“Do that again, and I will tie you up like these corpses and leave you here to suffer the stink of this place,” I snapped. Her pupils dilated, and she swallowed loud enough to hear.
“I never get tired of watching you dance with that blade,” Rolland said, walking up next to me. “Teach me how to be that good when we have downtime.”
“Of course,” I said, feeling prideful. Many of my marines offered similar comments, displaying their desensitization to violence. That was good news because there will be far more violence in the future.
“Enough chatter. These goons will be noticed missing. We need to hurry and locate the meeting spot. Disperse into two squads, stick to moving through buildings. It’ll offer you cover and camo. We’ll move either direction and hunt this underking down.”
“If he exists...” Jen mumbled. I ignored her.
“Get moving,” I said.
We hustle through the corpse forest, using the street princess to lead us. It amazed me how many corpse trees were impaled throughout this part of the city. It must have taken a great deal of manpower to pull such a feat. My squads had revealed they came in contact with a few more packs of goons but nothing major. Such a force would be found by now unless they were inside a building.
A building! I thought as the answer came to my mind.
I commute to my intercoms.
“Squad leaders! I think the meetup is happening indoors. Look around you for any building that’s large enough to hold hundreds.”
“I got a mall,” Jen said.
“I got a stadium,” Gary said.
“Check them out, but be discreet,” I warned.
“Discreet is my middle name, commander... Oh, shi―” Gary’s com went out. I tried to remember where he was and used my helmet to sync with our legion’s network. It created an unrefined map, but I had a general clue to Gary’s position.
“Double time marines!” I snapped, leading the pace. Suddenly I was filled with a sense of dread. If my marines died on this rogue mission, it would validate my general’s doubts about me. My legs carried me faster than I’ve ever run. Every day the sense of my true strength after all my augmentations became more apparent. I scaled a good eight miles in over twenty minutes. My squad was not far behind me, although exhausted.
I breathed through my nose and attempted to find my footing. Alicia squad had doubled up to me. She interlocked her arms with me and tried to help me up. When we arrived, we found Gary aiming his rifle at the stadium walls, shaking. Four of his squadmates lied on the ground, wounded but not dead. Soon Gary was reinforced by Maria and her squad. They quickly tended to the injured. I stalked toward the shaken Gary. As soon as I tapped his shoulder, he jumped and pointed his rifle at me. As trained, most of the squads outside of Gary’s squad ready their rifles on him.
Coilguns weren’t like gunpowder guns. A marine could have let off an entire round, and barely anyone would hear it. I could tell that Gary had unloaded his full mag on something. My eyes surveyed the area and found a cloaked figure, crotched to the ground in front of the stadium. Ignoring Gary’s panicked state, I stalked toward the shadowy person with my gun primed and ready. Grinding cog sounds began to fill the air, and the cloaked figure glanced at me with red eyes. My heart started racing, and my instincts forced me back. The cloaked figure then leaped to a street light, abandoning its cloak to revealed itself to be a cyborg built for gang wars. It retreated and vanished into the shadows.
“Secure the area in pairs, now!” I said, my marines scattered in several directions while I obtained a status report from Gary.
“That thing...” Gary muttered. “He came like a ghost and slashed and diced us up with little effort. I have never seen anything move so fast. If it wasn’t for our armor, he would have cleaved each of us a dozen times over. Was that an underking?” Gary said.
“He’s probably one of the underking’s bodyguards. Which means we're close. This stadium is where they are meeting.” I peeled off. “All marines gathered on the stadium ASAP. We attack the stadium in half an hour.”
“We can’t attack! What if there’s more of those things?!” Gary said. I recalled my lessons from leadership 101 and marched to Gary. When your troop morale is low, challenge their heart.
“Don't you want to be a Vindicator? Like me?” I asked. Gary’s eyes looked as if I have just broken his heart. “A Vindicator is supposed to be a light in the darkest hour of men. Remember when you first saw a Vindicator?”
“I do...”
“Tell me about it,” I said.
“As a boy, I lived on a metropolis world before it was sacked by Enfys. A Vindicator came at the last moment. We were stuck in a shelter, and they broke through those walls. I have never been so afraid. Then all of a sudden, flames came from behind. A Vindicator flew out, bloody and battered but fighting nevertheless. He took a sword in one hand and a flame thrower in the other and fought toe to toe with all the Enfys. Not one Enfy got past him. He held that alien horde on the brink of death just for a few hundred people.
“You know how much a Vindicator is worth? That didn’t matter to him, though. Us few hundred people were more important than his armor, weapons, and life. I want to be that.” Gary's fist tightened. “I have to be that. I have to be that light in the darkness for others, just like he was a light in the darkness for me.”
“Hold on to that.” I glanced around to everyone and raised my voice. “In training, they used to tell us something that was from the king’s own mouth. Treat your fear as your advisor, not your master. In most cases, Fear should caution you, not break you.” I said. That seemed to steady most people’s nerves.
“What now, commander?” Alicia said.
