Slaves of Hyperion (Star Crusades Uprising, Book 6)

by Thomas, Michael G.

  They’d better take us somewhere useful, she thought optimistically. The last thing she wanted was to spend days instead of hours traipsing through the jungle while following a deadly beast.

  * * *

  The compound was almost in pitch darkness, save the odd light from burning torches that ran around the perimeter or at the entrances of most of the shelters. A decision had been made early on to keep the lighting to a minimum, so as to avoid unwanted attention. Even so, the place was still busy with two more six-man units preparing their gear to continue to map out the area around them. Captain Carlos stood outside the entrance to the designated command shelter and saluted at the approach of General Rivers.

  “Any news from the scout teams?” asked the General.

  “Just one,” he answered, indicating the General to step inside.

  Inside the dark interior, the setting transformed from one of spartan surroundings, woodland and nature to one of electronics, mapping equipment and stored weapons. Two Navy crewmen were busy monitoring the communications equipment while supervised by Lieutenant Nilsson. She saluted the approach of the two senior officers.

  “I’ve just received another message from Sergeant Morato. She says her unit is tracking a Zealot scout party plus a machine.”

  “Machine?” asked General Rivers.

  Lieutenant Nilsson handed over a military grade datapad device that showed a grainy but detailed image of the four-legged contraption. He looked at it for a few seconds before handing it to the Captain.

  “Any information on what exactly it is? Something like our autonomous resupply mules?”

  “Not likely, General, look at the sensors on its front and the weapon mounts. I’d say this is some kind of scout machine, possibly a sentry.”

  General Rivers looked unimpressed.

  “Autonomous?”

  “Unknown, General.”

  “I see,” added General Rivers. He then moved over to the scruffy looking map that contained as many revisions as it did actually information. Their compound was clearly marked in the centre, and a number of blocks were positioned to represent each of the scouting parties. Sergeant Morato’s ASOG unit was the furthest out by a considerable distance.

  “How far out are they now?”

  “Uh, about six kilometres so far, and the enemy force is apparently still moving.”

  The room flickered slightly as if a strobe light had just been flashed outside. It was followed by another half a dozen before the sound of loud, rolling thunder rippled through the compound.

  “Great, that’s all we need,” said Captain Carlos.

  Almost immediately, a torrential downpour of hailstones hitting the roof greeted his words. General Rivers shook his head at the arrival of the bad weather.

  “Lieutenant Nilsson. I want to know the minute you hear anything new.” He turned to the Captain of the marines.

  “Captain Carlos. Get a team out and double-check this site for rain protection, especially the walls. We don’t want flooding. I need our supplies and gear dry and ready for combat. We don’t know how much longer we are going to be here.”

  * * *

  To Teresa it seemed as though they had been following the machine and its Zealot companions for weeks, but it had barely been a whole day. Slogging through the dense foliage was only made bearable by the fact that the machine itself had created a loose trail for them to work through. The weather had finally turned against them with over seven hours of torrential rain. Luckily, it had now has eased off for a few hours, but with dawn just breaking, the trickle of rain had returned and storms threatening to follow. It was proving to be an exhausting and miserable patrol.

  “Sergeant, clearing up ahead,” said Corporal Dalton Nylund as discreetly as he could.

  The unit dropped to their knees once more as they waited for the enemy to move a little further away. They had already stopped in almost a dozen similar places, and the lack of cover was a major concern. If the machine turned around, or the Zealots retraced their steps, they could catch the troopers in the vulnerable open. This time, however, something was different. Corporal Benedict Alessandro, the unit’s resident paramedic, confirmed Teresa’s suspicions.

  “Anybody else hearing that?” he asked.

  Teresa nodded in his direction. Even though she wore her helmet, the sound of machinery was unmistakable. With a subtle change in reception strength, she amplified the internal speakers of her suit. The sound level increased, and she could make out the sound of heavy equipment and even voices.

  About damned time!

  “Okay, two teams move out into flanking positions but stay in the tree line. Stay down and record everything you see. Do not engage, I repeat, do not engage.”

  The two squads, led by Sergeant Lovett and Sergeant Morato moved the short distance to the edge of the jungle canopy and waited for the swirling mist to clear. The strong wind created gaps in the cover every few minutes, but for now the visibility had been reduced to no more than twenty metres. With every additional second, Teresa worried. Anything could be in the mist, and they would have no time to withdraw if spotted.

  “It’s clearing, stay low,” said Sergeant Lovett from his position off to the left of the ASOG troopers.

  It took a few more seconds before the mist started to clear, and then as quickly as it had arrived, it drifted away to the trees, giving them a perfect view for at least several hundred metres. The sight that greeted them all almost made Teresa involuntarily gasp. It took all her self-control to stay down and quiet.

  Gods, what have we found?

  In front of them, at a distance of at least eight metres from the tree line, was the base of a small, rocky mountain. In the centre of it was a wide-open space that must have been carved out over a long period of time. Stone structures, including vast columns, supported the roof. A dozen long curved steps led inside. They were almost fifty metres wide, and easily big enough for a small vessel to land directly inside. Inside the structure, she could make out multiple sources of blue pulsing energy, much like what she had seen at the AI Core back on Terra Nova. But there was something different about this place. The design and architecture was unlike anything she had ever seen before and was surrounded by hundreds, if not thousands, of people who seemed to be working on it.

