“Good,” replied the General.
But there was no more time, as four marine guards entered, closely followed by the flowing robes of the stranger, Pontus. He marched directly to the General and stopped in front of him. He held out his hand, but the General ignored his attempt at mock friendship.
“General Rivers, your reputation amongst my brothers is well known. It is an honour.”
He chose to ignore the obvious slight and stepped next to the executive officer.
“I presume you are the ship’s second in command. What might your name be?”
General Rivers lifted his hand to stop the XO from speaking.
“Pontus, that is your name? I have questions for you.”
He smiled at the words, his face betraying a cockiness and arrogance that sent a shiver down the General’s spine. He stepped back and looked around at the almost completely empty briefing room. It had been stripped of anything of note apart from a small number of the old recruiting posters at the start of the War. One showed a burning city with dozens of civilian bodies littering the ground. The title read Remember New Carlos.
“On behalf of my brothers, I have a short statement to make,” he explained.
General Rivers signalled to one of the marines who stepped beside him with a video recording unit. Pontus looked at it and to the General.
“Hyperion is ours and has been for nearly thirty years. A day of reckoning is coming, a day that will render you and your friends irrelevant. My master informs me that no ship may enter within half a million kilometres of this planet without facing severe consequences. You have already forfeit these ships, and what we do with your lives is another matter.”
The General gave a short signal with his right hand, and two marines leapt forward and grabbed the man, shackling him between them. He then marched close to him and pushed his face directly in front of the man’s.
“How dare you threaten an Alliance ship! Tell me, who are you and what are you doing here? The War is over. The Echidna Union was destroyed, and your Zealot friends have vanished like the cowards we both know they really are.”
The last line seemed to rankle Pontus more than anything else. His amusement changed to bitterness, and his tone altered to a higher pitch.
“You will unhand me and listen to my terms, or face the consequences. If you do not then...”
He was cut short by a quick uppercut from General Rivers that landed under his ribs. Pontus dropped to his knees, his chest heaving from the pain. As he lay there, General Rivers called over four marines from outside. They moved in and attached security poles to their enemy’s arms and shoulders.
“Throw him in the brig.”
They dragged him out through the door, and as he vanished, he could hear the man shouting as loudly as he could.
“You have ten minutes, General, then you will reap the consequences of your actions. Trust me, my brothers will make you and the crew of your ships suffer like never before.”
He said something else, but by now he was too far away for anybody in the room to actually hear him anymore. The XO looked at the General with a confused expression on his face.
“What do you think he meant?” he asked.
The General scratched his chin and then made for the door.
“I don’t know, but knowing our friends, it can’t be good. We need to get to the Captain and fast, come on!”
It didn’t take long for the two officers and their entourage to run the short distance between the two important parts of the ship. When they arrived in the CIC, it was clear something bad had happened. At least half of the computers were showing nothing but diagnostic screens, and two flashed on and off repeatedly. The mainscreen was functioning and showed an image of the small taskforce of five ships as it made slow progress in moving further from the small vessel.
“We need to get away from that craft and fast!” he snapped.
“It takes time to shift orbit,” explained the Captain who was already busy discussing the problems with his chief engineer.
“Screw the orbit, just move us away from them, and fast!”
The internal alarms triggered, and there was only a brief warning to those on the ship before the engines triggered. Any change in acceleration would act as an additional force on the ship and cause a variety of complications to those not strapped in. Even the rotating artificial gravity sections would be affected; the occupants would hit by multiple forces pulling in them. The alarms continued as the engines burned and pushed the heavy warship into a higher orbit. The four escorting cruisers were at different levels, and two were in a lower orbit as they oversaw the scanning of the planet’s surface.
“Captain, I’m detecting an energy signature from the northern continent. It is something massive, Sir,” said the tactical officer.
Captain Cornwall’s gut instinct told him something was coming. He wished he had some kind of functional shield he could activate, but in this age, it was armour and defensive weapons. He glanced at the XO who was waiting for the command. All it took was a nod, and Commander Petersburg dove into his procedures.
“This is the XO. Battlestations, this is not a drill. All crew to your stations, prepare for battle!”
The familiar red lighting and low level siren echoed through every part of Santa Maria as the ship moved to a battle ready state. The crew were fast, very fast. Captain Cornwall watched as security and medical teams reported in, and the weapons crew activated the many weapon systems on board. Like most ships in the old Confederate fleet, she was equipped with different weapons for different situations. Her main guns were medium-calibre railguns that were fitted into the rotating sections of the ship. They were deadly against medium to large targets. For close defence, she had been retrofitted in the War with additional point defence systems. These were small-automated turrets with multi-barrelled Gatling guns. Though primitive compared to the railguns, they were cheap and easy to install and gave decent protection from missiles, rockets and other projectiles.
“What did he want anyway?” asked the Captain in the brief lull before whatever was about to happen.
