Schism of Blood and Stone (The Starfield Theory Book 1) (51 page)

Magnus' jitters were almost amusing. From a man who'd seen combat, killed other men and women in battle, the behavior was unusual. This should have been no problem for him. Archdukes did not show weakness. They were never unsure or unprepared. They were confident in their actions, whether they knew what they were doing or stumbling blindly. They were nearly divine; they could do no wrong.

Most of the rows in the Arkship were filled now. The forward-most were occupied by the nobility and their vassals, then came media elements, then finally important non-nobles: military commanders, industry leaders and powerful assistants that ran the administrative offices for nobility here on Magdeborg.

Finally, Alos stepped forward onto the golden center of the dais. He brushed back his robes, revealing a sword strapped to his belt, another Amrahn relic. He withdrew a white leather bound book, opened it to a preselected page and began a series of Azuren prayers.

The Legend Killer

Arkship of Amrah's Power, Magdeborg, Magdeborg Commonwealth

______________

LK watched the ceremony with a sort of detached anger. The Azuren prattled on about their religion, their superiority and purpose in guiding the human race towards enlightenment. The fat Masons stood calmly by, waiting for their chance to be the most powerful family in the Commonwealth. The Teton-Stens stood opposite them, waiting to cement their control of the Commonwealth and keep the Azuren from interfering any further in their governing. And LK waited patiently, to destroy all of it.

I wonder if Salena realizes she's only setting the stage for her own downfall. The Masons are traitorous bastards, murderers, power hungry thieves.

LK closed his eyes as his blood boiled.
They will pay for their crimes.

Apparently, the resistance trooper next to him noticed his sudden discomfort and raising blood pressure and sent a silent signal to him asking if there was a problem. The powered armor suits kept tracked of vital signs and the commanders kept tabs on stress levels and other factors that might affect a soldier in battle based on coded signals sent from each suit on his command. The message appeared in LK's visor and he looked left, then right, mimicking shaking his head with his eyeballs.

He forced himself to settle back down and released more muscle relaxant into his system. Maybe the long wait had finally gotten to him; they'd been here, latched to the Arkship's hull for three days. The mission commander, some low-level Sørensen crony, ordered them to remain asleep for the duration of the wait, minus one rotating lookout. LK had disobeyed orders and stayed awake, sleeping only when he wanted to do so. It was no difficult task fooling the suit's sleep inducers. After all, he'd helped design the suit itself.

The suits were some of the most advanced infantry power armor in the human arsenal designed by a combined Mason-Harding Corporation team. LK had done a lot of the research and vetting of the team members, making sure they weren't doing anything they shouldn't have done in their spare time. When bored, he hacked the research files and read up on the suit's capabilities beyond the simple stuff he was allowed access to. It was a sneak suit with advanced mimetic armor, automatic weapons and a variety of hand-to-hand combat weapons.

Three days ago, he commanded a raid on a Mason supply depot to procure a dozen of the suits. He still had all the necessary access codes memorized. LK fudged some of the records to make it appear as though nothing had gone wrong. His help in that regard gave him the authority to ignore orders barked by some Sørensen. He was here for his own reasons, not because he felt any sort of loyalty to the Sørensen cause. This was a temporary alliance of mutual interest.

Reinforced mimetic armor protected the wearer from most small arms fire, while allowing him to blend into this surroundings as the resistance fighters had been doing for the last several days. A complex electronics system allowed for non-verbal and non-physical conversation through eye blinks and minute muscle movements. Internal systems regulated the suit's temperature and monitored vital signs. It also allowed nutrients, painkillers and other drugs to be administered intravenously for long deployment such as this one.

