Orson swung his Dreamside Road key in a slow circle, still dangling above the sword’s fire. “What’s your answer? You’d better speak up. Imagine if I slipped?” He laughed and it was a real laugh. He forced himself to find humor in the leverage he held over them. The Liberty Corps Knights and Shapers and foot soldiers halted in their tracks, shocked and silent.
“You would never destroy your key.” The Knight with the cleavers finally said. “We know how long you’ve hunted the trove.”
“Yeah, I’d like to know what the Hierarchia stashed away,” Orson said. “But I’ve been thinking about destroying my key anyway, once I know. I don’t plan on wasting my life guarding some treasure, so that’s the next best thing.” He spun the key faster. “What’ll it be?”
Orson heard the chime from the comm in his ear. He answered the call and flinched away from the sudden screaming. “Orson!” Enoa yelled. “We’re flying to you. We’ll be at the lab in a minute. A Liberty Corps Knight was here…”
“And he was this creepy old guy who was perving after Enoa,” Jaleel yelled.
“That’s not an important detail!” Enoa said. “We fought them off, but now they’re chasing us.”
“They have Hierarchia fighters like the ones that battled against Thunderworks,” Jaleel added.
“Slow down.” Orson lowered his voice. “I’m in the middle of something.” His crew was alive and free and so was he. That was a start. He realized he’d stopped the swinging of the key.
“You have no options.” The Knight with the spiked gauntlets raised his arms at Orson. “If you burn the key, we’ll kill you where you stand. And we would never let you to leave with it. Once the Manifest Destiny arrives, you will be restrained and the key will be taken.”
“I’m actually gonna head out before it gets here,” Orson said. “So I really wasn’t asking permission. I’m just wasting your time until I’m all ready to go.” He heard the ring of footsteps on the metal behind him. Dr. Stanislakova was moving. He had no time to look at her and no chance to offer her any reassurance. He hoped she was ready to improvise.
“Don’t tell them we’re coming,” Jaleel said. “I put up the cloak like Eloise did before the sneak attack on Sloan. We’ll pick you up.”
“You’re too close to the water, Jaleel,” Enoa said. “You’re disturbing the river. They’ll still find us if you don’t go higher.”
Further behind the Knights and their escort, another squad of Liberty Corps forces had arrived, this group guiding what appeared to be a cannon that walked on flexible legs with splayed, segmented toes. They eased the gangling contraption along the catwalk toward him.
“They’re still doing a sweep,” Jaleel said. “They’re looking for us. They’re not chasing us.”
The officer who’d shot fire at Orson stepped around the Knights. “Enough of this. I’ll take you into my personal custody. Unlike my colleagues, I have no fear of your weapon.”
“They won’t find us if you stop disturbing the water,” Enoa argued.
“If I go any higher I’ll mess with the branches,” Jaleel said. “Disturbing the water is way harder to notice.”
“I’m not threatening you with my weapon.” Orson ignored his crewmates’ bickering and sped up the motion of the key. “I’m threatening the key, duh! Were you not paying attention?”
“Back in formation, Divenoll,” Cleaver Knight forced his way ahead of the officer.
“The water already has current,” Jaleel said. “If we…”
“Threatening what key?!” Enoa said. “Orson, what you…”
“No time for that.” Orson tried to speak directly into the microphone affixed to the inside of his bandana. “Stay cloaked. And let me know when you’re almost here. Two for pickup, against twenty with at least three Shapers.”
“What did he say?” Jaleel asked.
“Orson, are you outside?” Enoa asked. “The map looks like we’re coming out of the forest.”
“He’s speaking with someone!” The Knight with spiked gauntlets yelled back to the gathered Liberty Corps troops. “Where is our comms officer?”
“You don’t know, do you, Gregory?” Divenoll asked. He raised his fists. “You have no idea how the keys work? They’re the easiest way to access the trove, but not the only way. Destroying your key would only delay our search.”
