War of the Exiles

by Michael G. Thomas

  Like its sister planets, Karnak was a dry and unfriendly world that had never supported much in the way of life, outside of fauna and the most primitive kinds of land animals. Any significant life forms were brought by the myriad of settlers that had called the world home for short durations in the past. Not a soul in the Byotai Empire would choose to live so far from the protection and luxuries of civilisation without the chance of great reward.

  The Tenth Quadrant was well outside the ring of core star systems in the Empire, yet of all the planets in the region, none could offer the mineral riches of those six worlds. These were not the lush green worlds of Hyperion, or the temperate worlds of Kerberos. There was vegetation, but it provided little more than the thin layer of oxygen required for most forms of life. Everything needed to live, from water and food through to clothes and equipment had to be brought in, and at great expense. This was the source of the greatest problem for the Byotai. In the past, Anicinàbe raiders from the border clans took advantage of the convoys of transports, and thousands of unarmed civilians travelling to the border. The clan warriors harassed, killed, or kidnapped many Byotai that strayed too far.

  They sometimes launched attacks on mining outposts on the many moons, and even on the surface of the planets. The constant harassment from the Anicinàbe border clans in the end proved too dangerous and expensive to prevent. Though mercenaries were brought in, the area soon became untenable, and the Byotai abandoned all six worlds. That bloody period became known as the Exodus, an event still remembered by the Byotai, especially amongst the worlds close to the border. Now the Byotai were back, and once more the Anicinàbe were the hunters, looking for any signs of weakness amongst the citizen warriors of their reptilian competitors.

  The arrival of the Byotai supply convoy was not accompanied by the wheeled machines, but by a pair of small, unarmed drones. They were designed for long-duration surveillance and scanning rather than combat operations. These aircraft, a far cry from the equipment used in the Alliance military, were modified mining scouts used to perform terrain scans. They flew at a height of five thousand metres and tracked ground targets up to a distance of thirty kilometres away. Unlike military units, they were equipped with long, thin wings and ultra quiet electric motors. Without actively searching, there would be no chance of spotting them. At such a height they could move in lazy circles, scanning every rock and depression for hiding places.

  Five minutes behind the drones came four stripped down vehicles. These were all relatively small and based upon the electric maintenance vehicles used by the Byotai. They were little more than bulbous wheels, frame bodies, and powerful electric power units. Each was crewed by four Byotai, wearing light cloth over their armour to both disguise their shapes and to keep the dust and elements away from their bodies. Fitted on the rear of each was a single Byotai railgun, a weapon much in common with Alliance coilguns technology. Just seconds behind these advance scouts came the primary column of armoured vehicles.

  These were not brightly coloured machines, but built upon the chassis of old, sometimes wrecked civilian models. Karnak was the graveyard for industrial equipment, with thousands of machines from heavy excavators and dirt haulers, through to wheeled shuttles and cargo shifters. The only problem the majority were now little more than broken scraps of metal.

  While the Anicinàbe relied upon their large numbers of clansmen and aircraft, the Byotai had turned in a completely different direction. Those that had travelled to Karnak were miners, engineers, and craftsmen, all people with skills and knowledge. In weeks they had fortified their settlements and begun the slow process of converting dead machines into fighting machines. Their paint might be long gone, replaced by either bare metal, or more commonly stains and light corrosion, but they were tough and well constructed. Perfectly suited to the hardy constitution of their occupants.

  There were many large vehicles, but the five-part land train stood out most of all. Each part constructed from a bizarre assortment of heavy hauler, transport, and utility vehicles, and then connected via articulated sections and power cables. All of these vehicles were filled to capacity with volunteer soldiers, keen to end the fighting once and for all. Every single warrior was transported aboard one of these vehicles; travel on foot out of the question in this weather. A raised section on the heavily armoured front of the land train provided a command platform for Kras and his commander.

