Star Crusades Nexus: Book 06 - Call to Arms

by Michael G. Thomas

  The signal that the descent had turned to a landing sequence was when the engines reversed thrust and the retro thrusters activated. In an instant, the shuttles lifted their noses and moved in to settle on the ground. The first came in a little hard, and the hydraulic landing skids retracted almost half the way back into the shuttle before it bounced and then settled down on the Red Planet.

  Most assumed that Mars would appear red upon a first visit, and as the first Earthsec platoon exited the shuttle, more than a few that were surprised at what they saw. The landing lights and flood lamps fitted to the craft lit up some of the ground around them, but it was the navigation and marker lights fitted all over the refinery that did most of the work. They cast an odd series of hard shadows in all directions, as well as lighting up the ground and highlighting the peculiar array of oxidation and rust on the surface. It was more colorful than the majority had ever expected.

  "Move out, people," said Captain Cobb.

  He watched the first team leave from the safety of the second shuttle. They moved out as a single large unit toward the surface blast doors. At first glance, it looked nothing more than a crowd of heavily armed men, but as they covered more ground, it became easier to see the three large squads as they pulled apart. Two moved for the array of doors while the third took up positions in cover a short distance away, providing a basic degree of overwatch.

  "One more pass," he said.

  The second shuttle tilted hard to the left and circled over the landing zone for the third time. The onboard gunners, as well as the remaining half of the landing party watched in all directions, each looking for signs of the supposed Biomech enemy. Cobb looked at the video image showing on a thick display screen embedded on the wall. It showed the last known positions of the enemy and also confirmed to him that there had been no more than four of the multi-limbed combat drones.

  Biomechs, my ass. These could just be private security combat drones.

  Like all of the Earthsec operatives in the combat component of the unit, none had experience of the Biomech threat. Only three had ever ventured outside of Sol, and the stories of the Great Uprising still seemed farfetched; even to those who had been to see the sacred sights of some of the larger battles that had since been turned into tourist attractions or memorial gardens.

  Captain Cobb had dealt with a dozen minor insurrections and incidents on the colonies of Sol over the last thirteen years. He had even been involved in the Jupiter incident, where a private firm had attempted to take control of the orbital mining facility. It was one of the richest sites in Sol, and his use of forbidden robotics had allowed him to empty large parts of the base into space, making the site uninhabitable for nearly three years.

  Tyrant Hawken, he thought bitterly, remembering the odd name the criminal had taken, or perhaps he'd chosen it for himself. In either case the man had escaped, along with his entourage of a dozen combat drones and weapons.

  This looks and sounds just like his work.

  Cobb watched the first shuttle lift up from the ground to provide a clear landing space for his own craft. Satisfied with the initial dispersal, he gave the order to his pilot to move in. This time the landing was textbook, and no sooner had the skids settled, the doors had opened, and the Earthsec team flooded out.

  The atmosphere on Mars was still not completely breathable, but at least the atmosphere itself had begun to stabilize after centuries of development. It was no Earth, but it was a great deal further ahead than the sterile hell of twenty-first century Mars where the first colony had failed in less than a year. With a modest atmosphere, it was able to retain some warmth at night, but it was still a difficult planet to live on. The clothing and armor used by the Earthsec team was more suited to the underground peacekeeping duties that were common beneath the surface of Earth; and lacked a fully enclosed and sealed environment for operating on airless moons or in the direct sunlight. It was another reason Cobb has selected night for the attack.

  Captain Cobb was the first out of the second shuttle, and to the horror of his men, he stumbled and dropped to one knee as he moved from the craft. The two following tried to avoid him but only one managed, and the other stumbled and fell down alongside him.

  It was at that very moment when the Biomechs struck.

  * * *

  Lieutenant Jenkins watched with fascination as the four arachnid shaped machines emerged from their hiding places. Even though they were mechanical beasts, they moved with a speed and grace that could easily have been a living creature. The first of them leapt out from inside the shattered wreckage that lay strew about the shuttle landing area. Although he had watched the footage of the initial attack on the refinery, this felt different. Probably because everything he was watching was taking place on the surface of the planet he was currently orbiting, and it was all happening right now.

  "Yeah, am I surprised?" complained Khan.

  "No...We have to warn them!" muttered Lieutenant Jenkins.

  Spartan shook his head.

  "They know."

  It was true. Even as the machines emerged from cover, the first of the Earthsec operatives opened fire. The initial volley was impressive and showered the attackers with small-caliber bullets. That was the extent of their effectiveness though.

  "Now it starts," Khan said in a hushed tone.

  Spartan said no more but watched in silence as the four machines split up and did exactly as he would have expected. There were cries of anguish and fear from the small number of crew that had seen some of the footage on the other displays. Only a handful of combat operatives remained, and Spartan spotted one of them running for a plastic bin. The poor man was too late and vomited over the wall and onto another of his comrade's boots.

  "This is how it always goes," said Spartan.

