March of the Legion (10 page)

Nobody was paying any attention to me. "You get that, Sweety?" I spoke softly into the shoulder mike.

"Yes, Thinker," my tacmod replied. "This communication is addressed to you. It is written in classical Taka runes from the Age of the Book."

"Translate, please."

"Translation follows: 'For Slayer, my Lord, my King, my Master, my Maker, my Sword, my Heart and my Soul'." Sweety's metallic voice was devoid of emotion. "'Your slave sends her love, from the land of the living dead. You are in my prayers and in my dreams. My nights are yours alone. You walk with me in the halls of the Holy Dead. All of the power of Those Who Went Before is yours now. The Dead be with you, marching before you, in the name of the Book. I bless you, in the name of the Book. My prayers rise in the dark, carried by incense, to the Realm of the Gods.

"'I await you, alone with the dead. I write my Book of Sorrows, for you to read under the Moon upon your return, and burn in the dawn of our new life. I cry, haunted by your ghost. I pray for your return.

"'I knit a cloak of treesilk, for you. When it is finished, you will return to me. When you come, I will kneel before my King and cry grateful tears of joy. I will sing a song of love, for you. I will make warm tea of flowers and herbs, for you. I will bathe your weary limbs in oil and perfume—for you. All this I do for you every night in my dreams and every day in my mind. My days are only a passing mist, not quite real.

"'The past is real and strong. I pray on my knees, in fields of bones, for your glorious return. Tears streak my cheeks, and the chanting of my prayers rises in the halls of the dead.

"'Your child stirs within me. It is strong and active. I pray for a boy. He will be a King, in our bright new world, and King of the Dark as well. I will guard your child with my life, and present him—for you—when you return.

"'I am your slave, and the vessel of your love. She Who Was Moontouch.' End translation."

I sat there stunned, cold rivers running through my veins. Moontouch was pregnant! She was going to have my baby!

###

"We're in dock mode." We crowded around a viewport of the assault craft, anxious to see our destination. We were in deep space, unimaginable light years from any inhabited world. Billions of cold silvery stars glowed against a field of velvet black, and glittering phosphorescent nebulae of gas and dust swirled in frozen splendor as far as we could see. This was the Outvac, further from anything than I or anyone else had ever been, or probably ever would be again. It was so far and lonely that the fear was on my skin like a frost, and my heart had slowed. How far can you really go before you die? Surely there must be a limit. And we must be almost there, for there was nothing here—absolutely nothing. Only the Outvac, and billions of strange stars from billions of years ago; some of them not even there any more; ghost stars, the light hitting our retinas, a magical picture of the past, and every star was a lie. I feared maybe there was really nothing there at all, only us, alone in the vac, microbes falling into infinity, a fragile sliver of life.

"There! Look!" A tiny silvery speck, reflecting starlight. Growing.

"Prep for docking. Secure all personnel." We ignored the command and maintained our post by the viewport. It was growing, glittering, gliding silently through space. A microscopic silver ship, lost in the immensity of the vac. What could it be? They had told us nothing.

Larger. The details coming into view now.

"It's a cruiser!" A magnificent vision, a cruiser of molten mercury, in cold starlight. A Legion cruiser, growing larger and larger. A vision to die for, growing like magic as we approached.

"It's the Spawn!" Unmistakable—a ragged cheer. The
Spawn
had carried Beta to Coldmark, then to Andrion 3. She was an old friend.

"Yes, it's the Spawn," Snow Leopard said quietly. "Our old friend, the Spawn. Come back, to finish the job. She has a surprise for us. A surprise." His pink eyes were far away.

One had been very quiet lately. We did not dare ask him anything. He knew what the mission was, and he didn't like it. I looked around at the others. It did not matter—we were back to the
Spawn
!

###

"Permission to board, sir—Beta and Gamma Two Four, Second of the Ship." Beta One gave a smart salute. It was returned by the
Spawn
's docking officer.

"Board, Beta. Welcome back. There's a delegation waiting for you—come on in."

A delegation? We filed through the triple docking lock and four troopers were waiting for us in black dress uniforms, braced, ready for inspection. A thrill of recognition shot through my veins.

"Element reporting for duty, sir!" It was Beta Two, Coolhand, snapping a salute to One. He looked terrific—tall and lean, a mop of curly brown hair, tanned and handsome, in perfect shape.

