Legions of Orion (Star Crusades Nexus, Book 1) (36 page)

“
Marines, we don’t
have much time. Fix yourself to the hull and assist with the entry
points. Once we’re inside, use your scanners to identify energy
blooms and hit them hard. I want power systems, fuel, weapons, and
anything of value destroyed. We’ll gut them from the inside. Good
hunting!”

They moved slightly
closer, and the doors of the craft opened before they even touched
the metal. The Colonel was the first out, and she drifted right up
to the hull before her boots performed the final link with the
surface. She glanced back to see the small flotilla of craft
disgorging the rest of the marines onto the spacious landing
area.

Right, what next?

A quick
glance
showed two circular hatches that
looked suspiciously like an airlock seal. She signalled to one of
her personal guards who made quick progress towards the hatch. He
pulled a tool from his suit and proceeded to start placing a
compact thermite charge, designed especially for spacecraft
breaches. More marines arrived, and in less than thirty seconds,
there were charges set at three separate locations on the
platform.

“Now!” she cried.

A brief flicker of
white was the only effect until the hatches themselves ripped off
and blasted out into space. It depressurised the inner section
immediately, and she watched with a mixture of pleasure and
sickness as three of the crew were sucked out into the void. There
wasn’t time to look any more closely at them, but they were clearly
human, of a fashion.

This is it then!

She didn’t
hesitate
, and instead, pulled herself
through the hatch into the ship, her carbine at her hip and ready
for battle. The other marines did the same and very quickly they
secured the empty sections of the ship. They appeared to have
gained control of almost a complete rear deck of the ship, and
nearly forty marines moved inside. The design was more cramped that
an Alliance ship, but the level of technology appeared highly
advanced. There were no exposed machines of any kind, just glowing
tubes and cabling, as well as granite-looking slabs coming up from
the floor. Some of them flashed with blue energy, as information in
a foreign tongue appeared, much like on a monitor. There was little
time to investigate, as two large doorways flipped upwards to
reveal small groups of warriors. They were of a similar size to the
marines but slighter in build. They blasted away with unknown
weapons, but the effect as terrible. Streaks of energy tore through
the marines’ armour as if it were nothing but thin
plastic.

“Stop them!” she screamed over the
communications gear.

The deck turned into
a savage warzone, with defender and attacker alike falling and
being blown apart by terrible weapons.
Lt Colonel Barnett
reached them first, and she kicked away from the
wall, smashing her weapon at the nearest armoured soldier.
Surprisingly, the enemy troops seemed to instantly fall back when
confronted by the ferocity of close quarter battle, even in a zero
gravity environment. More marines joined her, and the firefight
quickly turned into a close quarter brawl, a situation that
perfectly favoured her marines.

“
Keep pushing
forward!” were her last words, as two of the enemy pinned her to
the wall and blasted her helmet apart with close-range
gunfire.

* * *

The area of space
around the entrance to the Spacebridge was
surprisingly busy, as over thirty civilian vessels formed
up in a widely space cloud around the station. They were operating
under automated control or skeleton crews, just to give the enemy
something else to shoot at. So far, the only military presence was
the two Alliance frigates posted there. Like two small guard dogs,
they moved out to form a pathetic skirmish line. It was nothing but
a token gesture, as the group of enemy ships could easily hit ANS
Beagle with their long-range guns, and there was little they could
do about it. Even so, both ships waited with weapons systems active
and ready for the inevitable attack.

Captain Raikes watched patiently as ANS
Devastation and the enemy ships continued their violent battle, but
minute by minute the group came closer to his position.

She’s doing her job, though. Forty
minutes now, and they are still fighting.
He thought with
amazement.

“
Sir, close-range
sensors have just picked up an approaching ship. Unknown
configuration, and they are only a kilometre away!” shouted the
Tactical Officer in surprise.

Captain Raikes
approached the monitor and examined the vessel. It was completely
different in size and configuration to the enemy craft or anything
else he’d seen. The computer system brought up a comparable image
of one of the craft spotted, bombing Hades, prior to the arrival
the large enemy ship.

“
Uh...Sir, they are
hailing us,” a
nnounced his Communications
Officer.

A quick hand gesture was all that was
needed to transfer the communications from the vessel to the
mainscreen. It showed digital noise until segment by segment it
rendered to a high-quality video feed. A group of three armoured
warriors appeared inside a cramped command deck of some kind. One
of them started to speak in an odd tongue before a synthesised
voice spoke in broken English.

“
Greetings,
Commander. We offer you our assistance.”

On
the tactical screen, Captain Raikes watched the
vessel take up position alongside the two frigates and then wait as
if it was no more than another Alliance frigate. He looked to his
XO with a look of outright surprise on his face.

“Uh...what is this?” he asked
slowly.

ANS Beagle’s
internal warning system activated, and just as on all Alliance
ships, the lights slowly altered to low level red as a warning to
all crewmembers.

“
Sir, the enemy
formation is moving into weapons range. One is badly damaged, and
three of the others are making course adjustments. I think they’re
going to attack.”

The Captain nodded.
H
e’d expected this.

“
Send the signal
through the Rift, and start the shutdown sequence. If anything
happens to jeopardise Prometheus, we’ll cut the link.”

He then looked to his XO.

“
Get them ready.
I
t’s time.”

As if in response to
his comments, a great volley of projectiles and missiles appeared
on the scanner. At the current range and velocity, the first would
hit in a matter of seconds.

“Defensive fire, now!” he shouted.

