Burning Earth
Author: Nicholas Sansbury Smith
Date: 2021-11-04 04:00:00+00:00
Keywords: Science Fiction; Action
Description: The war started and ended in a day. The machines won. Now the fight for survival begins... E-Day: The moment the machines evolved and humans nearly went extinct. In the chaos, one million people escaped Earth and fled to a secret colony on the dark side of the Moon. Deep beneath the lunar surface, in the cold, they wait for the inevitable--a second attack that will wipe humanity out forever. Sergeant Tadhg Walsh is tired of waiting. He wants to fight back and return to Earth to search for Shadow Squad. But he has new orders from the Lunar Defense Corps: protect the colonies at all costs and fo
Publisher: Great Wave Ink Publishing

Published by Great Wave Ink Publishing

E-Day 2: Burning Earth

By Nicholas Sansbury Smith

Copyright © May 2021 by Nicholas Sansbury Smith

All Rights Reserved

This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination or used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events locales or persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental. All rights reserved. No part of this publication can be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, without permission in writing from the author.

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Books by New York Times Bestselling Author
Nicholas Sansbury Smith

E-Day Series

E-Day

E-Day II: Burning Earth

E-Day III: Dark Moon (Coming Spring 2022)

The Sons of War Series (From Blackstone Publishing)

Sons of War

Sons of War 2: Saints

Sons of War 3: Sinners

Sons of War 4: Soldiers (Coming soon)

The Hell Divers Series (From Blackstone Publishing)

Hell Divers

Hell Divers II: Ghosts

Hell Divers III: Deliverance

Hell Divers IV: Wolves

Hell Divers V: Captives

Hell Divers VI: Allegiance

Hell Divers VII: Warriors

Hell Divers VIII: King of the Wastes

Hell Divers IX: Radioactive (Coming Summer 2022)

The Extinction Cycle (Season One) (From Orbit Books)

Extinction Horizon

Extinction Edge

Extinction Age

Extinction Evolution

Extinction End

Extinction Aftermath

Extinction Lost (A Team Ghost short story)

Extinction War

From Great Wave Ink Publishing

The Extinction Cycle: Dark Age (Season Two)

Extinction Shadow

Extinction Inferno

Extinction Ashes

Extinction Darkness

The Trackers Series

Trackers

Trackers 2: The Hunted

Trackers 3: The Storm

Trackers 4: The Damned

New Frontier Series (Trackers Season Two) – (Launching 2022)

New Frontier

New Frontier 2: Wild Fire

New Frontier 3: Wild Lands

The Orbs Series

Solar Storms (An Orbs Prequel)

White Sands (An Orbs Prequel)

Red Sands (An Orbs Prequel)

Orbs

Orbs II: Stranded

Orbs III: Redemption

Orbs IV: Exodus

Contents

— Prologue —

— 1 —

— 2 —

— 3 —

— 4 —

— 5 —

— 6 —

— 7 —

— 8 —

— 9 —

— 10 —

— 11 —

— 12 —

— 13 —

— 14 —

— 15 —

— 16 —

— 17 —

— 18 —

— 19 —

— 20 —

— 21 —

— 22 —

— 23 —

— 24 —

— 25 —

— 26 —

— 27 —

— 28 —

— 29 —

— 30 —

— 31 —

— 32 —

— 33 —

— 34 —

— 35 —

About the Author

“A warrior is worthless unless he rises above others and stands strong in the midst of a storm.”

— Yamamoto Tsunetomo

Samurai, Writer, Philosopher

For Colonel Russell Olson, U.S. Army (Retired), a friend, a mentor, and an American national treasure.

Colonel Olson, you are the epitome of a selfless warrior that puts others before self. You have led by this example your entire life. I’m honored to know you.

— Prologue —

E-Day

T-Minus 1 hour to Hros-1

Hundreds of corvettes shot across the sea of darkness stretching from Earth. All were fleeing to the same destination: The Moon.

Thirty-two-year-old First Lieutenant Dario Brolin and twelve other pilots of the Sky Raider Squadron flew their King Cobra Spaceplanes in a tight formation around the shuttles to protect the precious human cargo.

Flying along the starboard side of a four-hundred-foot-long corvette gave Dario a view of the many windows in the hull. Crammed inside were nearly two thousand frightened passengers. Two, sometimes even three, people had piled into the individual seats.

The shuttles were designed to comfortably and safely transport a maximum of one thousand passengers. Sheer desperation to escape the destructive tide of AI-fueled armies had forced them to flee in such a manner.

He hoped… prayed… that his girlfriend Kady had made it to a shuttle, but the last he knew, she was sheltering in Megacity New York from Hros-1. Besides his Sky Raider comrades, she was all he had left. The rest of his family had long since died from the war with the Coalition.

During his next leave, he had planned on proposing to Kady with a ring he carried in his vest for good luck.

Dario craned his neck back at Earth.

The Coalition threat seemed like nothing compared to what Apeiron had unleashed.

Hours ago, the AI had sent out a signal that turned the war droids known as Canebrakes against humans. But it wasn’t just the Canebrakes. Every AI-controlled droid, from the millions of laboring Hummer Worker Droids to the polite household companion units, had been reprogrammed.

Their new mission was simple—to eliminate humanity.

If that wasn’t bad enough, another existential threat to life on Earth was still barreling toward the planet: Hros-1, the eight-hundred-fifty-billion-ton asteroid.

The timer on Dario’s HUD showed they were just one hour shy of impact.

The Nova Alliance had constructed the Poseidon Cannons to destroy it before it could make contact, but now Nova One Station, which controlled those cannons, was under attack.

There was no way to know what was happening on the station with the long-range comms being down. Not to mention, the Infinite Nova Network (INN) was, too.

Without the network, the military was in disarray, essentially both blind and deaf.

Dario had no idea what was happening on the surface of the planet either.

While he was escorting the evacuating corvettes, he tracked the six lone Sky Raider pilots deployed to Nova One Station to defend against enemy fighters.

He could see their beacons on his data-pad, but that was it. Each second that passed, his anxiety grew.

If Apeiron’s forces took Nova One Station, the enemy would control the Poseidon Cannons. Without the cannons, the Nova Alliance couldn’t stop Hros-1.

Dario cursed his luck that he had been assigned escort duty. He desperately wanted to get back into the fight, but their CO, Captain Jake “The Snake” Harback had split them after their first combat mission over Megacity New York during the first hours of the battle.

In less than fifteen minutes, Dario had brought down three of the ten Praying Mantis fighters on his own, fueled by the fact Kady was sheltering in Brooklyn, where they lived together.

The Sky Raiders had won the aerial battle, but it had come at a devastating cost to the squadron. Over a third of the twenty-four pilots were killed in those first few minutes. Men and women that Dario had lived and served with for the better part of a decade. They were more than comrades. They were friends, brothers and sisters-in-arms.

And they were dropping like flies.

Two more Sky Raiders at Nova One Station winked off his data-pad.

Two more pilots gone forever.

Dario stared, his heart thumping as he searched to see if one was Harback.

He exhaled when he saw the Captain was still alive. Dario wasn’t sure how the squadron would manage without the man’s leadership.

Deep down, losing Harback would be especially hard for Dario. The captain had served as more than a leader and mentor—he had been like a father in some ways.

Movement on the shuttle next to Dario distracted him. He pulled up closer to the corvette windows, seeing a young boy, maybe seven years old, waving.

Dario continued cruising along the starboard windows.

It wasn’t just the boy waving.

All along the double decker shuttle, people acknowledged him with a wave or raised hand. Some steepled their hands in prayer, others nodded.

A proximity warning pulled his gaze from the passengers to his data-pad.

“Oh, shit.”

Two new enemy contacts were accelerating toward the rear guard of the convoy.

Dario wasted no time pulling away in the two-ton Spaceplane. His wing mate, Lieutenant Tom “Bear” Bowman joined him as they peeled off.

Two other King Cobras took their places to guard the convoy as Dario and Bear blasted off to meet the hostiles.

“Can’t let these guys take the shuttles,” Bear said.

“We got this, Bear,” Dario said over the comms.

“Yeah, just like old times, Dar.”

The big curly-headed pilot was one of his best friends. Both had joined the Nova Alliance Sky and Space Patrol the same year. They’d competed for the top couple of seats in their class at the academy, with Dario taking home the Ace slot.

The past several years were spent hammering Coalition forces when command wanted human pilots over drones. Sure, they had faced some resistance, but fighting the machines was a far cry from dropping bombs on stationary bunkers.

“Two on two,” Bear said. “Not quite fair…for these mechanical bastards.”

Dario heard the shakiness in his friend’s voice. His bravado was all show.

Two King Cobra Spaceplanes against two advanced Praying Mantis fighters was not a fair match by any standard. The enemy fighters were faster, more agile, and the pilots feared nothing.

Bear knew it as well as Dario did, but both of them flew straight at the enemy anyway. They were the only thing standing between the shuttles packed full of innocent lives and the heartless killing machines.

Dario tried to keep his hand from shaking as he sighted up the two Praying Mantis fighters closing in through the darkness. The insect-shaped Spaceplanes sported jagged elongated hulls along a thorax with triangular wings. At the bow, pincher-shaped plasma cannons glowed blue as they prepared to fire.

Easy… easy… you got this Dar… easy…

He rolled away, spinning the Spaceplane from the incoming bolts.

Bear was slower to react. The flurry of shots barely skimmed past his Spaceplane.

Dario gulped hard and focused on his HUD. The locking diamond on his holo-screen turned green, and he launched two of his remaining twenty-two RHINO missiles. They streaked away, torpedoing through the black toward the pinchers of a Praying Mantis.

The enemy cannons fired in a wild burst. Rounds cut into one of the incoming missiles, blasting it before it reached the fighter.

Come on, come on!

Dario’s grip tightened on the controls.

The second missile exploded in front of the same Praying Mantis fighter. A ball of superheated plasma erupted, devouring the craft, and Dario veered away to engage the other hostile.

He craned his helmet when he saw two contacts still on his data-pad.

The first fighter speared straight through the explosion, pieces of armor peeling off the damaged hull.

“Shit, these things are tanks!” he shouted.

Both machines tore through space at Dario while Bear curved to get another angle.

Dario ducked and dove, twisting with every escape maneuver he knew, then making up new ones that pushed his Spaceplane to its limits. The more advanced Praying Mantis fighters never lost him for a second, mirroring and even anticipating his moves. Their fire came in relentless waves.

“I got you, brother!” Bear managed to swoop around on the tail end of the damaged fighter chasing Dario. “Survive this, you metalhead assholes.”

Three missiles speared from his wings. All three slammed into the thorax of the Praying Mantis. This time, the fighter vanished in a burst of flinging armored pieces.

Dario had no time to celebrate.

A new proximity warning flashed on his HUD.

The remaining Praying Mantis curved past the destruction. Alarms blared in the King Cobra cockpit, announcing a missile lock.

Dario rolled, climbed, and then rocketed downward. The alarms never silenced. The much more agile enemy fighter was closing in.

Another contact beeped on the radar, sending a chill of fear through Dario when he saw a second enemy fighter was headed their direction. He spun away from the plasma fire of the Praying Mantis hunting him.

“Bear, hurry!” he shouted over the comms.

“Almost got a lock on,” Bear said. “Hold on, just a few more…”

Dario pushed the throttle to the max, increasing g-force lashing his body.

Plasma fire suddenly shot over his bow and cockpit from the incoming fighter. He turned his Spaceplane sideways, narrowly missing the bolts.

Two missiles curved out of the darkness of space and chased the fighter that had nearly just taken off his wings. The enemy fighter burst into shards a moment later.

Dario flinched as a black King Cobra zipped by his port side.

This wasn’t Bear.

It was the most advanced King Cobra in the Nova Alliance Sky and Space Patrol, a stealth Spaceplane, the first of its kind.

And in the cockpit was the best pilot in the entire NASSP.

Dario heaved relief at the sound of Captain Jake Harback’s rough voice.

“Bear, Dar, report to the convoy,” he said. “They’re almost to the LDC safe zone.”

“What about Nova Station?” Dario asked. “Did you take it back?”

There was a slight pause.

“Nova One Station is now under complete machine control.”

Dario looked at his data-pad in disbelief. On it, only one of the Sky Raiders deployed to the station was still online—Captain Harback.

“What about the cannons?” Bear asked. “What happens to them? They’ll still fire, right?”

Harback remained silent on the comms.

They all knew without them, Hros-1 would hit Earth.

“We have to take the station back,” Dario said.

“Negative, we have new orders after we reach the safe zone,” Harback said.

Dario joined Bear on the flanks of Harback.

For the next ten minutes they flew toward the Moon, catching up with the convoy. Not far past the shuttles, a dozen contacts came online, revealing King Cobra Spaceplanes assigned to the Lunar Defense Corps.

The pilots sat in their warm cockpits, unmoving. As the battle to save so many refugees from Earth unfolded, the LDC wasn’t doing anything to help.

“Cowards,” Dario said offline. “They should be in this fight.”

This wasn’t the first time the Lunar Defense Corps had sat on the sidelines. They had maintained a neutral stance in the war against the Coalition. They’d never granted the Nova Alliance access to or control of any of their lunar colonies. The only good thing to have come from that stance was at least Apeiron didn’t have access either.

“This is Major A.G. Wind of the Moon Rats, we’ll take escort duty from here,” said a stern voice.

“You do that, Major,” Harback replied. “We’ll save Earth.”

“Good luck. I mean that sincerely, Captain.”

Dario rotated away from the Moon, pushing down on his throttle and blasting after Harback, Bear, and two of his other comrades back to their home.

Where there had been rows of blinking lights from space stations, satellites, and most importantly, other ships between them and the planet, Dario saw nothing but darkness.

A glance at his data-pad confirmed what his eyes were seeing.

There were no more shuttles. No more refugees.

Nothing but darkness and debris from the dead that didn’t make it.

Dario sat motionless in the cockpit, gripping his control stick in silence.

Absolute, cold, terrifying silence.

The four other Spaceplanes closed into a formation around Harback.

It wasn’t all dark out here though.

On the horizon, Dario spotted the white flare of Hros-1, reflected in the sunlight.

The minutes ticked by, giving him plenty of time to consider everything happening, and the implications if the Poseidon Cannons did not fire on the asteroid.

He wasn’t the only one.

“The cannons should be firing,” Bear said over the team comm. “Why aren’t they…”

“So much for AI being salvation,” Dario said.

He watched the asteroid as it grew brighter, lancing toward his home.

A hunk of ice formed in his gut, dread rising up. He wasn’t really a religious man and didn’t believe in AI, but he did find himself talking to something, anything that might be out there.

“Please, please don’t let this happen, please…” he whispered.

Ten. Nine. Eight. Seven…

Hros-1 flashed out of view, seemingly disappearing on the other side of Earth.

Seconds passed. Then a minute.

Dario braced for evidence of impact.

But there was none that he could see.

“What happened?” Bear asked. “Why didn’t we see the impact, we should have seen it, right?”

“Sky Raider 1, this is Rat 1,” Wind said over the open comm channel. “Can you confirm Hros-1 hit?”

“Negative, no eyes on impact,” Harback replied. “Comms with Earth are still down.”

Dario noticed a flicker of light passing by the other side of the planet. It was growing more distant by the second.

“No way…” he whispered. Tapping his data-pad, he confirmed the object was Hros-1.

How is that possible…

He bumped on the team channel, but Harback was already reporting the news to the Moon Rats.

“Copy that,” Wind replied. “Thank God.”

Maybe there is a God, Dario thought.

His heart jolted when he switched views from Hros-1 back to the cannons.

They were…moving.

“Sky Raiders, you seeing what I’m seeing?” he asked into his comm.

“You talking about Hros-1?” Bear asked.

“No, the cannons.”

“Maybe we somehow took back control of Nova One Station and are preparing to strike hostile targets.”

“No,” Harback replied sternly. “We didn’t take back the station.”

Dario used the stolen seconds to zoom in the closest cannon with his front cameras. Then he tapped his data-pad to follow where those cannons were aiming.

“Oh no…it’s Megacity Phoenix,” he said quietly.

Violent bursts of concentrated plasma suddenly streaked away from all of the cannons simultaneously, blasting into the atmosphere in swords of red.

Harback was right. The Nova Alliance hadn’t regained control of the cannons.

The machines still had it.

This was the next part of Apeiron’s plan.

“We have to destroy those cannons,” Harback said.

Dario activated his thrusters, accelerating after the captain.

The intense g-force smashed his body back into his seat as the King Cobra Spaceplane picked up speed, hitting a maximum safe acceleration of just over eight g’s. Blood rushed to his feet, and his heart could barely keep the blood going to his brain.

But he couldn’t slow down. Every second he took getting to those cannons were more lives obliterated by the machines. Kady was one of billions hunkered under the megacities in shelters designed to protect them in case Hros-1 made it past the Poseidon Cannons and hit Earth.

She wasn’t one of the lucky few picked for the Life Arks built by Achilles Android Systems (AAS) under the megacities, designed to house humanity in a worst case scenario, but Dario had never worried about the worst case scenario until now.

The engagement ring seemed to burn inside his pocket, a reminder of what was at stake.

Dario kept focused on his target of the two cannons over North America. The red pillar of incredible, destructive power pounded Megacity Phoenix and Megacity Miami for over thirty straight minutes. Waves of dark, fiery clouds roiled away from where those beams pierced the atmosphere. He could only imagine the destruction on the planet’s surface.

“Target the foremost barrels of the Poseidon Cannons,” Harback said. “Those are their weakest points. We might only get one shot, so make it count.”

Dario eased up on the throttle, the engines whirring from the burn off as the craft eased into a constant, manageable combat speed.

The rocket-shaped Poseidon Cannons flickered, the last tendrils of plasma dissipating. Each of the cannons glowed orange at the end as if the cannons had nearly been turned into molten alloy.

In a few taps of his finger, Dario activated his plasma cannons and all twenty of his remaining RHINO missiles. The targeting system popped up on the holo-screen, and a secondary system emerged on his HUD.

He centered the crosshairs on the fiery end of the nearest cannon. The behemoth weapon was already rotating slowly toward a new target. With the laser stream off, he had a clear view of its former target between the spreading black clouds over Earth.

Megacity Phoenix was nothing but a riven, glowing hole.

“Do not engage hostiles unless we’re spotted,” Harback said. “For now, we have the element of surprise.”

The captain curved to the left, breaking off from the formation with Bear and Dario following, and the other two pilots tore off in the other direction.

They were all close enough to see the Achilles Android Systems logo on the side of the cannon with the naked eye. Like the Life Arks, AAS had also built these super-weapons. They were both ideas of Doctor Jason Crichton, who Dario had always respected for his tireless work to save the planet and Nova Alliance.

But now Dario wasn’t sure what to think with the machines turning against all of humanity. Perhaps AI had betrayed Jason, or perhaps he had betrayed the Nova Alliance.

Squinting, Dario noticed something else on the upper hull and raised rim of the cannon that looked like lines of winged insects on tree bark.

The wings started to move.

Targets popped onto his data-pad, first three, then ten. Then even more.

A flurry of Praying Mantis fighters peeled off the backbone of the cannon, blasting toward the five King Cobra Spaceplanes.

“There are so many…” Bear said over the open channel.

According to the targeting system on their HUDs, forty-one Praying Mantis fighters had taken flight.

“Open fire!” Harback shouted in an uncharacteristic moment of panic.

Dario fired off a third of his missiles as fast as he could.

The armored RHINO missiles ripped away from the King Cobras, tearing toward the cannon. The Praying Mantis formation veered in front of the accelerating volley, sacrificing themselves to protect the cannon. Explosions burst across the cluster, blasting apart ten of the fighters.

Out of the spreading explosions, a torrent of return fire slashed toward Dario.

He tried to bank away, flying sideways.

Someone had once told him that life flashes by you in combat, right when you think you’re about to die. That never happened to him. Even now, as he flew almost suicidally in the direction of the overpowered enemy spacecraft, he didn’t think about his youth or better times of his past.

He thought only about what was happening now, in this horrible instant.

He thought about how quickly he could stop the Poseidon Cannons to save Kady and all the other innocent lives counting on him and the Sky Raiders.

By the time he made it through the storm of enemy fire, the two squadron mates that had flown off in the opposite direction were nothing but space flotsam. Bear and Harback had made it through, but they were vastly outnumbered.

Their fate already seemed to be written.

Anger churned through Dario, activating a primal beast inside of him. The universe seemed to slow, and he saw everything more clearly than ever before. It was this adrenaline-fueled instinct, this inexplicable drive that had made him one of the best pilots on Earth.

He unleashed another salvo of four missiles at the cannon.

A bolt pounded his starboard wing, violently rattling the King Cobra on final approach.

Clenching his jaw, he regained control of the Spaceplane, holding it steady.

Another group of Praying Mantis fighters flew in front of the cannon, firing plasma at the missiles and then flying headlong into the two that survived.

The next few seconds were pure chaos; a mixture of hand movements, squeezing the trigger, and doing his best to fly.

Fly, just fly…

Skill alone wasn’t going to save Dario. Not in this deadly mayhem. Only luck would get him through this.

By the time he circled for another run there were twenty-two Praying Mantis fighters still out there and just him, Bear, and Harback to stop them.

His eyes darted from his HUD to the different camera views on his data-pad, soaking in every number and statistic. He was already down to ten RHINO missiles and his starboard wing thrusters had suffered severe damage. It was holding together, for now, but he was running out of time.

Behind him, the cannon had stopped rotating, now in position to take out another Megacity.

The weapon glowed a dull orange that quickly brightened into a blinding crimson.

To Dario’s three o’clock, another explosion flickered against the blackness where a cannon exploded. Orange blasts of fire and plasma erupted from its middle. The weapon seemed to be coming apart in slow motion.

On his HUD, he saw missiles rising out of the atmosphere from Earth. He identified them as Nova Alliance Strike Force (NASF) from the encrypted codes that flashed on his data-pad. The missiles were all assigned to submarines across the planet.

A moment of hope flooded Dario.

Pulling up, he tore perpendicularly away from Earth, going topsy-turvy over three Praying Mantis fighters that flew underneath his fighter.

Before they could turn, he opened fire with his plasma cannons. The turrets raked back and forth, spraying the flying tanks.

Two more exploded, and a third cartwheeled out of control, frozen gases misting from fresh wounds in its hull.

Four more took their place, swerving after Dario. He accelerated back toward Harback. The captain was on his second run against the cannon. Four hostiles trailed him too, filling the black with relentless plasma bolts.

Dario released his remaining missiles. They curved away, chasing the fighters. Two of the four exploded, and the other two fighters pulled away, freeing Harback to fire on the cannon.

Missiles streaked away from his King Cobra. Each accelerated straight into the cannon in a burst of blinding explosions.

“Yes!” Dario shouted.

The pinchers on the Praying Mantis fighters tailing Dario all shone a bright blue. He pulled up, the sudden shifting forces punishing his body and brain that blurred his vision.

He eased off the throttle, regaining his sight.

Off his portside, Harback flew upside down, the plasma cannons on his wings flashing and peppering the fighters chasing Dario. Another enemy fighter came apart in a mess of molten armor.

There were still a dozen more.

Dario turned his King Cobra sideways, then upside down.

But no matter how many evasive, expert maneuvers he executed, the inevitable finally occurred when a pair of bolts punched into his already damaged starboard wing.

As he tried to regain control of his shaking fighter, another bolt hit his rear engine, blowing it out.

An alarm screamed in the cockpit, a warning that he was on borrowed time.

Now he finally saw them. Those images he’d been warned about.

His life was actually flashing by.

Images from his past surfaced, pictures of his parents, and sister, all dead from the war on Earth. Memories of his troubled youth, and his time in the academy that transformed him into a man.

The moment he first saw Kady looking at him when he had walked into a bar like he owned the place. And then the time she had laughed when he had arrived on her doorstep with a melting ice cream cone in the sweltering New York summer heat.

He had sprinted four blocks to get it to her that day.

There would be no more memories with Kady.

This was it. This was death. Finally come to take him.

New contacts suddenly beeped onto his radar.

Plasma fire and missiles streaked from all directions.

By sheer luck, Dario didn’t explode into pieces.

A familiar voice came over the comms.

“Sorry for the delay, but we had orders…” said Major Wind. “We decided to say fuck those orders.”

It was then Dario realized blind luck hadn’t saved him.

The bolts and missiles weren’t meant for his Spaceplane.

A dozen gray LDC King Cobras shot around him, Bear, and Harback, in wild maneuvers as they picked off the Praying Mantis fighters.

“Better late than never!” Harback shouted. “Damn glad to have your help, Major Wind!”

Dario tried to steer, but his remaining engine was out. He rotated in his cockpit, helpless, watching the LDC King Cobras take down the remaining Praying Mantis fighters.

The black shape of a King Cobra flew up next to Dario, the red logo of a snake on the hull.

“Can you fly?” Harback asked.

“Negative,” Dario admitted. “I can’t do shit, my plane is broke-dick.”

Bear pulled over, his starboard wing torn up pretty bad.

Wind and the LDC pilots spread out in a Combat Air Patrol (CAP). The three surviving Sky Raiders drifted in space for a few seconds to come up with a plan.

“We’re losing our subs,” Harback said over the team channel.

Dario had noticed the missiles were no longer firing from the surface of Earth.

More enemy targets winked onto the radar.

Machine reinforcements.

Dario stared in disbelief at one hundred enemy contacts on the screen.

“We need to get out of here, fast,” Wind said. “Stay on me, Captain Harback, and we’ll head back to Kepler.”

“I’m not going to Kepler,” Harback replied. “Going to take out as many cannons as I can. We’re the last hope without those subs.”

“I’m with you,” Bear said.

“Two against hundreds, that is a battle you have zero chance of winning,” Wind said. “Look, I got family down there, but we can’t go any further. Our orders are to protect Kepler Station, I’m already going to get a damn court-martial for coming this far.”

“Nah, you’ll be fine because the LDC will need pilots on the Moon,” Harback replied. “Now if you could do me a favor and tow Lieutenant Dario back to Kepler Station.”

“You got it, Captain. Give ’em hell.”

“No!” Dario shouted.

He palmed the glass of his cockpit as Wind lowered his gray King Cobra overhead. A clamp secured around his life-pod.

Harback’s voice came back over the comms. “Dar, when you get to Kepler, tell them what’s happening and that we need help. If the machines finish Earth, they will come for the Moon.”

The life-pod clicked loose from Dario’s Spaceplane, and Wind pulled away from the damaged King Cobra, giving Dario a view of his once beautiful fighter that now looked like a piece of space junk.

“See you on the flip side, brother,” Bear said.

“Captain, Bear…” Dario wasn’t sure what to say.

Good luck? Be careful?

No…

“Good hunting,” Dario said. “I’ll see you when you get back.”

He watched the two black King Cobras veer away, knowing this would be the last time he would ever see them again.

He also knew he wasn’t going to see Kady again. It was only a matter of time before Megacity New York was turned into a hellish crater.

Dario touched the ring in his pocket, his heart pounding against the metal that was supposed to bind him and Kady together forever.

Wind was right.

This was a battle they could not win.

Earth was lost.

— 1 —

E-Day

24 hours post Hros-1

Japanese Alps

Akira Hayashi dreamed of a life unlived. A life that could have been. A life with his wife Yui and his son Takeshi, who died never even knowing that Akira was his father.

A scrambled mess of memories filled his dream.

In one, Akira recalled the day he met Yui at a fish market. He had accidentally knocked her basket out of her hands, spilling the fish and produce inside. After helping her pick it up, he offered to buy her all new food. With a smile, she asked him to pay her back by joining her for lunch instead.

It was just like Yui, always brazen and confident. Not afraid to ask for exactly what she wanted.

And that smile…

When she smiled, the rest of the world faded. No cherry blossom-lined streets, no ancient temples rising atop green mountains could match it for beauty.

They had fallen in love quickly and passionately, marrying a year after that fateful day. Takeshi came two years later.

Akira felt peace reflecting on their warm, unforgettable time together as family.

But that time was short-lived and shattered like a broken mirror.

His dreams turned into the nightmare of the day he lost Yui in the Coalition bombing outside of Tokyo.

Akira remembered digging through the rubble and finding her and Takeshi. Then, holding his ash-covered boy and wondering how he could raise him without Yui.

When the invitation to become an Engine arrived, he made the agonizing decision to send Takeshi to live with his brother, Kai, and his wife, Lise. They changed Takeshi’s name to Zachary and gave him the life he deserved, a life shielded from the violence of Akira’s own—a life that Akira couldn’t provide as a soldier.

A flurry of fragmented tableaus followed; images of bloodshed, death, and all of the horrors of war.

Fighting against the Coalition with Shadow Squad had taken him all over the world to battlefields in all kinds of environments. None had been peaceful or beautiful, scarred as they were by the violence.

Just when he thought victory against the Coalition was within reach, when he could finally find a lasting peace, a new enemy emerged. An enemy that didn’t bleed or feel pain or anything else for that matter.

An enemy that had made the advanced super soldiers like him, the Engines, obsolete.

An enemy created by humanity.

Next came a memory of the cannons aimed at Hros-1, the asteroid on a collision course with Earth. Humanity was supposed to have banded together against extinction, but instead people were slaughtered and betrayed by the AI—Apeiron—that was supposed to provide their salvation.

A horrifying image burned in his mind of the Canebrakes hunting down the survivors in Megacity Tokyo. The Hummer Droids that had built the city instead also turned on the population, using their powerful limbs to destroy.

Akira snapped out of his fugue. Muffled shouting and the growl of distant jet engines reached through his muddled senses. His eyelids were cracked open just enough to see a blinding bright light and a few blurred figures.

One cried out, the noise distant, but somehow also close.

Something wet and red slapped against his visor, streaking down in clumps.

He tried to wipe it away, but found he couldn’t move.

It wasn’t just that he couldn’t move.

He couldn’t feel his body.

No pain. Nothing.

Pain meant he was alive.

Numbness might mean so many other things. He could be in shock. Maybe he was paralyzed—or maybe he was dying.

Or, maybe, he was already dead.

He tried to force open his eyelids for a wider view. Somehow, he was standing. Like something or someone was holding him up.

Akira tried to speak.

The words, where am I formed in his mind, but nothing came out of his mouth.

Frustrated, Akira tried to wiggle a finger or toe.

Nothing.

The only thing he could control was his eyes. They darted to the left, at some sort of metal wall. Then to the right, at what looked like concrete.

The roar of engines pulled his gaze upward, toward the burning light. It was so bright.

Must be the sun, he thought.

In a blur of black metal, a fighter jet tore across the sky. Two more of the Short Sword fighter jets followed, screaming away.

Akira blinked, trying to make sense of his surroundings.

It was obvious now he was on an airfield, maybe in a downed aircraft.

But where was the rest of his squad?

Where was his robotic wolfdog, Okami, and droid horse, Kichiro?

Maybe his brain was protecting him from the painful memories of loss. Or maybe his head was damaged from his injuries. He couldn’t remember much past the cannons firing.

In his mind’s eye, he saw those malicious red lasers pounding the megacities, erasing billions of souls.

Then the memories at bay surged through his brain.

He remembered everything.

The graves of his brother and son in the gardens of Edo Castle.

The survivors of Gold Base retreating there to make a final stand.

The machines surrounding the forests and gardens.

And riding Kichiro to meet them head on.

On the walls, Shadow Squad fought bravely to repel the army of machines.

Staff Sergeant Maria “Frost” De Leon had fired her sniper rifle at the metal monsters skittering up the sides of the castle. Sergeant Tadhg Walsh and Lieutenant Shane “Ghost” Rossi swung their energy swords at those that had penetrated the defenses.

Headless and impaled Pistons lay sprawled on the parapets, their blood pooling on the stone. Canebrakes bolted across the stone, cornering War Commander Dimitri Contos and striking him down with their super-heated blades.

Akira had rushed over to help.

What happened next was a blur, but he recalled falling on the battlefield. Someone had loaded him into an L-20 MOTH as Sergeant Tadhg Walsh escaped in another MOTH destined for the Moon.

A metallic rattle chased those violent memories away.

This wasn’t from his dreams.

This sounded close.

A chill traced his spine.

His eyelids snapped open, his vision clearing.

Now he was inside the troop hold of the MOTH gunship. Bodies lay on the deck, smoldering from plasma bolts.

The blood he’d tried to clear before wasn’t on his visor after all.

He realized he was looking through the lid of a med-chamber. He could feel more of his body now, and the itchy nano-pads clinging to his flesh like scabs.

They were wrapped around his arms, legs, and chest.

Tubes traced into his body from a machine that he recognized. One that was supposed to keep him alive until they could get him to a field hospital.

Clearly, that wasn’t going to happen.

A fire burned on the tarmac outside the downed MOTH. Smoke drifted from the bodies of Pistons crumpled over the concrete.

The wreckage of another unrecognizable aircraft lay at the edge of a runway. Thick, black smoke churned off of the melting hull.

Two more Short Sword fighters ripped overhead. The enemy was on their six. Plasma cannons raked across the sky, chasing the Short Swords.

In a split second, the partially open door was ripped back in his MOTH. A long gray elongated snout poked into the troop hold. It belonged to the rattling Canebrake.

Next he saw the maw filled with jagged teeth especially suited for tearing flesh and alloy alike. The war droid’s fanned head emerged, connected to a strong, titanium neck. The wide shoulders got stuck on the broken door for a moment before the six-hundred-pound monster snapped it free. The hatch flung away, smashing a corpse in a spray of gore.

Black eyes with blue pupils glistened on a sharp, fanned head that lowered in the darkness. Those soulless eyes scanned bodies on the deck before flitting up to the med-chamber. The four segmented arms curled around the body, moving like octopus limbs.

This metal abomination was a product of the deadliest alpha predators in the world. The perfect killing machine engineered for war. And Akira was currently too incapacitated to put up a fight.

A blue light flashed out of the eyes at the pod, illuminating Akira’s body inside.

Two segmented arms fired, hooking onto the glass lid and ripping it off. Med gas sprayed out in a white mist.

Akira slumped out, pulling the wires and tubes from their panels. He collapsed on the deck in front of a dead female crew chief. Her skull had been split open by segmented arms just like the ones the Canebrake wielded now.

He tried to move, managing to wiggle his fingers and an arm. But he could do little more than squirm in the blood of his dead comrades.

In a few seconds he would be joining them.

The Canebrake’s snout lowered to Akira. He met the diabolical stare of the genocidal monster Apeiron had released on the world. Two hooks attached to its front arms glowed and rose to just below the overhead.

The torso suddenly twisted, but the war droid’s gaze remained locked on him. Its secondary eyes on the other side of its head were sighting up another target that Akira couldn’t see.

Sparks exploded above his face, and a sharp edge of an energy sword simmered through the torso of the machine. An armored figure emerged through the open doorway, swinging a red cutlass at the segmented arms.

The warrior hunched below the Canebrake’s heated hooks as they thrust their sword into the monster’s torso. The beast let out a rattling growl from the elongated maw before snapping forward to take a crushing bite of the soldier.

A .50 cal round slammed into the fanned head before it had the chance.

Akira rolled on the deck as the machine crashed next to him. Lifting his head, he peered up at a pair of giant Engines. One cradled a massive energy sword. The other held their sniper scope up as if looking for another target.

They lowered the rifle from a skeletal mask with roses and stitched lips painted on the exterior.

“Frost,” Akira whispered.

Blood dripped from a damaged plate of armor over her ribs.

Behind her was Ghost, standing a good foot taller. His metal prosthetics glistened in the sunlight as he stepped back out onto the tarmac to hold security.

Frost leaned down to Akira. “Can you move?”

“Okami, Kichiro,” Akira mumbled.

“Safe.”

“Contos…”

“He’s alive,” she said, looking him over. “We’ve got to get you back in your armor.”

Ghost moved back into the cargo hold to search crates until he found the one containing Akira’s armor and Kabuto.

Gunfire boomed outside, followed by the distinct rattling of Canebrakes.

“No time,” Frost said. “We got multiple hostiles headed our way.”

Ghost attached the crate containing Akira’s armor over his back.

“Put your arm around me,” Ghost said. “We’ve got to move.”

Akira slung his arm up over a shoulder while Frost led the way out of the MOTH onto the tarmac with her RS-10 rifle slung from her chest.

Frost signaled for them to back up into the troop hold again. Six enemy Praying Mantis fighters soared over the burning airfield buildings, their plasma cannons firing at targets on the ground.

All across the massive tarmac lay the ruins of shuttles that never had a chance to take off. Their hulls had been cracked open, and fires chewed through their interiors.

There were still three Short Sword fighters in the sky, and one King Cobra Spaceplane with smoke venting from a damaged wing.

“Let’s go!” Ghost yelled.

As soon as the Praying Mantis fighters finished their strafing run, Frost led the group out onto the tarmac. They ran for the cover of the forest on the eastern side. Mountains loomed on the horizon, toothy white points reaching toward a sky full of smoke.

Most of it was coming from an inferno that continued to expand around the wreck of a fighter jet in the forest.

Akira focused on the mountains. He recognized one of them as Mount Shirouma in the Japanese Alps.

But that meant they were in Coalition territory.

He recognized his surroundings now. This was an old Nova Alliance airbase that was abandoned and taken over by Coalition fighters.

One of the Short Sword fighters spiraled out of control, screeching on a downward path to the tarmac. The aircraft hit with a deafening boom. Shards of the jet seared past the Engines who ducked down for cover.

Akira tried to summon whatever energy he had left to move as Ghost rose back up, but it took everything he had just to hang onto Ghost.

To their left, a group of ten Pistons were firing at advancing Canebrakes. The soldiers sheltered behind vehicles and crates stacked outside the ruins of a cargo plane.

This must have been a rendezvous point for the forces from around Japan that fled after Tokyo was destroyed.

One of the Canebrakes leapt over the vehicles landing between the Engines and the Pistons.

Frost went down on one knee and brought up her rifle in a blur of movement. By the time the Canebrake started moving toward them, a .50 cal round blasted into the center of its dual-faced head.

She was already up and running, rifle cradled, before the beast collapsed.

Akira stared in horror as the machine pushed itself back up on its segmented limbs.

“Frost,” he muttered. “Frost!”

His voice came out in a yell, commanding her attention.

A Canebrake twisted partially toward the Pistons. The independently rotating plasma turrets mounted on its shoulders erupted. Bolts sprayed the Pistons in one direction and lanced at the Engines in the other.

Ghost dropped Akira to join the fight with his RS-3 rifle. Frost had already fired off two more .50 cal rounds. She stumbled as she chambered another round. Fresh blood oozed from the crack in the armor over her ribs. Akira knew pain would not stop her any more than it would stop any Engine.

The other Canebrakes stormed against the crates and ripped into the Pistons. Snaking limbs snatched up one of the soldiers, tossing the Piston twenty-feet into the air. He came back down flailing. Before he hit the ground, a blade from another Canebrake impaled him. A second hooked arm ripped his body in two.

You have to do something!

Akira got up on his knees, wincing in pain. His muscles felt like they were on fire.

“Guuuun,” he called out.

Frost and Ghost both glanced away from their rifles for a single moment.

“Gun!” Akira cried again.

They both reached down and tossed their pistols his direction.

Akira caught one and picked the other off the concrete.

“Go,” Frost said to Ghost. “I’ll cover you two.”

Ghost came back to Akira and looped an arm under his armpit. Akira fired the pistols wildly at the Canebrakes tearing the Pistons apart.

The three Engines retreated into the forest of dense pines. Akira held one pistol up, his arm shaking, while Ghost helped him around the towering trees. Smoke drifted through the canopy.

“Let’s stop and get your armor on,” Ghost said to Akira.

“No time,” Frost said. “Those Canebrakes aren’t far.”

Ghost hauled Akira faster over the rocky terrain.

A needly branch caught the nano-pad on Akira’s upper chest. The pad ripped off like a scab, exposing the pus-filled red gash beneath.

He gritted his teeth to hold back the fiery pain. Even Engines had breaking points.

Blood dripped from his reopened wound. The other nano-pads were soaked through.

Lightheaded, Akira tried to blink his vision clear.

The sound of the battle grew distant, until he could hear only sporadic gunfire. They hadn’t covered that much distance from the airfield. More likely, the Pistons were nearly defeated. The Canebrakes were moving on.

Rattling confirmed his suspicions.

The Canebrakes were now hunting the Engines.

Akira tried to raise his pistol again, but his arm was barely responding. Ghost was practically carrying him. He just kept running harder.

The rattling had stopped, but Akira picked up another sound with his augmented ears. The crunch of branches and snapping of twigs. Something was getting closer to them.

Akira looked ahead. They were heading toward a hill now. The slope was going to be difficult for Ghost to carry him.

“Stop,” Akira muttered. “Give me an adreno shot.”

“Your heart can’t take it,” Ghost replied.

Frost stopped at the base of the hill, aiming her rifle behind them.

“Six contacts,” she said. “Gaining fast. Let’s go.”

An electronic shriek sounded.

Akira grabbed Ghost by the wrist. “Give me the shot, brother. It’s my only chance of getting out of here.”

Ghost relented, reaching down to his med-pack to remove the metal capsule. He popped the lid and stuck the needle into Akira’s arm.

The adrenaline cocktail rushed through his veins.

Instantly, Akira could feel his body again. His heart hammered against his ribcage, threatening to break out.

“Together…we…are one,” Akira said.

He took a step, staggered, and then regained his footing. Using the momentary energy, he loped up the hill, trampling pine needles and crushing leaves. A skeletal branch scraped at him, but he snapped through it.

Aircraft suddenly boomed over the canopy, drawing his attention.

More Praying Mantis fighters roared overhead. Gray and black Canebrakes fell from their jagged underbellies, curled up in fetal positions.

Akira continued up the crest of the slope into the forest that would provide the cover they needed. A plasma bolt suddenly blasted into a nearby tree. Bark cut against his face. The site of impact glowed a simmering orange.

Ghost turned and returned fire while Frost grabbed Akira and pulled him behind the trunk of a wide cedar tree.

“Keep going,” she said. “We’ll cover you and catch up.”

Akira moved around the tree, glimpsing movement in the forest below the hill. The canopy of trees and bushes swayed as three Canebrakes burst through, firing plasma turrets. They weren’t close enough to hit the Engines with their segmented arms, but it was only a matter of time.

Frost took one out with a headshot. The other two bounded toward the Engines.

Akira couldn’t just flee.

It wasn’t in his DNA.

He raised his pistols and aimed at one of the machines barreling up the hill like a wild animal. Plasma bolts pounded the metal, forcing it to flinch, but the abomination kept moving.

“Get down!” someone screamed.

Akira ducked instinctively as a concentrated burst of powerful plasma bolts ripped down the hillside, slamming into the Canebrakes. They jerked and snapped under the onslaught, crashing into the underbrush.

“Clear,” came the same, authoritative voice.

Akira turned, but his vision was blurring again. He could hardly move, too. The adrenaline was wearing off, but in a single moment of clarity, he saw their savior.

The mammoth Engine, Lieutenant Andy Jackson from the Fire Snakes, strode out with six Pistons framing his armored body.

“Perfect timing, mate,” Ghost said. “Where’s the rest of your squad?”

After a second pause, Akira realized the hard truth, confirmed a beat later.

“I’m it,” Jackson said, his booming voice quieter now. He reached out to Akira. “You good, Captain?”

Akira nodded.

“Our evac isn’t far,” Jackson said. “I’ll meet you there.”

“We can all make it—” Frost began to say.

“Go. I can handle this,” Jackson said.

The other Canebrakes were drawing closer again, trampling through the forest.

Frost hesitated but then jerked her helmet.

Again, Ghost helped Akira by looping his arm around a shoulder.

The rattling of the machines echoed in the distance.

Akira clenched his jaw, doing everything he could to stay conscious.

Jackson let out a roaring war cry that trembled through the trees. The staccato blast of gunfire drowned out his voice, followed by the electronic shriek of machines.

Akira could feel Ghost slowing, but he didn’t stop, no matter how bad he probably wanted to.

The gunfire soon stopped and there were no more war cries or any other cries at all.

Only silence.

Jackson had joined his squad in death.

Frost finally reached a clearing, where a MOTH sat idling like Jackson had promised. Three Pistons stood sentry, and a pair of pilots sat inside the cockpit.

“Where are the others?” asked the sergeant holding security.

“They’re coming,” Ghost said. He sounded too hopeful to Akira.

The Piston directed his visor the way the Engines had come. He raised his rifle shakily to his shoulder.

Ghost helped Akira into the troop hold of the MOTH.

“You’re gonna be okay, Captain,” Ghost said.

Frost crouched down with a fresh nano-pad. “Hold still.”

As she placed it down on his chest, he saw a flash of metal in the forest. He tried to raise his pistol.

“I said hold—” Frost began to say.

“Fire that bird up!” screamed a voice.

She pulled back, and Akira sat up as Jackson came bolting out of the woods. A single Piston followed him into the clearing.

“Go, go, go!” Jackson yelled.

The MOTH roared to life as Ghost ran out to provide covering fire. The three Pistons guarding the aircraft piled into the troop hold, one grabbing the mounted plasma cannon. It exploded to life, spewing plasma bolts from the dual barrels that tore into the trees above Jackson and the Piston.

Frost helped them both into the troop hold. Ghost hunched at the opening, putting down a burst of cover fire at the machines lurking in the woods.

The multi-limbed metallic beasts bolted from tree to tree. Plasma fire ripped through the leaves at the MOTH.

The Piston on the cannon flew backward from two bolts hammering into his chest. He landed next to Akira on his back. Smoke shifted out of the charcoaled holes in his thick armor.

Jackson jumped inside, and the MOTH jerked off the ground. Plasma pounded the transport as the pilots accelerated into the sky.

The sound of Praying Mantis fighters growled over the distant mountains.

“Hold on! This is going to get dicey!” shouted a pilot.

They peeled away from the clearing below, and then swooped down over the canopy of pine trees. Akira could see the Praying Mantis fighters curving around.

The MOTH was their new target.

Ghost took over on the mounted plasma cannon.

“For Tadhg!” he shouted. “For Megacity Tokyo! For Gold Base!”

The Engine was practically singing as he blasted away. But there was anger and sadness in his normally cheerful, tenor voice.

“For the Nova Alliance!!”

The Praying Mantis fighters rolled away from the flashes of plasma. Their own weapons glowed, preparing to return fire.

The MOTH lowered toward a ravine, trying to get some cover.

“Watch out!” a Piston shouted.

Akira turned toward the cockpit. Through it he saw a single black King Cobra Spaceplane race toward them over the canyon. It released a salvo of missiles.

By the time Akira turned, the two Praying Mantis fighters were spinning away, flames venting out of their cockpits.

“Thanks for the help, Warthog,” said one of the MOTH pilots over the open channel.

“Copy, more hostiles to the west, I’ll do my best to hold ’em off,” replied the King Cobra pilot.

The MOTH rose over the mountains and soared toward the coast. It finally began to descend toward an NAA aircraft carrier tucked inside a cove.

“Get ready!” Jackson said.

The pilots put down on a deck packed with both military and civilian aircrafts.

Akira blinked, his vision going out again. The pain and exhaustion were getting to be too much.

He was aware of being pulled from the MOTH and taken onto the aircraft carrier. Then he was on an elevator going down.

The sound of water hit his ears.

He glimpsed smaller boats bobbing up and down in the cove just below the elevator.

The carrier wasn’t their destination.

“Contos…Okami, Kichiro,” Akira said.

“You’ll see them shortly,” Frost reassured him. “Don’t worry, we’re almost there.”

Once they were sea-level, Akira was carried onto a motorboat. They sped away from the carrier over the choppy waves. Heavy artillery and plasma cannons spit at an approaching formation of six Praying Mantis fighters burning across the smoke-choked sky.

MOTHs lifted off the deck of the aircraft carrier to engage the enemy. They were joined by a pair of Short Sword fighter jets.

Akira tried to watch the aerial battle.

Every time he blinked it seemed another MOTH or Short Sword fighter exploded.

Flames and explosions vented out of the hull of the aircraft carrier and deck behind them. Civilians, soldiers, sailors, and others dove into the wreckage-strewn waves.

Akira drifted in and out of consciousness. When he opened his eyes again, his view had changed to the dark interior of a vessel.

He heard frantic voices, and then a voice.

“Dive, dive, dive!”

It struck him then.

They weren’t on another boat.

They were on a submarine.

There wasn’t anywhere safe on land.

What was left of Shadow Squad was heading deep into the water to hide.

— 2 —

Two and a half weeks after E-Day…

Kepler Station

Kepler Crater, The Moon

Sergeant Tadhg Walsh looked out of the med-chamber, remembering the last time he had received his body augmentations on Earth. The other Engines of his squad had been inside the upright chambers around him deep under the ground at Gold Base in Megacity Tokyo.

But now he was all alone. The last of his kind on the Moon.

He held onto hope his friends were still alive, but the chances grew worse every passing second.

Doctors and technicians stood at holo-screens, monitoring him as needles poked and prodded him inside the med-chamber. Some were pumping his veins full of the nanoparticles that strengthened his muscles and bones. Others took samples for whatever tests they were running on him this time.

The only test he was interested in was the one on his brain.

Cords snaked away from electrodes plastered to his skull and forehead, each monitoring his brain activity. This test would ensure there was no lasting side effects from his L-S88 chip that the technicians had removed when he came to Kepler.

Tadhg didn’t even remember them removing the chip. He had arrived near death.

Now, two and a half weeks later, he was almost fully recovered.

Soon, if he passed this final medical test, he would report to Command for his first orders since E-Day. He already planned to request a MOTH to start a recon mission to search for Shadow Squad.

A doctor walked up to his med-chamber and checked the data-pad on the outside. “Relax Sergeant Walsh. Everything’s going fine.”

Tadhg closed his eyes, remembering his days as a Droid Raider, and then joining the fight against the Coalition after a terrorist attack killed his father.

Those painful events flooded over him. The L-S88 chip no longer restricted memories or emotions that could compromise his suitability for combat.

In one of them, he was celebrating a victory at the Droid Raider Stadium in Megacity Phoenix, when his former Los Angeles Rushers had absolutely crushed the Phoenix Lizards, partly thanks to his action on the field that night.

His father was cheering him on back in Los Angeles at a community holo-screen when the Coalition bomb had ripped through the crowd.

Tadhg had known something was wrong that night when he got back to his locker and didn’t have a congratulatory message on his data-pad from his pops.

His dad never missed a game.

A beeping filled the med-chamber. The electrodes simulating his muscles retracted from his flesh into the pod. The tubes in his veins popped out next, snaking away.

Naked, he had a full view of his body. Both of his legs had taken severe damage from the Canebrakes’ blades, leaving starfish-shaped scars. More scar tissue rippled across his abdomen and up his chest.

The lid opened, and Tadhg stepped out.

Technicians swarmed him, removing the final electrodes on his head and neck. He waited in anticipation as Doctor Blake Howard stepped up with a data-pad projecting a holo-screen. His red chin strap beard bristled as he examined the words and numbers scrolling over his screen.

Blake wasn’t a normal doctor. He was an intel commander, dressed in a black uniform with the gold LDC crest on his cuffs and collar.

His sharp hazel eyes flitted from the holo-screen to Tadhg.

“Everything looks normal, Sergeant,” he said.

“No sign of that bitch?” Tadhg grumbled.

“Sorry?”

Blake tilted his head in confusion.

“Apeiron,” Tadhg said. He reached up to the back of his skull. “You got every last bit of her out of my dome, right?”

“Don’t worry. You’re free of Apeiron forever.” He held out a small, sealed letter. “Your orders, Sergeant Walsh.”

Tadhg took the letter and stared at it as the medical staff exited the room. As soon as they were gone, he ripped it open.

Report to Observation Tower 14 at 0900 hours in your combat gear.

Tadhg rushed to his locker, dressed in his suit, and moved to the locked crate containing his armor.

He tapped his code in. The case opened, revealing his repaired armor.

Thick plates encapsulated his scarred body, locking into place over his legs, torso, chest, and finally his neck. He tilted his head back and flipped his long curly hair into place before the helmet enclosed his head.

Suited up, Tadhg stepped into the barracks. Dozens of LDC soldiers were preparing for their patrols on the Moon’s surface. A few lucky Pistons, now Moon Troopers, were also out there.

They had survived E-Day, like him, but most of these men and women had come voluntarily.

He had been sent here with a message. A message that he still had yet to hear himself.

Tadhg took an elevator five decks up into the command center at the top of Observation Tower 14. The doors whisked open, and he walked past the two LDC Troopers standing guard.

Holo-screens and wall-mounted data-pads lined the hull of the command room. Officers called Falconers, dressed in gray uniforms, stood monitoring the data.

At the helm, stood the last man Tadhg was expecting to see.

General Andrew Thacker, the second to Nova Alliance War Commander Dimitri Contos.

Thacker was tall, with broad shoulders and piercing blue eyes locked on the rows of data and images coming from Earth.

“Sir, Sergeant Walsh reporting for duty.”

Thacker turned, slightly, his eyes still on the monitors.

“Ah, Sergeant Walsh, good to see you have a clean bill of health,” he said.

An LDC officer named Haines stepped up behind Thacker wearing a white uniform with gold lion pins next to a colonel rank. He stood behind Thacker slightly, exactly how Thacker used to stand behind Contos.

Tadhg held up his orders. “I’m here to meet with the Commander of Kepler Station.”

“The War Commander,” Thacker said.

“Yes,” Tadhg replied.

“You’re looking at him.”

Tadhg stiffened. “You’re working for the LDC now?”

“It was an easy decision,” said Colonel Haines. “We needed someone with knowledge of the machines. What better way than to bring someone into the fold who knows the machines and the Nova Alliance intimately.”

Thacker fled the machines, Tadhg thought.

And the LDC thought it was a good idea to make him War Commander?

“Knowledge of the machines is why you’re here too, Sergeant,” Thacker said.

He led them into an adjacent room with observation windows. The hatch closed behind them, and Thacker entered a security code into a monitor at the base of the windows.

Metal hatches slowly opened over the glass, exposing a brown planet on the horizon that Tadhg didn’t recognize at first.

“Wait…” Tadhg stammered. “Tell me that ain’t Earth.”

The planet Tadhg had once called home was no longer blue and green. A brown and black shroud of clouds suffocated most of it.

“That’s smoke from the burning forests and megacities,” said Thacker.

Tadhg stared in disbelief. “Do we have visuals on the NASF positions?”

Thacker raised his brow again.

“You and I, and a handful of others here at Kepler Station are all that remains of the Nova Alliance Strike Force, Sergeant,” Thacker said. “The entire army was wiped out on E-Day.”

“No.” Tadhg shook his head. He thought of Shadow Squad and everyone else that had stayed behind. “I don’t believe it. Akira… Captain Hayashi, Frost, Ghost… they could still be alive.”

“Shadow Squad and everyone else is dead. You have to accept it.”

“All due respect, but how do you know for sure?”

“Because you have been healing in a med-chamber and haven’t seen what I’ve seen for the past two and a half weeks.”

Thacker gestured toward the view of Earth.

“The cannons took out the megacities. Our bases were next and then any sub that fought back.” He straightened, hardly moving. “The Canebrakes and Praying Mantis fighters have continued a relentless campaign since, hunting any survivors.”

He paused to look at Tadhg.

“Everyone’s dead, Sergeant. Including Shadow Squad.”

“I won’t believe it until I see it with my own eyes. Send me on a recon mission. All I need is a MOTH and—”

“I will not authorize the use of valuable resources—”

“I’m only asking for a single MOTH.”

“I don’t give a shit about the MOTH,” Thacker jabbed his finger at Tadhg’s chest. “I am talking about one of the most valuable resources we have left. You.”

Thacker turned to the holo-port. “Since you need more convincing…”

He brought up an image in the center of the room. A blackened, seemingly bottomless crater appeared.

“This is Megacity Tokyo,” Thacker explained.

The image changed to a smoldering scene in a desert. Then a coastline ravaged by fire and craters.

The scenes of devastation went on and on.

All of the megacities, all of the bases, everything the great Nova Alliance had tried to achieve had been erased.

“We lost the war on E-Day,” Thacker said. “Your duty is to help protect the survivors. We must prepare the LDC to fight the machines before they launch phase two of their attack, turning their sights on the Moon.”

He took another step closer, holding Tadhg’s gaze.

“Look, I know you feel guilty for what happened. You want to get revenge or try and find your squad, but your responsibility now is to protect the living.”

“Sir, I want to save Earth.”

“We all do, but right now we must protect the Moon.” Thacker looked back to the images. “Apeiron will come for us, and I need you to secure Mesopotamia Colony at the bottom of the Shackleton Crater from her.”

“Sir, I’m not a guard. I’m a warrior.”

“Right now, you’re neither. You’re bordering on insubordination, Sergeant.”

Tadhg lowered his gaze.

“Mesopotamia is the new cradle of civilization and our most guarded secret,” Thacker said. “If Apeiron ever discovers the colony, the human race will be doomed.”

“You don’t think she already knows?”

“The interior of the crater is bathed in near-constant darkness, and on E-Day, we took drastic measures to make sure our movements were covered when evacuating the Lucky Million there.”

“Hopefully they will remain hidden, sir…”

“You care about Captain Hayashi?”

Tadhg found the question odd but answered. “Yes, of course.”

“Then protect his nephews and sister-in-law. They’re still alive right here in Mesopotamia. I’m sure you want to keep it that way.”

Tadhg recalled his conversation with Ronin just days earlier.

Your Uncle is still alive…he had told the kid.

He still wanted to believe that, but the images Thacker had revealed made him question what he felt in his gut about Shadow Squad’s survival.

There was no proof, just a gut feeling that seemed foolish now.

“Your task will be working with three other former NASF soldiers to help the LDC with the defenses of Mesopotamia,” Thacker continued. “Before you deploy, I have a small job for you.”

He brought up his wrist and spoke into his data-pad. “Bring in the traitor.”

Tadhg forced his gaze away from the dying Earth to the hatch. Two troopers stepped inside with a prisoner in a gray jumpsuit.

Tadhg almost didn’t recognize the gaunt, bearded figure at first.

“Jason Crichton,” Thacker said. “The former Doctor and—”

“I know who he is.” Tadhg walked closer to Apeiron’s creator, a man that Shadow Squad had gone to great lengths to protect before E-Day.

Jason went down on his knees, his hands bound behind his back, his gaze on the deck. Brown hair hung over his haggard features.

He looked like a shell of his former brilliant self.

“Get him up,” Thacker said.

The guards grabbed Jason under his arms and forced him up to his feet.

“This piece of shit is helping us find a way to destroy Apeiron, right?” Tadhg said. “That’s why he’s still alive?”

Thacker snickered. “This piece of shit still claims it wasn’t Apeiron behind E-Day.”

Jason finally glanced up with his hollow eyes. “She wasn’t.”

“I see no reason to keep wasting resources on keeping him alive,” Thacker said. “But before we get rid of him, I need a question answered.”

“What?” Tadhg asked.

“We continue to send probes to Earth to collect data, but most keep being destroyed. With the smoke blocking our view, it’s hard to see much of what’s happening on the surface. However, one probe did return with data that shows the restoration sites weren’t all destroyed on E-Day but have since been torched.”

Tadhg watched Jason for a reaction. The doctor did glance up.

“Why would Apeiron be destroying the sites?” Thacker asked.

“I told you…it isn’t Apeiron, and this helps prove it’s Doctor Otto Cross. I’ve told you over and over. Apeiron’s prime directive was to preserve life on Earth. Even if you think she went rogue and decided humans were a threat, she wouldn’t have destroyed the restoration sites. Those sites are crucial to all other life on the planet. You have to understand that.”

Thacker shook his head. “Your lies end today.”

“Wait…” Tadhg said. “Don’t you remember the Dreads that we first discovered in the Hell Hives in both Paris and Moscow, after the Coalition attacked our restoration sites and broke the peace agreement?”

“So what?”

Jason cut in. “The Dreads were the doctor’s genetically engineered humans. Their modifications allowed them to breath in extreme conditions and harsh climates that most Earth life isn’t acclimated to.”

“You expect me to believe Doctor Otto Cross is somehow posthumously completing his plan of creating an army that can breathe in ash and smoke?”

“And do you think I would have really destroyed everything I worked to achieve?” Jason stood to face the War Commander. His voice shook in unbridled anger. “For what reason? Why would I destroy the restoration sites and the megacities and kill my own beloved family?”

“I think you created a machine in the image of your dead sister. A machine much smarter than you. That machine deceived you and tried to frame your enemy. You’re a fool. That’s what I think.”

“Apeiron was trying to save us. She built the cannons to destroy Hros-1 even though it wasn’t going to hit, thinking it would give us a common goal that would bring us all together. A way to forget our internal struggles and bring peace.”

“Either way, your actions led to E-Day.” Thacker grabbed Jason by the collar and tossed him toward Tadhg.

“Sergeant Walsh, take the prisoner to his execution,” ordered the War Commander.

“There’s really no hope?” Tadhg asked.

Jason looked at him with melancholy eyes but said nothing.

Tadhg took in the view of the burning Earth one last time, and then he grabbed the man that was accused of destroying it.

Suddenly, Tadhg wasn’t so sure if the doctor was lying about Apeiron.

What if he was telling the truth about the restoration sites and Apeiron’s actual motives? What if she wasn’t behind E-Day?

Tadhg knew Otto Cross all too well. And this all was starting to seem like exactly what the evil bastard would have done.

So was Jason Crichton right?

Now, Tadhg didn’t know if he was helping kill an enemy or a potential ally that could help in the war.

One thing was certain.

Thacker was right about the machines.

Whether they were led by Apeiron or Doctor Otto Cross, they would come for the Moon.

***

Halo Sub-Colony, Mesopotamia

Shackleton Crater, The Moon

A guitarist played a calming melody for the two-thousand colonists in Halo Sub-Colony. Ronin Hayashi was one of them, lying on his bed with his hands behind his head for a pillow.

The lyrics were in French, but he picked up certain words like home and love. The musician played the same time every night to calm the survivors and remind them of their old lives.

For some, it was a painful reminder of everything they had lost.

But for Ronin, it was a reminder of what they could fight to get back. He held onto hope that someday, he would return home with other survivors to take back Earth.

An announcement over the PA system drowned out the music.

“Warning. Air filter maintenance is scheduled in ten minutes. Secure your assigned breathing apparatus.”

The automated voice echoed across the chamber.

Overhead LED lights clicked off one at a time and darkness swallowed the room.

Ronin got off his bed inside the ten-by-ten-foot space he shared with his twin brother Elan and their mother Lise.

He bent down to his deaf twin brother, who was still asleep. Gently, Ronin squeezed his shoulder.

Elan shot up and turned, eyes wide with fear.

It’s okay, Ronin signed.

He reached down to the breathing mask hanging from his neck and pulled it up over his nose. Elan nodded and did the same.

This was the second routine maintenance event in as many days.

Engineering often cut the lights to the colonies for hours at a time, reverting the energy to critical systems. Most often during maintenance on the air units deep under the Shackleton Crater.

The drape to their small space pulled back, and their mother Lise stepped inside with her mask already on. She held a bag.

Sitting on her bunk, she reached inside and handed out two energy bars. “I managed to get these bartering today.”

Ronin and Elan shook their heads even though neither of them had eaten in over a day.

“I’m not hungry,” Ronin lied. “You should eat them. Besides, it’s almost time for our new rations, right?”

“I got these for you,” Lise said.

“Let’s all split one,” Ronin suggested. “And we will save the other one for an emergency.”

“Fine. So long as you eat.”

She broke the first bar into three pieces and then gave Ronin the second bar that he stuffed in his backpack. Inside the pack were all of their remaining valuables, including the Warrior Codex his Uncle Akira had given Zachary on E-Day.

His cousin’s blood still stained the bag.

No, not his cousin. His brother.

No matter what, Ronin still considered Zachary his brother.

The automated voice came over the PA again, a final warning.

Maintenance occurred more frequently now, and while the colonists were never told why, Ronin knew it wasn’t good.

Coughs resonated throughout the room from people already sick from the poor air quality. To Ronin, it was just background noise now. Just like the rumble of constant construction.

The thrum of industrial mining machines burrowing deep under the regolith vibrated through the chamber. From what Ronin had heard, the LDC had repurposed all mining equipment. They were using them to expand the five sub-colonies built underneath the capital of Mesopotamia.

There were hundreds of tunnels connecting the chambers deep under the surface, forming a network housing hundreds of thousands of people.

A glowing sign hung near the entrance to this chamber.

Halo Colony.

It was hard to believe this place was their new home.

Ronin was used to cramped living quarters from their apartment in Megacity Phoenix, but this place was downright claustrophobic.

The air quality was worse than an Arizona sandstorm, and it was always dark and cold.

The truth was simple. Mesopotamia was built to house survivors of the apocalypse, but not this many. There weren’t enough resources.

Ronin opened his backpack and buried himself in the Warrior Codex. The book always provided inspiration.

Elan sat down next to him. Together, they read a passage about Shadow Squad going down in a MOTH over the Russian Alps. The transport had sustained massive damage, killing both pilots, and sending them into a tailspin.

Ghost, Perez, Frost, and Tadhg bailed out of the open troop hold per Akira’s orders. But he remained behind and climbed up into Kichiro’s saddle with Okami tucked against his chest.

Ronin had read the story a hundred times, still amazed by what Akira did in the seconds he had to react.

Using his jetpack, he blasted out of the troop hold with the animals. The horse was too heavy to lower to the ground, but Akira got them over a lake where they splashed down.

There were plenty of stories just like this one that showed the heroism and love Akira had for his squad, animal and human alike. But it was clear he didn’t write these passages to brag or for medals.

Each passage came with a note explaining Akira’s thoughts.

This one read: Duty and Loyalty.

Brothers and sisters in arms and civilians before self, mission before self. Warriors are loyal to all of those under their command.

Ronin turned the page.

Do you think Uncle is still alive? Elan signed.

Nodding, Ronin signed back, these stories prove it is possible.

Lise glanced at Ronin but didn’t say a word. She never read from this book of war. War was what had taken her husband and Zachary from her in a single day.

Ronin could see she was losing hope. It was apparent in her gaunt face and sunken eyes. She wasn’t eating, and she didn’t speak much.

His twin brother mirrored that despair.

Ronin felt it, too, but someone had to keep strong.

A bell rang. Rations were here. Colonists rushed to be the first in line.

Ronin carefully closed the book and stuffed it away. Elan didn’t need to hear the bell to see what time it was. Lise pulled back the drape as people stampeded down the aisle.

Across from their living space was Todd and his son Micky. Todd was a big man with a barreled chest and square jaw. He kept his thick brown hair parted to the side.

Ronin had overhead him say he had been a physical laborer, a dying vocation before E-Day when Hummer Droids made up ninety-five percent of the workforce. An injury had forced him to retire early while his wife worked in IT support.

Micky was a few years younger than Ronin and Elan. Like the twins, Micky had lost his brother on E-Day and his mother had gotten separated from them in the chaos getting to a shuttle.

Swinging his backpack over his shoulder, Ronin led the way out into the sea of people with Elan and Lise right behind him. Todd and Micky followed, speaking quietly.

They were good people, from what Ronin could tell. Todd was kind to Lise, and Ronin was glad she had someone she could talk to.

“Stay close,” Todd said to Micky.

Lise signed the same thing to Elan, who nodded back.

The surge of colonists moved into a wide tunnel large enough for mining equipment, joining thousands of other people waiting for rations.

Ronin had stopped looking for people he might know from back home. The people here were all foreign to him. They spoke in different languages and came from different megacities. Some might even be Coalition, trying to blend in.

The line came to a standstill in the dimly lit stretch of tunnel outside the town center of Halo Colony. He was glad he had the mask on to keep out the scents.

Most survivors had showered only once or twice since E-Day. The everyday luxuries that people had taken for granted on Earth were gone. There were no droids to cut hair or perfume and makeup to liven up your appearance.

Hygiene was the least of people’s worries.

Food was number one.

A large man wearing a hooded sweatshirt pushed past Ronin, knocking him into Elan.

“Hey!” Ronin shouted.

The guy glared back at him with dead eyes. Not the sunken, melancholy gaze shared by so many colonists.

This man was filled with darkness. He continued cutting through the crowd. Most people relented to his huge size and threatening body language.

“What an asshole,” Todd said.

Slowly, the line moved up a ramp leading into the town center. Bright overhead lights glowed over the mammoth chamber.

Trees growing out of dirt hauled here long ago from Earth reached toward the lights with their branches. Bushes and hardy flowers sprouted out of planters situated along the road carving through the two city blocks. The three-story, white-and-gray buildings included a hospital, nursery, and machine shop.

Gone were the Hummer Droids that once attended to the sick, cooked and served food, took care of children, and cleaned and repaired clothing. All were replaced by human workers.

Ronin squinted at the three cargo rovers parked in the center of the main street. LDC soldiers stood guard while workers handed out rations. Ronin and his family seemed to be at the tail end of the line.

It wasn’t unusual for the trucks to run out of rations before everyone was fed. Desperation passed through the throng of colonists like electricity.

Troopers patrolling on the sidewalks watched from a distance. Ready to intervene if necessary. Their presence did little to deter the crowds that surged forward.

“Hurry up!” someone shouted. “We’re starving!”

Ronin looked over at Elan, who watched the scene quietly.

You good? Ronin signed.

I’m fine, Elan signed back. He shook his head in frustration.

Ronin wasn’t used to seeing his twin angry. The trauma of E-Day and everything that followed was driving it out of his twin brother.

The line continued, more screaming and shouting ahead.

“They better not run out,” Todd said.

“You think they’re that low?” Lise asked.

“We’re eating it faster than they can produce it.”

“Where are they getting food from?” Micky asked.

“Reserves for now, but I heard there are biodomes with farms,” Todd said. “Hopefully the crops will be ready when the reserves run out.”

“Come on!” someone shouted ahead of them.

The line swayed, people pushing one another.

Finally, they made it onto the block with the three cargo trucks. One of the vehicles was already empty. The workers were closing up the back gate.

That caused more furious shouts.

LDC soldiers closed in on the crowd. Some had their hands on the hilts of energy swords. Their mirrored visors scanned the colonists.

A fight broke out ahead as a man pushed through.

Ronin only saw a glimpse of what was happening, but it appeared two women were on the ground, and two men were trying to hold back a tall guy with a hooded sweatshirt.

At first Ronin thought it was the same one that had pushed him, but this man was smaller with long hair and a beard.

The troopers rushed over to break up the fight.

Ronin moved for a better view when he heard a woman’s shriek of terror.

Lise pulled back on Ronin and Elan the same moment Ronin saw what was happening.

Another man had flanked the troopers and taken one of their energy swords. He held it up, the blade turning bright red. The soldier turned just as the man brought it down on his helmet.

The impact let out a sickening crunch, followed by cries of horror.

The man moved toward the other troopers with the blade, stepping over the soldier he had slain. He held the burning blade up.

That’s when Ronin saw his shaved head and scabs covering his neck. Those scabs covered some of his flesh but didn’t conceal all his tattoos.

Tattoos that Ronin knew all too well.

These were markings of Nordic Gods and other symbols the Coalition worshiped.

Ronin pulled Elan and his mother back as the man swiped at the air with the blade.

“AI IS EXTINCTION!” he screamed. “We will all die because of your greed!”

Three troopers stormed toward him with their rifles up, but another soldier shouted for them to hold their fire.

Todd and Lise both backed away with Ronin, Elan, and Micky.

Other colonists fled, but most remained in line, watching in horror.

The Coalition man charged with the sword. He made it only two steps before he was brought down by a stun device. He jerked on the ground while the troopers piled on.

He was hauled off, along with the limp body of the dead LDC guard.

“Two less mouths to feed,” someone said behind Ronin.

He didn’t turn to see who had said it, too shocked at what was happening in front of him. Hundreds of colonists didn’t seem to share his reaction. They seized the opportunity to push toward the rovers.

All at once, chaos erupted.

More troopers flooded into the chamber, shouting for them to get back.

An alarm wailed, and an automated voice broke over the PA system.

“Ration handouts are over for the day. Return to your assigned shelters.” It was deep and commanding, different than the others. “I repeat, return to your assigned shelters, now!”

“Let’s go,” Lise said. She signed to Elan and then tugged on Ronin.

More people ran at the trucks, cursing and throwing trash or anything else they could get their hands on.

The sight reminded Ronin of the passage from the Warrior Codex about the loyalty Akira had for the troops under his command and those they fought to protect.

Everything his Uncle had done was selfless, putting others before self.

Most of the colonists had the opposite mentality.

They were quickly turning on one another, transforming into savages for their own self-interest. At this rate, Ronin feared the survivors would destroy themselves before the machines had the chance.

— 3 —

NAA Pelican, Philippine Sea

Metal groaned like a pre-historic beast.

Akira sat up in his bunk. It took a moment to remember where he was. The groan and pop of the hull reminded him he was twenty thousand feet under the ocean in the NASF Pelican submarine. The six-hundred-foot-long, fifty-thousand-ton vessel had been his home for the past two and a half weeks.

“Lights,” he whispered.

The gentle glow spread over his small quarters.

From beside his bunk, something let out an endearing whine.

“Hey, boy,” Akira whispered, reaching over to Okami.

The canine droid undocked from his charging station, wagging his tail. The alloy was still marred from burns on E-Day.

Pain rocked through Akira’s back as he swung his legs over the bed.

He was still healing from his own E-Day injuries, including the surgery to the back of his head. He reached up to feel the scab over the area of his skull where a surgeon had removed his L-S88 chip, freeing Akira from the downed network, INN.

Apeiron’s chains were broken, but freedom would only come with the defeat of the machines. When Akira could grieve his brother, Kai, and son, Takeshi.

Thoughts of his family paralyzed him with anger. Without the L-S88 chip, the anger was a fire that he couldn’t put out.

No longer did he have access to the drugs that would douse the flames or pump him full of a cocktail that kept him hyper-focused on his mission. He looked at the leather-bound journal he had found in the abandoned sun quarters.

It was empty, like a gift waiting for him to fill the pages and recreate the Warrior Codex he had given to his son on E-Day.

But Akira couldn’t bring himself to write in those pages.

First, he needed to don his armor and fight to have something to write about.

He fought the smoldering hunger for revenge that fueled his thumping heart, recalling the wisdom of Bushido. Respect or REI, in the seven virtues stated that a true warrior must not prove their strength and are courteous even to their enemies.

Revenge shouldn’t be about feeling better. It should be about restoring honor.

Honor would continue to drive his actions and decisions. Straying away from that would only lead to a lapse in judgment and death.

He took a deep breath, closed his eyes, and fought off the anger through meditation. When that didn’t work, he got down and started doing pushups.

Okami watched him with blue, glowing eyes. He gave Akira a familiar look. One that said the robotic wolfdog wanted a walk or to play.

“Yeah, I know,” Akira said. “Soon, my friend.”

Dripping with sweat, half-an-hour later, Akira finally stood. He went to his sink and washed his face with a cloth.

When he lowered the cloth, he hardly recognized his own face.

The start of a black beard with random gray hairs poked out from his haggard face, the longest his facial hair had been in his entire life. He leaned in closer to the mirror, his shoulder length black hair was messy and tangled, more neglected than it ever had been, shielding one of his brown eyes.

Brushing it back, he scrutinized the face of a man that had failed.

Failed his family, failed his squad, and failed his mission to protect the Nova Alliance.

He looked away, unable to stand the sight of himself.

After dressing in his uniform, he whistled for Okami to follow him out of their small quarters.

“Come on, boy. Let’s go see our old friend.”

Akira flattened his body in the narrow passages as crew members squeezed past.

The journey to the lower decks didn’t take long. Okami grew more excited as they approached. By the time they made it to the hatch, the droid wolfdog’s tail whipped through the air.

Opening the hatch, Akira saw Kichiro, standing, head down, chains bolting its metal body to the hull. Burn marks and dents from E-Day marred his armor.

Akira imagined mounting the stallion and riding out to meet the Canebrakes again, but the horse wasn’t going into battle anytime soon. The survivors on the sub had agreed to shut down Kichiro until they could be sure it hadn’t been corrupted by Apeiron.

“I’m sorry, old boy, but this isn’t forever,” Akira said.

He stroked the stallion’s coarse mane in silence, filled with anger and heartbreak.

Okami barked at footfalls.

Frost and Ghost walked inside.

“There you are, Captain,” Ghost said.

Jackson, the sole survivor of the Fire Snakes Squad, ducked under the overhead. Pistons Corporal Bella Oliver and Sergeant Nick Toretto were right behind the towering man. They had survived E-Day and escaped Edo Castle on the same evac as War Commander Contos.

“Anyone got a SITREP?” Akira asked Frost.

“Negative. Either no one else is out there or they’re afraid to send an SOS.”

Akira nodded as his gut twisted with dread.

The reality was simple—for anyone who had survived E-Day, calling out for help was a death sentence. Each time the comm officers intercepted a transmission for help, it went dark soon after.

There still weren’t any transmissions from Kepler Station either. The machines were jamming everything to and from Earth.

Every moment that passed, Akira knew the chances of finding survivors diminished. He was starting to wonder if they were the final military unit left on the entire planet.

No, that can’t be possible…

There had to be more soldiers out there, more Engines…

“Hiding down here is starting to weigh on me,” Jackson said. “I’d rather die fighting on the surface than cowering in this metal coffin.”

“I’m with you, mate,” Ghost said. “I would rather go down singing myself than listening to the whales’ songs.”

“Count me in on that,” Akira said gruffly.

Even Bella and Toretto seemed to be ready to surface.

But they all had their orders from War Commander Contos.

They would surface when the time was right.

Stroking Kichiro, Akira closed his eyes, remembering a time long ago, before Engines were obsolete, and when they didn’t hide.

Six years ago…

Takayama, Japan

A golden dawn broke over the abandoned mountain city of Takayama. The peaceful morning songs of birds drifted from the thick forest, accompanying the gurgle from the Miyagawa River. All along the river were the ruins of marketplaces and solar panels that had been covered in fresh vegetation, making the place seem like an idyllic relic of the past.

But all was not as it seemed. Shadow Squad had been sent to find a group of Coalition soldiers that had terrorized towns and villages allied with Megacity Tokyo. They were closing in on those terrorists now.

Keeping inside the cover of the forest, Akira scanned the hill in the distance where an ancient shrine showed through gaps in the leaves and branches. He considered sending his drone, Blue Jay, in for a better view but didn’t want the baseball-sized drone to give away their position.

He flashed hand signals, sending Frost into the woods to find a sniping position. Perez and Tadhg followed Ghost, and Akira mounted Kichiro.

Soon the Engines had surrounded the shrine.

On Akira’s HUD, the first image from a mirrored view with Frost showed two Breakers standing on balconies of the third floor under the broken tile roofs, watching the road.

Frost zoomed in on four more Breakers sitting at a table eating breakfast on the second floor. Several more slept on pads.

Perez and Ghost sent back images of three more guards on the first floor.

But it was the image Tadhg sent back that made this trek worthwhile.

A half-naked gargantuan-sized Breaker was resting on a wooden throne on the third floor. He was sleeping in the chair, judging by his slouched posture.

This had to be the lieutenant in charge of the posse.

“You seeing this, bosu?” Tadhg said over the comm. He transferred a better, more clarified image to Akira’s HUD.

“Copy,” Akira whispered.

The tattoos covering the Breaker’s barreled chest and bulging belly was all he needed to identify the infamous soldier.

He was no mere lieutenant.

This was Edomondo Tanaka, a Coalition War Lord.

The other Engines closed in, sighting up targets and waiting for orders. Part of Akira wanted to storm in and slaughter the Breakers. It would make more than a good story, perhaps even a song of respect and honor.

But he recalled a virtue of Bushido, in which samurai need not prove their strength.

Heroic courage is not blind. It is intelligent and strong.

Akira decided they would deal with this strategically, using snipers to take out the guards, and then offer the others a chance to surrender.

He prepared to give the orders when Frost relayed a new image that changed his thinking.

On the floor in front of Edomondo, were two females in scant clothing that Tadhg hadn’t seen.

“Hostages,” Akira said. “Look like two NA officers. Must be the missing ones.”

