Star Crusades Nexus: Book 09 - The Black Rift

by Michael G. Thomas

  It’s the armor, painkillers and suppressors.

  “Colonel, we have to move.”

  She looked to her right and found Gun holding the broken body of a Decurion. He lifted it to the side and then hurled it at two approaching Thegns. One raised its arms to protect itself, and Gun used the opportunity to open fire with his shoulder-mounted gun. He looked back to her and nodded. A pair of his bodyguards helped her to her feet, and she immediately groaned.

  “You have to walk. The facility has been breached. They hit us with atomics and then crashed the last of their ships all around the mountain. First to go was the landing pads, then the air defense sites.”

  Gun grunted as a bullet struck his armor. He turned around and blasted a Thegn emerging from the blackness.

  “The armory medical center, vehicle pool. It’s all gone. We’ve got no air cover left, and the fleet left to help Anderson and his plan. We’re falling back.”

  The mention of the medical center wasn’t a shock, but it still dulled her thoughts even more. She looked about but didn’t recognize the place. The ceiling was much lower, and the lighting was only provided by the armor worn by the defenders. There was barely enough room for Gun to move.

  “Where are we?”

  Gun looked back, fired a single shot, and then kept on moving.

  “The machines have taken the upper levels. Our engineers set thermite charges before we left. The mountain is gone. We’re heading for the west and the secondary lines. Captain Tycho is preparing them right now.”

  Teresa took a step, and the pain almost threw her down. The ground shook, and part of the tunnel behind them lowered with a grinding sound. Chunks of rubble dropped down and struck those nearby. Teresa tried to move to help, but Gun grabbed her, pulling her toward the direction the rest of the marines were heading in. She hopped and groaned as they moved meter-by-meter from the devastation wrought through the mountain.

  “No, they need our help!”

  She pushed back at him, but his armored limbs were impervious to her touch.

  “Behind us!” shouted a marine.

  The man turned back and pulled himself low. He lifted his carbine and fired a long burst before looking to Gun.

  “General, we’ve got more back there. They’re pinned down at the junction.”

  Gun tried to move back, but the partial collapse of the tunnel made it impossible for him to get through. He bent down and shone his lamp deep into the ruins of the mountain. Further back was the wide-open intersection where the tunnels from all four directions joined. The center space was large enough for half a dozen Bulldogs. In the middle were thirty or more marines, with a sprinkling of Helion militiamen.

  “He’s right. I need a squad to go back.”

  Part of the ceiling cracked, and then another chunk dropped down to open a hole to the level above them. A Decurion dropped through and embedded its blades into the nearest marine. One of Gun’s bodyguards smashed its fist into the machine and then forced it against the sidewall. Two marines blasted it apart with close range carbine fire. More limbs appeared in the hole, and three more machines dropped in to attack them. Gun swung his fists at any that dared to come near him. As he released his grip, Teresa took that as an opportunity to get away. She staggered from Gun and looked to the marine next to her.

  “Pull it out, now.”

  She nodded to the embedded chunk of metal. The Private turned to check with Gun, but Teresa struck him across the helmet with the butt of her carbine.

  “Now!”

  The men knelt down and placed his knee against her armored leg. He grabbed the chunk of metal and then yanked. The severed and razor sharp piece pulled out and clattered to the ground. Blood oozed from behind the hole and ran down her leg. Teresa cried out but punched at the ground, making sure she stayed conscious. With two commands, she sent the drugs through her body, as well as the sealant mist to stem the bleeding, cauterize the wound, and keep her in the fight.

  “Are you insane? You cannot go back,” said Gun.

  Other marines were still moving out of the tunnel, with only two standing their ground with their commanding officers. A single Jötnar in the color of Gun’s personal guard was also there. Teresa shook her head.

  “Spartan’s lost somewhere up there, and Jack is probably dead inside this mountain. I have to do something.”

  Teresa nodded to the direction they were retreating to.

