Orion Colony Complete Series Boxed Set

by J. N. Chaney

  “How many infected do you think are between us and the power armor?” Tong asked.

  “Hundreds, at least,” Sulk said with a wide grin. “It will be a chance at a glorious death.”

  We all looked at him sideways. He sure loved the thought of death in battle, and although I wanted him to fulfill his hopes and dreams, I was becoming fond of the little guy, despite his putdown of my “fragile” race, and didn’t want him to leave us yet.

  “I think I liked him more when he was all ticks and S’s,” John said, making a valid point.

  “Agreed,” I added. “Who would have thought the Rung were so morbid? I thought they were supposed to be smarter than the Remboshi with all their tech.”

  “We are,” Dama said.

  “No, they’re not,” Tong answered at the same time.

  Dama and Tong looked to each other, surprised, then exchanged a smile. Oh boy.

  “Well, before this gets awkward and they start flirting again, let’s come up with a plan,” Stacy said. “We know where we need to go. The most direct path is closed, with those double doors Legion is trying to get through. Is there another way around?”

  “Yes,” Dama said, either missing her remark about flirting with Tong or choosing to ignore it. “Out the rear of the main chamber is a narrow maintenance hall that would lead you around Legion. That way would be twice as long, however.”

  “Well, I vote we take the predator straight up the gut,” John said, crossing his arms in a belligerent stance. “I didn’t come all this way to avoid a fight. I’ve got some aggression built up if you haven’t noticed.”

  “Whatever Legion has on the other side of those doors trying to break it down could give even the predator a run for its money,” Stacy thought out loud. “I’m not sure that’s the right move.”

  John looked at me.

  “Hey, don’t look at me. She’s the boss,” I said, pointing at Stacy. “For what it’s worth, I don’t like the idea of sneaking around either. But if it’s our best shot, we owe it to Lou to do just that. We can’t fail here. Not for him, not for anyone we’ve lost along the way or can save by defeating Legion. We have to succeed. There’s no choice there.”

  A moment of quiet fell over the room as human, Remboshi, and Rung all thought about those we would never see again. Worse perhaps, those we would still see, only now infected by the Legion virus.

  “And you’re sure these power armor suits will be enough to defeat Legion?” Tong asked, looking to Sulk then Dama. “This is the end for him?”

  “Each power armor suit is a tank.” Dama motioned to the image on the armor suit on the screen. “We’ll be able to travel four times as fast at a run. The steel is four inches thick. Flamethrowers and blades on the forearms while dual plasma cannons rest on the shoulders. We have hundreds of the prototypes ready. Legion doesn’t have anything that will be able to stand against us. We just need pilots.”

  “We go through the rear shaft and around,” Stacy said, biting her lower lip. “I don’t want children with us.”

  Dama opened her mouth to argue.

  “I get that it’s your culture,” Stacy cut her off. “I get that, trust me. I’d rather see children fighting than dying, but only if it comes to that with no other choice. What we do right now gives them a chance. You leave half your forces here and we take the other half. Taking all forty warriors will be too many to sneak around quietly anyway. Take your fiercest twenty. If we can’t do it with twenty, we won’t be able to do it with forty.”

  Dama held Stacy’s eyes a moment longer as if she were weighing her words in her mind. Eventually, the Rung decided not to argue and accepted Stacy’s demands.

  “Sulk, our fiercest twenty,” Dama said with hard, determined eyes. “We leave in eight hours. Enough time for the blood rite and to rest.”

  “Immediately,” Sulk said, leaving the room.

  “Do we even want to know what the blood rite is?” I asked.

  “A sacred tradition passed down from generation to generation,” Dama said. “It’ll put the warriors in the right mind.”

  “Your people?” Tong asked. “This is all that remains in only just this installation, correct? This can’t be all the Rung. You have other underground bunkers throughout the wasteland?”

  “We do, but we have lost communication with them.” Dama lowered her large yellow eyes to the ground. “I have faith others have survived Legion’s attacks, but we do not know for certain.”

