Soldier of the Legion sotl-1

by Marshall S. Thomas

  I fell right into those bottomless eyes. Trapped. I wanted to tear my gaze away, but I could not. She would not release me and I began to pray that she never would. I loved Valkyrie-cherished her. We’d been through so much together and…

  “I’m yours, Thinker, if you want me.” She stood up abruptly, tossing her hair back again, defiantly. I could only sit there in total amazement, gaping at her.

  “Body and soul, Thinker. Body and soul!” Her eyes flashed and a bleak vision seemed to pass over them. She backed toward the door, still holding me with her eyes. I knew she meant it. “Tomorrow, Thinker. Together.” She slipped out the door.

  I knew that something had changed in both of us. Suddenly I knew that I would never be a possession to her. Never a convenience when the mood struck or green jealousy reared its ugly head. I would die without hesitation for Valkyrie, but I wanted to live with sweet Priestess.

  We went back the next day, dropping into the atmosphere in an assault craft. We sat next to each other, but an uneasy tension lingered between us. We’d crossed a line. A big one. It scared me more than the exosegs. Would we feel the same after we returned to Beta and our dance with death?

  The ship bounced wildly, its skin glowing cherry-red and Andrion 2 coming at us like a heavenly vision. Great silver oceans glittered molten sunlight, soft white clouds streaked by far below, endless green forests rolled by, bursting into every color of the spectrum as we approached.

  Zero Alpha had been transformed into Alpha Base, our first foothold. With countless tons of equipment and cargo flowing down from Atom, it was Andrion 2’s first starport and a growing military base. Around the raw, dusty red earth, endless rows of ugly building modules dominated a bleak landscape scarred by hastily excavated storage bunkers and pitted with construction sites, aircar parks and other Legion installations. The whole base was ringed with a heavily fortified defensive perimeter.

  That night, I visited a small chapel at Alpha Base, open to the stars and the soft breezes of the night. A simple Godmod, as we called it, with Deadman and the cross of the Legion on the wall. A chapel, for soldiers without souls.

  Several other troopers from CAT 24 had arrived, suited up with helmets off. As I knelt before Deadman, I was surprised when Priestess slipped in beside me, kneeling by my side. She set her helmet before her.

  I only knew one prayer, the battle chant of the Legion. I whispered it, and Priestess joined her words to mine.

  “I am a Soldier of the Legion.

  I believe in Evil-

  The survival of the strong-

  And the death of the weak.

  I am the guardian.

  I am the sword of light

  In the dark of the night.

  I will deliver us from Evil.

  “I accept life everlasting

  And the death of my past.

  I will trust no Earther worm

  Nor any mortal man,

  But only the mark of the Legion.

  I have burnt the book of laws

  To serve the Deadman’s cause

  As a soldier of the Legion.”

  Priestess gazed into the distance, innocent and vulnerable. Her lips formed the words, but I could barely hear her.

  “I am the slave of the Future

  At the gateway to the stars,

  Where I can see-Eternity.

  For I walk in the shadow of death

  And yet I fear no Evil

  For I am the light in the dark

  I am the watch on the mark

  I am a soldier of the Legion.

  “I will have no talk with Evil.

  The arts of death are the tools of life

  And in the end I will send

  A maxburst to advise

  The Omnis come by surprise

  And though we kill them where they stand,

  We know it’s death’s dark land

  For a soldier of the Legion.”

  We had taken the same pledge on joining the Legion. It was the creed of the Outworlder race, and a reaffirmation of our faith. It always calmed me down.

  I glanced at Priestess. Her eyes glistened. I reached over and took her hand. Yes, we might die this very day.

  We went outside where we could taste the still before the dawn, under a sky full of icy stars. Her eyes seemed to glow in the dark.

  “I believe in Evil,” she said abruptly. “That thing was Evil, pure and simple. And you killed it where it stood! You lifted me right out of the grave.”

  I drew her to me silently, and she rested her head on my armored shoulder. Her hair smelled like morning rain. “It’s all right,” I said. “You would have done the same for me. I was lucky. We both got lucky.” Priestess would not let go, but I didn’t really mind.