Orson heard a noise, distant and growing. He knew that hum, even above the rushing water. “Hey Doc, I’m sorry in advance, okay?”
“What?” Dr. Stan sounded nothing like the confident woman he’d met in the lab. Even as a Liberty Corps prisoner, she’d sounded controlled and calm. Now there was a tremor in her voice, noticeable even after one word.
Orson had no time to do more for her than plan their escape. He adjusted his hold on the key and used his free left thumb to dial his glove solar cell’s output to full.
“I guess this is worthless then.” He let the key’s chain slide closer to the sword’s blade. Every Liberty Corps officer focused on Orson’s hands.
Then Orson swung the key’s chain onto his wrist, opened his palm, and sent out a single flash of light, tens of thousands of lumens. It was nothing like its strength at night, but every Liberty Corps Knight, Shaper, officer, and warrior was left blind at the same moment Orson heard the Aesir’s proximity chime.
“I see you!” Jaleel yelled. “We’ll be right there.”
Dr. Stan moaned. Orson kept the sword outward, but he risked a glance at her. She’d pressed her hands against her face, and she’d made herself small, huddled behind him.
Pop! Out of the corner of his eye, he saw the Aesir appear, almost on top of them. The tri-cannon fired between Orson and the Liberty Corps line, wild shots. None of the Liberty Corps forces were hit, but the catwalk was also spared any damage.
“My ship is right here.” Orson took Dr. Stan by the shoulder. “Can you see? How much help will you need getting aboard?” The Aesir arrived beside the catwalk, still offering covering fire toward the Liberty Corps force. Its door opened. Enoa stood inside. “Great timing.”
“I’m still trying to keep my eyes open.” Dr. Stan blinked through tears. Orson guided her toward the door. Enoa reached out to the scientist and took her by both arms.
Saw-wing fighters had arrived at the tree line – Orson heard their shrieking – but they didn’t advance. They didn’t enter the laboratory area, even with the Aesir visible.
“Just step toward my voice and I’ll pull you in,” Enoa said. “The gap is only a few inches.” She guided the scientist into the ship. “Only two of you?”
“Yes.” But Orson had no time to explain. He saw a blur leap free of the Liberty Corps line and over the Aesir’s cover fire. He adjusted his stance and took a repulsor-aided leap at his attacker, keeping himself between the Shaper and the Aesir.
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The attacker fell toward Orson. It was the Knight with the cleavers. He plunged down from the sky, both wide blades extended.
Orson’s cautious instinct saved him. He leaped backward. The Knight struck the catwalk with enough force to dent the metal.
“Take off!” Orson screamed, but the Aesir didn’t move. He still stood between the ship and the Knight, but the other Liberty Corps forces had wizened to the tri-cannon’s predictable aim. They were rousing themselves and had reformed a new position on the catwalk, making way for their own walking cannon.
The weapon fired a sustained beam of blue light at the Aesir. The energy only sizzled against the ship’s shield, but the tri-cannon’s cover fire ceased. Spike Knight and Divenoll broke free of the assembly and ran toward Orson.
“Take off,” Orson yelled. “Get clear and fire on their troops. I’ll catch up!”
Enoa returned to the doorway and shouted something Orson could not hear. But then the door cycled shut, and the ship wobbled away from the catwalk.
Cleaver Knight had been waiting for Orson’s attention to waver, and he struck at him. Orson raised his sword to block the cleaver. He took simple pleasure in feeling the sword of fire slice apart solid metal weaponry, but the blunt blade batted aside the sword with only a small indentation where it had touched the heat.
The Cleaver Knight struck again. Orson expected a follow-up. He actively swung at the other blade, but it was like striking hammer against anvil and the sword of fire ricocheted away. The Knight advanced, moving both blades in tandem, and Orson gave ground. The strikes were heavy, heavier even than the weapons of the Thunderworks automatons. The robots’ servos and metal ligaments delivered strength beyond almost any human, but no strength could protect solid matter from his sword’s fire.
