The Valley of the Sanctuary of the Manhunters, Somewhere in the Himalayas 

Under a translucent roof of ice, the Manhunters streamed forth from their mountain fortress into the valley, their formation double-pronged: androids propelled by boot jets through the frigid air above, and human cultists and dogs on foot across the ground below. At the far end of the craggy enclosure, the Green Lantern Corps and their allies - the Guardian Ganthet, the Xudarian Tomar-Tu, the Pharoid Rudlen, and the former Manhunter Mark Shaw - waited patiently. As their enemies inexorably approached, those who opposed the Manhunters were slowly able to make them out more clearly, to differentiate the individual members of the attacking throngs.

In the ranks of the flying Manhunter androids were many of the units who had harried the Corps in the previous days, from Coast City to Gotham City and to the moon and back.* Some were physically easy to identify: Morbo, the skeletal android with a face plate of obsidian black instead of the customary pale blue; Spyte, the one-eyed stocky midget; Rager, the bestial robot who seemed to be infused with an electronic equivalent of steroids. Others were marked by the eccentricities of their flight as they approached: Jaypur, looping through slow barrel rolls around the entire formation of Manhunter androids, kicking stilt-like legs as if swimming through the air; Anx, continually stopping, starting again, and stopping yet again, trying to look in all directions at once before proceeding. The androids recognized by the Green Lanterns' party were accompanied by scores of other Manhunters, all of them showing signs of the rapidly disintegrating programming afflicting the former servants of the Guardians. Some were physically deformed, twisted into more wretched shapes or missing a hand or foot, or an arm or leg or more. Some flew more irregularly than others, weaving almost drunkenly through the air, or lagging behind the phalanx, or veering off for no apparent reason. Some approached in silence, others screaming maniacally, and still others emitting strange unidentifiable sounds of their own. Like a wave of pure chaos, embodied in armor of ruby red and sapphire blue, the Manhunters slashed through the sky.

(* All in parts 1 through 4 of the current storyline - DG and TJB)

The human members of the Manhunter cult were unknown to the Green Lanterns, but as they ran towards the Corps, brandishing power batons, their own more organic madness became apparent. Their faces were nearly inhuman in their rancor, and their screaming voices echoed off the valley's walls of rock in a frenzied chorus. The packs of dogs that had emerged from the Manhunters' sanctuary along with the human cultists pulled ahead across the frozen ground, and their own disrepair became visible. The dogs were robotic, with tangled wires and gray metallic bones showing through in places where mangy artificial fur and skin had been worn away. Yet the mechanical creatures seemed no less dangerous for their state of neglect as they charged onward.

Hal Jordan hovered at the front of the Green Lanterns. "All right, this is what we're going to do!" he yelled back over his shoulder, never taking his eyes off the Manhunter horde. "Stel, Salaak, Apros, you're eliminating the robo-doggies and subduing the cultists. Try to handle the humans as non-violently as possible. Medphyll, Hollika, Chaselon and Kilowog, you all head straight for the fortress, find Kyle's battery and get it away from the Manhunters. Everyone else with me against the Manhunters themselves!"

"Hal, I'll get your back …" Kilowog began to protest in a low grumble, flexing the muscles in his not-quite-healed yet massive arms.

"::DEATH : TO : THE : GREEN : LANTERN : CORPS!!!::" Rager bellowed, sapphire blue gauntlets sizzling with energy.

"No time to argue, buddy, just GO!!!" Jordan shouted at Kilowog as all the forward ranks of Manhunter androids rained energy blasts down on the Green Lantern Corps. Shields of different shapes and sizes, all in the same glowing verdant shade, appeared between the ringbearers and the android army, deflecting the energy blast onslaught. Apros, Stel and Salaak alighted on the ground and turned their attention toward the racing mass of human cultists and robotic canines. Kilowog gave a sharp nod and flew toward the Sanctuary fortress, with Chaselon, Medphyll and Hollika Rahn following close behind.

The air near the icy roof of the Himalayan rock fissure seemed to burn in a supernova of coruscating greens and reds, as the Manhunter androids fired bolt after bolt of energy at the Green Lanterns. Hal Jordan raised his ring hand as high above his head as he could. The solid-light shield projected from the ring grew wider as he did so, as if in response to the physical straining of his arm, but in reality due to the focused willpower of the wielder. Simultaneously, Jordan gestured behind his back with his free hand, forking two fingers toward his left and then toward his right. Recognizing the signal, four of the Green Lanterns broke from the ranks; Voz and Galius Zed flew to the left, while Brik and Xax flew to the right. The remaining members of the Corps - Larvox, Tuebeen, Adam, M'Dahna and Umburu - also willed their glowing green shield constructs to widen, compensating for the absence of the departing Lanterns.

