Star Crusades Nexus: Book 05 - Prophecy of Fire (3 page)

“Is it me or is the Secretary of Defense becoming a little obsessed over just one point in space?”

Admiral Jackson smiled curtly.

“Well, he does have a point. If what the Helions and the others say is true, the entire might of the Biomechs is waiting on the other side. Even a comet would pale to insignificance compared to the threat something like that could offer.”

It was a thought none of them seemed to relish.

“What about the fighting on the moons, how is that progressing? I thought we were winning this war?” asked General Hammerstein.

General Cornwallis seemed to almost shudder at this question, as though a cold wind had just touched his skin.

“It’s progressing. We helped the Zathee and their allies win, and win quickly. This insurgency is unexpected, however. We are unable to fight them head on, and they are resorting to asymmetric tactics to nullify our edge in manpower, weapons, and mobility.”

“The home front isn’t much better,’” complained General Hammerstein.

“How so?” asked the Admiral.

“For starters, there are rumors in the Guard that when the Biomechs arrive, they will be the cannon fodder. You can imagine the quality of the people that are left. Recruitment for the Corps or the Navy isn’t a problem, but the Colonial Guard gets none of the glory. If you want to travel and see alien worlds, you don’t become a part-time soldier on Terra Nova, do you?”

General Cornwallis looked unimpressed.

“The Colonial Guard is not a frontline unit, you know that, General. What does this have to do with the Biomechs?”

“The Guard is becoming less and less popular on the homeworlds with the Doomsday Prophecy. The rise in apocalyptic cults is rocketing, and some have turned to violence. We clamp down on them, but we always seem to come out as the bad guys.”

Admiral Jackson finally understood the man’s concerns.

“General, in the end it isn’t up to us to be loved. We have a job to do, and if we don’t do it, you know the consequences. We weren’t prepared the last time, and I’ll be damned if we’ll let it happen again.”

“What are you suggesting?” asked General Cornwallis.

“I don’t know, but the arrival of this comet is no coincidence, and apart from the actual threat it brings, I strongly believe there could be something much worse on the way. I see no reason to disbelieve the warning from the Helions.”

General Hammerstein was unimpressed; at least that was how it looked.

“What if you’re wrong?”

Admiral Jackson grimaced.

“What if I’m right?”

The capabilities of a warship can only be replaced by technology and equipment to a point. Ultimately, a ship can only be in one place at a time, and this is where the small fleet strategy of the early Alliance began to unravel. Luckily, the resilience and power of the new Heavy Strike Groups would show how a small group of advanced ships could hold their own against greater numbers. In time, the number of Crusader class Heavy Cruisers and its larger brother, the Vengeance class Battlecruiser would come to dominate Alliance affairs in a way no other ship design had.

Naval Cadet’s Handbook

The highly reflective clouds of sulfuric acid that shrouded Venus were a welcome sight for the tired eyes of Spartan. The T’Kari ship’s scanners brought up pages of data, but he already knew the planet he was staring at was one of the most inhospitable places in the Alliance. Its surface was a dry, barren desert, interspersed with rocks and volcanoes. Its dense carbon dioxide-filled atmosphere made viewing the surface impossible from this distance, but Spartan knew the world’s reputation. Even though it was useless to them, he still felt a rush of relief at seeing something, anything that was familiar to him.

“Look,” Khan said in a dull tone.

Spartan watched as the pale orb finally moved out of sight and was replaced by the wondrous blue sphere that was Earth.

“Have you ever seen it before?”

Spartan was surprised at the low tone of reverence his friend used. The old warrior looked exhausted, yet the relief at being in Alliance territory was clearly visible on Khan’s brow. Spartan took a slow breath to avoid the pain that still spread around his ribs. The injuries he’d sustained in captivity were far from healed, and the escape through the Rift and the space battle had done little to improve that. He looked to his friend and shook his head.

“No, not in the flesh. Well, not until today. You’ve got to remember, Khan, until we built the Rifts; it used to take decades to make the trip between Sol and Alpha Centauri. The colonization fleets that went first were on a one-way mission. Lots didn’t even make it there because of the long journey.”

Khan looked to his friend with a single raised eyebrow.

“It’s true. There are stories of some ships with thousands of people on board vanishing on the trip. It took decades with the engines permanently on full burn. Any kind of technical problem, and they were left stranded.”

“So why not stop and pick them up?”

Spartan smiled.

“You never studied, did you?”

Khan snorted.

“And you did? I thought you spent your early years dodging axes on the arena circuit?”

Spartan had to concede that point. He had indeed spent some time on the illegal pit fighting circuit. It wasn’t quite about killing each other with axes. Although people did die, especially in the illegal fights, it was very rare. It was something he hadn’t thought of it for many years, and the images of his last fight on the space station orbiting Prometheus was a painful one. Luckily, Khan’s attention had moved on to their current predicament.

“What about the people on Earth, do they still live there? I heard it was a dead world.”

Spartan looked at the blue shape with a mixture of fascination and foreboding. Earth was a wondrous sight to see. Even though the planet’s surface and oceans had been plundered for millennia, it still looked calm and rich when viewed from space. Its toxic clouds were barely obvious, but he knew full well the planet’s dark past.