The Manifest Destiny bellowed. This sound was closer that its first blast, sounding now like sustained thunder in the mountains, too loud for too long, deafening and thought breaking.
Maybe shocked into action by the Supercarrier’s call, the Aesir finally opened fire on the Liberty Corps line, tearing apart the legged gun and blasting a wide opening in the catwalk. The metal bent down toward the river. Three rifle troopers fell, screaming, into the water, but the walking cannon’s legs still clutched the cliff face, toes digging into the rock wall.
“We’re too close to you for your energy weapon to save you.” Divenoll raised his fists and stepped closer, angling for a clear shot. “There’s nowhere to run.
“There is now.” Orson jumped at Divenoll, using his repulsor to leap over Cleaver Knight and Spike Knight. The latter opened fire from his gauntlets, but only a single volley. He stopped when Cleaver Knight leapt after Orson, mimicking the jump.
Divenoll wasn’t so quick. He let out a gout of flame toward Orson, except Orson wasn’t there anymore.
Orson had cut power to his repulsor and fallen back to the catwalk, between Spike Knight and Divenoll. Cleaver Knight had reached the top of his arc when the fire left Divenoll’s fist.
The blast threw Cleaver Knight. His armor and tunic smoking, he flew back the full length of the catwalk. He crashed down somewhere on the distant hilltop, where Orson had parted ways with the Advisory scientists before the standoff began.
“Either you’re stronger than you look or something freaky’s going on with that guy?” Orson shot a thumb toward the hill. Spike Knight ran back along the catwalk, toward the cliff face. But Divenoll didn’t turn aside. He charged at Orson, fists wreathed with flame.
Orson hit Divenoll with a second flash of light. When the man raised his arms, Orson buried his repulsor in the other man’s chest and fired. The force of the repulsor threw Divenoll back into the lab’s perimeter wall.
Orson let the blast carry him out and away from the catwalk, riding the force of the energy before he launched again. He caught sight of Spike Knight raising his fists, but by the time his HUD detected the projectiles heading for him, Orson had fired his repulsor again, in an arc that took him up and above the Aesir.
Orson turned on his comm. “Have Ruby let me in the skylight.” He gave his crew a five count before he cut power to the repulsor. When he fell, he noticed again that the Saw-wings had stayed away, even then, even after the Aesir was a distance from any Liberty Corps troops.
The shield and roof hatch opened for Orson and he fell back into his home. He let himself enjoy the momentary relief of hearing the Aesir’s operating hums and chimes. He also heard distant chattering from Wesley, penned in Jaleel’s bunk, and the muted sound of drumming against the ship’s renewed shield – parting gifts from Spike Knight.
“Good job, gang.” He watched the hatch close above him. Then he ran toward the front of the cabin, where Jaleel sat in the pilot’s seat, Enoa beside him, and Dr. Stan in the driver’s side passenger seat.
“You should’ve seen the freaks they sent after us,” Jaleel said. “You would not have believed their helmets. They had these dangling things on them...”
“You can tell me about it once we’re a long way from here.” Orson stood between the back row of seats. “Let’s rotate. Enoa, slide back please and try to get us some of that midnight fog cover that you do. Jaleel, take the guns.” He rested his hand on Dr. Stan’s seat while the others moved. “How are you, Doc? Are you hanging in there?” She nodded, her eyes squeezed shut, but that was her only reply. “I’m really sorry for not warning you about the light, but I couldn’t risk tipping them off.”
“I’ll forgive you once my rescue is over.” Dr. Stan wiped at her eyes again.
“If we stay close to the river, I can probably keep us out of sight.” Enoa adjusted her seatbelt. “What’s going on? Orson, you have your ‘let’s not freak out everyone else’ voice.”
