Project Legion (Nemesis Saga Book 5) Read online

  PROJECT LEGION

  By Jeremy Robinson

  Description:

  THE SIGNAL WAS RECEIVED

  Ten years after a deep space transmission was broadcast from a futuristic citadel hidden in the Arctic ice, Jon Hudson finds himself in a position beyond comprehension. His days of lazy Sasquatch hunting on behalf of the DHS’s Fusion Center—Paranormal (FC-P) have been a fading memory since the appearance of Nemesis, the goddess of vengeance, reborn through genetic tinkering. Now he longs for those quiet days once more.

  THE AEROS HAVE RETURNED

  Facing down giant kaiju has become almost commonplace for Hudson and the FC-P, who he regards as his family, but the threat now facing them is global. An alien race known as the Aeros, summoned to Earth ten years ago, have arrived in orbit, hell-bent on destroying their ancient enemy, the Ferox, along with all of humanity…in all dimensions of reality.

  ALL EARTHS WILL BE DESTROYED

  Facing off against an invasion of city-destroying kaiju, a massive mothership and an assault in a parallel world, Hudson must bolster the FC-P’s ranks. Joined by Milos ‘Cowboy’ Vesely, Hudson must journey through alternate dimensions to gather a one-of-a-kind legion of defenders, including a smart-mouthed soldier, a woman who can animate the lifeless, a time traveler, a robot-man, a powerful king and an assassin who can slip between frequencies of reality.

  With Project Legion, Jeremy Robinson has created an epic series finale, bringing together characters and plot elements from more than a dozen different novels and series. The result is a crossover novel, ten years in the making, the likes of which have never been seen outside of comic books and movies like Captain America – Civil War. Project Legion is an apocalyptic end to the first story arc of the bestselling kaiju-thriller series: The Nemesis Saga.

  Novels whose characters or plot elements are featured in Project Legion include: The Nemesis Saga, Island 731, The Didymus Contingency, Raising the Past, Nazi Hunter: Atlantis, The Last Hunter (The Antarktos Saga), Xom-B (aka: Uprising), the Jack Sigler Thrillers and MirrorWorld. Also mentioned are elements from the following novels: Refuge, Kronos and Beneath. Although reading all these novels is NOT a prerequisite for enjoying Project Legion, they will help flesh out the included characters.

  PROJECT LEGION

  Jeremy Robinson

  Table of Contents

  Prologue

  1

  2

  3

  4

  5

  6

  7

  8

  9

  10

  11

  12

  13

  14

  15

  16

  17

  18

  19

  20

  21

  22

  23

  24

  25

  26

  27

  28

  29

  30

  31

  32

  33

  34

  35

  36

  37

  38

  39

  40

  41

  42

  43

  Epilogue I

  Epilogue II

  Epilogue III

  A NOTE FROM THE AUTHOR

  ART GALLERIES

  MATT FRANK CREATURE DESIGNS

  STEP BY STEP COVER CREATION BY “SHARK”

  FAN ART GALLERY

  ISLAND 731 ISSUE #1 PREVIEW

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  ABOUT THE ARTIST

  ALSO by JEREMY ROBINSON

  For Chad Stahelski.

  Thank you.

  Prologue

  “So you’re saying the world is going to end?”

  The bearded man leaned back against an olive tree, looking up and marveling at the number of stars in the sky, still luminous despite the rising sun.

  “The world is going to end,” his rugged friend replied. “You know that. But no one will know the ‘when.’ Not even you.”

  “Right. So...what are you telling me?”

  The rugged man looked down at his friend’s watch. “That when the time comes, you need to help.”

  “But I always help people. I’m a helpful guy. Though I’m not sure how I can help defend the planet from an alien invasion.”

  “You live in a strange time. A time of monsters,” the rugged man replied.

  “The monsters have always been here.”

  “Not always.”

  “Mostly always.”

  A sigh. The rugged man placed his thick, calloused hands on his friend’s shoulders. “Hear what I am telling you. When the time comes, you will be distracted.”

  “By...”

