Taka! My heart leaped. Thank Deadman! But wait a mo—E's and psybloc units? What the…
"Sweety! Who are these people? Are they Legion?"
"Twelve. There are no Legion ID units. They appear to be Taka."
"What are Taka doing with E's and psybloc?"
"I have insufficient data to answer the question accurately, Three."
Damn it! I knew I had to be careful here. Let's not jump to conclusions. The O had the power to seize anyone's mind, and I didn't know whose side these three were on, Taka or not. Where did they get the E's? Why would they wear psybloc units, if they were on the other side? I set my E to vac. I didn't want to kill anyone until I knew what I was doing.
"Do they see me, Sweety?"
"There is no sign that they are aware of your presence." It was dead quiet all around me. All the insects and birds and tree-dwellers were silent. I knew the Taka would be aware of that. One of them moved, stealthily, heading my way, just like a bloodcat stalking its prey. They knew something was wrong. I raised my E to zero him.
"Taka!" I shouted in Taka dialect, "I am Slayer, blood pledged to the Clan of the Sun! I come in friendship! Lower your weapons and I will lower mine!"
The answer came an instant later, as all three Taka cautiously continued maneuvering closer to me, trying to spot me. "Show yourself, Slayer of the Clan of the Sun!"
"Lower your weapons first and I will show myself! I see all three of you—you cannot hide from me. I greet my brothers! What clan are you?" They stopped, frozen, desperately trying to spot me. I huddled under the Lizzie, invisible.
"We are Dark Clouds, and pledged to kill all intruders into our realm! You approach sacred ground, and your name is unknown to us. Stand forth, if you are a friend! Why do you hide in the dark?"
"I am Slayer, pledged to die for the Clan of the Sun and for the Dark Cloud! I am husband to your Queen Moontouch, the guardian of the Tomb of the Kings, and I am father to your Prince and future king, Stormdawn, and I am blood brother to your war chief Deadeye Standfast, Waterwalker, who defies the Gods. What more do I need? I stand forth now—if you fire, I fire also!" I dropped the Lizzie and appeared, as if by magic, about midway between the three of them. They spotted me instantly and slowly lowered their E's. I walked up to the nearest one and extended a palm. He responded with an open palm and it was done.
"Greetings to the people, from one sworn in blood," I said. "Why are you armed with Legion weapons? Where did you get the psybloc?"
"Greetings, Slayer! I am a fool—I did not remember your name. We welcome you! You have returned, in our time of need!" He was a young warrior with wild hair, a narrow face daubed with white and black war paint. A big exoseg tooth and a psybloc unit dangled from around his neck. He was barefoot, dressed in skins and carried a spear on his back and a crude knife tucked into his waistband in addition to the E.
"Greetings, Slayer!" the second Taka said. "This fool is Dead Leaf. My name is Sworn to Die. Our companion is Swift Foot. We were given these weapons in friendship by our Legion brothers from Alpha Station." He was taller and more muscular than the other, with long hair decorated with flowers, carrying a trident on his back as well as the E. He too had a psybloc unit. "We have killed many Undead! They are stupid, to challenge the Taka nation! We cut them into pieces and bathe in their evil green blood!"
"What did you call them?" I asked.
"The Undead! The Legion calls them O's. We call them…" I held up my hand. I call out, helpless, in the hands of the Undead…Moontouch's words echoed in my mind. An icy fear ran through my veins. "Do not boast," I resumed. "It is not easy to kill the O. Tell me the truth! I have come here to help you fight the O, but you must tell me the truth."
"I speak the truth, Slayer!" Sworn to Die pulled his skins away from his chest, revealing a huge, dark metallic slab. It was…an armored O chest plate! I reached out as if in a trance to touch it. Dead Leaf held up what looked like a filthy, blood-caked series of sausages that had been dangling from his waist. It was…a hand. A huge O hand, claw-like appendages and charbroiled dead flesh. Swift Foot held up another hunk of blood-encrusted flesh.
"The Undead's heart, Slayer," Swift Foot said, smiling broadly. "I took it from his chest. He did not need it."
