"Snow Leopard!" I shouted. "Cease fire! Look!" I pointed at the O's. There was someone else with them—humans! Humans in E-suits, emergency vac suits, running alongside the O's to get in the ship.
"Cease fire!" Snow Leopard ordered. "Damn! What the hell are they doing?"
"They're Systies!" Psycho said. "They've got to be Systies! Let's blast 'em!"
"We don't know who they are!" Snow Leopard replied. "Don't fire!"
"Snow Leopard, they could be captives, they could be under psycontrol!" I said. "If I was a captive of the O's I'd want to die! I'd want us to shoot! Maybe we should!"
Snow Leopard raised his E, hesitating.
"Snow Leopard!" Priestess called again. "We're at the falls!" The roar overwhelmed us now, penetrating to our very bones. The O ship was still on the ground ahead. What a prize that would be!
"She's right, Snow Leopard," Warhound said. "We're going over."
Psycho lowered his Manlink. "Can I be excused for the rest of the evening?"
Helpless, we huddled in our places on the raft. The ship, the O's and the E-suited humans were now forgotten. A fierce wind of supercharged volcanic heat rose from the falls with an ear-splitting thunder. We shot forward to the edge of the falls. Hot liquid rock hissed and spat all around us, gathering strength, a mighty, irresistible wave of lava spraying through the air, and fleet, black, death-birds shot past, gliding on that volcanic wind and calling to each other, a reptilian screeching. It put a cold thrill to my flesh. I knew we were bound for Hell.
A lavafall, a firefall, the end of our ride, the end of Beta River, the end of Beyond, the end of Squad Beta Two Four, Second of the Ship, and the end of all of us. Death's Road ended in a final, terrifying fall amid the blood of the Mountain. We were going to be buried under hopeless megatons of liquid rock, crushed forever, never to stir again.
Eerie laughter. Psycho, in his own fantasy.
"Hang on!" Snow Leopard, his last command. The lava river shuddered. Our tiny boat teetered on the brink, then shot forward, caught in the surge. We lurched over the side of the falls and fell, hissing through the air, in a shower of white-hot lava. A scream echoed in my ears.
It must have been me.
Chapter 2:
The Kitchen of the Gods
I awoke to a great light shining directly into my eyes. My body ached, but it was beyond pain, just as I was beyond pain. I propped myself up on my elbows and looked around. I was stunned.
I was clad in my A-suit on a black beach on the shore of a vast, luminous white lava sea that glowed under dark skies. Little volcanic islands rose here and there in the sea, smoking. On the lake's distant shores, great steaming slabs of tortured rock rose almost straight up to an opaque sky. Overhead, evil clouds streaked the sky, clouds with glittering edges of fire, a volcano sky.
The lava lake, this was the lava lake. The surface moved in a slow, relentless flow towards a thunderous roar where the lake dropped over its edge to some hellish conclusion.
The river had spit us out, right into the lake.
All of the 12th had dropped on to Andrion 3, but for us that only meant Squad Beta, CAT 24, Second of the Ship. One under-strength squad, that's all we were; and to us it didn't matter who else was out there. It was only us, against the O's. Only six of us remained from our original squad of ten. Coolhand's leg was still mending, and Snow Leopard had refused his request to accompany us. Merlin and Dragon remained in the body shop, and Ironman was back on Atom—we had been stuck in the Spawn and had not had a chance to visit him.
The mission was clear. The Second had clarified it for us, back on the Spawn: "Our mission is to die for the Legion." Well, we were almost there, already.
The squad! I struggled to my feet, dizzy and weak.
There was no sign of the Beyond. The earth shuddered and a flight of leathery birds shot past me, screeching. Lightning arced down into the lake. Thunder reverberated. It was a wide lake of bubbling lava, several K across, the far walls misty and indistinct. I was alone, horribly alone, on a beach of black pumice, at the end of the Magic Road. My E was still strapped to my chest, but I knew that would be no help if the O's found me. With every passing instant, the danger grew—movement, heat, metal, energy—even in this hellhole, the O's would find me. I knew it.
Stunned and despairing, I staggered along the beach; the pumice crackled underneath my boots. Thunder rattled my bones. Lava rain hissed down from the skies—fire in the heavens, rolling overhead. A distant volcano was erupting. A geyser of lava boomed out of the lake near the far shore, lighting up the scene. There was no life except for the deathbirds wheeling and croaking in the sky. Even the exosegs did not venture this far—this was a planetary graveyard, fit only for deathbirds and Legionnaires.
Past a steep rock wall, I found the falls—a golden, glittering torrent of molten lava shooting over the caldera's face, falling almost straight down to the lake, awesomely beautiful, hitting the surface with a continual thunder. How could anyone survive such a fall? How had I?
"Thinker." It was a whisper. I stopped, confused. I could see nothing, only tortured rocks, black sands and a white-hot lava lake.
"Thinker." Were the Gods mocking me? My faceplate filled with information and Sweety, my Persist, blinked the designation—Beta Nine. A form stepped forward from the rocks, an A-suited Legionnaire—Priestess! She ran into my arms and we met in a clash of armor, two prehistoric warbeasts in the kitchen of the Gods. She smiled behind the faceplate, but her cheeks were streaked with tears.
"Priestess! I can hardly believe it!" She was so real that my legs weakened. A lovely, enchanting girl with black, silky hair and hypnotic dark eyes.
"Thinker! God, I'm so glad! I'm so glad!" We stood there together, swaying in each other's arms. "Hold me, Thinker! Hold me! Deadman, I thank you! I'll never leave the Legion, Thinker—never! I promised Deadman."
Movement in the rocks. My adrenalin exploded. "Beta Ten," Sweety informed me immediately. My heart was in my throat. Priestess pulled away from me.
"It's Redhawk," she informed me. "He's all right, Thinker—he saved me! He pulled me from the lake. He saved my life, Thinker!"
We approached Beta Ten—Redhawk. He was lying on his back in the rocks, almost invisible in his camfax. I leaned over him. He grinned at me weakly. Sweat covered his forehead, but there was still fire in his eyes. Strands of sticky long hair were plastered over a pale splotchy face with a scraggly red beard.
"You earthers can't even pilot a raft," he declared. "Should have let me do it—you'd have had a soft landing."
"How ya doin', Redhawk!" I could scarcely contain my joy. Redhawk had serious multiple injuries—but he was alive.
"The doll took good care of me—think I'll keep her."
"She says you saved her, Redhawk."
"Ha! Funny. I was just hanging on 'cause I didn't want to lose my mag supply."
"We'll get you out of here, man, don't you worry—nothing's going to stop us!"
"Where's the rest of the guys?"
I did not answer him. I stole a glance over to Priestess, and she shook her head glumly. I looked around. Primeval chaos—lightning flickered in the distance. Fire in the sky.
"I suggest you get under cover quickly, Thinker," Sweety said. "This is an extremely dangerous area."
"Where do you suggest we go?" Sweety usually had good ideas. She had been programmed to do my thinking for me.