“Spartan...drones...be” came a crackled and badly damaged message from General Rivers. It finally succumbed to whatever was causing the signal interference inside. Luckily, the suits were designed with a separate short-range system that utilised both radio waves and line of sight microwaves to avoid jamming.
“Stay close, we’re not far from them now,” he said calmly, rounding the final corner to reach the ledge that Jack and the others had recently vacated. The sight of the great cavern sent a shudder through Spartan’s spine. Khan moved alongside him and scanned the area with his equipment. They easily spotted the heat signatures of the marines at the far end, but all around them moved the metallic machines.
“Jack, can you hear me?” he pleaded over his comms system.
A high-pitched whine tore though his speaker, intermixed with the sounds of Jack speaking.
“Jack, watch your fire. We’re coming in,” he said and then leapt from the ledge.
The rest of the Jötnar followed behind, and they all hit the ground within two seconds of each other. From their landing spot, to the shattered structure that Jack and his comrades were, was no more than fifty metres.
“Stop them!” roared Khan, and the entire team surged forward.
The low gravity made it hard to run. Instead, they made use of the short leaps they had all practiced in multiple low gravity training scenarios. It took a great deal of practice to cover ground quickly and safely. Most made the mistake of making large leaps, but this could easily result in the person wasting more time on the bounce and recovery than actually moving forward. Khan reached the back of the first attacker. Without hesitating, he brought down his glaive in a mighty arc onto its body. A flash of sparks and metal indicated its quick death. He jumped over the body and landed directly opposite Wictred, who almost took his head off with a slash from his Kopis.
“Duck!” shouted his son.
Not giving it a moment’s thought, he rolled down and to the right, just as one of the heavy metal arms crashed down. Spartan and the others were now in the middle of the group, and blades and gunfire tore apart the machines until just one remained. It stood in front of Jack who knelt on the ground with three holes punched through his body armour. Its front legs were lifted like blades and only a metre away from Jack’s face.
“Wait!” called out Spartan, a flicker of fear and doubt appearing on his face. The group of Jötnar lowered their glaives but only slightly. Each was alert, and their bloodlust making it almost impossible for them to not continue their rampage. Spartan glanced about and noted the shredded remains of two marines. Then he spotted a series of gears start to move inside the body of the machine.
It’s going to kill him!
He lifted his carbine, but it was too late. A bright flash almost blinded him, and the machine tipped backwards, collapsing to the side. There was a hole the size of his fist through its central torso. As the dust cleared, the shape of a young female marine stood with her L52 Mark II Assault Carbine still pointed at the machine. The triple muzzles glowed red with the heat of the last discharge. Spartan nodded at her in thanks and bent down to check on his son.
“Jack, how bad is it?”
The young man did his best to smile, but he was clearly badly hurt. Spartan tried to connect to the General, but the signal was still being jammed. He glanced over his shoulder to the Jötnar.
“Track the source of the jamming and take it out. We need help down here.”
They quickly dispersed, and Spartan could see movement from the ledge above them. The shape of General Rivers and another marine squad appeared.
“Spartan, stay where you are. We have a medical team on the way!”
He nodded in acknowledgement, looking back to Jack.
“Looks like you found trouble after all,” he said grimly.
Jack coughed, and his legs gave way. Spartan caught him and lowered him to the ground. The reinforcements were now inside the cavern and working their way towards him.
“Keep still, son. Help is coming.”
* * *
Commodore Lewis watched the incoming reports from the multiple teams on the moon below. He’d also seen the information on one of the smaller moons, and it was becoming clear to him and most other commanders that this entire area had once been occupied by an advanced society. The information from General Rivers and his landing party concerned him the most, though. Since his last contact, his signal to the surface had been jammed intermittently. Only in the last minute had contact been resumed.
“General, I don’t understand. You say one of your teams came under attack in one of the ruined sites?”
“That is correct. Which part don’t you understand, Commodore?” replied an exasperated General Rivers.
Commodore Lewis looked over to Commander Garret Blackford, his senior science officer. The man looked just as surprised as he did at the news. They had no intel, other than the signal beacon, to suggest any kind of existing life out there.
“I don’t understand. This place is supposed to be deserted, or at the very least inert. What is down there?”
The man shrugged.
“Without a full engineering and science team down there, I can’t tell you anything more.”
The Commodore appeared distinctly unimpressed with this information.
“Okay, General, what is your current status?”
“My forces have established a secure LZ, and all of the perimeter buildings, ruins and high ground have been searched. We have numerous unusual artefacts and hundreds of the destroyed and non-functioning machines. Spartan, Khan and I can confirm they match some of the specifications of the machines we’ve seen before.
Commander Garret Blackford leaned in to the Commodore.
“That will be from the shutting down of the Rift on Hyperion seventeen years ago.”
