The warehouse was an inferno.
Orange flames licked the night sky, fighting a losing battle against the white storm.
Marcus stood ten feet from the fire. His nanites buzzed, drinking the heat. But behind him, the convoy was a mess.
The Rover was gone. Just a skeleton of melted steel in the doorway.
Marcia stood next to him. She was shaking. Violent, uncontrollable tremors. Her face was gray.
"My car," she stuttered. Her teeth clicked together.
"It's just metal," Marcus said. He unclasped his heavy fur cloak.
He wrapped it around her shoulders.
"I don't... need it," she whispered, clutching the fur instantly.
"I have the nanites," Marcus said. "You have blood. Keep it warm."
He turned to the Legion.
They were huddled near the burning building, soaking up the heat. But the wind was ruthless. Every gust stripped the warmth away in seconds.
"Mount up!" Marcus yelled. "If you stay, you freeze!"
"To where?" Decimus shouted back. He was shoving refugees into the back of Truck 5. "We have no coats! We have no heaters!"
"We have a target," Marcus pointed north. "Relay Tower 4. Ten miles."
"Ten miles in this?" Galen whimpered. The engineer was trying to salvage a radio from the wreckage. "It will take hours."
"Then start driving," Marcus growled.
He climbed into the passenger seat of the lead truck—a heavy 6x6 Parthian transport. The cab smelled of unwashed bodies and diesel.
Narcissus took the wheel. The cyborg barely fit. His shoulders scraped the doors.
Marcia squeezed in between them. She curled up under Marcus's cloak, shivering against his side.
"Drive," Marcus ordered.
The convoy rolled away from the fire.
The darkness swallowed them instantly.
The headlights cut cones of yellow into the white void.
It wasn't just snow. It was a wall. The flakes were heavy, metallic. Ash from the dead world mixed with the ice.
[VISIBILITY: 5 METERS.]
[RADAR: INTERFERENCE DETECTED.]
[SOURCE: METALLIC PARTICULATES.]
"I can't see the road," Narcissus rumbled. "I am guessing."
"Follow the pylons," Marcus said, pointing to the faint shapes of power lines buried in the drifts.
They crawled at 15 miles per hour. The engine groaned. The heater in the cab rattled, blowing lukewarm air that smelled of dust.
Marcia stopped shivering. That was bad.
"Marcia?" Marcus nudged her.
"I'm awake," she mumbled. Her eyes were half-closed. "Just tired."
"Don't sleep," Marcus said sharply. "You sleep, you die."
"Tell me a story then," she whispered. "Something warm."
"Rome," Marcus said. "August. The sun hitting the marble. The sand in the arena burning your feet."
"Sounds nice," she murmured.
CRACK.
The sound was sharp. Louder than the wind.
The truck behind them swerved.
Marcus looked in the side mirror.
Truck 2—the one carrying the heavy munitions—fishtailed. Its front right tire exploded. The rim dug into the ice. Sparks flew.
The truck jackknifed. It slammed into a snowbank.
"Contact!" Marcus grabbed the radio. "Halt! Defensive circle!"
The convoy screeched to a stop.
"Tire blowout?" Narcissus asked.
"No," Marcus said. "That was a shot."
He kicked the door open. He rolled out into the snow, drawing his vibro-gladius.
The wind hit him. [TEMP: -22°C.]
"Decimus! Report!" Marcus yelled into the comms.
"Truck 2 is down!" Decimus's voice was panicked. "Driver is dead! Headshot!"
Marcus crouched behind the massive wheel of Narcissus's truck.
"JARVIS! Where did it come from?"
[SCANNING...]
[THERMAL: NEGATIVE.]
[ACOUSTIC: INCONCLUSIVE. ECHO FROM THE BUILDINGS.]
"You're a God-Tier AI and you can't find a sniper?"
[THE SNOW IS FULL OF METAL, BOSS. IT'S A FARADAY CAGE. I'M BLIND.]
Another shot.
THWACK.
A bullet punched through the canvas of Truck 3. A woman screamed inside.
