The Last Winter (The Circle War Book 2) Read online

  There were no windows, probably because Galan’s cybernetic army had no use for taking in the scenery. Not that there was much to look at. The planet’s surface was dry and cracked, with volcanic geysers peppered around the facility spewing a fine white mist into the sky. He didn’t even want to know what it was. Probably something that would kill him, like most things on Galan’s worlds. Thankfully, the probe bypassed the geysers completely.

  The ship maneuvered around the massive dome toward a flattened silo that rose above the uniform height of the rectangular structures. The top of the silo split in the center as they approached, spreading wide to allow for delivery of the asteroid. Hydraulic arms reached up to take delivery from the probe. The transfer rattled his bones. Once the new set of arms had a firm grasp, the probe released its hold and sped off into the clouds.

  In a quick move that sent August’s stomach into his throat, the rock dropped into a vat of dark red liquid as the doors closed above them, sending the inside of the silo into complete darkness. The eyes of Bear’s suit glowed through the syrupy liquid. At once, he and August released their magnetic holds and started to swim to the bottom through a haze of flaky black crust torn free of the asteroid by the cleaning fluid. Bear led them down into the tank. He forced his hand underneath the raised portal on the floor and pulled it open, something that required the strength of a hundred men—or one Bear Lawson. August dropped through the opening, followed closely by Bear. The door slammed shut behind them.

  “Gross,” August said as he shook off the red snot.

  They’d landed on a wide conveyor belt with grated floors on either side. The air inside the shaft was frosty, prickling his lungs as he breathed the air. He hadn’t really begun to appreciate his armor until he started going to distant worlds. It kept his body temperature steady, protected him from temperature extremes, mended itself after a fight, and, most important of all, it allowed him to breathe, even in the poisonous atmosphere of planets like the one they were currently trespassing on. Bear had a breather built into his new armor too. August took in the sight of his partner’s suit again, which made him look like a walking tank. Thank God he’s on our side. He shuddered at the thought of taking a punch from the guy. It would probably shatter him instantly.

  “This looks exactly like the last one I was in,” Bear said as they walked.

  “I don’t think these things are built to be individual works of art. Anyway, it’s good they’re all the same. Makes finding the RED box convenient.”

  Bear looked down at him. “RED box?”

  “That’s what I started calling them. Easier than saying ‘Reticulated Energy Dispersal unit,’ or whatever Paralos named it. These bigger factories keep the RED in the center of the dome.”

  “You think the Orphii are close?”

  August looked up on instinct. “They better be.”

  They followed the shaft until it emptied into the cavernous central dome. The interior was a smooth white metal, just like everything else in the facility. August was the first to jump down to the floor. Bear followed with a ground-shaking thud.

  “God in Heaven,” Bear said. “Look at all these things.”

  Galan’s creatures never lacked in creep factor, but they were even creepier when they were dead. “Dead” was a relative term. In truth, the machines were dormant, waiting for the influx of energy that would bring them to life. Their husks waited in storage containers visible beneath the glass floor. Some of them were Spiders—cyborgs with a segmented body like a spider and the torso of a man. It walked on six legs and shot a tangle of snaking cables out of its mouth. The rest were Walkers, humanoids that had once been flesh and bone, but were now only a handful of body parts covered in computer wires and metal plating. They were sacrifices to Amara’s god—people once. What stared back at him through the glass floor now was anything but human. Their mechanical eyes stayed locked in a death stare.

  “Should we be worried about them?” Bear asked.

  “Not unless someone turns on the RED while we’re here. These guys haven’t gotten their energy drinks yet. They’re empty.” He stepped across a container filled with one of the larger spiders. The cables from its mouth ran down the length of its torso. “Just the same, I’d rather not hang around too long.”

  “Fine with me.”

