Soldier of the Legion by Marshall S. Thomas Read Free Book Online Page B

us. You’ll be in a blocking position there. The map still says there’s no way out.” He sounded excited, anxious to bag the Scaler.
    Nobody said a thing about those great stone figures, although everybody had seen them. The Legion was very task-oriented. Lord, we are barbarians!
    Another corridor loomed on the left. Priestess hesitated at the entrance, waiting for me.
    Into the unknown, again, with just enough blood in my adrenalin flow to keep my systems going. We looked into each other’s eyes through our faceplates and struck fists. The Legion salute—we would return together or die.
    A dead, dark tunnel of black stone, with wet rot coating the walls. We always fought the unknown in the Legion. Once we know our enemy, it is always so much easier. But dealing with the unknown is bad for the soul. The enemy might be a harried, helpless savage, or it might be a DefCorps squad, waiting in the dark to slice us into bloody pieces before we could even react.
    The corridor widened. We stopped, every sense alert. Little warnings tingled in the back of my mind and my skin crawled, but Sweety was silent. A large stone chamber faced us, murky pools of black water on the floor, scraggly black vegetation growing up the walls and hanging from the roof. I did not want to go in there.
    “Hold it,” I said. Priestess had already stopped. We paused at the entrance to the chamber. Ancient metal rings, coated with rust, studded the walls.
    An empty chamber. “I don’t like it,” I said. “What do you suppose this is?”
    “It could have been anything.”
    “I don’t like it,” I repeated.
    We scanned the chamber carefully. Sweety noted mold, tiny parasites, slugs, worms, and billions of airborne microorganisms. It looked all right, but it did not feel all right.
    Suddenly our tacnet exploded and we could hear autovac, shattering the dark, echoing through the corridors.
    Snow Leopard screamed, “Fire! Fire! Fire!...Stop! Cease Fire! Freeze!”
    Priestess and I froze as well, listening to the transmissions.
    “I got him!”
    “Don’t move!”
    “He went down!”
    “Don’t move!”
    “Where is he?”
    “Cease fire! Cease fire.”
    “He moved!”
    “Tenners, cease fire!”
    Priestess and I leaned against the wall, side by side, our E’s pointed into the darkened chamber.
    “Sounds like they got him,” I commented.
    “That’s good,” Priestess said. “Good.”
    “Element, up! Lifies up! On me!” Snow Leopard ordered. Evidently they were securing the Scaler.
    “Thinker, Priestess, remain in place.” Snow Leopard never stopped thinking. He didn’t need us. I let myself slide down the corridor wall to a sitting position, my muscles relaxing. Priestess did the same. I felt good, despite that awful tunnel. This empty chamber was creepy, but there was plenty of room so I could breathe. We weren’t going to be meeting the Systies after all—at least not today! It was wonderful, sitting there looking at Priestess. I felt the blood pumping through my veins. I had never been so alive.
    Snow Leopard was in his element. “Careful, zap him if he moves. Medic up!”
    Priestess’s arms twitched, a reflex to the call for a medic. The life team leader called his own medic, the other man on the capture team. Priestess started giggling. I put my arm around her shoulders and squeezed. I just wanted to hold her, to look into her eyes. Even with the faceplate and the mud, even with the green glow and the dark, she was youth and beauty and life. We embraced, silently, awkwardly, and I swear I could hear her heartbeat. I never wanted to leave her.
    I felt a faint shudder in the floor and we tensed, the moment of tenderness evaporated. Suddenly, the chamber floor erupted before us with a tremendous crack. Rock shrapnel ricocheted wildly in all directions, peppering us with jagged flecks of stone. Dust and earth filled the air. A scream echoed in my ears, and we were airborne. I landed on my back, breathless. I raised my head. Dust