The hulking ursine form of Voz and the more compact three-legged Galius Zed rose above the far left side of the massive green shield, just as the voluptuous and stony Brik and the grasshopper-like Xax appeared to the right. Flanking the airborne mass of Manhunters on either side, the four Green Lanterns opened fire with their power rings, expelling pure and focused aggression as emerald-hued beams of force. An android with its arms attached to its hips rather than its shoulders was split down the middle by a slashing green laser controlled by Galius Zed; the two halves of the robotic body plummeted to the frozen ground below. The encephalitic head of another Manhunter was severed from its crimson armored neck thanks to a glowing blast aimed by Brik. As the decapitated android fell from the sky, another unmolested Manhunter loosed an electronic howl of anguish and flew down after the headless form. A moment later the shrieking Manhunter flew directly into a large boulder and exploded in the spectacular impact.

The robotic hounds reached the gathering of heroes across the valley floor. Tomar Tu took aim with a blaster and an orange bolt blew one dog's head apart in a spray of fur and silvery shrapnel. Apros raised a tentacle, the one tentacle among the mass protruding from its gourd like body's underbelly which wore its power ring, and projected a viridian muzzle around the snapping jaws of a metal-plated mastiff.

"Mark, stay behind me," Kyle Rayner said, extending a warding arm toward Mark Shaw. Despite having no uniform and a power ring completely bereft of charge, Rayner tried to project a calm befitting the valor of the Corps. "I'll try to …"

"I don't need to hide behind anyone," Shaw answered abruptly. He ran toward the pack of robotic beasts, vaulting easily over one and lashing out with a fierce kick at another leaping toward him. The dog android landed awkwardly with a dent in its side, and Shaw continued to press onward. In a moment he had reached the first ranks of the human members of the Manhunter cult. One devastating uppercut to the jaw of a white-haired and wide-eyed man later, Shaw had armed himself with a Manhunter power baton. He began to wield the weapon expertly to subdue more cultists.

"OK, fine, be that way," Rayner said, mostly to himself. Before he could say more a young cultist, his face scarred with acne, swung a power baton at Rayner's head. Rayner took half a step backwards to brace himself and caught the baton in mid-swing; he silently thanked Kilowog's hand-to-hand training as the baton discharged an electrical blast harmlessly into the air. A growling robotic dog charged at Rayner as he wrestled the cultist for control of the weapon. With a sudden shift of weight, Rayner threw the young robed figure into the path of the loping android animal, stunning both.

For a moment Rayner could take in the battle as it progressed. Off to his right, Ganthet stood placidly, wielding the massive power of a Guardian of the Universe with subtle flicks of his wrist, causing robotic dogs to fall into piles of component pieces. Just beyond Ganthet, Torquemada's dark green cloak fluttered wildly as the black-tattooed albino dispatched cultists with sorcerous energies. Near Rayner's right side, Rudlen and Salaak stood almost back to back as they fought to hold back the tide of artificial canines and human fanatics. Past that duo Rayner spied Stel, who seemed to be completely disengaged from the skirmish. Before Rayner could begin to theorize why the robotic Green Lantern held back, another cultist, this time a tall black woman, lunged at him, and Rayner once again defended himself.

Kilowog, Chaselon, Medphyll and Hollika Rahn flew nearer the uppermost ramparts of the Manhunters' Himalayan fortress. As they crossed an invisible line around the perimeter of the structure, panels opened along the walls and the blunt snouts of weapons emerged. The weapons thundered and launched giant spinning discs which fired energized rounds of ammunition in all directions. The Green Lanterns scattered in flight, and Hollika Rahn was the first to re-orient herself toward the Sanctuary after evading the initial attack. Her power ring projected a giant bow and arrow, and the arrow flew down the throat of one of the cannons, exploding it. A moment later, tiny centipede-like automatons emerged from within the disabled weapon and began repairs.

