Orion Protected

by J. N. Chaney

  “Yeah, that’s not really helpful right now,” I said. “If you have a plan or something that will get us through Legion and to the brain plant, I’m all ears.”

  A predator skidded toward us so fast, Ricky had to jump out of the way or turn into a speed bump.

  Jezra was behind the wheel. She popped off her white helmet and gave us a rueful grin. I waited for her words of wisdom, hoping they weren’t couched in mystical terms that held ambiguous meaning. I was really not in the mood for riddles.

  “It’s time to make the final assault on Legion,” she said as if she were telling me we should go for a walk or sit and have a nice cup of tea. I couldn’t argue that the words weren’t simple enough, though.

  Screams and the sounds of wounded and dying around her didn’t seem to faze her a bit. The smell of charred flesh and the acrid odor of so many weapons discharging didn’t affect her at all. Her face was smooth and serene, and her body poised and relaxed.

  Despite the madness in her calm, there was an intensity in her eyes that couldn’t be denied.

  “You told me the Orion would fall again,” I said, remembering her prophecy. “Will it?”

  “I told you what you needed to know at the time,” Jezra said, patting the seat beside her. “Are you coming or not?”

  Boss Creed didn’t hesitate. He jumped on the back of the predator, manning the Blood Shot. Ricky went next, hopping into the passenger side seat and pressing the earpiece in his right ear.

  “We’re about to do something crazy here. Anyone still able, cut a path for us to the lightning rock. We’re going to end this,” Ricky shouted.

  Ricky scooted over just enough for me to be able to hang off the side of the predator.

  Jezra slammed on the gas as Stacy, Elon, Dama, and the others still in the fight coordinated, covering our assault.

  The predators still running swept in from the west. There seemed to be far too few of them still in working condition. Smoke fumed from their engines, and a few were even missing tires.

  Stacy and Dama, along with the third suit that was still working, sprinted in front of us, creating a funnel in which to follow.

  Boss Creed, Ricky, and I fired like wild men at whatever we could hit. In front of us, the jungle began to clear. Trees and bushes that were once vibrant green before now turned ashen and black. Spores permeated the air and appeared on every blade of grass, flower, and tree.

  It was only then I realized Ricky and Boss Creed weren’t wearing anything that could filter out the spores.

  “Jezra, stop!” I shouted. “Let them out. They aren’t wearing—”

  The predator’s left tire blew out in a shower of hard rubber. The vehicle went end over end through the air. I saw ground, sky, and then ground again as I came crashing down.

  The wind was forced out of my lungs. Pain exploded in my back and neck. I thought I had broken something, bruised something for sure. My armor kept the worst of the injury at bay, but it still didn’t feel good.

  I blinked, trying to focus and understand where I had landed. The predator was on its side, a fire already burning its belly. I couldn’t see Jezra, Ricky, or Boss Creed, but I could see the remaining three suits, including Stacy’s fighting the few infected that had stayed this far back.

  Out of nowhere, a spray of weapons fire cut through one of the three remaining power armor units.

  “What was tha—” Dama never got a chance to finish her sentence.

  A Rung’s unit covered in black spores with its center piece hanging open charged into the battle, slamming into Dama’s power armor unit. With a herculean crash, it sent them both into the jungle floor.

  I only got a brief look at the Rung that piloted the unit. I couldn’t make out Sulk’s exact face, but it was clear he was infected.

  “Go!” Stacy screamed, looking at me from her war-battered unit. “I’ll help Dama. Go!”

  I jumped to my feet, only realizing now where I was. The predator had thrown me to the very base of the lightning rock formation. I stood in a field of the dense foliage covered in black spores. A hill shielded in the stuff rose behind me where the lightning bolt rock formation stood.

  I was finally here. I had made it. I reached behind me for the flamethrower strapped to my back, only it wasn’t there anymore.

  I looked around, panicked, searching for the weapon I so desperately needed to end Legion’s reign here on Genesis. I fell to my knees, groping through the dense black foliage.

