Ghost Soldiers (23 page)

"All squads report in."

Reports came in from the other squads through the cruiser, and as each one arrived, Spartan updated his schematic.

"Looking good," he said quietly, but loud enough that Khan could hear.

"Yeah," he agreed, "We've got the cruiser nicely sealed down, and heavy weapons at the two access points. That keeps our people safe, and leaves us clear to do what we have to."

Sergeant Tyler carefully stepped over the crumpled shape of a long dead humanoid and winced as something made a crunching sound. The walls of the civilian vessel were now changing substantially, and explosives had been used. There were no bullet holes or barricades, but there were the telltale signs of high-energy explosives of the kind used for mining work or demolition.

"Look, what is this?"

He bent down and pointed the large articulated arm of the Maverick armour at the thing before them. It was bigger than a man, but only just, and seemed to be face down on the ground. It was covered in a layer of dust. The Sergeant rolled it over, and it tipped with a thud, but its legs stayed where they were, severed just above the knees with surgical precision.

"A fighting machine," said Spartan.

He moved closer and examined it from two metres away. It was a bizarre contraption, and nothing like the sleek, well-crafted machinery used on the Maverick armour. Sergeant Tyler pulled at the plating and lifted one of its arms.

"Looks like part of a Byotai sentry drone."

"Yeah," agreed Khan, "and this thing, it's not a fighting machine."

The part he pointed to had more in common with a civilian forklift unit or motorised loader than something a military unit would make use of.

"Over here as well," said another marine.

Spartan turned his head inside his armour, and the external lenses altered to show him the video feed, all without actually having to move the Maverick armour.

"Yeah, I see it. The creature has been constructing machines from equipment and machinery."

He then looked to Khan.

"Think what it could do with the tech on our ship?"

At that moment he spotted a faint blue glow in the distance. Spartan keyed the command network one last time.

"All units, stealth protocols for the next ten minutes. Cut it...now."

Any other combat unit might have continued to speak, but not those few warriors of the Interstellar Assault Brigade. As per their orders, each and every one of them deactivated their mics and reverted to stealth protocols. Using just hand signals, Spartan gave his orders to the small assault team he'd assembled. They moved apart, staying far enough away to cover ground safely, but not too far that they would be unable to support each other. The Mavericks took the open ground, and the marines darted quietly from cover to cover.

"Look," said Khan, his voice barely registering.

Spartan turned his gaze a fraction to the left, focusing on the one curved section of wall. The massive pit was substantial, perhaps even impressive. But the wall was simply stunning, and stopped him in his tracks.

"Incredible."

Taxxu was perhaps the strangest territories in the Alliance, and classed as one of the new colonies. Connected to the Helios Nexus, it had access to the world of the Alliance, yet was kept apart by the vast distances involved, as well as the military forces that guarded the Black Rift, the only navigable route to the system. Its remote location and access to the lost secrets of the Biomechs made it a goldmine to any organisation able to exploit it.

The New Colonies

This part of the derelict was the most stunning part Spartan had seen so far. It shared much in common with the habitation dome, yet the area was still intact. It was a massive ring shaped interior, filled with extended levels reaching up to the ceiling. Each level looked like a ring, yet wide enough to house hundreds, perhaps thousands of people. There were numerous physical objects, ranging in size from a man's head up to that of a Maverick suit of armour. All manner of materials were used, but the most common was unadorned metal.

What is this place, an archive for sculptures? Were these people raiders or criminals?

The one thing that stood out the most was the constantly changing object that seemed to float out of the pit. At first it seemed to be nothing more than noise, but as he concentrated, he could see the patterns merge to form images and moving pictures. He took a few more steps and found himself staring at a world, not unlike the images he'd seen of Ancient Terra, back when it had been rich with life and not the scarred wasteland it was now.

Incredible.

There were hills, mountains, and massive rivers running off into the distance. The imagery shifted about, with faces, people, and starships taking up space before it returned back to the surface. Vast cities stretched out across the land, buried below the surface, and only the top layers visible like the peaks of icebergs. What came next sent a shudder through his body. It was his first glimpse of an alien race, a bipedal species shorter and thinner than any human he'd seen before.

"Trusskans," whispered Khan.

The warrior indicated to the nearest wall on their left. Spartan looked at it, watching the blue patterns shift through the material. There were images, but these were still and varied in quality. Most showed landscapes, oceans, rivers, and waterfalls a common theme. Then came images of people in small groups around buildings and other animals.

