Curse of the Legion (23 page)

"How do your parents feel about that?"

"They don't know. You know I lead a double life, Wester."

"I'm tired of hearing about that, Tara."

"Oh! Now you're angry again. Just because you don't understand. Well, one of these days you'll understand, Wester. One of these days, you'll see."

"I sure hope so."

"Thinker. We're nearing the target." It was Dragon, on private. My eyes popped open and the memory vanished just like a mist. I hadn't forgotten a thing—Deadman, what a miracle. She had left me only a few weeks later. She hadn't even said goodbye. It was black outside the armored plex—smoky clouds whipped past. The leading edges of the Phantom's wings glowed a pale orange as we hurtled into the dark. What the hell am I doing dreaming about Tara? I've got more important things to do!

"Helmets on," I said. "Tac mode. Systems check. Weapons check." I locked my helmet into place and the interior lit up with a pale green glow, tacmap and biostats and all the rest of it, burnt right into my faceplate. The eyemote showed Moontouch was settling into her bed. The interior of the hut was dark except for a faint glow from the embers of the fireplace.

"Systems all green. Weapons all green," Dragon reported.

"Count off!" I snapped.

"Dragon!"

"Sweats!"

"Deadeye here, Slayer."

"Stormdawn is here."

"Tourist."

"Jo-Jo!"

"Rabies."

"Viper."

"D.D.'s here."

"Redhawk."

"All right, gang," I said. "Good news. It's going to be raining when we hit the target. There's lots of lightning hits, too—that's excellent cover for us. We go exactly as planned. No firing unless fired upon. Take out the doors with v-max. The Kiss will insert elements A, B , C and D at targets A, B, C and D respectively, then evac D, C, B and A in that order. If she's forced to break off at any time to suppress enemy fire she'll do so, and we'll wait at our targets for evac. All element leaders have Q-link eyemotes on their targets and as of right now, all targets are happily in place except for two Outworlder females, what's the story, Dragon?"

"They're both returning to the hut right now. They had gone out to wee. They should be in place when we arrive."

"Well, I hope the rain isn't going to make anyone else get up and visit the outhouses. Keep me informed."

"It's always something you can never plan for."

"Rain is good. Don't complain."

"There's a lot of activity around the hive."

"Yeah, I know. What are they doing?"

"Don't know. Transporting stuff on air effects sleds. But they don't seem interested in our target area."

"Good!" I didn't care what they were up to, as long as they weren't paying attention to our targets.

###

"Element A! Prep for decar." I stood by the crash door, clad in battle-scarred black cenite armor, bristling with weaponry and sensors, deep ruby red faceplate reflecting only death, cool green reflections etched into the interior mils from my eyes, tacmap, sitrep, biostats, eyemotes, all well, all well… The Phantom was shuddering, all black outside, inky rain streaking the plex horizontally, all adrenalin now, icy calm, my jaws locked, helmet shaking, can't even see the eyemote now but I know she's there, all I am, all I exist for, don't get in my way now or you die fast, now, now, now—

"Element A! Decar!" The crash door popped open and I leaped out blindly into a fierce gust of heavy rain and swirling wind.

"Death!" I charged forward blindly over spongy turf towards the little hut dug into the hillside as Sweety outlined the door on my faceplate, bless her. Deadeye and Stormdawn were right behind me but I wasn't thinking about them. I fired auto v-max and blew the heavy door right into the hut. The Phantom's backblast generated a tornado of rain and mud as it glided away to Site B. The countdown was underway—02 fracs and I was already in the hut, standing on the splintered wreckage of the door like some armored nightmare from the bowels of Hell, every life form in the hut outlined in red on my faceplate, seven huge Daz'ras caught in bed, still stunned, and one figure flashing green, smaller, much smaller, also in bed—bless you, Sweety! I reached out for her with my left hand and she shrank back from the horrific vision. Deadyeye and Stormdawn burst into the hut behind me, two more obscene war-beasts, come to slaughter you all.

"Moontouch! It's Slayer! We are here! Come with me, now! Quickly!" Sweety amplified my voice to a booming command.

"I am here, my Queen! I did not abandon you!" Deadeye shouted.

"Mommy! Mommy! I love you! You are safe now! Come with us!" Stormdawn urged her.

She rose from the bed slowly, as if in a trance, as if in a dream, reaching a slim arm out to me—hesitating, for an instant, as if she did not quite believe it. I gently pulled her to me with my free arm, taking in her unearthly beauty again, falling right into those dark hypnotic eyes, together again, on the edge of the galaxy, never again to be separated, never, never, never!

