Valley of Fires: A Conquered Earth Novel (The Conquered Earth Series) (20 page)

Rose nodded back to the window and the incomprehensible numbers of alien machines there. Zoey was suddenly hit with the reality of just how futile it all was. “There is no fighting us. Your friends have no choice but to be Ascended. It is an honor for them, and you will make it possible.”

“I won’t,” Zoey whispered.

Rose studied her curiously. “You have more in common with us than you know. You are of us. As much as the entity inside you.”

“That’s not true,” Zoey said firmly.

“You were born of the Severed Tower, and the Tower was born of both humanity
and
Assembly. It contained the essences of both. The form you were given is human, but you are equally Assembly. It is why you are the Scion, and why you are so important.”

Zoey stared at Rose, trying to find a way to deny her logic, but one would not form.

Rose smiled. “You will be our Ascension, Sunshine. It is your destiny.”

It took a moment for them both to realize Rose had called the little girl “Sunshine.” It was what her aunt called her as a small child, a nickname based on Zoey’s favorite song. When Rose realized it, the confidence slipped from her face. Apprehension and doubt bubbled to the surface. It was the sign Zoey had been looking for, the barest hint that maybe not all was lost.

Rose, the
real
Rose, however much buried by the Assembly presence within her, was not gone.

15.
RIO VISTA

MIRA LAY AT THE EDGE
of the mesa with everyone else, trying to push away the incessant projections from the Assembly. They were almost like little children, always clamoring for her attention and closeness, only these were children with the ability to drown out her own thoughts if she didn’t keep a handle on them.

Right now, however, she had more pressing concerns.

They’d spent four days running search patterns throughout the desert, looking for missing Landships, White Helix, and Assembly. Dresden and Conner had divided the ships into four groups, each surveying a different area. By the end, Mira and Dresden had found twenty Arcs of Helix, fifteen Landships (most of which needed repairs) and several Assembly groups, and the others had had equal success. When all was said and done, they were operating with about 75 percent of what they’d set out with.

On the surface it was a good number, but there was no ignoring they’d lost more than a quarter of their resources in one battle. Which really meant they had lost
people,
a lot of them, and the thought was grim. She and Dane had dedicated themselves to being smarter, and she hoped they’d learned their lessons.

Below them, where the ground flattened out into a dusty plain, lay a town. It had been called Rio Vista in the World Before, a nondescript desert place that seemed equal parts trailer parks and adobe structures, or at least what was left of them. The only piece that stood out was the very thing that had brought them here: a large, arching, metal bridge that spanned a wide river. For Landships, that water was impossible to cross, and there were only a few places where the big vessels could pass over in this part of the Barren. This bridge had been cleared long ago for just that purpose.

But, as usual, they had a problem.

The Assembly had parked themselves in the town, the blue and whites, several dozen Mantises, and six Spiders. A powerful force, one that outnumbered theirs, yet nothing like what the reds had fielded a few days ago. Most were dug into defensive positions, while patrols searched the perimeter. The Assembly, it seemed, had been expecting them.

“Distance?” Dane asked behind her. He was on the ground with his men, almost a thousand White Helix, masks already pulled up, eager for payback. Mira hoped they got it this time; the plan Dane had devised seemed overly complicated, but at least it included all three groups.

Mira reached out with her senses, feeling for the Hunters, the Mas’Erinhah defectors. Right now, they were cloaked, moving at full speed around the side of the town, so far undetected. “They’ll be ready when you hit.”

Dane looked to where the rest of the force had been divided. Two groups of impressive size. One contained all the Landships that had been armed with White Helix weaponry, and the number had grown to twenty-one. Smitty and Caspira, it seemed, had found ways to stomach each other’s presence enough to work together, and they had used the last four days well. Next to them sat the Mas’Erinhah artillery walkers, the big ones that had laid down that devastating barrage in the Strange Lands a month ago.