  The containers were stacked hundreds deep beneath the dome’s floor in a spoke pattern fed from tubes along the wall, all leading to a central processing tower in the middle of the room. Halfway up the tower sat the RED. Despite its name, the energy’s container was a clear blue glass cube about the size of a refrigerator that spun between the processor tower on the floor and a tapered nozzle extending down from the top of the dome.

  “Watch the exits,” August said. “I’m headed up.”

  “You got an escape plan in case something actually comes down these exits?” Bear asked.

  “I always have a plan, Bear. You know that.”

  Bear snorted.

  The climb up the processor felt like going the wrong way up a wet slide. He fought to keep hold on the waxy metal, eventually making it to the plateau where the RED spun in the nexus point. A cloud of energy swirled inside of the box. He drew one of his swords from the sheath on his back.

  “Get ready,” he said, looking down at Bear. “This part is loud.”

  The air around his blade warbled as he raised it over his shoulder. Even the smallest movement caused the hyper-sharpened steel to cut through the air with a song. The sword was strong enough to slice through anything—or at least anything he’d tried to slice through since Paralos turned his normal katanas into some sort of god-strengthened megametal death blades.

  Don’t worry, Dillon. This is only going to hurt for a second. He took a calming breath and held it. Then, in a quick slash, he cut through the center of the RED. The blade sang as it did its work, ripping through the shell like it was paper. He shut his eyes, anticipating the explosion of power that would follow.

  None came.

  “That wasn’t very loud,” Bear said.

  “Shh.”

  He eyed the remains of the box. The energy inside was gone. That should’ve knocked me on my ass. I should be halfway across the room by now.

  “What’s the matter?” Bear asked.

  August scanned the dome. A humming noise drew his attention to a red light flashing on the ceiling. As he watched, it spread into a network of lights running down the wall and into the floor.

  “I think it’s time we made that plan, Bear.”

  The dome erupted into a concert of shattering glass as Galan’s monsters came to life and broke free of their tombs. The first wave came through the floor beneath the opening to the conveyor corridor, cutting off his first choice of escape route. Walkers and spiders poured out of their containers. More dropped from the side walls as the entire facility began to fill with cyborgs from every angle.

  “Through the back!” August called out as he slid down to the floor.

  He led Bear toward a doorway on the opposite side of the dome, dodging Galan’s army as they cracked through the glass. A pair of walkers and a spider moved in front of the exit. The walkers’ forearms separated into foot-long double-edged blades that extended past their hands. The ends glowed hot.

  August drew his second blade and attached the two ends of the swords at the hilt, forming his sword staff. He stared down the spider. Come on, freak. Hit me with it.

  The spider lashed out with its cables, which snaked their way through the air until they wrapped around his hands. As soon as they had him, August pulled. The spider flew toward him, and he used the slack to swing his staff up, decapitating the creature. As its body fell to the floor, he stabbed it through the chest. The machine sparked, then fell still.

  Bear grabbed the walker closing in on them and used it like a club to swat the other away. They shattered on impact.

  All around them, the dome had come to life. Spiders and walkers quickly filled the floor, too many for them
to take on at once.

  “Shadow’s trying to come out,” Bear said.

  “Keep her locked up for now. She can’t take on this many.”

  They ran through the open exit. August tried not to pay attention to the clanking sounds of the few hundred robotic soldiers chasing after them. The hallway eventually ended in a catwalk running along the diameter of a curved room. The circular walkway hung above the rim of a shaft dug into the planet’s core. A hot white light glowed at the bottom. Along the walls of the shaft, a chalky, steaming liquid seeped through holes in the crust. A small stairwell descended into the crater.

  Bear looked back at the trailing swarm of robotic soldiers.

  “Surrounded,” he said.

  “Surrounded?”

  A second wave of cyborgs appeared on the other side of the catwalk, advancing along each side of the circle.

  “Shit.”

  Calling for a synapse was no longer an option. Now that they were in a fight, Paralos couldn’t interfere with an easy escape. They would have to make it out on their own.

  There was one thing the old bastard could do, though.

