Haigolong Legion

On July 18, heavy snow fell from dawn until dusk.

Eight inches of snow had piled up on the road inside Fort Howe leading to the landing pad. Augustus wore a thick winter coat as he drove a snowplow to clear the way. In the headlights, snowflakes swirled and danced in the air.

By then, the snowfall had eased. Only a few snowplows driven by soldiers from Augustus's company were on the road. The streetlights along either side had come on, and the snow-white world shimmered with a dazzling, blinding brilliance.

Augustus's snowplow rolled slowly along the road. In the cab, a high-precision, vintage wooden phonograph that had just arrived from Sterling on Korhal IV the previous week played some blues music. A steaming cup of coffee sat beside the dashboard.

Another ordinary day. Work hard at the fort, slack off when appropriate, but no war filling the air with smoke, no need to kill, and no comrades dying beside me, Augustus thought.

"Praise peace!"

As he thought this, Augustus lifted his coffee and took a small sip. Warmth spread through him at once, and the caffeine perked him up.

Suddenly, something caught Augustus's eye. To his left, two plow-style snowplows were speeding along. In the front one, two redheaded and blond-haired boys were swaying in their seats. Even though it was still snowing, their windows were open, and their blaring rock music pounded against Augustus's eardrums.

"Harnack and Josephine are two bad boys. They're noisy, noisy, noisy, noisy, but all the girls love them!" they sang loudly, laughing as they went.

Just as Augustus was about to switch on his radio loudspeaker and chew them out, Harnack's snowplow roared past him. Its snow chute, open on the left, flung chunks of broken snow onto Augustus's window.

Augustus's good mood took a slight dip.

"Step on it! Woo-hoo!" Raynor shouted. "I'm a man who rides the wind!"

A few seconds later, another, larger snowplow passed him, showering even more snow onto Augustus's window. He had to switch on the windshield wipers.

Coffee splashed onto his white windbreaker, and Augustus's anger was climbing fast.

"Hey, little Mengsk wolf cub! Mind giving me a lift?" Augustus rolled down his window and looked toward the voice. A hundred yards ahead, someone in a silver-gray windbreaker and a long-brimmed hood was waving at him.

Augustus drove over slowly and pulled to a stop. He opened the passenger-side door. "Captain, I hear you're about to get promoted?"

Warfield, commander of 1st Company, climbed up the ladder one step at a time, settled into the cab, and leaned back comfortably in the passenger seat. "Soon, soon. Got any coffee, kid?"

"I've got instant coffee, but you'll have to make it yourself." Augustus turned the wheel to head back. "Where are you going? I'm driving back anyway."

"The command center at Fort Howe. You know, I just flew to Oak Forest to give a report, and before I could catch my breath, that chameleon, Vandersp, was already in a hurry to see me." Warfield rummaged through a storage box behind the seats for a cup and a kettle.

"We don't answer to him." Augustus turned the snowplow around and headed back the way they had come.

Lieutenant Colonel Javier Vandersp was the acting lieutenant colonel at Fort Howe. All the fort's soldiers and personnel, including 4th Battalion, 2nd Marines, were technically under his command. But as Augustus had said, Warfield's company wasn't supposed to be.

"I couldn't agree with you more." Warfield chuckled, focusing on how to make coffee in a moving snowplow. "But like I told you last time, Vandersp is always trying to piss all over us. I can't stand that phony. He spends all year holed up in an impregnable fort, hasn't fought many tough battles, and still throws his rank around to push people about."

"Yesterday, he made a special trip to the 4th Brigade's command post at Hobo Pass. He said Fort Howe's defenses were thin, so while 1st Company was stationed at the fort, the company had to be temporarily placed under his command." Warfield continued, "He called me over, so he's probably going to brag about it."

"I can already guess how that turned out," Augustus said with a chuckle.

"Long story short, we're in for a rough time." Warfield snorted. "Just you wait. When I show up in front of Vandersp, that monkey's going to bounce all over our faces."

"I thought you just called him a chameleon," Augustus said.

"Then he's a color-changing monkey." Warfield took a sip of the scalding coffee. "I don't usually give people nicknames, but Vandersp is an exception."

"We all know that even in the Confederate Marine Corps, plenty of soldiers have been corrupted by money and power. There's no shortage of scoundrels lining their own pockets and playing political games," he continued. "These people hide in the rear, where promotions are much harder to come by than at the front. So they quickly turn their attention elsewhere—like how to use the power in their hands to make life easier and more comfortable for themselves."

"Vandersp has always hidden it well, but I guarantee his assets are worth far more than his salary could possibly account for. Acting lieutenant colonel at Fort Howe—that's a cushy post."

"We might as well think of him as a circus clown," Augustus said with a smile.

"That does make me feel a lot better." Warfield nodded, then checked his watch. "Heh, we'd better hurry. The clown wants me at the command center within ten minutes."

Augustus's snowplow gradually picked up speed. Before long, it caught up with Harnack, Raynor, and the others, then flung snow into their faces even faster than before. Harnack and Josephine, driving with their windows open, were soaked to the skin, and their cheerful singing abruptly stopped.

The snowplow raced along at full speed and finally came to a smooth stop outside the entrance to the only command center at Fort Howe. Warfield and Augustus climbed out together. Two Resocialized Soldiers stood at the entrance and immediately snapped to attention and saluted when they saw them.

"Every one of Vandersp's men is a Resocialized Soldier. I don't think he likes soldiers who can think. All he wants are obedient machines." As they entered the command center, Warfield said to Augustus, "Don't stand around. Come in and take a look."

The command center from the time of the Guild Wars was a large, multi-story building. Augustus and Warfield took an elevator up to the observation platform on the upper floors, whose four walls were made of vast panes of glass. They crossed a hallway hung with oil paintings and headed for Lieutenant Colonel Vandersp's office.

The office door was firmly shut. That meant that, however reluctant Warfield was, he still had to knock and wait for the occupant's permission to enter.

Augustus was meeting Vandersp for the first time. From Warfield's description, he had expected a middle-aged man with a listless look, the sort who spent all his time cooped up in an office. But Vandersp's first impression was that of a handsome man, dressed in a neat, spotless uniform and a shiny new peaked cap. The years etched into his face only added to his mature, masculine charm.

"Forgive me. As the commander of this area, I travel between Hobo Pass and Fort Howe almost every day, directing the frontline troops as they chase the Kel-Morians around like rabbits." As he spoke, Vandersp's expression suddenly changed. "What are you laughing at?"

"Nothing, Colonel. We just remembered something funny," Augustus said impassively.

"..." Vandersp glanced at Augustus. "Captain Warfield, I need you to send a unit to Fort Wait to scout the enemy. Scouts from Zulu Outpost and the fort's Scout aircraft have both spotted a small detachment of the Haigolong Legion in that area."

"Now? How many of them are there? I can spare one platoon at most." Warfield immediately turned serious. "If the enemy attacks the fort now, you can't expect a bunch of engineers and mechanics to pick up rifles and fight."

"Now. One platoon will do. The Haigolong Legion is nothing but a rabble of beggars and bandits. But send your best unit, because we don't currently control the area. Fort Wait is a melting pot. Your men will have to be careful." Vandersp smiled with utter confidence.

"No one knows the Kel-Morian bastards better than I do. They're nothing but a bunch of cowards. Even if only women and children were left inside Fort Howe, the Kel-Morians would still turn tail and run at the sight of the machine guns on the fort walls."