Machine Gods (Star Crusades Nexus, Book 2) (23 page)

“What the hell?” he said involuntarily.

The machine was the
size of a building and firmly planted on the ground. It looked like
a mining machine with its variety of tools and attachments
extending in all directions. Hatches all around it were moving
while wheels and parts also moved. Powerful arms pulled in sections
of metal with surprising care and deposited them inside. A dull red
glow seemed to light up the inside of the machine, and glints of
the light leaked out wherever gaps or seams showed in its odd
shape. Tuke looked at it with recognition showing on his face, even
through the visor of his armor. Spartan and Khan ducked down behind
the almost limitless debris and watched it work. The machine moved
at a crawl as the arms loaded in recovered materials of all
kinds.

“
Uh, Tuke, what
is
this thing?” asked Spartan, this time
with less patience.

Tuke looked up and
spotted something above them before he was able to reply. He
sidestepped and then ran to where Khan waited. He looked back, half
expecting something to have caught up with him, but he was safe.
Tuke looked to Spartan who was now about fifteen meters away and
behind a smashed wall.

“
It is a harvesting
machine. The Enemy sends them to conquered territories to bring
back resources. We have seen them before. In the past, a large
number arrived at one of our moons. The last images we ever saw of
that place were when our warriors destroyed them. A few hours later
the colony was gone.”

Spartan looked back
at the machine and noted that it seemed only interested in
collecting machines or technology of some kind, never simple raw
materials.

“
Because that is
what they do
, or because you interfered
with them?”

Tuke looked at the
machine and then shook his head slowly.

“
They never take
everything. W
e treat them like scouts.
They stay for a few days and then leave. If we interfere, we must
face the consequences.”

Spartan didn’t like the sound of that.

“
What kind
of resources?” he asked quietly, suspecting the
worst. “People?”

Khan replied before
Tuke could speak, much to their surprise.

“It’s storing information on your technology, isn’t
it?” he asked.

Spartan was startled by the simple and rather
obvious deduction.

Of
course,
he thought.
With the T’Kari defeated, this great Enemy could
spend as much time as it wanted to collect information of weapons,
equipment, power, and electronics. Surely they are already advanced
enough though.

“Why bother? Surely they are more advanced?”

Tuke looked to Spartan.

“
Yes, and they want
to make sure it stays that way.”

Suddenly it all
became clear to Spartan. At least, he thought it was clear. The
machines were here to obtain intelligence, not the technology
itself. With the fighting over, the enemy wanted to see how far the
T’Kari had progressed, presumably to help understand the strengths
and weaknesses of them.

“
So maybe they
aren’t quite as powerful as you thought?” he asked with a
grin.

Tuke looked away and back to the machine as it
continued its work.

“
No, we suspect they
do this simply to ensure we do not become too strong or advanced.
No T’Kari has ever actually seen the Enemy himself, only his
soldiers. There are some that believe the Enemy keeps us weakened
and at war with our neighbors to stop us turning on the real
threat, themselves. Others think they use us like crops, to harvest
for raw materials and technology.”

Spartan tried to
digest the conflicting ideas but neither seemed likely to him.
Except for the part about keeping them divided and fighting each
other. The more he thought about it, the more he appreciated the
simple logic. He felt vibrations through the ground and looked up
to see a biomechanical creature of the kind he had only dreamed of.
It stood five times taller than Khan and consisted almost entirely
of dull metal. It was bipedal, and its head reminded him of the
demon-like structure of the Echidna creature on Hyperion. It looked
directly at Spartan and opened its jaw. No sound came out, but this
could easily have been down to their being no atmosphere to carry
the vibrations.

“
What the hell is
this?” shouted Spartan unnecessarily. With them all wearing
suits
, they were communicating via
intercom, and the internal system was forced to compensate to avoid
them all being deafened by the volume.

Khan didn’t even
bother
speaking. Instead, he dragged his
forward curved blade from its sheath on his armor and prepared to
strike. Spartan lifted his weapon and took aim directly at what he
assumed was the thing’s head. Even Tuke brought out a weapon so
that all three were armed and ready to face off against the
monster. It opened its mouth once more and then made directly for
Tuke. At the same time, a glint of light from the distance showed a
group of three more. They must have been alerted because a craft
was swooping down to collect them.

“Spartan?” called out Khan.

It was a question
that implied concern, more a question to know what the plan was.
Khan was never one to back down in a fight, and certainly not one
against a powerful enemy. Spartan looked to him and back at the
quickly approaching machine. They waited, but none of them opened
fire until Spartan gave the word. The machine stomped closer still
until it stopped within ten meters of Spartan. Now stationary, they
could all see that it was completely mechanical, but it was
impossible to see what lay inside the thing itself. It bent down to
look directly at Spartan.

“
Here they come,”
s
aid Tuke stoically.

Spartan glanced to the side of the machine to see
the craft carrying the other three of the machines. It was moving
at great speed and heading directly for them.

“
Hold your fire,”
Spartan said calmly.

He could see that
just one of the machines would be more than a match for them. The
three reinforcements would likely destroy them in a matter of
seconds. All he could think was that if they appeared to pose no
threat, they might avoid a confrontation.

“Now…move back, slowly.”

He took a step back,
and the machine watched him carefully, tracking his every move as
he inched away from the metal beast. Tuke and Khan did the same,
even though Khan muttered angrily to himself as they did so. They
continued back until reaching the underground exit they previously
emerged from. No sooner did they enter the blackness, and the
machine turned and moved back to the collecting machine. It
approached from the side and placed an attachment onto
it.

“
Interesting, they
are using the collecting machine as a kind of tool and when we
appeared to be no threat, they left. Have you seen them do that
before?” he asked Tuke as the three waited in the
darkness.

