Prelude

It took ten more minutes of bloody work but they cleared the last of the Nem3’s. Having four Black Hawks in the sky helped like crazy, though they almost lost one when a Nem3 wheeled and loosed a harpoon straight up at is undercarriage. The bird wheeled away at the last second, the harpoon missing by a yard.

When finally the last Nem3 collapsed to their massed gunfire, James set the Wing down and staggered off it. Took a moment to take stock, looking up and down the line of buses.

Perhaps a quarter of them were wrecked. Gauged open, caved in, tires torn off, roofs ripped up. But casualties were, at least at first glance, light. Aeviternum no doubt, but also plain good tactics. Synergies showing their worth. Shields and Circles of Protection, Smite-enhanced M4’s and the fact that their tactic of riding buses had forced the Nem3’s to the outside, needing to cut their way in even as Blue Team triads and Black Hawks cut them down.

“Command, this is Kelly. Brooklyn Convoy is cleared.”

Hackworth responded. “Copy, Kelly. The Queens convoy is still engaged. Can you catch up with them on the Wings?”

“Yeah, we can do that.” James looked at this crew. “Mount up. We’ve more work to do.”

“Command, heading up the 87 now, over.”

They got back on the angelic crafts and rose smoothly to a height of some ten yards. His divine power pool was dangerously low; having blasted out two Heavenly Assaults was a wicked drain, but he still had enough to urge the Wing to glide forward with ever faster speed.

No need for words. No time for a god damn speech.

Just time enough to hurry and help out as best they could.

Some of the teams along the Brooklyn convoy let out ragged cheers as they flew by, but the sound only infuriated James. Didn’t they see? Didn’t they understand? This was nothing. This was a fucking appetizer to the main course that was coming. They’d put a stop to about a hundred Nem3’s without taking too many losses, but it had been a hard fight, and they’d been forced to burn a lot of resources.

How the fuck were they supposed to handle the hundreds of thousands coming with the Fourth Wave?

“Command, please relay a message to Miles.” The bubble of calm around the Wing made it easy to speak even as they went ever faster. “We need to increase out Fabricator output. Not just Wings. We need everything. We need it yesterday. Over.”

“Copy, Kelly,” said Star Boy, voice sober.

James grimaced and leaned over the handlebars. Urged the Wing faster. They blew past Carvajal’s team that was mounting up, no doubt having received the same message. The Black Hawks had streamed ahead, moving shockingly fast for such massive vehicles.

“Kelly, situation with Queens convoy is bad,” said Star Boy. “They dropped their Nem3’s north of Yonkers, and two thirds of the buses got away. Last third was trapped by a crash, they’ve circled wagons, but are facing almost a hundred Nem3’s. Get there fast.”

Get there fast.

What would happen if he dumped a point of Aeviternum into the Wing’s tank? He had three points left. That was three Heavenly Assaults, but what use would those be if he arrived five minutes too late?

He checked his sheet, a quick summons that brought the numbers before him. 15 unspent points, 10 just gained, 5 from his last level that he’d never spent. Checked Aeviternum costs. 15 a point now.

Damn.

Boost Arete? Buy another Aeviternum? What was the right call?

He needed that aura. With what was coming, another Heavenly Assault wouldn’t make a difference.

Better Iron Aura would.

He dumped the 15 points into his Arete. It rose to 70. His divine power pool swelled, his Iron Aura rose to 4, and with savage determination he summoned his second Aeviternum and poured it into the Wing.

“What the fuck?” shouted Serenity as the hoverbike began to glow gold.

“Hold on,” growled James, and the Wing flew.

They left the pack behind, skimming forward ever faster, the trees blurring around them, the empty blacktop speeding by. Faster and faster, and then the Black Hawks were growing larger, crawling back toward them through the sky. James kept his gaze locked on the road up ahead. Willed the Queens convoy to swell into view.

They sped under the Black Hawks.

“This is Super Six Three, what is that passing us below?”

“Super Six Three, this is Alpha Five One, that’s an Angel Wing, over.”

“An Angel Wing?” The Black Hawk’s pilot’s calm, almost bored tone came close to cracking. “It’s going almost three hundred miles an hour.”

James left the Black Hawks behind. Hunched over the vibrating, burning Wing he willed it to go faster, felt its components rattling, starting to come apart beneath him. Willed it to hold together, to give him just a little more juice, to just get there…

They blasted over a subtle rise in the highway, crested, and there was the convoy just ahead, Cortlandt Park long gone, a large grassy bank rising on their right to warehouses, more bare trees on the left.

The buses had formed a crude triangle, many of them overlapping, and atop their roofs stood Blue Light teams, guns blazing, Circles of Protection flaring into view again and again.

Thirty or forty Nem3’s were massed around them, hunching over to launch harpoons, leaping and being rebuffed by shields, though there, on the left corner, three had gained a bus roof.

James came tearing down upon them at full speed, but even so he wasn’t in time. He could only watch as the Nem3’s tore through the team, ripping bodies which healed with Aeviternum and then were torn again, swiping heads off, bulling their way deeper into the defenses.

One of the Queen’s convoy Black Hawks came roaring past, unleashing hell, but the Nem3’s leaped aside, mercurially quick, having figured out how the choppers worked.

“Hold on,” shouted James. Two Aeviternum points, just enough divine power for another Heavenly Assault.

“Slow down!” Serenity screamed back.

No time to slow down. They came bleedingly fast down the interstate, silent but for a deep thrumming in the wind, and at the last second James yanked the Wing to one side, letting traction slip so that they slid broadside into the mass of Nem3’s.

At the same time, he burned an Aeviternum, fueling a Heavenly Assault. It dropped from the skies like a blast from fucking Thor, slamming like a redwood made of living silver and gold right into the densest part of the Nem3’s, obliterating them with Gloria.

But the demons possessed crazy reflexes. They reacted instantly as the Wing slid amongst them, turning, snarling, preparing to leap.

James dropped a second Heavenly Assault on the other side of the bus-triangle, shattering the world again with livid light.

The first flared away, revealing a dozen dead Nem3’s, each little more than standing columns of ash.

Three Nems launched themselves at James, and he shunted the Wing forward, jerking ahead four or five yards, turned it hard to the right, skidded a yard, leaped forward again.

Nems landed around them.

Serenity opened up with her Ma Deuce.

DONDONDONDONDONDONDONDON -

This time her 50 Cals punched clear through the demons, not killing the ones behind, but far more effective than moments ago.

Text was flickering into view:

"Whoever comes to us with the sword will die by the sword."

Prince Alexander Nevsky was a revered 13th-century Russian military leader and statesman, who ascended to prominence through his victories over the Teutonic Knights and the Swedes. Revered as a wise and brave leader, he was later canonized by the Russian Orthodox Church for his devout faith and commitment to his people.