The Tenth Awakens (Maraukian War Book 1)

by Michael Chatfield

  Then came battle again. They started at first with increments of their full power, then added in merging. Then finally came the testing with the Pluto-powered armor. The Elves took to the Pluto-powered armor like ducks to water. There was still some annoyance at the Pluto-powered armor not being real but they quickly moved past it as they started to discover what they could do by themselves, with interesting results.

  “There’s even more than I thought the suit was capable of,” Mark said over the leader net as he watched Ava create a whirlwind of mono-blades attached to mono-wire twirling around her suit so fast they blurred as she hit Maraukians, slicing through them. She threw them at random times, cutting through Maraukians farther away, and returned it to her hand with an expert flick of her wrist before re-adding it to the whirlwind again. It was a deadly display, turning the area around her into a bloodbath.

  Matteuis and Horlem, both fanatical soccer players, floated boulders, pushing them with anti-grav at each other and kicking them; boulder fragments ricocheted through Maraukians like a shotgun blast, with boulders as big as a man’s head breaking off.

  Evan used his anti-grav to make a repelling field in front of himself as he ran, football style, at Maraukians; he used his blade as a scythe while the Maraukians were off balance, tearing them to shreds.

  Mark had a few ideas of his own but he kept them to himself as people developed new and fantastical ways to kill Maraukians. Jorel threw rocks into the air, perfectly timed with Dodger using them as steps to spray anti-matter grenades, which shot out over three kilometers with the blast waves still able to hit him as he continued his running on top of the rocks.

  Davis and Mikael seemed to have an interesting idea, Mark thought as Sarah showed him their plan.

  Mark couldn’t help but grin as he heard the usually serious Davis let out a whoop, exclaiming how slow Evan was getting in front of Davis’s run, until Evan caught up and they fought back-to-back, close enough to the Maraukians and killing less as to not create space for them to employ their plasma and coilguns. They knew how to control the battle, to get the right space: too much and the Maraukian heavy weapons could be brought to bear, too little and their vibro-blades would still slice into them.

  “Now that looks interesting.”

  “Humans—you’re damned insane.”

  Mark just grinned maniacally as Sarah gave her equivalent of an eye roll.

  Chapter 32

  Camp Epsilon

  Tricticus, Emarl system

  9/3352

  All of the training, the hardships—it had cut the chaff from the wheat. Now Mark commanded the final forty-four Elves. Each of them knew their suits as if it were their own skin.

  All of that work came to this one exercise. This was not just the recruits’ last test. It was the first test of the entire auxiliary cohort.

  They moved away from their camp. It was time for the final test Pullo had set up.

  The base’s only two drop-ships took to the air, turning away from Mark’s position. Now was the time for their final battle. This time, instead of AI-generated Maraukians, they were up against four and a half thousand legionnaires, Crisidium and Gtrul soldiers who’d been training for two weeks in preparation for this battle.

  It was only through his highly upgraded and modified sensor suite, combined with the link that all of the Elves felt, that Mark was able to know where the forty-four others were. Their suits mimicked the area around them and bounced off sensor readings while using anti-grav to cushion their steps perfectly. He opened up his audio feed, having a hard time hearing them against the alien noises of the dense jungle they sprinted through at a hundred and twenty kilometers an hour.

  “Going,” Ava commed as her and Chyna’s group peeled off for their objective.

  “Same,” Dodger said as Mark felt Dodger and Jarek’s group merge, taking off for their objective.

  “In position,” Mark said as his suit’s camouflage merged with the ground around him. Everyone else with him did the same, spreading out. Mark crept to the top of the small ridge he was on. A stream of nanites funneled out of his finger; they crested the rise as Sarah picked out herd commanders and sent the image back to the rest, who bounced it to one another and to Ava’s and Dodger’s group.

  The Maraukians had cleared a fifteen-kilometer-wide circle. Heat waves emanated from the ground, the firer’s weapons still white-hot as they prowled the area. Mark smiled as Sarah put up a counter with twenty seconds rolling down.

