The Demons of Kor-Lir_The Sleeping Legion

by J. R. Handley

  While passing on the order, Lance couldn’t help but reminisce about his time with Chloe, and the hours he’d spent chasing after her delicious backside. He grinned at his indignation that she’d chosen Pearl Hansen over him, the smug look on Chloe’s face when she tried to let him down gently, telling him he ‘wasn’t born equipped to satisfy her urges’. He often wondered if it was a coincidence that both Pearl and Chloe ended up as grenadiers so early into their Cadethood. Before he got too far adrift in his memories, Xena reminded him that Marine Jackson had just launched her EMP grenade and he ought to do more than sit there gawking like a crècheling.

  “Beta Team, movement to contact. Let’s go show these frakks what kind of Marines are made on our island home. Let’s do it for Cardamine and Marine Farm Two, because it’s as close to home as we’ve got. Besides, we are better than those continental scum from the main continents. Dwonknets, all of ’em!”

  No sooner had he uttered those words than Beta Fire Team began advancing, as if they were but three parts of one body, towards the large tubular box patch in the inner spoke. They continued down the passageway leading from the docking ring towards the pyramid structure without incident, although Lance couldn’t help but notice the number of turrets that were now pointed their direction, even though they hung lifeless from the passageway bulkheads. In a moment of slight panic, he messaged Marine Grenadier Chloe Jackson and told her to keep another EMP grenade in her tube, just in case. He could almost hear her smirk in her reply. “Aww, Corporal, keep your britches on. I’ll babysit you.”

  The Marines in Beta Fire Team made excellent time, getting three-quarters of the way into the passageway. The elevator banks were just getting into view when Lance thought to check his TacScreen, which Xena instantly painted onto the inside of his visor. Zero-g combat meant that your awareness had to become more all-encompassing. You couldn’t become too focused, or an enemy combatant could sneak up on you. The very 360-degree nature of it made it extremely difficult and something for which Marines trained for since birth. Heck, there was some speculation that their very metaphysiology had been altered to increase their abilities in zero-g combat.

  After a quick scan revealed that Alpha Team still hadn’t entered the passageway, Lance called a halt and watched as his team hit a knee and began scanning their sector. While their suits did offer a lot of protection, by crouching they allowed their entire unit to become smaller targets. This technique was especially effective when paired with a completed section formation. Knowing that he’d have to change his fire team’s formation past the protection provided by the protruding box hull patch, he took a moment and called his section leader. “Lance Sergeant, will Alpha Team be joining the party, or will I be dancing alone over here with the Beta Harem?”

  The reply came back less forcefully than he expected. Acheron Nourse seemed like he was distracted by something, but Lance couldn’t let that get to him, so he simply acknowledged Nourse’s report that Alpha Team was delayed. He then did a quick check to see how 2nd Section was doing but the signal jamming had cut him out of the loop. He was left with only the 1st Section LBNet, a whopping seven Marines against the unknown. All the dogma he’d learned as a crècheling told him this was enough, but as the reality of adulthood set in, he was beginning to question those youthful platitudes.

  Alpha Team finally showed up, having the benefit of the passageway being cleared by their comrades, which allowed them to use the quicker file formation. Lance waited several beats for Nourse to tell him how he wanted the section to approach the elevators. When no orders were forthcoming, Lance again pinged his section leader. “Lance Sergeant, I would recommend Beta Team take a Fire Team Half Compass Formation if Alpha Fire Team can close the compass for me. However, you wear the stripes so the ball’s in your court. What’s it to be?”

  After a brief pause, Nourse affirmed the decision. Lance prepared to pass the call to his Marines but couldn’t shake the thought that something was off with his sergeant. “Alright, Beta,” called Lance, “prepare to execute Fire Team Half Compass Formation. Jackson and Stone, you take the port side from my position while Alpha closes the compass. We go on my mark, three, two and one, NOW!”

