“I’m yours, Thinker, if you want me.” She stood up abruptly, tossing her hair back again, defiantly. I could only sit there in total amazement, gaping at her.
“Body and soul, Thinker. Body and soul!” Her eyes flashed and a bleak vision seemed to pass over them. She backed toward the door, still holding me with her eyes. I knew she meant it. “Tomorrow, Thinker. Together.” She slipped out the door.
I knew that something had changed in both of us. Suddenly I knew that I would never be a possession to her. Never a convenience when the mood struck or green jealousy reared its ugly head. I would die without hesitation for Valkyrie, but I wanted to live with sweet Priestess.
We went back the next day, dropping into the atmosphere in an assault craft. We sat next to each other, but an uneasy tension lingered between us. We’d crossed a line. A big one. It scared me more than the exosegs. Would we feel the same after we returned to Beta and our dance with death?
The ship bounced wildly, its skin glowing cherry-red and Andrion 2 coming at us like a heavenly vision. Great silver oceans glittered molten sunlight, soft white clouds streaked by far below, endless green forests rolled by, bursting into every color of the spectrum as we approached.
Zero Alpha had been transformed into Alpha Base, our first foothold. With countless tons of equipment and cargo flowing down from Atom, it was Andrion 2’s first starport and a growing military base. Around the raw, dusty red earth, endless rows of ugly building modules dominated a bleak landscape scarred by hastily excavated storage bunkers and pitted with construction sites, aircar parks and other Legion installations. The whole base was ringed with a heavily fortified defensive perimeter.
That night, I visited a small chapel at Alpha Base, open to the stars and the soft breezes of the night. A simple Godmod, as we called it, with Deadman and the cross of the Legion on the wall. A chapel, for soldiers without souls.
Several other troopers from CAT 24 had arrived, suited up with helmets off. As I knelt before Deadman, I was surprised when Priestess slipped in beside me, kneeling by my side. She set her helmet before her.
I only knew one prayer, the battle chant of the Legion. I whispered it, and Priestess joined her words to mine.
“I am a Soldier of the Legion.
I believe in Evil-
The survival of the strong-
And the death of the weak.
I am the guardian.
I am the sword of light
In the dark of the night.
I will deliver us from Evil.
“I accept life everlasting
And the death of my past.
I will trust no Earther worm
Nor any mortal man,
But only the mark of the Legion.
I have burnt the book of laws
To serve the Deadman’s cause
As a soldier of the Legion.”
Priestess gazed into the distance, innocent and vulnerable. Her lips formed the words, but I could barely hear her.
“I am the slave of the Future
At the gateway to the stars,
Where I can see-Eternity.
For I walk in the shadow of death
And yet I fear no Evil
For I am the light in the dark
I am the watch on the mark
I am a soldier of the Legion.
“I will have no talk with Evil.
The arts of death are the tools of life
And in the end I will send
A maxburst to advise
The Omnis come by surprise
And though we kill them where they stand,
We know it’s death’s dark land
For a soldier of the Legion.”
We had taken the same pledge on joining the Legion. It was the creed of the Outworlder race, and a reaffirmation of our faith. It always calmed me down.
I glanced at Priestess. Her eyes glistened. I reached over and took her hand. Yes, we might die this very day.
We went outside where we could taste the still before the dawn, under a sky full of icy stars. Her eyes seemed to glow in the dark.
“I believe in Evil,” she said abruptly. “That thing was Evil, pure and simple. And you killed it where it stood! You lifted me right out of the grave.”
I drew her to me silently, and she rested her head on my armored shoulder. Her hair smelled like morning rain. “It’s all right,” I said. “You would have done the same for me. I was lucky. We both got lucky.” Priestess would not let go, but I didn’t really mind.
Finally she spoke. “Thinker, I want you to be extra careful on this op. Please don’t leave me.”
“I won’t leave you, Priestess.”
“I want to be close to you. I think…something may happen. And I’m afraid. I’m afraid I’ll lose you.”
“We’ll stay as close as they’ll let us.” She knew it wasn’t really up to us.
She looked up at me, a new light in her eyes. She tried a smile, and it worked.
“No worries…Priestess.” Nothing mattered, I thought. I did not want to resist. We kissed, and a meteor shower flashed through the quiet sky, just before the dawn. And for the moment, the future did not matter.
A kiss in morning starlight. The start of the Scaler Campaign. We had only the vaguest glimmering of the horrors that awaited us all. As a newborn warrior from Planet Hell, a Soldier of the Legion, I thought I understood Evil. But I was a child without the slightest concept of the real fabric of terror. I had not yet tasted of Evil. Exosegs weren’t evil, they were mindless. Evil awaited us all, holding its breath in the dark.
The Inners never understood Evil. Their worlds had been purchased in blood by the Legion, generations in the past. It’s easy to lose track of reality if nothing has ever tried to eat you alive.
We faced the cold wind of the stars; we reached out and touched the sworn enemies of humanity, and killed them where they stood. We faced the Systies, the slavemasters, and held their corrupt empire at bay, allowing ConFree to prosper. At the gateway to infinity, the Omnis writhed, an alien scourge. Facing the O’s was like facing God. Our fathers had died like bacteria in the Plague War, but the Legion had finally shattered the Omni fleets. It had been a total war, a war of extermination, wherever they appeared. Grim, fantastic battles fought far, far away in the Outvac, in the empty spaces between ConFree and infinity. The Inners never knew or cared, not about Legion blood. They would never know, not unless the Legion died. Only then would the Inners learn about Evil. But it would be written in the heavens for them all to see, long before it happened to them. They would have time to think. They would look up from their fat, safe, happy little worlds, and see the stars burning brightly in the night, a new universe of supernovas. For we would go down fighting.