  Black spores puffed into the air as if they were reaching for my face. My helmet’s filtration system kept them at bay for the time being. Still, I didn’t want to rely on that longer than I had to. I rose to my feet, putting distance between the spores and my face.

  What are you going to do now, Dean? I asked myself. What are you going to do now?

  “Looking for this?”

  I turned my head to where I heard the familiar voice. Legion, still using Captain Ezra Harold’s body, on which the head was now mysteriously reattached, stood on the peak of the hill right beside the lightning stone.

  In his right hand, he held up the flamethrower.

  I knew it was a trap. Somewhere in my head, I knew Legion was smarter than to take me on in a one-on-one battle. He knew my capabilities as a fighter. Still, what other option did I have?

  I slowly ascended the hill toward Legion. With each step, I kicked up a puff of black spores. It was only as I traveled higher and higher that my vantage point became better and I understood.

  I saw exactly how much of the jungle was covered in the blanket of blackness. It made my stomach churn. In all directions from the rock formation, the jungle was ebony for about a kilometer or more.

  We now stood at the base of the stone in the blackest part of the jungle.

  Legion held a sardonic smile on his lips as I approached. He waved at the ruined foliage with his free hand.

  “Amazing, isn’t it?” he asked, taking in the black spores infecting the area around us. “To think it ends here now where I chose to sleep in hibernation so many years before.”

  I was close now. No more than a few meters away. I could spring on him, take him out, and regain the flamethrower.

  “Ah, ah, ah,” Legion said with a wave of his finger. “I recognize that look. You’re thinking you want to kill this body right now and grab your flamethrower. I would suggest you look behind you and rethink that strategy.”

  I exhaled slowly, hating myself for having to do it, but turning nonetheless.

  My mouth went dry.

  Boss Creed and Ricky stood at the base of the hill knee deep in the tainted foliage of the jungle. Each one of them looked up at me through black eyes. Black liquid oozed out of their mouths, noses, and ears.

  As one, they reached for the base of their own skulls, ready to snap them at a moment’s notice.

  “No, wait,” I said, lifting a hand. “Just wait, just wait a minute.”

  “Is that all you have, Chosen One?” Legion cackled. “‘Just wait’? You’re going to have to do better than that. Frankly, I’m disappointed. You must be disappointed in yourself at this point. I expected so much more.”

  “Let them go,” I said, tearing my eyes away from Ricky and Boss Creed. I knew my words were a waste, but I needed time to think. “What do you want? You want to infect me? Is that it? I’ll take off my helmet and you can have me, but please don’t kill them.”

  “Interesting offer, but what’s to keep me from killing them once I have you?” Legion cocked his head to the side in thought. “You must see the failed logic in your request. No matter. On your knees, Chosen One.”

  I slumped down slowly and resignedly, still trying to buy time to think. Maybe I could grab the flamethrower and take Legion out, but not before he ordered Ricky and Boss Creed to snap their own necks. I couldn’t do that to my friends, especially if there was a way this virus could possibly be reversed.

  Think, Dean, think, I thought, unable to come up with a solution. There’s a way out
of this. There’s always a way out.

  “Now take off your helmet and breathe,” Legion said with a look that said he had already won. “Breathe deeply, Dean. When I have you, you will be my new mouthpiece. You can rest assured that even in your death, you will serve a purpose.”

  I lifted my hands to the clamps on the underside of my helmet.

  23

  “Just Dean.” Jezra’s voice came through my helmet’s comms so quietly, I almost thought it was my imagination. “Get ready.”

  I hesitated.

  Legion caught my hesitation and looked around, alarmed.

  “Now!” Jezra screamed, this time not through my comms but from somewhere behind me.

  I twisted around in time to see her spring from the foliage behind Ricky and Boss Creed. Somehow, she had wormed her way unseen through the thick brush infected by Legion.

  She slammed a heavy stick against the side of Boss Creed’s jaw, knocking him out cold, then turned to Ricky to do the same.