“Maria, your squad will protect the wounded. Gary and what’s left of his squad will reinforce us as we enter the stadium. Prepare for fighting. We don't know how many gangsters are held up in that stadium. The rest of the company will reinforce us as we enter. We need to capture the underking alive. I will mark him on our targeting screens. Kill everything else.”
“Sir!” they all said.
We wasted no time. I know the underking has probably already suspected foul play by now. Not only had we killed several dozens of goons by now, but we had also fought one of his personal guards. I primed my rifle and prepared for the worst. When I arrived inside, I was appalled by what I witnessed.
Hundreds of gangsters lay dead across the green field. Only more of those cyborg warriors were alive, and one person in fine clothing. The clothing reminded me of someone from the renaissance era back in the old world. He had gold plating covering crucial areas, like his chest, thighs, shoulders, and forelimbs. He was gorgeous for a man, almost could pass as a woman. There was a kingly presence to him, and I found my underking.
I strolled across the clutter of corpses. It was a familiar scene. A scene that triggered memories that caused me to cringe. I was once the cause of acts like these in past days. I edged closer with my rifle up.
“Marines! Hands up.” I said. They did not move. I signaled for my marines to circle them. They complied, but the underking and his entourage showed no sign of resistance or surrender. The underking tilted his head to me.
“All these men's deaths are on your hands,” he said. His voice was seductive. I said nothing. “If you had not proven this gang's incompetence, I wouldn’t had to purge all of them.”
“Papa!” the street princess said, running to a large man who looked as if he had been stabbed repeatedly. She fell over his body and cried. I rolled my eyes. How many crying daughters did her father create? The street princess, however, was much more foolish than that. She grabbed his buzzblade and rose to her feet.
“What do you plan to do with that little girl?” The underking said.
“I’m going to kill you, you motherfucker!” the girl snapped before launching at the underking.
“Wait!” I said. My pleads fell on deaf ears as she charged the underking. Strangely, the underking guards didn’t stop her
. She pushed onward, and the underking pulled out a fencing blade. It wasn’t precisely a fencing blade as it stretched and expanded like a cobra. The weapon struck like a snake and impaled the Street princess through her belly. The girl froze and grabbed the blade as it yanked out her stomach, pulling her insides with it. No surgery in the world could save her from that.
“Fire!” I snapped. All my marines unloaded, and then the cyborg warriors moved across the field with unnatural speed. Even the underking moved with inhuman speed. I followed after him, attempting to fill him with bullets. The underking dodged the shells as if he had foresight. He even had some kind of shield technology that deflected rounds around his body that I didn’t know was possible. His equipment must have been experimental and highly expensive. It certainly wasn’t the type of equipment that the military could mass-produce for billions of soldiers.
I abandoned my gun and soared through the air with my blade. My blade cut through his shield and landed on his shoulder guard. Relief filled me until the underking simply shrugged me off and retaliated with his whip-like fencing blade. Fearful of receiving the same fate as the Street Princess, I kept a distance. Then I heard some wails. I glanced off into another direction and spotted those cyborg warriors picking apart my marines. More squads arrived.
“Take down the cyborg warriors. I’ll handle the underking.” I said through an open channel.
“Not a good idea!” Gary said.
“I have to concur. That weapon is nasty.” Darryl said.
“He moves crazy too. Like that guy did years in gymnastics.” Jen said.
“Unwise,” Rolland said. My confidence drowned as my fellow squad leaders doubted me.
“You got this,” Jerry said.
“Be careful,” Alicia said. Those two’s words saved my confidence from dropping to the deep below. I jumped into the fray, paying attention to how that whip blade moved. It was easily seven feet, fully extended. It coiled and stabbed like a snake. I studied its movement and barely avoided attacks.
After a while, I noticed a pattern. With minimal trial and error, I started to develop a rhythm. My blade caught more attacks, my body moved without thought. I was still far from the man, but I now could fight with him on even footing. I noticed my marines cutting down cyborg warrior after cyborg warrior with more of my forces arriving. All I could do with this crazy skilled foe was fend him off. I couldn’t get close.
It wasn’t until my marines took down his cyborg warriors and surrounded him that the underking surrendered gracefully. He grinned and then knelt to the ground. I lost a dozen marines taking this underking, and more than twenty were wounded. However, we caught the underking. It will be more than enough to get the general to call off the foolish plan of attacking a ganghive.
We procured some shovels from nearby supply stores and buried our fallen. We used their cleavers as gravestones and wrapped their dog tags around the handles. Many had words to say, but we could not spend too much time on them, as others were wounded.
“All right, marines, let’s move out..”
Entry 12
Phoenician Date: September 28, 1026AR
Military Time: 10:56
Phoenician Classified World: Alexandria Prime
We burned the bodies of the gangsters that littered the stadium and took residences inside a school. It was nicely secure and could offer a solid defensive area. I remembered in the gang days how we would fortify any big building into a fort. I had the underking chained to a chair in a janitor closet with no windows and light until morning.
