Legion

by Devin Cain

"Weapon out, Levi. And you, summon your Armament. Or at least a part of Atlas, just like I did with my arms," I ordered and activated Lucifer and Khepri.

  "You make it sound so easy, don’t you?" Samson growled as he brought both hands up in front of him. "Atlas, lend me your power!"

  I was about to burst from laughter but caught myself at the last moment. Even though it was an awkward way to activate the partial transformation, it worked. His arms bulged outward, and his overall body size grew double in size.

  "What’s with Atlas and bronze? He sure likes to play shiny," I joked punching Samson’s shoulder playfully. While it didn’t hurt, the man seemed like he hadn’t even felt my half-assed attempt. He sure looked like Atlas was bred for him.

  "You want me to shoot?" Levi interrupted.

  "Yeah, go ahead. Two HE’s into the barricade. They’re about two hundred feet ahead of us, so it shouldn’t be that hard to hit them," I said and put up my arms defensively.

  "Here goes," Levi said as she dropped to the ground along with the rifle, loaded a bullet seemingly from nowhere, and fired it. The loud boom shook the narrow corridor as the bullet streaked straight for the enemy. To my surprise, none of the enemies ran, even when the bullet struck and flames were everywhere.

  "Are they even alive? Shit, come on, Samson. We need to see this," I ordered leading the way. The heat and flames dissipated before we arrived, leaving only charred bodies behind. Only it weren’t Gebradim bodies that awaited us, but Human ones smeared in a strange oozey liquid that gave them their identical color to the Gebradim.

  "Shit. They may have been dead already, but it doesn’t make me feel any better," Samson cursed before he turned to Levi. "Come see," he shouted for her to move in.

  A peculiar scent hung in the air, something I couldn’t place. Was it vanilla? The super sweet scent disoriented me for some strange reason.

  "What the hell is it with this shit?" I cursed.

  "You smell it too?" Samson asked. "Thought it was just me."

  "Oh god, what the hell is it with this stench?" Levi added as she came running.

  "No idea," I replied, looking around. "At least it doesn’t look flammable, or there would have been explosions. Whatever, we need to get up there and kill everything before Devil can consume the ship."

  "Okay," Samson replied, staring up at me all puppy-eyed.

  "Okay? Get your ass up there!" I barked.

  "Oh, you want me to go first?" he asked.

  "No! Maybe we can send Levi ahead. Would you like her to do your job for you?"

  "Oh, hell no!" she hissed. "My insides still hurt, you nasty bastard. Get up there and see if it’s safe!"

  Samson murmured something about slavery and climbed up the gaping hole.

  "All clear!" he said over our tapper. "Let me check the corridor." We waited for a few seconds before Samson spoke again. "Come up. There’s no one in sight."

  The insides of the Gebradim ship looked every much as Devil, except for the very tall and wide corridors. Even stranger was that were no Gebradim in sight. The lights were dimmed to a little more than darkness, and the air felt very stale.

  "Shit, Samson, any idea of the ship’s layout?"

  He stared back at me as if I’d just asked him how Devil’s propulsion system worked.

  "You had no idea what we were getting into?"

  I shook my head.

  "What the hell did you expect? That I knew what I was doing? Hell, I just joined the legion a couple of months ago."

  "Me too, me too!" Levi chuckled. Both Samson and I stared at her for a moment, then shook our heads.

  "What the hell did you do to her?" I murmured. "Never mind, don’t answer. Levi, can you gain access to the ship?"

  "Sure. What do you want to know?"

  "Is there anyone left alive on the ship? If so, where and how many are there?"

  "Hmm, okay, give me a moment. I’ll need to have access to any kind of terminal in order to do that. Go find one."

  "Samson, take point."

  He groaned but followed the order and moved out. The door opened ahead of us with a loud hiss, letting first Samson through, then me and finally Levi. We were again greeted by a muted silence and smooth, metallic walls that looked like they’d been polished to a high gleam, and almost served like a mirror. The three of us really did look frightening to the naked eye, or we would have if another Human saw us.

