Legion of Steel

by Lucian Knight

  I needed to do something to blow off steam until the trials. Something in me stirred, wanting to be released with all the excess energy. But then I got an idea to contact someone, and I immediately calmed down when I thought about Khavvrin, the guy who stood proud and tall when the others begged for their miserable lives.

  "Where’s Khavvrin?"

  "He’s sparring with Samson in the loading bay, and just you know, I wasn’t created to search for people. It’s annoying and de-humanizing!"

  "You’re not Human, you’re a parasite."

  "Just a parasite, huh? How about you call me a divine Armament next time?"

  I shook my head, amused by getting one up on Devil. I played with my tapper for a moment and was surprised by a new function. Levi’s face popped up with her tongue sticking out.

  "What the hell?" I murmured before the recorded message started playing.

  "Devil told me to create a function just for the officers so they could find anyone on board. He’s been nagging me for hours! Hours I tell you! So, there you go. Press the search target option and type in the name. All the tappers have names and ranks listed, so you won’t be chasing someone random instead. Bye now!"

  "Sly little girl you!" I grinned, activating the function. There it was, the marker showed where Khavvrin was and the nearest way to him. Excellent. I made my way quickly through the winding corridors and arrived at the destination, or at least what the tapper showed me as the destination.

  Inside, it was a hive of activity. Dozens of workers were milling around, placing boxes of various goods and raw materials in metal containers, stacking crates and cleaning the mess they had left behind. To my right, Samson and Khavvrin went at it quite hard, trading punches and kicks while Levi lay on a crate near them, cradling her rifle like a newborn baby.

  A guard officer finally noticed me and snapped a salute.

  "Admiral on deck!"

  Whoever heard him stood to attention following his example.

  "At ease," I shouted. "I’m not here to inspect your work, but to get these stowaway’s back to where they belong."

  "Hey, boss!" Levi waved as I approached.

  "I need all of you up in the research lab. The doc thinks she can heal our wounded and inject the willing with a virus that will give them superpowers more or less. There wouldn’t be any need to change them into—things like us. Except for those willing and deserving, logically."

  Samson and Khavvrin stopped grappling and stood off to my right. Their naked chests bristled with muscles and shimmered from sweat. Khavvrin was the one worse for wear, but Samson had a parasite in him.

  "Me too? Sir?" the prior asked. "I’m just Human."

  "Not for long. You’re first up for an Armament if you will," I replied, turning to where I’d come from. "Go wash up and meet me at Doc’s as soon as possible."

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  "You wouldn’t start without me, huh?" Gremory asked as she curled up under my arm.

  "Wouldn’t dream about it. Anyway, how did everything go with the ships?" I asked, kissing her forehead.

  "No issues at all. Only the couple random technicians, nothing more. What’s this about?" she asked using my shirt to wipe her neck and face off.

  "Trial experiments. We’re using the disabled and those beyond saving to test a virus strain the Doc came up with. She used all our mutated blood to try and create—something. So far, we got 17 willing to undergo the procedure."

  "Shit, you’re starting to look more and more like those assholes who came before you," she said, catching me off guard.

  "What do you mean?" I asked, pushing her off me. "I’m doing this for everyone on this ship, not for myself."

  She shrugged my comment off as if it was nothing.

  "You four are unique as far as we know. Just imagine what would happen if the enemy got their hands on this stuff. Do you have any idea how hard of a blow that would be to our struggle?"

  "No, I don’t, and I don’t care. I’m taking it all in stride, one problem at a time."

  "Would the two of you shut up already? I’m about to administer the virus to the first patient. A falling beam crushed his legs. Soldier, state your name, age, and rank for the record."

  "Matthew, twenty-nine, rookie, madam," the soldier replied, even though the pain was apparent on his face.

  "And what if something were to go wrong?" Gremory asked, pinching my arm.

  "Then we take care of it. You’ve met Khavvrin here?" I asked motioning to the big guy beside Samson. He nodded and bowed slightly as she turned her head his way.