“I see,” replied the Commodore to General Rivers. “I have science teams on their way from ANS Endeavour, as well as two engineering ships. My orders from Admiral Anderson are to provide space superiority and support for operations on the moons around this planet. He has requested you make contact in the next thirty minutes via video link. It looks like this part of the sector is going to be the heart of Alliance operations for the next few months.”
“Very well, I have a shuttle returning with wounded. Have your medical bays ready to receive them.”
The Commodore nodded in acknowledgement and then did his best to soften his expression.
“I heard about Spartan’s son. How are his injuries?”
General Rivers sighed.
“Serious, he took triple stab wounds to the thigh and torso. The armour kept him alive, and our medics have stabilised him. We have two dead, and two wounded Jötnar coming back as well.
“What about the rest of the APS team?”
“They are fine. Spartan is overseeing the security of the proposed research facility and has already called in more APS teams for the work. It’s just as well. My forces are spread thin down here, and we have more moons to investigate and clear.”
“That’s true. When will you be returning Devastation?”
“As soon as I am satisfied the engineering teams are safe and have started their work, I’ll withdraw our forces, and we can move on to the next site.”
“There is one more thing, General, and I think it might keep you down there a little longer.”
“Oh?”
“One of our Lighting reconnaissance fighters did a high-speed sweep over Colonel Daniels’ landing zone. We picked up imagery of a metallic structure below the ground. Only a small part of it is sticking out of the ground, and recent craters surround it. Based on his reports, it looks like the force that attacked him was trying to bombard this place.”
“How far away is it?”
“Seventy kilometres, and the trails on the imagery show definite connections between both landing zones.”
“This needs to be investigated immediately. I’ll discuss it with the Admiral and get back to y
ou. Please send the data down to me. I’ll get my people to run over it.”
* * *
The communications hall was a new construction at Terra Nova, and something that would have been impossible without the Interstellar Network to provide the infrastructure needed for interplanetary communications. In the past, messages were sent that could take hours, days or even months to reach their destinations. With repeaters stationed at both sides of all the rift points in the Network, it was now possible to send and receive video communications in a matter of minutes to anywhere connected in the system. There were only two people physically present in the room, and the rest consisted of the latest virtual presence devices.
President Hobbs, the frail but commanding leader of the Alliance, took primary position around the small oval projection table. At her right hand side was Defence Secretary Churchill, the aged but only recently retired Admiral of the fleet; his presence only improved by his scarred face and missing left arm that had been replaced by a prosthetic mechanical arm. Rather than cover it, he left it open and it gave a mechanical, almost brutal look. The others in the rest of the room included the senior representatives from each of the colonies in the Alliance, as well as Admiral Anderson from Prometheus and General Rivers who was still stationed in Orion. All were standing and waiting patiently until the President spoke. Each of the virtual presence devices for the others present carried a countdown and progress indicator underneath them to show the time delay for the communication.
“Colony representatives and our military commanders, thank you for this meeting. As you know, in this last week, we have seen a number of firsts for our new Alliance. We built and operated an inter-galactic Spacebridge, discovered new worlds, and as of three days ago, we can confirm the discovery of extinct intelligent life.”
The was little excitement in the room, partially down to most of the information having already been leaked by the media, but also by the more troubling rumours that overshadowed the discovery.
“We are here because an urgent strategic decision must be made. This decision will affect every single citizen, from farms on Kerberos to miners in Epsilon Eridani. We have been presented with a great opportunity but also with great risks.”
She turned to face the shimmering image of General Rivers and nodded. Underneath his name it said there was a seventeen second delay, yet she continued to speak as the counter ran down.
“General Rivers was the first of our people to come across these incredible places, but there has already been a cost in lives. He will now brief us on what his people have been able to discover.”
There was a very short delay as the feed from the General finally caught up.
“Thank you, Ms President.”
He then looked around the room at each of the figures, pausing for a moment when he spotted a Jötnar warrior standing for Hyperion. The sight amused him, but none of the others could understand why.
“Three days ago, my marines landed on this moon, currently dedicated as NC231. That is the thirty-first moon of the second planet of New Charon. This moon has a viable atmosphere and is partially protected by the planet’s magnetosphere that it orbits. Colonel Daniels led a scouting party here prior to my arrival and was attack by unknown forces. His platoon has been recovered, and we have expanded our search in a number of specific sites. We have found human remains at the site, remains that have been here for a long time. A team led by Jack Morato also discovered a heavily damaged rift generator, as well as a large number of destroyed biomechanical machines. I have platoons at key points on NC231, and engineer parties are already establishing a site here for further work.”
He then nodded that he was finished and waited. President Hobbs looked at the people in the room, waiting until the message from the General had reached each of them. It didn’t take long, yet the delay seemed to increase the tension significantly. It was one of the most spartan of the official rooms on Terra Nova, with nothing but three simple paintings of the colonisation of the planet to adorn the walls.