"We speak the truth," Sworn to Die repeated. "We are not afraid of these creatures. We kill them like bugs. They came to our world uninvited and they will all die here. All of them!"
"I take back my words," I said. "You are warriors! You are great warriors! The Taka nation will live!"
"As long as one Taka warrior still lives, the Taka nation will live. You know that, Slayer of the Clan of the Sun. You know that."
Chapter 9
First Cut
"Deadye Standfast has just returned from the hunt," Sworn to Die said, "and he will surely have killed many Undead. You can join our next hunt, Slayer!" We were proceeding single file through an icy cold tunnel hacked out of the earth deep under the ruins of the Temple of the Virgins. Sworn to Die held a flaming oil-soaked torch aloft that cast spooky shadows over the dripping roof and dirt walls. Swift Foot and Dead Leaf followed behind me. It was narrow and claustrophobic and I had to crouch down to avoid the roof. I was sweating, despite the cold. I hated the underground.
"You have still not told me about my Queen, and my son," I said.
"Deadeye Standfast will have all the answers for you, Slayer. I am a warrior. I know nothing of these matters."
"This is not the route that we used when Moontouch brought me to the Tomb of the Kings."
"No, Slayer. The Tomb is holy. We camp in the Guardian's Gallery. It is where the soldiers of the Golden Sword once guarded the tomb. Now, the Taka race has again arisen. Once again, we guard the Tomb of the Kings from alien intruders. We have arrived, Slayer—behold the Guardians' Gallery."
We stepped out of that narrow tunnel into a wider area, flickering with smoky torches and smouldering campfires. It was still very dark, but the place was full of movement. I could barely make out what appeared to be a stone roof and stone columns lining a wide gallery floored with slick, wet paving stones. Everything was very old, encrusted with centuries of filth. The columns were carved with ancient runes, from some long-dead language. As we walked down the gallery, we were surrounded by crowds of curious Taka. Most of them were young warriors, decked out in death paint, but there were women and children too, gaping at us.
"Is he a prisoner?" someone asked in Taka. "Can we kill him?"
"Stand back!" Sworn to Die bellowed, "I bring an honored visitor! Where is Deadeye Standfast? Your blood brother approaches!"
We stopped by a column where a campfire flickered, barely illuminating the pale face of a young warrior with long tangled dark hair, naked to the waist. He looked up at me, and I could see the weariness ground into his face. His right arm was bleeding and a lovely, silky-haired honey was caring for the wound. It was Deadeye. He still wore that necklace of exoseg teeth, and a dark medallion showing the crown and skull of Southmark hung from a leather thong around his neck.
"Slayer!" He stood up, stunned. "Slayer! You have returned."
"Deadeye—my blood brother. I greet you. I pledge eternal loyalty to the Taka nation. Of course I have returned! Where is my wife? Where is my child?"
Deadeye looked at the others, grim faced. "Leave us," he commanded. They faded away into the darkness. "Sit, Slayer. It is good to see you. We have tea. Have some goldpetal tea."
I sat by the fire, as he poured some tea.
"Victory!" he said, raising his cup.
"Victory!" I replied. We downed the tea.
"Where is my wife?" I repeated. "Where is my son?"
"Your son Stormdawn, our future king, the hope of our race, was last seen leading our brave warriors into battle against those vile alien invaders. Your wife, our Queen Moontouch, the Guardian of the Tomb of the Kings, is a captive of the Undead."
###
"The Battle for Alpha Station was horrible for both sides," Deadeye said
. "Many of your people died, and many O died as well. The Legion fought strongly but they were overwhelmed." We were sipping more tea, and the honey was back to work on Deadeye's arm. I was catching up on local developments. I'd learned all I could about Moontouch and Stormdawn and was thinking about what I'd learned. Deadeye was almost suicidal when he talked about Moontouch, but he knew he could not desert his people in the midst of the war.
"The black ships landed all around the Station," Deadeye related. "Some ships crashed there. The Undead soldiers came out of the ships, killing everything that moved. Our scouts could not see inside the station but they saw that many of your people were running to escape the station and they were killed outside. There was a lot of fighting outside. Many O's were killed by your people. Many, many O's. All of Alpha Station is surrounded by corpses, humans and Undead. All of your people with the psybloc fought like warriors until they were killed. Those without the psybloc were helpless and they died like old women.