  As much as I wanted to sit there and see if she succeeded in stopping Ricky, I knew my time was short. Jezra had given me the opportunity I’d needed to get back into the fight and I couldn’t waste it.

  I sprang to my feet, launching myself at Legion, who was still trying to get over his shock. I head butted him in the face, grabbing for the flamethrower. We went down together, vying for position on the ground.

  Legion released his hold on the flamethrower and went for a knife tucked into his belt. He stabbed upward before I could stop him, sending the blade into the soft spot between my helmet and chest piece.

  I should have been dead or at the very least bleeding out. The knife pierced the synth suit I wore under the armor but came to a stop against something hard around my neck.

  Legion pressed harder into the medallion on my necklace that I never took off. Not understanding why his attack wasn’t working, frustration took over. Legion screamed in rage. I pointed the flamethrower at his face and point blank pulled the trigger.

  Left hand carrying the fuel canister and right hand on the trigger, I moved off him. I burned his body along with the foliage around the base of the lightning stone.

  Those infected that still fought our forces screamed in pain. Howls the likes of which I had never heard before rose to the sky above.

  I ignored it all. I burned the blackest parts of the tainted shrubbery around me first.

  Stacy and Dama, in the last two working suits, joined me a moment later. It seemed they had dispatched the infected power armor suit and were ready to lend a hand with their own flamethrowers.

  Together, we burned the virus infected plants at the base of the lightning stone then began to move outward.

  There were reports coming in from all over the battlefield that we had won. The infected still fighting slumped to the ground, writhing in pain then falling motionless. The few that had been infected but not killed yet by Legion, like Ricky, Boss Creed, and Arun, were healed, coming back to themselves as the brain of the virus was killed.

  More and more of our own entered the spore-filled section of the jungle, lighting it on fire with flamethrowers and incendiary grenades.

  Not only cheers rose from the survivors but sobs for those we’d lost. I couldn’t let my mind think about all those who gave their lives for us to have this moment, not yet, not until it was done for good.

  We spent the rest of the day going through the jungle, burning anything that remotely resembled a tainted shrub.

  Dark smoke touched the sky as large portions of the jungle were lit on fire. Cleanup crews would have to go in tomorrow and the day after and the day after that to make sure Legion was truly gone forever, but what we did that day felt like a start.

  “I don’t think the other spores can live without the ones you killed at the base,” Dama said, joining my side as I worked on turning another black bush into ash. “He’s dead. You killed the brain where he first went into hiding. The rest will die on their own.”

  “Yeah, well, you never can be too careful, right?” I said, pumping more flames into the brush. It was a liberating and cleansing feeling to burn them. I felt like I could never stop, that we might never be clean from the virus.

  “Dean!” It was Ricky, shouting at me as he came to me at a dead run. His lip was split from where Jezra had knocked him out. Despite that, he had the dopiest grin on his face. “Arun, she’s okay. She’s healed.”

  I took off my own helmet, letting the bucket rest by my side. Sweat dropped from my face. Although I was beyond tired, I managed a smile.

  “I’m happy for you, buddy. You should go see her,” I said. “Go. We can manage here.”

  Ricky wrapped me in a hug, trying to hide his tears, but I saw them anyway. He released me without a word and ran off toward the Orion. I hoped he had a future with Arun. It seemed so, but we could talk about it later, or whenever he wanted.

  “You’re bleeding on your neck there,” Stacy said, coming toward me in her suit. She opened the center chest door and jumped down. “Are you hurt?”

  I reached up to my neck where Legion had tried his last attempt at taking my life. My fingers came back sticky with blood. It was barely a scratch. I reached into the armor over my chest and pulled out the medallion that hung around my neck.

  It felt like a lifetime ago that my wife had given the token to me. It had saved my life more than once, I thought. For all of its wear and tear, there was not a mark on it. For one of the few times I could remember, I thought about my wife, my first love, with a smile and a heart not full of anger but gratefulness. Grateful for the time I got to spend with her, the gift she had given me, and the place I was now, which would not have been possible without her brief presence in my life.