  "Yeah, the guy who wouldn’t beg for his life. What’s with him?"

  "I decided to give him the new unit of these mutated soldiers. Once the virus works, he’ll undergo the procedure and will be assigned a part of the ship so he and his new men and women can train."

  "Fuck," she cursed and looked back at the first patient as doc administered the virus. "You’re really rushing this, huh?"

  "Not really. Doc told me it could be done within a few hours, so why not start in the downtime?"

  A long minute went by as we observed the patient and waited for something to happen, but it didn’t.

  "Doc?" I asked anxiously. "How long do you think will it take for the virus to work?"

  "I don’t know. An hour or two? A day? It’s not like I know all this stuff."

  I sighed and turned to the door.

  "Samson, Levi, can you guys take care of this? I need to have a chat with Gremory in private."

  Samson nodded approvingly and winked my way.

  "No need to hurry, boss. We got you covered!" Levi shouted our way as we left the lab. I couldn’t help but grin as we walked back to our room. Gremory undressed once we got there and hurriedly took a shower before I joined her. There was no tenderness, no lovemaking, no fooling around, just a quick shower and a change of smart clothing.

  Once we finished, Gremory sat at the kitchen table and ate what leftover meat there was from earlier. It was still warm in the Nano containers that kept the temperature of anything placed inside for over three days.

  "Care to have a drink with me?" I asked, pouring myself some of the Smirnoff. God knew, or in my case, the devil knew I needed it. She nodded, closing the Nano container.

  "What now?" she asked. "Devil is eating and rearranging his body while we’re creating mutants in the research lab. What next? Have you thought ahead?"

  I handed the glass over and sat beside her.

  "I have no idea what I’m doing. What would you have done differently in my place?"

  Gremory looked down at the glass and swirled the content inside for a while.

  "Probably the same. I don’t know. Maybe it’s my pride of being older and famous that I can’t accept the fact we’re equally as strong. What am I saying, you’re probably a lot stronger now. Four tiers in a couple of weeks. Hot damn."

  I sipped at my drink and stared at the table. A tiny scratch kept pulling my attention and annoyed the shit out of me.

  "You know, nothing has changed. You and I will run this legion, this new government or whatever you want to call it. I can be quite smart if you give me a chance, and with the help of you, doc, Samson and Levi, even Kris and Khavvrin, we stand a good chance. Well, it all depends on what happens on Earth in any case."

  "Whatever happens, I’ll be there to support you, as long as you don’t become a tyrant like those who came before you."

  "And if I do, it’s your job to stop me."

  "It depends on how strong you become."

  "Yeah, I guess so. Shit, I need to eat something. I want to be at my best once we’re close to Earth."

  "Something’s wrong," Devil interrupted. "This third ship is making me feel strange. I think I’m—sick. Something’s happening to me."

  "Wait. What do you mean?" I asked. We were in space, and if something happened to the ship, we’d all be dead without a way to fight it.

  "I’m—mutating," he growled. The ship shook violently a
s he spoke, throwing me off my chair. "I can’t hold it—anymore. What the fuck did you—bring me?"

  I couldn’t help but stare at Gremory questioningly.

  "Hey, don’t look at me like that. It was you two who came up with the idea," she snapped.

  "Right. You said there was—a parasite or something on one of the threes. Shit, what happens if you merge?"

  The light went out bathing the room in darkness, the doors powered down, and the ventilation stopped working. More violent shaking and lurching followed as Devil groaned and felt like it was being ripped apart. Then it hit me like a freight train. A part of the pain he felt was sent my way through our symbiosis.

  "Fuck!" I groaned as I felt like my chest was to burst open and my limbs were being torn apart. It finally became too much, and before long, I felt myself drift off into the abyss.

  "It took you long enough to visit me. I’m quite hurt, to be honest," Lucifer’s familiar voice said.

  "I’d rather not make it a regular thing, if you don’t mind," I replied.