  “You need to hold this side of the tunnel. Watch our backs. We’ll be back.”

  She didn’t even wait for his answer. Gun watched as the wounded Colonel crawled back through the rubble, along with two marines. In seconds they were gone, and Gun was left in the tunnel with just the last two marines and the single Jötnar.

  “Typical Teresa,” he said with a chuckle.

  “General, get back.”

  He moved, not even thinking of what it might be. The Thegn landed a meter to his side and swung a pair of razor sharp blades. Gun blasted it to shreds with his shoulder-mounted gun while laughing.

  “Come on, you can do better than this.”

  He could hear movement above and used the moment of calm to shuffle back a few more meters, still keeping his lamps and weapons trained on the hole. A quick movement of his eyes gave him a glimpse of the small gap in the tunnel that Teresa had gone through. He could hear gunfire coming from that side.

  Spartan, you old fool, it’s best she never knows.

  Teresa reached the other side and activated her vision modes. The thermal imaging allowed her to see through the smoke and dust. At the end of the shaft were the intersection and the pinned down marines. Thegns and Decurions hit them repeatedly from three directions, and more climbed out of a breach in the floor just the other side of the rubble. One jumped out and turned around to rush the trapped marines.

  “Hey!” Teresa shouted.

  The Thegn looked back, surprised to find anybody at the partially collapsed tunnel. A single high-power round tore through its body. The two marines added their own fire and shredded the unfortunate creature. Two more climbed from the hole and fired toward the intersection.

  “With me.”

  Teresa limped closer and closer to the Thegns and embedded her bayonet in the back of the nearest one’s skull. The second saw the attack and twisted around, but it was too slow. The pair of marines shot at point-blank range, killing the thing instantly. The bodies fell to the ground, and they moved on past them.

  “Don’t shoot,” said Teresa, moving out of the darkness.

  “Where the hell did you come from?” asked a tall Marine sergeant.

  Teresa glanced at the man, recognizing him from somewhere.

  “Sergeant…Stone.”

  “Yes, Sir,” said the man.

  Teresa looked down and found the reason for them staying where they were. The badly mangled shape of a wounded lieutenant lay there. He was missing a leg, and there were two deep wounds in his chest. Even so, the man still lived.

  “Lieutenant Elvidge,” said the young officer, “You need to get out of here. This entire place is falling apart.”

  “Colonel Morato, and we’re getting out of here, all of us,” Teresa snapped back.

  “Morato?” Sergeant Stone asked.

  A howl came from the shaft off to the left.

  “Come on,” said Teresa.

  The group moved back along the debris-filled shaft; each taking care to protect the route back. No sooner had they left the intersection when more than a dozen Decurions with Thegn support moved in from two of the tunnels. They merged at the intersection and looked about aimlessly, lost now that their prize had vanished.

  “Keep going,” said Sergeant Stone.

  The first of the group were already at the section with the collapsed rubble. Several new chunks had broken down, and it was now only big enough to squeeze through one at a time. Teresa and Sergeant Stone brought up the rearguard while the others helped each other through the narrow space.

  “Hold them b
ack,” said Teresa.

  The enemy had spotted their attempt to escape and opened fire. Two rounds struck nearby, and a third hit the Sergeant in the chest. The round deflected and embedded itself deep into the tunnel walls.

  * * *

  Gun watched the survivors crawl from the hole with widening eyes. First came a pair of privates, then a badly wounded officer with a missing leg. By the time the sixth came through, they were hit again. More holes had opened up on the sidewalls right next to the partially collapsed ceiling. Thegns appeared almost continually now, and for a moment the evacuation stopped.

  “Get them out of here!” growled Gun.

  He moved closer to the damage and blocked the path. Each time a Thegn appeared, he would stab or shoot instantly sending them back. After the fourth attempt, they backed off.

  “Now, send more through.”

