Star Crusades Nexus: Book 08 - Wrath of the Gods: Page 16

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  ANS Dreadnought, T’Karan

  Spartan walked around the small group of Biomech war machines for what must have been the fifth time. It was a walk tinged with impatience and more than a little annoyance. ANS Dreadnought had been transformed in the last twenty-four hours into something he thought he would never have seen. Most of the marines had been moved off to other ships in the flotilla, leaving just a single company on the ship, under the command of Captain Rivers. He’d been around their kind many times before, but this was a first for him, the chance to look at and study them without being tortured or interrogated. Each of them was as similar as they were different. Some were tall and lithe; others short and squat like a tank. Yet every one of them shared the worn and battered look of Z’Kanthu. He felt a slight shiver as he spotted a wide machine, its legs thick, and the low hanging arms came equipped with horrific-looking pincers. One of the arms moved a little as he watched and then went still.

  They are old and tired. A bit like me, I suppose.

  He found it a little amusing and glanced to Khan who walked alongside him. The two had much in common with the machines they now walked amongst. All had suffered at the hands of the enemy, and all of them had seen vast bloodshed. The one common ground, however, was the desire for vengeance. It was now no longer about ending the war. It was time for a total victory.

  “Maybe we should have stayed longer. For our efforts, we’ve been given seven Alliance ships. That’s it. One for each of our seven guests we found. Maybe we could have found more than the eleven bandon. Will that be enough for this fight?”

  Khan shrugged.

  “Maybe, maybe not. It doesn’t matter, anyway. You’ve seen the video feeds. Gun and Jack are fighting on Spascia, and it doesn’t look good. We have to act, and fast.”

  Spartan nodded in quick agreement. Even though they’d moved as fast as they could, there was no more time to search. They would have to manage with the forces they’d found, all of which were now part of this fleet. All remaining stowage space had been allocated to their news guests on this vessel, as well as space about six Liberty class destroyers recently configured for transport and now designated the Black Ships. Gone were their three mission bays, replaced by three large habitation blocks, each suitable for housing a large number of marines. Between them they could carry all the machines and their horde of warriors.

  “Helios Prime is in an even worse state. I don’t think they can hold down there. You’ve seen the reports on the public nets. They’re bad enough as it is. When you look at the Alliance military reports, you can see how bad it really is.”

  To Spartan’s surprise he realized Khan appeared to agree with him.

  “Really, you, too?”

  Khan shrugged.

  “The bombardment has smashed the planet. Every time Admiral Lewis has tried to help, his ships have been crippled. The only chance the world has is the operation. And if we throw everything at Helios Prime, what will happen to Spascia?”

  Spartan nodded and looked back at his friend.

  “True. I don’t think it will make much of a difference either way. The machines don’t want Helios anymore than we really do. All they want is control of the Nexus and the Black Rift.”

  He indicated toward the group of Biomech war machines.

  “That’s why I think the only way we can help our friends is to do this. We will have to accept their sacrifice on Prime and Spascia. It’s up to us to do what the others cannot.”

  Even Khan appeared to find this thought unsettling.

  “Millions will die if we don’t use our full strength on Spascia and Prime. This plan will divert the bulk of our strength from where it is needed the most.”

  He paused before pushing it any further, but not even he could keep from saying the obvious.

  “When we go through the T’Karan-Helios Rift, we will be taking a single engineering station with us. It is the only way we can build a stable Spacebridge, but they’ll hit us hard. It’s the only way we can save Spascia.”

  He swallowed.

  “Jack and Gun will die if we don’t get to Spascia soon.”

  Spartan listened but couldn’t find the words to answer his friend. He already knew the implications of Operation Citadel. It was a powerful fleet, one that even now had been reinforced by his forces. Even so, few believed it would be enough to beat back the machines and clear the system for good. And then there was always the Black Rift, that terrible part of space where all feared to visit.

  “Will it work? Should I go through with it?”

  Khan considered his words for a few seconds.

  “Maybe, but Gun and Jack will pay the price. When the General finds out though, hell, he is not going to be pleased. Have you told Teresa?”

  Spartan lowered his head and rubbed his brow.

  “No. She’s only just heard about ANS Titania. They were involved in the last attack around Helios Prime. The mission report says we fired atomics at any ships about to be captured. Their ship is missing. I wasn’t sure if…”

  Khan stopped and placed his paw on his friend’s shoulder.

  “If there was a chance they could survive, then they will have. Teresa is strong, and even though you don’t get along, I can promise you her children are just as tough.”

  He looked at the machines and wondered how many were listening. It was a stupid question, of course, because he knew that the machines were ever conscious and able to watch and record without even moving.

  “Spartan, Teresa needs to know about this mission. If we go ahead without her knowing, well, you know her rage. She’ll never let you forget.”

  Spartan knew he was right, but that didn’t help him at all with the decision.

  “Khan. None of us will forget this. Whether it works or not, we will still be the ones to be punished.”

  Z’Kanthu listened to them both and waited until there was silence.

  “You were both prisoners of the enemy, were you not?”

