Infernal Sky is the third novel of the novelization series written by Dafydd ab Hugh and Brad Linaweaver.
Book Description[]
Hawaii -- last outpost of civilization on an Earth overrun by demons, traitors. and nightmarish creatures straight out of the pits of hell. Humanity seems doomed to a bloody ending. Then Hawaii receives a message from aliens claiming to be on our side in the battle. Our last chance: make contact. The only man for the job -- Corporal Flynn Taggart, U.S. Marine Corps. He led the fight against the demon invaders when they swarmed through the Gates at Phobos Base. Now he's got to face the toughest task of his dirty career. Return to Phobos-- and fight his way past those demons to contact mankind's would-be rescuers.[1]
Plot Summary[]
The book starts with a disturbing prologue featuring a woman and her son, who is missing an arm and is considered a war veteran, who are hiding out in a basement after the invasion. The son asks "why are there demons?", which creates a flashback to the woman's family being devastated by the monsters. Her husband had been killed by a Spider Mastermind, and in her terror she called out to him, which provoked the Mastermind's attention. It goes after them and catches her daughter, killing her horribly. The woman then answers her son that the monsters now roaming the Earth are not demons as they can be killed. She then claims to have hope that heroes will come to save them, and the two of them stare out into the night sky...
Meanwhile, Fly and Arlene are resting comfortably in Hawaii, along with Albert and Jill at the final Marine base. Fly and Arlene both tell their own version of how they escaped Los Angeles. It's here that Fly is promoted to Sergeant and Arlene to Corporal. Without the need for a chain of command or red tape, one of the Marines wipe Fly's record clean of his assaulting a superior officer.
Albert and Jill learn some bad news - Salt Lake City has been nuked. Also, the war is about to take a turn, as the military has decoded a signal sent from an alien race warning of the attacks, and giving coordinates to find help. The mission entails a return to Phobos, and activating a gate to send a team to parts unknown.
Meanwhile, Ken, the "cyber mummy" from the previous book, has a lifesaving surgery and awakens. However, his implants are left functioning to tap into the enemy systems. But Ken also reads into the Marine plans, and he doesn't like the plans he hears of the future.
Under a new CO that comes off as a stubborn "by the book" type, Captain Hidalgo, Fly, Albert, and Arlene prepare to head back to Phobos - which will require a return to Los Angeles to steal a shuttle. No easy task, and Jill is needed to infiltrate - but an escape plan is set for Jill on her own. And to further complicate matters, Albert proposes to Arlene.
Securing the shuttle, the flight leaves, a six week long long trip to Phobos. Jill, left behind, misses her escape, left in enemy territory. In perhaps the most haunting scene of the book, Jill is forced to kill two human traitors with poison gas.
Back on Phobos, the team eventually reaches the Gate, and are sent off to a strange facility where they encounter many other aliens, their allies against the demons. The chief representatives, the Klave, serve as their liaisons. Few details are gained, but it seems Earth is another stop along a six million year war against the two alien sides. Also, humans have angered the demons, as humans, it seems, are the only species that actually dies.
It is explained that, for most races, when their body dies, the soul remains behind until birth gives them a new body. Otherwise, the dead are arranged in theaters and entertained in the meantime. Humans don't work this way, as they die.
The plan is simple - fly to the alien invader homeworld called the "Freds" by Marine HQ, and take the war to their front door. But without faster than light travel, while they will experience the trip in weeks, the actual trip will be twenty years each way. And when an accident leaves Albert unable to go, Arlene marries him - knowing when she meets him again, he will be in his sixties.
To complicate matters, the trip is interfered when a large spaceborne creature attacks their ship. They fight it off, but extensive damage forces them onto a nearby planet with another gate. Transporting, the gate malfunctions as Fly accidentally telefrags Hidalgo, forcing Fly to kill him and leaving he, alongside Arlene, alone with Sears and Roebuck, their two Klave escorts. Now, they are trapped on a Fred ship. This leads to Fly experiencing a berserker rage, leading them into battle; with no clothes or weapons due to the Gate transport, they have to fight bare handed, and end up killing the Fred and taking the ship.
But this ship is not as fast. It may be on a direct course for the Fred homeworld, but at their rate of speed, they will take an eight-week trip - or, in actual years outside of their travel, two hundred years.
The book ends with an epilogue written/spoken by Arlene, where she laments the turn of events and knowing that she will never see Albert again. She is saddened by her loss, but understands that without the berseker fury Fly had gone through, they would not have survived the battle at all. Still, she remains distant from him, the wound still fresh. All she and Fly can do is sit on the opposite ends of the ship's main chamber and stare off into the compressed, colored disc of stars, wondering what will happen to the Earth when they return.
References[]
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||