Legion

by Devin Cain

  The robot creature remained silent for ten whole seconds before he spoke again. It made me more than a little bit nervous, but anything he could demand would be worth it.

  "Have the five ships joined your cause?" he asked.

  "Not yet. There’s a little under half an hour left for them to come up with a reply. Once they do, I’ll know what we’re working with."

  "Good, Admiral. We will talk after those thirty minutes are over. After all, we do not want to influence anything except our own survival."

  I smirked. The robot was devious and cunning. It was obvious the Quazzarian inside him was much more than just a means to ends; he may even be in control to an extent.

  "What do I call you next time we speak?"

  "You can call me whatever you wish once we’ve agreed. I believe I told you this once already."

  "Yes, you have. I thought it might have been time to come up with a name," I laughed. "But yes, we’ll contact you soon again. Please stand by."

  "What do you want us to do if they wish to battle you?" he asked before I cut the comms off. I raised an eyebrow, caught off guard by the offered assistance.

  "Can you fight?"

  "Yes, Admiral, we can. Our weapons systems are fully operational."

  "Then support us and try to disable the other vessels. But only if it comes to that. Speaking of which, Helena, relay that order to the other two ships right after we’re done here."

  "Yes, sir," she replied. The line cut off and I almost felt sad for the fact. I rather liked this creature for some strange, perverted reason. If only I knew what was going through his mind. "Message relayed Admiral. The others are taking up a position behind us."

  "Good, now all we have to do is wait."

  "Easier said than done," Samson growled. "You guys can talk for ages. Shit, I’m glad no one put me in command, or I’d be going crazy!"

  "You already are crazy," I could hear Levi whisper."

  "For you," Samson replied a bit louder than intended. The bridge erupted in laughter. We couldn’t help ourselves, it was cute in a way to see such a big guy open up to such a small woman. "Yeah, yeah! Just you laugh! I’ll ask you one day when you’ve found the right one how it feels to be around them!" he barked and started laughing himself. I couldn’t help but join in. Genuine laughter, we needed so much more of it, and yet rarely got to have any.

  "Should we let this go? I don’t think it’s smart to have men and women in the same outfit—do things that could compromise their loyalties from the legion to their partners. Imagine if someone had Levy and Gremory, he’d choose his girl over Gremory, even though that would be the wrong thing to do."

  "Not for him," I replied, putting my arm around her. "Look, we’re not the real military, we’re a legion without a name, a group of misfits trying to survive long enough to find ourselves a new home. I can’t be too strict with everyone, at least not yet. Maybe we could put up some rules later on, like one of the partners needs to stay back on homeworld or something similar."

  "We will need to do it, but yeah, I agree. For now, we’ll need to cut them some slack, " she whispered while fumbling with my hair. "Speaking of which, what if we gain access to the new ship? Don’t tell me you’re moving out there and leaving me to captain Devil."

  "No, you’d go with us, of course, but I doubt it. Somehow, I have a bad feeling about all of this. It could easily go either way."

  "Admiral? We’ve got movement. The old legion ships have now been marked as hostile and are moving in on an intercept course," Esma said. "What are your orders?"

  "Indulge them," I replied.

  "No need, let me take care of it," Gabriel said, appearing behind me.

  "Gabriel? What do you mean?" I asked, standing up. "I don’t want them all dead, I want them disabled."

  "Then disable them I will. There’s no need for us to sacrifice any of our ships."

  I stared the Angel deep into his ocean-blue eyes. There was no way to know if he was honest with us, but this was a good starting point, I guessed. If he did everything well, I might start trusting him more.

  "Go do it, Gabriel. Disable their propulsion systems and their engines, but try to keep the damage to a minimum."

  "Very well, Admiral. Your wish is my command."

  The Angel blinked out of existence as if he’d never even been here in the first place.

  "Esma, track him! Do we have any way to zoom in on what he’s doing out there?"

  "No, it’s too far away. We might get some blurry images, though," she replied.