  "Spread out and face the winds. The storm is coming, and we've a long way to go to reach the settlements," said Kras, "When the worst has passed, we will move on. The storm will provide cover for us as we clear the last of the Northern Mountains and onwards to the Northlands, and our kin!"

  The other Byotai obeyed the order of their Elder without question. The entire group was widely spaced out with nearly a hundred metres between each vehicle. Even with this level of spacing, they kicked up a dust cloud that could be seen for kilometres in every direction. The convoy was heavily armoured, the vehicles filled with both warriors and supplies. The journey to the infamous Stone Teeth hill-range was a long one. It was imperative they made it without interference from the mobile forces of the Spires Clan that had successfully dug in at Montu and the surrounding mountains. Above the armoured formation moved a handful of small, unmanned aerial vehicles, hastily converted by the settlers back in the fortified compounds. The drones were already aboard the ground crawlers when the first of the winds struck the convoy.

  All but one drone was recovered before the heavy winds began to kick up dust and debris. One by one the vehicles moved out from the columns and deployed in a line that faced the direction provided by Kras; much like a shoal of fish trying to swim against a current.

  "Dig yourselves in and seal down tight."

  There were more than twenty of the heavily modified vehicles. They were more in common with a military assault vehicle or transport than of the civilian vehicles they had been changed from. The engineering teams had armoured up the transports with nothing more complex than spaced plating designed to keep impacts as far from the vehicles as possible. They were not up to the job of commercially manufactured military vehicles but were very sturdy and perfectly suited to the unique climate of the border worlds. As soon as the first three vehicles stopped, they were followed by another order. This one echoed throughout the interiors of all the vehicles, blasting out through the speakers hanging on improvised mounts.

  "Deploy sand shields and take shelter."

  The front of each vehicle was equipped with a large plough arrangement connected via thick pistons to the chassis. They were a common fitment for Byotai industrial vehicles and used for clearing debris, digging out other vehicles, and also to provide protection from the elements. Here on Karnak they were a necessity for everything other than light transports, even on the transports used to move people between settlements.

  They all came to a halt and lowered the sand ploughs into place. They locked down firmly, creating a strong barrier against the violent storms commonly experienced on Karnak. Only one of the older crawlers failed to deploy its shield and was forced to move with its device still in the raised position. It tilted to the right and manoeuvred into a new position directly behind the huge land train.

  "Get close!" yelled one of the Byotai soldiers.

  The crawler groaned and creaked, moving so close the front plates pushed against the back of the train. No sooner had it stopped than a gust of wind blasted the column of vehicles. From inside his own crawler, Wictred could already feel the ground moving. At first he thought it was the dust shifting, like sand dunes often did, but he quickly realised it was the quad-wheeled crawler starting to tip over. The driver had correctly deployed the shield, but a nearby bluff was now deflecting the wind, and it struck the vehicle to the flank. The driver tried to move, but with two wheels in the air, they began to flounder.

  "Get to the side!" Wictred hollered, "Hurry!"

  The ten Jötnar rose as one and charged to the side of the crawler as it continued t
o lift. Their combined weight shook the vehicle until finally it sank back down into the soft ground. The dual engines roared, and the driver turned it twenty degrees, presenting a partial diagonal angle to the elements.

  "Good, now keep your heads down."

  One of the Helion soldiers, a green mercenary in his early twenties, decided to ignore the advice. He looked over the top edge just as a gust of small stones struck him. Luckily for him he was wearing a helmet and faceplate, but the small rocks still knocked him backwards. Blood ran from a number of small cuts to the sides of his face and ears. He landed on his backside and shook his head while laughing. None of the others joined in. Wictred snarled and then looked back to one of the vision slits. It was reduced down to a thin line and protected by an additional layer of transparent plastic.

  "This will blow over soon. Make sure you're all ready."

  He glanced back at the fallen soldier who was still chuckling to himself.

  "Get on your feet, soldier, and listen next time."

