'Who were the casualties?' I asked. 'Where's Priestess? Answer me!'
'I don't know,' Dragon replied, 'but it was bad. Scrapper was gone—somebody screamed, and Priestess ran right into that last burst to help. Right into the flames! Deto! I couldn't do a thing!' Dragon sounded really shaken —I had never seen him so stunned.
'Where are they? Where are they?'
'I don't know!' Dragon insisted. 'We were separated!'
'The tacmap is all chaff,' Merlin said. 'Where the hell do we go?' The tunnel was lined with gaping hatchways, all leading to unknown worlds.
'One said split up,' Twister said. 'Get to a higher level, and secure the ship.' Her teeth were chattering.
'But we can't go up to the city again—the O's will cook us!'
'But Priestess…'
'Our psybloc is off the scale!' Tara warned us.
'Something's coming!'
Gildron roared suddenly. An explosion rocked the underground. I was stunned. What next, what next!
'We're through,' somebody said. I didn't recognize the voice.
'I detect multiple Legion A-suits!' Sweety warned us. 'Unknown unit, probably Blue Gold, repeat, unclear count, unknown Legion unit, as marked…' They had broken into our tunnel.
'Blackout,' I commanded. 'Deceptors! Let's get outta here!' I tossed a deceptor behind us and we sloshed through the water, Dragon leading with the Manlink. We were running from the Legion troopers—I didn't want to fight them. Our psybloc helmet units were still flashing so there was really no way we could hide, even on blackout.
'Wester! Wester!' Tara clawed at my armor wildly.
'Far enough! That's it—everybody stop!' Dragon turned and the Manlink was at his shoulder, aiming right at my chest. I sloshed to a stop, trying to comprehend it.
'He's the psychee!' Tara exclaimed. 'It's Dragon!'
'That's right, troopers,' Dragon said. 'It's Dragon! Now don't move! Nobody move, or you all die! I'm on auto xmax.' I could see right through Dragon's faceplate into his cold, dead eyes, and I could see only a fanatic determination. It was truly terrifying. I knew Dragon was the best trooper in Beta—not one of us could match him for sheer nerve, guts, skill, or raw bravery. The people who psyched him had chosen well.
'Drop the weapons—now!' The Manlink's laser sight flashed over my face. 'Any resistance and you die—all of you!'
'Black Jade, Blue Gold! Warning, we've got at least one O in the underground complex!' The others dropped their E's into the water. I let the SG slide off my shoulder, but my E was secured to my chestplate by an autorecovery mechanism.
'Your left hand, Thinker,' Dragon said. 'Slowly. Hit the release. I warn you, your death will mean nothing to me.'
We were all unarmed now except Dragon and I. Even Gildron, snarling and bristling, had followed Tara's lead and dropped his E into the water. I slowly reached down with my left hand to the release tab, located near the butt of the weapon. The flickering laser sight blinded me, filling my helmet. I knew death was very, very close and I was bathed in icy sweat but I knew I had to do something and it came to me in a flash. As my thumb touched the release tab I hooked one finger around the ring of a psybloc grenade. I had a pack of them strapped to my u-belt, ready for action, and they were just below water level. As my E slid into the water and I brought my left hand back up carefully, the ignition ring was around one finger and the grenade was live in the pack. I held my hand so Dragon could not see the ring.
'Blue Gold, this is Blue Jade,' Dragon said. 'I've got five Black Jades here, under control, as marked…'
'PSYBLOC GRENADE ACTIVATED!' Sweety urgently warned me, alerted by the hot grenade at my waist. The warning was simultaneous to everyone else—including Dragon. He had turned his weapon to cover Gildron once my E went down. Now it swung back to me, a slow motion horror arc and I threw myself at Eight in agonizing fractions of time, splashing frantically through the water, that damned right leg giving out again—no! I could see his mouth, firmly set, and his eyes, glittering cold death. Then the grenade went off right at my waist, a shattering white flash and bang.
Chapter 11
A Fine Place to Die
I awoke in a firefight, laser snapping past my helmet, auto xmax bursting off the walls and the water boiling with shrapnel. Tara pulled a biotic charger away from an access port on my armor and shouted something but I could not hear it. Twister was against one wall, firing auto x. I came back to life quickly, my body shrieking objections.
'Cease fire, Black Jade! You're firing on a friendly unit!'
'Wester, Merlin is hit bad!' Tara informed me. I turned. Merlin was propped against one wall, chest-deep in a spreading pool of blood, fused whitened armor revealing a chest hit. He was in shock, deathly pale. He opened his mouth weakly but could not speak. I screamed in horror and turned to face the Blue Gold troopers. Tara thrust an E into my hands.
'Let's get out of here!' she urged me.
And something snapped inside me. It all just went red, and I stepped forward right into the line of fire, sloshing through the waist-deep water. I raised the E to my shoulder and fired, auto xmax. I was consumed, transformed, overcome with hatred and rage. I screamed, hysterical, running right at those Legion troopers, sloshing through the sewers like a wild man, burning out my E, finger holding the trigger down all the way, full auto x, blind rage. The world exploded ahead of me and I was taking hits, laser and x, banging and hissing into my armor, but I kept on going, totally insane, and I caught little glimpses behind me, Tara and Gildron and Twister following, E's blazing auto x and laser. The air around us was a glittering highway of death, laser and x, and I was not going to stop until I was dead.
And then I was down in the water, exhausted. Dead—surely dead. I struggled to my feet, gasping. We were surrounded by shattered Legion A-suits, smoking, blistered Legion armor. Four of them. No insignia.
Twister staggered, sobbing. 'Legion troopers—they're Legion troopers! They're just like us, and we killed them. We killed them!'
Tara made the sign of the Legion over the nearest glowing A-suit. 'May the Gods protect your souls. We will pray for your journey—you fought bravely! Deadman forgive us!'
One of them moved. An arm, twitching. I was on him like a wolf, pulling him up against one wall. 'Who are you, you bastards? Answer me! Who are you?'
He was in shock, spitting blood. I snapped up his visor. A young, pale Outworlder trooper, blinking nervously.
'Am I going to die?' He coughed, spitting more up blood. We stood waist-deep in a widening pool of bloody water. I did not want to look at his injuries.
'Yes,' I answered. 'We're sorry. Please tell us who you are, and why you're here.' My heart pounded raggedly.
'The ship,' he said dreamily. 'The mission was the ship.'
'Yes—that was our mission! The ship! Why are you fighting us? We're all with the Legion! Why!'
'Water,' the trooper choked. Tara brought a canteen up to his mouth. He took a swig, then continued. 'We're
