“Dauntless, Spartan here. We’re inside,” he said over his mouthpiece.
“Affirmative. Looks like you got in quietly for a change.”
Spartan nodded, completely forgetting the only communication remaining was audio. The Earthsec teams were less than advanced when it came to the use of technology, and although his armor came equipped with a camera, it was only for the benefit of those orbiting Mars.
Typical Earthers, it’s all about top down monitoring and control.
He recalled the plan of the refinery he’d been looking at on the screens inside the shuttle. The structure of the site was relatively straightforward, with a massive shaft buried deep underground and then a series of habitation zones, transport tunnels, storages tanks, and pipelines. The water towers were actually buried deep inside the rock with a small section no more than twenty meters extending out to the surface.
“Spartan, you know the way?” asked Khan.
“It’s okay,” said Darwin Moneaux, “I studied the plans on the way over. We need to take the secondary passageway past the pumping house. It will bypass the main habitation area and give us a view of the shuttle landing area. From there, it’s about a ten minute trip to the base of the water towers.”
Spartan bared his teeth in amusement.
“And that’s where the life signs are?”
Spartan nodded.
“Until a few minutes ago, yeah. Let’s go.”
Operative Moneaux led the way, with nothing but their lamps providing light in the darkness of the refinery installation. As they made their way through the substantial loading and storage area, he looked about, ever vigilant and expecting an attack. Incredibly, they made it the entire way across and to the first set of internal doors. These were barely large enough for Khan to climb through, but once inside and sealed shut, they found a little respite from the bitter cold outside.
“Great, now what?” asked one of the older men.
Spartan noticed it was the same one that had been grumbling on the way down from Dauntless. He walked toward the man and twisted him about. Spartan pull up his respirator and instantly felt cooler air on his mouth. It was cold but bearable, nothing like outside.
“You know what is next. We find out what happened and assess the strengths of the enemy. If we find any survivors on the way, so be it. For now the plan is recon. Understood?”
“Yeah, but what about Cobb? We ain’t coming down here and leaving without him. Earthsec looks after its own.”
Spartan pulled back his new arm and brought the fist in against the man’s stomach. The impact was hard, perhaps a little harder than he’d expected. The man jerked back, slamming into the inner wall and slumped down coughing. Spartan almost regretted his outburst but then saw something move further down the passageway. If he hadn’t struck the operative, he’d never have been in the right position to see it.
His weapon was up in a flash, and his eyes watching carefully in the direction of the shape. Khan spotted his movement. As one, the group spun about and took aim with their weapons. Spartan aimed from the hip while Khan didn’t even bother to look for cover. He extended both arms toward the target like a gunslinger of old. The choking man remained on the ground, providing the only sound until Spartan spoke.
“Who’s there?”
A shadow moved out from behind a container and stepped out into the corridor. It was a man, but his form was obscured in thick cloth. He carried in his hands a short but thick muzzled thermal shotgun of some obscure design.
“Spartan, I see you’re making friends again,” said the man from deep inside the passageway.
Spartan kept his weapon trained on the shape, but as he watched was sure there was something familiar about him. The shadow moved closer until the hard light from the operatives’ lamps bathed him in light. The man was covered in layers of loose clothing and a pair of round goggles that made him look like some desert dwelling wanderer. He stopped in front of Spartan, lowered his weapon, and pulled up his goggles to reveal his ebony black face and piercing brown eyes.
“Marcus?”
“So, you haven’t forgotten everyone, then?”
The man’s voice had always been hidden behind a thick accent, and over time it sounded like it had become even harder to understand. Spartan lowered his crude weapons and approached his old friend. He lifted his artificial arm, but Marcus stood his ground.
“Why are you here, Spartan?”
He lifted his hands and twisted about to look at the dark passageway.
“Isn’t this a little out of your usual place of operation? I heard about APS Corps. Tough times, huh?”
Spartan let the air rush out through his teeth.
“Right, I see.”
He looked over his shoulder and nodded to Khan who then moved in closer to his flank. He’d not met Marcus before. In fact, he’d never even heard of him.
“This is Marcus, my old friend from back in the day. Last time we spoke was during the...”
“Fighting for Terra Nova,” added Marcus. “Yeah, that’s the last time we spoke.”
Spartan looked past Marcus, checking for signs of any more people. He had a hundred questions for the man, but now was definitely not the time. For now, he would have to manage with the bare minimum.
“We don’t have long. There’s a storm coming.”
“You don’t say,” said his old friend, “I take it you’re here to deal with our new friends?”
Spartan nodded, and Marcus looked at the small group before shaking his head.
“Whatever you’re planning on doing, you won’t be doing it with six guys.”
“What do you know?”
Marcus pointed to the way he’d come from.
“I assume the loudmouthed guys that came in earlier were yours?”
Khan nodded.
“Well, they ran right in to the hunting parties those things sent out. It’s been days since they landed, and I can tell you now, Spartan, they plan on doing a Prometheus, right here.”
