Slave of the Legion
( Soldier of the Legion - 3 )
Thomas S. Marshall
The O's had killed two billion humans. Beta Three wanted revenge. The Mound was in his sights. "There's no way the O's are going to inherit this world. It's going to glow in the dark first." When squad Beta is sent on a recon mission to Uldo in the Gassies, they find the Omni's--deadly aliens with unstoppable psychic power loose in the wrong universe. In a snowy landscape they discover the Mound, a massive, mysterious structure built by the O's. Approaching, they find the way lined with the impaled bodies of innocent humans. Allying with the infamous System against a common enemy, the Legion has decided the O's that have never been stopped, will be--on Uldo, at the Mound. Praise for Soldier of the Legion Series "Marshall Thomas returns with the second installment in his military science fiction series detailing the adventures of the soldiers of the Legion, in particular those of Beta Squad, as told by Thinker, a young man who embraces his fate to live or die for the Legion....Thomas has created an intense view of the future, designed and populated over twenty years worth of work. If you like military science fiction in the style of the classic pulps, chances are you'll enjoy this series." --Thunder Child Science Fiction & Fantasy Web Magazine "A perilous, exciting space saga, Soldier Of The Legion is enthusiastically recommended reading for fans of the science fiction action/adventure genre." -- Laurel Johnson of Midwest Book Review
Slave of the Legion
This book and parts thereof may not be reproduced in any form, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form by any means—electronic, mechanical, photocopying, or otherwise—without prior written permission of the publisher, except as provided by the United States of America copyright law.
Ridan and its logo are copyrighted and trademarked by Ridan Publishing. All rights reserved.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are products of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any similarity to actual persons, organizations, and/or events is purely coincidental.
A Ridan Publication
www.ridanpublishing.com
www.soldierofthelegion.com
Copyright © 2010 by Marshall S. Thomas
Cover Art by Michael J. Sullivan
Starcharts by Hatton Slayden
Editing by Carol Woods
Layout Design by Michael J. Sullivan
ISBN: 978-0-9829180-0-5
PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES
First Printing: May 2010
To the American grunt
and to all our soldiers, sailors, marines and aviators serving around the world, and police and firefighters at home: May God walk by your side as you go in harm's way.
"People sleep peaceably in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf." — George Orwell
Praise for the Soldier of the Legion Series
"Marshall S. Thomas excels at creating memorable characters and horrifying, realistic battles in dark territories far from home. He skillfully shows readers the physical and psychological toll taken on the warriors who sacrifice everything to keep humanity safe. Each battle fought for humanity's cause, whether won or lost, brings Beta closer to a strange salvation. These futuristic warriors, like those of their past, face horrifying violence so others can sleep peacefully in their beds at night without fear. Thomas makes it clear that war is not all guts and glory, and that's why I say his Legion series is exceptional."
— Midwest Book Review
"Though a part of a series, the author has done an excellent job of bringing the reader right into the story making it possible to enjoy without having read the previous book(s). Not always an easy task, but done marvelously well with this book.!"
— Writer's Digest
Books in the Soldier of the Legion Series
Soldier of the Legion
The Black March
Slave of the Legion
Secret of the Legion
Cross of the Legion
Curse of the Legion
For more information visit
www.soldierofthelegion.com
MAPS
Crista Cluster, 1,400 light years from Sol
When the first Outworlder refugees approached the Outvac fleeing System oppression, the Crista Cluster beckoned them onwards with a view that appeared to form a starry cross in the vac. ConFree's ancestors settled those worlds as a free people and vowed in a Constitution written in blood to uphold liberty, justice and freedom, no matter what the cost, and to remain eternally vigilant against all forms of tyranny and slavery. The ConFree Legion was formed to accomplish those objectives.
PART 1
MARCHING IN THE MUD
Chapter 1
An Island in the Vac
"ATTENTION UNREGISTERED STARCRAFT! YOU HAVE ENTERED A WAR ZONE! YOU ARE PRESUMED HOSTILE BY MILITARY UNITS OF THE CONFEDERATION OF FREE WORLDS! IDENTIFY YOURSELF IMMEDIATELY OR WE WILL FIRE!"
