by J. N. Chaney
“Do what you can,” Stacy said. “If we’re able, we’ll bring soldiers back to man the suits you were unable to. Will this channel remain open over the distance we have to travel?”
“It should,” Dama said as we all stood off the lift now. “Go to the Orion. You have my word that once we free the other bunkers and arm ourselves, we will come to your aid as you have come to ours.”
The way Dama said the words, there was no doubt in my mind the Rung would do exactly what they said.
“Thank you,” Stacy said, looking over to Tong, John, and me. “Let’s go. We have to make it back to the Orion as fast as we can.”
That was it. Tong took the lead in his power armor suit as we made the run back to the Orion. I thought it would be tiring at first, but once the autopilot was engaged on the power armor suits, we were as cozy as could be.
Our stations inside the armor didn’t seem to move at all while the armor’s legs sprinted over the desert landscape.
The section of armor my own legs were in separated from the rest of the unit and tapered, while the wider portion of the leg spread outward. This way, the armor’s legs could take massive strides while my own legs sat comfortably inside the inner section.
“Oh dear,” Tong said over the speakers inside our units.
“That sounds ominous,” John said.
“Didn’t think you’d know what that word meant,” I teased the big man. “You know, with all the concussions.”
“Hey, don’t judge a book by its cover,” John said. “I read. I can be smart.”
“Apparently, not smart enough if we all signed up to come on this trip,” I said under my breath. “I guess that goes for me too.”
“No argument there,” John said.
“Tong, what was it that you saw?” Stacy asked, interrupting our banter and reining in the conversation. “Legion?”
“Yes. I’m going to see if I can send you the image I have on the smart pad to the armor unit’s screens. One moment,” Tong said as his line went silent.
“Can we just appreciate what we’re all doing for a moment?” I said, not able to control the level of awe I felt. “We’re sprinting over an alien world in giant mech warriors.”
“Going to war with an intelligent virus,” John added.
“And our allies in this are aliens,” Stacy added. “With tails.”
“Good,” I said. “I just didn’t want the craziness of the moment to be lost on anyone.”
“Oh trust me, this one’s going in the diary,” Stacy said with a half laugh, half sigh. “Amongst a myriad of days to be remembered since our crash, this one’s in the top five.” I was happy to see that her humor was returning and that her stress level was decreasing. She had been pretty tense and emotional for a while, and understandably so.
She was right, in any case. Today would be one for the books.
No matter how it played out.
I settled into the smooth ride of the power armor unit while the auto pilot course kept us straight, running across the desert toward the canyon we had entered to get here in the first place. It had almost lulled me to sleep when Tong’s voice came over the comms.
“Here we go.” he said. “I’m tapped into the feed of our low-flying satellite. “I can only see a certain number of miles ahead of us, but I think it’s pretty obvious what’s happening.”
A small square screen popped to life beside me on the bottom right of our three-hundred-and-sixty-degree viewing screens inside the power armor.
The smaller screen showed an aerial view of the canyon ahead of us. Small dots ran sporadically, away from us and in the direction of the Orion.
“He doesn’t care about getting to us anymore.” Stacy said what we were all thinking. “He only cares about getting to the Orion and taking it out before we get there and then getting off-world.”
“Can’t these things run any faster?” I said, trying to urge my power unit to go faster, even though we were traveling at a dead sprint. “We have to get there faster.”
“This is it,” Tong said. “I do think we are traveling just as fast, perhaps faster than on a predator.”
“I think we’re going faster. It seems like it at least,” Stacy answered. “The canyon is coming up ahead of us. As hard as this may seem, we should try and rest. We’ll have to run through the night and maybe we’ll reach the Orion as the sun rises.”
“I get what you’re saying, but I don’t think sleep is going to come that easily,” John said. “Not with everything going on.”
“Just try,” Stacy said. “We have no idea how long the battle tomorrow will last.”
The comms went silent for a time then as we each got lost in our own thoughts. I knew Stacy was right. I even managed to fall in and out of sleep a few times.
When we were in the canyon, we found out our units had sensors that kept them from slamming into a curve when the canyon wound right or left. We were also able to avoid the boulders and obstructions that the predators had to swerve around. It was jarring at first but having the power armor jump over or skirt around the obstacles without having to prompt it was liberating. One by one, like real life soldiers, we sprinted forward with ease.
As much as I wanted to forget about what had happened in the Rung bunker, I couldn’t. Maksim’s bloody face appeared in front of my eyes every time I closed them.
It had taken a very serious threat for him to realize it was time to stand together. Crashing on the planet hadn’t done that nor did finding out aliens existed. The villainous threat Legion posed of getting off planet was what did it.
What did that say about Legion? What did that say about Maksim?
I didn’t know. These were all questions that had to be saved and answered over the years or maybe never answered at all. Right now, our focus had to be singular. Kill Legion.
After a few hours of off and on sleep, I came to the conclusion I’d rather stay awake than live through another nightmare of a dead Maksim calling me his brother.
