"Guys, I need to speak to Tribune Tanner."
"Sorry, Sir. Orders. No one is to disturb," one of the guards said.
"I´m Adjunct Wang. Please, just tell him I´m here." After a moment´s hesitation the guard who had spoken, spoke into his wristpad. Another moment passed, and then he nodded to Ethan.
"He´ll see you, Sir, but only if you´re quick about it. He´s on the bridge."
Ethan didn´t need to be told twice. He hurried past the guards and entered command deck. He continued on until he got to the bridge, where more armed guards were posted. They clearly knew he was coming though, and opened the door for him. He walked in and immediately spotted Tanner, who was speaking to another officer. As the officer hurried on to something else, tanner looked up and spotted Ethan. He waved him over.
"Ethan, come over here," he said.
"I take it you´ve heard about the accident?"
"Sir, I heard there was an accident, but that´s about it. Where are we? What happened? How long did we sleep?"
"I don´t have all the answers yet, Ethan. For now we´re just trying to save the ship. But something did happen, which caused us to end up far from where we intended."
"This isn´t Vega?" Ethan blurted. Tanner chuckled.
"Hell no. I don´t know where we are, not yet, but we´re surely not anywhere near the Vega system."
46.
Ethan spent a few minutes on the bridge, watching the hectic activity with fascination. He had never aspired to be starship crew, but while he was content with being a grunt, he found space travel fascinating.
"All right then," Tribune Tanner said as he came over to Ethan again, "The ship is safe for now, so we can breathe again." Ethan let out a breath of relief.
"So, have the navigators found out where we are, Sir?"
"Yes they have. We´re in a system that doesn´t seem to have a name yet, further than we had hoped for. The navigators claim that something got us kicked out of the wormhole, or space tunnel, something that shouldn´t have been there. In fact, we may actually be in a parallel universe to our own, although that´s pure speculation at this point. Who knows how we´re ever going to get back to our own universe if that´s the case... Well, that´s for the navigators to figure out. For now, the ship is damaged, but the engineers believe they may be able to repair it if we manage to enter the orbit of a nearby planet. However, they say they need everybody out, in order to have the energy needed to make the necessary repairs. I guess life support for non-essential personnel isn´t a priority at this point. So, in a few hours we´ll evacuate the ship, and make landfall on the nearest planet. And this is where it gets strange." He paused.
"Sir, that seems like a sound strategy. What´s so strange?"
"The atmosphere looks breathable, the temperature is right for humans, there´s water down there. It´s almost perfect. Too perfect to be an accident. I mean, what are the chances? This planet is an ideal place for humans. It´s a stormy world, but other than that it´s like a sister world to Earth."
"That is strange," Ethan said, "but it´s a good thing though. Especially if the repairs take time."
"They will, most likely."
"Sir, I should get back to my platoon. They´re probably up by now."
Ethan turned and walked toward the door.
"Ethan, just a moment," Tanner said, and came over.
"I really don´t think this was an accident at all," the tribune said. "I believe this must be the same saboteur who destroyed the transport back in the Luyten system." Ethan´s eyes narrowed.
"Are you sure, Sir?" Tanner shook his head.
"No. That´s why I´m telling you. You were on the transport, where the saboteur first struck, and my guess is that this person is someone who was watching you guys closely back there. Someone planned for this, and there may be more surprises waiting for us. We do not know the saboteur´s motivation, but at least we can narrow down the candidates a bit. I want you to keep your eyes open and report anything out of the ordinary to me personally."
"I will, Sir," Ethan replied, before he turned and exited the bridge.
47.
The A hangar was one of four great hangars where the transports and dropships were quickly being readied. The transports would be able to bring some heavy weaponry and supplies, but with limited capacity. For the most part the ships would be carrying legionnaires. Ethan´s platoon crammed into one of the dropships, along with another platoon. This was within the carrying capacity of the dropship, but only barely.
"This is going to be tight," Ariel said. Ethan looked at her, knowing that her fear of flying was taking its toll right now.
