Machine Gods (Star Crusades Nexus, Book 2) (27 page)

Reports of the Proxima Emergency

Jack still couldn’t
believe they’d passed the final test and returned from their
passing out parade. He’d been training for nearly a
year
, and now that the basic part of the
process was over, the relief had drained almost all of his will
from his body. An entire day had passed since then, and every
single marine was looking forward to some R&R. Not Jack though.
He’d just received news of a critical private video communication
from his mother. That had been an hour ago, and he was still
waiting for it to be vetted and cleared before he was allowed
access to it.

“
Come
on
, Jack, it can’t be that bad, otherwise
somebody would have been down here already,” suggested
Wictred.

Jack smiled back at
his friend, but it did him no good. Not knowing was far worse than
any bad news, and he was expecting the worst. He looked at the data
file and checked the information stamp that all digital media was
equipped with. He instantly recognized the signature of his mother,
Teresa Morato, but also two other imprints that marked it as having
been read before reaching him.

Bastards,
he thought
bitterly.

Not that he
was
surprised; it was standard practice
after all, for all communications of this nature to be checked. But
what was surprising was the time it was taking. He thought of
contacting the commander of the station, but then decided against
it. He’d already accumulated two black marks during his training,
and trying to bypass the chain of command for a personal message
would hardly do him much good.

That doesn’t stop me doing a little fiddling with
the data myself though, does it?

He brought up a window containing a series of
personal files and binary applications that he’d brought along with
him. Wictred spotted the change in his body language as he combined
the encrypted data file with two of his special tools.

“
Jack…w
hat are you up to?” asked
his friend.

Wictred, being one
of the younger Jötnar, had less patience than any of the group. In
fact, Jack often considered his friend to be more of a juvenile
than most human teenagers. Even so, he was smart, if a little
unpredictable. He moved closer to Jack, his larger body easily
dwarfing the shape of his friend. He and Hunn were nowhere as big
as the fully-grown Jötnar, but they were still substantially bigger
than any humans.

“
Ah, running a few
tools, are we?” he added in a hushed tone, as if implying
mischief.

Jack threw him a
quick glance.

“
This message is
important, just look at the stamp. My mother wanted me to see it
immediately, and yet some pencil pusher is delaying it.”

“
Maybe it is time
related? Your mother is back in the Corps, so maybe she’s on a
mission?”

Jack stopped and
looked
at him. He squashed his lips
together as he concentrated. It didn’t take long though for him to
turn back.

“
She knows
procedure. If it was that important to maintain secrecy, she
wouldn’t have sent it.”

Plus she knows full well I won’t let it lie!

With a final button
press
, he started a series of powerful
brute force attacks on the file.

“There, I should have access within the hour.”

“
Hmm,”
s
narled Wictred, unimpressed, “maybe you
can finish getting ready now?”

Jack nodded curtly
and
stood to adjust his uniform for the
last time, making sure her shirt and tunic were tucked in
correctly, and then did his best not to laugh at Wictred and Hunn.
Whereas Jack was wearing his black Marine Corps cadet uniform with
the belt on the outside the jacket, the two Jötnar were desperately
trying to emulate his look without looking ridiculous. Their
uniforms had been custom made, much to the annoyance of the
quartermaster who had at first declined to modify clothing for
them. In the end, they wore their traditional armor and clothing,
but with a modified waistcoat that allowed them to move their
oversized chest and arm muscles without tearing the fabric
apart.

“What do you two look like?” asked Jack with
laughter in his voice.

Footsteps from
outside their quarters signaled the arrival of three more cadets.
The first to enter through the open door was Thai Qiu-Li. She burst
out laughing at seeing Wictred fumbling with his waistcoat, or what
was the loosest approximation of one on his large frame.

“
You need to hurry.
We’re supposed to be out of here in the next seven minutes,” she
explained with feigned urgency in her voice. Jack stopped and
looked up at her.

“What’s the hurry? It’s only a party.”

“
Only a
party?”
Thai Qiu-Li replied.

“
He’s not
wrong,
” Wictred said. “We’re in the
middle of something here.”

Thai Qiu-Li looked at them both with a coy
expression.

“Aw, do you two need some more time alone?”

Jack grinned and
made for the door before realizing he’d left his belt on his desk.
He grabbed it and thrust the end through the loops on his jacket.
With a firm tug, he pulled it around his Marine Corps jacket. He
threw a sideways glance at his friends when finished, as though
he’d been ready all along. Neither looked particularly ready, but
in his experience that was as good as they tended to look. He
nodded to himself and did his best to hide a grin. Hunn didn’t
notice, but Wictred spotted the corner of his mouth
moving.

“
Hey, you think this
is funny
, Jack?” he asked
bitterly.

Jack stood up
straight and pulled at his jacket.

“
Hell, yes. If you
could see yourselves, right now!”

Wictred
and Hunn looked at each other and then both
laughed and nodded in agreement. Wictred moved first, made for the
door, and stepped out into the corridor. Hunn moved to follow him,
and in just a few seconds, the whole group was moving along the
main corridor. It was wide and much better finished than the
interior of the ships they’d spent time on over the last year. As
they continued, the six marines reached a crossroads section that
was also packed with lots of other uniformed marines. In the
distance, the sound of loud music thumped through the thick walls
of the station.

“Jack, you ready for this?” asked Thai Qiu-Li.

He looked at
her
, opening his mouth to speak but was
stopped by the sight of a large group of almost a dozen Alliance
Navy officers and cadets. They were all smartly dressed in their
dark navy uniforms, long coats, and peaked caps. It was a very
different look to that of the Marine Corps. It was the two
black-haired individuals that caught his eye, however. Wictred saw
the exchange of looks and put his hand out to stop Jack from moving
forward.