  Finally she spoke. “Thinker, I want you to be extra careful on this op. Please don’t leave me.”

  “I won’t leave you, Priestess.”

  “I want to be close to you. I think…something may happen. And I’m afraid. I’m afraid I’ll lose you.”

  “We’ll stay as close as they’ll let us.” She knew it wasn’t really up to us.

  She looked up at me, a new light in her eyes. She tried a smile, and it worked.

  “No worries…Priestess.” Nothing mattered, I thought. I did not want to resist. We kissed, and a meteor shower flashed through the quiet sky, just before the dawn. And for the moment, the future did not matter.

  A kiss in morning starlight. The start of the Scaler Campaign. We had only the vaguest glimmering of the horrors that awaited us all. As a newborn warrior from Planet Hell, a Soldier of the Legion, I thought I understood Evil. But I was a child without the slightest concept of the real fabric of terror. I had not yet tasted of Evil. Exosegs weren’t evil, they were mindless. Evil awaited us all, holding its breath in the dark.

  The Inners never understood Evil. Their worlds had been purchased in blood by the Legion, generations in the past. It’s easy to lose track of reality if nothing has ever tried to eat you alive.

  We faced the cold wind of the stars; we reached out and touched the sworn enemies of humanity, and killed them where they stood. We faced the Systies, the slavemasters, and held their corrupt empire at bay, allowing ConFree to prosper. At the gateway to infinity, the Omnis writhed, an alien scourge. Facing the O’s was like facing God. Our fathers had died like bacteria in the Plague War, but the Legion had finally shattered the Omni fleets. It had been a total war, a war of extermination, wherever they appeared. Grim, fantastic battles fought far, far away in the Outvac, in the empty spaces between ConFree and infinity. The Inners never knew or cared, not about Legion blood. They would never know, not unless the Legion died. Only then would the Inners learn about Evil. But it would be written in the heavens for them all to see, long before it happened to them. They would have time to think. They would look up from their fat, safe, happy little worlds, and see the stars burning brightly in the night, a new universe of supernovas. For we would go down fighting.

  Chapter 5: Gravelight

  Ahead of a storm front, squad Beta dropped right into the crumbling heart of a dead city. We came by aircar in the still dark hours just before dawn, with the temperature dropping and rain on the way. Sweety flashed a weather scan in a corner of my faceplate. The cloud deck was thick, and the frontal system extended across a quarter of the continent. Lightning flashed silently far away to the north of us. We swept into the ruins, a phantom fleet of alien aircars hissing past scores of massive, ruined towers, hovering over great courtyards overgrown with wild waist-high grass.

  The assault doors opened and we emerged like alien warriors, glittering in black armor, bristling with weapons and sensors. Pilgrims of violence on an unholy mission of war. That’s how the Scalers see us, I thought, as alien invaders. But there were no Scalers in sight. They were the mission now. We’d tagged and set the Boy Scaler free, and tracked him here.

  I landed running from the aircar, just behind Coolhand, and we rushed through tall grass and brush t
o our positions. My faceplate lit up the dead city for me in false colors, shaded for IR emissions. Power, EM or other emissions would show up in high contrast. Huge, grotesque ruined towers loomed all around us, covered with vegetation. This was Site 2012 on our charts, a vast ruined tomb, once a massive fortress dominating a high plateau that overlooked a great river cutting through a trackless jungle. All this, now only a semi-fossilized memory. The people who had once lived here in power and comfort had vanished ages ago. Now it belonged to us.

  “You are in position.” Sweety spoke in her calm, clear, feminine voice.

  “Thanks, Sweety.” There was no need to answer, but the truth is that I felt rather close to her. I remembered some graffiti I’d seen in a latrine on Planet Hell: ‘I think I’m falling in love with my Persist’. But it was true, Sweety understood me. I knew I could depend on her. She was always on top of things. Of course, she was only the outcom of my tacmod, a cleverly bioteched micromass of artificial smarts, but to me she seemed a lot more than that. Sweety had developed a personality as well.

