The suit instantly detected the nearby presence of the device and automatically paired, simply waiting for command authorization. He tapped the button, and the two synced together. The suit’s internal computer ran through a series of diagnostics that took only a few seconds, and then checked the fuel counters for each of the small reservoirs on board.
“Mine’s only half full,” said one of the crewmen.
Ingo glanced at his brother and back to the man.
“That’s okay. Half is more than enough to clear this distance. A full tank should be able to last up to an hour…or so.”
All of them looked to the brothers, and they were ready. Each wore a fully functioning EVA belt synced to their gear, and between them they carried a modest array of weapons.
“Okay then, what’s the plan, Sir?” asked the marine.
There was bitterness in his voice but also a mild sense of nerves. Ingo could hardly blame the man. Their situation was dire.
“What’s your name, Corporal?” asked Ingo.
The man looked at him carefully, as though not even entirely sure whether he intended on answering his question. He was a middle-aged man, probably one of those that had joined later in life with thoughts of missed opportunities. His jet-black eyebrows and short cut black hair were in stark contrast to taut, pale skin.
“Corporal Vlad Makarov, Sir.”
“Okay, Makarov. It’s pretty simple. Our ship is dead in space, and if we stay here, so are we.”
One of the crewmen started to speak, but Ingo spoke over him.
“The engines are gone, so is power and our weapons. There is no chance of rescue and even less chance of this ship surviving the hour. The only reason we’re still alive is because they’re taking their time.”
He pointed to the broken armored walls.
“Outside there are dozens of Biomech ships, but the nearest is a Bioray, one of the smaller assault transports. They must have used it to bring the Decurions here to our ship.”
“Yeah, so?” said the marine, his tone even more irritable.
“Well, the two of us have been fully debriefed on the capabilities of these craft. We know their layout as well as their access points.”
“How the hell would you know that?”
Ingo pulled himself toward the marine with surprising skill. Although he and his brother were both junior ranks, they had spent some time on the optional zero gravity training in readiness for advancement. Ingo, in particular, had his eye on an engineering post, and the course was a requirement. He twisted and then moved alongside the marine.
“Corporal Makarov. Are you going to fight me all the way on this one?”
The marine was as surprised at Ingo’s speed and dexterity, as much as he was at his attitude. He said nothing so Ingo continued.
“We’re going to leave the ship and board theirs.”
The group was completely stunned, and not one of them knew what to say. Matius moved alongside his brother and adjusted one setting on his belt.
“There’s an access hatch directly across from here. Two hundred meters through the debris field and we’re inside. Thegn weapon racks are near all the main doors. We get inside, arm ourselves, and then fight back.”
Again there was nothing but silence from them all. Matius instead looked to Ingo.
“Brother, are you ready for this?”
Ingo smiled, trying to reassure both himself and his brother.
“Of course. It’s time. Let’s go.”
* * *
The small group of Alliance personnel reached the halfway point in just over eleven minutes. They moved at a slow speed with the thrusters making micro-adjustments to keep them on track. The distance between the hulk of ANS Titania and the Biomech Bioray was short, yet most of it was taken up with pieces of debris, broken fighters, and scores of frozen bodies. Ingo and Matius led the group of eight away from the ship with nothing but a faint stream of gas marking their movement. They’d stopped and pulled themselves to the side of a large piece of shattered decking.
“Another three minutes and we’ll be there,” said Ingo as they waited.
“No more cover from here though. We could use all the fuel we have left and get there faster.”
Corporal Makarov nodded quickly.
“I agree. We’ve got enough fuel to get back with some to spare, or we can use it to halve the time to the hatch. Two minutes and we’re inside. You’re sure they have the guns inside?”
Ingo nodded slowly.
“Yeah, we’ve seen the interior imagery of one we captured. The information is good.”
“Captured?”
Matius pointed in the direction of the enemy vessel and then tapped his own visor.
“Maybe we can have this conversation another time? My air is running low, and we’re out in the void here.”
The Corporal grinned in a sinister, almost lopsided way. He then looked down to check his carbine was still attached to his thigh mount. Ingo checked the entire group was there and then nodded at the ship.
“Right. We enter the open door and go for the weapons. Once we’re armed, follow us. We’ll go for the command center and take control of the ship. Ready?”
Each of them nodded, but none seemed especially eager.
“Okay, follow me!”
Ingo pushed away from the wreckage and drifted to the side before activating his thrusters. The small puffs from the belt decreased as his course stabilized and then he was off at speed. Matius and the marine were close behind, and the other crew moved in a loose clump. They drifted toward the vessel with surprising speed until finally Ingo struck the hull of the craft. He hit it hard, much harder than intended and rolled off to the side.
“Hold on!” Matius called out.
His brother decelerated and struck just a meter from the hatch. With one hand grasping one of the many outer ribs, he reached out and grabbed Ingo’s hand before he slipped away.
“Slow down next time, you fool!”