“What is it?” asked Thai Qiu-Li.

“
Matius and
Ingo
,” muttered Jack under his
breath.

All of them were now
looking at the Navy officers. It looked like they might leave, but
one of them laughed, and in an instant were walking towards the
marines. When they were close enough, the marines, Jack included,
lifted their hands smartly and saluted at the young officers. The
two black-haired lieutenants in the middle of the group snarled at
Jack, their disgust immediately apparent. A young man with a dark,
tanned face and dark eyes shook his head at him.

“
Nice to see you
again, brother
,” said Jack
calmly.

The man stood next
to him
with the same dark eyes and
complexion took a step forward.

“
What the hell are
you doing on a Naval base?” he asked angrily.

Wictred lifted a hand in a passive gesture.

“
My friend, you seem
unburdened by intelligence. Can you not see his insignia? Jack has
just completed his passing out ceremony. He is now a
marine.”

The man looked to Wictred and shook his head.

“
Friend?” he
stuttered. “I’m not your friend. Nobody wants a Jötnar animal for a
friend.”

Both Wictred and
Hunn growled at this insult, and it took Thai Qiu-Li and her other
two marine comrades interceding to stop a brawl. Jack, on the other
hand, just stood by and gazed into the dark eyes of his
half-brothers. They’d never been friends. At best they’d got along,
but as he’d reached his teenage years, and his father Spartan had
spent more time with them, they had become embittered.

“
Matius and Ingo, I
didn’t come here looking for a fight,” Jack said.

Wic
tred choked on his own
laughter; he knew too well the tone in Jack’s voice.

Matius stepped
forward and directly in front of Jack. He was just a few
centimeters shorter than Jack but held himself as straight
and tall as he could manage. His face was tight
and his cheek muscles tense. He looked at both sides of Jack’s
face, sniffing as though identifying the trace of something
foul.

“What is that?” he asked sarcastically.

Jack closed his eyes and breathed in a slow, single
breath.

“
Funny. Like I said,
I’m not looking for trouble.”

Matius smirked at his half-brother.

“I don’t see what our mother sees in your father.
You’re just as simple and vulgar as he is. No wonder you all joined
the Corps.”

Jack had stayed calm
for long enough, but the insult to his father, himself, and now his
friends was more than he could stand. Every muscle in his body
wanted to strike, and it took all his self-control to stand his
ground. He may have succeeded until Matius, now confident he had
Jack under his control, took it a step further. He reached out and
grabbed Jack’s collar with his right hand.

“
Good lad, you know
your place. You’ll always be the runt in our family. A pathetic
little…”

That’s
it!
Jack thought; his anger now
unleashed.

Jack thrust his left
hand over Matius’ arm and brought his hand and forearm back under
his, locking Matius’ arm. With a quick wrench, the arm creaked, and
Jack had him under his control. It wasn’t enough, and try as he
might, he couldn’t stop his right hand from forming a fist. He
struck Matius hard in the jaw with a swift uppercut that almost
knocked him out cold. Still Jack held onto his broken
arm.

“
You insult me, my
father, my friends, and now the Corps? You bastard!”

With that, he
released his half-brother’s arm and delivered a powerful kick to
his groin, sending Matius staggering back two meters and into his
group of friends before falling to the ground in pain.

“
Did you see that?”
snapped Ingo with her hand pointed directly at Jack, “He just
struck an Alliance officer. That’s a court martial
offense!”

Jack turned to
Wictred who just grinned back at him. Thai Qiu-Li and her two
friends looked as though they were going to join in, but Jack waved
them off.

“No, this is between us. Don’t get involved.”

Thai Qiu-Li looked
to her left and her right, but neither of her friends seemed very
keen on staying back. Both were female and in their twenties. Like
all the marines, they were physically fit, strong willed, and ever
eager for the fight.

“
No
chance,
” spat Thai Qiu-Li as she
unbuttoned her brand new Marine Corps jacket.

“
You attack one of
us, you attack all of us,” said her tall blonde friend with
surprising ferocity.

Matius lifted
himself to his feet and spat blood to
the
floor. He spoke to his brother, and an angry exchange broke out
between them and the other cadets. One of the older officers
stepped back with their hands raised, as if suggesting he was
backing off. Matius swung at the man, but he ducked to avoid the
impact and then walked away shaking his head. Jack looked at the
group carefully and checked the stance and position of each. He
counted nine remaining, and every one of them appeared keen. Matius
was definitely the ringleader, but there was one other, a taller
man with broad shoulders and a scarred face. He must have been in
his early thirties, yet was still a cadet.

“
Matius, don’t be a
fool. I do
not want to fight with
officers,” Jack called out so that anybody nearby could
hear.

There were now a
good number of marines and navy cadets, plus a smattering of junior
officers. The music from the hall just twenty meters away increased
in volume, and it seemed to pump up the adrenalin of all those
present.

“
Then you shouldn’t
have come!” Matius shouted back.

With that last
statement, the nine rushed toward the marines. Jack, Hunn, and
Wictred lowered their stances and waited for the rush. Thai Qiu-Li
and her two friends moved off to the right as if not taking part,
leaving the three on their own and exposed. The largest of the navy
cadets reached Jack first and attempted to smash the smaller man to
the ground. Jack sidestepped and moved a step ahead to jam his knee
into the man following. The attack caught the man completely by
surprise, and he dropped to the ground with a groan. Wictred
grabbed two men around the chest and bear-hugged them, his massive
arms stopping them from moving and forcing the air from their
lungs; that left Matius and five others for Hunn to deal
with.