"ATTENTION STARSHIP P.S. MAIDEN! IT HAS ENTERED AN ACTIVE COMBAT ZONE WITHOUT PERMISSION, IN VIOLATION OF USICOM INTERSTELLAR SHIPPING REGULATIONS! THIS IS DEFCOM ULDO COMMAND! REQUEST AN IMMEDIATE EXPLANATION OF ITS PRESENCE!"
"ATTENTION STARSHIP P.S. MAIDEN! THIS IS DEFCOM ULDO TRAFFIC CONTROL! PROCEED IMMEDIATELY INTO THE ORBIT INDICATED AND DO NOT DEVIATE OR YOU MAY COME UNDER ATTACK BY HOSTILE OR FRIENDLY FORCES! THIS IS AN ACTIVE COMBAT ZONE AND WE CANNOT GUARANTEE ITS SAFETY! PLEASE NOTE THAT ITS ALL-THREAT INSURANCE HAS NOW BEEN CANCELLED!"
"ATTENTION!" the ship informed us briskly, "WE ARE BEING TARGETED FOR ATTACK! LEGION FIGHTERS LOCKING ON! AUTOFIRE AND ANTIMAT TORPEDOES LIVE AND LOCKED! DEFCORPS FIGHTERS ALSO LOCKING ON—LOCKED! ARMAMENT LIVE AND LOCKED! SYSTEM STARFLEET CRUISER ALSO LOCKING AND TARGETING! ULDO PORT DOWNSIDE DEFENSIVE SYSTEMS ALSO LOCKING ON AND TARGETING!"
The messages boomed through the Personal Ship Maiden, rattling the cenite walls; they came so fast that there was barely time to breathe, much less respond. We had just exited stardrive, quite a respectable distance from the Uldo System, but apparently not quite far enough. We had plenty of reasons to be worried about our reception, especially from the Legion. The P.S. Maiden was, by now, well known as a slave ship, and there was nothing the Legion liked better than killing slavers. We were hopeful we would get enough time to explain our presence in this particular ship.
"Welcome to Uldo," Dragon grinned. I could tell he was feeling at home already. Dragon was almost certainly the perfect Legion trooper. War was his natural element. I felt better when he was around, even though I knew he was a professional killer. He had curly black hair, deeply tanned skin and the look of a hungry tiger. He was practically irresistible to the ladies. Colorful tattoos decorated his knuckles and earlobes.
"Attention, Legion units," Tara called out. "Please hold its fire! This is the Personal Ship Maiden, registered with USICOM. We are a private yacht, transporting a Legion element back to its parent squad. Attention, System units, we are under Legion control and are not here voluntarily. Repeat, we are not hostile—please hold its fire. We are complying with its orbit instructions." Tara lived a dangerous life. She was on the Legion death list as a notorious slaver, but I knew she was also a secret Legion asset. She was an old friend, a stunningly beautiful, half-Assidic girl with lustrous auburn hair, pale brown flesh and mysterious Assidic eyes. I prayed for her soul, every day of my life.
"ATTENTION SYSTEM STARSHIP P.S. MAIDEN ! MAINTAIN YOUR COURSE TO THE REQUESTED ORBIT! PREPARE TO BE BOARDED BY LEGION UNITS!"
"Confirm, Legion. We are maintaining course."
"Look—there's Uldo!" Whit called out. It loomed dead ahead in the bridge viewport, a tiny, shimmering green orb, encircled by a s
ilky, sparkling ring of cosmic dust. A lovely world, I thought—another precious haven for our fragile species in a hostile universe. Uldo—the name was familiar. They had told us about Uldo in Basic. What had they said?
"Well, we're alive so far," Whit commented. Tara's XO was a slim little blonde who had just undergone a perilous ordeal on Katag, a Systie world she recently visited due to a combination of greed and stupidity. We liberated her with duplicity, violence, murder and bribery. I hadn't enjoyed it one bit. But we owed Tara—and now Whit owed us.
