Prophet and the Blood March (Prophet of ConFree) (52 page)

"Dox," the Prof said calmly. I pulled a dox cup out of my ratpack, activated it, and handed it to the prisoner. He stared at it in fascination as if he did not quite believe it.

"Drink," the Prof said. I had seldom seen the Prof this morose. He was normally a lot more cheerful, and talkative, but I guess he had his reasons. We all did.

The prisoner savored the dox in his mouth like a sommelier sampling a fine wine, then sucked the steaming brew in greedily, trembling.

"Why is it so important to block access to IZ Seven?"

"Major combat units are on their way to the uppers via the vertical access industrial lifts located in IZ Seven," the prisoner said, over his steaming dox. "We were told there's a big fight underway on Level Two. CrimCon, the Assidic horde, the UMC jackals and the biogens are all involved and it was vital that we hold and protect the vertical lifts as long as poss so Level Two can be reinforced."

No Deception Indicated
.

Ice telepathed this news immediately to our Bright escort who took off quickly to inform Breakblade.

The Prof gestured again. The remaining two prisoners found their field cuffs were no longer restraining them.

"Dox," the Prof said again. I handed out two more dox. The other two drank greedily, faces twitching, fingers trembling. One of them started to cry, silently, the tears cutting little rivulets through the caked-on grime on his cheeks. He was just a kid.

The Prof and Ice and I sat there on the gritty floor, silent and exhausted, watching those enemy troopers drinking dox. I felt like crying myself but I didn't. I was too damned tired to cry.

"Dox," Ice said throatily. She appeared to be in a daze. I gave her one and took one myself and gave the last one to the Prof. We drank in silence. The dox swirled around in my mouth and hazy images surfaced in my mind. Honeyhair Honeyhair Honeyhair, an easy smile, emerald eyes, golden brown hair floating lightly, tickling my face as she leaned in closer for a kiss. Oh my God, will I ever see her again? Bees, losing it entirely as she lay there chest to chest with Scout, hysterical, trying and failing to insert the cyro into Scout's inset slot with shaking hands as Scout's blood shot out of both legs in impossible scarlet fountains. And Breakblade, touching my shoulders with a sword in that awful field of bloody corpses.
Be thou a knight,
he said, i
n the name of God, of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Arise, Sir Knight…Go forth and defend the faith and protect the innocent and fight the evil.

"All right, boys and girls," the Prof said, wearily. "It's time to get back to work. Ice, tell the Brights to send somebody down here to take charge of these prisoners."

Fight the evil, I thought. All right. The damned building was vibrating again. Time to go.

Δ

"Lift Eighteen is right ahead," Saka said. By that time we were crawling through the glowing wreckage of Industrial Zone Seven like worms and everything around us was burning, a holocaust of destruction. Burning ash choked the air and the lava was following us relentlessly, as if urging us to advance on the foe. Missiles and counter-missiles shrieked close overhead and impacted all around us. Raise your head just a little and supersonic specks of steel would impact all over your helmet.

"I can't see a damned thing," I said, squinting through my faceplate scope, which was set to max. "Even the eyemotes are blind." I could barely hear myself with all the artillery and xmax bursting all around me.

"Stay low, stay low, the Brights may have hit it but the Darks and D's are still swarming. Auto lightning, please."

I fired lightning, adding to the deafening din of battle. I sprayed the target area, blindly. Honey lit up the targets and they were swarming all right. Hundreds of Darks and Demons and Stellar Commune slave soldiers were desperately crawling and going nowhere, seeking nonexistent shelter as our tacstars dropped right into their midst and sheets of lightning erupted like the wrath of a vengeful god. The smoke parted briefly and Lift Eighteen slowly came into view. It was a gigantic rectangular structure that stretched cavern floor to cavern ceiling and it appeared to be invulnerable, something that would last forever, that would defy the ages.

As I got a better view I saw it was burning like a torch, ripped to shreds by unimaginable forces, massive cables twisted and torn like wet noodles, jagged pieces of the elevator floor dangling crazily. Then the smoke obscured it again.

Morning Star, Glory. Information alert. Lift Eighteen is disabled and out of action. Glory, attack! Forward! Finish them off!
Brights started charging past me. Damn it! Don't they ever get enough of this crap? I stayed where I was, waiting orders from Saka. Lightning lanced down all around me, deafening and blinding me temporarily. The Darks were still out there, still fighting.

"Delta, stay low and keep alert," Saka ordered. "The B's don't need our help; let them mop up but keep an eye on the left flank, looks like it's open."

I took a look to my left and could only see an endless fire ripping through the white-hot metal skeletons of what had once been a warehouse complex. The blackened cavern roof was flickering orange and red and burning black clouds of oily smoke were billowing everywhere.

