Legions of Orion (Star Crusades Nexus, Book 1) (33 page)

“Did you say one of them is alongside
us? I thought they would have left sometime ago.”

Jack nodded. “Yeah,
why?”

“
Well, as the Chief
Engineer, I’m the only one of us here with access codes for the
primary server. With my information, you can trigger the auto
destruct. It might be the only way to stop this ship getting any
closer to the Spacebridge.”

“
So?” asked one of
the m
arines.

Wictred looked at the man and then
slammed his oversized fist into the bulkhead.

“
He means we can
destroy the ship, and maybe take theirs with us, before they can
cause any more trouble.”

At that one comment,
the small storage area seemed to fill with agreeable
faces.

“
Alright, sounds
like a plan, but y
ou’re forgetting one
small detail. We are still stuck here. I don’t know about you, but
I have no interest in burning here. What did you have in
mind?”

“
I’ll show you the
route. I
t will take you about fifteen
minutes to get there, and then sixty seconds to start the sequence.
It’s only a three minute countdown, so you won’t have time to get
back.”

“Great, I assume you have a plan for
that as well?” asked Wictred.

“
Yeah,” answered the
Chief smugly.
“I’ll meet you at the Six
Alpha docking point. It’s three sections from where you’ll be
anyway. It’s normally only used for cargo and the like, but there’s
no reason why a pod or lifeboat can’t dock there, force a magnetic
seal, and trigger the airlock. It will need some pretty good
flying. Lucky I’m good at that, as well!”

“Isn’t that cutting it a bit fine? What
if you can’t get the lifeboat working?”

He looked inside the
craft and back to Jack.

“
Oh, she’ll fly,
don’t worry about that. What you need to worry about is the guns on
that thing outside. The last lifeboat we launched was vaporised
once it hit the ten thousand metres marker. This might be our only
way out of here. We need to be hitting the five thousand metres
mark when the auto-destruct activates.”

“
What about the
shock wave?” Wictred asked.

The Chief shook his head in an
irritated fashion.

“
Don’t you kids
learn anything in school now? There won’t be a shockwave in space.
There will be a very short-lived heat bloom though that will
vaporise anything within a kilometre of the frigate, probably more
with the enemy ship combined. Depends what’s on board and how they
built her.”

Jack nodded
slowly.
“Okay, what do we need to
know?”

* * *

Spartan activated his
thermal and infrared overlay as they continued deeper underground
and through the tunnel system. Teresa stood at his
side
, and the rest of the APS team
followed directly behind with their blades drawn and at the ready.
They’d been inside now for almost five minutes and continued on the
gentle gradient deeper into the site. The three soldiers had
vanished long ago, as they moved with greater speed. Spartan was
not happy, and it was just as well he was at the front, so none of
the others could see his expression.

We have a lot of good people on the
surface. Are any of them still there?

He checked his IFF system, but even
this short distance underground had completely blocked his medium
to long range communications.
The only good news
that he could see was that a small number of his people had made it
to the vicinity of the encampment. That was all he had, but he did
know the site was well protected with automated turrets and
contained enough weapons and supplies for multiple APS teams if
needed.

I
just
hope they keep their
heads down. Last thing we need is a massacre on Hades.

Teresa nursed her head as she did her
best to maintain Spartan’s fast pace. The blast as they’d entered
the tunnel had knocked her out cold, and the pain in her skull was
ever present. Even so, not one of them wanted to lurk near the
surface to face whatever was going about its business.

“Where are they taking us?” she asked
suspiciously.

Spartan trudged onwards and shrugged at
her.

“Who knows? It’s pretty clear they live
here though, and they were trying to keep us away from the artefact
at the dig site. We must have disturbed something down there.”

Teresa nodded as ideas gelled together
in her mind.

“Like Jack and Wictred did when they
found those machines?
”

“
Maybe,”
h
e replied.

The idea made sense.
There had been no violence until particular sites on the moon had
been interfered with. First was the marine unit under Colonel
Daniels. Then had came Jack, and now this catastrophe at the dig
site.

His attention was
drawn ahead as a bright light appeared directly in front of them.
It took a moment for the suit to adjust to the brightness, but
Spartan kept moving forwards. A few more steps, and they reached
the end of the corridor and stood on the perimeter of a vast cavern
that had been cut into a beautifully intricate structure. It
immediately reminded him of the exquisite architecture of Terran
Nova with its detailed arches and columns. The designs here were
not identical, but the artistic design and quality of work were
evident. Most of the area was open, but the walls were filled with
columns and small buildings that although very narrow, seemed to
reach up and merge with the very rock itself.

Waiting almost fifty
metres away were two-dozen of the warriors. They stood in what
looked like an open plan temple. Columns ran in a circle around
them, and in the centre was a hexagonal stone object covered in
tubes and wiring. Above it floated a holographic model of a dozen
spheres.

Planets?
Spartan
wondered.

All were armoured in
the same fashion, apart from the woman they’d met previously. She
took one step away from them and waved her right arm in some odd
and flamboyant fashion before stepping back. A different soldier
stepped forward and deactivated the complex helmet arrangement; to
Spartan’s surprise it was another female face. She then spoke in
much the same fashion as the first; her alien sounding tongue
quickly masked by the synthetic tones of her suit.

“
Greetings, Spartan,
Commander of the Alliance. Welcome to our home.”

Spartan looked over
to Teresa and then to Gun, but neither said anything. Every one of
them seemed as surprised as him. He returned his look to the pale,
pallid face of the soldier.

“Greetings to you. What is your name?
Who are you?”

The
pale-
faced soldier moved her head and
looked around at the underground facility, returning her gaze to
Spartan.

