The Legacy of the Lioness

by Robert D. Armstrong

“Yeah, the chimney is smoking,” Leo observed.

  “Hunters?” Neona asked.

  “A family... look again,” Luther replied. I zoomed in with my visor. I could see two children near the house, playing in the snow. I couldn’t tell if they were boys or girls considering they were bundled from head to toe in dark fur garments. They were about three and five years of age I guessed.

  I noticed Neona smile in the rearview mirror. “Adorable,” she mumbled.

  Suddenly, a tall man emerged from inside the house. He was holding a large axe. His dark hair was falling out in places.

  “I think I see the father,” I said. His black, bushy eyebrows were lowered as he quickly ushered the children inside. He pulled a pistol out of his coat and hid behind a tree, leaning around it to have a better look at us. I accelerated away from the residence to convince him that we weren’t a threat.

  “The radiation levels here aren’t safe to live, especially for a child in development,” Xena said.

  “They likely don’t know any better, just doing the best they can,” Neona replied. The small house disappeared out of view. It was my first time seeing a family out in the wild, and it gave me a sinking feeling. On one hand, it was heartwarming to see a sliver of humanity out in the wasteland. On the other hand, I couldn’t help but think their outcome would end in tragedy. Raiders, nomads, or anyone could wander into this area, and that’s assuming the radiation didn’t kill them first.

  The radio beeped as Luther held the radio close. He waited for several seconds. “Do you copy? Anyone there?” Luther asked.

  “Is this the Engineer?” a deep, unknown voice asked.

  “State your business,” Luther replied.

  “This is Cruz... I’m one of General Haik’s scouts, we’re near the raider convoy,” he said.

  “Yes. Go on.”

  “As you follow the General’s map, you’ll come to a large electrical tower, it’s the only one in this area and it’s marked on your map. You should be getting close to it now. That tower is just under four hundred meters from the raider convoy,” he said.

  Luther paused, scanning his surroundings. “And the raiders are still inside, looting the factory?” he asked.

  “Yes. We’re watching them now. I recommend stopping at the tower, that will give you a vantage point to survey the factory and their vehicles before you make your approach,” he suggested.

  “Good. Keep your eyes on them and let us know immediately if anything changes,” Luther said.

  “That’s what we’re here for,” the scout replied. Luther put down the radio, pointing ahead.

  “You see it?” he asked.

  One kilometer in the distance, I saw a leaning metal tower up on a hill. Its black power lines dangled loosely in the snow. There was a torn down metal fence around it. Beside the metal tower was a large, thick pine tree which prevented the tower from collapsing.

  “Approach it slowly, the factory is on the other side of that tower,” Luther instructed.

  “Understood,” I said. I took in a deep breath. This was it. I climbed up the hill near the tower. I could hear the structure’s metal frame creaking in the wind. “That thing isn’t going to fall on us, is it?” Neona asked, panning up at the structure.

  “Unlikely. The structure has been in this position for some time, perhaps years,” Xena assessed.

  Neona glared at Xena. “But if it does, we won’t be able to hold you responsible, now will we? We’ll be dead,” she muttered. Xena ignored her.

  I leveled out at the top of the hill, running over part of a fence. A metal post crushed under the Mauler’s tracks.

  “Shit,” I mumbled. It wasn’t loud considering it was buried under the snow. I backed up and took a wider approach to the right of the tower.

  “Slowly,” Luther said as I crept forward around a large bush. We made our way around it until we could see the basin below.

  “There’s the factory,” Leo said. My eyes followed a rural road from left to right into a concrete, barricaded security gate in front of a medium-sized industrial complex.

  “This place is out in the middle of nowhere,” Neona said. She was right, the complex was surrounded by hills and trees. There were no other signs of civilization.

  We were just above eye level with the roof of the tallest point—a four-story building that was about two hundred meters long by one hundred meters wide. It was surrounded by several medium to small buildings.