When I came inside and turned on the light, the underking was sleeping in total bliss while tied in heavy chains. We kept our helmets on while attempting to interrogate the underking. We didn’t want the underking to remember our faces and track our loved ones.
“Wake up!” I snapped. The underking breathed deeply and continued his sleep. I knew his body had many cybernetic implants. The way he moved and fought surpassed augmented marines' performance, which meant he was far stronger than an average man.
I was accompanied by Jerry and Alicia. The three of us surrounded the underking. Jerry stormed by me and kicked the chained underking onto the ground. He coughed and snickered.
“How rude!” The underking said. I snorted and hauled the underking back to his seated position.
“How the mighty have fallen,” Jerry said. “So used to being on top, now you’re at the mercy of us. You’ll need to answer some questions. We got some truth serum―”
“Unnecessary.” The underking said. “I’ll tell you anything you want to know.” We all glanced at each other in confusion.
“You’ll just tell us what we want to know?” Alicia asked.
“Yes,” he said.
“But how would we know you’re telling the truth?” Alicia asked.
“Your helmets have a lie detector app. You can easily tell when I’m telling the truth. Don't you clowns know your own equipment?” The underking said. We all started playing around with our helmets, and I noticed the app.
“Oh, snap!” Jerry said. “He’s right.”
“Now I feel dumb,” Alicia admitted.
“Fools.” The underking said. The helmets had 150 native apps there, knowing all them by heart would take years of tinkering. I’m sure some marines have been here for years and still ignorant of half the native apps.
“Irrelevant,” I said. “Talk about the ganghive that our general is about to attack.” I then tapped my helmet to trigger the video recording. Then Jerry pressed his hand to my chest.
“Hold on, Blu,” Jerry said.
“Blue?” The underking mimicked.
“This is a great mythical underking. We can learn so much from him. Don't you want to illuminate the doubts of your mind about these guys?” Jerry said.
“I am equally curious,” Alicia said. “These guys are like unicorns. Let’s squeeze him for information.”
“Alicia!” I said.
“Oh no, I like this side of her,” Jerry said, growing closer to the underking. “So, what’s the point?”
“The point?”
“The point of gangs and uplifting them? What’s the point?” Jerry said. That was a good question.
“Under-empires offer a tremendous amount of benefits. Not only that, but it’s all unsanctioned, unrestrained, and untaxed.” The underking said.
“Money! Ha, it’s all about money.” Jerry said.
“Not just money, raw materials like mineral veins, that the gang managed to secure. Manufactured goods that the gang managed to steal or produced. Then there are drugs, money, and most of all, manpower. All those cyborg warriors you killed were the cream of the crop from various gangs. You hard trained marines struggled with several of them. Imagine what an army of them could do?”
“So you create these Under-empire for resources of various kinds. I bet a single Under-empire gives you billions and plenty of resources.” Alicia said
“Try tens of billions and enough various sellable resources to bump that into trillions. It’s like any business venture.” The underking said. Jerry let out a low whistle.
“How many of you are there?”
“Currently, there are 56 of us,” underking said.
“So few… don't want to share the spoils, huh?” Jerry said. I glanced at Alicia, who was equally dubious. I tried to ponder why the underking would hide his group's numbers but conjured few answers. None of which held any weight upon further dissecting. My lie detector on my helmet didn’t go off, and I doubted the underking lacked precautions to trick a lie detector. So far, he’s been quite honest.
“To become an underking, you must earn the majority votes of the current underkings. You must also have a respectable powerbase and connection from inside.”
“So, you got to know an underking to become an underking.”
“And you also have to be powerful. I bet there’s a lot of trials you put people through.”
“Indeed. The more underkings that join, the more
difficult it is for new ones to join.”
“56 trillionaires, fueling gangs to grow even more powerful. To what end?” Alicia said.
“Power equals freedom and authority.” The underking said. “You know how many politicians I have in my pocket? How many doors are opened to me that are closed to 99 percent of the population? Plus, it’s all behind closed doors. That means I have something on my side that most people with authority don't.”
“What?” Jerry asked.
“Freedom to exercise their power without restriction,” Alicia answered. “Power without restriction is the highway to corruption.”
“You sound like the oh glorious high king. Quoting that old bastard.” The underking said, with venom laced in his voice.
“You almost sound like you know him personally,” I said.
“Not exactly.” The underking said to Alicia. “We ran into each other while I was attempting to put a politician in my pocket in check. He destroyed a hundred of my finest warriors within a few seconds. A man like that shouldn’t exist. The only reason he’s so incorruptible is because he has real power that no one can tamper with or steal. No matter where he is in life, he’ll always be powerful. Imagine being that secured in the world? You’ll be a saint as well.” the underking said.
“He and Justin would make great friends,” Jerry said.
“Says something about your stance in life when it’s agreeable with one of the most nefarious people in the ten thousand worlds,” Alicia added.
Song of Blu Page 11
