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Further up the plateau, we found the rest of the crew, minus Michael, walking toward us. Their faces were dirtied, their ragged camo speckled with red and purple blood. Amazingly, all of them were still on their feet, though their features were strained with exhaustion.
“We need to find Augustus and Carin,” Makara said.
“And Michael?” Samuel asked.
Makara shook her head. “Alex and Anna haven’t seen him.”
“I can go look,” Anna said.
Makara pointed in the direction of a small rise, upon which several Recons were parked. “That’s Command. Whether you find him, or not...be there in thirty.”
Anna nodded and ran off, checking first to the north.
As Makara walked toward Command, the rest of us followed. It wasn’t long before we reached it, finding Augustus resplendent in his battle armor and purple cape, barking orders to several of his chief centurions. Carin, meanwhile, stood a ways off, ordering some of his men into a waiting Recon. They climbed in and the Recon screamed off, its serrated tires churning flecks of pink growth beneath its wheels. The vehicle headed in the direction of the railgun, where I could see that several crawlers had skewered themselves on the fortifying stakes.
Carin walked toward us while Augustus gave his final orders to his officers.
“Go,” Augustus said. “I want one thousand more men on the northern flank.”
The centurions nodded, and left to do as they were told.
Augustus turned to us. “Michael and Anna?”
“Anna’s looking for Michael,” Makara said. “We were separated during the fighting.”
“We’re not going to last much longer out here,” Char said. “When those things attack again...we’re dead.”
Augustus raised a quizzical eyebrow. “You don’t think I know that?”
“We’ve blown through half our rounds for the railgun,” Carin said. “It’ll last until the evening, depending on when they attack again.”
“How many rounds are left?” Samuel asked.
“One hundred forty-eight. Considering we shoot them off at about two a minute, give or take, we have enough rounds for about two and a half hours.”
“Will it work as effectively at night?” Makara asked.
“No doubt,” Carin said. “It can read in infrared.”
“They nearly punched through the lines, right in the center,” I said.
Augustus’s face was unreadable. His eyes focused, as if he were deep in thought.
“I’m expecting them to hit us from every side next time,” he said. “The first attack was a test of our strength. Now that they see we won’t be easily broken, they’ll look for new alternatives. Under a constant assault from all sides, we won’t last long.”
“Which is why we need to stop it at the source,” I said. “After we find Michael, we have to find Askala.”
“How long will that take?” Carin asked. “The way it’s looking, we won’t even last the night.”
“The Elekai will be here to reinforce, probably by evening,” I said. “That should help out a bit.”
“There’s one of those dragons for every ten they have,” Carin said. “A momentary distraction.”
“As a last resort,” Samuel said, “Lauren is standing by in Bunker 84, ready to launch the nukes.”
Carin shook his head. “God help us if it comes to that. Which it probably will.”
“Alex is right,” Makara said. “Killing Askala is the only long-term solution to this. You guys will have to find a way to hold on until we can do that. Quietus is on her way there, working to empty the Crater and make it easier for us to get inside. Hopefully, by the time we get there, she’ll be done. Failing that...we might have to use a nuke or two there as well.”
“When are you leaving?” Augustus asked. “Who will command your men?”
“Char and Marcus will stay behind to command the New Angels. I have to see Alex through, to the very end.”
“So you all go off while we stay here and die,” Carin said. “That’s rich.”
“Where we’re going, we’re guaranteed to die,” Samuel said. “At least you have a chance.”
Carin didn’t respond to that. He frowned in thought.
“I give us twelve hours, before we’re completely broken,” he said. “What happens, supposing you win at the Crater?”
“The Radaskim are stopped,” I said. “I suppose they’ll become Elekai.”
“Nice. So we trade one set of aliens for the other.”
“You left out the important part,” Makara said. “The second kind don’t want to kill you.” She turned to Augustus before Carin could respond. “As soon as Anna finds Michael, we’re leaving.”
I looked in the direction Anna had gone. She was nowhere in sight.
“Might be that you have two people to look for, now,” Carin said, smiling. “You better get on it.”
At that moment, klaxons began to blare, high, whirring up and down, from the direction of the railgun.
“They’re coming at us again,” Carin said.
