The Suns of Liberty: Legion: A Superhero Novel (28 page)

     And tonight they were lucky just to be alive.

     Flames scurried up the thin trees. Inside, the sap
boiled and ignited. The burning trunks exploded, spewing the flaming liquid in
all directions.

     Rapid fire blasts of energy were slamming into the
Earth everywhere around them, chasing them down the hill. Explosions rained
earth, mud, and fire down all around.

     An out-of-control drone, a prototype—larger and more
deadly than the others—damaged by the explosion of the
USS Delaware
,
zoomed over the trees, targeting any and all humanity for liquidation. The
mechanism that allowed it to tell friend from foe had been damaged beyond
repair.

     Pterodactyl-Prime had to be stopped at all costs.

     One hundred yards away, a line of Guardsmen ducked for
cover behind a row of jeeps and looked on helplessly, catching their breath
from the long run down the hill. Hoping their comrades would catch up to them
soon.          

     In the center of the raging inferno, a large metallic
Observation Pod—a brand-new aircraft that was part hovercraft, part helicopter—had
crash-landed into the forest floor. A huge earthen gully had been dug out by
the Pod’s crash and skid. The Pod was powered by large propeller fans and
engines built into the bottom of the circular craft that created extraordinary
directional flight and hover capabilities.

     Only moments before, the Pod had been following and
trying to draw the fire of the drone. The men had been tasked with keeping the
machine from entering residential Trenton, by using themselves as bait, while
their comrades tried to shoot the drone down. It was a suicidal mission that
the Guard would normally have been spared from, but there was no time to deploy
anyone else. They had done their best. But the Pod had been downed by the
drone. Now the men were trapped inside.

     The drone had already killed a dozen Guardsmen when
the Pod malfunctioned from the punishment it had sustained. Direct laser shots
from the drone had fried its operation system. The other Guard on the ground
ran for cover as their commander, Michael Crustac, began to bark orders to them
and tried to get them all to safety.

     In the midst of the chaos, a jeep came barreling up
from behind them. A petite red-haired woman was standing up in the open jeep,
pointing toward the crazed drone. She wore a long white shawl that flapped
lightly in the breeze.

     The jeep paused. The woman seemed to be arguing with
the driver. Then, finally, the jeep charged into the burning forest. The men
just gaped. The jeep was going to be toast in seconds.

     Suddenly, something zoomed overhead. In the dark, it
was just a blur of light
.
Their first thought was a jet, but it was too
small, and most bizarrely, it was glowing red and green.

     Not a jet.

     Michael Crustac went to work. Turning to his men at
the bottom of the hill, he said, “Stay here, wait ‘til it’s clear!” He grabbed
up the largest gun he could find and zipped out into the burning tree line.
Crustac was a big man, six foot four. He was as brave as they came. And just as
loyal to God and country.

     Technically, he was violating protocol by not sending
a team of underlings. Not the first time in the commander’s decorated career.
He wasn’t so much a maverick as simply a man who saw things through to the end.
He never asked his people to do something he himself was not prepared to do.
And the people under his command were his family.

     Crustac darted from tree to tree, dodging the raging
fire, fighting the steep incline, and moving ever closer to the drone, giving
cover to the remainder of his fleeing men as they raced down the burning hill
to what they hoped would be safety. 

     “Go! Go!” he yelled at them as they ran past him.

     The glowing object zoomed over Crustac and fired its
own energy blasts into the drone. Soon, the sky filled with terrifying flashes
of light. Thunderous booms echoed from every direction. Peeking over the vehicles,
the men at the bottom of the hill could see the red-haired woman pointing
toward the drone, almost reaching out to it. Her eyes seemed to be closed as if
she were in great concentration, but they were just too far away to be sure.
The whole thing just looked
wrong.

     Crustac was getting closer to the Pod, still dodging
from tree to tree.

     He could see it now.

     He could also see the drone.

     As Crustac looked on, the Pterodactyl-Prime blasted an
energy burst that slammed into the Pod in a flash of light and a thunder clap
of power. The ground shook under his feet. He could hear the men inside
scream.  They would not be able to hold out much longer.

     Above him, the glowing object and the drone were
having a titanic battle. Each blow sent tremors blasting throughout the forest.
Concussions that nearly toppled the commander as he tried desperately to get to
his men. He’d called in the Legion to help, but they’d been busy doing rescue
work inside Trenton itself. Something else had responded. Something
better.

     He kept darting from tree to tree, letting the
object’s battle with the machine provide cover. Crustac swore he saw the object
blink out
from one spot in the sky and reappear at another, always right
behind the drone. But the drone was so fast, the object could never catch it. He
couldn’t make out what the object was. It was a good deal smaller than the
drone. He knew only one thing for certain. He had to get to his men.

     Finally, he reached them. He’d not had training on the
Pod itself. He had no idea how to force the thing open, assuming it was even
possible. The outside of the craft was perfectly smooth and round. It was
basically a big steel ball. The windows that circled the Pod had been covered
by protective titanium shields as soon as the Pod had gone down. His men
couldn’t even see him from inside. They could probably have told him how to
open it, but if he yelled to them, he risked drawing the attention of the drone
and getting himself and his men killed. He’d just have to wing it.

     He tried to feel around the underside of the craft, but
it was buried solidly in the ground. That was where the rotors and engines were
located. Maybe there would be a way in from there if he could just get to it.

     It would be the last thought Michael Crustac would have
before his world went dark.