I played with the power armor interface, coming to a menu where I was able to communicate privately with the other power armor units via private channels. They were numbered R14, R15, and R16. I couldn’t be sure which one was Stacy, but I figured I had a thirty-three percent chance of getting it right, even if I guessed.
I decided on R15.
“Hey, you there?” I asked, deciding this was the best way to start a conversation if it were John or Tong.
“How’d you know this one was me?” Stacy asked. “I was going to send you a private message but didn’t want to start spilling my guts to John or Rung. Actually, I don’t know which would be worse.”
“Lucky guess,” I said, trying to figure out how to begin the conversation I wanted to have. Not wanted, maybe needed to have. I could face down an opponent that outweighed me by a hundred pounds no problem, wade into a mob of infected (as long as they weren’t oozing that black stuff), or grab a flying alien, but this conversation scared me more than any of that.
“You still there?” Stacy asked.
“Yep,” I said. “I just need you to hear me out.”
19
“I don’t know what the fallout of all of this is going to be,” I began, already feeling like I was messing up the conversation somehow. “I mean, this is the worst time to bring this up, and I get that, but…well, tomorrow is promised to no one, right?”
I paused, thinking back on the many people we’d lost. Too many to count. The faces of Ira, Maksim, and others floated by. They were all dead now. The last image to come to mind was Lou.
“I don’t even know if I can be good at a relationship again, but I do know that I care about you—my gosh, why is this so hard?” I asked out loud, frustrated at myself.
“You’re doing great,” Stacy said softly. “Keep going.”
“Well, if we live through this, I want you and me to have a future together, to at least explore the possibility,” I said. “And if we don’t, I don’t want to take this to th
e grave.”
“Are you asking me to be your girlfriend?” Stacy asked playfully now. “Because if you are, the answer’s yes. I feel the same way about you, Dean. We both have a lot of red in the ledgers of our past. But I know we can look past that. The past just shapes who we are today. And I think we’re both better for it.”
I felt like a weight had been lifted off my shoulders. I slumped back onto my harness, and a smile touched my lips that no one could see but me.
“Hey—hey, you guys?” Tong’s voice came through the channel hesitantly. “I didn’t mean to connect to your channel. I was going to say something, but the conversation was so intense, I didn’t want to butt in. I don’t know how I joined the line. I’m trying to figure out how to leave.”
“Me too,” John said, swallowing so hard I could hear it via the comm unit. “I wasn’t going to say anything and just figured out how to get off the line once you two ended it, but since Tong’s being honest, so will I.”
“Lucky for you two, I’m too tired to be embarrassed and too happy to care,” Stacy said with a laugh.
“Yeah,” I added. “I guess it’s not really a secret anymore anyway.”
“You two are wonderful together,” Tong said. “I know everyone will be happy for you.”
“Man, that would have been really awkward if she shot you down,” John said with a whistle. “I mean, I can’t imagine how awkward that could have been.”
“I wouldn’t have said anything if that were the case,” Tong said. “It would have been better for me to just stay quiet and let you stew in your shame as opposed to letting you know I was witness to it.”
“Well, okay, guys,” I said, rolling my eyes. “She didn’t say no, so we don’t have anything to worry about.”
“Still,” John said. “We all dodged a bullet on that one.”
The way John said those words made Stacy laugh, then Tong joined in, and eventually a laugh burst from my lips as well, breaking the tension of the awkward moment. I couldn’t help it. We were all exhausted, and to be honest, laughing didn’t just feel good. It felt great.
We spent the next few hours talking about the dumbest things, like how we missed our favorite places back on Earth. We explained to Tong what bowling was, the rules of pool, and watching our favorite holo films. He thought it was all so confusing and asked us several times what the purpose of these things was. I didn’t think he understood fully even after we explained, and he must have thought Earth was the most bizarre place.
It turned out John was a fan of ancient westerns as well and we went off on a tangent about actors that had existed so long ago.
When the power armor units exited the canyon, the sky was barely turning a shade lighter. Tong didn’t have to give us a warning to look at the small screen in the lower right-hand corner of our power unit screens. We all saw it together.
Tong had moved the low-flying satellite ahead of us to get us a view of the Orion as soon as possible. Thus far, the stragglers Legion had infected were a mix between random humans, Rung, and native alien creatures, all heading to the Orion.
What we saw now gave us all pause. I heard Tong suck in a deep breath.
The satellite showed fires all over the Orion. Sections of the wall looked like they had been bent but not broken.
A horde the likes of which I had never seen crowded the outside of the wall. Humans and Rung had to have numbered in the thousands. The alien creatures that were there counted for at least a quarter of Legion’s power.
“How can there still be so many?” John asked. “How can there still be so many?”
“Can you—me?” Iris’ familiar voice reached our channel. “Can the —me?”
“Iris.” Stacy was the first to speak. “Iris, this is Stacy. I’m with John, Tong, and Dean. We’re coming back from the east in four large power armored suits.”
“Stacy, I’ve been trying to reach,” Iris said. “I’m going to patch you through to Elon right away.”