“Hades, now our official name for NC231, has complicated our expansion into New Charon. As you can see, the discoveries are impressive but also confusing. We now face great possibilities, but it would appear we have managed to find signs of our enemy once more, an enemy that almost destroyed us, and our way of life. For a long time, many have wondered how the Zealots and their masters were able to fight such a protracted technological war with such limited resources. This information might be the first part in the puzzle. Did this Rift on Hades once connect to our own worlds? Who built these machines, and why did the humans on this moon die? Our decision here today will be ratified in a full session of the Senate, but not for another six months. The question I must ask you all, is whether you will support our strategy?”
With that, she nodded to the Defence Secretary. He tapped a button and brought up a display of the Alliance colonies, along with coloured lines that indicated the paths of the Interstellar Network.
“We are self-contained and have access to almost unlimited resources. Yet the Uprising showed us that we have enemies both outside and within. The Zealots have faded, but they are not completely destroyed. Something gave them purpose and provided them with knowledge and technology that even our scientists still do not fully understand. We have two options. We can shut down the Spacebridge and hope the enemy never again tries to tear our Alliance apart. It is a valid strategy and would allow us time to rebuild and strengthen. There is however another choice, and one that will require us to explore, exploit and defend this newly discovered system.”
The model changed to show the planets in New Charon.
“There is a reason we were able to build this Spacebridge and at such a long distance. It is to do with the composition of the New Charon star system, and this has thrown up some interesting anomalies that are already being analysed by Admiral Anderson and his people.”
The commander of the research site at Prometheus nodded firmly before taking over.
“That is true. It seems that a small number of star systems contain certain conditions that make long-distance Spacebridges viable. New Charon is one, and Proxima Centauri is another. This would explain why we have been unable to create stable Spacebridges outside of just over four light-years. My scientists hypothesise that only one in a thousand star systems can support a stable bridge over a long distance, perhaps much less. A simple calculation shows that a network, similar to that of a spider’s web, can be formed around each of these major hubs that would allow each of them to be connected to another, much like a major spaceport on a colony that is linked to cities and towns, via ground trains and smaller stations.”
The image changed to show dozens of interstellar network bridges, appearing to join up hundreds of stars. They formed in tight clusters, like small webs with the occasional long line connecting each of the clusters. One hub clustered around Alpha Centauri with the next nearest being around Barnard’s Star.
“By using this information, we could potentially build more of these long-range Spacebridges to places such as Barnard’s Star, a system that is over six light-years away. What really stands out though is what you find at New Charon.”
The display shifted to the newly discovered star system, but this time a great number of other stars appeared, many of them linked by potential Spacebridges.
“As you can see, New Charon is in range of hundreds of stars that fall within the four light-year limit. Even more importantly, the orbital telescope now deployed by ANS Beagle has confirmed that another twelve star systems within two hundred light-years have the same characteristics as New Charon.”
He lifted his hands to emphasise his next point.
“This, ladies and gentlemen, is more than just another star system. It is a hub. A Nexus, if you will, between many more places like this. Whoever controls New Charon, will control access to all of the connected star systems. It is the Nexus of a large part of this Orion Nebula.”
The display changed
once more and lit up to show how each of the proposed Spacebridges would link to the myriad of nodes around it. The shapes around New Charon appeared to take up the lower corner of the Nebula.
President Hobbs continued.
“The question is...what are we going to do? Somebody or something has been here before, and there is a chance they could come back. Do we cede this territory and the risk of provocation, or do we expand aggressively and stake a claim to it? I have three options that I want you to consider. Option one, we leave the Spacebridge open and continue to allow military and civilian ships to exploit the area as quickly as possible. Two, we establish a lookout station to monitor the system and withdraw back through the Spacebridge. Three, we withdraw and collapse the Spacebridge.”
She looked at each of them, and it was clear there was as much surprise as there was confusion. She turned to Defence Secretary Churchill who spoke quietly.
“Ms President. Haven’t we already decided on this matter?”
She shook her head discretely.
“No, not any more. We declared the system Alliance territory to ensure law and order was maintained during exploration and exploitation. With these discoveries, things have become more complicated. By staying, we could be inviting trouble.”
He shrugged in response and looked back to the others. A light flashed near the representative of Orthrus.
“Ms President. Over seven thousand workers from my colony are already at New Charon. If we withdraw, it will result in the collapse of three of our largest employers. I thought the military assessment was that the system was secure and safe for expansion. What are you suggesting?”
President Hobbs smiled inwardly, secretly happy at the question.
“Thank you for your question. Yes, until this discovery, we had assumed it was safe. It would appear otherwise. Even so, the area offers strategic benefits that could result in a golden age for our citizens. In my opinion, we should seize New Charon with open arms, garrison the planets and moons, and establish outposts as soon as possible. Within a decade, this place could be the Nexus of a mighty Alliance of hundreds of new worlds. Think of the opportunities!”
Legions of Orion (Star Crusades Nexus, Book 1) Page 19
