You’re not going to win this time, Charles thought, stretching.
***
Ava came to attention upon entering the legatus’s office/quarters and saluted, which Pullo replied to from behind his desk as he waved her to a seat in front of him. She took it quickly as he studied her for a moment.
“So I’ve heard you owe Mark a life debt. Is this correct?”
“Yes, I do, Legatus,” she said warily, not knowing where he was going with the conversation.
“What does that entail?”
“That I must do all in my power to keep him alive, no matter the cost.”
Pullo sighed. His eyes softened as for the first time Ava saw pain in them, before he fixed her with a basilisk stare which made even her father’s pale in comparison.
“Ava, I want you to make me a promise on that life debt or I’ll collect it myself.” There was no doubt in his words, just rock-hard conviction. “Never betray him.”
“Sir?”
“It is not my place to tell you about the man—it’s his. He will take on armies; he will take on an entire planet and he’s about to take on an entire race. To save one good person.” He paused, thinking as he leaned back in his chair. “Have you heard of the templars?”
“No, Legatus.”
“The templars were a holy order set up by a religious group to protect travelers on their travels to their holy place. This holy place was fought for by many different groups of the age. On the battlefield, the templars—in their prime—were the lords of death. There were some groups of them that wouldn’t fight an enemy unless they were outnumbered ten to one. They had strict rules they placed upon themselves, committing themselves to poverty and to take vows to uphold their religious group’s laws. In battle, they wouldn’t retreat unless their flag had fallen. There is one account that a templar knight—the last, who had killed hundreds of men—was asked by the leader of the invading army to surrender and he would not kill him but send him home. The templar knight looked behind him; seeing his flag still upright, he turned back to the leader of the army. He said he couldn’t leave as his flag was still upright; to die in battle was the greatest honor, to leave their war-stricken world and enter heaven, as they called it.”
He paused, his eyes pained. “Those templars fought from the age they were eighteen—many younger, many older—and nearly none of them were expected to survive to be past thirty. Many of those who did saw little to no combat. Mark fought to survive from the age of five till he was eighteen in conditions we can’t even fathom. He then turned his talents to the battlefield for twenty years. His soldiers are his family; if one of them dies, he feels it more than any injury he has on his body. He once told me why he kept the scars. He told me, ‘I keep them to remind me every day, every second, why I’m alive. I’m alive so that I may take on the duty of my soldiers, to kill one bastard and save one innocent. If I save one innocent or one soldier, I’ve done my job, even if to save them I have to lose my life. I will do it without regrets, without remorse. This is my duty and I will succeed in it.’ I’m not saying he did it for religious reasons or anything. I’m telling you how he is the deadliest man I know and if he, like the templars, is used wrongly, he will destroy everything. Never betray him, watch his blindside, and never let him release his rage.”
Pullo’s eyes were locked with Ava as her brain processed the information; she couldn’t. She knew war—she knew battle—but from Pullo’s face, she knew nothing like Mark did.
“I will never betray him. What is this rage you talk about? How can one man’s rage be so terrible?”
“He sticks to his ideals like a lifeline. If he lets go, letting his true bloodlust, his anger, his hatred out, he will never return to us. He will use all of his skills as a hunter, without remorse or care.”
Ava swallowed as her heart settled back down from everything she’d heard. Lines of determination framed her face. “On my life debt, my oath as Ava Desialias, I will help him.”
“Thank you,” Pullo said, relieved. He rose and extended his arm that Ava took by the forearm to complete the agreement.
“I wish you the luck of the gods, but I don’t know if even they could help you with Mark,” he said with a small smile. “Except maybe Ares as he is her closest son by far.”
“I’ll take all the help I can get.” She returned the smile. The deal was struck.
Chapter 6
Legionnaire Tower
Roma, Hellenic system
12/3350
0“Pullo, what’ve you done with Charles? I haven’t heard from him in a week.” Legatus legionis Damus asked, his eyebrows furrowed in confusion.
“He’s been working on the project,” Pullo said complacently.
“It’s strange not having him bugging me with something repeatedly throughout the day,” Damus said in a wondering tone, trying to think of the last time he hadn’t been contacted by Charles on at least a daily basis. He returned back to reality as Pullo cleared his throat. “How’s the project coming along?”
“In leaps and bounds. They think that they can get the plans ironed out in a month and a half, using the sim bubbles. It’s much better than the six-month prediction.”
“Oh, so it was Victor who came up with it, huh?” Damus sighed, he’d lost his best engineering team to the man, now it looked like he would have to pay him for a new upgraded rifle design. “It took four years to design the Jupiter. I want them thoroughly stress tested before we move forward with buying them.”
“Don’t worry. I have a medico with them to make sure they don’t and to get them to sleep and eat. Yes, he made it when he was going through the refresher course.”
“It passed through senate and then stores like wildfire. We’re producing it like there’s no tomorrow and handing it out to everyone.”