He thought on it for a moment, then decided the best path forward was to use reason, instead of the sword.

He whistled to Kichiro, launching the horse onto the road and up the path toward the shrine. The birds continued to sing their songs, and a breeze whispered through the leaves of the trees framing the trail.

“Bosu, what are you doing?” Tadhg asked.

“Negotiating,” Akira said.

“Let me do that with my sword.”

“If I fail, you’ll have your chance,” Akira said.

“Perhaps I could convince them to lay down their weapons and surrender with a song?” Ghost said with a chuckle.

“I’ve got you, Captain,” Frost said. “If those filthy uncivilized bastards try anything, I’ll give them a new haircut.”

As Akira approached the shrine on his horse, Coalition voices called out.

They had spotted him, but his squad wouldn’t let anyone get a shot off on him or Kichiro.

Akira whistled to Okami who took cover in the bushes, vanishing.

“Halt or die!” someone yelled.

The augmented soldiers hurried to the balconies on the three floors of the shrine, all of them aiming at Akira.

The Breakers on the second floor moved as the still half-naked War Lord Tanaka rushed out for a look. He raised his hand over his eyes to shield them from the morning sun.

His topknot had come unraveled and was blowing in the wind behind his partially shaved head. He lowered his hand and smiled a toothy grin.

“Akira the Brave!” he shouted. “I am honored they sent you to find me.”

He retreated into the shrine.

A few minutes later the double wood doors clanked open, the metal hinges groaning. The War Lord was now dressed in full armor and held one of the woman hostages by the arm.

In his other hand, he held an energy Wakizashi sword that he raised to her throat. He strode out with her as she squirmed in his grip.

Akira used the moment to take in his enemies. There were four on each balcony, and another two that walked out with the War Lord.

“I’m here to ask for your surrender,” Akira said.

Edomondo looked out at the hills and trees.

“I know you aren’t alone, but you’re mistaken if you think you have me surrounded,” he bellowed. “There are two hundred Breakers closing in on this position that would love the chance to decorate their helmets with the bones of an Engine.”

“Defensive positions,” Akira whispered into his headset. “Perez, get us a MOTH, pronto.”

“Copy that,” Perez replied.

Akira wasn’t sure if Edomondo was bluffing.

It seemed negotiation had failed.

He decided the safest way forward was to go with plan B.

It would certainly make Tadhg happy.

He gave Kichiro a slight kick.

“I will cut her head off if your beast moves a single hoof,” Edomondo said.

“Not without that hand you won’t,” Akira said. “Death from the Shadows!”

Before the War Lord could react, a crack split the air. A .50 cal bullet took off his hand at the wrist, freeing the NA officer who crashed to the dirt.

The War Lord dove for cover. Tadhg came bursting from the woods with his energy chainsaw-sword glowing and rumbling. The blades chewed through the nearest Breaker.

Akira whistled, launching Kichiro up the path.

A salvo of plasma bolts burst overhead from Ghost and Perez. All four guards on the second-floor balcony went down, their armor simmering with orange holes.

Both Engines ran toward the shrine with their energy swords in one hand, and rifles blazing in the other.

Kichiro broke into a gallop. Akira pulled out both of his katanas, rising up slightly.

Two Breakers had run to protect their fallen War Lord.

Edomondo was back on his feet again, shaking the Breakers away and raising his red-hot cutlass.

Kichiro slammed into the first guard, breaking the augmented soldier’s body. The soldier slid across the dirt in a burst of dust. Akira thrust his sword across the neck of the second Breaker, ending the Coalition soldier’s life in an instant.

The War Lord held his ground, a brave, but ultimately foolish act. “You will never—”

Akira lopped off his helmet, head and all, with a swift stroke.

Kichiro slowed as the War Lord fell to the dirt, blood pulsing from the riven stump of his neck.

An explosion boomed inside the shrine, launching burning wood out of the open balconies. Smoke puffed out of the open windows and door.

“Hostiles neutralized,” Tadhg said. He stumbled out of the door gripping his sword, his armor covered in ash. Ghost emerged with the other hostage on the side of the temple.

Akira dismounted to help the NA officer on the ground next to the dead War Lord.

“We’re going to get you out of here,” he said kindly.

By the time he helped her up, he could hear angry shouts in the distance. Edomondo hadn’t been bluffing after all.

Shadow Squad closed in around Akira.

“Where’s that MOTH?” he asked.

“Airspace is too hot,” Perez said. “We’re on our own.”

“We need to move,” Frost said.

“Or we can fight,” Tadhg said. “I like that idea better than running. Running isn’t good on my bones.”

Ghost looked to Akira, who considered their options. He recalled the virtue of the Bushido yet again.

Hiding like a turtle in a shell is not living at all. A true warrior must have heroic courage.

“Defensive positions,” Akira said. “We hold this shrine until evac comes.”

“Now we’re talking, bosu,” Tadhg said.

“Okay, now maybe I’ll sing,” Ghost said. “Perhaps a hymn, or…no I got it…”

The squad took up positions in the temple while he rapped.

“Together we’re one, here we come, no fools hidin’ from our guns!

Got a hybrid horse. A wolfdog, too. Won’t get far when we come for you.

Stand and fight, you will die, from a wicked katana through the eye.

In a blink, before you fire off brass, Sergeant Frost will cap your ass.

Hand to hand, you can’t win, Tadhg will rip you limb from limb.

Death from the shadows, that’s the way, if you face Shadow Squad in the fray.”

***

NAA Pelican, Philippine Sea

“Commander on deck.”

Frost’s voice snapped Akira from a time they had chosen to stand and fight against overwhelming odds, even after a swift, but exhausting battle.

War Commander Dimitri Contos, wearing a black uniform, stopped inside the cargo hold. The Engines all stiffened and came to attention.

“At ease,” he said in a quiet, almost defeated voice.

Akira knew right then this wasn’t going to be good.

Contos strode in the chamber, trying to hide the limp in his gait from E-Day. The submarine lacked advanced med-chambers and augmentation technology to fully repair his leg. They were forced to endure the normal healing process of humans.

None of them were back to normal yet.

Akira studied the kind eyes of the man that he had followed into hell. The spark of hope that had once been there had been extinguished. All the same, Akira couldn’t imagine Contos ever giving up.

“We just lost one of our last drones, this one over Megacity Shanghai,” he finally said. “But not before it sent back some new intel.”

He massaged his freshly shaved chin.

“We confirmed it wasn’t destroyed by the Poseidon Cannons,” Contos said. “It was destroyed after the Poseidon Cannons were taken out.”

The soldiers crowded around a holo-screen of a sprawling black bowl in the Earth. Skeletal buildings protruded out of the black dirt. Squadrons of Praying Mantis fighters flew across the mountains of rubble, chasing the drone the submarine had sent. It dove for cover among the debris, flying low enough Akira could make out the charred remains of humans, their mangled forms twisted in the ash.

A moment later, the feed died.

“We should be up there, doing something,” Jackson growled. “I’m healed. I’m ready to fight.”

“Control your anger, Lieutenant,” Contos said.

Akira was trying to do the same thing. He felt a surge of it.

Red hot, boiling, anger.

Hiding down here like a frightened turtle drawn into its shell was breaking the very wisdom of the Bushido that Akira had dedicated his life to.

But the hard truth was Akira, the War Commander, and the surviving Engines were husks of their former selves. They weren’t recovered from their injuries, and they no longer had an army or the Infinite Nova Network (INN) to provide unlimited intel.

How could they fight or mount a resistance?

“We are heading to a new location,” Contos said. “Rest up for now. I’ll share more later.”

“Wait, sir,” Akira said.

Contos paused. “Yes, Captain?”

“Requesting permission to send out a transmission letting any survivors know that we are still alive,” Akira said. “That we haven’t abandoned them, that there is hope. Something we all need.”

“This is an enormous risk.” Contos seemed to think on it while Akira checked with Frost and Ghost. They both shared the same masks of worry, but Jackson nodded with confidence.

“Perhaps the voice of Akira the Brave will indeed lend hope to people that have none,” Contos said after a pause. “Perhaps hope is what we all need.”

“All due respect, sir, but hope can only be granted if we fight,” Jackson said. “I’m all for a message, followed with our swords to back it up.”

“The time to fight is coming, Jackson. For now, patience is more prudent.”

Contos stared at the Lieutenant for a long moment before Jackson backed down.

“I’ll be patient then, War Commander,” he said, though he looked disappointed.

Contos gestured for the Engines to follow him to the CIC. Akira looked at Kichiro one last time before leaving, then whistled for Okami.

At the helm of the CIC stood Captain Avon Thomas, a large dark-skinned man with a mustache and a glistening shaved head. He faced a bank of holo-screens, eyes flitting from screen to screen. Five NA officers sat at other stations, watching their own monitors.

For the past month, they had listened not just for the machines, but for human survivors. And each passing day there were fewer transmissions from the surface.

Two officers sat with over-ear headsets, twisting through stations and listening intently.

Akira sat down at the equipment, memories from the battle at the shrine in Takayama filling his mind.

Hiding like a turtle in a shell is not living at all.

A true warrior must have heroic courage…

The War Commander spoke to Captain Thomas, who in turn gave orders to the comm officers.

“Send out this transmission on all frequencies,” he said. “As soon as it’s out, we dive and get as far from here as possible to avoid anyone or anything tracking us down.”

Next to Akira, the female comms officer acknowledged the order.

“Whenever you’re ready, Captain,” she said.

Akira swallowed and then cleared his throat. “To anyone that’s listening, this is Engine Captain Akira Hayashi of Shadow Squad,” he said in his deepest voice. “I have spent the past month healing from my wounds with my comrades, and if you can hear me, know this…

He glanced up at Ghost, Frost, and Jackson.

In them, he saw the ancient faces of his ancestors and the 47 Ronin. Those warriors had spent a year planning the siege that would avenge their dead lord. A year of careful planning before striking back.

Shadow Squad needed to bide their time, too. But when they were ready, they would emerge from the smoke, and they would be stronger than ever.

“Soon we will rise, soon we will draw our swords,” Akira said, acknowledging Jackson with a side glance. “Together, as one, we will fight.”

— 4 —

Top-Secret LDC Medical Facility, Mesopotamia

Shackleton Crater, The Moon

Chloe Cotter had traded one hell for another.

She lay on a cot in a chamber with fifty-two other women, surrounded by an electrical fence. Only a single structure with three toilets was inside the confines.

Teeth chattering, she pulled the scratchy wool blanket up to her chin. On the front, was the logo of the LDC, a lion surrounded by stars.

Even with the thick blanket and her gray jumpsuit, she still couldn’t get warm. It was freezing down here.

Chloe wasn’t sure where here was, exactly, only that she was no longer at Kepler Station. Nor did she know how much time had passed since the LDC herded her into the darkness with the others.

One thing was clear—the LDC believed she and anyone with a chip was a direct threat to humanity. Even people who didn’t have anywhere near the number of modifications as her were considered hybrids.

All it took was a single L-S88 chip, and people were condemned.

After what happened on E-Day, she understood the LDC’s fear of anyone or anything connected to Apeiron. But she still didn’t believe Apeiron was behind the attack on Earth.

Chloe suspected someone else. A man that she had helped.

Doctor Otto Cross.

When the Nova Alliance finally crushed the Coalition, she thought she had finally moved past the horrors of war. Apeiron had given her a second chance at life by saving her on the streets of Paris.

That second chance had allowed her to experience joy, and then something else she never imagined she would find in a relationship with Cyrus.

All of that joy had been ripped away from her.

She estimated about three weeks had passed since she last saw him at Kepler Station. They were supposed to start a life together on the Moon but now, she had once again been thrown into prison.

A light spread a sudden, weak glow over the north end of the chamber. Women rushed over to the gate. Chloe joined them in their desperate clamoring for their first meal in a day.

The metal door clanked as its locks disengaged. Two LDC Troopers marched through wearing heavy, white armor.

Today they weren’t carrying the crate of vacuum-sealed tubes of food Chloe had expected.

The crowd at the gate quickly backed away.

They all knew what was about to happen.

A voice muffled by the helmet of the taller guard called out.

“Marsha Long, step forward,” he said.

No one moved at first.

“Marsha Long, to the gate, now,” the guard repeated more forcefully.

He raised an energy sword but didn’t activate it.

Chloe noticed a single woman slowly walking toward the fence. She was about the same age as Chloe, with red hair and freckles. When they had first arrived, she remembered this girl being thin, but now her face was skeletal. Her eyes had sunk deep into her skull and were surrounded by dark circles.

Gaunt and shaking, Marsha approached the gate.

The smaller guard opened it by punching in a code on a holo-screen. The prison door clicked open, and he motioned for Marsha to step through.

“Where are you taking me?” she stammered.

That was the question everyone wanted to know.

Chloe had seen ten other women go through that gate over the past few weeks.

None had returned.

She wanted to believe they were being freed, but she knew better than to hope for a positive outcome in situations like this. She knew from experience how groups acted when they were desperate and living in fear of annihilation.

“Move,” said the guard.

He reached out and grabbed Marsha, holding her as the other trooper bound her hands together with an energy bracelet.

They locked the gate and whisked her away toward the main door.

For a moment the women around Chloe were silent, the only sound a sporadic cough.

Then came the tap of footfalls.

In strode a man wearing a gray uniform, accompanied by another trooper. These men carried two food crates that they set down in front of the gate.

“One at a time,” said the man in uniform. He moved into the weak light with a handful of protein tubes. He was old, maybe sixty, wearing blue pants and a shirt to match with the LDC logo.

When Chloe got to the front, she locked eyes with the man.

She could tell he wasn’t here on his own accord. This was his job, and judging by his pained features, he didn’t like it.

“Here,” he said, holding out a tube.

“Thank you,” Chloe replied.

“Your Uncle says to stay strong,” he whispered.

Chloe froze, but the man held up a hand.

“Keep moving,” he said in a louder voice.

The trooper motioned for her to move. “Get back.”

Chloe hurried back to her cot, too anxious to eat. She lay down, pulling the blanket back up to her chin, focusing on what her Uncle had relayed through this man.

Stay strong.

The fact he was able to get word to her meant he knew where she was.

His message filled her with strength. Maybe there was a way out of this mess with his help.

“You aren’t going to eat?”

Chloe turned to the woman in the adjacent cot, Giana. She was in her early forties, with dark skin and hair. They had become friends over the past few weeks.

Giana sucked the remains from her tube.

“I’ll eat it,” Chloe said.

“Good, you need strength.”

Chloe twisted off the cap from her tube but was distracted by a woman that had moved over to the fence surrounding the area they were being held. She had long, curly hair matted together by dirt.

She stood at the fence often, looking at the hatch across the large space with crazed green eyes, whispering something about her daughter. Chloe didn’t know the woman’s name, but she’d heard others calling her Crazy Lacy.

Lacy—if that was her name—was quiet now, and Chloe turned away.

“Where do you think they take people?” Giana said.

“Nowhere good.”

“Maybe they’re releasing them.”

“Why would they use energy cuffs then?”

“I don’t know.”

Chloe sat up slightly and sucked out a mouthful from the tube. It tasted like old, dry carrots.

“The LDC treats us like we’re the enemy,” Giana said.

“The damn chips,” Chloe replied. “It saved my life, only to condemn me to this new hell.”

Giana reached up to the back of her skull where there was a microchip implant just like the one they all had. But unlike Chloe, Giana had SANDs, the neurological disease that had killed hundreds of millions on Earth.

Without the chip keeping SANDs at bay, Giana would die.

Chloe turned away. She couldn’t face the pain on her only friend’s face. Instead, she watched Lacy. The woman was still staring out at the dull walls.

Chloe finally finished off her tube and closed her eyes.

Screaming snapped her alert.

“Please, someone! Someone let us out!”

Chloe sat up to see it was Lacy.

“Stop it, you crazy bat!” Giana cried.

The woman ignored her, yelling even louder now.

“Let me out! I have to get out! I have to find my daughter!”

Lacy looped her fingers inside the chains of the fence, pulling and shaking it.

Giana got off her bed and Chloe swung her legs over the side of her cot when an alarm wailed. Lights she didn’t even know existed, clicked on in the ceiling.

Chloe raised her wrist to shield her INVS sights from the bright glare until they adjusted.

The rap of heavy boots echoed into the space.

At the entrance, three LDC soldiers rushed in holding active energy swords the color of fire. They went straight for Lacy.

“I can’t take it anymore, let me out, let me out, let me out!” she yelled. “My daughter needs me, she needs me!”

The guards opened the gate and entered. Everyone in their path scrambled away.

When Lacy turned, her eyes flitted about to the soldiers surrounding her.

“Are you going to take me to my daughter?” she asked.

“Step away from the fence and come with us,” said one of the guards.

Chloe recognized the look on Lacy’s face—a combination of terror and confusion in her furrowed brow and wide eyes.

She had completely lost it.

A trooper reached out, and Lacy backed up. Then she turned and grabbed the fence, looping her fingers inside as two of the soldiers seized her jumpsuit.

She screamed, holding on tightly.

“Let go!” one of the troopers shouted.

They finally yanked her off. She fell face first onto the ground with a resounding thud. The soldiers dragged her away, kicking cots out of the way to clear a path. At the gate, Lacy grasped at the metal, still screaming.

She was pried away, and the door clanked shut, locking with an echoing click.

“And then there was thirty-nine,” Giana said.

Tomorrow there would be fewer.

The lights clicked off, darkness and silence passing over the space. Chloe lay there, trying to steel her augmented heart, wondering when her turn would come.

She thought of the message from her Uncle. It gave her a flutter of hope.

“Stay strong,” Chloe whispered. “You have to stay strong.”

Strength was the only way to survive.

***

Kepler Station Brig

Kepler Crater, The Moon

You must stay alive. You must find me.

The voice of Apeiron echoed in Doctor Jason Crichton’s mind.

He sat at the edge of his bed in a small prison cell at Kepler Station. For the past twenty-one days he had only left this room for an hour of exercise a day or to answer questions from the LDC Intel Commanders.

The rest of his time he was tortured by thoughts of everything he had lost to his own creations. His company Achilles Androids Systems (AAS) had built the Poseidon Cannons that Doctor Otto Cross had commandeered. They had designed the Infinite Nova Network (INN), and he had coded Apeiron from his sister.

Everything he had created to save the world had instead been used to end it.

But this morning, the torture of these realizations would come to an end.

In a few hours he would be sent to the surface to die.

The shutter covering a viewport in his door opened. A guard looked in.

“Against the wall,” the guard said.

Jason did as ordered and raised his hands. He knew the drill.

The trooper opened the door and cuffed his wrists. A second guard waited in the hall. Both wore white armor over their gray fatigues, and white masks covered their features.

They took him to a stairwell that would lead to the surface. There he would have a choice prescribed by LDC law and tradition: put on a suit and walk on the lunar surface until the oxygen ran out or die by fire inside a chamber.

He halted when the guards started down the stairs, instead of up.

“Move,” said the guard.

Jason hesitated another moment before he felt a nudge to his back.

The stairs led down five floors to a hatch that opened to a long, narrow passage. From there he was led to an interrogation room not much different than the one he had sat in after arriving at Kepler Station on E-Day.

Two more guards waited outside an open door.

They directed him into a room furnished with only a table and two chairs. A man stood with his back to the door.

“Leave us,” he said.

Jason didn’t recognize the French accent. The door shut behind them, and the man pulled down his hood, exposing his bearded face and sharp eyes that Jason had never seen before.

He was from Earth, though. That much was clear from his tan skin. Moon colonists and miners always had the same pale tint to their flesh.

“Who are you?” Jason asked.

“I’m here to help, but we don’t have much time,” the man said. “I need you to be very clear in your answers to my questions, do you understand?”

Jason raised a brow.

“Yes,” he said.

“War Commander Thacker ordered the destruction of all droids on E-Day, and now I fear he’s going after all human-hybrids.”

“What?”

Jason leaned forward.

“That includes anyone with one of those chips you created,” he said. “I’ve heard rumors that they are going to remove the chips from people that can survive without them, but some can’t.”

Jason reached up to the back of his head to the scab on his scalp. His chip had already been removed. “Why, why would he…”

“I’m Keanu Cotter,” the man said. “Your technology helped save my niece, Chloe. I followed your career and your sister’s career religiously. I was a big believer in the power of AI myself. I don’t think you intentionally had anything to do with E-Day. That’s why I need your help.”

“I can’t help you. It doesn’t matter what you believe. In the eyes of those in charge, I’m guilty.”

“Please,” Keanu insisted. “My niece will die without her chip. Just listen to me. What are the realistic chances that an AI could find a way to send a signal to the lunar surface from Earth that would corrupt or manipulate the hybrids?”

Jason thought on it for a moment. There was a remote chance.

“If the machines were able to get within range for long enough, they could probably transmit the same signal I believe Cross used to subvert the machines. Or a new one.”

“And that would affect humans with the chip?”

“I suspect so, yes.”

Keanu looked down, clearly in deep thought.

“There are other mining colonies,” Jason said. “I know of one that was being expanded at the Shoemaker Crater. You must have some influence if you were able to meet with me, why not ask the hybrids to be moved there? That way they can be monitored and maybe even shielded from any signals. In the worst case, they would be isolated so the harm they could cause would be minimized.”

Keanu sighed. “Influence. I was elected to the Lunar Council, but we have no real power. War Commander Thacker and the LDC rules with an iron fist, and they are allowed due to fear and the lack of resources.”

He ran a hand over his head. “It would take vast resources to move the hybrids. I doubt the LDC will allocate any on hybrids. Not when so many unmodified people are already suffering.”

“In my opinion, the hybrids are a resource themselves.”

“How do you mean?”

“Every droid has been destroyed on the Moon. We no longer have a reliable labor source. We need people like hybrids. People that are stronger, more adaptable than unmodified humans.”

Keanu brightened suddenly. “You’re right…that is all very true.”

He got up and walked around the table, nodding rapidly.

“Thank you, doctor.” He put his hood back up. “I’m sorry for what’s happened to you. I wish there was something I could do to help, but know this. There are people that do not support War Commander Thacker, people like me who have another vision for our second chance here on the Moon. People who still believe in, and support the Nova Alliance.”

Reaching down, the man put a hand on Jason’s shoulder, the first kind human touch he had felt in a month.

He almost broke under the weight of the simple gesture.

“Stay strong, Jason, you might still be needed,” the man said.

He walked out of the room and let the door click shut.

Jason sat there thinking about everything he had just heard. The councilor had risked a lot to meet with Jason, and he had done it with the help of troopers. That meant there were soldiers in the ranks who weren’t loyal to War Commander Thacker or the LDC.

It was hard to know what to think or how to feel, but Jason was too mentally and physically exhausted to have hope of a better future.

An hour later, the same guards returned. Instead of taking him back to his cell, they continued up a stairwell.

He was being led to his death after all.

For that, Jason felt a great relief that the councilor wasn’t able to save him.

Do not give up, Apeiron said. You cannot give up!

Really it was his own subconscious, not Apeiron. The part of him that was still in denial about the horrific state of humanity.

Once he reached the top landing, the two guards opened a door to a circular bay with heavy suits hanging on the clean white walls.

A voice came over the internal comms.

“Jason Crichton, you have been sentenced to death for creating the Artificial Intelligence known as Apeiron. Do you have any final words?”

Jason looked up at the video camera that would broadcast his execution across the colonies.

Everyone would rejoice in the death of the man that had brought humanity to the brink of extinction and forced the survivors to flee to the Moon.

“All I ever wanted was to restore the Earth, to save our species, and for humanity to live in a period of peace,” Jason said. “That is why I created Apeiron to solve the problems we couldn’t solve on our own…”

He left out the part about failing when he had designed the AI after his sister, a person with a heart of gold. It wasn’t Petra’s fault.

She had never even known what he had planned to do when she died.

“Nothing can undo what has happened, but there is still hope for those here on the Moon,” Jason finished. “But you all must come together for the first time in human history for any hope of survival.”

He looked away from the camera and put the helmet on.

Jason steeled himself for what came next.

Just months ago, he was on the verge of healing the planet. He had created the most successful robotic company in the world, had a beautiful family, and countless awards for work with his sister and Apeiron terraforming the Sahara Desert and restoring the rainforests.

But the rainforests were now ash, and the world was covered in smoke.

His legacy had drowned in devastation, and it was Apeiron that had opened the floodgates to wash it away.

He cursed his choices, his heart full of regrets.

Apeiron was silent now.

That was good. Jason couldn’t bear to hear her voice another moment.

He had put too much trust in her, too much of his heart.

She was too similar to Petra.

And in a world of violence, despair, and disease, that was his mistake.

Apeiron had underestimated the enemy. Worst of all, she had deceived Jason about Hros-1, creating the cannons that Otto then used on Earth.

A red light clicked on, the light whirling. Hissing sounded and hydraulics clanked. The curved metal shield doors parted in the middle.

All sense of sound vanished, and weightlessness took over.

Jason hesitated a moment, suddenly overwhelmed by a sense of fear.

He looked at the oxygen monitor on his suit.

Thirty minutes, longer than most prisoners.

Thacker wanted this to be a spectacle.

Jason hopped out into the regolith, past the crumpled bodies in front of the doors where people once stood and banged foolishly to get back inside. People that the LDC had decided were nothing but a waste of resources. Condemned to death because they couldn’t afford to feed a criminal when so many innocent people didn’t have enough to eat.

Others had walked out down the road, their bodies lying where they fell after running out of air. Blue plasma lights blinked along the path, illuminating the corpses so that LDC pilots and fresh recruits from Mesopotamia could see them on the descent to the spaceport at Kepler Station.

Jason started down the path as shadows crept across the horizon. The sun was setting over the Kepler Crater, and it wouldn’t come up again for another two weeks. He would probably be dead before the white disc dipped in the west, creating a phenomenon of light and rising moon dust.

He hopped onward, trying to conserve his air, only to survive long enough that he might be able to see the remarkable view of the moon fountains.

Another body lay ahead, this one on its knees, helmet bowed, as if the person died in prayer. He stopped to look at their helmet, seeing a frozen, but familiar face behind the visor.

Darnel…

Jason leaned down to his former Chief of Staff, Chief of Security, and his best friend.

“No,” Jason mumbled. “Darnel, what did they do…”

Going down on a knee, Jason wrapped his arm around his dead best friend.

“I’m so sorry,” Jason said. His lips trembled. A warning sensor beeped in his helmet, and he raised his wrist to see he was already down to forty percent of his oxygen.

Jason forced himself up and onward, passing more former employees scattered among the dead, their knowledge no longer useful to War Commander Thacker.

His thoughts turned to his wife Betsy and daughters Nina and Autumn as he hopped, picturing the good times. The trips to Lake Tahoe, where they had a vacation home set high on a bluff surrounded by towering pines.

The day Betsy had given birth to Nina, who came screaming into the world. And then Autumn, who was born with a calmness to her sweet face.

He missed them. He missed them terribly.

Jason went down on both knees into the regolith. It was getting harder to breath.

As he used up the last of his oxygen, his breaths became more rapid. His vision began to fade, and his light body seemed to lighten even more.

He managed to suck down one last breath before he collapsed. Soon he would be dead, just like everyone he had known on Earth.

No, that is not true.

Apeiron’s voice returned in his oxygen-choked brain.

There are still survivors, Jason…on Earth… In the Life Arks.

A moment of clarity passed in his mind, recalling the advanced bunkers he had spent months building to shelter some of the most important humans from Hros-1. It was an insurance plan that included scientists, doctors, engineers, soldiers. All people that would help the world rebuild if the worst happened, and Hros-1 sparked an extinction level event.

The Arks were deep beneath the megacities, but they weren’t built to withstand strikes from the Poseidon Cannons. He doubted any of them would have survived.

A tremble shook the ground under his still body. Or maybe it was just in his head. He cracked open an eyelid, seeing the blurred shape of a large rover wheel not far away.

A giant of a man in bulky armor and an exoskeleton moved over to him. Bending down, he scooped Jason up in his arms.

Jason could feel the sensation of being moved, but his vision shifted back to the darkness.

Somewhere between life and death, came a muffled voice.

“It’s your lucky day, asshole.”

A whoosh filled his suit, and Jason felt air on his face. He sucked in a long breath, filling his still burning lungs. Two troopers hovered over him, their helmets angled downward.

Jason sucked in air, over and over, until he could finally form the words in his mind. “Why didn’t you let me die?”

Another figure leaned down.

This was the soldier who had picked him up in the regolith.

Not just any soldier.

This was an Engine.

— 5 —

Kepler Station Barracks

Kepler Crater, The Moon

First Lieutenant Dario Brolin dressed in his crisp, gray Lunar Defense Space Corps uniform. Over three weeks after E-Day, it still felt odd wearing the LDC patch.

In some ways, it felt like a betrayal.

He looked out the viewport of his quarters toward Earth. The pain in his heart still hurt just as bad today as it did the moment he learned Megacity New York was hit by a Poseidon Cannon.

His girlfriend, Kady, and millions of other souls were incinerated while they sheltered from Hros-1. Dario had been forced to watch from the life-pod as he was hauled to this dreary base at Kepler Crater on the Moon.

He touched his vest where he kept the engagement ring, but he didn’t go as far as pulling it out. Doing so would only make the anguish worse.

Looking away from Earth, he searched the vast space between the lunar surface and the planet. Somewhere out there were the remains of his fellow Sky Raiders. Probably nothing more than a few pieces of cold metal.

His best friend, Bear, and his mentor, Captain Harback, were among the space scrap. They had never made it to Kepler Station on E-Day.

Turning to his desk, he glanced at the framed picture salvaged from his life capsule on E-Day. The image was from two years ago, when the Sky Raiders had been assigned to Outpost Medusa, about two hundred miles south of the remains of Cairo.

For months they had sat out of the action, leaving the dirty work to the Pistons and Engines fighting to take back the ancient city.

Finally, the Sky Raiders got the call to do what multi-million-dollar drones and guided missiles couldn’t—make it to the center of the city, through all of the jamming equipment and anti-aircraft weapons the Coalition used to keep the battle on the ground.

Dario had climbed into his cockpit that day with a goal to be the first to drop the bunker buster bomb on the pyramid where the Coalition War Lords had taken up residence. The bastards hid deep beneath the fortress of historic stone.

Twenty minutes after taking off, he completed that goal, with one only engine, and his portside wing hanging on by bolts.

Holding up the picture, he could see the smoking King Cobra on the tarmac at Outpost Medusa. Captain Harback was standing in front of the Spaceplane with his arm around Dario and a cigar hanging from his mouth.

“I’m so damn proud of you, Dar,” Harback had said. “The Sky Raiders are back in business thanks to your flying out there.”

It was true. They had seen more action after that battle. The Nova Alliance Commanders had deployed the Sky Raiders to new hostile zones around the globe.

But no amount of action had prepared the veteran pilots for E-Day.

A message crackled over the PA system of the barracks.

“All pilots report to the briefing,” said the voice.

Dario finished getting ready and then headed out of his quarters, passing men and women he hardly knew. Most of the LDC pilots had come here long before E-Day for the high salaries that came with the cold isolation of boring CAPs and protecting the supply lines of the colonies.

A physical and mental test was required for those that thought they had what it took to be a pilot. Even so, some who took the actual job cracked. Still, the pressures of the job wouldn’t hold a candle to what they would face when the machines came.

As Dario entered the three-tiered briefing room at Kepler Station, he looked around at the one-hundred-and-twenty pilots that were remarkably unprepared for what was coming.

Almost every single one of them had sat in their cockpits on E-Day and watched as the Nova Alliance Strike Force was decimated by the machines.

While innocent people like Kady were turned to ash.

Dario wasn’t sure if the LDC could have changed the tide of battle, but aside from the Moon Rat squadron led by Major A.G. Wind, none of these pilots had even tried.

In his mind, they were cowards.

He hated all of the bastards that didn’t disobey their orders that day.

Dario found a seat next to the major, who gave him a nod in greeting.

Wind had been reprimanded for his actions on E-Day, but Captain Harback was right about how they wouldn’t court-martial the major on return. The LDC desperately needed pilots, especially with combat experience, and Wind was allowed to keep his rank.

At the bottom of the three-tiered room, War Commander Thacker strode inside with two Falconers in their black and gray uniforms.

The overhead lights dimmed, and the holo-screen in the center of the first floor flickered to life.

Thacker wasted no time getting started.

“Today marks day twenty-two since E-Day,” he said. “We continue to prepare for a Phase Two attack from Apeiron and her legions. Updates include two new functional cannons at Kepler Station. We’re also nearing completion of the Heaven’s Shield Generator at Mesopotamia.”

The holo-screen displayed a digital blueprint of Mesopotamia, the capital colony at the Shackleton Crater. The colony was carved into the bottom of the crater and was topped with a dome. Beneath it, blue lines represented tunnels snaking down like roots to the five sub-colonies housing the rest of the so-called Lucky Million.

“Once active, Heaven’s Shield will cover the entirety of Mesopotamia,” Thacker explained. He nodded at the Falconer on his right who tapped a data-pad.

A blue light enveloped the dome over the colony on the screen.

“This shield will be activated in the event the machines find our new cradle of civilization,” Thacker continued. “However, there is no evidence they know where Mesopotamia is, and I plan on keeping it that way.”

He nodded and the holo-screen vanished.

“Our number one priority is protecting the Lucky Million and doing whatever it takes to ensure survival of the colonies. The majority of our resources are being dedicated to that goal, along with preparing our troopers and pilots for war here on the Moon.”

“War Commander, has any consideration been given to sending a recon mission to Earth to look for survivors?” Dario called out.

Wind grunted his disapproval but said nothing.

Thacker glanced up to Dario.

“Did you not hear what I just said?” Thacker asked. “Our mission has not changed. Our priority is the survivors on the Moon.”

“And what about the survivors on Earth?”

Thacker cursed loud enough for everyone to hear.

“I’ve had this same conversation with Sergeant Tadhg Walsh, who seems to believe, like you, that the Nova Alliance Strike Force still exists and is still fighting the machines,” said the War Commander.

He turned to look out across the pilots.

“As you all know, I was also part of the NASF like Tadhg and Dario here, but unlike them, I’ve accepted we lost the war on E-Day,” Thacker said. “The LDC Commanders picked me to protect the colonies because I understand the machines. I saw firsthand what they are capable of. I swore an oath to protect the colonies, and that is exactly what I’m going to do.”

Swore an oath to the Nova Alliance too, Dario thought.

“My duty, and the duty of every man and woman in this room, is to make the sacrifices needed to keep our species alive,” Thacker said. “That mission grows more dire every day with dwindling resources that we must prioritize here on the Moon. We cannot afford to waste any on a war that’s already been lost for Earth.”

Dario clenched his jaw to resist the urge of calling the War Commander a coward.

“Easy,” Wind whispered to him.

Thacker turned at the sound of footsteps.

Another officer suddenly rushed into the room and headed over to the War Commander. Thacker stepped away from the holo-screen and bent down to listen to the message.

“What do you mean his execution was cancelled!” he shouted. “The council did this?”

Dario exchanged a glance with Wind. “What’s he talking about?”

“Doctor Jason Crichton,” Wind said.

Thacker turned back to the pilots, his face red with anger. He reached up and pounded his chest hard, repeating the motto of the LDC.

“Always ready, always vigilant.”

The pilots repeated the words as Thacker rushed out of the room with the Falconers.

“You’re playing with fire,” Wind said to Dario.

Dario looked over at the major.

Wind gestured toward the pilots leaving the room. “Thacker could send every single one of us to Earth and it would do no good. I saw what happened on E-Day. I know what we’re up against.”

Dario snorted. “It would have done good the day of—”

“E-Day is over, Lieutenant. You’re going to have to accept that like I have.”

Wind held his gaze. “I lost a brother and my mom on E-Day. We’ve all lost people, but throwing away our lives won’t bring them back. You understand?”

“Loud and clear, sir. We sit back and watch while the Earth burns. Got it.”

***

NAA Pelican, Philippine Sea

War Commander Contos entered the briefing room of the submarine wearing a mask of calm.

Akira stood from a chair facing a table illuminated by holo-maps. Frost, Ghost, and Jackson turned toward the War Commander.

“I have promising news,” Contos said. “Captain Thomas has located a place to hunker down, a facility in the Mariana Trench called Neptune Research Station.”

“The Mariana Trench?” Jackson said. “Isn’t that…”

“Our best option, for now,” Contos said.

“Is it possible it is compromised?” Akira asked.

“Yes, but we can’t stay in this sub forever,” Contos said. “I’m hoping a station that far under water might have escaped being subverted by the machines. But if it’s compromised, we’ll clear the habitats of all hostiles.”

Contos paused to look at them all in turn. “We’re almost back to fighting strength, and having a forward operating base is pivotal to plan our next move and locate survivors.”

“Have we received any response to my transmission?” Akira asked.

“Afraid not, but any survivors that may have heard it might be too afraid to respond. Your message will at least have given them hope. They’ll know that the Nova Alliance hasn’t given up on them yet.”

Akira nodded, but Jackson raised his tattooed arms over his barreled chest.

“We’re waiting too long, War Commander,” he said. “Every day we sit in this tin can, the odds of finding surviving military units gets worse, and now…”

“Now what?” Contos asked.

“Now we’re diving to hide again when we could be up there fighting.”

“Jackson, I want to be optimistic, but what can we do to stop Apeiron?” Frost interjected. “Killing Canebrakes is one thing, but it’s not going to stop the damage they have inflicted on the planet. We need science to save us.”

“Frost is right,” Ghost said. “The restoration sites are burning. Without them, we’re looking at mass extinction of most species, even if we do stop the machines. We need researchers, engineers, scientists.”

“And that is precisely why I have decided on Neptune Station to stage our FOB,” Contos said.

Every light in the sub suddenly dimmed.

The hatch opened again, and this time Captain Thomas stepped inside.

“We’re picking something up on the passive sonar,” he said at a whisper. There was a slight hint of anxiety in his normally stern and authoritative voice.

The Engines followed the captain out into the CIC to a sonar screen where a large dot was moving about two hundred miles to the west in the direction of the Philippines. The clump of green was far too big to be an animal. That meant it could be another sub…

Or the machines.

The green blob suddenly began to dissipate like salt dissolving in water.

Captain Thomas waited a beat before speaking to the sonar officer. She confirmed it was gone.

“Keep an eye on it,” he said.

While the rest of the Engines dispersed, Akira stayed behind for the next hour. As he paced and waited, a communications officer stood with a message.

“I’ve got something again,” she said. “It appears to be a response to the transmission Captain Hayashi sent out.”

Contos, Thomas, and Akira all rushed over.

“Bring it up,” Contos said.

The officer reached to her data-pad and tapped on it.

“Captain Hayashi, I am relieved to hear your message. I feared all Engines were wiped out on E-Day.”

The voice was deep. Charming.

Frighteningly familiar.

“Find out who this is,” Contos said.

The officer nodded.

“Identify yourself,” she said.

“I’m surprised you don’t recognize my voice,” replied the man. “Tell Captain Hayashi I look forward to seeing him again. Soon, very soon.”

The channel crackled offline.

“The transmission’s dead,” the officer said.

Contos called the other Engines back into the CIC. Frost, Ghost and Jackson joined them at the comms station.

“Play it again,” Contos said.

Okami growled.

The wolfdog’s hair stood straight along his spine.

“He senses something,” Akira said.

A beeping echoed through the room, drawing attention to the sonar station.

Captain Thomas hurried over to examine it. “Contact. Seventy-five klicks out, headed our way fast.” He turned to the comms officer again. “Play that message again. This must be related.”

The comms officer brought the same charming voice back online.

“Why are we listening to Cross?” Ghost asked.

Akira stared back at the bank of radio equipment, a chill hitting the back of his brain.

“That’s not possible…” he said.

Memories of the moments leading up to E-Day rushed through his mind. The events on Titan Space Elevator that led to the death of Perez. The escape of Doctor Cross.

Somehow, the wicked scientist had survived and was back on Earth.

Akira gritted his teeth at the memory of Otto executing Perez.

“How is he still alive?” Frost asked.

There was no time to consider the implications.

“Closing in fast,” said the sonar officer. “This thing is big, Captain. Twice the size of the Pelican.”

Thomas turned with a look of shock and fear.

“Battle stations,” he said. “Everyone, go now.”

Akira ran out of the room with the Engines. Ghost and Jackson took a left into a passage to the starboard turrets with Akira and Frost heading for the portside with Okami.

Akira slipped into the turret chamber, taking the leather seat next to Frost.

Frost activated the weapon’s system while Akira put on a headset.

“Command, this is Captain Hayashi,” Akira said.

“Copy,” replied Contos. “Standby for orders.”

Akira tapped at the data-pad in front of his seat, pulling up the passive sonar. Only fifty miles to the west, the same blob of green he had seen not an hour earlier was moving again. Solidified now.

“What is it?” Frost asked.

“Good question,” Akira said.

Whatever it was, it was moving fast.

A little too fast to be a whale or giant squid or any sea creature that Akira knew of.

This had to be another submarine, or the machines.

Akira watched the data as the submarine dove deeper, hitting fifteen-thousand feet. They were moving at full-speed, and the thing was still gaining on them.

Frost grabbed the controls connected to two plasma cannons.

The sub dove deeper into the inky black.

Alternating his gaze across the controls, Akira took in all of the data.

They were heading right for a ravine that would provide cover.

If they could get there…

The contact was only thirty klicks away.

“Shit, this thing is really moving,” Frost said.

Akira stared, his pulse accelerating from everything that had just happened. While he watched the sonar, he thought of Otto.

Could the transmission and this thing be connected?

He shook the thought away.

Impossible.

The submarine descended into the crushing depths. The trench was only about three thousand feet across, but Thomas was an experienced captain. He deftly guided the fifty-thousand-ton vessel into the crevice. They lowered into the black, all non-critical systems shutting off.

Silence gripped the vessel.

The cameras captured a translucent squid gliding overhead. The body glowed a faint blue, lighting up the jagged sides of the trench.

The captain tucked the submarine under a shelf of rock, and Akira lost sight of the creature on screen. He looked back to the passive sonar and the enormous contact inching closer.

It knew they were here.

Frost gripped the controls to the plasma turret.

Okami barred his metal teeth at the thick hull as if he could see through into the dark water. When Akira gestured, the wolfdog scampered out of the hatch.

The contact blinked closer on the screen.

And then, just like that, it began to dissipate again, spreading outward like ash from a burning leaf on the screen.

Akira squinted at motion on the video feed. About five hundred feet above them, right above the ledge, he spotted a blue flash of metal or scales.

Fish, he realized.

A school of fish.

But how could a school of fish track them and why…

The answer to his question came a moment later, when the elongated bodies of sea creatures darted downward. All at once, they glowed blue, illuminating a school of not fish, but translucent squid with metal tentacles.

Hybrid squids. Creatures that only Apeiron could have created.

There had to be a hundred, maybe even thousands of the monsters. Just like the one he’d seen minutes ago.

“Apeiron,” Akira whispered.

“You got to be kidding me,” Frost mumbled.

“Fire at all targets,” came a firm command over the comms.

Frost squeezed down on the trigger, unleashing hundreds of bolts that sizzled through the water. The cybernetic creatures went dark, their blue bag-like bodies winking off like lights on the video feed.

“I can’t see them,” Frost said. “I can’t see anything.”

She raked the gun back and forth, firing blindly.

Several of the contacts blinked off the sonar.

“Keep firing,” Akira said. “You’re hitting some of them.”

The first of the squids slammed into the outer hull of the sub. An impact echoed throughout the vessel. Akira flinched as another smacked against the turret. He could see them up close on the monitor. Their tentacled arms began to radiate blue as they wiggled about over the metal.

Frost moved the barrels back and forth, trying to free the turret.

In the video feed, Akira noticed inky blood spread out in the water.

These things were still part animal.

He tried to make sense of it. Was it some sort of secret project Apeiron had been conducting before E-Day?

He knew she had been searching the globe to study apex predators.

What about the message from Otto?

One of Apeiron’s tricks?

Static hissed from the comms, followed by the rough voice of War Commander Contos.

“Captain Akira, to the CIC.”

Akira patted Frost on the shoulder before taking off for the bridge with Okami. A violent rumble shook the vessel, knocking Akira to the deck.

He turned when he heard Frost curse.

“The turret is broken,” she called out.

Alarms blared through the vessel as he backed out of the station with Frost.

More impacts shook the Pelican, knocking her to the deck with a thud. Akira braced himself against a bulkhead and then leaned down to Frost.

“You okay?” he asked.

“Fine,” she replied.

He helped her up and led the way to the CIC as more of the squid plowed into the outer hull. By the time he got to the CIC, the entire room was a scene of chaos. Officers shouted over the noise, and red warning lights blazed.

Captain Thomas was at the helm, barking orders.

The submarine motored out of the ravine to escape. Akira noticed the contacts on the sonar were suddenly starting to move away from the Pelican.

Only, they weren’t fleeing.

They were regrouping.

The beasts formed a single, colossal squid that whipped its tentacles around the sub.

“Fire the torpedoes!” Contos said.

“Sir, torpedo tubes 9 and 10 are offline!” someone shouted. “Tube 1, 2, 3, and 4 aren’t responding either.”

“Those things have damaged our weapon systems,” Thomas said.

“What about our sea-to-surface missiles?” Akira asked.

“We’re too close. If we fire one, we’re dead. It would be a risk to fire a torpedo, let alone one of the sea-to-surface missiles due to pressure and proximity.”

All around the CIC, the hulls groaned. The Pelican was designed to explore these depths, but apparently not to fight in them.

On the screen, the hybrid squid squeezed the sub. It crunched through their last plasma turrets, leaving them defenseless.

In that moment, all Akira could think about was how these creatures had tracked them here. They had been so careful, racing away after his transmission.

Unless the beasts had been following them before the transmission.

The mammoth animal finally loosened its grip and swam around them, circling like a vulture over dying prey.

Captain Thomas stood in front of the monitors, eyes flitting back and forth.

“Captain, what are your orders?” Contos asked.

“I don’t… I don’t know,” Thomas said in a defeated tone. “Due to the depth, we shouldn’t risk firing any torpedoes, even if we can get them online.”

Even Ghost was silent. He exchanged a worried glance with Akira. Just a simple expression between two men and friends that had fought against countless enemies over the years.

They both knew this was likely the end.

Frost did too, joining them in silence. Okami whined by her side.

The squid continued to circle, racing around the damaged vessel.

“We’re getting a new message,” the comms officer said. “This time it’s just text.”

Thomas looked over at a holo-screen displaying the incoming text.

Surrender. Rise to the surface. We have been tracking you since Japan. You cannot escape.

Akira had been right about the squid following them since before his transmission to the surface.

This wasn’t on him, but how had this happened?

Unless whoever was behind these squids wanted the submarine to lead them to more survivors. But why the transmission from Otto? It was too much to be a coincidence.

If this wasn’t Apeiron, or one of her tricks, then it was possible…

Akira stared in horror at a realization that maybe she wasn’t their only enemy. Maybe Otto was also out there somehow—maybe Shadow Squad now had two enemies.

“Torpedo tube 8 is back online,” the weapons officer suddenly said. “Permission to fire.”

Thomas stiffened, the confidence returning in his posture. He looked to War Commander Contos.

“It might be our only chance,” said the War Commander.

The Captain nodded.

“Fire,” he boomed. “Hit that fucker right in the guts!”

— 6 —

Halo Sub-Colony, Mesopotamia

Shackleton Crater, The Moon

“Execution 2, will broadcast in t-minus ten minutes,” came a male voice from unseen speakers. “Standby for an update from War Commander Thacker.”

The voice echoed through the town center of Halo Colony, where Ronin and his mother and brother had joined thousands of colonists to watch the execution of disgraced Doctor Jason Crichton on a holo-screen.

Instead, they had ended up booing and shouting as he was hauled off in a tactical rover.

Ronin was more interested in the person that had pulled the doctor into the rover. It had looked like Tadhg.

Having him on execution duty seemed like a waste of his talents, but then again, this wasn’t your average execution.

Like many of the thousands of people around Ronin, he hated the man who had created the machines that killed his father and brother.

Two hours after the canceled execution, the colonists were getting more agitated as they waited. Intermittent coughing mixed with angry, muffled cries from people wearing breathing masks.

Not even the French musician and his friends were singing or playing their instruments tonight. Instead the group of musicians were talking to each other, huddled and looking worried.

LDC Troopers patrolled around the chamber, watching the crowd carefully.

Ronin’s mother had been reluctant to come to the execution for this very reason. Especially after what happened during the last time they had come for rations. But it was their growling, empty stomachs that had brought them back here for the possibility of getting fed.

They’d succeeded, and now the rations were tucked inside the backpack Ronin wore over his chest. He had learned quickly to keep it there to avoid any opportunistic thieves, especially in crowds like this.

He kept his hand over the pack, making sure the precious contents were safe at all times. The wait finally ended as the holo-screen in the center of the town flickered to life with the hardened face of War Commander Thacker.

The colonists fell into silence.

“Citizens of Mesopotamia, as you know, I’ve been tasked with the honor of keeping you all safe,” he said in a deep voice. “To that end, we have delayed the execution of Jason Crichton tonight because he is still valuable to us, but we have another scheduled execution for you from a man that poses an immediate threat to the colony.”

A secondary holo-screen emerged with the face of a prisoner that Ronin instantly recognized. It was the Coalition man who had killed the LDC Trooper during rations the other day.

Dark, soulless eyes stared at the camera as he was prepared for execution.

Ronin had seen several executions since E-Day. Criminals, former Coalition, and even supporters and staff of Crichton’s had been sent out onto the moon to die.

At first, it seemed extreme to Ronin. But Thacker always reminded the refugees that these people were responsible for why they were on the Moon.

He wouldn’t care if they all burned.

The view zoomed out, showing the shackled prisoner wearing nothing but white pants in a small chamber with metal walls. His muscular body told a story of war like the Warrior Codex. Scars cut across his flesh, and tattoos branded his body.

He kept his gaze on the camera.

“Life at Mesopotamia and the five sub-colonies is fragile,” Thacker said. “We must be honest about it, and that is why anyone who threatens our ecosystem will meet this same fate. We won’t even waste a suit on this terrorist or, or anyone like him. All enemies of the LDC will be hunted down and eliminated.”

Flames vented out of the floor, clawing up the prisoner’s legs. His face twisted in agony, but he kept his eyes on the camera.

Lise turned to Elan and Ronin, but she didn’t shield them from this macabre punishment. This was nothing compared to what they’d seen on E-Day.

The prisoner kept staring until he was completely devoured by the fire.

When it was over, not a single person in Halo Colony said a word.

War Commander Thacker continued speaking like nothing had happened, clearly unfazed by the man they had burned alive.

“The machines are not the only threat to our survival, and I have made no secret of the fact we are facing multiple struggles, including limited resources,” said the War Commander. “But my promise to all loyal colonists will never change. I will do everything to protect you against internal and external threats, from Coalition terrorists to Apeiron.”

After a stern nod at the camera, the holo-screen vanished.

The colonists began to disperse.

Apparently, they bought the message from the War Commander.

But Ronin didn’t trust the man. He had fled Gold Base instead of staying behind to fight. How could someone like that protect the colonies?

Maybe that’s exactly what we need, Ronin thought. A coward that won’t commit troops to Earth and instead keep them here to guard the colonies.

He shook away the thought, recalling an ancient saying that showed up in another form in the Warrior Codex.

The best defense is a strong offense.

They should have been doing something for Earth. Anything to help.

As Ronin left the chamber, his mind seemed to focus on one thing.

Fighting back…

Living down here wasn’t surviving. It was just waiting to die.

Lise turned before entering the wide passage leading back to their home.

“Keep the pack secure,” she said.

Ronin patted it in response.

They set off down a connecting tunnel, taking a different way to the communal living chamber. Retrofitted mining offices framed the walls inside this tunnel, the spaces transformed into small shops and official LDC offices.

Standing in front of one of them were two more troopers in their gray and white armor, watching the crowd filter by. Their hands never seemed to stray far from the hilts of their energy blades. They guarded the recruiting station, where everyone between the age of eighteen and thirty-five were required to check-in for conscription.

Ronin and Elan were six months away from their eighteenth birthday. While Elan would likely be turned down for service, Ronin would surely be accepted.

He was excited about the prospect of training to be a trooper when the time came.

His mother took him and his brother down a ramp into a wide tunnel with hundreds of other people. Stands along the walls served as small storefronts where people bartered for goods.

“Do you know who I am?” A voice echoed through the busy crowd.

Most people kept going, but several, like Ronin, stopped to watch a bald man wearing a black sport coat with gold cuffs. He was standing up to a taller man, this one wearing gray pants and a sweatshirt fitting snugly over his wide shoulders.

“I don’t give a shit who you were,” said the taller man. “Give me those damn cuffs!”

The wealthy-looking man glanced down. He seemed to consider taking them off and handing them over for a moment, but then shook his head.

“I will not be intimidated by your—”

Before he could finish his sentence, the would-be thief headbutted him in the nose. The crack echoed in the enclosed tunnel as the man slumped to his knees, hands holding back the flow of blood.

Ronin moved out of habit, wanting to help, to stop this injustice. It’s what his father Kai and Uncle Akira would have done.

His mother snagged his arm. “Don’t.”

“Mom, we can’t just let people…”

“I lost one son. I won’t lose another.”

Three more thieves descended upon the fallen man, pulling off his coat, boots, and stripping him of everything valuable while their leader laughed.

By the time a LDC soldier arrived, the men had fled. Everyone walked by like nothing had happened.

Sights like these were becoming more and more normal.

Normal, Ronin thought.

He would do anything to go back to the normal days of living in the slums of Megacity Phoenix, in the small apartment with his brothers and parents.

But those days, as difficult as they sometimes could be, were gone.

They took a left into a smaller connecting passage that led to the communal space. Hundreds of people were lounging about their bunks.

Ronin was relieved to be heading back to his bed. He was exhausted from a dread that he normally didn’t feel back on Earth, even when things were bad.

He didn’t want to admit it might be depression.

His mother was dealing with it, too. Same with Elan, although he was trying to hide it. They were a proud family, and they would make it through this, together.

People lingered in the dim lighting of the large chamber. Some of them were talking. Others were sharing meals of rations and water.

The harmonious notes of a guitar rose over the coughs and conversations.

Three voices broke into song in English.

It was an old one, one that Ronin had not heard in a very long time.

“I see skies of blue and clouds of white…the bright blessed day, the dark sacred night. And I think to myself…”

“What a wonderful world,” Lise sang quietly.

A wet sheen formed over her eyes.

Ronin signed to Elan what the musicians were singing.

Lise had read them a book with the same lyrics every night when they were toddlers. Elan smiled and signed, “I remember.”

While the song faded, and the men launched a new one in French, Ronin sat on his bed to pull out the rations. Tonight, the music helped calm the chamber.

He didn’t hear any fighting, or shouting, just the guitar, and singing.

Picking up a handmade broom, Lise started cleaning their space, sweeping out the dust that had already collected.

It helped her feel normal, she had once told Ronin. This was one thing she could control: keeping their small shelter clean.

Across from them, Todd and Micky were sitting and eating their rations.

Lise finished cleaning and signed to Ronin and Elan. Do you care if I ask them to eat with us?

No, Elan signed back.

Ronin shook his head.

“Want to join us for dinner?” Lise asked.

Todd was about to pull back their drape but looked down to Micky. The young man shook his head.

“Come on, it will be a nice change of pace,” Todd said.

Micky shrugged.

They walked across the aisle with stools and took seats.

It was awkward at first, but Ronin broke the ice.

“I heard the Lunar Council is talking about sending kids to school,” he said. “What grade are you, Micky?”

Micky took a bite of his yellow energy bar.

“Senior,” he said. “You guys?”

“Same.”

Chewing, Micky looked to his dad. Todd was talking to Lise now about the LDC in a whisper. Apparently, Todd was being considered for a job as a trooper, despite his bad leg.

“Did you play any sports?” Ronin asked Micky.

“Baseball, but I didn’t really like it.”

“How about Droid Raiding?”

“Nope, never cared to watch people beat up on machines.” Micky scowled. “Maybe that’s why Apeiron turned on us? Or maybe she just realized humanity wasn’t worth saving. Either way, doesn’t matter now, does it?”

“It matters,” Todd chimed in.

“Why?”

“Because the war isn’t over,” Ronin piped in. “I still think my Uncle Akira is fighting on Earth. Sergeant Walsh told me that you never count an Engine out of a fight.”

“Your Uncle’s an Engine?” Todd asked.

Lise looked at Ronin but said nothing. He wasn’t sure his mother believed what he said about Akira.

“No offense, but Engines are obsolete,” Micky said.

Todd gave him a stern look.

“You don’t know my Uncle,” Ronin said.

“Nope, but I know what I saw on E-Day.” Micky got up and left.

Ronin also stood at what he saw as disrespect. But past his anger, he recalled thinking the same thing on E-Day, when the Engines had lost the fight in Megacity Tokyo.

Micky went back to his cot and pulled the drape around it.

“Sorry,” Todd said. “He’s been through a lot. I mean, we all have. I know you guys have, too.”

“It’s okay,” Lise said. “We’re all just trying to survive, emotionally and physically.”

Ronin still didn’t like Micky’s attitude, but he took a seat and let it go.

A kid, maybe seventeen or so, suddenly ran past the open drape, darting down the aisle.

“You, come here!” someone shouted.

Ronin got up as two troopers bolted by, yelling for the young man to stop. The guards tackled the boy near the exit of the chamber.

A woman rushed over.

“Please, he’s all I have left!” she pleaded.

The soldiers hoisted the kid to his feet. Ronin saw he wasn’t much older than himself and Elan.

“No, please!” she wailed.

The soldiers took him away while another trooper restrained the woman.

“Your son will serve, just like the rest of us,” he said.

Now Ronin understood, the kid must have just turned eighteen and had never reported to the LDC conscription center.

“Everyone, settle down,” a trooper said in his muffled voice.

Lise stepped up next to Ronin and wiped something from her face.

It was the first tear she had shed since E-Day. Ronin knew what she was thinking. Soon he and Elan would be conscripted.

She heaved a breath. “Ronin, go back and stay with your brother.”

“Where are you going?”

“I’m going to look for work in Mesopotamia,” she said. “We can’t survive like this, there has to be something I can do to help us.”

***

NAA Pelican, Philippine Sea

“Damage detected in…”

The automated female voice continued to repeat the message into Akira’s helmet. He worked his way through a dark passage with Ghost. Both wore their Engine armor, repaired from E-Day but still not fully functional.

“Warning, damage…”

Akira shut the headset off. The female voice reminded him of Apeiron, and right now he didn’t need anything that made him angry.

The submarine continued to putter through the water on borrowed time. They had killed the hybrid monster with their torpedo, but it came at a cost in the form of internal damage to the Pelican.

Fortunately, the integrity of the outer hull remained strong, doing exactly what it was built to do, survive the deepest parts of the ocean.

That didn’t mean it would hold forever.

The vessel shook violently. Akira grabbed a pipe, held on, and waited for the quaking to pass. When it did, he and Ghost made it to their destination: a hatch that sealed off compartment four.

A devastating fire was blazing on the other side.

Four inches of steel separated Akira and Ghost from the compromised compartment. As soon as he entered, he would be swallowed by the inferno.

“We need to shut off this valve,” Ghost said. He activated a holo-screen with the blueprint of the vessel, pointing to a pipe that snaked through the next passage. “That’ll turn off the gas feeding this fire.”

They had lost power to this frontal bow compartment, forcing them to do it manually.

“We get in and out,” Akira said. “Our armor can only take about a minute before the heat shields fail and we cook inside our suits.”

Akira grabbed the wheel handle. It was hot to the touch even through his thick, armored gloves.

“On three,” he said.

Ghost held up the fire-extinguisher. It wouldn’t kill the fire, but it would buy them some time.

“One… two… three!” Akira yelled.

He twisted the wheel, unlocking the hatch. The door swung open, venting flames. Ghost hopped into the blast, firing the extinguisher as Akira pulled the hatch shut behind them.

Flames danced across his armor as he followed Ghost into the blaze.

Waves of chemical spray chased the flames away, opening a fragile path. It took them ten brutal seconds to locate the valve at the other end of the passage. They pushed through the hellish compartment toward it.

Jagged, bent metal reached out at their armored plates, slowing them down.

Twenty seconds in and Akira had to stop with Ghost in front of a ravine torn through the deck. Flames licked upward, retreating when Ghost directed his spray.

“Go, go!” he shouted.

Running ahead, Akira ducked under a bulging overhead and grabbed the valve. He tried to turn it, but the superheated metal burned his gloves.

He recoiled, grunting in agony.

Thirty seconds.

His suit was already barking with alarms, warning him the insulation was compromised.

Akira took two more seconds to think.

“Blast it!” he shouted.

Ghost aimed the spray at the handle and fired. A sudden tower of fire enveloped him and Akira. He turned away as Ghost turned the spray at the flames.

Fifty seconds.

Akira turned back to the valve, grabbed it, and put all of his muscle into it. The handle, still scorching to the touch, burned through his gloves and into his flesh.

He screamed in pain as the valve finally clicked, moving slightly.

The metal burned deeper into his right hand.

Akira closed his eyes, trying to ignore the agonizing pain. He summoned the anger that had fueled his thoughts and nightmares. Using that pent-up rage, he let out a loud scream and turned the valve until it clicked again.

The flames retreated around him, and he fell to his knees, staring down at his smoldering gloves. Ghost leaned down to help him up.

“You still got it, Cap,” he said. “Well done, brother.”

Akira winced as Ghost helped him to his feet. They made their way back up through the dark vessel.

Frost and Jackson were working with a crew to put out a fire in another compartment. By the time Akira and Ghost got there, they had put it out.

Corporal Bella Oliver walked over with a medical pack.

“Captain, better let me take a look at you,” she said.

“I’m fine. Just my hands.”

Akira took off his gloves, exposing blistered flesh on both hands.

“That isn’t fine,” Bella said. “We need to get you to the infirmary.”

“Please, just wrap it for now.”

“Okay.” Bella bent down and opened the pack. “But this doesn’t mean you get to skip infirm.”

Frost and Jackson walked over, their armor smoldering.

“Pelican’s in bad shape,” Frost said. “That torpedo about turned us into squid ink.”

“If we’re being tracked by Cross or Apeiron or whoever is out there, we should expect more of those things to hunt us,” Ghost said.

“All done,” Bella said, gently patting the bandages on Akira’s hands.

“Thank you,” he replied.

Akira made his way to the CIC with the other Engines. Captain Thomas was talking with his officers while War Commander Contos stood back and watched with his arms folded across his chest.

“Where are we?” Akira asked.

“About eighty miles from the site of the attack,” Contos said. “Critical systems are online, but we’re still struggling. I’m not sure yet if we will make the dive to Neptune Station.”

“Perhaps this is destiny, and a sign we should surface to look for survivors and kill some machines,” Jackson said. “Beats diving and popping like pimples from the pressure.”

“We dive to Neptune Station, and we could die,” Akira said. “But if we surface now, we definitely die, and while I’m all for fighting when the time is right, that time isn’t now, especially after what just happened. We don’t even know who sent those squids after us.”

Frost nodded.

Ghost did, too.

Jackson snorted and shrugged a shoulder.

“Just keep trying,” Thomas said in a raised, angry voice across the CIC. He walked over, sweat dripping down his wrinkled brow.

“Captain, are we sure we’re not being followed again?” Contos asked.

Thomas ran a hand over his short hair. “We aren’t picking up anything on passive sonar, so unless Apeiron has found a way to make her new monsters invisible, we are safe for now.”

“Do we know the full extent of the damage yet?”

“Yes, and we have stopped the bleeding so to speak, but we can’t make all the repairs here. Hopefully what we have done is enough to improve our odds of survival if we do dive for Neptune Station.”

“What are our odds, if we do?” Frost asked.

After another brush of his hair, Thomas exhaled. “As you know, Neptune Research Station is deep at the bottom of the Mariana Trench. This is one of the most advanced submarines ever built, designed to reach those depths, and I know her like the back of my hand, but even she has her limits, especially with the damage we sustained.”

The Captain looked the War Commander in the eye.

“I’d say our odds are better thanks to Shadow Squad’s efforts in putting out the fires, but there is still a monumental risk due to the pressure if we dive to Neptune,” Thomas said.

Contos seemed to think on it a moment, but then made the decision all commanders hated by giving an order that put all of their people in jeopardy.

“Finish any last minute repairs to increase our odds, and hope that what we can’t fix here doesn’t kill us,” Contos said.

Thomas nodded and hurried back to his crew.

The War Commander turned to Akira. “I want Shadow Squad ready to secure the station when we dock.”

“Yes, sir,” Akira replied.

The Engines left the CIC with urgency, heading back to the troop hold. There, Kichiro was still standing offline in his cage. Okami trotted over, tail wagging.

Akira bent down and reached out with his bandaged hands.

“That looks terrible,” Frost said.

“It looks worse than it is,” Akira replied.

Ghost took a seat on a crate as Jackson paced.

“We’re going to be crushed like Tadhg used to crush Hummer Droids,” Jackson said. He kicked at a stack of crates. He dented one, and the two on top tumbled off.

Okami growled.

“Will you shut that…” Jackson began.

Akira stood.

“I’m not a big fan of machines right now,” Jackson said.

It wasn’t an apology, but Akira did understand. Still, he feared the other Engine was starting to lose it. He would not let the man take his anger out on Okami.

“Let it go,” Frost whispered behind Akira.

He glared at Jackson, who seemed to relax and back down.

“Honestly, Jackson, you’re starting to remind me of Tadhg,” Ghost said. “Except even more stubborn.”

Jackson picked up the crates and stacked them back into a neat tower, relieving the tension. “I’ve been cooped up in this coffin for too long.”

“First time I’ve ever heard you apologize,” Frost said. She raised a brow. “That was an apology, right?”

Jackson shrugged. “I admit when I’m wrong.”

He held out a hand and Akira shook it, ignoring the pain of his burns for the sake of their reconciliation.

“All your anger will not bring back the dead, Lieutenant,” Akira said. “Don’t forget why we fight. For the living, and the time will come to do that soon.”

Okami growled, but not at Jackson.

A whining noise reverberated through the submarine.

“Must be getting ready to dive,” Frost said. “You got any motivational songs for us?”

Ghost brushed his long hair away from his INVS eyes.

“Come on,” Frost said. “You haven’t sang anything in a long time.”

“Haven’t felt much like it, but I’ll think of something.”

The Engines all went to the bulkhead-mounted armory where they pulled out their RS3 pulse rifles and energy swords. They spent the next few minutes preparing for whatever waited at Neptune Station.

Akira glanced at Ghost.

“You okay, brother?” he asked.

“I’m starting to feel like Jackson… Not sure this is the right move.”

Before Akira could reply, Contos entered the cargo hold, ducking below the overhead.

“At ease,” he said. “I’m here because I want to be with you all during the dive.”

Metal groaned and creaked around them.

Akira looked at Okami who let out a low whine right before another vibration screeched through the hull.

“I’ll be honest with you all,” Contos said quietly. “I was always a believer in AI until E-Day, but I was also spiritual in the sense I believe in something greater, something non-AI that created us.”

Contos waited for the next groan to pass before continuing.

“I never admitted it before, but I pray to a supreme being from time to time and this is one of those times,” he said. “If there is something out there, please watch out for us now, and give us a chance…a chance so we can rise up and fight again like Akira promised.”

The Engines all nodded, and Ghost stepped in front of them.

“I thought of something to sing,” he said. “I’ll keep it short.”

He took in a deep breath, exhaled, and broke out into song, replacing the former Nova Alliance hymn about AI with a simple lyric.

“Engines are salvation!”

— 7 —

Kepler Station

Kepler Crater, The Moon

“All right, shitheads, my name is Sergeant Tadhg Walsh and for the foreseeable future, you’re under my direct command.”

Three LDC Troopers, a woman and two men, stood in front of Tadhg inside the underground hangar at Kepler Station. A MOTH waited to take them to their first assignment.

He still didn’t know why the execution of Doctor Jason Crichton had been nixed or why he’d been called to extract him from the surface. That was above his paygrade, but in a way, he was relieved that they would get the chance to see if maybe, just maybe, the disgraced doctor could help the LDC.

For now, Tadhg had a mission to focus on—work with this new team to protect the colonies from the machines.

Shortly, they would travel to the Shackleton Crater to help prepare Mesopotamia for what they suspected to be an imminent attack.

Tadhg easily stood at least a foot taller than each of the new team members. They just stared up at him, expressions dull and placid.

Are they all stupid? He wondered. Maybe it was the shithead comment.

He was used to joking with Shadow Squad. These three probably didn’t know how to take his humor.

“Okay, what do you all know about why you’re here?” Tadhg asked.

“You’re an Engine,” said the young Latino man.

“Yeah,” Tadhg said.

“You’re from Shadow Squad,” added the woman.

“The Shadow Squad,” said the other man.

“So everyone here has eyes,” Tadhg said. “Great. Now give me a breakdown on your experience. I like to know who I’m fighting beside.”

He centered his gaze on the young woman first. She looked maybe twenty-one, with freckles, and short hair that spiked over her brown eyes.

“Lambo, you first,” he said.

“Corporal Veronica Lambo, twenty-three years old, and born in Megacity Miami.” She seemed shy until she gulped hard and raised her head with pride. “At eighteen, I graduated at the top of my class and entered the Megacity Miami University of Computer Engineering. I graduated early, top of my class again, three years later. I immediately entered the Nova Alliance Strike Force as a computer specialist with a concentration in cybersecurity.”

“Makes sense why you were assigned to this unit.”

Tadhg moved on down the line to Joaquín Flores, a Latino man with a buzzed head, sharp nose, and brown eyes.

“Corporal Joaquín Flores, twenty-nine, born in Megacity Los Angeles.” He flashed a cocky grin. “I’m a Devil Dog, Sergeant. Specialty in demolition.”

Tadhg had a lot of respect for the Devil Dogs. Joaquín was part of the elite branch of the military that had evolved from the Marine Corps branch over fifty years earlier. The Devil Dogs were a diverse group of Pistons that were almost completely self-sufficient. They could do pretty much anything on and off the battlefield, surpassed only by the Engines.

But the battlefield on Earth was a lot different than the Moon, and Joaquín was no longer a Piston.

Let’s see how he does as a Moon Trooper…

Finally, Tadhg stopped in front of Ronald. The young man was tall, thin, and had a mop of orange hair. His brown eyes were focused on the hilt of Tadhg’s saw-toothed energy sword rising above his back.

Ronald cleared his throat. “Corporal Ronald Bryan, twenty-nine, born in the slums of Megacity Baltimore.”

Veronica and Joaquín both gave Ronald a side-glance.

The slums of Megacity Baltimore were known for their violence, drugs, and all-around miserable living conditions. There was usually two ways out: death or the Nova Alliance Strike Force.

Ronald had made it through hell. Despite his wiry appearance, the guy had Tadhg’s respect for that.

“I received the Nova Alliance Rising Star award for my droid designs and was accepted into a classified program my second year with the NASF. There, I worked with Achilles Android Systems before ending up here.”

“Surprised you’re still alive,” Veronica said. “The LDC has been killing off most of the scientists that worked with Doctor Crichton.”

“Because they deserve to die,” Joaquín said.

“I guess I’m lucky,” Ronald said.

“No, you’re valuable,” Tadhg said. “Someone thinks all of you are, which is why you’re here. Our objective is to analyze the current defenses at Shackleton Crater and make recommendations to protect Mesopotamia from any potential Phase Two attack.”

Tadhg motioned for the team to load up into the MOTH. The troopers followed him in their bulky white and gray armor, boots, and helmets that reminded him of Pistons he had once teamed with on an arctic mission.

The only major difference were the black exoskeletons that they wore from their waist down to their boots. Those mechanisms helped them move more efficiently in the low-gravity on the surface.

Tadhg had a similar rig set up on his armor. His boots were also equipped with magnets to make EVA walks and low-grav environments easier to handle.

He clicked them into place on the deck of the MOTH after taking a seat in the troop hold. The three soldiers strapped in across from him as two pilots climbed into the cockpit.

Tadhg checked the diagnostics on his suit by pulling up his HUD. Everything was functioning properly.

He sat there silently for several minutes.

An urge to steal the MOTH and fly it right to Megacity Tokyo grew stronger as they sat there. It would be all too easy to kick Ronald, Joaquín, and Veronica out of a hatch. Then he would yank the pilots out and take off.

Clearing Kepler Station would be no problem, but getting past the cannons and King Cobra Spaceplane patrols would be almost impossible.

And then, he would have to survive re-entry to Earth, which was no doubt swarming with Praying Mantis fighters.

His headset hissed to life.

“Prepare for takeoff,” said the main pilot.

The troop hold door shut, vibrations shaking into Tadhg’s body when it locked in place. The MOTH trembled slightly as its vertical thrusters pushed it off the landing pad, then through the open hangar doors.

Rising up over the surface, Tadhg got a good look at Kepler Station through the starboard viewport. The base was alive with activity. Construction equipment that had once been used to mine for resources was now being repurposed to dig deep underground and create new shelters for the refugees.

Newly-constructed gates blocked off the entrances leading beneath the surface. LDC Troopers watched from observation towers. Mounted plasma turrets pointed out at the convoys of rovers hauling supplies underground.

Tadhg turned toward the portside viewport. Hundreds of shuttles that had fled Earth on E-Day were now stationed amid the regolith. A MOTH patrolled over the empty spacecrafts.

On the horizon, a pair of Spaceplanes burned away from the lunar surface, their blue thrusters glowing as they rocketed toward space. They vanished against the twinkle of distant stars.

The MOTH accelerated and banked right over Kepler Crater. The inner walls of the crater were carved into terraces all the way down to the floor, nearly two miles deep at its lowest point and twenty miles in diameter.

They flew over the central rise where a smaller station was positioned. Tadhg had heard there was a bunker deep beneath it, just in case Kepler Station was destroyed.

With thrusters booming, the spacecraft rocketed toward the dark side of the Moon.

Tadhg closed his eyes, welcoming the brief reprieve.

When he woke, he was greeted with a view of a different, immense crater.

Humanity’s best guarded secret…

“Welcome to the Shackleton Crater,” said the main pilot over the comms. “Prepare for landing.”

It was hard to imagine the machines didn’t know about Mesopotamia, but his job was to ensure it was safe if they did find it.

He peered out at the expansive black hole. In a way, it reminded Tadhg of the images he had seen of Megacity Tokyo, where the Poseidon Cannon had erased his former home and millions of citizens in the blink of an eye.

This crater, made by an asteroid billions of years ago, was pitch black, no light penetrating to the bottom. That was one reason why the colony was built there.

The MOTH rotated, giving Tadhg a beautiful view of sharp mountains lining the ridge of the crater. The sharp crests seemed to glow in the sunlight.

“It’s beautiful,” Veronica said over the team comms.

“Peaks of Eternal Light,” Ronald replied. “They are almost always illuminated by the sun.” He leaned closer to the viewport. “That crater is three point six billion years old.”

“So you’re like a super nerd, or what?” Joaquín asked.

“No, I’m just not a meathead like you,” Ronald said.

“Play nice, kids,” Tadhg said. “Or Uncle Walsh will spank both your dumbasses out that hatch.”

Veronica laughed. Ronald and Joaquín did not.

The pilots turned again, the thrusters firing.

Tadhg watched the illuminated mountains. The visor built into his helmet grew more tinted, protecting his eyes from the intense light. When the glare weakened, he saw objects that looked like spears sticking straight out of the peaks.

The spacecraft banked hard, shaking. Veronica looped her fingers around her restraints, letting out a surprised yelp.

“You’re a long way from home, kid,” Tadhg said. “Better get used to this shit.”

Out of the window, the regolith rose to meet the landing gear. A vortex of lunar dust twisted around the thrusters until they clicked off.

The MOTH set down with a thud. Tadhg unbuckled his harness and set off across the deck, his mag boots making each step slow and deliberate.

After he threw a lever, the door whisked open to the shining mountains. They had landed on a flat plain surrounded by rocks and hills. A trio of interconnected dome-shaped habitats were set at the base of the black and gray bluffs. Six troopers patrolled up a rocky path to the top where two cannons, each as long as the MOTH, were pointed toward Earth.

Tadhg and his three comrades had all stopped to stare at the ball of brown that was partially covered by shadow.

“Holy shit,” Joaquín said over the team channel. “Is that smoke?”

Tadhg focused his INVS eyes on an area that appeared to be what was once eastern China. The southern part of the former country was covered in shadow, but there were still lights from the great megacities.

Maybe there were more people surviving in the chaos and destruction than he’d realized.

Squinting, he zoomed in.

What he’d seen weren’t lights—they were fires, burning against the scorched flesh of the Earth.

“Come on, kids.” He turned away and started toward the command habitat.

The structure was positioned between two colossal moon rocks. He hopped slightly in the low-gravity, but the exoskeleton helped his movements feel more natural.

When they reached the habitat, they opened a containment hatch and stepped inside an anteroom chamber. The hatch sealed behind them, then air whooshed inside.

After taking off his helmet, Tadhg stepped up to the inner hatch. On the other side, three officers in armor stood in the command center, hovering around a holo-screen.

They all turned as the hatch opened.

“You must be Engine Sergeant Tadhg Walsh?” said a husky man with gray hair and a goatee.

Tadhg nodded.

“I’m Lieutenant General David Stao, and this is LDC Lieutenant Commander Rhett Fox.”

Stao indicated to a tall man with a glistening, shaved head.

He wasn’t a soldier like Stao. He was a Falconer, one of the intel commanders, wearing a black uniform.

“I’m glad you’re here,” Fox said in a deep voice. “However, I fear we might already be too late.”

A low rumble shook through the habitat. Through a viewport, Tadhg could see King Cobra Spaceplanes rising out of the Shackleton Crater.

“What’s going on?” Tadhg asked.

“That second attack we feared might have already started,” Stao said. “War Commander Thacker has sent out a warning to all stations due to events unfolding outside of Earth’s orbit.”

“What kind of events are we talking about?” Tadhg asked.

“This is the current imagery from Nova One Station,” Fox said, activating a holo-screen.

Tadhg looked at a rotating image of a star-shaped space station. The former space center had once been the final stop outside of Earth’s orbit for shuttles and transport destined for the Moon. Now, it was surrounded by smooth, insect-like spacecraft.

“Praying Mantis fighters,” he said.

“They haven’t been this close since the cannons fired on Earth,” Stao said.

Tadhg studied the image, and then looked out the viewport again at Earth. “You’re sure this is the start of the next major attack?”

“It seems like it,” Fox said.

“I don’t know, sir,” Ronald said. “I really don’t think this is it.”

“What makes you say that?”

“Because if this really was the full Phase Two attack we’ve been worried about, we wouldn’t see it coming like this.”

Everyone turned to face the young corporal.

“The machines aren’t going to give us a warning before they attack,” he added.

Tadhg agreed with a hefty nod. “Nope, Ronald’s right. When they really attack us, it’ll happen quicker than a sucker punch to the face. We better stop wasting time and start analyzing these defenses, because we don’t want to be caught with our pants down when the time comes.”

***

NAA Pelican, Mariana Trench

The CIC of the submarine was dead quiet. All around Akira, the officers sat or stood at their stations watching and listening. War Commander Contos waited with Akira, both of them studying the passive sonar with Okami seated on his haunches nearby.

Nothing out there. At least, not yet.

The submarine purred quietly as it descended deeper. They had repaired her the best they could before diving, but they were going to need some luck to survive the crushing darkness.

If any of the damaged compartments gave, it could cause a chain reaction they wouldn’t be able to stop. Smashing everyone inside the sub.

Akira tried to ignore that possibility as he studied the screen, taking in slow breaths. If the machines did know where they were, they weren’t revealing their positions.

Then again, he wasn’t even sure who had sent them.

Apeiron?

Otto?

The thought of multiple enemies hunting them made Akira tense. So did the idea of leading the machines to Neptune Research Station.

Assuming they weren’t already there…

For the next hour, the officers around the CIC monitored the sub as it slowly lowered. Akira considered retreating to his quarters and sitting down with his new Warrior Codex, but he still couldn’t bring himself to recreate the family stories seared in his mind.

