stain from his spirit.
And right now, he felt as if the alien artifact in front of him saw that stain, smelled the stink of failure upon him, and saw an opportunity.
Edwards grit his teeth and settled in, standing guard.The anger spurred by the shame he felt made him wish someone would try to steal the hammer.
He wouldnât even have minded going into battle against the winged monstrosity when it returned for its property.
Chapter 5
Perched on the nose of the parked Manta, his Sin Eater retracted into its forearm holster, Edwards knew heâd be waiting a while for someone to show up for Charunâs fallen hammer. Even at this distance, thirty yards from where itâd cratered the rocky hillock, its emanations whispered promises of ancient evil up and down his spine.
He checked his wrist chron, a display built into the forearm of the sleek, body-conforming shadow suit, actually. Brigid had contacted him again, alerting him that they would be on his position in about two hours. The big Magistrate passed the first hour and a quarter thinking about the brief, brutal aerial chase and battle heâd undergone. At supersonic speeds, even a few seconds of movement translated into miles of ground to cover, especially since there were a couple of ranges of mountains between him and New Olympus.
Even with the mighty strides and leaps of the Gear Skeletons, it was unlikely that there would be an arrival within the next thirty minutes.
Edwards started to inform himself not to take aerial combat so far away from friends who could come to his aid, but his common sense kicked in. The whole purpose of air support was to distance aerial combatants from troops on the ground. Getting the horrific Charun as far from his compatriots was the best thing to do. He couldnât have anticipated the presence of a powerful artifact in need of recovery.
For a moment he saw that he had two shadows on the ground, looking past the wrist chron. Edwards squinted, then looked back up into the sky. Up there, somehow, had appeared a second brilliant sun, blazing white and hot. He scrambled to his feet, standing on the front of the Manta. The machine pistol snapped down into his fist, ready to go into action, but the strange, glowing disc was not moving. He put on his shadow suitâs faceplate and hoped for the visor to screen and filter out the blinding light as well as analyze the object in the sky.
The range was ten miles and it was advancing quickly.
He activated his Commtact microphone. âGuys, wherever you areâ¦â
Nothing. No response, not even static. He turned his gaze back to the sky. For all the polarization of the lenses, necessary for use on walks outside the Manitus Moon Base, he could not make out a detail in regard to the blazing comet looming ever and ever closer to him. But in the space of fifteen seconds it had closed to nine miles. He couldnât get details about the shape of the object, only its range, and there was no guarantee that it was right.
Edwards turned to open the cockpit, but the command signal to remotely open the canopy was jammed. He was in a complete blackout. He ground his teeth behind the faceplate and looked back at the hammer. âYou wouldnât be alone, would you?â
The hammer didnât speak, but it didnât have to. There was a new malice hanging in the air; a smug sense of superiority that proved annoying in humans but was infuriating when it came from a supposedly inanimate object.
Edwards tried to open the manual hatch, a backup in case of the failure of the remote access. The only problem with that was that now the hatch was shut; immobilized by a force so strong that even using his foot-long fighting knife he couldnât budge it open. He bent theblade by sixty degrees and gave up for fear of losing an important survival tool or causing himself injury should the blade shatter. In frustration, he gave the cockpit a hammering blow in an effort to somehow
And right now, he felt as if the alien artifact in front of him saw that stain, smelled the stink of failure upon him, and saw an opportunity.
Edwards grit his teeth and settled in, standing guard.The anger spurred by the shame he felt made him wish someone would try to steal the hammer.
He wouldnât even have minded going into battle against the winged monstrosity when it returned for its property.
Chapter 5
Perched on the nose of the parked Manta, his Sin Eater retracted into its forearm holster, Edwards knew heâd be waiting a while for someone to show up for Charunâs fallen hammer. Even at this distance, thirty yards from where itâd cratered the rocky hillock, its emanations whispered promises of ancient evil up and down his spine.
He checked his wrist chron, a display built into the forearm of the sleek, body-conforming shadow suit, actually. Brigid had contacted him again, alerting him that they would be on his position in about two hours. The big Magistrate passed the first hour and a quarter thinking about the brief, brutal aerial chase and battle heâd undergone. At supersonic speeds, even a few seconds of movement translated into miles of ground to cover, especially since there were a couple of ranges of mountains between him and New Olympus.
Even with the mighty strides and leaps of the Gear Skeletons, it was unlikely that there would be an arrival within the next thirty minutes.
Edwards started to inform himself not to take aerial combat so far away from friends who could come to his aid, but his common sense kicked in. The whole purpose of air support was to distance aerial combatants from troops on the ground. Getting the horrific Charun as far from his compatriots was the best thing to do. He couldnât have anticipated the presence of a powerful artifact in need of recovery.
For a moment he saw that he had two shadows on the ground, looking past the wrist chron. Edwards squinted, then looked back up into the sky. Up there, somehow, had appeared a second brilliant sun, blazing white and hot. He scrambled to his feet, standing on the front of the Manta. The machine pistol snapped down into his fist, ready to go into action, but the strange, glowing disc was not moving. He put on his shadow suitâs faceplate and hoped for the visor to screen and filter out the blinding light as well as analyze the object in the sky.
The range was ten miles and it was advancing quickly.
He activated his Commtact microphone. âGuys, wherever you areâ¦â
Nothing. No response, not even static. He turned his gaze back to the sky. For all the polarization of the lenses, necessary for use on walks outside the Manitus Moon Base, he could not make out a detail in regard to the blazing comet looming ever and ever closer to him. But in the space of fifteen seconds it had closed to nine miles. He couldnât get details about the shape of the object, only its range, and there was no guarantee that it was right.
Edwards turned to open the cockpit, but the command signal to remotely open the canopy was jammed. He was in a complete blackout. He ground his teeth behind the faceplate and looked back at the hammer. âYou wouldnât be alone, would you?â
The hammer didnât speak, but it didnât have to. There was a new malice hanging in the air; a smug sense of superiority that proved annoying in humans but was infuriating when it came from a supposedly inanimate object.
Edwards tried to open the manual hatch, a backup in case of the failure of the remote access. The only problem with that was that now the hatch was shut; immobilized by a force so strong that even using his foot-long fighting knife he couldnât budge it open. He bent theblade by sixty degrees and gave up for fear of losing an important survival tool or causing himself injury should the blade shatter. In frustration, he gave the cockpit a hammering blow in an effort to somehow
Similar Books
