THE MAN STOOD LOOKING out over the valley, his synthskin duster waving gently in the afternoon breeze, his hands resting on the butts of two large pistols: the Outlaw and Odin. He scanned the red-brown rubble spanning the horizon. Here and there, small wisps of smoke poked black fingers into the yellow-gray skyline.
Long ago, The City sparkled like a mile-high diamond, the pinnacle of human achievement. We had reached out, spread ourselves across the stars, terraforming planets, destroying and rebuilding, carving our name into the bark of the galaxy, only held back by the laws of physics.
No one could have predicted what would happen when The City’s top scientists opened the portal. It was supposed to be the next step—dimensional travel, a way around the limitations of light…