He tried to sound cheery, but it was hard to do so when moving in on the outer hatch of an enemy ship. The three with weapons checked them for the last time and then Ingo gave the nod. The marine pulled himself in first, and Ingo followed. It was black inside, perhaps even darker than the space outside. At least when they had been drifting the short distance from ANS Titania, they benefitted from the reflected light coming off the planet Helios Prime. There were no windows in the Biomech ship, so one by one they had to activate their lights.
“Get ready!” Ingo said.
The lights came on within a second of each other and bathed the interior with a dull yellow. Dust and filth gave their lamps a wide beam effect. It wasn’t the light that shocked them, however, it was the damage. From the outside the ship looked fine, but the interior was little different to that of their ship.
“Looks like we did a bit of our own damage here,” said Corporal Makarov.
A green light flickered, and two lifeless Thegn corpses drifted from view to reveal a Decurion. It was missing three of its limbs, yet moved as efficiently and as terrifying as when it had all eight.
“Shoot it!” cried one of the crew.
Corporal Makarov was on it and emptied a dozen rounds into the machine before its light cut out, and the body drifted out as lifeless as the Thegns.
“Look,” said Matius.
He pointed to the left where the wide shaft led further inside the ship. A gentle light at the end altered as dark shapes moved about.
“There are more of them coming.”
The two brothers looked about in a panic and then spotted the gun racks on the walls. Nearly half were empty, but there were still more than enough to go around.
“Grab a weapon and get ready.”
All of them, even the marine grabbed one of the alien rifles and then pushed themselves into the dark corners of this part of the ship. There was ample cover to go around, and the outer hatch was ever present, a constant reminder of how they could escape, but only into
space.
“Now!”
Ingo took aim and pulled the trigger. Flashes erupted from the muzzle, and he spun backwards to strike the wall, completely forgetting about the most basic of Newtonian physics. Even so, the rounds smashed into the first Decurion. More and more appeared until the passageway contained more than twenty, and still more arrived. He opened his mouth to shoot, but all of them were now shooting. The noiseless battle was surreal, and yet almost melancholy to watch. A machine would be wrecked, yet continued to move in the same direction while more pulled and pushed to get past.
“Keep shooting!” he cried.
It was much too late though. The first three machines tore into the crew, quickly dispatching the first two in seconds. Corporal Makarov howled over the intercom and then pushed his way forward at the machines. He held down the trigger on his gun in one hand while firing the carbine in the other.
“Look!” Matius said excitedly.
Ingo looked to his left and spotted the shape of two Alliance drones rushing past the ship. It was a surreal moment. He was on the alien ship, and a friendly robotic fighter was just outside. He was so distracted that he didn’t even see the blade from the machine as it punched through his chest.
“Ingo!” screamed out his brother.
He wanted to help, but there was nothing he could do. Instead, he pushed away from the bulkhead and back to the hatch. One of the other crew tried to do the same, and they crashed into each other, blocking either from getting out in time. A Decurion moved in and stabbed at him, but Matius managed to beat aside the attack with the side of his arm, but it still managed to open up the armor with a gash that cut deeply into his flesh. He cried out in pain, and at the same time the suit pumped in a special sealant to plug the gap, as well as a burst of painkillers. That was when he saw the fighters.
“What the hell are they doing?” asked the crewman.
Matius heard the man but could only watch from his peripheral vision as a machine tore his right arm off. His attention was drawn inexplicably toward the first of the fighters as it vanished in an explosion. It looked like a small blast, but the flash continued to expand until it engulfed ANS Titania and then moved closer to him.
Nukes, he thought miserably. We never had a chance.
The speed of the explosion was impossibly fast, just as he’d learned about atomic weapons in space. There was no shock wave as such, just an incredible expenditure in heat and radiation before it dissipated. Matius didn’t even have time to blink as he was struck. The Biomechs, the machines, and the ships vanished from his mind as the entire area superheated to incredible temperatures. The fight for the Bioray and ANS Titania was over.
CHAPTER EIGHT
Some Alliance politicians argued for a rapid expansion out of local systems and directly into the Orion Nebula. Most, however, advocated concentrating on the newly discovered and partially terraformed sites at Epsilon Eridani. An even smaller group began to gain prominence at Terra Nova with a simple, yet extremely divisive idea. Rather than heading out to the star with dreams of conquest and expansion, they instead looked inward and back to the old world. The Old Earthers focused their attention on Earth, Mars, Lunar, and the old satellites that still housed small populations. This radical organization advocated nothing less than a massive expansion and exploitation program of these old colonies.
The New Colonies
11km above Helios Prime
Admiral Lewis watched the screens and tried to stay calm and collected. It was necessary not just for the crew, but also for himself. He’d seen the reports coming from T’Karan, but there was no time to wait. The fleet might be on the verge of arrival, but with the enemy already on top of the planetary defense system, there was now a time factor involved. He looked at the timers and shook his head in amazement.
If they make it inside and activate the system, they could stop Citadel before it begins!
