Andromeda's Fall (Legion of the Damned)

by Dietz, William C.

  The march took the column across a shallow lake and through a mile and a half of thick jungle before delivering them into a clearing. From the look of things, fire had been used to clear a landing zone, but time had passed, and tendrils of green were pushing their way in from all sides. Within a month, the open area would disappear.

  There was a hillock off to one side, topped by three four-foot-long metal stakes, and it didn’t take a genius to figure out that they were crude grave markers. A crash site was visible beyond that. Had the gunrunners been killed during a particularly difficult landing? Or attacked by frogs while on the ground? Someone had survived, or so it seemed to McKee, since the indigs weren’t likely to set up grave markers. So where were they? It was impossible to know. But the presence of a dilapidated shack perched on pilings suggested a rudimentary base of sorts. Perhaps the survivor or survivors had been rescued by another shuttle.

  “This is as far as we go,” Hasker said as Fox came to a stop well short of the clearing. “Do not, I repeat do not, enter the cleared area. It could be booby-trapped. And even if it isn’t, our footprints would be visible from the air. We want to ambush the bastards, not chase them away.

  “Corporal Anders and I will select positions for you. Once placed, you will maintain radio silence, restrict your movements, and wait. If we’re lucky, the runners will put down in the middle of the LZ, and we’ll take them out. Over.”

  What followed was interesting, to McKee, anyway, who was busy learning everything she could. The noncoms set up an L-shaped ambush that would put the gunrunners in a cross fire but minimize the chances of a friendly-fire incident. That part was easy. The more difficult challenge had to do with hiding so many heat signatures which, if spotted from above, would be a dead giveaway. With the emphasis on “dead” since an incoming shuttle could hose the entire clearing with cannon fire and kill most of the company in a single pass.

  The key to avoiding such a disaster was thin pieces of high-tech material that the recruits could pull over themselves. They were called heat exchangers. Each “sheet” was equipped with a microprocessor that was woven into the fabric and capable of raising or lowering its surface temperature to match the air around it via thousands of tiny cell-like nanos.

  Although these preparations were interesting, what followed wasn’t. Time slowed to a crawl once she was belly down in her FP. Insects invaded her clothes and bit her. And as boredom took over, situational awareness suffered. She woke up and was shocked to discover that she’d been asleep. A group of large weed-eating herbivores entered the LZ, paused to look around, and waddled into the jungle. The sun arced across the sky. And as the light began to fade, Hasker gave up.

  “This is Alpha-One . . . It looks like the bad guys took the day off. The first platoon will continue to play defense while the second eats. Then we’ll switch off. The plan is to clear the area by 1600 hours local. We’ll camp a couple of miles to the west. Over.”

  McKee produced an appreciative groan as she threw the heat exchanger off and stood. All sort of things hurt, but that was nothing compared to the need to pee. Once that problem was resolved, she hurried to break out an MRE, ate the scrambled eggs and ham cold, and was surprised by how hungry she was.

  Twenty minutes later, it was the first platoon’s turn to scratch what itched, slather antibacterial ointment on their insect bites, and go on crotch patrol. Many people, McKee included, preferred to handle that chore privately. But there were some, like Pacheck and one of her friends, who paired off into teams.

  Then it was time to go back the way they had come. But not exactly, so as to avoid any traps the frogs had put in place during the last eight hours or so. Darkness found them in a swampy area, where it was necessary to harvest reeds in order to have something to keep them up out of water. Hasker wanted to cut saplings and construct a defensive ring around the company’s position, but he knew it wasn’t realistic. The troops were simply too tired.

  So the platoons were scheduled to sleep four on and four off with the T-1s patrolling the perimeter. Their sensors were set on max, and they had permission to “. . . grease anything that moves.”

  And because there were lots of nocturnal life-forms on Drang, they were kept busy all night. The noise generated by their fifties firing on full automatic was strangely comforting and helped McKee fall asleep.