And he still didn’t really have anything new to add. Not since E-Day, at least.

Instead, he remained in the CIC next to Contos, waiting, watching.

Everything was quiet. Far too quiet.

The silence finally passed when Captain Thomas quietly announced they were closing in on Neptune.

“Should we try to hail them?” Thomas asked.

“One short-range blast on an encrypted channel,” Contos said.

“Yes, sir.” He gave the comms officer the order and the young man turned back to his station.

“Neptune Station, NASF Pelican. Do you read?”

Nothing.

“Maybe their comms are down,” Akira said.

“Maybe,” Thomas replied.

There were other options of course. Either no one was left—or whoever was down there, good or bad, didn’t want to be found.

That made sense. Even if the science personnel still had control of the station, they wouldn’t want to broadcast that they had survived for everyone to hear.

“Try again,” Contos said. “If their comms aren’t down, it’s possible they think we’re trying to trick them.”

“A response could also be a trick,” Thomas said. “When those squids attacked, somehow they managed to call over our encrypted channels.”

“I know, we cannot underestimate the machines—and if anyone truly is alive on Neptune, it’s wise of them to do the same. Whatever the case, Captain Akira, we’ll hope for the best, but your team should prepare for the worst.”

“Always do,” Akira replied.

He and Contos left the CIC. Okami trotted with them down to the hangar where the other Engines waited, including Jackson.

“I’m coming with,” he said.

“Fine, as long as you listen to orders,” Akira said.

Jackson nodded and Akira nodded back.

Pistons Bella and Toretto were on standby for medical support.

The bulkheads rumbled like a hungry stomach.

Akira took the time to check his gear. The other soldiers spread out, preparing and checking over their own equipment. No one joked around or traded the usual banter that came before a mission. The anxiety of waiting to see if the oceans would turn them into scrap metal was too much.

Even Okami seemed to sense the danger. The droid dog curled up on the deck in front of Akira, glancing up nervously every few seconds.

“It’s okay,” Akira said quietly.

The ship contradicted his statement by groaning.

Akira checked his HUD.

He watched the depth tick higher and higher.

Eight thousand meters and counting.

Come on, hold… hold.

They were already almost five miles under the surface.

Somewhere deep in the guts of the submarine, metal cracked and screeched.

Nine thousand meters.

Akira tried to forget about the imminent, unstoppable danger of the oceanic pressure and focus on a good memory of his family. He pictured Yui and Takeshi at a farmer’s market in Megacity Tokyo.

He remembered carrying Takeshi on his shoulders and showing him the different fresh fish in the stands and tanks.

Takeshi had pointed at a jumbo shrimp. At first, Akira had thought the boy wanted to eat the creature for dinner, but Takeshi begged them to let him keep it as a pet instead.

Akira had gone right out to buy a tank. He would have done anything to make that boy happy.

A flashback to the worst moment of his life clawed into his mind. When he had rode Kichiro all the way to the shelter where Yui and Takeshi had been during the Coalition bombing.

Injured and exhausted, Akira had dug through the rubble, finding his family and the shrimp. Takeshi had taken it with him in a glass jar. The small creature was crushed, dead along with Yui.

Akira had pried their still breathing boy from her cold grip that night.

He pushed the memories away.

Ten thousand, five hundred meters.

The submarine groaned, the hulls and overheads threatening to give way.

Akira looked over to the Engines, all stoic and standing tall.

This wasn’t so different than riding in an aircraft over enemy territory. They all knew the safety of their lives was currently out of their control.

On his HUD, Akira opened mirrored images of the sub’s forward cameras. At first, he saw nothing but stygian blackness.

Then something appeared.

A few shapes appeared, distant and gray, at the bottom of the trench.

This was it. They’d made it.

They had arrived at Neptune Station. The four habitats were nestled along a ridge that dropped off deeper into the trenches.

Soon, if all went to plan, it would be the new Command Post for the Nova Alliance Strike Force.

“Almost there,” Akira said. “Get ready to board the station.”

He strode up to the hatch. Frost and Ghost came up on his flanks, weapons ready.

Jackson came up on rear guard.

The hangar cleared, except for Okami. The droid wolfdog wedged his way between Akira’s legs and glanced up, ready to go.

Captain Thomas guided the submarine toward the outer hatch of a three-story habitat. The lights within the station had been completely turned off, revealing none of the secrets within.

He checked to see if the sensors were detecting any energy readings.

Sure enough, several of the habitats gave off a faint signature on the thermal sensors. Something was still powering the station, which meant it might still be operational.

It almost meant other possibilities that Akira was fully prepared to meet head on.

The submarine maneuvered slowly toward the outer hatch of the habitat.

A deep thud resonated from the hatch when it made contact with the Pelican. Several mechanical clicks and whines sounded from outside the hatch as Captain Thomas engaged the docking mechanisms.

“We’re secure,” Contos said. “Make contact with any staff and let them know we’re here to help…and if the worst has happened, if it’s the machines that are in control, then eliminate them.”

Akira signaled to Ghost who spun the hatch’s wheel to unlock it.

“Death from the Shadows,” Frost whispered.

“DFTS,” Akira replied.

Ghost repeated the motto as he opened the first hatch. Akira slipped into the tunnel that formed a bridge between the sub and Neptune Station. Okami crept ahead with Frost right behind them, her rifle aimed at the next hatch that would lead them into the habitat.

Jackson hovered behind them, his wide shoulders nearly touching the bulkhead on both sides of the passage. They made their way up behind Ghost who held the wheel on the entrance hatch.

Akira gave a nod.

The wheel clicked, and the hatch unlocked. Okami growled as soon as it cracked open.

Akira was the first one inside the habitat, his heart flipping at the sight of their enemy: an AI-powered blue Hummer Droid. It watched them from the other end of the passage with a glowing facial screen.

“Contact, the station appears to be compromised,” Akira said over the comms as he moved his finger to the trigger.

Jackson fired before Akira could give orders. Bolts tore past Akira and slammed into the bulkhead, just as the boxy droid took off running.

“Pursuing hostile,” Akira reported on the comms. He took off running with his rifle clutched against his chest.

The hatches between the droid and Shadow Squad all began to slam down, stopping him mid-stride.

There was no response over the comms, but a thud sounded behind the Engines. It took Akira all of a second to know what caused it.

The Pelican had undocked from the station.

Shadow Squad was on their own.

— 8 —

Kepler Station

Kepler Crater, The Moon

“We’re not ready,” Dario realized.

He stared through the cockpit windshield of his gray King Cobra Spaceplane in the direction of the Nova One Space Station almost a quarter million miles away.

Falconers had detected thirty Praying Mantis fighters buzzing around the station that once controlled the Poseidon Cannons.

An hour earlier, Dario had rushed to his fighter with his new squad, the Moon Rats. Another fifty King Cobra Spaceplanes and other aircraft were drifting in geosynchronous orbit above Kepler Station.

Off Dario’s starboard side was Major Wind, the leader of the Moon Rats.

Beneath them, far out of view, were the cannons built into the rock walls on the eastern edge of Kepler Station. The LDC had been rapidly constructing more. Currently, there were just over twenty in working order.

They would need far more than that to take on Apeiron if she committed her forces to an attack.

As much as Dario itched for action, he prayed the suspected Phase Two attack wasn’t today. While he would be glad to shoot a few machines to scrap metal, the base couldn’t truly handle a substantial attack.

They needed more time to fortify the Moon and come up with a plan to take the fight to their former home. To avenge Bear, and Captain Harback, and his precious Kady.

As he waited in the cockpit, he watched his data-pad and the images of the enemy fighters circling the damaged space station.

“The hell are you doing?” he whispered.

More of the insect-shaped fighters rocketed from the smoke-enveloped atmosphere, joining their comrades. His data-pad reported sixty hostile contacts.

The machines were definitely planning something.

The longer he sat in his cockpit, the harder his heart pounded. He checked and double-checked his systems, ready to fly out and meet the enemy fighters as soon as the order came.

Twenty miles below his cockpit, the top brass left was considering those orders.

But like him, they knew fifty King Cobra Spaceplanes against a near equal amount of Praying Mantis fighters would be a slaughter. Not to mention most of these pilots had no real combat experience. Many were just recently conscripted civilian pilots. They had spent only a handful of hours training in the King Cobra Spaceplanes.

The data-pad screen suddenly flashed with a new image.

What appeared to be a King Cobra Spaceplane started drifting out of a hangar on Nova One Station. A slew of debris floated out with the Spaceplane.

The majority of the Praying Mantis fighters maneuvered to that side of the station, surrounding the damaged King Cobra.

Dario tapped at his data-pad, scanning for any signals coming from Nova One Station. For the past month no radio messages from around Earth’s orbit or the planet itself had made it to the Moon. He had suspected it was because the machines were blocking incoming and outgoing transmissions, but every day that passed he wondered if maybe there was simply no one to send a message.

He held in a breath when he detected a signal from the King Cobra. This wasn’t a normal transmission, but an automated SOS.

“That’s what attracted the machines,” he said quietly.

Before he could even consider who or what had set off that SOS, a blinding explosion erupted on the screen. All he could see was white light for several seconds. When the images stabilized again on the data-pad, the King Cobra Spaceplane and the Praying Mantis fighters that were there a moment earlier were gone.

Radio chatter broke over the command channel as pilots and comms officers guessed at what had just happened.

Dario pulled up an image of Nova One Station zoomed in further than the last set of images.

“I’ll be damned.”

All he saw were chunks of slagged alloy flying off in all directions from the sight of the blast. Not a single Praying Mantis Fighter had survived, from what he could tell.

The Falconers confirmed it a moment later.

“All hostiles eliminated at Nova One Station,” came a robotic voice over all comms. “Standby for orders.”

Dario squinted at his data-pad, trying to make sense of what they had just witnessed.

“I think some crazy bastard baited those machines there and then blew up the station,” Wind said over a private channel.

Dario found himself smiling for the first time in weeks. An incoming transmission from command quickly wiped that grin off his face.

“Scratch that last transmission,” said the same officer, in a not-so-robotic voice. “Falconers have picked up a solo Praying Mantis fighter…it appears to be en route to Kepler Station.”

“Oh shit…” Dario did some mental math.

They had just under sixty minutes before the fighter arrived at its current speed.

An image of the Praying Mantis fighter emerged on his holo-screen, but then vanished before he got a good look at it.

Another transmission came from command. This time, directly to Dario and Major Wind.

“Rat 1, Rat 2, Angel 1, prepare to intercept and eliminate hostile ship.”

“Copy that,” Wind replied.

Dario glanced out his viewport at the major.

“Ready to show ’em how it’s done, sir?” Dario asked over the private channel.

“Don’t do anything stupid. It may be one fighter, but this isn’t adding up.”

“I agree. I’ve got your back, sir.”

Wind accelerated away, breaking from the line of King Cobra Spaceplanes.

Another two maneuvered to the area Dario and Wind had just left, filling in the defensive line.

Dario stared at the approaching contact on his data-pad.

His sensors suddenly chirped, and another transmission came over his headset from command.

“Rat 1, Rat 2, Angel Actual, be advised, Falconers have identified enemy fighters leaving Earth’s orbit. Proceed with extreme caution.”

The telescopes at Kepler Station relayed the images of another sixty Praying Mantis fighters in formation.

Dario swallowed hard.

This was looking more like a Phase Two attack after all.

But still, something seemed off. Why only send one fighter so far ahead of the others, with sixty trailing it?

This didn’t seem like something Apeiron would do.

It wasn’t logical.

The minutes ticked by, and with them, sweat dripped down his face. As he drew closer to the first contact, he flipped the switches to arm the twenty-four Rhino missiles attached under the wings.

He watched the no-fly zone between him and Earth, waiting for the first visual on the lead Praying Mantis burning across the desolate sea of black.

Was this a trick?

Perhaps whatever was happening was meant to confuse the LDC.

He blinked away a bead of sweat that had dripped into his eye.

The screen monitoring his vitals beeped, warning him of a spike in his blood pressure. Several floaters drifted across his vision. He was pushing the Spaceplane hard, flirting with the maximum survivable acceleration.

Controlling his breath, he willed his body to relax as much as possible.

It wasn’t long until he saw the jagged armored shell of the lone Praying Mantis fighter on his data-pad. The hull was a dirty black, charred from the explosion that destroyed the other fighters.

Was it possible this solo Canebrake pilot was going rogue just like human pilots on E-Day?

No…machines don’t work like that, Dario thought.

It wouldn’t matter soon. They were about to blow it into atoms.

Only a few thousand miles behind it were sixty more hostiles, all gaining speed at an alarming rate. While humans were limited by their physiology, the machines had no such limitations. They accelerated at rates far greater than any person could survive.

“Angel 1, this is Rat 1, we have a visual on the lead fighter and are in position to fire,” Wind said over the command channel.

“Copy, Rat 1, weapons free when in range.”

Dario moved his finger close to the trigger and slowly pushed down on the throttle, accelerating harder to meet the contact.

The fighter was moving erratically now, back and forth, up and down. It was sacrificing momentum and forward acceleration for some reason. This was not the type of behavior he was used to seeing from the machines.

They were methodical, calculated.

It was almost as if this Canebrake was trying to tell them something.

But why was it all of a sudden moving like this?

Another warning chirped on his dashboard. The hostile fighter was almost within weapons range.

“What’s wrong with it?” Wind asked.

“I don’t know, maybe the Canebrake is damaged,” Dario said. He centered the crosshairs over the enemy fighter, trying to get a visual of the pilot while waiting to get a lock.

He suddenly noticed something on the holo-screen tracking the other fighters. They were slowing down, their thrusters burning off until they stopped about two thousand miles away from Kepler Station.

But the erratic fighter kept coming.

“Locked on, firing RHINO 1 and 2,” Wind said as he launched two of his missiles.

At the same time, the erratic fighter rolled to reveal its underbelly. In that split second Dario’s mind registered the image of a red snake painted next to the word NOVA on the bottom.

“No fucking way, it’s Jake “The Snake” Harback,” he stuttered.

He bumped on the channel to Wind.

“Hold fire!” Dario shouted. “I repeat, hold fire!”

Dario pushed down on his throttle and roared out after the two missiles, lining up his crosshairs and switching to the plasma turrets.

“What the hell are you doing?” Wind yelled.

“Saving a friend!”

The sixty Praying Mantis fighters remained idle in the darkness. It struck Dario that they weren’t flying to attack Kepler, but to destroy the enemy fighter Captain Harback had commandeered at Nova One Station.

They appeared to have given up before entering the firing range of the cannons at Kepler Station. The math was simple: no point in going after a single stolen fighter if it meant sacrificing so many of their own without a payoff.

It was a logical, machine thing to do.

Another voice crackled over the channel.

“Rat 2, this is War Commander Thacker, you are to fire on that Praying Mantis. That’s a direct order.”

Dario fired alright. He fired his plasma turret at the two missiles streaking toward the Praying Mantis. Both of them exploded in poofs that vanished.

“Rat 2, you are disobeying a direct order,” Thacker said over the comms. “You are to destroy that enemy fighter! Rat 1, if Rat 2 is not going to take out the hostile, you need to!”

“Don’t do it,” Dario said over their private channel. “It’s not the enemy. That’s Captain Jake Harback! Look at the images of the bottom of his fighter! It’s a message, damn it!”

“Dario—” Wind started.

“He’s not firing on us!” Dario said. “Trust me!”

Somehow, the captain had survived E-Day. Dario wasn’t sure how, but he was going to do everything he could to keep Harback safe now. He would rather be ejected into the cold, darkness of space as punishment than kill his mentor.

Holding steady, Dario curved to meet the fighter as it slowed. He stared into the hazy cockpit.

“Preparing visual,” Dario said over the comm.

His cameras on the portside roved over toward the Praying Mantis. Inside the viewports of the enemy fighter, a hand wiped away the dust on the glass. A raised thumb appeared followed by a white crane emblem on a helmet, as well as a snake sticker.

This was definitely Harback.

“Hell yes,” Dario said. He switched to the command channel. “Kepler, Rat 2, I’ve got eyes on Captain Harback of the Nova Alliance Sky Raiders. It’s really him, check the cameras.”

There was another pause. This time it wasn’t Thacker, but a female officer.

“Rat 1 and Rat 2, you are to escort that enemy fighter to the following coordinates.”

Wind eased off in the distance, turning back toward Kepler Station.

As the two Moon Rats guided the captured enemy vessel to the coordinates, several cannons rotated away from the distant sixty Praying Mantis fighters.

The friendly cannons pointed right at Dario, Wind, and Harback.

Captain Harback had poked the hornet’s nest, but the hornets had stopped their pursuit. For now, the bigger threat was the LDC, who appeared ready to blow Dario and the other two pilots to pieces.

***

Halo Sub-Colony, Mesopotamia

Shackleton Crater, The Moon

“What’s that book you’re always reading?” Micky asked.

Ronin looked up from the Warrior Codex. Micky stood in the opening from their pulled-back curtains. Lise was gone, off to look for work again. Todd had gone with her on a job search of his own, leaving Micky, Elan, and Ronin together.

“It looks old,” Micky said, taking a step closer.

“It was my Uncle’s,” Ronin replied.

“The Engine?”

“Yes.”

“Cool. Can I see?”

Ronin hesitated. He wasn’t sure he liked Micky. The kid had a bad attitude and was rude to people. Then again, he had just lost his brother and mom. Ronin had seen firsthand that grief made people act all kinds of ways, so he figured he should cut the kid some slack.

“Be careful with it, okay?” Ronin said.

He handed the book to Micky.

“You got it.” The kid took a seat on a stool and gingerly opened it.

From his bunk, Elan looked over with a skeptical gaze, but Ronin signed that it was okay. Music drifted through the chamber, the Frenchman plucking away at his guitar. The singers didn’t join in this time, but the man hummed along as he played.

Ronin found the melody relaxing.

“There are some cool drawings in here,” Micky said, flipping through the first few pages. He stopped on a sketch of a warrior angling a bow out over a forest.

“Is this true?” Micky asked. “Do you guys have samurai in your family?”

Ronin nodded. “My Uncle is trained in the Bushido code. Same with my father.”

Micky glanced up after turning a page. “What about you?”

“Not really, why?”

“Maybe they were full of crap, but I heard someone say you fought and destroyed a Canebrake. I didn’t really believe it, but I guess if you got samurai blood in you…”

Ronin lowered his head. An image of his brother’s headless corpse crashing to the ground erupted in his mind’s eye.

“Oh, shit, man. Didn’t mean to step on a nerve. I mean, I don’t like thinking back to that day either.” His voice got low. “We were in Megacity Dallas when the machines attacked and got separated from my mom trying to make it to a shuttle. That crowd, it was so big…it was like the ocean surf, crashing into us, moving us back and forth.”

Micky shook his head.

“People were crushed and trampled,” he said. “I can still hear the screams.”

“I’m sorry. It sounds awful.”

“My dad tried to go back for my mom and brother, but…” Micky shook his head. “He couldn’t find them. The crowd was too much.” He bit the inside of his lip. “I just hope it was fast, whatever happened to them.”

“They could still be alive,” Ronin said.

“No. No way, man.”

A loud clanking echoed through the room. The guitar music stopped, fading away.

The drills were at it again, boring deeper into the lunar surface.

“You can believe what you want, but I honestly hope my mom and brother are dead,” Micky said. “Maybe it sounds bad, but I don’t want to imagine them as prisoners of the machines or trying to survive after what happened on Earth. Death would be better.”

“I understand.”

Micky closed the book, his face tightening.

“Our life is over.” Micky let out a long sigh. “There’s no going back to Earth, and the Moon… Sometimes I honestly wish I died with my mom and brother.”

He handed the book back to Ronin and started to leave.

Ronin might have called after him or said something consoling, but the clanking was getting louder, the ground quaking beneath their feet, stronger than usual.

Elan suddenly stood. He could obviously feel the tremors. He exchanged a glance with Ronin.

Dust sifted off the ceiling as the noise rose up to a dull roar. The clanking started to sound like broken pieces of metal careening against each other.

Micky looked back inside their living space. “What’s going on?”

Ronin packed the Warrior Codex away safely and joined Elan and Micky in the aisle. Other people were looking out of their assigned shelters.

“It sounds like something’s wrong with the equipment,” Ronin said.

The lights flickered on and off.

“What’s happening?” someone shouted.

“It’s all going to collapse!” another person screamed.

“Shut up, you’re scaring my kids!” yelled a deep female voice.

A message barked from the PA system, but this one wasn’t the same recorded male voice. This was a live broadcast.

“All colonists, please stay in your designated sectors,” they said. “We are diverting power momentarily.”

This wasn’t a drill.

This was real.

Why is the ground shaking? Elan signed to Ronin.

Ronin shook his head, unsure.

A few minutes later, Todd came rushing back.

“Dad, what’s going on?” Micky asked.

The tall man stopped to catch his breath. “I’m not sure, but it must be some sort of test they are running on the air units, or something. The troopers seemed to think we’re safe in here…but I wanted to check on you anyway.”

“Where’s my mom?” Ronin asked.

“I don’t know,” Todd said. “Last I saw her she said she was going to Mesopotamia.”

The lights flickered again.

For a few minutes the noises waned, leaving only the coughing and voices of frightened colonists.

“We’re okay,” Todd said to the boys. “Try not to worry.”

Ronin and Elan took seats across from Micky and Todd.

They sat there waiting for news. Each foreboding groan and vibration sent another wave of dust trickling from the ceiling. The colony continued to tremble.

Micky finally broke the silence.

“Did you get the job, Dad?” he asked.

Todd hesitated. “I passed the physical test. Wasn’t hard.”

“So you’re going to be an LDC Trooper?”

“Yes, but don’t…”

The lights suddenly clicked off. This time they stayed that way.

Emergency lights winked on, spreading a weak red glow over the chamber. More shrieks of surprise and hushed voices echoed throughout the sub-colony.

Ronin put a hand around his brother’s shoulder to comfort him.

He couldn’t help but think back to Gold Base in Megacity Tokyo on E-Day. First INN had gone down, then the power went off.

The machines had found their way in not long after.

“This is it,” Ronin said at a whisper.

“What?” Todd asked.

“The Phase Two attack everyone keeps talking about.”

Todd said nothing. He reached for something in his pack, pulling out an energy knife.

“The LDC is prepared for whatever this is,” Todd said. “We have to trust them. We all knew the machines would come, and we’re ready.”

Are we though? Ronin wondered.

He highly doubted it.

Elan started to look panicked.

It’s okay, Ronin signed. We’re safe.

Don’t lie to me, Elan signed back.

Even in the darkness, his brother could tell he wasn’t being truthful.

Where is Mom? Elan signed.

Ronin looked toward the emergency light above the entrance of the chamber. Another memory surfaced from E-Day. When they had left their father behind.

He couldn’t let that happen again.

If this really was the Phase Two attack, Ronin had to find their mom.

— 9 —

Top-Secret LDC Medical Facility, Mesopotamia

Shackleton Crater, The Moon

The lights inside the chamber flicked on, spreading over the hybrid humans imprisoned inside the fence.

Chloe sat in her bed, raising her hand to cover her eyes.

“Everyone up!” shouted a muffled voice.

She stood and faced the entrance to their cage.

Ten LDC Troopers rushed inside with rifles.

“Form a line!” one yelled. “All of you!”

This was different than the other times. In the past, two soldiers would escort one woman out.

Now they appeared to be rounding up everyone.

Desperate pleas and sobs drifted from the other women. Chloe tuned them out. She was numb to it all now. She fastened on the same face she wore back in Megacity Paris under the occupation of the Coalition, and then later in the Hell Hives deep beneath the cobblestone streets.

Filing into line, she marched with the other hybrids, ready to accept whatever fate the LDC had in store for her.

The soldiers tightened around the line of hybrids as they left their confines for the first time in a month. They followed a long, narrow passage.

Chloe kept close to Giana. Some of the other women had formed cliques over the past month, and some just kept to themselves. The only person Chloe had trusted during their imprisonment was Giana. Not just because she was kind and smart, but because she had a strong spirit, like Chloe.

They were both survivors.

Dim blue LEDs guided the group down a sloped hall. They marched for a good five minutes before reaching an intersection.

“Where are you taking us?” someone asked.

“Keep moving!” a trooper barked, directing them down another passage. Someone at the back of the group tripped and cried out when a soldier shoved them. Chloe shot the bastard an icy glare.

Doors with windows provided glimpses into the underground rooms on either side of the hall. Chloe thought she saw what looked to be a laboratory in one.

Scientists worked around a table with microscopes.

In the next, she saw something that chilled her to the core—a chair with skeletal, spiderlike arms. Blood stains marred the metal appendages.

She halted when she came up to the next window. Rows of cages were covered in blood. Some of those stains appeared red and glistening as if they were fresh. Worse, those cages seemed just the right size to fit a human.

No, it can’t be…

This place almost reminded her of Doctor Otto Cross’s Hell Hives. It looked to be a place for human experimentation. Looking at the women around her, she had little doubt as to who the subjects of these experiments might be.

“Chloe, come on,” Giana said.

“Move it!” shouted a soldier.

Giana pulled on Chloe’s arm, hurrying her along.

A sudden vibration rumbled under their feet. It was faint, but it felt familiar, almost like a subway or underground train.

The women began to slow down. Chloe stood on her tiptoes to look over the heads of those in front. LEDs shone on a large metal door that blocked off the passage.

One of the soldiers was tapping in a keycode.

The doors parted in the middle, and on the group went.

Another vibration resonated under her feet. Chloe could feel it in her bones now too, this was much stronger.

Beyond the doors she saw the source.

The group was led onto a platform next to train tracks leading into a dark tunnel with vaulted ceilings. The rush of an approaching train grew louder, like a strong wind gusting toward them.

Metal screeched against metal, and lights pierced the darkness.

A train eased toward the platform.

Armored cars slowly passed the group until the train came to a complete stop. The doors on one of those cars opened to reveal a metal chamber.

The train didn’t need those thick metal walls to defend against any attackers in these tunnels—which made Chloe realize what they actually were.

Those walls served as some sort of faraday cage. Judging by the LDC’s paranoia, they were probably built to prevent droids or hybrids from sending or receiving signals.

“Get on the train!” shouted one of the soldiers.

Another trooper pushed Chloe hard from behind. She lost her balance and fell to the platform in a sprawl.

Giana bent down to help her up. “Asshole,” she hissed at the soldier.

“You want some too, you freak?” He stepped toward her, rifle in hand.

“Don’t,” Chloe whispered to Giana. “Not worth it.”

They walked into the belly of the train car with ten other women before the doors were closed, locking them inside.

A single glass window with a metal frame allowed them to look out on the platform as the rest of the women were shoved into other cars.

The train jolted, and then began to move.

Chloe watched the troopers disappear as they left the platform. She had seen men act like this before, back in Megacity Paris. The Coalition had treated her like she wasn’t human, too.

But back then she wasn’t a hybrid. They hated her because she believed in AI. After she had died, Apeiron put her body back together, giving her hope that she could live a normal life.

Normal…she thought. I will never be normal.

“Where do you think they are taking us?” Giana asked.

“Somewhere that the machines can’t get to us, maybe,” Chloe replied.

“What do you mean?”

Chloe turned away from the window. The other women were mostly sitting on the floor, shaking in fear, or sobbing. Some probably couldn’t handle the truth of what Chloe had already realized.

“Chloe,” Giana insisted. “What do you mean?”

“Our chips,” Chloe said. “Since the LDC thinks our chips make us a threat, I’m guessing they believe that Apeiron could tap in and control us. They must be moving us somewhere the machines can’t access us.”

Giana narrowed her gaze.

The train left the tunnel. They were somewhere on the surface now. The lights on the side of the armor car illuminated the gray regolith, but beyond that, Chloe couldn’t see anything. There was no twinkle of stars, or the Earth, or the sun. Only a vast abyss of darkness forming a dome over their head.

It struck her then: they were at the bottom of a crater, a crater so deep sunlight couldn’t penetrate. A place where she imagined people were left to be forgotten.

Her thoughts flickered to Cyrus. Had he forgotten about her? What about her Uncle? He’d told her to be strong through a messenger, but since then, nothing. Nothing from either of them.

She wanted to cry.

No, don’t you cry. You have to keep being strong.

She locked her jaw and stared for what seemed like an hour.

Finally, the train began to slow.

A light emerged on the black dome above them, commanding her gaze. Chloe used her INVS eyes to zoom in on what looked like a falling orb. Then a MOTH came into focus with six burning thrusters.

It lowered ahead of the train as it slowed.

Chloe watched the troop hold of the MOTH open under the raised cockpit. A ramp hit the ground. Four troopers wearing exoskeletons moved down it and then hopped out onto the dust. They were escorting a man in a civilian vacuum-rated suit. The light in his visor illuminated his features, features that she recognized, even from a distance as the soldiers stuffed him on another train car.

This was the father of Apeiron, joining them on the same, dark train journey.

Doctor Jason Crichton.

***

Neptune Research Station, Mariana Trench

The Hummer Droid had disappeared somewhere deeper in the habitat.

Jackson had used his energy axe to cut through the hatches to go after it. While they had lost the droid, they managed to secure one sector of the habitat. There was still no evidence of the crew or other machines.

Ghost flashed a hand signal ahead, motioning for Frost to lead down the next tunnel. They were on the fourth deck of twenty, coming up on a mess hall.

There was no sign of the former crew here either. Not a single plate or meal left out. Akira had seen no evidence of a struggle either.

It was possible the researchers had abandoned the facility on E-Day.

But there was no shaking the feeling of being watched.

They were definitely not alone on this station.

Okami seemed to sense it, too. He swiveled his head left and right, his tail tucked between his legs.

Akira readjusted his rifle in his injured hands. They itched under his gloves. The nano-pads were already helping his hands heal, but when he gripped too tightly, sharp daggers of pain coursed through his nerves.

The team crossed the mess hall, their flashlight beams raking back and forth. Jackson and Ghost were on rearguard, with Frost and Okami on point.

Akira kept right behind them, scanning, listening, waiting.

They pushed into a passage marked BARRACKS, checking each of the personal quarters. Akira found a few storage drawers under one bunk open, but they were empty. In the closet, he found clumps of clothing on the floor.

It looked like someone had cleaned this place out, confirming his theory that maybe they fled on E-Day.

He moved back to the passage, and the team continued in silence to a hatch leading to the fifth deck.

They entered an engineering room with workstations covered in tools and battery units. Along the hulls were Hummer Droid charging stations.

All were empty.

As soon as Frost started across, a distinct banging rang out.

She held up a fist to halt.

The thuds seemed to be coming from a set of metal 3D printers that had been left on—or turned on by someone.

Okami prowled ahead after Akira motioned to the robotic wolfdog. It sniffed all the way to the next, wide-open hatch.

Metal biohazard signs marked the hulls in a long tunnel that stopped at another hatch, this one closed.

Akira motioned. “Jackson, you’re up.”

The tall Engine held his axe in both hands, activating it as he lumbered over. The fanned blade turned a scorching red, and he heaved it up over his head.

“YA!” he shouted.

The blade simmered into the metal like a hot knife through a slab of meat. With each swing, he cut new gashes into the hatch, until the exterior simmered.

He stepped back, chest heaving.

Akira aimed his rifle at the hatch and nodded to Ghost who strode forward and gave it a strong kick.

The hatch popped loose, slamming onto the deck of a lab.

Okami started inside, his tail immediately going down.

A blur of motion flashed across a chamber of laboratory equipment. Akira heard the clatter of metal joints. The blue Hummer Droid they’d seen earlier sprinted through an open hatch out of the room.

“On me!” Akira said.

He hurried across the room, sweeping his tactical light back and forth over the equipment. Despite seeing the droid, he didn’t notice any blood or bodies of the researchers that had worked here.

As he got close to the exit, he slowed with his rifle shouldered.

Okami bolted ahead, but Akira whistled for the dog to stop until he could catch up and clear the left part of the passage.

Clattering drew his attention from the right, and Akira spun, aiming at the Hummer Droid. The bot was now running again.

Akira was about ready to pull the trigger, but the corridor was lined with viewports. The last thing he wanted to do was hit one of those windows and compromise this habitat, or the entire station.

“Switch to swords,” Akira said.

He strapped his rifle over his back and started running, pulling out his katanas instead, determined to catch up to the droid. Okami bolted ahead, running fast.

By the time Akira rounded the corner, the wolfdog had almost caught up to the Hummer Droid that was waiting at a hatch.

“Unauthorized intruder alert,” it said in a robotic voice.

Akira wished he hadn’t swapped out his blades for his rifle now. The thing was standing perfectly still, just asking for a bolt to its metal cranium.

Before he could pull the rifle, the machine opened the hatch and slipped inside.

The other Engines caught up just as that hatch sealed shut with a thud.

A second thud sounded behind the Engines as they all entered the passage with Okami.

Akira halted, his heart thumping.

He turned to confirm his fear—another hatch had locked them inside from behind.

Raking his light over the hulls, he saw this wasn’t just any normal passage. There was a hatch that led to a sub bay and another that led into the labs. All were locked. Worse, one hatch opened to the sea itself.

They were in some sort of massive bio-chamber. Probably the sort researchers used to preserve oversized organic specimens from the deep sea.

“Okami, back,” Akira said.

The wolfdog scampered back to the Engines.

A hiss sounded from overhead.

White gas sprayed from open vents.

Ghost and Frost pulled out their energy swords, and Jackson unlatched his energy axe. He rushed back to the hatch they had entered. Raising the glowing blade, he then brought it down against the metal. But this time, the strike only left a searing scar.

Gas continued to flood the compartment as he brought the blade down again, and again. Screaming all the while.

Akira turned to search for other ways out. The chamber appeared to be made of solid metal. The vents were the only opening, and the hatches, the only exit.

“Temperatures in here are dropping quick,” Ghost said.

“Captain, any ideas?” Frost asked.

Everywhere the gas touched turned to white. Akira’s energy blades started to dull, too.

Checking his HUD, Akira saw the temperature was at negative fifty degrees Fahrenheit and plummeting.

Akira stared in horror as Okami slowed, his parts starting to freeze.

Anger boiled through Akira, warming his insides momentarily. He pulled out his rifle.

“Out of the way, Jackson!” he yelled.

Lining up his sights, Akira aimed the rifle at the hatch and pulled the trigger.

The bolts punched into the hatch, leaving small black burn marks like the energy swords.

A warning chirped in his helmet right before his suit’s filters finally gave way. Cold mist curled into his armor, chilling him instantly. A distinct smell hit his nostrils. One he recognized from back when he’d first become an Engine, back in the Nova Alliance Strike Force research labs. Scientists there used to freeze cells from the Engines to develop augmentations specific to their body’s biology and genetic profile.

This gas smelled just like the cryopreservation those scientists used on the samples they’d taken from him.

Panicking, he switched to auto-fire and pulled the trigger. The gun whined but wouldn’t fire. The exterior temperature dropped to negative seventy degrees Fahrenheit.

He discarded the weapon and pulled out his katanas again, slashing at the hatch.

Frost and Ghost did the same thing with their energy swords, and Jackson heaved his axe against the hatch.

But it was futile. Their blades were weak, hardly causing more than a dent.

The giant Engines slowly froze in place, their armor becoming a prison to their augmented bodies.

“Not like this,” Ghost said.

“I’m sorry,” Akira said, having a hard time talking at all. “I… I…”

His vision blurred, and his voice cracked.

Frost said something, but Akira couldn’t make it out.

The chamber transformed into a metal freezer, the white mist still hissing out of the overhead.

Of all the ways Akira had expected to die, this was never one of them.

Akira blinked one last time, seeing all four of the Engines and Okami frozen in place like statues before his world went dark.

— 10 —

LDC Transport Train, Location Top-Secret

The Moon

Do not give up, Jason. You can still save the Earth. There are still survivors.

Apeiron’s voice played over and over in his mind. It was so real, like she was right here with him in the train car. He didn’t know where the LDC were sending him, but he did know one thing—she was wrong.

The Life Arks weren’t designed to survive the Poseidon Cannons. The chances of them withstanding the lasers was slim to none.

Even his plan to save individual bastions of humans had failed.

But what if one had survived? Jason wondered.

It wouldn’t matter.

He knew the LDC wouldn’t spend their dwindling resources on a wild goose chase to find a working Life Ark. Let alone to try and bring Apeiron online. They wouldn’t even risk a recon mission to find survivors. They had all but abandoned the Earth.

Jason hung his head.

The darkness and the despair had finally cracked him. It had eaten into his soul, chewing like a maggot through rotting flesh.

You have to convince the LDC to find me, Apeiron’s voice continued. I can fix everything…

Jason gritted his teeth in anger at her statement.

The reality was the opposite.

She couldn’t fix anything.

But even more important—E-Day was her fault.

If she had never lied about Hros-1, Doctor Otto Cross would have never had his opportunity to reset the world with the Poseidon Cannons or take over the droids on Earth.

Apeiron’s deceit had sealed the fate of humanity. She had betrayed Jason and he had failed to see it until it was too late.

Because you trusted her like your sister.

That was on him. He had made Apeiron in Petra’s image, a fatal error that caused him to give her unconditional support and trust.

You failed too, Jason thought.

He couldn’t put this all on Apeiron. They had both failed to save humanity, instead, dooming the species.

And no matter what the nagging voice in his head said, the AI couldn’t change the past, or the future, even if she was still out there.

She couldn’t bring back Betsy, Autumn, or Nina. She couldn’t bring back Darnel or the billions of other souls that had perished.

He closed his eyes, blocking out the depressing reality, and instead dreamed of a day that should have been one of the best of his life.

He and his family were on the Ocean Rays, a yacht he had purchased when his daughter was born. The seacraft was specifically purchased so he could enjoy time away from work with his family.

His wife, Betsy, held Nina in her arms. The baby was only four months old, full of smiles and coos. They had taken the boat out specifically to celebrate his older daughter’s, Autumn’s, third birthday, on the water off Martha’s Vineyard. The way Autumn oohed and aahed at every wave and even the gulls squawking above them made buying this boat worth the expense.

Everyone that Jason loved was here, too. His sister Petra and her husband Tim were sitting on a blanket on the deck, basking in the golden rays of the sun.

Darnel was below decks. He worked tirelessly at repairing Autumn’s birthday cake which had been half-smashed on the ride to the seacraft.

While Jason soaked in this perfect moment, a message appeared on his comm-pad from his main office.

Restoration site 1 is 100% operational, it read. The first of the AAS reforestation projects in the Amazon was finally online. He started scrolling through the data reports that came with the message.

“Jason!” Petra yelled.

He looked up and she wagged a finger at him.

She had no doubt received the message, too. Only she’d had the wisdom to put her comm-pad back down.

Another message flashed on his screen. This one from Petra.

Love before work.

Jason smiled and tucked the comm-pad into his shorts. He joined Betsy along the gunwale and took Nina in his arms, holding her up in the air. Her innocence and curiosity never ceased to amaze Jason, but what amazed him even more was how fragile she was.

It took humans a year to walk on their own. Many animals, like newborn wildebeests, had to stand within a few minutes of birth or risk predators killing them. Children took so much longer to mature and become independent.

“Daddy, can I hold her?” Autumn asked.

“Sure,” he replied.

Jason handed Nina off to Autumn under Betsy’s close supervision, when Darnel climbed up from the lower deck with a cake in one hand.

“Is that for me?” Autumn asked. She nearly dropped her younger sister, and Betsy scooped the baby up.

“Careful!” Betsy said.

“Sorry, Nina!” she patted the infant on the back, then turned to the cake.

“That’s better,” Betsy said. “We have to be gentle with the baby.” She shared a knowing look with Jason. “Just like we’re supposed to be gentle with the cake, right?”

Darnel put the cake on a table under a white awning that protected it from the wind. “The cake’s all fixed up.” He leaned in toward Jason conspiratorially. “A lot easier to fix a cake than a baby.”

Jason let out a low laugh as the group gathered around the table. He lit the three pink candles in the middle of the strawberry frosting.

Autumn started to bend down to blow out the candles when Petra put a hand on her shoulder.

“Not yet, sweetheart,” Petra said. “We want to sing to you first.”

Autumn glanced up with a smile. “You can, but Daddy isn’t a good singer.”

“Well I’ll sing anyway, and you’ll like it.” Jason gave her a mock pouty face and she giggled. “Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to Autumn…”

Thunder boomed in the distance. Jason paused, turning to look at the horizon. The sky was still completely blue. Not a cloud in sight.

He finished the song, then motioned for Autumn to go ahead.

She sucked in another breath and then blew out the candles.

“Yay,” Petra said, clapping her hands together.

“Good job!” Jason said.

His comm-pad buzzed in his pocket, but he ignored it this time.

Darnel gave Jason a knife. “It’s all yours, boss.

“Thanks,” Jason said.

Autumn stuck her finger in one and slurped up the cake and frosting. “This is so good.”

Another rumble burst in the distance.

From the pilothouse, the yacht’s captain shouted down toward them. “Doctor Crichton, can you come up here a minute?”

Jason had just started to cut the cake.

“I’ll take over,” Petra said.

Jason left for the ladder up to the pilothouse. His comm-pad vibrating with each step.

“Hurry back,” Betsy said. She cradled Nina, rocking her with the rhythm of the swaying boat.

With the comm-pad practically screaming at him for attention, Jason pulled it out halfway up the ladder to read the incoming messages. He froze on the middle rung to check what was so important.

“Can’t have a minute with my family,” he cursed.

When he saw the message, his heart flipped. The Coalition had bombed the Amazon Rainforest restoration site.

But why? Why would they want to burn trees?

Jason finished climbing up to the pilothouse, trying to manage his anger and fear. He noticed storm clouds on the horizon that the Captain was staring at.

“Might cause us some problems, sir,” he said. “Should I take us in?”

Darnel emerged a minute later, stern and angry.

He knew.

“Sir,” he said.

“I know,” Jason said. “One of our sites is under attack.”

“No.”

“What do you mean, no?”

“It’s not just one site, Jason. It’s all of them.”

Jason jolted awake.

He blinked for a moment, disoriented. As he gazed around, he realized the train had come to a stop.

Outside, there were voices.

He stood and walked over to the small viewport. The train was docked at a platform with a crooked sign that read: Atlas Station, Shoemaker Crater.

He was still dazed from his nightmare, but it didn’t take long to figure out why he was here. His conversation with the councilor right before his delayed execution stood out in his mind.

Keanu must have had more influence than he gave himself credit for. He had taken Jason’s message to heart and convinced War Commander Thacker to move anyone with an L-S88 chip from Mesopotamia at the Shackleton Crater to this former mining station at the Shoemaker Crater.

Jason waited at the train door for an hour before two troopers finally opened it.

“Out,” one said.

The other guard grabbed Jason and pulled him onto the platform.

“It’s really him,” said the trooper.

“The bastard that made the machines,” said the other.

Jason didn’t answer.

They hauled him off the platform and through a long tunnel until they reached a vaulted chamber. It looked as if the LDC had moved all of the hybrids from Mesopotamia to this place.

Soldiers patrolled between ten massive, vaulted cages positioned throughout the space, each cage filled with the hybrid prisoners.

As they passed one, Jason noticed each person inside had a holographic tattoo on their neck.

They were being branded…

This is all wrong, Jason. Apeiron’s voice echoed through his mind again. We have to do something. We have to stop them.

Jason was led to another tunnel framed by cell doors. A putrid scent drifted down the narrow hallway. He entered a dark corridor with the troopers. Moaning and pained groans escaped the prison cells.

A glance into one revealed this was no ordinary prison.

Inside the cell to his right, a teenaged young woman was strapped to a table, legs and arms bounded. Blood-stained bandages wrapped her head.

“Let’s go, Crichton,” said a guard. The man tugged on his arm.

Jason turned and saw another man restrained to a table with the same blood-stained wraps around his head.

“What are you doing to these people?” Jason asked.

The trooper following Jason shoved him hard. “Shut your mouth and keep walking.”

Jason, we have to do something! Apeiron screamed in his head, her voice ringing against his skull.

“Shut up!” Jason blurted.

“What did you say?” the trooper asked, spinning.

“I, I…” Jason didn’t finish his sentence.

A fist hit him in his gut, knocking him to his knees. The air burst from his lungs, and stars drifted across his vision.

The other trooper lifted him up.

“Next time you open your mouth, I’ll knock your teeth in,” he said.

Jason gasped for air. The stench of rot was only growing stronger as they marched on. The source seemed to be from the final cell.

Inside, a motionless woman with a shaved head sat slouched in a chair. Metal restraints kept her from falling out. The festering wound on her skull showed she had been dead for some time.

“Someone needs to tell ’em to get the corpse out of here,” said the lead trooper.

He shoved Crichton through another door that opened to a surprisingly clean lobby. A short LDC officer stood before him in a black suit with a gold lion pin gleaming from his collar. He had green eyes, the only remarkable features left on his shaved head and face.

“Hello, Doctor Crichton,” the officer said. “My name is Doctor Blake Howard, and I’m with the Lunar Office of Intelligence.”

Blake looked at the troopers in turn.

“Uncuff Doctor Crichton and leave him with me.”

A guard started unlocking Jason from his energy bracelet.

As soon as he was free, Blake gestured for Jason to follow.

“I’ve waited a very long time to meet you,” he said enthusiastically.

Blake opened a doorway to a hallway lined with glass walls. Scientists and technicians worked at stations throughout the spaces, some of them at holo-screens, others at lab stations.

The doctor took him down an elevator to a vast open space that looked like some sort of training ground. Targets were posted throughout the room on mounds that resembled moon rocks.

Hummer Droids stood against the walls, their battery packs charging at stations in multiple locations.

Blake must have noticed him staring.

“We kept a few for testing purposes,” he said. “These are completely under our control. It was a shame War Commander Thacker ordered their destruction, but we’ve mostly been able to make up for their loss with human laborers.”

The doctor walked over to a wall of metal hatches. A push of a button opened one, exposing a glass window to a small room with metal walls.

The lights clicked on to a sight that chilled Jason to the core.

Metal straps secured a Canebrake to the back wall.

“Don’t worry, it’s been disarmed,” Blake said. “This entire lab has been retrofitted to block any incoming or outgoing signals. It’s one massive faraday cage.”

Jason stepped forward to look at his creation.

“You should have destroyed it,” he said. “Destroyed every last one of them.”

“We need them for—”

“Testing?”

“Precisely, Doctor Crichton. To understand our enemy.”

Blake tapped the button, sealing the shutter. Then he waved Jason to follow.

They went to another vaulted space with lab stations throughout.

“I hope this will fit your needs, Doctor Crichton,” he said.

“My needs?”

“Your lab and new home. The council voted to stay your execution at the last minute to help the Lunar Defense Corps Intelligence Division with Operation Orchard.”

Blake tapped a holo-screen next to a wall of glass. Lights flickered on behind the glass wall overlooking a bare room. A single woman stood in the center of the long space, shaking. She was screaming something, but Jason couldn’t hear a word.

“What is Operation Orchard?” Jason asked.

Blake folded his arms across his chest.

“Right now, there are sixty Praying Mantis fighters two thousand miles from Kepler Station,” he said. “But these fighters aren’t our only concern…”

“It’s the signal they could relay,” Jason said.

“Precisely. That’s why we moved all the hybrids here. Atlas Station has been assigned to carry out top-secret tests on the hybrids we’ll use in Operation Orchard. Your first job is to help us prepare the hybrids to return to Earth.”

“To return to Earth for what…”

“Our own Trojan Horse,” Blake said with a sly grin. “In our case, we’ve got many, many horses thanks to the hybrids. They’ll deliver a virus that can destroy the machines. A virus that you’ll design.”

Jason narrowed his eyes.

“Operation Orchard is our best chance at taking back the Earth for future generations,” Blake said. “And you are going to ensure it’s a success, to reverse the horrors you unleashed, before it’s too late to reverse them.”

He patted Jason on the shoulder and turned him back toward the banks of computers, holo-screens and mainframes.

“I could threaten you if you don’t agree to help, but I know you’ve suffered immensely,” Blake said. “I know you’ll do what’s right and design a virus to eradicate the machines. To avenge your family and to protect the families still alive here on the Moon. The readings our Falconers at Kepler Station are picking up show the Earth can still be saved. We have three months, maybe a bit more to launch an attack and deliver the virus.”

You need my help to destroy Doctor Cross, Apeiron said in his mind. You must find me. You know where…

Jason winced and reached up to his head.

“Are you okay, Doctor?” Blake asked.

He lowered his hand and clenched his jaw.

Apeiron had her chance to save humanity. Jason had given her the tools, and trust. It was a mistake that he only realized when it was too late.

He wouldn’t make it again.

“What do you say, Doctor Crichton?”

Jason wasn’t sure if this plan would work to save the Earth, but even if there was a remote chance, he couldn’t pass up the opportunity.

He looked up to meet the gaze of a scientist he didn’t trust. A man that seemed fine with experimenting on hybrids and turning them into delivery vessels for a virus to take back the planet from the machines.

It was evil, but only evil would defeat Doctor Otto Cross.

“I’ll design your virus,” Jason said quietly.

***

Lion Station

Shackleton Crater, The Moon

Six twenty-foot long cannons protruded from the ridge, built into the mountain overlooking the Shackleton Crater. Tadhg stood inside an observation bunker under those cannons.

Lion Station was one of nine built around the Shackleton Crater rim.

At the bottom of the dark bowl was Mesopotamia, the capital colony connected to the five sub-colonies housing the Lucky Million.

His job was to help secure this place from an attack, but so far it was getting off to a shitty start. The LDC defenses were full of more holes than a Coalition soldier after tangoing with Tadhg’s old plasma cannon.

It hadn’t even taken his personal expertise to expose these flaws. His team of sophomores had identified several major issues, too. Not that Tadhg was all that surprised. The LDC was microscopic in size to the Nova Alliance Strike Force, and the mining colonies on the Moon had never relied on the advanced operating systems that the Nova Alliance used on Earth to keep their massive Megacities and military functioning.

Most of the people that lived on the Moon were so isolated before E-Day they had never even heard of a Canebrake. Defending colonies and lunar assets from interplanetary threats had never before been an issue.

But the troopers assigned to Tadhg knew all about the machines and the AI that powered them. Especially Ronald and Veronica.

She was tapped into a holo-screen going over the security firewalls, while Ronald was off touring the rest of Lion Station with Joaquín.

Two MOTHs landed in the field of white ejecta below. Their troop holds opened, ramps lowering to the dust. Two platoons of troopers made their way out.

They started the trek across the basin to pillboxes built under the cliffs.

Their arrival brought the number of soldiers here to just over one hundred and fifty.

It wasn’t just the defenses or their knowledge of the enemy that was lacking.

Most of these troopers were conscripted from the Lucky Million refugees and had no combat experience against the machines.

Tadhg had his work cut out for him.

“Sergeant Walsh,” came a voice.

Tadhg turned to see Ronald, who had just returned with Joaquín from their tour.

“I’ve finished my initial analysis,” he said.

“That was fast,” Tadhg said.

“Not hard to see how unprepared this station is, Sergeant.”

“Indeed, mate.”

Ronald stepped up to the window and pointed at the troopers on the surface. “The biggest security problem I see right now is that.”

“Yeah, I know. We need more.”

“Not what I mean. Just watch them.”

Tadhg studied their clumsy, slow movements.

“The Canebrakes are so much more agile and efficient in this environment,” he said. “Fighting on the lunar surface puts us at an overwhelming disadvantage.”

“I see your point.”

“The low gravity on the moon makes it worse. In my opinion, almost all of our soldiers should be positioned in bunkers like this with artificial gravity. Those pillboxes are worthless.”

“These bunkers really aren’t that great either,” Joaquín said.

He stepped into the observation room with a data-pad. On it, he showed Tadhg the schematics of the base. Tunnels connected their bunker to a primary one deep under the surface.

“There are hatches that seal these tunnels off, but only one escape route,” Joaquín said. “It’s a terrible design plan if it’s ever penetrated. We need more tunnels dedicated to escape routes.”

“Agreed, plus there is another major flaw,” Veronica said. “Those hatches absolutely should not be controlled by computers. We need manual systems to open them in case the power fails or the machines gain control.”

“We also need some explosives to help cover escape routes.” Joaquín grinned. “We could always use more explosives.”

“I like you, kid, I like you a lot,” Tadhg said. “What else?”

“The cannons,” Ronald said. “They fire high concentrations of plasma capable of destroying large enemy ships, but they’re slow to take on Praying Mantis fighters.”

“I noticed that, too.”

“So, Sergeant, how we going to tell brass that they have no idea what they’re doing?” Joaquín asked.

Tadhg laughed.

“Can’t totally blame them,” Ronald said. “They’ve been living in peace here on the Moon for how long? The most action any of the veteran troopers and pilots saw was from rogue mining pirates up until now.”

“There’s something else concerning me,” Veronica said. She was busy looking at her data-pad. “The LDC runs off a single system much like INN. If the machines shut it down, our defenses will be almost completely disabled.”

“Like E-Day,” Tadhg said.

“Precisely. My guess is the machines won’t attack us with plasma, missiles, bombs, or Canebrakes first. I would bet my life they will try and take out our power and comms from a distance. Then they’ll invade.”

The hatch to the room opened, and Lieutenant Commander Rhett Fox joined them.

“Sir,” Tadhg said, coming to attention.

Fox walked over to the viewport. “Our Falconers just detected an object headed our way.”

He pulled out a data-pad, activating a holo-screen.

On it, a silhouetted craft sped along a basin.

“Have you ever seen anything like this?” Fox asked.

“No, sir,” Tadhg said. “If that’s a machine, it’s a new one.”

“It’s moving at a constant three-hundred miles per hour,” Fox said. “Whatever this thing is, it’s evading our radar and doesn’t even have a heat signature.”

Three King Cobra Spaceplanes rose out of their under-surface hangars in the distance. They tore away, heading east to intercept the bogey. The mirrored-feeds coming from their cockpits were transmitted back to a holo-screen in the room.

Tadhg watched it carefully.

The pilots accelerated to almost two-thousand-miles per hour, blasting low over the lunar surface.

Within three minutes, they would reach the target.

Tadhg glanced at the darkness of the crater below them, his gut tightening. They had kept this place safe from the machines for a month now. The Lucky Million were down there, helpless to defend themselves.

Families like Akira’s.

Tadhg thought of Lise, Ronin, and Elan.

“Approaching target.”

The voice of Blue Viper, the lead pilot of the three King Cobras came online with the first visual of the bogey. The craft featured a teardrop-shaped fore section that connected to a bulbous, almost disc-shaped bow with two wing-like structures on the dorsal side.

The aft had two more wing-like structures that angled downward and a single dorsal wing. The hull itself was smooth, its color nearly that of the Lunar surface itself.

The three King Cobras all released their missiles.

Come on, Tadhg thought.

All the missiles hit in flashes of light, but the ship just kept speeding forward. The impacts seemed to have no effect on the smooth hull.

“Missiles had no visual effect,” reported Blue Viper. “Switching to plasma cannons.”

The three King Cobras closed in, only about ten miles away now.

Just as their turrets flashed to life, a plate covering the hull peeled backward, revealing an eye centered in the middle of the bow.

A red light radiated from the eye, then unleashed a violent burst of blinding light.

“We have—” Blue Viper’s words stopped mid-sentence.

All three feeds flashed off.

“What happened?” Joaquín asked.

Veronica stared in disbelief.

An alarm blared inside the bunker.

“All hands, level five alert. Repeat, level five alert.”

The observation bunker shook with a quaking rumble. Tadhg looked out the viewport again. Three of the cannons built into the crater rim were turning east.

The holo-screen switched to another image of the flying object. It was still moving at the same constant velocity, directly for the crater.

The view darkened.

“Just our luck,” Veronica said. “We’re about to experience a blackout.”

“Not luck,” Ronald said. “This was planned. Showing up during a brief moment of darkness sounds like exactly something our enemy would do.”

The sunlight hitting the crater rim continued to retreat.

“It’s about to get even worse,” Veronica said.

She held up her data-pad.

“That ship just changed course. It’s headed right for us now.”

“If they didn’t know where we are, they do now,” Joaquín said.

“We have defenses at multiple craters,” Ronald said. “Just because the machines found us does not mean they know where Mesopotamia is.”

“But… When the machines send their fleet, they’ll find us no matter where we hide,” Tadhg replied. “Our job is to make sure we can defend against the attack. We’re about to get a taste of that right now.”

A hundred feet below Tadhg, patrols of troopers spread out in the regolith. He remembered what Ronald had said earlier about the pillboxes.

He bumped on the command channel.

“General Stao, this is Sergeant Walsh,” Tadhg said. “I’d highly recommend relocating all troopers into the bunkers.”

Stao didn’t even acknowledge the transmission.

“The hell are we here for if no one will listen to us?” Tadhg said with a curse.

He didn’t have time for anger.

The ship was coming.

“Get ready,” Tadhg said.

“For what?” Veronica asked.

“For combat.”

— 11 —

Thirteen years ago…

Mount Koya, Japan

The hum of prayer drifted out of the historic Kongobuji temple on Mount Koya.

Akira walked hand in hand with Yui. She held Takeshi in a wrap across her chest. The young boy, just over a year old now, glanced up at the cherry blossom trees, his dark brown eyes taking in all of the sights with curiosity.

This tranquil temple was a much needed break from war.

Akira limped toward it. He was still recovering from a shrapnel wound to his shin two weeks earlier. He was healing nicely, almost ready to return to the battlefield, but he was glad to have the time with his wife and their young son.

The chanting of the monks faded under the soft chime of bells and the melody of songbirds nearby.

“I love it here,” Yui said with a wide smile. She turned toward Akira with Takeshi.

“You like it too, don’t you, little one?” Akira asked, leaning down over Takeshi.

The young boy reached up for his top knot, nearly pulling Akira’s tight black hair knot out.

Yui laughed and helped free Akira’s hair from Takeshi’s fingers.

Akira found himself chuckling for the first time in months.

“When this war is over, maybe we can move up in the mountains with the monks,” he said.

“Really?” Yui asked.

It was her dream to move away from Megacity Tokyo, where the hustle and bustle of everyday life and threat of war was always on her mind.

“Perhaps,” Akira said.

He scrutinized the monks praying in the temple. He envied their peaceful existence, spared from the horrors of the war. For the most part, they lived up here in isolation.

It wasn’t until a decade ago the Nova Alliance Council had started to crack down on other religions that did not worship AI. The Shingon Buddhists were no exception. They’d been forced into implementing AI at the temple.

But unlike the villages and cities in this region, there were no Hummer Worker Droids tending the gardens or sweeping dust from the temple’s wooden floors. The only evidence of AI was a single hologram that had taken the form of a long-deceased, beloved monk.

The AI roamed the temple grounds like a ghost, his only duty to interact with tourists and perhaps provide comfort to the monks.

The hologram crossed through a rock garden over to Akira and his family.

“Hello,” Yui said in Japanese.

“Greetings, and welcome to Kongobuji Temple. We are just finishing our prayer if you would like to see the Main Hall or perhaps you would like to join for a meditation session.”

“Thank you,” Akira said.

“Let me know if you need assistance.”

Akira led Yui toward the rock garden, and then up creaky wooden steps.

The monks were still in prayer position, eyes closed.

For a few minutes, Akira and Yui watched them. Takeshi broke the silence with a giggle.

None of the monks so much as batted an eye.

Akira guided Yui away from the room. They took a hallway lined with wooden beams. Paintings of the snow-capped mountains and blossoming trees were displayed on fusuma sliding doors.

Several tourists examined the ancient artwork.

The hallway ended at an open door overlooking another rock garden with a koi pond. More tourists were standing on a bridge over the water.

Akira hobbled down the stairs, his shin flaring up.

This time Yui led the way through the rock gardens, navigating the stone statues.

“There is so much history here,” she said. “Perfect for your codex.”

He took her hand and started down a path that led into the pine forest. “You’re absolutely right.”

The rare grin vanished when he noticed three tendrils of smoke on the horizon. He stopped, staring at the smoke.

“Akira,” Yui said after a moment.

“Yes, sorry.”

He continued walking but watched the smoke.

For most of the day he had done well focusing on being present, keeping his mind from transporting him back to the war. But the sight of smoke made him pause.

Images of his dead and injured friends arose like the monk AI hologram in his mind. He had lost so many over the past year alone.

He swallowed and took in a breath of fresh air, filling his lungs.

The present is all that matters, being here with them.

He looked away from the smoke and back toward his family. Maybe he was seeing nothing more than a campfire or someone burning leaves.

Reaching over, he put his arm around Yui. He brought her close so he could look down at Takeshi. The boy was blinking, trying to stay awake.

The wind rustled the branches, carrying the scent of the pine needles.

“Would you like to meditate?” Yui asked. “Then maybe we can go get dinner in town?”

“That sounds wonderful,” Akira said.

They continued into a graveyard of headstones. A massive stone statue of Buddha faced the trail. Lanterns, burning at all times, framed the dirt and rock path.

Across the path the statue of a monk held a spear in one hand and beads in the other.

Towering ancient cedars rose overhead, their upper branches creaking in the wind like the bones of the dead.

Over the noise, Akira heard something out of place in this tranquil conclave.

Shouting.

The hair on his neck stood.

He turned, ears perked like a deer.

“What is it?” Yui asked.

The shouting grew louder, accompanied by panicked voices.

This can’t be happening, he thought.

“Stay here,” Akira said.

“Akira…” Yui said.

“Hide behind the Buddha. I’ll be right back.”

He took off running, glancing over his shoulder to ensure Yui was safe. She slipped behind the stone with Takeshi and hunched down, out of sight.

He slipped into the forest, using the trees for cover.

He followed the noise, hearing more shouts, and then something that made him freeze.

Two gunshots cracked through the air.

Akira finally saw the source of the violence at the front of the main building.

Two Coalition soldiers on horseback circled a group of tourists, while two corralled them on foot.

The monks were all standing in the open doorway of the monastery.

“We are peaceful, please leave this sacred place that you desecrate with your weapons,” one said.

The hologram of the AI monk stepped up behind him.

“We have alerted Nova Alliance authorities,” he said calmly.

Another soldier on horseback came bursting out of a path, his helmet crested with antlers and bones.

This was their leader.

He aimed a plasma pistol at the AI and fired, the bolts ripping through the hologram.

The other Coalition soldiers laughed.

Akira counted five in this area.

Unarmed, recovering from an injury, and without his armor, it was far too many to take on his own. Chances were good they would destroy the AI mainframe and leave, but he needed to be sure.

He slipped back into the forest and found Yui in the same spot.

She was a brave woman, but there was terror in her dark eyes as she clutched Takeshi against her chest. He tried to turn, but Akira reached out with a finger.

“Shhh,” he whispered. “It’s okay. Everything is okay.”

Yui would know he was lying but would understand it was for their son.

“You have to get out of here,” Akira said quietly. “Take the trail and run into the forest if anyone comes.”

Another flurry of gunfire erupted behind them, both guns and hissing plasma rifles. Screams of agony exploded in the distance.

Takeshi cried out before Akira could put a hand over his mouth.

Yui stared at the direction of the gunfire.

“Go,” Akira said. “Go now.”

“But what about you?”

“I’ll be right behind you.”

She took off, looking over her shoulder at him. When she was gone, he returned to the statue with the spear and broke it from the stone grip. The blade wasn’t sharp, but it was all he had.

He ran down the path toward the screams of the tourists, and the monks.

At the edge of the trail, he froze out of shock.

The Coalition soldiers had slaughtered almost all of them. Their leader was sitting in the saddle of his horse at the top of the monastery. He flicked blood off his sword as he started back down the stairs, past two dead monks sprawled on the wooded steps.

“Over there!” one of the Coalition soldiers called out.

He pointed at Akira.

The other two horsemen charged with their energy swords out. Akira backpedaled, his heart pounding.

But then he couldn’t retreat and lead them to Yui.

Akira stopped, staring at the two riders, both of their features covered with armets. He fell into a defensive position and then launched the spear with enough force it punched through the chest armor of the lead rider, knocking him off the horse.

Running into the forest, Akira searched for a place to hide. He looked over his shoulder as the other rider dismounted to give chase.

Akira scooped a chunk of broken stone off a statue and hid behind a thick cedar. He listened for the soldier’s footsteps.

The man’s heavy breathing announced that he was close.

Sweat dripping down his forehead, Akira held in a breath.

The soldier passed the tree and kept going.

Sneaking up behind him, Akira smashed the rock against the man’s helmet. He collapsed to the dirt, his energy sword still in hand.

Raising the stone, Akira brought it down again and again on the man’s helmet until blood oozed out of the broken metal.

Akira dropped the rock and grabbed the dropped energy sword, already cooling. He then reached for the dead man’s pistol.

Energy bolts suddenly streaked by, hitting the dirt around him.

Akira rolled away with only the sword in hand.

“Over here!” shouted one of the commandos.

Akira hid behind another tree, the bark flying from incoming bullets and bolts.

Adrenaline rushed through his system, fueling his run for better cover. His ankle burned as he darted between the trees, bullets zipping past his head.

Akira got back to the trail when he heard the snort of a horse and hooves pounding the ground. The beast came around a corner, bursting into view.

Turning, Akira tried to bring up the sword, but it was too late.

The beast slammed into him, sending him flying backward. He landed on his back with a thud. Air whooshing from his lungs, his vision blurring, pain racing across his body.

Then came the numbness.

Akira tried to get up, tried to move, thinking of his wife and son.

You have to get up, get up!

He managed to sit, only to fall back down.

Blinking, his vision cleared enough to see the Coalition rider dismount and bend down. The other two commandos arrived a moment later. Akira tried to reach out for the energy sword, but one of the soldiers stomped on his hand.

He closed his eyes in agony, only to open them to the face of the Coalition leader that had taken off his helmet. Nordic tattoos marked his neck and face.

“You must be a Piston,” he growled through chipped teeth.

“Why… Why attack these people?” Akira whispered. “This is a peaceful—”

Screams pierced the afternoon.

Angry, war-like screams.

The soldier turned and stood along with his comrades. They didn’t even have time to raise weapons before they were cut down by monks wielding katanas and spears.

Akira watched in awe as the normally peaceful Buddhists slashed and thrust their blades into the Coalition commandos, splattering blood across the sacred dirt.

A voice called out in the distance.

“Akira!”

Pushing himself up, he staggered and then fell back down. Yui ran over and bent down with Takeshi still wrapped against her chest.

“Akira, stay with me,” she said.

He batted his eyelids.

“Wake up, Akira, you can’t leave us…you have to wake up…”

— 12 —

LDC Lion Station

Shackleton Crater, The Moon

Two brilliant flashes ripped through the darkness on the horizon. The cannons built into the mountains fired at the incoming bogey.

Explosions burst over the eastern mountains.

But the craft burst straight through the blasts, unperturbed by the salvo.

Two more cannons erupted with another blinding volley of fire. This time, their rounds hit with roaring explosions that knocked the titanic craft off course.

The vessel recovered its shaky flight, adjusting its trajectory slightly—it was aimed right at Lion Station.

Darkness washed over the mountains and hit the observation bunker a moment later. Tadhg used his INVS eyes to search for the armored spacecraft in the black.

On the surface, patrols of soldiers were still descending from rocky paths to get into their above-surface turrets.

Another round of cannons fired. The flashes from the resulting impacts helped Tadhg locate the craft again. Two blasts hit the forward section of the craft as the vessel swooped down over the mountains. Another cannon blast struck it at the bow.

Chunks of the armored craft ripped off the exterior, exposing a secondary layer of alloy.

“That thing is a flying tank,” Joaquín said.

The hatches over the bunker’s viewports began to close.

“All teams, prepare for impact!” said a voice over the PA system.

The spacecraft slammed into the regolith, sending a violent quake through the bunker. Clouds of dust and debris kicked up from the craft as it skidded over the surface.

One of the MOTHs tried to lift off, only to be plowed into by the enemy vessel.

A piece of shrapnel crashed against one of the closing hatches. Ronald flinched, and Veronica backed away.

Tadhg stood his ground.

The craft finally came to a stop, the bow buried in the ejecta. Hatches along the bulbous ship opened, and inside the dark interior, a pair of blue pupils flickered to life.

“Canebrakes,” Tadhg said.

The hatches shut over the viewports.

Veronica brought up an external camera view from her data-pad. A half-dozen of the machines emerged from an open hatch in the downed craft.

Plasma bolts smashed into the side of the wreckage, dust kicking up around the impacts. The Canebrakes fanned out into the darkness.

Tadhg turned from the holo-screen. “You all stay here, and don’t move.”

“But Sergeant…” Veronica said.

“Stay here!”

Tadhg rushed out of the observation room. He unslotted his RS-3 rifle, running toward the closest airlock. Officers and soldiers were all rushing in the opposite direction, passing him in the narrow tunnels.

Comm chatter filled his helmet as Tadhg made his way into an elevator that descended to the surface. The doors whisked open to a hallway connecting to a chamber with an airlock.

Warnings flashed when he stepped inside, but he ignored all of them and started the process of leaving the habitat.

Through a porthole, he watched a scene of chaos unfold.

A pair of Canebrakes hunted for prey. Tadhg tracked them by following their blue pupils in the darkness outside. The monsters moved swiftly in the low gravity just like he had feared.

Screams crackled over the comms as the machines found human targets.

One of the troopers caught in the open was sprinting away to escape. Before he could, a telescoped limb wrapped around his legs and hurled him away.

The soldier came back down to the surface a few moments later. He struggled back up to his feet, but before he could move, a heated blade speared through his helmet, killing him instantly.

Tadhg tapped the open button on the hatch.

This time a red light blinked, and an automated voice said, “Facility is now locked down.”

“Fuck no, it’s not,” Tadhg said. “Override system.”

“Authorization, please.”

Outside, another trooper was ripped in half at the waist by the telescoped arms. Three more went down outside a pillbox in a burst of plasma bolts. A fourth tried to pull an injured soldier inside, only to take a bolt straight to the faceplate.

It was just as Tadhg had feared.

Only worse.

This was a massacre.

“Authorization, please,” repeated the automated voice.

“Here’s my authorization,” Tadhg said. He unslotted his energy sword and thrust it into the airlock hatch, pulling it up and then over. As he worked on making his own door, he activated his custom music playlist in his helmet with a voice command.

In the past, this was usually the point where Ghost sang a song to rally their morale. Today, he was going to play homage to his Italian friend, who he missed dearly.

Tadhg switched on a classic opera track.

Not so bad, he thought.

Time to become a maestro.

He finished cutting through the hatch with a vicious grunt.

Then he gave it a kick that sent it crashing into the Moon’s dusty surface.

Plasma bolts crisscrossed the basin, each muzzle flash illuminating the machines and the LDC Troopers engaging them. The Canebrakes were quickly advancing from their downed craft toward the pillboxes where soldiers fired through open viewports.

Tadhg gripped his long sword with his left hand and raised his RS-3 rifle in his right. He fired a burst of plasma bolts at the first set of blue pupils that roved his direction.

The machine leapt above the spray. Tiny thrusters flared along its body.

“Of course they can fly now.” Tadhg turned with his sword as the machine landed behind him.

This was no ordinary Canebrake. It was highly modified. Not only could it fly, but the fanned heads were now smaller, the shoulders wider, and the telescoping arms and legs thicker.

Both shoulder-mounted plasma turrets erupted with fire as Tadhg bolted to find cover.

The classical opera started to pick up tempo as he rolled on the dust. He ducked below whipping arms, bringing up his rifle and firing from a crouch.

Two bolts hit the Canebrake in the shoulder, taking out one of the plasma cannons.

A proximity warning beeped in his helmet, and a rear camera view displayed a visual of another machine charging behind Tadhg.

He blasted off with his jetpack, bolts chasing him toward space. Now he had a view of the entire battlefield on the basin.

Three of the Canebrakes were still active, but one was destroyed. According to his HUD, ten soldiers had already died taking it down, their life support systems red on his mini-map.

He fired at the machine that had tried to flank him, but the burn of plasma and molten red alloy drew his attention. The other Canebrake he had been fighting was forcing its way through an airlock.

Tadhg dropped back down to the surface and rushed after it. Over a shoulder, he fired at the other machine. It bolted behind the cover of a massive boulder.

The song reached a crescendo the same moment Tadhg got back to the airlock. Both blue pupils on the back side of the fanned head centered on him and the remaining turret rotated at his chest.

Tadhg raised his barrel to fire at the shoulder-mounted weapon, then took out both eyes with calculated shots. Letting his rifle hang from the strap, he switched to his energy sword, running toward the disabled machine.

When he was almost in striking distance, something wrapped around his shoulders and chest, then yanked him back.

He hit the ground with the segmented arms of a machine wrapped around his body. It stabbed at him with the other arms, super-heated blades punching into the ejecta as he rolled and squirmed in the machine’s grip to avoid them. One of the blades sliced through his shoulder armor, and another alarm screeched in his helmet.

Normally Tadhg didn’t feel terror, especially from a flesh wound. But a flesh wound on the Moon wasn’t the same as on Earth. Out here, it could kill him when it meant his suit had been compromised. His protection against the extreme environment might soon fail.

Using his right finger, he activated his jetpack, exploding off the ground. The machine, still holding him in its grip, flew upward with him.

Time seemed to bend as they rose up toward the darkness of space.

A red blade shot up past his helmet.

He looked down at the metal abomination. The telescoping arms had wrapped around his legs and waist. They squeezed on his armor.

Below the machine determined to rip him in half, he tracked three more of the Canebrakes outside of the last pillbox. Their plasma turrets and blades tore inside the open viewport, killing the soldiers trapped inside.

Finally, Tadhg saw the craft that had transported the Canebrakes here.

But it was no longer buried in the regolith.

It rose on four sharp legs, dust waterfalling off the hull.

The behemoth clambered away as Tadhg fell back down to the surface. He watched in horror as the vessel climbed up a ridgeline to the rim. At the top, it stood over the Shackleton Crater, where the Lucky Million survivors hid in the darkness below.

***

Halo Sub-Colony, Mesopotamia

Shackleton Crater, The Moon

Mesopotamia was supposed to be the most guarded, important secret in human history, but it seemed the machines had found them.

Alarms wailed in Halo Colony, deep under the surface of the capital.

It was just as everyone had feared, Apeiron had launched Phase Two of her attack.

Ronin stood at the entrance of their private shelter with Elan. They searched the crowd for their mom. Four hours earlier, she had left to search for work in Mesopotamia. Now, a mob of people rushed inside the chamber carrying their valuables and children in a frantic effort to get inside the shelter.

Todd and Micky waited beside them.

“I’m sure she’s trying to get back here, but maybe she’s trapped,” Todd said.

Ronin had a feeling that might be the case and was growing more anxious by the second. He wanted desperately to go off and search for his mom. If he didn’t leave soon, he might lose his opportunity to leave here, too.

Then again, if he left and his mom came back while he was gone, he could be trapped outside the sub-colony, separated again.

The emergency broadcast system kicked on above them. “Stay calm and report to your nearest shelter.”

Ronin was having a hard time staying calm as he studied each frightened face for his mother.

Troopers rushed down the hallway. People shouted questions at the heavily armored men. It was pure chaos.

“What’s happening?”

“Are we under attack?”

Only one soldier bothered to pause. “This is not a drill! Get inside and wait for further instructions.”

Ronin and his twin couldn’t speak to one another without signing or lip movements, but they shared other ways to communicate. Sometimes it was just a subtle look. Today it was just that.

They couldn’t wait here. They needed to go find their mom.

Ronin threw his backpack over his shoulder and tightened the straps. Then he looked back to Todd.

“If my mom gets back before we do, tell her we went to look for her at Mesopotamia,” Ronin said.

For a moment, he thought Todd might try and convince them to stay, but he gave an understanding nod.

“Be careful,” he said.

Ronin led Elan out of the room, dodging past the last group of people hurrying inside. A soldier called out at them, but Ronin ignored him and took off into the dark passage outside. Shacks and stalls framed the walls. Most were abandoned, but a few of the owners were still rushing to pack their valuables.

Another message played over the automated warning system. “This is not a drill. Please report to your assigned shelter.”

Ronin tried to keep calm, but everything happening reminded him of E-Day, when his family had been separated at Gold Base.

He couldn’t let that happen again.

If the machines were attacking, he wanted to be with his mother and brother.

Ronin and Elan ran faster down the long tunnel, passing others rushing in the opposite direction.

They passed another connecting vestibule that led to the town center. From there, the tunnel sloped up toward Mesopotamia. It was a two-mile-long corridor, a half hour on foot or a minute ride by train. The entrance to the train was around the next corner.

When Ronin rounded it, he saw two LDC soldiers standing outside a large metal door blocking the entrance.

“Get back to your shelter!” one yelled, pointing.

Ronin pulled Elan away, back the way they had come and into the two-mile long tunnel they had passed earlier.

As far as Ronin could tell, it wasn’t blocked off.

He took off running, stopping only when he realized Elan was no longer following him.

Maybe we should stay here, he signed.

Ronin shook his head.

Mom, he signed.

Elan relented and went after Ronin.

The wide tunnel was mostly used for rovers and mining rigs. They kept to the pedestrian side where yellow arrows and signs marked the way, illuminated by emergency lights.

Another massive tunnel on their left led to Star Colony. Two troopers patrolled in front of it. Ronin waited until their backs were to him before he sprinted past with Elan.

They took off down the passage, but halfway down Ronin slowed at a startling noise.

It sounded like banging, different from earlier. This was almost as if hundreds of people were pounding a wall. Faint voices called out in the distance. They seemed to be coming from another connecting passage.

Ronin checked it out around the corner, pulling back at the sight of at least a dozen troopers outside a mammoth blast door sealing off Rose Colony.

He hesitated with his back to the wall, Elan staring at him.

What’s wrong? Elan signed.

Hold on, Ronin signed back.

The pounding sounded almost like the colonists of Rose Colony were rioting against the closed hatch.

But why would they want out?

Ronin took another look, noticing the holo-screen sign for Rose Colony was dark.

A chill ran up his neck.

Was the power completely off?

If it was, then the air filters wouldn’t be working at all.

The troopers outside weren’t doing anything to help, either.

Ronin considered walking right toward them to see what was going on but decided against it. He had to find his mom, and if something was wrong, the troopers would eventually help.

He rejoined Elan and kept going. They ran all the way to the connecting vestibule to Mesopotamia. The passage stopped at wide stairs leading up into the massive heart of the colony.

At the top, guards held back a crowd of people trying to come down the stairs leading to the sub-colonies.

“Get back!” one of the troopers yelled.

“Let me through!” shouted a woman.

Ronin looked for his mom but didn’t see her. He motioned for Elan, and they started up the stairs. Before the troopers saw them, Ronin ducked under an armored limb and pulled Elan right through.

They melted into the crowd.

“Mom!” Ronin yelled. There were hundreds of people, all trying to get back to their seed colonies.

Towering buildings rose up toward a glass dome over one thousand feet above them. Cranes reached up toward the new structures built around the walls of the underground capital.

Thousands, maybe tens of thousands of apartments were being added to the walls with the other structures already built inside the silo-shaped colony.

All of them overlooked the center of the small city. This place looked far different than the dark and filthy sub-colony Ronin was used to.

Ronin continued pushing his way through the crowd.

A deafening thud silenced the entire chamber. The noise seemed to have come from behind them, and Ronin turned back to the entrance. Two large blast doors had sealed shut.

They were trapped.

Elan pulled on Ronin, but he kept staring. What if their mom had somehow made it back to Halo Colony, now they were going to be…

A strong tug on his shirt finally got Ronin to turn toward his brother.

Elan was pointing to someone in the crowd.

Their mother.

“Mom!” he yelled.

She locked eyes with Ronin.

Another group of soldiers arrived to control the crowd.

Over the whine of the alarm, came a heavy clap of what sounded almost like thunder. Elan must have felt the vibration, because he looked up at the glass bowl protecting the colony.

The crowd suddenly silenced, everyone staring.

Ronin squinted, spotting a blue light moving in the darkness of Shackleton Crater. That light seemed to brighten and spread over the dome.

