“O Wisdom, coiled within my soul and heart,

The flower causing liberty to bloom

Again on earth for those who’ve known but sky;

Our foes descend to tear new worlds apart.

Awaken; with Amrician resolve, doom,

Unjust oppressors: end their lies!”

—Cassilda’s invocation to the Symbiont, The Heavenfall

----

Outer Acerbian Wildlands

Standing Blooming 3, 1885 CE

“Sixty miles, Erus,” announced the navigator.

“Thank you.” Dorsin stood to his full height and gazed out the massive window of the bridge toward the horizon, where the mountains loomed. The honeycomb spires of Acerbia were barely visible from here to his enhanced vision. The perimeter turrets hidden in the forest, on the other hand—

“Dad.” Dorsin turned and looked up at his daughter, who stood at the edge of the central display table on the second upper floor of the bridge. “Is it go time?”

“Nearly enough.” Dorsin turned from the view and climbed the stairs to the enormous platform that was the second story and command center of the bridge. Senrii, Tvorh, Piotr, and the Duxes and Ductrices all waited inside. Even the Nxtlu Warlock was there, standing next to Piotr and grinning slightly. Most of Dorsin’s family looked the worse for wear; the genophage’s effects were making themselves known on the flesh and limbs of his Dorsin’s brothers and sisters, and even Senrii was beginning to appear a little pale. Only Ferghall appeared to be untroubled in body or spirit as Dorsin took his place at the table.

A fool, that one was. But he would be a deadly one.

Dorsin leaned over the screen. A map of Acerbia in veins of blue and red sprawled across the surface. “We approach from the southwest,” Dorsin began. “The fleets of Ductrix Lenaa, Dux Hegor, and Dux Ymir all approach from the northwest. Dux Volund, Dux Viklas, Ductrix Ramona, Dux Virtuus, your fleets have met to the east. All fleets have made their rally points and are now converging on the city. The others, unfortunately…”

“No need.” Ductrix Lenaa shook her head. “We all know what the genophage has done to their commands.”

Dorsin nodded. “Remember that we have no ground supply, and that we have committed all our forces in this attack. The only way out is through. I would tell you that this is a suicide mission. I would say that those of you who are afraid may step away now without dishonor. Unfortunately, reality is rarely so clean-cut as it is in the fairy tales we tell our children.

“If we do not succeed— if we do not find proof that Gens Nxtlu has developed a genophage and begun to poison their enemies— then we will all die. It is as simple as that.

“We will fight, and we will survive. There is nothing else for us to do. We conquer, we save our Gens, or we fade into history, and when the sun rises tomorrow, it will rise blood-red. Make no mistake, brothers and sisters: we fight not simply for Gens Nxtlu, but for the survival of all humanity. If Gens Nxtlu can poison its enemies with impunity, then it will. I know it. You know it. When we raise our guns, know that we raise them on behalf of everyone, Generosus and commoner, on Tellus.

“Now. Our forces are at two-thirds strength, thanks to the disaster the genophage has wrought on some of our brothers and sisters. We will not survive a counterassault. If we are able to take the fortifications, we may be able to hold Nxtlu off until we are able to get proof to the Sodality and the other Gentes of Nxtlu’s actions.

“Your first objective will be to assault the outlying air defenses in order to clear a path through the perimeter for the skywhales. You will use targeted infantry infiltrators to bring the flak offline. Speed and stealth are key. Once the guns begin firing, we will have lost the element of surprise. Senrii.”

“Yes, Father?”

“Take the boy.”

Senrii threw a sloppy two-fingered salute. “Was planning on it.”

Dorsin turned to his family. “The rest of you, dedicate what Magi you can to the effort. Shortsphere silence must be maintained until we no longer have the advantage of surprise. Communicate via Synapsis. The Thorssel Archon Tool will route for you.

