Doom Star: Book 03 - Battle Pod Read Online Free PDF Page A

seized control of the orbital space of Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars.”
    “They have retreated from Mars,” Hawthorne said.
    “Please bear with me. The Highborn have also seized the Sun-Works Factory, the greatest industrial plant in the Solar System. They have conquered Antarctica and the islands of Earth and are in the process of conquering South America. Now we seek the help of the second creation, the machine men, to oust the biological error. But do we realize that the machine-men will be even worse than the altered biological men are? Instead of pit dogs among us, we will have automated killers.”
    Hawthorne uncrossed his legs. “Madam, we already have machine men. The bionic soldiers.”
    “No!” she said. “The bionic men are still human. The cyborgs are something completely different.”
    “I have read the files. What you—”
    “The files,” she sneered. “The files. Ha! Have you seen the cyborgs? Have you spoken with someone who lived through an encounter with them?”
    “Have you?”
    “Yes! Yes, I have. And I realize that we have sent for annihilation to save us from subjugation.”
    Her fervor surprised Hawthorne. “Would you care to share this information with me?”
    “May I use the holograph in the cube?” she asked.
    “By all means,” he said.
    The Madam Director pressed buttons on her armrest.
    The top of the white cube between them flickered with life, projecting a holographic image. It showed a man-shaped being, bald, with plasti-flesh and dead, shark-like eyes. He moved with uncanny speed. It was a combat video, jerky, sometimes showing nothing but blasted buildings or falling men. There were occasional glimpses of the cyborg.
    “Where did you get this?” Hawthorne asked.
    The Madam Director twitched her withered fingers. “I have connections with PHC Outer Planets Intelligence.”
    “Yezhov gave it to you?”
    Madam Director Blanche-Aster gave another of her unnerving cackles. “No, no, Yezhov has no idea I have this. He awaits the cyborgs with great relish.”
    “Why?”
    The old woman bit her lower lip, and the grim vibrancy in her eyes become hooded, perhaps for the first time showing fear.
    “Not all the experimentation occurred in the Neptune System,” she said. “Yezhov has access to the scientists who labored in secret here on Earth.”
    “I’ve heard nothing of this.”
    “No, no, I should have been surprised if you had. You know about Yezhov’s brain-wiped agents, the ones he plans to use to assassinate Highborn.”
    “I’m familiar with the project.”
    “General, there is a process….” She tapped a button and an arm extended from her medical unit with a small fan on the end. The fan whirred into life, gently blowing air into her perspiring face. “I debated a long time about this. For I’ve come to understand that your position is weaker than Chief Yezhov’s position. He waits for an unbeatable addition to his power base. He could use my secret help and it would cement my place in the new order. Even so, I have decided to risk everything and unreservedly throw in my lot with yours. Yezhov doesn’t understand the horror he wishes to use. All he knows is that he desires to rule Social Unity. The cyborgs have created an assembly line, a ghastly thing that tears down a human and recreates him or her into a cyborg.”
    “Tears down? As Captain Mune has been torn down?”
    “No,” Blanche-Aster whispered. “Can’t you understand what I’m trying to say? The Highborn have shattered Inner Planets. They have torn much of Earth from our control. They own Mercury. They have allowed the Planetary Union Rebels to regroup on Mars. Venus is under constant bombardment. The biologically altered Highborn have pushed us into a corner, but we’re battling hard to remain free. Imagine how much worse our situation will be once a true race of machine-men has escaped our control. The cyborgs have the means to expand like a virus among us. We cannot allow them to