The second group was a small force of the silver Assembly, mainly Mantises and Brutes. They weren’t using any of the Spiders per Ambassador’s recommendation. The entity felt that with the close-quarters fighting to come, that level of firepower might cause more friendly fire than enemy. Still, Mira could see them, a mile away, hovering protectively over the rest of the Landship fleet. If they were needed, they could be brought in.

“Still wish we had air power,” Dresden said next to her. So did Mira. Out of all the defectors the silvers had gotten, not one gunship had joined their side, only several Osprey dropships. At least the blue and whites below didn’t seem to have any either.

“Never venture, never win,” Dane answered, and looked to Mira. “Light ’em up.”

His face was a mask of confidence, which was exactly what the numerous Doyen and their Arcs behind him needed to see, but she knew he felt at least a stirring of the apprehension she did. This was their first battle since the travesty of Currency. If they lost this one too, the entire endeavor was probably finished.

Mira reached for the button on her belt. From a device there, a wire ran to an earpiece and microphone around her ear. Everyone else on the mesa wore an identical set, including Dane and his Doyen.

It had been a lucky find by Conner, a National Guard armory he spotted during the search. Like most places it had been well picked over, but the looters had mainly been interested in the guns and explosives stored there, and had passed over the electronics, including several crates of headset radios. While there hadn’t been enough for everyone, there was enough for each Landship Captain and first officer, and each White Helix Doyen. They were useless of course for Assembly, but Mira could relay any messages to that group herself.

She slapped the button, heard the crackle of static. “Artillery, fire at will.” At the same time, she projected the same message to the giant Mas’Erinhah artillery walkers … and then shut her eyes.

The air exploded.

Piercing, harmonic pings shook the air as the Landship cannons launched their Antimatter shells into the sky. The sound of the artillery walkers adding their own fire shook the ground like thunder, and it all screamed over her head.

Below, the town was suddenly ablaze in fire as the ordnance hit. Explosions flared, both regular fire and colored from the crystals, and Mira saw several enemy Mantises incinerated almost immediately.

They didn’t sit idle for long. Even though the artillery was out of sight, they returned fire in its general direction, and plasma burned through the air and sparked against the side of the mesa. They were firing it in a way Mira had no idea they even could. The yellow bolts of light, instead of simply shooting straight, now shot in arcs that curved in the sky and came back down toward the plateau. Explosions rocked the ground nearby, rocks and dirt sprayed everywhere.

“Seek,” Dane yelled as he pulled his mask over his mouth.

“And find!” came the response, a thousand strong, loud enough to overpower the chaotic sounds.

“Move as one!”

The order was shouted again through the ranks, and the Helix advanced, leaping over the edge of the mesa and soaring downward toward the town hundreds of feet below in a cloud of cyan.

Do it,
Mira projected to Ambassador. Instantly she felt a wave of anticipation that replaced her own sense of anxiety. The aliens’ furor for battle filled her, and she smiled, letting the feelings flow, before she realized they weren’t her own, and she pushed them back. It was frightening sometimes, the mix of emotions, hers and theirs. She could lose herself so easily.

The machines thundered forward, almost twenty Mantises and Brutes. There were no teleports yet, they wanted to take their time getting to the enemy. The longer it took, the more the artillery could soften the town up.

Of course, that worked both ways.

Behind them the arcing plasma bolts finally found a mark, and Mira heard screams as they started slamming into one of the armed Landships. The Barrier artifacts flashed to life, deflecting the ordnance in giant plumes of sparks, but the shield was flickering in a weird way she didn’t like.

“What ship is that?” Mira asked.

“The
Wind Drag,
why?” Dresden responded.

“Because its Barrier is failing,” Mira yelled, eyes wide, reaching for the radio button, but it was too late.

The Barrier flickered off, and the ship exploded in a giant wave of flaming splinters. She saw people leaping off as the ship buckled, but far fewer escaped than perished. Mira shut her eyes tight.

“Those Barriers are
new
!” Conner yelled in anger.

He was right, she’d helped make them for all the ships on artillery duty. It should have lasted twice that long. It made no sense.