  A few hours later, she rose to find that she and her fellow recruits were surrounded by a sea of dead bodies. The T-1s had not only killed anything that came close but all of the larger creatures attracted by the buffet of dead flesh. There was nothing scientific about it. Just the raw application of firepower. But effective though the strategy was, the recruits couldn’t rely on it for long. Not without a lot more ammo than they were carrying. McKee wondered if the frogs knew that.

  All the humans could do was break camp and head for the firebase as quickly as possible. So as Chu waded out into the water with his fifty at the ready and Corporal Anders riding high on his back, the resulting waves caused dozens of dead bodies to roll from side to side and undulate. And as the second platoon followed, McKee was forced to go around the larger carcasses and let the others caress her legs as they slid past.

  It was gruesome business, and McKee was about halfway across the pond, and passing under the branches of a tree, when the attack came. About 10 percent of the “dead” bodies suddenly came to life, frogs dropped from above, and two indigs arrived on the water-slicked backs of battle-trained herbivores. They made trumpeting sounds as they charged out of half-hidden grottoes and stomped some of the recruits to death.

  The surprise attack resulted in a horrible chaos, in which Hasker shouted orders that no one could take the time to decipher, frogs slit throats, and recruits fired wildly. “Aim, damn you, aim!” Hasker shouted as McKee blew a slick-skinned frog away and felt another land on her back.

  Rather than battle the warrior, who was much stronger than she was, McKee brought the AXE up to her shoulder and pulled the trigger. The sound was nearly deafening even with the helmet on. But the arm that had been wrapped around her neck fell away, and there was a splash as the indig fell back into the water.

  McKee saw Chu charge one of the giant herbivores. The T-1 was firing, but the bullets had no perceptible effect on the two-ton monster, which simply absorbed them.

  There was a monumental clash as the cyborg attempted to club the monster with his weapon, but the swamp beast hooked the T-1 with its nose horn and tossed the legionnaire into the air. There was an explosion of water as Chu landed. The cyborg tried to recover, but couldn’t, and as he sank below the surface, McKee realized that Anders was still on board and trapped beneath the war form.

  She was pushing her way forward, intent on a rescue, when Chu exploded and blew the monster into bloody chunks. They splashed as they landed. It wasn’t clear if the demo charges the cyborg had been carrying went off on their own or had been detonated.

  Meanwhile, the frogs had been able to divide the company in two, with the first platoon gathered around Fox and Hasker. They were in relatively good shape but separated from the second platoon, which was spread over a large area and battling to survive. And it wasn’t working. Bit by bit, the second was being whittled down.

  McKee didn’t think about what to do—she just did it. And was surprised to hear her voice on the radio. “This is Alpha-Two-Three . . . Rally around me. Form a square and face out.”

  McKee had seen the formation in the training vids they had been forced to watch and knew it had been used for thousands of years. Much to her surprise, the other recruits obeyed her order, and as they began to gather around, they brought the wounded with them. “Place them inside the square,” McKee ordered. “Okay, defensive fire only, and stay with me.”

  The square was lopsided. It came apart, re-formed, and lost integrity again. But she was there to shout and cajole. She was towing a wounded recruit with one hand
and firing bursts from her AXE with the other as a line of frogs surfaced and charged straight at them. The indigs were close, very close, but wavered like reeds in a stiff breeze as the hail of bullets struck them.

  Then they were falling as McKee yelled, “Now! Left flank, march . . .” She was rewarded by something like a stampede as the surviving members of the platoon made the turn. Another recruit was helping to support the wounded soldier by that time, but it wasn’t until they were up out of the water that she saw who the recruit was. A two-foot-long section of spear was protruding from Larkin’s left thigh, and his face was contorted with pain. “Leave me a weapon,” he said. “I’ll take some more of those bastards with me.”

  McKee frowned. “What? So you can win a medal? Bullshit. Hey, Peters, Mendez . . . Make a litter. Larkin needs a ride. And let’s get some dressings on that leg. He’s leaking.”

  It took fifteen minutes to prep the wounded and get organized. The frogs launched a number of feints during that time, but they had taken hundreds of casualties and lacked the numbers required for an overwhelming charge into machine-gun fire. Meanwhile, the second platoon had lost contact with the first platoon, which meant they were on their own.

