Chapter 22 - Desperation
“Whew!” Sunset let out a sigh as she crested the most recent ridge, her legs burning with exertion. Behind her the wagons began to slide back, and she caught them with a jerk, letting out a second sigh as she took a few more steps forward atop the rise. “These hills! My legs are never going to feel right again!” That they feel “right” at all is a little weird.
The foothills of the Hospar Range were, she had decided, much worse than the small mountain Beldan had been built on. There it had been the highest point for miles in all directions.
Here, Beldan would just be another hill. The wagons rolled to a stop, no longer keen to heed the siren’s call of gravity.
She sat down on the lead wagon, letting her legs rest as the burn slowly seeped out. Ahead of her the road shifted into a gentle—and then steep downhill, winding back and forth for what looked like miles until it merged with a small town her map had labeled “Segulli.”
It wasn’t really a town. From what she could see, it was easily a small city at the minimum, big enough that it had covered the nearby foothills, sharp changes in elevation dividing it into several districts. Multiple roads crawled out of it toward the west like creeping fingers, extending all the way up to the foot of the Hospar mountains themselves.
Bare mountains. What had looked like an ugly brown smudge on the horizon had grown clearer and clearer as she’d neared the mountains themselves, until she’d finally taken a closer look with her binoculars and discovered that what she’d taken for strange shadows were instead massive black scars across the their faces.
Hammer strikes. Of the same power level that had wiped out Tanover. Or even larger. Whole peaks had been laid low, the land grey and brackish, sick, dead, or dying all the way down to the foothills.
She could only think of one reason why the mountains had been hit so hard: Locust. They had probably been striking from beneath the mountains, and the Cog had attempted to burn them out.
It was as good a guess as she had.
The burn in her legs had faded, but she didn’t feel like getting up. If there were Locust under those mountains, are they still there?
Should I even be going into Segulli?
Worse, the sun had dropped below the peak of the mountains. While it would grow darker still once it finally set, the long shadow cast by the range had already encompassed the entirety of the city.
It was dark down below, and only going to get darker. Plus, there could be Locust in the city. According to the atlas there was an imulsion field nearby which pumped the valuable fluid to a refinery to the north, and from there to the city itself. And she’d seen Locust at the refinery in the desert. So they consider it valuable. Unless …
She shifted her focus to the north and pulled her binoculars from her bag. Almost as she’d expected, the location of the refinery was a blackened crater. Another hammer strike, then. Denying the Locust assets for their war.
This train of thought is pointless, she thought, lowering the glasses. I have to go down there anyway, even if it’s just to skirt around the edge of the city and find the best way across the mountains. So sitting here is just—
There was something moving in the sky, a cluster of distant specs rising above the mountain. She snapped the binoculars up, trying to fix on the distant figures. They were tiny and blurred, but she was still able to make enough detail out to make a solid guess. Her blood turned to ice.
Those flying things.
She needed to get off the road. She stuffed the binoculars back into her pack, rising— But the faint dots seemed to be getting smaller, not larger.
Still she moved to the edge of the road, spotting more of the dots as she went. They seemed to be rising out of the mountain, but like the other dots, didn’t appear to be heading her way. There were, however, a lot of them.
What’s going on? Maybe there was a fight. A good sign for her if so. Something that could pull Locust attention elsewhere.
Unless that puts any remaining Locust on high alert. She pulled the binoculars back out, once again taking a look at the distant mountains. The flying things were definitely flying over them, but there was something else too.
A haze in the sky. At first she’d taken it for clouds, but it didn’t look like clouds. It was too low, for one. And it was darker, almost like ink splashed across a page.
Definitely lower. She could see the substance sliding over one of the distant mountaintops like a cloud. Some kind of alien weather she’d not experienced before? Or something else? Whatever it was, maybe the shadow of the setting sun wasn’t quite what she’d thought it was after all.
If it is a storm of some kind, some sort of weird low-lying clouds making it darker than it should be, then that means it’s going to be a real hammer of a storm, right? She turned her gaze back toward Segulli. I need to get moving then. If it’s going to really come down, I’ll want cover from it.
And if there are Locust in the city … she thought as she sat down atop the lead wagon, ready to let gravity carry her down the next hill. Then I’ll just have to find shelter somewhere else.
The wagons began rolling, picking up speed until Sunset used her “brake”—a small stick with a bit of rubber at one end she could angle against the tire—to slow things down, keeping the downhill ride from becoming too out of control. Even so the wind whipped at her mane, flipping it about her shoulders and face. If not for the dirt and sweat weighing it down, it probably would have been more of an annoyance than it was.
She was halfway down the hill when it occurred to her that if there was a radio transmitter inside Segulli—I might be able to contact the Cog!
One more reason to get as close into the city as I can. She braked again as the downward path went into a long, lazy turn. Down was down as long as she got there safely. But where would I find one?
The city was pretty spread out. Maybe a centralized radio station like the one in Holton? But a smaller one might work if there were repeaters, or even if its range were long enough.
But this is a city. The estate had a reason to need that radio equipment. Plenty of people in the city could use a receiver, but not a transmitter.
So where would I most likely find a transmitter? Jobs that could use a transmitter? There aren’t any farms here. Not that I can see anyway. The road leveled out before wending upwards once more, the speed of her little convoy bleeding away with each passing second.
But what jobs would benefit from having such communication? That felt like the proper question. Equestria didn’t have anything like the Cog radio technology, but there were definitely jobs that she could see benefitting from it.
Airships. The wagons slowed to a near stop and Sunset hopped off, grabbing the lead handle in one hand before the whole train could start heading back the other way. Airships would definitely benefit from radio communication. Both from the ground, and with one another. Currently the massive machines just used flags, or for some of the newer models blinking lights. Or if they were really old or had a particularly complicated message, a pegasus pony whose job was to fly the missive ahead or to a specific aircraft.
But the serans don’t have airships. Not that I’ve seen, anyway. There definitely isn’t an airfield dock anywhere that I noticed in Segullil. So that’s out.
But what else would fit? Transportation is an area where radios like what I’ve seen would be extremely useful across Equestria. Imagine being able to summon a coach or a cart when needed, and having them come right to you, instead of setting it up in advance, using some complicated spellwork that’s usually yes or no, or a flag station.
Carriages. Personal transport? She kicked a rock in her path across the road, skipping and clicking into the brush. They do have the really large vehicles I’ve seen, the ones that are like a train car on the road, with lots of seats? But they probably ran those on a schedule, like the trains. That would make the most sense.
But something small, like a taxi-carriage … Would it make sense for them to have a transmitter?
She turned her gaze skyward. There was definitely something weird going on above the mountains. It almost looked like some sort of smoke. Were the hammer strikes more recent? And if so, how did I not hear or see any of them? She reached the top of another rise, Segulli and the bottoms of the nearest mountains coming into view once more, and was again struck by the observation that there was something on the far side of the mountains in the air.
The sun was even getting darker, the shadow noticeably deeper. Sunset checked her watch. A full hour earlier than yesterday’s final sunset.
There was no way around it. Something strange was going on.
Nothing I can do about it now. She sat down atop the lead wagon, letting gravity carry her down once again. As she whizzed down the road she passed a driveway leading to a small cabin. More signs that she was nearing the edge of the city. Maybe in another hill I’ll be on the edge.
Contacting the Cog, though … Maybe a flare? No. She shook her head, pumping her brake and slowing the wagons slightly. Not with the mountains here. They’d have to be able to see it. No, I need a radio.
Could I just make one? The sudden thought almost made her laugh. You read a single breakdown of how radio worked. Doubtful.
But maybe. There were junior kits in Equestria that helped young ponies make miniature boilers and toy trains. Why not sell something similar here?
There are wavelengths, I remember that much. Too many signals means that they overlap one another. So if you were going to provide such a thing to children, you’d want it to be short-range or on a wavelength that wasn’t going to be shared, right?
Besides, I have enough trouble finding food. I’d have to find a store that sold such devices, then build one. All delaying my journey.
No then. Again the wagon reached the bottom of a hill. There were more houses around her now, scattered but growing thicker by the second. Did it count as Segulli? Or was it just still the outskirts?
Transport. Her thoughts circled back. No airships. But they have large ground trucks. Really large ground trucks. Trucks so large she’d taken shelter inside one along her journey and found an actual bed tucked behind the cockpit.
And I didn’t even think to look if it had a radio! She slowed for a second, wiping sweat away from her forehead and following up with sip of water from her canteen. She was familiar enough now with the weight of the wagons that she simply leaned against their pull while she stood there, letting the angle do some of the work.
As always, the water was lukewarm but tasted clear. She was careful not to gulp it, settling for smaller sips that wouldn’t hit her stomach with as much force and spreading the momentary cleansing feeling that came with drink over a longer period. Getting the wagons moving again was a bit of a trial, but nothing she wasn’t used to.
It was definitely getting darker, too. She stared up at the strange clouds beyond the mountains. Do the Locust have some form of weather control? But then what she was seeing still didn’t look like a cloud. It was more like thick smoke, or—
Ink … Again the comparison to spilt ink on a page came to mind, swept across the sky by some unseen brush.
Creepy. Maybe it was something the Locust could do. Maybe not. Either way, she needed to keep moving.
She was definitely passing into Segulli now, though she hadn’t seen an obvious wall or sign yet. But the top of the rise she was following met with an intersection, smaller roads breaking off to either direction in service to more nearby homes. Past that, following the path forward, she could see the beginnings of what looked like regular, if winding, streets and even a park and plaza combination.
All of it wrecked, scarred by cratered ground and burned buildings, something so common it would have been stranger for her to see it untouched. But it looked heavier than she’d expected. In fact … She pulled her binoculars out once more and passed them over some of the buildings at the base of the hill.
Destruction leapt into close relief. This place got hit hard, Sunset thought, picking her gaze over several now-familiar Cog defensive checkpoints. A long time ago, but there was definitely some major fighting here. At least six Cog military vehicles jumped out at her eyes, all of them long abandoned and in some state of disrepair and damage.
Those might have a way to communicate. Excitement bubbled within her, but it was followed a second later by crushing reality. If they still had anything that worked.
The Cog made things tough, though. She could see tents set up in a parking lot behind metal walls. A central location for command to have taken place maybe. Unlike Holton, Segulli didn’t seem to have many of the creeping vines that had been so prevalent back across the desert. Maybe they’re regional.
She flagged the command tent as a location to check. If there’s a radio, that’d be where it would serve best. And it does have a small tower behind it. And bodies. There were plenty of those.
They wouldn’t mind. They died protecting people. I’m not native, but I’m a person. They’d probably be glad to know that something in there might help me.
She picked out twin paths to the tent with her binoculars, committing both possible routes to memory, then stowed her gear and began moving forward once more.
The going was slower this time. This hill she was descending showed signs of combat, the ground cracked with craters and pockmarks. No emergence holes, but she wound her way back and forth all the same avoiding damage. At the bottom of the hill an intersection loomed, partially blocked by what almost appeared to be a deliberate barricade of cars. Something had smashed them from above, crushing a path through the obstruction.
I hope whatever did that isn’t still around, Sunset thought as she brought the wagons to a halt. One of the crushed indents was almost wider than she was tall. A corpser, maybe? But the impact looked spread out rather than pointed. It had to be big.
Moving around the barricade, she found her eyes drawn to the nearby homes. Signs of battle were everywhere across them, from bullet holes to weapons mounted and fixed on the walls of heavy stone porches.
A running retreat? It made sense. If the city was one of the entrances to the mountain passes, then a number of people looking to flee to the plateau would have needed to pass through it. And the Locust would have known that as well.
A hand hung over the edge of one of the stone bulwarks, little more than an armored glove filled with bone. She could see other bodies strewn along the walls of the barricade, or down the street.
It wasn’t hard to put together what had happened. Not when the old scars of emergence holes were clearly present and some of the twisted remains of mounted weapons had been turned to face them before being wrecked by successive gunfire.
