Renegade Legion (The Human Legion Book 3)

Renegade Legion (The Human Legion Book 3) Page 9

by Tim C. Taylor

 

  Look, it’s not about Arun. His gamble was for us to be here at all. Now that we are, the next steps are just common sense. We have to clear the blockhouse and move underground in search of this resistance leader, Spartika. We might be in and out, mission accomplished, within minutes, and without firing a shot. On the other hand, under the ground might be a vast Hardit city garrisoned by an entire army.

 

  Springer didn’t like the tone of Saraswati’s thoughts. She ignored the contrary AI, and tried to loosen some of the knots in her muscles while she awaited the order to advance.

  — Chapter 24 —

  Row upon row of uniformed soldiers stood alert and patient.

  A new kind of soldier for a New Order: these were the janissaries.

  Clanless, genderless, even the metalized fabric of their uniforms spoke of how the weaknesses of their biology were being eradicated in favor of machinelike efficiency.

  And they were parading for her: Tawfiq Woomer-Calix.

  These very janissaries were to be the instrument of her revenge, her vindication. She sighed a hot breath laden with sexual pheromones. They would bring her power.

  Power… the thought made her genitals tingle. She imagined a scent-picture of high born males unable to resist her scent challenge to come mount me if you dare, and every one lying stunned at her feet, unworthy and unsatisfied. The males would be drawn to her in their hundreds, thousands, unable to resist the allure of the most powerful female in the planet, until eventually at a time and with an individual of her choosing, she would permit her scent to co-mingle with a male’s.

  Hastily, she rubbed hormone-suppressant gel over her snout, and waited for the sexual knots in her gut to untie. With mating season approaching, she’d have to be very careful around the foot soldiers of the New Order.

  Unless she was to follow the final logic of the machine she had created and eradicate her own gender…

  But she’d left it too late! The hidden weakness of her sex would have to remain concealed until after mating season.

  By then she could do whatever she wished.

  Or she would be dead.

  When her lusts calmed, Tawfiq judged the time was finally right to make her historic address. After a glance to the media crew to ensure they were ready to capture the moment – and that they were confident any embarrassing sexual scents could be edited away – she began the momentous speech. “Janissaries. Loyal foot soldiers of the New Order. You have given me much. Now it is time to offer my gift to you.”

  Tawfiq raised her right hand as if snatching something from the air, and holding it there in her fist, a movement she had practiced endlessly.

  “You offered me your clan-scent and I took it from you.” She mimed throwing away the contents of her fist. “You learned that without your clans you are united.”

  Her army oozed scents of fervent loyalty. They had never seen a performance like Tawfiq’s. Neither had she until chancing across that data cache containing a curious study of human history. If the janissaries ever learned she was copying the actions of a human demagogue, she would be disemboweled within moments.

  “You offered me your gender,” she shouted hoarsely, “and I took it from you.” Again, she mimed discarding their weakness. “You learned that without gender you are stronger.”

  The janissaries growled their support.

  “Today we march on the capital,” Tawfiq shouted above the loyal growls. “Our New Order shall sweep away the old, consigning it to the pit of forgotten history where it belongs. But first I give you your new scent. There is no room in our people’s future for division based on clans or gender or the false philosophical teaching of weaklings. There shall be only one scent – that of the New Order.”

  She raised her fist again, holding her power over the army for all to see.

  “One world!” she screamed, punching the air. “One people! One scent!”

  Her most senior lieutenant, Zwiline Calix-14, raised her left hand, and immediately thousands of voices growled the refrain.

  Strength through Victory! Victory through Strength!

  Waiting at the base of the stage were her most loyal janissaries, carrying buckets filled with scent pads ready to daub her warriors, unifying them under Tawfiq’s control forever. The secret of this scent was that it was created artificially, not made in the scent glands Tawfiq’s surgeons had cut away.

  Only Tawfiq could supply this scent.

  She was about to order its distribution when she noticed at the edge of the stage that her head of security was emitting an odor of concern.

  Tawfiq flicked a glance her way.

  Benner hesitated a moment, weighing up whether she dare disturb the rally. But the security head was a strong-minded female, difficult to cow. Despite clinging to a chemically subdued femaleness, Benner remained popular, which wasn’t surprising with her martial bearing emphasized by her left ear that had been half bitten off years ago.

  Benner strode across to Tawfiq’s podium. Doing so at this point in the rally demonstrated her fearlessness.

  Tawfiq respected her subordinate’s iron will. It was also why Benner would have to be eliminated after the coming battles were won.

  “Supreme Commander,” Benner whispered, “our surface perimeter is under attack from human rebels.”

  Tawfiq snapped her jaws in anger. She immediately smelled concern rise up through the ranks of janissaries as a consequence. Her soldiers were not machines yet. Emotions would have to be purged in a future phase of upgrades.