Families, it must be.

Spartan moved past them, doing his best to ignore the art. Based on the vast difference in quality, he could only assume they had been created by non-professionals, probably the very people that occupied this derelict.

Of course, this is a library, a place of memory. They came here to record the things they'd left behind.

Spartan felt uncomfortable, as if he was intruding on a private and special moment. Children presumably made the more basic images, and few stood out as being especially unique. Then he found Khan and one of the marines staring at one particular shape. It had stopped them both in their tracks. Spartan moved closer, but then scanned left and right, ensuring their position was still safe. He looked closely at the faded, but still intact artwork. It showed a group of people, all in brightly colour clothing, and behind them was a machine, at least five times bigger, and gleaming gold. It reminded him of an ancient statue of a god.

What the hell is that thing?

He shook his head as he realised he was looking at one of the memories of better days. Something had destroyed the lives of the Trusskans, and now all that remained of their glorious past was this derelict, and the art they'd left behind.

"Spartan!" Sergeant Tyler yelled.

Instinct kicked in, and he spun about, his shoulder-mounted HEC-1 cannon already charging. The motorised pintle mount made no sound as the weapon system tracked along with the movement of his retina. He half expected to see the enemy waiting to fight them, but it was a scattered collection of machines. Some moved out from hiding places on the ground, others clambered down from the walls.

"Marines, around the heavies."

The eight marines split up, with two or three heading for protection of Khan, Spartan, and Sergeant Tyler.

The light blue and white pulsing began again, but quicker than before.

"There!" Khan shouted.

A massive distortion broke up the shape of the floating images above the pit, and from inside came the creature. It was bigger than Spartan remembered, and top heavy. Its basic shape reminded him of giant primate, with its chest and limbs oversized compared to its short, stocky legs. Then one of the limbs extended and reached the lip of the pit. He could see that fully a third of its form had been hidden from view. It paused as it waited over the pit, still distorted by the images floating about. Then it hissed, a loud, terrible scream that the armour of each marine tried to block out.

"Open fire!"

The three heavies opened fired with all of their weapons. HEC-1 cannons send blasts of high-energy plasma. Khan panned from left to right, hitting any machine that dared enter his field of view. Between them they were capable of unleashing incredible levels of gunfire, but when combined with the eight marines it was truly terrifying.

"Knock them down, one at a time," said Spartan.

Rather than shooting as many targets as possible, they each selected a single individual, and then hit it repeatedly until it was incapable of fighting, before moving to the next. Spartan had instilled this method on them during their training to ensure enemy numbers were reduced as quickly as possible. After long-term combat with machines, it was clear that damaged machines were almost as big a threat as those that were fresh.

"I have three," said Khan.

It was no idle boast, merely an announcement that he had destroyed three targets and now moving on the next.
 
Spartan spotted one machine, a six-legged thing the size of a Maverick leaping through the air. It must have arrived from a hidden location because this was the first time he'd seen it. Even as he opened fire, the thing blasted away at them, sending metre-long harpoons striking the ground and embedding into anything they struck. Khan pointed over the left where the sculptures lay untouched for decades.

"Take cover!"

Three of the marines ran behind an object that looked like a large beetle. Years of dust and corrosion had darkened its body so that no paint remained, just its spindly legs and darkened carapace. One lance stuck the ground, but the second punched through the massive beetle as if it were made from nothing more than wood. The marine cried out as the hardened tip punched through his chest and out through his shoulder blades.

Spartan sidestepped and took the third impact on his shoulder. A direct impact may have penetrated the plating, but he intentionally twisted to deflect as much of the energy away. It clattered off and then slid along the floor, impotent.

"Keep firing."

More of the machines surged at them, a handful even clambering out of the pit. Spartan overcharged his HEC-1 cannon and threw caution to the wind. One of the features of the weapon was its ability to release larger and more powerful blasts of plasma. The higher the setting, the riskier it became as the magnetic casing became less and less reliable.

"Getting tired of this."

Spartan spun around and tracked a wheeled machine, little different to a SAAR robot. It fired metal slugs at them and cut down a pair of marines, both of whom continued to be shot as they dragged themselves to safety. Spartan activated the HEC-1 cannon but instead of a blast, it emitted a warning, followed by a cloud of vapour as the coolant override kicked in.

