"Good—good! Now we attack, squad leader! Now we attack!" The Mocain soldier was a fighter, that was certain.
The three of them were just to my left, advancing cautiously. They had been told to keep me in sight. I wondered if the Systie dip recognized me as the one who had nearly executed him back on Andrion 3. He had been silent so far.
"Tacstar!" Sweety's warning and the explosion came almost simultaneously—a pulsating white sun burst to life just to my right and the shock wave bounced me off the ground. The sun rose into the sky, crackling and hissing, shooting off glowing white streamers.
"Tacstar! Tacstar!"
Two more evil, white-hot flowers just behind me. Two more shock waves, banging off my armor.
"That was the O."
"Looks like Warhound upset him."
"Six, One, are you tenners?"
Three nuclear blossoms, radiating heat and light, glittering in the sky. Psycho's micronukes still hovered up ahead, and Warhound's fireworks still fell, lovely multi-colored sparklers. It was truly beautiful.
"Enemy probes!" A fine tracery on my tacmap, lower left plate. Six, seven, eight, damn! Coming right at us, from the O.
"Auto xmax! Tacstars! Shoot 'em down fast! These are the guys we did before. Five, let 'er rip!" One was eager and excited.
They came in fast and low, just like before, splitting up, seeking out individual targets. Psycho's chainlink spat tacstars, autofire. The vibes crawled on my skin. My heart was in a vice. It felt good. It was like having a Legion fighter on call, bringing in the death from the skies.
I raised my E to my shoulder and found a probe and fired, auto xmax, and Psycho's tacstars filled the skies, nuclear airbursts, poison toadstools of power. Shock waves pounded at my armor. My E shrieked, everyone suddenly firing, an auto xmax morning, death whistling all around us.
The probes ran into a solid wall of fire. They exploded all around me, sharp flashes and glittering tracers as they blew apart. I kept my E on auto, following the nearest probes on my faceplate.
"Four down—more! Three, fire to the right!"
"Got him! Got him!"
"He's firing more!"
"Coming around—Valkyrie, get that one!" It was Boudicca's strident voice. "Watch it! Lasers!"
"Scrapper, to your rear!"
"Tenners, got him!" There were two more behind us, coming around in Gamma's sector, firing lasers, snapping past us, hissing into the dirt.
"Easy…easy…fire!" Scrapper was talking to herself. The two probes winked off my faceplate. "They're done for!" Scrapper sounded elated.
A sparkling flare shot up into the sky and exploded, shocking blue, stunningly beautiful. Then crimson and golden and phospho white and silver, filling the skies. Warhound was still with us, and our psybloc was going strong.
Flickering green lightning up ahead—tremendous explosions shook the earth, very close, two rolling white-green phospho fireballs.
"What's that?"
"That's the O."
"Undefined power source, laser guidance, biotic field, human range, extremely dangerous!"
"Damn! That's new!"
"Psycho, blow those green bastards apart as soon as they appear—tacstars!"
"Tenners." Psycho's chainlink shrieked, and the tacstars flashed and ripped over to the front, and a new field of white-hot nukes appeared, glowing, to mark our progress.
Psycho poured it on and the horizon erupted, flaming nuclear skies, and the green fireballs vanished immediately, swallowed up in the apocalypse.
"Advance." Snow Leopard, as cold as ice.
The O was still on scope. Then the world exploded, drilling me right into the ground, a horrible grinding roar in my ears, a white-hot sun dazzling my eyes, a massive shock wave—I struggled to raise my head. My faceplate was white-hot. The sky burnt phospho green.
"Five!" Tacstars burst to life, a nuclear sky, right over my head. The O had hit us, direct hit, airburst, and Psycho was exploding tacstars right above us to disperse the biotic field. My body burned, the skin crawling, contracting, blood bursting from my nose, eyes going dim, my guts twisting inside me. Biotics—deto! We were dead!
"Advance! Get up, Badboy! Fire all weapons! Let's get that O!"
"We won't go on! It's crazy!" the Systie dip shouted. "We can't help it! This is wrong! It's wrong! They're intelligent! It should…" Someone screamed. Lasers snapped all around me. A blinding green fireball erupted in the sky to my right. The O was playing with us. Psycho's chainlink came to life again, and white-hot tacstars exploded within the fireball, blowing it apart. I don't think anyone was listening to the dip.
The skeletal frames of burning buildings drifted in and out of the smoke. We were getting closer to the O. I could see. I could move. Blood was dripping down my chin. I advanced. The Systie soldier and the Mocain female were still with me, just to my left. The dip had disappeared.
"Gamma, are you still there?"
"Tenners, we're moving up."
"Beta Two, report."
"We're tenners—all here!"
"Rising energy levels from target—high mag levels! High rad levels!"
Lasers, brilliant red laser light, flashing, flickering over our heads, touching down, ten, twenty, thirty, countless glittering streams, snapping and crackling, darting all around us, and any one could end a life with a gentle touch.
A blood-curdling scream.
"Who's hit?"
"Heads down!"
"Fire! Fire! Let 'er rip!" I raised my E and fired auto xmax, and off to my right there was more firing, sheets of lovely xmax. To my left I saw Snow Leopard, alternating laser and auto xmax, and further left Psycho's chainlink snarled, and the earth cringed and shook, and all our fire was centered right on that one O. The O was still firing lasers, ruby red lasers, snapping all around me. I was in the ruins of a great factory building full of burning groundcars. Splintered glass ground under my boots and smoking cables and shot-up robot arms dangled loosely from the ceiling. I found a good spot by a fiercely burning groundcar and switched my E to canister. We were getting close, and it was time to try out our new toys.
"Rising mag levels!"
"Six, do it again!"
"Enemy launching aerial device!" There was a soundless flash up ahead, and something rocketed up into the glittering sky. Off to my right Warhound launched another psybloc, a sparkling trail shooting skywards. Warhound's fireworks and the O's device exploded at about the same time. Then a solid sheet of light from Psycho's skysweep lanced up to erupt, six, seven, eight, ten tacstars, golden flowers of the Legion, as scary and beautiful as angels of the Lord, and the sky was a great bowl of glowing light, flickering and flashing and throbbing with every color of the spectrum.
"Launch deceptors." Snow Leopard was as calm as if it was all a training exercise.
I was terrified, huddled in my armor, icy sweat trickling over my skin. I switched to deceptors and fired on auto. The sky was a shrieking, frantic beast, full of raging metal, and the tacmap was all trash.
"Tenners, what's the O done?"
"Unidentified aerial devices approaching! Attention! Enemy launching energy spheres! Unidentified devices approaching from high altitude, energy spheres approaching from low altitude!"