Tuke nodded his
head.

“
Yes, there is
footage of these creatures on one of our outpost stations. We call
them the soldiers. They are the machines that fight for the Enemy.
They are the closest we have ever come to reaching him.”

“
They fight for the
Enemy?” asked Khan.

“
Yes, they were not
built by us. They are controlled and used by the Enemy wherever he
wishes to strike. It is rare to see them, but wherever they travel,
there are sure to be ships nearby. They are the hand of the Enemy
and cannot be defeated.”

Spartan’s intercom unit clicked inside his armored
helmet.

“
Spartan, Lovett
here. The ship, it is moving in closer to the station.”

“
Understood,
g
et the weapon systems online and watch
them. If they appear hostile, you know what to do.”

“
Ahead of you
there,” c
ame back an almost sarcastic
response. I’ve got three turrets tracking your position. Give the
word, and we’ll rain down fire on their shiny heads.”

Spartan
grinned to himself as he imagined the expression
on Lovett’s face. He then checked his L52 Mk II carbine and
activated the high power mode. He could feel the gentle vibrations
through the carbon fiber housing as the capacitors charged to their
maximum capacity.

“
Affirmative,”
h
e replied, content that he was ready. He
then looked to Tuke.

“
If those are foot
soldiers of the enemy, then we cannot let them leave. They’ve seen
all of us, and they are stripping this place of valuable
information, maybe even technology.”

“
I…don’t
understand,”
he replied. “They have been
here for years. We are too late to stop them learning all that we
already know.”

“
Maybe,”
s
aid Spartan quietly, “there is another
reason though.”

Khan nodded at this part.

“
Yes, they are the
soldiers of this great Enemy. It’s time they learned about us, and
that we are not their playthings.”

Spartan pointed to the rubble all around them.

“
I won’t let them do
this to a single other world. We need to stop them, and this is a
good place to start. We might even get some information out of
them.”

Tuke looked surprised, even shocked at his
words.

“
Information,
f
rom where? They will not
talk.”

Spartan laughed at his words.

“
Talk? All I want to
know is do they die?”

With those last
words, Spartan moved back out into the open and directly toward the
machine. It turned its large metallic head and stared at him.
Spartan continued walking toward it, and to all of their surprise,
it took a step back. Khan emerged from the darkness, slung his
blade, and raised his L52 as well. The ship floated above them, and
from beneath its bulbous structure, the other three bipedal
machines dropped down to land alongside their comrade. Although of
the same design, each had subtle variations of posture, color, and
movement. Even more noticeable were the scorch marks and deep
scratches on their bodies. Spartan smiled at them from inside the
safety of his amour.

Yeah, you’ve seen some action, haven’t you?

He lifted his carbine to his shoulder and took aim
at the head of the first machine.

“Lovett, you ready?” he asked, almost whispering
over the intercom.

“
Oh yeah, all four
are lined up and in our sights. The turrets are good to
go.”

Spartan smiled to
himself. He could see Khan with his peripheral vision moving out
and to his side, his own weapon ready for the battle. Though
Spartan was outnumbered, and facing an unknown but powerful enemy,
he felt comfortable with his old comrade alongside.

“
I
’m tired of hearing about this enemy. They cause wars, and
makes us fight each other, and for what? If they are that worried
about races allying together, then they can’t be as strong as they
want us to believe. Right?”

Tuke said nothing,
but Khan seemed quite excited.

“
Spartan, let’s do
this!”

Without waiting for
another word
, the Jötnar warrior opened
fire on the bipedal machine. The L52 Mk II carbine ripped chunks
from its metal hide as Spartan’s own weapon joined in. Their
gunfire seemed petty until the massed cannon of the T’Kari Raider
added to their own torrent of fire. Khan roared with pleasure as
the four machines were torn apart before their very eyes. Only Tuke
appeared concerned, but neither of them bothered to look at him. If
they had, they would have noticed the expression of fear and horror
that covered his face. It wasn’t the horror of the violence that
shocked him. No, it was the fear of what was to come; now that they
had turned upon the Gods his own people feared so much.

* * *

Like
all twelve warships in the expeditionary fleet,
the crew and marines aboard them were being drilled and trained
continually. It was standard practice to conduct training scenarios
aboard ships, and many of the marines might learn all their basic
drills on ships rather than barracks and naval stations. ANS Savage
and ANS Sentry were the only ships in the fleet that had conducted
more than thirty drills, and as the emergency lights flicked off,
and the normal lighting returned, they reached the thirty-first.
Every one of the exhausted marines staggered back to their
quarters, or to the small number of shower blocks sited throughout
the vessel. To the naval crew stationed aboard, it was just another
drill, but for the marines it was yet another test initiated by
their new commander Gun, and his ever-present second-in-command,
Major Teresa Morato.

Inside the
shower block, a small group of exhausted marines
stood as they washed the sweat and grime from their bodies. The
warm steam filled the room and reduced the visibility to only a few
meters in any direction. They all looked so worn out that they
barely even noticed each other. It was normal for the male and
female marines to make use of the coed facilities together, as they
did with all other facilities on the warship. There were now only
three days remaining before the expedition reached the Helios
Gateway, and the intensity of the training continued to increase
with every hour. The door opened and in walked Sergeant Arina Nova.
She moved to her locker and unbuttoned her Marine Corps fatigues
and boots before sitting down on the bench and sighing. She never
realized that this kind of responsibility could be so exhausting.
Her underwear felt like a wetsuit, and every centimeter of the
fabric clung to her like glue. Now that she’d stopped exercising,
the coldness of the air permeated throughout her body. She tore off
every piece until she stood there, bruised, tired, and
aching.