"I knew you would come," she whispered. Only that. It was enough. I turned to the doorway. One of those giant Daz'ra stood there, blocking our way, and I knew he had no intention of moving. I raised my E and pointed it right at his head. Moontouch leaped from my arms towards the Daz'ra and whirled around, throwing up her arms to shield him.

"No, Slayer! They are protecting me! I owe them my life!" She turned and gently touched the creature on his hairy chest with her slim fingers, urging him to stand aside. He did. That big female Daz'ra came out of nowhere and hugged Moontouch. She hugged back. I dragged Moontouch towards the doorway. Stormdawn and Deadeye and I squatted there, facing the storm, with Moontouch protected by our armor. The rain was still pouring down, churning up a sea of mud. I had Moontouch by one hand and wasn't about to let go. Countdown was O2/05, two marks and five fracs—not bad! All we had to do now was wait in the doorway for evac. I didn't want to interfere as I knew everyone was busy but I had not been concentrating on the tacnet and needed to know what was happening.

"Dragon, Thinker, report!"

"Thinker, Dragon, we're on target, collecting our sheep. Five outworlders, seven Taka, all here." Dragon and Rabies were at Site B, consisting of two huts. Good!

"Element C entering Target," Sweats reported. I could hear the vac as he blew away the door. Sweats and Viper were targeting three Outworlders and eight Taka in two other huts.

"Element D! Prep for decar!" Redhawk ordered. Tourist, Jo-Jo and Doctor Doom would be rounding up twelve Taka from that stone longhouse. 02/48 and counting! The sky flashed white and a jarring boom shook us.

"Lightning," Sweety explained.

"Slayer!" Moontouch exclaimed. "You must save the others—my people, and your people! They are all around us!"

"A second launch, Thinker," Sweety cut in. "The O's are launching a transport, Variant 5, from their starport." I could hear a deep rumble in the distance.

"We're on it, Moontouch," I replied. "We're collecting them, right now. Don't worry."

"Twenty-eight Taka, Slayer, and eight of your people."

"Attention all!" Sweety's calm voice interrupted abruptly. "Two armored Omnis on foot, exiting the hive, now turning to face the Daz'ra target area." They appeared on my tacmap, two flashing red dots. "Mag shields not activated, Vulcans on safe," Sweety added. A blinding lightning hit cracked the sky open like a strobe light, illuminating a sky full of frozen rain. I raised my E to my shoulder.

"Redhawk, Thinker. Two O's approaching from the hive, A&A. Prep to fire but do not fire unless we are fired upon. All elements acknowledge and report, now!"

"Thinker, B. We're all set for pickup. We see the targets." Dragon sounded perfectly calm.

"Thinker, Sweats. We've got all our targets and are prepping for pickup."

"Slayer, there are…"

"Not now, Moontouch! Just a…"

"Thinker, Tourist. We're inside the longhouse, collecting the catch. Redhawk is still outside, I can hear him. We'll be ready in fracs."

"Have you got all twelve Taka?"

"That's a ten."

"Attention all!" Sweety cut in again. "Another Omni ship is launching from the spaceport. That's three. This is a troop shuttle, appears headed for orbit."

"Redhawk," I said, "all right, confirmed we've got Moontouch, twenty-seven Taka and eight Outworlders confirmed at the sites, be ready to engage the O's but pick up the…"

"Slayer! There are twenty-eight Taka, not twenty-seven!"

"Twenty-eight including you, Moontouch! Please be quiet! Redhawk, be ready to…"

"Attention!" Sweety announced. "Three more Omnis, armored and armed, on foot, approaching from the hive, safeties off! Total of five Omnis."

"Slayer! There are twenty-nine Taka including me, not twenty-eight! You must save them all or the Undead will…"

"Thinker, Redhawk! We're boarding Site D! Ready in a frac!"

"Be prepared to zap those O's, Redhawk, but don't do it unless they fire first! Board everyone soon as you can!"

"Slayer!" Moontouch was scratching at my armor, becoming increasingly frantic. "Do you hear me? There are twenty-nine of us, Slayer, altogether! We must not leave anyone behind!"