"Alert, Delta! Targets, Darks, left flank, see the zeros, two three targets." Dolly pinged on the targets, lighting them up in red. That's all I could see – Dolly's dots. Three of them. I let off a burst of lightning.

"Saka, Prophet, damn it, they're turning our flank and moving to attack from our rear. Damn it! I'm going after them!" I said.

"Stop it, Prophet! No! Maintain your position!" Saka ordered.

"Prophet, NO!" Ice shrieked. "Oh my God, NO NO, get back here!"

"Prophet, no, no, what are you doing?" Bees called out. "Get down, get down!"

"Prophet, get down at once!" the Prof ordered. "You'll be hit! Drop now!"

"He's going on. He's going on!" Arie shouted. "Shit! I'm going after him!"

"NO NO NO!" Ice screamed. "Stop, Nitro, stop!"

"Nitro is going after Prophet," Smiley said calmly.

"Nitro, get down and return to your position immediately!" Saka ordered.

"Nitro, get back here, that's an order!" the Prof said.

"Nitro is going after Prophet," Saka confirmed hopelessly. "What the hell? Blackie, get back here! Blackie just went after Nitro and Prophet!"

The left flank suddenly erupted in lightning strikes, auto lightning, flashing and crackling and ripping.

"Prophet is down," Bees said.

"Oh no. Oh no," Ice said.

"Nitro is firing, advancing," Smiley said.

"Nitro is down!" Ice said. "Oh no, Deadman, he's down! NO NO NO!"

"Prophet is up – advancing," Saka said. "All right, Delta – attack towards those Darks, now!"

Delta charged forward blindly, wreathed in lightning strikes, deadly laser tracks snapping past them, their armor absorbing xmax hits and random shrapnel from erupting tacstars. They fired auto lightning as they advanced.

"Prophet is down again – damn it!" Ice said. She opened up with her lightning, spraying a great arc of total destruction into the blazing chaos ahead. Smiley let loose with his Manlink, auto tacstar, and a line of blinding micronukes flashed to life ahead and writhed upwards to the cavern roof.

"Oh my God," Ice said. "It's Prophet – he's – he's – Bees! Bees! Get here now!"

Bees ran to the site, D4, D6, Ice and Prophet, hot blue dots pulsing on her tacmap. Her blood was running ice cold, her heart was thumping wildly.

Prophet was sprawled in the mud on his back, limbs askew, motionless, his Battlestorm nowhere in sight. His armor was glowing white-hot and dotted with scores of evil ragged smoking holes. He was no longer cloaked. His chestplate was ripped open at the waist and blood was spurting forth from exposed viscera. Two laser tracks ran diagonally across his chestplate, still flickering. His faceplate was smashed. Ice was on her knees beside him, stunned, both arms raised as if afraid to touch him.

Bees snapped Prophet's visor up, it jammed, and she yanked it off. His face was all bloody, ripped open, cheekbones exposed, shot in the face, Bees thought. His skull was shattered – blood and brain matter was still leaking out. Open dead bloody eyes. Dead, she thought. Dead dead dead.

"NO!" she shrieked, raising her arms to the cavern roof. The firing had slackened off. It did not appear that the Darks were firing at them anymore. "YOU BASTARD!" Bees cursed, shaking her fists at an unseen Heaven. Ice stared at Bees, stunned. Bees brought her arms down and fell to her knees, straddling Prophet's waist. She tore off her own helmet, tossed it away, losing her cloaking, then brought her trembling hands to hover over Prophet's shattered head. Scarlet blood was still spurting out of his helmet. Silent now, Bees carefully inserted her armored hands into Prophet's helmet, cradling his skull. She kept her hands there for some time, bathed in hot bubbling blood. Her face was strained and icy, twitching, love and hate and terror and determination all clearly visible. Her mind was spinning wildly.

You are a healer,
the angel thought.

I am a medic. I heal the wounded
.

Take my hands, the angel thought, holding out her hands. Bees grasped them. It was like an electric shock, coursing, pulsing through her body.

"Oh!" Bees cried out.

Peace, peace
, the angel thought.
Now you are a healer
. She leaned in and kissed Bees gently, right on the lips.
Thanks be to God
, the angel thought. And she too faded away.

You are a healer
, Bees thought. Now she understood. The power of God was flowing through her.

"Ice, please do a medprobe," she requested calmly.

Ice touched the device to Prophet's bloody face.

"Alive! He's breathing now! How can he be breathing when…"

"Shut down and get to work," Bees said, not removing her hands from Prophet's head. "His blood loss is slowing. Stop the bleeding from the abdomen, call the Brights for medevac, now."