     The commander didn’t see it so much as he heard it.
Like an oncoming train. Instinctively, he leaped for cover, and the explosive
power of the drone’s energy ray ripped into the ground just below his feet. It
was like a grenade had exploded. Earth, trees, rocks, and the commander himself
were flung into the air. Thousands of pieces of flying shrapnel ripped into
Crustac’s body at unimaginable speed. The last thing he would see before he
lost consciousness was the sight of his own blood splashing cruelly into his
own eyes before a mountain of earth and rock buried him.

     The giant drone unleashed a torrent of power. It fired
the powerful red lasers at no target in particular. They simply seared out over
the horizon. A ripple of red energy erupted from the drone’s center.

     The men at the bottom of the hill heard the red-haired
woman shout in frustration, dropping her arms as she cursed. Almost as if she
had caused the red ripple of energy herself.

     A wave of the drone’s energy slammed into the glowing
object, and it was blasted across the sky, out of sight. The men hiding behind
the jeeps could hear the woman’s small voice scream out in response.

     The woman continued to cry out as if she were calling
to someone, but the men could not make out what she said. She seemed to be
searching the sky for the object. They still had not been able to tell what the
hell it was.

     The woman fell quiet and turned toward the drone. She
refocused, raising her arms again at the giant machine. And just like that, the
drone simply fell silent.

     And fell from the sky.

     It crashed, splintering the trees as it fell, gashing
a deep gully in the emerald forest floor, and a gout of earthen mud spewed into
the air.

     Had the woman done that somehow?

     A red and green streak of light flashed in their peripheral
vision, back from over the horizon. The glowing object, apparently undamaged, had
landed on the far side of the Pod.

     They could see the object’s glow and hear the Pod’s
door whir to life and slide open. The men tumbled out, gasping for breath,
crawling away from the Pod, coming into view of their comrades. The glowing
object rocketed high into the sky from behind the Pod and was well out of view
in seconds.

     Whatever it was, it was gone now.

     The men leaped out from behind the jeeps and sprinted
to help their friends and recover their fallen commander.

     “The commander’s still alive!” one of them called out as
two of them pulled Michael Crustac’s broken body from the dirt and mud. Crustac
was covered in blood.

     Emergency vehicles were pulling up to the area, and
the medics leaped out and attended to the commander immediately. As they put
his body on a stretcher, one of Crustac’s men asked them, “He is still alive,
isn’t he?”     

The paramedic put his hand on the man’s shoulder. “Technically.”

The men wanted to thank the strange woman in the jeep, but
when they looked up she was being driven away. None of them had spoken a word
to her.

Chairman
Howke was informed of the commander’s condition shortly after. Crustac’s name
was on a very short list. A list of volunteers who had been paid a hefty fee just
to join the roll, with a promise to be paid even more if they were ever
activated. A list whose importance necessitated a personal call to the chairman
immediately upon activation.

     It was the same list Veronica Soto’s name had been on.
             

The
report was devastating.

    
“We’ve been getting reports all night of a fireball
in the sky and of a crashed aircraft just outside of the city of Trenton, New
Jersey. Our own Dan Albert is on the scene there, and, Dan, we’re now being
told that this was a military aircraft of some kind?”
said Cynthia Roberts,
the glamorous blonde anchorwoman for Trenton’s
Action 5 News
, the local
Media Corp station that was broadcasting nationally in the face of Hurricane
Ana’s devastating impact.

     “That’s right, Cynthia. Sources
have confirmed that this was a military aircraft that exploded and then went
down in a field outside of Trenton. A classified military aircraft that had
been brought in by the Council to bring emergency assistance to storm-torn New
York City and surrounding areas. And most surprisingly, Cynthia, we are being
told that the craft was brought down by members of the Suns of Liberty,
including...including, the Revolution himself.”

     “Astounding, Dan. Do we know if the
Revolution knew that the aircraft was being used for rescue operations?”

     “That is something that we don’t
know at this point, but it begs the question—what were they doing in the area
anyway and not helping out in the storm? We’ve been seeing the footage all
evening of the Legion assisting in the storm’s aftermath. One has to wonder
about the motives here.”

     “Yes, indeed. I think people are
going to be asking questions for some time about this. We are still waiting for
any word from the Suns of Liberty.”

     “Right you are. So, the question
now is, what did the Revolution know about the contents of the ship and when
did he know it? Reporting live from Trenton, New Jersey, Dan Albert, Action
Five News.”

     “Thank you, Dan.”

Bannister
Tarleton was beaming. “I told you, devastating.”

     “No,” Chairman Howke replied.

     “No, it’s not devastating?”

     “No, don’t air it. I don’t want anyone to know that
the Suns of Liberty had anything to do with the
Delaware
going down. The
hurricane did it, is that clear?”

     “But, Bill, this will destroy their reputation, just
like you wanted. And the Legion look like greater heroes than the Suns could
ever be!” 

     “They look like heroes because they were. Leave the
Suns out of it. It gets out that they took down the
Delaware
, we’ll see
fallout in the markets that we don’t need right now. Only the Council members
themselves and those Guards who were actually there are to know. You make sure
of it. Pay them if you need to. Get...
creative
if you have to, just
don’t let me know about it. But you kill that report and make sure no one knows
I gave the order.”

     “No one will know. No one but us,” Tarleton said. As
he turned to go, a smirk crossed his lips that Chairman Howke did not see.

The entire city of Trenton had turned out to celebrate the
Legion, it seemed. It felt like all ninety thousand of them. As Arbor and the
rest of them basked in the televised glory, a chant from thousands of grateful
citizens rose up above the rooftops of Liberty Street.
Le-gion! Le-gion!
Le-gion!