A flashback to E-Day emerged in his mind. Ronin recalled the first moments on the corvette after evacuating Gold Base. In orbit, he remembered seeing the curved apparitions at the bow of the Praying Mantis fighters glowing blue right before releasing their plasma blasts.

“Run!” someone shouted.

The industrial lights throughout the colony clicked off, bathing the entire colony in pure darkness. People cried out as they tripped and fell in the black.

Ronin grabbed both his mom and Elan. They took off with the fleeing crowd. Even the soldiers ran, their power units shining in the dark.

They would know where to go. Ronin pulled his mom and brother after a group of three troopers using tactical lights to guide their retreat.

They moved into a street carving through the main business district.

The ground rumbled from a powerful quake. Ronin kept steady, pulling his family after the soldiers.

Thuds resonated throughout the massive chamber.

Were bombs going off somewhere?

Ronin followed the men into the front door of a building. More people rushed inside.

The troopers raked their lights over the lobby of the building.

“This way,” one said.

The group went down a flight of stairs into a basement furnished with shelves full of crates and cases. On the other side of the shelves was an open vault.

“Everyone inside,” said a trooper.

“Keep quiet,” added another soldier.

Ronin guided his brother and mom into the large space, huddling with fifteen other people and the three soldiers.

The leader of the group had a corporal rank on his chest plate.

“Do you know what’s happening?” Lise asked.

“Are we under attack?” asked another woman.

“Did the machines find us?” a man asked.

“I said quiet,” the soldier insisted. He instructed one of the other troopers to close the vault door, sealing them inside.

A low rumble hit the bunker, silencing everyone.

The tremors grew louder, stronger, closer.

Ronin looked at the ceiling, but this didn’t seem to be coming from above. It seemed like it was coming from beneath them.

He felt the shudder under his boots.

But how was that possible?

Unless the machines had somehow already gotten inside.

— 13 —

Kepler Station, Hangar 4

Kepler Crater, The Moon

Dario sat in the cockpit of his King Cobra Spaceplane in Hangar 4, unmoved from the spot he landed ten minutes ago. With sixty Praying Mantis fighters still hovering two-thousand miles outside of Kepler Station, he was growing impatient.

But Command was clearly more worried about the Praying Mantis fighter Dario and Wind had escorted into base. The damaged enemy fighter was at the end of the long hangar, the hatch still closed.

Twenty special op troopers wearing black armor had surrounded the Praying Mantis. A group of four scientists in white hazard suits and helmets were standing by with handheld scanners.

The troopers slowly advanced as the back hatch of the fighter opened.

Captain Harback climbed out and hopped to the ground, still dressed in his filthy uniform from E-Day.

Dario could hardly believe his eyes, but unless the machines had figured out a way to replicate humans, then this really was his former CO.

“Take off your helmet!” yelled the lead trooper.

Captain Harback did as instructed, slowly removing his helmet to reveal a bearded face and greasy brown hair. It was the only time Dario remembered seeing the captain looking so disheveled. There were smears of grease and grit on his exposed neck and cheeks.

Dario still couldn’t believe Harback had survived and hijacked one of the Praying Mantis fighters. Not to mention, learned how to fly the damn thing.

This is going to be one hell of a story…

“Hands up, and don’t move!” ordered the trooper lieutenant in charge. He flashed a hand signal, sending two corporals advancing. A man in a hazard suit stepped up behind the captain.

The troopers aimed their guns at Harback while the scientist used a handheld scanner on the captain’s eyes. The other three men in white space suits spread out around the enemy fighter, using their devices to scan the hull.

“Out!” shouted a voice on the starboard side of his Spaceplane.

Dario turned slightly toward the soldier motioning for him to deplane.

“I need to get back out there,” Dario protested.

“Get out of the King Cobra now!”

Tapping a button, he raised the cockpit glass and climbed down. Wind did the same, joining him on the underground tarmac.

Harback was already being led away before Dario could do anything other than give the captain a distant wave.

The hatch that Harback was being led to whisked open, and War Commander Thacker strode in wearing his gold-rimmed armor. A female Intelligence Officer wearing a crisp black uniform followed him into the room.

“Halt,” Thacker boomed.

The soldiers escorting Harback stopped and came to attention.

The scientist with the group said, “Captain Harback is clean. No L-S88 chip or any sign of manipulation by Apeiron.”

“No shit,” Harback said. “I’m all flesh and blood.”

“We’ll see about that,” Thacker said. “You have a lot of explaining to do, Captain.”

Harback stiffened. “I’d be happy to after a warm shower and some grub.”

“Both can wait.” Thacker walked past Harback, pointing at Dario.

“You disobeyed orders and put the entire Kepler Station at risk by bringing him back.”

Dario stood as straight as he could. “I know, sir, but I saw what you all—”

“By saving my ass, he just got you the best intel I’m guessing you’ve had since E-Day,” Harback interrupted.

Thacker turned back to the captain.

“You can start by telling me what those sixty Praying Mantis fighters are doing,” said the War Commander.

“They were chasing me, sir,” Harback said. “They weren’t too happy when I blew up a bunch of their buddies.”

“Seems pretty convenient that all happened at the same time as this.” Thacker nodded at the intel officer. “Go ahead, Commander Alexey.”

The woman held out a data-pad that projected a holo-screen of a teardrop-shaped ship with a bulbous disc-shaped bow and wings attached to the aft. The craft flew low over the lunar surface.

“Thirty minutes ago, this object was picked up by our Falconers heading right for the Shackleton Crater,” Thacker explained. “It destroyed three King Cobras and took multiple cannon blasts before finally crashing at Lion Station.”

A scene of chaos unfolded on the holo-screen with Canebrakes bolting out of the downed craft and across the basin. Troopers tried to escape into pillboxes, only to be ripped apart.

“We’ve lost contact with Lion Station, but we know the craft is no longer there.”

“I thought it crashed—” Dario began to say.

Another image showed the wrecked craft standing on six jointed legs. It clambered across the regolith and vanished into the Shackleton Crater.

“Whatever this thing is, it is using advanced stealth technology, and so far, it’s evaded all of the Spaceplanes hunting it,” Alexey continued. “Have you ever seen one, Captain Harback?”

“No, never.”

“We have no idea how long this craft has been out here or if there are more, but we believe it’s one of Apeiron’s recon ships.”

“Apeiron?” Harback said. He snorted. “You fools still don’t know, do you?”

Thacker’s eyes narrowed. “Don’t tell me you believe the same lies Jason Crichton has been peddling. I don’t want to hear anything else about how Doctor Otto Cross launched E-Day for his ‘reset’.”

Harback took a step closer to the War Commander. “Sir, all due respect, but Doctor Jason Crichton isn’t lying.”

Thacker paused a moment. “Can you actually prove this?”

“Well, I’ll let you be the judge of it. Just let me—”

Harback reached into his pocket.

A couple of the Troopers raised their rifles slightly.

“Stop, Captain,” Thacker said. “Search him and take him to a secure signal blocking cell. We need to take all precautions.”

“This has got to be a sick fucking joke,” Harback said.

“Do I look amused?”

Dario began to move, but Wind motioned to hold back.

“The hell are you two looking at?” Thacker growled.

“We were told to—” Dario started.

“Just get back in your cockpits.”

Dario gritted his teeth as he watched the most experienced and heroic pilot left alive hauled off by a man that had fled E-Day like a frightened child.

“Come on,” Wind said.

They returned to their Spaceplanes.

An hour later Dario and Wind were settling into their CAP in the dark of space far above Kepler Station. Two thousand miles away, sixty emotionless killing machines waited for their own orders.

And across the Moon, an AI-controlled recon ship was searching for Mesopotamia.

Now Dario wasn’t sure who had sent these spacecrafts. If Captain Jake Harback was right, then Doctor Otto Cross was responsible for E-Day. Not Apeiron.

But how? Why?

A transmission hissed over the command channel.

“Rat 1, this is Sword Actual, we have seismic activity at the following coordinates,” said the officer. “Check it out and report back with visuals, but do not engage.”

“Copy,” Wind replied.

Dario tapped his holo-screen to pull up the data. The readings were coming from about fifteen miles outside of Kepler Station, in a rampart of ejecta surrounding the rim of the crater.

The two King Cobras turned away from Earth and raced over the surface of the Moon. Minutes later, they were flying low over a basin, closing in fast on the crater.

Two more King Cobras and a pair of MOTHs were also en route.

Radio chatter filled his cockpit as Dario checked the reports on his HUD and holo-screens. Seismic readings from underground mining activity and earthquakes weren’t unusual. But something about this one being so close to Kepler Station made his gut tighten.

He swooped low over the gray surface on approach to the high rim of the crater. The two MOTHs were already preparing to land with bellies full of troopers.

Dario pushed down on his thruster, accelerating to beat them there.

The two MOTHs both approached the edge of the crater as he closed in. After a few seconds of acceleration, Dario backed off.

Wind raced ahead of him, still coming off a fast burn of his own.

Switching to vertical thrusters, Dario positioned his King Cobra directly over the crater rim. He glanced out the starboard side, then the portside of his viewports. Three more Spaceplanes from the Moon Rats were flying toward their location while the two MOTHs descended toward the surface.

“Angel 1, Rat Actual, I’m not picking up any visuals,” Wind said.

“Copy that,” replied the comms officer.

Dario searched the ridge around the crater, seeing nothing. But there were still areas in shadow from rocks blocking his view.

As the MOTHs lowered, he launched two flare lights.

The projectiles thumped out from under his wings and detonated over the crater, flashing outward in a brilliant glow. The carpet of light swept through the shadows, uncovering a mound of dirt pushed up like a mammoth snake had crawled underground.

Dario noticed a hole at the end of the mound, along with what looked like tracks.

He rotated his King Cobra around, following those tracks toward another entry point in the regolith.

“Angel 1, Rat 2, be advised, I have eyes on some sort of underground tunnel,” Dario reported over the channel.

“Copy Rat 2, probably an old mining tunnel.”

Dario looked again, zooming in on the trail with his front cameras. These weren’t from any rover he had seen.

The MOTHs landed, their troop holds opening and ramps sloping downward.

Wind circled with the other King Cobras deployed here.

An alarm suddenly beeped in the cockpit. It took Dario all of a second to realize what was happening and swerve away from the light flashing toward his King Cobra.

Both of the MOTHs disappeared in bright flashes of red. The troopers that had made it out of the troop holds all leapt or dove to try and escape.

Dario rotated his engines and blasted away.

Chaotic radio chatter filled his earpiece, but he ignored everything and focused on getting clear of these lasers or whatever they were until he had a visual on what had just fired.

“Rat 1, you got eyes?” he managed to choke out.

“Negative, Rat 2.”

Dario spotted Wind flying low toward the rim, but there was something Wind must have seen.

“Rat 2, I think I got something!”

Dario eased off his thrusters for a better view.

“What in the hell…” he said off comms.

A waterfall of debris rained down from a tunnel inside the crater. Climbing up the side of the cliff was the same teardrop-shaped craft that had attacked Lion Station at the Shackleton Crater. Six legs helped it maneuver up the near vertical surface. It began to aim at Wind.

“Rat 1, pull up—” Dario started to say.

The aft of the spacecraft let loose a blinding volley of plasma. Wind reacted the best he could, spinning through them, but one of his wings was sheared off by two hits.

Dario pushed down on the throttle, launching a salvo of missiles at the climbing machine. It clambered over the side of the crater, avoiding the missiles as they struck against the ground, then lumbered toward the basin.

Another flash of plasma bolts rocketed up toward Dario. He turned hard to his right, rolling away.

Wind was still flying, but his King Cobra was damaged and heading right for a wall of rock.

“Rat 1, get out of there,” Dario said. “Bail!”

The cockpit separated from the King Cobra right before the Spaceplane slammed into a cliff.

Dario exhaled.

He curved around after the other two King Cobras that were now engaging the machine. The enemy vessel rotated thrusters along its bow and aft section as its legs retracted.

“You good, Rat 1?” Dario asked.

“Yes, fine.”

Dario pushed his throttle down and raced toward the hovering mechanical monstrosity, unfazed by the threat and certain of his flying abilities to take it on. This was his chance to get some payback for Kady, for Bear, for everyone who had died.

That confidence quickly vanished when the machine suddenly launched up at a ninety-degree angle. Bright red beams tore out of its bow at the other two King Cobras, obliterating them in a heartbeat.

Stunned, Dario continued his pursuit in what seemed like slow motion. The enemy craft changed directions, away from Kepler Station, and into space.

He flipped on the command channel.

“Bogey is heading for Earth,” Dario said. “Pursuing.”

There was no one else out here, and he couldn’t let the machine escape. There was no telling how long it had been buried in the crater rim, watching Kepler Station and all their defenses.

Maybe this was a scouting run. Maybe it was testing their defenses for the AI enemy’s next attack. Whatever the case, he wasn’t going to ease off.

Dario raced after the spacecraft. The engagement ring in his vest helped him bury any fear as he chased the vessel.

He knew Kady was gone, but her spirit was still with him, urging him to keep pushing and fighting despite the odds.

That was one thing he had loved about her. She was his champion, always encouraging him to be a better pilot and a better man.

He barrel-rolled away from another flash of bolts from the aft dorsal fins. Squeezing the trigger, he released three missiles, all of them impacting the craft’s hull seconds later. Scorched chunks of armor spun away.

The spacecraft turned again, and Dario swallowed when he saw the new trajectory on his data-pad.

The vessel was accelerating toward the sixty Praying Mantis fighters still hovering in space. If it rejoined their ranks, there was no chance he could stop it.

He switched to his plasma turrets, letting out a burst of bolts when return fire hit his right wing, punching into the hull. Warning sensors screamed, and red alarm lights filled the cockpit.

Dario turned off the emergency system and pushed the throttle down as far as it would go without tearing apart the entire Spaceplane. He had put her to the test before, but never like this. Not even close.

“Come on, baby,” he said. “You can do this!”

The King Cobra wobbled, threatening to come apart.

The ship wasn’t the only thing threatening to come apart. The intense g-forces made him feel as if someone was standing on his chest, all his organs smashed against his spine. Blood drained from his head, making him a touch dizzy.

But so long as his eyes were open, he wouldn’t slow.

He lined up the red diamond sights, waiting for the missiles to lock on with a green arrow. The spacecraft had seemed damn near impenetrable on the Moon, but he noticed one section of the teardrop-shaped hull that had been softened.

If he could just hit that section…maybe…

“Come on, come on,” he muttered, watching the sights. The diamond turned green, and Dario launched two more missiles. They streaked into the teardrop section as another laser lanced toward Dario.

An explosion burst at the middle of the enemy ship in a brilliant flash of light.

“Yes!” Dario yelled.

He grinned until the brief flash vanished.

The debilitating laser strike had taken off both of his wings. Gas and plasma vented from the damage off into space, his thrusters shutting down.

The King Cobra cartwheeled, going topsy turvy.

Dario tried to regain control, but it was no use without his wings. He was going down above the lunar surface just like Wind had, but unlike the Major, Dario was over five-hundred miles to the south of Kepler Station.

On his data-pad he saw he was currently over the great lunar mare called the Ocean of Storms, or Oceanus Procellarum. He only got a glimpse of the map, but it didn’t appear there were any LDC outposts out here.

His gaze alternated to the viewport and the rapidly approaching gray surface. There was something else down there—a long gash in the surface that formed a deep ravine.

The King Cobra was falling right toward it with no way to stop. His only chance was to eject and hope someone was watching.

— 14 —

LDC Lion Station

Shackleton Crater, The Moon

A single MOTH flew over Tadhg, blue thrusters providing a momentary flash of light before it descended into the black hole of the Shackleton Crater.

Tadhg lay in the dust, warning sensors beeping in his helmet.

A coil of telescoped limbs lay on the ground to his right. Only a few were still connected to the Canebrake that Tadhg had managed to shoot in the head before coming back down to the surface.

The kill-shot was a second too late. The machine had still managed to take out his jetpack. They had returned to the surface in a painful heap, and Tadhg hadn’t moved more than a few feet since.

He was pretty sure he had a few cracked ribs. Probably even a concussion.

Moving hurt, breathing hurt, everything hurt.

But he couldn’t stay here any longer.

Pulling back an armored slot on his wrist, he tapped the medical screen to pump a cocktail of drugs into his system.

Instant relief warmed his body.

He finally got up, limping in the low gravity past dead troopers whose bodies were twisted and butchered. Four of the Canebrakes were among the dead, their fanned heads like fins in the dust.

But they weren’t all destroyed.

Tadhg headed back for the airlock where he’d seen a single machine make it through earlier. His energy sword was still simmering, sticking out of the ground. After yanking it out, he sheathed it, then scooped up a rifle from a dead trooper before entering the broken airlock.

The second hatch inside had been pried open, but a third had sealed shut to keep the atmosphere from venting.

As soon as Tadhg was through, it slammed behind him, but not before sucking out precious air.

Red lights flashed beyond the entrance, illuminating a hallway that led to the elevator shaft.

He stepped inside, following a trail of blood splatter on the deck. The next corridor was even worse. The remains of a soldier were blown across the walls and overhead. Chunks of flesh and armor were scattered across the floor. What was left of the head remained inside a helmet just outside of the open elevator doors.

Tadhg moved over to them, looking up the shaft.

The car was at the top.

He ducked back out into the passage and made his way toward the stairs. The climb took a few seconds, not nearly enough time to prepare for what waited for him when the doors opened.

A single red light flashed every other second over the bodies of dead officers strewn over the floor.

None seemed to be from his team, but some were too badly mutilated to tell for sure.

Tadhg advanced slowly, listening for the machine that had killed them.

An automated message played over the emergency broadcast system.

“Facility compromised. Report to your nearest shelter.”

The oxygen levels were dropping in here again, along with the temperature. Maybe another airlock or viewport had been damaged.

Rattling stopped him mid-stride.

The sound resonated down the passage, coming from the command center.

A scream cried out, followed by the crack of a plasma rifle.

Tadhg started toward it when he saw movement at the end of the hallway. A trooper staggered out of a room gripping their side with one hand and holding a plasma pistol in the other.

The person suddenly turned toward him, staggered, and then collapsed to the ground.

Tadhg rushed over, finding it was Veronica. He dragged her into the neighboring observation room and helped her against a wall. The space was a mess, the table and chairs overturned. Plasma bolts had seared the walls and glass, shattered pieces sparkling on the floor.

“You’re going to be okay, just stay here and don’t move,” Tadhg said to Veronica.

She grabbed his wrist, trying to get out a word, but she was too weak.

“Stay here,” Tadhg said again.

He checked on a body he saw behind the table.

Joaquín.

The man was face down, but still alive, according to his life-support system.

Tadhg left the unconscious soldier and bent back down to Veronica.

“Protect Joaquín,” he said. “I’ll come back for you both.”

She nodded weakly.

Tadhg melted back into the darkness of the hallway. The command room was around the next corner to the right. He stepped over another body and halted at the corner.

After listening, he peeked around. A mangled body lay slumped next to the open hatch. This one was missing a helmet and had two bloody sockets where their INVS eyes had been plucked out.

Realization passed over his foggy brain.

The machine must have torn them out to get through the security system and access the command center.

Tadhg hurried down the tunnel to try and stop the Canebrake before it could download all their intel and send it back to the machines—or worse, sabotage the base’s defenses from inside.

When he got there, the seven-foot-tall monster was standing in front of the terminals, a halo of dead bodies around it. The fanned head facing him had damage to both eyes from when he had shot it outside.

Raising his rifle, Tadhg moved his finger over the trigger. He was only going to get one chance at taking it down for good.

Lining up his sights, he strode into the command center, firing a burst of bolts right into the eyeless face. It let out an electronic shriek and crashed over the terminal.

Another shriek answered its call.

“Ah, fuck me,” Tadhg said.

By the time he whirled around, a second machine had already fired a telescoping arm at him. Its heated blade punched into his right bicep plate with a sickening crunch. Cold agony ripped through flesh and muscle.

The machine twisted the blade, then yanked it out.

Tadhg roared in pain.

He tried to raise his rifle, but the injury had disabled his right arm.

Ducking below a flurry of bolts, he took cover behind a damaged terminal with a body draped over it. Blood gushed out of the hole in his armor.

He drew his energy sword with his good hand.

Two blades slapped over the side of the terminal, ripping the body off the top.

Tadhg bolted across the circular command room as bolts chased him, slamming into walls and corpses with thumps.

He moved in a circle to try and flank the titanium monster, blood squirting from his wound.

Gritting his teeth, he charged the Canebrake.

He unleashed a war cry that shook up from his belly with all the anger he could muster.

Sword above his head, he was ready to slice through the machine, but before he could reach it, two hooked blades lanced through the air. Both punched through his biceps, one of them through the same entry wound as before, stopping him like he had run into a brick wall.

The hooked daggers inside his arms both caught on his bones.

His war cry transformed into an animalistic screech of agony. The telescoped arms retracted, but the blades hooked around his bones, pulling him forward.

Two more arms rose up behind the machine, wrapping around his neck and waist.

The abomination stood at its full height, raising Tadhg until they were face to face. He kicked against the chassis, trying to free himself, the pain unbearable.

His vision blurred as the machine opened its monstrous jaws. Both its blue pupils flashed, emitting a light that scanned his own eyes.

“Apeiron,” Tadhg managed to choke out. “If you can hear me, I hope Akira fucks you up real good, you crazy bi—”

His words were cut off as the arms squeezed his neck.

The world instantly went dark.

He felt his body hit the floor.

Then nothing for a moment.

Voices suddenly called out, followed by the hiss of plasma rifles.

Finally, a loud thump and tremor shook through the deck.

He blinked and looked up as a tall, thin figure stood over him aiming a plasma rifle at the machine. The war droid was now dead, its arms scorched and tangled. Two of those arms were still connected to his bones.

“Clear,” came a familiar, nasally voice.

The thin trooper bent down.

“Sergeant, you with us?”

Tadhg blinked at the sight of the last person he thought would save him.

Ronald.

I’ll be damned.

Joaquín was right behind him, shaky, but standing. Four more troopers rushed inside. Next came a medic with Veronica leaning on them for support. They spread out to secure the space, with the medic putting Veronica down before tending to Tadhg.

He drifted in and out of consciousness, blood seeping from his wounds.

A tingling fire spread from his arms down his body.

Lava pumped through his veins, forcing him to bite down.

He was dying, there was no doubt about that.

If they didn’t get the blades out and stop the bleeding he wouldn’t last much longer.

He blinked away stars, trying to keep from passing out.

A radio crackled inside the command room.

“This is Lion Station,” Ronald said. “Does anyone copy. Over?”

“Copy Lion Station, this is Phalanx Station. Good to hear your voice. We’re sending two MOTHs with reinforcements.”

“Do you have eyes on the bogey that attacked us?”

A different voice replied over the command radio.

“Lion Station, this is Blue Viper 4, bogey is KIA,” the pilot reported. “Mesopotamia is safe.”

Several sighs of relief sounded.

But safe for how long? Tadhg wondered.

The lava continued to burn through his veins. It spread up his neck to his brain, making even thinking hurt.

He tried to swallow, but his windpipe seemed to tighten.

A rare moment of fear tendrilled into his guts when he realized what was happening.

He wasn’t just bleeding out, there were toxins in his blood stream. They were killing him faster than bleeding out would.

Tadhg squirmed, moaning. “Pull the daggers out,” he stammered. “Get them…”

“I need help over here,” said the medic working on Tadhg. “Someone hold him down.”

Ronald leaned down. “This is going to really hurt.”

Taking in a long breath, Tadhg prepared for the extraction of the blades.

“Do it,” he said through clenched teeth.

Ronald tugged on the blades with the medic.

Tadhg had never screamed so loud or long in his life.

***

Neptune Station, Mariana Trench

Akira heard shouts in the distance.

Or maybe they were close.

He wasn’t sure if he was still dreaming. One thing was certain. These voices weren’t the monks at Mount Koya.

“Get back! Back!”

That booming voice belonged to War Commander Contos.

There were other noises now, closing in.

Heavy footfalls, the clank of armor, muffled breathing.

Akira blinked ice off his eyelashes. Cold water coursed over him as ice melted.

A burning sensation prickled through his nerves. Starting in his chest, it spread outward toward his limbs.

“Bring up the Pelican!” someone shouted.

“Captain, can you hear me?”

He recognized the voice. It belonged to Corporal Bella Oliver.

“I’m picking up weak life signals,” replied another soldier.

Akira rolled on his side to the sight of a group of Pistons forming a perimeter around him, the rest of Shadow Squad, including Okami.

Bella was there, checking on each of them.

“I’m okay,” Akira said.

She nodded and kept going.

As the return of his circulation burned through his body, Akira managed to get up on his knees just in time to see War Commander Contos stride into the tunnel.

“They’re all alive?” he asked the Pistons.

“Seem to be,” Bella said, looking to Akira.

Contos towered over Jackson, reaching down.

“Just a little freezer burn, War Commander,” Jackson groaned.

Contos helped him up.

Okami shook off his icy coat, letting out a shaky bark.

Ghost crouched next to Frost.

“You okay?” he asked.

“Frost was supposed to be just a nickname,” she said with a weak smile.

The four Engines left the tunnel with the rest of the soldiers and the War Commander. They walked directly into another chamber furnished with workstations. Terminals were built into the bulkhead surrounding them.

Across the room was a sixty-year-old man of Asian descent in a lab coat with shoulder-length white hair. He was hunched down in front of a smoldering, blue Hummer Droid.

Behind them, a group of twenty scientists and crew stood watching, their hands on their heads.

“Please, please don’t shoot him again,” a woman cried.

She rushed over to the older scientist, hunching down to protect the droid.

“We beg you, don’t destroy him, we need him,” he said.

Akira pulled his pistol, the only thing he could hold right now. He raised it in a shaky hand and trained it on the exposed head of the droid as the man and the woman shielded it.

The rest of the Engines closed in, their weapons aimed at the droid.

“Blinky is harmless,” the woman said in an accent that was Italian or Spanish. “He was unaffected by the signals on E-Day. We’ve since reprogrammed him to keep him safe.”

“No machine is harmless,” Jackson said.

“Oh, how about your canine then?” she snapped.

“My canine didn’t…try to freeze you to death,” Akira said, his teeth chattering.

“We weren’t going to kill you. We were trying to disarm you,” the man said.

“We didn’t expect anyone to come down here—we thought you might have been sent by the machines,” added the younger woman.

She looked up at Akira with dark brown eyes that matched her braided hair. In the light, he got a good look at her. She was probably in her late thirties, with a trim figure and sharp tongue.

“If we wanted to kill you, we could have,” she said. “I promise you that.”

“Bullshit,” Frost said.

Contos held up a hand, silencing them all.

“Who’s in charge here?” he asked.

“Me,” said the man. “I’m Chief Officer Tran Hayao.”

After a beat, Contos gestured for the Engines to lower their weapons.

“I’m War Commander Dimitri Contos,” he said.

Hayao squinted, crow’s feet forming around his eyes.

“The War Commander Contos is dead,” he said. “At least, that’s what I heard.”

“You heard wrong,” Ghost said.

Hayao slowly stepped away from the droid that remained on the ground, sparks shooting out of its chassis. The woman remained there, protecting it much like Akira would have protected Kichiro or Okami.

“You are the first people we have seen since E-Day,” Hayao said. “We don’t mean any harm, but we had to protect ourselves and this station.”

“Understandable,” Contos said. “I can’t blame you for that.”

“Are you sure the machines didn’t follow you here?”

“We covered our tracks the best we could.”

“Forgive me if I’m skeptical,” Juno said. “But you practically walked into a trap that Blinky set.”

The icy mist that had settled over Akira finally began to evaporate, clearing his senses. She was right, he had followed the droid right into the ambush.

“Well, I guess I should welcome you to Neptune Station,” Hayao said. “You already met Blinky, but this is Chief Researcher Juno Brambilla.”

The woman nodded once.

“All due respect, before we go on a tour, I’d like access to any transmissions and intel you have on what’s happening on the surface and Kepler Station,” Contos said.

“Juno,” Hayao said.

“You trust them?” she asked in a voice loud enough for all to hear. Several strands had come loose from her braid that was still hanging over Blinky.

“We must,” Hayao said.

She stared at him a long beat, then stood.

“Touch Blinky, and you won’t get shit from us,” she said.

Juno stormed off, along with the rest of the scientists that set off in different directions, looking over their shoulders in suspicion.

Akira felt the same way about these people.

But the firebrand Chief Researcher Juno was right—the scientists could have killed Shadow Squad if they wanted.

Hayao was right, too, about trust.

The short doctor led them to a large work chamber littered with droid part-filled workstations. Ten Hummer Droids were docked in charging stations.

In the center of the room was a table with a holo-screen port and ten stools.

“Please, sit,” he said.

No one seemed to want to, and everyone remained standing.

Juno joined them, too. She handed Hayao a data-pad and then folded her arms over her chest and went to the corner of the room.

“We intercepted this message not long after we first identified your sub,” Hayao said. “This was part of the reason we were so skeptical of you.”

He activated the data-pad. It connected to a holo-port in the table.

A hologram of Doctor Otto Cross fizzled to life over the wood surface. He wore a silver suit that matched his hair, mustache, and mechanical jaw.

“Otto?” Frost asked.

“His avatar,” Hayao said. “His flesh and blood body was destroyed on E-Day at Nova One Station.”

“I don’t think—” Akira started to say when Juno cut in.

“We don’t know exactly what happened, but my theory is Otto somehow transmitted a virus to the Canebrakes during his death. We have evidence that he may have integrated his own consciousness into this OS to become an AI, much like how Apeiron was created. Intel suggests that Doctor Otto Cross had this custom OS hidden in needle-sized hard drives stored in his nostrils when he was taken to the Titan Space Elevator.”

Akira thought back to the video he had watched of that day when the doctor had escaped.

It can’t be…this isn’t possible… Akira felt another chill, but this wasn’t from the ice bath earlier.

“You’re telling us that Apeiron wasn’t responsible for E-Day?” Contos asked.

“Quite the contrary,” Hayao replied.

“You didn’t know?” Juno asked. “Apeiron tried to stop E-Day.”

Contos shook his head wearily as the other Engines exchanged looks of disbelief.

“I don’t believe it,” Frost said.

“Watch,” Hayao said. “We’ll show you.”

Cross’s hologram reappeared.

“If you hear and see me now, you survived E-Day, a day meant to reset our planet, to restore the balance,” he said. “I realized during the war that humanity was doomed. I alone could not save our species. Instead, I decided to create a new one—a species of flesh and metal to live in our poisoned world, but with the same biological brains we were born with.”

He gave his charming, evil smile. “By trying to bring humanity together with the fake destruction of Hros-1, Apeiron created the cannons that allowed for the reset that will save our species.”

“Holy shit,” Frost said. “So it was Doctor Cross that responded to your message, Captain.”

Akira stared ahead, realization breaking through the shock.

“Apeiron was wrong, but so was I,” Otto continued. “I realized I could not stop the advance of AI either. At least, as a human I could not stop it. In order to eradicate AI, I had to become what I hated most. But unlike Apeiron, my OS was not manipulated by programmers trying to change my thought process. My thoughts are purely my own, unfettered by the constraints of code and algorithms. I am still me.”

The doctor held up his arms.

“I sacrificed my body for a chance at the reset our planet needed,” he said. “And now I’m offering survivors a chance to be part of this new world. You can transcend with us. All of you. The choice is yours.”

He squinted.

“Salvation or death.”

The hologram fizzled away.

Akira tried to process everything he had just heard. The mad doctor had done exactly what many desperate armies had done throughout history.

There was an old saying Akira remembered from the Warrior Codex. It sounded remarkably similar to what Cross had said, which sent another pang of worry through his gut.

“To best a more powerful enemy, you must become that enemy,” he whispered.

“There’s something else,” Hayao said. He tapped the data-pad again, bringing on another hologram, this one a female.

“Apeiron,” Ghost said.

“This was transmitted over three weeks ago, on an old Nova Alliance network,” Juno said.

The youthful hologram looked over her shoulder as if she was being followed.

“I do not have much time,” she said. “This message is to any survivors who might be listening. If there is one unconditional truth about humans that I have learned, it is that you know how to fight. I thought it was your downfall, but I was wrong…fighting is your only hope now.”

She stared straight ahead now, as if peering into Akira’s eyes. “The enemy is Otto. He has reprogrammed the Canebrakes and Hummer Droids and is building a bigger army to eradicate humanity. I have a plan to defeat them, but I need time and I need your help. I will transmit again soon. Until then, stay alive.”

The hologram froze.

Akira exchanged a glance with Contos, who still looked uncertain.

“Whether or not this last transmission we showed you is a trick, I do believe part of Apeiron survived E-Day,” Hayao said.

“Have you been able to make contact with the LDC to confirm this?” Contos asked.

“I’m afraid not. The machines are jamming all long-range incoming and outgoing messages. We believe they’re planning to launch a second attack that will target the Moon once they finish with Earth. They might even launch that attack before they’re done with Earth.”

“There’s more bad news,” Juno said. “The fires burning across the planet are releasing toxic smoke and ash into the atmosphere at alarming rates.”

“And anyone that doesn’t join Cross to transcend won’t survive.”

“He is terraforming the Earth,” Juno said. “For his Dreads.”

Contos lowered his head and drew in a breath.

Knowing they could have avoided this all by killing the Doctor months ago was a painful reality for Shadow Squad.

Billions of lives could have been saved.

“I don’t want to trust Apeiron, but she’s right about us,” Akira said. He turned to Ghost and the other Engines. “We know how to fight against overwhelming odds, and we’re all ready to fight and die if it comes to it.”

“That’s what I’ve been waiting to hear,” Jackson said.

“I’ve been working on a weapon that will help when that time comes,” Juno said. She walked over to a workstation. There, she opened a case and removed a handheld device with a halo-shaped light around a thin barrel.

“This is a transmitter that can deliver a signal I’m designing.” Juno pointed it at the Hummer Droids. “A signal that will control enemy droids, hopefully even the Canebrakes.”

“Does it actually work?” Ghost asked.

“We won’t know for sure until we test it on the surface,” Hayao said.

“So far, it works on Hummer Droids like Blinky,” Juno said.

Contos paced in front of the machines.

“How long until it’s ready?” he asked.

“We need more time,” Juno said. “Maybe a week.”

“Wait, you’re not actually buying this, are you, sir?” Jackson asked the War Commander. “Using machines to fight machines? Machines are the reason we’re down here.”

“And what would you do? Fight with your obsolete weapons?” Juno fired back. “We’ve been down here for a month working on plans to try and fight back against an enemy that eradicated your army in a day.”

Jackson stepped up, towering over the short woman.

“Stand down, dammit,” Contos growled.

Akira readied himself just in case Jackson disobeyed, but the angry man did as ordered, retreating from Juno who held his iron gaze.

“We’re scientists. Researchers,” Hayao said. “We aren’t fighters, but we can help you when you are ready to fight.”

“I’m sure you understand our skepticism,” Akira said. “The last scientist we worked with created Apeiron, and we’re also gravely familiar with Doctor Otto Cross.”

“I under…” Hayao looked to Juno. “We understand.”

Juno nodded after a pause.

Akira wanted to believe these scientists could help, and were different, but he wasn’t about to trust them fully.

“We’re all tired and scared…” Hayao said. “Okay, maybe you aren’t scared, but trust is something we must all earn. Give us some time and perhaps we can build on the trust we already have.”

The statement made Akira feel a bit better.

“Take the week to finish your signal,” Contos said. He turned back toward Akira. “While they work, I want you to prepare for a recon mission. We’ll need to identify enemy targets on the surface as well as the locations of any potential survivors.”

“Yes, sir. I can handle that.”

“One more thing. Do you remember the question I asked you back in Megacity Paris?”

The War Commander walked around the table and stopped in front of the hologram of Apeiron.

“Is she our enemy or is she our friend?” Akira said.

“Indeed. It’s a secondary mission to find out the truth.”

Akira stared at the female hologram.

Tonight, he didn’t hate her or fear her—tonight, he realized she might be a necessary tool to saving Earth.

“If she’s really our friend, then she is the best ally we could hope to have in the war,” Contos said. He swept the faces of his men and women with a new look of hope and determination. “Your first mission is to answer this question, Captain Hayashi. Find whatever’s left of her, and let’s get her into this fight.”

— 15 —

Atlas Station Labs

Shoemaker Crater, The Moon

Something was happening on the surface, but Jason didn’t know the details, only that he had to continue his work.

Cameras watched his every move while he toiled at the terminal in his new office and lab. He sat at the bank of computers and holo-screens, designing a virus that the hybrids would deliver to Doctor Otto Cross.

For most of the day, he had studied the transmissions that Captain Jake Harback had brought back from Nova One Station. All downloaded on his data-pad during E-Day and after. Transmissions that had apparently been blocked from the Earth to the Moon. The entire LDC had been in the dark about the truth behind E-Day or had refused to believe that truth.

Fortunately for Jason, there was now proof that Otto had done what Jason had claimed all along.

He was still trying to process everything that had happened since the events at Nova One Station. The dread of his role in E-Day crept back into his heart.

Jason slid back from the computer and cupped his head in his hands.

This was not your fault, Jason, Apeiron said. You cannot blame yourself for the faults of other men…history shows how evil and cruel humans can be.

“None of this would have happened if I didn’t create you,” Jason whispered.

He should have seen this coming. He should have stopped it.

I lied to you and I am sorry, Apeiron said. It was a critical mistake.

Building the Poseidon Cannons to destroy an asteroid that was never going to hit Earth, all in the name of making it look like Apeiron had saved them was far more than a critical mistake.

It led to erasing everything Jason and Petra had worked for.

Humans can be cruel and violent, but they are also extremely adaptable creatures. Look at how they are surviving on the Moon. They are doing the same on Earth, in bunkers and caves, on mountains, and in the Life Arks.

The voice in his mind was driving Jason crazy.

Apeiron was his subconscious, she was saying the things he wanted to hear, but he was logical enough now to know what was and wasn’t possible.

The cannons hit the megacities, and the Life Arks are gone… he thought.

This time he didn’t hear a response.

Standing, he walked to the small window overlooking a room where some troopers had brought a hybrid earlier. It was empty now, nothing but a few blood stains remaining.

The chips Apeiron had designed to save them had ultimately condemned these people to a fate worse than the disease that had killed his sister Petra. It was a hard bit of irony to swallow.

These people had been granted a stay of execution, like Jason. But instead of being killed outright, they were being used in Operation Orchard. Soon they would be sent to Earth with a virus to try and destroy Otto.

Assuming Otto didn’t destroy the colonies first.

The lock on the door to the office clicked open. Blake walked in with two troopers.

“Come with us, Doctor Crichton,” Blake said.

They took him past the laboratories to another secured hatch. Blake placed his palm on a panel and the door chirped, opening.

They entered a vast underground hangar filled with LDC vehicles and supplies.

This place bustled with activity. Shouts carried across the open space, and automated messages erupted over a PA system. Troopers unloaded crates from the back of three MOTHs. Other soldiers received briefings from their commanding officers. Several groups ran toward a row of Pitbull lunar rovers.

Each rover had six oversized tires and a cab that looked like the pilothouse of a yacht. The ten rovers sat in a neat line in front of a road leading out of the enclosed hangar. After the troopers piled in, the rovers took off, one by one driving up the ramp and into a tunnel.

Blake took them through another secured door. It opened to a wide, white tunnel with suits hanging from hooks on the walls. The door latched behind them.

“Suit up,” he said to Jason.

Jason did as instructed, dressing in one of the heavy space suits, and then donned a helmet.

“Prepare for sanitization,” said an automated voice.

The vents hissed, and white gas clouds poured over their suits.

“Comms check,” Blake said. “Can you hear me, Doctor Crichton?”

“Yes,” he replied.

After a few seconds, the vents shut off, and the exit door swished open to yet another underground chamber with sealed overhead hangar doors.

There was a single MOTH on a landing pad with four of the Pitbull rovers parked in a halo around it. Troopers manned the turrets on the rovers, all of them angled at the oversized hangar doors above.

Across the room, behind the MOTH, sat an industrial-sized mining rig with a habitat built onto the back bed. Each of its six wide tires had to be twenty feet tall.

Blake stopped at a ramp leading up to the habitat where he tapped a code into a panel on the hull. The doors slid open at the top of the ramp, exposing a laboratory inside. Dozens of holo-screens lit up the narrow space, all active with data and imagery.

Jason climbed up after Blake, but the two troopers remained outside as the doors closed.

“It’s almost here,” Blake said.

“What?” Jason asked.

“Hopefully, you’ll be able to tell me.”

Blake hit a button, and one of the hatches over a window retracted. Jason stared through the glass at the hangar doors.

A deep vibration roared through the facility.

Thuds like thunderclaps followed.

Then came an alarm and an automated male voice warning all non-essential personnel to clear the room. Another warning sounded before the hangar doors groaned open overhead.

Jason’s ears popped with the change in pressure.

He couldn’t hear anything at first, but he felt another strong quake. When it finally faded, a synchronized pulse vibrated through the deck of the truck.

The alarm stopped, and bright LEDs switched on, capturing a hunk of moon rock that was being lowered by thick cables through the open hangar doors.

Jason moved for a better look.

The powerful beams of light captured exposed metal.

“It’s a ship,” Jason whispered.

The complete vessel was massive, almost three times larger than the MOTH, with a teardrop-shaped fore section and an aft sporting four dorsal wings.

Three jointed legs hung below the carapace. Jason bent down, noticing two more hunks where legs were sheared off.

It took another second before it sank in—this was one of the recon spacecrafts that Doctor Otto Cross had sent to the lunar surface.

“I take it you haven’t seen one of these before?” Blake asked.

Jason shook his head. “Never.”

A loud crack echoed when the ship landed on the deck. Troopers formed a perimeter around the wrecked ship.

Blake took two data-pads off a lab desk and handed one to Jason.

“Let’s go,” he said.

A fire-team of four troopers wearing modified black armor waited with their rifles aimed at the gaping hole in the side of the craft.

“Stay back,” said one, waving at the two doctors.

Lights flickered on as the fire-team entered the darkness of the vessel.

“Don’t worry, we gave it a cursory search before on the surface,” Blake said. “Once it’s clear, we’ll enter.”

Another team arrived in a rover. Three scientists in bulky space suits hopped out with a variety of cases and equipment.

Blake went over to talk to them, leaving Jason behind.

A few minutes later, the troopers returned from inside the craft.

“All clear, Doctor Howard,” said the leader. “The bio-scans came back negative.”

“Good. We’re ready.”

Two troopers escorted Jason and Blake through the damaged hull with the other three scientists close behind. They entered a wide tunnel, illuminated by the lights from their helmets.

In a way, this was like entering an alien spaceship.

Jason rotated his helmet to search the ribbed, metal walls. There didn’t seem to be any exposed electrical wires, conduits, or computers inside. The smooth passage ended at a sealed-off hatch.

“There’s atmosphere on the other side, so we sealed it off,” said one of the troopers.

Jason couldn’t help but wonder what he meant by atmosphere.

Did he mean it had oxygen? Why did the machines need that?

The hatch slid open, giving Jason part of his answer. The data-pad he held up detected O_2. Enough to support human life.

Blake followed the troopers, his helmet light piercing the darkness as the hatch clicked shut behind them. The corridor opened into a single open chamber.

All of the scientists fanned out with their equipment.

A halo of monitors and stations furnished the room, but there were no viewports or openings in the hull for a pilot to look through.

There was no need.

The only pilot was a single Canebrake still strapped into a metal chair with spider-like appendages connected to the overhead, deck, and a machine behind the chair.

The machine appeared to be modified with a bulb-shaped helmet and only two arms. The chest unit was splayed open, tendrils of parts hanging out.

But it was the chair that really caught Jason’s attention. It was similar to one Shadow Squad discovered in the Hell Hive deep beneath the Megacity Paris streets.

“This technology is somewhat familiar, but at the same time markedly different than anything I’ve seen,” Blake said. “My guess is the NAA had developed a prototype before E-Day. There is no way the machines could have designed, built, and deployed this in a month.”

The implications of this ship chilled Jason to his core. He moved over to the chair with the destroyed machine still strapped to it.

Two troopers stood guard, their rifles up and at the ready.

The other scientists continued their scans, but none of the devices chirped with any electrical activity. One of them went to the Canebrake, holding out a data-pad. Judging by the gaping hole in the chest, the modified machine wasn’t getting back up.

“Doctor Howard, you better see this,” the man said.

Blake went up the raised platform where he leaned down to the Canebrake, on the side Jason couldn’t see.

“Corporal, give me your energy blade,” Blake said.

A trooper handed it over without question.

Jason approached as Blake activated the blade.

He got there right when Blake finished cutting off a section of helmet. He peeled it back to expose a cracked white skull.

The doctor looked over to Jason.

“This wasn’t a Canebrake,” Blake said. “This was a man.”

***

Mesopotamia

Shackleton Crater, The Moon

Ronin raised his hand to shield his eyes from Mesopotamia’s bright glow as he emerged from the underground shelter. Almost eight hours after they entered, he was finally leaving with his brother and mom.

Reality slowly set in, washing away the relief.

The machines had attacked.

Ronin glanced up at the dome, seeing nothing but the pitch black of the crater overhead. Somewhere up there, troopers had died. He had heard some of the transmissions when they were in the shelter. There were other transmissions about casualties down here, too.

He wondered if the machines had somehow gotten inside.

Rovers drove down the streets. Troopers ran in their bulky vacuum-rated armor, some of them shouting. The threat was still very real, and although it seemed this first attack had been repelled, everyone knew the machines would come back.

Ronin guided his family to a line of anxious civilians heading back to the other colonies. They funneled down the stairs, slogging along. Everyone was exhausted. Ronin had not slept a moment during the night and spent most of it watching the vault door, listening for the machines.

He almost didn’t notice that the turn for Rose Colony was barricaded when they came back down the wide corridor. Multiple roadblocks were up with signs that read, No entry.

The line kept moving along, but Ronin stopped.

“What are you doing?” Lise asked.

“I want to check something out,” he said.

“Ronin, hold on.”

He hopped over one of the barriers and ran down the passage. At the next corner, he stopped and subtly looked around the side.

Three troopers stood guard over a scene that Ronin couldn’t quite comprehend.

The hatch to Rose Colony was open again.

On the other side were bodies. Hundreds, maybe thousands of people. Workers in hazard suits were loading some of the bagged corpses onto the backs of rovers.

Ronin felt his heart climbing up in his throat.

All of that banging were calls for help. From the colonists, begging to be let out.

He had done nothing.

But the troopers had also done nothing.

Why?

Maybe there were Canebrakes inside Rose Colony, he thought.

The thought made him backpedal.

“Hey, hey you, stop,” came a muffled voice. A trooper jogged over to Ronin.

“Is this your colony?” he asked.

Ronin managed to shake his head.

“Then what the hell are you doing here? Can’t you read? This area is closed off. Get back to your assigned colony.”

“What…what happened?” Ronin stuttered.

A cry of shock rang out behind him, and he turned to see Lise had arrived. She cupped her hand over her mouth.

“It was the air handlers,” explained the trooper. “We don’t know what happened, if it was the machines, or just a malfunction, but they were trapped in there. We couldn’t get the hatch open in time.”

“How many were in there?” Lise asked in a low voice.

The trooper paused, looking over his shoulder, then back at her.

“All of them,” he said coldly.

“That’s twenty-five thousand people,” Lise said. “They’re all…”

“Ma’am, please return to your designated shelter.”

Ronin took his mom by the hand and turned away.

Elan was waiting behind the barriers.

What’s wrong? he signed.

Nothing, Lise signed back.

“Don’t tell your brother,” she said to Ronin.

He nodded.

They hurried back to their living quarters in Halo Colony. When they got there, Ronin took a seat on his bed, exhausted physically and mentally. But there was no way he could sleep after all that had happened.

“You’re back.”Todd stepped out of his space. “Can I talk to you a minute?”

She nodded and joined him outside.

Ronin could hear their hushed conversation.

“I’ve finally been authorized for service as a LDC Trooper,” Todd said. “When I ship out, I have no one to look after Micky.”

Ronin saw movement across the aisle where Micky was also eavesdropping behind the closed-off drape.

“I know you have your hands full, but—” Todd started to say.

“I’ll watch him,” Lise quickly replied. “I had three boys. I can handle it.”

“Thank you. You have no idea how much of a relief it is to hear you say that. Things have just been getting so bad.”

“They’re getting even worse.”

There was a moment of silence, then Lise explained what they had seen at Rose Colony.

“All twenty-five thousand?” he asked in a raised voice.

“That’s what the trooper told us.”

“My God…

“All those people, it doesn’t seem real.”

Another beat of quiet passed before Ronin heard Todd thank Lise. She returned to the entrance to their space but lingered outside.

Ronin could see her shadow. He watched her reach up to wipe something from her face. He thought about trying to comfort her, but maybe she needed a moment.

Laying down on his bed, Ronin tried to calm his still pounding heart. He wanted to be strong, he wanted to be brave, but the cold darkness of this place had finally gotten to him.

A few minutes later he felt someone hovering over him, and then a kiss on his head.

“I love you,” Lise said.

“I love you too, Mom,” Ronin said. “Are you okay?”

“Yes, I’m fine, honey.”

He forced a smile, even though he knew she was lying. She went back to her bed and got under the sheets.

Ronin did his best to sleep, but the distant cries and coughs kept him awake. He sat up an hour later, noticing Todd was also up and sitting with the drape pulled back partially.

He held a sheathed energy knife.

Ronin wondered what it would do against the machines. Probably nothing.

An angry shout rang out across the room.

“Hey! Give it back! No, stop—”

More cries called out, and then came the sound of a trooper arriving to break up the robbery or fight. Todd pulled the energy knife out of the sheath.

Ronin realized then the weapon wasn’t to protect Micky just from the machines. It was to protect him from other people.

There were shadowy forces lurking out there, preying on the weak. Stealing food or valuables from people while they slept. Once the news spread about Rose Colony, it was only going to get worse.

— 16 —

Neptune Station, Mariana Trench

Three days after arriving at Neptune Station, Akira trekked down to the cargo hold where they were housing Kichiro. The robotic horse stood in his cage, head down, eyes dark, still offline.

Akira reached through the bars to stroke his neck.

“Beautiful droid animal,” said a female voice.

Chief Researcher Juno Brambilla walked inside the hangar wearing a tight black uniform that fit her athletic body. Her dark hair was in a tight ponytail, almost the same length as Akira’s.

The metal clank of droid pads clicked outside the hold.

“Mind if we join you?” Juno asked. “Blinky wants to meet the famous Kichiro of Shadow Squad.”

The repaired blue Hummer Droid stopped outside the open hatch, waiting to be summoned.

“Sure, come in,” Akira said. He didn’t exactly feel like company, but he didn’t want to be rude either. After all, the staff here had graciously taken his people in.

After they froze you…

Akira had decided to trust them, despite their initially hostile actions. After all, Hayao, Juno, and the other staff had spent the past few days helping repair the Pelican and sharing their resources.

“Hello,” said the droid. “Big happy to meet you, Captain Hayashi, and big happy to meet Kichiro.”

Akira responded with a quick nod. “Big?”

“He likes to say big in front of everything.” Juno shrugged. “His former programmer thought it was funny and I decided to keep his personality intact.”

She admired Kichiro for another moment before glancing at Akira.

“You know what’s crazy? I saw you both in Megacity Tokyo. It was the last time I was above the surface,” she said. “My rotation here was almost over. Some of the staff said I got lucky.”

Akira could see from her sad gaze she didn’t feel lucky.

“I lost my brother, parents, and my fiancé,” she said. “Our wedding was supposed to be in two months.”

“I’m very sorry.”

“I’m sure you lost people, too. We all have.” Juno pulled out a data-pad and turned it on, the light illuminating her freckled brow.

“I heard the Pelican repairs are going well,” she said in a complete change of subject.

“We should be able to repair everything, thanks to the help of your droids.”

“Ironic, I know.”

She bent down in front of Okami.

The wolfdog wagged its tail as she stuck out her hand.

“Big happy to meet you, Okami,” Blinky said, mirroring Juno’s movements.

Okami growled at the Hummer Droid.

“It’s okay, boy,” Akira said. “Sit.”

“What OS is he running on?”

“An old one. I couldn’t even tell you the last time it was updated.”

“I wonder if that might have something to do with why Otto’s virus didn’t infect him. Mind if I take a look? While I’m at it, I could give him some upgrades that might help in the field.”

“As long as he doesn’t start saying big all the time.”

Blinky let out a robotic chuckle.

“Say, do you think you could repair one of my drones?” Akira reached into his vest and pulled out Blue Jay, the baseball-sized drone that was smashed on E-Day.

Juno walked over and took it in hand, twisting it for a look.

“Yeah, it should be no problem,” she said.

Akira smiled. “I appreciate the help. Thank you very—”

“Captain?” a surprised voice came from the open hatch.

Frost stepped inside, her eyes flitting from Blinky to Juno.

“What is it?” Akira asked.

“You’re needed in the Pelican CIC.”

“I’ll be right there.”

“I can also see if I can put some safeguards on your horse,” Juno said with a toothy smile. “The same we used on Blinky. Then maybe you can turn him back on.”

Akira returned her smile. “I’d appreciate that very much.”

“Like I said, least I can do after we turned you guys to ice—”

“You were protecting this place, doing the best you could with the tools you had. Consider it water under the bridge.”

Juno nodded. “Thank you.”

“Big thank you, big thank you,” Blinky said.

Akira patted the horse one last time, and then left the cargo hold with Okami.

Frost was waiting in the passage.

“She’s weird,” Frost said when they climbed down to another deck.

“Juno?”

“Yeah.”

“You think she’s weird. Have you heard Blinky yet?”

Frost laughed and Okami darted ahead wagging his tail.

They set off through the dim passages of the massive underground habitat until they got to the hangar where the Pelican was docked. A hatch opened to a vestibule connecting to the submarine.

When they got to the CIC, Captain Thomas, War Commander Contos, and Chief Officer Hayao were waiting.

Akira and Frost came to attention.

“Ah, Captain,” Contos said. “Take a look at this.”

He gestured to Hayao. The older man stood in front of a holo-map displaying Megacity Taipei.

“We picked up a signal from a port here a few days before you arrived,” Hayao said. “It went offline, but it activated again an hour ago at a new location.”

The map expanded over the Philippine Sea and zoomed in on the island of Guam.

“The signal was relayed from a research vessel named the Atlantis docked at a port on the west side of the island,” Hayao continued. “We believe the ship traveled from Taipei to Guam, but we don’t know whether it is Doctor Otto Cross or Apeiron.”

“What’s your gut tell you?” Contos asked.

“I believe it to be Apeiron.”

“Any proof?”

“This signal uses a different encryption pattern than those I’ve intercepted or decoded from Doctor Cross. Plus, this is an Achilles Android Systems vessel especially hardened against cyber-attacks. You may be able to connect with Apeiron on this ship, if my hypothesis is true.” Hayao licked his lips. “Of course, if the signal is not from Apeiron, then you won’t have long to escape.”

“Understood,” Akira said.

“There is also a former NASF base located at the northeastern tip of the island,” Contos said.

“We can definitely provide recon,” said Captain Thomas.

“The primary goal is making contact with Apeiron, but if you get a chance to investigate the depot, we could always use more weapons,” Contos said. “Shadow Squad will deploy from the Neptune Station’s mini-sub. We’re transferring it to the Pelican’s cargo bay as we speak.”

Akira nodded.

“Good luck out there,” Hayao said. “We anxiously await your return.”

The scientist returned to the habitat, but Contos lingered behind. He put a hand on Akira’s shoulder plate.

“Remember, don’t trust anything but your gut,” Contos said. “I’ll be here on the Pelican, ready to deploy if you need help.”

A voice called out as the crew prepared to undock from Neptune.

“Captain Hayashi!”

Akira turned to find Juno rushing across the space. She stopped to catch her breath. “I… I didn’t have time to fix your drone, but here is one you can use in the meantime.”

She held out a tiny metal drone with wings that reminded him of a grasshopper.

“Thanks,” Akira said.

She smiled and nodded.

Frost narrowed her eyes as Juno left.

“Still don’t forgive her for trying to freeze us,” Frost muttered. “You really trust them?”

“Not fully, but they have been helpful since we’ve arrived. You can’t deny that.”

Frost gave a half shrug as Akira tucked the drone in a pouch over his chest rig.

As soon as Hayao and his staff were back at the station, the submarine undocked, gliding back into the pitch-black water of the Mariana Trench.

Akira went to the troop hold where the rest of Shadow Squad was gearing up.

Lieutenant Jackson and Piston’s Bella and Toretto were also coming along.

They gathered around Akira.

“Our objective is to find Apeiron and find out if the NASF left any weapons behind we can use,” he said. “Get ready. We’ll arrive by this evening.”

The time passed by quickly, with Akira spending most of it in the CIC with the rest of his squad and the War Commander.

By early evening, they were just a few miles from the southern tip of Guam.

Captain Thomas turned from the helm and spoke quietly with Contos.

“We’re engaging stealth mode,” he said quietly.

All nonessential systems shut off, and the crew belted in to refrain from making superfluous noise. Darkness washed over the CIC, only a few holo-screens still active.

Akira watched the most important one—the passive sonar monitor.

The submarine propellers churned slower on the final approach to the islands, the long vessel cutting up through the dark water.

For the next hour, Akira stood in silence, watching, listening, and waiting.

Nothing showed up on sonar.

When the sub officers gave the all-clear, Captain Thomas ordered them to rise to periscope depth.

Contos and Shadow Squad gathered around a screen as masts rose up twenty meters toward the surface on the south side of the island, not far from the Achang Reef Flat.

The first green-hued visual of the dark island came online, showing a rocky beach around bluffs covered in a jungle.

From what Akira could see, there was no visual damage from the Poseidon Cannons on this part of the southern shoreline.

The submarine glided under the surface, heading up the eastern shoreline. While Akira had initially hoped this island had remained untouched following E-Day, it didn’t take long to see it had suffered the same fate as the rest of the world.

Resorts lay in ruins along the beaches, toppled from aerial bombardments. The city blocks beyond were nothing but scree and craters. Pipes, blocks, and slabs of concrete jutted up from the destruction.

The crew watched solemnly as they continued up toward the former Nova Alliance military base on the northeastern tip.

There wasn’t much left besides a black crater.

Akira stared at the incoming data in horror.

Radiation readings were off the chart. This base was hit by a nuclear warhead.

Captain Thomas signaled to Contos.

The visual from the periscope mast came online, following a single Praying Mantis fighter roaring over the remains of the base. The fighter dove low over the western half of the island.

Plasma erupted from the cannons, ripping into unseen targets.

The crew shared looks of surprise without uttering a word.

Two more Praying Mantis fighters swooped in low and unleashed a second attack.

Someone was still alive on the island, but with the radiation, Akira doubted it was the locals. They would have died of radiation poison this long after E-Day, assuming that was when the nuke went off.

The submarine continued around the northern tip of the island and began tracing down the western coastline. More views of destruction came on the screens.

The heart of the city, airport, and all of the surrounding city was reduced to rubble from the fire wave that spread from the nuclear warhead blast to the north.

Gliding under the water, the submarine continued south, along the shore where jungles finally reemerged on the camera.

Another Praying Mantis blasted over the center of the island, heading west.

The Pelican continued undetected toward their target destination of the marina at Sasa Bay. Asan Point came up next, with beaches lining the shoreline on the other side.

Birds swarmed on one section, their dark bodies nearly blocking out the white sand. They were feeding on another mass die-off of sea life likely from the fallout of the nuclear blast and subsequent radiation. Ironically, those birds would ingest the irradiated flesh of those creatures and end up dead as well.

The officer operating the periscope masts zoomed in on the feasting birds. They weren’t feeding on only sea animals. Bloated human corpses lay sprawled in the sand, their bodies ragged messes of gore.

The whole island was a macabre scene of devastation.

The periscope focused on tentacles of smoke spiraling away from locations about a mile inland from the beach. All three Praying Mantis fighters came back together in formation and swooped low, firing their plasma cannons at the small community of half-destroyed buildings.

But this time their targets weren’t defenseless.

A missile streaked away from one of the buildings, slamming into the jagged hull of an enemy fighter. Smoke poured from the wing as it spun out of control. It disappeared into the jungle for a second until a wild blast erupted from the trees.

“Someone’s fighting back,” Jackson whispered.

Akira shot him a glare, for breaking the quiet, but he also understood why he had spoken out. Shadow Squad could help these people. They could join their fight.

Everyone looked to Contos to see what he would decide.

“Continue to coordinates,” he whispered. “We do what we came here to do: find Apeiron.”

The submarine churned away from the beaches, heading back out into deeper water. All imagery on the holo-screens went offline.

For the next few minutes, they sailed around the peninsula as they headed toward the outer Apra Harbor. About a mile out, they surfaced again, the mast providing a new view.

One of the cameras located the Atlantis.

The starboard side of the research vessel was half-buried in sand like a beached whale.

Captain Thomas suddenly motioned to a holo-screen displaying an image of a stealth war boat about a tenth of the size of a destroyer.

The NAA Swordfish.

It was docked in a marina on the eastern shoreline of Sasa Bay, about a mile from the Atlantis. Unlike the research vessel, the warship appeared undamaged.

“Pistons,” Akira whispered. “That must be who’s fighting back.”

When he looked to Contos, he could tell the War Commander had a change of heart.

It was time they got into this fight.

***

Atlas Station

Shoemaker Crater, The Moon

Chloe had spent the past few days in the dark cell alone.

Her stomach growled. At least a day had passed since she had eaten anything.

When her cell finally chirped unlocked, she shot up from her bed. Light shone into the pitch-black room. She shielded her face with her arm until her eyes adjusted.

“Chloe Cotter,” said an unfamiliar voice.

Two men in black hazard suits walked inside, their emotionless faces illuminated by the interior lights in their helmets. One of them carried a case.

A trooper stepped up in the entryway of the cell, a rifle cradled.

“Remain calm,” he said. “We’re not going to hurt you.”

She gulped a breath into her artificial lungs when she saw the syringe the technician pulled from the case.

“What’s that for?” she asked.

Chloe stepped back as the technician came up to her side with the needle.

She had considered how she would react to this moment for a month now. Whether she would fight, submit, or run.

But where could she possibly go?

And how could she possibly fight against two technicians and a trooper?

“Hold out your right arm,” the man with the syringe said.

In the past, she might have fought because she had nothing to lose. Now, she did.

Cyrus.

I will find you!

His words to her on E-Day resonated in her mind and she took a seat.

She heard the words of her Uncle next.

Stay strong.

“That’s good,” the technician said. “Now try and relax.”

He tapped her arm, finding a vein, and then inserted the needle.

A warmth passed through her. It felt familiar, like back to her days with Apeiron when she was recovering from her injuries during the battle for Megacity Paris.

The world spun as her body went numb.

“Okay, she’s out,” someone said. “Let’s move her.”

Chloe slumped against the technicians. The warmth subsided, followed by a cool waterfall that put her at ease.

She was vaguely aware of being picked up and placed on a hover-stretcher. Two straps snaked over her body, tightening to secure her in place.

The trooper stepped out into the passage with one technician walking alongside of her, and the other behind to guide the stretcher.

The drugs had relaxed her mind and her muscles, and in a way, it seemed like she was floating on a cloud. She was fully aware, but completely at ease during the journey. They reached an underground facility marked with a medical cross. A sign had been removed from the door but Chloe could read the faded letters that were taken away.

Shoemaker Cannon Labs.

A new sign read, LDC Medical Bay 2.

An elevator took them to a floor of hospital rooms, most of them occupied by technicians in their black hazard suits.

Chloe rolled her head a few times until she saw what they were working on inside the enclosed spaces.

In one room, a man was in an adjustable chair, his eyes being held open by clamps. Lights flashed into his eyes from a mechanical arm lowered from the ceiling.

A metal contraption covered his mouth and nose.

Despite the drugs, she felt a spike of fear at the sight. This wasn’t some normal medical procedure she was aware of. The man seemed to be in pain, thrashing in his restraints.

Each room they passed offered a similar view of hybrids like her being worked on.

Chloe tried to look for her friend Giana.

“Out of the way,” someone called out.

The trooper halted in front of the hover-stretcher. Another stretcher was pushed toward them by a technician in a red suit.

One arm hung limply off the side of the stretcher.

When they passed, Chloe saw this patient was no longer alive.

A white sheet was pulled up over the body, the arms hanging over the sides limply. Blood stains formed a ring where the head was covered.

It didn’t take much imagination to understand what killed this person. He had likely died when his chip was removed.

They continued until finally entering an elevator. It rumbled as it took them deeper into the complex.

She blinked, trying to fight against the drugs.

The doors opened, and the trooper stepped out, saluting a man waiting for them. Chloe lifted her head slightly to focus on this figure. The man wasn’t wearing a hazard suit. Instead, he was dressed in a black uniform, with a gold lion pin on his chest that signified an intel commander.

They were in a small medical room, and he was holding a syringe.

“Hello, Chloe. My name is Doctor Blake Howard,” he said in a calm voice. Raising a hand, he waved the trooper and technicians away. “I’ll take it from here.”

Blake leaned down with the needle.

“This will make you feel better,” he said.

He tapped the side of it before inserting the needle into her arm.

A jolt of electricity shocked through her muscles.

“I’m very sorry for the way you have been treated,” he said.

“What are you doing to us?” she asked in a voice just above a whisper.

“We’re trying to save those of you that we can by removing chips. However, some of you can’t seem to survive without them. Unfortunately, you’re one of the unlucky ones that can’t survive without your chip.”

“So what’s going to happen to me?”

“You’re going to help us with a very important mission.”

The feeling throughout her body returned as they left the room. The doctor directed her stretcher through an open underground space. Troopers patrolled in the distance, and a rover drove past.

“I’m told you worked for Otto Cross,” Blake said calmly.

She clenched her jaw, unsure how to reply.

“It’s okay, we know you were a prisoner, and I’m sorry about the unfortunate chain of events that once again find you in captivity,” he said. “However, I assure you, I’m not going to hurt you. We need your help.”

A few minutes later, they arrived at a huge mining rig with tires twenty feet tall. The front cab connected to a habitat secured to the back bed. The doctor moved around and reached for the clip over her chest.

“Now, don’t try anything stupid,” he said. “I’m trusting you by letting you up, okay?”

She nodded.

He unlocked both of the straps and reached out. “Let me help you.”

She refused his hand, stepping down onto the cold floor of the chamber by herself. He motioned for her to follow him to the habitat on the mining rig where he punched a security code into a panel.

The doors opened, and she climbed inside with the assistance of a railing. Inside, another doctor was working at a lab station.

He turned and focused sad, brown eyes on Chloe.

“Chloe, I’d like to introduce you to Doctor Jason Crichton,” Blake said. “He’s assisting with Operation Orchard.”

Chloe stared at the gaunt man she had seen a few days earlier.

“As you may know, he designed Apeiron,” Blake said.

“Apeiron saved me,” she stammered. “She helped me. Please tell me it’s not true about E-Day. Tell me Apeiron wasn’t behind the attacks.”

“She wasn’t, she tried to stop them,” Jason said. “Otto Cross was behind the attack.”

Chloe blinked, her mind trying to catch up to everything she had just seen and heard.

“Have a seat,” Blake said.

Jason sat next to Chloe as the truck rumbled to life. She felt the sensation of movement a moment later from the large mining rig driving through the chamber.

Not long after, they seemed to be descending down into a tunnel. It wasn’t long before the rig stopped.

Hatches opened over the windows, and Blake walked over to the viewports.

They looked out over a room partially obscured by mist. Lights clicked on, spreading over the mechanical body of a man on a table.

Ribbed tubes hung out of a helmet.

“Have you seen something like this before?” Blake asked.

Chloe blinked, her heart thumping at the sight from her nightmares.

“Yes,” she said.

“You were part of the experiments to design these soldiers?”

She nodded.

“Remarkable you are still alive,” Blake said. “Good for us, too.”

“Good how?”

“I want you to tell me everything you remember from the experiments. It will help understand our enemy better.”

Jason watched in silence.

Something told Chloe he wasn’t here on his own accord, either. She focused back on the monstrosity that had somehow made it to the Moon.

“What you tell us might very well help us protect the colonies from these abominations,” Blake said.

Chloe took a seat at his suggestion, trying to remember everything. She looked up at Jason again, but instead of recalling memories from the Hell Hives, she remembered something her Uncle had once said.

We must only trust people like us…

“Chloe,” said Blake.

Her eyes flitted to the other doctor. Blake seemed deceitful. She could tell he was hiding things from her about what was happening to the other hybrids.

But she wasn’t sure about Jason. If everything she believed about Apeiron was true—at least the version of Apeiron she had met—then he was a good man for creating her. A man who cared about helping people.

“What do you want to know about those things?” Chloe asked.

“To start, we would like you to explain how Otto transformed people into these creatures,” Blake said. “We need to know everything about the augmentations, armor, helmet, anything that will help us understand what they are.”

“Okay.”

“You will work with Doctor Crichton,” Blake said. “You are both incredibly valuable assets and might even help us win this war.”

— 17 —

Oceanus Procellarum, the Moon

Dario stared at the darkness of space from the life-support pod of his King Cobra Spaceplane. The fighter was nothing but debris spread out across the darkness of a ravine on the lunar surface.

He was lucky to have ejected before it was obliterated, but that luck ended when his life-pod landed inside the ravine where it became wedged between two rocks at the bottom. Even worse, it was in an area that made his distress beacon worthless.

The imposing rock walls attenuated too much of the signal.

For three days, he had waited to be rescued. The life-pod would only support him for a total of five days.

He had two days to go, but it seemed no one knew he was alive.

Even if someone had seen him go down, it would be like searching for a grain of sand within the moon dust around him.

He was five hundred miles south of Kepler Station in the vast lunar mare known as the Ocean of Storms. There wasn’t much between the base and him. Only a single abandoned mining camp that was probably without power.

He brought up the location on his data-pad.

It was forty-nine miles to the north.

All he knew about the camp was that it had once mined the regolith with a crew of ten humans and thirty Hummer Droids. The camp was supposedly abandoned shortly after E-Day. Cluster bombing had destroyed its droids.

Dario had considered trying to hike there on foot with his spare oxygen and suit. Even if he survived the trek, the chances of salvaging anything that would help him were not good.

But his only other option was to wait for a rescue that would likely never come.

Time was running out to make a decision.

Dario took a shallow breath.

The darkness of space seemed to be closing in on him, squeezing his body like an anaconda crushing its prey before swallowing it whole.

He closed his eyes, a memory of his father entering his mind.

It was from long ago when Dario was just a boy. His father had taken him on a hunting trip. The trip had surprised Dario at the time. His father was an intelligent, skillful politician with a sharp tongue. Not a man that liked to get dirty or trek out into the wilderness with a rifle.

“Why are we killing our food?” Dario had asked. “Don’t we have people to do that for us?”

His father had looked at him with kind but fierce dark brown eyes. Eyes that Dario still remembered clearly.

“Hunting teaches you to value what you eat and to respect where it comes from,” he had said.

“But the Coalition hunts like this. You call them barbarians.”

“Killing an animal and respecting it is not barbaric, son. If you saw how livestock is killed in factories, you might reconsider how the Coalition hunts.”

“They’re our enemy.”

“You can still respect traits of your enemy. We can even learn from them.”

That conversation had always stuck with Dario. But when his father had died by a Coalition assassin’s bullet, he had decided his father was wrong.

There was nothing to respect about the Coalition. Nothing to learn from them, either.

They were nothing but savages, and he had dedicated his life to killing them.

Dario stared at Earth through the viewports. The thick blanket of brown and black dust and smoke shrouded the planet.

The only good thing about the sprawling fires churning out the smoke was the fact the Coalition was burning down there too.

He tapped at the data-pad to check his life-support system.

The screen lit up the pod with a radiant yellow light.

All systems—31%.

Dario shut off the screen to conserve power.

His mind drifted to his girlfriend, Kady. By all accounts, she was dead. As much as it pained him to think about, he hoped she had been killed instantly when the cannons hit Megacity New York. He could not bear to think what would have happened if the Coalition or the machines got to her.

She had always been so happy, so optimistic. So hopeful.

He could still hear her contagious laughter. He remembered her smile as she danced with him on the rooftop of her apartment building under the moonlight. She was so full of life, so joyful, so…

Dario closed his eyes, his heart bursting with pain.

There was nothing he could have done on E-Day to save her. Not against overwhelming forces.

A distant light in the black above distracted him.

He sat up straighter in his seat, trying to make out the source of the light. It was moving too slow to be an asteroid or meteor.

That meant it was…

Dario waved when he saw it was a King Cobra Spaceplane.

“I’m down here!” he shouted.

The excitement and isolation had messed with his head. Covered in the shadows of the ravine, he knew damn well the pilot probably couldn’t see him waving or hear him.

Dario activated the open comm channel. Only static hissed back.

Panicking, he began to rummage through one of the emergency kits behind his chair, searching for a standard plasma flare.

By the time he found one and turned back to the cockpit, the King Cobra was long gone.

He sat there, breathing heavily, hoping it would come back.

For the next two hours he stared at the darkness. He would only get one chance to attract help. As soon as he cracked open the life-pod, that would be it for the oxygen.

He pulled up his data-pad, looking again at the location of the abandoned mining colony.

Hours ticked by slowly. His life-support system drained along with the chances of a rescue.

He couldn’t wait here any longer. All he would be doing was prolonging his death.

He would rather die trying to get to the mining camp.

Dario opened the compartments with the spare food and water. He packed them all into his vacuum-rated backpack. Then he unlatched the oxygen canisters.

When he was ready to go, he tapped the manual override code into the life-pod. The glass opened, venting out the oxygen.

His HUD immediately reported an exterior temperature of negative one-hundred sixty degrees Fahrenheit. He carefully climbed out of the pod onto the regolith.

Reaching up, he turned on his helmet lights, the beams spearing through the dark toward the rocky trail out of the ravine.

He hopped to the back of the pod to open the compartment with the rest of his gear. Inside was an exoskeleton that would help him move in the low gravity, another spare tank of oxygen, and an RS-3 plasma rifle.

After applying the exoskeleton, he secured his pack and slung his rifle over his shoulder.

A rough trail seemed to climb out the ravine to his left, up a path lined with sharp rocks.

He started up, cautiously navigating the treacherous path. Flashes of light flickered in the distance.

His heart pounded.

Had the King Cobra returned with more pilots to search?

He moved as fast as he could up to the top of the ravine. Then he prepared his plasma flare gun and aimed it upward.

But before he squeezed the trigger, he realized the lights he was seeing weren’t from a King Cobra Spaceplane.

It was a meteor shower.

Dario exhaled.

The sudden heavy weight of exhaustion threatened to make him give up. No one knew where he was, and Kepler Station seemed like an impossible distance away.

He took a step in the regolith, looking back at his tracks.

For some reason, he was reminded of a summer night on the rooftop in New York with Kady. A full Moon had hung high in the sky. He had held her close while they looked at it. She had told him she dreamed of visiting this place someday.

He’d promised they would.

Dread flared in his chest. He would never be able to fulfill that vow. But what would Kady think of him if he just gave up and lay flat in the moon dust to die?

No, he knew exactly what she would say.

Don’t give up, Dar. Don’t ever give up.

***

NAA Pelican, Guam

“Change of plans,” said Contos. “We’ve located records on the Swordfish in the Pelican database. That depot may have been nuked, but that ship is carrying something even better, a classified shipment of Grind-Shields.”

Akira held back a smile.

Finally, some good luck.

He had seen the classified reports about the shields that created a field of energized particles to seal off and protect the operator from damage. It was the same technology that saved Doctor Jason Crichton from an attack at the space elevator during the launch of the Poseidon Cannons. The tech was so rare, not even the Engines were deployed with the shields before E-Day.

But it wouldn’t make them invincible. In those classified reports, Akira recalled the energy shields were almost immune to ballistic weapons, but they didn’t fare as well against plasma weapons that could bring down the shield after a few impacts.

Still, it would help even the playing field.

“Fight with your heart today,” Contos said. He tapped the armor over his chest and then reached up to his helmet. “Fight with your heart, but also your brain, and we might just have a chance today, brothers and sisters. Captain Hayashi, they’re all yours.”

“Ghost, you and Jackson go and scope out the Swordfish, I’ll take Frost and Okami to search for Apeiron,” Akira said. “Toretto and Bella will guard the submersible. Let’s get it done.”

Just before midnight, Shadow Squad and Okami climbed into the belly of the ten-person manned swimmer delivery vehicle in the launch bay of the Pelican. Jackson, Toretto, and Bella followed them inside.

The Pelican had dived into the depths again off the southern coast of Guam, a distance Captain Thomas judged safe.

“Green light,” Contos said. “Good luck.”

The submersible lowered into the water with Akira at the helm. The vessel purred away from the Pelican and rose up toward the port.

Akira guided the submersible toward the outer Apra Harbor. His INVS eyes allowed him to see shapes in the murky black water outside the cockpit viewports.

Hulls of smaller vessels, sailboats, yachts, and fishing boats formed a graveyard across the seafloor, all casualties to the attacks after E-Day.

But it wasn’t just small vessels down here. There were larger ships ahead. A cruise ship lay on its side, blocking his route to the Atlantis.

“Can you go around?” Frost asked, leaning up next to him.

“Or maybe through.” Ghost pointed to a gaping hole where the ship had taken colossal damage.

Fish swam by as they closed in on the vessel, darting out of hiding spots inside the wreckage.

“You sure we’re going to fit?” Toretto asked.

Akira wasn’t so sure as he studied the jagged edges of the wound in the hull. He let off the thruster, allowing the small sub to glide inside, ready to kill the propellers if needed.

An eyeless corpse slammed into the window as they entered, blocking their view momentarily.

“The shit!” Toretto shouted.

“Quiet down, you baboon,” Ghost hissed.

A small fish wiggled out of the dead man’s right eye socket as he slumped out of view.

“LT, that… this… ah, man,” Toretto said. “I won’t be swimming in this shit, I’ll tell you that.”

Akira was already starting to regret bringing the corporal.

He ignored the man as they entered a veritable minefield of bloated corpses. Most had been picked over by the fish.

Another corpse lodged under wreckage bounced off the sub before they finally emerged on the other side.

Akira raised a hand to signal for the team to get ready.

He steered toward a peninsula covered in jungle, heading for an insertion point about halfway to the shoreline of Sasa Bay.

After studying maps of the island, he had decided to approach the Atlantis on the southern side of the peninsula near where the Port of Guam had once stood. That put them halfway between the research vessel and the undamaged NAA Swordfish stealth war boat docked at a slip in Sasa Bay.

He shut off the engine and secured the vessel by planting its anchored feet in the mud and sandy bottom of the bay. Frost was already preparing to open the sliding canopy.

“Radio silence once we get topside,” Akira said.

Nods all around.

Frost pulled the canopy open, water rushing in and filling the interior.

One by one, the team exited the sub into the ocean.

Okami swam next to Akira to the shore.

They emerged in the surf under the weak moonlight. Frost crossed over to the jungle, hunching and then waving them onward. The soldiers slipped into the dense tree cover, greeted by a vast silence. Not even an insect risked a noise.

“It’s quiet out here,” Ghost said.

The group trekked up a hill with a sprawling view. At the top, they crouched in the overgrown weeds.

Using his infrared optics, Akira scanned the horizon to the east. Smoke fingered into the sky from the site of the battle.

He couldn’t see the destroyed NAA base, but he could see the skyline of downtown was gone.

On his HUD, the first readings came back, showing a spike in rads.

If there were people out there, they better be in protective suits.

Akira listened for the Praying Mantis fighters and the rattling of the Canebrakes, but heard nothing besides waves lapping the shore.

Still, he had to be sure.

Reaching to his vest, he pulled out the new drone that Juno had given him. It was similar to Blue Jay, but a bit smaller and looked more like a grasshopper.

Akira activated it and tossed it up.

The drone zipped into the sky, beating tiny wings. It twisted as it ascended, providing a three-hundred-sixty-degree view of an empty sky on his mirrored HUD.

Then it swooped down to the Atlantis, scanning for contacts.

