Iron Legion Battlebox

by David Ryker

  He made up his mind and sucked in a deep breath, clasping his hands in front of him and leaning forward with a groan of his chair. “What happened on the Notia has become a major diplomatic incident. Because of you four, relations with the Trading Collective have been set back centuries. However, the information that your team provided prior to following the Free assets off the station, leads us to believe that they were working with the Free against us. The Trading Collective assures us that this was an isolated incident, and as such, our trade deals with them will continue.” It was a robotic recitation that had been passed down from higher up the chain, no doubt. “However, your involvement there is to be kept strictly under wraps. You are not to discuss what happened there under any circumstances. As for the Free ship and the wormhole generator that you witnessed being used,” he said, turning his mouth down at the corners and leaning back, “is of little consequence.” He waved his hand in the air to show how trivial it was. “We’re aware of the technology, and have had it for some time now.”

  That was bullshit, but he was selling it.

  He went on. “Still, what you were witness to was still clandestine in nature, and as such, I’m ordering you to never mention it again. Doing so will be grounds for immediate ejection.” He leaned forward again, his jowly face suddenly hard. “Do I make myself clear?”

  We all nodded diligently.

  “Are there any questions?”

  We shook our heads.

  Greenway sat back in his chair and laced his hands together on his belly, his medal-studded jacket parting to let it surface between the buttons. He glared at us. Now that the formalities were out of the way, he was laying down his final justice. “You four have been nothing but trouble from the moment I heard your names,” he spat coldly. “And, with both Major Volchec and Lieutenant Everett missing, presumed missing or dead, two failed missions under your belt, and no one else to plead your redeeming qualities, this little party of yours is over.” He restrained a cruel smile.

  We all moved forward, our cuffs jingling, not believing what we were hearing.

  “Sir?” I said, trying to read his face. “What are you saying?”

  He parted his hands and pushed himself up with a laborious wheeze. “This investigation is closed.” His finger hit the file decisively, fist balled behind it. “You’ll all be returned to active duty, to the Mechanized Corps, to posts fitting your ranks. This team, or whatever it is,” he muttered, closing the file with a dull slap, “is disbanded, permanently, effective immediately.”

  We were all in shock.

  He circled the desk and headed for the door. “See the droid at the desk on your way out — get yourselves a communicator each — instructions and postings will be sent along shortly.” He stopped at the threshold and held up a little clicker. He pushed the button and all of our cuffs unlocked and fell from our wrists to the floor.

  The door closed and we sat there in stunned silence.

  “What the fuck just happened?” Alice said first, her voice barely above a whisper.

  “I think this is over,” I said, still not believing it.

  Mac hung his head back and ran his hands through his hair. “Well shit, it was fun while it lasted.”

  I had to laugh. “You and I have very different ideas of fun,” I said, slumping back in my chair and putting my hands on my head.

  He laughed and slapped his knee. “Hey, we’re alive, aren’t we?”

  “Yeah, I guess so.” I didn’t share his enthusiasm.

  “And we’re not facing a court-martial or ejection? I mean, we got off pretty much scott-free.” He couldn’t contain the disbelief in his voice.

  “I guess.”

  “And there’s that place downstairs,” he said, leaning forward and winking at me. “You know the one we talked about last time we were here?” He laughed. “You know, nearly dying in a fiery hellstorm really puts things in perspective for you. Reminds you what’s important in life. So, whaddya say?”

  I cleared my throat nervously, feeling Alice’s eyes on me. She half smiled, raising an eyebrow. Care to fill me in, Red? she said, not speaking.

  “It’s cool, Mac, you go ahead. I’ll catch up.”

  He stood up and Fish got up with him. Despite their ups and downs, they were still pretty inseparable. I wondered if they’d be posted together. I wondered if any of us would.

  We got to our feet instinctively and Mac embraced Alice, squeezing her hard for a few seconds. She returned it, and then he came to me, offering a hand. “It’s been a ride, Red.”

  I pulled him into a hug instead and felt his arms around me. We slapped each other's backs and then parted with a nod.