  He then looked down and checked the details on his own antiquated datapad, a unit he had borrowed from one of the officers’ quarters just after the shuttles had left. He lifted his eyes as the four charged into the nearest platoon of Earthsec operatives, with terrifying results. As Spartan had prophesized, their armor proved less than useless. Each machine tore apart two or three men before turning their attention on Cobb's unit.

  "We've got to do something!" said Lieutenant Jenkins.

  The man lifted himself to his feet, but Khan stopped him and placed his hands on the man's shoulder.

  "No, we can't help them right now, but we can learn. It will take hours to get our people down there. Spartan's already on it."

  Lieutenant Jenkins' face tightened, and his jaw stiffened, but Spartan also turned to him and nodded at the footage.

  "Whether they live or die is down to Cobb, their gear, and their training. I promise you though, we will be there in three hours, and when we get there, we'll fix this. Okay?"

  He waited until receiving the nod from Jenkins before continuing.

  "I have another shuttle already loaded in the drop bay. We leave in eleven minutes."

  It took another few seconds before Jenkins looked back to Spartan and grabbed his shoulder.

  "You planned for this?"

  The look of disgust was clear, but Spartan was less than amused. He ripped the arm away from his body and sent another batch of commands via the battered looking datapad.

  "Are you kidding? We told your boys what they were up against, and they screwed up. So yeah, I made my own plans. Just be thankful I bothered, or we'd be looking at another twenty plus hours before the next shuttle can be fuelled, armed, and rotated in for launch."

  Khan raised an eyebrow at the estimated time. He knew that Dauntless was an old ship, but twenty hours seemed excessive to him. He opened his mouth to speak, but unlike the Lieutenant, he knew the facial expressions of Spartan, and this time he let it go. Instead of speaking, he nodded and then looked away; now uncertain as to what expressions he ought to be showing. A long stream of gunfire pulled them back to the terrible scene that was taking place on the surface of Mars.

  “The shuttle,” said S
partan under his breath.

  All three looked back and watched as the machines butchered the men while just a handful returned fire. Out of two platoons, barely a dozen got off any shots, and none succeeded in inflicting anything more than minor damage on the machines. Several video feeds cut off as the men were killed, but also as the machine moved on to crash into the two shuttles, leaving dents and holes through their sides.

  "Look, there's Cobb!" said Khan.

  They watched him jump back inside the shuttle, and then a moment later he appeared on the other side and rolled down to the ground. One of the machines ripped off the side of the machine and pulled itself inside.

  "He's a dead man now," said Jenkins quietly.

  To all of their surprise, two more men appeared from the one door and hurled themselves free as the craft tore itself apart in a spectacular explosion. The machine failed to emerge, but the other three then turned their attention on Cobb. Many more of the operatives were now scattered and managed to put down fire onto the machines but to little effect.

  "I told them, those guns are just going to spitball out there. They need heavy weapons, the bigger the better," said Spartan.

  More feeds cut, including one long-range camera from the communication tower. The last one on the first shuttle twisted and then partially fell off so that it was now showing a view of a crippled tower, and one of the machines stabbing its blades through an unfortunate operative. A bright blue light flashed by, and then the feed flickered blue before fading out to white. Spartan sat up in surprise.

  "Uh, what the hell was that?"

  Lieutenant Jenkins was already on it and moved the imagery back several frames until they spotted a large bipedal form holding some kind of large gun system. All three sat there in stunned silence. Spartan finally spoke.

  "Is it me, or is that a Biomech?"

  Khan nodded and said nothing.

  "Look, to the left."

  They all looked at the target of the dreaded Biomech's weapon where the blue energy has shredded it four frames before the feed cut.

  "No, that can't be right," said Spartan.

  Even Khan found himself unable to say anything of use. Jenkins enlarged the image to show the thermal blast around the eight-legged mechanical warriors that had been attacking the operatives.

  "Why is the Biomech attacking its own robotic soldiers?"

  For the first time in a very long time, neither had anything to say.

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  It would be a mistake to assume that all members of the many worlds, colonies, and empires of the known universe might be alike. On Earth, in the early twenty-first century there were over seven billion people, inhabiting nearly two hundred unique countries. Of these countries, there were scores of ethnic groups, languages, and traditions, even between individual cities. The two largest religions of the times, Islam and Christianity, both comprised of many variants, all competing and often violently. We must therefore approach the new alien domains with a degree of sophistication and consideration. After just a few months, the four social groups of the Helions gave a good example of what would happen if all Helions were considered the same. The picture of alien societies completely transformed upon the first diplomatic meetings with the Anicinàbe, a fragmented nomadic people that occupied over twenty stars, yet inhabited no worlds.

  The Races of the Known Universe

  Admiral Churchill had moved from his quarters to the command center in readiness for the battle that lay ahead. Reports were still coming in from other Alliance outposts that confirmed unknown ships were on the move. That, combined with the ever-approaching deadline for the arrival of Comet C34 at Helios, told him just one thing; war was coming, and it would be coming very soon. No sooner had he arrived than Director Johnson intercepted him.

  “Admiral, I have news from one of my agents on Mars.”