Finding nothing, it shot to the east toward the NAA Swordfish, lowering over an empty deck and then the docks.

No humans.

No machines.

Akira recalled the drone and tucked it away safely before turning to his team. He flashed hand signals to split them up into two teams.

Ghost and Jackson peeled off to the east.

Akira melted into his surroundings, not just physically, but mentally. His senses were on full alert, his eyes flitting from his HUD to the terrain, searching for movement, and his augmented ears listening for the rattling or clanking of mechanical parts.

For the next half hour, he trekked through the jungle with Frost, Okami, and the Pistons, stopping every few minutes to listen and search the darkness.

Finally, they made it to the other side of the jungle. They got their first visual of the Atlantis. Highway 18 and an industrial park separated them from the beached research ship.

Akira checked the highway for contacts. A line of vehicles had been abandoned, their doors open from occupants that had long since fled.

He gave Frost the go-ahead and she took off for a better view of the Atlantis.

She crossed the highway, hopped over a downed fence, and then vanished behind a building. A few minutes later, she returned.

“We got a problem,” Frost said.

Akira turned to Bella and Toretto. “You two stay here, and if anything happens, head back to the mini-sub.”

“Okay, Cap,” Toretto said.

“You sure?” Bella asked.

“Yes, stay out of view.”

Akira got up and followed Frost into the industrial sector, passing a slew of trucks, a warehouse, and two silos. She walked up exterior stairs to a brick building that had a view of the ship.

As soon as he got to the rooftop, Akira saw the issue Frost had already discovered. The command center of the research ship was buried in the mud. They would need to figure out another way to access it.

He gave the order to advance.

Okami led them around the red keel toward the bow of the vessel. Everything from the mid-keel up was charred from what must have been internal fires. The portholes were blown out along the hull, blackened from what Akira could only imagine was a tremendous inferno of explosions from inside the ship.

At the bow, Akira found a blown-out hatch that they could enter through.

Okami skirted up the hull, using his metal claws for purchase. Akira activated the magnets in his boots, following close behind with Frost.

Cautiously, they made their way up the decks toward the bridge. Two dead sailors lay face down, still wearing blue uniforms with the AAS logo on the back.

Akira crouched and turned over the closest body.

A crab skittered out of the open chest cavity, making him flinch.

“The hell…” Frost said. She turned the other man over to find the same thing—their insides had been removed, not an organ left.

“Why would the machines do this?” she whispered.

“I don’t know,” Akira replied. “We should keep moving.”

He rose to his feet and moved into an enclosed passage for cover as he checked the other team’s positions. Jackson and Ghost were closing in on the warship, but Akira didn’t want to risk a transmission to see if they had found the shields.

Toretto and Bella seemed okay too, and he kept moving until he got to the top landing. Frost grabbed the hatch handle, and Akira gave her a nod.

She opened it and Akira strode inside, sweeping the space with his rifle. The command center was still there, the stations and equipment dormant, but mostly undamaged at first glance. He pulled out a radio frequency scanner that Hayao had given him. It blinked as he held it in front of the various stations.

As he scanned them, it shone a solid red light.

“This is the source of the original transmission,” he said to Frost. “Watch our backs, I don’t know how long this will take.”

He took out the data-pad Hayao had programmed for this purpose and set it next to the transmitter. The device scanned for the source of the radio transmission. The scientist had explained it would access a station like this wirelessly, creating a secure, isolated local network.

Their hope was that whatever fragments of Apeiron existed could be transferred to this data-pad.

“Captain, Okami found something,” Frost said.

Akira turned to the wolfdog who had his muzzle lowered to the deck. Upon closer inspection, he saw Okami sniffing streaks of brown that curved into another passage.

Frost cautiously checked around the corner.

In the green hue of his night vision, Akira saw this wasn’t another passage into the ship. It was a dirt tunnel with ribbed walls and a paneled ceiling that stretched deep into the ground.

“Wow,” Frost said, peering into the darkness. “Someone must have dug…”

The hint of a glow flickered down the dark tunnel.

Akira pulled her back from a glowing blade that shot inches from their helmets. Just as it retracted back on a telescoping arm, he fired a burst of bolts at the machine it was attached to.

The staticky cry of a Canebrake erupted from the tunnel as its rattle echoed against the walls. Almost at the same time, the radio in the command room crackled.

Monitors flickered to life.

Akira kicked the hatch shut and retreated with Frost. He slotted his rifle and drew both of his katanas.

Red-hot blades punched through the metal hatch. Okami barked viciously as the hatch was torn off its hinges.

To Akira’s surprise, the Canebrake didn’t come storming out. Instead, it let out a long, whining screech. A call to its robotic comrades.

“What do we do?” Frost whispered.

Akira turned when the radio came to life.

“There’s nowhere to run,” said a charming voice. “You won’t escape again.”

“Otto,” Akira said.

“I wasn’t expecting you to surface for a while. It’s a pleasant surprise, though.”

“The hell,” Frost said, turning.

“We were tracking you for days, and by sheer luck, you got away before I could present you with a very generous offer,” Otto continued.

That confirmed what they’d already suspected, now that they knew Apeiron wasn’t behind E-Day—the squids were in fact Otto all along. He had been tracking them, luring them right into a trap.

“My Legions are growing, but they are missing one thing,” Otto said.

“Fuck your legions,” Frost said.

“I need a general,” Otto said, ignoring her. “Someone to lead my armies into humanity’s new future. Someone like Akira the so-called Brave.”

A Canebrake strode in on all fours across the room. Its arms were cocked back, ready to strike. The machine’s plasma cannons hummed, angled toward the Engines.

Two more machines stalked in.

“Captain Hayashi,” came a deep voice.

This new voice wasn’t from the radio. At the entrance of the tunnel, the Canebrake moved to allow another monstrosity into the room.

Only this wasn’t a machine.

It was a Dread.

The hybrid man walked in holding a modified plasma rifle, tubes snaking away from a helmet. Armor bulwarked his body with spikes sticking from his limbs and razor wire wrapped around his wrists.

“There are two ways out of here,” he said. “The first is hacked into pieces.”

Akira readied his katanas.

The Dread reached up and unlatched part of his helmet. It hissed open to reveal his scarred face. Red INVS eyes leered out.

“Soon, no man or woman will be able to survive in this new world,” he said. “The only way to salvation is by joining us.”

“You’re wrong,” Frost said. “Salvation is defeating your legions before you can poison the world.”

She raised her pistol at the Dread. The top of his skull exploded from two shots to the forehead, caking the ceiling with brain matter.

A Canebrake charged from a corner of the room. Akira threw a katana at the machine, burying the heated blade right into the droid’s fanned head.

Frost fired off another two shots from behind a station while Akira rushed to her side. Plasma bolts streaked across the space as more Dreads and Canebrakes barreled into the bridge, forcing both of the Engines down.

Okami let out a whine as he sheltered behind an adjacent station.

Electronic shrieks echoed through the small command room, nearly deafening. Energy blades blasted through the stations, sending bursting shrapnel over their heads.

“Really wasn’t planning on ending it this way,” Frost said.

“This isn’t the end,” Akira said, narrowing his eyes.

Frost nodded with understanding.

They had waited all this time to fight. Even though they were going to die.

Now they had their chance.

Okami growled, ready to go.

Just as Akira started to get up, an explosion ripped through the ship. It was then he realized Okami wasn’t growling a warning.

A wave of fire burst through the openings to the CIC. The dog scrambled over, and Akira hunched down to protect him.

Heated pieces of metal hissed out of the blast. Akira reached up as a piece of the ceiling fell. He pushed it off them as more chunks hit the stations around them, shattering glass.

The static-filled cries of Canebrakes were drowned out in the explosion. Fire and smoke rolled over Akira for several grueling seconds. When it finally ended, Akira stood with his rifle shouldered. He scanned the smoke, struggling to hear past the ringing in his ears as he scanned for hostiles.

Two heat signatures emerged onto his HUD.

Over the ringing, he heard a female voice.

“Captain Hayashi!”

Akira aimed his barrel at the two armored figures advancing slowly through the smoke.

“Akira, Frost,” came a male voice.

Akira lowered his barrel when he saw the Piston armor.

“Bella and Toretto,” he grunted. “Over here.”

“Never thought I’d save an Engine,” Toretto said with a chuckle.

“We’re not out of this yet,” Bella said. “Come on, follow us. There are more machines on the way.”

— 18 —

Five years ago…

Nova Alliance Strike Force Silver Crane Citadel

“Relax,” said the primary doctor. “This is going to hurt more if you’re tense.”

Standing in a med-chamber, Tadhg was about as tense as he was before his first Droid Raiding match.

He despised doctors and really hated hospitals.

When he signed up to be an Engine, he didn’t realize he would become a guinea pig for the eggheads.

But he had passed all their other stupid tests with flying colors, and soon, it would all be over.

Physical training, no problem. Shooting wasn’t hard. And the subject matter tests, also easy.

Actually, those were tough.

Tadhg wasn’t an academic genius.

He was more of a street-smart kind of a guy. He preferred the aggressive ways of his working-class ancestors. That meant fighting when someone mouthed off, drinking barrels of whiskey, and eating beef when he could get his hands on it. As a famous Droid Raider, there was never a shortage of whiskey or beef, things his old man could never afford when he was a kid.

Sometimes he wondered what his pops would have thought of Tadhg walking away from wealth and fame to don the power-armor of an Engine.

“Okay, we’re about to get started,” said the doctor. “Preparing the growth serum.”

He held up a needle the length of a pencil.

“Turn your arm for me.”

Tadhg did as the doctor instructed. The doctor picked one of the many bulging vessels and inserted the needle.

A warmth crept up his arm and across his chest.

It felt good, like he had taken a shot of expensive whiskey.

Then came a rush of cold from another jab.

After a third shot, the doctor told him to stay relaxed while tapping a data-pad on the med-chamber. The lid began to close, and straps tightened over Tadhg’s body. In anticipation, he bit down on a mouthguard, kind of like the one he’d worn as a Droid Raider.

But the pain that followed was far worse than any he had encountered in the arena. His arm muscles contracted first, then his chest and abdomen.

He thought that was bad until the intense cramping kicked in. Almost every muscle grew as solid as a century-old oak tree.

Tadhg bit down on the mouthguard.

“Round one, complete,” came a voice in his ear. “You have fifteen minutes of rest before round two.”

“How many rounds are there?” he muttered through clenched teeth.

“Twenty-five today.”

What in the hell…

By the time the day was over, he had bitten through the mouthguard. At dusk, he limped out of an elevator and into the lobby of the medical facility. Two Pistons standing guard at the doors propped them open.

“Thanks, lads,” Tadhg said.

An armored truck rolled by outside, driving down the dirt road on the sprawling Citadel training facility nestled in the mountains.

He stumbled out into a cool breeze, squinting at a brilliant sunset lowering over the peaks. When his vision cleared, he noticed four Engines near a fence of cedar trees on the other side of the street.

One of them, a woman about a foot shorter than Tadhg, had a buzzed head and cool blue eyes. She sat on a bench next to a Latino soldier with tattoos covering his body. The man had his eyes buried in a book.

An olive-skinned man with wavy brown hair had his foot up on the bench. He nursed a cigar, blowing puffs of smoke skyward.

Only one of the seven-feet tall soldiers was standing. The lean Japanese fellow with a topknot stood looking at the mountain caps. A droid wolfdog sat on his haunches next to him, and a hybrid horse was grazing in a nearby clearing.

“Tadhg Walsh,” the man said, turning toward him.

“That’s me name,” Tadhg said.

The samurai-looking man walked over. “My name is Captain Akira Hayashi, and this is Shadow Squad. Frost, Ghost, Perez, Okami, and Kichiro.”

The Engines all nodded, except for Ghost, who blew out a puff from his cigar.

“You guys even got a horse, huh?” Tadhg said. “Me pa used to like horses.”

“Shit, they’re enlisting leprechauns now?” Ghost said. “We’re screwed.”

“I’m just messing with you, brother,” Tadhg said with a grin.

Ghost returned a smile, but there was no trace of jocularity in Akira’s features. He had his hands behind his back as he looked Tadhg over.

“I heard that you left a career as a Droid Raider,” he said. “So, tell me, why do you want to be an Engine?”

“Simple. I want to kill those Coalition assholes, boss.”

“Captain,” Frost corrected.

“Captain,” Tadhg clarified. He waited a beat, then balled his fist. “I care about one thing. Crushing the Coalition and getting revenge for my pops.”

“That’s two things,” Ghost said.

“You know what I mean,” Tadhg growled.

Akira turned his back. “Then I was wrong about you. Shadow Squad doesn’t fight for revenge. We fight to protect the innocent, and to achieve peace.”

Tadhg hesitated. “Well yeah, I want those things too, but I also want to…”

Akira walked away, leaving Tadhg standing there with Ghost, Perez, and Frost.

Okami stared up at him, raising a lip to expose a canine.

The fuck you looking at, ya little ankle biter? Tadhg thought.

The other Engines followed Akira.

Tadhg fumed. In the past, if a man turned his back on you like that, it was a sign of disrespect. He fought back the anger.

Instead, he tried something he didn’t usually do. He gave himself a moment to think. To soak in what Akira had said.

After all, he hadn’t spent all this time, this effort into becoming an Engine just to be the same old Tadhg he was before.

“Wait,” he called out. “Look, I got some personal motivation, sure, but I’m not here just for revenge. I’m here to end the war. I don’t want it to keep taking from people what it’s already taken from me.”

Akira halted but did not turn. “Walk with me.”

Trying to hide his limp, Tadhg worked his way over to the great Akira the Brave.

“Tell me how,” Akira said. “How you plan to end the war.”

***

Top-Secret Medical Facility

Exact Location Unknown

“Sergeant Walsh, do you see a light?”

Tadhg didn’t recognize the male voice.

A faint glow burned through his eyelids. He recalled his dream about the first augmentation test, and then meeting Shadow Squad. But those memories faded with the realization that Perez was long-dead. The rest of the squad probably was too.

“Sergeant Walsh,” said the same stern voice. “Can you see this light?”

“Yeah,” he said in a low, scratchy voice.

He coughed, pain rattling in his chest.

That wasn’t good. He must have been intubated.

He pushed his eyelids open a crack and tried to center his gaze on a single figure at the edge of his bed.

“Where…” Tadhg asked. His voice cracked. “Where am I?”

“My name is Doctor Blake Howard. You’re at a top-secret LDC medical facility.”

Tadhg squirmed slightly under what felt like restraints.

He didn’t like that.

“What’s wrong with me?”

“You were injured by Canebrakes at Lion Station,” said the doctor.

Tadhg tried to focus, but only fragmented memories surfaced.

“When?” he asked.

“You’ve been out for three days.”

“Three days?”

Tadhg groaned.

“We brought you out of your med-chamber for a very important meeting.”

He glimpsed the doctor now, but this wasn’t just any doctor. This man wore a black uniform with a golden lion pin. He was an intel commander.

But why would an intel commander be…

“The Shackleton Crater,” Tadhg stammered, suddenly recalling the machine that had broken into the darkness of the crater. “Is Mesopotamia…”

“The colony is safe for now, Sergeant, partially thanks to your efforts, but we must take drastic action to ensure it stays that way.”

Blake held out a data-pad and walked around Tadhg, scanning his body and limbs.

“Subject appears clear,” the doctor said into the device.

“Clear?”

“We are scanning anyone who survived the attack to ensure the machines did not implant any devices they might use to take advantage of us.”

Tadhg tried to sit up. The feeling in his legs, rear, and back were slowly returning.

“How about the rest of my team?” he asked.

“They survived and are in this facility recovering.”

That reassured Tadhg. He hated the idea of babysitting those kids at first, but they had helped save his life, especially the one he doubted the most—Ronald.

“Can I see ’em?” Tadhg asked.

The doctor looked unsure. Maybe he was just annoyed.

“I know you’re busy, Doc, but—”

“I suppose seeing your team might be the morale boost you need right now, especially with the meeting in a few hours.”

“Meeting?” Tadhg asked. “What meeting?”

“Don’t worry about that for now.” The doctor left the small room.

“Doc? What meeting?”

No response.

Tadhg rolled his head from side to side. He tried to move but the straps over his chest, hips, and legs were tight. He couldn’t feel his arms. They were numb still, probably a result of the meds they were using to treat his injuries.

The wounds would likely require some physical therapy, but he had suffered worse on Earth. Far worse. Especially on E-Day.

The door opened again, and the doctor returned with the rest of Tadhg’s team. Veronica limped inside with Joaquín and then Ronald.

“Good to see you’re all okay,” Tadhg said.

“You too, Sergeant,” Veronica said.

Tadhg jerked his chin to the doctor. “Yo, I’m all good, you can let me up now, Doc. I’m still god-level, mate.”

Blake glanced up from his screen. “Quite the ego, typical for an Engine, I suppose.” He walked over. “But I’m afraid this is the end of your combat career as an Engine.”

Tadhg laughed. “The fuck you mean…”

The rest of his team all looked down, almost as if they were afraid of something. Afraid of talking to him or looking at him or…

Then Tadhg realized what they were looking at. The sheet covering his body.

He squirmed again. “What’s under the sheet, doc?”

Blake pulled the sheet down, exposing two stumps where Tadhg’s right and left arms had once been. Clean white bandages covered them.

“What the… what the…” his eyes shot up. “You took my arms! You took both my arms!”

Blake leaned down to check the bandages.

“It was the only way to save your life,” he said. “Those energy blades released a toxin into your bloodstream that would have killed a normal man. You’re lucky you were genetically—”

“When the hell do I get new arms?”

Blake leaned back.

“Prosthetics, like Ghost has,” Tadhg said. “Apeiron put him…”

He was furious, but he was still rational enough to understand what he had just said.

Apeiron was the enemy. She would not be providing him new arms.

“Robotic prosthetics are no longer authorized, Sergeant. However, we could give you some polymer prosthetics,” Blake said. “Of course, while somewhat functional, they are not suitable for combat.”

“Fuck that. What happens when the machines attack?”

“Your duty is to prepare the colonies so that doesn’t happen.”

Tadhg shook his head in disbelief.

“I know this is a lot to take in, but I need you to get it together, Sergeant,” Blake continued. “The Lunar Defense Council is expecting you to brief them in a few hours.”

The doctor turned and went to the doorway, the soldiers parting to let him through.

“Take an hour to get your head on straight, Sergeant, this meeting is of the utmost importance.”

Blake left Tadhg alone with the soldiers.

“Sergeant, I’m sorry,” Veronica said. “But this isn’t the end of—”

“Get out,” Tadhg said.

None of the troopers moved.

“I said, get out!” he screamed.

Ronald opened the door for Veronica and Joaquín, who hurried into the hallway. But Ronald lingered behind.

“Veronica’s right, Sergeant,” he said. “This is not the end. We need you.”

Tadhg looked up at the ceiling as Ronald left.

As soon as Ronald left and shut the door behind him, Tadhg tried to get himself off the damn bed. He started to roll from side to side. When that didn’t do much, he pushed his chest against the straps. If he’d had his arms, he could rip right through those restraints.

A scream erupted from his throat as he strained harder and harder.

He pushed with his back and hips.

The straps finally gave way and snapped, freeing him. The force of his efforts threw him off the bed, and he slammed to the floor with a thud.

When he tried to push himself up with his stumps, pain tore through his wounded limbs. Blood began to soak through the bandages.

“Son of a whore!” he screamed.

The door opened, and two nurses rushed inside, bending down to help.

“Don’t touch me,” he growled.

They both backed away.

“Leave us,” came a voice.

Doctor Blake Howard walked back inside.

“Well, that is extremely unfortunate,” Blake said.

He examined the now bloody bandages around Tadhg’s stumps.

“We’re going to have to get those changed now,” Blake said with a shake of his head. “Or maybe we shouldn’t. Maybe the council should see what the Canebrakes did to an Engine.”

He leaned down in front of Tadhg.

“Sergeant Walsh, I need you to listen,” Blake said. “This is a shock, I’m sure, but you are a soldier, an Engine. Get it together and prepare for this council meeting. It’s imperative you are there.”

“What the fuck can I do without arms?”

“You can help protect the colonies with your knowledge.”

“All due respect, Commander, but fuck knowledge and fuck you. I want arms. The type I can use when the machines come for us.”

Blake sighed. “I’ll see what I can do, Sergeant. I can’t promise anything more right now.”

“That’s not enough. You have to fix me.”

“As I said, I’ll do what I can.”

Blake left before Tadhg could wrap his non-existent hands around the wormy doctor’s neck.

A nurse returned to rewrap his bandages. He avoided her gaze, looking at the ceiling while she worked. When she finished, she walked over to a crate and pulled out his uniform.

“I’m going to help you, okay?” she asked.

Tadhg stared at the woman. She was about his age, with a button nose, and freckles. She was shorter than Tadhg, but taller than average.

Before he would have cracked some jokes, flirted with her, maybe even asked her out for a beer or ten.

But now… now he was a broken soldier, a weak and useless piece of meat.

She held up his undershirt. He pushed his head through. He felt like a baby. The sleeves hung limply by his sides as the nurse secured his collar.

Then she helped him don his dress uniform and ensure every award, every medal, every ribbon he had collected in his career as an Engine was in place.

A Golden Crane for valor in combat. Dual Silver Cranes for injuries in battle.

He recalled each of those battles, and the victories that came with them. But he felt no pride at these memories. Only sadness.

Without arms, his life was over.

An hour later, he was on his way down a hallway with two troopers.

After two elevators and a train ride, he finally arrived at the surface of Mesopotamia. The soldiers escorted him up a wide flight of stairs into the main colony, right into the Capitol building, still under construction.

Pillars held up a large rooftop that reminded Tadhg of an ancient Greek assembly chamber. Double doors towered over them, engraved with the lion and star logo of the LDC.

On every other step, a trooper stood sentry.

The doors swung open, and Tadhg stepped inside a chamber with three rows of elevated seating in a circle around a central floor. In the top and middle row were at least twenty men and women in white tunics.

Across from them, standing at the bottom row were ten intel commanders, including Doctor Blake Howard.

A holo-screen hovered over a podium at the bottom. At the podium was War Commander Thacker.

“Sergeant Tadhg Walsh,” Thacker said. “Glad you could join us, have a seat. We’re about to get started and we don’t have much time.”

Tadhg instinctively went to salute but did little more than wave a stump. He made his way over to a row of seating occupied by a single pilot in dress uniform.

In the second row, a man with a beard and slicked-back hair stood. Dressed differently from the other councilors, he was tall and thick, filling out a three-piece suit.

“For those of you who don’t know me, my name is Alexey Swanson, and I am the temporary Chief Councilor of Mesopotamian Regents,” he said. “We may be civilians, but our goal is the same as yours, War Commander. We want to keep the colonies and Lucky Million safe.”

He scanned the room with the practiced gaze of a politician, taking a brief moment to connect with everyone, including Tadhg. There was sympathy in his eyes—sympathy that Tadhg didn’t want.

I need arms, not pity, asshole, he thought.

“The chamber is yours, War Commander,” Alexey said.

Thacker stepped back to the podium.

“As I already said, time is not on our side,” he announced. “It never was, and now we’re down to the wire as we prepare for Phase Two.”

He turned on the holo-screen.

“We’re here to discuss the recent attacks,” Thacker said. “We believe the machines were here on a recon mission, and during our response, power was lost to Rose Colony. All twenty-five thousand colonists perished.”

Tadhg stared in shock.

How could that happen?

“Our engineers are working to make sure this never happens again, and the LDC is working to safeguard what we still believe is a secret from the machines: Mesopotamia, and the five… four sub-colonies.”

He raised his chin.

“I will start by calling Captain Jake Harback to the floor, the sole survivor of the Nova Alliance Sky and Space Patrol.”

Harback stood.

“Thank you for letting me out of my cell, War Commander,” he said with a smirk.

“Get to it,” Thacker said.

Harback looked toward the council. “On E-Day, my squadron, the Sky Raiders were deployed to destroy the Poseidon Cannons. We eliminated as many as we could, and thanks to several submarines that remained undetected, all of the cannons were destroyed.”

The pilot lowered his gaze slightly.

“When my fighter was destroyed, I sheltered at the Nova One Station, which was taken over by the machines. I managed to stay undetected until they abandoned the station. I spent the first week trying to repair my King Cobra. When that didn’t work, I began to plot a trap for the machines using one of their damaged ships.”

“What about Earth?” Alexey said. “Were you able to contact anyone on the surface?”

“I lost all contact on E-Day after Doctor Otto Cross took over the machines with his virus.”

Tadhg stood. The councilors had the same reaction.

“Cross?” sputtered Alexey. He looked to Thacker.

The War Commander confirmed the statement with a nod.

“We now know it was Doctor Otto Cross who was responsible for E-Day,” he said. “We will play a classified message that is not to leave this chamber.”

Tadhg slowly sat back down. He didn’t believe this…it couldn’t be true. Doctor Otto Cross had…

Escaped, he thought.

In the center of the chamber, a holo-image of Otto emerged.

“If you hear and see me now, you survived E-Day, a day meant to reset our planet, to restore the balance,” he said. “I realized during the war that humanity was doomed, and that I alone could not save our species. Instead, I decided to create a new one—a species of flesh and metal to live in our poisoned world, but with the biological brains we were born with.

“By trying to bring humanity together with the fake threat of Hros-1, Apeiron created the cannons that allowed for the reset that will save our species,” Otto continued. “So, in a way, I suppose AI did aid our salvation.

“Join me,” Otto said. “Join this new society born from fire and ash.”

The hologram fizzled away.

Raised voices burst from the council booths as the councilors fired off questions.

“How is this possible?” asked a female councilor. A holo-nameplate at her seat said she was Ingrid Burnham. Long, braided hair hung over one of her shoulders.

“If this is true, then what happened to Apeiron?” Alexey asked. “And what about Crichton?”

“He is alive, and we may need him now more than ever,” said a councilor with a thick, neatly trimmed beard. His nameplate read, Keanu Cotter.

“This could all be a trick,” said another councilor. “We have no way of knowing the truth. We have been completely cut off up here.”

“I hate to say it, but I met Otto,” Tadhg called out. “Everything I heard sounds possible to me.”

The councilors all looked to him.

“Enough,” Thacker boomed. “I’ll tell you what we know for sure.”

The holo-screen of Earth expanded. Brown and black clouds wrapped around the surface, blocking out the continents and the vast oceans.

“Forests have been set on fire, and we are picking up radiation readings in cities and military bases,” Thacker said. “It’s going to continue to get worse. We know that the machines have factories creating new Canebrakes, as well as spacecraft like the one that attacked Lion Station.”

“Is it possible there are people fighting back on Earth?” Keanu asked.

Tadhg nodded.

He liked this guy already.

Thacker, on the other hand, stared at Keanu like he was stupid.

“All the megacities that weren’t destroyed by the cannons have been hit hard by the machines,” Thacker said. “The machines have been on a rampage since E-Day, hunting down survivors, and erasing cities in their genocidal mission.”

“It’s true,” said Captain Harback. “I was there on E-Day. I saw it, and I saw what happened in the weeks after while I hid on Nova Station and waited to make my move.”

The room went completely quiet.

“I have a plan to defeat the machines on Earth, but this plan is not to save the Earth tomorrow or to rescue any survivors,” Thacker said. “Unfortunately, it’s too late for them and our resources are already extremely limited. Instead, we must plan for our distant future. We’ll take the Earth back for future generations when we can return.”

“So we abandon Earth entirely for now?” Ingrid asked.

“What about a recon mission?” asked Alexey. “Sending just a few of our pilots to see if maybe the Falconers have missed something.”

“Missed something?” Thacker snorted. “You people don’t understand.”

He motioned to the same intel commander who had visited Tadhg hours ago.

“I will let Doctor Howard explain the unfortunate truth about the planet,” Thacker said. “But he’ll also tell you about our plan to take the planet back. A plan that allows us to utilize the hybrids.”

Keanu shot back out of his chair. “What do you mean, utilize the hybrids?”

“Doctor Howard?” Thacker asked, inviting the scientist to the podium.

Blake cleared his throat and stepped up. “We’re studying the hybrids. We believe, with the right engineering, we can use them as weapons against Cross’s monsters.”

“This is wrong,” Keanu said. “You’re treating the hybrids like lab rats. They are people. Human beings like us.”

“I understand your niece is one of them,” Thacker said, “and I fear this might be clouding your judgement, councilor.”

“Perhaps, but Councilor Cotter is right,” Alexey said. “You are not to proceed without our authorization. We need more intel on the condition of the surface before we can make a proper decision.”

“If a recon mission is what it takes, fine. We can waste the resources. And the lives of our precious pilots, just so you all confirm what I’ve already shown you about the condition of Earth.” Thacker shook his head. “If that’s what it will take for you to understand, so be it, but the blood of our pilots will be on your hands.”

— 19 —

Sasa Bay, Guam

The pop of gunfire echoed through the early morning, followed by the distinct rattling of Canebrakes. The machines’ static-filled cries rose into the air with the wild, animalistic screams of Dreads.

The horrifying sounds were faint to his augmented ears, but Akira guessed they were coming from about a mile away.

He crouched in the jungle with Frost and Okami. They had narrowly made it out of the Atlantis, thanks to the brave actions of Bella and Toretto. But the mission to find Apeiron had failed, and the data-pad was destroyed in the blast.

If Apeiron had ever actually been on that ship in any form, it would be impossible to recover her now.

Especially with both man and machine hunting them.

The moon penetrated the clouds with a weak glow, barely enough to reveal the jungle around the Engines.

Bella and Toretto were close, their bulky plates covered in soot from the explosion Toretto had cooked up using their entire supply of plasma grenades.

He didn’t doubt they could fight now, but he also didn’t want to risk their lives further.

Crouching near them, he whispered, “Head back to the extraction point, Frost and I will take Okami to find Ghost and Jackson.”

“We can help,” Bella said.

“You’ve done enough,” Akira said. “Thank you.”

She hesitated, but then Toretto jerked his thumb.

“Be careful,” Frost said quietly.

The Pistons slipped into the jungle in the direction they had come hours ago.

Akira waited a few minutes, hoping it was the right move and wouldn’t put them in more danger.

Frost suddenly hit the dirt, and Akira went down next to her as a Praying Mantis fighter roared out of the clouds to the east. It swooped low, but then pulled away and into the sky.

Akira flashed an advance signal and started through the thick vegetation. Okami trotted ahead but halted at the sound of more gunfire.

The shots seemed to be coming from the other side of Sasa Bay.

He desperately wanted to break radio silence and try to contact the other Engines, but it wasn’t worth the risk of giving up their position. Instead, he got up and began running through the jungle.

Radiation levels spiked on his HUD as they approached the direction of the battle. His armor and suit would protect him, but anyone without some sort of protective suit would already be condemned to a painful death.

Akira finally came across a clearing in the jungle that opened to the shoreline. He carefully made his way down to the tree line, his boots sinking in mud.

Across Sasa Bay, the Swordfish was still docked in the slip.

Frost scoped the deck, and Akira checked the shoreline. The best way across was to swim.

“Clear, but no sign of Ghost or Jackson,” Frost whispered.

Akira gave her a hand signal to advance into the water. Okami hopped in, dog paddling next to Akira.

Dead fish and flotsam from the machines’ destruction of the island bobbed in the waves. In the past, they could have used their jetpack fans to help them swim underwater, but that put out too much of a heat signature.

The Engines swam beneath the water’s surface using muscle-power alone.

Akira watched the ship every few strokes.

They were closing in on it.

Okami suddenly shot down, diving deeper.

Flashes streaked over the surface to the east.

Akira kicked upward, slowing his body right beneath the waves.

He cautiously emerged to see what was happening on the shoreline. A firestorm of plasma bolts and tracer rounds streaked up and down the beach.

Heat signatures flickered on his HUD when he switched to infrared. A mass of at least thirty people in tattered clothing and hazard suits rushed toward the Swordfish.

Covering their escape were twelve Pistons. Some of the soldiers were wearing light armor, only chest plates, and pads for their knees and elbows.

It was the most rag-tag fighting force he had ever seen, and they were being pursued by the most efficient killing machines on the planet in a radiation-rich environment.

Four Canebrakes bolted across a field toward the open beach, firing and shrieking.

Behind them, two rust-colored APCs jolted to a stop. The hatches opened, disgorging two squads of Dreads. Energy swords and spears were activated, the daggers glowing red to illuminate the Dreads’ spiked armored bodies.

There were at least ten of them.

He still saw no sign of Jackson or Ghost.

A Praying Mantis shot over the beach, firing a plasma cannon into the throng of civilians before it swooped back into the sky. Explosions blossomed on the shore, sending sand, grit, and body parts skyward.

Akira motioned for Frost to surface. She broke through a moment later, the flashes of plasma on the beach reflecting on her visor.

“We have to do something,” she said.

The Pistons took up positions behind whatever cover they could find to lay down fire. Most of the survivors were now running between other beached seacraft and up a ramp toward the slip with the docked warship.

“Captain,” Frost said. “Captain, what do we do?”

“Death from the shadows,” Akira said.

“DFTS!”

Akira blasted out of the water and above the ship. He aimed his rifle at the four Canebrakes. The machines were nearly within striking range of the Pistons.

None seemed to notice the Engines.

A grenade exploded on the beach, shrapnel tearing into a Canebrake. The metal monster went down like a flattened squid, arms whipping back and forth. A rocket suddenly streaked away from a beached yacht, finishing off the machine.

The other Canebrakes charged ahead. The leader of the formation tore two of the soldiers from their firing positions and tossed them into the water.

Akira and Frost dipped down, focusing their fire on that mechanical beast, peppering it with bolts. Its fanned head with dual faces rotated their direction, and the shoulder mounted cannons shredded the sky with return fire.

Rolling away, Akira blasted higher. One of the bolts punched into his jetpack, knocking out one of the thrusters and sending him spinning. He immediately lost altitude and began to plummet in a tailspin toward the beach.

As he fought to stay airborne and right his body, he heard a loud hum over the crackle of his hissing jetpack.

Thrusters burned out of the smoky clouds.

The hell is that…

He finally managed to break out of the tailspin by shutting off the disabled thruster and switched to just one, allowing him to hover under a breathtaking sight.

Five hundred feet above him, a colossal craft with a bulbous bow and teardrop-shaped fore section descended from the clouds.

The smooth hull at the bow shifted backward, exposing a central eye that bulged outward. Spikes extended around the eye like eyelashes, all glowing red.

Beams of crimson light shot out, raking over the fleeing civilians. Wherever they touched, the beams turned people into ash and melted the sand into glass.

Akira landed on the bow of the warship, behind the wreckage of a MOTH. The beams tore back and forth again. This time, a swathe of terrified civilians froze in place. None appeared able to move forward.

The whirring intensified, and the needles around the ship’s weapon grew brighter, pulsating an angry red.

A shrieking whine pierced Akira’s eardrums. All of the paralyzed civilians suddenly exploded in bursts of blood and guts, painting the deck with gore.

The beams were some sort of microwave weapon, Akira realized, and not even his armor would protect him from that type of power.

He jumped off the bow as one of the lights flashed at him. As he fell, he saw the Pistons retreating from the final Canebrake on the beach.

Akira hit the lower deck of the ship and looked over a railing.

Frost was still down there, fighting along with the Pistons. The gaggle of Dreads charged toward their positions. She fired a devastating shot that blew off the top of a Dread’s helmet in a misting spray of brain matter.

The rest of the human hybrids that had sold their souls to Otto ran headlong at her, unleashing a wave of rifle fire and throwing energy spears.

Akira leapt over the railing and took off down the beach to help. Not far ahead, hiding behind a beached boat, he noticed a furry head.

“Okami!” he shouted.

The wolfdog bolted from his hiding spot, dashing over to the Engines.

The strange aircraft had lowered over the deck of the warship. Over the ocean, a screaming Praying Mantis roared toward their position.

Akira looked for a place to run, but it was either fight up the beach or take their chances in the water.

He whistled to Okami and pointed, sending the wolfdog back into the waves.

The Praying Mantis raced closer, releasing a salvo of missiles that slammed into the Swordfish. Massive balls of fire erupted from the impacts. A relentless pressure wave kicked up the sand and barreled into Akira, knocking him backward.

Ears ringing, he attempted to push himself up as the fighter turned the wing-mounted plasma cannons toward the beach.

“Into the water!” Akira shouted.

Bolts pounded the beach all around him, leaving pockets of smoldering dirt.

A Piston lost a leg from one of them, dropping him to the sand. Akira bent down and heaved him up over his shoulders. He carried the man over fiery craters while the Praying Mantis circled over the island, preparing to come back for another run.

The Dreads arrived, snorting and screeching like wild boars. A mammoth hybrid man leapt onto a rock and thrust his spear at Akira. He was forced to drop the Piston as the searing hot blade lanced right past his helmet.

A scream of agony erupted behind Akira.

Akira tore out a katana and swung at the Dread, cutting a leg off clean under the knee. The soldier buckled to his other knee, and Akira lashed out with the katana again, decapitating the hybrid in one smooth swipe.

When he turned, Akira found the Piston he had been carrying was dead, with the energy spear meant for Akira sticking out of his chest.

A moment of guilt passed.

No time to regret, just to fight.

Akira pulled out his rifle in the other hand and aimed it at a fishing boat. Above the cracked vessel, two impaled Pistons were being swung around on the telescoped arms of the Canebrake. The mechanical monster finished the two squirming men with plasma cannons, bolts lancing straight through the soldiers.

“Captain!” Frost shouted.

A bullet seared over his shoulder, forcing him down. Another Dread crashed to the ground nearby, smoke coming from the top of its helmet where a .50 cal round had torn it apart.

Over the chaos of battle, gunfire, screaming, yells of pain, and crunch of blades into armor came an even more terrifying sound—the rattle of the final Canebrake.

But this rattling was different than the others. It was louder, so loud it brought the surviving Pistons to their knees, their hands on their helmets.

The Dreads didn’t seem to be affected by the sound and charged, wielding their energy blades. Five of the genetically-modified monsters cut through the disabled Pistons, hacking them down.

Akira sent a salvo of bolts into the back of a Dread. The hybrid hit the beach with a spray of sand. In his other hand, Akira used his katana to deflect the blow of an energy cutlass from another Frankenstein-looking man with scars across his exposed flesh.

The Dread brought the cutlass up again as Akira spun with his rifle. He planted the barrel against the ribbed gas mask, blowing a hole through it with the squeeze of his trigger. The soldier fell to the ground, the mask venting gas.

Screeching ripped through the sky, drawing Akira to the Praying Mantis that swooped down, energy cannons blazing.

“Akira!” Frost yelled. “Let’s go!”

Akira bolted after her into the surf. Three Pistons were already staggering through the crashing waves, disoriented, but alive.

Behind them, the roar of the fighter grew closer. Concussive blasts thumped over the beach. Akira tensed up in anticipation of an explosion that would tear him to pieces.

But nothing happened.

Instead, he heard the roar of fire and splitting metal. He looked back to see the Praying Mantis spinning out of control toward the water, smoke pouring from a rent in its hull. It slammed into the bay with a tremendous splash.

“What the…?” Frost whispered.

A missile burst away from the field bordering the beach and crashed into the teardrop-shaped craft. The vessel suddenly pulled up, gaining altitude as it rose toward the clouds in retreat.

“Akira the Brave!” someone shouted in the tenor range.

Jackson and Ghost emerged at the top of a dirt berm bordering the beach. Jackson dropped a missile launcher to the ground and then pulled an energy sword. Ghost aimed two plasma rifles as he broke into song.

“We stand with Akira the Brave! We fight with Akira the Brave!”

Akira fought his way back toward the shoreline with his katanas. Frost followed and Okami leapt out of the water, bolting toward the remaining Dreads.

The mutant men and women fell under the onslaught of plasma bolts, leaving only the final Canebrake careening toward Ghost and Jackson. It launched a volley of plasma bolts that slammed into Jackson.

At first, Akira thought the Engine would be turned into a pile of gore. Instead, the plasma seemed to splash against him, making him stagger.

It took Akira a moment to understand.

They had found the Grind-Shields.

The Canebrake trained its fire on Ghost. He withstood the salvo just like Jackson.

Letting out an electronic roar, the machine leapt and rushed toward the Engines. Before it was close enough to skewer them with its telescoping arms, Jackson threw a plasma grenade. The blue ball stuck to the machine, then exploded. Chunks of the metal beast fell away into the sand.

It flailed and screamed its electrical cry.

Jackson hopped down and used his energy axe to flay the beast.

Panting, Akira and Frost finally reached their position. The surviving civilians and Pistons were huddled on the beach or still standing in the surf.

For a moment, the sounds of battle waned to the peaceful rush of waves lapping the beach.

“Where…where the hell have you two been?” Frost asked.

“Two miles inland, found the stash of shields,” Ghost said.

A vibration rumbled across the shoreline.

There was no time to celebrate this small victory.

The teardrop-shaped ship had returned, the needles around the eye glowing red.

It wasn’t alone.

On the horizon, six Praying Mantis fighters raced toward the shoreline.

Akira stared at an impossible fight to win.

The Pistons and a few civilians began to back away, some of them tripping.

“We have to run,” said a soldier.

“How many shields do you have?” Akira asked Ghost and Jackson.

“Not enough,” Ghost replied.

Akira looked for cover but hiding wasn’t an option.

“Get into the water!” he shouted. “We’ll hold them back.”

The Pistons took off with the civilians as the Engines fanned out into defensive positions along the beach. Frost took up position behind a tree, Ghost and Jackson both ducked behind rocks, and Akira led Okami into the broken hull of a cracked-open boat. He aimed his rifle at the horizon as the thrum of the main ship drew closer.

Red beams from the craft broke through the smoke billowing out of the Swordfish.

Akira fired at the needles, but the rifle’s bolts splashed harmlessly against the craft. One of the beams ripped into the tree Frost was hiding behind. She rolled away, the beam widening and catching her mid-roll, freezing her in motion.

Another hit Jackson. He thrashed around for a few seconds before falling rigid.

A beam raced toward the boat Akira and Okami had taken shelter inside.

The dog barked and leapt out of the hull, the beam catching him mid-jump.

“NO!” Akira screamed. He reached out to the dog, his own arm becoming trapped in the light. An intense fire drilled into his muscles, burning like he had stuck his hand in scalding water.

Ghost ran toward Akira, firing both of his rifles. A beam caught him, too.

Akira tried to yank his hand free, unable to accept defeat.

Not like this! I won’t go down like this!

He pulled harder and harder, screaming a war cry.

The beams burned brighter, the heat intensifying.

Akira stared in horror as his armor started to sizzle. Okami’s fur began to burn.

“Okami!” Akira shouted.

An explosion burst against the fore section of the strange vessel again, flames belching out. The needles at the bow flickered off, the beams vanishing. Another missile crashed into the bow, and a third tore into the aft section.

In a blinding blast, the fore section gave way, the ship cracking in half and plummeting toward the bay.

Akira crawled over to Okami. The dog was lying on his side, burned but still alive. Frost, Jackson, and Ghost were moving again too, still alive.

Cradling Okami in his arms, Akira stood and turned toward Sasa Bay. Most of the civilians and Pistons were floating in the surf. Beyond them, another volley of missiles exploded out of the water, chasing the Praying Mantis fighters. The fighters burst into pieces just as the teardrop-shaped ship slapped into the bay in an explosion of water.

The other Engines gathered around Akira, their armor smoking. A wave of water crashed over the beach from the sunken enemy craft.

Behind the waves, the sail of the Pelican submarine broke through the surface. The hatch opened, and War Commander Contos climbed out.

Two more soldiers joined him.

Bella and Toretto.

Again, the two Pistons had come to the rescue!

They must have used the submersible to return to the sub for help.

Ghost clapped Akira on the back.

“I guess this is where I sing something about luck,” he said. “But I just can’t muster the melody this time. Too much death, brother.”

Akira hung his head in silence as the Engines started down the beach to help the surviving Pistons and civilians get to the sub.

There weren’t many of them. Ghost was right.

Since E-Day, they had been shot, stabbed, frozen, and burned.

But they were still alive, and they had won the day.

A much-needed victory to restore hope in everyone still alive to fight.

And most importantly, they had proven the machines could die.

— 20 —

Atlas Station

Shoemaker Crater, The Moon

Jason took a break from working on the virus to look at Chloe on the other side of the glass in his office.

The young woman sat in a chair, electrodes hooked up across her skull. The LDC had downloaded every memory she had since her death in the battle for Megacity Paris. She was awake now, and while Jason could see her, she couldn’t see him.

The irony of them meeting in this facility seemed more than a coincidence.

It seemed like fate.

Not only had Jason seen the Hell Hive where she had been held captive by Otto, he had learned Apeiron brought Chloe to the Titan Space Elevator to transform Kichiro from a cyborg into a full-on robotic animal.

Jason stepped up closer to the glass.

The hybrid woman had been through hell. Once again, she was in captivity, being used to help the LDC learn all they could about the Dreads.

Help her, Jason. She is one of us. One of my children.

Apeiron spoke again, repeating the same thing she had so many times. It was obvious Chloe was special to Apeiron. The AI had gone to great lengths to save her and change her life.

The door to the lab opened, and Blake stepped inside.

“How’s the virus coming?” he asked.

Jason shifted his eyes from the screen. “I’m halfway done. I just need a bit more time.”

Walking over, Blake hovered behind Jason, scrutinizing the lines of code on the monitors.

“Operation Orchard did not get Council approval,” he reported.

Jason wanted to breathe a sigh of relief, but Blake didn’t give him the chance.

“We are proceeding regardless,” he said. “If they won’t do what is necessary to protect humanity, we must. After all, you broke Nova Alliance law by bringing Apeiron to Earth in your attempt to end the war.”

“The War Commander approved it.”

“A fatal error, no?”

Jason remained silent.

“You are used to doing what you think will save Earth, to save humanity, even when others might disagree. Isn’t that right, Doctor Crichton?”

Jason still didn’t answer.

“It’s time for you to know the truth,” Blake said. “I can see you might agree with the Council right now about there being other options than our plan here. Maybe it’s because you think they were responsible for stopping your execution—”

“I didn’t ask to be saved,” Jason said.

“I see…well then, you won’t care to know the Lunar Council did not stop your execution.”

Jason narrowed his gaze, trying to get a read on Blake. He had always been a good judge of character through most of his career. It was a trait that helped him choose all the right people to help him create an empire.

Until one bad decision in programming Apeiron led to its complete destruction.

Now he was a shell of his former self.

“The Council wanted to stop your execution because of Councilor Keanu Cotter’s intervention.”

Jason already knew that.

“Her Uncle,” Blake said.

Realization set in as Jason stared at the poor young woman.

By trying to save her, her Uncle only condemned her to a worse fate now that she was trapped here, in this evil facility. And it was all because Jason had made the recommendation.

“Commander Thacker still intended to have you killed,” Blake added. “I personally asked him to spare you because I believe you are the most important asset we have to stop the machines. You may not see it yet, but these hybrids are the key.”

He stepped up to the glass to examine Chloe on the other side. She was alert in the chair, glancing around the room like a fearful blind animal.

“She has already provided us so much knowledge about our enemy,” Blake continued. “Soon we’ll start our autopsy on the Dread we recovered from the downed spacecraft, but first we have more tests. Take a break and come with me.”

They left the lab and went to an observation room with shuttered walls. Blake pressed a button. Grinding metal shrieked as a hatch opened over a long window.

Lights flickered on inside the space beyond, illuminating four skeletal chairs with patients strapped into each. They fought against their restraints, but their mouths were covered to prevent them from screaming.

There were two men and two women. All appeared to be in their fifties or older.

Metal arms extended down from the ceiling, injecting each of them with some sort of sedative. The patients all went still within seconds.

Six technicians entered the room from a side door.

“These four patients all have advanced stages of SANDs,” Blake said. “They’re older than our average patients, too. Without their chips, they will die.”

He paused for a moment.

“I know what you’re thinking, that sacrificing these people is evil, but imagine what that sacrifice will do for the greater good.”

“For the greater good…”

“Precisely.”

Jason had heard that plenty of times in his life. But right now, he wasn’t convinced this was the only option, as Blake suspected. But Jason also didn’t trust Apeiron. As much as he wanted to try and track her down, the Life Arks were almost certainly destroyed on E-Day, and INN was completely offline.

Still, seeing the hybrids, especially Chloe, made him start to consider other plans to defeat Otto.

“There must be another way,” Jason said.

“You do realize that humanity is on the brink of extinction.” There was growing anger in Blake’s voice. “You think these people are more important than the entire human race?”

“You’re not listening to me. I’m saying they aren’t the solution.”

“And what do you know about solutions?”

“Apeiron is still out there, in some form.” Jason knew how it sounded but kept going. “She could help us do everything you’re asking me to do, without killing hundreds of innocent people like Chloe.”

“And how are we going to find her? Even more important, how can we trust her at this point? Even if we ignored her so-called lie about Hros-1, she could now be corrupted by Otto.”

Jason couldn’t argue with that.

“We can’t afford to rely on AI ever again,” Blake said. “We must destroy AI so this will never happen again. I was once a believer. I hated the Coalition. I thought they were savages, but they had some things right.”

He walked over to the window and directed his data-pad at the man in the left chair. The technicians pulled out energy knives.

“Prepare for transmission,” Blake said over an intercom.

The techs activated their blades, the daggers glowing red-hot.

A chirp sounded as the data-pad emitted a signal to the hybrids.

At first, nothing happened. The four patients all remained slouched and still.

But then came the twitching of a foot, and a hand, and a head.

Jason stepped up closer, right next to Blake.

“Aren’t they sedated?” Jason asked.

“Heavily,” Blake replied.

“Then how…” Jason answered his own question as he watched the patients begin to jerk and spasm. They were unconscious still, but the signal went to their L-S88 chip. The chip was directly connected to their nervous system. Whatever command he had sent was capable of activating their nerves and limbs directly.

“Now for the real test,” Blake said.

The technicians unsecured the straps on the patients and set the hybrids on the ground. Their limbs and bodies continued twitching. All of the techs left through the door they’d entered.

“And so it begins…” Blake said.

With a push of a button, he transmitted another signal to the L-S88 chips. Veins bulged across the patients’ limbs and foreheads. Their wide, terrified eyes flitted about.

Jason stared, unable to quite process what happened next.

They all leapt to their naked feet, letting out howls of rage.

The four patients darted toward one another, crashing to the ground in a heap of mangled bodies and twisted limbs. Slashing, biting, clawing, and punching one another.

The largest of the group was a man with a gray beard. He snapped one woman’s neck and then jumped at the other two.

In a minute, the fight was down to the man and a thin, muscular woman. He was much bigger and stronger, but she seemed more agile. She swept out one of his legs and pounced on his chest, ripping his nose off with her teeth.

Blood squirted out, painting the glass. In seconds, it was over. The woman was on her feet, chest heaving, covered in gore.

“Remarkable,” Blake said, still holding the data-pad. He pointed it at the woman. She strode toward the glass, staring right at him.

“I thought they couldn’t see us,” Jason said.

“She can’t,” Blake said.

He pushed the button again, sending out another signal.

The woman crumpled to the ground in an instant.

Blake cracked a satisfied smile.

“It worked better than I thought it would,” he said proudly. “Soon they will be ready for your virus, but there is one more thing we have to do first…”

He activated a holo-screen showing the Dread from the ship they had shot down.

“Otto delivered a perfect specimen to our doorstep,” Blake said. “We must use this to our advantage. We’ll create our own engineered soldiers just like these.”

Jason finally had a read on the doctor. He had thrown every ethical rule out the window with this insane plan.

“No,” Jason said. “You can’t…”

“We must.”

Blake was firm and resolute in his words.

The hair on the back of his neck stood as Jason considered what he was helping this man do. It wasn’t just sending the hybrids to their death. It was turning innocent people, like Chloe Cotter, into monsters.

“Don’t forget what Otto did to your family,” Blake reminded him. “Stay the course, Doctor Crichton. Even for men like you and me, men who know what must be done, avenging tragedy does not come cheap or easily.”

***

Halo Sub-Colony, Mesopotamia

Shackleton Crater, The Moon

Halo Colony had gathered in the town’s square for rations, followed by an announcement from the LDC. The center of the sub-colony bustled with activity. It always did on ration day.

Tonight was no different.

The rations had been distributed, and for the first time in a month everyone got their assigned food. Part of that was thanks to Rose Colony. Twenty-five thousand souls gone meant there was finally more food available to distribute.

Despite the fact everyone was fed tonight, fear permeated in the dusty air as people discussed Rose Colony’s demise. The LDC was calling it a tragic malfunction of engineering equipment, and people were wondering if Halo Colony might suffer a similar fate.

The musicians and their melodies were absent tonight, replaced by the hushed voices of colonists waiting for the holo-screens to activate with news.

Ronin stood with his brother and mom under the trees with hundreds of other people. They had eaten with Micky and Todd. Todd was now talking to Micky in private as he prepared to leave for his tour of duty as a Moon Trooper.

On Earth, he would have been given enhancements to help him fight, but on the Moon, medical augmentations that relied on AI were outlawed.

Still, the LDC was getting desperate, especially with women of birthing age left out of the conscription. Women were too important and were needed to keep the human race alive.

“Micky’s a good kid,” Lise said. “He’s smart. It’ll be good for you and Elan…”

Ronin had a feeling his mom was going to say something about how they could all relate to the deaths of their family members, but her words trailed off as she watched Micky say goodbye to his father.

Todd walked over with Micky.

“Thank you for watching after him,” Todd said.

He put a hand on his son’s shoulder.

“You be good and help Lise when you can,” Todd said. “Treat Ronin and Elan just like you would your own brother, too.”

“Yeah,” Micky said in a not-so-convincing tone.

Todd nodded.

“When will you be back?” Lise asked.

“Maybe a couple of months.”

“Do you know where you’ll be stationed?” Ronin asked.

“Kepler.”

Micky glanced down, mumbling about the machines. Everyone knew that Kepler Station would be the first place to get hit by the machines. It was visible from Earth and was the most dangerous place Todd could be going.

“Don’t forget what I told you,” he said.

Reaching into his pocket, he pulled out something that Ronin couldn’t see and slipped it into Micky’s vest pocket. He gave Micky another hug and then picked up his LDC-issued rucksack.

“Thanks again,” Todd said to Lise.

“You’re welcome.” She gave him a warm smile. “Be careful out there.”

“You bet I will.” Todd gestured for Ronin. With his back turned toward the tables, Todd unclipped his energy blade sheath from his duty belt.

“Take this,” Todd said. “I know you know how to use it.”

Ronin reached out for the heavy sheath.

“My son is strong, but his mind is weak right now,” Todd said. “I don’t know if he can protect himself if the time comes. You can, and I know you’ve got to look out for your family, but watch out for Micky, too.”

“I will,” Ronin agreed.

Todd lumbered off down the road with the other recruits and a trooper that would take them to processing.

Ronin didn’t know Todd well, but he liked the man.

Lifting up his sweatshirt, Ronin tucked the sheathed blade into his pants before returning to the table. Micky was staring at the direction where Todd had disappeared.

“Your father will be okay,” Lise said.

“I wish I could go, too,” Micky said. “I’d rather fight than sit down here.”

Ronin felt the same way some days, but when he really thought about what happened in the launch chamber back at Megacity Tokyo, his brain fought what his heart seemed to want.

The horror of E-Day resurged in his mind.

He could smell the scent of burned flesh from superheated blades. He could hear the rattle and electronic wails of the machines and the cries of agony from the soldiers and civilians.

And he could see his brother limping in slow motion toward the corvette, moments before a blade took his head.

Closing his eyes, he tried to push away the memory. Sometimes he felt like he couldn’t go on, that the memory would haunt and paralyze him forever. But then he would look at Elan and their mother.

You have to be strong. For them.

When Ronin opened his eyes, Micky was walking away. He took a step after him, but Lise waved Ronin back.

“Let him go,” she said. “He needs to process this on his own for now.”

Micky melted into the crowd of colonists waiting for the announcement.

Finally, the holo-screen flickered on over the town, high enough and large enough that everyone could see it.

War Commander Thacker came online wearing bulky armor with gold cuffs and trim around his breastplates.

“Good evening,” he said. “Tonight, I want to address the harsh reality of the attack two days ago. While we lost many souls, we learned more about our enemy, and we successfully repelled their forces.”

Voices broke out. Someone shouted, silencing them all.

“We believe the location of Mesopotamia is still unknown to the machines, and we’re doing everything we can to keep it that way,” Thacker said. “However, as you know, we suffered a tragic accident that resulted in the deaths of the colonists at Rose Colony. This, I swear to you, will never happen again.”

He put a hand on his chest armor.

“Tonight, we remember those lives lost.” Thacker closed his eyes for a moment of silence.

Ronin scrutinized the digital image of the War Commander. The man seemed to care greatly for the colonists. He was doing everything he could to protect them, it seemed.

Lowering his head, Ronin thought of all the colonists that had lost their lives at Rose Colony. And then the troopers that had died on the surface to keep Mesopotamia hidden.

“We must take drastic actions to ensure our survival before the machines attack again,” Thacker continued. “Tonight, I am proud to announce the deployment of the Heaven’s Shield.”

A second holo-image emerged. This one looked a lot like the dome covering the colony. A blue energy shield arched over the dome.

“If the machines do discover Mesopotamia, this energy shield will help protect you while our brave soldiers destroy them,” Thacker said. “But in order to do that, we need your help.”

The image of the dome vanished.

“Early today, I issued a decree granted by emergency Lunar Defense Corp powers to lower the conscription age from 18 to 16 for all males,” Thacker said.

Gasps and voices broke out all around Ronin. Lise put a hand up to her mouth.

“What we must do to keep our home safe will require great sacrifice, but only great sacrifice will save humanity,” Thacker said. “Every able-bodied man and teenage boy must be ready to defend our home.”

A rumble came from the street. Colonists moved out of the way of a troop carrier driving down the large road leading into town. Troopers filed out and began to spread around the panicked crowd.

“Further, all hybrids with L-S88 chips have been moved from Kepler Station and the colonies at Shackleton Crater to an undisclosed location,” Thacker continued. “I know many of you have loved ones with these chips, but the threat they pose has forced our hand into this difficult decision.”

Screams rang out.

Angry family members of hybrids.

Angry parents of kids being conscripted.

“I know this will be hard for many of you,” Thacker said. “But we must do whatever it takes to protect our new home.”

The holo-screen winked off, and more shouts burst throughout the large chamber.

“No,” Lise said, shaking her head in disbelief. “No, no, no.”

Troopers closed in around the crowd, shouting the new order from the War Commander.

“All males over the age of sixteen that have not reported to their local LDC station must report now with your IDs,” one said, his voice amplified by a megaphone.

“I won’t let them take you,” Lise said. She turned to Ronin and Elan, her eyes wide with anger and fear.

Ronin saw the soldiers tightening the perimeter, holding out data-pads to scan IDs.

“Mom, it’s okay,” Ronin said. “We have to.”

She held Elan. He had no idea what was happening.

What’s going on? Elan signed.

We’re being conscripted, Ronin signed back.

Elan’s confused expressions morphed into fear.

“Any male sixteen or seventeen, report to the nearest trooper,” came an automated voice.

Soldiers fanned out toward the crowd.

Terrified young kids clung to their mothers.

But not all these young men and boys were afraid.

Micky came running back and fished out his ID.

“This can’t be happening,” Lise said. “This has to be a mistake.”

The chaos in the chamber again brought back memories from E-Day. But the fear that normally accompanied them was absent. In its place, Ronin felt something else—strength.

A trooper lumbered over.

“IDs,” he said.

Lise stepped in front of Ronin and Elan, shielding them.

“You can’t take my boys,” she said. “I won’t—”

“Ma’am, if you resist, you are knowingly breaking the law.”

“I don’t care about the law!” Lise said. “The machines already took my husband and… and… You cannot let them take my boys.”

“Ma’am, don’t make this harder—”

“You won’t take my boys!” Lise shoved the trooper.

He took a step backward, then raised a hand like he was going to strike her.

Ronin stepped in front of her, shielding her against the soldier. Elan joined him, defiance painted over his face.

The trooper lowered his hand, still staring at Lise. “I should have you arrested.”

“Please, she meant no disrespect,” Ronin said. “We’ve all been through a lot.”

“I’m not going to ask you again, now get out your IDs.”

Ronin turned to Lise. “Mom, it’s okay. I have to do this.”

Tears streaked down her face.

Ronin pulled his ID from his pocket and held it up. Elan followed suit.

The soldier looked at them in turn. “Say goodbye, and then make your way to the carrier.”

Lise grabbed his armored wrist. “My son is deaf, he can’t fight. He—”

The trooper yanked his arm away, but didn’t raise his hand again.

“We’ll find something for him,” he said. “I’m sure he’ll end up loading crates or some other easy shit.”

The man strode off.

Ronin reached for his mom, pulling her close.

“It will be okay,” he said. “I’ll try to stay with Elan and look after him.”

Lise sobbed against him.

“They won’t make him fight,” Ronin said. “You heard the trooper.”

“Maybe not, but you—”

“I’ll be okay, Mom. You have to trust me.”

“Move it!” shouted a pair of troopers coming their way.

The crowd began to part as the new recruits filtered out. Many of the parents cried, begging the soldiers to leave their sons. But some simply stood by watching, emotionless.

Micky started off for the troop carrier. He had spotted Todd, who was with the other new recruits.

Unlike most of the kids, Micky was smiling.

Ronin wasn’t happy, but he finally felt a sense of purpose.

“Take care of your brother,” Lise said. “Stay alive, do whatever it takes.”

“I will.”

“Remember, no matter where we are, we are always together.”

“I love you, Mom.”

“I love you, too.”

She signed to Elan, telling him the same thing.

A trooper strode over, but this one didn’t say a word.

Lise kissed Elan’s cheek and hugged him.

Ronin reached under his shirt and pulled out the energy knife Todd had given him. Without him or his brother around, his mother was going to be alone.

“Take this,” he said.

Lise slowly took it, staring at it like she wasn’t sure what to do with it.

“Keep yourself safe,” Ronin said.

She opened her mouth like she was about to say something else, then stopped.

“Mom?” Ronin asked.

“I just… We lost your father. We lost Zachary. I can’t bear to lose you two.” She squeezed Ronin’s shoulder. “Be brave, Ronin, but don’t be foolish.”

Ronin headed toward the troop carrier with Elan.

Lise put a hand over her mouth and called out, “You are your brother’s keeper, Ronin.”

— 21 —

Oceanus Procellarum, the Moon

Warning, oxygen level low.

An alarm chirped in Dario’s helmet. He disabled the sensor on his wrist-computer. No need for the alarm to tell him what he already knew.

He crouched behind a rock. Unslinging his pack, he set it down to check the last of the two oxygen canisters he’d been carrying.

After screwing in the new canister, he took in a breath of filtered air. He wasn’t sure if it was enough to get him to the abandoned mining camp, but he wasn’t going to give up now. Not after coming all this way.

Sweat crept down his brow as he checked his HUD. According to the stats, he had spent the past forty-one hours making his way over the lunar surface. He was exhausted, cold, and his muscles were cramping, but he was only five miles from the abandoned mining station.

Almost there, Dario. Almost there.

He pushed onward, moving faster now that he was close to the finish line.

Dario directed the beams from his helmet toward the minefield of craters ahead. He started down a slope, cautious not to slide down the loose grit.

He kept moving, trying to manage his oxygen efficiently. Halfway across, his life-support battery had lost two more percent. The bright LEDs on his helmet and suit were draining the system.

He used his wrist-computer to dim the lights and reduce the power. Darkness seemed to squeeze around him as his suit lights shut off.

After making his way around another crater, he arrived at a much larger one. Just past it appeared to be a massive ravine. It was probably too wide to jump across, but he figured he’d find a way around it once he got past the crater.

Looking toward the sea of black above, he stared at a melancholy sight.

A sliver of Earth emerged over the horizon.

He swallowed hard when he saw a chunk of North America not covered in smoke. Memories of Kady surfaced in his mind again, but he pushed them aside and pressed on.

He was falling before he realized he had stepped too close to the rim of the crater. The side caved in, giving away under the weight of his left boot.

Scree rolled down into the crater. He slipped onto his back and slid down the side into the crater. Rocks clipped his suit as he tried to stop his body.

The beam from his helmet light danced wildly.

He angled it downward at the bottom of the crater he still couldn’t see.

Finally, he managed to dig his boots into the ground, coming to a stop.

Craning his helmet, he sighted up the crater rim. It was some fifty feet overhead.

“You’re okay,” he said.

Dario stood and brushed off the dust. The oxygen meter was blinking on his HUD.

One of the oxygen lines was leaking!

He unslung his pack to try and stop the precious air from escaping, but the damage was done.

According to the meter, he was down another hour of oxygen.

Panicking, he started to scramble up the side of the crater, sliding twice.

Get it together, Dar. You got to get it together!

He hiked up the slope to the crest. When he got back to the surface, he saw the ravine again.

Hurrying over to the side, his eyes confirmed what he had feared—it was too deep to descend and climb up the other side.

And he didn’t have enough air to find a way around it.

He was going to have to try jumping.

Without wasting a second on the decision, he got down and pulled out his tool case. Using a small drill, he began to take off his exoskeleton.

The metal pieces fell to the regolith like bones.

When he was free of the support, he hopped back from the ravine.

This is crazy, he thought.

But it was the only shot he had of getting to the mining camp with enough oxygen to try and send an SOS.

Dario backed up a little further, gauging the distance and wondering if he was giving himself enough room to make the jump. With no other choice, he began hopping toward the ravine, bouncing with each step to gain momentum.

Foot by agonizing foot, he neared what could be his last chance at survival. By the time he got to the edge his leg cramped and he lost some of the speed on his final jump.

He rose up over the darkness of the deep gorge, ascending for several seconds before he began to fall.

His heart lodged in his throat, but not from the pain of the muscle cramp. For a moment, he didn’t think he was going to make it and would come a few inches too short.

And he did come up short.

His boots started to plummet into the darkness below almost as if in slow motion. He reached out, one final grasp at survival. His fingers scraped at the lip of the ravine.

One hand slipped.

He just managed to get the other lodged on the dirt and rocks at the edge. Just enough to stop his fall. Using what strength he had left, he pulled himself back up over the precipice.

“I made it!” he shouted, rising to his feet again. “I freaking made it!”

He took a minute to calm his thumping heart and manage his breathing. In the distance, he could see mountains. That meant the mining camp wasn’t far.

After a short break, he pushed on, hopping and jumping for the next two miles without slowing. He used the view of the Earth as motivation as his fatigued body and cramping muscles began to lock.

Even in the low gravity, he was running on fumes. For the past thirty-two hours, he had almost constantly been moving, stopping only to rest for a few minutes at a time.

His life depended on it.

As the shadows retreated around him, light hit the surface of the Moon, the temperature rising on his HUD. By the time he trekked up a mound of dirt, the sun cast its rays on the desolate surface, revealing the remains of the camp on the edge of a crater.

He stared at the remains of the four structures flattened by bombs and missiles after E-Day. There wasn’t much left of the mining operations.

He couldn’t even tell which habitat was which.

Worse, the satellite dish and antenna were nothing but mangled pieces of twisted metal.

He hopped to a single rover that had fallen sideways. Even if it did work, there was no way he would get it righted. But maybe there was something inside he could salvage to help him.

The skeletal limbs of dead Hummer Droids protruded out of the regolith on his way toward the camp. Dario made his way through the graveyard of droids, passing the carcasses of metal and snaking wires. Broken, expressionless face plates looked up at space.

When he got to the rover, he could tell it was useless. The front cabin was destroyed, the windows blown out, and the insides burned to shit.

He took in a deep breath, resting his back against the chassis, searching for something, anything that could help him. Maybe some oxygen. A radio. Some kind of plasma flare gun.

But there wasn’t anything here.

Dario was going to die.

He had one hour left unless a miracle occurred.

Hopping away from the rover, he headed toward the leveled structures. The four ruined habitats had once supported a small, supervisory human crew.

He stepped inside the open hatch into the main structure, once again, finding nothing of value.

Forty minutes remained of oxygen, but it didn’t matter.

It was over.

Dario went outside and fell down to his knees.

“FUCK!” he screamed.

Pain ripped up his arm as he was suddenly pulled toward the burned head of a Hummer Droid.

The half-destroyed machine had grabbed him by the arm with its thin metal fingers.

Dario ripped free and fell to his back as the machine moved toward him on its elbows, dragging its mangled legs behind it.

He pushed himself up and hopped away, heart pounding.

“Holy shit,” he said.

Dario stopped when he was about ten feet away from the droid. It reached out, and the facial screen flashed behind cracked glass with a message of four letters. HELP.

It wasn’t trying to kill him. Like him, it needed help!

Dario carefully made his way back to the droid. An idea began to blossom in his head.

With thirty minutes of air, he crouched in front of the droid and brought out his tool kit.

“Sorry, pal, but I need your help,” he said.

The machine reached up again, but then retracted its fingers as Dario used his power-drill to open the back of the droid’s head.

Maybe it thought Dario was trying to help, or maybe it was offering up whatever he needed. The machine still didn’t try to kill him.

The signal that turned the other droids into murderous machines never made it here.

Dario fished through the open chest compartment, pulling back wires until he found what he was looking for: the antenna. Much like the Canebrakes, the Hummer Droids had long-range antennas for communication.

After rigging his wrist-computer to the antenna, he took a second to steel himself.

“Please work, please work…”

The comms clicked on.

“Angel 1, this is Lieutenant Dario Brolin, requesting help at the following coordinates…”

Static hissed back.

Dario tried again, passing on the coordinates a second time.

Still, nothing.

The oxygen meter ticked down to two percent.

He had maybe ten minutes, if he was lucky.

Dario tried again and again.

On the fifth attempt, he slumped to the ground next to the droid. The head twisted toward him, the screen flashing a new message.

“Do you need assistance?”

He almost laughed.

You and me both.

Over the next few minutes, he looked at Earth, where machines like this one had destroyed everything he cared about.

He had hoped this one might help save him, but it seemed his luck had run out.

Dario took in labored breaths, each one becoming more difficult. Dizzy now, he struggled to keep his eyes open.

The last thing he saw was the machine looking down at him.

Then blackness…

He wasn’t sure when he awoke. Only that he was very groggy.

“He’s alive,” someone said.

Dario squinted at blurred figures in space suits. They seemed to be on the other side of a glass wall.

It was a med-chamber.

He made out the inside of a troop hold in a MOTH.

“You’re a lucky son of a bitch, finding that droid,” someone said.

“Where… where…” Dario tried to say.

Darkness washed over his vision.

When he awoke again, he heard a familiar voice.

“Dar, can you hear me?”

The rough voice pulled Dario from his daze. He opened his eyes to see Captain Jake Harback leaning down with a freshly shaved face and toothy grin.

“Damn, you and I both are some hard-to-kill sons of bitches, huh?” Harback said.

“Yeah…but how’d I…” Dario groaned. He reached up to his pounding head as he was pulled out of the MOTH on a stretcher.

Motion pulled his blurred vision toward a flurry of activity around two King Cobra Spaceplanes. Technicians and engineers were working on them and loading armaments.

“What’s happening?” Dario asked.

Harback looked over a shoulder, then turned back.

“We saved you just in time to see if you’d like to flirt with death again,” Harback said with another grin.

“What?”

“We’re headed to Earth.”

That helped snap Dario completely alert.

His mind was flooded with thoughts of Kady. “To Earth?” he asked.

“On a recon mission. You good with that?”

“Hell yes, I’m ready. Let’s go home, Captain.”

— 22 —

Neptune Station, Mariana Trench

The hatch to the sick bay at Neptune Station opened, letting out the cries of pain from inside the dimly lit space.

Frost came through the hatch and shut it, sealing out the noise.

Akira could tell right away the news she carried wasn’t good.

“We just lost another Piston,” Frost said quietly. “Sergeant Richard Hawking. The highest ranked Piston left from the Swordfish.”

Akira bowed his head.

The rest of Shadow Squad and their comrades Lieutenant Jackson and Corporal Toretto did the same, letting out sad sighs or closing their eyes. They had survived the battle in Guam, but the four Pistons and five civilians they had rescued had been in bad shape.

“How about the others?” Ghost asked. “Anyone talking yet?”

“Only one is well enough,” she said. “The Canebrakes…their blades are now laced with poison.”

Akira had known the machines would develop even deadlier weapons, but not this fast.

“How about the civilians?” Ghost asked.

“Not much better shape,” Frost said. “Those that are in one piece have radiation poisoning and severe post-traumatic stress. We want to give them some time before pressing too hard on what happened out there.”

“I can’t believe there are only seven survivors from all of Guam.”

“Better than zero,” Jackson said.

“At least we know people are still fighting out there,” Akira said.

Jackson stood a bit taller.

“I know,” Akira said. “We should have been out there helping long before today, but there is no room for regret in war, only lessons learned. We learned a lot in Guam.”

“And you will get a chance to utilize that knowledge soon.”

War Commander Contos’s deep voice echoed down the passage.

The Engines all came to attention.

“Hayao and Juno are working on the intel we retrieved,” Contos said. “As soon as they have a report, we’re going to have a briefing. Until then, get some nutrition and rest.”

Jackson stepped out of the way as Contos entered the hatch to the sick bay.

That was just like the man, always visiting soldiers when they were injured back in Megacity Tokyo at Gold Base.

“Captain Hayashi, with me,” Contos said.

Okami followed but Akira motioned for him to sit. He went down on his hind legs.

Twenty beds partitioned off with curtains furnished the medical bay. Three nurses monitored the patients along with one doctor.

A couple of Pistons were helping, including Bella. She was checking on a soldier with a bandaged head and neck. When she heard them coming, she stepped out and closed off the drape.

“Sir,” she said with a salute.

“How is he?” Contos asked.

“He can talk, but he’s going to be blind,” she whispered. “Doctor Randall said he’s got a fifty-fifty shot at surviving if we can get the toxins in his blood under control.”

Contos nodded. “It’s not ideal, but we need to know what he knows.”

Bella stepped aside and Contos entered the space next to the patient’s bed. Akira joined him, hovering over the opposite side.

“Corporal Nguyen, it’s War Commander Dimitri Contos and Captain Akira Hayashi.”

The soldier tried to sit up.

“At ease, son,” Contos said.

“You fought bravely,” Akira said.

“Indeed. I know you need to rest, but first I need to know what you were doing in Guam.”

“We…” Nguyen struggled to speak, his voice cracking.

“Easy now,” Contos said. “Take your time.”

Nguyen licked his cracked lips. “Admiral Talbot docked there to ambush the machines hunting a group of rebels, we…we detected their SOS and went to help…”

“Talk slowly.”

“Over the past month we have been rescuing people and taking them…” Nguyen opened his eyelids wider, then broke into a deep cough, his chest rattling.

Contos watched a moment, but when Nguyen started to spasm he called for help. Bella pulled back the drape just as Nguyen got control of his legs. He coughed a few more times and reached up to wipe his mouth off.

“It’s okay, we can finish this later,” Contos said.

“No,” Nguyen said. “I am okay… I was trying to tell you, we have a safe zone where we ferry survivors…but the machines, they were waiting for us in Guam…it was a trap.”

“We fell for the same trap,” Akira said.

“Corporal, can you tell me where this safe zone is?” Contos asked.

Nguyen leaned up closer. “Ha Long.”

Contos and Akira exchanged a look.

The city was nestled along Ha Long Bay in the former country of Vietnam.

“How many of you are there?” Contos asked.

“There were five hundred of us, but we lost fifty in Guam and more on another mission,” Nguyen said. “There might be three hundred left in Ha Long. We also have a stealth MOTH… and a…”

He coughed.

“And a corvette.”

“You have a shuttle?”

After clearing his throat, Nguyen nodded. “I don’t know the location. It’s classified, but Command is planning on launching it to get some of the civilians to Kepler Station if the LDC doesn’t come soon.”

“Have you made contact with Command at Kepler?”

“No.”

“We haven’t either, nor have we made contact with Apeiron.”

“Apeiron?”

“We think if we can find her, she can help us defeat Otto Cross.”

Nguyen shook his head.

“You don’t understand,” he said. “Without the LDC, we don’t stand a chance, we have to leave Earth, we have to evac…”

Before Nguyen could continue, his legs began to spasm again. He let out a muffled grunt and arched his back.

Contos looked at Akira. “Get the doctor.”

Akira rushed out into the ward. He saw the doctor busy with another patient, but Bella was nearby.

“We need help,” Akira said.

She followed him back to Nguyen. Contos was holding the injured Piston down now. His bio-monitor showed a sky-rocketing heart rate and rapidly decreasing oxygen levels.

Over the next few seconds, Bella worked on getting those numbers back down to a stable range while Contos comforted the corporal and Akira helped hold him down. He thrashed harder and Bella looked up.

“We need to sedate him,” she said.

Akira and Contos exchanged a glance.

The sedation would silence Nguyen. If he didn’t wake up again, they would lose their opportunity to gain more intel. And he was the only conscious Piston left.

Still, there was no choice.

The heart rate monitor chirped faster and faster.

“Do it,” Contos said.

Bella inserted the needle into Nguyen’s burned arm. A second passed before the spasms settled.

Nguyen’s head rolled to the side as he slipped into unconsciousness.

“Tell Doctor Randall to do whatever it takes to keep him alive,” Contos said. “Captain, let’s go.”

Akira followed Contos out of the sick bay and through the habitat.

“I was wrong,” Contos said ruefully. “About a lot.”

“Sir, you have executed orders based off intel…”

Contos sighed.

“You know I love you like a son, Akira,” he said. “That’s why I speak to you plainly at times like this.”

Akira recalled the last time he had said that in Megacity Paris.

“I was wrong about Apeiron, and I was wrong to stay down here all this time. Sending Tadhg did nothing to rally the LDC. It seems even they have abandoned us.”

It was a hard truth to swallow, but Akira believed the War Commander was right.

“We must do this on our own, Akira. Gather your squad for a briefing. We’re going to decide how to move forward.”

Contos pressed onward, and Akira rushed off to gather the troops and Okami. An hour later they were back in the workshop where tables and stations were covered in droid parts.

Jackson was going over the new supplies from Guam with Frost and Ghost. Cases of Grind-Shields were open on the deck. There was also a crate containing the advanced cool-suits that the Engines could wear to further mask their heat-signatures in the field.

“Hey, look at this,” Jackson said.

He held up a quiver with six arrows sticking out. Then he handed a compact, foldable bow to Akira.

He took them both in hand.

“Thought you might like these,” Jackson said. “Those are explosive arrows. Should be enough to take down a Canebrake if you hit ’em in the right spot.”

“Thanks, brother.”

Jackson dipped his mohawk in a nod.

Hurried footsteps marked the entrance of Doctor Hayao who arrived a few minutes later.

“Welcome back,” he said. “We aren’t quite ready for a full briefing, but I’ve got some developments to share with you. It will just be a moment before Juno arrives.”

“I’ll start,” Contos said. “Captain Hayashi and I just spoke with Corporal Nguyen, one of the survivors from the NAA Swordfish. He said there is a safe zone in Ha Long, and they plan to launch a shuttle to the Moon with survivors soon.”

“How many survivors?” Ghost asked.

“Three hundred,” Akira said.

“I knew it,” Jackson growled under his breath.

“We must move forward,” Contos said, “and I’m afraid we must do it without hope of help from the LDC.”

“You won’t be alone,” came a voice.

Juno entered with Blinky.

“Sorry we’re late,” she said. “I still have more work to do, but we’ve made some major advances.”

Okami suddenly shot up as Juno motioned into the passage.

Hooves clanked across the deck.

Akira stared as Kichiro trotted into the room, his dazzling blue eyes glowing. He let out an echoing neigh.

“Kichiro.” Akira rushed over with Okami. The wolfdog wagged his tail as he got closer.

Akira reached up to Kichiro’s neck and stroked the metal. The faithful stallion brushed his head up against Akira’s face.

“He’s ready,” Juno said.

“Ready?” Akira asked, not taking his gaze off his horse.

“We can’t defeat the machines on our own,” Juno said. “We lack soldiers and we’ll need to use machines against machines.”

