Page 9 (1/2)

—

With Lykos soil in a secure pouch, I depart the desert, spoiling for a fight

My shuttle bears north over the desert chalk Behind, Heliopolis trereat shield wall, a kiloing es House Votum crafted the wall to shield Heliopolis fro cyclones descend froh the Waste of Ladon down onto Heliopolis Sparks shiver along the wall’s crest as engineers weld guns from broken ships into place

I launs are only there to satisfy the demands of Heliopolis’s inhabitants and the Master Maker Glirastes, not to counter an invasion Heliopolis is the second-wealthiest city of Mercury, rich with architecture, faateway to the coastal nificant for my aims To the north is where I will break the enemy

Heliopolis is a thorn in my boot A hotbed of loyalist insurrection, plots, and back-alley hty city of limestone slouches south toward the Bay of Sirens and then the Caliban Sea Refugees and soldiers boil through the dusty streets and stuff the city with a ripe summer stink But there is another scent there in that desert city Not gull shit or fishelse, sos to the root of the brain

Fear

Fear in the eyes of ions as they look up to orbit where Atalantia fine-tunes her invasion plans, or to the shadowed uerrillas sharpen their i stakes, or to the streets filled with Mercurians, any of whom cou

ld be a spy or an assassin

If the death of the fleet was an auination Bit by bit, frontline exposure to the perversions of the Fear Knight’s guerrillas and waiting for the Rain deteriorates their psyches My loyal Martians patrol deserts andto be shot by snipers or hear the bug screanals a spidercaptured by the Gorgons, the Fear Knight’s veteran iion

Fear robs nity, their nobility of purpose, their belief in our cause Who can believe in the intangible with a garrote around their neck? They wait to die, slowly strangled by Atalantia and Atlas

Some hold out hope that the Republic will send a fleet There is a small chance, but if I hunker down and wait forleft of us when the enemy strikes We will die like flies, and fear will spread as the shadows of Atalantia’s fleet creep across the steps of the New Forum and their titanium boots tread the shores of my home

So that makes it all very simple

I must kill it before it kills us

—