Legions of Orion (Star Crusades Nexus, Book 1) (17 page)

Spartan looked at Teresa who pointed
him back to Jack with just her eyes. They’d known each other for
two decades and understood each other without even speaking. A very
useful benefit in some of the tense situations they’d found
themselves both when in the Marine Corps and afterwards. He
considered what had happened prior to their arrival and nodded.

“
You were right,
though. There was a plan to bring down the Interstellar Network,
but this Jenson character was killed on ANS Beagle. Since then, all
leads from there have dried up other than the missing lifeboat.
Whatever they were planning, either died with him, or is still a
potential threat right here in this system. Knowing our luck, I
would say there is at least one more of them left, and they are
waiting for the right moment.”

Jack moved away from the window.

“Yeah, but what about the guy we found
back on Epsilon Eridani? I think it’s about time Wictred and I went
back to see what we could find.”

“
Alliance
Intelligence is
still working on him.
Look, Son, it’s out of our hands now, and you’re neither Alliance
Intelligence nor military. We have our own problems to work on, and
right now that is focused on Orion. You saw the last report from
the moon and the drones they’ve been sending out. There are all
kinds of ruins and artefacts out there, and their value is
incalculable.”

Jack walked up to
the window and looked out to the ships. He watched yet another
vessel entering the Rift and looked back at his parents.

“
You don’t need me
there.
I’ve spent the last two years
helping Gun and the others with stopping these people. I’ve learnt
my skills with you and the Jötnar since I was a boy. You don’t need
people like me interfering with your business. Since I’ve been
here, my sources have dried up. They’re either dead or gone to
ground. What am I supposed to do now?”

Teresa looked to
Spartan and then to Jack.

“
It isn’t over.
Johnson is convinced that access to Orion and its secrets will just
be another reason for these people to attack us. The War might be
long gone, but there are still people out there who will use
violence to their own ends.”

Spartan nodded in agreement.

“
True, and in this
case, they probably believe what they are doing is for all our
benefits.”

Teresa waited for a
moment. She evidently wanted to say something, and it had been down
to what she and Spartan had been discussing for several days
now.

“
We are leaving for
Orion tomorrow, along with several teams from the company. Alliance
science teams are already establishing a temporary facility on the
moon, and more will be built in the next three months. You’ve seen
the plan, haven’t you? Outposts are to be built on three of the
planets and a dozen more on the most suitable moons. All of this
will happen fast. We want you to work for the company in
Orion.”

Jack looked at the two of them with a
mixture of annoyance and confusion.

“Why? What do I know about military and
security operations?”

Spartan slid his
secpad across the table. It showed three dossiers of men. Jack
lifted it and placed it back on the table.

“These men all served at Hyperion, what
about them?”

Spartan took a long
breath as if he was building up to something.

“
Johnson passed this
information on to me. He thought it might be useful. Two weeks ago
they escaped from a medical facility on Terra Nova. They are
connected with Jensen from their time in the military, the man that
triggered the blast on Beagle and almost destroyed the
Spacebridge.”

Jack nodded, now understanding.

“
And you think they
might have an interest in continuing his work? So this is moving on
from anti-Biomech activity and on to stopping us moving to Orion?
Why?”

Teresa looked disappointed at his
question.

“
Why? Isn’t it
obvious? Orion was chosen because of information found at the
archaeological site at Hyperion. You know what we saw back on that
planet, the same horrors that Gun and his people have been hunting
there ever since. It can’t be a coincidence that the people that
hate Biomechs would seek to stop us travelling to and therefore
exposing us to a potential Biomech threat.”

Jack looked confused and turned to
Spartan who simply nodded in agreement.

“
They must believe
that Orion and the Biomechs are linked. In their own way, they are
trying to protect us from ourselves.”

Teresa stood up.

“
By attacking us.
They are no friends of ours. It is one thing to lobby for change,
but when you turn on your own people, you make yourself an enemy.
Now, if you come with us, we could use you for intelligence
operations with the company. It’s a new frontier out here, and it’s
a place you could make a name in. Gun is sending a team over to
assist, and I’m sure you’ll want to help with that. They are due to
arrive in the next few hours.”

Jack’s face lit up
at the mention of Gun, but he still seemed unconvinced.

“Why is Gun sending people?”

Spartan simply laughed in reply.

“
Because I asked him
to send me a dozen volunteers to help with security. Nothing stops
violence like a group of loyal Jötnar. They’ve worked with us
before, and they are damned useful. Remember the hostage situation
on Carthago? They cleaned that up quickly before Alliance forces
could even reach the planet. There is a reason we have so many on
the APS payroll.”

Still Jack seemed confused at the
option before him. Teresa stood and walked to where he waited.

“
I know you have a
fondness for them, all three of us do. They’ve been loyal friends
since our meeting on Prometheus. That’s why we’re planning on
setting up a special taskforce in this sector. It will be made up
of our best units to provide security and training for personnel in
this area. Alliance military force has been run down since the War.
They might be well equipped and trained, but they can’t be
everywhere. Corporations like us are vital to provide the military
backbone so they can retain their mobility. There are also plenty
of operations where private units are preferable to Alliance
involvement. You’re already cleared for executive work in APS. We
arranged that years ago. This would be something much bigger
though. How would you feel about joining the special taskforce?
Your skills would come in handy, and we need help in shutting down
this group of saboteurs.”

“
What about Wictred?
He’s still on the station. Will he be coming as well?”

“
Why not? I hear
Khan is coming anyway, and I’m sure he’d rather see his son in
action at Orion rather than wasting away here.”

