Valley of Fires: A Conquered Earth Novel (The Conquered Earth Series) (45 page)

“You have the map?” she asked.

Dresden rolled out the huge map from the office wall they’d studied previously, and everyone closed in to look at it.

“Where is it we’re meeting them?”

Dresden pointed to a small town about fifty miles west. “Burleson,” he said. “We can pick up the Western Terminus for San Francisco there too.”

Mira studied the dot on the map. The Phantom Regiment, the famous resistance group which fought in the San Francisco ruins, were waiting for them there. If they could find them, they just might make up for all their losses so far.

“And we know how to switch tracks?” Mira looked at Smitty. It was maybe the biggest part of this whole plan. If they couldn’t figure out how to switch tracks at the old junctions, the train, no matter how fancy and powerful it was, wasn’t going anywhere near San Francisco.

Smitty nodded. “Think so, yeah. Deal is, we’ll have to stop and do it manually. In the World Before it was automatic, trains never even slowed down, but no one’s running those controls anymore. It’ll cost us time.”

“And we’ll be vulnerable while we wait,” Conner finished for him, pointing out the obvious.

“I’d think vulnerability, by this point, we should be used to,” Mira remarked. She looked up from the map and studied them all in turn, the Wind Traders, the Helix, all people who she’d come to care about, and who, once more, she was about to put in harm’s way.

“I’m proud of all of you,” she said. “This is … really something. Now let’s get this big bastard rolling.”

No one hesitated, they all moved off, heading to finish whatever needed finishing, getting ready to move.

When they were gone, and it was just her, Mira peered into the distance, over the flatlands to where the hills of the coast began to form. She could see the giant, faded black form of the Citadel, a menacing shape covered in haze.

“We’re coming, Zoey,” she said. “Just hold on.”

37.
PHANTOM REGIMENT

THE
WIND SHEAR
RUMBLED
forward under the bright sun, bouncing on the rocky terrain near the train tracks, and as it did, Mira couldn’t stop staring at the giant machine to their right.
Sorcerer
in motion was a sight to see.

It thundered westward, pulling its detachment of sixteen armored cars, each painted with angry, wicked-looking figures. Demons and snakes and crude pictures of Mantis walkers with
X
s marking them out. The names stood out prominently too. So did the gun ports in the armor which had replaced the cars’ doors.

Eight Landships escorted
Sorcerer,
each with two full Arcs of Helix on board in case of trouble. The three remaining ships ran a few miles ahead, scouting for obstructions or signs of Assembly. At the rear followed a dozen Osprey dropships, each carrying either a collection of Mantises or a Spider walker. She could feel the sensations coming off them, the joy that came with movement, the anticipation of approaching conflict.

“Didn’t wanna ride on your new toy?” Dresden asked behind her, near the wheel with Parker and Jennifer. They were on the helm deck, and everyone watched the giant train cutting a path through the landscape. Max and Nemo were both asleep nearby, the cat curled up against the dog. Max may not have transitioned to outright affection for the feline, but at least he was tolerating him.

“Kinda got used to this one,” Mira answered.

“It suits you,” he said back. “You’re good on a ship.”

“You tried to recruit me once.”

“I did?” Dresden asked dubiously.

“Months ago, back at that trading post, during that Assembly assault.” It had been a harrowing escape, and the first time she or Holt had witnessed Zoey’s true powers. In a way, many things had begun that day.

“That’s right,” Dresden said with a smile. “Well, I have an eye for talent. Right, Parker?”

“If you say so,” Parker answered. The first officer still hadn’t warmed to her, but she didn’t blame him. In fact, she didn’t blame any of the Wind Traders for whatever feelings they harbored. The lives they’d come to love were fading, and it was her fault, directly or indirectly.

“Where’d you ‘recruit’ the fleabag?” Mira nodded toward Nemo.

Dresden looked down at the animal with affection. “He found me, came on board at dock in Midnight, just like that, never left, like he’d always lived here. I liked his presumptiveness. Always liked cats better than dogs, really. They’re survivors, they don’t trust easy. You earn a cat’s trust, it means something. Your dog though, he doesn’t trust easy either. I like him too. He can stay when you leave.”