"Don´t worry, Ariel. We´ll be fine. The ship´s designed to take this."
"Adjunct, where are we anyway?" one of the legionnaires asked. Ethan shrugged.
"Don´t know, Legionnaire. Don´t care much either," he lied. "Just focus on the task, and let the brass worry about all the rest. We´re legionnaires; we drop where the brass tells us to drop."
He felt a stirring as the dropship moved. The main hatch locked shut, and a red light came on above it. A few seconds later a klaxon blared as the hangar doors opened, venting air into space. Once the pressure was equalized, the klaxon was shut off, and the dropship began hovering. Then he felt a surge as they were catapulted out. Soon after they were captured by the planet´s gravity well, and began dropping toward the surface of this unknown planet without a name.
48.
The journey to the surface was quiet enough at first. As they fell deeper into the atmosphere though, the major difference from Earth that Tribune Tanner had mentioned became apparent for all. This was a stormy world. Earth had its share of rough weather as well, but this planet seemed to have almost constant hurricanes. In the upper layers of the atmosphere this didn´t mean much because of the dropship´s own velocity, but as the ship slowed they began to get tossed around by the aggressive winds. Ethan looked at Ariel. She had been promoted to decurion on Ethan´s recommendation just before they left the Luyten system, and she had been given command of Decurion Snow´s old squad, after Snow was reassigned to Centurion Lyons´ staff. As squad leader she was supposed to be the tough one, the one the squad turned to whenever they needed reassurance. Now though, Ethan saw his friend was on the verge of panic.
"Ariel," he said on a private channel. Luckily, they were wearing helmets and pressure suits, keeping their communication private. "Get a grip. The ship is fine, it was designed for way rougher conditions than this."
"How can you be so sure of that?"
"Because it´s true. Remember whenever any of the old-timers mention Oxtaba, how they all talk about the drop? Well, the winds make this drop feel rough, but in reality the winds don´t matter all that much, except perhaps when we make actual landfall. For now what matters is atmosphere density. A thick atmosphere, like that of Oxtaba, is dangerous because it puts enormous strain on the heat shield. And while the heat shield is designed to withstand a lot more than even the conditions of Oxtaba, that is an actual weak point. It matters. This, here, is not a problem."
"But it feels like we´re about to lose control. You sure this isn´t a problem?"
"Yup, I´m sure. It feels bad, but this is not a problem. Did you know that even on Oxtaba the Legion didn´t lose a single ship? Well, some got blown out of the sky by enemy air defense, sure. But that´s not what you´re worried about, right? Ariel, just try not to worry about the drop. The pilots have got this. Just... put on your toughest face. They won´t be able to tell it from the real one, the one they see every time we´re in combat. Okay?"
Their eyes met, and she nodded without another word. That was enough for Ethan. He didn´t need fearless legionnaires, in fact he didn´t want them to be. But he needed squad leaders who could reassure the others, and be an example to follow. Right now, if that meant putting on a tough face and fake it, that would work as well as a real one.
The Jumpmaster entered, steadying himself by standing wide legged and holding a tight grip on
the handlebars on each side of the cockpit door.
"Thirty seconds to landfall," he said, and everyone turned toward him.
"I want everyone to stay strapped in right until the green light comes on. This weather is a bitch, and I don´t want any casualties while we´re still airborne. Got it?"
"Yessir!" sixty something voices replied in unison.
"Good." He looked at his wristpad and began counting.
"Twenty, nineteen, eighteen..."
49.
The last moments before landfall were harrying, with winds rocking the dropship around. Everyone were tightly strapped in, but even so, one legionnaire managed to get his hand jammed between the hull and a piece of loose equipment. The guy screamed so loudly, Ethan thought he must have broken something, but there was no time to get help for him.
The dropship landed and the fierce rocking ended. There was another movement though, and Ethan realized the winds were strong enough to make the ship move even after landing. He waited, and watched until the light above the hatch turned green.