  Spartan nodded, but Khan just looked at the machine suspiciously.

  “Something like that. They had us for months, torturing and interrogating us. Why?”

  Z’Kanthu moved closer, looking at Spartan carefully, as though scrutinizing every square centimeter. One of his arms extended out and moved closer. Khan instinctively brought his hands up, ready to fight.

  “What is it Z’Kanthu?”

  “The machines, they have ways of manipulating people. In the past, my people used living computers to transfer information and memory?”

  Spartan looked to Khan and raised an eyebrow.

  “So?”

  Z’Kanthu pressed his hand against the side of Spartan’s head and shuddered. He then took a step back and beckoned for Khan to approach. He moved forward cautiously but when close enough the machine touched him as well.

  “Okay, what the hell is going on?”

  “The machines, they have been inside your minds. Both of you have been infected with their indoctrination.”

  Spartan was convinced he could sense disgust in the machine’s voice. Even so, the very mention of the word infection sent a shudder through his body.

  “Infection?”

  “Yes. You both have the programming to be living Cores, to command and be commanded by machines.”

  Spartan shook his head.

  “No way, nobody controls me.”

  Spartan straightened up and then turned about completely before stopping to face the machine.

  “Really?” it asked.

  Spartan’s felt his body shudder, and for the first time he began to understand what the machine was trying to tell him.

  “You just did that?”

  Z’Kanthu nodded slowly.

  “Can you fix it?”

  Again the machine nodded.

  “I can do better than that…I have an idea. How much spare storage do you think your brain has, Spartan?”

  He reached for Spartan and touched his head once more. This ti
me he did not let go, and Spartan found he lost control of his legs and finally dropped to the floor, limp as a dead fish. Khan stepped close and blocked Spartan’s fallen body with his own.

  “What have you done, machine?”

  Z’Kanthu lowered his arms and presented them in a humble gesture.

  “I have given him and myself a shield, a defense against the machines. I can do the same for you?”

  Khan refused to move and simply shook his head.

  “Hell, no. You remove that stuff and then you tell me what you’ve done to him.”

  CHAPTER NINE

  The Decurion war machine was first encountered toward the end of the Uprising. Some say there had been sightings on other worlds, but it was the violent battle on Hyperion where they were found in large numbers. In the past, the Biomechs had simply provided the technical knowhow and basic leadership for the war effort. At Hyperion, they attempted a direct intervention through the ground-based Rift, and the Decurions fought against marines in bloody and violent combat.

  The Decurion combat chassis was almost entirely mechanical, with a toughened central carapace that was proof against most small arms. The eight limbs were designed to operate both as its method of motive power, as well as arms and weapons. Detailed examination of models destroyed on Eos showed that most were equipped with rudimentary AI-Cores. These primitive brains gave the machines a level of intelligence and autonomy lacking by first generation Alliance combat robots.

  Robots in Space

  Alliance Taskforce, Helios Prime

  The formation of Alliance ships bore down on the ruined city like a horde of angry birds of prey. Smoke trailed from ANS Harbinger, one of the older Crusader ships, yet she continued at the same speed as the others. A large fire had spread through a hangar on the starboard side, following three suicide attacks by Biomech fighters. They had already cut their way through the Biomech fighter screen and were now just a kilometer from the Defense Installation. At this range, they could now make out the six Biorays that had just landed, and even the columns of troops charging out from them and toward two separate ramps. A clump of Bulldog wheeled armored personnel carriers lay burning near one of them.

  “Magnify,” said Admiral Lewis.

  The ship shuddered just as it had done since the real fighting had begun. The gentle hum of point-defense turrets served as a constant reminder they were moving through a growing cloud of Biomech craft, most of which were the tiny fighters.

  “Yea, that’s the place.”

  Dozens of Eques walkers moved about in the open, and hundreds more Decurions swarmed over the multiple entry points into the underground structure. Tracer fire from the nose and dorsal guns tore into the ground around them, but they continued to pour out and toward the ramps. The Alliance capital ships were now close enough to make use of their guns, but they were limited in choice of targets as they screamed overhead. At the same time, the groups of Maulers swept down on the target with their own small gun turrets blasting away at Biomech foot soldiers.

  The number of landed and burning Biorays told Admiral Lewis this was exactly where he needed to be. He just wished he could make his ships hover over the objective where they could do the most good. Coordinating ground assault operations using capital ships was a subject rarely covered in the Academy. An image in one of the old paperback manuals did come back to him, and the thought immediately put a smile on his face.

  Yes, that is perfect.

  He watched as an Eques walker lost a leg to a missile launched from a Hammerhead. It stumbled, dropped to one knee, and then took another missile in the upper body that triggered a series of multiple explosions. Decurions scrambled over the wreckage and kept moving into the installation. There was a good chance many were already inside. Another three Biorays moved in to try and land, and even though they took considerable fire, all of them managed to find a space and skidded down amongst the others.

  “How the hell did they get through?”

  Admiral Lewis was all too familiar with how many troops they carried, and he knew that General Daniels had just a single company at his disposal for this operation.

