ark’s skin.”

  That was putting it lightly. The jellyfish ships wrapped around the Ark like an octopus trying to crush a shellfish in its arms. Wisps of gas and plasma evaporated off the Ark’s hull wherever the Lotan squeezed.

  But it was costing them. Plasma bursts from the Ark shot down another Lotan. Rachel had lost count of how many had vanished from the screen. Fifty? More?

  “Phoebe, take the controls,” Rachel said. “I’ve got to get down to the hangar with Knight.”

  “Yup, fine. But I expect him back in one piece. I mean it. I’ll kill you dead if you let something happen to him.”

  “Yeah, got it.”

  Rachel rose to allow Phoebe to sit, then headed for the lift. Inside, she fingered the implant Raziel had given her. A small black circle, with prongs she was supposed to press into her neck. It would burrow in and attach to her nervous system, allowing her full psychic access to the Ark.

  And he’d said installing the implant wouldn’t hurt too badly. She’d asked.

  Repeatedly.

  Somehow, she suspected he was lying. The prongs were only about two centimeters long, but the thought of impaling them into her neck was … unappealing. Her stomach churned.

  She tucked the sickening thing back into the shielded box the angel had given her, then into a compartment in her suit.

  Down in the hangar, Knight, Raziel, and a group of four Sentinels had already gathered by the angel’s ship.

  “With the distraction the Lotan provide, I should be able to get us into the hangar.” Grim determination seeped off Knight in waves that made Rachel glower.

  The Gehennan had strapped a new sword to his back. Throwing knives covered his thighs, and grenades ran along his belt. She and the other Sentinels were there to help, but in the end, they all relied on Knight and Raziel to face the angels. That kind of pressure would break most people.

  But then, she had her own part to play. She had to take control of the Ark once again. Its presence in her mind had cost her last time. It had become a part of her, an addiction she was far too eager to embrace again. And that frightened her—just how much she missed its warmth in her mind.

  She nodded at Knight, then filed into the ship and strapped herself in. Ironic—the last time she’d fled the Ark had been in this same ship. David had flown it then. David, the love of her life, betrayed and murdered for this war. And in his name, she was going to end this.

  The others strapped in, and Raziel sat at the controls. The angel didn’t ask if they were ready. He just launched the ship out of the docking chamber.

  And then they were in space. The battle continued to rage around them. The Lotan ships—which she suspected might be part of the aliens themselves—were faring poorly. But then, so was the Ark. Plasma leaked from a hundred breaches along its hull. An entire section of its skin had been peeled away, and angels were sucked into space.

  “Some segments are decompressed,” she said. “Helmets up.�
�

  Raziel piloted through the mess of plasma and warheads filling the air, confident and sure.

  A missile whooshed by, but Raziel evaded it.

  An explosion detonated just outside the hull, rocking the ship.

  With every second, the Ark’s hangar seemed to grow larger in the viewport. Rachel grit her teeth. They could do this.

  They had to do this.

  Evading more missiles—not aimed at them anyway—Raziel slipped into the hangar.

  The moment the ship jittered to a stop, the Sentinels popped their harnesses and rushed out. Redeemers and magog swarmed toward them. Rachel leapt out and fired her pulse pistol, gunning down a howling magog and then a man.

  Knight charged forward, pulse pistol in one hand, katana in another. He shot a magog, decapitated a Redeemer, and kept running. So fast. Inhumanly fast on his feet.

  Rachel shook herself, trying to focus on the remaining assailants. MAG rounds ricocheted off her suit. She shot the attacking magog, and the doglike creature collapsed, a hole in his chest.

  And then a trio of angels flew in, gliding on shimmering metal wings. “Betrayer!” one spat at Raziel.

  Their own angel had spread his wings as well. A single beat carried him into the air. The wind knocked Rachel down, and she stumbled.

  “Get to the core!” Raziel shouted at Knight.