  “If they’re out there, we will find them,” Tong assured her, placing a hand on her shoulder. She looked over at him, smiling. He smiled back at her as the two shared a moment.

  I raised my eyes to the ceiling and cleared my throat awkwardly to get their attention. “And in the meantime, we have more than enough humans to pilot these suits of power armor,” I answered. “We’ll end Legion once and for all.”

  “Dama?” Stacy asked from her position next to the large screen on the wall. She had walked to the screen, going back to the map of the underground bunker. She pointed to a massive room on the opposite side of the bunker. “What’s this room? More importantly, what is this craft?”

  Stacy piqued my interest. “Craft?” I asked. “Like a spacecraft?”

  John and I joined Stacy at the screen. She wasn’t wrong. What looked like a small four-person spacecraft sat in a hangar.

  “It’s untested and only a prototype, but we are hoping that it will evolve into us being able to explore the stars and worlds beyond our own,” Dama said. “We put the Nebula Project on hold to work on the suits of power armor years ago.”

  My mind was having a difficult time processing what I saw on the map. Our entire time on Genesis had been filled with trying to survive. In the back of my mind, I always thought we’d be able to eventually begin work on creating a spaceship capable of leaving the planet.

  Seeing it here already in front of me was something else entirely. Surely between what the Rung had already done and our own scientists’ knowledge of the stars, we could leave. If the Rung would allow us to use their transport.

  “I understand what this might mean to you,” Dama said as the three of us stared at the image without speaking. “A coalition of our people to begin work on an initiative to travel space is a conversation the Rung are willing to have, but only after we defeat Legion.”

  “Agreed,” I said, tearing my eyes away from the ship. “We kill Legion first.”

  12

  While the Rung chose their warriors and prepared to perform their blood rite, we were left to rest, thankfully. I slept in the side room with the screen and the food. You’d think with everything going on that I’d have a hard time falling asleep. Not so much, really. As soon as my head hit the rolled-up blanket I used as a pillow, I was out.

  As I had instructed him to, Tong woke me a few hours later when the time for our departure neared.

  “The blood rite is about to begin,” Tong told me, motioning to the large outer chamber. “Once it is complete, we will be ready to depart.”

  “Right, right,” I said, sitting up while rubbing the sleep from my eyes.

  John and Stacy were already up and arming themselves. What the Rung lacked in manpower, they more than made up for in a vast assortment of weapons. I was surprised to see two racks of bladed weapons that had been wheeled in while I slept. I went over to inspect them, feeling almost like a kid in a candy shop, having adapted to using weapons in addition to my fighting skills since we left Earth and gaining an interest in the various types and forms.

  The racks reminded me of something you’d find in a clothing store on Earth. Long blades, axes, and short blades occupied one side, with hand blasters and rifles on the other.

  I still had the Judge on my hip, but I couldn’t help but hold one of the Rung axes in my hands. It was slightly small with a bladed axe on one end and a hammer head on the other.

  “You fancy the skull splitter?” Sulk asked, joining me. “It is a good and effective weapon. While blasters
will eventually run dry, bladed weapons rely on your strength. They’ll keep working for you as long as you don’t give up.”

  “You know, I think I liked you more when I couldn’t understand what you were saying,” I told Sulk with a raised eyebrow, kind of messing with him because I did agree with the logic of what he was telling me. “Is everything death with you?”

  “We are a warrior tribe.” Sulk shrugged. “Despite our technological advancements, we have realized one thing.”

  “And what’s that?” I asked.

  “War always remains,” Sulk said as if it were a matter of fact not up for debate. “We can kill each other with sticks and stones, blasters or viruses, but there will always be war in one shape or another. Even now when we go to battle with Legion, we are in for the fight of our lives.”

