Slave of the Legion by Marshall S. Thomas Read Free Book Online

right here."
    "How do we get across the plain without being spotted?" Psycho asked. "Looks pretty open to me."
    "When we're ready, we'll call for cover," Snow Leopard said. "They'll light up the entire sector with deceptors and smoke and psybloc. Not just our area, but the whole sector—so it won't highlight us. We go in at night, under cover. Nothing to it."
    "Nothing to it!" Speedy exclaimed in surprise. "What happens if the O's spot us and attack? What do we do then?"
    "We fight," Snow Leopard replied, "and call in Beta Ten in the aircar for evac, if necessary."
    "And what if he can't get to us? Or they get to him first?"
    "Then we die. Any more questions?" The new guy paled, and shut down.
    "You shouldn't worry, Speedy," Valkyrie said soothingly. "We all know what we're doing. We've fought the O's before. Just stay close to us and follow orders. You'll see—we'll get some kills. It's a good feeling, a great feeling, when you kill an O! We blew that last one apart, didn't we, guys? We filled the sky with psybloc and ripped its mags apart with canisters and tore it to shreds with the darts, and melted it with plasma, and cooked its genetics with the fieldfaxer and riddled it with laser and chainlink and tacstars and xmax and flame, we barbecued it, we char-grilled it, Speedy, and it burned like charcoal! We loaded it into the aircar in sections, didn't we, guys?" Her green eyes glowed, spittle was leaking out of her soft pink lips, and her face twitched. The Legion cross, burnt right onto her forehead, completed the picture. It was dead silent. She gave a nervous little laugh and wiped her mouth with the back of her armored hand. "Like Snow Leopard says, there's nothing to it. It's a charge—a real charge."
    But Speedy wouldn't leave it alone. "Did you have any casualties?"
    "Casualties," Valkyrie said. "Yeah, let's see—the O's got five of us, on Andrion Three. And two on Mongera—the rest were killed by the Systies. Yeah, total of seven killed, by the O's."
    "Seven killed! How many O's did you get?"
    "How many! There was only the one," Valkyrie replied. "Just the one, on Mongera. One is enough, believe me!"
    "Just one!" Speedy's voice went up a few octaves.
    "Relax, Speedy!" Valkyrie chided him. "Deadman, what an old lady! Just relax; we'll kick the crap out of the O's."
    I closed my eyes. We were in the hands of the Gods.

Chapter 4
The Mission

    A poisonous black rain fell through an uneasy night. We huddled in the aircar, armored and armed, hurtling into the future. Thirteen soldiers of the Legion, bound for death. We were on the left flank of the attack, moving fast and low with the advance elements of the 12th. The sky flickered with light, then faded. Deceptors trembled across the sky like lightning. Psybloc fell like hot hail. When it lit up, black clouds hid the stars and sheets of rain burst against the skin of the aircar. Dead forests of smoking charcoal trees flashed past outside, stark reminders of the elemental struggle that had just been waged. We could see other aircars on our screens. Green ghosts, all around us. The horizon erupted, an intense phospho-white burst, icy green core; then the shock wave rattled the car, the horizon fading once again.
    "Antimat!" Redhawk exclaimed. "Big one!" Redhawk was piloting and he had the speed close to max. Terrifying things came at us out of the dark, huge boulders and massive hills of burning trees and sudden cliffs, tearing right past us. I knew Redhawk had it all on screen, but it didn't make it any less scary.
    "There's some O's over there," Snow Leopard said. "Just stay away from them."
    "Sounds like good advice!" We'd been through a lot with Redhawk, and we trusted him—he was a first-class driver. He was a little crazy, maybe, but he wasn't the only one.
    "Control, Black Jade. Commo check." Snow Leopard did one last check.
    "Black Jade, Control. Read you ten high. Please go to blackout. Good luck."
    "Black Jade going to blackout." Now we were truly alone,