Orion Protected

by J. N. Chaney

  I stopped the predator, allowing John to pull up beside me. Something about the man was off besides the fact that he was immaculately clean and infected by an alien entity. I knew him.

  “Captain Harold,” John breathed. “It’s him.”

  Realization struck a moment later. Captain Ezra Harold had been sent with a second expeditionary force when I left with mine toward the prison section of the Orion.

  We came after his party later. The only sign of them we’d found were dead bodies, courtesy of the Rung. It wasn’t difficult to imagine Legion had snagged one of the survivors as they fled from the Rung.

  “I’ve come to talk,” Legion said, speaking through Captain Harold’s body. He turned in a full circle. “You can see I have no weapons. I’m not here to try and kill you.”

  “Not this time,” Stacy countered. “What about that little ambush you just tried to catch us with?”

  “Well, you can’t fault me for trying,” Legion said with a shrug that was meant to emphasize his capitulation. “I knew you’d be tired after your long drive. Come on. All I want to do is talk, I promise. I’m alone.”

  “Do you trust him?” I asked Stacy.

  “Not for a second,” Stacy answered immediately. “Dean, with me. Lou, get on the Blood Shot. If anything happens, you and Tong light him up.”

  “Yes, Ma’am,” Lou said, trading spots with her.

  “Careful,” Tong warned us. “He’ll try and get into your head. That’s what he was created to do, spread and infect.”

  I exited the vehicle, making sure to unholster my Judge handgun, which sat securely on my hip. Courtesy of Jezra and her Cerberus Installation, the weapon was one I had grown accustomed to and relied on to keep me and my crew safe. I wasn’t the best shot in the world, but it would be hard to miss, as close as we were to Legion.

  Stacy and I walked forward side by side. The combined headlights of the vehicles were more than enough to give us a clear view of Captain Harold. Or what used to be Captain Harold.

  I’d never liked the man very much, but I respected him. We hadn’t always seen eye to eye, but that didn’t mean that his heart wasn’t in the right place, having the interests of those he protected at the forefront of his mind. We both wanted a home for our people and a safe one at that. We’d just gone about it differently.

  “I have all of his memories, you know,” Legion said, tapping the side of his head. “I have all of their memories. Not just that, I’m better at coordinating their movements, both together and individually.”

  “We noticed,” Stacy said. “You shot at us, remember?”

  “Oh right.” Legion smiled. “Still not very accurate apparently.”

  “What do you want?” I asked, suddenly struck by the obvious. “I mean, besides being lonely and wanting to talk. It must get pretty boring only having yourself to hang out with.”

  Legion looked at me with a snarl that he quickly controlled and turned into a smile.

  “You’re not wrong, Dean ‘Steel Hands’ Slade.” Legion shook his head. “It does get rather lonely turning beings, only for them to become pieces of myself. Perhaps this is why I am here. I’m feeling a bit generous and nostalgic today, so I’m going to give you a way out. I won’t kill you.”

  “How benevolent,” Stacy said sarcastically, clenching the grip on her Judge tighter. “What is it that you want besides a friend to talk with?”

  “My very purpose, the very reason I was created by the Rung, was to spread myself throughout this world and convert the rest,” Legion said, shaking his head. “I understand it all now, after infecting a dozen or more Rung scientists. I was created to kill the Remboshi. Then I became self-aware and tried to kill both Remboshi and the Rung. This is my history, brought back to me now from eyes that are now my own.”

  Legion paused as if he was choosing his next words carefully. “Granted, I do understand the flaw in that logic. If I kill or infect everyone, eventually I will be the only living entity on Genesis, and what kind of existence is that?” Legion thought out loud. “It happened to me once before when the Rung and Remboshi went into hiding. I can only live off animals for so long. I crave intelligent life. You have no idea what it’s like to be alone for so long. The only way I was able to survive at all was to hibernate in the pollen of a very special plant. I—”

  “Listen,” I said, interrupting Legion’s speech. “This is all very sad and endearing, but my trigger finger is getting itchy. To tell you the truth, I’m not that great of a shot, but Stacy is. How about you just tell me what you want? Or can we just end you right here and be done with this conversation.”