  Fish didn’t go in for either, but Alice still took him in her arms. He looked at me, unsure what was happening, his hands hanging at his sides. I grinned at that.

  He gave me a nod, which was all I could have hoped for, and flickered his gills. “Good… Bye…” he said slowly, his words elongated and emotionless in my ear.

  “See you around, Fish,” I said, fighting back the choke in my throat.

  They left the room without another look, and then it was just me and Alice.

  “So,” I said awkwardly.

  “So?” She cocked an eyebrow and locked her hips. “What’s this place you and Mac went to?”

  “We never went there,” I protested. “He just… thinks I did.”

  Her eyebrow rose higher, her lips pursing. “Oh yeah?”

  “Yeah. I would never — I mean, it’s not that I’m… I mean—”

  “Shut up, Red.”

  “Right.”

  She let out a long sigh and looked around the room. “This is it, then. The end?”

  I shook my head. “No, it’s not the end. The end for the four of us, maybe, like we were, but…”

  “It’s not like we were any good, anyway,” she snorted.

  “It all came together on the final straight there. I think we were just a little green — a couple more missions,” I said, sweeping my hand through the air. “Plain sailing.”

  “Whatever you say, Red.” She glanced at the door. “Where are you going now?”

  I shrugged. “Do you want to get a drink?”

  She half smiled and then let it fade from her face. “I’d better get back to my dad. He’s going to flip the fuck out when he gets wind of all this, and I’d rather calm that storm before it comes down on me in public, you know? If he finds out I went to get a drink instead of going home, then…”

  I nodded. “I get it.”

  She stepped forward and put her arms around me. I returned it, feeling her cheek against my shoulder. “Let me know when you’re posted.”

  “You too.”

  She released me and walked toward the open door, turning at the frame and smiling before heading on. “I’ll see you soon, Red.”

  I returned it and watched her leave. “Yeah, I’ll see you soon, Alice.”

  The sound of her footsteps died away in the corridor and I was left standing on my own in the nondescript office. I turned to look over the desk at the back wall, at the framed medals hanging there. They had names I didn’t know inscribed on them, gained for acts I’d never heard of.

  I thought back to the first time I met with Volchec on the Oberon Mansoon. She’d shown me the medal on the wall there, peddled me some story about making a difference. About doing things differently. About doing what was right.

  I wondered whether she’d get a medal like that, in some office somewhere, glinting in the glow of halogens over a polished desk.

  She’d given her life for what she thought was right, and it was no more than trying to save our lives. I thought about her for a second and then turned away.

  It was going to be a long road ahead, but whatever was coming, I was facing it with the knowledge that we’d done what was right. Maybe in the short term, it was having blood on our hands, but the universe was never black and white, and it was a lot bigger than a couple of ships — one side wear
ing one color, the other wearing another.

  We’d made a difference, and we’d done what was right. And whatever happened, I’d always know that.

  And maybe, just maybe, it would be enough to keep me going.

  “I’ll see you around, Volchec,” I said, waving over my shoulder and heading for the door. “In another life.”

  Epilogue

  Three years later…

  Planet: Varuun

  I pulled back the tarp and stepped into the workshop.

  The dust from the plain wafted in in lazy circles. The only sound was the squeaking of the screw that an android was very carefully removing from a circuit board.

  A high chain link fence ran in a wide perimeter around the junkyard, clinking gently in the breeze. Piles of scrap rose into the faultless blue sky and dust sheets pinned to the ground fluttered and slapped on the hulls of dirty ships.

  I paused in the makeshift house, no more than a scaffold frame draped in tarps and weighed down with boxes filled with machine parts. I favored my right side, pulling down the shemagh covering my face. I was on leave, but the wounds of the last deployment were still healing.

  The android, perched on a stool next to a worktable, looked up. His body was covered by a shawl, pinned at the front, his face was three sections of molded plastic, split down the forehead and under the eyes. They twinkled, the little camera apertures closing and focusing on me.

