Chris Bunch - Legion 2 - Firemask

Firemask

Legion 02

Chris Bunch

Before battle, meditate on the thirteen ways of fire:

1. Its power is far greater than any charger, yet it hides in a child's robes.

2. Bright, angry, it gladdens the heart of he who uses it.

3. Its sight weakens the foe, for he knows the merci-lessness of what he faces.

4. Set properly, it will never surrender.

5. Once fire rages, the warrior may pursue his own course.

6. It needs little encouragement to shoulder its arms, little food other than a scattering of twigs, and fights

on without rest until the end.

7. It fights its own battle, leaping here, there, and no sayer can predict its course.

8. It carries almost all before it, and they are its victims or allies; the wind becomes its steed, the earth its

fortress, and only great waters are its final enemy.

9. Behind its mask the warrior can devise his own stratagems in leisure and concealment.

10. With fire guarding his flanks, the warrior may fight with all his heart, knowing he has given himself a

perfect shield.

11. It attacks all that the enemy has, wagons, horses, victuals, as well as swordsmen and archers.

12. Even its wounding is terrible and few survive.

13. Its barren aftermath gives nothing to the host but desolation and despair.

Consider well the ways of fire, its masks and tactics, then make war with its soul in your belly.

—Maxims for a Lone Warrior, Fighting Against a Hostby Lai Shi-Min, later The Emperor T'ai Tsung

(ca. 630 CE)

CHAPTER1

Langnes 37421/The Planet/Gathering

Starships snapped into real space, slashed toward the system's fourth planet. As they closed, bays slid

open, and small C-shaped fighting ships, the lethalaksai, darted out and held close formation on their

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mother ships.

It could have been an attack, but was not.

The Musth clanmasters were assembling to decide what might be done with the humans occupying the

far-distant Cumbre system.

Or, at least the clanmasters who felt the matter of interest or value; perhaps twenty percent of the Musth

clans, no more. Others might choose to involve themselves later, might remain neutral.

To the Musth, The planet was held, in mythology, to be the homeworld, although most of their scientists

believed the race had simultaneously evolved on a dozen, perhaps more, planets; proof the universe

belonged to them, buttressed by the ease with which they had conquered their home cluster and

expanded beyond.

The planet was temperate, with large continents, low mountains, lakes, much of the land covered with

veldt, grassy plains interspersed with small forests. The sun was G-type, but the light was starker, more

blue, than a Ter-ran would feel comfortable under. Its climate was a bit chill for man, although it seldom

snowed. Rainfall was seasonal, sparse but heavy when it came.

It had not always been like that. Over the millennia, it'd been plowed, mined, deforested, and built up,

and then the Musth had gone out to the stars.

The planet, almost abandoned, was encouraged to revert to its natural state. Cities were leveled, and the

ravaged land contoured and planted, polluted rivers and lakes made to run clean, and the world was as it

had been, at the dawn of Musth time.

With population pressure gone, the few million Musth who chose to remain on The planet built

semi-underground villages, one clan holding each settlement.

Only one small continent still showed the Musth's technocracy. Here were military bases, great landing

fields, roboticized factories and yards, and the slender bureaucracy the Musth needed to administer their

thousand thousand worlds. This was Gathering.

In the center of it all was a two-kilometer-wide cylinder with a domed rotunda. This building, three

hundred meters high, was where the Musth came to deal with problems beyond the immediate reach of a

clanmaster, or to settle a feud when one or another of the warring groups requested intervention.

The building had no name, which the Musth found logical. As the only one in their empire used for these

purposes, it needed none.

There was a wry Musth proverb: "The only reason we Musth do not rule All-Cosmos is we need one

eye for our race's future, one eye for our personal destiny, and one eye to guard our backs, and the First

Cause only gave us two eyes each."

In the cylinder's walls were suites, each with a small landing platform wide enough for a pair of ships. A

clan-master could arrive, well guarded, and conduct whatever business was necessary without leaving his

suite, using the elaborate electronics array. Each suite was completely independent, with its own power

generator and available air supply for those who were worried about an enemy trying to gas them.

If the controversy was solved, then the masters, their subordinates, delegates or relatives, could choose

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to meet in the flesh.

There were almost five hundred clanmasters assembling. Some ruled several worlds, some controlled a

trade or craft, others commanded fighting fleets.

While theaksaibanked and circled overhead watchfully like Earth swallows, the clanmasters entered the

building, each computer-routed so no enemies would find themselves sharing airspace and seizing the

moment.

