The unit must have been reformed.
The Captain moved away. The General indicated towards Spartan’s military issue datapad on his belt. It slid out easily, and Spartan held it out but was a little unsure as to what the General wanted.
“I have your itinerary here. You’ll note the Defence Committee is chairing a meeting on the future of the combined ground forces. Major Daniels has indicated he would like you to represent the ASOG and Vanguard units.”
With a simple flick of the General’s wrist, he transferred the file from one datapad to the other. Spartan saluted and the General was gone. As quickly as that, Spartan found himself alone on Terra Nova and surrounded by a crowd of people he didn’t recognise. He glanced at his device and checked the timetable. As the General had already said, there was the meeting of the Defence Committee, but that wasn’t for another three hours. He looked back up and saw a number of soldiers in Regular Army uniforms, much like those worn by the soldiers on both sides on Prime. He walked towards them and one, a young corporal, noticed him approaching. They stood smartly to attention, and Spartan returned the courtesy.
“Sir,” asked the corporal, “Are you Lieutenant Spartan of the Vanguards?”
Spartan looked at the man. He couldn’t have been just out of his teens, yet his chest was emblazoned with medals. He looked at the others to find the same with each of them. The insignia on their dark grey uniforms was of a wolf. He didn’t recognise the design but that was not surprising. The Army units were very large and followed different structures on every colony.
“Yes, I’m Lieutenant Spartan.”
The young man smiled and extended his hand.
“Sir, I’m Corporal Broby Ramir of the 4th New Carlos Militia. Your unit protected our flank in the fighting back on Prime. I saw the assaults your marines held off, Sir. I just wanted to thank you.”
Spartan sighed but this time of relief. It was rare for him to come across somebody with positive news for a change. The fighting at New Carlos had been a vicious mixture of ranged firefights and urban combat. It had been the first battle where they had made major use of the Combat Engineer Armour, the early version of what was known as Vanguard armour.
“Thank you, Corporal. That was a nasty business back on Prime. How is your unit?”
The Corporal smiled and indicated to his comrades around him.
“We’re all that’s left of our platoon, Sir. The rest were killed, wounded or retired since we pushed back the Union forces.”
Spartan nodded.
“I see, you’re not in militia uniforms now, though.”
“No, Sir, after you left, the remaining units were combined into the New Carlos 1st Brigade, but we’ve kept the insignia of the old 4th.”
Spartan understood why old soldiers like him were being sent to the summit, but these were rankers. They had experience of combat undoubtedly, but were they what was needed to make major decisions?
“What are you doing at this summit? I can’t imagine you volunteered.”
The Corporal smiled.
“No, Sir, we’re here on an exchange programme. When the ships left with delegates from Prime, there was a call for six volunteers to visit Terra Nova. We’re joining the Guards for six months, and they are doing the same back on Prime.”
A woman, a private, in her early twenties with short curly hair joined in.
“That’s not a bad idea. A little more mixing of units, and we might not have had this kind of trouble to start with, if you ask me, Sir.”
All of their attention was pulled away from their discussion and towards some kind of commotion further inside the building. Spartan looked past the scores of people until he found what he assumed was the cause. A number of people were running to a growing throng around one of the side entrances. A series of loud shouts followed, and then one of the soldiers staggered out of the group and collapsed to the floor.
“What the hell is going on?” asked one of the soldiers.
“I don’t know,” replied Spartan.
But he didn’t like what was happening. Arguments and fighting usually escalated, and there were plenty of soldiers and weapons to be found in this place. He looked at the group and jabbed his finger in the direction of the sound.
“Follow me, it’s time we broke this up.”
He moved off at a jog and ducked in and out of those that got in his way. The nearer he came to the scuffle the more people he met until eventually he was forced to push through at a walking pace.
“Out of my way!” he snapped, his patience now starting to wear thin. A number of the civilians moved, and he and his group of young soldiers were able to approach the man on the floor. He seemed fine and tried to push back into the throng before Spartan grabbed him. He was almost the same height as Spartan but much lighter build and wore the uniform of a naval cadet. Spartan glared at him, his eyes almost squinting from the set of lights running along the wall.
“What’s going on?” he demanded.
The man looked to Spartan and shook his head angrily.
“Get off me, man, they’re here again, the animals! Get off me!” he roared and struck Spartan in the face with the back of his hand. The impact caught Spartan by surprise and snapped his head around to the side. The attack may have been fast, but it wasn’t enough for him to lose his grip. He held in tightly, pulling the man closer as he tried to get away.
“Do that again, and I’ll have you up on charges!” he said calmly but with conviction.
The man lifted his hand once more, and Spartan delivered a powerful punch directly into the man’s stomach. It was short and hard and knocked all the air out of the cadet’s chest. He dropped to his knees and choked for air.
“Now, everybody clear this place!” he shouted.
This time the crowds moved back to reveal two Biomechs. Each of the monstrous creatures stood almost three metres tall and was heavily armoured in crude looking metal with the symbols of axes on their chests. The nearest looked to Spartan, but only part of its face was visible due to the armoured helm fitted tightly around his skull.
