Cohort of the Damned
Book Description
Can a man escape from his past in a fighting battalion on an alien battlefield?
Wolfgang Hauser was an aristocrat—rich, privileged, pampered … until the day alien invaders overwhelmed his world and stripped him of everything he held dear. Now he was an outcast, without a family or a home, his honor tainted by accusations of cowardice and murder. He was a man on the run, and sooner or later his enemies would find him and destroy what was left of his shattered life.
There was only one safe haven in the far-flung Terran Commonwealth. He joined the Fifth Foreign Legion.
But Wolfgang Hauser soon discovered that the Legion demanded a high price from the misfits who flocked to his banner, seeking new life and new hope. The man who had lost everything found that he would have to surrender his name, his beliefs, and his very identity to become a Legionnaire.
It was a price he wasn’t sure he could pay.
Kobo Edition – 2016
WordFire Press
wordfirepress.com
ISBN: 978-1-61475-401-5
Copyright © 2016 Bill Fawcett & Associates, Inc.
Originally published by Roc Books 1993
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system, without the express written permission of the copyright holder, except where permitted by law. This novel is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination, or, if real, used fictitiously.
This book is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.
Cover design by Janet McDonald
Art Director Kevin J. Anderson
Cover artwork images by Dollar Photo Club
Book Design by RuneWright, LLC
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Kevin J. Anderson & Rebecca Moesta, Publishers
Published by
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Contents
Book Description
Title Page
Preamble
Prologue
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-one
Chapter Twenty-two
Chapter Twenty-three
Chapter Twenty-four
Chapter Twenty-five
Epilogue
Glossary
About the Author
If You Liked …
Other WordFire Press Titles by Andrew Keith & William H. Keith, Jr.
Preamble
To the legion of the lost ones, to the cohort of the damned.
—Rudyard Kipling Gentlemen Rankers, 1892
Prologue
Beau Soleil: Distance from Sol 94 light years … Spectral class G2V; radius 1.0 Sol; mass 1.0 Sol; luminosity 1.01 Sol. Stellar Effective Temperature 5800° K … Seven planets, including one habitable world, Beau Soleil III, designated Devereaux …
Ill Devereaux: Orbital radius 0.96 AUs; eccentricity .0068; period 0.94 solar years (343.6 std. days) … No natural satellites …
Planetary mass 0.9 Terra; density 0.95 Terra (5.225 g/cc); surface gravity 0.93 G. Radius 6265.2 kilometers; circumference 39,365.49 kilometers … Total surface area 493,263,949.23 square kilometers …
Hydrographic percentage 64 percent … Mean atmospheric pressure 0.85 arm; composition oxygen/nitrogen. Oxygen content 23 percent …
Planetary axial tilt 21 degrees 39 feet 17.6 inches. Rotation period 28 hours, 18 minutes, 14.2 seconds …
Planetography: Devereaux is a familiar Terra-type world, offering few surprises.… There are three major continents as well as a significant chain of islands which together roughly equal the smallest continent in land surface area.…
Temperatures and climatic zones are within Terrestrial norms, though overall conditions tend to be slightly warmer and more arid than in equivalent Terran zones. The most noteworthy terrain features are the Archipel d’Aurore, the massive island chain extending through the tropical band of the planet’s eastern hemisphere, and the Great Desert which dominates much of Devereaux’s largest continent.…
Although a diversity of native life forms is found on Devereaux, there is no native sapient life … of some interest to planetary ecologists is the impact of three successive waves of colonization over a five-thousand-year period on the planetary biosphere … the native biochemistry is basically compatible with Terran life forms, and transplanted Terran species have flourished.…
People: Population 378,000,000; Urbanization: 45 percent … Ethnic Groups: Gwyrran 96 percent, Human (primarily French) 3 percent, Other 1 percent … Languages: Terranglic, French, Gwyrran dialects … Religions: Universal Church of Gwyrr 93 percent, Catholic 5 percent, Other 2 percent … Capital: Villastre; Major Cities: Villastre (18,206,963), lie de Havre (12,658,419), Premier d’Atterissage (10,743,072) … Port Facilities: Haut Port geosynch orbital spaceport, 5 planetary spaceports …
Government: Type: Commonwealth Trust … Head of Government: Governor Guillaume Gerard … Local Divisions: 5 … Defense Budget as Percentage of GDP: 2.2 percent … Military Manpower: 6 percent …
Economy: Resources and Industries: Natural Agricultural Products, Ores, Radioactives, Petrochemicals, Processed Agroproducts, Alloys, Agro Byproducts, Light Manufacturing, High-Tech Systems … Exports: Processed Agricultural Products, Agro Byproducts, Light Manufactured Goods … Imports: Gems and Crystals, Heavy Manufactured Goods, Electronics … Arable Land: 15 percent (26,636,251 sq. kms.) … Labor Force: Agricultural 38 percent, Industrial 29 percent, Service 25 percent, Resource Extraction: 8 percent …
Finance: Currency: Commonwealth Sol … Gross Domestic Product: 737,100,000,000 sols … Per Capita Income: 1500 Sols …
History: Originally settled by Gwyrran colonists under the auspices of the Semti Conclave approximately 5,000 years ago, the planet now known as Devereaux formed an important center for trade, exploration, and military operations for the Conclave for many centuries. A series of devastating plagues and famines drastically reduced the Gwyrran colony during the period from roughly 1800-2200 AD and left no more than 15 percent of the predisaster population alive.… The survivors, known today as Wynsarrysa (from the Gwyrran phrase best translated as “The Lost”), suffered technological and sociological devolution, slipping back to a largely preindustrial level.… These changes were apparently viewed favorably by the Semti, who made no effort to relieve conditions during or after the plagues began.…
Around the middle of the 24th century humans arrived on Devereaux following the discovery of the planet by the survey ship CARTIER. The initial survey mistook the Gwyrran population for a native sophont race, and permission to colonize was granted by the Imperial Minister for Colonial Affairs in 2364.… As a prime colony world Devereaux was settled primarily by French and Western European
stock, both from Terra proper and from the established colony worlds of Ys and Concorde.… Roughly two million human settlers arrived before the disintegration of the French Empire heralded the beginning of the Shadow Centuries and the loss of Terran interstellar travel.