“How many have they taken?” asked the older of the Earthsec operatives.
Marcus looked at the man and back to Spartan.
“He’s kidding right? The machines have every single person that works here. That’s hundreds of men and women, and in a few more days, the butchering is going to start.”
He wiped his brow, clearly distressed.
“All that’s left here are a handful of your men that came in and the work crew in the lower level security station. The whole lot of them tried to escape two days ago, but the machines found them. The survivors have dug in, and nothing short of thermite charges will dig them out now.”
He pointed in front and behind them.
“Every access road and tunnel leading from here to the rest of the bases here on Mars is barricaded by them. Once they start making their fighters, they’ll open them up and send them out to the rest of Mars. You remember what those things are like, don’t you, Spartan?”
Khan grumbled something, and Spartan had to strike him in the chest.
“Speak up, Khan. What did you say?”
Khan bent down and leaned in close to Marcus.
“I said we either help those that made it to the security station, or we get out of here and destroy the site. There ain’t no recon left to do here.”
“Destroy the refinery, with what?” asked Spartan. “You know the arsenal on board Dauntless. It’s got nothing that could make an impact on this place, not with most of it being so far underground.”
Marcus reached out and placed his hand on Spartan’s new artificial arm. It was covered in fabric and an armored gloved covered his hand so that it looked like any other arm. As soon as he made contact, his face altered slightly. Spartan couldn’t tell if it was surprise or sympathy, or perhaps a little of both.
“I see you’ve hit hard times as well, old friend?”
He then tilted his head and looked back inside the passageway.
“I can take you to the secur
ity station. There’s another access shaft running ten meters below the entire base.”
“How do you know that?” asked one of the other operatives.
The man stepped up to Marcus and walked around him, examining his clothing and weapon.
“So who exactly are you, Marcus? And how the hell do you know the layout of this place?”
The man tried to grab Marcus’ shoulder, but as he reached the clothing, he found Marcus had twisted about, grabbed his arm, and spun him about. In a fraction of a second, their man was on the floor, and Marcus had his foot pushed down into his back.
“I’ve been on Mars for six years now. That’s all you need to know.”
He then looked back to Spartan.
“Johnson said you would be coming. Now, are we going to get the survivors, or what?”
Spartan was confused with the information heading his way. One thing he did know was that the clock was ticking, and if they weren’t fast, they’d end up trapped inside the refinery and possibly unable to leave for a long, long time.
The machines have timed this damned well. They hit just as the storm arrives. While we muddle about, they will use the cover of the dust storms to take every colony structure, base, and facility on Mars. By the time the storm leaves, Mars will be a Biomech fortress.
He shuffled on his feet as numbness had begun to spread through his left leg.
“We get our people, and then we’re finding a way to shut these machines down.”
Marcus shook his head.
“You know how many of them are here, right?”
“Yeah, three or four of those arachnid warriors,” said Darwin Moneaux.
Marcus almost choked with laughter. He looked at the man.
“You’re serious? Okay, if you say so.”
Spartan nodded in his direction.
“We don’t have much time. Take us to them, and fast.”
Marcus turned to the way he’d come from, and the rest followed. They moved in silence for almost a minute. Spartan finally asked the question the others were desperate to hear an answer to.
“So, what exactly landed down here?”
Marcus chuckled.
“A Biomech commander, at least a dozen arachnoids, and more than a hundred foot soldiers. They took control of this place in less than an hour. It was brutally efficient.”
“Foot soldiers?” asked Khan.
“Yeah, they match the data from those warriors they landed on Eos.”
They kept moving down the passageway, all of them keeping their weapons ready and their torches on. Spartan caught a glimpse of Khan’s expression, and it was one of clear surprise. Spartan could only assume his friend wanted to know how Marcus knew what was going on at Eos, something he barely knew about.
“Marcus, what do you mean about Eos?”
He looked to Spartan and could see he had no real idea what he was talking about.
“Eos, the moon of Gaxos out in the Helion system. Our marines fought a major battle there and got their asses kicked. Gun and two entire battalions were stationed there. The Biomechs landed these foot soldiers, and they are tough.”
He smiled.
“Don’t worry, I know you like a fight. If we’re going to make it to the security station, I’m sure you’ll get a chance to see a few of them.”
They moved further inside the refinery, finally taking several turns into darker, cooler parts of the base. There was no sound this far inside the structure, yet Spartan felt no safer. He watched Marcus carefully as he moved, wondering how the man had found his way to Mars, and more importantly, how did he know so much of what was going on?
“Marcus,” he called out, “tell me more about Eos.”
* * *
The eight legs of the Prometheus underground facility all met at the central plaza. Based on the last minute orders from her, a series of barricades had been put together that were now garrisoned by a mixture of troops, the majority coming from the stern looking Red Watch. The open ground from this thin curtain wall had been left deliberately open to provide deadly killing areas in case any of the enemy broke through. In the center, directly in the base of the sunken plaza, was Teresa’s central redoubt with dozens of warriors and almost as many heavy weapons. A pair of Bulldog vehicles waited in the open space with their doors open and their crew waiting outside for their orders. Every single one of them found themselves in awe of what was happening on the massive video projections.