He switched his sensors so he could watch the proceedings below, his attention particularly focused on the Duke. The fat Mason had been there personally at his interrogation many years prior. They'd accused him of hacking the research files, which was true, and of sending the material to rival firms, which was not. House Mason had actually done a proficient job in LK's interrogation-resistance training. So well, in fact, that the interrogation went on for weeks without yielding any sort of actionable result. Maybe the interrogation's length bothered the Duke and he began to do it just for his own enjoyment, but even that must have eventually grown old for him, for LK showed very little reaction to the various torture techniques. Even after they'd pulled out his finger nails, his hair, and teeth and threatened to do the same to his eyes and his testicles, LK remained in a fog of calm, as if in some sort of out-of-body experience. Perhaps he'd tapped into a Starfield Theorist experience that had been talked about, but since such phenomenon generally could not be explained by a mathematical formula, had been discredited as superstitious nonsense. Every mind could be released from its pain and suffering, some Theorists believed, but try as he might, LK could never leave that room, physically or mentally. He felt like he was still there now.

It didn't take too much longer for Duke Frederick to figure out that LK's family did not have the same kind of defensive training, intelligence training or Theorist training. After several days of attempting to use their suffering to elicit a confession, they'd had enough. Mason ordered them executed in front of LK, using all sorts of knives, needles and other selected blades. LK's shouts did not end their tortuous killings. His threats, screams, and curses fell on deaf ears.

They asked the Azuren for permission to index his mind. They agreed, permitting the procedure as soon as possible. LK has trouble remembering how, but the Theorists had managed to slip in a team and escorted him out of the Aarhus Duchy.

Now LK had decades of hate and an assortment of automatic weapons, high-powered lasers and expensive military equipment to make a very harsh point. He didn't forget the Masons and he didn't forget the Azuren.

The mission commander was sending updates to his team now which flashed on his visor and drew him back to the present. The presence of additional, unexpected Azuren worried him, but LK pushed that thought aside. As a Starfield Theorist, he should have been pleased at the opportunity to kill an Azuren, to kill several was like a gift from some deity, if he'd believed in one. But today, he shed his Theorist identity. Today he was John Hamper, the man who lost his family to those bastards masquerading about as nobles and. Today he would avenge the deaths of the only people who had ever truly mattered to him. Though they were gone, he'd begun to see them in Anna and the girl. They were like surrogate protectorates, a chance to save them as he'd failed to save the people they'd come to represent. A sort of second chance.

He would hurt those who'd hurt him. Today would be a good day.

He listened intently to the big Azuren begin his blessings.

“Thus begins the union of those two great Houses, Teton-Sten and Mason. Amrah herself smiles upon this union in her own house,” Alos spoke, his voice echoing through the ship. He raised his arms, taking in the House of Amrah.

Salena watched his charade go on a little longer. She seemed bored. At least he could sympathize with her in that regard. Soon she would be dead as would her son Magnus who had managed to survive several attempts on his life. The fool Richard Teton would die as well. It seemed only the daughter, Casandra, would be a sad waste of a good resource. By all accounts she was bright, capable and one of the few with Sten blood not touched by some form of madness. Her name doomed her.

Finally, Alos finished his sermon and gently returned the holy book back into his robes. The Azuren priests and warriors turned and marched to different spots throughout the ship. Again, they started their chanting.

Alos waved Magnus and Kendra forward. Magnus stepped quickly in military fashion, apparently regaining his composure. The movements had probably been drilled into him during the rehearsals and stuck just as had his military training. Kendra moved lightly, almost gliding to the center of the dais. Alos instructed them to take hands them turned to address Salena.

“Lady Salena, do you approve of the marriage of your representative to that of House Mason?”

“I do so,” she said.

He turned to the Masons to ask the same question. They nodded approvingly.

Alos clasped their hands together and raised above their heads. “Then I declare you, in the name of Amrah, bound in eternal union.”

The mission commander gave the signal, a bright red throbbing in LK's helmet, and the resulting applause nearly drowned out the sounds of gunfire.

The cheer quickly turned to panic and people began to run. The insertion team slid down from their perches in the Arkship and moved like ghosts, their faint outlines only briefly visible as they moved through the benches, the armor doing a superb job of mimicking its surroundings. Fleeing nobles were occasionally colliding with the team, tumbling, stunned to the ground. Gradually people began to figure out there were invisible assailants among them, which, in turn, triggered another wave of panic.