No muzzle flash. No sound of the rifle. Just the impact.
"They're suppressed," Marcus realized. "Thermal masking."
He looked at the ruins.
To the east, a row of crumbled apartment blocks. Windows like black eyes.
To the west, a collapsed shopping mall.
The shot could be anywhere.
"We are sitting ducks!" Decimus yelled. "The canvas doesn't stop bullets!"
"Narcissus!" Marcus shouted. "Cover Truck 2! Get the ammo out!"
The cyborg leaped from the cab. He landed in the snow with a thud that shook the ground.
He ran toward the wrecked truck.
PING. PING. PING.
Three shots hit Narcissus in the chest. Sparks flew off his chassis. He didn't slow down. He ripped the back door off Truck 2 and started tossing crates of ammo into the snow.
"High caliber," Narcissus roared. "Armor piercing!"
Marcus scanned the apartment block.
Nothing. Just gray static.
"If we stay here, he picks us apart," Marcus muttered. "I need to draw his fire."
[BAD IDEA.]
"I know."
[DO IT.]
Marcus stood up.
"JARVIS. Cut the thermal regulation."
[WARNING: YOU WILL FREEZE IN 3 MINUTES.]
"Cut it. Make me cold."
His internal heater died.
The cold rushed in. It felt like falling into ice water. His skin tightened. His breath hitched.
He was now the same temperature as the snow. Invisible to thermal scopes.
"Marcia!" Marcus yelled. "Flares!"
Marcia leaned out of the truck cab. She fired a flare gun into the sky.
WHOOSH.
A red star burned over the convoy. It cast long, dancing shadows.
"NOW!" Marcus sprinted.
He ran away from the trucks, toward the apartment block. He was a shadow moving in the red light.
He waited for the shot.
He wanted the shot.
He dived behind a frozen car.
CRACK.
The bullet hit the pavement where his head had been a second ago. Concrete exploded.
"GOT HIM!" JARVIS screamed in his head.
[TRAJECTORY CALCULATED.]
[TARGET: 4TH FLOOR. THIRD WINDOW FROM THE LEFT. BELL TOWER.]
"Narcissus!" Marcus yelled. "Bell Tower! 12 o'clock!"
The cyborg looked up. His golden eyes zoomed in.
"I see him," Narcissus growled.
Narcissus didn't shoot. He charged.
He ran through the waist-deep snow like a bulldozer. He hit the front door of the apartment building. The wood shattered.
Marcus followed, his teeth chattering uncontrollably.
"Heat... back... on," he gasped.
[RE-ENGAGING THERMAL REGULATION.]
Warmth flooded his chest. He took a breath.
He ran into the building.
The lobby was frozen. Narcissus was already pounding up the stairs.
Marcus followed the sound of crashing masonry.
4th Floor.
Narcissus kicked the door to the apartment down.
The room was empty. Just dust and snow blowing in through the broken window.
In the center of the room, set up on a tripod, was a rifle.
A heavy, long-barreled railgun. Cables ran from the trigger to a small black box.
It swiveled. The camera lens stared at Narcissus.
"It's a drone," Narcissus said, disappointed. He crushed the rifle with one hand.
"Where is the shooter?" Marcus asked, looking around.
[ANALYSIS: REMOTE CONTROL.]
[SIGNAL SOURCE: CLOSE.]
[VERY CLOSE.]
Marcus froze.
"It's a distraction," he whispered. "He wanted us to leave the convoy."
"The trucks," Narcissus realized.
"MARCIA!" Marcus screamed into the radio.
Static.
Then, a sound that froze his blood.
Metal tearing.
"Marcus!" Marcia's voice cut through the static. She was screaming. "It's under the snow! It's under us!"
Marcus looked out the window.
Down on the street, right next to the lead truck.
The snowdrift exploded.
It wasn't a drift.
A massive white shape rose from the ground. It shook off the powder.
Four legs. Hydraulics hissing. White armor plates.
A Boreas-Class Sentinel.
