Bastion: O-Men: Liege’s Legion

by Elaine Levine

  "Yet another reason we need to get a hold of the scientists you are hiding,” Liege said. “These mutants are lab-created beings made from human hosts. They can only be controlled by their assigned handlers, so they are not like wild beasts that can be contained. I don't know whether we can stop the spread of human mutations at this point, but I hope we can stop the creation of these deviants. I have teams like my men here all across the globe. We are fighting a losing battle. We need help. I don't want to cause mutations in order to stop mutations—I don't want to become what we are fighting, but we may have no other choice.”

  Greer looked at Owen and rocked back on the hind legs of his conference chair. "This is why Jax kept a tight lid on the Ratcliffs. It's why he got them away from here so quickly after Thanksgiving. He knows about all of this.“ Greer looked at Bastion. “The Ratcliffs must have sensed you around the house when they were here over Thanksgiving.”

  Bastion nodded. "It is possible. Depending on the type of mutations the doctors and Nick have, they may be extremely sensitive to energy. We in the Legion all are."

  Owen frowned. “Jax did say that we should take the mutations or get out of Dodge." He looked at Liege and asked, “What exactly are you proposing for our teams?"

  "I want us to work together. My team can create the simulations that will get your team ready to face these ghouls. Acier, our weapons master, can equip your team.”

  "We have all the weapons we need,” Owen said.

  "Maybe you do or maybe you don't," Liege said. "You won't know that until we begin training."

  “Where do you want to do this training?" Kit asked.

  "Ideally, at our fort,” Liege said. "I know, from the reports Bastion has given me, that you have a household full of civilians and children. We can accommodate moving all of you down to the fort, but that may not be feasible, given you’ve become deeply invested in the town here. So, we can adapt. Some training at the fort, some here. We’ll set energetic protections on your people. That will protect them to some degree, but it will also expose them to those hunting us. There’s a fine balance between helping and hurting, but we’ll have to find that balance.”

  “You want us to trust you after you’ve spent months infiltrating us?” Owen asked. Selena worried he would decline Liege’s offer. To be honest, this mutant stuff scared her. She’d been at the receiving end of their secret skills. But this shit was real, and ignoring it wasn’t going to make it go away.

  “You call yourselves the Red Team,” Liege said. “A red team infiltrates, assesses weaknesses and failure points, then terminates an enemy. We are also a red team. If I could have kept all of this from you, I would have. I would have wiped your memories and shielded you from what’s happening. But you’re a team of warriors, and I need you. Our skills will get you into any physical location you need to access. Your team can give us access to databases and systems. You have an impressive collection of historical Omni data. All of that may be useful in piecing together their infrastructure and physical locations. Even residual patterns of behaviors might tell us something of what they’re now doing.” Liege sighed. “I need more fighters. I need your team. And you need us.”

  “So, wait,” Blade said. “These ghouls aren't sentient. Bastion said they have handlers. Who’s operating them?"

  "The ones in this area are puppet beings run by a man named Brett Flynn. Flynn was changed when we were. He went through the same training we did.” Liege changed out the hologram, bringing forward a waist-up image of Flynn.

  He was a handsome man with harsh, Nordic features and blond hair, maybe early thirties. His blue eyes were as cold as Owen’s.

  “Where is he now?" Rocco asked. “If we kill him, then he can’t run the beasts.”

  “You kill him, another Omni will just take over,” Bastion said.

  “He’s perfected possessing regular humans,” Liege said, “so getting anywhere near him is dangerous for you. All of this brings us to our current situation. Not only must we find and terminate the labs where these ghouls are being created, but Flynn’s going on a free-for-all, collecting females for some unknown Omni program. We don't know what they're doing with these women. They may be modifying them, using them as test subjects. They may be looking for certain genetics for their modification programs. They may be populating new monsters we don't even know about yet. They could be practicing genetic modifications on pregnant women and their fetuses. My daughter runs a shelter for women. She and several other shelters in the area and across the country are all reporting anomalies in their current and former client lists. Some of these women have had their entire existences erased. We know that that can only happen through Omni machinations. Their families don't remember them. Their employers don't remember them. Their driver's licenses have been taken out of the system or edited to belong to other individuals. This is why we need your help." He looked at Greer and Max. "I understand some of you have extreme technical skills. We need your help. I also understand that you have several females living with you. You need our help protecting them. Your team must learn to fight the monsters and to block infiltration by Omni operatives like Flynn."

  Owen heaved a deep sigh, then rubbed his face. He looked around at the group assembled at the table. “I need to talk to my team. I’m happy to share the historical info we’ve collected on the Omnis—we’re working on digitizing and translating it at the moment. And I’m okay with offering you use of our technical capabilities. But as for the rest, what next steps we take, I can’t make that decision for anyone.”

  “Sounds good,” Liege said. “Why don’t you come down to tour our fort’s facilities today? Then think things over tonight, so we can talk more tomorrow about our next steps.”

  Owen sent a look around the table at his team, his gaze stopping with Selena. She nodded.

  Owen gave Liege a single nod. “Let’s do that. Kit, Blade, and Max, hold things down here. The rest of us have a road trip.”