“He wants to speak with you, or we will face the consequences. He said our ships were already forfeit, and all that was left to discuss was what to do with those on board.”
Captain Cornwall considered his words as the rest of the deck crew went about their duties in preparing the ship.
“Did he now? Well, there’s no way in damnation I am giving up our ships.”
The General nodded in agreement, moved to a chair on the right, and started to pull on the straps. It was a requirement when in battle to put them on, and he had no desire to fly around the CIC and crash into people or equipment.
“Captain, all stations reported in. We’re ready for battle,” said the XO.
Captain Cornwall had strapped himself into his chair and checked the tactical disposition of his force on one of the smaller side displays. Two of the cruisers were already a good distance away, and the third was the same distance as his ship. What concerned him though was ANS Thunderer was still very low and moving away from Pontus’ vessel more slowly that the others.
“What’s the hold up with Thunderer?” he asked.
“Sir, emergency contact by the chief science officer on Thunderer. He says they are losing power to main systems. Something about an energy burst from the surface, Sir,” said Lieutenant Nilsson from her communications desk. She was one of the many experienced officers from the destroyed battlecruiser Crusader that had found new homes throughout the fleet.
Proximity alarms sounded even louder than the battlestations alarm. The XO looked at the displays and back to the Captain while simultaneously lifting the microphone.
“This is the XO. Brace for impact!”
Captain Cornwall watched the mainscreen with dread as what looked like a green pulse of energy moved up from the surface and towards his ships. For a second, he thought it was heading for the Santa Maria, but instead it altered cou
rse by a few degrees and hurtled towards Thunderer.
“What the hell is that?” he demanded.
“Unknown, Sir. Its energy signature is off the charts,” replied the tactical officer.
There was no more time for analysis. What happened next only took less than ten seconds, but to those on the bridge watching it appeared an eternity. First the energy pulse rushed towards Thunderer. The point defence systems did their work, and streams of projectiles ripped into the object, yet still it came. It collided towards the rear of the cruiser and flashed with intensity of a low yield nuclear device. With no air to carry a shockwave, there was no sound or blast inside the Santa Maria, but the damage was obvious. As the light flash quickly dissipated, it revealed the wreck of the cruiser, split into three by the blast of energy that was more powerful than any weapon they had seen before.
“Gods, what is that thing?” muttered the Captain.
The three large chunks of the cruiser drifted out of control, yet they remained in orbit. Each of the crew watched as small numbers of lifeboats tried to escape the carnage. Molten metal and debris littered their path and for every two boats that got away, one was trapped or destroyed by the field of rubble.
“Engines all ahead, get us out of here!” demanded the XO to the rest of the crew.
He seemed unscathed by the terrible event that had just occurred, but in reality he was just doing what he had trained to do for years. When trouble hit the ship, it was his job to operate on autopilot, and to ensure the safety of the ship and the crew, no matter what was happening around them. He was forced to shout several times to snap the crew out of their daze. Over the speakers was the sound of crackling and static on the open channel. At least three of the lifeboats called out in desperation before Lieutenant Nilsson cut the feed; there was little need to spread the terrible sound to anybody other than those that could help in some way.
“All crew accounted for, Captain, looks like just the one shot against Thunderer,” explained the tactical officer.
The rumble of the engines increased as the Marine Transport pushed away from their current position with all the power that could be forced from the smaller engines. The large ship was equipped with powerful engines for long distance travel, but it took time to prepare and fire them up as well as a large number of internal procedures that must be carried out prior to them being activated.
“Is this what that bastard in the brig threatened?” he snapped, his rage almost uncontrollable.
“He didn’t give specifics,” said a resolute General Rivers who until now had kept quiet. His job was to command the overall operation and to plan the ground phase of any missions. The running of the ships was out of his jurisdiction and his knowledge.
“That was clearly a message, though. Can they hit us again?” he added.
The tactical officer already had three screens showing the weapon and pages of data from the attack. He looked over his shoulder for a brief moment.
“So far it seems to be a magnetically shielded fusion bomb. It must be controllable though and big, very big. At least the size of a shuttle and well armoured. Based on the rate of assent and its ability to track and hit a cruiser moving at speed, I suggest we need to leave orbit and fast. I cannot give you an accurate limit to its range.”
Two of the displays shut off, and the rumble from the engines stopped. Captain Cornwall looked over to the status indicators to his right. They showed that two of the powerplants had shutdown, and a large number of systems were following.
“What in damnation is happening to my ship?” he demanded.
General Rivers looked at the screen and to the Captain.
“I think it’s time we had a little chat with our guest, don’t you?”
As if to emphases his point, the mainscreen flickered and went black. The few computer systems remaining showed garbage or corrupted data and imagery. Even more worrying was the fact that remaining power system was starting to overheat due to the heavy requirements now being placed on it. The Captain starting issuing orders via the computer system while simultaneously calling over to General Rivers.