It stood twelve feet tall. It towered over the truck cab where Marcia was sitting.
Its head was a cluster of blue sensors. Its mouth was a chemical sprayer.
It roared—a mechanical shriek of grinding gears.
It raised a massive leg and smashed the hood of the truck.
Glass shattered.
"MARCIA!" Marcus jumped out the window.
He fell four stories.
[IMPACT COMPENSATORS ENGAGED.]
He hit a snowbank. It cushioned the fall, but the wind was knocked out of him.
He scrambled up.
The Sentinel was tearing the roof off the truck cab.
Marcia was inside, scrambling into the back seat, trying to get away from the crushing metal claws.
The Sentinel lowered its head.
HISS.
Blue gas sprayed from its mouth.
Liquid nitrogen.
It coated the dashboard. The plastic shattered instantly.
"Narcissus!" Marcus yelled, sprinting through the snow. "Throw me!"
The giant landed next to him. He had jumped too.
Narcissus grabbed Marcus by the belt and the collar.
"Go!" Narcissus heaved.
Marcus flew through the air.
He activated his vibro-gladius mid-flight. The purple blade hummed.
He landed on the Sentinel's back.
The metal was slippery with ice. He dug his fingers into a vent.
The Sentinel bucked. It was like riding an earthquake.
"Get off her!" Marcus screamed.
He drove the sword down.
It hit the white armor plating. Sparks flew. But the armor was thick. Ceramic composite. The blade didn't penetrate.
"Too thick!" Marcus yelled.
The Sentinel ignored him. It focused on the cab. It raised a claw to crush Marcia.
Marcia didn't scream.
She kicked the shattered windshield out. She crawled onto the hood.
She held a flare in her hand.
She lit it.
She jammed the burning magnesium flare into the Sentinel's eye cluster.
The machine shrieked. It recoiled, blinding white light searing its sensors.
It thrashed.
Marcus lost his grip.
He was thrown off. He hit the pavement hard.
The Sentinel shook its head, dislodging the flare. It turned its blue gaze toward Marcus.
"Run," Marcus whispered.
It opened its mouth.
The chemical sprayer hissed.
Marcus tried to stand. His leg gave out. Sprained.
The blue fog rushed toward him.
Then, a shadow fell over him.
Narcissus.
The cyborg stepped in front of Marcus. He spread his arms.
"I am the wall," Narcissus roared.
The liquid nitrogen hit Narcissus's chest.
HISSSSSS.
The metal turned white. Frost covered his golden core. His servos groaned as the fluid thickened.
But he didn't move. He took the freezing blast for his Emperor.
"Now!" Narcissus yelled, his voice slowing down, slurring. "Kill... it..."
Marcus saw the opening.
The sprayer nozzle was open.
He grabbed a grenade from his belt. A fragmentation grenade looted from the desert.
He pulled the pin with his teeth.
"Eat this," Marcus snarled.
He threw it.
Perfect arc.
The grenade went into the open mouth of the Sentinel, straight down the sprayer throat.
The Sentinel gagged.
BOOM.
A muffled explosion inside the machine.
Blue gas erupted from its neck joints. The head blew off, spinning into the darkness.
The body stood for a second, twitching.
Then it collapsed. A mountain of dead steel.
Silence returned to the street.
Just the wind. And the heavy, metallic breathing of Narcissus.
"Status," Marcus gasped, crawling toward the giant.
Narcissus fell to one knee. He looked like a snowman made of iron.
"Cold," Narcissus said. "Very... cold."
Marcia slid off the hood of the truck. She ran to Marcus.
"You're alive," she said, grabbing his face. Her hands were ice.
"We killed it," Marcus said. He looked at the dead machine.
"Start scavenging," Marcus ordered, struggling to stand. "Rip out its battery. We need the heat."
He looked north.
The red flare was still burning on the ground, illuminating the path.
"We're getting close," Marcus whispered.
"To what?" Marcia asked.
"To the man who built that thing."
Marcus sheathed his sword. The blade hissed as it melted the snow.
"Let's go say hello."