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  Ridan and its logo are copyrighted and trademarked by Ridan Publishing. All rights reserved.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are products of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any similarity to actual persons, organizations, and/or events is purely coincidental.

  A Ridan Publication

  www.ridanpublishing.com

  www.soldierofthelegion.com

  Copyright © 2010 by Marshall S. Thomas

  Cover Art by Michael J. Sullivan

  Starcharts by Hatton Slayden

  Editing by Carol Woods

  Layout Design by Michael J. Sullivan

  ISBN: 978-0-9825145-5-9

  PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES

  First Printing: April 2010

  Dedicated to the kids of my Yangmingshan Dreamtime,

  Summer 1961 and Summer 1962.

  We were young and immortal, strolling through Paradise.

  We were just discovering ourselves and the world.

  Anything at all was possible.

  Your ghosts are still with me.

  They never left, and they never will.

  Good fortune to you all!

  Praise for the Soldier of the Legion Series

  "Exciting read… Heart pounding action. Mind blowing battles…Adrenalin pumping encounters with alien life… futuristic sci fi masterpiece… Marshall Thomas should soon be a major name in futuristic sci fi. I enthusiastically recommend this book."

  — Laurel Johnson, Midwest Book Review

  "…a deep, rich story that captures the heart of Sci-fi… a perfect story… captivating… moving. I highly recommend SOLDIER OF THE LEGION, one the best books I've read this year!"

  — Nancy Mehl, MyShelf.com

  Books in the Soldier of the Legion Series

  Soldier of the Legion

  The Black March

  Slave of the Legion

  Secret of the Legion

  Cross of the Legion

  Curse of the Legion

  Table of Contents

  PART I — CRIMSON SHIELD

  Chapter 1: Blood Feast

  Chapter 2: The Supreme Commander

  Chapter 3: Eyes to See, and Ears to Hear

  Chapter 4: The Santos Newhuman Socialrevolutionary Diversegalitarian Democooperative

  Chapter 5: The Biogen Liberation Front

  Chapter 6: The Temple of the Sun

  Chapter 7: Movement, from the Edge

  PART II — ANDRION DEEP

  Chapter 8: Entering the Cathedral

  Chapter 9: First Cut

  Chapter 10: Deathpaint and Psybloc

  Chapter 11: Missing in Action

  Chapter 12: Blood for Blood

  Chapter 13: Flags of our Ancestors

  Chapter 14: The Holy Dead

  Chapter 15: Advice from the Enemy

  PART III — LOTUS

  Chapter 16: The Sword of Light

  Chapter 17: Mantis

  Chapter 18: The Monkey

  Chapter 19: Reckless Disregard

  Chapter 20: Evil Deeds

  Chapter 21: The Dark Cross

  Chapter 22: The Empire of the Eye

  Chapter 23: Facing our Ancestors

  GLOSSARIES

  Crista Cluster, 1,400 light years from Sol

  When the first Outworlder refugees approached the Outvac fleeing System oppression, the Crista Cluster beckoned them onwards with a view that appeared to form a starry cross in the vac. ConFree's ancestors settled those worlds as a free people and vowed in a Constitution written in blood to uphold liberty, justice and freedom, no matter what the cost, and to remain eternally vigilant against all forms of tyranny and slavery. The ConFree Legion was formed to accomplish those objectives.

  Chapter 1

  Blood Feast

  "Liberty, Tac One, we're approaching the Community Center. Nothing to report." The young squad leader sounded a bit tense—not that I blamed him. We were combat-dispersed along a tree line, about to move out towards the little settlement. It was late afternoon on Fortuna and from our position the low, modern lines of the Community Center appeared untouched by any disaster. But something was certainly wrong—the all-ships emergency alarm was still bleating through space, crying for help from any passing ship. The settlement's starship, the Bold Lady, should have been in orbit around the planet, but she was gone.