  Until then she would have to resort to words and symbols to control her troops.

  She raised a hand for silence. “Commander Benner Calix-11 informs me that there is a disturbance up on the surface: human insurgents making a noise. Do we veer from our historic destiny at this fleabite?” She paused for effect. “No! No! No! You all know how the human menace has corrupted our once proud race. How a reliance on slave labor has made our people indolent, our spirits tamed. Even talking of humans makes my hide itch, and my nose fill with their stench worse than fresh vomit. But we shall not allow our hatred of the humans to deflect our purpose. We march on the capital. We march! We fight! We triumph!”

  Zwiline signaled the army’s answer.

  Strength through Victory! Victory through Strength!

  It was more than a chant to rouse the troops. Tawfiq believed those words with every fiber of her being.

  They would assure her rightful place in the galaxy.

  — Chapter 25 —

  As soon as Senior Sergeant Gupta judged Hecht’s 1st Section had advanced far enough, he launched the next phase of the operation to rescue Spartika. “1st Section, suppressive fire. 2nd Section, await the order to move in.”

  A hail of fire from 1st Section lashed the hole in the blockhouse opened up by Stok’s missiles. Grenade launches followed the railgun darts.

  “Go! Go! Go!” screamed Corporal Kalis.

  Springer was picking herself up from the dirt when the grenades burst inside the blockhouse. Hecht’s team had delivered the searing light and stunning noise of flash-bombs mixed in with fragmentation munitions.

  Springer had a frag grenade ready herself, locked into the launcher beneath her SA-71’s barrel. But for now she trusted the other section to keep the enemy busy while she strained every fiber of her body to surge across the dirt toward the breach in the blockhouse wall.

  Zug was first to reach the objective. The gash in the wall started at shoulder height, so he leaped headfirst through the hole, rolling into an interior still whited out in Springer’s visor by the flash-bombs. She heard no answering fire from the Hardits inside.

  Long-legged Schimschak was next through, followed by Yoshioka and Kalis. Then it was Springer’s turn to somersault through into the enemy position.

  The flash-bomb light was fading now but there was still plenty enough to see by. Hardit corpses were p
iled up inside, many sliced into several parts. If any were still alive, they were doing a good job of playing dead.

  Carbine ready, she checked for threats. The blockhouse was a crude construction without interior walls. Hats and protective clothing against the sun hung from pegs; plastic trays were arranged on wooden shelves; it looked strangely innocent until she saw the whips mounted above the downward leading stairwell near the western wall.

  One of the fallen Hardits near the stairwell looked suspiciously unscathed. Springer fired a burst of darts at it. After twitching for a few seconds, the Hardit remained still. If it wasn’t before, it was definitely dead now.

  “Clear, Corporal,” she announced.

  “Confirmed,” acknowledged Umarov and Zug a few seconds later.

  The Marines of 2nd Section’s other fire team were peering out of the slit windows to the north and east. They obviously hadn’t seen anything to fire at.

  As if confirming her thoughts, Puja broadcast a report over WBNet from her position up on the ridge. “No sign of activity in eastern blockhouse. Nor in ramp. You’re good to proceed underground.”

  By now a handful of liberated slaves had clambered into the blockhouse, checking the bodies for still-functioning rifles. One of them had taken the time to grab a shirt and pants. The others hadn’t bothered. All they wanted to do was kill Hardits. Springer could relate to that.

  Gupta came up to the outside of the breach, rammed a signal repeater into the crumbling building material, and ducked down out of sight while the senior NCOs took a few seconds to get their next moves straight.

  Springer watched the results in her tac-display, aided by annotations from Saraswati.

  Rahul Bojin and Norah Lewark from 1st Section took four armed slaves with them to the collapsed watchtower that blocked the route north out of the labor camp. There they would establish a forward post from which to cover the ramp and the eastern blockhouse.

  While Springer and 2nd Section covered the stairwell, the remainder of 1st Section joined them in the western blockhouse, and proceeded to knock additional firing slits through the east wall so that they too had good field of fire on the ramp and the other blockhouse.

  Gupta joined them, bringing the resistance woman they’d brought with them from Detroit. Jennifer Boon’s lip was trembling.

  The sergeant didn’t wait for the defensive preparations to complete before he urged 2nd Section onward. “Right, that’s the easy part over. Now it’s time to go rescue this local dignitary named Spartika, and Boon here is going to identify her for us. Wouldn’t do to get back to Detroit only to find we’d rescued the wrong person, would it?”

  Corporal Kalis gave his orders. “Alpha Fire Team, you’re point. Go!”

  The stairs ran straight down without turning before joining a passageway that fed west and east. With Gupta, and Yoshioka’s Beta Fire Team giving suppressive fire over their heads into the passageway, Springer, Umarov, Zug, and Kalis charged down the stairs, ready for whatever awaited them below.