They came out of their small flits arrogantly, as befitted a master race; two meters tall, more when they

reared back on their small tails, their coarse, yellow to reddish brown fur gleaming, small heads peering

about on long, snakelike necks, quick in their motions as they moved into their quarters.

All wore weapons belts, none of their armament ceremonial in nature.

That night, before the assemblage began, corns flashed to and fro as strategies, tactics, and ideas were

sent back and forth.

At sunrise, the meeting began.

Wallscreens opened, dividing as necessary as clanmasters appeared on them. Other masters activated

their monitors but preferred to remain invisible.

Aesc, former "ambassador" to the Cumbre system, presented the Musth's case. There'd always been

tension between the humans and Musth, but within the last time sequence, it had exploded into violence

as what he called the lesser beings, the 'Raum, slightly smaller and darker than other humanoids, had

revolted against their masters. And they'd attacked the Musth.

"Why?" a clanmaster asked. "I know little of humans, barely enough to loathe them. But I thought our

differences were settled, at least in their eyes, when we made peace before."

"The 'Raum," Aesc explained, "have a common belief, that they are destined to rule not merely their

race, but all space, all time, all beings."

There were noises of amusement, somewhere between purrs and growls. Someone said "heresy," and

there was more mirth.

"Leader Wlencing had the opportunity to fight them on occasion," Aesc went on. "Once in league with

the human army."

"Your views, Wlencing," a clanmaster, Keffa, requested.

"The 'Raum are what the humans call," and Wlencing used a Terran word, " 'wormsss,' or slime beings.

Cowards, who avoid face-battle, not much in the way of warriors when they're driven to combat. But

they were able to hurt us quite badly when they sent a manned suicide bomb into our mining headquarters

on the third world."

"That," Aesc said, "sparked our withdrawal, as the documents provided show."

"I have read them," Keffa said. "And you intervened when Wlencing had not finished my question. I care

little of these fools who believe themselves superior, especially when you say they have been destroyed."

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"Not destroyed," Wlencing said. "Defeated, driven back into their warrens."

"By the human army, which is my main interest and which my question was about," Keffa said. "What of

them?"

Wlencing considered, head darting from side to side.

"As warriors, some fight very well, especially those who have been trained to seek personal battle. As

an army, in prolonged war, I have less information. The fighting with the 'Raum was little better than a

series of skirmishes.

"Against us? Since the Confederation that we once fought against seems to have withdrawn their support

for this sector, their fighters are unsupported, frequently forced to improvise or do without. I will admit

one advantage humans, or at least some humans, seem to have over our race is being able to find

alternative solutions quite readily."

"Perhaps," an older clanmaster, Paumoto, said, "because their tools are so frequently inadequate to the

task." There was a ripple of agreement.

Paumoto spoke for the most militant of the Musth, those who wanted to devote all the race's energy to

obliterating the stumbling block of humanity. Only Man had presented a threat to the Musth, and vice

versa. Other intelligent races encountered were either unambitious, not imperialistic, far less advanced or,

most commonly, not oxygen-based, and therefore welcome to the worlds Man and Musth found harsh,

uninhabitable.

Thus far, Paumoto had gained only marginal support, most of his race either having no contact and hence

no interest in humanity, or believing Mankind was a tottering, dying race that would vanish of its own

stupidity.

One of Paumoto's strongest allies was Keffa, who unfortunately had far too much wealth and too little

seasoning.

"That may be true," Wlencing said once the amusement died down. "But I do not take our enemies

lightly. Still, I have full confidence that we can destroy them if we fight cleverly."

"I admire you, War Leader," Paumoto said, "and your more perceptive fellows, for realizing what I've

been warning for half a generation is the truth, that we must confront Mankind, on our terms, as soon as

possible.

"This galaxy, and the ones around it, can support only one master, and we must put Man in his place

before he can grow stronger! The perhaps-chaos of their Confederation offers us the perfect

opportunity."

"Thank you," another clanmaster, Senza, said, "but I must remind you what happened to make some of

us worry aboutMan. "

Thirty-five E-years earlier, the Musth had sent a major colonization group into a mineral-rich cluster both

races had discovered. They took over worlds already claimed by Man, began to exploit the system. The

Confederation struck back hard, destroying most of the Musth force, and made a harsh treaty requiring

them to cede half a dozen systems in the sector to the humans, as well as the systems that sparked the

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war.

The clanmasters shifted uncomfortably, some ears cocking in anger. No Musth liked to be reminded of

the past, especially if it smelled of failure.