“He’s not my dog,” Mira reminded Dresden again. “But he goes where I go.”

Max opened an eye and studied her briefly, before yawning and closing it. It was as much sentiment as she was going to get.

Radio chatter flared to life from the scout ships. Mira didn’t have her earpiece in, she looked back at Dresden.

“Understood,” he responded. “We’re cresting the rise now, should see it in a few seconds.”

“See what?” Mira asked darkly.

“Smoke,” Dresden replied.

The Landships and
Sorcerer
all came to the top of a large, rolling hill and when they did, they could see trails of thick, gray smoke drifting into the air probably ten miles away. That was the estimated distance to Burleson, where they were supposed to meet the Phantom Regiment.

“Not a good sign,” Dresden remarked.

Mira moved to the railing and stared at the smoke. The fire had been a big one. The smoke was turning white now, which meant most of the flames were out.

“What do you want to do?” Dresden asked.

“Get the scouts back here, signal defensive formation,” Mira ordered. “
Sorcerer
goes in hot.”

Parker motioned to the flaggers in the crow’s nest, and they started signaling the ships around them. More radio chatter erupted. The engines of the locomotives rumbled powerfully as the train picked up speed and thundered ahead.

Mira could see the gun ports opening up and down the sides, the cannons being primed. White Helix scampered onto the roofs, masks lifting up, Lancets pulled from their backs. A thousand of them covered the train as it roared forward.

In cases like these,
Sorcerer
would barrel into whatever location was questionable, armed and ready. In the case of a town or a city, where the Landships couldn’t enter, they would circle the perimeter. Assembly dropships would follow and deploy walkers, and if necessary, Mira could guide in Brutes with reinforcements.

She reached out toward the Ospreys, told them what was happening.

Guardian,
they projected back.
We follow.

Feelings of eagerness washed over her as the Ospreys roared past, hoping battle would find them. It would eventually, she knew, and Mira wondered how they would feel then. They didn’t seem to factor in that most of them could no longer survive outside their armor, that they were vulnerable, but she had no desire to remind them. The truth was, she needed them ready and aggressive.

The
Wind Shear
broke off with the other ships to circle the city: the ruins of a flat desert town, not unlike Rio Vista, in a small valley. Mira could make out more detail. A lot of the city had burned, but the fires were mostly out. There was no movement she could see, but the memory of the trap a week ago was still heavy in her mind, and she let
Sorcerer
move in, watched the Ospreys unload their walkers and the Helix deploy onto the roofs of the buildings that were still intact.

They waited for any sign of a threat. More radio chatter erupted, and Mira slipped on her headset.

“No hostiles.” It was Dasha’s voice, predictably disappointed. “No nothing. Whatever happened here, we missed it.”

Mira turned to Dresden. What was
supposed
to have happened here was a meeting of great importance, and now it looked like they had just taken several steps backward.

*   *   *

IT WAS CLEAR THE
ruins had been the site of an intense battle. Buildings still smoldered and the burn marks up and down the streets were the distinctive, sulfurous-colored scars of plasma bolts.

The destruction moved through downtown, intensifying at what remained of an old brick schoolhouse. Most of the building was gone now, burned and crumpled, but enough of it was still standing to explore. Mira stepped into the ruins, flanked by Dasha, two Arcs of Helix, and a few Wind Traders, including Conner and Dresden.

Max pushed ahead, nose to the ground, and they soon heard him barking on the other side of a wall of fallen brick and mortar. When they dug through it, they emerged in the school’s old gymnasium, the basketball court splintered, the scoreboard rusted and fallen. Everything else was covered in plasma bolt burns, a sign that Assembly fire had been concentrated here, and all around was the gruesome evidence.

Bodies littered the gym, lining what remained of the stands, or fallen in the center of the floor. Some hung from the rafters, where they’d claimed elevated positions to shoot through the topmost windows. They were either bent at strange angles that seemed inhuman, or charred to varying degrees. None of them moved.

Mira wanted to shut her eyes, but forced them open. She needed to see this, to remember that there were Assembly out there very different from Ambassador.