  Samson waved for us to follow, so we did. The light fixtures overhead looked very strange in comparison to Devil’s equipment, and almost looked like eyes, the way they squinted. We soon stumbled on a wall screen with a console. Levi took her place next to the board and produced a small device as the two of us took up a defensive position to either side.

  "Hmm, I have no idea what to do. I don’t understand shit," Levi whispered. "It’s all some kind of signs and inverted letters and whatnot."

  "Ask Nyx. Her previous host was a Gebradim. I inherited military prowess and knowledge from Lucifer as well as language from Khepri, but only hearing, not reading."

  She nodded and stood there, whispering and nodding her head, as if she’d lost it. Then her fingers started moving over the small device she produced. It took her only half a minute to get the screen on and bring up a schematic of the ship.

  "Shit, just look at the layout. Who the hell came up with this?" I murmured. "It’s fucking stupid. The middle looks like a big egg surrounded by a wide corridor. So this thing goes all the way around, no?"

  "No, you’re wrong, commander," Samson said. "If all of their forces were to focus on one particular area and dug themselves in behind barricades and walls, we’d have a much harder time taking it over than if they were all over the place. Just imagine what five hundred rifles would do to you instead of a few."

  I frowned, annoyed his logic, but the man was right. I may have inherited some military experience, but if I had no idea how to use it, what good did it do? Another thing to make sure to take care of when I had the time. I had a lot of learning and reading to do in my downtime.

  "We’ll need to have some strategy sessions when we get back. For now, what’s the best entry point? Can you try to find us something, Levi?"

  "Hmm, let me see," she said, roaming with her finger along the corridors and the hatches, then stopped at a point which looked very small on the chart compared to the other entrances. "I think this here might be a back-door or an air duct. It drops from the upper floor directly to the Command room or something. I’m not sure. All of this is quite new to me."

  "Tell me about it. What part this whole situation would be normal to anyone—well, normal?" I asked. "Anyway, how do we get there?"

  "At the next corridor we go up and all the way to the end. We need to find the entrance there. It should be high up from the way this schematic shows."

  "Oh, by the Devil, you people are a bunch of useless creatures," Devil groaned in my mind. "You assault a ship without any previous knowledge or preparation. How do you expect it to work?"

  "Whatever. Just shows how useless the stuff is I inherited from you. How come all of it didn’t make me a commando or something?"

  "It’s not my fault you have no idea how to use the gifts I bestowed on you, Human. Now, when you fight the next Armament user, don’t destroy or eat the head. I’ve got an idea for his parasite."

  "Why?" I asked curiously. I had already planned to do so, but hearing him asking was a new thing for me.

  "I bet you already know what kind of Armament he is, no? A doctor and a researcher foremost. If we gave him to the right person, we’d be on a fast track to improve our own military assets, and in more ways than one."

  "Very well, I’m glad we think alike on this matter. Can I trust on you taking over if the need arises?"

  "Sure. I’m quite interested to see where the doc can take this, though. Now, how about you three move it before they decide to come out."

  "Come out? Why would they do so now?"

  "They’re asleep at the moment. The Gebradi
m do so in their mating chamber which is located next to the command bridge."

  I cursed and balled my fist.

  "Hey, what’s going on? What you hissing and growling for?" Samson asked, putting his meaty paw on my shoulder.

  "All of the Gebradim should be asleep and guarding the bridge from what I just learned," I replied and stared back at the man for a long moment. "Levi, lead us to the air shaft. The Gebradim might wake up any moment, fresh and healed if we don't hurry the fuck up," I said, pushing her in the direction of our new destination.

  Chapter Twenty-One

  The corridors looked mostly identical to one another, at least until we arrived at the northernmost point. What awaited us there, was something out of this world; an observatory unlike anything I’d seen before. The walls were non-existent and fully translucent. It felt hard to the touch but had a smooth texture to it.

  "Just look at that," I whispered, staring down at Gebradim Beta. The brown-yellowish planet was mostly a wasteland. Or at least it looked like one with the absence of oceans. A couple of blue lines here and there, along with a couple of blue basins was all the water of Beta. Dark grey and muddy blotches covered a good portion of the northern hemisphere and looked cold in comparison.

