Black Legion: 05 - Sea of Fire (9 page)

Damn them all!

Xenophon lifted his hands up and removed his helm, completely exposing his face to them all. He lowered it under his arm and walked directly up to the Taochi. Next to them he looked like a small boy, but not one of them raised a hand to strike him.

“Lower your weapons, and we will leave this place peacefully.”

The Taochi warriors muttered and complained, but the Carduchians began to plead with them as well. It was then that Chirisophus spotted the Imperial insignia on the armor of the massive warriors. He snorted and then pointed and shouted out loudly.

“They are soldiers of the Median Empire. This outpost has been infiltrated!”

The Taochi had no idea what he was saying, but the shouting from the Terran commander angered at least one of them. He shouted back in reply, and then as quickly as the situation appeared to have calmed down, it flared up again. Xenophon turned to his commander.

“Strategos, this situation must be quickly contained and controlled.”

“I agree,” said Chirisophus in a cold, merciless tone.

He lifted his arm and blasted the nearest Taochi warrior. The gunfire ripped into its armor, but even at this range, the creature would not die. It howled something in its own language and then surged forward.

“No!” Xenophon cried out.

It was too late, though. As the first shots were fired, the situation completely transformed. Just like every other part of the outpost where Chirisophus had sent troops, there was now bloodshed and death.

“Laconians!” Chirisophus hollered.

The line of shielded spatharii coalesced around him, and the Arcadians protected his flank. The Taochi lifted their weapons, howled in outrage, and then stormed across the open ground toward the Terrans.

“Fire!” Chirisophus shouted.

The Taochi plowed into them with an ear-splitting crash even as the volleys of carbine fire ripped into their armor. Two of the Laconians were knocked down by the impact. One was trampled and the second impaled on the end of a Taochi blade. The formation broke up, and it turned into a ferocious melee, with Taochi warriors being attacked on all sides. Xenophon was knocked aside, and Glaucon stepped past him with his pulse cannon lowered to fire. Its muzzle flashed, and a short burst of heavy fire ripped into the nearest monster. It staggered and struggled to regain its balance.

“Protect the Strategos!” yelled a familiar voice.

Komes Artemis, the commander of the elite Laconian bodyguard was now in the thick of the fray. He leapt into the battle with his energy shield flashing, and his Asgeirr-Carbine stabbing into the flesh and armor of his foes. Another Laconian was crushed beneath the weight of the final Taochi before Komes Artemis brought it down with a close range burst of fire.

Now it was just the Carduchians, and although they put up a brave fight, it took less than a minute to put them to flight. Chirisophus beheaded the only one of their number to stand, and then the fight was over. Lighter armored stratiotes spread out through the outpost and blocked off every remaining exit point, landing bay, and escape chute. At the same time, Xenophon marched up to Chirisophus and blocked his path.

“What in the name of our homeworlds are you doing, Chirisophus?”

The Laconian was taken aback at the verbal assault from Xenophon, and for a second actually began lifting his arm to strike him down.

“Really?” Lady Artemas added, moving to Xenophon’s flank.

Like all of the others, she was breathing heavily from the fight. Her beautiful purple cloak had multiple holes in it, and her chest armor was scratched from the attack of one of the massive Taochi warriors.

Glaucon and Roxana were busy tending to the wounded, but Tamara had ignored them, and instead walked to the side of Lady Artemas. As Xenophon finished his rebuke, a single Laconian, a big man of almost two meters in height, swung his left arm to swipe Artemas in the face. Her reaction was incredible, perhaps better than any Terran in the fleet. Her shoulder lowered and her head twisted to miss the strike by the tiniest of a fraction. The man staggered past and directly into the path of Tamara.

“Big mistake,” she snarled.

Ducking under his arms, she kicked into the back of his leading leg and sent him crashing to the floor. Another of the Laconians came in with his blade ready and his carbine activated, but Komes Artemis arrived and blocked his path to her. He looked back to Chirisophus.

“Our troops are securing the outlaying sections of the outpost. The fight is over, Strategos.”

He then glanced at Xenophon and shook his head ever so gently.

“Good work, Komes,” said Chirisophus.

He then looked to Xenophon.

“Now, what was it you were saying?”

The man’s voice had changed, and some of the rage had already subsided. Even so, there was still a fire in his eyes, and Xenophon knew him well enough to know it would take little for the Strategos to turn on him.

“We didn’t need to do this.”

The Strategos smiled.

“There is little we need to do. I agree with your plan to avoid the Core Worlds. A full confrontation with the entire Imperial Navy is a fight that even we cannot win. But that is as far as your advice goes, Xenophon.”

He extended his right arm and grasped Xenophon’s shoulder, pinning him in place.

“We don’t have the luxury of time to negotiate with these...savages.”

He looked down at the dozens of bodies.

“We will take what we need and push on. The Carduchians are primitives, and when word gets out what happened here...Well, they will..”

“Avoid us at every chance they get,” suggested Artemas.

Chirisophus threw her a withering stare.

“Then that will leave every outpost from here to the Hayastan Satrapy open to us.”

Xenophon shook his head.

“I warned you. The Carduchians will not melt away.”

Chirisophus nodded as a pair of his soldiers dragged a Carduchian male toward him. The younger of the two soldiers spoke first.

“This is the provisional Sarvan of the outpost.”

He threw the terrified Carduchian at the feet of the Strategos. Even as this little drama unfolded, there were scores of stratiotes carrying off crates and supplies to the landing pads. Xenophon watched as they looted the place of anything of worth.

