Chromeleon Part One (eBook)

“I was born to kill angels . . .” … TRAPPER 6.* 345 OC

PROLOGUE

From his perch high in the sequoia tree, straddling a branch thicker than his chest, Spaulden called up tactics through his halo. A display screen in the upper corner of his left eye immediately began feeding data to his visual cortex. Multiple thermal signatures of non-insect animal life forms within a circumference of 100 meters appeared on the screen. He ordered his halo to filter for the thermal signatures of Pantera demons and all but two of the dots vanished. His halo identified the two dots as TRAPPER Fives, the latest in the series of Pantera demons – highly proficient and enthusiastic killers but not prone to the gory blood drinking of their predecessors.

To conceal his own presence, Spaulden engaged his mirror armor’s cloaking field. It would take a sophisticated probe to detect him and his halo told him the demons were equipped with no such item. In keeping with the traditional arrogance of their kind, the demons were apparently tracking him through their own senses of sight and smell. Each new series of Pantera demons and the twelve customized lines within each series were supposedly a substantial improvement over the preceding series and lines. However, arrogance remained a consistent trait through each progression.

Stupidity too. Mirror armor was without scent.

Even if mirror armor did carry a distinctive scent, there was an abundance of flora and fauna in this forest. From the terpene aromatics of the trees, to the loamy wetness of the ferns, and the spicy bouquet of mustard, lavender and sage, the fragrances were an invading army of molecules pushing deep inside the nostrils, causing even Spaulden’s own sense of smell to wither under sensory overload. For a demon, whose sense of smell approached that of the best dogs, the assault must have been overwhelming. The two demons hunting him had to be more confused than normal.

What the demons were equipped with, Spaulden knew, were Hellcat AKs - Angel Killers; electromagnetic propulsion pistols packing 100 rounds of fullerene slugs. Although those slugs could not fully penetrate mirror armor, their velocity exceeded 2,500 meters per second and released enough kinetic energy on impact to stop a heart or crush a skull - even if that heart or skull was fashioned from the most durable of synthetic tissue and protected by the toughest armor in the Civilization.

Tam’s mirror armor had not been activated at the time the demons shot him. Spaulden found his corpse with two entrance wounds in the forehead, each one-centimeter in diameter. The blood from these wounds was still wet on Tam’s wrecked face. On his chest were two much larger exit wounds. The blood on the ground underneath Tam’s back was also still wet.

The thought of Tam’s cruel death burned Spaulden to his core. Tam was so beautiful to watch at all times, a living, breathing sculpture that could be fiercely hard yet softly yielding. An image of the two of them together, locked in mutual heat, Tam softly intoning Spaulden’s name as he stroked Spaulden’s cock, caused Spaulden’s eyes to become wet with grief. He himself had never said much, not through all the decades they’d been together, but by his deeds and actions, large and small, he’d shown Tam how much he cared, had shown how deep his love ran, how strong their bond was.

Had it just been a cock thing, there would have been no problem; Spaulden and Tam could have lived out their last decades of life as the companions they’d been since their earliest days as gwants – Guardian-Want-To-Bes. Sex between companions was encouraged as it strengthened their warrior bond and helped pacify their innate aggression, which was every bit as amplified as that of demons. Even the emotion of love was permissible to a point. The Chamberlain – no doubt with CAESAR’s blessing - had acknowledged love to be a core human emotion that on certain levels served a purpose. However, guardian angels began life as a special breed of gencers, endowed at their creation with top-tiered genomic and proteomic enhancements that would interact with the Y-chromosome during second-order synthesis to become even more enhanced. These special enhancements should have rendered romantic love impossible even if such deep feelings weren’t forbidden.

Every guardian angel had sworn his fealty to CAESAR and the Chamberlain, and to any Cardinal he was assigned to protect. That was the oath a guardian took upon passing the Final Test and being transformed from a gwant into a full-fledged guardian angel. Fidelity to that oath was sacrosanct, its violation punishable by termination.