  I need to give him more time.

  He looked to Captain Marcus and pointed at the mainscreen.

  “I want the destroyers to follow a pylon turn on this location.”

  He pointed at the center of the large open area next to the clamshell roof.

  Captain Marcus nodded and turned away to coordinate the attack. The Crusader ships were slower and much harder to maneuver in this atmosphere, so he concentrated their use as barriers to block off the Biomech reinforcements. It took less than two minutes for the first two Liberty destroyers to fall into a close radius circle around the selected point.

  “Admiral, they’re in position.”

  “Good. Let the bombardment begin.”

  The idea of the pylon turn was something dating back to the early twentieth century air racing. It referred to the way an aircraft or multiple aircraft could move around a fixed point on the ground so that an imaginary line could be drawn from the side of the craft to the point.

  “Admiral!”

  Both senior officers looked to the mainscreen. A pair of Biomanta warships and five Biorays had broken through the Alliance fighter screen. They were heading for the underground facility. There was no need to issue orders though; the ships’ captains were all aware of what needed to be done. Dozens of Alliance ships opened fire with a monstrous bombardment of railguns that tore the stern from one Bioray and cut a Biomanta clean in half.

  “Beautiful,” said Captain Marcus.

  The broken Biomanta spun out of control and crashed into two of the Biorays. The whole mass of smashed metal and flesh tumbled from the sky, leaving just a single Biomanta and two Biorays. The surviving ships tried to avoid the gunfire, but even as they moved away were pursued by eleven Hammerhead and Avenger drone fighters. Admiral Lewis moved to the tactical display with its multicolored view of the battlefield. More importantly, he began to smile as the pylon turn started to have an effect.

  “Just look at that,” he said happily.

  Captain Marcus nodded in agreement.

  “Reminds me of the video streams of the NATO air sorties in the Afghanistan conflict.”

  The Admiral looked to his XO with a surprised look on his face.

  “I never took you as a history buff, Captain.”

  “It’s about aircraft, shooting the hell out of the enemy, Sir. What is there not to like?”

  He couldn’t argue with that. Even at the mention of that ancient conflict, he could recall some of the video streams. Though fast jets and helicopters had been used in that war, it was the large four-engine planes with the flank-mounted heavy weapons that had given him the idea for the pylon turn in the first place. That war had much in common with the Uprising back in the Confederacy, a time where insurgents and suicide bombers fought against advanced mechanized forces.

  Things don’t change as much as people would have you believe.

  He looked back to the live feeds and the seven destroyers moving around the target at a distance of just under three kilometers. For ships of that size, and inside a planet’s atmosphere, this was effectively point-blank range. If it hadn’t been for the permanent threat of a death, he might have actually enjoyed watching the ships at work. Gunfire bounced off them as hundreds of small arms reached up and stabbed at the massive gray vessels. Only the most powerful weapons could have even the slightest chance of doing any kind of significant damage. He spotted a single Eques walker stop. It then pivoted and raised its gun system to engage one of the destroyers.

  Let them burn.

  They were all the air defense destroyers, each one armed with eight quad 20mm coilgun turrets that were perfectly built to shred missiles, fighters, and light armor. The first opened fire, and then one by one the others joined in to bring down a fiery rain upon the Biomech ground forces. Two Biorays were set alight, and more than half a dozen Eques walkers wer
e cut in half by the weight of fire. Captain Marcus nodded with pleasure at the carnage.

  “Admiral, this sure is a beautiful sight.”

  More of the machines spread out from the landers, but now the Alliance ships had their range. In this environment they proved devastating against the Decurions, Thegns, and even the heavily armored Eques machines. Every time a squad tried to reach the facility, it was smashed to pieces by gunfire.

  “Good…damn good. That should take some of the pressure off the General.”

  “Sir!” Lieutenant Vitelli called out, “Enemy warships coming from the south.”

  Admiral Lewis felt his stomach lurch.

  “Numbers?”

  He looked to his tactical officer and found the answer in his face. All he needed to do was to put a number on the threat.

  “Uh…I’ve not seen anything like this before, Sir. We have fifty plus Biomantas and the same number of landers. There’s more though, Sir.”

  “What do you mean?”

  Lieutenant Vitelli indicated toward the mainscreen when he changed the view of the defense facility to one of the smoke-filled sky. The imagery was shaky and filled with digital noise and artifacts.

  “What am I looking at?” Admiral Lewis asked.

  “It’s Ark Leviathan. It’s coming down through the atmosphere.”

  He almost choked at the news.

  “Coming down? Has it been forced down here? That means the end of the bombardment.”

  The young officer shook his head and looked back at the dark shape beginning to fill the sky. It shared much in common with the arrival of the other warships from orbit, with one massive exception. Size.

  “It’s slowing down, Sir, and it’s coming down ten kilometers from here. There are more ships coming down with it.”

  So, this is how Helios dies. They smash the planet within an inch of its life, wait until the warriors are dead, starving or dying. Then, with almost no defenses left, they unleash their hordes.