Prophet and the Blood March (Prophet of ConFree)

by Marshall S. Thomas

  "How many D's will we be facing this time?" Doggie asked.

  "The Brights have counted more than fifty thousand so far. Our own probes and eyemotes are still counting."

  "Fifty thousand. Oh, we can handle that," Scout said wearily.

  "You all remember the D's primary offensive weapon – the plasma battle rifle that fires a plasma stream that can melt your armor and a high density energy pulse blast that we call a plasmastar. We discovered that as long as you are cloaked, the weapons cannot focus on you properly to set off the plasmastar. That has not changed. So stay cloaked. What has changed is that the techies, bless 'em, have come up with an excellent method of disabling the plasma stream." Prof smiled.

  "When you approach the D's, set your E to ECP which stands for eyemote counter-plasma. Or just ask your tacmod to do it. Fire one round into the air. The soundless round will contain a thousand eyemotes and each one will zero in on any available Demon battle rifle in range, penetrate it, and disable the plasma firing mechanism by blocking the circuit. And none of your D's will be able to use the plasma function. And they won't know why that is. They will still be able to fire xmax, laser, and so on, so stay alert."

  "That's amazing!" Arie said. "Can they adapt that technology to counter all our enemies so they can't shoot at us at all?"

  "I can assure you they are working on that," Prof said, with a satisfied smile. "But it may take awhile.

  "All right, next gang of enemies is the Gulf Stellar Commune. All three slave states have united and you saw the weapons systems when you watched those Pegal Stelcom troopers stomping through town to show them off. The Brights have acquired some samples of these battle rifles and passed them to us." A schematic of the new battle rifle appeared on the wall screen. "Our techies examined them. The Commune calls them the Sabertooth. The Sabertooth is a rugged, dependable, well-made battlefield superiority weapon. Like the E, it has no moving parts except for the xtex generator and the rounds themselves. It fires armor-piercing X, laser and vac. The caseless xtex rounds are generated in the buttstock. It also fires grenades of various types. It is fully integrated to the A-suit's tacmod for one-round hits."

  "So it's similar to the E?" Doggie asked.

  "Not quite as good as the E, but close. The Sabertooth is an improvement on the SG. They also have clones of the old Systie manlink so watch out for tacstar nukes. So – these are human enemies. You know what to expect, and how to counter them. Now, that new battle armor." The image flashed to a labeled view of the new Commune battle armor. "It looks good, and it is clearly superior to what they had before, the old Systie Atlas model. But they do not have cloaking. And they do not have shielding. Both would have been too challenging for the new mass army that the Commune has rapidly pulled together. But the new armor is a good touch. It's not quite up to Legion standards but it's good."

  "How about the troopers?" Scout asked. "The human material?"

  "Ah, good question. I'm afraid we do not have any answers to that. This army is untested. I believe there are a whole lot of brand new draftees. And the old-timers – they will be the squad leaders – may be old peoples' militia types, watchstanders, practiced in pushing unarmed widows and orphans around."

  "Well, that's good news," I added. I knew war was the ultimate ugly business. If anyone opposed us, we would kill them quickly. But if there were prisoners – that was different. The politicals would get a bullet in the head, sure, but the foot soldiers – we wouldn't have anything against them, even if they had been shooting at us not long before their capture. Soldiers! I was instinctively understanding of them. It didn't much matter what side they were on – I understood.

  "Before we get into discussing the Darks, I'll tell you about the MS – that's shorthand for malevolent spirits, and those creatures will be deployed on the battlefield by Satan and the Darks. The B's know all about this Satanic tactic. The primary purpose of these spirits is to catch you off guard and keep you busy while Demons, Darks or Commune forces are attacking. The spirits that will likely be deployed against us will be from our own Dimension Two." The screen displayed hazy images of a horrific assortment of freakish spirits that had been imaged during our encounter with them on the asteroid Pacifica. "Your tacmods and tacmaps will keep track of and display any activity coming from D2. Remember, these ugly creatures normally cannot hurt you – but they can possess you, if they detect a weakness. All I can say about that is be alert, be resolute, be courageous, think about everyone you love, think about God or Deadman, and think about the women and children of ConFree. If the MS do succeed in possessing you, we're all in trouble. If one of us falls victim to these spirits, we'll know about it when somebody starts firing on their comrades. I pray that doesn't happen. We'll discuss appropriate responses later.