Most gwants failed the Final Test. Many died before they even reached it. The Overseers in charge of training gwants weren’t merciful. In the seemingly endless repetition of endurance tests, survival trials and combat competitions, the only help a gwant could ever look to was from his companion, for companions succeeded or failed as a team. Spaulden and Tam were inseparable and unbeatable.

Upon being sworn in before the Chamberlain and the Council of Cardinals, a newly minted guardian angel underwent second-order synning. His mind would be transferred into a soul chip and his body would be synthesized into a biomimetic version with a lifespan of 150 years. Mind and body would be conjoined and the new guardian angel would spend the rest of his life defending that which scarcely needed defending - CenterPoint Tower. He would also provide personal protection for the Chamberlain or one of the Cardinals when they ventured out from the Tower.

Bodyguard duty was in theory far more dangerous than standing watch over the Tower, but in actual practice, given the protection of mirror armor and the firepower of a scepter/staff, posed little real threat to a guardian. All in all, the life of a guardian angel was one of training to be prepared just in case, while being well-provided for at all times.

That was the life that Spaulden and Tam had enjoyed. That was the life they’d abandoned for love.

Because they were the highest rated companion team, Spaulden and Tam accompanied the Chamberlain on his forays into the Civilization. As per strict instructions, they’d always maintained a discrete distance, not so far that they couldn’t be at his side in an instant but too far away to have ever seen the true face behind any of his disguises. Like all guardians, Spaulden and Tam had sparred countless times with the Chamberlain in the dojo, but like all guardians neither would recognize him whether he was disguised or not. At the end of a sparring session with the Chamberlain, a guardian was immediately subjected to a short-term memory scrub. Spaulden could remember entering and exiting the dojo for every session, but could never recall what happened in between no matter how hard he tried. The same was true, he knew, for Tam and all the other guardians.

In addition to the Chamberlain, it was also Spaulden and Tam’s assignment to protect Cardinal Hess who oversaw the Ministry of Commerce, a portfolio that arguably made him the most influential of all the Cardinals. Cardinal Hess met frequently in CenterPoint City with his ministers and the Civilization’s top corporate CEOs. He also made frequent trips to the grandest of the terrestrial cities with much public fanfare, as he luxuriated in watching news feeds of himself making pronouncements and issuing proclamations.

“It’s my way of reaching out and touching the lives of all the Citizens I serve,” was his standard line in explaining why he traveled so often. Spaulden and Tam knew otherwise, but the secrets of the Chamberlain or any Cardinal they protected were not theirs to reveal.

Over the years of Cardinal Hess’s public appearances, there had been six attempts on his life. In each case, Spaulden and Tam had eliminated the threat with no harm to the Cardinal who was quite grateful for “his” guardian team, and also quite proud of the victories they continued to score in guardian competitions. However, there had finally come a point when even Cardinal Hess could no longer feign ignorance that the love between Spaulden and Tam had crossed the line. He complained to the Chamberlain and the Chamberlain, no slave to compassion, immediately dissolved their companionship.

Neither Spaulden nor Tam could bear the thought of being paired with another guardian. So they’d done the unthinkable, they’d fled CenterPoint Tower and been declared “fallen.” The penalty for fallen angels was correction, and Pantera demons had been sent to hunt them down and kill them.

Spaulden returned his thoughts to the data being displayed by his halo. The two demons were proceeding forward at a surprisingly modest pace. Having chased their prey into a confined area, the standard demon hunting strategy called for them to move quickly in an inward spiral that would eventually bring them into contact with the target. Apparently, these demons, knowing their target was a guardian not a seraph angel, were proceeding with the utmost caution. No matter. All the caution in the world would not deter Spaulden. He no longer cared about his own life. His sole purpose now was revenge.

But he too would have to exercise caution. While no single demon was the combat equal to an armed and ready guardian, two demons were more than a match. Spaulden knew he would not only have to be at his best,...