"Everybody out, stay low, fan out and form a perimeter!" He felt like he had to shout above the wind, even though they all heard him on speakers inside their tightly sealed helmets. He stepped outside, weapon ready, and took up position near the dropship hatch. They had landed near the edge of the night side of the planet, and even though some light had begun to penetrate the darkness it was still hard to see more than a few meters away. They expected there to be life here, maybe even intelligent life. Since they had no way of knowing whether any intelligent life forms would be dangerous, the dropship kept its floodlights turned off, in order not to betray their position.
An angry gust got a hold on him, and made him lose his balance for a moment. That was enough to send him crashing into a legionnaire standing next to him.
"Goddamn, stupid, windy shithole," he cursed. Then a hand helped him steady himself. He looked up, and saw Helena´s face behind the helmet´s visor. His cheeks flushed.
"Better stay low, Adjunct," she said, flashed him a quick wink, before she was all business again. He nodded, and then checked the preliminary report from his suit´s life support systems. Everything confirmed what they had suspected on board the Hellfire: Breathable air, similar to Earth´s, no harmful elements. He decided to hold off on the news until later. Better safe than sorry. He waved Senior decurion Sharon over.
"Levi, I need life scan data; radar, heat, methane, the works."
"Just a sec, Adjunct." Sharon turned away for a moment to check in with the legionnaires working the scanners. Then he turned back to Ethan.
"Sir, we´ve got signs of life less than a thousand meters from here. We´re sending drones, and I expect to have more data in a few minutes."
Ethan nodded, and switched his comms to the common channel, so both platoons would be able to hear.
"We have life signs less than a click away from us, and have already dispatched drones to check it out. Once we have more data we´ll know what kind of life forms it is, and hopefully whether or not it is a threat. For now though, we´ll stay put, and wait."
He didn´t wait for answers, but a moment later he heard the voice of Adjunct Terry Patterson, the leader of the platoon they had shared the dropship with.
"Adjunct Wang, don´t you think we ought to move out, check out whatever is out there, instead of sitting around the ship?"
"We don´t know what it is yet," Ethan replied. "If it´s hostile they probably already know we are here, but if it´s benign we might scare them enough to attack anyhow. And either way, I don´t want us charging in without a plan."
"Okay then, we´ll do it your way, for now." The comms clicked and Ethan was left to wait once more.
Time felt like it was crawling, and Ethan was beginning to think the drones wouldn´t return, when Sharon´s voice came on.
"Sir, it´s a village of humanoids! Looks like peaceful creatures, mainly low tech, and they have some sort of farming community around the village." Ethan smiled inside his helmet.
"Good, then we´ll make contact, but carefully, so we don´t scare them off. Let´s..." Sharon cut him off.
"Sir, there´s another life form nearby, different but also humanoid. Lots of them. It looks like they are attacking the villagers as we speak. They have already slaughtered several of them, and they seem to... Eat them..."
Ethan felt a chill run down his back.
"You are saying the villagers look like good guys, and now they are being attacked by another species. One that eats them?"
"Yes, sir. The attackers have paused their attack to feed on the dead villagers. They even have some of them taken prisoners. They are... torturing some of them."
That´s it, Ethan thought. He might be wrong about the situation, and other officers might choose to stay out of the fight, but all his instincts told him he couldn´t. He had to pick a side, and from what Levi Sharon was telling him, the choice was obvious. He pinged Adjunct Patterson.
"Adjunct, did you hear the report?"
"I did. You were right to hold us back, Wang. We should stay out of this."
"No way, Patterson. The villagers are getting slaughtered. We need to help them."
"Adjunct Wang, I am your senior, and this is an order. We stay put, and don´t get mixed..."
The conversation was interrupted by a loud bang, as something crashed into the dropship behind them. Ethan looked closer. A large rock had put a slight dent in the side of the ship. A moment later, another rock flew through the air, and landed on top of an unlucky legionnaire standing less than ten meters away from him.
