Legions of Orion (Star Crusades Nexus, Book 1)

by Michael G. Thomas

  “Interesting, they are like the ones we saw on the surface.”

  The one he seemed most interested in was of a glowing orb surrounded by walking machines. The design was basic, but it suggested they were bowing down to the orb, itself containing the shape of something.”

  Captain Garcia examined the same piece of art, although with less interest than that shown by Khan. He looked over to the Doctor who was walking towards a dark shape in the centre of the room.

  “Hey, Doctor. Who did all this?”

  She ignored him, but one of the archaeologists, a scruffy man with long hair, looked back to him.

  “It’s not that old here. I’d say maybe a hundred...two hundred years top. The tech is not that dissimilar to ours. We’re thinking it is most likely one of the early colony ships. Over a dozen went missing during the first generation of exploration in this system.”

  Captain Garcia looked unimpressed.

  “Colonists, how could they create the technology for something like this place?”

  The archaeologist grinned at him, his face contorting slightly beneath his respirator.

  “How would I know? I’m not with the technical team. You need to speak to Doctor Morgonz about that.”

  Two of the technicians ran over to where the Doctor was busy wiping dust away from a number of large computer units. She actually seemed almost excited at what she had found hidden beneath layers of debris.

  “What is it?” asked Captain Garcia from his position off to the side of the cavernous room.

  With a flicker of energy, a dust covered display unit flashed and sprung to life. The whiteness of its display almost blinded them in the pitch-blackness so far underground. She turned and grinned at them, but no one could actually see her face for a few seconds as their eyes adjusted once more.

  “This, gentlemen, is an antique. We have examples of this kind of equipment in the Alliance Archives back on Terra Nova.”

  “So it’s one of ours, then?” continued the Captain.

  Doctor Morgonz looked back at him incredulously.

  “Well who were you expecting? Intelligent alien life?”

  Two of the marines chuckled at her comment, but a stern look from the Captain put them back to their usual silent status. Doctor Morgonz finished working on the equipment and pulled a lever. More systems activated until at least a quarter of the equipment in the room was running. She examined the main screen for a little while longer and then reached out to touch the display. Jose stepped closer and lifted his hand.

  “Hey, don’t you want to check for any more gear before we start using this stuff?” he asked nervously.

  The Doctor ignored him and brought up a schematic of the site. It was heavily detailed with multiple power sources around a central shaft near where the dome building had been present. She spotted something off to the side and enlarged it to fill the screen.

  “Wow!” she exclaimed.

  Khan and Captain Garcia moved from where they had been checking the perimeter and approached her display. The image had shifted from the technical side and instead showed a network of nodes, each joined by a series of lines. Captain Garcia pointed to the shapes on the left-hand side.

  “Isn’t this Terra Nova and Earth?”

  The Doctor looked back at him; an expression of pleasant surprise on her face.

  “Well done, Captain. Yes, it is a map of sorts. This section contains three nodes, two of which are worlds in the Alliance. This third one I do not recognise.”

  Khan looked for just a second before speaking.

  “Uh, that’s this place, isn’t it?”

  The Doctor nodded but said nothing, evidently too embarrassed to have anything to say. The others gathered round the screen as she tapped a number of the nodes to reveal further details. The one at Terra Nova showed an icon that was different to any of the others. She tapped it, and it brought up technical data and schematics.

  “Fascinating,” she said to herself as she examined the information carefully.

  “What is it?” asked Khan in a barely interested tone.

  Jose looked over his shoulder at the towering creature and shuddered slightly at the thought of being so close to one of them. They might be their allies, but there were still rumours of their violence after the War.

  “The data here confirms the siting of the AI hub that was installed to control the enemy ships and Biomechs throughout the old Confederacy. It looks like the other nodes are for planetary based spacebridges.”

  He traced the lines with his hand and came to Earth. It showed just a few lines of data and several unidentifiable icons. When the Doctor tapped what appeared to be Hyperion, however, the story changed completely. The icon representing the jungle world moved off to the side, and instead a complex web of nodes took its place.