"Is the element fit for combat, Two?" One paused before Coolhand, looking over the troops.

"Ten sir! We are all cleared for unrestricted duty."

"How's the leg, Coolhand?"

"Excellent, sir! Better than before."

"Good." One paused before Beta Four. "Merlin? How are you feeling?"

"Perfect, sir! Fully recovered." Merlin looked a bit tense, but he always looked nervous. We could certainly use him, wherever we were bound. He was smarter than the rest of us put together.

"They grew you some new legs, did they?"

"Yes sir! Chromite-core Legion legs, sir. They say I can walk through Hell now."

"That's good, Merlin. That's good. Because that's where we're going, and I'm going to need you there. Eight! Did they get your insides patched up?"

"They fixed the plumbing, sir. Added a little armor."

Dragon was strong and confident, a commanding presence. His dark eyes glittered. Tattoos covered his knuckles and scarred his neck and ears. He was a warrior's warrior. It was great to have him back.

"Redhawk, you were pretty dinged up. Sure you're right?"

"Tenners, One! We're ready to lift!" A tight smile. His red hair was long and tangled, his scruffy beard was even scruffier than before, and his hot eyes gleamed with the light of a joyful madness.

"How's the aircar, Redhawk?"

"She's more than an aircar, One. She's a bitch from Hell. And she's dressed to kill. You got any planets you don't like, just let me know."

"We'll do that, Redhawk. Beta, Gamma—mission briefing—now. In the capmod." Snow Leopard wasn't even giving us time to drop our gear. E's and all, we trooped along the narrow halls to the capmod.

###

I had never been in the capmod. It was a lot smaller than the wardroom where we had been briefed on the Coldmark mission. The Capmod was for CAT commanders and sometimes squad leaders, depending on the sit. It was not often they'd ask a squad of troopies to sit in.

We filed in, choosing seats around a table covered with green felt, leaning our weapons against the bulkheads. A new doxcup was set before each airchair. A nice touch! I popped the top on mine quietly; hot dox was better than sex.

Psycho grinned, bouncing slightly in his chair. What a fool! He'd make us look like idiots.

The Second, Cubes, sat at one end of the table. Two Four One, Lowdrop, was beside him. One of the ship's officers whispered something to the Second. Cubes nodded, and the man went away. Snow Leopard found a seat beside Lowdrop. He looked tense and alert. I was very uncomfortable being this close to Cubes, and I simply did not like Lowdrop. Cubes was a scary guy, but I respected him. My own experience with Lowdrop convinced me that his only concern was with the mission, and that all his assets were expendable.

A shrill whistle shot through the ship like a flicker of lightning. "Antimat drive initiating!" The announcement echoed through the room. "Prep for vac run red!" The ship shuddered, and lurched. My stomach swirled within me. We were underway. They were not wasting any time.

"Beta, Gamma, welcome." Cubes spoke, his icy eyes flickering over us all. "Have some dox. This is highly informal. Two Four and I wanted to brief you all personally on your mission. It's an important mission. It's a very important mission. A mission which we believe can best be accomplished by Two Four Beta and Gamma."

The dox was good. Boudicca was sullen, staring into space. Valkyrie was beside her, cold and empty. I could still hardly believe she had burnt that Legion cross into her forehead. It was a sign of insanity. I knew she was lost to us all—not all of Gamma's fatalities died on Andrion 3.

"Beta and Gamma—especially Gamma—gave more than anyone could ever ask on Andrion 3," Cubes said. "Don't think we don't know it. I know every trooper in the Second. I knew all those who died. They weren't numbers to me. I see their faces every night. And a lot of others as well. Hundreds of them…" He faded for a moment, and a cold hush fell over the capmod. Then he resumed.

"The Legion knows you've given enough. But we're asking for more. As you know, the Systie frontier has collapsed under a massive assault from the Omnis. All of the Gassies worlds are falling, one by one. At latest count, nineteen inhabited Systie worlds have been over-run. And it's only the beginning. The Systies are paying for their legacy of treason to humanity. Unfortunately it's not as simple as that. We can't just laugh as the Systies get what's coming to them. Every new planet the O's seize is a direct threat to us. The Confederation has to get involved. The O's are a plague—a galactic disease—fatal to humanity—and we must exterminate them all. We must!" The Second's eyes blazed.

