Orion Colony Complete Series Boxed Set by J.N. Chaney (best detective novels of all time .TXT) 📕

That thought brought a chill to my spine. Dama was right. Legion was waiting for us. He had anticipated our move at the stairwell, leading us to believe he was going to rush in and attack, then hold infected with blasters in the rear to catch us off guard. What did he have planned for us now?

“Are you thinking what I’m thinking?” Stacy asked as we made our way down the corridor. The hall we would have to make a right on was still a good hundred meters or so in front of us if I had read Dama’s map correctly and was judging distance accurately.

“How much I could use a hot meal and a bath right now?” I asked. “Or how that blaster took me in the chest so hard, it made my belly button touch my spine?”

“What?” Stacy almost laughed, surprised by my attempt at humor. “No, not at all.”

“Oh, go ahead, then,” I said, glad I was able to bring her a moment of relief from the seriousness of the situation. “What were you thinking?”

“If this all works and we get into that room, we can’t let Maksim get into a power armored suit,” Stacy said, shaking her head. “It’s too much of a risk. Think of what he’s able to do on his own, then put him behind the wheel of a walking tank? We can’t take that risk.”

“I agree,” I said. “When we get in there, you and I will need to be on top of that situation. Tie him up if he’ll let us, knock him out if he won’t. As much as I hate the guy and don’t trust him either, he did save my life back in the woods and he’s trying to help now. Honestly, I’m not sure if it’s the amount of concussions I’ve had or something else, but I don’t know how to feel about him, and whether his intentions are sincere or not.”

“We won’t have to decide,” Stacy said. “If we live through this, we’ll take him back, and he can stand trial in front of his peers.”

I was about to make another comment about this topic, when we arrived at the entrance to the hall. On our right, just a few feet away, another massive corridor opened up, leading to the power armor hangar.

I edged toward the corner, peering around the side.

My helmet had done a good job of keeping odors out, but a rotten stench too strong to ignore hit me now. It smelled like death. That was the only way to describe the horrible stench assailing my nostrils at the moment.

I tried hard to fight back a gag.

Stacy coughed next to me as she too peered around the corner.

Rows of infected stood waiting for us halfway down the aisle. The darkness didn’t give away much, but bright blue emergency lights stationed around the edges of the doors to the power armor hangar lit up enough of the room to see the horror greeting our group. There had to be a thousand or more, all standing so close to one another the air in the area had gone stale.

One of the infected in the front lines took a step forward. It was an elderly Rung female with a deep gash across her left eye.

“You should know that as you waste time here, the Orion falls,” she cackled with glee. “Your stupid knee-jerk race attacks where the bulk of my force isn’t. All those you love and care about are now mine. They are joining my fold as we speak.”

I knew that Legion could be lying to throw us off. Still, a ball of panic formed in the pit of my stomach.

“While we wait here playing these games, your people die.” The Rung shrugged her shoulders. “Even if you succeed in getting your precious power armor, you have gained nothing and instead are losing everything.”

“You’re lying,” Stacy said, leaving the cover of the corner. She walked out into full view of the Legion horde. “You’re stalling for more time.”

“Maybe I am stalling, but that means nothing.” The Rung lifted her head into the air and laughed. “Your fate is set. I actually have you to thank for waking me from my hibernation. When the Orion crashed, you gave me so many hosts to use and spread. You brought all of this about.”

“You were just biding your time until the Rung and Remboshi came out of hiding,” I said, refusing to let Legion put the blame on our shoulders. I wouldn’t let that leech get to me. “You would have consumed them and then used the craft to travel off-world to another and another and another after that.”

“Ahhh,” Legion’s host said, giving me a wide smile. “Dean Slade, you are more perceptive than you seem.”

“Why does everyone keep saying that?” I asked, looking to Stacy for answers.

She shrugged and held one palm up in an uncommitted gesture. “Maybe you just have one of those faces.” We refocused on the host as Legion spoke through her once again.

“So, you know of my plan to take the Rung craft beyond the stars?” Legion asked with a sigh. “It will take some work. Their craft is not yet capable of such a trip, but in time, I will succeed. Once I infect those Eternals of yours and am able to use the Cognitive you call Iris, I should have more than enough information to then turn my conquest to the galaxy. Amazing what we can do when we all work together.” It was as if, in this parasite’s mind, we and the Rung had engineered everything to benefit Legion. It was truly a parasite, a freeloader, in the ultimate sense of the term.

“It’s not going to happen,” Stacy said. “We’re not going to let that happen.”

“It’s too late.” Legion scratched at the underside of its chin. “The fundamental flaw of any species is