  “What the hell?” spluttered out Jose in surprise. “Is that what I think it is?”

  Doctor Morgonz nodded and pressed an icon that shrunk the nodes as if it was zooming out. It continued for almost thirty seconds until stopping and showing a much smaller subset of nodes spread out over a vast area. She sighed with pleasure and turned to look at the small group.

  “What you’re seeing here is a network between worlds. This area here is the Orion Nebula, and you’ll note that there are nearly fifty marked nodes in this area alone. There were only three of them in our explored space. Interestingly though, there are no other nodes with AI Hub icons. We must have been the exception.”

  “Or the source?” suggested Captain Garcia, a comment that surprised the rest of the scientific team.

  “Orion? Isn’t that over a thousand light years away?” asked a sceptical Jose.

  “Yes, a vast distance,” she replied and then moved back to the display. As she examined the data further, she simultaneously pulled out a portable data drive and synced to the device.”

  “What are you doing?” asked Khan.

  Doctor Morgonz continued working while answering his question.

  “I am copying the telemetry and technical data from these systems. It will take weeks, maybe months, to lift all this equipment from out of here. I can have everything on this unit in less than an hour and transfer it back to Terra Nova.”

  She stopped for a second and turned back to the group.

  “Do you realise the significance of this find? Not only can it show us how to access this technology, it also shows us that it has been used to travel to another part of the Orion-Cygnus Arm of the Milky Way. We have the exact coordinates of multiple nodes in this part of space. If they match the details for our own system, then there is a good chance we can use this technology to pinpoint and travel to other worlds in this network.”

  Khan shook his head in confusion.

  “The Orion what?”

  Doctor Morgonz returned to the display and continued examining the detailed information while Jose explained to Khan.

  “The Orion–Cygnus Arm is a name we use for a minor spiral arm of the Milky Way galaxy. That’s our galaxy by the way. It is big, we estimate about 3,500 light years across and anything up to 10,000 light years in length. Our own worlds and the Orion Nebula are all based in this part of space.”

  “Oh,” replied Khan with a tone that suggested he was even less interested after receiving the explanation.

  Jose continued talking, but it was clear to the rest of them that Khan had little interest in what he was talking about. He said a few more words but stopped when he noticed Khan sniffing the air and looking about the dark and damp open space. Captain Garcia spotted his movement.

  “What is it?”

  The Jötnar officer ignored the marine for a moment as he looked into the dark space for signs of trouble. The Doctor and her people continued to remove data from the antique computer systems, and not one of them spending even a second checking on what the marines were looking at.

  “Khan!” hissed the Captain over the intercom. The Jötnar finally turned and looked back, but his face had changed from th
e calm creature from a minute earlier to one of tense suspicion.

  “What is it?” he asked, now starting to become annoyed.

  Khan sniffed once more and then pulled the L52 Mark II Assault Carbine from its sheath on his thigh. The weapon had been modified like all the stocks of weapons sent to the Jötnar with an enlarged frame, bigger trigger assembly and larger magazine capacity. It was a big weapon for most people, but in his hands it looked barely larger than a submachine gun. He flicked off the safety before tilting his head to Captain Garcia.

  “Animals...they’re here!” he snapped.

  The Captain lifted his own carbine and flipped off the safety.

  “Marines, watch your corners,” he called out as he ran back to the Doctor.

  “Dr Morgonz, we’ve got a problem!”

  Khan was already at the opening to the room and waving for the marines to join him.

  “There isn’t time. I can hear them. They are coming!” he growled.

  Dr Morgonz glanced back to him and returned to her unit.

  “We will leave when I am satisfied I have all the data. If there is any trouble, I will expect you to deal with, Captain Garcia. Now leave me alone!”

  Jose and one of the other technicians had already abandoned their work and were making their way to the opening when the Doctor spotted them both.

