“Those were the sky gods,” Rhino said between gasps.
X spat water and said, “My people. My friends.”
To his surprise, Rhino laughed.
“Guess your people try to kill you, too,” he said.
“My people didn’t know I’m…” His words trailed off. His people hadn’t known he was down here this time, but Captain Leon Jordan had certainly known and had left him on the surface to die.
Maybe the people in the sky had something in common with the people of the Metal Islands after all.
TWENTY-THREE
“What do you mean, ‘don’t come’?” Katrina said. She looked up from the radar monitor to read Eevi’s face.
“Ma’am,” she said, “the airships picked up something on analog from Magnolia Katib, and she’s saying not to come to the Metal Islands.”
Katrina swallowed. “I want to know exactly what she said.”
Eevi played the transmission.
“This message is from Magnolia Katib. If anyone on Deliverance or the Hivereceives this, do not come to the Metal Islands. I repeat, do not come here. This is not the place we thought it was. There are too many soldiers to fight. Please, do not…”
The words from her friend hit Katrina like a gut punch.
“How do we know she wasn’t put up to it?” Eevi asked.
“We don’t.”
“Maybe we should think about postponing the mission, Captain.”
Katrina walked back to the windows overlooking the western sea. She grabbed the binos and looked at the island, now just a flat speck on the horizon, with a weak reddish glow from the river of lava.
The two Cazador ships and the trawler had sunk, and the soldiers on them were dead or soon would be. Changing the plan at the last minute had worked well. Instead of dropping the militia and freed prisoners on the fishing boat and moving the passengers of the airships to the container ship, she had ambushed the Cazador ship and destroyed all three vessels.
She would save all remaining ammunition for the attack on the Metal Islands and just let the sharks pick off any survivors.
The first phase had been a huge success, with no lives lost except for the enemy and one of the prisoners freed from the container.
“Captain?” Eevi said.
“I’m thinking,” Katrina said. The second phase of the attack was supposed to launch before dawn, but the message from Magnolia had her again reconsidering their plan.
“Thank you, Eevi, that will be all,” Katrina said without turning from the window.
But Eevi didn’t leave. Katrina could see her reflection in the glass.
“Ma’am, don’t you want me to respond to Deliverance?” she asked.
“The message from Magnolia isn’t anything we don’t already know,” Katrina said. “Just look out the window. We’ve already sunk three Cazador vessels with all hands. And we have two airships, one of them with a cargo bay full of troops, plus the Zion and a team of Hell Divers.”
“So, do you want me to transmit?”
“Yes. Tell them the message changes nothing.”
Eevi hesitated, then nodded and returned to the bridge.
Letting out a breath, Katrina held up her wrist computer to check the time. The mission clock ticked down.
One hour and five minutes to go…
Her nerves were stretched taut as a crossbow string. The very future of her people was at stake, and Magnolia’s words were really starting to mess with her head.
Maybe that was what the enemy wanted. Maybe the Cazadores had put her up to it.
Katrina returned to the bridge, trying not to dwell on her friend’s words. The members of her team who hadn’t moved to Deliverance were at their stations, armed with rifles and handguns in case they were boarded.
She summoned her most confident and authoritative voice as Eevi, Sandy, Jaideep, and Edgar stood at attention.
“All right, everyone, we’ve got just over an hour,” she said. “At go time, Deliverance will drop Trey, Vish, Alexander, Michael, and Les onto the capitol tower to rescue Magnolia, X, and Miles. They will also identify any aerial defenses that put the airship at risk.
Our job is to provide a distraction. We will punch through the barrier and take out any enemy vessels. Deliverance will target other defenses to buy the Hell Divers more time. The Hive will remain at a safe distance just in case the plan fails.”
“Just the divers?” Edgar asked. “What about the militia and the prisoners we freed from the container ship?”
“Deliverance will drop them off as soon as any aerial defenses are taken out,” Katrina replied.
“And what about the message from Magnolia?” Jaideep asked. “My brother is on Deliverance, and I don’t want him diving into a trap.”
“The message confirms that Magnolia is still alive, and that’s it,” Katrina said. “We already know they have warships, but neither of the ships we sank had antiaircraft weapons.”
“So what?” Jaideep said. “None of us know what’s waiting there.”
“No, we don’t. That’s why I’m sending a Hell Diver team to the surface before Deliverance drops off our other soldiers.”
The answer seemed to satisfy the rest of the group, but Jaideep shook his bandaged head.
“Any other questions?” Katrina asked.
“I don’t have a question, but I do have something I want to say,” Sandy said. She stepped away from her station and looked at each crew member.
“With the loss of Jed, this journey has been heartbreaking for me, and while I don’t know what’s going to happen an hour from now, I know in my heart this is the right thing to do. Our people deserve a place to live, and from what I’ve seen, the Cazadores don’t.” She raised her chin. “Today, I fight for Jed. Today, I fight for those who can’t fight for themselves.”
The others all nodded.
“For Jed,” Katrina said. “And for everyone on the Hive and Deliverance.”
Thunder boomed outside, vibrating the metal shutters over the broken portholes. A moment later came the percussive white noise of more rain.
The storm had begun, and another, of a different sort, was imminent.
“Okay, everyone, let’s get to it,” Katrina said, clapping her hands together. They fanned out, and she returned to the command center.
Black storm clouds rolled over the dark water, blurring the boundary between ocean and sky. Not ten miles away to the east were the Metal Islands. In less than an hour, she would see the first habitable spot in her lifetime. Her heart skipped with excitement but also with an edge of fear.
She grabbed the assault rifle and threw on a vest over her uniform and Hell Diver armor. The armor was still tight around her chest even after pounding the dent out, but she could breathe, and the bruised rib was bearable.
Leaning down, she pulled magazines from the duffel bag and stuffed them into the slots in her vest. Then she clipped the command sword of the Hive on her belt. She exhaled, ready to go. Ready to fight.
As the minutes ticked by, she used the time to check the radar and scan the sky with her binos. At thirty minutes till go time, she picked up the receiver and opened a line to the Hive, breaking radio silence.
“Captain, this is Samson. Go ahead, over.”
She kept her voice low in case anyone on the bridge below could hear. She was more worried about that than about Cazadores listening in.
“How are things up there?”
“Good, Captain. We’re at twenty-five thousand feet, at the location you gave us. Skies are clear of storms in this area. Don’t worry about us.”