  A temple loomed in front of me against the dark sky. Lightning lanced through the night behind the structure. Sweety automatically dampened the brightness of the flash enough to protect my eyes. Even so, the electric brilliance briefly froze the temple against the night. Great, grassy stone steps led up a massive, elaborately-carved artificial mountain of rock to four great domed cones of crumbling stone, fringed with moss and vines. I stiffened as a deep rumble rolled overhead.

  “Thunder,” Sweety explained. I did my tac check and nothing stirred, only the Legion, now moving into position. A night breeze rustled around me, blowing aimless patterns through the tall grass that filled the courtyard. A few drops of rain spattered against my faceplate while the tacsit map glowed on the lower corner. There were plenty of entrances to the structure. Our probes cautiously advanced inside. No action yet. A shadow in the sky, glowing, growing silently in my faceplate.

  “Aircar,” Sweety told me. She normally would not have mentioned it, but my adrenalin had given her a little jolt.

  “Normal vision,” I whispered. Sweety cancelled the darksight, and darkness rushed over me. Lightning strobed, illuminating the temple, a flock of fleecy angels and a handful of passing aircars. It hurt my eyes a little. The trees danced in the rising wind.

  “Restore it,” I commanded. My faceplate lit up again. I liked little glimpses of reality from time to time. But too long could get you in trouble. Sweety didn’t like it because it affected my eyes’ sensitivity to her carefully selected palette of enhancement colors and shades.

  Tacsit showed that the probes had uneventfully progressed to the planned distance and depth for us to proceed. The probes kept moving and it was time for us to move as well.

  “Beta, assault.” Snow Leopard ordered, already moving up the stairs. “Command, Beta…we are assaulting Structure 02.”

  I moved up the stairs to his left, all sensors on max, my E at the ready, set on v-min as ordered. Steep stairs, weak grav and powered armor. I felt like a God. We arrived at the top in moments, not even breathing hard.

  We had a tremendous view from atop the temple, huddling against the gritty stone walls of four towering domes. The plan was to follow the probes into the heart of the temple and then down further, into the underground. The probes now swarmed far below, mapping a subterranean world. Somewhere down in the bowels of the temple, the Scalers were waiting.

  “Command, Beta-we’re in place on Structure 02.”

  There was no hurry. CAT 24 was swarming all over the bones of this dead city, and Beta would hold its position until we got the word. We settled in, moving into the gaping doorways of the domes to get out of the rain, and found comfortable positions in the rubble.

  Snow Leopard moved around the temple’s edge restlessly. Coolhand posted himself on the west side, observing the progress of the assault. I squatted just inside one of the domes, watching the sky. The wind and the rain hissed gently.

  “Ahh, death.” Psycho settled himself down near me and rested his Manlink against the wall. I did not say anything. Priestess stood beside Ironman in the doorway of the opposite dome, her E at the ready.

  “Think we’ll find any extra-large exos down there, Thinker?” Merlin asked. He crouched near Psycho, balancing his E on one knee.

  “If we do, I’m putting in for sick leave, Merlin,” I informed him. “I don’t ever want to see another one of those things.”

  “You think too much,” Psycho cut in. “Always scheming to get into Valkyrie’s pants. Anything for sick leave. You knew she’d visit her wounded hero. I wish you’d tell me how you arranged that run-in with the exo. I wouldn’t mind a few days in the body shop.”

  I ignored him. “I should have used the laser,” I said quietly. “Slice off its legs. They can’t hurt you without legs.”

  A short silence ensued as Merlin and Psycho pondered my comments. I knew Psycho would probably say something crazy.

  “You know what I’d like to do?” he finally said. “I’d like to take on one of those critters with this.” He raised his hot knife and triggered it. It flared to life, hissing blue-hot. The light from the knife flooded his faceplate, revealing his evil, boyish features. “Can you imagine that,” he asked, his eyes glowing, his mouth twisting. “Man Kills Bug With Knife. They’d laugh in the Inners, of course. But I’d be famous out here.” His eyebrows rose, and I could not help laughing. I knew he was serious and crazy enough to try it.

  “A shame, Psycho,” I responded. “We’d have to get another Five.”

  “Thinker’s always thinking,” he said, putting away the knife. “What a pain. You can screw up your life, thinking all the time.”