  He turned back to the slit, while one of the other Jötnar moved to the fallen man. His face was covered by his helmet, but he activated a motor that slid the lower half open. The man could now see the Jötnar warrior's face, and he did not look impressed. Though clearly Human in origin, everything was much bigger in scale. The muscles were oversized and gave them the look of a wild, incredibly strong troll. This particular one reached out and grabbed the soldier, who immediately tried to struggle. That served only to encourage the Jötnar to squeeze tighter.

  "Do that in combat, and I'll leave you behind for the Spires to find. They like soft meat. You're lucky we're just hauling supplies to the Teeth."

  He was sure he could see some seething aggression on the man's face, and that annoyed him. He moved in even closer, so the mercenary could feel the heat from his face.

  "When we get there, you can expect combat, though. The Anicinàbe have been besieging that place for weeks now. It's our job to get supplies and weapons to them."

  His voice was menacing and immediately stopped the annoying laughing, much to the pleasure of the rest of the soldiers. The Jötnar warrior took a step back and then heard a noise from the man. He twisted his head to stare at him.

  "What did you say, little man?"

  However tough the mercenary might have felt, at that particular moment he felt like a rookie. These were no Jötnar militia; they were battle hardened and eager for the fight. The man sat back down and this time remained quiet. Wictred could see what was going on, but intentionally kept out of the dispute. He'd been paid by Kras and his people to provide a small, but elite guard unit to crack the toughest problems, and that was exactly what he intended on doing.

  Wictred pulled his head back and hit the button to close up the slot from even the finest of particles. The vehicle was open topped, but the edges sloped down, giving them a little respite. Even so, they were forced to hunker down low to avoid the worst of it. Wictred called out so all could hear, even those off the audio network.

  "The drones were spot on. Here it comes, the real storm, and it looks like a monster. Aircraft will be grounded for at least twelve hours, maybe more, just as we expected. It's the break we need to get away from outer reaches of Khagi before the Anicinàbe know we're here. They might control the sky, but on the ground we're masters."

  Wictred looked back at his kin and gave them the nod.

  "Be ready. The storm will be violent, but it will not last, and time is not on our side."

  They bent down so that only the tops of their helms were exposed to the sand, and this time the soldier did the same. These Jötnar were members of the now infamous Blood Pack, a group of experienced Jötnar mercenaries that operated from the Hades colony. Once a region heavily populated by the T'Kari, it was now mainly used as a commercial centre, with ships using its convenient location in the T'Kari System. It was the final stop-off point before a ship made the three thousand light year journey between the alien worlds of the Helion Nexus and the Human colony of Prometheus.

  "Wictred," called out one of the Jötnar.

  He turned back around and shouted back.

  "What?"

  "Is it true about the machine you found on the derelict?"

  Wictred opened his mouth to answer, but at that moment the first blast of dust struck the vehicle. Small pebbles battered away, creating a loud roar of sound. Wictred moved closer as the others waited patiently inside the transport; the massive dust storm reached its peak. Vast clouds swept over the mountains near Montu and then down to the open lands. It was here they struck the convoy, as well as any exposed rock, piece of metal, and flesh. Nature took no sides as it pounded the ground with impartial and uncaring power. It was as though the elements themselves wanted to flatten every part of the planet.

  As the dust increased in density, so the visibility decreased until it was impossible to see more than a metre outside of the vision slits. One by one, the occupants sealed their vehicles shut and then waited.

  "Hold on," said Wictred.

  He then moved slowly to his comrade, the newest member of the pack, and the only one not present back on their last three operations. Finally, they were alongside each other, and already the storm sounded as if it was reducing in intensity.

  "What did you say?" Wictred asked.

  "The derelict. Was it really a machine from the old age of the Trusskan civilisation?"

  Wictred slumped down to the metal flooring and watched as small stones whipped overhead. He was sure that if a man remained on his feet, and without protection, the storm would pick him clean to the bones in a few minutes. The new Jötnar warrior was known as Skarn and had recently left the Alliance military after a disciplinary hearing. Wictred hadn't seen the result but suspected it had something to do with the death of an officer during an operation on Kerberos. A squad of Jötnar had been ambushed, with at least four killed. Rumour had it that some of the remaining Jötnar turned on their commander.