  "Good, give me anything you can."

  It took her twenty seconds for the cameras to start tracking him and tail wherever he went.

  "By God, he’s going faster than any missile we can throw at the enemy," Vladimir, the weapons officer stated. "He’s going two times—no, three times faster!"

  I was about to whistle but held it in as he made contact with the warships. The carrier was hit first. It reeled from the blow, combined with secondary explosions. What fighters managed to take off flew circles around the ship, trying to take potshots at Gabriel, but that was about as much as they’d manage to launch.

  "He’s fast," I whispered. "Just look at him go."

  "Why do we even need fleets when a single person can disable them?" Kris asked.

  "Because of—reasons? Look," I replied as a beam from the capital ship’s main battery struck him right on and slammed him into the carrier. We didn’t have a clear enough image, but no matter what he was, it must have hurt.

  "Shit that looked bad!" Kris hissed, but just then, Gabriel shot out toward the capital ship’s main guns and flew right in between them, all the way over the hull as he avoided smaller bombardment and the fighters. He dropped off the hull and into the exhaust flare like it was nothing, and disappeared from sight. Seconds felt like they had turned to hours as we waited for him to come out again, but then a massive explosion lit up the space surrounding the ship and went black again.

  "Sent them an order to cease fighting," I ordered. Kris nodded and turned to Helena.

  "They’re not responding, Admiral. I don’t think they’ ll—wait, I’ve got the men in charge of the remaining battleships on the line!"

  "Gentlement, power down immediately and stand down, or you will be dealt with just like the other two ships."

  "Sir, we—it took us too long to wrestle back control from the aliens. The fighting is still going on, so any help you might offer us would be heavily appreciated."

  "So you know about them?"

  "Yes, Admiral. We have a way to distinguish them, but we aren’t armed for in-ship fighting."

  "Very well. I’ll send five teams your way to take care of them. They’ll look like monsters, or something in between a Human and a monster in any case, so you know who’s coming to help. Once they’ve docked, accompany them with clearing all the ships."

  "Yes, Admiral. Thank you!" the young man replied. A nasty-looking gash ran from the top of his nose to his forehead. He held himself calm, airing authority, no matter his young appearance.

  "Samson, have the two active Raid leader’s sortie. You and two more will follow them with a platoon each of the mutated soldiers. It’s time to see what they’re made off."

  Chapter Forty-Eight

  I felt bad for being left behind, but as everyone kept saying, delegate and then delegate some more. If someone could take care of your problem, first you let them do so, then came the rewards. That’s the point of having people around when speaking from a position of power.

  "Come sit with me, don’t be so tense," Kris whispered as Samson left the bridge, Levi close on his heels. I did as suggested, trying to push my excitement to the back of my mind. After all, we still had two very important people who were down in Gremory and Khavvrin.

  Gabriel started flying circles around the ships and took down two of the fighters before the remaining five disengaged. They powered down and floated dead in space. It was such a strange feeling, having someone fight f
or you and die to follow your orders.

  "This is so not me," I said as Kris inched closer to me and put her hand on my knee. "I should be out there, killing stuff."

  "No, you shouldn’t. You’re right where you’re needed. Speaking of which, do you want to speak with the mechanoid and give him a name?"

  "Yeah, patch me through, Helena."

  "Right on it, Sir," she replied and started hitting some buttons on her screen. "You’re through, Sir."

  "McGregor!" I boomed as the mechanoid’s now familiar, metallic voice replied.

  "I beg your pardon, Admiral?"

  "Your name. It’s gonna be McGregor!"

  "McGregor? Do you have a reasoning why you’ve chosen that name?"

  "He was a friend of mine. We grew up together back on Earth before he died in gang violence. He loved robots and spaceships, so I only thought it appropriate."

  "Very well, Admiral Cain. Would you like me to come down to the ship? Or will you visit me on this dreadnought again?"

