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others like it were emerging from every crevice and homing in on the nearest
Invid.
And then he realized what the thing was: a miniature humanoid figure, whose
likeness Max had seen often enough to recognize it: Zor! The humunculi-Zors
were the size of a kid's toy model, made of kaleidoscopic colors, bounding
through the air or running at unbelievable speed to take on the Inorganics.
The myriad Zors were seeping from the fabric of the city to attack the
Regent's troops. Apparently, the ghost in the machine that was Haydon IV's
Awareness knew the Invid mind well-and had chosen to form its antibodies in
the image of the Regent's most hated foe.
In seconds, the Invid mecha were battling enemies that knew no surrender or
retreat. Blasts from Protoculture weapons disintegrated Haydon IV's
antibodies, but in the time it took to shoot one, a dozen more tiny Zor
simulacra rose up to attack. As the antibodies fastened themselves to the
Inorganics, coating them, the war machines began to glow.
Unlike the contest in which Jack's raiders had fought beneath the planet, the
antibodies weren't in unending supply now. There were limits even to Haydon
IV's power. As Inorganics everywhere blazed away at the tiny demons fashioned
in Zor's image, fewer and fewer appeared to take their places.
But the city was still blanketed with antibodies eager to hurl themselves onto
the mecha. As Max watched, a Hellcat, coated with the
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shifting, coruscating colors of the antibodies that had plastered themselves
to it, rolled and spat and flopped, clawing at itself uselessly. Its
destructive aura grew brighter, and a moment later it was ruptured by a
dazzling explosion, vanishing from sight.
Elsewhere, an Odeon staggered drunkenly, firing into the air, as antibodies
engulfed it. It tried to decontaminate its arm with blasts from its hand
weapon, but only succeeded in blowing the arm off. A moment later it, too,
blew apart.
Max spun on Veidt. "Hurry! Get that elevator back down for the others!
Quick, before this whole complex goes!"
Veidt was still stretched out across Sarna, oblivious to everything around
him. At length, Vowad regained some part of his composure.
"I will go," he said. In a moment, he had started the elevator back down in a
race to save as many others as he could.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
YOUR TAX DOLLARS AT WORK
Graffito found on Sentinels barricade in the Central Slavepen, thought to be
attributable to Bela
When the Regent heard of the revolt among the Praxian slaves, he took command
of the situation himself. He left his hive just outside the city and called
for his Land Cruiser-the grotesque mobile ground fortress that was the
centerpiece of large-scale Invid surface action.
When he was told that the Sentinels were in some way responsible for the slave
uprising, he sent word to his torturers to prepare for a much more demanding
schedule. But once he was informed that the antibodies of Haydon IV
had turned against him, he instructed his personal flagship to stand ready
against immediate departure.
Not that he counted the battle lost yet; the Haydonite defenses had been
designed to eliminate most of an invading force before that force got to the
planet's surface, and the Invid were already at close range. The Regent had an
advantage no invader had ever achieved before.
"Destroy all power sources!" he ordered. "Obliterate the planet's energy
production centers! The Regent was certain that without power, the antibodies
would quickly de-rezz into nothingness.
Those Invid not engulfed in Zor antibodies immediately began destroying all
power sources they could detect, which meant razing things at random. The
biped Inorganics, in particular, destroyed ages of craftsmanship and art in
minutes, turning their aim haphazardly from one target to the next. Minarets
toppled, domes shattered, and delicate mansions collapsed like fragile pastry
crust. Fires flared up, and smoke began to block out Briz'dziki, Haydon's sun.
Then commo relays showed the Regent the nature of the antibodies. Zor, again!
The Regent's entourage ducked and ran from his berserk blows; he lashed out at
the consoles and instrument panels around him. He wrenched the command chair
from the deck, flinging it against a bulkhead so hard that the chair dented
the plates.
Zor! The perversity of the Haydon IV machinery! The towering affrontery of it!
"I will have this planet or I will destroy it!" the Regent roared.
Though he was in a part of the city that had been spared the appearance of the
antibodies, the Regent thought better of his plan to travel on the ground. He
called for a Terror Weapon troop dropship; but of the three on
Haydon IV at the moment, two were elsewhere on the planet picking up
reinforcements and the third had been destroyed while hovering near its
landing pad not far from the Central Slavepen.
The Regent changed his instructions, and the Land Cruiser swung toward the
starport. Time to make a break for his flagship, while he still had other
cards to play. A screen relayed the scene from the Land Cruiser's brig,
showing him that Rem was still firmly chained there. The Regent stroked his
mammoth Hellcats and contemplated the horrors he would inflict on the clone
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when all this was over.
Even Jack and his team, who had seen the Haydon antibodies in action in other
forms, had difficulty believing what they were witnessing. From the very walls
of the dungeons came doll-size Zors in every color, setting upon the
Inorganics, bringing them down and blowing them apart.
They were a reminder, too, of Rem, who was still held captive by the
Regent.
In the slavepens, the counterattack on the Praxians and the Sentinels stopped
cold. The main danger to the defenders now was the deafening sound of the
Inorganic volleys and the reports of the mecha being blown apart.
Nevertheless, the Inorganics had taken a considerable toll on the antibodies.
When the simulacra-Zors flickered away to carry the battle outside, like torch [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]