"Deadman," Dragon said. "Look at all the traffic!" I glanced at the orbital readout. The screen flickered with a bewildering array of brightly-colored, multilayered orbital tracks marked with ship designations, data readouts and warning notices. I had never seen such a crowded screen. Thousands of spacecraft were circling this world like deathbirds over a corpse. A dull wave of resignation slowly washed over me. We were home at last, I knew, and this was exactly where we belonged. A world was dying, momentous events were underway below; we were to be dropped right into it. Squad Beta was down there somewhere, in the mud, and we were going to join them. Only then would I feel complete, encased in an A-suit, with an E in my arms.
"A Legion cruiser—look!" Priestess was excited, trying to decipher the layers of rapidly changing data blinking on the d-screen. Priestess was a Legion medic and my eternal love. She was a slim, lovely girl with silky black hair and limpid brown eyes. I had no defenses against her.
"Legion fighters—look at all those fighters!" Dragon sounded pleased. He was back in his element, all right.
"Deadman, look—look at that carrier!" I said. "And that's a Legion battlestar!"
"Major Systie forces as well—I don't believe this! There can't be that many ships!"
"Some of those are deceptors, guys—a lot of deceptors. Don't forget, there's a war on."
"Who are those guys?" A shower of red sparks, falling slowly down to the atmosphere.
"Those are the O's," Tara said quietly. "You remember them from Mongera."
"Look—an engagement!" The screen lit up. Antimats, winking on and off, and a ship, suddenly gone.
"Who was that?"
"I didn't see it."
"Well, they're gone—whoever they were." Cosmic junk, sparkling on the screen. Blink once and you're gone. They taught us that in Basic, too.
"Legion fighters still locked on," the ship informed us. "System forces have lifted lock-on." This was certainly a first. The United System Alliance was cooperating with the Confederation of Free Worlds to combat the Omni horde. I disapproved—I didn't trust the Systies for an instant. But I was only a Legion trooper. Nobody cared what I thought.
Uldo grew slowly in the bridge viewport as we approached. It was a galactic jewel, an icy green pearl with a ring of diamond dust. I knew nothing of Uldo at that point except that it was absolutely beautiful and had been chosen as the battleground where the Legion was going to stop the Omni advance.
"Quite a battle in deep space—look at that!" Off beyond the orbiting spacecraft the screen sparkled with antis, as hunter packs of Legion fighters darted into swarms of Omni ships. The battle for control of the vac was still underway.
Well why not, I thought. If we are to die, let it be for Uldo. I had no home except the Legion. And Uldo was so lovely—symbolic, perhaps. An island in the vac, besieged by the Horde. Fine, let us die for Uldo. Our fathers died fighting the O's—now it's our turn.
"P.S. MAIDEN, STAND BY TO BE BOARDED BY LEGION UNITS! PREP YOUR PORTS FOR DOCKING, AND UNLOCK YOUR HATCHES! IF THERE IS ANY RESISTANCE, WE WILL BOARD YOU FORCIBLY. ACKNOWLEDGE!"
"Legion, this is P.S. Maiden," Tara said silkily. "We acknowledge the message and we welcome the boarding party. Please turn down the volume; we are complying with all its instructions."
"Commander, we have a very bad feeling about this. Remember we're still on the death list." Pandaros's image appeared on the comscreen, tense and grim. He was a Cyrillian, ebony skin, sharpened white fangs and slit eyes. He was not an admirer of the Legion, and the Legion did not think highly of him, either. After the Mongera raid, the Maiden had been released from Legion custody with promises that the ship would no longer be actively pursued. But the names had to remain on the list to cover the Maiden's assistance, and it made Pandaros very nervous.
"Sub will just have to trust us, Pandaros," Tara replied coldly. "We survived the last encounter with the Legion, and we'll get through this one as well. We have made certain arrangements which shall protect us all."
"We'll lose the Maiden, Commander."
"We expect that, Pandaros. But we'll get it back. Stop worrying, and make the Legion welcome. We will survive."
"If it's wrong, we die."
"We're never wrong, Pandaros. Sub should know that by now." Tara cut the connection abruptly.
###
"Looks fine, troopers. We'll shuttle you downside to the milport." The Legion officer handed me back our orders. He was fully armored, gleaming black cenite and dull red faceplate, balancing an E on one hip. The boarding party was securing the ship. Pandaros and the crew were under detention, and Tara had locked the man-ape Gildron into the brig, just to avoid any misunderstanding.