  “In position, readying,” Ava commed.

  “Good to go,” Dodger said.

  Both sent information bursts of highly compressed information. Sarah fired it off to everyone else as she put the relevant information on Mark’s HUD.

  “Ready.” He braced himself as Evan, the second heaviest of them all at around seven-and-a-half hundred pounds, climbed up Mark, looking at the ground in a squat position with his boots on Mark’s chest.

  “Fire on command.”

  Mark watched as the drop-ships crested the hill and shot black objects from their carrying compartment. Every herd commander’s weapon turned to the drop-ships, their herd turning with them as they opened fire.

  Mark felt the world go slow as he merged. Battle enhancers and the cold ruthlessness of merging settled over him. “Fire!”

  In a millisecond, both suits created opposite gravity fields; the suit crouched on the other’s chest straightened, their legs in perfect synchronicity. The grav clamps released and turned twenty-seven suits into human cannonballs with mono-blades at their sides.

  The Maraukian force turned toward the strange readings too late. The Elves opened their sealed compartments, revealing autocannons firing their ten thousand rounds per second, auto-mortars firing every half-second, and bomblets compartments firing in a fire plan created by every NIAI and merger to cover the most area. The suit user’s mono-blades came from the air, ripping apart anything below them as they sped to the other side of the clearing. As the Maraukians force was still reeling from the sudden and unexpected tactic, the world went white as the auto-mortars’ and bomblets’ payloads returned to the ground. Suits turned down or shut off their sensors before they fried. Mark watched the suits closest rise a few degrees in temperature as people landed, rolling and turning as the second group stepped on their chests.

  “Fire when ready,” Mark commed as Diez, a quiet soldier, climbed on Mark, ready to go again as lines of trajectory spat across the battlefield. “Mono-wire.”

  The suits became human cannonballs again. This time, mono-wires fired from their legs and clamped to those to their right, creating a closing circle of mono-wire. They lowered their legs, cutting off the heads and chests of the Maraukians too slow to duck. They detached the lines before they crossed over, rolling to a stop as they used anti-grav to land in the battlefield.

  Jarek and Chyna landed, with them picking out groups still left alive, moving from the center outward. Mark was in control of the merging forces around the battlefield.

  “Up—extended line. Kill anything Maraukian.” Mark felt his M20s cycle under his forearm as he gripped the trigger assembly. The battle was all but done and Mark knew it. But it was good to be cautious and even one live Maraukian was an issue.

  Here and there, an M20 fired but it was rare. Mark studied the information now streaming from the suits across the battlefield. The Elves had attacked so rapidly, combined with the anti-matter mortar rounds; most of the remaining Maraukians had been too stunned, deaf, or blind to put up much of a fight.

  The Elves surveyed the area, their M20s ready, but none of their sensors were reading anything being alive.

  “End simulation.” Pullo’s voice sounded as the world shimmered and dissolved.

  Mark and the other Elves rammed down from merging before ejecting from the nanite simulation bubbles. Everyone was grinning as the net was full of excitement and adrenaline. Finally, they were done training.

  “All right.” Mark opened the general merger net. “
Time for the AAR.” Mark didn’t know when he’d seen troops more excited to do an after action review.

  They walked through the corridors to the hangar where they were going to have the AAR.

  The room hushed instantly. Wide eyes looked at them as they walked to one side of the hologram projector, which was frozen just before the drop-ships passed overhead the enemy force.

  “All right, so to begin, did anyone notice the approach of the legion team?” Pullo pointed to someone who raised their hand.

  “No, sir. They were like damned phantoms—had nothing on sensors or audible,” one centurion from the Maraukian team said.

  “What do you think of the diversion? You.”