  “What do you think you’re doing? Get back to the computers, and get me the power schematics!”

  Jose hesitated, but a high-pitched howl reverberated up through the chamber and sent chills through his spine. More followed until the howl became a muddled mixture of screams and snarling. The entire group of civilians broke and ran for the opening that was being carefully guarded by Khan and the three marines. Captain Garcia approached her and pulled the small data storage device from the computer unit. The system started beeping as if panicking at the loss of the connection.

  “Captain, what are you doing?” she screamed at him.

  He simply grabbed her by the shoulder and dragged the startled woman behind him.

  “I’m doing my job, Doctor! We need to get out of here, and fast!”

  As if to emphasis the point, a section of the floor about ten metres away in the middle of the room shook and broke open, sending shards of stone down into what sounded like an almost bottomless pit. From the newly created crevice, emerged a dark, fast moving form.

  “Biomechs!” hissed Khan under his breath.

  They weren’t the later synthetic creatures like him, but the early monstrosities that had been used as cannon fodder in the scores of battlefields. They came in a variety of shapes and sizes and were constructed from the body parts and organs of cannibalised human prisoners. Though simple in mind, they were strong, violent, and deadly at close-quarters.

  “I thought you Jötnar hunted them to extinction here?” she said bitterly.

  Khan lifted his carbine and selected the high-power mode. It activated all three coil-chambers of the weapon and boosted the power setting to the maximum. He pulled the trigger, and a pulse of light was all that could be seen as the magnetised projectiles flew out from the barrels at hypersonic speeds. The impact was devastating and shattered the creature’s body in a spray of ink black blood and body parts. He twisted his head around to the Doctor.

  “Not all of them.”

  More movement appeared in the breach, and one of the interior walls started to shake. It was clear that a sizable number of the creatures were trying to find their way through and into the room.

  “Right, let’s go!” Captain Garcia ordered.

  The marines moved out first with the civilians following close behind. Jose and the Doctor followed towards the rear; Captain Garcia and Khan brought up the rearguard. No sooner had they left the large room, and returned to the dangerous circular track, were they attacked. This time the creatures were actually climbing up the walls like animals climbing out of a well. One of the marines was grabbed, pulled over the edge, and fell screaming for many seconds.

  “Move it!” shouted Captain Garcia.

  With that final order, the group moved as quickly as they could, each motivated by the fear of death and the increasingly loud sound of their pursuers closing the distance. Unsurprisingly, they covered the return journey in half the time of the route down and reached within fifty metres of the exit when the creatures finally caught up with them. The fight started with Khan blasting three of them as they lurched out from the dark pit. As he grappled with another two with his bare hands, a group of another dozen pushed past and into the surviving civilians and marines. Khan cast one back to the pit and snapped the neck of the second before rolling backwards to avoid the wild gunfire of Captain Garcia and his two marines. They managed to cut down a good number, but it wasn’t enough. One grabbed the Captain and pinned him down, and another brought down a primitive edged weapon onto his head. The impact was heavy and cracked through his helmet to embed in his skull.

  “Hold them back!” shouted Khan, and he did his best to stand firm alongside them, firing one blast after another at the growing swarm. They managed a continuous stream of projectiles and held them back for almost thirty seconds before they vanished as quickly as they had arrived.

  “Good, now we need to keep moving,” said Khan.

  He turned around to find Dr Morgonz had rushed away with her team and was heading for the surface. Khan could see more movement near her position, but he already knew her fate was sealed.

  “Idiot!” he muttered, chasing up the path. If any creature stepped in his path, he smashed it aside with his fists or with a single shot from his carbine. He reached within three metres of the Doctor when the mortal blow was struck. One creature hacked brutally at her, managing to strike off her left arm with a single callous blow. Two more leapt on her, each hacking or biting into her. The other civilians split up like prey being hunted down by a wild beast. He jumped in and hacked wildly, but she was already dead. He spotted the storage device drop from her hands before one of them leapt at him, knocking him down beside it. His carbine was torn from his arms, and a blade slew down, narrowly missing his face. From the corner of his eye, he spotted the marines being dragged down, and his blood felt as though it would boil. In a wild rage, he grabbed his nearest attacker around the throat and choked it with all his strength.