  He was right, of course. During Basic, I’d been known as The Thinker, for over-thinking everything. I’d probably missed a lot, by agonizing over the possible consequences of my actions. Psycho had not missed a thing. It amazed me that he survived.

  “What do you think the Scaler was trying to tell us with his drawings, Thinker?” Merlin had a talent for guiding conversations. Then he would sit back and listen. His IQ probably topped the rest of us put together. He certainly didn’t need our opinions. I had no idea why a scientific wizard like Merlin hauled an E instead of working in a biolab somewhere. He tended to be nervous, a bit clumsy in the field. I could not fathom his friendship with Psycho. I suppose he secretly admired his brash approach to life.

  I thought about the drawings. “I’m not sure,” I said. “It’s strange.”

  The lifies had thought they were making progress with their catch, the Boy Scaler. When he settled down, they showed him all sorts of wonders, in an effort to communicate. He calmly took it all in for a while, silent, eyes glittering like black gems, cold and hard. And then he showed a wonder or two of his own. He sketched out the night sky on a datascreen. He drew it expertly, with all the stars right where they should be, seen from his forest. He drew a moving star, and traced it right down to the horizon. After that, he did another sketch, an exoseg, Exoseg Gigantic Soldier, eating a man. Then he smashed the d-screen with the lightpen, suddenly convulsed with rage and tears. The lifies could get nothing further from him. But it gave us something to work on.

  They took Boy Scaler by aircar to the edge of the flower forest near where he’d been captured, and released him. Dressed once again in his tunic of scaly skin and armed with his slingshot and spear, he bolted into the forest and disappeared. The lifies had injected a c-cell into his scalp. It would lead us to him, wherever he went.

  He’d gone here, to Site 2012. The probes quickly confirmed that the bowels of this dead city crawled with Scalers. Now we had what we wanted: a big Scaler community. We were ready to come calling.

  We knew so little we could have been blind, but the primary mission was certainly to defend this planet from the Systies. Everything else was secondary. I munched a mag, leaning against the doorway of the dome.

  “It’s simple,” Psycho declared. “The star was a Sys
tie ship. The exos came from the ship. Command knows it, they just don’t want to get the troops upset.”

  The rain eased off. It would be dawn soon. “It seems obvious, Psycho,” I said, “but why would the Systies want to transport exosegs from one world to another? It’s crazy. Why would anyone want to do that? Even Systies aren’t that crazy.”

  “How should I know? Ask Merlin. He’s the brains of the outfit. I just work here. Maybe the Systies are using the exos to do something for them.”

  “Do what? They’re not smart enough to do anything.”

  “How do you know? They sure know how to eat people. Maybe the Dominants are running the show for the Systies.”

  “Come on…they’re not that bright.”

  “We don’t know how bright they are,” Psycho insisted. “Not until we capture one of the Dominants alive, and disassemble it. Then we’ll know.”

  “The Dominants are not intelligent. They live in holes in the ground, and the high point of their day is when they get to suck on somebody’s abdomen. They couldn’t be doing anything for the Systies.”

  “Why not? That’s the high point of my day, too!” Psycho exclaimed. “Look-the exo soldiers are from Andrion 3-fully developed natives of Andrion 3. They didn’t develop here. But they got here somehow. They don’t have wings, and they can’t breathe vac. Why couldn’t a comet or asteroid blow a chunk of Andrion 3 to Andrion 2, with some exo eggs attached? I don’t know. I think they came here by ship. It’s the only way to get from planet to planet.”

  “What do you think, Merlin?”

  “I think we’ll know the answer when we find the Systies,” he replied.

  “Do you think they’re here?”

  “I don’t know. But somebody’s been here. And done some mighty strange things. I don’t think there’s much doubt it was the Systies.”

  Strange! The exosegs were natives of Andrion 3. And if the Systies had transported them, where were the Systies? We had swept the planet clean and found no advanced signals or power sources. It’s not easy to hide a starship. Despite all our biomag wizardry, there could be whole cities, whole nations, whole empires, hiding from us in the forests, in the mountains, and deep underground. But if there were any Systies here, they weren’t using power systems.