  "Ah, come now. See, I’m here to help, nothing else. After all, I want to see you succeed where bigger men have failed."

  "How about you tell me what the hell was going on with your rib when I fainted?"

  "Oh, it’s rather spectacular if I might say so. He ingested something truly amazing! God released these things much later than the original Armaments, and there have been about a dozen sightings over the last century in all the known and unknown universes. You’ve acquired a ship’s Armament. Though, to our disadvantage, it’s rather weak. Crappy, even if I may say so."

  "If it improves our odds of survival by a single percent, I’m more than happy. And from the way you’re praising ship Armaments, I don't think any technology can come close to even the weakest upgrade. Am I wrong?" I replied.

  "Now, now. So, do you want to know more about it?"

  I nodded my head slowly as I sat opposite him on a leather recliner.

  "Please, tell me more, master."

  "Hah! You’re getting the hang of it," Lucifer laughed. "Anyway, the Armament you got is called Cerberus. It multiplies your ship by three. So, if you had a cruiser, it would grow two slightly smaller cruisers. If you had a big ass mother ship, or a BAM as I like to call them, then you would have gotten two slightly smaller BAM’s!"

  My right eyebrow rose in confusion.

  "And how is that a weak Armament when our power tripled? What’s more, if we upgrade Devil a couple of times, the two others will be upgraded as well, right?"

  "Well, I guess it isn't quite weak or useless, but peculiar. Now, you have three ships to work with instead of one. Three ships to prepare, arm, and man."

  "But they can be automated, right?" I asked.

  "They can, and are so to speak, but we still need people who know what they’re doing behind the controls. Look, the bridge is located in the safest part of the ship, the belly of the beast, and all we’re doing is reading data which the sensors and cameras provide."

  "And we can’t have an A.I. do it for us?"

  "No. The reason why A.I. hasn't taken over ship controls is the absence of the Human factor, calling the hard shots or using your guts, not just raw data. Anyways, once you take Entraxila, there will be enough to staff them easily. Or you could—," he said and trailed off mid-sentence.

  "I could what?"

  "Sign another contract. I could send you some alien race in a couple of days and—"

  "No, thanks. I'd rather go down and make friends with the Gebradim. Your gifts are quite hard to swallow."

  "Aw, come now! Didn’t I save your life?"

  "Yeah! After you put me through a shit grinder!"

  "Alright. I’ll do this much for free then. The ship needs three days to finish breeding. Go down to Beta Gebradim and find the queen. She houses an interesting Armament called Hypnos and uses his element and power to control her minions. I’ll tell her to follow your orders if you manage to defeat her."

  "Sure, let me fight a planet-sized ant for a favor!"

  "Hey! Show some gratitude! Don’t let that power go over your head, little one. You’re nothing compared to me, or dear old dad. See, I can be roughly compared to a tier ten, while dad is about a twenty."

  "I never said I—"

  "So it’s settled then! Very well, I’ll allow Devil to make some arrangements in the meanwhile so you can go down with all haste. You have two days, more or less, to get her to like you. Any questions? No? Good!"

  "Wait! Tell me more about her. I don’t want to tangle with something unknown."

  He shrugged his broad shoulders and shook his head.

  "It has no real weaknesses other than a hive mind. Its main attribute is hive control tactics. Perfect for your new friend."

  "For Khavvrin?" I asked curiously.

  "Sure thing. The queen has no real gender, so it’s not like he’ll be wearing a dress. She’s extremely durable and a good tactician. Imagine your friend being able to control dozens or hundreds of your creations with a single thought."

  I whistled and sat upright.

  "Thanks, boss. Can you send me back now? I got something to take care off."

  He burst out in laughter but nodded his head. The darkness consumed me once again before I appeared in Gremory’s arms back on the ship.

  "Everything alright?" she asked worriedly. "You were with him, weren't you?"

  I nodded and told her what we were talking about. Luckily, the power came back up, saving me from any more talking. I wasn’t in the mood now, no, I wanted to fight and kill some Gebradim if they stood in my way!