  “Sir, I think everyone here thought they were just trying to show off by coming in by drop-ship on top of us, but they are supposed to be an attacking force so I didn’t think they’d cover the distance from the camp to us so quickly without drop-ships. We could see the drop-ships for a few hundred kilometers, so when it didn’t land or eject anything, we assumed they were on the drop-ships, which was our first mistake. Damned impressive getting that far that fast and having the ability to decimate their enemy wholesale.”

  “What was it like in the fighting? Mark?”

  “It was easy.” This garnered some ugly stares from the other centuries. “We had a basic plan already—we already knew where they were and with the heat signatures of their weapons, we could sort out which ones where herd commanders. Once we got that information, we formed around them and waited for them to be focused on the drop-ships. Then we sprung the attack once they were focused on it. Using the chaos to fire our full auto-mortar, anti-matter bomblets and auto-cannon supply, our NIAIs were synced to get everyone out of the main blast area and create the most of our weaponries’ blast radius. The mono-wire killed any major groups left. Then all we had to do was mop up.”

  “What was that like on the Maraukian side?”

  “It was a damned bloodbath, sir. It felt like death reigned there and they were the harbingers, the lords of death. It moved too fast for me to keep up. As the first drop-ship blew, they were already slicing us apart. Then, seconds after, we were blown apart by anti-matter grenades. After that, there was no way we could survive. It’s the quickest battle I’ve ever been in.” The man shook his head as he still couldn’t believe it.

  “Yes, it’s the newest record—for the sim tanks, anyway. It was one merger to eighty-two legionnaires; including the Maraukians, it was one to near one thousand six hundred and forty.”

  “Damn. And it was over in less than a minute and a half.” Silence reigned over the hangar as everyone turned to look at the forty-nine individuals fighting to hold back grins and failing, badly.

  “Well, it seems your unit now needs a new name. So, as is tradition, what do you think?” Pullo asked the enemy force. After a few seconds, ideas were spat forward at a rapid rate.

  “Lords of Death?”

  “Phantoms?”

  “Reaper Lords?”

  “Phantom Lords?”

  “Black Death?”

  “Wait, what was that last one?” Mark asked.

  “Black Death?”

  “No, the one before that.”

  “Phantom Lords?” an eager evocatus yelled out again.

  “What do you think?” Mark turned to the others, who dissolved into the net equivalent of a shouting match as answers came back.

  “Mark?” Pullo asked.

  Agreement and pride came through the merger net as they stood a little taller. “We accept Phantom Lords, Legatus.”

  “Then I now announce a birth of a new century, the 182nd century, nickname the Phantom Lords.” One of his assistants came forward with a blank standard, which Pullo gave to Mark. The blank standard changed: a grinning skull seemingly looking down upon those who looked at it, backed by a crossed mono-blade and a M20; the background was the black-purple of carbon hendral armor. The words Phantom Lords were in nanite silver, above 182nd century of the 9th legion in Roman numerals.

  Elves and legionnaires alike whooped and cheered as Mark held it up. Pullo’s ice-man appearance cracked with a half grin, nodding to Mark before he left. He knew he was going to be busy with senators asking awkward questions soon enough.

  ***

  “Did you see!!?” Jess rushed into the room Charles and the rest of the designer team had been stuffed in.

  “What?” Charles sighed after finishing a shift on the new Moby.

  “Mark has a unit.”

  “WHAT?” Charles jumped from his chair, all signs of fatigue fleeing.

  “He’s got forty-nine completely trained, merging capable legionnaires, including himself.”

  “Are they any good?”

  “They just set the new record in the sim tanks for legionnaires against legionnaires, newly formed century record, new understrength century record, the record, highest ratio of kills with zero deaths, highest ratio of kills per Legionnaire and demolished the standing record of every century that has undergone this test! Every single damned record!”

  “How many is he able to suit?”

  “Thirty-two of his candidates.” Maxine pulled up the materials roster linked in with Camp Epsilon on Tricticus. “Plus Ava, Dodger, Jarek, and Chyna.”

  “Shit, we’ve got to do something about that.” Charles paced.