“Their Starbird carrier is coming for us.” Orson pointed toward the horizon. Once Jaleel had settled into the copilot’s seat, Orson took the wheel. “Other than that fire guy, they were just trying to delay me or catch me. At least that’s what they did after I threatened my key.”
“I thought that’s what I heard.” Enoa looked up from retrieving her staff. “We need to talk about that.”
“After.” Orson adjusted the seat and fixed his restraints. “If we live, we’ll, I don’t know, we’ll ‘debrief’ later. Let’s get away now. When their flagship comes after us, they’ll try to have us in a tractor beam.”
“A tractor beam?” Jaleel asked. “Like Alien Abduction tractor beam or Death Star tractor beam?”
“I don’t know.” Orson sent them flying away from the lab, on the far side of the river. “Both. Now we need to figure out what we’re doing. That thing’s got fusion reactors, so it can follow us anywhere. The best I can think of is we try to beat it back to Alliance territory, but we might not have enough power for that.”
“I don’t see anything.” Jaleel adjusted his monitor. “I know we just heard it, but I still don’t see it. I can’t believe something like that could just vanish.”
“You’re looking on radar view,” Orson said. “They have this reflective paneling that does the bulk of the camouflage work. Ruby, switch the copilot screen to infrared scanning. Show Jaleel what we’re dealing with.”
“Switching now,” Ruby answered.
Orson glanced at Jaleel’s monitor. He saw the screen, their little green dot, only a pinpoint.
The entire right side of the screen was dominated by a single mass of red. Each time the screen zoomed out, the red grew with it, covering a vast swath of the eastern forest, where it hung in the sky.
“How big is that thing?” Jaleel asked. Enoa looked over his shoulder and gasped.
Ruby answered, “The standard size of the International Hierarchia Statute Association Starbird-class Supercarrier is approximately three-point-two-two kilometers or two miles in length. Would you like a more detailed size analysis?
“No, thank you,” Jaleel said.
“You get the gist.” Orson said. “I’m going to send us away from the lab in a second and I’m open to ideas. Right now, all I’m looking to do is have Enoa hide us and follow this river north into Alliance territory.” Orson wanted to say more to Dr. Stan, to offer some reassurance. She’d lost her data. She was separated from her colleagues, but what was there to say?
“If they chase us,” Orson said. “There’s a trick we can try, but it’ll be a rough trip if they make us do it.” He took a last scan of their surroundings. The Saw-wings were still congregating at the far end of the clearing. There was no motion from the lab. The red mass of the Hierarchia carrier hadn’t moved. “I’m gonna get us out of here. Are you ready?”
“I’ll be ready soon.” Enoa took a deep breath, her staff clutched between her hands. “Okay.” Orson saw thin tendrils of mist congregating at the water’s edge.
“Let’s go,” Jaleel said.
Orson hit the accelerator and sent them low, down over the river, through the clearing, far beyond the lab perimeter, and back into the trees.
“Ruby told us about the missiles you have,” Jaleel said. “I don’t really remember them, but do you think one of those might be useful? Could we hit it in a weak…”
The Manifest Destiny bellowed again. The wall of red moved on the screen. It looked like the monitor was glitching out, as the red grew across the display and the massive craft tore through the sky like a moving mountain.
The enormous ship lowered its cloak. It was visible. The ship was shaped like a distorted seafaring vessel, somewhat rounded bottom and flat on the top. The bottom bore paneled stripes of blue and red and gunmetal gray, held together by rivets larger than cars. The ship was two miles of rail guns, two miles of high-yield plasma projectors, two miles of tractor beam generators, hangars of Dactyl drones, Saw-wing fighters and hundreds of land vehicles, space for thousands of crew.
The Manifest Destiny was an uncounted sister of the ships that had led the breaking of the old world. Its siblings had been stolen by Thunderworks and used to destroy the IHSA, to erase cities, to cripple governments, to wipe nations from the map. Almost all had fallen before those ships.
The Manifest Destiny bore down on the Aesir. It would soon fill the entire sky.