  Having assigned herself to the point position, McKee followed the map projected on her HUD back toward the firebase. The journey would have been only a few miles had they been able to travel in a straight line, but the need to stay out of deep water nearly doubled that, and the bloodred sun was sinking in the west by the time Hasker and the first platoon were able to rejoin them.

  Hasker was riding Fox. He eyed the muddy faces, the improvised stretchers, and the way the men and women of the second held themselves. Their weapons were ready, they were properly spaced, and at least half of them had wounds of some sort. He nodded. “You are some tough troops. Welcome to the Legion.”

  CHAPTER: 6

  * * *

  We must accept that the enemy will penetrate through and between our forward formations and so we must be prepared to destroy him . . . by the resolute use of mobile forces . . .

  FIELD MARSHAL SIR NIGEL BAGNALL

  Commander in Chief, British Army of the Rhine

  Standard year 1984

  PLANET ADOBE

  “If the empire has an asshole, this is it,” Larkin said as McKee and a detachment of sixty legionnaires clattered down a metal ramp and onto Adobe’s orange-red soil.

  “No, that would be you,” Pachek responded cheerfully. She laughed, and Larkin glowered. The relationship between McKee and Larkin had changed during the weeks since the battle on Drang. Thanks to her efforts to get her fellow recruit out of the swamp, and the swift medical treatment that followed, he’d been back on his feet in a matter of days. And since she had taken care of him, Larkin was determined to take care of her.

  So even though McKee didn’t care for Larkin’s moody, hair-trigger ways, he had her six. And by that time she had concluded that having a weird friend was better than not having any at all. “Where the hell is everyone?” a legionnaire named Wiley inquired. His B-1 bag produced a puff of dust as it hit the ground. The group was standing in the shuttle’s oblong shadow, and the nearest structures looked as if they were at least a quarter of a mile away.

  “Something’s coming this way,” Choa said as he squinted into the glare. “Maybe they’re coming to get us.”

  McKee looked to the north and saw that Choa was correct. A column of dust was spiraling up into the clear blue sky. And it wasn’t long before a pair of 6 X 6 trucks arrived. They were painted with the Legion’s desert camo pattern, wore the 13th DBLE’s insignia, and rattled loudly as a sergeant opened the passenger side door of the lead vehicle and jumped to the ground. He was short and stocky. His white kepi, khakis, and desert boots were spotless.

  McKee hoisted her B-1 off the ground and waited for the order to fall in. But there wasn’t one. That was when she realized that she and her companions weren’t considered to be recruits anymore. They were legionnaires, which meant their relationship with the Legion’s noncoms had changed. And Pachek, who had served in the marines, knew that. “Hey, Sarge,” she said. “You lookin’ for draft 481? ’Cause if you are, that’s us.”

  “Glad to hear it,” he replied. “Welcome to Adobe. And yes, it’s always this hot. Okay, split up. I want half of you in the first truck—and half in the second.”

  It took the better part of fifteen minutes to load the trucks, turn them around, and head for the distant cluster of buildings. Having boarded truck two and taken a place on one of the two bench-style seats that ran front to back, McKee found herself looking out across the seared landscape. Some hazy bluffs could be seen off to the east. But the rest of it was a flat, monochromatic plain.

  She was struck by how surreal the situation was. It felt as if the original her had been left behind, the way a snake sheds its skin, so it could grow. Was that what she was doing? Growing? McKee hoped so, but maybe she was hiding and nothing more. Still, she had survived an all-out battle on Drang, and that was more than the previous her could claim.

  Her thoughts were interrupted as the trucks slowed and came to a stop in front of an inflatable hab. The neatly stenciled sign out front read COMMAND AND SERVICES COMPANY, THE 13TH DBLE (13TH DEMI-BRIGADE DE LEGION ETRANGER). McKee knew, or thought she knew, that she wouldn’t be assigned to the 13th DBLE, but couldn’t be sure. Her sights were set on becoming part of the famed 1st REC (1st Regiment Etranger de Cavalerie). It consisted of about five thousand legionnaires split fifty-fifty between bio bods and cyborgs.

