“W
e lost Drop Two! Tighten up that escort!” Drop One said.
Ethan commed back in a hurry. “Drop One, what’s the mission status?”
“Status still green to go, but we can’t afford another slip like that.”
Ethan breathed a sigh of relief. They couldn’t talk about the Eclipser openly over comms, but the pilot had implied it was still safe. They’d lost a third of the 1st Battalion, but Atta was aboard Drop One, so at least they still had their general.
Drone fighters flew past their targets and began looping back around. Ethan and the Rictans chased them through that turn, lasers flashing in a steady stream. Ethan hounded them with single-minded fury, firing precise, linked-fire bursts. Two direct hits in quick succession made for a kill. He lost count of how many he scored, but before the enemy had even finished their turn, they were all gone. A quick glance at the grid revealed no more enemy targets in the vicinity. They were clear.
“Whoop whoop!” Magnum said.
“Form on me, Rictans,” Ethan replied, bringing his Nova back into line to follow the remaining two drop ships down. Switching to the battalion’s command channel, he said, “Drop One, you’re all clear.”
“Thanks, Rictans. We’re entering our landing pattern now. Keep us covered.”
“Roger that, Drop One,” Ethan replied.
A few minutes later the drop ships went from falling like speeding meteors to hovering down gracefully over the landing site.
Far below, the city of Celesta dazzled with a vast array of lights. Urban parks splashed dark green shadows between glittering monoliths. Ethan watched a tumbling drone fighter crash in one of those parks with a burst of fire, and he grimaced, wondering how much of Celesta would survive this battle. High above, bright lances of blue and red light flashed down, zapping enemy fighters like flies. The fleet was descending from orbit.
Ethan’s comms crackled. “Drop One and Two have landed.”
Mission control replied from the
Liberator,
“Acknowledged, Drop One. The First Battle Group has you covered. Clear skies for now. Commence Operation Whistle-blower.”
“Yes, sir.”
Ethan received a direct comm just a few seconds later. “Rictan One, this is mission control. Landing Site Alpha is secured. Get your squad dirtside and report to General Heston for ground ops assignment.”
“Acknowledged, control,” Ethan replied, but he didn’t need to relay the order. The Rictans had been listening in.
“All right, it’s stompin’ time!” Rictan Seven said.
“Whoop whoop!” Magnum cheered.
“Stow the chatter, but keep the enthusiasm, Rictans,” Ethan said.
With the odds being what they were on the surface, enthusiasm was the only advantage they had.
* * *
Atton was eating breakfast with Valari Thardris and Ethan when the holoscreen in Valari’s living room went suddenly blank. That screen had been relaying a news feed from an upper cities’ network, but now the feed was gone. A few moments later a Null producer appeared, looking bewildered. He assured everyone that they were working on the problem, all the while insisting that nothing like this had ever happened before. The producer blamed an equipment failure for the interruption, but Atton knew better.
Omnius had been speaking to him just a second ago, reassuring him that he and Ceyla would be together again soon, and that this farce he’d been forced to participate in with Valari would come to an end. Now the voice in his head was gone, leaving him to wonder what had just happened.
Omnius?
Atton tried.
No answer.
He looked up to find Ethan still eating, oblivious to the situation, but Valari’s face was drawn and her turquoise eyes were wide with shock.
“Something’s happened,” she said.
Ethan looked up. “What?”
Valari sent him a blank look, and then recovered with a smile and nodded to the holoscreen. “The network must be down. Excuse me, please,” Valari said. “I need to check on something.”
Atton watched her leave the table.
“What was that about?” Ethan asked.
Atton met his father’s gaze. “No idea. Something to do with the Resistance, maybe?”
Ethan nodded and went back to his food. “Must be,” he said, sounding disinterested. The only thing he cared about these days was getting his family back, and Valari had promised to help him do that—hence his presence at breakfast. Valari was playing a long-term game of sympathy and support.
It all made Atton sick to his stomach. He wanted to expose Valari now, but he had to wait for Omnius’s timing. He couldn’t afford to jeopardize his future with Ceyla. He stood up from the table. “I’m going to see what’s going on,” he said. “I’ll be right back.”
Atton hurried to Valari’s office. He found her there pounding keys on a holographic keypad before a blank holoscreen.
