Enoa and Orson took an access corridor back to the Aesir. They’d departed the gathering as soon as Chief Morita had marshaled his forces on the ground. The journey back had been brief and quiet. Orson had received a set of keys from Morita and a small pamphlet of information, which he read intently. The access …
”NetPass sold here!” A bearded man, dressed like a circus ringmaster, stood at a raised podium. He brandished a cane in one hand and a handful of thin cards with the other. “NetPass sold here! Enjoy the NewNet! Feel connected for the first time since the collapse.” “How did we sleep through this?” Enoa shouted …
Enoa woke for the first time in her bunk on the Aesir. She’d forgotten where she was. She’d slept deeply and completely, with no awareness of the passage of time, and found herself in a small dark compartment she didn’t recognize. She felt motion beneath her and heard distant machine rumbling. She remembered herself and drifted …
Orson had never felt so tired, at least not when he was in active danger. He hovered, suspended by his single boot repulsor, floating hundreds of feet above the ground, above another Solar Saver helipad. He looked at the pad with his HUD, seeking any sign that this one was also rigged. His sensor was …
“These are the fruits of your failure.” Divenoll emerged from the trees barefoot. Most of his unique armor was draped over his right arm. He wore only a thin tunic and pants, despite the foot of snow on the ground and the bitter cold. Divenoll walked at an unconcerned pace, leaving steaming, melted footprints in …
Divenoll watched Orson’s attack on the drop ship nine times. The recording had been streamed to Divenoll’s datapad before the ship’s destruction, and he had so far watched it nine times. Maros sat in the passenger seat, beside the operative. Nine times they saw Orson fight the recon trios, striking all of them with his sword. Nine …
Maros sat alone in the back of the rover. He’d gotten good at waiting, without thought or worry. He’d learned to empty his mind, observe nothing. He could not see Divenoll. The man had walked a distance away to electronically observe the operations against the potential Aesir hiding places. “Status!” Divenoll yelled, the sound muffled inside the …
Maros saw the Bedford caravan approach. Like most community-level Liberty Corps forces, it consisted of a ragtag mix of vehicles, mostly military-style or militarized trucks and jeeps. The Liberty Corps did not provide vehicles for its community-level groups, and neither did it decree which to use or not to use, but most groups sought out …
Captain Maros opened his eyes and saw nothing. For three heartbeats, he was a teenager again, in the collapsed loft apartment, entirely enclosed in impenetrable shadow, two thousand pounds of steel and wood and plaster collapsed on his right hand. But no, he was in the Sun Talon, or what remained of it. He was still …
“You’re certain your Montauk Station wingman will not be present for this operation?” Captain Maros had never flown in one of the rare, secret aircraft that the Liberty Corps had inherited. Featuring advanced space-age propulsion and a kinetic-energy weapons system that recouped almost thirty percent of the power spent in its discharge, there had never …