Most of Delta was there by then, securing the area and staying out of Bees' way.

"Nitro is hit bad," Smiley reported from where he had found Nitro. "Oh no, oh my God."

"Nitro!" Ice leaped to her feet and charged over to the site. Bees stayed right where she was. The Prof was by her side.

"How bad is it?" he asked.

"His skull appears to be knitting now," Bees replied calmly. "Get the B's here, Prof. That's all you have to do. Get the B's here, now."

"Knitting? Yes, yes. Ice, Prof. Telepath Breakblade and call a priority medevac, right now!"

"It's done, Prof. Nitro is dying! Smiley, cyro! Cyro, now! Stop the bleeding!"

"Biotic charge. Again! Again! Again! Damn! Life signs flat." Smiley was evidently applying a biotic charger to Nitro's chest.

"Oh no. No! Keep it up! Keep it up!" Ice pleaded.

"It’s no good, Ice," Smiley said. "He's gone."

"Oh! Prof, oh my God. We…we just lost Nitro. He's gone. I'm so sorry." Ice burst into tears.

Bees stood up abruptly, made the sign of the cross over Prophet, and followed the tacmap to D5 and D7, dripping blood. She was just as calm as an angel of God.

Δ

If you are ever killed, you can expect to have a lot of dreams. At least that's what happened to me. Endless dreams, about everything. You've got all eternity, you see. There's no rush. It was hard, trying to figure out what they meant. I didn't try. I just experienced them. Hot, violent dreams, at first. I was on the battlefield and charging forward – dying for Delta. That was the idea. That was the deal. I had promised them – whoever was up there. God, Deadman, Satan – whoever. Me for Delta. I die, they survive. Fair enough. I don't even remember getting hit. But I remember the dreams.

An angel was leaning over me – I remember that. She was so bright, so brilliant that it hurt. I had to close my eyes.

I saw the Legion Gate. Was this heaven? Arie was waiting for me inside, standing up as I entered the ready room. Damn it! Had he been hit too? I prayed for his soul.

I saw everything. I saw Ice and Saka get killed on Galinta, again, shot all to hell, chopped to pieces, dead for sure. I was stunned, in total despair. Then that Bright trooper walked over and brought them both back to life, without a word, and made the sign of the cross, and walked away.

Lucky Honeyhair was taking care of me. At least she was doing that in my fevered dreams, touching my wounds tenderly with magical fingers, a faint smile, dreamy emerald eyes, fine silky hair tickling my flesh just like a flight of butterflies. God, it was great to see her! What was she going to do without me?

I kind of vaguely wondered when I was going to wake up. And where I would be when I woke up – Heaven or Hell. Or maybe someplace else. Maybe I wouldn't wake up at all, and death would be just an eternity of dreams.

I knew I had been hit bad – bad enough to kill me, it seemed. My body felt like it was burning, the few times I became aware of it. Very spooky burning. Could that be Hell? Where I would burn eternally? Was I really that evil? Maybe it was that bargain I had made with the powers that be – my life for Delta's. Maybe it was Satan I had been praying to. And now I would burn in Hell forever.

Well, we'd see about that. After all, I had promised Honeyhair. I had been fighting Satan when I got hit. And I wasn't ever going to stop fighting.

"LISTEN UP, SOLDIER!" It was a voice like thunder, booming in my ears. "I NEED YOUR LEGION SERIAL NUMBER. CAN YOU HEAR ME?"

"Screw you, Satan!" I shouted back at him. "You'll get nothing from me!" The effort at speaking must have exhausted me, because it all faded out very quickly and I dropped into freefall, back to dreamland.

Suddenly I was back in Rockpile One, behind my Battlestorm, prepping for another suicidal wave of Darks and Demons, when Scout called us all to take a look at an eyemote that was hovering over our fortress. It showed us a tall twisted vertical metal pole sticking up from the very highest point of our massive rubble pile. The black flag of the Legion was flapping boldly at the tip of the pole, as another series of missiles fell down onto our position, their flashes illuminating the silvery Legion cross coldly burning against a black field. I was thrilled to see it. And now, thinking back on it, watching that black flag flapping boldly over us as the missiles fell on our heads, I decided it was probably the most magnificent thing I had ever seen in my short, immortal life. That flag was the Legion, that flag was ConFree, that flag was us, all of us, and nobody else. That flag defied the galaxy. Come and get it, Satan, if you can. Reach out for it, try and tear it down, if you can. But you'd better send a whole lot of brainwashed slaves on that mission, because we're not going to make it easy. We are free men, and we are heavily armed, and we're not afraid of you, and you or anybody else who attacks us had best be prepared to die. Because we're not going down without a fight.