title: The Heavens May Fall
author:  Allen Eskens 
description: "Eskens keeps the reader guessing as the tale takes several unexpected twists before reaching the satisfying denouement." ---Publishers Weekly
zlib_text: Rocket Fall
  
  by David Prill
  
   **THE RISE OF THE PAINSHIPS**
  
  _Rocket Fall …_
  
  _Rocket Fall …_
  
  _Rocket Fall …_
  
  Welcome children of the night to the darkest hours of Rocket Fall. Rocket
  Fall, when green turns to brown, when all that is living becomes dead. Rocket
  Fall, when the psychic exhaust is so lethal that anything caught in its wake
  is driven insane. Rocket Fall, when the Painships are rolled into place at the
  launch umbilical towers, their translucent cords stretching from the terrible
  gantries to the human fuels below …
  
  · · · · ·
  
  _Augmented target docking adapter shrouds attached?_
  
  Check.
  
  _Ethereal demon detectors withdrawn from their inner anticoincidence mantle?_
  
  Check.
  
  _Torturnauts in their psychic isolation garments?_
  
  Check.
  
  · · · · ·
  
  "While we're waiting for the countdown to begin, let's send it over to one of
  our correspondents, Larry Klaus, the man on the scene down at the fuel cells.
  Larry?"
  
  "That's right, Walter, I'm talking to you from the fuel cells, where 