  Knight ran as Rachel climbed back to her feet. An angel landed in front of him, jabbing with its wings so fast Rachel could barely see the motion. Metal clanged against the deck, throwing up a shower of sparks. Knight twisted, slid between the angel’s legs, and severed one with his sword. Before the angel had collapsed to the deck, he was up and running again.

  Rachel shot down another Redeemer. Sentinels formed up around her. “We’ve got to get to the bridge! It’s this way.”

  She glanced back at Raziel, who collided in midair with his two angel attackers. They collapsed in a heap, slamming into the deck. Metal wings sheared against each other, the sound mind-rending. They moved fast—as fast as Knight. It had turned into a melee of wrestling and chaos and the shriek of metal.

  A Sentinel grabbed Rachel and pulled her down the corridor. “We can’t help him right now.”

  The Sentinel—Bartal—was right. She ran toward the bridge. Sentinels cleared the path before her. They took down magog and Redeemers with frightening efficiency.

  And then an angel blocked their way. The span of its wings almost filled the hall. Sentinels fired at it, and it wrapped its wings around itself, deflecting the pulses. It continued to advance on them, protected by its metal cocoon.

  “Fall back!” she said.

  The Sentinels at once began a fighting retreat, continuing to fire, preventing the angel from rushing them. The Sentinels fired a barrage at the angel, but he blocked every shot with those wings.

  Rachel primed a plasma grenade. “Get ready to run on my mark,” she said over her comm. “Three. Two. One!” She flung it. “Run!”

  She turned and made a break for it, the others beside her. A split second later, the grenade erupted, and the angel screamed. The shockwave sent Rachel stumbling forward. She spun around in time to see the angel rising, though plasma burns covered his face. Fury lit his glowing eyes.

  The Sentinels opened fire again, this time catching the angel with a pulse between the eyes. Gravitons detonated on its skull, melting flesh and sending him stumbling backward. The destroyed skin revealed glistening metal beneath, smoldering where the angel had fallen.

  Rachel picked herself up. One down. “Press forward.”

  38

  “Thus realizing our mistake, we created the Gogmagog to hunt down the potential nephilim and wipe their genetic code from the face of the holy universe. All save a select few. Because our greatest fear might also prove your last hope.”

  Sefer Raziel, translated by Dr. Rachel Jordan

  ANDROMEDA GALAXY

  Knight cleaved his way through another Redeemer. These guys were everywhere. It was like the angels had decided to load up the Ark with the whole damned megacorp.

  The hallways were clogged with them, and Knight had already had to fight one on a cramped lift.

  It didn’t matter. He was going to that core.

  He was going to end this.

  He dashed around another corner and into an open chamber that Rachel had once deducted connected to crew quarters.

  In here, Knight skidded to a stop as a blade-winged angel barred his way, surrounded by seven more of those Redeemer shits.

  “Far enough,” the angel said.

  Knight shrugged. “I’ve already killed one of your kind today. What’s one more?”

  The Redeemers bristled and took aim with MAGs, but the sneering angel waved them off.

  “I grieve my fallen brethren, but I am not like him. I am the angel Phanuel, ascended to the Ophanim and seeped in ancient glory and mystery you cannot fathom.”

  Phanuel was a book in the Codex. Huh. Knight knew that name. “You’re the cosmic ass prick who thought up the Redeemers.” He leveled his pulse pistol. “I’d say I owe you some pain.”

  “Pain?” Phanuel took a step forward. “I am well-versed in all vicissitudes of pain. Let me show you.”

  From nowhere, a fire lit inside Knight’s blood, shot through his nerves, and drove him to his knees. A gasp escaped through his grit teeth. Every micrometer of his body felt like it had been dunked in acid and electrocuted at the same time.

  His heart beat out of control. He tried to stand, but the pain sent him collapsing forward onto his hands. Like a dozen of those stun batons were hitting him at once.

  Like his whole body betrayed him. His pulse pistol and sword slipped from his grasp.

