She shook her head in horror.
“No...they would never abandon the wounded and our staff like that.”
She tried to sound sure of herself, but it was clear that the poor woman was already doubting the integrity of the ship’s crew. They continued on through section after section, each time doing their best to avoid the debris, broken pieces of plastic and the drifting bodies of those killed. Nothing compared to when they reached the medical laboratory though, where seven of the crew spun aimlessly about the place. All of them suffered multiple puncture wounds. Jack and Wictred moved about, looking for signs of what might have happened to them. Anne, meanwhile, examined the bodies. After checking the first, she started to wretch and had to wait for a few seconds to calm down.
“Who did this to them?” she said bitterly.
Jack was already at one of the computer units, but nothing he did seemed to help. The screen was black, and even the battery backups did nothing, other than light a few status indicators.
“Everything is out,” he announced, pulling himself around the unit to check the cables.
Anne stayed where she was but glanced about the place. There was no sign of power or life, other than their small group and the low level battery powered lights fitted at fixed intervals through the ship. She looked down at a device on her arm. It was a medical secpad with built-in atmosphere and biological monitoring sensors.
“We need to get out of here before the air runs out,” she shouted in a hurry. “My secpad says the oxygen levels are already dropping.”
Jack looked back to her.
“Life support is out then. This ship is toast. If we stay, they’ll find us.”
Something major shook the ship, and they were all forced to grab anything nearby to stop drifting about inside the room. Wictred spotted something and pulled himself across the width of the room to a series of wheels near the wall. He braced himself and started to twist the largest of the wheels. With each turn, the metal safety shutters started to lift. Four full evolutions, and he had opened it almost a metre. The three of them watched in awe at what was happening outside of the frigate. A large, but crudely constructed vessel, lay alongside it. It bristled with plating and what seemed to be weapon turrets. The shape was impossible to determine at that distance, as the great bulk blotted out much of the view.
“Whose ship is that?” asked Anne.
Jack shook his head.
“Uh, that isn’t an Alliance ship.”
As if to emphasise the point, a flight of Lightning fighters moved past on the left. As they came closer to the ship, a number of projectiles streaked towards them from one of the dozens of turrets and picked them apart. All four were totally destroyed in seconds.
“They aren’t friendly. Let’s go! I’ve got an idea!” said Wictred. The Jötnar pulled himself out of the room and into one of the many identical looking service corridors. These were smaller than the main corridors of the ship but did lead to a greater number of places. Jack pulled as hard as he could to catch up with his friend.
“Mind sharing your plan?” he asked.
Anne followed quickly behind them with speed that surprised them both. Wictred didn’t stop, and Jack was forced to chase him, just to hear what he had to say.
“The loading bay up there. It faces that ship.”
“So?” asked Jack.
Wictred finally stopped, facing his friend with a wry smile.
“I say we board her!”
Jack looked in Wictred’s face and saw a mixture of excitement of nerves.
Board her, you crazy bastard!
He looked at Anne, who was waiting patiently, and then into the corridor. He shook his head as he returned his gaze to the Jötnar.
“There has to be another way?”
Wictred pulled himself a few more metres before replying.
“Life support is gone and so are the lifeboats. There are suits and weapons in the loading bay. We get there, suit up and leave. Either we wait in space to be found, or we attack them. Let’s go, now!”
With that, he was gone, leaving Jack to wonder how they would board and attack a ship the size of which even he didn’t yet know. Anne grabbed his shoulder.
“Is he mad? That ship has crippled an Alliance frigate. We can’t board it!”
Jack guffawed.
“Really? You’ve never met Jötnar before, I assume?”
A terrifying howl echoed through the innards of the ship, and Jack knew immediately it was the sound of sheer terror. He’d only heard it a few times in his life, and each time he’d wanted to move away from it, not closer. He grabbed a handrail and pushed out through the hallway and into the corridor. The screaming instantly increased in volume, and he almost ran into the bloodied nurse before coming to a stop. A marine pulled at a hastily applied bandage on his shoulder and blazed away down the corridor with his carbine at some dark shape. Jack reached him and moved to the woman to check her injuries. She was breathing quickly and lost consciousness. Anne followed close behind, pushing him out of the way to see what she could do.
“Who the hell are you?” snapped the marine.
“Jack, Anne, Wictred,” he answered quickly, pointing to each of his tiny band.
“Can you shoot?” he asked, completely disinterested in what Jack had to say.
Jack reached down to the spare carbine on the ground, lifted it and removed the safety.
“Yeah, I’ve fired a few shots. What happened here?”
The marine checked his carbine, adjusted the power setting and continued.
“We were hit in three places on the starboard side. It was a boarding craft of some type. They smashed through the armour, and then these soldiers came aboard. They took out the power, engines and weapons in less than two minutes.”
Wictred seemed especially interested in the last bit.
“Soldiers? Whose soldiers?”
The marine looked at the oversized Jötnar with disdain before answering.
“I don’t know. They were heavily armoured, like marines but bulkier and stronger. Their weapons cut through our armour like tissue paper.”
