As they rocketed through the cloud cover, Aurelius could barely see the gauntlet on the end of his arm. Several times, warning lights indicated that his armor had taken direct hits from lightning, but the effects on the internal systems were negligible. Aurelius watched the heads-up display to make certain that his men fared as well as he had. Several suits reported electrical contact, but no one burned in. They would all reach the ground without crashing.
Once they passed beneath the cloud layer, Aurelius marveled at the job the terraformers had done on this world. Despite the diminished light caused by the storm, the visibility was still extensive. There were luxurious forests that stretched for miles, massive oceans and lakes with verdant expanses of wilderness. The colony on Hadrian III was one large settlement with several outlying smaller settlements. Mostly, the inhabitants were farmers with only limited manufacturing done on the planet. The rich soil of the planet allowed them to grow large quantities of foodstuffs to be exported to the other worlds controlled by Fabretti Interplanetary.
“Were I the type of man to settle down,” mused Aurelius, “this would be an ideal world to call home.”
He couldn’t help but think of the estate that he would build for Cassia and their children.
Already the architecture of the planet was based on the construction of ancient Rome. Most of the buildings were built with stone columns and archways. There were even groves of olive trees and vineyards full of grapes growing on the slopes around the settlements. It was almost like something out of one of the ancient historical archives.
The warning indicator chimed, letting him know that they were approaching the altitude for drogue chute deployment. There was still no sign of resistance or of the enemy on the planet below. In fact, there were no signs of life whatsoever. That worried Aurelius more than if they had encountered heavy resistance.
“Where are they?” he thought.
Making a quick scan with the built-in targeting systems, he could find no movement on the ground. No signs of the T’kri’t’ek, of the colonists or of any of the animals that had been released onto this world. Nothing was moving, at all. It was as if everything living had vanished into thin air.
“Deploy drogue chutes,” said Aurelius.
Aurelius felt the whoosh as his chute deployed and the sudden lurch as it began to slow his descent. As the ground came closer and closer, Aurelius continued to scan for any signs of a threat. There was nothing on any scan. It was as if every living thing on the surface below them was simply gone without a trace. Although there was nothing to define his feeling, Aurelius knew in the pit of his stomach that they were dropping into a trap.
“Cut the drogues!” bellowed Aurelius. “Get the legion on the ground NOW!”
“Cut the drogues!” roared Casca. “All cohorts go in hot! Evasive Drop Protocol!”
All over the screen, Aurelius could see armored troopers streaking towards the ground, engaging their jump thrusters to slow their descent enough to avoid death but still get them on the ground as quickly as possible. Activating his own thrusters, Aurelius selected a good spot to make his initial landing. From there, he was already planning his next three jumps. Wherever the enemy had gone, Aurelius knew that it was now imperative that they find the T’kri’t’ek before the T’kri’t’ek found them. If this was a trap as his gut told him, then they needed to be ready when it sprung.
“All cohorts form up on your Centurions as soon as you hit the ground,” called Aurelius. “Agmen formate[15]!”
The COMM channels came alive with the Centurions relaying the orders throughout the legion. Aurelius could feel electricity coursing through his veins, surging adrenalin throughout his system as the battle grew closer by the second. The ground was rapidly approaching, and he felt the jump jets spooling up to cushion the impact. Instinctively, he tensed for the coming landing.
With a crunching of the flagstones in the courtyard, Aurelius hit hard enough to rattle the windows in the surrounding buildings. All around him, the remainder of the first wave was hitting the ground. This time there was no flak attempting to blast them out of the sky. There were no burn-ins. The heads-up display indicated that everyone was down. Green lights flashed as each cohort reported in.
“Agmen formate,” called Casca! “All allies!”
On the screen, Aurelius could see that they were quickly following the orders and forming up into square formations comprised of two cohorts each. In seconds, one hundred and eighty associates linked into groups of two forming ninety perfect square formations. Like the legions of old, they struck their formations and held their ground in silence, awaiting further orders.
Once all the cohorts had formed up, silence resounded throughout the area. Aurelius studied his heads-up display searching for any signs of the enemy, but there was nothing. Only the wind whispering through the abandoned city could be heard. Beyond that, it was the deafening silence of the grave. Nothing moved, no sensor contact, no signs of life beyond the cohorts that were already on the ground. The tension in the air was thicker than cold blood.
The countdown on the heads-up display indicated that they had two minutes until the second wave of the legion hit orbit and still no direct contact with the T’kri’t’ek. Although he knew that the enemy was below ground, Aurelius could see no spot where they had gone down. There were no massive holes in the streets or buildings that had caved in. Everything looked in order, except the people were missing.
“Orders, Praefect?” asked Casca.
“Cohorts IV and V,” called Aurelius. “Break formation and begin scouting the area for signs of life. Maintain constant contact. No groups smaller than Centuria size. If anyone encounters the enemy, everyone falls back to your original positions.”
On the screen, he could see the units breaking formation and moving off in different directions to begin scouting the city. They would scan individual buildings before moving off to check the next one.
“Second wave,” said Aurelius into the comm. “Standby. Do not initiate orbital drop currently. Say again, do not initiate orbital drop. Do you copy?”
