Empire of Light

Dakota loped up to the crest of the hill with long, striding bounds to look back down at the cache from a slightly higher vantage point. When she looked again, the light had grown brighter, becoming noticeably more so even as she watched. Another tremor rolled through the ground beneath her feet. She glanced over at Trader, who had also turned to look back, and she felt an unpleasant churning sensation inside her chest.

Trader, what the hell is that light?

‹I have no idea. Query the drones, see if they have an explanation.›

Dakota felt a chill. Those probes you said you'd lost, is it possible they ran into something down there?

‹It is not outside the bounds of conjecture. I sent another probe down, but lost contact with it a short while ago

The sense that something very bad was about to happen overwhelmed Dakota, and she turned to look the other way, to where she could just see the uppermost spines of Trader's yacht poking up above the crest of a hill about a kilometre distant. She also spotted the train of spiders, still making their way back, in an undulating file, across the intervening hills and valleys.

She queried the recovered Meridian drones, hoping that they might be able to tell her what was going on. It took a few attempts to navigate her way to some kind of answer, and her eyes opened wide in horror when she got it.

We have to get out of here, she sent to the others. We have to get out right now.

She started ru

‹Dakota?› asked Trader. ‹Please explain.›

There are hundreds of unma

Trader started heading back towards his yacht without further hesitation. ‹Then we must bring the drones back here to defend us.›

I already called them back, but I don't know if they can get here in time.

Dakota stumbled once, picked herself up and kept going. She could hear from Nancy's panicky breathing that she had finally taken the hint and started ru

On reaching the crest of the final hill before they arrived at the yacht, Dakota paused to glance behind her. She saw Nancy approaching the foot of the same hill, but Trader had already overtaken them both. She turned back towards the yacht in time to see him slip through the open hatch, and for one terrible moment she wondered if he meant to abandon them.

By now the spiders had neatly stacked the field-generators beneath the open hatch, in which two of them stood waiting as their brethren began passing the generators up to them with their instantly extendible arms.

As she reached the yacht, she swiftly climbed up on top of one of the spiders and pulled herself through the hatch. The two spiders already inside scuttled back into the yacht's interior to get out of her way. Once inside, she accidentally crashed into a pile of field-generators, and just managed to stop them toppling back out of the hatch. At that moment, she spotted Nancy making her way down the final slope, kicking up a huge cloud of dust that must surely have been visible for kilometres around.

A torrent of dark shapes shot upwards from the location of the cache, moving with such colossal velocity that Dakota barely had time to register their passage. Part of her attention was now focused on the approach of the Meridian drones, as she caught an equally brief glimpse of them vectoring in towards the Emissary scouts.

Around the yacht, the ground began to quiver yet again, sending up thick, choking clouds of dust that soon obscured the summits of the nearby hills.

Nancy stumbled and flailed about, and Dakota heard her yelling over the shared comms.

‹Did you see that? What's happening now?›

It's the Emissary scouts, Dakota replied. Get back here as fast as you can.

Nancy picked herself up hurriedly, staggering past a shoulder-high boulder. She was almost at the yacht.

‹I fucking told you something wasn't right!› she yelled over the comms.

You were right. We should have checked things out more thoroughly.

‹Next time, try listening to me. There's a reason they made me head of fucking security.›

Incandescent light suddenly blazed from the direction of the cache, as a beam of focused energy struck the crest of a distant hill, which erupted in a terrifying display of violence. At that same moment, something dark and oblong flew close above them, followed by a wave of intense heat that briefly overwhelmed Dakota's filters.

Nancy?

‹I need some help here.›

Dakota dropped from the hatch to the ground, and darted over to where the other woman had collapsed. Gravel pattered down all around them, falling slowly in the low gravity. The dust was so thick it made it nearly impossible to see more than a couple of metres in any direction. Dakota finally stumbled across her where she was crouching on her hands and knees, her breathing sounding ragged over the comms link.

Dakota hooked one arm around the woman's shoulder and pulled her upright, hearing her moan in pain. Together they managed to stumble back to the yacht, where Nancy almost collapsed again once Dakota let go of her.

C'mon Nancy, need to get you inside.

She hoisted Nancy on top of one of the spiders, then climbed on behind to get a secure hold of her under both arms.

Grab hold of the lip of the hatch, and then I can help heave you up.

‹I don't feel so good.›

Just get inside so I can take a look at you.

With a groan, Nancy reached out with both hands and grabbed the rim of the hatch. She started to pull herself up, as Dakota pushed her by grabbing her hips. Fortunately, the low gravity made things a lot easier, but Dakota still had to command one of the spiders already inside the hatch to grab hold of Nancy and help her up.

Dakota pulled herself in next, feeling the subtle transition from low to zero gee as she entered the ship.

We're all on board. Let's get out of here, Trader.

The Shoal-member didn't reply, but the hatch spiralled shut behind them, sealing out the dust. Dakota pulled the other woman's helmet off and found Nancy had passed out. Her skin was looking horribly red and blistered.

Finally Dakota answered a priority signal from the Mjollnir, that had been hovering at the back of her attention for the past minute or so.

‹Dakota!› Lamoureaux yelled when she opened the link. ‹We saw what looked like some kind of fight going on from out here. What the hell's happening?›

There were Emissary scouts hiding in the cache, and they just got loose. We're back on board Trader's ship with the field-generators, but Nancy's been hurt.

She opened up a visual link to let Lamoureaux see what she herself was seeing. She could sense his horror when he saw just how bad a state Schiller was in.

A lot of this is radiation damage, Dakota sent. If you haven't already, you need to get Mjollnir prepped for an emergency jump. I don't know just how well the Meridian drones are going to hold up against a couple of hundred Emissary scouts, but if those scouts reach the frigate, we're in serious shit.

‹Okay. Just get back here as fast as you can. I'm picking you up on the external arrays, and it looks like you're just clearing orbit.›

Dakota glanced around the crowded chamber, where everything seemed perfectly still and silent. There wasn't the slightest clue to suggest the ship had so much as moved. Spotting her wadded-up jumpsuit, she started to pull it on, while letting the filmsuit drain itself back inside her body.

Then, for the first time, the ship rocked gently around her, sending fresh beads of moisture caroming through the air.