Anne sighed and moved away from the bloodied and now motionless nurse.
“She’s gone, her injuries, they were...”
Jack placed a hand on her shoulder.
“It’s okay, there’s nothing you could do. We need to save whoever is left. Right now, that looks like just the four of us.”
The marine grabbed Jack’s arm and pulled him down to his face.
“It wasn’t just them, though. They had a machine with them as well. It was like a mechanical spider or crab, or something. It was bigger than a man and thickly armoured. I’ve never seen anything like it. It was horrible, and its legs had blades. I saw three of my men butchered by them before we got to this point.”
Jack looked to Wictred who nodded slowly. The description matched some of the details of machines that had appeared briefly on Hyperion before the Rift had been destroyed.
“There’s something else,” the marine said seriously.
“What?” Anne asked.
“The machine, it...well, it looked like it was giving the orders.”
Jack, Anne and Wictred looked at each other. It didn’t take Wictred long for him to pull his heavy looking blade from his belt and start moving along the corridor.
“Hey, where are you going?” shouted the marine.
Wictred ignored him, so it fell to Jack to explain.
“We’re heading to the loading deck. Going to grab gear and leave the ship.”
The marine almost choked in amusement at the idea. It wasn’t easy to make out his expression, but his tone was clear enough.
“Forget it, the landing bay is gone,” he said grimly. “I would probably have done the same, but one of their craft took it out. Where do you think they attacked from?”
Jack sighed, and even Wictred appeared to have noticed because he slowed down and finally stopped.
“If you’re
serious, there’s only one way of this ship now. The port side weapons array is undamaged. Since this ship was converted to medical use, the weapons were taken out and replaced with stores and all kinds of medical junk. Behind that section are two lifeboats. They were for the gun crews and engineers, and that’s why nobody went for them, simply because this old bird doesn’t have any gunners anymore. My squad was heading that way when we ran into their soldiers.”
Jack didn’t need much more encouragement and called out to Wictred.
“Get back here. We’re going for the port side weapons array.”
Wictred looked at him but didn’t move.
“Where is it?” he asked suspiciously.
Anne pulled at the marine’s arm and helped drag him out of the room.
“I know the way!” she called out and disappeared out of the door.
* * *
Spartan pulled on the control column as hard as he could, but it was too late. The broken gravel and rock had loosened to such an extent that he finally lost control, and the Bulldog started to slip down the steep embankment. As they slid down, they could make out a rough ridge, and beyond that a steep incline that ran down to the artefact and the dig site. Swirls of smoke drifted up into the sky from the already burning vehicles.
“Crap! Hold on!” he shouted.
They increased speed, and only Spartan’s steady hand stopped them from tumbling over. The reduced gravity made it harder to control, and each time they left the ground, it seemed they might never come back down. It seemed like an age, but was in reality less than ten seconds until they reached the bottom. The chin of the vehicle crunched into the rock with a screeching sound. It would have knocked the passengers unconscious if they hadn’t been strapped in with the magnetic couplings. The bumping and shaking stopped as quickly as it had started, and they all stared at the multitude of video displays fitted inside. They were surrounded by dust, but the scanners had already identified where they were, using the IFF gear fitted to every APS operative. Khan thumped Spartan in the back.
“Good driving, Spartan. We’re in the right place.”
Teresa unlocked her harness first and moved to the nearest doorway. Her close fitting armour looked almost identical to the gear she’d worn back in the Marine Corps, and Spartan noted that she moved just the same as well.
So the working out wasn’t a total waste of time, then! He thought to himself.
Gun hit the release button on his magnetic coupling and leapt from his seat and towards the left-hand door. Without checking with Spartan, he struck the button, and the door ripped open with a hissing sound. Gun was out first with his weapon in his hand, and closely followed by Khan and the rest of the team. Spartan and Teresa looked at each other and then chased after them. Once on the exit ramp, Spartan looked back at Issac Ocano who was still managing the disparate units about the dig site.
“I’ve got this, Spartan. I’m bringing in two support drones to assist you. Get the rest to fall back here. I’ll establish a defensive perimeter while you secure the dig site. We’ve got more help on the way.”
Spartan nodded, impressed with his cool handling of the situation. Technically, Spartan should have stayed back, but his skills had always been in the execution of operations, not the management of them. Issac Ocano might be a ruthless fighter, but he was also a quick-thinking commander and extremely cool under pressure, exactly what was needed in a tricky situation like this one. Two APS operatives moved from the right-hand side of the vehicle and carried an automated sentry turret between them. As soon as they placed it on the ground, a set of six legs extended out and embedded in the ground. A gyroscopic head lifted out from the middle and then waited. It was one of the newer pieces of equipment the APS Corporation was trialling, and for just a moment, Spartan’s professional interest almost took his attention from the mission. But his focus was strong enough that he turned back to his team.
