Slaves of Hyperion (Star Crusades Uprising, Book 6) (29 page)

“Can you get a signal down there?” he asked.

Kowalski shook his head.

“No way, Sir. The minute we send any kind of signal, they will know we’re here. All we have is the element of surprise.”

Captain William Lockley pulled himself into the CIC from the bridge. He had been monitoring the feeds and was already up to speed on the situation. A short, slightly overweight man, he had been responsible for defending one of the landing zones on Euryale. His combat experience, both on the ground and in space, was unmatched in the fleet.

“We can’t stay here long, Spartan. We have a big enough window to launch all three shuttles in one go. As soon as you’re out of the ship, I will withdraw to the minimum safe distance and await your go transmission.”

Kowalski looked up at him.

“We can spread the shuttles out or land in one place, Sir.”

Spartan looked at the displays and the proposed landing sites. It seemed pretty straightforward to him. Either they landed at one of the crash sites and linked up with any survivors, or they moved directly to the source of the massive power levels. In either case, he had no idea what to expect. He was tempted to strike the power source, but his experienced strategic side begged him to not throw away their one chance on such a gamble. He took a quick breath and pointed at the landing site.

“Put us there. We need numbers and intel on the possible enemy site. If the General is down there, I can promise you he is probably already halfway through retaking that place.”

“Understood, Captain Spartan. How long until you are ready to leave?”

Spartan looked to the others in the narrow CIC and grinned at them.

“Ten minutes. Just let me get to the shuttles.”

With that, he was already pulling himself along to the grab rails and to the hangar part of the ship. Agent Johnson, Sergeant Kowalski and Captain Lockley returned to their stations and started the release procedures required to launch the shuttles. Spartan made quick progress and was at the first airlock before he activated his intercom.

“Khan, load them up, we are leaving.”

“Yes!” roared the Jötnar with approval.

Even Spartan was unable to hide a smile at the Jötnar’s evident excitement. He closed the airlock behind him and continued to move through the gravity-free part of the ship.

One way or another, we finish this, today.

* * *

General Rivers was as speechless as the rest of the officers as they watched the video feeds recorded by Sergeant Morato and her ASOG troop. The quality of the footage was shaky, but the site of the massive structures, machines, workers and the great glowing orb left little to the imagination. The General examined the information in detail before turning to Teresa.

“What the hell is this place?”

Corporal Dalton Nylund,
the ASOG’s
technician
lifted his hand and stepped forward. He handed over a heavily modified datapad to him.

“This might help. We found engravings at what looked like a ruined temple of some kind. We didn’t have time to examine it, but we did photograph as much as possible. Our equipment estimated most of the ruins are up to two-hundred years old.”

General Rivers examined the first few images before waving over Captain Carlos and two of the Navy officers. The first images showed what looked like an orb, very similar to the one under the dome. This one was in space and surrounded by gantries and structures.

“Looks like the Spacebridge at the Anomaly,” one of them said.

“Yes, but look at the sequence. The first one shows this machine with people stood around it. The next is showing more of those dome buildings being constructed. Is this showing what happened in the past?” asked Captain Carlos.

Teresa shook her head as she relooked at the images.

“I don’t know, but the shape of the site is very odd with the mountains and the dome in the centre.”

An engineer from the Santa Maria examined the imagery and scratched his chin.

“I’ll tell you one thing. That isn’t a mountain range. It’s one mountain that’s had the centre excavated. That’s why it looks more like a crater surrounded by mountains.”

General Rivers nodded in agreement.

“Yes, makes sense. So if that’s right, then this orb must have been buried. They must be here to unearth it for some reason.”

“Maybe,” replied Captain Carlos, but he didn’t sound convinced. ”We’ve only had colonies in this region of space for just over three centuries. Why haven’t we come across anything like this before? It also doesn’t explain what the Biomechs or the Zealots or doing down here.”

“General, there is more,” explained Teresa.

She pressed a button on the video unit they were using, and it flicked instantly to a live feed of the dome at the heart of the enemy base. Unexpectedly, it was still glowing, and flashes of what looked like electricity crackled around it. Hundreds of people hid and cowered around the place as the flashes continued. The room fell silent as those present looked on in surprise. General Rivers spoke quietly but continued watching the feed.

“Good work, Sergeant, this is exactly what we need. Do you have any idea what this thing is designed for, though?”

“No, Sir. We discussed it on the return here. Our thoughts are it could be anything from a massive signal generator to some kind of artificial intelligence hub.”

“Like the one on Terra Nova?” he asked rhetorically.

“Maybe,” Teresa replied. “But one thing I do know, I’ve never seen machines like that before, apart from those that came aboard the Santa Maria. They seem unique to this planet.”

She pointed to the dome.

“My gut instinct tells me this area, the machines, the Zealots and the Biomechs are all linked. Maybe the survivors from the Great War five decades ago hid down here and found the site?”

General Rivers seemed intrigued at the idea.

“Interesting. The Zealots have always been the right hand of somebody else. We thought it was Typhon and his brothers, but to do the things they’ve done they must have had help.”

He turned and looked to the other officers assembled in the cramped room.