“Once we are within the defensive perimeter, we will begin with the second phase: our primary infantry drop. Insertion for the forces assaulting the air defenses will be done by paradrop and lungboat. We will proceed in force into the city in three main avenues of attack: here, here, and here.” Dorsin indicated the directions of the three fleets. “Our primary objective in phase two is to take the Last Era libraratory. Secondary objectives are the Acerbia Archon Tool and the old Nethress Chamber of Inquiry.

“If the Acerbia Archon Tool has not been compromised or killed, we will use it to wrest away the city’s defenses from Nxtlu control. If it has been taken over, we will eliminate it and any growing Nxtlu Archon Tools.

“From the Nethress Chamber of Inquiry, you will acquire sufficient information to prove Nxtlu’s complicity in genophage creation. Remember, this information must remain encrypted. As soon as it is decrypted with a Nxtlu Key, we no longer have the means to prove that it is Nxtlu research.”

“You’re asking the impossible,” Lenaa said. “How are we to know what the information is, unless we decrypt it?”

“You don’t. Tvorh.”

The boy was filled with nervous energy, shifting from foot to foot. “Yes, sir?”

“Has your girl succeeded in fulfilling your plans?”

“I don’t know, sir. I haven’t spoken to her since I left Acerbia.”

“Let’s hope, for all our sakes, that she has. Brothers and sisters, you may be receiving assistance from within the city, but do not count on it.”

“Erus!” cried the navigator from below. “Forty miles!”

“All right, men and women of Gens Nxtlu. It is time for—”

Forgebone flak ripped across the viewport. The vessel shuddered slightly, throwing Dorsin off balance, as the shot tore into the self-healing helium podding and the vessel proper. “We’re hit!” someone shouted from below.

“Sound the alarms,” Dorsin ordered. “All crew to battle stations.”

“How did they know?” Lenaa asked.

“The jig is up. Get down there and silence those batteries! Now! Release biomobilized infantry as soon as the air is clear.” The Generosi scrambled into the crowded corridors of the Leviathan, leaving Dorsin alone at the command table as the ship’s batteries began to fire.

Acerbia was within reach.

***

“Hey, kid.”

“Yeah?” Tvorh had to shout to make himself heard over the whipping wind at the open end of the hangar and the sound of the lungboats beginning to breathe.

“Scared?”

If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

“Not on your life.”

“Been waiting for this, huh? Don’t worry. We’ll get her back.”

“I’m not worried.”

“All right, kid. Ready to armor up?” Senrii held up a mass-suit.

“Ready as I’ll ever be.”

“Just remember what I told you, and you’ll be fine. Softpoints down the sides and arms, on your palms, and spaced throughout the front and back. Any STIGMOI you need to grow or release, do it through the softpoints, else it’ll get real tight real fast. Here.” She held out the suit of armor for Tvorh to climb into. “It’s heavy, so you’ll have to keep your physical strength up.”

The SOPHIOS hissed with pleasure inside Tvorh’s head as it reinforced his muscles. “Done.”

“Good kid.”

“Hey!” Ferghall shouted from a weapons rack by the wall as he strapped on a glidepack. “You take good care of that bandanna, Tvorh!”

“Will do. Stay safe!”

“With this thing living inside me?” Ferghall snorted louder than the howling wind. “Ain’t never safe, Tvorh!”

“You ever use one of those, Ferghall?” Senrii called back to Ferghall.

“Used to paraglide back home! Great way to scope out game movements!” Ferghall slung his rifle over his shoulder, climbed into the nearest lungboat, and sat down next to Piotr, who was in the pilot’s seat.

“Make your family proud, Era,” Piotr said, saluting perfectly.

“What other choice do I have? Come on, kid! Magi first!” Senrii grabbed Tvorh’s hand, and they raced toward the whipping wind at the end of the hangar.

I’m a Magus! Of Gens Nethress!

Inside the bay there was floor and forgebone and the solid, stable sound of the lungboats, but beyond the open doors there was only chaotic noise, formless and meaningless to Tvorh’s ears.

Three steps, two, one, and then he was the wind, disappearing into the mad waves of noise as the lungboats racing out of the hangar receded in the distance.