  Again, I couldn’t argue with him. We were about to try and sneak around a contagious virus to gain access to war machines that would hopefully tip the odds of survival in our favor. Then we were going to kill him. I was strangely just fine with all of that. After everything we had to do just to survive on Genesis, having this virus trying to eradicate us, then falsely attempt to befriend us, then try to kill us again was somehow a bit too much. I couldn’t wait for this war to be over.

  I slung the skull splitter over my shoulder. Next, I turned to the rack of weapons behind us. A thick blaster with a short barrel and a massive magazine caught my attention.

  “Made for clearing a room,” Sulk said, following me as if he were my own personal guide. “The Dragon’s Breath is a weapon made not for accuracy but brutal stopping power. It fires a stream of smaller projectiles in a cone-like shape.”

  Furious shouting and something that sounded like the beat of a drum came from the large chamber just outside our own.

  “Hurry, the blood rite begins,” Sulk said, scurrying out of the room. “You don’t want to miss this.”

  I picked up the Dragon’s Breath and followed him out of the room with the others. John and Stacy looked cautious but interested. Tong actually seemed eager to witness it.

  The first thing I noticed when we exited the room were the Rung soldiers had disrobed from the waist up. They stood in a circle. One of them had a large drum he pounded in rhythm.

  The outer circle of the soldiers held the children and young of the group. They looked on with wide eyes. Fear lived there, but it was an afterthought to courage. Even the tiniest Rung that couldn’t have come past my knees swayed to the sounds of the beat, looking enthralled and determined.

  I took a back seat with the rest of my team as we watched on with bated breath. The process was intriguing to say the least, this technologically advanced race of aliens completing a ritual that was primitive in nature. Dama entered the circle where the warriors stood waiting, all swaying with the sound of the drum.

  When Dama lifted her hands into the air, the rhythmic beating came to a halt. All eyes followed her motion as she lifted a dagger from her belt.

  “The blood rite is a pact our warriors take in only the most desperate times,” Dama said in a stirring voice. “Let no one be mistaken. This is the most desperate of times we find ourselves in. Our blood will bind this oath. Our fighting spirit will see us through. If we fall, we do so in battle for those who come after.”

  “For those who come after!” the twenty shirtless warriors in front of Dama shouted as one. Each of them lifted a blade from their person, slicing a long cut in the palm of their right hands.

  They lifted their closed right fists into the air above their heads. They clenched their palms tightly, until a trickle of blood ran down their arms onto their chests.

  “Legion is our enemy and one we take responsibility for creating,” Dama shouted. “Today marks the end of his reign once and for all. Together with our new allies, we right the wrong our ancestors created so many years before. Are you with me?”

  The room erupted into a roar, all of the warriors buying into her words. Dama really knew how to give a speech. I half wanted to cut my hand open and yell along with them.

  As the soldiers who participated in the blood rite began to gear up, I felt a tug on my right hand. I looked down to see a little Rung child.

  I knelt down, looking at the kid. Her long eyelashes and the bright pink hair told me she was a girl.

  “Are you the Chosen One?” she asked.

  I looked around, confused as to how she would even know that term. Stacy and John shrugged. Tong evaded my eye contact. He was definitely the culprit, but why?

  “Tong?” I asked.

  “They already knew,” Tong said with a shrug. “Sulk heard Jezra talking about it back at our camp. He told Dama, and when she asked me, I had to tell her the truth.”

  Great, so I’m the Chosen One for these people now too, I thought to myself. Well, if you’re already the Chosen One, might as well act like it.

  “Sure, kid,” I told the small child. “I am the Chosen One.”

  “You’re not going to let the Legion virus get us, are you?” she asked with large eyes. “It already got my mom and dad. I don’t want it to get me too.”

  Aw, the poor kid. This made me hate the virus even more and gave me more determination to get rid of it once and for all. “It’s not going to get you,” I told her, placing a hand on her small shoulder. “You have my promise. I’m not going to let it.”

  Her eyes never left mine. I could tell she wasn’t sure if she could believe me. I thought of Lou, then thought of what he might say to this grieving child.