  “We could use those Orphii now!” August yelled to the open ceiling. “Like, right now!”

  A pair of seismic explosions rocked the facility, halting the machines’ advance.

  About damn time.

  He and Bear waited for the entrance along with Galan’s army. A second round of seismic rumbling shook the walls of the building, and then, like a cannon shot, the arm of an Orphii punched through the ceiling. Another broke through beside it. The two Orphii tore the roof off in a single piece and tossed it into the geodesic dome, crumbling a huge section of the metal globe.

  Orphii took on the characteristics of whatever type of material their ethereal bodies adhered to. Most of the time it was plain old rock, but some of Galan’s machinery parts must have been in the path of their arrival. Patches of white shells covered their stony skin. Some of the liquid from the geysers coated their bodies, cutting veins along the surface of the metal. Paralos had sent a pair of medium-sized Orphii, which meant that they stood nearly two stories tall. Plenty big enough to rip apart anything that stood between them and the machines at their feet.

  One of the Orphii picked up a handful of walkers. The machines melted into a white slime as soon as they came into contact with the geyser fluid.

  The rest of Galan’s army opened fire.

  “Down there!” August yelled to Bear over the sounds of the fighting. He pointed to a small opening on the other side of the shaft below them. It looked like a hallway.

  Bear followed him around the spiral stairs that descended into the pit. The heat was immediate. As soon as they got below the surface, the ambient air temperature jumped. The white liquid spewing from the tiny geysers changed over to steam almost as soon as it hit the air. The door to the hallway was a circular frame dug into the rock. August looked over his shoulder as he got close. Most of the cyborgs were busy fighting with the Orphii, but a few managed to squeak past to follow them. The hallway would be the best place to fight. The ceiling was tall enough for both of them to maneuver, and the machines would be funneled in tight. It would be a slaughter.

  He got to the door first and stepped inside. Bear stopped to deal with a walker that had gotten too close.

  “Let’s go!” August yelled.

  As soon as the words were out of his mouth, the door to the shaft slammed shut in front of him, sliding a thick piece of metal across the mouth of the entrance. Something that sounded suspiciously like a lock moved into place.

  Bear pounded with his fist on the other side. “August?” he called out in a crackled voice through the speakers in August’s mask. The communicator could barely penetrate the metal.

  “Do you see a button to open this thing?” August yelled back.

  After a pause, Bear answered, “No.”

  Great.

  He ran his hand along the surface, looking for anything that might trigger the sliding metal door. There was nothing. Screw it. He took out a sword.

  Like the warning rumble of a coming storm, a throaty growl swelled behind him. He froze immediately. It was a sound he was all too familiar with.

  Talus.

  He turned slowly until he saw Amara’s stone-skinned champion only a few yards away, filling the corridor from ground to ceiling as he glared at August with unblinking white eyes. August slowly drew his other blade. His legs instantly felt weak. Don’t freak out. You know how to handle this. “Well, look who it is,” he said. “Everybody’s favorite walking oyster.”

  Talus stiffened. Like all Pyrians, his skin had a prismatic sheen to it like oil standing on water. The red light of the corridor reflected off his outer shell, giving it a purple and crimson gradient. Unlike the rest of the Pyrian race, though, Talus was enormous, nearly a foot taller than Bear, and twice as strong. August had only run into big, tall, and ugly a few times, but in his experience, the only way to survive a meeting with him was to run away, and the only way to run away was to distract him by making him angry enough to fight stupid. Lucky for him, any sort of talk made Talus mad, and talking was something August didn’t need godly powers to be a master of.

  “Don’t think I’ve forgotten our last meeting. It took me almost two hours to come out of that coma. I did get this sweet armor out of the deal, though, so I guess it wasn’t all bad.”

  He surveyed his surroundings while he stoked Talus’s anger. The corridor behind the monster looked like it opened up into something larger a few feet past.

