“Get to the dome and secure it, fast!” shouted Spartan.
It was an incredibly risky stratagem, as the dome was situated in the heart of the compound. The only good thing was that most of the machines, zealots and Biomechs had already left to do battle with the forces of General Rivers. But two machines remained as well as nearly thirty Zealots. Spartan ran forward and was amongst them while they tried to organise themselves. Bullets rained down on his armour, but he did his best to ignore them and smashed through three of them to reach the first machine. Two of his Vanguards came with him, taking full advantage of the thick armour and heavy weapons to clear a path to the orb.
“Spartan!” shouted Khan, and instinctively, he turned to spot a Biomech swinging a glaive at his head. He lurched to the side, but the blade still scraped down his armour and embedded in a shoulder joint, luckily causing no damage. He lifted his left arm, only to find it grabbed by the four–legged machine. It was at least twice his height, and the side-mounted guns were already tracking towards him. Khan leapt onto the Biomech and dragged it down, finally freeing him to twist one of them into the line of fire.
“Bring it down!” he shouted.
The other two Vanguards moved around the machine and fired and stabbed with their razor sharp blades fitted to their arms. The machine was tough, and it took a dozen high-power rounds from the ASOG troopers to finally bring it down. The last machine forced itself on the group and managed to crush two of its own Zealots, and it made for Spartan. He lifted up his arms to fire, but it was then that he spotted more than thirty of the smaller eight-legged spider-like machines Teresa had described. They must have been hidden in the rubble behind the dome, and they threw themselves into the small group with savage abandon, hacking down marines and Zealots at will.
“Captain, the guns!” called out Kowalski on the intercom.
Spartan looked up to see one of the massive gun batteries turning on its raised platform and start tracking something up in the sky. His attention was pulled away as one of the smaller machines appeared next to the even larger machine and stabbed at him, managing to embed one of its razor sharp blades into his visor. As the sensors flashed with warnings, he looked to his right to see Khan down on one knee but still hacking and shooting with his looted Biomech weapon. The marines were putting up a hell of a fight, but already they were outnumbered and still thirty metres from their objective. He lurched to the side and fired a long burst of gunfire at the smaller machine, watching two of its arms ripped off.
“Yeah!” he shouted and lifted his arm to fire at the gun battery. He was only able to let loose four ineffectual shots before he was forced to duck and avoid another strike.
Damn it! Guns won’t bring down those things.
* * *
Admiral Churchill waited with the patience of a saint as the crew ran through a detailed scan of the surface. It was risky, but the warning signs had been there the second they arrived in orbit. Scrambled radio signals and heat blooms flashed around a small mountainous area on the ground. His gut instinct told him it was a fight of some kind, and if Spartan was alive, he was convinced the man would be right in the middle of it.
“Well, what have we got?” he asked impatiently.
His XO was stood near the tactical officer, double-checking all the information that was coming in.
“Sir, you’re right. It’s definitely a ground battle.”
The warning alarms started up inside the ship. It was the vessel’s automated countermeasures system.
“Incoming fire, it’s the ground batteries,” called out the tactical officer.
Admiral Churchill pulled the intercom from its mount and took a short breath before speaking. He knew this was the fight every single one of them was dreading. All he could do was promise himself that this time it would be different.
“This is Admiral Churchill. Commence ground operations. All ships prepare for bombardments. I want every gun, missile, decoy and fighter between us, and those weapons. We will lose no ships today!”
It was a short order, but the words galvanised the fleet into action. Every man and woman was ready, and it took just seconds for the first of the shuttles and landing craft to launch from the hull of the Santa Cruz and begin their descent to the ground battle. Even as the first two projectiles hurtled up from the ground, a dozen drones and fighters were moving in on an intercept course. Every single railgun and missile system in the fleet trained in on the approaching projectiles and waited to fire.
* * *
Somehow Spartan and just over half of his team had survived and beaten back the bloody assault around the orb. It was already starting to glow, however, and more and more enemy troops were appearing from the bases of the other hills and from inside the many ruined buildings. A quick glance told him they faced seven of the large machines, up to fifty of the smaller ones, and an untold number of the Biomechs and Zealots. He was starting to think the attack on the dome was perhaps not his most tactically astute of ideas in the last few years.
“Everybody get to the dome, and find any cover you can!” he barked.
The small group covered the ground quickly and placed their wounded behind whatever shattered walls and rubble they could find. At this distance, it was clear the dome was much bigger than any of them had suspected. He moved inside and lifted his visor so that he could see past the four large cracks now obscuring his vision. Teresa took up cover behind one of the largest columns and turned around to watch the approach of the enemy reinforcements. Spartan tried to contact the General, but once more he was greeted with static. He looked inside the dome and was surprised to see banks of computer panels. Two men, both Zealots, completely ignored him and tapped a series of buttons in a separate rush. Spartan wasn’t sure what they were doing, but he was sure it wasn’t good.
“Get back!” he roared.
