THE MARCH TO METROPOL

I watched bombs falling one by one,
till all Urbani's men were gone,
and ochre clouds obscured the sun
and hid from us the coming dawn.

The night was moonless, grim and dark,
when through our circuits rang the call,
"Surly Company: gear up, embark,
your city needs you, one and all."

Two hundred robots soon set out,
Legion's finest, primed to wreck and slay.
We had our orders, knew no doubts,
And to the endless wastes made our way.

We marched, and marched, and marched yet more,
beneath the scorching acid rain,
past monumental scars of war,
on rubbled roads men built in vain.

We fell. First ones and twos, then tens.
Who did not break, began to bend.
Legion built his sons to fight for men,
not for marches that never end.

But on we went, and on we'll go,
Toward a battle we'll never know,
Killing days instead of foes,
leaving food for rust, not crows.

- 137th Legionbuilt
Surly Company