It was during this period that the Semti Conclave renewed contact with Devereaux, establishing a new Gwyrran colony on the planet. The humans, cut off from Terra and not fully self-sufficient, welcomed Semti hegemony and became willing subjects of the Conclave.…
Devereaux was one of several flashpoint worlds along the Conclave frontier which helped trigger the Semti War. With the emergence of a Terran Commonwealth presence in the sector, human settlers on Devereaux appealed to their own species for assistance against what was perceived as the intolerable excesses of the Semti/Gwyrran government … Commonwealth forces intervened and established the Fourth Foreign Legion headquarters on Devereaux to furnish protection for human colonists against the Gwyrran locals and the possibility of Semti intervention. During the Semti War, this Legion garrison was destroyed during the Semti occupation of the planet, but bought valuable time for the Commonwealth by delaying the progress of the enemy attack through a determined resistance effort.…
Since the Semti War Devereaux has been a Trust, ruled by a local-born human Governor and sending Observers to the Commonwealth Assembly. A growing cadre of humans with Citizen status form the solid core of the urban population, supported by Gwyrrans of the last Semti colonization effort who have retained a high-tech, industrial orientation. Most of the Wynsarrysa prefer rural lives and serve as labor on farms and plantations. Some remain hostile to the human presence and roam the wilderness areas in war bands, making their livelihood through raiding settlements or operating overland caravan routes between remote settlements.
The planet is most notable for its continued connection with the Commonwealth’s Fifth Foreign Legion. The Legion’s primary headquarters and training facilities are located on the planet, and Legion garrisons continue to provide protection for the population against disaffected elements—primarily Wynsarrysa, who continue to pose a threat to the security of the colony.
—Excerpted from Leclerc’s Guide to the Commonwealth Volume V: The Cis-Conclave Frontier, 34th Edition, published 2848 AD
Chapter One
We are the wounded from every war, the world’s damned ones.
—from “Adieu vielle Europe,” Marching Song,
French Foreign Legion
A laser bolt struck the wall bare centimeters from Leutnant Wolfgang Alaric Hauser von Semenanjung Burat, burning into the tough duraplast. The scorching heat of the pulse, the acrid tang of burning plastic, the hoarse shouts of his men sent adrenaline surging through his veins, and his grip on his CAR-22 laser pistol tightened as Hauser shot desperate glances left and right, seeking a way out.
He had never imagined combat would be so terrifying, never, in fact, envisioned that he might find himself in a battle at all. A commission in Laut Besar’s Sky Guards was the accepted career for a young Uro aristocrat, but no one thought that they might actually face combat. It was unthinkable.…
But now the unthinkable had become all too real.
“This way, Tuan!” Sersan Peloten Radiah Suartana shouted. The Indomay NCO held an enemy rocket launcher in his hands, the Ubrenfar weapon large and awkward even for Suartana’s massive frame. He braced himself against the wall and raised the cumbersome weapon, unleashing an explosive-tipped projectile in the direction of the advancing Ubrenfar assault troops, completely at ease in the low gravity despite the launcher’s powerful recoil. “Over here!”
Another laser bolt sizzled past his head. Hauser rolled sideways, squeezing the trigger of his laser pistol for a blind shot. Then he pushed off in a powerful leap toward the sersan’s position near a bend in the corridor. Telok, the inner moon of Laut Besar, was little more than an oversized planetoid, its low gravity almost unnoticeable.
He was grateful for hours of practice in the port’s low-G gymnasium. It was almost second nature to turn in the air and land beside the sersan, absorbing the inertia of his jump with no more effort than if he’d been playing a game of air hockey with his friends from the BOQ block. They used a handrail to pull themselves around the corner and through a pair of massive armored doors, clear of the Ubrenfar field of fire.