  — Chapter 26 —

  “Supreme Commander!”

  Tawfiq snapped her jaws. “What now, Benner? Can you not see I am at the head of an army about to march out to victory?”

  “It is the human scum outside. They have been reinforced by their cursed Marines. Perhaps we missed a nest that has remained hidden until now.”

  “They are the desperate twitches of a dying opponent. If this handful of survivors has found heavy weapons, they will be a nuisance, but we have a far more important battle to win.”

  “Yes, Supreme Commander. Nonetheless, my assessment is that militia troops alone will not withstand these Marines.”

  Tawfiq howled in frustration, but felt a little better when she realized that brave Benner was quailing before her.

  “Very well,” she told her subordinate. “I agree with your assessment. I shall order Zwiline to reassign you a company of janissaries with a little heavy support.”

  “Yes, Supreme Commander. And what of the resistance symbol the humans call Spartika?”

  Tawfiq considered. “Take three janissaries and kill her. Kill her fellow partisans too and make sure you make a recording of her death. Evidence of her demise at my hands may be politically useful.”

  “Yes, Supreme Commander.”

  Strength through Victory, Tawfiq said to herself as Benner scurried away. Victory through Strength. Tawfiq would practice what she preached, and not allow herself to be distracted.

  Even if the humans did manage to escape the vicinity, they would not live long. The final solution to the human problem would exterminate the entire vile infection of humans soon enough.

  — Chapter 27 —

  Less than half an hour after charging down the steps from the blockhouse, Springer was deep below ground, trying to find a route back up to the blockhouse, and cursing tunnels the galaxy over. And stairs. Stairs were the most evil torture of all.

  “Keep moving, Tremayne,” growled Corporal Kalis from above.

  Springer redirected her silent curses at Ferrant Kalis, even though the corporal did have a point. She’d retrained and recalibrated with her new suit AI until she was good enough at running, rolling, and hitting the ground. But stairs... She hadn’t trained for stairs. Her missing left leg was punishing her.

  Umarov was keeping a few steps below, covering her ascent. The other members of 2nd Section’s subterranean rescue party had already reached the broad east-west passageway that connected the two blockhouses with the main entrance helix that descended in between. The others were out of sight, so she queried tac-display. Sergeant Gupta and Beta Fire Team had taken an eastward-facing defensive posture just beyond the stairs. Kalis and Zug, her comrades from Alpha, were advancing west. Even Saraswati couldn’t tell her the location of the half-dozen armed refugees who had joined them from the slave cages on the surface.

  “I’ve made a formal complaint to the owners,” Umarov told her. “They convey their apologies and promise to install elevators in time for our next visit.”

  “Nice one,” she laughed. “But I don’t think I’ll come back. I can’t get a decent comm signal down here.”

  said Saraswati, misunderstanding Springer’s banter.

  Springer sent her own AI a mental message of thanks. The jamming made her cautious, and Saraswati skittish, but that was nothing to the effect it had wrought on Gupta. They had been three levels further down when they’d suddenly lost contact with the blockhouse on the surface, and their AIs had reported they were resisting electronic warfare attack. Without hesitation, the sergeant aborted the rescue attempt and reissued orders to retreat to the surface.

  Even Jennifer Boon hadn’t complained. The lower they reached, the bigger this maze became. They could spend days searching for Spartika and never find her. And all the time, they were encountering more and more Hardit militia. The firefights had all been one way so far, but sooner or later the monkeys would get organized.

  Finally, Springer reached the final step and the blessedly flat surface of the passageway beyond. Just as she was taking that last step, the ground roared and shifted. Springer tripped. Instinctively she transformed her fall to a roll that scattered an armed slave to either side.

  “Gravitics powering up,” said Saraswati. “Estimate 15-18 heavy grav-tanks, coming up the helix. ETA to reach surface... 230 seconds.”

  “What?” They had come here expecting to fight Hardits, not grav-tanks.

  She and Umarov hurried further west to where Hecht had assigned their deployment. Springer relayed Saraswati’s intel as she moved.

  “Justify the precision of your estimate,” ordered Gupta a few seconds later.

  “My AI, Sergeant. Claims to have been a recon squad specialist in an earlier pairing.”

  “Might be something in it, Sergeant,” added Kalis. “Tremayne was inexplicably accurate earlier. Could be luck, of course.”

  Gupt
a didn’t say anything, but the growl at the back of his throat made clear that he was not happy.

  “Very well,” he said eventually. “Alpha, push your fancy recon butts up that corridor and let me know the instant you hear something you don’t like. Yoshioka, cover our position. Boon, take a few runners topside and re-establish contact with the blockhouse. Get a message to the major that grav-tanks will be coming out of that pit any second. Go!”

  said Saraswati.

  Shut up!

  continued the AI.

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