  “Are you seeing this?” asked Sergeant Lovett.

  “Uh, yes. Are you recording it all?” she replied slowly.

  “Oh yeah.”

  As well as the massive artificial structure, there were plumes of black smoke rising from dozens of vents cut directly into the mountain. The smoke mixed with the dense air and fog to create a swirling cloud that covered the entire site in low light. It gave the impression of it approaching night even though it was actually in the early hours of the morning.

  This place is incredible. Artificially constructed into a mountain, or is it a volcano?

  Teresa turned her gaze to the right of the structure and followed a party of about fifty people. They were poorly clothed and dragging sleds full of cut rock behind them. Other parties moved metal girders while small teams used welders and cut directly on the exposed parts of the temple. Patrol parties of up to a dozen Zealots marched about the site, but none seemed particularly interested in looking for signs of them. Teresa looked carefully at the centre of the mountain, but something seemed to be moving out into the open. It had the same smooth gait of the four-legged machine they had tracked, but this one looked larger. As it moved into the low light, something was clicking in her mind, and she fell back in pain.

  “Sarge!” called out Corporal Alessandro as Sergeant Lovett dragged him back into the undergrowth.

  A terrible screaming sound erupted from inside the structure and buzzed in Teresa’s head. It then reverberated in her skull like a terrible wail. She ducked down and fell to the floor. She tried to touch her head, but the helmet blocked her hands. Corporal Alessandro held her down and hit the connecting strips on the helmet to remove her helmet. Sergeant Lovett move
d over to check her, shaking his head as the loud screaming sound penetrated his helmet. The effect was almost like that of a high –pressure drill being powered up inside the helmet.

  “Sergeant Morato, can you hear me?” he asked as he looked down at his fallen comrade. Teresa looked back at him, but already the sound level had dropped, and the pain had fallen to a more reasonable level.

  “Sergeant, looks like the workers are feeling it too!” said Corporal Nylund.

  He looked up and to the site to see a large number of the workers covering their ears as the large mechanical machine moved out from the safety of the mountain and moved off to the right. It was followed by an escort of six of the four-legged machines of a design identical to the one they had been tracking.

  “What’s going on?” asked Teresa as she remembered she’d left the internal volume on her helmet at almost maximum so she could track the mechanical sounds. It was no wonder the shrill scream from the machines had caused her so much pain.

  “Uh, you need to see this,” said Sergeant Lovett.

  Teresa shook her head and did her best to clear her mind. The mist was continuing to clear, and as it pulled away from the mountain, the rest of the unit fell silent. Teresa lifted herself up a little from the damp ground and looked in the same direction as the others. Her head still pounded, but she was able to forget all of it when she saw the ring of four more mountains, each much like the one they had discovered, and each of them positioned around a central structure shaped like a large stone dome. Streaks of blue energy crackled and flashed from pylons attached to the mountains that ran down like the legs of a spider to the central dome. The entire site, including the dome and the myriad of buildings around it, was more like a tiny city, but it looked ancient and mostly derelict and deserted. It was massive, probably two hundred metres tall and beautifully carved and designed. It reminded her of some of the ancient churches she had seen in images of Old Earth.

  “Those mountain structures look like they are sending power of some type directly into that central structure,” explained Corporal Dalton Nylund, their technical specialist.

  “Yeah, but power to what?” replied Sergeant Lovett.

  As they watched, the dome started to lift itself, supported by dozens of thick pillars. The mechanical machines assembled nearby along with more of their kind until almost thirty of them waited. They all faced the dome and stood completely still. As the dome moved up, she could make out a purple orb pulsing and rotating inside it. The orb itself was many metres in diameter and seemed to flash and spin, suspended in mid-air. Sergeant Lovett turned to look at her with a look of astonishment on his face.

  “What the hell is this place?”

  Teresa looked carefully at the site and at her sensor package in her helmet.

  “I don’t know, but I’ll tell you this. We aren’t leaving until we know more. What are they building? What are those machines? And lastly, what is going on in that dome?”

  They all looked back to the dome that lay between each of the mountains. It was surrounded by a dozen large towers, atop of which were mounted what looked like multi-barrelled weapon systems. Thousands of workers toiled around the dome, and it was then that Teresa spotted something odd. She pulled her helmet back on and accessed the optical sensors built into the system. The stabilised telephoto lens gave her a close look at the dome.

  “Cracks,” she said quietly. “Whatever is happening, this place is needing a lot of repair work.”

  As if to answer her comment, the roof of the dome stopped moving with a loud thud. The reverberation of the massive structure shook the ground around them, and she saw small chunks of dirt and rock tumbled from its flanks. The trees around their position also trembled at whatever was happening. She looked back to the dome and noticed even more power seemed to be surging towards the dome itself. The orb grew in intensity, and the people working nearby ran for cover or hid as the surge increased.

