Shadow Legion

By Adrian S. Holguin

There is an organization that works from the shadows unknown by the world it assists. They travel around the world via shadows and darkness. They are souls that have trained for millennia in the arts of Ninjitsu, as well as modern day Special Operations warfare. They are known as ShadowKnights, and their main mission is to wipe out all corruption and cruelty from the world; to protect humanity from itself, and protect animals from humanity. But what happens when someone within the legion becomes corrupt? It is up to Augustus Hadrianus, a special operator of the legion, to stop the corruption from within. He undergoes a journey to face someone stronger than him; a deadly opponent. Augustus must train day in and day out to get stronger. A lot is at stake, can Augustus complete his mission? Will he be able to stop the internal corruption?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Jun 29, 2013
• ISBN: 9781483658643

Adrian S. Holguin

Adrian Holguin is a United States Marine Corporal from Tucson, Arizona. He has served for four years in the Corps and is soon starting college. Adrian graduated high school in 2009 and attended Boot Camp at Marine Corps Recruit Depot San Diego, California in February 8th, 2010, and graduated on May 9th, 2010. After boot camp, while he was taking a ten day leave in Arizona, he began spending time with his wife, Alysha, whom he met in 2009 in his sister’s nursing class. Adrian then headed to Camp Pendleton, California to attend the School of Infantry (SOI). After a couple of months of training, he headed up to 29 Palms, California for advanced Military Occupational Specialty (MOS) training. After completing all of his training, which accumulated into a year of training, Adrian received orders to be stationed in Okinawa, Japan for two years. During Okinawa, Adrian went on to a few deployments and training exercises. After the two years, Adrian received orders to be stationed in MCAS Cherry Point with his wife for the remainder of his contract. Currently, Adrian is awaiting his end of contract to attend the University of Arizona and major in Computer Science.

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Copyright © 2013 by Adrian S. Holguin.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to any actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Rev. date: 06/26/2013

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Contents

Prologue

Chapter 1 Life

Chapter 2 Pain

Chapter 3 Suffering

Chapter 4 Sacrifice

Chapter 5 Death

Chapter 6 Love

Chapter 7 Regret

Chapter 8 Knowledge

Chapter 9 Honor

Chapter 10 Pride

Chapter 11 Sorrow

Chapter 12 Honor, Courage, Commitment

Epilogue A few years later

Prologue

A powerful force exists in the world without even the slightest hint to the General population. It is a very powerful, vast and ancient army of ShadowKnights. With a force of one million strong, they are a force to be reckoned with. Especially with their centuries of elite, rigorous training that mold them into the most elite stealth fighting force on the planet, with the sole mission of keeping the balance of the world and stopping the world from tearing itself apart with its self-genocide.

The official spoken and written language of the Legion is the ancient dead language Latin. Being well educated, they were also taught English, German, Italian, Spanish, Russian, Egyptian and many others. They are very intelligent, receiving schooling in philosophy, battle tactics, science, mathematics, reading, writing, history, anatomy and physiology, psychology and sociology, and many other subjects. Most ShadowKnights have the equivalent of a master’s degree in the earth realm.

ShadowKnights do not work for free, and being a Legionnaire has its privileges. Senior ShadowKnights are given the right to purchase land in Shadow Realm, they can have a wife, and they can purchase and own many other luxuries that one in the earth realm can. The quality of life in the Legion is high and so is the pay. The currency used is gold and silver. The Legion owns multiple gold and silver mines to keep the treasury growing. It also owns a diamond mine, which is its main export to the earth realm; however, it is unknown to the importers in the earth realm the source of the diamonds they purchase.

ShadowKnights are experts in stealth, camouflage, covert operations, espionage, sabotage, hand to hand combat, martial arts, sword fighting, firearms, long range marksmanship, survival, close quarters combat, reconnaissance, infiltration, unconventional warfare, guerrilla tactics, underwater demolitions, clandestine operations, counter-intelligence, counter-insurgency, counter-terrorism and special operations. They are the elite of the elite. Only a small number survive the training, and they train to the death. They are pushed to the limit continuously to the point that when they become ShadowKnights, they are superhuman. They are stronger, faster, and can endure more pain and damage than any human.

The purpose for the ShadowKnight has always been to keep to keep certain people or powers or groups from becoming too powerful, to stop genocides, to stop terrorist groups from operating. Two years ago, in the year 2013, the Legion wiped out the entire terrorist group known as Al Qaeda; killing all of its members, supporters and sympathizers. They recognized Al Qaeda was committing atrocities, and could not stand idly by. They decided to send a few thousand to operate around the world until all Al Qaeda members were killed; an operation that lasted a few months.

The ShadowKnights are very powerful, in the fact that they can travel through shadows or darkness anywhere around the world. There is no place they cannot travel to, unless there is a room that is completely lit with no shadow being cast inside. They use the shadows and darkness as a conduit from their realm, Shadow Realm, to the realm of earth. Travel only takes mere seconds, all a ShadowKnight has to do is picture where he is going, and will himself there. Many of the ShadowKnights’ targets never knew the ShadowKnight was in the same room as them when they were killed.

