The Reaper’s Legion

Chapter 132

The morning light cast the extended caravan in its golden glow. Some days, I liked to be up with the dawn, watching as it came up over the horizon. Now that there was less ash in the air, you could more or less reliably see easier. General temperature was on the up and up, and occasionally I imagined what the world would be like now.

Supposedly, that ash would suffuse the earth in the wake of the apocalypse, fueling plant growth everywhere. If that was true, then that would be a boon for people, at least eventually.

For now, reliance on the Obelisks was at an all time high.

Idly, my gaze carried my attention through the camp, others that were early risers moving about with vigor, more often than not preparing food for the rest of the convoy. Basilisk had more or less left us alone, uncertain how to proceed with foreign forces, or perhaps nervous of our intentions.

Commander Morrison had assured me that her experts would be able to be here today. But, even she wasn’t sure as to when they would show up. Apparently, they were something of an elite force, but tended to be on a loose leash, having established themselves with some power even before the governing body of Central truly came into being.

If I hadn’t gotten involved in politics and established my own spanning organization, I imagined that I would be a similar group.

Given that, I was interested in seeing who they were, what they used. I wasn’t against comparing myself against the bar of what others considered their elites.

That was secondary, though, being that we might have to work with them, I needed to know if they were trustworthy. Morrison thought so, but I’d reserve my own judgement until I met them.

“Morning,” Domino greeted as he stretched, joining me on top of the Ogre, “mind if I visit?”

I gestured beside me, “Go for it.”

Unceremoniously, he sat down, crossing one leg under and one leg over, processing the world through still awakening eyes. He and the newbies had loosened up after yesterday, drinking and playing a few games had grounded the rumors and myth with something more substantial. Domino especially had cut loose, his beaming personality and innate mirth easy to get along with.

The only one I was worried about was Harold. He seemed to get along with Richard far too well, and in a joking kind of way, I didn’t need to have two of that man.

Domino spied the smile on my face, and sported one of his own, “You hungry?”

“Hmm… I could eat.” I nodded, “Kitchens aren’t open just yet, though.”

The young man nodded, stretching out with a yawn. He gave a content sigh even as he turned his gaze to Basilisk's building.

“So, we’re getting an escort?” He asked before following up with, “Think they’ll be good?”

“Yeah, an escort, or a handler,” I shrugged, “from what it sounded like, they’re good at what they do. Maybe even Basilisk’s version of our team.”

Domino nodded, “Well, at least that’s good.”

I turned a quizzical look to him at that, to which he expanded, “If they were bad at their jobs, we’d have to work on keeping them alive at the same time. Against biotics, that can be… bad.” He winced at the last word, no doubt speaking from a place of experience after the many sessions in the Gauntlet he and his team had gone through.

“I get what you mean,” I nodded, “but I doubt we’ll have to worry about them. Basilisk is a much larger organization than what we’ve dealt with before, and much more successful. I’m interested in seeing what kinds of biotics they’ve been dealing with til now.”

We spoke more, guessing at the kind of team we would have to work with until the others gradually awoke. Daniel rose, stretching stiff limbs while Fran did the same, with a light workout routine. After the others performed their morning ablutions, the lot of us made our way over to the kitchens, meeting a few other teams along the way. A handful of Basilisk soldiers actually joined us, which surprised me, before I heard that Commander Morrison had ‘leaked’ that the Legion was an allied force.

The fact that we provided free food that was also quite good didn’t hurt their impression of us at all. As the day wore on past the morning, I examined a handful of our equipment kits, went over some battle plans with my team, and tried to occupy myself. My heart wasn’t really in it, though, my drive to move forward and get what we came here for done rearing its head more and more often.

Still, it was good for the others to take a look around, and Daniel had no problem showing off the slumbering form of The Dauntless, though insisted that it looked far more imposing when it was mobile. I had to admit that Daniel and the R&D team had outdone themselves with the mech, but I highly doubted it would be something we’d be pulling out in any cities.

When it was well past afternoon, I couldn’t help but wonder at where their team might be. I considered asking the Commander, but decided against it for a while longer. It was already clear that the team in question wasn’t exactly a commonality, and it took time to move around a larger territory.

It was only during these times that I realized I didn’t really have any hobbies, moreover that I didn’t even know what I would want as a hobby these days. In the past, I would read to take my mind off of things, but now that I could read massive amounts of data, the hobby lost some of its luster. Instead, I cast my awareness out wide, catching snippets of data from the air, connecting to our antennae on the many Ogre’s nearby. Most of it was idle chatter between teams, checking equipment, telling jokes, banter. There was general chatter on Basilisk’s communications as well, but with the encryption, I’d have to make a concerted effort to hear what they were saying.