  26

  Everything felt surreal to Selena as her team prepared to head over to Bastion’s fort. Their world had shifted, only none of them understood what that change was. One thing she did know was that after the guys saw Bastion’s fort, nothing would be the same.

  Guerre’s SUV pulled up in front of the team’s mansion. Liege and Acier had already headed back to their fort. Addie hugged Owen goodbye. All the other wives and girlfriends were off-site at their jobs. Selena was torn as she watched their parting, half feeling that she should stay and guard the household here, the other half intensely curious about what would be said and how the guys would react to what they were about to be shown.

  Bastion, who stood next to her, gave her a meaningful look. There is no question in this. You are coming with us. It was as if he knew she wanted to be in the thick of things, not relegated to guarding the civilians. It was a far different role than she’d had in her service in the Army or since coming here.

  It is your rightful place. Whatever is coming, however it shakes out, you are going to be part of the solution. So, yes, you are with me.

  She nodded.

  “Owen, Greer, ride with us,” Bastion said, the invitation sounding more like an order. Selena’s team would fit in a second vehicle, but it wouldn’t be a comfortable ride for all of them if some didn’t go with Bastion and Guerre.

  Bastion opened the back passenger door for Selena, then the front passenger door for Owen. Greer climbed into the third row. Selena hadn’t heard him give the seating chart to the guys, but didn’t doubt he’d influenced their decision about where to sit. She lifted a brow at him. He smiled innocently as he stowed his crutches then sat next to her on the middle bench. His wheelchair was already in the back.

  Once they were on the highway heading south, Owen broke the tense silence. “Tell us what we’re getting into.”

  "It's everything we discussed in the den,” Selena said. “Unlike Blade’s place, their fort was built for a defensive situation. The bunker beneath it is built on top o
f a missile silo they’ve retrofitted for their purposes. They have offices, labs, a morgue—a full research facility down there. I’m sure there’s more, but that’s all I saw of it before insisting on looping you in.”

  “The only thing we don’t have are researchers to fill it,” Bastion said.

  Owen looked back at Selena with a long and hard glance. She felt the same tension. What if everything Bastion and his team had showed her was a ruse? What danger had she pulled her team into with all of this?

  You wound me, my love. I don’t know how to earn your trust.

  Perhaps it’s a time thing. Maybe it’ll take me as long to begin trusting you as it took you to begin trusting us. Three months, was it, that you stalked us?

  Two and half, maybe. Bastion folded his arms and spread his legs a little wider. I don’t like that answer.

  A while later, Guerre pulled off the highway at Cheyenne.

  “Where are we going?” Owen asked.

  “We’re taking a shortcut to the fort,” Guerre said. He drove into the downtown area near the state government buildings, then pulled into a parking garage. He went up to the third level and parked in one of the last two remaining open spots in the row near the elevator. Greer parked next to him.

  “How is this a shortcut?” Owen asked as everybody followed Guerre and Bastion to the elevator.

  Guerre looked at Bastion and grinned. He hit the down button, then faced Owen while they waited. “Much of what you’ll see today requires an open mind and a lot of trust.”

  “Both of which I have a short supply.”

  “The adventure has already begun,” Bastion said. “You can’t get off the ride until it comes to a stop.”

  “Has it ever come to a stop, Bastion?” Guerre asked his friend.

  “Not yet, it hasn’t.” He offered Owen a smile, but the gesture didn’t have the intended effect.

  Greer was wearing sunglasses with a camera, sending the video back to the team in real time. Selena tensed when Kit spoke into their comms, complaining that the video feed had some interference.

  Greer sent a narrow-eyed glare at Bastion.

  Bastion grinned. “Oh, fine. You can have your little camera. Liege agrees that seeing what you see will help the others who stayed back at your headquarters.”

  The elevator opened, forestalling further discussion as a man got off. He sent a worried look at the group standing there, then sidled out of the way. All ten of them got into the car. Someone came running toward them as the door closed, hollering to hold the elevator, which Guerre did. When the doors opened fully, the guy had second thoughts. Bastion stepped back and made a few inches of room for him.

  “Please, join us,” Bastion said.

  It was too late to change his mind, so he did just that. He looked at the control panel and didn’t see the first floor selected. Guerre punched that button for him. The car landed on the first floor. He rushed out, ahead of the herd of big guys, but when he looked back, the doors were closing again. The car descended again—but how far, Selena didn’t know. Down, down, down it went. There were no buttons or indicators that where they were headed was even on the elevator’s route.

  Bastion reached over and squeezed her wrist. He didn’t hold her hand, didn’t do anything to indicate that he or anyone had noticed her nerves, but the gesture was enough to settle her.

  After a moment, the elevator landed and the doors opened. They stepped out into a short, brightly lit hallway, then went through a fire door and exited onto an area that looked like a small subway station.

  How could that be? There was no subway under the city of Cheyenne. So what was this place?

  A puff of air burst through the depot and then a white pod stopped in front of them. No one else was on the depot platform, so when its door opened, she knew the ride was for them.