  The large building was constructed mostly out of metal, with thick supporting beams. The smaller buildings were brick. Surprisingly, the structures were mostly intact, other than rust, holes in the roofs, and some missing bricks here and there. One odd thing I noticed was there were no windows in any of the buildings.

  I looked back at the entrance where the guard tower was. On the far side of it, the concrete barricade was destroyed. I looked closer, noticing a small plane buried in snow. It had split part of the barrier in half. I wondered if the pilot ran out of fuel and was forced to use the rural road as a makeshift runway. Or maybe the nuclear blast blinded the pilot, forcing him to the ground.

  “Engineer,” the radio beeped.

  “Yes, we’re here, at the tower,” Luther replied.

  “I know, we’re on your left, sixty meters,” he said. We all turned. I noticed what appeared to be a gun barrel poking through a small mound of snow that was aimed at the factory. A hand poked through, giving us the thumbs up.

  “You’re slacking on the job, Xena. How did they get past your sensors?” I asked.

  “They didn’t,” she replied.

  I could hear the scout breathing through the radio. “Now, let’s get down to business. On the opposite side of the largest building is where the convoy is parked, they’re out of your line of sight,” he said.

  “How many vehicles?” Luther asked.

  “We counted seven this time,” he replied.

  Luther glanced at me. That was an additional vehicle from our original conversation with General Haik. “Is the anti-aircraft gun one of them?” Luther questioned.

  “Yes.”

  “What sort of weapons do these vehicles have?” Luther asked.

  “Two of the smaller trucks have mounted guns. One of them is an RPK machine gun, the other is a grenade launcher,” he said.

  Luther shook his head. “Did you say, grenade launcher?”

  “I did, but we’re unsure if it’s operational. I would wager its ammunition would be difficult to come by,” the scout guessed. I wondered why they would even have the weapon mounted if it wasn’t functional.

  “Maybe that’s the additional vehicle,” Neona muttered.

  “That’s not what we need, contending with an explosive threat could put an end to this mission quickly,” Leo replied.

  “Do you have any idea why the raiders are here?” Luther asked.

  “Up until recently, this factory was occupied by a community of about forty or fifty people. Families. The reason the raiders are here is because of weapons. Before the war, the Russian military contracted this company to build hi-tech laser rifles, but they were useless,” he said.

  “Why?” Luther asked.

  “The weapons were encrypted to only be used by Russian military personnel,” he replied.

  “Then what would make them important to these raiders if their useless?” Luther questioned. The scout emerged from the snow and stealthily made his way to the Mauler. He was wearing a white mask that covered his face and head. He looked up at us as Luther opened the door.

  “What’s the problem?” Luther asked.

  He sighed. “I’m not sure if you’re supposed to know this, but I think it’s important to the mission’s success,” the scout hinted.

  “Tell me what you know,” Luther said.

  “Uh. You see, these raiders see themselves as the modern Russian Army. We’ve interrogated several wanderers from this region in the past several weeks. The rumors are that their base of operations are old Russian military
bases,” he said.

  Luther gazed forward in deep thought. “And just how many raiders are at these military bases, any idea?” Luther asked.

  “No way to know for sure, but based on the wanderers we’ve interrogated, the smallest figure we’ve heard is three thousand,” the scout answered.

  “Fuck,” Neona mumbled.

  Luther glanced at me before turning around. He met eyes with Leo and Neona. “Haik wasn’t exactly forthcoming with all his intelligence. Sounds like these raiders are the Russian Army’s remnants,” he said.

  “This mission might have just become even more important than it already is,” Leo replied.

  Neona chuckled. “Unbelievable. If these raiders can supply their troops with these weapons and get them operational, they could pose a threat to the Legion.”

  Luther turned back toward the scout as he pointed toward the factory. “Engineer, if you’ll notice, there’s several entry points around the factory, and most of the security gate is down. Do you have a strategy to get the raiders attention?” the scout asked.

  “Don’t worry about that. It won’t be a problem. Do you have any more revelations or intelligence to add before we go?” Luther asked.

