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

“I’m with you,” John said, following in his power suit.

“There are too many of them,” Tong said. He sounded sick over the comm. “I want to kill him too, but the jungle is his playing field, and with those numbers, we wouldn’t stand a chance.”

“I’m not going to stand here and let him infect or kill anyone else,” I said, following Stacy. “This comes to an end now.”

Tong followed resignedly as the four of us made our way to the edge of the jungle. Legion wasn’t bothering to hide his plan well. Just inside the dense foliage, I could see him. He stood with thousands of his infected, looking at us with smiles as if he were inviting us in. Even Harold’s head, which Legion still held, had a smile on it.

If this is the way I go, then this is the way I go, I thought to myself. No more running.

“Stay close together and watch out for those larger animals,” Stacy warned. The rotating weapons on her shoulder popped up, ready to be fired. “If one of us goes down, then the other covers for the wounded. Watch each other’s backs.”

“I’m with you,” John said.

“Let’s buy the survivors at the wall as much time as possible to regroup,” Tong added.

“The rock shaped like a lightning bolt,” I reminded them. “The plant where Legion remained for so many years in hiding, the one that holds the oldest spores is there. Burn it.”

“Maneuvering the satellite there now,” Tong said, his voice dying in his throat.

We all saw what he did. An aerial view of the jungle showed us the lightning bolt rock a few kilometers in. That was not what caught our eye. There were so many figures in the jungle between us and the lightning rock, we’d be wading through a sea of infected.

“I’ll take the lead. Follow me,” I said, shrugging my shoulders as I brought my own cannon up. Pressing my shoulder back, I opened fire.

Both hands clenched into fists as my right hand brought my blade and the left bellowed a stream of fire.

Infected of every kind as well as trees and underbrush were cut down as the four of us opened fire on the infected dead. They fell by the dozens. Return fire came from those that held weapons in the form of rockets, heavy blasters, and their own flamethrowers.

The smaller caliber rounds pinged off our armor without causing harm. The larger rockets and grenades were what we had to worry about.

Legion threw his infected at us with total abandon. As we stalked forward, they didn’t wait and rushed us with everything from blades and weapons to their bare hands.

I kept the cannons firing on my shoulders and used the flamethrower on any who got within its reach. The stench of burning flesh and something else I couldn’t identify permeated the air. I was sure the armor muted the odor somewhat, but enough of it came through. I could just imagine what it smelled like in the actual outdoors.

Incoming rockets and grenades did more damage to the infected horde than to us, but Legion had numbers to spare. He had no worries at all about losing a few lives. Particularly since he could bring them back to life if he chose. What kind of chance did we stand against that?

I took a rocket to the chest and another to my shoulder. The impact spun me around in time to see the power armor unit to my right go down hard.

“Son of a—” John said with a grunt. “Watch out for the heavy artillery. “I have smoke in my suit.”

John’s voice turned to panicked coughs.

I put my back to him, going down on a knee. I focused my fire on any infected going for John.

Stacy and Tong did the same, cutting through wave after wave of infected.

“John, get out of there,” Tong shouted. “We’ll cover you, get out!”

More missiles and grenades peppered our area, creating more smoke, stink, and confusion.

My heart sank. We were barely a dozen meters into the jungle before John’s suit went down. At this rate, we would all be dead and infected in minutes.

The ground shook and an alien bellow reached our ears. To the left, a herd of the infected animals that so closely resembled oversized rhinos charged our position.

“Dean!” Stacy yelled.

“I see them,” I shouted back.

Together, we focused fire on the crazed animals with ebony eyes and dark liquid pouring from their mouths.

One, two, then three of the creatures stumbled and went down. There were still more descending on our location like battering rams.

There are just too many, I thought to myself. The idea of giving up knew better than to ever present itself, but the odds didn’t lie. We were outnumbered by thousands to one.

“John, get out of here!” I yelled as he exited his smoking suit. “Get back!”

John saw what was coming for us a second later and sprinted behind a massive trunk that had been cut down by our rounds.

The creatures slammed into us. I managed to catch one through the skull with my blade as another took me in the torso. I was slammed onto my back. The screen in front of me flickered, threatening to go out.

The alien beast slammed my chest with its hooves. It continued to gore me and rip at the steel plating of my chest with its three horns.

I saw madness in its eyes. Legion was there, and if animals could smirk this one did.

“I can’t get up, I’m down!” Tong shouted.

It was his panicked voice that reminded me of my resolve.

I grabbed onto the beast’s horns, remembering how I had killed the alien beasts before this one. Each time, I had gone for the head.

I wrestled the beast from on top of me, gaining the position over him. My suit sparked and smoked from the inflicted damage. With a closed fist, I summoned the blade in my right vambrace. I drove the sharp