If he’d had just ten more hours, he could have delayed and used the massive number of ships and troops for a real offensive. Instead, he was now using all that remained of his forces in a single knockout blow on Helios Prime. Even as the ships moved into position, he imagined the horrors of the fleet not arriving from T’Karan. With the Rift closed, the Alliance would be stuck with what remained of their forces in the Helios System.
If the Rift is brought down, we’ll lose this war.
It was nothing more than simple mathematics. The Biomechs had more warriors and more ships in the system. Even if the Helion, Khreenk, and Alliance forces won every battle, they would still lose the war. And once the Black Rift opened, it would be the endgame for every soul.
It cannot happen.
He did his best to banish the thoughts from his mind and concentrate on what was around him. He couldn’t change what the Biomechs were planning on doing, but he could command his own assault, and that might be enough to turn the tide in their favor. The disposition of the rest of the Alliance force was exactly as he’d planned, and those ships allocated to this operation were moving directly behind him. He could see the Crusader and Liberty class ships, as well as more than thirty Maulers. It was an impressive force but a fragile one. The smaller craft had been designated the rescue portion of the mission, with only a third carrying troops on board. The rest were being kept deliberately empty in expectation of a major evacuation. Even so, all were equipped as gunships, and he had little doubt their guns would be needed.
“Four minutes,” said Captain Marcus, as much for himself as for Admiral Lewis.
The heat from re-entry into Helios Prime’s atmosphere was incredible, and no matter how they faced the ship into the descent, it was clear they were taking quite a beating. Panels and antenna burned and melted, but it was no more than the ships had been constructed for. He looked to Captain Marcus, who like him, was doing his best to remain calm.
“She’ll hold together. This is what the outer skin was constructed for.”
He was right, of course. All of the new generation of ships had been designed to be as flexible as possible. One of the many requirements had been the ability to operate different modules, dependent on the mission. The first Crusader class was the first, though the changes to different configurations were complex and time consuming. The newer designs, such as the Liberty class and the latest tier Crusaders were built specifically with the facility of modification in a matter of hours. The real improvement, and the one that he was taking full advantage of right now, was the ability to enter a planet’s atmosphere. This was more than just a change to the structural design and integrity of the ship. It required changes to aerodynamics, as well as power and propulsion.
“What was that?” Captain Marcus asked as three alarms activated simultaneously.
“Dorsal stabilizers,” said the Chief Engineer.
The man was one of the oldest, if not actually the oldest officer on the ship. He was short and bald, yet his voice pierced through the CIC like an angry sergeant major.
“It’s gonna get a little rough.”
He was right. No sooner had the alarms started, and the ship began to shudder. It started as a minor rumble but quickly became a constant vibration that ran from every direction. The view from the mainscreen was black and red with a mixture of flame and smoke, and then it cleared. Admiral Lewis almost staggered back at the view.
“Just look at that.”
They had already seen images of the surface of the world, but experiencing the hell that was Helios Prime truly was a sight to behold. The planet was known to be one massive city that spread across every landmass with clear warm skies. Now the planet looked like it was made from jagged rocks. Where once there had been mighty city blocks and towers that reached up into the clouds, there were just heaps of rubble. Skyscrapers vied for position amongst the destroyed overpasses and collapsed landing platforms.
“The General was right; this world has been burned to a crisp. How could anybody live down there?”
Captain Marcus nodded in agreement.
“The reports in the last weeks confirmed the orbital bombardment had destroyed all of the remaining infrastructure. Daniels and the rest have been in hiding or underground since the attack began.”
He looked away and might have spat on the floor if he’d been outdoors and on his own.
“This isn’t war. This is simple extermination.”
They both looked on at the vast pillars of smoke rising from every direction. The surface of the planet was almost impossible to make out in places. Both men had been on the surface before and had seen the jewel of the Helion League. Their planets and star systems were developed to a certain extent, but only the Helios System contained anything more than a single useable planet. Though they liked to boast of their five star systems, the reality was that they controlled a total of seven worlds, with three of them outside of Helios and barely functioning as colonies. It was true there were also small research and industrial sites on some of the moons like Eos, but in reality, only Helios Prime was fully functioning.
And now look at it.
Admiral Lewis looked on at the surface of the world and shook his head slowly. It was an image he knew he would never be able to remove from his mind.
“It really is a hell world down there.”
Captain Marcus pointed to one of thousands of fires that continued to burn. The color was much lighter at the base than he would have expected, and that could only mean that it was burning even hotter.
“I thought the fires would have stopped weeks ago. Our drone assessments showed the primary damage wasn’t caused by the Biomech bombardments; it’s the fires that have ruined Helios Prime.”
Admiral Lewis sighed, but he knew his executive officer was right. While the attack continued, it was almost impossible to go outside and attempt to fight, let alone stop fires, administer first aid, or provide any other assistance. It was a bitter, cruel way to fight a war.
Star Crusades Nexus: Book 08 - Wrath of the Gods: Page 14
