Mark could feel the excitement, the nervousness, and determination that had gotten them to this point. Mark went into the carrier’s computer systems to read the plans for the flight route and the drop plan. He passed it onto the other centurions on the ships as he started to make a plan with the other Phantom decani. They dialed into the communications net, leaving it open to the Phantoms.
For the first time in two and a half centuries, a Roman legionnaire talked to humans from their home world openly.
“My name is Damus Versanti. I command Roma’s legions.” He waited for a few seconds to let that little fact set in before he continued.
“What you face today is a race called the Maraukians. We have fought these aliens for several hundred years in silence, keeping the human race safe. For the first time, they’ve broken through our buffer zone. So, we’ve come to help you people of Gilese system. Please get to your bunkers if you haven’t already done so. Do not attack our people or you will be detained. EMF forces, please also move into the bunkers. Thank you.”
“And the veil was lifted,” Chyna said.
It was a few minutes before anyone started talking or moving. All of them knew a new chapter of their lives and humanity had just been opened.
Chapter 45
Tower
Earth, Sol system
5/3353
Nivad Selvra sat in his office. Wallace and Dalia sat in the seats in front of him. All across the walls, his view screens showed information coming from Gilese and the results it was having on the EHC.
Wallace and Dalia looked haggard, but Nivad was as flawless as ever. It was as though the events that were happening around him didn’t touch him.
We live in interesting times, Nivad thought, neither pleased nor annoyed, just interested. He wasn’t motivated by fickle human emotions. No, he was motivated by playing the game. Making the rest of humanity think he was somehow similar to them.
“So what do we know?” Nivad asked.
“Basically, only what their leader has told us. They still haven’t shown themselves and we won’t know more until they do. We can’t even try to guess their abilities,” Dalia said.
“Though we might know something of their past,” Wallace said.
Nivad and Dalia looked to the man.
“I went through the history logs and looked for any mention of the legion. I was already looking at them, trying to figure out what made the EMF expand so rapidly seven hundred years ago. It was these guys.” Wallace gestured at a wall that was showing one of the Maraukians.
Nivad waved for the man to go on.
“About eight hundred years ago, we started picking up signals from a planet. The weird thing was they were speaking in a language we could understand. They were speaking in Latin.” Wallace looked to them both.
“The language of the Romans,” Nivad said. He’d learned everything he could on Rome, the possible predecessor of Roma. Any information might be useful.
“Correct. The corporations wanted to check it out—we sent the EMF. They were to go to the system, see what was there; if there were people, they were to establish contact. They got to the system, found people and started integrating.
“They got to know the people of Roma really well. The corporations had a windfall situation—a group of people who had no contact with Earth and Her Colonies. How could they cry ‘unsafe working conditions’ if they didn’t know about one another? They were about to start shipping equipment to turn Roma into an enslaved colony when this happened.”
A low-quality video showed a harsh planet with deep-red stone and random brilliant colored plants. The video taker was sitting on a wall with a machine gun.
“Here they come!” someone yelled. The camera guy checked their gun.
“Fire!” Tracers and weapons fired across a defensive fortification. They tore into what looked like a sea of gray.
Weapons fired back; plasma and rail cannons tore into the line.
Nivad knew what he was seeing now: a Maraukian charge. They moved on all six limbs at incredible speeds. The weapons on their back tracked and cut into the defenders.
The Maraukians were slowed by the weapons fire but it wasn’t enough. They covered the ground in a matter of minutes. The video paused as the Maraukian lunged at the trooper.
“The troopers had found a home among the people of Roma. They rebelled against their leaders, gutted carriers of corporate types and cut the feeds. We never heard anything else from them. The EMF grew in response. After two heads of the EMF, they forgot their mandates to make better weapons and be prepared for the Maraukians. Instead, they went back to their corporate game. By the time you took office, there was little proof the Maraukians or the legion ever existed.” Wallace sent another command and another image showed. This one of the same planet from the video, with a man holding a golden eagle aloft; people were in modern armor, but the same color pattern as what Nivad had read about in Rome’s legions.
“We know that they’re real, both parties, and we know there were troopers who fought with them.” Nivad tapped his desk.
“We are thinking their technology is more advanced, looking at how they were able to keep their presence a secret,” Dalia said.
“I also didn’t find this data until after the legion had announced their presence.” Wallace looked to them both.
“So our computer and data systems might be hacked by them?” Nivad asked.
“Precisely,” Dalia said.
“All missions of importance will be done on a need-to-know basis with handwritten notes, and noise cancellers. We need to hold an edge on these people—it’s going to be difficult,” Nivad said.
New handicaps but this is still my game. Will make things more eventful.
“The corporations are getting adventurous,” Dalia warned.
“Make sure that they stop being adventurous. Have the security contractors in our pocket and get the troopers on roving patrols of Mega City,” Nivad said.
“What about the colonies? What if we can’t defend them? Then people are going to start questioning us,” Wallace said.
“Well, we’re going to have to think quick on how to solve that issue, or think about how we can find ourselves useful to this legion.” Nivad looked to them both.
