Machine Gods (Star Crusades Nexus, Book 2)

by Michael G. Thomas

  “Where is the power coming from?” asked Spartan.

  Tuke looked to the stars and moved down into the blackness of under ground.

  “The suns. This entire facility uses massive amounts of solar energy. The storage capacitors will keep functioning even after a thousand years. I’m surprised more of them are not working.”

  The three continued forward through the rubble, continually checking for signs of trouble. Rather than announce their arrival, they made use of their suits’ inbuilt night vision modes. They moved further inside the structure, picking their way past the damaged vehicles and broken weapons. It took nearly four hours for them to cover the distance until they finally reached the point where Tuke stopped. He waited and looked about as though expecting trouble before looking to Spartan.

  “Directly above us is the old control tower. It was used for coordinating the landing of supply ships and aircraft. The scavengers are three hundred meters from the tower.”

  Spartan nodded and moved to the dark entrance to his right. The door had been torn up by a violent action at some point in the past and lay in pieces on the floor. As he moved inside, he tried to avoid looking at the dozen corpses of T’Kari civilians. Their skeletal remains served as an important reminder as to both the hostile environment on the defunct station, as well as the violence that had occurred there. That was when Spartan appeared to have an epiphany.

  “Tuke, there’s no atmosphere and minimal power, yet we have gravity?”

  “Yeah,” muttered Khan, as though he’d been thinking the same all along.

  Tuke tilted his head slightly and to the ground.

  “At the heart of the station is a microgravity generator. It is self-sufficient and provides a gravitational core at the center.”

  Spartan looked confused and thought of asking for clarification before remembering that the last time he asked a technical question, he just ended up feeling stupid.

  No, he thought, if you don’t know already, why bother asking now?

  They moved through the opening and past what looked like some kind of mechanical walker. It reminded Spartan of the Vanguard armored suits he’d helped develop in the War. The big difference, however, was that these looked like machines rather than equipment that was worn. Tuke saw him looking and nodded gently.

  “Yes, these are some of the machines we used to use in times of war. They were quick to construct and very effective. Until the other side started to build them.”

  Yeah, I wonder where the idea for those machines came from.

  Spartan could see parallels with their own uprising two decades ago on the derelict station. They had almost lost to the Biomechs and the Zealots, both of whom fought for what became known as the Echidna Union; an entity that Spartan was starting to believe was nothing more than a construct of this Great Enemy that despoiled worlds and created wars. As quickly as they had moved onto the slope, they were out in the open. The bright light from the triple stars was very different to the stars of Alpha Centauri, and Spartan’s mind started to wonder what other parallels there were with this world and his own. They moved past shattered masonry, and a question formed on his lips. That was when he spotted the machine.

  “What the hell?” he said involuntarily.

  The machine was the size of a building and firmly planted on the ground. It looked like a mining machine with its variety of tools and attachments extending in all directions. Hatches all around it were moving while wheels and parts also moved. Powerful arms pulled in sections of metal with surprising care and deposited them inside. A dull red glow seemed to light up the inside of the machine, and glints of the light leaked out wherever gaps or seams showed in its odd shape. Tuke looked at it with recognition showing on his face, even through the visor of his armor. Spartan and Khan ducked down behind the almost limitless debris and watched it work. The machine moved at a crawl as the arms loaded in recovered materials of all kinds.

  “Uh, Tuke, what is this thing?” asked Spartan, this time with less patience.

  Tuke looked up and spotted something above them before he was able to reply. He sidestepped and then ran to where Khan waited. He looked back, half expecting something to have caught up with him, but he was safe. Tuke looked to Spartan who was now about fifteen meters away and behind a smashed wall.

  “It is a harvesting machine. The Enemy sends them to conquered territories to bring back resources. We have seen them before. In the past, a large number arrived at one of our moons. The last images we ever saw of that place were when our warriors destroyed them. A few hours later the colony was gone.”

  Spartan looked back at the machine and noted that it seemed only interested in collecting machines or technology of some kind, never simple raw materials.

  “Because that is what they do, or because you interfered with them?”

  Tuke looked at the machine and then shook his head slowly.

  “They never take everything. We treat them like scouts. They stay for a few days and then leave. If we interfere, we must face the consequences.”

  Spartan didn’t like the sound of that.

  “What kind of resources?” he asked quietly, suspecting the worst. “People?”

  Khan replied before Tuke could speak, much to their surprise.

  “It’s storing information on your technology, isn’t it?” he asked.

  Spartan was startled by the simple and rather obvious deduction.

  Of course, he thought. With the T’Kari defeated, this great Enemy could spend as much time as it wanted to collect information of weapons, equipment, power, and electronics. Surely they are already advanced enough though.

  “Why bother? Surely they are more advanced?”

  Tuke looked to Spartan.

  “Yes, and they want to make sure it stays that way.”

  Suddenly it all became clear to Spartan. At least, he thought it was clear. The machines were here to obtain intelligence, not the technology itself. With the fighting over, the enemy wanted to see how far the T’Kari had progressed, presumably to help understand the strengths and weaknesses of them.

  “So maybe they aren’t quite as powerful as you thought?” he asked with a grin.