“This changes things considerably. Not only is it our duty to fight and survive, but we also need to understand what is happening here. Our mission must change to the capture and study of this site, no matter the cost. I want anybody with historical, engineering and scientific knowledge to go over the data recovered by Sergeant Morato’s team, and see what you can piece together. In the meantime, the rest of us need to find a way to get a signal away from this planet. We need help, now more than ever.”

There was no more time for discussion as the compound’s klaxons blared. It was loud and painful to hear, filling each of them with dread. They had been installed for emergency use only, as the noise was bound to draw the unwelcome attention of the hostile inhabitants of the jungle. The makeshift command centre emptied quickly as they all rushed to their allotted positions. As some of the crew, left General Rivers grabbed two of them.

“No, you both stay. I need answers from this information, and fast.”

He then took one last glance at the feed and moved to Teresa who was already at the doorway and checking her weapon.

“Sergeant, did they follow you back here?” he asked.

Heavy gunfire ripped through the base, and before she had time to answer, the two were out and moving into firing positions along the perimeter. Teresa was still in her filthy PDS suit, whereas the General wore just the chest part of his armour.

“No way, Sir, we covered our tracks and followed a zigzag course. They must have tracked electronic signatures or something else. He nodded in agreement but was well aware that even the ASOG troopers were not ghosts.

“Get your people to the walls, Sergeant. We have need of your skills once more.”

She saluted and moved out, indicating for her comrades to follow her to the barricades. Light was already starting to fade in the camp, and with the never-moving mist, it was hard to see what was happening before the enemy reached point-blank range. Teresa climbed the crudely constructed ladder and rested her carbine on top of the wall facing the direction of the enemy.

“Gods! she exclaimed.

The terrifying image of scores of Zealots running foolhardily towards their wooden defences almost made her stagger and fall from the crude raised position. She checked the safety on her weapon and joined in with the rest of the defenders. Concentrated rifle and carbine gunfire tore them apart before they made it even halfway from the tree line to the fences. But the Zealots weren’t the problem, and even as she helped in gunning them down, she wondered if they were being driven to the barricades rather than choosing to attack. Out of the mist, and behind the Zealots, appeared the great metallic machines. The mere sight of them froze her in mid movement. It was hard to make out their exact shape, but the size and moving limbs confirmed to her they were the same or certainly very similar to the large four-legged machines at the dome. They made slow progress but inched towards the base like a pair of armoured beetles, their powered metal limbs ripping foliage and woodland apart. From deep within their bodies came that terrible screaming sound, and she spotted at least three crewmen fall from the wall in terror at the noise.

They must have found our trail. We spent hours covering it. It just doesn’t make sense.

A long burst of gunfire from the machine to the right quickly snapped her out of her daze, however, especially when the blast ripped open a hole in the barricade and cut down two marines in a burst of blood and metal.

“Kill them!” she screamed, and with one deft movement selected the full-power setting on her carbine. She’d rarely used the weapon on that setting before, but something about those alien-looking machines told her she’d need every ounce of firepower at her disposal. She took aim at the nearest and hit it with a single triple-round blast. Unlike the rounds fired from the other firearms, the carbine’s massive advantage in muzzle-velocity, combined with the armour-penetrating slug, tore fist-sized holes from the machine. The battle for the compound had begun.

* * *

Threat alarms blasted through the interior of the shuttle as ground-based sensors tried to identify the three craft. Their rapid descent through the atmosphere would have been relatively easy to detect, but the craft had been specially designed to give off no obvious signatures. Spartan just hoped they would be picked up as meteors or even better, missed completely. Either way, they were almost past this stage of their descent, and the design and build of the shuttles would make them all but impossible to detect as they dropped down to their selected landing zones.

“Lieutenant, what’s our safe distance with these shuttles?” he asked the pilot
through his Vanguard armour’s comms unit.

The man turned back briefly to answer.

“About forty to fifty klicks in a straight line. Once we’re down to the surface, we can stay below most active scanners to nearly ten kilometres. After that...” he shrugged.

Spartan nodded and looked to the other seven occupants of the shuttle. He’d split up the expertise on each craft so that there was a degree of redundancy in the landing. There was no sense having all the tech experts in one shuttle and all the assault troops in the other. He’d taken Khan, Kowalski, two Vanguards from his old unit and three of the most experienced marines on the Santa Cruz. The Vanguards were of a similar size and build to Khan, but it was the mechanics, power systems and armour that provided the muscle for the marines as opposed to Khan’s physique and brute strength. Unlike the PDS armour worn by the marines, this much larger suit was a development of the much older and more primitive Combat Engineer Suits. It was powered and included thickened protection, integral blades and firearms. The Vanguards had proved themselves on multiple occasions during the heavy close quarter combat on a multitude of colonies.

“Khan, you ready for this?” he called over to his friend.

The
Jötnar
simply grinned in response. One thing Spartan could always count on was the brutality and enjoyment of combat by him and his people. The
Jötnar
were easily the equal of the Vanguards and capable of taking on multiple Zealots or even another Biomech one-on-one.

“Sir, my scanners are picking up the coded signal from the target. It is phasing out as expected.”

“Good,” he replied.