What kind of explosion must that shield have taken to bend like that? she wondered, eyeing a thick metal over one of the guns, now bent back to the point it had pinned someone’s arm. The figure was still slumped against the scarred metal, helmet rolled to one side.
She didn’t want to get a better look. Instead she pressed on, following the path she’d traced out through the city. It wasn’t easy going. The wagon train’s large tires made it easier than it would have otherwise been, but much of her course was still uphill, making every bump or bit of rubble she rolled the train over a test.
It didn’t help that much of the city was in complete disrepair. Whole buildings had been leveled, little more than piles of beams and brick. Others had collapsed from the inside, leaving the walls standing with empty windows, sentinels watching over what had been lost. Like Holton, she noted. Just … Worse.
The first path to the command tent was blocked, intentionally or by accident Sunset couldn’t say. One of the larger trucks, the kind that pulled a massive trailer behind it, had flipped on its side, taking the trailer with it crosswise across an entire street. Buildings on either side had given way, crushing any hope of simply sneaking past opposing ends.
Backtracking, she followed the mental map she’d laid out for her other route, hoping that it wasn’t cut off as well. If it is I’ll have to guess, and who knows how long that will take? Especially as the command tent had been in a good, high location for looking over the nearby blocks. Without a map I’ll be guessing in the dark and stop thinking about it Sunset you need to focus!
She passed another checkpoint, this one scarred by lines and trenches that seemed to have been carved by the bit of some mighty drill poking out of the sky. She’d seen similar wounds before, but it was the first time she’d been forced to step over them. The gashes were wide enough to swallow the tires of her wagons, making them one more obstacle she had to pull them through.
What kind of weapon does that? Was it Cog? Some form of directed strike from … She paused, taking a quick look around and then crouching to check the shallow wound. It didn’t appear to have much of an angle to it, like … The carving was done straight from above? Some sort of aerial weapon maybe?
Or could it have been Locust? They have scary spider things that dig, wretches, and all other sorts of other nasty things like those flying things. Could they have something like a giant worm?
Not sure what it would be doing eating pavement in paths like this, but I guess it’s possible. She rose again, took a step—
And froze as a faint sound echoed back at her from the city. A faint clicking noise, distorted and slightly warped by what was probably distance and bouncing off of a dozen or more ruined walls, but still definitely something. It faded, and Sunset strained, listening further.
Nothing. Maybe it was just a bit of rubble settling. Still, she reached back and drew the gnasher from its sheath, resting her thumb against the safety. Just in case.
After all, if something else could make a rattle she could hear, then it could likely hear the racket her wagon train was making.
Come on … Step by step her destination neared, and she passed by a third checkpoint with a mounting sense of anticipation. So close! Just one more turn and—
She rounded the corner almost at a jog, attempting to stop but instead getting shoved forward by the wagons at her back. “Yes!” She bit back the cry as soon as it left her lips, but still it echoed back at her from the nearby ruins.
She didn’t care. Ahead of her was a large open plaza, walled and clearly some sort of memorial. Or at least, it had been before the Cog had set up tents and heavy barricades. Now it was a miniature fortress. A fallen one, but a fortress all the same.
The front “gate” was wide open, or rather had been battered open, slammed aside by some massive force. The same force, she guessed, that had crushed a military vehicle parked just inside the gate. The tents had been shredded by gunfire—or maybe just time—but they were still standing.
I wonder if anyone made it out? There was a largely clear space on the other side of the plaza, one where she could see something had flattened everything to make a space. Maybe they’d flown out? She stepped past bodies, heading into the plaza, her eyes fixed on the tent at the little fort’s center.
Well, that does look like an antenna, Sunset thought as she spotted a familiar if small assembly on the back of the tent. Just what’s left of one, anyway. The top had clearly been snapped off. And inside?
She let the barrel of the gnasher lead, peeling back a bit of tent cloth and getting a look at the inside of the tent. It had definitely been a command post: The interior was full of desks and even a few scattered chairs, all arrayed around a single large table with what looked like a blood-stained map of the city pinned atop it. Disconnecting herself from the wagons, she stepped in, her boot nudging against the skeletal remains of another body.
The light was too dim to make out much else, and she fiddled for a moment before activating the beam of her flashlight. That’s a map of Segulli all right, she thought as she glanced down at the table. The map glinted under the light, coated in plastic, which was probably the only reason it was still around. Faint colored lines and markings had been drawn over the plastic, most of it faded, but some still legible enough that she could make out arrows and boxes drawn atop streets.
Battle plans.
There was blood on the map as well, a dull, rust colored splash. From the remains she’d passed at the entrance?
But what about that radio? She pulled her gaze away from the map, pointing the flashlight further back into the tent. Light glinted off of glass dials, and her heart jumped.
That’s it! That has to be! A whole array of heavy equipment, boxed in stern-looking metal, had been set up at the rear of the tent. She could see dials, headphones of some kind, what looked like a keyboard, and even glass screens that had to be readouts.
Like the radio at the estate. Just more modern.
She rushed to the rear, map forgotten, playing the light over the dials and buttons and reading the blocky text beneath each of them. Relax. She was breathing hard and fast, her body almost tingling with excitement. You don’t even know if it works.
Power. The dials were dark.
Cog build things to last. There has to be a way to get power to these things. It was awkward poking the gnasher around the back and sides of the equipment, but it was the light she had. Wires poked out of the rear of the units, plugging into other boxes or heading out the underside of the tent.
The generator at the estate was outside of the house. Maybe it’s the same here? She tapped the back of the tent, the old fabric snapping under her rapid hits, but didn’t find any obvious exit. The wires just passed beneath it, like convicts digging their way out of a work camp.
Fine. She backtracked, ducking out of the tent and circling the outside wall. Spent shell casings scattered under her boots, skipping across the dirty plaza bricks. Outside the light from her flashlight they were black dots, like skittering bugs fleeing her approach.
This darkness is definitely not normal. She risked a glance up at the mountains. The miasma cloaking them had grown thicker still.
It sent a shiver down her spine. If it’s the Locust—and why wouldn’t it be—then what’s the objective? Could they control the weather with it? Or was it because they could see better in the darker light?
The last one made sense, but … If that’s the case, why not just wait until nightfall?
Because there was something going on that couldn’t wait until nightfall? She wrapped the flashlight beam around the back of the tent, shadows crawling across the ground as it silhouetted a large metal object similar to the one she’d seen at the estate.
Okay, I was right, she thought, enjoying the brief feeling of satisfaction. But … She plied the beam around the nearby ground, sweeping it back and forth. There’s no fuel tank.
Maybe it’s internal? She stepped up to the machine, intending to check … But then the beam illuminated a cut hose at the generator’s side, and she frowned.
Well that’s not a good sign. Maybe the Cog had taken the fuel with them. Or more likely the Locust had scavenged it for their own use. Third option: another scavenger like me.
But the Cog never do anything halfway. She ran the flashlight along the long side of the generator once more, pausing at any faint sign of text to see what it said.
Eme— Hang on. She brought one hand up, wiping years of grime and dust off away from a bit of the metal. It bent and flexed under her palm. Some sort of hatch?
Emergency power system? She pressed the center of the metal again, watching it flex and tracking outward to find the edges where it wasn’t moving. Her searching eyes caught a faint small latch inside a depression, and she shoved her thumb into it, first pulling, then pushing.
It gave with a faint click, the panel popping outward. She swung it to the side, wincing slightly as it smacked against the side of the generator with a loud clang that echoed across the plaza. Somewhere nearby a bird of some kind let out a squawk, the sudden sound almost as jarring. Sunset glanced around, for a second, trying to spot the bird amid the darkening gloom, but didn’t see anything.
Okay, let’s see what we’ve got. Colored glass glimmered under the beam of her flashlight, arrayed in straight lines above small buttons and switches. Like at the estate, there was a small plaque next to the various switches and buttons detailing step-by-step instructions in small, tiny print in two columns.
For emergency generator start-up … That’s not helpful. She jumped to the other column. Emergency battery power generation! Aha! For short-term use without fuel! Yes! Go Cog! Always ready for everything!
Except underground monsters, I guess. Anyway, let’s see … First, switch from “powered” to “manual.” She found the switch, big and chunky the way most Cog tech was. It was up, locked under text that read “powered.” At first it refused to move, and she put her weight into it, leaning back until it gave, a heavy clunk echoing from inside the generator as it did so. The switch was just as stubbornly difficult to snap into place at the bottom of its arc as well, taking pressure from both her hands but finally dropping into place with another heavy clunk.
“Whew.” Okay, step two: Press breaker switches in order. She followed the sequence, each button giving with a satisfying click beneath her thumb.
Step three: Deploy charging crank handle. That bit was easy, the metal handle folding out of the side of the machine. Step four: crank following that arrow? She eyed the instructions.
Yep. Until that light glows a steady green for minimum charge. For further charge, crank more. Got it!
The crank was surprisingly stiff and resistant to movement, and after a few tugs she set the gnasher down atop the generator so that she could use both hands to pull. The handle gave, though slowly at first, picking up speed with a faint, grinding hum. By the time she’d made it through three-quarters of a revolution, one of the lights on by the panel had begun glowing a faint red. She kept at it, bringing the handle around and up so that she could pull it down again and picking up speed. By the third turn the action had gotten a little easier, the momentum built, and by the fourth she was moving at a good pace.
Must be a flywheel inside it somewhere, Sunset thought as she kept spinning the crank. The red light switched to green, flashing, and she kept at it. Come on … come on … I don’t need that much power. Her arms, already tired from the day’s journey, were starting to burn, a simmering heat creeping up into her biceps.
The light went green and stayed green, the next one in sequence glowing red, then flashing green in quick succession. She kept at it, winding the handle around its course.
The second light became a steady green, and she let go of the handle. It stopped moving almost immediately, but she could still hear the grinding click of something mechanical inside the generator itself winding down.
She frowned as she retrieved the gnasher. The clicking was new. Well, I guess if it breaks it did its job already.
She returned to the tent, sweeping the cloth around the entrance aside and almost letting out a squee of glee as she saw a glowing light shining from the radio equipment. It works!
It only took a few seconds for her to identify the correct switches to power the rig up. Unlike the one at the estate, someone had turned this radio off before leaving. But the layout was similar, and she flicked the various switches up one by one, more and more of the lights coming to life and casting faint glows across the inside of the tent.
We’ve got power, but why am I not hearing anything? She spun the volume dial, a faint hiss filling the air, but from where?
The headset! She slipped the dusty apparatus down around her ears, the hiss suddenly painfully loud. A quick spin of a dial solved that problem, but it didn’t drive away the sound itself. That meant tuning.
Like adjusting a spell. Sort of. She found the right dial and began turning it to one side, watching as a needle above it marked the “frequency” on a display. Several times the headset popped and cracked in her ears, but pausing offered no other sign of activity on the “channel.”
Come on … there’s got to be something! She reached the end of the frequencies allotted on the dial, the needle vanishing and appearing on the other end of the display. Come on! I’m so close! The needle was almost back to where it had started. Come—
With a sudden pop a faint voice was in her ears, scratchy but understandable, and Sunset’s heart almost stopped. “—roof of—”
Then it was gone. She spun the dial back, needle moving, but there was nothing but the faint hiss.
No no no no no! She spun the dial left and then right again. I had it! I had it! Come on! Her heart was pounding. Did they stop talking? Why did they stop talking!
Relax. She leaned back, suddenly aware of how hunched over the equipment she’d been. Relax. They may have been giving someone instructions. Relax.
Use the small dial. Go back to the frequency, and then try to find it. Once again she moved the needle, her stomach feeling as if any moment she would burp up butterflies. It was there, she thought as the needle stopped. Right around there. I know it.
Hands shaking, she moved to the smaller dial, fine-tuning the needle back and forth. Come on … come on … Please say something. Say anything, please!
