"Weapons check—mark!"
"Weapons all—hold it. What's the story, Gamma Seven?"
"Yeah, just a frac…"
"Tenners, all weapons ready."
"Look at the horizon."
It was past dawn, but the sky was dark. Up ahead, the horizon was aglow under smoky black clouds.
"That's Century City. We'll find our O there."
"Badboy, Big Kid. We've got you on scope." Big Kid was Two Three Delta, back on the P.S. Maiden. Delta's mission was to watch us die, or maybe even live, and report it all back to the Legion. We didn't answer.
"Look at all those O's—Deadman!"
The Maiden had flashed us a view of Century City, and each individual O glowed red. The suburbs were spotted with hundreds of little red dots, like an infectious disease. A scattering of dots were in the city. There did not seem to be any order behind it—the O were wandering around by themselves, all over the place.
"What do you think?" Snow Leopard, to Coolhand.
"The East—there's hardly anybody there. Look at that one."
"Yeah. Yeah. Target selection. You see him, Merlin?"
"Right. That's the one!"
Mountains flashed past, taking my breath away. We were between two great mountain ridges, hurtling to our deaths. The sky was dark with smoke. I caught a glimpse of the city up ahead, burning brightly. We had our O zeroed. Introductions would be made, shortly. And one of the two parties was going to die. Either the O, or Badboy. We burst free of the mountains and Redhawk took us down as low as he could get. The aircar was a fat black bullet splitting the air apart, a supersonic knife, now over darkened meadowlands, now flashing through black smoke, the land below all on fire, a dirt road snapping past, a glimpse of a moving groundcar.
All the power of the Legion was with us. I could feel it glowing inside me. And I knew that O was in trouble. I didn't know if we were going to kill it, or it was going to kill us, but I knew, for certain, this was not going to be one of its better days.
"See it?"
"Right, Badboy. Let's get our O. By the numbers! Prep for decar!" Snow Leopard was out of his seat and ready to go, death in an A suit. He would be the first one out the door and the closest to the O.
The ZA came flashing at us on the screens, and the gravs were again pulling at us, and then we softly glided, weightless, floating like a dream, an armored bat, hovering over the ground.
"Badboy—decar! Death." Snow Leopard added the last part almost as an afterthought.
"Death!" We echoed him, in unison.
The assault door snapped open and we threw ourselves out at once, into swirling smoke, an entire reinforced squad dancing in air for just an instant, dull black armor and winking red faceplates and exotic weaponry, all on display, all together, charged and hyper, coiled to strike. Then we hit the ground and I ran, following the track etched onto my faceplate. We were going starburst, immediately. The O was going to have to kill thirteen of us, and then he'd still have to deal with Redhawk in the aircar.
Thick black smoke, all around me. Flames, up ahead. I jogged through a muddy field. It must have just rained.
My darksight gave me the edge. The Systies were slightly behind me, off to the left. Snow Leopard was a little further to my left, ahead of us. He had told me to keep the Systies between us, if possible. I signaled the Systies to move up. Burning buildings loomed ahead of us. I intercepted a hard surfaced road, and started down it—it led right to our O. I could see it up ahead, on the tacmap.
"Keep awake, Sweety," I cautioned my Persist.
"Sit is fine, Thinker. Humans approaching on the road—unarmed."
Thick black smoke swirling past me. I saw them on the tacmap. I set my E to xmax.
"Refugees, Badboy. Let them pass."
"Everyone in position, sir."
"Tenners. Keep moving."
"Badboy, Big Kid. We've got you on scope."
"Badboy, Badass. You let me know when you need me." Badass was Redhawk, Beta Ten, in the aircar.
"Keep on the move, Badass, and keep low."
"Tenners."
The refugees appeared out of the smoke, all on foot, hurrying along the road toward us. They saw Snow Leopard first, and scattered off the road into the fields, screaming. Children ran into tall grass. An old lady fell, somebody stopped to help her up. A toddler, lost and crying.
"They're humans!" A shout on the wind.
"Soldiers! It's the DefCorps!" The refugees thought we were Systies. We continued marching along the road. I could see the O on-screen. Flashes lit the sky ahead. It was like lightning, but I knew it was the O.
As the word was passed, the refugees straggled back to the road, and we could see the horror in their eyes as we passed them by.
"Aircars! Does it have aircars?"
"Groundcars! We need transportation!"
"Are there more soldiers coming?"
"The V's are right up ahead, they've got Fernveldt City—the Police stayed to fight them. Right up the road!" A madman, spraying spittle.
"Kill them! Kill them all!" A young man, in tears.
"Our daughter! Can we find our daughter? We've lost our little girl!" A young mother wandering in a dream, hand outstretched.
"Is the port still open?"
"Is it true that Century City is being held?"
"It should have let us have weapons! Cowards! Cowards! We die, for its cowardice! We spit on the System!" Another young male, convulsed, spitting his hatred at us.
Stalking down the road, we ignored them: holy pilgrims bound for death, clad in the armor of our God, carrying his terrible swift sword, fire from the core of a star. And death to all our foes! That's what I was thinking, hot and cold and terrified, as we got closer and closer to the O.
And I knew the refugees were wrong—there was only one O in Fernveldt City.
Burning buildings, roaring with flames. Corpses, blown to bits, body parts scattered all over the road. An explosion up ahead. A dull boom, a sharp shock wave, debris in the air.
"See him? See him? That's him!"
"Destructive little critter, isn't he?"
"All right, Badboy. We've got him zeroed," Snow Leopard said. "Two, move your element left. Gamma, move right. I've got the center. Nobody fire until I give the word."
The city of Fernveldt was right up ahead, and the road led straight to it. I was with Beta One's element. When we were through, the O was going to be in the center of a u-shaped cordon of Legionnaires, and we planned to keep him very busy.
Lightning flashed ahead. The crack of doom snapped all around us. We could see the city—Fernveldt, a suburb of Century City. Burning, wreathed in clouds of fiery ash.
"Right, first volley. Five, hit him." Snow Leopard was going to say hello.
I went to one knee, my E up and ready. It was all green, all around me, in the darksight. Hopeless refugees, a man with a baby, two girls, running frantically into the dark dawn of the System's end, veering away from me.
Flashes to the left. Tacstars crackled sharp and eerie, whistling downrange to the O. White-hot micronukes burst ahead of us, three, five, seven—a tremendous shock wave and a horrendous ripping noise hit us. Psycho put seven tacstars right on the creature's head. A huge, luminous, rolling mushroom cloud writhed up into the dark skies. Bolts of lightning snapped wildly all around the clouds. Introductions had now been made. We knew the damned tacstars couldn't hurt the O, but we hoped it would give him something to think about—and maybe just a little concern.
"Six, psybloc." Snow Leopard was calm and his voice was clear.
Warhound was off to my right, out of sight. I craned my neck to see it. There was a faint flicker, a sudden flash and then a sparkling comet shot high into the sky, lost in the clouds.
"Bloc away."
"Badboy—forward."
Forward, right. I got up and continued the advance. Then the skies lit up. Fireworks, a bright, white-hot starburst, high above. Then another, phospho green. Then another, glittery red. And another, sparkly gold, until the sky was a glittering tracery of hissing streaks. And then each streak exploded at the tip, hundreds more flashing explosions high overhead, lighting up the world, and the fireworks fell like hot, slow rain. A great rattling, moaning roar filled the skies. This was our psybloc, falling slowly from the sky. Atom had assured us it would interfere with the O's psych projections, and protect us from its psypower. Otherwise, we were dead. All our fancy weapons were useless without the will to use them.