The railgun’s turret swiveled toward the north, where a line of ten or so dragons appeared from below the distant ridge. The railgun fired, a hellish whipping crackling the air, a fire trail blazing from its barrel. The central dragon, the forerunner, took the shot right in the chest, sending a spray of purple blood shooting behind.
I realized then what they were doing.
“They’re going for the gun!”
“Don’t you think I see that?” Carin said, face angry. “I’ll be damned if they get anywhere near it.” Carin turned to his Reapers. “All Recons by the gun, now! Get every gunner you can from the western line. Give those things hell.”
The Reapers kicked into gear. While some scrambled into Recons, others ran west for reinforcements. Still, the dragons flew from the north. If they destroyed the railgun, the army was as good as lost.
Carin turned to Makara. “Get Perseus in the air. I’ll have my men drop you off.”
“We need to find Michael,” Makara said.
“Michael isn’t worth a bucket of piss right now! We have dragons, and they’ll kill us all if you don’t get moving. They might not just be going for the railgun.” He cracked a yellow smile. “If your ship isn’t in the air, they might attack it, too. Wouldn’t want that, would we?”
Judging by the reddening of her face, Makara saw Carin’s point immediately. She glared at him for a moment, but in the end, turned to me. “Go find Anna. The rest of you...come with me.”
They headed for one the Reapers’ Recons while I ran to the north, in the direction Anna had gone. The dragons had flown halfway across the plateau, and it seemed impossible that they could be fended off in time. Gunmen fired at them from both the ground and Recons. One of the dragons fell, crashing into the xenofungal bed. The railgun cracked again, disintegrating the neck of one of the dragons.
As I neared the western side of the plateau, the roar of the swarm grew louder. The smell of blood and rot permeated the air, turning my stomach. I entered the battle lines, watching the legionaries reform their ranks, spears out. Most of the machine gun nests had been emptied, on orders from Carin to defend the railgun. However, the lack of gunners made the western lines perilously weak. I wondered: was that part of Askala’s plan? Whether we defended the railgun or the western line, we would be spread too thinly on one of these fronts.
I raced up the line, the piercing wails of Blighters filling the air. I searched all the faces I passed.
“Anna! Anna!”
I wasn’t far from the northern flank. I ascended a small rise containing an empty machine gun nest. Grim-faced legionaries were lined up along the rim of the plateau, facing the second surge of Blighters. The sea of crawlers pushed up the hill in an endless tide. It was hard to distinguish the crawlers from the ground – their colors melded dizzyingly. Other shapes appeared within the swarm – giant Behemoths, Hydras with reptilian faces and serpentine necks.
Then, a great rumbling shook the earth, knocking me off my feet. As the quaking abated, the entire xenofungal surface of the valley below shook with colossal force.
The Blighters stilled, as if in anticipation. I looked out at the plain, seeing a huge portion of it bulging upward, the fungal surface glowing with an angry, fiery light. A great groaning shook the air, vibrated my bones in a deep, booming bass.
A colossal snap jolted the entire plateau, so loud that the railgun was quiet by comparison. That was when a great worm writhed from the fungus, larger than the largest building I’d ever seen. The crawlers, and even the giant Behemoths, scampered away from this terrible monster. The worm slithered onto the ground, its colossal weight bearing it against the earth, the fungus itself pushing it along. Hundreds of white eyes filled its wide face, and it opened a mouth that could have swallowed an entire building. An unearthly bellow shook the air, deafeningly loud, forcing me to cover my ears. The creature continued to writhe and turn, forcing itself from the ground. Its hundreds, and perhaps even thousands, of legs scuttled madly to move its mass.
As if waking, the host of Blighters came alive, charging again up the hill.
“Alex!”
I turned to see Anna at the base of hill, and a body lying next to her.
Michael.
I ran down the hill as the worm roared again. Crawlers screamed as they crashed against the western line behind me. I remembered Quietus telling me that Askala had worse minions than the Radaskim dragons. Now, I knew what she meant. I wondered how such a giant creature could travel all this distance. Perhaps the fungus was layered deep, and there were huge tunnels below the surface.
I reached the bottom of the hill. Michael was completely inert, his eyes closed, and a giant bruise covered his forehead.