With a sudden buzz in her ears the voice was back again. “—wretches, four—ahead.” Almost! Sunset swallowed, shifting the dial slightly, trying to clear some of the static from the woman’s voice. Even hearing another person speak after so long was enough to make her breath catch. “—power—before they cut you loose!”
If there was a reply to the woman’s plea, she didn’t hear it. But the voice hadn’t faded due to a frequency shift. It’d just stopped speaking.
This is it! This is the channel! She reached for the transmit button but didn’t find it. Where …! The sudden sense of panic and worry swept through her once more. Where is it?
Relax. The clicking and popping from the headset wasn’t helping either. Relax.
“Where would be the smart place to put it?” she asked quietly. “I’m wearing the speakers on my head, and there’s a microphone by my mouth …” Her words trailed off as she crossed her eyes, looking down at the bit protruding along her jaw. There was a nub sticking out there, and she gripped it with her thumb, feeling as it gave way.
Of course. She pressed the switch down. “Hello? Can you hear me?” She waited, but there was no response. Just clicking and popping. She tried again. “Hello?”
Nothing. Maybe the transmitter was broken. Or she was hitting a mute button. She pulled the headset from her head, ignoring the quiet clicks of the frequency, and held it up to the light. “Transmit” was printed on the nub in tiny letters. That’s how I transmit all right.
“Hello?” she asked, trying again. “Can anyone hear me? I’m in Segu—”
“You’ve only got a few more seconds!” The return of the voice, sharp and earnest, made her jump despite the faint clicks and pops that came with it.
A second voice joined the channel, faint, quiet, and fairly broken up. The one she was speaking to, perhaps? “—pick yo—oon as—lant the—”
Another voice chimed in, though it was more of a broken yell, followed by a fourth that was even less distinct. Now was her chance. She hit the button.
“Hello? Can you hear me? My name is Sunset Shimmer, and I’m in Segulli. Can you hear me?”
Again there was no reply. She tried again, and then again.
Nothing.
“You’re approaching target. GPS shows that you’ve picked up speed. You don’t have much time!” The woman’s voice came quicker, with a greater sense of urgency.
She can’t hear me. None of them can. Her shoulders sank as the realization sunk in. Same as the estate. The signal isn’t strong enough, and I don’t know enough to boost it. But maybe—
“Marcus!” There was clear worry in the woman’s voice despite the pops and clicks of the frequency. “You’ve got to drop that data right now!”
And they do sound busy with something important. I need to find another transmitter. Sunset pulled the headset off and tossed it on the tabletop, already reaching for her gnasher. This antenna was damaged. If I check the map …
She was halfway to the central table when it caught up with her that she could still hear the faint clicking noise she’d assumed was coming from the headset.
A chill ran down her spine. What? In two steps she was by the radio once more, and she flicked the power switch down. The lights went out.
The clicking sound didn’t go away.
Something was outside the tent.
She could hear it now, shuffling and letting out that same odd clicking sound as it made its way around the back. Was it Locust? Or something else? She pressed her thumb against the gnasher’s safety switch, moving slowly and quietly for the front flaps.
With a screech, something low to the ground rushed at her from the shadows, skittering and scuttling across the ground on tiny, fast moving legs, the clicking noise picking up. She had a brief glimpse of something oblong with an armored back and strange, spindly, bug-like legs as it rushed through the beam of her flashlight toward her—and she lashed out with her boot, the heavy thump of impact rushing up her leg as her foot collided with something. There was a loud screech as the thing lifted from the ground, flashing through the light once more, tumbling and rolling through the air, and then it slammed into the ground, ticking and clicking and squirming in the dark.
What is that!? She leveled the gnasher on the strange creature. Some sort of hairless do—?
But it wasn’t. It was something entirely alien, a low-slung creature that was mostly a large, almost bulbous body with thick, heavy skin. The long, insect-like legs were thin but tight with visible muscle, and tipped—as almost everything Locust seemed to be—with long, spindly claws.
No eyes, Sunset noted as she stepped to the side, casting the beam of her flashlight over the creature’s face. There was a wide, lipless jaw with bony, flat teeth, almost like a rodent. But there were no visible eyes. But there was the same constant ticking and clicking sound coming from somewhere.
Echolocation. Like a bat. The thing shivered, and for a second she wondered if she had wounded it, but then with a screech it righted itself, claws scrabbling at the ground as it turned toward her.
Reflex took over and she fired. To her shock, the creature didn’t just come apart in a spray of gore—it exploded. A loud boom echoed across the plaza as the thing’s body blasted apart, effluents and chunks of flesh spraying in all directions. Something wet and horrid-tasting slapped Sunset across the mouth even as the force of the blast hammered her chest, and she stumbled back, gagging at the foul odor.
What … how …? It … blew up!?
The stench of the gore now on her finally caught up in full, and she recoiled, letting out a cry of shock and disgust that mingled with the echoing ring of the blast. Why did it do that?
“Ugh! Gross!” There was fluid in her mane, and little bits of flesh stuck all over her. The thing’s blood seemed mostly clear or brackish—or maybe those were fluids of some kind—but it was oozing down her front and her face.
She could feel faint stings as well, and she held her arm into the edge of the light, checking to see if she’d been cut by anything flung from the blast. But no, she couldn’t see any blood. Just a reddish welt.
The blast hadn’t been that powerful, then. Just concussive enough to throw her for a loop. Though I was a good dozen feet away. If it did that right next to me …
What kind of creature does that? I mean, Equestria has all sorts of weird creatures, as do the lands outside it, but one that blows up when killed? What sort of reason could it have for—
More ticking noises sounded out from nearby, faint but growing in volume. Unless it’s a pack hunter of some kind? No, that still didn’t make sense. A pack that sacrificed its own would quickly cease to exist. But a hive … There had been insects in Equestria that had sacrificial drones. She’d read about them.
Insects also swarm. Whether or not the strange thing she’d just killed followed the same pattern, there was no denying that she could hear multiple ticking noises now coming from several directions. She racked the gnasher lever back, chambering a new round as she backed toward the wagons.
I need to find a radio transmitter. The one in the tent was a bust, but there had been other tents marked on the map, both to the north and to the west. I just need to find one with a working radio transmitter. Or any kind of working radio transmitter.
She pulled a spare gnasher shell from her pocket as the ticking grew louder, feeding it into the shotgun to replace the shot she’d just expended. Or, at least, trying to. It slipped from her fingers as it caught on something, bouncing across the ground with a series of clicks that served as a chilling counterpoint to what she was hearing.
How many could there be? The clouded sun cast the plaza into a sort of shadowed twilight, and she spun left and right, wishing her eyes would adjust or that she was brave enough to turn off the single source of light she had. Come on … come on … The sound was refracting from all around her, bouncing off of stone walls and rubble. Come on … There!
One of the creatures scuttled over a pile of nearby rubble, moving almost absurdly fast, it’s thin legs a blur. Sunset fired, the gnasher kicking against her shoulder, and like the one before it, the creature simply came apart with a titanic clap, exploding.
What kind of biology causes that? Some sort of pressurized bladder? There was no time to dwell on it, more distinctive clicking sounds sliding through the echoes of the blast. She chambered a new round as she turned, suddenly thankful for the hours of practice she’d put into using the weapon.
More! Her beam found three of the quick creatures rushing across the plaza, and she fired again. Much of her shot missed—she could see the spray of dust the pellets kicked up as they bounced out of sight—but at least one hit the lead clicking thing, and the wound it gouged was enough to trigger whatever explosive reaction it had, blowing apart with a blast that launched the other two nearby away from it. Snapping the lever back and forth, she spun toward the one that had flown right, noting with surprise that it seemed stunned by the blast.
Good fortune for me. She fired, and it too blew apart. The third had just gotten its legs under it when she fired again, the crack of the gnasher mixing with the sound of the creature’s own self-destructive behavior.
Again she swept the flashlight beam across the plaza, hunting for any more signs of movement amid the shadows, but saw and heard nothing. No distant clicks echoing from somewhere nearby. She let out a slow, shaky breath.
I did it. Granted, they had gone down easily but … I did it! I didn’t panic—much—and I held my ground. I—
A familiar, chilling cry echoed from somewhere out among the city, her elation falling as swiftly as a balloon that had met the end of a pin. It was distant, but immediately identifiable.
Locust. And not more of the little creeping, ticking things either. One of the bipedal ones.
The kind that carried guns.
Go! Now! She sprinted back into the tent, pointing her gasher at the map in the middle of the table and searching for any nearby marked squares. If there was even a chance she could hit one of them and let someone know where she was …
Her finger snapped down on another square a good distance west. From the look of things it was also on a hill, in some sort of public plaza next to a … school?
It’ll have to do. Follow that road to the right west, down the hill, then up the next one to reach it. More roars echoed from the rest of the city, and she let out a curse.
I kicked a hornet’s nest, I think. She’d seen another student do that at Celestia’s school once. On a dare. It hadn’t ended well for any involved. Back outside the tent, the harness snapped into the handle of the wagon train, and she turned, pulling and rushing for the gate. She reloaded as she ran, filling the gnasher as further cries echoed across Segulli.
Not too fast. If she moved too fast, the wagons’ noise would be fully evident. Just a quick pace, down the street, keeping alert for anything out of the ordinary. None of those yells were close, and you don’t even know if it means they’re looking for you. It could just be like someone yelling at a dog, telling them to stop making noise. Or in this case, stop blowing up.
Except I shot all of them. That was pretty distinct.
Just move. Go. Now.
The first block passed without incident. She picked up speed, the road sloping downward. Cars blocked her path, as did debris, footing treacherous in the dark. But all she had to do was think of the leering face of a Locust to keep moving.
She reached the halfway mark, the road leveling out and then going into a gentle rise. There had been no more cries, but still her heart continued to pound.
The ground shook, and her pulse spiked. A second tremor followed a moment later.
Then something strange happened. The horizon began to glow. Sunset slowed, almost transfixed as an eerie, pale blue light began to fill the sky from beyond the mountains. Aurora … borealis? But whatever it was seemed to be rising from the earth, not descending from the sky. It almost looked like magic, but pale and cold.
The ground trembled again, tearing her eyes away from the strange bluish-white tendrils rising into the sky from the mountains. A nearby pebble leapt into the air as another, stronger shock rippled through the earth. There was a dull groan behind the trembling now, building into a deep roar that chilled her far more than the sound of any Locust. The shaking beneath her feet intensified, the roar building further as rubble and debris began to shift. Part of a building up the street collapsed, toppling to one side as the vibrating rumble upset it.
This isn’t Locust.
It’s an earthquake!
She went into a sprint immediately, her legs screaming at the sudden acceleration, but she didn’t care. Get away from the buildings!
More blue light glowed into the sky on the horizon, and then something even stranger happened.
Right before her eyes one of the tops of the mountains simply exploded, ripping apart with a force that drove back the thick clouds of miasma around it. Even agape a small part of her mind kept count, waiting for the sudden overwhelming sound of what had to be an active volcano erupting … except that when the massive boom arrived it wasn’t nearly as loud as she had already been bracing for. High in volume it was … but nothing to match what she had just seen.
So what blew the top of the mountain off?
Another mountaintop came apart in a blast of distant light, followed by another’s side. What?
Then, right before her eyes, one of the mountains began to sink, collapsing into the earth … and she understood.
It wasn’t an eruption. Or an earthquake. Not a natural one, anyway. It was a collapse.
An attack. It had to be. Some sort of strike at the Locust tunnels or underground fortifications.
A strike powerful enough that hollowed-out mountains were collapsing or giving way. It seemed impossible, but as the ground began to shake even more violently, another mountain falling in on itself, it was clear that if her sudden theory wasn’t right, that there was something even more terrible at work.
She stumbled as the ground kicked again, this time violently. The Locust have to be feeling this worse, she thought as she pushed herself up. They’re underground, and if this was an attack on them they’ll be—
The thrust of her thoughts caught up with her just as the ground shook again, a nearby section of pavement cracking and bulging as something beneath it pressed upwards.