  As soon as he called the command, he assumed a defensive firing position and let Xena scan the sector. He watched as Chloe Jackson gracefully maneuvered in the zero-g environment and jumped across the 20 meters of the passageway to assume her position next to Marine Danika Stone. Once the fire team was in position, he notified Sergeant Nourse and waited while Xena verified that Alpha Fire Team was in position as well, before proceeding towards the objective. For Lance, things finally began to click into place and he found his Zen place as he led his team into battle with the unknown. It was as if a super nova went off and everything his instructors had ever tried to teach him finally stuck, a moment of clarity that Lance was sure his instructors would have preferred to happen while he was still in training.

  After what felt like an eternity, but was probably only a few minutes, the entire 1st Section came upon the elevator banks that led from the center of the QEP deeper into the main pyramidal structure. Lance was surprised to see that there were two elevators, one for each of the pyramidal structures, as well as a hollow tube that allowed personnel to float between decks and take advantage of the lack of gravity.

  “Well, Sergeant,” asked Lance, “do we take the elevator or the stairs?”

  — Chapter 05 —

  Deck 1 Papa: 1st Section

  Lance Sergeant Acheron Nourse chose the elevator.

  As the elevator door opened onto Deck 1, Beta Team rushed out the door, and quickly secured a perimeter, scanning for targets as Alpha Team came out behind them. After they confirmed that the elevator beachhead was secure, Nourse ordered his section off in two-man buddy teams to quickly clear the floor, with Marine Scipio being the lone Marine who was on his own.

  1st Section quickly got into a rhythm as they moved out from the center of the QEP, clearing Decks 1, 2 and 3 without incident.

  — Chapter 06 —

  Deck 3 Sierra: Beta Fire Team, 2nd Section

  Marine Grenadier Pearl Hansen scanned around as she and Marine Andrew Winkel were patrolling the 3rd deck of their assigned pyramid. She couldn’t shake the feeling that something wasn’t right, a feeling which had begun when her section leader, Corporal Blythe Hauer, first ordered their section to split up. Each fire team was assigned floors to clear, with Beta Team getting the oddly numbered ones and Alpha Team receiving the even ones. This smacked her as completely wrong, eliminating any chance of reinforcements and potentially risking the integrity of LBNet. With comms being jammed, it seemed like unit integrity would be paramount, but Blythe was uncharacteristically jumpy and wanted this mission over with as quickly as possible. Pearl quickly checked her TacScreen and noticed, just as she’d feared, that LBNet was down and only registering her and Andrew.

  Right about the time they reached the 5th frame she began to feel like she was being watched. Every inch of her screamed that the enemy was out there, but the sensors she was taught to rely on were indicating she was just jittery. What she wouldn’t do to receive her official AI upgrade, from her issued Cadet version to the standard TAC unit model? Her AI, Peaches, nudged her with a quick blast of cool air on her face and she instantly knew something was seriously wrong. She glanced around, noticing that Andrew had disappeared from her TacScreen. She instantly froze, looked around and began to panic as she couldn’t find him. After taking several calming breaths and forcing herself to regain her composure, she saw that LBNet had partially restored itself, and made a slightly less frantic than it might have been call to her team leader, Lance Corporal Friedman.

  While waiting for Peaches to connect her to Friedman she pondered the terror of every Cadet: the Cull. Friedman was a recent transfer from a battalion that was so unlucky in its Cull that whole units were written off and used to fill voids in the rosters of other battalions. This terror tactic was a White Knight metho
d of securing a more advantageous gene pool for the Human Marine Corps by executing a quarter of every graduating class. The Cull victims were selected through a lottery, where the lowest ranked TAC Regiment killed a random quarter of its graduating class every year in a shameful public spectacle.

  After shaking that terror from her mind, she again checked with Peaches, but still received only static feedback. LBNet was down again.