The area of space
around ANS B
eagle instantly filled with
clouds of metal shards, and scores of multi-barrelled turrets
opened fire. They were designed to pinpoint and blast tiny,
high-speed objects in a fraction of a second. Both the station and
the two frigates concentrated every weapon they had into a broad
corridor towards the slowing ships. It was an impressive sight, and
by all accounts, stopped over ninety percent of all incoming fire.
But that was still enough to devastate one of the large cargo ships
waiting five hundred metres away from the entrance of the Rift.
Explosions rippled around the engine area, but incredibly, the
vessel stayed intact.

“
Sir, they are
moving to present their broadsides to us!” shouted one of the
officers, but the Captain barely registered it. His eyes were drawn
to the new arrival; the alien ship that had accelerated away and
was jinxing around the enemy capital ships, bombarding them with
heavy fire. The effect was impressive, but he still doubted it
would change an awful lot.

The interior of the
bridge flashed light blue as a ship came through the Rift, quickly
followed by many more until a force of twelve capital ships,
including five of the new Crusader class, poured out of the tear in
space. They must have been ready because no sooner had they
arrived, and they were already firing. The five Crusader class tore
into the exposed flanks of the enemy ships with devastating effect,
and two were cut clean in half by the coordinated and concentrated
fire. The image of Admiral Anderson appeared on ANS Beagle’s main
screen.

“
Sorry we’re late,
Captain. Leave this to us. We’ll drive them back to the
abyss!”

With that one
announcement, the battle for the Spacebridge turned around. In
minutes, those enemy ships still able to manoeuvre had turned and
accelerated at maximum speed back towards their own rift and
command ship. Three ships remained; ANS Devastation and the two now
heavily damaged enemy ships. All three were so close, they now
looked like a single vessel, and from what Captain Raikes had
heard; they were a warzone.

* * *

The defenders of the
underground complex had now held off four attacks
, but already their ranks were starting to falter. Khan and
two other
Jötnar
were quite badly wounded
and forced to withdraw to the fallen columns around the centre of
the room for defence. Over half of the
T'Kari
were now dead or wounded, and even worse, those that
remained seem incapable of fighting at close range. Spartan had
never seen anything quite like it. He’d witnessed three of
the
T'Kari
simply kneel down to be killed
by edged weapons. It seemed they were either not trained for close
quarters combat, or they were unwilling. Either way, it had fallen
to the depleted group to fight when the enemy came
again.

How many more attacks must we face?

To answer his question, another rumble
shook the ground, and he could see flashing lights approaching from
the nearest tunnel. Ayndir beckoned towards him and threw one of
her rifles at him. He grabbed it, lifting it to his shoulder, ready
for battle. Gun and Teresa stepped alongside him, both holding
their weapons up and ready.

* * *

The enemy ships needed several hours to
reach their rift, but Admiral Anderson was having none of it. His
force of warships continued right behind them, firing their
railguns and particle beams as frequently as they could. It was
more a chase than a battle, and in less than twenty minutes, only
one of the ships was able to keep moving.

Captain Thomas grabbed onto the handrail
as his marine bodyguard helped him to the lifeboats. The valiant
warship was burning, and he’d already given them his orders.
Incredibly, the ship had survived the battle long enough for the
reinforcements under Admiral Anderson to arrive. Now that they were
being pursued, he had given his last order aboard ANS Devastation.
There were no more explosions, but it was clear that the ship was
no longer habitable with her powerplants off-line, engines out and
hundreds of major hull breaches.

“Sir, Colonel Barnett’s
deputy
reports the remaining enemy vessel has been
captured. She has just under a hundred prisoners and says the ship
is habitable.”

“What happened to Barnett?” he replied
suspiciously.

“
It looks like she
died in the first wave, Sir.”

He shook his head.

“
Damn it. She was a
fine officer. Still, there will be time for mourning later. The
enemy warship, w
e shall claim her as a prize. Move the crew
over as quickly as possible. I will transfer my flag to the enemy
ship.”

Commander Parker saluted and then
continued with her work to help evacuate the crew. As she moved
away, she even considered the possibility that the ship might be
salvageable, assuming they survived. They were not far from the
starboard evacuation deck, and the blast doors had been torn off.
Luckily, all of the crew were now wearing sealed suits and pulling
themselves past the debris to the waiting shuttles and lifeboats.
Captain Thomas waited for a moment as he spotted the enemy’s rift
like a second sun in the distance. Though the enemy command ship
was far away, he could work out the silhouette against the colours
of the space phenomena.

Who are you?
He thought
bitterly.

* * *

Admiral Anderson had the perfect view
from the CIC of ANS Crusader, the lead ship in the new class of
Alliance warship. The magnified view on the mainscreen showed the
enemy command ship was moving back through its own rift, presumably
withdrawing from battle. Tempted as he was to pursue it further, he
had already ordered all of his ships to turn on those few ships
still in the system. He was going to make sure New Charon was
secure before he let a single vessel head anywhere near the new
rift.

“Admiral, the T'Kari ship is continuing
on its course to the rift.”

“What? Why?”

Captain Harris, the commander of the
ship shook his head.

“Unknown, Admiral. Wait, they’re firing
something into the rift.”

They watched as a blue pulse of energy,
much like a magnetised railgun round but emitting massive amounts
of energy. It moved at almost the speed of light before entering
the rift. There was a small flash, and the rift started to ripple
and shift. Admiral Anderson instantly knew something terrible was
about to occur and grabbed the intercom, selecting an open
freq
uency
y.

“This is Admiral Anderson. All ships
are to move away from the rift immediately. I repeat, move away
from the rift. It is showing signs of instability.”

More flashes jumped back and forth
through the rift, and the command ship started to break up.
Explosions and streaks of light bounced around the great hulk as it
tore itself apart over a period of several minutes. The rift
remained but continued to emit unstable radiation as it shuddered
and destroyed its prey like some carnivorous worm. Almost as
quickly as it had arrived, the enemy ship was gone, leaving an
unstable rift in its wake.