Prophet and the Blood March (Prophet of ConFree)

by Marshall S. Thomas

  "Good lord. How old were those girls?"

  "We're here. Bird, open up." An assault door snapped open from a tangle of shrubbery and the Ruthie's fuselage became partially visible. We jumped in and scrambled along the aisle to the cockpit.

  "Welcome, guys. Where we going?" Bird asked.

  "We're going to pick up that Bright," Saka said. "How did you get in here?" The ship was slowly rising but was completely surrounded by huge tree trunks and a wild tangle of creeper vines.

  "With great difficulty," Bird replied. Then the Ruthie shot skywards, ripping a hole in the leafy canopy. It was a crisp morning, still overcast by grey clouds. The forest reached to both horizons, a magnificent panorama, untouched by human progress. I wished Bliss the best, and I hoped we humans could get the hell off it and leave it alone. We wheeled in the sky and headed for the Bright.

  "She's not far," Bird said. "I've got a couple of eyemotes on her, check it out." One eyemote view appeared on my faceplate. It showed an almost black screen, slightly lit by darksight. A faint form could be seen; it looked like a girl lying in a fetal position surrounded by dark rocks.

  "Where is this?" Saka asked.

  "She's found a little cave and gone to ground there," Bird replied. "It's good cover. That's probably why the pirates didn't find her. Or the Greenies. But our eyemotes never left her. See the tacmap, we're almost there." We were gliding over the forested foothills of a vast mountain range. Bird brought the Ruthie down right into the forest, dropping skillfully into the canopy, branches snapping off, leaves flying all around us.

  "All right, dropoff," Bird said. "Good luck and keep in touch. I'll be right here, unless something happens and I have to move. You need fire support, just ask."

  The assault doors snapped open and Saka and I leaped out, A & A and fully cloaked, one to each side of the aircraft per the regs. It was a little gloomy with plenty of shade from the canopy and little slices of weak sunlight dappling the forest floor like a night club light show. Honey snapped my route onto the faceplate. The target was not far off, and in only a few marks we were there – a narrow opening between two massive rock faces, pulsing red with Honey's light scheme.

  "Can we get in there in armor?" Saka asked.

  "Affirmative," Honey answered.

  "I'll go," I said.

  "No, I'll go."

  "No, I'll go. Bees has a message she wants me to deliver to this target. Come on, Saka."

  "Stand aside."

  "Please?"

  "There's no such word. You heard the Prof."

  "I'll trade you four drunken ducks for the mission." A drunken duck was roast lemon duck, a highly desirable field ration trade item.

  "You don't have four drunken ducks."

  "I'll tell Lan Hwa about the little girlies you used to seduce in midschool."

  "Ahh… you wouldn't, would you? Yes, you would. Well, if you put it that way, I mean, if you really want to, sure, go ahead."

  "Thank you, sir."

  It was hard to squeeze through the narrow opening but the space opened up once I got through. My darksight gave me the edge. It was a fairly narrow cave with cold sweating rock walls coated with ugly black mold. The deck was treacherous and uneven and covered with an ankle-deep pool of unidentifiable filth. A little flock of reptilian birds shot past, screeching, startling me.

  "I'm decloaking, Saka," I said. I doubted Good Soul would agree to accompany anyone who was invisible.

  "Do it, Prophet. They won’t detect you in there." I decloaked and snapped up my visor so she could see my face.

  She was prone, lying in the filth, but she was moving – trying to scoop up some water with trembling hands from a little pool in the filth. She seemed to be wearing some kind of light colored uniform but it was torn and dirty. Her hair was dark and stringy. Her pale flesh was just barely glowing. Near death, I thought. Suddenly she stiffened. She sees me, I thought.

  Good Soul, Good Soul, I telepathed. I am sent by the Black Angel, Black Angel. She is your angel. I am here to help. The Black Angel sends greetings. She promised, promised. We are here.

  I moved closer to her and held out a canteen. Drink, drink, drink, and rejoice. She struck like a snake, pouncing on me, slashing at me with something sharp that ripped into my face. I pushed her arm away and fell on her in defense and she collapsed as if dead. Death death death, she thought. I could hear it clearly. Death for all my efforts. I try, I try. Die unthinking dead! I curse your race, I curse your ancestors, I curse your descendants. I pray for your death! Heaven, open the gates for me. I approach!