  Pearl continued to scan her sector and began looking for some piece of real estate that could provide her with cover or concealment, but was having no luck. Her eyes lit up on what her AI sensors were telling her was a blood trail leading to a stack of crates, causing her to hyper ventilate. These crates were obviously filled with spare parts and secured to the deck. While it might not offer the best cover, it could surely conceal a potential opponent, so Pearl quickly checked that her carbine was locked and loaded, switched to a white phosphorous grenade and charged. Given the years of tandem training she had with Peaches, the moment she and her AI recognized this as a viable threat, they reacted instantaneously with the appropriate option chosen. Unfortunately, she tripped on something, likely the legs of Marine Winkel, though in her panicked state she couldn’t be sure.

  As she scrambled back to her feet, perhaps one of her least graceful movements to date, she saw some sort of creature. It was huge, and resembled the devil her religious mother tried teaching her about. She could see it – it was right there in front of her – and yet it wasn’t there as far as the AI was concerned. It was humanoid, standing on two legs, but appeared to have four arms, like the Jotuns, and a gigantic bone-like shell on its back. It regarded her through glowing eyes, almost daring her to run. She frantically searched for any sign of horns before the screaming in her ear from Peaches snapped her out of it. She brought her SA-71 to bear on this thing, firing off rounds before she could fully focus on where her AI had aimed her weapon. As she briefly glanced down, it became clear that Andrew’s luck had finally run dry. She could see a gaping wound through the neck ribbing of his armor, and blood droplets floating in the zero-g environment. The only thing keeping Andrew in place, it seemed, was the result of some sticky substance secreted by this creature. Maybe it was saving its prey for dinner later, like a spider?

  Pearl could hear herself screaming and cursing as she unloaded her SA-71 into this monster, but none of the sabots seemed to penetrate its hide. She knew it was probably her fear talking to her, but she could’ve sworn that she heard this hell spawn laughing at her as she ran out of sabots, activated her assault cutters and lunged at the beast. She knew that surviving this dual meant she needed to end it quickly, because the monstrous being in front of her seemed to have the advantage. She quickly thrust forward with her carbine, the assault cutters practically humming in jubilation at being unleashed, but the monster parried, and knocked her gun out of her hands. The momentum of the failed charge carried her forward in the zero-g environment, so she tucked herself into a tight body roll and pivoted, while she drew her handheld bladed weapons, resulting in her coming up facing it with her combat blades at the ready.

  She realized it was over when she saw the creature’s own blade, which was obsidian in color and seemed to be made from the spilled guts of a black hole. But she couldn’t give up, and thrust away with her knife, only to feel her opponent’s blade penetrate her armor, piercing her stomach. Not satisfied with simply stabbing her, the creature twisted the blade up and out, spilling her small intestines into the weightlessness of the gravity-free station.

  As the lights dimmed, and her vision narrowed into a pinpoint, she briefly regretted the pettiness of her tumultuous fights with Chloe, and all of the missed opportunities at joy this cost her. With her last breath she breathed Chloe’s name as the monster stared down on her, watching her die through those fiery eyes.

  — Chapter 07 —

  Deck 4 Papa: Alpha Fire Team, 1st Section

  Lance Sergeant Acheron Nourse was your typical Marine: trained from birth to kill on command and eager to do so. He tried not to think more than was necessary, preferring to spend his off duty time imbibing in the joyously intoxicating effects of grok, and anything that would jump into bed with him, though not necessarily in that order. He never really sought out the promotions or the rank, but he survived during the training missions that had gone south, leaving few survivors. Ultimately, he ‘earned’ his rank by the virtue that he had survived where others had not. He knew as much about tactical considerations as the next Marine, but he preferred to let the currents of the universe push and pull him around while he floated above it on a pharmaceutically induced vacation. As he looked around, seeing how well his fire team arrayed itself, guarding the elevator and their only exit, he knew he’d be okay. The situation with Runser had been an anomaly from the start. He had a competent team, his family, and they’d not let each other down.

  His plan called for his team to guard the exit while Beta Team searched Deck 4 Papa. He fully expected to find that the whole drama surrounding the jammed QEP was as simple as a rogue AI, or a small electrical fire gumming up the works on this automated facility. He never did trust stations which were run by AIs without living, breathing interfaces – too much room for errors.