"So much for staying out of the fight," he growled. Adjunct Patterson had already left the channel, and Ethan opened up another to his platoon.
"Legionnaires, we are under attack. We need to locate the enemy and engage. Any visuals?"
"Five o clock, Sir," someone said. "That´s where the rocks come from."
"Two o clock, enemies approaching," another said. "Shit, there must be hundreds of them!"
"They´re behind us!"
Surrounded, Ethan thought. Well, they were legionnaires; they were supposed to be surrounded. He brought his weapon up, and aimed toward the darkness outside the perimeter. The first of the enemy came into view, and Ethan immediately recognized them to be humanoid, just like the villagers. More rocks hammered down around them, sometimes hitting a legionnaire, or the dropship. The enemy came closer, there had to be hundreds, no thousands of them. A wave of creatures, looking a lot like humans, but thinner, hairless, with slightly larger heads, large protruding eyes and clawed hands.
“Damn, those fuckers are ugly!” Senior decurion Sharon growled. Ethan didn´t say anything, but watched as the aliens came steadily closer. Their weapons were primitive, but their numbers... Someone on the far side of the perimeter screamed as the first enemy wave crashed into them.
"Sir, they are everywhere!" someone said. Ethan squinted at the closing enemies, and spoke on the common channel.
"Legionnaires, this is it. Fire at will!" Ethan fully expected these to be his last words as he took aim and squeezed the trigger.
50.
"Watch out for those rocks!" Ethan said. "They will kill you just as dead as any missile." Then he switched channels.
"Adjunct Patterson, we need to pinpoint where those rocks come from. We can take them out, but we need to be quick about it."
"Agreed. I´m working on it. Just a sec." Ethan waited, and could only watch helplessly as another legionnaire was hit by a falling rock, her heavy armor crushed by the sheer weight. A barrage of rockets shot upward, and flew above the attackers. In the distance he saw a series of flashes and less than a second later he heard the rumbling sound of many explosions. The comms squeaked again, and he heard the voice of Adjunct Patterson.
"Legionnaires, we won´t have to worry about falling rocks any more. Now we just have to kill the sons of bitches." A few legionnaires cheered, but most were too busy firing at the oncoming aliens. Ethan belonged to the latter
group. He emptied his weapon, reloaded, and kept firing, occasionally barking an order to one of his squad leaders, or to a soldier standing nearby. Seconds became minutes, and when the attack paused for the first time, he checked his wristpad. Half an hour had passed since landfall. He looked behind him, and realized the dropship was dented by several impacts. Did the enemy think they could take out a military spaceship by throwing rocks at it?
He shook his head. This was a primitive enemy. As long as the enemy`s superior numbers didn´t overwhelm them, the legionnaires should be fine. But he had noticed a few weak points where the legionnaires hadn´t been able to hold the enemy at a distance. Once they got close enough they could be dangerous. He saw one legionnaire clutching the stump of a hand that had been ripped right off. Another was having his shoulder bandaged, to stop the bleeding from what Ethan could only imagine would be wounds from claws or fangs.
He bent against the wind and moved closer to one wounded legionnaire. Blood was running down his thigh, just where the armor jointed. A weak spot, and the enemy had taken advantage of it immediately.
"They are primitive, but intelligent," the medic treating the wounded man said, and turned toward Ethan.
"It´s obvious, isn´t it? They don´t have much in the way of technology, but give these creatures a few centuries to develop, and they will be on our level. They must be at least as smart as us, if not smarter."
Ethan agreed. The potential of these creatures would have scared the hell out of the Lumins.
"Sir, the aliens are coming at us again," he heard SD Sharon on the comms. He gritted his teeth, and found a position alongside a group of legionnaires. The wave of enemies coming toward them seemed endless, but after the first fight, he knew the legionnaires should be able to hold them off. As long as they didn´t run out of ammo or let the enemy break through in too many places at once.
Rogue Legion Page 9