"O's approaching on foot!" Sweety warned. I could see them on the tacmap, awful creatures, force fields not yet up, probably puzzled by all the activity, they could let loose at any instant, what a nightmare! Snow Leopard had prepped me well for this. In the sim, Moontouch became increasingly irrational, demanding we evac all the Taka, all the Outworlders, then all the Daz'ra in her hut, then all the Daz'ra in the vicinity, then all the Daz'ra children. I had vowed to stun her if necessary. What the hell did she mean, twenty-nine? There were a total of twenty-eight!

"Moontouch, we've counted carefully. There are twenty-eight of you, including you. Where is this other Taka? We see no one else."

"Thinker, Countdown is 03/40!" Sweety reminded me. Deto! Running out of time!

"He is with the Undead, in their home, over there." She pointed calmly at the O hive, a misty silver, barely visible through the driving rain. "It is Love's Child, a beautiful little boy of ten summers, and I will not face his parents if we leave him behind. If you leave him behind, you leave me behind, Slayer!"

"Fire psybloc, deceptors and smoke," I ordered. "Give us some cover." The psybloc erupted all over the field between the O's and us, flashing and popping. It would protect us from their psych projections and give them a blinding headache too. The deceptors screeched wildly, shooting all over the field. The smoke rounds burst in gigantic fluorescent multicolored clouds, screwing everything up beautifully even in that heavy rain and wind. We were going to be hard to spot. I almost hoped it would goad them into firing. That way we'd be able to blast them to bits.

"Omnis have ceased advancing, Thinker, mag fields now going up, no psych projections yet." Sweety reported. Her sensors were better than mine—the deceptors hid us from them, but hid them from us as well.

"Thinker, Redhawk. D has boarded. We're now boarding C."

"Thinker, countdown is 04/12."

"Redhawk, prep for a hostile air attack," I said. "They've got to know we're here. Crash load! Fast as you can!" I was stalling for time, something we didn't have. I had no idea what I was going to do, but I knew it would all be up to me—and me alone.

"Countdown 04/37."

"Thinker, Redhawk. C's boarded. All right, crash load! Get 'em on board, Dragon, now now now! Boarding Site B, tenners, yeee-ow! B has boarded, confirm, tenners, boarding A, where the hell are you, Thinker?" We burst out of the doorway into a strong gust of almost horizontal rain, a rising mud storm swirling all around us as the
Kiss
winked in and out of visibility, balanced on air, splattering us with debris. The crash door was wide open and I picked up Moontouch bodily and tossed her in—Dragon caught her and threw her into a tangled mass of bodies like a sack of grain. Rabies and Jo-Jo grabbed Deadeye and Stormdawn and hauled them in like fish. Somebody else yanked me in when I jumped, I don't know who. The crash door slammed shut. The interior was jammed with a squirming mass of bodies, female Takas and Outworlders, half of them on top of the other half, screaming and crying with shock and joy and relief and terror.

"Countdown 04/48!" Two fracs to go and this place will be history!

"Redhawk!" I shouted. "Cancel launch! Your new target is the hive! Get over there right now, the far side, main entrance, hover right in front of it and prep to blow it all to hell but hold your fire."

"What the hell, over?"

"You heard me! Do it—now!"

"Countdown 05/00! Recommend immediate evac." Perfect, I thought. We're all going to die.

We ripped right over the smoke and psybloc and deceptors and the five armored O's and cut our way through that wild rain as more lightning lanced down to illuminate the horizon. Redhawk brought the Phantom down gently to hover just like a gigantic, invisible bat, a few marks above the muddy turf, roaring like a volcano, the earth and the hive vibrating like an earthquake, the
Kiss
unleashing a tornado of swirling mud and rain and dirt. All the power of the Legion was focused on that great, crystal silvery hive—every shining facet was humming with our coiled, awful, elemental, fatal power, the power of a star, just instants, just fracs away, just one finger's gentle touch and it would vanish in microfracs, antimat annihilation, a blinding flash and all your worries were over, forever.

"I'm going in, Redhawk," I said, popping the crash door open and leaping out to land in a splash in a flooded field of mud. It was still raining, but it seemed to be letting up a bit. "If the O's fire, just blow the whole hive away and don't stop until everyone is dead." I felt as calm as if I was in a dream. None of it seemed real to me. Weak lights from the hive lit up the main entrance. The area outside the entrance was littered with trash and debris—all sorts of discarded equipment and containers, empty and full. An air effects sled shot away from the building, only half full of what looked like dropboxes, pursued by a couple of O's on foot who were paying no attention to me or to the invisible tornado that was ripping up their front lawn.