  "Now as we learned on the Pacifica mission, these spirits also have a limited ability to affect material objects. On Pacifica, they were left with the capability to set off plasma charges. That's worth worrying about. If spirits appear in our vicinity, your tacmap will detect them and alert you. Counter them with autovac once you can track them. That will disperse them and force them to reform. Tacstars also do a good job of disrupting them, but that's kind of like using a hammer against a mosquito. Just remember, don't fear them, just counter them."

  "I'm going to be handing out crosses," Bees said. "I'd suggest everyone wear one around your neck, even if you don’t believe. The spirits hate them, and will likely avoid them." Crosses? Sure, I'd wear a cross. I'd take all the help I could get.

  "The Brights told us a great deal about the Darks," the Prof continued. "The Darks are a very special and very focused bunch. Their road has taken them to an entirely different place from the Brights. Satan is their God. They worship him without reservation and their mission is to secure a new universe for him and for them – free of the Brights. In this new universe they will reign supreme and the inhabitants of this place – that's us – will serve them." The wall screen now showed a detailed schematic of a Dark, clad in their strange dark grey armor, dark green faceplate, carrying a bizarre battle rifle that appeared to be a clone of the Bright's Battlestorm lightning rod, and wearing a dark flowing cape, which looked like camfax. The Dark was evidently tall and strong, but we could not see his face behind the faceplate.

  "The Brights advised us to avoid the Darks, but that may be difficult, considering where we are going. The Brights said they would engage the Darks, and said that we should retreat if we come under Dark fire. But we're not going to do that, are we? Here's the bad news: The Darks are armed with the lightning of the gods, same as the Brights. Their primary battle weapon is pretty much identical to the Bright's weapon. If you get hit head-on with one of those electrical bolts you will be torn to shreds, armor and all, and will die of blast, shock, burn trauma and electrocution – all at once. The good news is that your new Bright shielding may protect you if the bolt does not hit you dead-on. More bad news is that your cloaking will not work with the Darks. Those guys will see you if you come within range – about fifty mikes. The Brights themselves do not use cloaking. Neither do the Darks.

  "All right, the armor: The Dark's armor is pretty much invulnerable to us. First is the shielding, which is quite effective; second is the armor itself, which is also much more effective than ours. The Brights can take on these guys but they stress that we should not attempt it. And if all that is not enough, both Brights and Darks can teleport in extreme cases. That is a function of Dimension X. It takes a lot out of the individual who does it, but it can be used in a last-chance emergency to escape your enemies. You remember both Brights and Demons have that capability as well.

  "The B's have tested our weapons systems. They advise the following, if we find ourselves trapped in a confrontation with the Darks: Use auto chainlink tacstars, auto manlink tacstars, auto xmax, fighting laser and canister darts, in that approximate order. The hyperdarts may bring down the shielding or may not – in an ideal situation in the lab it will. But combat is not an i
deal situation. Tacstars will be most effective and may actually work if you get lucky. The Brights admired the chainlink, and recommend it over the others." Chainlinks! A chainlink was normally mounted in a Legion phantom. It should certainly give the Darks something to think about. "Smiley is chainlink qualified," the Prof continued, "and will be equipped with a chainlink for this campaign. Auto xmax, laser and darts may also distract the Darks. A stunstar may also distract them, but should not affect them. All right, here's what these guys look like."

  The screen flashed to display a Dark male, no armor, clad in soft grey clothing. He was tall and slender, short black hair, clean shaven, clean classic facial features, dark brown eyes, and light brown flesh. He looked almost like an Outworlder and almost like a Bright, except his skin did not have that unearthly glow that the Brights had, and his hair was dark and not golden or silver. So – this was a Dark, an angel that fell from grace. This was to be our most powerful enemy. Alone, we had no chance against them. With the Brights by our side, we might survive – or even prevail.