Senza was generally regarded as unbalanced, even a calamity bringer, and probably would have been

brought down if he wasn't extraordinarily careful about his personal safety.

He was also grudgingly accorded respect because he was the unquestioned head of the ubiquitous and

vitalPolperro, or "Reckoners." ThePolperrowere a unique clan, able to recruit from any other of the

Musth, since they were the race's diplomats and lawyers, the lubricant that kept the race from perpetual

civil war.

Unlike most of the other Musth, Senza had voluntarily visited Man's worlds and returned impressed. He

thought each race had much to learn from the other, and might consider an alliance rather than enmity.

His views were popular only with the young Musth who could break from tradition, or the more radical

elements of the clans, those who wanted change from the existing order.

"The past is dead," growled Keffa.

Senza moved a paw diagonally, signaling doubt.

"It is," Paumoto said with finality, "as far as this debate. The question now is, what to do about the men

in the Cumbre system? This moment, this chance. Suggestions?"

"We should return with warriors, not miners," War Leader Wlencing insisted. "Hit first, hit hard, and the

system is ours. We already have listeners in place, so we shall face few surprises. If the Confederation

still exists, they'll be faced with a done deed. If they do not"—he held out a paw, extended its

claws—"we will have returned to our former path of conquest. There does not seem to be another

option, nor, if we take this way, the risk of us suffering any real damage."

"What of the humans who don't conveniently die," Senza asked. "Should we set stinging-ones on them?"

These near-insects were part of one of the Musth's less pleasant hand weapons. Held unconscious in

grenades, they swarmed anything moving when the grenade burst.

"We are not monsters," Wlencing said. "I would hardly kill cubs or breeders without provocation. We

could not allow them to escape after our victory, for fear they'd bring back the Confederation.

"But isn't there always a place for workers, doing tasks we would rather not? In the mines or even as

serving class? Those who survive, and have no desire to oppose us again, might be more useful to us

alive."

"No!" Keffa snarled, eyes reddening in anger. "When a Musth cannot do his own labor, whether it's

clean or filthy, when we think ourselves too good for work, we are ready to pass on, to allow a stronger,

more virile race to rule! Senza may have thought he was jesting, but I think he has the correct solution.

Brutality now would prevent future complications."

"Keffa certainly has confidence," Senza said. "As yet, we have mounted no campaigns, and already we

are discussing the spoils and how we shall murder those we're too stupid to deal with in other ways."

"Do you doubt our ability to conquer?" Paumoto demanded.

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"Certainly not," Senza said. "If, and I emphasizeif, we decide on war. Let me ask, before the words

become more fiery, just how many of the clanmasters here want a fight with Man?"

"We've hardly begun to talk about—" Keffa said.

"That, certainly, is the direction of this meeting, so I think the amount of interest in such an extreme

passage would be interesting. I call for such a consensus."

That was Senza's right, and paws touched sensors in each suite.

Seconds later, a screen showed the tabulation:

About a third in favor, a third against, a third undecided.

"Ourgreatrace," Senza said, putting slight emphasis on great, "hardly seems to perceive Wlencing,

Paumoto, and Keffa's destiny as obvious."

"Are you saying we should accept our defeat?" Aesc said. "Accept being driven from Cumbre?"

"According to the documents, you and War Leader Wlencing chose to withdraw, in order to consult

with us. That is hardly being driven anywhere."

"How do you think the humans will perceive it?" Aesc hissed.

Now there were rumblings throughout the building.

"I do not care how the humans perceive it," Senza said. "What they are is what they are. I happen to

have far greater faith in the destiny of our race to worry overmuch about humans.

"I will also add I am not impressed by your performance, Aesc, nor you, Wlencing. You involved

yourselves in what was a most minor operation, seeing no doubt great advancement therein.

"I do not see many riches having been gained through your actions.

"Now, you want to increase our involvement in the system. I think this is foolish. I think we should

pursue one of two courses, which I suggest to this gathering.

"First, we permit your involvement with the Cumbre system to continue, but with no greater commitment

than before. I enter this for a vote at this time, but request my fellow clan leaders wait until my second

suggestion is offered.

"That is that we retreat from the Cumbrian system entirely and restrict our presence there to a purchasing

team or two, and trade for the minerals the system has.

"It is perhaps inevitable we shall encounter other races than the ones we have to date, races which are as

ambitious as we are and who also share the same carbon-based cycle.

"If we can learn from Man, study their weaknesses, could not those same lessons be applied when we

encounter other aliens, and decide whether they are our enemies or our allies?

