Legions of Orion (Star Crusades Nexus, Book 1) (26 page)

General Rivers
rested his chin in his left hand; this wasn’t the news he wanted.
Indecision was a killer, however, and he knew from experience that
action needed to be taken and fast. He tapped the squad leaders
from half of the teams still out searching, as well as Spartan’s
APS team.

“
This is a Code
R
ed priority order. I’ve lost contact
with 4
^th
Squad, and we’re detecting underground weapons fire. These
are the exact positions. Get there fast, and get them out of
there!”

A stream of
acknowledgements came in, and he could see the icons for the squads
already making their way to the last known position of Jack and his
people. As expected, the fastest of the squads was that of
Spartan’s. In less than a minute, they’d already covered double the
ground of the marine squads.

“General, what did they find?” asked
Spartan over the comms channel.

General Rivers
tapped a button and sent the last video feeds from Sergeant Ajax
directly to Spartan’s suit.

“
See for yourself.
I
t looks like they found an underground
cavern full of something. Possibly ruins, but there were signs of
metal.”

“Metal...wait...I’ve seen this
place.”

“What do you mean?” asked the
General.

His next words were slightly muffled as
the squad bounced and jumped their way closer to the target.

“
Yeah, it looks just
like the Biomech assembly area I saw seventeen years
ago.”

General Rivers looked back at his
tactical display in confusion.

“
I don’t understand,
Spartan, that was on Hyperion. I thought we’d already established
that the site had been destroyed.”

“
Well, it sure looks
like it. Don’t forget it was on the other side of the planetary
rift. Maybe this is where it’s connected to?”

This last comment
made the G
eneral nearly take a step
back.

A ground
based rift between galaxies? Is that even possible?
He wondered.

“
Just get down
there
, Spartan. Find the squad and get
them out of there. Leave the science to the specialists. They’ll be
here within the hour, and we need this area made safe.”

“Understood. Out.”

Three
m
arines moved passed carrying a metal
object between them. He recognised the shape as one of the new
autonomous supply mules. They placed it on the ground and activated
the device. Four legs shook, and it then stood up, waiting
patiently. The legs faced inwards like people holding a stretcher,
and the middle section looked like an open basket with gaps and
spaces for ammunition and gear. He’d seen them many times before
but never this small or light. One of the marines turned to
him.

“
General, we’ve
programmed her for search and rescue.”

“
Good, get her down
to the site and underground. I want our people out!”

The marine saluted
and turned back to the machine. As he fiddled with the control
system, the General connected directly to the orbiting ships with
the communications relay. The face of the Commodore
appeared.

“General, what’s happening down there?”
asked Commodore Lewis.

“
We’v
e located man-made
structures, bodies and artefacts. It’s exactly as we suspected.
Somebody has been here before, and by the look of things, a long
time ago. We’ve got trouble, though. One of my squads has lost
contact, and I’m detecting gunfire.”

There was a moment’s pause.

“
I see.
W
hat can I do to assist?”

“I need engineers to establish a
permanent landing site. Also, my reserves need to be ready in case
of trouble. We may need their help soon.”

“
Understood,
General. I appreciate you have your hands full, but you might like
to know that the recon drones have picked up abandoned settlements
on two other moons. Science teams have already landed on one, and
more are coming through.”

“I see, well make sure they are
protected.”

“
Good hunting,
General.”

* * *

Jack and Wictred took careful aim at the
first machine; unleashing short bursts from their firearms. The L52
Mark II Assault Carbine was a triple-barrelled coil weapon that
used magnetised projectiles rather than chemicals. They used the
high-power mode that expended the capacitor to propel all three
projectiles at once. It reduced the rate of fire considerably but
did maximum damage. Holes the size of fists appeared in the
machine, but it was only when Jack hit it directly in the centre
mass, did it drop to the ground.

“What the hell!” shouted the Corporal
as he blasted indiscriminately at the other approaching machines.
They looked like large mechanical spiders with raised blades and
armoured shells.
Their gunfire caused damage but
failed to drop a single enemy.

“
Fall back,
slowly!”
Jack called out.

Inch by inch, they
stepped further from the machines and towards the remains of the
arched and heavily damaged structure they had spotted from the
ledge above. Seven machines were now moving towards them, but
luckily they also appeared badly damaged and took their time to
reach them.

“
Something happened
down here. They have already seen battle,” said Wictred with
interest as he continued shooting at them.

“
Look out!” cried
the Corporal, and a dark shape emerged from their flank. It was
another of the machines, but this one must have stayed low and in
the shadows. It brought down two of its arms, instantly crushing
one of the privates and then lurched at the Corporal. In a fluid
motion, Wictred removed a crude looking blade from his flank and
hacked down at the machine. It was shaped much like a Kopis blade
from old Earth. It was slightly crooked and front heavy, making it
ideal for hacking. Like the glaives used by his more senior
brethren, this was built from the latest alloys and was able to
smash and damage the limbs of the machine as it struggled to reach
the Corporal.

“
Out of the way!”
shouted Jack. He jumped sideways and blasted the machine in the
centre with a single high-power shot from his carbine. It destroyed
the machine but also sent shards of metal in multiple directions.
One piece embedded into the collar of Wictred, and a second struck
Jack in the thigh, instantly causing a pressure leak.

“
Alert! Alert!”
called the suit’s internal alarm system. “Pressure
Malfunction!”