“He’s breathing,” Anna said. “I dragged him all the way here from the northern flank.”
“Makara and the rest went to get Perseus in the air. We’re heading for the Crater.”
Anna nodded. “We need to get to Orion, then.”
It would take ages to drag Michael there. By then, the dragons might have destroyed the railgun or even the ship.
There had to be another way.
“The medics will have stretchers,” I said. “We can use one to carry him to the ship.”
We dragged Michael down the line, searching for either a stretcher or a medic. Even in the chaos, the screams, and the roaring of the monstrous worm, we finally came upon two medics, running in the opposite direction.
Anna grabbed one of the men by the arm, bringing them both to a halt.
“You. Put him on.”
One of the men answered. “This is for Centurion Ramos.”
“No,” Anna said, pulling the stretcher to the ground. “I have orders from Augustus himself. Michael gets on the stretcher. Now.”
The men looked at each other, but acquiesced. They knew we were close to the Emperor, and didn’t want to risk disobeying him; Centurion Ramos would have to wait, and hopefully it wasn’t too serious. Together, we lifted Michael on.
“We’re heading for the gun,” I said. “Let’s move.”
The four of us each grabbed a handle of the stretcher and ran west across the plateau. Dragons circled above the railgun, but many had broken off to give chase to Perseus. Gunners in Recons put up a brave fight, firing on any dragon who got too close to the gun.
But it was not enough. Three dragons in tandem dove for the gun. The railgun shot one of them down, and it crashed to the plateau. Another fell to the concentrated fire of several of the roving Recons.
That left one, and there was no way the gun could dodge this attack.
Dread overtook me as the dragon’s talons slammed into the gun barrel, bending it just slightly. But even that much doomed the railgun to never be used again.
“Come on,” I said, sensing that we had slowed down. “We have to get there.”
The dragon wheeled into the sky above, out of range of the gunners below. The dragons retreated, their mission accomplished. Perseus swarmed around them, firing and bringing down one of the trailing dragons.
But it was all too late. The railgun was gone, and without it, this army’s time was drawing to a close.
***
WE PANTED AS WE RAN across the plateau, my heart racing at the effort. Even with four people, running and carrying Michael over this distance was a huge strain.
Just when we had closed half the distance to the railgun, several crawlers appeared from the south, somehow having slipped by the southern lines. We couldn’t get caught out here in the open.
The crawlers increased their speed, coming right at us.
“Go!” I shouted.
Somehow, we made ourselves run even faster, and it felt as if my heart would beat out of my chest. As the wooden stakes surrounding the gun neared, the crawlers continued their mad sprint, far faster than we were. The Reapers guarding the gun weren’t far, but they were so focused on the dragons that they hadn’t seen the crawlers coming toward us.
“Hey!”
One of the men turned at my voice, almost miraculously hearing me with the dragons screaming and the guns firing. The man tapped his partner, and pointed in our direction.
I held the handle of the stretcher in one hand, using the other to point to the crawlers in the south. Instead of two crawlers, there were now three, surging ahead across the plateau’s flat expanse.
They raised their rifles and opened fire. With luck, those bullets would buy us some time.
We were nearly there. Just thirty more seconds of pain. Thirty more seconds to outpace the crawlers.
Just seconds away, I turned to see the crawlers, about a hundred feet away. They were so fast. They’d close that distance in mere seconds. But at last, we wriggled between the stakes and to relative safety. I was the last one through.
We set down the stretcher, after which I turned and raised my rifle. The crawlers stopped at the stakes, far too large to work themselves in between. They screamed in frustration.
As the Reapers continued to fire, Anna once again grabbed the stretcher.
“Leave them,” she said. “We need to board Orion.”
“What about us?” one of the medics said.
“Thank you,” Anna said. “We can take it from here.”
Anna and I took up the stretcher, much heavier without the medics’ assistance. Orion sat parked next to the broken railgun. Close up, it was easier to see the damage. The barrel was bent at its end. Several men stared up at it helplessly.
But the railgun’s being broken meant we were free to use Orion. On its boarding ramp was a flurry of activity, several Reapers carrying the cable that had connected the railgun to Orion’s fusion drive.
“Let’s go,” Anna said.