Chaselon raised an undulating metallic limb and projected a brilliant emerald sphere around one of the rapid-firing discs. The large blue eyes on the Green Lantern's round crystalline body narrowed as the energy sphere contracted and crushed the spinning disc. Five other spinning discs continued to fill the air with fire, however, and the cannons mounted in the Sanctuary's walls roared again and doubled their number. The air above the fortress seemed to become a web of crackling projectiles, and Chaselon, Kilowog, Medphyll and Hollika Rahn were put to the test to simply avoid its deadly strands.

                              Within the Manhunters' Sanctuary                              

"Come," N'Lasa said to Poggepgee Pego Pau and John Stewart, "we must end the madness of the Manhunters while there is still time." The huge, shaggy white being with the leonine face led the two Guardians, one Malthusian and one human, toward the door of their crude stone cell. The door itself was made of a dull, bronze-like metal, as was the mechanism which locked it in its stone frame. N'Lasa placed his hands against the door, and his yellow eyes began to glow. A moment later the electro-mechanical gears controlling the door came to life, and the portal swung open.

"That's a handy trick," John Stewart said, wincing and raising a hand to his tortured ribs as he did so.

N'Lasa stepped into the corridor and beckoned the other two to follow. "In my time as a captive of the Manhunters, my cybernetics became quite attuned to their own networks. In addition to allowing me to become aware of their plans, it affords me some psionic control over the machinery of the Manhunters." As the trio proceeded down the corridor, N'Lasa added in a more bitter voice, "Unfortunately, the Manhunters themselves are beyond my control. Beyond any control."

N'Lasa, Stewart and Poggepgee Pego Pau turned a corner and found themselves face to face with the Manhunter android called Brooht. The towering robot's head nearly brushed the stone ceiling ten feet overhead. N'Lasa's muzzle parted in a feral snarl as he leapt at the giant android, but the Manhunter swatted N'Lasa aside with one oversized arm. The dull expression on the android's faceplate did not change as the surface of the corridor wall cracked with the impact of N'Lasa's body and N'Lasa barked in pain.

Poggepgee Pego Pau raised his small and wrinkled blue hands toward Brooht, then stumbled forward in a swoon, still not yet recovered from the interrogations of the Manhunters. John Stewart, too, attempted to defend himself, but a blow to the head from Brooht's massive fist returned Stewart to the pained daze from which he had only recently recovered.

When Stewart's vision began to clear, he was in what he presumed to be the central command chamber of the Manhunters: a large, circular room with monitor screens dominating the curved walls. Near the center of the room stood an imposing throne inscribed with circuitry on a raised dais, flanked on one side by Brooht and on the other by the small and toadying android called Ubseeqwius. Seated on the throne was a Manhunter android which conformed to the normal physique of their robotic race.

Stewart tried to rise, and found himself shackled to the floor. As he moved, he could feel an unsettling vibration humming through his body, seeming to originate from the manacles around his wrists. Stewart lay perfectly still, and the vibrations ceased; he attempted movement and the body-length vibrations began again, growing stronger and stronger until he could neither move nor think. As the vibrations subsided yet again as he ceased his own struggles, Stewart could see N'Lasa and Poggepgee Pego Pau similarly chained to the chamber floor.

"::The : day : of : reckoning : has : arrived::," the Manhunter android on the throne announced to his captives. "::The : glory : of : the : Manhunters : shall : be : restored : with : the : destruction : of : the : Guardians : and : all : their : works::. ::The : Manhunters : themselves : shall : ascend : to : godhood::! ::And : our : first : divine : work : shall : be : the : smiting : of : all : humanity::!"

"::Yes, : Unit : Ggraandur::," the other two Manhunters replied in unison.

Ggraandur flipped a switch on the arm of the throne, and a column rose up from a recess in the floor before the dais. Atop the column sat Kyle Rayner's power battery, connected with iridescent wires to the column and, through it, the central computers of the Manhunters' Sanctuary.

                              The Valley of the Sanctuary of the Manhunters                              

The Manhunter androids had broken ranks, fighting their way around and through the group shield of emerald energy created by the Green Lanterns. Now the melee was a free-for-all, and the never-ending assault of each side upon the other threw off ferocious heat. The icy roof of the hidden valley began to melt and a chilly rain fell on the Green Lanterns and the Manhunters. A cold gray mist swirled through the air and across the chaotic plane of the battlefield.

"Kilowog's going to need some help getting into that fortress," Hal Jordan mused, as a magnetized green landmine projected from his ring and attached to a Manhunter android's chest blew the robot into crimson shrapnel. "Larvox and M'Dahna, go take out those automated defense systems! Give Kilowog's team a chance to get inside!" he ordered loudly.

