War Against the White Knights (42 page)

Arun said nothing, standing attentively, if not quite at attention, in the Imperial audience chamber.

“The transmission is by direct FTL-link from your homeworld,” the Emperor explained. “My technicians have verified the source.”

He waved a hand theatrically, causing a virtual screen to appear before Arun’s face; on it were displayed stylized words. The spelling and script were strange to Arun, but intelligible nonetheless. The words were written in what Arun had been brought up to call the Human language, but he now understood was one of many human languages. One called English.

Strength through victory! Victory through strength!

Those words… Arun had heard them before.

Before he could remember their source, the image changed, showing an ornate desk behind which sat a human female who looked sturdier than a space rat, but lacked the bulk and robustness of a human Marine. She smiled at the camera as if inviting the viewer to study her. Arun was intrigued by the immaculate state of her hair and make-up, and the way her earrings glittered under the diffuse artificial light lent glamour to a pretty face devoid of scars. If the Emperor spoke the truth, this was the first human civilian Arun had ever seen.

Rousing music began to play in the background, underpinned by drums that beat out a marching rhythm. It was an overture, a deliberate ploy to monopolize an audience’s attention that swiftly climaxed in a fanfare of trumpets.

The woman cleared her throat and began. “We interrupt our scheduled transmission to bring to you an announcement that comes directly from the Office of the Great Leader. The end of martial law is in sight. The Great Leader has selected a human Governor of Earth, who will lead the transition to civilian administration. Although our Governor Elect is still many years away from Earth, we can nonetheless go to him live. Standby…”

The screen cut to homelier surroundings: a compartment of a starship. Floating in the zero-g, and dutifully looking into the camera with no enthusiasm whatsoever, was a man Arun had held in his arms as a baby, a man whose features were obscured behind the vibrant patterns of an alien skin parasite.

“I am Governor Elect Romulus. Await my coming with diligence and obedience. As individuals, your lives have little value, but under my rule I shall offer you efficiency and purpose to harness your pitiful lives. Together we shall transform the Earth and the liberated Terran Worlds until we are of some small worth to the New Order. One scent! One people! For the glory of the Hardit Empire. That is all.”

The Emperor flicked a hand and the video stopped.

“General McEwan, this upstart calling himself Romulus is an affront to my honor and the reputation of the Empire. There can be no banishment for this individual. You must destroy him and then–”

“Wait!” Arun cried, little caring that he had interrupted the ruler of the White Knight Empire. He didn’t attempt to hide his anger. “You already knew the Earth had fallen to the Hardits. That’s why you offered to add the Terran Worlds to the Human Autonomous Region!”

“I have no need to justify my decisions to you, human. What matters is that you gave your bio signature to our agreement. The Earth is part of your region of autonomy, which means that you are responsible for its economy, military readiness, and its continued loyalty to me. If you wish to retain the pitiful freedoms you have earned in this treaty, then you must fight for the Earth and win. And you must do so in my name.”

This, the fifth volume in The Annals of the Human Legion is self-contained, but readers may benefit from a reminder of the preceding events.

In the year, 2565AD, Arun McEwan is a 17-year-old freshman cadet raised on Tranquility, a depot planet of the Human Marine Corps, the military organization set up from a portion of the million human children given to the White Knights five centuries earlier in the Vancouver Accords. In this period, human military personnel are kept ignorant, separated, and specialized, a policy enthusiastically followed by the Jotuns, at least officially. These six-limbed aliens act as the Marine Corps officers, but are slaves of the White Knights just as much as the humans.

Conspiracies abound in Tranquility’s two depots: Detroit and Beta City. The potential of two cadets, Arun McEwan and Xin Lee, to become pivotal historical figures has been foreseen by the Night Hummers (an allied race who can see into the future). One shadowy faction of Hummers and their allies pin their hopes on these adolescent humans as a means to win freedom from the White Knights. With extreme caution, they nurture and protect the valuable humans, extending their conspiracy to include the nest of social insectoids called Trogs, who live underneath Detroit. Arun McEwan befriends a Trog conspirator whom McEwan names Pedro.

While demoted to the lowest human status — that of the Aux — McEwan uncovers an operation to smuggle military supplies out of Detroit to arm an uprising by a race of miners and technologists: the Hardits. Chief Aux torturer is Tawfiq Woomer-Calix, but McEwan survives her cruel treatment and organizes an act of defiance by the human Aux slaves, although his comrade, Hortez, is left behind, presumed dead.

Fearing their wider conspiracy is about to be uncovered, the Hardits launch their uprising early, to the disgust of their human and Jotun co-conspirators. The plan had been for these rebels to act together to seize the entire star system as an opening act in a wider civil war starting up across the White Knight Empire.

The Hardit rebellion is narrowly defeated. McEwan takes part in a military operation on the moon, Antilles, where he is badly wounded, but still manages to save the life of his cadet friend, Tremayne (nicknamed
Springer
). Tremayne, however, loses a leg and suffers disfiguring burns. The pre-cog Night Hummers also have their agenda. They manipulate McEwan into swearing a solemn oath to protect their species and win their freedom from the White Knights, no matter what the cost.

The Tranquility system prepares for war. Marines frozen for decades are thawed, ready to deploy. McEwan and his fellow cadets are hastily reclassified as full Marines and shipped off to the Muryani frontier.

In the last hours before embarking for the troop ships,
Beowulf
and
Themistocles,
McEwan and Xin Lee make love in the Antilles base, afterwards revealing to each other that they are both part of the conspiracy to win freedom from the White Knights.

Only six months into the journey, they chance across a vessel that they disable and board. The vessel’s position, its crew of vintage Marine-like humans, and the manner in which it soon explodes are all unexplained mysteries.