  Tuke looked away and back to the machine as it continued its work.

  “No, we suspect they do this simply to ensure we do not become too strong or advanced. No T’Kari has ever actually seen the Enemy himself, only his soldiers. There are some that believe the Enemy keeps us weakened and at war with our neighbors to stop us turning on the real threat, themselves. Others think they use us like crops, to harvest for raw materials and technology.”

  Spartan tried to digest the conflicting ideas but neither seemed likely to him. Except for the part about keeping them divided and fighting each other. The more he thought about it, the more he appreciated the simple logic. He felt vibrations through the ground and looked up to see a biomechanical creature of the kind he had only dreamed of. It stood five times taller than Khan and consisted almost entirely of dull metal. It was bipedal, and its head reminded him of the demon-like structure of the Echidna creature on Hyperion. It looked directly at Spartan and opened its jaw. No sound came out, but this could easily have been down to their being no atmosphere to carry the vibrations.

  “What the hell is this?” shouted Spartan unnecessarily. With them all wearing suits, they were communicating via intercom, and the internal system was forced to compensate to avoid them all being deafened by the volume.

  Khan didn’t even bother speaking. Instead, he dragged his forward curved blade from its sheath on his armor and prepared to strike. Spartan lifted his weapon and took aim directly at what he assumed was the thing’s head. Even Tuke brought out a weapon so that all three were armed and ready to face off against the monster. It opened its mouth once more and then made directly for Tuke. At the same time, a glint of light from the distance showed a group of three more. They must have been alerted because a craft was swooping down to collect them.

  “S
partan?” called out Khan.

  It was a question that implied concern, more a question to know what the plan was. Khan was never one to back down in a fight, and certainly not one against a powerful enemy. Spartan looked to him and back at the quickly approaching machine. They waited, but none of them opened fire until Spartan gave the word. The machine stomped closer still until it stopped within ten meters of Spartan. Now stationary, they could all see that it was completely mechanical, but it was impossible to see what lay inside the thing itself. It bent down to look directly at Spartan.

  “Here they come,” said Tuke stoically.

  Spartan glanced to the side of the machine to see the craft carrying the other three of the machines. It was moving at great speed and heading directly for them.

  “Hold your fire,” Spartan said calmly.

  He could see that just one of the machines would be more than a match for them. The three reinforcements would likely destroy them in a matter of seconds. All he could think was that if they appeared to pose no threat, they might avoid a confrontation.

  “Now…move back, slowly.”

  He took a step back, and the machine watched him carefully, tracking his every move as he inched away from the metal beast. Tuke and Khan did the same, even though Khan muttered angrily to himself as they did so. They continued back until reaching the underground exit they previously emerged from. No sooner did they enter the blackness, and the machine turned and moved back to the collecting machine. It approached from the side and placed an attachment onto it.

  “Interesting, they are using the collecting machine as a kind of tool and when we appeared to be no threat, they left. Have you seen them do that before?” he asked Tuke as the three waited in the darkness.

  Tuke nodded his head.

  “Yes, there is footage of these creatures on one of our outpost stations. We call them the soldiers. They are the machines that fight for the Enemy. They are the closest we have ever come to reaching him.”

  “They fight for the Enemy?” asked Khan.

  “Yes, they were not built by us. They are controlled and used by the Enemy wherever he wishes to strike. It is rare to see them, but wherever they travel, there are sure to be ships nearby. They are the hand of the Enemy and cannot be defeated.”

  Spartan’s intercom unit clicked inside his armored helmet.

  “Spartan, Lovett here. The ship, it is moving in closer to the station.”

  “Understood, get the weapon systems online and watch them. If they appear hostile, you know what to do.”

  “Ahead of you there,” came back an almost sarcastic response. I’ve got three turrets tracking your position. Give the word, and we’ll rain down fire on their shiny heads.”

  Spartan grinned to himself as he imagined the expression on Lovett’s face. He then checked his L52 Mk II carbine and activated the high power mode. He could feel the gentle vibrations through the carbon fiber housing as the capacitors charged to their maximum capacity.

  “Affirmative,” he replied, content that he was ready. He then looked to Tuke.

  “If those are foot soldiers of the enemy, then we cannot let them leave. They’ve seen all of us, and they are stripping this place of valuable information, maybe even technology.”

  “I…don’t understand,” he replied. “They have been here for years. We are too late to stop them learning all that we already know.”

  “Maybe,” said Spartan quietly, “there is another reason though.”

  Khan nodded at this part.

  “Yes, they are the soldiers of this great Enemy. It’s time they learned about us, and that we are not their playthings.”

  Spartan pointed to the rubble all around them.

  “I won’t let them do this to a single other world. We need to stop them, and this is a good place to start. We might even get some information out of them.”

  Tuke looked surprised, even shocked at his words.

  “Information, from where? They will not talk.”

  Spartan laughed at his words.

  “Talk? All I want to know is do they die?”