  “The stumbling block of most people.”

  “Family com—”

  “Family commitments. Trying to steal my thunder?”

  The bearded man laughed. “And I need to do what, exactly?”

  “What you are asked.”

  “By him? Are you sure?”

  “Even the most rebellious of men can change the world. Has the Word not taught you as much? Is this not the lesson learned by Didymus?”

  “But Jon Hudson? Sure, he has played a hand in defeating my time’s monsters, but his methods are...questionable. And his language? Revolting.”

  The rugged man smiled. “You worry too much about the words your society tells you are foul. The rules of mankind do not apply to me.”

  “Can you at least tell me if we succeed?”

  “You are trying to trick me into revealing whether the world will actually end.”

  “What...I...ugh. Fine,” the bearded man threw up his hands in exasperation.

  “You are not here for me to tell you how it ends, only that you are being called to play a part.”

  “I get it. This isn’t the first time, you know.”

  “First time in person, since you left, in the future.”

  “The talking fish was a little much,” the bearded man said.

  The rugged man chuckled. “I thought it was funny.”

  “It was funny. But a strange way to put me on Jonah’s boat.”

  “You got him where he needed to be.”

  “I threw him overboard.”

  “And now you are needed again.”

  “Tomorrow, right? My sister-in-law’s wedding?”

  The rugged man smiled again. “Do not be late.” He looked beyond the bearded man, to the olive grove where a group of people were gathering at the base of the hill. “It is time.”

  The bearded man followed his gaze and staggered back with a gasp. “Is this...”

  “The day we first met. Yes.”

  With a shake of his head, the bearded man embraced his friend. “Will I see you again?”

  “Of that, there is no doubt.”

  As the bearded man began his retreat deeper into the grove, where no one would see his exit, the rugged man called out to him. “When you see Jon Hudson, tell him to pass this message on to a man named Zach Cole: ‘the Anomaly says hello.’”

  “What? Why?”

  “It will be funny,” he said with another chuckle. “Now, enjoy the wedding, and then prepare yourself for war. To treat the coming events with anything other than stalwart dedication and seriousness could lead to folly.”

  “Really? ‘Could?’ You can’t even slip once and say, ‘will’ or ‘won’t’?”

  “I am incapable.” A smile. “Goodbye, David.”

  Five minutes later, a vibration shook the depths of the olive grove. It was followed by a burst of blue light and a solitary boom.

  1

 
HUDSON

  “Is roadkill, on chalkboard?”

  Collins and I share a wide-eyed stare. The Czech cowboy from another dimension just offered his visual critique of the food—in front of the chef who prepared it. The Czech’s real name is Milos Vesely, but he actually prefers the codename: Cowboy. It’s kind of a big deal for him. And according to Cowboy, he helped save his Earth from a neo-Nazi invasion that killed millions and nearly wiped out billions. In his quest to fully purge his reality of neo-Nazis, he uncovered some ancient tech known as ‘the Bell.’ The Nazis called it Die Glocke. We call it a Rift Engine. It’s ancient tech, developed by aliens, and it can power giant robots or slip between dimensions. Apparently, it can also melt people. Good to know.

  “Sorry, Matt,” Collins says to the chef. Despite hailing from the backwoods of Maine, and before that, the deep South, my wife has impressive taste in food. This is my third visit to Moxy, and I’m convinced it’s the best restaurant in Portsmouth—if not all of New Hampshire. And it’s not so fancy that I need to wear my monocle. Also, they serve a Throwback Brewery beer named for Nemesis and me, so bonus points. It’s nice to be recognized.

  “Don’t worry about it,” Matt says with a grin. “Some people have poor taste.”

  “Is mine, if you no want it,” Lilly says, reaching for the slate platter Cowboy’s crab was served on. Her stilted Czech accent sounds closer to a cave man, but the look on Cowboy’s face says she’s managed to insult his intelligence.

  “You are cat woman,” Cowboy starts.

  I cringe on the inside. I can see where this is going. On the outside, I just wait for the fireworks.