Time is perceived differently in Shadow Realm. Life span for the average ShadowKnight is 500 years, but can live for a thousand. They age very slowly, so they do not think of years like a normal human would. Hours in the Shadow Realm is the equivalent of days in the earth realm. Seasons are about the same as the earth realm though. The Legion tracks time the same as the earth realm, but must make up for the difference in time when calculating for the earth’s time for operational reasons. Shadow Realm is just as advanced as earth and has everything that earth has. Everything that Shadow Realm requires is purchased on earth and transported to Shadow Realm where is it distributed accordingly. Shadow Realm has internet, electricity, natural gases, and vehicles as well as animals and pets.

ShadowKnights are armed with katana swords, knives, throwing knives, assault rifles, sniper rifles, and machine guns. They are also armored with Kevlar body armor. The ShadowKnights are dressed in black Shinobi Shokozu, known as the traditional Ninja uniform or black combat uniforms and boots worn by the US Military’s Special Operations community. They had to be silent, and able to withstand the arduous missions of these elite ghost warriors.

These warriors are recruited from dying soldiers on the battlefield on earth who have plenty of fighting left in them. They are recruited by Lieutenant Level ShadowKnights who have failed their Captain level test. They are similar to Grim Reapers, in that they the souls of those that are dying, and give them a choice: to keep on fighting for an eternity and make a difference, or go to either heaven or hell. Many choose to keep on fighting. The recruiters have no quota, just as long as they keep the ranks of the legion filled with new souls. When a legionnaire dies in the legion, they will have automatically gone to heaven due to them making up for whatever wrongs they made in their previous life.

They have even created a hierarchy, showing how organized and disciplined they truly are. Starting in their training, they are known as Shadow Recruits, and after ten vigorous years of training known as The Shadow Crucible, they earn the title of Shadow. In the Shadow Crucible they are taught everything they must know to survive in the worst conditions, fight multiple enemies simultaneously, history and they toughen their bodies to withstand all hardships they might endure while operating around the world. The instructors are Senior ShadowKnights who have combat experience and are better than their counterparts. They have been handpicked by their Captains to become instructors because they are seen as the best and most worthy to create other ShadowKnights. They endure a yearlong training where they learn to be instructors and are familiarized with the training syllabus. There are four instructors per every forty recruits. They become mentors and idols for these recruits.

The first year of training, they are broken down and built up again. Their bodies are hardened and conditioned for combat; they are taught survival skills, knowledge of the Legion, customs and traditions, martial arts, combat formations, and basic use of all weaponry. During the second and third years, they are trained in combat tactics, advanced use in all weaponry, advanced level martial arts, more combat conditioning, SERE (Survival, Evade, Resist, Escape), and stealth. They build on their survival skills and sharpen their skills fighting alongside other ShadowKnights. From the fourth year to the sixth, they begin to specialize in their method of combat. This is where ShadowKnights train on their preferred method of assassination, such as sniper, close quarter combat, hand to hand fighting, ambush, and others. They focus on fighting by themselves and perfecting their fighting skills. During the seventh, eighth, and ninth years, they learn assassination tactics, special warfare, unconventional warfare, covert operations, espionage, reconnaissance, raiding, guerrilla tactics, underwater demolitions, clandestine operations, counter-intelligence, counter-insurgency, and counter-terrorism.

On their tenth and final year, they are given their Katana Sword which they will have for the rest of their existence. They learn to become one with their sword, learn how to speak to it, and meditate with it, and awaken the swords’ soul. They also learn about the special abilities of the ShadowKnights such as Corpus Mortis, shadow travel, rapid healing, and leadership. It is a year of being pushed to the limits and achieving Corpus Morti. They are continually tested on their fighting skills and everything else they have learned throughout the ten years. When they have passed all tests during the year, they must undergo the final part of training: the final ceremony where they attain the title and rank of Shadow and fuse to their swords. The ceremony consists of the recruits naming the sword they were given at the beginning of the year and thrusting them into their abdomen. They will incur what is called Little Death, and that is when they complete their transformation into a Shadow and become one with their sword. Following the Shadow Crucible, they enter Advanced Training, which is another year, to learn any additional skills they might require before being stationed with their permanent units.

The Shadows who scored at the bottom 10 percent of their Shadow Crucible class are selected to become Shadow Enforcers, and must attend Enforcer training which lasts for six months instead of advanced training. In their training, they learn to defend themselves against the ShadowKnights, how to apprehend them, the Legion’s laws, tactics on how to patrol, prisoner escort, entry control points, and other police actions.

Shadows are the lowest of the legion, performing all cleaning duties and other menial tasks. The Shadows remain in this rank for a year. It is not until they attain their first kill, that they are promoted to ShadowKnight. They remain as a ShadowKnight for a minimum of five years, during which they gain valuable knowledge in the field of assassin army, field experience, leadership experience, wisdom, morals, and honor.

Once they have proven to be a more than capable soldier, they are promoted to Senior ShadowKnight. Where they develop their leadership and mentor younger ShadowKnights. They must spend their first four years as a senior ShadowKnight