Steel World (15 page)

My eyes returned to the trophies. I eyed them wonderingly. What had the tribune called them? The heads of mercenary leaders?

“Sir?” I said. “How can these trophies be taken from enemy mercenary commanders? There aren’t supposed to be any.”

He lifted a long finger and held it high. “Exactly. You’ve put your finger on the source of the trouble. Let me tell you part of the story they
didn’t
give you in school, McGill: There are other mercenary companies in this galaxy. The truth is that many of the products produced by various planets are duplicated. They have to be. Think of the vast distances. Our ships are fast, but the galaxy is over a hundred thousand lightyears across. There are
billions
of star systems. One planet can’t possibly supply every world out there with mercenary troops—or anything else.”

I frowned, thinking about it. What he was saying sounded undeniably true. There were only about thirty legions operating on Earth. That wasn’t enough to serve more than thirty planets at once, even assuming they were always deployed—which they weren’t.

“So,” I said, “what was that thing in the forest? What’s happening? Why are there so many saurians, both big and small, attacking us? Are there more of those aliens out there? Are they behind these massive attacks?”

“I hope not, but I think there
are
more of them. And I think they are behind the attacks, yes.”

He walked to his desk and sat in his chair behind it. His eyes gazed up at his trophies and his flags, but they were unfocused.

“Legion Varus has special duties. We don’t get the fame and the fawning publicity from the press. That goes to the better-known legions like Germanica and Victrix. Those legions have much easier paths. We take on jobs that are competitive, jobs which might run us into our real enemies.”

I stared at him. “We go against forces that hire alien legions like ours?”

“Yes, exactly. Our competitors have gotten a foothold here on Cancri-9, and we can’t let them get away with it. You see, if they beat us here, they will have grounds to appeal their case to the Galactics. If they can demonstrate that their mercenary companies are superior to ours, they will get to serve this world. This planet, one of our best customers, will become their territory. We will no longer be able to supply the saurians—big or small—with legions.”

I nodded, beginning to understand. “What happens if we do lose this world? What happens if they win?”

The tribune looked grim. “That is unacceptable. If that were to happen, we would lose a critical account. Our income would be reduced and all of Earth would suffer. In time, we might well lose other repeat customers. Eventually, if we are determined to no longer be a viable trader of mercenaries…well, that would be the end.”

“The end? The end of our trade?”

He looked at me steadily. “The end of Earth, the end of humanity, the end of everything.”

I swallowed and gazed up at the row of heads on Drusus’ wall. He was right. I was beginning to understand.

Our mission was critical to Earth—not just because we brought a few Galactic credits home, either. It was far bigger than that.

Oddly, I felt better knowing this. I hadn’t really liked the idea of going through so much pain and death for a few credits. If we were fighting for the lives of everyone back home though…well, that was a different matter entirely.

It dawned on me as I eyed those three alien heads on the wall that my actions were going to have an impact on my own family. They were depending on me to succeed. I took a deep breath, and then I did something I thought I’d never do during my enlistment with Varus: I volunteered.

“Tribune? May I make a suggestion, sir?” I asked.

Drusus was watching me closely. “Yes, I’m waiting.”

“I know where the incident took place, sir. Maybe I could go out there—I could take a few bios and some light infantry to back me up. We could take samples, dig up earth and cut the grass, if we have to. The alien must have left blood on the ground—something we could use to identify it.”

The tribune looked at me intently. There was a slight smile on his lips. Could it be that he’d been trying to get this sort of response from me? I thought that was likely. He could have ordered me to do it, of course, but instead he’d explained the situation to me and laid it all out to see what I’d do.

I decided I didn’t care whether he’d planned this or not. His explanation had brought home to me the importance of this mission. The alien had to be identified—we had to know what we were up against.

“That’s an excellent suggestion, Recruit,” he said. “That’s just the sort of thing that earns a man rank in my legion. I’ll arrange everything immediately. But, before you go, I’d like you to look at the heads on the wall. Do any of them appear to be familiar?”

I looked up again. “The centipede thing is the closest, but no. It was definitely not like any of these creatures.”

I explained briefly how the creature had appeared: Six legs, all with hands of their own. It was able to scuttle on all of them or lift them up and hold a weapon. I gave him every detail I could remember.

When I was done, the tribune scrawled a few notes but shook his head and frowned. “This is a very consistent report. That’s what we got from Harris the first time. I can’t say that we’ve met up with anything like it.”

I nodded. It wasn’t unusual to meet up with new alien species when the Galactics brought us a new product they thought we might wish to spend our hard-won credits on. Humanity wasn’t allowed to wander around exploring on its own, naturally. That was forbidden. Only the aliens who ran the scout ships did that kind of thing. They were the experts, and the rest of us weren’t permitted to compete with them in any way.

There was no empire-wide internet service to inform us about our neighbors, either. Each star system was effectively cut off from all the others and wasn’t allowed to interact except for conducting approved trading missions—such as I was on right now.

“I’ve got to go to a meeting with the owners of this mine,” the tribune told me. “I’ve relayed your request to Primus Turov. She’ll organize the details.”

I marched up the steps and out again into the blazing heat of Cancri-9. The interior of the tribune’s bunker seemed blissfully dim and cool in comparison.

Primus Turov was waiting for me. “Follow me. Veteran Harris, you and Adjunct Leeson will be in charge of the sweep. Take your best troops. I’m sending two bios with you. See they don’t die. Everyone else is expendable. The sample must be brought in. Are we clear on that?”