  “Would eat anything that smelled fishy,” Cowboy finishes.

  The chef backs out of the loft without another word. Smart man. While the curtained-off space affords us some privacy and allows Lilly to eat here without being stared at, it won’t contain a brawl between Lilly, who really is a cat-woman, and Cowboy, who puts New Hampshire’s open carry laws to the test every time he steps outside with his two Dirty Harry-looking .38 Super revolvers. As fast as Lilly is, I don’t think she’d make it across the table before the Czech cleared leather. He says he’s human, but I’ve never seen a man move that fast.

  “I’ll even lick the plate clean,” Lilly says. While her confident acceptance of her feline characteristics garners proud smiles from Hawkins and Joliet, seated at the end of our long table, it still surprises me. In the time I’ve known her, Lilly has grown up fast. Like Maigo. Both girls are genetically...special. And they’ve gone from being girls to women in the few years I’ve known them. Biologically, Cooper says they’re in their early twenties. She also says the rapid aging, which is normal in much of the animal kingdom, has slowed in recent months, which means their lifespans might be more than a dozen years. And that’s a relief, since Maigo has become my daughter in every way except for biological. Lilly is like family as well.

  “You don’t want to see her do that,” Maigo says with a laugh, which instigates a backhanded swat from Lilly. “Trust me.”

  “Shut your pie-hole,” Lilly says, jabbing a clawed finger at Maigo.

  The way Maigo laughs tells me there is more to the onion that is Lilly that we still haven’t peeled back. And if it has something to do with the way she licks plates clean, I’m not sure I want to know.

  Cowboy raises both hands. The smile on his face says that most of this was him being funny. “Okay, okay, I will try.”

  Every time I think I’m losing my patience with this guy and his transdimensional nerdgasms, he goes and shows me he’s normal at the core. Possibly a friend. Probably our most important ally in the war that’s coming our way.

  Tonight’s FC-P dinner is something like a team-building experience, but also a possible goodbye. With the Aeros conquest of a sister-Earth nearly complete, it won’t be long until they arrive in this dimension. And before that happens, we need to find some help, which Vesely—Cowboy—says can only be found in other dimensions. I wouldn’t have believed him if he hadn’t shown me. The multiverse is full of ass-kicking heroes, some of them human, some of them—like Lilly and Maigo—a little more than human. We just need to convince them to leave their homes and risk their lives to save a parallel Earth.

  Just another day at the FC-P.

  God, I miss huntin’ me some Sasquatch. Alone in the woods. A six pack. Not a care in the world. I was also a slacker whose life was being wasted. But who wouldn’t prefer that to being on the frontline of a war against dimension-hopping aliens that look like Cthulhu boinked an albino starfish?

  Cowboy takes a mouthful of shredded crab, chews twice and then enters a kind of blank-faced coma. I did the same thing the first time I ate here.

  “Is good,” Cowboy exclaims, scarfing down the rest of the small, tapas plate with a lack of sophistication that I not only appreciate, but emulate. I pick up my short rib marmalade and devour half in one bite. I chase the food with Throwback’s Nemesis brew and let out a long sigh.

  Collins leans her head on my shoulder, her wavy red hair tickling my neck. “There’ll be an end to it all.”

  “Mind reader.”

  “We’re all feeling it,” Watson says from across the table. He’s already burned through three plates of food, a portion of which rests atop his belly instead of inside it. “Life is good. For most of us, better than ever.” He links his fingers with Cooper’s. They’re an odd couple. He’s generally disheveled, nervous and chubby. Well, not quite chubby anymore. He’s shed a lot of weight. But I still pinch his cheek and call him my ‘little chubby chubster’. Old, weird habit. I should probably stop. She’s slender, organized and something of a taskmaster. But like all great couples, they’re better together. They not only keep the FC-P functioning but they have helped our once-ridiculed Fusion Center – Paranormal office become the most respected, and sometimes feared, government agency in the world. Because, shit, when the universe throws giant kaiju and alien invasions at you, who you gonna call?

  Sure as fuck ain’t the Ghostbusters.

