Beyond Hades: The Prometheus Wars Read Online Free PDF

A spectacularly huge gray hand groped through the hole. Gunfire and explosions echoed from beyond the doors, but it all seemed to have no effect. Whatever was on the other side calmly tore away at the thick steel.
    Several military vehicles emerged from tunnels on the opposite side of the cavern to Talbot and Captain Benedict. Twelve HMARS - High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems - shot toward the center of the enormous chamber and screeched to a halt, rapidly taking up offensive positions in front of the huge doors. Marines broke from the odd transport and rushed to the assault area.
    "We have to move now, sir!" shouted Captain Benedict over the squealing tires and shrieking metal, gripping Talbot firmly by the upper arm and propelling him swiftly toward the enormous football-shaped vehicle.
    Gunfire erupted behind them, and Talbot glanced back, stopping in his tracks. Wrenching apart the doors stood a creature which defied all belief, even given Talbot's truncated briefing only moments before and what he had already glimpsed of the power of the gryphon which had attacked their Super Stallion.
    The creature stood perhaps a hundred feet tall, corpse-gray, with gnarled lumps and irregular muscles pushing from beneath its skin. A startling feature dominated the bridge below a hairless cranium -
    A single, lidless eye stared coldly from the center of its face above the wide nose. The bloodshot orb flicked from side to side, appearing to search the cavern for something -
    "Get down!" roared Captain Benedict, pushing Talbot to the ground, only letting him back up when the staccato of gunfire resumed.
    Lines of tracer bullets flew from either side of the destroyed doors just as the HMARS unleashed a coordinated barrage of missiles. The missiles zeroed in on the chest of the cyclops and exploded spectacularly, but did nothing but annoy it.
    Turning, it casually tore a long strip of steel from a ruined blast door. With a sweep of its arm, the cyclops swung the steel in an arc, knocking all twelve HMARS aside like toys, flipping them end over end to smash into the concrete walls. It dropped the steel like a boring toy, the clang echoing deafeningly through the cavern. Stepping through the devastated doors, the creature stretched to its full height, glaring balefully at the only undamaged vehicle left in the cavern - the transport.
    "Run! Now !" shouted Captain Benedict. Talbot needed no further encouragement.
    Racing up the ramp, they were the last to enter the transport and the doors slid shut smoothly behind them. Captain Benedict rushed Talbot to the front of the vehicle into a control room. "Get us out of here!" he ordered the two drivers.
    The men needed no further urging, swiftly hitting several buttons on the control panel in front of them. A narrow windshield of super-thick glass revealed the exit set into the cavern wall rapidly opening in front of the vehicle. Captain Benedict slammed Talbot into a chair behind the two controllers, quickly strapping him in before seating himself.
    And none too soon. Once the exit had fully opened, the pilots hit various other instruments on the complex panel. The transport seemed to rise slightly, hovering, before an incredible force seized the vehicle, and they blasted down the tunnel so fast Talbot thought he might pass out from the intensity as the G-forces attempted to wrench him through the back of his chair.
    They soon leveled out, and Captain Benedict rose, instructing Talbot to remain where he was while the captain returned to the main cabin to check on something.
    Talbot sat silently for several moments, unwilling to distract the navigators as they casually flicked switches, constantly monitoring the seemingly endless gauges and instruments arrayed before them.
    "What is this thing?" he eventually asked, unable to contain his curiosity any longer.
    They glanced at each other, apparently unsure of whether or not to answer him. Finally one shrugged and said, "This is the thermo-carrier