  I gently pulled the little knife from her grasp. I lifted her off the ground and brought her back to the entrance. She seemed to have fainted. I handed her out the narrow opening into Saka's arms.

  "Put your cloaking back on, Prophet. Oh Deadman! What happened? You're bleeding bad!" I put my armored fingers up to my face, and they came away soaked in blood.

  "She stabbed me in the face," I said. "Lucky she missed my eyes."

  "I told you I should have gone! Your girl-handling skills are really terrible!"

  We were back in the Ruthie in a few marks, hightailing it out of there. Saka worked on patching up my face as I looked over our latest acquisition. She was a petite little doll, but covered with bruises, cuts, scratches and sores. Her hair was sticky, encrusted with filth. Her Bright uniform was caked with an evil film. Reptile bird crap, I decided. She came to slowly, eyes blinking, and drank greedily from the canteen I offered her. This time she did not try to kill me. She was staring at the Bright insignia on our armor.

  Good Soul Good Soul, you are safe, I telepathed. Safe. We are not not the unthinking dead. They are our enemies. We are friends. I am sent by the Black Angel, who is your guardian. The Black Angel sends peace and love. Peace and love. The Black Angel is your comrade. I found it easy, sending these thoughts to Good Soul. But was she receiving them?

  You are hurt, she thought. I hurt you. My sorrow. Good Soul is a fool. You come to help, and I hurt you. Good Soul hurts those who love her. Good Soul will die now.

  You will not die! I thought. Black Angel forbids it! Black Angel has sought you for so long. Now she has found you. Black Angel and Good Soul, peace and love.

  Bird delivered us near our original pick-up point in the forest. It was only a short walk to the swamp and the camp. The Prof didn't want the Mocains getting any kind of grip on the Ruthie, so it remained cloaked and landing in the camp was out of the question.

  "Prof, Saka. We're back. Should we approach cloaked or uncloaked?"

  "Uncloaked, please. I'll pass the word. Do you have our package?"

  "That's a ten."

  "Good. Come on in."

  I carried Good Soul in my arms. She was looking up into my eyes the whole time. She was just like a little girl. When we approached the swamp we looked over the camp on the other side. Both Legion and Mocain troopers stood around uncloaked, watching us approach. Good.

  "Go on, Prophet. I'll wait a bit." We were all so conscious of the importance of proper troop dispersion that we did it automatically. I entered the swamp and started splashing across with Good Soul in my arms.

  Two Bright delta fighters shot overhead in the blink of an eye, trailing sonic booms that flattened the reeds and splattered mud everywhere. I broke into a frantic run, headed for the camp. I noted in a flash that all the soldiers had disappeared, going to cloaking. I would have done that too except my arms were full and there was no time.

  "Starburst!" somebody ordered. It sounded like Doggie. I reached the other side of the swamp and collapsed into the muck by the edge of the swamp, holding Good Soul's head up. I activated cloaking. There! We were both invisible now, and merging with the swamp.

  But Saka was still in the swamp, splashing through the mud and reeds as fast as he could manage. He was in his A-suit, fully adrenalized, his heart pounding raggedly, faster, faster. They were almost on him! Another Bright starcraft blasted past overhead instantaneously and Saka dove for the mud.
The swamp burst into flame, a titanic thunderclap and a gigantic plume of plasma ripped past Saka, settling over the swamp, a flaming tsunami. The swamp exploded, geysers of mud and charcoal reeds rising to the ugly sky along with countless glittering phospho tracers, lighting up creation.

  "They got Saka!" somebody said.

  "Move it, Saka – on us!" I called out. Saka leaped to his feet and charged through the flaming swamp.

  "He's coming back! Take cover, Saka!" Cover, cover? There was no cover, there was only the swamp. Saka dove again into the mud and he saw the Bright craft coming back, straight as an arrow, headed right for him, personally, ripping past overhead, gone, then another titanic eruption and the world was a dreamy glowing flaming star, a star, touching down gently into his swamp, gentle deadly plasma, a soft rain, touching his armor with glowing drops to sizzle and pop, slowly slowly eating into his armor, seeking out the tender flesh inside. Saka realized this was his DX dream, and he had been caught completely off guard.