“Yeah, Earth is still populated. In fact, I think this entire Solar System is still populated, but it ain’t nothing like where we’re from Khan.”

They both watched the blue orb move from view as the T’Kari ship continued to drift in space.

“Remember why our people left this star in the first place; resources, habitable worlds, and a new life. Just look at her.”

He pointed at the shape of Venus as it drifted passed their view once more.

“Venus is a no go area, always has been, even without our help. Only the planets of Mars and Earth have populations still on them. Mercury is suitable for industrial machines robotics, and the others are gas giants; they’re only useful for harvesting.”

He moved his head a little, thinking a little more on it.

“Plus the moons, of course, and then the space stations.”

Khan grinned as Spartan realized he was rambling.

“Look, let’s just say there are still people out in this wasteland. Okay?”

Something struck the ship somewhere very hard. The impact was powerful enough to send a jolt through its structure and forced Spartan and Khan into silence.

“What is that?” asked Khan.

They both looked in the direction of their three T’Kari comrades that were busy managing the ship. None of them paid any attention to them and continued with their work. Another great impact shook the vessel, and then the vast glass window flashed and changed to show a magnified image. Spartan blinked, his brain temporarily confused at the change in the visuals. The glass gave the impression of being a window, when in fact it was a cleverly designed piece of display technology.

“Who are they?” asked Khan; his right arm extended and pointing at the bottom right of the window.

Spartan followed his gaze and spotted the shapes moving toward them.

“Ships! Great, I thought we’d given the Biomechs the slip!”

Thoughts of the planets quickly vanished as they turned their attention to the new threat. They had only just entered the safety of Alliance territory, and already they were in trouble. The escape from Biomech captivity and the collapse of the temporary Rift should have been the end of Spartan and Khan’s troubles, but it seemed their arrival was to be yet another problem waiting to be resolved with violence. Spartan checked his targeting system and tried to return fire. He didn’t want to destroy the attacking ships, but he had to do something, and a burst across their bows might be all that was required.

“I’ve got nothing, what about you?”

Khan smashed his fist onto the display for what must have been the tenth time.

“Nothing. These ships are finishing what the Biomechs started. We need to get off this ship!”

Another heavy impact smashed into them. It was powerful and reminded Spartan of the numerous times he’d been aboard ships when they had been struck by heavy ordnance.

This is strange though. We’re in friendly territory and already ships are upon us. The odds of a ship being even within a few days’ range of us are minuscule.

“Who the hell are they?” he growled.

Spartan tried to get a response from the computer system, but it refused to respond. He had only just about managed to work the gunnery system thanks to Khan’s intervention. Trying to get anything more constructive out of the alien technology was proving impossible. He looked at the T’Kari, but no matter how much he shouted, they ignored him. The three aliens seemed to need all their attention focused on trying to get the spacecraft as far away from the attackers as possible.

“You’re wasting your time, you fools,” he snapped and looked back to Khan.

“Those are our ships, Spartan. Don’t you recognize the markings? They look like orbital barges to me, and we’re flying in an unmarked T’Kari Raider. Are you really that surprised?”

Spartan gazed at the fleeting image of the ships that were firing. They didn’t look like current designs, but they had been away a long time, and now they were orbiting Earth, a place he’d never visited before.

Maybe they are using wrecks for defense.

Another group of hardened metal armor piercing projectiles rushed ever closer, each of them traveled at incredible speeds after being hurled into space by the Alliance warships. Spartan finally got a decent view of the ships, and once he could see them in a profile position, he knew what they were. He was used to the newest vessels, having spent so much time out on the T’Kari frontier. These were not the large capital ships of the fleet. They were the protective barges dating back over seventy years that were still in use as orbital defenses. The magnetic railguns that had fired them were simple technology, perhaps even primitive by modern standards. Even so, there were fewer more destructive weapons in space.

“War barges, I thought they had all been scrapped after the Uprising.”

Khan shook his head and laughed.

“Really? I think the three out there would say otherwise.”

The warbarges were an old concept, and one that had fallen out of favor as the human empire expanded out to the stars. Back when the colonies had numbered just a few worlds, it had proven useful to construct large, slow moving vessels with thick armor and bristling with weapons. They usually stayed in orbit and were more like armed satellites than space faring ships. Though they were capable of interplanetary travel, they were not generally equipped or particularly suitable for it. The ships around Earth were third-rate at best. A single turret from the T’Kari ship finally activated, and Spartan watched dispassionately at its rounds embedded ineffectively in the thick armor of the barge.

“Yeah, that’s about right.”

The barges may have been primitive, but they had always been constructed to take a heavy beating. Dozens of white flashes ran about the turrets of the Earth ships, and Spartan felt his body tense.

“Incoming!” growled Khan while watching his gunnery screen.

Lines of projectiles from the medium-caliber railguns slammed into the forward armor of the T’Kari ship, despite the best efforts of her crew. An undamaged ship such as this might stand a chance in a fair fight, but this vessel was barely operational. Her hull was pockmarked with a hundred holes, and missiles had ripped plating and weapon mounts off all along her frame.