Pullo whistled under his breath. “Really, that fast?”
“I was surprised myself. Must be making a fortune! How is the merging and body modification program coming along?”
“It should be reaching you in four days. I sent it via the Intrepid two days ago.”
“All right. Well, keep up the miracle factory you have there and look after our people.”
“Understood, sir.”
Chapter 7
SLS Shadow
E124X system
2/3351
Some twenty star systems away, Captain Chen’s face was grim. It wasn’t because he’d been in a stealth ship for two months, the air recycler was broken again—mingling the sweat that permeated everything from him and his five subordinates—or the fact that the ship’s internal heat buffers cooked everything to a foul-smelling—and he could swear, explosive—concoction, but the image Gunner Travestki had pulled up on screen.
“Well, shit.” Pilot Taelyon ran her hand through her hair. Chen noticed it shook slightly as she did so.
“Carla, you’re going to want to see this,” Chen commed his first mate, pulling her from her well-deserved sleep.
“Be there in ten.”
“You’re shitting me.” She came through the hatch and stared at the main screen display.
“Not at all. This is an hour late feed but this is right,” Travestki said.
“They have A-drives?” She looked at the familiar nacelles that extruded from the command barge of a Maraukian long-range transport. Confirming everyone’s fears.
“It does appear so.” Chen’s face was grim. On the screen, a flash of every color appeared and then died in a blinding flash as another command barge or CB appeared, the fifth one. He silently thanked the gods the CBs hadn’t mated with the smaller hexagonal assault barges or AB’s that carried the Maraukian herds. The fact they were moving into the system without them also brought up a scary thought that maybe the Maraukians were testing them out, seeing how to use them. Maraukians who could think and adapt—that was not something he would like to see. Especially ones which were now figuring out they could jump insertion barges, right into the Ninth’s front door.
Though the one problem the Maraukians had since the legion had first met them was that they didn’t have A-drive. They had straight propulsion engines and pushed the barges to a decent fraction of C and let it go as the Maraukians slept through the years.
Humans had figured out A-drive through the information dumping system Maraukians used. The ability to move legionnaires, weapons, supplies, and anything else they required from one battlefield to another was instrumental in letting the smaller Ninth force push back the Maraukians.
Now it seemed the legion’s technological advantage would be severely cut.
“How long till they’re ready?” Chen asked after a few minutes.
“I have no idea, Captain. They could pick up ABs in the next system they jump to and then start striking at us. Or they could wait years to sort out any problems and then come at us. There are just too many variables and unknowns to be certain,” Carla said.
“All right. Well, I think we’ve seen enough here. Taelyon, if you please, get us back to the closest legion-occupied world. Carla, wake up Frank and Liviana and see what we can coax out of the ship.”
“Yes, sir.” Carla turned off her gravity field and threw herself down the corridor. The others ran checks over their systems and Taelyon turned the ship around to deep space, toward the jump stream.
“UP AND AT ’EM! TIME TO EARN YOUR PAY!” Chen could hear through the bulkheads as his ship accelerated out of the system without anyone noticing their existence. Or the flash a few hours later in deep space as they disappeared into jump toward a system called Tricticus.
Chapter 8
Camp Epsilon
Tricticus, Emarl system
3/3351
Mark ground his teeth as he kept working, hearing the sirens blaring through the camp to signify stand to.
“I know, Mark, but you’d do more harm than good until we finish the suit,” Ava said.
“I just want to be doing something; I hate being in here and not out there keeping others alive. I’m sorry. I know you feel the same way. It’s so frustrating.” He hit the table, Sarah using anti-grav silently so he only dented the solid metal instead of breaking it in half.
“I know, Mark, but as much as we want to—as you told me—we have to do what we’re told. That means you need to get your ass back inside that bubble and concentrate on the coding. The people at the walls have been doing what they’re doing for a long time and with you and this suit, you’ll be more of a help than you would be now in a suit you’d break and then have to make them worry about you.”
“You’re right, I know, but I’m used to charging toward fire, not waiting at the rear.” His dark eyes looked at the wall, as if he could see the advancing Maraukians.
“That’s why I joined the legion instead of staying in Crisidium. But enough about that. Get to work,” she said, this time with a gentle push and a smile to belay any annoyance.
“Yes, ma’am.” He came to attention jokingly before getting back in his simulation bubble.
Ava continued going through her exercises, moving as if water flowing from one movement to another, focusing on her movements instead of the sirens. She stopped as people came from the simulation bubbles, only to have Ava force them to detox the drugs the simulations had used to keep them alert for days. Most of them she got to their sleeping quarters before detox. Others she had to restrain to get it in.
They were a driven bunch. They knew what was at stake and they knew just how the Pluto could change everything.
It was still a pain dragging them to their sleeping pallets after having to detox the worst offenders.