  With those last words, Spartan moved back out into the open and directly toward the machine. It turned its large metallic head and stared at him. Spartan continued walking toward it, and to all of their surprise, it took a step back. Khan emerged from the darkness, slung his blade, and raised his L52 as well. The ship floated above them, and from beneath its bulbous structure, the other three bipedal machines dropped down to land alongside their comrade. Although of the same design, each had subtle variations of posture, color, and movement. Even more noticeable were the scorch marks and deep scratches on their bodies. Spartan smiled at them from inside the safety of his amour.

  Yeah, you’ve seen some action, haven’t you?

  He lifted his carbine to his shoulder and took aim at the head of the first machine.

  “Lovett, you ready?” he asked, almost whispering over the intercom.

  “Oh yeah, all four are lined up and in our sights. The turrets are good to go.”

  Spartan smiled to himself. He could see Khan with his peripheral vision moving out and to his side, his own weapon ready for the battle. Though Spartan was outnumbered, and facing an unknown but powerful enemy, he felt comfortable with his old comrade alongside.

  “I’m tired of hearing about this enemy. They cause wars, and makes us fight each other, and for what? If they are that worried about races allying together, then they can’t be as strong as they want us to believe. Right?”

  Tuke said nothing, but Khan seemed quite excited.

  “Spartan, let’s do this!”

  Without waiting for another word, the Jötnar warrior opened fire on the bipedal machine. The L52 Mk II carbine ripped chunks from its metal hide as Spartan’s own weapon joined in. Their gunfire seemed petty until the massed cannon of the T’Kari Raider added to their own torrent of fire. Khan roared with pleasure as the four machines were torn apart before their very eyes. Only Tuke appeared concerned, but neither of them bothered to look at him. If they had, they would have noticed the expression of fear and horror that covered his face. It wasn’t the horror of the violence that shocked him. No, it was the fear of what was to come; now that they had turned upon the Gods his own people feared so much.

  * * *

  Like all twelve warships in the expeditionary fleet, the crew and marines aboard them were being drilled and trained continually. It was standard practice to conduct training scenarios aboard ships, and many of the marines might learn all their basic drills on ships rather than barracks and naval stations. ANS Savage and ANS Sentry were the only ships in the fleet that had conducted more than thirty drills, and as the emergency lights flicked off, and the normal lighting returned, they reached the thirty-first. Every one of the exhausted marines staggered back to their quarters, or to the small number of shower blocks sited throughout the vessel. To the naval crew stationed aboard, it was just another drill, but for the marines it was yet another test initiated by their new commander Gun, and his ever-present second-in-command, Major Teresa Morato.

  Inside the shower block, a small group of exhausted marines stood as they washed the sweat and grime from their bodies. The warm steam filled the room and reduced the visibility to only a few meters in any direction. They all looked so worn out that they barely even noticed each other. It was normal for the male and female marines to make use of the coed facilities together, as they did with all other facilities on the warship. There were now only three days remaining before the expedition reached the Helios Gateway, and the intensity of the training continued to increase with every hour. The door opened and in walked Sergeant Arina Nova. She moved to her locker and unbuttoned her Marine Corps fatigues and boots before sitting down on the bench and sighing. She never realized that this kind of responsibility could be so exhausting. Her underwear felt like a wetsuit, and every centimeter of the fabric clung to her like glue. Now that she’d stopped exercising, the coldness of the air permeated th
roughout her body. She tore off every piece until she stood there, bruised, tired, and aching.

  Gods, I can’t take much more of this, she thought.

  Arina stood up and felt as if she was twice as old as she actually was. She covered the short distance to the block and stepped inside, moving up to the furthest showerhead from the entrance. They were short, metal stalls, and each one partially shielded to offer a modicum of privacy from the others that were busy washing. Arina moved past the other marines and stood in front of the showerhead, rubbing her bruised body gently as the scolding hot water ran over her. The bruises weren’t so much the problem though; it was the dull aching in her muscles that she just couldn’t shake off.

  What the hell is up with the Major? She’s been riding my ass for weeks now. I know she wants us ready, but is all of this necessary?

  Arina had woken in the middle of the night to find her arm and leg muscles throbbing with pain every night for the last week and was determined to try and sear away the ache before she left for her quarters. She’d tried all manner of remedies, yet the pain from each day’s trials was taking its toll on every single one of them. She would have complained to Major Morato, apart from the fact that the officer joined in with the physical training. It wasn’t something she’d seen before, and though the pain was uncomfortable, the sight of her commanders doing the same grinding work at least made her feel it wasn’t just her.

  The large open plan block was gently lit with a dull orange glow that cast hazy shadows anywhere the steam and mist was allowed to settle. The light itself bore down from the ceiling-mounted lamps fitted behind secure transparent panels. Arina put her hands to the outer wall and felt the cold metal as the water ran down her back. It was relaxing to just stand there, but she knew she couldn’t stay there all night. There was always tomorrow and yet another exercise.

  “Sergeant, you okay?” asked a familiar voice nearby.

  Arina turned her head, the water continuing to strike her face and run down through her long, red hair. It was Corporal Kata Hiko, the mechanic and tech specialist for 1st Platoon. Like Arina, she was stripped naked and stood just inside her stall. Arina looked about, checking she hadn’t drawn attention to herself.