  “Saving the world—” Watson starts.

  “And countless alternate Earths,” Cowboy adds, starting on his second plate of food.

  “—is a lot of pressure. It’s weighing on all of us, and I don’t even need to travel between universes or fight monsters.”

  “I’m not sure this is helping,” I say.

  “What he’s trying to say,” Cooper says, “is that we have faith in you.” She looks at the members of our ‘go-team.’ Hawkins, Lilly, Maigo, Collins, Cowboy and then me. “In all of you.”

  “Thanks, but—”

  Cooper snaps her fingers at me. “You’re not allowed to disagree with me.”

  “We’ve saved the world before,” Maigo says, elbows on the table. She’s looking straight at me, and probably directly into my brain. She’s not psychic in the traditional sense. She can’t read everyone’s mind. Just mine. It’s a connection we’ve shared since she was reborn inside Nemesis and later expelled from the monster. We later learned that her consciousness had been Nemesis’s Voice—like a plane’s guidance system—a role since assumed by Katsu Endo, my sometimes frenemy with questionable motives. “This really isn’t any different.”

  The eyebrows raising around the table, like a hairy caterpillar wave at a ball game, says I’m not the only one unconvinced by her claim.

  “What?” Maigo says. “We don’t need to save every Earth. Just this one. The rest are dessert. And we have done that before. Any one of the kaiju loosed upon the Earth could have wiped out humanity. But you’ve figured out how to stop them.”

  “First,” I say, raising a finger. “‘Loosed?’ You’re reading too many novels. Second...” I raise another finger. “We had a lot of help.”

  “Nemesis will help us,” Maigo says. “I’m sure of it. And I’ve got Hyperion.”

  I’m not exactly keen on the giant Atlantean robot. It’s powerful, of that there’s no doubt. It killed Nemesis Prime back in the day, and took Lovecraf
t and Giger to task, too, but I don’t think it can handle a full-scale invasion on its own. I don’t like the idea of my daughter being on the frontline of the coming war, either.

  Cowboy grips my shoulder with his strong hand. “And we will find more help.” He flashes a lopsided smile and tips his Stetson. “Of that, I am certain.”

  “Already have,” a deep voice behind me says. It’s so close and serious that I nearly spasm out of my chair.

  2

  “Damnit, Josef,” I say to the newcomer, who is clad in black and carrying an MP5, a Desert Eagle handgun and a machete that—I shit you not—he named ‘Faithful.’ If he’d been seen entering the restaurant, we’d already have a SWAT team busting down the door. But he hasn’t been seen, because that’s his thing. Like Lilly and Maigo, Josef Shiloh isn’t quite human.

  Not anymore.

  “Crazy,” he says, correcting me.

  “With a capital C,” Lilly adds, twirling an index finger around her ear.

  I don’t say it, but I’m with Lilly on this one. What is it with these alternate Earth guys and their codenames? At least they’re accurate. Cowboy, despite being a Czech, would make John Wayne proud. And Crazy... Well, Crazy is nuts—lower case N—thanks to an underdeveloped amygdala that prevents him from feeling fear. He could stand toe-to-toe with Nemesis and not blink. But that’s not even the craziest thing about Crazy.

  While Cowboy can move between dimensions of reality using the Bell, transporting us to Earths where different versions of ourselves and everyone else are living out their lives, Crazy can access dimensions that exist in different frequencies of perception. He compared it to light. A human being can see the visual spectrum, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t more frequencies. There are gamma rays, X-rays, ultraviolet, infrared, microwaves and radio waves. And what separates one from another is the wavelength. He says the same is true for frequencies of reality. That there are other worlds just beyond our perception, co-existing in our dimensional reality. And in the frequency nearest our own, what he calls the MirrorWorld, resides a species he calls the Dread. They’re the source of several mythologies from the modern Mothman to the ancient Japanese Ōmukade, a giant man-eating centipede. Lovely. They also have the ability to instill mind-numbing fear in people, on purpose, and sometimes by accident, which explains a good number of supernatural encounters.