  "Saka!" I shouted. "Get out of the swamp! It's burning!" It was indeed flaming like a giant lake of lava. I scrambled up a slight rise to make my escape, Good Soul in my arms. The world flashed white hot and exploded, a giant thunderous boom, driving me to the dirt with tremendous force. Everything suddenly went black. Dead! I was dead! I saw Honeyhair's lovely face, contorted with grief. She reached out for me, convulsed. But I was gone.

  Δ

  I came back slowly, struggling through a thick red forest of jagged pain and burning flesh. As my sight returned, I was dazzled by the light, sunlight falling directly on my eyes. I was on my back, still in armor, but my helmet was off. People were standing around me. Who were they? Brights. Bright troopers in silvery armor, at their ease, those deadly Battlestorm lightning weapons slung casually over their shoulders. I became vaguely aware that I was lying there with a whole lot of other downed troopers, also on their backs, to my left and right. It didn't look good. Cloaking didn't work with Brights, I remembered from my first encounter with them.

  It was silent. Deadly silent. A Bright to my right was standing over one of his captives. It was Monk. Still alive, looking up at the Bright.

  The Bright moved the barrel of his weapon casually over to Monk's face and fired. The lightning blast blew Monk's head to smithereens and sprayed blood over us all. Yes, I had seen the Brights do this before, too. No mercy for their enemies. On Vezhedak I had seen a Bright soldier execute a wounded Demon the same way, with no more emotion than if he had been swatting a bug.

  The Bright soldier stepped over to me. It looked like I was next. He pointed his weapon right at me. All right, kill me, you bastard. I'll not cry and beg. Do it! I'm a soldier of the Legion and I'm not afraid of you! That's what I was thinking. I closed my eyes, waiting for death. Something landed on my chestplate, hard. I opened my eyes. It was Good Soul, wrapping her arms around me with all her might, crying and screaming – screaming! I had never heard a Bright scream before. The Bright soldier stepped back in surprise. Then another Bright tried to pull Good Soul away, but he couldn't do it. And I heard her – I heard her thoughts!

  Kill him and kill me! Kill love and peace! Kill the Black Angel! He is our savior! He liberated us, all of us, from the thoughtless dead! Kill me! Kill me! Kill me! Why do you hesitate?

  They finally got her off me, although it took four of them to do it. She quickly broke away from their grasp, and attacked the soldier who had been about to shoot me, punching him right on the faceplate.

  At that point things slowed down a bit. A crowd of Bright troopers stood around me, looking over the Bright military symbol that was lasered onto my chestplate. We had earned those colors on Kratar, killing Demons, and we were damned proud of them. Good Soul leaped on me again, wrapping her slim arms around me and holding on tight, shaking and crying. Nobody tried to stop her this time. Kill him and kill me! Kill him and kill me! She kept telepathing it.

  It was then that Gidnurpel showed up. Whatever he said, it stopped the executions. I was stunned when I had a chance to look around me. All the UMC troopers and all my Delta comrades were lined up prone on the grassy field, and their helmets had been removed. Some were still unconscious and some were just awakening from the catastrophe that had befallen us. The Brights had evidently used some kind of wide-area stunstar. It had an immediate effect and put all their enemies out of action without bloodshed. The bloodshed was to come later, after they had examined who they had, and sorted them out. It looked to me like they planned to kill everyone – until Good Soul intervened.

  Δ

  The Brights landed a giant assault craft right in the UMC camp, and the backblast blew away the portmod, which up to that point had survived without damage. We watched it bounce away, like an errant beach ball, spewing equipment. The ship was a stunningly lovely white delta, but marked by the scars of the cosmos – plenty of ugly black burns from fiery drops into alien skies. By then all the Bright's captives were conscious, under orders not to rise from the ground, guarded by Bright soldiers but otherwise unrestrained. The swamp was still burning lightly – the gases were clearly flammable.

  The Brights first selected all Delta troopers – marked by the Bright emblem – and escorted us into the Bright ship. We entered a little conference room and stood around a circular table where four Brights were already seated. Gidnurpel was one of them. Good Soul was still with me, clutching me by one arm, refusing to let go, and shrieking oral abuse at the Bright soldiers. I was happy to see that all Delta was there, with the exception of Bees who was on the Vampire and Bird who was presumably hiding somewhere with our Phantom Ruthie. The Prof was with us, and Doggie, Scout and Ice and Smiley and Saka and Arie. Blackie was missing.