  “I don’t suppose you’ll let me pass quietly.”

  Talus grinned. Or snarled. It was hard to tell. “Fossa eire chu regaly.”

  “Okay, what if I pass screaming?”

  The monster thundered forward, looking like he wanted to flatten August in a single blow. He clasped his fists together over the tapered stone horns on his head and brought them down like a hammer. August darted aside. The shock from the strike ran up through his legs. He tried not to think about what his organs would look like splattered across the walls if it had landed.

  He struck back with his swords, slicing through the hard outer shell. They were nothing more than paper cuts, but it was enough to make Talus angry. The monster began to swing wildly. All August needed was an opening, and he got it when Talus took out his sword and buried it into the rock after missing with a thrust.

  August ran through to the other side. The opening was only a few yards away. Talus wrenched his greatsword free in a single pull and let out a roar that chased August down the hall.

  The echoes were barely gone before a bellowing sound rang through the shaft.

  Both of them paused. Another toll followed, louder than the first.

  Talus looked back at the door. A jagged crease ran down the center of the metal. Something on the other side was crashing its way through, pounding frantically.

  Thank god, August thought. I thought you’d never show up.

  With a sound of ripping iron, the door gave way, and Shadow came roaring into the tunnel. Bear’s phase twin was a thing of nightmares, with black reptilian skin, orange eyes, and a mouth full of thick, sharpened teeth.

  She barreled through the doorway on all fours and launched herself at Talus, sending the two of them crashing toward August. He dove to the side, narrowly avoiding the train of hulking monsters as they tumbled past. Shadow was the first to gain her balance. She sent Talus flying backward with a vicious swiping claw across his face. Bits of rocky skin sprayed into the air.

  Shadow turned, searching. When she saw August on the ground, she gathered him between her clawed hands like he was a fragile doll.

  “It’s okay, girl. I’m fine. Just let me down and we can—”

  She bared her teeth in a snarl.

  “Okay. You’re in charge.”

  She took him through the doorway, into a wide hangar filled with mining probes waiting to be launched. Behind her, Talus pulled himself off the floor, grunting a
ngrily. Shadow didn’t flinch. Instead, she lifted August to a walkway above the hangar’s floor and placed him behind the guardrail.

  Talus took advantage and charged.

  “Look out!” August yelled down.

  She turned around too late to block Talus’s backhand. She went flying to the side, making a dent in the wall as she hit. Her orange eyes seemed far away and confused as she tried to stand.

  Talus wasted no time coming after him, drawing his sword and swinging it toward the catwalk. August narrowly escaped having his feet chopped off at the ankles. Cut from its supports, the walkway fell, and he started to slide. Before Talus could reach him, he took hold of a section of the walkway’s mangled frame and pulled himself up hand-over-hand until he got to a section stable enough to hold his weight.

  Shadow rejoined the fight. She slashed her claws at Talus’s rocky hide, trying to keep him from tearing away more of the floor beneath August’s feet.

  August ran as fast as he could to outpace the disappearing walkway. He slowed to round a corner, giving Talus the time he needed to catch up. The entire walkway came down in a screeching tumble, entangling August in a maze of twisting metal. He landed with a crash only a second before Talus’s claws punched through the piece of the walkway hanging over him.

  Too close. Much too close.

  Shadow’s angry roars rattled the floor. At once, Talus’s hand was gone as the two monsters went thrashing into the side of a probe. August used the time to free himself. Talus threw Shadow down, pinning her with his foot. He reached for his sword.

  “No!”

  August took out a blade and launched himself at Talus. The point sank into the beast’s shoulder. He freed it before Talus turned to strike, then hit him again with slashes across the back of his leg and foot. Green blood leaked from the wounds. In a fit of anger, Talus charged. He was a split-second away from crushing August with a looping blow when Shadow’s claws closed around his neck. She couldn’t stop his momentum, though, and the three of them slammed into the wall. August went crashing through to the other side.