  “Sarge, do we want to be hanging around for this?” asked Corporal Alessandro.

  “Just stay down and watch. Anything we learn here could save lives. Just keep recording anything of interest.”

  As she looked about, she could see that between the site they were near and the next mountain, lay a large patch of broken ground. Close examination showed that it was ruined buildings or structures of some kind. They were not new. In fact, they looked to her more like buildings with a history of hundreds of years, maybe older. But even better, they seemed of little interest to the workers, the Zealots or the machines. Teresa slid back into the thick undergrowth and signalled for the others to come closer.

  “Okay, here’s the plan. We need intel, and I have a plan on how to get it. See that site to the right, about two hundred metres in from of the dome,” she said while pointing.

  The ASOG troopers glanced quickly and returned their attention to her.

  “Right, I will take my squad to the ruins and set up a monitoring package to overlook the dome. If we time it right, we can get it positioned and then move back into the jungle. We can use the package to send a navigation pulse when the General decides its time to attack.”

  “Attack?” asked Sergeant Lovett. “You’re not serious are you? This place is teeming with Zealots.”

  “Don’t forget those machines as well.”

  Teresa shook her head.

  “No, I am quite well aware of that. Aren’t you curious to know where all the Biomechs are? Trust me, the General will want this place shut down.”

  “He will do when he sees this,” explained Corporal Nylund, holding out his scanning tool. The others looked at the data but little of it made sense to them. Teresa raised an eyebrow in confusion.

  “See those towers around the dome?” he asked.

  Teresa nodded.

  “Yes, the ones with the weapon batteries fitted?”

  “Okay. They aren’t just weapon mounts. They are sending a strong blanketing signal out into space. According to my instruments, it’s the same signal that blocked communications with our ships, and it’s still blocking long-range comms on the ground.”

  Teresa understood that part perfectly.

  “So if we can disable them, we’ll have planet-wide communications and be able to reach anybody in orbit?”

  He nodded, and the eight ASOG troopers turned their gaze back the series of artificial mounts, towers and buildings that covered the open space in front of them. Teresa’s excitement at the news on the towers quickly dissipated as she realised the enormity of what they had discovered.

  What would I give for a unit of Vanguards and a few hundred Jötnar right now!

  Her thoughts of the Alliance Biomechs instantly brought back her memories of Spartan. She could only imagine what he was up to right now.

  “Right, you know the plan. Sergeant Lovett, your squad will provide overwatch, my squad will plant the gear and signal you when we’re ready to leave. Be careful, we can do without having to fight all of that!”

  With that short message, she moved off along the tree line but always staying low and in the cover of the foliage. It took almost four minutes to cover the jungle until they reached the point directly opposite the ruined buildings. From there, she could see the small mountain to her left but no sight of the overwatch squad.

  Good, she thought. If they were visible, they would be instantly compromised. If they were discovered this close to the enemy compound, they could expect to lose their unit and probably be tracked back to their own base. She turned to her right. There was another similar mountain, along with its own array of many pylons and scores of thick pipes and cabling running down to the central dome, hundreds of metres away in the depression to her front. All that stood before her and the home of the glowing orb, were scores of ruined structures and buildings. The nearest was only twenty metres from the tree line where she waited.

  “No signs of movement in the ruins...wait, I’ve got one contact...” said Corporal Nylund nervously.

  “Zealot?” asked
Teresa.

  “Negative, looks like one of our crew. They’re still wearing their uniform. I recognise the insignia from Santa Maria. Dammit, he’s coming this way.”

  “What?” Teresa exclaimed.

  They kept low and watched as the figure emerged from the rubble and did his best to scale one of the smaller walls. Off in the distance, two Zealots shouted and pointed in the escapee’s direction. One lifted a weapon and fire ineffectually at the man. Corporal Nylund lifted his L52 Mark II carbine, but Teresa placed her hand on the barrel and shook her head.

  “No, we can’t give away out position.”

  “But Sarge!” exclaimed Private Hughes, the youngest of the squad.

  More shots hit near the crewman, and a couple even struck close to the marines. Teresa almost laughed at the ineffective shooting, but the movement of the machines near the dome instantly killed her mood. Only two stepped away and faced their direction. For a second, she had a dreadful feeling they might detect the marines. She pulled herself lower to the ground, and the other three did the same. The same high-pitched scream as before blasted across the open space, but this time the filters of her helmet managed to reduce it to a painful but manageable level. The energy blast from the machines pintle mounted weapon was much like the coil system used by her carbine, but it seemed vastly more powerful. With a loud thud, a great column of dust and debris blasted into the air.

  “Stay down!” she called out on the suit’s intercom unit. It was short ranged but could easily manage about a hundred metres with line of sight before the ground-based jammers could have much of an effect. Teresa kept her head to the ground, but even with her acoustic dampers on maximum, she could hear and feel the approach of one of the machines. Her head told her to move and to get far away, but she knew that any movement and they were dead. Then just as soon as it had started, the machine moved away. She lifted her head just a few centimetres, so she could see to top of the machine as it stomped away and rejoined its comrades near the dome.