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"Think well on these two matters, clan leaders. We may, in what appears to be a very minor matter

today, be setting policies future Musth will praise or curse us for.

"Now I call for a vote."

Senza was not surprised at all when both his measures failed handily.

"Now that that foolishness has passed," Paumoto said,

"we can return to the real issue and forget cubbish sentiment. I suggest we return to Cumbre, but with a

larger force than before, one mostly composed of warriors. The detachment would be led by Aesc, since

he is most familiar with the system, and his second-in-command would be Wlencing. Be aware I would

like him to be the second in everything, not merely military.

"Rather than have our main elements stationed on Silitric, and our headquarters in a remote section of

their home-world, we should establish posts in every city on the planet."

"I don't understand their purpose," Aesc said.

"On the surface," Paumoto said, "to attempt to lessen the tension between our two races. But in reality,

to monitor exactly what these men are planning, thinking, and to be ready for an instant, violent response

if that is required."

"Or, perhaps," Senza added cynically, "Paumoto is suggesting them as targets, so that if men wrong the

Musth, they will have an opportunity close at hand, and we will then have enough reason to retaliate for

such a massacre instantly.

"Is that an element of your thinking?"

"I would hardly allow myself to speak for a policy that might mean the deaths of some of our people,

would I?"

"No," Senza said. "You would notspeakabout it."

"There shall come a time, Senza," Keffa put in, and, the clanmasters could see on their screens, his claws

needled in, out, "when your cleverness shall turn against you."

"Is this a challenge?" Senza said. "To my clan, or to myself? If you are challenging me personally, you

should remember I said time past I would accept no offers to duel. Blood settles little, which you'll learn,

Keffa, as you grow and age. If you age."

"Enough," Paumoto said. "I would wish to put my suggestion to a vote, reminding those who are in favor

of the measure they will be required to assist in the funding and equipage of this expedition."

The tally was taken slowly, over several hours, as vari-ous factions argued back and forth or withheld

their votes until one side or the other won the argument or presented recompense.

At the end of the time, 112 clanmasters involved themselves and their clans, with only a scattering of

votes against the proposal. Senza, like most of the others, remained neutral.

"Is that enough?" Aesc asked Wlencing privately.

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"More than," the War Leader responded. "For the ones who favor the measure are the ones rich in

weapons, warriors, and power, and once the inevitable happens, the others will scratch to join us.

"This marks a new beginning.

"It shall not be long," Wlencing said firmly, "that all Musth will join us, and the day of man's removal from

our path shall arrive."

The next day, as Senza's mothership offplaneted, his aide, Kenryo, came to him.

"Your student Alikhan, Wlencing's cub, remained on The planet."

Senza lifted a paw, indicating mild surprise.

"He's chosen to serve with his father, on Cumbre."

"Which means we have lost another battle," Senza said. "Another one chooses the violence-way, the

way that requires no thought, no reasoning."

"You denigrate your teachings, sir."

"In what way?"

"I do not think Alikhan is completely insensate, that his time with us was wasted, that your thoughts were

ignored."

"Thank you for the compliment," Senza said. "But if you are right, then the cub may be troubled by the

contrast between what we believe and what his father will practice.

"I fear," he said somberly, "his final decision, as many others he has made, has a strong probability of

being made in blood."

CHAPTER

2

Cumbre/D-Cumbre

"And don't you love this peacetime army,"AltGarvin Jaansma, Commanding Officer, Intelligence and

Reconnaissance Company, Headquarters, RaoForce, panted. "Duding in custom-tailored uniforms,

ankling down a promenade, the rattle of good silver in your pants, every admiring eye on you, the

goddamned palladium… whatever the hell that is… of all that's good, right, and just in society?"

"Shaddup and help me bang this friggin' form back where it's supposed to be before Monique buries us

in quikset," his executive officer,AspirantNjangu Yoshi-taro, grunted.

Both officers, barely twenty E-years old, wore torn, sweaty undershirts, work boots, and

cement-stained pants.

Hosed down and in the midnight blue dress uniform of the Force, they would look a great deal better,

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particularly Jaansma.

He was tall, almost two meters, blond, with a natural weightlifter's body, and an open, firm face. If he

lived long enough and didn't desert, he could end up in a high command position strictly on appearance.

He was the descendent of a longtime circus family, and had enlisted hastily after setting Earth tigers loose

on a mob.

Njangu Yoshitaro was a bit shorter than Jaansma, slender, dark-complected and -haired. He was less

handsome than striking, and his eyes were constantly calculating. He never talked about his background,

or about his criminal record that'd put him between enlistment or conditioning.