  “Like I said, it’s nice to have someone to talk to.” Legion cleared his throat. “What I’m offering you here is a partnership. I’ll let you and your colonists live, even release those I now possess, including that Eternal of yours who fights me so vehemently.”

  “And?” Stacy asked. “There’s always an and when it comes to dealing with someone like you.”

  “Perceptive as you are beautiful,” Legion said, licking his lips. “No wonder the body I possess held you in such high regard. And, in return for letting your people go, I will content myself with taking over the Rung and Remboshi. By the time I take possession of all their scientists, I’m sure I can form a cure for this never-ending urge I have to spread and infect.”

  “You want us to just look the other way while you infect every living thing on Genesis that isn’t human?” I asked incredulously. “Do you really think we’re that stupid, you virulent narcissist?”

  “I think you care about your own people enough, especially that Eternal, to see the logic in my thinking.” Legion shrugged, ignoring my insult, or perhaps enjoying it as flattery. “Sooner or later, I will possess her fully. It would be a shame to order her to take her own life by slitting her throat or walking into the sea.”

  “You’re a monster, in every sense of the word,” Stacy said through gritted teeth. “I should shoot you right here.”

  “Go ahead. There are so many other bodies for me to control these days. The minds of the living seem never-ending.” Legion smiled. “Oh, but you won’t because you’re holding on to the insane hope that you will be able to defeat me. That you’ll get everyone I infected back and you’ll find a way off this planet. Dreams and wishes, nothing more, I assure you.”

  “You know, a sick little part of me almost felt sorry for you when you were talking about how alone you are,” Stacy said, taking a step forward. “You almost had me. Then I remembered what you really are at your core. You’re a selfish virus that only wants to consume others, leeching onto them like an insidious parasite. We’re coming for you now. Your days are numbered.”

  I was proud of Stacy for giving it to Legion like she was. Motion in the lower right-hand corner of my HUD caught my eye.

  Tong had the satellite set to give us a wide aerial view of the landscape around us. True to his word not to get taken by surprise again, he had the view set out to ten miles in every direction. Tiny dots began to form like some kind of disease on the screen.

  The canyon we were in served as the center of the map in a long narrow line. On either side of the canyon, just emerging from the sides of the map, these tiny figures moved at tremendous speed.

  “Stacy, Dean, are you seeing this?” Tong asked through our earpieces. “Legion’s running at us. They still have a way to go on foot, but they’ll reach either side of the canyon in an hour, maybe longer.”

  “I see it,” Stacy said out loud.

  “You see the glory of the power I bring,” Legion said. “There is no hope. The body I possess now, this Captain Ezra Harold, knows a fitting line for what is about to happen. ‘Abandon all hope ye who enter here,’ I think is appropriate.”

  “We’re done here,” Stacy said, looking over to me with despair evident in her expression. “All this ever was, was a stall for time.”

  I took a step forward, removing my helmet so I could look Legion in his dark, feral eyes.
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  “I’m going to be the one to kill you,” I told him. For as much as he was trying to get into our heads, it was my turn to do the same to him. It was a tactic I’d used in the gladiator circuit. “I’m going to watch you burn.”

  Just like that, Legion’s smile vanished. His dark eyes began to ooze with ebony liquid like dark tears. He snarled at me, and spittle flew from his lips.

  “Why wait?” he asked with a sneer.

  “Dean,” Stacy said to me. She reached out and put a hand on my shoulder—whether to stop me or support, I wasn’t sure.

