Another man in front of me yelped and tumbled down, also dropped by a bolt to the chest. I tried to leap over him, but I misjudged the distance, and I tripped over his body and hit the ground. Sharp black rocks dug into my knees and elbows, but I managed to hang on to my blaster. A grunt of pain escaped my lips, but it was drowned out by the yelps and shrieks piercing the air.
More conscripts were still running this way. I couldn’t get back up onto my feet in time to keep from being trampled, so I reached out, grabbed the dead man, and flung his body over my own.
One foot after another slammed into the man’s body and shoved it into me, but the blows were far more muted than they would have been otherwise, and they only bruised my ribs instead of breaking them outright. I wasn’t sure how long this went on. Probably only seconds, although it seemed like an eternity. Then the last of the conscripts raced by, and I was able to shove the dead man away, sit up, and get my bearings.
I was in a field of shiny black rocks that jutted up like teeth, as though this was the maw of some enormous dragon that was trying to devour us all. In the distance, shadows scurried along the tops of the outer walls of a sprawling production plant with towers that were belching orange flames into the air. Beyond the plant, mountains also made of shiny black rocks soared up to touch the low, ominous gray clouds.
No, not clouds, smoke. This was a Magma planet, a thin crust of land wrapped around a molten core, and lava shot up out of the tops of the mountains—volcanos—before falling back down like red-hot rain. Soot and ash swirled through the air, and the intense heat blasted over me like I was being roasted alive in a smelter.
I couldn’t see everything that was happening through the smoke, soot, and ash, but more energy bolts rained down from the production plant walls, striking the conscripts in front of me. None of them had a chance, and only a few managed to fire their blasters in return. One by one, they dropped to the ground, screaming and sobbing.
In less than two minutes, the last conscript was dead, the blaster fire stopped, and an eerie silence descended over the field. Then, behind me, footsteps thumped out a low, steady beat. Imperium soldiers were streaming down the docking bay ramp, while several blitzers—small, maneuverable fighter ships—were also zooming out of the opening.
Somehow I had ended up on the left side of the field, and my position made it seem like I was watching speed racing or some other sporting event on a screen, instead of seeing, smelling, hearing, and experiencing the battle for myself.
For a moment, everything was relatively quiet, except for the marching footsteps and the soft purr of the blitzers’ engines. Then, in the distance, green lights appeared, glowing big and bright. More footsteps sounded, although these clanks were louder, sharper, and more metallic than the soldiers’ footsteps, almost like tin cans rattling together. Through the swirling smoke, hundreds of figures appeared, which I recognized from gossipcasts.
The Black Scarabs.
Each Techwave fighter looked the same: a black polymetal suit of plated armor studded with two compound green eyes like those on some massive insect. Many of the Black Scarabs were hollow shells, machines controlled by people in other locations, and their lumbering motions were jerky, slow, and awkward. But several of the Scarabs moved with quick, easy fluidity, indicating that a real person was buried somewhere inside all that shiny black metal.
I’d heard the gossipcast reports about how the Techwave melded men and machines in all sorts of painful, unnatural ways, but seeing it with my own eyes made the horror even more vivid. A shudder rippled through my body, and a hand squeezed tight around my chest, almost as if I had been stuffed into one of those metal suits. Whether they were man or machine, the Black Scarabs all looked like monsters that had risen out of the rocks and taken on the rough outlines of people.
The Black Scarabs halted, as did the Imperium soldiers, and the two groups faced each other, with the open, rocky expanse of the field stretching out between them. Smoke, soot, and ash swirled through the air, and the tension grew and grew as each side waited for the other to make the first move.
Suddenly, one of the Imperium blitzers swooped down to fire on the Techwavers, but the orange flare of a laser cannon shot through the sky, cutting off the blitzer’s charge. The pilot avoided the blast, but they banked too hard, and the blitzer spiraled down toward the ground. The pilot managed to pull out of the spin and make a rough landing on the far edge of the field, although the blitzer looked like a toy that a child had tossed aside in a tantrum, along with the bodies of all the dead conscripts.
More blitzers swooped down, and more cannon fire cut through the air, adding an electric orange tinge to the thick clouds of smoke. A few seconds later, several Techwave ships appeared overhead, and the battle began in earnest. Bolt after bolt streaked through the sky like colorful lightning. A few bolts even slammed into the Imperium cruiser behind me, although the ship’s energy shield easily absorbed the blasts.
A dull roar filled my ears. For a moment, I thought it was the booming echoes of the cannon fire, but it was the sound of the Black Scarabs advancing across the field. Unlike my cheap polyplastic blaster, their weapons were sleek, shiny silver, and they fired bolt after bolt with unerring precision.
The first line of Imperium soldiers dropped to the ground, smoking black holes punched into their helmets and breastplates. A few of the Black Scarabs also dropped, but not nearly as many, given their superior armor. More shouts, shrieks, and sobs tore through the air, and the sizzle of fried flesh grew stronger and stronger, forcing its way down my nose and throat and making me want to vomit.
The Techwavers pressed their advantage, rushing across the field and firing shot after shot at the Imperium cruiser, trying to break through its energy shield. Even more Imperium soldiers dropped to the ground. Some died from blaster wounds, while others were picked up by the Black Scarabs, who used the enhanced strength of their armored suits to break the soldiers’ backs. A few particularly vicious Scarabs tore off arms and legs and then tossed the rest of the bleeding, screaming soldiers aside.
It was the most horrific thing I had ever seen.
The Black Scarabs quickly advanced across the field. Just before they would have cut through the final knot of Imperium soldiers, those men and women scattered, revealing the secret weapons hidden inside their ranks: Kyrion Caldaren and the other two Arrows.
The female Arrow leaped forward and swung her sword at the closest Techwaver. The blade glimmered like liquid gold and easily sheared the Scarab’s head from the rest of its body. Sparks shot out of both pieces as they toppled to the ground, indicating that it was just a machine and not an actual person.
The male Arrow stepped up beside her and waved his hand. Telekinetic power rolled off him, causing the ground to ripple like water, and the ominous wave zoomed straight toward the Black Scarabs. The instant it reached them, the male Arrow snapped his hand into a tight fist, and the wave erupted like a grenade, spewing razor-sharp rocks everywhere and skewering several Scarabs. The male Arrow calmly walked in that direction, sending out more telekinetic ripples, while the female Arrow cut down enemies beside him.
I finally had the presence of mind to quit gawking and get up off my ass. I was still clutching the blaster, which I shoved into my coveralls pocket. No reason to hold it, since I wasn’t going to fire it at anyone. I just hoped the shielding would keep me safe until I figured out some way off the battlefield.