  "Tac One, Liberty. Continue investigating. Watch yourself." The Liberty was in orbit around Fortuna, all sensors on full alert. We sure hadn't planned to come here, but we were it—nobody else was in the vicinity. The Liberty was a star transport, not equipped for combat. The Tac Force was a single squad of Legion troopers, normally assigned to defend the ship, not to investigate planetary emergencies, but a ConFree settlement was evidently in trouble and had to be helped.

  "Thinker, Priestess, see anything yet?" Priestess sounded calm.

  "That's a twelve, Priestess," I replied. The Community Center appeared to be constructed of a lovely white stone. It almost gleamed under the slowly darkening sky. Priestess and I were just passengers, on our way to Veltros in the Crista Cluster when the emergency call had diverted our ship. As we were both experienced Legion vets, the squad leader welcomed our help.

  "All right, we secure the target—move out," the squad leader ordered. We hustled into the grassy field that bordered the forest. I had an E battlefield superiority rifle set on auto x. We were all clad in topcom helmets and A-vests—the squad hadn't even armored up. I considered that an error in judgment, but I wasn't in charge. I ran to a wall of the Center and went to one knee, covering the others. In moments all the doorways were covered.

  "Body—I've got a body," one of the troopers reported. He was at the plaza in front of the wide main entrance, which gaped open.

  "Stunstar, Five." The squad's Five fired into the entrance with his Manlink and a blinding, shattering blast shot debris out the door. The entry team rushed in. Priestess and I were on the outside, scanning the surroundings.

  "More bodies. I've got…damn!" The entry team was securing the interior as Priestess and I approached the body on the plaza. It was a male, clad in shorts and ammo vest. His head had been blown off and he lay in a sticky pool of blood. He wore scruffy combat boots. His dark skin was peppered with bloody wounds. The head had evidently been hit by x.

  "What do you think?" Priestess asked me. Her lovely child's face showed no trace of emotion. She was a Legion medic and had seen plenty of death.

  "Need more help in here!" the young squad leader said throatily. "Auxiliaries, get in here!" That was us. Priestess and I entered the building, guns up.

  More bodies—lots of bodies. I froze, warily, taking it all in. The Community Center entry hall was a huge, welcoming area, flooded now in weak afternoon sunlight. The marbled floor was awash with blood. The interior walls were pocked with ugly scars from x and laser. And the bodies were everywhere. Frozen, stiff, grotesque copies of humans. The bodies were like houses from which the inhabitants had fled, and they were all splattered with blood. It was like a giant, barbaric meat market.

  "Recording?" someone asked.

  "Yeah," someone else replied.

  "Don't touch anything. Get it all."

  "Right." A female Outworlder was sprawled near the wall, soaked in blood. She had been stripped savagely, shreds of clothing still clinging to the body. It looked as if she had been raped by a gang of madmen. Her throat was slashed wi
de open, with such force that she had been nearly decapitated. A male lay nearby, his head chopped in two, grey brains splattered around him. They must have used an ax, to do that. His entire body was ripped with deep scars—one arm was almost chopped off. He looked like an Outworlder too. These were the settlers—ConFree nationals. Who had done this?

  A great bloody tangled pile of body parts lay off to one side of the hall, males and females and children—children! They had been blasted to mush with x. What a horrific vision—they were just massacred! Limbs, heads, torsos, were scattered in abandon. The floor was slick with bloody drag marks as if the bodies had been pulled from place to place. Opposite the giant pile of body parts, a group of young girls had met their fate. Now they were just bloody corpses, but I could tell they had once been lovely little angels. They had clearly been brutally raped and then frantically murdered, probably as their horrified parents watched from across the hall. Again, clothing had been savagely ripped off, throats were wildly slashed, heads were dangling from necks by a few bloody strands of flesh, and some heads had been completely smashed in, skulls crushed violently. What kind of mindless rage, what kind of insanity, was responsible for this obscene outrage against humanity?

  "Camera," I said. "Over here." I pointed to a pool of blood, and the fellow who was doing the forensic recording came over. Outlined in the sticky, congealed blood was what looked like a huge footprint or paw print of something that was clearly not human.