“Spartan!” it roared and then lurched forward, both of its arms raised high.
The young soldiers with Spartan fanned out, each adopting a balanced fighting stance, just as each had been taught back in basic training. The creature was already at Spartan and swung its right arm around in an exaggerated hook. It swept towards Spartan who took one step forward and did the same. Their muscled arms crashed together with a dull thud into a lock. Those around them watched in confusion and surprise at the odd turn of events.
“Khan, you crazy bastard!” laughed Spartan with genuine pleasure.
Khan started to laugh with the low rumble that all the Jötnar shared. These synthetic creatures were in fact the most recent models of Biomechs that the Zealots and their allies had created. Unlike the early designs, they were possibly entirely artificial and had been created in the factories back on Prometheus. It was hard to tell how much of them was made from harvested human material and how much was completely synthetic. They were sentient though, and Spartan was under no illusions that they represented a subspecies of humanity that deserved respect for what they had done. Khan turned to one of his comrades, a Jötnar warrior Spartan had never seen before.
“This is Osk,” he said in much better English than in their last encounter.
Spartan looked at the Jötnar and scratched his forehead.
“There’s something different, what is it?”
Khan laughed even louder and much to the annoyance of the crowd who were starting to become frustrated at the noise. Spartan turned and looked at any that were coming too close. It was then that he spotted his comrades from New Carlos. He waved them over and each moved slowly, suspicious of the three-metre tall monsters.
“These are fellow warriors from Centauri Prime. They fought hard and in hand-to-hand combat during the battle for New Carlos.”
Khan nodded to all of them and placed his hand across his ch
est.
“If Spartan speaks for you, then you have my respect. He told us of New Carlos. A difficult battle.”
There appeared to be genuine warmth in the tone of Khan, and Spartan worried his friend may have changed more than he realised. He did see the look in his eye and detected the dark humour that seemed to lie at the bottom of every Jötnar’s soul. He turned back to Osk and tilted his head towards the creature.
“Osk, the first female Jötnar,” he explained.
“Female? How did this happen? I thought all Jötnar were male?”
Khan nodded at his question. It was a fair point, as the Jötnar had been created male with no ability to generate further offspring. From what the military scientists had explained, it was probably just a simple way of keeping their experiment under control with a limited lifespan and no ability to create further generations without their help. Khan gave a lopsided grin from his immense jaw at Spartan’s confusion.
“Anderson, he said for our species to live we will need differences.”
The female soldier with curly hair was listening to the conversation with great interest. At the last part she seemed desperate to add her own views.
“It makes sense to us. The Jötnar are all based on a standard design with little variation. Even with male and female in the species, there will never be enough variation to avoid defects and interbreeding problems.”
Spartan recalled the arguments after the fall of Terra Nova and the factories and equipment that had been used to create the Biomechs. The factories had been badly damaged, but there were also the implications of a race of beings that could be manufactured at will. Some humans rejected their place in society, and others were fearful the factories could produce untold millions of monsters that could enslave humanity. Then there were the liberals who worried about the Jötnar themselves. By controlling their reproduction, humanity maintained a yoke over them, and one that could consign their race to servitude or extinction. Only their war record, and the promises made by the Confederate High Command and the President himself had stopped a new war breaking out in the last weeks of the war.
Jötnar fighting the Confederacy, glad we avoided that one!
Spartan thought back to the last months after the fall of Terra Nova. There had been many reprisals, especially against collaborators but also against Biomechs in general. He had seen papers suggesting over half the population had been wiped out in the three months of purges and violence. The Jötnar considered the Biomechs their untamed brothers and had proven extremely capable in taming them and bringing them under their control. The Biomechs had quickly turned from confused and helpless creatures into violent monsters by their tormentors. He recalled the emergency briefings about a possible war between the crippled Confederacy and the Jötnar and their Biomech brothers. A deal had been forged that guaranteed the right to life for all the Biomechs and the choice to be rehoused with the Jötnar, a choice almost all took. Part of the deal was that the Jötnar would be granted control of any lost unprogrammed Biomechs.
The two Jötnar were busy talking about their comrades and Spartan listened with interest. The last he had heard from Gun, the leader of the Jötnar, was that they had been working with Commander Anderson on a variety of medical issues. He was confused though at how the female Jötnar had arisen.
“I thought the military forbade the creation of any more Jötnar or Biomechs of any kind? In fact, I’m pretty sure it was one of the demands of most of the colonies that it was to form part of the Alliance Constitution as well as granting limited right to the Jötnar?”
Khan nodded feverishly.
“Yes, but Anderson found two Biomech transport ships near Euryale, all with dormant and partly constructed synthetics on board. He had a choice, finish them or kill them. Gun said birth, or the deal with the Alliance was off. He used them to make random changes.”
Khan grinned at him with a sly look and leaned in to speak quietly.
“One change wasn’t though. Anderson let us alter the sequence so they were all born female. Osk was the first.”
Spartan was shocked, both at the idea the Biomechs might now be able to reproduce but also that Anderson had gone along with such a plan. It wasn’t that he disagreed, but he knew the Alliance and the Senate would probably have him court-martialled for what he had done. He looked at Osk and then to Khan.