“Uh,” said Harris.

I could tell he was far from happy. Accepting hazardous missions into the middle of a forest overrun with aliens couldn’t have been his usual operating procedure. He hadn’t become famous for staying alive by pulling stunts like this one.

“Yes?” asked the primus, turning and staring at him. It was immediately obvious from her tone and manner he wasn’t going to worm his way out of this.

“Nothing, sir,” he said, letting a small sigh escape. “It shall be as you command.”

She left and Harris gave me a hard reproachful stare. “What the hell did you do in there?”

“We talked. He showed me his trophies and explained what Varus is really doing on this world.”

“Yeah? And then what?”

“Then I volunteered to go out and find a trace blood sample, anything that would help us identify this new competitive species.”

Harris threw an arm around me and half-dragged me toward our unit’s section of the wall.

“Are you nuts?” he demanded, booming the words into my ear. “I should ice you right here, right now. That’s got to be the dumbest thing—I never thought you’d come up with that!”

He let go of me, and I straightened myself.

“This is bigger than a recruit’s possible death,” I said. “I know where it happened, and I think I can locate the exact spot where I shot the thing down. If we just scoop up some of the dirt—”

“I don’t give a shit about that!” Harris said. “Haven’t I taught you a damned thing? You’ve got some kind of a death-fantasy going, don’t you, boy? You’re one of the weird ones, aren’t you?”

I frowned at him, not quite sure what he was talking about. Then I caught on: he didn’t want any part of a dangerous mission in the bush.

“I know you pride yourself on staying alive, Veteran,” I said. “But I honestly thought this situation warranted the risk.”

Harris hunched his bulky shoulders and grumbled. “You still have it in for me, don’t you? I thought we were squared up after training back on the ship. But here you are, trying to blow my record right out of the water.”

I almost laughed, but I caught myself. He wasn’t in the right mood to see any humor in the situation.

“Listen up, McGill,” he said, halting and facing me. “I’m not going down out there before you do. Remember that. You’re not going to be winning any more points with the brass today. If things go bad—you die first.”

I didn’t know what to say to calm him down, so I let him stomp away. I looked after him wonderingly. The man was vouching for me one minute and then threatening my life in a lowered voice the next. And he thought I was the crazy one.

-11-

Carlos found me soon after my strange encounter with Harris. He listened to my story with his head cocked and his eyes narrowed. First I detailed the mission we were going to be enjoying this evening. Then I told him about Harris’ reaction.

“What’s wrong with you?” he asked when I was finished.

“What do you mean?” I asked.

He wagged his finger at me. “You sucker. Harris was right. He
should
shoot you. What the hell were you thinking?”

“We have to find that alien,” I said firmly. “You were out there. Something big is going on. You should have volunteered, too.”

“Are you out of your mind? Did you enjoy that little ride we both took through fifteen hungry lizards’ guts? They’re still digesting us out there, you know that don’t you? Maybe tonight, they’ll crap out—”

“I don’t care about the dinos,” I said. “It has to be done, and you and I are the best two for the job. I need you to back me up on this. If I get nailed, you have to lead them to the spot. Are you in or not?”

He grumbled and cursed for a time but finally he nodded.

“Your special brand of crazy must be rubbing off on me,” he complained. “I’m doomed.”

Less than half an hour later we were walking quietly through the trees retracing our steps. Carlos was at my side.

“It’s a good idea to do this at night,” I said, eyeing each landmark and checking my GPS frequently.
The device had recorded the position of our firefight when we reported in. “Everything will look the same this way.”

“Whatever you say,” Carlos muttered.

Behind us were twenty other light infantry and the two bio specialists. Adjunct Leeson was in command, and Veteran Harris was at his side. We hadn’t brought any heavy troops or weaponeers. The commanders had wanted us to rush in and rush out, not stand and fight.

Adjunct Leeson pushed his way up to me and looked at my GPS.

“This is it,” he said. “This has to be the spot.”

“Just a little farther out, sir,” I said.

He glared at the GPS. “What’s your angle, McGill?” he asked me.

“Sir?”

“If you think the primus is going to love you because you kissed her ass on this one, you’re going to be in for a surprise.”

I blinked at him. “We’re almost there, sir.”

“We’d better be.”

He fell back ten paces. I marched on, shaking my head slightly.

Carlos slapped my shoulder. “You’re always making friends in high places,” he said. “I can really pick my buddies, can’t I?”

“Shut up,” I told him.

I halted suddenly, and everyone in the unit halted a second later. No one spoke.

I looked around at the landscape, frowning. There were so many broken branches and black regions, torn up by the passage of a thousand taloned feet. It did look different—not quite as I remembered.

“This is it, I’m pretty sure,” I said.

That was too much for Harris. He charged up behind me and rammed the butt of his heavy weapon into my pack. I staggered and turned to face him.

“You’re
pretty sure
? That’s it? I’m telling you, kid, we’re taking our samples right
here
, and afterward we’re running all the damned way back to the wall. And when we get there, your ass is going through the gate dead last!”

“Yes, Veteran,” I said. “Don’t you think we should get to work?”

The bios scrambled forward when I identified the spot where I thought the enemy had died. They scooped up dirt, leaves and blades of grass.

I watched them work, scanning the area and frowning. “It’s a big area. Carlos, what do you think? Is that the right spot? The GPS on the report and the photo were right here, but they could be up to twenty meters off.”

“This is your show, McGill. I have no freaking idea. I was too busy shitting myself and being eaten to memorize the scenery.”