[March 20th, 2331; Road north to Bude, Cornwall, Earth]

On a good day, before the Fall, the hike north would have been a pleasant six hour jaunt through some wild, but not inhospitable, countryside. At their current cautious speed it was much more likely to take twelve or more hours, particularly as night fell and the lurid pink sky gave way to a deep forbidding purple of scudding storm clouds.

Not Lily had retrieved her gear bag from where it had been stashed and, slinging the gauss rifle over her shoulder, took up position more or less at the rear of the formation. Her muted whisper reached Alyce’s enhanced ears perfectly well though

“Do you really feel that you do not belong here? Your associations with Al and Isaint do not define you, your actions do. From what I recall you are a gifted musician, a surgeon, a communications expert, a skilled combatant… and all that whilst being blind… most people only ever achieve mastery in one field let alone four or more. Whatever path the Choir have foreseen, it is almost inevitable that you will be called on to help us get there.”

Hugging the folds in the land the rag tag crew proceeded as best they could. Around midnight they heard a powerful electronic wail cut across the open terrain and Not Lily pointed out the insane mechanical monster on the horizon, reminiscent of an H G Wells creation

“Hunter, we want to stay as far away from that as we can. Don’t know if it’s a horror construct or something that mankind made before the Fall but it’s lethal either way…but slow. The smaller ones are deadlier…”

***

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