  Phanuel stalked closer. “I am judgment, Pariah, come to preside over you for sins beyond all redemption or absolution. Tremble in the face of eternal damnation.”

  Pain was in the mind.

  “For unleashing the Adversary, I find you guilty, nephil. Betrayer. Pariah. Your unending suffering shall admonish your kind to never again question those who stand above them.”

  Knight’s muscles would not respond.

  This fucker was in his head. This had to be some kind of telepathic assault. Phanuel didn’t want to fight Knight directly—he wanted to dominate him, the way he must have dominated generations of Redeemers.

  Pain was in the mind.

  The angel wrapped a hand around Knight’s throat and hefted him into the air. “I will ensure death cannot find you, Pariah. You shall live through millennia of anguish and torment far beyond this Local Group. Live, and wallow in the knowledge your kind perishes because of your sins.”

  Knight grit his teeth and forced himself to look Phanuel in the eye.

  This was all in his head.

  None of it was real.

  Knight had spent a lifetime building mental walls as part of his Gibborim training. Maybe this was why Raziel had set him on that path. Reeling from the effort, Knight pushed those walls back into place.

  The pain Phanuel tried to inflict on him diminished, even if it did not entirely flee.

  “Now, I know,” Knight said, his words rasped as the angel squeezed his throat. A hand drifted to a throwing knife strapped to his thigh.

  Phanuel pulled Knight in closer, until mere centimeters divided their faces, and loosened his grip just enough to allow Knight speech.

  “Where Redeemers learned to talk so damned much.” Knight jerked the throwing knife free and drove it into Phanuel’s eye.

  The angel screamed, dropping Knight and falling to the deck.

  The Redeemers beyond—dumb shits were on their knees like this was a religious experience—scrambled to their feet.

  Knight was faster. He rolled back to grab his sword and spun around, cleaving through the top of Phanuel’s skull.

  The angel pitched forward, his brains spilling out over the floor. Those same Redeemers froze, as if unable to comprehend what had just happened.

  So Knight grab
bed his pulse pistol and shot them.

  He rose, shaky, his head throbbing.

  Damned angel had almost brought him down.

  He had to remember these creatures had psionics much more powerful than his own. He couldn’t always count on them being willing to fight him hand-to-hand.

  Blinking to clear his head, he exited the chamber. Down this hall, another kilometer or so, and he’d reach the core. All he had to do was get there and detonate the QEMP and then …

  A pair of angels now blocked the path. Beyond them, arranged in a great hall, stood what looked like a hundred Redeemers, gog, and magog.

  “For fuck’s sake,” Knight mumbled.

  Yeah. This was going to have to be close enough to the core. Knight pulled the QEMP from his suit pocket, primed it, and tossed it an angel.

  The self-righteous imbecile caught the thing, clearly having no idea what it was. And then it exploded. A shockwave propagated through both the air and, according to Raziel, through quantum tunnels in space.

  Knight’s suit HUD winked out, and his pulse pistol went dead. Both angels dropped to the deck, gasping, as if unable to breathe.

  Redeemers rushed forward, screaming at him. They leveled their MAGs. The weapons didn’t click, didn’t hum, didn’t do anything. A few of the shits grabbed stun batons—that seemed unable to turn on.

  Knight smirked, hefting his katana in one hand and drawing his kyoketsu in the other. The army beyond him faltered, clearly uncertain what to do now.

  But Knight knew what to do.

  “Yeah,” he said, looking at the lead Redeemer. “You’re pretty much fucked.”

  39

  “News out of the Milky Way is that NER has engaged with the Ark of angels. What this portends, it’s too early to tell. At this point, any forces still fighting on the side of humanity are welcome.”

  Reuben Klein, MNN remote correspondent

  ANDROMEDA GALAXY

  More Redeemers tried to block Rachel’s way. They fell in droves, but Bartal went down too. A MAG round had breached his helmet. Rachel knelt by him. Never had a chance. Their kinetic shields were all giving out. Without those, any direct hit …