“This is Centurion Tullius of Cohort CLV,” replied a voice, “Second Wave drop commander. We copy, Praefect. We are standing by for additional orders.”
“Good,” replied Aurelius. “I do not wish to commit the second wave until we have flushed the enemy. It appears that they have somehow disappeared.”
“Praefect Aurelius,” said another voice over the COMM channel. “This is Centurion Flavianus of the Aquilinus Wing. We’re standing by to launch on your command. I’ve already given the order to have heavy bombardment ordinance added to our payload, just in case.”
Aurelius smiled. He knew that his friend Flavianus couldn’t wait for the chance to get his fighters into this battle. Without any kind of air wings from the T’kri’t’ek, he doubted that there would be a great deal for them to do. Unless they had to call in close air support, like they had on Haakon Prime.
“Get your fighters equipped and ready,” replied Aurelius. “I know you are anxious to get into the fight, my friend. Get your fighters into the atmosphere as soon as you are ready. Begin high altitude reconnaissance to assist in locating the enemy. The T’kri’t’ek appear to have no air support whatsoever but be cautious. This could all be a ruse to draw us in.”
“Aquilinus Wing is standing by,” came the immediate reply. “We will launch as soon as additional armaments are in place.”
“Praefect?” said a voice on the line, sounding urgent. “This is Centurion Augustus of Cohort IV. I think we found something, sir.”
“What is it?” demanded Aurelius, dreading the answer.
“Blood, sir,” replied the cool voice of Augustus. “A lot of it. It appears that the locals did not go down without a fight. We are finding blaster scorch marks on some of the buildings and abandoned weapons. We have not found any bodies, though. Just blood.”
“Any signs of where in Elysium they went?” asked Casca, his voice holding a t
ouch of anger.
“Negative, sir,” replied Augustus. “We have not encountered anything that could lead us to the enemy.”
“Sir,” said another voice. “This is Centurion Valeris of Cohort V. I think we have found their hiding spot. There is a massive hole in the ground just behind the capitol building. Scanners indicate that it is over thirty meters across and seventy meters deep before it levels out. We cannot scan anything beyond that because of the high iron content of the surrounding soil.”
“On my way,” said Aurelius. “Cohorts I and II, with me. Centurion Avilius, you have command of the remainder of the formation. I will return after I have had a chance to see this tunnel entrance for myself.”
“Affirm,” replied Casca.
As Aurelius turned to head off down the street towards the capitol building, Cohorts I and II broke formation and lined up behind him in two columns. Cyprianus fell into step beside Aurelius and nodded his approval. Aurelius waited until the formation was complete before giving the command to march. There was no cadence called since they were in a combat zone. Only the perfect unison of their armored boots echoed from the buildings and down the deserted streets.
As Aurelius marched, the tips of his fingers brushed against the hilt of his Gladius, locked in the scabbard on his right hip. The mere presence of which gave him a sense of foreboding that the battle was going to come down to blades. He knew that as well as he knew that the sun would rise in the morning. It was fate that they would fight hand-to-hand against an enemy no one had seen and lived to tell the story.
“They will tell tales of this battle,” thought Aurelius. “Tales and songs to the glory of the Legio Ferrata.”
“The Iron Legion has never been bested with blades,” said Cyprianus. “If it comes to that, we shall prevail.”
“We shall not fail,” replied Aurelius. “The Legion will not fall.”
Rounding the corner of the main capitol building, Aurelius saw Cohort IV assembled a short distance away from a massive hole in the ground. It was mostly obscured by the overhang of the outside amphitheater where politicians and philosophers would address the people. That was how Aurelius had missed it during the drop. From his angle of descent, it would have been completely invisible.
“Damned clever,” thought Aurelius. “They are smart enough to hide their tunnel entrance from aerial view.”
As the formation approached the chasm, Centurion Valeris began walking towards Aurelius tapping the side of his helmet. Aurelius knew he was requesting to speak with him off the COMM channel. That didn’t exactly bode well.
Valeris turned to make his report directly to the Legatus Legionis when he saw that the ranking officer was also present, but Cyprianus waved him off.
“I am here to aid in this battle,” said Cyprianus. “Command belongs to Praefect Aurelius.”
“Report, Centurion,” said Aurelius, without activating his comm.
“Sir,” said Valeris. “There is something else I did not want to report over an open channel.”
“Speak,” replied Aurelius, nodding.
“Sir,” said Valeris, hesitantly, “we are reading a great deal of organic residue in the dirt of the tunnel. It appears to be human blood and tissue. Whatever these things are, they took the entire populace down below ground with them. We have read enough blood on the ground to indicate most if not all the bodies that were taken down below are dead. This was a massacre, sir. I believe it highly unlikely that anyone survived.”
“Thank you for keeping that off the COMM lines, Centurion,” replied Aurelius. “Although it fits with what I was already expecting, there is no need to cause further doubt among the men.”
“Request permission to take my Cohort into the tunnel, sir,” said Valeris. “It would be our honor to flush these creatures out of hiding.”