  “A friend of mine believes—believed that everything happens for a reason,” I told her. “I think I’m starting to believe that as well. And if that’s true, then I’m here for a reason. We all are. We’re here to end Legion and bring peace between the Rung and Remboshi. I promise you as long as I’m alive, I won’t give up.”

  I wasn’t really sure where all of this reassurance and confidence was coming from. Maybe it was from seeing the blood rite, maybe it was the little girl in front of me who needed to hear these words so desperately, maybe it was Lou and his sacrifice, or a combination of them all.

  “The man said you’d come to help us.” The little girl gave me a smile, wiping tears from her eye. “He said you’d come.”

  “Dean?” Stacy asked, securing her helmet. “We’re ready.”

  “I’ll be right there,” I said, standing but looking back down at the girl. “What man?”

  “The other man like you.” The girl gave me a look that said I should know what she was talking about. “He said you were brothers.” A chill ran down my spine as I digested that information.

  The noise in the room picked up in volume as warriors all around us made last-minute checks.

  “What did he look like?” I asked, searching the room around us frantically for any sign of Maksim. “When did he come here?” That was all we needed right now, another being that liked to throw a monkey wrench in the works simply by his presence. Maksim was pretty much the reason we were all here now and was definitely not welcome to join in the festivities.

  My eyes roved around the room. It would have been impossible to miss him, right? Dama had not mentioned anyone else and neither had Sulk.

  “Where is he?” I asked, turning back to the little girl.

  She was gone, lost in a small group of children on the other side of the room.

  “Hey, you good to go?” John asked, joining me. “You look like someone just told you they killed your pet butterfly.”

  “Yeah, yeah, I’m fine,” I said, gripping the Dragon’s Breath tighter in my hands. I made my way over to the rear of the large chamber where a narrow access panel was being removed screw by screw.

  Dama stood toward the front, decked out in dull grey armor with a visor that looked more like an ancient knight’s than anything high tech.

  “Dama, was there another human that made it into your bunker?” I asked in earnest, although hoping the answer wouldn’t be what I thought it was. “He would have been tall, kind of
skinny, possibly wearing a red handkerchief?”

  Dama looked over to me. I could barely see her eyes through the narrow slits in her helmet. I wondered where they found this medieval design, how it could look this way centuries and universes apart.

  “A human calling himself Brother Maksim came to us before Legion struck.” Dama nodded. “He warned us of the onslaught. He told us to go find you, that you would help us. He also started on the tech that would be able to allow us to speak to one another.”

  “What?” Stacy asked in disbelief. “You didn’t think this was important to tell us? You lied to us?”

  “I never lied,” Dama said in a calm, cool voice. “Brother Maksim made me promise to keep it a secret unless you were to ask outright. You asked and I did not lie.”

  “Okay, but you withheld information from us that is actually very important. Maksim does not always have our best interests at heart. He caused the crash that brought us here,” Stacy told Dama.

  “This man is very dangerous,” Tong added in from her right side. “Where is he now?”

  “Dead, or at least he should be,” Dama said. “He did not make it to the safety of this chamber. He was lost with the others in the belly of the bunker.”

  A cold sweat fell over my body. If Maksim was anything, he was a survivor. Sure, Legion might have gotten down there somewhere, but I wasn’t going to bet on that.

  “I’ll believe it when I see a body,” John said, reading my thoughts. We looked at each other in consternation. Somehow I felt that we would be seeing Maksim again, and soon.

  “Anything else you’re waiting to tell us unless we ask?” Stacy asked Dama, practically towering over her. “This is life and death now. Any information you have. We need to know now, right now, before we trek through a nightmare maze toward the power armor.”

  “There is nothing else,” Dama said, shaking her head. “I’m sorry this has brought you such anger. It was not my intention.”

  “We’re in,” Sulk said from the front where he worked. Two other Rung moved a section of the metal grate that led to a narrow hall. “Are we still going?”