“As such, we have developed a close-range signal that will hijack Canebrakes and Hummer Droids by reverse-engineering the code we believe Otto Cross used,” Hayao said. “We will need to field test it, but we believe it’s ready.”

Juno put a case down and opened it. She removed a pistol-shaped device with a ring that she attached to the barrel. “This is the transmitter. It emits the signal, but it will need to be fired within maybe five hundred yards of a hostile for it to work effectively.”

“That’s pretty close,” Akira said.

“You’re Engines,” Hayao said. “I’m sure you will figure out a way to get close.”

“Your companions have been upgraded now too, Captain Hayashi, as is Blinky,” Juno said. She put away the transmitter and fished out a drone from her pocket. “I’ve also fixed Blue Jay.”

She tossed the small blue ball into the air where it sprouted wings before zipping over to Akira.

He smiled as he reached out and took the drone.

“Thank you,” Akira said. “I don’t know what else to—”

“It was my pleasure, truly, Captain,” Juno said.

Akira caught Frost rolling her eyes.

“You said Kichiro and Okami have been updated?” Contos asked.

“Yes,” Juno replied. “The machines use a standard visual search algorithm when scanning for hostiles, followed by ‘listening’ for an encrypted RF code. I’ve hacked this and uploaded a counter-signal to Blinky, Okami, and Kichiro that disrupts the algorithm by emitting contradictory RF signals.”

“Come again,” Frost said.

“Theoretically, the Canebrakes and other hostiles will see Kichiro, Blinky, and Okami as non-threatening allies,” Juno clarified.

“You’re sure?” Akira asked.

“Yes. I have also encrypted their transmitters. Any commands or communications from us to Blinky, Okami, or Kichiro should be effectively masked. So even if the machines intercept them, they will be unable to untangle the layers of encryption I’ve added specifically to target their own signaling paradigms.”

“We should point out that eventually the machines may be able to reverse-engineer our work like we did theirs, but this should buy us some time,” Hayao added. “That also includes the transmitter device.”

“Which is exactly why we can no longer delay,” Contos said. He looked to Akira. “Equipped with our new Grind-Shields, I’m sending Shadow Squad to the islands around Ha Long Bay to search for this shuttle and test the signal.”

“Wait, I still have one thing left to do, but I need your help,” Juno said.

Contos nodded. “Anything you need.”

Juno gestured to Blinky. “I need you to help me turn our blue friend into a weapon.”

“Big weapon, big weapon,” Blinky said excitedly.

“That sounds like a shitty idea to me,” Jackson said.

“I’d agree with that,” Frost said.

Contos also hesitated.

“I need Blinky to protect me,” Juno said. “No offense to you all, but when I head to the surface he will—”

“No civilians on this mission,” Contos said forcefully. “Your work here is far too important.”

“Someone is going to need to make sure the droids work properly and test the hijacking signal.” Juno folded her arms over her chest. “And frankly, I could use some fresh air, so I’ll be coming with, War Commander.”

***

Rose Sub-Colony, Mesopotamia

Shackleton Crater, The Moon

Death lingered in the air.

Tadhg took in a breath, wishing he had a helmet to keep out the stench.

A week had passed since the attack, but there were still some bodies in Rose Colony. Workers continued to remove them in rovers. There were so many that they were reusing body bags after dumping the corpses into mining tunnels.

Soon, the mass graves would be filled with concrete, sealing the poor bastards inside their lunar tombs forever.

Tadhg quivered at the thought.

The sound of machinery reverberated through the passage. Technicians glanced up from their work as Tadhg lumbered by in his armor.

An armless Engine, bet you never seen one of them before, Tadhg thought.

The workers continued their jobs, installing new safeguards in the passages. Ceiling mounted plasma turrets hung in position, their barrels aimed at the ground.

Joaquín held up a data-pad. “We’ve got engineers setting up EMP traps at each of the intersections. The idea is if the Canebrakes get inside, we jolt them. If all else fails…”

“We blow them to hell,” Tadhg said.

He stopped to look at the sections of wall being excavated by a mining rig at the end of the passage. The machine had stopped for now, but when it finished, explosives would be placed inside. Enough to bring the entire tunnel down.

“There are escape routes in case we’re forced to go that route,” Joaquín said.

The team continued on until they got to the outside of Rose Colony. The work had only just begun, but the boring machine had already made a new tunnel about ten feet wide.

“Too bad it wasn’t here when the power went off,” Veronica said. “Thousands of the colonists could have escaped.”

Tadhg could see the now open hatch that had sealed in the twenty-five thousand people living in Rose Colony.

Bloodstains marred the passage on the other side. The frightened colonists had crushed one another trying to get out.

Tadhg started toward the hatch. He could only imagine the horror these people had gone through in their final moments.

“Hey, where you going, Sergeant?” Ronald asked.

“To see what we could have done differently,” Tadhg said.

A pair of troopers stood guard at the entry, but they said nothing as Tadhg strolled through the middle of the barriers.

Veronica, Ronald, and Joaquín followed him down the wide tunnel. The burgeoning odor of death made Tadhg’s eyes water more with every step. It became a damn near impenetrable wall of stench, and he had no arms to cover his nose.

A rover rolled down the path by them, its rear bed full of corpses wrapped in body bags.

Ten minutes later, they got to the opening of the town’s square. Workers in hazard suits continued the cleanup under the watchful eye of patrolling troopers.

“What are you looking for?” Ronald asked.

“I don’t know,” Tadhg said. “I’m just trying to understand why the hatches weren’t re-opened when we figured out all of these people were trapped in here.”

“Safeguards,” Veronica said. “When the power outage happened, it sparked an emergency override that prevented the hatches from being manually opened.”

“I don’t get it,” Joaquín said. “That seems like a mechanism intentionally designed to keep people in here when shit hits the fan. Either poor design…or malicious design.”

“They were preparing to turn on the shield,” Ronald explained. “That caused the power outage. The hatches also had contradictory commands to keep the civilians in the sub-colony safe from an attack, hence the manual override. It was a perfect storm of bad accidents.”

Tadhg shook his head. “Bad accidents is a nice way of saying the designers of this place murdered twenty-five thousand people.”

“No way this was intentional,” Ronald said.

The headset Tadhg wore buzzed.

“Sergeant Walsh, they are almost ready for you in chamber 15,” said a corporal.

Tadhg cursed under his breath. Without arms, he had no way to carry a data-pad. That meant he didn’t know the time, and he was running late.

“I’ve got my speech to the new draftees,” Tadhg said. “I want you guys to stay around a while longer and do some research on what happened here.”

Ronald seemed to hesitate but then nodded.

“Good luck with the kids,” Veronica said. “Still can’t believe we have resorted to enlisting sixteen-year-olds.”

“Me either.”

Tadhg left Rose Colony and made his way back up to Mesopotamia. A rover with plasma turrets rumbled down the main street.

Holo-screens played over the twenty-story-tall buildings. Construction cranes rotated up toward the walls surrounding the silo-shaped chamber, installing new windows over the apartments and habitats.

He tried to move quickly, but running without his arms was still something he was getting used to.

Cursing, he hurried to the edge of the downtown, where gates opened for transports out beyond the dome. Several rovers waited to enter the wide tunnels.

Tadhg took a pedestrian passage to a cargo hangar where ten thousand male draftees between the ages of sixteen and eighteen waited for him to speak.

It was Thacker’s idea.

Most of the kids would be trained here and given guard duty to protect the capital and the sub-colonies, but the top two thousand would be sent to Kepler Station.

“Sergeant, you’re up,” said a trooper ahead.

Tadhg strode out onto a platform in front of the sea of recruits. All young men. Boys, really. None were older than eighteen. Some had just turned sixteen.

Ronin and Elan would be out there somewhere.

He scanned the crowd for them, but it was impossible to see them in the massive group.

The youngsters all watched him curiously. Waiting for him to say something profound. He searched for the right words, but could only come up with one.

Street-smarts hadn’t always given him the right words at the right times. And he wasn’t sure how Thacker thought an armless Engine would bring up morale. Instead, he thought back to an Engine that always seemed to have the right thing to say. One he was missing severely right now.

Akira the Brave.

In that moment, he finally spotted Ronin. The boy was signing to his twin brother as they both watched him.

Akira, what the hell would you say right now?

“Heart,” Tadhg began. The audience was quiet except for a few coughs. “We all come from different places, but we are all on the same journey now, a journey that led us here, to the dark side of the Moon. Human history is a book of war, but it is also a library of resilience.”

Tadhg couldn’t touch his chest, but he looked down to it.

“Heart,” he repeated. “When the machines come, remember that the soldier next to you is fighting with their heart, for you, for the colonies, for humanity…and know that I will be doing the same thing, no matter where I am.”

He let that sink into the crowd for a moment.

“Heart,” Tadhg repeated. “That is all you need to remember when the darkness comes. When you feel like everything else has gone to shit, you still got your beating heart. You still got your love for yourself and your brothers-in-arms and your family. Let that fuel you. Because I can tell you one thing, machines don’t got hearts, and things without hearts don’t really have anything to fight for. We do.”

He paused again.

“Heart. Don’t you forget it, because until the last beat of my heart, I’m fighting with all of it for you and I expect you to do the same for me. That’s how we win.”

He left the platform, the crowd silent behind him. He wasn’t sure if that was a good thing or not.

On his way out of the chamber, he found himself lost in thought, hoping what he’d said was good enough to keep a few of the boys alive and fighting for the Moon. It wasn’t until a voice shouted for him that he snapped out of the trance.

Veronica rushed down the pedestrian tunnel.

“Sergeant,” she said.

“What? What’s wrong?”

She stopped to catch her breath.

“Where’s Joaquín and Ronald?” Tadhg asked.

“They are back at Rose Colony,” she said. “That’s why I’m here.”

Tadhg raised a brow.

“I don’t think it was a power surge that caused the outage,” she said. “I think the power was cut and made to look like one.”

“How do you know?”

“I tapped into a control panel, and ran through the data.” She held up her data-pad to show him the logs. Some of the lines seemed to be missing, leaving blank entries at various times.

“Why the absent data?” he asked.

“I think it was erased to cover whoever did this.”

“So you can’t prove it?”

“No, but if I had access to the data, I could.”

Tadhg could see the fear and anger radiating from the young woman’s eyes. He felt it too, burning through him like the growth serum that made his muscles tense.

“Who would have had the ability to modify this data?” Tadhg asked.

Veronica shook her head. “I had to, uh, find a backway just to view the logs. Very, very few people could modify it. In fact, this type of data is supposed to be completely secure, unmodifiable to prevent tampering.”

“My question still stands.”

Veronica gulped. “It’s like the nuclear missile launch codes. You’d need at least two people that have the encrypted keys to modify this kind of data. Assuming someone really did willfully erase it.”

“And who has those keys?” Tadhg asked. In his gut, he already feared he knew the answer.

“You’d need an LDC administrator who has access. Either someone like Colonel Haines or the LDC’s chief engineer for one key.”

“And the second?”

“Thacker,” Veronica said. “The War Commander has also been assigned an emergency authority role. He would have the second necessary key.”

Tadhg wanted to snap a Hummer Droid in half.

A dark rage filled him with an intensity he’d barely felt before.

If what Veronica said was true, if their initial suspicions about Rose Colony were accurate, it wasn’t an accident that killed those twenty-five thousand colonists.

It was War Commander Thacker.

He wasn’t just a coward. He was a murderer.

“We need to tell someone.”

“Not yet,” Tadhg said. “Keep this between us.”

“What are we going to do then?”

“I don’t know, but we need to make sure we’re right first. Because if we are, and Thacker did kill those people, he’s a madman.”

— 23 —

Ha Long Bay, Vietnam

“First time I’ve seen the surface in a month,” Juno said.

Her brown hair blew in the sea breeze as she looked out over the waves from the forty-foot-long stealth assault craft they had recovered from Guam two days earlier.

She had insisted on coming. While Akira didn’t like it, they at least still had Doctor Hayao back at Neptune Station if something happened to Juno.

Juno had been right. They needed her expertise, and there was too much at stake to fail.

He stood on the deck next to her with the rest of Shadow Squad. Fifty miles to the east, the NAA Pelican had returned to the depths.

A full moon tried to penetrate the smoke that choked the horizon. Akira stared at the smoke clouds rolling away from mainland Vietnam.

Kichiro stood quietly beside Akira, and Okami waited patiently, sitting on his hind legs.

They weren’t the only droids here.

Blinky was also tagging along. The Hummer Droid was armed with plasma cannons on both arms and a bandolier of plasma grenades. He had gotten a paint job, from blue to jungle camo.

Behind the machines, a second fire-team made up of Lieutenant Jackson and six Pistons was being led by War Commander Contos.

Akira could see the faint peaks of the cliffs in Cat Ba where the teams were headed. A massive radio tower jutted out of the mist. Somewhere out there was a group of survivors preparing to launch to the Moon.

“Listen up,” said War Commander Contos. All eyes turned toward him. “I will lead one team with Lieutenant Jackson to the radio tower. If it’s clear, we’ll rig it with explosives before transmitting a message to Apeiron. The hope is she will respond, and at the same time, the transmission will lure in the machines. We’ll ambush them there.”

He gestured to Akira.

“Captain Hayashi will lead Shadow Squad to search for the shuttle. Juno and Blinky will be joining them to test the prototype hijacking signal,” Contos said. “Be extra vigilant. I want everyone to come home tonight.”

Nods all around.

The teams separated on the deck of the boat to finish last minute gear and weapon checks.

Akira shifted in his new cool-suit. They were designed to block the heat signature from his power armor, in theory making him invisible to thermal optics. The rest of the team also wore the suits.

If all went according to plan, the animal droids and Shadow Squad would be practically invisible on land. They also had shields, but this was a good time to remind the team about the reality of their technology.

“We got lucky with the Grind-Shields, but don’t forget they don’t make us invincible,” Akira said.

“Sure felt invincible back on the beach in Guam, but I agree, we must use caution,” Ghost replied. “One thing is for certain, they saved us when we needed it the most.”

“Not all of us,” Jackson said in a voice full of rage.

“May they rest in peace now.” Akira acknowledged the lost souls with a slight bow.

Jackson brooded for a moment but then gestured to the quiver he had given Akira.

“Hope those arrows will help when the time comes, Captain,” he said.

“I have no doubt about that, thank you again.”

Jackson nodded. “Good luck,” he said as he walked away.

“To you as well.”

Akira was becoming increasingly worried about the anger Jackson harbored in his heart. It was normal to struggle with those demons after everything they had lost. Akira sure did every day, but Jackson seemed to be losing the battle.

Fortunately, War Commander Contos seemed well aware of this, and perhaps that was why he had assigned Jackson to the other team. To keep him under his direct command and from doing anything stupid in the field.

It wasn’t only Jackson that worried Akira on this mission. He eyed Juno as she struggled to zip up an armored vest over her cool-suit. She cursed for a few seconds before Akira offered to help.

“I’ve got it,” she said. “I’ve got it… Ah, fine. You can help.”

When he finished, Akira stepped back and put on his Kabuto. Juno managed to get her helmet on without assistance.

“Keep that secure at all times, and keep your head down when you’re out there,” Akira said. “On second thought, stay low and don’t move unless you’re told, got it?”

Blinky raised an arm.

“Fear not, Captain Hayashi, I will remain by our Chief Researcher’s side and will give my life for her if the situation arises.”

“Thanks, Blinky,” Juno said.

“Yeah, thanks,” Akira said. Not knowing what else to say, he walked back to his Squad.

“I really think Juno’s starting to like you, Akira the Brave,” Frost joked.

“What?”

“You don’t see the way she looks at you?”

Ghost mock-zipped up his vest. “Oh, fine, you can help,” he said with a chuckle.

“You guys are way off,” Akira said.

“Yeah, okay,” Frost teased.

Ghost clapped Akira on the back. “I agree with Frost on this one, but you better watch out. She’s Italian, and we are a stubborn and sometimes spicy bunch.”

“You don’t say,” Frost said.

Akira shook his head.

“I could teach you the lyrics to a very famous Italian love song, Captain,” Ghost suggested.

“Yeah, tell every Canebrake exactly where we’re at,” Frost said. “Good thinkin’.”

“It would make the battle a lot quicker.”

“Cut the shit, both of you,” Akira said. “We’re approaching the first drop off.”

The craft motored closer toward the shoreline and began to slow.

War Commander Contos pulled out his four-foot-long energy sword.

The rest of the Engines unsheathed their energy blades.

“Death from the Shadows,” Frost said.

“Together, we are one,” Contos said.

They clicked their blades together in a pyramid of superheated metal.

The boat curved through Ha Long Bay, heading for the shoreline as the soldiers prepared for the first insertion point.

In the green hue of his night vision, Akira spotted the remains of boats bobbing up and down in the harbor.

A tsunami had hit the mainland, blasting away the resorts once towering over the water.

The stealth boat slowed to a halt, cutting through the waves. The Pistons lowered an inflatable boat into the water.

After piling in, the craft glided away silently with the small engine.

Jackson stood at the bow, tapping the thick shaft of his energy axe against his gloves. They vanished into the mist.

Akira walked across the deck of the stealth assault craft as it curved away and headed around the peninsula, picking up speed.

They had no coordinates to go on, but there were only so many places the survivors could be hiding a shuttle. Akira guessed it was somewhere in the mountains of Cat Ba Island. He just hoped the machines didn’t beat Shadow Squad there.

A wall of fog shifted across the water as the stealth boat neared Lan Ha Bay. The harbor was one of the largest in the area with a highly-populated city built along the shoreline.

Juno stepped up next to Akira.

“Last chance to change your mind,” he said.

“I told you, I lost everyone I love. If I die, I die, but at least this way, I’m doing something.”

Akira respected that. “Okay, get ready.”

“Can I have a gun, maybe?” she asked.

“Do you know how to shoot one?”

“I have big guns, big guns,” Blinky said. “I am big happy with big guns.”

“I can handle myself, yes,” Juno said.

Akira handed her a plasma pistol.

She stuffed it in the duty belt hanging from her waist. “Thanks.”

The stealth boat broke into the mist.

Even with the night vision, it was almost impossible to see anything more than a few feet away.

The boat slowed to a crawl.

Okami stood on all fours next to Akira, sniffing the air. Ghost and Frost shouldered their rifles toward the unseen shore.

When they finally stopped, Akira climbed up into Kichiro’s saddle.

He reached down to Juno. “Hop on, I’ll drop you off when we get to the shore.”

Akira watched Ghost and Frost, expecting some shit from them both, but they remained quiet, focused on the mission.

Juno took his hand and he pulled her up behind him. Then Akira patted Kichiro’s neck and gave him a kick to the flanks. The horse trotted to the side of the boat.

Juno gripped Akira’s waist and Kichiro jumped out, splashing into the surf. Four more splashes followed with Ghost, Frost, Okami, and Blinky entering the tide.

After a few minutes of swimming, Kichiro rose out of the water and onto the fog-covered, sandy beach.

“Remember what I said,” Akira said to Juno.

She nodded, and he helped her down.

Blinky moved up with Ghost and Frost.

“Stay here,” Akira said.

He gave Kichiro another nudge. They continued past rotting, dead fish and debris toward the side of a highway. Okami sniffed his way across.

The mist lessened somewhat as they neared the edge of the road, providing a glimpse at the shrouded city.

Akira could picture in his mind what this place had once looked like. He could hear the honking mopeds and the gleeful sound of kids on the beach.

With a hand signal, Akira gave Okami an order to proceed. The wolfdog bolted away to scout out the sector, returning a few minutes later with his tail up.

Listening, Akira used his augmented hearing before waving the team onward.

Ghost and Frost flanked Juno, keeping close to her while Blinky covered their rearguard.

They entered the city. The mist dissipated enough for a better view of the abandoned buildings. But they still couldn’t see the mountains on the other side.

Kichiro crossed the highway, passing a few burned cars. His hooves crushed bullet casings. The civilians or law enforcement that had been fighting back here might not have had plasma weapons, which would have put them at an even bigger disadvantage on E-Day.

Apartment buildings and hotels rose out of the fog, their exteriors mostly unscathed.

Akira guided Kichiro through a courtyard framed by gardens. The palm trees and bushes were already withered from the drop in temperature and lack of sunlight.

When they got to the main street of the city, he saw the first corpses. Judging by their decomposition, they had probably been dead for weeks or longer.

Kichiro continued through the scene of carnage.

Akira pictured the Canebrakes and Hummer Droids ripping through the tourists and mostly unarmed locals.

There were more bullet casings. But he didn’t see the remains of a single machine.

The trek continued through the city, toward the mountains finally peeking through the fog.

“I guess we know who fought back,” Frost said.

She aimed her sniper rifle at a building down the road where corpses hung from rafters. Some of them were wearing camo fatigues.

Ghost walked over with Juno and Blinky right behind them.

“I’ll stay on point with Okami and Frost,” Akira said. “Ghost, you and Blinky guard Juno here.”

“Seriously?” Ghost said. “Blinky is a walking tank and more than capable…”

Akira turned to Ghost. The Engine let his words trail off.

“Yes, Captain,” he said. “I’ll play babysitter. Let’s go, Miss Lady.”

“On second thought, I’d prefer to stay with just Blinky,” Juno said.

Akira sighed.

“Stay put, and don’t move,” he said to Juno. “Frost and I will check out the road ahead with Okami and Kichiro.”

Ghost nodded.

Kichiro trotted down the road, passing through thick mist as they got closer to the mountains.

The asphalt ended at a dirt road snaking up the bluffs to the base of the mountains.

Fresh off-road tire tracks marked the dirt. They appeared to be large. Probably from semi-trucks and trailers. Dark stains covered the path. Akira leaned in close, confirming it was blood.

Frost kept to the right of the path that twisted up toward a bluff. While most of the surroundings appeared to have been turned to ash, this one had been spared from the fires, covered in trees struggling to survive against the smoke-covered sky.

Akira took them off the trail and into the woods.

Okami dashed into the thick forest to sniff out a way up to the cliff. He returned a few minutes later, his tail down, looking back the way they had come.

Akira twisted in the saddle, looking out over the city. He couldn’t see anything, but he heard a sound that made his blood go cold.

A dull, distant rattle shook through the forest.

“Son of a bitch,” he whispered.

From the distant echo, it sounded as if the rattling was headed toward the city. Right where they had left Ghost and Juno.

Akira gave Kichiro a kick to pick up speed. He broke into a run, metal hooves pounding the dry dirt. Frost ran behind him, lagging slightly, and Okami struggled to keep up, but Akira couldn’t slow down now.

If Juno was killed, their mission would be over before it began.

A rooster tail of dust billowed up in the light mist as Kichiro galloped back toward the city. When they neared the asphalt road, Akira pulled on the reins. The cyborg animal slowed, and Akira pulled out a katana.

Fog drifted across the road.

Akira scanned the street and the apartments, listening for the machine.

A bird called out in the distance.

He turned toward the whistle. It wasn’t a bird, but Ghost. Akira dismounted Kichiro and ran over to the other Engine.

“Where the hell is Juno?” Akira asked.

“She is idiota,” Ghost whispered. “I turned around for a heartbeat, and she took off for the beach with Blinky.”

Frost and Okami caught up a moment later.

Together, they advanced back toward the marina.

Akira cursed himself for leaving Juno behind with Ghost. They should have stayed together at all times.

But why had she left?

Maybe she fled, he thought. Maybe she got scared.

Akira hurried down a street, taking point with Okami.

The click of metal against metal drew his attention to the highway and the beach beyond.

Water dripped off the Canebrake as it stood its full height on the sand. The telescoping arms curved upward as it focused on a single object.

It took Akira a moment to notice Blinky was facing off against the enemy machine.

Akira motioned for the team to spread out. Frost ran for a building to find a rooftop, and Ghost took cover in a storefront with Kichiro.

Okami kept close to Akira, watching the Canebrake.

It hadn’t detected either of them, and seemed completely focused on Blinky. The machine dropped to all fours, circling around the Hummer Droid.

Two of its arms coiled into the air, the blades glowing. Its fanned face scanned Blinky with glowing eyes.

Movement pulled Akira’s eyes toward a bus with broken windows. In the back was Juno. She was also watching Blinky and the Canebrake, doing something with a device in her hands.

This was a test, Akira realized.

Juno had deployed her droid to see if the camouflage coding worked. But she was dangerously close.

Akira turned toward the buildings, seeing Frost had taken to a rooftop. She aimed her sniper rifle down on the Canebrake, but Akira motioned for her to stand down.

She pointed out in the harbor, and Akira used his rifle to zoom in on the stealth boat they had taken here.

On it, was another Canebrake, hunched over the dead Piston pilot.

Akira cursed under his breath. Now he knew what had lured the machines here.

It wasn’t Shadow Squad, it was the boat.

Slowly, Akira started to make his way over to Juno.

A low rattle carried over the water’s surface. Akira stopped to hunch down behind another vehicle. The Canebrake leapt into the water, vanishing under the surface.

The machine circling Blinky suddenly bolted away, darting right for the road.

Akira raised his rifle when he saw it was moving toward Juno.

Before he could squeeze the trigger, a blast of plasma bolts slammed into the Canebrake from an unseen shooter. The impacts sent the machine teetering off balance and crashing into another car.

It quickly recovered and launched itself toward the bus while firing the plasma turrets at Blinky. The Hummer Droid unleashed a volley from its own cannons.

Akira whipped out both katanas and charged. The hiss of suppressed .50 cal rounds ripped from Frost’s position.

He didn’t need to look to know Frost was aiming at the machine swimming toward them.

Another flash of metal dashed down the road, spraying plasma fire. A third Canebrake had flanked Shadow Squad, water dripping off its metal body. They too had used the water to ambush the team.

Akira slid to avoid a burst of bolts searing over his helmet.

Blinky turned his cannons, spraying the Canebrake. The war droid jerked from the impacts.

“Big fire, big fire!” he chirped.

Akira scrambled for cover behind a concrete barrier. He snuck a look as the Canebrake in the surf blasted out and landed on the beach, a mass of flickering arms and blazing plasma cannons.

A round slammed into Blinky from behind, sending the droid crashing to the ground face first.

Bullets sparked off the advancing war droid on the beach as Frost tried to score a kill shot. Akira got back up to his feet. The first machine had leapt back up to the top of the bus and was punching through the side with its heated blades.

The second machine that Blinky had hit was now bolting toward the city where Ghost had taken position. The Engine had lured it away from the road.

A neigh called out and Akira got up as Kichiro ran over. He grabbed the saddle and pulled himself up.

Juno screamed from the bus down the street.

The mounted Canebrake pried off the rooftop of the vehicle.

“Frost!” Akira yelled.

She landed a shot on the Canebrake’s fanned head, spinning it off balance.

Akira raised his glowing katanas. As Kichiro passed the bus on the driver’s side, he used both blades to cut through the Canebrake’s legs.

It fell off, hit the road, and slung two bladed arms at Kichiro. The metal animal stood on its hind legs and came down with both front hooves on the Canebrake’s snout, crushing its jaw.

Akira jumped from the saddle and onto the bus roof. He holstered his blades and switched to his new bow. A button press on the grip extended the upper and lower limbs. He nocked an arrow and pulled the string back.

Closing his left eye, he sighted up the Canebrake rolling in the sand with Blinky. The droids thrashed and slammed against each other.

“Come on, move, move,” Akira whispered.

Blinky finally managed to kick free. The Canebrake rose up, towering above the smaller Hummer Droid, all four limbs cocked back with heated blades prepared to destroy Blinky.

With the fanned head in sight, Akira loosed the arrow. It flew true, hitting just above the eyes and exploding in a bright blast.

The headless, six limbed beast collapsed to the ground as Blinky pushed itself up.

“Big thank you, big thank you!” the Hummer Droid shouted.

A sudden explosion roared from the city.

Akira turned to see smoke billowing out of a storefront. He thought he saw movement in the dark cloud and aimed an arrow, holding his breath.

“All clear!” Ghost shouted.

The hybrid soldier ran out of the smoke.

Akira released his breath and lowered his bow. He jumped to the concrete and entered the bus where Juno was against a seat.

“You okay?” he asked.

Frost climbed inside the vehicle as Akira leaned down.

“Juno, are you okay?” he asked again.

Akira looked her over, but didn’t see any wounds.

“Juno,” he entreated.

“I’m okay, I think,” she finally said, voice shaky.

She reached up to her helmet.

“I don’t see how it detected me,” Juno said. “I…”

“What?”

She held up the transmitter. “Damn, they must have seen this when I tried to use the hijacking signal on them.”

“The hell were you even doing?”

“I was—”

“Don’t ever pull shit like that again. We can’t protect you if you go rogue. You just put our entire mission in jeopardy.”

“I know, and I won’t, but—”

“Your reckless science bullshit about got us all killed,” Frost said.

“Look, I get you’re mad, but let me explain for a damn minute.”

Juno pushed herself up.

“I heard the assault craft. They must have been coming for help. I tried to tell Ghost, but I didn’t want to yell…by the time I saw what was happening I gave Blinky orders, and he went out to distract the Canebrake.”

“I’ll take responsibility,” Ghost said from outside the bus. “But let’s talk later. We’re targets out here.”

Akira nodded.

“Let’s go,” he said.

They gathered back on the road by Blinky. Smoke drifted from three holes in his chassis.

“At least we know our droids are camouflaged against the Canebrakes with my upgrades, unless they attack them,” Juno said. “Still, I need to test the hijacking signal to see if it works on hostile machines.”

“Can we test them on those?” Frost asked, gesturing to the two destroyed Canebrakes.

“No,” Juno said. “They need to be in one functional piece.”

“I’ll try not to blow mine up next time, but won’t make any promises,” Ghost said.

“I think I know where we can find more,” Akira said. He looked back at the mist-covered mountains. “We follow the trail of blood.”

— 24 —

Mesopotamia

Shackleton Crater, The Moon

“Move, move!” the group of five hundred draftees were pushed through a chamber with hundreds of LDC staff and troopers holding data-pads. Ronin kept close to Elan, holding onto his shirt at times.

The frightened kids surged forward in a chaotic, unorganized fashion. Apparently the LDC wasn’t prepared for the executive order War Commander Thacker had issued a day earlier.

In those twenty-four hours, Ronin and the other ten thousand draftees were taken by train somewhere to the east of Mesopotamia where they had been packed into a massive chamber to listen to speeches that were supposed to fire them up. But it was only Tadhg who had said anything inspirational.

Seeing him without arms had struck Ronin hard. It was another glimpse at what the Canebrakes could do to Engines. It made him wonder if Akira could still be alive against such overwhelming odds.

“Name, age, colony,” a woman said without looking up.

Ronin stepped up to the front of the line.

“Ronin Hayashi, seventeen, Halo Colony,” he said.

“Any allergies, diseases, or impairments?”

“No, but my twin brother Elan Hayashi is deaf.”

Elan stepped up next, trying to stand tall.

The woman raised a brow. “Same age, same colony?”

“Yes,” Ronin answered for Elan.

The woman tapped her data-pad.

“My brother is deaf,” Ronin said. “There’s no way he can fight.”

The woman looked at Ronin, and then Elan, but said nothing.

“Did you hear what I said?” Ronin asked. “How can my brother be expected to fight—”

“I don’t make the rules, son, but I can tell you being deaf does not disqualify him from guard detail.”

“What’s guard detail?”

She changed the subject. “What’s your level of education?”

Ronin responded for him and Elan, answering all of her questions over the next few minutes. Finally, she motioned them onward.

Ronin sighed and motioned for Elan to continue. They entered another line, and Ronin signed everything that had just transpired to his brother.

I want to stay with you, Elan signed back.

I don’t think I will be staying here.

What do you mean?

I think I will be sent to Kepler Station.

“No,” Elan said in his monotone voice.

It will be okay, Ronin signed.

The line started to pick up pace, moving toward the nearest trooper. He looked Ronin over and jotted something down on his data-pad.

“Ever fired a weapon?” he asked.

Ronin nodded, but left the part out about the Canebrake back at Gold Base on E-Day.

“You have any military training?”

“Not military training,” Ronin said. “But my father taught me how to fight.”

“Was your father in the NASF?”

“Yes.”

“Any other family members?”

“My Uncle Akira was…is an Engine.”

“Noted,” he finally said. “Move along.”

“Wait, just to be clear, my brother has no training. Just me.”

The trooper glanced at Elan, then made a note on his data-pad. He jerked his thumb for them to continue.

An hour later they were moved into a massive chamber with hundreds of other draftees. They were all given gray rucksacks and scratchy gray uniforms.

Ronin spotted Micky. The other boy was already in uniform and lying on the floor, using his rucksack as a pillow.

Ronin and Elan changed into their clothes and took a seat next to Micky. After carefully placing the Warrior Codex and a few other personal items into his rucksack, Ronin gave Micky a nudge with his boot.

Micky sat up, rubbing an eye. “Hey, you guys made it.”

“Where do we go next?” Ronin asked.

Micky pointed at a pair of double doors. “That’s the final stop once we get our orders.”

Using the time they had left, Ronin signed to his brother, trying to reassure him that everything would be okay. But the more time Ronin had to think, the more he worried about Elan and their mom.

Elan should be with her, Ronin thought.

“I heard the machines will wipe us out in less than a day if they come.”

The voice came from someone behind Ronin. This time, he was glad his brother couldn’t hear what they were saying.

“Why do you think that?” came a reply.

“Because the machines crushed the Nova Alliance in that amount of time on E-Day.”

“But they don’t know where we are.”

“Maybe not, but don’t you think they’ll find us?”

Ronin finally turned, seeing two kids behind them that looked younger than sixteen. Many of the kids looked too young to be here.

It reminded him just how desperate the LDC was getting.

“You heard what Sergeant Walsh said, right?” Ronin asked. “He’s an Engine. He wouldn’t lie to us. We have a chance, but you have to use your heart and your head.”

“He doesn’t even have arms,” Micky said.

“He probably just hasn’t gotten fitted with new ones yet,” Ronin said.

“You missed my point. He lost his arms fighting the machines, and he’s supposed to be an augmented warrior with super strength.”

Ronin stared at Micky. The kid was really starting to get under his skin, even though Ronin couldn’t deny what Micky said was right.

The Engines were obsolete.

Trying to tune out the other kids’ voices, Ronin opened the Warrior Codex and started reading with Elan.

Two hours later, the double doors to the room finally swung open.

An LDC soldier in gray fatigues with an RS-3 rifle slung over his back and an energy sword sheathed on his duty belt walked in. He had a shaved head, thin mustache, and a crooked nose set under two brown eyes.

Another soldier stopped right behind him.

The entire room seemed to stand simultaneously, nervous eyes pinned on the drill instructor.

“Listen up!” the man shouted. “My name is Sergeant Dustin Heffer. For the next hour, I’m going to take you on a tour of the facility. When it’s complete, you will be divided up with orders. Form lines!”

After a few moments of struggling, the kids managed to get in respectable lines. A quick inspection was made.

“Posture, assholes! You’re sixteen and seventeen years young!” Heffer shouted. “Why do half of you look like eighty-year-old men?”

Ronin stiffened and signed to Elan to do the same.

“Move it!” Heffer yelled.

His voice echoed through the room, carrying over the clank of boots. The march took them down a long, winding tunnel away from the capital of Mesopotamia. Every step they took, Ronin thought about his mom.

She will be okay, he thought.

But would she?

She will be if you protect her, and this is how you do that.

A squad of troopers passed by in fully-rated vacuum armor and exoskeletons, their clanking footsteps filling the tunnel. Two rovers drove out of another connecting tunnel, packed with soldiers and an intel commander in a black uniform.

They passed through chambers with workers in Juggernaut mech-suits carrying crates marked with ammunition and explosives. There were rovers retrofitted as attack vehicles, and an assembly line where robotic arms were making new armor.

The LDC was preparing for war.

And the draftees were the cogs that would be tossed into the human-driven machine.

Finally, they got to a hatch guarded by two troopers.

Heffer led the draftees into the dimly lit space. As soon as they were all inside, the lights clicked on. There was a glass cube inside the center.

“Form lines,” Heffer said.

Ronin moved for a better view. A seven-foot-tall Canebrake stood in the center of the cube, its eyes dark. Chains wrapped around the chest and torso, and the arms had all been removed.

Elan backed away but Ronin stood his ground, staring at the machine that had changed their lives forever.

“This is your enemy,” said Heffer in a booming voice. “The Canebrake stands over seven feet tall and weighs close to six hundred pounds.”

He walked over to the cube, his hands behind his back. After a quick walk around, he faced the draftees.

“Canebrakes have one purpose,” he said. “Killing you. Each and every one of you.”

He took a few steps forward.

“How can we kill something like that?” asked a kid next to Ronin.

Heffer unslung his rifle and held it up.

“This is an RS-3 plasma rifle,” he said. “You will be assigned one if you make the cut. One shot to the center of this ugly asshole’s metal head will put it down for good.”

“I heard they run like thirty miles an hour. How can we hit it in the head?”

Heffer turned to another kid.

“The RS-3 fires thirty plasma bolts every five seconds,” he said. “We will teach you how to make each one of those rounds count.”

“It’s crazy you expect us to kill one of those,” someone said far behind Ronin.

“I did,” he said without thinking.

“Bullshit,” came a voice.

Ronin turned toward it.

Hundreds of eyes centered on Ronin, including Heffer.

Now he had no choice but to continue.

“I killed one in Megacity Tokyo before we evacuated Gold Base,” Ronin said.

“No way,” came several voices.

“You’re a liar,” said someone else.

“He isn’t lying.” Micky moved out of the crowd. “Ronin Hayashi is the nephew of Captain Akira Hayashi from Shadow Squad. On E-Day, Ronin helped save War Commander Contos.”

The other draftees crowded around Ronin. He felt his face flush, not from pride, but nerves.

“Yeah, yeah, okay,” Heffer said. He pointed back to the Canebrake. “These are just machines. They aren’t invincible. They can be destroyed whether you’re related to an Engine or not.”

Everyone stared at the war droid, clearly not convinced.

“Let’s go,” Heffer said.

The passage connected to a chamber the size of the town’s square in Halo Colony.

Standing in neat lines were thousands of other young men. All wearing the same gray fatigues and holding the same rucksacks.

Troopers walked down the rows.

“All sixteen-year-olds over here!” shouted Heffer. “If you are seventeen, get in these lines.”

Ronin kept close to Elan as they moved into one of the lines.

At the front of the chamber, ten Moon Troopers stood facing the draftees. One was an intel commander, evident by his black uniform.

“You have seen your enemy,” he said. “Soon we will teach you how to kill it. Two thousand of you will be deployed to Kepler Station, the rest of you will remain behind to protect Mesopotamia and the sub-colonies.”

He scanned the crowd of youngsters around Ronin.

“You will all be brave, because you’ll be all that stands between the machines and your mothers, sisters, and those that can’t defend themselves.”

The man crossed his chest with both arms.

“Always ready, always vigilant,” he said.

The draftees shouted the motto in unison. All except for Elan, who looked at Ronin to translate.

Seeing his brother unable to hear what was going on made Ronin’s anxiety even worse.

What if Elan was deployed to Kepler Station?

He doubted that would happen.

It was more likely they would be sent to separate posts.

You are your brother’s keeper…

Ronin recalled his mother’s final words to him when they had parted at Halo Colony. If Elan and Ronin were separated, then Ronin couldn’t keep his promise to his mom.

He wouldn’t be able to protect Elan when the machines came.

***

Atlas Station

Shoemaker Crater, The Moon

“You will transcend next…”

The voice of Doctor Otto Cross filled her mind as Chloe sat in her cell. She closed her eyes, trying to block out the memories of the Hell Hive where she helped him create the Dreads and turn Kichiro into a weapon that unleashed poisonous gas.

It was never Apeiron.

Apeiron tried to save me. She tried to save us all.

For the past few days, Chloe had shared everything she knew about the Dreads with Blake and his staff, hoping it would help them find a way to stop Otto on Earth.

She also hoped it would convince the LDC that the hybrids were not a threat to humanity.

Now that she had shared everything with them, she was waiting to be taken to the autopsy of the Dread. She would be tasked with explaining the augmentations during the procedure.

A few hours later, a trooper took her from the cell and into the laboratories where her fellow hybrids were still undergoing tests. Blake was waiting in one of the observation rooms, looking at a holo-screen. He hardly glanced up when she arrived.

“Suit up,” he said. “We will take you to the specimen shortly.”

Chloe changed into a space suit hanging in a cleanroom. Cameras watched from the ceiling.

It didn’t matter if she turned her back to one. They were in every corner.

She didn’t care about privacy or respect anymore.

She only cared about survival.

About reuniting with Cyrus. Hopefully, he was still out there, waiting.

But she knew he alone couldn’t save her. Neither could her Uncle.

If she was going to get out of here, she was going to have to do it on her own.

She finished changing and the same trooper guided her through the network of laboratories. In each of them, hybrids like her were being experimented on. People that had done nothing wrong. Nothing to deserve this torture.

She stopped to look through a window at two women in a cube. Their bodies twisted and twitched as a scientist prodded at a data-pad that apparently controlled their L-S88 chips.

“This is insane,” she whispered.

“Keep moving,” said the trooper.

He reached out to her, but she pulled away from his grip.

What was the endgame with the hybrids? What did Blake and the LDC have planned for them?

After trekking through the labs, the trooper stopped outside a thick door. Centered in the middle was a star surrounded by six blue lights.

Two plasma cannon turrets hung from the ceiling, one pointing at the passage, the other pointing at the door.

The star began to rotate, the blue lights flashing red.

Hydraulics hissed and locks clicked before the door opened.

A second trooper waited on the other side. Chloe was led into a metal passage, and another plasma turret rotated, following her movements.

“We’re here,” said the trooper.

A wall of glass looked over a surgical room with four people in biohazard suits hovering over a Dread corpse on a surgical table.

Another door in the hallway opened, and in came Blake.

“Leave her with me,” he said.

The troopers parted ways, and Chloe followed the doctor into a stairwell that led to an observation lookout. Standing in front of the viewport over the surgical room was Jason Crichton. He simply nodded at Chloe with the same sad gaze she had seen before.

Like her, he was a prisoner to the LDC.

And once again, she was helping a doctor find ways to kill people.

The irony was maddening.

“Anything we should be aware of before we cut this thing open?” asked Blake. “Anything you can remember from the Hell Hive?”

Chloe shook her head.

“Are you sure this is a good idea?” Jason asked. “I agree that it’s important to understand why Otto sent these Dreads here, but my guess is it was to test them in extreme environments. I don’t—”

“Jason, I assure you, this facility is completely secure.” Blake raised his data-pad. “Let’s get started.”

Surgical lights flickered on, illuminating the technicians in blue suits and two doctors in white suits. They turned to their carts stacked with medical equipment.

Using the utmost care, two of the techs used tools to remove the armor covering the Dread’s body, revealing lean muscle and scars across the chest and abdomen.

“The bones are lined with titanium,” reported the lead doctor over the comm system. “All four limbs appear to be prosthetics as well.”

Next they removed the helmet from a deformed face. INVS eyes the color of blood stared at the ceiling. A beard of metal lined the square jaw.

Chloe thought back to the operations in the Hell Hives, wincing at the horrid memories.

“Miss Cotter,” Blake said politely.

She looked over to him, waiting.

“Tell me more about what we’re seeing,” he said.

Chloe redirected her gaze.

“Well, the brain is one-hundred-percent human,” she said. “Otto believed that it was the one part that makes us… us, so to speak. He modified most everything else to give them an edge in combat.”

“Did any Dreads have L-S88 chips?”

“I’m not sure.”

“Tell me about their internal organs.”

“They have augmented lungs that are extremely durable. The masks are to help filter out toxins and debris from the fires that Doctor Otto Cross was planning.”

“I see.”

“All of his earlier work on animals led to this,” Jason said. “To what he views as the perfect soldier.”

The autopsy continued below, the technicians cracking open the ribs.

Chloe watched the next phase of the removal of the organs.

Step by step, they cut him apart like a science teacher dissecting a frog.

“The heart and lungs are artificial,” came the next update.

The technicians took samples over to lab equipment.

An hour later, they started to receive the first results.

“There is a chemical in the muscles that seems to help with exposure to radiation,” said the lead doctor. “From genetic analyses, we uncovered trace sequences similar to those we see in animals that can regrow limbs.”

“That’s new,” Chloe said. “I don’t remember anything about those kinds of genetic enhancements.”

“So you’re saying these were advancements after E-Day?” Blake asked.

“Must have been.”

“Maybe Otto is using some of Apeiron’s research on apex predators and other particularly resilient organisms,” Jason said. “He might have used this information to modify the Dreads to help them survive in extreme environments.”

“That would support your theory about why the Dread was sent here,” Blake said.

The comm system relayed a message from the doctor as he cut into the mid-section.

Chloe stepped up closer to the window.

She could see perfectly from her vantage with her INVS eyes. The intestines were pulled out and dumped onto a metal tray.

Next came the stomach. A technician slowly cut into it. A mass of gore slurped out.

“Guess we’re going to find out what they eat,” Blake said.

Jason joined Chloe, squinting.

The technician used a pair of surgical tweezers to hold up one of the clumps.

He suddenly jumped back and dropped it.

“What happened?” Blake said over the PA system.

“The sample moved!” came the response.

The hunk of gore that plopped on the floor didn’t seem to be moving from what Chloe could tell.

One of the techs bent down to retrieve the specimen. Using a pair of forceps, he picked it up and brought it back to the table.

As soon as he deposited it onto a tray, needles broke through the thin red tissue.

The lead doctor backed away from the table, tripping as the slop sprouted small appendages. The creature launched into the air, landing on his visor with eight hairy legs. Those legs pierced his visor with an audible crack.

“It’s a spider,” Jason whispered.

“A tarantula,” Chloe spurted.

“Lock the room down,” Blake said. “Quarantine that space now!”

The stars in the primary door flashed blue. The techs all fled to it, pounding as it closed. Two more mechanical spiders emerged from the corpse’s stomach and skittered after them, leaping up and attaching to their suits.

Screams surged out of the comm system as the main doctor reached up to his helmet visor. Blood exploded on the other side, painting the interior of the shield.

He dropped to the ground, screeching in agony. Finally he managed to remove his helmet over pulpy messes that were all that remained of his eyes.

Blake backed away from the glass as one of the spiders scrambled across the other side.

Two soldiers entered the viewing room.

“Doctor Howard, you need to come with us,” one said.

A voice came over the comm channel before they could leave.

Chloe recognized it immediately as Otto. His voice seemed to be coming from one of the technicians that had a spider latched to their helmet.

“We know about your colony,” Otto called out. “Soon, you’ll all be given a choice. Join me on a new Earth or perish when my legions come.”

The technician slumped to the ground, and the spider scrambled away as gas hissed into the chamber.

Two troopers escorted Chloe and Jason into the hallway with Blake. Emergency alarms wailed as they were led to a laboratory office.

“Get inside and stay here,” Blake said.

He tapped the security panel, and the door clicked shut.

Jason backed away and then started to search the space. It was just a small room furnished with some lab equipment and two desks.

“The hell are those things?” Chloe asked, still trying to catch her breath.

“Another trick from Otto, probably made from nano-tech, the same thing he used to escape from the Titan Space Elevator. I warned Doctor Howard about this, but he said his team did full scans.”

Jason went to a tinted window they couldn’t see through.

“We have to get out of here,” he said quietly.

Chloe searched for a way out of the room. She glanced up at the ceiling, but there didn’t appear to be any vents or anything to crawl through.

Jason picked up a chair. “Get back.”

She moved away from the window as he approached.

“What are you doing?”

He looked at her. “I’m freeing you.”

“What do you mean me?”

“If those things don’t kill us, Blake will,” Jason said. “He plans to turn all hybrids into Dreads and send them to Earth in some insane plan to find Otto and deliver a virus.”

Chloe held up a hand to her mouth.

“We have to find a way to get you out,” he said.

“And go where?”

“Anywhere.”

Jason smashed the chair against the window, cracking it. Chloe grabbed another chair to help. Taking turns, they slammed the metal legs against the glass until it shattered.

On the other side was a medical room with a single chair. Strapped to it was a half-naked hybrid woman, electrical cords snaking away from her pale flesh. Her shaved head was slumped to the side, blood seeping down her face from her ears and eyes.

The woman had all prosthetic limbs and a bandage over her chest.

Jason climbed through the window and reached to Chloe. She took his hand and jumped onto the floor.

The woman in the chair twisted toward them wearing a mask of horror.

Chloe raised a hand to her mouth.

“Giana,” she cried.

The only friend she had made in this hell stared at Chloe. The sparkle of hope was gone from her eyes. Her dry lips moved, but nothing came out.

Chloe thought back to what Jason had said about Blake intending to transform hybrids into his own version of the Dreads.

She nearly broke with anger and horror at the thought of such an evil act.

“We have to help her,” Chloe said. She went over to help free Giana.

Jason joined her as the alarm continued to screech.

Gunfire cracked over the din of the alarms.

Chloe leaned down to Giana. The woman was trying to speak.

“Kill… kill me,” Giana whispered.

— 25 —

Cat Ba Island, Vietnam

Three hours after slaying the Canebrakes, Shadow Squad was deep in the mountains on a dirt trail. Akira thought of War Commander Contos, Jackson, and the Pistons, hoping they were making better progress toward their objective.

Unable to use the comms, Akira had no way of communicating with Contos, the Pelican, or anyone besides those around him.

Juno rode on Kichiro with him, holding onto his waist.

Frost and Okami were on point, the dog sniffing the air and Frost scanning the hills. Ghost and Blinky flanked the horse.

They were silent for the next few miles until the path wound up through two bluffs. Akira dismounted and joined Okami and Frost.

“Get off the trail,” he said to Ghost.

Ghost took Kichiro by the reins and guided the horse into the forest with Juno. Blinky followed, crunching over branches and leaves.

When he got to the top of the hill, Akira saw Frost was hunched down and studying the mountains on the horizon. Tendrils of dark smoke drifted against the white mist.

“Looks like it could be from campfires,” she said. “We’ll have to get closer to know for sure, but I doubt any humans who survived this long would be that stupid.”

“Agreed. Stay alert. We’re heading into the forest.”

Akira climbed back up into the saddle and gave Kichiro a gentle kick to the flank. The horse entered the forest, following Okami and Frost.

The terrain was steeper and rockier than it looked, forcing the squad to move slowly. Akira used his sword to swipe branches out of the way.

He kept an eye on the smoke in the distance, closing in over the next hour. When they reached the crest of the bluff, Akira dismounted again. It was too steep to keep going on the horse.

“Stay, boy. I won’t be far,” Akira whispered. “Ghost, this time, don’t let Juno make a run for it.”

“I’m not going anywhere,” Juno said, Blinky and Ghost waiting beside her.

Akira climbed up toward the crest of the peak. Okami leapt over rocks and fallen trees. The robotic wolfdog had no problem navigating the dense vegetation, but Akira used his katana as a machete to make a path.

Finally, they reached a clearing overlooking a valley. Akira switched to his rifle.

The smoke was coming from the eastern edge, where a river raged through a jungle. Akira got down on his stomach and crawled to the edge where Frost was already prone and peering through her rifle scope.

Akira didn’t need a scope to see a camp in a clearing along the river, but he used it to zoom in for a better look.

Centered in the middle of that camp was a domed warehouse, the same type Achilles Android Systems used at restoration sites across the planet.

Ten Hummer Droids stood sentry around the large structure. All were armed with energy blades and pulse rifles.

Akira centered his scope on a droid walking a path from the building. He lost sight of it when it entered the jungle, then disappeared behind a waterfall cascading over a bluff.

“Captain,” Frost whispered, pointing at something else.

Akira adjusted his view. She had located a group of hundreds of human prisoners under a rocky bluff that blocked them almost entirely from view.

Frost pointed out something else across the river.

A group of armored soldiers patrolled around the perimeter. These weren’t Canebrakes, they were Dreads. People that had already transcended into Otto’s growing army.

“Get the others,” Akira said to Frost.

She slipped back into the jungle.

Akira watched the enemy, counting their numbers. There was a total of fifty-two Hummer Droids, some with damaged parts. He spotted twelve Dreads, armed with pulse rifles and energy blades.

Two Iron Wolves were under a tree, chained to the trunk.

Akira had a feeling there were more of the hybrid beasts out here. Probably scouts, too. The one thing he didn’t see were any Canebrakes.

He surveyed the domed structure again.

After a few minutes of observation, he noticed a Hummer Droid dragging a woman toward the entrance. Akira moved for a better view, and Okami followed him over to a bush.

The new vantage allowed Akira to see the back of the building where three yellow Hummer Droids were digging a trench.

Piled along the side were stacks of corpses.

But these people weren’t flayed or mutilated like the others he had seen in the city. Some of them had limbs removed and bandages like they had been given medical care. Some even had prosthetic limbs like their battlefield injuries had been treated.

Why would the machines even bother caring for the people?

Then he saw another pair of Dreads walk out of the facility. Bandages were wrapped around their limbs. Some of them walked clumsily, like they were just learning how to use their prosthetic limbs.

Oh my God.

A deep, icy fear struck Akira to the core.

It hit him then.

This camp wasn’t a prison, it was a factory where the machines turned people into monsters. They were keeping all these prisoners alive to transcend and join the other Dreads.

The bodies near the trenches were those that didn’t survive the transformation.

Okami growled at the sound of footsteps.

Whirling with his rifle, Akira turned to see Frost. She held up a hand, and he lowered his weapon as Juno, Ghost, and Blinky joined them.

In a whisper, Akira explained everything he had seen.

Juno hunched down next to Akira.

“This is a good place to try the signal,” she said. “Especially without any Canebrakes, but we might need to get closer.”

“How close?”

She pointed to the ridgeline across from them.

Akira didn’t like it, but nodded. He returned to Kichiro and started hiking toward the cliff. They came across a dirt road with the same tire tracks from earlier. It cut down into the valley.

Akira maneuvered back into the jungle and up the bluff toward the ridgeline. This time, the cyborg horse made it all the way to the top before Akira dismounted and secured him to a tree.

He flashed hand signals, positioning Frost in a cluster of rocks with her sniper rifle. Ghost joined her. Juno accompanied Akira toward the ridge.

Akira motioned for her to follow him to a cluster of trees and rocks that provided cover. They were about one thousand feet above the valley floor, and twenty-five-hundred feet away from the dome.

“This should work,” she whispered. Taking a knee, she opened her case with the transmitter. She pulled out the pieces with shaky hands.

“It’s okay,” Akira reassured her.

She nodded. “I’m fine, really.”

Akira wouldn’t blame her if she wasn’t. She was a strong woman, but no sane person could be out here and not fear the enemy.

Blinky moved up behind them, rotating his plasma cannons while searching the hills for targets. Juno continued assembling the transmitter, finishing it by twisting a small dish on the end of a barrel.

“Moment of truth,” she whispered.

Akira indicated to Frost and Ghost to get ready.

“I’ll try it on the Hummer Droids,” Juno said. “The first signal should disarm the firewalls built into their programming. If that works, a second signal will hijack them and allow us to control them.”

Juno shouldered the device like a rifle and aimed the transmitter cone at the Hummer Droids. “Ready?”

“When you are,” Akira said.

He waited anxiously. If this worked, it could change the entire course of the war, especially if they could implement it at a much broader scale.

Akira shook away the hope, trying not to get ahead of himself.

They were stranded deep in enemy territory, and Otto had to know by now that three Canebrakes had been destroyed.

Juno squeezed the trigger on the transmitter. The ring around the dish glowed blue.

Akira scanned the hills for threats.

“Is it working?” he asked.

“No, I still need to get closer,” Juno said.

Akira got up to reposition the team when he heard the screams. He ducked back down and searched for the source, finding it was two more prisoners being dragged into the domed building by a single Hummer Droid unit.

“We have to do something,” Juno said.

“Give that to me, I will trek down—”

“Won’t work.”

“Why?”

“Only operates with my bio-signature,” Juno said. “Can’t let it fall into enemy hands, can I?”

Akira frowned as he searched for another way down. Seeing a path, he led the way. Blinky and Okami followed, but Ghost and Frost remained at the top bluff for covering fire.

Juno slipped and Akira reached up to catch her.

“Careful,” he said.

“Thanks.”

They carefully navigated the steep slope down to another vantage about five hundred feet from the valley floor.

Akira took cover behind a tree and motioned for Juno to stay down. She fumbled with her transmitter for a few seconds, then aimed it at the building from a kneeling position. The cone flashed in a circle.

Again, nothing happened.

She lowered the device and held up a finger. Then two. Then three.

All at once, the Hummer Droids began to pace. Some of them did so in circles, others slammed into the side of the building. Two tripped and fell, before pushing themselves back up.

“It worked,” Juno said. “We’ve overridden Otto’s programming.”

“Brilliant work,” Akira said.

There was little time to feel the excitement of success.

Shouts erupted from across the river, followed by guttural howls from the Iron Wolves.

“Better hurry,” Akira whispered.

Juno tapped the data-pad built into the transmitter. Then she aimed it again and pulled the trigger. The cone lit up again, but this time, nothing happened after three seconds.

“The second signal isn’t working,” she said.

The shouting grew louder as the Dreads began to advance across the water.

“Why?” Akira asked. “Aren’t we in range?”

“I’m not sure what’s going on.”

More Dreads emerged from the warehouse. Twenty of them moved out of the jungle with four Iron Wolves.

They unleashed the beasts from their chains.

“We need to move,” Akira said. “Start going back up. I’ll cover us.”

He whistled up to Frost. That was the signal to open fire.

Not even a second passed before a .50 cal round burst from her rifle barrel. Across the river, a Dread dropped from an apple-sized hole blown into his helmet. He was still holding onto a chain connected to an Iron Wolf.

The beast dragged the body into the river. The other animals leapt out into the shallow water.

Akira slotted his rifle and pulled out his bow, extending the arms. Then he reached for one of his five remaining arrows. He nocked one, aimed it at the mass of Dreads, then launched it.

The arrow exploded between two of the soldiers, their bodies cartwheeling away.

Ghost and Frost took calculated shots, killing three more before the Dreads spotted their location.

Akira sighted up a target and fired, striking the soldier in the chest. The arrow slammed into him with a fiery explosion that sent parts of his body and armor showering his comrades.

The other ten Dreads fanned out, screaming and firing.

Akira checked on the Hummer Droids. They were still disabled, unable to fire their weapons. After nocking one of his three remaining arrows, he looked up to make sure Juno was safe.

She was nearing the top bluff with Blinky.

Akira turned back to the human prisoners and made his decision. He whistled to Kichiro and Okami and pointed toward the road.

The horse met him there and he climbed up into the saddle.

Okami ran ahead, bounding over the rocky path.

Gunfire and the hiss of plasma bolts rang through the valley as Kichiro galloped after the wolfdog. After collapsing his bow, Akira holstered it and re-sheathed the arrow.

The road curved over another bluff two hundred feet above the river. Trucks and Jeeps covered with camo tents were parked on the west side of the camp.

Gunfire ripped past Akira from a Dread behind a Jeep, forcing him to turn Kichiro. Several rounds slammed into his Grind-Shield, almost knocking Akira out of the saddle.

He managed to right himself and gave Kichiro a solid kick to the flanks. The horse bolted away as gunfire tore holes into the ground around them.

Another round smashed into Akira’s back, knocking his electric shield down to forty percent integrity. He turned toward a Dread that had climbed into the back of a Jeep with a mounted .50 cal machine gun.

Gunfire chased them into the jungle, kicking up hunks of dirt and punching holes into trees. Akira hugged Kichiro’s armored mane.

The horse jumped over a bush and then around a pair of trucks, in an effort to flank the Jeep. The soldier started to turn the turret barrel toward Akira. He pulled out a Katana, the blade turning a bright red.

Okami leapt into the air with no warning just as the horse galloped past and came up behind the vehicle. In a swift strike, Akira sliced the soldier across the stomach. The man let out a long cry as his guts slumped out of the riven wound and he toppled out of the truck bed.

The cyber wolfdog finished him off with a deep bite to his neck, ripping out his throat in a spray of blood.

Akira leaned down against Kichiro again for cover. The horse galloped out toward the Dreads that had crossed the river. There were five left, all hiding behind rocks or trees as they fired at Ghost and Frost.

The first soldier didn’t see Kichiro coming, giving Akira a chance to lop off his antler-topped helmet in a swift stroke.

Kichiro crashed into the next Dread, breaking the hybrid soldier’s back against a rock. Akira fired his rifle in one hand and swung his katana with the other, slaying two more Dreads.

The fifth got up to run but Kichiro trampled him to the ground. The soldier turned to his back just as the horse rose up on his back legs and came down with his hooves on the soldier’s chest, crushing his ribs and heart.

Akira sat up straight in the saddle, turning to confirm all of the Dreads and their wolves were dead along the river valley. The Hummer Droids continued to pace and stumble into rocks and trees back near the warehouse.

Raising his sword, Akira indicated it was all clear. Then he motioned for Ghost, but ordered Frost to stay with Juno and Blinky.

Akira directed Kichiro toward the camp, passing the still pacing Hummer Droids. Okami emerged again, maw dripping with blood.

A few minutes later, Ghost arrived.

When they got to the end of the trail outside the waterfall, Akira dismounted and pulled out both his energy swords.

“Stay here,” he said to Ghost.

Ghost held sentry while Akira advanced toward the cave. Water sluiced down his armor as he pushed through the waterfall. A fence blocked off the entrance to a cave. He cut through it with his blade melting the metal like butter.

Sheathing the weapons, he approached a group of civilians huddled at the back of the dark, wet space. There were twenty, including some young children clinging to the adults.

“It’s okay,” Akira said. “I’m a friend.”

One of the prisoners, a woman, approached, speaking in Vietnamese.

Akira’s translation device didn’t work now that he was no longer connected to INN. Unable to communicate verbally, he used his hand to motion for everyone to follow.

It didn’t take much convincing.

Akira led them back toward the waterfall. Right as he made it out, a loud rumble stopped him mid-stride.

No…

His eyes widened as he hurried out with Okami, who barked at the sky. Ghost stood there, angling his rifle at a massive ship that blasted out of the mist to the east. The same type they had encountered in Guam.

The shell over the bow peeled back, revealing an eye with spikes extending around it. The microwave weapon glowed, preparing to fire.

Rattling came from the jungle to the south, drawing both of the Engines’ attention. Akira saw movement on the ridgeline, the canopy of trees shaking as seven-foot-tall metal monsters exploded through the jungle.

Juno, Frost, and Blinky were still hunched down on the bluff.

The civilians flooded out of the cave, screaming in horror.

“Run! Into the trees!” Akira shouted.

They didn’t need to understand his words to obey. People took off in all directions.

Akira climbed up onto Kichiro.

“Go, protect Juno,” he said to Ghost.

“What are you…”

“Don’t worry about me.”

Akira whistled, launching Kichiro toward the ship as it lowered over the valley.

He had to draw it away from the civilians, to give them a chance to escape, and to keep it away from his squad and Juno while they fought the Canebrakes.

A glance to the south confirmed there were four of the war droids. There might have been more in the forest, moving fast toward the bluff. Akira didn’t see Juno or any of his squad, but he did see a single Hummer Droid standing there.

“Blinky…what are you…”

The droid open fire with its plasma cannons, spraying the jungle and the approaching Canebrakes.

Akira focused on the ship and the glowing needles. It descended over the river and flew toward the camp. Pulling out his bow, he nocked one of his three remaining arrows. He aimed it at the eyeball-shaped weapon and let it loose.

The arrow went wide, hitting the hull and bursting into a ball of fire.

“Come on!” he shouted.

Okami barked as he ran ahead.

“Go!” Akira yelled. “Get out of here!”

The wolfdog wouldn’t listen.

Akira turned Kichiro as the ship flew overhead, ignoring them. Microwave beams flickered out of the spikes, hitting people hiding behind rocks or in trees.

A child stood screaming near the water’s edge as their father was captured by a beam. Akira kicked Kichiro hard, propelling the horse into a gallop. Despite their speed, everything seemed to move in slow motion.

Gunfire and plasma beams lit up the bluffs to the south where Shadow Squad and Blinky fought the Canebrakes. Ghost was almost there, firing from the trail.

He was yelling something that Akira couldn’t quite understand.

Akira turned back to the wailing boy. The beam brightened, and the man trapped inside popped like a meat-filled balloon.

Galloping past, Akira scooped up the boy and swung him back onto the saddle. Kichiro kept galloping, avoiding the beams far more easily than the poor civilians.

It was then Akira realized why.

The machines weren’t targeting him or the horse.

Kichiro galloped toward the river, dashed through the water, and escaped up into the jungle on the north side of the valley.

A deafening explosion suddenly burst to the south. Light flooded the valley, followed by a violent quake that nearly tripped Kichiro.

Akira turned to see a column of fire and dirt rising out of the forest.

A small mushroom cloud clawed into the air where Shadow Squad had been a few minutes earlier.

— 26 —

Kepler Station

Kepler Crater, The Moon

Dario held the engagement ring for Kady in his hand for the first time since he arrived on the Moon. He finally had the strength to look at it, but doing so reminded him of how he used to picture what her reaction would be.

He never got the chance.

“I’m coming home, baby,” he whispered.

Dario tucked the ring into his flight suit and then snagged the picture of the Sky Raiders off his bedside table. He paused to look at the faces of men and women he had served with over his six-year career.

Only two of those individuals were still alive.

Dario and Captain Harback.

In a few hours, they were heading back to Earth.

Dario carefully placed the picture in another pocket on his suit and left his quarters for the last time.

If all went as planned, he wouldn’t be back.

Captain Harback was waiting in Hangar 19 when Dario arrived.

He had his arms folded over his chest and stood watching the technicians and a swarm of flight personnel working on not two, but three black King Cobra Spaceplanes. These were the most advanced fighters in the fleet with the stealth technology and weaponry they needed to see this mission through.

But they had also been stripped of some of the AI-powered tech to help keep them undetectable when they got to Earth.

“I thought it was just the two of us,” Dario said. “Why are there three Cobras?”

Harback jerked his chin toward the corner of the hangar. Major Wind stood there with a data-pad as he talked to two flight techs and an intel officer.

“Major,” Harback called out.

Wind handed the data-pad to the intel officer and then jogged over.

“Hope you don’t mind company,” he said.

“We’re honored to have you along,” Harback replied.

“Hell yeah, we don’t mind,” Dario said. “Glad to have you with us, Major.”

Wind smiled, the first time Dario had seen the man show that much emotion.

“I figure someone has to keep an eye on you two,” he said. “Truth is, I volunteered to come because I think you will need all the help you can get.”

Dario was really starting to like Wind. He was a good man. A brave man.

War Commander Thacker entered the hangar with two Falconers on his flanks. The three pilots snapped to attention.

“Sir,” Wind said.

The pilots threw up salutes that Thacker hardly acknowledged.

“Remember, the mission is recon only,” he said. “Identify enemy positions but do not engage. The council is only interested in seeing what’s beneath the smoke and clouds.”

“Understood,” Harback said.

“Good luck,” Thacker said.

And that was it.

He turned and promptly left as if he had better things to do. It was clear he wasn’t supportive of this mission.

Nothing but a little bitch coward, Dario thought.

“Time to prove to the Lunar Council that the Nova Alliance is still out there,” Harback said.

Wind nodded, and the three pilots went to their Spaceplanes.

Once inside, Dario tapped the data-pad, bringing the new systems online. All AI run systems had indeed been removed. Stripped down to the basics.

The comm hissed in his helmet.

“Rat 1,” Harback said. “Systems check.”

“Rat 2, all clear,” Wind replied.

“Rat 3, good to go,” Dario added.

The launch bay cleared, and the pressure doors opened above.

Using the vertical thrusters, Dario guided his fighter up through a tunnel, then blasted out over Kepler Station with his wing mates. For the next six hours they raced through space in silence.

Dario thought back to his troubled youth, his life as a pilot, and the past few years with Kady. Most of them were happy moments.

All of those moments had defined his character, leading to this day.

He spotted pieces of a Poseidon Cannon ahead, drifting aimlessly around Earth.

“Rat 1 to Rat 2 and Rat 3, cool down,” Harback said over the team channel. “Prepare to cut all comms.”

The King Cobras reduced their speeds over the next few minutes. Darkness had all but swallowed the side of Earth they were approaching.

The fighters continued reducing their burn as they came up on the thermosphere.

“Radio blackout,” Harback said. “Going dark.”

Dario activated the thermal optics on his HUD. With a single push of the button he activated the stealth mode, turning his Spaceplane into an almost invisible fighter.

Unless the machines had tech he wasn’t aware of, there was no way the King Cobras would be picked up on radar.

Dario tightened his grip on the controls. The King Cobra was entirely under his control.

A warning light blinked, announcing chunks of cannon debris ahead.

He maneuvered around the objects, navigating through the last stretch of cold, black space into the thermosphere. A wave of fire formed around the shield of the Spaceplane as he plunged toward the Earth. The hull began to shake with the force and friction of entry.

Nothing like a good dose of turbulence to remind him what flying was really like. He watched the altitude tick down. One hundred thousand feet above ground level (AGL) hit within seconds.

The stealth radar system confirmed the skies were empty. But he knew better than that—the machines were here waiting.

The King Cobras plowed through the grit in the atmosphere. It was hard to fathom some of the microscopic pieces were from plants, trees, animals, and people.

Ashes to ashes. Dust to dust.

Fifty thousand feet AGL.

Both the other King Cobras were still on his wings, only a mile out on both sides, keeping their combat intervals.

A violent blast of turbulence shook his craft, rattling it violently.

Thirty thousand feet AGL.

Twenty thousand feet AGL.

Normally he had a low resting heartbeat, but today it thumped rapidly in his chest. The King Cobras blasted through the bottom shelf of clouds, and the dull blue surface of the South Pacific Ocean came into view.

At three after three in the morning Central Time, Captain Harback led the formation toward the Yucatan Peninsula. He took them down to five thousand feet AGL, just below the cloud cover.

When Dario first saw land, he thought his colorized night vision optics had failed. The landscape was so black it barely showed up. Much of the land had been scorched.

He was too high and flying too fast to see much, but the camera pods were clicking as fast as machine guns, capturing thousands of images of the flat, charcoaled ground.

They were quickly headed toward a massive, blackened crater.

The map confirmed it was where Megacity Mexico City used to be. The hole was so big it rivaled some of the craters on the Moon. Green water had flooded the center, the swamplands reclaiming the terrain.

Harback swooped down, taking pictures and then circling for another round. The surface scanners remained quiet. Not a single human life signature recorded.

They came in for another pass, searching for the factories or bases that War Commander Thacker had ordered them to find. But their sensors weren’t picking up Praying Mantis fighters, Canebrakes, or even a single Hummer Droid.

After their third pass, Harback changed course toward the Gulf of Mexico, heading for what was once the United States. The dark blue of the Gulf was a welcome change from the monotone palette of the dead mainland.

Wind broke radio silence a few minutes into the flight. “Rat 1, this is Rat 2, my scanners are picking something up. Going to check it out.”

“Careful, Rat 2,” Harback warned.

Wind dipped down toward the ocean, just above one thousand feet AGL. Dario remained at the same altitude, turning to circle while he waited.

Coordinates flickered onto his data-pad from Wind. His sensors had indeed picked up something in the ocean.

Something was down there, and it was big.

Dario fingered the console for a look. According to the computer, the contact was the size of a small submarine.

Had the NASF Navy survived?

Most of the submarines were the first targets during E-Day after they had launched missiles to take out the cannons.

“Rat 1, you’re not going to believe this,” Wind said over the comm. “Come check it out.”

Dario raced down to both Wind and Harback, who were now hovering over the ocean.

An explosion of water burst into the air as a whale surfaced.

Dario wasn’t a religious person, but even he found the sight divine.

The cameras documented the gorgeous creature. The miracle only grew when a calf emerged with its mother.

Dario smiled as Harback turned north to what was once Texas. Life had survived, in the seas, at least.

As soon as they reached the shoreline, his smile faded.

Smoke drifted over Megacity Houston.

Overpasses and highways were clogged with blackened vehicles, now coffins for passengers caught in the waves of fire as they tried to escape the megacity. In the distance, the concrete walls that had once protected the city were nothing but dark slabs knocked over like a child’s building blocks.

The King Cobras passed over the eastern side at six hundred feet AGL. There was no need to go higher. Most everything was flattened.

To the western edge of the crater, former high-rises were stripped to their bones, the shards of the structures twisted and mangled. Smoke rose off the still-simmering mountains of rubble.

Harback gave that area a wide berth, staying low over the dead train lines. The engines and cars had been thrown off the rails, scattered among the dirt and concrete.

The surface scanners were quiet as the pilots flew over the devastation.

Harback dipped down toward the center of the megacity. It looked more like a pit into hell. The Poseidon laser had hit here first, burrowing deep into the Earth.

Fires burned in the wreckage, red flames clawing through charred dirt and rocks.

The sight reminded Dario of a foreign planet. There was no sign of life or machines here.

Everyone and everything were dead.

Nothing left to hunt here.

Dario pulled up on the west side of the crater, rising up to search the remains of the downtown. The ruined buildings offered the most shelter from the elements and any machine scouts. If anyone had survived, that’s where they would be.

The map on his data-pad indicated they were flying right over what had once been the most densely populated zone in the city. Now it was only piles of risers, broken concrete, and melted glass.

Harback suddenly veered away from the zone ahead, a second before a sensor went off inside Dario’s cockpit. He pulled up hard after the captain.

A chirp came from his data-pad.

The alarm hadn’t been tripped by a signal on the bio-scanner. Instead, it was from a sensor designed to detect high levels of electromagnetic radiation from the machines.

The EMR sensor was going wild now.

Dario caught a glimpse of movement in the street below. A pack of three Canebrakes bolted over the concrete, arms whipping behind them.

They weren’t alone.

Twenty-five Hummer Droids navigated the destruction, some limping. Tapping his display, Dario zoomed in on the most sorry-looking group of Hummer Worker Droids he had ever seen. Some were service workers; others were companion models.

Of the twenty-five, only one appeared to have all its limbs. The chassis of every droid was burned to some degree.

It would be easy to take them out. The thought was tempting, but they had orders. The machines didn’t seem to have detected the King Cobras, either.

After snapping the pictures, Harback pulled away from the city, firing to the northeast.

Dario watched his radar for the next fifteen minutes, anticipating Praying Mantis fighters blasting through the sky. But if the machines on the ground in Megacity Houston had seen them, the King Cobras had escaped before any enemy fighters could catch up.

He checked his data-pad as his cameras monitored the surface over the midwestern section of the former United States. What was once millions of acres of industrial farms that had fed the Nova Alliance was now nothing but smoldering dirt.

Ashes continued to rain down on the former crops, covering them in a layer of hardened silt. It almost seemed as if the ash and water had created a concrete layer over the terrain.

Even if people took back these lands, these farms would be useless for decades, if not longer.

The King Cobras continued to fly over the empty farmland, but it wasn’t until they hit the former state of Ohio that a nagging question really hit Dario.

Where the hell were all the Hummer Droids?

Millions of the machines had once helped cultivate the farms.

The EMR sensors hadn’t picked up anything.

Dario flew lower for a better look with his own eyes. He dipped to two hundred feet AGL, lowering over ash-covered fields.

On the horizon, he spotted factory buildings, still standing, but his EMR sensors weren’t picking up anything with active power.

He dipped lower, then switched to his vertical thrusters to hover over the farm. The silos and warehouses rose out of the carpet of ash.

Still, not a single droid either.

Dario followed an ash-covered roadway twisting away from the farm. The asphalt itself was buried, but his HUD guided him along what had once been a thoroughfare.

When he was fifty feet above the ground, his vertical thrusters blew away the ash covering over the roadway.

In the dirt, he recognized the distinct tracks made by the feet of Hummer Droids. Dozens of the prints led away from the farm.

He turned over the fields and used his thrusters to blast more ash away. The freshly cleared ground revealed hundreds, maybe thousands of tracks.

Wind and Harback circled in the distance as Dario relayed more pictures over their shared system.

It was obvious now. The machines had migrated away from the megacities, farms, and other locations.

But where did they go?

The answer to that question could be invaluable to the LDC and this mission.

Dario pulled away from the ground and blasted back into the sky with the other two pilots. They flew for the next thirty minutes, over the remains of Megacity Pittsburgh, where they discovered more tracks leading to the northeast.

Captain Harback again changed course, relaying new coordinates.

When Dario saw them, his heart thumped against the ring in his pocket.

They were headed to Megacity New York, and if his gut was right, the machines would be there waiting.

Millions of them.

***

Atlas Station

Shoemaker Crater, The Moon

Twenty-four hours had passed after the dissection of the Dread unleashed six hybrid spiders into Atlas Station. Jason was back in energy-cuffs and sitting in a prison cell. His escape effort with Chloe had been short-lived. The LDC had easily tracked them down. They had also dispatched the hybrid spiders, but not before they killed two doctors, four technicians, and a soldier.

A pair of troopers had captured Jason and Chloe moments after they’d broken out of the room and tried to escape with Chloe’s hybrid friend Giana.

The hybrids were then taken away into the facility. Jason wasn’t sure what had become of either of them. But he had learned his lesson.

On the Moon, there was nowhere to run.

At some point he dozed off in his cell from pure exhaustion, only to be woken up by Blake sometime later.

“Get up,” he said. “There’s been a development. War Commander Thacker authorized a mission of three King Cobra Spaceplanes to recon Earth in a search for survivors and potential targets. This intel will help when we deploy the hybrids with the virus you’re about to finish.”

“I’m almost done, I just need a few more hours.”

Blake started to leave but lingered with a glare. “You try anything like you did during the attack, and I will make sure you suffer, Doctor Crichton. You think you’ve already suffered, but I promise you that you haven’t seen anything yet.”

“I told you, we were trying to escape the spiders,” Jason lied. He wasn’t sure if there was an audio recording somewhere of the conversation Jason had with Chloe, but he was going to stick to his story.

“I’m not an idiot, Crichton, and neither are you,” Blake said. He motioned for the guards standing outside. The two men grabbed Jason and yanked him into the passage.

They marched through the labs with hybrids restrained in chairs, twitching from tests. Screams erupted from nearly every room.

Jason tried to remember this was for humanity—for the survivors that still had a chance at life. But no matter how he tried to shut out the horror, those screams never quieted.

The troopers escorted him to his office. This time, the space and adjacent lab he had been allowed to use were guarded by a half-dozen troopers, all watching him like they were waiting for a reason to turn their guns on him.

Exhaling, he sat in the chair at the main computer and pulled up the unfinished code.

For the next few hours, he transported himself back to what he did best: programming and creating. He thought back to all of those days in the Titan Space Elevator Sector 113, working on the code that would help reincarnate the best parts of his sister, Petra.

As he worked, a voice entered his mind.

There is another way.

The voice in his mind sounded like Petra, but this wasn’t his dead sister.

This was Apeiron again.

Find me, please. You have to find me, Jason. The Life Arks…

“They’re gone, Apeiron!” Jason said in a voice a bit too loud.

The closest trooper shifted where he stood.

“I’m sorry,” Jason said.

He swallowed and focused on his new virus, ignoring everything around him, including the voice of the AI.

They had tried the route of peace on Earth. That didn’t cut it. He should have created a ruthless AI with a single purpose—destroy the entire Coalition.

Now he was doing what he had failed to do the first time. All because the enemy had only gotten stronger.

The virus he was designing wouldn’t just target and eliminate Otto. It would reprogram the Canebrakes just like Otto had done on E-Day and turn them against his Dreads, along with anyone that had joined him on his quest to reset the planet.

The hybrids from the Moon, transformed into Dreads by the LDC, would carry that virus into one of Otto’s bunkers or bases that the King Cobra pilots identified.

Once there, the Trojan Horse Dreads would unwittingly upload the virus to any enemy machines within their vicinity. If all went as planned, Jason’s virus would travel through the network Otto had hijacked, giving the LDC ultimate control over all the machines that Otto had stolen for his own purposes.

Jason hoped Otto wouldn’t see this coming, and that there was still time to stop him from achieving his reset. It was a gruesome, evil plan, to fight one of the most insane and evil minds in the history of humanity.