"We must—and so we're asking for more. More from Beta—and more from Gamma. Beta—are your troops ready for combat?"

"Yes sir," Snow Leopard responded quickly. "We're ready."

"Any problems?"

"No sir!"

"Good. Gamma—how about you?"

She gave him a cold, dead stare. "We're ready."

"Gamma Two—how do you feel?"

"Will we be fighting the Omnis?" Valkyrie asked quietly. She was a pale angel, branded with the Legion cross. It was like a curse.

"That's a ten, trooper."

"Good. I want to fight the O. I'm happy to hear it."

Insane. My lovely girl was quite insane.

"Gamma Five—what do you say?" He was hitting every Gamma trooper. He must have been worried about them.

"It's fine with me," Scrapper said quietly. "I don't like the O's. Fighting them sounds good to me." It was as if she had been asked whether she wanted her dox sweet or bitter. Scrapper had always been eminently sensible. Now even she sounded as if she had lost it.

"Seven? Any comments?"

"Why don't you just tell us the mission?" Sassin growled. "There's nobody from Gamma going to walk out on the mission."

Gamma Seven was more quiet and reserved than most professional assassins. I could hardly believe he had spoken to the Second that way. Cubes stared at him for just a frac, and then a slow, somewhat sad little smile appeared.

"Good." Cubes said. "Good. Lowdrop, you were right. Beta and Gamma can do it. Give them the briefing. Give them whatever they need. Beta—Gamma—may the Gods be with you." Cubes got up and left the room, off to brief another unit.

I felt sorry for him; I'm not sure why. The man had simply seen too much. But I knew it was ourselves for whom I should really feel sorry.

"Right, troopers—listen up." Lowdrop was always all business, harsh and demanding. "This is your target—Mongera." It appeared on a large wall screen, a pale blue world laced with soft white clouds, icy phospho polar caps glowing against the vac.

What a beautiful world, I thought.

"As you all know," Lowdrop continued, "we did a job on the O ships in the Andrion engagement, and we believe this was what prompted their retreat from Confederation vac and their subsequent attack on the Systies. We were pleased to discover that we are still technically superior to the O in ship-to-ship engagements. Otherwise we'd all be dead. Unfortunately we did not do that good on the ground. We took unacceptable casualties on Andrion 3. We have no counter to their psypower. Everywhere we met the O face to face, we lost. With one exception—Beta Two Four. Beta, you managed—somehow—to force an Omni to retreat. You've all been exhaustively debriefed on this, but the hard truth is we still don't understand what it is that caused that behavior on the part of the O. We have some ideas, however. Some good ideas. The purpose of your mission is to test these ideas. We want to duplicate the conditions you were facing on Andrion 3 and test our theories."

"Test your theories." Snow Leopard remarked coldly.

"That's correct. You'll be in a better position this time than last. You'll have some new weapons as well, weapons designed specifically to zero in on the O's weak link, and then exploit it. The tissue and blood samples you brought back from Andrion 3 were invaluable."

I wondered if they were planning on issuing us new, improved cold knives. Duplicate the conditions! Terrific—as if once wasn't enough, now we're going to have to do it again! Only in the Legion. A wave of despair rolled over me.

"…on Mongera." Lowdrop said. "The sit is total chaos. The planet is heavily populated, the O put down a major expeditionary force, and the Systies have committed major fleet units. The engagement is still underway. However, it appears clear that the O are taking the planet. Most of the population is being slaughtered. The remainder are desperate to escape. The O are running around loose on the ground—no effective opposition. But we estimate it will be some time before they seize the port. It's perfect for our sit. You shouldn't have any trouble zeroing a single O to work on."

We were all silent, listening to Lowdrop without comment. A single O to work on—right. Trouble is, he would probably object strenuously to our working on him.

"Beta One, you are in command of a reinforced squad for this mission, to consist of Beta at full strength and Gamma at current strength. Your call sign will be Badboy. Gamma One, you are to retain command of your element, but take your orders from Beta One. Beta, I'd suggest Beta Two take command of your second element as usual, but that's up to you. Your aircar driver will be Beta Ten."