  He slumped his head. “No. I’ll keep watch from this position as you make your way toward the convoy. If something goes wrong, I’ll be able to provide limited fire support, but don’t expect any miracles, you’ll mostly be on your own,” he said, lowering his voice. He slowly returned to his reconnaissance position.

  Luther carefully closed the door. “He’s not telling us something,” I said.

  “How do you know?” Neona asked.

  “I just get the feeling he knows more than he’s letting on,” I replied, watching him as he burrowed himself back under the snow. I got the sense that he wanted to reveal more, like his conscience was bothering him.

  Leo leaned around me, staring at Luther. “I’m guessing General Haik didn’t tell us who these men were because he thought that might dissuade us from doing this mission?”

  “Perhaps. But Haik doesn’t know how important this mission is to us. The anti-aircraft vehicle is worth the trouble no matter who they are,” Luther replied. He panned left and right quickly in deep thought.

  “Not to defend Haik, but I’m honestly not even sure he knew about this. The scouts could be working with Kodiak secretly and keeping Haik in the dark,” I said.

  “That’s a possibility,” Leo said.

  “I got it!” Neona raised her voice.

  “What?” Luther asked as we spun around toward her. She shook her head. “Victoria just jogged my memory. Think about the first time we were introduced to Kodiak, they gave us some information about who he was,” she said.

  Leo narrowed his eyes at her. “Roman introduced us, he claimed a bounty was placed on Kodiak’s head before my father took him in as a nomad, that he was a wanted man,” Leo replied.

  Neona’s eyes widened. “Yes, but who placed that bounty?” she asked.

  Luther held up his index finger. I saw a lightbulb go off in his eye as the answer came to us both. “The Ghosts of the Red Army,” I recalled, biting my lip.

  Neona pointed toward the factory. “Exactly. The Red Army is the former Russian Military. I bet these are the same fucking guys! Kodiak isn’t here to get those solar panels, he’s cutting off his enemies’ ability to equip themselves. If I had to guess, he’s still waging war against his old foes, but now he’s using Haik’s nomads to do it,” Neona speculated.

  No one said a word for several moments. Luther looked at Neona. “I’m impressed that you were able to piece that together, but it changes nothing. We’re still here to retrieve the anti-aircraft gun. Whatever feud Kodiak has with these raiders, we let them hash it out. Let them kill each other. This isn’t my primary concern, not yet,” Luther said.

  I heard Neona sigh under her breath. In the rearview mirror, I could tell she was constructing a tactful response as her eyes floated about the cabin. “Respectfully, sire, if we allow those raiders to equip themselves with thousands of laser rifles, we won’t be able to defend ourselves if they eventually come our way. We’re already here, in a position to stop them,” Neona challenged.

  “Knight Neona, fully committing to another objective considering the already daunting task of our main mission is out of the question. If an easy opportunity presents itself to disrupt the raiders’ supply of weapons, I’ll do so, otherwise, we stick to the plan. We bait the raiders into General Haik’s ambush,” Luther confirmed.

  “You mean Kodiak’s ambush,” she muttered.

  Luther glanced at me. “Begin our approach, slowly,” he said.

  “Roger, I need everyone to close your firing ports as much as possible, just give yourself enough room to see out,” I ordered. Leo and Neona turned toward their windows, sliding a metallic protective barrier in front of their viewing glass.

  “Xena, remember the plan, don’t fire unless I order you to do so. Leo, if I’m killed or incapacitated, you will take command,” Luther ordered. I gulped as I kept my eyes forward.

  “Understood,” Leo said confidently.

  “Awaiting your orders, Engineer,” Xena replied. A powerful gust of howling wind swooped from the west as I eased over the hill toward the factory.

  The path ahead was mostly rock and dirt, with several pine saplings dotted throughout. I avoided them on our approach, weaving back and forth.

  Leo peered through his firing port. “I can’t see that much,” he muttered. He glanced over his shoulder at Xena. “I’m wondering, can you project what you see onto the front dash camera?” Leo asked.

  “I can,” Xena replied.