“Feathers!” —coming up! She ran, ducking around the nearest corner as behind her the pavement continued to crack and shift, something rising from beneath the earth. The wagons bounced as they rolled over a curb, harness jerking against her chest hard enough that it felt like an impact against her armor, but she didn’t care. She needed to get away, in any direction, now.
The sounds of the pavement cracking apart echoed down the alley behind her, followed by a roar much too loud to have come from a regular, bipedal Locust. Something larger, then. A corpser, maybe. The rumble of the collapsing mountains was so loud now that she couldn’t hear the rattle of the train behind her, and she picked up speed, emboldened as both she and the wagons crashed through refuse and over debris.
A brick slammed down onto the alley floor a few feet away, shattering into bits of pulverized grit. Another followed it, and Sunset ducked out of the way as several more followed in quick succession, shielding her head with arms as the wall next to her began to come down. She felt tugs at her harness as several bits of falling rubble slammed into the wagons … and then she was out on a street once more, dust and debris filling the air behind her as the alley collapsed in on itself.
At least I’m not going to— A screech called an end to her thoughts, one of the strange clicking things she’d seen at the tents rushing out of the dark into the beam of her flashlight. She fired, the creature blowing apart with a bang that only added to the rumble of the collapsing mountain range.
More screeches echoed from nearby, and her light swept across a gaping hole in the side of one of the nearby building foundations, perfectly sized for one of the strange creatures to slip out.
North! She turned, nervous fingers trying to feed another shell into her gnasher as she ran. The rumbling began to settle, quieting for a moment before picking back up again with another faint flash of explosive light from the mountaintops.
She could hear multiple ticking noises coming from nearby, though. And the ground was starting to shake again, even worse than before. How far do I have to go? Another roar echoed over the crumbling rooftops.
Everything had gotten very dangerous very quickly. I need to hide. I need a transmitter, and I need to hide. The ticking off to her left grew louder, and she swept the gnasher in its direction, casting light over another of the ticking beasts rushing at her, its claws deftly picking over the rubble with far more agility than she would have expected from something that was blind. She fired, and the thing died like the others, blowing apart with a loud bang. The sound echoed up and down the street, but if anything it only intensified the clicking of the others, the sound coming from all around her.
I went one street left … She thought, running and trying to picture the map from the brief glances she’d given it. Come on Sunset, you were an amazing student. If you went left into that alley then—
Sun above! I went south! Which meant she either needed to cross half the city or go north. Turning back the way she’d come. Onto the street with the … well whatever had just emerged from beneath the ground.
The ticking faded, her pace clearly enough to leave it behind. But she didn’t dare slow. The hole she’d almost had open beneath her was bound not to be the only one erupting across the city. The rumble was quelling once again, but for how long there was no telling. She’d read about cave ins, and about earthquakes. Things settled, sometimes holding for minutes, or hours, and then shifting again as something finally gave, or a rumble shook something loose.
As if to emphasize her thoughts, one of the skeletal walls of a building ahead rocked to one side, falling inward with a titanic crash that threw dust up in a dark cloud. Brick and mortar scattered across the street, some bouncing so close she was almost able to kick them as she moved past. Perhaps something underneath the building had been trying to come out only to be crushed? Or maybe something had finally just given way amid the ruin.
A faint cry echoed across the city, familiar and close. Somewhere one of the armed, bipedal Locust had emerged. Maybe more than one.
I need to get out of the city. The place was about to become a deathtrap.
But she was already in it. And she needed the radio. She slowed, for a brief second considering turning south and running until she hit Segulli’s edge.
But then what? Segulli has a radius. It has command posts.
I didn’t get this far by not diving in. That’s what brought me through the mirror. That’s what got me here. She increased her pace once more, harness jerking with every bump and bit of rubble the wagons passed.
The rumble was growing again when she found a wide, expansive street to follow north. She remembered it from the map, a double-laned pathway that was twice as wide as many of the other streets and cut across the whole city. And right past one of the marked command posts. And there had been other marked points on the map that had likely been smaller checkpoints, maybe with radios of their own.
Her heart was pounding, and not just from the exertion of running with all three wagons behind her. Another mountaintop exploded, the sky lighting up with a yellow glow. The faint boom echoed across the city a moment later, followed by a rumble beneath her feet. From ahead there was the sound of glass shattering as something moved and shifted.
How many blocks? She glanced down to her right in the direction of the emergence hole that had driven her south as she passed the interconnecting street, but couldn’t make out anything through the darkness. Hopefully that meant whatever had surfaced couldn’t see her flashlight in return.
Another rumble rolled through the city, this one jolting enough that some of the abandoned cars ahead of her shook and swayed, bouncing on rusted springs. Rubble clattered and clicked as another pile near a crumbled building gave way, shaking down into the street.
How much worse is this going to get? The trembling was still there, deep and vibrant, like an ancient beast awaking from its slumber. Another flash lit the night, a distant boom following seconds later.
I could still run the other way. The wide parkway she was running up led out of the city, even if it narrowed in doing so. She could go south. I wouldn’t even need to run. The downhill would carry her all the way.
But the thought almost made her feel physical revulsion. She’d heard someone. I’m so close. I have to try. I’m so close.
The ground lurched, jerking so hard that she stumbled. She caught herself against the side of a massive truck, feet skidding and slipping as the momentum of her wagons shoved her forward. A titanic crackling sound filled the air, like something sizzling in the world’s largest pan of hot oil. Something shifted through the murky darkness, and she lifted her gnasher to reveal the facade of a nearby building—a bank of some kind—cracking and splintering as it passed some unspoken turning point. Glass shattered as the whole building front began to crumble, caving in on itself and sloughing off like a collapsing cliffside. Sunset ducked, covering her head with her hands as bits of rubble shot out across the street like bullets, bouncing off the truck with sharp bangs. Dust swept over her a moment later, and she squeezed her eyes tightly shut, burying her mouth and nose in her shirt and trying not to cough as the itchy, cloying substance filled her lungs.
The rumbles died down to a low groan, almost like Sugulli itself was letting out a cry of pain, and the sound of the collapsing bank front trickled into relative silence. Sunset rose, flecks of stone and concrete falling from her jacket and landing on the ground with faint clicks. The air was still filled with dust, the light from her own flashlight shining back at her from all directions, but she could make out several larger bits of rubble nearby that she hadn’t noticed before, some of them as large as her head. Or larger.
If I hadn’t stumbled … Though now she’d need to weave around the rubble. Through a dust cloud, no less.
Pick a line and follow it. The truck had been at an angle. If I find the sidewalk, follow it. She began moving, the soup of dust around her swallowing the sounds of her footsteps and the faint rattle of the train behind her. The ground trembled underfoot once again, a faint vibration that made her tense, but it didn’t seem to trigger any additional aftershocks.
She continued forward, coughing to clear her throat and then risking a quick sip of water from one of her canteens to wash the dust out of her mouth. Ahead the haze began to thin, revealing more of the wide avenue she’d been following.
Another tremor swept through the city, a rumble that was audible as well as forceful enough to cause her to slow. Around her she heard rubble shift and scatter as the newest aftershock rippled through the ruin. Followed by another Locust yell.
This one was closer. Were they tracking her? Or was it just coincidence? She picked up speed anyway, sweeping her flashlight left and right, looking for any sign of a Cog checkpoint.
She found a hole instead. Sunset skidded to a halt, her boots sliding over loose gravel and rubble as she came to a stop. Ahead of her the ground dropped into darkness, the surface of the road split as cleanly as if a giant had come along and simply scooped out a piece of the earth. Or rather pulled it under, judging from the broken pipes the edges of her beam illuminated, jutting out of the walls on the far side.
Collapsed from beneath. And it wasn’t hard to see why. She angled the beam downward over the edge, illuminating mangled Cog military equipment and broken concrete barriers. They didn’t bother fighting this checkpoint. They just sank it. White bone glimmered under her light. And everyone in it.
She moved her view to the left. The sinkhole terminated a few feet from the edge of the street, leaving the sidewalk and a little bit of pavement hanging over the edge. The ground shook again, a disquieting tremor rolling through the earth.
I just need a radio transmitter. That’s it! Then I can get out of this city. She moved along the edge of the sinkhole for the far side of the street, keeping her distance from the lip. That’s all I need.
Another Locust cry echoed from nearby. Was it closer than the last one? She couldn’t tell. Stupid human ears. Past the sinkhole, she picked up speed once more, wagons rattling and rolling through the dead city. If that was the first checkpoint, then there was one more mark on the map like that, and then there was the command post or whatever a few blocks to the north.
The sounds of more rubble shifting and sliding echoed from nearby, bouncing off of empty buildings and making it sound as though the whole city was cracking and shifting. Sunset felt her mind leap back to a book she’d read, about the team of explorers that had found the Ocean of Endless Ice and the sounds they had described it making as it had shifted and slipped.
Another flash lit the sky, followed by a faint boom and a deep rumble that she could feel in her gut. She turned her gaze upward, toward the nearest mountains just in time to see a whole chunk of one give way, sliding and shifting as it began to move down the face.
Landslides. Or rockslides, depending on the composition. One more thing to worry about.
Just get the radio. Get the radio and it’ll all be—
Something whistled past her head, glowing and angry. She heard the retort an instant later, just as the shots that had missed her slammed into the front of the building with angry, sharp cracks. She threw herself down and to the side as a second spray of gunfire whipped through the air where her head had been, the chatter of gunfire echoing over her a moment later.
Feathers! From somewhere behind her came a cry in seran, guttural words almost spat into the air.
“Hominid sighted!”
They had found her. And worse. They were behind her. Sunset rolled to the side, only for her harness to arrest the motion partway through. Another Locust roared, and more shots began flying up the street, skipping off the ground so close she almost saw the bullet bounce against the pavement.
The light! She snapped one hand over the end of her flashlight beam, gripping the barrel of the gnasher and trying to find the switch that triggered the beam even as she kicked herself backwards, the wagons again arresting her movement. The flashlight died a moment later, but the gunfire was already coming uncomfortably close. Sunset let the gnasher fall into her lap, scrambling backwards in an arc on her palms, trying to force herself to breath as more shots came close. Were they hunting her? Or had they just seen her light?
Does it matter? The shots lessened, and she froze, ears straining to hear over the faint rumble of the ground and the pounding of her own heart. Did they think they’d killed her?
If they did, they were doubtlessly going to check. Which meant …
I need to leave the wagons. Just for a short time. She could come back for them later. Double back, in fact. They wouldn’t be hard to find. Slowly she reached up, undoing the clasp in the middle of her armor and letting the harness fall from her shoulders. It hit the ground with a soft rattle that made her heart stop even if it wasn’t likely anything someone could have heard at more than a few yards. Her eyes were still adjusting to the hazy darkness, the nearest shadows little more than obscure shapes.
Grab what you can. Slowly, she slipped forward toward the lead wagon, pulling the lancer from its holster and exchanging it for her gnasher, which went on her back. It was awkward keeping her motions as close to the ground as possible while still getting the shotgun into place beside her pack. With luck they wouldn’t see her so low to the ground, despite the frantic motion The ammo she’d collected was hanging next to where the lancer had been, and she began sliding gnasher shells into her pockets along with several of boxy lancer magazines. They were large and heavy, but—
Footsteps. A faint but heavy tread was echoing from somewhere nearby. Numerous enough to be more than one set too. She swallowed, her throat dry. If they saw her …
She saw the muzzle flash just in time and threw herself down. The wagon train jerked as several shots slammed into it, and again a roar echoed down the avenue from her attackers. Sunset poked the gnasher into the air and fired a single shot completely blind. The retort was almost deafening, but the spray of shots that had swept over her went quiet. She caught a flash of movement from the other side of the sinkhole, at least one figure diving into cover.
She shoved herself up in an instant, twisting her upper body toward the wagons. If she could just grab a few more—
Another Locust cry echoed through the air, this time from another direction. It spoke a single word that sent a chill right through Sunset’s core.
