Legions of Orion (Star Crusades Nexus, Book 1)

LEGIONS
OF
ORION

STAR
CRUSADES
NEXUS, BOOK
1

By Michael G. Thomas

Copyright © 2012 Michael
G. Thomas

Publish
ed by Swordworks Books

All rights reserved. Without
limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this
publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a
retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means
(electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise)
without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner
and the above publisher of this book.

This is a work of fiction.
Names, characters, places, brands, media, and incidents are either
the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously.
The author acknowledges the trademarked status and trademark owners
of various products referenced in this work of fiction, which have
been used without permission. The publication/use of these
trademarks is not authorized, associated with, or sponsored by the
trademark owners.

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CONTENTS

CHAPTER
ONE

CHAPTER
TWO

CHAPTER
THREE

CHAPTER
FOUR

CHAPTER
FIVE

CHAPTER
SIX

CHAPTER
SEVEN

CHAPTER
EIGHT

CHAPTER
NINE

CHAPTER
TEN

CHAPTER
ELEVEN

CHAPTER
TWELVE

CHAPTER
THIRTEEN

CHAPTER
FOURTEEN

CHAPTER
FIFTEEN

The creation and expansion of the
Centauri Alliance took place after a period of wars and uprisings
that had gone on for over five decades.
The scores of planets around six star systems was now home
to billions with each colony connected via the newly established
Interstellar Network, a variant of the spacebridge technology
discovered during the last war. These rifts in space were held open
by spherical shells of exotic matter controlled by monitoring
orbital platforms. The near instantaneous travel offered by the
Network, and the opportunities the transportation web offered,
turned a backward and disjointed collection of colonies into a
thriving and bustling hive of enterprise within a decade of their
discovery. It was this new age of optimism and hubris that pushed
humanity on to its great adventure in the Orion Nebula and its
destiny among the stars.

A Concise Guide to Interstellar
T
ravel

It was ten years since the founding of
the new Alliance. Ten years since the end of the bloody struggle
that brought the first period of peace in a generation. With the
fighting over, it was finally time for the scientific expertise of
the Alliance to tackle some of its greatest mysteries. One of the
most important lay within the jungle world of Hyperion. It was a
strange planet with a viable atmosphere and abundant water that
remained barely habitable, due to its difficult atmosphere and
frequent violent storms. Its breathable atmosphere contained a
higher level of nitrogen dioxide than was safe for humans, and some
were able to adjust in weeks or months. For others, the use of a
respirator was vital until a person’s body was given enough time to
adjust, assuming it ever did.

The discovery of
Hyperion
had been early in the
colonisation of the Alpha Centauri sector but had been quickly
eclipsed by the rich jewel of Terra Nova, the most valuable planet
ever discovered. Hyperion became little more than a backwater, as
the other twenty-three planets spread out between Alpha Centauri
and Proxima Centauri were thoroughly explored and exploited. Other
than science teams, few had visited the planet until the discovery
of the ruins. Much had been destroyed in the last days of the Great
Uprising and it was now a thriving colony of the Alliance and
populated by the semi-synthetic humans known as the Jötnar. In
orbit over the planet waited a small flotilla of ships. Most were
civilian transports and heavy haulers but a handful were small
military ships. At the core of the group was a single capital ship,
one of the last remaining cruisers from the war and a prior visitor
to the world, the Alliance Navy Ship Minotaur. She’d been involved
in many battles, but her repaired and upgraded superstructure gave
little of her history away. From her hull, the dark shape of an
Alliance shuttle appeared. It was a standard design used for
everything from delivering cargo to landing Special Forces on
remote moons. It moved away, making no sound in the cold vacuum of
space, only the faint wisps of escaping dust and gas betraying the
manoeuvring thrusters as it pushed away. A pair of Lightning MK II
fighters took up their positions alongside the shuttle and
proceeded to escort the craft down to the atmosphere of the planet.
Only when they reached the outer reaches of the atmosphere, did
they pull up to avoid being pulled to the surface.

From the ruins of
the archaeological site
, a team of
Alliance marines monitored the landing pattern of the shuttle. The
site was apparently safe, but they were taking no chances. A single
ground based fighter circled around the landing site and stayed on
position as the craft finished its journey from space and down to
the modern landing pad. The structure had been built in less than
three months, as part of a permanent science station on the planet.
Most of those in the shuttle moved off to the compound, each
wearing the usual respirator as required for new arrivals on the
planet. Two members of the party moved to a waiting groundcar that
was being guarded by another two marines.