Both ignored him, and Khan staggered towards them, leaving a trail of blood from a vicious looking leg wound. He grabbed the first man around the throat and hurled him at the wall. The second tried to run, but he lifted his Biomech firearm and sent a single deadly shot into the man’s back. Whatever technology lay behind the weapon was uncertain, but the Zealot was smashed to the floor in a pool of blood. Khan turned back and grinned at Spartan. He respirator was off and blood ran down his cheek.
“You crazy bastard!” laughed Spartan. “You can breathe okay down here?”
Khan nodded, evidently amused that Spartan found it difficult. Kowalski had already moved inside, along with one of the techs from the Santa Cruz. They examined the displays and started to work through the screen of data.
“I can’t believe this,” said Kowalski as he brought up a map of dots.
Spartan leaned in to look, but Sergeant Lovett was waving off to the right. He moved to the gap where he was kneeling and looked out. There were now hundreds of the enemy, and all of them assembling around the dome, but so far none of them had attacked them directly. He looked over to his left and could see the firefight still going on around the hill.
What are they waiting for?
“They’re mobilising for a push, I think,” said the Sergeant.
Spartan wasn’t so sure. It was obvious to him that half of their number would be enough to stop them. There was simply no logical reason for them to just wait around and watch them disable the dome.
“Watch your zones, they will attack soon. Hit the fastest ones first, buy us all the time you can.”
He then turned back to Kowalski who was still working through screen of data.
“Well, what is it, and can you stop more of them coming through?” he asked.
“I can’t tell you what it is, but I can tell you it is an entrance to somewhere. This map is a list of destinations.”
“Like an elevator?” suggested Spartan.
“Maybe. Anyway, I can’t shut it down from here. Those two bastards have already locked us out. It has to be configured from the other side.”
Spartan looked less than
impressed.
“You’re kidding?”
Kowalski looked back to him.
“With enough time, I might be able to hack this.”
A loud mechanical scream came from the horde of Zealots, machines and Biomechs that were waiting outside. The Zealots began chanting. It was something Spartan hadn’t heard before, but there had been rumours of something similar in the fighting on Euryale prior to the arrival of the relief marines. Spartan checked his ammunition counters and was mortified to see he was down to only a quarter of what he had started with.
“Wait for it!” he called, now expecting the worst. Instead, the sound of General Rivers greeted him on his suit’s intercom.
“Spartan, the guns are going down any second!” His voice was muffled, and it sounded as if he must be inside the hill, as well as Captain Carlos. A loud bang came from the side of the dome, and he leaned out to spot streaks of blue electricity flashing at different points along the side of the hill. They were quickly followed by ripples from a dozen small explosions coming from inside.
“What’s that?” shouted Teresa.
“The guns, they should be down!” replied Spartan.
“Like it’s going to make much difference. Look,” said Khan with an arm extended out and to the open space around them. The mass of hostile forces had broken into a run, and it would be just seconds before they crashed into the small band of defenders.
Gods, we’ll never hold this place!
Spartan lifted both of his arms and opened fire, along with the rest of the unit. The skill, accuracy and combined firepower of the unit were impressive. At the front were the smaller machines, and it took a good number of rounds to bring each one down. Every few seconds a substantial blast from the ASOG’s coilguns ripped holes through their lines. Even so, scores of them continued forward.
“If we get out of this, I’m gonna push for artillery support!” shouted Sergeant Lovett.
Yeah, do that!
“Why aren’t they firing?” asked Teresa.
Spartan didn’t have time to respond, but he suspected they were loath to damage the structure. The nearest machine made it to one of the many openings at the base of the dome and pushed inside. Spartan blocked its way and slammed the tip of his left fist into the centre of its torso. With a flash, it shuddered and dropped to the ground. Two Zealots came in from behind and hit his legs with rifle fire, setting off more internal alarms. A quick burst of fire from Teresa dealt with them, but it wouldn’t be enough.
“What’s the plan, Captain? We’re going to get overrun down here!” cried Kowalski.
Spartan hacked and stabbed as he did his best to stop anything coming in through the gap between the pillars. The other Vanguards did the same, using their bulk and armour to shore up the ways in while the ASOG troopers and marines filled in the gaps. For a second, Spartan was hopeful, but the movement on the other hills brought him back to earth. He could see swarms of the machines coming out like bugs leaving a nest. Behind him the orb started to glow, and a high intensity buzzing sound rippled through the dome. Spartan turned for a second and caught Kowalski’s gaze.
“Spartan! We need to go through and shut it down on the other side!” he screamed.
He took a step backwards, but two Biomechs forced their way up to him and reached in to strike him. Khan leapt in and attacked them with a glaive from one of the fallen creatures. Spartan wanted to stay and help his friend, but he knew the orb would allow even more of them to arrive. He spun around and moved to the light. Kowalski grabbed one of the rucksacks and jumped inside. With a white flash, he vanished from view.