Time to go to old school.

He leapt over the marine and ran at the machine. The return fire from its guns peppered his armour, and the onboard computer began to reel off a list of potential problems.

"Shut up!"

He was so close he could almost taste the machine, but a pulsing blue shape blocked his path and sent him sliding across the floor. Sensing he was in serious danger, Spartan rolled over twice and then jumped up, just as the creature swung a huge piece of sharp metal for his head. Spartan dropped although he'd been shot, and managed to fall below the blade as it scraped along the top of his armour.

"Khan, help me!"

Fists!

The plating shifted, and his hands expanded into the siege devices that were specially weighted to smash and destroy. Like a smaller boxer, he kept under the weapon and drove in close, slamming his fists like pistons into the creature. The only sounds were his exertions, and the crashing of metal on metal. That was the moment Spartan understood it was no creature, but a mechanical, artificial life form, a war machine that would fight no matter how hard he hit it.

Destroy it.

Spartan sprung his fist up, and then felt his balance fail. Something yanked at his feet and then he was down, face first on the floor. Unable to move, he looked up and found the foot of the machine holding him down.

"I'm here!" said Khan.

From the right came the Jötnar, charging like a rhino, and with all the mass and muscle that such an animal would have brought to the fight. He crashed into the machine with such force both of them staggered off into the distance. A hand reached down to grab him, and Spartan rose to his feet, facing the Maverick armoured form of Sergeant Tyler.

"We're in trouble, Major. They are overrunning us."

Both blasted away with their arm-mounted weapons as they tried to track the horde of machines running about them. There was less than they might have expected, only seven of them left, but each one was different to the next, but equally tough.

"Duck!" said Spartan.

The Sergeant dropped down half a metre just as the broken body of a marine flew overhead. Sergeant Tyler lifted up with one leg, kneeling on the second, and took aim. Spartan joined in and blasted apart another bipedal fighting machine, each round tearing chunks from its body, yet still it came. Lances blasted out and one managed to embed in Sergeant Tyler's shoulder. He stumbled back just as Spartan's HEC-1 cannon came back online.

"Yeah, my turn."

He aimed for the machine directly in the centre, hitting it three times with an overloaded charge that exploded the machine, sending lumps of metal across the floor. Another marine screamed, and off to the right one was cast into the pit, vanishing into the blackness and screaming as he fell.

"Animals!"

He regained his footing and looked about the vast open area. With so much space and the top lighting it reminded him of his days as a gladiator. The pit in the middle was new, but not massively different to other perils he'd faced in battle. To his right the last three marines were atop a machine and blasting it at close-range with the carbines. He twisted about and came face-to-face with the entity.

"We're with you, Spartan," said Sergeant Tyler.

Spartan checked his flanks and felt his body relax a little at finding Sergeant Tyler to his left, the lance still embedded in his shoulder, and to his right was Khan, who had lifted a metal girder section from one of the machines and rested on his shoulder like a club. The enemy war machine let out that shrill, terrifying scream once again, but instead of spreading fear, it did little more than signal the end of the fight.

"Now!"

They opened fired with everything they had and then ran at it, using every remaining ounce of power in their bodies. Khan made it first and leapt up and brought the chunk of metal down on the war machine's upper body. For the first time Spartan saw it stagger, and that filled him with vigour. It was truly gigantic, and as he fired the HEC-1 cannon, he saw entire chunks of armour ripping off, to reveal a golden material underneath.

Like the sculpture.

Spartan experienced a brief flashback to the artwork he'd been glancing at moments before the fight. The colour was a perfect match for the metal titan that had been standing behind the image of the large, happy family.

"Got him!" Khan yelled.

Spartan ducked under a swinging arm and spotted Khan holding onto the machine's left arm. He looked liked a terrier attacking a bull, yet even as he was smashed to the wall, he refused to let go. Spartan stayed in close and proceeded to hammer away, punching and tearing at the plating.

"Help!"

Sergeant Tyler lifted up three metres in the air and then slammed down to the ground with a sickening crunch. Spartan was convinced it must have killed him, yet the tough Sergeant was rolling away, even as the metal feet of the machine tried to stamp on him. Spartan took aim and blasted the back of the leg with all of his weapons, shouting with satisfaction as it stumbled and then staggered to the side.