“Grenade!”
She’d never heard the word spoken aloud, but she’d read it. She knew what it was. A thrown explosive, lobbed at a distance over cover to kill those behind it.
She was up and running even before she heard the telltale clink of something bouncing across the ground nearby, sprinting for all she was worth with no regard to what might see her. There was a curiously sharp beep from behind her—Then there was a massive crack that seemed to split the sky and her head at the same time, combined with a wave of force that seemed to sweep over her body like a crashing wave. Sharp, stinging pain erupted from the back of one of her legs and she stumbled, falling to the ground and barely catching herself with her hands. The lancer went bouncing across the pavement, torn from her hands.
Gunfire spat past nearby a second later, at more angles than could be accounted for by a single shooter. She scrambled forward on her hands and knees, ignoring the flash of pain as she bounced a bit of rubble off of her knee, ignoring the burning pain from the back of her rear leg, her only aim wrapping her fingers around the grip of her rifle once more.
Her fingers found cool metal and she spun, lifting the heavy weapon and looking back in the direction of her wagons.
Or what was left of them. The middle of her long companions had been split in two from below, broken and bent by the force of the blast they’d absorbed. Her water jugs were full of holes, bleeding their lifeblood out into the street. Meal boxes had been torn and shredded, or launched by the blast. Tires had gone flat.
For a moment she felt frozen as she stared at what had been done to so much of her hard work in an instant.
Then another spray of bullets fired through the air, far off from her immediate location, but still a reminder of what was waiting for her in the dark.
I can’t save it. Part of her wanted to shoot back, to defend her supplies as best she could.
There was only one end down that road, one way for that path to end. Another Locust roar echoed, shapes moving in the darkness.
Sunset turned, shoving herself up onto her feet and staggering slightly. Bullets whizzed out of the darkness at her as she began to run, tracers glowing as they shot past, but by a miracle none of them touched her. Multiple cries echoed from behind, the Locust giving chase. She was running blind now, her world barely illuminated by the dim light of one moon trying to make its way through the hazy cloud that obscured the sky. The ground rumbled again, trembling, only this time she saw rubble rising upward rather than downward from one of the nearby ruins. Spindly legs pointed into the sky a moment later, a massive, spider-like shape tearing free of the earth. It let out a roar … only for the side of the building next to it, already free-standing precariously, to shift and collapse atop it, smashing the creature back down into the ground with a pained scream.
The rumbling was getting worse. Whatever upset had been triggered under the mountain range, it had to be spreading outward from the epicenter. Segulli was right in its path. And under a mountain.
Shots flew past overhead, blind or simply badly aimed she couldn’t tell. But both were good motivators to keep moving.
Shadows blocked the street ahead of her, large and angular. They had to be the checkpoint; there wasn’t really anything else it could be. More roars sounded as she neared the barrier, echoing from all across the city. The Locust were closing in, calling to one another.
Or maybe they just liked screaming. She wasn’t sure.
There was an opening in the wall of the checkpoint and she raced through it. Something slammed against her toes, sending her stumbling forward as bits and pieces of dark shadow scattered around her. She recovered her balance, then glanced back to see a bit of dented, damaged Cog armor just identifiable in the dim light.
She’d kicked over a body. Great.
She could just make out the structure and shape of a tent. She was halfway to it when another tremor ran through the ground, followed by a distant but very alarming cracking sound. Slowly she turned her gaze skyward, watching as the mountain that loomed over the city shook, part of its peak crumbling inward. An image of the mountain when it had been lit by the sun leapt through her mind, craggy and scorched, with plenty of overhangs that could break free and roll down its slopes.
She ducked into the tent, sweeping aside old tattered cloth and almost immediately banging her shins on a low table. She tried to make sense of the dark shadows inside the tent’s depths, but without a light source it was meaningless
I should have put a flashlight on the lancer. Far too late now. It took her a second or two to successfully detach the gnasher from her back and illuminate the interior with its attached light, but the result was only disappointment. Whatever equipment had been in the room had been broken and scattered. The object she’d bashed her shins against was actually a toppled metal crate, its sides torn out. She was lucky she hadn’t cut herself on the jagged edges.
But there was nothing that resembled working radio equipment. Just smashed and twisted mechanical boxes. Almost like something had been eating them.
Another roar sounded from close nearby, so close she spun, catching herself at the last second before she could shine her light into the open air.
She could hear footsteps above the rumbling of the mountain. Her pursuers were close. Too close. Hide.
She gave the tent a single look before crossing it out. There was nothing in it left she could easily hide under, and with all the sharp metal edges it would likely end badly anyway. Maybe a back way out—?
Except that her pursuers would likely hear her if she ran. She needed to hide.
Immediately.
There was a massive, dark shape on the other side of the checkpoint, part of it jutting out into the air. One of their armored fighting vehicles, then.
They’re on tires. They have ground clearance. She was halfway across the checkpoint in seconds, sprinting for the heavy machine. From just outside the gate something yelled, and footsteps other than her own rose in cadence. Feathers!
The massive machine was one of the four-wheeled fighting vehicles she’d seen before, and she slipped between its massive tires. At the last second she grabbed a bit of rubble and chucked it hard at the back of the checkpoint. It hit the wall with a clatter, bouncing over the rear barricades and skipping over the ground.
The roar that sounded in response was almost right nearby, and Sunset shoved herself further under the massive machine, pressing herself down across the ground. A second later three massive figures ducked around the entrance of the checkpoint, weapons up and sweeping back and forth in an obvious searching maneuver. A fourth followed them, shouting something gutteral and harsh as it pointed at the tent. One of the figures rushed over two it and swept the cloth over the entrance aside before letting out a harsh bark. The other two ran toward the other side of the checkpoint, where she’d tossed the rock.
The one in back, clearly the leader, spoke again. All four of them spread out, clearly looking for something.
Me. She tried to make her breaths as quiet as possible, willing herself to sink down and blend in with the ground. The ringleader moved in her direction, its tread heavy enough that she likely would have felt its footsteps if not for the shaking of the ground. It let out a low, grinding growl as it came to a stop right in front of the machine she was hiding under.
Then it kicked one of the tires, letting out a snort, and moved on.
Only to stop. A moment later there was a wet shuffling noise, like the thing was breathing in heavily.
It was sniffing.
Oh please. Please no. It turned back in her direction, head shifting this way and that. Please …
The thing took a step in the direction of her hiding place. Then another. It sniffed again, features barely distinguishable in the dim light, just enough that she could make out its nostrils widening as it searched for her scent.
It took another step toward her, and she swallowed, tightening her grip on her gnasher. At such short range …
The ground jerked, shaking, and one of the Locust near the rear of the checkpoint let out a grunt, the leader twisting away. With an almost angry sounding snort, it turned toward its fellows, the four of them moving at a jog as they left the checkpoint.
Only once the sound of their boots had faded did Sunset realize that she’d been holding her breath, her lungs crying out for air. Her gasp came out mixed with faint tears. It had been looking right at her. If it had taken just another step closer …
But it didn’t. Her breathing began to slow, along with her pulse. She waited a few seconds longer, then moved out from under the heavy vehicle. Off in the distance came the sound of another building collapsing as the city continued to shake.
Now what? She wanted to cry. Her wagons were gone, wrecked, and with them most of her food and water.
She blinked back tears. I still have my pack. And she’d always kept food in it. There was water in her canteens. And I can find more. She sank back, leaning against the side of the disabled cog war machine. I can rebuild.
If Segulli doesn’t kill me first. Part of her felt angry for coming into the city in the first place. If I hadn’t been so determined to find a radio I’d—
She paused, a stray thought crossing her mind. She pushed off of the side of the vehicle, taking a step away and looking up at the massive machine.
Their soldiers have radios. Why wouldn’t this machine?
There were rungs on the side to climb, and reached out, grasping them and hauling herself up. The ground shook again, a louder rumble coming from the mountain that hung over the city. The vehicle shook beneath her, rocking slightly from side to side and making her cling to its side. Step by step, she pulled herself upward until she’d reached the top of the ladder, probing before finding another handle that was in a position to help herself rise atop the body. There was a hatch to enter the machine atop the weapon mounted at its peak, and carefully she proved her fingers around the lip, looking for a lock or latching mechanism. Thankfully her fingers found it without the need for a light.
A Locust call echoed through the city, distant but still enough to make her take a quick look around to make sure she wasn’t about to be shot at again. She didn’t see any obvious moving shadows … but neither had she moments before she’d been shot at.
Come on! Her fingers found a handle on the hatch and she heaved up, grunting slightly as its heavy weight was more than she’d expected. Still, it lifted, if only a few inches until she got her other hand on the handle as well. The metal let out a long, loud squeak as she swung it up, followed by a clang as it tipped backward, hitting some sort of stop before it could fall all the way to the vehicle’s side but still tearing free of her hands.
The loud sound was enough to make her pulse spike, and she clambered up atop the weapon mount, shoving her boots into the gaping hole as quickly as she could. Please don’t let the Locust have heard that. Her boots found waiting rungs, as well as something soft that was probably a seat, and she quickly lowered herself into the dark, dropping her rear down atop a thin cushion.
It was definitely a seat. And a tight one. Her elbows bumped against the walls as she reached for her gnasher … but then thought better of it and maneuvered her small pack off of her back.
This is all I have now, she thought as she opened one of the rear pockets, digging through it and hunting for a spare flashlight. If I can’t find a radio—
I’ll be fine. I started out with less once. And I survived that. How she would get through the mountains when they were collapsing in on themselves was another question, whether or not she had food and water. Worry about it later.
Her fingers closed on a smooth cylinder and she pulled it out, only to realize that it was a single emergency flare she’d stowed in her pack just in case. She shoved it back down, and a moment later her searching digits found the flashlight.
She angled it downward as she turned it on, cupping a hand around it so that as little light as possible would escape through the open hatch. Dials and controls glimmered back at her, but to her surprise the interior of the tank looked both undamaged and unoccupied. She’d half expected to find a body, or the interior ripped apart like the equipment in the tent had been.
Instead, the only thing that appeared out of the ordinary were a pair of cog tags hanging next to a picture by what she guessed was the driver’s seat. Sunset stepped down, deeper into the tight, cramped confines of the vehicle, trying not to bump anything as she neared the back of the seat and got a closer look at the photograph.
The picture was of a cog with her helmet off. Definitely a woman, though her mane was cut somewhat short. Probably so that it would fit under the helmet she was holding in one hand. She was smiling at the camera, and there was a faded note scrawled on the bottom of the photograph.
Victory at last! See you soon! After that came a heart and a name: Layna.
The same name Sunset could see imprinted on the dangling tags. She knew the story without having to ask a single question further. And somehow they both ended up left here. Maybe the vehicle she was sitting in had been the woman’s, but more likely it had been occupied by someone close to her. A family member, perhaps, or a lover. Reverently she reached out and took the picture and the tags, adding them to her pack. Maybe there was someone out there that wanted them, and if she made it to the Cog—
No, when I make it to the Cog. When. Not if. Then the tag and picture would likely be useful currency to get her into someone’s favor.
And it’s the right thing to do, she added quickly. I think.
There was a headset hanging next to the seat, connected to the rest of the vehicle by a wire, but when she slipped one side of it over her ears it was completely silent. As dead as the rest of the vehicle.
Radio equipment. I need to find radio equipment. She turned away from the driver’s seat, looking around the tightly-packed interior, light spilling over flat surfaces and dials that were all but meaningless.
What if it didn’t have a radio? Outside the tank the rumble built again, fresh tremors sweeping through the earth and rocking the machine back and forth. She swayed with it, one hand against the wall.
Why would they not have a radio? And wasn’t there …? She clicked the flashlight off, letting her eyes adjust to the gloom before carefully poking her head up toward the open hatch once more. Twin thin metal rods rose from the back of the vehicle. If they weren’t antennas for transmissions, then what purpose would they serve?
