Black Legion: 02 - Assault on Khorram (21 page)

He knelt down and examined the fallen Medes before standing back up and marching to Clearchus.

“This isn’t how we conduct business in my Empire, understood?”

Clearchus smiled back at him.

“Lord Cyrus, it isn’t your Empire yet, and this animal has not only turned on Menon here, but on the entire Legion.”

Cyrus looked at the Laconian commander and tried to work out why his two most senior commanders refused to get along. Ariaeus had a long and distinguished record with the Median military, and he had no reason to doubt his loyalty. On more than one occasion in the past the nobleman had saved his neck, even when there was no obvious benefit to doing so. Clearchus, on the other hand, was the most experienced and courageous Terran commander in recent years. The Laconians had lost a great General in forcing his exile. He sighed, but did his best to keep it to himself.

Perhaps their egos are just too big to work together
, he thought.

“Ariaeus commands my entire Median contingent, and as you know, Clearchus, this represents the bulk of the fleet. Without his eyes and ears, we would be trapped many weeks, possibly months, inside Imperial territory. Don’t forget, he is not a great friend of Artaxerxes, and they have sparred on many occasions in the past. Why do you think he was so keen to join my expedition?”

Clearchus was about to speak, but something inside him told him to hold back. It was one of his greatest undoings, his passion and rage, and it had often got him into trouble, no more recently than his little problem at the border world of Bissus.

Yes, I need to leave politics to those with an appetite for it. My job is the command of the military cooperation, and a job always best left to Laconians.

“I will defer to your judgement and experience, Lord Cyrus,” he replied with as straight a face as he could manage. Cyrus looked confused at his words, and perhaps expecting more of an argument from the man that obviously saw nothing good in Ariaeus. He scratched his check and indicated with his hand for his bodyguard to help the fallen Medes to his feet. They quickly lifted him up and moved him closer to Cyrus.

“Now, my friend, I assume you have a good explanation for what has happened on this station?”

A clanking sound from out in the main hall alerted them, and in just a few seconds the machine was inside. It was one of the heavy combat drones, and it took up position directly in front of Clearchus. It lifted its right hand in a mock salute. Clearchus had his right arm and Asgeirr-Carbine pointed right at its head.

“What is this?” he demanded.

“Uh, Strategos, I’ve managed to reset the configuration. There are seven drones still left, and all are now under our control.”

Clearchus kept his weapon trained on the machine and cast a sideward’s glance to the spatharios who had been working on the control unit. The machine certainly appeared docile, but could he take the risk?

“Shut it down, shut them all down!” he growled.

The soldier didn’t hesitate and started the power down procedure. It was fast and obvious, as the drone slumped and any moving parts frozen up. The clicking sounds from within stopped, and by all accounts, it looked just as though it were a robot-shaped sculpture.

“Strategos, what’s happening? The drones have all deactivated,” Kleandridas called out on the communications node.

Clearchus allowed himself a small smile and answered.

“We have Ariaeus in custody, and the drones are now under our control. Take your team and sweep the secondary structure for anything we can use. Intel on the enemy movements is the highest priority.”

“Understood,” was the only response Kleandridas gave.

Clearchus turned back to the Medes and concentrated his attention on Cyrus.

“My Lord, we should take him aboard the Valediction for questioning. My forces will secure this station and strip it of anything of use.”

Ariaeus lifted his hand to object.

“Wait, this station is Imperial territory. We shouldn’t...”

Clearchus pointed his Asgeirr-Carbine at his forehead.

“This isn’t a discussion, Ariaeus. You go back with my unit, and we will have a nice long chat in due time.”

The Terran soldiers marched away, taking the Medes commander with them. Cyrus waved them on, either too tired to object, or perhaps he had more pressing matters to attend to. Once Ariaeus was out of sight, Clearchus looked to him.

“My Lord, I have concerns about Ariaeus. How sure are you that you can trust him?”

Cyrus smiled in a way Clearchus had never seen before.

“Clearchus, my friend, I trust nobody anymore than you do. He has helped me in the past, but when you come from a background like mine, you quickly realise that everybody is your friend, until it suits them otherwise. He boarded this station with at least thirty warriors, all loyal subjects and good fighters. Where are they?”

He stepped closer to Clearchus so that only he could hear.

“Oh...there is one other thing. This body, it isn’t that of Menon.”

“What?” demanded Clearchus.

Vendetta, Su’bartu Maelstrom

Artemas waited to the right-hand side of the bulkhead door while Xenophon covered the other side. They both stood with their now fully loaded pulse carbines. On their journey to the core engineering plant, they had come across a number of discarded weapons and finally, some ammunition for Xenophon’s firearm. She glanced briefly at the display on her arm and checked the status of the command part of the ship.

“All okay?” asked Xenophon.

She nodded, satisfied that they hadn’t been discovered.

“No change...not yet.”

