Machine Gods (Star Crusades Nexus, Book 2) (16 page)

Jack had always had
a tough time with his father. In the last few years, he’d started
to appreciate the man had faced a tough time, yet the stories he
heard continued to rankle him. It was true, his father had left his
unit, but only when the battle was won, and because the rest of the
military was abandoning a Jötnar unit who were still aboard an
enemy vessel. Spartan had saved their lives and won the loyalty and
admiration of every single Jötnar.

“
Not
cool
, Thai, not cool at all. Now, get off
your ass and follow me!” he growled viciously.

He instantly
regretted his anger. It was something he could only assume came
from his father’s side, as his mother seemed far better at
controlling her emotions than Spartan ever had. He moved around the
clearing, moving quickly but always checking his peripheral vision
for possible signs of the enemy. Ideally, he’d be using a sensor
package to look for possible mines and traps, but they both lacked
the time or equipment for such niceties. The only gear either of
them had was their rifles and two spare magazines. Neither wore
armor or carried any kind of communications gear. Jack surmised it
was to ensure the test came down to the skills, training, and
aptitude of the cadets. After all, they’d be trained to improvise,
adapt, and to overcome any and all obstacles that lay in their
way.

It can’t
be much further
,
he thought, as he pushed through the thick
undergrowth.

He lacked a map or
any navigation gear
, but from the
briefing an hour earlier, he was convinced they should have been
much closer to the target than they appeared to be. But just two
more steps, and he moved from the cover and into a sparsely covered
area that lay directly in front of a dark gray tower. Around the
eight-meter tall structure were a number of low walls with sandbags
all around them. The tower contained no windows, but the highest
level brimmed with antennae and some form of pintle-mounted
weapon.

Thai Qiu-Li narrowly
avoided crashing into him
, dropping to
one knee as she examined the site.

“This is it, right?” she asked, looking for
confirmation.

Jack nodded slowly
and
checked his watch. It was the only
other gear they were allowed and gave him nothing useful other than
to know how long was left until the end of the mission.

“
How much time is
left?” she asked nervously
, as if she
expected they were already too late.

“Ninety seconds, it’s gonna be close.”

“
Let’s do this,
then!” she said resolutely, but unlike their missing comrade, she
didn’t rush off and instead waited to see what Jack
advised.

“Follow me and stay close, okay?”

With a quick nod,
the two covered the open ground, twisting and turning as they
checked for signs of trouble. Jack ducked down in front of the
first wall while Thai Qiu-Li move onward to the tower. It was a
simple cover and move technique but with just two of them, their
options were limited. She moved to the doorway and peered in. Jack
couldn’t see inside, but he did see her lean around the corner and
give him a hand signal to follow. In one swift motion, he leapt
over the wall and landed down next to her.

“
You could just have
easily walked around it, you know?”

Jack smiled.

“
Where’s the fun in
that?
”

He pushed
past
her and entered the tower, not
before checking the frame and floor for signs of tampering. Thai
Qiu-Li moved in behind him, stopping as she passed through the
door. Jack sensed trouble and moved sideway while lifting up his
rifle. A man stood behind her with a mock blade held to her throat.
It was a rubber imitation of the combat knives used by the marines,
but the blade on this one crackled with electricity.

Damn, a
stunner!
Jack thought angrily.

It was a special
type of training weapon that could deliver a powerful electric
shock to whomever it was used against. They both had already been
exposed to the weapon, and the effect had not been appreciated. It
left red marks and usually knocked out the cadet cold.

“Stop, move inside and I’ll gut her!” said the man
firmly.

Jack recognized his
face. H
e was one of the assistant
instructors from the previous day. He wore camouflaged pants and a
thin green top. His face and bare arms were covered in a greasy
paint, making him look as though he’d been sleeping in the jungle
for weeks. As Jack watched him carefully, another man appeared in
exactly the same style of clothing. This one carried an L48 rifle,
one that looked suspiciously like the one taken from his fellow
cadet.

We need
t
o finish this very fast,
unless I want to repeat the course!

He glanced briefly at his watch.

Thirty-six seconds!

He’d heard
rumo
rs about cadets that failed the final
test. Recruitment levels were high and the Corps was able to be
very choosy about their new warriors. He wouldn’t be kicked out,
but he would likely have the chance to enter at the rank of
corporal, or even worse, he might end up in an administrative role.
He looked at the two men and considered what he’d heard.

“
Five seconds! Put
down the gun!” said the man, his tone raised.

Jack’s mind was
firmly on the mission though, and he did not want to lose. There’d
been rumors that cadets would have to retake the tests and courses
with major career penalties. What really irked him was that he knew
he’d been through tougher times. Yes, he’d been out on hunting
expeditions with Wictred and even involved in a few clandestine
operations with the Jötnar. But it had been his six months with APS
Corp that really opened up his eyes to the kind of viciousness that
still remained beneath the surface in the Alliance. He’d met and
encountered it on multiple occasions, and each time he’d made it
back in one piece.

There’s only one thing to do!

He moved the barrel
down
and slightly to the right. As he did
so, the other two men relaxed a little, enjoying his surrender to
their superiority. Then he opened fire. The rifle kicked with each
shot as he shot into Thai Qiu-Li and the man. The first round
struck her left upper arm and twisted her about. With that small
window of opportunity, he unleashed scores of rounds that hammered
home into the fronts of the two men and knocked them both back. The
clothing of the two men flashed to indicate they were out of the
scenario, and they stumbled to the ground. Thai Qiu-Li was wounded
but not dead. She slumped down, nursing her bruised arm.