  He looked to Johnson, a surprised expression his face.

  “Mars? I though the Rift had been deactivated on the other side?”

  “Yes, it is. My agent sent a distress transponder directly into the Rift. It only started to transmit in the last hour.”

  “Why?”

  Johnson walked to one of the many screens and lifted his secpad to contact the unit wirelessly. It completely bypassed the main computer system and so slaved the screen. The series of thirty-one images showed an explosion and a number of objects falling toward the camera.

  “My agent says this is the wreckage from a ship, one that matches the exact configuration described by Khan and Spartan during their captivity.”

  The Admiral looked a little confused, so Johnson continued.

  “This matches reports from Hyperion and Terra Nova where there have been sighting of these ships.”

  He looked almost excited.

  “Admiral, I think it’s working. These ships are all on the move, and every piece of evidence suggests they are heading for Helios.”

  He examined the imagery in detail and moved back to the first frame that showed the ship. There were others of a similar design around it, as well as something blurred but much larger right behind it.

  “What was it doing near Mars? Is this one of the ships that tried to move into position over Terra Nova?”

  Not waiting for an answer, he brought up the threat assessment from the ships in orbit around Terra Nova. As he expected, the report confirmed four ships had appeared around the capital of the Alliance before being pursued to the Sol Rift. The Rift had collapsed before they could follow the Biomech ships through.

  “So, all four ships of those got through. Are they all in Sol?”

  Johnson breathed out almost in a sigh.

  “Not just the four ships, the big one went through too. Although the distortion analysis suggests at least one was caught in the middle of the Rift collapse. I'd say somebody warned them.”

  Admiral Churchill shook his head in disappointment.

  “So, they stopped one of them coming through, but the rest made it."

  He turned about and sighed, shaking his head.

  "Those ships are something else. Bringing one down is quite a feat, but stopping the rest?"

  He wiped his brow; his feelings on the matter clear to them all.

  "If those ships made it to Mars, then they’re lost. The defenses around Mars are ancient and not helped by those fools from Earthsec. Do you know how tough it was persuading them to accept Alliance monitoring stations and a patrol ship?"

  Of course, Director Johnson was all too familiar with the difficulty in operating so far on the fringes of Alliance territory. Even as he listened to the Admiral, he was busy tagging and checking more data from his analysts on Prometheus. He opened his mouth to speak but found himself immediately cut off.

  "ANS Louisiana is the only warship in the system, and she’s nothing more than an old Achilles class frigate. I doubt they would last much more than five minutes against one of those ships, not least the rest of the fleet.”

  He thought of the crew and small complement of marines that would be present on the ship and felt a pang of guilt. He had access to ships and could send help on to Terra Nova through the local Rift and then on to Sol.

  But how would they get through the Rift? It has been closed from the other side. Only a Rift station like ANS Beagle has the energy and equipment to open a temporary Rift long enough for ships to get through.

  His attention moved back to the images.

  "Wait a second. What the hell is that thing?"

  His hand pointed at the dark shape behind the other four ships.

  "Yes, that's what I wanted to tell you about. According to the limited data that came through from Mars, well, it would appear several distress signals were being sent from the Mars orbit Rift control station as they came through."

  "So?"

  Director Johnson tried to smile.

  "They were stating that something had taken control of the station and was deactivating the Rift...as the ships were coming through."

>   "What?" Admiral Churchill answered.

  "You're telling me somebody managed to gain control of the station, outside of Alliance control, and shut it down?"

  Johnson nodded.

  "Yes, Admiral. The only question remaining is whether it was Earthsec, or somebody else that managed to gain access."

  Admiral Churchill wasn't sure he liked the sound of either of those options. He had little to go on, and right now the indicators on his heavily fortified base reminded him he had his own problems. A trio of officers marched past and saluted as they made their way to one of the many computer centers buried deep inside the hard rock. The structure had been enlarged and fitted out with the best management and communications equipment available in the Alliance. The facility itself was located on one side of the central hub of the base, but an additional two floors up. There were multiple airlock seals that doubled up as security points, and internal weapons mounts were slaved directly to the base’s defense grid. He looked at his tactical officer and wondered what it had been like when the Zealots had run the place.

  Something tells me, it would have been pretty similar.

  "Admiral, I'll see what else my analysts have uncovered," said Director Johnson as he moved off to the side where had had set up a small station with a group of his senior officers. They had access to a dozen displays, as well as privileged access to the entire base’s data banks and communications systems.

  "Let me know the minute you have data I can use."

  The place was much bigger than its equivalent on a ship and housed officers from the Navy, Marine Corps, and civilian side of the Alliance. There were almost twenty officers and banks of computer screens for monitoring events above and below the surface. Admiral Churchill felt confident in his base, his facilities, and his defenses. Even the supply situation was good, and he had access to large quantities of drinking water, limitless power produced by capping the thermal vents, and several years’ worth of preprocessed and stored foods. Like all Naval installations, this one was crewed exclusively by official Alliance personnel and was one of the most efficient, self-sustaining bases in service.