Antarctica--Neuschwabenland, 1923
The hollowed hole was enormous, spreading out at the base of the stairs, much bigger than was necessary for what the chamber was home to currently. Herr-Doktor Werther von Kroen drew the ermine-lined seal-skin coat about him in a futile attempt to stave off the cold. The fur piping about his raised hood had not cut the frigid wind that howled across the ice above, allowing gusts to stab Kroen’s eyes. Sheltered now from the tundra outside, tears escape. . .
Thermobaric shockwaves rippled across the once placid pebble beach. Fireballs bloomed riotous and hungry. Explosions cracked the sky. In the span of a few hours, the world had descended into a mad cacophony punctuated by small arms fire, flashes of light and heat, and an Aristophanean chorus of coughs, barks, bellows, and batrachian trills.
Through eddies of fog, a hulking figure in matte-black Berserker armor darted along the west coast beachhead. Inside the heavil. . .
Thermobaric shockwaves rippled across the once placid pebble beach. Fireballs bloomed riotous and hungry. Explosions cracked the sky. In the span of a few hours, the world had descended into a mad cacophony punctuated by small arms fire, flashes of light and heat, and an Aristophanean chorus of coughs, barks, bellows, and batrachian trills.
Through eddies of fog, a hulking figure in matte-black Berserker armor darted along the west coast beachhead. Inside the heavil. . .
SHE WOKE BLIND to the scream of a siren.
Naked and encased in a standard travel pod, Relai spat out the dead breathing mask and heaved in a panicked breath. She pulled her face wide and horrified until her sealed eyelids tore open, blinked, and recognized drops of condensation forming on the gray plastic above her face. She was lying on her back.
Her pulse throbbed in her neck, in her temples, and she knew she wasn’t getting enough air. Slow down, slower, then—
No light and n. . .
SHE WOKE BLIND to the scream of a siren.
Naked and encased in a standard travel pod, Relai spat out the dead breathing mask and heaved in a panicked breath. She pulled her face wide and horrified until her sealed eyelids tore open, blinked, and recognized drops of condensation forming on the gray plastic above her face. She was lying on her back.
Her pulse throbbed in her neck, in her temples, and she knew she wasn’t getting enough air. Slow down, slower, then—
No light and n. . .