“Get up there!” she barked as he edged away.

Jack
needed no further encouragement and leapt to the
narrow spiral staircase, pulling himself up as quickly as he could.
By the time he reached the highest level, he could see the counter
on his watch had just ticked down to single figures.

Damn, this is gonna be close!

He looked around and
foun
d a raised pedestal in the middle of
the floor. It was about waist height and contained a single button
in its center. Jack didn’t hesitate and jumped forward to strike
the button. A loud klaxon hailed through the undergrowth as he and
Thai Qiu-Li completed the task allotted to them. Jack leaned
against the wall and sighed. It had been hard work, but he was
still surprised at how few people they’d encountered on the test.
He’d heard stories of desperate last stands and all kinds of weird
endgames that often took place. It was then that Thai Qiu-Li
appeared at the top of the staircase, still holding her
arm.

“Well, did we lose?” she asked disappointedly.

Jack lifted his head slightly in confusion.

“No, didn’t you hear the klaxon?”

“
Of course,” she
answered indignantly, “but t
hat isn’t the
end of the scenario. Remember the briefing?”

Jack was annoyed at
being called out, but the mere suggestion they were not finished
sent a chill through him. He’d rushed up without checking the area
around the tower and was now starting to feel vulnerable in this
high tower. He thought back to the parade of cadets and the mission
briefing.

“
Uh, the map showed
the landing pad and the communications tower with the relay. The
operation is for the Marine units to send out the distress signal.
We’ve done that.”

Thai Qiu-Li raised
her eye
brow in a questioning
look.

“
Really? Don’t you
remember the last part? You know, the bit that pays the big
money?”

Jack looked at her
with a confused look before she reached into her pocket and
withdrew a small metal object. She placed it on the plinth next to
the transmission button. He examined it carefully before feeling
incredibly stupid for forgetting the final stage. He banged his
fist onto the metal plating of the tower. The undergrowth around
their position shook, and he was sure he could see metal shapes in
amongst the foliage.

“
We have to hold the
transmission tower until rescue arrives.” He then pointed at the
object.

“
The bonus is to
keep the object at this point until rescued,” he said so slowly
that it made him sound slow witted. He then looked back at the
jungle.

“
Wait, isn’t that
the part
of the test that no cadet has
ever been won before?”

Thai Qiu-Li
shrugged. A gentle crackle interrupted them from somewhere in the
tower. It was the voice of the commander of the training exercise,
a harsh instructor known as Captain Blucher who had been called in
to run a special series of tests.

“
Primary objectives
have been completed. Stay alive and wait for the pickup. Rescue
cobras are en route in fifteen minutes. Good luck. Out.”

It was a brief
message, and Jack wondered if he’d done enough. He recalled hearing
about this part of the test. Survival was a key part and wasn’t
required for completion to pass, but he had no interest in half
measures. He thought of his father and the stories he’d told him of
his battle throughout the Uprising; battles against machines,
monsters, and religious fanatics. Jack looked to his
comrade-in-arms and then out to the jungle once more.

We can
do this!
he thought resolutely, and to
the surprise of Thai Qiu-Li, he shouted as loudly as his lungs
would allow him.

“Marines! Fall back to the tower!”

He then moved to the
tower-
mounted weapon and checked it over.
He looked at it carefully, quickly identifying it as an early twin
mounted L48 rifle with box magazine and long-range optical sight.
He lifted the handles and checked the mechanism before looking back
to Thai Qiu-Li.

“It all looks good. Can you operate the weapon
mount?”

She nodded quickly.

“
Good, you provide
top cover, and I’ll watch the main entrance. We can do
this.”

With those few
words, he ran down a number of steps, turned back, and called up to
her.

“Your weapon, you have any spare ammo?”

Thai Qiu-Li shook
her head as she pulled the clips from her jacket and tossed them
down. She turned back to the weapon, and after checking the
magazines for dummy rounds; he went back down the steps and to the
ground floor. He noticed the bodies of the two men had
vanished.

Ok
ay, that’s a little
disconcerting,
he thought, before
remembering it was nothing more than an exercise.

They’d probably just
packed up and left once their job was done. Even so, their firearms
lay on the ground in a neat bundle.
That
was when the jungle appeared to come alive. Mechanical arms flayed
as two of the machines lurched from the cover and made for the
doorway. Jack got a good look at them and could see they were far
less menacing than the war machines he’d faced in real combat. Even
so, they still moved quickly and made it halfway before the dummy
rounds from the top gun mount struck them. Both were eliminated
less than four meters from the doorway.

“
Nice shooting!” he
shouted
, grabbing the discarded weapons
and ducked back inside the entrance to the tower. The jungle
started to shake again, and this time he had time to raise his own
weapon. A rifle emerged first; it was an L48, the same type that he
and Thai Qiu-Li were using.

“Hold your fire!” he shouted, hoping his friend
could hear.

Luckily
, there was no gunfire,
and instead of a machine, four marines appeared. Two were men in
their twenties, both covered in grime, and looking about warily.
Next to them moved the great bulk of two Jötnar.

“
Wictred,
Hun
n? You made it, huh?” he exclaimed in
surprise.

At the same time,
dozens of the machines emerged from the undergrowth and rushed
them. All five of them turned their guns on the enemy while Thai
Qiu-Li poured down fire from above.

“
Good work, Jack!”
shouted Wictred. “You’ve moved us into another dead
end!”

The two Jötnar
roared with laughter, holding down their triggers with obvious
glee. Jack shook his head as he added his own gunfire to
theirs.