More bolts exploded around them. They needed their main force to engage, to pull the artillery off them, and fast.

Mira looked back and down, carefully peeking over the edge again into the hailstorm of plasma fire, and watched as the Helix touched down outside the town. Explosions flared up all around them, and they flipped and leapt into the air in flashes of yellow light.

Streaks of color shot forward as Dane and his group fired, and they blew through buildings and old cars and found their marks in showers of sparks. The Helix were closing the distance fast, which meant it was time.

“Artillery, cease fire!
Cease fire!
” Mira yelled into her headset, projecting the same toward the Mas’Erinhah. It took a moment, but the gunfire silenced. Below, the last of the explosions from the barrage flared away … right as the White Helix entered the town, leaping between the various buildings, the second volley from their Lancets flying forward while the first was returning toward them.

Ambassador and his mechanized force continued to move. As Mira watched, flashes of light lit up and down the line of walkers as the Brutes teleported themselves and one Mantis walker each down to the bottom. Similar flashes appeared in the town as the machines teleported into position, strategically placed, and Rio Vista was suddenly a battleground, explosions and plasma bolts and Antimatter crystals flying everywhere.

“Goddamn, that’s beautiful,” Conner said. “That is
beautiful.
”

Mira almost agreed, until she watched fireballs consume a dozen White Helix, and felt the projections of shock from some of the silvers as their walkers exploded. For the Assembly, falling on the battlefield was a much different proposition. They simply lifted up and out of their burning machines and floated away. The White Helix had no such luxury; when they fell, it was permanent.

Mira looked away. Dresden studied her sympathetically.

“I know it’s not fun, but you have to watch,” he said. “You’re the only one who can guide in the Hunters.”

He was right. Their force had made a powerful surprise attack, but they were still outgunned. Below, the blue and white Spiders stomped forward, their huge cannons opened up. Mira flinched as more of Ambassador’s and Dane’s forces fell or disappeared in blossoms of fire.

Mira studied the battle like Dane had taught her, looking for the weaknesses he had outlined, and finally she saw them. The blue and white walkers were swarming toward the northern part of town, Mantises leaping onto rooftops for elevated positions, and the Spiders were grouping there too, all of them concentrating their fire to the east at the Helix and silver Assembly.

It wasn’t a weak point. Dane had called it a
strength
point, a place that if you could hit unsuspectingly, the loss would be enough to turn the tide of a battle.

Instantly she reached out for the Hunters, felt them moving near the river, leaping and powering into the town from the western end.

Guardian …
they responded eagerly.

Mira concentrated on the blue and white strength spot.
There,
she projected.

She felt the Hunters’ acknowledgement, sensed them shift their movement, felt their elation at joining the battle. Seconds later, explosions flared to life all around the grouped-up blue and whites as the Hunters decloaked from behind and opened fire.

Mira could feel the surprise from the enemy as the Hunters engaged, desperately trying to swing their cannons around, to defend, but it was too late. Most of them exploded and fell, the buildings they were on falling to pieces. Even one of the Spiders collapsed in on itself.

Cheers erupted from everyone on the mesa. The tide had turned …

From there it was surprisingly straightforward.

The White Helix and Ambassador’s group followed Dane’s mop-up strategy. The silvers focused on the Mantises, and the Helix leapt like a cloud of bees onto the Spiders, their Lancets punching into their armor, over and over, swarming them until each one fell in flames. The Hunters kept moving, roaming as a force, lending firepower wherever it was needed.

In minutes, what was left of the blue and whites was decimated and the old town of Rio Vista was nothing but a smoldering ruin, thick plumes of black smoke rising up into the air along with the glowing, golden crystalline shapes of the Mas’Shinra entities. More cheers, people shaking hands and hugging, Landship crews and White Helix, their differences forgotten. She could hear congratulatory radio chatter and felt a surge of pride swell up from the Assembly below.

Mira sighed in relief. Until right then, she’d had no idea how much trepidation she was carrying.

She felt Dresden’s hand on her back. “You did good, kiddo.”