of the Enshar quakes. The walls of his tomb bulged, and there was damage to the system. He died and did not die. The machines and his powers did not allow him even that mercy. His body wasted, though enough remained to anchor him in space-time. The Prekak’s mind grew more strange and bitter.
After an unimaginable time, a hole opened in the ceiling of his tomb. The Enshari had found him again. So far gone was he that a substantial period went by before what was left of his consciousness reacted to the fact he was free to strike. The vermin brought power into the pit. He seized their minds and took the power from them. The machines sucked at it greedily. He allowed no outward sign of the return of a measure of his strength. To the scientists and archeologists—now concerned by the strange behavior of their co-workers—he remained merely a colossal pile of dead bone.
Then the plan, laid down for epochs, burst outward in an orgy of devastation and death. The soldiers of light and air were once more raised. Many in Barjan, near the focus of his power, died merely at his mental command. He drew from the planet’s electromagnetic forces, lightning became whips of energy and lethal radiation. He turned his mind outward to the giant stations. His soldiers attacked sensitive installations, appearing inside the most critical areas. Radiation and force whips struck the stations. There was no defense possible. Death scoured Enshar, without mercy, without distinction, in every corner. He knew of the other races, and though he did not hate them with the passion he reserved for the Enshari, no mercy was shown them either. In hours it was over.
He had nearly spent his final strength. For as Enshar died, much of his power died with it. The machines slipped back into lower modes, and his awareness faded as well. When the primitive warships arrived, his strike was feeble, barely sufficient to ward them off.
A slumber of exhaustion came over him then. Dissolute and ancient, he gnawed on the memories of his hates. Many of the soldiers of air and light faded entirely. Some continued to wander the world, unseen and unfelt, with little volition or intelligence left to them. Specters in the charnel house they had made of the world.
Tiny pinpricks impinged on his consciousness recently. They had not been enough to rouse him. Until now.
*****
Fenaday twisted in the mental grip of his tormentor, but the thing focused its attention above. The soldiers of air and light formed beyond the lights and rushed toward the spacers. Cobalt and the other robots detected the movement, opening fire instantly, as Mmok cried a warning.
These Shellycoats were different, more dangerous and cunning. They ducked and dodged and used cover. As one shattered, another formed. It took more gunfire to break up the manifestations. They reached the line of crab robots and leapt on them. Electrical arcs lit the area as the Shellycoats, sucking power from the fabric of the world, grappled with the robots. Had they been even half as powerful as they were the night of the great slaughter, the battle would have lasted seconds. Ancient and enfeebled like their master, the Shellycoats could muster only a small fraction of their previous deadliness. The robots battled back, hand to hand, as the two forms of unlife tried to disassemble each other.
Cobalt fell as a large Shellycoat seized her in an electrical embrace. The HCR stiffened in a parody of human agony and dropped. The human defenders added their gunfire as the wave of enemies crashed through the sudden gap. Lasers, tri-autos and grenades lit up the battle scene. Shasti threw flares as far and fast as she could. Parts of the ceiling started to fall, sparking fresh terror. Shellycoats absorbed the falling bits, using them for mass.
A rush of the creatures pressed in suddenly. One seized Mmok. He fell in a crackle of electricity. Duna and Telisan tried to reach him. Telisan blasted several Shellycoats before a flailing blow dropped him to his knees, blood cascading down his face. Another knocked Duna flying from off the back of a utility robot, and the Enshari slid, unseen and limp, into a small hole.
A Shellycoat leapt on the back of the cargo robot at the pit’s edge. Shasti shot it to pieces. It fell into the pit, disintegrating into its components of rock, dirt, metal and bone.
Shasti handed her heavier weapon to Connery. “Keep shooting.” She turned