eyebrows. Her pale skin had a greenish cast. As the Deputy Chief of the Fortune’s All-Sub Crimson Souls, she bore responsibility for the deaths of thousands. The Mocains were our enemies. They were also the System’s master race, but this one had turned outlaw. Clad in a torn top, litepants and boots, she bled heavily from the nose and mouth. Black Ice-alive!
Snow Leopard arrived and took charge. “Priestess, I want a genetic ID on this one. These Mocains all look the same to me.”
Priestess elbowed through the crowd and pressed a medprobe to the girl’s neck, then consulted it and checked Coolhand’s datacard. Priestess was Beta squad’s angel: dangerously beautiful, with silky black hair, smooth pale skin and vulnerable lips. Every day that passed drew me closer to the realization that I wanted her to be my angel. My heart always sped up when she was nearby, but I certainly didn’t want her or anyone else to know it.
“That’s her all right,” Priestess said. “Black Ice. Genetic ID is confirmed.”
“Thank you, Priestess.” Snow Leopard lowered the barrel of his E to the Mocain’s forehead. Her eyes widened for just a frac. Then her head exploded, spraying everyone with blood and gore.
I blinked back the horror. Several of the former slaves shrieked in terror, but more than a few danced gleefully around the room, not bothering to wipe away the blood. They held hands and sang some unintelligible rhyme with wild, feral looks on their faces. I wouldn’t forget this one.
“Prepare to evac the civilians,” Snow Leopard said calmly. He had ice water in his veins. I sometimes thought he could have been a biogen, one of those synthetically grown humans engineered for specific, singular tasks. To me, he was the ultimate squad leader. Only a few years older than the rest of us, he was certainly different. How could he be unmoved by this?
Priestess paused beside me and said in a low, hopeful voice, “It’s good, Thinker,” she said. “What we’re doing here is good.”
I looked up at her. “If you say so,” I replied as I reached for an embroidered shawl to wipe the blood and brains from my face and armor. Welcome to the Legion, I thought.
The rest was a blur. I did what I was told and moved like the efficient machine the Legion had forged. Now that the area was pacified, tech-teams moved in to gather what intelligence they could from the ruins. We sedated many of the former slaves, and evacuated the lot of them off-planet to our ship, the cruiser C.S. Spawn. The lifies, our med-techs, took custody of them. I didn’t envy them their jobs. There would be many tearful reunions as the Legion reunited them with their families, but I knew that despite our best med-tech and therapy, many would never be quite sane again.
I was exhausted, tired beyond anything I believed possible. It was time to report. Our squad assembled, still in armor, hauling weapons and equipment, in the Captain’s small office. We struggled to fit everyone inside. Snow Leopard stood at attention in front of the Captain’s spartan desk. The Captain waited patiently.
Snow Leopard was all business, “Sir! Squad Beta reports successful completion of the mission on Alshana 4. Two hundred sixty one slavers terminated, six hundred eight female captives recovered. Squad had zero casualties. Thirteen captives were killed in the crossfire. Thirty were wounded and are under treatment.”
“Thank you, Beta.” The Captain stood up, dressed in his blacks. He appeared to be very young, but in the Legion it was hard to tell. Our biotech kept us young and virtually immortal. His slightly slanted eyes hinted at a little Assidic blood. “It’s a shame about the captives, but it can’t be helped. You did a good job, troopers.” The Captain knew all about how the raid went. Everyone knew that he’d closely monitored our every move. Snow Leopard’s report was just a formality.
“Let’s see,” the Captain said, sifting through a pile of printouts and datapaks on his desk. “All right.” He picked up a printout. “Snow Leopard, based on the results of your Final Problem on Alshana 4, your squad has been certified by 22nd Legion Training Command as graduates of the Hell Course and fully fit for regular combat. Reassignment is authorized to an active-duty unit.” He paused and looked up, smiling, “Congratulations to all of you and welcome to the ConFree Legion.”
We greeted the news with a stunned silence. Finally Psycho said, “Aw right!”
It had been a long hard road, but we’d done it. We’d arrived!
“Thank you, Sir!” Snow Leopard spoke up.” On behalf of Beta, we thank the Legion!”
The Captain chuckled with a knowing expression. “I’ve got your assignment here, too. 22nd Legion, 12th Colonial Expeditionary Regiment-that’s the Black 12th-CAT 24, Second of the Ship-BE 14, Atom’s Road. That’s the Spawn’s battlestar. She’s a good ship.”
“Sir! We are honored to be assigned to Atom’s Road!”
“We’ll be underway to Atom as soon as we transfer your refugees. Atom will be starlaunching as soon as we arrive. The entire 12th has been recalled and will be on board. We’ve got a major mission, boys-a Systie intrusion into ConFree vac. It’s very serious. We’ll be facing the DefCorps this time, not some half-assed slaver gang with a little borrowed DefCorps hardware.”
“Sir! We won’t fail you! What’s the target?” Snow Leopard asked.
The Captain looked down at his notes. “Andrion 2,” he said. “It’s in the Outvac-quite a ways out. Over 750 light-years from the Crista Cluster. Nobody’s ever been there. But we’ll fix that.”
“Yes, Sir!” Snow Leopard sounded supremely confident.
The Black 12th, the 12th Colonial Expeditionary Regiment, under the 22nd, the Black Legion! The 22nd had an ancient and glorious history. In the Plague War, it had been known as the Rimguard, and the Rimguard motto, Deliver Us From Evil, had a special meaning for all Outworlders. We still carried those words on our blacks.
I swallowed hard. Into the Outvac. Seven hundred and fifty light-years. I must be insane! In a few days, I would really do it. Until now there had always been the vague idea that if I wasn’t good enough or brave enough the Legion would just send me back home. I didn’t expect or want to go back-it was just a kind of mental back door or escape hatch. Nice to know it was there. It was just a dodge, a way to avoid accepting the full reality and consequence of joining the Legion. Some part of me hadn’t quite grasped my decision to forever leave my old life behind.
Not anymore. The final string was cut and I was suddenly dizzy.
Then Psycho was shoving me, “Come on, Thinker, wake up! Time to go and get out of these stinkin’ suits and grab some eats!”
The meeting was breaking up and I was impeding the rough flow of tired, armored troopers making their way out of the Captain’s office.
“Yeah,” I said. “Time to go.”
Chapter 2: Year Zero
As we approached Atom’s Road on the Spawn, I found a small viewport. Atom hung silently in space, a blinding silver dart that reflected all our hopes and dreams. As we drew closer, Atom’s immense size became clear. Two other cruisers were already affixed to their docking blisters, and they looked almost like toys in comparison to Atom. Deadman, she was lovely-crafted by the Gods! I knew she was also the ultimate killing machine, capable of knocking a planet out of orbit. We all knew her mission and her stats, but I best remembered that last line of the official description: “The C.S. Atom’s Road represents the united power and resolve of the citizens of the Confederation of Free Worlds.” She was ours-and she was a mighty weapon.
“Stand by for vac run red.” A star jump! The announcement found me in my tiny cube on Atom, trying to activate the wall desk. I knew that all elements of the 12th had arrived, all four cruisers were secure and power was building to open the artificial wormhole. Atom would hold open the dimensional vortex all the way to our destination, where it would slam shut behind us with a light show that would announce to everyone in the sector that we’d arrived.
At first, I assumed I would be sharing my cube in shifts, but Priestess had burst in, almost giddy with the news that they were our own cubes. We weren’t used to such luxury.
Without fanfare or further warning it came, with a great shudder and a high-pitched whine. Atom poked a