  "What in Deadman's name…"

  "It's not a dog," Priestess said, contemplating the print.

  "It's more like an ape," I said.

  "But it's not an ape either," the squad leader said. "What kind of creature…"

  "Sir," one of the troopies said. "It looks like some of these people were…eaten. We've got teeth marks here."

  "Deto!" the squad leader cursed. "Liberty, we've got bodies, and we are investigating. Please ensure you record our transmissions. We're not sure what we have, but it ain't pretty."

  "Tac, Liberty. Tenners. We continue scanning, no life in your vicinity."

  "Tenners." Priestess and I joined the trooper who had discovered the teeth marks. Bloody bones and flesh and viscera were strewn around several bodies that looked as if a pack of wild beasts had feasted on them, ripping off body parts and chewing on the limbs. There wasn't much doubt about it. We found more of those awful paw prints. They were almost like a footprint, but shoeless, and the toes were long and separated—more like a hand.

  "One, Six, I've got…oh, this is horrible. Outside."

  I located Six on the tacmap and headed out a far door. I never made it. Another trooper was standing by the door looking into an alcove. Three Outworlder children hung there from nooses wrapped around an overhead beam. Elementary kids, still wearing their school uniforms. Two boys, one girl. That image is burnt into my memory circuits for all time. Priestess was frozen beside me. My vision was going red—a burning rage. I could taste it in my mouth.

  "Cut them down," I ordered the trooper.

  ###

  Outside we followed the blood trails to another tangled pile of bodies. Here the intruders had set up a barbecue. A blood feast, I thought. The remains of that obscene feast were everywhere, scattered all over the field. There were plenty of human prints—combat boots—but also lots of those beast prints as well. Many of the bodies had been cooked, but others had been torn apart and consumed raw. One of our troopies was vomiting, off to the side.

  "One," I said to the squad leader, "we've had reports that the U'tal have produced man-ape transgens. The cannibalism appears to confirm it, but I'm sure we'll find plenty of evidence before we're through here. This is likely an U'tal raiding party from Asumara. I believe that body in the plaza was an U'tal mercenary. Could I see that settlement map?"

  The squad leader opened up the silky color printmap of the settlement of Port Promise. It showed widely scattered pockets of settlers, in the forests, in the mountains, along the rivers. It was a friendly world, and newcomers built their homes wherever they wanted.

  "We've got to visit every one of these sites," I declared, "right now." I was pretty sure what we'd find—but we had to confirm it.

  "Thinker," Priestess was on private to me. "Why do you think they hit a ConFree settlement?"

  "Because they're insane," I responded.

  "What do you think ConFree will do?"

  "ConFree will talk about it. The U'tal had better worry about what the Legion will do."

  "What do you think the Legion will do?"

  "I think we'll strike at Asumara, incinerate it, and then send in ground troops to ensure there are no survivors. We'll kill men, women, children, dogs, apes—everything that moves. When we've eradicated all life, we'll leave."

  "The Legion won't do that. Will it?"

  "I don't know. But I hope so. That's what I'd do. Let's get moving. We've got to visit every homesite on this planet."

  Chapter 2

  The Supreme Commander

  Rainy season on Veltros is quite an event. It washes away the drought in a single day, and floods the landscape with elemental force. Then it rains every day around noon and again just after dusk, for about half a year.

  It was early evening and raining hard. I sat in a criminally comfortable airlounge on the covered terrace of my home as the rain battered the tangled vegetation of the fern forest outside. The roar of the rain was almost like a waterfall, heavy sheets of rain shooting off the roof, drumming off the dato leaves, drowning the trees, thundering into the ground, transforming the forest floor into a sea of red mud. A light, cool mist touched my face as a warm thrill tingled over my flesh. My cup of dox was forgotten, getting cold in the holder of the lounge's armrest. Rain—I could watch it for hours, sitting there hypnotized, paralyzed with joy. Life's simple pleasures—it didn't get any better than this.