The mission commander signaled weapons free, allowing his troopers to engage their assassination targets. Although the suits could silence weapons fire, the commander ordered silencers off. The noise added to the confusion, hence furthering their ends. Their fire was accurate and murderous, taking down security agents who raised weapons against them, avoiding the unarmed nobles for the most part. An unlucky few had stepped into the crossfire, not realizing where the resistance troopers were.

LK noticed the Teton-Sten bodyguard splitting up their charges, taking them to preassigned exits. LK had to give them credit, they'd reacted very quickly upon the first few shots. Their strategies were forcing the insertion team to split its limited forces. The Mason guards were doing the same and LK headed in their direction, splitting from the rest of the team. Alos and his Azuren companions were no where in sight, which bothered LK to the point of nearly making him sick.

The suits were nearly impervious to human weapons, but the Azuren might be able to take them down, armed or unarmed. LK preferred not to test the suit's anti-Azuren capabilities, or lack thereof. Dimly he was aware of other team members claiming to have eliminated their targets, some Azuren, some Teton-Sten.

The front of the Arkship cleared out fairly quickly. A few guards stayed behind to cover the retreat of the monarchs and nobles. It was valiant, but futile. They were cut down quickly. One of them noticed the spatial distortion caused by LK's suit and opened fire on him. Although LK's suit canceled out the noise of the gunfire, he felt the slug strike the suit and his head's up display notified him of the shooting. LK turned and mowed down the shooter with his arm-mounted automatic weapon.

The shooting drew the attention of other guards and LK took his time, carefully bringing them down one by one with the automatic. He refrained from using the laser, not wishing to damage the Arkship, not because it was an Azuren holy place, but because he knew its past was human. It was valuable to them as well.

He dropped the guards as quickly as possible and followed the survivors out a rear exit. In the back alleys of the Arkship, cars were waiting. The lead ones were trying to surge forward, but the panicked crowds choked the streets. LK surveyed the convoy quickly, though its occupants and protectors hadn't noticed his arrival.

Nearby, Lady Mason was arguing with several bodyguards. She was pointing to another car that contained the fat outline of the Duke. She wanted to leave with him, rather than be stuffed in the back of another car. Duke Frederick himself did not seem concerned. He was yelling at the driver to go. Lady Mason's defiance and her loyalty to her twisted husband would be the death of her.

With a detached calm, LK lined up the automatic and mowed down the group with a long burst. The shooting drew the attention of other bodyguards, but he didn't bother to aim this time. He used the suit's laser to cut through flesh and metal like a hot knife through butter.

From the rear car, a woman in a purple dress emerged and hurried to Lady Mason's bloody body. Kendra Mason, LK realized, a Commonwealth duchess now. So pretty.

The girl shoved other broken bodies aside, checking her mother for a pulse. LK's armor allowed him to approach without her notice. He watched the girl, tears streaming down her face. Other security personal arrived, hunting him, but resistance members still on the hull had tracked his suit and shot them down before they could engage him. The car near him caught fire, its fuel line rupturing. His suit registered the change in temperature and tagged it as a minor hazard.

Several cars forward, a final figure appeared, heavy and slow, but also calculating. Duke Frederick Mason carried a pistol in one hand, dwarfed by its immense size. He realized there was something out here that was shredding his security team and had just eliminated his wife. He saw his daughter and shouted for her to come away, to join him in the vehicle so they could leave. There was nothing she could do for her mother now. The words were lost as the suit canceled out their voices.

Kendra shouted something back and refused to move. The Duke stamped his heavy foot, demanding her compliance. She ignored him.

LK stepped forward as Mason began to lumber towards her. He waited until the Duke was just a few steps away before grabbing the princess with one clawed hand and lifting her from the ground. He kept his gaze squarely on the older Mason. Kendra struggled, but had no chance of breaking the suit's grip. With his other hand, he punched an armored fist through her skull, then tossed the headless body aside like a wet rag.

He almost felt sorry for her. She'd done nothing to him, but his family had done nothing to harm the Masons either. She was a tool to his end.

The Duke's eyes bulged from his head and he realized the invisible killer just ended the lives of his family. He wore an expression quite similar to the one LK had probably worn when Mason executed his family in a similar fashion.