She descended back into the body of the vehicle, lighting her flashlight and looking around once more for any sign of radio equipment. She found it in the back, tucked against the rear wall next to a heavy-looking panel that read “engine access.” The lights and dials were different, but familiar enough that combined with the headset hanging next to it that figuring out that it was a transmitter of some kind was an obvious leap.
It was also unpowered, the lights dark.
But why would that stop the Cog? There had been a backup generation system on the generator. Why not for their radio in their vehicles? The flashlight flashed over metal as she ducked and crouched, her searching eyes and fingers finding a panel beneath the console labeled “emergency operation.” Yanking at the handle on the bottom pulled it off entirely, and she almost dropped it, catching it against the wall with a clang that sounded thunderous inside the tight confines, but was definitely quieter than simply letting it clatter to the floor. She froze for a few seconds, waiting for an answering cry to sound from somewhere in the city, but the only answer that came was another distant rumble that made the floor shake.
She set the panel aside and angled the flashlight upward, peering at what she’d uncovered. A handle, along with a set of dead lights and some printed text. To power communications equi—Yes! This is it! She twisted a bit further, angling her head to read the rest of the instructions.
It was simple and straightforward. Pulling the lever would spin a small flywheel, which would provide a charge to a small capacitor and battery bank. Not much of one, and the text warned that she would likely need to repeatedly keep the wheel going to keep transmitting or receiving.
But there were lights to tell her how much power she had. And a switch to flip the transmission equipment over to the backup power supply.
She hit that first, then wrapped her hand around the handle and tugged it down. It resisted each time, but she could hear something inside the unit moving, and a moment later a small light began glowing. Red, meaning there wasn’t enough power, but glowing all the same.
It was like stepping out of darkness into warm sunlight. Elation swept through her as she cranked the handle again and again, watching as the red light glowed brighter and brighter … and then became green.
She kept cranking, as badly as she yearned to grab the headset and start speaking, to hear another voice—any voice—that wasn’t trying to kill her. Her breaths were coming short and quick again, almost like she was panicking, but it wasn’t the same.
Nor did she care. All she cared about was the glow of the second light on the tiny console as it too began to glow green. Again and again she pulled the handle down, spinning the flywheel and giving the equipment more of the power it wanted. Only when the last light was glowing a bright, steady green did she turn her attention to the radio itself, running her eyes over unfamiliar dials and buttons far more compact than what she’d used before.
Lack of space, the analytical part of her noted as she found the button she was looking for. It was labeled “Power.”
She pushed it.
Glowing lights sprang into being, dim but as vibrant to her as the sun itself. She let out a quiet gasp, grabbing the headset, her hands trembling so badly and almost dropped it before she could get it over her head. She hunted for a transmit button but didn’t find one on the microphone. The control board didn’t seem to have one either, until she took a closer look at one of the displays and realized that it was no longer blank, but displaying text and indicators much in the way her watch did, only even more advanced.
That’s my frequency, she thought, connecting what was being displayed with the dials on the older radio she’d found at the estates. And that name … Those are the channels the book was talking about! And they’re named!
Currently, the radio was transmitting on “Band B,” while receiving from Bands B and D. She listened for a moment, but there was no sound from the headset.
I need every channel I can transmit on. Or get. That would probably take more power—the transmitting, at least. But if I can reach anyone it will be worth it. She prodded the screen a few times before figuring out which buttons did what.
The unit didn’t seem to want to let her transmit on more than one of the preset bands, but it would let her listen to more than one at a time. She keyed the unit until she was listening to every available channel, left her own transmissions on the original band, took a deep breath, and then spoke.
“Hello? Is anyone out there?” The world seemed to stop as she held her breath, waiting for a reply. Come on … Someone! Anyone! “Hello?”
The ground trembled with another aftershock, the vehicle swaying from side to side as its thick suspension creaked. She tried again. “Hello? Is anyone there?”
A few seconds passed and there was no reply. She swallowed, her mouth dry. Please. Someone else say something. Please!
She changed bands and repeated her message, her voice cracking partway through. Her eyes felt moist, and she wiped a bit of wetness away with her thumb. Someone has to answer. They have to. I just want to hear someone speak.
She switched bands again. “Hello? This is Sunset—”
“Unidentified individual on Cog military bands.” She gasped as the flat, almost bored voice filled her ears. “Violation of—”
“Can you hear me?” She almost shouted, catching herself at the last second. The voice continued unabated.
“—frequencies is a punishable offense. Remove yourself from this channel—”
One of the bands she’d selected to listen to was flashing. Band A. That was where she was getting the signal from. She flipped her outbound transmissions back to the same channel.
“You can hear me!” she said, cutting the voice off, her statement almost a question. A voice. A real voice! Her heart was fluttering, hands shaking as her breath came in short, excited gasps. The reply came almost instantly.
“Yes, and I shouldn’t be able to.” She barely registered the annoyance in the speaker’s voice. “This is a secure Cog military channel, so—”
“I’m in Segulli!”
“I don’t care … Wait, you’re where?”
This time she did let out a quick cry, one that she stifled almost immediately, covering her mouth, but she couldn’t help it. Her eyes were wet again, and she felt light headed. “Sun above it’s so good to hear another voice.”
“Who is this? Identify yourself! You said you were where?”
“My name is Sunset Shimmer. I’m a civilian in Segulli, east of the Haspor Mountains.” The words came out fast and furious, like she’d pulled a plug. Part of her felt as if the moment she stopped speaking the other voice would vanish, like an addled hallucination of a starved mind. “I’m inside an old military vehicle—I don’t know the name for it, but it’s on four big tires and has a large gun. I’m using the backup radio equipment to speak with—”
“You’re where? If this is some kind of joke—”
“It’s not!” She leaned toward the transmitter. “Please, it’s not. I’m in Segulli, I’ve been trying to get to the plateau and Ephyra for weeks. I—?”
“Ephyra? Ephyra’s gone, lady. Grubs rolled it over years ago.”
“But there’s still the Cog, right? You? You’re the Cog? And Jacinto?” She slammed an open palm against the wall by the radio. “Please don’t stop talking. I haven’t heard a voice in … in too long.” She caught herself just before she’d been about to say weeks.
“Shit girl, this is over my pay grade. Cog’s still here, though. We’re operating out of Jacinto, but … Look, you’re in Segulli? I’m just a motor tech, but that place is probably crawling with grubs—”
“They already almost got me. I stayed to find a radio. So I could talk to someone and get some help. Please.”
“Look, I’m just a radio tech in the motor pool. If you’re in Segulli, you’re in deep shit. We just bombed the hell out of those mountains with the lightmass bomb.” There was a pause, and Sunset checked the power readout under the console to make sure it hadn’t gone out. One light had, and she cranked the handle a few more times.
“Let me put you in touch with Control.”
Her heart leapt. Someone in charge? “Will I have to change channels? I’m not very good with this radio. It’s unfamiliar.”
“Uhh … No, we can work with that. You’re on an old frequency we don’t really use anymore.”
“Out of date?”
“No, we just don’t have that many armored … Look, I’ll put you in touch with Control, okay? Just … stay by your radio.”
“Will do.” Sunset wiped her eyes, letting out an almost half-sob.
I did it. I’m talking with someone. A real someone. Not just a voice in my head.
I hope.
The interior of the vehicle shook again, a loud tremor making itself known. This one was heavy enough that she felt the machine bob up and down, the creaking of its suspension mixing with a distant crashing roar of another ruin coming down.
The tremors are getting worse. Segulli is shaking itself apart. If I don’t get out soon this—
“Hello?” It was a woman’s voice, almost pleasant to listen to. “Are you still the—?”
“Yes!” Sunset surged upright once more. “I am! I’m here I’m here! I’m Sunset Shimmer. Who am I speaking with?” She winced as the sudden sense of politeness took over.
“Your name is what? Nevermind. My name is Anya Stroud. I’m a lieutenant in the Coalition. If what I’ve been told is correct, you’re transmitting from an old centaur tank in Segulli?”
Sunset did a small double-take at the name of the machine she was sitting in. Centaur? “Yes? If that’s what it’s called?”
“Segulli is crawling with Locust, Miss Shimmer. Worse, it’s in the Hospar Mountains, which we just hit with a lightmass bomb.”
“Well then that explains why I was being shot at and why the mountains are collapsing, I guess. Both seem bad.”
That sentence is crazy. And yet it makes perfect sense.
“Where are you in Segulli? We have KR units doing surveillance sweeps of the mountain range. We can reroute one of them to provide you with a pickup.”
“Thank you!” She almost sagged. “I—”
“Don’t thank me yet. They’ll need to find you. Where are you in Segulli?”
“I … I don’t know. The southern half of the city. Near … On one of the wider thoroughfares. I don’t know the name or the number. But it’s an old cog checkpoint. The second one up from the south end of the city!”
“That doesn’t give us a lot to go on, but I can pass it along. Have you been engaged by Locust forces?”
“You mean attacked? Yes. I lost all my supplies. It’s why I’m hiding in this—” She paused for a second, trying to remember the word the woman had used. “—tank. The whole city is shaking like it’s had an earthquake, and I think it’s driving some of them out of their tunnels.”
“We expected that.” The woman still sounded incredibly calm. Though if she was in “control” of the Cog, she probably dealt with far worse on a regular basis. “Are there any identifying landmarks KR-seven-zero can use to find you?”
“Ummm …” Panic swept through her like lightning, her mind racing … but then the contents of her pack came to her. “I have flares! Signal flares!”
“Excellent. Try to find a flat, open, clear space. A courtyard of some kind, at least fifty feet on a side. Light the flares as soon as you hear the raven. And be ready. The lightmass bomb may have taken out most of the Locust tunnels, but there will be plenty of stragglers that will head right for your flares.”
Sunset swallowed. “I understand. Just … don’t leave me.”
“We won’t. Lima squad is on that chopper. Give me a moment.”
“Okay.”
Her heart was pounding. This is really happening. They’re coming to get me!
Real people. People I can talk to.
A thread of worry wormed its way through her elation. I’ll have to be careful with my words.
“Miss Shimmer? KR-seven-zero has been rerouted toward your location. They’ll be there in a few minutes. Find them a landing zone. Then hunker down. The Locust won’t take kindly to that bird landing on top of their heads.”
“I understa—”
“Then you need to move now, and find them that LZ. Good luck.”
She didn’t want the conversion to end. Stepping away would be like peeling a bandage off and taking her old coat of fur with it. But it had to be done.
“Thank you.” She pulled the headset from her head and dropped it on the console, sagging back and letting out a wet, almost tearful moan. I did it.
The ground shook again, vibrating so intensely that the panel she’d dropped early buzzed, sliding across the metal decking. A second later the centaur—Strange name—lurched to one side, bouncing and not quite righting itself.
But I didn’t do it all yet! She wiped the back of her hand across her eyes, then moved for the open hatch.
The night outside wasn’t as dark as it had been when she’d ducked inside the tank, the moon brighter and illuminating more of the city. Some of the haze had cleared.
It was the only thing about the city that looked better than it had earlier. The tank was sitting at an angle, now, the pavement of the road beneath it tilted and cracked.
Flashlight! She killed the light and shoved it into her pocket. She’d been so elated and preoccupied she’d almost forgotten that there were Locust all too happy to hunt her.
Open space … The top of the centaur, tilted as it was, made for a decent vantage point of the nearby city. Not that anything that was particularly open jumped out at her. Crumbling building-fronts exposed open space, but much of it was uneven and worse, unstable. The road itself was easily fifty feet across, but it wasn’t clear, and hunting back and forth to find a clear space was just as likely to come up with nothing as it would a possible space.
The ground shook again, the centaur swaying beneath her and tipping more to the side. She was running out of time.
Like a plaza. The next command post was supposed to be in a large plaza. And it wasn’t too far up the road from what she could remember of the map.
Except the Locust went that way.
The ground shifted again, pebbles mixing with shell casings and sliding as the center of the checkpoint seemed to dip another foot. She could hear the pavement cracking and breaking, like ice over a pond.