The two met as raw recruits, on the last troopship from the Confederation capital of Centrum, and had

distinguished themselves enough as soldiers and covert operators during the recent 'Raum uprising to be

offered commissions.

They were currently at the bottom of a five-by-five-by-six-meter hole that they, and a half-dozen other

Intelligence and Reconnaissance soldiers had dug using explosives, antigrav hoppers, shovels, and

obscenities.

A cool wind blew down the mouth ofDharmaBay , towardChanceIsland and D-Cumbre's capital of

Leg-gett. The sand was clean, the sky improbably blue, and the surf curling white against the ocean.

At the bottom of the hole, nobody could see anything entrancingly tropical, though. A battered, obsolete

Cooke lowered toward them, its cargo bay filled with fresh concrete, FirstTwegMonique Lir at the

controls. Lir, if you discounted her muscles and steel-toothed attitude, looked less like the stereotypical

hard-ass noncom than a model or actress.

"Ready to pour?" she called.

Njangu looked skeptically at the plas form around the pit.

"You realize if she screws it, and buries us alive, she'll take over the company, don't you?"

"Thank Allah and his all-girl band that she is happy being the brains behind the scenes," Garvin said, then

shouted, "Let 'er go."

"So she claims," Yoshitaro muttered, and whatever else he added was inaudible as concrete gushed

down the nozzle held by a sweating striker.

"Why," Yoshitaro tried, when the rumble died a bit, "are we, two big-time, supposedly bright officers,

standing underneath a goddamned Cooke, when we've done everything to get rid of the worthless

bastards because they crash so much?"

"Pure intellect," Garvin suggested. "And it's my turn to ask questions: Who the hell came up with this

idiot idea of leading by example?"

"You did, you dolt. I think you got it out of some manual."

"What a dipsh," Garvin said. "We coulda been strolling around, supervising, with maybe a cold beer in

each hand. Instead—"

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"You mention beer and cold in the same sentence, and I'm gonna throttle you, even if you do outrank

me," Yoshitaro managed, coughing as dust clouded them.

"Empty," Lir called. "Going for more."

"Why are we sospecial!" Garvin said, then shouted, "Take it up!"

"Why's she driving, anyway? How'd that friggin' Dill manage to get out of the scut work flying cement

around, anyway?"

"He's playing test pilot. This is his big day to Die Gloriously over on Mullion. So he's too busy and

big-time for us."

"Asshole. Shows what happens when you commission an elephant."

LanbayIsland, once utterly uninhabited and uninhabitable, was being turned into a tiny fortress, with half

a dozen missile pits and a central command bunker being built on it.

On other islands, on the arms ofDharmaIsland circling the bay, onMullionIsland and many of the other

islands and small continents sprayed across D-Cumbre's middle, more fortifications were being hastily

built. Some would be manned immediately, but most would only be used if the Musth fulfilled their

promise of months earlier, and returned with warriors.

Or if Alena Redruth, "Protector" of Larix andKura , came back with warships and a stronger offer of

"protection."

The Strike Force was very busy, and gloomily expected to be still busier in the future as it deployed out

from the comfortable, easily targetedCampMahan onDharmaIsland .

It'd once been called, rather grandiloquently, Swift

Lance, the Confederation force holding the Cumbre system and keeping the colonists safe, as often as

not from each other.

Two local years earlier, when Jaansma and Yoshitaro had arrived, Swift Lance had been the very model

of a lazy, button-polishing peacetime garrison unit. But the 'Raum uprising brought reality in with a shock.

Now it was commanded byCaudPrakash Rao, and it was officially RaoForce, the Force, or commonly

the Legion, when its soldiers needed a label that wasn't obscene.

It had taken massive casualties in the Rising, including its then CO and most of his staff, and surviving

soldiers like Yoshitaro and Jaansma had been rapidly promoted. The formation was rebuilt with recruits

from the local population. As Jon Hedley, once CO of I&R Company had predicted, a lot of them,

frequently the best, came from the defeated 'Raum. If a recruit, man or woman, showed unusual

familiarity with weapons or tactics, no one in the Force asked where she or he had learned, but instead

marked them for early promotion.

RaoForce was nearly up to its authorized strength of ten thousand. But it was far weaker in equipment

than before the shooting had started. There still was no communication, let alone supplies or equipment,

from the Confederation, and the Force was learning to rebuild total wrecks, do without, or improvise

from whatever could be found in Cumbre's civilian sector.

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Chris Bunch - Legion 2 - Firemask

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