  The development team nodded in agreement. It looked like the Moby was going to have to be put on hold for a little while.

  Chapter 33

  Senate House

  Roma, Hellenic system

  9/3352

  “Senators, as you’ve heard from Captain Chen and his people, as you’ve seen the raw data shown today, it is time we let Earth and Her Colonies know they aren’t the only humans in the universe and there is a war going on.” Damus stood to address the senate.

  “Damus, we value your opinion, but we’ve been without communication with Earth for some seven hundred years. When they wanted to turn us into slaves but ran away when they learned of the Maraukians. What will their reaction be when we say, ‘Hello, we’re the recreated Roman Empire. Also, we’ve been keeping humanity safe for the past while but now we’re not sure if you’re safe anymore, so we’d like to let you know just in case. Plus, your weapons are nearly useless—your technology is generations behind ours and you’ll need to change your entire industrial infrastructure to be able to have a chance of arming your people?”

  “Yes, or do you wish the first time they find out they’re not the only people in the universe is when a Maraukian battle transport appears from nowhere, launching its initial assault barges’ wave through their atmosphere?” Damus said, rapidly losing his composure.

  “No one wants that, but now is not the time. We need to ease them into this transition, not dump it on them,” the leading senator said in a tone that said he and the senators were done with the issue.

  “The longer we wait and don’t give them the full picture, the longer it will take for them to be ready to fight beside us.”

  “Damus, we’ve waited nearly eight hundred years. We can take our time now; they won’t launch them that fast.”

  The senator’s sympathetic look made Damus want to grab him by the head and shake him until he realized that now the Maraukians could launch at any time; they couldn’t wait any longer. The Maraukians had the advantage the legion had maintained for some nine hundred years. Damus could see he needed to bide his time, as much as it felt sour in his mouth as he looked around at the nods from the senators.

  “Very well, Senator.”

  “Now, on to the progress of… Senator Rimateus?” Senator Welrin asked as Rimateus raised his hand.

  “I have found out just now from my NIAI that a new unit has been created, the 182nd Centuria, all of which contains unknown merging capable personnel, some not even legionnaires.”

  “Is there a question in there somewhere?” Damus asked sourly. Rimateus was a man who was in the politicking business for power, pure and sim
ple. So were most of the men in the room but Rimateus had been accused with everything from blackmailing to murder and yet nothing seemed to stick.

  “Did you know of the formation of this group and who authorized to give these people the ability and the technology?”

  “I did not, though I am reading into the contubernium and I would say Mark Victor was the person to give them the ability and the technology. He did the same for us. He was not under binding contract to not.”

  “What would give a mere optio the right to hand out our most advanced technology and create a unit able to use an ability we are only now studying?”

  “He was the first human to ever be able to merge and perfected it when he underwent a body modification. He also created the suit with the help of Charles Welckt and his team.” The fuck did you think we got this from, underneath a rock with instructions? Damus thought.

  “Yes, I know of him. He played but a minor role in the creation of the suit,” the senator said rapidly, trying to cover over his lack of information.

  “He was awarded sixty-five percent of the contracted plans. He created the operating system and the basic guidelines for the suit.”

  “So these suits are operational?” Senator Perez asked, smoothing over the other senator’s idiocy.

  “Without a doubt and probably upgraded, from what I’m seeing in their simulation data.”

  “Exactly. I believe it is unsafe and reckless to have forty-nine merging capable people with Pluto-powered armor suits simply be left to do as they please. I wish to ask the senate for these suits and these other people be brought to Roma and have them under our purview so we can make sure they’re trained properly. We cannot let these weapons and skills fall into the wrong hands. I so put it to a vote.” Rimateus hammered his hand on the desk in front of him.

  Votes came in. Damus cringed at the result, as the majority voted for having Mark and his group brought to Roma.

  “Senators, with all due respect, we don’t know how to train these people. We can’t understand their abilities as well as they can themselves.”