Everyone on the development team was driven by a combination of pride in their work and their genuine want to help the soldiers on the frontlines. They were riding themselves worse than if Pluto’s own hounds where chasing them. It was taking their toll, even if they’d pushed themselves well ahead of schedule.
The team had finished their parts by the seventh week, with Ava forcing them to detox but leaving Mark the only one awake. Curiosity got the best of her. She got in a simulation bubble and watched Mark as he worked, showing his interface. At first it was too fast to understand; as she just let her senses absorb what was going on, she understood better. An image built itself in front of Mark as he pulled the suit together, inputting the code then running the suit through trials. For Ava, this happened in seconds; for Mark, in simulation time dilation, it was minutes. With the additional speed of merging, it was as though he were doing an hour’s worth of work in bare seconds.
Then he stopped. Ava lost track of time as Mark blew up the image.
He breathed in deeply and let it out in a hiss. “Not bad, if I say so myself.” Mark turned to Ava, who blushed and turned away.
“What?” he asked innocently.
“You’re kind of not wearing clothes.”
“Ah, whoops,” Mark said, clothes appearing. “Though you must see people naked all of the time.”
“Yes but usually I’m trying to save their life, not having a normal conversation with them.”
Mark shrugged. “Well, looks like time for my detox.” He eyed the needle in Ava’s hand.
“Thank God I’m not going to have to drag you to your bed.”
“That would be...interesting.”
“Men.” Ava rolled her eyes and laughed.
“I didn’t mean it that way!” he complained, actually blushing.
“Suuure you didn’t.” She walked away—maybe putting a bit of emphasis on shaking her hips.
She felt his eyes on her. Maybe that’s you just hoping his eyes are on you?
He sat on a bed as she stuck the needle in his neck.
“Still hate needles,” Mark said.
The detox took effect and he fell backward. He broke the top of the bed, sound asleep.
Ava shook her head as people stirred or looked over at the noise.
She turned to less complicated things, like her part of the project: the medical systems. Seeing as she was the current expert on Elves, it had fallen on her shoulders. It didn’t help everything Charles had given to her on the medical field she understood and she was apparently a “natural.” She growled. She wanted to be the one on the frontline, killing Maraukians, not having to patch people up. Yet she knew her anger was misplaced and saving people was more rewarding than any killing.
If she hadn’t been Princess Ava Desialias then she would be at Crisidium, defending her home city with the other auxiliary legionnaires. She’d been taught to fight as a child, not to patch people up. At her father’s request, she’d been trained as a medico instead of a legionnaire.
Maybe Mark’s program will give me the chance to fight instead of being stuck in the rear.
Chapter 9
SLS Shadow
Tricticus, Emarl system
5/3351
Captain Chen watched the readouts carefully as the timer counted down to exit from jump.
White brilliance enveloped the main screen, translating as new information was uploaded and instantly turning into nine planets, multiple asteroid belts, and a star that made up the Emarl system.
“Not reading any Maraukian ships.” Travestki broke the silence.
Chen let out his breath he hadn’t realized he was holding. “All right, I want information on the legion base here. Request supplies and send our raw data to Roma.”
“Transmitting the information already via the FTL relay,” Travestki said from his tactical station.
“Good. Taelyon, plot me a course to the base in-system and to the jump point that will get us to Roma.”
“Aye, aye, Captain.”
“We have an incoming transmission from the base.”
“Damn, that was fast. Open the channel.”
“This is AI Liam for spacecraft in the Tricticus system. I am reading you as stealth craft 2498 Shadow under command of Captain Chen,” the AI’s mechanic voice stated, using its processors—busy doing more than talking.
“That is correct. This is Captain Chen speaking.”
“Verified and no undue stress levels. Hello, Captain Chen. I also have record you have sent a message via FTL as soon as you connected to the network.”
“That is correct. We require resupply before we continue to Roma.”
“Understood. Currently, Maraukian forces are attacking the three major human installations, including the legion camp. It will take a few days to a few weeks to suitably damage their forces enough for you to have a safe landing.”
“So sit and wait?”
“Yes, but if your records are correct, you have plenty of supplies to survive the period of time it will take.”
“Our records are up to date.”
“Good. Then if you require any assistance, please contact me.”
“Will do. Chen out.”
The channel went dead as Travestki whistled. An image appeared in the main holoprojector.
“Damn unlucky bastards.” Around the web of armorite walls, a mass of hundreds of thousands of Maraukians pushed against the defenders’ streams of rail gun rounds and artillery strikes.
“All right, check everything’s in order and get some rest. Looks like we’ll be waiting awhile.”
Tiredly, they dealt with their tasks, settling in for the little bit of rest they could. Chen looked at the silvery-white streams that disintegrated what they hit, hoping things were a lot easier down there than they looked like in space.
“Route plotted to Tricticus and initiating auto-pilot.”
“All right. Taelyon, get some sleep; tell the others to do so as well. Me and Travestki will pull first watch.”
The Tenth Awakens (Maraukian War Book 1) Page 10