  Her team exchanged glances but all stepped inside and took a seat. Owen sat up front with Guerre. She and Bastion were in the second row. Everyone else filled in around them and fastened their seatbelts.

  Guerre leaned forward and punched some code into a control panel, then the pod left the depot.

  “This goes to the fort?” Selena asked Bastion.

  Bastion nodded. “It does.”

  “Your fort has its own train station?”

  “Oui. There are many things we have not yet shown you. Remember, keep an open mind.”

  Not fifteen minutes later, the pod came to a stop in a different depot station. This one was even smaller. They all got out of the pod and walk through another fire door to an elevator. Guerre hit the button for a floor that had neither name nor number.

  When the elevator doors opened, Selena recognized where they were—the labs in the silo below the fort. Liege greeted them in the hallway. He had an air of power. His brown eyes were not friendly or welcoming, just determined. Owen moved to the front. For a moment, they stared each other down. Then Liege held a hand out and Owen shook with him.

  Though their teams had met earlier in the day, this still felt more like a meeting of Cold War enemies than one of potential allies. The whole thing set off alarms in Selena’s mind.

  It will be fine, you'll see, Bastion said.

  It doesn't look fine, Selena replied.

  Such is the way of new alliances.

  Guerre and Liege led them down a few hallways, past what looked like offices and labs. They went straight to the morgue. Without any audible instruction, Guerre and Acier began pulling out long steel drawers and unzipping black body bags.

  “These are ghouls that we’ve taken after our fights with them,” Acier said. “We’re running out of room, so we’ve switched to just taking heads. They have to be separated from the bodies anyway, else it’s possible, if the Omnis put their beasts on life support quickly enough, they could resuscitate them.”

  Selena held back, dreading a closer look at the physical evidence in front of her. Bastion didn’t try to protect her from it, which gave her the strength she needed to approach the wicked things.

  Acier held up the clawed hand of one of them, bringing everyone’s attention to their curved nails. He drew one across the back of his hand, leaving a thin line of blood—a wound that began healing before he’d even tucked the monster’s hand back inside the body bag.

  “We are so not in Kansas anymore,” Val said.

  Selena laughed nervously. Leave it to Val to break the tension. And how nice it was to hear words spoken audibly, when so much was communicated telepathically among Bastion and his team.

  “Okay, given that this appears to be real,” Owen said, “what’s next?”

  Liege nodded at Acier to close the drawers. “I’d like to have you bring the Ratcliffs here to continue their work. We need to know more about these monsters, more about the modifications that were forced on my girlfriend and are, perhaps, being forced on other innocent civilians. We need to stop the Omnis from taking more human women—we have no idea what they’re doing with them or where they’re holding them. We need to stop them from creating more of these monsters. The OWO has a wide distribution of functioning labs, here and in other countries. Basically, we need to shut them down.”

  “To do that,” Bastion said, “we’ve got to get you up to speed and train you or hide you. These monsters aren’t the only new threats you’ll face. You also have to deal with Omni fighters who are enhanced like us. There is much we need to do.”

  “I think, friends, even if you decide to go into the wind,” Guerre said, “you’ll still be in danger. You’re in too deep with the work you’ve already done. If you were my team, I’d take any help Liege offers.”

  “Tell me, does the government know about the train system we used to get here?” Owen asked.

  “Some in the government know,” Liege said. “The system connects every state capital, every military base, every transportation hub, every key research or industrial location across the U.S., Canada, Mexico, and into South America. There are systems like this in place in Europe, Asia, th
e Middle East, and parts of Africa.”

  That was stunning news. “With so much infrastructure already in place, how is it that you think we can put the cat back in the bag?” Selena asked.

  “I don’t,” Liege said. “That won’t ever happen. But we need time to push back against Omni expansion until better governance systems can catch up with the technology.”

  “And we must do it without exposing what’s happening and risking collapse of systems now in place,” Bastion said. “Total chaos would make what we have to do much harder, and it would give the Omnis something to hide behind while they continue to grow stronger.”

  “So, I’m guessing you have a plan?” Owen said.

  Liege smiled. “Shield you. Train you. Use you. Recruit other groups like you. Gather the scientists who haven’t been totally brainwashed by the Omnis, let them continue their work—but for us.”

  “Sure. Simple stuff,” Val scoffed.

  “I didn’t hear anything in there about modifying us,” Greer said.

  Liege stared at him. “I don’t want to change you. The outcomes are never guaranteed, and the death rate is too high. You are all too valuable to risk undergoing the human mutations. That said, we could really use more mutants.”

  “So if it’s something we choose?” Greer asked.

  Liege looked at his men, then Owen, before answering Greer. “I would leave that up to you and your team. As it stands now, I don’t have a way of modifying anyone. We would need the researchers for that.”

  “I think you should take the changes,” Acier said. He held up the hand he’d sliced open a moment ago. It was completely healed. “It isn’t only the superior physical prowess you have to deal with from these ghouls, but the extreme neurological enhancements powering the rest of the mutants—something you’ll see when we begin our training.”

  Selena studied the guys on Bastion’s team. She had a good vibe from them—they seemed to be straight shooters, laying out the facts, both good and bad, so she and her team could come to their own conclusions.