“You mean leaving the Ministry of Intelligence?” Dalia asked. Not even she could hide her shock. The Ministry of Intelligence commanded Earth and Her Colonies. Giving that up—it was a hard thought.
Emotions, emotions, my dear. What would I be trying to hold onto if it all starts coming apart?
“The EHC might fall apart and crumble. We do not know what the future holds. Wallace, I want a ship stocked and ready to leave at a moments’ notice. I will leave the cost at your discretion. I want you to also find out what the legion trade—going to need some capital to start. Dalia, I want you to look at long-term projections—what does this mean for the corporations? How can we use that?” Nivad caught their looks. They would do their jobs but they didn’t want to give up what they had.
“It is only a precautionary measure. I do not want to leave my position here, but think. If Roma is more powerful, then we will be second-rate at best, maybe way down the ladder in power if there are other planets. We did not come this far to be second-rate at best.” Nivad looked to them.
They nodded, understanding. Once they got past their first knee-jerk reactions, then they could see what he meant. If the EHC was dying, then it was better to get away from it than stay in the middle of the chaos.
“In the meantime, start moving the limbo carriers to the closest colonies. Best to have them on hand if these Maraukians show up in another system,” Nivad said.
“Yes, sir,” Dalia said, about to make a note on her surface but putting it down.
“Using paper is going to suck.” Wallace stood and straightened his suit.
Not as much as what is about to come if those troopers can’t stop the Maraukians, or the legion decides they don’t want to protect us.
C
hapter 46
Red Dust Bar
Earth, Sol system
6/3353
“So what’s going on, M?” Ortiz asked.
He’d quietly made his way back to Earth. Dominguez had the Westerly crew training up all across the slums. Troopers and ex-officers were happily getting the Westerly crew into trooper condition.
They’d been given decent training to start, but nothing like the concentrated push they were getting thrown through.
Once they were finished, Ortiz would trust any of them to watch his back. If it was official or not, they’d be troopers.
“There are aliens and they seem to like nothing more than killing people. Anyone who was caught outside of the colony tower’s cryobunkers and were close to these Maraukian landing zones were cut down.”
Ortiz looked at the man he knew as Moretti. The emphasis on the last two words made his eyes thin.
“These Maraukians don’t care who is in their way—they’ll cut them down. They’ve got weaponry better than ours. They can take a shitload of punishment. People are lying, saying our guns are better and an E12 would penetrate their innards better. Screamer missiles, maybe. Our other weapons, junk. This legion, they’re pretty much our only hope.” Moretti took a long drink from his beer.
Ortiz nodded and sat back, feeling a mantle he thought he’d put down fall back onto his shoulders.
He’d been a general of the Earth Military Force. He was the only man in recorded trooper history to climb from private to general. Even then, it hadn’t lasted as Nivad Selvra made sure he was released from service.
Nivad needed a soldier’s leader during the Harmony War. Now he needed pliable corporation figures to keep Earth and Her Colonies in check.
Something which was going to be thrown right out the window, if the legion’s governing body gave colonies the ability to leave their corporation masters in the dust.
Things are going to get messy really quick.
“You don’t seem shocked,” Moretti said.
“Guess that’s what I get for talking to a spy,” Ortiz complained.
Moretti smiled. They’d shared a history and were good friends for many years now.
“I know about the legion. At one time, they wanted me to join their ranks. Nerva was one of them. He was a recruiter. He didn’t go into much detail, but he said the battles we were fighting in the EHC were idiotic and wasteful. Makes sense now. He was talking about how we should be fighting the Maraukians instead.” Ortiz grabbed his beer and drank from it.
“Nerva was in the legion?” Moretti leaned forward. The man was a sucker for information.
“Yeah. They hired troopers, made it look like you were dead, picked you up and gave you a new life. Sounded good. I was thinking of doing it until Masoul happened. Couldn’t leave my people in the wind with that shit show going on.”
“We’ve got to assume they know everything about us,” Moretti said. “If they were capable of running this operation, they’ve got to have some impressive resources. We’ve seen glimpses of their ships. They’ve got some kind of drive which allows them to go faster-than-light and they’re proper warships. Not the economic junkers we have flying around. We had no idea where they came from or anything about them.” Moretti held Ortiz’s eyes with meaning.
Nivad didn’t know anything about this—shit. That’s got to be messy.
There was no knowing what Nivad might do to secure his power base. It seemed that all of the threads were coming apart piece by piece. Ortiz wondered how long it would be before a thread was pulled out and the whole thing tumbled apart.
When something as big as Earth and Her Colonies starts coming apart, it doesn’t do it quietly.
“Who’s running this thing from the EMF side?” Ortiz asked.
“Jones. Seems that he’s painted himself as some kind of brilliant military genius. Unfortunately, it seems he’s been busy and made the right connections, so Nivad can’t bring in someone who might know how to actually run a military.” Moretti hid his wolfish smile behind his glass.
“That is unfortunate.” Ortiz laughed, drinking as well.
