Orion Colony Complete Series Boxed Set J.N. Chaney (books for new readers .txt) 📖

“This is what Legion wants,” I said, grabbing Tong by the shoulders and getting him to his feet. “He wants to get into our heads. We have to keep going.”

I looked around at our depleted ranks. At least five Rung warriors were dead. There were twice that many wounded to various degrees. Those still able to be patched up were seen to by the medic, who got them ready to move again.

Stacy helped John with a somewhat serious wound on his shoulder. A blade had found its way between his armor and his chest plate.

“Dean’s right,” Dama said, finding her breath. She had not been seriously injured but was definitely showing signs of exhaustion. “We can’t stop now. We have to move on. We’re almost there now. Sulk!”

Sulk limped forward, his tail dragging behind him. A trickle of blood dribbled down his left leg.

“Protect the rear and leave no one behind, but get them moving as fast as you can,” Dama ordered.

“And you?” Sulk asked. I thought he had nerve questioning his commander, but maybe that was common practice for the Rung army.

“I’m taking point,” Dama said, raising a hand when Sulk looked as though he was going to argue. “Hurry. We can’t afford to let Legion regroup. We’re almost there!”

15

We took off at a steady but careful pace. As much as I would have liked to run the rest of the way, there were just too many of our wounded who couldn’t move quickly. I moved beside John, who I could tell was in more pain than he wanted to admit.

“You going to make it?” I asked. “Because if you’re not, I should get a confession from you right now that you know I’d win in a fight if there was ever a rematch.”

“Even now I could take you,” John grunted. “Don’t make me laugh. That might hurt and pop open my wound.”

“We just have to make it to that power armor,” I reminded him. “We need to get you inside a suit, then it’s clear sailing from there on out.”

“We’re just overlooking the little details, like how we’re all going to learn how to pilot said power suits on the run, that we have to actually get to them first, and hope that Legion isn’t making a move against the Orion as we speak,” John said.

“Details,” I said, shrugging off the weight of worrying about those topics. I especially didn’t want to think about what was going on back at the camp right now. If that virus’s nasty little tendrils could reach out in so many different places at once, we needed to get it at its core to nip it in the bud. “Let’s worry about what we can control, right?”

“Worry about what we can control,” John repeated after me. “You’re smarter than you look, Dean Slade.”

“Yeah, I get that a lot,” I answered with a small bark of a laugh.

Up ahead, Dama came to a sudden halt. She consulted the map on the back of her right vambrace one more time.

“What’s wrong?” I asked, coming up next to her and following her line of sight. “Legion?”

“When we round this corner, we’ll be in front of the doors to the armory,” Dama said, pointing to her map and indicating an image that was consistent with what she was describing. “We have to anticipate Legion will make one final stand here. I’m worried. There were thousands of Rung taking shelter here that Legion infected. We’ve come across dozens, maybe a hundred at most.”

“So where are the rest?” Stacy asked as she came up and joined the conversation.

“He may have taken some to other Rung bunkers, maybe others toward the Orion, but I fear he also left a fair amount here guarding the doors to the armory,” Dama said. “He couldn’t get in. We managed to change the passcode as we lost control of the bunker, but there’s no doubt he’s there, making sure we don’t get inside either.”

“Any bright ideas?” I asked. “How to get through a few hundred infected with no more than ten, maybe fifteen capable fighters?”

“I think I may have an idea,” Maksim said as he came up to us. “But you’re not going to like it.”

What else was new? He didn’t seem to have too many ideas that I did like. None, actually.

The four of us stood silent for a moment, anticipating what he was going to suggest, curious yet dreading what we would hear.

“Try us,” I said, finally breaking the silence.

“I noticed a few of the Rung have small explosive devices that we haven’t used yet. If we were to use these together, say with a few dozen smaller piece of metal scraps, we could clear a path,” Maksim suggested. “At the very least, it will buy us a few seconds during which Legion will be disoriented and we can get into the hangar where the power armor is kept.”

“You want to make a dirty bomb?” Stacy asked with a sneer. “Adding in scrap pieces of metal to inflict as much damage as possible? How many times did you use that little trick back on Earth on civilians?” I supposed that Stacy was starting to get exhausted and a bit emotional, since I thought this was actually one of the few options we had. I hated the thought of killing so many infected, since we were closer to a potential cure, but if we did nothing at all, no one would be saved.

“We need to think about right now,” Dama said, reining Stacy back in. “Whatever wrongs were committed before will have to wait. We need to focus on a solution and working together today or there may not be a tomorrow.” I was glad Dama had echoed my thoughts and I didn’t need to pull Stacy back to the here and now and the dilemma at hand.

“We’ll scout ahead,” I said, nodding to Stacy. “Maksim can work with you to create the bomb.”

“Agreed,” Dama said. “I don’t