Burning City: A Military Sci-Fi Series (The Undying Legion Book 3) by Joe Kassabian

Author:Joe Kassabian [Kassabian, Joe]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Aethon Books
Published: 2024-04-16T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 11

Preparations on Herse had gone into overdrive. Long lines of slaves had begun unloading piles of supplies at the spaceport. Flora’s soldiers had arrived first, and they watched on in confusion, clearly not comfortable with the enslavement of the population and unsure what to do with them. Some of them had stopped and tried to offer them a cigarette, only for the slave to scamper away, fearful of the repercussions of accepting it.

Strega paced back and forth inside his space station, going over lists of his soldiers and dividing them back into subordinate commands that he would need them for upcoming operations. I assumed, since they had been sitting around on Herse, the little military discipline that the legion had had quickly broken down. Watching him attempt to piece it all back together under an unceasing cloud of dust smoke made me doubt if he was the right man for the job.

“Do you think he has any idea what he’s doing?” Noa asked me. We stood in the back of the room, watching the whole scene unfold.

“I’m sure he did once upon a time.” I rubbed my chin. “But I do have to wonder what the effects of a six-month-long dust binge could have on the skinwalker mind.”

“Shouldn’t the damage just heal itself?” Ardit asked. “I’ve watched both of you get shot and just shrug it off.”

“Hypothetically, yes. “Noa nodded. “But it would require him to stop smoking that shit for five minutes before the healing starts.”

“We’re watching the first man who has defeated the skinwalker self-healing program through drugs. It would be impressive if he wasn’t supposed to be our ally,” I sighed. “I’m willing to bet Zhu did all of this stuff before now but, Noa, where is Zhu exactly?”

“No comment.”

“What could you even do to him?” Ardit asked. “You can’t even kill him.”

“Some things are worse than dying. “Noa shrugged nonchalantly. “I can thank the legion for teaching me that.”

“Wonderful.”

The airlock of the command room opened and revealed Two and Dato. A few skinwalkers were peeking in from the outside, trying to see what their leader was doing. The airlock slammed in their faces, locking them out.

“Strega!” Two called out. Strega spun around, his pipe clenched between his teeth and smoke curling out of his nose. I wasn’t sure if it was laziness or the highs of a dust-addled brain, but Strega hadn’t even bothered to fasten his robe, and every time he moved, he exposed himself to everyone in the room.

“We need to get your forces together in short order.”

“Yes!” Strega chirped. “I am working on it. You will be most pleased with the result!”

Two glanced at the list he had been working on. It floated over one of the computer banks. Out of the thousands of soldiers he had under his command, Strega had only managed to organize a small percentage of them. Out of what he had done, I noticed the names under the units he had been putting together weren’t even real. Instead, he had just been writing down nicknames.

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