Chapter 47
SLS Moby
Gilese Actual, Gilese system
7/3353
As Mark listened, he watched the cylinder of ships expand more, orientating itself toward Gilese, with the carriers and battleships lining up for their drop.
“Two hours to go, people. Relax and wait out.” Mark changed his view to the sensor data running around the system to get a clearer image of the space battle happening between the first armada of stealth ships and destroyers against the third wave.
The legion had struck first, with stealth ships sent ghosting toward the Maraukians. The sensors for Maraukians were great but not enough to see the three hundred stealth ships running on ballistic. The stealth ships had picked their targets well and let go with their main cannons, missiles, and everything they could throw in their first barrage. They quickly turned away as the Maraukian battlegroups split into assault and control barges, the latter turning back toward the jump point. The faces of the quadrahedral Insertion Barges fired their plasma cannons and coilguns at the stealth ships now turning to take on the control barges.
The destroyer missiles they’d launched with the stealth ships activated their third drives, smashing into the splitting assault ships, driving into the center and causing assault barrages to sympathetically explode or run into a field of debris, destroying more or severely damaging them.
The destroyers fired with their rail guns, waiting till they were within knife-fighting range, expending all of their remaining missiles in seconds. It was bloody closing with the Maraukians before firing their missiles to cover the Maraukians’ sensors and a wall of debris. Two-thirds of the ships were destroyed or sent drifting; the last third took minor damage and split off to gather the scattered and now broken forces.
There had been six Insertion Barges. Each held nearly twelve million Maraukians. Even after the battering the battlecruisers and stealth ships had given, they’d only killed two or three million out of the seventy-two million Maraukians headed for Gilese Actual. Not without casualties, too; a hundred and twenty stealth ships were either dead or too broken to be used again. Of the hundred and fifty battle cruisers, only sixty could move themselves; twenty were dead in space and seventy ships weren’t making it back. But there were a lot of life pods, which made Mark hopeful as he turned toward the sixty-nine-million-strong Maraukian force charging toward Gilese Actual. Some were already entering atmosphere and the last assault barge would be down in an hour.
The cylinder expanded to move around Gilese and toward the oncoming scattered Maraukian wave. Carriers and battleships hit the outer atmosphere as drop doors opened and drop-ships lived up to their name, gliding from space and through the atmosphere.
“Punching,” Mark said.
Everyone in the tubes straightened as the outer air lock opened and they found themselves hurled out of a missile port.
“Wooo hoooo! That’s a fucking ride!” Evan said as the Phantoms and their equipment raced alongside drop-ships. A couple waved at the pilots, who watched in horror as the Phantoms spun through the atmosphere around them and the Badger or a Bellona tank they carried.
Plasma cannon fire reached up from the ground, coupled with heavy coilgun fire, as drop-ships were hit. Mark saw as three Phantoms where hit by random fire. One was gone, the other two injured badly as their suits put them to sleep and their NIAIs took over.
“Sarah, connect me to EMF sensor relays, code 1AE3942.”
“I’m in. Information coming up.”
“Pass higher.”
“Done.”
“Closest, highest concentrated area of Maraukians?”
“City of Remorse.” The city was highlighted in his HUD.
“Overlay underground system.” Mark changed his trajectory, the Phantoms with him. “Deploy drop chute.”
The black boxes they’d placed on their feet
spat out carbon tubules as nanites spread in between, making a shell around each Phantom as they plummeted feet first toward Gilese Actual. The layers of nanites were stripped away as they were buffeted through the atmosphere at Mach eleven. Four hundred feet from the ground, the anti-grav system kicked in, pulling enough gravities to kill a human as it brought them to a hover above the ground. The carbon tubules and the black boxes on their feet fell apart as they scanned the area, well before the drop-ships coming in.
“Underground system.” Mark passed information on as he raced off, securing the entry point. One kick opened the stubborn door as they dropped into the maglev train system. Mark felt the want to merge as they ran at their ground-eating lope toward the city five kilometers away.
Sarah put them with the 125th and 354th. They had two Bellona at their disposal and were about to hit the ground and charge the city.
“Who is this on our net?” the centurion of the 354th asked.
“Phantom Lords assault group. Sir, I ask you hold your people before we secure the city.”
“Look, I don’t know who you think you are but I’m not sure I can secure the city with what I’ve got.”
“Sir, have you heard of the new record on the simulators?”
“Yeah, that group which ripped a live sim apart and didn’t take a casualty. Why?”
“Happy to meet your acquaintance.”
“This isn’t some sim.”
“I know that. Look, I can get in the city and if me and my people die at least we can get you some information of their positions—you don’t lose anything.”
“You’re willing to bet all of your people’s lives?”
“They all are—I put you on our general net.”
The centurion took a few seconds to check what he was being told was true. “All right, we’ll hold.”
“Thank you, Centurion.”
Mark directed the Phantom Lords. “All right, we’re here. Split into contuberniums and clear the towers inward out to force them into our people, if anything.”
The Tenth Awakens (Maraukian War Book 1) Page 27