“This outpost will be a reminder to all of your people. Either you give us what we need peacefully, or we will raze your facilities and take all of your assets.”

He looked down at the trembling figure and then laughed.

“Xenophon, you wasted your time here. They are barbarians, and they will fetch us a good price when we reach home.”

He then gave a quick hand gesture. The young Laconian officer pulled the Carduchian to his feet and dragged him off in the direction of the rest of the loot.
 
He then smiled at the sight of a dozen or more female prisoners being marched off to the ships in chains.

“I’d say this might make our trip worthwhile after all.”

He then looked at Xenophon.

“I suggest you and your entourage return to the fleet. We will leave as soon as the fleet is resupplied. That should take a day, no more.”

“And you plan on taking these slaves? They are more mouths to feed, and we need everything we have to make it home.”

Chirisophus called over to one of his men and passed on a series of orders before bothering to look back at Xenophon.

“Yes, I plan on taking slaves at every chance we get. This expedition cost us a lot of money, and I mean a lot. I will not return home empty handed, with nothing but damaged ships and dead soldiers. The strongest will work in Laconian mines, the rest...”

He looked at the tail end of the column of Carduchian females.

“We can always find a use for the softer ones.”

“And the rest? The older, infirm, the children?”

Chirisophus shook his head and walked away from the scene of the battle. He looked back and laughed.

“They will go to the slavers.”

Xenophon was left with his friends and the small group of Arcadians. Roxana had finished attending one of the wounded men, and his comrade was carrying him away. She moved closer, with Glaucon right at her side.

“This was a debacle.”

Glaucon laughed.

“As if there was any doubt.”

A single Carduchian moved off to the side, but the blast from a Doru rifle ended his life, as surely as any other weapon. Xenophon looked at his comrades, but as his eyes scanned the open space, he stopped at the still open doors of the elevator that led up into the structure.

“Follow me.”

He made it to the doors before they even realized where he was going. All five of them entered the shimmering chamber, and the doors whisked shut without making a single sound. There were no buttons inside, nothing at all, just bare, gleaming metal.

“Great, now what?” Glaucon asked.

With a gentle shudder, they began to move. It took less than ten seconds to make it to the elevator’s destination. The door hissed open, and ahead of them was a large hexagon room that ran around the vertical elevator shaft in a wide ring. The outside was fully transparent and gave a perfect view of the outside of the outpost and the armada of ships nearby. Tamara stepped out first, moved to the right, and then stopped. She pointed at the circular wall running around the shaft.

“You need to see this.”

Artemas and Glaucon were next out and looked at the imagery. A single large screen ran around the shaft with continually updating information on the facility. Diagrams of its layout were mixed with logs of ships and even the location of people. Xenophon also stopped to look at the imagery.

“I don’t understand the text, but the images are pretty clear. This isn’t just the security station, is it?”

Lady Artemas brushed passed him and pointed at one particular section.

“My Carduchian is poor, but I recognize this part. It is a communications network between outposts.”

Xenophon licked his lip as she spoke.

“Communication? So the other sites will know what has happened?”

Artemas raised an eyebrow and moved further along, looking carefully at the data. It took nearly a minute until she stopped by a series of automatically updating lists. She carefully slid her hands over the imagery, and it scrolled back.

“This is a public log. It goes back six hours.”

Artemas then pointed at one part in particular.

“This word is Terran, and this one is distress.”

Roxana turned from the data and to the single window running all around the ring and giving such a fantastic view. A few Median transports were moving into a docking area, and the damaged dome remained abandoned and derelict.

“So this is how these people will remember us? As the monsters that assaulted an already damaged outpost, and then looted it for all it was worth?”

Lady Artemas said something in her own tongue and then repeated it.

“This is much worse. The stamp on this data is from the Core Worlds.”

“Imperial?” Roxana asked.

Artemas shook her head.

“No, this is a regional code, not from Imperial High Command. I have seen it before, though. It is from an operative, but one with Imperial backing, and it has been sent via a coded courier out of this territory.”

All of them were now looking at her suspiciously.

“To whom?”

“The Satrap of Hayastan.”

“Tirbazus,” said Xenophon through clenched teeth.

* * *

Terran Titan ‘Valediction’, Outpost Iraj, Carduchian Wilderness

Xenophon waited along with Dukas Xenias as the commanders of each ship contingent filed out of the Great Hall. The battle was barely worthy of its name, yet after the trials and tribulations of the last few engagements, Chirisophus was milking the event for all it was worth. One man received double pay for capturing a valuable commodities trader, while another had shot down an escaping fighter pod. The speeches and awards had dragged on for nearly two hours. At the same time the dromons of the fleet continued the looting of the outpost.

“Finally,” said Chirisophus.

He was out of his armor now, relaxed and charming, but none of that had erased the memories of what Xenophon had witnessed on Iraj. He walked down from his raised platform and stopped in front of his two commanders. He reached out and brought his arms down onto the two men as though they were his greatest comrades.

“My Topoteretes.”

Xenophon opened his mouth, but Chirisophus lifted his hand to silence him.

“I know you do not agree with my approach to Iraj, but that is behind us now. I am more interested in the data that your team extracted from the security station.”

Xenophon indicated for Artemas to approach. She placed a unit on the large table and tapped it. A model of the massive asteroid belt appeared. Gray sections indicated large segments filled with debris.

“This is the Carduchian Wilderness.”