Star Crusades Nexus: Book 03 - Heroes of Helios

by Michael G. Thomas

  “What’s going on?” she demanded, wasting no time on pleasantries.

  “We escaped with help from the Zathee underground,” explained Jack, stripping the clothing from around his mother’s wound.

  “And her?”

  The blue spider’s web of around the wound had expanded further, and Teresa was now completely unconscious.

  “She was hit by Animosh security forces when we escaped.”

  The Helion man approached and looked down at her. He placed a hand on her arm and then looked to Jack.

  “I can stabilize her for a few hours, that is all.”

  From inside his long coat, he pulled out a small pack about the size of his hand, placing it on the table.

  “What’s in there?” asked Jack suspiciously.

  The Helion smiled crookedly at him.

  “The Animosh often use these weapons against us. Even a wound will kill over time. We have medicines that can help.”

  He opened the pack, revealing a dozen metal cylinders and vials of blue and green fluids. Jack stepped back to let him work and turned to the others.

  “These are Helion synthetics, like Hunn and Wictred. They helped us escape, but there are more coming.”

  Lieutenant Rossen nodded.

  “Yes, we saw. Thai Qiu-Li is on the roof trying to make contact with the fleet. We need help down here and fast.”

  Several bursts of gunfire from outside caught their attention, and her secpad crackled to life. She tapped it and transferred the audio feed to her earpiece. Jack did the same and was surprised to find he could speak with them all.

  Finally, something actually works!

  Of course it was down to the fact they were high and well above the jamming equipment of the Animosh, as well as in close proximity to each other. It was an open channel between the squad, and Jack could barely contain his smile at the sound of Hunn, his old friend, as he spoke.

  “Thirty plus targets on the steps, more on the way.”

  Rossen looked at them in the room and moved back to the doorway.

  “Look, there are only two wide staircases heading up here to the roof. Either they come up on foot or they land by aircraft. Wictred, Jack, and those brutes out there, you hold the staircase. Hunn and I will move up to the top level and look after Thai Qiu-Li.”

  Jack almost seemed to wince at the mention of her name, as if he had done her some great disservice.

  “Lieutenant, I’ve reached the fleet!” said the young marine over the communications network.

  “General Darcy is sending Hammerheads to our position. ETA, fifteen minutes.”

  Lieutenant Rossen smiled at Jack before replying.

  “Good work, Private. Are you still in contact?”

  “Better than that, Sir, I’ve got a relay configured up here. I can come back down now.”

  “Excellent work, get back here. We need all the help we can get.”

  She changed to the repeater signal and was immediately connected to the marine liaison officer on board one of the major warships in orbit.

  “Major Sherman here. We have seven Hammerheads en route. I have also made contact with Commander Gun planeside. He is coordinating ground actions in the capital.”

  She wasn’t quite sure what that was all about, but right now they had more pressing concerns. She looked to her right. Jack and the two synthetics were dragging metal containers to barricade the open space facing the staircase. Wictred, meanwhile, defended the steps alone as they made the preparations.

  “Lieutenant, we have a problem. The Helion defense grid is active. We’ve just lost a Hammerhead to automated ground fire. We can’t get anything below ten kilometers.”

  The signal crackled, vanishing for a moment before returning.

  “…for Commander Gun. We cannot get anything in the air for either of you without being shot down.”

  Jack heard the conversation as it was being broadcast to all of them on their open channel. He felt momentarily sick at the prospect of failing after they had made it so far, when he remembered the breacher. He reached inside his jacket and held it up to show the Lieutenant for the second time. Jack smiled, realizing what he carried.

  “The rebels gave it to us. It will override the Helion defense system and shut it down.”

  Rossen looked shocked at this information.

  “What? Are you serious? Use it!”

  She reached for the unit, but Jack moved it aside, now starting to doubt whether it should be used.

  “It is to be activated to start the Zathee uprising. If we use it, this world will tear itself apart.”

  Lieutenant Rossen considered his words but only for a few seconds.

  “How do we use it?”

  Jack now looked confused as he examined the outer shell for a sign of how it should be connected.

  “Uh, uh…”

  The Helion busy working to help Teresa stepped to the doorway and called out to them. He was nearly twenty meters away but must have been listening to their conversation.

  “That is a military-grade breacher unit. You need to plug it in directly to a communication node, like that one,” he said, pointing to a gantry one floor up and extended out to the side of the building.

  Jack looked at it carefully but could only see a metal box on the framing. It was completely exposed to the elements, and almost certainly the gunfire from the enemy. He then looked back down to the unit itself.

  “You’re kidding, that thing up there?”

  The Helion nodded.

  “Yes, open the panel and replace the unit with your one. The rest is automatic, assuming your information is legitimate.”

  He walked back inside, and the Lieutenant looked back to Jack. She looked worried, and Jack sensed her indecision.

  “Sir, the man that gave this to us said it would bring down all the Helion defenses and leave them open to a short coup. The Ambassador was taking it to them when they were attacked on our ship. Once the rebels take control, they promise to support us against the Biomechs.”

  “If it works. It could just start a war, one we will be responsible for. We…I can’t be held responsible for a decision like that.”

