"Two of them above!"
"I got 'em! I got 'em!"
"Over there!"
"Die, you bastard!"
"I got another!"
"Get 'em, Valkyrie, eat 'em up!"
"Eat that! Eat that, O! Burn in hell!"
"I count seventeen destroyed," Sweety informed me. "Five still functional!"
"Get that bastard!" Another explosion, lighting us up. My flesh was ice cold.
"Over there—over there!" We all fired, hunting them down, breaking away from the circle now, hungry for blood. Two more erupted, blinding flashes, blown all to hell.
"Maintain the circle!"
"Two spheres still functional!" Wild, frightening cheers, right in my ears.
"I got him! I got him!" More firing—everyone was firing. Another white flash rocked me back on my boot heels.
"The last guy is above—here he comes!" Somebody laughed. The sky was full of biodee. I aimed into the sky, and fired on auto.
One last flash, a tremendous boom, and suddenly it was still. The snow fell silently, absolutely lovely. I was ice cold and shaking.
"Spheres all destroyed," Sweety reported calmly.
Psycho laughed, delighted. "Wasn't that fun? Hey, Speedy, how ya doing? Did you get any?" But Speedy was on his knees, sobbing.
"Is everyone all right?" Snow Leopard asked.
"I got two of them for sure, Thinker!" Twister said. She sounded excited.
"That's great, Twister—welcome to Beta!"
"Valkyrie, did you see me zap that one that was diving for us?" Scrapper asked. "God, that felt good!"
"Felt good?" Valkyrie laughed. "I'll tell ya later how good it felt, Scrapper. I swear to Deadman!"
"Hey, the ape was great!" Psycho exclaimed. "He was blowing them away!"
"His name is Gildron," Tara said.
"Aw right, Gildron," Psycho said. "Gildron, you're all right!"
Gildron snarled in return and raised his E, a massive, frightening figure, clad in black armor. "Keer saveer!" he said. "Keer saveer!"
We all laughed. "Keer saveer," Psycho repeated. "You got it, Gildron! Keer saveer!"
"All right, settle down," Snow Leopard ordered. "There's no doubt the O's know where we are now. We can expect more spheres—and other nasty surprises. Let's get moving."
"You're not going on with the mission?" Speedy gasped in surprise. "We're compromised. They've got us zeroed!"
"We continue with the mission," Snow Leopard replied calmly. "Let's go."
"But we can't go on! We can't! They know where we are! The mission's failed! They'll kill us! They'll kill us all!"
"Silence in the ranks," Valkyrie said. "Fourteen, turn that off. Let's go, guys."
"But we're going to die! We're all going to die! We can't go on! It's crazy!"
"Shut your stinking trap," Valkyrie said coldly, "and start marching—or we leave you here."
Speedy followed, sobbing. We were all sick of him. He didn't have a single friend in the squad—it was sad. Merlin and Psycho had tried to bring him along, but it hadn't worked. There was something wrong with the fellow. He certainly didn't belong in a Legion squad.
Chapter 7
Slave of the Legion
"No movement—keep it quiet." It was still snowing. We were all on guard, straining to see, E's at the ready. I was on one knee. The tacmod flickered, still trash, but we knew it was out there somewhere.
"How many?" Valkyrie asked.
"Looks like only one," Snow Leopard replied. I could see the two of them off to my left, ghostly figures in the snow. It was a white world, a snow sky.
"What is it, Wester?" Tara whispered.
"Snake," I replied. "Stay alert. They'll be hard to spot in the snow." I kept looking around. The damned things could fall out of the sky silently and wrap around you in a frac.
"Remember, if it's a snake, use flame," Valkyrie said. "If it grabs anybody, just torch him. It needs a few fracs to start the process."
"Use flame, Gildron," Tara said.
"Sa-nake," Gildron responded.
"I don't see anything," Snow Leopard said.
"It may be out of range," Valkyrie replied.
We waited. Gildron's massive form loomed not far away. He was looking around alertly, his E at his shoulder. He was a lot smarter than he looked. I went on private to Tara.
"What's his story, Tara?"
"What's whose story?"
"Gildron. Where did you get him?"
"You don't want to know where. It was a slave market—one of the worst I've seen. They had him in a black pit, half full of icy water. They fed him dead sewer rats. Gildron was so savage and wild that the slavers were terrified of him. Normally, I would have never touched him. But something strange happened as I looked down at him and he looked up at me, out of that horrid pit. It's hard to describe it to a deadhead. But there was an inner peace between us. And to me, it was so pure and clean that it was like a bolt of lightning. I knew I had to have him. The slavers practically gave him away, they were so anxious to get rid of him."
"And you've lived happily ever after?" I was still nervously scanning the snowy skies, but it seemed quiet.
"Something like that. They brought him to the ship naked, in chains. I took the chains off while my Cyrillians stood by nervously with their SG's set to vac. It wasn't necessary—I could read his mind and it was all peace, for me. I reached out and touched him, and he reached out and touched me, as gentle as a baby. I've never understood why. But he's been with me ever since."
"Where did he come from—originally?"
"It's a mystery. He's the only known specimen of his race. Probably a slaver raid on some unknown world. He's all alone, you see—just like me."
"Just how retarded is he? Sometimes he seems pretty sharp."
"He's learned a lot. There's not much in his mind. Wherever he came from, it was a simple world. I'd say his original environment did not require a great deal of thought. I imagine it was a very pleasant place."
"Well, looks like there's nothing there." Snow Leopard said abruptly.
"All clear," Valkyrie said. "Beta advance." We got up and resumed the march. I kept the safety off, the E set to flame. And still the snow fell softly, straight down, light and fluffy and pure white. It was so lovely I could hardly believe it.
"ALERT! Aircar!" We froze, stunned.
"What the hell…"
"Silence!" Snow Leopard snapped.
"AIRCAR! Approaching from the… ALERT! MULTIPLE MISSILE TRACKS! RECOMMEND IMMEDIATE DISPERSAL!"
"Starburst!" Snow Leopard shouted. I ran for my life, blind and terrified, into the gently falling snow, my blood pumping ice cold adrenalin, my guts churning, boots slamming into the snow, gasping, the suit helping me, running like a great metal beast, every movement perfect. It was as if the A-suit was running by itself and I was trapped inside, a horrified spectator.
"I HAVE FIVE INCOMING—SIX INCOMING—DISPERSE! DISPERSE!" I was a great cenite running machine, arms and legs swinging in perfect unison, and if anything got in the way, it was going to be flattened. Run, Thinker, run! Run for your life! I ran like a metal god, I ran like I had never run before, without thought, without hope—I knew we were dead, and I was running right into Hell.
"Missiles are passing overhead. We are not targeted. Recommend dispersal cease."
Passing overhead! Did I hear that right? I fell down to the snow, crashing onto my armored belly, and shakily brought my E to my shoulder. My whole body twitched in shock.
"Repeat, Sweety!"
"Missiles impacting!" The horizon lit up, glittering phospho green, trembling, then a horrible multiple electronic crack rumbled past us. A shock wave buffeted my faceplate, and the snow whirled around me. Yellow streaks shot skyward out there.