  Another marine climbed through the gap and squeezed past Gun and out into the tunnel. More followed, but Gun could hear the sound of further enemy forces closing the distance. He took a step back and crouched down, but the gap was too low and too small for him to see through. Another marine came through and then an entire group of them. He was forced to stand back as each of them struggled to get past his armored form.

  “More artillery!” shouted one as he rushed away.

  Gun checked his helmet display, but he’d lost all contact with friendly forces. In any case, it didn’t matter. The shells struck in a bombardment that occurred one after the other. Sections of the ceiling tore apart, and he was forced to keep moving back or risk being trapped inside.

  “Colonel, get out of there…now!”

  He spotted movement in the gap and reached out to help. It wasn’t friendly though, and instead the arm was metallic and sharp. It flailed about and tore a chunk of plating from Gun’s arm. He took aim, but another clambered out of a breach in the ceiling and ripped at his main gun.

  “Gun!” yelled his guards.

  All of them opened fired, and the shaft filled with muzzle flashes and bullets. Thegns squeezed through and began to overwhelm the rearguard. Gun became enraged and swung and smashed his legs and fists into anything he could find. Blood, metal, and flesh filled the tunnel. One Thegn stopped as it emerged from the hole and then a blade pushed out through its mouth. A marine pulled himself past the body and then looked back to help pull Teresa through.

  “Good, follow me.”

  Gun turned around and moved back nearly ten meters. Another massed bombardment shook the tunnel, and a piece of masonry dropped down and struck his neck. He stumbled and fell to one knee. He looked back and saw dozens of Thegns swarming in after him. One hacked and stabbed at Sergeant Stone, but he struck back with his bayoneted carbine. Something grabbed at Gun, and he looked up. A Decurion had worked its way along the ceiling and then dropped down onto a bodyguard’s torso. It punched blades into his armor before moving to the marines. More of them swarmed in from a dozen breaches, and Gun and his escort were quickly surrounded.

  “Kill them all!” he yelled, and in a berserk fury he struck at all and any that dared to come close. After the third kill, he could just make out the hole where Teresa and the Sergeant had been. There were dozens of Thegns there now, and he could only imagine what horrors lay on the other side. Then he spotted an arm, then a face.

  “Teresa!”

  The battered marine pulled herself through the hole and dropped down alongside Sergeant Stone. Her armor had been penetrated in a dozen places, and her helmet ripped off. Even as she lay there, a Decurion advanced and threw itself at the two marines. Sergeant Stone forced himself to his feet and lifted his carbine. He was still firing as the thing hit him and pinned his body against the Colonel’s. More of them rushed in to block the tunnel, and that was when Gun spotted Teresa’s hand. She clenched her fist tight around a thermite detonation charge. Gun swung his fists again and crunched a Thegn against the wall. Another Decurion punched a limb through his shoulder, and then the end of the tunnel vanished in a bright flash that collapsed the entire section furthest from Gun. Whole chunks of stone dropped down around him, but as the dust cleared, he could see nothing of the two marines, or even the foes that had assaulted them.

  “General, can you move?” asked a voice from behind.

  With great effort, he twisted around and looked at the faces of three young marines. He pushed hard, but his legs were trapped.

  “Kind of, give me a moment.”

  With all of his strength, he pushed the ground hard and forced his battered body from the rubble. Pain seared through his shoulder, as half of the broken Decurion slid off to leave two deep puncture wounds in his torso. His left leg was still trapped, and he was tempted to tear the limb off to escape.

  “Captain Tycho sent us and the rest of the 35th to secure the breaches.”

  The man turned around and waved to a distant shape. It stomped closer until Gun could see it was a bullet ridden CES engineer.

  “Hold on, Sir. I’ll get you out of there in a second,” said the operator.

  The CES unit smashed and dug away to clear the debris. As it worked, Gun looked back at where he’d last seen Teresa and the Sergeant, and sighed.

  It was a good death.