Hauser scanned the inside of the chamber. It was one of the warehouses servicing Docking Bay Five, long and wide with a high ceiling hung with handling machinery and a catwalk running around the entire room three meters off the floor. In the port’s weak gravity, terms like “ceiling” and “floor” had little meaning, but the warehouse floor could be magnetized to hold cargo modules in place and allow workers with steelloy boots to operate without the distracting effects of low-G. The power was off at the moment, but restraining nets held the scattered cargomods in place. They would provide cover, at least, if his men had to fight the Ubrenfars here.
The warehouse was also a junction for a number of different corridors, including one that led to the airlock doors of the docking bay. Inside, the frigate Surapat was still taking on refugees from the rest of the Telok port complex. She was the last ship in port, the last hope of escape. The other docking bays had already been overrun by the Ubrenfar assault troops who had infiltrated Telok aboard an unarmed freighter, boiling out of the hold and overwhelming every group of defenders they had encountered.
Sensors had picked up the main Ubrenfar battle fleet soon after the fighting began. Within four hours that fleet would arrive, cutting off all hope of escape for anyone who managed to survive the initial onslaught.
Hauser’s wristpiece buzzed insistently. He touched a stud and watched as the small terminal screen glowed, swirled with color, and then resolved into the grim features of Major Erich Neubeck von Lembah Terang.
“Leutnant,” the major said crisply. “Your status?”
“We have been forced back to Warehouse 5-C, Herr Major,” he said. “Contact with the enemy temporarily broken. I have twenty men, from miscellaneous units. Mostly light weapons, one captured rocket launcher. Not enough to make a stand.”
Neubeck frowned. “You’re going to have to try, Leutnant,” he said. “I need you to hold that position for at least fifteen minutes more, longer if possible. It’s critical.”
“Herr Major.…” Hauser stopped, swallowed, looked around the warehouse again. “The men here aren’t a coherent unit … some of them aren’t even soldiers! We have no combat armor. Ammo is running low, and morale is poor at best. I don’t know how long these men can hold against a determined attack. Can you send some reinforcements?”
The major pursed his lips. “I’ll see what I can do, Hauser. But that position has to be held. Do your best.”
“Yes, sir,” Hauser responded. “But without some steady troops here I don’t know how good our best will be.”
The screen had already gone dead.
Hauser glanced across at Suartana. The sersan seemed to read his thoughts. “We can hold the scalies for a while, Tuan,” he said. “But not forever.”
“You heard the man, Sersan. We defend the warehouse.”
He jumped back to the center of the chamber in a single low-G bound as Suartana shouted orders. He hoped Neubeck would be as good as his word. These Indomay defenders wouldn’t be able to stand up to a major attack for long, not discouraged and disorganized as they were now. If this position was as critical as Major von Lembah Terang maintained, it would have to be secured by better men than these.…
* * *
“We’ll be ready to lift in twelve minutes, Herr Major. I’ll hold the count as long as possible, but I’ve got nearly three hundred men to think of.”
Major Erich Neubeck von Lembah Terang let out a ragged sigh and nodded. “I understand, Herr Kapitan. The refugees have to come first.” He glanced around Telok’s Master Fire Direction Center, with its banks of control consoles and computer terminals. It was crowded with Sky Guards working feverishly to complet
e the job Neubeck had set them. They might be able to finish in time.…
On the monitor screen dominating one wall of the FDC, the image of the captain of the frigate Surapat looked relieved. He was a Uro aristocrat, of course—officers of all the military services on Laut Besar were Uros—but he came from a minor family from one of the poorest districts on the western side of the continent of Malaya Besar. The prospect of arguing with a member of the powerful, well-connected Neubeck family would have been daunting at best. “I will keep you appraised, Herr Major,” he said.
Before the captain could cut the connection, Neubeck interrupted. “A moment, Kapitan. Have you been identifying your passengers?”
“The list isn’t complete,” the captain told him. “But we’re doing our best with it.”
“Is Walther Neubeck von Lembah Terang aboard? An oberleutnant in the Fourth Sky Guards?”
There was a pause. “Yes … yes, he’s on the list, Herr Major.”
Neubeck tried not to betray his relief at the captain’s words. “Very good. Neubeck clear.” He shut off the commlink and leaned back in his chair.
At least his brother would win clear of this hell. That was some consolation.
Oberleutnant Wilhelm Stoph appeared beside him. “Third Squad just reported in, sir,” he said. “Corridor twelve is sealed off now. Do you want the squad to join the demo work?”
Neubeck frowned at his subordinate, weighing his options. He had promised to find more men for Leutnant Hauser. The warehouse the leutnant’s ad hoc force had fallen back to controlled the only remaining route into the Fire Direction Center … and the only line of retreat Neubeck’s men could use to reach the Surapat. Hauser had sounded unsure of himself, uncertain if his men could keep that route secure.
On the other hand, the most urgent task at this point was to make sure that the Fire Direction Center couldn’t be used to turn Telok’s two linnax railguns against the owners. Refugee ships were lifting clear of Laut Besar as quickly as they could load up. If the railguns fell into Ubrenfar hands those ships would never escape … and there was the further danger that the guns might be turned against targets on the planetary surface. With defeat looming near, Neubeck had to take those railguns off line at all costs, and the more men he set on the demolition job the quicker they would finish.