Everyone moved forward, studying the death. The place still smoked, weapons were strewn everywhere. The bodies were all kids, their gear was chalky white—it was intentional, Mira guessed, for blending in amid the concrete jungle of the San Francisco ruins. Their chest plates were each painted with a single black skull.

“Definitely Regiment,” Dresden observed. “But there’s way more here than were supposed to meet us.”

“Maybe they were planning a trap,” Dasha mused.

Dresden shook his head. “They wanted this meeting, they wanted help. They must have come here for something else, but I can’t think why.”

“They pulled back,” Mira said. “Retreated.”

“Out of the ruins?” Conner asked in a skeptical voice. “Phantom Regiment are fanatics, tough as nails, all the resistance groups are.”

“Didn’t … retreat,” a weak, raspy voice stated.

Everyone spun and saw a figure near the edge of the bleachers, covered by two other bodies. A survivor.

Max growled protectively, but Mira had a feeling there was no need.

She yelled for someone to get a first-aid kit, but when she reached him, she saw just how futile that was going to be. The lower half of his body was mostly black, and he was bloody. She could see where it had pooled under him, and she was surprised he hadn’t passed out.

His eyes were almost fully black. He was close to twenty or maybe even older. Mira had always heard the rumor that the Tone spread slower the closer you were to the Assembly Presidiums, which meant resistance fighters got as much as an extra year before they Succumbed.

“Water would be nice…” he told them.

Dresden kneeled and unstrapped his canteen, let him drink. Mira kneeled down too.

“You said you didn’t retreat?” she asked.

The survivor shook his head. “We … pulled the young ones out of the city. Those were the orders. The kids and the girls, the nonfighters…” He looked at Mira with intensity, she could see the decision to leave the ruins had been hard. “Brought them here, but … they followed…”

“Assembly?” Conner asked, and the kid nodded.

Mira looked around the gym again. All she saw were the bodies of soldiers. There were no “nonfighters” here. “Where are they?”

A smiled crept onto his face. “They made it. We … held them off…”

It all fit. They had some sense the Assembly were coming, got the nonfighters they’d been told to evacuate headed off, then this kid and his cohorts bought time for the others to escape with their lives.

“Where’s the rest of you?” Mira asked, though she was hesitant to hear the answer. If the Regiment had evacuated people out of the ruins, it must be bad. “The main force, are they still in San Francisco?”

The smile vanished. “Dead…” Dread filled Mira to her core, and she forced herself not to react. “If not now … they will be…”

The answer only gave slight hope, but it was something.
“Where?”

“HQ,” the kid told her. His voice was weakening. He coughed raggedly. “They were … overrun. More Assembly than I’ve ever seen … different colors, different types.” A fit of coughing consumed him and Dresden gave him more water.

Mira looked at Dresden while he did. “Do you know where they operate from?”

He shook his head. “We always traded here, in Burleson, that’s how I knew the place. Landships don’t go near the Citadel ruins, it’s suicide.”

Mira turned to Dasha. “Get me the map. Hurry.”

A Helix runner leapt and disappeared through one of the gym’s shattered windows in a flash of yellow, headed back for the train. Mira turned to the soldier. His eyes were becoming glassy. “What’s your name?”

“Major,” he said.

“Not your rank, your
name.
”

He shook his head, smiled again. “It
is
my name. My rank’s … sergeant…”

Mira smiled too. “Okay, Major. I want you to rest, but I need your help. We have an army outside. We can help your people, but I need you to show me where they are.”

He studied her oddly. “An army?”

Mira nodded. “An army.”

The smile faded again, the notion didn’t seem to bring much hope. “You’ll need one…”

The words sent a chill down her spine.

The same Helix from before leapt through the same window, landing on the old wooden court. A few steps later she reached them, handed over the giant railroad map, and Mira spread it open.

“Major,” she said, holding it up for him to see. “Where?”

He studied it … then raised a hand, pointed to a spot.

Everyone bent and looked. It was some kind of old manufacturing facility on the outskirts of Oakland.

“Good news, bad news,” Dresden stated. “Place has a train yard, so
Sorcerer
can get there, but the Landships are a no-go. It was always gonna be this way. Closer we get to the old city centers and out of the Barren, there’s just no room. Debris, fences, downed power lines, not to mention buildings.”