“How many females do you have now? Can they reproduce?”
Khan grinned once more.
“Two ships, each with more than a thousand Biomechs. Almost half are expecting offspring already. First new Jötnar is due in a few months. We have a lot of females now, and they are taking their time choosing mates.”
“They?”
“Well, there are lots of Jötnar and not many females to go around.”
He looked around to Osk.
“They can be very...picky!”
Spartan stepped up to the female and looked at her. She looked very similar in build to Khan, and the only indications of her change of sex being a slightly larger chest and less harsh facial expression. He extended his arm in a sign of friendship. She sidestepped and pulled on his arm, instantly catapulting Spartan forward and to the ground. He landed hard but kept moving. He jumped up and kicked her in the back of the knee before she could turn. It was hard enough for her to lose balance but not enough to cause major damage. As she staggered, Spartan jumped up and forced his arm around her neck. The two crashed to the ground to the laughter of Khan. Two of the Terra Nova Guards jumped in to break it up, but Khan stepped in their path.
“No, leave them!” he roared.
Osk lay on her front with Spartan on top and doing his best to pin the much stronger Jötnar down. Apart from her name, he could see very little difference between the two of them. He pushed down harder and felt her twist. In seconds, he rolled off her to find the Jötnar pinning him to the floor. Her fist came hurtling to his face, and only months of experience of combat gave him the reflexes and muscle memory to avoid the strike. He used all the strength in his upper body and neck to head butt her in the mouth before she rolled off. Spartan lifted himself up and shook off the dust. Osk did the same and faced him with two trickles of blood running down her face.
“You want some more?” said Spartan as he spat a mouthful of blood to the floor.
She stopped and turned to Khan.
“Gun was right. He is good,” she said with satisfaction before marching up to Spartan and swinging her arm much like Khan had done at first. Spartan twisted his left forearm to block it and stopped it just short of his chest. It was a strike although it was a mark of friendship. He looked at her bloodied face and friendly, if somewhat contorted smile. He knew the humour of the Jötnar and brought his right hand over to grasp hers.
“Osk, nice to meet you,” he said as pleasantly as he could.
She nodded to him and stepped back to the side of Khan.
Spartan rubbed his face with the back of his hand and noted the blood, more annoying as the blood and dirt was on his dress uniform.
There is a reason I usually stay with my fatigues!
Khan called over to him and the soldiers.
“You, and your friends. You have time for drink?”
Spartan turned to the soldiers who looked confused.
“Well?” he asked.
“A drink with you and your Jötnar friends? Hell yes!” laughed the Corporal.
Spartan nodded, pleased that at least he could spend some time with soldiers and fighters rather than the myriad of politicians and businessmen that seemed to be lurking throughout the building.
“What about the rest of you?” he asked the other soldiers.
A chorus of acknowledgements confirmed that the small band of soldiers would head to the nearest bar. Spartan gave Khan a friendly punch, and the group moved off down the main hallway, to the astonishment of the assembled patrons.
CHAPTER FOUR
Following the Union defeat at Terra Nova the 1st Jötnar Battalion transferr
ed to the fire world of Prometheus. As their birthplace, it was also the only part of the Confederacy that was relatively unpopulated. As part of their agreement to fight in the War, they were guaranteed freedoms and rights, but many citizens resented the Biomechs playing any part in civilised society. A solution to the Jötnar Question may have been war, had it not been answered by scientists and the unexpected events at Hyperion.
The 1st Jötnar Battalion
The circular Senate House was probably the most elaborate and exquisitely detailed structure Spartan had ever sat inside. According to the information he had read on the flight down to the surface, this part of the Palace had been rebuilt in marble a generation before the Great War of over fifty years ago, and had housed the Council for centuries. It had always been the seat of power for the planet and ultimately for the Confederacy. Scores of lavish marble sculptures adorned alcoves in the wall. The seating was on multiple levels, apparently in imitation of ancient designs back on Old Earth. Old paintings of important officials were shown on almost every flat service. It was evidently a solemn place, and the atmosphere of seriousness pervaded the room to the extent that Spartan could almost feel a chill down his spine.
Impressive, Teresa would love this place.
Spartan’s eye was drawn from the room and its decorations to the centre of the chambers. On a large pedestal stood a massive sculpture of the spaceship Terra Nova, the original colony ship from which the planet had taken its name. Spartan had heard of the tales of the vessel but had never seen a model of it before. This one was almost five metres long, and it showed signs of repair that may have been due to violence or simple decay. Most of the ship seemed to be taken up by massive fuel cells, perhaps more than three quarters of its size. There were a few other key differences between this model and the ships he was familiar with. For one thing, it looked like the ship was unarmed. No vessel of that size would travel through space in his time without at least basic point defence and small calibre weapons. The ship would be at risk from pirates, raiders and kidnappers. There was also no form of rotating habitation ring like on the ships he was used to; in fact, the passenger section looked no different to the cargo holds on modern ships. He was confused for a moment before remembering what he had heard about the early voyages, and the time they had taken to travel long distances.
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