Teresa and the rest of the defenders watched the space battle unfold right before their eyes. It seemed detached to her as spacecraft filled with hundreds, and sometimes thousands of crew fought and died in the vacuum of space. What made it worse for her though, was that Teresa knew the entire operation was a trick. Nothing more than a way of forcing the machines to unleash their war machines on a planet that was expecting it.
Most watched the video streams directly from inside their armor, but many more watched the unfolding battle on large projections that were positioned throughout the underground base. The wall directly opposite, where Teresa and her comrades were dug in, showed an image of the fight nearly ten meters tall.
“They are putting up a good fight,” said Osk, who had only just arrived with her small retinue of guards.
“Indeed they are. It hasn’t stopped the assault ships though, has it?” asked Teresa.
Both were fully armored, yet they could see each other’s faces through the slightly smoked visors. Osk turned from the live feed and toward Teresa.
“True. The transports took most of the fire from Dreadnought, but she’s been chased away. I’ve never seen a single ship put up such a fight before. It looks like the design did its job. Not that it will matter in the end though. They’ll be here soon.”
Teresa nodded bitterly.
“I know. It’s not just the ship. The crew is one of the best I’ve ever met. If they are leaving, it’s because they have absolutely no choice in the matter.”
Teresa knew the fleet had little chance against such numbers. Even so, she’d though ANS Dreadnought and her Liberty ships would have lasted more than the thirty minutes it had taken the enemy. One of the Liberty ships had been rammed, and its shattered hulk continued to spin as it moved ever closer to the fiery planet. The remaining Alliance ships were already moving away from the planet and back toward the safety and shelter of the storms.
“Why not head through the Rift to T’Karan?”
Teresa looked at the images of Biomech fighters pursuing the massive Alliance ship and couldn’t help but smile as a cloud of turret fire destroyed all five pursuers in a single powerful volley.
Something tells me they are staying close for a reason.
An alert sounded on her secpad, and the imagery transferred directly to her visor overlay. It was Captain Horner.
“Colonel, the external sensor field shows the enemy formation of ships has released their landing parties.”
Teresa closed her eyes and breathed slowly. She knew this was coming, but the imagery of the enemy’s assault ships had proven more worrying that even she had thought.
“How many?”
The man’s forehead tightened as he explained.
“Ten of the fifteen capital ships made it through our lines. The P7 station took out two, and another went down from the combined missile and gun battery fire coming from us. Dreadnought took out two herself.”
Teresa was far from impressed though, she knew that ten more had broken through, and they were all the size of a Crusader class warship.
“And the transports?”
“Two were downed, five more got through, but two are burning.”
Teresa quickly totted them up in her head.
“So, three of the old civilian transports and ten Biomech ships got through to the orbit of Prometheus? Is that right?”
“Affirmative, Colonel. All but two are the recently identified Biomech assault ships, codenamed Sawfish. They match the designs of the ships that landed troops on Eos. The oth
ers are Biomanta class cruisers.”
The names might have been amusing on any other day but not now. Unlike most temporary names, these were based on form and function.
“Also, the large single ship, provisionally codenamed a Cephalon class is with them. We suspect it is controlling the operation.”
“I need numbers, Captain. How many landing craft can I expect?”
“Expect?” answered the man, “No, they are already en route. We counted at least twenty of the Bioray landing craft heading for the surface, with half as many making directly for the entrances to the docking areas and shipyards. According to the reports from Eos, these things can land up to a hundred warriors directly into battle. Some can even carry their heavy walkers.”
Again Teresa closed her eyes, but the images of the fighting on Eos haunted her almost instantly. It wasn’t just the massive mechanical machines that the Biomechs had made use of; it was the variety of biological warriors that really worried her. They were fast, violent, and never ever backed down.
“How long do we have?”
He stopped whatever it was and looked directly at her.
“Colonel, the first Biorays are heading your way. I have the surface guns on them but half have already been knocked out.”
A loud banging sound came from far in the distance, and it sent Teresa’s heartbeat up substantially. She found herself gulping involuntarily.
“Okay, Captain. We’ll take it from here. Is the internal grid online?”
“Yes, Colonel.”
“Good, do your job, and we’ll do ours.”
As the signal cut, a group of two dozen marines surged past her position and off into one of the long open spaces that took them to one of the legs of the base. A trio of Jötnar ran right behind them, all of them holding their modified L56 Mark III weapons low and at the ready. The base began to shake again as if it struck by an earthquake, and chunks of rock began to fall from the ceiling.
“What the hell!” Teresa snapped.
She’d planned for many contingencies, but the possibility that the machine would be able to smash through over a hundred meters of solid rock and two plated sections of metal hadn’t even occurred to her.
Star Crusades Nexus: Book 06 - Call to Arms Page 16