  Jack shook his head.

  “No, the Helions started this when they attacked our ship and murdered our crew. Do you know how many Zathee have died in the last three hundred years at their hands? How many have died helping us to get here? We owe it to them,” he said, pointing out in the distance.

  Lieutenant Rossen sighed, the weight of the decision playing firmly on her, but even now she couldn’t make the call; that one choice that could save them, or burn the world around them, potentially leaving them as the greatest criminals the Helions had encountered since their war with the Biomechs over a thousand years before.

  “Jack!” Teresa called in a weak voice from inside the security room.

  They both turned to see the haggard and partially dressed form of Teresa. She leaned against the doorframe with the Helion standing behind her in the shadows. There was open space in front of her, yet something caught her eye. Jack followed it, but he was too slow to spot the two Animosh warriors pulling themselves over the gantry on the left side of the structure and drop down onto the level. One moved behind a wide pillar, but Teresa cut the other to pieces. She had whipped out her sidearm and hit him twice in the head before losing her balance.

  “No!” shouted Jack, but she hit the ground, only just protecting her face with her hands. Jack started toward her, but she waved him off.

  “Help the rebels, Jack. We don’t need these animals on our side.”

  Jack knew that voice, and he also knew deep down that he was going to do it. He had known the minute he’d seen the synthetics and heard of their persecution. He stepped away and threw a short glance to the Lieutenant.

  “I’m doing it, to hell with them all.”

  She watched him go but was lost for words as he rounded the corner, moving to the steps that lead to the next level. At the same time, th
e first wave of Animosh reached the top of the wide steps and fanned out onto their level. Wictred and the two synthetics opened fire at close range. Wictred had selected the rapid-fire mode on his carbine and cut down the first four before they even saw him. The synthetics used captured thermal weapons and between them brought down three more.

  “Aircraft!” shouted somebody on the network.

  Jack rolled to the side of the steps, and a burst of a dozen rounds burned into the metal around him. One reached just half a meter from his head, but he regained his balance and pushed on. As he reached the top, he glanced back and could see the marines blazing away at the Animosh trying to break out from the two staircases. Rossen and Hunn added their own fire to the cloud of ducted fan flyers whooshing like insects around the top of the tower. One spun down with black smoke belching from its engine, but another quickly replaced it.

  Come on, Jack, get it over with!

  He pushed out from the cover and sprinted over the open ground, passing by three pillars before spotting the moving shadow.

  Something is coming down!

  He rolled across the ground and slid against the fourth column, his carbine raised and ready for whoever or whatever it might be. The footsteps became louder, and then the form of Thai Qiu-Li appeared. She staggered but kept moving. He jumped out to grab her and pull her from the stray rounds striking the building. There was blood on her chest and arm.

  “Thai Qiu-Li, are you hurt?” he asked stupidly.

  She looked at him with amused eyes and then slumped forward. Jack held her weight but could see the dark red blood dripping from her back. He looked at her face, but it was deathly white. There were three burn marks from thermal rounds in her chest and another on her shoulder. As he examined her, he knew it was a miracle she’d got so far. There were more noises from above, and two Animosh appeared on the steps, looking down. Jack lifted his carbine and put a shot between the eyes of the first, but the second ducked back out of sight.

  “Thai Qiu-Li, I’ll be back for you,” he said, lowering her still form to the ground.

  The start of the gantry was only a short distance away, but if there were Animosh above him, they’d kill him the minute he stepped out.

  I need to get rid of them first.

  Jack activated the rapid-fire mode on his carbine and sprinted up the steps to the next level.

  “This is Jack. Thai Qiu-Li is down, and there are Animosh on the rooftop.”

  “Understood,” replied Lieutenant Rossen, “be quick and get that unit activated!”

  Jack had hoped they might be able to send somebody to help, but the whoosh from gunship firing rockets reminded him how hard the others were being hit. A four-engine ducted fan flyer moved past and hovered to the side of the floor he was approaching and dropped off another four Animosh, as well as something else, something much larger. He ducked back and watched from the last few steps.

  “Uh, Lieutenant, did you know they have infantry combat drones?”

  The machine was slightly larger than a Helion and bipedal, but armored in a similar fashion to the T’Kari. In its arms, it carried a larger thermal rifle that looked more like a cannon.

  Well, here we go.

  Jack clipped his bayonet to the muzzle of his carbine and took aim at the nearest Animosh. Again he scored a perfect shot to the head and then moved out from his cover. There were three more of them, plus the missing one that had gone into hiding. The machine instantly spotted him and swiveled about nosily to aim its weapon. Jack sprinted as fast as he could, sliding to a stop behind a column. The gun flashed, and a streak of blue energy pulsed out to strike the column, but not before vaporizing one of the other warriors that had managed to get in the way.

  “Nice, two left plus that thing.”

  He reached into his webbing gear but could find no grenades. It was an automatic reaction, but he’d completely forgotten how lightly equipped they all were. More rockets continued to strike the building, and large chunks of black masonry ripped off to fall onto the lower levels.

  “Jack, we need that signal!”