The journey from the
science station to the dig site took almost forty minutes and took
them through a rough track that had been cut through the thick
jungle. A light mist hung over the land and reduced visibility
to
barely more than a hundred metres. The
occasional insect or small animal could be seen, but the little
life present on the planet soon kept away from the noisy machine.
Most of the trees had been seeded along with the arrival of the
colonists, back when Terra Nova had been settled; little now
remained of the indigenous vegetation other than on some of the
more distant parts of the planet. Eventually, the vehicle reached a
clearing before a series of large hills. Rocks and debris littered
the site, but it was clear there had been something man-made here
at some point recently. The groundcar pulled to a stop, and the
doors hissed open to reveal the pair of civilians and their escort.
Dr Katha Morgonz, a longhaired technological archaeologist, stepped
out and shielded her eyes for a moment from the bright light. She
was one of the most experienced and knowledgeable people in the
entire Alliance when it came to unusual and old
technology.

“
Dr Morgonz, you’re
ahead of schedule,” said a waiting marine as he moved up to the
door.

She said nothing,
other than making an impossible to understand grunt. He showed her
the way to the entrance of the site. It was little more than a
crater in the rubble, and as he continued talking, she dropped down
from the thick stone slab to the group of marines waiting below.
Two of them grabbed her and placed her behind their position at the
entrance to the partially collapsed chamber. She shook some of the
dirt from her face and then double-checked her file on the
location. She wore a close fitting helmet that came down low over
her ears and a lightweight respirator to help with the difficult
atmosphere. It was breathable but took over a week to acclimatise,
and she didn’t have that long. Not that she would have objected to
spending more time on Hyperion, but this mission was both time
critical and also extremely secretive.

“
Are you sure this
is the entrance? Teams Three and Four have found similar sites and
are requesting more resources to continue their digs,” asked Dr
Neson, the special unit’s technical officer.

Dr Morgonz nodded but said no more as
she checked her data. A final look satisfied her that they were in
the right place. She took a few steps forward to where the diggers
had cleared an access point into the structure.

“
No, this is the
place. If you examine the satellite scans, this is definitely the
location of the main data arrays. The reports from General Rivers
during the fighting here confirm my findings. If there are any
intact control computers, data or working systems, it will be here.
The other sites sustained substantially more damage in the
explosion when the power cores vaporised almost everything
underground.”

“
Look!” called out
one of the small group of Alliance marines. He was pointing to a
beautifully detailed carving that had been made directly into the
wall. Doctor Morgonz moved to examine it but spent no more than a
cursory moment examining it before moving away.

“
It’s just another
of the images showing the construction and use of the gateways.
There are lots of them over this entire site. We aren’t here to
sightsee, marine. This operation has one objective, and it lies
inside there.”

She looked about as
if
waiting for somebody.

“Where is our guide? I thought the
Jötnar were providing us with one of their best?”

The marine
that had spoken before pointed inside the
crevice.

“
Doctor, he’s
already inside with Captain Garcia. They’re checking the route
first. I think his name was Khan, and he is one of the Jötnar’s
most experienced commanders. He fought alongside Spartan and the
other marines on Terra Nova. Amongst his people, he’s seen as a
hero.”

She
mov
ed to the gap and stepped inside while
at the same time tapping the button on her arm. The high powered
lamp on her helmet lit up and flooded the inner chamber to reveal
little more that dirt and broken rock. She glanced at the marine as
she passed him.

“
I need a scout, not
a commander.”

She pushed
on
, and her assistant Jose followed a
short distance behind her. The Alliance marines waited outside,
each on the lookout for any of the creatures that were known to
lurk on Hyperion. No one seemed particularly bothered that they
were being left behind, and the attitude of Dr Morgonz did little
to encourage them to show much interest. There was little action to
be had these days, and the escort task on Hyperion was hardly a
choice operation. The planet had been the home of a secret base
used by the enemy at the end of the war and had housed untold
numbers of Biomech creatures; many of which still roamed the jungle
world. It had since been settled by the synthetic Jötnar, the close
cousins of the Biomechs but now members of the Alliance.

“
Watch where you’re
stepping
, Jose. There might be some of
those animals down here.”

“Animals?” he asked in surprise.

“
Yes
, Jose, you know, of the
four-legged kind.”

Jose did his best
not to stumble as he moved ove
r the
broken rock and dirt and followed the Doctor. He knew only a few
scant details about the Biomechs, but the four-legged variety was
now considered almost mythological in their status. They had been
monsters created by fusing the dead and dying with synthetic
technology to make violent and terrifying beasts. The Jötnar had
hunted down most of untamed survivors on the planet but a few
remained, and he’d heard terrifying stories of the bear-sized
creatures attacking visitors to the jungle world and being torn
apart, limb from limb.