  "You're getting wet." Priestess appeared suddenly out of the dark, just like a cat, dressed all in black, settling onto the armrest and sliding an arm around my shoulders. She leaned over and gave me a kiss on the cheek.

  "Where've you been?" I asked.

  "Shopping. I went down to Greenway and bought some pies."

  "Pies?"

  "Yeah. There's this new place called Bake-A-Cake. I got trapped there when the rains opened up and I wound up buying the place out."

  "You shouldn't have driven the aircar home in this rain. It's dangerous."

  "It wasn't that bad. The pies were warm; I wanted you to try them." I looked up at her. She was so lovely—slim and young, silky black hair, warm chocolate eyes, a child's face, untouched by cosmetics. I knew I didn't deserve her. I blessed Deadman every day for giving her to me. I knew exactly what it meant—I knew! I turned my face away. I didn't want her to see the tears forming in my eyes.

  "Come on—I want you to try one of these pies, before it gets cold," she said.

  "All right." Whatever she wants, I thought. That's what I do, for our love.

  ###

  "The lady who runs this shop is called Kate," Priestess said, cutting me a piece of pie as we stood around the gleaming green marble of the center island in our giant kitchen. "She's ex-Legion. Her lover was killed in action against the O's on Uldo. She kept fighting, determined to kill as many O's as possible, seeking death like…well, like Valkyrie. Almost suicidal. Somehow she survived. Finally she quit the Legion. Now she bakes things. How is it?"

  "Very good," I replied. "A bit…spicy. But a nice spicy."

  "Homemade," Priestess said. "Of course, she doesn't have to do this. She does it because she loves it. Aren't they nice pies?"

  "Very nice," I smiled. It really was very tasty. It was pleasant, being a homeowner and experiencing all this domestic bliss. Priestess and I had designed the house ourselves. She'd wanted a big kitchen, and it was huge, with a giant sunny breakfast area and table surrounded by plex. I'd wanted a big den, with plenty of fancy comgear, and I got that. The house was hidden in the forest, accessible only by aircar, a lovely s
ingle-story home of artificial stone and fake wood, with a roof terrace up top. The stone was a very lightweight plastic and the wood was a synthetic cellulose, produced by cyanobacteria. Building a home was an easy matter, with modern technology. Assembly had taken two days, and the cost was minimal. The fellow who did it loved his work. Like Kate the pie girl, most of our people did things they loved to do, not that they had to do. ConFree had conquered material needs. The challenge nowadays was not to lose sight of the battle for survival, which could intrude in an instant if you stopped paying attention because you were rich and lazy.

  "She thinks about him every day," Priestess said. "Every single day." Her eyes were gleaming—filling up with tears. Now what?

  "Come here," I said, taking her in my arms.

  "I'm so happy," she gasped, nestling her head on my shoulder. "Please don't leave. Let's stay here the rest of our lives!"

  "We're not going anywhere," I said.

  "Quit the Legion!" she hissed. "Just get out! You're in danger every instant you stay on!"

  "Calm down, Priestess. It's all right."

  "It's not all right! You were going to quit! We were both going to quit—that was the plan! And then you changed your mind!" She pulled away from me, swiping at hot tears with the back of her hand.

  "We talked about this before, Priestess. They need experienced people, to teach the kids. That's the only reason we stayed in. We agreed…"

  "They sweet-talked you! Appealing to your patriotism! They're rats! We've got our own child! What about him?"

  I drew her to me, gently. There was no sense in talking when she got this way. She came, reluctantly, then the dam broke and she cried a river, flinging both arms around my neck. Great, now it's raining in here. She was right, of course. I was a damned fool. But I couldn't help it. What had Valkyrie said? You're a fool, Beta Three. You're a fool, and a fanatic. She was right, too. The Legion needed people like me. Valkyrie knew me—better than anyone else. She had been my first Legion lover, but she had lost her soul, somewhere along the way. It wasn't easy in the Legion—not for anyone.