  "Tell me about Kerberos first?"

  Skarn physically flinched at the mention of Kerberos, and it looked like he might actually rebuff Wictred's question. Another wild gust shook the vehicle, and for whatever personal reason, the ex-marine began to speak.

  "It was supposed to be a recon on Kerberos. A small cult in the capital, they'd taken a tower and were holding hostages. Command said to stay back and wait for drones, but Lieutenant Coulson ignored orders and ordered an assault."

  Wictred shook his head. He was well aware of the propensity to initiate action, but all of them with at least the experience of a few operations knew that was a mistake. To conduct an operation with no or limited intel was a recipe for disaster.

  "What happened?"

  "We were waiting underground, using the sewage system to get close. We'd reached the access hatches and waiting for intel, when reports of another team landing on the roof came in. We were ordered to wait in reserve while a full assessment was made."

  Wictred nodded slowly.

  "And that was when Coulson ordered you to go in?"

  "He ordered a full-scale breach, with no active intelligence on the ground. As soon as we blew the door, they knew we were inside. I was first, and five more of our brothers followed. We took two floor before we ran into them."

  He closed his eyes and inhaled slowly. As he let out the air, he continued.

  "The cult had charges rigged along the stairwells and basement. Three of us were killed at the start. Then they came down with thermal weapons and grenades. I gave the order to fall back, but Coulson came in and told us to continue. Ten minutes later, it was just one and Kanine left. It was her first combat since leaving Hyperion, and she was tough, I mean Osk tough."

  Wictred smiled at the mention of Osk.

  "By then we'd killed seven cult members and were pushing in hard. I tried to slow us down. The top floor breaching team were now inside, forced to attack because of us. Coulson told us to assault the next floor even though we could hear them positioning heavy wea
pons. I held back Kanine, so Coulson threatened us with summary execution. He tried it twice; the third time was when I put a bullet in his brain."

  Wictred hit the back of his head on the side of the crawler.

  "Damn, I heard something bad had happened down there. So what happened to Kanine?"

  The Jötnar snarled as he answered.

  "She quit and said she'd meet me on Hades to join one of the new mercenary outfits. I never saw her again."

  The two sat in silence for a moment, just like the rest of the squad. The men and women in the vehicle looked up at them with that common mixture of awe and dread only the synthetic Jötnar could inspire. Skarn leaned over and spoke to Wictred.

  "So, about this derelict. You arrived after Spartan and Khan had already beaten the machine. Is that true?"

  Wictred laughed.

  "It would have been, if the two of them had done their job properly."

  Both of them laughed and continued to exchange stories, the majority focused on the many battles they had been involved in, all while the last of the storm battered the convoy. The other members of the Blood Pack sat in silence, listening to the voices of their kin. Sharing stories of their past adventures was something they all enjoyed, even in the moments before a battle.

  Far behind the dust-covered line of crawlers and vehicles were the lowest peaks of the Khagi Mountains, and behind those the tallest mountains on the planet. They were days away from the dangers of Montu, yet the change in territory as they neared the Great Sea was slow and subtle. The land was flatter and offered none of the protection from the movements from dust along the rolling plains and dunes. The Spires Clan was far away, safe behind the craggy cliffs and tall peaks. This natural protection offered by the walls of mountains was what made the region so important. It was hardly surprising the greatest and best-defended city lay between those peaks. It was the largest inhabited part of Karnak and the easiest to defend, even when in its partially ruined state. There was little information on what happened in the first week of conflict, other than the Anicinàbe settlers already inside the city had turned on their Byotai comrades. In the middle of the fighting came reinforcements, dozens of clan shuttles and ships bringing in warriors. Now it was the heart of Anicinàbe control of Karnak, and as the weeks went by had become an increasingly impregnable fortress.