Jhoira emerged from the lower decks, two human technologists at her heels. "Aim for the dreadnought-for its thorax! Hold until you're ready to activate the cannons." It lumbered toward the Mana Rig, its mandibles clacking. Stones plinked from its glistening black body and small fibers writhed out from its armor plates as if tasting the air.
Coalition fighters shoved back their ladders, chopped off grappling hooks, and jabbed spears into the twisted beasts.Ī Phyrexian dreadnought lifted itself from the horde, whale-like in its immensity-only no whale Karn had ever seen possessed a centipede's legs or mandibles. The first wave of Phyrexians scaled the Mana Rig's sides. Its surface heaved like a sea about to be breached by a whale, rippled, and then broke as an immense monstrosity arose from its depths. The Phyrexians beneath the Mana Rig were so numerous they resembled an iridescent pool in the bright Shivan light. Goblins and viashino disassembled food stalls wedged between the buildings and rolled out siege machinery to replace them: mana cannons hung over the sides, pointed at the desert below. Above him, the upper decks climbed toward the helm, located in an outcropping that overlooked the front hemisphere. Although Karn could not see them from his vantage, he knew they clamped down onto the red desert rocks, fixing the Mana Rig to the cliffside similarly, the distant stern hemisphere was connected to the mountains of Shiv by a jury-rigged bridge. The lower decks looked like a split globe the two hemispheres joined with an assembly that supported the Mana Rig's legs. Since Jhoira's workshop was located at the prow, from here Karn could see the entire Mana Rig. Teferi broke out into a jog, and Karn followed him onto the upper deck. "For what it's worth, Karn, I apologize for how I treated you in the past."Ī klaxon blared above decks, summoning the troops to fight. "It was too easy, to think of you as a thing, while watching you being built." Teferi bowed his head. I cannot risk harm coming to you due to badly fitting armor." Organic beings' torsos being gigantic buckets for their organs was an obvious design flaw. What if it was not a spy that Karn needed to seek but a spying device, hidden somewhere aboard the Mana Rig? He stepped forward and tightened Teferi's breastplate, glad he had no need of such accoutrements. A buckle had come loose, but due to his still-healing injuries, he could not reach around to adjust it.įinished. He shifted his shoulders beneath his breastplate. "Your work on the Sylex?" Teferi looked worried. It writhed, hissing as its blood boiled, its oil conflagrated, its flesh cooked, and its metal melted. He placed one hand on it, removed the blade, and tossed the creature into a crucible. Pinned and writhing as the monstrosity was, Karn did not know what information it could transmit to Sheoldred. "It's installed, and she's currently linking the cannons into the Mana Rig's power supply." If she did, she would be able to create powerstones and apply Thran steel, which was nearly indestructible, to her monstrous creations. They would not permit Sheoldred to obtain and convert the Mana Rig. Jhoira had occupied herself with setting up the self-destruct mechanism on the Mana Rig's helm, a priority now that Sheoldred's troops had begun to mass. "Is this interrupting Jhoira's progress?" Had the creature found the food stores accidentally? Or had the spy given their location to Sheoldred? Karn had been unable to determine the spy's identity Jaya, Jodah, and Ajani had yet to arrive, and he expected that they would be able to help once they did. Karn only understood organic beings' relationship to food in abstract terms, but he'd witnessed how missing even a single meal could cause Jhoira to become irritable, even when starvation had not been at issue.
You can imagine how our troops feel about that." "Jhoira is checking them for corruption, but until they're cleared, dinner is off. "It was in the food stores," Teferi said. "It's the second saboteur I've found." Teferi managed the troops, acting as both a general and a quartermaster-no easy task in the new Coalition, where so many species acted in concert as allies. Karn observed its thrashing with dispassion. The creature squealed, spurting black glistening oil from its octopoidal body, writhing in anger. Teferi slammed a Phyrexian monstrosity onto Karn's worktop and pinned it with a knife.
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