“Stupid thing!” Valari growled.
Atton came up behind her and read the connection error on the screen. The Omninet was down.
“You think it could be a rebel attack?” Atton asked.
“Don’t be absurd! Whatever this is, Omnius is still in control. We’ll find out what’s happening soon enough, but until then, I suggest we go back to eating breakfast.”
Valari brushed by him on her way out, but Atton lingered a moment longer, his eyes on the holoscreen and the error message blinking there. It read:
Connection Failure.
Host Unavailable.
“Atton? Are you coming?”
He nodded and turned away from the screen. “We should send someone to investigate,” he said on his way out.
“The junctions will be offline,” Valari whispered. “By the time someone can physically travel to the uppers and see what’s going on, the system will be restored already. I’m sure it’s nothing to worry about.”
“What’s nothing to worry about?” Ethan asked as they drew near.
Valari smiled and sat down beside him. “Just a communications error,” she said.
Ethan accepted that with a furrowed brow. “I see…”
Again, Atton was tempted to say something, but he stopped himself. Patience. He had to show Omnius he could be loyal even when he wasn’t being watched.
Maybe that’s what this was—a test.
It has to be,
he decided. Omnius never lost control.
* * *
The Rictans landed in unison beside Drop Ship One. Ethan cracked open his cockpit. Air
hissed
out as the canopy rose. He fumbled with his harness to release the buckles, then jumped out of the cockpit onto the port wing, and from there to the ground.
He raced up to the rear boarding ramp of the drop ship with the rest of the Rictans close behind. Atta stood there waiting for them, already suited up in a Zephyr, directing Gors and humans as they disembarked.
“General!” Ethan called out as he approached.
Atta turned to him, her expression inscrutable behind the glowing blue faceplate of her helmet.
“What happened up there?” she demanded, her voice booming out through her Zephyr’s external speakers.
Ethan skidded to a stop with the rest of the Rictans.
“Happened?” Magnum echoed.
“We lost a drop ship,” Atta said. “You almost frekked up the entire operation.”
“Casualties were light, all things considered,” Ethan said.
“We could have lost the Eclipser!” Atta roared.
“But we didn’t…”
Atta turned away. “Instead we lost my mother.”
Ethan froze. “Destra?”
“She was the pilot.”
“Atta, I’m so sorry…” He took a quick step toward her.
She held up an armored hand. “Save it, Ortane. Zephyrs are inside. Watch traffic on your way up.”
Ethan hesitated just a second before bounding up the ramp. The Rictans’ footsteps echoed with his as they kept pace behind him. Gor and Human soldiers alike marched out in a steady stream from rows of upright docking stations inside the drop ship. Ethan eyed the Gors warily. Their shiny black armor and glowing red visors made them look menacing.
At the back of the troop bay, Ethan came to a locker room that he recognized from his training on Origin. He opened the door with a wave of his hand
,
revealing an entire armory with walls full of weapons, armor, and spare Zephyrs. The Rictans hurried over to the latter and suited up.
Once armored, they cherry-picked a few weapons and pieces of equipment from the available supplies. Magnum chose a pair of oversized plasma pistols; Carnage strapped on some binary explosives that wouldn’t get him killed with a stray shot; and Blades picked out a Zephyr-sized medkit. Then
Hop
gave Ethan an idea about his call sign by selecting a gravpack. Thinking about the vertical nature of Avilon, Ethan selected a second gravpack for himself.
There came a heavy
whump,
followed by a ground-shaking roar that rattled the weapons and equipment on the walls.
“What was that?” Ethan asked.
“Our cue to leave,” Magnum answered.
Ethan’s comm crackled with Atta’s voice. “Hurry it up in there! We just punched a hole. It’s time to burrow!”
“Yes, ma’am—move out, Rictans!” Magnum said, taking charge of the unit now that they were on the ground.
They raced back out and down the loading ramp. They were the last ones to leave the drop ship. Atta stood waiting for them with both her arms raised and gauntlet-mounted ripper cannons tracking faint shadows across the sky.
Ethan’s aural sensors picked up and amplified the distant
roar
of Nova fighters, and the comparatively quieter
buzz
of Omnius’s drones. Lasers crisscrossed the sky in steady streams. As Ethan watched, a bright flash tore open one of the clouds, and a fiery rain of debris came crashing out.