  There was a thought exchange between Gidnurpel and Good Soul. I could hear it.

  Stop that vocalizing! Gidnurpel ordered. You make us look bad. What will the knights think? What will the Martial think?

  I don’t trust them! Good Soul replied. They just want to kill! These are the people who rescued us from the thoughtless dead! We should honor them – not kill them! They said they will die for us, and now I will die for them! Do you hear, Martial? Kill him and kill me! I pledge it!

  Enough, Good Soul, one of the seated Brights said authoritatively. We have no plans to kill them. You say they are thinking beings. Whom should I address? He appeared to be young, a pale glowing face with golden hair and strange silvery eyes. We were pretty sure they were not young, but immortal.

  Our leader is the learned one, Professor, Ice cut in, touching the Prof to identify him, but he does not have the gift of thought speech. I am Ice. I can speak for him. Or my companions, Prophet and Saka, can also speak for him.

  Tell the Learned One we recognize the sign of the white hand, the Bright said, and we honor you. We know of your deeds at Kratar and our people have stood by yours in battle. We seek no vengeance against those who bear the white hand. Now tell us – where are our comrades?

  Ice translated, and the Prof replied in Inter. Ice sent the Prof's reply in thought speech.

  We killed nine thoughtless dead pirates to liberate three female Brights – your innocent comrades. Brights is the word we use for those of your race. Then we killed four more evil pirates and liberated two more Brights, and brought them to meet their comrades. Finally we took all five to our starship to protect them. Later our Mocain friends killed more pirates and liberated the male Bright Gidnurpel. Lastly, two of our soldiers found and liberated Good Soul, who had been running from the thoughtless dead.

  Where is your starship?

  It is in orbit.

  Where are the rest of our comrades?

  We regret to tell you that they were killed by the pirates. The pirates are merciless subhumans and we exterminate them when we catch them.

  What is the other ship that is in orbit?

  It is a Mocain ship – belonging to the United Mocain Coalition, that claims this world. It belongs to our comrades who do not wear the sign of the hand. They came here to ki
ll the pirates. We came here to save Good Soul as we could hear her pleas for rescue. We are from the Confederation of Free Worlds. And our leader has a message for the Bright leaders, from the leader of the Confederation of Free Worlds.

  We wish to see our five comrades. Bring them here.

  Ice relayed that to the Prof and he got on the tacnet. "Vampire, Delta." There was no answer. Only a faint hissing. The Prof consulted with Ice.

  You have blocked our communications to our starship, Ice said. Please restore it.

  A few moments later, at a sign from the Martial, who was evidently the Bright leader, the Prof tried again. "Vampire, Delta, commo check."

  "Delta, Vampire. It's great to hear you! What is the situation?"

  "Vampire, Delta. Your status please."

  "We've lost our cloaking, and a major Bright starship is now in orbit. There are so far no moves to attack us. What do you require?"

  "Do not take any offensive steps against the Brights, Vampire. Send us one of your assault craft with those five Brights on board, accompanied by Bees, come uncloaked and land at the Mocain campsite near the Bright starcraft, acknowledge."

  "Delta, Vampire. We acknowledge."

  "Do it now, Vampire. Does ConFree know what's happening here?"

  "Our commo has been completely shut down, Prof. The answer is no."

  "Thank you, Vampire. We're out. Bird, Prof."

  "Bird here. Prof, my commo has been completely out until right now and I've lost cloaking ability. What's the sit?"

  "Sit tight, Bird. Don’t take any action against the Brights. I’ll let you know when I need you, out. Ice, tell the Bright leader that his people are on the way in an assault craft. And tell him I wish to pass a message from ConFree." Ice did so and the Martial agreed to hear it. Ice read silently from a doc card passed to her by the Prof, and as she read she sent the thoughts to the Brights.

  Greetings to the Bright people and their leadership from the people and leadership of the human Confederation of Free Worlds, Ice read. We pledge peace and friendship and solidarity from one universe to another. We have stood by your side as allies in combat against the Demon hordes and our troops have fought and died in that joint effort. We will always value the relationship we have with our gallant allies. We welcome continuing friendly relations and we invite the Bright people and government to establish an embassy in the Confederation of Free Worlds. We are prepared to establish an embassy in Bright Haven, at your invitation. From Antara Taranatos-Hannah, Director General of the Confederation of Free Worlds.