  As the tactical lead for this mission, and the Marine tasked with maintaining and running the LBNet, Acheron decided to take a brief moment to check on 2nd Section and was surprised to find them offline. He shook his head inside his armor, cursing the naval technicians who couldn’t seem to keep anything that wasn’t theirs working. As he glanced around, he laughed quietly to himself, thankful for an easy mission he could float through. He briefly considered the significance of Decks 4 and 5 being where QEP munitions were stored but shook off the thought, convinced that this was a crècheling run.

  Realizing that his mission files would be monitored, he briefly called up his TacScreen to check on the status of Beta Team. They seemed to be making good progress so he left the screen up, an easy way to game the post-mission playback, in case of a later review. As Marine Lance Scipio called in to update him that Deck 4 Papa was clear and his team was headed in, Acheron took a moment to wonder if the corporal-hood he’d conferred on him would stick.

  Without seeming to have much of a care in the world, Lance Sergeant Nourse called his fire team over LBNet to tell them Beta was returning, and even added an obligatory “stay sharp” to appease the powers that be.

  — Chapter 08 —

  Deck 3 Sierra: Thrydwulf win Krigaren

  Thrydwulf looked down at the corpse of one of the two demons of Kor-Lir he’d already killed, and felt a grim satisfaction that he had dispatched it back to the outer hell from whence it came. The Ravanac people had been trying to break free of their ancestral home so they might fulfill their prophesized battle against the demons, righting an ancient wrong. Nobody knew the origins of the Kin-Tama Prophecy but it had been with his people for hundreds of generations, ever since the Kin-Tama came and handed it down to them.

  The first Ravanacs to encounter the Kin-Tama thought the pulsing blobs in their liquid-filled tanks were themselves demons. But the minds of every priest in the vicinity of the Kin-Tama were filled with Holy rapture, and they stayed the hand of the warriors before a great blasphemy could be committed. Ever since, every generation of every tribe had striven to break free and beat the demons of the sky. For the last hundred years they’d had the technology to do so. They built flying beetle shells to allow them to reach the great heavens, only to find the machines of Kor-Lir holding them back. The will of the gods must not be thwarted, so the Krigaren Clan had tasked Thrydwulf with the sacred privilege of destroying these instruments of the devil.

  Thrydwulf thanked Jumalatar that the Krigaren Clan had sent him prepared to bring the Holy Works to life, because these Kor-Lir changelings didn’t seem to be able to see him coming, and their weapons of evil couldn’t hurt him while his gods protected him. He glanced down one more time at these strange creatures before shaking his head in annoya
nce, hating them for trying to slow him down from his Holy Works.

  As Thrydwulf looked around him he saw two more changelings out of the corner of his eye. Knowing that his work couldn’t continue with them interrupting, he began to hunt these strange creatures. For some reason, one of these creatures had a humped back, which was tied to the spitting stick in its arms. Maybe tying it to the spitting stick helped keep the changeling from falling over?

  — Chapter 09 —

  Deck 3 Sierra: Beta Team, 2nd Section

  Lance Corporal Paul Freidman knew something was off with his TacScreen and his comms, so he wasn’t surprised when the other half of his fire team went offline. He looked around, knowing they would meet at the rally point near the elevators in about fifteen minutes. He shook his head, berating himself for not trusting Pearl. She was one of the best, even if she had turned down his advances when he joined the squad.

  Freidman briefly checked beside him, making sure Marine Seonaid Tremblay was in her place as they patrolled their half of Deck 3, nodding when he was satisfied with her positioning. After asking his AI to run some internal diagnostics, to rule out any equipment failure on his end, he continued scanning his sector.

  Paul looked around, not quite able to shake the feeling that something was following him. He called a halt, ordering his Mini gunner to position herself so she covered their rear while he scanned the sector and interfaced with their now-linked AIs.