  He lowered the circuit board slowly, trying to figure out why the hell I was there, though he made no effort to ask or speak first.

  “Are you Xavier?” I asked plainly, my voice hoarse from the dust beyond the shelter.

  His expressionless face gave nothing away, the plastic covering no more than an uncanny human-shaped mask. I was told he wouldn’t be especially welcoming.

  I hobbled forward, reaching slowly into my jacket pocket for the note there. I pulled it out with a wince, my elbow still stiff, my hand still bound in bandage from a stray blast of shrapnel, and handed it to him.

  He held the screwdriver in his outermost two fingers and took the note with the others, turning it over in the gloom of the tent and reading it.

  “Glaavus sent me,” I said, watching his eyes dance over the paper.

  He read the note, which wasn’t a note at all. It was an intricate symbol that had no decipherable meaning to biologs, but was something that Glaavus assured me would convince Xavier of my good intentions.

  He lowered it and stared at me. “Glaavus?”

  I nodded.

  His head cocked curiously. “A biolog?” He seemed amused. “Glaavus is getting soft.”

  I shrugged. “We’ve got a mutual friend.”

  “I doubt that.”

  I sighed. “He said that you might be able to help me out.”

  “With what?”

  “I need a ship.”

  “Do you now?” He laid down the circuit board and crossed his hand on his lap.

  I nodded. “Yep.”

  “Any specific kind?” he asked airily, “or will any one do?”

  I looked up, recalling the specs. “A Vanguard S-Class with a fully internalized oxygen recirc system, folded pressure seams, a double-lined hull, and a reinforced chassis.”

  “Is that all?”

  I smiled. “You don’t have one?”

  “I have exactly one of those, in fact — of that specification, in fact, with those modifications.” He stared at me for a second, his eyes twitching. “Though of course you knew that already.”

  I shrugged gently. “Glaavus makes a point of knowing who he can call on, and for what.”

  If the android could have smirked, he would have. “Usually, when he sends someone to me, especially for a favor, they usually have less…”

  “Skin?”

  “I was going to say mortality.”

  “Same thing.”

  “Something only a biolog would say.”

  I let out a long sigh and reached into my jacket, pulling out a credit slab with a big number burning on it. I held it up and waved it gently. “So are we doing this?”

  He looked me up and down. “Glaavus’ recommendation. Bankrolled by Aelock. You are an enigma.”

  “Who says they’re not my credits?”

  He laughed. “With those boots?”

  “So the credit’s no good?”

  “I didn’t say that.” He proffered his hand and I put the slab in it. He examined the number and then looked up at me. “I’ve not seen Glaavus in seven decades, and yet this is the exact asking price I had in mind for the ship you wanted. And it’s not even technically for sale.”

  “We’ve got a deal then?”

  He drummed the slab on the heel of his other hand. The aluminum casing knocked tinnily on his steel hand. “This is all very curious. What do you want the ship for? Why do you need one with such high specifications? It’s got no armaments, so to speak — a pleasure craft, you might say, albeit a top-quality one — so I have to ask, what do you intend to do with it?”

  “I’m going to Felacardil.”

  “Felacardil?” He sounded almost surprised. “And why would you want to go there? The whole planet is covered by one endless ocean.”

  I let myself smile for a few seconds, and then I answered. “I’m going to see about an old friend.”

  Available Now

  Check out all the other titles currently available in the Iron Legion series, and download your FREE copy of the Iron Legion Novella, Veteran!

  If you’re a fan of military science fiction, why not check out my other series, Fugitive Marines, co-written with Douglas Scott. It’s the A-Team, in space, and the first four books are available now!

  Fugitive Marines

  Framed - Prequel

  Breakout - Book 1

  Wanted - Book 2

  Lockdown - Book 3

  Uprising - Book 4

  But that’s not all! Dan Morgan and I have also just released a brand new Sci-Fi Thriller series, Orion Axis. Think Jack Reacher in space! You can get your hands on Book 1 now.

  Orion Axis

  Tilted Axis - Book 1