ENDURING STRUGGLE
The Cerberus rebels remain vigilant, defending mankindâs sovereignty against the alien forces conspiring to gain control of the planet. Now a dark and deadly intelligence plots to eradicate what it means to be human: free will.
SNOW BLIND
In the northern wilderness, behind an artificial curtain of winter, the legacy of the deposed god kings lives on. An experimental testing groundâwhere computers have replaced independent choiceâis turning citizens into docile, obedient sheep. The brainchild of a dedicated Magistrate of the old order, Terminal White promises to achieve the subjugation of the human race. As the Cerberus warriors infiltrate and get trapped in this mechanized web, humanityâs only salvation may be lost in a blinding white doom.
The acolyte reached for Kaneâs right wrist
Kane drew back his arm before the man could touch him; his Sin Eater was hidden there, the blaster disguised by the folds of his jacket.
âIt is right to feel fear on first sacrifice, but no harm will come to you,â the acolyte said gently.
âSorry.â Kane shook his head. âJust have a thing about needles.â He held out his left armâthe one without the hidden blasterâpulling back the sleeve. âGo ahead.â
The acolyte brought the cup and needle down close to Kaneâs wrist and instructed him to chant a prayer to the stone god. Kane recited the words heâd heard at the congregation a few days before, when he and Brigid had enlisted in this ragtag pilgrimage.
Kane hated the chant, but he couldnât draw attention to himselfânot until he and Brigid had found out exactly what was going on here.
The Road to Outlandsâ From Secret Government Files to the Future
Almost two hundred years after the global holocaust, Kane, a former Magistrate of Cobaltville, often thought the world had been lucky to survive at all after a nuclear device detonated in the Russian embassy in Washington, DC. The aftermathâforever known as skydarkâreshaped continents and turned civilization into ashes.
Nearly depopulated, America became the Deathlandsâpoisoned by radiation, home to chaos and mutated life forms. Feudal rule reappeared in the form of baronies, while remote outposts clung to a brutish existence.
What eventually helped shape this wasteland were the redoubts, the secret preholocaust military installations with stores of weapons, and the home of gateways, the locational matter-transfer facilities. Some of the redoubts hid clues that had once fed wild theories of government cover-ups and alien visitations.
Rearmed from redoubt stockpiles, the barons consolidated their power and reclaimed technology for the villes. Their power, supported by some invisible authorÂity, extended beyond their fortified walls to what was now called the Outlands. It was here that the rootstock of humanity survived, living with hellzones and chemical storms, hounded by Magistrates.
In the villes, rigid laws were enforcedâto atone for the sins of the past and prepare the way for a better future. That was the baronsâ public credo and their right-to-rule.
Kane, along with friend and fellow Magistrate Grant, had upheld that claim until a fateful Outlands expedition. A dis-placed piece of technology...a question to a keeper of the archives...a vague clue about alien mastersâand their world shifted radically. Suddenly, Brigid Baptiste, the archivist, faced summary execution, and Grant a quick termination. For Kane there was forgiveness if he pledged his unquestioning alle-giance to Baron Cobalt and his unknown masters and aban-doned his friends.
But that allegiance would make him support a mysterious and alien power and deny loyalty and friends. Then what else was there?
Kane had been brought up solely to serve the ville. Brigidâs only link with her family was her motherâs red-gold hair, green eyes and supple form. Grantâs clues to his lineage were his ebony skin and powerful physique. But Domi, she of the white hair, was an Outlander pressed into sexual servitude in Cobaltville. She at least knew her roots and was a reminder to the exiles that the outcasts belonged in the human family.
Parents, friends, communityâthe very rootedness of hu-manity was denied. With no continuity, there was no forward momentum to the future. And that was the cruxâwhen Kane began to wonder if there was a future.
For Kane, it wouldnât do. So the only way was outâway, way out.
After their escape, they found shelter at the forgotten Cerberus redoubt headed by Lakesh, a scientist, Cobaltvilleâs head archivist, and secret opponent of the barons.
With their past turned into a lie, their future threatened, only one thing was left to give meaning to the outcasts. The hunger for freedom, the will to resist the hostile influences. And perhaps, by opposing, end them.