Iain Banks - Look to Windward

Near the time we both knew I would have to leave him, it was hard to tell which flashes were lightning and which came from the energy weapons of the Invisibles.

A vast burst of blue-white light leapt across the sky, making an inverted landscape of the ragged clouds undersurface and revealing through the rain the destruction all around us: the shell of a distant building, its interior scooped out by some earlier cataclysm, the tangled remains of rail pylons near the craters lip, the fractured service pipes and tunnels the crater had exposed, and the massive, ruined body of the wrecked land destroyer lying half submerged in the pool of filthy water in the bottom of the hole. When the flare died it left only a memory in the eye and the dull flickering of the fire inside the destroyers body.

Quilan gripped my hand still tighter. You should go. Now, Worosei. Another, smaller flash lit his face and the oil-scummed mud around his waist where it disappeared under the war machine.

I made a show of consulting my helms read-out. The ships flyer was on its way back, alone. The display told me that no larger craft was accompanying it, while the lack of any communication on the open channel meant there was no good news to report. There would be no heavy lift, there would be no rescue. I flipped to the close-quarter tactical view. Nothing better to report there. The confused, pulsing schematics indicated there was great uncertainty in the representation (a bad enough sign in itself) but it looked like we were right in the line of the Invisibles advance and we would soon be over-run. In ten minutes, maybe. Or fifteen. Or five. That uncertain. Still I smiled as best I could and tried to sound calm.

I cant get to anywhere safer until the flyer gets here, I said quietly. Neither of us can. I shifted on the muddy slope, trying to find a better footing. A series of booms shook the air. I crouched over Quilan, protecting his exposed head. I heard debris thudding onto the slope across from us, and something splashed into the water. I glanced at the level of the pool in the bottom of the crater as the waves slapped against the chisel shape of the land destroyers fore armour and fell back again. At least the water didnt seem to be rising any more.

Worosei, he said. I dont think Im going anywhere. Not with this thing on top of me. Please. Im not trying to be heroic and neither should you. Just get out now. Go.

Theres still time, I told him. Well get you out of there. You were always so impatient. Light pulsed above us again, picking out each lancing drop of rain in the darkness.

And you were

Whatever he was going to say was drowned out by another fusillade of sharp concussions; the noise rolled over us as though the very air was being torn apart.

Loud night, I said as I crouched over him again. My ears were ringing. More light flickered to one side and, close up, I could see the pain in his eyes. Even the weathers against us, Quilan. Dreadful thunder.

That was not thunder.

Oh, it was! There! And that is lightning, I said as I crouched further over him.

Go. Now, Worosei, he whispered. Youre being stupid.

I I began. Then my rifle slipped from my shoulder and the stock hit him on the forehead. Ouch, he said.

Sorry. I shouldered the weapon again.

My fault for losing my helmet.

Still, I slapped one of the sections of track above us, you gained a land destroyer.

He started to laugh, then winced. He forced a smile and rested one hand against the surface of one of the vehicles guide wheels. Its funny, he said. Im not even sure if its one of ours or one of theirs.

You know, I said, neither am I. I looked up at its ruptured carcass. The fire inside seemed to be spreading; thin blue and yellow flames were starting to show in the hole where the main turret had been.

The crippled land destroyer had kept its tracks on this side as it had half trundled, half slid into the crater. On the far side, the stripped track lay flat on the craters slope, a stride-wide strip of flat metal sections leading up like a ramshackle escalator almost to the holes jagged lip. In front of us, huge guide wheels protruded from the war machines hull; some supported the giant hinges of the tracks upper course, others ran on the tracks beneath. Quilan was trapped beneath their lower level, squashed into the mud with only his upper torso free.

Our comrades were dead. There were only Quilan and me, and the pilot of the light flyer, returning to pick us up. The ship, just a couple of hundred kilometres above our heads, could not help.

I had tried pulling Quilan, ignoring his bitten-off moans, but he was held fast. I had burned out my suits AG unit trying to shift the track sections trapping him, and cursed our supposedly wonderful nth generation projectile weapons; so good for killing our own species and penetrating armour, so useless for cutting through thick metal.

Noise crackled nearby; sparks flicked out of the fire in the turret aperture, rising and fading in the rain. I could feel the detonations through the ground, transmitted by the body of the wrecked machine.

Ammunition, going off, Quilan said, his voice strained. Time you went.

No. I think whatever blew the turret off accounted for all the ammunition.

And I dont. It could still blow up. Get out.

No. Im comfortable here.

Youre what?

Im comfortable here.

Now youre being idiotic.

I am not being idiotic. Stop trying to get rid of me.

Why should I? Youre being idiotic.

Stop calling me idiotic, will you? Youre bickering.

I am not bickering. Im trying to get you to behave rationally.

I am behaving rationally.

This doesnt impress me, you know. Its your duty to save yourself.

And yours not to despair.

Not despair? My comrade and mate is acting like an imbecile and Ive got a Quilans eyes widened. Up there! he hissed, pointing behind me.

What? I twisted, bringing my rifle round and then going still.

The Invisible trooper was at the crater lip, peering down at the wreckage of the land destroyer. He had some sort of helmet on but it didnt cover his eyes and probably wasnt very sophisticated. I gazed up through the rain. He was lit by firelight from the burning land destroyer; we ought to be mostly in shadow. The troopers rifle was held in one hand, not both. I stayed very still.

Then he brought something up to his eyes, scanning. He stopped, looking straight at us. I had raised the rifle and fired by the time hed let the night sight drop and begun to bring his weapon to bear. He exploded in light just as another flash erupted in the skies above. Most of his body tumbled and slipped down the slope towards us, shorn of one arm and his head.

Suddenly youre a half-decent shot, Quilan said.

I always was, dear, I told him, patting his shoulder. I just kept it quiet because I didnt want to embarrass you.

Worosei, he said, taking my hand again. That one will not have been alone. Now really is the time to go.

I I began, then the hulk of the land destroyer and the crater around us shook as something exploded inside the wreck and glowing shrapnel whizzed out of the space where the turret had been. Quilan gasped with pain. Mud slides coasted down around us and the remains of the dead Invisible slid another few strides closer. His gun was still clutched in one armoured glove. I glanced at my helms screen again. The flyer was almost here. My love was right, and it really was time to go.

I turned back to say something to him.

Just fetch me that bastards rifle, he said, nodding at the dead trooper. See if I cant take another one or two of them with me.