“Kowalski, can you read me?” he called out, but the intercom was silent apart from the continuing garbled messages running through the battle. He looked back one last time to see the sight of his tiny unit fighting off the overwhelming sea of machines and flesh. Gunfire, grenades and blades flashed, yet somehow they were holding. The larger and slower four-legged machines were still clanking forward, and he knew just one of those would be able to crush them. He turned back to the orb and stepped closer, only to see the shape of a group of Zealots facing him in what looked like a mirror. He jumped at them, but instead fell through the orb and into a dark, grimly lit cavern. He staggered, and only the quick thinking Kowalski stopped him from crashing into the floor.
“Where the hell are we?” he asked.
Kowalski shook his head.
“No idea, but the gravity is slightly higher, and the air composition is different.”
Spartan was confused, but he quickly remembered the Zealots. He spun around, but there was nothing behind him except the glowing orb.
“Yeah, they jumped through as we came in. They’ll be fighting our people already, so we don’t have much time.”
Spartan looked inside the place they had just arrived in. It was a wide cavern, easily large enough to fit a small ship inside of. It felt slightly damp, and the temperature was colder than the place he had just left. Kowalski was already checking a series of computer displays, but Spartan wanted information. He stepped further away from the orb and looked out into the depths of the cavern. He could see lines and lines of shapes, and each of them at equal distances apart and lined up like soldiers on parade. Every hundred metres or so was a much larger shape that reminded him of something. Then one of them moved, and he instantly recognised it as one of the four-legged machines.
“What?” he muttered inside his suit.
Kowalski heard him and turned around to see the great horde of thousands of machines moving as if they had just awoken. On a ledge, perhaps two hundred metres away, were a group of figures that were animated and pointing back down to him and Spartan.
“Uh, I think we should get going!” he said and then moved back to the computers.
Spartan continued watching the shapes and tapped the mission recorder on his suit to collect a record of everything he could see. Out in the middle of the hall, hundreds of metres away was an even larger shape; like that of a Biomech, but slowly lifting to a height of incredible proportions. It started off as just a few metres but then increased to more than ten and continued upwards. It stretched out its arms like some kind of foul metal demon.
“Uh, Kowalski. Can you shut it down?” he asked nervously.
“I need a few more minutes. The security on this thing is insane. I think it is locked down on our location back on the surface.”
Spartan shook his head at the shape of the monstrous machine as it finished taking shape. It reminded him of some sickening combination of a Biomech, machine and the half woman, half serpent icon of Echidna he had seen on so many Zealots before. Around its feet ran scores of people, all of them hooded and chanting.
No way, it can’t be?
He looked back to Kowalski.
“Forget it, we need to shut this thing down. Help me set the charges, then we get the hell out of this place!”
* * *
The first two assaults had been driven back with heavy casualties. General Rivers had now deployed all of his reserves to the ground around the entrance of the hill. Those inside were already working their way back out but were being harassed by an almost limitless number of the enemy. He and his small squad of marine guards moved from the tree line and into the cover offered by the ruins. Off into the distance, he could make out the hundreds of enemies that appeared to be besieging the dome.
Spartan surely cannot succeed amongst all that?
Another wave of Zealots and machines moved to attack his own position, and the dozens of defenders did their best to hold them off with gunfire. He couldn’t fail to notice the horde of enemy forces moving from the others hill. They could be no more than a few minutes away, and deep down he knew he couldn’t hold them back.
Should we fall back to the jungle?
His thoughts were interrupted by a familiar voice from the entrance to the hill. It instantly grabbed his attention, and he twisted his head to see Captain Carlos and two of the Terra Nova soldiers appear.
All three were covered in filth and blood, but at least they had managed to shutdown the tracking hardware. They leapt from the cover and ran the short distance to where he and his forces were dug in. From the hill emerged more of their unit.
“Some of you made it back, then?” he asked grudgingly.
“Sir. Oh, and General, we’ve brought friends!” said the Captain, and he slumped down near the General and lifted his rifle.
From out of the hill emerged the remainder of the Captain’s unit, but behind them followed small groups of people. Some wore civilian clothing, others rags. But the majority wore old military uniforms. He recognised a few as Alliance Navy, but a large group were Confederate militia from Avagana, the colony back on Prime. Most were carrying captured weapons, and every one of them was out for revenge. They poured out into the ruins and rubble around the mountain’s base and joined the defenders in the battle.
“Excellent work, son, damn fine piece of soldiering.”
He looked back to the enemy, and his smile vanished at the sight of three of the four-legged machines plus hundreds of smaller ones and a similar number of Biomechs. They’d regrouped and were rushing across the open ground.
So the Zealots are the junior partners here.
A volley of rockets from near the rear of their formation whistled overhead and exploded in the tree line.
“Hold them back! Don’t let them break through!” he shouted.
Two bright lights flashed from the nearest of the huge machines, and streams of heavy cannon rounds smashed around the General and his entourage. Two marines were shredded by the firepower, and the blast itself blew him out from his cover and against a low wall.
“General!” cried out of his surviving guards, but he was also cut to ribbons by repeated gunfire from the approaching enemy.
Star Crusades Uprising: The Second Trilogy Page 83