Larvox saluted, raising a single cilia above his cyclopean eye, and flew toward the Sanctuary, followed by the broad, diamond-shaped form of M'Dahna. They rapidly closed the distance between the Corps members engaged with the Manhunters and those battling the Sanctuary's automated defenses.

Medphyll, Chaselon and Hollika Rahn flew in evasive paths, deflecting the heavy fire with viridian energy projections. Kilowog appeared to take the brunt of the counter-attack, allowing the drones' projectiles to beat in percussive frenzy against his personal forcefield while trying to draw a bead on the flying spinning discs with his own blazing green return fire.

Larvox raised his power ring and a nebula of jade energy began undulating outward from it. A colossal solid-light amoeba formed, pale green protoplasm with dark green spots of magnified organelles. Two chartreuse psuedopods reached out and each engulfed one of the spinning, rapidly-firing discs.

M'Dahna's power ring let loose a torrent of green radiance. The emerald light took the form of a tremendous tidal wave, with Kilowog, Medphyll, Chaselon and Hollika Rahn sheltered beneath its cascading canopy. The four Green Lanterns followed the curl of the wave to the walls of the Manhunters' fortress and blasted their way inside.

The Manhunter androids took little notice of the incursion into their Sanctuary. Most continued to press the attack against Hal Jordan and the rest of the Green Lantern Corps flying near him, although the effort was uncoordinated, completely devoid of strategy. The rain from the valley's melting roof of ice sowed more confusion in the robotic army. Some of the Manhunters reacted to the precipitation with all-consuming fear, flying to the ground to seek shelter; others were fascinated, mesmerized by the droplets as they fell through the chilly haze. But the Manhunters' numbers were legion and the handful of Green Lanterns hovering above the valley were battling to a near standstill.

As if sensing this, several androids, led by Rager, broke off and landed on the valley floor in the midst of their human followers. The landbound Green Lanterns and their allies had been gaining the upper hand against the fanatical cultists and their robotic hounds, but with the additional firepower of the Manhunter androids added to the fray, the Corps members found themselves on the defensive.

"::R:R:A:A:A:A:A:A:H:HR:RR::!!!" Rager screamed electronic incoherence and fired energy blasts indiscriminately. Two robed zealots in Rager's path were felled instantly. Salakk directed all of his ring's energies into a shield between himself and the Manhunter android, yet the impact of the energy blast was still strong enough to drive the four-armed Green Lantern to his knees. The ground beneath Kyle's Rayner's feet exploded and sent him flying through the mist in a hail of rock and ice.

Tomar-Tu sprinted toward Rager, nimbly evading attacks on all sides from the human cultists. He was within mere feet of the heavyweight Manhunter when he came to a halt and raised both blasters, his orange beak set in grim determination. Rager aimed a cobalt-blue gauntlet at the alien's fin-crested head, and both fired point blank. A moment later, sparks popping from the shoulder socket from which its arm had been torn away, Rager stood over the lifeless body of the Xudarian, the upper third of Tomar-Tu a smoking, bloody ruin.

Rager turned his attention elsewhere, sizing up his remaining foes. Apros was blanketing a knot of cultists with green light, pressing them to the ground in an effort to non-lethally subdue them. Rager thrust his remaining gauntlet at Apros and a shot of energy erupted from the android's fist. Kyle Rayner rolled off his bruised back and onto his hands and knees at the same moment Rager opened fire. "Apros!" he cried out in a cracking voice. Apros seemed not to hear, but an instant before the devastating energies would have hit the squat Green Lantern, Stel flew into the beam's path. The robotic Corpsman exploded. In the wake of the blast, Apros spun around, and an emerald battering ram plowed into Rager and sent the Manhunter flying.

Kyle Rayner hung his head in relief, which was short lived. A cultist leapt onto his back, and slid a knife to Rayner's throat. Rayner tensed and tried to throw off his attacker, but the agent of the Manhunter's held tight. Soft feminine lips pressed against Rayner's ear as the two struggled. "Hello, Kyle," Haven Donovan purred.

NEXT ISSUE: The decisive battle between the Green Lantern Corps and the Manhunter Cult reaches its epic conclusion! With humanity on the brink of extinction at the Manhunters' hands, the Green Lanterns will stop at nothing to defeat the insane robotic army. How high will the price paid be? Find out in 30!