“Not yet,” replied Aurelius. “I do not believe that we will have any advantage below ground. The mobility of the armor will be extremely limited. Besides, I find the likelihood of finding survivors very remote. We shall send in a drone to scout and map the tunnels below before we commit our men to this encounter.”
“As you command, sir,” replied Valeris.
Aurelius could hear the disappointment in his voice but made no mention of it. Aurelius wanted to avenge the fallen people of this colony as much as Valeris did, perhaps even more. However, it was dangerous to obligate men to a battle in an environment that they were not trained to fight in. It was even more so to go into the enemy’s own ground and give up any advantage that one might have.
“Prepare the drones,” called Valeris, turning back to his cohort.
Two men of the cohort broke formation and removed a cargo module from the backs of their armor. They began assembling a drone from pieces stored in the modules. The design was simple, with a central orb supported by four pylons. At the end of each pylon was a small gravitic engine that provided both lift and thrust. The central pod contained a full-array of sensor equipment and cameras, allowing it to transmit back much needed intelligence while keeping the operators safely out of harm’s way.
Within moments, the two soldiers assembled and readied the drone for operations. Once all the pieces were locked in place, they went through the power-up sequence and initiated the gravitics. A series of flashing lights ran the circumference of the central orb, and then the gravitic pods began to glow and hum softly. Seconds later, it rose from the ground and began to hover at approximately head level for the men in armor.
“All readings are stable, sir,” said one of the soldiers. “Drone is ready to deploy.”
Aurelius activated the drone sensor and camera feed on his heads-up display. Immediately telemetry began feeding in, giving him information on the surrounding areas as well as all the soldiers present.
“I am assuming drone control,” said Aurelius.
“Copy,” replied Valeris. “Praefect has drone control.”
Aurelius brought the drone straight up into the air nearly fifty meters, so it could get a direct line of sight down the massive hole in the ground. The roof of the amphitheater was obstructing most of the view, but he could still gather good sensor readings from the drone pass. After it cleared the entrance, Aurelius brought it down and hovered directly over the mouth of the tunnel, holding steady at nearly ground level. Still nothing alerted the sensors or the cameras to any signs of life or movement.
“We’re going in,” said Aurelius. “Begin telemetry feed to all Centurions and Agamemnon Control.”
“Establishing command frequency links,” replied Valeris. “Telemetry feed transmitting clear and strong.”
“Agamemnon Control is receiving,” said the familiar voice of Cassia.
The drone slowly descended into the tunnel, dropping lower with each passing second. Aurelius kept the descent deliberately slow so that he could evade or return rapidly to the surface should a threat present itself. The drones were expendable, but replacing one wasn’t always the best option. Although each cohort carried the components, there might not be time to prepare a second drone. If the enemy had destroyed the first drone, then they would already be alerted to their presence. The element of surprise would be gone. The trick was to gather as much intelligence as possible before the enemy destroyed the drone.
The heads-up display continued to count down the descent into the chasm. Scanners were indicating that the bottom was rapidly approaching. The deeper the drone descended, the darker it became. The tunnel leveled off at seventy-five meters depth. The subway continued to angle downward, but not at a large degree. There were ends of roots protruding from the walls and Aurelius could almost smell the dank earth. Scanners noted that the passageway remained a uniform diameter as it made its way off to the north.
Every twenty yards, side tunnels opened heading off in each direction. Although he could make out organic traces in the soil, residue of human blood and tissue, there was no sign of anything living. Although now in near-total darkness, the eerie green of the enhanced sen
sors made even the slightest detail of the cavern walls stand out in striking detail. Despite the temperature-controlled armor, Aurelius felt a drop of sweat running down the side of his face and trickling down his neck. He wasn’t sure why, but his nerves were as taut as the strings on a violin.
One of the indicator bars on the heads-up display was showing that it was picking up something on the audio recorders. Activating the playback, the audio crackled and filled his helmet with the noise. You could hear the soft humming of the drone, but it was the background noise that was strange and discomforting.
At first, the audio filters nearly cleared it out, but the computer seemed confused by the sound. It clearly wasn’t mechanical, and it was almost dismissed as insignificant by the filtering programs. It wasn’t until Aurelius directed the computer to scan specifically for that clamor when it became clearer and distinct. It was some sort of chittering sound, clearly organic and regular.
“It sounds like…” said Cyprianus, looking puzzled.
“Bugs,” finished Aurelius. “It sounds like some sort of insect. From the sound of it, there are thousands of them.”
“That fits with the briefing,” said Cyprianus. “Garibaldi said that Fabretti believed they were insectoid.”
“It appears that Garibaldi was useful for something after all,” replied Aurelius. “I find it difficult to believe that they knew absolutely nothing of the T’kri’t’ek. Garibaldi was not telling us everything.”
“Of that I have no doubt, Marcus,” said Cyprianus. “Undoubtedly, he does not expect us to survive this encounter.”
“It would mean he did not have to explain our return to his superiors,” said Aurelius. “Perhaps he wanted us to fail. Ships are easy to dispose of. Entire legions are much more difficult.”
Lost Legion- Blood and Honor Page 8