She was out of time to make her decision. Whatever was going on beneath her, it was getting worse by the second. She could either run south and hope … or move deeper into the city and find the plaza.
Another series of cracks echoed across the checkpoint, and she made her decision, swinging her body out onto the exterior of the tank. The vehicle’s pronounced lean made the descent down its side almost a fall, and she dropped the last few feet, stumbling but recovering her balance.
North. The cracking sound had slowed, but it was still there as she crossed the rest of the checkpoint, heading for the rear barriers. Some of them were tilting inward already, and as she watched another began to lean toward her.
Definitely time to go. This place is getting worse with each passing second. She couldn’t say what had caused it, perhaps past the—What had they called it? Lightfast?—attack.
She hurried away from the checkpoint, her eyes hunting every shadow in the road ahead of her, hunting for any sign of movement.
How long was I inside the tank? How far could those Locust have traveled? Maybe they gave up?
Or maybe they were just waiting up the road behind a burned out car, quietly anticipating the moment she would step in range of their rifles.
The thought made her uneasy, as did the realization that she was essentially standing in the middle of the road, clearly visible. She adjusted her course, heading for the left side of the avenue where she could be a bit closer to the wrecked and abandoned storefronts.
Just not too close, she thought as another tremor swept through the city. It was backed by a distant rumble and crash as another building somewhere nearby collapsed. A few seconds after that a louder sound from her back made her turn, just in time to see the checkpoint she’d been in, along with a good chunk of the surrounding street drop out of sight.
A faint shiver rolled through her even though she was well away. If someone hadn’t answered me—
She cast the thought aside. I’m smart enough to leave when things start tilting sideways. I wouldn’t have been in there.
Still, the thought of vanishing into the depths of the earth wasn’t comforting.
Another tremor shook the earth, this one more violent, and hot on its heels came a dull, grinding roar from somewhere ahead of her. At first Sunset looked to the city, but then she cast her gaze up. A titanic chunk of earth had slipped free from one of the mountains to the north and was sliding down the face, moving almost in slow motion as it smashed through outcroppings and forests.
But it wasn’t moving slowly. It was just massive. Maybe the size of Segulli or larger. The kind of thing the legends said had happened during the Breaking, before Equestria.
Her eyes slipped to the western mountain face, looming over the city. If the same thing happened …
Don’t think about it. She focused on the sound of her boots slapping against the pavement, on the shadowed, moonlit ruins of the city around her, on the wrecks and abandoned cars that seemed to be everywhere without rhyme or reason.
How long did she have until the helicopter arrived? How quickly could it move? If I don’t find a space in time for them to land, will they just assume I didn’t make it? What about—?
A new sound pricked at her ears, one she’d not heard before. A faint mechanical, clicking whine, almost like the winding of clockwork. She slowed, coming to a stop by another burned out vehicle, cursing her weak seran ears as she turned her head to try and source the odd sound.
Then there was a sudden snap as something buried itself in the far side of the car, sparking and sputtering. Sunset threw herself down and a second later the world was swept away by the loud roar of an explosion. It wasn’t quite as loud and all-consuming as the grenade had been, nor was it loud enough that the shout of her Locust attackers wasn’t almost immediately afterward, but it definitely was enough to pin the mechanical sound she’d heard as a warning sign.
Gunfire rattled off the body of the car before she’d even pushed herself up. A new voice came with it, wispy and almost a hiss through the dark. “Kill!”
No. Sunset reached over her shoulder, tugging the lancer free. No. It wasn’t a cry of terror, nor a mental plead to any that might be listening. It was simply a declaration. A fierce, hot anger swept through her as she chambered a round and shoved the rifle’s safety forward.
No. She waited as another barrage of shots soared by overhead, some of them sparking off of the car’s upper body. I didn’t let her stop me.
And I won’t let you stop me. How dare you even try? She leaned out around the back of her cover, holding the rifle just the way she’d practiced and peering along the iron sights. I am Sunset Shimmer. I was personally chosen to be the private student of the ruler of Equestria!
Faint explosions flashed from the other side of the street, briefly illuminating one of her attackers as it let loose another barrage of fire.
And when she rejected me, I followed my destiny. She set her finger on the trigger.
You will not deny me that.
She fired, the lancer kicking with its familiar violence, rapidly moving off target even before she’d let her finger off the trigger. Her shots streaked across the broad avenue and struck the locust in the chest, knocking it back with a howl and a spray of blood. She ducked back behind the car as the rest of its cohorts shifted their aim, spraying shots that bounced off of the pavement and rattled the burnt, thick metal of her cover.
One down. But she couldn’t stay and fight them all. She’d been lucky—her target had been standing, not expecting to be shot back. Already she could hear the mechanical clicking of whatever had launched the first explosive bolt at her, and there was no reason to believe it wasn’t about to fire another one. Her cover was likely being chewed apart—the vehicles were sturdy, but not invincible—and worse, not fully defensible, open to being easily flanked.
I need a better position, and space for the helicopter. She had to get to the command post; it was her best chance. Another spray of gunfire shredded itself against the roof of the car. The whine was almost at its peak.
Use it. A second later there was a sharp twang as the bolt fired and buried itself in the wall of a building on the edge of the street. She was up and running north before it detonated, gambling that the light and sound from the explosion would provide just the barest bit of distraction from her flight.
She was right. It took almost two full seconds for a spray of bullets to spit across her path, missing her flight but not by much. She shoved past the panic and fear, racing onward as more shots sounded from behind.
Then there came a chorus of yells, two, maybe three voices all crying out as she sprintedup the street. She was almost astonished at her own speed as she flew forward, boots slapping against the ground. After weeks of hauling the wagons everywhere and even running with them, running without the harness felt like freedom. Almost like what it might have felt like for a pegasus to fly for the first time.
Just with the added threat of certain death if she slowed or stumbled. Shots raced past her, but none of them came close to hitting her, and a second later she glanced back to see vague bipedal shapes emerging from the far side of the street to chase after her.
It didn’t make her heart pound any less, but at least they weren’t shooting anymore. Or at least, so she concluded until another sparking bolt snapped past her, streaking down the street and detonating against the side of a building. The explosion was enough to trigger a cascade of rubble and masonry from the already weakened front, and Sunset shielded her head with her arms as bits and pieces of the collapse were flung at her. There was a sharp, stabbing pain in her arm that almost made her cry out, but it was temporary, and she focused on keeping her grip on her lancer as she ran past.
The ground was shaking again. Violently, in short, angry tremors. That couldn’t be a good sign. Ahead she saw a familiar barrier wall, built around what looked like a wide, clear parking lot rather than the plaza she’d expected. The gate had been battered down, the old metal dull in the moonlight. But it was something she could take cover behind.
The ground jerked again, this time hard enough that she stumbled. Worse, a quick look at the nearby swaying ruins showed that it wasn’t just her that had felt it. All of Segulli seemed to have felt the impact of … Well, what it was, she wasn’t sure.
Another reason to get out! One of the ruined buildings nearby shifted, something pressing against it from beneath. A spray of glowing bullets shot by overhead, a reminder that her pursuers hadn’t given up.
She stumbled onward as the rumbling underfoot grew worse, almost swaying from side to side to keep her balance as she moved through the entrance to the command post. It was largely similar to the other she’d encountered, with tents and barricades set up, though there was also scaffolding and reinforced elevated positions, each strewn with bodies.
There was also, she noted, no way out but the one she’d just entered. What looked to have been an exit on the other side of the lot was a gaping hole in the earth, recent or ancient she couldn’t say.
A distant crackle swept over the city, and Sunset looked up to see a large chunk of the nearby mountain breaking free, cascading down its surface in a spray of kinetic violence. It had started from the lower slopes, so it only took a few seconds for the landslide to slam into the edge of the city. The impact threw up a massive plume of dust, the faint roar of whole sections of the city being rolled over echoing after it.
The destruction didn’t look as though it was going to reach her location, however, and she raced for one of the elevated defensive positions, leaping over a low concrete barrier and almost falling as she slipped on old spent shells and casings. Recovering, she jumped over another body and then up onto a lower platform before turning and grasping a ladder upward. She had just started to pull herself up once more when shots slammed into the metal right next to her. She let out a yelp and all but hurled herself upward, tossing the lancer ahead to land on the upper platform with a clatter. Something tugged at her armor—violently—as something hot and sharp drove across her back, calling forth another yelp of pain, and then she was atop the platform, sprawled out on still-warm concrete, yanking her legs back as more shots slammed into the heavy barriers.
Her back hurt, and it hurt even worse when she grabbed her lancer, but there wasn’t much else she could do. The ground was shaking beneath her, probably below the whole city. She all but ripped her pack from her back, tearing it open and desperately yanking the flare from its pouch. Brilliant reddish light lit the platform as she twisted the cap off, so bright it was blinding, filling her vision with spots. She flung the flare as hard as she could over the edge, trailing smoke and light and giving the whole of the command post a reddish glare.
That was it. She’d done it. Now all she needed to do was survive.
She gripped the lancer tightly in her hands, her back pressed up against the barrier. She swallowed, throat dry, and then rose, aiming her rifle back at the entrance to the command post.
Just in time to see a Locust attempt to pass through it. She fired, the shots quickly going wide but at least two of them landing close enough to the creature that it dove to the side, crawling over the ground to get behind the cover of the other side of the gate. Gunfire slapped back at her almost instantly, striking the lower part of her concealment and making it shake.
Or maybe that was just the ground shaking. There really wasn’t a way to tell anymore. She moved slightly to the side, then popped over the top and fired again, centering her rifle on another Locust that had started to pass through the gate. Her first shots hit it in the legs, but unlike its fellow it didn’t try to run away, instead firing back at her, the shot going wide even as it waded into her gunfire. Sunset worked the trigger several more times, each shot staggering the creature until it collapsed on its knees.
The rifle let out a click, the magazine empty. Sunset ducked back below her cover just a sharp click announced another explosive bolt driving itself into the other side. The boom of it detonating a moment later made her world shake, the blast vibrating the wall at her back.
She had the magazine ejected and was looking for a spare from her pack when she noticed that she wasn’t alone on the emplacement. A corpse was sitting across from her, hunched almost in a similar position, its helmet half-shattered and exposing a grinning jaw. Its tags were still hanging from the armor at the front of its chest.
It also wasn’t holding a weapon. Odd. Most of the cog corpses were, or had one close by. Maybe they were a lookout? So why would they be unarmed?
At the moment it didn’t matter. More gunfire was spraying at her. She slammed a fresh magazine into the bottom of the lancer, making sure it was seated properly before chambering a round once more. With a grimace, half expecting a shot from one of the Locust weapons to strike her in the face the moment she poked her head above cover, she rose once more.
The Locust she’d wounded was crawling back into cover, and she fired at it first, feeling not a shred of remorse as her shots finished it off. Bullets sprayed back at her, at least two more shooters taking cover out on the road and one still behind the gate—likely the one she’d scared into cover earlier. She focused on it first, trying not to flinch as bullets shot past—some quite close. The Locust at the gate ducked out for a quick look—and she squeezed the lancer’s trigger., her burst of gunfire cautching it right in the face. The thing’s head exploded, the body stiffening and then slumping over.
It was revolting … but in a way almost thrilling. A shot came close to hitting her, striking the top of the barrier she was pressed against and sending chips of concrete slashing across one side of her face. She ducked back down, took a few steps to the side, and rose once more.
Just in time to see a plume of earth erupt from the rubble on the other side of the street, more Locusts emerging out into the night, firing in the direction of the checkpoint as soon as they cleared the dust. Their shots were so wide it was clear they weren’t even shooting at her, just adding their fire to what was already lashing out.
It would only be a matter of time until they narrowed their focus, however. Some of them already were—especially when she returned fire, getting a single good shot into one’s chest but not knocking it down.