  "Yeah. From what I know about the briefings," Samson coughed. "Sorry. Anyway, they don’t need much water. About a gallon for a month, be it salt or sweet water. That’s insane, no?"

  "Tell me about it," I murmured. "Shit, we need a gallon every couple hours. Wish I had their metabolism."

  "Trust me, you don’t," Levi said. "They’re disgusting, and basically can’t have any sex. A mother or queen need to lay thousands of eggs each cycle. That’s the only way to procreate. At least that’s what I found out from the archives. There’s a lot more info up there, but I didn’t find it particularly interesting."

  "Whatever. Let’s open the air shaft and proceed with the mission. I want this shit over with," I ordered and turned from the splendid sight that had been occupying me for the last minute.

  "Samson, can you push me up? I don’t think I can get up there by myself," Levi asked, looking up at the vent opening some ten feet above her. The big man lifted her with as much ease as if taking a single breath. I was up next to follow up there. For some strange reason, the air duct was much more stable than any other I’d seen up to the point, and easily four by six, or Samson wouldn’t have fit up there.

  "I think it’s down this hole," Levi whispered as we approached a wide gap and pointed down at the dark room. The absence of light wasn’t enough for me not to notice the stirring bodies down there.

  "No shit," I whispered and turned to look at Samson. "Big guy, I got a plan. You’re not going to like it, but that’s tough luck. Are you up for it?"

  Samson stared back at me blankly.

  "You offer me up and then ask me if I’m up for it. What’s there not to like?"

  "Good. Jump down there and use your shockwave attack. It should knock most out, or maybe even kill them. Then I jump down after you, and we kill anything still standing. In the meanwhile, your lady here shoots at anything moving. Except for us. HE shells against groups, and ordinary ammo on single targets. Any questions? Good, move it when Levi’s in position."

  "I’m starting to dislike you," Samson murmured as he knelt beside me. "You’re lucky Atlas told me how to use the Seismic shock ability, or I’d tell you to buzz off."

  "Is that how you speak to your Commander?" I joked.

  "No. But you’ll pardon me for not giving you head just because you came to be in Command. I’ve been here for a couple of years and have gone through all kinds of shit. Once we’ve fought and bled together, I’ll have more respect to throw around."

  "Hmpf! Sure thing, soldier. I can’t wait to see them spill your guts all over the deck. Now get your ass down there and clean house."

  Samson smirked, showing me two rows of mostly good teeth.

  "Yes, sir!"

  His body changed slightly, after which the arms turned to meat-grinding machines in mid-drop. He ran up to a barricade and exactly four seconds in, a massive, bright explosion rocked the walls and the air duct. Screams and gunfire picked up immediately after, along with loud curses and growls.

  "Can you take care of us?" I asked before I turned to the hole beneath and dropped. I had no idea what she’d replied, but I could only imagine it being snarky when it came to Levi. I took a deep breath and dropped down right on a dead Gebradim, grinning from ear to ear.

  I looked around, trying to memorize the layout in one glance and noticed Samson pressed hard to my left. To my other side, was a large group of Gebradim trying to get up from the shockwave. Multiple were thrown on their backs, and it was a damn delight seeing them struggle.

  "Need help?" I asked, shooting a harpoon from my left palm and struck two of his attackers. I tried to shoot again but forgot about the damned limiter of fifteen seconds and an energy bar that was at zero. I’d need to pummel of them to death before I could shoot another. This was something I would need to remember.

  "What do you think? There are hundreds of them!"

  He was right. No matter how strong we were, I didn’t see a good way out of this. Unless I could get hold of the Admiral and kill him in front of his men, they might lose the will to fight. I looked around again, trying to spot the bastard, but there was no strange-looking Gebradim to be found.

  "Khepri, use me for a moment and call the bastard out. Tell him I want to offer him a deal, one he can’t deny."

  "Are you sure? I don’t think he’s the kind to risk his skin. Oh, and I know what you’re trying to do, but this particular deity is a scheming bastard, if I may say so."

  "Whatever. Just do it," I snapped and hurled a Gebradim claw at another assailant on Samson’s right, then turned to pummel the ones around me. The energy bar raised about a third with each hit, and the moment I was done ripping four of the enemy troopers to shreds, the bar had stopped at 330 percent. Reading my thought, Devil spoke.