Not much attention, though, as I began to parse the information within my brain. Disappointingly, there wasn’t anything of particular interest. They were inquiring more about our forces, receiving Morrison’s report on the matter no doubt. For the most part, nothing that I could truly consider confidential filtered down the line.

I ceased attention then, partly out of disinterest, but also because, at least at some point, I had to ask myself if confidentiality mattered for allies.

And, I supposed, I wouldn’t respond positively to the knowledge that someone was spying on me, either.

As evening began to close, I couldn’t help but want to do a great deal more prying. There were still a few scant hours of sunlight ahead of us, and at this rate I was considering moving the convoy at night. I rested myself on a pullout bed, trying to take part in a conversation between my team members, seeming to revolve around some more general questions about biotics.

“So, they don’t eat, right?” Harold spoke, “Or they don’t need to, right?”

Alice, in the middle of snacking herself, answered, “Right, right.”

“Then why do they eat things? I mean, I know they sometimes just… you know, maul something and leave it be, but there have been some that actually do eat things.” He mulled the thought over, “Just doesn’t make sense, you know?”

“Maybe they’re gathering material for the cores?” Terry posited, “Well, actually maybe not so much material... hmm…”

“What if it's some sci-fi stuff and they’re using the DNA like samples? Maybe that’s why we get so many freaky biotics.” Eric chipped in, “By the way, that’s check.”

“Ah, not again.” Jessica frowned, considering the chess board between the pair before looking up, “I vote for screwed up psychology.”

“You always vote for screwed up psychology.” Covina cheerily supplied, “You think everyone you don’t know is crazy.”

Richard hummed thoughtfully, “That’s a pretty good creed to live by.”

Alice slapped his arm playfully.

I sat up a bit more, thinking over Eric’s answer, “Honestly, it’s probably DNA. We’ve suspected as much for a long time now.”

“Wha- really?” Eric looked up in surprise, “why isn’t that, like, public information?”

I shrugged, “Well, it’s not especially a secret, but Yaga is a pseudo-biotic. Given that, we lean heavily to the possibility he was once human, or consisted of human DNA. He concurs.” I sat back, letting them absorb that.

“So, that guy actually exists?” Emma murmured, eyes shining with curiosity, “They say he helped out with Wolven, was that true?”

There was a long silence then, one that did not go unnoticed by the team.

“He… yes.” I nodded, “He ensured that no one was captured alive.”

The implications of that statement rested like a stone for a few seconds before Alice, thankfully, cut in, “He’s a really nice guy. He and Dr. Ross have been going through a lot of different fields of science, trying out new things. Terry helped them develop his… uh… Raijin thingermajig.”

Terry made a sour expression, “You really don’t remember it?”

“Honestly, you name, like, everything Raijin something-or-other recently,” Alice gave a helpless smile, “it’s hard to keep track sometimes.”

They went back and forth for several minutes before a call caught my attention. With a thought I brought up the mental interface from the Obelisk, finding that the caller was Commander Morrison.

‘Wonder if something went wrong…’ I wondered, before resolving myself. As I stood, I gestured to Daniel and Fran, both exchanging glances with one another as we entered the front of the Ogre.

“Commander Morrison is calling, I’m putting it through the radio,” I said even as I shifted the line over to the Ogre. While I could speak mentally, I’d rather have them able to hear what was being said.

They nodded, and I opened the line, “Commander, hello.”

“Reaper,” she greeted, “I have information regarding your escort. Do you have a minute?”

“I do. Are they here?” I refrained from adding ‘finally’ to the end of that question.

“They are indeed; they’ll be making their way through the compound to brief first, and, if possible, I’d like you to be available to meet and greet at my office.”

“Sounds good, how much longer?” I eyed the clock wondering what could have taken the team so long.

“Thirty minutes should be fine,” Morrison added, “they can take a break after the brief.”

I grinned at that, catching the undercurrent of annoyance at that, “Thirty it is then. See you soon.”

“Likewise,” she answered, cutting the feed.

“Well, I guess now would be a good time to mention that Derrick dropped by earlier,” Fran grinned evilly, “He gave us a gift for you.”

I frowned, not liking the way she and Daniel bore similar conspiring grins.

“What kind of gift?”