Tvorh let out an exuberant scream. He couldn’t see, but he sure could feel, and what he felt was paradise.

There was a pinprick of pain in the hand Senrii held, a liquid sensation of blood, and something crawled into his palm. Then, suddenly, he could see again.

Black and gray Acerbia clung against the mountains on the horizon. A verdant carpet, the needles of evergreens appearing as a single solid mass, stretched across all Tellus beneath him. Flak pounded the fleet, shot from towers hidden in the forest.

The fleet. The fleet! He had never seen so many vessels! “How many ships do we have?” he screamed.

Around sixty, Senrii replied.

“How did you do that?”

Senrii shook the linked hand. Nerve-to-nerve connections. Blood, Tvorh, I can make you see through my eyes. Compared to that, talking into your brain is easy. Senrii looked at him—

He smiled in wonder at the sight of himself, black-suited, bandanna around his eyes fluttering at the force of the wind.

Activate her and follow me in. There was a tearing sensation at his hand, and the world went black.

Wings, Tvorh thought, bringing his arms against his side, relishing the sensation as the membrane crossed the softpoint, starting at his arm and creeping down to his wrist. He spread his wings; the wind caught him, and bore him news.

Flak whipping by.

A flock of terrified birds.

Senrii below and ahead of him.

He dove after her.

The wind changed. He could hear the tips of the trees now, could feel a hollow tree not far from here, could sense the shielded turrets firing from the wings of the disguised structure, could see in his mind’s eye the Nxtlu soldier manning the gun, looking up at the sky—

Tvorh broke off from behind Senrii and shot toward the emplacement. Wrist-talon. He felt the turret wheeling slowly to bear on him as he closed in.

He flew between the shielding and the floor, impaling the gunner through the temple so forcefully that his head exploded. The man tumbled from the gunner’s seat; Tvorh spun in the air. Wordlessly, mindlessly, he lashed out.

His SOPHIOS answered. Thin, sticky cabling shot from his hands, grabbing the gun, the ceiling, the pillars, even the wall of the tower, and wrenching him to an abrupt halt in the middle of a makeshift spiderweb. His arms protested in agony, but the SOPHIOS within him was strong; his body held.

Let me down.

The SOPHIOS had actuated a STIGMOS he hadn’t intended. Or had he? Senrii had never mentioned this one. But—

A Nxtlu soldier rushed from the interior of the tree, shouted, and raised his rifle. The crack of a gunshot assaulted his ears, and a forceful blow, like a punch, took him in the gut.

Let me down! This time the SOPHIOS acquiesced, dumping him unceremoniously to the ground. He leapt to his feet, but the soldier was already dead on the floor. There was movement behind him, the sound of clanging forgebone and fast-stepping feet.

“Brave. And dumb.” The Nethress paratrooper who had saved him smacked the button to retract his glidepack’s wings, hoisted his rifle, and looked Tvorh up and down. “He get you?”

“Yeah.” Tvorh pointed at the front of his armor.

The paratrooper knocked a knuckle against one of the armor plates. “Bone bullet. Couldn’t pierce. You’re fine. Come on.” The trooper hefted the rifle, whipped around the doorway, and laid on the trigger. Tvorh ducked in underneath the gun as the rifle clapped.

The center of the tree was an open column encircled by a ramp that spiraled up and down. Through the door opposite them, the other shielded wing and its turret were visible; a body slumped in the gunner’s seat. Two Nxtlu corpses tumbled from up above as the trooper’s bullets found their marks. Nxtlu troopers down below returned shot.

Tvorh charged to the edge of the ramp and leapt, falling two stories and impaling another of the soldiers in the face. He rode the body to the ground and leapt off as the trooper followed after.

They were on the ground now. The trooper fished a transparent green block with the texture of wood from his utility belt and affixed it to the wall of the structure. Tiny vines extruded from the block into the wood of the tree. The trooper glanced at Tvorh. “Run.”