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

  Hyperion was a thriving world, filled with vegetation and wildlife. The colonization by the Jötnar might have been the end for this way of life, but unlike most Alliance worlds, Hyperion flourished. Wildlife continued to thrive, and the Jötnar took to the lush planet with relish. Even when captured Biomech creatures were released, they turned large swathes of forest into great hunting reserves. Over time, the Jötnar would prove some of the least destructive custodians in the history of man.

  The Downfall of Hyperion

  ANS Hyperion, The Black Rift, Helios Sector

  Khan growled as a burst of gunfire raked his Mauler and tore off one of its engines. The Alliance Navy pilot pulled off an impressive spin to avoid further shots and then fell in alongside the scores of other similar craft.

  “How much longer?” Khan asked.

  “Sixty seconds,” replied the pilot over the intercom.

  The craft shuddered again with such large numbers of Maulers and fighters streaming in to the battleship. Capital ships moved in with them so that the distance between the vessels of both sides dropped down to just a few kilometers. Explosions followed one another, as ships and fighters were ripped apart in a vicious maelstrom. One Liberty destroyer was cut clean in half from a Ravager ramming it at high speed.

  “Thirty seconds.”

  They were past the escort now, and Khan could see the forward view from the Mauler directly inside his visor. The battleship completely filled the view, and the levels of gunfire were like nothing he’d ever seen. As they swept down to the shattered hangar on the port bow, he found himself shaking his head in amazement.

  “How the hell did we survive that?”

  Olik laughed.

  “Plenty didn’t. What about the Black Ships? They are still closing, and we’re running low on Maulers.”

  “Ten seconds.”

  Khan felt his muscles tense up.

  “Ram her. They can disembark through the breaches.”

  Olik and Knaprig were amazed at what they heard, but neither made a protest. Khan sent the orders, and then the Mauler shook violently. The display went dark, and Khan was forced to revert to his own eyes and sensor.

  “To me, my brothers.”

  The doors hissed open on both sides, and the ramps dropped down. To Khan’s surprise there was normal, if slightly heavier gravity than was standard on Alliance ships. He took three steps and leapt out to land hard onto the hangar floor. The other two followed right behind him, along with a dozen marines. The Mauler groaned and then lifted itself up and twisted around. With a short burst from its engines, it pushed away, and its place was taken by the next. Khan watched it move back into space and then shook his head.

  Weird.

  He looked back deep inside
the enemy warship. It was a large, but poorly lit space. He'd counted multiple similar entrances on the way in, and each of them joined two passageways through doors at the far end. The walls curved up to meet above them in what looked like a long, spinal central section. Khan turned his eyes a little to the right and checked on the arrival patterns of his forces. They were taking lots of fire coming in, but already he could see he had troops at three more hangars just a few hundred meters away.

  "Secure the hangars, establish a perimeter."

  His orders were simple and direct. More marines were already in his hangar, and they rushed ahead in a loose skirmish line. Two SAAR robots trundled after them, continually scanning left and right with their built-in turrets. Khan followed ten meters behind them. They traveled at a fast walk, all checking the shadows for signs of the enemy. There were no spacecraft in the open space but plenty of racks for machine parts, as well as two dismantled transports that filled the right-hand side. The doorways at the far end were big and shaped in much the same way as the walls and ceilings. Each was sealed with a thick metallic like blast door.

  Keep moving, Khan told himself.

  He looked up and only now noticed the single gantry running directly under the spine on the ceiling. He tracked along it and found it vanished into a hole near the back wall. An alert sounded, and he turned his head to watch a fourth Mauler unload its precious cargo. This time is was Major Terson and his entourage of marines and Thegns. They stormed out in equal numbers and made for the sidewalls. The Major, however, just marched in a direct line toward Khan. Behind him came three CES engineers and a handful of Vanguards. They moved with little grace as they stomped through the cavernous ship.

  "That man is either brave or stupid as hell."

  Olik laughed.

  "Like he's doing anything different to us."