  "Yes, you can shoot three javelins one after another without the need to build up energy. The highest you can go is five stored javelin’s."

  "Thanks, I appreciate the fact you’re just telling me now," I replied and threw myself at another Gebradim trooper. I felt bad for the bastard as I killed him in two hits.

  "Asclepius, I know you’re here! Show yourself!" Khepri shouted in their language. To me, it sounded just as my language, but then again, I had inherited their language after devouring Khepri. An inherited ability from Khepri? He was rather fresh when I ate him.

  Nothing happened as the fighting went on. Instead, a minute in, the Gebradim tried even harder shooting their weapons and coming in close and personal. I had no chance but to attack the right half of the room as they were harassing me too badly. Samson would be on his own for a while.

  Loud booms reverberated from overhead as Levi started laying down covering fire. Immediately, the stench of burnt flesh took over as Gebradim burned alive by the dozens. It was a good tactic to huddle up, but not when your enemy could attack more than one, and the incendiary rounds were overpowered against ordinary troops.

  "Asclepius!" Khepri shouted again. "I’m Khepri! Would you like to take me back to your queen?"

  "What?" a voice from behind the tallest barricade roared. "My brother is dead?"

  "Oh, yes! I ripped his head off clean and feasted on what little brains he had!"

  There was no moment of reprieve, and there was no moment of a cease-fire. More guns joined the fire-fight by the second as they awoke and got their hands on a rifle, defending their ship against the intruders. Round after round struck my arms and hardened body, keeping me occupied and on my defense. The pain was slowly getting to me, but I couldn’t give up, or Samson would be overwhelmed.

  "How long until you can use Seismic shock?" I asked, shooting a javelin at a particularly nasty trooper, and darted behind a pile of the dead Gebradim. Grenade blasts rocked the area where I’d just been standing and sent a
torrent of flame my way.

  "I need to sustain enough damage so I can use it again. Maybe a minute or two?"

  "How about now?" I asked and shot a Gebradim rifle at him, but it bounced off. "Shit, you’re too hard, my friend. Hold on," I said, aiming my left palm. Five, four— here I go!" I laughed, shooting a javelin at his hip. The projectile scratched his skin’s surface, scraping the outer layer badly, but deflected into a group of Gebradim attacking him. I turned to the enemy and peppered their line with bullets, lunged past the barricade and flew right at them with my left claw out to meet them. I lost myself for a long moment, ripping at limbs and heads as I kept watch over the javelin counter. Again I turned to Samson and released a javelin. He snapped his head around and growled.

  "Stop it! That shit hurts!"

  "Yeah? See if I care! Use the skill!"

  "I can’t!" he shot back and slammed his meaty fist into a wounded trooper’s skull, shattering it.

  "Levi. Shoot him with two normal rounds. Now!"

  "No! Are you insane?"

  "That’s an order, soldier!"

  "Fuck you and your order!" she yelled and fired a bullet my way.

  "Levi!" I shouted. "I’m going to rip Nyx from your spine once we’re done here!"

  "Nyx? Atlas? Did you kill my younger brother and sister as well? Oh, cowards! Oh, monsters! Oh, Demons! I will kill you myself!" Asclepius raged and crashed right through the wall.

  I peeked over the dead bodies and gasped. A six-armed gigantic Gebradim stood there with four rifles in his hands and two honest to god katanas. Sure, the edges released a fiery glow and were energy-based, but they looked just like the weapons from old.

  "You are one ugly motherfucker!" Samson growled as he grabbed two Gebradim and used them as a living shield against the energy blasts. I used the time to study the creature some more. It was easily two heads taller than the previous Atlas host I fought in the training bay, as well as broader. His orange and brown skin seemed like it was about to burst open as his muscles tore against the black armor.

  "Shouldn’t Asclepius be a geek doctor or something? That thing looks more like a Kraken than a fragile doctor!" Levi joked as she fired an HE round at its chest. The bullet exploded, washing him in searing flame, but the Gebradim didn’t seem to feel it.