Humanity and the Highborn smashed the cyborgs in the Solar System. But the machine men have a long-term plan to regain everything they’ve lost. They will slip away into the wider galaxy from their secret base on Tyche in the Oort cloud. They will go to a nearby star system to rebuild and return stronger than ever. The Sunbeam can’t reach into the Oort cloud. A spaceship will take three years to reach the cyborg base. Despite the distance, Marten Kluge orders Task Force 7 to make the lonely trek. In the Oort cloud, the cyborgs spring a trap. Now, in the darkness far from home, the last Space Marines enter their insertion pods for the methane-icy surface. They plan to sell their lives if they must in order to end the cyborg menace forever. Previously published in the anthology Planetary Assault.
Author
You can visit Vaughn at www.vaughnheppner.com I was born in Canada and remember as a small boy crawling in my snow-fort. I closed my eyes, and when I tried to open them, they were frozen shut. I didn't panic, but wiped away the ice crystals, unglued my eyes and kept on building my tunnel. Those were great days! I moved to Central California before seventh grade and couldn't believe I lived in a land where oranges grew on trees and you could pick grapes from the vine. I used to wonder what I wanted to do with my life, what kind of work specifically. I was miserable not knowing and bordering on desperate. Then one day a friend gave me his typewriter. I began working on a novel. A different person told me it was much easier on a computer, so I bought one and began getting up at 4:30 A.M. each morning before work, writing for three hours. My eyes were unglued once again as the pang of misery left my gut. I knew exactly what I wanted to do: write. So now that's what I do, I write, and write, and write, and I love it.
