59.16N 115.12W
MACKENZIE COUNTY, AB
10 NOV 2011, 21:22 MST
The guide-beam pointed straight down. Duncan checked it twice as they descended to the ground. “We’re definitely right over it. But all I see is snow and ice.”
“Why not triangulate to figure out how deep it is?” asked Gwen.
Duncan replayed the last few minutes of the flight. “Just over 3200 meters below the surface.”
“And you’re sure it’s here?”
“I can still feel the echo of it. This is what we need.”
Gwen hummed softly to herself. “We need to dig through three kilometers of rock and do it soon. We’re going to need lunar power for this, and a lot of it.”
Duncan was already transforming a hole in the ground, while Dia summoned a whirlwind that blew all the snow, ice, and surface dirt away. Unfortunately, Duncan could only affect about ten meters’ thickness of rock in one go, the deeper layers blocked from their power by the ones above. The stone shifted slowly. “Direct transformation is at best ten meters per minute. That’ll take us over five hours.”
“So what would be fast...” Gwen stopped talking as an enormous crystal formed above the borehole. Lunar power collected in it, then lanced down into the hole. Its fury disintegrated stone ten times as fast as the other way. While it plunged into the bedrock below, Gwen could feel Dia’s magic already working on the lining, reinforcing and stabilizing the rock of the foot-wide hole. “That’ll do. And it solves how to get power down there, too. Nice.”
*** *** ***
HIGHWAY 78
4 MILES WEST OF ATHENS, GA
10 NOV 2011, 23:32 EST
A pickup truck pulled off the highway well short of the retreating column of demonic rhino-tanks, drove up onto the overpass, and parked. Two men got out, and lifted a heavy rifle out of the trunk. They set it up on the edge of the overpass, and sighted down the highway. “Hope Coot got this right.”
Both put on ear protection before ‘Hawk’ got comfortable with the rifle and sighted it in. One trigger pull produced an almighty bang, and a mile and a half away one of the rhino-tanks roared as the round scored its hide. Hawk grumbled, and adjusted his aim point. The second round struck true, and the rhino burst into an enormous cloud of ash that obscured the rest of the column. “Woohoo!”
Bob pulled out his modified night vision binoculars and studied the scene. “Damn. That cloud is leaving a huge death-field. We’ll have to find a parallel road.”
He pulled out a radio handset, and called in their observations. A crackling voice replied, “Sergeant Bennet, you were told not to engage.”
“Aw, c’mon. Skies are clear, Hawk made sure of that. We could probably bag one more.”
“Are you sure the skies are clear?”
Bob handed the binoculars to Hawk. “Double check for me, willya?”
Hawk put his namesake eyes to good use, and scanned the skies in all directions. “Clear as a whistle.”
Bob spoke into the radio again. “We’re clear. Haven’t seen a flyer since the rout half an hour ago.”
“Got a present for you, then. Hold position, and watch the column.”
“Whatever you say boss.”
The voice sighed at the informality, and signed off.
Hawk spent the next few minutes scanning the skies with the binoculars. “Oh, hey, spotted something... Oh yeah, this is going to be good.”
“What is?”
“Wait for it.”
A few seconds later the unmistakable sky-tearing noise of an A-10’s cannon filled their ears, and the column of tanks disappeared in a cloud of ash.
“WOOHOO!”
Once the echoes had died down, they scanned the area where the tanks had been. There was no sign that any had escaped. Bob called in his observations, and added, “Dunno how you got cobalt onto so many bullets, but whatever you did worked like a charm.”
“Cobalt-laced grease pencil. Just run it down the line...”
*** *** ***
CHEYENNE MOUNTAIN
COLORADO SPRINGS, CO
10 NOV 2011, 21:35 MST
Yet another klaxon blared. The General’s glare got it silenced before he could speak.
“Multiple launches from mainland China. Looks like about a third of their arsenal.”
“Aw hell. Are we really starting World War Three while we’re being invaded? Wait, there are only sixteen missiles being tracked. That’s a third of their arsenal?”
“Intel’s best estimate is they only have about a third of what they claim, if that. This could be the works.”
“Get me a line to them, we need to talk this down now.”
The clatter of a telex drew most of the eyes in the room. “They’re contacting us. ‘Internal Matter, cleansing demons’.”
“They’re going to nuke them?”
The missile trajectories bent inward. Overlaying the demon tracker showed they were arrowing toward the six portals on the mainland, each in a major city. The remaining pairs were headed toward Taipei and Pyongyang, both of which were showing the red of an uncontained portal-driven invasion.
“Send acknowledgement of their message, and thank them.”
“Yes sir.”
Tense minutes went by as the missiles closed on their target. Beijing was the first to go, and once the blast had cleared they zoomed in on that area. “Portal appears to have been destroyed.”
“Nice.”
Several more cities lit up in short succession. Only three portals were destroyed in the first volley, and the followup strikes took out two more. They relayed that data to the Chinese command, and watched another set of missiles go up.
“Should we be doing the same?”
“The Atlanta incursion has been contained, and we’re arming up more aircraft to try to cut off the wing heading toward New York. I think we’ve nuked ourselves enough for one night.”
*** *** ***
HEART OF THE WORLD
MACKENZIE COUNTY, AB
10 NOV 2011, 21:55 MST
“And we’re through!” crowed Duncan. The horizontal spur they’d crafted from the main shaft had broken through into an underground cavern, and water was pouring out into the shaft. A quick blast of lunar power carved a runoff chamber, and they sent a crystal down to observe the cavern.
What they all saw filled them with wonder. As the water drained, a cavern full of enormous crystals was revealed, looking like the inside of a geode some thirty meters across.
In the center was a single crystal, easily ten meters across, with a heart as clear as a diamond.
“Oh. Wow. It’s beautiful. It seems a shame to carve it out of its pillar.”
“Do we have to? There’s a sphere in there, just... make the enchantment spherical to match it, right?”
Gwen considered that. “It should work, let’s get started.” She headed down the shaft with Bunhill and Henry, while the triad worked to set up a more powerful relay of lunar energy.
A few minutes later their communication crystal chimed with a call from Agent Brown.
“Yes?”
“I have good news and bad news.”
“Oh dear. What’s the good news?”
“The demons are all withdrawing back to their portals, even the ones that were rampaging freely.”
“And the bad news?”
“They’re pouring out of the Detroit portal and headed your way.”