“Stacy, Dean, is that you?” Elon asked. His voice sounded tired and strained.
“It’s us,” Stacy answered. “We’re coming to you from the east. We’ll swing around the south wall. We’re in powered armor suits. Tell everyone on the wall not to shoot at us.”
“Hold on,” I added. “The cavalry’s arrived.”
“It’s so good to hear your voices,” Elon said with so much emotion, I thought he might be crying. “I’ll let them know. Hurry, the walls are nearly breached.”
Seeing the overhead satellite feed through the screen was one thing but getting a look at it in front of us was another matter entirely. My stomach twisted at the sight. Fires had broken out inside the Orion’s walls. Portions of the walls were battered and scorched. Other sections still burned.
The army of infected that Legion controlled moved away from our approaching power armor suits instead of racing to attack. This was a move that surprised me. It did more to put me on edge than give me a sense of relief.
If Legion was retreating now it was for a reason. We didn’t surprise him or catch him off guard. He knew we were coming.
What are you up to now, Legion? I asked myself. What are you up to now?
“Defend the wall near the front gates and spread out from there,” Stacy advised us. “Be careful. Legion is up to something.”
The tide of infected continued to recede like waves back into the ocean as we approached. There were at least a thousand of the infected. Most were human or Rung that didn’t really pose much of a threat to the power armor suits. A few of them held blasters, but I felt sure enough that none of them would be able to penetrate the armor’s exterior.
The only animals that looked strong enough to take on the armor units were the large alien creatures I had first seen in the jungle. Their hides were black and red. Two hooked horns came together on either side of their mouths while another sprouted from their forehead.
They were thickly built like overgrown rhinoceros. Their horns would come chest level with the powered armor suit. What was worse was that there were a lot of them. Too many for me and the others to take head on. I would want to avoid them at all costs, preferring to go up against the humans and Rung infected. I was unsure if the weapons we had would penetrate those thick hides of theirs.
A cheer from the weary defenders on the wall rose into the air as they welcomed us home. As soon as word spread that the power armor units were on their side, trepidation had turned to joy.
“The front gates can’t take another hit,” Elon said via the shared channel. “Be careful. They have fire projectiles as well. Legion has taught the infected to use larger weapons. If I had to guess, he got them from the Rung they infected.”
“Got it,” Stacy said. “Hang back and give us cover from the wall.”
Movement from the infected ranks halted any other conversation. A familiar form walked forward, holding his hands in the air. A black smile crested his lips. Captain Ezra Harold separated himself from the Legion ranks and approached us.
“Very impressive, very impressive,” Legion said with a smile so genuine, it made the hair on the back of my neck stand on end and a chill run down my spine. “I didn’t think you’d get out of the bunker alive much less arrive here in time to try and save your friends.”
“We’re going to burn you,” I said. “This all ends today.”
“Maybe, but probably not,” Legion said with a shrug. “I outnumber you ten to one. Even with those fancy Rung suits of yours, you still don’t stand a chance. I have weapons to deal with you, creatures to use against you if the weapons fail. Oh, and I learned a neat little trick I think you might like to see.”
Legion paused here for dramatic effect. When no one answered, he scratched the underside of his jaw.
“Okay, you’re not going to ask, I get that.” Legion almost looked disappointed. “So I’ll tell you. I’m always learning and evolving. One thing I’ve been working on is how to not only spread to the living but the dead. And guess what? A
fter years of trying, I’ve finally managed to do just that.”
“Oh no,” Tong said in our private channel. “He can’t mean what I think he’s saying.”
“What’s he talking about?” John asked. “He’s going to raise the dead, like make zombies?”
A panicked sweat fell over my brow as I realized what the insane virus was about to do. I felt sick and angry at once.
“Elon, make sure Arun is tied down. If she’s in one of her blackout states right now, this could be bad,” I said over our private channel. “Tell Ricky.”
“Why? What’s going on?” Elon asked.
“Just do it,” Stacy said, picking up my meaning. “Don’t let her hurt herself.”
“Legion,” I boomed over the exterior speakers of my suit. “Don’t do this. I don’t know if there is anything good inside of you, but you don’t have to do this.”
“There is nothing inside of me but the need to spread and consume,” Legion said, literally spitting black saliva as he spoke. “The need that others gave to me. Do you think I want this? Do you think I enjoy the itch that I can’t scratch that drives me to spread?”
He shouted like the maniac he was. He shoved his hands into the air, taking in the scene around him.
“I hate this! I hate all of this. I hate what I am. I hate what I was born to be, but to try and change would be an act in futility.” Legion shook his head, lowering his arms. “I am what I am. I can’t change that. I’ve accepted that and have embraced moving forward. But I digress. I was going to show you the next stage in my evolution.”
Legion lifted his right hand and snapped his fingers.
Every single infected in front of us, be it alien, animal, Rung, or human, turned to one another. Those that held blasters pointed them at one another, while those that did not placed their hands on each other’s necks and heads.
The alien creatures maneuvered their jaws around necks while the Rung and humans positioned bladed weapons around their own throats.