“General, we’ve got problems here. Can you get down to the brig and negotiate something, anything? We can’t afford to lose another ship out here.”
General Rivers was already on his feet and holding one of the many side rails to stop him from falling. He tapped his communications unit and reached Sergeant Morato.
“Get your entire troop down to the brig. We have things to discuss with Mr Pontus.”
He dragged himself to the door and looked back briefly at the confusion in the CIC. It reminded him of the worst moment in the middle of battles, especially some of the situations he and the Admiral had been involved in. The Captain was competent, but he was in no way a match for the old Admiral Jarvis. He sighed and dragged himself out into the corridor.
“Come with me, to the brig!” he said to his waiting guards.
CHAPTER SEVEN
The status of Earth reached its lowest point with the founding of the Centauri Alliance. With each colony now providing senators to the Terra Nova, the old worlds became less and less significant. With the first colonies established at Epsilon Eridani, Gliese 876 and Procyon the significance of Earth would not change until the great scouring, an event that made even the Great Uprising pale into insignificance.
The Decline of Earth
Pontus waited in his cell and listened with pleasure at the sound of the shouting and confusion aboard the Santa Maria. He’d expected no better than to be placed in the most secure part of the ship, and the shouting from some of the crew about the loss of a cruiser merely improved his mood. The cell itself was basic and protected by a strong, triple-bolted security system that was monitored by a central command station. The two marine guards stationed at his door wore their armoured suits and carried the by now well-known L48 rifles. He sneered at them as he remembered some of the more bloody encounters he faced in the last decade with men just like them.
Insects, worthless non-believers with nothing to commend them other than blind obedience to their parasitic capitalism. They even refuse the salvation of our holy mother, Echidna, she that is many.
He lowered his head reverently at the mere thought of his God and master.
By the time General Rivers and his entourage arrived, he was thoroughly enjoying himself. The Marine officer evidently wasn’t wasting time as he ordered the door to be opened and marched right in to face him. Pontus was tempted to strike. It was probably the best opportunity he’d come across to remove this troublesome man, but he had his orders.
“General Rivers, how nice to see you. I trust you now understand the gravity of our meeting? I was not joking.”
He spotted the movement of the man’s arm, and his stomach muscles tenses up at the expected blow. He could have avoided it if he wanted, but it would have been futile. The General was surrounded by loyal guards, and all probably desperate to strike him down. No, he took the attack and dropped down to his knees and wheezed. They waited for him to recover and stand back up before any of them spoke. One marine leaned in and whispered into his ear. The General looked even angrier but resisted striking again.
“Ah, I see,” he said with obvious relish. One of the marines took a step closer, but his Lieutenant grabbed his shoulder and pulled him off. Pontus smiled as though thanking him before continuing.
“By now you will understand that I was being entirely truthful with you. I have no interest in seeing your people suffer. Be under no illusions though, Echidna will not let your ships leave this system, and any further attempts to circumvent her will, will have severe consequences for the rest of your little fleet.”
General Rivers shook his head angrily.
“Hyperion is an Alliance world and nothing to do with your group of terrorists. You will surrender your forces immediately, or we will be forced to direct tactical atomics onto the surface.”
Pontus merely chortled at the suggestion. The General re
cognised the self-importance he had seen on other members of the cult and knew the man could not be reasoned with. He decided to try and learn as much as he could.
“Who are you, Pontus? What are you doing out here?”
Pontus nodded and scratched his cheek as he considered the questions.
“I am one of the Children of Echidna, like my brother Typhon. We serve her and await her coming.”
He grinned at the obvious confusion in the face of the General.
“She needs workers to finish our great temple, and your war has provided workers in the thousands for us.”
Alarms triggered inside the ship, and a marine ran inside the brig section with obvious terror on his face. A crewman carrying a mobile engineer’s datapad, a large device that allowed remote access to certain management parts of the ship, followed him. The sound of what appeared to be gunfire came from a long distance inside the hull of the ship.
“Sir! We need to move you, now!” he said, grabbing the General. The General easily brushed the man’s arm aside and looked back to the sneering face of Pontus. He stepped closer and pointed his right hand at his face.
“What do you want from us?”
Before he could speak, the marine tried to grab him again, but this time was stopped by a marine guard. The two started a rowdy disagreement while the General concentrated on the prisoner.
“Echidna needs labour, and the people on your remaining ships will be a useful asset. Stay in orbit, and wait for our transports to arrive to take you to the surface. My guards are coming for me. Refusal to let me leave, or any attempt to leave your current position, and your ships will meet the same as your first cruiser.”
General Rivers’ guard moved closer, but the Sergeant of his guard unit leaned in and whispered.
“Sir, we have a major situation here. Machines in the secondary landing bay, looks like a boarding party of some kind. We need to get you out of here.”
Slaves of Hyperion (Star Crusades Uprising, Book 6) Page 11