The interior quickly
filled with a haze as the internal repair system attempted to
perform a temporary seal. It took just a few seconds to perform
before clearing. The surviving four stepped back until their backs
were to the smashed arch structure. They all kept shooting, but the
machines were now staying low to the ground and using the debris
and their broken brethren to stay out of sight as they covered the
open ground.

“
Suppression
fire, slow them down!” Jack ordered, and with a
quick flick changed his weapon to the lower powered mode that fired
each chamber in succession. The rate of fire went up considerably
so that it made a buzzing sound more like a power saw. Streaks of
superheated energy rippled through the space, as the projectiles
picked at the targets whenever they could be seen.

“
It’s working,”
s
aid the Corporal
optimistically.

“
Yeah, for now. It
won’t last forever,” said Wictred, but with less humour this
time.

* * *

Spartan reached the entrance to the
ruined site first, closely followed by Khan and the other Jötnar.
He didn’t even hesitate, throwing himself through the damaged
entrance, ripped open just minutes before by Wictred. Khan
followed, hot on his heels, but with his glaive hung low and ready
for trouble. The Jötnar had learnt very early on that in
underground combat, it was just as important to carry heavy edged
weapons, as it was to carry firearms. It was a lesson they had
picked up on during the many hunts in the jungle of Hyperion, and
especially when searching the ruins.

“
General, we’re
inside. My suit is picking up an increasing power source. I’d say
that is the source of the comms blocki
ng.
We need to shut it down fast.”

“
Very well. More
squads are
on the way. Get it done,
Spartan. I will meet you down there.”

Spartan moved on and
continued to follow the footprints in the dusty ground that clearly
mark
ed the passage of the previous marine
party. Intermixed with the prints of the marines were the even
larger footprints, indicating the presence of Wictred. He turned to
Khan.

“This is definitely the way they
went.”

As if to answer his
comment, a stream of heavy gunfire reverberated through the
chamber. Instinctively, each of the APS team ducked down to avoid
what could have been devastating gunfire. Nothing came their way,
just the sound of bursts of fire that Spartan quickly
recognised.

“
That’s coilgun
fire. They need help, let’s go!”

He rushed off,
without even checking on the rest of his group and headed deeper
inside the tunnel. Every extra metre they travelled, the louder the
gunfire became.

Why only
coilguns
, though?
He wondered.

The weapons had only
entered full service through the Alliance in the last decade, and
very few had made it to the black market. The chances of somebody,
other than those officially supplied by the Alliance arsenals
actually using them, was almost nil.

“
Spartan...drones...be” came a crackled and badly damaged
message from General Rivers
. It finally
succumbed to whatever was causing the signal interference inside.
Luckily, the suits were designed with a separate short-range system
that utilised both radio waves and line of sight microwaves to
avoid jamming.

“
Stay close, we’re
not far from them now,” he said calmly, rounding the final corner
to reach the ledge that Jack and the others had recently vacated.
The sight of the great cavern sent a shudder through Spartan’s
spine. Khan moved alongside him and scanned the area with his
equipment. They easily spotted the heat signatures of the marines
at the far end, but all around them moved the metallic
machines.

“
Jack, can you hear
me?” he pleaded over his comms system.

A
high-
pitched whine tore though his
speaker, intermixed with the sounds of Jack speaking.

“
Jack, watch your
fire. We’re coming in,” he said and then leapt from the
ledge.

The rest of
the
Jötnar followed behind, and they all
hit the ground within two seconds of each other. From their landing
spot, to the shattered structure that Jack and his comrades were,
was no more than fifty metres.

“
Stop them!” roared
Khan, and the entire team surged forward.

The low gravity made
it hard to run
. Instead, they made use of
the short leaps they had all practiced in multiple low gravity
training scenarios. It took a great deal of practice to cover
ground quickly and safely. Most made the mistake of making large
leaps, but this could easily result in the person wasting more time
on the bounce and recovery than actually moving forward. Khan
reached the back of the first attacker. Without hesitating, he
brought down his glaive in a mighty arc onto its body. A flash of
sparks and metal indicated its quick death. He jumped over the body
and landed directly opposite Wictred, who almost took his head off
with a slash from his Kopis.

“
Duck!” shouted his
son.

Not giving it a
moment’s thought, he rolled down and to the right, just as one of
the heavy metal arms crashed down. Spartan and the others were now
in the middle of the group, and blades and gunfire tore apart the
machines until just one remained. It stood in front of Jack who
knelt on the ground with three holes punched through his body
armour. Its front legs were lifted like blades and only a metre
away from Jack’s face.

“
Wait!” called out
Spartan, a flicker of fear and doubt appearing on his face. The
group of Jötnar lowered their glaives but only slightly. Each was
alert, and their bloodlust making it almost impossible for them to
not continue their rampage. Spartan glanced about and noted the
shredded remains of two marines. Then he spotted a series of gears
start to move inside the body of the machine.

It’s going to kill him!

He lifted his
carbine
, but it was too late. A bright
flash almost blinded him, and the machine tipped backwards,
collapsing to the side. There was a hole the size of his fist
through its central torso. As the dust cleared, the shape of a
young female marine stood with her
L52 Mark II Assault
Carbine
still pointed at the machine. The triple
muzzles glowed red with the heat of the last discharge. Spartan
nodded at her in thanks and bent down to check on his
son.

“Jack, how bad is it?”

The young man did
his best to smile, but he was clearly badly hurt. Spartan tried to
connect to the General, but the signal was still being jammed. He
glanced over his shoulder to the Jötnar.