"So many Undead were killed that some of your fighters were able to escape. They brought cases of E's and psybloc with them, and gave them to us, and our warriors joined yours. Alpha Base is surrounded now, by your fighters and ours. If we have the psybloc there is no need to fear these creatures. When they show their ugly faces, we kill them. Now they are trapped in the station, leaving only by manbird and starship. They have also taken your Farside Base, but we did not witness what happened there."
"How many E's and psybloc units do you have?"
"Not enough! If we had more, the entire Taka nation would throw itself at these alien monsters, and kill them all. We are not afraid of them!"
"If I could give you six hundred E's, two thousand five hundred psybloc units and two thousand five hundred camo cloaks what could you do?"
Deadeye smiled. It was kind of a scary smile. "With that, we will do as I said. We will kill every O we find, and we will retake Alpha Station and Farside Base for our Legion brothers."
I raised my cup. "Victory."
"Victory," he replied. "Would you like to see an Undead die? We are about to kill one. You can kill it, if you like." He stood up. "Come."
"Where are we going?"
"Not far. Follow me."
###
I was astounded when I saw what they had done. They had an O, a live Omni, trussed up in nets and vine thongs, lying on the floor of an adjacent chamber, surrounded by a noisy mob of Taka. It had been stripped of its armor and clothing. It was huge, almost like a giant exoseg, great long twisted arms and legs, drawn up to its body under the vines. The awful split head, bleeding green liquid, the savage mouth open, revealing needle teeth. The eyes were dull, almost closed. They were poking at him with sticks, pricking him with their spears and tridents and throwing rocks. Most of the Taka did not have psybloc, so there was definitely something wrong with that O. My psybloc did not even activate. Yes—he was probably close to death. I flashed in an instant to that horrible scene, ages ago, when I had first met the Taka, as a young Legion trooper. Then it had been me and my comrades trussed up in the net. I stared at the O without emotion. I used to be terrified of them, I thought. But I'm not afraid of them any more.
"We will cut him up alive, Slayer," Deadeye announced, "and mount his head on the gates of Stonehall, after we liberate our world." It was hot and sweaty and cold at the same time, and the screams of delight from the Taka were deafening. A live O! Deadman's death! What could the Legion do with a live O?
"Would you like the first cut, Slayer?" Deadeye asked.
###
"It's all clear, Highnote," I said over the tacnet. "The locals you see are all with me. Come on in." It was the following night. I huddled with Deadeye and his gang of Taka around the edges of a slight clearing in the forest. The clearing erupted in a sudden windstorm, an explosion of mud and dirt whipping all around us. A faint keening sound raised the hairs on the back of my neck. Our Phantom suddenly appeared, a giant, obscene black bat, settling down into the clearing. We ran toward it as the assault doors snapped open. Deadeye's warriors began offloading the dropboxes of E's and psybloc. Each dropbox had ten E's. There were crates of grenades and packs of Lizzie camfax as well. I leaped into the Phantom and greeted the pilot.
"Thanks for coming," I said. "I won't be leaving. But we'll take all the goodies. And I have a package for you to deliver. I think they'll want it in Quaba, but that's up to the Legion. I've sent a burst to Galactic Information so they'll know about this. Report back to your CO and tell them what you've got and ask them to check with GI." The hold was now empty—the Taka worked fast.
"Sure," the pilot said. "What's the package?"
"It's right there," I said. The Taka loaded the O in, still firmly wrapped in the net.
"Deadman! Is that…an O?"
"Yep. Sure is. And it's alive."
"I can't take that! There's only me! What if it gets loose, takes control of my mind? Are you crazy?"
"Don't worry, you'll have some help." Two Taka warriors jumped in, grinning, hauling E's, psybloc around their necks. "If the O gives you any trouble they'll quiet him down," I said.