  "I’ll come over, but this time you show and tell me everything. I already told you, I don’t need you to be my slaves or whatever, but I do want a certain degree of loyalty. I’ll give you what you yearn for, a planet to expand on, but you will help us with everything we might need from you. And before you say no, some of my people will have to merge with some of your suits when the time comes."

  "That’s—acceptable, but I have a better proposal. How about I give you a suit of your own, so to say? We’ll build a suit from scratch, the best one yet and hook it up to your conscience so you can use it merely by way of thought. Would you like that?"

  "Oh, now you caught me off guard, Mc!"

  "Mc?"

  "Yeah, short for McGregor. Isn’t it better like that?"

  "Whatever you say, Admiral Cain."

  "Please, call me Cain. Now, once we’ve taken back control over the ships, we’ll start repairs to get them back up and running. Can your people assist with that task?"

  "Yes, we can. There are hundreds of small worker robots that need to be activated, though we’ll need a source of raw materials."

  "Right. Does any of the planets around here have any ore deposits? Or are there any asteroids we could use?" I asked. I knew we’d need to make repairs, but would we even be able to do so here?

  "Yes, but there are not enough materials to do it within a day. The worker robots will need twelve days by my projections. Would you like for me to send them over?"

  "Please do. I’ll have my troops keep watch over the repairs and over anyone who might cause them trouble. We need to get to our next destination as quickly as possible."

  "I see. Where is this destination, Admiral?" Mc asked, his voice sounding slightly friendlier from what I could hear.

  "I’ll tell you in an hour when I’m back on your ship again. Until then."

  The line closed, leaving us to our silence. I turned to Esma and opened my mouth to speak.

  "Esma? How bad is the damage caused by Gabriel?"

  "I—our sensors aren’t that good, Admiral. But I’ll try and do my best."

  "Or we could ask them directly," Kris proposed.

  "No, not before our troops have hit the deck. We remain silent until it’s all cleared up."

  "What do we need to do?" she asked curiously.

  "Get the dreadnought in order and relocate some of our mutated troops. We also need to hold an execution starring Cafka in the main role, check up on Gremory and Khavvrin."

  "You’re right. When and where do you want the execution to take place?"

  "Oh, outside on the hull. We’ll have cameras watching and recording, and then I’ll proceed to smear his body all over the hull. I want it to be a reminder for all who come after us."

  The double doors hissed open, letting in rumbling laughter.

  "What the hell? How are the two of you already up on your feet?" I asked as Khavv and Gremory walked in.

  "Doc did something to the Fermaline. It works much better now than it used to," Gremory replied as she stepped up to me, putting her arms around my neck and planted a kiss on my lips.

  "Are you sure that everything’s—"

  "Shh. What’s the situation?"

  "The robots are our friends, it seems, and we’ve taken out the other ships. Platoons of mutated troops are flying over to weed out the aliens. Once we’re done, the mechanoids will help with the repairs so we can move on."

  "So, what now?"

  "Now? You and I go out and execute Cafka. Once that’s done, we go over to the robots."

  "Oh? You really want to go down this path?"

  "Yes, I do. This needs to be done, and if we want to stay safe in the future, if we want to tell everyone to stay away from us, we can’t let emotions lead us."

  "If you say so, Admiral. But I think it’s exactly emotions that are guiding you right now?"

  I turned away from her to face Khavvrin and offered the man my hand.

  "Raid leader," I said as he nodded his head slightly and took my offered hand, "Thank you for saving our Lady Death. I personally owe you a great debt, never forget that, so when you want to collect, come and find me."

  "Admiral, it was my pleasure. You’ve given me a new purpose and second chance at life, so no, Admiral, it’s me who owes you."

  "In that case, have someone bring Cafka to the airlock in the training bay. Gremory and I will be waiting there."

  "Sir!" Khavvrin snapped a salute and stormed out, looking ready to bite someone’s head off. Five minutes later, he escorted the scum, handing him over to us. I grinned, having wished for this moment more than once. Maybe I should wait until Levi and Samson had the chance to pay him back, but I’d record everything for them.

