Firemask: Book Two of the Last Legion Series by Chris Bunch Read Free Book Online Page B

Bravo will sweep the area, Alpha giving support fire. When the area’s secured, Alpha moves across the area, and both elements reassemble.
    “If there is contact, each of you fires one unit of ammo. If the enemy’s stronger than we are, I’ll give the order, and we break contact, go for the RP …”
    She gave the map coordinates of the rendezvous point, went on, “… commo … support … chain of command.” She finished, looked at Garvin.
    “ ‘Kay,” he said briskly. “We eat, then move out. Now lemme give you the reality of what we’re coming on. It’s the old Musth headquarters, which’ll most likely be boarded up.
    “You’re carrying live ammo, but pick a god to pray to if anybody rolls a ball out the muzzle for real and makes a hole in somebody else’s real estate. We’re not at war with the Musth, and it’d be real goddamned dumb for somebody to start it over a busted window when and if they come back.
    “Same thing goes for souveniring, looting, or casual vandalism. The words are RTU if you do.”
    RTU — Returned to Unit, the threat all of the trainees had been facing since they volunteered for Intelligence and Reconnaissance from their parent companies.
    “Reality is we’ll sweep around the buildings, as Montagna said, then form up on the other side, call for pickup, and go home to a nice, hot bath.”
    He hid a grin, wondering what the reaction would be when he told them sorrowfully that the Grierson had been driven off by enemy fire, and aw, hell, they’d just have to walk back, and how many trainees would just go flat and say “Screw it,” throwing away the last two E-months of sweat, strain, and not a little blood, not realizing they hadn’t come close to touching their last reserves, which was really what all the harassment and pressure of I&R training was supposed to teach.
    Garvin reached in his pack, took out a block of something, put it in his mess tin, poured water from a canteen over it, and refilled the canteen from the rain trap he’d made with a small waterproof cloth. The block squiggled and became something moderately resembling a chunk of protein with something that might have been button fungi around it.
    He doused the mixture with the hot sauce every experienced soldier carried, ate mechanically, scrubbed the small plate and his spoon with grass, and restowed everything in his pack.
    “Any time you’re ready,” and the patrol moved off, feet squidging through the ankle-high waterlogged mosses, past the trees that rose like sentinels from the mist, through the marshland of the Highlands.
    • • •
    Music swept through the great temple, swirling around the packed benches, then died, and the orchestra lowered its instruments.
    The Leader rose, walked to the podium, and his voice rolled forth:
    “Brethren, this is a day of joy and happiness, for on this day, we celebrate, with our own bodies, the mystical union between the Creator and Ourselves, a day of wedding, an estate to be entered into soberly and with considered judgment.
    “If there is any among you who knows of a reason these two should not come together in holy matrimony, let him speak now …”
    • • •
    The Musth building rose out of the mist, strange polygons apparently made of glass and onyx. They showed few signs of abandonment, nor any measures by the Musth to prevent damage. Here a panel was shattered from some Cumbrian animal’s curiosity, there a few moss-vines had begun twining up the walls.
    Montagna signaled, and Alpha flattened in firing positions, weapons ready, even though the magazines were still tucked into their pouches.
    Bravo came up, on command, moved forward, slowly, quietly.
    Then one man went flat, flailed at the air with one hand, palm down, and the others obediently dropped, wondering what the hell was going on, if the goddamned
alt
was pulling some crappy game. The man signaled again, fist clenched, thumb pointing down.
    Enemy in sight?
    Garvin was about to start snarling,