I’ve seen what these bullets can do. How tough are these things? She switched positions once more, ever alert for the telltale whine of the bolt-thrower as she poked her lancer around the edge of the opening she’d used on the side, giving her cover from half the street while still letting her fire at the entrance. Her first shots slipped off target, but the second struck a Locust square, causing it to stumble and fall. When it tried to get back up she fired again, emptying the magazine and reducing it to a motionless lump of flesh.
Something hot and angry grazed her arm and she ducked back with a hiss of pain, ejecting the spent magazine and accidentally kicking it over the side of the structure as she pushed herself back.
They’re coming. She could kill them, but not well. Not with efficiency. And as soon as they figured that out …
I’m going to die, she thought as she shoved another magazine into the rifle, staring at the body across from her in the tower. Just like that Cog. As soon as they— What’s that?
There was something she’d missed earlier, gripped in the dead soldier’s hand. A ball-like shape, bristling with knobs, at the end of a short, stiff assemblage of chain.
She recognized it, both from the brochures and the attack that had taken out her wagons. A grenade.
She almost dropped her lancer as she threw herself across the small platform, grabbing the explosive from the dead soldier’s hands. They must have been getting ready to use it when they were shot.
She’d have to make sure she didn’t share the same fate.
Priming the weapon wasn’t hard to figure out. There was a handle at the end of the chain that she was supposed to grip, likely to help her in throwing it, and a metal tab that was clearly meant to “break” and be pulled out. And then you just throw, right? There were similar devices that were made by the minotaurs and the griffons, and the Guard even used a similar tool, though it was non-lethal.
But even they said not to drop it. She gripped the handle in one hand, holding the tab with the fingers of her other. From the street there was a roar, followed by a single word she could decipher.
“Advance!” It was like they wanted her to know they were coming for her. She squeezed her eyes shut, swallowed, and yanked the tab out. When the world didn’t end, she cracked an eye open to see a glowing orange light at the end of the handle.
With a shout she rose above the top of the barrier, swinging the grenade out and letting it fly. Shots raced back at her, but she was already ducking into cover, conscious of the half-dozen or so Locust she’d seen just rushing through the gate.
There was a guttural cry of alarm as one of them shouted “Grenade” followed by a wet, almost muffled boom. The sound was puzzling—maybe the grenade had been old and not quite suitable—at least until she’d reloaded her rifle and poked her head out and saw the smoking wet, splattered remains of what had probably been one or two Locust that appeared to have been right in the center of the blast. Apparently her throw hadn’t quite reached the gate … but it had reduced an uncertain number of her attackers to shredded chunks of flesh, while those that had been at the gate itself were falling back with visible injury. She put a string of shots into one’s back, cutting it down.
The grenade had bought her some time. She ducked again as she heard the telltale whine of the bolt thrower, wishing she could track where those were coming from and force it back. Her cover shook and shuddered, dust rising into the night sky on the horizon as another part of the city skyline seemed to collapse.
I just need to keep them from coming through the gate. There was another grenade hanging from the dead cog’s belt, and she grabbed it, peering over the barrier but noting that none of the Locust seemed keen to rush through the gap now. They were just firing sporadic shots at her location, and she ducked down as a few came quite close.
I just have to hold out until the helicopter gets here. However long that takes. Just a little—
With a roar the ground across the street heaved, whole slabs of pavement rising up into the air and crashing to either side. Massive spindly legs rose from the depths, shoving aside rubble and debris as they cleared a path out of the depths. For a moment Sunset was seized with the horrible image of one of the creature’s legs sweeping her meager emplacement aside, but then the thing backed down the tunnel it had made, vanishing into the dark.
With combined roars more than a dozen new Locust rushed out of the opening, followed by something similar to all of them, but much larger.
“Boom!” Its voice was deep, almost resonating with the rumble of the earth. For a moment she wondered about its choice of phrase, but then the large gun it was holding spat out an arcing projectile that soares overhead past her tower, whistling the whole while. It slammed into the ground behind it, exploding with terrific force that made the world swim.
Great. She could barely feel any additional fear at the revelation. She was already numb. I throw a grenade, so they shoot one.
She popped off a few shots at the thing, but it was like shooting a wall. She saw the shots hit home, digging into its flesh even as returning fire forced her back down, but it was like the thing didn’t even acknowledge the pain. It shook its head and continued reloading its drum-like weapon, still looking in her direction.
Off to her left, inside the wall of the checkpoint, the ground began to crack and heave, spitting upward. Another emergence hole. Her magazine ran dry, and she ducked behind the wall, fumbling for the other grenade as more guinfire poured by overhead. There was another whump from down below, followed by the whistling sound of the large Locust’s explosive weapon as it barreled toward her—
And with a crack that made her ears ring and her vision blur it slammed into the concrete barrier she was crouched behind. The sound of the explosion swept over her like a wave, a crushing impact that seemed to suck the breath from her lungs and reduce the world to a painted smear. She dropped the grenade, clapping her hands over her ears. A cry of pain left her throat, but she almost couldn’t hear it.
The world came back quickly enough, the faint ringing in her ears fading and her field of view returning with each blink. Her head hurt, like she’d taken a hit but from all sides, and when she brushed a hand against her lip it came away wet with blood. When had she cut her lip?
A plume of rock and earth rose into the sky off to her … right? Somehow she’d gotten turned around. The plume was bad, she knew that much. Because it was a hole. A hole more Locust were now crawling out of.
Her thoughts felt hazy, like someone had slathered her brain in maple syrup. She let out a quiet, distorted laugh. “Sryup.” What a funny word. Princess Celestia had always let her have syrup.
She slid forward on her hands and knees, grabbing the grenade from where it had fallen on the floor. The world was getting clearer by the second, speeding up like a record player that had been rewound.
Seran biology, Sunset realized as hefted the grenade, glancing to her right at the new emergence hole. Tough.
One thing she could like about her new body. She yanked the tab from the bottom of the handle, wincing as a shot from one of the new arrivals almost parted her mane, and hurled the grenade toward the hole.
At least, she’d meant to throw it at the hole. Instead her throw went wild, the strange, flail-like weight living up to its name and falling wildly off target, not coming anywhere close to the hole. It detonated a moment later, showering her position with gravel.
One of the Locust laughed, mocking her throw. She shoved another magazine into her lancer. By her estimate, she only had one other left. Another tremor rippled through the city, the ground groaning in concert with a deep, rhythmic thumping sound. The large Locust fired again, the projectile whistling by overhead. A miss, but it really didn’t seem to matter. She didn’t even dare stick her head over the top of the barrier there were so many bullets coming at her now. Instead she fired out the opening on the side, not hitting anything but at least keeping the Locust inside the perimeter wall from taking return shots at her.
The magazine let out a click, the lancer dry. Another cry of “Boom” echoed from the street, another explosive detonating nearby.
“Advance!”
This is it. She loaded the last magazine, her throat suddenly tight. She was right.
I couldn’t do this. I’m going to die.
She took a long, slow, steadying breath, ignoring the pain in her head, in her back, across her arm, and a few other places that she almost hadn’t been aware were hurting. What happens if I die here? In this world? Do I get stuck in limbo? Or do I end up in whatever afterlife this world has? The inside of her chest felt like it was glowing with heat.
She yanked the lancer’s lever back, chambering a round. I guess I’ll find out. I wasn’t strong enough.
The heat swelled, a furious determination filling her and her pains lessening somewhat. But I can make sure I drag a few more of them with me.
“Boom!” She turned to the side and fired, cutting down a Locust that was just starting to climb up the same defensive emplacements she had. It was too close to do anything but whither under her fire, slumping as her shots bored right through its armor. Another blast from the weapon throwing explosives rattled her position, bulwarks shaking and the corpse slumping to one side.
She fired again and again, forcing her attackers to stay low, metering out the last few bullets in her magazine. Then the familiar figure of the larger Locust appeared through the opening in the side of her position, eyes fixed right at her. She aimed as it lifted its weapon, putting her last two bullets into its shoulder.
It didn’t even flinch, opening its jaw to speak once again. “Boo—!”
And it blew apart. One second it was there, the next gone as the roar of a massive explosion swept over the lot. Sunset’s jaw dropped as several of the nearest Locusts fell to the ground in the wake of the blast, some seeking cover a second before another explosion tore them to pieces, something striking the ground with a hot, angry hiss before ripping the surrounding area apart.
Gunfire followed a moment later. Not the short, sporadic bursts of bullets she’d come to expect from the Locusts’ weapons, but twin lines of death that descended out of the sky and cut one of the remaining attackers in half.
The rhythmic thumping she’d been hearing suddenly made sense as she followed the twin lines up into the sky. A helicopter—a king raven—hung in the air, its sides spitting fire, sweeping it back and forth across the Locust lines. Return fire was on it in an instant, the Locust switching targets and firing back. Sparks flew from the aircraft’s armored prow as it soaked up the shots, but the machine seemed to care as little for the ground fire as the large Locust had for Sunset’s own. There was a sharp hiss and another missile of some kind shot out from beneath the thing’s stubby wings, streaking down into the street. A titanic blast followed a second later, gravel bouncing off of Sunset’s position as the explosion ripped the street apart.
“Is anyone still alive down there?” The voice boomed across the war-torn parking lot, and Sunset almost let out a laugh of disbelief.
“Here!” she shouted, unsure if they could see her but rising and waving her arms. “He—!”
Something hot and angry slammed into her back and she stumbled forward, her cry morphing into one of pain. Stupid! she thought as she ducked once more. You stood!
But the spray of gunfire from the raven showed that it had seen her, and better yet the scream of pain from the street suggested that the Locust that had fired on her had been repaid in kind and by far more.
With another hiss the helicopter fired another missile, this one vanishing into the nearby emergence hole and detonating. Dust and rock rose into the sky as the hole collapsed in on itself.
“We’re coming down!” the projected voice exclaimed. “We’ll cover you, but—” The voice cut off as the aircraft juked to one side, another whistling explosive like the one used by the large locust shooting past and just barely missing it. “You need to move!” the voice finished.
With that, the aircraft began dropping out of the sky, far faster than any helicopter she’d ever seen in Equestria move. It was coming down to land, and quickly.
Which means I need to move! Her mind caught up only a second later, but the aircraft was already almost down by the time she’d risen to her feet once more.
The tags! She yanked the tags from around the corpse’s neck, grabbed her pack, and jumped from the platform, stumbling as she landed and slamming her knees into the concrete. It hurt, but it was just one more bit of pain atop everything else. More gunfire was flying through the air now, the Locust in the street redoubling their efforts to kill her, the helicopter, likely anyone.
The aircraft had landed by the time she made the last leap to the ground, stumbling again. When had her balance become so poor? A heavy-looking door on the side of the machine opened, and she saw several serans waving at her, motioning for her to run in their direction.
People.
Two of them were firing a rifle she’d never seen before back at the locust, spraying gunfire while shouting. At her, she realized as she ran. They were shouting at her. To hurry.
She swayed, though the ground beneath her hadn’t shifted. The world felt like it was sliding sideways, tipping out from under her. Step by step the raven neared, outstretched hands reaching for her. They couldn’t be real, maybe it was all just a hallucination as she bled out on the ground.
But she could feel their thick, calloused skin in hers as they grabbed her outstretched hands, pulling her roughly aboard the aircraft. Someone shouted “Go!” and her weight seemed to double as the ground rushed away, one foot still dangling out the side into open air. More hands grabbed her armor, yanking her in and all but tossing her to the deck.
“Medic!” A doctor sounded good. Maybe they hadn’t tossed her. Maybe her legs had just given out.
The world was swimming. She could feel the faint thump of the helicopter’s rotors through the deck, a soothing vibration that made her want to nod off.
But she couldn’t. Not yet. Several serans were huddled over her, their expressions hidden behind large helmets with glowing blue eyes. She smiled. Or tried to.
“Hi,” she said, the word coming out in a wheeze. “I’m really glad you came to get me.”
Closing her eyes, Sunset slept.