"Hold it! Those aren't Legion troopers! They're not authorized to carry E's! I can't allow them on board! I can't…"
"Trooper, I'm a Legion Commander, warname Thinker, and I am ordering you to get this O back to a secure Legion facility as soon as possible, and for your own security I insist that these two folks accompany you to guard the prisoner. You fly the Phantom, they guard the prisoner. It's vital that this creature is transported back to Galactic Information."
"Yes sir! It's against all regulations."
"We're at war, trooper. Regulations don't matter any more. The only thing that matters is winning the war. And getting this creature back to Quaba could win the war for us. Get moving."
"Will you need another pickup?"
"Don't know. I'll send a burst to GI to advise about that. Good luck. And don't worry about the Taka. They'll handle the critter, and they'll follow your orders."
"Yes sir! May Deadman be with you."
"And you!" I leaped off and the assault doors snapped shut and the Phantom burst upwards in a rush, suddenly invisible, raising another dirtstorm that gradually subsided.
"Now let's see about Alpha Station," I said to Deadeye.
"Will you let us kill the Undead that are there?" Deadeye asked. "Or are we going to send them all back to your world?"
"Deadeye, you can now kill just as many as you want."
"Good!"
Chapter 10
Deathpaint and Psybloc
"Wait here, Slayer." Deadeye disappeared into the dark. We were within sight of Alpha Station except that it was the pit of the night and we were huddled in the tangled undergrowth of a thick forest of dato trees and I hadn't yet had a glimpse of the station. I craned my neck to see through the trees.
"Careful, Slayer," Sworn to Die warned me in Taka. "The Undead fire at any movement." I had finally gotten around to asking. It seemed the Taka called the O's "the Undead" because they weren't dead yet, but they would be as soon as some Taka did the right thing.
"Right." I froze. There were a whole lot of us, hundreds of Taka in Lizzie camfax, combat dispersed, creeping through the dark towards the objective. Every one of them had an E and a psybloc unit. I had personally made sure they knew how to fire the E. We now knew that the O could not detect the Lizzie, and that helped us a great deal.
My tacmap projected Alpha Station onto my visor, thin green lines showing the station behind the trees. It gave me a little chill. That's where we were going—O's or no O's. Who the hell did they think they were, dropping onto my world? Deadman was about to avenge all those dead Taka and Outworlders. And I was Deadman's sword. I felt great. My face was daubed crudely with Taka deathpaint as Sweety whispered in my ears, her voice like a soft, warm wave gently rippling over the sands of some phantom beach.
"Heavy Omni activity in and around Station, as marked. No humans detected yet except for our forces. Ran
dom psyprobes from Omni external defense forces. All our psybloc is active but will not counterprobe until you give the word, Three."
"Thank you, Sweety."
"It's nothing, Three."
The night sky flickered briefly, revealing low, black clouds close overhead. It was cold and smelled of rain. A deep rumble rolled across the sky. Then the sky lit up, a searing, soundless flash, fading to darkness, then another. A titanic blast shattered the silence, leaving me shocked and twitching. Multiple phospho trails suddenly streaked across the sky, blinding white, followed by a grinding, ripping, snapping orchestra that told of unimaginable forces tearing something to shreds. The burning wreckage fell slowly to the horizon, a terrible, eerily beautiful scene, and I knew it was a tragedy for someone, Legion or O's, I didn't know which. Far overhead hot blue specks flickered in and out of sight behind black clouds, a deadly ballet. I watched it with a kind of detached fatalism.
"Legion fighters," Sweety whispered.
"Slayer!" Sworn to Die called out, "Deadeye Standfast approaches."
###
"Are you Commander Thinker?" An Outworlder in Lizzie, A-vest and comtop appeared out of the dark by Deadeye's side. "Welcome to Andrion 2. I'm Stones, Captain of Recon 919, Task Force Boots. We've been downside twelve days and we've reinforced surviving Legion units." He looked like a kid, just out of Hell. I knew better.
"Stones has saved many of our people, Slayer. And killed many Undead." Deadeye always looked best in warpaint, all decked out for his own death, a grim shadow in a camfax cloak, all set to reach out and kill you.
"Nice to meet you, Stones," I said.
"I understand you've brought a bunch of auxiliaries, sir," Stones said. "How many do you have?"
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