"May we speak with it, sir?" Tara shook her hair away from her face. Her arms were tied behind her back. Whit was beside her, also secured, cold sweat on her brow, hardly daring to breathe. Two Legion soldiers in A-suits had taken their places on the bridge.
"Shut down, Systie," the Legion officer snapped back, then turned to me. "How did you do it, guys? That's a hot drop, showing up in a Systie slaver—these people are all in the Black Book. You've done humanity a great service."
"Do you have a few marks, sir?" I asked quietly. "We'd like to talk about that."
"Sure, boys—this is one story I'd like to hear."
"Somewhere private, sir. I'd suggest the Commander sit in as well."
"The slaver? You're joking—what for?"
"It's important, sir."
"Well…curioser and curioser. All right, sure. I guess it won't matter. She'll be dead by morning."
Chapter 2
The Wheels of History
But Tara was not dead by morning. On the contrary, she was accompanying us as we headed deeper and deeper into the gaping tunnels of the Legion's Uldo Milport, underground tunnels carved by amtacs out of earth and stone. We were on foot, plodding through deep sucking mud, clad in new camfax coveralls, trying to make sense out of a dispo tacmod that was supposed to guide us to the replacement depot. Aircars whooshed past every few moments, rocking us with blasts of icy air. Crude lightmods crackled harshly from the dirt ceiling, dazzling our eyes and casting long black shadows as we trudged forward, Dragon and Priestess and Tara and me. We were followed by Gildron, his massive bulk encased in an extra-large camfax cloak. Gildron wasn't human. He was from some unknown world, but served as Tara's bodyguard and companion. His huge head appeared to be crudely carved from stone, and he peered out at the world under thick brow ridges. His body was covered in long, tangled hair. He didn't seem to be too bright, but you sure didn't want to make him angry.
The grav wasn't so bad on Uldo 4. It was heavier than Veda 6, but it wasn't so bad. I hated heavy grav.
"I can't make any sense out of this thing," I confessed, glaring at the tacmap screen for anything that resembled our surroundings. We were at a major intersection where two tunnels merged. A huge amtac rocketed past us, sirens shrieking, splattering us with a shock wave of watery mud.
"Scut! That retard almost hit us!"
"Deto!" Dragon exclaimed. "Let me see that thing! Can't you read a tacmap?" He took the tacmod and peered into the screen, shielding it from the light with one hand.
"The zero is shot," I replied, "as you can see." Two aircars blasted past, and Gildron snarled at them.
"Are you people any better in enemy territory?" Tara asked with a faint smile. It was cold, and her lips were turning blue.
The Legion officer had been asto
unded after hearing Tara's story, back on the Maiden. He consulted immediately with downside, and orders came through quickly for Tara—she was to accompany us to rejoin Beta. I was mystified by that, and so was Tara. However, she recovered quickly and insisted that her pet ape accompany her. This caused some consternation downside, but was ultimately approved after Tara had a brief but forceful discussion with some nameless bureaucrat. It was incomprehensible, and I didn't even try to understand it. Nevertheless, here we were, trying to find the replacement depot. They were apparently the only people who could direct us to Beta.
"Worthless piece of trash!" Dragon snarled at the tacmod. "I think we turn right here. There should be a series of squadmods up this tunnel." We turned, sloshing through ankle-deep water. A group of forlorn young troopers appeared out of the shadows, picking their way around a pile of dropboxes.
"Say, troopies, is the Twenty-Second Replacement Depot around here someplace?" I asked.
"Just keep going," one of them replied. "Follow the mob." Another amtac glided past us at a more reasonable speed. The amtac's roof was crowded with camfaxed replacements huddled down to avoid the ceiling.
"I'm cold!" Priestess said mournfully.
"Attention! Attention!" A tinny voice called out from our defective tacmod. "There will be a function test of all emergency blast doors in five marks, repeat five marks. This is only a test. Move away from all blast doors!"
"Wonderful," Dragon muttered.
"I think we should be all right," I said. "We just passed some blast doors."
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