  * * *

  The newly arrived unit of marines positioned themselves around the entrance of the dig site. The sound of battle had already eased off, and none appeared very keen on stepping into the darkness. Technical Director Dr Neson knelt down and peered inside.

  “Can you hear that?” he said nervously.

  Before any of them could even move, the bloodied arm of one of the creatures reached out and grabbed at his head. In one quick movement, he was dragged inside screaming. The sounds of a struggle quickly ended with a sickening snapping sound. The marines stood in shock, each stunned by the suddenness of what had just occurred. One took a step closer, but another shape appeared in the shadows of the entrance. The marines lifted their weapons and trained them on the blood soaked shape as Khan dragged himself out of the hole. He dropped to the ground, and from his hand, the data storage unit rolled out and onto the floor. In his left hand, he carried the severed head of one of the creatures, presumably the one that had just brutally killed the Director.

  “Captain Khan, are you hurt?” asked one of the corporals who ran over to him before any of the others made a fatal mistake and shot the wounded warrior. Khan shook his head and looked up at the bright light and small group of marines. He grinned at them, baring his chipped teeth.

  “Close up the hole, and get in touch with Gun,” he said and then looked back to the dark and dangerous place he had just left. He picked up the unit he had dropped and placed it in the hands of the marine.

  “I’ve got the data from the site. Now get me Gun. It’s time to do some hunting, and I think he’s going to like it down there!”

  The marine took the device and looked back to the others who
stood by and watched with a mixture of dumbfounded surprise and horror.

  CHAPTER TWO

  The Crusader class of ships was the culmination of nearly a year’s study into the creation of a universal ship design for the Alliance Navy. Instead of a fleet of cruisers, marine transports and battleships, the new ship was designed to perform the tasks of all three but in a package of about the size and cost of a cruiser. With improvements in technology and miniaturisation, the new class could carry up to five hundred marines or an equivalent sized flight group plus eight craft, including shuttles or fighters. It was a bold experiment that would meets its first challenge in the Orion Incident.

  Ships of the Alliance

  Seven years later

  Jenson moved along the poorly lit corridor and kept his head down low. He’d been waiting two decks lower now for almost two days, and fatigue was settling in. After what seemed like weeks, the engineering team finally packed up their equipment, and he was able to move. As he approached the main gantry, he could make out a two-man marine patrol that was busy inspecting a security-monitoring unit. Jenson took a step back and waited in the shadows. He reached down and pulled his sidearm from his belt. It was a modern low-velocity slug-thrower, and the kind of equipment that could be found at any main weapon dealer in the Alliance. What it lacked in complexity, it made up for with its ability to avoid detection in almost any scanner unit when broken up into its seven major components. It carried just five shots, but each was handmade and designed to kill at subsonic speeds, and the perfect weapon for use on a starship.

  “What’s that?” asked one of the marines.

  The second of the two moved from the unit and peered into the shadows that lurked all around their position. The ship, for lack of a better word, had been constructed in a rush, and much of it was no more than glorified gantries and access corridors taken from other vessels and stations.

  Jenson froze, every single muscle in his body turning to iron as he did his utmost to blend in with his surroundings. It hadn’t been him, but anything that caught their attention could put them onto him. They looked about, but the more senior of the two quickly discarded the potential problem and returned to the monitoring unit. Jenson relaxed and continued forward until only fifteen metres away from the two men. On the wall to his right was the stencil identifier announcing this was section 6B, the part of the ship where the rotational equipment and motors were based. Though not critical to the operation of the station, it did allow the use of artificially created gravity for those working on the ship. A door on the right-hand side, and near the sign, led into a brightly lit room.