“
I am Ayndir,” she
said slowly, lifting her hands to indicate those behind her, “and
we are the T'Kari. The last of our race.”

Spartan’s mind rushed as a hundred
questions entered his thoughts.

“
How can you
understand us?” It was
the first question
he really wanted answered.

The woman nodded
and
continued speaking.

“We have listened to your data since
you came here. Our technology has deciphered your tongue. Our suits
can translate for us.”

She paused as
though
wanting to say something
uncomfortable.

“Spartan, Commander of the Alliance.
Why have you come here? Why have you disturbed our buried
dead?”

She then stepped closer and raised her
tone.

“Why did you awaken the machine?”

The inside
of the structure vibrated violently. Small
chunks of stone broke from the ceiling, dropping down almost a
hundred metres and then crashing to the ground. Teresa grabbed him
as he lost his footing from the shaking, but then it died back as
quickly as it had arrived. Off to the sides of the open space, a
number of armoured doors opened. Small groups of people, this time
unarmoured, appeared to look at the new arrivals. One, a tall woman
with long white hair approached, looked at them and launched into a
long discussion with Ayndir. Half way through their conversation,
the woman lifted out an object from her robes. It flashed and
displayed a holographic image of the surface of the moon. It showed
the Alliance encampment and the arrival of four APS Bulldog
vehicles. Dozens of people were rushing about, and Spartan was sure
he could see several of his operatives in full armour taking up
positions on the perimeter.

“Hey, what’s going on?” he
demanded.

Ayndir
lifted her eyes to him but waited until the
unarmoured woman finished speaking.

“
Your people, up
there,” s
he explained, looking to the
ceiling. “They have brought the wrath of machines back to our
worlds. It will not be long now.”

Gun stepped forwards to Spartan.

“What’s the plan? We can’t leave them
alone up there. This is a war!”

The other Jötnar
growled in agreement. Khan even turned to head back the way they
had arrived, but Ayndir lifted her hand in an obvious
gesture.

“
Your people will be
safe up there...for now,” she said calmly.

In the background,
another group of a dozen of the soldiers ran past and into a
different tunnel entrance. Gun immediately suspected betrayal; his
patience now starting to wear thin.

“Explain!” snapped Gun.

“
The machines know
some of our people still live. They will finish what they started
nine hundred solar cycles ago. Our doom approaches. Your people
will suffer...after our fall.”

“
Bullshit!” shouted
Khan angrily. He swung his blade, creating a whirring sound that
caught the attention of all the soldiers. Spartan noticed their
interest and could only assume it was the complete difference
between the Jötnar and him and Teresa.

Activity inside the
open area continued
, as what could only
be assumed were civilians lined up near to two large structures.
They were being handed weapons, much like those carried by the
soldiers. Interestingly, these civilians were a mixture of male and
female, but he spotted no children or youths of any age. Spartan
knew immediately that something bad was about to happen. He grabbed
Teresa by the shoulder.

“You don’t arm civilians unless things
are bad.”

He then turned to the others.

“Get ready.”

The soldiers split
from the centre of the space and rushed to a variety of doorways
along the outer rim. Only four remained, including Ayndir as well
as the civilian. The civilian spoke in hushed tones to Ayndir who
then repeated them through her suit’s translator.

“
The machines left
this sector seventeen of your solar cycles ago. Their military base
was destroyed, and our race was extinct. At least, they thought we
were, until now. They have many enemies, but you have reminded them
of us, and our resistance. Now it is the end.”

A repeating tone
appeared from nowhere, and it seemed to galvanise the T'Kari who
rushed to cover, preparing for the end. Every structure, column and
building seemed built with the dual purpose of being a defensive
position. Loud thuds came from multiple directions deep inside the
thick stone.

“
You are already?”
asked Spartan to his tiny group. Teresa and Spartan both had their
carbines loaded and lifted to the shoulder. The Jötnar lifted their
weapons while Gun raised his arm-mounted weapon.

“
You should use
cover. T
hey are strong!” said
Ayndir.

She took up a
position behind the nearest column of the centre structure. The
shape was perfectly formed with gaps for shooting while staying
protected. Spartan was fascinated, but snapped back to attention
when a booming sound to his left announced the arrival of the
enemy. The great metal blast shield ripped from its mountings.
Right away, a number of small objects rolled inside, followed by a
bright flash and sonic burst. Luckily, the PDS suit was able to
filter it all out, and in they came. To Spartan’s astonishment, the
figures looked almost identical to the T'Kari, except for their
flowing robes, gold coloured armour and large ration of edged
weapons. Their armour and clothing style were just the same, yet
there was a familiarity about them he couldn’t shake
off.

“
Uh, Spartan...do
these guys look familiar to you?” asked Gun, at the same time as he
opened fire with his Gatling gun. He was the first to fire, and the
overwhelming volume of fire from his weapon cut a dozen figures
before the rest joined in. It didn’t take long before more breaches
were made, and the entire underground site turned from calm
tranquilly into yet another blood soaked battlefield. As Spartan
loaded a new magpack into his carbine, he spotted the faces of the
Jötnar. Each of them howled with bloodlust as they blasted
away.

Gods
help them if any of those things get near Gun and his
people.
He thought with surprising
amusement.

*
* *

Jack and Wictred
worked their way through the damaged corridors of the long
abandoned frigate. The systems were still off, and the temperature
had already fallen over ten degrees and was continuing to worsen.
They’d left the others under the command of the Chief, who seemed
to be the only one with any idea as to how they could get away from
the ship. As they continued onwards, Jack wondered what else was
happening through the New Charon system. From what he’d seen, it
was clear that somebody wanted them gone. The thing he really
wanted to know was who they were and what they wanted.