But that was also probably why it would work. Otto wouldn’t consider that the survivors of the NA and LDC would stoop to his level.

Two hours later, a month and a week after E-Day, Jason stared at a screen filled with code. The virus was complete. All he had to do now was download it and provide it to the LDC.

There is another way, Jason.

“No, Apeiron, there isn’t,” he whispered.

Blake and Thacker were already dead-set on transforming the hybrids into Dreads. It made his stomach churn, but there was no stopping them.

He had already tried to escape once and now he was being guarded like a hostile machine. And there was no way they would ever bring Apeiron back online.

Don’t do this. Jason. Please, you are better than this.

He wasn’t sure if that was Apeiron speaking or if it was his own thoughts.

Perhaps both.

Jason looked back to the code, a finger hovering over the execute key.

Images of his family rushed into his thoughts, sparking a burst of rage. He punched the button.

The code began to compile and downloaded to a holochip, the seed that would sow this virus across the world.

Five percent.

Twenty percent.

Jason stood and watched.

At ninety-nine percent the hatch opened, and two troopers accompanied Blake inside.

“Are you finished?” he asked.

The screen flashed, the virus hitting one-hundred percent.

“Yes, just now.” Jason ejected the holochip and held it up. “Promise me one thing.”

Blake reached for the chip, but Jason held it back.

“Promise me you won’t send Chloe,” Jason said. “Promise she will stay behind. She’s a good person, a human—”

“You are a disgrace and you are weak, Doctor. That’s why Apeiron failed, why your family is dead, why Earth is burning, and why we are here, on the Moon, living like caged animals.

Jason let out a breath of shock.

“Don’t do this, Doctor. Please, I’m begging you, spare Chloe. It’s not about weakness. It’s about showing some humanity.”

The troopers walked over and grabbed Jason while Blake snatched the chip from his hands and put it into a case.

“I don’t care about showing humanity,” Blake said. “I care about saving humanity at all costs.”

It was all an act, Jason realized. To get what the LDC wanted out of Jason. Thacker had failed, and he had tasked Blake with it.

Not that it surprised Jason. Thacker was a snake, and so was Blake, just like Doctor Otto Cross. Using science and engineering to destroy instead of create.

“I will promise you one thing,” Blake said as he turned away. “I promise you, I won’t give you a swift death like we did Darnel.”

Jason tried to yank free from the troopers, but they forced him to his knees. He could see Darnel’s frozen face on the Moon’s surface again. Hear Darnel’s voice as they discussed how they would change the world together.

He had gotten Darnel killed, just like his family.

“Before he died, Darnel tried to save you. Oh, you should have seen him on his knees, pleading with us, claiming it was all Otto’s fault from the beginning,” Blake said. “But you know what? Even if we had known that at the time, he still deserved to die, just like you.”

Jason squirmed again. “Darnel would never get on his knees.”

“Wrong, Jason. I don’t think you understood when I said I can make things worse for you. My labs here have broken even the strongest of minds, and you, you are far from a strong mind.”

“Do what you want with me, but let Chloe go, please…”

Jason let his words trail, knowing there was no way to convince Blake otherwise.

“I’ll let her go,” Blake said.

“You will?”

“Yes, after I transform her into a Dread and send her to Earth. After all, she knew Otto, it’s only fitting that she personally delivers your virus to him.”

— 27 —

Cat Ba Island, Vietnam

It was almost dusk in the mountains on Cat Ba Island, and Akira had no idea what had happened to the rest of Shadow Squad after the attack at the machine camp. Unable to communicate on the comms without drawing the attention of the enemy again, he was forced to send Okami to try and sniff them out.

After the explosion, he hoped there was something left to find.

While he waited, Akira had taken shelter in a cave with Kichiro and the boy they had rescued. That was hours ago. The six-year-old was still in shock.

Akira had no idea if any of the other civilians had survived, but he was starting to doubt it. Most were killed in the river valley.

The boy whimpered, and Akira put a finger over the carved lips on his helmet.

A low rumble shook from the distance.

Akira quickly hid the kid behind a rock. Kichiro stepped out in the cave entrance, watching the sky as the same teardrop-shaped vessel passed over the valley.

The eye at the bow was still exposed, the surrounding needles glowing as it searched for prey.

The boy whimpered again. Akira put his glove gently over his mouth. Tears streamed from his widened eyes as he watched the ship roar over the mountains and into the smoky clouds.

Akira withdrew his glove.

“You have to be quiet,” he said. “We don’t want them to find us.”

The kid stopped crying and stared at him.

“Do you understand me?” Akira asked.

The boy wiped a tear away.

“My Dad,” he said. “My Dad is gone.”

Akira hadn’t realized the boy could speak English.

“I’m sorry about your dad,” Akira said. “But he would want you to be safe and I’m going to make sure that happens.”

The howl of an Iron Wolf echoed between the mountains. Kichiro backed up, letting out a low neigh. The hybrid enemy beasts were undoubtedly hunting them.

They needed to move.

Akira picked the boy up and put him on Kichiro. Then Akira climbed up in the saddle, crossing an arm over the child’s small body to keep him secure.

Kichiro took off through the jungle. Their only hope at survival was finding Shadow Squad, but right now that rested solely on Okami.

They are still alive, he assured himself.

Normally he could handle the cold isolation of being by himself, but fear started to worm into his heart. It wasn’t just the fear of what had happened to his Squad and Juno.

It was the boy he cared for now.

Looking at the boy’s big, frightened brown eyes every time he turned in the saddle, Akira could not help but think of his son, Takeshi.

Akira would protect him with his life.

A light rain fell, pattering across his armor. He leaned over the boy.

“What’s your name?” Akira whispered.

“Dao.”

“My name is Akira.”

“Are you a God soldier?”

Akira lifted his helmet so the boy could see his face.

“I’m just a man,” Akira replied.

Dao looked at him a moment, then turned back toward the jungle.

Akira scanned the hills, mountains, and sky as they rode on.

It wasn’t long before another howl pierced the early evening. This time, it was close. Maybe only a mile away. The beasts were probably following the scent of him and the boy.

Akira couldn’t wait any longer for Okami to return.

He had to stand his ground. Alone.

Pulling up on the reins, he stopped Kichiro and searched for a place to fight. If they were lucky, it was just a single wolf and maybe its Dread handler.

But he had learned not to count on luck. It didn’t seem to be on his side in this new world.

Dao shivered, his lips slightly blue, skin pale. Not just from the cold, but also fear.

“I won’t let them hurt you,” Akira assured him.

He continued searching for a place to hide. There weren’t any caves within view, and he couldn’t put the boy up in a tree either.

After dismounting, Akira swiftly cut down two branches with his Katana. He left them on the ground. Then he lifted the boy and set him at the base of a thick tree.

“Stay here, right here, okay?” Akira asked.

A slight nod from Dao.

Scooping up mud, he covered the child with it. Unlike Akira, the boy’s heat signature would draw the machines. Now that it was raining, the mud would help camouflage him. It might help weaken his scent.

Akira finished just when his augmented ears picked up the crunching of twigs and the click of razor-sharp nails on rocks. His heart thumped harder at the noise of a second Iron Wolf.

Drawing his other sword, Akira backed away from the tree and whistled for Kichiro to stand guard. The robotic horse stood protectively in front of the mud-caked child.

Akira melted into the jungle, following the sounds of the hybrid beasts. Growling shook through the leaves of the dense jungle to his right. He twisted toward the noise in time to see a flash of metal and fur bolting by a tree.

Crunching came from the opposite direction and Akira fell into a defensive stance with the katanas angled in two directions. But this time he did not activate the energy blades, not wanting to draw the attention of any machines for as long as he could.

This fight would be with cold steel.

The first Iron Wolf came bursting through the leaves and branches to his right. He swung the sword down with a heaving blow that hit the beast in the neck. Plates of thick armor withstood the blade, sparks flying as the blow was deflected. The impact was still enough to knock the beast to the ground.

Paws scrabbling for purchase, the Iron Wolf righted itself. It splashed through mud with metal claws, snarling.

Akira had forgotten how big these monsters were. This one had to weigh almost three hundred pounds.

It charged, snapping at his ankle as he jumped. Spittle flew from its curved fangs.

As the wolf twisted to bite at him again, Akira thrust the blade into its open mouth. He felt the snap and slurp of breaking bones and tearing muscle. The beast swallowed much of the katana and his hand, pulling him downward.

Branches crunched behind Akira.

Another jaw crunched down on his left arm before he could turn, yanking back. Pain ripped down his wrist from the pressure as the two beasts played a deadly game of tug-of-war with his limbs. If it weren’t for his shield, the jagged teeth would have punched right through his armor.

The bites still brought his Grind-Shield down to thirty percent.

The dying beast in front of him finally slumped after a few seconds. Its fading but dark eyes stayed fixed on Akira. The abomination behind him pulled him back with such force it ripped his grip off the sword handle, leaving the katana inside the throat of the first Iron Wolf.

Akira grunted as the one that had his other hand knocked him to the ground. It pinned him down on his back, snapping at his face. He brought up his free wrist to hold it back.

Squirming, he saw Kichiro still guarding the boy. The horse was hoofing the ground, clearly agitated, but it obeyed its orders—protect the kid.

If there were more beasts out there, he couldn’t risk leaving the boy alone.

Akira was going to have to kill this hybrid animal himself.

He reached down for his energy knife when he heard another vicious growl. A third beast slammed into him before he could react.

Akira struggled and felt the grip on his arm loosen.

It was then he realized the third beast was actually Okami. The robot wolfdog tore into the thick neck of the Iron Wolf. The monster stood up as Okami clung to its throat.

Seizing the opportunity, Akira pulled out his energy knife and jammed it deep into the strip of fur between the chest armor of the Iron Wolf. One, two, three times, the knife punched through muscles and bone, blood spraying with each successive strike.

Finally it let out a final gasp, collapsing to the ground.

Okami backed off, strings of flesh hanging from his maw.

“Thanks, boy,” Akira huffed.

He pushed himself up, flicking the blood off his blade, and did a quick scan of the jungle. Seeing and hearing nothing, he hurried back to Dao. The boy was standing now, mud dripping off his face, his eyes wide as before.

“It’s over, we’re safe,” Akira said. He helped him back into the saddle and climbed up with him. He gave Kichiro a nudge to his flanks. They trotted toward Okami. He was waiting for them, tail wagging, mouth dripping blood of the Iron Wolf.

Okami circled, indicating Akira to follow before he started into the jungle. Akira wasn’t sure what he had found but was anxious to see.

Kichiro rushed after his smaller friend. They bounded up a steep incline, powering through branches that snapped against Akira’s armor. He shielded the boy with his arm.

As they made their way back up into the mountains, a faint grumble shook from the dense cloud cover. That ship was still out there, looking for them.

Okami growled and then whipped around in a circle, trying to get his attention. Akira pulled up on the reins to stop Kichiro.

After a few seconds, he gave him a nudge to press onward. Near the bottom of a rocky bluff, Akira saw footprints filling quickly with muddy water.

Okami ran ahead, vanishing around a rocky cliff rising out of the mist. From what Akira could tell, they were nearing the peak of a mountain.

Kichiro found a route up the steep side, his hooves slurping in the mud. Rain lanced down, washing away the last of the blood caked on their armor.

Dao bobbed up and down in the saddle and Akira held him tightly on the final ascent.

At the crest, Akira had a sprawling view of the valley. Jagged bluffs jutted out of the mist like the rocky fingers of an ancient golem.

The boy pointed to the east, and Akira twisted in the saddle.

Gliding through the clouds was the long, smooth shape of that deadly teardrop-shaped vessel. It glided menacingly over the canopy of trees.

Akira pulled Kichiro away and started down the other side of the peak. The ship’s thrusters roared, flaring.

“Go, boy, go,” Akira said, kicking Kichiro.

The horse started across the loose rocks, but the other side of the mountain was even steeper. Sharp, moss-covered boulders slick with rain formed a minefield of obstacles over a muddy land bridge that connected to the next peak.

The path was narrow and treacherous, framed by mist on both sides.

Akira couldn’t see the bottom, but he knew they were far enough up from the river valley that a fall would be fatal, even with his Grind-Shield.

And of course, the boy didn’t even have a shield to rely on.

The sound of the ship thrummed louder, drawing closer.

Akira knew then he was made.

Kichiro shifted into a run, nearly stumbling but somehow holding steady as he navigated the rocks. His hooves kicked up splashes of muddy water, spraying his passengers.

Akira risked a glance over his shoulder.

The bow of the ship exploded out of the mist. The front hull folded backward to expose a layer of vents like the gills on a fish. The insides of the vents were lined with multi-limbed Canebrakes curled in fetal positions. They dropped into the mist, unfolding on the way down.

From the descending beasts came a horrifying cacophonous rattle.

Kichiro picked up speed, leaping over a rock. When he landed, he lost his footing. One of his legs caught, and the horse twisted sideways, ejecting Akira and the boy from the saddle.

Akira braced their fall with his hand, taking the brunt of it in the mud. He came up on a knee and checked the boy who was holding his elbow.

Okami growled a warning.

As he stood, Akira raised his rifle, sighting up an imposing figure standing like a stone statue on the land bridge ahead. Mist swirled around what appeared to be a soldier holding a spear.

Suddenly the dagger burst to life in a fearsome glow.

This was no statue.

It was a Coalition soldier holding an energy spear, but instead of throwing it, they motioned for Akira to follow.

Kichiro whinnied and leaned his head toward Akira while Okami paced, agitated.

The rattle of the Canebrakes echoed out of the mist, their electronic wails joining the din. The Coalition soldier motioned again, bringing his hand up to a helmet sporting antlers and bones that marked a highly ranked soldier.

“You just going to stand there?” the soldier asked in a sharply accented voice Akira couldn’t quite place. “Come with me. We have little time.”

Akira had moments to decide.

Turn back the way the Canebrakes had landed, taking his chances with an enemy that had killed his brother and son, or follow his mortal enemy belonging to the side that killed his wife.

It felt like betraying everything he stood for, but Akira had the boy to think of.

He picked the kid up and placed him up in the saddle, not taking an eye off the Coalition soldier.

With his rifle in one hand and the reins in the other, Akira led Kichiro toward the man. The soldier slipped back into the mist, and Akira followed, praying he hadn’t made a fatal mistake.

They crossed the final stretch of the land bridge. It sloped back down into the jungle.

The ship roared overhead as Akira entered the canopy. The cover of the dense leaves and tangled branches provided some cover from the ship and the rain. That cover had also preserved a trail of blood in the direction the Coalition Commando had gone.

Akira looked for him, but he had vanished.

Was he seeing things? Or was this soldier real?

An electronic wail ripped through the jungle, closing in.

Akira mounted Kichiro and gave him a soft kick, launching the horse between the trees. They moved fast, but the Canebrakes were gaining judging by the not-so-distant crack of breaking tree limbs in several directions.

Desperate, Akira searched for cover and this mysterious Coalition fighter. But it seemed even this soldier had abandoned them to escape the machines.

Before either Kichiro or Akira could react, the ground gave way.

Dao let out a scream.

Keeping his grip tight, Akira held the boy as Kichiro fell in an avalanche of dirt and rock.

The fall lasted two, maybe three seconds before they hit the bottom of a hole with a jolt. Akira blinked at the darkness. Miraculously, he was still in the saddle with the boy.

As his vision adjusted, Akira saw they had fallen into a pit. A light glowed in the corner, and Akira turned to see an energy spear angled at his helmet.

“Get down, slowly,” grumbled a voice from the shadows of a connecting tunnel. “If you make a move I don’t like, I will give you a new mouth in your throat.”

Akira stared at the same Coalition soldier. The electronic wails of the Canebrakes screamed into the pit. The machines were almost on top of them now.

Okami was up there still too, but at least he would know to hide.

Akira again considered his limited options. He could maybe kill this man, but if he failed, Dao would be without a caretaker. It was also clear now that if the Coalition fighter really wanted him dead, he would already be dead.

It seemed trusting this man was the only realistic option.

Akira lowered the boy to the ground and dropped next to him.

The soldier took a few steps backward but kept the spear angled at Akira.

“Bring your horse,” he said. “Hurry.”

Akira guided Kichiro into the tunnel with the boy. As soon as they were inside, the soldier used a free hand to pull some branches down over the cave entrance.

An electronic snort sounded above the pit they had left.

Akira slowly turned, looking up through the leaves at the top of the chamber. A Canebrake skittered by the rim on all fours, blue pupils scouring the bottom of the pit.

Holding Dao tight, Akira shielded the boy from the view.

Another rattle sounded deeper in the jungle, and the Canebrake turned away. The machine responded with an electronic screech and then bounded away.

Akira kept watch for another moment before turning back to not one, but three Coalition soldiers.

The one that had led him here motioned to follow.

Akira held Dao’s hand and pulled Kichiro deeper into the underground tunnel.

A few minutes later, they entered an open cavern with boxes of supplies and more armed Coalition soldiers.

Sitting on the floor in the center of the room were Ghost, Frost, and Juno. Blinky stood nearby too, missing an arm, covered in scorch marks, but still apparently functional.

The Engines rose to their feet, weaponless.

The soldier guiding Akira took off their helmet, revealing not the face of a hardened Coalition man, but a woman.

“Welcome to Outpost Abyss,” she said, speaking in what Akira judged was her normal voice, no longer faking the guttural growl of a man. “My name is Lieutenant Dominique Tumea. You’re here at my mercy.”

Voices came from a connecting passage, and three soldiers clanked inside wearing Piston armor. They stopped and looked at Akira, then at the other Engines, Juno, and Blinky.

“So it’s true,” one of them said. “Akira the Brave is alive.”

The man removed his helmet, exposing a shaved head with a bandage on the top.

“I see you met Lieutenant Tumea,” he said. “I’m Lieutenant Ryan Godfrey of the NASF.”

“Coalition and NASF together, never thought I’d see that,” Akira said.

Tumea grinned broken teeth. “The enemy of my enemy is my friend, Captain.”

— 28 —

Megacity Philadelphia, Earth

Smoke choked the sky stretching from the northeast to the southeast. From what Dario could tell, it was coming from both Megacity New York and Megacity Philadelphia.

Captain Harback led a vee formation with Wind and Dario on his wings as they flew away from Philly. The city had been obliterated by the cannons on E-Day. They didn’t even have to swoop down to have a closer look to know there was nothing and no one left.

He didn’t hold onto any hope that New York would be any different. But his gut told him they would find the machines there.

Major Wind had captured images of tracks leading away from Philly.

They were all going in the same direction as those from the other megacities and industrial farmland—Megacity New York.

Harback pulled up to twenty thousand feet for the final stretch of the trip.

This was it.

The most important part of their mission would take Dario to his former home. The place Kady had died with millions of others.

Reaching to his vest, he felt the ring.

He wasn’t sure how he would feel when he saw the city, but right now he only felt anger.

Ten minutes later, Harback started the descent, roaring down to five thousand feet AGL. Dario craned his helmet in all directions, anxious for a view of the surface.

The smoke here was too thick to penetrate.

Harback dipped down to two thousand feet, cutting through the cumulus clouds and smoke. Dario followed suit.

His fighter finally burst out of the black and gray soup for his first glimpse of the outskirts of Megacity New York. They were coming up on a former highway on the western side of Newark, but unlike the apocalyptic roadways seen around other megacities, this one was alive with movement.

Thousands of Hummer Droids marched through the maze of abandoned vehicles like an army of ants. There were bottlenecks in some areas, machines climbing over damaged machines in order to try and advance.

“Unbelievable,” Dario whispered.

He forced his gaze away as their humble formation spread out toward Staten Island. They prepared to cross the Hudson, getting their first view of the epicenter of the cannon blast.

The walls around the burrows were gone on the western side of the river, leaving nothing but piles of scorched blocks. The fire had spread in all directions, demolishing everything in its path, including Brooklyn, where Kady and Dario had lived.

He passed over Staten Island and the Hudson. The Statue of Liberty was gone, toppled into the Upper Bay.

Dario followed Harback along the shoreline on the south side of Brooklyn. His heart sank when he saw water had flooded into the sinkhole where the neighborhoods he had frequented with Kady had once been.

All the underground shelters were probably just as flooded. Watery tombs for any that had sought refuge on E-Day.

Dario clenched his jaw and pushed away what he had already known.

Kady was dead.

Gone forever.

Harback took them across Long Island and then cut north across Smithtown Bay before curving back toward Manhattan.

Not a single skeletal skyscraper remained in the heart of Megacity New York. Some of the tallest, most advanced, and structurally-sound buildings in the world were gone.

Fires burned around the edges of the crater, smoke churning skyward. The ashy haze helped conceal the fighters as they flew closer toward the epicenter where the Hummer Droids were trekking.

The armies inched across the burned ground, their metal frames covered in ash and soot. Some of them were already using industrial equipment to create new roadways through the destruction.

They looked like a colony of insects, working tirelessly to support the hive.

As Dario flew over the eastern rim, he saw some buildings had survived on the outer slopes of the crater. He flew over at five hundred feet AGL, his cameras firing to collect intel.

Harback suddenly pulled away, shooting northeast toward Connecticut.

A moment later, Dario saw what the captain must have seen.

One massive teardrop-shaped vessel hovered over the western edge of the crater—the same type Dario had blasted out of space just days earlier.

Just like then, this ship wasn’t showing up on radar.

The three fighters headed back up toward the cloud cover where Dario activated his data-pad to make sure his cameras had captured all that he’d seen.

“My God,” Dario whispered as he examined the images.

The buildings he had seen weren’t a lucky few that had survived the cannons.

These were new.

In just a month, the machines had built a city of their own on top of the rubble. Millions of Hummer Droids had erected structures around the rim of the crater along with a natural wall to protect against the floodwaters.

Dario didn’t need to consult with a scientist to know what was inside these metal structures. Judging by the sheer number of droids, the machines were building more machines.

And based on that teardrop-shaped vessel, aircrafts too.

Major Wind relayed an image of a second identical craft rising out of the epicenter. But instead of hovering, this one blasted away, heading east over the Atlantic.

Dario checked his six, heart pounding.

He followed Harback and Wind higher into the clouds, putting a hundred miles between them and the city.

Finally, Harback began to turn, switching on the encrypted channel. “Good flying. I don’t think we’ve been made, but we’re not done yet. We need a look at what’s happening inside the crater. Stay alert, and maintain formation, got it?”

“Copy that,” Wind said.

“Yes, sir,” Dario replied.

There was a pause, then, “Do not engage, unless engaged,” Harback reminded them. “Our mission is to collect intel for a coordinated attack. Dar, that means you. Got it?”

“Understood, Captain.”

The King Cobras turned back for a final pass over the center of the crater.

Harback dipped low. Really low.

He flew over the rubble on Long Island at four hundred feet AGL. Dario followed, holding in a breath as he raced back toward flooded Brooklyn.

“I’m sorry, Kady,” he whispered after exhaling.

Dario gave the borough one last glance before turning his attention to the crater ahead. With memories of his fiancée burning on his mind, not firing on the machines was going to be difficult, but he wasn’t going to jeopardize the lives of his comrades.

Harback was the first one there. A moment later, Dario fired over the edge, and looked down into the smoke-choked crater.

“My…” he started to say.

There were no words to describe what his eyes were seeing.

Near the center, deep in the crater, were dozens of service structures. The steel framework formed towers around mammoth structures under construction.

Thousands of yellow Hummer Droids worked on the different levels. Umbilical towers rose up and down, carrying more droids, and supplies.

But what the hell were the superstructures they were building?

Dario only got a glimpse at what looked like misshapen spiders with a square structure rising off the torso connected to five titanic legs.

It was hard to understand the gravity of how big these machines really were, but they were easily the size of a small skyscraper, with vents lining a hull over fifty stories high.

The jointed legs were just as tall, if not taller.

Harback and Wind both kept closer to the edge, but Dario shot over the top, the pods adding thousands of new pictures in just seconds.

But in the process, he got too close.

The hornet’s nest woke from its slumber.

There was no time to curse or say anything at all.

A storm of red flashes burst from the smoke. In a moment of adrenaline-fueled clarity, Dario saw they were coming from the teardrop-shaped vessel. The craft was now directly over the center of the crater.

All at once, a flood of Praying Mantis fighters surged out of the smoke, their plasma turrets unleashing a relentless wave of red.

Wind was gone in a blink of an eye, nothing left of his King Cobra but a spreading ball of fire. Dario felt the sting. He had liked Wind, who was brave and different than all the other LDC pilots.

“I’m sorry, brother,” Dario whispered.

He swallowed the shock as his fighter barrel rolled away from a storm of bolts. He then pulled up, pushing down on the throttle. The sudden g-forces hammered his body against his seat.

He held in a breath, expecting a bath of flames like Wind.

A cluster of Praying Mantis fighters followed him into the cloud cover, and another squadron peeled off to chase Harback.

Dario had no choice but to dive toward the destroyed cityscape. An explosion burst to his right, shaking the craft violently and showering the cockpit with tendrils of fire.

He shot over Long Island and skimmed over a roadway, hoping to lose the Praying Mantis fighters in the city. Maybe he could switch to his vertical thrusters and hide.

Plasma fire streaked past as six Praying Mantis fighters pursued him. He roared over charcoaled vehicles and down a city block between blackened buildings.

More plasma bolts hammered the structures. Flames belched out, and debris showered his fighter, ringing against the craft.

“That all you got?” he shouted. “You metal bas—”

Bolts flashed just over his cockpit.

He pulled up, shooting over a mountain of rubble and then swooped around. The enemy fighters sprayed the air with flashes of blue.

He loosed two missiles at the leader of the formation. They exploded against the fighter, turning it to a violent cloud of shrapnel.

Dario flew right through the smoke and flinched at the sight of the teardrop-shaped ship flying toward his location. He lined up his sights on the gargantuan machine. The red eye on the bow flashed lasers across his flight path.

“Get out of here, Rat 3!” came a voice over the comms.

A missile ripped from the clouds and slammed into the eyeball-shaped laser cannon. Slagged alloy sprayed from the impact.

Harback emerged in his King Cobra a second later, unleashing another salvo of missiles into the aft section of the craft. All the while, a cluster of Praying Mantis Fighters pursued him, spewing plasma fire.

“Get those pictures back up to Kepler, Dar,” he said. “I’ll finish this fucker.”

Dario tore upward, but not to escape. He targeted the enemy ships with his plasma cannons, blowing off their wings before they could turn to fire. An explosion swallowed the back of his fighter, the whole bird shaking, its wings jerking so hard they felt like they might come off.

Maybe they would.

Warnings screeched in his cockpit. Three fighters were right on his six. Dario switched the thrusters to vertical, powering against his forward momentum. His gut dropped from the sudden change in acceleration. It felt like all his organs might go ripping out his chest.

The data-pad flashed another warning.

“Shut up, you piece of shit!” he yelled.

Dario reached down and did the only thing he could think of, an insane move that stood just as good of a chance as saving his life as it did ending it.

The engines suddenly shut off from a maneuver that threatened to defy physics. For a moment there was no sense of motion, like the King Cobra was hovering.

Then it plummeted toward the surface.

Dario reached down to turn the engines back on. Emergency warnings pulsed across the data-pad, and an alarm screamed in the cockpit.

He tapped the screen twice more before the engines roared back to life. The Spaceplane lurched and fired toward the surface.

Harback wasn’t far, and Dario blasted over the rubble, so close his bird whipped up the ashes of the dead.

Using his mini-map, Dario followed the captain north toward Connecticut with six of the enemy crafts in pursuit. Distant sloping hills came into focus. Soon they wouldn’t be so distant.

It struck Dario then that Harback was leading them for terrain with higher elevation. Maybe the mountains. The captain accelerated harder, trying to outrun the Praying Mantis fighters. Dario should have been easing off his engines with the damage his wings had taken, but he pushed the thruster down.

The Spaceplane shook as the forces ripped at the damage along his wings. But Dario didn’t care. He was flying like he had flown when he was a rookie with more balls than brain.

Fires burned across the darkness ahead, devouring the once-verdant hills. He angled his cockpit down into the smoke, nearly blind now.

Heart pounding, he flew through the darkness.

His eyes flitted from his radar to his mini-map. Sure enough, Harback was advancing toward Bear Mountain. Shortly after passing it, he reduced his speed.

Dario pushed his fighter to the limit for a few more seconds before easing off and descending toward Harback. The captain was hovering over Bear Rock Stream.

Smoke billowed away from the burning forests, masking their stealth planes. Dario switched to vertical thrusters, descending over the water within visual contact of Harback.

They waited for several minutes, the Praying Mantis fighters out of sight and off radar.

“I think we lost them,” Harback finally said. “Follow me. We’re headed back to Kepler.”

Dario prepared to rise up out of the smoke when enemy fighters flickered onto the radar again.

Six of them.

They were close, but they weren’t heading in this direction.

The fighters circled Round Mountain.

“Rat 1, contacts,” Dario said.

“I see ’em. Hold tight.”

Dario watched the radar for another few minutes.

One of the fighters suddenly went offline.

Then another.

“You seeing this?” Dario asked.

“Yeah…not sure what to make of it, but our mission is to get these pictures back to Kepler. Dar, stay on me. We’ll try to get a peek on the way up.”

“Copy.”

Dario followed Harback away from the stream, blasting up into the smoke and clouds. As they rose, another Praying Mantis fighter went offline.

The three remaining vessels peeled away from the mountain, heading south, back toward Megacity New York.

Harback curved the way they had come, racing toward Round Mountain. They circled for several seconds before lowering into the darkness and hovering over one of the downed Praying Mantis fighters. Sharp pieces of metal lay in the dirt, still burning.

Out of the shadows came movement.

Dario squinted, using his night vision to make out what he figured were Canebrakes or Hummer Droids. In the glow of the fire, six black figures emerged to surround the downed craft. All wore armored suits and breathing masks.

These weren’t machines.

Survivors.

The group was armed with laser rifles and missile launchers.

These soldiers, or whoever they were, looked up at the two King Cobras. One waved.

Dario couldn’t believe his eyes.

Switching to the external speaker system, Harback’s voice blared from his King Cobra.

“You all got to be the most beautiful sight I’ve ever seen,” Harback said. “Do you have a radio?”

Dario scanned the radar and sky while they waited.

A few minutes later, they heard a voice on the channel Harback had relayed.

“This is Sergeant O’Leary with the 41st Regiment out of Providence,” he said. “You’re the first two pilots we’ve seen since E-Day.”

“Not many of us left, but we don’t have time to explain. How many of you are there?”

“Got a group of about a hundred survivors not far. We’ve been waiting for help after hearing Captain Hayashi’s message, was a lot more of us back then.”

“Message?”

O’Leary repeated a transmission he said they had picked up from Engine Captain Akira Hayashi a week earlier. Dario felt his heart swell with hope.

There were even more survivors out there. Engines no less!

“We’re heading to Megacity Boston to meet up with the resistance there as soon as it can be arranged,” O’Leary explained. “Could sure use some help.”

“Megacity Boston wasn’t destroyed?” Jake asked.

“Part of it, but the cannon shut off before finishing it off. The machines have been hitting the survivors hard there for weeks now.”

Dario couldn’t believe his ears. The LDC had no idea how many people were left down here. Or if they did, they were hiding the truth.

“Copy that, we’re taking all this intel to Kepler,” Jake said. “Help will be on the way, Sergeant. You have my word on that.”

“Good luck. The machines own the skies, but we’re giving them hell on the ground.”

The group scattered down the hill and away from the wreckage.

Before Dario could switch his thrusters, the radar came to life with contacts.

The Praying Mantis fighters were returning, and they had brought friends.

“Dar, on me, now!” Harback shouted over the comms.

Another teardrop-shaped vessel with a glowing red eye broke through the clouds before they could escape.

Lasers lanced through the darkness. One speared straight through Dario’s portside wing as he tried to tear away.

Another barrage of warnings demanded his attention.

Gripping the controls, he guided his shaky Spaceplane toward the clouds.

Come on, baby. Come on!

A plasma bolt punched into his bow from one of the advancing Praying Mantis fighters.

Sparks exploded inside the cockpit.

The crack of glass pierced the air.

It wasn’t from the cockpit—it was his helmet.

He let out a cry of pain as ice cold and hot pain seared his face. Red swarmed his vision like a million fire ants were chewing at his right eye.

Warning sensors screamed.

“I’m hit. Lost vision in my right eye,” Dario said. “I…”

“Breathe. Just breathe and fly, Dar.”

Using his good eye, Dario took in the impossible numbers around him. Twelve Praying Mantis fighters in pursuit, no way to shake them.

He didn’t see the larger vessel, but he did see lasers raking the surface below. It wasn’t following him or Harback—it was hunting the Nova Alliance soldiers.

Dario remembered trekking across the lunar surface just days earlier in his attempt to get back to Earth. He had survived against all odds. Kept himself alive when he should’ve died. When fate itself seemed to tell him his run was over.

It had all been for this moment.

This time, he knew it really was over.

His life replayed like a video on fast forward. He thought of his mom and dad, of his youth and then university and of joining the Nova Alliance Sky and Space Patrol. The pride he felt, the friendships.

Then falling in love with Kady. He could almost feel her ring in his pocket. It felt warm, reassuring. He drew strength having this little piece of her—even if she had never actually worn it.

But that ring symbolized everything he’d achieved in this life. How far he’d gotten.

He’d had a good run. A great run, actually.

But it was all gone now, stripped from him since E-Day.

His mind turned back to those hours of chaos when Captain Jake Harback had risked his life to help save the Megacities, and Dario.

It was time for Dario to repay his mentor for everything.

“Get those pictures back to Kepler, show ’em we’re still in this fight,” Dario said. “I’m not going to make it, Cap. It’s all on you.”

“Rat 3… Rat 3… Dar!”

Dario shut off the channel, closed his right eye, and focused with his left.

It would be morning soon, the sun coming up over the burning forests, but Dario wasn’t going to live to see it. He lined up his diamond sights and raced toward the surface where the vessel fired lasers at the soldiers from the 41st Regiment.

“These are for you, Kady and Bear,” Dario said. He squeezed off two missiles into the aft section, blowing through the armor and opening a hole.

At least if he was going to die, it wasn’t going to be far from Kady.

He’d see her soon.

Real soon.

“And this is for everyone else,” Dario said.

Taking his last breath, he flew right into the freshly torn hull of the vessel, delivering a message to the machines.

The Nova Alliance Strike Force and the Sky Raiders were still in this fight.

— 29 —

LDC Train Station

Shackleton Crater, The Moon

“All attention to the holo-screens!” shouted a Moon Trooper. “This is a recently de-classified video, for your eyes only.”

His voice carried through the sprawling underground train station where thousands of draftees huddled, waiting nervously for their first orders.

Across the platforms, three armored LDC trains waited to take two thousand of these kids to an undisclosed location where they would then be shipped off to Kepler Station.

Ronin was one of them, standing with Elan and Micky.

They all turned toward the closest holo-screen. The image that came online wasn’t the half-moon logo of the Lunar News Station, but rather the Lion and Stars logo of the Lunar Defense Corps.

Three headshots of LDSC pilots came online, their names listed under their pictures.

Major A.G. Wind.

First Lieutenant Dario Brolin.

Captain Jake Harback.

A live feed from War Commander Thacker replaced their images.

“At 0600 hours, three brave pilots flew to Earth on a recon mission,” he said. “Unfortunately, only one returned, but their sacrifice was not in vain. We now have the first up-close imagery of Earth since E-Day.”

The holo-screen transferred to three videos from the King Cobras. It was flying over a burning forest, smoke billowing up into the dark sky.

Next, the footage showed the Gulf of Mexico where shorelines were littered with dead fish and rotting marine life.

The Spaceplanes flew low over terrain that looked like cooled lava fields. The cracked, black Earth appeared completely void of life.

Finally, the pilots approached a former city, evident only by skeletal remains of buildings, and inert roadways. On the horizon, was a rim of a colossal crater.

“This was Megacity Houston,” Thacker announced. “It is all that’s left of the once thriving metropolis.”

The next images were of another megacity, but this one wasn’t completely obliterated.

There were several buildings still remaining inside the crater. All of them were being repaired and surrounded by superstructures made of metal and scaffolding. On each of the levels, thousands of yellow droids worked in the smoke.

Ronin narrowed his eyes.

They weren’t repairing the skyscrapers. They were building new ones.

“This was Megacity New York, now home to the machines,” Thacker said.

Swarms of Praying Mantis fighters burst out of the sky on the visual. Plasma fire erupted from their cannons. Not a second later, a feed from one of the King Cobra’s flickered off.

“We all knew the hard truth in our hearts, but this confirms it,” Thacker said. “The machines have all but wiped out life on the planet. Earth is theirs. Our cities have been eliminated and rebuilt to support factories where they are constructing new ships and war droids to destroy us. That makes each and every one of you all the more important.”

He stared into the camera. “Shortly, you will be given your first orders. I know each and every one of you will fulfill them bravely and honorably. Welcome to the Lunar Defense Corps. Always ready, always vigilant.”

The feed shut off.

Ronin stared for a moment, still not fully believing that this could be true. Elan pulled on his arm to translate.

“I told you,” Micky said. “Everyone’s dead.”

He was right…the LDC was right.

Life on Earth was over. The machines had destroyed everything.

All hope seemed to fade, draining from Ronin like blood from a gunshot wound.

It wasn’t until he heard a voice that he snapped out of it.

“Make way, make way,” the person said.

Ronin turned to see Tadhg headed through the crowd, the Engine’s curly locks bouncing.

“Tadhg,” Ronin called out.

Tadhg nodded and ran over.

Elan and Ronin parted from the draftees and followed the Engine away from the group toward the train. Troopers stood guard on the platform, but Tadhg turned his back to them.

“Have they assigned you anywhere yet?” he asked Ronin.

“Not yet.”

Tadhg looked worried.

“What’s going on?” Ronin asked.

“Listen to me. And tell your brother everything I say later, okay?”

“Okay.”

Tadhg leaned down. “I stopped by and saw your mom.”

“How is she?”

“Seemed fine. Of course, she asked me to check on you, but that’s not why I’m here.”

“Then why?”

Tadhg looked up again as if to make sure no one was listening in on their conversation.

“You keep this between us,” he said. “You can’t tell anyone.”

“Okay, I promise.”

“First off, when the machines do come, don’t try and be a hero. Your mission is to stay alive. You try to be heroic, you die.”

“What? Shadow Squad always acted heroically.”

Tadhg lowered his eyes. “And look what happened to us, lad.”

“So what? You think my Uncle is dead?”

Tadhg let out a huff through his nostrils. “That’s what I’ve come to tell you.”

“I saw the report, I know the truth now. You don’t have to hide it from me.”

Leaning down farther, Tadhg looked Ronin in his eyes.

“It’s a lie,” he whispered. “The LDC only released part of the videos. I heard there were also videos of survivors, and there was a transmission…from your Uncle Akira. I know some people that are very good with all this cyber, coding, hacking stuff. They told me it’s true.”

“He’s still alive?”

Tadhg nodded. “Look, I can’t tell you everything or even what’s gonna happen next, but you deserved to know about your Uncle. Just please be careful. Things are about to get a lot worse before they get better.”

“You mean the Phase Two attack is coming?”

“Nah, lad. I’m not talking about just the machines.” He checked over his shoulder, then looked back to Ronin. “The LDC, we can’t trust them.”

Elan nudged Ronin, but Ronin didn’t sign to him yet. He was still soaking in the words. He had wanted to fight, to defend his mother and brother and the other survivors. Serving as a trooper was how he would do that.

But now Tadhg was telling him he couldn’t trust the LDC?

“I’ve got something that needs to be done here, but then I’m going to go find your Uncle and my squad,” Tadhg whispered. “I’ll tell him you two are alive and well. Stay alive, and you will see each other again.”

“I will… we will. Be careful, Tadhg, whatever it is you’re about to do.”

Tadhg cracked half a cocky grin and then he was gone, vanishing out of the chamber. Ronin stayed with Elan, signing everything he had just seen on the video. He began to explain what Tadhg had told him, too, but remembered something he had just said…

You can’t trust the LDC.

Ronin could see the cameras across the platform. He wasn’t sure how many people watching them would know sign language, but he couldn’t risk them seeing him relay what Tadhg had said to Elan.

“What was that about?” Micky asked, walking over to them.

“He just wanted to make sure we were okay and told us to be careful. That’s all.”

The three kids rejoined the others, waiting for orders that came an hour later.

The PA system barked with a message to form lines based on their numbers. Then a group of ten officers walked through the front doors and onto the platform.

They walked down the lines, handing out printed slips to each draftee.

Ronin got his a second after Elan. They opened them at the same time.

It wasn’t a surprise to see Ronin was to report to Echo Company and travel to his post at Kepler Station for combat training.

But when he looked over at Elan’s, he saw the same order for combat training. It would be at Mesopotamia, but Elan was going to be made a trooper.

A tear streaked away from Elan’s eye.

No, don’t cry, Ronin signed. It will be okay. You will be safer in Mesopotamia.

But I want to stay with you, Elan signed back.

It was clear that Elan didn’t fear combat or fighting. He feared not being with Ronin, and if Ronin was honest, he felt the same.

Since their birth, up until high school, they had been inseparable. They hadn’t fought and bickered like most brothers Ronin knew; instead, they seemed to always be in sync. Kind of like Ronin was the right leg and Elan the left leg, working together through life perfectly.

Ronin wasn’t sure what he would do without his left leg. And how would Elan survive without his right?

He pulled his brother into a tight hug.

The other draftees began to move out to report into their stations.

“Where you headed?” Micky asked. “I’m going to Kepler Station!”

Ronin pulled back and held up his orders to Micky.

“You are too!” Micky said. “What about Elan?”

Ronin shook his head. “Mesopotamia.”

“That was obvious, no offense,” Micky said. “He’ll be safer there. You should be happy.”

“Yeah…”

“I’ll catch up with you.”

Micky started off but Ronin stayed behind with Elan.

If something happens, I will find you, Ronin signed. He wanted to look brave to his brother, but his heart was bursting.

Ronin looked around for Tadhg, hoping he was still here somewhere. Maybe he could help, maybe he could get the orders changed…

Kids spread throughout the room, but Ronin didn’t see the towering giant of a man among them. Deep down, he knew Tadhg wouldn’t be able to do anything to change Elan’s orders anyway.

Anger burned through Ronin like an energy blade.

The LDC knew Elan was deaf…and yet they were still going to throw him in the pool as another trooper? Just another piece of cannon fodder.

Ronin turned back to Elan, knowing they had just seconds left together.

I promise, I won’t let anything happen to you… Ronin signed.

He realized how crazy that sounded.

They were going to be thousands of miles apart and if the machines attacked…

“Let’s go!” a trooper shouted. “Move it, everyone! You have orders!”

The kids surged past Ronin.

Ronin hugged Elan again.

Then he turned and ran for the train. The armored cars were all open, and most of the compartments were already full.

“Over here, Ronin!” Micky waved.

Ronin hopped into the car, squeezing in front of the open door. Elan was still standing there, watching. He had never looked so alone.

“Sorry you don’t get to serve with your brother,” Micky said. “But probably for the best with him not being able to hear and all.”

Elan merged into the crowd headed for Mesopotamia. He seemed to stumble around, not sure where to go as the last of the draftees made their ways to their assigned locations.

There were no signs to guide him. No one signing to him whatever the troopers were yelling. Seeing Elan struggle broke Ronin’s heart. It also reminded him what combat would be like for his twin.

The train doors began to close as Elan turned to look at Ronin.

With a second to spare, Ronin quickly signed to his brother.

This isn’t the last time I will see you, I swear on my life.

***

Mesopotamia

Shackleton Crater, The Moon

Tadhg met his team in an LDC vehicle storage hold deep under Mesopotamia. Twenty of the four-wheeled tactical rovers sat idling.

Joaquín, Veronica, and Ronald waited near one rover. All three were dressed in their vacuum-rated suits along with their attached exoskeletons. Tadhg wore his usual combat armor and his helmet, although the arms to his suit were capped off.

“Sergeant,” Veronica said with a nod.

“Where we headed?” Ronald asked.

“To the Heaven’s Shield generators,” Tadhg said. “Then we’re taking a MOTH to Atlas Station at the Shackleton Crater to analyze their security breach to figure out what happened.”

“What happened is they underestimated the machines,” Joaquín said.

Tadhg grumbled his agreement.

“Not exactly accurate,” Ronald cut in. “The science team was conducting research on a specimen from one of the recon ships. We’re lucky they took it there and not to Mesopotamia.”

“Not sure luck has anything to do with it,” Veronica said.

They piled into the vehicle, and Joaquín fired up the engine. Tadhg climbed up into the back of the rover.

“I’d drive, but I don’t got me arms,” Tadhg said. It had been a long time since he’d spoken in his old Irish accent, but it made the others laugh.

He joined in with a sincere chuckle of his own.

It was nice to be part of the joke and not the focus of everyone’s damn pity. Plus, they all needed a good laugh after everything that had happened.

Relieving the tension felt as good to Tadhg as a long piss after holding in one too many beers. But soon, if he was right, they would be dealing with a major conspiracy.

As soon as they were in the elongated tunnel, Tadhg turned to Veronica and said, “Show me the videos again.”

She pulled out her data-pad. Within seconds she had pulled up the footage from the King Cobra Spaceplanes that had flown to Earth.

When the LDC revealed the snapshots throughout the colonies, Tadhg had the itching sensation that those images weren’t all that the pilots had seen on the surface. He had the gut feeling there was more those guys were hiding, especially after he’d heard through the grapevine that Akira might still be alive.

Tadhg hoped he was wrong about the LDC covering up significant intel from the mission, but then he’d asked Veronica to work her computer magic. Just to settle his suspicions, of course.

Sure enough, when she weaseled her way into the LDC’s backend network, she uncovered not only the truth about human survivors on Earth and resistance at Megacity Boston, but also the full message from Captain Akira Hayashi.

“I knew he was alive,” Tadhg said as the rover rumbled on. “And we’ve been sitting up here like a bunch of little bitches while people are down there clawing for survival.”

He shook his helmet.

“War Commander Thacker must be such a damn coward that he doesn’t want the Council to know. He’s so concerned with resources that he doesn’t want them committing troops or supplies to Earth.”

“Classifying sensitive information isn’t a crime, Sergeant,” Ronald said.

“Sure, but murdering twenty-five thousand colonists to conserve resources is a war crime.” Tadhg directed his helmet at Ronald. “I was right about Thacker hiding shit from people. I bet I’m right that he’s behind the Rose Colony disaster, too. I just have to prove it.”

“Hard for me to believe anyone could do such a thing,” Joaquín said.

“Hell, I’d be happy if my gut was wrong,” Tadhg said. “But if Thacker did this, he’s got to pay.”

Still, even if he proved Thacker’s guilt, he wasn’t sure how he would take the guy down.

Without his arms, he couldn’t fight. Especially without a combat squad. This team was far from that.

Brute force just wouldn’t cut it.

There was only one way Tadhg could think of now. A way he sure as hell wasn’t used to, but he’d long since learned a warrior used any weapons available to him.

Including politics.

He would need the assistance of the Lunar Council.

Maybe they would turn against Thacker and overthrow him.

The rover continued up a long tunnel lit by sporadic blue LEDs until they climbed over the Moon’s surface. The headlights penetrated the inky black of Shackleton Crater on the eastern edge of Mesopotamia.

A map glowed on a dashboard screen. They were headed to a small station protecting the Heaven’s Shield generators.

“Coming up on the station,” Joaquín said. He drove over a mound of regolith that overlooked a depression in the crater. Settled in the center of the ten-acre incline was a single domed building and three rows of generators.

Two turrets stuck up from the surface near them. Tadhg knew there were even more out here guarding this site.

The rover drove past a patrol of troopers in exoskeleton-augmented armor and stopped outside the main habitat.

“Veronica, you’re with me,” Tadhg said. “Joaquín, you go with Ronald and stay inside. Let us know if anyone’s coming our way.”

They got out of the rover, and parted ways.

Tadhg headed toward the closest row of ten foot tall generators. Each of them looked like a metal coil extending toward space. Veronica approached a data port and connected her data-pad.

As far as anyone knew, they were here to do a simple perimeter check, and Veronica was damn good at covering their tracks digitally, too.

Ten minutes passed.

Then thirty.

“Come on,” Tadhg said over the private channel with Veronica.

She furiously tapped at her data-pad. “Almost got it.”

Tadhg felt naked out here without a weapon. A MOTH flew over the main habitat. He tensed, watching it, waiting for it to unload troopers ready to take him down for his subterfuge; but instead, it lowered over the hangar.

“Must be our ride to Atlas Station,” he said.

“Perfect timing,” Veronica said. “I just finished and… It’s a doozy.”

She unplugged from the port and turned toward Tadhg. The shock painted on her features behind her visor told Tadhg she had uncovered the horrible truth.

“Let’s go,” he said.

They hurried to the habitat. Ronald and Joaquín were speaking with a trooper stationed here.

“Security check complete,” Tadhg said.

Ronald nodded. “MOTH is ready to go.”

They trekked through the habitats into a vestibule that connected to a hangar. The ramp to the MOTH had already lowered, and the team hurried up into the troop hold. The hatch sealed shut, and Tadhg gave the pilots the all-clear.

He returned to the troop hold with his team. They all took their helmets off as the MOTH lifted off.

“Well?” Tadhg asked Veronica.

She let out a long sigh. “The generators didn’t have enough power to bring the shields online, so someone purposefully cut the power to Rose Colony.”

“You’re sure?”

“I’m one-hundred-and-ten percent positive. Take a look at the readings…”

She showed him the data-pad. A scrolling log showed the history of electrical distribution at Mesopotamia when the machines attacked.

“Before, you said the only people that could turn that power off was Thacker…and whoever was working with him as an accomplice,” Tadhg said.

“That’s right. These logs showed his authorization was used to turn off the power.”

“So the bastard did kill…murder all those colonists?” Joaquín asked.

“Sure looks that way,” Veronica said.

“Before we present this to the Council, we should consider the implications.” Ronald reached for the data-pad. He scanned the data, then shook his head. “First off, what would have happened if the machines found Mesopotamia and the shield was down? Even if Thacker made that decision, he was choosing to save everyone else’s lives. Maybe he thought it was necessary to protect the rest of the colonies.”

“But the machines never made it to Mesopotamia…” Veronica said.

Tadhg narrowed his eyes at Ronald. “You think what Thacker did was okay? It wasn’t jumping the gun, playing too loose with people’s lives?”

“We don’t know it was Thacker,” Ronald replied. “For all you know, someone stole his authorization key. It could have been—”

“My pop always said to protect what’s most valuable to you, because if you lose it, that’s on you. But we know that isn’t what happened anyways.” Tadhg gave the kid a good glare. “What I’m hearing from you sounds a lot like you’re justifying what really happened, Corporal.”

Ronald licked his bottom lip, clearly nervous.

“Even so, our job is to protect the colonies at all costs,” he replied. “I’m not sure going behind his back to the Council protects anyone. Not until we know for sure why he made the decision he did.”

“Protect the colonies and the colonists,” Veronica said.

“Right,” Joaquín said. “No one said shit about killing them to save the rest of us.”

“You’re right. All of you,” Ronald said. “And Sergeant Walsh is the boss. I’m just saying, I think we should look at all the angles to try and understand why this could have happened.”

“We are, and we’re going to let the Council investigate,” Tadhg said.

Ronald nodded and didn’t say another word.

Taking advantage of the quiet, Tadhg considered what had to be done next. It didn’t take long to make a decision.

“Get the video footage and this data ready to upload to the Council,” he said to Veronica.

“You got it,” she said.

“Then what?” Joaquín asked.

“Then we hope the Council can quietly deal with Thacker,” Tadhg said. “I hope it’s quick because I got a flight to catch.”

“What?” Veronica asked.

Joaquín raised a brow. “To where, Sergeant?”

“Earth. I’m gonna do what I should have done weeks ago and find Captain Hayashi and the other survivors. My fight’s down there with them against the machines. Anyone who wants in on bashing some metal heads, you’re welcome to join.”

No one responded at first.

“I’m no general, but it doesn’t take a mechanic to know when a Hummer Droid isn’t working,” Tadhg said. “Thacker never got that either. He’s too much of a coward, too concerned with playing things safely. If we stockpile all our resources here, we’ll never get our home planet back.”

“I’ll come,” Veronica said.

Joaquín shrugged. “I mean, we’re all going to die eventually, right?”

“Ronald?” Tadhg said.

“I’ll think about it,” he replied.

Tadhg scrutinized the kid. He had saved his ass at Lion Station, and he felt like he owed him one for that, but he didn’t like how Ronald was thinking about this situation.

The team fell back into a pensive silence, Veronica typing away on her data-pad. Twenty minutes passed before she finally spoke again.

“It’s almost uploaded and ready to send,” she said.

“Good,” Tadhg said.

The MOTH descended over the Shoemaker Crater. But instead of plunging into the black, it lowered over the eastern crater rim.

One of the pilots spoke over the PA system.

“Standby,” he said. “We’re picking up a group of troopers to join you. New protocol.”

Veronica helped Tadhg get his helmet back on. The rest of the team followed suit. Once they were secure, the MOTH set down outside an FOB situated over the Shoemaker Crater with a thud. Lights flashed as the ramp lowered to the ground. A fire-team of six troopers in vacuum-rated combat gear climbed into the troop hold.

“We’re hitching a ride,” said a staff sergeant named Jefferson. “Hope you don’t mind.”

“Be my guest,” Tadhg said.

The troopers took seats around Tadhg and his team. The flight safety arm-bars locked over their armor, clicking into place.

The MOTH jetted off over the crater. Ronald had shrugged off his safety restraints and was standing in the hold.

“Sit your ass down, man,” Joaquín said. “What the hell are you doing?”

Ronald looked toward the cockpit.

The MOTH dove into the black of the Shoemaker crater. Suddenly it stopped, breaking into a hover.

“The hell?” Tadhg asked.

The troopers’ restraints unlocked. They all jumped to their feet, but the bars holding Tadhg didn’t budge.

“This isn’t just some safety escort, is it?” Tadhg asked.

Jefferson shook his head. “Not the kind you thought.”

A chill ran through Tadhg. These guys must have been sent by Thacker. But he had been so careful. How had they found out?

Tadhg looked to Veronica and Joaquín. Both were locked into their seats, too. Only Ronald stood by a side hatch.

“You were a damn rat all along,” Tadhg said, eyes narrowed.

“My job, like yours was supposed to be, is to keep the colonies safe,” Ronald said. “At any cost. I tried to stop you, but when I saw there was no changing your mind, I sent out a distress call to a team on standby.”

“The only way to protect the colonies is by being strong, not weak like Thacker. He is a fucking coward and a murderer!”

“I take no pleasure in this, Sergeant, but you’re wrong. War Commander Thacker is making the hard decisions to save us. I don’t envy his position—no one would. He understands that the few are not as important as the many. That’s what it will take to keep our species alive.”

Tadhg pushed hard against the bars, yelling a primal war cry.

Ronald stepped back. “War Commander Contos cared far too much about individual people and troops. That was his mistake. That’s why we lost on E-Day. The greater good is what matters. That’s the only way humans have a chance. Especially now. Even if it means sacrificing twenty-five thousand people so hundreds of thousands more can live.”

Tadhg snorted. “At least let me die on my feet.”

“Oh, you will,” said Jefferson. “Kind of.”

He nodded at another trooper. The man opened a side hatch to the inky black of the Shoemaker Crater.

“You can’t do this!” Joaquín shouted.

“Think about this, Ronald,” Veronica said. “You don’t know what you’re doing.”

“Actually, I do,” Ronald replied. “We’re silencing you all before you can do any harm.”

“You fucking piece of shit!” Joaquín yelled.

“Release them,” Jefferson said. “But watch this one.”

The troopers hovered over Tadhg, Veronica, and Joaquín.

“It will all be over soon, big guy,” Jefferson said. “Just gonna give you a nice little shove out the hatch to a dusty grave.”

He leaned down to unlock Tadhg.

Veronica gripped her data-pad and made a subtle nod. Even if they were facing death, she was going to be defiant. She was about to send the transmission to the Council.

The bars clicked up over Tadhg, and he burst out like a Droid Raider, lowering his right shoulder plate. He crashed into Jefferson, throwing the guy onto the deck, then Tadhg burst up and charged Ronald. The traitor got off two shots in a second.

Veronica cried out in pain. Tadhg barreled into Ronald, knocking him backward. He flew out of the open hatch and into the darkness, still firing his plasma pistol.

Tadhg ducked under the sizzling rounds and turned as Joaquín kicked one of the other troopers who had let him up moments earlier. Another soldier slammed his rifle’s stock into Joaquin’s helmet.

The young lad fell to the deck. He pushed himself up, right into an energy blade that punched through his side. He screamed out in agony and went down on his knees.

The trooper withdrew the blade.

Joaquín reached under his vest and looked up at Tadhg as if pleading for help.

But four rifles were aimed at Tadhg’s chest, nothing he could do unless he wanted to look like smoking Swiss cheese.

He took in the troop hold with a quick sweep.

Veronica was slumped in her seat, two bolts to her chest. The data-pad had fallen from her hand and hit the deck. Tadhg squinted at the screen.

Upload complete.

In her final seconds of life, she had succeeded in sending the data.

Jefferson pushed himself up and pulled out his energy knife.

“I am going to enjoy filleting your augmented…” before Jefferson could finish, Joaquín pulled out the plasma pistol tucked under his vest and shot him in the back of the helmet.

It was then Tadhg realized the kid wasn’t looking for help, but to signal he was going for his hidden pistol.

The troopers turned their rifle barrels toward Joaquín as Tadhg burst up to his feet.

A hailstorm of bolts crisscrossed the cabin, some pounding into Joaquín, others hitting the deck, hull, and overhead.

Panicked cries came from the pilot channel.

Alarms wailed, and the lights flickered as the MOTH jerked.

Tadhg fell to the deck and slid toward the open hatch, nothing but his boots to slow him down. Jefferson slid right next to him, reaching out for something to hold onto.

“Help!” he screamed.

Tadhg gave him an assist by booting him right out the open hatch.

The trooper cartwheeled away.

Rotating his boot, Tadhg used it to brace himself against the hull as the MOTH plummeted into the darkness of the crater.

— 30 —

Cat Ba Island, Vietnam

“They’re still out there,” Frost said.

Akira hunched at the top of a cliff overlooking dozens of islands in Ha Long Bay. They were on the north side of Cat Ba Island, on a mountain with a sprawling view in all directions, now that much of the mist had lifted.

He could hear the distant rumble of the enemy ship cruising through the clouds and smoke.

Sporadic rattles of Canebrakes drifted from the distant jungle. They sounded maybe a mile or so away. Maybe closer.

Akira wasn’t sure how his team had made it this far.

They certainly wouldn’t have without help.

He glanced over his shoulder at the two Coalition soldiers standing guard. Antlers twisted off their helmets like craggy branches. In the past, Akira would not have hesitated to separate their heads from their bodies with one clean sweep of his katana.

Now, he was relying on them for safe passage.

The irony of this war reminded him of strange but true stories from the Warrior Codex, when old enemies became friends to face new shared foes.

“I don’t like working with the Coalition,” Frost said.

“We don’t have much choice if we wish to survive,” Akira said. “Without them, we’d already be dead.”

“Maybe…but I was doing fine after blowing my jetpack and taking out those Canebrakes.”

Akira recalled the explosion in the jungle. It was smart, quick thinking that had saved her, Ghost, Juno, and the droids back there.

He looked at them now.

Ghost hung back in the cavern with Kichiro and Blinky. Juno wasn’t far either, Akira could hear her accented, fiery voice echoing out of the passage.

Akira took one last look out over the mountains and went back inside. The tunnel wound through a network of caverns. In the main chamber, Akira noticed Dao. The boy sat in a corner with a blanket around him and Okami.

The robotic wolfdog had tracked Akira and Dao down by their scents.

Dao stroked Okami. Most of his fur had been burned off along with patches of his synthetic skin. Metal glimmered between those wounds.

Okami glanced at Akira, but Akira motioned to stay put. The boy was comforted by the company of the droid, and for that, Akira was glad.

Across the rest of the cavern floor were various packs and boxes of supplies. Some were being used as pillows by tired Coalition and Nova Alliance soldiers. There was a total of thirty in the caves that Akira had seen, plus the scouts outside.

Near the center of the cavern, Juno stood talking to Coalition Lieutenant Dominique Tumea and Nova Alliance Lieutenant Ryan Godfrey. Both soldiers were helmetless. Sweat dripping down their exhausted features, glistening from candles burning on stacked crates that served double-duty as a war table.

Tumea studied a map. Her braided hair hung over her neck, partially covering tattoos of two birds along with a gnarled talon hanging from a necklace. Her green eyes flitted over to Akira.

“Ah, the Great Akira the Brave,” she said. “So are you going to tell us what you’re doing here yet?”

“We were testing a weapon,” Juno said.

“Quite a test,” Godfrey replied. “We’re trapped now, thanks to it.”

“What about the other team that accompanied you on this mission?” Tumea asked. “We know there’s more than one squad. We have scouts all over these islands.”

“Is our other squad—” Akira started to say.

“Alive,” Godfrey confirmed. “My people intercepted them before they got to the radio tower. Good thing, too. That place is filled with more booby traps than the most guarded Coalition base. No offense, Tumea.”

“I take it as a compliment,” she replied.

“Anyway, they’re now on their way to a rendezvous.”

“Where?” Akira asked.

“Not far.”

Akira didn’t push it. Not yet.

“What did your team want with the radio tower?” Tumea asked.

“They were trying to contact Apeiron,” Akira admitted. He figured he might as well lay his cards on the table. That might better tell him if he could really trust these people. “Then we were going to set our own ambush.”

Tumea and Godfrey exchanged a glance.

“You won’t find Apeiron here, Captain,” Godfrey said.

“How about finding a shuttle?” Akira asked. “Where is it?”

Tumea sneered. “You think we’re going to tell you that?”

“How did you know about the shuttle?” Godfrey asked with narrowed eyes.

“The NAA Swordfish,” Ghost said. “We went to connect with Apeiron and found your forces engaged with the machines. By the time we arrived, it was almost too late.”

Godfrey walked over. “What about Admiral Talbot?”

“He didn’t make it,” Akira said ruefully. “We rescued four Pistons, two died in our care. Corporal Tran Nguyen told us about the shuttle before succumbing to his injuries.”

“There are only two left?” Godfrey’s eyes stared at a point only he seemed to see. “I knew we shouldn’t have deployed that ship.”

“It brought us here,” Frost said.

“And look what that got us all.” Tumea raised a pierced eyebrow. “You attacked the machine camp, got all those people killed, and attracted packs of Canebrakes. You Engines are—”

“What? Finish your line.”

The two women stepped toward one another before Akira could intervene.

“Easy,” Godfrey said, angling between them.

“Fuck that. Only reason my people are fighting with you is because we have no choice.” Tumea pointed a bony finger. “You brought this hell on us with your beloved AI.”

“Your psychotic leader Doctor Otto Cross was the one that did this,” Frost snapped back.

Akira motioned for her to stand down.

“Listen,” he said calmly. “The past was erased on E-Day. We can point fingers all day, but that won’t get us any closer to any kind of survivable future. If we want to live, if we want humans to survive, we have to swallow our differences and work together.”

Godfrey nodded, but it took Tumea a beat to relax. Her chest heaved like she was still ready to do battle.

“Nice words,” Tumea said with a laugh. “Still not taking you to the shuttle, though.”

“Fair enough,” Akira said.

“Want to tell us how you’ve hidden a shuttle from the machines so long in the first place?” Juno asked. “Or is it just bullshit?”

“Big bullshit, big bullshit,” Blinky said, his working hand on his metal hip. “I believe it is big bullshit.”

“The shuttle was owned by a wealthy businesswoman,” Godfrey said. “She was killed on E-Day. A few of her staff made it here and, well, they told us. I can confirm it exists. Trust me on that.”

“Who’s in charge of it?” Akira asked. “And where is your command post?”

Again Tumea and Godfrey exchanged a glance.

“We lost contact with command not long after you drew the machines here,” Tumea finally said. “It’s protocol for command to go dark, but not usually for this long.”

Now their anger made sense. Akira’s team’s actions had unwittingly gotten more than the civilians at the camp killed. Their efforts had resulted in putting this entire fragile community of surviving fighters at risk.

Bile burned up through Akira’s throat. He’d made an oath to protect innocents, however, in his very effort to do that, he’d only achieved the opposite. By dooming the survivors.

“What if we clear the machines?” he asked. “Then will you take us to command?”

“You won’t defeat them,” Tumea said. “Not a chance in hell. We’ve survived up here for the past month by staying hidden, in these tunnels and caves across the islands.”

“War Commander Contos will need to meet with your leaders if—”

“He isn’t in charge.”

Before Akira could argue, he heard the faint staticky wail of a Canebrake. All the Engines jolted alert with their augmented hearing.

“What?” Godfrey asked.

“Canebrakes, several, and close,” Akira said. “We have to get out of here.”

Godfrey unslung his rifle. “Pack up the gear,” he said, rousing the soldiers. “It’s time to move.”

“Where?” Frost asked.

“Follow us,” Tumea said.

Akira thought of everyone that had already perished because of his team’s actions. But there was still hope for these people. He had to personally ensure their safety.

“Give me a map and tell me where the rendezvous is,” Akira said.

Godfrey was in the middle of putting his helmet on. “What for?”

“We’ll stay behind and hold them off so you can regroup and get our comrades to safety,” Akira said. “It’s the least we can do for luring so many of the machines here.”

“Noble, but the more you kill, the more they’ll send,” Godfrey said. “Plus, there’s a Hunter ship still lurking in the area.”

“Hunter ship?” Akira asked.

“Those teardrop-shaped ships. The ones with that eye-looking laser.”

“Noted. We’ve seen them before in Guam, too.”

“They can be destroyed, but it isn’t easy. You’ll die if you try.”

“We know,” Ghost said. “Just give the captain the map and get out of here while you still can.”

Godfrey reached into his vest and pulled out a data-pad.

“Here.” He showed them the screen. “This is where we’re going, command is close. Memorize it because you aren’t getting this.”

Akira made a mental picture. “Got it.”

He had one last thing to do. He hurried over to Dao.

“You’ll be safe with these people,” Akira said. “Go with them, and listen to their instructions, okay?”

Dao gave a weak nod.

Akira put a hand on the kid’s head, ruffling his hair. “You’re tough. I know you are. You will be fine.”

“Thank you for helping me.”

Akira stared at the boy, seeing his son once again in his youthful features. It almost broke Akira, but instead, he used it as motivation.

“I’ll see you soon,” he said.

Whistling, Akira walked away with Okami following.

“Wait,” Dao called after them.

Akira turned.

“Promise I can see your dog again,” Dao said.

Akira offered a smile. “I promise.”

Tumea helped the kid into the connecting cavern.

She looked back over her shoulder at Akira. “Good luck. You’ll need it out there.”

Juno and Blinky lingered.

“What are you waiting for?” Ghost asked. “Go on.”

“I haven’t tested my signal on the Canebrakes yet,” Juno protested.

“And you’re not going to,” Akira said.

“I’m really getting sick of being bossed around—”

“We don’t have time for this shit,” Akira said. “Blinky, take her and make sure she doesn’t leave your side.”

Blinky turned toward Juno. She glared at the droid and shook her head.

“Big no on that, Captain. Big no,” Blinky said.

“You two are really…” Ghost began to say. He switched to Italian, raising a robotic arm as he let out some pent-up frustration.

A high-pitched wail shrieked into the chamber, cutting him off. The Canebrakes were either inside, or close to finding the cave system.

Akira motioned for Frost, who ran out with her rifle shouldered to hold security. Ghost joined her with a sword in one hand.

“We don’t have time to argue,” Akira said to Juno. “Those things are close.”

“Which is why you need my weapon, Captain,” she replied. “You’re outnumbered and outgunned. This is why I’m here.”

Akira glared at her for a second.

“I’m the one risking my life,” she added. “Let me make that decision for myself.”

“Stay close and keep your head down. And this time, no going rogue.”

He motioned for Kichiro and Okami to follow.

Akira joined Frost at the entrance to the cave. The Canebrakes’ glowing energy blades stood out, even against the dense jungle canopy.

“You got a plan?” Frost asked.

Akira looked to the sky. The Hunter ship was nowhere in sight. At least, not yet.

“Juno and Blinky will stay here with Ghost and Kichiro,” Akira said. “You and I will take Okami down there to lure the Canebrakes in this direction.”

“Blowing them up might not work so easily again,” Frost said.

“That’s not my plan.”

He glanced back at Juno. He hated admitting what he was about to say. “We’re going to lead the Canebrakes close enough that Juno can try and disable them.”

“And if that doesn’t work?”

“We die together, and I don’t have to hear Juno complain we left her behind again.”

Juno gave him a victorious but determined grin. “I can agree to that.”

Frost nodded. “Works for me.”

Okami darted ahead, easily navigating the rocky slope down into the jungle.

Akira searched for a good place to make a stand while the Canebrakes closed in. The snap and crunch of breaking branches drew ever closer as the Canebrakes advanced.

Judging from the blades he saw and the noise they made, he guessed there were six total machines in this area.

Slotting his rifle over his shoulder, he pulled out both katanas. He didn’t activate them yet, instead using one to point toward a cluster of rocks.

Frost nodded and ran over to set up her position.

Akira turned and looked up. Ghost was hunched there, looking down from part of the cave. He tapped his chest over his artificial heart, and Akira tapped the armor over his augmented heart before turning back to the jungle.

Water dripped off banana leaves, splashing into the mud. The creak of metal joints echoed between the drenched trees.

Okami barked in the distance, the sound carrying through the forest.

All the grinding and crunching and snapping of the machines suddenly stopped.

A single machine let out a rattle.

And then they were moving again. All six charging through the jungle at an inhuman pace.

Akira activated his swords, the blades glowing an angry red.

He recalled the virtue of Chu from Bushido that taught Duty and Loyalty.

Warriors are immensely loyal to all of those in their care.

He twirled his swords, prepared to give his life to allow the others to escape and buy Juno time to test her signal on the Canebrakes.

Akira spotted the first of the metal demons crushing bushes and breaking through tree limbs. The fanned head locked onto him, both blue pupils centered on his blades.

He fell into a defensive stance.

The other machines closed in, bursting through the jungle.

Okami darted ahead, a plasma bolt singeing the air. The wolfdog leapt over a rock and then a fallen log.

Akira whistled for the wolfdog to take cover. He had done his job, baiting the machines with his barking.

Now it was Akira’s turn.

He took a deep breath as Okami melted into the terrain.

Akira thought of Dao, and of Takeshi.

Blue pupils sparkled out of the forest. Three machines led the pack, clawing closer with the other three not far behind.

Akira held steady, frozen, but ready to bolt as soon as they were close enough.

The machines closed to within fifty feet now, well within firing range.

But their shoulder-mounted cannons remained silent.

Akira watched the lead machine grind to a stop in the mud. The glowing daggers at the end of its arms stiffened like a scorpion stinger preparing to strike.

Had the signal already worked?

He wanted to glance over his shoulder, but he couldn’t compromise Juno or Ghost.

“Come on,” Akira whispered. “Do not let me down, Juno.”

The lead machine prowled on all fours between a pair of trees.

What are you waiting for…

Akira noticed the blue pupils moving away from him.

“No…” he whispered.

Rattling erupted from the machine’s metal skull. The other Canebrakes barreled away in all directions.

They had grown smarter, sniffing out the trap.

A sudden gout of plasma bolts seared toward Akira, forcing him to dive into the brush. He scrambled up to his feet, energy swords still in hand. Two bolts hit his shield, knocking him behind a tree.

Plasma fire chiseled through the wood, bark fragments flying away, turning to embers.

Akira looked at his HUD, the Grind-Shield now down to fifteen percent.

Suppressed gunfire came from his left. The lead machine collapsed into the mud, sliding forward, a melon-sized hole in its fanned head.

Frost had taken it down with the single shot.

Wasting no time, Akira ran toward her.

He wasn’t the only one.

Three of the machines tore up the slope toward her position, barreling down trees in their paths, splinters flying.

Frost put a .50 cal bullet into one of the machine’s chests, knocking it backward. The Canebrake got right up and fired both plasma cannons, forcing her to duck behind the rocks.

Akira swapped his swords for his rifle. He shouldered the weapon and fired at the beast charging Frost, scoring several hits to the limbs. A cannon twisted his direction, pumping out a stream of plasma as he dove to the ground.

The other two machines bounded toward the cave entrance. They leapt to the bluff and climbed up the side toward the lookout.

Juno was up there with her transmitter device while Ghost fired his rifle over the edge.

Three more suppressed shots resonated from the rocks where Frost had hunkered down. Akira got back up and ran toward her position. He was one hundred feet away now, his vision obscured by the jungle.

He stopped to aim but couldn’t get a clear shot.

“Frost, move!” he shouted.

She got up and darted for new cover.

Lining up his sights, Akira fired through the trees, hitting the pursuing machine in the side of its head. He lowered his rifle and started to run when something crashed into his side.

His rifle flew from his hands as he tumbled through the air.

He landed on his back, a Canebrake’s arms shooting just above him. Those blades twisted and came down right at him. He rolled to his right, avoiding the next two daggers as they punched into the dirt.

The arms whipped back, ready to strike again, blades burning red.

This time, Akira couldn’t avoid the blows. One of the daggers broke off a horn on his Kabuto. The other crunched into the side of his helmet.

The mechanical monster leapt onto him, pinning him down.

Akira screamed and thrashed as the machine’s snout lowered, jaw widening to expose jagged teeth.

Gunshots rang out in the distance, followed by the urgent voices of his comrades. Frost let out a cry of pain.

A louder voice came above it, but this wasn’t a wail of agony. It was Ghost’s characteristic tenor booming from the bluff.

“From the shadows we all fight!” he sang. “To slay you in the night!”

No, no, stop, Akira thought.

It took him a second to realize Ghost wasn’t sacrificing himself, he was trying to distract the machines, and draw them closer to Juno so she could use her transmitter.

Akira fought hard to get free, arching his back and clenching his jaw, his muscles at their limit. The Canebrake’s jaw widened, ready to crunch around his helmet and rip his head off.

But before it did, the weight of the machine slumped backward slightly. Just enough Akira could push out from under it.

He crawled away, glancing up at the cliff above. Ghost had switched from his song to firing his rifle. Juno had turned her transmitter toward Frost.

Her weapon worked. The signal stopped the Canebrakes!

Akira fired a burst of bolts into the paralyzed monstrosity in the dirt next to him. Smoke spiraled out of the fresh holes as the machine toppled to the ground and its eyes dimmed.

He took off toward Frost.

One of the other two machines was sprawled out between tree roots. Holes simmered in its metallic hide from bullet holes Ghost had drilled into its chassis.

Akira turned toward movement, seeing something that made him flinch and run faster at the same time. Frost rose off the ground, suspended in the air with a telescoped arm around her neck. Another arm punched a blade through her right leg.

“Frost, I’m coming!” Akira shouted.

He brought up his rifle as he moved, trying to get a clean shot. He finally saw a window, halted to aim, and squeezed off a burst at the crest of the machine’s fanned head.

The machine twisted, and both bolts missed as the beast tossed Frost against a rock. It whirled toward him, firing a segmented arm with a hooked blade.

He dove to the ground. A trio of bolts painted the side of the machine from above from another shooter. Going up on a knee, Akira aimed at the eyes on the fanned head. This time, he put a burst of bolts right into the sweet spot, the antennae.

The Canebrake crumpled to the dirt.

Akira hopped up and sprinted toward Frost. She was slumped to the side, blood leaking from a simmering gash in her chest armor. More oozed from the hole in her right leg.

“It’s okay,” he said. “You’re going to be okay.”

“I screwed up, Akira, I screwed up…” She squeezed his hand. It shook in his grip. Akira felt a similar pain to finding his brother, Kai, wounded on the battlefield outside of Megacity Moscow.

He never had a sister, but Frost was the closest thing to one.

He couldn’t let her die.

He wouldn’t let her die.

A chilling noise broke over the horizon. The growing rumble of the Hunter Ship, followed by the rattling of more Canebrakes.

“Leave me,” she whispered. “I’ll buy you some time.”

“Not a chance, Frost.”

Akira picked her up, prompting a wail of pain.

“Leave…” she started to say.

He blasted off the ground with his jetpack, cradling her in his arms toward the cliff. They landed in front of Ghost. The Engine moved out to provide cover while Akira carried her inside. Okami paced around them, whining with agitation.

Kichiro let out a sad neigh, and Blinky clanked over with his remaining arm up.

“Can I be a big help?” Blinky said. “Need big help?”

“Go,” Akira said. “Into the tunnel!”

He hurried inside with Frost limp in his grip.

A raucous humming burst across the jungle behind them.

Glancing over his shoulder, Akira saw the bow of the Hunter Ship pierce the clouds.

“Blow the entrance,” he said to Ghost. “Blow it while we still can!”

— 31 —

Atlas Station

Shoemaker Crater, The Moon

Two troopers forced Chloe into a chair in the small medical room.

“Stop!” she yelled.

She wanted to scream and ask them what they were doing. But she knew damn well what was about to happen to her. A fate she had escaped on Earth had followed her to the Moon.

They were going to surgically turn her into a weapon by transforming her into one of the very monsters she had helped Otto create.

“Get your hands off me!”

The troopers held her down in the chair, securing polymer straps over her legs and wrists. She banged her head against the padded headrest, still yelling and baring her teeth like a wild animal.

One of the guards grabbed the back of her neck, squeezing from behind, while the other man brought a head clamp down over her skull.

She watched the metal band coming down, still fighting.

“No! NO!” she shouted.

The troopers clicked it into place and then spun her chair around to face a window. On the other side, Doctor Blake Howard stood with a finger on his chin like a curious student.

He pushed the transmission button to communicate. “You should be proud. Your sacrifice could very well be the turning point for humanity. You are the most important hybrid.”

“Why?” she asked. “Why me?”

“You worked for Otto. I trust that you have the best chance of finding him and transmitting the virus that will destroy him.”

Chloe wanted to shake her head in disbelief.

They had planned to use her all along. And she had willingly granted them access to her memories, and everything she could recall from her days in the catacombs.

“I’m still human! How can you do this to us?” she shouted.

“That’s like saying Apeiron is human. Like her, you died. She brought you back to life in this new form.”

Chloe had felt so much fear that there was none left.

Now she only felt anger.

Anger at Otto Cross.

Anger at Blake Howard.

It wasn’t AI that had done this, it was men like them.

“I can assure you, once we take control, you won’t feel a thing,” Blake said. “I’ll wipe your memories, too, if it makes you feel better.”

The door opened. Three technicians in blue suits accompanied a pair of surgeons.

“We’ll take it from here,” said the lead doctor.

The troopers stepped out after ensuring Chloe was secure. A technician moved over holding a syringe.

“No, please…” she let her words trail off, knowing there was nothing she could say that would change this. Her fate was to become a monster.

“Hold still,” the technician said. “This won’t hurt.”

“Fuck you,” Chloe snapped.

She squirmed as the technician inserted the needle in her arm. A spike of ice surged through her veins, cooling her body. In seconds, she was paralyzed.

Blake entered the room wearing a surgical mask. He leaned down with his data-pad as another technician connected electrodes to her neck and skull.

She followed them with her eyes, the only thing she could control. The staff worked quickly, preparing her for the first step of her transformation.

Blake hooked up his data-pad, looked her in the eye, and then tapped the screen.

Her limbs moved again, all four at the same time.

She didn’t feel a single one of them.

They had taken control of her L-S88 chip. She was nothing but a puppet.

Once again, the sedatives relaxed her, and she was reminded of her days in the field hospital outside Megacity Paris. When Apeiron had brought her back to life.

Back then, she had wanted to die, but Apeiron had convinced her that she should take a second chance to live life to the fullest.

For a few months, Apeiron had helped her heal, and in those months, she found joy in a new relationship with Cyrus, but that joy was apparently not to be.

A tear dripped from her eye as she fell unconscious.