  “Because we know now that we can kill you and free our people from your hold,” I told him. “I’m not going to kill you because that would be killing Ezra Harold.” That realization made me think of the many that we had killed in self-preservation, and I found myself becoming even angrier at this virus, a blight on the planet that needed to be eradicated, the sooner the better.

  “We need to go,” Stacy said as she removed her hand from my shoulder. “This is what he wants. He wants to stall us for as long as he can to surround us.”

  I walked backward slowly and purposefully, never taking my eyes from Legion.

  “I’m going to take everything you care about, everything you love, Dean Slade,” Legion yelled after me. “Your dog, your friends, Stacy.”

  I turned and jogged back to the predators with Stacy. Legion’s threats were white noise to me at this point. I knew he was only trying to evoke an emotional reaction from me now and I refused to give him what he wanted.

  “So that went well,” John said as Stacy and I got back into our respective predators. “Want me to run him over?”

  “It’s still the captain somewhere in there,” Lou reminded John. “If we can kill Legion, we can save him. We can save all of them.”

  “They’re gaining on us from the sides of the canyon,” Tong said, looking at his data pad. “If we drive hard, we might be able to make it out of here before they reach the edges, but it’s going to be close. We need to be faster and go now!”

  “Let’s go,” Stacy said. “Dean, you take the lead. Drive like hell.”

  “On it,” I said, jumping into the predator. The engine was still running. I stomped on the gas and we took off like a shot. John did the same, peeling out and kicking up clouds of dust.

  Legion moved to the side, waving goodbye. Usually when someone waved, a friendly smile accompanied the action. This time around, he stared at us with those bleeding black eyes and an evil smile.

  I moved my eyes away from the psychopathic virus and studied the road ahead. The canyon didn’t wind very much, but in the darkness it took my full concentration to not only drive fast, but avoid the many rocks and boulders in our path. If I ran over one, it could mean huge damage to the predator, and that wasn’t something we could afford right now.

  Sulk said something out loud that Tong translated a moment later.

  “He says if we make it through the canyon, his people have an underground installation less than an hour away. We can head there.” Tong paused, exchanging words with Sulk once more. “Last time he was there, Legion had not laid siege to it, but he can’t be sure this time around.”

  “We’ll find a way through, even if Legion is trying to block our entry point,” Lou said over the comms. “We haven’t come this far not to make it.”

  For the next hour, I drove as quickly as I could without sacrificing our safety. If I missed a boulder or other large obstruction, we were done. Lucky for me, the headlights on the predator cut through the darkness and spread out as if it were bright as day, as long as the field of vision was right in front of the predator.

  John kept the other vehicle a safe distance behind me as we continued. No tailgating on this trail. If I had to stop suddenly and he plowed into me, we could potentially be stranded with no working vehicle. Whenever I could, I took a quick look at the satellite feed in the lower right-hand corner of my HUD.

  The tiny dots symbolizing infected were growing, like two waves headed toward one another that were about to crash on the canyon between them. Even more concerning, there was no end to the canyon in sight. The infected managed to somehow span the entire area as they raced toward us from both sides.

  Legion’s been busy taking out the Rung, I berated myself. Stupid, how stupid were we to sit and wait behind our walls for an entire month, hoping for what? That Legion would one day leave on his own?

  For as much as I beat myself up, I knew that we hadn’t just been sitting inside of our walls playing dice. We had emptied the Cerberus Installation of everything we could use, reinforced our walls, and trained a Civil Authority contingent that would be able to give Legion hell when we called on them. Still, it wasn’t enough. I realized that now.

  “We’re not going to make it,” Tong said via the comms in our helmets. “We’ll still have two minutes’ worth of driving left when the infected reach the canyon walls. There have to be over a hundred thousand of the infected now, including humans, Rung, and animals.”

  “Get ready to clear the walls,” Stacy instructed Tong. “You too, Lou. We can bet they’ll be raining down fire on us, maybe even boulders.”

  “Got it,” Lou said with a confidence I didn’t feel.