  "You don’t want to do this! I could be of much help to you! I have money, I have riches and powerful friends!"

  I raised my right eyebrow, suddenly interested in what he might have to offer. That didn’t mean that I’d let him off the hook, but we did need to set up a certain system for money. Having a deposit, currency, and valuables might help with that.

  "I see. How much do you have, and don’t tell me it’s on Earth. If it is, we’re not going back."

  "No, no! It’s not on Earth. In fact, it’s only two systems over! There’s a big company that’s on my—lover’s name. We have accumulated approximately around four-hundred billion in gold, diamonds, and other expensive things. I also have a big safe full of jewelry! The most expensive kinds you can’t buy in stores!"

  "I see. Say, you could actually do something else for us. Buy an installation that can mint coin and paper money. You’ll put it up on a cargo-hauler, fill it up to the brim with whatever we can use, and in return, once it’s out of the system, my man here will set you free."

  "No! I don’t trust you! Set me free and I’ll give you what you want!"

  "Khavv, can you pinch him just a little bit?"

  "No, no! Don’t! I’ll give you what you want! Don’t kill me!"

  I couldn’t help but laugh like a madman. It was such a delight to see such a man who used to think so highly of himself, and who used to torture and kill for fun, degraded to such a level.

  "Tell me, Cafka, how could such a nasty, murderous creature as yourself, turn to a weak, and whiney bitch?"

  "You have no idea what life means, little boy!" He snapped. "Life offers so much more than just food, drink, hookers and, well, whatever you think is worth it. Technology is advancing so fast that in a couple of yours, I’ll probably be able to get my sons back just using my DNA! Can you imagine that? Getting your loved ones back? See, if you let me live, I’ll have what I loved most in the world."

  "And you’ll start doing what you used to all over?" I snapped.

  "No! I promise I won't, but I want them to lead a rich, healthy life, so please let me keep some of my riches!"

  "Sure, if you give me your word. And remember, we can always track you down, so don’t even think about lying to me."

  "I swear!"

  Gre
mory’s scowl only deepened to the point she waved her hands around and stormed off.

  "Khavv, he’s your responsibility right now. Make sure he doesn’t do anything stupid, and that we get what we’re supposed to."

  "Yes, Admiral," Khavv saluted and pushed Cafka in the opposite direction of where Gremory had gone off to. I couldn’t help but feel like the king of the world. Everything was slowly coming together, now all we needed to do was finish our talks with the mechanoids and get to Beta. From there we got only one stop left, at Entraxila.

  "So, this is how you look like," I smirked as McGregor rose to his full height. He was easily fifteen feet tall, even higher. If I could compare it to anything, it would be from cartoons I used to watch when I was younger, something very similar to robots in a series of cartoons where the robots were called Gundams. But this was something else entirely, as this robot had a mind of its own, and didn’t need anyone to pilot it.

  "I didn’t want to intimidate you earlier into doing something you didn’t wish yourself. But what you see now, is what we’ll gift you once we arrive on the planet."

  "Say, do you know about Armaments? And the system other alien races use?"

  "I do. Why do you ask?"

  "Let me show you, but don’t freak out."

  He took a step back in the enormous cargo bay and brought his robotic arms up. I grinned and started changing, turning black like tar as wings sprouted from my back. McGregor let out what could pass for a burst of rumbling laughter as he lowered his hands.

  "You’re quite strong yourself. What should I call you, Admiral? I’m quite sure that you’re not a normal Armament, as you just called it. I’ve seen a few. "

  "Then you know how good a fit we are. Just imagine combining an armament with one of your—bodies. Do you think that would be possible?"

  "No. I don’t think it’s possible to do that. We can merge our bodies to minds of a living creature, those who already have experience walking, talking, moving and fighting, but not to—what you just said."

  "Doesn’t matter, it was farfetched in any case. Now, what do we need to do for us to become more than just—someone who helped each other?"