We ran inside the ship, positioning Michael and his stretcher on the bridge. We set him down on the deck, then took up our seats. The priority was getting Orion into the air safely as soon as possible.
The ship was already powered on, so all there was to do was lift off.
I set the frequency to Perseus’s channel.
“Perseus, this is Orion,” I said. “We have Michael.”
“Good,” Makara said. “Get in the air, now.”
“Copy that, on the ascent.” Anna said.
At that moment, the ship elevated from the ground.
“We’ve got dragons heading that way,” Makara said. “Get moving, quick.”
“On it,” Anna said.
Anna accelerated the ship to avoid being blindsided by dragons, pointing it in the direction of Perseus. The dragons themselves swirled around Perseus in a cloud.
“Makara!” I said.
“I know,” Makara said. “I need you to bail me out here.”
“On our way.”
Orion took on more speed, closing in on the swarm of dragons tailing Perseus.
“Aiming for the stragglers first,” Anna said.
Before Makara could respond, a missile streaked out from beneath Orion’s hull. A trail of vapor colored the air as the missile homed in on a lagging dragon. The dragon ignited in a giant plume of flame. Several of the dragons scattered from the blast, so only a few were now pursuing Perseus.
“Get to the clouds,” Anna said. “I’ll take care of the rest.”
As Perseus changed trajectory, Anna readied another missile strike.
“How many of those we have left?” I asked
“Four,” Anna said.
With that, another missile shot off for the central dragon, obliterating it in an orangey ball of fire. The two remaining dragons fanned out, spreading their wings and wheeling toward us.
Anna swerved to port. As she aimed for the sky, following Perseus’s trail, it wasn’t long before we had broken the clouds.
“Makara...I think we need to call Lauren,” Anna said.
“There was a giant worm,” I added, “the size of a skyscraper.”
“I know, we saw it from the air,” Makara said. “You’re right, Anna. It’s time we called Lauren. If we do nothing, the entire army will be overwhelmed.” Makara paused a moment. “Lauren?”
“Makara?” Lauren asked. “How is everyone? Is Michael...?
“Michael’s alright,” Makara said. “I need you to do this, quickly. You know why I’m calling.”
“What’s happened?”
“Use the coordinates we programmed. We’ll be overrun otherwise. In the meantime, I’ll tell Augustus to pull back.”
Next, Augustus’s voice broke through the dash.
“Makara...”
“I’ve already called it,” Makara said. “Withdraw your men to the center.”
“You’ve...called it?”
“Yeah. Lauren’s working on it.”
Augustus didn’t argue. He didn’t say anything, not for a long time. Finally, he gave a sigh, long and tired.
“How long do we have?”
“I can be at the Command Center in ten minutes,” Lauren said.
“Make it five,” Makara said.
“We have to do what we have to do,” Augustus said. “What’s important is that all of you got out alive. Now, please...hurry to the Crater. We won’t last another day under these conditions.”
Anna looked at me. I’m not really sure what her expression conveyed – whether sadness, fear, or a combination of both.
“Augustus...” I said. “Thanks. For everything”
“Take care, Alex. I wish you all the luck in the world.”
“I’ll need it.”
“We all do,” Augustus said. “We all do.”
I felt a chill at those words.
“Augustus...” Makara said. “Hold on, for as long as you can. I’ll...I’ll see you on the other side. Wherever that is.”
“We’ll stay here to the last man. Carin has some ideas to draw this out as long as possible. That’s all this was about anyway, right? We’ll hold them off for as long as we draw breath. The legions of Nova Roma have never lost a war, and I do not mean to lose one now.”
“Good luck, Augustus.”
“Likewise, Makara.”
“I’ll advise you when the nukes are out.”
The radio was silent for a long time. The two ships joined above the clouds, far out of sight of the killing below. We headed east toward the darkening sky.
At last, Makara spoke.
“Orion.”
“Yeah,” Anna said, voice thin. “Go ahead.”
The following pause was heavy, almost painful. I knew the words to be spoken before they ever came.
“Set course for Ragnarok Crater.”
Anna trembled a bit at the words. “Following your lead, Perseus.”
I realized, once we were going full speed, that I could now measure the rest of my life in hours rather than days.