  He looked to the three targets, but the voice of the Lieutenant kept ringing in his ears. He inhaled a deep, long breath and ran from the cover and toward the edge of the building. All three of them opened fire, but only the machine was accurate to strike near enough. As he reached the railing, a round blew a hole the size of his head in the metal framing. Without hesitating, he jumped up, throwing himself off the edge and into open air. Shot after shot flashed past him as he fell an entire level, crashing halfway along the gantry. His carbine clattered away and tumbled from the edge, and he slipped from the rusted walkway.

  You idiot, get to your feet.

  He knew he didn’t have long, and so with all the strength he had left, yanked himself to the metal flooring and limped to the control box. It wasn’t particularly big and was surrounded on all sides by a thin acrylic type protective shell. Jack kicked at it twice, and it cracked and fell apart, revealing the unit. He expected it to be stiff, but the door opened to reveal a complex series of circuits and cylinders.

  “Sir, I’m at the unit.”

  He looked at each piece, finally reaching a sphere identical to the one he was currently holding. It took a firm tug to dislodge it, yet nothing happened.

  Weird.

  Jack had expected something to happen, even if just a noise. Somebody shouted from behind, and the two surviving Animosh on the floor above spotted him. One lifted his rifle, but Jack knew he couldn’t waste time. With a quick movement, he forced the breacher into the unit and slammed the door shut. The first shots from the Animosh struck the metal framing and another came even closer. More concerning was the head of the mechanical beast that was moving slowly to the edge.

  Move it, now!

  Ignoring the gunfire, he clambered back across the gantry and hurled himself to the safety of the floor. A powerful shot ripped apart a large chunk of the metal structure, and part of it fell away, including a section of the communication relay.

  * * *

  “Well?” demanded Commander Gun for the tenth time.

  The three Hammerheads sat on the landing platform with their engines running and each packed with marines. Gun waited outside while a squad kept their carbines trained on a group of battered and bruised looking Helions. Gun looked out at the smoke almost two kilometres away, where the fourth of the Hammerheads had crashed with the loss of everybody on board. He wanted to hit something, and the longer he waited, the more likely it was that he would turn on their prisoners. Luckily for them, the young communications specialist in the lead craft leaned out from the side.

  “Commander, the grid is down! They did it.”

  Gun nodded grimly.

  “Good, let’s go. You know the target!”

  As soon as one of his feet touched the floor of his personal Hammerhead, it started to lift. In seconds, they were airborne and accelerating quickly over the heavily polluted surface of Helios. Gun tapped his communications unit to speak with all marine units within range.

  “This is Commander Gun. Commence the attack. You’re are authorized to use lethal force.”

  The words seemed to excite him more than anybody else in the craft. It had been sometime since he’d been able to flex his muscles, and as usual, it was being left to the last minute before he could help.

  Looks like it’s Gun to the rescue, he thought, and unsurprisingly it made him feel good.

  * * *

  Jack had managed to get the lower levels in less than a minute, but the gantry and the communications unit was completely destroyed. Even as he ran, the combat drone gave pursuit and was moving almost as fast as him. By the time he reached the others, it was only one floor above him. The sight that greeted him almost stopped him in his tracks. One of the synthetics lay dead on the steps, and Wictred was wrapping a thick bandage around his waist.

  “My mother?” he asked.

  Wictred nodded at the pillar to his left. Teresa lay at the
base, as well as the shattered body of the Helion who had helped them. Jack ran to her and was relieved to find she was conscious, though incredibly weak. More rounds hit nearby, and Lieutenant Rossen popped her head from behind one of the improvised barricades to call to him.

  “Get down, the next wave is coming.”

  He knelt down beside his mother, and that was when he spotted the body of Hunn lying face down on the ground, a dark pool of blood around his head. Jack shook his head angrily and made to move to him, but Teresa grabbed his arm.

  “No, take my weapon, stop them!”

  She was weak, but he could see the fire in her eyes, the same fire he saw in his father when he was committed to action. Jack took the pistol from her and moved to the barricade alongside the Lieutenant and Wictred.

  “Where is the other synthetic?”

  Wictred angled his head to the other staircase.

  “He’s held it for three minutes now, not bad for one of them.”

  Lieutenant Rossen checked her carbine and lifted it to place the barrel on the top of the cover. She aimed carefully and waited for the next wave. Instead of Animosh, a small object flew through the air and landed amongst them. Jack dived to the side, but the young officer threw herself onto the weapon moments before it exploded with a flash. It wasn’t a powerful weapon, but it killed her instantly, and the blast sent Jack and Wictred tumbling to the floor. Jack’s vision blurred, but his first thought was to get up. It was hard, almost impossible, but with great effort he sat up and aimed his pistol at the staircase. Two Animosh appeared, but both were cut down by gunfire from behind him. He turned around to see two Hammerheads, hovering and blazing away with their gun turrets. One shattered the attack of the Animosh, and the second tore the combat drone apart as though it had been constructed from rotten wooden timbers. Another moved closer, and marines jumped down and spread out to secure the level.

  We did it, he thought, though the victory felt hollow.