  "According to the Brights, the Darks are extremely spiritual – except their values are the opposite of the B's, and ours. Satan views his realm as holy, and to him and his followers, all outsiders are lesser beings, almost like animals, not worthy of concern. All wisdom comes from him, and anyone with a different view of reality is a deadly enemy who must be overcome – killed or conquered, or shown the error of his ways by force."

  "That sounds like most human governments," I added.

  "Yes, Prophet, you are correct," Prof said. "Most human governments are Satanic in their approach to the populations they rule. ConFree is the happy exception. All right, boys and girls, take five and reflect on your good fortune."

  Δ

  Bird stood before the wall screen, which displayed a giant shot of a lovely white saucer-shaped starcraft. "Look at that!" he said. "It's magnificent! Have you ever seen anything more beautiful than that?" He was staring at the craft, transfixed. It was almost as if he was adoring it, worshipping it. "This is the most wondrous starcraft that has ever been created. Oh my God, just look at it!" The pix revolved slowly so we could see it from all angles. It wasn't a pure saucer shape, but it sure was a knock-out. I had never seen such a lovely ship. As the ship continued rotating, an insignia came into view – a black Legion cross. A Legion cross! We leaped to our feet, cheering. Blackie ran around, barking wildly.

  "This is it, gang," Bird said, with a giant grin. "This is the result of all that research we did into that Demon saucer on Pandaravos. Plus plenty more recent input from the Brights. Thousands of these babies are going to be filling the skies over Vulcan. This is Andraste, and her mission is to kill anything that moves. She's real good at what she does. The Phantom is now obsolete. Stand by for the future!" Bird had a right to be proud. He was the Legion lead scientist of the joint Assidic-ConFree effort that had exploited the captured Demon saucer and created this new, wonderful weapon.

  Bird gave us a great briefing on the Andraste and on all the other spacecraft that were to be involved in the Vulcan attack. The Demons were still using the saucers with which we were all familiar. They were damned good, better than the Phantoms, but not quite as good as the Andraste. The Darks would be using a very advanced strike fighter that looked a little like a giant silver bird. We had not yet encountered that ship. The Stellar Commune had some new saucer-like craft that were evidently based on the Demon design, but their numbers were very limited so we were not too worried about them. Some of our allies would be joining us in the attack. Bird wouldn't reveal much about that except that we would see some familiar friendlies overhead. Everybody was being pretty close-mouthed about details.

  Δ

  Ice was shivering, seated in the airchair by the little dox table in the Prof's office. She was clearly in shock, her face twitching, ice pale, cold sweat, trembling all over and crying like a baby. She was wearing a filmy sweat-soaked sleeveless top and panties, no socks. The Prof sat nearby, clad in pajamas, leaning over the table to comfort her. There were only the two of them in the room.

  "I can't stand it!" she gasped, raising her trembling hands to cover her face. "Oh God oh God have mercy. No! No! No! I can't…I can't…"

  "Easy, Ice. Please calm down. It may not happen. It may not. The vision is just the first step. It's not bad that you saw it, it's good. Maybe we can take steps to counter it. So it doesn’t happen."

  "No! No! No!" she wailed, tears dripping from her chin. "It's terrible! Oh God you didn’t see it! Oh no oh no I can’t believe it!"

  "Have some dox, please."

  "No! No! No! Dox won't fix this! Nothing will fix this! I can't stand it!"

  "Please, Ice. Calm down."

  "I don't want anybody else to know about this! Nobody else! Promise me! You promise me, Professor!"

  "I promise, Ice."

  "On Delta! Swear it to God, Professor. On all that is holy! Swear it to Deadman! Not a word, to anybody!"

  "I swear it, on Delta."

  "We don't go to the brainscan!"

  "No. We won't."

  Ice clutched her hands together, interlocking fingers. It was almost as if she were praying.

  "Ice. Please calm down now. It's important that you tell me everything. Everything you saw. First, does Kwan know?"

  "No! All he knows is I woke up and went hysterical. And demanded to see you. He's outside waiting. Don’t tell him! "

  "I'll tell no one."

  "Not even the Legion. Nobody! You confiscate the record from the DX monitor!"

