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As we pass into the ht to day A golden bow of sunlight blazes around the planet as if it were Apollo’s own, and we the children of Hyperion, racing our chariots home For a moment, it makes me miss that far-off city and the home I haven’t seen for half a life

The day face of the world reveals itself

Beneath the faint shi tropospheric shields are ses Teles stretch to the south Between them lies a mountain-studded equatorial desert

The infamous Ladon Eater of armies

The infant typhoon detailed in theIt forms a thin spiral cloud layer over the Sycorax Sea

There is tih to be lost in the majesty, and to remember nature did not provide this with her careless hand My race of mortals carved this paradise froreatest virtues of all men in common cause

A patriotic pride that I did not know I possessed fills h ines and Storm Gods here But this zeal evaporates as soon as I realize I do not belong to the age of giants who e where ht of human endeavor

I laugh at the cosrasp the stars and then let theers for the pettiness in its heart

But I feel hope That pettiness defined e It may yet not define ours

“Fine launch, goodmen I trust everyone kept breakfasts down dinners up,” Ajax says convivially There’s a chorus of laughter, and highLingo rebarbs Do they really love this? What creatures could be so at ease here and now? Am I even the same species?

“Heliopolis will still be covered by the southern shield chain Wecoordinates” The trajectory data appears on my display His voice becomes solemn as he delivers the Grimmus creed “Should the Void take you, celebrate, lory Prepare for atmospheric entry”

I wait for hiht blinks, it’s Kalindora, not Ajax

“Don’t burn your ravity do the work, not your generator Si And don’t activate your pulseShield till breach No telling e’ll get a recharge Last thing you want is your suit dying in a firefight”

Friction heat glows ahead of in their descent I see Atalantia’s Ash Legion descending to our left

The planet resists h kinetic energy to compress the air in front of me and turn it into a furnace A brittle layer of thermal soak tiles in the entry carapace absorbs the heat and sheds away All around, scores of starShells burst from carapaces ed by friction to scream like wrathful locusts down into the blue sky