The rebel faction in the Civil War seizes both ships and turns them around to return to Tranquility, where they will join the fight to seize the system.

McEwan and Tremayne are rescued by an alliance between a spacer, Indiya, and her fellow ‘freaks’ — experimental enhanced humans — and the Reserve Captain, an ancient Jotun Navy officer and scientist who has played a role for many years in the development of experimental human forms, an unwitting member of one of the deep conspiracies.

Aided by Xin Lee, McEwan’s faction retakes
Beowulf
but the plan goes badly wrong.
Themistocles
is destroyed. Nearly all the Marines and crew on
Beowulf
perish.

The survivors are divided and despondent. It is the one surviving Jotun officer, the Reserve Captain, who uses her authority to rally the human stragglers and appoint a leader: Major Arun McEwan.

Desperate for a purpose, the humans cheer McEwan when he announces they will return to Tranquility and retake their home, not as slaves of the White Knights, but as members of the Human Legion.

Leading an expeditionary force of just 59 Marines, McEwan attempts to reclaim his homeworld from Hardit control. The campaign is hard fought, but ultimately futile. The lazy and ill-disciplined Hardits McEwan knew in his days as a cadet have hardened into the brutal New Order, led by Tawfiq Woomer-Calix, who has emerged as a ruthless tyrant.

In the Fall of Detroit, the leader of the Legion defense, Lieutenant Edward Brandt, discovers a secret store of cryogenically frozen soldiers hidden deep underneath the city. Millions of them.

But there is no time to revive them. The expeditionary force flees the planet leaving behind the still sleeping Marines and the corpses of half their force, including Lieutenant Brandt.

Regrouping on the Moon, Antilles, the Legion uncovers McEwan’s friends: Hortez and Pedro, who in turn reveal 600 humans frozen not long after the creation of the Human Marine Corps.

But as the
Beowulf
, the Legion’s only starship, leaves the Tranquility system for a destination suggested by the Hummers, McEwan is beginning to discover the Night Hummer conspiracy wherever he looks, even in the presence and existence of the one person he loves: Springer. When Springer says she can foretell McEwan’s future, but that she can’t see herself in that future, she rejects McEwan completely.

Disconsolate, McEwan seeks what solace he can from other friends and lovers, not yet realizing that they too have their secret agendas.

The frozen humans rescued from the Tranquility system – a pack of human berserkers calling themselves Wolves – overpower their rescuers and seize control of
Beowulf
. It takes the combination of Indiya, Xin, Arun, and Nhlappo, and the primitive nature of the Wolves’ own bodies, for the Human Legion to re-establish control, and turn the ship back to the destination suggested to them by the night Hummers.

Beowulf
arrives at the homeworld of the Littoranes, an amphibious species who were once punished by the White Knights for their lack of loyalty. The instrument of Imperial punishment were the same Wolves now on board
Beowulf
. But the Night Hummers have long prepared the Littoranes for the arrival of the Legion, and the Littorane high priest recognizes Captain Indiya and her purple hair from religious prophecies seeded by the Hummers. The Legion came to the Littorane world looking for supplies and a base of operations, but leaves with an armed fleet, major shipbuilding facilities, and a world that had declared holy war on the White Knight blasphemers.

At Khallini, the Legion uncovers a plan by the Old Empire forces (those loyal to the Emperor) to infect the victorious 3
rd
Fleet of their New Empire enemies. The disease vector is a hitherto unknown species, nicknamed the mudsuckers, who possess a knack for disrupting equipment, and forge a connection to Springer. The Imperial forces are routed by the Legion, the mudsuckers recruited, and the secrets of a weapons research base revealed.

Following this first battlefield victory, the Legion sends missions to nearby worlds to recruit new allies, and sends a flotilla under Colonel Nhlappo to retrieve the Sleeping Legion – millions of frozen human Marines buried on Tranquility-4. Meanwhile, the bulk of the Legion fleet prepares for the arrival of the 3rd Fleet.

Nhlappo’s operations on Tranquility begin well, and millions of sleeping soldiers are transferred to waiting ships in orbit. A sneak attack by the Hardit New Order, led by Tawfiq Woomer-Calix, threatens to overwhelm the humans. The attack in space is beaten off with heavy losses, but the survivors heed Nhlappo’s orders to evacuate, leaving both Nhlappo and her land forces to an uncertain fate.

Tens of light-years away, the Second Battle of Khallini is the most significant engagement of the Civil War to date. On the eve of battle, Arun reveals a secret to Xin and Springer. Long ago, the Trog known as Pedro secretly combined their DNA to create embryos for use as ‘backups’. There are fifty, still stored as frozen embryos, who are the genetic descendants of Arun and Xin, and another fifty from Arun and Springer. Before they can discuss this revelation further, the battle is upon them. Technical innovation, and the skill of the Legion forces, mean they prevail against the larger 3rd Fleet. During the battle’s course, an enraged Springer intends to kill Xin, but instead saves her life. The technical genius, Furn, uses the battle as cover to attempt a murder of Xin and Arun’s embryos, to further the ambitions of the woman he loves, Springer. As soon as she discovers what Furn has done in her name, a disgusted Springer turns herself in.

Before an exhausted Arun can deal with the situation, he receives an unexpected communication. The White Knight Emperor himself has made contact, and wishes to negotiate an alliance with the Human Legion…

The year is 2602AD. This is the turning point in the War Against the White Knights …

Return to the start of the book...

Join the Legion!

Read de-classified Infopedia entries!

Be the first to hear mobilization news!

Get involved with the telling of the Human Legion story!

Read short tales from the worlds of the Human Legion.

HumanLegion.com

The Annals of the Human Legion concludes with the fight for Earth... and the survival of the species she birthed.

Subscribe to
humanlegion.com
for the latest release information.