Contents
Chapter 5: Eyes Like Stars
Overview
Marlowe’s meeting erupts into a rooftop battle when the tea house patrons reveal themselves as machine-augmented slaves. The team suffers heavy losses as the Painted Man vanishes, then returns disguised as a peltast. After Ghen is found slain by plasma fire, the Painted Man unmasks and stuns Marlowe, capturing him.
Summary
Marlowe, Switch, and Ilex face a silent crowd whose eyes seem lifeless. When sniper fire drops a diner, the mob attacks. Marlowe’s highmatter sword reveals the diners are human bodies laced with machinery—daimons. As fighting spreads, Ghen’s snipers provide cover while Marlowe stuns Samir to secure a lead.
The team is badly outnumbered. Marlowe and Switch cut through daimons; Ilex and Greenlaw fire disruptors. Parts of severed bodies continue crawling, confirming the grotesque augmentations. Marlowe attempts a rescue of a downed peltast but arrives too late; another soldier dies to biting daimons. Ghen charges in, burns attackers off Marlowe, and steadies the defense while a shuttle is called.
The daimons suddenly surge. Marlowe is forced down the stairs with a peltast, who is killed when two daimons overwhelm her. Fighting back with Olorin’s sword, Marlowe clears the stairwell, then searches for Ghen.
In the foyer, Marlowe finds two hostess “women” torn apart and Ghen dead from a plasma shot. A voice mocks him: the Painted Man. A nearby peltast reveals herself as the homunculus, shedding a holographic disguise, body and features shifting to crimson-haired, coal-eyed form. The Painted Man had infiltrated their ranks and ambushed Ghen.
Powerless under stun-fire that bypasses his shield, Marlowe collapses as the Painted Man claims him. The team remains divided above with Samir still out of reach, their mission compromised, leadership gutted, and Marlowe taken.
Who Appears
- Hadrian MarloweNarrator and leader; fights daimons, stuns Samir, narrowly survives, discovers Ghen dead, then is stunned and captured.
- The Painted ManExtrasolarian homunculus; commands daimons, escapes, returns disguised as a peltast, kills Ghen, and stuns Marlowe.
- Ghen of EmeshCenturion; rescues Marlowe during melee, later found slain by plasma fire in the foyer.
- SwitchAlly; fights alongside Marlowe, identifies daimons, nearly ambushed before Ilex destroys the attacker.
- IlexHomunculus ally; trades fire with daimons, takes a head wound, calls for shuttle, saves Switch.
- CrimJaddian fighter; duels daimons with laser, holds the rooftop line under heavy pressure.
- GreenlawAdvisor; fires disruptor, criticizes Marlowe’s decisions, urges securing Samir amid chaos.
- SamirPlagiarius; cowers during the fight and is stunned by Marlowe but remains unreachable.
- Unnamed peltastsMarlowe’s soldiers; at least two die gruesomely in the melee against daimons.