  "What’s with Doc’s experiments?"

  She shook her head sadly.

  "Eleven died. The twelfth seems to be holding out well. For now."

  I nodded knowingly. If it had only taken a dozen people to come up with treatments for cancer, aids, and other diseases, anyone would offer themselves to the trials.

  "Good. I need to go down to Beta. Devil will need about three days to finish the birthing process. I’m getting the queen’s parasite for Khavvrin."

  "Right. I’m coming with. The others are busy with the trials anyway."

  "Is Levi needed?"

  She shrugged.

  "I don’t think so.

  "Good, we need her stealth skill just in case, so she’s coming with us. You and Kris prep what we’ll need down there, while I get her and see the patient. Meet me at the drop ship in thirty."

  I found myself standing before the thick glass window that separated us from the patients. Having explained the situation, Samson wasn’t quite willing to let her go but obeyed. Levi agreed without a second thought, excited about the chance to explore a new world.

  "We should be back in two days at most."

  "I’ll have the serum perfected by then if there are enough volunteers," Doc said.

  "If there aren’t any, figure something out. Make some. This is more important than anything else in the long term," I whispered. She nodded knowingly.

  "Well then, shall we go?" Gremory asked as she pulled at Levi’s arm.

  "We sure are," I replied. "Queenie, here we come!"

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  The hundred-foot landing craft groaned along with Devil. It wasn’t that I felt unsafe, but the feeling of diving down to a planet in a tin can wasn’t my idea of a good time. Levi and Gremory were huddled up together, obviously for Levi’s sake. Gremory didn’t care much if we blew up or not since she had a force field that let her breathe in space, but the number of space marines, as we’d started calling them, did look somewhat rattled.

  I looked out the port window up at our mother ship. The long, sleek hull was almost invisible to the naked eye, pitch black and full of edges and sleek, sharp lines. The front housed a massive beam weapon which I hadn’t even known about until now. Making a mental note to study the ship and the capabilities more when we got back up, I was flabbergasted when we descended far enough to see what was on the other side.

 
; "Oh my," I whispered. "Won’t you look at that?"

  "Look at what?" Gremory asked, but kept staring down at her nails.

  "There’s a goddamn mother ship being—born or something alongside Devil. Damn it, come take a look!"

  Gremory groaned and pulled Levi along with her. Some marines followed after them and looked through the window as well. She raised an eyebrow as she sat next to me and looked through the viewing port.

  "What do you—mean? Holy shit!" she cursed, leaning against the glass. "What’s with won’t you look at that?"

  It was a good deal smaller, and I had no idea if it would grow to the same size, but it looked identical, at least the part that was already built. Then, as if on cue, the second ship exploded from the side and was pushed off the mother ship. The fire dissipated almost instantaneously, revealing both ships to be fully intact from what I could see.

  "What the fuck just happened?" Levi chuckled. "Hell yeah! Ship sex!"

  "We’re descending into the exosphere. Sit down and strap yourselves in," Devil said over the ship’s comms, beating us to any smart retorts. Still, more than one marine chuckled and looked our way, especially Levi’s. The way her smart suit hugged her body was a step up from Gremory who was now at all times surrounded by her Armament’s extensions.

  "Big guy, what the hell just happened up there?" I asked, following his orders.

  "That’s the fucking ship Armament you made me ingest, Cerberus. I should be ready to give birth to a second over the next couple of hours."

  "And they’re just like you? Same layout, weapons, shields, and so on?"

  "No. They’re bare, naked, stripped. A lot of tonnage will be needed to make them useful. As is, they’re just DUD’s."

  "Speaking of which, what’s your main weaponry anyway? What can we count on in fleet engagements?"

  "We got the main beam weapon at the bow, Doomsday. It can be fired once every hour and can obliterate very large asteroids, or very small planets. We have smaller photon beam weapons all across the top, missile launchers on both port and starboard, two drone bays, and one mine bay."