They ran. They kept running. Tvorh glanced over his shoulder at the bunker as an evil hissing noise filled the air. Whole strips of the tree were tumbling down sequentially through noxious green fumes.

“Tvorh,” The shortsphere built into his suit crackled. “Tvorh, do you read me?”

“Senrii. I’m here.”

“Are you all right? I lost you.”

“I’m fine. I saw another target.” The paratrooper grinned and winked. “Had to take it out. It was aiming for us.”

“Way to terrify me, jerk. If I let you die, dad would never let me live it down. Listen. We’re taking fire from outside the perimeter.”

“Outside the perimeter? That doesn’t make sense.”

“Argue with the Nxtlu about it. Small arms fire is making landing difficult for our lungboats. They’re dropping in a biomobile for us instead. Meet me at the rendezvous in five.”

“Where’s the rendezvous?”

“See that big cloud of green fumes?”

Tvorh gazed back through the trees at the remains of the bunker he’d just destroyed. “Yeah, I see it.”

***

“Point defenses, prepare for incoming fighters,” Dorsin said.

“We’ve sustained a major hit to fore port batteries,” one of the crew announced.

“How is the helium podding?” Dorsin asked.

“Stable, Erus.”

“Erus, we have a direct vine strangler hit on a Nxtlu perimeter division!” A cry of victory went up around the bridge. “Twenty flak emplacements are down.”

Dorsin looked out the viewport, taking in the land below and the sky above. The forest was on fire in greens and reds; as he watched, a mine lanced from the Leviathan and disappeared into the distance. A moment later, a concussive force leveled the trees around its detonation point.

As Surtr, Ductrix Lenaa’s flagship, came about to launch another broadside of mines, explosives, and spears at the perimeter, flak riddled its podding. The ship hung in the air for a moment; then the podding gave way, and the vessel lurched to port.

Dorsin hit the shortsphere. “Surtr, this is Jormungandr actual. Report in.”

“Heavy damage to the podding, Erus. We estimate ten minutes to crash. Ductrix Lenaa has given the command to abandon ship.”

“See that you do. We’ll see you on the ground.”

The towers in the forest down below continued to explode one by one as the infantry and artillery brought them down. Shots lanced from beyond the perimeter inwards toward the positions that the Nethress soldiers had taken. Why had Nxtlu placed armaments so far out?

To ask the question was to answer it. The Acerbia Archon Tool was a Nethress creature, and Nxtlu must not have access to it. All of the automated emplacements that Nethress had originally created to maintain the perimeter were useless to Nxtlu. But the Wildlands were dangerous for everyone. Nxtlu had placed manned positions beyond the aerial perimeter to defend the city against the dangers of the wilderness.

It was a highly dangerous strategy, of course. Automated turrets were less fleshy, less vulnerable, and far less easily frightened than men were. But by a twist of fate, that same risky strategy had countered Dorsin’s sneak attack.

“The Chimera perimeter will flank us if we let them survive. Get gunboats down there.” Dorsin spun to the central screen, then came to a halt as his eyes fell on Oralie. She stood in the doorway to the bridge, supported on either side by a guard. She was so pale, her eyes so bloodshot.

“My darling,” she whispered.

“What are you doing?” Dorsin shouted, racing down the stairs to the lower level. “Get her off the bridge!”

Flak pounded the viewport.

Oralie sniffed wetly. “I wanted to be with you.”

“You need to rest, Oralie. Take her back to her chambers. I command it.”

“Dor. You know rest won’t do anything for me now. I want to be with you.” She took a faltering step forward, stumbled, and collapsed.

Dorsin rushed to her side and knelt beside her. She smiled weakly and reached out a hand. He took it. “Send the command to Piotr to launch immediately and protect our flanks.”

“At once, Erus.”

Dorsin brushed Oralie’s pale hair out of her eyes. “I swear to you, love, we will crack this nut, and you will live.” He swept his hands underneath her frail body and lifted her in his arms.

Oralie leaned against him. “Darling. Don’t make promises you can’t keep.”