Jack smiled at his father for the first
time in years.

“
So I get to explore
new moons, hunt down the enemies of the Alliance, and get a decent
paycheck in for the bargain?” he asked with more than a hint of
sarcasm.

Most parents might
worry about the offer they were giving but not Spartan. He was well
aware that that Orion was hardly a safe place, but deep down he was
content to know that his son would be nearby, and with the full
resources of his company and people behind him. The fact that Jack
had sought the difficult road when a choice was given to him simply
made him feel even better. He reached out and grabbed
him.

“
Good. You’d better
finish your food because I need to introduce you to the rest of the
team before we board ANS Devastation. A shuttle is collecting us
within the next twenty minutes, and I know Khan is very keen to
look inside a Crusader class warship.”

He placed his hand
on his son’s shoulder and looked out at two frigates manoeuvring
around the Spacebridge.

“
We have places to
visit and weapons to test, and if things go badly, you’ll get a
chance to shoot a few guns. From the documents I’ve seen, this
sector is going to make Proxima Centauri seemed like a backwater.
We have man-made structures, derelict objects that are possibly
ships in space, and resource-heavy planets and moons. The Alliance
isn’t leaving this place in a hurry.”

Jack grinned at the
suggestion, but even he found it hard to hide his excitement at
both meeting Khan and the rest of the Jötnar, as well as standing
on board one of the Alliance’s newest and most advanced
ships.

“
Where exactly are
we going, anyway?” he asked, his mind now away from meeting his
friends and back to the potential mission.

Teresa walked to the
window and pointed a group of ships that had just appeared from the
right-hand side. There were a number of small ships, but it was the
great hulk of ANS Devastation she was singularly interested in. The
ship was big, with only ANS Beagle and her extended gantries taking
up more space.

“
There they are.
Devastation was supposed to be leading a science team to explore
some of the space borne debris when they received the call from
this station. APS is providing military and intelligence assistance
to the Alliance, under the authority of General Rivers. I am
staying here to liaise with the company back in Centauri space. We
have a lot of work to do here. You two will be meeting up with the
marines, General Rivers and our Jötnar friends.”

“Why? What’s happened?”

Spartan interrupted.

“
Jack, you’ll have
to wait till we’re on board the ship. Needless to say, that as of
now, you’re an executive officer of APS. We need to go over the
agreements we have with the Alliance, and you’re going to need to
go through verification and vetting. It’ll take a few hours, but it
can all be done on our trip.”

Jack was becoming more and more
impatient.

“Without the specifics, what the hell
is this trip?”

“It’s a rescue mission, that’s all we
can say.”

On perfect cue,
Spartan’s secpad lit up with an urgent video communication. Spartan
picked it up and glanced over to Teresa.

“It’s him.”

He then placed the
device in front of him and hit the connection button. The image of
General Rivers appeared almost instantly.

“
Spartan, good,
t
he shuttle will be there in three
minutes. I’ll see you and your command team in the briefing room
when you arrive. Khan is already here, and he has some interesting
observations.”

“
Understood,
General, but there’s one other thing.”

“Which is?” came back the short
reply.

“
Jack, our son, has
just joined the company. He’ll be working with our unit and
liaising with the Jötnar contingent. He’s the man that tracked down
a number of the saboteurs, and he has information on
others.”

The General lifted his hand to quieten
him.

“
Spartan, if he has
been cleared by you, then I’m happy. Just get aboard fast. Things
are moving quickly, and we have work to do.

* * *

Another powerful blast shook the surface
of the moon and with it sent large chunks of sharp debris over the
retreating marines. Since leaving the scene of the first blast,
only half of the platoon was still on their feet, and most had
sustained injuries. Colonel Daniels was the only man of any rank
remaining, and he slid behind a series of rocks before checking
behind them. The thin, ragged line of dust covered marines
staggered on, but all that he could see of their attacker was a
great cloud of dust; it was as though some ethereal creature was
pursuing them. That was when he spotted the flashing indicator on
the heads up display in his armoured suit.

That doesn’t make sense.

“Corporal, can you get a lock on
quadrant seventeen, above that ridge?” he shouted even though it
was unnecessary through the digital intercom gear.

Colonel Daniels had
fought a great number of different enemies on many worlds, but one
thing he’d never had to face was an enemy he could neither see nor
detect. His suit had detected a low level signature, but there were
no identifiable IFF signals coming from it.

“
Sir, I’ve got
something. I
t’s low but accelerating and
coming this way. No signals, she’s not ours.”

Two of the marines
ran over to him as fast as their tired bodies and the low gravity
world would allow. Between them they pulled their wounded Sergeant
into cover before checking they weren’t being followed. The small
group of survivors were almost a kilometre away from the blast
radius.

“Crap! It’s coming this way!” cried the
Corporal.

Daniels immediately
pulled himself low and used hand signals to the rest of them. Like
a well-oiled machine, they each dropped down and moved away from
line of sight from above. Luckily, the ridges and impact craters
provided perfect cover from any direction other than directly
above.

“
Thirty seconds
blackout!” he snapped, hitting the button on his suit. It was
almost instantaneous, as each part of his suit from the powerplant
down through to the communications, optics and life-support system
shutoff. It was a dangerous move, as there was never a guarantee
that all systems would restart after such a drastic shutdown. Even
so, it was the also sure-fire way of not emitting electronic or
radiation signatures that could be picked up by the most common of
sensors. Even the suits built-in cooling system would keep them
hidden but only for a few minutes. After that, the heat from the
marines’ bodies would start to alter their thermal
reading.