Dragon faced her with his E. Behind her, in the escape pod's doorway, a second person appeared. A savage face, heavy brows, violet uniform, also unarmored but wielding an E—it was the humanoid, Tara's pet! What was his name? Gildron! How had he gotten loose? He leaped to the ground, snarling and holding his E up warily.
"You!" Dragon exclaimed to Tara in total surprise. "Good shooting! We need evac, now! We've got dead and wounded!"
Tara stood there gaping at the scene of devastation around her. The entire city had been nuked. Not a building remained standing, and the sky was a poisonous brew of writhing fireballs. Fierce fires roared up to the sky. Nuclear light glowed on her face. A hot breeze carried a misty rain, stinging her flesh, and the fires flickered all around her. It was a miracle anyone had survived. The A-suited delegation before her was covered with mud and blood.
"Bring me your casualties," she responded.
"I've got life!" Merlin and Valkyrie were hauling shattered A-suits through the mud to the escape pod.
"Where are the others?" An eerie silence settled over the battlefield. There was only a deep rumbling from the sky. Psycho stopped firing. Smoke curled all around him—his chainlink was glowing.
"Everyone to the escape pod! Where's Gamma Five and Seven? Check the casualties! Quick!"
I was vaguely conscious of A-suited figures struggling above me. Then I was moving, under luminous skies. Priestess, don't forget Priestess, I struggled to say, but I could not. Someone's faceplate came close to mine. Horribly scarred plex, but I could make out the face—Valkyrie! Just for an instant she was there, and it was like a kiss, the kiss of life.
"Thinker…Thinker! Stay with us, Thinker!" Then she was gone. A quick glimpse of Merlin, and I was on my back again, and a hot wind was blowing debris all around us.
The escape pod exploded with a tremendous crack, dazzling and deafening me, the shock wave knocking everyone flat. When I struggled to my elbows in the mud, I saw the escape pod had been blown into the sky and was disintegrating, separate sections flaming through the air trailing white phospho smoke. The wreckage impacted several K away, testifying to the force of the hit, multiple flashes, multiple booms. My tacmod shrieked. A tacstar had exploded right on the escape pod. Dragon brought his E around in a slow motion blur towards a Systie soldier staggering from a smoking pile of rubble, Manlink at his shoulder. Dragon fired, Psycho fired, Merlin fired, Valkyrie fired, even the humanoid fired—another nuke shimmered and rose and the Systie was gone, snuffed out like a candle.
Tara was face-down in the mud, stunned. The humanoid was on his knees beside her, his eyes glazed over. I couldn't even get off the ground, but Dragon was there. He gently turned Tara over and held her in his arms.
"They got your ship—I'm sorry," Dragon said. The tacnet was working now and I could hear every word. It was like the crack of doom. It was hopeless now, I knew—Redhawk had to be dead. There would be no evac for us.
Tara's lips moved. Her hands came up. She activated her wristcom. "Whit—Whit, come. Come." It was a whisper. How could anyone possibly hear her, under this nuclear holocaust? Impossible.
"Coming!" The reply came immediately. "On the way, Commander!" My heart leaped. The Gods were there after all!
A huge, hairy hand placed itself on Dragon's armored chest and gently pushed him away from Tara. Gildron reached down and took her in his arms and stood up, Tara's arms and legs dangling, Gildron's E hanging loosely from one arm, a light hot rain hissing down all around them. Gildron looked around the sky in despair, rolling his eyes and snarling quietly. It was as if his whole world was ending.
Chapter 12:
Ghost Riders
The aircar appeared in a halo of rain and mist, a pale, fragile vision, hissing magically up to Badboy's position, hovering in the air, spraying a storm of mud and water. My head whirled. Lying on my back, I thought I had never seen anything more beautiful in my life. It was a pure white aircar, Tara's personal car, which had ridden in the Highroad down to Mongera. It did not belong out here, I thought, in the firestorm.
I tried to move my limbs. A bloody, glistening cenite arm appeared before me, then fell away. Bad idea. Voices echoed in my helmet.
"Get in! Get in!"
"Faster!"
"Oh my God."
"Cinta, three DefCorps aircars, coming quick!"
"Aircars!"
"Systie aircars!" Dragon exclaimed. "Psycho—cover us! Load 'em up, gang!"
Psycho charged off into the rain, his chainlink going up. Merlin and Dragon, splattered with mud, seized me under the arms and tossed me effortlessly into the aircar with a crash. I did not even feel it. Valkyrie pulled me to one side, then stepped over me.
Full auto tacstars whistled and ripped through the air, tingling my skin, the stars hissing and roaring. The sky exploded, airburst nukes, a sky of fire for the Systie aircars.
Someone screamed. Someone else was crying. Armored bodies slid along a bloody metal floor. Frantic activity. I tried to raise my head—I could not.
"That's One, Three, Two—Gamma One—Nine!" Dragon and Merlin were hauling Priestess towards the aircar. I knew her wounds were bad.
"Gamma, I think she's alive." Valkyrie helped drag Priestess into the aircar. There was blood everywhere.
"Coolhand is critical!"
"Snow Leopard is still bleeding!"
"Hurry! DefCorps aircars are here!" Tara's exec Whit was in the pilot's seat all by herself, calling out to Valkyrie. "They're here!"
Psycho was still firing outside and the sky was full of nuclear clouds, spitting an unholy white light. The humanoid leaped into the aircar, carrying Tara in his arms.
"Gamma! Help us!" Dragon and Merlin struggled with a body. Valkyrie helped them drag it in. It was Warhound, who died for us all, his A-suit horribly burned. Then there was another—Ironman, a helpless, dead A-suit. Valkyrie slipped in the blood and went to one knee.
Another scream. Who was alive, who was dead? Whit was out of her seat, hurrying to her Commander. "Oh my God! Cinta! Oh! Hurry, hurry! They're circling!"
"Get back in your seat, pilot!"
"Coolhand is hit bad!"
"I've zeroed Gamma Five and Seven!"
"Where are they?"
"Wait for us! Be right back!" Dragon and Merlin whirled around and disappeared into the smoke, splashing wildly through the mud.
"No! No! Come back! Oh my God!" Whit was ready for a complete breakdown.
Out the open assault door Dragon and Merlin paused at a glowing tacstar crater full of rubble from a collapsed building. They found two Legion A-suits trapped in the wreckage, one covering the other.
"Get them out." Dragon frantically tore at the rubble with his hands. Merlin pulled at the first A-suit.
"It's Sassin."
"Is he alive?"
"Don't know."
"Help…help." A whisper.
"Five!" Scrapper, stunned but alive.
"Aircar attacking!" Psycho fired his chainlink again, white-hot tacstars ripping overhead. Dragon and Merlin raised their E's and fired into the raging sky. Nuclear airbursts, hot hail splattering all around them. Merlin dropped his E and pulled Sassin from the rubble. Dragon got ahold of Scrapper. A flaming inferno above, splitting into fragments, trailing black smoke.