Atta turned to see Ethan gawking. “What are you waiting for?” she snapped.
“Shrapnel, get a move on!” Magnum called over the squad’s comms channel.
He turned to see the Rictans already seeking cover, racing up to the base of the nearest skyscraper.
Ethan ran after them, servos and motorized joints
whirring
as he went. The Rictans tore up great chunks of grass and dirt in their wake, leaving a trail that wasn’t hard to follow. He imagined drones following that same trail later, but he supposed they weren’t exactly going for stealth with this assault. Looking up, Ethan saw the Rictans highlighted bright green on his HUD. Farther out hundreds of Gors and Humans milled around the base of the nearest skyscraper, showing on the HUD as a darker green than his own squad.
As Ethan drew near, he saw a gaping, ragged hole burned into one of the rooftops. The First Battalion was already jumping down inside that hole. A group of Zephyrs came out of cover carrying a heavy-looking piece of castcrete rubble between them. They passed the rubble carefully down through the hole in the rooftop, while a dozen more Zephyrs stood guard. That piece of rubble was the
Eclipser,
but where was the capsule containing the nanites?
“Get under cover, Shrapnel!” Magnum roared.
Ethan ran and hid at the base of the skyscraper. He joined the Rictans in keeping a lookout while the rest of the battalion jumped down.
“Where’s the bomb?” Ethan asked.
“Must have carried it down already,” Magnum replied.
“I didn’t see it,” Ethan replied.
“Let me ask the general…”
Ethan’s comms crackled with Atta’s reply a moment later. “I supervised ours being loaded from the
Liberator
, but once we got dirtside and cracked open the crate, it was full of oxygen tanks. Same story from the other generals. The bombs didn’t come down with us.”
Magnum commed back, “You think Therius had a change of heart?”
“More likely someone snitched on us, and he decided to keep the bombs in orbit with him.”
“Frek,” Ethan growled. “Then we can’t stop him from using them.”
“No,” Atta replied.
“We need to warn the fleet,” Ethan said.
“And tell them what? That Therius has nanites on board and he’s planning to destroy Avilon?”
“That sounds about right.”
“According to you, Captain Hale already knows. Therius is aboard
her
ship. If anyone can do something to stop him, it’s her. We’re going to have to trust that she’s got a plan of her own.”
“But—”
“If we don’t secure this planet and get its people on our side, then this whole discussion is pointless. We need to focus on our job right now. Besides, Therius didn’t come all this way just to kill everyone. We don’t know that he actually plans to use those bombs. And we don’t even know for sure that they actually contain nanites. The whole plot could be a bluff.”
Ethan grimaced. “And if it’s not?”
“Then we’d better hope Therius is right about there being an afterlife. Now cut the chatter, Rictans, and get down that hole! We have a planet to conquer.”
Ethan felt despair worming inside his gut, making him feel dizzy and sick. He raced out after his squad and jumped down, following the trail of destruction that the First Battalion had left in their wake—shattered doors, broken walls, and more holes in the floor. The building they were in appeared to be some type of data center, with a myriad of rooms full of row upon row of glowing blue towers.
“Where are we?” Ethan breathed.
“Inside one of the omni-nodes,” Magnum replied. “We’re heading for the nerve center so we can broadcast our message to the people of Avilon.”
Ethan heard weapons’ fire up ahead, and Magnum said, “It’s show-time, Rictans!”
They came to a broken wall and took cover to either side of the opening. Ethan peeked around the corner to see a room full of smoke. Lasers flashed red and purple through the gloom, and golden tracer fire stuttered out from ripper cannons. A laser bolt
screeched
into the wall, shattering bactcrete just a few inches from Ethan’s face. He ducked back and used sensors to pinpoint the enemy instead. A seething red mass of enemy contacts streamed into the room from the other side, and green friendlies were shown pinned down behind cover.
Magnum gave a hand signal for them to break cover and flank the enemy. Before Ethan had a chance to take a breath, the Rictans raced out of cover with ripper cannons blazing. Ethan followed, looking for a clear line of fire between friendlies, while The Rictans fired straight through the intervening data towers, turning petabytes of data to shredded ruins. Red outlines began shuddering on his HUD as the Rictans’ fire reached them.