Xenophon nodded and with a quick twist, unlocked the door and jumped through into the brightly lit room. For the briefest of moments, he was almost blinded by the quick change from darkness to full illumination. As his eyes cleared, he noticed half a dozen crew, and all were working away on the computer systems. A man in military fatigues spotted him and raised his weapon. Artemas rolled to the right and threw a device that struck him in the chest. With a dull crump and a bright blue flash, he collapsed to the ground, his body writhing in the shock of the electrical charge.

“Are there any more?” she asked in a stern voice.

An older looking man with a grease-smeared face and a bloody mark on his cheek stepped forward.

“Just us, but you’d better hurry. They call down to check about every ten minutes, and he is due a call in about half of that.”

“Dammit,” muttered Xenophon. He leaned down to the fallen man and reached out to check him.

“Don’t do that, the residual current will take a few moments to wear off.”

He stood back up and walked over to the nearest computer system. The older man blocked his path.

“Hey there, Mister, what are you planning on doing?”

Xenophon accessed the first screen that brought up the details for life support and main engine power generation. As usual, there was the triple level security system, but he was already through the first two before the old man could stop him.

“If you screw something up there, you’ll kill us all,” he said worryingly.

“Don’t worry. I know what I’m doing,” Xenophon shot back. He was in no mood to discuss his plans in detail with a stranger.

“Look, I can see you have some skills, but this is my post. I’m the Chief Engineer, in case you hadn’t noticed.”

Xenophon stopped and looked at the man. This was not the usual location for such a high-ranking man; he should be on the command deck with the rest of the senor staff.

“Why are you here?” he asked, curiosity getting the better of him.

“The upstart soldier boy, the one that turned on my crew, sent me down here. He wants all localised control transferred to him. I tried to delay, but he had his men cut down two of my boys.”

He shook his head, the bitterness and pain evident in his face and body language. Xenophon understood exactly how he felt; there was nothing worse than the betrayal of your comrades by those supposedly on your own side.

“I’m sorry. We’re here to turn things around, though. We need to shut off the engines and artificial gravity.”

The Chief Engineer nodded.

“That’s not a problem. Here, take one of these.”

He handed over a portable communications rig. It was more substantial than the equipment normally used on ships and was designed to break through even the thickest radiation layers in the vessel; perfect for engineering teams.

“You leave us a firearm, and let me know when you’re ready. I can redirect power from the engines and anti-grav to the weapon capacitors.”

“Why not just shut them down?” asked Artemas.

He looked at her carefully and turned back to Xenophon.

“Who the hell is this? She isn’t part of my crew, and she doesn’t look like any Terran I’ve ever seen before.”

She bowed slightly for effect and introduced herself.

“My name is Artemas, and I am here on special assignment to root out potential problems in the fleet.”

Another crewman moved from behind one of the tall, stacked computer units and looked around her. Once close enough, Xenophon realised it was a woman, quite young and badly cut about the face.

“A Medes agent working on board one of our ships, why should we trust her? She is probably the reason we’re in this mess already.”

Another of the crew joined her, holding up a wrench, but this one seemed less sure of his position. Artemas tensed her body, and Xenophon could see she was on edge and ready to fight.

Come on, this isn’t the way it needs to be,
he thought, now worried their plan would fall at the first hurdle.

Xenophon stepped in front of her and blocked Artemas from the woman.

“Believe what you like, but we’re letting you all go. I suggest you stay with the Chief and keep out of our way. Once the gravity is off, we’ll only have a few minutes before they send people down here. Can the systems be rerouted anywhere else on the ship?”

Artemas moved her left arm forward so that the crew could see the display. It flicked between the different feeds from the bugs. The Chief examined it carefully and almost cried out when he saw one of the crew being dragged into the command deck by two gruff looking soldiers. He lifted his left hand up and touched his brow.

“I…I don’t understand. He is one of the Legion, like you, so why would he turn on our own like this? What can he possibly hope to gain? We’re in Median space for God’s sake.”

Artemas sensed the confusion and selected the bug waiting by the locked doors near the command deck.

“It isn’t clear. It seems that Komes Andronicus has his own plans to strip the Olympia of valuable cargo. My own intelligence confirms signals were sent out into Median space before we were attacked.”

“You think this man is behind the ambush of the Olympia?”

Xenophon raised an eyebrow at this last piece of information, especially as it was new information to him. He looked at her, wondering if this were true, or if she was making it up just to get the attention of the crew. Either way, he suspected it didn’t really matter. The fact of the matter was simple, and they had a basic plan to try and turn things around. All they needed right now was to get this group on their side, and to do their part in the coming operation.

“We don’t know, but he does have no problem in killing Terrans. My guess is he is part of one of the crime syndicates from back home.”

Artemas struggled to hold back her contempt.

“Maybe, but he might just be another piece of scum in this sector.”

The Chief, surprisingly, seemed to agree with her, at least by the expression on his face. He smiled at the woman for a second and looked to Xenophon.

“Okay, son, you both look like you’re on a mission, and it can’t be any worse than the one this bastard is currently on. How long do you need? I can do what you want from here.”

Xenophon looked across to Artemas who was already back at the entrance and looking down the corridor. She threw him a glance and turned back.