  But would her efforts to manipulate the legion’s aptitude tests work? Sergeant Hasker’s recommendation would mean a great deal, too—but she had no way of knowing what had been entered into her P-1 file. The result was a rising sense of tension. “All right,” the sergeant bawled. “Everyone out. Line up in alpha order. Bring those B-1s and follow the yellow line.”

  What ensued was a long, tedious process as the incoming draft followed the faded yellow line into the hab and from station to station. There was a stop to update their P-1 files, a visit with a bored medic, and a two-minute session with a specially trained “sky pilot” who was available to provide instruction in eight different religions. The concept struck McKee as laughable, and judging from the comments she heard, her peers agreed.

  But even if the check-in process was somewhat tedious, the hab was air-conditioned, and as Larkin put it, “I’d rather be in here than riding a T-1 all over the desert.”

  Larkin was standing behind McKee. She turned to face him. “You put in for the 1st REC?”

  “Of course.” Larkin’s lopsided grin was the same one McKee had learned to hate back on Esparto. “Where you go, I go. That’s how it is with us.”

  “But what if they put me in another unit?”

  “They won’t,” Larkin said confidently. “Hasker not only recommended you for a cav unit but put you up for lance corporal. Everybody knows that.”

  McKee stared at him. “I don’t.”

  Larkin looked smug. “Yeah, I know. Maybe you oughta talk to people a little more.”

  McKee turned back toward the front of the line. By then, she had learned that there were very few secrets in the Legion. Somehow, some way, word of what was going to happen always leaked out. The problem was that the “scan,” as the legionnaires referred to it, was frequently flawed. So while the rumor that a particular unit was slated for a load-out might be true, the destination could be Algeron rather than Earth, and the two planets were very different.

  In spite of what Larkin thought he knew, McKee’s fate was anything but certain. And making a bad situation worse was the memory of Drang and the synth that had been sent to look for her. Was she being tracked? The suspense continued to build as the yellow line led her into an office labeled PERSONNEL.

  The staff sergeant seated behind the desk was female and looked up from her te
rminal as McKee stopped in front of her. “McKee, Andromeda?”

  “Yes, ma’am. I mean sergeant.”

  The noncom had short gray hair, an aquiline nose, and a no-nonsense mouth. The name tag on her desk read SSGT. A. TRAVERS. She made a steeple out of her fingers and frowned. “Sergeant Hasker rated you as outstanding. He even went so far as to recommend you for a medal. That’s ridiculous, of course. We don’t award medals to recruits. So forget that.

  “However,” Travers continued, “Hasker put you in for lance corporal. That’s unusual, but not unheard of, and I see no reason to get in the way. Don’t spend the extra thirty-two credits per month all in one place.

  “That brings us to your MOS. You requested a cavalry slot, and you’ve got the necessary test scores, but the system flagged you for tech school. How ’bout it, McKee? The cyberschool is located on Earth. It’s a helluva lot cooler there. And when you come back, you’ll be a qualified gear head, a shoo-in for tech sergeant, and a very popular lady with all the ’borgs. Sound good?”

  McKee was tempted for a second, but only a second. Earth was a very dangerous place for a member of the Carletto family to be. “No, thanks. I’d rather fight.”

  “All of us fight when the shit hits the fan,” Travers responded dryly. “But I know what you mean. And we don’t force people to attend tech schools. So take your orders, follow the yellow line out to the pickup zone, and look for a vehicle from the 1st REC.”

  There was a whirring noise as Travers touched a key, and a sheet of hard copy emerged from the printer on her desk. “Good luck,” the noncom said as she handed it over. “And congratulations on your promotion.”

  McKee felt slightly light-headed as she left the office. Not because of the promotion, which, though higher than private, barely meant anything in the military scheme of things. No, her sense of relief stemmed from surviving a contact with officialdom. Fortunately, there hadn’t been any questions about her identity. And she was about to join the famed 1st REC! A regiment where the war forms manufactured by Carletto Industries would be all around her. McKee found that to be comforting, although she would have been hard-pressed to say why.