Free Sterling Squadron by Eric Nylund Page A

Mountains, over rolling green fields in Tennessee, and then thundered across Texas grasslands and deserts.
    Ruins studded the horizon to the south: rusting skyscrapers and cracked crystal spires.
    What mysteries lay buried in the graveyard of human civilization? Ethan wanted to explore what the world had been like before the Ch’zar, but Knucklebone Canyon had almost crumbled on top of him and Paul, and it’d been infested with those black widows. Just thinking about those spiders made Ethan’s skin crawl.
    He flew on.
    Maybe after this mission, after they’d beaten back the Ch’zar, he could explore … 
if
there was anything left there to find.
    A map of the next region flashed on-screen. Green circles dotted the Arizona and Nevada desert. It wasn’t a friendly green either. It was the vile fluorescent green of skull-and-crossbones poison warning labels.
    Ethan’s radio link blinked amber. It was receiving an encrypted short-range signal. He tapped it to decode and accept.
    “We’re approaching radiation zones,” Felix said over the radio. “The Ch’zar cleaned up a bunch of them. Some, though, are too hot for even them to touch.”
    Ethan was about to ask why the Ch’zar had bombed the world. Hadn’t they used mind control fifty years ago to take over?
    Then he got it:
they
hadn’t bombed anyone.
    Humans had done it to each other.
    Felix and Madison had once told Ethan about World War IV, when people had almost annihilated each other, right before the Ch’zar came.
    What would have happened if the aliens hadn’t shown up? Would the entire world be a radioactive cinder?
    Paul marked a spot on their map with an X.
    “Fiesta City,” he said over the radio. “That’s our destination.”
    Ethan zoomed in on the satellite image.
    There were lakes and parks and a city grid. It was an oasis in the vast desert.
    He turned on his external cameras and magnified.
    Was that a Ferris wheel lit against the setting sun? There were strings of flashing carnival lights. Neon was everywhere. He wasn’t sure what all the crazy lights were about. He had a feeling this place wouldn’t be like his Santa Blanca neighborhood.
    “I thought we were looking for Sterling Reform School,” Ethan said to Paul.
    “It’s in the middle of the city,” Paul replied. His usual anger was gone, and there was a hint of fear in his voice.
    “Fireflies patrolling the region,” Madison said, interrupting. “They run like clockwork. We’ll only be able to approach within six miles before they’ll detect us.”
    “There’s a dry riverbed south of the city,” Paul said. “There are eroded overhangs. One should be big enough to hide our suits.”
    “Madison, scout it out,” Felix said. “We need to make repairs … and talk.”
    Madison’s dragonfly zipped into the dry river channel and disappeared. A moment later she said, “Found one.”
    They followed her down and banked along the contours of the dry river. Ethan spotted a shadow-filled undercut that concealed a cave the size of a house.
    He landed and clambered out of his cockpit. It was good to breathe fresh air again.
    Ethan couldn’t enjoy it, though, because he had to check that wing rattle. He ran a hand over his wasp’s gold armor. Tiny insect hairs bristled at his touch.
    Flashes of ripping into enemy bugs and shooting its stinger laser filled Ethan’s mind. The wasp didn’t want to be done fighting.
    Ethan tried to calm the insect, wishing it was a little less hostile.
    Maybe it had to be that way. It had been born and bred to fight. Those instincts kept them both alive in the air. But was that all there was for the creature? Ethan actually felt sorry for the insect.
    He found the damage on the wasp’s wing. There was just a nick in the chitin-ceramic alloy. If it wasn’t fixed, though, it’d become a tear, and the wing could eventually rip off in flight.
    Felix came over and gave Ethan a towel-sized yellow bandage. It had red stripes … and it