“Spread out!” he called, and the group increased their spacing. They were only a few hundred metres from the target; a large crater-shaped dig site that lay before them. Multiple vehicles were burning, and Spartan could see at least three bodies near the crater itself. A number of personnel were climbing up one of the further ridges to escape, but most were following the commands of Issac Ocano and working up to the craggy ridge where the Bulldog waited patiently. A motorised turret on the top of the vehicle moved silently with its dual L52 Mark II Assault carbines tracking the horizon; only its movement catching Spartan’s attention. A blast struck near a small group, and dark sharps darted about.
There they are!
“Team, follow me!” he cried and leapt over the ridge and down the slope. The Jötnar were close behind him, each keen to embed their blades into the nearest enemy. Most carried modified firearms to suit their size, but Gun and one other still carried their ranged weapons strapped onto their arms. Though less accurate, it left both hands free to wield close quarter weapons. Spartan reached the first two engineers who were running for all they were worth. Only one stopped; the other streamed past.
“What’s happening?” asked Spartan.
The man pointed behind him and started muttering.
“They...they came from under the ground. There was no warning!”
He stumbled over and dropped to his knee but then lifted himself up and continued moving up to the ridge. More of the civilians appeared from the dust, and then he saw them. At first it looked like a heavily armoured marine, but then he spotted the closely fitted armour, the smooth metallic plates and the oddly shaped helmets.
These aren’t ours!
There were three of these warriors, and they must have seen him because one looked directly at him. Spartan had been in combat enough to tell when somebody was about to shoot. He instinctively rolled to the right and narrowly avoided being struck by a pulse of energy. The impact sent debris and rock in the air, but luckily none of it hit him. The gun turret on the Bulldog opened fire, sending its load of magnetised projectiles over their heads and into the soldiers’ position. As soon as he recovered, he lifted his own weapon and aimed directly at their position. There was nobody there though, just a trail of vapour that disappeared off into the air, and the marks of where the rounds had struck home.
Damn, these guys are good.
“Spartan, I’m picking an airborne unit near you. It’s not ours,” said Issac Ocano on the comms link.
You don’t say!
Spartan looked up at the sky and saw three shapes moving at speed back towards the artefact. Two streak of energy appeared from them and struck the higher ridges around it. That was when Spartan noticed they were sending down rocks that were helping to bury the thing.
“Incoming!” shouted Khan as he waved his blade in the air.
A small vessel flashed past them overhead, and an object fell towards the dig site. It was round and about the size of a man. Just before it struck the ground, it vaporised and sent a shockwave in all directions. The blast was substantial, and all the APS operatives were thrown to their backs. Spartan landed hard, and the internal sensors showed minor breaches in the suit’s joints. It wasn’t series, and already the suit’s control unit was sending small clouds of vapour to the breaches to assist in the temporary repairs. Spartan lifted himself up to find nothing but dust around him. He shook his head only to see one of the unidentified enemy soldiers stood just two metres away. They stared at each other through their armour but neither moved. Khan appeared to his left, and upon spotting the soldier, started to lift his blade. Their enemy raised his odd looking firearm but did not fire.
“Who are you?” asked Spartan.
The soldier said nothing.
“Spartan, I’ve got the engineers, what the hell is going on down there? The aerial drones are all down. Bravo team has just arrived, and I’ve set them to deploy fire-support teams to look down on the artefact. Spartan?”
Spartan continued staring at the enemy soldier and slowly lifted his left arm up with the palm facing towards
the armoured shape.
“Spartan here. Good work. Get them out of here and back to base. Send a Bulldog to the secondary coordinates when you’re done.”
“What?” came back a surprised reply from Issac Ocano.
“We have guests, and they are heavily armed. Get the civvies out of here, now!”
A little more of the dust cleared to give him a better view of the artefact and the level of destruction caused by the soldiers. The bomb that had been dropped had completely covered the dig site with rubble so that it looked little different to the rest of the area around it. There was no sign of the dead or the destroyed vehicles, as they were all now buried beneath tonnes of rock. The soldier, on the other hand, looked bizarre. His armour was of a similar colour to the rock itself. It stood slightly taller than Spartan, but that could easily have been the suit. The other two were now stood alongside him and dressed in the same gear. Gun rested his blade on his shoulder and turned his head to Spartan.
“So what happens now?” he asked sarcastically.
The soldier started to move forward and then stopped, something seemingly to have caught his attention. He looked around, turning his gaze to the sky. The other two soldiers did the same. Spartan considered jumping in and striking them, but there was something about their behaviour, apart from not attacking him, that suggested they were not quite as they appeared.
“Spartan!” came back the transmission from Issac Ocano.
“We’ve got something coming down from orbit. Transmissions from the fleet say a vessel has entered New Charon and is blockading the Spacebridge back to Prometheus. The signal is broken, but it looks like there’s a shooting war going on up there.”
Spartan shook his head, but for some reason, he didn’t feel particularly surprised. He turned to his left to see Teresa stood there, looking right back at him. She looked worried. In fact, her expression was much more serious than that.
“Jack,” she said quietly.
Spartan’s heart almost skipped at the mention of his son’s name.
Legions of Orion (Star Crusades Nexus, Book 1) Page 22