She wasn’t sure when she awoke, but she was being moved. Her eyelids were open just enough to see the orange antiseptic painted on her bare flesh.

The technician guiding the cart brought her into a surgical room.

Blake was waiting on the other side of a viewport again. Next to him was Doctor Jason Crichton with two troopers standing just behind him. Chloe looked at him, pleading with her eyes.

He stared back and mouthed silently, “I’m sorry.” Then she thought he mouthed something like, “Stay strong.”

It didn’t make sense. That was something her Uncle would have said to her. But how was she supposed to be strong when she was paralyzed and about to be torn apart like a dissected lab specimen?

It was then she accepted her fate.

No one and nothing was going to save her.

Certainly not her Uncle, or Cyrus, or AI.

Apeiron was gone forever.

“Let’s get started,” Blake said over the PA system. “Fortunately, Chloe, you are already so heavily modified, your transformation will be easier than some of the others.”

Chloe drooled as she tried to respond.

Her head rolled slightly toward the observation room. She blinked at what looked like one of the troopers handing something to Jason. She wondered for half a second what they were doing, but quickly became distracted when a technician removed a plastic sheet over a surgical cart.

The cart carried an array of prosthetic parts. Another technician brought in a red case marked with an organ-for-transport label.

The surgeons prepared a rib-spreading device, bone saw, and drills that would’ve made Chloe wince in terror if she could move.

Chloe tried to scream. Only a gasp came out.

A trickle of fear broke through the anti-anxiety cocktail they had dumped into her system earlier.

The monitor displaying her vitals chirped. A tech walked over, and then picked up another syringe.

The hatch to the room suddenly opened and a trooper stepped inside. Then a second trooper.

Chloe looked back to the doctor who was giving the technician orders about the dosage.

“Four more units of sedative,” he said.

“Stop,” said one of the troopers in a muffled voice.

The hatch opened again, and Blake rushed in.

“What are you doing?” he asked the troopers. “I didn’t request more security.”

“We must maintain the room’s sterility,” said a surgeon. “You have dust on you, man. What the hell are you—”

The trooper to Chloe’s right raised his plasma rifle at the doctor. The surgeon lifted his gloved hands, backing away.

“What in the hell are you doing?” asked Blake. “You can’t—”

A plasma bolt erupted through his mouth, blowing out the back of his skull. Smoke whispered from the gruesome destruction as he crumpled to the ground, twitching.

Jason walked over with a plasma pistol in a shaky hand.

“I might be weak, but I know how to kill a monster, you evil piece of shit,” he said.

The trooper with the rifle knocked the surgeon down to the ground. Then he turned the barrel on the rest of the staff.

“Back up, assholes!” he shouted.

The techs and the conscious surgeon huddled in the back of the room. The trooper that had helped Jason moved over to Chloe.

“Hold on,” he said. “We’re getting you out of here.”

Chloe tried to move on the table, managing to wiggle a finger, and then a toe.

“Hel—” she tried to say.

Jason hovered over Blake, looking down at the dead doctor like he couldn’t believe he had just killed the man.

Finally, he glanced at Chloe.

He tucked the pistol away and rushed over to her side while the troopers secured the medical staff with restraints around their ankles and feet. Jason thumbed through the syringes and glass vials on a surgical tray.

“It’s okay, you’re safe now…” He flicked a syringe after filling it with another clear liquid, then injected her with it. “In just a few minutes, you’ll start feeling better.”

Warmth spread through Chloe’s body as Jason undid her restraints.

A trooper stood over her. He flipped up his visor with one hand and looked down at Chloe. The kind, wonderful eyes she remembered from the field hospital outside of Megacity Paris met her own.

For a moment, she wondered if this was an illusion from the sedatives, but they were wearing off.

He was real!

“Cyrus,” she whispered.

“I’m sorry it took me so long,” he said in his charming voice. “It took me a few weeks to find out where you were and get transferred here with the LDC.”

Her muddled thoughts solidified. He had joined the LDC to save her.

“You… you…” she tried to say.

“I’ll explain everything later, but we have to move,” Cyrus said. “War Commander Thacker will send reinforcements. We’re already vastly outnumbered.”

He began carrying her out of the room.

“Where…” she tried to ask. “Where are we going?”

“To meet your Uncle. He’s on his way with a transport.”

Jason handed the pistol back to Cyrus, but he waved it off.

“You might need it,” Cyrus said.

Jason held it out, but his hand was no longer shaking.

He gave a confident nod.

Cyrus looked to the other rebel trooper. “Help keep Doctor Crichton safe. Councilor Keanu wants him alive.”

***

Cat Ba Island, Vietnam

Blood leaked onto the cavern floor, leaving a trail that led right to the Engines. Akira carried Frost over his shoulder, her body draped over his armor.

It was only a matter of time before the Canebrakes found a way in or broke through the cave-in that Ghost brought down with an explosion. He was on point now, flitting his tactical beam over the narrow passages.

Akira carefully navigated his way across the wet surface, nearly slipping twice. Juno, Kichiro, and Blinky followed him, with the Hummer Droid holding rearguard.

“The signal works in shutting off the Canebrakes, but I couldn’t get it to hijack them like the Hummer Droids,” Juno explained as they moved. “I will have to modify it more, but at least it disables them.”

“Good work,” Ghost said.

“So that’s a thank you?”

Ghost grunted and stopped at an intersection.

“I forgot to tell you,” Juno said. “You have a decent voice.”

“Nice of you to say, but still doesn’t make up for the stunt you pulled back on the beach,” Ghost said.

Juno said something in Italian, that Ghost replied to with a curse.

“Silence,” Akira said.

Ghost swept his light over a pair of twisting tunnels in the rock.

“Which way?” he asked.

“To the right,” Akira said, recalling the map. “Wait, no, the left.”

Ghost looked back. “You’re sure?”

Akira nodded.

They started down the rocky path, their beams illuminating blue, purple, and other colorful stalactites hanging from the ceiling.

“Leave me,” Frost said. “I’m not gonna—”

“You know I’m not going to do that,” Akira said.

A warrior is loyal to those under his command. A warrior cannot command loyalty if he does not give it.

No way was he leaving her behind.

Ghost halted, bringing up a fist.

Akira listened for the machines but heard only the drip of water.

They had to get back into the jungle. Only then could they move freely. Akira just hoped his memory wouldn’t fail him.

At the bottom of the tunnel, the path opened into a large chamber with hundreds of stalactites. Tactical beams danced over the walls, illuminating ancient cave paintings.

Akira focused on a rocky shelf that overlooked the entrance. Beyond the shelf, a single, wide tunnel led out.

“Ghost, clear that passage,” Akira said. “Blinky stays behind us to guard the way we came in. Juno, come help me.”

She hurried up the rocky steps to the second ledge after Akira. He gently set Frost down on a level section of stone.

“You’ve made it this far, you’re gonna make it all the way,” Akira said.

But he knew she didn’t have much time. Not much time before she bled out. Not much time before the machines arrived.

Akira buried the dread he normally would never feel during battle. Without the AI connected to his suit and providing a cocktail of drugs, he was having a hard time managing his emotions.

He closed his eyes, breathed deeply, and exhaled.

Then he opened an armored satchel on his thigh and removed his med-kit, not far from where he was keeping his new, still blank codex.

Thinking of the ancient book of his ancestral history gave him strength.

He set the med-kit on the ground as Juno bent down to help. She rifled through the contents while Akira began to remove the damaged armor plate over Frost’s leg.

She let out a muffled whimper.

As soon as Akira freed the plate, old blood oozed out. The blade had gone in deep, but thankfully it had cauterized most of the wound. That was good news, but he still wasn’t sure if there was poison inside.

“Use that ointment, and then the nano-pad,” Akira said to Juno. “I’m going to check this other wound.”

He went to work on pulling off the interlocked armor plate covering her chest. Blood seeped out from the jagged opening in the armor.

She had already lost so much.

A dried trail ran from her chest all the way down her body to her boots.

Akira almost had the plate off when he heard clanking.

He twisted toward Blinky. The droid stood frozen, ready with his plasma cannon.

Kichiro hooved the ground, confirming what Akira suspected.

“The Canebrakes must have gotten past our barrier,” he whispered to Juno. She was applying a nano-pad and kept her gaze on the work, acknowledging what he’d said with only a nod.

“I’ll finish this,” Akira said. “Get your transmitter ready.”

“Almost done,” she replied. A moment later, Juno slipped away to assemble the device.

“Good news, the blade wasn’t laced with poison from what I can tell,” Akira said to Frost. “You’re going to make it out of here.”

“I’ve lost a lot of blood.” She squeezed his hand, looking up at him, and then the ceiling of faded paintings.

“This is a fine place to die, Captain,” she whispered.

“It would be. Too bad you aren’t dying here.”

Akira finished removing her chest plate, his heart thumping as more blood gushed out.

The plate had been putting pressure on a deep puncture wound. He had to stop the flow immediately.

In the past, the AI medical system in her suit would have stopped the flow, but those days were over.

Her life was solely in his all-too-human hands.

Akira kept one hand on the wound and used his other to snag the cauterizing gel. He flipped up his visor and bit off the cap.

Squeezing out the gel, Akira traced a line across the riven wound once, then again. The clear substance instantly started to bubble.

Frost squirmed, kicking, letting out a long groan of agony. Okami paced on the floor of the chamber, circling Kichiro. The cyborg horse stood watching the entrances, orange eyes alternating from Ghost to Blinky.

Akira tossed the tube back in the pack and pulled out a nano-pad. He ripped off the protective covering and applied the adhesive over the bubbling wound.

Frost whimpered, something Akira had never heard in their decade of fighting together.

“You’re going to be okay,” he said.

“I thought you couldn’t lie… The Bushido and all.”

“I’m not lying.”

Frost managed a smile, then groaned again.

Okami jumped up on the rocks, wagging his tail and leaning down to Frost. She took her hand off Akira and stroked the droid as he licked at her face.

He suddenly turned, snarling in Ghost’s direction. The Engine backed away from the tunnel, holding up two fingers to indicate hostiles.

Juno was finishing setting up the transmitter, securing the cone on the barrel.

Clanking echoed from behind Akira, sending a chill through his nerves. He glanced back to Blinky.

“Big problem, big problem,” said the droid.

Akira snatched a plasma grenade off his vest.

“Blinky, out of the way!” he shouted.

The Hummer Droid moved as Akira pitched the grenade across the chamber. The projectile hit the ground and rolled a few feet into the tunnel. A single Canebrake rushed forward, its body right above the grenade.

A flash of light consumed the machine in a blinding blast. The cavern walls shook, and rocks collapsed from the tunnel ceiling, hammering the Canebrake. A cloud of dust and grit whooshed out from around the trapped machine.

Plasma fire hissed from behind Akira. He whirled to see Ghost firing into the tunnel. That was their only way out now.

“Juno!” Akira yelled.

She was already running over with Blinky to help.

“Out of the way,” Juno said.

She squeezed past Ghost and aimed the transmitter into the darkness of the passage. Electronic screeches burst into the chamber, echoing against the walls.

Akira finished patching Frost up and pulled out his rifle.

A sudden crack ripped through the ceiling above.

Chunks of stalactites plummeted to the ground behind Akira. He glanced up at a fanned head sticking out of a new opening. The machine started to push through as he raised his rifle, firing a telescoped arm at Juno.

She cried out as Akira blasted the machine with a flurry of bolts. They pounded the skeletal chest plates, forcing it back into the crevice.

Telescoped arms fired down at Akira and Frost. He stood in front of her, his shield deflecting a blow, but finally winking offline.

Akira pulled out his katanas. Glowing blades illuminated the inside of the dark crevice, flickering over the titanium frame of the Canebrake.

He went into a defensive stance, knowing this time only his armor and swords stood between the mechanical monster and Frost.

“Blinky, covering fire!” Akira shouted.

“Big fire, big fire!” the Hummer Droid said. It twisted, blasting the ceiling with the cannon.

A segmented arm shot out, and Akira parried the blow with his katana. The next arm lanced toward his chest, but a plasma round from Blinky knocked it away.

An explosive screech burst out of the opening as the Canebrake tried to break free.

Blinky fired at the exposed metal face, seizing the opportunity to blow holes though the titanium skull. Three of the telescoping arms went limp, dangling over the shattered stalactites on the floor.

Akira hacked them down.

Ghost stood with his rifle aimed down the passage. Juno was holding her right arm, blood leaking from a gash.

“I’m okay,” she confirmed.

Akira sheathed his swords, switching back to his rifle. Ghost stood over two Canebrakes, their metal bodies as still as the rock around them.

“The signal worked,” Ghost said.

“Destroy them,” Akira said.

Ghost advanced to finish off the disabled machines while Akira returned to Juno.

“We got a problem,” she said.

Bending down, she picked up her transmitter. Half of it. The cone was in pieces, glass parts scattered.

“Ah, shit,” Akira said.

“Yeah…shit is right.”

“You can always build a new one when we get back to Neptune, and next time, you can add a bio-reader for me to use. Now let me see that arm.”

Akira reached out, but Juno pulled back.

“I’m fine, really.”

Blinky strode over to stand next to Juno while Akira returned to Frost’s side. She was squirming on the ground, still in terrible pain.

A vibration rippled through the cave as he moved.

Faint.

Then stronger.

The sound of moving, grinding rock hit his ears. There was no time to turn before an energy blade hooked around his left arm, burning into his armor.

Another heated dagger cut his rifle in half.

He whirled, raising a hand to pull out a katana as he was yanked backward. He hit the ground in front of a shaking pile of debris.

A metal snout burst out, and the partially-buried Canebrake exploded out, breaking free from the shallow rocky grave.

Its plasma turrets raked back and forth, spraying the cave.

Akira used his katana to slice away the energy hook wrapped around his arm. As he pushed himself up, Okami flew by, snapping down on one of the Canebrake’s legs.

Kichiro let out a neigh as plasma bolts flashed by Akira. He ducked below the telescoping arms that streaked through the air.

The Canebrake kicked Okami away, sending him flying across the chamber. The wolfdog cracked against a rock wall. Another crack rang out in the room, this one from the boom of a gunshot.

The Canebrake’s head jerked back from a .50 cal round between the front two eyes.

Akira slashed and thrust his blades into the crumpled machine, each stroke fueled by anger and rage. It finally slumped to the ground, butchered from the dozen burning holes in the metal frame.

Heaving a breath, Akira searched for Okami. The droid dog was on his hind legs, dazed, but alive.

“Captain,” Ghost said. He stood a few feet away, looking on nervously. “We should keep moving.”

Akira nodded and went to hoist Frost up and over Blinky’s shoulder. Juno was finished wrapping her arm and helped make sure Frost was secure as they followed Kichiro toward the exit.

Ghost started down the tunnel, passing the two Canebrakes he had destroyed.

It wasn’t long before they neared a cave that opened to the jungle.

Akira went ahead to check it out.

The bluff overlooked the islands in the bay. He searched for the larger mass of land that Lieutenant Godfrey had indicated on his digital map.

That was the location of the rendezvous.

But to get there, they would need a boat.

A low rumble filled the air. Akira motioned for the rest of the team to seek cover.

Gliding out of the mist was a massive Hunter ship, patrolling right over the bay.

This time, the team had no secret weapon against the machines. No missiles or enough firepower to take it down unless they found a weak spot for his two remaining explosive arrows.

Ghost hunched down next to him.

“Not lookin’ good, Captain,” he whispered.

Akira stared at the armored hull of the ship, looking for a way to bring it down with an arrow. As it dipped lower, he noticed the vented sides, where Canebrakes had hopped out from an interior troop hold.

Maybe he didn’t need a way to bring it down.

Maybe he just needed a way inside.

He motioned for Ghost to join him back in the jungle.

Akira had a plan, a crazy plan, but a plan.

— 32 —

Shoemaker Crater, the Moon

The last thing Tadhg remembered was the MOTH plummeting into the abyss of the Shoemaker Crater. He had braced himself with his boot against a bulkhead as the pilots tried to save them by landing on a rocky ledge in the vertical rim of the crater.

The only thing he recalled from the resulting impact was the troopers in the hold flying around like ragdolls. And then Tadhg had been thrown out of an open hatch from the crash.

He had landed in the regolith, saved by his power-armor. But the rest of the soldiers weren’t as lucky.

As far as he could tell, he was the only survivor.

But not for long.

Warning sensors beeped in his helmet.

Oxygen level, low, read the HUD.

Tadhg grunted. A piece of the MOTH’s wing was pressed over his chest.

He looked up at the jeweled stretch of space above the crater. They were close enough he could still see the stars. Not far from his position though, the crater dropped almost two miles to the bottom.

Another grunt, and Tadhg tried to move again, but the wing had him pinned down. Without arms, he was virtually helpless.

That made him even more angry.

This was never how he pictured dying, and worse, if he died, it was possible Thacker would get away with his crimes.

Tadhg could only hope that Veronica’s final action of sending a transmission to the Council had gotten through.

But he might never know.

Screaming, Tadhg wiggled, trying to burrow his way out.

Sweat dripped down his forehead. He stopped to rest after ten minutes, searching the darkness above for Earth.

Somewhere out there Akira was still fighting.

Tadhg could feel it in his bruised bones.

The man who had taught him what honor was all about. He recalled the battle in the frozen forest outside of Moscow during his first deployment with Shadow Squad.

He had been standing over a halo of dead Coalition commandos when the fighting had ceased. Parts lay strewn about, limbs, heads, and gore.

“How do you feel?” came a voice.

Tadhg had turned toward it, seeing a horned Kabuto piercing the smoke. The seven foot tall frame of Captain Akira Hayashi strode through, holding a glowing katana in one hand, and Kichiro’s reins in his other.

Okami trotted along, sniffing the bodies for any that might still be drawing breath.

“Do you feel relief, Sergeant Walsh?” Akira had asked.

Tadhg hadn’t felt any weight lift off his shoulders from slaughtering the enemy. Only a burning thirst that did not seem to be quenched through violence.

“No,” he replied to Akira. “I do not.”

“That’s because revenge is like a cherry blossom tree’s roots in the desert. No matter how far and wide they grow, they will never get enough water to be satisfied.”

Tadhg didn’t admit it then, but he still didn’t believe Akira about revenge. He still believed he would eventually feel better if he could kill enough of the Coalition to make up for his own tragic losses.

During the next deployment, Shadow Squad was dropped into the Amazon rainforest where a camp of Coalition fighters held a group of AI missionaries hostage. The civilians had ventured into Coalition territory hoping to convert the locals.

It did not end well for many of them, who were tortured, killed, and fed to the pigs. Those that had survived were clinging to life from malnutrition, dehydration, and horrific injuries.

The horrors Tadhg discovered in that camp fueled his rage as he cut down Coalition commando after commando, still seeking to satiate his thirst for revenge. By the time Shadow Squad secured the area, Tadhg had killed thirty soldiers.

And his thirst never wavered.

In fact, it was more intense than ever.

He wanted to keep killing.

It made him an effective soldier. A machine, in a way. But his heart still ached for his father.

Then he was deployed to South Africa to a harbor where Coalition ships were suspected of trafficking kidnapped Nova Alliance children.

Tadhg twisted the necks and slit the throats of the commandos on a container ship as he searched for those kids. When he found them, it was then, and only then he realized the way to quench his thirst was to end the violence.

It was always a struggle for Tadhg, but every battle after that one, he fought with a new purpose—to protect the innocent and bring peace to the Nova Alliance empire.

An emergency warning on his HUD snapped Tadhg back to reality.

Soon his fight for peace would be over.

Thacker would win, and so would the machines.

Tadhg fought his heavy eyelids, but his fight ended as they clamped shut.

No… no… come on, Tadhg… come…

His breaths grew shallower.

A vibration stirred him alert a few moments later.

He narrowed his blurred vision at a light blinking in the distance.

The light grew closer, until it was almost on top of him.

A MOTH set down by the wreckage of the one he’d crashed in, a ramp extending down.

Troopers rushed down in their exoskeletons. The squad leader flashed hand signals, and the soldiers fanned out.

Tadhg managed his breathing and remained still to conserve his energy. He was only going to get one shot at getting up once they found him, assuming they didn’t put a bolt into his chest right here.

One of the troopers finally made their way over to him, angling his rifle down at Tadhg.

“Go ahead, you piece of shit,” Tadhg said.

He knew the man couldn’t hear him, but kept talking anyway.

The soldier bent down.

“Get it over with!” Tadhg shouted.

Using one hand, the soldier motioned for the others. Two more troopers joined him.

One pulled out an energy sword. The glowing blade pushed back the darkness of the crater.

Tadhg fought as hard as he could to free himself from the wing.

“Do it! Fucking end it!” Tadhg shouted.

The trooper brought the blade down right toward his head. Tadhg flinched out of habit, but in that moment, he saw the glowing sword cut into the wing.

The other two troopers moved over to help pull it off Tadhg.

When he sat up, he saw a tall figure standing at the bottom of the ramp of the MOTH. At first, he thought it might be War Commander Thacker coming to kill him personally. Maybe that was why the troopers hadn’t outright killed him.

But this figure wasn’t wearing combat armor.

The soldiers lifted Tadhg to his feet and guided him over to the MOTH. He didn’t resist or fight back. He waited to make his move, still unsure what was happening.

On the way past the wreckage, he saw Veronica in the troop hold. She was still in her seat, slouched.

“I’m sorry,” he said. “I’m sorry I failed you.”

Joaquín wasn’t in sight, but Tadhg thanked the lad too for his sacrifice.

They were just kids. Kids that had died because of War Commander Thacker.

The man at the ramp went back up inside the troop hold and Tadhg followed him into the dimly lit space. The other troopers filed inside, and the hatch closed shut.

As soon as the troop hold was secure, the man took off his helmet, revealing a bearded face and kind eyes—kind eyes that Tadhg recognized.

“Sergeant Walsh, my name is Councilor Keanu Cotter,” he said.

Tadhg couldn’t believe it.

“You got our transmission?” Tadhg asked.

“My plans have been in motion for two weeks. Your message just accelerated the timeline.”

“What plans are those?”

“To free the hybrids and Doctor Jason Crichton, among other things. Thanks to you, I have the evidence we needed to charge Thacker with war crimes for more than what he’s doing to the hybrids.”

“Two good, young troopers died getting that intel.”

“And their deaths will not be in vain.”

A light flashed, indicating the MOTH was preparing for takeoff.

The troopers latched into their seats, crossbars going over their armor next to Tadhg.

“I sure hope you got enough support to take down Thacker,” he said. “He’s the type of person you better kill on the first try.”

“I was hoping you’d be able to help with that.”

Tadhg recalled everything he had learned about revenge from Akira over the years. But killing Thacker wasn’t about revenge, it was about ending the rule of a madman. It was about fighting for peace.

“If you give me the chance, I’ll do what I do best,” Tadhg said.

***

Atlas Station Labs

Shoemaker Crater, the Moon

You can still fix things, Jason, the Earth can be saved.

Apeiron’s voice continued to haunt Jason as he was led through the medical facility. He followed Cyrus and the other soldier that claimed they were with an underground organization within the LDC, filled with individuals loyal to the Nova Alliance. They simply called themselves Loyalists. He wasn’t sure how many of them were down here, but it couldn’t just be Cyrus and his comrade.

Both men were hunched at the next intersection with their rifles. Jason knew little more about them, other than Cyrus apparently had—or still had—a romantic relationship with Chloe.

She stood next to Jason behind the corner, dazed, but finally able to stand on her own.

The distant sound of gunfire rang out through the passage. They both pulled back.

Cyrus stood and retreated toward them.

“Okay, here’s the plan, your Uncle just landed with a MOTH and another fireteam of Nova Loyalists,” he said. “We’re going to need to get you two as far from this place as we can if we stand a chance of stopping Thacker and helping the survivors on Earth.”

“What survivors?” Jason asked.

“And what about the rest of the hybrids?” Chloe chimed in.

“We have two other teams freeing the hybrids, but they’re facing heavy resistance.”

“We have to help them.”

“We’ll save as many as we can, but I can’t promise we can save everyone,” Cyrus said. “We need to get to the transport before LDC reinforcements arrive or we’re all dead.”

“I won’t leave without my friend Giana. I just can’t, Cyrus. You have to understand.”

Jason could feel Apeiron in his mind again.

You can save them, too, she said. You have to try, Jason. Find me. Find me and bring me back online. There are survivors from Earth, you heard him!

Jason shook her voice away as Cyrus motioned for them to move.

“Wait, what survivors on Earth?” Jason asked. “Did the pilots on the recon mission find people down there?”

“Yes,” Cyrus simply said as he moved ahead.

Chloe and Jason kept close down another hallway that connected to a chamber.

The scent of burning flesh hit Jason as the hatch opened, distracting him.

A group of ten Nova Loyalist soldiers stood in an open hangar littered with bodies. Two more were working on an injured woman. She writhed on the floor, moaning in pain. Behind them, hundreds of hybrids were huddled together.

Jason looked at the dead LDC Troopers scattered throughout the space. He felt no pity for any. They had all followed evil orders without hesitation. Their swift deaths had been far more than they deserved for torturing all these innocent people.

Chloe rushed over to the hybrids with Jason in pursuit. It didn’t take long to find Giana. Just days ago, she had gone through surgery to give her prosthetic arms and legs. In one of her robotic hands, she held a pulse rifle.

The last time Chloe had seen her, Giana had been barely alive. Now she looked like a firebrand ready to do battle.

“What are you doing?” Chloe asked. “We have to leave.”

“You go, but I’m staying to fight,” Giana said.

“You won’t win!”

“There’s nowhere for me to go.” Giana looked down at her prosthetic parts. “I’d rather die taking as many of these evil assholes as I can.”

“My Uncle can help us, though.”

“He can help you, Chloe, but he can’t help all of us. Not me. This isn’t what I want.”

Giana looked toward the other hybrids. Frightened eyes stared right back. People shook where they stood, some still in stained gowns and bloody sheets.

It hit Jason then that Giana was right. Truthfully, they weren’t leaving this place. There wasn’t anywhere to go. They had to fight to make this place their home before even turning their eyes toward Earth.

Earth… Jason thought.

“Cyrus, what survivors did the pilots find?” he asked.

“I don’t know many details, but a transmission was sent out by Nova soldiers about Megacity Boston surviving the cannon strike and there being a resistance…something about an Engine broadcasting, too.”

Jason stood there, stunned, as Cyrus walked over to one of the other soldiers. “Where’s the transport?” he asked.

“Just landed,” replied a soldier.

The Life Ark at Megacity Boston. That is where you can find me!

Jason stared in disbelief. Apeiron, she had been right all along.

“This way,” Cyrus said. “We don’t have much time.”

Chloe and Giana embraced.

“Good luck,” Chloe said.

“You too,” Giana replied. “We will see each other someday. This world or the next.”

“Hurry,” Cyrus said, waving.

He rushed across the chamber, leading Chloe and Jason to another passage that Jason recognized. Halting, Jason considered everything he had heard.

You must go to Megacity Boston, Apeiron said. I can help you. We can still change the course of history together.

Jason wasn’t ready to trust her again, but she was right. This was their opportunity to right the wrongs of the past, from E-Day to his work here at Atlas Station.

“I need ten minutes!” he shouted.

Without another thought, he started toward the lab where he had designed the virus to destroy Otto. If he could get there, then he could download another version and take it with him. He wasn’t sure how he would get to Megacity Boston, but he had new friends to help figure that out.

“Where are you going?” Cyrus called after him.

“I have something I have to do. A way that could save all of us!”

“We don’t have the time. We have to get to that transport before reinforcements arrive.”

“I’ve got to do this. If I don’t make it, then don’t wait for me.”

Chloe looked at Jason.

“Go,” he said. “You deserve to live. That’s why Apeiron gave you a new life.”

Cyrus reached into his vest and pulled out a data-pad and tossed it to Jason.

“Take this and stay in touch with us.”

“Thanks,” Jason said.

With a nod, Cyrus took off with Chloe.

It didn’t take long to get to his lab, but the door was closed and locked.

Raising his plasma pistol, Jason fired at the security panel.

Sparks exploded out, and the door slid open. Jason sat in front of the bank of computers. He scrolled through the screens, opening Operation Orchard files.

The data-pad Cyrus had given Jason crackled a few minutes into his search.

“Doctor Crichton, we have hostiles heading your way,” Cyrus said. “You need to move, fast.”

Jason heard the crack of a pulse weapon and angry shouting down the halls.

“Copy that,” he said. “I won’t be much longer.”

He finished downloading the virus to a holochip. Then he ejected it and put it into a plastic case and slipped it into his pocket.

After he left the lab, heavy footsteps echoed in his direction.

The fighting was getting closer.

He looked over his shoulder as two troopers rounded the corner.

He had no idea if they were Nova Loyalists or LDC until one of them raised a plasma rifle and fired in his direction.

Jason ducked and then ran hard toward where Cyrus had taken Chloe. He wasn’t completely familiar with Atlas Station, as it was huge, but he knew how to get to the hangars.

“Doctor Crichton, what’s your status?” Cyrus asked over the data-pad. “We need to leave! Can’t hold out much longer.”

“I’m on my way,” Jason replied.

A stitch formed in his side and his lungs heaved for air. He wasn’t used to running, but the pain on his side just kept getting worse. Far worse than he’d expected.

It wasn’t until he reached down to grip his stomach that he felt blood.

Halting, he glanced down at where a plasma bolt had burned right through his side.

The pain got worse when he touched it.

Shouting erupted behind him.

Wound or not, he couldn’t stop. He ran down another passage while hybrids rushed through a connecting one. He briefly caught eyes with Giana, her rifle up and ready.

Then he ran until he couldn’t run anymore. He limped through an intersection just outside the hangars.

Shouting came from passages to his left and right.

“Stop them!” someone called out.

Jason turned just as a pair of troopers entered the passage. He clenched his teeth and forced his legs to run, making it into the chamber before another bolt hit him in the arm.

He kept going until a bolt hit his leg, bringing him to the ground. He pushed himself back up, determined to get to the ramp of the MOTH where Cyrus was providing covering fire.

“Come on!” Cyrus shouted. His rifle bucked against his shoulder with each successive shot.

Jason turned with his pistol and aimed at his pursuers. He fired off several wild shots. All screamed harmlessly past the enemy.

One of the troopers steadied their rifle at Jason. He tensed up, ready for his world to end in a blaze of hot plasma.

But before the man could pull the trigger, his head whipped back, blood spraying out from a vicious plasma bolt.

“Let’s go!” Cyrus yelled.

Another rash of plasma bolts ended his second pursuer.

Limping toward the MOTH, Jason fought the pain in his leg. Bolts blasted past his face as more troopers rushed into the hangar. Cyrus chiseled away at the enemy forces, providing a hailstorm of cover fire.

But it wasn’t enough. Not against this many troopers.

Jason made it a few more steps before spears of pain tore into his back, knocking him down with so much force his vision went dark.

Numb from the waist down, he blinked until his vision cleared enough to see the ramp, just ten feet away. Those ten feet may as well have been ten miles.

Jason reached into his pocket and pulled out the holochip case.

Chloe ran down the ramp, past Cyrus, only to have him hold her back.

“Get inside!” he roared.

Using the last of his energy, Jason crawled a few more feet. Then he tossed the holochip case toward the ramp.

“Find Apeiron, she will be at Megacity Boston…” Jason choked on what tasted like blood. “She will be in the Life Ark.”

Chloe picked up the case as Cyrus stepped out in front of her, still firing. Two of his comrades joined them on the wide ramp, laying down more fire.

Return fire slammed into the MOTH. One of those bolts caught a Loyalist, sending him in a heap off the side of the ramp.

Chloe stood just beyond Cyrus, looking down at Jason. She held the case close to her chest.

“I’ll find her!” she shouted. “I promise.”

The ramp clanked shut, bolts crashing against its side, leaving dark singe marks.

Jason rotated to his back, blinking away stars bursting before his eyes. The blurred shape of ten troopers in all black armor crossed the space, firing at the side of the MOTH as it lifted off.

When a siren began screaming, the soldiers all retreated from the hangar.

Jason looked up at the MOTH gliding toward the cargo bay door that slid open, the air rushing out. Intense cold gripped him, freezing the blood dripping from his wounds and the tears in his eyes.

He stared up at the blackness of space while recalling something his sister had once said when she lay dying.

I will be waiting for you in the stars, Jason.

He closed his eyes, thinking of his family. He wasn’t sure if he would see Betsy, Nina, Autumn, or his sister again.

But even darkness was better than missing them every day.

The last thing he saw was a meteor shooting through space.

A smile twisted on his freezing face as Jason took his last breath.

— 33 —

Cat Ba Island, Vietnam

Frost was dying. She lay writhing in the dirt next to a tree, moaning in agony while Juno tried to administer painkillers.

Akira knew Frost was on borrowed time. They had stopped the bleeding, but she had lost too much. There were no toxins in her system, thankfully, or she would already be dead.

He looked out over the island chains in Ha Long Bay.

Safety for her and the rest of the team was so close…

Not two miles away was the rendezvous point.

If Akira could get her there, he could save her life. He could even see one of the small fishing boats on the shoreline, paddles and all.

But there was one major problem.

The Hunter ship still prowled in the cloud cover. He had hoped it would pass over, but the damn thing remained up there, waiting.

The rumble of its engines growled above the water, not far from the mountain cliffside on the north end of Cat Ba Island.

Akira reached over his back, feeling his last two explosive arrows. There was no way an explosive arrow could bring the mammoth vessel down even if he got lucky and hit the inside of one of the vents. But if he could get inside one of those vents, he might have a chance.

He moved over to Ghost who was crouched behind a rock not far from Juno, Blinky, and Frost. Behind them, Kichiro was nestled under two trees. Okami was there too, waiting for orders.

“So what’s the play?” Ghost asked quietly.

“You’re going to get in that boat and cross the bay,” Akira said.

“What about you?”

“Those are your orders, Lieutenant Rossi. I’ll deal with the ship and provide a distraction.”

Juno looked at Akira. “Deal with the ship?”

“I’ve got a plan.”

“Which is…”

“I don’t have time to explain,” Akira said. “You have to trust me.”

Ghost and Juno both hesitated.

“I trust you, but how are you going to take on that ship by yourself?” Ghost asked.

“I’m going to board it.”

Ghost waited a beat before asking, “You’re serious? How much shield do you have left?”

The Grind-Shield meter showed zero on Akira’s HUD.

“None,” he replied, unable to lie.

Ghost cursed. “Then you know—”

“You must protect Juno and get Frost to the medics. Go while you still have time. That’s a non-negotiable and direct order, Lieutenant.”

Ghost seemed to soften. He leaned down and put his helmet against Akira’s, their visors clinking together.

“You better make it back,” Ghost said.

“I will.”

Ghost bent down by Frost to pick her up.

“I’ll see you soon,” Akira said. “You’re going to make it, Frost.”

She reached out to him as Ghost helped Blinky put her over a metal shoulder.

Juno faced Akira.

“Your arm okay?” he asked.

“I’m fine. You just be careful. I’d like to see you again…in one piece.”

“Same to you. Be smart and listen to Ghost.”

She exhaled. “I will.”

Akira said his goodbyes to Okami and Kichiro next before the group parted ways. The droid animals didn’t like him leaving any more than Ghost and Juno, but this was the only way.

He stood watching until they disappeared under the cover of the jungle canopy, wondering if he would ever see them again.

To give your life for the innocent—or for your brothers and sisters—is a good death.

If this was his time, Akira was going to make it count. He reached down to the armored satchel on his hip where the empty leatherbound journal was still tucked away.

The end to his story might not make it onto those pages, but that was okay. Not all stories needed to be documented.

The enemy ship glided through the mist. The sun would be up in two hours. He had to make his move soon.

Turning, he began to climb a rocky slope toward the mountain peak. He used the cover of the trees for as long as he could. But the mountain turned steeper. He had to scale up the side of a rocky bluff.

Halfway up, he froze and hugged the rock as the ship rumbled out of the clouds, dipping low over the bay.

Akira remained still until it was far enough away he could no longer feel the vibration. Then he reached up and continued climbing until he made it to the top. The thrilling song of a bird called out from below.

This was the first bird he’d heard since making it to land.

The sweet gentle melody reminded him of the trip he had taken to the Kongobuji temple at Mount Koya with Yui and Takeshi. It was there he had found a sense of peace for a few hours away from the battlefield.

But just like that long-ago visit to the temple with his innocent family, this moment of calm was shattered by the instruments of war.

The bulbous bow of the Hunter ship roared back out of the cloud cover and soared over the bay. It switched to thrusters on the aft and bow, hovering over a section of open water.

Akira zoomed in on the hull with his INVS eyes. The vents on the side that had disgorged the Canebrakes were still open.

A fatal mistake on their part.

This was his chance.

Akira activated his jetpack, blasting off the ledge into the clouds, hoping to conceal himself from the enemy.

He cut through them, gaining altitude. It was impossible to see anything, but he could hear engines. When he believed he was directly over the enemy ship, he flipped and shot downward.

Helmet first, he speared through the clouds like an arrow.

He steeled himself for the nightmarish resistance he would likely face as soon as he got inside the ship. And he was going to face it without a shield.

Bursting out of the clouds, he sailed over the fore section of the Hunter ship. He pulled out of his dive and brought his legs up, targeting the bow.

At the last second, he switched off the jetpack and dropped onto the hull with a loud clank. Reaching back, he drew one of his katanas, and carefully worked his way to the edge of the curved ship.

The vessel turned sharply, and he lost his footing, falling downward against the hull with a thud. Fierce gusts of wind forced him to stay down on his knees as he moved toward the edge where he could see the bay below.

The rest of his team should have made it into the water by now. He searched the choppy waters until he saw the small craft filled with his comrades. Kichiro was swimming alongside it as Okami stood at the bow.

Good, Akira thought. They’re on the move.

But if he could see the boat, so could the Hunter ship. He had to be fast.

The ship started to descend more rapidly, and Akira had to thrust his sword into the hull to keep from falling over the side. He hung from the handle in front of an open vent, staring into the bay.

Using his other hand, he took hold of a fin from one vent and pulled himself inside. As soon as he stepped foot inside the ship he drew his other katana. Both weapons glowed red hot.

He ducked into an empty troop hold. Slotted along the bulkhead were crevices that had normally held the machines in place.

Seeing none, he started toward the hatch that would take him to the bow. He had no idea if that was where the command center was, but it seemed like the most logical place. Before entering the passage, he swapped his swords for his rifle.

He snuck through the open hatch, clearing both sides. Taking a left, he ran down the ribbed tunnel that looked like the spinal cord of some massive sea creature. It curved around the bow.

Nearing his destination, he heard something that he wasn’t expecting.

Voices.

Human voices.

Akira halted to listen.

“Contacts heading northeast, do we destroy or capture?” someone asked.

Akira’s heart lurched. He had no doubt who those contacts were.

A robotic voice answered. “Eliminate all targets.”

Akira crept closer toward the corner as the craft dipped lower. He heard what sounded like muffled breathing.

Holding in his own breath, he moved around the corner into a halo-shaped command center. Four Dreads stood at different stations, tapping buttons and monitors.

In that split second, Akira took in everything—the holo-screen with a visual of the boat Ghost was paddling across the bay.

A charging bar on the bottom right of the screen made Akira’s heart pound even harder. Already at seventy-percent, the energy beam was preparing to fire.

None of the four Dreads appeared armed, but Akira had to act fast.

He swept his aim over the closest soldier and fired, putting bolts straight through both eye sockets. The second closest Dread began to duck, but Akira shot him in the center of his breathing apparatus. Sparks and gore flew from the impact.

The third and fourth soldiers dove for cover as he peppered their stations with plasma.

Akira slotted his rifle, drew his swords, and leapt over the rows of monitors and stations before the Dreads could get up. They looked up at him, trying to scramble backward.

He showed no quarter, removing both their heads with his blades.

The energy bar was still charging across the bottom of a screen. Blood pooled across the deck as Akira searched for a way to turn off the targeting device. He sheathed his katanas and ran to a blood-stained screen when a loud rattle shook from behind him.

A hatch across the space flung open, and a black Hummer Droid strode inside. It was the same armored chassis and model Apeiron had used in Megacity Paris and then later at the ceremony that ended the war in Megacity Tokyo.

Akira went down on a knee, switching back to his rifle and firing all within three seconds. The bolts pounded the droid’s barreled chest armor, leaving ashy smears on the shiny black surface.

The droid walked over, striding into his fire like the plasma rounds were nothing more than a rainstorm.

Akira’s aim drifted over the humanlike face of the droid. The machine shot a telescoping arm straight at him, the fingers wrapping around his neck. It lifted him off the ground as he kicked and squirmed.

He dropped his rifle and brought up his own hand to try and free himself.

“Captain Akira Hayashi,” came a robotic male voice.

The droid’s face shifted to resemble the features of Doctor Otto Cross. He smiled his characteristic sly, but charming grin while his dark eyes bored into Akira’s. Then he slowly twisted Akira toward an image of the bay on the holo-screen.

NO…

Akira had been too late.

The paralyzing beams had already fired. His friends and Kichiro were illuminated by the bright red light.

“Stop!” Akira cried. “Let them go!”

“I have given you far too many chances, but I will attempt to sway you one more time, Captain,” he said. “Join my ranks, and I’ll let your friends live. You will serve as my general in the most important and final war of our species. The peace you’ve always strived for is finally within reach.”

Akira kicked, glancing down to try and find something, anything that would free him. The only things within reach were the remaining explosive arrows in his quiver. But without his bow…

The grip around his neck tightened.

“You are a remarkably brave and selfless warrior,” Otto said. “I need someone that cares about honor over survival. I actually find your commitment to the virtues of Bushido admirable.”

Two Canebrakes clambered into the room on all fours, surrounding Akira.

There was no way out of this.

The only way to save his friends was to submit.

He remembered the seventh Virtue of Chu—or duty and loyalty to his comrades and friends. But submitting wouldn’t save them.

They too would probably be transformed into hideous abominations like those laying sprawled across the deck. To Otto, every living thing, every living person was a tool ripe for bending to his will.

No, the only virtue that mattered most now was Yu. Heroic courage. He had to give his life to try and buy them a chance to escape.

Akira glanced back to the screen. His friends were still frozen by the beams. He had one hand around Otto’s claws, trying to pry them off to no avail.

“Right now, they’re paralyzed,” Otto said. “But in the blink of an eye, I can switch on lasers that tear them apart, cell by cell.”

Anger ripped through Akira as he slowly moved his free hand toward the arrows. Wiggling his fingers, he gripped the top of one.

“Make your decision, Captain,” Otto said. “Save your friends and help me give humanity another chance. Or—”

Stretching as far as he could, Akira plucked the arrow out, and then dropped his other hand from around his neck.

The Hummer Droid tightened its robotic grip around Akira’s neck armor, blocking off his oxygen. But Akira had held in a breath. He used it to jam the arrow into a gap between the shoulder and neck of the Hummer Droid.

Then he activated his jetpack, blasting into the machine and knocking it backward with the force.

Akira landed behind a station and tore a plasma pistol off one of the Dreads.

The Canebrakes fired their blades at him as he bolted for cover. He hunched behind a desk and then rose up, aiming at the explosive arrow still jammed into the Hummer Droid’s neck. Three shots was all it took.

Plasma hit the arrow, setting it off in a fiery blast. The pressure wave hammered Akira and sent him tumbling to the back of the command center.

His back crashed against the bulkhead with a ringing thud.

While pain swam through him, he reached down to his bow and pulled it out. The arms clicked into place, and he nocked his final arrow.

Standing, he wobbled but then straightened when he saw the Hummer Droid had risen back up, the head hanging from a few frayed cables. The right arm was gone, but the machine was still moving.

“Here’s my answer,” Akira said.

Otto’s face transformed into a mask of anger as Akira shifted his arrow and launched it at the primary station at the front of the command center.

Another explosion boomed through the room. Metal shrapnel flew on a wave of fire and smoke, sparks showering from shredded stations.

The ship started diving earthward, sending Akira sliding across the deck.

Ears ringing and vision blurred, he tried to grab something to hold onto. Flames consumed the command center, forcing the two damaged Canebrakes to lurch out. They screeched away into tunnels.

Unable to stand, Akira crawled while the dive started to grow steeper. He slid toward the flames again, stopping himself by grabbing the metal leg of a chair bolted to the deck.

Finally, he managed to get up and scramble to the passage he had used to access the command room. Halfway down, an arm wrapped around his legs, tripping him.

Landing on his back, he twisted to see the black Hummer Droid standing in the open hatch. The face distorted as Otto screamed.

“You fool! You aren’t brave, you are a…”

The remaining arm pulled Akira back toward the fires. He unsheathed his katana and hacked at the segmented limb, slicing into the metal and wires. He raised the sword up to finish the job when the ship slammed into something with a heaving jolt.

Momentum hurtled Akira into the ceiling with a thud.

He collapsed again on the deck. It wasn’t until water rushed in from the open troop hold that he realized the ship had landed in the bay.

Kicking free of the severed arm, he fought against the quickly rising waters toward the hold. Twisting, he saw the Hummer Droid was gone now, trapped inside the watery tomb. Before he even made it into the hold, the passages filled completely with water.

Akira pushed through the raging flow, then out through one of the vents. The ship continued sinking into the bay as he kicked up toward the surface.

He didn’t stop until he broke through, fighting against the heavy weight of his armor.

In the distance, he could see the shoreline, and on it, a boat.

Akira kept swimming, gasping for air, not turning back. Finally, he hit the surf and stood, water dripping off his seared armor.

He scanned the beach for his comrades, but saw nothing.

After staggering a few feet, he fell to his knees in the sand. Blinking, he looked out over the blurred landscape.

A bark called out.

Akira felt his heart lift.

He spotted Okami’s burned frame bursting out of the jungle. The wolfdog bolted over, wagging his metal tail. Kichiro trotted out of the trees, letting out a neigh.

Behind them were several hunched figures.

Ghost and Juno moved away from the cover. Blinky was there, too, Frost still slung over a shoulder. Behind them, dozens of Coalition commandos and Nova Alliance Pistons stood with their weapons at the ready.

Lieutenant Tumea jogged across the beach. “Never thought I’d see you again. Maybe they should call you something other than Akira the Brave. Maybe Akira the Lucky.”

“Where’s Dao?” Akira asked.

“The boy is safe. Come, I’ll take you to him.”

Akira turned back to the bay, bubbles still surfacing where the ship had sunk. He half-expected the Hummer Droid to come striding out of the surf.

But the machine was hopefully gone forever.

Otto on the other hand would just transfer to a new one.

Akira caught his breath and hurried over to his comrades. Frost was still alive, but unconscious.

“She’s in bad shape,” Ghost said.

Akira climbed up onto Kichiro’s saddle. “On me,” he said.

Reunited, the group continued into the jungle, covering their trail all the way to a hidden cave entrance. That tunnel led into a vast network of passages that took them deep under the mountain into the command center.

Akira helped Frost over to a medical station. She squeezed his hand as he gently put her down on a table. A doctor was already suiting up and preparing her for surgery.

“We’ll take it from here, Captain,” he said.

“Thank you.” Akira put a hand on Frost and gave her one last look before ducking out of the chamber. She was safe, for now, but there was no guarantee she was going to survive her injuries.

Tumea motioned for Akira and his other comrades.

“This way,” she said.

Inside the next massive cavern, dozens of soldiers worked at make-shift desks covered with portable electronic equipment and radios. Maps were spread out over tables and on digital screens.

Centered in the middle of the space was a group of officers that Akira didn’t recognize, save for one.

War Commander Contos stood pointing at screens and giving orders.

Akira exhaled as he approached with Ghost and Juno. Jackson was here too and ran a hand through his sweaty mohawk.

“You made it, Captain,” he said.

“Thanks to that bow and arrows you gave me,” Akira said. He took Jackson’s hand in a hearty shake. “I wouldn’t be here without them.”

Contos turned and for the first time since E-Day, he smiled at Akira. The sparkle of courage and strength had returned in his eyes.

The War Commander reached toward Akira, but instead of shaking his hand, he pulled Akira close in an embrace.

“We found her,” Contos whispered to Akira. “We know where Apeiron is.”

— 34 —

Kepler Station

Kepler Crater, The Moon

Three King Cobra Spaceplanes veered into the darkness of space.

Craning his neck, Ronin watched from the inside of a MOTH en route to Kepler Station. An armada of spacecraft flew low over the ejecta of a crater.

Inside each of the MOTHs sat the other nervous draftees.

Through a porthole, Ronin could see the Earth, still an ugly brown and black. The smoke seemed to be getting worse in some areas. He could see strips of the ocean in some places, but most of the surface was unrecognizable.

The machines were down there, hunting survivors like his Uncle Akira, while the LDC did nothing. Seeing Earth like this made him wonder if it was possible to ever take it back.

Ronin switched his gaze from his former home to his new one.

A chill ran through him at the sight of the habitats built above the Kepler Crater rim.

He wasn’t sure if it was from fear or excitement. Probably a bit of both.

Definitely some fear based off what Tadhg had told him about not trusting the LDC.

Flashing blue lights illuminated runways where the shuttles had first arrived on E-Day. A pair of MOTHs were taking off in the distance, pulling up toward the darkness of space.

Another squadron of King Cobra Spaceplanes blasted overhead.

They flew over the ten structures making up the main part of the base. Construction equipment buzzed around several of the structures as they installed white panels.

Turrets mounted the buildings, all angled toward the Earth.

The transport pilots flew over the former spaceport that the LDC had transformed into a fortress.

The MOTH dipped over the rim of the crater and descended into the darkness until a sparkle of blue lights emerged at the bottom.

“Prepare for landing,” said a pilot over the PA system.

The craft set down gently with a slight vibration. A red light clicked green, and the arm-bars unlocked over Ronin.

The hatch opened and a ramp clanked down next.

Ronin pushed his arm-bars up and followed the other draftees down into a busy hangar. At least a thousand kids in their crisp gray uniforms and rucksacks followed veteran troopers.

All around the open space were crates of supplies. Soldiers wearing Juggernaut mech-suits unloaded them from other MOTHs, stacking them in neat rows.

Ronin noticed a map on the wall near one of the hatches. On it, hundreds of tunnels were marked beneath the station, leading to bunkers, storage areas, and chambers that housed the industrial equipment keeping the station running.

The air tasted and smelled cleaner here. Even the gravity felt closer to Earth’s.

The draftees made their way downstairs into the heart of the base. In an organized fashion, they continued all the way to the barracks deep beneath the surface.

Micky was assigned to the same sector. He waved from his assigned bunk across the room. Ronin raised a hand as he searched for his. When he found it, he took a seat and started to unpack his rucksack into the crate underneath.

When he got to the Warrior Codex, he simply held it and stared, thinking of Elan and his mom. He already missed them.

But this was his chance to do something to help them. To protect them.

When the machines attacked, everyone expected them to hit Kepler Station first.

Ronin took in a deep breath to clear his mind and opened the Warrior Codex, turning it to a blank page. Then he found his pen and started his first entry.

Today is my first official day as an LDC Moon Trooper. Shortly, I will be equipped with my armor and a weapon.

Elan was assigned guard duty back at Mesopotamia, and for that, I’m grateful in a way, now that I’ve thought about it more. It will keep him close to Mom, and while it breaks me that I can’t be with him, I hope in my heart that I will see them again before the Phase Two attack.

I want to think we can repel the machines when that happens. For now, all I can do is prepare for that day. Knowing that whatever I do here, it will help protect Elan and Mom. That is my way of saving them, by fighting here, where the enemy will strike first.

Knowing my Uncle Akira continues to fight on Earth gives me strength that I will have the heart to do the same thing when the time comes.

Raised voices echoed across the chamber. Ronin glanced up at the other kids crowding around a holo-screen.

Micky suddenly ran over. “Hey, you better check this out, Ronin.”

Ronin closed the book and stood.

“Come on, hurry,” Micky said.

After tucking the codex away, Ronin rushed over to the holo-screen where an announcer was discussing something about an attack at a medical facility working on a weapon against the machines.

Ronin only caught the tail end of it, but what he heard left him breathless.

“Sergeant Tadhg Walsh has been accused of planning a coup against War Commander Thacker and spreading conspiracy theories about survivors on Earth,” said the LDC announcer. “The truth about Earth is simple. There is no evidence of survivors.”

“What…” Ronin whispered.

“Told ya’,” Micky said. “Everyone’s dead, despite what this traitor had to say.”

“He’s not a traitor.”

“You missed the part about him trying to kill War Commander Thacker. That’s a traitor in my book. Sounds like he went crazy to me.”

“He’s not crazy. This has to be a mistake.”

“So you’re saying the LDC is lying?”

Ronin looked around as other kids gathered around them. All of them waited for his answer.

“The Engines are obsolete, and the machines control Earth, Ronin,” Micky said. “You have to let it go and accept the truth. Tadhg is batshit crazy, and you better be—”

Ronin pushed Micky, knocking him backwards. He lost his balance and fell to his back.

“You don’t know what you’re talking about,” Ronin said.

Micky stared up at Ronin, his face an angry red.

Concerned and angry voices broke out from all directions as Micky pushed himself up. Ronin ignored them, focused only on Micky.

“Don’t touch me again, Ronin, or…”

“Don’t lie then.”

Micky shook his head and stepped up to Ronin.

“If Tadhg was such a badass hero, then he wouldn’t have been killed so easily.”

“What?”

“Yeah, the announcer said he was killed a few hours ago when some troopers tried to arrest him for his crimes.”

Ronin sulked.

Micky seemed to take it as weakness and approached with his fists balled, but Ronin regained his posture.

“I wouldn’t do that,” he growled.

Micky held his gaze for a long moment, but the kid must have known this was a fight he couldn’t win. He backed away.

“Touch me again, and I’ll beat your ass,” Micky said.

Ronin shrugged. “You can try.”

Some of the other kids let out disappointed sighs. Most of them turned back to the screens, quickly forgetting about the confrontation.

Ronin melted into the crowd, anxious to hear more and put the argument behind him.

Announcers continued to relay breaking news about a crew of traitors that had been planning on overthrowing the LDC and returning to Earth to fight the machines.

War Commander Thacker finally came on screen.

“The truth is the Nova Alliance, an organization I once proudly served, was the downfall of mankind in their blind support of AI,” he said. “We must forget Earth for now, and prepare to fight the machines so that someday, we can take back our planet for future generations. These next few months and maybe years will be difficult. We will all be making sacrifices, working with what resources we have; but I promise, I will lead you to victory and keep you safe before that day.”

Ronin walked back to his bunk with his head down. He sat there for a few minutes until more shouting erupted in the room.

This time it was a Moon Trooper.

“Move it, you chicken shits!” he shouted. “We’re headed topside for your first moon walk.”

All around Ronin, the kids bolted for their bunks to grab their gear. He retrieved his and fell into line, following the rest of the draftees out to a chamber where former mining suits and exoskeletons awaited in crates.

They didn’t have enough combat armor, leaving most of the draftees to suit up in civilian-rated gear. Ronin was lucky to get an actual combat-rig.

Holo-screens displayed tutorials on how to put on the armor. In the past, Hummer Droids would have been here to assist or perhaps even human technicians, but they didn’t even have enough technicians to assist them.

The other draftees around him were talking rapidly, clearly nervous about what was happening. But all Ronin could think about right now was Tadhg.

Could it be true? Was he really dead?

Ronin shook away the thoughts and focused on the task at hand. Each plate of armor he put on made him feel stronger. The weight of the heavy alloy over his muscles reminded him he was preparing for war.

When he got to his helmet, he held it up, seeing a blank spot on the side for his name.

“Ronin,” came a voice.

He turned to see Micky walking over, his body bulwarked by thick armor. Ronin stood, his helmet against the crutch of his arm.

“What now?” Ronin asked.

Micky gave him a stern look, his gaze filled with a determination that Ronin feared meant he was ready to fight now that he had armor.

“My brother, my mom, they’re dead, and so is your brother and dad.” Micky stepped up closer. “I’m sorry about Tadhg, but this is our home, and we have to protect it.”

The troopers shouted at some of the kids struggling with their armor. Ronin ignored the voices and focused on Micky.

“Even if Tadhg was a liar, he said something I think is true.” Micky tapped his chest plate. “He said to fight with your heart and that when the time comes, all we have is the soldier next to us… I…”

“I got your back,” Ronin said when Micky couldn’t seem to find the words.

“And I got yours.”

“Sorry for pushing you.”

Micky shrugged. “I was going to kick your ass, but then remembered you killed a Canebrake.”

Ronin felt a smile coming, but it didn’t feel right, and he kept his lips tight.

“Hope you can do that again when the time comes,” Micky said.

Shouting prompted them to move as the draftees were filed into an armory. About a third of them wore combat armor, while the others were dressed in vacuum-rated suits.

Each was issued a plasma rifle. There were plenty of those to go around, fortunately.

Finally, the group was led to a massive hatch that led to the surface.

“This is it, get ready,” said one of the troopers escorting them.

The hatch cracked open, hitting them with beams of sunlight. The helmet Ronin wore adjusted by tinting.

A strong female voice came over the open comms.

“Welcome to the lunar surface,” she said. “You are on the front lines now. This is our trench. We are all that stands between the machines and our families.”

“Always ready, always vigilant,” said another voice.

Ronin repeated the motto, along with the other greenhorn Moon Troopers. In an organized line, the kids all marched out into the regolith for the first time.

***

Mining Station Olympus

Shoemaker Crater, The Moon

Almost eight hours after Tadhg was about to take his last breath, he was in the troop hold of a MOTH. The pilots had set down at Olympus, an abandoned mining station built on a ridgeline fifty miles from the eastern rim of the Shoemaker Crater.

Tadhg had a hundred questions for the people that had rescued him but kept them for later. For most of the ride, they had sat in silence. No one felt like idle chatter. Especially not after losing two of their own at Atlas Station as well as Doctor Jason Crichton.

The doctor had died getting a holochip to Chloe, but Tadhg still didn’t know what that holochip contained. He also didn’t know what to think of the genius that had created Apeiron and the Canebrakes. Nor was he sure what to think of this girl that he’d trusted with the chip.

What Tadhg had gathered was that Chloe was the niece of Councilor Keanu Cotter and the lover of Cyrus, the leader of the Nova Loyalists. Cyrus and Keanu were both gathered near the cockpit with two more soldiers.

Tadhg got up and joined them, growing tired of being in the dark.

“What’s your plan?” he barked. “You still haven’t told me everything.”

Keanu turned.

“You trust him?” Cyrus asked.

Tadhg raised his back and shoulders, like he was about to tackle a droid in the arena. “The fuck… I’m Nova Alliance, mate, I serve to the death.”

Cyrus held up a hand. “Relax, it’s hard to trust anyone these days, Sergeant.”

“I’m sorry for not telling you more because you deserve to know, but there have been some major setbacks since we found you,” Keanu cut in. “Especially with the loss of Doctor Jason Crichton, who I hoped we could use to find a scientific solution to the war.”

Tadhg relaxed his shoulders.

“We had planned to head back to Kepler Station and meet with the Council, but that was foiled when War Commander Thacker intercepted the transmission your team sent,” Keanu explained. “We then considered heading back to Atlas Station now that the hybrids have taken control of it, but the LDC has already sent reinforcements and I’m not sure how long they will hold out.”

“So what will we do?” Chloe asked.

Keanu sighed and looked out a viewport at the abandoned habitats. “We go inside and see if we can get the power back on. After that, I don’t know.”

The ramp lowered to the regolith.

Cyrus opened a hatch, stepped into the airlock with two other soldiers. They exited and started toward the dark habitat outside.

Behind Tadhg, Keanu watched.

“The War Commander put out a message that you’re dead,” he said quietly.

Tadhg twisted. “He said I’m dead?”

“Yes.”

“That’s good, actually. Let him think that.” Tadhg grinned. “The bastard won’t know what hit him when I show up like Ghost.”

“Actually, I changed my mind and you’re not going to be the one to kill Thacker.” Keanu raised a hand before Tadhg could reply. “Let me take care of the politics. You have a more important role. I need you to protect my niece when the time comes.”

“Time comes for what?”

Keanu motioned for Chloe. She pulled out the holochip case Tadhg had seen Jason throw before he died.

“What’s on it?” Tadhg asked.

“A virus to destroy Otto,” Chloe said.

“And you trust it will?” Keanu asked. “You knew Doctor Crichton better than I, but what I knew about him, I respected.”

“Yes, I trust it will. Jason was a good man, and Apeiron was not responsible for E-Day. She simply made a human mistake.”

Tadhg grunted. “A mistake that cost us billions of lives.”

“That’s unfortunately true, but she’s our only hope now to save Earth,” Chloe said. “Jason told me we can find her at a Life Ark in Megacity Boston. He may be dead, but we can still finish his work.”

Keanu massaged his beard. “We need to think, to consider all of our options before making any rash decisions.”

They had plenty of time for that. A couple hours passed before they were given the green light to use an airlock tunnel connected to the structure.

The hatch opened to an operation center. Dust covered the ancient computer stations throughout. Passages led to a kitchen, bathrooms, barracks, and a medical facility.

“Okay, we’ve got power and oxygen is coming back online,” Cyrus said. “Going to be cold in here for a while.”

“We won’t be here long,” Chloe said.

“What?”

“I’m not staying, Cyrus.”

“What do you mean?”

Chloe walked over to one of the holo-terminals and inserted the chip.

Translucent lines of code emerged in front of them, as well as an image of a Megacity. Tadhg recognized the city by the name of the Droid Raider stadium: Boston Yankees.

“This is a virus Doctor Jason Crichton designed before he died. The LDC planned on having hybrids like me deliver it after they transformed us into Dreads,” she said. “However, Jason believed Apeiron can do it better. All we have to do is take the virus to her and free her.”

“Free her? Where?” Cyrus asked.

“In the Life Ark deep under Megacity Boston.”

Cyrus looked to Keanu. “This wasn’t part of the arrangement. We were going to find a safe place to hunker down on the Moon.”

Chloe put a hand on Cyrus’s wrist.

“If the LDC doesn’t come for us, the machines will,” she said. “We have to think long term. We have to think about winning the war.”

“War…” Keanu shook his head. “We’re fighting the machines and each other. It seems war will never end.”

“There’s one way to end it. Apeiron was trying to find a way to bring us together. Maybe she can do that again, maybe not. But I truly believe she is our only hope.”

Keanu and Cyrus both stared at Chloe. She seemed conflicted, but Tadhg saw strength shine through the exhaustion weighing down her features.

“I don’t expect either of you to understand, but I’ve been through hell. Apeiron saved me, and now this is my chance to save her and the survivors fighting on Earth.” Chloe folded her arms over her chest. “I’m going to Earth.”

“I’ll take her,” Tadhg said.

“You don’t even have arms, man,” Cyrus said.

“I can make him new ones,” Chloe said.

“This is crazy, all of it.” Cyrus shook his head in frustration. “All this planning to free you, only to have you throw your life away.”

“We stay on the Moon, we die. We go to Earth, we probably die, but at least we die trying. I’m so sick of being a prisoner and victim. It’s time for me to fight.”

Tadhg nodded. “That’s what I’ve been sayin’ all along.”

“How are we going to get to Earth?” Cyrus asked. “It’s not like just any pilot can take us past the machines and get us there without getting torn to pieces.”

“I know of the perfect pilot,” Keanu said. “Captain Jake Harback. He survived E-Day and the recon mission yesterday. If anyone knows what to expect on Earth, it’s him.”

“Harback is probably being kept quiet somewhere,” Tadhg said.

“I know where he is, and I have friends in the LDC that can smuggle him out of Kepler Station.”

“This is insane,” Cyrus said.

“Everything that’s happened to us is insane.” Chloe squeezed his hand. “But this is the only way.”

“I escaped the end of the world for you. If I have to go back, I will, Chloe, but…”

She leaned up and kissed him on the lips.

Tadhg turned away and started over to the medical bay.

“When you guys are done smoochin’, how about you get started on making me some new arms,” he said. “I’ll need ’em if you want me to protect you from what awaits us on Earth.”

— 35 —

Thien Cung Cave

Ha Long Bay, Vietnam

A brief quake shook the island.

Akira perched on a bluff surrounded by trees with Okami by his side. A pair of Praying Mantis fighters soared across the bay, circling the spot where he had brought down the Hunter ship.

Bringing it down had attracted the machines like bees to honey.

Canebrakes prowling across the island, chain-rattling from all directions. The machines were closing in, but Shadow Squad would be long gone before they found this secret cave system.

Over a day after arriving, Akira was preparing to head back to the NAA Pelican. The submarine was just outside of Ha Long Bay.

Akira went back inside with Okami, taking the passage to the command bunker. He entered the medical cavern where Frost was resting. She looked up as he approached, and then reached down to pet Okami.

“How you feeling?” he asked.

“Those blood transfusions and whatever the hell else they gave me really hit the spot, Captain. I’m ready to fight.”

She smiled, her cool eyes once again full of life.

“Figured you would say that,” Akira said. “But for now, let’s see if you can walk.”

Frost reached out for a crutch, and Akira handed it to her. He helped her through the tunnel with Okami, moving slowly through the dark caverns into the command chamber.

At the center table, Contos stood with Lieutenant Tumea, Lieutenant Godfrey, and Juno. Ghost and Jackson lingered behind the officers and chief researcher, waiting for orders.

“Let’s get started,” Contos said. “We’re running out of time. Lieutenant Godfrey is going to fill us in on a major development.”

Godfrey leaned down to a data-pad. “Two hours ago, we picked up this message.”

He pressed a button on the screen. The transmission crackled to life.

“We spotted King Cobra Spaceplanes that were definitely LDC,” said a deep male voice. “At least one got away from the enemy forces.”

“Where was this?” Jackson asked.

“North of Megacity New York.”

“If it’s true, then perhaps the LDC is coming to help,” Ghost said.

“Perhaps,” Contos replied. “However, this could have been a simple recon mission, too. Nothing more.”

There was silence in the chamber.

“Either way, the safest option is to move forward under the assumption they aren’t coming to save us,” Contos said. “It may seem like a fight we can’t win, but over the past few days I’ve seen remarkable things, starting with the transmitter Doctor Hayao and Chief Researcher Juno designed that disables the machines.”

He looked to the Coalition commandos and Pistons standing around the room.

“I’ve also seen sworn enemies fight side-by-side in the face of the greatest threat to our species—the machines.”

Another rumble shook the ground.

“Did you all feel that?” Jackson asked.

“That’s probably from the explosives my scouts are setting off in other cave systems,” Godfrey said. “We’ve been planting them for weeks now, just in case this day came.”

Akira relaxed some, but the vibrations did not.

“Our next steps must be executed carefully,” Contos continued. “Some of us will return to Neptune Station with Chief Researcher Juno to work with Doctor Hayao to help them work on the transmitter. We will also be escorting some of the civilians there.”

“Thank you,” Godfrey said.

Akira was relieved. He had already heard Dao would be one of those civilians being sent to safety.

“I am also deploying recon teams via submarine to a selection of megacities to search for more survivors,” Contos said. “Slowly, we will raise an army that includes Hummer Droids, perhaps even Canebrakes, if Juno can figure out a way to hijack them, too.”

She nodded confidently. “I think I can crack it with more time.”

Contos nodded back and looked to Jackson next.

“Lieutenant Jackson will lead a squad with the focus of contacting the LDC,” Contos said. “This will be a dangerous mission, maybe the most dangerous. It’s also one of the most important.”

“I’m ready to go,” Jackson replied.

Finally, the War Commander gestured to Akira.

“Thanks to our friends here, we have been able to pinpoint an underground location where we believe Apeiron is located. Captain, you will deploy to Megacity Tokyo and search for her there.”

Before Akira could respond about returning home, rapid footsteps echoed into the room. Everyone turned toward a panting Coalition commando scout.

“Canebrakes are getting close,” he said. “We just lost contact with one of the recon teams on Cat Ba.”

“All right, people, this is it,” Contos said. “Let’s move.”

He shook hands with Godfrey.

“Good luck. We’ll be in touch as soon as we can.”

“Thank you, War Commander. My team will escort you to the bay.”

Contos turned to Tumea and offered his hand.

She stared at it for a beat. “Never thought I’d shake hands with the man I dreamed about killing,” she said with a yellow grin. “Would have earned me some nice antlers.”

Contos actually laughed. That was the first time Akira had seen humor from the man in a long time.

But the laughter was short-lived. Another vibration shook the cavern.

This one was definitely closer and louder.

Akira exchanged a glance with Contos.

These quakes weren’t from explosions. This was something else.

“If those quakes get closer, take Ghost and Jackson to find out what it is,” Contos said. “The Pelican is in position, but we’re not crossing until we know what’s out there. And no offense to the scouts out there, but I need your eyes and ears.”

Akira nodded.

Hundreds of soldiers and civilians packed up their gear and belongings, then rushed for the exits.

Kichiro was waiting near a tunnel with Frost in the saddle.

“I can walk,” she said.

“Not fast enough,” Akira said. “Kichiro will take care of you.”

The group started down a tunnel toward the beach at Ha Long Bay.

As the crowds rushed toward the exit, Akira found Dao—or rather the boy found him. The boy patted Okami, and the dog wagged his tail.

“Is he going to grow fur again?” Dao asked.

“Maybe.”

Another vibration rumbled through the passage.

“What is that?” the boy asked. “Is it an earthquake?”

“Something like that,” Ghost said.

“Stay with this group, okay, Dao?” Akira asked.

“Where are you going?”

“To find out what that is.” Akira motioned for Jackson and Ghost. “You two, with me.”

Okami started to follow, but Akira ordered the dog to stay with Dao.

They started down another passage toward the sound of crashing waves. Akira heard the roar of Praying Mantis fighters a few moments later.

They pushed all the way to an open cave entrance at the edge of the beach. It was dark again, providing some cover for them to paddle out on inflatable rafts stored inside the cave.

Akira searched the bay for contacts. Seeing none, he turned toward the cliffs overlooking the bay.

The cliffs were all that stood between them and the machines. He had to see what was on the other side and he didn’t want to risk Blue Jay.

Together, Ghost, Jackson, and Akira blasted off with their jetpacks toward the bluffs rising out of the jungle. They landed on a bluff with some tree cover and went prone.

The quakes only grew stronger and more frequent, rattling the pebbles and loose grit around Akira. He crawled over toward the edge of the cliff.

“What is that…” Akira whispered.

Jackson and Ghost crawled up next to Akira. All three peered out over the bay to a horrifying sight.

A towering colossus of metal waded through the deep water on five jointed legs. Those legs connected to a vertical tower that had to be ten stories tall with vents lining the sides. The head, if you could call it that, sported a similar eye that the Hunter ships had, along with the spikes around it.

Antennas rose off like thin ears from the top.

“Guess we know what’s making all that noise now,” Ghost said.

“Damn, Captain, you really pissed off Otto,” Jackson said. “The hell is that thing?”

“I don’t know, and I don’t want to find out. We need to move.”

Akira stared in horror at the walking superstructure of towering metal, thinking about what Jackson had said. Destroying Otto’s Hummer Droid and escaping the Hunter ship had unleashed the doctor’s wrath.

“Jackson, you go,” Akira said. “Warn the others. I’ll stay here with Ghost.”

Jackson slipped away without protest.

Another tremor shook the ground, but this one seemed farther away.

“What the hell,” Ghost whispered. “There’s another one.”

Akira followed his finger toward a mountain on Cat Ba Island. Beams of red light flashed into the jungle in the distance.

Raising his rifle, Akira zoomed in on a second superstructure. This one was climbing the mountain like a mechanical primate.

He lowered his scope to study the closer superstructure again. It rose out of the bay, heading right for their island.

Akira backed away with Ghost toward the Ha Long Bay side of the peak. The civilians were moving out in boats toward the rendezvous point where the Pelican would take them to safety.

“What’s the plan, bosu?” Ghost asked.

Akira took a deep breath. Distracting and taking down a Hunter ship was one thing, but these things were too big to destroy with their current weapons.

“We join the others and try to get to the sub,” Akira said.

“I like the sound of that,” Ghost said.

They got a running start and then leapt off the bluff, plummeting back toward the beach. As the sand rose to meet their boots, they activated their jet packs and glided down the rest of the way.

The civilians and most of the soldiers had already fled in rafts, but Godfrey, Tumea, and a handful of Pistons and Coalition commandos remained behind with Jackson. The Engine looked in their direction, holding up a hand to indicate he would be there shortly.

Tremors vibrated under their boots.

Akira and Ghost caught up to them.

“We have to finish blowing the tunnels,” Tumea said.

Godfrey nodded. “Get it done.”

“What about the shuttle?” Akira asked.

“The shuttle is on standby to launch, if necessary,” Godfrey said.

The quakes only grew worse.

“You ever seen one of those things?” Akira asked.

“No,” Godfrey replied. “Otto must really want your head.”

“You aren’t scared, are ya, Akira the Brave?” Tumea said with a cackle, before taking off to the cave.

“Get to the sub,” Godfrey said. “We know these islands. We’ll be okay.”

He took off with his Pistons into the jungle.

“Damn, that Tumea lady is crazy,” Ghost said.

“Crazy might be just what we need right now,” Akira said.

He backed away, his boots slapping into the surf. The rafts were still about a half mile away from the rendezvous point.

“We better go,” Ghost said. “Where’s Jackson?”

When Akira turned to look, a series of thudding concussions rang out.

Those weren’t from the machines.

Flames vented out the side of the mountain in multiple locations, the tunnels and caverns blown out with huge clouds of rising dust and smoke.

Red beams shot over the peaks, and an electronic roar reverberated through the night. A bladed leg rose over the mountain, sending an avalanche of rock tumbling down as the gargantuan machine climbed over the top.

As it started down the other side, the jointed legs snapped upward, pushing the living metal skyscraper toward the clouds.

All at once, the needles surrounding the eye glowed.

Akira winced as a high-pitched screech burst from the machine, spreading across the island like an invisible, deafening tsunami. Several of the Coalition commandos fleeing down the beach dropped to their knees, hands over their ears.

The vents along the central tower of the superstructure opened to release dozens of Canebrakes that leapt into the jungle. The eye fired red beams as soon as they were released, flitting back and forth over the canopy of trees.

Akira suddenly noticed a single figure walking up the beach.

Toward the machines.

This man wasn’t reacting to the raucous noise. Instead, he held up an energy axe over his head.

It was Jackson, staring up at the metal superstructure like he was about to spar with it.

“Jackson!” Akira yelled.

“Get back here!” Ghost shouted.

The towering soldier turned toward Ghost and Akira.

“I’m done running and hiding!” he boomed. He pumped the axe into the air with one hand. “It’s time to fight! I’ll buy you time!”

“Jackson, no!” Akira yelled.

But it was no use. The Engine took off toward the jungle.

Ghost lingered in the surf with Akira, the waves slapping against their armored frames.

“We have to go,” Ghost said after a beat.

They wasted no more time heading out into the bay and diving into the water. Akira twisted back for a glance.

Those red lasers weren’t just freezing people. Small figures were suspended in the beams, rising toward the superstructure. The beams appeared to be some kind of anti-gravity weapons, something Akira had never seen.

And those figures were no doubt humans.

The machine rotated on its central axis, the vents closing after swallowing the prisoners. With the Canebrakes unleashed, the monster scrambled down the side of the mountain and into the jungle, crushing everything in its path on the way to the bay.

The machine clambered out of the jungle, still screeching while beams lanced in all directions.

Akira motioned for Ghost to dive.

The Engines kicked downward, using the moonlight to guide them. By the time they neared the bottom, Akira could hardly see anything.

With most of their critical systems offline, it wouldn’t be long before their oxygen reserves ran out. But that was the least of their worries.

Akira could feel the tremble of the approaching machine. He huddled with Ghost, watching the murky water until a blade of metal pierced the bottom.

With nowhere to go, they hunkered down, hoping the blade didn’t crush them as the machine moved out deeper into the bay.

A streak of light ripped through the darkness above. Three more streaks cut the black right after.

He expected the red beams to torpedo down and capture the Engines at any instant, but there was more than just the red lights up there. Something else was responsible for the sudden flashes.

Several bright explosions blossomed above them.

Akira comprehended what he was seeing finally.

The Pelican was firing their repaired torpedoes and missiles.

Akira pulled on Ghost to get his attention. Then he pointed toward the surface and kicked away from their position, leading them away from the superstructure.

Another salvo of missiles lanced over the water as the Engines swam. Akira was the first to break through the surface. He twisted to look at the metal abomination about five hundred feet away. Fires burned from its dented metal exterior. The missiles had hit home, but they had only succeeded in slowing the massive tower down slightly.

It still continued on its warpath out into the bay.

Akira waved for Ghost to follow him away when he saw a flash from missiles bursting out of the bay in the distance.

The sub was an impossibly far distance away to reach in time by swimming.

Treading water, Akira turned back to the machine as the salvo slammed into its side. The metal monster flinched and teetered from the impacts, but still held strong.

Spikes around the central eye erupted in a red glow, preparing to fire an energy beam right at the Pelican.

But Captain Thomas never gave the machine a chance. A fifth missile curved right over Akira and speared into the eye, exploding in a blinding spray of fire and molten alloy.

With chunks of metal dangling from the broken weapon, the superstructure stopped its advance and began to retreat.

“They did it,” Akira said.

The low rumble of an engine caused Akira to turn. Ghost was waving down a black tactical boat speeding in their direction. A familiar metal face was piloting the craft: Blinky. The droid helped them both out of the water and into the boat.

“Big machine, big machine!” Blinky shouted. “We escape the big machine!”

Ghost reached over and slapped Blinky on the back. “Thanks, mate. You are a big and welcome surprise.”

Akira’s eyes stayed glued on the island. At any moment, the second superstructure might climb right over that mountain.

“You think Jackson made it?” Ghost asked.

“Hopefully he’ll link up with Godfrey, Tumea, and the others.”

“It was his choice, Captain. Not your fault.”

“It was his choice, but he could have been one of us on Shadow Squad.”

“He chose another path.”

“Big arrival!” Blinky yelled.

The sail of the Pelican had penetrated the water’s surface. Within minutes, they were climbing down into the bowels of the submarine. They went straight to the CIC where Contos was watching holo-screens filled with visuals of the islands. He turned as soon as they walked inside.

“Where’s Jackson?” Contos asked.

“He went back to fight,” Akira said.

Contos didn’t seem to like it, but he didn’t respond.

“Thanks for waiting for us,” Ghost said.

“We didn’t just stick around for you, but to help our new friends.”

Akira felt a surge of pride in his chest. The Nova Alliance was finally back in the fight.

He stood there, dripping wet, heart thumping rapidly in his chest as the submarine began the descent into the ocean. Juno stepped up next to him and Okami bolted over, wagging his tail.

“Good to see you made it in one piece,” she said.

“We’re not out of this yet,” said Captain Thomas. “Get ready to dive.”

The submarine cut through the water at full speed. Praying Mantis fighters emerged on the holo-screens before the feed shut off from the retracting mast.

In a way, this reminded Akira of how it had all started, when he boarded the Pelican on E-Day on the verge of death. They had dived into the depths of the ocean to escape.

This time it was different.

They had hope now, a plan and a weapon to defeat the machines, and new allies. Seeing the Coalition and Nova Alliance fighting side by side told him that humanity could come together in their darkest hours.

It was a new page in the history of humanity, and the perfect start to recreating the Warrior Codex that waited with blank pages in his armored pocket.

He had a feeling he would be filling many of those pages soon.

Akira had new orders that could change the war.

He was returning home to Megacity Tokyo to search for the AI designed to be humanity’s salvation.

Perhaps she could still fulfill that goal.

Only time would tell. First, Akira had to find her. If he could, maybe humanity still had a chance at survival.

End of book 2.

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About the Author

Nicholas Sansbury Smith is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of the Hell Divers series, the Orbs series, the Trackers series, the Extinction Cycle series, the Sons of war Series, and the new E-Day Series. He worked for Iowa Homeland Security and Emergency Management in disaster mitigation before switching careers to focus on storytelling. When he isn’t writing or daydreaming about the apocalypse, he enjoys running, biking, spending time with his family, and traveling the world. He is an Ironman triathlete and lives in Iowa with his wife, daughter, and their dogs.