  “Engineer, what if Xena peeked out of the ceiling gun port to give us another set of eyes, minus all the blind spots in the interior,” he said.

  “Excellent idea. Do it now,” Luther ordered. Xena stood up as the backup camera flickered, then revealed her perspective as she panned back and forth.

  I could feel my heart pounding as we leveled out onto the flat ground, but I didn’t want to show that I was nervous. One advantage I kept reminding myself of was that the Mauler made no engine sound. The electric battery was almost completely silent, giving us the opportunity to surprise them.

  I saw the outer metal fence, now only sixty meters in front of us. There was a parking lot with a dozen work trucks buried in snow beyond it.

  I ran over the fence and we made our way around the right side of the parking lot. The factory was right in front of us, only twenty meters. I pointed at a path that ran the length of the factory. “I’m thinking I should take this route until we reach the end of the structure, what do you think?” I whispered to Luther.

  “Agreed, just keep an eye out for alternative escape options,” he replied as his head swiveled around in all directions.

  I moved down along the wall as Neona and Leo scanned their surroundings with wide eyes. I could see faded Russian graffiti spray-painted on the rusted factory next to me. There was a metal door on the side of the building in front of us. It had a large overhanging roof, for smoking breaks I assumed.

  There was a collapsed picnic table under it. The wood had been stripped off, leaving only the metal frame. I noticed two filthy mattresses near the wall, partially covered by snow. There was also a half dozen hi-tech assault rifles scattered about. Some of them had been taken apart.

  “Wanderers that came here over the years probably thought they hit the jackpot with all these rifles,” Leo said.

  “I would have too, but they’re useless without the military codes to activate them,” Neona muttered.

  Luther’s radio beeped. Its abrupt static sound annoyed me as I scanned for movement. “Engineer, it’s highly likely you’ll run into convoy vehicles around the corner of that building. Caution is advised,” the scout said, keeping his voice down.

  Luther put down the radio as he leaned forward. I slowed down as we approached within fifteen meters of the end of the building. “See anyt
hing?” I asked.

  “Not yet,” Leo replied.

  I crept to the edge of the building and stopped. “Xena, is anyone around?” I asked.

  “No visual, and no lifeforms detected in the immediate area. I would estimate they’re inside the structure, but I’m not picking them up,” Xena replied.

  I crawled forward slowly, using an elevated docking bay to obscure the Mauler. Xena was just high enough to see over it.

  “Contact,” Luther said, looking down at the dash-mounted screen. Through Xena’s optics, we could see several vehicles.

  “Pan left, Xena,” Luther ordered. They were backed up to the dock about thirty meters from us. One of them was a large transport vehicle, while the other were small 4 x 4 single cab trucks. I took notice of their honeycomb-shaped solar panels on the hoods of the vehicles. Panels appeared to be on the roofs as well, but I didn’t have the best viewing angle.

  The rear gate to the largest truck was open and it was loaded down with rifles that were stacked inside cargo bins on pallets.

  “Where’s the anti-aircraft vehicle?” Leo asked.

  “There,” Luther replied. I noticed a vehicle that looked like a small tank parked away from the others. The top of the vehicle was shaped like a dome. It was painted white with dual cannons that were three meters long and aimed away from the factory.

  “That’s a Russian ZSU-X2. Twin laser cannons,” Xena identified. I knew the variant well myself. It was deadly efficient in my day, one of the most feared AA tanks in existence. It was highly mobile, and it could easily shoot down aircraft within a nineteen-kilometer altitude. This was exactly what we needed, if it was operational.

  “Captain, you’re familiar with the ZSU?” Xena asked.

  “I am,” I replied.

  “Then you will recall that it can be set to autonomous and can identify local ground threats based on movement and radar sensors,” she reminded. I backed up as I noticed its guns slowly rotating.

  “Its sensors are active now?” Luther asked.

  “Looks like it’s on guard duty while the raiders load up supplies,” I said. The dash cam feed flickered momentarily. “Captain, I’m accessing the ZSU’s files... downloaded. Permission to disable the vehicle’s detection system?” she asked.