  “Understood,” Tong answered.

  My eyes traveled back and forth as I studied the map and the terrain ahead.

  “Incoming in under a minute,” Tong said, his voice tense.

  “Cover the right side of the canyon,” Stacy told him. “I’ll cover the left. Lou, you go back and forth, lending a hand wherever the infected presence is the heaviest.”

  Both Tong and Lou gave an affirmative.

  “I know we don’t all believe the same thing here, but do you mind if I say a prayer?” Lou asked. “It’ll only take a moment.”

  “I’m not going to say no to any kind of help,” John said.

  “We can spare a few seconds until they show up,” Stacy answered. “Make it short. And make it count.”

  “We’re here for a reason,” Lou said more as if he were talking to someone than any kind of prayer I had ever heard. “I believe we are here to help the Rung and Remboshi live in peace once more. By defeating Legion together, we’re setting them on a course for their planet to live in harmony again. Give us courage to do the hard things and the wisdom to make the right decisions at the right time.”

  That was it.

  Then Lou went quiet.

  I wasn’t sure if I believed any of this fate or destiny talk, but still, I felt compelled to add my two cents. “Amen.”

  That was all the time we were getting. Lou’s prayer did make me feel better for the briefest moment.

  Tong beginning his countdown ruined that for me. “Contact in five…” he began.

  The dots on our screen were so close to the canyon edge, they looked as though they were falling into it from both sides.

  “Four, three…” Tong continued.

  I could see where the canyon ended on our map. The darkness didn’t allow me to see it with my eyes ahead of us, but very clearly, the diagram in our HUD told us we were almost there.

  “Two… ONE!” Tong screamed the last word.

  Stacy and Tong lit up the tops of the canyon cliffs above us, followed with Lou’s own Judge.

  I couldn’t look up to see what they were shooting at more than a second or two at a time. To be honest, I couldn’t see much anyway. The lights on our vehicles shone straight ahead. The only light available to us from above was courtesy of the moon and stars.

  Dark silhouettes of madness popped over the edges of the canyon. I couldn’t see what they carried, but a maelstrom of hellfire descended on us from above, as well as rocks the size of my head, so I could just imagine what they had available to them.

  Rock and debris hit the predators along with the enemy fire as we snaked our way through the canyon.

  War was hell, especially as we were outnumbered by the enemy. I had only glimpses of it before, but this was no exception
to the rule. The discharge of enemy firepower thundered in the canyon, echoing even as rock and dirt exploded around us. I was grateful for the ear protection of my helmet to dampen the sounds, otherwise I would have trouble hearing for days to come when this was over.

  Infected began to fall from the tops of the canyon. Bodies hit the predator with a squishy metallic sound, causing me to jerk the vehicle from side to side. The sickening thuds struck the frame of the vehicle so hard, the predator shuddered under the assault. I was certain John was having the same issues.

  More and more bodies fell on us. Along with them came rocks, which I wasn’t sure were thrown intentionally, and sporadic weapon fire from those infected able to use blasters.

  “Keep the bodies off the predators!” Stacy screamed as I continued to swerve to avoid them.

  “There are too many of them!” Tong yelled back.

  9

  The open top of the predator was shaped like a T. As such, rocks bounced off my armor and helmet. I almost felt sorry for Sulk as he hunched over in his seat, trying to protect himself from the onslaught.

  “They’re not just falling as we shoot them,” Lou roared. “They’re throwing themselves off the cliff trying to get on top of us!”

  The idea was so insanely out of the box, I almost disregarded it. But I knew Legion was crazy and his box, so to speak, did not have a secure lid. With thousands of infected to offer up as sacrifices, it would make sense he would pay the heavy price of loss if it meant us not getting out of the canyon alive.

  Something slammed into the T-framed roof above us. I had the chance to take a quick look as an infected Rung—a female, it seemed—with a mechanical brace around her neck snaked a hand toward my head.