  "You have my promise. Now, I'm sorry, but I need details. Exactly what did you see?"

  "It started very quickly. I had just arrived. It was in the darkness. But there was a lot of ordnance going off, lasers snapping on and off, tacstar bursts falling into the dark, lightning flashing, lighting it all up from time to time. I was in armor."

  "What did you see first?"

  Ice raised her trembling hands again, covering her face. "Oh God have mercy. I saw Prophet. I had been looking for him. He was sprawled in the mud on his back, limbs all twisted, motionless, his weapon nowhere in sight. His armor was glowing white-hot and dotted with scores of evil ragged smoking holes. Oh God I can see every…awful…detail. He was no longer cloaked. His chestplate was ripped open at the waist and blood was spurting forth from his guts. Two laser tracks ran diagonally across his chestplate, still flickering. His faceplate was smashed. I went to my knees beside him, stunned. Then Bees showed up.

  "Bees snapped Prophet's visor up, it jammed, and she yanked it off. I could see clearly into his helmet. His face was all bloody, ripped open, cheekbones exposed. It looked like he had been shot in the face. His skull was shattered – blood and brain matter was still leaking out. Oh God, oh God. Open dead bloody eyes. Dead, I could see. Dead dead dead. Oh my God. Bees shrieked and raised her arms and…she cursed God. I think that's what she did. But then I heard Smiley on the tacnet. 'Nitro is hit bad,' he said.

  "'Nitro!' I shouted and leaped to my feet and charged over to the site, telepathing the Brights for an emergency medevac. I arrived and Smiley was cradling Nitro in his arms. Nitro's armor was blasted all to hell, it looked like a tacstar hit. Then you called me on the tacnet and asked me to telepath Breakblade and call a priority medevac.

  "I told you I had done it and that Nitro was dying. Smiley injected him with a shot of cyro and we did what we could to stop the bleeding. The cyro was not effective. Nitro was just barely alive. We ripped off his chestplate. Then we slapped on a biotic charger.

  "Smiley did a biotic charge. Again! Again! Again! Life signs were flat. Smiley kept triggering the charger until smoke started rising from Nitro's chest.

  "'Oh no. No! Keep it up! Keep it up!' I pleaded for him to continue, but it was hopeless. 'It’s no good, Ice,' Smiley told me. 'He's gone.'

  "Then I told you on the net that we had lost Nitro, and I kind of broke down completely. Nitro was dead, and I cried like a baby.

  And now Ice bu
rst into tears again, in the Prof's office. "We can't tell them," she moaned. "We can't tell them."

  "No, we can't tell them," the Prof replied. "And we won't."

  Δ

  After Ice left, the Prof thought about her DX vision. Prophet and Nitro were to be killed in action. What should he do about that? What could he do about that? Others might die as well. That's a risk you take, as a soldier of the Legion. Should he transfer them out of the squad? To protect them? No. You can’t avoid your fate, can you? No. All he could do was ensure that they had all they needed to survive. Yes, it was one squad, indivisible, and they were all going to Vulcan. Some would survive, and some would die. He would watch over them all, sure, but they were big kids now. He would be sad to lose them both. Prophet and Nitro were both good boys. But everybody had to do their part, for the women and children of ConFree, for the next generation, and if it involved dying for the cause, so be it. The Prof would be at their sides, no matter what. And maybe he would die, too. It was a shame. But maybe it would not happen. Delta was still learning about DX prophesies. The future was certainly tricky. It was not unchangeable, far from it. After all, that was why Delta Research was in business, wasn't it?

  Δ

  "Thank you, gentlemen. Thank you," Tara said. "We shall continue tomorrow. When we have all had time to reflect further. We are going to get this right. And we are all going to be in agreement. We owe that to the women and children of ConFree, and all their descendants. Good night, good night. Get some sleep." The band of black-clad generals and admirals slowly shuffled out of the office of the Director General of ConFree. Dragon raised a hand in farewell. Dragon at least understood, Tara reflected. It had been a contentious session. Everyone was on edge. Nobody wanted to go to war, but they knew it was inevitable. And they had to get it right. The future of all humanity would depend on it. Not just ConFree, but all humanity.