  “You okay?” Stacy asked, lifting an eyebrow in question. “You sure Legion didn’t hit you in the head or something?”

  “I’m fine,” I said, looking around at familiar faces who began to gather. Elon, Tong, John, Boss Creed, Jezra, they were all there. We were all tired and dead on our feet but not broken. We were victorious.

  “You did it,” Jezra said. “You fulfilled the prophecy, Chosen One.”

  “We did it,” I said, looking between Dama’s power armor suit and Jezra. “And maybe we accomplished more than just killing Legion today.”

  “I think so,” Dama said, opening her power unit and stepping to the ground below. She extended a hand to Jezra. “It’s not going to be easy, but I think we can build on what was done here.”

  “I agree,” Jezra said, accepting her hand with a smile.

  “I think we could all use a break.” Dama released Jezra’s hand and wiped a forearm across her sweaty brow. “My people are on their way, trekking through a mountain pass. Our craft was doing runs there, carrying them the rest of the way back and forth. Since the battle has been won, I told them we needed warriors ready to help rather than more power armor units. They should be here soon.”

  “Thank you,” Tong said with large mesmerized eyes. “Thank you for holding true to your word.”

  “Of course,” Dama said with a smile. “They will bring supplies and aid with the dead on both sides of the confrontation.”

  I hadn’t thought about that. I knew there would be our own dead to bury, but I didn’t think about what it meant to bury those infected by Legion. Since we killed him, those who had been infected and were already dead carried no trace of the sinister virus.

  Human, Rung, Remboshi, and alien animals alike were dead. Any sign of the virus had seeped out of their orifices to the jungle floor. Legion was gone, and with him any sign he had existed in his hosts.

  As much as I wanted to fall down and sleep for a week, the dead had earned their rest first. We aided the Rung and Remboshi in creating great pyres for them. Burning the dead warriors was a tradition that both races still used in wartime conflicts. We used trees and shrubs in the jungle that had already been cut down with the weapons fire. The charred foliage served to help as well as we created the great squ
are pyres.

  True to her word, the Rung had come to our aid and sooner than I expected. Not power armor units but rather twenty Rung were dropped off with a range of supplies from water to food and medical stuffs that were badly needed.

  How twenty Rung fit in the ship at all was a mystery. They had to be packed in tighter than a human piloting one of their power units.

  We ate in shifts, getting rest where we had to and pressing on doggedly where we could. It was somber work. There was some talking but not much. Most of us were lost to his or her own thoughts as we carried the bodies of our comrades.

  True, I hadn’t known most of them, but they still meant something to me. We were warriors on the same side of the final confrontation with Legion and that would always mean something to me.

  By the time we were done, the suns had set. The giant moon shone high overhead amongst a myriad of twinkling stars. We were all beyond exhausted. But with the help of the Rung and the craft that dropped off another three runs of warriors to help, we did it.

  We stood battle weary and near exhausted in the darkness. Stacy was on my right, along with Elon and Arun, the latter having insisted she was better once the Legion virus left her. She still looked weak, but Ricky stood on her other side, ready to support her if needed.

  Dama, Tong, and Jezra were on my left with Boss Creed and John. Mutt came up beside me, nuzzling my hand for his scratches. No matter how tired I was, I could still manage a few pets for him.

  The Rung passed out torches, enough to light the many pyres in front of us.

  “The events that have taken place on Genesis are ones I wish none of us had to live through,” Jezra said, taking a step forward. “But live through them we have, and I would submit to you that we are better for it. Mistakes have been made in the past, mistakes that we will be doomed to repeat if we do not learn and grow. Grow not only on our own but together, Remboshi, Rung, and human alike. Moving forward, let us show kindness and caring toward all living things, not just those that are most like us, but those who look for acceptance and love. We, the Remboshi, officially greet our new friends, the humans who have landed here on our planet, and our old friends, the Rung, with whom we are now reunited.”