Page 6 of Under the Iron Sky

It never made it. Because Soraya’s father had peeled himself off the floor and jumped into its path.

The world stopped spinning as his body smacked against the floor. The man threw his arm back again, preparing for another strike, but disappeared with the boy when golden rays of Light zipped toward him. Soraya hadn’t even felt her mother snatch the gun from her hand. Hadn’t even heard the hovercraft approach, its usually loud, bone-vibrating hum barely a whisper.

Soraya blinked, and she was in the large craft, flying over the ruined city.

Her father lay across the floor, her mother and a man in white flight leathers working over him.

Soraya turned away.

Why hadn’t she taken the shot? She’d known these creatures were dangerous. They may not have been the same species, but the lizard and the child clearly fought for the same side. She’d seen one of them tear Bertok in half without a second thought, and yet she’d hesitated when one had been standing over her own father. If he died now, it would be her fault.

While her father screamed, Soraya stared out the window. There was a large crack running through the center of the city proper, zigzagging out for miles. Farther than she could see.

A loud boom tore through the world. The buildings around them shook, and a wave of cold air smashed against the craft with enough force to send it rocking for a second before they leveled out again.

It was like watching the gates of hell open.

Droves of creatures crawled out of the new cracks, practically ripping one another apart to wreak havoc on the other side, on her people. Some had four limbs, some more, some had wings, some didn’t; thousands and thousands more of them spilling out in a wave of black armor and iron helmets, destroying everything they touched.

A tower of black stone speared through a crack, shooting into the air, shattering buildings and Sunflowers as it went. Thick gray smoke began wafting out of its apex once it crested. The smoke quickly spread over the sky until it blocked out all three suns, and for the first time in almost 175 years, the mighty Vordellian empire was plunged into darkness.

3

SPRING, FIFTEEN YEARS AFTER THE CRACKS APPEARED

Silence.

Nothing.

Not a fucking sound.

Pushing a piece of long golden hair into the twist at the back of her skull, Soraya peered into the chasm before her. Nothing but darkness stared back, but she knew better than to move forward without taking precautions.

She kept a firm grasp of the gun in her hand, the smooth black handle steady as a rock, and glanced at the holographic chart coming out of her left bracer, the one that’d been spinning around for almost a minute now with no signs of stopping. Fantastic.

“Maybe the informant was wrong,” Noah whispered nervously at her side. “Maybe the nest isn’t down there.”

Around and around the blue dial spun, as though they had all the time in the world. For fuck’s sake, why was it taking so long? Yes, her equipment had certainly seen better days and yes, this monorail station hadn’t exactly been known for having great signal even before the communication towers had been burned to ash—but surely it should’ve been picking up something? Soraya had fixed all the bugs with this latest batch herself, so what the hell was its problem?

Glaring, she shook her wrist—not the most technical solution, but it did make her feel marginally less likely to break the damned thing. Well, until the dial stalled, beeped rather angrily, then continued spinning even slower than before. Oh, for the love of—

“Raya?”

“What?” she snapped, and instantly regretted it when Noah flinched away. It wasn’t his fault she was so on edge, and it was his first time in the field, after all. A fact that was painfully obvious from one look at him.

This mission relied on stealth, and although the enemy might not be able to hear his knees trembling against each other, the rattling of the sunrifle in his hands was surely going to give away their position. He’d been top of his class back at the barracks, but war was an entirely different game when your nose was pressed up against all the blood and gore.

Soraya could hardly blame him for being so nervous. They were here to destroy one of the breeding grounds for the lizard creatures that made up the bulk of the enemy’s army—or stalkers, as they’d been named since the invasion. They weren’t the most difficult thing in the world to kill, a well-placed blow to the head would do. The problem was how quickly they spawned. During the colder seasons, they seemed to breed faster than they could be killed, and one or two bad months could turn the tide in this war.

Soraya suppressed a shudder thinking of the last time they’d gotten to a nest too late—the trail of bodies left behind. They couldn’t fail today. The Vordellians had fought hard to scrape back some kind of balance in this war, and she wouldn’t allow it to slip away now. The nest had to go—but Noah wasn’t making it easy.

She’d tried to give him the benefit of the doubt when he’d tripped over his own feet as they’d been creeping through the ruins of the surrounding town, and he’d seemed fine when they’d snuck through the broken glass doors that led into the station without detection—but then they’d found the entrance to the nest and he’d gone to pieces.

He was no good to her like this, trembling at the shards of torn steel that looked horribly like a human spine bent backward—but how was she supposed to calm him down?

Holstering her gun against her thigh, Soraya forced a smile onto her face and placed her hands on Noah’s shoulders. Too narrow. He wasn’t nearly old enough to be out here.

“Everything is going to be fine,” she said softly. “The rest of the team are already in position, and once they’ve created the diversion all we need to do is sneak into the nest, drop a few bombs, and we’re done. Easy.”